Photo: SouthernTabitha

You’ve heard about the flooding in Nashville on the news – or maybe you haven’t. It hasn’t received quite the amount of coverage in the U.S. that one might expect for a city underwater with at least 23 dead and 42 counties declared as disaster areas.

But as we’ve seen right here on Matador in the past, it’s during these times that small communities band together to make a real change. Authors Victoria Schwab, Amanda Morgan, and Myra McEntire got together and set up Do the Write Thing for Nashville, a live auction blog. Proceeds from this auction will go directly to The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.

They kindly took time out of what has become a huge event to answer a few questions.

Matador:

How did you get the word out about DTWTFN?

DTWTFN:

We started with our own personal connections to gauge interest, and then once we were comfortable we put up a blog and a Facebook page. After that we moved on to the beast that is Twitter. [T]he event wouldn’t be a third of what it’s become if not for the Twitter community.

Matador:

What types of items are up for auction?

DTWTFN:

Critiques from agents and publishers, signed books from authors (such as Shannon Hale, John Grisham, Melissa Marr, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and a couple we can’t tell you about yet), a poster signed by Robert Pattinson, a trip to a ranch in Montana, specialty craft items, a chance for Lisa McMann to fly into your town and take you to lunch – and an offer just came in from Tasha Alexander and her fiance Andrew Grant to do the same.

Matador:

So many writers, agents, and editors have donated so much. Which auction items really floored you?

DTWTFN:

Definitely the visit from Lisa McMann. We really want to bid on that one ourselves. Also, agent Suzie Townsend offered an editorial letter on a full manuscript and phone call and ended up receiving four bids over $1,000 before the auction closed. When she saw this, she said, “For that kind of donation, I’m willing to read and write an editorial letter and call all four of them.”

Photo: president raygun

Matador:

Can folks donate directly to your effort without bidding?

DTWTFN:

They can. There’s a tab on Do the Write Thing for Nashville that will allow you to do just that.

Matador:

Any idea how much you’ve raised so far? When does the auction end?

DTWTFN:

The first three days raised…$27,000. We were shocked. Shocked. It just proves how amazing the writing community is. We think we’ll have ten days of bidding, total, but we’re working on some follow up days for bundles of like items. There’s just no way we could do the work it would take to schedule it all and continue breathing.

Community Connection:

If you’re thinking about visiting Nashville, check out our honky-tonk guide of the city’s music.

Screenshot of clip from “Gasland.”

When Josh Fox received a letter in the mail offering $100,000 in exchange for the use of his family’s land for natural gas drilling, he did what most of us wouldn’t do: He took off on a 24 state tour of the United States to learn more about natural gas drilling.

He took a camera along with him to document his findings (including the fact that some Americans can set their tap water on fire), and then turned them into the documentary, “Gasland.”

“Gasland,” which won a special jury prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, has been selected as one of the features to be shown at the 32nd annual Mountainfilm Festival, which will be held in Telluride, Colorado May 28-31, 2010.

Fox talks about the film in this interview:

Mountainfilm has been praised by photographer Chris Jordan as “simultaneously inspiring, devastating, profound, hopeful,” and by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns as a festival that “reminds us of the force of filmmaking, about things that matter, worlds worth exploring and conversations worth sustaining.”

If you’re interested in attending Mountainfilm and you’re on a budget, the festival is still accepting volunteer applications. If you’re 18 years or older, you will receive festival passes for 16-22 hours of work. More information can be found on the Mountainfilm website.

Community Connection:

If you can’t wait til Mountainfilm or don’t plan on going, head over to MatadorTV for incredible videos shot by Matador members all over the world.

A woman receives a bed net to protect her from mosquitoes bearing malaria and other diseases. Photo: Ixtla

A few years ago, while living in Puerto Rico, my husband and I both spent a week bed-ridden with dengue fever. Imagine feeling the symptoms of every illness you’ve ever had–simultaneously–and you’ll begin to understand how terrible that week was.

