A feeding ground for inspiration and innovation that is working to precipitate change......
Quote of the day
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.” ~ Chief Seattle
Being able to laugh at ourselves and the stereotypes we create in our head....
I have been enjoying the song, "ONE DAY", by Matisyahu since it was continuously played during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa last summer. The chorus gets stuck in my head all the time:
"All my life I've been waiting for, I've been praying for, for the people to say, that we don't want to fight no more, there'll be no more wars, and our children will play....someday, someday, someday...."
This song is very reminiscent for me of a Reggae/Hawaiian Singer, named Fiji, that I listen to occasionally, and actually met on one random occasion while living in Hawaii. I'd never looked into who Matisyahu was, what his story was, where he came from. But from the easy reggae beats, the melodic harmonizing, the "exotic" sounding name, I always figured he was a Black African who had possibly experienced trauma in war in some far off African country, and had some tragic story centered in perseverance that brought him to the United States. And now he's spreading his mission of love and hope through a successful music career. la, la, la....another Emmanuel Jal or Knaan.
Nope.....Today I discovered that Matisyahu is not Black, not African. He's White.
He's white, and he's an American Hasidic Jew. That's right, folks. Hasidic Jew. From New York. He was born Matthew Paul Miller, but is better known as Matisyahu, his Hebrew name. He is a reggae musician, who has had the privilege to work with well known reggae producers Sly and Robbie.
This is all well and good, and maybe many of you are already aware of who this person is, but for me it was an AHA moment about the stories I create in my head, the assumptions I make. And I had to laugh at myself and recognize that we all make our own conclusions before learning the facts and becoming informed.....
I don't appreciate Matisyahu any less, quite the contrary. But I am reminded that people are very complex. And that no one fits into a box, a label, a preconceived idea of what they are "supposed to be". On the flip side, we often try to label ourselves, or put ourselves into one box or another, and by doing so we're just stifling our truest, complex, versatile and malleable selves.
Fiorenzo Omenetto shares 20+ astonishing new uses for silk, one of nature's most elegant materials -- in transmitting light, improving sustainability, adding strength and making medical leaps and bounds. On stage, he shows a few intriguing items made of the versatile stuff.
Imagine...coffee cups, nuts and bolts, tissue for the human body...ALL made of SILK.
Fiorenzo G. Omenetto's research spans nonlinear optics, nanostructured materials (such as photonic crystals and photonic crystal fibers), biomaterials and biopolymer-based photonics. Most recently, he's working on high-tech applications for silk.
Not your typical fiber artist, Fio is actually using the silk proteins as a material for building bio-compatible sensors that could be safely implanted in humans. Silk may seem like a strange material to use, however it has properties that allow biochemical components that are mixed into it to remain active. As a bonus, it can also be produced using a green, non-toxic and neutral pH process.
“I don’t decide anything,” he says. “I let the street speak to me, and in order for the street to speak to you, you’ve got to stay out there and see what it is.”
"We all get dressed for Bill," says Vogue editrix Anna Wintour. The "Bill" in question is 80+ New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham. For decades, this Schwinn-riding cultural anthropologist has been obsessively and inventively chronicling...
"We all get dressed for Bill," says Vogue editrix Anna Wintour. The "Bill" in question is 80+ New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham. For decades, this Schwinn-riding cultural anthropologist has been obsessively and inventively chronicling fashion trends and high society charity soirées for the Times Style section in his columns "On the Street" and "Evening Hours." Documenting uptown fixtures (Wintour, Tom Wolfe, Brooke Astor, David Rockefeller-who all appear in the film out of their love for Bill), downtown eccentrics and everyone in between, Cunningham's enormous body of work is more reliable than any catwalk as an expression of time, place and individual flair. In turn, Bill Cunningham New York is a delicate, funny and often poignant portrait of a dedicated artist whose only wealth is his own humanity and unassuming grace.
