Include Darfur in Your Thanksgiving
November 21st, 2006
Save Darfur is inviting you to include the people of Darfur in your Thanksgiving celebration this year.
In just five minutes at your dinner table, you can make a short announcement about the crisis in Darfur and ask your guests to sign a petition to send to President Bush and the UN Secretary-General.
Why is this important?
Darfur, a region in Western Sudan, is home to the first genocide of the 21st century. In February of 2003, government-sponsored militias began a systematic process of killing, raping, and torturing innocent civilians.
To date over 400,000 people have died and over 2.5 million have been displaced from their homes. Currently, there are approximately 3.5 million men, women and children in the western Darfur region of Sudan trying to survive the Sudanese government-sponsored campaign of violence and forced starvation.
Even faster than the paper version, you can pop up your laptop and ask your guests to sign the online petition. Changes will happen only when the American people decide to make it a priority. Speak out for the defenseless this Thanksgiving.
Voice of the Orphan
November 21st, 2006
In my more cynical moments, it seems like adopted orphans are becoming this year’s hottest new fashion accessory. But the truth is that problem of orphaned children is bigger than Madonna, Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie can fix on their own.
The United Nations estimates the number of orphans at 143 million worldwide. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, 34 million children were orphans in 2001; that number is expected to top 42 million by 2010. One-third of those children will be orphaned by AIDS. Source
In an effort to mobilize ordinary people to address the growing problem, Family Life, Focus on the Family and Shaohannah’s Hope are leading a nationwide campaign of over 50 orphan care ministries and adoption agencies, called Voice of the Orphan.
How can you help? Voice of the Orphan lists a variety of ways that you and your family can get involved. From small efforts, like simply supporting a foster family in your neighborhood, to larger gestures, like sponsoring an orphanage, there are lots of ways for you to make a difference.
According to the Child Welfare Information Gateway, more than one-third of Americans have seriously considered adopting, but no more than 2% have actually adopted. Perhaps as you get ready to share the blessings of Thanksgiving with your family this year, you might consider whether your family has room for just one more?
City of Belmont Bans Smoking
November 20th, 2006
Smoking isn’t as cool as it used to be. It’s so uncool in Belmont, California, in fact, that the city is preparing to do away with it altogether.
The San Mateo County Daily Journal reports,
Belmont is set to make history by becoming the first city in the nation to ban smoking on its streets and almost everywhere else.
The Belmont City Council voted unanimously last night to pursue a strict law that will prohibit smoking anywhere in the city except for single-family detached residences. Smoking on the street, in a park and even in one’s car will become illegal and police would have the option of handing out tickets if they catch someone.
I can’t imagine this kind of law passing in New York, but maybe Belmont is a good start?
Dr. Yunus on the Daily Show
November 19th, 2006
In case you missed it, Dr. Mohammad Yunus appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart last week. Watch the interview on You Tube.
Dr. Yunus is a Bangladeshi banker and economist, the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, a pioneer of microfinance and the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Jon’s interview is short, but I think it’s great that he’s highlighting the microfinance revolution on such a mainstream media program.
For more information on the ins and outs of microfinance, check out Stan and Sophie Beraznik’s blog as they travel through India exploring microfinance institutions at work.
Fast Food Nation
November 19th, 2006
“Fast Food Nation” opened on November 17th as the big screen version of the best selling Eric Schlosser’s expose on the fast food industry. My advice? Skip it just like the fast food it reviles.
The movie attempts to turn us against the “machine” of the fast food industry by giving the audience an inside look at the gritty lives of the people involved in its production: the exploited illegal workers who process the beef, the smarmy corporate executives tasked with its marketing, the noble farmers exploited by the meatpacking industry, the pimply teenagers lured with the promise of dead end jobs.
But in the process of fictionalizing the non-fiction Schlossberg book, the film takes what could have been an impactful documentary, a la “Farenheit 9/11″ or “Super Size Me”, and creates instead nothing more than a collection of disjointed stories and stilted dialogue.
Hard core sex and drug scenes are disturbing and completely superfluous. The characters’ personal foibles leave us with almost no one to root for. The revelation that bovine feces and teenage spitballs end up in our burgers is disgusting, but doesn’t seem particularly shocking, and in all likelihood, the audience drawn to this kind of film doesn’t eat fast food anyway. The woman sitting next to me in gypsy peasant skirt and Birkenstocks made that point fairly obvious.
The fast food industry, like much of the industry in this country, obviously depends on illegal immigrant labor, and that is indeed an issue that should be discussed in greater detail in the national dialogue. There is also a lack of good jobs at the lower end of the economy, and that problem should be studied as well. And of course no one wants unhealthy meat to be served to them in any kind of restaurant. But at the end of the day, this movie misses the mark by failing to highlight these important issues in a meaningful way and leaves you instead with a lot of disturbing images that you probably didn’t want to see.
I confess that I haven’t read Mr. Schlosser’s book, but if you have an interest in the ugly underbelly of the fast food industry, I wouldn’t wait for the movie.