IdentityTheory.com Social Justice Blog

Building Libraries Around the World

2008-07-01T09:39:00.003-04:00

"We do three things: We build schools. We establish multilingual libraries and fill them with thousands of books. And we provide long term scholarships for girls because girls are often left out of the education system. Basically, we're a group that is committed to reaching 10 million kids across the world with the life-long gift of education. In education lies the key to self sufficiency--and the best long term ticket out of poverty."
-John Wood, Founder & CEO, Room to Read-

Read Good Magazine's interview with Wood, who left Microsoft to found Room to Read, a non-profit committed to providing children around the world with access to books and educational resources.

The Right to Blog

2008-06-30T12:38:00.002-04:00

"Many of the bloggers who gathered on 27-28 June 2008 in Budapest, Hungary for a Citizen Media Summit organised by Global Voices Online had at first glance an unlikely appearance. These representatives of a growing worldwide network of citizen journalists and digital activists looked rather studious, a touch morose, even - to many bloggers themselves a key marker of social distinction - uncool.

Moreover, these idealistic people did not talk much about gadgets, fashion, or campaign-financing; nor rush to praise or scorn Barack Obama or John McCain; nor fret over the latest celebrity-hunt or political trick in the style of Gawker or the Huffington Post. Instead, they got into heated discussions (often in heavily accented English) over a different set of topics: internet filtering, human-rights violations, and the future of freedom of expression."

Read the rest of "The Right to Blog: Freedom's Next Frontier" by Evgeny Morozov, a technology and new-media expert and independent consultant.

Perspectives on World Refugee Day

2008-06-25T10:28:00.003-04:00

"Over the past five years, the US has resettled just 5,000 Iraqis. Compare that to Sweden, a country of only nine million people, which resettled 18,000 Iraqis last year alone. And among the most desperate seeking asylum are those Iraqis who have been forced from their homes because they helped the US government in Iraq, serving as interpreters and civil society experts for the military, State Department and federal agencies such as USAID."
-DemocracyNOW!-

Read Amy Goodman's interview with Kirk Johnson, former USAID worker in Iraq and founder of the List Project, Haydar Saeed Assad, a translator with the US Army in Najaf, Iraq for four years, and Maura Stephens, journalist, educator and peace activist who co-authored the book Collateral Damage.

Reporting from Zimbabwe

2008-06-24T16:49:00.002-04:00

"The announcement by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai that he will not contest the second round of the presidential election scheduled for 27 June 2008 comes amid increasing violence in urban areas of Zimbabwe - and signals of concern among Robert Mugabe's erstwhile African allies at events in the country."

Jabu Shoko reports from Harare on the latest political developments in Zimbabwe. Read more here. Check out the African Commission on Human and People's Rights for more information.

American Radical

2008-06-23T13:31:00.003-04:00

"I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."
-George Carlin-

Read "George Carlin: American Radical" here.

A quote from Carlin:
"Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here...like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks. Fuck Hope.'"

The Weapon of Rape

2008-06-19T10:59:00.002-04:00

"World leaders fight terrorism all the time, with summit meetings and sound bites and security initiatives. But they have studiously ignored one of the most common and brutal varieties of terrorism in the world today."
-Nicholas Kristof, Common Dreams-

Read the rest of Kristof's article "The Weapon of Rape," which explores how rape has been used as a weapon in Serbia, Darfur, and the Congo and the international community's lack of response thus far.

An excerpt:

"The rape capital of the world is eastern Congo, where in some areas three-quarters of women have been raped. Sometimes the rapes are conducted with pointed sticks that leave the victims incontinent from internal injuries. A former UN force commander there, Patrick Cammaert, says it is 'more dangerous to be a woman than to be a soldier.'

The international community's response so far? Approximately: 'Not our problem.'

Yet such rapes also complicate post-conflict recovery, with sexual violence lingering even after peace has been restored. In Liberia, the civil war is over but rape is still epidemic.

