Right Wignuts about Haiti – Pat Robertson says the earthquake is a “blessing in disguise” because of a pact Haiti made with the devil 200 years ago.  While Rush Limbaugh urges Americans to not donate to charity because they already support Haiti through their taxes.

Can anyone be more of a misanthrope than these two bastards?  I don’t know what bothers me more, these two hate-mongers, or those who listen and respect these two.  Anyone who listens to them to confirm their own fear and hate is as guilty as they are.  And I have absolutely no respect for anyone who follows Pat Robertson’s non-Christian religion, nor Limbaugh’s gospel of hate and fear.

The bad news, of course, is the devastating earthquake in Haiti.  Most of you wouldn’t know this, but I am on the Board of Directors of Eritaj which is a foundation set up to provide health and education assistance to the children and adults in Haiti.  So I am very familiar with some of the Haitian community here in the Boston community.  And I am frustrated with how little I can do to help.  Not frustrated at any individuals or organization, just frustrated because I would do so much more if I could.

We have set up an 800 line for people to call in seeking information on their friends and loved ones.  However, we have no information to provide.  People want to know if their relatives are safe, or injured, or dead, or missing.  If safe, are they living in their homes or are they homeless?  If injured, are they minimally injured or seriously injured?  If dead, is anyone taking care of their bodies or are they dumped on the street with the thousands of others?  If missing, what will it take to find them and make contact with them?  These are the frustrations of the Haitian community here.  Right now, there is no communications and information coming out of Haiti.  Even when the lines are brought up, this information will not be accessible.  The hospitals are non-functioning.  Who is able to identify the tens of thousands who are dead and lying around?  Who will identify the injured and homeless?  How would this information be collected and disseminated?

Those providing aid are frustrated.  Planes cannot fly to Haiti because the airport is already over-crowded and there is no fuel for return trips.  Roads are blocked so supplies cannot be delivered.  The downtown streets are a rubble so vehicles cannot go from point A to point B.  How can distribution centers be set up?  How can the hundreds of thousands of refugees be told what the distribution plans are?  How do the survivors survive with no stores with supplies, with no fresh water, no jobs to earn what money they might have been making previously, without the provisions being provided that were previously provided? 

How does the United States coordinate the efforts of every other country sending aid?  How does the United Nations organize the relief efforts when their own center was destroyed and the head and many of the workers died in the building?  How do so many people in the States who want to help, help except to donate money to the Non Government Organizations (NGOs like Red Cross, UNICEF, WHO, Oxfam, Eritaj, and a myriad of smaller ones)?

All of these are sources of frustrations if one is truly seeking answers. 

But the greatest frustration is having to listen to these two bastards spew their hate and venom at a time when innocent people are slow-dying. 

But now for the Good News.  I’m going to be taking a course at Harvard on Strategies for Sustainable Management.  The whole issue of Triple Bottom Line Reporting/Accountability is an interest of mine.  (It was also the reason I just went for a week of training in Vienna last month.)  This course will help me as I prepare to write my book on Responsibility Reporting for Municipalities and also prepare me to teach courses myself in my spare time.

“War does not determine who is right – only who is left”  (Bertrand Russell)

Today I was sent the link to a beautiful art video.  I had seen it a few months ago, but I loved watching it again.  It is half artistry and half performance art.  It is a totally new medium that I have never seen before.  It is amazing to watch her skill, and to see the beautiful piece of art take from right before your eyes.  And the content of her art is powerful.  She so eloquently talks of the ravages of war – without saying a word.  Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=vOhf3OvRXKg

Since posting this I have been told the words of the folk song:

“Dark night. Only bullets whistle on steppe.
Only the wind hoots in wires. Dimly stars flicker.
In dark night, you favourite (girl) I know you do not sleep.
And at a cot you secretly wipe tear…”

I was also informed that the Ukraine lost one-quarter of its population in the war which explains the reactions to many of the people in the audience.

