the way injustice works

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SIDE NOTE
here are a couple article links that i found interesting:

[tags]dilbert, injustice, cartoon[/tags]

the plan for right now

okay guys & girls there are tons of things around baton rouge that can be done to help in the relief effort for the evacuees from new orleans. for now we (the youth ministry) are going to start with two.

  • first, we are going to work with the children of evacuees staying at the shelter at southern university. there are tons of people at southern and their kids are in need of some encouragement. starting tomorrow we are going to be that encouragement.
  • secondly, jason’s deli is making meals for the rescue workers and they need help putting them together. we are going to be that help.

we will meet at the student center and head to both of these spots. i can’t promise transportation, chaperons, food, or anything else. i’m putting this together as i figure it out. all i can promise is that you will be helping to meet two serious needs. once, we get these needs organized and met we will start on other needs.

$300

today i learned something that saddened me and excited me at the same time. what i learned was that the two days that we fed kids at the dump during our nicaraguan mission trip where the exception to the rule rather than the norm. our church is presently sponsoring meals at three different locations. together these spots feed more or less 1,000 kids. unfortunately, there hasn’t been enough money to start and additional feeding site within the diriamban dump that would feed the 200-300 kids who live there. in order to start a new station you have to make sure that you have guaranteed income so that the feeding program won’t stop in the future. the baltadonnas try to feed the dump kids when they can but “when they can” usually happens about once a week. that’s the sad part.

the exciting part is that it only costs $300 a month to feed the kids that live in the dump. that’s not allot of money. i discussed the issue with jim wallace and ended by telling him that i believe that all of us within the youth ministry would like to start covering the cost for adding a feeding station at the dump. we’ll talk about this over the next few weeks but i really believe it’s something we can do. start thinking about this now. i really believe we can do this and raise enough additional support so that we have a solid “cushion” to guarantee continued support off feeding the kids at the dump.

trying to get back into the groove

i haven’t really been able to focus on blogging since getting back from nicaragua. i’m not sure why. anyway i’m really just typing here to get back into the habit.

i have an update for those who have discussed some plans for helping within the the dump in diriamba (for you who don’t know this there are over 200 kids who live in the dump in diriamba with their families probably totalling around 500 people). our church set up a feeding program within the dump but some of us are dealing with other plans for helping the inidividuals who live within the dump get out of that situation). i have started the emailing process of getting information on teaching the kids to make sandals out of used tires (easily found within the dump) that could then be sold in nicaragua and the states. after a few emails i finally found the person who started this same process in haiti but i haven’t received a response from him yet. i also have been corresponding with claudia baltadonna concerning collecting bowls for the kids in the dump. we’ll probably start collecting bowls at “the view.”

btw, sergio and al velasquez are back in town from venezuela. i spoke with them on the phone earlier today.

ONE campaign update


saturday some cool stuff happened relating to making poverty history. here’s how the latest email from the ONE campaign puts it.

together as ONE, we have helped do something incredible!

this past saturday, the u.s. joined together with other wealthy nations to free millions of people in some of the poorest countries from crushing debts. the finance ministers from the ‘group of eight’ or ‘g8′ nations agreed to write off billions of dollars of debt, and in return for cancellation, the qualifying countries will invest these savings in their own people — to help with more schools, health clinics and wells.

debt cancellation will quite literally save millions of lives — but this deal was struck by only eight men huddling around a table. eight men and the millions of us watching them, asking them to do the right thing. you called for this, with ONE voice, and they got it done.

the finance ministers’ meeting was just a warm-up act, a down payment on an overall historic breakthrough. let’s keep up the positive pressure for the main event, when president bush, prime minister blair and the other g8 leaders meet on july 6.

so here’s what you can do to help – go here and write president bush an email with your ONE voice and let him know how important getting rid of extreme world poverty is to you.

