While in Haiti doing relief work in March of 2010 I ran into a frustration which I’d like to air. Namely, it was the United Nations (UN) that drove me crazy. (more…)
July 15, 2011
July 13, 2011
Redefining the Heroine
Traditionally the hero/ine was the achetype that comes in and saves the day when something has gone wrong or justice needs to be done.
To me, through the lens of sustainability and environmental justice, a heroine is a support for people who know they need help. She enables organizations and groups of citizens, through facilitation and training, to create a better world for themselves. A better world which is based on the shared values and culture of the community and not what someone else thinks they should be. (more…)
November 29, 2010
Eastern States Exposition: The Big E
Last year my first year at the BIG E and since I could not muster up the desire to attend again this year, it might just be my last unless some changes are made.
The Big E is an awesome opportunity to reach out and share some of what is truly special about New England. Music, arts, goods grown and made here, could all be featured in such a way to generate revenue, and encourage additional tourism and ‘local holidays.’ (more…)
November 24, 2010
North Quabbin Garlic & Arts Festival
This festival in celebration of an alum know by some as the stinking rose, avoided by those who seek to kiss their sweetheart, and banned from those on a sattvic diet because of its disruption of meditation practices and invigoration of the central nervous system occurs every October in Orange, Massachussets. (more…)
November 22, 2010
No news is good news. Wait. Why is that?
Ever heard the phrase no news is good news? This phrase to me makes it seem like the only news should be negative. Well I don’t think so and neither does YourOliveBranch.org.
Your Olive Branch is immersing itself into the information and communications realm as a portal of positive news at the intersection of peace and sustainability. It is great because it effectively hits on the needs of so many who are dis-illusioned with the current offerings while providing a much needed nectar for those seeking nourishment for their soul. (more…)
October 1, 2010
Why I buy fair trade
When I was thirteen, I witnessed a boat load of girls being transported upstream to service the needs of the men who were collecting gold and subsequently polluting the Amazon River with mercury. We were the same age. (more…)
August 24, 2010
SVN Spring Conference: Haiti Onward
The most emotionally charged session that I attended during the Spring SVN member gathering at Skamania Lodge was Haiti Onward. In part, this was because the rawness of the earthquake and its aftermath, and in part because of my experience volunteering for several weeks with AMURTEL had me feeling connected deeply to the stories that were shared. The session touched upon several organizations that are working on revitialization and the rebuilding effort and offered the SVN community the opportunity to be inspired to participate in that effort. Following are a few brief pictures of what was heard during the session. (more…)
June 6, 2010
SVN Spring Conference: Small is Beautiful vs. Scale Matters
Friday night ended with a bang as Michelle Long of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and Jay Coen Gilbert of B Lab engaged in a dialog on the issue of whether going to scale or staying local is more effective in building a sustainable economy.
Jay began with a humorous, but earnest, argument that ‘Bigger is Better’. He used examples to illustrate how scale can effect the whole on a greater level. He cited how employees of Wal-Mart, who had been discriminated against, came together to sue the company. He pointed out how as China invests in scaling solar the price per kilowatt will come under $1. And he pointed to one of the biggest challenges, and opportunities, for effecting change at scale – finding innovations that can help the 3 billion people living on less than $2 a day. He argued that these are solutions and challenges of such scale, that small, local initiatives could not effectively address them. (more…)
May 11, 2010
SVN Spring Conference: Gunter Pauli’s Blue Economy
During a conversation at the Fall 2009 SVN conference over tea, Diana Lee of the Biomimicry Institute added this wisdom to our conversation; “There is no energy crisis in nature.” Waste exists in our minds and in our culture but in the natural world which we are a part of, the outputs of one process become the inputs of another.
The opening night plenary of the SVN Spring Member Gathering delved into this topic with Gunter Pauli, the co-founder of SVN Europe, Ecover, and the Zero Emissions Research & Initiatives (ZERI) took the stage.
Gunter wants you to believe that you can change the rules of the game and throughout the presentation, example after example showed just how much could be done toward preservation and conservation while doing just that. (more…)
April 21, 2010
Privacy
While catching up on one of the episodes of House, MD that occurred while I was away in Haiti, I noticed a theme that flowed quite well with my experience. So much so that I paused the video and began to write.
The theme was ‘privacy.’ While House and his team had a short debate on the topic and whether it was a modern innovation, totally unnecessary or socially irrelevant, I began to think of my visit to the town of Cabaret just outside of Port-au-Prince. (more…)