Painfully slowly, the United Nations and its member states seem to be recognizing the fact that systematic mass rape is at least as much an international outrage as, say, pirated DVDs. Yet China and Russia are resisting any new reporting mechanism for sexual violence, seeing such rapes as tragic but simply a criminal matter."

Broken Laws, Broken Lives

2008-06-18T08:15:00.003-04:00

"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
-Maj. General Antonio Taguba (Ret.), who led the Army's 2004 investigation into the prison abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib (from the foreword of "Broken Laws, Broken Lives")-

Read more here about the just-released "Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture," published by Physicians for Human Rights, which documents the criminal acts of guards and interrogators at U.S.-run prisons in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and Afghanistan.

What Are You Doing June 23rd?

2008-06-17T11:51:00.003-04:00

You should check out the 2008 Personal Democracy Forum at Lincoln Center! It starts June 23 and wraps up on June 24.

As PDF says:

"Technology and the Internet are changing politics - now more than ever. Over the last five years, Personal Democracy Forum (PdF) has become the seminal gathering place for the growing community of people who understand the effects underway, and want to make sure they stay on top of what's coming next."

Speakers and presenters will include Elizabeth Edwards, Vint Cerf, Craig Newmark, Arianna Huffington, Lawrence Lessig, Mayhill Fowler, Ana Marie Cox, Robert Scoble, Josh Marshall, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Trippi, and Gilberto Gil among others.

Find out more here.

"All Technology is Politics"

2008-06-13T08:46:00.001-04:00

"Chris Csikszentmihalyi is an artist and provocateur as well as a programmer, inventor and professor. The projects he's most excited about within MIT's Center for Future Civic Media focus on the interface between political action, art, journalism and technology. He offers the observation that 'all technology is politics,' and suggests that one of the best ways to do art, as in journalism, is to follow the money."
-Ethan Zuckerman, Worldchanging.com-

Read more of "Activism, Art and Future Civic Media."

The Problem with Infotainment Media

2008-06-12T08:34:00.001-04:00

"Ater airing a five-minute segment on the recent controversy surrounding racy photos of a teenage Disney star, longtime Nightline anchor Cynthia McFadden left the viewing audience with these words to ponder: 'Just another distraction to keep our minds away from the things that really matter.' With grim resignation, McFadden did her best to project the image of a grizzled industry vet, powerless to stem the tide of increasingly trivial programming at a time when serious journalism is paramount."
-Sarah Nardi, Adbusters-

Read more of Nardi's article "America's Slippery Slope," which explores Susan Jacoby' book The Age of American Unreason, and argues that such media is a "vague and ill-defined threat to our Democratic ideals."

Media That Matters

2008-06-03T13:11:00.003-04:00

"We no longer have to rely on major corporations for things to be seen -- we have Media that Matters to distribute new material and new voices and new points of view."
-Tim Robbins, Actor-

Sick of mainstream media? Check out Media That Matters, a premier showcase for short films on the most important topics of the day. "Local and global, online and in communities around the world, Media That Matters engages diverse audiences and inspires them to take action." Documentaries, music videos, animations and more -- you can look through an archive of films, segmented by topic. For example, films about media itself include explorations of media messages, post-Katrina New Orleans, the African Underground among others.

Here's what Chris Rock had to say about the organization: "Being raised in Brooklyn means you know something about social issues. For me, Media That Matters is one of the festivals that keeps our focus on how to make our communities better and stronger and smarter."

"The Good Life" At Design 21

2008-06-01T18:05:00.011-04:00

On a recent trip to New York City, I serendipitously stumbled upon the Design 21 gallery space (I'll admit I was on my way to Fifth Avenue to check my email at the Apple store!), an organization I recently posted about.

To escape the pouring rain, I entered the gallery and walked through the current exhibit: "The Good Life," a series of thesis projects by seniors in the Product Design Department at the Parsons School of Design that blended artistry, social justice and product design/development. The objective: create solutions to social and environmental challenges. Projects ranged from raising awareness about global warming, enabling children's imaginations to stimulate early learning, encouraging urban curbside gardens, and exploring sound technology and conviviality.