”Fashion is the armour to survive the reality of everyday life. I don’t think you could do away with it. It would be like doing away with civilization.” ~Bill Cunningham
“A near Buddhist reflection on what it takes to fully engage Gotham, as well as an astute snapshot of its evermore avaricious soul… Tagging along with Cunningham is a bracing reminder of what’s been lost to the bottom line.”
A film by Tom Shadyac, who gave up his multimillion dollar home for a mobile home, and is happier than ever
In a departure from his usual films, Tom Shadyac, the director of Jim Carrey's comedies Bruce Almighty, Liar Liar and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, as well as Eddie Murphy's The Nutty Professor, has shot a documentary about how to change the world.
It starts with his personal story, from a Hollywood lifestyle to a journey of self-reflection. When recovering from a near-death cycling accident, Shadyac's life changes dramatically. He sells his house, gives away possessions and decides to make a difference.
He shoots interviews with intellectual and spiritual leaders about what's wrong with our world and how to improve it. A common thread among their answers reveals that science demonstrates we are profoundly connected to each other. The quotes from conversations are from South Africa's Archbishop Desmund Tutu, Canada's environmentalist David Suzuki, authors, poets and professors, from Noam Chomsky, philosopher and scientist, to historian and political activist Howard Zinn.
Proceeds will fund The Foundation for I Am, a nonprofit established by Shadyac for causes that educate the next generation about these issues.
Acclaimed filmmaker and master provocateur Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) returns to the Sundance Film Festival with tongue-in-cheek perfection as he examines the world of product placement, marketing, and advertising by making a film financed entirely by product placement, marketing, and advertising.
We live in an age where it’s tough even to walk down the street without someone trying to sell you something. It’s at the point where practically the entire American experience is brought to us by some corporation. Utilizing cutting-edge tools of comic exploration and total self-exploitation, Spurlock dissects the world of advertising and marketing by using his personal integrity as currency to sell out to the highest bidder. Scathingly funny, subversive, and deceptively smart, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold shines the definitive light on our branded future as Spurlock attempts to create the "Iron Man of documentaries," the first ever "docbuster"! He may very well have succeeded.
"Local politics -- schools, zoning, council elections -- hit us where we live. So why don't more of us actually get involved? Is it apathy? Dave Meslin says no. He identifies 7 barriers that keep us from taking part in our communities, even when we truly care."
Painter and filmmaker Julian Schnabel’s fourth feature, “Miral,” is a coming-of-age saga. The teenage protagonist, played by “Slumdog Millionaire” star Freida Pinto, experiences first love and fatherly disapproval, and must choose between two very different paths to adulthood. But because Miral is Palestinian, most discussions of the movie center on its political implications.
That’s true even of Schnabel and his artistic and romantic partner, journalist Rula Jebreal, who’s the model for the film’s title character. At a Tuesday evening screening sponsored by the New America Foundation, the Q&A period was devoted almost entirely to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sitting together in the lobby of a Georgetown hotel the next morning, the two eagerly return to the topic.
Jebreal and the then-married Schnabel met in Italy in 2007 and fell in love as they worked to adapt her autobiographical novel into this movie. She is 37, Haifa-born and of both Muslim and Christian background. He’s 59, Brooklyn- and Texas-bred and Jewish, although not the kosher-keeping sort. (He insists on pork rather than poultry sausages for the rushed breakfast the couple consumes before the train back to New York.) He, brawny and garrulous, is wearing a brown sport jacket over purple pajamas. She, petite and soft-spoken, is in tight blue jeans and a white blouse decorated with flowers and butterflies.
“It’s really a cry for peace,” Jebreal says of the movie, which opened Friday in Washington. “The love that I have for Israel, our belief that it should survive and be safe, is what made us write this story. As a Palestinian who has an Israeli passport, Israel absolutely should be safe, secure and a real democracy. A democracy for everybody.”
In some circles, such remarks might be deemed conciliatory. But not in others. When it was announced that “Miral” would have its March 14 American premiere at the U.N. General Assembly, such groups as the American Jewish Committee protested. Its chairman, David Harris, said the movie depicted Israel “in a highly negative light” and is “blatantly one-sided.”
