Going Solar Makes Sense; Dollars and Sense

The following is a guest post by Danny Kennedy, President of Sungevity, Solar Home Specialists. Sungevity is offering a unique way to go solar at your home and support Global Exchange at the same time. Every customer who gets a Sungevity solar system that is reading this can raise more than $500 for Global Exchange. You can find out more here.

Earth Day is a time to reflect on how we get to take action for a better planet. It should also be a time when we consider those whose human rights and democratic rights are suppressed in such a way that they are not able to take action for a better planet. One such person is the rightful and recent President of the Maldives, Mohammed Nasheed.

Nasheed, who served as the fourth president of the Maldives from 2008 to 2012, was the first democratically elected president of this small Muslim nation in several decades. He was forced to resign in February 2012,  in a coup d’etat. His predecessor was a ruthless dictator who had had Nasheed tortured and placed in solitary confinement for being an activist and a dissident journalist. When Nasheed became what he calls the “accidental president” following a political campaign that was given great momentum by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, he set about facing the biggest threat to his country: climate change.

Nasheed famously brought attention to the cause by holding an underwater cabinet meeting near a coral reef (probably one of the most photographed government events in the country), in which he and his ministerial colleagues wore SCUBA gear while signing documents with waterproof ink against the backdrop of a coral reef. He championed climate protection at the international conferences on the subject during his presidency. This became the subject of a recent documentary film on the subject titled The Island President, which you should try to see if you can.

Perhaps his greatest effort to respond to the climate crisis was a plan to make the Maldives the first carbon-neutral country on Earth. Toward this end Nasheed jumped at the offer we at Sungevity made, in conjunction with our friends at 350.org, to put a solar electric solution on the presidential palace, a beautiful colonial building built by the British in downtown Malé, the capital of Maldives and home to about one-third of its population. Most of these people probably pass the palace every day on their way to work or school or the beach; it’s on a small island of 150,000 people, and the Muleaage, as it’s known in the local language, is right in the middle of the city. As such it was the ideal place for the president to kick off his efforts to take his country solar.

Sadly, those efforts have been set aside as he was removed from power. He is now agitating for new elections and when he wins plans to pick up where he left off by taking more buildings and whole islands in the Maldives of diesel-based electricity and onto solar. It will save his country money and demonstrate that we can get off our addiction to fossil fuels. You should consider it too – and if you go solar through Sungevity you can support Global Exchange at the same time. Every customer who gets a Sungevity solar system that is reading this can raise more than $500 for Global Exchange. See this link to understand how it works.

As in the Maldives, the model of fossil-fuel import dependency is entirely untenable. For Nasheed it is so from a national security point of view and as an economic proposition going forward. If the price of oil were to exceed $100 per barrel for an extended period of time, the country would go bankrupt. Then the oil industry would no longer deliver the fuel by ship, and the country would be left without electricity. So the president’s push to get solar energy adopted across the country make sense; indeed, it makes dollars and sense. Get a Sungevity iQuote at this website and you’ll see that it does for you too.

Shine on.

Grand Prize, “Peace is in Our Hands” by Amanda Mckenna of Sacramento, CA

What About Peace?, the art contest that asks youth ages 14–20 to answer this question creatively is pleased to announce the 2012 winners.

Hundreds submitted entries, and after months of jurying, judging and photographing we are ready to reveal the inspiring work of  this year’s contestants, as they think about what peace means in 2012.

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners. Below is a list of winners; our grand prize winner along with the first and second place winners for each category, plus honorable mentions in each category.

Check out the What About Peace Facebook page for a peek at some of this years colorful, thought-provoking visual entries.

We will continue to showcase the creative entries through the end of the school year on our What About Peace website. You can go there now to see the first installment of all of our amazing and inspiring entries. Then keep checking back for future entries!

In the meantime, without further ado, here this year’s winners:

2012 Grand Prize Winner:

Amanda McKenna 17 years old, from Sacramento, California: “Peace is in Our Hands” sponsored by Deborah George of Sheldon High School.

First Prize Visual Arts: Paisley Hiefield, 16 years old

First Prize Visual Arts:

Paisley Hiefield, 16 years old from Portland, Oregon: “Release More Peace” sponsored by Annarose Pandey of West View High School

Second Prize Visual Arts: Jessica Tilley, 16 years old from Battle Creek Michigan: “Peace Has No Limit” sponsored by Rebecca Gardner of Harper Creek.

First Prize Written:

Emily Council, 17 years old from Wiliamsburg, VA: “Reality Check” sponsored by Moncia Schauffler of Lafayette High School.

Second Prize Written:

Simran Khanal, 15 years old from Bennington, NE: “A New Kind of Peace”, sponsored by Deborah Ward of Burke High School.