Dengue is just one of many mosquito-borne illnesses, which are especially common in tropical climates. Another common mosquito-borne disease is malaria, which threatens half the world’s population according to the World Health Organization.

Every year, more than 200 million experience malaria; of that number, almost one million die.

The Gates Foundation, one of the world’s most active proponents of malaria prevention and treatment, believes that this disease can be eradicated.

While the research it funds is focused on preventing malaria through vaccination, an important intervention that’s available now is the bed net.

The Gates Foundation noted in January 2010 that bed nets have had a positive effect in reducing the total number of malaria cases and deaths. According to the Foundation, “Rwanda has seen a 45 percent decline, Zambia 50 percent, Cambodia 50 percent, [and] Eritrea 80 percent” since the Foundation introduced a concentrated effort to distribute nets widely.

Photo: Nothing But Nets

Today, as part of World Malaria Day’s awareness efforts, Nothing But Nets, one of the best-known non-profits working on malaria eradication through mosquito net distribution, is inviting you to help ensure people in malaria-prone areas have access to nets. You can purchase a $10 net or start planning a “sleep out” for next year’s World Malaria Day using the information and promotional tools available on the NBN site.

Want to learn more about the malaria vaccine that is current in the research and development phase? Matador’s resident doctor, Erik McLaughlin, offers an overview in “In Search of a Malaria Vaccine: What Travelers Should Know.” [Note: Statistics in the introduction of that piece have since been updated by the World Health Organization.]

Community Connection:

Do you get vaccinated before you travel? Matador editor Tim Patterson doesn’t– and identifies nine other travel risks worth taking. Join the conversation!

Citizens of the world gathered in Bolivia for the World People’s Conference on Climate Change. Photo: The City Project

Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, called for the summit soon after the United Nations’ Climate Summit in Copenhagen last December, when it became clear that a binding treaty with decisive action was not forthcoming.

Many believe that the major carbon polluters of the world prevented a strong agreement and that the voices of both civil society and nations of the global south were sidelined or silenced.

They determined that a process outside the United Nations framework was needed.

Billed as an ‘alternate climate conference,’ the WPCCC has brought together delegates from more than 50 world governments, including the presidents of Ecuador, Paraguay, Nicaragua, and Venezuela; government officials from Europe, Asia, and Africa; and members of indigenous communities, grassroots environmental organizations, and concerned citizens with a mission to focus on practical solutions for communities affected by climate change.

According to Joshua Kahn Russell, grassroots action manager at Rainforest Action Network, the Cochabamba conference “represent[s] communities most directly affected by climate change. They will be outlining a people’s platform, looking at the practical things they can implement now. Cochabamba is going to be historic.”

Nearly 200 self-organized events were registered by different networks on every aspect of climate change policy. You can see the program here.

For the big picture, keep your eye on the following:

OneClimate has been streaming live as well as hosting an interactive exchange.

Climate Bloggers:

Global Justice Ecology Project’s Climate Connections Blog

JusticenEcology’s Posterous (Diana Pei Wu and Kari Fulton, et al)

Evelyn Rangel-Medina of Ella Baker Center

Check the Weather (Kari Fulton)

Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

World People’s Conference on Climate Change

Carwil James’ Blog, Carwil Without Borders

Bolivia Rising Blog

Twitterati:

@boliviaun, @oneclimate, @climatejustice1, @ggjalliance, @evy_medicina, @wpccc, @dianapeiwu, @cmpcc, @cmpcc_bo

Hashtags to follow: #cochabamba, #wpccc, #cmpcc, #climatejustice, #climate

Community Connection:

Learn more about Global Environmental Issues by visiting our focus page on the topic.

Screenshot from “Reporter” trailer.

In his twice-weekly column, on his blog, and in his books, Nicholas Kristof takes a social problem and trains his focus as close-in as someone can get to find the single story that will make the rest of us care about what’s going on in other parts of the world.

It’s a method that’s been both criticized and praised, and which compelled filmmaker Eric Metzgar to make a documentary about Kristof.

