WOSU 8/23/2010

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wosu/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1691620/news/Clean.Water.is.a.Basic.Human.Right

On July 28, 2010 the United Nations adopted a resolution officially recognizing that clean water and sanitation are a basic human right. Sadly, one of only a few countries that didn’t vote in favor was the United States.

According to the UN 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water and more than 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation – that’s nearly 40 percent of the world’s population. Each year 1.5 million children under the age of 5 die due to a lack of clean water and sanitation. That’s about the population of metro Columbus!

It’s unlikely that you know anyone first hand that doesn’t have access to clean water and sanitation. In the United States this problem feels very far away. We watch on television as US transport planes deliver clean water to people in need all the time. The irony though is that if not for our overachieving free market policies we might not need to deliver that water in the first place.

According to analysis by Dr. Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute, even the most arid of countries have the rainfall and technology to provide at least the minimum acceptable amount of water per citizen to sustain life. In some cases war or natural disasters prevent delivery of clean water resources, in others the technology exists but not the infrastructure, but in many it’s industry’s fault. Looking at how this resolution came to be makes me believe industry is the primary reason some of the most developed nations such as the US abstained from voting.

Over the years developed nations that provide leadership to the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO have put pressure on underdeveloped countries to privatize communal resources. One example of this is the 1999 case where Bolivia was pressured to privatize their water under a subsidiary of Bechtel, a US based corporation.

After an immediate cost increase of 35-60%, Bolivians couldn’t afford water and people revolted. Since then Bolivia has been a primary spokes-country for this debate and author of this resolution. For this reason it’s important to understand the wording of the UN resolution.

The US and others abstained in part due to the refusal of the authors to add the word access – as in, “the UN recognizes that access to clean water and sanitation is a human right”. This is important because access allows a private business like Bechtel to provide the resource only to those who can afford it. This defeats the purpose of making it a human right.

Private industry may provide us with all sorts of amazing and entertaining products but what can’t be achieved through private industry is the fulfillment of human rights. Human rights are not a commodity to be sold selfishly but instead what we are born with and the bedrock of a peaceful and equitable society. To quote a great American, FDR, “virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.”

WOSU 7/27/2010

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wosu/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1679424/news/Remember.To.Notice.The.Little.Things.

In the near 100 degree heat last week my family loaded up the station wagon with our camping gear and headed out on an adventure. This would be my three year old’s very first tent camping trip.

Thanks to my wife’s infinite wisdom – and my desire to watch the World Cup (Viva España!) – we didn’t leave until a little later in the day which insured that we would arrive at our campsite as the heat was beginning to break. My excitement about this trip continued to build as we made our way through the city traffic, past the suburbs and then into the countryside.

Upon arrival at Alum Creek we checked in and found our campsite. The day will come when I will introduce Sophie to my love of truly primitive, backwoods camping; however, for a first tent excursion the relative safety and sterility of a State Park seemed appropriate.

We spent a lot of time playing with caterpillars and centipedes. Sophie decided that the centipedes would be named Walter, and that the caterpillar would be her stuffed animal’s best friend (they were both black and white and fuzzy so of course they’ll be best friends). Swimming in the lake offered up the chance to collect shells and feel minnows swim past our toes. On the beach we built our insect friends a grand castle to live in bejeweled with those shells and some goose feathers. We caught lightening bugs and watched bats at night while listening to the hoots of owls and foraging of raccoons.

Many people would suggest that these are simple pleasures and would only excite the simple mind of a child – but I beg to differ. Throughout our lives we have the chance to look at the details, to embrace all of the little curiosities and joys the world has to offer.

How many people create greater and greater complexity in their lives in an attempt to find happiness? Instead of enjoying the intricacies of what they already have most people believe they are missing out, that they need to buy something to fill that hole, or try something that is “bigger”, “better” or “more intense”. On occasion I myself still fall into this trap – which is why I know just what a trap it is.

I want to provide opportunity to my daughter to experience the world around her; I want to teach her what I know and let her draw her own conclusions. I’m not looking to relive my childhood through her, but I’d like to recapture and maintain those important parts of being alive that so many of us turn off when we decide we are “adults”.

Namely, I want to encourage my daughter’s curiosity and imagination by allowing my curiosity and imagination once again to flourish.

WOSU 6/16/2010

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wosu/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1663787/news/The.Cost.of.Low.Prices.-.The.Bill.Is.Coming

Once upon a time there was a small farming village where the families worked the land and grew what they needed. With a little luck and determination they survived. Over time however the natural resources that this village depended on were gobbled up by corporations. The water was being used to bottle beverages at one spot and as factory farm waste run-off at another spot. Farm land began being used to grow genetically modified seeds which, through natural processes, mingled with seeds at traditional family farms. Now the water isn’t free and the traditional farms were liable for patent infringement.

The people no longer had the means to support themselves so they began migrating to places where they might be able to sustain their family. This dangerous journey is only undertaken because their plight has become so great. Ironically, when they arrived at these new places of opportunity they found that many of the goods that destroyed their traditional livelihood had beat them there.

This anecdote isn’t related to just one place or time and it isn’t meant to demonize corporations, not exactly at least.

