People not profit

peace

Wed, 09 May 2007 11:16:18 -0700

design by kyle muller. available at http://peoplenotprofit.org/

free.

Wed, 09 May 2007 11:13:19 -0700

doorway

Wed, 09 May 2007 11:10:44 -0700

ugandan kids

Wed, 09 May 2007 11:07:42 -0700

taken in the village of piswa, uganda - summer 2005

AIDS education

Wed, 09 May 2007 11:05:41 -0700

signs like this were all over the trees in this schoolyard in Kumi, Uganda

spring t's available from people clothing

Wed, 09 May 2007 11:02:05 -0700

a look at some of the spring t-shirts for sale to fund the work of People not profit.

zapatos del mundo

Wed, 09 May 2007 10:57:44 -0700

a people clothing original design. a look at our shared humanity through a global shoes. available at http://peoplenotprofit.org/pc.htm

logoround

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:13:19 -0700

Why money is not always the solution it seems to be

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:00:24 -0700

Preface: I'm not an economist and I'm not pretending to be. These are just some things I've been thinking about lately. It seems that whenever I have a conversation with people (not to mention most of what we hear and read) about poverty, the solutions are often simply put: get people more money. The suggested means to that end are quite diverse (government programs, markets, charity, microloans, etc.), but most of the times it seems that money is seen as a solution to the problem of poverty. I agree that money is part of the solution, but less a part than it might seem. In fact, many times money causes new problems as it solves old ones. Here's the post in its entirety.

My House is Small

Mon, 28 May 2007 19:27:04 -0700

Our great friend, Meredith Imken, taught in Tanzania last fall. This is a poem written by a student in her English class. I think it says something beautiful about home. My House is Small It's only enough for me. It has a grass roof. I'm the only one who likes it. It has a window for only insects to pass. I always sleep on mats. But I enjoy this house because it's mine. Maura Respichy

What is acceptable? What is possible?

Mon, 28 May 2007 19:24:51 -0700

Here's an adaptation of Jim Wallis' commencement address to Georgetown University found on Beliefnet. Though this is addressed to graduates of a prestigious university, I think we should all consider his challenge. "Each new generation has a chance to alter two very basic definitions of reality in our world - what is acceptable and what is possible. First, what is acceptable? There are always great inhumanities that we inflict upon one another in this world, great injustices that cry out to God for redress, and great gaps in our moral recognition of them. When the really big offenses are finally corrected, finally changed, it is always and only because something has happened to change our perception of the moral issues at stake. The moral contradiction we have long lived with is no longer acceptable to us. What we accepted, or ignored, or denied, finally gets our attention and we decide that we just cannot, and will not, live with it any longer. But until that happens, the injustice and misery continue. It often takes a new generation to make that decision - that something that people have long tolerated just won't be tolerated any more. So the question to you as graduates, as ambassadors for a new generation, is this: what are you going to no longer accept in our world, what will you refuse to tolerate now that you will be making the decisions that matter? Will it be acceptable to you that 3 billion people in our world today - half of God's children - live on less that $2 per day, that more than 1 billion live on less than $1 per day, that the gap between the life expectancy in the rich places and the poor places in the world is now 40 years, and that 30,000 children globally will die today - on the day of your graduation - from needless, senseless, and utterly preventable poverty and disease? It's what Bono calls "stupid poverty." Many people don't really know that, or sort of do but have never really focused on the reality or given it a second thought. And that's the way it usually is. We don't know, or we have the easy explanations about why poverty or some other calamity exists and why it can't really be changed - all of which makes us feel better about ourselves - or we are just more concerned with lots of other things. We really don't have to care. So we tolerate it and keep looking the other way. But then something changes. Something gets our attention, something goes deeper than it has before and hooks us in the places we call the heart, the soul, the spirit. And once we've crossed over into really seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting the injustice we can never really look back again. It is now unacceptable to us. What we see now offends us, offends our understanding of the sanctity and dignity of life, offends our notions of fairness and justice, offends our most basic values; violates our idea of the common good, and starts to tug at our deepest places. We cross the line of unacceptability. We become intolerant of the injustice. But just changing our notion of what is unacceptable isn't enough, however. We must also change our perception of what is possible. In that regard, I would encourage each of you to think about your vocation more than just your career. And there is a difference. From the outside, those two tracks may look very much alike, but asking the vocational question rather than just considering the career options will take you much deeper. The key is to ask why you might take one path instead of another - the real reasons you would do something, more than just because you can. The key is to ask who you really are and what you want to become. It is to ask what you believe you are supposed to do. You do have great potential, but that potential will be most fulfilled if you follow the leanings of conscience and the language of the heart more than just the dictates of the market, whether economic or political. They want smart people like you to just manage the systems of the world. But rather than managing or merely fitting into systems, ask how you can change them. You're both smart enough and talented enough to do that. That's your greatest potential. Ask where your gifts intersect with the groaning needs of the world - there is your vocation. The antidote to cynicism is not optimism but action. And action is finally born out of hope. Try to remember that. At college, you often believe you can think your way into a new way of living, but that's actually not the way it works. Out in the world, it's more likely that you will live your way into a new way of thinking. The key is to believe that the world can be changed, because it is only that belief that ever changes the world. And if not us, who will believe? If not you, who?"

what do you do?

