Watch this video: Sen. Inhofe props the bill on the Senate floor
If you still haven’t heard, on Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed unanimously the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act. While the battle is far from over, this is a huge step towards getting this bill passed. Thanks to Senators like James Inhofe, who delivered this speech prior to the meeting, our efforts are starting to pay off. Keep up the good work, and we can definitely see this thing passed.
Enough: Accountability vs. Amnesty – the case of Charles Arop
This Enough post brings up some pretty intense questions - What do you think?
Posted: Nov 18,2009. Read it here.
Last week, the Ugandan army confirmed that Charles Arop, the director of operations for the Lord’s Resistance Army, had surrendered to Ugandan soldiers in the town of Djabir in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is a significant development in the fight against the LRA; as director of operations, Arop was in charge of planning and executing attacks. The Ugandan army has long maintained that Arop was in charge of the so-called Christmas massacres, a series of attacks against Congolese civilians on Christmas Day, 2008, in and around the town of Faradje in northeastern Congo. The LRA brutally murdered more than 140 civilians and abducted another 160.
I recently interviewed two former LRA fighters who told me Arop was in charge of the group which attacked Faradje. The most convincing and clear testimony was that of a southern Sudanese boy named Joseph. He was abducted and held by the LRA for a year from February 2008 until February 2009.
I was in a group of about 80 people who attacked Faradje. The group was led by Major General [sic] Arop. After they attacked Faradje, one group was told to take the loot to Central Africa where [LRA leader Joseph] Kony was. The group split, with the majority going to CAR under the leadership of Opiyo [Lt. Col. Opiyo Sam, presumably killed in DRC last month] and Opoka [unknown]. I stayed with Arop close to Faradje with 18 fighters where eventually 20 other fighters joined us.
Joseph managed to escape in February, and the 40 or so other fighters under Arop have been either killed or defected in the past few months.
Sources from the Ugandan military intelligence told me that on October 15, 2009, four members from Arop’s group surrendered to the Congolese army. At least nine more people under Arop, including one of Arop’s wives, surrendered to the Ugandan army on October 28 in Djabir, the same place where Arop would defect a week later with one remaining fighter.
Questions abound about Arop’s fate now that he has surrendered. Will Arop be prosecuted for the war crimes he committed in Congo, and if so, by whom? Uganda does not have jurisdiction for crimes committed in Congo. That would be the responsibility of the Congolese government or possibly the International Criminal Court, or ICC (though the ICC has not yet launched an investigation into the Christmas massacres). If Arop is not prosecuted for crimes in Congo, how will the Ugandan government deal with justice and accountability?
Arop is eligible for amnesty in Uganda as stipulated under the Amnesty Act of 2000 which says that former combatants are eligible to receive amnesty for having participated in an armed struggle. More than 10,000 former LRA fighters have so far been granted amnesty. The Amnesty Act does not differentiate between low level fighters and commanders. President Museveni has said that there will be no amnesty for top commanders but this has been understood as a reference to Kony, Okot Odhiambo, and Dominic Ongwen, who are indicted by the ICC.
A senior Ugandan official told me recently that the decisions about how to deal with former LRA commanders are strictly political. As a result, the Ugandan government’s treatment of former LRA commanders seems inconsistent to anyone without an insider’s understanding of the politics at play. Some, such as Opiyo Makasi, Kenneth Banya, and Sam Kolo, have been granted full amnesty and live now freely in Uganda. Yet this past June, the Ugandan government charged a recently captured commander, Major Thomas Kwoyelo, with kidnapping and intent to murder. He is the only former commander who has been charged in a Ugandan court. Kwoyelo is eligible for amnesty but he has not been granted it. The reasons are unclear.
The Ugandan government needs to clarify how it intends to deal with mid-level LRA commanders and make that approach permanent. Not granting amnesty to Kwoyelo, for instance, is a worry for other commanders who want to defect but fear prosecution.
At the same time, the Ugandan government needs to ensure that there is accountability for grave crimes such as the ones committed by Arop in Faradje. LRA commanders should know that they will not be prosecuted for acts committed if they decide to defect, but grave crimes of the scale of the Faradje attacks cannot be ignored. Otherwise, a precedent will be created where LRA commanders can perpetrate heinous crimes knowing they will not be held to account.
