Ep: 80 The Big Picture

On this Guy Fawkes day we celebrate the Celtic New Year in a conversation with author/ philosopher Brendan Myers, PhD.

We tackle the questions that we all confront at some point in our lives regarding codes of conduct, the immensities of living as a corporal being, how we relate to the planet and each other, coping with death and committing to a standard of honor that makes looking back a reflection of a hero's journey.

Brendan's sites are:

Web site: http://wildideas.net/cathbad
Blog: http://northwestpass.livejournal.com

You can reach him via email at: bmyers33@live.ca


Laudatio Ejus Manet In Seculum Seculi
"Praise remains for ever"

His books:

Does Foreign Aid do More Harm than Good?

Photo: dlisbona

Source: http://www.facebook.com/matadornetwork?v=wall#/note.php?note_id=171640616757&ref=mf


Some say yes, calling foreign aid a form of neo-colonialism that does not alleviate poverty, but in fact perpetuates it.

I had a particularly privileged friend during high school—let’s call him Joe. On Joe’s sixteenth birthday, his father bought him a brand new Audi, a truly sweet piece of machinery. After several months of joyrides and speeding tickets, the engine block locked up, and the Audi was finished. Joe had never changed (or even checked) the oil.

His father was furious and refused to foot the steep bill of repair.

What did Joe do? He got motivated. He mowed lawns and cleaned gutters every weekend until he could afford a twelve-year-old jalopy. And he cared for that clunker with the proud dedication of a doting mechanic. Was Joe’s sudden maturity unusual, or was it a natural result of his newfound self-reliance?

The bigger questions for our purposes are:
1. Does the weight of liability change human behavior?

2. If so, how should this inform the first world’s approach to extreme poverty in the third world?

In the realm of sustainable development and foreign aid (that is, not emergency-relief aid), there are no easy answers. The ongoing debate comprises a plethora of polemics, but I discern three main viewpoints among them:

1. Big money, top-down “planners”
The proposition: Extreme poverty is a big, multi-level problem that requires big, multi-level solutions. We need large-scale plans—ambitious, multi-billion dollar initiatives by resource-rich outfits such as UNICEF and USAID.
Top-down planners advocate a comprehensive strategy due to the interdependency of factors inherent to poverty. That is, economic invulnerability depends on diversity of employment options, which depends on access to quality education, which depends on reliable infrastructure and students’ health, so we must build roads and hospitals and distribute mosquito nets. . . and on and on. Everything relies on everything else.

The opposition: Ineffective penetration, lack of accountability. Big aid money goes to governments rather than the people, as money gets siphoned off at all levels. This approach enables corruption and encourages irresponsible governance.
Grandiose schemes are poorly implemented due to insufficient understanding of ground conditions. In short, there is too much distance between planners and intended beneficiaries.

Also, such aid smacks of neo-colonialism. Gift money brands recipients as junior partners in the exchange, and thus paternalistically prohibits self-reliance by perpetuating need.
The tone here is negative: “We pity you, so here’s some help. But we won’t invest and trade with you on equal terms, because you’re beneath us.”

2. Small money, bottom-up “searchers”
The proposition: Lasting gains are intrinsically incremental. Establishing improvements that actually benefit the poor requires ground knowledge. Aid workers must go to the bottom rung, learn the environment, and search for ways to improve conditions within quantifiable parameters.
Unlike top-down aid, bottom-up aid focuses on building capacity within target communities to become active participants in the determination and execution of development projects. This approach aims to level the exchange, so beneficiaries are gradually empowered to take up their own cause. Weaning is essential, hence these NGOs have an exit strategy.
The opposition: The process is slow, but hunger and disease don’t wait. And as with top-down aid, the onus of responsibility is lifted from local government. Government officials can sequester resources while remaining nominally responsible for the progress made by NGOs within their jurisdictions.
Though subtler, bottom-up aid is still paternalistic. It feigns home-grown development, but foreign influence is undeniable, especially in cases where community “input” amounts to locals saying yes to whatever is proposed by those holding the checkbook.

3. The “bootstraps” faction
The proposition: Foreign development aid is a self-perpetuating, growing institution and has actually harmed the third world. Aid fosters dependency, encourages corruption, and in turn exacerbates poverty. Top-down aid fails to create jobs or other lasting improvements, and likewise most bottom-up aid functions on the condescending presumption that target communities cannot participate unassisted in the open market.
This position calls for a sea change in the mindset of aid recipients, who have been conditioned to believe that foreign aid is the solution to their plight. They have been systematically incentivized against their own initiative.
Big money, top-down aid is more culpable for increased disenfranchisement in the developing world than the bottom-up variety, because its magnitude of misguided funds has more solidly entrenched corrupt leaders.
“A largely libertarian approach may have worked for North America and western Europe, but these same countries arguably caused many of the developing world’s problems through imperialism.”
Bottom-up aid in which “searchers” prepare locals for full participation in the free market is non-ideal, but not necessarily harmful. The answer lies in pro-market measures: microfinance, foreign direct investment, trade, floating bonds—systems that encourage innovation and foster self-reliance.
The opposition: There is no definitive, causal link between foreign aid and extant poverty. The two are correlated, but there are too many excluded variables—access to water and other resources, quality of soil, geopolitical history, and so forth—to place the blame squarely on aid. Removal (even a phase-out) of aid in highly dependent areas could be disastrous.
A largely libertarian approach may have worked for North America and western Europe, but these same countries arguably caused many of the developing world’s problems through imperialism. And owing to this differing root of poverty, it may be beyond the capacity of today’s third world to elevate itself out of the poverty trap.
So, what’s the solution?
I don’t know. Like most development workers, I am ambivalent about what exactly the developed world should be doing. My views both align with and diverge from certain arguments proffered by each stance. Every approach seems to have some merit, yet they contradict one another.
My intent is to raise the right questions, not offer answers. That’s where you come in.

