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Amid Dark Times, Meet the Most Inspiring People of 2009
Newsman Wes Nisker said if you don't like the news, make your own. These people did
It was a dark year, 2009, sealing a dark decade. It began with the world in economic free-fall and the Gaza Strip being bombed to pieces (again). We watched the vicious crushing of a democratic uprising in Iran, a successful far-right coup in Honduras, and the intensification of the disastrous war in Afghanistan. It all ended at Brokenhagen, where the world's leaders breezily decided to carry on cooking the planet.
But in the midst of all this there were extraordinary points of light, generated by people who have refused to drink the cheap sedative of despair. The left-wing newsman Wes Nisker said in his final broadcast: "If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own." I want - in the final moments of 2009 - to celebrate the people who, this year, did just that: the men and women who didn't slump, but realised that the worse the world gets, the harder people of goodwill have to work to put it right.
Inspiration One: Denis Mukwege. The war in the Congo is the worst since Adolf Hitler marched across Europe: it has killed more than 5 million people and counting. As I witnessed when I reported on the war in 2006, the violence has been turned primarily on the country's women: one favourite tactic is to gang-rape a woman and then shoot her in the vagina. For years these women were simply left to die in the bush. But one man - a soft-spoken Congolese gynaecologist with a gentle smile - decided to do something mad, something impossible. With scarcely any equipment and no funding, he set up a secret clinic for these women.
He was told he would be killed by the militias for undoing their "work". The threats said his own daughters would be murdered if he didn't stop. Everyone thought he was mad. But he knew it was the right thing to do. He became the Oscar Schindler of the Congolese mass rapes, saving the lives of tens of thousands of women. In the midst of a moral Chernobyl, he showed that the best human instincts can survive and, in time, prevail. It is rumoured he was number two in the Nobel Committee's list for the Peace Prize. He should have won.
Inspiration Two: Liu Xiaobo. A year ago, a petition began to circulate in China demanding that its one billion citizens be allowed to think and speak freely. "We should end the practice of viewing words as crimes," it said. As if they were the Irony Police, the Chinese authorities promptly arrested the authors and many of its signatories. One of the most articulate and brave - Liu Xiaobo - was sentenced to 11 years in a re-education camp for "subversion".
The Chinese authorities believe human rights are a "plot" to weaken China. In fact, China will be immeasurably stronger when it stops persecuting its citizens when they try to develop their minds and defend each other.
Liu is not alone. Hu Jia is in prison for warning about China's hidden Aids crisis. Huang Qi is in jail for warning that the poor construction of school buildings in Sichuan - because the builders bribed the local authorities - meant hundreds of children died unnecessarily in the earthquake. There is a long list, and for every prisoner, thousands more are too frightened to speak. But these dissidents stand as models of the truly great nation China will be one day, when it stops persecuting these people and starts electing them.
Inspiration Three: Evo Morales and Malalai Joya. Although they were born thousands of miles apart, these two people embody what real democracy can mean. When Evo Morales was a child, the indigenous peoples of Bolivia weren't even allowed to set foot in the capital's central square, which was reserved for white people. Today, he is the President, and for the first time in his country's history, he is diverting the billions raised from the country's natural resources away from the pockets of US corporations. It is building schools and hospitals for people who had nothing, and poverty is being eradicated in a stunning burst of progress.
Malalai Joya is the youngest woman ever to be elected in Afghanistan, and she was swiftly banned from taking her seat because she kept speaking up for the people who elected her - against the violent fundamentalist warlords our governments have put in charge of the country. They keep trying to murder her, but she says: "I don't fear death, I fear remaining silent in the face of injustice ... I am ready, wherever and whenever you might strike. You can cut down the flower, but nothing can stop the coming of the spring."
She and Morales are authentic democrats, in contrast to the parody of it offered by Hamid Karzai and - too often - our own leaders.
Inspiration Four: Amy Goodman and the team at Democracy Now! It's not hard to despair of the US at the moment, when even the silver-tongued King of Change seems unable to get real healthcare and cuts in warming gases through his corrupt Senate, and he is ramming harder into Afghanistan. A large part of the problem is the atrocious US broadcast media. The TV news is one lengthy blowjob for the powerful, seeing everything from the perspective of the rich, and ridiculing arguments for progress. It serves its owners and its advertisers by poisoning every political debate with death-panel distractions and silence for the things that matter.
