Hey 2009
Give me the strength to stand for the things I believe in
And ask me to practice my philosophy.
Make me more patient and tolerant, so that I'll feel everybody is mine and there will be no quarrels and terror.
Help me in giving up my extras and live more and more simply.
Give me the friends - as I always got – who's hearts are tuned in harmony of the world.
Provide me the vision by which I'll always perceive good in whatever happening and will stand against all disasters than collapsing.
Help me understand, what I feel and think, so that there will be no crisis in relations.
And importantly,
Take me to the worst of natural and inhuman situations – which will be my real space – where I can practice all the good that I thought of. I need to give these examinations.
Hey 2009, I believe in equality, peace, justice and enrichment.
By the time you will pass away make this belief more strong,
Of me and my friends.
Good bye 2008
--Wishes from a phenominal soul, Vinayak (http://ekjajabor-vinayak.blogspot.com/)
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Chronic Hunger
UN says 40 million more pushed into chronic hunger this year
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Tuesday (December 9) that higher food prices have increased the number of people across the globe affected by chronic hunger by 40 million this year, bringing the estimated total to 963 million people. About two-thirds of the world's undernourished live in Asia, with the worst affected countries in that region being India, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan, according to the FAO's State of Food Insecurity report. In addition, one in three people in sub-Saharan Africa remain chronically hungry, the Associated Press (AP) attributed the report as saying. The increase in the number of hungry is mostly attributable to the sharp rise in food prices earlier this year, the FAO said. Although the global prices of major cereals have fallen by more than 50 percent from their peaks earlier this year, they are still high compared to previous years, the AP attributed the agency as saying. Farmers have been unable to increase production to take advantage of the higher prices because they lack access to seeds, fertilizer, water and markets, according to the AP. "This sad reality should not be acceptable at the dawn of the 21st century," the AP quoted FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf as saying. "Not enough has been done to reduce hunger and not enough is being done to prevent more people (from) becoming hungry." The FAO reported that the growing number of chronically hungry casts further doubt on the world's ability to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving global hunger by the year 2015, particularly as the global financial crisis is further reducing demand in industrialized countries, which threatens to affect exporters in developing countries. According to the report, export volumes are expected to grow by 4.9 percent in 2009, compared to a growth of 6.3 percent in 2007. The report noted that some countries, like Thailand and Vietnam, have made substantial progress toward the 2015 goal. But South and Central Asia are among the regions that have suffered significant setbacks in hunger reduction.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=6423774
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MCOT-7M6GUA?OpenDocument
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081209/afp/081209151825top.html
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Tuesday (December 9) that higher food prices have increased the number of people across the globe affected by chronic hunger by 40 million this year, bringing the estimated total to 963 million people. About two-thirds of the world's undernourished live in Asia, with the worst affected countries in that region being India, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan, according to the FAO's State of Food Insecurity report. In addition, one in three people in sub-Saharan Africa remain chronically hungry, the Associated Press (AP) attributed the report as saying. The increase in the number of hungry is mostly attributable to the sharp rise in food prices earlier this year, the FAO said. Although the global prices of major cereals have fallen by more than 50 percent from their peaks earlier this year, they are still high compared to previous years, the AP attributed the agency as saying. Farmers have been unable to increase production to take advantage of the higher prices because they lack access to seeds, fertilizer, water and markets, according to the AP. "This sad reality should not be acceptable at the dawn of the 21st century," the AP quoted FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf as saying. "Not enough has been done to reduce hunger and not enough is being done to prevent more people (from) becoming hungry." The FAO reported that the growing number of chronically hungry casts further doubt on the world's ability to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving global hunger by the year 2015, particularly as the global financial crisis is further reducing demand in industrialized countries, which threatens to affect exporters in developing countries. According to the report, export volumes are expected to grow by 4.9 percent in 2009, compared to a growth of 6.3 percent in 2007. The report noted that some countries, like Thailand and Vietnam, have made substantial progress toward the 2015 goal. But South and Central Asia are among the regions that have suffered significant setbacks in hunger reduction.
