Happy Holidays!

A nice little song you might not have heard this holiday season

Dear Tiger Woods

Hi, I don't really care that much that you cheated on your wife. Although I'm not a fan of infidelity, thats your personal life and I don't feel like thats any of my business. You know what I do care about though, the thousands of lives you are affecting by how you carry your name. I know that you're about to become the first billionaire athlete and with that comes responsibility. Tiger like it or not, your decisions are impacting thousands of lives. Nike touted you as tremendous athlete with great moral character in their deeply historical "I am Tiger Woods" commercial. Please live up to those expectations and stand up for all human beings.

I see you recently signed a 5 year deal with Chevron to sponsor you and give money to your foundation. Your foundation is doing great things but did you know that the money Chevron is giving you is quite dirty? Tiger, Chevron has dumped toxic waste all over the planet, from Alaska to Ecuador. Please step up to the plate and decline their filthy money and demand they act morally.

I also see that you have been at the heart of "Adult Disneyland" in Dubai. That's really cool that you got to design your own golf course in Dubai. Did you know that your private golf course in the desert was built by slave labor? Have you thought about how much water your golf course requires to stay healthy in the desert? I think its kind of weird that your golf course uses millions of gallons of fresh water a day while there are 1 billion people that don't have access to clean drinking water. Lastly, which I think is most disgusting is that Dubai and your golf community has become the sex slave capital of the world. Your golf community is aiding the global sex slave industry. What do you have to say about that? Please say something, you must have an opinion about sex slaves?

I just wanted to remind you that with money comes power Tiger. You have the potential to change these things. Please think about how many lives you could touch by just making a simple statement that is backed up with action.

I ask you to please think about your global neighbors and do the right thing.

Peace and Love- evan

Nopenhagan (thats all i got on the pun front)

All puns aside, It breaks my heart to see corporate financial interests pulling so far ahead of human interests. The talks at Copenhagen were intended to create strong climate legislation that would link all nations together to stop climate change. Instead the talks highlighted how complex and divided countries have become in effort to not give financial advantage to other nations.

The next paragraph is a rant, please skip it if you believe that climate change is real:

I'm no scientist but I cannot believe so many people believe climate change is a hoax, and its only in America. Of the many problems

in Copenhagen, not believing in climate change was not one of them. I absolutely love it when we have a cold day or it snows outside and you hear the comment, "omg its snowing or 24˚F yeah right global warming is real or I used to think global warming was happening but since it has been cold for the last week, through my own observations global warming certainly cannot be true" pure awesome. I did appreciate seeing Sen. James Inhofe "one man truth squad" practically get laughed out of Copenhagen for the 3 hours he was there. Ok I feel better, sorry if you read that.

As I see it, the major issue at Copenhagen was the idea of actually putting a price on carbon could hurt certain economies and give others an unfair advantage. Every country was hesitant to say or do anything about addressing this issue. Diplomats from various countries rambled on about this and that but nobody in room really took this issue head on and with that everything else fell by the wayside.

The last thing to note about the talks in Copenhagen is the changing demographic of the world. It became very clear that the US is not the only superpower around. President Obama was snubbed on multiple occasions by China as the

y gave him the run around on multiple occasions so they could meet with India, Brazil and South Africa behind Obama's back. This situation climaxed as Obama burst into their closed door meeting uninvited and visibly rattled. It seems that the major no strings attached investment in developing countries by China is starting to have influence as it became very visible that many countries were taking cues from China over the US.

PS- Does this picture look familiar to anybody?

SHOUTOUT: Nick Kristof

Nick Kristof has been a big influence on my life along with many others. He might have one of the best jobs in the world. Actually, I'm not really sure what his job is. I mean, he is a columnist for the New York Times but it seems as though he has free range to go to the corners of the earth to write about human rights abuses. He was one of the first reporters to shed light on genocide in Darfur. He has also not missed a beat reporting on the increasing global sex-trade business.

His articles cover a wide range of human

rights issues from health care and food safety in America to the war on drugs to conflict minerals in the Congo. Nick Kristof covers it all and people are listening.

