February 2008 Archives

For obvious reasons, Liza Sabater's article about Spain banning models from the runway for being too thin, really caught my eye. This February, we polled the audiences at New York Fashion Week on the same issue and here's what we found:

SHOULD THE HEALTH AND WEIGHT OF FASHION MODELS BE REGULATED?
43% said, "Yes."
31% said, "Within reason."
26% said, "No (the thought of it makes me want to throw up)."

So what do I think?

The fashion industry, pretty much by definition, plays an influential role in defining an aspirational aesthetic (or state of appearance) globally. Although this isn't something new, it now seems to be taking on a different perspective.

There have always been standards in this industry, most of which are rooted in how to design, manufacture and deliver original fashion to an insatiable audience. In relatively recent history, there was an appropriate backlash from human rights advocates on issues ranging from the composition of the workforce (often underage or prison labor) to the inhumane working conditions. Much progress has been made in these areas, although I'm not sure if it was because of the humanity of the circumstances or because of the fact that it just so happened to unfairly impact the competitive landscape? So, whether appropriate measures were taken for all of the right reasons or not, a positive change has taken place.

Photo Source: UCLA Magazine

And people wonder why I love the web so much. While researching an earlier blog The Condom Carnival, I stumbled upon photos of dresses, haute couture dresses, made out of condoms.

Yes. condoms.

Adriana Bertini is a Brazilian artist who has turned rejected condoms into her media of choice. The dresses she creates are absolutely spectacular. Last year she brought a sample of her collection to UCLA's Fowler Museum for a show called Dress Up For AIDS:

Dress Up Against AIDS, at the Fowler, features 14 magnificent garments by Brazilian artist Bertini, made entirely of condoms rejected by industry quality tests. By appropriating an object of protection and using it in a surprising way -- to create colorful, sensual clothes -- Bertini seeks to raise awareness of and inspire the use of condoms, the critical vehicle for preventing HIV transmission.

"Art has the unique power to educate memorably about HIV prevention -- Bertini's condom dresses are simply unforgettable -- and to reduce the stigma of HIV/AIDS, which public health experts around the world agree are the biggest challenges we face," explains David Gere, director of the Art | Global Health Center and co-chair/associate professor in World Arts and Cultures.

Artist Eva Hesse comes to mind when I see Bertini's more sculptural work. These dresses though are in a whole different category. The one in this post has almost 5,000 condoms. Others have exceed the 15,000 mark.

Here's another example of Brazil making AIDS awearness fun, sexy and just beautiful.

My third trip to South Africa in a year is coming up, and as I prepare, I've been thinking a great deal about what can be done to change to course of poverty in the country.

Prior to my first visit in March 2007, I had prepared myself -- as much as one can -- for the level of poverty I would encounter. Surprisingly, I quickly saw beyond the living conditions and came to see that poverty affects a child's education, and ultimately the course of a country's future.

When I shared my experiences with family and friends, the same question kept coming up... "Where does all of the money sent to Africa go? Why can't we 'fix' Africa?"

Just like Poland and Greece; Vietnam and Cambodia all have very different cultures, strengths, and challenges, it's important to understand each African country has very different issues to deal with.

Since the creation of a new South Africa in 1994, it's clear that efforts have been and continue to be made to bring basic necessities such as water, housing, and electricity (current crisis aside) to all people. But, change is slow to come and the financial effects of the apartheid-era are still clear to any visitor.

So, is there a way to break the cycle of poverty and create a better future for the country?

As I watched the presidential debates recently, I heard a term thrown around that made me shiver- Islamofascism. While the threat of terrorism scares me, the discussion around terrorism has implications that are just as frightening, when these types of terms enter our common vernacular. A recent Gallup poll showed that 40% of Americans admit to feeling prejudice against Muslims. As social dialogue continually associates Islam primarily with terrorism and evil, we unintentionally facilitate an unjustified hatred for Islam and anything that may be even tangentially relate to it. This has a very real and scary impact on peoples' daily lives. One of the places it can have the greatest impact is somewhere we've all been before - the schoolyard.

As you may know, I'm currently one of the models in Kenneth Cole's new advertising campaign, which tackles this issue of stereotypes in the media head on. As a Sikh man, I wear a turban, which is an integral part of the Sikh identity. However, in the United States, the vast majority of media coverage related to turbans focuses on another group of people who wear different types of turbans - Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists. Unfortunately, this has had a significantly detrimental impact on the daily lives of Sikhs around the world, who are now frequently mistaken for Islamic fundamentalists, although they are not even Muslim. While nobody should be persecuted because of their religion, including Muslims, Sikhs in particular have faced a disproportionate impact from post 9/11 bias crimes.

Being a father has altered my approach to life on a variety of platforms - most for the better. For example, I have made it a point to recycle all designated materials for the future of my children. It's not that I didn't recycle in the past, I did but not to the extent I do today.


I got started by consulting my local municipality website. Admittedly, it took some digging to find the respective information for each recycling category (batteries, old cell phones and computers, paint cans, used cooking oil) but alas, all the information was readily available.


The one product category completely missing from the website is children's toys which lead me to thinking about the waste involved with the packaging, production as well as the relatively short lifespan of most of the items. Speaking of packaging, if you have kids you can appreciate the frustration of breaking through all those wire twist ties, small rubber bands, invisible tape and impenetrable plastic coating to release the toy from its captivity. Additionally, judging from the toys that my children have received thus far - I can say with some degree of certainty that they are not constructed with the child's best interest (creating some physical or mental stimulation) in mind.


