Joseph Kony & Invisible Children: What is Responsible Advocacy?

I just shared a post on the topic above at the site that goes along with the book I'm co-authoring, Building a Better World: The Pedagogy and Practice of Global Service-Learning. Please take a look there if the topic interests you.

8 Resources for Good Living and Giving in 2012

New Year's Resolutions for conscious consumption, giving, generosity, focusing on what matters? If so, check out this quick list on a new site I'm developing - Building a Better World: The Pedagogy and Practice of Global Service-Learning. It's a site to go along with a book I'm completing with Richard Kiely, Christopher Boettcher, and Jessica Friedrichs - all good old friends.


We'd love your feedback on the site and whether you find the links useful before we go 'totally live' with it. This new site will let me blog on all things global service-learning over there - and go off about good clean livin', politics, travel, and pick-up trucks full of social justice, here.

Please take a look at the 8 Resources for Good Living and Giving in 2012 and - via comments there, personal email, or comments here, let me know how you like the site.

Wicked Good Surf and The Triumph of Peacemakers: El Salvador

Excellent roads leading to incredible beach towns with unbeatable waves: that’s today's El Salvador. We stayed in Playa Tunco, where the pounding Pacific lulled us to sleep every night, surfers woke early to catch waves before siesta-ing much of the day, and culinary offerings ran an impressive gamut from street tortillas and tamales to shrimp or lobster in well-developed curry coconut sauces.

We got here because of a cheap flight deal on Travelzoo, promising to put us within forty minutes of some of the world’s best waves. I Googled a bit, I bought a Frommer's Nicaragua and El Salvador (Frommer's Complete Guides), and I checked in with the State Department and CDC about safety issues. Despite the various assurances of a beautiful country with substantial safety for tourists, the dominant El Salvador in our minds was still the El Salvador of the assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero, the raped and murdered Maryknoll nuns, and a dreadful civil war settled rather recently through the 1992 Peace Accords.

We de-planed near 9pm and were literally whisked through customs. We walked into the humid night and saw our driver waiting with an “Eric Hartman” sign. I’d made arrangements with a beach hostel I found online – they ensured a $40 taxi trip from the airport to our first hostel that night in Playa Tunco, the Qi-X Surfcamp. On the drive to Qi-X we began to realize how distant our historic El Salvador was from our contemporary experience: we drove smoothly over perfectly maintained roads. The street signs were frequently posted and easy to understand, the traffic was amicable near the airport, and as soon as we left the city the night was completely calm.

Qi-X, unfortunately, was unimpressive. The room was only $25, but it was extremely small and the hostel was not on the beach. The next day we walked down the coast, checked out some additional hotels and hostels, had an excellent breakfast on a rocky point overlooking the Pacific, and found our home for the week at the lovely $35 a night Hotel Tortuga, where we had ample space, a private bathroom, and, most importantly, a second-story window opening immediately to the beach and Pacific Ocean beneath us. 

Suddenly, only a day out from the frenetic pace of Philadelphia and Thanksgiving rushes in the states, our only concerns were where to eat each day and how long we would read in between dips in the ocean or pool. Our food was consistently good. We settled into a pattern of spacing grilled meats with pupusas, tortillas, and ceviches. Food prices were lower than in the states, but reflected our location to become pricier than local food: ceviche dishes would go for $5 - $8 and my generous (and scrumptious) lunch of a 6 oz. steak, a sausage, beans and rice, a tomato salad, an avocado slice, and a potato, was $6.

And there we stayed. We relaxed. I took a surfing lesson, standing up a couple times. Six-foot waves were commonplace. Shannon took some photos (promising to share a few here once we're home). And we pondered the great distance between the El Salvador of today and the country of rights abuses and Reagan-era CIA proxy-wars that I sometimes use as a (bad) example in my human rights classes. How that distance was closed became the subject of our inquiry as we journeyed to San Salvador and visited the Centro Oscar Romero, traveled to the mountain town of Suchito and hit other sites. And today's El Salvador will be the subject of my next blog post. For now, an excerpt from Monsignor Romero's homilies:

“Peace is not the absence of war. Peace is not an equilibrium of two opposing forces in a struggle. Peace above all is not reached by repressing until death those who are not allowed to speak… True peace is based on justice and equality.” (August 14th, 1977)

Social Justice Song Treasure Trove - Vote for Your Favorite & Contribute!

