Hello, friends! Liz here. HumanKind Media is about to go to Kenya. I'm landing there tomorrow morning, right smack in the middle of Nairobi. I'll be there a week, meeting up with nonprofits like the Green Belt Movement, and talking to students and journalists about how they use the Web for global connection and communication.
I brought with me a laptop from One Laptop Per Child, and I have to admit, I'm struggling to learn how to use it! I think it's because I'm not a kid ;) It seems like one of those things that would be intuitive for a child to use, but for a thirtysomething ... Let's just say that now I know how my parents felt about setting the clock on their VCR.
After a few days in Nairobi, I'm moving on to a rural village in western Tanzania, where I'll be volunteering with Project Zawadi, a nonprofit founded by a former Peace Corps volunteer, Brian Singer. Project Zawadi raises money to put kids through school. It pays for tuition, uniforms, notebooks, and pens and pencils. I'm going to help distribute school supplies and pitch in on other projects, some through the local NGO, Zinduka, which was founded by residents of the rural village of Nyamuswa. (They're amazing -- they raise money in their own communities for local projects.) Project Zawadi reminds me a lot of Camfed -- both organizations commit to supporting a student as far as they want to go in school, even to university and beyond. A kid can start envisioning and planning an ambitious future with support like that! Speaking of Camfed, I'm hoping to meet with some of their students and alumni, too, since they operate in Tanzania.
That's enough for now -- except for one small detail: Remember way back to our first HumanKind Media challenge, when we all raised a bunch of money to buy bed nets, thanks in part to a matching donation from a Midwestern entrepreneur named Paul? Well, Paul's traveling with me! Wish us luck. We're thinking of you. And if you have any questions you'd like answered while we're here, let us know and we'll do our best.
After my uncharacteristic political binge over the past few months, I've been going through a week of elated recovery, enjoying all the news (well, except some of the obvious poisons like talk-radio and Fox). It seems my adverse reaction to the media (which was the whole impetus for starting HumanKind Media) has dissipated. Now, (it's only taken a couple of years) I realize that my search for hope and possibility media, was really a search for hope and possibility, period.
Things have changed. Now, hope and possibility IS (are) the story du jour (or, hopefully, des toujours--all our days).
For me, the most amazing part of the US election was the use of the media, particularly the internet, to galvanize, energize, and connect people toward a common goal in a way that hasn't been seen since the 60's. Many of us felt so galvanized and energized that we're now looking for something to do with all that galvanization and energy.
My new president even put up a websitealready where I can provide ideas, sign up to help, and eventually provide input to my government. People all over the internet, my media, are engaged and inspiring others to engage. (Check out this DailyKos diarist's lessons on the constitution). I'm jazzed. I'm starting to think of ways I can contribute that I never imagined before.
I decided my post-election post would be a "Yes we can" motivational piece, but the day after the election, Linda Bergthold, in the Huffington Post wrote this piece, and a day later Liz, my favorite accomplice, wrote this wonderful essay (below). So, yeah, I meant to say that...but they said it better (and faster).
So, I'll just say this about the mole attack. Yesterday--a beautiful, warm fall day in California--I finally approached my ravaged garden where the mole had had a free-for-all. Plants were uprooted, holes were everywhere, and though we had dis-invited the mole, the place was still a shambles. Once I got started, with my hands in the earth, a few packs of ground cover and some hardy annuals to spread around, I had transformed the devastation to something prettier than it was before, and possibly more easy to sustain in the future. Now, I feel better prepared to prevent moles in the future, and also infinitely satisfied at creating something beautiful out of a mess.
Those few hours of work in the garden made me realize that, though I would have preferred that the past 8 years had not unfolded as they did in the US and the world, I truly believe that we'll see how the devastation and the mess created possibilities we couldn't have envisioned otherwise.
These are the stories I'm looking forward to writing about.
Here's Liz:
The 5% possibility shift Obama gave us
On election night, I was in a packed concert hall in Brooklyn, every single one of us nervous and excited, watching a gigantic screen tuned to CNN. When the polls closed on the West Coast, and CNN flashed the words "Barack Obama elected president," the room just exploded. Tupac's "California Love" blasted from the speakers, twenty-somethings jumped on stage and danced like crazy in front of a screenful of talking heads, and the rest of us jumped up and down shouting in absolute jubilation.
