Social Justice Blog

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

2009-09-25T09:10:00.003-04:00

"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

2009-09-15T09:28:00.001-04:00

"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

2009-09-02T14:00:00.004-04:00

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

2009-08-25T10:23:00.004-04:00

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

2009-08-11T10:54:00.003-04:00

"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

2009-08-07T17:43:00.004-04:00

"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.

The Other Side of the Penny: Stanford University Launches “Pathways” Magazine, Full of In-Depth Analysis of Distribution of Wealth and Inequality

2009-07-19T14:06:00.003-04:00

This past weekend I took a crash course in the economy and inequality studies. My guide? Pathways Magazine, the brainchild of Stanford University’s Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality, and two senior editors – David Grusky and Christopher Wimer (along with an editorial board of scholars from the nation’s top colleges and universities).

Pathways sets out to examine the distribution of economic output. The editors explain in the inaugural issue:

"The United States has an ongoing love affair with magazines about the economy. If supermarket shelves stocked with Business Week, the Economist, Forbes, and Fortune are any guide, there is clearly more interest in how the economy is doing and what policies might generate more (or less) output. But strangely enough there are no popular magazines focused on how that output is distributed. This is surely a puzzle. If we care about the total output, shouldn't we also care about who is getting all that output? Why not a magazine on who's winning, who's losing, and why?"

What Pathways offers readers are bi-partisan ideas and approaches to such topics as health care reform, what the United States can learn from the anti-poverty programs and achievements of other countries, and fighting poverty during an economic downturn, among other topics.

Published quarterly, each issue presents a broad topic and asks smart academics to propose answers, stats, policies and views (in short articles). Brief blurbs on current research are also included. A sampling of topics in the most recent issue:

Flexicurity: Joshua Cohen and Charles Sabel argue that the time has come to build a 21st century labor market modeled on key principles of Denmark's "flexicurity" system.

Pro-Poor Stimulus: Lessons from the Developing World: Martin Ravallion looks to antipoverty programs in developing countries to understand how developed nations like the United States can provide stimulus while reducing long-term poverty.

Combating Poverty by Building Assets: Lessons from Around the World: Ray Boshara describes the key features of asset-building programs throughout the world and examines how the United States can apply them to achieve economic security for the poor.

Northern Exposure: Learning from Canada's Response to Winner-Take-All Inequality: Jacob S. Hacker describes how the United States and Canada have taken two different roads and why the Canadian road provides lessons that the United States might take to heart.

Spotlight On...Growing Power and the Urban Farming Movement: In our new "Spotlight On" feature, we talk with Growing Power's Will and Erika Allen about the potential and future of urban agriculture in combating poverty.

It’s fabulously enlightening, well-written stuff that I’d encourage our readers to check out. You can preview Pathways online here.

Vermont Community Galvanizes Around Creating Support Systems and Solutions for Refugees Who Are Victims of Torture

2009-07-16T09:23:00.003-04:00

"Recently a group of Vermonters who work with refugees, asylum seekers and new immigrants have joined in a collaborative effort to ensure that Vermont’s torture survivors get access to all the medical, psychological, legal and social services they deserve. The group, called New England Survivors of Torture and Trauma, or NESTT, has been quietly working behind the scenes to develop a comprehensive and coordinated approach to providing those services."
-from "Out of Darkness" by Ken Picard of Seven Days-

Ken Picard has a in-depth (and moving) article in this week's Seven Days about how the Vermont community is developing successful means of helping African refugees who have been victims of torture.

Patrick Giantonio, executive director of Vermont Immigration and Asylum Advocates and one of the founders of NESTT, estimates that between 50 and 75 percent of his clients are torture survivors, most of whom have never sought treatment.

NESTT is just one organization that is leading the charge to offer assistance and counsel. NESTT will:

"...host a three-day training seminar for various social-service providers — educators, medical and mental-health professionals, lawyers, social workers and so on — who work with Vermont’s refugee population. Already, NESTT’s team of graduate psychology students at the University of Vermont is providing counseling to recent immigrants who’ve had trouble coming to grips with their painful pasts. Though it’s long and difficult work, those who offer such counseling all say they’re amazed by the resilience and courage of their clients and their ability to lead normal lives now."

Read the entire article for a peak into how one small city is becoming a model for dealing with victims of torture.