Honorable Mentions Visual Arts:

  • Dana Ser, 16, Levittown, NY “Breathe in War, Breathe out Peace”
  • Alayna Miller, 17 Battle Creek, MI “Take Time to Converse about Peace”
  • Nhi Nguyen, 15 San Diego, CA “The Letter of Peace”
  • Baylee Kentner,, 15 Levittown, NY “Represent Peace”
  • Camille Mason, 16 Chattanooga TN “Peace on Earth”
  • Ashley Hand, 16 Chattanooga, TN “Heartbeat?”
  • Mary Hare, 17 Portland, OR “We Stand For Peace”
  • Angeleena Tiaokhiao, 14 San Diego, CA “We Are Peace”
  • Katie Lober, 17 Odenville, AL “Share the Peace”
  • Alexander Setzer, 16 Baltimore, MD “A Piece on Peace”
  • Jacob Reynolds, 16, Concord, CA “Peace is in our Reach”
  • Allie Witham, 17, Portland, OR “Peace Comes from Within”
  • Veronica Stamp, 17 Oneonta, NY “It isn’t Enough..”
  • Brenna Rathbone, 16 Oneonta, NY “Holding the World Together, One Hand at a Time”
  • Ansley Pearson, 14 Chatttanooga, TN “Let Peace Fly Free”
  • David Vieira, 16 Parlin, NJ “Why Not Try Peace”
  • Rausan Bonijerai, 18 , Locust Valley, NY “Peace, love, peace, love”
  • Emma Black, 17, South Abington, PA “Together we Can find the Missing Peace”
  • Mallory Hiefield, 16 Portland, OR “It Starts with You”

Honorable Mentions Written:

Essay:

  • David Arellano, 15 Ooltewah, TN “What About Peace”
  • Changwoo Hong, 16, Winona, MN “ Promoting Peace”
  • Hyuntuek Huang, 16, Winona, MN “Peace Sign (V sign)”
  • Lynzee Matousek, 18 Omaha, NE “My Peace”
  • Jacqueline Naganuma, 17 Beaverton, OR “Peace, What About It?”
  • Amelia Nichols, 15, Winona, MN “Peace is Possible”
  • Nicolo Odorizzi, 17 Omaha NE, “Peace”
  • Cecilia Perez, 17, Salinas, CA “Give Peace a Chance”
  • Alexander Peterson, 16 Omaha, NE “Peace and War”
  • Nick Thurber,16 Omaha, NE “A Piece of Mind”
  • Joseph Tlougan, 16, Winona,MN “Untitled”
  • Michael Yoon, 16, Winona, MN “Untitled”

Poetry:

  • Samantha Adams, 16, Baltimore, MD “One World Peace”
  • Emily Banat, 17 Omaha NE, “The Implications of ‘Peace”
  • Rachel Chuang, 17 Great Falls, VA “Perched on the Window”
  • Lauren Cooper, 17 Omaha, NE “The First One Home”
  • Eric Keisling, 18 Omaha, NE “Something to Fight For”

Short Story:

  • Erin Brown, 16 Omaha, NE “That One Person”
  • Hannah Combs, 15 Chattanooga, TN “Why Can’t There Be Peace?”
  • Kathryn Gunderson, 16 Seaford, NY “City of Peace”
  • Stephen Skelly, 16, Levittown, NY “Stockholm Syndrome”

Postcard colored in by Drea

This Easter season children around the Bay Area sent postcards to the Hershey Corporation asking Hershey to make sure its Cadbury brand Easter chocolates are not produced using child labor.

In addition, over 5,000 people signed Raise the Bar Hershey Coalition‘s petition urging Hershey’s and Cadbury to offer Fair Trade Chocolate Easter eggs and get slave labor out of our Easter baskets.

Young Fair Trade activist Natalie's postcard to Hershey

Why Hershey’s Easter chocolates?

In 1988, the Hershey Company purchased Cadbury’s US chocolate business, including the exclusive rights to make and sell well-known brands like York Peppermint Patties, Cadbury Crème Eggs, and Cadbury Solid Milk Chocolate Bunnies.

And while Cadbury has demonstrated its commitment to ending forced child labor on the West African cocoa industry by selling Fair Trade certified chocolates in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Japan, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, the same cannot be said of Cadbury’s chocolate products in the United States.

Natalie's colored-in postcard for Hershey

Why?
Unfortunately, the Hershey Company refuses to meet the standards set by Cadbury’s overseas operations, even though hundreds of thousands of US consumers have called on Hershey to raise the bar and remove forced child labor as an ingredient in its products. These same consumers are eager to purchase treats for their families that align with their values.

