The Davos Question

"What one thing do you think countries, corporations or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?"

That's the question being posed by the World Economic Forum this year to all the people of earth... or at least those with video cameras and broadband. Selected answers posted on YouTube will be played at the forum in Davos, Switzerland beginning tomorrow, as world leaders meet to discuss some of the greatest challenges facing our planet.

See the responses here. Click on the View/Vote tab.

What's your answer?

My quick sampling of responses implied an unexpected, if intangible, plurality. What's the YouTube community's advice on making a better world? Take personal responsibility. Everyone.

Acholi Beads: How you can help

Here are a couple ways to get involved in Acholi Beads:

[If you want to learn more about Acholi Beads first, see the post below]

ONE, Host an Acholi Bead Bash. Invite your friends and family over, and I'll come and share the story of the Acholi people and stories of people that I met during my 2 years in Uganda. I'll tell the story of our bead makers and give people the chance to buy Acholi Beads. And I'll explain the vision of the Socially Proactive Business and tell people how they can be part of the movement. Oh, and you'll get some free jewelry out of the deal, too.

TWO, Resell Acholi Beads. Start your own Socially Proactive Business by becoming an independent Acholi Beads reseller. Our network of resellers is growing quickly because not only can you make money from Acholi Beads, but you know they are making money.

THREE, Talk It Up. We need your voice! Acholi Beads spread like wildfire when people tell their friends and families about them. Link to us from your blog or website, wear the beads to school and work, always be ready to tell the story of the bead makers.

FOUR, Be A Finder. If you find a good store to put Acholi Beads in, refer it our way. If it's a good match, we'll give you a nice finder's fee.

Let me know how you can be involved! Drop me an email: james [at] acholibeads [dot] com

An Acholi Beads Story

Let me tell you a story with a happy ending:

Kilama George is an intimidating looking Acholi man. He’s muscular, with big, angular features, and his left eye is milky and blind. He fled his home in Pader district, northern Uganda to escape the LRA’s war with the Ugandan government, and when I met him he was working with an organization in Uganda’s capital, making handicrafts, but he was having trouble supporting his family.

Despite appearances, George is terrifically friendly, kind, and gracious. Not long after we met he invited me to his home to meet his family, and I accepted. He met me at the bottom of the hill, and together we walked up the rugged dirt path that leads to the Acholi Quarters slum.

There I met his wife (his second wife; his first wife died) and his three children, I learned about the exodus thousands of Acholis had made from northern Uganda only to end up in this neglected shantytown, and I saw the rock quarry that drew them there, where men and women pound away at the receding stone for about $1 per day.

At one point I was able to offer George a job with Invisible Children. He declined, preferring to continue with his current position because he had invested so much time in it. Only a few weeks later George came to me and said, “I’ve made a huge mistake.” He told me that the organization he was with was failing and asked me for that job, but I had already filled the position and had to turn him down. That day I told him that I would look for opportunities for him.

It took almost a year, but I found one, or rather, George found one for me.

This past summer he introduced me to women in the Acholi Quarters slum – refugees like himself from the war in the north – who make beautiful beaded jewelry by hand from recycled paper. At first I didn’t believe that it came from paper. But George and the beaders showed me the whole process. They also told me about their hopes to use the beads as a tool to pull themselves out of poverty, but that the market in Uganda was very limited.

I had found my way to give George a chance to provide for his family, and not only that, but I could use everything I had learned during my two years with Invisible Children and keep investing in the recovery and prosperity of the Acholi people.

My family and I have started importing and selling these beads. We are currently employing twelve women in Acholi Quarters, who now earn a good fulltime income making beads. We are working to expand the market for the beads here in the States so that we’ll be able to employ more of the hundreds of impoverished women living in Acholi Quarters. As the business grows, we’re defining a new kind of company – we call it a Socially Proactive Business.

Oh, and George: he’s now the fulltime, onsite manager. We call him Foreman George. He just called yesterday to tell me the latest order was ready. He and his family and all the women we’re working with are so excited. When I left Uganda they threw me a huge going away party - not because I deserved it; they just needed an excuse to celebrate.

Deep Economy: An historical experiment

[Thoughts from, about, and inspired by the book Deep Economy, by Bill McKibben.]

Reading this book has opened up a new perspective for me about our post-industrial, electric, consumerist society: that is, no one has ever tried this before.

No civilization has grown or innovated or consumed at anywhere near the rate that we currently are. There's a stat that I can't find just now that claims that in the last 50 or so years, we've used as many natural resources as in all recorded history before that. And we're consuming faster every day. Our society and our lifestyles are grand experiments upon the earth - but what is the experiment telling us?

