Michelle and Danny explain the impetus for their documentary project:

Our job was to capture the stories and images related to prison life, the city streets, the courtrooms and the debates shaping the future of Brazil’s legal reform.

It wasn’t easy.

Our opportunity in Brazil was organized by International Bridges to Justice (IBJ), an organization open to young travelers who would like to use their skills in documentary photography or writing to assist programs in the developing world.

In July of 2009, International Bridges to Justice (IBJ) sent us to Brazil to assess the impact and potential of IBJ’s fellowship program there. The program, known as JusticeMakers, granted Dr. Aziz Saliba the financial support to produce an educational DVD on habeas corpus and the Inter-American Court.

Every prison that IBJ’s team visited was at least twice over capacity, except for one- APAC (Associação de Proteção e Assistência aos Condenados). This prison is Brazil’s homegrown vision of a jail guarded by prisoners themselves. It was the cleanest, most cost-efficient, spiritual and calm prison we’d visited during our stay. The energy and the optimism of the lawyers we worked with kept us going.

The surreal characteristic of the other prisons we visited reminded me of Ursula K. LeGuin’s famous story, “Those who walk away from Omelas.” But on the whole, I was most struck by the humor and the optimism of people like Adão, a spiritual leader in a community with high incarceration rates; Thomas, a young boy of 15 who knew his rights front and back; Lupe, a man who had re-written a book about his life in prison memorized completely in his own head; Roberto Tardelli, a leading prosecutor who worked in neighborhoods where locals thought they were still under the military dictatorship of the 1970s; and Casé, a lawyer leading the campaign against pedophilia and child abuse who still had time for his own love of comic books and family.

These people all have their own stories.

I hope our photos encourage you to learn more about their situations, help their cause, or join IBJ in the future.

1. Prisoners are given time during the day to sunbathe in a courtyard at Presidio Floramar, an adult prison located in Divinopolis, Brazil. They are required to sit during this period until the head count is completed. Meanwhile, some chant, sing to themselves, or talk with the guards, but are on the whole much quieter than the inmates at the adolescent jail next door.

2. Though Floramar is considered to be one of the more well-managed prisons in the region, it suffers from the characteristic overcrowding that affects most prisons throughout the country. At approximately 500 inmates, the prison is already over twice its formal capacity of 250 inmates. Even so, grievances are hardly addressed. Fire riots broke out at Floramar due to overcrowding just weeks after this photo was taken, eventually put down by brute police force.

3. The Brazilian justice system is plagued by a number of serious problems, most notably, a lack of investigators and endless bureaucratic red tape. A single case could take up to 10 years to process. Here, an employee files away paperwork for a case at Forum, a civil and criminal courthouse in Divinopolis, Brazil.

4. Under such circumstances, many temporary detention centers have been converted into full time prisons for both accused and convicted criminals. This alberque, living quarters originally meant for accused individuals imprisoned for a maximum of 30 days, is located just outside of Divinopolis. Like Floramar, it is also twice over capacity, at 50 inmates in a 25-person facility.

5. One inmate we spoke with had been detained for two years and three months. Though he suffered from severe medical conditions, including a tumor, he was still awaiting trial. Most inmates spend their free time writing letters to friends and family.

6. IBJ Fellow Dr. Saliba is hoping to inform these prisoners of their right to habeas corpus, which would protect them from illegal detainment. Through the distribution of a short film, he can make a difference by making it easier for people to both learn about their right to habeas corpus and for communities to exercise this right more often. As such, the film is directed toward a lay audience with no experience in law or legal training. Dr. Saliba is also producing a second film for legal aid workers on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights – a resource they could appeal to when all else fails.

7. Faiçal narrates Dr. Saliba’s film on habeas corpus. As the General Director of Universidade de Itauna, a law school in a nearby city, he has been assisting Saliba as he approaches completion of his project with International Bridges to Justice.

8. The road ahead is still long. Weak institutions and bureaucratic inefficiency are only two of a host of obstacles that Brazil faces. Most prosecutors we spoke with in Brazil agree the legacy of the military regime is a major cause for the gaps they face in the fair application of Brazil’s legal code. The stigmatization of Brazilian human rights commissions, historically related to criminals and those on the margins of society, means that society as a whole is less willing to embrace human rights reform and debate. Above: Two security agents accompany an inmate down the halls of Forum, the civil and criminal courthouse in Divinopolis.

9. Continued racial profiling and troubled state-society relations can also make people reluctant to learn about their legal rights. In this photo an inmate consults with his lawyer beside Floramar’s open courtyard, defying the traditional stereotypes of social class and race. To this day, many Brazilians question the authority of the police, largely as a legacy of the decades of military dictatorship.

10. Nonetheless, progress is being made, albeit very slowly. A new form of detention is now being implemented in Brazil and worldwide — one that focuses on the prisoner as a human being with dignity and potential rather than as a mere prisoner. In many ways that addresses the plight of the Brazilian legal system, especially with regard to its historical legacy and social stigmatization. The system, known as APAC (Associação de Proteção e Assistência aos Condenados), boasts success on all accounts, from reeducation rates to financial sustainability standards. Above: an inmate looks out the window from an APAC office, where all of the administrative work is carried out by inmates.

