CharityFocus.org: Incubator of Compassionate Action

The Way of Social Action

Nipun Mehta — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Every week, the CharityFocus interns have to read a book and do a book report. Last week, one of the them got "How Can I Help", by Ram Dass and Paul Gorman. Here is an profound excerpt from Chapter 6:

In the middle of the Indian night, an intruder burst through the bamboo door of the simple adobe hut. He was a government vaccinator, under orders to break resistance against smallpox vaccinations. Lakshmi Singh awoke screaming and scrambled to hide herself. Her husband leaped out of bed, grabbed an ax, and chased the intruder into the courtyard.

Outside, a squad of doctors and policemen quickly overpowered Mohan Singh. The instant he was pinned to the ground, a second vaccinator jabbed smallpox vaccine into his arm.

Mohan Singh, a wiry 40-year-old leader of the Ho tribe, squirmed away from the needle, causing the vaccination site to bleed. The government team held him until they had injected enough vaccine; then they seized his wife. Pausing only to suck out some vaccine, Mohan Singh pulled a bamboo pole from the roof and attacked the strangers holding his wife.

When two policemen rebuffed him, the rest of the team overpowered the entire family and vaccinated each in turn. Lakshmi Singh bit deep into one doctor's hand, but to no avail.

When it was over, our vaccination team gathered in the small courtyard. Mohan Singh and his exhausted family stood by the broken door of their house. We faced each other silently across a cultural barrier, neither side knowing what to do next. Such an event ---- a night raid and forcible smallpox vaccination ---- was unprecedented.

Mohan Singh surveyed his disordered household, and reflected. For a moment or two he hesitated. Then he strode to his small vegetable plot and stooped to pluck the single ripe cucumber left on the vine. Following the hospitality creed of his tribe, he walked over to the puzzled young Indian doctor whom his wife had bitten and handed him the cucumber.

I had stood in the shadows trying to fathom the meaning of this strange encounter. Now I reached out to Zafar Hussain, a Muslim paramedic assistant assigned to me by the Indian government as guide and translator. What on earth was the cucumber for? Speaking in Hindi, Zafar passed my question along to one of the vaccinators, a Westernized Ho youth, who challenged Mohan Singh in the staccato rhythm of the tonal Ho language.

With great dignity, Mohan Singh stood ramrod straight. The whole village was awake now, people standing around the courtyard stage as the rising sun illuminated our unfolding drama. Measuring his words carefully, Mohan Singh began:

"My dharma [religious duty] is to surrender to God's will. Only God can decide who gets sickness and who does not. It is my duty to resist your interference with his will. We must resist your needles. We would die resisting if that is necessary. My family and I have not yielded. We have done our duty. We can be proud of being firm in our faith. It is not a sin to be overpowered by so many strangers in the middle of the night.

"Daily you have come and told me it is your dharma to prevent this disease with your needles. We have sent you away. Tonight you have used force. You say you act in accordance with your duty. I have acted in accordance with mine. It is over. God will decide.

"Now I find you are guests in my house. It is my duty to feed guests. I have little to offer at this time. Except this cucumber."

I felt numb and torn. For an instant, I wondered if I was on the wrong side. Mohan Singh was so firm in his faith, yet there was not a trace of anger in his words. I scanned my teammates' faces, looking for someone to respond to Mohan Singh's challenge. All stared at the ground, humbled by the power of Mohan Singh's faith.

[Hat Tip: thanks CPM!]

...

Two Weeks Into CharityFocus Summer Internship

Nipun Mehta — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

This summer CharityFocus is hosting three interns. Sadan is a tech whiz visiting from Pakistan, Ketan is movement builder from Bombay and Bhoutik is a hip-hop fan from Fremont. And Sachi, a visiting filmmaker, is our fourth, adopted intern. :) Three of them are part of the Metta Mentors fellowship in Berkeley, and are being mentored by our own Deepak Goel.

Last night, Neil, Guri and I hosted them for some "aloo parathas", as they finished their first two weeks of orientation. Before we even got settled, their stories started flowing. Ketan held up traffic so an old lady could cross, Bhoutik helped a janitor clean the men's bathroom, Sadan stepped out of his comfort zone to tag random strangers at yesterday's Critical-Mass bike ride in SF. Together, they've already done two lemonade stands and a hear-the-homeless drive, and learned the art of receiving rejections, accepting overwhelming gratitude, and falling in love with Smile Cards. :)

"You should've seen Ketan dance! This boy's got some moves," Bhoutik said excitedly of the time when they were all walking down the streets and Ketan started to dance simply to support a street musician. "Caught up in excitement, we even just started to just compliment random strangers," one of the trio noted. Quick to respond, Ketan adds, "And tonight, as I walking here, three people stopped to tell me that I was looking great. What goes around comes around!"

This was all part of their two-week orientation process, after which they will be paired with specific CF teams.

When Deepak I forwarded the introductory note about the interns, most of the CF coordinators themselves wanted to join in the fun -- although some wondered if they'd be able to hack it. :) Here's an abbreviated list of the initial intern assignments:

Write a post-dated note to yourself, about what you've learned from your summer experience.
Sign up for all CharityFocus newsletters, and remark on your favorites of the week.
Reflect on what service means to you, and write a one-pager about it.
Join Smile Groups, read all the daily posts and post smiles to the kindness stories you like.
Do one unique act of kindness every day, and keep a diary of them.
Read an assigned book every week and share your learnings from it.
Gather 25 links to inspiring social media (stories, videos, blogs) every week.
Do two local events, that involve the community and engage you with strangers. Attend Wednesday meditation every week. Post July-15th, visit Karma Kitchen every Sunday.
Do a status call with Deepak every Sunday night.

It's a powerful to just witness their journeys. Ketan shared his life story of a family of 16 living in a 500 sq foot room in Northern India; through raw determination, he gave his untapped talents a chance to blossom and found strength in the most unexpected places. Earlier this year, he saw a photo of himself and said, "That's not me." In the next six weeks, he lost 40 pounds. Just grit. And now, he's applying that grit to being the change, whether it is doing the dishes for his housemate or writing a letter of apology or complimenting a stranger.

Every small act that I did brought about a major transformation in me and that process has been going on a subconscious level of which I was not even aware. The small acts change you. They TRANSFORM you and you don’t even come to know. That’s what I have experienced in this journey. I am not sure whether they were for the internship only as they have become an inherent part of my being and I shall be doing it for the rest of my life to see that smile on somebody’s face. That feeling of happiness on the people’s faces which gives more satisfaction than any amount of money can buy.

Sadan, who is visiting from Pakistan and was interrogated for more than an hour(!) at immigration, shared some profound comments: "I have a fear of other human beings and what they'll think and say." It was just so plain honest that it stopped all of us in our tracks. "And doing these acts of kindness is helping me overcome that fear." An analytical thinker, Sadan read his first book -- Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse -- and reflected on many deep questions: "I'm not sure if strength comes from our ability to be cut off from all things, or from being fully connected to everyone." Being technically astute, Sadan has ramped up on his CF work at an impressive speed, but it is his authentic inquiries that compelled Deepak to raise both his hands and semi-jokingly bow down. :) Word on the street was that he wasn't digging the American food, but last night we were delighted to see him take multiple servings of the main course and five "ras-gullas" for dessert!

Last of the intern gang is a local teenager, Bhoutik -- or Bug-Miggity as they called him in high school. His candid, affable demeanor simply makes you want to give him a hug. "You know, I realized that service really starts at home. Instead of getting really frustrated with my parents, I started to be a little kinder to them. And now, they're a little kinder to me too. Everything just works so much better," he said in a matter-of-fact tone, couple with some illustrious examples. Last week, in his Humanities class, he even gave a presentation on the gift economy. And next week, he heads into his first 10-day meditation retreat. His biggest challenge these days, though, has been to think up a unique act of kindness everyday. Here was the (unedited) letter he wrote to himself, post-dated Aug 15th, 2009:

To: The New Bhoutik,

Over the last eight to nine weeks, I have had an opportunity to take a step back and re-evaluate my 'purpose' and goals in life by interning at CharityFocus. CharityFocus is a fully volunteer run company that has harnessed giving without any strings attached and smalls acts as vehicles to propel their growth.

