Americans Reaching Out

Posted on July 28, 2013 by Tom Bolton

Americans Reaching Out

Bread

Bread for the World created a wonderful series of reports in 2012 under the umbrella name Development Works.  I posted a link to the first paper last week.  The second paper, which is linked at the top of this post, is called Americans Reaching Out.  In it, the organization notes, “Concern for those who are less fortunate is a value that resonates with Americans. Many of us, aware of all we have, are very willing to help people in need. Using common sense, being practical, can be considered an American value as well. A quick “reality check” to be sure the assistance is needed and wanted is important to many people who are motivated to help.”

I recommend the entire paper to you, but here is a snapshot of the key points:

Americans agree that helping hungry people is a high priority for our country. Both today  and in the past, policies and resources that fight hunger earn the support of people across traditional lines—political, religious, economic, generational, and a range of others.

The United States can use its history of successful development programs and emergency relief efforts to help make lasting progress against hunger and malnutrition.

Building on past experiences is more important than ever as new factors, such as climate change and unpredictable changes in food prices, further complicate the efforts of poor people to feed their families and improve opportunities for their children.

U.S. international development efforts are now guided by both a new understanding of the importance of nutrition, particularly in early childhood, and a renewed appreciation of agricultural development as a vital ingredient in the “treatment” of global hunger.

I feel a bit guilty (certainly not very creative) in sharing these links and quotes from the Bread for the World Institute, but frankly they provide the best materials to educate us, in my opinion.  Bread for the World Institute provides policy analysis on hunger and strategies to end it. The Institute educates its network, opinion leaders, policy makers and the public about hunger in the United States and abroad.  Nobody does it better.

I urge you to read the full paper here:  Americans Reaching Out

I’ll also warn you that I plan to do these articles every Sunday for a while.

And sometimes, I will probably urge you to support Bread for the World.  Cash contributions are great, but letters and phone calls help too.

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Back from My Journey IN OZ

Posted on July 27, 2013 by Tom Bolton

The original 1908 cover to Dorothy and the Wiz...

The original 1908 cover to Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum. Designed by artist John R. Neill, reproduced for a modern facsimile edition. Now out of copyright. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I finished the fourth OZ book by L. Frank Baum this week. It was a fun trip with Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. In this story, Dorothy is joining Uncle Henry in California at Hugson’s Ranch, on their way home from Australia, Dorothy having visited friends in San Francisco. She strikes up an acquaintance with Hugson’s nephew and her second cousin, Zeb of Hugson’s Ranch. Dorothy, Eureka (who is Dorothy’s cat) and Zeb are riding a buggy being pulled by a cab-horse named Jim when an earthquake starts and opens a crevice beneath them that sends them hurtling into the bowels of the earth.  They have some fun, interesting adventures in Baum’s creative inner-world.

It was disconcerting to me that the Wizard was rehabilitated in this book, changing the history of the earlier books. But “the children wanted it!”  This book is a bit darker than the others though.

Here are a few quotes that I particularly liked:

“That is true,” answered the little Wizard; “therefore it will give me pleasure to explain my connection with your country. In the first place, I must tell you that I was born in Omaha, and my father, who was a politician, named me Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, Diggs being the last name because he could think of no more to go before it. Taken altogether, it was a dreadfully long name to weigh down a poor innocent child, and one of the hardest lessons I ever learned was to remember my own name. When I grew up I just called myself O. Z., because the other initials were P-I-N-H-E-A-D; and that spelled ‘pinhead,’ which was a reflection on my intelligence.”

“Surely no one could blame you for cutting your name short,” said Ozma, sympathetically. “But didn’t you cut it almost too short?”

“Perhaps so,” replied the Wizard. “When a young man I ran away from home and joined a circus. I used to call myself a Wizard, and do tricks of ventriloquism.”

Secondly, on meeting the Woggle Bug:

Ah,” said the Wizard; “I’m pleased to meet so distinguished a personage.”

“H. M.,” said the Woggle-Bug, pompously, “means Highly Magnified; and T. E. means Thoroughly Educated. I am, in reality, a very big bug, and doubtless the most intelligent being in all this broad domain.”

“How well you disguise it,” said the Wizard. “But I don’t doubt your word in the least.”