11. Imprisonment does not dampen the youthful spirits of inmates, as one young man reaches out spontaneously to pose for the camera.

To learn more about the documentary journalist positions at International Bridges to Justice, please visit this site.

If you’d like to make a donation to the habeas corpus project, please click here.

If you’re interested in volunteering with an NGO in Brazil, please contact Cecilia Neves Silveira at cecilia@omnes.org.br. Cecilia coordinates opportunities at OMNES, an NGO working with the defense of human rights as a whole. Projects include teaching professionals how to work with the human rights legal system. Another project assists prisoners and defends their rights.

Cecilia also coordinates volunteer opportunities at De Volta Para Casa, an NGO helping children return to their homes or to help them find families. De Volta Para Casa also works with children in adolescent prisons.

Community Connection:

Brazil isn’t the only country with overcrowded prisons. Read this article from the archives to learn how the US prison system has become a big business.

About the Photographers:
Michelle Ferng studies International Relations at Virginia. She has always had an interest in photography, but it had usually been more of a casual hobby. IBJ afforded her the opportunity to show her talent through documentary photography and the production of photo-essays.

Danny Thiemann is assisting research and program development for IBJ’s expansion in Brazil. He has completed previous academic studies on international law in Costa Rica, art-for-peace programs in Lebanon, creative fiction programs in Egypt, a recent documentary for the Clinton Global Initiative in Palestine. He is a 2009/2010 Fellow for The Modern Story in Hyderabad, India.

All photos, unless otherwise noted: Asociación MAPU

For five weeks this past July and August, I volunteered with Asociación MAPU in Esquel, Argentina.

The many projects being undertaken by the organization have a common thread: the imperiled land rights of the indigenous Mapuche people.

Here’s what I learned…and more importantly, why you should care.

Background

The Mapuche, and other peoples inhabiting the far south of South America, held out against European influence and incursion into their traditional territories for centuries. In Argentina, this autonomy lasted until the 1870s, when the government waged its “Conquest of the Desert.” The stated aim of the campaign was to “exterminate the Indian savages and barbarians of the Pampas and Patagonia.”

Photo: author

By 1884, thousands of Mapuche had been killed or displaced.

Suddenly, the Argentine government had huge tracts of “liberated” Patagonian land on its hands. Much of the new territory was “gifted” by President Uriburu, through legally questionable means, to individuals who had provided financial assistance during the conquest.

Over the intervening century, some of this land was acquired by corporations and used for timber production, mining (a whole issue unto itself), and other forms of natural resource extraction.

Many landholdings, on the other hand, went unused, fenced off by their “owners” (both the means of acquisition and the exact boundaries of these estates are dubious at best) yet producing value for no one.

Symbolic Struggle

Such is the case with Santa Rosa, a 535-hectare plot lying about an hour’s drive north of the town of Esquel via Route 40. It is claimed to belong to a much larger holding (181 thousand hectares) owned, through various subsidiaries, by the Italian fashion multinational Benetton Group.

Rosa and Atilio

In August of 2002, a local Mapuche couple made the decision to “reoccupy” the Santa Rosa estate. Rosa Rúa Nahuelquir (the name parallel is purely coincidental) had recently lost her job in Esquel due to the closing of a textile factory, and her husband, Atilio Curiñanco, had grown up near Santa Rosa.

Their desire was to “return to the land,” leading a simpler life as the generations of Mapuche before them had. Procuring the supplies needed to construct a small dwelling, keep a few head of livestock, and undertake subsistence farming, they and a handful of friends journeyed to Santa Rosa, stepped over a rusted wire fence that had toppled to the ground long ago, and began establishing the “Santa Rosa community.”

One month later, they were forcefully evicted.

Their possessions were either confiscated or destroyed. This was carried out at the behest of the Benetton-owned Southern Argentinean Land Company.

In the years since, the community has been embroiled in a sluggish legal battle to determine who maintains right of possession over the Santa Rosa estate. Various details regarding the process, in which the organization GAJAT (website in Spanish only) is providing the community with pro bono legal counsel, can be found in this blog. For an illustrated timeline of events affecting Santa Rosa, from 1882 to the present, click here.

Suffice it to say that, although Rosa, Atilio, and other community members successfully (re-)reclaimed the estate in February of 2007, the future of Santa Rosa remains tenuous.

Why You Should Care

So, why do the struggles of a small band of Mapuche in some obscure corner of the globe matter to anyone but themselves? A callous question, but the answer is significant.

First anniversary of the reoccupation

If you’ve studied anything about modern indigenous issues, the story above should sound poignantly familiar. Whether you’re talking about the Anangu in Australia, the Lakota and other tribes of North America, the Zapatistas in southern Mexico, or any number of other peoples whose traditional territorial claims are being denied, one fact emerges: Violations of indigenous land rights are an enduring plight of global scale.