The new skills I have picked up are: live and lead by example, do not preach; why there are no mediocre tasks; giving without anything strings attached; use my energy and passion for entrepreneurship to start 'something'; and the importance of being a team player.

"Happiness is only real when shared," said Jon Krakauer, author of Into The Wild. By sharing happiness, I am able to have a more genuine, honest, and transparent relationship with all people. I have stopped counting the number of friends I have on Facebook or any other social network. I have begun to reach out to the ones I have to share a more meaningful and increase depth in relationships.

I have not made a significance difference in the world, but I have changed myself, emotionally and spiritually. By spreading smiles and tagging random people with acts of kindness on the streets of San Francisco and Berkeley with friends, we have formed a community and hope to inspire others. By observing, talking, and reaching out to people on the streets, I have become more aware of my actions in everyday life. Through the practice of giving and meditation I have become a more grounded person and happier person.

I have conquered several fears and hope to conquer some more on this journey. The idea of giving without any strings attached is a simple concept, but hard to practice. Why? Because, we are always thinking of ourselves and protecting our future that we tend to forget about giving. I have slowly been able to give more in aspects of my life.

The projects we have worked on over the past eight weeks are going to stay deep-rooted with me on any venture I decide to take on. By reading stories on Helpothers and getting constant inspiration from DailyGood, and watching videos on KarmaTube, I have begun being the change I wish to see in the world.

From,
The Old Bhoutik

And this from a teeanger!

Sachi, in addition, brought in thoughtful questions like: "Do service and marketing go together?" On one hand, you want to spread the word but on the other hand, there's a strong sense of false hype. She shared an experience of her projectk with the transgender population that attracted a lot of media attention but never came to fruition. As everyone shared their insights, our conversations spanned stories of Gandhi and Fukuoka and ended with the power of be-the-change acts that naturally ripple out in the world.

As Deepak washed his hands, Bhoutik subtly went into the kitchen to bring him a napkin; as we sat for dinner, Ketan naturally got up to serve us water; before we finished eating, Sachi was already doing the dishes. The spirit of service permeated the whole room, through small acts of service. Guri, Deepak, Neil and I found ourselves smiling in awe, at least a dozen times during the night. It really felt like a blessing to be sharing in their journey, in this way.

At 2AM, Neil -- aka Notorious-Playa, as he was later nicknamed -- wrote an email titled: "Who really are the Interns?"

Ketan, Sadan, Bhoutik, Sachi,

Thanks for sharing your stories, insights, and presence tonight. I was so impressed and inspired. Driving home, I paid bridge toll for a stranger in your honor.

It's a blessing to watch you all spread ripples of generosity. Keep it up!

Your intern for life :)
Neil

Couldn't have said it better myself. And if all this has happened in two weeks, I wonder what will unfold in the remaining eight weeks! :)

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The Death of Why?

Nipun Mehta — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

A while back, I read Nicholas Carr's provocative article on the impact of Google on our brains: Is Google Making Us Stoopid? It's not a simple question to answer, but a very important one.

This morning, I received the Berrett-Koehler newsletter -- one of my favorites -- and noticed a provocative title: Death of Why?, a book by Andrea Batista Schlesinger. And then I read the insightful book excerpt that opened with:

Why is the first question most children ask. With this question we express, to the delight and the chagrin of our parents, our power. [...]

When I look at contemporary culture, however, I see an obsession with answers, not questions. I see an environment that prizes projections of certainty over the wisdom gained from questioning, and questioning again. I see us asking our media, our politicians, our self-help gurus for the answer, any answer, to help us understand the world around us. We live in a country where The Secret, a self-help phenomenon, was on the Publishers Weekly best-seller list for one hundred weeks. We want the answer to making money, the answer to the proper way to raise our children, the answer to understanding in simple terms this complicated world of ours.

The Internet makes our addiction to answers even easier; all we have to do is plug a few words into the search engine and, like Columbus, discover what was already out there and pretend that it is ours. Our very definitions of curiosity are changing as Google becomes the lightning-speed mediator of our inquiries. We are less concerned with interpreting what we find online because we believe that the Internet understands what we want and will deliver it to us. We are less committed to discovering truths than to locating them.

Our schools send the message to children that the answer is all that counts. We test students to death, conveying the idea that correctly filling in the bubbles is the same as learning. Our classrooms become dedicated to the cause of test preparation, as science and its guiding philosophy -- that we must discover, ask questions, accumulate evidence, make determinations -- become optional. Although we proclaim ourselves a model of democracy, justifying our international aggression, we do not trust that young people can question the way their communities work, so we underinvest in civics. Instead, we look to financial literacy education and teach our children to navigate the market, not to question it -- so that they will choose better, not so that they will participate in the
creation of those choices.

This is addiction to answers affects our democracy, too. We have the mistaken belief that even the most pressing challenges facing our country -- climate change, globalization, health care, poverty -- are problems to be "fixed" once and for all, if only we can find the right solution and the right person to implement them.

What we need to acknowledge, now more than ever, is that we do not know everything. We cannot know everything. Knowledge changes. Absorbing and acting on today’s answers is simply not enough. The future is a moving target, and the ground beneath us will never be still. The only thing we can count on to see us through an uncertain future is our ability to ask questions.

...

In London: They Didn't Have To, But They Did

Nipun Mehta — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

After my second talk at London Business School, Andrew comes up to introduce himself. It turns out that he is the CEO of UK's largest parking garage company -- NCP -- and in listening to the CharityFocus story today, he had several "break-through" moments around the gift-economy ideal. "What if you allocated a daily kindness budget for each parking attendant, and gave them an opportunity to tag a random customer: 'Sir, your bill was paid for by an anonymous friend. Here's a Smile Card. Please pay it forward." The attendant would feel empowered, the customer would be bowled over, and the stories would ripple to shift the ethos of the entire company. Andrew digs it! He gets the power of small acts, because one of their parking attendants recently saved someone from a suicide attempt in the garage. We agree to video conference with his leadership team, to imagine the possibilities around their 750 garages!

During my last four days in London, I didn't get enough sleep but I did get many opportunities to plant gift-economy seeds in unsuspecting places. :) I was invited to London Business School by Professor Rao, to share stories with his classes ... and then, of course, serendipity has a way to taking over!

Part of the joy of being the gift-economy change you wish to see in the world is that you are surrounded by many small gifts. Adam came to pick me up at the airport, oriented me for my first trip to London, handed me a public transit map, an oyster card for the "Tube", and snuck a 20 pound note "just in case". He didn't have to do any of that, but he did. Soon after landing, I delivered my first talk, as the energized class dissolved my jetlag. Afterwards, Karishma and Aditi whisked me away for a mandatory trip to London Bridge for dinner (and a tutorial on British vocabulary :)). And then Aditi came back all the way just to drop me off. She didn't have to, but she did. When I wasn't staying at Srikumar's, Trishna hosted me in her "flat" despite being out of town ... and went way OVER the top, by remembering the smallest details ranging from setting up the wireless internet and an electrical adapter (which I desperately needed!) to having fresh towels and an umbrella to loading up the refrigerator with goodies ... and even setting up a meditation cushion in my room! She didn't have to, but she did.

To be held by such gifts is half of the umph behind my talks. And the other half of the umph is the practice of paying forward those gifts. The rest is just details. :) In fact, Professor Rao himself remarked: "You're not a polished speaker per se, but just who you are *being* seems to really get through to people." I got a real kick out of that comment!

Being professional may impress but it does not inspire. It is exactly the oridnariness of the unpolished and the unknown and the unaccomplished that people easily relate to. And then the ripples naturally start spreading. Someone wrote the next day, about a deep conversation he had with an old man on the street because he was open to it. A gentleman said he came 220 miles to hear my talk, and the gift-economy stories really reconnected him to his mom's ideal of hospitality. A couple want to explore starting Karma Kitchen in the UK. Mohan, who recently retired as the chief of Proctor & Gamble, said he was "tickled pink" by the first lecture and rescheduled his meetings the next day to attend the second talk. Some students included "gift economy" in their year-end skits the next day. I must've received at least a dozen emails describing how people were touched and more importantly, how they plan to carry forth the spirit of goodness in one small way or another. Some asked about volunteering, some thought of new ideas to implement in their contexts, some signed up for all of our newsletters and everyone took a card from the Smile Deck.