What to Do:

*Check out Green America’s Chocolate Scorecard to find some companies that offer delicious fair trade chocolate.

*Visit our Facebook page to see and comment on the postcards.

The Following piece was written by Shannon Biggs of Global Exchange, and Osprey Orielle Lake. You can also find it on the Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus news page.

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‘When we speak of ecosystems as ‘resources’ — it is as if we are saying the Earth is in the business of liquidating itself.”
— Randy Kapashesit of the Cree Nation

The sacred fire was lit as over 100 primarily Indigenous peoples gathered—and hundreds more participated online—for the RIGHTS OF MOTHER EARTH: RESTORING INDIGENOUS LIFE WAYS OF RESPONSIBILITY AND RESPECT International Indigenous Conference APRIL 4 – 6, 2012 at Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence Kansas.

As Renee Gurneau of the Chippewa Nation explained, the fire is an important spiritual tradition acknowledging our relationship with the rest of creation in all things we do, and part of “getting into our ‘right Indigenous mind.’ As she said, “We must always give before we can take, and the fire reminds us of our Original Instructions and helps us wake up to our own knowledge.”

The Sacred Fire

Each day as we walked by the fire circle right outside the auditorium where the conference was held, we felt very grateful and honored to participate in this historic gathering to hold a discourse about Rights of Nature / Rights of Mother Earth with Indigenous leaders and activists from the Global North and South.

Conference organizers, Tom BK Goldtooth (Indigenous Environmental Network) and Dan Wildcat (Haskell University) stated, “This is the greatest challenge facing humanity in the 21st Century. How do we re-orientate the dominant industrialized societies so that they pursue human well-being in a manner that contributes to the health of our Mother Earth instead of undermining it? In other words – how do we live in harmony with Nature?”

Buen Vivir
In part, the gathering was a response to the Cochabamba World People’s Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth conference called forth by President Evo Morales of Bolivia who proposed that the United Nations adopt a declaration that recognizes that Nature or “Mother Earth” is an indivisible living community of interdependent beings with inherent rights, and that as human societies we have responsibilities to follow the true laws of nature, and to live within the carrying capacity of the planet.

Marlon Santi and Patricia Gualinga Montalvo of the Sarayaku Tribe with Shannon Biggs and Ben Price

In the Kichwa  language of the Indigenous people of Ecuador it is called “sumak kawsay,” in Spanish it is “Buen Vivir” — decolonial concepts that mean ‘living well’, as opposed to consumer-driven notions of living more.  But how do we get there? Starting from where we are now, can we really envisage a future other than that which has come from enslaving nature, and treating all other life as mere “resources” for exploitation?

The conference focused on a system of earth jurisprudence (rights of nature) that views the natural world, Mother Earth, not as property to be destroyed at will, but as a rights bearing entity with legal standing in a court of law. The intent of the gathering was to bring primarily Indigenous people together with some non-Indigenous allies to explore questions about how the rights of nature legal framework could re-direct the dominant industrialized society to one of living in respect of natural laws.

The Trail of Tears

The Trail of Tears, which refers to the forced resettlement of Native Americans from their homelands and spiritual sites to far-away encampments remains present in the stories of modern colonization, theft and destruction of lands throughout Indian country. It was quite humbling and heartbreaking to realize how little we learn in our conventional school systems about the history of Native American peoples, their brutal struggles, and their outstanding resilience to hundreds of years of ongoing assaults.

Modern stories of broken promises from government officials, corporations, speculators and lawyers have created a wariness among Native leaders to partner with outsiders, and for those of us “non-native allies” present, it was a constant learning of how to engage with love and humility in a space that was first and foremost—Indigenous. Tom Goldtooth spoke at the conference on the idea of Indigenous leaders partnering with non-native allies to promote Rights for Nature:

Although not everyone saw eye-to-eye throughout the 3-day event, it was clear to all in attendance that the basic tenants proposed by the rights of nature framework, while new to western legal systems, are actually based on”original instructions” — Indigenous worldviews and philosophies that uphold the essential interrelatedness of all life and our human responsibility to respect and protect the natural world that we are part and particle of. This basic unifying principle has the potential to create new alliances and protections for every community as we face the challenging years ahead.

Shannon Biggs and Clayton Thomas-Muller, Tar Sands Campaign Director for IEN enjoy some traditional eats

Almost all of the speakers at the conference were Indigenous—from as far away as Hawaii, Ecuador and Canada.  Shannon Biggs of Global Exchange (co-author of this blog) and Ben Price from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund had the honor and opportunity to present the work we do with communities confronted by unwanted and dangerous projects to write new laws to recognize legal rights for communities and ecosystems.