*Image by Seven Days.

Do Social Networks Like MySpace and Facebook Reveal Class Divisions?

2009-07-10T13:43:00.003-04:00

"What we’re seeing is a modern incarnation of white flight...It should scare the hell out of us." -danah boyd-

danah boyd, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, has spent the past four years studying, observing and analyzing how US teens use social networks. What she's found is that high-school students began showing a trend of white, upper-class and college-bound teens migrating to Facebook while less-educated and non-white teens were on MySpace.

Research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project further elucidates the social network stratification. Their December 2008 study showed that, overall, Facebook users are more likely to be male and have completed college, while MySpace users are somewhat more likely to be female, black or Hispanic, and to have not completed college.

Read more stats in this New York Times blog post on the topic. Or check out boyd's blog and her essay on the topic, which she presented at the Personal Democracy Forum.

The Place of Women on the Nation's Highest Court: An Interview with Ruth Bader Ginsberg

2009-07-08T23:15:00.003-04:00

"It's almost like being back in law school in 1956, when there were 9 of us in a class of over 500, so that meant most sections had just 2 women, and you felt that every eye was on you. Every time you went to answer a question, you were answering for your entire sex. It may not have been true, but certainly you felt that way. You were different and the object of curiosity."
-Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg-

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the lone woman on the Supreme Court these days (although, perhaps for not much longer). The New York Times has a nice interview with her, covering everything from Sandra Day O'Connor to Sonia Stotomayor. Ruth digs into current and past Supreme Court cases, her legal career and answers some interesting questions about gender and the legal system.

Here is a funny excerpt:

Q: Do you think if there were more women on the court with you that other dynamics would change?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: I think back to the days when — I don’t know who it was — when I think Truman suggested the possibility of a woman as a justice. Someone said we have these conferences and men are talking to men and sometimes we loosen our ties, sometimes even take off our shoes. The notion was that they would be inhibited from doing that if women were around. I don’t know how many times I’ve kicked off my shoes. Including the time some reporter said something like, it took me a long time to get up from the bench. They worried, was I frail? To be truthful I had kicked off my shoes, and I couldn’t find my right shoe; it traveled way underneath.

Amnesty International Urges China to Conduct a Fair and Impartial Investigation in Urumqi

2009-07-06T12:00:00.002-04:00

"There has been a tragic loss of life and it is essential that an urgent independent investigation takes place to bring all those responsible for the deaths to justice...Violence and abuses from either the authorities or protestors is in no way justified."
-Roseann Rife, Amnesty International's Deputy Director Asia-Pacific-

Amnesty International today called on the authorities in Urumqi to immediately launch an independent and impartial investigation into reports that 140 people were killed when a protest turned violent late on Sunday.

Read more here.

New Dropping Knowledge Multimedia Campaign Poses Questions to Start Conversations About Social Justice

2009-07-02T09:54:00.003-04:00

Dropping Knowledge, the Berlin- and San Francisco-based group founded in 2003 by Mindpirates, has launched a neat new e-postcard campaign. The group is dedicated to exploring how "provocative, challenging and entertaining questions, communicated by innovative multimedia, can inspire new thinking."

I think these images speak for themselves. Spread them around to start a conversation, or ask a question yourself...

Click here to view all of the images.

Changing the World of Changing the World: Pushing the Models of Online Organizing

2009-06-30T09:51:00.002-04:00

The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard always has a cool and informative lecture taking place.

Today at 12:30pm, Ben Wikler of Avaaz.org, a 3.5-million member global online advocacy organization, will speak on how his organization is trying to expand its model of campaign organization via social media. To quote:

"Now, we're exploring ways to expand the model and increase capacity by devolving the process of campaign generation. How can we--or any similar group--empower larger numbers to shape strategy, while still putting the mass membership at the center?"

Sign up for the webcast here. Check out Wikler's Avaaz.org here.

Looking for something to read on your own time? Check out the Berkman Center's "Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture and Dissent."

Echoing Green Announces 2009 Roster of Social Entrepreneur Fellows

2009-06-21T11:24:00.005-04:00

For more than twenty years, Echoing Green (the name is from a Blake poem) has provided new leaders who possess vision and a smart idea (in areas such as civil and human rights, education and youth leadership, health, and public service) with the seed money and support to put their ideas into action.