http://abcnews.go.com/
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/
Friday, August 15, 2008
New Energy
I have been spending more time in Kalahandi than at the GV Head Office, despite the Head Office being more comfortable. This has been partly due to the level of work in the micro hydro projects and partly due to the tension that fills my heart/mind while at the office. Though, during my last visit to Head Office recently, I discovered that there is a certain new energy that is seemingly planting itself on campus. Some new staff have come this month with a brightness that I pray will only multiply.
GV does amazing work, but it has taken a toll on those that are involved. As we try to help more communities have access to water and sanitation and other sustainable infrastructure, our human resources are increasingly challenged with communication issues, salary woes, and lack of time to meet targets. I had begun to loose hope, seeing/hearing how at levels of human resources, people were more and more unhappy and stressed.
However, this wave of new energy via a few individuals is intriguing and is helping me to be introspective. These newbies are in a good position to be themselves and appreciate the organization. Over the years, I have become only a strong critic and far from myself. I keep seeking perfection in its operations...only much later to realize that I need to take care of my imperfection first. Still, I find it very difficult to focus on myself without being selfish. Since the post Palm and Apple days, my moments have been designed around being involved with efforts that I really believe in, first LEDeG, then Green Empowerment, now Gram Vikas and Practical Action. In this process, I have nearly always prioritized my family and my research secondary to the so-called causes. ...This has caused imbalance that of course I keep ignoring.
I know that my mis-prioritizing will catch up with me sooner or later. Though now instead of being totally hard on myself, I am just watching. Watching myself make decision after decision, without judging. Watching the naunces in my moods; what makes me smile, what makes my cry, how I relate to others. I am only hoping that the non-action intentions create some positive flow that can undo the angst I've built during the last few years; and take advantage of the priceless and simple gifts I've acquired during the same chaotic time, e.g. witnessing the simplest of human needs, Nature's transient care, and such sweet and tangible moments of the Divine's intervention.
GV does amazing work, but it has taken a toll on those that are involved. As we try to help more communities have access to water and sanitation and other sustainable infrastructure, our human resources are increasingly challenged with communication issues, salary woes, and lack of time to meet targets. I had begun to loose hope, seeing/hearing how at levels of human resources, people were more and more unhappy and stressed.
However, this wave of new energy via a few individuals is intriguing and is helping me to be introspective. These newbies are in a good position to be themselves and appreciate the organization. Over the years, I have become only a strong critic and far from myself. I keep seeking perfection in its operations...only much later to realize that I need to take care of my imperfection first. Still, I find it very difficult to focus on myself without being selfish. Since the post Palm and Apple days, my moments have been designed around being involved with efforts that I really believe in, first LEDeG, then Green Empowerment, now Gram Vikas and Practical Action. In this process, I have nearly always prioritized my family and my research secondary to the so-called causes. ...This has caused imbalance that of course I keep ignoring.
I know that my mis-prioritizing will catch up with me sooner or later. Though now instead of being totally hard on myself, I am just watching. Watching myself make decision after decision, without judging. Watching the naunces in my moods; what makes me smile, what makes my cry, how I relate to others. I am only hoping that the non-action intentions create some positive flow that can undo the angst I've built during the last few years; and take advantage of the priceless and simple gifts I've acquired during the same chaotic time, e.g. witnessing the simplest of human needs, Nature's transient care, and such sweet and tangible moments of the Divine's intervention.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Media for Social Change
Since realizing the potential of the youth involved in the micro hydro projects, I have been dreaming about them making their own videos on issues they hold important (and entertaining) and organizing their own showings using the electricity from the micro hydro systems. ....In fact each of the project sites has a fair number of concrete stairs near the powerhouse and open space for a large screen, transforming the space amidst the forest into an outdoor theatre. ....Yes, only dreams at this point.