•    Watch a video of Shannon and Ben present on Community and Nature’s Rights.

•    For video and audio archive of the conference, go here.

Rights and Responsibilities to Future Generations

Representing Global Exchange and the Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus as well as our shared collaboration with the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, we listened and learned a great deal from Indigenous leaders exploring concerns about rights of nature and how they might interface or interfere with existing Indian Native and First Nations laws.  We have much to learn about how Indigenous communities define responsibilities as much as rights, and that the rights of future generations—not just of human but all species—is critical to building a bridge toward common understanding in the shared work that we do.

Renee Gurneau at the Harvest Banquet  hosted by the Osage Nation

The call for environmental justice in Indigenous communities on the frontlines of uranium mining, tar sands extractions, water takings and more are all potential opportunities for rights of nature and community rights to come into action.

We look forward to further alliance building with Indigenous communities and offering all that we can as we look towards the Rio + 20 Earth Summit and beyond and how we can create broad support for the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth and care for all of our communities and bioregions in a truly just and respectful manner. As Tom Goldtooth said at the conference,

“We cannot flourish breaking the laws of nature. Rights of Nature is a human recognition that we are part of a larger Earth community and if we want to continue we must recognize the laws of that community; the true system governing our own well being.”

Further resources/links

  • Hawaiian Rev. M. Kalani Souza, storyteller, songwriter, musician, poet, 
philosopher, priest, political satirist, and peacemaker joins a banjo playing friend impromptu 
for a song on the grass at Haskell College.
  • Shannon Biggs and Osprey Orielle Lake are offering  Rights of Nature Trainings through the Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus and if interested, please contact Wyolah Garden (wgarden@ix.netcom.com). Also if you are interested in hosting a Rights of Nature Training in your community please contact Wyolah Garden.

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Shannon and Osprey at the conference

Shannon Biggs is the Director of the Community Rights program at Global Exchange. She recently co-authored a book, Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grass Roots  (PoliPoint Press). Her current work focuses on assisting communities confronted by corporate harms to enact binding laws that place the rights of communities and nature above the claimed legal “rights” of corporations.

Osprey Orielle Lake is a lifelong advocate of environmental justice and societal transformation. She is the Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus (WECC) and an International Advocate for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. Her book, Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature (White Cloud Press) is a 2011 Nautilus Book Award winner.

When is the last time you heard from a civilian victim of the CIA’s secret drone strikes? Sure, most of them can’t speak because they’re deceased. But many leave behind bereaved and angry family members ready to proclaim their innocence and denounce the absence of due process, the lack of accountability, the utter impunity with which the U.S. government decides who will live and die.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government has increasingly deployed unmanned drones in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. While drones were initially used for surveillance, these remotely controlled aerial vehicles are now routinely used to launch missiles against human targets in countries where the United States is not at war, including Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. As many as 3,000 people, including hundreds of civilians and even American citizens, have been killed in such covert missions.

The U.S. government will not even acknowledge the existence of the covert drone program, much less account for those who are killed and maimed. And you don’t hear their stories on FOX News, or even MSNBC. The U.S. media has little interest in airing the stories of dirt poor people in faraway lands who contradict the convenient narrative that drone strikes only kill “militants.”

But in Pakistan, where most strikes have occurred, the victims do have someone speaking out on their behalf. Shahzad Akbar, a Pakistani lawyer who co-founded the human rights organization Foundation for Fundamental Right, filed the first case in Pakistan on behalf of family members of civilian victims and has become a critical force in litigating and advocating for drone victims.

Akbar is by no means anti-American. He has traveled to the United States in the past, and has even worked for the U.S. government. He was a consultant with the U.S. Agency for International Development, and helped the FBI investigate a terrorism case involving a Pakistani diplomat.

But his relationship with the US government changed in 2010, when he took on the case of Karim Khan, a resident of a small town in North Waziristan who claimed that his 18-year-old son and 35-year-old brother were killed when a CIA-operated drone struck his family home.

“Khan could have responded by taking up arms and joining the Taliban. Instead, he put his trust in the legal system,” Akbar told me in an interview from Islamabad. Akbar helped Khan sue the CIA and the US Secretary of Defense for the wrongful deaths of his relatives. Since then, dozens of families have come forward and joined the legal proceedings.

According to the New America Foundation, from 2004-2011, between 1,717 and 2,680 individuals were killed in Pakistan by drone strikes, and of those, between 293 and 471 were civilians. The UK-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism puts those figures higher, saying that some 3,000 have been killed, including between 391 and 780 civilians.
Akbar disputes even the Bureau’s figures, claiming that the vast majority of those killed are ordinary civilians. “Most of the victims who are labeled militants might be Taliban sympathizers but they are not involved in any criminal or terrorist acts,” Akbar said. “The Americans often use the fact that someone carries a weapon as proof they’re a combatant. If that’s the criteria then the US will have to commit genocide, because all men in that area carry AK-47s. It’s part of their culture.”

