Motley Moose – Archive

Cross posted from the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

Care International’s work in Zambia has two main goals: increase the production of staple crops and improve farmers’ access to agricultural inputs, such as seeds and fertilizers. But instead of giving away bags of seed and fertilizers to farmers, Care is “creating input access through a business approach,” not a subsidy approach, according to Steve Power, Assistant Country Director for Zambia.

One way they’re doing this is by creating a network of agro-dealers who can sell inputs to their neighbors as well as educate them about how to use hybrid seeds, fertilizers, and other inputs. At the same time, “we are mindful” of the benefits of local varieties of seeds, says Harry Ngoma, Agriculture Advisor for the Consortium for Food Security, Agriculture and Nutrition, AIDS, Resiliency and Markets (C-FAARM). Care and C-FAARM are working with farmers to combine high- and low-technology practices.

Care thinks that this “business approach” will help farmers get the right inputs at the right time, unlike subsidy approaches that give farmers fertilizer for free, but often at the wrong time of year, making the nutrients unavailable to crops. And Care’s focus on training agro-dealers and giving them start-up grants allows the organization to remain invisible to farmers. Power says that Care wants to be a “catalyst to the market” and help transfer resources, without distorting the basic pricing structure.

Another component of Care’s work is improving the production of sorghum and cassava. “Zambia is as addicted to maize as we are to Starbucks coffee,” says Power. But by encouraging the growth of other crops, including sorghum, which is indigenous to Africa, Care can help farms diversify local diets as well as build resilience to price fluctuations and drought.

Care is promoting conservation farming in Zambia as well. The organization has been working in six districts since 2007, reaching 24,000 households. In addition to promoting minimum tillage practices and the use of manure and compost, Care is helping to train government extension officers about conservation farming so that eventually they’ll be responsible-instead of Care-for training farmers.

According to Power, the key to Care’s work is promoting business-like approaches to agriculture alongside more traditional ones, so farmers don’t become dependent on the organization for gifts of fertilizer or seed. These sorts of programs, according to Care, will be more effective at feeding people and increasing incomes than traditional food-aid projects that rely on long-term donor support. This is a big challenge in a country-and a region-facing the impacts of both climate change and the global economic crisis.

Stay tuned for more blogs about how farmers are linking to the private sector.

To learn more about Care’s work in Zambia, visit www.care.org/zambia.

Below the fold is a collection of fan photos, associated captions, and selected comments from a Facebook group entitled O.B.A.M.A. (One Big Ass Mistake, America).

I’ll not be providing any commentary, as this garbage speaks for itself.  This isn’t pretty, so brace yourselves.

I listened to a Congressman from Alabama give the Republican’s weekly statement (after the President’s weekly statement) on NBC this morning and was told that despite what Pelosi and Reid want, despite the threat of using reconciliation to push the Health Care bill through, the American People don’t want the Health Care bill as it has been debated and argued over the past year. He said the American People want Congress and The President to “start over on a new page.”

Here in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, about as American a location as you can find, I sit watching this knowing that I WANT a Health Care bill to be passed NOW. I know that if the government starts on a NEW PAGE it will be in the face of a rate-raising, highly profitable private insurance system and  a 10-to-1 ratio of lobbyists who are NOT starting on a new page, who will work day and night to weaken any progress.

Eitan Abramovich /AFP

The rains have come early.  People are already dying in the floods.

The photo above is from a Christian Science Monitor story

As world watches Chile earthquake, deadly floods hit quake-rocked Haiti

A man walks on a flooded path Sunday as he enters a house just outside the coastal city of Les Cayes, Haiti. As the world watched the aftermath of the Chilean earthquake, flooding triggered by heavy rain killed at least 11 people in Les Cayes, Haiti’s third-most-populous city.

On the eighth anniversary of 9/11, a professor of mine made a comment that caused a lot of soul-searching for me. He remarked, quite casually, that the United States is in decline.