Yesterday’s Hometown Shakedown was ____________!!! (insert preferred superlative)
- So much was done on one day. Huge successes across the nation.
Yesterday, hundreds of Invisible Children supporters stormed the hometown offices of 30 key congressional representatives in an effort to gain needed support for the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act. The Hometown Shakedown, as it was called, was one of the most powerful coordinated grassroots efforts in history, and had some pretty incredible results.
By the end of the day, we had co-sponsorship confirmations from at least seven new senators, and five new House representatives. Before the end of the day.
Several of these were very heavy hitters whose voice behind this bill will be crazy strong. Both John Kerry (Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair) and Harry Reid (Senate Majority Leader) – neither of which were expected to sign on – responded to the visits of Shakedown activists by co-sponsoring the bill.
In the House, notable signatories included Reps. Crenshaw, Schiff, and Rothman. Thanks to people like Sean Poole in Pasadena, and Emily Felsenthal in Jersey City, we had big turnouts at every meeting.
We know a lot of you weren’t able to be there, so we want to give you an insight into what these meetings entailed. Nothing we could say could sum it up better than our friend Jamie Roach, who sent us an email from White Plains, NY, where he led an amazing group into a meeting at Rep. Nita Lowey’s office. We’ve included some of his words below:
“TODAY’S Hometown Shakedown in New York was quality versus quantity. No photo will show the magnitude of how this day felt for me, (although I’ve attached one). It was a reconnection to what I LOVE about life, about humans and most certainly about IC, which raises the possibilities of both.
8 people showed up to White Plains, NY. A college student who drove hours to be there, a high school leader who’s Mom wrote a note to the Principal to get out of school early, two high school girls who made posters and heaps of research on the bill, (not seen in the photo, because they left them with the Staffers) a University S4S president, who traveled from the Bronx, two old Roadies from separate tours (myself included), and a high school leader who had raised thousands for her S4S club.
It was an unusual encounter. We each came from completely different parts of the world, economic classes, generations, races and religions. And within 20 minutes of first gathering, we sat together in a cafe, bringing all of our ideas, stories and research together to create a concise, powerful and articulate voice.
[Once we arrived at the meeting], they began to speak as planned only minutes earlier…
‘As Obama encourages, I don’t want to be just a citizen of my city, or just my country, but of the World’, and ‘Please don’t let our generation become cynical to the idea that hundreds of thousands of constituents can care for something and have the means to bring change and no effort was made’, or ‘We need more balance in this World, from rich to poor, and this is what this Bill is all about’. ‘Our past histories should not dictate our future’ to ‘The people are devastated and we don’t care that it is not happening in our country’…
I hardly said a word during the 20 minute meeting. No one else in the room, besides myself, had ever been to northern Uganda, but I couldn’t say anything better than the words coming from each high school and University student. No one had ever interacted with an ex-rebel or a desperate father. No one had laughed with a courageous mother, or silently wrestled with what to say after hearing a personal testimony of the war’s destruction. What they had done was zone out all modern distractions to absorb these feelings, to imagine these situations, to feel these stories. And to act with full vigor and trust that they could do something about it.”
Thanks, Jamie.
These are the stories that we live for. Your actions DO make a difference. You are the ones that go out there and create change. Stay tuned – we’ll be uploading more pictures and keeping you updated on further co-sponsors.
Here's our AZ crew.
Oklahoma City preparing for their meeting with Sen. Coburn.
Hold that sign, girl! Ow, ow!
Sen. Inouye didn't have a chance with these Hawai'ian trend-setters comin' at him.
Atlanta friggin' rocked it. Take that, Sen. Isakson.
We love Lydia! Her group dominated the meeting with Kerry's staff.
Jamie and the Rep. Lowey crew. You inspire us all, you crazy world-changers.
Speakin' at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office. Ain't no thing.
Your Hometowns are Shakin’! Check out some pics
We’re seeing it all over the country – these meetings are working. Check out some of these pictures, but be sure to check out our Facebook page for tons more.
