Sustainable Good

Gaza Crisis: Little Food, Rocket Attacks, Israel Strikes = Even Less Food, Even More Violence

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is extremely complex and is rooted in the last 60 years of failed policy. However, I think that one of the main causes of the most recent outbreak in violence is the blockade that Israel is placed on Palestine that has made the situation there absolutely horrible. There was a shortage of everything--food, water, medical supplies--even before the Israeli attack started four days ago.

A six month truce between Israel and Palestine that resulted in a severe reduction in violence during that period ended less than a week ago. And now look what is happening. During the truce, Israel still wasn't letting adequate supplies into Gaza.

Is it any wonder that Hamas is shooting rockets at Israel? When people are struggling for the simple necessities of life, they do desperate things.

new year's hopes

As the year is rolling to an end, I can't help but think about 2009 and all the possibilities that are in store.  Here's a short list of my hopes:

1) Children feel a sense of security, have enough to eat, and have good access to education and health care.

2) Extreme poverty is reduced.

3) Violence is no longer an option to solve international problems.

I know these are pretty overwhelming hopes and I appear naive by writing them -- but sometimes it's nice to take a step back from all the compromises, and baby steps, and look at the big picture.

Happy New Year...

-Karyn Wingard-Manuel

On a lighter note: Wall-e, a Robot of Hope!

 

There is a lot to be despondent about in this world. And we talk about many of these things on this blog—war, poverty and environmental destruction. As a matter of fact, I was going to write about a “hidden genocide” in Somalia before I decided to write about a more hopeful topic.

Yesterday, I rented "Wall-e" to watch with my family. I normally wouldn’t get much meaning from a Disney movie, but "Wall-e" is different. It is the story of a cute robot that is cleaning up Earth after humanity has spent the past 700 years on a giant spaceship because they (we) have left it uninhabitable. 

Keep Children Off the Battlefield

This video, which in the satirical tradition of Swift's 'A Modest Proposal', calls on people to help child soldiers fight, is rather shocking.  But rather than seeing it as bad taste, it forced me to think about how my complacency actually allows the phenomenon of child soldiers to continue unchallenged -- almost as if I was sending them weapons myself.

No one has thrown shoes at Outreach International

It is my firm belief that the kind of work Outreach International is involved in provides more than just health care, education, economic security, and nutrition.  It devlops more than self-esteem and an ability to voice struggles to those in power.

Outreach International  prevents shoes being thrown at presidents. 

You may or may not sympatize with Muntader al-Zaidi, the journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush, but that's beside the point.

Far too often, wars begin because there is a fight over limited resources.  Economic insecurity breeds political insecurity which breeds conflict.  Of course wars, and in particular the Iraq war, cannot be described in such simplistic terms.  But I can't help but think about Outreach's philosphy -- building community, and then supporting that community in solving their own problems -- and wonder if States adopted this way of working out problems, there would be as many international conflicts as there are these days.  Bush claimed that American soldiers were going to come to Iraq as liberators.  Cue the images of Iraquis showering us with flowers and praise.

Address Needs, not Impose Pre-Subscribed Solutions

I am a freelance filmmaker and cameraman, just returned from The Philippines, where I’ve been documenting some of the work Outreach International is doing. (The videos should start popping up on the Outreach website in the new year)

Outreach have been working in the country for around 30 years, so it seemed a good time to go. It would be an opportunity to look at both communities who at present receive support, and those who’ve been helped out in the past.

I was interested in seeing how sustainable the work is. The NGO community is riddled with stories of organisations not being able to offer long-term solutions to communities with immediate needs, whether through lack of understanding or unforeseeable hurdles. I’ve wondered in the past whether faults might be, in part, a consequence of a global system founded on ‘box ticking’, which satisfies funding bodies in the developed world, but has no relevance for the needs of the developing world. After this trip, I’m increasingly sure this is the case. Which is where I think organisations like Outreach can set themselves apart; by having and retaining their independence. The independence to be able to go into communities, work with local people and address genuine needs, rather than attempt to impose pre-subscribed solutions.