Now that Akbar has become the voice of drone victims, it appears that the Obama administration is trying to silence him.

He was invited to speak at a human rights symposium at Columbia University’s law school in May 2011, but he never received a visa. Despite repeated enquiries, he was merely told there was “a problem” with his application. Now he has been invited to speak at the first ever Drone Summit on April 28-29 in Washington DC, organized by the peace group CODEPINK and the legal advocacy organizations Reprieve and the Center for Constitutional Rights. Once again, his visa remains stuck in the never-never land of  “administrative review.”

The Summit organizers have appealed for help from the State Department, key members of Congress and the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan. After looking into the case, U.S. Deputy Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Hoagland responded: “Whether we like it or not, the current U.S. visa system faces significant constraints within the Homeland Security structure.”  Insisting that the issuance of visas was not used as an ideological tool but was a reflection of “complicated and even byzantine laws and regulations,” Hoagland concluded, “I fully sympathize, but I cannot change law and regulation.” His recommendation? “Continued patience.”

“The Obama administration has already launched six times as many drone strikes as the Bush administration in Pakistan alone, killing hundreds of innocent people and devastating families,” said Leili Kashani, Advocacy Program Manager at the Center for Constitutional Rights, one of Summit sponsors. “By refusing to grant Shahzad Akbar a visa to speak at the Summit, the Obama administration is further silencing discussion about the impact of its targeted killing program on people in Pakistan and around the world.”

The Drone Summit’s organizers vow to keep pressuring the U.S. government to grant Akbar a visa and are encouraging their supporters to contact Consul General Steve Maloney in Pakistan. If all fails, they will have Akbar speak, via satellite, at a press conference at the National Press Club on Thursday, April 26, just before the Summit begins.

“Our legal challenges disrupt the narrative of ‘precision strikes’ against ‘high-value targets’ as an unqualified success against terrorism, at minimal cost to civilian life,” said Akbar, “The CIA does not want anyone challenging their killing spree, but the American people should have the right to know.”

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Medea Benjamin, cofounder of CODEPINK and Global Exchange, is author of the new book Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control. To get your copy of the book – click here. Register here for the Drone Summit on April 28-29.

The following is a guest post by Jacob Schmalzle. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Global Exchange.

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MADE IN CHINA…Or Is It?  The Outsourcing Rabbit Hole

As the founder of my church’s Fair Trade mission, I’ve witnessed untold billions of dollars wasted on ineffective programs to alleviate poverty. Without belittling these efforts, the complex problems of economic injustice have clearly not been solved. Though well-intentioned, these altruistic motives are often no match for the powers of greed, desperation and the willingness of the greedy to exploit the desperate.

Exploitation takes on many forms. It is with different political structures, different cultural tolerances, and with varying perspectives that we recognize (or fail to recognize) exploitation around the world, even in our own backyard. The efforts of watch-dog groups that fight for human rights have made serious progress in the task of illuminating social injustice. However, when you turn on the kitchen light and see a multitude of roaches scatter into hiding, the smart ones will end up at your neighbor’s house rather than succumb to extermination. The roaches that exploit desperate people for underpaid labor are scattering from Asia into Africa.

While not the only contributing factor, outsourcing in the last several decades has spawned an industrial revolution across Asia. The desire to maximize profit is a function of every business model, and outsourcing to cheaper labor markets continues to be a logical move for many companies. The problem is when profit ceilings are not defined by basic ethics, and workers are exploited or worse, enslaved.

After decades of economic growth, Asian economies are becoming more developed and have moved away from manufacturing toward services and technologies. Following the corporate hand-washing model of outsourcing accountability along with production, Asian factories have now re-outsourced to cheaper African labor markets as the “last frontier”. Export Processing Zones (EPZ), factories that operate without corporate tax, import/export duties and without any notable workers rights, are becoming common. It’s like an “African Bermuda Triangle” of manufacturing. Companies are slashing production costs while neglecting to provide gainful employment to producers or any cost savings to consumers.

I have been on private tours of several clothing factories and was shocked to recognize clothing being produced for mainstream labels. Raw textiles are imported duty-free, clothing is produced with underpaid labor, free of corporate taxes, and then exported back to Asia where a “Made in Asia” label is attached. The clothing ends up on racks of retail stores in developed countries. One factory owner told me that not a single article of clothing will cost them more than $2, including labor and shipping. How much did you pay for your last pair of brand name dress slacks? Do YOU feel exploited?

