Foreclosures, Homeless Pets and One Remarkable Little Girl
July 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
There are so many innocent victims of the US housing crisis. Celia’s story about a woman committing suicide (below) is one tragic example.
As a Realtor I not only read about it in the news everyday but I experience it first hand: the text in the listings: “Pre-foreclosure, bring all offers”, the anxious sellers waiting for me to show up with my potential buyers, the empty homes in complete disarray as if someone just walked out one day not wanting to turn around and see what they were leaving behind. These are truly hard times in our country.
Once-in-a-while, during such tragedy emerges some brilliant examples of the best of humanity. But, one rarely thinks of a 10-year-old girl as one capable of making such a difference to so many innocent victims…the pets of foreclosure. There are a growing number of pets of all kinds becoming homeless due to the loss of a home to foreclosure. I Googled “Homeless Animals Due to Foreclosure” and came up with pages upon pages of links and articles about the number of homeless animals as a direct result of foreclosures and the efforts throughout our country to take care of these treasured pets and family members necessarily left behind.
But one particular story touched me. A ten-year-old girl from Oregon named Mimi came up with the idea all by herself of creating a website: FreeKibble.com where people can play a game she created called the Bow Wow Trivia Game. Each question answered results in the donation of 20 pieces of kibble. The more people play Bow Wow, the more kibble will be donated. On May 14th, 2008 Mimi delivered her first round of free kibble, 240lbs, to the Humane Society of Central Oregon. Her next delivery was for 500lbs, enough to feed 1,000 dogs for one day! Sponsors such as Zootoo.com pay for the kibble. Mimi has even added a second game for cats: Free KibbleKats.com.
Several months ago I wrote two articles: Raising Children to Make a Difference in the World and Children can help too. There is something about the selflessness of a young child that blows me away. If Mimi can make such a difference, imagine what we can do if we set our mind to it!
They Come in the Name of Helping
March 4, 2008 | 1 Comment
A college student named Peter Brock has produced a documentary about foreign aid and humanitarian assistance, from a new perspective: from the viewpoint of those who are intended to benefit from such intervention.
They Come in the Name of Helping looks at international philanthropy and development projects from the perspectives of young adults living in Africa.
Peter Brock is a 22 year-old native of Berkeley, CA, currently studying Political Economy at Skidmore College. In an interview on Social Actions blog, Brock says that one of his motivations for making the film was own internal reaction to volunteer experiences abroad and how he sees many fellow westerners approach the issues of development and poverty. “Perhaps the greatest motivating factor was the prevalence of dehumanizing and patronizing depictions of the poor used as fundraising tools by Western NGO’s and Media outlets,” said Brock. “We all have seen the picture of a starving African child barefoot in the street followed by an invitation to donate money to the organization that will ’save’ them. I was essentially disgusted with the rampant dehumanization of the poor and self-glorifying that characterized many of those groups and individuals who claimed to be ‘ending poverty’.”
As the film’s website states, most of the West’s knowledge about the people of the developing world come from heart-wrenching but superficial newspaper articles and TV news stories about genocide, famine and child soldiering; or from reports by the United Nations or other international agencies. As with the mainstream media, it is outsiders who almost always author these reports, and they are often written to please the donors who sponsored the project in question. Brock wanted to see what development efforts look like from the perspective of those they are intended to benefit. He wanted to know if we could gain insights into improving and reforming our development efforts by simply listening to those people whose lives we have sought to change.
To view the film, go to http://www.baibureh.org.
Map of Central America
March 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Here is a basic map of Central America from Google Maps. If you would like,
CLICK HERE , and you will be able to take a look at a more detailed map.
Enjoy,
Map of South America
March 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Here is a basic map of South America from Google Maps. If you would like,
CLICK HERE , and you will be able to take a look at a more detailed map.
Enjoy,
Map of Africa
March 21, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Here is a general map of the continent of Africa. CLICK HERE and you will be taken to Google Maps where you can get a detailed look at each countries location.
View Larger Map
Enjoy,
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