These often impoverished communities stand alone against federal governments and international corporations who, motivated by the potential for immense profit, exploit the land with little regard for the environmental degradation or cultural and human casualties that result.

It’s clearly not a fair fight.

Yet each legal victory, no matter how small, becomes another link the chain of precedent that will influence how future land issues are judged.

If this little community eking out a living on a speck of land in the vast Patagonian plains can succeed in asserting its territorial rights — as provided for in the Argentine constitution — the reverberations of their victory will bolster similar efforts by other indigenous groups in Argentina, Chile (where Mapuche face even harsher oppression)…and perhaps the world.

How You Can Help

Asociación MAPU works directly with Santa Rosa, members of GAJAT, and other supporters to ensure that word of the struggle gets out to those who can help.

If you’re planning to travel to Patagonia, consider a volunteer stint with this Matador member organization. You can also volunteer virtually — their greatest current needs are for translators from Spanish to English and animators for the creation of short films, as well as people experienced in community development and/or microfinance to lend a hand with a microloan project.

Information on providing financial support can be found here.

Otherwise, peruse the Santa Rosa website, investigate the issue for yourself, and help spread awareness of this local issue with global implications.

Community Connection:

Hal offers more advice from his South American volunteer experiences in the series “Volunteer Voice,” including:

Tracking Down a Chance to Give Back

10 Tips for Surviving the Transition

Volunteering as a Springboard for Travel

Teens at New Orleans’ Cafe Reconcile stay off the street, get skills, and–hopefully–get a job. Photo: Francisco Collazo

Exotic cuisine, celebrity chefs, and Michelin starred restaurants may seem a world away from violent misfits and underpaid government staff of juvenile correction facilities. However, distant worlds are rapidly colliding. Fed up with ineffective government interventions, the culinary world is taking charge by bringing innovative at risk teen programing from the back kitchens of bakeries and culinary schools across America to the country’s “correctional” facilities.

The Argument for Change

Forget the days of knuckle-rapping punitive discipline. The new game is early detection and early intervention. Provide constructive and enriching support to underprivileged young adults before the system fails them. And why can’t cooking be that support?

Culinary training builds confidence and self worth by teaching students how to combine simple ingredients with passion and imagination to create something out of nothing– a highly lucrative skill set and a classic metaphor for life. And run with military precision, a professional kitchen demands self discipline, team work, and clear communication amongst its members… all positive character building influences that troubled youth often lack.

What does juvenile detention and incarceration produce? Probably, a more hardened and bitter criminal who still can’t get a job.

Can cooking be the catalyst necessary to revive our outdated prevention and intervention policies? Some chefs and social entrepreneurs think so.

Who’s Paving the Way?

Lisa Thompson – Blue Sky Inn Bakery, Chicago, Illinois

Employing homeless and troubled youth on the east side of Chicago, Lisa Thompson opened the doors to Blue Sky Inn Bakery in 2008. Supplying fresh baked goods, coffees, and catering services to local downtown Chicago businesses, the bakery supports hands-on job training and the development of “soft skills,” such as teamwork, conflict resolution, communication, accountability, critical thinking, and problem solving. Lisa has blazed a path for many young adults by helping them find long term employment and facilitating an outlet for creative expression and subsequent personal growth.

Bill Strickland – Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Don’t believe the fine arts are an anti-poverty, anti-crime tool? All cynics please direct questions to Bill Strickland.

Raised in the slums of Pittsburgh, Strickland founded the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild (and adopted the Bidwell Training Center) to teach fine arts and marketable skills to troubled youth and displaced adults in his community. The center’s culinary program, whose curriculum is modeled after the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York, prepares students for and places them in the finest kitchens across America.

Strickland’s innovative programing has not gone unnoticed. In 1996, he was the recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, an honor bestowed to individuals committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.

The Icing on the Cake

The use of heavy handed discipline to produce a change in behavior is not only outdated, but dangerous. And the proof is in the numbers.

While prison funding eats over $60 billion tax dollars per year, incarceration still yields a recidivism rate (rate that inmates return to prison within three years of their release) of over 50% in the United States. In other words, in over half the cases, the prison system fails in its core objective – to rehabilitate criminals and transform them into productive members of society.

Compare that approach to Bill Strickland’s program, which invests in the educational and personal development of troubled teens before the system fails them. Strickland’s investment produces an 85 percent college acceptance rate among graduating seniors.

Crime fighting never tasted so good.

For more information and opportunities to get involved, visit Blue Sky Inn and Manchester Bidwell.

Community Connection:

Lots of Matador members are interested in the ways food can be used as a tool of social change. Meet Boya, a Washington, D.C. native currently in Italy who teaches kids about food.

Want to get cooking yourself? Check out this article from our archives on the non-profit Culinary Corps to see if you’re eligible to participate in their annual service trips.

It’s man vs. beast (the kudu) in this amazing race. Photo: kevincure

I could finally confess publicly that I have a thing for David Attenborough (he’s the old white guy and narrator of this video).

Why?

Because if you live to be his age (he’s 83) and you’re still as active, hard-working, and passionate as he is, then you’ll know you’ve really gotten the most of your time on the planet (even if you don’t have the title of “Sir” before your name).