Nick recently caught Oprah's ear, appearing on the show twice in less than 2 months, I think. I cannot verify that but it felt like back to back weeks when my mom called me in to watch "that activist guy I like a lot" on Oprah. He did a great job presenting the hope and need of addressing human rights. I'm not alone as many celebrities have taken time off to tour the globe with Nick to promote human rights. Here is a link to his

column:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/ind

ex.html

Just This Week

After a quick search on the internet, I learned that each of these activists were killed this week. These people were children of God and were murdered standing up for the dignity and rights that every human being deserves.

Walter Trochez and Catherine Nicolle Rodríguez

LGBT rights activists, murdered by the military coup in Honduras for standing up for LGBT rights and supporting the ousted Zelaya government

Mariano Abarca Roblero

human/ environmental rights activist, murdered by hired hit men from Blackfire mining group Mexico

Eudy Simelane

gay rights activist and professional athlete, brutally raped repeatedly and murdered by a gang calling it "corrective rape"

Amjad Ali

political activist, was stabbed to death on his way home by kids hired by ruling CPM party in India

Awwad Baram and Tawfiq al-Ja'di

political activists, killed by Yemen security forces while peacefully protesting.

Healthcare 2.0

I will start with a personal narrative about my health insurance. As some of you know, I am moving to Rwanda soon and living in Rwanda I have to take antimalarials. So I take my prescription for the malaria meds to the pharmacy who to my shock tell me that my health insurance will partially cover my malaria meds but will only cover them a month at a time. The pharmacist suggested that I call my insurance company and ask them to cover me in advance because I will be out of the country. I called them and told them my situation and they immediately told me that they will not advance coverage and wanted to take away the first month of antimalarial coverage because I was leaving the country. So they only cover you on malaria meds if you are staying in the US... where there is no malaria and obviously no need for antimalarials. USELESS.

Some major developments have occurred in the healthcare debate. First, the public option is dead. As compensation for the death of the public option, extensions of medicare eligibility to 55 and an extension of medicaid are making up for the loss of the public option. I have

mixed feeling about this. I think its great because its extending single-payer coverage to many more Americans. Maybe thats the new approach to healthcare reform, extend the programs in place until they take hold of the market. I would be ok with that. I am in favor of a single payer system. Secondly, the public option was so watered down, it wouldn't really do what it was meant to, cover more people and hold the insurance companies accountable.

On the other hand, this really isn't addressing the issues facing healthcare reform. Those who are being hurt the most aren't really being helped out. Middle class families who have some money and don't qualify for medicaid while being unable to afford the premiums of health insurance increasing 4x's faster than inflation. Characteristically this group waits till they cannot wait any longer to go the hospital and get reamed by their non-negotiated hospital bill.

I will leave you with a picture of a satire at its finest: Billionaires for Wealthcare

My First Rwanda Post

Many people have asked me why? why? Rwanda? why would you want to go there? Didn't they just have genocide? I don't understand.

A: My for real motivation. Yes, I am aware that I will be severely lowering my standard of living and yes, I am aware that many people have witnessed many horrible things and yes, I am aware that many of the people who have done these horrible things have been integrated back into society.

I am going because I believe another world is possible. I am going because every single person who lives in Rwanda is a child of God and they deserve the same dignity and respect as every other person under the sun. I have the power to provide opportunity to children of God and I am going to do so. Yes its going to tough, yes I will probably get frustrated, yes I will have trouble adapting, but I have been called to bring heaven on earth and by God I hope I die continually trying. Hell on earth existed in Rwanda 15 years ago but the restorative justice of God is alive and present in Rwanda today and I'm going to be part of it.

SHOUTOUT: Dr. Denis Mukwege

This is going to be a new thing that I start doing. I will share my praise towards a person or group who I believe is doing a really great job of bringing heaven on earth.

Dr. Dennis Mukwege is a specialized doctor who works with women who have been brutally raped in the Congo. He works at Panzi Hospital in Bukavu eastern Congo where he has performed thousands of surgeries on women who have had their insides torn apart from rape. The need is overwhelming in eastern Congo as rape occurs at shocking rates while perpetrators enjoy a culture of impunity. Dr. Mukwege's hospital is a beacon of hope for women whose lives have been ruined by rape and destruction. He has won several international human rights awards including the United Nations Human Rights Prize in 2008.

If you would like to make a donation, you go here: https://secure.vday.org/catalog/index.php

If you actually clicked on that website you will realize that it is connected to V-day and the Vagina Monologues. V-day founder Eve Ensler visited Congo a couple of years ago and was so deeply moved by what she saw during her visit that she has directed a lot of resources of V-day toward helping those in Congo. If you're still reading she also produced a documentary called The Greatest Silence that I would highly suggest.

