Patricia July 5th, 2008

I came across an interesting article in the New York Times on Tuesday titled a Plea for Aid to Avert Starvation

Warning that rising food and oil prices pose a crisis for the world’s poor, Robert B. Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, is calling on President Bush and other leaders convening in Japan next week in an economic summit meeting to make new aid commitments to avert starvation and instability in dozens of countries.

“What we are witnessing is not a natural disaster — a silent tsunami or a perfect storm,” Mr. Zoellick said in a letter sent Tuesday evening to the major leaders of the West. “It is a man-made catastrophe, and as such must be fixed by people.”Mr. Zoellick’s letter, obtained by The New York Times, came with a lengthy study of the impact of rising prices for food, fuel and commodities on the world’s poor. He sent the letter as Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda prepares to host Mr. Bush and six other world leaders in the Group of 8 economic summit meeting on the northern island of Hokkaido.

In recent weeks, the United States and some other countries have stepped up their pledges to get food to the poor in the 50 hardest-hit countries. But Mr. Zoellick said in his letter that the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Food Program had short-term needs of $10 billion.

Bank officials said that the world faced a shortfall in aid, but that pledges of financing had not been channeled into a central place and the size of the shortfall was not clear. “This is a test of the global system to help the most vulnerable, and it cannot afford to fail,” Mr. Zoellick said.Separately, the International Monetary Fund released a report on Tuesday describing dire effects on the people and economies of developing countries if food and fuel prices stay high. The analysis shows “that some countries really are at a tipping point — if food prices rise further and oil prices stay the same, some governments will no longer be able to feed their people and at the same time maintain stability in their economies,” said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the fund.

Seven countries have already responded to high prices by borrowing at deep discounts from a special I.M.F. program for countries with very low income.

Burkina Faso reached a loan agreement in January; Mali and Niger in Africa and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia obtained loans in late May; and Benin, the Central African Republic and Haiti did so last month.

Mr. Zoellick’s letter calculates that, for the world’s 41 poorest countries, the combined impact of high food, fuel and other commodities is a “negative shock” to their economies, reducing gross domestic product by between 3 and 10 percent, causing “broken lives and stunted potential” for millions.The letter says the trust funds and aid funds set up by the world’s richest countries are on the verge of running out of grant money to finance school feeding, mother and child nutrition programs and food-for-work programs.

For me, the stark reality of the “broken lives and stunted potential” for millions around the planet is  shown by a stunning series of photographs from a blog posting called The Truth: An Interesting Comparison that someone forwarded to me recently. This shows the food bought to feed one family in a variety of countries around the world. Take a moment to view the photographs below. Then consider, what price your next meal?

GERMANY:
The Melander family of Bargteheide - 2 adults, 2 teenagers
Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07

UNITED STATES:
The Revis family of North Carolina - 2 adults, 2 teenagers
Food expenditure for one week: $341.98

JAPAN:
The Ukita family of Kodaira City - 2 adults, 2 teenagers
Food expenditure for one week: 37,699 Yen or $317.25

ITALY:
The Manzo family of Sicily - 2 adults, 3 kids
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11

MEXICO:
The Casales family of Cuernavaca - 2 adults, 3 kids
Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09

POLAND:
The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna - 4 adults, 1 teenager
Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27

EGYPT:
The Ahmed family of Cairo - 7 adults, 5 kids
Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53

ECUADOR:
The Ayme family of Tingo - 4 adults, 5 teenagers
Food expenditure for one week: $31.55

BHUTAN:
The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village - 7 adults, 6 kids
Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03

CHAD:
The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp - 3 adults, 3 kids
Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23

• Community , Peace
• Comments(0)

Patricia March 20th, 2008

Columbia University Event
Sponsored by The Global Cooperation Project.

I attended our first US educational event for the GCP in NY at Columbia’s prestigious SIPA buidling. My colleagues were presenting and the event had been arranged by Columbia student Glenn Sontagg.

The event took place on February 26, 2008. Focusing on a bold new paradigm for achieving enduring global peace at this critical moment for humanity, it was based on the book Not-Two Is Peace by Adi Da Samraj. (Adi Da is a graduate of Columbia University.)

The title of the presentation: Beyond Egoism.

Two guest speakers Rolf Carriere and Dr.Hugh O’Doherty shared their wealth of personal experience in international leadership and peace work. In this context, they presented an inspiring new vision of global leadership in peace restoration founded on radical transcendental insight into the fundamental nature of humanity.

About 80 people attended, including graduate students, faculty, guests from out of town and New York, and visitors from the U.N. The presentations were well received and discussions continued well into the evening.