And while on the subject, I thought I would post a couple of anti-war poems of mine.  The first one here was written shortly after 9/11 when we had invaded Afghanistan.  While grieving over the loss of American lives, I was moved with the lack of compassion on the lives of the innocent Afghanis.  The second poem is a take-off of Wilfred Owen’s classic “Dulce et Decorum Est” and was written after we invaded Iraq with our “shock and awe” bombs killing over 100,000 innocent men women and children and destroying their roads, bridges, and infrastructures so that the survivors had no access to milk, groceries, or hospitals.

I Grieve for the Slain

And Have Compassion for the Innocent Victims

I grieve for rescuing firemen, and brave, intrepid policemen killed in their line of duty.

I grieve for the flight passengers as they entered their 110 story towering inferno coffins.

The slain WTC occupants at the crash site level and above, burning/falling to death,

They did not deserve to die as pawns in the bloody game of international terrorism.

And I feel compassion for bereaved spouses and their wondering, questioning children,

Their friends and co-workers will feel a great loss because of their personal void.

And I feel for the businesses which have experienced major personnel or financial losses,

And every aspect of society caught up in the ever-spiraling throes of hyper-vigilance.

I grieve for the brave and innocent dead and have compassion for surviving victims

Who did not deserve to experience terroristic acts and feel its constant repercussions.

And I grieve for the dead and have compassion on the innocent victims

In Afghanistan who do not deserve to experience the terror that fills their daily lives.

I grieve for dead humanitarian UN guards and dead civilians who had done no wrong.

And the dead Afghanis working in or living near those targeted training camps.

They did not deserve to feel terrorized by the distant drone of the bombers

Or the whistle of the missile before seeing a bright flash and being blown to bloody bits.

And I have compassion for the innocent Afghanis who have fled from their homes

Fearing the terror of errant bombers, off-target missiles, and antipersonnel cluster bombs.

Knowing that their home will be bomb-razed or ransacked by looters before (or if) returning.

Choosing the odds of starving or freezing to death rather than staying home being terrorized.

And I have compassion for families fleeing while trying to stay together as a family,

With no jobs, no income, no land, no hope for the future, and no community,

Except the rag-tag band of fellow refugees growing in fear and their distrust of the U.S.

I have compassion for them because they did not deserve to experience this type of terror.

I have compassion on those brave, or foolish enough, to remain at their castle/hovel homes,

But who have lost their daily connections and jobs, if they were lucky and had one.

And who have lost their neighbors, their friends, and often fractions of their own families

By death, or fleeing to places where no phone, no e-mail, and no courier can reach them.

I grieve for the American dead and have compassion on those innocents who hurt here.

And I grieve for the Afghani dead and have compassion on their living day/night terror.

I see and hear so much being done for the American victims of terror,

But where is the compassion in action for the Afghani victims of American terror?

Of the twenty-two most wanted on the Bush-list, none are Afghanis.

Of those identified in that terrible event of September 11, none were Afghanis.

Yet the on/off target bombs and missiles are filling body-bags with Afghanis,

And the tens of thousands of fearful, terrified, winter-refugees are Afghanis.

If we truly grieve, we will grieve for the dead Americans and Afghanis.

If we have compassion, it will be for all afflicted and all affected.

I grieve for all deaths and feel compassion for all enough to say “No More Bombs”.

And I pray to the gods of Grief and Compassion that you do too.

David Kimball

They Too Are Destroyed, Who Do Not Die

If in smothering dreams you too could see

The tear-streaked face of the mother wailing,

As she holds the too-still form of her lifeless child,

With his cold grey face and frozen colorless eyes.

If you could hear her sobbing as she relates her story

Of the wasted infant’s life because of blown roads,

And the useless distant hospital and the lack of milk,

And of her wounded, drafted husband on the front lines.

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children eager for some desperate glory,

The old Lie:  How grand and honorable it is

To bomb and kill for one’s country.

David Kimball

The truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its music.  Bodies never lie.  (Agnes de Mille)

What did I do for New Year’s Eve?  I drove to the end of the subway line, took the subway into downtown Boston and then participated in First Night – Boston.  For the price of one badge ($18), I could go to as many venues as I could squeeze in to one evening. 