But there is one remarkable exception. Broadcasting from a tiny studio in New York, on a budget raised entirely from its viewers, comes Democracy Now! Every day, the hour-long broadcast - hosted by the wonderful Amy Goodman - tells the real news. While the nightly news fills up with junk and gossip, they calmly, cleverly explain what is really happening. For example, while ABC and NBC were fixating on Tiger Woods' genitals, Democracy Now! was in Copenhagen, explaining how the world's rainforests were being stiffed. They, at least, can tell the trees from the Woods. It is the best single source for making sense of the world that I know - and it is a model of what the American media could be if it treated its viewers with respect.
Inspiration Five: Peter Tatchell. Long before it was trendy to support gay equality, there was Peter Tatchell, taking huge risks for what was right. As one of the pioneers of direct action to oppose bigotry against gay people, he was never afraid to put his own body in the path of bigots. In 1999, he performed a citizen's arrest on the murderous Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, and was beaten so badly by his bodyguards he has never recovered. This year, he went to Moscow to defend the gay rights march there from viciously anti-gay police, and was beaten again. This year, he announced he had to withdraw from running as the Green candidate in Oxford East because the damage was so severe.
Almost unbelievably, some people who claim to be on the left have attacked Tatchell because he criticises homophobes who happen to be black, Arab or Asian in exactly the same way he criticises people who are white. (He tried to arrest Tony Blair and Henry Kissinger for war crimes just as surely as he tried to get Mugabe.) But the real racism would be to hold non-white people to lower standards, as if their bigotries were less real or less deadly. A person who chooses to persecute gay people is monstrous and should be stopped - whatever their skin colour, and whatever their culture. Tatchell has dedicated his life to that cause, and he deserves our endless thanks, not dishonest abuse.
What do they all have in common, all these people? When Mukwege built his clinic, they said he'd be dead within a week. When Tatchell said gay people could be equal, they laughed in his face. When Morales and Joya ran for office, they said people like them could never win. They dismiss Liu and Goodman now; but their arguments will win, in time.
They show that when the world gets worse, that's not a reason to slink away in despair. On the contrary: it's a reason to work harder and aim higher. As the essayist Rebecca Solnit says: "Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. Hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth's treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal... To hope is to give yourself to the future - and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable." That should be the epitaph for these remarkable people - and for 2009.
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46 Comments so far
Show AllThis is a nice reminder that there are good people in the world.
Good people often are overlooked by the mass media except in those cloying little end=pieces of "good news" that newscasts like to stick on. Good people are everywhere doing great things without publicity. These noted examples are just that -- examples -- not a exclusive list.
Gary
These are the good, humble people in the world, not the "Silver-Tongued King of Change" -- who has sadly been described all too often as compassionate and humble.
What do these people have in commmon? More courage than all of the peple whom they criticize put together. We need to support them (and this site) whenever and however we can.
q
Johann, thank you for this commentary featuring the example of these six inspiring people, along with the team at Democracy Now! Good concluding comments too on Hope from Rebecca Solnit.
Optimism, hope, and trust in WHOM? That is the question. The deadly mistake is to place them in the elites.
From the article:
"The Chinese authorities believe human rights are a "plot" to weaken China. In fact, China will be immeasurably stronger when it stops persecuting its citizens when they try to develop their minds and defend each other."
Too, too simple. The Chinese do not have a very good record on human rights, though if one takes foreign policy into account, the US has a worse record. And the US has been trying for decades to use human rights claims to weaken China, as the Chinese allege. And, as with Russia during the days of the Soviet Union, the US claims are not intended to bring about a better China or a better future for the people of China but to weaken China to allow US-based multinational corporations to totally take over China and bring about a truly hellish future for the people there.
And no, China is not a hellish place to live today as the standard of living has improved dramatically over the past couple of decades and the Communist government is working to solve the environmental and other problems brought about by rapid industrialization. Just a couple of years ago the Chinese government passed a new labor law to substantially raise labor standards and wages, but the government backed down and watered down the law when US-based multinationals threatened to leave en masse if the reforms were implemented.