I don't claim to have the inside scoop on resource depletion or global warming, but it's obvious to me that since no one has done this before, we better be on the lookout for results. If the icecaps are melting and there's good evidence that we're causing that, we had better watch closely. Or if we are clearing forests without understanding how their vital roles will be replaced, we need to rethink some things.

The short of it is, this great experiment might be a success, or it might be a failure. It may turn out that this type of society is not a sustainable endeavor. The truth is, no one knows for sure just yet - it's too soon in the experiment. But with stakes as high as they are, shouldn't we be proceeding more intentionally?

Ubuntu, but not the Linux

I've been thinking a lot about how faith inspires action lately, how faith and action seem synonymous when that faith is in Jesus and his commands. Jared N. Miller lays it out wonderfully here. And peruse the rest of his blog while you're at it. It's worth it.

Deep Economy: Growth and Decline in America

[Thoughts from, about, and inspired by the book Deep Economy, by Bill McKibben. Stats cited are from that book.]

Since 1951, GDP per capita in America has tripled. That is, for every person in America, there is three times as much economic activity as there was 50 or so years ago. We own twice as many cars, on average, and new homes today are double the size they were in 1970. So why are we getting less happy?

Once a year for quite a while now the National Opinion Research Council has asked Americans whether, on the whole, the are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy. Since the early 1950s the percentage of people who counted themselves "very happy" has steadily dropped.

This is one of three findings that McKibben cites as proof that economic growth is not as beneficial as we've come to believe. The other two: one, although the economy has ballooned since WWII, many people's real income and wealth has dropped, and financial disparity has risen sharply, which is to say, the gap between the rich and the rest of grown; and two, earth's natural resources cannot sustain unlimited growth. In fact, if China's growth stays on the current pace, by 2031 (only 23 years from now) China alone will consume 99 million barrels of oil per day. To put that in perspective, that's 20 million more barrels per day than the entire world uses now. That's just one example.

I believe that one of the major theses of this book will be that happiness and satisfaction require only a minimum of financial resources, but are inextricably linked to community. And that by pursuing this "Economy of Community," as I've put it, many other problems can be abated. It's an exciting book - I highly recommend picking it up soon, and discussing it with me!

Read with me

I've been excited about reading Bill McKibben's "Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future" ever since I stumbled upon the title, and the glowing review, at Cerulean Sanctum last year.

Finally, being back in America and thanks to my parents' Christmas spirit, I have the book in my hands. I've barely cracked it, and already it's sending my head for a spin. The ideas are so intuitive that, if the premises are right, this book needs to be read by everyone, now.

If you're so inclined, pick it up at your local Borders or B&N, or follow the link above to Amazon, and read it with me. I'll be posting thoughts and ideas responding to and inspired by the book as I read.

The Economy of Community

When I talk about income redistribution, I'm not talking about national level, wellfaresque policies, I'm talking about what I call The Economy of Community. I'm talking about people who take each others' material needs seriously and work to meet them.

Check out Relational Tithe - each person in this group has committed to giving 10% of their income to meet the needs of others. This is what I'm talking about.

Or partners in The Simple Way's Potter Street Community - these closely knit people share deeply in terms of finances, even taking on each others' financial debts.

There are hundreds of other examples of this Economy of Community. And this is what I want to explore.

Blessed are the poor

One of my great fascinations lately is income redistribution - that is, using money that I earn (or you earn) to meet someone else's needs.

Not long ago some friends and I did an experiment. We committed to give a small percentage of our income into a communal account. Then, as we went about our lives, if we met anyone in need we could use the money from that account to meet the need. It was spectacular. Not that we had a lot of money to use, because we didn't, but because my whole mindset changed in regards to other people's material needs.

My usual reaction to someone else's needs used to be sympathy at best, and avoidance at worst. Only in the rarest of circumstances did I consider actually digging into my wallet for them. But once I had money waiting and ready to address people's needs, I was glad to hear them, I was ready to act.

We stopped our experiment due to logistical difficulties (Uganda's banking facilities aren't wired too well with America's), but what I learned has stayed with me. I continue to set aside money to meet needs that I encounter around me. And more than that, I've seen that our attitudes about money are one of the great hindrances to right living.

If you read the teachings of Jesus, he talks about money or financial circumstances an awful lot for a spiritual teacher: "Blessed are you who are poor... Woe to you who are rich... Sell everything you have and give to the poor." I don't think he'd spend so much time on money if money wasn't important.

But most Americans don't treat money the way that Jesus teaches - even those who claim to be his disciples. Instead we use our money however we like, and if we're so inclined we creatively interpret and apply (or not apply) his teachings to allow us such freedom.

So here's my quest. I'm seeking out people who are treating money differently. I want to find those who are using their money to meet the needs of others, who are sharing money, sharing bills, giving money in creative ways. I want to see what happens when people let go of the American norms about money and embrace the teachings of wiser men.

