What's Woody Doing Now

Joy in the Congo, Just Maybe a Reason to Stay Overnight

Here's a BIG CHANGE OF MIND for me!  I might like to stay overnight in Kinshasa (DR Congo) to visit the symphony.  

I thought that was never going to be a reason for me to stay in Kinshasa for pleasure.  Typically, I fly into Kinshasa from Brussels arriving at about 7 pm.  It is too late to leave for my next destination.  Or occasionally, I have to shop for items to take with me into the country's interior. Always, it is not a place for me to linger for pleasure.

After seeing this CBS News 60 Minutes segment, I might, just might, like to stay overnight or an extra day to see the Kinshasa Symphony.

via www.cbsnews.com

"Joy in the Congo" seems an unlikely -- even impossible -- title for a story from the Congo, considering the searing poverty and brutal civil war that have decimated that country. Yet in Kinshasa, the capital city, we found an unforgettable symphony orchestra -- 200 singers and instrumentalists defying the poverty, hardship, and struggles of life in the world's poorest country...and creating some of the most moving music we have ever heard. Follow Bob Simon to the Congo to hear the sounds and stories of the Kimbanguist Symphony Orchestra.

Or Maybe It's Because

 

SHENPA OR NOT!!  I'M SCRATCHING THE ITCH!  I don't see the big deal of over TSA's body scanners.

Or maybe it's because I am man.  Someone touching "my junk" or me showing my junk would not upset me.

Or maybe it's because I have lived in Europe where nudity is not a big deal.  I have sat in co-ed sauna fully naked and the killing heat was the only thing on my mind. 

Or maybe it's because I flew a Pan Am flight from Germany just months before Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed out of the sky.

Or maybe it's because I have been in dangerous parts of the world where being an American is sometimes a liability.

Or maybe it's because I don't have wings and can't fly myself.

Seth's Blog: Groping for a marketing solution: TSA and security theater.

There's plenty of controversy about the new full body scanners that the TSA is installing at airports, and plenty more about the way some TSA agents are handling those that choose to opt out.

The heart of the matter comes from the fact that the TSA often doesn't understand that it is in show business, not security business. A rational look at the threats facing travelers would indicate that intense scrutiny of a four ounce jar of mouthwash or aggressive frisking of a child is a misplaced use of resources. If the goal is to find dangerous items in cargo or track down Stinger missiles, this isn't going to help.

Instead, the mission appears to be twofold:

1. Reassure the public that the government is really trying and

2. Keep random bad actors off guard by frequently raising the bar on getting caught

Change the Equation for Congo - Curb the Trade in Conflict Minerals

HELP curb the trade in conflict minerals which are fueling the violence in eastern Congo.  It takes just five minutes of your time for the next four more days.

Today, click the following links to visit the Facebook pages of Representatives Sander Levin (D-MI) and Dave Camp (R-MI), become their Friend, or Fan, and ask them to support HR 4128, the Conflict Minerals Trade Act.

It's that easy!

Change the Equation for Congo | Enough.

On Monday, Enough launched a week-long campaign to get 10 new congressional champions for the Conflict Minerals Trade Act, or HR 4128, which was introduced in the House of Representatives last fall. In just our first day, over two hundred activists responded by posting Facebook and Twitter messages asking these representatives to support the legislation.

This bipartisan bill introduced by Rep. McDermott (D-WA) and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) will help the United States take crucial steps to curb the trade in conflict minerals which are fueling the violence in eastern Congo. Before it can receive a full vote, this legislation has to pass two powerful committees - Foreign Affairs and Ways & Means.

With a narrow window of opportunity remaining in this legislative cycle to move this bill, we're asking for your urgent help to Change the Equation for Congo. Activists from around the country will participate and take 5 minutes each day this week to target 10 crucial members of Congress that are essential to advancing the bill.

By posting a message on their Facebook walls, we can demonstrate broad grassroots support and generate pressure for them to become co-sponsors.

