Month: February 2011

Catastrophes cease to be catastrophes when we partner — Habitat for Humanity, Int’l

Catastrophes cease to be catastrophes when we partner

By Luis Santibañez, national director of Habitat for Humanity Chile

Editor’s note: On Feb. 27, 2010, a magnitude-8.8 earthquake rocked the length of Chile and triggered a tsunami along the country’s coast. One year later, much work remains to help families rebuild their lives and their homes. Below, Luis Santibañez recounts some of the challenges, successes and memorable moments for Habitat Chile in the past year.

 


Learn more about Habitat Chile’s ongoing campaign to help 10,000 Chilean families recover:
Chile Earthquake: One Year Later (4MB .pdf)
   
 

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The first, most significant challenge was that our national office in Santiago had also been affected by the earthquake. Thankfully, we had the capacity to return to work in three days.

Everything that we had built in the seven years prior to the quake had remained intact. Not a single Habitat house was affected.

Despite the fact that we had little experience in responding to disaster situations, we have been able to overcome the challenges and move forward.

We still do not have all of the means of implementation that we would like to. But we have to learn from this experience, note the pros and the cons and continue to improve the way we work.

There was a Habitat Chile before Feb. 27, 2010, but the earthquake changed everything. None of us are the same. We have to unite together and continue working because there are still thousands of people awaiting a response.

One story that has stuck with me is that of Pincheira, a Habitat construction worker. He lost his father in the tsunami. He had to travel home to identify the body and make funeral arrangements. Within a few days he was back, asking how he could help. Always with a smile and a total willingness to assist the other affected families.

It is these types of people who provide a voice of hope.

Later, when I met with the mayor of Curepto, he was seated at his desk and said to me, “You cannot imagine the number of people who initially came to offer their help. But no one has stayed.” So I responded, “Habitat is here to stay.” He rose, said, “Thank you. Let’s get to work.” And we embraced.

We need partners. Catastrophes cease to be catastrophes when we partner. The greatest catastrophe is to forget those in need. Those who are able need to continue to help and not forget us.

Just a Afternoon Rant.

Social Security Poster: old man

Change is something that no matter how hard you try you can only slow down but not totally avoid. This is being discovered on many levels by citizens and governments across the globe. Some change is good and some change is negative or retroactive, though no change is avoidable the end destination of change can be redirected. Even change that has been orchestrated runs its own course and usually will never come out exactly as planed.

So now the middle east and north African countries are going through a political change that has yet to reach its end. It will be many years after the dust settles before the end results will be known. The only thing predictable about the circumstances the world is facing in this unrest is that more than likely that no one will head the warnings of being dependent on oil and not having a fair economical and civilian minded government. It will shock me immensely if any Oil consuming nation and their government even thinks twice about getting off the oil addiction. It will shock me even more if any nation ever puts the citizens before the government officials or the big businesses.

I have a lot of faith in mankind just not very much in the select few who rule by government or from their corporate towers. They have all the money and power and they surely don’t want to share it or even allow others to reach their status level because less competition equals more control and wealth. To be fair there has to be some in government and in big business that do care and try to do good with what they have, Just seems there is more of them that are greedy and power hungry than compassionate and humane. So being out numbered by their peers they have a lot to overcome to make any difference in the world.

I just think it is time for businesses to get their act together and realize crude oil is eventually either going to run out or become too costly to sustain any industry that requires it to operate. I also think it is time for governments to see that the citizens are the ones paying their paychecks and taking care of all the bills / loan payments the government has. So if you don’t keep the working man and the consumers employed, healthy and somewhat happy that the economy is going to either become stagnant or head into a downward spiral.

Invest in small business and help the innovative people of your nation so new technologies and new sources of income can be created. Keep them healthy so they can be productive and keep the economy strong and for gods sake listen to the public, they are getting tired of their words falling on deaf ears. And here in the U.S. the political parties need to grow up and get over their differences and be grown up enough to face and tackle the problems facing the country from the federal government down to the back streets of America.

And for as the national debt is concerned, Stop borrowing money as much, cut foreign aid a bit and maybe take a pay cut up their in congress. Most Americans are forced to survive on 20k if not less and rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $174,000 per year. Far as Social security, leave it alone for most of us middle class and below the social security benefits is all we have to retire on and due to the cost of healthcare most of us wont be able to live to see much past 60 years of age.

