EmpowermentWorks Think Tank's topics - tribe.net

Business networking and Events

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 12:57:50 GMT

i would like to invite my Tribe network to join me on www.connectture.com - its a social business network based in Europe with a growing base of users from all over the world. Easy way of keeping track of your Business Network.

Cheers

Sarah

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Rape Epidemic in Congo

brooke118 — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:36:38 GMT

(what can we possibly do about this? awareness at LEAST- please tell everyone)

October 7, 2007

Rape Epidemic Raises Trauma of Congo War

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
<topics.nytimes.com/top/refe...ey_gettle
man/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , New York Times

BUKAVU, Congo — Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist, cannot bear to
listen to the stories his patients tell him anymore.

Every day, 10 new women and girls who have been raped show up at his
hospital. Many have been so sadistically attacked from the inside out,
butchered by bayonets and assaulted with chunks of wood, that their
reproductive and digestive systems are beyond repair.

“We don’t know why these rapes are happening, but one thing is clear,” said
Dr. Mukwege, who works in South Kivu Province, the epicenter of Congo’s rape
epidemic. “They are done to destroy women.”

Eastern Congo is going through another one of its convulsions of violence,
and this time it seems that women are being systematically attacked on a
scale never before seen here. According to the United Nations
<topics.nytimes.com/top/refe...u/united_
nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , 27,000 sexual assaults were reported in
2006 in South Kivu Province alone, and that may be just a fraction of the
total number across the country.

“The sexual violence in Congo is the worst in the world,” said John Holmes,
the United Nations under secretary general for humanitarian affairs. “The
sheer numbers, the wholesale brutality, the culture of impunity — it’s
appalling.”

The days of chaos in Congo were supposed to be over. Last year, this country
of 66 million people held a historic election that cost $500 million and was
intended to end Congo’s various wars and rebellions and its tradition of
epically bad government.

But the elections have not unified the country or significantly strengthened
the Congolese government’s hand to deal with renegade forces, many of them
from outside the country. The justice system and the military still barely
function, and United Nations officials say Congolese government troops are
among the worst offenders when it comes to rape. Large swaths of the
country, especially in the east, remain authority-free zones where civilians
are at the mercy of heavily armed groups who have made warfare a livelihood
and survive by raiding villages and abducting women for ransom.

According to victims, one of the newest groups to emerge is called the
Rastas, a mysterious gang of dreadlocked fugitives who live deep in the
forest, wear shiny tracksuits and Los Angeles Lakers jerseys and are
notorious for burning babies, kidnapping women and literally chopping up
anybody who gets in their way.

United Nations officials said the so-called Rastas were once part of the
Hutu militias who fled Rwanda after committing genocide there in 1994, but
now it seems they have split off on their own and specialize in freelance
cruelty.

Honorata Barinjibanwa, an 18-year-old woman with high cheekbones and
downcast eyes, said she was kidnapped from a village that the Rastas raided
in April and kept as a sex slave until August. Most of that time she was
tied to a tree, and she still has rope marks ringing her delicate neck. The
men would untie her for a few hours each day to gang-rape her, she said.

“I’m weak, I’m angry, and I don’t know how to restart my life,” she said
from Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, where she was taken after her captors freed
her.

She is also pregnant.

While rape has always been a weapon of war, researchers say they fear that
Congo’s problem has metastasized into a wider social phenomenon.

“It’s gone beyond the conflict,” said Alexandra Bilak, who has studied
various armed groups around Bukavu, on the shores of Lake Kivu. She said
that the number of women abused and even killed by their husbands seemed to
be going up and that brutality toward women had become “almost normal.”

Malteser International, a European aid organization that runs health clinics
in eastern Congo, estimates that it will treat 8,000 sexual violence cases
this year, compared with 6,338 last year. The organization said that in one
town, Shabunda, 70 percent of the women reported being sexually brutalized.

At Panzi Hospital, where Dr. Mukwege performs as many as six rape-related
surgeries a day, bed after bed is filled with women lying on their backs,
staring at the ceiling, with colostomy bags hanging next to them because of
all the internal damage.