Because of course corporations don’t set out to displace people, destroy the environment or even make factory workers want to die. You won’t likely find a corporate mission statement that proclaims “we do evil”. In fact most companies set out to provide products that people want and in some cases actually need. But, the availability of many products is nothing short of a miracle because they require such gross exploitation to be produced and sold: exploitation of natural resources, of workers and the exploitation of our desires.

You see, the thing about exploitation is that you are getting something for less than its true value. However, exploitation doesn’t diminish the true value of a resource it only creates a gap between what is paid upfront and the overall cost. Eventually, somewhere along the line the higher cost of the true value must be equalized.

And at the end of that line is us, the largest consumers of resources in the world. The US once held the motto of, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Now not only do we help create tired, poor huddled masses but we are also doing everything possible to keep that golden door slammed shut to them. The excuses for this behavior are many but what it really comes down to is our desire to keep pushing off that debt we as consumers owe to the people we’ve displaced and to the resources we so greedily waste.

Immigrants, oil spills and factory worker suicides are all line items on the bill that sooner or later must be paid. That day is coming. Are we willing to pay up?

WOSU 6/2/2010

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wosu/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1657574/news/Looking.to.Build.Neighborhoods..We.Always.Have.Paris

Recently my family took a trip to Paris. First I’d like to say that the French were truly absolutely lovely people – and that we loved how the streets of Paris were filled with life. Much of that life centered on the small bakeries, butchers and other individual shops lining the streets. The sense of community was amazing.

Living as a Parisian – if only for a couple weeks – meant buying groceries for our apartment, locating the post office and other essentials. Even in this city of over 2 million people I was reminded of my very small hometown.

Like where I grew up, these Parisian business owners and public officials were welcoming and treated you like a friend; not just a customer or resident. In my hometown we could go from the pharmacy to farm stand and the exchange of money was never the most important part of the interaction. There was a kinship that you felt knowing you were being sustained by the people of your community. In fact, this connection itself was community; not just a place but a way of being.

I always took this for granted; it was just the way things would always be – or so I thought. As I grew into adulthood, moved to large cities across the Midwest, I found myself paying less attention to this. I let myself become just another consumer – putting price above other considerations.

Now I’m not alone in this and I know it. In a quick drive around central Ohio you can witness how many communities have lost their individuality. Big box stores and chain restaurants overrun our lives and while we may get a less expensive price up-front I question the cost we’re paying over time. Reducing our relationships to mere dollars and cents has reduced our relationship with our communities; going from one town to the next these days offers little in way of new experiences.

Over the past several years I’ve realized how much I miss the way our communities used to be and I’ve made a conscious effort to reconnect myself to those holdouts of community life that remind me of my hometown. I seek out locally owned businesses, spend time working on community projects and I take the time to walk my neighborhood so I can connect with the people living around me.

This conscious effort to rebuild community isn’t just my thing. Many of you, many businesses and local officials are also looking for ways to rebuild some of what we’ve lost over the years. We’re all looking to create a better future that maintains a connection to the best parts of our past.

The next time you’re at a local business, visiting with neighbors or talking with an elected official let them know you’re committed to being in community with them; not just as a place but as a way of being.

WOSU – 3/22/2010

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wosu/news.newsmain?action=section&SECTION_ID=4

I love movies. Now that the award shows are over and the blockbusters have been released to the dollar theatre I can go and catch the ones I missed on the first run. One thing I’ll miss out on at the dollar theatre is the 3D version of the movies.

Seeing Steve Martin host the Oscars after so much talk surrounding the new 3D glasses technology made my wife and I chuckle. In his movie The Jerk, Steve Martin’s character creates “the Opti-Grab eyeglass clamp” which was all the rage until Carl Reiner, playing himself, went cross-eyed wearing them. Ok, so I’m not actually afraid that the new 3D glasses will make me cross-eyed but the new technology doesn’t have me running out to the theatre either.

Last year I watched a hundred or two full length films and tons of short films. Sadly, I can count on one hand how many of those I went to see during their first run. Much to Hollywood’s disappointment – I’m sure – I didn’t choose to stay home because my movies weren’t in 3D. I stayed home because of the ridiculous expense.

For my wife and I to see a first run movie tickets are $9 or, if it is in the new 3D format the cost goes up to $14 for tickets, add another $14 for refreshments; wait, $14 for popcorn and two drinks? According to a 2008 report by ABC news that’s a 1300% mark-up; talk about making me cross-eyed! In all that’s $40+ without including the dinner half of the “dinner and a movie” date.

So for the film industry to attempt to draw people like me back to the theatres by increasing my costs just doesn’t make sense. To bad Hollywood is counting on the higher cost 3D movies to save the movie house.

It’s clear that movie theatre’s are struggling, not just from the economy but because media is changing. Most of the movies I watch I download from Netflix. All of those short films I watched, you can chalk those up to websites like Vimeo where artists are making their content available for free as a way of building their audience.

And for me that’s the thing; it doesn’t take a lot of expensive technology and gimmicks to tell a good story. In fact those things often cause the focus to shift away from good storytelling. Those artists who are making incredible films and essentially giving them away online are able to do so because they use technology as a way of making production and distribution cheaper.

Many of them wouldn’t even be making films if it wasn’t for cheap technology.

So I hope the next technological revolution in film isn’t the Opti-Grab for 3D eyeglasses but a real look into using the technology we already have to lower costs for film makers, theatre owners and ultimately me, the hopeful theatre goer.