That documentary, “Reporter,” debuts tonight on HBO. Full details about the documentary and airing time are available on HBO’s website.

Here’s the trailer:

Community Connection:

Who do you read and what sources do you consult to find out about what’s going on in other parts of the world? Let us know by leaving a comment.

A baby from Seva Jyothi Leprosy Colony in Andra Pradesh, India. Photo: jcandeli/ Feature Photo: amanderson2

Every day thousands of people across the world are diagnosed with leprosy. But what exactly is leprosy? And why should we care about World Leprosy Day?

What is Leprosy?

Leprosy is a chronic condition caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium Leprae. First identified by Norwegian physician G.A. Hansen in 1873, it is also known as Hansen’s disease.

Leprosy affects the nervous system, damaging the nerves and eventually manifesting in deformities along the hands, feet, and face. In extreme cases, patchy skin is accompanied by loss of sensation, clawing (of hands and feet), and even loss of limbs.

Leprosy Treatment

Leprosy treatment consists of a very effective multi-drug therapy (MDT), a cocktail of three drugs: dapsone, rifampicin and clofazimine. Early detection and treatment ensure infection is stamped out within no time; if leprosy has progressed, treatment will cure infection, but not the resulting deformity.

Global Spread and Stigma

Given the easy availability of medication, leprosy should be a thing of the past, yet it remains a problem, especially in poverty stricken regions of the Indian subcontinent, Africa, and Latin America.

This continued prevalence of leprosy is a result of historical stigma, traced back to a time when patchy skin and clawed hands meant isolation in leper colonies. Leprosy continues to instill fear and discrimination; even today leprosy stigma devastates social and economic ties, along with healthy living.

It is this very stigma that obstructs early reporting, effective treatment, and recovery.Stigma leads to progression of the disease and deformity, causing further isolation.

A number of local and global agencies, including Seva Life Project, WHO, LEPRA and ILEP are attempting to address these very issues to eradicate leprosy worldwide.

World Leprosy Day – Eradication through Awareness

World Leprosy Day aims to increase awareness and make treatment more accessible to those in need. As stated on the ILEP website:

World Leprosy Day was created in 1954 by Raoul Follereau “so that people affected by leprosy could be cared for like all others who are ill and so that those in good health could be cured of their absurd and often criminal fear of this disease and those who are affected by it.”

In other words, leprosy eradication requires the changing social perception of leprosy; by recognizing leprosy as just another curable illness, social stigma can be eliminated, thereby increasing chances of early reporting and cure.

The process also includes monitoring availability of medication and training personnel in proper diagnosis and patient care. Patient rehabilitation – social, economic and physical – is also important, allowing them to reintegrate into society. These very points form the crux of WHO’s “Final Push” strategy for the elimination of leprosy.

How can you help?
Organizations fighting leprosy are constantly in need of support, donations, and volunteers to eradicate leprosy and improve lives worldwide.

Community Connection:

Read more about India, one country where leprosy rates are high. “India, Poverty, and the Fear of Traveling to Poor Places” is just one of many articles in our archives.

Photo: gailjadehamilton

What if new media could be the powerful engine for true, meaningful action in the areas of health care, the environment, global development, cultural diplomacy, and opportunities for youth? And what if young social entrepreneurs were the catalysts of such change?

These are the key questions motivating the New Media & Youth Action Conference, scheduled for Tuesday, September 1, 2009 from 10 AM til 3 PM in New York City.

The event, which is free, will feature keynote speakers, breakout sessions for brainstorming, and a networking “power hour,” where you can meet other like-minded activists and share ideas about issues of mutual interest.

For more information or to register, click here.

Community Connection:

To learn more about how Matador members are using technology to support youth development and cultural awareness projects, be sure to read about the Roads Scholars program, founded by Matador member, Digital Vagabond.

Photo courtesy of Run For the Rescue

In 2008, singer-songerwriter Eric Proffitt was invited by the United Nations to perform at the Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking Conference. Though Proffitt had long used his music as a way to communicate messages that informed and inspired his listeners, Proffitt’s experience at the conference left him feeling as if music might not be enough.