“Every film is one-sided,” Schnabel responds. “Every film has its point of view. When you see a movie like ‘Goodfellas,’ doesn’t it tell the story from a side of an Italian gangster? When the gangster [makes an offensive comment about African Americans], do we think Marty Scorsese’s a racist for saying that? Or is he depicting what he thinks the gangster, who has that opinion of black people, would say?”
“Miral” is not the first movie to bring a West Bank viewpoint to American art houses. It was preceded by the work of such Palestinian directors as Elia Suleiman (“Chronicle of a Disappearance”) and Hany Abu-Assad (“Paradise Now”), as well as Jewish Israeli filmmakers such as Eran Riklis (“Lemon Tree”). But their films didn’t draw the controversy that “Miral” has.
Schnabel, who’s not known for excessive modesty, thinks the reaction has something to do with him. “I’m an American Jewish celebrated filmmaker. I won the Golden Globe, was nominated for Academy Awards, won the Cannes Film Festival. Whatever those [expletive] awards mean, people care about that. I have visibility. The notion that I would take that platform and tell that story, about a Palestinian girl, is something that scares people who don’t want people to hear that story.”
When he first read Jebreal’s novel, the director was attracted to the relationship between Miral and her father, who tries to protect her as he could not her mother. “It’s a story that shouldn’t be told,” he asks rhetorically, “because it’s about people that are supposed to be our enemy? That probably made me want to make the movie.”
The film’s most prominent detractors focus on scenes that show Israeli violence toward Palestinians, but “Miral” also portrays antagonism and brutality among Palestinians. The movie has not been unanimously hailed by the latter, and Jebreal is condemned on both sides of the divide.
“For Hamas, I’m an enemy,” she says. “Someone who is literate, liberal, moderate. I eat what I want. I say what I want. And I’m with a Jewish man!”
While Jebreal has lived and breathed Israeli Palestinian issues since she was a teenager, Schnabel admits to having paid little attention to them until he met her. Directing a movie set largely in East Jerusalem was not initially motivated by his politics.
“I don’t make a film or a work of art to illustrate what I know, but to find out something about myself,” he says.
“Miral” is Schnabel’s first feature that doesn’t follow an adult artist or writer, but he sees it as thematically related to the others, which include “Basquiat” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.”
“What my films are about is somebody trying to communicate,” he explains, “and there being some kind of obstacle that’s stopping them. They’re trying to get their message out, whether it’s from their body, or some kind of social or government situation.”
While only “Basquiat” and “Miral” are about people Schnabel actually met, he feels connected to all his protagonists. “People ask me, ‘Are you too close to your subject?’ But if you’re not close to your subject, you have a problem.”
Filmed over nearly three years, WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores”—self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (Devil'sPlayground, Blindsight and Countdown to Zero) and co-directors João Jardim and Karen Harley have great access to the entire process and, in the end, offer stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit.
Growing up, filmmaker and activist Brandan Odums idolized Martin Luther King Jr., but concedes his reverence was "by default."
"He was my hero because I was told he was my hero. I was always taught history from a removed perspective. Words on paper, it wasn't alive to me. We have to make it alive."
Today, as the founder and president of 2-Cent Entertainment, 24-year-old Brandan strives to do just that, combining his passion for filmmaking with his impulse for social change to make the lessons of Martin Luther King Jr. and others relevant to young people. 2-cent Entertainment--so named because of the group's genesis as a medium for young people to express their opinions--tackles taboo social issues with comedy and satire. He started 2-Cent in 2004 as a college filmmaking collective to create skits and music videos targeted at urban youth in New Orleans, the group's hometown.
At the time, Brandan was working at a local access television station when he was struck by the one-dimensional nature of community driven programming. "The shows would address issues but they did not stand out against more flashy and more ignorant programs," he said. "The content was needed but the presentation was boring."