If we thought it was tough fighting exploitation, it just got a lot tougher. The web of corporate outsourcing and re-outsourcing, combined with political policies that have been over-engineered to attract foreign commerce, leaves the human rights warrior picking their jaw up off the floor.

The good news is that the Fair Trade movement is uniting people from many different platforms to provide alternatives. As we educate consumers, they realize that exploitation of workers is also usually accompanied by unjustifiably high retail pricing. Why do I pay $50-100 for the dress pants that cost $2 to produce?

Eliminating exploitative middlemen to pay producers a fair wage also eliminates the profit margins of those middlemen. As Fair Trade volumes increase, prices must come down so we can simply phase out the exploitative model by natural market competition. There are no more “last frontiers” for the exploitative roaches to hide.

While the people reading this right now might cringe at the very mention of the word “sweatshop”, let’s face it, the average shopper is only out to help themselves, their image or their sex appeal. If we can keep Fair Trade prices lower than non-Fair Trade substitutes, consumers will ALWAYS make the ethical choice to save money AND help people. The future of Fair Trade cannot depend on the good will of a select few…the future of Fair Trade must depend on competitive positioning within the general market.

Fair Trade needs to lose the “lone rangers” who try to put an overpriced fence around their corner of the market. Fair Trade needs to be a movement that breaks into the global market with quality substitutes at competitive prices. May our collective advocacy of Fair Trade and the impact we make continue to be blessed!

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Jacob Schmalzle is the Founder and Managing Director of Village Markets of Africa, the Fair Trade mission of the Lutheran Church in Kenya. He can be reached at jacob@villagemarketsofafrica.com.

Global Exchange is proud to announce our first ever online auction, in advance of the 10th annual Human Rights Awards – a way for our supporters around the country to support our work by bidding on an amazing collection of items.

There are some awesome items up for bid; one-of-a-kind getaways, fine dining gift certificates, collectable artwork, electronics, and lots more.

And the best part? New items are added throughout the auction so when you’re on the site checking your bid, don’t forget to keep your eyes open for new items. Auction ends 19th!

Here are a few of my favorite items up for bid (to get the complete picture, check out the auction online):

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Live the Story of Stuff

Go on a once in a lifetime adventure with 2012 Human Rights Award Winner Annie Leonard!  Annie Leonard, creator of The Story of Stuff video, will lead a San Francisco Bay Area tour to find out what happens to all that stuff once it’s been thrown away.  You’ll get an up-close look at the leftovers of our consumer economy, with personal instruction from an expert.

iPad 2

Are you always on the go yet still need to stay connected? Then bid on this iPad 2 (16gb with wi-fi). Features include core dual-processor, built-in cameras, and long-lasting battery. Users can take advantage of over 70,000 third party applications as well.(Psst, Mom. I don’t have one yet, and I reaallly want one.)

Green Festival VIP Passes, Tour and Lunch with Co-Founder Kevin Danaher

Get a behind-the-scenes look at the largest sustainability event in the country – Green Festival. Kevin Danaher, Green Festival Co-Founder, will personally take you on a VIP tour of the Green Festival. Introducing you to vendors, speakers and event producers. After the tour, enjoy an organic, local lunch and a private conversation with movement leader, Kevin Danaher.  Includes 2 passes to a 2012 Green Festival of your choice. (2012 Green Festivals held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Washington D.C.)

One Week Stay in a Paris Apartment

This amazing package is valid for a 2-4 person stay in a beautiful, fully equipped apartment for 1 week in Paris! You will be delighted to stay in a charming apartment in Montmartre, Paris (France) – and live like a Parisian while doing it. Ooh, la la!

SO LET’S GO!

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Auction: Ladies and gents, let the bidding begin!

Human Rights Awards: Join us at the 10th annual Human Rights Awards.

With property values at record lows and vacant abandoned infrastructure all around, Detroit has started to capture the imagination of a generation of young adults flocking to the Motor City with the intent of building a new vision of the city in the 21st century. Among those are participants in the Green Economy Leadership Training  (GELT) program.

For those unfamiliar with GELT, watch this video from 2010. This chick rocks!!!

Now here we are in 2012. 100 years ago Detroit was on the cutting edge of the industrial revolution, and was one of the most important cities in the world.  Flash forward to 2011, Detroit is once again one of the most important cities in the world as a microcosm of a broken economy that is quickly leaving behind the working class and a growing disparity between rich and poor.

In newspapers and on TV, Detroit is depicted as the most dangerous city in America, backed by recent reports showing the highest murder rates in the country.  Journalists have come from all over the world to document the decay, creating a new class of journalism labeled, “ruin porn.”

