Lately I have been MIA in the blogosphere and for that I apologize. Thank you all for continuing to read, despite my faithfulness to this space. Steve and I have been visiting dear family and friends on the mainland, making stops in Michigan, Chicago, New Jersey, New York, Maryland (where we created the little stop-motion treasure below) and are currently in Memphis (yes, I realize that I have listed some places as states and some as cities).
Once we return to Kona (on Tuesday) I am sure that I will be able to devote more time to online communication. For now, sit back, relax, enjoy the music of Jonsi and some young souls running around being ridiculous (and if you are from the Annapolis area, keep an eye out for these pirate faces in the local paper!)
The End of Poverty? is a daring, thought-provoking and very timely documentary by award-winning filmmaker, Philippe Diaz, revealing that poverty is not an accident. It began with military conquest, slavery and colonization that resulted in the seizure of land, minerals and forced labor. Today, global poverty has reached new levels because of unfair debt, trade and tax policies -- in other words, wealthy countries exploiting the weaknesses of poor, developing countries. The End of Poverty? asks why today 20% of the planet's population uses 80% of its resources and consumes 30% more than the planet can regenerate?
Sign The Petition Poverty will never end unless there are real solutions to end it; solutions based on economic justice and political changes.
In conjunction with our experts we have developed 10 Solutions to End Poverty.Our goal is to get 10 million signatures (globally) in 10 years and to mobilize your support to force our leaders to implement such policy changes.
10 Solutions to End Poverty
We The People Demand:
1. The full equality between men and women in public as well as private areas of life, a worldwide minimum wage of $20 per day and the end of child labor under the age of 16 with the creation of a subsidy for scholarship.
2. The guarantee of shelter, healthcare, education, food and drinking water as basic human rights that must be provided free to all.
3. A total redistribution of idle lands to landless farmers and the imposition of a 50% cap on arable land devoted to products for export per country, with the creation of a worldwide subsidy for organic agriculture.
4. An end to private monopoly ownership over natural resources, with a minimum of 51% local communal ownership in corporations, which control such resources as well as the termination of intellectual property rights on pharmaceutical drugs.
5. The cancellation of third world debt with no reciprocal obligations attached and the payment of compensation to Third World countries for historical as well as ecological debt.
6. An obligation of total transparency for any corporation with more than 100 employees and a 1% tax on all benefits distributed to shareholders of corporations to create unemployment funds.
7. The termination of tax havens around the world as well as free flow of capital in developing countries.
8. The cancellation of taxes on labor and basic consumption, the creation of a 2% worldwide tax on property ownership (expect basic habitation for the poor) and the implementation of a global 0.5% flat tax on all financial transactions with a total prohibition of speculation on food products.
9. An equal voting for developing countries in international organizations such as IMF, World Bank, WTO, and the termination of veto right for the permanent members of the UN Security Counsel.
10. A commitment by industrialized countries to decrease carbon emission by 50% over a ten-year period as well as reducing by 25% each developed country’s consumption of natural resources.
We the people commit to not vote for a representative who would not endorse at least half of these propositions and to boycott any corporation which would oppose the implementation of any of these propositions. Sign the petition here.