Some thoughts to address this challenge:


Avoid Toys Made with PVC plastic - 70% of PVC is used in construction, but it is also found in everyday plastics, including some children's toys. Vinyl chloride, the chemical used to make PVC, is a known human carcinogen. Also, additives, such as lead and cadmium, are sometimes added to PVC to keep it from breaking down; these additives can be particularly dangerous in children's toys. PVC is also the least recycled plastic. Find safe toys in the National Green Pages


Don't Buy Wrapping Paper - Reuse old wrapping paper or put your gifts in reusable bags or boxes. Be creative about giving old materials new life-scraps of fabric, magazines or calendars make great patchwork bags or collage wrapping paper.


Recycle Packaging from Gifts - To reduce environmental impacts, it is important to recycle all cardboard packaging. Also, reuse peanuts or other Styrofoam packing that comes with gifts or purchases as these items will not de-compost in a landfill but can be used over and over again for packaging and shipping. The National Green Pages contains several listings for easy drop-off centers for both types of waste.


Donate your used toys - Just a few notable organizations that take your toys and provide them to underprivileged children are listed below but be sure to check locally for any other organizations that can bring joy to those less fortunate: Salvation Army, Toys for Tots, My Two Front Teeth(a nonprofit organization that provides donated toys to underprivileged children in daycare, preschools and community agencies), and Ronald McDonald House.


Most Importantly - Give Gifts from the Heart.


Recently I was invited to a child's birthday party and the invitation asked instead of presents that donations be made to a local children's charity. Such a great idea! There are many other thoughtful gifts - taking the kids for ice cream, sleepovers, a day at the zoo... just take a minute and think before you purchase that flashing, clicking, whizzing thingamajig that will keep the child's attention for all of 15 minutes before being discarded.

Photo Credit: AVRAM for ReefBase.org

This is a real kicker: Four commonly found sunscreen ingredients can awaken dormant viruses in the symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae that live inside reef-building coral species and kill them.

The chemicals cause the viruses to replicate until their algae hosts explode, spilling viruses into the surrounding seawater, where they can infect neighboring coral communities.

Zooxanthellae provide coral with food energy through photosynthesis and contribute to the organisms' vibrant color. Without them, the coral "bleaches"--turns white--and dies.

"The algae that live in the coral tissue and feed these animals explode or are just released by the tissue, thus leaving naked the skeleton of the coral," said study leader Roberto Danovaro of the Polytechnic University of Marche in Italy.


The researchers estimate that 4,000 to 6,000 metric tons of sunscreen wash off swimmers annually in oceans worldwide, and that up to 10 percent of coral reefs are threatened by sunscreen-induced bleaching.

Hard to believe the reefer madness?

An example of how runoff is killing our oceans and seas is right on the US's Caribbean coastline. Fertilizers and animal waste have created a dead zone in the Caribbean sea the size of New Jersey.

Yet runoff is predictably not the only killer. An international team of 19 scientists have published the first ever comprehensive map showing the combined impact of human activity on the planet's seas and oceans. They have found that more than 40% of our marine environments have been either significantly altered by runoff, yes, but also by other factors such as fishing, ocean acidification, temperature change, species extinctions and invasions, and the shipping, oil and gas industries.

All these factors should put into perspective the decision not to use sunscreen and to look for alternative sun-protection methods. It's a choice our skin or the life of our oceans and seas.

First it was the personal TVs with multiple channels on each seatback. Then it was the comfy seats. Now, Virgin Atlantic Airways hopes to revolutionize air travel once again.

On Sunday, the British airline owned by billionaire Richard Branson tested a new biofuel made from babassu nuts and coconut oil on a flight from London to Amsterdam. The 747's fuel supply was about 25% biofuel, with the rest coming from traditional kerosene gas. Branson says he looked into many different sources of biofuel, and landed on the babassu/coconut combination because it's more environmentally sound than many other sources that would require massive amounts of farm land.

But some criticize Branson, who once signed Janet Jackson and the Rolling Stones, for using this as just another publicity stunt. Jos Dings, director of the European Federation of Transport and the Environment, told ABC News that calling something a "biofuel" does not necessarily mean it is environmentally friendly.

"It depends crucially on what sort of biofuel you use, how much land that biofuel actually uses," Dings said. "If Virgin would power its entire fleet with biofuel, it would have to use about half of the UK's arable land."

In September, Branson pledged to invest $3 billion over the next 10 years to the Clinton Global Initiative to help create sustainable fuels for airplanes, trains, and automobiles. Also last fall, Branson partnered with Al Gore to establish the Virgin Earth Challenge, a $25 million award for the development of technology that can suck greenhouse gases from the atmosphere for 10 consecutive years and "contribute materially to the stability of Earth's climate."

In January, the political magazine Mother Jones reported that Branson is also considering a host of non-traditional, non-first-generation biofuels such as corn, soy, and palm oil, all of which do require vast amounts of land to raise and deplete the world's food and fresh water resources. Instead, he wants to create a fuel system that would be adaptable to diverse, region-specific fuel sources. Deron Lovaas, director of the Move America Beyond Oil Campaign at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental watchdog group, told Mother Jones it wouldn't be unreasonable, even, to imagine a fuel derived from algae.