In addition, it was a treat to engage in spirited Q&A with business oriented minds. I mean, the previous speaker for this group was Rajat Gupta, who was a managing partner at McKinsey; the one before that was Ben Zander, who is the conductor of Boston Philharmonic. They're used to correlating "big" with success. And they're hardly ever exposed to the power of non-financial incentives. CharityFocus values -- give freely, trust unconditionally, and think small -- run against almost everything they're taught. So it's natural to get questions like: "Do you ever wonder if you'd be able to achieve more, with a paid staff?" The essence of all such queries boil down to a distinction between impact and transformation. Business schools ingrain the value of impact, which is immediate and quantifiable, but I use the CharityFocus story to point at the power of transformation that is multi-generational, subtle and often immeasurable. Society needs a balance of both, but in the current state of affairs, we need to rebalance in the direction of transformation.

The next night, Aditi hosted a "Wednesday" meditation. We sat in silence for an hour that everyone felt "went by so fast", and then we did a circle of aha-moment sharing. Fernando spoke about his ongoing Camino pilgrimage, Soumil shared about his insights into healing himself from sickness, Gloria talked about being raised in the cocoon of Chinatown and wanting to explore photography, John talked about the toxic nature of law despite his Dad being a Yale law professor, and so on. There was a palpable vibe in the room -- everyone felt happy.

And I've noticed that the universe has a funny way of self-organizing wisdom whenever that ambiance is present. On this night, that wisdom took the form of Pano -- a Greek entrepreneur, who lived in Bosnia for many years, calls Amsterdam his home and happened to be in town; he didn't know anyone coming in, but he just laid down the law with unflinching confidence and it moved everyone. "We are like diamonds; we just have to let the bright light shine through us." "What beliefs are you willing to go to jail for? If you just talk about ideals, it's not enough." "Ultimately, there are two things to life: to be able to say 'I Love You' and to actually do it. Once you do that, you're a professional human being." And all this was coming from fellow who had sold some of his companies for 9-figure amounts, who had personal stories with folks from the Dalai Lama to Desmond Tutu, and who had directly lived in conflict regions and implemented crafty solutions. It was just right for the occasion. By the time we had Aditi's gourmet food -- salad, garlic bread, stuffed bell peppers, pasta, chocolate dessert -- everyone's journeys felt deeply inter-connected. On the way back home, Aditi, for the first time, gifted her leftovers to a homeless man on the night train. "He was just so, so grateful. Somehow it was as if he blessed all of us."

Blessed is a probably good word for the trip. It's almost as if those little, unquantifiable thank-you's that we've received over the ten years of CharityFocus work pile up in some invisible account and then in the most random ways, like a hallway conversation, it comes in like a lightning bolt to amplify something you're listening to or saying.

On my last day, yesterday, I had a final series of meetings with David Robinson and the leadership team of Community Links. David founded the organization in 1977, in the back room of East Ham with a ₤360 budget, when mass unemployment, widespread crime and homelessness made it one of the poorest regions of Europe. Today, things are dramatically different, as 300-staffed Community Links works with more than 50 thousand people every year, publishes various books (like the downright awesome We Are What We Do series and Britain's Everyday Heroes), hosts national events like Chain Reaction that featured Prime Minister Gordon Brown along with billionaire Richard Branson last year, and runs lots of grassroot community development programs. What I really saw, though, was David's focus on values and be-the-change humility. You'd never figure that this was a man who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. It was obvious that he hasn't just written a book on servant leadership, but that he practices it; it was obvious why the first thing you read as you walk into the building is a statement of values:

To generate change. To tackle causes not symptoms, find solutions not palliatives. To recognise that we need to give as well as to receive and to appreciate that those who experience a problem understand it best. To act local but think global, teach but never stop learning. To distinguish between the diversity that enriches society and the inequalities that diminish it. To grow -- but all to build a network not an empire. To be driven by dreams, judged on delivery. To never do things for people but to guide and support, to train and enable, to simply inspire.

While our meeting was slated to be something like an hour, Geraldine, Richard, and Laura joined our meeting half way through, and the stories continued. As Geraldine would later email, "It was challenging, thought-provoking, and most importantly, very enjoyable." At one point, David -- who opted to stay in all of the 3 hours of meetings -- says of CF's radical commitment to generosity: "You're dangerous. This is nothing short of revolutionary." I agree. :)

By the time I could even write my thank-you note, I noticed all kinds of Twitter posts around a blog entry Laura had posted (along with a photo that Richard took that day!). Today, they've already invited CharityFocus to speak at Chain Reaction in November (encore to Trishna's talk last year!). And we're seriously scheming up a few bottom-up projects that are sure to bring in a little bit of the gift-economy revolution to UK.

I returned "home" to a final dinner with seven folks, including one of our UK Smile Card shipper. Good people somehow find each other, and then the magic happens naturally. Past midnight, Aditi calls up to say, "I just feel so much love and happiness right now. I hope it stays." Given the ongoing Wednesdays in London, I doubt that the service conspiracy is ending anytime soon! Adam put it succintly to the group: "Thank you for everything this weekend. I'm still smiling." That's how each of us felt -- grateful to be connected to each other, and ultimately, a deeper part of ourselves.

At the airport, I was hoping to catch a window seat on the flight back, just so I could get some sleep. No such luck with a full flight. But right as I enter the plane, the young German woman in the window seat next to me says, "Would you mind trading seats?" I couldn't believe it! My window seat made it a smooth ride back. :) And as our plane landed in San Francisco, all the passengers erupted in spontaneous applause for no apparent reason. Sometimes you're just happy and you applaud. They didn't have to, but they did.

That's exactly how I felt, and I started clapping too.

...

Three Peace Fleece Stories

Nipun Mehta — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Peace Fleece story of a couple of Maine manifesting goodness through a 24 year-old wool company in their backyard barn, is super inspiring. Perhaps due to their son's unflinching commitment to the gift economy, in May of last year, they decided step it up through a little Smile Card experiment. Every week, a randomly selected customer would get a note saying that their order was paid for -- just like that, a no strings attached gift.

This morning, Pete sends in a couple of the recent responses that have their crew beaming with smiles:

Dear Peace Fleece--

Thank you so much for "Tagging" me--how did you know I needed a "lift" just now? ("...There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio...")

I have joined the "SMILE" group and sent on a donation hoping that others will get this much needed "ray of sunshine."

The yarn color is gorgeous and I will make my petite 89-year-old Mom, who has had to be moved to a nursing home recently, a vest made with both your and my good wishes. She is very downhearted right now, and I KNOW she will be pleased to hear the full story when I give ("ta-da!!") her present to her. Merci beaucoup mes amis -- what a terrific idea -- will forward on this group info to my knitting friends ...

Sincerely and with heartfelt thanks,
Julierose

Dear Peace Fleece,

What a lovely surprise to be tagged! Thank you for your generous spirit, for a wonderful gesture and for that necessary work that you do. I am a forever fan.

Very Sincerely,
Elizabeth

WOW!

I came home late after a day full of worries and found the package from Peace Fleece by the mailbox. That in itself was enough to bring a smile. Then I opened it and saw the lovely yarn. Looking for the sweater pattern, I found the smile card. I was stunned. Then I conjured up the image of a bunch of really fun and real people, sitting around at Tuesday meeting and picking my name out of a hat, or a box, or somehow off a computer--but my name. For a free gift--not of just something to make me buy more somethings, but of what I truly wanted and planned to pay for (even though the credit card balance was just an eency bit low). Not for anybody's profit, but just for joy.

WOW!

The sweater I make for my daughter will be especially precious, having this little miracle inside it.

Thank you!
April

Go Pete, Marty and the Peace Fleece crew in Maine!

...

Karma Clinic Stories

Binal Shah — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

A few weeks ago, Brandt called- so excited that he had just learned of the Karma Clinic model.