O.K. Enough Ranting for now,

Peace

Ray Barbier

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Early Morning Gibberish

005

  Every day I get closer and closer to the end of my life’s path, Many ups and downs along with quite a few round and rounds. Many days and nights in search of the right way to go and trying to find meaning and purpose in my life. Too many miles walked trying to satisfy others and in trying to belong or to be accepted. Lessons learned and lessons forgot along the edge of my life’s path and yet I still learn something new with each step I take. To belong or to be accepted would be nice but is not necessary for I chose to walk my own path and dance to my own beat.

  The last miles of my path will be walked as my true self and without fear of judgment and or social acceptance. Love me, Like me or even despise me if you wish for I am who I am and that I can not change.

Know thyself, Be thyself and always be true to Thyself.

Peace

Raymond Barbier

No country is immune to the divide

Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew, (English and...

Across the globe citizens of all walks of life are protesting and rioting against governments that are now learning the lessons of not listening to their citizens. Imbalance of power, wealth and education is creating a wave of anti government sentiment and actions. In the U.S. the Unions and workers of many states are in a battle for their rights to have a good wage and decent retirement / Insurance coverage. The citizens of the middle eastern countries and north Africa are fighting for basic human rights. All of this is due to the greed and the inability of governments to listen to the wants and needs of their citizens.

I find it quite sad it takes such protests and riots to enact change in countries and governments of the modern world. Maybe some good will come out of all of this unrest and un needed killing in countries such as Libya. Maybe, just maybe other countries and their governments will learn to listen to the public and be more concerned about their needs and wants. Possibly they may even see the great gap in the wealth and health issues within their own borders and try and find a way to make it a bit more fair and balanced.

No country is immune to the divide between the economic classes, some countries have a larger gap than others and this will eventually create either unrest or a economical downward spiral for those countries. The working class is the one that both helps create/provides goods and is the major consumer of such goods/services. Neglect that class and allow them to become impoverished both financially and in education then you will see a economical disaster in the making.

Another lesson that the world may learn is that we really need to move away from the dependence on oil as our main source of fuel. The unrest in the middle east has already increased the cost of oil per barrel to over 100 U.S. dollars and has effected the stock markets across the globe. An oil based economy like what most of the world is connected to is not a very stable one due to the increase of demand and the dwindling oil supplies and reserves across the globe.

To those in Libya, Egypt and the rest of the countries in the Middle East / North Africa I send my best wishes and my condolences for the lives lost in the revolutions/protests.

Peace is the path seldom walked.
Raymond Barbier

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How Habitat came to be part of the Stone Soup comic strip — Habitat for Humanity, Int’l

How Habitat came to be part of the Stone Soup comic strip

By Jan Eliot
Stone Soup cartoonist

 

 

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Since its debut in 1995, my comic strip Stone Soup has grown from 25 newspapers in the U.S. to 250 around the world. When I started the strip, I was a working mother looking for a way to support her kids from home.

Eventually I found myself standing in my studio amazed to see what has come from that dream. A sustainable career doing something I love. Daughters who’ve gone to college and now have families of their own.

Folksinger Susan Werner wrote a song with the line “I’ve got plenty and then some…what shall I do?” As Stone Soup became more successful, I began to wonder if there was a way I could use its success for a higher purpose.

My job is to entertain, but my public position in newspapers is an irresistible soapbox. While it’s definitely not my job to preach, I can certainly create a world within Stone Soup that reflects what I’d like our real world to be: fair, feminist, compassionate, charitable, among other things.

The Stone Soup family includes a middle-school character, Holly. She’s 13 and often fairly self-centered. Once in a while I get irritated with her and decide to create an opportunity for her to stretch and grow. A little awareness of the plight of others is a good thing to give someone who is overly concerned with her own reflection and the contents of her closet.

It was this thinking that led me to send Holly and her sister Alix on a spring-break trip to Southern California. Once there, they discover that it’s not the beach vacation they envisioned. They’ve been conscripted to help on a build. (I know that kids can’t work on build sites, but it’s a comic strip, and I had a point to make.)

Her first day on site, a disgruntled Holly meets another young team member and asks why she’s “Happy to waste a vacation building a charity house for some loser family?” When I first wrote that line, I was afraid it was too harsh. But this was Holly’s opportunity for a lesson, and she soon discovers that the girl is part of the “loser” family. Oops. And while you might chalk that line up to 13-year-old self-importance, there are adults in the world who have on occasion had that very thought.

