New Interpretation Takes "Waiting for Godot" to Post-Katrina New Orleans

"We took the very basic idea of theater, which is a relationship between an actor and an audience, and expanded that to build community."
-Christopher McElroen, co-founder and executive director of Classical Theatre of Harlem-


Beckett's Waiting for Godot has been lauded by many as the play of our time. (A recent British National Theatre survey determined it to be the 20th century’s "most significant" English language play).

For the Classical Theatre of Harlem the play took on new significance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. As McElroen said in an interview with the Seven Days (Burlington, Vt.): "It just seemed to fit, without having to change anything." On a visit to New Orleans to teach McElroen's friend and colleague, visual artist Paul Chan, reported that the stark post-Katrina landscape in the city’s most devastated neighborhoods "reminded him of every production of Waiting for Godot he’d ever seen."

And so with an all African-American cast and a 15,000-gallon swimming pool with a rooftop coming out of the water, the show premiered in New York City eight months ago and is now on tour in New England.

Before it's New York premiere though, the show was rehearsed, developed and performed in New Orleans in situ. That process became a community arts project that raised more than $50,000 for local grassroots organizations.

Read the Seven Days article for more details on this inspiring project.

Father of Green Revolution Dies: Norman Borlaug, 1914-2009

"When wheat is ripening properly, when the wind is blowing across the field, you can hear the beards of the wheat rubbing together. They sound like the pine needles in a forest. It is a sweet, whispering music that once you hear, you never forget."
-Norman Borlaug-

Norman Borlaug is credited with saving 245 million lives. That's a lot of lives - especially for a seemingly nondescript plant scientist. Borlaug developed semi-dwarf high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties. What does that mean?

It meant that the plants were more resistance to bacterial predators. Borlaug's techniques, combined with modern agricultural production, improved food security and increased food supply in countries including Mexico, Pakistan and India, saving people there from starvation. China has adopted similar techniques to become the industrial giant it is.

Borlaug's life was not without some controversy: there were arguments over the social and environmental consequences of his "Green Revolution." As the New York Times reports, "many critics on the left attacked it, saying it displaced smaller farmers, encouraged over-reliance on chemicals and paved the way for greater corporate control of agriculture." (Read the Times' entire obituary for Borlaug here).

Unfortunately, sometimes the best scientific breakthroughs pass through to new hands who meld them into tools to achieve detrimental ends. Borlaug simply wanted to teach the world how to feed itself.

Workplace Violations Impact Refugees

Post contributed by George Wright of the Institute for Social and Economic Development

Today’s posting contains two pieces of sobering news – both impacting refugees. A study out today – funded by the Ford, Joyce, Haynes, and Russell Sage Foundation – shows that lowest-wage workers in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago are routinely paid less than minimum wage and often refused overtime pay. The study surveyed 4,387 workers, of whom 39 percent were illegal immigrants, 31 percent were legal immigrants, and 30 percent were native-born Americans.

Among the study’s findings, which are detailed today in the New York Times and on National Public Radio, include: 76 percent being denied overtime; 26 percent being paid less than minimum wage; and that only 8 percent who suffered a serious injury at work filed for workers’ compensation. The study suggests that immigrants are disproportionately affected, as are women and racial minorities.

Reporting violations to authorities does help, as a story in the Greeley Tribune details. The article reports that the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission ruled that a JBS USA meatpacking plant subjected Muslim workers to harassment, a hostile work environment, retaliation, and other forms of discrimination. Religious discrimination is against the law, and the EEOC provides information to assist those who believe they have been discriminated against. Thanks to Tom Giossi at ORR for alerting us to this development.

For more info, visit the Institute for Social and Economic Development online.

InvisiblePeople.tv Puts a Face on Homelessness

Elvin from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.

The video above is about Elvin, a healthcare professional who has worked as a nurse for more than 20 years and also holds a degree in political science. He has been married for 25 years and has three children.

As InvisiblePeople.tv writes: "Elvin sounds like someone you'd meet at a baseball game or a coffee shop, but I met Elvin in a parking lot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has been homeless and living under a bridge for over a year. He's working to renew his nursing license so he can go back to work. He says it's hard to keep your dignity when you're living on the streets without a home of your own. He is hopeful that his children will learn from his experience."

These stories and more are featured almost every other day on the vlog InvisiblePeople.tv. They are captured by Mark Horvath, who was at one point homeless himself. He writes:

"For years I've used the lens of a television camera to tell the stories of homelessness and the organizations trying to help. That was part of my job. The reports were produced well and told a story, but the stories you see on this site are much different. These are the real people, telling their own, very real stories… unedited, uncensored and raw.

The purpose of this vlog is to make the invisible visible. I hope these people and their stories connect with you and don’t let go. I hope their conversations with me will start a conversation in your circle of friends."

Visit his vlog today.

Free Aung San Suu Kyi

"The door remains open for the regime to respect the wishes of the Burmese people and international community, and to step toward the path of engagement after so many years of isolation."
-United States Department of State-

Aung San Suu Kyi, the visionary Burmese pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was sentenced Tuesday to three years of hard labor for violating the terms of her house arrest, but her sentence was quickly commuted to a new term of house arrest of up to 18 months (as reported by the New York Times). She was first sentenced to house arrest in 1989

To learn more about her and the Burmese struggle for freedom, I suggest two excellent books -- Letters From Burma (her memoir) and Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace, a novel about Burma and India.

To learn how to take action, please visit these organizations online: US Campaign for Burma, The Freedom Campaign, and Burma Campaign UK. If you have another way or idea to raise awareness, please share it in our comments section.

Girls Start to Speak Out About Violence Against Women

"Studies have shown that up to 46 percent of women in developing countries have experienced at least one episode of sexual abuse in childhood. Most girls in developing countries live in a world completely devoid of safety. In a previous blog I talked about a World Bank study that found that as far as poor girls are concerned, the police are actually a source of insecurity rather than security. Instead of the authorities protecting girls from violence, the authorities were the source of the violence, just as Assiya experienced."
-Maria Eitel-

Read more of "In the Face of Extraordinary Risk, Three Girls Demand Justice" here.