When we first spoke, he was just so excited and said, “I’m going to do this! It just makes sense.” I knew he was serious but had no idea how quickly indeed he intended to take this project off the ground. Turns out, Brandt was in the process of opening his clinic in Portland– after practicing as an Acupuncturist for many years in Florida, he was invited to teach at NCNM and moved across the country, to serve in the capacity of a teacher. He decided that he wanted to do the clinic gift-economy style, and indeed 2 weeks later, he had his first patient! So, Brandt jumped head first into a gift-economy clinic and he loves it. As if this were not enough, he’s invited his colleagues at their clinic to jump in with him— and so, even they’re going to be practicing completely gift-economy style well-care on the days that Brandt is at the clinic.

What inspires me most about him is the energy with which he serves– for him, its just about giving. Sharing his gifts and living in line with his spirit.

And indeed, the gift-economy model truly speaks to the spirit of healers…

Somewhere in the collective history, healers have the gene of service -- give without any expectation of something in return. In most cultures, healers have shared freely their gifts and have been sustained by the community in which they serve. We -- the ‘modern’ gift-economy community healers -- attempt to do the same. Testing, experimenting- is this model viable in the present day? Can a society that so enmeshed in consumerism and me-centeredness, actually create a community that sustains the servers/ healers of that community?

So far, the answer is a loud and clear YES. YES. YES. The community, and universal energy, does indeed sustain those that are gifting in alignment with their spirit. And that’s a beautiful thing. Over the past few months, we’ve received so many gifts, monetary and otherwise, that have really given us the clear signal that the work we are doing and the service we are providing is something that is very much needed.

I could share many moving stories but I have two that sit really close to my heart. One is that of a woman… several weeks ago, this woman sat in front of me- having explained on the phone that she can’t afford much but really needs the help on her healing journey– and after 2 hours of sitting with her, I decided I really need more time to get to the root of what ailed her. At that point, I asked her, would she be open to spending more time talking even though we were at the end of our time. She says well, I don’t really want to impinge on your time and outside life. And I said no no, I’m here– in this moment, I’m only here to serve you. And she said ok, let’s do it then. Turns out, it was an hour and half later that we finally finished. After which she said wow, this is more of a gift than I have ever imagined- I really don’t have much money to give you. And I said no way, you don’t owe us anything- this is a gift with no strings attached. At this point, something opened in her and tears started flowing down her face. She said thank you… that was more of a gift than I could have ever imagined!

The other is a bit shorter… of a brother that came to the clinic. At the time, he didn’t have a job. At the end of the visit, he received the “receipt” and he quietly accepted the envelope and left. A few weeks later, we received a beautiful heartfelt note that read “I would like to offer 4 hours of my time to any cause that you feel would be beneficial to all beings…” WOW! 4 hours? Now thats generosity! I had gifted 2 hours of my time, for him to double it and send it back- not only to us but ‘all beings’ is quite powerful and moving. And to top it off, he emailed recently asking whats the address he can mail a check to because now that he has some income flowing in, he would like to contribute in that way too!

Being able to experience such beautiful things is quite a blessing. Another blessing has been an addition to our Berkeley Karma Clinic crew, Darius Sohei. This brother just walked in, totally aligned with the gift-economy spirit. He’s an incredible healer and it is an honor to have him as part of the community. Today he captured it so simply: “I do gift-economy because this (his art and skill in healing) was gifted to me.” And that rings so true for me… I truly believe that our gifts are to be shared with and gifted to others… so we are in gratitude to all those that are recipients of these gifts, directly or indirectly.

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E.F. Schumacher on Nonviolence (Berkeley, 1976)

Viral Mehta — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

From a transcription of a lecture on Nonviolence delivered in Berkeley in 1976, by E. F. Schumacher:

The whole question of nonviolence was taken by various people as being primarily a question of revolution or change or avoidance of war, but the more I reflect on the matter the more I see that it goes very, very much deeper. So I will start talking about technology because what we stand in need of is to recognize the violence in our technology. We are always prepared to react in a violent manner because we are very short-tempered. We want to solve the problem immediately. We normally solve problems by taking a sledgehammer and smashing it and then the poor problem explodes into twelve bits, and then we take sledgehammers to smash each of the twelve and again they explode. The whole idea of nonviolence is to start living a nonviolent way, and the slogan of the organization which I set up in England twelve years ago, the Intermediate Technology Development Group, is something like, "It's second class people who solve problems. First class people don't have them." It's much better not to have them in the first place. As a highly intelligent person once asked, "When we see the connection, if an ancestor of long ago would visit us today what would he be more astonished at – the number of our dentists or the rottenness of our teeth?" We're very grateful that we have these problem solvers, the dentists, but it would be much cleverer not to have rotten teeth.

Full article here.

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Dipped in Original Wisdom

Pavi Mehta — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

High in the Andes live the Aymarans. A tribe born with their toes dipped in original wisdom. They place the future at their backs and face their past with the intentness of a woman scanning a mirror for wrinkles or chin hair. An Aymaran gestures over his shoulder to indicate next year and will point straight ahead if you need directions to yesterday.

Perhaps the rest of us lied to ourselves about the future. Dangled it like a carrot in front of our noses, only because people can be such donkeys sometimes. Throw tomorrow like a stick or a newspaper and tell us to "Go Fetch" and we will, because we are a race freighted with hope, a people who have collectively deified the bend in the road.

Deified is a palindrome. It ripples forward and backward with equal meaning. Unlike the future it can be read both ways. The future read backwards is erutuf. An exotic word that bursts on the tongue like an unheard of tropical fruit, sweet and strange. Erutuf. The truth is we are the ones who have it all backwards.

I know in my old bones that sing their aching melodies through the night, that the Aymarans got it right. It is not the future but the past that looms that blooms in front of me unfailing as my neighbor's azaleas. We're walking home backwards, every step is a point of discovery and return. There is in this reversal of position and perspective, a certain comfort to be derived.

Moving quickly is less important now. Anywhere I can get to is not where I am going after all. I shall linger over fruit bins at the grocery store and think of my grandmother. I will weigh, shake, tap, rattle and listen for ripeness and I will not rush.

How pleasant it will be to renounce planning. No more frantic to-do lists tacked to the fridge with plastic magnets. No more pale yellow post-its papering my wall. No more penciled in calendars. You cannot possibly prepare for what is behind you. Why make pretence of trying? All I need do is show up on the doorstep of each day. Serendipity shall orchestrate the rest.

Perhaps I will miss a bus or two along the way. Fortunately, the future is not a bus, and there is no call now to shove skyscrapers aside with my shoulders in an unquiet quest to climb aboard a different life. No call to jingle the moments in my pocket impatiently, like spare change. There is time to wait without wishing.

Now that the logic of haste and desire has left me, maybe I will sit on a park bench and feed pigeons at midday. Maybe I will scatter peace like crumbs by the handful and find my significance in small things. That would be nice.

In this new scheme of things I learn that the flip side of having your head in the clouds, is the miracle of walking on air. In this new scheme of things, death is behind me. No longer a shadowy summoning that blocks the sunlight ahead but a fond prankster who will sneak up one day when I am otherwise occupied, and surprise me, with a hug.

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A Bank Hands Out $10 Bills to Pay It Forward!

Nipun Mehta — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Several weeks ago David Overlin was given a $10 bill. He was one of few thousand people in Southern Wisconsin asked by his bank to pay the money forward!

Yes, that's right. At each of its twenty branches, Sumitt Credit Union gave 100 people a ten-dollar bill to give away, if they were willing to declare their pay-it-forward intention on video. Top idea received a $500 prize too.

And they even got a proposal (that was funded) from a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine, with this adorable video:

I love this style of micro-philanthropy, particularly with the on-site video declarations. It's low-overhead and high-buzz and I'm sure it was worth the $20K of their PR bugdet. :) It would be great to see more philanthropy head in this direction, where $20K is purely for the sake of creating a culture of giving, and to connect these experiments through a meta-platform like HelpOthers.org. Our monthly $100 contest on HelpOthers is a start in that direction. :)

Wisconscin Public Radio reported on this story, and the MP3 file can be played here:

And for those who like to read, here's the full transcript:

James_001>>

Several weeks ago David Overlin was given a $10 bill. He was one of few thousand people in Southern Wisconsin asked by Summit Credit Union to pay the money forward. In other words, Overlin was tasked with giving the cash away to someone who could use it more than he could.