But what’s really cool about this video isn’t Attenborough; it’s the hunters who track the kudu and the runner who pursues the kudu in an exercise of mental will and physical persistence… for a full eight hours:

Community Connection:

Interested in the relationships between animals and human beings? Check out these articles from our archives:

“Bird Song: Can You Hear the Melody of Nature?”

“Close Encounters: Reconnecting to Animals Through Our Primitive Nature”

Photo: stuartpilbrow

Daniel Suelo, 48, has been living without money or any barter system, and no food stamps or government help, for the past nine years. While in Ecuador on a Peace Corps mission, he witnessed a rural community acquire increased monetary wealth through farming and shift their traditional lifestyle towards a diet of unhealthy, processed food and a newfound addiction to television.

The experience led Suelo on a spiritual quest that realized itself in India, where he was particularly moved by the Sadhus, wandering monks who renounce all money and possessions. He made the conscious decision to return home, quit his job, and carve out a life without money.

As he put it, “I simply got tired of being unreal. Money is one of those intriguing things that seem real and functional because two or more people believe it is real and functional.”

Photo: platschi

Today, Suelo lives in a cave in Utah and gets around by hopping trains or hitchhiking. For food he relies on dumpster diving, foraging, fishing, and, occasionally, hunting. From the public library he authors a blog and a website where he discusses his everyday life and offers up deep philosophical musings on why a society based on the concept of money is harmful and contrary to our true nature.

He says he’s never been happier, living like “ants and deer and slugs and sparrows and bacteria and atoms and galaxies.”

Though Suelo’s story is a particularly riveting one, less radical communities of “freegans” are cropping up in places like San Francisco and New York. These groups have risen out of a desire to boycott what is seen as an unethical corporate system and to minimize the waste of resources. To varying degrees, freegans salvage edible food from dumpsters, squat in abandoned buildings, and encourage a reconsideration of the benefits of leisure and play as opposed to excessive work.

These movements have not flourished without criticism. Freegans are often dismissed as freeloaders. Others assess the lifestyle as a way to deal with extreme liberal guilt while still living within the confines of privilege and comfort. Daniel Suelo frequently receives hate mail expounding him to get a job and stop mooching off society.

It’s a valid discourse. It’s nearly impossible to be completely self sufficient. Suelo frequently relies on hitched rides, a library that’s supported by taxes, and the various cast off excesses of consumer society. He dismisses that this devalues his philosophy, asking “Are swallows nesting in house attics dependent upon money?”

He cites that goods flow from producers (laborers) to bankers, brokers, and landlords who produce nothing. He frequently touts his lifestyle as a return to a way of living more in line with the natural world, a way towards freedom from things that don’t exist towards one of generosity and truth.

However, it can be argued that a system of barter is indeed a part of our nature. Our nearest relatives, the chimpanzee, frequently barter food for grooming and sex. Even Neolithic cavemen bartered. A return to a world without money would be possible only if human beings, like bees and ants, decided to utilize our skills equally so that we may benefit from each other freely.

Photo: scriptingnews

Knowing the history of humanity, however, it doesn’t seem that we can adhere to such noble principles. Furthermore, even without money or a bartering system, human beings could still find ways to oppress each other.

It’s also important to note that Suelo’s lifestyle would not work if he lived in a less monetarily wealthy country. Many people live with virtually no money, and there are no overabundant dumpsters or gifts from generous neighbors to compensate for a lack of “monetary illusion.” In those places, not being a slave to a piece of paper also results in starvation and death.

Many travelers often walk a thin line between admiring a community and romanticizing poverty. It’s possible to question whether Suelo’s motives lie in some kind of imperialist nostalgia towards the communities he encountered on his travels.

However, philosophically speaking it is true that we tend to live in a real-life matrix. Our society as a whole is comprised of things that exist only in our collective consciousness rather than in reality.

Take for instance, the idea of borders. In the 19th century, Native Americans referred to the border between Canada and the United States as the “medicine line” because they were perplexed that the American troops would chase them through the land but suddenly stop when they crossed that invisible line. They thought it was magic; to the Native Americans, all of it was just land.

Just like borders, money is a concept that becomes real only because we believe in it collectively. As Suelo says, “If a dollar bill represented itself, it would no longer be money. It would simply be a piece of paper with pretty art on it.” The fact that people will kill each other and ruin the earth for an abstract concept seems almost ludicrous when analyzed from that angle. It’s downright maddening when multiple psychological studies confirm the old adage that money really does not buy happiness.

Who really understands our complex monetary system, other than the few who benefit tremendously from such knowledge? Henry Ford once said, “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” Rarely do we ever question our entire financial system until some kind of disaster, like the current economic recession, sparks the discussion.

Regardless of any stance, it is interesting to witness someone who disagrees with conventional society to such a degree that he opts out of it completely.