Useful idiots are everywhere.
Yes kivals, I've noticed that any country that deviates from the empire's idea of acceptable capitalism is ipso facto a violator of human rights, while the empire's dropping of bombs which blow heads and limbs from people is not a violation of human rights. That's only collateral damage. The hypocrisy of the empire's pronouncements on human rights is matched only by the Nobel committee's recent award of the prize for peace.
Fully agree! This particular writer has a definite anti-China bias as witness his ill-informed articles about China and Darfur, and the Olympics. The Olympics turned out to be a fantastic event and I've personally witnessed Chinese tourists from other cities touring the sites and being overwhelmed. Immense pride in themselves, and their country was the order of the day...
Clearly Mr Hari is not seeing China from their eyes. Then whose? He also goes on to suggest that the 'great nation' of China (a sop) would be greater if they elected their leaders. You mean like Bush and, now, Obama? Not to mention other failed 'democratic' states everywhere? Is he not aware that the failure of this 'democracy' led to the substance of his article in the first place....?
Useful idiot is apt. Either that or he is journalism's Obama...
"may you live in interesting times"
Hear! Hear!
Thanks, Johan Hari for pointing out these glimmers of hope.
All the people you mentioned deserve our greatest respect not only for their personal courage (of conviction) and the good that comes from it, but also because they prove that the excuse we have been offered too often for all the “evil” in the world, is false:
Based on the views of some “socio-biologists” it has become fashionable to put the blame for immoral human behaviour on evolution. Greed, selfishness, aggression, daily pursuit of the “personal advantage”, not caring much for others (or the social consequences of political actions) they argue is not bad as such, quite the contrary. It is not only normal but even necessary to be selfish and greedy, no – they even claim that we have “selfish-genes” that control our behaviour in the context of searching for a superior “replication vessel”.
William Black recently said in an interview, that the Wall Street crooks who are still engaged in massive organized fraud, often think that they are superior human beings because they can “make” millions in days, hours or even minutes, while most hard working people get only peanuts in return. A further result of their “genius” is, that they practically pay no taxes to speak of while the majority of the tax burden has been shifted to the “ignorant” masses who are left holding the bag when another “bailout” needs to be financed. In the latest stage of this financial hybris, they “own” the government, control the legislation (see Goldman Sachs)and pay themselves astronomicial bonuses while the economy is going the way of the Titanic ...
I am convinced that greed and selfishness are not the result of genetic determination but the consequence of social conditioning and economic indoctrination. People can be good or bad but it depends on the social surroundings whether positive or negative character traits will be enforced or stifled. (see also the wonderful book "To Have or to Be" by Erich Fromm)
We all need social acceptance and recognition and in small communities this is mostly achieved through being a “good person”. Nature has endowed us with something called “empathy”, which means we have a natural tendency to care for others, to feel with them when they are sad or happy, yes we even like to share. There is a lot of scientific evidence that we have a social brain, not a genome that tells us to take as much as we can (at the expense of others, of course) and call it "survival of the fittest"
However, if people are called the “elite” simply for “making” obscene amounts of money (with no real work and no benefit for society – quite the opposite) then values like solidarity, economic justice and empathy must become a joke ....
In an insane economic system based on brutal “competition” (for what?) and endless “growth” we have been reduced to “consumers” and atomized individuals whose whole existence revolves around our productive role in an economy bent on the destruction of ecosystems, that are the basis of our lives.
“Climate change” is just a sympton of the disease: a stupid production system with no self-limiting principle and no pre-production evaluation of the ecological impacts on the bigger system: nature. First we produce like hell any silly (or even dangerous) “innovation” or useless crap, waste precious, unrecoverable raw materials and lots of energy, then we are surprised when the first problems appear later. We are the only species who can think ahead, plan for the future and what have we done with it?
Our political leaders have been duped by stupid economic “advisers” and “experts” (who serve only “the moneyed interests”) for too long to get the message:
We need a huge paradigm change in economic thinking, it is no longer possible to let “markets” decide what we produce, the ultimate judge must be nature (as Leonardo da Vinci, a great engineer in his time, understood perfectly) Ecological imperatives must guide our policies, our whole industrial production, our way of producing food, our whole conduct on this planet; the crazy idea, that a society can be run on the twisted concept of “freedom” to do everything, no matter what the longterm consequences will be (for survival on this planet) must no longer prevent the inevitable change of course.