Overlin_001>

This is wonderful. This is quite a surprise for my day.

James>> So you just got $10. What are you going to do with it?

Overlin>> I’m going to give it to the United Way. That’s what they gave it to me for.”

James_002>>

At select branches, anyone who came into the credit union at A particular day and time was given a crisp $10 bill to give away. But coming from a bank charity, that doesn’t sound like a lot of money.

Overlin_002>

It doesn’t, but hopefully they’ll give away a lot of $10s to people. Hopefully everybody gives it away so that would be nice.”

James_003>

Actually Summit Credit Union aims to give away much more than that. Called Pay It Forward, the program aspires to stimulate the spirit of philanthropic giving among ordinary people. Campaign coordinator Alexis Endicott says they plan to do this at each of Summit’s 20 locations.

Endicott_001>>

It’s $1000 per branch so it’s $20,000. It could affect 5 or 6 different markets that we’re in and have an impact on schools or charities or just promote goodwill around each of those communities.

James_004>>

Summit Credit Union’s offices include ones IN Madison, Beaver Dam, Baraboo, Lake Mills and Portage. And for some, these seemingly small contributions will go far beyond their local communities. Kari Myarland is among three residents in the town of Fitchburg who decided to support an overseas relief organization.

Myarland_001>>

We decided to pool our money and invest in Heifer International. It’s a philanthropic organization where you can actually buy animals and other things that you can pledge to other communities or countries. We’re buying a goat in Honduras so that we can provide a sustainable donation rather than something that’s consumable.”

James_006>>

Sharing in the goat donation Karen Gaustad says the money offered up by Summit Credit Union helped her continue and expand her current levels of charitable giving.

Karen Gaustad _001>

Well when I find the right source for giving, I always try to do something like that. This was easy to do. It that made it relatively painless accept for the video.

James_007>

Oh yeah, there’s one other catch.

Everyone who received a $10 bill was asked to make a short video declaration of how they plan to pay it forward. Posted on the Summit Credit Union web site each video can be viewed online by friends, family and interested observers…then voted on.

AGAIN, coordinator Alexis Endicott:

Endicott_003

It’s a rating system similar to You-Tube. The top rated video will win $500 for themselves and $500 for a charity of their choice.”

James_008>

Jeanan Yasiri, Executive Director of the UW Center for Nonprofits, said the Pay it Forward program is a good community gesture to promote individual charitable giving in tough economic times.

Yasiri_002>>

The other thing that summit is doing that’s pretty important is they’re handing $10 to someone. But it’s then going to cause that individual to think about, “Oh, where can I give this?” And then, “Do I have the capacity to maybe match that with my own $10.” All of the sudden the gift is doubled. And the amount is really relative. It just engages that person in thinking about how they want to gift.

James_00>>

You can vote for your favorite Pay It Forward video until June 15^th.

For Wisconsin Public Radio, This is James Mills (June 9, 2009).

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A Poem from Burundi

Viral Mehta — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

A stunningly Beautiful poem from our poet-doctor-activist, Sri, who is currently in Burundi, serving in a small rural clinic. From the midst of Kigutu’s harsh realities come his moving stories and innermost reflections. He writes not just as a compassionate doctor pushed to the boundaries of his ability, but as a deeply human poet who sings of both suffering and its overcoming with powerful presence.

right now

the sky cracked open

and rain flowed fast into every crevice on the

red african mud

the gray sky

caught its breath like a child

before crying again

all the day

as we whispered/

never again

/daniel(age 6)

/never again/

neftar(age 8)

never again/

joseyln(age 32)

never again

between deaths

they

seemed to die

again and again

a cadence before

calamity

today

those that slip silent

into the soil

are finally mourned

right now...

by the sulky sky

and maybe

i was mistaken

maybe

all spring long

the sun setting wasn't

actually

god turning his back on kigutu altogether

Check out a couple of Sri's diary entries.

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Weeds (And A Conversation with Doug Burgess)

Richard Whittaker — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

When film was still around, just before digital relegated film to the status of heirloom technology, I'd take my Tri-X to The Photo Lab in west Berkeley for processing. Often a new exhibit would be up featuring a customer's work and I'd experience that moment of hope: maybe something really magic this time. And I'd slow down as I moved from photo to photo. It's not so easy to capture magic and, as I went from photo to photo, usually it was not quite, no, no, not quite.

But one day I found myself going from photo to photo and thinking, hmmm. I didn't know how I felt. Weeds. That was the subject of this new exhibit. Then the next day, when picking up my contact sheets, I stopped and looked again. Hmmm, nice enough. Hmmm. Over the next three weeks while dropping off or picking up film, I must have passed these new photos five or six times. And each time, I'd slow down and stop. Each photo was done in the manner of a botanist's field records: spine flower, chorizanthe, sp. a native plant sometimes cut along road sides as a weed.

These were the overlooked plants, the ones that spring up along railroad tracks, in vacant lots and in the cracks of broken sidewalks: common mullein, wild radish, filaree, cocklebur, wild oats, dove weed, puncture vine, teasel, burclover, cardoon, mugwort, poison hemlock, miner's lettuce. Hmmm. On a table sat a stack of neatly stapled pages for anyone who wanted to learn more about the photos. I picked one up and put it in my briefcase. Each plant was documented: Fennel, Foeniculum. "Fennel is a strongly aromatic weed common in California, probably carried here by Italians who raise two cultivated forms..."

Something quiet was gaining ground on me.

One day, while driving along, I found myself thinking about Doug Burgess's exhibit and without warning, I knew his work had to appear in the next issue. It took that long for the hidden quality to penetrate. And when it did, I realized how rare this little exhibit was. The care he'd taken. But really, it wasn't so hidden. It was simply foreign to the world of competing images.

As he wrote, "The relationship between weeds and people may be one of our most enduring relationships with the natural world. The weeds do not have our sense of self-consciousness, they do not use tools, they do not have free will, they can't even move after their roots are in place. And yet, their numbers and colonization parallels our own."

I called Burgess up. We have to talk, I said. The interview appears in issue #8.

In the interveiw, Burgess says, "In a very flip way, but with a kind of serious undertone, one of the wonderful things about photographing weeds is that they are everywhere, and they're cheap. Nobody wants them. Nobody can ever take them away because they will always be around. So in a very strange way, photographing weeds is something that cannot enter the marketplace very well. There are immense chemical industries trying to kill the weeds, but somehow they are surviving." Burgess looks off into the distance. "Is there no plant that isn't beautiful? Then what does that mean? It may reflect something that is inside of us."

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Organic Social Development

Somik Raha — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

In the island nation of Japan lived a legendary farmer by the name of Masanobu Fukuoka, who shocked scientists and researchers by following a method of farming that was lost to modern wisdom. Fukuoka believed that modern farming went against nature, and he slowly gave conventional practices up, going to the extent of not even plowing the land. Fukuoka believed that earthworms and other organisms in the soil were great tillers of the land. With no pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers, his approach to farming was about getting out of the way and letting nature do its magic. And, wonder of wonders, Fukuoka's yields were among the highest in Japan, without working half as much as other farmers. While his neighboring farms would often be hit by crop diseases, his farms would be protected by the many organisms in their own ecosystem that could exist because of his non-violent approach to farming.

The timeless idea of non-violent farming is seeing a resurgence in India and Sri Lanka, thanks to the efforts of the Gandhian organization, Sarvodaya. From a Sarvodaya volunteer, I heard the story of a mango farmer, Bharat Bhushan Tyagi, from Bulandsher, who would not harvest his mangoes. Instead, he'd have nets under his trees, and let nature decide when the mangoes were to be served. This farmer's mangoes, according to the volunteer, were the best he'd ever had in his life, and would also fetch the highest price in the market. While these stories make us want to experiment relaxing our egos and letting nature do its magic, a much bigger lesson in social welfare lies hidden in Fukuoka's and Sarvodaya's interest in non-violent and natural farming.

What if our society is the field in which we grow. We give the label "weed" to plants we don't like, and "pests" to animals we don't want in our farm. In society, this would be the big greedy corporations that sell harmful products and slowly suck our vitality. In order to curb them, we come up with herbicides and pesticides, in the form of regulations and taxes. But, what happens when we spray poison in our gardens and farms? The poison also gets into the "useful" plants that we end up consuming, and ultimately into us. Similarly, when we create endless regulation and taxes, we not only deter the greedy, we also deter those who want to do good.