Studying film at The University of New Orleans, Brandan remained true to television as a medium but he knew he had to create content young people would want to watch. 2-Cent began as "'Sesame Street' for grown-ups." Brandan quickly recruited peers with relevant talents and the group debuted their first skit,addressing cultural perceptions of the black male. Brandan cites the group's authenticity as the force behind 2-Cent's enthusiastic reception by the New Orleans community.
"We created a show that we wanted to see--we were speaking to ourselves and people could relate," he said before adding, "We didn't come at them preaching, we were just having a conversation and entertaining them."
The members of 2-Cent now divide their time between film making and service, working in schools and collaborating with local non-profits on campaigns to address inner city violence and illiteracy.
Brandan remains respectful of his predecessors in social change--he cites Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. as role models--but he believes the marches of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement should remain in the past.
"To me, marching served its purpose during the 1960's. Today we can demand an audience any time we want to--the camera is our weapon," he said.
He keeps his peers motivated by reminding them how young Martin Luther King Jr. and his supporters were when they took to the streets of Selma.
"I realized how young these guys were when they started creating change and I try to put young people today on the spot," Brandan said. "We can accomplish what they did. We have more tools, we have a stronger voice and stronger power through technology and social media."
2-Cent continues to combine their broader messages with on-the-ground community building. The organization recently teamed up with Scholastic to launch a city wide literacy campaign. True to form, 2-Cent has remixed rapper Lil Wayne's hit "Every Girl," to become 2-Cent's "Every Book."
"Yes, we're trying to spark young minds--we have their ear, they want to hear more. We do it playfully, but the message is clear: you're young but this is your time. You don't have to wait until you have some sort of status to create change"
"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass."
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude."
"My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry, to get my work done, and to try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return."
"My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance, but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors."
"I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as making a 'life'."
This topic is my own personal SOAP BOX. It is something I am learning more about, and it is something I hope to help educate others about....the power of the consumer and how the consumer has the ability to change the ways companies practice their business and produce their goods. Without consumers, companies have no business. Regardless of how good their products may be, without the dollars their customers spend on those products, they can't exist. And would you spend your dollars differently if you knew how your dollars were being allocated to create those products you love so much? Maybe, maybe not. Particularly by living in the United States we are greatly removed from the conditions that many of our favorite and necessary products are produced, because so many of them are produced internationally. So it is often more difficult for us as US citizens to educate ourselves about our favorite companies and brands.
I have worked in the Apparel industry for almost 16 years. And I am a woman who definitely has a soft spot for fashion and clothes! In the past year I've been learning about different companies and designers who have put forth the effort to ensure that their goods and products were produced sustainably and ethically. For some people, this means that the people who produce the clothes (i.e., the cotton farmers, the people who dye the fabric, the people who sew the clothes, etc) are receiving good living wages depending on their country context. For other people it means that the items are all made organically which is better for the environment and healthier for the producers. And for other people it means that the clothing is completely produced within the United States which provides local jobs and reduces the use of fossil fuels in shipping.
Today I'd like to give a shout out to a company based in Japan that is also available in the UK, no it is not available in the US yet, called People Tree. People Tree was started by a brilliant entrepreneur, Safia Minney, who opened their flagship store in Japan in 1997. Minney's company produces fabulous, affordable clothing all on the principals of Fair Trade.
According to their company website....
"Fair Trade doesn't just mean paying a fair price. It is an entirely different way of doing business, where the objective is not profit at any cost, but to help people in the world's most marginalized communities escape poverty and promote sustainability." They look at their business as a "tool to support people". And they currently support 50 Fair Trade producer groups in 15 developing countries.
There's an old Serbian saying that goes like this: “Make good things and hope for the good things.” These days, this traditional folk wisdom is being confirmed in practice.