But underneath the stories the media portrays and the pictures many journalists project, a new generation of Detroit is rising. Artists, activists, organizers and entrepreneurs from all walks of life are descending on the city to take advantage of the wide open spaces, massive abandoned factories and warehouses and projecting a new vision for the 21st century American city.

The Green Economy Leadership Training program is on the forefront of this movement.  The 2011 GELT program wrapped up last August, completing its second year of transformative action in Highland Park, Michigan, in the shadows of Henry Ford’s iconic Model T plant, the first automobile industrial assembly plant.

Over 25 people participated in the 2011 GELT, ranging from grandmothers born and raised in Detroit, to high school students from local schools, to college students and recent grads from all over the country.

Participants went through over 250 hours of trainings in urban agriculture, solar energy, energy efficiency, entrepreneurship and community wealth building.  In addition to the trainings, participants spent most of their time this summer working in one of four project areas: solar energy, urban agriculture, waste manufacturing and deconstruction.

Participants in these projects took the lead on installing solar panels, building a 4-season greenhouse, remodeling an abandoned house and building a playground out of recycled tires for the neighborhood kids.  Participants also received certifications in permaculture and the “NAPCEP” entry level solar photovoltaic.

So what’s next? GELT 2012, of course, and YOU are invited to apply!
We encourage you, or anyone you know, to apply for the third Green Economy Leadership Training from June 11-August 18, 2012.

Want to participate in community-led projects focused on developing local green economy resources? Interested in learning to organize social entrepreneurship ventures? Between the ages of 18 and 99? Want to spend the summer in Highland Park, MI and meet like-minded people from across the country working for social justice while working with the local community? Then apply to GELT today!

To apply for GELT 2012, click here. Application deadline: April 10th

If you cannot attend, you can still support the GELT project and sponsor a GELT summer fellow. Consider making a special gift today.

Watch the GELT video “We Will Carry the Fire”:

Global Exchange has joined more than 60 other organizations to host a 99% Spring non violent direct action training – one of 912 events (and counting!) taking place during April 9-15. Thousands of people across the country have stepped up to plan a 99% Spring action training and we’re training all Global Exchange staff on April 12.

We will prepare ourselves to join a huge wave of progressive direct action nationwide this spring. All over America, the 99% movement is getting ready for 60 days of protests, sit-ins, rallies, marches, and more this spring—all aimed and confronting the power, greed, and influence of the 1%.

I jumped in to do this because I want to see the 99% Spring take off in a big way. We’d be joining a rich tradition in this country of non-violent direct action to make the change we know we need.

It’s exciting and I hope you can be part of it!

Sign up for a training here.

Sign up to host a training here.

Our movement will be holding huge rallies in every major city on Tax Day to call out the 1% who refuse to pay their fair share. We’ll be gathering massive crowds to confront CEOs and top executives at annual shareholder meetings of Wall Street banks, dirty energy polluters, and corporations that refuse to treat workers fairly. And we’ll be doing everything we can to call out the corrupting influence of corporate money on our elections. Global Exchange’s Occupy the Elections will be part of this campaign.

At the trainings we’ll be preparing ourselves to take part in these bold actions and to build connections with other progressives who want to see a 99% Spring in America.

Me, on the streets Jan 20, 2012, hope to see you on the streets soon!

We’ll practice telling the story of what happened to our economy and what a different future could look like, we’ll learn the history of nonviolent direct action, and we’ll train and plan to take direct action ourselves—in the footsteps of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.—to win change. We have an amazing shared history of everyday people using direct action to transform the political landscape in this country from the civil rights movement to Occupy Wall Street.

This spring, I want to you join us in becoming a part of that legacy right where you live. Find out more here.

The following was co-written by Rae Abileah and Medea Benjamin.

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On Friday, March 30, First Lady Michelle Obama received an unusual request at her San Francisco fundraiser. Instead of “Can I have a picture with you?,” one major donor asked, “Will you use your leadership to prevent an attack on Iran?”  Kristin Hull hand delivered to Ms. Obama a petition against war on Iran that was signed by prominent women including Gloria Steinem, Alice Walker, and Eve Ensler, and over 20,000 American women and allies. Hull implored the First Lady to think of the military families and veterans who have paid the price of war.  Ms. Obama has championed veterans’ issues while in office and for this reason, in addition to her obvious proximity to the President, women’s groups have made her a focus of their peace efforts.

Ms. Obama thanked Hull for her advocacy and said, “Keep up the great work.”  As Hull was walking away after her photo with the First Lady, Michelle Obama grabbed her hand, squeezed it and said, “We really need you.”