“I have never seen a problem so large, of which so few people are aware,” Proffitt said about global slavery. While at the conference, Proffitt learned that more than 27 million children around the world are enslaved as diamond, cacao, and sex workers; as the father of five children himself, he was determined to do something more than sing about the problem.

Most people wouldn’t do something as drastic as Proffitt has done: he and his wife sold their house and decided to start an educational awareness campaign called Run For the Rescue. But that’s not all: it’s what that awareness campaign entails that makes Proffitt convinced he’ll be able to make thousands–if not millions–of people more aware of the problem of global slavery and inspire them to do something about it.

On August 1 (Why August 1? Emancipation Day in the States) Proffitt started a 500 mile run– in chains. He anticipates the total run will take 42 days.

The goals, Proffitt states on his website, are two fold:

1) Raise $1 for each of the 27 million people living in slavery. This money will be used by non-profit organizations to rescue and rehabilitate girls like Theresa and to find and prosecute the perpetrators of human trafficking.
2) Create a global tipping point for the fight against modern day slavery.

The run started in Washington, D.C. and will continue in parts of the U.S. before Proffitt tackles the second leg, which will be in the U.K.

You can learn more about the run on Proffitt’s website, where you can also follow the journey as he blogs about it. Donations are being accepted through the website and if he’s running through your area– well, step outside and show him your support!

Community Connection:

Learn more about global slavery in this article from our archives: 10 Shocking Facts About Global Slavery in 2008.

Feature photo: gliuoo; Photo: chadmagiera

Holidays always sneak up on me. Tomorrow, I’ll be scrambling around at the last minute to throw together an impromptu party for friends who don’t have their own July 4th plans, but I’ll still be able to go green. Here are some tips for you to do the same:

1. Make invitations by word of mouth only.

It’s too late for paper invitations, so you’ve already eliminated some waste! Forgo the phone and e-mail, too. Instead, issue word of mouth invitations to the people who are literally the closest to you: co-workers, friends, neighbors you say “Hi” to as you pass them in the hall. Not only will you be going green, you might make some new friends out of people who’ve just been peripheral acquaintances.

2. Eat local foods.

Whether you’re in charge of the prep or you plan a potluck 4th, challenge yourself and your guests to go with as much locally grown/raised food as possible. If you’re not sure where to find local food in your community, Adam Roy points you toward six online resources in this article.

3. Serve with reusable or biodegradable plates and utensils.

If your party is small scale and contained to the area in or around your home, consider serving food with your regular plates and utensils to cut down on waste. If that’s not possible, though, check your local grocery store for biodegradable plates and cutlery. Keywords to look for include “corn” or “sugarcane-based”; these products break down much more quickly and with far fewer adverse environmental effects than paper, plastic, or styrofoam picnic supplies.

4. Make green fun…and part of the party.

You don’t have to be preachy about your environmentalism. Instead, make going green fun for your guests. Does anyone have an old hand-crank ice cream machine? Choose a flavor and take turns cranking the handle to churn up some delicious homemade ice cream. Not only will it taste better than anything you can buy at the store; it’s carbon footprint is likely to be a lot smaller. You can find some recipes here.

5. Bring biodegradable bags: one for garbage, one for recycling.

Encourage recycling by setting up separate bags for garbage and recyclables. If you compost and have a compost bucket, consider making that available, too.

6. Forget about the fireworks… for now.

Photo: PetroleumJelliffe

Fireworks are definitely not environmentally friendly, but if you’re determined to have them be part of your celebration, there’s not a whole lot you can do about going green in this area at the last minute. The best option is to enjoy your local community’s fireworks bash. Then, do some research about biodegradable fireworks, which are allegedly used by Disney. We weren’t able to find out, though, if these are available for retail yet.

Community Connection:

What other tips do you have for greening the 4th?
Do you already have July 4th plans? If not, Hal Amen offers a list of celebrations in the US and around the world. Invite yourself to the party!

