Lava Brothers Dedicate 1st Video to Obama

Jesse, Gabe, and Josh Lava, also known as The Lava Brothers, have dedicated their first music video to a pro-Obama cause. The video set to their song "Today."





The video was edited by Doyle LaCrua. The music was produced by Andy Thompson. The song comes from otheir debut album, "Waking Birds Will Harmonize," available here. I've had the CD for a while now...and love it.

US Pact with India Frees Big Oil to Continue Their Reign

It seems, in these days of economic crisis, that the only business that's flourishing is Big Oil. I just read a rumor [Reuters] that the Indian state-run oil producer ONGC will seal its deal to buy Russia’s Imperial Energy “any day now”. Exxon Mobil is partnered w/ONGC in the Sakhalin-1 Consortium, historically the largest foreign direct investment in Russia. ONGC is allegedly looking at a Kazakhstan-based oil company as well..hoping to explore and drill [baby drill] the Caspian shelf. Positive news for Exxon Mobil.

In 2003, ONGC paid a booming $1.7 billion to buy a stake in Exxon Mobil Corporation’s Sakhalin-I field. The Sakhalin-I project consists of three fields: Chayvo, Odoptu and Arkutun-Dagi offshore the north-east coast of Sakhalin Island in Russia's Far East.

India's Petroleum Minister Murli Deora will go to Moscow this month to get Kremlin-approval for acquisition of Imperial Energy by ONGC. Vladimir Putin is head of the state apparatus by which takeovers in strategic sectors are approved.


With the recent the Indo-US nuclear deal there'll be more nuclear power generation in India. Because of the pact, ONGC will soon sign on w/State-owned Uranium Corporation of India for exploration & mining of fissile material.


The U.S. is hoping to keep India in their foreign policy orbit with this new agreement. Is this progress toward alternative energy and national security? Not exactly. It has too much to do with all the new [old-school] energy-related business. For more than 40 years, India has been one of the largest buyers of Russian-made weapons. Nearly 70 percent of India's military weapons are Russian-made and India has been a reliable customer of Russian metals, coal and fertilizers. The US sees a chance to move India away from Russia's FP orbit.

SO much has to change if we're going to see peace in our time. This stuff is more like a race to the non-creative bottom for the sake of energy hegemony for certain business interests.

There's also the Iran-India-Pakistan natural gas pipeline. I think the U.S. government felt the urgent need to get this bilateral agreement with India passed because of a proposed Iran-India-Pakistan natural gas pipeline that will supply both India and Pakistan with gas.

Pipelines. We all know how that tune goes. It's a dance that the US, Russia, Iran, and other nations know all too well. The US wants to keep India in its foreign policy orbit and out of Russia and Iran's. That's the way I see it, as cynical as it may sound. For those who can't resist the urge to deny reality, please try and contain yourselves and don't call me anti-American. Be more creative. Ask Exxon Mobil when our gas prices will go down here in the States. After all, things are going so nicely for them. Why shouldn't they want us to be happy for them instead of being the disgusting profit-maker that empties our meager pockets while the U.S. is falling on the hardest times we've known since the Great Depression?

Senator John Kerry said this week [WSJ]

U.S.-India relations must be about more than exchanging nuclear fuel or technology. The next president must work to achieve broad-based cooperation that reflects the shared principles, shared threats, and ever deepening ties between our two economies and societies.

As usual, Big Oil is King and the real diplomacy is left to the next President. What a nice thing for Exxon Mobil.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


UPDATE: OCTOBER 17, 2008

ONGC Says Credit Crisis Won't Hamper Imperial Deal Bloomberg News

Oil & Natural Gas Corp., India's biggest exploration company, said the global credit freeze won't hamper plans for its 1.4 billion-pound ($2.4 billion) acquisition of Imperial Energy.

US Government May Take Part Ownership in Banks

On the same day; same time we see this:

October 9, 2008, 3:22 pm
Dow 9,000!
Paul Krugman, Conscience of a Liberal Blog

Stock prices are, however, the least of our worries. The money markets are frozen; the TED spread is 4.14%.

G7 meeting tomorrow, IMF-World Bank over the weekend. Now is the time for major action - an announcement of coordinated capital injections, liquidity measures, and more. If we’ve had nothing except vague assurances by Monday...

We see this.....