At the moment when Japan faces an unprecedented tragedy, Serbian people express their solidarity in many ways, returning their gratitude for the donations that the Japanese government has been providing to Serbia since 1999. They have not forgotten the Japanese POPOS grants, which covered the basic and urgent needs of the Serbian population: health care, primary education, poverty reduction, social and environmental protection, and general well-being. The latest Japanese donations were given in March 2011. Despite its own horrible situation, the government of Japan donated $125,000 to the Serbian towns of Vlasotince and Sokobanja, to support the improvement of environmental services in Serbia. This month, the Japanese government also donated 77,943 euro to Paraplegic Association of Banat, Srem and the Center of Social Work in Paracin.
Respecting the fact that all of these funds (more than 200 million euro in total) were raised from taxpayers of Japan, Serbian citizens feel the need to return the gratitude to the friendly people of the Far East.
The city of Belgrade has donated 25 million dinars (2.5 million euro) to help Japan, while three Serbian mobile operators (VIP, MTS and Telenor) have launched a text messaging option through which Serbian citizens can send messages of support to Japan that cost 50 dinar (0.5 euro).
International World Water Day is held annually on March 22nd, as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.
Today, one in two people on the planet live in a city. The world’s cities are growing at an exceptional rate and urbanisation is a continuum. The main reason they are growing is because of natural increase in urban population, but also due to rural-to-urban migration and reclassification of rural areas to urban areas.
93% of the urbanization occurs in poor or developing countries, and nearly 40% of the world’s urban expansion is growing slums. Between 1990-2001 the world’s slums increased at a rate of 18 million people a year, and is projected to increase to 27 million new slum citizens per year between 2005-2020.
Investments in infrastructure have not kept up with the rate of urbanization, while water and waste services show significant underinvestment. The central problem is therefore the management of urban water and waste. Piped water coverage is declining in many settings, and the poor people get the worst services, yet paying the highest water prices.
Few urban authorities in developing countries have found a sustainable solution to urban sanitation, and utilities cannot afford to extend sewers to the slums, nor can they treat the volume of sewage already collected. Solid waste disposal is a growing threat to health and the environment.
Cities are complicated to manage: different approaches are needed for different types of urban environments. But cities also provide the best opportunity to improve livelihoods and infrastructure development, including water and waste services.
The big opportunity is increased recycling and reuse of water and wastes, an integrated urban management. Adopting more efficient water treatment technologies and capturing water and wastes within the city will also minimize environmental and downstream pollution.
*********************************************************************************** Water.org is a nonprofit organization that has transformed hundreds of communities in Africa, South Asia, and Central America by providing access to safe water and sanitation. Water.org lists such solutions to the water crisis as:
"We believe people in developing countries know best how to solve their own problems. That’s why we forge partnerships with carefully-screened, indigenous partner organizations that understand, and are part of, the local culture. The result: a solution tailored to the needs of each community, instead of a technological fix the community has no way of maintaining."
"Community ownership is at the heart of Water.org’s philosophy. Regardless of whether the project is funded entirely by a grant or involves WaterCredit (small loans for water and sanitation), community ownership is at the center. For a project to be truly successful, communities must be viewed and must view themselves as the owners of the project. That’s why Water.org engages communities at every stage and at every level – from project planning, building and financing, to ongoing project maintenance."
"Good hygiene practices and access to sanitation facilities are critical to achieving sustainable improvements in community health. Clean water may be available in a household, but if hand-washing and other practices are not routinely followed, the promised health benefits will not materialize. Similarly, access to a latrine does not ensure that the latrine will be used or properly maintained. Without a good understanding of the link between hygiene and disease, the health benefits of safe water and sanitation can be easily lost."
"The WaterCredit Initiative represents the creation of a new space at the intersection of water and sanitation and microfinance. By catalyzing small loans to individuals and communities in developing countries who do not have access to traditional credit markets, WaterCredit empowers people to immediately address their own water needs. As loans are repaid, they can be redeployed to additional people in need of safe water."
For more information on the water crisis around the world, and the possible solutions, visit www.unwater.org and www.water.org.
