We Can Help Syrians

Dear Gabriel,

As the bloodshed in Syria escalates, desperate refugees are trying to escape the violence.

In response, Amnesty is increasing our efforts to advocate on behalf of refugees seeking safety in neighboring countries.

Please make an urgent monthly donation to Amnesty so we can continue to advocate for families fleeing human rights violations in Syria and around the world.

More than 1.3 million Syrian refugees are trying to escape the ongoing bloodshed by fleeing to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.

Many refugees attempting to cross into neighboring Turkey have been stopped, leaving people stranded inside Syria in terrible conditions. Credible reports have also emerged of refugees being forced to return to Syria.

In the face of this mounting crisis, Amnesty is pressuring the international community to provide badly needed financial assistance to support the efforts made by Syria’s neighboring countries.

We are also documenting the abuses experienced by civilians who remain in Syria. Our team of researchers on the ground found evidence that government forces bombed entire neighborhoods and targeted residential areas with long-range surface-to-surface missiles.

Amnesty has a strong track record of using our on-the-ground findings to pressure governments and the United Nations Security Council to hold those responsible for the slaughter of civilians accountable.

But we can’t do it without your support. We accept no money from governments for our research or advocacy — as it would compromise our efforts. Will you make a monthly donation to strengthen our work to help end the crisis and take action for the people of Syria? It’s a convenient, effective way to stand up for human rights each and every day of the year. Donate now.

Sincerely,

Sunjeev Bery
Advocacy Director, Middle East North Africa
Amnesty International USA

Mary Thom Takes Last Ride

Mary Thom Dead: Former Ms. Magazine Editor Dies In NY Crash
Huffington Post
27 April 2013

YONKERS, N.Y. (AP) — Prominent feminist Mary Thom, a writer and former editor of Ms. Magazine who also was an avid motorcyclist, crashed while riding on a highway and was killed, her nephew said Saturday. She was 68.

Thom had a passion for riding motorcycles and died riding her 1996 Honda Magna 750 on Friday evening on the Saw Mill River Parkway in Yonkers, just north of New York City, nephew Thom Loubet said.

“The important thing to know about Mary is that she was a major leader of the 70’s Feminist movement, but never desired the limelight,” Loubet said in an email. “She stayed behind the scenes tirelessly crafting the message and simply making it better.”

Thom was one of Ms. magazine’s founding members and served as an editor there for about 20 years, leaving in 1992. She also was an author who wrote a book about the history of Ms. and was a co-author, with Suzanne Braun Levine, of an oral history of former congresswoman and activist Bella Abzug.

Most recently, Thom was the editor-in-chief of the Women’s Media Center’s features department, which produces reports and commentaries by national and international contributors.

Thom, an Akron, Ohio, native, lived for decades in New York City, where she became one of the women’s movement’s best editors, feminist icon Gloria Steinem said.

“She had a gift for helping people tell their own story, not for helping them sound like others, but helping them find their own voice,” Steinem said.

Thom loved baseball, especially the Cleveland Indians, and adored watching Jon Stewart’s hit Comedy Central program, “The Daily Show,” Loubet said.

Read entire post and other stories at Huffington Post

15 Years of Hard Work

Dear Gabriel,

In rural central Uganda, a lone woman makes her way though an expanse of prickly green leaves, below a hazy blue sky. Guided by instinct and experience, she spots what she is looking for – a perfectly ripe pineapple.

To you and me, a pineapple is something purchased in stores or from fruit stands, to be diced into a sweet snack or blended into a beverage to enjoy with friends.

For Madina Namanda, this pineapple represents 15 years of hard work; nearly 50 FINCA loan cycles; and a drive to do better for herself and her four children.

Beginning with a US $40 loan, Madina has worked her way up the agricultural ladder. She currently runs a 12-acre pineapple plantation, a 3-acre coffee plantation, and a poultry farm, and she is installing a clean water distribution site on her property, for her neighbors to use. With so much work, Madina shrugs off the loss of some of her pineapples to marauding monkeys, who bite off big chunks of golden sweetness from some of the fruit on the edges of her farm.

