My little bookclub

Following a six-day spiritual retreat this August in Whistler, change-makers have already started to meet in Canada. Deepak Chopra spoke to a crowd of over 1000 people at the community event, inviting them to "be the change". Deepak said that every mind that is at peace adds to the overall peace of the world, and if more people become peaceful the world will become more peaceful.

Local organizers are continuing to hold Be the Change events to keep the momentum going and continue to connect people who are working for change. The first local event is scheduled for Sept. 13. Contact Kelly Oswald at (604) 905-0084 for details.

Alliance for a New Humanity

Be the Change, Make a Difference and Share your Passion – that's motto of the Alliance. Care2.com is a global community offering its members (7.5 million and growing) a platform for concious living that contributes to restore the balance of the world.

Now the Alliance and Care2 have joined forces to connect individuals to the information, tools, and people they need to make constructive choices to make a difference. Deepak said, "By joining forces with Care2 we are connecting groups who want to make positive changes and creating the critical mass necessary for change on a global level."

The Spirit of Green Living
by Annie B Bond, executive producer at Care2

Understanding your own personal interconnectedness with the planet is one of the wonderful moments in life. You truly see that we are all one and that there is no separation from the harm done to the planet and the harm done to you.

However, poll after poll shows that though we are all well-intentioned towards ourselves and the environment we just don't know what to do to live a green lifestyle. One way to find most of what you need to put your good intentions into practice is on Care2.com, the huge online community where I work. We are privileged to have Deepak as an Advisory Board member! He brings so much awareness to the global community about the importance of transforming the common dualistic thinking in the world, the thinking that believes the environment is "out there," that it is something separate from ourselves.

More. . .

www.care2.com

Do you have a change-making story to tell? Email the editor and pass on the good news!

Dreamscheme in Essaouira

When Lucy arrived on an Essaouirian beach in Morocco with some children and a bag of poi making materials, she had no idea that lives were about to be changed. She was initially disheartened by the large amount of broken glass and rubbish on the beach, so she, the children and a large group of young people on the beach cleared all the rubbish they could find. Then she showed them all how to make poi and how to spin them.

She wrote: "I realised the great value of the fact that the children had put real effort into cleaning up the beach before we were all ready to sit down happily and make the poi. It was incredible because it changed the whole beach situation from a clamouring mass of children who all wanted to grab at the toys into a real solid group of people working together."

Lucy is now working with young people and parents in Essaouira to develop a craft project on the beach for groups of children and teenagers. You can support the project by visiting www.cafepress.com/greenspirit_art and the Green Spirit website.

Lucy, Freya and Che
lucy@green-spirit.co.uk

A request for help

I am a Haitian-American, the spokesperson for a community school in the southeast mountains of Haiti. We have 292 children in our school and the teachers are all from the area. They have returned to give back to their community.

We need some help and I don't know which organization to contact to help the school in its endeavors. We have established a budget of $600 per month to cover the payroll for the 15 teachers. Imagine: 30 people giving only $20 a month will keep 292 children in school! I am just a grain of sand with no knowledge on how to go about this. If you have any ideas on how to keep our school open please help with your suggestions.
Thank you.
Lapè- Lanmou- Limyè
(Peace-Love-Light)
Claudine Sada
Phone: 305-665-8286 / 305-375-2346
klosa@aol.com

Art for a New Humanity

Two readers got in touch recently: both are artists and both are connecting ideas from East and West, searching for a new global world view in their work.

Mary Koenders wrote: "Thank you for all the inspiration the Alliance gives me for myself and my work. I'm an artist and my goal is to send out the same messages through my paintings." www.marykoenders.nl

Cosmas F.W. wrote: "Only by developing individually our spiritual potential do we produce the urgently needed universal synergies for the welfare of our world." www.holonicart.com

MAZAR-E-SHARIF: Women have stormed a male bastion in this historic city, capital of the northern province of Balkh, and traditionalists are clicking their tongues in disapproval. For the first time, five women have opened shops in Mazar under an initiative promoted by the provincial Women's Affairs Department. The head of the department, Friba Majid, said a big market exclusively run by women will open here in the coming months.

The shops, some located close to the stunning, nearly five-century old Rawze-e-Sharif or Blue Mosque, stock mainly "women's things" -- lingerie, pants, t-shirts, cosmetics -- and some food items. "I bought underclothes and socks," said Zolaikha, 23, who came shopping with her friends.

HAVANA: In makeshift studios, Cuba's hip hop movement keeps on recording music that goes to the heart of the country's troubles.

"People are making hip hop music in a very basic way, that is, with a computer and a microphone. They just squeeze into a small room or a bathroom," Alexei 'El Tipo Este' Rodríguez, a member of the duo Obsesión along with Magia López, one of the few women rappers on the island, told IPS.

"I'm doing something that gives me strength to live and carry on," said Papá Humbertico, who was expelled from several schools before he found his true vocation. Humbertico is also a member of the Mano Armada duo. He says that the country needs to "revolutionise the political sphere and the minds of the people" through new ideas. His latest disc, Revolution within the Revolution, spells out these thoughts.

Allan Jenkins charts the work of pioneering film-maker Jeremy Gilley, through the adoption of the UN resolution to declare the 21st September an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence, to the development of his Peace One Day initiative.

The educational resources produced and distributed by Peace One Day (now a global network of peace activists) help to remind young people, their parents and teachers that "Peace is not just for one day, but a 365-day commitment, and that non-violence is an inalienable right in any community, classroom or home."

Jo Oland introduces the latest project by Peter Randall-Page 'Seed' recently installed at the Eden Project and now providing a focal point for education and inspiration.

"This sculpture will remain, perhaps when all else has changed beyond our recognition, a bigger, weightier stone henge, a marker of humanity's awakening to a new relationship with Earth."