A Columbia master’s degree graduate and retired former executive at a New York City health institution said that he felt the truth of the concept of the real changes being in the actual change of humanity’s consciousness – and that has to happen.

Joining in the discussion, a guest from Wall Street said the questions raised showed that people really wanted to understand a way to address their sense of overwhelm. At the very least people were in agreement about the fact that survival is not a given, and that the need is for right action such that right results will follow.

Comment from a Columbia graduate student: “This concept is unique; all the others seem to be dealing with the branches or extended aspects of the problems. But Adi Da cuts it all at the root in dealing with egoity.”

A New York publishing professional was encouraged by the sizable number in the room and by the positive energy exhibited by people responding to the message of “cooperation, tolerance and peace”.

Reaction from a San Francisco based student included the observation that the concept is “simple”, not like anything else that is out there, so much of which is all complicated, difficult and divisive. He felt there is a depth about what Not-Two Is Peace offers to the world.

The presentation was repeated for an invited audience in Chicago on February 29th.

• Community , Spiritual , Peace
• Comments(0)

Patricia March 7th, 2008

This educational presentation is so excellently done. We have all become so incredibly programmed to consume. Here is the beautifully- executed graphic story of our post-World War II human culture. Simple, easy to comprehend, inspiration to change our ways and what is at stake if we don’t. Watch this video NOW!

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

• Community , Uncategorized
• Comments(0)

Patricia February 22nd, 2008

photograph by Stu Worrall

© All rights reserved.

DO YOU KNOW?

This is one of the best newsletters on the environment, global economics and change!

Check out these statistics and sign up to stay informed.

 Need data? Sometimes numbers can tell a story. Here are some of the
 figures from the behind-the-scenes research for the latest book from Earth
 Policy Institute, Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, by
 Lester R. Brown. Complete data sets and charts are now available on-line at
 www.earthpolicy.org/Books/PB3/data.htm.

Did you know?:

The eight warmest years on record have all occurred in the last decade.

For seven of the last eight years, the world has consumed more grain
 than it produced; grain stocks are now at a historic low.

One fifth of the U.S. grain harvest is now being turned into fuel
 ethanol.

One third of reptile, amphibian, and fish species examined by the World
 Conservation Union are considered to be threatened with extinction.

Grain yields increased half as fast in the 1990s as they did in the
 1960s.

Life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa today is lower than it was in the
 late 1980s.

Today’s economically recoverable reserves of lead, tin, and copper
 could be depleted within the next 25 years if their extraction expands at
 current rates.

Nearly half of the annual global military budget of $1.2 trillion is
 spent by one country — the United States.

But not all the news is bad:

South Korea leads the world in paper recycling, recovering an estimated
 77 percent of its paper products.

Conservation agriculture is practiced on more than 100 million hectares
 around the world

Four years after London introduced a fee on motor vehicles entering the
 city center, average car traffic had fallen by 36 percent while
 bicycle trips had increased by 49 percent.

The world produces 110 million bicycles a year, more than twice the
 annual production of 49 million cars.

Fish farming, largely of herbivorous species, is the fastest growing
 source of animal protein worldwide, increasing by an average of 7 percent
 each year since 1995.

World soybean production has quadrupled since 1977. 

Coal use in Germany has dropped 37 percent since 1990; in the United
 Kingdom it has fallen by 43 percent.

Solar cell production is doubling every two years, making it the
 world’s fastest growing energy source.

Electricity used for lighting around the world can be cut by 65 percent
 through efficiency improvements like switching from incandescent bulbs
 to compact fluorescents.

** Find out more in Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization,
 on-line at www.earthpolicy.org/Books/PB3/index.htm, and explore the complete
 datasets at www.earthpolicy.org/Books/PB3/data.htm.

For information contact:
Earth Policy Institute
1350 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 403
Washington, DC  20036
Web: www.earthpolicy.org

• Community , Peace , Uncategorized
• Comments(0)

Patricia February 18th, 2008

Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons
by Peter Barnes

Society is indeed a contract…between those who are living , those who are dead, and those who are to be born.” Edmund Burke 1792, Introduction Chapter One

“Barnes has opened the dialog of the 21st century. He takes the traditional concept of the commons and marries it to the institutions of modern capitalism. In so doing he exposes those who take fromthe commons without paying, then make the rest of us buy back what we already own.”

I heard Barnes speak at the SF 2006 Green Business Conference in SF sponsored by Co-op America.