Those words angered me. Nobody likes to hear their country characterized in that manner. But ever since then I’ve been considering that casual statement.

I think it accurately describes the state of our nation.

We are a nation in decline.

We are in decline for a variety of reasons, some more controllable and some less so. Economic weakness has something to do with it, as does the popularity of anti-Americanism (thank you, George Bush). Misadventures in the Middle East and the rise of China also play a participating role.

But enough about why we are in decline. What can be done to stop it?

Some proposals below.

While I have, I will admit, explored options in dumping my party affiliation, in light of the GOP’s shenanigans as of late–looking at the Modern Whig Party as a possible alternative–and questioned the political process as a whole in the face of our Congresscritters patently going off the rails in droves, on both sides of the aisle, I can’t say that I’ve thought about going so far as these folks.

Crossposted to The Suicidal Cactus Hour

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

As we talked to locals in Gaborone, Botswana Capital City, people were so proud to talk about the things they love about their country.

“We are free here, our country is so peaceful, you don’t have to be afraid,” said one.

“You can criticize the government, you have free speech, free elections,” said another.

Botswana is indeed an incredible country.

Home to not only the most beautiful wildlife we’ve seen yet, including elephants, giraffes, impala, kudu, and warthogs, but also to the friendliest people. It was one of the most vibrant political democracies we’ve seen so far, a nation proud of its peace and stability.

More than diamonds, people in Botswana consider water their most precious resource. This landlocked country’s national flag is blue to symbolize water and it even named it currency pula or “rain.” Nearly everywhere you go in the country — including public toilets, sinks and showers–you see signs asking you to curb your consumption of water. These signs are tied to a massive national education and advertising campaign geared at creating constant reminders about our obligation as individuals to conserve water.

Efforts to converse water have led Botswana to become leaders in environmental conversation in the continent.

In fact we can learn a lot from Botswana on the importance of conservation and techniques to reduce our consumption of energy and resources.

Here are two simple techniques they are using:

1. All electrical outlets — from the cities to the countryside — come with an on/off switch (pictured). While this switch might sound simple, how many times have you seen these in the United States (instead of just having to unplug everything)? Most importantly — people really use them — when they are done watching TV or using an electric kettle, they turn the switch off. Televisions, alarm clocks, air conditioners, and other appliances are programmed to withstand these power shifts and they don’t have to be reset when the power is turned back on.

2. We’ve all seen plastic bags on the side of the road or in trash bins — taking lifetimes to biodegrade — and doing irrevocable damage to the environment. While a few U.S. cities are trying to implement a small fee or even ban plastic bags such as Seattle (it passed but now goes to referendum in August), San Francisco, and Washington DC, we were impressed that Botswana has already implemented a surprisingly high (by local stands) national fee of their use or purchase. As a result, people bring their own bags to the grocery or use no bag at all for their groceries. Why can’t the United States implement a national law? Check out this interesting page on plastic bags by the Worldwatch Institute.

We also visited a project helping to conserve another of Botswana’s precious resources–wildlife. The Mokolodi Wildlife Reserve teaches the community about conserving and protecting wildlife and the environment, while also educating students about permaculture. By growing indigenous vegetables, recycling water for irrigation, and using organic fertilizers-including elephant dung-the Reserve’s Education Center is demonstrating how to grow nutritious food with very little water or chemical inputs. We met with Tuelo Lekgowe and his wife, Moho Sehtomo, who are managing the permaculture garden at Mokolodi. Tuelo explained that the organically grown spinach, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, green peppers, garlic, basil, parsley, coriander and other crops raised at the garden are used to feed the school groups who come regularly to learn about not only animals, but also sustainable agriculture. Tuelo and Moho use the garden as a classroom, teaching students about composting, intercropping, water harvesting, and organic agriculture practices.