HOMETOWN SHAKEDOWN is TODAY
THE HOMETOWN SHAKEDOWN IS ON
The Hometown Shakedown goes down TODAY. If you haven’t felt it yet, the Hometown Shakedown is on. You might want to grab on to something stable or get under a doorframe.
If you haven’t heard yet, the LRA Disarmament Bill passed its first big test yesterday. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee affirmed the bill unanimously, moving the bill one step closer to President Obama’s desk. This is a colossal pat on the back for all of our efforts, but the time for celebration is yet to come. We still have a lot of work to do.
Today, we’re visiting the offices of over 30 congressional representatives to tell them one thing: we need their support and co-sponsorship of the LRA Disarmament Bill. Across the nation, supporters like you will be swarming the hometown offices of several senators and representatives who are key authorities in the fate of the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act.
Never before have we been this close to seeing landmark legislation passed regarding Joseph Kony’s ruthless charge.
For that reason, we need your help. If you’re reading this, go to WeWantObama.com, type in your zip code and find the info to call and email your representatives asking them to support the Bill. Then, visit www.invisiblechildren.com for up-to-date information on the Shakedown. All day, we’ll be giving you pictures, videos, and stories of the emerging developments, and streaming live, via Facebook, to keep you updated. Find out how you can lend your voice in support of this bill, and tell your representative how much their assistance means to you.
Click here to see a brand new video, featuring never-before-seen footage of Invisible Children’s recent interview with International Criminal Court lead prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. Hear what he has to say about why our role is so important in the pursuit of Joseph Kony, and how all of us are having an unprecedented effect on international efforts.
The MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do, is try to attend one of the 30 most important meetings (see no. 1 below) shown in this link: MEETING LOCATIONS <– if you can drive, fly, or crawl to one of these… by all means do it.
Join us.
THE HOMETOWN SHAKEDOWN: Wednesday, November 18th, 2009.
1st step a success! This is huge. Read this!
“Dear all –
I just wanted to let you know the LRA Disarmament & Northern Uganda Recovery Act, S.1067, was passed unanimously this afternoon by Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a voice vote. We’ll be sending out a press release soon. This is a huge step forward to getting it past in the Senate and ultimately by all of Congress. Thanks for all your support and help thus far. The next step for us is ramping up the # of cosponsors so we can try to pass it through the whole Senate next month with unanimous consent.
All the best,
Senator Feingold’s office.”
Here is the press release:
SENATE COMMITTEE PASSES FEINGOLD BILL REQUIRING NEW STRATEGY TO CONFRONT THE LRA
Feingold’s Bipartisan Legislation Would Bring New Attention and Support to Ending Africa’s Longest Running Rebel War
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Washington, D.C. – The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed bipartisan legislation today authored by U.S. Senator Russ Feingold and cosponsored by Sam Brownback (R-KS) requiring the Obama administration to develop a new multifaceted strategy to confront one of Africa’s longest running rebel groups, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). For more than two decades, under the leadership of Joseph Kony, the LRA has kidnapped more than 66,000 children and forced them to fight as child soldiers, wreaking havoc in northern Uganda and southern Sudan, and more recently, northeastern Congo and Central African Republic. Feingold’s bipartisan Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act requires the United States to work with multilateral partners to develop a viable path to disarm the LRA, while ensuring the protection of civilians.
“For too long, Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army have terrorized innocent civilians across four countries of central Africa, kidnapping thousands of children and forcing them to become child soldiers and commit horrific acts,” said Feingold, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs, who visited Uganda in 2007. “My bill will commit the United States to develop a proactive strategy to work with regional governments to stop the LRA, while better targeting our assistance to address the conditions in northern Uganda that enabled the LRA to emerge in the first place. I will work with my colleagues to move this important piece of legislation through the Senate.”
“The LRA’s 30-year campaign of violence has scarred communities across central Africa, who have in turn been let down by their governments, the UN and the international donor community,” said Jon Elliott, Africa Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch. “This Bill offers an opportunity to put civilian protection where it should be, at the top of the agenda, and much-needed American leadership to finally bring Joseph Kony and his co-accused to justice. And it will hopefully ensure that victims receive the support and redress they need to rebuild their lives.”