First I went to a brass choir which was great.  That is, it was great if the organ wasn’t trying to drown out the trumpets.  I’m not sure why organ music is called music as it seems it should be called organ mud.  But the brass numbers were great.

Then I went to see The Army of Broken Toys.  The description seemed rather frightful but I went because the daughter of a friend of mine was performing with the group.  Actually, the group was quite good.  It reminded me of Zydeco music with a Boston accent.  They had about five musicians and then two women dressed as marrionettes being “controlled” by their strings by two men standing above them.  My friend’s daughter was doing interpretive dancing to the music.  I liked it much better than I expected to.

Then I went to see a hip-hop dance performance.  The skill was outstanding and I couldn’t help but note what I had noticed a few months ago.  With today’s music, everything is about attitude whereas when I was growing up it was all about emotions.  And that’s definitely true with dance as well as the music.  But it was fun to watch these teams perform together.

Then I saw a group of Irish step-dancers.  With their hands straight down their sides and their feet flying in multiple directions.  That was quite impressive.  But I am always surprised at how impersonal Irish step-dancing is.  No one dances with another, no one looks at another, no one smiles as their mouths are as stiff as their hands.

Then I saw Indian Bhangra dancing.  They started out how historically it had been a dance for the harvest.  Then it progressed into contemporary dance that we see quite a bit of in the Ballywood movies.  Both the dancing and the music were thrilling.  I couldn’t help but notice the smiles of these dancers and how much their arms, hands, and shoulders danced as well as their feet.

Then I went to see a group of circus musicians perform.  Each person in the group had performed before in a circus like Wringling Brothers.  They had put together a whole program of music and the group reminded me of a Klezmer band.  They were a lot of fun.  (The accordionist was much better than I.) 

Then I went to hear a jazz quintet.  They were horrible.  I like some jazz, and I prefer jazz that has some form – like Dixieland Jazz.  But this group had no form, no substance, no melody, no harmony. etc.  And I swear the lead guitartist wasn’t even playing the same song as the trumpeter as they weren’t even using the same beats or meters.  Not everything is great at a buffet.

So I left about 11:00 pm as I wasn’t about to wait outside for an hour just for the “magic moment”.  So I was close to home at 11:45 pm and stopped in at my favorite Karaoke restaurant.  They were partying and we toasted the New Year, I had something to eat, and sang a song (All That Jazz).

It was a fun New Year’s Eve.  Except for the silence of my champaign glass as I raised it in the air at midnight with no second glass to klink with. 

In expressing love we belong among the undeveloped countries.  (Saul Bellow)

Here is a poem that Zsa asked me to post:

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.  (E. B. White)

A few years ago I celebrated both Christmas and Chunakah with a couple – he was Jewish and she was Episcopalian.  This was the grace that I wrote for that meal.

“Once we find what we love to do, we should do it without remuneration in order to keep the love.”  (me)

I’m off to Vienna until Dec 20th.

Some of you may know that I have done quite a bit of work with the United Nations as a hobby.  I have worked with the civil sector with their Millennium Development Goals and the NGOs (Non-Government Organizations) around the world.  And I have done quite a bit of work with the UN’s Global Compact with the Business Sector.  The Global Compact is where corporations agree to the 10 principles which are included in the issues of Sustainability.  Sustainability involves what is called Triple Bottom Line Accountability where corporations (and individuals) accunt not only for their Financial bottom lines, but also for Environmental and Corporat Social Responsibility (CSR).  For a company to be considered a “good” company – even for shareholders – they need to show that they are responsible financially, environmentally, and socially (also called Profit/Planet/People accountability). 

All next week I will be in training to be a licensed consultant for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) for their Sustainability business processes and Sustainability reporting for Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs).  UNIDO is the only United Nations agency which is tasked with developing jobs and business opportunities in developing countries.  (The other agencies, like UNICEF, WHO, etc. give aid and assistance to people in the least developed countries.)  This is how the UN tackles the problems of hunger, health, and women’s issues in the developing countries – by creating jobs and business opportunities.