Image courtesy of truecostofchevron.com

It won’t be a fun week for oil company bigwigs.

As Matador reported previously, Wiwa v. Shell–a case almost 15 years in the making–will open this week in a New York City courtroom. The case brings Royal Dutch Shell to court and holds the oil company accountable for the deaths of Ken Saro-Wiwa and fellow activists in 1995, as well as other environmental and human rights violations.

Jury selection begins on Wednesday, May 27, and opening statements are expected to be delivered the following day, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights. If you’re in the New York City area and are interested in attending the trial, it will be open to the public. The Center for Constitutional Rights is also seeking NYC-area volunteers to provide logistical support to Nigerian plaintiffs; more information about that can be found here.

If you’re not in New York City, but wish to support the case against Shell, the Center for Constitutional Rights offers opportunities to host screenings of the documentary “Delta Force” or to help publicize the case via the Internet. Read more about those opportunities here.

Over on the West Coast, another oil company will be on the hot seat.

Chevron’s annual shareholders’ meeting is also scheduled for Wednesday, May 27, and will be held at Chevron’s headquarters in San Ramon, California.

The meeting promises to be dramatic: the company is currently embroiled in its own lawsuit, which was filed in New York in 1993 and was later moved to Ecuador at Chevron’s request. The class action suit is believed to be the largest environmental case in history, representing 30,000 plaintiffs in Ecuador, who charge Chevron of gross environmental and human rights abuses.

Shareholders may be happy with the company’s profits, but many have expressed concern about Chevron’s handling of the court case. New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo recently opened a probe of Chevron to determine if it is misleading shareholders, so passions are likely to be high at Wednesday’s meeting.

Environmental and human rights advocates are expected to stage a protest outside Chevron’s headquarters the day of the meeting, and members of indigenous and farming communities from Ecuador’s Amazon will be present to address Chevron’s management directly.

You can read background on the case and follow what unfolds this week here. And if you’d like to send Chevron your own message, visit this site.

Community Connection:

Keep coming back this week to learn more about the developments in both cases, and to read first-hand accounts of people affected directly by Chevron’s actions in Ecuador’s Amazon.

The Matador team is fired up by biking.

Not only is traveling on two wheels better for the environment than almost any other form of transportation, it’s an activity that creates almost instant communities, as the bike documentary, “VEER,” makes evident:

Matador has dozens of cycling articles in its archives. There’s advice about how to choose a bike and gear up for the road, as well as expert insight about which cities are friendliest to cyclers.

Here are some other favorites:

6 Reasons to Go By Bike

8 Steps for Successful Self-Supported Bicycle Tours

Cycling guides for destinations as distant as Montana and Vietnam’s Highway 1.

If you’re in the US, check out local meet-ups and other Bike Month events in these cities:

New York City

Philadelphia

Washington, D.C.

Minneapolis/St. Paul

San Francisco and Bay Area

Portland, OR

Photo: Luxerta

I was listening to the radio as I was driving home from work. When I parked in front of my apartment building, I couldn’t get out of the car. The host was describing Saro Wiwa, a writer and an intellectual who had devoted his life to activism when oil giant Royal Dutch Shell began impinging upon environmental and human rights in Nigeria’s Ogoniland. His vision was to engage RDS through a peaceful, non-violent movement.

That movement attracted enough support and international attention to make RDS and the Nigerian government uncomfortable. In 1995, after having been arrested with eight other activists on unfounded allegations of murder, Saro Wiwa was brought to trial and sentenced to death by hanging. As if the execution was not enough, Saro Wiwa’s body was burned with acid and dumped in an unmarked grave.

No individual or group ever took responsibility for the torture and execution of Saro Wiwa and the other activists, as well as the exile of Wiwa family members that occurred after the murder.

Royal Dutch Shell, of course, carried on with business as usual.

The story of Saro Wiwa’s life and death was compelling, and I made a note to stop by the library the following day so I could read some of his work and learn more about him.