The angel investor just announced its 2009 slate of fellows and the group is very impressive. Here is a taste of some of the projects they hope to implement with Echoing Green's guidance and support:

Adam Stofsky/New Media Advocacy Project: Stofsky wants to empower defenders of human rights and social justice by integrating video and internet social networking into their advocacy strategy, enabling them win their legal cases and organize communities. Click here to read more.

Angie Beatty and Shawn McKie/The J.U.I.C.E Project: Through this project, Beatty and McKie will combat disease mortality in inner cities by reimagining the corner store as a one-stop shop for nutritious yet affordable food, free exercise training/activities, media/health literacy education, and art programs. Click here to read more.

Barbara Bush and Jonny Dorsey/Global Health Core: Bush (Yes, W's daughter) and Dorsey hope to build the next generation of global health leaders and improve the quality of healthcare services for the poor by connecting outstanding young professionals from around the world with health-focused organizations. Click here to read more.

Bethany Henderson/City Hall Fellows, Inc.: Henderson's idea is to incentivize and empower diverse, top college graduates to tackle social ills from within existing government institutions, thus ensuring our cities have leaders capable of confronting cities’ myriad challenges. Click here to read more.

Those are only four of the fourteen fantastic ideas to make the world a better place. I encourage you to read though each fellow's ideas by clicking on this link. If you are too lazy to read, you can watch this video:

The Spread of Global Consumerism Brings Traveling Salesmen to India

2009-06-11T09:41:00.002-04:00

"'Brother, why would you need a cellphone?' one performer asks as he passes the only microphone. 'To flirt with the most popular girl in the village,' comes the answer. The crowd giggles."

Read more of the Wall Street Journal's "The Infomercial Comes to Life in India's Remotest Villages" to learn about how rural advertising is spreading the gospel of consumerism.

New Documentary "Food, Inc." Explores How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter & Poorer

2009-05-26T13:23:00.002-04:00

Food, Inc. won’t be out until June 12th in select cities, but in you can visit their website for more information. Watch this video trailer for a sneak peak.

"Invisible Children" Rally Raises Awareness of Child Soldier Kidnappings in Uganda

2009-04-23T16:38:00.006-04:00

On April 25 an abduction and rescue event will take place in more than 100 cities around the world, according to a press release from the California-based sponsoring organization Invisible Children Inc.

Protesters will voluntarily kidnap themselves to raise awareness about "child soldier" kidnappings taking place in Uganda.

Invisible Children Inc. was born in in the spring of 2003, when three young filmmakers traveled to Africa in search of a story. As their story reads "what started out as a filmmaking adventure transformed into much more when these boys from Southern California discovered a tragedy that disgusted and inspired them, a tragedy where children are both the weapons and the victims."

After returning to the States, they created the documentary "Invisible Children: Rough Cut," a film that exposes the tragic realities of northern Uganda's night commuters and child soldiers.

Homeboy Industries Turns Ex-Gang Members Into Solar Posse

2009-04-21T10:58:00.002-04:00

"We don't want people to think that you have to come out of MIT to be able to install solar power. A well-trained individual can make as good a worker as a lifelong electrician."
-Phillippe Hartley, general manager of a solar installation company, Phat Energy-

How neat is this? As Caitlan Carroll of NPR reports, the organization Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-prevention program in the country, offers a job-training program that takes ex-gang members off the streets and teaches them how to install solar panels.

Listen to the full story at PublicRadio.org.

Activist Artists Document Housing Crisis in Providence

2009-04-10T12:52:00.001-04:00

"We want to take beautiful photos but don’t want to aestheticize a real problem. This is not about urban exploration, lonely chairs, and peeling paint."
-Josh Oakhurst, Forgotten Providence-

Artist Oakhurst, along with artists Sam Holland and Myles Dumas recently launched "Forgotten Providence," an interactive web site where visitors will find images of abandoned homes as well as information telling that home's story: links to property data, user submissions and discussion in the comments, and an open forum to discuss the issues surrounding these abandoned homes. Think of it as crowdsourcing how the American housing crisis has affected one city.

Here is the narrative for the house captured in the image above:

"Over four sales between 2000 and its eventual foreclosure in 2007, the “value” of this duplex rose 500%. No significant repairs were made during that time period.