Here is a sampling of what I saw.

"Loti is an effort to sustain and revive the traditional craft of the Darrai Noor region of Afghanistan and dispose of its toxic processes...This venture ensures that the processes that have led us to where we are today will be sustained before they skip a generation and are forever lost or mass imitated."
-Christen Maxwell-

"My approach is to encourage children's body movement through music (sound). Combining music and physical activity can become an effective tool for children since music provides opportunities to create, perform, and communicate."
-Jee Hye Yang-

"People run out of satisfaction very quickly and easily. Once they feel a certain product no longer serves its purpose or fit into their likings, it is discarded quickly and easily, before they soon buy a new one. This explains why most of the furniture that I found on the street are actually very repairable and transformable, however not enough people know how to do it, let alone are compelled to do it."
-Amelia Lnu-

"Because of the refugee crisis in Iraq, millions of children lack the tools to elevate their educational experience. There is also a need to remedy the effects of trauma and regain a sense of identity and belonging. This project focuses on the Iraqi refugee community in Jordan. Tessera is a puzzle/game designed to stimulate problem solving skills, encourage dialogue/communication and reestablish a sense of identity and place."
-Christian John-

We Need Spirit of '68 Today

2008-05-29T12:39:00.003-04:00

"There sure is a lot to protest these days: college costs too much, the dollar buys too little, we're stuck in two wars we can't seem to win, and the Baby Boomer Generation is also leaving it to younger generations to figure out how to fix our energy policy, Social Security, and America's image problem around the world. Come to think of it, a little May '68 spirit - 40 years later - might be just what we need today."
-Mike Martin, French Teacher based in Vermont-

Martin gives a nice historical briefing on the riots of May '68 in the streets of Paris. Read (or listen) to Martin's reflection of those protests, and their impact then and now.

Project Porchlight Launches In the US!

2008-05-28T12:29:00.002-04:00

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, state representatives and concerned citizens gathered last Friday to celebrate the Vermont launch of Project Porchlight, an energy-saving initiative that started in Canada a few years ago. So far, Canadian volunteers have delivered more than 1.15 million free CFLs in their neighborhoods, saving more than $40 million in energy costs and decreasing CO2 emissions by about 232,300 tons. The launch marks the first US stop for the organization.

The goal in Vermont is to hand-deliver 36,000 CFLs to local neighborhoods and spread the word about the energy saved by using them. According to Project Porchlight: "Once the Project Porchlight bulbs are in use the collective saving for the residents in the five communities will be about $1.7 million on their electricity bills and about 2000 tons of coal will be prevented from being burned."

*Video from Seven Days.

Standing Up to Chevron

2008-05-27T18:04:00.003-04:00

"It's difficult to imagine the courage it takes to go against a huge corporation. Worse, an oil giant like Chevron. But Pablo Fajardo Mendoza and Luis Yanza are not afraid: They are convinced Ecuador and its people deserve a clean Amazon, and their conviction has led them to the final stages of what could be the largest environmental lawsuit ever filed in the world."
-Paula Alvarado-

Read the interview for more on how these two 2008 Goldman Environmental Prize winners began their fight, their motivation, and their difficulties. Both discuss the impact they've had on the Ecuadorian society in terms of environmental matters, and their hopes and fears.

Design for Social Change

2008-05-19T19:42:00.003-04:00

Design 21, an organization that sponsors design competitions for social good, is hosting a cool contest -- designing a campaign for Millennium Promise. They are asking people to design a new media campaign that makes people aware of the Millennium Development Goals, which, when fulfilled by a set date of 2015 will help end poverty in Africa.

The MDGs are "eight globally-endorsed objectives and targets that both address and seek to eradicate the many dimensions of extreme poverty. To that end, Millennium Promise is working with impoverished communities, national and local governments, and partner NGOs to implement high-impact programs on the continent by engaging donor nations, corporations, and the general public in the effort to end extreme poverty."

