Derek Markham

Interesting finds, random goodness, and pointless bits & pieces that don't fit anywhere else

Love this idea: PROJECT peaceBOMB

A bracelet.

A story about war and peace. Destruction and reconstruction. History. Instead of words, this story is composed of fragments of bombs, melted and shaped into a circle, a bracelet, a reminder. 


1973.

Laos. A major theatre of war during the Vietnam conflict, the US has ceased its 9-year long aerial bombardment known as the Secret War intended to halt the spread of communism across Indochina. Communist Lao leaders and 23,000 civilians slowly emerge from homes carved in the karst cave complexes of Houaphan Province.


1975.

War is over. Saigon has fallen to the North Vietnamese Army. Victory within near reach, the Pathet Lao advance westward. A lone man from Houaphan also moves west. He journeys through the emerald-mountain passes toward the bomb-cratered Plain des Jars.


Naphia Village, Laos.

The man makes a temporary home. He collects scrap metal from farmland and forest scarred by war debris from the 250-260 million bombs that were dropped. He crafts spoons from aluminum melted in an earthen kiln and cast in hand-sculpted molds of wood and ash.


Villagers watch, listen, learn.

The first Naphia resident learns the trade from the lone traveler. He crafts and sells spoons. Eventually, he teaches the technique to his son. Today, 10 resourceful and enterprising families supplement subsistence farming activities with income from repurposing scrap metal. Through resourcefulness and problem solving, they take a constructive approach to a legacy of destruction.


2009.

peaceBOMB bracelets. Developed through the collaboration of spoon makers, the RISE Project, and ARTICLE 22, a social enterprise that supports sustainable development through design thinking. Each bracelet purchase brings: helps support artisan families, the community development fund, and clearance of unexploded ordnance from Lao land.


NOW.

BUY BACK THE BOMBS.

via peace-bomb.com

News you missed: The Kidnapping of Ronald McDonald

via freeronald.org

From the page:

"We are the Food Liberation Army, and we hope that this extreme action will take us towards a better and safer food future.

Two days ago we kidnapped Ronald McDonald from a McDonald's Restaurant. If you do not answer all the questions we will execute Ronald on Friday February 11, 2011 at 6:30PM EET.

We love burgers, fries and McDonald's, but we can no longer watch silent when the food we love is being destroyed and brought to shame because of greed and indifference. Because of your short-sightedness your burgers have become nearly inedible.

That is why we want to help McDonald's to save food. We made you a list of questions we want you to answer. We hope that your answers will make you understand the dilapidation of the food culture we love and the appropriate measures.

1. Why are you not open about the manufacturing processes, raw materials and additives used in your products? What are you afraid?

2. How many tons of un-recycled waste you produce per year? Why do you not publish that figure?

3. Do you operate with unethical actors, such as illegal immigrants? Why?

4. Why do not you take responsibility of your culinary consequences? Why do you not seek to prevent obesity, diabetes and their ramification deceases?

5. Why do you not just use ethically produced meat? Do you not think it should be a goal for everyone to serve meat of an animal that has has had a good, clean and drug free life? Why is it not your goal?

6. Why is cheap production cost your main value?

7. Do you think your only goal is to maximize your owners´s profits? What do you think would happen if you begin to produce quality to your customers?

8. You are big and global player that reaches a significant part of the earth's people. Why do you use your power to short-sightedly maximize profits and not to create a better world ?

We are not alone, but represent a rapidly growing population. We have moved quickly towards better quality and ethicality of consumption. It is in your interest to answer our questions publicly, and develop your activities through them. Only this way you will survive in the future. Listen to our message and the Move. We will reward you by eating more of your burgers.

You have until Friday February 11 at 6:30PM EET to respond to freedomronald@gmail.com.

Silence is interpreted a negative answer. Have a nice day."

Official Online Release of "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward" by Peter Joseph

via youtube.com

On Jan. 15th, 2011, "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward" was released theatrically to sold out crowds in 60 countries; 31 languages; 295 cities and 341 Venues. It has been noted as the largest non-profit independent film release in history.