It’s now boarded, vacant, rotting, and vandalized"

The group intends to engage in more civic engagement. As Oakhurst told Poptech, he hopes to “pursue engagement on a political level; using the expertise learned (in putting together this site) to go after political campaign projects or governmental/municipal interaction displays on screen media, be it the web, mobile, or interactive touch screen displays.”

Check out Forgotton Providence online.

EPA Releases Most Wanted List

2009-04-08T12:09:00.002-04:00

The EPA has just released its list of "fugitives," people who have been charged with violating environmental laws or regulations.

As the New York Times reports, crimes include smuggling ozone-destroying coolants, building a secret pipeline to funnel pollutants into a tributary of the Mississippi River, and dumping contaminated grain into the ocean.

The idea to release a fugitives list was born after the capture, in Mexico in March 2008, of a man, David A. Phillips, who the agency says walked away from a federal prison in Oregon. The list says that Phillips was serving time in connection with a series of offenses that began with violations of the Clean Water Act.

While I applaud the EPA for tracking down environmental criminals, I wonder when more positive policies will be put into place to regulate business and corporations who have likely committed a few environmental crimes of their own. What do you think?

Check out the list here.

Michelle Obama: Fist-Bumping Radical to Mom-in-Chief in One Year

2009-04-06T13:34:00.004-04:00

"A supersmart black woman who's also fashionable and fit -- terrifying."
-Kate Pollitt, The Nation--

Today, Michelle Obama was again the topic of conversation in media outlets globally. Her successful trip abroad and her fantastic style have made the media experience what Pollitt classifies as major whiplash ("from fist-bumping to mom-in-chief"). Though she celebrates Obama's reception as the epitome of the twentieth-century woman, comprised of massive style and equal (I'd argue surpassing) substance, she wonders:

"Still, there's something depressing about the joy and relief with which the high-end media have greeted Michelle's makeover from accomplished professional and outspoken social critic to new-traditionalist homebody. They're not only not ready for Hillary Clinton, they're apparently not even ready for Eleanor Roosevelt."

Read more here and let us know what you think in our new "Comments" section.

Aspen Institute's Initiative on Financial Security

2009-04-03T14:17:00.003-04:00

A colleague recently sent me a publication from the Aspen Institute's Initiative on Financial Security, which "is the nation's leading policy program that uses a business-driven approach to create smart solutions that help Americans save, invest and own."

One of the Institute's publications that seemed worth a read: Why Not a “Super Simple” Saving Plan for the United States? (pdf)

Michael Moore: 'We the People' to 'King of the World': You're Fired!

2009-04-01T13:04:00.001-04:00

As expected, Roger & Me's Michael Moore has a thing or two to say about Obama's firing of GM's head honcho, including this gut reaction: "Did Obama really fire the chairman of General Motors? The wealthiest and most powerful corporation of the 20th century? Can he do that? Really? Well, damn! What else can he do?!"

Read the rest of Moore's piece at Common Dreams.

USCRI Asks You to "Stand With a Refugee"

2009-03-26T13:09:00.003-04:00

USCRI has launched a "Stand with a Refugee" campaign to raise awareness about the 17 million refugees who have fled war and persecution around the world. Their team tells us that "As the Obama Administration plans to implement a new foreign policy, we are trying to build a coalition of informed people who care about refugees and will tell the Administration to pass legislation that protects their human rights."

The video below is part of that effort along with a pledge accessible at their website.

For nearly 100 years the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants has acted to address the needs and rights of persons in forced or voluntary migration worldwide by advancing fair and humane public policy, facilitating and providing direct professional services, and promoting the full participation of migrants in community life.

Echoing Green Launches "Spark Social Change" T-Shirt Contest

2009-03-23T17:57:00.003-04:00

Our friends over at Echoing Green, the organization devoted to scouting and funding new talent in the social entrepreneurship realm, have launched a cool, new t-shirt design contest, using Crowdspring as their platform.

The winning t-shirt will be sold on Echoing Green's website, and the money will go toward supporting their "core programmatic model of identifying and supporting promising social entrepreneurs with bold solutions." Anyone can sign up and anyone can vote.

A panel of fashion-industry expert judges will help award the prize ($250), including Echoing Green supporter Joon Ma, from Louis Vuitton, and 2007 Echoing Green Fellow Adam Bucko of the Reciprocity Foundation.

All entries are due March 31st @ 4pm EST.