With more than $3 billion on the table and all eyes on Branson, it's hard to imagine this is merely for publicity. We'll see what happens over the next 10 years.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 2.5 million Americans -- or about 1 percent of the population -- struggles with schizophrenia, and the majority of them are diagnosed well into adulthood. The Alzheimer's Association reports that more than 5 million Americans currently struggle with that disease, and every 72 seconds another diagnosis is made. Depression afflicts untold numbers, and has become an epidemic in our modern world.

Treating each of these diseases has been an arduous effort with very little reward, populated with vain attempts to finally solve the riddle of why our minds sometimes fail us.

But in 2006, that started to change when Darryle D. Schoepp, a leading psychopharmocologist with Merck & Co., helmed the research into a revolutionary way of treating schizophrenia. Dr. Schoepp and his colleagues at Eli Lilly & Company -- where he began the research -- started with the theory that prior treatments, which focus on blocking the neurotransmitter dopamine, were misguided and instead focused on glutamate.

Also a powerful neurotransmitter, glutamate ties together the brain's most complex circuits. According to the New York Times, focusing on glutamate instead of dopamine as a possible cure began back in the 1980s, when PCP was found to block glutamate in its users' brains. Because PCP induced schizophrenia-like symptoms, the discovery was seminal but pharmaceutical research moves at a snail's pace.

After years of experimentation, a viable drug was produced that could be used to treat not just schizophrenia but also Alzheimer's and depression, and possibly several other mental illnesses. Since then, competing pharmaceutical firms have begun developing their own drugs, suggesting that Dr. Schoepp and his team were indeed barking up the right tree all along. But the work is not complete, and it could be up to three years before we see these medications on the market.

As someone who watched his grandmother slowly deteriorate from Alzheimer's, and his friend Jake's downward spiral into schizophrenia when he was just 17, I am hopeful that this research will bear fruit.

In Africa, 17 million people die each year from curable diseases. Many of these deaths would have been preventable, but doctors are often unable to reach patients located in rural areas. In Gambia, for example, there is only 1 doctor per 6,000 people, and some Gambian villagers live up to 8 kilometers from the nearest highway. In order to address this problem, the nonprofit organization Riders for Health equips doctors with high-speed motorcycles in rural areas of Africa and teaches them how to clean and repair the bikes. Thanks to the expanded range provided by the motorcycles, 1 doctor can now reach 20,000 people. Across Africa, Riders for Health now provides services to 11 million people.

When you donate to Riders For Health your money goes directly to paying for parts, petrol, maintenance and training for health workers like Suleiman Suso. If his motorcycle fails, then he cannot deliver anti-malarial or TB medication and people die. It's that simple.

For more information on Riders for Health, check out the feature article in GOOD magazine.

[video: The Motorcycle Doctors]

GOOD Magazine: On Skid Row, Part 1 - Introduction

This is the lay of the land on Skid Row in Los Angeles. I wrote a series of cover stories for the LA Weekly after moving to a loft there. The fifty block area in downtown that police chief Bratton told me was "the worst social disaster in America" is also a community of people in an accelerated transformation. Some are recovering from deep wounds. Some are too far gone. The healing takes on many forms... sometimes death. There are a lot of layers to the geography that reveals itself to be microcosmic of American society in many ways. There's a lot of suffering in the shadows of skyscrapers of the financial district in the "human zoo" that exists in down town Los Angeles. Welcome to Skid Row.

For more information about Sam and his "Skid Row" video series, be sure to check out his MySpace profile. Also, read his recent interview with the AWEARNESS Blog, in which he describes the true scope of the homelessness problem on Skid Row.

When we thought of the campaign we all felt excited, but there was an 800-pound gorilla in the room walking a fine line between responsibility and exploitation. We began brainstorming about what types of people we wanted in the campaign to illustrate our message. We wanted provocative but also wanted to keep our integrity as much as theirs. After many inappropriate discussions, that would make our H.R. department add 50 chapters to the Code of Conduct manual, we had our final wish list: an H.I.V. positive woman; a lesbian couple with a baby; an undocumented immigrant; a Sikh; a paralympic athlete; a gay Republican; a wheelchair rugby player; a heavily tattooed woman; a war veteran; and collaborating Palestinian and Israeli film directors.

The casting guru, Jennifer Starr, worked her magic. Terry Richardson shared his "always interesting" opinion. Kenneth gave us his final direction and we were ready. The next couple of days added up to be the most inspiring experience of my life. There, I've said it. Sounds a bit cheesy, right? Almost a bit Lifetime Channel. Sorry, I can't help it because it's true. My cynical self didn't foresee the tidal wave of human endeavor that was about to hit me.

As a writer at a fashion shoot, I'm usually more redundant than Jamie Lynn Spears' contraceptive pharmacist, but not this time. My job was to welcome our cast, explain about the events of the day and to help guide the interviews to be used on our web site. Each person was a bit nervous about the day and a little wary of the campaign. And understandably so, considering that many of our cast spent most of their lives just trying to be accepted for what society dictates as "normal", and there we were putting them on a stage to highlight the very differences that most of them didn't want to be defined by. Fortunately for us, and them, we had cast a fine bunch of intelligent individuals who were willing to display themselves in the hope that their image in a fashion magazine might chip away at the social prejudices they had to endure.

I'd like to thank everyone who touched upon, and were touched by this campaign. Thank you for the education. It's been emotional.

Tootlepip. (What? Oh, sorry. That's an old-fashioned English term for saying goodbye.)

