But sometimes you just have to look for it.
A nonprofit organization called Green Container International Aid is on the
ground and working toward utilizing discarded shipping storage containers for housing for the victims of the Haitian earthquake. There are many designs around. Some would be stacked into apartment like dwellings. There are many of these containers sitting empty at U.S. ports, and can be had for under $1,000. GCIA needs donations or intervention by businesses or other organizations in order to get more of these fitted out for use before the hurricane season presents more deadly problems for the Haitians now living in substandard tent cities. The many shipments of food and emergency supplies that poured in after the earthquake provided some of these containers, however, many more are needed. This makes so much sense to me, as these containers are extremely sturdy, and even waterproof, which will be a boon during the rainy, hurricane season. 
I have put GCIA's website in the list of organizations to the left of this post. You may go there and read about the important work being done by them, and how to help.
A nonprofit organization called Green Container International Aid is on the
ground and working toward utilizing discarded shipping storage containers for housing for the victims of the Haitian earthquake. There are many designs around. Some would be stacked into apartment like dwellings. There are many of these containers sitting empty at U.S. ports, and can be had for under $1,000. GCIA needs donations or intervention by businesses or other organizations in order to get more of these fitted out for use before the hurricane season presents more deadly problems for the Haitians now living in substandard tent cities. The many shipments of food and emergency supplies that poured in after the earthquake provided some of these containers, however, many more are needed. This makes so much sense to me, as these containers are extremely sturdy, and even waterproof, which will be a boon during the rainy, hurricane season. 
I have put GCIA's website in the list of organizations to the left of this post. You may go there and read about the important work being done by them, and how to help.A few months ago, Habitat for Humanity proposed a multi-year plan to help 50,000 Haitian earthquake-affected families. In May they received their first donation to this fund. The African-American Baptist Mission Collaboration donated $500,000. The Clinton-Bush Fund made $300,000 available for emergency shelter kits, and the German Foreign Office contributed $500,000 for the kits.
In reading updates on the Haiti earthquake, I have been impressed by the number of Hollywood celebrities not only giving money from their own pockets, but actually going to Haiti and working along side of relief organizations. Sean Penn -- one of Hollywood's former "bad boys" has practically lived in Haiti since the earthquake. He has donated so much time and money that when one interviewer asked him how much money he had spent, his reply was "Enough that I'm going to have to make another movie very soon!" Patricia Arquette was on TV recently with a group of young men learning to weld, a skill needed to put necessary doors on the steel shipping containers. Many have donated millions of dollars.. Sandra Bullock for one. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Jennifer Anniston.
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I have been so discouraged watching the news of the Gulf oil spill. The news coverage, as usual, has been extremely negative. Seeing the photos of the poor birds and sea animals is heart-breaking. After watching weeks of this on TV, and on my internet news sites, I decided that Dr. Andrew Weil's suggestion that we periodically go on a "news fast" is really good advice. I deleted both of the news sites I had on my computer homepage. I love my computer, and after I put the coffee on in the mornings I come in here and turn on my computer. I used to think that I was helping my emotional state by not watching cable news, but choosing instead to read whatever news I wish on the internet. Now it seems even my favorite sites are going for the sensational headlines to grab their share of internet readers. Consequently, after checking my emails, the very next things I would see were lists of headlines from Huffington Post and Google News. It has gotten so bad that lately I've even seen "dirty" expletives in the headlines themselves! Boy! that'll get your attention at 7:30 in the morning! What if one of my little grandchildren were to come in to use my computer and were faced with that? Delete buttons come in mighty handy. I enjoyed using mine.
I've decided that my 30-minute network news broadcast in the evening should be enough doom and gloom to fill me in on the latest "disasters". I do admire their attempt -- at least I've seen it on NBC and CBS, to give at least one "good news" segment at the end of their evening broadcasts. I'm considering not watching their news at all. I can go online anytime and with one click view headlines from all over the world... if I want to, that is. In the meantime, I've been delighted to find a couple of websites that have nothing but "good" or "happy" news. I've also shared them in my list to the right.
