I decided to get involved with an innovative organization called "Kiva.org" earlier this month. I took the opportunity to review the site and explain how it works in an entry on HelpForum blog entitled "Kiva.org: Helping 2.0." This is where I will post updates about my interaction with Kiva.org and its ongoing work.
After browsing the entrepreneurs on Kiva recently, I finally decided to loan $25 to "T. Square Take Away Drinks," in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania (wikimapia, CIA). The owner's name is Gloria Mbgela and here is her profile:
GLORIA, age 49, supports a house of 7 with her bar and liquor store, "T. Square Take Away Drinks." Although she has no children of her own, she and her husband take care of 5 relatives' children, three of which have been orphaned. Gloria's husband, who used to work for the local phone company, is now without a job because of a stroke that affected his memory.
Gloria's bar and shop opened around 2½ years ago and now employs 5 workers. This business brings Gloria an average profit of around $20 a day, from its 10-20 customers on the weekdays and 50 on the weekends.
Gloria has taken out two previous loans from Tujijenge Tanzania to buy a deep freezer and initial stock for her liquor store. Having paid these back successfully, she now hopes for a third loan to increase her inventory and buy chairs for her bar.
Gloria belongs to the group Makete (named after their district in Dar es Salaam), which consists of 15 other members who keep each other accountable and insure one another in paying back their loans.
Gloria Mbgela received her loan in lightning fast time and I was notified by email of an update that the local field partner in Dar Es Salaam, Tujijenga Tanzania, had posted on her Kiva Journal. Awesome!
George Jetson would be proud. Meet the Aptera Typ-1, a nextgen hybrid, about to go into the manufacturing phase after much research and development by the California company, Aptera. This vehicle comes in two models: a totally plugin electric and a hybrid gas-electric for greater range.
The design of the Aptera makes engineering sense, but will people buy a car that looks like an airplane or a fish? Apparently, they will. The Aptera website has been crushed from a riot of people clamoring to pre-register for the first manufacturing run, dropping a cool $500 to get on that list.
One tantalizing feature of the Aptera is that it gets about 300 mpg and has a greatly expanded range from other plugin electric vehicles. The gas-electric hybrid is equally environmentally and pocketbook friendly.
Aptera is legally classified by the California Department of Transportation (CAL DOT) as a motorcycle! This may seem weird to many people, but since I have been following the many issues surrounding new vehicles, I can say this is normal. A car has 4 wheels. The law basically says that vehicles with less than 4 wheels are not cars, but motorcycles. In July, I showed you photos of my friend's tricked-out trike, an increasingly popular model, because it's safer to drive.
While Aptera's bureaucratic classification is an interesting thing, one look at the vehicle on the Aptera website might inspire you to look more seriously into a vehicle like this. The interior is amazing and chock full-o-tech. I've also heard that the Aptera is going to cost about half of what the Tesla Roadster is going to cost you.
Last summer, I told you about the Alabama teen peace activist, Ava Lowery. She's still making videos. The one above is called "Confront the war president" made in order to promote the peace march that took place last month. She has remained positive and steadfast in the face of some very powerful right-wing critics in the media. Visit her website peacetakescourage.
Unlike the Vietnam era, this generation of teenagers seems to be able to be supportive of the country's military personnel while at the same time seeing war with open eyes. I thought this video from Lizzie Palmer, a teenager from Ohio, was especially well done. It was featured on the Iraq Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) blog.
It's interesting to me that the IAVA was formed as a Republican political counterweight organization to the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and yet both are concerned with many of the same issues concerning the health and welfare of veterans and active duty military personnel.
How will this end?
Well, we know the surge will end in April and a drawdown of troops will commence. The ground forces of Army and Marines can not maintain the current operational tempo of deployment as it is.
President Bush has unequivocally stated that the U.S. military will stay in Iraq during his term as president. Cheney has opined that he had hoped that Israel would strike Iran, so when Iran retaliates, we could have a viable excuse to attack Iran.
Some military leaders at the Pentagon have been trying to put the neocon crazies back in their playpens quite publicly lately. They show little to no support for any military action against Iran.
Cheney has held up the publication of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran for over a year. It's very likely he and the other neocon crazies are trying to influence the intelligence estimate, but simply can't find any damning evidence or make it up like they did during run up to Iraq.
As long as Iran doesn't take the bait, so to speak, and remains calm in its own actions to various provocations -- like U.S. economic sanctions or border skirmishes with the MKO -- the best we can hope for over the next year is not allowing Bush/Cheney to widen the current war to Iran.