And then, September 11 happened.
*
I thought about that broadcast this weekend, when I attended PEN World Voices Festival’s panel discussion between Ken Saro Wiwa’s son, the journalist and government adviser Ken Wiwa, and the American novelist Richard North Patterson, whose most recent novel is based loosely on Saro Wiwa’s life and death. The two men convened, along with moderator Okey Ndibe, a Nigerian novelist, to talk about Saro Wiwa’s legacy.

Ndibe started the conversation by sharing his own recollections of Saro Wiwa. He was “ebullient” Ndibe said of Saro Wiwa, and he “always carried a book” and his signature smoking pipe. Ndibe recalled a man full of life and passion, even in the midst of struggle.

Photo of Ken Wiwa by Francisco Collazo

Wiwa acknowledged Ndibe’s vision of Saro Wiwa, but added that he believed his father also carried a weight of sadness, which came from the sense that he hadn’t achieved enough in the struggle, or that the efforts of the movement were not making progress quickly enough.

Over the course of the conversation, the three men agreed that the ambitious agenda of social, environmental, and economic justice advocated by Saro Wiwa was, if seemingly solitary for Saro Wiwa himself, also profoundly visionary. Today, climate change, desertification, land rights, and the effects of corporatocracies on communities might well be considered the core issues of our time. Saro Wiwa was largely responsible for putting them on the world’s radar screen.

In his final statement before the military tribunal, Saro Wiwa said:

I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my cause, no matter the trials and tribulations which I and those who believe with me may encounter on our journey.

The legacy Saro Wiwa left for us all, agreed Ndibe, Wiwa, and Patterson, was to always keep trying, to stay true to one’s ideals and goals even when no progress or support seems imminent, to stay engaged in the struggle.

It’s a message that’s a meaningful reminder for anyone engaged in social justice work, and one that had particular resonance on the day of the panel discussion. After more than 12 years, the Center for Constitutional Rights recently announced that Wiwa v. Shell will open in a federal court in Manhattan on May 26, 2009. After jury selection, the trial is expected to take 4 to 6 weeks.

To stay current with developments in the case, visit the CCR’s Wiwa v. Shell website.

And to learn more about the background of the case, take a few minutes to watch this video:

But mainstream media outlets are finally starting to take big oil to task, exposing its corporate social responsibility mantras as little more than hot air.

Chevron, according to a “60 Minutes” report that aired last night, is the third largest company in the United States, with oil interests all over the world. Drilling far from home, the company has responded to the U.S.’s unquenchable thirst for oil. While reaping a tidy profit–despite the economic downturn, Chevron managed to increase revenues by 25% (to $263 billion USD) in 2008 — Chevron has consistently engaged in business and environmental practices that have had very real and devastating consequences for communities and ecosystems in South America, Africa, and on other continents.

Photo: Kayana Szymczak, via chevrontoxico.com

Chevron’s dirty work has been especially damaging in Ecuador, where the world’s largest environmental lawsuit in history–with more than 30,000 litigants–is getting underway. Chevron, which started oil prospecting in Ecuador in the 1960s, took the money and ran, leaving a trail of environmental hazards–including leaching waste wells–in its wake.

To learn more about the situation, check out “60 Minutes’” full report in this video:

Watch CBS Videos Online

And to learn more about what you can do to hold big oil accountable for its environmental and human atrocities, check out Amazon Watch’s action alerts.

Photo: Fuseman

But films, when well-done, can be carried to all corners of the world, raising viewers’ awareness of problems and audacious social change projects and inspiring them to get involved.

This is one of the core values of the Global Oneness Project.

I’ve written about the Global Oneness Project before, but this time it’s to announce some free community building events coming up in the Pacific Northwest.

If you live in Olympia, Seattle, Portland, Bellingham, Eugene, or Victoria, BC, you’re invited to Global Oneness Project’s film and conversation series, the New Narrative Project, which kicks off this week. The series promises engaging short films, good conversation among people who care about the same things you do, and the chance to meet filmmakers.

The full schedule and more details can be found here.