“I still have pain and feel chills,” said Kasindi Wabulasa, a patient who
was raped in February by five men. The men held an AK-47 rifle to her
husband’s chest and made him watch, telling him that if he closed his eyes,
they would shoot him. When they were finished, Ms. Wabulasa said, they shot
him anyway.

In almost all the reported cases, the culprits are described as young men
with guns, and in the deceptively beautiful hills here, there is no shortage
of them: poorly paid and often mutinous government soldiers; homegrown
militias called the Mai-Mai who slick themselves with oil before marching
into battle; members of paramilitary groups originally from Uganda and
Rwanda who have destabilized this area over the past 10 years in a quest for
gold and all the other riches that can be extracted from Congo’s exploited
soil.

The attacks go on despite the presence of the largest United Nations
peacekeeping force in the world, with more than 17,000 troops.

Few seem to be spared. Dr. Mukwege said his oldest patient was 75, his
youngest 3.

“Some of these girls whose insides have been destroyed are so young that
they don’t understand what happened to them,” Dr. Mukwege said. “They ask me
if they will ever be able to have children, and it’s hard to look into their
eyes.”

No one — doctors, aid workers, Congolese and Western researchers — can
explain exactly why this is happening.

“That is the question,” said André Bourque, a Canadian consultant who works
with aid groups in eastern Congo. “Sexual violence in Congo reaches a level
never reached anywhere else. It is even worse than in Rwanda during the
genocide.”

Impunity may be a contributing factor, Mr. Bourque added, saying that very
few of the culprits are punished.

Many Congolese aid workers denied that the problem was cultural and insisted
that the widespread rapes were not the product of something ingrained in the
way men treated women in Congolese society. “If that were the case, this
would have showed up long ago,” said Wilhelmine Ntakebuka, who coordinates a
sexual violence program in Bukavu.

Instead, she said, the epidemic of rapes seems to have started in the
mid-1990s. That coincides with the waves of Hutu militiamen who escaped into
Congo’s forests after exterminating 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus during
Rwanda’s genocide 13 years ago.

Mr. Holmes said that while government troops might have raped thousands of
women, the most vicious attacks had been carried out by Hutu militias.

“These are people who were involved with the genocide and have been
psychologically destroyed by it,” he said.

Mr. Bourque called this phenomenon “reversed values” and said it could
develop in heavily traumatized areas that had been steeped in conflict for
many years, like eastern Congo.

This place, one of the greenest, hilliest and most scenic slices of central
Africa, continues to reverberate from the aftershocks of the genocide next
door. Take the recent fighting near Bukavu between the Congolese Army and
Laurent Nkunda, a dissident general who commands a formidable rebel force.
Mr. Nkunda is a Congolese Tutsi who has accused the Congolese Army of
supporting Hutu militias, which the army denies. Mr. Nkunda says his rebel
force is simply protecting Tutsi civilians from being victimized again.

But his men may be no better.

Willermine Mulihano said she was raped twice — first by Hutu militiamen two
years ago and then by Nkunda soldiers in July. Two soldiers held her legs
apart, while three others took turns violating her.

“When I think about what happened,” she said, “I feel anxious and
brokenhearted.”

She is also lonely. Her husband divorced her after the first rape, saying
she was diseased.

In some cases, the attacks are on civilians already caught in the cross-fire
between warring groups. In one village near Bukavu where 27 women were raped
and 18 civilians killed in May, the attackers left behind a note in broken
Swahili telling the villagers that the violence would go on as long as
government troops were in the area.

The United Nations peacekeepers here seem to be stepping up efforts to
protect women.

Recently, they initiated what they call “night flashes,” in which three
truckloads of peacekeepers drive into the bush and keep their headlights on
all night as a signal to both civilians and armed groups that the
peacekeepers are there. Sometimes, when morning comes, 3,000 villagers are
curled up on the ground around them.

But the problem seems bigger than the resources currently devoted to it.