The 2008 presidential elections will be pivotal, of course. Whomever is elected, I think the current Iraqi government will make some moves. To save face, the United States could start withdrawing its military presence next December, if the Iraqi government simply asks the U.S. to leave. So far, the Maliki government has renewed the legal justification for U.S. occupation at the United Nations each December. So, we'll see.
The United States is unlikely to completely withdraw from Iraq. A billion-dollar embassy compound and several huge airbases that have been built over the last 4 years make me think that we're there to stay until the middle east countries deplete their oil reserves in about 50 years. The United States is going to be the security guard standing in front of that store for as long as its got stuff to sell.
The future
Despite my own pragmatic pessimism, it does make me happy to see two teenagers civically involved and engaged. There needs to be involvement, not self-centered apathy. There needs to be an honest debate and discussion. If the last 7 years of the Bush regime taught us anything as a country, it should be that the path to tyranny is paved by sheeple and slackers.
I find myself very depressed this Veteran's Day for so many reasons. I didn't go to a parade or eat BBQ with fellow military veterans. This weekend was spent alone, at home, not speaking to anyone in person. I'm just too angry and depressed to be in polite company making small talk. And knowing myself well enough to know that I have an argumentative and sarcastic nature, I don't want to be "that guy," who is the social buzz kill for those who prefer to enjoy Veteran's Day like little kids who believe that the Easter Bunny has hidden a treat for them to find on the White House lawn. Some veterans need that Neverland to simply cope with the conflicting surreality raging in their minds between their belief in duty, honor and country and being frontline chum in the war machine of corporate interests.
While my personal situation certainly is a part of my unhappiness with how military veterans have been treated in the United States, I honestly don't feel comfortable detailing my personal situation or whining about it in a public forum. Certainly, there are literally millions of fellow veterans far worse off than I am. I'm grateful for many positive things in my life which have mitigated the severity of my woes, none of which has anything to do with being a veteran.
Since I do often write about U.S. politics and foreign policy, those are the areas where my complaints will be primarily laid.
So-called War on Terror
When the Berlin wall fell, the neocons within the Washington D.C. establishment of government, politics, defense, state, think-tank and lobbying organizations licked their chops for their version of America Superpower 2.0. It's not a secret conspiracy. It's been out in the open for many years. Infotainment media might have had a role in distracting middle America from the machinations of powerbrokers struggling in our nation's capitol, but one can't blame the inanimate shiny keys when the citizenry is fixated on Paris Hilton. Citizens have responsibilities as well as rights in a representative republic.
One of those responsibilities is to vote. Many of you simply suck for your slackerness. You think it's cool to be a slacker? You are exactly the bored, uninvolved type of person that facist regimes around the world and throughout time have exploited. Thanks for nothing, assholes.
If you think politics is boring, try some Orwellian prison time. We can build a border wall around the United States and you can live in that federally monitered society, like East Berlin, and you can wave the party flag and pray to your Lord Jesus that your son or daughter, niece or nephew, won't be drafted when the next war for oil with Iran, or Venezuela, or Nigeria happens. Good luck with that plan.
Right now, 2007 was the deadliest year for military personnel serving in Iraq.
Right now, 2007 was the deadliest year for military serving in Afghanistan.
Right now, your local TV news probably doesn't even air any news about Iraq.
Right now, you think everthing is just fine and dandy.
Right now, only 1 percent of the citizens of the U.S. are active military.
Right now, you're probably thinking about ways not to think about this reality.
That's why I stayed home and hunkered down. I'm burdened with the knowledge of the facts and it screams to blow away the mythology of the ignorantly blissful and patriotic around me.
"Several years ago, I was the Lead Animator of Matrix Reloaded. It was a great job, but it wasn't my dream job. I wanted to make my own feature film. So I quit to pursue my dream.
For the past 4 years, I've been working at my computer 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. I've spent my entire life savings and maxed out credit cards. After all this time and effort, my movie is almost done. I present to you a preview of my feature film directorial debut... Killer Bean Forever."
— Jeff Lew, Director
You know how I like independent films! This animated film looks pretty damn cool. I can't wait for it to be finished. I can't imagine rendering all those CG frames at home for a feature length film. .
Do check out the Killer Bean Forever website for news about the upcoming release. Lew also has some interesting information about animation, too.
I did get to finally go to theater and see "30 Days of Night." It was quite shocking on the big screen. Living in Florida, though, the cold of Barrow, Alaska scared me much more than did the pesky vampires. I felt that sense of dread from the bitter cold that I used to feel during Michigan winters. It's a good horror flick.