Do you find Daniel Suelo’s lifestyle commendable or outrageous? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Community Connection:

Want to try your hand at some freegan strategies? Check out Matador editor Kate Sedgwick’s Beginner’s Guide to Dumpster Diving and David DeFranza’s Beginner’s Guide to Foraging for Food.

Villa Sevilla (in feature photo) and Hacienda Los Laureles (in photo above) can teach hotels a lot about going green. Feature photo and photo above: Francisco Collazo

Maybe I don’t represent the traveler norm–that’s entirely possible–but my average hotel stay is no longer than two nights. I don’t need my sheets and towels changed at all during that time.

Hotels claim to save “thousands and thousands” of gallons of water through their pillow card sheet-towel change policy, and I’m willing to concede they probably have. But if hotels are really committed to going green(er), here are 10 tips I’d like to offer them based on some smart environmental strategies I’ve seen during my travels in the past year.

1. Replace disposable plastic coffee pods and bleached paper filters.

How about reusable mesh filters and small packages of coffee in recyclable paper envelopes? Or take a cue from Portland, Oregon’s Heathman Hotel, which offers a French press in each room. Any of these three options reduces waste and cuts costs… a management no-brainer, if you ask me.

2. Replace disposable cups with ceramic or glass.

While we’re talking about coffee, can we get rid of the disposable cups… especially Styrofoam, which contains toxins and takes hundreds of years to break down? Your guests can drink their coffee in the room or fill up their travel mugs (bonus points if you sell reusable travel mugs on-site).

3. Turn room wastebaskets into trash sorters.

Improve recycling and the use of your staff’s time by turning each room’s wastebaskets into a simple sorting system. The Doubletree in San Juan, Puerto Rico does this. Each wooden wastebasket has two plastic bins nestled inside: one for regular trash, one for paper and plastic recyclables. Employees don’t have to sort trash from recyclables, and guests get visual confirmation that the hotel is taking an extra step in reducing its negative environmental impact.

4. Get rid of toiletries in little plastic bottles.

Matador contributor Teresa Ponikvar confessed that she loves hotel shampoos, conditioners, and lotions that come in little plastic bottles. So do I (and I have a whole collection of them).

But getting rid of these little plastic bottles and replacing them with refillable pumps that adhere to the side of the shower are much more environmentally friendly and cost efficient. Villa Sevilla in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico uses refillable pumps, and proprietor Marina Lawson says:

“Those small sample bottles of shampoo and conditioner are not only expensive but they generate much waste. Instead, we purchased wall dispensers for shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and hand soap. These are easily refilled and can be taken down to be cleaned. At the cost of $15 for each dispenser and about $0.06-$0.12 cents per ounce for the shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and soap, this won hands down over the cost of $0.75-$0.95 cents per one ounce unit of plastic bottled product with our logo. For guests on a week-long vacation, we calculated that we’re preventing at least 14 small plastic bottles from going into our landfills. We’re also lowering our operational costs, and we can pass those savings on to guests.”

5. Replace plastic laundry bags with cloth bags.

By now, I hope you’re cluing into the fact that going green also reduces hotel operators’ costs. Switch out those plastic bags guests use for laundry service and replace them with cloth bags, which the guest leaves in the room at the end of his or her stay, just like all the other linens.

6. Switch to a key card system that activates lights and air conditioning.

Last year, while working on a couple of city guide assignments for Gayot Guides, I stayed at five boutique hotels in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Oaxaca, Mexico.

In each hotel, I noticed that my room key controlled the lights, making it impossible for me to be irresponsible and leave the lights on when I went out. When the guest enters the room, he or she inserts the hard plastic room key into a wall unit that allows the lights and air conditioning to be controlled. When the key is removed, the lights and utilities are disabled.

According to Sylvie Laitre of Mexico Boutique Hotels, there’s an obvious reason besides environmentalism to switch to the key card system: electric bills are cut by as much as 40% in hotels where key cards are used.

7. Green your roof.

Photo: pnwra

This step is a big one, no doubt… one that requires more planning, effort, upkeep, and up-front investment than the preceding tips. Yet it’s also one of the most visible ways to show your hotel’s commitment to the environment, and its long-term payoffs guarantee a respectable return on investment.

Among the benefits of green roofs: (1) longer lifespan of the roof; (2) cost savings on heating/cooling bills; (3) improves sound insulation; (4) improves aesthetics and–depending on design–creates attractive recreational/amenity space; (5) provides potential space for small-scale food production; and (6) contributes to decreasing overall temperature of urban spaces.

That roof you see in the photo above? That’s the green roof of Marriott’s Victoria, British Columbia property.

8. Build an on-site garden.

This is an especially smart step for hotels that also operate or host restaurants. On-site growing cuts sourcing costs and provides visual confirmation to guests that some of the food they’re enjoying is just about as local as it can get.

9. Implement a gray water recycling program.

Like the green roof and the garden, setting up a gray water recycling program is a step only the most committed hotels are likely to take, but Peter Kaiser, owner of Hacienda Los Laureles in Oaxaca, Mexico, offers persuasive evidence suggesting that the switch is worth the effort.

