Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone and it’s true, war is over if you want it.

Much love to all who couldn’t be home this year.

-Cara

The $3 Trillion Shopping Spree

The occupation of Iraq will cost $3 trillion, America’s most expensive conflict since WWII.

This site, http://3trillion.org/, is about you having 3 trillion dollars and what you can do for yourself or the world with it. You are taken to a global shopping spree, you browse their on-line store, fill up your cart, click the checkout button, and send virtual gifts to others. I was surprise how it was hard for me to get 3 trillion dollars worth of stuff. If these numbers are correct this site is a great educational tool. It makes things seem less unknown, even if the numbers are approximations. I think anyone can add stuff so…it is still fun.  A tip don’t go over the 3 trillion dollar total as it has a bug and clears your whole cart. I learned that the hard way… :[

http://3trillion.org/

Spread the word.

-Cara

Code Pink – Women For Peace

Code Pink, who knows how I found this site, but I was cleaning up my bookmarks today and rediscovered it. You’re welcome!

According to their web site,

“CODEPINK emerged out of a desperate desire by a group of American women to stop the Bush administration from invading Iraq. The name CODEPINK plays on the Bush Administration’s color-coded homeland security alerts — yellow, orange, red — that signal terrorist threats. While Bush’s color-coded alerts are based on fear and are used to justify violence, the CODEPINK alert is a feisty call for women and men to “wage peace.”

CODEPINK is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education and other life-affirming activities. CODEPINK rejects the Bush administration’s fear-based politics that justify violence, and instead calls for policies based on compassion, kindness and a commitment to international law. With an emphasis on joy and humor, CODEPINK women and men seek to activate, amplify and inspire a community of peacemakers through creative campaigns and a commitment to non-violence.”

In other words, they kick ass. They have a YouTube channel you can check out, Don’t Buy Bush’s War. There’s videos of these women getting arrested by Capitol Hill police and such. They’re no joke, and I’m glad they exist.

Represent.

-Cara

Wednesday Petitions and Causes – Save Darfur

Federal Contracts Ban

President Bush must act immediately to implement the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007. The Act bans federal contracts with companies that help fund genocide in Darfur and can add much-needed economic pressure on the Sudanese regime to end the violence in Darfur.

The legislation is in place – we’re waiting for the President to act. The April 29 deadline to implement the legislation has passed, but we have still not seen any movement from the White House.

Fill out these forms to urge President Bush to implement the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act and make sure U.S. tax dollars do not reward foreign companies that help fund genocide.

We are are one people, we must stop hurting each other for something that will never give us happiness.

-Cara

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Reason 96 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

A 25-percent decline in heart disease in Poland in the early 1990s coincided with the country’s transformation to a market economy, which ended government subsidies to meat. A switch primarily to vegetable fats and the increased importation of fruit were also seen as factors in the decline, according to a report made by a team of multinational researchers. The authors of the report noted that the decline was “apparently without precedent in peacetime.”

How To Help End Hunger Using One Piece Of Paper…Easy!

Well not just paper, you’ll also need a printer, an envelope and one stamp. That is not a lot to help end world hunger.

What am I talking about…?

“In September 2000, the 189 countries of the United Nations unanimously agreed to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty,” specifically hunger and the “major diseases that afflict humanity.”

To accomplish this great objective would be expensive, and the price was later estimated at about $195 billion a year. It would be very difficult for this amount of money to be raised by private charities or individuals. It would require the combined efforts of governments throughout the world to do it.

Countries Agree to 0.7% in International Aid

In the March 2002 Monterrey Conference, 22 of the world’s wealthiest countries (listed above) agreed to make “concrete efforts” towards the goal of each giving 0.7 per cent of their national income as aid to the poorest countries. This conference was attended by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. President George Bush, French President Jacques Chirac, and many other world leaders.

In the September 2002 Johannesburg Summit, these same 22 counties re-affirmed their commitment to reach the 0.7% goal. This would provide enough money to raise the $195 billion per year.

Why the 0.7% Agreement?