Consider the following example.

There's a neighborhood where the street alley is rather dark. A young lady who lives there considers it rather inconvenient to return home in the dark every day. She talks to her neighbors about this, and everyone criticizes the local administration, the landlord and others, but no one steps up to do anything. One night, when returning home, she trips and falls in the darkness and sprains her ankle. She decides that she's had it with this problem. The next morning, she hobbles up to the nearby electrician shop and hires someone there to come and install a light. She is not worried about how her neighbors will benefit from the light without paying for it (only economists worry about such things under the label of "free riders"). She needs the light for herself. And her action benefits her neighborhood and they too get the light. The history of human development has been more or less like this - when an individual could not take the pain anymore and decided to get a light to dispel the darkness for their own self and in the process ended up benefiting their society.

Now, consider a more realistic picture of our times. A utility company has a monopoly on setting up lights, and they do so only when bribed. In order to make sure that people don't have other options, they make it illegal for individuals to install lights on their own. Under the garb of public safety, installers must be licensed by the state. The license conditions would be as complicated and expensive as possible, thanks to the hand-in-glove relationship between the monopolist and the government. If our brave lady has not given up by now, she is a real survivor who must make great personal sacrifice to solve a simple problem. And if she does give up, then we, her neighbors would hear the sad tale and nod our heads in agreement and clamor for regulation to control the monopolists. If someone hears us, more regulation gets passed, leading to more poison in the ground that makes it more difficult for the weed, AND more difficult for good plants to grow. In other words, we slap ourselves hard in the face by feeding more poison to our environment, instead of asking for more freedom to level the playing field. We have chosen poison-driven farming, and forgotten that life-affirming farming is possible.

Can we really do life-affirming farming in the social field? We live as though we are not a part of nature, and get shocked when we fall sick or die, as though it should not be happening to us. This is what India's ancients called "Maya," or the contradiction in our minds that makes us behave like lunatics. Every plant and animal is bound by nature, and responds to it. In nonviolent farming, the emphasis is on respecting life, even those of insects and weeds who we think will harm us, for the perspective of life is much larger. It is the destiny of all living things to be eaten, including ourselves. When we die, if we are buried, the insects get us, and if we are cremated, then the plants (on land or water) get us. If this is how nature is, then we should not be troubled by the fact that some organisms eat others to survive. Indeed, nonviolent farming asks us to accept the life of the weeds and insects and let them have what they need. Fukuoka's success and similar stories from Sarvodaya's active volunteers point to mounting evidence that life-affirming farming works, and works well. In India, this was the original method of farming until the so-called "green revolution" tossed them out in favor of poison-driven farming. A counter-revolution is now underway with farmers all over India moving back to their original life-affirming methods (see NPR's report: In India, Bucking The 'Revolution' by Going Organic). The time has come for us to extend the principles behind life-affirming farming to the social field.

How should we do life-affirming farming in the social field? First, we have to abandon our restless mindset that requires instant gratification. Fukuoka's experiment took years and as many farmers can testify, turning a conventionally-farmed land into a nonviolent organic one can take time. When the fruits come, they usually surprise everyone in their beauty and expression. Second, although the fruits are an inevitable result of the following of a set of universal life-affirming principles, our eyes must stay focused on the principles, for we only control our actions, not our outcomes. Third, and most important, we must clarify our understanding of these principles, which can be intuited from an organic farmer's wisdom. To my surprise, after some reflection, I have found these principles to have been elegantly captured by India's ancients through a set of positive affirmations in Sanskrit, which goes as follows:

We WILL protect each other
We WILL nourish each other
We WILL act with great heroism
We WILL undertake invigorating studies
We WILL NOT throw poison at each other

We will proceed to examine each affirmation in light of our discussion so far.

We WILL protect each other
An important aspect of the farmer's attitude is respecting life, even the life of those creatures that we might think are harmful to us. Who would have guessed that the scary earthworm that we'd rather kill with chemicals can be the heroic land tiller who saves much time for the human farmer by just going about its daily life burrowing holes in the earth. We can protect not just those we like but also those we don't know how to deal with, through a variety of methods. One of the most powerful methods is to do no harm, which we will touch upon later. Another is by direct nourishment, which we will discuss in the next affirmation. The heart of this affirmation is to adopt the mindset of the protector, for that is what the farmer really is - a protector of life.

Translated to the social field, this means we would need to protect those who are selfless and those who appear to be selfish. For, upon some reflection, we realize that even the most seemingly selfish persons affect the society they walk in. If they are personally happy, the society around them receive that happiness. If they spend money on what we might consider frivolous things, that money goes to the generation of employment and nourishing someone else. So, in the deepest scheme of things, it is impossible for someone to be really selfish, even if they tried really hard. Moreover, if we examine those who seem to be insanely wealthy, we find that even the richest person on the planet, after a point, realizes that wealth spent on others gives much more satisfaction than wealth that is hoarded. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, who are number one and two respectively on the Forbes list of the "World's Richest People," have given incredible portions of their wealth away for human welfare.

We WILL nourish each other
In Zaheerabad, Medak district of Andhra Pradesh, the web magazine India Together profiled Chandramma and Narsamma, two women farmers who have understood this principle well. They plant a combination of thirteen crops that have been carefully selected. The principle is to nourish the plant and nourish the land. For instance, the jowar crop reduces the fertility of the soil as it absorbs nutrition. The lentil crop gives fertility to the soil as it has nitrogen-fixing properties. This combination allows the farmers to farm without needing rainfall and irrigation! Moreover, in between these two crops, they also plant the sunflower crop, which attracts insects, thereby sparing the other plants and not requiring insecticides. In other words, they have chosen to nourish the insects as well. Not surprisingly, they call their selection of crops "Satyam Pantalu" or "Crops of Truth." In the social field, we must accept that all humans have a need for self-preservation, just as the insects on the farm. Can we find a way in which those we consider "pests" can survive too? Can we stop looking at groups of people as "pests" and recognize the sanctity of life in all?

Right outside Gandhi's ashram in Wardha, Maharashtra, is a little shop called Goras Bhandaar, which has taken upon itself to buy organic milk in an ethical manner, much higher than the prevailing market rate, provided the milk is chemical-free and unadulterated. The milk farmers, who were hitherto squeezed by the market and would try to game it by adding water or torturing the cow with harmful chemicals like oxytocin, now started selling their best organic milk to this shop. The shop runs out of milk within an hour as patrons storm it to get the most delicious milk they can find in the market. One needs very little marketing beyond the product itself when it is so life-affirming. Here, instead of looking at milk farmers as cheats, Goras Bhandar acknowledged the milk farmer's need to survive, and created a powerful life-affirming alternative, not only helping the farmer but also the consumers of milk.

We WILL act with great heroism
Organic farmers are great heroes not so much because of hard work and fortitude but mainly because of their unwavering conviction in life. This conviction spurs them on to find solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems in the most life-affirming way possible. And when their solution works, their heroism finds its full expression in their humility and surrender to nature. Fukuoka gives all his credit to Mother Nature, and those who have interacted with organic farmers will probably have heard a similar refrain. In the social field, great heroism is needed to tackle cynicism, pessimism and countless attempts at poisonous regulation. Such heroism can only spring from a deep conviction in life. What does such heroism look like?

Michael Strong and John Mackey call this heroism "conscious capitalism" in their inspiring book, "Be the Solution," which touches on the successful Whole Foods business chain that creates a market for healthy living products. We might also use the terms "social capitalism," "capital socialism," or even "social entrepreneurship," as a mixture of the best of socialism (caring for society) and capitalism (respecting individual freedom). Of course, Mahatma Gandhi was the quintessential "social entrepreneur" coining the slogan, "Be the Change," and reviving the local economy by marketing khadi (anything made with one's own hands). My wife once bought a towel made by prisoners in the Rajamundhry Central Jail under a Khadi program that we were visiting and it is the best towel we have in our home. I often wonder what would happen if the tools of marketing that are available to our unconscious capitalists are also utilized by the conscious ones, as Gandhiji would have done.