This is a non-commercial work and is available online for free viewing and no restrictions apply to uploading/download/posting/linking - as long as no money is exchanged.

A Free DVD Torrent of the full 2 hr and 42 min film in 30 languages is also made available through the main website [below], with instructions on how one can download and burn the movie to DVD themselves. His other films are also freely available in this format.

Website:
www.zeitgeistmovingforward.com
www.zeitgeistmovie.com

Release Map:
http://zeitgeistmovingforward.com/zmap

$5 DVD:
http://zeitgeistmovingforward.com/dvd

Movement:
www.thezeitgeistmovement.com

Family of @LeonardPeltier accuses U.S. government of medical neglect

“A man dies from prostate cancer every 16 minutes in this country.  Why does my brother have to wait over a year to receive even a diagnosis?”

Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who maintains his innocence, was wrongfully convicted in connection with the shooting deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1977.  Imprisoned for 35 years—currently at the federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania—Peltier has been designated a political prisoner by Amnesty International.  Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, 55 Members of Congress and others—including a judge who sat as a member of the court in two of Peltier’s appeals—have all called for his immediate release.  Widely recognized for his humanitarian works and a six-time Nobel Prize nominee, Peltier also is an accomplished author and painter.

Sister Betty Solano says Peltier began exhibiting symptoms commonly attributed to prostate cancer over a year ago.  His age (he is 66 years old) and family history are risk factors for the disease.  Pressured by Peltier’s attorneys, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) ran standard blood tests in June.  Peltier received the results last week, over four months later.  A physician only now says a biopsy is needed to make a diagnosis.

Prostate cancer affects 1 in 6 men in the United States.  Medical experts agree that the cure rate for prostate cancer is high, but only if detected early.

Even if Peltier doesn’t have cancer, the symptoms indicate a serious medical condition and one that could lead to serious complications if left untreated.

A physician who conducted an independent review of Peltier’s medical records in 2000 concluded that Peltier’s overall medical treatment is below a reasonable standard of care.  Decades ago, Peltier suffered a stroke which left him nearly blind in one eye—damage physicians say could have been prevented had he been treated sooner.  In the 1990s, there was international outrage after the BOP botched surgeries to correct a jaw problem.  Only then was Peltier transferred to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for treatment.  Subsequent procedures were recommended by a specialist, but never performed by the BOP.

“Last week, at the United Nations, the United States claimed that it is unequivocally committed to the humane treatment of all individuals in detention, including criminal detention.  Delaying tests, avoiding a diagnosis, and preventing proper medical treatment for a potentially life threatening disease is not humane by anyone’s definition,” a spokesperson for the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee said.

“Unfortunately, this situation isn’t unique to Mr. Peltier.  Many U.S. prisoners die prematurely because treatment is delayed or denied.”

Family members want the government to release Peltier who was denied parole in 2009.  His North Dakota tribe has twice passed a resolution asking the government to transfer Peltier into their custody.  Peltier’s many supporters believe his release from prison is the only way Peltier will receive humane treatment.

###

Launched into cyberspace by the
Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
PO Box 7488, Fargo, ND  58106
contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

Buy Nothing Day + Carnivalesque Rebellion @Adbusters

"A few people start breaking their old patterns, embracing what they love (and in the process discovering what they hate), daydreaming, questioning, rebelling. What happens naturally then, according to the revolutionary past, is a groundswell of support for this new way of being, with more and more people empowered to perform new gestures unencumbered by history. Think of it as an adventure, as therapy – a week of pieing and pranks, of talking back at your profs and speaking truth to power. Some of us will put up posters in our schools and neighborhoods and just break our daily routines for a week. Others will chant, spark mayhem in big box stores and provoke mass cognitive dissonance. Others still will engage in the most visceral kind of civil disobedience. And on November 26 from sunrise to sunset we will abstain en masse – not only from holiday shopping, but from all the temptations of our five-planet lifestyles."

via adbusters.org