Archive for the 'Create Peace' Category

Keeping Obama on our side: contribute to MoveOn.org

We donated to Obama today, but we also donated to MoveOn.org, which provides excellent leadership in keeping Obama on our side. By our side I mean on the side of progressives who really do want to see real change in America, as promised by Obama himself.

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February 20, 2008

Dear Tobias Eigen,

Thank you so much for your contribution of $5.00 to MoveOn.org Political Action.

Your contribution will help us make a big difference in this campaign.

Your agreement to support MoveOn.org Political Action on an ongoing basis is greatly appreciated.

You have authorized MoveOn.org Political Action to make 9 more payments of $5.00, once every month from your credit card account.

…MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by hundreds of thousands of our members - we don’t take big checks from corporations. The average contribution is around $50 and we don’t take any contributions larger than $5000. That is why your contribution is even more special. Thank you so much.

–Eli Pariser
Executive Director
MoveOn.org Political Action

Contributions are not tax deductible for federal income tax purposes.
PAID FOR BY MoveOn.org Political Action

Yes we can…

Emily and I made our donation to Barack Obama today. Like the Obama endorsement I made a few weeks back, making political donations is not entirely our cup of tea but this year we feel strongly that it’s important to jump on this particular poltical bandwagon - and the time to do it is now.

It is indeed exciting to have done it and to learn that we are joining nearly a million other Americans who have so far been inspired enough by Barack Obama to join up. Check out the email I got from the Obama campaign this afternoon and go make your donation if you can!

1millionobama.pngTobias –

Make a matching donation We learned something extraordinary since I wrote to you last night.

We’ve crunched all the numbers and discovered that we are within striking distance of something historic: one million people donating to this campaign.

Think about that … nearly one million people taking ownership of this movement, five dollars or twenty-five dollars at a time.

We’re already more than 900,000 strong, including over half-a-million donating so far this year. This unprecedented foundation of support has built a campaign that has shaken the status quo and proven that ordinary people can compete in a political process too often dominated by special interests.

Unlike Senator Clinton or Senator McCain, we haven’t taken a dime from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACs. Our campaign is responsible to no one but the people.

One million donors would be a remarkable feat — something that’s never been done before in a presidential primary and something no one ever thought would be possible for us. And you still have the opportunity to be a part of it.

If you make a donation right now, one of those 900,000 donors has promised to give again in order to match your first gift. You can double the impact of your first donation — and you can even choose to exchange a note about why you are part of this movement.

Be one of the million who will own a piece of this campaign before the potentially decisive March 4th contests:

https://donate.barackobama.com/match

We started this improbable journey a little over a year ago in Springfield, Illinois.

And because you’ve joined together to make your voices heard, this journey isn’t looking as improbable anymore.

Since our victory on February 5th, we’ve won ten straight contests.

But on March 4th, we face a huge challenge in Texas and Ohio, who will vote along with Rhode Island and Vermont. We are behind in the big states and need as many people involved as possible if we’re going to win.

If we can reach our goal of one million donors by March 4th, we can send a powerful message that the Washington establishment and big-money interests cannot ignore.

As one million people with one voice, we can tell them that their days of dominating Washington are coming to an end — the old politics are crumbling and a new voice is breaking through. Our voice.

Will you make a matching donation now to make it happen?

https://donate.barackobama.com/match

I learned the power of ordinary people coming together as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago.

I worked side-by-side with people who had been laid off from steel plants that were moved overseas. These were people who needed new jobs to rebuild their lives, and their political leaders were ignoring them.

But even though the odds were stacked against them, they discovered that by coming together with one voice, they could no longer be ignored.

When we launched this campaign, we knew we were up against similar odds. We knew we’d be running against a massive political machine with deep ties to the Washington establishment.

We knew it wouldn’t be easy.

But if we can do this, we’re not just going to win an election. We’re going to change our country.