Then CNN went live to people celebrating in the streets in Times Square, Harlem, Chicago, Kenya, Berlin -- literally, we were all celebrating together.
During Obama's acceptance speech, I wiped tears off my cheeks, but they kept coming.
Over the next few days, I heard friends and media asking, Okay, so what happens next? What's Obama going to do for us now that we've elected him? What if he doesn't live up to all his promises?
I see it a little differently: We have a huge promise to live up to. Obama inspired a huge shift in what's possible. He did what we're always talking about here at HumanKind: He talked so much about hope and connection and possibility that almost everyone who heard him started believing in it, and then we all started living like we believe it. And then in the ultimate show of commitment, we elected him president. Not a day goes by now that I don't hear someone saying, with a smile or a laugh, "Yes, we can."
By electing Obama, WE made a promise.
While we all have high expectations of Obama, we now also have much higher expectations of ourselves. It's scary to think Obama might falter, or might disappoint us in some way. But I think what's really scaring us is the fear that we might falter in our own promise, in our commitment to hope and change.
We're human. We probably will falter. But we will get up faster and with more optimism than ever. That's a change Obama has given us already. And from now on it's not about what he'll do for us next -- it's about what we will do with all the hope and confidence and joy he inspired in us.
I should have posted a "Gone Fishing Political" sign on the blog for this past month. Though I have a queue of wonderful "heal the world" stories and a cool interview in my in-basket, I confess I can't concentrate on anything but the upcoming US election.
My big "what if" for the world has always included an assumption that once this election rolled around (way back before I even knew who the candidates would be) that we Americans would find our way to operating from hope instead of fear; and, we would turn our eyes towards possibilities for the future and not cling to outdated ideologies and divisions that distract us from being united states and better global citizens.
Even though I got the blues occasionally from the divisive, polarized rhetoric, mostly I have been enthralled and thrilled at what we the people are up to via my favorite media facilitator, the World Wide Web. I have become increasingly interested in, as Webster puts it, "politics: the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy."
In the past 4-6 years we have become a nation of activists, bloggers, and citizen journalists--informed, engaged citizens not so eager to gulp down the 5-second sound bites of a consolidated media.
We, the people, have access (just take a look at the sheer volume of links on Alltop) like we've never had access before--access to all the candidates policies and speeches online, our own poll analysts, our own Voter Protection Wiki, fact-checkers, YouTube, and more free and independent eyes and ears on the ground than the soundbite people at Fox or MSNBC (or insert your broadcast media of choice here) could ever hope to pay for.
I am not undecided. I am definitely voting for "that one", the hope and possibility guy. But, I honor everyone's right to disagree, to have their own strong opinions and I don't want it to divide us. I love the recent issue of Yes Magazine, where they look at the many more things we Americans have in common than the issues we think separate us. I highly recommend their Purple Nation edition here.
In one of my all-time favorite Charlie Rose segments, Craig Newmark (Craigslist) describes the possibilities that our on-line virtual communities give to "embolden" the moderates (commonly known as the majority) and diminish the sway of the minority of extremists. (Starts around ll:30.)
During this election cycle it has been thrilling to watch the potential he describes play out as Republicans, Democrats, Independents, pundits and philanthropists and millions of us regular people participate in that 200+-year old experiment in democracy.
If you're one our US citizen readers, please vote. Read Yes Magazine's 12 Ways to Safeguard Your Vote. And, for fun and inspiration, here are two of my favorite recent You-Tube Get-Out-The-Vote videos. If you're one of our international readers, wish us well.
Today, October 15, is Blog Action Day where the bloggers of the world promote a theme for action--this year it's poverty, the creative resolution of which is my most favorite blogging topic. In fact, changemakers in the ending poverty and disease arena, such as Paul Farmer and Jeffrey Sachs, were the original inspiration for my little blog about healing the world. I thought if they and Bono could get governments and people around the globe to imagine and begin the work to end extreme poverty by 2015, well, we humans could probably tackle anything. Over the past year, I've delved into poverty from many angles (scroll the whole list here), but always come back to Millennium Promise and The One Campaign as the most shining examples of what's possible, to inspire, organize, move to action, and achieve results.