US GOVERNMENT MAY TAKE PART OWNERSHIP IN BANKS
- AP writers Joe Bel Bruno and Anne D'Innocenzio in New York, Christopher S. Rugaber in Washington and Pan Pylas in London contributed to this report.
Source: www.nytimes.com


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For eight years the Bush administration and Republican rubber-stampers have pulled few punches in systematically drowning U.S. socialism in the bathtub. They've starved our States...only to realize they're all drowning us and future generations with the worst kind of socialism - the looming possibility of State-run banks. The collectivist society the Right has been warning you about seems to have been brought to your door by the Right and the leaders who've paid witch hunt-level lip service to it all these years. Go figure! Talk about creating, whether or not it's come down to being a necessary step, this final proof of no confidence in our banking system! In this, we see the stark revelation that we've been no better than a Banana Republic while corporations were given free reign to pillage innocent and trusting citizens while the financial institutions' pals in government looked the other way.... until it all fell out. Are you sick yet? As economist Paul Craig Roberts has said, the U.S. economy is "rudderless and reeling" due, in major part, to ill-advised financial deregulation.

Excerpt from economist Paul Craig Thomas:

"A country that had intelligent leaders would recognize its dire straits, stop its gratuitous wars, and slash its massive military budget, which exceeds that of the rest of the world combined. But a country whose foreign policy goal is world hegemony will continue on the path to destruction until the rest ... Read Moreof the world ceases to finance its existence.

Most Americans, including the presidential candidates and the media, are unaware that the US government today, now at this minute, is unable to finance its day to day operations and must rely on foreigners to purchase its bonds. The government pays the interest to foreigners by selling more bonds, and when the bonds come due, the government redeems the bonds by selling new bonds. The day the foreigners do not buy is the day the American people and their government are brought to reality.

This is not the financial position of a superpower."

You can hand me all the talking points you'd like about the benefits of this move by U.S. government. I know one inescapable fact: We've lost a lot more than MONEY by our leaders failing to look out for the public's best interest for so long.

World Hunger: "Just Because We Can't See It"

This is a student entry to the Hungerbytes TV Commercial Video Competition sponsored by the UN's World Food Programme. Created by: Shawn Cohen, Sandra Goffin, and Rosi Mosca-Herrera.

Quote on Today's Wall Street Losses

From the Associated Press [source:NPR]:



"It's hard to exaggerate
how bad things are.
Things are still
profoundly dislocated."


- T.J. Marta, fixed-income analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Peggy Noonan: Patriotic Grace [Review]

Review
Patriotic Grace - What It Is and Why We Need It Now
By Peggy Noonan
[Harper Collins]

In her new book "Patriotic Grace - What It Is and Why We Need It Now" [Harper Collins], Peggy Noonan seems determined to bridge many gaps. The first hint of that intent can be seen in the dedication of her book to, among a few others, the late Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert who bridged many gaps in his own all-too-short time. Noonan also dedicates the book to the two Senators running for President in the upcoming 2008 election. Despite many of her own opinions and statements of the past, which lean admittedly Conservative, it seems that she has written this book to encourage readers to open their arms to one another, whatever their philosophy or views. She forwards the belief that we're going to need each other to get down the proverbial stairs when a big issue faces the nation, as she believes it surely will sometime again in the future [using the stairs of the World Trade Center on 9/11 as a central analogy]. The current economic crisis might be a good example of such a large issue and, even though it wasn't as pressing an issue when the book was published, I believe Ms. Noonan has commented on the current crisis in light of her book's subject matter in some of her most recent appearances on television interviews about her book.

She describes patriotic grace as "a grace that takes the long view, apprehends the moment that we're in, comes up with ways of dealing with it, and eschews the politically cheap and manipulative."

Speaking to Americans without trying to impress a deliberate aura of fear upon them, she uses stories of her own experiences and the experiences of some others to remind us of some big questions often remaining in the back of our minds because of the scope of their barely conceivable impact, such as another attack on America...only this time more destructive to human life and property than 9/11. If [or when] this kind of attack should occur, and given what Ms. Noonan calls the true and demoralizing legacy of Hurricane Katrina where even the baseline responsibility given by the public to government was not met despite all of the inspirational rhetoric we'd heard, she imagines the public asking, "Is anyone really in charge? Is there a grown-up in the house?" She believes that today's American citizens wonder if the nation will be "up to the challenge [..] equal to the moment if the moment is big."

Noonan shows deep regret for the kind of "partisan gamesmanship", the "pointless enmity", and the "focus-group cynicism" in politics that serves to divide Americans into base-groups. She refers to one of her own 2006 Wall Street Journal "Declarations" columns as an expression of a new commitment to non-partisanship and increased fairness-of-opinion borne of a good faith yet hard look at realities for the sake of grace-in-patriotism:

"Autumn is the true American New Year. This is when we make our real resolutions.