Working with FINCA clients has given me the opportunity to see how clients like Madina can take a small loan, and turn it into a new life for themselves and a boon for their communities. With access to credit, Madina has been able to boost her family’s income and personal savings – they now own their own land and home, and have sent two children to university. At 45 years of age, Madina can even consider retirement, a rarity in cash-strapped Uganda.

The perseverance, business acumen, and entrepreneurial spirit of women like Madina are among the chief reasons why I come to work every morning. FINCA clients are individuals who merit our support, and who are not afraid of hard work to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

Help us support entrepreneurial women and men like Madina; donate to FINCA today.

Sincerely,

Soledad Gompf
Vice President FINCA

The Big Dipper

From Luscious Chocolate Smoothies: An Irresisitible Collection of Healthy Cocoa Delights.
By Gabriel Constans

A healthy and delicious recipe from my book of chocolate smoothies.

The Big Dipper

Yields 6 Cups

• 2 cups plain soy milk
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 12-ounce package soft silken tofu
• 2 banans, in chunks
• 1/2 cup mango slices
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons chocolate syrup
• 1/2 tablespoon honey

1. Place all ingredients in a blender and mix on medium for 2 minutes.

2. Pour into tall clear glasses and never go without.

per cup: Calories 175; Protein 7 g; Total Fat 4 g; Saturated Fat 1 g; Carbohydrate29 g; Cholesterol 0 mg

Find more recipes, humor, chocolate facts and stories at Luscious Chocolate Smoothies.
Read one of the many reviews at Five Healthy Recipes.

Hate Crime In South Africa

Dear Gabriel,

Two years ago today, 24-year-old South African Noxolo Nogwaza was raped, repeatedly beaten and stabbed.

Why did a young mother, soccer player, and human rights activist die so brutally, her body dumped in a drainage ditch?

Noxolo’s murder was an apparent hate crime. It is believed that she was targeted because she was a lesbian and an active campaigner for LGBTI rights.

Two years later, Noxolo’s murder remains unsolved, and her friends, family and fellow activists wait for justice. Demand an end to the climate of fear for the LGBTI community in South Africa, and demand justice for Noxolo!

Raped, beaten, stabbed — but why won’t South Africa’s authorities fully investigate and solve Noxolo’s case? In two years, there has been no progress in the investigation into her murder and Noxolo’s killer(s) remain at large.

“Contempt, mockery or general disinterest” – that’s how police are often reported to respond when LGBTI individuals try to report hate crimes.

Homophobia in South Africa goes far beyond taunts and insults — behavior that in and of itself is already entirely unacceptable. LGBTI individuals are targets of terrible hate crimes, particularly in townships, informal settlements and rural areas, ranging from assaults to rapes to murders, just because of who they are.

Noxolo’s killer(s) remain unpunished. And as long as murderers and perpetrators of hate crimes are allowed to go free, LGBTI people will never feel safe in South Africa.

But there is hope. The world is marching towards justice — just yesterday, France became the latest country to pass marriage equality legislation.

Momentum is on our side and the world is listening to calls for LGBTI rights.

The time to speak out for justice is right now.

Today, march on and honor Noxolo’s memory by taking action. Demand a full investigation into Noxolo’s murder and an end to violence against the LGBTI community in South Africa.

Sincerely,

Samir Goswami
Director, Individuals and Communities at Risk Program
Amnesty International USA

Children’s Van In Tanzania

News From Building for Generations
by Cory Ibarra

The year 2011, board member Teri Smith and I visited our project in Tanzania. The first day at the site, the smiles of all the children captured my attention until I looked at my friend Teri whose eyes were welling with tears. She choked as she whispered to me “Look at their shoes.” Some were sizes too small with a foot snugly fitting into the front and a heel hitting bare ground in the back, others had the sole of the shoe fastened to its top with a shoelace to keep it held together. Aside from that we found that many of the enrolled children could not attend because they could not walk to school or walk to school safely.