ONE campaign update


saturday some cool stuff happened relating to making poverty history. here’s how the latest email from the ONE campaign puts it.

    together as ONE, we have helped do something incredible!

    this past saturday, the u.s. joined together with other wealthy nations to free millions of people in some of the poorest countries from crushing debts. the finance ministers from the ‘group of eight’ or ‘g8′ nations agreed to write off billions of dollars of debt, and in return for cancellation, the qualifying countries will invest these savings in their own people — to help with more schools, health clinics and wells.

    debt cancellation will quite literally save millions of lives — but this deal was struck by only eight men huddling around a table. eight men and the millions of us watching them, asking them to do the right thing. you called for this, with ONE voice, and they got it done.

    the finance ministers’ meeting was just a warm-up act, a down payment on an overall historic breakthrough. let’s keep up the positive pressure for the main event, when president bush, prime minister blair and the other g8 leaders meet on july 6.

so here’s what you can do to help – go here and write president bush an email with your ONE voice and let him know how important getting rid of extreme world poverty is to you.

ONE campaign

the ONE campaign is the u.s. version of “make poverty history” (which is the u.k. version of the ONE campaign). basically this is a grassroots effort to push our government for fighting for economic justice concerning the poorest of the poor within our world. this translates to the u.s. government moving towards an additional one percent of it’s budget (roughly 25 billion) being directed towards helping honest governments overcome extreme poverty and health issues and using legal means to fight against the corpution in other governments that diverts resources away from these needs.

here’s what an additional one percent of the use budget would be able to do:

  • help prevent 10 million children from becoming AIDS orphans
  • help get 104 million children into grade school.
  • help provide water to almost 900 million people around the globe.
  • save almost 6.5 million children under 5 from dying of diseases that could be prevented with low-cost measures like vaccination or a well for clean water.

pretty impressive what an additional one percent will do huh?

the irony is that the u.s. and the other g8 countries have already agreed to the u.n. millenium goals that are behind the ONE campaign’s desire. the “millenium goals” were setup with the u.n. to cut extreme poverty in half by the year 2015. the problem is that we are all way behind on reaching these goals.

so here’s why i’m writing this.

    first, to encourgae you to commit yourself toward making your “one” voice be heard. “one’ voice can make allot of difference when it is combined with many other voices for the same purpose. you can sign the ONE campaign pledge by clicking here. our government follows what is important to the people. if enough of us tell our respresenatives that eliminating extreme poverty is important to us then it will become important to them.

  • secondly, help me in considering the possiblity of hosting a “ONE campaign” event at our church or in baton rouge. i have been in contact with the southern united states coordinator of the ONE campaign concerning such an event and she has expressed interested in doing something here. if we do one i will need everyone’s help that i can get.

run for the border

awhile back i mentioned at the view and on the blog that the coalition of immokalee workers had been fighting with taco bell for a one penny per pound raise on the tomatoes they picked for taco bell. the immokalee workers had been had been picking tomatoes for 1970s wages and had been unable to convince taco bell to give them the slightest raise or improve the working conditions at all. churches across the country had joined with the coalition in boycotting taco bell in the hopes of convincing them to do the right thing. after years of protest taco bell and yum foods decided to give the workers the raise and improve conditions. you can read more here.

so if you have been boycotting taco bell in support of the immokalee workers you may now eat at the bell in peace. i don’t even like taco bell and yet i plan on taking my boys to eat there tomorrow.

bowling

today the family and i went bowling with baaji & sam our two adopted indian college students. who knew that the bowling alley on a saturday afternoon was the place to meet people? i saw four or five people that i knew. pam and i really enjoy spending time with baaji and sam – they’re basically cool people.

speaking of our indian friends i thought i would bring up a new agency that i personally think is worthy of support. dalit is the indian word for the “untouchables” of india. the word itself means “broken ones” and it is a classification that the dalits have given to themselves. they represent approximately 16% of the population of india. they are the lowest of the low and are treated as such. the dalit freedom network is an organization that is working to improve the lives of the dalit and insure them the same opportunities that everyone else within indian society has. you can read more about the dalit and the dalit freedom network by clicking here.

SIDE NOTE – pam is howling once again. as i’ve said before – my wife is psychotic.