The perfect fall has two things, present pleasure (new exhibits, shows, parties) and something to look forward to--for the political, the upcoming election.

Which is my subject. My resolution is to try in a renewed way, each day, and within my abilities, to be fair. I find myself thinking so much of William Meredith's poem about the advice he'd received from older writers: "Look hard at the world, they said--generously, if you can manage that, but hard."

Noonan bemoans the roughness of the current Presidential contenders' campaigns and the level of rage among their respective audiences - not necessarily speaking of the candidates themselves, but more of their freelance surrogates in the age of YouTube, the anonymous and destructive side of the Internet, the political action committees, the "thirty-one-year-old campaign operative who's eager to make a name for himself as cunning and devious" who strives to "kneecap the other guy in the modern media age". She calls, instead, for a "renewed bipartisan spirit, a new openness to constructive ideas" because "the age we live in is real, the challenges we face are real, and before this is over we'll all be helping each other down the stairs."

She now offers a frank criticism of the Bush years, even though she'd admittedly argued many times in support of various policies of George W. Bush. She frames Election 2000 as a time of understandable pain to Democrats and damage to the winning Republicans because of the resulting drama and diminished public faith in the electoral system and trust in vote-counting. The Iraq war served to split the nation further along party lines - - more divided as the war went on with no sign of an exit strategy or a clear or consistent definition of victory.

Understanding that the Iraq war was a hasty and divisive undertaking when it was far more demanding of public unity, trust, and support - - especially with the crisis of traumatic impact following the events of 9/11, Noonan sees how a future strategic necessity may be harder when it comes to convincing the trust-damaged public. She asks, "What happens at some future date if America truly must move - militarily, urgently, for its security, for the crucial protection of its strategic interests?" She acknowledges the Republican party's missteps as a cause for the reopening of the wounds of division that national unity after 9/11 had begun to heal. Republican leaders pointed fingers at the leaders of the Democratic Party and raising public doubt about their patriotism as debates continued on in the halls of Congress on the Iraq War. It's an example of what Peggy Noonan seems to be saying that "patriotic grace" should never be about.

"One of the biggest political stories of the Bush era has been the Republican Party's squandering of its reputation for foreign policy sanity. It took fifty years to build it. More than fifty years. It is a tragedy to see it go."

One of my personal favorite lines from Ms. Noonan's book is: "If you want to be a beacon, it's actually a very hard job." She spends a good part of her closing chapter talking about US foreign policy and outlining the work that she believes America, if it's to be a beacon for the rest of the world, will entail. She recommends that America should "pick itself up, dust itself off, and start all over again." she continues, "We have lost some of our standing in the world. We have lost some of our authority. We have lost some of our friends." She advocates for a priority to be put on Civil Defense and to tend to the frayed ties that once bound us with good will as an American society.

I would have loved to have seen Tim Russert interview Ms. Noonan about her book. I wish we'd had the opportunity for that. Perhaps, in his memory, we can strive to better understand and act, especially in the way we choose to speak with fellow citizens [being no less than honest after a hard look, but with good faith and in the spirit of listening for the same from the other side] for what is truly important for the common good - and for our democracy's health - if we truly want to repair our relations with other nations and be a realistic inspiration to world citizens. We'll never be able to do that if we can't even talk to each other. I think we have nothing to lose from taking the advice and much more to lose if we continue to fray at the common thread.

Sarah Palin, What Becomes A Beacon Most?

Hey, Sarah Palin, What Becomes A Beacon Most?
or..

A Beacon Doesn't Scream

We've all heard about the Shining City on a Hill and many people, upon hearing the phrase alone, think of former President Ronald Reagan because he expertly employed the rhetoric that borrowed the phrase, attempting successfully to recreate an image of an America with beacon-like potential. It was actually John Winthrop, founding governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, who wrote the words so often co-opted by the Religious Right and their too-often-willing GOP partners. The words had deep roots in the Christian faith and in the fear of a vengeful God. They're words that likely inspired Manifest Destiny, where the unbiased eye of history has witnessed a collective turning of the head away from human rights as Native Americans were dehumanized to make room for the New Jerusalem.

In 21st century Catholic churches, we still sing the hymn based on Matthew 5:16. The "We" in the song is the body of Christ..the Church...which is not made solely of American citizens as I'm sure I do not need to tell you.

"We are the Light of the World.
Let our light shine before all,
That they may see the good that we do
And give glory to God."