Feingold’s bill authorizes $10 million in additional funding for humanitarian assistance for those areas outside of Uganda now directly affected by the LRA’s brutality. In this year alone, the UN reports that the LRA has killed more than 1,500 people, abducted over 1,800, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Central African Republic, Congo and southern Sudan. Feingold’s bill also authorizes $30 million over three years for transitional justice and reconciliation to encourage and help the Ugandan government to address the grievances and regional divisions that the LRA exploited for nearly two decades. The Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act is cosponsored by Sam Brownback (R-KS) and 25 other senators, including several members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The Bill: What you need to know…
With LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009 now in Congress, much of our work here at Invisible Children is spent ensuring that this bill is passed. How do we do that? Making sure that the people of America know what it says, and why it is the best chance for peace. (we never thought we’d become law makers, but I guess this is what being a grown-up millennial looks like: keeping your converse sneakers on while you storm the White House)
Reading through legislation can be exhausting, and while we strongly encourage you to read over the full bill to educate yourselves and spread the news, we’ve pulled out some of the key points and pushes for the act.
Consider this our gift to you – no one else is going to give you Legislation Cliffsnotes.
Big banks to young Americans: Friendsies??
Can you smell post-banking crisis PR campaign?
Recently, Chase Bank announced a Facebook campaign that they’re using to give out $5 million of our their money to the charities that receive the most votes. Whatever your opinion on these big banks may be, we think their commitment to supporting social causes is admirable. And what better way to do so than through the social media network most-loved among 14-26 year old millennials in potential need of future banking? Yes, Facebook.
This is a great opportunity to spread the word about Joseph Kony’s war, and gather some much-needed money to support Invisible Children’s many on-the-ground development programs and advocacy operations. Thirty seconds of your time can go a long way for many of the war-affected children in our Visible Child Scholarship Program or the women of our MEND Initiative.
Please click here and vote. You can vote up to 20 times, and your 10 study group partners can vote 200 times. My 14 Facebook friends Your 600 Facebook friends can vote 12,000 times. You get the drift.
It’s not that we don’t love big banks. We totally do.
Germany arrests top Rwanda rebels
Police in Germany have arrested two Rwandan militia leaders on suspicion of crimes committed in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ignace Murwanashyaka, the leader of the FDLR rebel group, and his aide Straton Musoni were held on suspicion of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
FDLR leaders fled to DR Congo after the Rwanda genocide in which some 800,000 people – mostly ethnic Tutsis – died. The FDLR’s presence in DR Congo has been at the heart of years of unrest. The arrests come as UN peacekeepers continue to help the Congolese army battle the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda).
The operation has been underway since January but the FDLR remains active.
Facts:
IGNACE MURWANASHYAKA
- Ethnic Hutu, aged 46
- Been in Germany since before Rwanda genocide
- Denies charges his men are linked to genocide
- Says fighting for democracy in Rwanda
- Commands 5-6,000 men
- FDLR said to smuggle gold from DR Congo to buy weapons
- Accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity
- Accused of killings, rape, looting and conscripting child soldiers in DR Congo
- The FDLR is accused of funding its arms purchases by smuggling gold and other minerals from areas it controls in the North and South Kivu provinces, just across the border from Rwanda.
Mr Murwanaskyaka, 46, was arrested in the city of Karlsruhe, while 48-year-old Mr Musoni was held in the Stuttgart area, German prosecutors said in a statement. The statement said that the pair were the leader and deputy leader of the FDLR.
“The accused are strongly suspected, as members of the foreign terrorist organisation FDLR, of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes,” it said. It added that “FDLR militias are believed to have killed several hundred civilians, raped numerous women, plundered and burned countless villages, forcing villagers from their homes and recruiting numerous children as soldiers”.
Lobby group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has welcomed the arrests. “Our research clearly indicates that Mr Murwanashyaka has a powerful influence over the FDLR militia who have deliberately targeted and killed hundreds of civilians in eastern Congo and that he is directly linked to the crimes,” said HRW DR Congo expert Anneke Van Woudenberg. “Mr Murwanashyaka’s arrest on war crimes and crimes against humanity is a welcome step to bringing justice for these brutal crimes,” she added.