Testify

Make a Joyful Noise

Hmm, op-ed the AJC did not want. I'm striking out

If you found out that you were helping fuel the deadliest conflict since World War II, would you want to do something about it? 5.4 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo have died since 1998 due to the consequences of war. Similar to blood diamonds, conflict minerals have been fueling the ongoing fighting in the Congo. Thousands of Congolese are living in fear as various rebel groups committing mass human rights violations terrorizing the civilian population using techniques from forced labor in the mines to gruesome rapes in villages. The rampant use of rape as a weapon of war has devastated the lives and livelihoods of thousands of women, making Congo the worst place in the world for a woman to live.

This is where you and I come in. The rebel groups that are committing these atrocities are funded by our purchase of electronic devices with conflict minerals in them. All electronic devices from cell phones to GPS systems require in some form the minerals tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold. Rebel groups violently vie for land to mine these minerals to fund their operations of terror in quest for more power.

Just last week, The Congo Minerals Trade Act of 2009 was proposed in the House as was The Congo Conflict Minerals Trade Act of 2009 proposed in the Senate. These bills will create greater transparency for tracing the origin of minerals to help assure minerals being imported into the United States will be conflict free. I urge you to take action and call our Senators Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss as well as your Representative and ask them to co-sponsor these bills. Let us all take credit for stopping the deadliest conflict since World War II and commit to taking this first step toward creating peace in Congo. For more information please go to: http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/

Free Speech?

I was watching PBS the other day, on this occasion, I was watching the News Hour. In between programs, they had several "ads" I put ads in quotations because I'm not sure what the deal was because PBS is supposedly paid for by viewers thus giving them freedom to run whatever stories they want to without corporate interests dictating what stories they might run. I noticed a major trend in the companies that were sponsoring PBS. The ads ran in order: Intel > Monsanto > Chevron. Do you know what those three corporations have in common? All three are major I mean major human rights violators. I'm sure these corporations paid a fair amount of money to advertise with PBS, but thats part of the problem. I feel like if you're giving lots of money to a group or organization and have the power to say hey, if you run that negative piece about us, we're going to pull our funding. I cannot say for sure that this is the case but it saddens me that PBS could unfortunately be stuck to corporate censorship.

EDIT: Damn, after a little use of "the google" I have learned that Monsanto has sponsored PBS since 2005. Monsanto has also overseen the broadcast of a 30 minute program called "America's Heartland". It's in its fifth year of promoting monoculture farming, GE crops and the elimination of the family farm. I guess I'm behind the curb here.

Gay Marriage!? yep, going there

DC and NYC just recently turned down gay marriage legislation. I guess I just want to share my 2 cents from my semi-emergent point of view.

I am very much in favor of the legalization of gay marriage. On another note, I also believe the church should ordain gay ministers as well.

You might be wanting to ask me, but Evan if your a Christian, don't you think its a "sin"?

A: I'm not sure but I'm going to say, I don't think so. This is another conversation for later in regards to how I view the bible.

I would like to talk about it as a legal issue.

We don't don't live in a Christian nation. I don't, but even if you do believe this country was founded on Christian values, I believe the idea of a Christian nation goes against the very fabric of Christianity. Cornel West calls them Constantinian Christians. Constantinian referring to Roman emperor who decided to endorse Christianity instead of persecuting Christians. In less than 10 years, Christians went from the persecuted to the persecutor. Lets be real here, Jesus was killed by the Roman emperor because he opposed the Roman kingdom and offered an alternative kingdom. Then Constantine married them, being the first integration of Christianity and government and became great justification to take away the rights of others, especially those who might be different.

Christians have been on the wrong end of many social issues, such as slavery, womens rights, divorce. Let me remind you that all of this was backed by the bible.

Even if you believe that homosexuality is a sin, where is it our right to take away the rights of others?

I have often heard, well of course homosexuality is a sin and I will fight against equal rights toward homosexuals but I'm going to love them. I'm called to love them so I will. But will you say to a gay friend, that you want to love them but don't want them to the same rights as you?

In conclusion: as Christians I don't believe we should use the government to take away the rights of those who don't believe the same things you do even if you believe homosexuality is a sin.

I will leave you with this comedic piece on gay marriage.