Contrasting 17th-century Puritan Plymouth (before Ben Franklin) where the Bible was then the basis for the new land's society...and where tolerance and equal rights did not have center stage and where the new society's wilderness survival based upon religious principles was paramount, Andrew Bacevich analyzes VP candidate Gov Sarah Palin's words:

"But even more important is that world view that I share with John McCain. That world view that says that America is a nation of exceptionalism. And we are to be that shining city on a hill, as President Reagan so beautifully said, that we are a beacon of hope and that we are unapologetic here. We are not perfect as a nation. But together, we represent a perfect ideal. And that is democracy and tolerance and freedom and equal rights."

In my view, Sarah Palin is no Ronald Reagan. She's borrowing the rhetoric from President Reagan at a time that is hardly befitting and, to boot, in hoisting American exceptionalism as a main sail with no honest eye on how the United States is currently viewed by millions of world citizens, she causes the ship branded "America" to appear as an oddly foundering vessel searching for a beacon rather than being a lighthouse.


Dr. Bacevich says,

Today no doubt, the eyes of all people are indeed on the United States - what happens here affects the world. Yet many of those who observe us don't like what they see. The question for Governor Palin and for other believers committed to the concept of American exceptionalism is this: have we kept the Lord's covenant? If not, perhaps the time has come to mend our ways before it's too late.

My question would be:

"We aren't apologetic here? My God, why not?"

I am a Christian citizen of a nation with a shorter history than most developed nations on the face of this small planet spinning around the sun. I believe that we are..and were from the beginning..a nation of well-intentioned and hopeful people who, through a decidedly misplaced sense of religious triumphalism and worldly-intentioned leadership all-too-often disguised as pious guidance, have lost a sense of fairness and empathy and decency....who forgot that their non-Christian brethren have been human beings fully deserving of equal treatment...who've lost track of the faith-based Golden Rule, and that is to love your neighbor as yourself because it's equal to loving God with all your heart, mind, and strength...

We all know what a beacon is, in a literal and figurative sense. It's a source of guidance or inspiration.

If we can't apologize for hiding our Native Americans away off the dusty reservation roads in our pursuit for the shine, we aren't a beacon.

If we can't apologize for bringing chaos, destruction, and war with no clear strategy or exit plan to a nation that had nothing to do with an attack upon America in pursuit of the shine, we aren't a beacon.

If we can't apologize for mistreating, torturing and even killing war prisoners who were in our care in pursuit of the shine, we aren't a beacon.


Personally speaking, my God is not an angry God. My God is a forgiving God who expects me to be the beacon. If our government actually worked the way in which our Founding brothers (and sisters) had intended, we'd each be individual examples of light and love and our democracy would reflect it without having to brag or even to lie about it.

My faith is personal, but I cannot keep it private in a world where a I see so many misguiding influences, either directly in the name of God or spoken with inference to religious influence for ideology's sake.

This is really quite simple when it comes right down to it. Fulfilling our personal responsibilities as Christians can only compliment our effectiveness as citizens if we bring our faith to the public square with the complete realization that we come, one by one, with common purpose, with respect, with empathy, and with humility. If you asked a neighbor if he or she thought our nation should be unapologetic and still expect to be "the beacon" as we move away from the past eight years as Governor Palin suggests, I'd wager that they'd have something to say that would surprise both her and John McCain.

Pursuing a foreign policy grounded in traditional American principles doesn't have to mean American exceptionalism. We can be far more visionary than that. We credit our Founding brothers with their ability to see beyond the years. Would they apologize today, if they were here and able to look back, for the scourge of slavery that ended up being a major issue in the bloody U.S. Civil War? Would they express regret over what happened to the people who originally lived on this land when the white men came to claim it as their own? Sweet Jesus, I hope they would.

America should BE exceptional without having to crow about it. A beacon doesn't scream. In the foreign policy of our best vision, we can encourage sustainability, a guard against climate change, global health issues, and development in poorer countries while creating markets within our own country to make the world sustainable, more secure, and filled with more fairness and opportunity for all of our children. To my way of thinking, this kind of foreign policy incorporates my Christian sensibilities as well as a worthy national goal where there will be no need for reconciliation after years of iniquity or a need to say we won't ask for national forgiveness later on while expecting others to have to search for the shine we're claiming as our own.

Mr. Clean's Dead & My House Isn't Looking So Good

RIP, Mr. Clean. Who knows? Maybe I'll even dust & scrub today in your honor.

LOS ANGELES - House Peters Jr., a TV actor who became the original Mr. Clean in Proctor & Gamble's commercials for household cleaners, died Wednesday. He was 92.

Pope Rejects Iniquity in Handling Suspected Terrorists

I wonder if Pope Benedict XVI was watching "Taxi To the Dark Side" on HBO this week?