Mr Murwanashyaka, an ethnic Hutu, has lived in Germany since before the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. He has always denied that his men, believed to number 5-6,000, were involved in the genocide and says they are fighting to bring democracy to Rwanda.
He was among 15 people whose assets were frozen by the Security Council in 2005 on suspicion of involvement in war crimes in Rwanda or DR Congo.
EYEWITNESS:
Mark Doyle, BBC News
“There is no doubt that Ignace Murwanashyaka has had direct command and control over some of the illegal mining activities of Rwandan rebels operating in eastern DR Congo. I know, because when I travelled in the area earlier this year with a BBC team, it was he who gave us permission to enter the rebel mining strongholds in the South Kivu region. I had sought permission from rebel officers on the ground. All of these officers declined to give us permission to enter their area until Mr Murwanashyaka agreed. It was a public relations gaffe on the rebels’ part, however, because we managed to prove, despite rebel denials, that they were deeply involved in illegal mineral mining.”
The FDLR’s presence in eastern DR Congo has led to years of fighting in the region, and Rwanda’s Tutsi-dominated government has twice invaded, saying it is trying to wipe them out.
Some FDLR leaders have been accused of involvement in the Rwandan genocide.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8364507.stm
Published: 2009/11/17 17:52:32 GMT
From GOOD Mag: Actions > Words > Thoughts > Ignorance > Apathy
GOOD Magazine’s blog is a gold standard. We just love it. Here is a great post from today.
A new book looks at the surprising and inspiring ways people of all stripes can affect social change.
With his new book Actions Speak Loudest, Bob McKinnon has brought together some disparate names to explain how change is fueled by action—not just talk. From Newt Gingrich to Donovan McNabb, Jeffrey Sachs to Jimmy Carter, the book illustrates the many ways in which changemakers leave their mark. McKinnon also heads up Yellowbrickroad, a communications and marketing company that promotes social change through programming, communications, advocacy, and action. We sat down with him to talk about his new book.
GOOD: What inspired the book?
Bob McKinnon: We all have this implicit promise to leave the world a better place for our children. Generally, over the course of previous generations, we’ve been able to keep good on that promise—but what the data now points to is that we may not make good on that promise. We may actually be creating the first generation of children to lead shorter, unhappier, unhealthier lives than their parents, which, in a country with the resources, ingenuity, and the brainpower that we have, is sort of an unacceptable outcome. So the thought was “What do we need to do to draw a little more attention to this promise and the issues that affect it?”
G: And what did you come up with?
BM: We have a short attention span in terms of being able to deal with multiple issues at one time; we’ve got an “issue of the month” mentality. We talk about childhood obesity for a while or maybe climate change gets a lot of attention. We don’t treat them holistically. Our point was to talk about these issues in one project and for us to show how connected they really are. We then wanted to give people some very specific things to act on in the hopes that small actions can accumulate into something much bigger and more powerful.
G: The book has a lot of contributors. How did you pick what to include?
BM: We wanted to select contributors who had demonstrated an action-oriented approach. There’s a wonderful Helen Keller quote we use in the book: “All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.” That’s what these people represent. So, our contributors range from Jeffrey Sachs to Jimmy Carter, Rachel Ray to Dave Eggers. Some of them are household names, but there are also people who have experienced the issues that we’re talking about and have a very firsthand knowledge. For example, there’s one written by Richard Castaldo, who was paralyzed at Columbine. I think those are some of the best essays in the book.
G: The book also has a companion website where you’re encouraging user-generated content.
BM: We wanted it to be a resource, so if people are interested in the work of our contributors or the organizations that are listed in the book, they get more information about what these organizations are doing and how you can get involved directly. We also created a widget, which scrolls through the different actions that are encompassed within the book so every time you visit the site, you can be inspired to do something very immediate. People can tell us about their own actions, about what they’ve done to make the world a better place. It’s been a great way to allow people to demonstrate how their actions are speaking loudest.
G: Who are you hoping to reach with the book?