“We recycle approximately 90% of the water consumed per room (or 20.000.00 liters per day based on a full hotel)…, and recuperate 20,000.00 or more from our pool when cleaning,” Kaiser says. Not only does he feel better about the impact of his operations; he saves money, too.

Beyond gray water recycling, Kaiser also recommends installing energy-efficient light bulbs with a lifespan guarantee of one year or longer. In addition to being environmentally responsible, says Kaiser, “it saves me many complaints and work hours.”

Kaiser’s boutique hotel, which turns nine years old today, also has an excellent on-site restaurant, Los Cipreses, which composts egg shells, coffee grounds, fruits, and vegetables.

10. Encourage guests to enjoy environmentally friendly activities.

Provide bikes for loan or rental. Partner with local ecotourism companies to promote low impact activities that also expose guests to the local ecosystem. Include recommendations for local farmers’ markets and the like in your concierge’s list of recommended activities.

Community Connection:

Hoteliers: What other strategies do you recommend to your colleagues? Share your tips in the comments below and don’t be shy showing off the environmentally friendly steps you’ve taken to make your property greener!

When he’s not running, he’s flying- Greg in white PJs. Photos courtesy of Greg Krause.

The promotion sparked some debate on Matador’s news blog, MatadorPulse, where readers weighed the attraction of cheap flights against the indulgence of a crazy carbon footprint.

Carbon footprint concerns notwithstanding, at least one traveler who bought the All-You-Can-Jet Pass is using Jet Blue’s promo to draw attention to his own pet project: supporting a school his parents developed in Zambia. Between flights, Greg Krause took the time to answer some questions about his 30 Days on Jet Blue initiative, including what he hopes to achieve and how he responds to critics who raise the dreaded carbon footprint question.

*

The school in Zambia

Matador: How and why were your parents asked to start a school in Zambia?

Greg: My parents are retired. My mother was a school teacher/principal/administrator and my father was a chemical engineer. About 14 years ago they decided to help run an elementary school in Gaborone, Botswana, during their retirement. While there, they made many connections.

About 4.5 years ago, they were approached by some local people from Macha, Zambia who had heard of them and asked if they would come and help establish a school in this area where there was no quality education for the children. My parents agreed and moved up there. Where they are located, there is no electricity and no running water. They use solar power and a generator to get by.

Matador: How much are you hoping to raise?

Greg: The school is in dire need of a reliable 4×4 vehicle and we are currently $22k short of the needed funds for the purchase and shipment of the vehicle. I would love to be able to check that need off the list for the school. There are also many many other needs, including building funds. With the generous help of the many people who hear this story, I am also hoping that we will be able to raise enough to put some money toward the building fund. It is a work in progress and the school/orphan boarding home is quickly outgrowing its current space.

They also are waiting for electricity. When/if the government brings power to the area we want to be ready financially to have that installed. I am hoping this project can make a major difference in the lives of these kids, and I am optimistic that if we all pitch in a little, we can accomplish this.

Matador: How much have you raised so far?

Greg: We have raised a little over $2,000 so far with this project. Last year, I agreed to run the NY Marathon in pajamas for a company called SnoreStop, in exchange for a $9,000 donation to the school.

Matador: What kinds of corporate sponsorship and support have you received?

Greg: I do not have any corporate sponsorship. I would love to have some, but have not been able to arrange anything. My main sponsor is the winner of the eBay auction – Orphan’s Promise. I am essentially promoting them (I have agreed to wear their shirts for the duration of the journey), but they are in turn promoting the school, the kids and the entire project.

Matador: How do you resolve some of the criticism people may have regarding the enormous carbon footprint generated by traveling so many miles against the presumed good that will come out of this project?

Greg: I don’t know if I can resolve any of the criticism regarding the giant carbon footprint all this air travel creates. This project would never have been possible without the “All You Can Jet Pass” sold by jetBlue. It is their lowest volume passenger period of the year. The planes are scheduled to fly even if they are not completely full. They are not adding any additional flights to their schedule to accommodate myself or anyone using the pass, With that in mind, the needs in Zambia are so great. These kids did not have the opportunity to attend school and they are now (or are on their way to) reaching their full potential.

Matador: Why is it so important to fund the school fully?

Greg: One of the students, Christopher, was 10 years old and had never been to school. He was an orphan being raised by a distant relative. They didn’t see him as a family member, but rather a burden and because of that, forced him to work as a donkey herder. Because of the school, Christopher is able to stay at the boarding home Monday through Friday. He has managed to go from the equivalent of kindergarten to 6th grade in less than three years.

There are many of these types of situations. They call these children “throw away” or “disposable”; many of them lost their parents to HIV/AIDS or malaria. There is no one willing to help them and give them a chance at a future. One little girl named Beauty was living with a distant relative in a one room hut and about 15 other children. The adult in the home told my parents “Take her, we don’t want her.”

With the help of this school, the hard work of my parents and many other individuals, we are able to make a difference in these kids’ lives and give them a shot at a great future.

Matador: How can people support you, financially and otherwise?