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict said on Thursday laws against terrorism should not be unjust or inhumane.

Speaking to visiting bishops at the Vatican, the pope spoke of "the plague of violence and terrorism, the spread of extremism and fundamentalism" in parts of the world.

"Certainly, such scourges should be contrasted with legislative interventions. But the force of law should never be allowed to be transformed into iniquity," he said in a speech to bishops from central Asia.

The pope did not elaborate in his address.

Human rights groups have protested against the treatment of terrorist suspects in a number of countries.

President George W. Bush's administration has come under fire in particular for its interrogation and detainment practices, such as waterboarding, particularly at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

More from the AP story here.

Nicholas Kristof on Wall Street & Congress

[..] If the Congressional critics of the bailout want to do some lasting good, they should come back in January — after approving the bailout now — with a series of tough measures to improve governance and inject more fairness in the economy. [..]


[..] "Wall Street urgently needs to undertake its own housecleaning, for the public revulsion toward it undermines its own long-term interests.

But, for now, the priority is to get credit flowing again in the arteries of commerce, even if that means saving the jerks. Otherwise, we risk becoming Japan." [..]

- Nicholas Kristof, NY Times, October 2, 2008

Steve Fossett's Plane Discovered

AFP: Wreck of Steve Fossett's plane discovered: police


Source: afp.google.com

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — The mangled wreckage of the plane being flown by adventurer Steve Fossett when he disappeared has been found, police said Thursday, but there was no sign of the millionaire's body.....

Mark Rosenkar, acting Chairman of NTSB, has said the high-impact crash appears to have been "non-survivable". See YOUTUBE report from AP here and a follow-up report from AP's Ed Donohue here


It doesn't look good at all. I'm so sad upon reading this news. Somehow I'd held out hope over these many months. Steve and his family are in my prayers.

Claire Lyons, Paul Faeth, Tom Kalil at 2008 CGI

[left to right]
Claire Lyons, Global Grant Program Director, Pepsico Foundation
Paul Faeth, Executive Director, Global Water Challenge
Tom Kalil, CGI Global Health Working Group Chair

Press Conference: Water and Sanitation Mega-Commitment
2008 Clinton Global Initiative Meeting
New York
September 26, 2008


Clinton Global Initiative Meeting - New York 9/26/08 -

Claire Lyons, global grant program manager for the PepsiCo Foundation, stressed that clean water is a necessary building block for human life. "If we can provide more clean water and clean sanitation, we will save lives," she said.

Nodding to recent skepticism among donors about how their contributions are spent and their desire for measurable results, she said charitable causes "have to find ways to spend philanthropic dollars more smartly" and that groups pledging large donations need to "leverage it, multiply it."

Source: WSJ

Paul Faeth says the traditional top down approach to solving the global water crisis has failed, and he feels that it's time to enlist the help of local innovators. He has previously said, "[..]What we're trying to do is help communities help themselves and finding in social entrepreneurs some great ideas for doing things that no one has ever thought of before."
[source: Global Challenge website]

Tom Kalil

"Each of us has the potential to make the world a better and more humane place. Working together, there are no limits to what we can accomplish."

Source: CNN
Editor's Note: The Clinton Global Initiative, founded by former President Bill Clinton, is meeting in New York this week, focusing on issues such as health, poverty and climate change. Tom Kalil is chairman of the initiative's global health working group and special assistant to the chancellor for science and technology at the University of California, Berkeley. In the Clinton administration, Kalil was deputy assistant for technology and economic policy and deputy director of the White House Economic Council.


NEW YORK (CNN) -- Last year, 9.2 million children didn't make it to their fifth birthday. Of these, roughly 4 million children died within the first 28 days of life -- the newborn period.

Many of these newborns die for reasons that are easily treatable or preventable. Their lives could be saved with very simple and low-cost interventions. For example, birth attendants can wash their hands before helping with a delivery, and use a clean blade to cut the umbilical cord.

[read the rest here]

John McCain on Financial Crisis, CGI meeting 9-25-08

Tom Brokaw: "Life is Junior High" (2008 CGI meeting)

Matt Damon Visits 2008 CGI Meeting

Matt Damon, Founder of H2O Africa
Cause: Water Sanitation/Africa
2008 Clinton Global Initiative Meeting
New York
September 26, 2008
Link: Coalition Pledges $400 Million For Clean Water, Sanitation
photos by Jude Nagurney Camwell


When he was asked by a reporter if he'd considered playing roles in films that would raise social conscience...films that saved lives (rather than simply playing gangsters and hipsters ie: Oceans Eleven), Matt Damon told a weird and delightfully funny story to show that he already had played such a life-saving role. The story surrounded German cannibal Armen Meiwes, who'd made the news several years ago when his intended (once-willing) victim went to meet Meiwes and pulled out of the pre-made agreement to be cannibalized by Miewes at the last moment after having gone to the cinema with the cannibal to see "Oceans Eleven"!