BM: People who love social change and have an interest in a broad variety of issues. Juan Williams, who contributed both a chapter and the foreword, said two really cool things about the book: One is that a person who has this book in their hands is a dangerous American because they’re empowered to make change. The other thing that he said is that when you look at the contributors and what they share in common, these are people who reached into the muck and mire of life and made something more beautiful—a better outcome.
Buy Actions Speak Loudest here.
Vote for mtvU’s GoodWoodie awards, namely… Jamie.
Head over to mtvU’s website to vote in the category of “Good Woodie,” the award that honors the musician or social justice activist who’s done amazing work in 2009. This year’s nominees include Alicia Keys, Wyclef Jean and Jaime Tworkowski (from To Write Love on Her Arms). Jamie and TWLOHA are friends of Invisible Children and working to bring awareness and hope to people suffering from depression, self injury, and addiction. Get voting now …
Jamie.
Schools for Schools by the Numbers
New, furnished classroom block at Anaka
- 11 Partner Schools, supported by over 1400 schools worldwide
- $4.8 million raised in three semesters
- Average student to classroom ratio improved from 183:1 to 94:1
- Safe water coverage improved from 53% in 2007 to 85% in 2009
- 26 new classrooms constructed, 17 more refurbished
- 108 latrine stances constructed, 14 flush toilets refurbished
- Six motorized water systems established, four new boreholes drilled, six more boreholes refurbished
Things have changed drastically at Anaka as you can see
There is just over one month left in this year’s competition. We’re taking 16 of you with us to northern Uganda next summer (11 fundraising winners, 3 book drive winners, 1 creative idea winner and one November Competition winner). Check here for fundraising ideas and here to make a donation to Schools for Schools.
Biz groups oppose ban on goods made by children and slaves
Here is a story from Change.org about businesses opposing a legislative ban on products made by children and slaves. God bless the free market.
from Amanda Kloer at Change.org:
Rachel Maddow’s choice of “you child labor-endorsing, pro-slavery freaks” to describe business groups’ opposition to a bill that would ban the import of goods made by child labor or slave labor was pretty apt. However, I personally would describe the move as the most stunning display of corporate douchebaggery since Walmart’s “dead peasant’s insurance” fiasco. According to a recent report from Inside U.S. Trade, business interest groups are “worried” that a legislative ban on goods made by children and slaves could prompt the government to more actively seek out and identify consumer goods made by exploited people. And if we started doing that, well then businesses might have to start giving workers their rights, paying them a living wage, not abusing children, and freeing their indentured slaves. And then where would we be?
Here’s Maddow’s analysis (the relevant part of the video starts about 3:30 in):
My colleague (and frequent guest poster) Tim Newman also has a great analysis of the history of legislative attempt to ban goods made with child and slave labor here. Last year, the International Labor Rights Forum took Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland to task for trying to block a voluntary child labor free certification initiative in the Farm Bill. The initiative passed, despite the lobbying of interest groups. History shows that despite the powerful corporate lobby, grassroots activists can be just as powerful a voice for children and workers as high ticket lobbyists can be for corporations.
Remembering our friend Robert Stone
myparentswereawesome.com
This stuff makes my eyes water. This blog is dedicated to the epicness of our parents when they were younger.
http://myparentswereawesome.tumblr.com
The above picture is my grandmother (age 20) and my grandfather (24). Enjoy. And send in your own pics if you have them.
- JJ
Make room Bill and Warren.. because I’m poor and awesome
At IC, close to 80% of our funding comes from donations of $20 or less. It is a tough road, but it has given us a flexibility and democratic freedom that most non-profits don’t enjoy. We may eat cardboard and ramen noodles, but we’re still here kickin’ ace. Here is a NYTimes article about the new growth of small donors.
New Fame for the Everyday Donor
AFTER years in the shadows, the everyday donor is emerging as philanthropy’s newest hero, the driver of a more down-to-earth approach to charity. Sure, Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett, Bono and other celebrity mega-donors still have their place, but now high-profile charities are homing in on smaller donations, while new charities are being organized around the principle of modest giving.
“This is one of those all-hands-on-deck moments where we absolutely need to engage everyone, whether they are able to give 50 cents or $50 million,” said David Saltzman, executive director of the Robin Hood Foundation, famous for annual benefits where billionaires routinely hand over $20 million.
