Creative extremists are we

“The question is not if we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.

I am somewhat of a wide-eyed individual. I am startled by many things and easily made to gasp. It isn’t so much that I’m easily impressed as I am easily fascinated. But I feel the need to say something about the people I work with. They may be the eighth wonder. The long hours. The big ideas. The sacrifice of these roadies and interns… though, as one roadie told me, ‘it is no sacrifice to exchange what is acceptable, expected, and planned for what is best: the living pursuit of a better world’.

My parents spent a while asking me when my ’season’ at Invisible Children would end. They don’t ask me that any more. The foundation in my voice when I say I am living my strengths, waking up with resolve, and working with people that I respect, even more, want to be… it is impossible to argue with that. My parents have realized that they couldn’t wish a better place for a child than that which makes them fully alive.

It is human nature to want to work hard, contribute to something important, and live deliberately. And to the degree that we forget this, or exchange it for comfort and safety, is the degree to which we live with a swelling bitter discontent that will one day manifest itself in broken relationships and lonely spirits. I, in my twenties, have been so lucky to learn this. Not so much my revelation as it is a muse that visited me in the form of IC. I commit to never forgetting it, and doing my part to keep those around me awake to it as well. That promise involves pursuing my talents and delighting in the talents of others, discovering the synergy between them that will produce that dangerously bankrupt word: change.  But positive change.  Change that looks like education, policy, peace, friendship, global community, art, and story telling.

“Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”  - MLK Jr.

I am proud to be maladjusted to the workings of this world. As evidenced by this post, I’m feeling sentimental and reflective today, so… cheers to the pursuit of something different. I lift my glass up to the 90 people on the 3rd and 4th floors of this office in San Diego (and all our maladjusted comrads in Uganda, and beyond). – Jedidiah

Chris Anderson of TED tells us whats really going on…

Two things you need to know. 1) Know what TED is. I first heard of it from Invisible Children and now watch TED talks religiously. 2) Pakistan is struggling with floods that have left over 20 million people homeless. Pretend everyone in New York and London just lost everything and started roaming the streets hopelessly, thats the scale of the humanitarian crisis we are looking at. Unfortunately, so many people have no idea thats this is going on.

So Chris Anderson of TED has created this super cool blog to solve the problem and make it easy to know whats going on. Over the next two weeks, Chris will be blogging the reality of the floods and news coming out of Pakistan. So follow it and keep yourself informed. Also, if you haven’t been to TED’s website you best check it out, you can thank me later.  - Braden

On the ground: MEND + ModCloth

I tried to think of a word that could sum up what’s going to happen to MEND in the coming year.  Metamorphosis? One thing morphing into something else, something totally different—no, that won’t work.  Maturation? Makes me think of Boyz II Men—nope.  Transformation? Hints at awesome change, but without the whole shedding-of-old-self quality that ‘metamorphosis’ carries.  Hmmm.

Ok, done:  In the coming year, MEND will undergo a transformation.  Details will follow once we sort out a few things, but know that MEND is growing, transforming.  Did anyone catch the ModCloth blog post the other day?  ModCloth is now selling MEND bags through their site.  We’re psyched.  More of these types of partnerships—alternative avenues for merchandising—are what MEND is shooting for in the coming year.  And then there’s the Awesome Top Secret MEND Development In Uganda Thing that we’re dying to tell folks about  :)  Keep your eyes peeled in the coming months for more updates on MEND’s transformation.

–Andrew

The Wilderness Downtown

Very cool: Arcade Fire and Chris Milk present this interactive film. You’ve probably never seen Google Earth used like this. Plug in your home address, headphones, and listen and watch and get lost… (warning, the video will pop up a bunch of windows, so let it happen, stop freaking out)

The video features “We Used To Wait”

Check it: The Wilderness Downtown

(thanks to Pablo for showin’ me this one) – Jedidiah

The Enough Moment

Human rights activist John Prendergast and Oscar-nominated actor Don Cheadle bring us an empowering and hopeful new book, The Enough Moment, as they reveal the steps being taken by engaged citizens—”Upstanders”—famous and unknown, here and abroad, to combat genocide, rape, and child soldierdom in Africa. This event is presented in partnership with The Enough Project.

This is a free ticketed event and open to the public. RSVPs required. RSVP here.

322 South Lucas Avenue 90017
Los Angeles, CA

Online registration will be closed Wednesday, September 8 at noon. If you would like to RSVP after that time, please call 213-202-2811 ex. 23.

The Miguel Contreras Learning Complex is easily reached by taking any major freeway to the Harbor Freeway (110), proceeding to the downtown Los Angeles area, and exiting at the 3rd Street off-ramp. Proceed west on 3rd Street a few short blocks to Lucas Avenue. Parking in the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex lot is limited. Please check your e-mail for further information on places to park after you RSVP and receive your ticket(s) electronically.