Folk, rock, rap, hip-hop: in common we have compelling artists with beautiful messages. As we move closer to America's Thanksgiving Holiday, everybody deserves a moment for great music and visions of a better tomorrow. That's what we have below (along with some rage, some specific complaints, and some vague concerns). Take a moment to 

1. listen, 
2. vote (below) for your favorite social justice song, and 
3. add song suggestions in the comments section (I'll then post your suggestions). 

You can vote for as many or as few of these songs as you like. Please share, forward, post, and tweet to get far-flung-friends involved in this contest, conversation, and vote!

Stand by Me, by Playing for Change

Peace Train, by Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam)

 Waiting for the Great Leap Forward, by Billy Bragg

Fight the Power, by Public Enemy

This Land is Your Land (Springsteen's version)

AND Born in the USA by The Boss, again Mr. Springsteen

I hear them all by Old Crow Medicine Show

I wish I knew how (it would feel to be free) by Nina Simone

 I wish I knew how (it would feel to be free) by The Lighthouse Family

One by U2 with Mary J. Blige 

One by Johnny Cash

The General, by Dispatch

Kurt Vile, Puppet to the Man

Dylan's Hard Rain

If you Miss Me from the Back of the Bus, by SNCC Freedom Singer Reunion

If I had a Hammer, by Peter, Paul, and Mary 

Judy Collins & Pete Seeger, Turn, Turn, Turn

Sam Cooke, A Change is Gonna Come

Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit

Joe Hill, by Joan Baez

Where is the Love? by The Black Eyed Peas

Fast Car by Tracy Chapman

Redemption Song by Bob Marley

BB King Why I Sing the Blues

Array of Incredible Artists doing We Shall Overcome at Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Party

Pete Seeger (90+) and several others do We Shall Overcome at Occupy Wall Street

American Ruse, by The MC5

White Riot, by The Clash

What's So Funny about Peace, Love, and Understanding, by Nick Lowe

What's So Funny about Peace, Love, and Understanding, by Elvis Costello

What's So Funny about Peace, Love, and Understanding, by Springsteen and Friends

I Asked When, by Brett Dennen

Ain't No Reason, Brett Dennen

F**k Da Police, by NWA

They Schools, by Dead Prez

Man in Black, by Johnny Cash

Get Involved, by Freddie McGregor

Big Man, by Antibalas

I'll Take You There, by The Staple Singers

Imagine, John Lennon

Freedom Day, by Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln

Pride in the Name of Love, U2

The Decline, by NOFX

Uprising, by Muse

Crime to be Broke in America, by Spearhead

And songs related to social justice that I just can't stand: 

• John Mayer's Waiting on the World to Change (and an explanation as to why that's the case). 

Please add additional suggestions here. I'll post them and add them to the list below (for votes) as well. Please broaden the conversation by re-posting, re-tweeting, or forwarding. You deserve a break for great music! 

Learning Occurs through Critical Reflection: International Education, Service-Learning, Life

The data is clear: without systematic reflective guidance, students' international education or service-learning experiences can lead to haphazard or even negative learning outcomes. Time and again, this has been demonstrated through articles in the Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning, Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, and via John Dewey's historic concern that learning without reflection can be miseducative, reinforcing stereotypes about others. But how can one support reflective practice and reflective learning (particularly in experiential immersion programs)? That's the topic of a guest blog post I did recently for Melibee Global Education Consulting: Reflection, Reconsideration, and Reconnection: Moving Beyond Re-entry. Please take a look and please share your thoughts. I look forward to hearing (or reading) them.

Following Occupy Wall Street - Effort to Reduce Influence of Money in Politics

For a few weeks Twitter has been lighting up with messages by and about the hundreds of individuals camping and protesting in New York City as part of Occupy Wall Street. The movement began with a July 2011 suggestion from the anti-consumerism magazine Adbusters. While substantial coverage has suggested the movement lacks a central goal or set of demands, a common theme is the appeal to reduce or if possible eliminate the influence of money in the US Political System. The protesters regularly refer to their concern with growing inequality in the US, and the desire to see policies that share more wealth with the "bottom 99%" of the population.

