Social Justice Blog

Amnesty International Urges China to Conduct a Fair and Impartial Investigation in Urumqi

2009-07-06T12:00:00.002-04:00

"There has been a tragic loss of life and it is essential that an urgent independent investigation takes place to bring all those responsible for the deaths to justice...Violence and abuses from either the authorities or protestors is in no way justified."
-Roseann Rife, Amnesty International's Deputy Director Asia-Pacific-

Amnesty International today called on the authorities in Urumqi to immediately launch an independent and impartial investigation into reports that 140 people were killed when a protest turned violent late on Sunday.

Read more here.

New Dropping Knowledge Multimedia Campaign Poses Questions to Start Conversations About Social Justice

2009-07-02T09:54:00.003-04:00

Dropping Knowledge, the Berlin- and San Francisco-based group founded in 2003 by Mindpirates, has launched a neat new e-postcard campaign. The group is dedicated to exploring how "provocative, challenging and entertaining questions, communicated by innovative multimedia, can inspire new thinking."

I think these images speak for themselves. Spread them around to start a conversation, or ask a question yourself...

Click here to view all of the images.

Changing the World of Changing the World: Pushing the Models of Online Organizing

2009-06-30T09:51:00.002-04:00

The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard always has a cool and informative lecture taking place.

Today at 12:30pm, Ben Wikler of Avaaz.org, a 3.5-million member global online advocacy organization, will speak on how his organization is trying to expand its model of campaign organization via social media. To quote:

"Now, we're exploring ways to expand the model and increase capacity by devolving the process of campaign generation. How can we--or any similar group--empower larger numbers to shape strategy, while still putting the mass membership at the center?"

Sign up for the webcast here. Check out Wikler's Avaaz.org here.

Looking for something to read on your own time? Check out the Berkman Center's "Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture and Dissent."

Echoing Green Announces 2009 Roster of Social Entrepreneur Fellows

2009-06-21T11:24:00.005-04:00

For more than twenty years, Echoing Green (the name is from a Blake poem) has provided new leaders who possess vision and a smart idea (in areas such as civil and human rights, education and youth leadership, health, and public service) with the seed money and support to put their ideas into action.

The angel investor just announced its 2009 slate of fellows and the group is very impressive. Here is a taste of some of the projects they hope to implement with Echoing Green's guidance and support:

Adam Stofsky/New Media Advocacy Project: Stofsky wants to empower defenders of human rights and social justice by integrating video and internet social networking into their advocacy strategy, enabling them win their legal cases and organize communities. Click here to read more.

Angie Beatty and Shawn McKie/The J.U.I.C.E Project: Through this project, Beatty and McKie will combat disease mortality in inner cities by reimagining the corner store as a one-stop shop for nutritious yet affordable food, free exercise training/activities, media/health literacy education, and art programs. Click here to read more.

Barbara Bush and Jonny Dorsey/Global Health Core: Bush (Yes, W's daughter) and Dorsey hope to build the next generation of global health leaders and improve the quality of healthcare services for the poor by connecting outstanding young professionals from around the world with health-focused organizations. Click here to read more.

Bethany Henderson/City Hall Fellows, Inc.: Henderson's idea is to incentivize and empower diverse, top college graduates to tackle social ills from within existing government institutions, thus ensuring our cities have leaders capable of confronting cities’ myriad challenges. Click here to read more.

Those are only four of the fourteen fantastic ideas to make the world a better place. I encourage you to read though each fellow's ideas by clicking on this link. If you are too lazy to read, you can watch this video:

The Spread of Global Consumerism Brings Traveling Salesmen to India

2009-06-11T09:41:00.002-04:00

"'Brother, why would you need a cellphone?' one performer asks as he passes the only microphone. 'To flirt with the most popular girl in the village,' comes the answer. The crowd giggles."

Read more of the Wall Street Journal's "The Infomercial Comes to Life in India's Remotest Villages" to learn about how rural advertising is spreading the gospel of consumerism.

New Documentary "Food, Inc." Explores How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter & Poorer

2009-05-26T13:23:00.002-04:00

Food, Inc. won’t be out until June 12th in select cities, but in you can visit their website for more information. Watch this video trailer for a sneak peak.