By the end of the week, Holly is changed forever by her experience and utters the phrase, “Who knew blisters could feel so good?” My sentiments exactly. Every experience I’ve had with Habitat (still too few, more to come) leaves me feeling this way.

Since Holly and Alix Stone’s experience with Habitat, their Gramma Evie has helped build in Uganda and Thailand. I was lucky enough to accompany her there — participating in Habitat’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project in Chiang Mai was an experience I’ll never forget. Two thousand volunteers from all over the world, the wonderful families we were building in partnership with, our amazing Thai hosts, a full neighborhood springing up from bare land.

“Stone soup” is a hearty dish somehow conjured from stones and water. The magic ingredient? Community. To me, that sounds just like Habitat for Humanity.

Just another Rant on 2/20/2011

The riots across the middle east has been a very hot topic in the news and on the internet. The want for the freedom and living a happy life and having some sort of a economically stable future seems to be a common desire amongst all humans. The imbalance of wealth and power also is a common thread in almost if not all nations of the modern world we live in. This lack of balance will create social anxieties along with political unrest if it isn’t somewhat balanced out in the future. The fact is most people just want to have enough money to live comfortable and never be in need. The governments and big business needs to see that their greed and lust for power is going to be their downfall in the future. The common man is not as docile or as ignorant to the facts as they may believe. This we have witnessed in Egypt and other nations in the middle east. Even here in the United States the state of Wisconsin is now have political problems due to a state budget that takes away rights and benefits from the working man.

When will governments and big businesses learn that it’s the middle class and lower class that is the workforce and the main consumer of their goods and services. More or less it’s the common man that pays all their bills and helps them amass their great fortunes. Don’t keep the common man happy and the foundation of the economy will crumble as seen here in the united states in the last decade or so. I wish the protesters across the globe good luck and may you survive it all in the end.

One last note, you ever notice how quick the U.S. government is in taking away from the public but slow to cut their own salaries or benefits to help reduce the deficit? Maybe if they worked for minimum wage and had to pay for their own health care without any government subsidies then we could reduce some of the national debt.

 

Peace
Ray Barbier

Sometimes, I know and Live in

017-2Sometimes I look too long at the prize I seem to become blind to the blessings already here.
Sometimes I fear what I can not control so much I lose perspective and lose my way.
Sometimes I live too much in the past and wind up neglecting things in the present that I hold dear.
Sometimes I let my mind wander in dreams so much I dream away most of the day.

I know that the blessings I have are worth cherishing and I try to be thankful for them all.
I know most things that I fear are nothing but a negative view created by my own mind.
I know we can learn from the past but we should live in the present and answer its call.
I know dreams are good and help one work out ideas but there is reality one must find.

Live in the moment and for the day but always keep your eyes on what the future may bring.
Live in caution but with no fear of what could be and make the best of what life brings your way.
Live in the here and now while remembering  memories that makes your heart want to sing.
Live in reality while holding on to the dreams that help you get through each and every day.

 

Enough Rambling for now
Peace
Ray Barbier

Lessons Learned and Wisdom Gained: Reflections on 2/19/2011

007-2 Sometimes with age comes wisdom and other times age only brings fear and desperation. The fact of our mortality becomes more prominent in our thoughts as we get older and can be either a thing to fear or something to accept.  When we are young we feel almost invincible and immortal  then we face the fact that we are not when we loose our youth. Death of course is something most of us do fear in one respect or another but it should not be the focus of our life as we grow older. To become fixed of the end day and nothing else will only inhibit your ability to enjoy and live the day you are in presently.

  Live each day with no fear of tomorrow and embrace the blessings that you have received . Try to avoid taking things and people around you for granted for they may not be there later in life. Do not overlook the beauty of the world around you for it is there to remind you of the wonders that life can bring. Even the small flower on the roadside is there to be admired as well as the mountains that tower above the landscape. Forgive those whom have done you wrong and try to do right by all you meet. Enjoy every day god has blessed you with to the fullest without bringing harm to others. Show your love to those you care about and have compassion and understanding towards those in need.

Find your own path in life and dance to your own drum beat, for it is your life and you should enjoy every second of each and every day.