Americans have always been generous givers, and small donations have always played their part. After a tsunami devastated parts of southeast Asia in 2004, individuals in the United States donated $2.78 billion of the $6.2 billion raised for relief efforts — and the median gift was $50, the average gift $135. Yet multimillion gifts and lavish campaigns and events often commandeered the spotlight and the press coverage.
“We are deluded by the attention paid to the large contributors in our country,” said Wendy Smith, author of “Give A Little: How Your Small Donations Can Transform the World.”
“Small checks coming through the mail are the bread and butter for most organizations.”
The American Homeless: Invisible in the Land of Milk and Honey
This article about American homelessness was featured in the UK paper The Guardian. (If you’ve never heard of The Guardian before, check it out: it’s a great source of international and American news. Yes, I know, it’s odd that we need to check out British newspapers to learn about America. CNN, with its visibly partisan slant and endless flow of articles about water skiing dogs and love-affairs-turned-deadly, can only inform an educated person for so long.) The article outlines the criticisms recently hurled at the US government by UN housing investigator Raquel Rolnik. “The housing crisis is invisible for many in the US,” Rolnik said. How, she asks, is the US government able to spend billions of dollars bailing out banks and big business while its own citizens are living home-less, smothered by feelings of hopelessness and despair?
Good question.
On the Ground: VSLA Group Profile
Members of Oberabic’s VSLA group wait for their weekly meeting to start
The village, Oberabic, meaning Five Mosquitos in Luo, is not unlike the hundreds of other small villages carpeting the countryside of northern Ugandan. Subsistence farmers separated from one another by vast swaths of farmland are its residents. Its roads are mottled paths tunneled by head high grasses. Its nights—electricity and light bulb-free—are cloaked in deep, penetrating shadows when clouds float thick. There’s no bustling town center. No large restaurants or modern internet cafes. Because they pull their livelihoods from the earth beneath their feet, season by season, many people in Oberabic exist on the fringes of a money-based economy, relying on bartering and infrequent money-based purchases to survive. Which is why, on this day, the meeting taking place is more remarkable: farmers who have never done so before are pooling their cash, balancing financial ledgers, and taking loans.
How the internet ruined everything: Newspapers, Books, Movies, Music
by Daniel Lyons, NEWSWEEK
The past decade is the era in which the Internet ruined everything. Just look at the industries that have been damaged by the rise of the Web: Newspapers. Magazines. Books. TV. Movies. Music. Retailers of almost any kind, from cars to real estate. Telecommunications. Airlines and hotels. Wherever companies relied on advertising to make money, wherever companies were profiting by a lack of transparency or a lack of competition, wherever friction could be polished out of the system, those industries suffered.
Remember all that crazy talk in the early days about how the Internet was going to change everything and usher us into a brave new techno-utopia? Well, to get to that promised land, we first have to endure a period of what economist Joseph Schumpeter called “creative destruction,” as the Internet crashes like a tsunami across entire industries, sweeping away the old and infirm and those who are unwilling or unable to change. That’s where we’ve been these past 10 years, and it’s been ugly.
Let’s start with newspapers. You wouldn’t think that in an information age the biggest victim would be purveyors of information. But there you go. Newspapers are getting wiped out in part because they didn’t realize they were in the information business—they thought their business was about putting ink onto paper and then physically distributing those stacks of paper with fleets of trucks and delivery people. Papers were slow to move to the Web. For a while they just sort of shuffled around, hoping it would go away. Even when they did launch Web sites, many did so reluctantly, almost grudgingly. It’s hard to believe that news companies could miss this shift. These companies are in the business of spotting what’s new, right? Yet they were blind to the biggest change (and the biggest opportunity) to ever hit their own business. Watching newspapers go out of business because of the Internet is like watching dairies going out of business because customers started wanting their milk in paper cartons instead of glass bottles.
Newspapers are getting wiped out because the Internet robbed them of their mini-monopolies. For decades they had virtually no competition, and so could charge ridiculous amounts of money for things like tiny classified ads. This, we are told by people who are wringing their hands over the demise of newspapers, was somehow a good thing. Good or no, it’s gone, thanks to Craigslist, which came along and provided the same service at no charge. Whoops.