Crude

Great documentary. Saw it last night, a well made piece of investigative journalism. The story details the enormous trial between oil giant Chevron and 30,000 indigenous people from the Amazon in Ecuador. Supposedly Chevron is responsible for dumping millions of gallons of toxic sludge into the rivers surrounding their various plants and as a result the native people around the area have been plagued with various illnesses from cancer to leukemia. An independent study determined that Cheveron could owe up to $27 billion reparations. That's not chump change. Both sides are going back and forth in this trail that started in 1993 and has continued on to this day.

One of the amazing stories coming out of the documentary is about Pablo Fajardo. When he was a young child, he worked for Chevron and witnessed the destruction they were causing and decided to do something about it. He saw the importance of law and studied hard to go to law school and is now representing the Ecuatorian population against Chevron. Synonymous with Latin American politics, Fajardo paid a price. His brother was brutally tortured and murdered. Apparently the hired hit men mistook Pablo's brother for him. The injustice in the world is just staggering.

The trial was moved to Ecuador in 2003 and is still being fiercely fought on both sides. One of Cheverons tactics is to bleed Pablo and his legal help from Amazon Watch of all of their resources and give up. I hope the native people get the justice they are asking for and that this story will be one of justice restored instead of corruption triumphing.

Here is the trailer:

3 Clear Steps to Justice

I think Kevin Blue's Practical Justice really does a great job describing how to approach injustice. He brakes it into into a three part progression of going toward justice. First we are called to provide direct relief to those who are hurting. In other words, we should "give a man a fish". This is straight forward but overwhelming, as there are millions across the globe that need help today. The second act toward justice is teaching people skills. Distributing practical skills is a direct way ti enable people to help themselves, or "teaching a man to fish". The last step in the progression toward justice is to learn to deal directly with the system as a whole. To address the larger inequalities that are affecting people, or "fixing the pond". If the ponds polluted, the first two parts will be ineffective or just band-aids on the larger bleeding. Structural is pivotal because it gets to the root cause of the problem and hopefully addresses it. I have no problem with working on the first two but you have ask yourself if something greater is going on to keep folks from thriving. The disparity in the world is shocking and I believe that there are many systems in place to keep people while only a few greatly profit.
Unfortunately, with money comes power and those with money want to stay in power so they leverage both to keep the current system in place.

Shane Claiborne chimes in on the fish adage as well. "We've all heard the saying, “Give someone a fish and they’ll eat for a day, but teach them to fish and they’ll eat for the rest of their life. The problem is that nobody is asking who owns the pond or who polluted it?” I believe this statement couldn't be truer.
I believe the church is really good at the first two parts of doing justice, but are really missing the boat on the last. The church spends a ton of time giving out fish and teaching people how to fish, but it can only be so helpful when the pond is polluted or once the church leaves, the fence comes back up. To the churches dismay, when they come back and see folks hungry again and might become discourage by the overwhelming need. Why? could the pollution or the fence have anything to do with it?

I am asking you, probe deeper, ask more questions? Could systemic poverty come into play here? What can I do to rid the many cycles of poverty. How can people be given a realistic chance to achieve. I don't have answers all the answers and neither do you. Theres no magic bullet but if we keep pushing and start working together, maybe we can get some of these things figured out and bring a little heaven on earth.

Why? Someone is Paying Attention

I thought he said no lobbyist in the White House. Well I guess this isn't the White House but to appoint the Vice President of Crop Life which lobbies for Monsanto, Dow, and Syngenta to be the Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the Trade office is kind of disappointing. Islam Siddiqui will now be in an executive position for US agriculture pushing a chemical intensive policy not only in the US but also attempting to convince other countries that more chemicals are the way to go. He will be trying to trade and push GMO's to other countries, saying that GMO's are a great new technology to create more crops. This appointment is really a step in the wrong direction.

At first I thought... hmm maybe I shouldn't post this but hey, its my blog and I guess I can post whatever I want to. Its just a fuller taste of me. I hope you like it.

A Prayer for Obama, Psalm 109:8 Are you f'ing kidding me!