Panzi Hospital has 350 beds, and though a new ward is being built
specifically for rape victims, the hospital sends women back to their
villages before they have fully recovered because it needs space for the
never-ending stream of new arrivals.

Dr. Mukwege, 52, said he remembered the days when Bukavu was known for its
stunning lake views and nearby national parks, like Kahuzi-Biega.

“There used to be a lot of gorillas in there,” he said. “But now they’ve
been replaced by much more savage beasts.”

posted in EmpowermentWorks Think Tank - 1 reply

NOV 30:: Caribbean Dreams:: Poto Mitan:: YehDede:: DJ Nnamdi

brooke118 — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:27:46 GMT

Empowerment Works Artists in Action Benefit Series presents
In Collaboration with Renegande Pictures and UCSB Center for Black Studies
Benefiting Poto Mitan and Empowerment Works

::Caribbean Dreams::
An Extravaganza of Art, Music, Dance, Film and Photography
featuring the film Poto Mitan:: www.potomitan.net
music by YehDede www.myspace.com/yehdede
and DJ NNAMDI

Friday November 30th
8pm - 1am
Club Fais DoDo
5257 W. Adams Blvd.
Los Angeles 90016
$10 donation - $8 with RSVP
www.empowermentworks.org

POTO MITAN
Poto Mitan is a story of struggle, courage, resistance, and democracy. Through powerful, compelling stories/lives of five courageous Haitian women, Poto Mitan will inspire and educate solidarity, global justice, and women's activists around the world and challenge them to think critically about their own work. Each woman's life history will shed light on a particular aspect of the country's current crisis, weaving Haiti's story within her own, something that is often missed by the mainstream and even alternative media.

The image of Haiti that comes out of both mainstream and alternative media is almost entirely negative: a seemingly endless stream of dire poverty, protracted violence, and extreme fallout from natural disasters. While it is true that Haiti is a society that is poor and divided, there are important structural causes of this poverty and division. Poto Mitan viewerw not familiar with Haiti a humanizing historical context and lived understanding of the people who are confronting these structural imbalances.

Poto Mitan contributes the much needed understanding of the world economy. Our approach is to depict how inequalities based on social and national differences and gender roles intersect and are experienced on the ground. By sharing the lives - living and working conditions, life histories, and activism - of five everyday Haitians, we give the world economy a human face. Most people do not think about where their clothing is made, and how the people who make it live and work. An early site for export-processing zones, often called maquiladoras, Haiti is a good place to examine this global phenomenon, highlighting fluctuations within the export-oriented textile industry.

Poto Mitan is a tool to inspire, educate, and empower solidarity activists. By seeing the daily struggles of local women workers, seeing that they are not merely victims but organized activists, this film will inspire people in the North to get involved.

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AUG 18: Art4Africa: Benefit Soiree w- special guest Dr. Suad from Sudan

brooke118 — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:01:46 GMT

Dearest Friends & All Agents of Positive Social Change,
This Saturday, August 18th, a benefit soiree will be held at a stunning Beverly Hills estate exemplifying the collaborative, multi-disciplinary spirit of Empowerment Works with an art auction, dance and fire performances, live music, djs, dinner, and an open bar. Ecologist and community health expert, Dr. Suad Sulaiman, will be celebrating the end of her US tour and will share with us her solutions for a healthy, sustainable, peaceful Sudan.

Looking forward to seeing you this Saturday evening! Event webpage: http://empowermentworks.org/Art4Africa.html

Warmest regards,
Melanie St.James, MPA
Executive Director

RSVP NOW w/ Advance Purchase

Saturday, August 18th, 2007

Hosts James Otis, Jay Levin, Zan Naar, Holiday Hadley, Courtney White & Francesca Orsi invite you to

Join Empowerment Works in welcoming its program advisor from the Sudan,

Leading Ecologist and Community Health Expert, Dr. Suad Sulaiman

"Sudanese Environmental Conservation Society"

Join us in the Grand Finale Celebration of her US bridge-building tour as Suad shares her hope and visionary solutions for a Healthy, Sustainable and Peaceful Sudan.