Greg: For support, there is a link on my website for donations that is linked through Orphan’s Promise. They have committed to give 100% of the funds received for this project directly to the school. If everyone pitches in and donates a few dollars we can make a HUGE difference in the lives of these children. (Oh, and yes…it is tax deductible). There is no percentage taken out for overhead admin costs.

We also are working on a container project to ship a cargo container with many needed supplies. That is still in the works, but when that is ready, we will be accepting donations of clothing, school supplies, and equipment. This will probably be next summer.

The school is also always looking for people to go to Zambia and volunteer. The ultimate goal of the school is for it to be fully self sufficient and Zambia run, so that my parents can walk away knowing that it will continue to grow, but in the meantime there is a great need for as much help as they can get!

Matador: What do you do when you’re not jetting around raising money for Zambia?

Greg: I have graduated from medical school and I am currently finishing up my medical board exams and waiting to start my residency in family practice next year.

Community Connection:

What do you think about Greg’s 30 Days on Jet Blue? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Ignorance is Bliss Photo and Feature Photo: Albie Girl

A mistake often made is attaching an emotional value to these and similar thoughts and having that emotion cloud objectivity to the point that the ideas are forgotten in the haze of anger, bitterness and defensiveness.

The following is a list (a very incomplete one) to get people thinking about white privilege as noted by a white girl who has spent most of her life in the U.S., so please forgive the U.S. bias. If you are non-white, please excuse the obvious direction of this article to whites.

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Have you ever been in a bookstore and noticed the “African American Literature” section?

Think about the implications of this.

Does it mean that Black American writers are not American writers of American fiction and literature?

What does this mean to white readers who can safely peruse the fiction section knowing their race is reflected in the selection, while perhaps the experience of Black Americans is not?

What does it mean for Black readers?

What does it mean to Black writers who hope to sell their work to a wide audience?

Does it mean that the experience of African Americans is not relevant to the typical, white fiction reader?

As a white person would you feel that you were conspicuous or out of place perusing the African American literature section?

Not all Bigotry is This Blatant
Photo: cometstarmoon

If so, how does this translate to the experience of a Black shopper?

What really are we supposed to glean from the fact that books are segregated in a bookstore?

Is the African American experience a niche market?

Are bookstores making a point of spotlighting the work of African American writers?

To what purpose?

Do they want to be seen as liberal and fair?

If so, why are they bringing such a conspicuous display of attention to what is usually such a small selection of books?

Do they want to make it easier for people interested in African American literature to find the relevant books?

What other “subsections” of fiction or literature are there in the book store?

Is it significant to you at all that you can choose to think about this or not to think about it and it will not necessarily have an effect on your life?

Can you continue to ignore race politics and theory without having it bother you one way or another?

Is that significant?

Can you think of ways in which other people might not have that luxury?

Is it a luxury?

Are Hughes or Hurston any less relevant to the lexicon than Hemmingway or Plath?

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Recognizing white privilege is an ongoing process that requires active participation by the person who wishes to recognize it.

You must think about your whiteness and its implications, read and talk about it or write about it to be aware of it and understand it.

Race is a touchy subject. Whites are often so afraid of saying the wrong thing that we claim not to see race or that it doesn’t matter to us. We claim not to perceive our own race. In order to avoid taking responsibility for our privilege, we deny that it exists.

Pretty convenient of us to deny race when for many people the day to day fact of their race is a relevant and important part of their identity. Yet we can claim not to perceive that part of the identity of other people with little or no consequences for our willful ignorance.

Playing dumb is a total cop out.

You know it’s true.

a S.H.A.R.P (Skinhead Against Racial Prejudice)
Photo: thivierr

Once you acknowledge that whites are recipients of advantages, you must acknowledge that other people are the recipients of disadvantages in a system that does not acknowledge an unfair bias and in many cases denies that a bias exists.

In a recent Newsweek article, white parents’ reluctance to talk about race was exposed as a crucial factor in the development of biased attitudes concerning race in young children. Certain parents who had signed up for a study about race, when told that they were to take a few minutes to discuss race with their children each day for its duration, chose instead to opt out of the study – the discussion was too uncomfortable.

Many seemed to think that discussing race was an inherently racist thing to do. That might be the truth if you hold racist attitudes. The fact that most of us do on one level or another and refuse to own up to it in order to stamp them out is willfully ignorant and destructive.

In this way, white children learn to shun the topic of race as shameful and it becomes the job of society at large to school the majority on how to think about race. It seems like too important of a topic to leave to chance or to heavily biased media outlets, but by and large that’s how it’s done.

These kids associate discussion of race with the fear implicit in their parents’ silence and by proxy begin to view race as a taboo topic, further surmising that there is something to be ashamed about. Too ashamed to talk about.

Ignorance continues to be propagated.

Other sites I’ve run across recently are Stuff White People Do, an article to do with the Palins as an example called “What is White Privilege?” from the Chicago Sun Times by Mary Mitchell, and the essay “White People Need to Acknowledge Benefits of Unearned Privilege” by Robert Jensen.