[Images: Kenneth Cole]

In late March, New York City will begin requiring that chain restaurants list calorie counts next to menu items, furthering the recent trend towards a healthier population. The smoking ban worked, and so has the banning of trans-fats from restaurants. This latest measure, goes the theory, will cause diners to think twice before buying a Double Whopper with cheese, for example, which packs a whopping 942 calories.

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, city health commissioner, said in the news release that the the Board of Health hopes this "will help New Yorkers make healthier choices about what to eat, living longer, healthier lives as a result."

Like the trans-fats and smoking bans before it, this effort didn't happen overnight. It took months of litigation, and controversey surrounding the new requirement still runs high. Dr. David Allison, incoming president of the Obesity Society, an organization of doctors and scientists based in Silver Spring, Maryland, is protesting the law, claiming that it may backfire. Allison wrote a 31-page affadavit arguing that if people are discouraged from buying an item -- say, a milkshake or a burrito with extra guacamole -- because of their high calorie counts, they'll only gorge later to satisfy their hunger. As a result, the ostensible aim of the law will lead only to a greater obesity problem instead of curbing it.

But here's the thing: Dr. Allison was paid by the New York Restaurant Association to write the document, and the Association is suing the city for creating the law. And though he won't say how much he was paid, he insists that his interest is in the "truth" -- not the money.

As an academic, he might be telling the truth there. But the evidence is mounting against him, and the number of concerns that support the law -- including Public Citizen, the American Heart Association, and the American Medical Association -- are starting to shame Allison by that support alone.

All this reminds me of a scene in Woody Allen's futuristic comedy Sleeper, in which Allen is offered a cigarette by a doctor and advised to be sure and "get the smoke deep down" into his lungs. When Allen refuses the smoke, his doctor exclaims, "It's tobacco! It's one of the healthiest things for your body."

Let's hope Sleeper doesn't become a reality, and in 50 years our doctors are feeding us Whoppers in the ER.

The same state-owned company produces many other drugs and exports them to dozens of countries worldwide. But according to the International Herald Tribune, Shangai Hualian refuses to confirm whether it exports drugs other than RU-486 to the United States. Nor will the company even comment on the tainted medicine.

Obviously this is bad news, but what's even scarier is that it's not really news. Two and a half years ago, another investigation of tainted Chinese drugs revealed at least nine deaths in the northeastern city of Qiqihar. Cheap, sub-par, and even toxic substances were being used in place of the recommended ingredients for a host of drugs, including a pain-killing enema for children.

When stories like this hit the press, they create a temporary panic until the next story breaks, and we tend to forget all about Chinese drugs to focus on a new strain of Avian Flu or a lethal children's toy. Naturally this doesn't mean we shouldn't pay attention to this most recent scandal. It just means we might be wise to continue paying attention to it, whether it's "news" or merely part of the background in this modern world. To borrow the brilliant (and now, largely forgotten) slogan of the AIDS fight: Silence = Death.

AWEARNESS: What was your motivation for founding GOOD magazine? What is its editorial mission?

Ben: GOOD was born out of a frustration that there was no media platform celebrating, covering, and elevating the emerging movement of individuals, businesses, and organizations pushing the world forward. The mission has evolved over time. We now see ourselves as an editorial led, member driven community, with a mission to provide content that coalesces this community, experiences that deepen the relationships within the community, and utilities that empower the community.

AWEARNESS: In what ways do the values of Inc. magazine, started by your father, influence your thinking about philanthropy and social activism?

Ben: Growing up with Inc. as my father's business and also his passion was tremendously influential. Seeing the joy he received from using media to respond to the needs of small business owners, and the feeling he had that he was actually adding value to society with his efforts, really hammered home my interests in trying to align my efforts with broader interests. This idea of aligning interests is really at the core of GOOD, and at the core of my thinking about social activism and philanthropy.

AWEARNESS: Is it possible to do GOOD and make money at the same time?

AWEARNESS: How do you define GOOD?

Ben: For me, GOOD means meaning well and doing my best to live up to this intention with action.

In January, Mexico City joined a few other cities around the world by fulfilling a long-awaited dream for many women: their own city buses, free of groping, lascivious glances, and sexual propositions. According to the New York Times, the reaction thus far is positive, even among plenty of men, who women say are notorious for not just lewd behavior, but for pushing, cutting in line, and not relinquishing their seats to anyone.

In 2000, Bangkok, Thailand introduced a number of women-only buses, and in 2002 New Delhi did the same. Both cities seem to continue offering the service, though never having traveled to either city, I can't comment on their success -- or their reception among the men.

In New York, women have to either brave public transit or take a cab, an option chosen so frequently by some of my female friends that they budget several hundred dollars into their monthly spending for taxis. Granted, part of that might be simple laziness, but I know that at least some of it comes from fear.

Could a women-only bus or subway car system work in New York, or would it merely incite rage and some "enlightened" claims of reverse sexism?

What does this picture to the right have to do with the 2008 Olympics in China and the United Kingdom? Ah ... well ... sit back and relax. I'm going to break it down history's memory lane.

The picture to the right is of US athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos with Australia's Peter Norman during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. Go to wikipedia to read all about it, especially the heart-breaking end of Peter Norman's life.

In this report from ITN they cite the 1968 demonstration as the reason the Olympics Committee added a clause to their charter saying "no kind of demonstration, or political, religious or racial propaganda in the Olympic sites, venues or other areas" is permitted and can be used for disqualification or expulsion from the games. And it is said clause which the British Olympics Association was trying to enforce by obligating all athletes to sign a contract that would have had them relinquish their right to criticize or comment about the political situation in China.