According to Adbusters, the unifying demand is that President Obama create a presidential commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington. The movement and its organizers have, if you will, been aggressively peaceful. They've deliberately embraced nonviolence and instituted quiet hours at 10 pm to be sure area residents can still get a good night's sleep (or whatever counts for one in NY). After weeks of waiting, the national news is now catching the coverage too. While it seems to me that the movement is clear about their concerns, the national media seem obsessed with developing a narrative suggesting there is no core, common cause. Resources and links follow an Adbusters poster promoting the start date of the occupation:

1. Occupy Wall Street on Wikipedia
2. Coverage on CNN (10/4) 
3. A photo essay in The Atlantic, including the photo below 
4. On Fox News, "More than Just Another Loony Protest from the Left"
5. "Anti-Wall Street Protests Spreading to Cities Large and Small" in the NYT
6. Gripping, Challenging "Other 99%" photo essay - a must view

And that's true, protests have spread to LA, DC, Boston, Memphis, and even McAllen, Texas, among other cities. Even Fox is admitting to some legitimate concerns on the part of the protesters (despite all the vitriol the writer has for "dirty hippies") - maybe that's because it hasn't been too long since Sarah Palin aired a rather similar set of concerns about corporate influence. Maybe that's because completely unrestrained corporate influence and inequity really do undermine US Democracy and opportunities for average, middle-class Americans.

Please share interesting updates on the protesters, their goals, and the coverage. 

"For the Poor and Beaten-Down" Johnny Cash, Man in Black ... and US Income Inequality Rises

It's obviously still a very important song, particularly as US income inequality is higher than it's been for generations. For more, check out this article I'm taking an excerpt from below.

"The U.S., in purple with a Gini coefficient of 0.450, ranks near the extreme end of the inequality scale. Looking for the other countries marked in purple gives you a quick sense of countries with comparable income inequality, and it's an unflattering list: Cameroon, Madagascar, Rwanda, Uganda, Ecuador. A number are currently embroiled in or just emerging from deeply destabilizing conflicts, some of them linked to income inequality: Mexico, Côte d'Ivoire, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Serbia."

Workin' Class Hero is Somethin' to Be - and other Social Justice Song Classics (late) from Labor Day

Rock critics Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot unwittingly collaborated with my ongoing effort to collect and share social justice songs with their Labor Day rendition of Sound Opinions. Check out the MP3 stream or the podcast.

They have more narrative description and history around each of the songs they feature, but I'm going to share the youtube clips here, so it's still possible to jump around the "social justice" and "music" links on this site and see the growing compilation of social justice songs. Thanks for the recommendations around what I haven't shared yet. I'll catch up and keep the suggestions coming! 

Working Class Hero by John Lennon

We Gotta Get Out of This Place by the Animals

Cleaning Windows by Van Morrison

Career Opportunities by The Clash

Bob Marley's Night Shift

Lou Reed's Don't Talk to Me about Work

Smithers-Jones by The Jam

and last by not least, Bad Days by The Flaming Lips

And if you dig music and rock criticism, do check out Sound Opinions. It's an excellent show and site.

Student-Generated Film: Right to be an American

Many have commented on immigration policy, few have viewed it through the lens of the children involved. This brief documentary, completed by a former student's sister, does just that. The 12-minute take is part of Project VoiceScape, a PBS initiative to hear and raise the voices of teen filmmakers around the US. If you like the film, please vote for it!

Working Man (me), Union Man (Joe Hill), Singing for a Sweeter Tomorrow

I'm doing my best to learn whatever insights experience in the private sector might lend to my commitments in the public and university sectors, and it sure is taking way too much time! I generally don't have the time to read, to post, to think, and (unfortunately), to do the good works that I feel are 1000% necessary for good clean livin'. I'm working on this situation. In the meantime, a really interesting article on the Union Organizer Joe Hill, and the song dedicated to him by Joan Baez:

What is a Social Justice Song? - Dylan's Hard Rain?

Justly complaining? Proposing? Moving others to action? Raging? What makes something a social justice song? As I move (ever so slowly) to pulling together the songs I've posted here and the tracks that others have nominated, the question becomes more important. One day, we'll vote. First, any additional songs suggestions or arguments for what makes an excellent social justice song are very much appreciated!

Recent Comer to Social Justice Songs: Kurt Vile, Puppet to the Man

Thanks to a loyal reader for this recent social justice song nomination. Dark, brooding: I can dig it. I'll organize a social justice song vote soon. Please send any suggestions my way or share your favorites below!

Social Justice Songs Return: The General, By Dispatch

This beautiful experience happened into my earphones as I was running to Pandora's Matisyahu station yesterday:

Take a moment to enjoy. Previous social justice songs I love: 

• Stand by Me, by Playing for Change
• Peace Train, by Cat Stevens, along with Waiting for the Great Leap Forward, by Billy Bragg
• Fight the Power, by Public Enemy 
• This Land is Your Land AND Born in the USA by The Boss 
• I hear them all by Old Crow Medicine Show
• I wish I knew how (it would feel to be free) by both Nina Simone and The Lighthouse Family, along with One by U2 with Mary J. Blige and then Johnny Cash's own excellent version

And songs related to social justice that I just can't stand: 

• John Mayer's Waiting on the World to Change 

I'd love to read about your favorites. Please share them if you happen by. Thanks for reading. I hope you get the moment to listen to a few of these today. Peace. 