However, the dream is one step closer having realized the existence of MAM (http://www.mammovies.com/):
MAM: ‘I AM’ is what it means in Sanskrit. To be able to go within through the medium of stories and use our talent for the needs of the world is why we have been created.In practical terms, our effort is to:
-Support and nurture independent filmmakers who use media, the arts and technology to inform, inspire and empower others to create positive action in the world.
-Create innovative events, which will inspire youth to use Media for social change.
-Create a platform for local charities and NGOs to make professional videos for very economical price.
However, the dream is one step closer having realized the existence of MAM (http://www.mammovies.com/):
MAM: ‘I AM’ is what it means in Sanskrit. To be able to go within through the medium of stories and use our talent for the needs of the world is why we have been created.In practical terms, our effort is to:
-Support and nurture independent filmmakers who use media, the arts and technology to inform, inspire and empower others to create positive action in the world.
-Create innovative events, which will inspire youth to use Media for social change.
-Create a platform for local charities and NGOs to make professional videos for very economical price.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
GRID Alternatives
Cool group in CA doing work with renewable energy and communities: http://www.gridalternatives.org/
GRID Alternatives' mission is to empower communities in need by providing renewable energy and energy efficiency services, equipment and training. Since 2001, GRID Alternatives has been working to bring the power of solar electricity and energy efficiency to low-income homeowners, and to provide community members with training and hands-on experience with renewable energy technologies. We believe making energy choices that are good for the environment can go hand-in-hand with improving the lives of those living in low-income communities.
GRID Alternatives works collaboratively with communities and local organizations to identify specific needs and to develop renewable energy solutions that are environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. Our vision of sustainable development centers on community involvement, and our focus and expertise lies in using renewable energy and energy efficiency to provide solutions to the challenges facing low-income individuals and families in the San Francisco Bay Area, Greater Los Angeles and beyond.
GRID Alternatives' mission is to empower communities in need by providing renewable energy and energy efficiency services, equipment and training. Since 2001, GRID Alternatives has been working to bring the power of solar electricity and energy efficiency to low-income homeowners, and to provide community members with training and hands-on experience with renewable energy technologies. We believe making energy choices that are good for the environment can go hand-in-hand with improving the lives of those living in low-income communities.
GRID Alternatives works collaboratively with communities and local organizations to identify specific needs and to develop renewable energy solutions that are environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. Our vision of sustainable development centers on community involvement, and our focus and expertise lies in using renewable energy and energy efficiency to provide solutions to the challenges facing low-income individuals and families in the San Francisco Bay Area, Greater Los Angeles and beyond.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Guess Who?
What do you think of the following excerpt? Can you guess who?
___________________________________________________________________________________
There’s a FINAL dimension to U.S. foreign policy that must be discussed—the portion that has less to do with avoiding war than promoting peace. The year I was born President Kenney stated in his inaugural address: “To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required—not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.” Forty-five years later that mass misery still exists. If we are to fulfill Kennedy’s promise—and serve our long-term security interests—then we will have to go beyond a more prudent use of military force. We will have to align our policies to help reduce the sphere of insecurity, poverty, and violence around the world, and give more people a stake in the global order that has served us so well.”
Of course, there are those who would argue with my starting premise—that any global system built in America’s image can alleviate misery in poorer countries. For these critics, America’s notion of what the international system should be—free trade, open markets, the unfettered flow of information, the rule of law, democratic elections, and the like—is simply an expression of American imperialism, designed to exploit the cheap labor and natural resources of other countries and infect non-Western cultures with decadent beliefs. Rather than conform to America’s rules, the argument goes, other countries should resist America’s efforts to expand its hegemony; instead, they should follow their own path to development, taking their lead from left-leaning populists like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, or turning to more traditional principles of social organization, like Islamic law.