Honoring the Dead

Photo: Eneas

It is New Year's Day for we Celts, and in Mexico there is an observance that traces back to the Aztecs which is a very similar celebration to our Samhain festival which acknowledges the souls of the departed.

The costumes and candies are vestiges of this tradition of offering soulcakes and painting oneself as a spirit to tap into the spirit world. Remembering this will bring back meaning to one night of partying and gorging on sweets.

Courtesy Matador Trips:http://www.facebook.com/matadornetwork?v=wall


“The Mexican…is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it…”
Octavio Paz

Marigolds, sugar skulls, and tequila-adorned altars — Paz was right. No holiday celebrates death like Día de los Muertos.

Its Aztec roots reach back millennia. Surviving colonial absorption into Catholicism’s All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days, the holiday retains the Aztec idea of death as a continuation of life in a parallel form; souls of the departed have an easier time visiting this world on Día de los Muertos, aided by the ofrendas (altars of offerings) the living set out.

Here’s a roundup of some of the best places to catch a celebration, both traditional and modern:

1. Pátzcuaro, Mexico

The sleepy streets of Pátzcuaro in central Mexico explode during Día de los Muertos week with truck-fulls of marigolds, street stalls selling pan de muerto (sweet bread), and one killer craft market. Look out for signature Catrinas, painstakingly ornate handmade calaca (skeleton) figures.

Photo: AlexPears

The local Purépecha people’s observance retains a more spiritual, traditional aspect than anywhere else — a soulfulness that counterbalances the slew of tourists.

Locally referred to as Noche de los Muertos, all-night graveside vigils are held in the villages surrounding Pátzcuaro on November 1.

In Tzintzuntzan, the next pueblo over, camping families cuddle up and tell stories about deceased loved ones at the foot of candlelit ofrendas. The local cemetery is open to the public, admission is free, and photographs are allowed (remember to be respectful).

Separate observances are held for angelitos — the souls of children. The most well-known occurs on the tiny island of Isla Janitzio in the middle of Lake Pátzcuaro. Mothers of angelitos hold a special procession to the children’s cemetery, while fishermen surround the island in candlelit boats.

As this is a popular observance, the island is uncomfortably full of tourists. Tip: Go after 3am.

2. Mexico City/Mixquic

Mexico D.F. sprouts marigolds and spontaneous streetside ofrendas during Día de los Muertos week. An altar contest is held in the Zócalo (main square) and big-time museums such as Casa Azul, Anahuacalli, and Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño get in the spirit with larger-than-life papier-mâché calaca scenes.

Major vigils are held at the city’s largest cemeteries, Panteón Civil de Dolores and Bosque de Chapultepec.

Within the urban areas of Mexico City, the holiday is celebrated as a folk tradition, rather than a spiritual or religious affair.

This is not the case in the once-small-town of Mixquic, which has been geographically — but not culturally — swallowed by the southeasterly sprawl of the D.F.

Here, a cardboard coffin leads a candlelit procession through the streets to the town’s graveyards, where families gather to celebrate. Candles remain lit to guide spirits home and midnight bells toll to call them back.

3. San Francisco Bay Area

Día de los Muertos observances in the Bay Area blend the familial focus of its large Latino population with the creativity of its arts community. San Francisco’s Mission District is ground zero for the November 2nd procession and altar exhibit, a 30-plus-year tradition.

The free event draws an impressive cross-section of the city’s population and some heavily politicized, artistic works.

Across the Bay, Oakland’s Fruitvale district holds a daytime street fair on the Sunday preceding the holiday. Even with throngs of people and scores of vendors, the vibe is local, with traditional altars and dance performances, radio stations’ speakers throbbing hip-hop, local merchant booths, and some bangin’ Cali-Mex food stands.

Museums around the Bay embrace Día de los Muertos. Altars, events, and exhibits are held at the de Young and Oakland Museums and community galleries like SomArts, Galería de la Raza, and The Crucible.

4. Los Angeles

Nothing may capture LA’s dichotomy of culture quite like the city’s most well-known Day of the Dead celebrations.

On the one side is the Self Help Graphics & Art’s festivities in the Evergreen Cemetery in East LA. This Chicano-centered art collective has been putting on the free November 2nd event since 1972, taking a community-based approach — local artists, residents, youth, and even nuns come together.