What Brangelina Should Have Known Before Going to Africa - and What You Should Know Before Your International Service

International service is popular and accessible. One might—at first glance—imagine this is a good thing. Yet the risks are extreme, for individuals in the communities “served” and for those who engage in service.

To engage well in service across cultures (even domestically) is to strike a profoundly delicate balance. Read the full text of this article I wrote for International Educator here. 

Posting as a Guest Today on "Good Intentions are Not Enough" - Take a Look!

Please join the conversation at the Good Intentions blog! Many thanks to Saundra for the guest post opportunity!

News: Be Optimistic = Live Long, Justice via Consumption?, The Education "Debate," Higher Education Relevance?

Particularly interesting articles today:

• Want to Live to 100? Try to Bounce Back from Stress on NPR adds credence to my long-standing theory that vigorous living, engaged living, and maybe even sometimes excessive living might just in its own ways also contribute to a good life lived long. OK, that's not really the article. But it does help explain why my Great Aunt Helen lived to 100 and also managed a whiskey or two every single night.  
• No Need to Volunteer or Engage - Just Buy is a book review in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The book takes up the important question of the limits of the "conscious consumption will change the world" - story. I haven't yet read the book.  
• Speaking of higher education and markets, the creator of the cartoon Dilbert has an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal today suggesting that instead of the conventional university model most students should be taught how to run a business. It is one of the most popular articles on the WSJ's most-emailed list right now, second only to "Obama Puts Taxes on Table," which of course is always going to be a #1 question among WSJ readers. I find it important because it calls attention to one of the many ways in which much of the general public seems to be currently dissatisfied with higher education. 
• And this brief editorial in the (sadly, no longer completely free) New York Times calls attention to something else I plan to write on soon: The Deadlocked Debate over Education Reform.  
• Finally, the 4th Annual Amizade Water Walks for Women's Rights in Pittsburgh and Morgantown were great successes this weekend, and got some excellent coverage in local press: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette front page and Faithburgh blog, The Daily Athenaeum (WVU), and the main Morgantown TV Station.  

From the WSJ article / Dilbert-creator column: 

And the #1 Social Justice Song Is....

We're not ready people. We're not ready for that kind of definitive victory. There are way too many excellent protest, freedom, and organizing songs out there. We'll have to keep sifting through the many suggestions you've been advancing. But for the moment, in honor of the Amizade Water Walk and all that it symbolizes, let me suggest Stand by Me as delivered by Playing for Change, an organization that pulls together musicians spanning the globe in common songs. They create a shared sense of hope and they raise money to increase children's access to music and musical instruments. Wicked Cool. Here's their most-watched video, which has more than 30 million hits:

Take a look and feel good about the world. Have great weekends. And props to all who are walking in or supporting this year's Amizade Water Walk. It's excellent work. Feel good about your efforts to change the world. They're making a difference. Catch you in a few days.

#4: Why I Hate John Mayer's Social Justice Attempt

Apparently some people find Mayer’s song inspiring, and it has even made it on to some otherwise great political / social justice song sites. But “Waiting, waiting on the world to change,” as the song goes is about as anathema to good work, democracy, progress, rights, hope, and the improvement of the human condition as one can get. This blog title – Journey toward Justice – is no joke. It’s a journey: improving rights and lengthening life expectancies is the product of human cooperation, collaboration, and effort (not waiting, fool). 

That effort takes many forms, and musicians have a role. Mayer could take cues from Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, the bizillion artists who have given voice to We Shall Overcome, or currently from Angelique Kidjo and Wil.i.am (immediately below), as well as from scores and legions of others. But instead Mayer is waiting – and beyond that he’s whining: “We see everything that's going wrong / with the world and those who lead it / We just feel like we don't have the means / To rise above and beat it.”

What? You can’t make a difference? You’re famous, fool. You can move mountains. My friends can manage to make the world change for whole villages. And we’re just average Joes. It’s true that sometimes celebrities’ attempts at good works are un- or under-informed -- but study-up. Often enough celebrities behave as serious and smart people with clear commitment to specific issues that they learn a great deal about. Excellent examples include George Clooney, Bono, Mariska Hargitay, and Matt Damon, who has been a driving force on water issues through the nonprofit organization Water.org.      