__



[left to right] Matt Damon, Paul Faeth, Tom Kalil

Feliciano Dos Santos and "Estamos" Are Saving Lives

Feliciano Dos Santos
Cause: Estamos [Water Sanitation]
2008 Clinton Global Initiative
New York
September 26, 2008
[Photos by Jude Nagurney Camwell]

Feliciano dos Santos
Mozambique
Sustainable Development

From the Goldman Prize Website

Using music to spread the message of ecological sanitation to the most remote corners of Mozambique, Feliciano dos Santos is empowering villagers to participate in sustainable development and rise up from poverty. In Niassa province, many villages lack even basic sanitation infrastructure. Without reliable access to clean water and waste management systems, the population is highly susceptible to disease. Santos, who grew up in the region, today heads an innovative program that is bringing new hope to Niassa. With his internationally-recognized band, Massukos, Santos uses music to promote the importance of water and sanitation in Mozambique. His program is now serving as a model for other sustainable development programs around the world.


Sanitation and Poverty

Throughout much of Africa, the lack of proper sanitation poses significant challenges to development. When drinking water is compromised, disease often follows. The World Health Organization estimates that 80 percent of all sickness in the world is attributable to unsafe water and sanitation. More children under five die from water-borne illnesses than AIDS. Recognizing both the environmental and societal risks associated with poor sanitation, the United Nations has declared 2008 the “Year of Sanitation” in order to bring further attention to the issue worldwide.

In Mozambique, more than half the population lives in extreme poverty without access to basic sanitation. The northernmost province of Niassa is one of the poorest and most isolated regions of the country. Most of its nearly one million inhabitants live in small villages dispersed throughout the province, which is as large as New England, yet has only 170 kilometers of paved road.


Waste Fuels Sustainable Development

Sanitation continues to be a taboo subject throughout the world, though it remains one of the most pressing problems in poverty-stricken regions. Santos has successfully found ways to discuss human waste management techniques with villagers through both grassroots outreach and music. He grew up in Niassa with no clean water or proper sanitation and is disabled from polio. As an adult, he has focused on improving living conditions in the region. Santos understands that environmental and health problems are interrelated in regions dealing with poverty issues like Niassa. As the director of Estamos, he works directly with villagers to provide community sanitation, promote sustainable agriculture, lead reforestation projects and support innovative HIV/AIDS initiatives. Santos believes that sanitation and water supply issues must be solved in order for other development projects to take root.

Santos and Estamos promote low cost, environmentally sustainable “ecological sanitation,” a process that uses composting toilets, called EcoSans, to transform human waste into nutrient-rich agricultural fertilizer. Typically, a family will use an EcoSan for a number of months, adding soil and ash after each use. The pit is then buried and left for eight months, and the family moves on to another pit. During the eight months all the harmful pathogens die off, leaving a rich fertilizer that can be dug up and used in the fields. The compost not only provides natural fertilizer, but also enhances the soil’s water-retention capacity. Families using ecological sanitation report markedly fewer diseases, a 100 percent improvement in crop production, and improved soil retention. Before ecological sanitation, many villages used costly artificial fertilizers on their crops, and often were barely able to feed their families. By using the compost instead of artificial fertilizer, many are able to produce more food than they need and can generate a small income by selling some of their harvest.

Santos and Estamos believe that no sanitation system or behavior change should be imposed on villagers by an external NGO. As an insider, Santos and his team lead participatory workshops in which villagers come to understand their sanitation options, and, if they like, choose the option they prefer and build it themselves.

Since Santos and Estamos began their work in Niassa in 2000, they have helped thousands of people in hundreds of villages gain access to clean water and ecological sanitation. This is a considerable achievement considering the lack of infrastructure in Niassa’s remote villages. Estamos continues to grow and is now working in three districts in northern Mozambique. In one remote area, a local chief working with Estamos is leading a group of 70 villages to achieve 100 percent sanitation coverage. This achievement would be the first of this magnitude in Mozambique.