Besides, if you look closely, our freedom has been eroded a long time ago, we have become slaves for capital interests in one way or another and now even civil rights are being undermined because the “godfather” (as Chomsky calls the US in the context of international relations) has created so much hatred with his own terrorist actions over the last decades that the backlash is used as an excuse to implement fascist “security” measures....
I am a great admirer of Amy Goodman and a great fan of Democracy Now! Thank you guys for doing this great work!
Yesterday I watched with great dismay a story about a woman in El Salvador: She was killed because of her activism against goldmining by a Canadian company which would contaminate the water with cyanide. She was eight month pregnant.
The company has sued the government for the loss of expected revenues (based on the “Free Trade” Agreement between the US and Latin American countries) To be able to do that, they created a US subsidiary ...
This is the insane world we are living in: the rights of a foreign company to make profit at the expense of nature and the population (result: sickness and death) are enshrined in treaties and heavily sanctioned but human rights or the right of economic self-determination for a sovereign state or a community are worth nothing .... The economic tyranny has been accepted as normal ...
How can we fight against this madness? Watching progressive news channels or blogging our anger and frustration away is not enough ...
Isn’t this feeling of helplessness the greatest problem?
"Isn’t this feeling of helplessness the greatest problem?"
I too feel helpless. Often. But I think you've outlined the greatest problem quite concisely: What is most needed is a change in paradigm.
How can this be achieved?
I try by educating those I come in contact with - which is almost impossible. Either I'm preaching to the choir or it's like bumping into an immovable wall.
I fear that only through widespread death, destruction and suffering can this shift have a chance of taking place.
There might be a better way than widespread death, destruction and suffering.
What we have to do is figure out a way to make our message to the 'immovable wall' as interesting to him as his interest in Tiger Wood's problems.
How can we put ice cream with whipped cream on our message - without lying- so he can't wait to dig in? If you can answer that we will be well on our way to saving the world.
You can never tell what impact you are having. Whatever you do, matters. If one tack doesn't feel right, maybe you will find another. I know a 75 year old woman who shows documentaries on a regular basis, and provides accompanying material for anyone who wants. Some people have printed up information on the danger of the vaccines and passed them out at bars, truck stops, hospitals, etc. Some people make regular calls to organizations or political groups to keep pressure on about issues they care about. Some write letters. Every single bit matters.
A paradigm change is occurring which is what is hard. Look at Hamsher's article. Look back at one about a recent anti-protest outside the White House where Paulies and leftists decided to work together. There is a lot of hard stuff happening but in the midst of it, more and more involvement. And that involvement does not have be emotionally overwhelming. The climate change people are now seeing that local organic farming is a means to heal the earth. Anyone and everyone should begin. It'a happy thing but an important thing.
"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." Gandhi
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves.
Mohandas Gandhi
Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.
Mohandas Gandhi
Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it.
Mohandas Gandhi
In a gentle way, you can shake the world.
Mohandas Gandhi
It is difficult 'not' to have fear and a sense of helplessness when the people we should be trusting in our government stage an attack on their own country. An attack to frighten Americans into war against a country that had nothing to do with the attack. When a few men in power can manipulate the news media, and the United Nations, to create fear in the American public, so that major middle Eastern oil fields can be controlled by a handful of oil barons, we are in deep trouble at home and world wide.
What I fear most are the unscrupulous individuals (in business and government) that have no conscience about slaughtering innocent citizens in foreign countries to further their plans for international control of fossil fuels. World order?
The immovable wall is crumbling. Want proof? Look at our president. Color?
Don't preach to the choir, arm it. If you can listen to a conversation and know why one person doesn't understand the other, you may already have the keys. Share them. If you have a point that argues their case well, they will repeat it.
People mostly believe that what they are doing is right, or at least justifiable. If they didn't, they wouldn't be doing it. The pressure to solve our problems is why we push to spread "awareness", but what sets that pressure into motion, and what direction will it take? This is where you need a transparent path and goal. How and why the given path works is critical, because confidence is the trigger that set things into motion.