~

6-7:45 - Art Exhibition Preview & VIP Q & A with Dr. Sulaiman

w/ Flutist Rebecca Kleinmann

8pm - The Summer Soiree Ignites

~

FINE ART EXHIBITION & SALE featuring LA’s finest local and international artists in all mediums.

DJs: WISEACRE (funky-in-the-middle/recline sounds) & ARGYLE (beat hackerz/topsoil)

STEAMING FIRE & OTHER EXUISITE PERFORMANCE DANCERS!

LIVE MUSIC: Funky Jazz, Indigenous Beats, Didgeridoos

CUISINE: Ayurvedic, Mediterranean & Vegetarian

OPEN BAR: Organic Margaritas, Wine & Beer,

VALET PARKING

~

1404 Dawnridge Dr. Beverly Hills, CA. 90210

*this is a private, invite only event.

GuestsLimited. Guaranteed entry only with advance purchase RSVP

$60 all inclusive entry RSVP by Aug. 14 / $100 @ Door w/ INVITE ONLY

**********************************************************************************

learn more about Dr. Suad and what this event will support: http://empowermentworks.org/Sudan.html

EW Sudan - Addressing Root-causes of Crisis

While international media highlights political issues surrounding the conflict in Darfur, the United Nations Environment Program reports that competition over scarce resources, including water, timber, oil, and land, could spark more fighting unless the issues are addressed, and that: "Ignoring these environmental issues will ensure that some political and social problems remain unsolvable and [are] even likely to worsen."

OPPORTUNITIES:

• While local communities face extreme poverty, the country is rich in natural resources which can be carefully used & conserved

• Drought & desertification effects of intensive agriculture can be reversed in preparation for climate change effects

• Displaced people are encouraged to return to their home lands when conditions are improved through livelihood creation and empowered through education

ACTION:

To address root-causes of these inextricably linked social and environmental issues, Empowerment Works is seeking funding and strategic partners to advance the following locally-run sustainable livelihood, eco-restoration and health strategies:

• Village Direct Carbon Offset Program (VDCOP) - Creation of Sudanese Carbon Credit fund for sustainable agro-forestry, agriculture, and ecological restoration

• 'El Rahad Appropriate Technology & Health Education Center' creating jobs & health by honoring traditional knowledge of medicinal plants

• Beyond Fair Trade™ micro-grants, capacity building & market access enabling women to support their families

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Venetian Cosmos: AUG 3rd

brooke118 — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 03:11:41 GMT

Mear One, Myka 9, & Mike the Poet @ VC Aug. 3rd

03 Aug 2007, 19:00
12222 VENICE BLVD., LOS ANGELES, California 90066

The Venice Contemporary & Empowerment Works Presents: Venetian Cosmos Hosted by Javis the Bravest & Melanie St. James

A night of Art, Music, and Spoken Word Doors open at 7pm to the DJ and Mear One Live painting. 9pm MIke the Poet will do a poetry feature. 10pm Melanie St. James will address Empowerment Works 10:30 Myka 9 will perform.

Many moons we shared words uttered from the soul Traces shaping the beautiful grace, stirrings of deep Living Fire, a loving within Following dreams with honor, the brave hold the weight how the sound bless the hearts needs that reveal wisdom Inspired I n I igniting, united joining forces I hold the torch in the vibrant dance, committed to manifesting visions of peaceful glory in the radiant universe, Jah bless! Give thanks and praises upon the Majesty of God's love everlasting celebrate diversity and make flow in the splenderous motion of integration Many cultures move as One Peace with love strengthening togetherness refine with solidarity comm Unity in Truth manifest actualize the visions of humanity through Cre8tivity... Welcome to Venetian Cosmos, Children of the Stars!

www.thevenicecontemporary.com
www.empowermentworks.org
www.myspace.com/venetiancosmos
www.myspace.com/mearone
www.myspace.com/mykanyne
www.myspace.com/mikethepoet

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Cameroon clean water project

brooke118 — Sun, 27 May 2007 19:13:31 GMT

hey all -- my Peace Corps friends are working on building a clean water source in a small village in Cameroon. they are seeking donations :) check it out:

The project will consist of building a reinforced concrete spring box and reservoir on the side of a hill at the source of a natural spring. The water will then be piped down to the village by gravity. This is all for one village of about 400 people who constantly suffer from diarrheal diseases caused by contaminated drinking water. This project will protect their water source and improve the lives of every member of the village. More information can be found at the following website:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/projdetail.cfm?projdesc=694-081 &

Thanks again for your support!! Take care!!