Empowerment through Music

Santos’s band, Massukos, incorporates the sanitation message into music, performing in villages across Niassa and at times around Mozambique and abroad. Since Santos began his music-based outreach, people throughout Niassa and Mozambique have begun to focus more on the country’s rural sanitation problems. By connecting with Mozambique’s rich performance traditions, Santos and Estamos connect to villagers in a culturally appropriate way through music and theater. When Santos and the band arrive in a Niassa village, the entire local population often appears to hear them and their message. But the music is not the only reason for Estamos’s success. In July 2007, Massukos traveled to the UK where they released their album “Bumping” and performed at the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival.

FELICIANO ON YOUTUBE:





2008 Goldman Prize for Africa: Feliciano dos Santo

2005: Mozambiquan music stars Massukos land in the UK to take part in the Make Poverty History campaign. Water, sanitation and hygiene practice are some of the gravest challenges facing the developing world and the film explores how Massukos use their music to draw attention to these issues. Along the way they encounter Gordon Brown MP, Sir Bob Geldof, Rolf Harris, DJ Charlie Gillett and many others. Feliciano dos Santos -- the band's leader and the director of the NGO Estamos -- also delivers a petition to Tony Blair at Number 10 on behalf of WaterAid.

Goldman Prize Winner Feliciano dos Santos talks about contributing to the Water & Sanitation chapters of Hesperian's "A Community Guide to Environmental Health"

The Goldman Environmental Prize is the world's largest award for grassroots environmentalists. Awarded annually since 1990, the Prize is given to environmental heroes from the six continental regions of Africa, Asia, Islands & Island Nations, Europe, North America and South & Central America. The Prize is announced in April every year, to coincide with the international celebration of Earth Day. The purpose of the Prize is to recognize sustained and significant efforts to preserve the natural environment, including, but not limited to, protecting endangered ecosystems and species combating destructive development projects; promoting sustainability; influencing environmental policies;and striving for environmental justice.

The Mozambique Poo Tour

Water and sanitation are some of the biggest challenges facing the developing world. Yet they continue to be low on the political agenda. In a bid to raise the profile of this human crisis, former ‘Neighbours’ star Mark Little and a group of musicians set off to Mozambique to discover how communities are tackling the issues of human waste. Uplifting and thought-provoking, this documentary addresses fundamental issues which are all too often met with resounding silence.[..]In the remote village of Muita, Mozambican music heroes, Massukos, are holding a concert. They’re on a nationwide ‘Wash your Hands” tour, backed by water charity Estamos, to spread the word of peace, love and clean hands.

SEE THE FULL FILM HERE

Children of Congo: From War to Witches (trailer)

I'm looking forward to seeing this documentary. What happens to innocent children on the streets of places far away makes our troubles here in the US seem so small. We have so much to share with those who clearly need a chance...especially the young girls shown in filmmaker Dan Baluff's trailer [above]. I pray we awaken in our own developed countries with a renewed common purpose & morality. I hope that we see governments, the private sector, and NGOs coming together to do more than sit in heartbreak...but to act in unison..with common purpose..to provide an environment where superstition is left to the stubborn few in small corners and where girls and boys are able to realize their full potential. ~ Jude

Rural Innovation Plenary at 2008 Clinton Global Initiative Meeting

Plenary Session on Poverty & Rural Innovation
2008 Clinton Global Initiative Meeting
New York
September 26, 2008

[Left to Right]

Steve Gunderson
[President and CEO, Council on Foundations]

Muhammad Yunus
[Founder and Managing Director, Grameen Bank]

Rick Warren
[Pastor, Saddleback Church]



My Notes on the Plenary Session:

Elsie Meeks said that she believed she was the only representative on the panel who spoke for poverty within the United States, specifically Native American poverty which often goes unseen by those who do not visit tribal reservations. Her words, "If we can't do this [alleviate poverty] in the US, how can we do it in any other nation?"

Muhammad Yunus told the audience at the Sheraton Towers that, in the 1990s, he recalled a Governor named Clinton and the First Lady of Arkansas [Hillary] inviting him to the United States to become involved on the issue of alleviating poverty in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Looking toward Elsie Meeks, he marveled about their presence on the panel together and their common work within the United States, "We've gone from Pine Bluff to Pine Ridge."

Dr. Yunus spoke about another current social business of his in the United States. Grameen Queens [NY] is an extension of his ever-growing list of Grameen businesses. He said, "New York provides banking for the whole world. What about its own neighbors?"

Speaking about the nature of social business, Dr. Yunus explained how, once the business is created, it can be duplicated many times. He feels that Philanthropy, as we've come to understand it, must be "reinterpreted...expanded." He recommended getting out of the Charity business and, instead, to give people real ownership...to use our creativity to make a meaningful and lasting change. He believes that once a charity dollar is given, the subject of good intention is given the benefit once. When social business is created, however, he believes that the benefits don't end because investment continues to be made. He used the example of Group Danone [the yogurt company] which, in 2007, promised to invest $500,000 in a joint venture with Grameen to nourish children in Bangladesh. The way it works is that, in the future, Danone would expect to take back their initial investment and keep putting the rest of the profits back into the joint social business venture.