You have 28 days left to enter the contest. Not a designer? You can always join the the Millenium Promise cause group on Facebook.

Programs Help Refugees Forge a New Life

2008-05-15T11:21:00.003-04:00

For the nearly 50,000 refugees that came to the United States in 2007 (and the thousands that came before that), making it here is only the beginning of a long, hard, journey. The Association of Africans Living in Vermont is helping its 1,500-plus members make it here in the long run with innovative programming.

The challenge is significant. As Burlington-based newspaper Seven Days reports: "Having emigrated from refugee camps, AALV members are familiar with hardship. But a new life in Vermont isn't exactly a piece of cake: Roughly half live below the federal poverty line. In the winter, food budgets shrink as work in local hotels tapers off. The average size of an AALV family is five or six people, but primary earners only make about $9 per hour."

AALV recently launched two neat new programs to provide opportunities for its members: New Farms for New Americans and a new welding program. Providing economic opportunity is key to building a stable life for new Americans.

Please visit AALV online to learn more and to watch a video that brings to life the challenges Africans in Vermont are facing.

To find out more about refugees nationwide and how you could help, check out the Office of Refugee Resettlement as a start.

Agents of Social Change

2008-04-29T12:15:00.003-04:00

Echoing Green is a neat organization that "invests in and supports outstanding emerging social entrepreneurs to launch new organizations that deliver bold, high-impact solutions." They offer a two-year fellowship program to help a group of "visionaries develop new solutions to society's most difficult problems."

This year's slate of finalists promise some great problem-solving and good to be done. A few that caught my eye:

The Op-Ed Project: Targeting, training and channeling women experts to the op-ed pages of top newspapers, online sites, and other key forums of public debate to project new diverse voices into national conversation.

GreenMango: Bringing the power of online marketing technologies to poor business owners in developing countries to enable them to grow their businesses and increase their income.

Hot Bread Kitchen: Creating well-paid careers for immigrant women while preserving baking traditions, harnessing lost human capital, and building esteem for immigrant communities.

Sustainable Health Enterprises: Unleashing girls' and women's economic potential by starting up female-run franchises that manufacture and distribute low priced, high-quality, and environmentally friendly sanitary towels for domestic and international markets.

Green Coast Enterprises: Building environmentally sound structures that can withstand the rigors of hurricanes, termites, heat, and humidity at a price that is within the reach of average people.

Check out the entire list (about 30 projects) here.

Remember May '68

2008-04-28T17:16:00.003-04:00

Upon the fortieth anniversary of the May '68 student protests in the streets of Paris, Patrice de Beer, former London and Washington correspondent for Le Monde, explores France's politics of memory and finds the French caught between remembrance and forgetting.

An interesting point with particular resonance:

"Julie Coudry, the (possibly departing) president of the Confederation Etudiante, has made the point that in 1968, students (and striking workers) opposed to the ordre etabli sought new forms of participation and communication; while in 2008, people are fearful of all-powerful globalisation yet also anxious to play their part in the reform of an (again) blocked society where a new generation of young people (again) has little say."

Read the entire article here.

Earth Day Top Ten

2008-04-21T10:21:00.005-04:00

It's Earth Day's 38th birthday...so get out there and celebrate, or at least consider doing one thing to benefit the environment on April 22. Here's Identity Theory's Top Ten things to do on Earth Day:

1. Shake Some Action. Find out what you can do in your own city, town or neighborhood. Visit Earth Day Network, EarthDay.gov or the EPA's web site to browse volunteer opportunities.

2. Start At Home. Somebody famous said, "the revolution starts at home" (I think). There are so many simple, energy-smart things you can do around the house. In addition to recycling, consider switching out the six bulbs you use the most to CFLs. Then, get these to show-off to all your friends.

3. Compare Notes. Energy policy will clearly be on the top of the deck for the next president of the United States. Find our where John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama stand now.

4. Make the Call. Got something to say to your representative or senator about climate change legislation or environmental policy? Get on the horn.

