Humanize the Earth!

update on tip jar #2

Since my last update we’re now up to $586 (some not through dropcash so it doesn’t show up in the progress meter in the sidebar) raised of our $1000 goal!

Thanks to: Michael, Reid, Pam, Nick, Cynthia, Tim, Terry, Carla, Judy, Sue, Steve, & Luke!

click here to donate

categories: Ghana Africa Humanist Movement fundraising

How I perceive how I’ve changed

Tristram (friend from the Humanist Movement) and I had an online text chat tonight. One point we agreed on was that the awareness of feeling bad is a very good sign because there’s some awareness that can then lead to change, rather than simply the day-to-day deadness that we’re both so famliar with.

Here’s a Gem from him:

I am afraid to say what I think, change the situation, confront the shit, or the injustice, or the stupid comment, and it it just gets worse. In general I make the mistake of thinking that not confronting shit, is more comfortable and easier. In the end I beat myself up, don’t change anything, and end up swimming in the shit. It’s warm, and soft, but its still SHIT!!!

Then he asked me:

“Why really are YOU in the movement? What REALLY changed for you? What did YOU really learn or benefit from?”

I answered:

I was a miserable person when I joined. I was mean to people. I felt that I could not change myself even though I really wanted to. Plus I felt I had something inside me that I wanted to share with the world but I was too much of an asshole to make it really work. so what changed at first was the idea that intentionally choosing how to act and react to the world was possible . then over time came the idea what I’m really building my life - the life that I truly want I find myself being much more present now. intentionally. maybe that’s the biggest thing. I’ll talk wtih someone I knew well in high school and she’ll ask about this and that and I won’t remember any of it! I hope that I won’t say the same of today in 10 or 15 years - I don’t think it willl be like that. I think I’m more present now. choosing my life

How do you feel about what you just said? I mean what comes over you when you read it?

I feel solid - I like I know who I am, like I’m building a future - truly. even when I fuck around and do nothing for an 8 hour stretch it’s temporary and I’ll do something useful for 20 minutes that makes it all worthwhile and I can do better tomorrow :-)

We also talked about the Dobby character from Harry Potter and how we’re like that sometimes. “Bad Dobby Bad Dobby!!!!!” Not very useful.

Near the end of our conversation he told me about his project blog: Friends of Africa and India. Check it out!

categories: personal Humanist Movement

experimenting with CSS (formatting of this page using styles)

No major changes, but just playing around a bit with formatting. Let me know how it looks to you. Hopefully changes to the sidebar will be easier now that styles are more or less implimented. Do things look like they’re in proportion? Anything strike you as off? thanks.

Thanks, Sue Braiden

Thanks so much to Sue Braiden for writing about the tip jar #2 campaign that I’m running to fund enhancements to grassroots projects in the Liberian Refugee Camp in Ghana.

She writes: When something this innovative is this simple, it deserves to be scaled up, and that’s exactly what Ted’s doing as he launches his next campaign

I know Sue as a wonderful Better World Scout at omidyar.net where she’s constantly putting people in touch with other people where synergies can flourish. Thanks so much!

Especially check out her work with Sister Helen Prejean on ending the death penalty.

category: giving fundraising

Gift Hub

Was trying to reach gifthub.org but found gifthub.com instead. Seemed like something out of wealthbondage “GiftHub Corporation specializes in gifts, satisfaction guaranteed”

crisis of the moment, or long-term engagement?

Jon says “I Need Some Help in understanding very clearly why “the world” is rushing to aid the surviving victims of the tsunami so enthusiastically (not that we shouldn’t) when there are also thousands and thousands of Iraqis suffering and dying through no fault of their own in the face of a persistent “tsunami” of occupation.”

Tom goes further in his analysis:

It is certainly heartwarming to see the recent response from around the world regarding the Asian Tsunami tragedy. Google lists about 2,000 current news stories on the event, with estimates of 150,000 deaths and several billions in support.

This intense interest, however, will soon fade, and a new one will surely emerge to take its place. This “Spotlight Effect” has several side effects:

• It creates an overwhelming spike in resources and attention, possibly away from other deserving causes
• As the spotlight fades, and the “long haul” costs of recovery begin to kick in, resources are likely to be short.
• It conditions us to react to short term emergencies, at the expense of long term, continuous efforts.
• It may draw resources from other causes. An “I gave for the tsunami” attitude could diminish a donor’s gifts to other programs.

As tragic as the death count was in the tsunami, it represents about three weeks’ worth of HIV/AIDS deaths. The Global Fund is struggling to collect $15 billion for an epidemic whose current and future effects are staggering.

December 1st was World HIV/AIDS day, an attempt to generate attention for this issue. It barely made the press. However, a jet crash which killed 2 people got the spotlight that day, collecting 750 articles on Google.

So, while the spotlight is on the tsunami, there are many, many other needs in the world which are less mediagenic, but possibly more important.

So, what can we do to diffuse this spike of attention to a longer term, more effectively allocated flow of resources?

My question here is not about “the world” or “the media” but for you (this is a silent, answer-to-yourself question). What are you doing in your daily life to reduce human suffering among those around you?

And then I found Michael’s post on The Physics of Tsunami Giving where he concludes: “The opportunity now is that when the wave of tsunami news and giving and action subsides, there will be some excess capability that can be directed toward other needs, closer to home perhaps, where little individuals can keep on making contributions to the common good.”

Good stuff.

Not One Damn Dime Day

From Mark Dilley: Not One Damn Dime Day. I haven’t posted anything political here for quite a while. My last post of that nature could’ve been about my not voting. I’ve politely declined comment when my friends bemoned the election results. It’s not that I don’t agree. I simply believe that it doesn’t matter. In the run-up the Iraq war I spent a lot of time in the street, demonstrating. I have not interest in doing that anymore either. So do I believe that Not One Damn Dime Day will have any impact? No. But it’s easy to do and doesn’t take a lot of energy to plan to carry out.

The emerging Spiritual Activism Movement

I haven’t had a chance to read this yet, but Kaliya’s blog has this: The emerging Spiritual Activism Movement which is about Education in Non-Violence. I’ll post more once I’ve read it.

happy new year

Lots happening here in Chicago and elsewhere, including internally. Hope you’re well as this new year begins. I wish you much peace, force and joy in 2005.

More Shovels & Wheelbarrows tip jar

click here to donate

My first dropcash campaign of $250 was sucessful [1] [2].

There are now seven people working directly with me as humanist volunteers in the Budaburam Liberian Refugee Camp in Ghana [3]. Those seven have teams of their own and some of those people have teams of their own, adding up to more than 1000 people.

This new campaign is to support three teams with their ongoing volunteer projects. One of the three is the same team as from the first campaign (Sampson Nugba). The second is working on an agriculture project (Beatrice Brown). The third is also working on the neighborhood cleanup as part of the campaign to stop Malaria (Chris Flomo).

Update Jan 4 - I forgot to mention that the goal is $1000. $235 has come in already (some in non-tip jar methods so are not reflected in the progress meter on the right).

Update Jan 5 - Thanks to Michael, Reid, Pam, Tim, Terry, Carla, Judy, Sue, Steve, & Luke we have $530!! so far.

click here to donate

categories: Ghana Africa Humanist Movement fundraising