I believe the picture says it all!! Thank you for matching the funds we were offered this Christmas to make the Tanzania Van project possible. Look forward to stories on how it has made a difference, thanks to you!!!!! and the generous offer from our matching grantor!!!!!

About Building For Generations

As the parent of a young adult with special needs, I had the privilege of traveling to the developing world and witnessing the conditions there. The issues remain the same worldwide, that being exclusion from the mainstream and discrimination. It was, however, further exacerbated by extreme poverty and superstition. I understood their challenge and knew their spirit. Out of this, Building for Generations was born.

Our organization was founded in 2005 and received non-profit status in November 2006. The organization currently consists of a core volunteer team of ten persons and a Board of Directors. Founder and volunteer, Cory Ybarra, is the mother of a young adult with special needs and has a degree from San Jose State University in Health Science. She also holds a Certificate in Development Program Management from the Monterey Institute for International Studies.

Support and donate to Building for Generations

Boston’s First Responders

Gabriel —

My thoughts and prayers over the past week have been with the people of Boston.

As I’ve watched everything happening there, I’ve been completely awestruck by the first responders — the police, firefighters, and EMTs who ran toward danger without hesitation to help those in peril.

Their courage and compassion is amazing to witness, and I’m grateful to live in a country where so many fine men and women commit their lives to protect and serve their fellow citizens.

After all they’ve done, I want them to know what it’s meant to Americans like me. So I’m writing these first responders a simple note to say thanks — and I’d like to invite you to join me.

Add your name to the note for Boston’s first responders here.

Whether you want to say thanks, share a story about how the past week’s events have affected you, or just let these public servants know that you’ve been thinking about them, I know they’d appreciate hearing from you.

We’ll collect every note we get and deliver them to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino so they can pass along your sentiments.

Join me, and say thanks to Boston’s first responders:

http://my.democrats.org/Boston

Thanks,

Debbie

Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Chair
Democratic National Committee

Writing With Deena Metzger

The 2013 Writing and Story Intensive
A week=long exploration with Deena Metzger
May 25-31 in Topanga, California (near Los Angeles)
Applications Open

Entering The Work

This intensive is envisioned as a circle, a small group of women and men gathered to devote themselves to their work, that is to the work.

Many beautiful and profound works and explorations have been launched through these intensives in the last 13 years. Many writers have emerged and many have been transformed, their lives deepened and made soulful by this intense, often luminous writing experience augmented by the qualities of medicine walks and quest, by community and solitude.

This Intensive provides an opportunity to begin, as well as to enter more deeply into a manuscript. It calls us to find our own true voices, to break open the forms, to explore hidden realms, to devote ourselves to the stories and manuscripts that are calling to us. It is an opportunity to experiment and dare. This intensive honors the stories that must be told whether one is beginning the exploration or has delved deeply into a manuscript. What is called for is devotion and commitment to bringing the story to the page.

Many participants will be experienced, even published writers, looking for inspiration, direction or support for new or on-going work. For some this Intensive may be a beginning. Often people who have not thought of themselves as writers become aware that there is a book they are called to write. We call such people Story Carriers.
Imagination and the Future

For every writer, the imagination can be a real place. The real life and our future reside there. When we enter this sphere, the writing experience calls self and other(s) into dynamic relationships on the page. This writing can be like a council that holds all the voices, including our ancestors and descendants, the visible and invisibles and the beings of the natural world, as cohorts. It develops from the intrigue that we can each imagine and enter a new literature that looks to and helps create a vibrant and beautiful future.