Lindsey
--
Lindsey Madson, PCV
BP 477
Ebolowa, Cameroon
Africa

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Think Tank Ideas from Sept 10 event, - Provide economic opportunities to women and girls who may otherwise be trafficked.

Pirate-King — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 09:03:05 GMT

Efforts to establish micro-credit initiatives,

farms and selling of agricultural products will empower
women to earn a stable and reliable income and stem
the need to earn an income outside of their communities.

posted in EmpowermentWorks Think Tank - 4 replies

DO SOMETHING TO PUT OUT THE FIRE OUT IN AFRICA

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 23:37:24 GMT

There is a continent — Africa — being consumed by flames. When the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution and what we did — or did not do — to put the fire out in Africa."
—Bono, frontman for the Irish rock band, U2

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The Inspired Citizen - Vol. 1. Issue 1 - October, 2006

Melanie — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:29:59 GMT

Empowerment Works' NEW Newsletter
The Inspired Citizen - Vol. 1. Issue 1 - October, 2006
Celebrating Our Planet and its Peoples to Resolve Poverty!

"Welcome to Your Global Sustainability Think-Tank In Action"

Dear friends, artists & all agents of positive change,

It is with the deepest joy and enthusiasm that I send the first edition of our new newsletter, "The Inspired Citizen". While the leaves turn gold, and we enter into fall, it is a virtual springtime for Empowerment Works!

Over the years, EW has remained true to its founding mission of a global think-tank-in-action (learning & building best practices while doing), advocating a multi-sector, interdisciplinary approach to sustainable human and economic development. Small and nimble, EW has remained steadfast in carving out a vital new role in the world of international development- empowering grass-roots social entrepreneurs and engaging likeminded movements to achieve holistic solutions.

This effort has been made against many difficult odds-physical, financial and institutional. However, these odds are nothing next to the challenges faced by the global communities EW is built to honor and empower out of poverty.

In 2006 - our 5th year in action- EW has made tremendous strides in achieving its global mission including -

1. Launching a new micro-grants for Social Entrepreneurs program in Suriname (South America);

2. Strengthening our economic development effort in the marginalized Casamance region of Senegal through our our new ethnomusicology recording program 'EW Music" to launch its compilation soon!

3. Co-founding & leading development of The Coalition for a Sustainable Africa (www.csafrica.org) with like-minded groups in LA;

4. Leading an interactive Sustainable Orphan Care panel at the WORLD AIDS CONFERENCE IN TORONTO (largest humanitarian/ health event in history w/ 26,000 attendees);

5. Co-producing a cutting edge PSA on sustainable development & AIDS in Africa, and;

6. Raising global awareness & reaching out to hundreds of new supporters in LA with over a dozen live music events via our Artists In Action cultural benefit series!

And now EW is taking a deep breath in, and preparing to share it all with the world through a new interactive website! Best of all, this effort is fueled by a five member strong, international, 100% volunteer web team- one in Malaysia, one in Iran, one from Bulgaria, and two brilliant Americans! Our most recent member, from Iran is an HIV/AIDS awareness activist in his country and sends Rumi poetry to our team as a symbol of his culture. He states the following in his Bio: “I believe in Love, Peace and Humanity as the ultimate solution for problems in the world today.”

Indeed, it is heartening to experience that from the inside (backend databases & html) out, we are building a global network of social entrepreneurs- and a culture of peace in our every action.