Thank you so much,

Barack

Tobias Eigen endorses Barack Obama

Dear friends and family,

Obama This isn’t usually my thing, but I wanted to reach out to my friends and family to make sure you know that I think it’s important that Obama be our next president. I want to see a new name and a new face representing the United States in the world, and while I have my issues with all politicians I think Obama can provide that better than Clinton and McCain.

I hope you agree with me. If you are in the US, please take the time to join the process and go to caucuses - they are fun and meaningful, and in many cases actually count more than the primary elections (this is certainly the case in Washington state - on Saturday I will be going to the caucus). Outside the US? Call and email you friends and tell them to take this process seriously. It’s the least we can all do after seven years of horror.

Let’s not be complacent and assume a Democrat will even win in November so let’s start the fight for change now.

Cheers,

Tobias

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Run, don’t walk to vote for Pambazuka News in Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics

Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and PoliticsIf you haven’t done so already, go now to vote for Pambazuka News!

It’s easy to do. No login required, just go to http://tinyurl.com/2yo3vy, look for PAMBAZUKA NEWS on the list and click the “Vote” button.

Vote for Pambazuka News!

For the third year running, Pambazuka News has been selected as one of 25 finalists for the Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics.

Pambazuka News is produced by a pan-African community of some 300 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women’s organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators.

Winning this award would be a tribute to all the many contributors who have made Pambazuka News essential reading for all concerned with the cause of justice and freedom in Africa.

With your help, we could win this award. Please vote for us at: http://tinyurl.com/2yo3vy

Be kind anyway, so Mother Teresa

Last night I had the pleasure of being invited to a fundraising event here in Seattle for an organization called RESULTS. More about that in a minute - but first let me type in the text of an inspirational quote that was on a scrap of paper at my plate, complete with the right justification and lots of semicolons:

People are often unreasonable,
illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, People may accuse you of
selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some
false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

attributed to Mother Teresa

 

Reading this reminded me so much of my mother that I almost cried. She died five years ago this summer, and in many ways I always felt that she operated by her own rules and did all of these things - she was kind, honest and frank, serene and happy, did good in small deeds, and gave the world the best she had. Continue reading ‘Be kind anyway, so Mother Teresa’

Message from activist @ democrats.com: On April 28, Spell I-M-P-E-A-C-H for Congress

I got the message below from activist @ democrats.com today - and I for one think it’s a terrific idea to put the word IMPEACH! everywhere on April 28. The sooner the better. I’ll start with this IMPEACH! Banner for the saidia.org blog - you can get the html snippet for your own blog here.

George Bush and Dick Cheney lied the nation into a war of aggression, are spying in open violation of the law, and have sanctioned the use of torture. These are high crimes and misdemeanors that demand accountability through the Constitutional mechanism of impeachment. Since Congress doesn’t seem to get it, we’re calling on all Americans who stand for truth, freedom, and justice to join us on April 28 and spell it out for them: IMPEACH!

Let’s put the word IMPEACH! everywhere on April 28. If you’re in Miami you’ll be able to voice your opinion directly to George Bush himself. If you’re in San Francisco, you can join 2,000 people who will use their bodies to spell impeachment on the beach in San Francisco and then march to Speaker Pelosi’s house. If you’re in San Diego, you can join activists at the California Democratic Party Convention who will tell Nancy Pelosi to put impeachment back on the table. And if you’re in Cleveland you can give your support to Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who is considering starting the impeachment process.

In New York’s Central Park, a crowd will spell out the word IMPEACH on the grass. Another thousand people will do the same at Coney Island, and then spell it out with pizza pies on the boardwalk. Both events are being organized by military mothers with sons who have served in Iraq. A pilot will fly a banner saying “IMPEACH!” around NYC and take aerial photographs of the human murals.

There’s an impeachment rally in front of Faneuil Hall in Boston. In Minneapolis, citizens will spell out “IMPEACH!” with canoes on a lake. That evening they’ll form the letters with bed sheets lit from below so that people will be able to read it from planes passing overhead. In Washington DC, 1,000 people will form a human mural to spell out IMPEACH! at the base of the Washington monument.