Of course, they have seen a backlash:

The spokesman added: "It was certainly implied in the old agreement, but with the level of political interest in this particular Games we felt it was right for our younger athletes who had not been to an Olympics before to realize that there was this Charter Rule in place. "What we are not trying to do is stop any athlete talking to the media. If someone is asked a question and they respond, that is not what we are talking about. But if someone uses the Games to express or deliver their political views, then that would be different."

The type of gesture to which the BOA is referring would presumably be of the kind made by Olympic 200 metre medallists Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Mexico Games, where they each wore a black glove on the podium to signify Black Power and to highlight calls for civil rights in the United States.

Amnesty International campaigns director, Tim Hancock, said: "People in China can't speak out about human rights without fear of reprisals; people in Britain can. It's up to each individual to decide what they say about China's human rights record."

The Black Power Salute of 1968 not only was meant to commemorate the pride of African Americans. The United States had already witnessed the Poor People's March on Washington and it had listened to Martin Luther King's Let Freedom Ring speech. It also grieved him and Robert F. Kennedy after both were assassinated; and all the while the war in Vietnam raged on.

Even though all three athletes suffered lifetime bans from the Olympic Games, the Smith's and Carlos' fists up in the air became symbol of an unstoppable cultural and political shift in the United States.

The UK government, afraid their athletes might make a similar statement against China's human rights abuses, wanted their athletes to sign away their right to free speech. Yet amidst protests and accusations of "sucking up" to tyrannical regimes, they've backed down and are "looking into the wording" of the athletes' contracts.

The whole incident speaks volumes to how the Olympic arena can take a simple act as a fist up in the air and transform it into a symbol of heroic political rebellion.

Sam Slovick is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who recently chronicled the heartbreaking true scope of the homelessness problem in Los Angeles for both LA Weekly and GOOD Magazine. Over the next month, clips from his "Skid Row" video series will appear on the AWEARNESS Blog. Below, he offers a brutally honest assessment of what needs to be done to solve the homelessness problem in America.

AWEARNESS: You've mentioned the term "informed philanthropy" to describe the types of charitable organizations that are really making a difference on Skid Row. What should individuals look for before they make charitable contributions to an organization?

Sam: People on Skid Row don't need food and clothes. The missions serve thousands of meals a day. They do a lot of fund raising and provide a lot of services. Informed philanthropy is investing in a consciousness that deals with underlying causes of a disenfranchised community that is at the bottom rung of our society. Two of my favorites are School on Wheels that tutors kids in their store front on San Pedro and 5th Street and United Coalition East Prevention that does a lot of outreach and address problems in the community directly. They also have an after-school program for kids. Both seems to have an understanding of the deeper systemic issues that need to be addressed.

AWEARNESS: As you point out in the video series, there is no easy solution to Skid Row. Throwing money at the problem is not the solution. What are some alternative steps that can be taken to revitalize the Skid Row area?

Sam: Part of the problem with Skid Row is that we live in a country that subscribes to a capitalist indoctrination that says, if you work hard you will prosper. Even people living on sidewalk believe it. It's not true for everybody. Some people need help. Some need a lot of help. Some people are damaged in a way that they are not going to recover from and need to be taken care of. Others can get reconnected but it'll take time and money. We need to embrace them. Collectively, we need to include them. The measure of any society is how they treat their weakest members. We have people who are deeply wounded in need of help wandering the streets in filth in the shadows of the financial district. It's outrageous and unacceptable. When it becomes impossible for our leaders to remain in office and ignore the suffering it will change, not before. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, The Mayor... The City Council... All of them. It's unbelievable to me that we allow it to continue. You and me allow this. We accept this. We sign off on it by not storming City Hall in a massive revolt.

I recommend everything and anything. Initially that you become as outraged as I did when I moved to Skid Row. Go down there and sit with a 4 year-old at the Union Rescue Mission and you'll get the picture quick. Speak out. Write a letter, call the mayor, the county board of supervisors, tell everyone who will listen to demand that it has to stop in any way you can. Call the police chief's weekly 'call in radio show'. Write about it, pray about it, chant, email, go there, tell your friends... Anything you can think of so we can begin to develop a collective consciousness that says this is unacceptable. Demand in any and every way that you can that it has to stop.

AWEARNESS: Despite there being more than 3.5 million homeless Americans, why is the issue of urban homelessness largely "invisible" to so many people?

Sam: It's hard to take. It's not that people don't want to help, it's that it's overwhelming and they don't know how so they refuse to see it. The politicians are performing a sleight of hand. It's a shell game. It's a numbers game. The statistics are misleading and it depends on who's doing the counting and what their agenda is. The politicians make plans and talk about them at press conferences, but they're onto the next photo opp and nothing ever really gets done. City government is fragment and ineffective. The big pieces that need to get moved in the budget to really effect a change are not even being discussed. Affordable housing for all is not an conversation that has ever been on the table by an electable politician in Los Angeles. Ever.

AWEARNESS: In the introduction to the film, you describe Los Angeles as "the first Third World city in America." In what way is the City of Angels a microcosm of what is happening in other cities across America?