"Invisible Children" Rally Raises Awareness of Child Soldier Kidnappings in Uganda

2009-04-23T16:38:00.006-04:00

On April 25 an abduction and rescue event will take place in more than 100 cities around the world, according to a press release from the California-based sponsoring organization Invisible Children Inc.

Protesters will voluntarily kidnap themselves to raise awareness about "child soldier" kidnappings taking place in Uganda.

Invisible Children Inc. was born in in the spring of 2003, when three young filmmakers traveled to Africa in search of a story. As their story reads "what started out as a filmmaking adventure transformed into much more when these boys from Southern California discovered a tragedy that disgusted and inspired them, a tragedy where children are both the weapons and the victims."

After returning to the States, they created the documentary "Invisible Children: Rough Cut," a film that exposes the tragic realities of northern Uganda's night commuters and child soldiers.

Homeboy Industries Turns Ex-Gang Members Into Solar Posse

2009-04-21T10:58:00.002-04:00

"We don't want people to think that you have to come out of MIT to be able to install solar power. A well-trained individual can make as good a worker as a lifelong electrician."
-Phillippe Hartley, general manager of a solar installation company, Phat Energy-

How neat is this? As Caitlan Carroll of NPR reports, the organization Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-prevention program in the country, offers a job-training program that takes ex-gang members off the streets and teaches them how to install solar panels.

Listen to the full story at PublicRadio.org.

Activist Artists Document Housing Crisis in Providence

2009-04-10T12:52:00.001-04:00

"We want to take beautiful photos but don’t want to aestheticize a real problem. This is not about urban exploration, lonely chairs, and peeling paint."
-Josh Oakhurst, Forgotten Providence-

Artist Oakhurst, along with artists Sam Holland and Myles Dumas recently launched "Forgotten Providence," an interactive web site where visitors will find images of abandoned homes as well as information telling that home's story: links to property data, user submissions and discussion in the comments, and an open forum to discuss the issues surrounding these abandoned homes. Think of it as crowdsourcing how the American housing crisis has affected one city.

Here is the narrative for the house captured in the image above:

"Over four sales between 2000 and its eventual foreclosure in 2007, the “value” of this duplex rose 500%. No significant repairs were made during that time period.

It’s now boarded, vacant, rotting, and vandalized"

The group intends to engage in more civic engagement. As Oakhurst told Poptech, he hopes to “pursue engagement on a political level; using the expertise learned (in putting together this site) to go after political campaign projects or governmental/municipal interaction displays on screen media, be it the web, mobile, or interactive touch screen displays.”

Check out Forgotton Providence online.

EPA Releases Most Wanted List

2009-04-08T12:09:00.002-04:00

The EPA has just released its list of "fugitives," people who have been charged with violating environmental laws or regulations.

As the New York Times reports, crimes include smuggling ozone-destroying coolants, building a secret pipeline to funnel pollutants into a tributary of the Mississippi River, and dumping contaminated grain into the ocean.

The idea to release a fugitives list was born after the capture, in Mexico in March 2008, of a man, David A. Phillips, who the agency says walked away from a federal prison in Oregon. The list says that Phillips was serving time in connection with a series of offenses that began with violations of the Clean Water Act.

While I applaud the EPA for tracking down environmental criminals, I wonder when more positive policies will be put into place to regulate business and corporations who have likely committed a few environmental crimes of their own. What do you think?

Check out the list here.

Michelle Obama: Fist-Bumping Radical to Mom-in-Chief in One Year

2009-04-06T13:34:00.004-04:00

"A supersmart black woman who's also fashionable and fit -- terrifying."
-Kate Pollitt, The Nation--

Today, Michelle Obama was again the topic of conversation in media outlets globally. Her successful trip abroad and her fantastic style have made the media experience what Pollitt classifies as major whiplash ("from fist-bumping to mom-in-chief"). Though she celebrates Obama's reception as the epitome of the twentieth-century woman, comprised of massive style and equal (I'd argue surpassing) substance, she wonders:

"Still, there's something depressing about the joy and relief with which the high-end media have greeted Michelle's makeover from accomplished professional and outspoken social critic to new-traditionalist homebody. They're not only not ready for Hillary Clinton, they're apparently not even ready for Eleanor Roosevelt."

Read more here and let us know what you think in our new "Comments" section.