Events are planned for April 28th all over the country and outside of it, and you can find one or create one here:
http://www.a28.org

Continue reading ‘Message from activist @ democrats.com: On April 28, Spell I-M-P-E-A-C-H for Congress’

greenlightnigeria.org - it begins!

In a comment to my Blueprint for a Nigerian Civil Society Election Blog, Tim Concannon announced greenlightnigeria.org - I’m glad to see this development and hope it catches on. Congratulations SDN and IDASA! Please help spread the word and make this - and the Nigerian election - a success!

greenlightnigeria.org

 

greenlightnigeria.org

… it begins

Thanks for inspiring us to get this started, Mr Eigen, and for the support. We owe you and Kabissa yet another one.

Apart from some of the technology issues that people are raising here - and which you and I have talked back and forth offblog - I think Imnakoya and Sokari are highlighting the main challenges we have to overcome:

Nigeria and Africa isn’t up to speed with “blog” technology.

(I.e.: How to get Flickr, Technorati, Twitter, Wordpress, Joomla, Tagging, YouTube and everything to work together so you can do something useful with them.)

To be fair… I think some European human rights activists, who think they know a thing or two about websites, are also lagging somewhere behind in understanding how it all works together… I’ve learned a lot this week

The other main challenge for us, which Imnakoya and Sokari are correctly identifying is that the Nigerian “blogverse” is fragmented at the moment.

I think that is a reflection of Nigerian politics… things are not falling apart, so much as very slowly crumbling. (I have written about this here. I also write a little there about my experiences in Port Harcourt at Easter in 2003. On which note, by a coincidence I’m writing this on Easter Sunday 2007 so Happy Easter everyone :))

Greenlightnigeria.org is going to be an interesting experiment, to see if we can get a wave of enthusiasm for blogging going across the whole country.

In fact, why stop there? If this becomes a useful tool during Nigeria’s elections - with the biggest electorate in Africa - it must be possible to use the same technologies and approaches throughout the continent.

But we are very much aware of the fact that this is an experiment. April is the start of the process… the real crunch time is in February, when local government elections are scheduled.

For now, the main advantages greenlightnigeria.org has are for election monitors, activists and indepedent witnesses to the elections; all of whom want to be able to get information, experiences and opinions out, but want to minimise the risks to themselves of going public.

I am going to have to do a bit of editing and managing as we will have multiple bloggers, plenty of opportunity for people to interact through comments and in other ways.

We will have to manage the garbage-in / garbage-out problem with having multiple contributors… there’s no getting around our legal obligations as publishers in the UK, so a certain amount of fact checking is unavoidable.

For this reason we would love people to approach us to become bloggers - as well as to be “commenters” etc - but we will probably have to pick people up slowly, do basic ID checks, etc…

However, despite these limitations I am really excited by the huge opportunities for people to interact and use this as a tool to create debate.

More to come… -t

OSISA statement on Zimbabwe Rights Abuses - March 12,2007

I received this alert from the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa via the AU-Monitor mailing list this morning. It seems that momentum against the Mugabe government is picking up, also with reports on the radio this morning that even the South African government is critical of the violence.

Dear Colleagues, Friends and Partners

With the escalation of repression in Zimbabwe, OSISA has released the following statement:

Please may we request you to disseminate as widely as possible to your networks, media and country contacts. We are presently in the process of drafting a statement which will appear in the regional press. This statement will be forwarded to you shortly and we would like you to sign up to either as an individual or as an organization demanding that the Zimbabwe government stop its atrocities against civil society.

We would also like to request that you lobby your government, the Zimbabwe Consulate/Embassy in country, other embassies, donors etc to make a statement on the situation in Zimbabwe. This can be done by holding public meetings etc.

