Not about the election or Wall Street

I assume that many of you, like me, are caught up with the daily drama of the election that is right around the corner. On top of that, we keep hearing how we are headed to a financial collapse.

These are exciting, interesting, maddening, scary and weird times.

However, there are things happening beyond our fair shores. Haiti--where Three Stone Steps will be heading right after the election--is still suffering the aftereffects of a terrible hurricane season. Should you wish to help, the organizations below would appreciate it. (Please note: Three Stone Steps has no connection to any of these organization, and inclusion in this list does not imply endorsement by Three Stone Steps.)

Campaign for Labor Rights (CLR): Haitian Workers Hurricane Relief Fund
1247 E St SE
Washington, DC20003

CLR is collecting funds for the Confédéderation des Travailleurs Haitiens to distribute to union sisters and brothers and their families for hurricane relief. The CTH has been rebuilding since a US-sponsored coup in 2004 overthrew Haiti's elected government. According to the CLR, the coup was led by groups funded and trained by the International Republican Institute, whose Board is chaired by John McCain. CTH members were targeted because of their support for Haitian democracy and opposition to foreign intervention.

Haiti KONPAY - Emergency Hurricane Relief Fund
7 Wall St.
Gloucester, MA01930
Focusing on Haitian solutions to environmental, social and economic problems and providing training and funding to grassroots and community-based projects. KONPAY is supporting Haitian-led efforts to reforest Haiti and protect the environment.

Haiti Reborn
PO Box 5206
Hyattsville, MD20782
Supporting the growing Kofaviv movement of women demanding an end to violence and rape; establishing the development of a reforestation program, including satellite nurseries; advocating an end to unjust and undemocratic foreign intervention in Haitian democracy and economy; countering the destructive myth of Haitians as helpless victims by highlighting Haiti's proud history and giving voice to today's brightest leaders.

MADRE (Emergency & Disaster Relief Fund)
121 West 27th Street #301
New York, NY10001
A New York-based human rights group demanding human rights for women and families throughout the world, and also working on disaster relief with one of its sister organizations in Haiti.

Partners In Health
641 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA02115
Their mission is both medical and moral, based on solidarity, rather than charity alone. When a person in rural Haiti falls ill, PIH uses all of the means at their disposal to make them well-from pressuring drug manufacturers, to lobbying policy makers, to providing medical care and social services.

Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL)
124 Church Rd
Sherburne
NY 13460
dedicated to empowering communities, building the soil and nourishing the grassroots. SOIL protects soil resources and transforms wastes into resources. SOIL promotes integrated approaches to the problems of poverty, poor public health, agricultural productivity, and environmental destruction.

Cyncism

Ok, this isn't about a certain candidate's pick for vice president. Now, that was, to me and other women I know, just about the most cynical thing I can think of. I really can't add any more to the debate over this person than has already been out there.

So, not only was the pick of this governor from a non-contiguous state the very definition of cynicism, but I came upon this in the New York Times last week:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/business/worldbusiness/01vogue.html

Here's the opening few paragraphs:

NEW DELHI — An old woman missing her upper front teeth holds a child in rumpled clothes — who is wearing a Fendi bib (retail price, about $100).

A family of three squeezes onto a motorbike for their daily commute, the mother riding without a helmet and sidesaddle in the traditional Indian way — except that she has a Hermès Birkin bag (usually more than $10,000, if you can find one) prominently displayed on her wrist.

Elsewhere, a toothless barefoot man holds a Burberry umbrella (about $200).

Welcome to the new India — at least as Vogue sees it.

Vogue India’s August issue presented a 16-page vision of supple handbags, bejeweled clutches and status-symbol umbrellas, modeled not by runway stars or the wealthiest fraction of Indian society who can actually afford these accessories, but by average Indian people.

So, here we have a baby used as a prop (where have we seen this before?) wearing a $100 bib. I really don't know anyone who would spend this money for this sort of thing, and I live in a developed country. Who knows why Indian Vogue did this. A subtle wink wink, elbow to the ribs for the viewer that people are still in poverty, but getting a job in a developed nation making luxury goods will move one out of poverty? Who is this supposed to appeal to? Do the Indian nouveau riche want to show off their kid's bib by saying, yeah, how clever, the bib was in a shoot with India's poor?

I've not been to India, but I've been to plenty of developing countries in Asia. I can't pretend to know what goes on in the minds of the editors of Vogue, but exploiting poor people to sell luxury goods is just, well, cynical. And, I thought we were moving on to hope these days.