Aspen Institute's Initiative on Financial Security

2009-04-03T14:17:00.003-04:00

A colleague recently sent me a publication from the Aspen Institute's Initiative on Financial Security, which "is the nation's leading policy program that uses a business-driven approach to create smart solutions that help Americans save, invest and own."

One of the Institute's publications that seemed worth a read: Why Not a “Super Simple” Saving Plan for the United States? (pdf)

Michael Moore: 'We the People' to 'King of the World': You're Fired!

2009-04-01T13:04:00.001-04:00

As expected, Roger & Me's Michael Moore has a thing or two to say about Obama's firing of GM's head honcho, including this gut reaction: "Did Obama really fire the chairman of General Motors? The wealthiest and most powerful corporation of the 20th century? Can he do that? Really? Well, damn! What else can he do?!"

Read the rest of Moore's piece at Common Dreams.

USCRI Asks You to "Stand With a Refugee"

2009-03-26T13:09:00.003-04:00

USCRI has launched a "Stand with a Refugee" campaign to raise awareness about the 17 million refugees who have fled war and persecution around the world. Their team tells us that "As the Obama Administration plans to implement a new foreign policy, we are trying to build a coalition of informed people who care about refugees and will tell the Administration to pass legislation that protects their human rights."

The video below is part of that effort along with a pledge accessible at their website.

For nearly 100 years the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants has acted to address the needs and rights of persons in forced or voluntary migration worldwide by advancing fair and humane public policy, facilitating and providing direct professional services, and promoting the full participation of migrants in community life.

Echoing Green Launches "Spark Social Change" T-Shirt Contest

2009-03-23T17:57:00.003-04:00

Our friends over at Echoing Green, the organization devoted to scouting and funding new talent in the social entrepreneurship realm, have launched a cool, new t-shirt design contest, using Crowdspring as their platform.

The winning t-shirt will be sold on Echoing Green's website, and the money will go toward supporting their "core programmatic model of identifying and supporting promising social entrepreneurs with bold solutions." Anyone can sign up and anyone can vote.

A panel of fashion-industry expert judges will help award the prize ($250), including Echoing Green supporter Joon Ma, from Louis Vuitton, and 2007 Echoing Green Fellow Adam Bucko of the Reciprocity Foundation.

All entries are due March 31st @ 4pm EST.

Social Change Through Social Media at 2009 SXSW Festival

2009-03-10T17:45:00.005-04:00

Everyone is talking about the SXSW Festival, coming up next week in Austin. It is, after all, the place Twitter launched two years ago, and a Mecca for the digerati.

So how do social justice and SXSW intersect? Here's a look:

Plutopia 2009: Co-founded by Worldchanging and The Futures Lab, Plutopia uses music, art and performance to encourage attendees to imagine an infinite number of possible future utopias. This year's theme is 'Living Systems,' and will feature entertainment from local, national and international performers and speakers from the fields of futurism, technology, sustainability, media and art. Plutopia will take place on Monday, March 16, 2009 from 6 p.m. to midnight at Palmer Events Center in Austin.

Social Media Nonprofit ROI Poetry Slam: Representatives from the National Wildlife Federation, Humane Society, American Cancer Society and others will present five-minute poems or stories about how their organization has successfully implemented a social media strategy experiment and how they considered the ROI. That happens March 14, 2009 at 5 p.m.

Convio Clicks Session: A roundtable discussion about how nonprofit organizations and grassroots activists can embrace new media for fundraising, outreach and empowering supporters. Participating in the panel will be Convio's Vinay Bhagat, leading nonprofit industry bloggers Beth Kanter and Holly Ross, and a former member of Obama's social media strategy team, Scott Goodstein. Takes place March 15 at 4 p.m.

Social Media for Social Good: Hosted by communications powerhouse PorterNovelli, this event will take place on March 16 at 11:30 a.m.

VIDEO: Scenes from the "Climate Justice" Rally in D.C. March 2, 2009

2009-03-04T17:31:00.002-05:00

From afterdowningstreet.org: "A huge and spirited rally demanding 'Climate Justice,' was held in Washington, D.C., on March 2, 2009. This video reflects some of the crowd scenes from that event; interviews with activists Anne Havemann of Chesapeake Climate Action; and Kate Lally of Baltimore's Rising Tide; and a speech from Washington, D.C. Council Member, the Hon. Tom Wells (Ward 6). For background on the rally, click here."