I may be the only person from the US at this training, and I may be the only person who is not planning on being a consultant in a developing country after the training.  Instead, what I would like to do is apply the principles of Sustainability and Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Accountability to local municipal governments where I currently live in Massachusetts.  Imagine a local government reporting on more than how they kept within the city budget.  They should also be reporting on the environmental impact this past year – both in their own usage as well as withing the town or city.  And they should also report on the state of the people within the town.  What has happened this past year in regards to accesability and purity of water?  What about energy consumption?  What about unemployement?  What about the number of people on welfare or other vulnerables within the town? 

As far as I know, no other place has instituted the principles of TBL at the municipal level.  There is a great deal of Sustainability and municipal governance in Australia, but they don’t include the social accountability reporting.  TBL and Sustainability is much, much more prevalent in Europe and other developed countries than currently here in the US.  However, more and more corporations in the Fortune 100 and 500 are publishing their annual Sustainability Reports.  Most of the Sustainability Reporting is with large corporations and transnationals rather than small and medium sized companies.  I plan to continue my job as a Finance and Computer Geek for Raytheon and work with local SMEs and local municipalities as a mentor rather than as a paid consultant. 

It will be an exciting week.  So for those of you to whom I subscribe and often Comment, please excuse my absence from commenting for the next week.

The difference you make in someone else’s life, will always be smaller than the difference it makes in yours.

Before I get on with the Dickens’ Story, I wanted to share one thing I just read about our country’s failed health plan.  Many unemployed people will be losing their subsidies to purchase Cobra insurance and they will have to pay full price starting in January.  The average full price for them to continue their insurance will now be over $1,100 a month or over 80% of their unemployment checks.  Maybe the Senate version and the House version are imperfect, but let’s see about how we can improve it rather than drown it and drown all hopes of many people who need some change. 

Now for Dickens.  I came across this story in the Writer’s Almanac (from Garrison Keillor) today, December 2.

It was on this day in 1867 that Charles Dickens (books by this author) gave his first public reading in America, kicking off a four-month reading tour. Throughout his career, Dickens had given readings in England, and they were incredibly popular, and now the United States was begging Dickens to come over and read there, something that Dickens was not sure he wanted to do. He had been to America once before, in 1842, not to give readings but just to see the country. He liked some things about America, but the book he wrote about his experience, American Notes (1842), was extremely critical. Not only did he think that buildings were too hot and that people had bad manners, but he denounced slavery and felt that Americans were too greedy and that business in this country put too much emphasis on individual gain. He also set parts of his next novel, Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–44), in America, and used it as another space to condemn American values.

So Dickens was not very enthusiastic about returning to the U.S., but he had a large family who could really use some extra money, and so finally he listened seriously to the proposal. But he still wasn’t convinced. His most recent tour manager, George Dolby, was talented and dependable, and Dickens decided to send him over to America to scout it out and decide whether or not he should undergo a tour. He said he would do whatever Dolby judged best. Dolby went and met with many important people, and he finally recommended that Dickens come, and so he did. The first readings would be in Boston, followed by New York.

Tickets were set to go on sale on November 18th for the readings in Boston. A ticket cost two dollars. They were sold at the Boston publishing house of Ticknor and Fields. Before the sale, Mr. Fields told George Dolby that in fact he already had a list of 250 people for each of the first four readings who had personally asked him to reserve tickets for them, and Fields admitted that everyone else who worked at the publishing house had a similar list. Dolby thought this gave an unfair advantage to people who had connections to the publishers, so he refused to use the lists and insisted that people show up in person on November 18th and buy tickets. Hundreds of people who were concerned they wouldn’t be able to get any tickets tried to find ways around this, and many personally approached Dolby and claimed to be ill, blind, paralyzed, or deaf, and therefore wanted seats ahead of time, and wanted them in the front row.

On the night of November 17th, a huge crowd formed outside the publishing house to wait for the next morning. Rich people sent their servants or employees, and they all set up straw beds and camped out and drank a lot and had a good time. And by early the next morning, the line was half a mile long. The tickets for those four readings in Boston generated $14,000 worth of money that day.