Presented by the Enough Project, Facing History and Ourselves, and the Allstate Foundation

New York Times: Whats going on with 20-somethings?

It’s not uncommon to see young people in their 20’s moving back in with their parents after graduating college, in fact, its becoming quite the norm. Young adults all over the country are evolving from the old fashion way of going to school, getting a job, and starting a family. Nowadays it is much more common to see young adults staying in school just to stay in school, dedicating themselves to temporary unpaid internships, or traveling. So why is this, and is it a problem or is it just the result of a more creative youth experimenting with new ways to go about their future?

Here are some statistics to solidify the point:
- One-third of people in their 20s move to a new residence every year.
- Forty percent move back home with their parents at least once.
- They go through an average of seven jobs in their 20s.
- Two-thirds spend at least some time living with a romantic partner without being married.

Young people no longer expect to get married in their early 20’s, but closer to 30. Early 30’s is time when starting a family is now expected. This is causing young adults to delay planning of their future and careers, so if the unexpected happens forcing them into adult situations, they are not ready. Parents have also changed, no more getting the boot when your 18, in fact most parents now encourage their kids to stay as long as they need to save money or finish school.

The 20’s are the years where much of our personal development takes place. We get our college education during these years, and most of us find a career that will last for some time. This is the time where most meet their spouses and the friends that will be their until the end. The 20’s really make you who you are and set you up for the rest of your life.

This NY times article goes into detail on “emerging adults” and the case for their lack of traditional development.   -Braden

IC is full of Beliebers

It’s hard to believe thats it has only been three weeks since the fall roadies and interns arrived here in San Diego. The way this community is set up, an outsider would think we’d all been friends for years. We’ve been working long hours and giving it our all in preparation of the Face-to-Face tour, I think this video shows just how well we have learned how to work as one. And yes, it has almost 9,000 views. – Braden

Great PSA from Topsy Foundation

Stop what you’re doing and watch this PSA about AIDS prevention. Just put down your big gulp and push play. I wish we’d made it. But more than that, I’m glad it’s been made. Well done Topsy.  Check them out here. – Jedidiah

Aids PSA Topsy from Human Music & Sound Design on Vimeo.

Pakistan’s floods

An observation: middle eastern people are seen with a complicated and subtle ‘otherness’, even animosity, in the subconscious of the West. The result: an almost unparalleled catastrophe that doesn’t seem to be on the emotional radar of the American people. I don’t see a rush of support, heart felt prayer, and relief for these drowning people. Maybe I’m way off. Here’s the latest news about Pakistan’s flooding.          -  Jedidiah

The Guardian: Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis have fled the historic southern city of Thatta in Sindh province after the swollen Indus river broke a levee and flooded new areas.

Around 175,000 people, about 70% of the city’s population, were believed to have fled their homes overnight, said Manzoor Sheikh, a senior government official. Authorities were trying to repair the broken levee 78 miles south-east of the major port city of Karachi and arranging transport for people trying to leave. (more…)

CNN: LRA operating like rats in South Sudan

“They behave like rats. A rat comes out of a hole, it comes and picks what it wants, it is difficult for you to trace it back to the hole.” said Lt. Gen. Kuol Deim Kuol, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army’s spokesman. He was referring to the LRA and how they are operating in Southern Sudan, CAR, and the Congo. These words come as a result of the recent LRA raids throughout villages in Southern Sudan, which has led to the abduction of 700 people in the last 18 months, a third of those being children.  -Braden

Nzara, Sudan (CNN) — Albert Abuda might never see his children again.

Long-haired, dirty men emerged from the dense bush around his village one day. They spoke a language he did not understand, fighting in a conflict equally as foreign and incomprehensible.

They were members of the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA.

They left with more than the year’s harvest. His son is now likely training as a ruthless guerrilla warrior, and his 13-year-old daughter might be forced into commanders’ harems.

Meanwhile, Abuda wastes away in a makeshift camp with others telling similar tales and living on the generosity of nearby villagers who sometimes provide cassava leaves to boil.

“Since I arrived here, life has become miserable to me. As you can see, my body keeps shrinking because there is no proper food,” he said in the town of Nzara in Southern Sudan, where he and the rest of his community have fled.

The LRA, which follows the self-proclaimed spiritual powers of leader Joseph Kony, arose as a rebel movement in the late 1980s among the Acholi people of marginalized northern Uganda. But Kony and his men are no longer in Uganda, and little remains of any group ideology.

Instead, the LRA are known for their seasoned survival skills and brutal tactics of terror, roaming within a weakly-governed nexus where Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and Sudan’s autonomous region of Southern Sudan meet. (more…)