1.2.09
January 02, 2009
It's Friday morning, January 2, 2009. The hangovers are gone, the confetti is washed away, the blank stares are returning, and everyone's realizing that the office/school didn't disappear like we really hoped it did. DAMN!
Ben Romans is asleep on the couch. Eric Espiritu was on the couch not four hours ago, but he woke up and went to work at his new job in New York City (hollla) and BR totally took his spot. I'm drinking what will be the first of several cups of coffee today and I'm contemplating all the amazing things I expect from this year.
One thing I, personally, would love to see happen in 2009 - all of us here on this blog becoming more active on a global and international scale. In particular, the horrors occuring in Darfur, the Congo and surrounding countries; sex and Human Trafficking (see Ben Romans blog), and the rise of Fair Trade for developing countries perpetuated and instigated by current super powers such as the USA and China.
Yeah, it's easy to wonder what we can do, insignificant us. The truth is, we are no longer insignificant (and we never were). Blogs like The One Love have created such a huge platform, and people are reading. People are paying attention to you. Here are a few really cool stories from 2008 about the significance of one person like you and I:
"Stoves Help Keep Darfur's Women Out of Harm's Way" - CNN
"A Banner Effort to Aid Darfur" - Boston Globe
"A Witness Account and How You Can Help" - MTV
So, every blog this month, I'm going to focus on real, relevant ways that we can spread the word, create awareness and actually give aid to the people of Darfur, Sudan, the Congo and surrounding countries.
The most important thing we can do now, is to educate ourselves, make ourselves aware - speak intelligently about the horrors:
"The Women of Darfur" - YouTube Video (International Rescue Committee)
Check out that video, and comment back your thoughts. I'd love to hear them...
leeeeeeeeeeeks said:
The video is very very touching. We need more people like that in the world, hearing cries for help and actually doing something about it. It's very true what you said, we need to educate ourselves. The problem is that sometimes we don't want to know about the sad backgrounds of these people, we don't want to taint our "paradise" in this world. Like in the video, we don't want to know the answers. So sometimes we tend to ignore it. We don't really realize big the scale of the problem is unless we really put ourselves in their positions and truly experience it. It's vital that we spread the word 
Luke White said:
Li Kim. that's so true. that's a huge question for us to answer: how do we get past not wanting to know... and realize that we could make some very exciting things happen when we get past our "comfort zone". Bono used to say "am i bugging you? i don't mean to bug you." rather sarcastically. and it's true. we could stand a little uncomfortableness in our lives i think. a weird attitude, but with very cool and positive results. 