We WILL undertake invigorating studies
The word "invigorate" means "to give life and energy to." An invigorating study is one that gives us the deepest insights on life and energy. The organic farmer engages in such a study by becoming a student of life. Through a great heart, the intellect is fired up to shine its light on the mysteries of nature, which reveal themselves to a concentrated mind. That our awakened farmers are often illiterate is a great contrast to how illiterate we who know how to read letters have become about life itself. Indeed, by examining the stories of Fukuoka, Tyagi, Narsamma or Chandramma, we will probably find keen students of nature, who were scientific in the deepest sense of the term, by constantly observing and learning from nature.

In the social field, we must start by recognizing that it is we who give life and energy to ideas and make them a reality. Therefore, at a personal level, we must become students of ourselves and understand what makes us come alive and how we can get out of our own way. Then we will know what we can contribute to society and how we can grow further. At a social level, we find ourselves in the grip of two opposing forces. The Keynesian economists (who often think of themselves as capitalists) are obsessed with the gross domestic product or the national economic engine, and subscribe to coercion (through government policies) when the so-called social growth is threatened. On the other hand, Marxian economists (who often think of themselves as socialists) oppose such growth which they view as exploitation, and are obsessed with protecting the masses from it. They too, like the Keynesian economists, rely on coercion (through government policies again) when their goals are threatened. They are really two sides of the same coin. One will recommend coercion to keep "change" going, and the other will recommend coercion to keep "change" from happening. Neither is a student of life, for if they were, they would both realize the futility of their efforts and renounce coercion. We do not have to coerce the plants and animals to grow, much as we'd like to think otherwise - they do so of their own volition. An invigorating study of society must affirm the sanctity and vigor of all life, not just a preferred few. That is the standard by which we must judge our economic and other social theories. When applied, this standard will help us discover voluntary social systems that support personal growth by respecting both external and internal nature.

We WILL NOT throw poison at each other
This can be the hardest of all the principles to fathom, for we have become accustomed to throwing poison at those we don't like. Refraining from generating poison is the most important duty we have toward life. However, even if we stop generating this poison right now, we shall find ourselves overwhelmed by the existing poison that was created in the past. We have all kinds of regulations meant to keep us safe from pests which in reality strangle our creativity, and what is life, if not our freedom to create? We can learn from the organic farmer to trust nature and agree to make ourselves vulnerable to "greedy capitalists" who might try to sell us terrible products. Instead of regulation, we must move toward withdrawing all restraints so life-affirming innovation can breathe, see the light of day and give people the opportunity to choose between the wholesome and the unwholesome. Organizations like Whole Foods in America and Goras Bhandaar in India have clearly demonstrated that when given the choice, there are enough people who will prefer to take that which has no poison, and will sustain those ventures that are beneficial to them.

Finally, our indictment of some groups as "pests" needs further scrutiny. The Buddhists say it is in the nature of the universe to constantly change. If this is true, then "pests" must also change. I found evidence of this in a recent visit to Pizza Hut, who we ended up patronizing on a hot hungry day in Hawaii, due to the non-availability of vegetarian options nearby. I did not consider Pizza Hut to be a source of healthy vegetarian food, and so I frowned when the suggestion was first made. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that their menu had a whole-wheat organic pizza crust with an organic vegetarian topping. There is enough evidence in the world that we are influenced by what happens around us, and just as children get influenced by smartly marketed fast-food, fast-food chains are also influenced by messages in our society that are given out through our choice for healthy eating, primarily by patronizing competition that makes such alternatives possible. We have more energy to create and encourage life-affirming messages and alternatives when we expend less energy vilifying the bad alternative providers. Indeed, a positive life-affirming attitude can turn us into alchemists, bringing out the best in those we touch.

A Call for Action
Noted welfare economist Amartya Sen has made a clarion call for viewing "development" as "freedom," and to move from an income-maximization perspective to a freedom-maximization perspective. However, the method for approaching such a freedom has been reliance on government (or the farmer) to impose social-justice programs (or fertilizers) in the hope that we may have a better society. This is a very non-organic approach and not in tune with nature. What if we build on Sen's perspective and make a call for withdrawal of all fertilizers and insecticides (regulations, tax-support) for social-justice programs, and instead encourage their organic emergence and growth using the principles laid out above? An argument may be raised that we are calling for a hands-off "do nothing" approach. How then will be tackle important social-justice issues? Let us go back to the nonviolent organic farm to answer this question. By itself, the act of not using poison cannot explain the quantity and quality of yields that nonviolent farms produce. Something else is at work. When there is no poison in the field, that field attracts life. Birds drop seeds, bees cross-pollinate, earthworms come and till the land and there is great activity. It is just that the farmer has done none of it.

In our metaphor, the lawmakers would be the farmer, who can help by withdrawing all the poison in our field. Then we have the freedom to be the birds, bees and earthworms, doing our best to make a difference. The lawmakers cannot be viewed in isolation as the change-makers. By including all of society in the picture, we will find that we are a part of life and find our full expression in freedom, and it is in our nature to create, remove suffering and be of service, without needing any prompting from anyone.

So, in conclusion, we have two key messages here. As lawmakers, our motto is not "do nothing," but "do nothing to restrain other people from doing good." It is high time we recognize the failure of human intervention and accept the better system of non-intrusive organic development. And when we don't have the lawmaker hat on, we must serve society in harmony with our own nature and the nature outside us, just like the hardworking earthworms, birds and bees. We must become keen students of nature, and recognize, trust and respect our own roles as creators of better worlds around us. Only then can we respect others as creators and help remove constraints from their paths, leading to a society of great freedom and inspiration.

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Kindness: All the Cool Kids Are Doing It

Birju Pandya — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

[Below is an excerpt from an article about our local event in NY.]

The paradox of selflessness never ceases to amaze me, yet somehow I continually forget that the receiving is in the giving. I was reminded yet again on Memorial Day when I joined Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) as they kicked-off their third year of anonymous, kind-hearted shenanigans.

The über-grassroots crew set up their barebones operation in Central Park’s Strawberry Fields: a folding table, lots of free cookies and a flimsy board smattered with Post-it notes. The stickies hold creative suggestions and inspirational quotes for passersby to take. Some favorites:

1. Blessed are those that can give without remembering and receive without forgetting.

2. Give away something important to you. Right now.

3. Tell a public service employee how valuable they are.

4. Pay for the person behind you in line.

5. Do what you can with what you've got wherever you are.

The loosely organized group of do-gooders meets sporadically and informally to spread the joy of giving, a gift not always readily received. Sadly, the offer of a free cookie from a smiling stranger practically bewilders the average New Yorker. I get it. There was a time when I too would have met a random act of generosity with similar confusion, skepticism and -- though I hate to admit it -- aloofness. Somehow, being nice doesn't always add up to being cool. But mindsets are shifting. Maybe nice is actually cool, or maybe cool doesn't even exist… or maybe being cool doesn't matter. What resonates these days, however, is being nice.

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Tribal Activism of Himanshu Kumar

Sriram Akanksha — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Indian media has been over the top with the shrill coverage of the attacks on Indian students in Australia and the release of the Hafiz Sayyed. However, most of the same shrill seekers of justice and fairplay in the legal system mutely ignore the excesses happening directly in India.

Since Binyak Sen was released on bail a few days ago, Tehelka cover storied the rampant injustice meted out in the tribal district of Dantewada.

This is Dantewada, a remote district in the south Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. The man in white is Himanshu Kumar, a Gandhian human rights activist from Meerut who has been working in Dantewada for 17 years. And the war is an old triangular one: between the State, the Naxals, and the tribals — cleft violently from within by the infamous government-sponsored Salwa Judum.

Himanshu is crushed mercilessly.

On 17 May, a day after the Lok Sabha election results, a police force of over 500 surrounded Himanshu’s Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, ten kilometers from Dantewada town. He was given half an hour to wrap up two decades of work. Then, the bulldozers moved in. They broke everything: home, dispensary, dormitories, training halls, kitchen, telephone towers (sanctioned by the government itself), swing, even a lone hand-pump that was the only source of clean water for the villages around.[...]