Dickens himself arrived on November 19th. For a couple of weeks, Dickens relaxed somewhat, visited friends and colleagues, and had Thanksgiving dinner with Longfellow.

For the reading on December 2nd, Dickens chose A Christmas Carol and the trial scene from The Pickwick Papers, both audience favorites. The next day, a Boston newspaper wrote:

The entertainment is unlike anything we have ever seen in this country. It is rather a dramatic recitation than a reading, references to the book being very infrequent, and all the parts being recited with appropriate voice and action … The audience last evening were in the best of spirits from the start … and the first mention of well-known characters [...] was received with tempests of applause.

The readings continued for months in much the same vein, incredibly popular, and Dickens is estimated to have made almost 20,000 British pounds. But the tour was stressful and took a toll on the writer’s health.

In his farewell speech in New York in April, he admitted he had changed his mind about some aspects of American culture. He said he wanted to “declare how astounded I have been by the amazing changes that I have seen around me on every side — changes moral, changes physical.”

This makes me wonder:  what would it take for someone to be so popular today in reading their works?  Even with the mass media. 

Some of you may know that I’m a member of the League for the Advancement of New England Storytellers (LANES) and also National Storytellers Network (NSN).  I would encourage any of you to go to a storytelling event or to a spoken word event (which includes both poetry and storytelling).  You’d be amazed at how moved one can be with a story.

And here’s a funny example of the Power of a Story:

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure — which is: Try to please everybody.  (Herbert Bayard Swope)

Because of the United States two-party system of government, everything seems to always be presented as “yes” or “no” and based on party loyalty.  What a terrible way to run a government.  One’s position on the Health Care Bill (and this is the Congress’ bill – not Obama’s bill) should not be determined as being in favor if one is a Democrat or a progressive, just as one should not be against it simply because one is a Republican or a conservative. 

The fact that our present health care system is broken should be obvious to people of both parties.  The fact that almost all other developed countries and many developing countries have better health care systems than the US, for cheaper dollars should be enough to prove that point.  There is no rational argument for being against a health care system because of the dreaded “government control”.  Right now, our health care system is government controlled – only at the State level.  And it doesn’t work.  That is why our doctors are regulated by the States.  And the insurance companies are regulated by the States.  We already have government control.  So the question is, “Can and should the federal government exercise some control to fix the parts where the States have failed?”  If insurance is to be considered part of a society’s infrastructure, like it is in so many other countries, than like other infrastructures like roads, utilities, etc. there needs to be structure that is common throughout all the States and that is the purpose of the Federal government.  (And by the way, the Federal Government has done a wonderful job of developing the Interstate highways so no one can say that the Federal Government does a lousy job at everything.)

Much is made about the points of the health care bill that are contentious.  Again, with our two-party system, the contentious issues are all that the media will discuss.  But here are some good parts about the system that everyone should realize would be a big benefit to our current system – regardless of party affiliations.

For those people already insured:  no bad practices by the insurance companies such as capping your annual or your lifetime benefits.  No refusal of individuals based on pre-existing conditions.  (How have the insurance companies been able to exploit this without the States interfering?)  No provision for cancellation (such as unreported items at time of initial application).  Insurance companies will not be able to charge more for women’s policies than they do for men’s policies.  Young adults can be retained on their parents’ coverage until 26 (or 27).  These are all common-sense items that should have been enforced years ago but because of the power of the insurance companies at the State level, and the impotence of the citizens at the State level, have not been adequately addressed.

This new health care bill will extend coverage to many who are presently not covered.  The United States has more people not covered by insurance than any major developed country.  And it shows with the gap between the haves and the have-nots.  Under the proposed system, eligibility will be based on income plus dependents rather than just income as it is now.  This will mean that the working poor (our highest rising class of citizens) will be able to be covered even if their job doesn’t cover them.  The proposed bill will set up insurance exchanges to help smaller companies provide coverage for their workers.  (Also, the self-employed and students who now are at the mercy of extravagant rates will be able to have decent coverage for decent premiums.) 

