The End of Poverty

** The End of Poverty will play at the Bagdad Theater**

in Portland on January 15th. Thom Hartmann will also be there.

Please go here for more information:

http://www.mcmenamins.com/index.php?loc=9&id=177

* * *

Warmest Greetings

One of the questions which I find myself asking again and again is how can I truly and with increasing depth live my values? Whether we are Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Pagan, walk the Red Road, or practice any other religious or spiritual tradition, how do we each walk our talk? What are the daily, large or small, subtle or overt choices and actions that we each make? Certainly, caring about one another is core to all spiritual teachings. And implicit in this caring, I believe, is actively choosing to learn about and work to end poverty.

I grew up believing that there was nothing I could do to help the starving people of the world. This belief system persisted as an adult until I began to actively explore the roots of poverty and gradually came to learn that poverty is no accident and that something absolutely can be done to work towards ending poverty, here in America and across the planet. Once Americans truly get it - and choose to care - that we are less than 5% of the global population, but consume 25% of it's resources, I believe that we will begin to not just reframe the term "redistribution of wealth", but that we will demand it.

The small actions we take do matter. There is a reason, for instance, why I refuse to shop at Walmart. There is a reason for taking a stand against the WTO, NAFTA, and CAFTA. There is a reason to look at the tags on the products we buy and explore the practices in other countries. There is a reason to look deeply into the way we each choose to vote and to follow and hold accountable those in positions of power. And the list goes on....

Please go here for more information about the powerful documentary film The End of Poverty:

http://www.theendofpoverty.com/

and

http://vimeo.com/7369552

For Why Povery Exists:

http://www.theendofpoverty.com/poverty_persists_1.html

Doing research ourselves and helping one another to be informed is crucial - please pass this on. Tag, we are all it!

Peace & blessings ~ Molly

* * *

One of the experts, Serge Latouche, put it in very simple words: Today 20% of the planet uses more than 80% of its resources. Moreover, every year we are consuming 30% more than what the planet can regenerate, therefore digging a giant hole under our feet and making it bigger every year. And of course, these resources come primarily from the countries of the (global) South. And the most condemning part is that in order to maintain our lifestyle in the North, we have to keep these countries at a level of dire poverty. Even worse, because the world's population continues to increase in order to maintain our lifestyle we have to plunge more and more people into poverty every year. Latouche makes the point that if everybody had the same lifestyle as the people in North America, we would need six planets. ~ From The End of Poverty, http://www.theendofpoverty.com/director_statement.html