Demolished is a poor word. Erased is more accurate: erased with an implacable anger: an obscene violence. There is nothing there but crushed cement and strewn papers. A tiny pink crocus that has escaped the bulldozers droops in the heat. For 17 years, Vanvasi Chetna Ashram had functioned as a kind of fine nerve connection between the tribals and a forgetful State. Come from distant Meerut and Delhi, painstakingly learning Gondi, Himanshu and Veena had focused on teaching tribals about their entitlements, traveling on foot into villages deep inside the forests, slowly tugging isolated communities into the democratic system. Building concepts of community monitoring: what government schemes had been announced in their name, how were they to access them, how were they to hold corrupt officials to account, how were they to file FIRs and applications, how were they to demand teachers in their schools. “Our work was to strengthen democracy at the roots,” says Himanshu,

Through all this, though, their strength to continue in the face of such odds is just staggeringly awesome:

His father, 82, a dignified old man (Prakash Kumar had given up college in 1942 to join the Quit India movement; he met Gandhi in Sewagram in 1945. Later, he joined Vinobha Bhave’s Bhoomidan movement. “My father helped give away over 20 lakh acres of land in Uttar Pradesh,” says Himanshu, “but he and I do not possess one acre between us.”), has come to give him moral support. He sits calmly, uncomplaining, amidst the heat and mess. “I fought in the freedom movement. I know truth always prevails, but it takes time and much sacrifice. Himanshu is my only son. I don’t know what the solution is, but I know the road he is on is right. The more consciousness he generates among the tribals, the more they will be able to claim their right to life.”

Such battles are perhaps best fought silently with a dignity that defines dignity and with a love that defines love.

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Ten Years on the CharityFocus Timeline

Arathi Ravichandran — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

For the most recent CF retreat, I put together a visual timeline of most notable events in CharityFocus's ten year history. Take a look ...

Dec-1996: Quote-A-Day start at Sun Microsystems, as a prank to send out emails at 4AM. :)
Nov-1997: Wednesdays start, "Thought of the Week" begin at the home of CF mom and Dad. Donation Club, Book Club and other smaller groups also self-organized over the next year.
Jan-1999: The very first CharityFocus meeting, over pizza ... at what is now known as the Intergalactic headquarters. :)
Apr-1999: Four volunteers help a homeless shelter build a website as the first CF project. CF also got its formal 501(c)(3) that month, and hence this has come to be known as the "start" of CharityFocus.
May-1999: Paul does first 1st article on CF, in CS Monitor. First major story: SF Weekly cover story in Jan 2000.
Feb-2000: the first public talk invite by AHIMSA in Berkeley: Spirit of Service. Craig of craigslist was also the first to give a formal (unsolicited) donation to CF that month.
Sep-2000: First time on TV: Nipun interviewed live on CNN International for half hour!
Jun-2001: Jefferson award in Washington DC is the first major award for CharityFocus.
Apr-2002: CF hosts its first-ever Night of Inspiration -- at Shanti's woodshop in SF (w/Port-a-Potty et al).
Apr-2002: CF takes over a dot-com -- PledgePage! Girish masterminds the whole thing. :)
Jan-2003: ProPoor merges into CF; Jayesh Parekh becomes a volunteer; Sujatha shows Preity Zinta photos on April Fools all-nighter!
Dec-2003: We formally distribute the first 100 Smile Cards, at Rev. Heng Sure's Christmas event. (Mark printed an informa batch in Sep 2003 for our Vancouver retreat!).
Apr-2004: cShops germinates at How-Weird-Street-Faire in SF! :)
May-2004: Inspiring Messages launches, as Scott the Surfer aims to put out good message. (This was well before Free Hugs became popular. :))
Sep-2004: Service eXchange launches softly, via Trishna the cub, Ashish the zen master, and Paras itchyhands.
Jan-2005: Guri and Nipun head on walking pilgrimage in India. They return in 2006.
Jul-2005: Viral keynotes to 5000 people!
Mar-2006: Matt launches CFSites to help nonprofits build websites without much technical overhead.
Oct-2006: KarmaTube launches, as Jenny emails her addressbook to signup for our newsletter.
Dec-2006: Quote-A-Day becomes DailyGood and launches dailygood.org
Jan-2007: works & conversations art magazine goes gift-economy, after Richard, Paul and Nipun meet at a Taqueria.
Feb-2007: SmoothFeather comes on board, goes gift-economy! In the next year, it manages to hit the home page of YouTube twice.
Mar-2007: Karma Kitchen launches in two weeks after Tiger Team meeting!
Aug-2007: CF Sites crosses thousand nonprofit websites!
Jul-2008: Gift-Economy message hits Wall Street Journal. :)
Jan-2009: DailyGood crosses 100K subscribers.
Feb-2009: Karma Clinic gets a website and an 80 sq. foot office! In DC, Karma Kitchen opens at its second location!
Apr-2009: DailyGood launches on iPhone, our first mobile application built by Fred.
May-2009: Smile Cards hit CNN!

Do you notice anything missing?

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Connecting the Disconnected

Ashish Mehta — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

[This is a follow-up of an earlier blog post: This I know For Sure]

Priya* had end stage pancreatic cancer and didn’t have much long to live. Our meetings, back in 2003, were odd in some sense. Odd because I would find myself (re)introducing who I am and what I could offer as a hospice volunteer on a number of occasions. Perhaps her short term memory loss was also one of the conditions that afflicted her. Most of our conversations were about our families and I discovered that she had a son in L.A. who would drive up to the Bay Area to visit her occasionally.

One Tuesday Priya excitedly told me that her son was coming to see her the coming weekend. On Thursday, I got a call informing me that Priya passed away. While I felt the sadness of Priya’s departure, I felt even more strongly for her son, who missed seeing her just by a couple of days. I could relate to his experience as it had been very similar to mine as I was miles away when my mother passed away.

Fast forward to May 17, 2009.

A couple of weeks ago I had the good fortune of listening to Dr. Muhammed Yunus (Founder of Garmeen Bank and 2006 Noble Peace Prize winner) at our commencement. He mentioned that as college students we do crazy things. He also mentioned that he continued doing crazy things even after college-- like looking at the lending practices of banks and flipping the model upside down. He experimented with giving small loans to those who didn’t have the means of collateral or credit history. His experiment worked and he also managed to convince banks to make these loans with him as a guarantor. This has now mushroomed into field by itself: microfinance. Dr. Yunus encouraged our class to look at existing models and challenge them and to come up with “social businesses”- businesses that go beyond just pure profit.

I could resonate with Dr. Yunus, thanks to the service perspective that I had gleaned over the years with being associated with CharityFocus. I recall reading a passage from Eckhart Tolle’s book “Power of Now”, where he talks about how as a human race we could kill each other with a wooden club when we were cavemen and now we can kill millions with a push of a button. He questioned whether this was the right kind of technology advancement/progress. He points out that technology has progressed but the ‘quality of consciousness’ has not (the intent to harm/kill is still there). While working at a technology firm prior to business school, my personal observation was that there is an incessant focus on making things faster and better -- but a question that always stayed with me was ‘Is this making us happier?’

One particular observation while volunteering with hospice patients was that medicine has advanced far enough to take away (or suppress) pain but not much is being done to take away the suffering. Our fast paced society dictates that folks with end stage conditions and seniors spend a lot of their time disconnected from the ones they care about the most. Perhaps in a culture that values individual independence this is the accepted norm but perhaps something can be done to make things better.

Going back to my earlier hospice experience, why couldn’t Priya’s son have ‘seen’ her mother earlier? When I looked around, I realized that there are many inpatient and senior settings in which folks can feel disconnected. Is it possible to use technology to connect this population to their loved ones and to the community in a more meaningful way than is currently possible? In a way, that is easy to use for all users? These are some of the questions that a couple of us have been grappling with in the recent past. Our initial experiments and surveys seem to indicate that there is an unmet need that begs for technology to connect people in this space.

So as the doctor (Yunus) ordered, I am trying to keep some semblance of craziness in exploring whether what I learnt at B-school can be applied to create a sustainable entity that uses technology to serve humanity in a small, but hopefully, meaningful way.

We're calling it EyeUgo, which means "to bind, to connect" in Latin.

(*Name changed to honor privacy)

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