In addition to our global web team, EW’s program leaders’ volunteer experiences in countries as Suriname, Cameroon, Thailand and South Africa are expanding our global reach. Working in partnership with our network of collaborating non-profits, EW is capitalizing on their passion and unique expertise to advance our programmatic impact.

In the coming season we look forward to sharing exciting progress from our global program areas and to your

feed back and vital participation. Our new website will offer the public new membership opportunities ranging from “Inspired Citizen” to “Green Business Elite”. As the unique vision of EW comes more fully to fruition we hope that our achievements will prove worthy enough to inspire your support in a way that is meaningful to you.

-Melanie St.James, MPA
Executive Director/Founder

A Bohemian Evolution - from Artists to Ideas In Action.

As EW advances holistic solutions to Poverty in
some of the most marginalized communities on
earth, we are equally devoted to fostering mutually
dependent social change at home in the USA.
Since 2001 we have done this through our Artists In
Action benefit events, including Art 4 AIDS Relief,
and Art & Opera in Santa Barbara , CA
(EW’s birth place).

5 years later, EW is strategically based in LOS ANGELES and taking full advantage of this
entertainment and media outreach Mecca to promote global awareness!

Over the past several months, EW has produced a weekly World (& Out of this World) live music & DJ
benefit event embracing the rich musical talent of our new home town at the hip1920s style
Club Fais DoDo. This summer's weekly live music marathon “Bohemian Nights” (named by EW Board Member, Vanessa Isaacs) has been a powerful way to build community, and share our vision for a secure global future in Los Angeles, CA.

And now, as we fly into the Fall season, EW is packing all our weekly momentum and talent into a
Monthly Extravaganza. This new series, which launched September10th with the educational theme, To
End Child Slavery, proved our most Out of this World Bohemian event in Artists In Action history!

“Mental Capital" fueling EW!

Not only was it coordinated entirely by our growing LA volunteer community of think-tankers & artists,
September’s Artists In Action event successfully set the stage for a new EW tradition. Rather than
looking to supporters merely for their financial contributions, guests were asked for “mental capital” to affect global change. IDEAS were donated into a physical IDEA BANK to support the following EW program themes:
1) Artists In Action series (public awareness/ social change),
2) Corporate Social Responsibility (holding corporations responsible for actions abroad) and

3) Fostering economic opportunities for vulnerable
women and children (who would otherwise be forced
into slavery).

The suggestions, which have been carefully accounted,
are now stimulating community action at tribe.net via
EW’s blog: “EmpowermentWorks Think Tank”.
This interactive Idea Bank will of course be integrated into EW’s new website. - Stay tuned!

IN THE WORKS:

BohemianNights Monthly Sunday October 15th
~ World (& Out of this World) Live Music & DJ Extravaganza!

Just as Bohemian Nights “September” was dedicated to raising awareness of Child Slavery,
“October” illuminates women's healthcare in the developing world. In partnership with
Fulbright Scholar Rebecca Rivas, the event begins with a 45 minute film on high maternal
mortality in Peru.

Following the film and discussions with Ms. Rivas & EW program directors on global health
issues, will be an OUT OF THIS WORLD Artists In Action showdown!

Love-O-Rama Multi-Media Concert (on National Tour)

presenting a stimulating array of live music performances by:
Melaneh, Celia,FIRE DOG, and VJ Che Pagano, DEF (Belly Dancing & Percussion)
+ special guests @ 8:45!

& Film: “At Highest Risk” by Fulbright Scholar Rebecca Rivas @ 7:30pm!
FaisDoDo 5257West Adams Blvd. Los Angeles ,CA. 90016
(just 3 blocks from 10 fwy & La Brea exit!)

**Doors: 7pm - Admission: $10 donation / $8 RSVP or w/ student ID.

*Proceeds for this synergistic collaboration benefit both‘At Highest Risk’
(film production) & ‘Empowerment Works!’.

To RSVP, e-mail: artists@empowermentworks.org
Updates: www.empowermentworks.org
For PRESS LINKS and trailer of ‘AtHighest Risk’ visit: www.athighestrisk.com

Empowerment Works!
1801 Lincoln Blvd. #138, Venice, CA. 90291 USA.