I'm embarrassed to say I have still been struggling to understand this whole economic crisis in its entirety (and I'm an MBA). I couldn't read enough to make sense of the bailout of large financial institutions when people were losing their homes, so I thought all would be explained when I attended a lecture by Newt Gingrich and Robert Reisch, each touted by their parties as economic experts. Though the lecture was fascinating and they were both profoundly thoughtful and intelligent, I came away worried that all of the solutions and thoughts they had about the crisis were still based upon what I see as a flawed assumption: continued growth of the economy...ad infinitum.
Simply put, when you look at any sustainable system diagram, the arrows go in a circle; when you look at how we talk about our economy, the arrows always want to point up and off the chart. I couldn't reconcile what I knew from my series exploring sustainability and what I recently learned about our global footprint with how the "experts" were talking about the economy.
After the lecture I came back and decided I would keep searching to try to find something that reconciles this question for me. Then I remembered that little money movie someone had sent me last week to watch that I had forgotten.
Canadian Paul Grignon captures in his simple story-telling what he says he learned in high school: "We were studying logarithmic functions such as interest and it struck me that a money system in which money accrues interest at every turn could only function with exponential growth of the money supply." His film, Money As Debt, is to this question of building a sustainable economy as the Story of Stuff is to the question of consumption of our resources. I hope this film makes it around the world twice or more. I can't believe how much I did not understand about our system of money.
Though its longer than most films, I encourage you to watch--it's worth every minute. If you don't know the history of money and banking, or can't imagine how we'll get to the place where there is more equity in who has and who has not, take a look at Money as Debt. And, share it.
One of my favorite places to visit every once in awhile for inspiring videos is the Global Oneness Project. Yesterday I found so much, I just have to invite you to visit, too. Amazingly, as I was looking for this original post we did on them last year, I realized that it was almost exactly a year ago that I found them.
The Global Oneness Project mission is simply to create short films and interviews from around the world to explore how we are all connected. To that end, they offer their amazing videos free for downloading or you can order a free DVD for use in screenings for your neighborhood, your communities, your friends. I'd recommend a favorite video, but now I have too many to mention them all. Click here and watch for awhile. You'll see what I mean.
Election media in the US seems a frenzy to me, but I might be over-sensitive. Last week I noticed the headlines have me spinning. The e-mails are flying. Friends, people I've never met--women and men, we're all abuzz and (sigh) divided on what the mainstream media calls the "gender" or the "race" issues. Personally, for me, the problem is the "issue" issue. I worry that many people are listening to headlines and trivial "bytes" instead of researching the issues. Personally, I'm looking for inspiration and leadership on the issues that we global citizens face.
You may not have heard of Sylvia Earle, but I think she's doing more for our children's grandchildren than many political candidates have even considered. Recently, I heard the oceanographer, explorer, grandmother, and now National Geographic's Explorer in Residence speak about her life's work-- exploring, learning about, and teaching about the ocean. She told the story of how she grew up just before scuba diving, became one of the world first "aquanauts", and talked a little about why we should all go get in the ocean or go to the nearest ocean science (aquarium) institution as soon as we can--and take a kid with us, even if we have to borrow one, she says.
With quiet ease and strong conviction she talked about the ocean--what it does for us, what we're doing to it, and what each of us could do to halt the devastating effects man is having on the blue part of the big blue and green planet.
Until I heard Sylvia speak, I had naively failed to connect the ocean's fate with the fate of humans and the other life forms that depend on the oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange. I didn't understand the magnitude of the problems facing the "big green engine" (the video will explain this) inside the ocean. I didn't see the vastly declining fish population as a threat to my survival. I didn't understand that the acidification of the ocean affects the whole system, the very system that makes it possible for humans and other species to breathe the atmosphere. It's what makes the earth habitable, and if it's not working...Well, let's just say hearing her speak was an eye-opener for me. (Check out the video below to see what I mean.)