Of similar authenticity is the Olvera Street Merchants’ nine nightly processions down their historic street in the evenings preceding the holiday, where you can sip free champurrado (a thick Mexican hot chocolate) and munch pan de muerto.

On the other side of the spectrum, across town, is the popular Hollywood Forever Cemetery’s admission-based celebration.

Faint whiffs of tradition mix with hip altars honoring celebrities, overpriced craft vendors, and a heavy taste of commercialization.

The altar contest draws some wryly imaginative creations, though, and the event serves as a fascinating example of the Hollywood-ification of culture.

5. Santiago Sacatepéquez, Guatemala

While the exact connection between Mexico’s Aztec-based Day of the Dead and Guatemala’s Mayan-based version are not totally clear, the parallels are undeniable. Both pre-Columbian holidays were co-opted into the Catholic All Saints’ Day, and both retain a celebratory approach towards death.

Guatemalans take to the graveyards, decorating gravestones in similarly elaborate altars adorned with marigolds.

What sets celebrations in Guatemala apart are the barriletes gigantes — extravagant and enormous kites central to the festivities.

These hand-constructed kites guide the departed souls back to life on November 1. As a link between life and death, they’re covered with special messages and designs to the deceased, written by the living.

Also unique to Guatemala is fiambre, a cheesy cold-meat-salad smorgasbord placed in altars to lure the dead back.

Guatemala’s best Día de los Muertos celebrations are held in the town of Santiago Sacatepéquez, outside of Antigua. Plenty of tourists pile in but, as in Pátzcuaro, celebrations are steeped in tradition, not tourism.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Continue the celebration of death with Graveyard Travel: How to Celebrate Life by Visiting the Dead and How People Celebrate Halloween in Spain.

Also, learn How to Make Sugar Skulls for Dia de los Muertos.

Choices

There are those among us who move in quiet, noble integrity. I have been privileged to meet and interview many such unsung heroes: Tata Vitor Lopez, Grandmother Josephine of Sioux Ste. Marie, Brendan Myers, PhD, and Marcia Dixon, MSc pictured above.

When I present information that indicates our current fundamental systems are corrupt, crumbling, and need a massive overhaul, I do so with the intent to increase awareness and inspire action.

The first step towards collective change, in my humble opinion, is for each one of us to take responsibility for our thoughts and actions. Criticism is of little use if you don't offer an alternative. My rants against the big pharmas are balanced by my commitment to get back to basics and learn how to reacquaint myself with nature's medicine.

This is where Marcia Dixon comes in, as a certified medical herbalist.



I took a four lecture series with Marcia this Fall regarding the creation of oil infusions and salves using plants one can grow in the garden - or a balcony if you live in an apartment.



This is the end result: a calendula salve which I happened to make use of already on a small rash that appeared by my left ear ( too much ipod listening with earphones rubbing against skin ). It worked like a charm in two days the irritation subsided.



Thanks Marcia!

Here is her website, if you'd like to get in touch with her yourself:

http://www.marcia-dixon.com/index.php

Just the Facts Please

After seeing nothing but headlines indicating children dying of swine flu ( H1N1 ) I'd like to put things in perspective for you, dear readers. As you know, people who publish stories according to the maxim: "If it Bleeds - it leads", are not interested in objective journalism.

SYMPTOMS of influenza:

Fever
Headache
Cough
Sore Throat
Runny & Stuffy Nose
Extreme Fatigue
Muscle Aches
Nausea, Vomiting, Diarrhea ( most common in children )

DEATH STATS

816 over a total of 160 countries in one year.

In Europe: 16,556 cases with 34 deaths.

Odds are higher that you'll die from drowning in a bathtub ( 807,000/1 ) than dying of H1N1 ( 8,000,000/1 )

Regular strains of influenza kill more than 35,000 Americans a year.

BIRD FLU was supposed to wipe us out - WHO reports ( 1 June 09 ) 436 cases and 262 deaths.

SARS was supposed to kill millions and since 2003 there have been up to 167 deaths.

TUBERCULOSIS has killed 1.6 million in 2005 alone!! Where's the press?

Tamiflu ( treatment for H1N1 and bird flu ) licensed to Gilead Sciences Inc. Roche manufactures it under a license patent protection until 2016 and will not be held liable for any ill effects.

USA ordered 25 million doses at $80/course totaling $2 billion.

Chairman of Gilead between 1997 - 2001 and major stock holder : DONALD RUMSFELD former Secretary of Defense.

President Bush ordered $1.7 billion in bird flu vaccines. 14% went to Gilead. Share values rose 700% from 2005. Net income for 2nd quarter in '09 = $571.4 million.

10% on every vaccine went to Rumsfeld.

Monthly deaths due to AIDS in South Africa: 50,000
Annual deaths due to TB 80,000
Annual road fatalities 18,000
Annual murders in USA 25,000

Yet you are bombarded by nothing but H1N1 propaganda. Now you know who profits.