Tel. +1(310) 392-6909 Fax. +1(866) 286-5404

posted in EmpowermentWorks Think Tank - 0 replies

Reducing poverty builds lasting peace and security! Let's invest in the future- Read the Petition

Melanie — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:14:11 GMT

Hi Melanie,

Help End the AIDS Threat to Children!

There are more than 34 million orphaned children, and nearly 15 million of these children have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS. Something must be done. Ask your Representative to restore funding to the Child Survival and Health Programs Fund>>

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read the Petition
Help spread the word

Every 14 seconds AIDS makes another child an orphan.

The United States made a promise to rescue these children by leading the fight to end the AIDS epidemic - and now we must live up to our promises.

Ask your Representative to restore life-saving foreign assistance funding>> http://go.care2.com/e/gBMG/MOo/l8iT

During the last decade, the proportion of children who are orphaned as a result of AIDS rose from 3.5% to 32% and will continue to increase exponentially as the disease spreads unchecked. As a result, the disease is making orphans of a whole generation of children -- jeopardizing their health, their well-being, and sometimes their very survival.

Several life-saving foreign assistance programs that will help these suffering children are being cut by Congress in this year's budget. One of the most important -- the Child Survival and Health Programs Fund -- will lose $136 million. And despite strong evidence that providing basic education in developing countries is a key component to alleviating poverty and disease, the budget cuts over $100 million from basic education initiatives.

There is an urgent need to protect these children - make Congress restore life-saving foreign assistance funding>> http://go.care2.com/e/gBMG/MOo/l8iT

With appreciation,

Michael Lawley,
Care2 and ThePetitionSite team

posted in EmpowermentWorks Think Tank - 0 replies

Global Security Alert! LET'S ADOCATE SUSTAINABLE USA TO HELP PREVENT GLOBAL CATASTOPHE!

Melanie — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 23:13:08 GMT

Hello Think-Tankers!

When you get a chance, please read about this
study from the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction
and Research:

news.independent.co.uk/enviro...829.ece

INDEED- it is not so much AFRICA that needs to become more sustainable- but our own footprint that will actually best sustain it.

Let's take advantage of Media of LA (focused on Environmental Advocacy) & keep building community to help sustain Vulnerable Africa and all marginalized peoples - who while not contributing much to global climate change are THE primary stakeholders and victims.

Love and thanks to all,

m

posted in EmpowermentWorks Think Tank - 0 replies

EW Monthly - Oct 15th - LoveORama Concert & Film Dedicated to Womens Health!

Melanie — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 20:48:53 GMT

PLEASE JOIN EMPOWERMENT WORKS AT THIS EXCITING CULTURAL ARTS & FILM EVENT!

As part of Empowerment Works! effort to raise awareness in US of the world we share, we have a monthly Artists In Action cultural benefit event.

Our next one – Sunday 15th October – will be screening a unique documentary delving into Maternal mortality in Peru- and looking into public health system especially in disconnect between indigenous customs and western institutionalized care as it relates to maternal mortality.

Last month we highlighted Child Slavery and this month, with the honor of Fulbright Scholar Rebecca Rivas screening her documentary "At Hightest Ris" on a national tour w/ Love-O-Rama, we are devoting the evening to raising awareness of women’s health.

Keeping with our usual format, after the film will be world class music & dance by local artists (see flier also posted)! Please feel free to share invite- RSVP appreciated.

Many thanks for all you do!

Love, Melanie

posted in EmpowermentWorks Think Tank - 0 replies

Deletions

Pirate-King — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 20:53:32 GMT

Deletions from this board are done with the permission of the originators, as other avenues of development are made available, either offline or at the Empowermentworks website.

posted in EmpowermentWorks Think Tank - 1 reply

Develop a rating system that rates companies on how socially/environmentally conscious they act.