The petition implores three powerful American female politicians—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Susan Rice and First Lady Michelle Obama—to use their influence to push for diplomacy, not bombing, in US relations with Iran.  The next step will be to hand-deliver the petition to Clinton.  CODEPINK launched this petition online on March 20th, the 9th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq (coincidentally also on the Iranian New Year, Norooz), with a call from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker. “Nine years ago, I joined CODEPINK in front of the White House in an act of civil disobedience to try to stop our government from bombing Iraq,” said Alice Walker. “None of us could live with ourselves if we sat by idly while a country filled with children was blown to bits using money we needed in the United States to build hospitals, housing and schools. We must not let another tragic war begin.”

Indeed, the writing on the wall looks eerily similar to the lead up to the Iraq invasion in 2003, with the government using crippling sanctions and the media stirring up fear among the public. The millions who marched against war in 2003 did not succeed in preventing an attack on Iraq, but the American public is now war weary and more interested in fixing our tattered economy than getting involved in another draining military adventure overseas. While one recent poll showed that if Israel attacks Iran, 47 percent thought the United States should support Israel vs. 42 percent who said we should not get involved, another poll found that the public overwhelmingly favors a diplomatic solution—69 percent preferred negotiations while 24 percent wanted an Israeli strike.

The CODEPINK petition is designed to increase the visibility of that anti-war sentiment. It was created at the request of an Israeli group, the Coalition of Women for Peace, who modeled their own petition after a call to action from a group of women inside Iran. “I thought it was so beautiful that women from Iran, Israel and the United States were coming together across borders to stop war,” said Alice Walker.

“This petition reminds us that governments don’t always represent their people,” said Dr. Dalit Baum, a founding member of the Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace. “With all the war mongering between the leaders of Israel, the US and Iran, it is the voice of women that reminds us that people will try to avoid war and seek out humanity.”

U.S. feminist author Gloria Steinem has also lent her voice to this effort to stop a new war. “Before the U.S. military attacked Iraq, I joined many activists, writers and artists in signing a call opposing a preemptive military invasion of Iraq,” said Steinem. “We feared such a war would increase human suffering, arouse animosity toward our country, damage the economy and undermine our moral standing in the world.  Our fears turned out to be right. Once again we are calling on people to stop another devastating war, and we’re especially calling on women—as we’ve seen from Ireland to Libya, women often have a peacemaking advantage. Let’s hope this time our government listens.”

Another cross-border phenomenon erupted recently on Facebook when Israeli graphic designer Ronny Edri posted a photo of himself with his daughter and the message “Iranians We Love You. We will never bomb your country.” Edri and his partner Michal Tamir invited others to make similar images, and were soon flooded with responses by Israelis posting their photos with heartfelt messages. Within 48 hours, Iranians responded with similar expressions of love for Israelis, highlighting images of Jewish historic landmarks in Iran and Iranians who saved Jews during the Holocaust.

Responding to a photo of a worried-looking Israeli mother with her son, one Iranian wrote, “I had experience with war. I was just 10 years old when I went to defend my country from Iraq. Many of my friends died and disappeared. I cannot forget that time in my life. I can understand why you worry about your kids. Your photo reminds me of my mother’s face. I respect you very much. I hope war never happens between our countries. God bless you and all of the mothers in the world.”

Maryam Howe, an Iranian living in England, believes the Iranian response would be ever greater were it not for government restrictions and fear. “I know my people don’t have access to Facebook because of the government filtering and even if they did manage to have access, they may get into trouble for liking these pages,” she wrote. “I promise they would support this 100%. We want peace and freedom. We ♥ Israelis and all other nations. I adore you for doing such a beautiful thing by starting this page. It’s amazing to see how love spreads across our borders.”

Despite restrictions, the Israeli organizers say that in one week, 33,000 Iranians visited the new website they created, Israel Loves Iran, and the facebook page is peppered with comments from Iranians.

This exchange has now gone global, with people around the world—including many Americans—sending in heartwarming videos, photos and messages. CODEPINK is contributing to this campaign by launching a new site, www.weloveiran.org, that allows people to upload their own photo and superimpose a message on the picture, post it to their Facebook, tweet it, and share it with friends. Some of the images will become larger than life when projected on the Capital and State Department buildings later this month.

Faced with the specter of a catastrophic war, groups like CODEPINK are putting pressure on politicians—and their wives—to use diplomacy. But ordinary folks are also going around the politicians by reaching out to each other. As one American wrote on the facebook page, “Politicians and weapons makers cultivate hate to yield more power and earn more money. We, the people, must be the countervailing force that cultivates love for humanity and prevents them from taking us to war.”

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Rae Abileah and Medea Benjamin are, along with Jodie Evans, codirectors of CODEPINK (www.codepink.org).  Visit www.weloveiran.org to add your photo and signature to the global call for peace with Iran.