The Real Wealth of Nations by Rianne Eisler

“The Caring Revolution–A New Economics that Works for Businesses, Families and the Planet”

“The greatest problems of our time–poverty, inequality, war, terrorism, and environmental degradation–can be traced to flawed economic systems that fail to value and support the most essential human work: caring for people and the planet. Renowned social scientist Eisler introduces a bold reformulation: a “caring econonics” that transcends traditional categories like “capitalist” and “socialist” and offers enormous economic and social benefits. She provide a blueprint for putting this more humane and effective economic system to work. (Back Cover)

I heard Riane speak the beginning of December at the Praxis Peace Institute annual benefit. I feel Riane offers solutions based on solid research that are sustainable, compassionate, and practical.

Communities around the world would do well to adopt the economics recommended by Barnes and Eisler.

• Community , Spiritual , Peace
• Comments(0)

Patricia January 14th, 2008

Activism-From a lifelong activist who Walks the Walk and can talk the talk!

Tom’s book is the best solution For Ending The War In Iraq.

I was fortunate to meet Tom Hayden and hear him speak at the Dubrovnik Peace Conference. Tom is a former 18-year member of the California State Legislature; an activist who co-founded Students for a Democratic Society; the author of 13 books and currently teaches at Pitzer College and Occidental College. He’s done some very impressive inner-city work in LA. He’s on the editorial board and a contributing writer of The Nation Magazine.

His topic at the conference was Social Movements Against The Machiavellians was fascinating.

He was sitting on the edge of the stage waiting for things to settle down when I approached him. He asked me What does it take to get started here? I’m an on-time kind of guy! I went to my friend, the conference director Georgia Kelly, and she immediately took the stage and introduced him.

He told us he would need to sit because he had an ear infection and the doctor told him he might fall because his balance was off. At his book signing I told him he should run again, to which he replied, I have already done that!

Tom was at the conference most of the week and sat in the audience at the back and really listened.

By coincidence, I was on the same bus and airplane to Rome with him, his beautiful wife Barbara and his handsome young son. Tom was standing on the bus so I offered him a seat next to me. He had an appointment to get his ear infection treated by a doctor in Rome and was not sure if the flight would be tolerable to his ear…it was! It was his first trip to Italy and I asked he and Barbara if the would like to come to Venice to a preview opening at the Ciprianni Hotel for the artist I was doing public relations for. Barbara had attended The Venice Biennale before and really wanted to go but with Tom’s ailment it was too risky to consider adding more travel to the schedule.

Two things he said that impressed me, especially given his background:

• Don’t worry who is the next president of the US. There are other ways to make change for peace.
• Don’t worry about impeaching George Bush as he is suffering impeachment by a 1000 cuts.

Tom is a thoughtful, wise, calm and very intelligent…a man with a sensible plan that would work for peace…if we get involved.

Tom Hayden has been called “the conscience of the senate”, and credited with “creating the blueprint for the Great Society programs”.

Help End the War in Iraq

Quote: Apply Pressure to these Pillars of the Bush Administration’s policy: If the U.S. cannot be persuaded to accept failure in Iraq, the only strategy for ending the war and occupation is to apply people pressure to the following Pillars of the Bush Administration’s policy:

1. Iraqi Support
2. American Public Opinion
3. American Media
4. Political Support
5. U.S. Military Capacity
6. U.S Financial Capacity
7. Moral Reputation
8. U.S. Global Alliance

(Tom Hayden Ending the War In Iraq)

• Community , Peace
• Comments(0)

Patricia January 5th, 2008

Hello all and welcome to Peace¹⁰⁸.

I am Patricia Royman. This year I have been privileged to meet, hear and work with some of the best thinkers and activists in the arenas of peace, environment, science and politics. My travels this year took me to diverse countries to participate in environment and peace conferences in Dubrovnik Croatia, Venice Italy, San Francisco California and Dallas Texas. In Croatia, I met survivors of the war in Bosnia…brave people who had witnessed and suffered atrocities and abuses that still exists in this world today.

One person, who moved me deeply, was a survivor of the Bosnian war. He was formerly head of a large forensics department, has degrees in psychology and philosophy, and was a soldier in his country’s war. During the war he sustained several injuries. He lost a leg. He still has shrapnel in his body and was shot in the chest by a neighbor at a community meeting during the war. He said he did not want to fight but he had to fight to protect old people and women and children. He was the first non-American to receive a purple heart. He has met with President Bill Clinton and other leaders of the free world.

While attending the peace conference in Dubrovnik this man also gave a lecture on the Balkans at the local university. We were in the same cafe group which met between major plenary sessions to discuss the theory or practices the speakers had presented.

In our breakout group he and others had stories that were real, honest, and in need of real solutions.

I will be writing about Mursod and others in the coming weeks.

Happy New Year!

• Community , Peace
• Comments(1)