Saturday, December 23, 2006

My 100th Post!

Well it is the 23rd of December and I just realized I have to get a couple of last minute gifts. Just when I was feeling smug about being all done my Christmas shopping, 90% done online without leaving my house to boot, I am going to have to enter the lair of insanity (ie.the mall) today after all and so comes to post my 3rd installment in the LML Christmas Memories.

I should first note to anyone who watches this video, it is a very powerful document to the suffering of war. Something that I really think Lennon himself would have been proud. I chose this version instead of the original one because I really think it, more than anything, will make us reflect on how lucky we are, how little we really need, how much we have the resources to give and the necessity for us to act. It also brings into question the idea of conflict and the objectivity of violence for peace, when the innocents always suffer the most. As Mahatma Gandhi's quote at the end states "An eye for an eye will make us all blind"...may every world leader watch this video and realize nothing is more true.


Below the video is a charity I heard about on CBC News this week. A charity that really takes a unique approach to helping the 2nd and 3rd world in the development of their economic structure. Rather than offering straight charity to be distributed by an umbrella organization, http://www.kiva.org/, gives an opportunity to give to a person with a business idea and a dream to not only prosper in his/her community, but in turn help his community prosper. We become a mini WMF (World Monetary Fund), helping the often forgotten individuals throughout the world that have the initiative to change through business at a ground level.

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