One heartwarming story on the Good News site was of an 11-year old girl who wanted to help the
wildlife affected by the Gulf oil spill. She contacted the Audubon Society with her proposal to seek donations for the wildlife, and offered to send each person who donates one of her own sketches or watercolors of birds. It's a beautiful example of what wonderful, compassionate children we are seeing in the world today. With the assistance of the Audubon Society, Olivia Bouler created a fund-raising program and has raised over $80,000 so far. You can read about her story and see her precious bird pictures on aolartists.com. AOL kicked off her campaign by donating $25,000 and setting up a web page for her.
I've decided that my 30-minute network news broadcast in the evening should be enough doom and gloom to fill me in on the latest "disasters". I do admire their attempt -- at least I've seen it on NBC and CBS, to give at least one "good news" segment at the end of their evening broadcasts. I'm considering not watching their news at all. I can go online anytime and with one click view headlines from all over the world... if I want to, that is. In the meantime, I've been delighted to find a couple of websites that have nothing but "good" or "happy" news. I've also shared them in my list to the right.
One heartwarming story on the Good News site was of an 11-year old girl who wanted to help the
wildlife affected by the Gulf oil spill. She contacted the Audubon Society with her proposal to seek donations for the wildlife, and offered to send each person who donates one of her own sketches or watercolors of birds. It's a beautiful example of what wonderful, compassionate children we are seeing in the world today. With the assistance of the Audubon Society, Olivia Bouler created a fund-raising program and has raised over $80,000 so far. You can read about her story and see her precious bird pictures on aolartists.com. AOL kicked off her campaign by donating $25,000 and setting up a web page for her.
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Another good story that captured my interest lately was about British Airways CEO, Bob Moore, who turned down a six figure bonus for the second year in a row. He didn't think a bonus was "appropriate" as the company has suffered such large losses, and so many of their airline employees have been on strike. You sure don't hear of any American CEOs turning down bonuses. Especially those on Wall Street. I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but it doesn't make headlines when it does!
I have a personal friend who is a small business owner. His son is in partnership with him. When business dropped off dramatically last year, he had to dismiss many of his employees. However, he had a few loyal employees who had been with him for years that he wanted to keep on his payroll. In order to do that, he and his son both went months without taking a paycheck for themselves.
I remember hearing of so many large corporations laying off hundreds of employees while their CEOs were still receiving salaries in the millions! Is it any wonder that so many of these big companies went under.. and are still going under? How many $50,000-a-year employees could still be employed and a business remain viable if their executives took even a million dollar a year pay cut.. much less turned down bonuses?
You know, the cause of so many of the problems we face in today's world seems to boil down to one thing -- "GREED"!
We would not be fighting over illegal immigrants if we forced huge fines on companies that hired them! If the job market for illegals dried up, wouldn't they stop coming? It's the companies who want to increase their profits by paying peon's wages that have created the Mexican illegal immigrant problem. So they would have to pay a decent living wage to a U.S. citizen to do the same work? It might cut down on their profits!
The horrendous accidents we hear of such as the Massey mining accident in West Virginia that killed 29 men, and the Gulf oil spill, where 11 men died and who knows how many millions of birds and wildlife will lose their lives before this is contained and cleaned up, boil down to companies ignoring or skimping on safety issues to save money. And these companies go right on getting away with safety violations. And it's not like they aren't making huge profits. According to the New York Times, BP's net profit last year was $17 billion! I wonder why Halliburton hasn't been held responsible for their part in this disaster? Don't you? I hope the U.S. is successful in getting BP to pay for all the cleanup expenses, plus fines for ignoring some safety issues.. and even criminal charges if criminal negligence is proved. Even if it means bankruptcy, it would be such a good lesson for companies that continue to risk our environment for profit. And hopefully, severe punishment would be a deterrent to such violations in the future.