If you have anyone to introduce me to, or ideas to share, or if these ideas intrigue you like they do me, please contact me: james(dot)a(dot)pearson{@}gmaildotcom.

Photos

See more photos from my recent trip to Ethiopia here.

Storytime in America

I was in Gulu when I met Sean Carasso. I'd heard his name buzz around the Invisible Children circle, typically coupled with words like "amazing" or "inspiring." They were right.

One night we were all discussing our various days in northern Uganda when Sean broke in. Looking at the IC staffers around him, he said something like, "Any one of your days would be like the best day of the year for anyone in America." Though I appreciated the thought I didn't take it very literally. For one, Sean's a prolifically enthusiastic and encouraging person, and tends towards the superlative in his descriptions of life. But more than that, many of my days felt like jumping five hundred hurdles or diving into a river of molasses and swimming to the other side. They didn't always feel like the day of the year.

But now that I'm back in America I realize that he was more right than I thought. And I know that because of the stories that people tell here - stories of minute restaurant mishaps or forgettable mispeakings from months before. We all know that the center of any story is its conflict. The conflicts in most American stories are minimal - these stories are a million in a million; everyone's got one. The reason Sean considered our Gulu days so amazing, I think, is that they represented overcoming bigger conflicts - language and culture barriers, transportation hardships, a 21-year war, sickness, death.

My friend John and his wonderful fiance Bernadine (henceforward Bernie) told me a great story a couple nights ago. It was about their trip to Europe this summer, when they lost their bags and were late for most every flight and it rained every day and their hotel rooms were given away and the wheels fell off their last piece of luggage. Although it was about a vacation, ultimately it was a story about conflict, about challenges and hardship and overcoming, and so it struck a deeper chord in me, and obviously in them (they have a whole notebook full of reminders of their mishaps) than any number of stories about people getting steak when they had specifically told the waitress they were vegetarians (or whathaveyou). In fact, they say only half-jokingly that this story proves that they will have a good marriage.

It makes me think that people are wired for overcoming hardship. That's what walking upright with big brains and thumbs is all about. We hate to run into problems, but we never feel better than when we overcome them, and those are the stories that we'll tell for years to come. I think that we as Americans have become too afraid of things like uncertainty, challenge, insecurity, conflict. I know I have been that way, and ever since returning to the States I can sense it all around me. And our stories are suffering for it.

Back in the brilliant tumult

Back in America, back for Christmas and New Year's and families and get-togethers and small talk and resolutions and overeating and finding the funny in suburbia because suburbia is all we have. I'm in Phoenix for a short spell with good friends Aaron and Christen, and their son Xavier.

For those who might wonder, here's what I'm doing now:

Acholi Beads: My family and I are defining a new type of business - the compassion of the NGO merged with the strength and longevity of a business. It's the beginning of something big.
Invisible Children: Though my time in Uganda is finished for now, I may keep working for them on a new project stateside. Or I'll find other creative ways to support the incredible work they're doing.
re:tithe: I'm formulating some thoughts and many questions about the economy of community and compassion. This is going to be a serious pursuit ASAP.

For those who might wonder, here's what I'm thinking now:

So much must change, and so much is changing. Faith and action are synonymous unless you are a fatalist. Jesus' teachings and commands are much more applicable to tomorrow morning than most people will acknowledge. Unless someone takes the first step, we won't have anyone to follow. Life is about stepping into the void between the familiar and the impossible. Those who live with a reckless disregard for what is possible are the only ones who do great things. Impetuousness is the seed of greatness.

The theme of 2008 thus far is Action. It's been in the air and on the web and in my head and in the expectant, impatient rhythm of time.

So far I've been resting, recovering, readjusting, and I've been slow in getting in gear and in contact with many of you, but look for that to change soon. Happy New Year!

Quote for Now

"Every noble work is at first impossible."
- Thomas Carlyle

Speaking of rural universities...

Just saw a site that a friend of mine is running. In fact, he's running more than that. Brian McElroy helped to establish the first rural university in Haiti, which is one of the world's poorest countries. Now he's running a marathon to raise funds for it, even though after his first marathon 4 years ago he swore he'd never run another. That's commitment. I can vouch for Brian's character, if you'd like to donate. Check it out:

http://www.100dollarmarathon.com/

Himalayan Techie

When went to Nepal in 2003 and 2005, I was lucky enough to meet and work with Mahabir Pun, who has spent years making cutting edge IT equipment work for his poor countrymen in the rural Himalayas. I ran into him again in Los Angeles last night. He was in the States speaking after getting a rather prestigious award. See the write up here.

Mahabir continues to be a major inspiration to me. His latest plans? Build a college in his remote mountain village by 2015, and wire all of Nepal. He'll do it; trust me. If you want to help him make it happen, let me know. Nepal is worth it.