For Citizen Journalists, Digital Tools Give Real-Time Voice

2009-02-25T12:29:00.006-05:00

While I was watching President Obama speak last night, I was struck by the thought that his speech was likely being broadcast on UStream, Twittered about, clips posted to Facebook and the like.

This morning, I came across a great post from the PopTech blog about the use of social media tools by citizen journalists to reports on crises worldwide, including humanitarian ones.

President Obama doesn't have to worry about not getting a camera pointed in his direction -- his speeches inspire thousands, probably millions of tweets. Others worldwide do not have this rapt attention.

Here's how they're getting their voices heard (all information below from PopTech blog, as posted by Kate Brodock, founder of the Other Side Group):

CrisisWire: Officially launched in late Fall 2008, Crisiswire is the brain child of Nate Ritter, who popularized the hashtag on Twitter. During the San Diego fires of 2007, he used #sandiegofire to document his experience and offer on-the-ground updates during the crisis. This combined with Twitter's various search capabilities enabled people in the area to receive pertinent information about what was happening in real-time.

Ushahidi: Meaning ''testimony'' in Swahili, this website was developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. Ushahidi's roots are in the collaboration of Kenyan citizen journalists during a time of crisis. Follow them on Twitter.

DigiActive: This all-volunteer organization is dedicated to helping grassroots activists around the world use the Internet and mobile phones to increase their impact. Their goal is a world of activists made more powerful and more effective through the use of digital technology.

For World's Poor, A Doctor In Your Pocket

2009-02-20T15:08:00.002-05:00

This is the kind of corporate social responsibility that's great to see -- technology answering a pressing social need. Vodafone has teamed up with the United Nations and the Rockerfeller Foundation's mHealth Alliance to connect the use of mobile phones to healthcare in the developing world.

mHealth Alliance uses the technology to provide virtual doctors to those living in rural areas, particularly in India, Uganda and South Africa. Mobile devices allow for:

Sending mobile phone owners updates on diseases via SMS.
Letting health workers in Uganda log data on mobile devices from the field.
In South Africa, the SIMpill is a sensor-equipped pill bottle with a SIM card that informs doctors whether patients are taking their tuberculosis medicine.
In Uganda, a multiple-choice quiz about HIV/AIDS was sent to 15,000 subscribers inviting them to answer questions and seek tests. Those who completed the quiz were given free airtime minutes. At the end of the quiz, a final SMS encouraged participants to go for voluntary testing. The number of people who did so increased from 1000 to 1400 over a 6-week period.
In the Amazonas state of Brazil, health workers filled in surveys on their phones about the incidences of mosquito-borne dengue fever.
In Mexico, a medical hotline called MedicallHome lets patients send medical questions via SMS.

Watch this video to learn more.

You can also read more at ReadWriteWeb.

Twenty-Five Percent

2009-02-19T09:30:00.003-05:00

"Of the 14,400 candidates, 4,000 of them were women. Originally the Iraqi Constitution, responding to the demand of women, called for a 25 percent quota for women. Without explanation, the Electoral Commission interpreted the law to mean that this percentage is not guaranteed. Nevertheless, women stepped forward. Their courage is awe-inspiring."
-Madeleine Kunin-

Kunin, the former governor of Vermont and the author or Pearls, Politics and Power: How Women Can Win and Lead, has a nice editorial with Vermont Public Radio about the recent provincial elections in Iraq.

With the serious threats facing those courageous Iraqi women who choose to live political lives, Kunin wonders: "Why, in comparison, are American women so accepting of the political status quo?" (The percentage of women in the Congress is 17 percent, an all-time high; the U.S. ranks 72nd out of 142 countries in the percentage of women in Parliaments).

She challenges women not only to demand 25 percent representation, but to work themselves to achieve that 25 percent goal, then push it to 50 percent. It's a theme we as women can apply to our own everyday lives: how many women are achieving parity in our everyday environs? How many are taking on leadership roles?

We have to start asking the questions, to get to the tougher work of providing solid answers.

Inside Tehran

2009-02-17T10:15:00.003-05:00

On the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the Wall Street Journal profiles five Iranians and their disparate views on the upcoming presidential election in their country.

All under 36 (more than 70 percent of Iran's 70 million people are), each faces a crossroads. To quote the article, "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hard-line regime has put pressure on young people, particularly student activists, and cracked down on signs of rebellion from clothing to social activism. The price of oil, Iran's economic mainstay, has plummeted. Inflation and unemployment are high."

