Love Letter to the Democrats

I got another one of those emails from the Democrats telling me if I give them $3 or more they will take the fight to the Republicans. Here's what I sent them back.

Will you really? Seriously? That's a good one.

If I am concerned about the Republicans' single minded focus on a cruel and misogynist agenda, I am totally dismayed at the spineless and feeble Democratic response. Where is the passion and backbone and, truth be told, strength of character portrayed by the Democratic Party that I have stood by since I registered to vote the day after I turned 18? What happened to the visionary President that I voted for and campaigned for and donated money to and who made me believe that the greatest thing my daughter could aspire to was to be the President of the United States?

The thousands of dollars that I've contributed so far haven't exactly delivered the goods. The quality of the recent mid-term election certainly was a disappointment but no where nearly as soul-sapping as the continued feeble quality of the political debate around continued funding of the government.

You are going to tell the American people how bad the Republican plan for our country is? Here's a bit of a wake-up call: THEY ALREADY KNOW. THEY VOTED THE BASTARDS IN ON THAT VERY PLATFORM.

Given how effective the money I've given the Democratic Party has been to date, I think I'll save that $3, along with the rest of the political contributions I was going to make, until you guys man up, grow a pair and start to show some real leadership. You know, the kind that the Republicans are showing. Show me that kind of leadership and then I'll show you the colour of my money.

Good luck.

--MG

I confess that I do feel a bit better to get that off my chest. But only a very little bit.

The next email I read told me that I'd won the Swiss lottery. So, not only do the Democrats miss out on my $3, they won't see a dime of my lottery winnings until they deliver the goods. That'll show 'em!

Hilary Clinton Joke

I'm not sure where I heard this one, but still think it's funny. --MG

Bill and Hilary were driving through the backwoods of Arkansas and stopped to fill up the car with gas. Bill looked at the gas station attendant in his baseball cap and greasy overalls and said to Hilary, "If you'd married him, you be living in this little town, probably upstairs above this gas station."

Hilary smiled at Bill and said, "No, if I'd married him, he'd have been President of the United States."

Kiva - Loans that Change Lives

For my birthday last year, my friend Narelle gave me a gift certification to Kiva. Now, I'd never heard of Kiva until then but it was one of the best birthday presents I've ever gotten.

Kiva is a non-profit that allows you to lend as little as US$25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur across the globe. It is a person-to-person micro-lending site that connects you to real people who need loans to start or build a business in their local community. Sometimes they are individuals but can be families or co-operatives. They work in a wide range of businesses, from hair dressing to sewing to light manufacturing to retail, restaurants and farming.

The money I lend through Kiva gets aggregated with loans from other lenders and goes to local microfinance institutions Kiva works with. These local institutions are there on the ground and have identified real entrepreneurs from impoverished communities. As these local business grow, it not only helps the family of the business owner, but the rest of their community as well.

You choose who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia or a tailor in Iraq - and as they repay their loan, you get your money back. You can then make another loan or take your money out of Kiva.

So far, I've made 20 loans with 7 paid back in full and 13 loans still active. I get regular updates on how my loans are going and can see, down to the transaciton, just how the repayments are going for each loan on the Kiva website.

Where have I invested?

• Dominican Republic
• Ghana
• Guatemala
• Lebanon
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Phillippnes
• Peru
• Uganda
• Tajikistan
• Tanzania
• Togo

I've had so much fun that I've started giving Kiva gift certificates to my family instead of birthday presents so they can join in the fun.

Kiva. It's a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty.

Girl Talk

Thanks to John for sending this to me. --MG

Bill thought he was the President, too.

Who are You?

On one of the lists I belong to, someone posted a link that I decided to check out. Not something that I was interested it, but it doesn't hurt to look.

Then I read the blogger's blurb on the side and almost lost my breakfast:

Hi, my name is Melanie. I am the wife to a wonderful man for 25 years and mom to 3 beautiful girls.

This is something that I will never understand. Why would you describe yourself in terms of your role in a family or your relationship to someone else, especially a man, as the FIRST thing you say about yourself? I don't remember reading a single blog published by a man who starts off his profile with "Hi, my name is Bob. I am the husband to a wonderful woman for 21 years and dad to 2 beautiful girls."

I believe that the relationships women have with other people, even men, are a good thing, but how does that define who you are? Aren't you someone beyond those roles and relationships? Roles and relationships change over time ... does that change who you are as an individual? Is the core of your being also transient or does it persevere through those external changes?

I am a complex person, or I'd like to think that I am. A single label or title might describe a portion of who I am and, depending on the situation, may be all that is required. But I would never include my marital status or family role as the very first thing that someone needs to know about me. My life and my sense of self are so much richer than a single role or title and richer because of those relationships and roles.

And not just for myself. How my daughter and her friends see themselves and their place in the world is still influenced and limited by how we, as their mothers, see and present ourselves to them and to the rest of the world. If she wants to be a wife and mother, you go girl. If she wants to be that and more or something else instead, you go girl. Hopefully not for a while, mind you. Please, Scout, finish high school first.

People like Karen pop up from time to time just to remind me just how different I am. Just wish she'd waited until I'd had my first cup of coffee.

FINALLY!!!

Finally! A President with a brain.

Finally! A President I can respect.

Finally! I have some hope for the future.

Finally! I can feel proud to be an American.

Congratulations, Mr President.