Fri, 11 May 2007 14:52:46 -0700

hey ya´ll this is interesting stuff i learned today while working in a 28-bed hospital in a little town in the Amazon called Shell. shell and puyo (the town i´m living in) are the last towns on the way to all the tribes that still live in the jungle. its seems that there is a lot of oil under all that rainforest and as you can imagine it is highly prized. officially, the government of Ecuador owns all rights to it but the local tribes have been quite effective in asserting their ownership of the land. Oil companies from all over the world come in and decide they want to drill. They talk to the government and begin destroying the environment where these tribes live. So the tribes burn their offices ( last year they burned an oil co. office in Puyo) or take hostage their planes ( by surrounding them with logs so they can´t take off). The oil companies realize their job would be easier with support from the community so they provide access to healthcare, education and community development. what that means is that they build schools and hire recent teaching graduates from the Ecuadorian universities and suddenly the kids in the tribes get an education. Community developers teach about nutrition, growing gardens, eating vegetables, clean water etc. How i came in contact with all this is because for the past 3 days there has been a baby in the ICU of the hospital in Shell with hyaline membrane disease. The little hospital is not equipped to treat him so if the baby remains in the hospital without further treatment he will surely die. He had been brought in from one of the communities in the jungle by an oil company helicopter and now needed a flight to Quito. The oil company has been paying the hospital bill so far but refused to pay for the flight to Quito. When the village heard this, there was an uproar and today the baby got a flight. Apparently, villagers are regularly brought to the hospital via oil company helicopter. this exchange - development for destruction- has become the standard relationship between oil companies and tribes. However, last year Chevron took the oil and ran after making huge promises to the community and basically dessimating the land. So now, the tribe is trying to file a lawsuit against chevron. The US refused to take the case in US courts but said that whatever the Ecuadorian courts decide will be upheld. Thats all fine but the Ecuadorian government and judical system is completely corrupt ( a man who has got second place in the last 4 presidencial elections has more money that the entire country combined and has made public statements saying he hasn´t paid taxes in the past 15 years. he´s in the fruit business among other things and this adds up to millions of dollars but he is never charged or brought to court because he just buys off the judges.) anyway, basically chevron can now just buy its way out of the lawsuit and leave the community in ruins. on the other hand, in general the tribes are willing to have the land destroyed in exchange of healthcare/education/developement so thats really all. no conclusions. just interesting. the doctors told me that once a kid was flown in with a nose bleed - helicopter flights cost like $500/hr or something crazy like that. weird. i hope ya´ll are all well. cariñosos k

Good news

Wed, 09 May 2007 15:06:52 -0700

"Defense of human rights, equality, and freedom is not only a matter of policy. It is a matter of policy, but a policy rooted in the gospel. The gospel is the great defender and proclaimer of all the fundamental rights of the person. The gospel roots of equality will not disappear even when political expediencies disappear. Let us suppose that tomorrow it is no longer expedient for the United States to defend human rights in El Salvador. Humanity speaking, the policy may fail. But the gospel will not fail. It will always cry out for human freedom and human dignity, even in the worst conditions of persecution." -Oscar Romero, January 8, 1978 First of all, what I love about Romero is how he embodied what he preached. He was the one "crying out for freedom and human dignity, even in the worst conditions of persecution." He did not hole up in an office in front of a computer; he was with the poor, with the oppressed, and in so doing, became poor and oppressed until he was eventually brutally murdered by right-wing pawns, like so many of his Salvadoran brothers and sisters. I also love what this says about choosing to be anchored in the substance of the gospel, rather than tenuous military alliances or fleeting party platforms and fickle campaigns that come and go every few years. Policy can do as much harm as good, and rarely secures what it sets out to in the way intended. But regardless of which policy is in place or what policymakers are saying, there is the hope of a declaration that is not bound by votes, money or power - "God is with me and has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of God's kindness." These seminal words of Jesus have been echoed through the Romeros, the Dorothy Days and the MLKs of history. Each knew that real change would come when people stood together, marched together, suffered together, and clung to the good news that a better world is possible...and that a better world is coming.

Oscar Romero on peace

Wed, 09 May 2007 14:28:29 -0700

"Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty. In it each one has a place in this beautiful family, which Epiphany brightens for us with God's light." - Oscar Romero, January 8, 1978 Monsenor Romero preached these brave, beautiful words in the face of institutionalized violence - violence that cost the lives of thousands of the poor Salvadorans that he stood in solidarity with. It was the violence of the US-backed Salvadoran government fighting with guns and bombs to keep the status-quo (ie. gross inequality between rich and poor) while the oppressed poor raised their voices together for justice, land, opportunity, peace. The time and place here is unique, but the message needs to ring out in Baghdad, in Austin, in Philly, in Rwanda, in Darfur, in London, in Lebanon and every other place where violence is used to resolve conflict. Generosity, dynamism, each and all contributing to the good of each and all - recognizing and living out our identity as members together of one beautiful family created by God. Such is peace.