If you are interested in talking and reading more about anti-racism, find groups on the web like White Anti-racist Community Action Network and join up. Another really wonderful resource is the LiveJournal Community Debunking White, a community that does not have open automatic membership, but which you can still access without being a member.

When you start, it’s best to keep an open mind and just allow yourself to consider ideas that you may find foreign, disconcerting or even upsetting. Wait to fully consider ideas before jumping in with questions and opinions. You’ll find that questions you have have been answered before in many ways many times. Dig deep and you’ll surely find change within yourself.

Community Connection

Search for “white privilege” yourself in any search engine and see what you come up with. Post awesome and interesting finds in the comments field below.

TRAVELING to Nicaragua this past summer was a life-changing experience for me. Although I had always wanted to do something like travel to another country, I never thought I would ever get the chance to actually do it.

My experience in Nicaragua was a one of a kind learning experience. I was challenged in so many ways and I grew so much from it. I had never been away from home for more than a few days, so being in whole different country without my family and friends for three weeks was hard for me.

I learned how to deal with homesickness and learned how to adjust to a new environment. I got to see so many things that I could’ve never seen back in San Francisco. I was able to see poverty with my own eyes. I saw little children beg for food and money. It broke my heart to see all the hardships that people in other countries had to go through.

It made me more aware of the problems that exist in our world. I also learned a lot about Nicaraguan culture, politics, and history.

We visited many different places, including a volcanic lagoon, the mayor’s office, nearby schools, a farm, and even a chocolate factory. Two times a week, we would teach English to locals.

We had nightly meetings every night to discuss what we took away from each day. At the end of the trip, we even raised over $500 to donate to organizations and we donated clothing, school supplies, and more.

Going on this trip to Nicaragua has really made me appreciate the things that I have at home. I realize how many opportunities are available to me and I feel very lucky to be able to

go to school and get an education. However, it also makes me want to give back to the world and to use the resources that are available to me to help fight poverty in countries around the world.

I am currently working on a project to raise money and collect used clothing and shoes to give back to Nicaragua. I feel as if my project is a way to give back to Nicaragua and what it has taught me about life.

Community Connection

Do you remember your very first travel experience? Share your reflections with our Brave New Travelers in the comment section below.

Learn more about the Matador Youth Scholarship Fund.

Before leaving San Francisco, I felt extremely excited and lucky to begin my summer on this adventure. My initial motivation for taking the trip was to gain a new cultural perspective on my daily life and experience the world outside of my neighborhood. I also wanted to travel so that I may build my leadership skills and sense of direction in life.

To my surprise, I got to do all of those things and so much more. I made close friendships with my three indescribable roommates, students, and neighbors. I created some of the most incredible memories in a completely different country with some people that I have only known for three weeks.

I turned seventeen years old on the third day in Nicaragua. I celebrated my most memorable birthday with a whole new family. I was surprised with two birthday cakes, a special dinner made by our wonderful chef, Norman, and a lively Mariachi band.

Going to Nicaragua, I was looking forward to doing community service abroad. Every Tuesday and Thursday after dinner at the Comedor de Los Angeles, the group would head over to the community center and give English lessons to anyone who wanted to learn. In my beginner group, I had bright students. They were all so eager to learn at every lesson.

There were days when we took time to draw pictures for each other. At our last lesson, we exchanged our goodbye gifts: beautiful Nicaraguan key chains, notebooks, and stickers. We handed our students their diplomas for attending classes for nine weeks and awaited our night surprise.

After the graduation ceremony, we had a talent show where our Global Glimpse group and the students participated in skits, dances, and poetry that in someway reflected how the three weeks had impacted us. We gave our hugs and kisses and departed ways for the night. Who knew that we would see our students once more the next morning when they dropped by our hotel to see us off.

Over the three weeks, I learned to step out of my comfort zone. I spoke more often that I expected myself to. I did not feel dependent on my people from Coro (our leadership program) to take me places or to be with me 24/7. I learned to speak up more and opinionate my thoughts.

My biggest challenge was taking more initiative in creating stronger networks with our courageous guest speakers and dealing with the daily comments on my ethnicity made by everyday people everywhere I went.

My biggest accomplishment however, was really getting out in Nicaragua and exploring the different communities and meeting the children of poor neighborhoods. This opened my eyes more than any other experience I’ve had.

On this trip, I learned that in any society, ignorance is a dangerous state. Being ignorant only harms and changes should and can be made. The world and I have to work together. I learned that I have to be open to the new and I must be aware of the world inside and out.

Upon returning, I have been more aware of my actions and the actions of others. I have been more appreciative of what I have and of those I care about. I have been thinking a lot and have many ideas that still float in my head on what I want to do for the children I met in Nicaragua.

I really recommend traveling to other students my age because wherever they may go in the world, they will learn much about a different culture’s history, it’s challenges, accomplishments, and most importantly, about themselves. In their experiences, they will carefully see the impacts of things that take place before their eyes in the U.S. and be inspired to do something about it.

Community Connection

Do you remember your very first travel experience? Share your reflections with our Brave New Travelers in the comment section below.

Learn more about the Matador Youth Scholarship Fund.