I know I seem naive, and think solutions to a lot of our country's -- indeed, the world's problems are simplistic. But all the complicated reasoning/solutions in the world don't seem to be working!
The picture at left was sent to me a couple of days ago by my daughter Carajean from her iphone. They are on vacation in Alaska. She didn't send any information with this, but I emailed her that whatever the story, the bear looks TOO DARNED CLOSE! Her girls Ashlyn and Audrey both are on Facebook, and my sons told me that the girls are posting lots of beautiful photos there. Not enough reason for me to join Facebook again. I'll wait until they get home and send me more by email.
May lots of really good stuff be happening in your world. Tell me about it!
Peace and love,
Marilyn
I have a personal friend who is a small business owner. His son is in partnership with him. When business dropped off dramatically last year, he had to dismiss many of his employees. However, he had a few loyal employees who had been with him for years that he wanted to keep on his payroll. In order to do that, he and his son both went months without taking a paycheck for themselves.
I remember hearing of so many large corporations laying off hundreds of employees while their CEOs were still receiving salaries in the millions! Is it any wonder that so many of these big companies went under.. and are still going under? How many $50,000-a-year employees could still be employed and a business remain viable if their executives took even a million dollar a year pay cut.. much less turned down bonuses?
You know, the cause of so many of the problems we face in today's world seems to boil down to one thing -- "GREED"!
We would not be fighting over illegal immigrants if we forced huge fines on companies that hired them! If the job market for illegals dried up, wouldn't they stop coming? It's the companies who want to increase their profits by paying peon's wages that have created the Mexican illegal immigrant problem. So they would have to pay a decent living wage to a U.S. citizen to do the same work? It might cut down on their profits!
The horrendous accidents we hear of such as the Massey mining accident in West Virginia that killed 29 men, and the Gulf oil spill, where 11 men died and who knows how many millions of birds and wildlife will lose their lives before this is contained and cleaned up, boil down to companies ignoring or skimping on safety issues to save money. And these companies go right on getting away with safety violations. And it's not like they aren't making huge profits. According to the New York Times, BP's net profit last year was $17 billion! I wonder why Halliburton hasn't been held responsible for their part in this disaster? Don't you? I hope the U.S. is successful in getting BP to pay for all the cleanup expenses, plus fines for ignoring some safety issues.. and even criminal charges if criminal negligence is proved. Even if it means bankruptcy, it would be such a good lesson for companies that continue to risk our environment for profit. And hopefully, severe punishment would be a deterrent to such violations in the future.
I know I seem naive, and think solutions to a lot of our country's -- indeed, the world's problems are simplistic. But all the complicated reasoning/solutions in the world don't seem to be working!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The picture at left was sent to me a couple of days ago by my daughter Carajean from her iphone. They are on vacation in Alaska. She didn't send any information with this, but I emailed her that whatever the story, the bear looks TOO DARNED CLOSE! Her girls Ashlyn and Audrey both are on Facebook, and my sons told me that the girls are posting lots of beautiful photos there. Not enough reason for me to join Facebook again. I'll wait until they get home and send me more by email.May lots of really good stuff be happening in your world. Tell me about it!
Peace and love,
Marilyn
Good friend Mary Smith had this to say about the shipping containers:
ReplyDelete"The people in Guam and Saipan and possibly other island countries have been living in shipping containers for years.
Saw a program last nite on one of the the green stations where they took 3 of said containers on the docks of Liverpool, put them together, insulated them and then went to a couple who live on a small boat and found out how they use solar panels, a wood stove, etc. to light, heat, and cook their food. These guys are slightly goofy...but interesting.
It just amazes me that when one of these programs comes on...that they tend to act like this was their idea."
Another good friend, June Curry, sent the following:
ReplyDelete"I hope giving up some of the newscasts will give you some peace of mind concerning so many horrific issues that abound. It's hard to know so much hardship is happening and feeling so small in relation to solving the problems, but I know you do every single thing you can to make a difference. That's positively all any of us can do."