I don’t dismiss these critics out of hand. America and its Western partners did design the current international system, after all; it is our way of doing things—our accounting standards, our language, our dollar, our copyright laws, our technology, and our popular culture—to which the world has had to adapt over the past fifty years. If overall the international system ahs produced great prosperity in the world’s developed countries, it has also left many people behind—a fact that Western policy makers have often ignored and occasionally made worse.
Ultimately, though, I believe critics are wrong to think that the world’s poor will benefit by rejecting the ideals of free markets and liberal democracy. When human rights activists from various countries come to by office and talk about being jailed or tortured for their beliefs, they are not acting as agents of American power. When my cousin in Kenya complains that it’s impossible to find work unless he’s paid a bribe to some official in the ruling party, he hasn’t been brainwashed by Western ideas. Who doubts that , if given the choice, most of the people in North Korea would prefer livening South Korea, or that many in Cuba wouldn’t mind giving Miami a try?
No person, in any culture, likes to be bullied. No person likes living in fear because his or her ideas are different. Nobody likes being poor or hungry, and nobody likes to live under an economic system in which the fruits of his or her labor go perpetually unrewarded. The system of free markets and liberal democracy that now characterizes most of the developed world may be flawed; it may all too often reflect the interests of the powerful over the powerless. But that system is constantly subject to change and improvement—and it is precisely in this openness to change that market-based liberal democracies offer people around the world their best chance at a better life.
Our challenge, then, is to make sure that U.S. policies move the international system in the direction of great equity, justice, and prosperity—that the rules we promote serve both our interests and the interests of a struggling world. In doing so, we might keep a few basic principles in mind. First, we should be skeptical of those who believe we can single-handedly liberate other people from tyranny. I agree with George W. Bush when in his second inaugural address he proclaimed a universal desire to be free. But there a few examples in history in which the freedom men and women crave is delivered through outside intervention. In almost every successful social movement of the last century, from Gandhi’s campaign against British rule to the Solidarity movement in Poland to the antiapartheid movement in South Africa, democracy was the result of a local awakening.
We can inspire and invite other people to assert their freedoms; we can use international forums and agreements to set standards for others to follow; we can provide funding to fledgling democracies to help institutionalize fair election systems, train independent journalists, and seed the habits of civic participation; we can speak out on behalf of local leaders whose rights are violated; and we can apply economic and diplomatic pressure to those who repeatedly violate the rights of their own people.
But when we seek to impose democracy with the barrel of a gun, funnel money to parties whose economic policies are deemed friendlier to Washington, or fall under the sway of exiles like Chalabi whose ambitions aren’t matched by any discernible local support, we aren’t just setting ourselves for failure. We are helping oppressive regimes paint democratic activists as tools of foreign powers and retarding the possibility that genuine, homegrown democracy will ever emerge.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Rural Youth
With every field visit, I realize that the greatest opportunities for improving life in poor rural communities are in the hands and hearts of the rural youth. If the strengths of rural youth are tapped, harnessed, and enhanced, wonders in rural infrastructure, social tensions, and plain happiness can manifest into present and future generations. Here are some images and contemplations:
A young boy from Lineguda gets creative with left over house wiring materials.
A young boy from Lineguda gets creative with left over house wiring materials.
Padme Dewa, from REDCO, teaching the Purna Guma youth how to install insulators.
This is Hira on the right looking at Padme Dewa's sketches. Hira has extraordinary strengths in making things happen, IF he really wants them to happen. He was the one that led the brick-making efforts, while everyone else (mostly the oldsters) wanted GV to buy from the outside. Thanks to Hira's leadership, Purna Guma's youth self-help group fund has gone up by Rs. 7000. GV bought the bricks for the powerhouse from the youth.
Here is Hira again, one of the 3 three that had been on the poles, installing cables on a day that turned out to pour.
Despite the rain, Hira and the others did not want to stop until the line was finished.