We are also developing a strategy on engaging with SADC and will forward details in due course.

The situation is dire and needs urgent attention.

Yours in the struggle for democracy and human rights

The OSISA Team.

Continue reading ‘OSISA statement on Zimbabwe Rights Abuses - March 12,2007′

Blueprint for a Nigerian Civil Society Election Blog

Nigeria’s election in April promises to be full of surprises - and I am worried for the people in Nigeria and the region that it may not go well and descend the country into chaos. A Nigerian friend who should know has already said the country has only a 50/50 chance of getting through this unscathed. I don’t think he’s exaggerating, considering the rather shocking reports coming out of the country, such as this recent Amnesty International Urgent Action alert about another old friend, Anyakwee Nsirimovu. The organization Anyakwee started in Port Harcourt, Institute for Humanitarian and International Law, is one of the first 10 members of Kabissa. Here’s a quote from the AI alert:

Anyakwee Nsirimovu, Executive Director of the Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (IHRHL) in Rivers State, in the Niger delta, was attacked on 4 March, a week after an apparent threat to kill his family if he did not stop his human rights activities. Amnesty International believes that his life may be in danger.

There will no doubt be more reports of incidents like this as we get closer to the elections, which is discouraging to contemplate. However, I am heartened by the strong solidarity shown by members of the African Democracy Forum in response to a posting on their e-network of the AI alert about Anyakwee. People around Nigeria, Africa and indeed the world unequivocally stated their support and readiness.

One way to perhaps help to prevent widescale abuses might be to make this solidarity more readily visible on the Internet through a Nigerian Civil Society Election Blog. I did an Internet search and while there are some bloggers (like this and this and this) discussing the election and Global Voices and Pambazuka News have been covering the elections, I did not see any clear effort to use blogging specifically to prevent violence during the election.

Perhaps I am being naive and there are good reasons for this - I’d love to hear them. But I’m very enthusiastic about the blogosphere and am always wondering how it might be applied to the important work of civil society organizations in Africa. I have jotted down some ideas below that perhaps others might pick up on or that might spur a collaboration. And if not in Nigeria, maybe it will be useful for someone trying to do the same in another “emerging democracy”. Read on, and let me know what you think.

Even if such a coordinated effort does not take off, I’d like to encourage everyone that knows anything at all about what is going on in Nigeria these days to blog actively about it and to tag blog postings at Technorati, Del.icio.us and other social networking sites. The election must be carried out as much as possible in public view, and Nigeria must know the world is watching. If you are concerned for your own safety, you can always blog under a pseudonym at WordPress.com or one of the many other free blogging sites out there.

Continue reading ‘Blueprint for a Nigerian Civil Society Election Blog’

I would like to think that I *would* share my socks!

I received the email below from Ami Dar of Idealist.org this afternoon - and wanted to share the message far and wide. I am full of admiration for Ami and the work he and his colleagues do at Idealist.org, and look forward to being a part of this movement to create positive change in the world.

Idealist.org Meeting in Northern Uganda, February 10, 2007

Ami’s story from his days as an Israeli soldier watching Syrians watching him watch them reminds me of the 1914 Christmas Truce story (check out this snopes.com story), where German and British soldiers spontaneously stopped fighting and instead came out of their trenches to celebrate Christmas together.

Dear Tobias,

Would you share your socks? Let me explain.

Last month, at http://www.idealist.org/imagine, we invited everyone on Idealist to imagine a better world and to help build it together.

The response was overwhelming. People in 70 countries organized 300 start-up meetings in less than three weeks, and more meetings are planned for the weeks of March 12-18 and April 23-29, at
http://www.idealist.org/meetings

After seeing some photos from these meetings - at http://www.flickr.com/photos/idealist - I thought this might be a good moment to tell you about an experience I had when I was 19. This led me to start Idealist.org, and it’s still the best way I’ve found for expressing this whole idea.

Continue reading ‘I would like to think that I *would* share my socks!’




 

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