Wangari Muta Maathai, explaining her view that of all the Millennium Development goals, Sustainability [currently listed as Number-Seven] should be Number-One in priority, went a step further to say that those who are trying to alleviate poverty must never lose touch with the grass-roots in developing countries. Without grassroots-based concentration on Sustainability, no other Millennium goal can be realistically achieved. Poverty exists at that grass-roots level and the people who work the soil and suffer with the effects of climate change must be met where they are. She cited the Land, the Soil, the Water, and the Forests all as opportunity areas for management solutions. She said that the issue of Climate Change is tied in with the alleviation of poverty and, since she was speaking to a group of potential investors, added that a great opportunity for successful investment exists in all matters surround that issue. One example she used was investment in carbon credits, which she feels will help keep tropical forests standing in places along the Amazon and in Southeast Asia. She stressed her hopes that the United States government would "get on board" with Copenhagen 2009 [a major Climate Conference in Copenhagen].

Jacques Aigrain, CEO of SwissRe added that commercial solutions are being found to be at the core of successful civil outcomes when targeting "poverty traps" (as Muhammad Yunus calls them). Mr. Aigrain explained that what is happening today with social business is not your classic philanthropy. He believes free-market solutions will develop more effective sustainability...more quickly.


Toward the end of the session, Steve Gunderson asked the philosophical question: "Ten years from now, what will we wish we'd done today?" I think it was as good a closing question as there could've been.





Wangari Muta Maathai, Founder, Green Belt Movement in Kenya, 2004 Nobel Laureate

The Green Belt Movement, Professor Maathai, and their compelling stories are featured in several publications including her autobiography, Unbowed(2006), The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience (Wangari Maathai, 2002), Speak Truth to Power (Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, 2000), Women Pioneers for the Environment (Mary Joy Breton, 1998), Hopes Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet (Frances Moore Lappé and Anna Lappé, 2002), Una Sola Terra: Donna I Medi Ambient Despres de Rio (Brice Lalonde et al., 1998), and Land Ist Leben (Bedrohte Volker, 1993).[..]Professor Maathai serves on the boards of several organizations, including the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), World Learning (USA), Green Cross International, Environment Liaison Centre International, the WorldWIDE Network of Women in Environmental Work, and the National Council of Women of Kenya.

See "Nobel Peace Laureates Al Gore and Wangari Maathai Warn of Threat to National Security and Stability without U.S. Leadership on Deforestation"

Muhammad Yunus [Founder and Managing Director, Grameen Bank]

Muhammad Yunus, nicknamed "banker to the poor," won the Nobel [Peace Prize] in 2006 for inspiring a global microfinance movement that has lifted millions out of poverty by granting tiny loans. Started 30 years ago with a $27 loan to women in Bangladesh, his Grameen Bank has mushroomed by providing credit to poor people who do not have access to mainstream banking.[..]Unlike Wall Street, which is reeling from a flood of loans that may never be paid back, Grameen bank has a recovery rate of more than 98 percent.[..]"Today, if we are prepared, we could buy some of those falling banks in the United States, no problem, it's possible," Yunus said semi-seriously at former U.S. President Bill Clinton's philanthropic summit, the Clinton Global Initiative. [Source: Reuters]

Rick Warren [Pastor, Saddleback Church]

Pastor Rick Warren told former US President Bill Clinton’s global summit on Friday not to overlook the contribution that millions of people of faith around the world play in tackling some of today’s biggest challenges. "If we take the people of faith off the agenda, we've ruled out most of the world because most of the world has some faith," Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of the southern Californian Saddleback Church, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. "There's already an army ready to be mobilised, an army of compassion." [Source: Christian Today]

Elsie Meeks, President and CEO of the Oweesta Corporation

Elsie Meeks is a champion and leader for creating sustainable asset building strategies for Native communities across the country. Through its training and technical assistance services, Ms. Meeks' organization is at the forefront of the movement to increase the number of Native community development financial institutions (CDFI) serving Native peoples. These institutions and their programs are the foundation of any successful economic development strategy. [source: Oweesta.org]

Jacques Aigrain, CEO and Member of the Executive Committee, Swiss Re
[No photo available]

Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel to Sing for Obama

That'll be some concert at The Hammerstein Ballroom.

Some Things Bill Clinton Wants You to Know About Obama