Jason — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 23:59:17 GMT

Develop a rating system that rates companies on how socially/environmentally conscious they act and a web sight that show’s the rankings. Think “ConsumerReports” for social/environmental responsibility. This has the advantage of being able to influence companies via public opinion and market forces. Companies fight, tooth and nail, against government regulations and weak governments are rarely able to protect their culture and environment from multi-nationals. By using public opinion and market forces to encourage corporate responsibility instead of government regulation we would be both solving problems in a way consistent with free market capitalism and bypassing our politicians and leaders who don’t seem to work for us any more any way.

posted in EmpowermentWorks Think Tank - 5 replies

BUILD SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN IN POOR COUNTRIES WHO OTHERWISE HAVE NO ACCESS TO EDUCATION

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:05:33 GMT

Education will teach children about the value of knowledge and the dignity of work.

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Think Tank Ideas from Sept 10 event, - Artists in action

Pirate-King — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 09:21:19 GMT

Through music, art, performance, or poetry, artists speak with integrity and the world listens.
Manifesting social change at a local level, via benefit events ranging from live concerts, to fine art auctions and private soirées, raising cultural awareness.

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Think Tank Ideas from Sept 10 event, - Promote corporate social responsibility

Pirate-King — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 09:04:42 GMT

encourage businesses to monitor their overseas operations to
prevent forced labor and abuses against migrant workers or domestic workers.

Insist on fair labor practices and standards from businesses and factories.

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Introduction to Your Think-Tank In Action - a revolution in thought

Melanie — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 22:05:28 GMT

“We cannot change the significant problems we face in the world today with the same level of thinking that created them.” –Albert Einstein

Throughout the world today, social and environmental heroes, organizations and their successes are vast– however, our human footprint at 6.5 billion + (which is consuming more per capita with unsustainable development) is even vaster. Currently we are not shifting the tide of AIDS, Poverty, and Global Warming fast enough to assure a secure future for our children, let alone our children’s children.

Humanity is at a pivotal cross-road in history, having achieved so much while serving as our own worst enemy- still creating nuclear weapons, pumping out Co2 –ignoring hard facts as our potentially bright future slips away. Every day that we do nothing, or less than we can, we risk these threats becoming more severe, and thus harder to overcome. Our generation has inherited a timely responsibility. To meet it, something needs to change. We need a breakthrough- but what?

This is where the larger vision of EW- as a Think Tank-In-Action- comes into play. While ACTIVELY applying our knowledge to affect positive change now, we need to assess past economic policies, human nature, what works, what doesn’t- and why. Remaining focused on the big picture; EW shall explore and expand new, pragmatic global strategies that work for everyone. And find how, through and beyond our Partners In Empowerment, to translate our newly founded conclusions and theories into public policies and global action to benefit humankind, and all earth’s species.

This may seem like an overwhelming task for some, but it calls upon many, and needs to be done sooner or later, so it might as well be now, and it might as well be you.
Science proves that our feelings, our thoughts and our intentions have a direct impact on our physical reality. Therefore, we see acting with awareness and building global unity consciousness as a great opportunity to achieve a mutually supportive world.

Together we can...

-EW Action Team

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Human Rights

Pirate-King — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:12:49 GMT

The human right of property was meant by John Locke and understood by the Framers of the Constitution to be the fundamental liberty.

Obviously, it was not necessary to organize government to protect free speech from government or to protect freedom of assembly against government. It was only necessary to organize it to protect property and life (one's life was his property), and once organized other freedoms had to be protected against government's power.

In the Declaration of Independence (shown below) that Thomas Jefferson drafted, he wrote:

"We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these, are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

Franklin, a former slave himself, argued successfully for substituting "self-evident" for sacred and undeniable."
It was a significant and fortuitous change. Jefferson's wording implied a divine origin for men's rights.
Franklin used a term from science and based the rights on reason. All men, he implied, could investigate and prove the proposition.
Franklin made natural rights sacred because they were true, while in Jefferson's version they were true because they were sacred.

Ergo, the rights of property and life are self-evident and unalienable.

The rights of property or freedoms can not be abridged, without the government simultaneously abrogating their authority over us.

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