Have you seen this? Some radical Christian groups has decided to make these bumper stickers that say "Prayer for Obama Psalm 109:8". Of course I could not rattle off Psalm 109:8, so I looked it up. "May his days be few; may another take his office." verse 9, "May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow" Taken literally, this is terrible way to use the bible to describe ones hate. I wanted to shout at the top of my lungs in anger. It actually swing my mood for the evening.
First things first, lets clear up this bible verse for what it actually means. You have to look at in the context of Deuteronomy 28 and God's covenant. In this Psalm, David is pouring out his heart to God that God stay to true to who God is. David is crying out from oppression believing he has done right. I feel like this text is an example that God is bigger than Caesar or any ruler for that matter. I think many people will be let down if they put their faith in leaders. The Bible can be a really scary when tweaked for ones own motives. This script-texting is deplorable and and anti-kingdom. We have to be bigger than the left and the right and this action is not showing it. All I can do is hope and pray that grace and love enters the peoples hearts that are harboring hate and using the bible to justify it.

Obligatory Health Care Piece

I must say, I'm not pleased with where we are in the healthcare bill. Although I do not know a ton about the logistics, from what I do understand, its not the change we need. First off, I don't even like many of the arguments. The Dems are saying that we need more competition and the Conservatives aren't really saying anything. So the Public Option was invented to limp into the race dominated by health insurers. NOO! Thats part of the problem. After watching the documentary Money Driven Medicine, (you can watch it here)I think things become very tricky when helping someone is all about profit. This creates an entirely inefficient system when the end result is dollars and the only check is expensive lawsuits. Don't get me wrong, dollars isn't a bad thing, but when that becomes the primary purpose than I think it should cause concern.

Regardless, thats not working so hot either. I'm all for helping people out, but even if your not others are to blame for your increasing insurance costs. The way its been told to me, is that well wealthy people can afford expensive health insurance so they buy it. Poor people can't but they will be covered by the government. This leaves the middle class who can't afford health insurance and are too poor for government help. So, many people in the middle class wait till they cannot any longer and go to the hospital. They get their procedures done without insurance and costs thousands of dollars. The number one cause of bankruptcy and foreclosures in America: medical bills. So many middle class people cannot pay off their medical bills and those costs are absorbed by everyone who has insurance.

I know a talking point for politicians is that many foreign dignitaries sometimes will come over to the US to get complicated procedures done. This is very true and yes America has the best specialized surgeons, but we really aren't doing so hot at everything else. Specialized surgeons get paid the most in the medical field. Primary care doctors are the most important in catching problems before they get worse and helping people forgo unnecessary surgery but get paid the least of doctors and are in highest demand. Medical school is expensive, and I don't blame doctors for wanting to pay off their huge debt in less years. We need change, real change.

My personal opinion is that we should go toward a PREVENTATIVE form of healthcare. It will be cheaper and will keep people healthier. Single payer will take a lot of the incentive of money out of medicine, maybe. If we took out the middle men and paid doctors well and came up with a good system to hold them accountable to preventative medicine I think we could be in a good place.

But How Much Will This Corn Cost 10 Years From Now?

So Elizabeth Palmberg wrote an interesting article about food speculation and global hunger. So thats what I'm going to talk about. To be clear we are not going to talk about our incredible harmful industrial farming tactics. That is conversation for later. To me, her article is a great example of a non-controversial chance to restore justice. Stock Brokers are trying to make money off the future price of basic commodity foods like corn, wheat, and rice. They are dumping money into the future of some foods while pulling money from others. With no limits these investors are bouncing the prices of these basic foods up and down. This greatly affects the current supply in demand. To maximize profits investors are pooling together to skyrocket prices of some foods while bottoming out others. This is crushing farmers and the food economy around the world. Without anything close to a stable price for these foods, farmers are forced to either try to hold out until they can get a fair price for their food or go all in on a good price. This hugely affects the supply and demand of these products. The food riots last year happened not because we temporarily ran out of food, it happened because investors tipped the scales to much and everything collapsed.

I agree with Elizabeth that we need some regulation so that food prices can stabilize and there wouldn't be a run on certain crops. This will create a more accurate picture of what crop prices are at.

By fixing this one regulation (which the Dodd regulation bill has the potential to do), food prices will not be ridiculously inflated and can hopefully arrive at a point where it accurately reflects the prices of the commodities not just magical speculative cost created by investors making money off the future price of food.

The Stuff That Will Go Here

Maybe I'm going to talk about life. Maybe I will hold your interest. Maybe we can move in an upward manner. I hope so.

Peace and Love-ev