Africa not filled with poverty?

This AllAfrica.com article about the misrepresentation of Africa is so freakin crazy. It seems that, for this author, caring is just a mask for racism and disdain.

I'm sorry, lady, but people in Africa really do lack access to clean water and basic sanitation.

More people really do have AIDS in Africa than anywhere else. Millions of children really are orphans because their parents died of AIDS.

It is literally a DARK place - that's not some arbitrary insult. If you look at one of those satellite images of the world at night, Africa is a dark continent. No electricity means less business, less economic development, and thus less economic vitality. Compare the lights in the U.S. or Europe to the darkness in Africa.

The Save Darfur campaign paints Africa in a bad light? It should! Genocide is occurring. Should we not give Sudan negative media coverage?

No one is denying that Africa is all the things you say in the last paragraph - beautiful, strong, rhythmic, hopeful. But if true caring is a glossing over of the quote-unquote true problems that exist, then I guess I just don't care.

The fact that she even puts the word Africa in quotations throughout the article shows how freakishly paranoid she has become about the whole thing. Africa is indeed a place! It's an actual land mass. It's not a myth. It's not a political construction. It's a real mixing bowl of thousands of vibrant cultures that have some strengths and some weaknesses in common. No need for quotations.

Celebrate the U2-charist

The Church of England is celebrating the U2-charist to encounter the Lord this year. I'm sure some of you would ridicule that (yes, you know who you are), but hey, more power to them.

Populist tide has elitists running scared

I love this commentary from Lou Dobbs. I am a populist! So sue me!

Dobbs: Populist tide has elitists running scared

The only thing I don't fully understand is how American businesses really can compete and survive by keeping jobs in America and keeping them good-paying. I hope there is an answer, I just need to look into it more.

Exciting news

This is cool. I am going to brag for just a second.

The organization I work with drills community-sized water wells in Africa. The unique thing is that we set up an Africa-based company to do this. It not only creates jobs for Africans in addition to providing water, but it is set up as a business that can drill for profits and then take those private client profits and turn them back into ministry projects (serving the poorest of the poor). It's pretty dang cool.

Anyway, I just talked to my boss and he told me how much he appreciated me ("yay"), and said that two proposals I wrote were effective... one foundation is giving us $125,000 and another is giving us $200,000. The even cooler thing is that both of these are part of an equipment matching challenge that goes dollar for dollar. So this $325,000 will actually result in $650,000. All for huge drilling rigs and support trucks that make deep water wells in Africa. Sooooooo cool! Great news on this Thanksgiving...

Well, day before Thanksgiving. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is so great. I am with Amanda's family in Ohio, Micah is here too, and everyone else. It just feels so homey and happy. But now I do have to focus on work for a few hours before I lose ALL motivation this holiday weekend.

Articles on non-profits and ending poverty

My Dad and his business partner Paulette have this new website and directory for... holistic, spiritual, new age resources... Whatever you want to call it.

They asked me to write two articles, and here they are.

Playing God

If you don't know who Warren Buffett is, (well first of all, where have you been?) he is the third.. or maybe second.. wealthiest person in the world. (Yes, Micah, wealth as measured by $$$ ! Not natural resources. :)

This is the greatest article ever. Read the thing in full and be very happy. Now I realize that he's not exactly giving sacrificially. The guy is a billionaire. But there's still something so inspiring about the article:

Buffett Gives Away 85% of his fortune ($37.5 Billion)

It's interesting that Buffett and Bill Gates are turning their attention to charitable matters. Part of me says that's so cool. The other part of me says, it's about time. Spending on yourself gets old pretty fast, "particularly," as he says in the article, "when 6 billion others have much poorer hands than we do in life." I mean, it really only takes a finite amount of money to take care of your own needs. Even your WANTS, in my opinion, have a finite cap to where if you pass it, it just gets ridiculous.

I just always assumed he was a stingy, insulated, crumpedy old man. In this case, I am sooo glad to be wrong.

I read a couple weeks ago that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently gave $5 million to IJM to fight sex trafficking. That is pretty cool.

Imagine being able to dole out huge amounts of resources like that... It's like playing God, right? When we say playing God, we usually mean tinkering with issues of life and death in ways that we have no right to. But when playing God means giving generously and extravagantly, in order to meet human need, and to give hope where there is only desperation and fear... now that's the kind of playing God I can get behind. Hah. That's the kind of expressing God that, to some degree, the Church is free to do.

And no, it's not about the money. While money is remarkably helpful, there's something we can give that's much better, believe it or not. I'll let you consider what that is for yourself.

Bolivia's war on poverty

Making economic and social policy is, in my humble opinion, quite possibly the most important thing a government does. Our leaders are elected to make and enforce POLICY, and the ones that deal with money, opportunity, and society are pretty central. Capitalism is the best generator of wealth, yes, but does little or nothing to distribute it fairly. That's where leadership comes in. And no, by fairly I don't mean that everyone should get an equal share... but children shouldn't be abandoned, and the elderly shouldn't be forgotten, and people without homes, food, medical care, education... should not be left to suffer. That's just what I think. We're humans. Come on people. We need each other. I'm not talking utopia or communism. I'm talking about remembering who we are. So I like this article. The specifics can be debated, sure, but why is it big news when a country cares for its people? If you want an even more fascinating article, read about how Morales feels like a prisoner of neo-liberal laws and red-tape.

Bolivia unveils anti-poverty plan
By Daniel Schweimler
BBC South America correspondent

The government of Bolivia has announced a radical plan to reduce poverty and create employment in the poorest country in South America. Almost $7bn (£3.8bn) will be invested in ambitious public works programmes.

The economic plan announced by Planning and Development Minister Carlos Villegas aims to create 100,000 jobs a year for the next five years.

It is the latest measure in a series implemented by President Evo Morales since taking office in January.

The people of South America, and especially Bolivia, have often heard their leaders promise to reduce poverty and create jobs.

But President Morales appears to mean it and many Bolivians believe what he says.

The money will come from the recently nationalised gas industry, supplemented by international lending and foreign investment.

The plan, presented in the presidential palace in La Paz, also aims to deliver more basic public services such as school meals and better access to clean water.

Speedy changes

Since he came to office, Evo Morales, a former cocoa leaf grower, has launched a number of ambitious projects to reduce poverty and close the gap between rich and poor in Bolivia.

He cut wages in the public sector, including his own, and sent troops in to take control of oil and gas installations after he nationalised the industries. He has forged links with Venezuela and Cuba and worries Washington.

Few in Bolivia deny that the country needs radical changes.

The speed with which President Morales has moved to implement those changes has delighted his supporters, but left wealthy Bolivians and foreign investors nervous and uncertain how they should react.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/5090850.stm

Christian vs. Christian on AIDS

This is a truly interesting article:

Rift Opens Among Evangelicals on AIDS Funding

For one thing, it's definitely shocking where Pat Robertson comes down on the issue. And for another... it's just interesting. (Man I am sooooooo tired that's all I can offer. lol)