How a community art program in Haiti is empowering young people to express their hope for a better future.By Beverly Bell
“Everyone expects there to be a new problem daily in Haiti. I can’t concentrate on problems each day,” said Roseanne Auguste, coordinator of a youth art program in the sprawling, under-resourced Port-au-Prince section of Carrefour-Feuilles. The program is run through the community clinic Association for the Promotion of Family Integrated Health (APROSIFA).
Roseanne swept her hand across hundreds of paintings and drawings waiting to be packed up for an upcoming art show. “And people come and say Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. I hate to hear that. There’s so much richness in this country.”
Roseanne, who is director of APROSIFA as well as a nurse and community organizer, held up one painting. It featured two hands nurturing a brilliantly colored woman’s head; the hands seemed to be helping the woman open her mouth. “They’re envisioning all this despite the earthquake,” Roseanne said.
“If we really had the chance to do for ourselves, if we had the means, you’d see what we could do.”
“These kids hear about violence every day,” Roseanne said. “We have to concentrate on what another country could be. That’s what interests me. If we had cultural centers in each shantytown, imagine what we could do. Culture and citizenship… if youth came and talked about this every day, found different ways to express their views on the matters, we could have a different country.”
“Other countries want to control us, giving us a little money for elections, a little money for development, while keeping the country as it is. But if we really had the chance to do for ourselves, if we had the means, you’d see what we could do.”
APROSIFA’s youth art program began in 2009 in a couple of cement-block rooms in the back of the clinic. A few professional artists donated their time to teach. Today, 68 youth from ages 8 to early 20s are painting and sculpting. A few of the youth who began learning two years ago are now teaching the others.
The artwork represents the daily stuff of Haitian life, like forms of labor, scenes inside village huts, vodou imagery, and landscapes. The work also features historical heroes, maps of Haiti, and Escher-like clocks ticking away the country’s past.
When people ask me, as they do all the time, “Is there any cause for hope in Haiti?” I answer yes. When the young painters have canvas and paints, the images are bold, the colors brilliant. Often they have only sheets of typing paper and a pencil or a Bic pen. APROSIFA raises money to subsidize the supplies. “We give them string to fish with,” Roseanne said.
In late January, APROSIFA sponsored the Haitian Renaissance show at a hotel in downtown Port-au-Prince. On opening night, hundreds of people—journalists, artists, advocates for women, dignitaries, and especially youth from Carrefour-Feuilles—squeezed into several rooms whose walls were covered with art. The theme of the art was the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1979 and took effect in 1981. Haiti ratified the convention in 1981 (unlike the U.S., which never has), though it has never been applied. Roseanne had given copies of the document to the young artists and had asked them to express their opinions creatively.
“I feel proud as a woman to sit with a canvas, with all my pride, and create paintings. We young artists come with our imagination, our inspiration, our understandings. We can paint anything.”
One youth whose work was featured is 22-year-old Islande Henry. She spoke in front of one of her paintings, of two women talking in front of their home, inspired by Article 16 of CEDAW, which protects women and children’s rights in family relations. Islande said, “To me, CEDAW is a beautiful thing. It speaks to the restavèk [child slavery] system and how those kids have no rights. It speaks to violence against women, and how women are mistreated in society, and how there are so many things they can’t do from serving in Parliament to playing ball.
“Our artwork says, ‘No! Women can do anything. Women must have access to everything this society offers.’”
Islande said, “I have a lot of capacity and I always knew I could paint, but I didn’t have any support. You know, sometimes your family can’t really step up and help with resources. But I found APROSIFA in 1999. I feel proud as a woman to sit with a canvas, with all my pride, and create paintings. We young artists come with our imagination, our inspiration, our understandings. We can paint anything.”
“What I’ve gotten from APROSIFA, I want to pass along to other youth so this country can have another future.” When asked what her hope is, Islande replied, “My hope is that I can be a great painter so the entire world can know my work and can know that Haitians need solidarity, unity, patience, love, and peace. I have a lot of hope for that.”
