an international movement

Day 2
Each day of the month leading up to World AIDS Day, I'll be posting some sort of resource, thoughts or action for you to use.


World AIDS Day began in 1988 as has since ballooned into an internationally recognized and observed awareness day. Up until 2004 it was run by UNAIDS (who I'll have more info on in future posts) at which point it was handed over to the World AIDS Campaign (WAC). They settled on the theme "Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise." which will remain the theme until 2010.

The WAC has a variety of resources and networks available on their website. If you'd like to host an event at your school, church or neighborhood, you can receive posters, a CD-Rom of resources, and web promotion/networking all through their site for free.


I'm out of internet access for the next two days, so I'll post again on Saturday night (hopefully)...

World AIDS Day...the one month countdown

last year i tried to post on my xanga site (wow...i'd forgotten that it was that recent that i used xanga) every day in the month prior to World AIDS Day to help educate and bring awareness to World AIDS Day.

i didn't succeed every day, but i did learn a lot in the process.

so this year, i'm taking another stab at it. i think i'll do better. though i'm going to be without internet access for the next two days, i think, so we may be off to a rough start.

World AIDS Day: December 1st, 2007

today you can...
-join the event on facebook (which has a handy list of ways to participate in the coming weeks)
-start thinking about how you want to participate (maybe using the above mentioned handy list)

more to come in the coming days...

christmas?!

Last Saturday I heard my first Christmas song of 2007. In October. I complained so loudly that my friends were embarassed. But that's another story.

Apparently Christmas is just around the corner. And so in that holiday spirit I offer this article from Crave, cnet's blog:

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9798241-1.html

It's not very long and definitely worth the read. The things we spend our money on are telling of where our lives live.

--

Sometimes people ask me if peace would actually work. It's not our natural inclination to be kind, to turn the other cheek, to return evil with good. Surely peace is not sustainable they suggest. But have we actually ever tried? Every year America spends billions of dollars (yes...literally billions. over 100 billion in the last year on Iraq alone) on war and its supplies. Peace has never had that kind of payroll. It's had the poverty of Ghandi. The passion of Martin Luther King Jr. But it's never had the profits of our Fortune 500's or the taxes of our goverments leveraged in its favor.

This Christmas I want more than eye-candy. I want some hope. Some hope that I could offer peace and happiness to my neighbor. And my enemy.

technology for the global south...

my title for this post reminds me that i want to do a post on the things we call the other parts of the world...and the merits and downsides of the various names (third world, global south, developing countries, etc). if you have a name, drop me a comment about it and i'll include some research and thoughts on it in the post...

now onto this post...
cnet recently posted an interesting photo piece highlighting technologies that are helping to bring better quality of life in underdeveloped areas. take a gander and then stop back here and comment on which one you found the most interesting. the interesting thing about this to me is that some of these are really simple ideas. what other simple ideas are out there that we could cooperate on to partner with those who need them?

http://www.news.com/2300-1008_3-6209770-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

Rich Mullins

here's a great article on Rich Mullins, who died unexpectedly 10 years ago. Rich lived justice before it became the next big thing. these thoughts are well put.


some favorite quotes (and my addendums):

"His typical concert uniform was jeans (with holes in the knees) and a t-shirt. No shoes. No socks. In fact, he was known for sneaking onto the stage before being introduced, because the glowing introductions always made him uncomfortable."
-i actually had the chance to see Rich in concert before he died, and this was absolutely true.
-i wish i was more uncomfortable with glowing introductions. i know i'm supposed to be humble and thus uncomfortable with them, but instead i rather enjoy them. pride...ugh.

"He didn’t know what his music and career were worth, and didn’t want to know."

"And when a sheltered Southern Baptist boy starts reading Catholics and Anglicans and other suspicious thinkers, the Gospel gets a whole lot bigger."
-some of the biggest things I've come to understand about God rest far away from the right-wing conservative evangelical upbringing I had. surely some really good things came from that, too, but much of what has shaped me is from "suspicious thinkers."

"He grew up Quaker."
- : )

"We were strangers, but I feel like we were companions during a very formative time in my life."

One thing not particularly highlighted in the article that struck me about Rich was his authentic voice. only Rich, it seems, could write "Awesome God", while at the same time penning lyrics to "Hold Me, Jesus" that include "sometime life just don't make sense at all" or to "Hard To Get" which is possibly the most honest song/psalm since David stopped writing.

sometimes i like to think that he went out just the way that he wanted to...

"when i leave, i want to go out like Elijah,
with a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
and when i look back on the stars
it'll be like a candlelight in Central Park
and it won't break my heart to say goodbye"

me too, Rich. me too.

long overdue

I know I'm way overdue on posting and for that I apologize. I'm in the middle of a rough stretch, schedule-wise. Hopefully next week will start looking normal again.

Until then, Wednesday, September 19th is "Talk Like A Pirate Day," so shiver me timbers and spread some justice-lovin' piratey talk, ya landlubbers! Arrrrr.

Seriously...good things will commence again next week. Or I'm a short-bearded scaliwag. Arrrrrr.

The Things We Study

Apparently men prefer hot women:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/09/04/dating.mating.ap/index.html

For men, kissing is all about the sex:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6975794.stm

honestly...people are dying from starvation, from war, from AIDS....and this is what we spend our time researching. ugh.