Sam: I was referring to the homeless encampments. People living in the street. Sleeping on the street in filth with rats running across their ankles. With urine and feces all over the place. With prostitution and drug dealing in plain view. The LAPD police chief William Bratton told me it's the worst social disaster in America. There's nothing else like it in the States. It's like something you see in Peru or Brazil. My point that was the blind eye to the suffering, the resounding silence from the entertainment industry and other businesses that thrive in such close proximity to the pain. It's a picture of an incredibly self-involved, uncompassionate society... The kind that's responsible for the bloodletting in the Persian Gulf. The kind that is strung out on pharmaceuticals. Whose dinner party activism has produced 3rd world scenarios like Skid Row in the richest country on the planet.

AWEARNESS: What can the average person do to ensure that people like young filmmaker Franklin Arburtha truly have a future when they become adults?

Sam: Franklin needs a filmmaking mentor. He needs to go to film school and he needs to continue to be showcased while it's happening. Schools like Inner-City Filmmakers which train marginalized kids to make movies would be a great asset to Skid Row kids. It would be a big undertaking. I pitched the idea to Fred Heinrich who operates the nonprofit Inner-City Filmmakers. Funding from a corporate entity would clearly do the trick.

I have wondered why no one has done it. I also wonder why all the black mega-churches are absent on Skid Row. I wonder why high-profile black leaders and churches like Agape are not there in full force. Some of them do outreach, giving out sandwiches and preaching. It's misinformed philanthropy.

Franklin has a show on World of Wonder. It's called Kids Row. It's awesome. He's an amazingly gifted filmmaker. The average person can call World of Wonder and tell them to give him back the camera and give him another show.

AWEARNESS: Which of your peers do you most admire for their attention and dedication to social causes?

Sam: Joe Donnelly is the deputy editor of the LA Weekly. He is the one who championed all the Skid Row stories I have written for them. He encouraged me to write them and patiently shepherded them onto the cover of the LA Weekly. That's dedication. LA Yoga Magazine is an amazing place for this kind of work. They are fearless. The original editor, Julie Deify, and the editor who has recently taken over and reshaped the publication, Felicia Tomasko, are crusaders who will put this stuff in print. It's the biggest Yoga Magazine in the biggest market, so its relevant. Everyone at Good Magazine, including Zach Frechette and Siobhan O'Connor, are relentless dedicated to social causes. The producer / editor for the Skid Row documentary, Lindsay Utz and her partner at Good Video, Morgan Currie, are completely committed to social causes. It's what they are doing with their lives.

AWEARNESS: What are some resources - either online or offline - for learning more about the homelessness problem in America?

Sam: It's a numbers game with these statistics and it depends on who's doing the counting and what their agenda is. Cartifact is a real time map of the homeless body count on the streets of skid row in Los Angeles and other cities, but what does it really show? It shows that there's less people because it's cold and so people have temporarily gone into shelters. It shows that the police are implementing the city's policy, which amounts to homeless cleansing. They arrested and forced out thousands of people. They implemented a Constitution-free zone. It smacks of what the Bush Administration has done in the Persian Gulf.

A lot of the people living on the streets of Skid Row in L.A. went to jail and will be back with whatever damage they left with intact. Addiction, mental illness... Whatever. When the mostly one-time money that the city spends on the additional cops runs out, the dance will continue. Just like it has for decades. The politicians and city government is unwilling to move the large budgetary pieces to scale to make changes that will resolve the problem. There's no pressure or urgency to effect that change. It's the old "If you don't have to see it on your way home to Brentwood, who cares?" scenario. It's the same thing with the mass incarceration, paramilitary policing strategy in Los Angeles. The right people are dying in the right neighborhoods. Horrifyingly true. Black people and brown people who are at the bottom of the food chain, monetarily speaking. It seems like a stretch, but it's the same issue. We spend money on things like elephant habitats at the zoo and the subsidization of golf courses, but there's next to nothing for Skid Row, for battered women's shelters, for children in Los Angeles' 'hot zones' who are risk of getting caught in crossfire every time they put in their little backpacks and head for public schools. In a city where there are 14,000 homeless children registered in LAUSD. A city with over 40,000 homeless people, a number that has remained fairly consistent for many years. Those numbers are from School on Wheels and LA Coalition to End Homelessness - both excellent resources.

AWEARNESS: Of the various Democrats and Republicans still in the Presidential race, which of them do you think has the type of "political will" to help solve the homelessness problem in America?

Sam: I don't think any of them have the political will to do anything of consequence. It's not that they're uncaring, personally. It's that they are part of a larger consciousness that has decided to accept that people at the bottom rung of society don't matter. That agent orange veterans, severely mentally disabled people, addicts, victims of spousal abuse, children and others who have no resources should be allowed to suffer senselessly and needlessly in the richest country in the world, at the most abundant time in history, on the streets of Los Angeles.

I take my cues from the Vedas. I don't vote. I don't engage in that process and I am not prone to believe that electing one official or another is going to have a profound effect on the kind of relentless meaningless suffering. If it would, why hasn't it already? I think I'm more effective praying, chanting and writing about consciousness. That's what I'm writing about. I recently did a story for LA Yoga Ayurveda and Health Magazine call "The Gida on Skid Row," where I hung out with these Hare Krishna devotees on Skid Row. In all honesty, I think the cure for Skid Row is Krishna Consciousness. That's what I truly believe in my heart. Oddly, that idea is an easy sell to the people who are suffering there. The healing that God can perform as the ultimate solution. So, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton? C'mon. I voted for God. For Krishna. He's Blue but I don't know that he's running on the democratic ticket.