Why is peace elusive? The simplest answer here is: Propaganda. Demonizing the enemy causes prejudice, hate, racism, and fear, in a deliberate attempt to overcome our natural objection to killing one another. Yep, blame the media. But don't just point the finger, explain the problem. Actually, we're not there yet. A problem, regardless of how well we understand it, is not an answer. Pro-war propaganda is a condemnable act, and can be deterred, but there is more. Prejudice requires ignorance, which means it can actually be prevented, undermined, etc. Back to the media, but this time they are not part of the problem, but part of the solution. Our motivated friends in the media are the target audience at this point. To complete the shift from pro-war to pro-peace, you humanize. Humanize your own for security, and humanize the "enemy" for peace.
To be effective, it helps to understand how our "system" works. I'll explain. The media creates a concern. The people become concerned. Then... The lobbyists explain to Congress how to fix it. It's a set up. Actually, that system is falling apart. It's not always easy to see change when yesterday was so much like today, but if you look back twenty years or so, the contrast is huge. What has changed? The flow of information. The people have the ability to express our own concerns now. We are engaged in the greatest exchange of information history has ever witnessed. Welcome to the flow.
My first question is always the same. How do we frame this so that we're all on the same side? The easiest thing to do is to "we" the people. Here on the net, our "we" is a global community. We're shaping our future because we have the power to do so, and if we don't, someone else will. It's time for peace, and we're not backing down. The plan isn't to simply "give peace a chance", but to ensure it, and we're not alone.
Whatever the problem is, chances are, someone has the answer. Throughout history we have searched against all odds for these answers. Today finding the answers isn't what's against all odds, missing them is.
Happy New Year.
Indeed.
Answers must be found.
Propaganda only works when it is invisible to its dupes. When the man behind the curtain is revealed its impact is lost. When the con is blown the grifters depart.
Making a genuine community out of a electron population will not be easy but as (one good thing we can say about him is he showed us in) the election that the Internet can help elect a President. That was quite an accomplishment, whatever its sad results with a failed President. Hope was the message, and it worked, even if subverted.
Introdce someone to the Internet today. Show them some real news sources -- starting right here. Send some links to revealing articles to friends. Talk to your neighbors about more than the weather. Organize. March. Sit-in and chain yourselves if called upon, get arrested -- make a real stink.
Revolutions start that way. A few convincing others and it spreading. Think of how a small rock concert turned into Woodstock, a few hippies became a Generation. How we once linked hands around the world.
Do not give in to despair. Degenerate into a griper, muttering about the Fall of the American Empire, 9/11 fraud, NWO, JFK, Bush and family, and the dozens of other basically irrevelant concerns we waste some much bandspace upon. We need to fight for what matters -- not just attack each other in flame wars over stepping on the toes of our particular sacred cow.
In a word: UNITE!
Gary
The same sociobiologists (an oxymoron as they are neither competent biologists nor sociologists) that talk about the “selfish-genes” once thought there was a gene that abhorred incest. One little problem, incest is a common occurance. The same biological forces that supposedly fashioned us to be selfish also; as demonstrated by the above examples, blessed us with the ability to be selfless. To be heroic, caring, even-handed, and anything but greedy -- actually one of the less powerful motivators.
Hope is indeed the answer, as it is not an attribute covered in sociobiologic texts yet is what most distinquished human behavior from animal. To see the future in a favorable light and work toward it is a far more powerful motivator, as parenthood itself demonstrates, than greed or selfishness. Sociobiologists are the liberaltarians of the scientific word with just as skewed and illogical (and hopeless) a worldview.
Gary
there is actually a tribe in africa - i read many years ago - that has (had) a very stable society .
in it the mothers were the teachers of their sons of marrying age. before a son was to marry - the mothers would take them to the hut to have sex with them -- as a way of instruction on how to treat their wives properly. and that this was expected in their society
Recent scientific studies actually concluded :
that what is more INHERENT in our wiring is an "Altruism gene" .
that inherent in us - more than what the selfish gene is - is an altruism gene - in which self-sacrifice comes in order to allow another to prosper and that it is part of a "species oriented" capacity to propagate itself..and that without the INDIVIDUALS being wired to be altruistic - and thus, place the welfare of others above oneself - the species would suffer...