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There is a place beyond ambition
There is a Place Beyond Ambition
When the flute players couldn’t think of what to say next
they laid down their pipes,
then they lay down themselves
beside the river
and just listened.
Some of them, after a while,
jumped up
and disappeared back inside the busy town.
But the rest—
so quiet, not even thoughtful—
are still there,
still listening.
- Mary Oliver
History tells us how to move forward
In his awe inspiring book, Bury the Chains, Adam Hochschild chronicles the rise of the Abolitionist movement in England, how the entire nation rallied behind a small team of revolutionaries who made it their utmost purpose to end the horrific slave trade. We certainly don’t consider ourselves of equal stature with great men like William Wilberforce and John Newton, but we can’t help but identify with their vigor and singularity of mind in speaking out for the rights of others. And when you read about the dynamics of the 12 men who spearheaded the movement, we can’t help but see the IC office in our heads.
These men spent endless, sleepless nights rallying protests and demonstrations, doing national tours speaking at churches and community meetings sharing the shocking truth of the slave trade. This was in the 19th century. Read below, and tell me this doesn’t give you chills. This book was a major catalyst in brainstorming the Global Night Commute.
“The movement they forged is a landmark for an additional reason. There is always something mysterious about human empathy, and when we feel it and when we don’t. Its sudden upwelling at this particular moment caught everyone by surprise. Slaves and other subjugated people have rebelled throughout history, but the campaign in England was something never seen before: it was the first time a large number of people became outraged, and stayed outraged for many years, over someone else’s rights. And most startling of all, the rights of people of another color, on another continent. …As tens of thousands of protesters signed petitions to Parliament, Fuller (a leader in slave sugar trade) was amazed that these were “stating no grievance or injury of any kind or sort, affecting the Petitioners themselves.” His bafflement is understandable. He was seeing something new in history.”
pg 5 of Bury The Chains, Adam Hochschild.
Invisible Children presents: The Legacy Fund
We are launching our new program that invites you to join the cause in specific ways. The Legacy Fund. We have a series of videos that explain the ways you can help. Today is our second: sponsor a Mentor in Uganda. Watch the video, and check us out tomorrow for the next release.
S4S Update: Three Down, Three to Go!
Three Ugandan teachers—Ketty, Robert, and John—have been awarded two-year visas to the US
If you’ve been following this website, you know that six Ugandan teachers will head to the US for one month of team teaching in December under the S4S Reciprocal Teacher Exchange. We’re ecstatic about this upcoming trip because we’ve never brought Ugandan teachers to the US in this capacity before.
Yesterday three of the selected teachers were called for interviews at the US Embassy in Kampala. It can often be difficult to obtain an appointment for the visa interview, and the interview itself can be very challenging. In order to grant a visa, the US Embassy has to be assured that the people intending to travel, in this case our Ugandan teachers, have every intention of returning home. The three candidates traveled to Kampala overnight and sat for interviews in the early morning. After an almost disastrous start (one candidate forgot her passport!) all three got the opportunity to sit before an immigration officer and tell their story. After an agonizing couple of hours, the S4S team learned that all three candidates had been successful and were awarded two-year visas!
Invisible Children Uganda has good ties with the US Embassy, thanks in part to the great work our teams do on the ground in Gulu, but primarily from the efforts of everyone involved in the global IC movement. Without the continued publicity from your support, our teachers might not been so successful. Plans are underway for the remaining three selected teachers to sit for interviews. Keep your fingers crossed!
Mizzou Goes Off
Scrooge McDuck would be proud...unless of course he found out they gave it all away
Mizzou raised $1000 for Gulu Senior Secondary School yesterday. Here’s how they did it:
- Bake sale all day leading up to their screening
- Promo blitz on campus for their screening
- Sold shirts and stickers they designed at their screening
- Sold pizza and soda at the screening
It’s that simple. Some food, some promo, some shirts and some more food. It takes work, but a thousand dollar day is more than doable. Thanks to the Mizzou crew for taking a day out of their lives to make a huge difference at their partner school.