Chose the Decade of Change

Do you want a double dose of frustration?  Try this out. 

One, celebrate your 57th birthday traveling to Congo.  One of the last places in the world most people want to go to work or visit.  I heard someone say they would rather visit the worst dentist daily for two weeks than spend one day there.  And, two, arrive on evening of New Year's Day.  One of the most festive times of the year and you miss it.  You are tired.  Don't have a hangover.  Missed the college football mega event of the year.

BUT, I choose to change the face the poverty in Congo.  Extend a hand of hope for a better decade.  This is going to be a decade to remember.  New opportunities for millions here in Congo.

I crown this the Decade of Water!  It's a new decade.  Forget those old way of getting water.  It's 2010!

Seth's Blog: Welcome to the frustration decade (and the decade of change).

Here are my picks for the two most important trends of the decade we're just starting:

1.  Change: The infrastructure of massive connection is now real. People around the world have cell phones. The first internet generation is old enough to spend money, go to work and build companies. Industries are being built every day (and old ones are fading). The revolution is in full swing, and an entire generation is eager to change everything because of it. Hint: it won't look like the last one with a few bells and whistles added.

2.  Frustration: Baby boomers are getting old. Dreams are fading, and so is health. Boomers love to whine and we love to imagine that we'll live forever and accomplish everything. This is the decade that reality kicks in. And, to top it off, savings are thin and resource availability isn't what it used to be. A lot of people ate their emergency rations during the last decade. Look for this frustration to be acted out in public, and often.

I think the coolest thing is that just about everyone gets to pick which one of these two alternatives they want to spend their time on. And being frustrated about change doesn't count as doing both.

Would You Pay For Printed News?

I probably would NOT pay for printed news (in a digital form).  Unless, the article was from a respected reporter in an interested subject area.  And it got be more than the printed words.  The "free prize" can be previously unpublished pictures, expanded video interviews, and other nuggets I can not get normally in printed news.

Why should printed news be different from media (TV-radio) news?  How are they surviving in the internet era? 

Publisher Lays Out Plan to Save Newspapers - NYTimes.com.

Springer, which publishes the biggest daily in Europe, the tabloid Bild, as well as other newspapers in Germany and Eastern Europe, says it wants publishers to get paid for their work on the Internet, at a time when many people assume that online news should be free.

“The meta-philosophy of free — we should get rid of this philosophy,” said Christoph Keese, Springer’s head of public affairs and an architect of its online strategy. “A highly industrialized world cannot survive on rumors. It needs quality journalism, and that costs money.”

Springer is not the only publisher looking for ways to earn money from digital sources, as readers turn away from printed newspapers and the promise of Internet advertising fades. In the English-speaking world, Rupert Murdoch, the chief executive of News Corp., has been telling anyone who will listen that he plans to erect so-called pay walls for his company’s newspaper Web sites. Other publishers, including The New York Times Co., which owns the International Herald Tribune, have also said they were considering charging for online access.

While Axel Springer is often seen as one of the most pro-American of German newspaper owners, Mr. Keese had some sharp criticism for his U.S. counterparts. American publishers, he said, have been too timid in dealing with threats to their future — a problem that he attributed to a lesser cultural appreciation of the importance of the print media in the United States than in Germany.

“The Americans don’t give a damn if the newspapers go down,” he said. “This is very different in Germany. This is Gutenberg’s country. We invented this.”

More Charities Seek Tax Break for Donors, Costing U.S. Billions - @p2173

As a nonprofit leader, I understand the situation.  I disagree with the experts that nonprofits are "skillfully exploiting".  Also, I disagree that it is costing the US billions. 

More people want to lead instead of follow.  But really think more people would rather start their own nonprofit than compromise their cause.  It is a sign of the times.  It is about our "me" generation and our search for uniqueness.