Great inspiration to be had from these people! Thank you from the heart.
There is one example missing in Hari's superb editorial. Conspicuously missing. It's Johann Hari. Hari's pen is mightier than the sword, than the predator drone, than all the evil empires everywhere and anywhere.
Independent journalists--like Hari--are ultimately our best hope. Somebody has to continue to keep hope alive.
Thank you for NOT including Obama.
Obama thinks he can make deals with the new Robber Barons for a few crumbs here and there off their banquet tables. He's very wrong these people HATE any thought of a middle class and are hell-bent on its destruction. They want a return to serfdom in this country and were a very long way down that road now.
Admirable, courageous people.
Just a note on the murderous Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe. He wasn't always considered a bad guy. In fact, he, a highly educated and intelligent man, was considered the HOPE of Zimbabwe after the country emerged from the English colonial boot (Rhodisia).
Who does that remind you of?
Ronald Reagan?
sadonic Gary
I just came home from working at the library feeling very depressed at the state of the world. In the US, there are so many people without anything now. We get the homeless people in our library, the illegal immigrants, the poor people. I recovered from the copier somebody had left a letter that he or she had written to their bank, explaining that they were living out of a car and only had $1.63 left in their account. It was a letter of complaint and signed, "Your customer no longer". I thought depressedly, as if the bank would care. Reading this tonight helped a lot. Thanks.
Mr. President, How Long Shall We Have To Wait?
How long should gay people have to wait to have the equal human rights of non-gay people?
How long should common people have to wait to have the equal human rights of rich people?
http://www.wilypython.net/How%20Long.asp
What a relief the pompously rabid author of this piece did not include himself as amongst the most inspiring people of 2009, something he definitely is not !
I'm glad Hari did not put himself on the "list," but he did leave out Aminatou Haider.
Love it when some white prick decides who's a hero and who's not.
Leave it to you who decides who is a "white prick" and who's not!
I am not sure what you are trying to accomplish by calling the author names. I do not believe he in any way said his list is exclusive; nor can you possibly believe he should or would know who everyone who reads this site or his article believes is a hero.
Instead of name calling, I would have loved to hear more about Haider, whom I have not had the pleasure of learning about. Instead of educating us, you just casted us aside.
How are we going to accomplish a shift in the direction of this world if you don't want to communicate in a loving way with the readers of this website - if anyone has common cause with you, sympathy to the plight of the millions suffering because of the U.S.'s policies, and the willingness to work to stop these - it would be the readers on this site.
I hope you can process your anger into more productive means in the future. I believe you have a lot of knowledge to pass to us if you could stop calling us names...I realize you only called Hari a name, but I would say the majority of readers on this site fall into the "white prick" category.
What a crock of a comment. You saying these are not inspiring people or are you afraid they are?
Gary
Gary:
Only two (Morales and Joya) on the list inspire me. Indeed, there are many inspiring people in the world. You'll find many of them putting their lives on the line resisting the Empire and Israel. But you'd probably label more than a few of them as Islamic fundamentalists, Jihadists, etc. You follow...?
>> But you'd probably label more than a few of them as Islamic fundamentalists, Jihadists, etc. You follow...?<<
I would? You assume a lot it appears.
Name a few and let's see.
Gary
Gary:
In the age of the Global War on Terror/Islam (GWOT/I) or, if you wish, the Global War on Terrorist Islam (GWOTI), which to my ear sounds better, it's everyone in a Muslim country opposed to interference from outsiders. To spell it out, that means several thousands, perhaps millions of heroes. If that sounds a little shrill or harsh to you, what would be reaction of western countries if overwhelming powerful foreign nations (i.e, black, brown or yellow people) attempted to subjugate them? Please do not think that because a people are less educated or technologically advanced that they are somehow less than those who are or that they do not have the right to decide for themselves how they wish to live. Understand that and you'll understand why we're in this mess, a dark tunnel at the end of which I see no light at this time.