Jon Stewart Says It Best

Jon Stewart was my constant companion during the recent Presidential campaign, and I think he says it best as we count down the final hours of the Presidency of George W Bush. Today, Monday the 19th of January. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Six Days Seven Nights

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Some Thoughts About Recent Violence in Lebanon

I am fascinated by what is happening in the Middle East. I'm not an expert by any means but have been doing some reading in an effort to understand why these things happen. And it is never as simple as it seems at first glance.

I listened with interest to a news report on the Lebanese Army and their battles with suspected al Qaeda sponsored militants. From what is being reported in the news, you could imagine that what is happening is that the impartial army of the nation-state of Lebanon is trying to stamp out groups of terrorists hiding out in refugee camps. And it is easy to understand why you would think that was all there was to the story.

But I don't think that it is really as simple as that. Here is just a bit more relevant detail behind the story.

The nation-state of Lebanon didn't exist until the end of World War I. It gained its independence from the French when the Germans invaded France during World War II. At the end of WWII, there was an unwritten agreement between Shi'ite, Sunni and Maronite leaders that, among other things:

• Maronites (Christians) would accept Lebanon as an Arab affiliated country instead of a Western one,
• Shi'ites and Sunni Muslims would abandon their hopes of uniting with Syria,
• The President would be Maronite,
• The Prime Minister would be Sunni, and
• The President of the National Assembly would always be Shi'a.

For the most part, the militias affiliated with the Maronites were re-branded as the Lebanese Army, loyal to the President. People who live in Lebanon are more likely to think of themselves as members of their local clan or ethnic/religious group than they are to think of themselves as citizens of Lebanon.

Life in refugee camps is very hard with little in the way of comforts, let alone luxuries. The only internal services provided are made possible by groups that get financial and material assistance from other countries, mostly Muslim. So if you live in a Lebanese refugee camp, it is more likely that the doctor you take your kids to when they are sick or the guy giving you clean drinking water or the teacher at the local school are the same guys who are lobbing shells on the Lebanese Army and Israeli settlements.

While they are labelled as terrorists with links to al Qeada, these guys are not outsiders who have invaded your village one day. They are your friends and family, the guys who are looking out for you when no one else will. They provide you with the essentials and, when you are living rough, that's what matters. You would be no more likely to throw them out of the refugee camp than you would be to allow the Lebanese Army in.

Of course, I have glossed over a lot of detail here, but you get some idea of how much more is going on behind the headlines from Lebanon.

Threat to Democracy

Therapeutic cloning is going to be debated in the NSW Parliament this week and MPs will be able to exercise their conscience when this matter comes to a vote. This bill would allow scientists in NSW to obtain stem cells from embryos but would continue the ban on human cloning for reproduction, bringing NSW in line with current Commonwealth legislation and that of the other States.

But today, Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, has threatened Catholic MPs with "consequences" if they vote in favour of the bill to extend stem cell research. While he isn't threatening them with excommunication, he has suggested that they will not be allowed to take Holy Communion if they vote in favour of this "immoral" bill.

Let's set aside the problem that Cardinal Pell's grasp of the scientific details in this particular matter is just a bit suss. Someone that dogmatic isn't going to let the facts get in the way of his claiming the High Moral Ground.

Cardinal Pell has done something that a CEO from the big end of town, a representative of the NSW gaming industry or an alleged crime boss in Victoria wouldn't dream of doing. Publicly threatening MPs is just not on. They know that the public outcry at such behaviour would do their cause irreparable damage. There are much more effective ways to put forward your position when trying to persuade others to your point of view. But Cardinal Pell obviously isn't encumbered by concerns over the effectiveness of his message (or lack of therein).

I personally find it offensive that a Cardinal, or anyone in such a public position of trust and respect, has the nerve to publicly threaten MPs if they don't do what he wants them to do. How dare he? These MPs were elected to represent the hopes and concerns of the members of their respective constituencies. If this is to be a conscience vote, then we, as members of the public, expect them to do just that, vote their conscience, without obstacle or encumbrance.

And we don't expect them to be publicly threatened by anyone.

Home Ownership?

The Federal government is offering Aboriginal communities a big pile of money if they sign over the rights to their land in return for the right to own their homes on traditional lands. For its part, the government will lease out the land for commercial development in order to build up the local economy in these areas.

Let's set aside the cultural oxymoron of personal ownership in a communal society. I wasn't aware that all the problems that Aboriginal people in remote communities on their traditional lands would be fixed by a mortgage.

Now, this is when I get confused. These are people who don't have jobs and wouldn't normally qualify for a mortgage. And, as I understand it, an asset is only valuable if there is a chance that someone else would be willing to buy it. Owning something that can't be sold means that what you own is worthless. Is there really a demand for houses on traditional lands? Selling a house in a regional or rural centre is hard enough, but in remote Aboriginal communities? Guess I missed that section on Domain.com.au.

And is Westfield really so keen to build a strip shopping mall in remote areas of Australia that they want to circumvent negotiating with traditional owners and just deal with the Federal government for that lease instead? And just what shops are they going to open? David Jones? Sunglasses Hut? Flight Centre? Gloria Jeans? And the workers for these new shops will come from where ... the local communities? Wouldn't prices be very high when you consider the additional transportation costs that the new shops would have to recover? And where would the shoppers come from, given that local people in these small communities would be spending any money they had on their new mortgages?

Home ownership requires skills to maintain and improve the property. And that takes tools and materials and training. Where would all this come from? These are costs that would be difficult for new homeowners with big mortgage payments to absorb.

I gotta tell you, this makes no sense to me at all. Hats off to those communities that tell Mal Brough and Co. to go take a hike.