5. Travel More. Volunteer with Earthwatch Institute and travel alongside scientists and researchers to preserve coral reefs and save endangered species.

6. Go Back to School. A bunch of colleges and universities now offer "green" academic programs. University of Texas-Austin offers a masters degree in sustainable design and other school are following suite. Already working in the green sector? Get together for Green Drinks, an organization that schedules meet-ups.

7. Eat Up! Sprig.com lists seven foods you should add to your grocery list, from Stonyfield Yogurt to Carbon Neutral Wineries. These companies are carbon-offsetting so these foods don't contribute to climate change.

8. Make An Eco-Resolution. Use a green calculator to figure out how small changes in your everyday life could positively impact the environment. Then, pick one action and stick with it for the year.

9. Get in the Sack. Yes, there are a plethora of ways to green your sex life, and Treehugger has got an exhaustive list of what you can do between your bamboo bed sheets.

10. Look Beyond This List. For more ideas, check out the New York Times Magazine's Green Issue.

"A Pathetic Round of 'Gotcha' Questioning"

2008-04-18T10:18:00.002-04:00

"For years now, I've grimaced when I see polls showing the persistent downward slope of public trust in the American news media. This Wednesday night, I could hardly blame that public."
-Jerry Lanson, Professor of Journalism-

Emerson College professor Jerry Lanson reacts to Wednesday night's presidential debate in "A Pathetic Round of 'Gotcha' Questioning," and wonders:

"Someone might just as well have asked: 'Senator, are you or were you ever a member of the Communist Party? A sympathizer, perhaps? Because the tenor of the questions at times seemed vaguely reminiscent of the '50s, the early '50s when Joseph McCarthy took his communist witch hunt from the State Department to Hollywood."

Meanwhile, FactCheck.org puts what both candidates said to the test. Read it all here.

Images from the Other Side

2008-04-14T11:51:00.003-04:00

"Imagine if every week a televised roll call memorialized Iraq's civilian casualties with individual portraits. If this were possible, we would witness, in full, the staggering human costs of Iraq's occupation on a personal level. The politics of history dictate who is remembered and who is not, and most countries prefer to honor only their own dead. Perhaps, if we were confronted with those we've killed, face-by-face, we could better question the notion of 'us and them' and address the abstraction of death that skews our understanding of war."

Read more of Caroline E. Winter's Witness column at AdBusters. Winter takes as her point of departure the recent release of stills taken of Khmer Rouge victims at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison where an estimated 1.7 million people were tortured and killed between 1975 and 1979. The images, taken by Nhem Ein, are now housed at the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide.

Perspectives on the Summer Olympics

2008-04-10T09:38:00.002-04:00

Find out what the Dalai Lama and Tibet's Prime Minister in exile have to say about this year's Summer Olympics in China. Read the New York Times article "Dalai Lama Show Support for Games" and Good Magazine's "Remember Tibet?".

Truckers Put On The Brakes

2008-04-09T10:02:00.003-04:00

"On April 1, in a wave of defiance, truck drivers began taking the strongest form of action they can take: inaction. Faced with $4-per-gallon diesel fuel, they slowed down, shut down and started honking. On the New Jersey Turnpike, a convoy of trucks stretching 'as far as the eye can see,' according to a turnpike spokesman, drove at a glacial 20 miles per hour."

Read more of Barbara Ehrenreich's "Truckers Hit the Brakes" at Common Dreams to find out why Ehrenreich calls the truck drivers' inaction a "shining example of defiance in the face of economic assault." You can also check out her blog.

Super Site About EPA's Superfund Program

2008-04-07T13:39:00.004-04:00

Check out SuperFund365.org, a web site with daily updates about places where Americans live at risk to exposure to dangerous toxins, sites that Superfund, a "federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country," according to the Environmental Protection Agency, was created to clean-up. The program ran out of money in 2003.

Starting on September 1, 2007, Superfund365 will visit one toxic site currently active in the Superfund program, a journey that started in New York City and will end in Hawaii.