The problem isn't America. The challenge at hand is the development of a consciousness that embraces compassion for the widows, the orphans and strangers in the land... Iraq, Skid Row. Same thing only different. We have a lot of healing to effect. Here are a few paces you can begin if you want to help on Skid Row in Los Angeles -- these are places and people that I personally know to be ethically sound and operating in an enlightened awareness that could use your informed philanthropic attention: United Coalition East Prevention, School on Wheels, LAMP Community, Central City Community Outreach, and the LA Coalition to End Homelessness.

[image: skid row by mattlogelin on Flickr]

AWEARNESS: What was your creative inspiration for filming "The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins"? What do you hope people will feel and think as they leave the theater?

Pietra: With all my films, I hope to stir debate and "The Art Star" certainly did that. I was excited that the various storylines - Vanessa Beecroft, motherhood, genius artist, international adoptions, colonialism, exploitation - were all issues that were raised both at the Q&A's but also with people I spoke with at other events, and even on the buses during Sundance.

AWEARNESS: After the premiere of the film at Sundance, many audience members had a negative reaction to your portrayal of artist Vanessa Beecroft and her attempted adoption of the Sudanese children. In what ways did your film attempt to capture the complexity of the involvement of celebrities from the West in solving African problems?

Pietra: International adoptions is an issue I've wanted to cover in film for a long time and at the time of filming, I was also filming a two-part documentary in Romania covering an international adoption. In "The Art Star," I was fortunate that Vanessa and all the other members of the story were eloquent, strong in their opinions and posed all sides of the issue. In this way, I hope the public will consider that to adopt a child from a foreign, often developing, country and bring them into the 'First World' is not always a perfect solution.

AWEARNESS: What responsibility do you feel that artists have for bringing attention to the problems of Darfur and the Sudan?

Pietra: I think it is up to individual artists to reflect political situations but any person who has influence, be it international or domestic, should highlight the injustices being suffered in countries where they may not have the freedom of voice, as we do in our countries.

AWEARNESS: Which of your peers do you most admire for their attention and dedication to social causes?

Pietra: There are many - and I continue to meet more of them. At Sundance this year, there was a very powerful film screen entitled "In Prison My Whole Life," about the injustice being suffered by Mumia Abu-Jamal, who languishes on Death Row in the States for a crime (this film highlighted to show) he didn't commit. The film makers inspired me; the story horrified me. So it's not just about social issues in developing countries that we need to focus our cameras on. It's happening in our own backyards as well. The next film I am tackling is just that - an injustice that has happened right here in New Zealand.

AWEARNESS: What are some of your favorite films - either documentary or dramatic - that focus on the lives of social activists?

Pietra: The film that was my pick of 2007 was The Chicago 10, an amazing documentary in its story-telling techniques and in the story itself. It's the film I've been recommending for quite a while. Also at Sundance this year was another documentary, "Made in America," about the gang situation in Los Angeles and how historically that developed and what has become of some of the gang members and how they're trying to effect change, in their neighborhood.

If recent history has taught us anything about social rights, it's that they should never be taken for granted. Nor can we ever stop striving for a more egalitarian society in which all people - regardless of race, age, gender, or disability - have the opportunity to live their lives without fear or oppression.

We face constant threats to our social liberties. The recent controversies surrounding gay marriage, abortion, the Patriot Act, and even No Child Left Behind prove that we are at a crossroads, and what America looks like in 20 years is very much in our hands. Philip Roth's 2004 novel The Plot Against America, in which the isolationist and Nazi sympathizer Charles Lindbergh defeats Franklin Roosevelt to become the 33rd US president, offers a glimpse at how tenuous a concept "democracy" really is.

The plot may be fiction, but its portent is real.

This November, our nation's government will gain a new face, and with it, a new public image abroad. And we have the privilege of playing a key role in whose face it will be. But progress for a civilized society is not merely a matter of electing the "right" president - it's a process that relies on education, tolerance, and debate. And it's certainly more than what happens at the highest echelons of government.

This section of the AWEARNESS Blog exists to both inform and inspire such debate. The issues named above, plus anything else pertaining to human and social rights in the US and abroad, will serve as the launching points for these discussions. We need to protect these rights, which are now anything but inalienable, and we can only do that through awareness. After all, if we don't use the First Amendment, we're likely to lose it.

I am ashamed to admit that even though I taught Brazilian Literature at one point in my years as a Latin American Studies teacher, that even though I speak Portuguese fluently, with a Carioca accent and can make myself pass, I've never been to Brazil. I am due though, because my love for all things do Brasil explodes every time I read something like this in the news:

Health officials in Brazil on Sunday began distributing millions of condoms ahead of the country's five-day Carnival in an effort to reduce the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, the AP/San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The Ministry of Health plans to distribute about 19.5 million condoms before the end of Carnival on Feb. 6, according to the AP/Union-Tribune.

Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao during the launch of the condom-distribution program at a cultural center in Rio de Janeiro said the government has to "let society know the importance of prevention." According to a recent health ministry survey, about 80% of young men in the country reported using condoms, compared with 40% of young women.

The campaign is actually focused on getting women to demand condoms from their sexual partners. So notice all the fashion and coolness factors highlighted in the campaign:

1. The campaign is about having fun responsibly. If you go the campaign's dedicated website, you'll a condom getting bigger while your waiting for the flash animation to load. LOL.