The countries made this agreement because they realized that it was hard for each country on its own to give a consistent, minimum level of aid each year. Despite good intentions, a country would find that the aid it wanted to give was eaten away by competing political interests, concern about budget deficits, “problems at home,” “problems abroad,” and so on. So they agreed to a minimal, flat rate that each country could afford each year regardless of its current political or economic state.

The 0.7% figure may sound complicated, but it is actually quite simple. You take the total income earned by all the people in the country and then the government gives 0.7% (seven tenths of one percent) of that as aid. Or to look at it another way: for every $100 earned in the country, the country gives 70 cents in aid.

COUNTRY	For each $100 earned in the country, how much is donated in aid	Aid as % of income	How close the country is to reaching the 0.7% goal
Sweden	103 cents	1.03	Already reached goal
Luxembourg	89 cents	0.89	Already reached goal
Norway	89 cents	0.89	Already reached goal
Netherlands	81 cents	0.81	Already reached goal
Denmark	80 cents	0.80	Already reached goal
Ireland	53 cents	0.53	Scheduled to reach in 2012
United Kingdom	52 cents	0.52	Scheduled to reach in 2013
Belgium	50 cents	0.50	Scheduled to reach in 2010
Austria	48 cents	0.48	Scheduled to reach in 2015
France	47 cents	0.47	Scheduled to reach in 2012
Switzerland	39 cents	0.39	No schedule yet
Finland	39 cents	0.39	Scheduled to reach in 2010
Germany	36 cents	0.36	Scheduled to reach in 2014
Spain	32 cents	0.32	Scheduled to reach in 2012
Canada	30 cents	0.30	No schedule yet
Australia	30 cents	0.30	No schedule yet
New Zealand	27 cents	0.27	No schedule yet
Japan	25 cents	0.25	No schedule yet
Portugal	21 cents	0.21	Scheduled to reach in 2015
Italy	20 cents	0.20	Scheduled to reach in 2015
United States	17 cents	0.17	No schedule yet
Greece	16 cents	0.16	Scheduled to reach in 2015

Source: OECD. The figures for 2007 are due out in April 2008.

How are the countries doing?

As the chart above shows, five countries have already met the goal to give 0.7% of their income in international aid: Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.In 2002 and 2003, five other countries set up a schedule to give 0.7%: Belgium, Ireland, Finland, France, and Spain.In July 2004, the United Kingdom set up a schedule to give 0.7%.In April 2005, Germany set up a schedule to give 0.7%.In May 2005, Austria, Greece, Italy, and Portugal set up a schedule to give 0.7%.

It was not easy for many of the countries to set up a schedule to reach the 0.7% goal. In some cases, such as Britain and Germany, it took the combined effort of many thousands of citizens writing and petitioning their government to get it done.

The remaining six countries

Only six countries have not yet set up a schedule to give 0.7%. These are Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States. To raise the $195 billion a year, these six will need to reach the goal.These six countries are all democracies. All that is necessary for them to reach the 0.7% goal is for enough of their citizens to show their support. “

Sources: UN Millennium Project, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), The End of Poverty (Jeffrey D. Sachs), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

I got all this information above from poverty.com. I have bought into the first-web-site-I-see-I-believe drama before and been made a fool of, so this time I decided to do some research. Here is what I found out on the United Nations’ web site about what went down at the Monterrey Conference pertaing to eradicating poverty. More specifically what President Bush said America would do to help eradicate said poverty. You can read that part here and decide for yourself what he said. I’m not here to incite political debates, I’m just trying to figure out what I need to do to make the world a little bit better…which brings me back to the one piece of paper, a printer, an envelope and one stamp…

This is the link for a letter to send to your specific country’s leader, either encouraging then to keep their word [i.e.- America, Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, and New Zealand] or to tell them they rock for making and sticking to their commitment! All you have to do is click on your country, hit print, fold, put in envelope, address [so you will also need a pen], lick, stamp, send…no more poverty…sweet.

I will mail mine tomorrow.

I’m out.

-Cara