Another plus to our travels here is that everything seems affordable here compared to its more expensive neighbor, South Africa (especially since we weren’t shelling out hundreds to go to Chobe national park for a safari). The pula is roughly valued at six to one against the US dollar. To put prices in perspective: a beer costs roughly $1 USD, a taxi anywhere in the city costs $3, a nice dinner for two costs around $15, a birdwatching walking tour with a private guide for two, around $25 per hour, and the bus ride from Johannesburg to Gabarone via Intercape costs around $25. The countryside might be a little off the beaten track, but it’s well worth the trek and you can still find a nice, clean, and comfy private double room with bath, hotwater, and air-conditioning for around $30 dollars a night.

Across California and some other states on Thursday night, thousands of students marched in protest of increasing tuition fees.  At 7pm Pacific Time this evening I found myself amidst one such protest as it moved through the streets of San Francisco.  It was a spirited and enthusiastic event and both the police and protesters kept their cool.  Interstate 880 was simultaneously closed to traffic by other groups of protesters.  Large protests were reported across California in Los Angeles, Berkley and other cities and in a total of 30 other states.

The fight for health care reform in this country started more than 100 years ago. The current stage of the fight started more than a year ago. It has been raging ever since Barack Obama took office in January, 2009. We are now in the final days of the latest battle and the Right is bringing its full force to bear to try to prevent any changes to the status quo.

The Right has fought against any reforms that will benefit the American people at the expense of business interests. They have labeled the effort as an attempt to take over the entire health care industry. They have told people that it will turn the country into a socialist country, even though there is absolutely nothing to justify that claim since the public option was removed from the Senate bill. They have claimed provisions in the bill will lead to “death panels” that will kill off your grandparents or disabled children. They have lied and misled to the point that some people actually fear for their lives if this bill passes. They are not above using any tactic, telling any lie, and smearing any progressive in an attempt to protect health insurance companies and pharmaceutical industry profits.

The Right knows this is the final stages of the battle and are pulling out all the stops to prevent the American people from benefiting from Health Care Reform. They are flooding the internet with emails urging people to call Congress to pressure representatives. The list below comes from one of those emails. These are the people they are targeting in Congress. Please scan the list for your representative and call with a message of support if you find them in the list. Be sure to tell whoever you talk to that you are aware that opponents of reform are mounting a deliberate campaign and that you want them to know that you support reform. Also remind them that the calls against reform are coming from people that got their name from right-wing mailing lists and those people are not going to vote for them no matter what.

This is it, people. It’s up to us now. We can win this battle, but only if we are willing to fight. Call today. Call now. Call often. Send emails. Send faxes if you have access to a fax machine. Fight for what is right.

List after the break.

Republicans have attacked Obama’s health care plan for, amongst other things, creating “death panels.” Democrats, predictably, have responded by calling this a ridiculous scare tactic, something that of course will never happen.

The problem is, however, that the fundamental concept behind this idea has merit. And unfortunately, because of Republican attacks, a good idea may not be implemented.

Here is the viewpoint on “death panels.” Killing old people is a bad idea. So don’t do it. Case closed.

But reality is not that simple. The plain truth is that the enormous cost associated with caring for the elderly is slowly bankrupting our nation and its health care system. The last months of a person’s life incur an enormous and disproportionate amount of spending relative to his or her lifespan. And sometimes – many times – those expenses are simply not justified; unnecessary operations and surgeries simply prolong the pain and delay the inevitable. Unplugging the machine may simply be the right thing to do – both for the nation at large and the person individually.

There is most definitely a chance of abuse and terrible wrong happening with this. There usually is. This idea is not perfect; few ideas are. The point is that it should not be immediately dismissed out of hand.

Today, with the health care plan losing popularity, Democrats are quickly backtracking from end-of-life planning. They have promised to delete the text concerning “death panels.”

That is unfortunate. Excessive end-of-life treatment that does not help is a major part of our skyrocketing health care bill. If we ignore the problem, as Congress seems poised to do, it will not magically get better. Sadly, ignoring the problem increasingly looks like what is going to happen.

–Inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/