“Nobody doubts it, sir,” replied the Woggle-Bug, and drawing a book from its pocket the strange insect turned its back on the company and sat down in a corner to read.

Now, I move on to Baum’s fifth Oz book–on the bus!

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Nation-building South Sudan

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Tom Bolton

Nation-building South Sudan

South Sudan: Independence

South Sudan: Independence (Photo credit: babasteve)

I’m re-blogging this from Action Against Hunger, because it is interesting and we don’t read much about this in our local media:

Imagine waking up one day to find that you had no national identity. No flag, no national anthem. No public services or public works. No justice system, no infrastructure. It’d be a bad dream, right? Well, that nightmare was actually reality a year and a half ago for what is now the population of South Sudan, the world’s newest nation. From the ashes of conflict with its neighbor to the north, South Sudan began the arduous process of literally molding a brand new country. It’s the subject of a fascinating new video “Op-Doc” featured on NYTimes.com, called “How to Build a Country from Scratch.” Watch as the South Sudanese select a capital, determine how to collect taxes, and more.

It’s a fascinating case study for those of us in the humanitarian world. We at Action Against Hunger have been in South Sudan since its conception, focusing on curbing high childhood malnutrition rates and providing assistance in the wake of emergencies, like Fall 2012 flooding. In 2012 alone we treated more than 33,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition, helped nearly 60,000 South Sudanese increase their food security and develop livelihoods to support their families, and provided water, sanitation, and hygiene services to 150,000 people. The needs are great in this new nation, but we’re proud to work together with the people of South Sudan to help them build strong, sustainable futures at home.

Here is the link again:

http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/blog/south-sudan-nation-building-step-step

Here is a link to the video at the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/opinion/how-to-build-a-country-from-scratch.html?_r=1&

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TidBits to Follow Effective Development Post

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Tom Bolton

49930-Featured-LargeI thought I’d share a few important statistics that go with the reports I wrote about last Sunday:  Effective Development:

89%

the share of the world population who now have access to safe drinking water.

3 billion:

the number of people living on less than $2.50 a day!

40 billion:

the number of hours that women and girls in Africa spend fetching water each year.

Myth:

Development assistance is a big part of the U.S. budget and is fueling our record budget deficit.

Reality:

Development assistance is less than 1 percent of the U.S. budget, so cutting it would not help fix the deficit. It does, however, save millions of human lives every year.

Myth:

It’s a waste of time and money to give development assistance, because it never gets to the people who need it.

Reality:

In recent years, there has been much more emphasis on transparency and adherence to strict accounting standards. It has become increasingly difficult for anyone to make aid money “disappear,” lost to corruption.  There are many examples of children, families, and communities who have benefited from development programs. And, of course, there are the longer-term results just mentioned: the rate of global hunger has been cut in half.

Myth:

Not much progress can be made against a problem as big as hunger.

Reality:

In less than two generations, global hunger has been cut in half. Instead of one person out of every three suffering from hunger and malnutrition, it’s now one person out of every six—still far too many, but a big improvement.

Reality:

 The global situation is now one where there’s a heightened sense of momentum, more commitment and leadership, and better knowledge of “what works.” The United States is leading the way with new initiatives such as Feed the Future, which focuses on agriculture and nutrition.

Find out more about  Bread for the World Institute online at http://www.bread.org/institute.

percent:

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Voice from the Past

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Tom Bolton

laughter

laughter (Photo credit: withrow)