In spite of the fact that Sylvia has watched the decline of the ocean in her 40+ years as an oceanographer, she had much to say about what's possible. From protection and our Marine Sanctuaries to education you'll find her hand in nearly every organization and effort to save the ocean. She says we have 10 years to turn it around, and she's doing everything she can to make it happen.
Since Sylvia, there's been a quiet revolution in me. I'm not randomly purchasing or ordering fish without checking the Seafood Watch Guide . Now that I've been reminded of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and nurdles, I can no longer let a plastic bag drift across a parking lot or a bottle cap lay on the ground, because I know they'll find their way through the storm drains to the largest "landfill", the ocean. (Sylvia told a story of a recent beached whale autopsy that discovered 400+ pounds of plastic in the whale.)
Also, though I frequently feel saddened and hopeless by the biting divisiveness of the election process and lack of focus on the issues, Sylvia reminds me that history's greatest advancements for the human race rarely have come from the politicians. They come from the Sylvia Earles, Jeffrey Sachs, and Paul Farmers of the world, and the millions of regular people who have found a way to work effectively on the parts of the world they want to heal--inspiring us each to get involved, influencing politicians, creating a better world through their actions.
If you're having your own bout of hypersensitivity to the headlines and soundbytes, try this: Pick something you care about and find its "Sylvia Earle" to swim with--an impassioned, knowledgeable human who's doing their best to make a change and who inspires the best part of you to help. You can find some here at the Academy of Achievement, or here at TED, or just google your subject and look for someone to inspire you to change the part of the world you care about most.
If you're like my husband and LOVE the political circus, enjoy! It looks like it's going to be a wild ride. I recommend tuning out the bytes--go to the candidates pages and read the details on the issues, but stay out of the "us versus them" frenzy if you can. I don't think it's good for us. I long for the day we're all looking at possibilities instead of problems when we go through this process. If you'd like to take more of a global citizen stance in this election, check out One.org and see what they're up to with all the candidates for the US election for some perspective.
If you'd really like to learn more about Sylvia and her crusade to save our oceans, click on the links above, or check out her links here.
Way back in March, for World Water Day, we wrote this post about Scott Harrison, founder of Charity:Water, and his dream to build wells around the world to provide clean drinking water for those who still go without. His Tap Project and many other events are an amazing example of how someone tackles "the impossible".
But, he hasn't stopped with World Water Day. Using his birthday (and the anniversary of his founding of Charity: Water) as a fabulous excuse for a new campaign, he provided a well for a hospital in Kenya last year with gifts from 90 friends. Today, on his 33rd birthday, he drilled a well in Ethiopia , the first of the 333 he hopes to drill (it's his 33rd birthday). More here!
Kudos to Cammi Walker, Founder of the 29-Day Giving Challenge, who invited all of her fellow Challenge givers to contribute to Charity: Water for her Dad's September birthday. How could anyone turn down such a triple whammy way to give: safe drinking water for people who don't have it, a Dad, and the Giving Challenge all at once? I signed up. Then, I sent the links to my college son who's birthday is in September (and he may be receiving a gift receipt for a donation, also). You can donate through the 29-Gifts site here or at Charity: Water, here.
If you are a September birthday, or know someone who is, here's a chance to celebrate with Scott:
Today I'm celebrating the first year anniversary of HumanKind Media. In the blogging world, HumanKind is just an infant. Hard to believe so much can happen in a year, though. The prospect of many more years of telling stories about people who are creating possibilities for healing the world is exciting and daunting when I look back over what's happened from this little blogging venture in just a year.
Liz and I started with this post and plea for help ending poverty, and within weeks we had many donations to Malaria No More and had found our matching donor, a mosquito abatement philanthropist from Kansas City who went beyond matching our donations from readers (we still love you, Paul). If you want to help me celebrate, buy a net to help end poverty.
After about 6 months, and our appearance as a TypePad Featured site, Liz, who had propped me up at the beginning, gently sent me off on my own so she could pursue her writing career and her life (but has promised to return once in awhile for a post or two).