You still assume that I don't understand what Amerika represents, the Great Satan indeed, to millions, maybe billions, of people throughout the world, not just in a few countries. You still think I am clueless to the resentment (justifed) that the United States has generated. But the article was about INSPIRING people for an American audience, not about the everyday heros that brighten the world and struggle the good fight.
Save the outrage for those that don't get it, not your fellow travelers...
Gary
I get so sick of hearing all the discouraging news which only seems to feed more discouraging news. This was a refreshing change, even if "some white prick" decides who's a hero and who's not. I'm just happy SOMEONE stepped up and stopped complaining to celebrate.
Mark Dubois, who has done his own part in participating in grass roots movements and has served as director of Worldwise, said once, "One thing I've learned is that of all the horrendous problems we face in the world, one strikes me as the root cause of them all, and it's a myth: 'I don't have any power.'" (quoted in Levoy, 1997.) All of the above folks mentioned illustrate that the potential is present in all of us, if only we could take the time to stop calling each other names and being so judgemental towards one another - including those who decide to speak out and name their heroes.
A wonderful article on the power of positive thinking.
A wonderful article on the power of positive thinking.
teddy December 30th, 2009 @ 11:02 pm
Could you please substantiate this non-sense.Do you have any links.
//in it the mothers were the teachers of their sons of marrying age. before a son was to marry - the mothers would take them to the hut to have sex with them//
This level of stereotypical ignorance is mind blowing.And this would amount to a serious taboo.The common norm was to initiate the boys and girls in seclusion, mentored by elders, men and women respectively and emphasis on SEPARATELY.
Otherwise maybe Johann Hari, you should be included in the list too.I read almost all your articles during the brokenhagen debacle.you were spot on.
Thanks to Johann for his journalism. There are many I think could be added - Vandana Shiva, John Pilger, Bill Mollison, Chomsky etc etc - depending on what sort of work they are involved in. The fact that Mr Mukwege didnt win the Nobel Prize is testimony to that prize's political nature yet again. Obama!! Mr Smooth. Reminds me of Charlie Brown - tread softly and carry a beagle.
What is marvelous about Amy Goodman besides her great reporting is that the Canadian Border Security Agency decided to interrogate her at the border; thus alerting Goodman to Harper's goons and how they are trying to shut down dissent in Canada. Harper will stop at nothing: he is even shutting down Parliament to quell dissent about Afghanistan and the Olympics. So now we above the 49th parallel are also living under a dictatorship.
Yaeh. Don't dare evn think about critizing their coming Vancover olympics this year or they go apesh!t. That's what they stopped and searched Amy Goodman for, checking even their laptops...
Opps, better cancel my tickets to the Games now I've dared...
Gary
Rupert MURDOCH; enabler of election theft 2000
FACT: according to bloomberg news FOX news is
engaged in a life or death battle with TIME WARNER.
Because of LOST REVENUE due to advertiser BOYCOTTS'
FOX cannot pay its shitty "STARS" their GRIFT.
Now is the time to organise and bury ALL OF
RUPERT MURDOCHS scumbucket organisations underwater
and DROWN THEM. Send that pusillanimous scumbag back
AUSTRALIA where he began and start reclaiming OUR MEDIA.
Now if we could get folks from watching the very popular Faux News channel, and listening to their right-wing "shock jocks" the world will right itself and be a wonderful place. If it wasn't Murdoch it would be GE (or now conservative Comcast) or Disney or Time-Warner -- all corporations promoting the Standard Viewpoint (as does sadly PBS) in their "news" programs. And that viewpoint ignores what just might upset the great unwashed masses.
Like showing the faces of starving children right here in America, the homeless veterans, the displaced homeowners, the conned out their retirement funds elderly, the poisoned from bad water and contaminated foods, the desparate clogging our emergency rooms hoping for some health care (and unaddressed by what passes for "reform"), and so many others we get only the briefist glimpses of in the Mainstream Media (and never it seems on Faux). Else out with the pitchforks and torches and on to the castles of the corporate CEOs.
Gary
Great job, with the constant stream of negative articles about the year and the decade it's good to remember there are positive signs out there. It's hard not to get trapped in the negative death spiral that is the 24 hour news cycle, keep up the good work and keep the spotlight on those who deserve it! www.theendisalwaysnear.blogspot.com