Peace

Raymond Barbier

An Old Mans Reflections on 2/17/2011

HPIM0012b  As a child I saw the world through rose colored glasses and believed that all was fair and just in the world around me. I grew through my childhood and teen years trying to live as a fair and just boy / young man only to receive the wrath and cruelty of my peers. I watched friends being bullied and found myself at times standing between the bully and those he wanted to terrorize. Never the cool guy and always the average guy in the middle is the part I played through my teens. The older I got the more my eyes were open to the unfairness and injustice in the world around me. Even though the world seems to run on greed and selfishness I still tried to hang on to the idea that there was goodness in this world.

  Every time I was close to just giving up and giving in to the fact the world was cruel and had little chance of redemption someone would come along and show me there is still kindness and love in this world. Even now in my forties I have hope for the whole of humanity even though governments and businesses have gotten so powerful and rich that most average people have to struggle to even survive. The fact we must face is governments and the business sector will always be greedy and will always put their own wants and needs above the wellbeing of others. This is due to the fact the majority of politicians and business people had chosen their professions for the purpose of to gain wealth and power. Their may be a few who chose to be a politician to help and serve the people, but they are a rare commodity in modern times.

  In my life I had seen several wars occur and energy shortages several times but never saw so much come to a head at the same time. Riots in the middle eastern countries , China growing into the new super economic power and the decline of the American financial system. I do not believe the United States it yet doomed to total financial ruin as of yet, though if we do not focus on education, innovation and government financial reform we may be heading for another great depression. Though I see some progress in Washington D.C. there is a long way to go far as fixing our nations debt. The debate over entitlements is one of the hot topics on capital hill and across the U.S. at the moment. Should they raise the retirement age or increase the percentage individuals have to contribute. Seems to me if you want to save money in a company or government you either decrease the staff or their salaries. This of course is not an option the congress wants to consider due to the fact it would be their pay checks on the line.

  Even in this mess we live in I still see hope, but this hope is not found in government but among the citizens. Human beings are very adaptable and when they learn to work together there is very little as a species that we can not accomplish or overcome. When we learn to put our selfish natures behind us long enough to see the advantages of a community based mindset we will start to head down the road of recovery and prosperity. As a great author John Donne (1572-1631) once wrote "All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated…As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness….No man is an island, entire of itself…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

The world may be full of cruelty and unfairness but it is also full of compassion and love. The chore is to learn how to sort through it all and separate the wheat from the chaff without being overwhelmed by it all. To get lost in all the negativity and sorrow around us and or get trapped in the escapes from reality we have made is not an easy task either. It surely is hard to be a single candle standing against the winds of the world and the wickedness it contains. Between the wickedness of the world and the weaknesses we have to face within our own character makes the tasks at hand seem unachievable to our weary souls. This is why we must learn to rely upon the strengths of our fellow humans in life, to combine the light of each candle until we become greater than the darkness we face. Though a voice of an individual can cause change it is limited to the range in which it can be heard. The Voices of many can carry further as well as cover a larger area, therefore create change exponentially.

A dreamer I may be, But I would rather live my life dreaming of a better world to live in than giving in to the falsehood that there is no hope. For dreams foster hope and hope brings about change.

Well Enough of this Old Mans Rambling

Peace
Raymond Barbier

An exciting investment opportunity — Habitat for Humanity, Int’l

An exciting investment opportunity

By Maureen Fife
Chief executive officer of Habitat for Humanity of Tacoma/Pierce County, Wash.
 

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Our community seems to be at the center of the foreclosure crisis in our state. In the first issue of Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds for the state of Washington, Tacoma rated first and unincorporated Pierce County rated second for number of foreclosures per capita. In addition to the numerous foreclosures, Tacoma and Pierce County have a lower median income than the neighboring counties. With the help of Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds, though, I know Habitat can play a part in purchasing foreclosed homes and helping partner families become homeowners.

We currently are working in a community called Tillicum, where well over half the population lives in poverty. Habitat for Humanity — along with help from the city of Lakewood and several community organizations — will provide low-income families with affordable opportunities to own or repair their homes, and we will help revitalize the area. The homes built and repaired by Habitat will create a safer neighborhood, add to the local tax base, improve civic services to the area, and inspire neighbors to improve and maintain their own structures and properties.

Revitalization of neighborhoods is new territory for us, and we are stepping out in faith. But we look forward to building new homes and rehabilitating old ones with the amazing help of the people of Tillicum. It’s a small community with a very big heart. Tillicum has regular community meetings, and Habitat has been welcomed with open arms. They are serious about making their community safe, clean and beautiful — a place where everyone can thrive. By helping these families revitalize their area, we can help make a great community even greater.