Click here to read about Alma Bahmanpour, 23, a student; Mostafa Sodoghi, 36, a cleric; Shadi Sadr, 35, a human rights lawyer; and Mahdi Moradani, 22, a shopkeeper; and Mohammad Vojdani, 23, a student.

Green Jobs for Whom?

2009-02-11T12:39:00.007-05:00

Over at In These Times, Christopher Weber explores the development of green jobs and asks such questions as: "Will these jobs be as plentiful--and as worker-friendly--as the new administration and environmentalists would have us believe? And can green businesses really create opportunities for workers given the current economic crisis?"

Good news for Christopher and others in the green-jobs movement: today, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (that would be the other guy John McCain kept referring to as a "socialist" in last year's campaign) was named chairman of the new Senate subcommittee on green jobs.

"We're going to use this subcommittee to do everything we can to create millions of good-paying jobs in the United States as we move forward to a new energy system based on efficiency and sustainable energy," Sanders said Tuesday. "The potential for job growth in this area is bigger than almost anything else I can think of."

You go, Bernie!

P.S. For actual green jobs, check out greenjobs.com.

Twestivals, Tweets for Zimbabwe and Truth Commissions

2009-02-10T09:36:00.002-05:00

If you haven't already succumbed to the addictive micro-blogging site, Twitter, like I have, nor dismissed it as a time and energy wasting medium, you'll be pleased, as I was, to see its founders endorsing it as a platform with democratic aims.

Founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams recently cited the "tweets" that first reported the terrorist attacks in Mumbai as support for Twitter's ability to break news and views from around the world. (In the news this week: Congress may want to add a new rule to its security guidelines for official overseas trips: No twittering from war zones.)

Now, more users are realizing and testing the potential of charity and awareness campaigns launched within Twitter.

On February 12, 2009, 175+ cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals to bring together Twitter communities to raise money and awareness for the organization charity: water. The volunteer-run fundraising meet-ups will connect people who know each other through Twitter to com together to "tweet.meet.give."

Others, including Joe Trippi, are getting in on the social action side of Twitter too. Trippi has a fledgling page through which he hopes "to encourage non-partisan support to bring attention to Zimbabwe." Click here to help him out.

In other news, Senator Patrick Leahy, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, called yesterday for a truth commission to conduct inquiries into legal oversight at the Justice Department and various other decisions about interrogation procedures and other practices. More on that here. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

Should Dean replace Daschle? Facebook says yes, The Nation not so sure

2009-02-04T12:53:00.003-05:00

Now that Tom Daschle and his funny red glasses have been jettisoned from consideration for the Obama administration's Secretary of Health and Human Services position, a logical replacement seems to be the passionate former Vermont governor (and physician) Howard Dean.

In fact, the Facebook group "Appoint Howard Dean to HHS" has, as of this writing, picked up nearly 2500 members in its first day of existence (including yours truly).

However, The Nation's John Nichols, a fan of Dean's, has reservations about the good doctor: namely, that he has historically not been an advocate for a single-payer healthcare system:

"While it certainly makes sense to consider Dean--and while he would be a dramatically better HHS Secretary than Daschle--it also makes sense to consider others, including those who have been stalwarts in the fight for real reform."

Nichols believes that Representatives such as Washington's Jim McDermott and Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin may be more inclined to actualize the dream (at this point, it really does look like a fantasy) of bringing single-payer, universal healthcare to the wealthiest nation on Earth.

Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Jail?

2009-01-28T11:45:00.004-05:00

Should the Obama administration prosecute the Bush administration for violating up to 269 national and international laws (you know little things like torture, wiretapping and "extraordinary rendition")?

Amy Goodman's new article in the San Francisco Chronicle investigates the possibilities and wonders whether Obama's claims of an "open government" will usher in an era of accountability in the executive branch:

"Millions have served time in federal prisons for crimes that fall far short of those attributed to the Bush administration. Some criminals, it seems, are like banks judged too big to fail: too big to jail, too powerful to prosecute... But few would endorse letting muggers, rapists or armed robbers of convenience stores off scot-free. So why the different treatment for those potentially guilty of leading a nation into wars that have killed untold numbers, torture and widespread illegal spying?"