Though it's been a whole year, it feels like I'm just getting started. The word for this next year is COLLABORATE. HumanKind media is one of many Changebloggers, blogs about social change (healing the world), and we can hope to see lots of new ideas, collaborations, and hopefully guest writers from some of our favorite old friends and new old friends in the coming year. Good news for good media.
Also, I hope you, wonderful readers, will help by forwarding cool links and articles you find, giving a heads-up on people you know who are starting out with new projects, or just sharing the possibilities you've uncovered or are wondering about. And, if you or someone you know would like to try their hand at writing some HumanKind Media blogs, I'd love to add some new voices. Help me fill year #2 with amazing media for possibility.
For today's post I thought I'd make a "favorites" list, but the truth is I couldn't decide amongst all the people we talked to, videos we found, or amazing organizations who astonished us. As I've wound my way through the world of ending poverty, the connection between helping women and ending poverty, peace and connection, creating a sustainable future, and the possibilities for media contributing to change, I have met some of the most amazing, creative people (see the partial "amazing" blog scroll here) I could ever imagine.
I have noticed over the years that when a client takes on an issue or a project in their lives, though they usually think they're working on it, often, it's working on them. HumanKind Media, my little project to change the media to change the world, has been working on me. I have changed my priorities, my understanding of what's important to me, my habits, my appreciation for the difficulties that people face when they take a stand or a step, and a realization of the rewards that come from working on something you care about and giving what you can.
I am not where I was when I started by any measure, and I hope, if you're a regular reader, you've also discovered that changing your media diet, even just a little, changes how you see yourself and the world.
Here's to more years and more possibilities! Thanks for reading! Sorry for giving you a rerun, but Matt best explains how I feel today. Seriously, take a few minutes on me, even if you watched it before--it just gets better the more you view it. Celebrate with me!
Today is Blog Day 2008 where bloggers around the world share new and diverse blogs they read and like. That means you and I have access to a huge list of cool blogs to explore over the next few months. I can hardly wait.
Many of my favorite "humankind-like" blogs are posted in the sidebars. I'm thrilled to have an excuse to share some of my other favorites:
37 Days - A "must bookmark" for media about possibilities and for every other reason. I could go on about this one, but that would keep you from clicking here.
French Word A Day - an Arizona girl marries a Frenchman and blogs her days in the vineyard with two kids and a husband. Combining wry humor, heartwarming love of a family and nature, and beautiful photographs, this site never fails to touch and entertain me.
Smith Magazine - Because I love stories and their power to change and heal, I'm fascinated by the Smith Magazine projects in "a home for story-telling with a focus on personal narrative." Sometimes on good and bad days, it's fun for the wanna-be-writer in me to see if I can distill what's going on into 6 words. Take a look at some of these.
TED Blog - A daily serving from the feast that is TED, the Technology Entertainment and Design talks, that have gathered the greatest minds around the world since the 1980's. Inspiring, educational, informative, and world-changing. So many great things have come from TED, I invite you to discover your own delights.
Digi-Dave and Spot.Us - When I went to "journalism camp" this year to learn more about the media, I met a younger man who offered to show me how to get set up on twitter. Later, as I learned more about new media, new trends in journalism, and the possibilities for the future, I learned that the "young man" was actually a seasoned journalist (Wired magazine, Seed Magazine, and the NYT) and a trailblazer in journalism. Already "branded" and established at the junction of technology and journalism, Digi-Dave, as he is known in the world of social and on-line media, now has received a grant from the Knight foundation and lots of good press about his new project for funding relevant, local, quality journalism for the public by the public. I read Dave's blog (and his twitters) regularly and have hope for the future of media. If you're interested in the changing media and its influence on our lives, follow Dave.
I can't make a list of blogs without mentioning the very first blogger I ever "met", Ze Frank. I found his blog on the last day of the "Show" which is 365 days of video hilarity by one of the quirkiest and most creative minds you'll ever meet. Perusing his most recent posts I read about the week he took over two people's MySpace accounts (with their permission) and also got to see this great video (he's a magnet for this cool stuff) of stop-motion spaghetti. There are literally years of genius and kookiness to explore here. Enjoy.
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