In order to compel insurance companies to cover everyone, it is imperative that everyone is covered and not just those that need it.  So small businesses will NOT be forced to provide coverage, and subsidies will be offered according to the poverty level to help everyone afford the coverage they need.  The cost will be reasonable.  It will be 2% of income for poverty level and based on a sliding scale to no more than 10% for higher wages of four times the poverty level.  So for someone earning $40,000 a year, their premiums be less than $100 a month.  (Compared to current rates often over $500 a month for individuals and much higher for family plans.) 

So while both the Senate plan and the House plan may have some areas of contentions, it’s important to know that these above benefits are common and should be a welcome relief to everyone – Republican or Democrat.  And with these benefits, the question should not be “For or Against the Health Care Bill?” but rather, “How can we make the Health Care Bill better?” 

`What is the point of having experience, knowledge, or talent if I don’t give it away?  Of having stories if I don’t tell them to others?  Of having wealth if I don’t share it?  I don’t intend to be cremated with any of it!  It is in giving that I connect  with others, and with the world.  (Isabel Allende)

In expressing love we belong among the undeveloped countries.  (Saul Bellow)

This weekend we will be celebrating United Nations Day.  Most of you probably do not know that I am  quite involved with the United Nations.  (Not for my job – just as a hobby.)  The problem with saying that, is that most people only think of the United Nations as the Security Council and/or the General Assembly.  The worst part of the UN.  I actually am more involved with the UN Agencies such as UNICEF, UNESCO, WHO, etc.  They are the part of the UN that does a tremendous amount of good work all around the world in collaboration with the over 25,000 NGOs (Non-Government Organizations). 

The paradigm of the Security Council and General Assembly, which is what you hear the most about, is one of competition and control.  Each country, especially the US, only gets involved if it can control the actions and feels that it is in competition with other countries.  And the US isn’t the only one.  However there are some great examples that would be good to emulate such as United Kingdom, Canada, and others.

But the paradigm of the UN Agencies is one of collaboration and cooperation – not competition and control.  UNICEF, along with many NGOs, do a tremendous amount of good assisting the children in the world.  From assisting in the eradication of chidhood diseases (along with the WHO – World Health Organization), education, human rights for girls, etc.  UNESCO is an unsung hero.  It is through UNESCO that we have any international business dealings.  They are responsible for international mail procedures, international water rights, intellectual property rights across national boundaries, and many other scientific and business dealings. 

I have been very involved with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which were goals set by all members of the UN (190 then, 192 now) to not just talk about doing the right things, but setting goals.  Like cutting in half the number of people worldwide who earn less than $1.00 a day, increasing the number of girls who obtain an elementary school education by a certain percentage, cutting the number of maternal deaths and infant deaths by one-half. etc. etc.  (There are eight in all.)  The Clinton Initiative has done a lot to promote these goals also.

I have also been very involved with the United Nations Global Compact which is the United Nations working with the business sector around the world to promote the principles of Sustainability and Human Rights for workers to stamp out sweat shops.  The Sustainability emphasis is on the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Accountability of Financial, Evironmental, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – or profit/planet/people.  Over 4,000 major corporations have signed on and I have assisted in the evaluation of their CoP’s (Communications on Progress) that each one must publish each year just like a corporate annual financial booklet.  It’s amazing how many companies in Brazil are ahead of the companies in the US in terms of Sustainability.  But it’s also amazing how many more US companies are performing Sustainability reporting – many of the Fortune 500 and also 100. 

So when someone on FOX news says that the UN is worthless, realize that they’re talking about just the Security Council and the General Assembly and that they don’t know what they hell they’re talking about.  The UN is not only the best organization doing good around the world, it’s the only one that can do it at the international level.  The reason for the UN is that Global Problems require Global Solutions.  Global Problems will never be fixed by individual organizations, individual corporations, or individual countries.  It must be a Global Approach and the UN is the only organization set up to deal with these global issues.