My last time in Purna Guma, a couple of days ago, has me in waves about Hira. The last time we visited was Padme Dewa's last day in the village for a while and Pobitro Dada's (the guy building the turbine assembly in town) first day. P. Dada has been wanting to go to PG for the longest time. He has become passionate about the project. Finally we took him. ....However, the visit was a bit sour. When we drove into PG that day, Hira and the rest had been installing more
poles.
The same day was the closing ceremony of the famous Rath Yatra festival. Someone joked that they had never attended but this year Gram Vikas would take us to Karlapat to attend the festival. Hira said we'll be ready. You take us. I took it as a joke. As we were leaving the village, I saw that Hira was waiting for us, all bathed and dressed to go to the festival. GV has a policy of not using its vehicles for anything other than work. I also did not want to start any prohibited habit...although I am guilty of taking women and children in our vehicle if they need to visit the hospital and if our vehicle is going to B.Patna regardless. In the case of taking village boys to attend the Karlapat Rath Yatra, Hira put me on the spot. He went to the point of saying, "If you don't take us, don't expect anymore work from us." While this was supposed to be a special visit for Padme Dewa and Pobitro Dada, Hira's ultimatum chased away the warm and fuzy feelings. In the end, I tried to explain that I did not have the authority to use the vehicle for pleasure and that our guests had not had lunch when it was already 4p. (Not having meals on time is a recipe for malaria.) We did not take them...and I left Hira quite disappointed. It is Hira's stuborness that I have admired in the project, as well as the element that put me on the spot. I want to approach it with love and openess. ...Unfortunately, I cannot return to Purna Guma for another few days....I am wondering whether I should go hang out with him first, feel out his mood and attitude about continuing with micro hydro. Or should i simply ignore the his disappointment. I feel that my taking villagers every now and then in the vehicle set the scene for the Hira incident. Likewise, my reaction to Hira's changed mood will set the scene for the next "situation".
Rashmi-- in the orange, Hira's friend, and a respected school teacher--has been the lead youth in helping to organize and mobilize the community to implement Purna Guma without GV staff. As I left the village last time, I mentioned the Hira incident. He said, "Don't worry so much."
poles.
The same day was the closing ceremony of the famous Rath Yatra festival. Someone joked that they had never attended but this year Gram Vikas would take us to Karlapat to attend the festival. Hira said we'll be ready. You take us. I took it as a joke. As we were leaving the village, I saw that Hira was waiting for us, all bathed and dressed to go to the festival. GV has a policy of not using its vehicles for anything other than work. I also did not want to start any prohibited habit...although I am guilty of taking women and children in our vehicle if they need to visit the hospital and if our vehicle is going to B.Patna regardless. In the case of taking village boys to attend the Karlapat Rath Yatra, Hira put me on the spot. He went to the point of saying, "If you don't take us, don't expect anymore work from us." While this was supposed to be a special visit for Padme Dewa and Pobitro Dada, Hira's ultimatum chased away the warm and fuzy feelings. In the end, I tried to explain that I did not have the authority to use the vehicle for pleasure and that our guests had not had lunch when it was already 4p. (Not having meals on time is a recipe for malaria.) We did not take them...and I left Hira quite disappointed. It is Hira's stuborness that I have admired in the project, as well as the element that put me on the spot. I want to approach it with love and openess. ...Unfortunately, I cannot return to Purna Guma for another few days....I am wondering whether I should go hang out with him first, feel out his mood and attitude about continuing with micro hydro. Or should i simply ignore the his disappointment. I feel that my taking villagers every now and then in the vehicle set the scene for the Hira incident. Likewise, my reaction to Hira's changed mood will set the scene for the next "situation".
Rashmi-- in the orange, Hira's friend, and a respected school teacher--has been the lead youth in helping to organize and mobilize the community to implement Purna Guma without GV staff. As I left the village last time, I mentioned the Hira incident. He said, "Don't worry so much."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)