‘Great Change’ in Malawi: The Story of Lewis Mhango, Human Development Facilitator

Lewis Mhango is a human development specialist with Outreach International in northern Malawi.  Soft-spoken and thoughtful, he works at the grassroots in impoverished rural communities, organizing and facilitating sustainable change.

Corruption, Poverty, Disease: It's all connected

  News keeps coming in of the hundreds of people (and counting) dying in Zimbabwe due to the cholera outbreak.  There is no real way to know the total of deaths because record keeping is difficult or non-existant.  Raw sewage leaks throughout the streets and runs into the river, infecting it with cholera.  Close by, vendors are selling vegetables and fruits because there is no other option.  Thousands of people are becoming sick but many of the hospitals are closing because there is no funding, leaving extremely ill people with nowhere to go.  There are no medicines to give them anyway, nor anyone to hand them out.  Nurses and doctors are on strike because they are not getting paid.  The deaths due to cholera are expected to rise due to the expected rainy season in Feburary.

Studies Show--Development Pays

It is the arguement that the Sustainable Good blog was founded on and Outreach International works from every day: doing long-term development is much more successful than short-term, reactionary humanitarian aid. And one of my coworkers found a great report by the Center for American Progress with evidence to back this up. The report called "The Cost of Reaction: The Long-Term Costs of Short-Term Cures" argues that the United States has been pursuing short-term solutions to development for much too long, at the detriment to the safety and security of everyone, including the self-serving interests of the U.S.

The report argues that U.S. foreign aid is much too reactive, instead of proactive. Much of the funding the U.S. provides goes toward areas after conflict or disaster in the form of humanitarian or security (military) aid. After the crisis has subsided, or the U.S. interest in the region diminishes, aid "flatlines." This has created an aid system that is incapable of doing anything but emergencies services. Imagine a hospital where after the emergency is averted there is no follow-up, no cures offered, no ability to help prevent the next emergency.

Building Peace at the Local Level in Uganda

Negotiators for the Ugandan government waited in vain last week for the illusive rebel leader, Joseph Kony to emerge and sign a peace agreement to end the twenty year civil war in Northern Uganda. Once again, Kony failed to appear, demanding further concessions. However, while Kony continues to stall peace efforts, the people of Uganda have continued to pursue peace amongst themselves.

This week, we travelled to Soroti, in eastern Uganda to meet with an inspiring local organization which is taking peace into its own hands. The Teso Dioceses Development Office (TEDDO) has a peace project  headed by Pastor Sam Eibu which specializes in community-based mediation. Under Eibu’s initiative, a group of one hundred “peace promoters” have been trained to carry out localized conflict resolution and conciliation initiatives in the villages surrounding Soroti.

Bailout for whom?

Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler came to Congress yesterday (via car this time) to make their cases once again for a financial bailout. While the auto giants blame their economic woes mostly on the recession, we all know that it is much more complicated than what they claim. Greed surely has a role. Yet, Congress will no doubt keep them from falling into the pits of bankruptcy. At the same time, a Government Oversight document came out saying that the Administration is not properly overseeing the $700 billion bailout that has already been partly doled out to the various financial institutions.

World AIDS Day...today!

Today, December 1st, marks the 20th anniversary World AIDS Day. People all over the world have been coming together on Dec. 1st to commit to end the AIDS epidemic. Check out some of the ways that governments around the world marked the day this year. Also be sure and go to the World AIDS Campaign website where you can pledge to increase your committment to ending AIDS. I recommend figuring out what you would feel comfortable doing and then going the next step further. We all have to work harder in order to end this disease.

Some of the countries where Outreach International works are facing terrible AIDS crises. One of those is Zambia, where almost one out of six people is HIV positive! Read how one community is working together to overcome the struggles of AIDS.

-Stephen Donahoe

Protesting the "School of the Assassins"

Torture, assassination, murder of innocent civilians--these practices are far from American values and ideals. However, the School of the Americas (now Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation or WHINSEC) has been teaching these practices to Latin American militaries and their leaders for years. This past weekend, I went to the 18th Annual School of the Americas Protest. Father Roy Bourgeois started the School of the Americas Watch in 1990 after the brutal murder of 6 Jesuit priests, their co-worker and her teenage daughter on November 16, 1989.