But each of us is required, given the state of our world and the transformative possibilities of 2012, to consider our assumptions and understanding about who we are as writers, peacemakers, and members of a community of beings. Story carriers, writers, and artists living in these times of grief and possibility are called to imagine and commit to a new literature and a new culture so that the lives of the humans and non-humans and the earth itself will be vital again. Our words can destroy or restore. What we write matters. Together and as individuals we will seek out new forms resonant with the land and these times to engage with the world, the future and the spirits.

We will be actively seeking new language, new forms and new visions. On behalf of our writing and the word, we will engage storytelling, dream telling, ethical reflection, prayer, meditation, silence, music, divination, indigenous and wisdom traditions and the voices of both the visible and invisible presences, on behalf of a vital and sustainable future for all beings.

In this week we will address the issues that must be addressed, explore our lives, souls, minds, and creative work through formal and informal teaching, directed and spontaneous writing, circle work and individual sessions, solitude, time on the land, visioning, ritual and ceremony as appropriate.

For more information email or call Danella Wild at 310-815-1060 for details, fees and how to apply.

Story To Script To Screen

The story, as seen at this time. So close and yet so far and so far and yet so close.

Write a book based on the life of the woman (Yasodhara) who was married to the man (Siddhartha) who became known as The Buddha. Rewrite and edit the book a zillion times.

Find a publisher who will publish book, now known as Buddha’s Wife.

Sign contract with Robert D. Reed Publishers for book to be published.

Obtain quotes and advance reviews for novel.

Book published.

Book signings, promotions, connections and marketing for over two years (before and after novel is released).

Meet Navyo Ericsen at book signing. A musician, web designer and film and video producer who wants to bring Buddha’s Wife to the screen.

Work with Navyo for a year trying to find a screenwriter to write screenplay on spec, since we have no funds for film. Several possible, but all fall through.

Decide to write screenplay ourselves and change historical setting into a contemporary story. One of my previous screenplays (Stellina Blue) was made into a film.

Work on screenplay for a year, with wonderful feedback and suggestions from a famous screenwriter/director.

Workable, moving and entertaining screenplay completed.

Write up logline, summary of film and treatment.

Start approaching well-known actresses, executive producers, directors and production companies.

Write and develop estimated budget.

Elapsed time, from book being published to presenting screenplay to others for film (so far) is four years.

Presently, five well-known actresses are reading the script, as are four production companies/executive producers and two directors.

The challenge is to get the film financed without a name actress yet attached and vice-a-versa, to get a well-known actress attached without first having the picture funded.

This is a scene that thousands of novelists, screenwriters and filmmakers find themselves in, so we are not babes in the woods, but it has been an interesting situation with infinite possibilities for Buddha’s Wife to come into being as a movie.

To those in the film industry, this story will be anti-climatic and familiar, but I hope for those just starting out or venturing to put your toe in the water, it provides a little preparation and insight into the amount of patience, persistence and ordered chaos that can await many on the journey to bring their story to screen.

Comfort Dogs To Boston

Comfort Dogs Come to Boston in the Wake of Tragedy
By Danielle Sullivan on Babble.com. From Yahoo.
18 April 2013

Back in December, I wrote about dogs who are specially trained to assist in post-traumatic stress situations when they went to console the people of Newtown, Connecticut. Known as the Comfort Dogs for Lutheran Church Charities, the dogs are specially trained to interact with people in disaster situations. Now, they have arrived in Boston to comfort its devastated community.

Tim Hetzner, president of Lutheran Church Charities, says the dogs will stay at least until Sunday.

The dogs will be stationed at First Lutheran Church, which is within a few blocks from the finish line where the bombings took place. Hetzner and his team also hope to visit over 100 victims still in hospitals, and says the dogs bring much needed therapy to the frightened and injured:

Related: 7 inspiring stories of dogs that saved their owners

“They bring a calming effect to people and help them process the various emotions that they go through in times like this. “People talk to the dogs – they’re like furry counselors. It’s a chance to help bring some relief to people that are shaken up because of the bombings.”

Read complete story at Yahoo.com
Follow Danielle on Babble