Interestingly, in Mayer’s video the waiting involves spray-painting as consciousness-raising (and at the end, just to be sure you know neither Mayer nor his boys are radicals, there’s a message indicating that all spray painting was completed on private property with permission). Now I’m waiting for Mayer to do something interesting. Here’s the thing: I deeply respect, value, and appreciate the role of musicians and other artists in consciousness-raising. Mayer sings (and then even paints!) so close to this idea, but the message we get is just wait. Just wait is blasphemy to the good citizens of the world who fancy themselves as working in the tradition of fundamental human freedoms, democracy, and universal rights.

At least other artists dreaming after an as-yet-unimagined tomorrow paint us some kind of picture, like Cat Stevens’ (now Yusuf) Peace Train (which he did a sweet rendition of for Muhammed Yunis’ Nobel Peace Prize Award) and Billy Bragg’s Waiting for a New World Order. (By the way all of you out there who think “social justice” or “activist musician” is precisely equal to “totalitarian commie,” listen to the equal abuse Bragg hands out to the far ends of the political spectrum).

Of course it’s not surprising that Mayer’s song suggests what it does. We seem to have been struck (in the United States and many other places around the world) with an irrational and unfounded assumption that somehow the miracles we see all around us (basic human security, individual rights and respect for diversity across cultures and genders, 300 million people getting along pretty well across a whole continent, water when you turn on the faucet, public education) are not the product of cooperation, collaboration, and individual sacrifice for purposes that are bigger than ourselves: purposes like improving the human condition.

To bring this closer to home(s), Pennsylvania and Arizona are advancing massive cuts in education budgets. I know there are strong contingents emerging and organizing in Pennsylvania to put pressure on the state government to continue its investment in our shared futures by better funding education. Some students, for example, recently put together this video:

That’s what strong democratic (small d) states do: invest in their citizens’ human capital and tax them at reasonable rates later to continue to pay for the ongoing investment in the future. In Arizona I have students telling me that they’re going to have to pay more for college  and that their four-years of funding doesn’t match the five-years of schooling they’ll need with the planned schedule cuts and lack of class availability, but there’s no strong organizing. Perhaps they’re waiting, waiting for the market to take over their lives more completely.

Wherever you are, speak up for education. It’s something many generations of Americans have taken for granted. And it only exists if Americans work together to make it happen.

Beyond the explicit political sphere is the strong nonprofit and volunteerism sector – and the place I was really referencing above when I asserted what my friends could do. This is why the water walk is so phenomenally important. We’re not waiting for the world to change. We’re making it happen, in clear and considered cooperation with community organizations half-way around the world. These small efforts: organizing, cooperating across cultures, people donating, people walking – extend lives and give women and children a chance to get an education or work rather than constantly returning to the daily drudgery of gathering water.

Register and walk this weekend. If you can’t, donate. Don’t wait. Change the world for families in rural Tanzania, right now.    

Really. Donate. Just $25. It’s a world-changer.  

OK, thank you for reading. Now I must admit: I’m flummoxed, flabbergasted, confused and maybe just a little bit maligned – I keep hearing from people via individual emails, etc., about the blog but I have no comments and few followers and I would absolutely love more of either. I’d love to hear your song suggestions that have yet to make the list. (Tomorrow we will have the Best Social Justice Song Ever, in celebration of Amizade’s Water Walk, but in the days that follow I’ll continue to post enough to follow the due course of this fun little exercise in social justice song). I also remain generally curious about your thoughts, feedback, etc. OR, OR, OR – tell me how much you really love John Mayer and why he’s amazing, or re-post, re-tweet, and share how your share my considerable consternation with the whole unacceptable notion of “Waiting, waiting on the world to change…”  

Social Justice Songs: Imagining Peace & The Great Leap Forward

Performing at the Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony for Muhammed Yunis (Founder of The Grameen Bank and so much of the micro-finance movement) makes this Cat Stevens / Yusuf performance especially poignant:

And in a similar vein - imagining future possibilities - is Billy Bragg's classic Waiting for the Great Leap Forward (from the Henry Rollins show, no less):  

Social Justice Songs: Springsteen

Born in the USA and This Land is Your Land just begin to indicate Springsteen's talent and considerable commitment to expressing social issues and working class challenges through his music.

With more time or on another day, we'll do much more with The Boss.