To Hear Her Voice Again

I was fourteen when first I heard her voice less regularly.
She was away more months at a time, and
Her voice then was brittle and softly sad.
Her voice frightened me too often, and
I could not respond, didn’t know how to answer.
Once, when she was home, I went into hiding,
afraid to hear her words of anguish.
As a boy and as a man, I struggled with ‘sad,’
I hurt with ‘hurt,’
At sixteen, we were in separate worlds–
But aren’t all mothers and teenagers?
But her world had locks that I barely understood,
and my world had the locks of teenage angst,
and like my pals, I picked the locks to my world.
I escaped more often than not.
In December at sixteen, there were moments free,
moments when I heard carols in her voice,
giggles in her ironic instances, in silly instances.
But deep-freeze days followed, as they always followed.
Darkness enveloped.
Still I carried the sweet voice in my head.
Most often I could muffle the still soft sad voice.
The next year she left me behind.
In the parlor, I hugged sweet friends, old and new, aunts and uncles, soldiers who loved my folks.
We could still laugh there. Friends even then made me laugh.
We laughed despite it all.
And I could then pull back her voice clearly.
I could hear her–most often from better days.
I could bring back old reprimands and instructions.
I often resurrected her songs.
I pulled in her joking moments.
Usually I let the fragile moments drift by.
I relished the moments when she softly spoke just to me.
When I married, I was twenty-six.
I thought of her that day too.
I wanted to share those days, to make her proud in some way.
In my head, I could still hear her voice.
She was distinct. I knew her as a Mom.
I knew her singing still.
I was comforted by her in my mind.
My ears still picked out her voice.
At thirty, I yearned to share baby stories, to get her encouragement for me, a Dad,
and I imagined my first boy on her lap, in her arms.
Still her voice was accessible.
I could share her songs, and hear her laugh.
The brittle voice was gone now.
She shared my stories across time.
At thirty-five, I held up a new baby for her to see and coo to.
Her voice, though soft, I heard.
She saw me in my youngest, and we both laughed.

Now, these days, I no longer find her voice.
I can find some words of hers,
But the melody of her voice, and
The lilt of happy times are gone.
I miss her now at fifty-plus.
I get mad at me that I cannot hear her.
Is it me?
Has my memory so failed me?
Is it my ears that are too old now?
Have I just filled my mind with too much stuff?
Someday, I yearn to hear her voice again.
Will it be in my twilight times?
Even later, will it come?
I yearn to hear her voice again.

(c) Tom Bolton, June 29, 2012, Milwaukee

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Abstract and Concrete

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Tom Bolton

Bay window in Christ Church Hall

As I was reading Mark 3:

In a Concrete World

Some days in this world, the law is such that the silence is deafening,
or comments are shouted so harshly that ears ache and minds are crushed.
The doing that puts us in the midst of real doing
May be costly doing.
So, do we yet save lives?
Do we get gritty?
Scratching with hens out back, do we fill our nails with hard grit?
May we freely endure embarrassment?
How dirty are my hands each day?
We learned this in school, no?
Were these messages inside our textbook covers?
Some days, the messages of school days are lost.
Some days, the messages seem different, long lost.
But in the midst of this concrete world,
Christ is with us.
The doing that puts us in the midst of real doing
is blessed doing.
Beside us, the Master is doing.
In the abstract of life,
we do and are doing.
In the gray of life,
the doing shows in some black and white.
In the abstract of life,
Christ is with us.

My hands are dirty;
I am in the midst of doing today.
I listen.
In the grit, I listen.

(c) Tom Bolton, 17 July, 2013, Milwaukee

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Effective Development Assistance Works

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Tom Bolton

US Navy 080822-M-3376J-002 Georgian soldiers, ...

Effective Development Assistance Works

Bread For the World Institute published an excellent series of papers, called Development Works, in 2012.  The first paper, in March 2012, focused on some questions we often hear:

How can it help hungry people overseas?

But what exactly is development assistance?

And why should we support funding for it when many Americans are facing hard times?

I recommend reading the paper:

http://www.bread.org/institute/development-works/dw-1.pdf

The summary is:

 
• Development assistance enables
people in poor countries to build a
better life for themselves and their
children.

.In developing countries, investing
small amounts in training,
tools, or start-up costs can
yield significant improvements
because people make good use
of the resources available to
them. Development assistance
helps communities and nations
strengthen their economies and
create better living conditions—
for example, by enabling people to
buy seeds and fertilizers, establish
small businesses, or meet public
needs such as clean water.

• Countries develop successful
strategies against hunger by
using their own resources and
development assistance to
strengthen the essentials, such
as more productive farms and
access to nutritious food and
basic health care, particularly
for vulnerable groups such as
pregnant women and young
children.

• Effective development assistance
saves millions of lives every
year—and this is done through
programs that the United States
can afford. It is both the right
thing and the smart thing to do.

I learn regularly when I visit Bread For the World.

http://www.bread.org/institute/development-works/

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