2. The campaign visuals play off the Brazilian colloquialism for condoms, camizinhas. That's why the model wears a tank top throughout all the materials.

3. Over at the ministry's page on AIDS, they go into deep detail about the campaign :

• 100 million temporary tatoos were created with the phrase : "Tenho atitude. Uso camisinha." which means, "Ive got game. I wear a condom".
• 100 bandanas were also being distributed with the slogan.
• 700 thousand self-adhesive posters where produced to be posted in bathroom stalls all across the cities with the most carnival revelers.

The Ministry of Health is targeting women in the 15 to 24 age range because only 42% of young Brazilian women practice safe sex compared to 87% of their male counterparts. The consequences for this behavior are disastrous. For every 6 boys with AIDS there are 10 girls who have it. When looking at infections trends across all ages, for every 15 men with AIDS, there are 10 women who have it.

It's amazing the Brazilian government will go out of its way to do this but here in the United States we're still short changing our young adults with the short-sightedness of abstinence programs.

This country could learn a thing or two from the Brazilians condom awareness campaign. Or should we call Brazil's effort a condom AWEARNESS campaign?

Either way, bravo for them.

 
Fortunately, unlike the reaction from the Chinese drug behemoth Shangai Hualian, which is under investigation now for producing a tainted cancer drug that has left 200 paralyzed, Japanese grocery stores reacted quickly and have removed processed Chinese exports from their shelves.

Of course, there is a certain irony in this: Japan, which imports more than half of its food and has been criticized for mislabeling products, allowed thousands of tons of contaminated meat into its restaurants and markets and didn't react until people started showing up at the ER. And last August, an area of rural Japan was feeding "whale meat" (apparently dolphins are often harvested and labeled as "whale" in Japan) to school children that contained mercury levels 10-16 times higher than what is considered safe.

Such an urgent response in this case may be a by-product of long-standing tension between China and Japan, suggests AlterNet. But at least it's making the headlines.  

Outside, darkness colored by the top of the Empire State Building and it's neighbors. Inside, the glow of holiday lights adorning the night. This is the typical setting for my blogging. After night falls, the apartment is all mine and I get to unleash the muses. I take my freedom to blog for granted, as normal a function of my being, as is eating, sleeping or breathing.

Yet everyday bloggers around the world are harassed, persecuted, imprisoned or even sentenced to death for doing what they do best: speak Truth to Power. By being the de facto tool for citizen journalists, blogs have become the #1 public enemy of repressive governments around the world.

Reporters without Borders keeps track of journalists and bloggers who have been persecuted or killed for their work and just this 29th of January they reported the arrest of Burmese blogger Nay Myo Latt. Nay is an opposition activist and owner of cybercafes who took to blogging to write about the repression unleashed after the fall demonstrations against the government.

He wrote about how the government blocked access to Blogger, how they've stepped up their online surveillance tactics and how they government has gone as far as to redirect activist blogs to pornographic sites or comment troll blogs that criticize their tactics.

Another example of blogger repression is Hu Jia of China, an AIDS activist and dissent who along with his wife and newborn baby, was put under house arrest for a third time for "subverting state authority".

Yet in what may be a first, a journalism student in Afghanistan was sentenced to death for printing an article from a blog, reading it and disseminating it.

Global Voice Online reports :

According to Afghan Penlog and international media, Parwez Kambakhsh was detained by the authorities on October 27, 2007 for downloading and distributing an article that he found on an Iranian weblog to friends. It spoke of women's rights, the Quran and the Prophet Mohammed. A local court in northern Afghanistan in Mazar-e Sharif has convicted him to death for the alleged blasphemy.

It has been revealed though that Mr. Kambakhsh was being targeted in retaliation for his brother's work as a journalist. Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is a journalist who covers corruption and human rights abuses in the northern provinces.

In the United States the buzz around blogs is "how much money can I make from it". Elsewhere in the world it seems the main preoccupation is how to blog without being disappeared into a prison or just simply killed.

For this matter, Global Voices Online has created Blog for a Cause!: The Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy. It builds upon advice culled by Reporters Without Borders in the groundbreaking Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents and goes further. It not only takes into consideration all the online surveillance tactics regimes have developed in the last 2 1/2 years since its publication. It also gives tips on the basics of cross-cultural and transnational political strategizing.

A fantastic example of their advice :

One example of how not to start an advocacy blog is the Free Alaa blog2, which lobbied for the freedom of jailed Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd El Fattah in 2006. I, along with other international bloggers, started the Free Alaa blog without coordinating well with Alaa's wife and friends in Egypt. This was counter-productive because Alaa's wife Manal was trying to organize all information about her husband through their shared blog, Alaa and Manal's Bit Bucket .

In addition, Alaa later revealed that the presence of our blog, which has since been taken down, actually caused him to be held in jail longer because the government saw him as more high-profile and thus as a greater threat.

Whenever I read the political conditions in which other citizen journalists and writers do what I take for granted, I feel a tinge of remorse for having it relatively easy.

And then I have to remind myself of the White House's attempt to grant immunity to telecommunications companies that assisted the government into the illegal wiretapping US civilians. Or how a lobbying organization like the RIAA wants to have unfettered access to my digital privacy in a vain attempt to curtail all fair use of anything they deem their intellectual property. Or I just simply remind myself how Homeland Security does indeed consider bloggers a national security threat and, well, I have to reckon that what happens abroad compared to the US may be just a matter of style.

Image Source :
Screenshot of BBC webpage.