But something needs to be done to stop the duplication of similar nonprofits.  For example, I need to a startup nonprofit within 100 miles and in the same state of my nonprofit which has a nearly identical mission.  Of course, I think the second organization is not needed. 

Earlier this year, my organization decided to absorb another group which is located out-of-state.  The process was easier before they applied for tax exempt status.

More Charities Seek Tax Break for Donors, Costing U.S. Billions - NYTimes.com.

The number of organizations that can offer their donors a tax break in the name of charity has grown more than 60 percent in the United States, to 1.1 million, in just a decade.

Experts say nonprofits are skillfully exploiting the tax code’s broad and elastic definition of what constitutes such a charity.

READING a Thanksgiving Prayer for Children

Be thankful and grateful for all we have.

Marian Wright Edelman: A Thanksgiving Prayer to End Poverty in Our Time.

Thanksgiving is a time when many Americans pause to be grateful for all we have. In the current economic downturn when the gap between rich and poor is at the highest level since the Great Depression and the unemployment rate is 10.2 percent, millions of our neighbors, including many families with children, are struggling hard to count their blessings.

What kind of nation, blessed to be the wealthiest in the world, lets one in five children be poor, with its children the poorest age group among us? This indefensible and preventable child poverty reflects a spiritual and values poverty far deeper than the eye can see and threatens the very meaning and future of America. So I offer a Thanksgiving prayer for us to commit to end poverty in our time -- beginning with children.

VIEWING a Video Report On Congo Conflict Minerals

Here's a great video report to watch.  STOP funding rapists and killers in the Congo.  Next year, you may be able to make an informed decision.

1.  Conflict Cellphones.

2. US House of Representative introduces a Bill to stop the use of conflict minerals from Congo.

 

 

Heart of Diamonds: Video Report On Congo Conflict Minerals.

As Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) introduced his bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to help stop the use of conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo in cell phones and other electronic devices, my colleague Rima Abdelkader filed this incisive report.

Reading a Reminder - Invitation - Water is Medicine - Capitol Hill Briefing

Water is Medicine, Capitol Hill Briefing, July 29, 2009

On Wednesday July 29, 2009, the bipartisan Congressional Water Caucus and Water Advocates are hosting a Capitol Hill Briefing in Washington, DC on the vital linkages between safe drinking water, sanitation and global public health challenges:

** Water is Medicine: Safe Water, Sanitation and Global Public Health Challenges **

Speakers will discuss the gravity of the current global safe drinking water and sanitation challenge, and its critical impact on global public health, including the 25+ diseases due to unsafe water and inadequate sanitation.

Speakers will also review what is currently being done around the world to help meet the need for safe water, improved sanitation and better health, and offer examples and case studies of what the U.S. government and others in the international donor community are doing to help meet and exceed the Millennium Development Goals for water, sanitation and health.

The costs associated with this challenge will be addressed, as will the impact of inaction on health and economic development.

What: Capitol Hill Briefing, "Water is Medicine: Safe Water, Sanitation and Global Public Health Challenges"

Who: Speakers will include noted public health experts and leaders from prominent international aid agencies

* Christine Moe, Director, Center for Global Safe Water Emory University

* Jae So, Manager, Water and Sanitation Program Global Partnership administered by the World Bank

* Rich Thorsten, Director of International Programs, Water.org Co-founded by Matt Damon and Gary White

Moderated by John Oldfield, Water Advocates

When: Wednesday, July 29, 2009, 2pm - 3pm

Where: Capitol Visitor Center, South Meeting Room http://www.visitthecapitol.gov/Visit/

Please allow time for security clearance. Please circulate this invitation widely. RSVP to Water Advocates at [email protected]. 

Is Congo just moonwalking?

Some people learned to moonwalk like Michael Jackson.  Did you know that a country can moonwalk?

Last year, I equated the development in Congo to moonwalking.   In some areas, the Congo is making some progress but overall development is going backward or standing still when compared to other African countries.