ENCOUNTER EARTH BLOG

UN Millenium Development Goals Review in Sept 2010

Paul — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 05:00:32 +0000

[Canmore AB 06-23-10] In September of 2000, the United Nations addressed the issue of global poverty by adopting the Millennium Declaration. The declaration pledged the members to accomplish measurable goals to eradicate global poverty by the year 2015. The Millennium Development Goals focus on eight areas of concern, including poverty and hunger, universal education, maternal health, and HIV/AIDS prevention, among others.

With the deadline now only five years away, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has called upon world leaders to attend a summit this September to assess and accelerate the progress towards reaching these goals. From un.org: “Coming amid mixed progress and new crises that threaten the global effort to halve extreme poverty, [Mr. Ban says,] ‘The summit will be a crucially important opportunity to redouble our efforts to meet the goals,’ […] by the 2015 deadline.”

With such mixed progress, how will the goals be met? Microfinance can contribute to many of these goals, making it an important tool in reaching these targets in the developing world. Although not specifically stated in the Millennium Development Goals, microfinance has proven to be a strong mechanism for achieving its mission. Addressing nearly every target, microfinance breaks through the many elements of poverty inherent in the eight goals.

“Microfinance is much more than simply an income generation tool,” says Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP). “By directly empowering poor people, particularly women, it has become one of the key driving mechanisms towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals, specifically the overreaching target of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.”

On the Move in June

Paul — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:17:10 +0000

[Vancouver BC 06-12-10] It has been a while since there have been any updates here at encounter earth online. I (Paul) have been busy contracting with Opportunity International, a microfinance organization. I have been based in downtown Vancouver making trips back to Canmore for short stays with my family. But that is soon to change!

At the end of June 2010 Paul, Corey, and family will be making our transition to Vancouver Island to continue our journey of living out social justice and sustainability. We will be living just down the road from our business partners, Bernie and Marlene. As we get our bearings this summer and get connected with our community of friends we want to walk into the next chapter for encounter earth.

There have been contacts already made into Colombia and Peru regarding local entrepreneurs who are very interested in collaborating with encounter earth in direct trade. These next months will be about encounter earth ownership team processing the retooling and the hopeful emergence of an online store with accessories, jewelry, art and some simple clothing pieces available. So please bookmark the encounter earth page and keep surfing over here for updates.

Kids for Sale Pt 2

Paul — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:34:15 +0000

[Canmore, AB 12-09-09] This is the second video installment of the documentary hosted by Stacey Dooley a young woman from North London. She has become an advocate for children who are exploited in the textile industry.

The video below is the second of six parts and we find Stacey in the midst of investigating small factories that illegally employ young Indian boys working in Nepal. This part is very moving as Stacey participates rescues a young boy who is regularly beaten by adult staff.

Kids For Sale Pt 1

Paul — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:29:54 +0000

[Canmore, AB 12-03-09] It was about a 18 months ago I posted some incredible videos from youtube that were originally from a BBC documentary titled “Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts. The BS&T series is incredible as 6 young adults from the UK who love to purchase lots of clothing go to India to work in the fashion clothing manufacturing industry beginning in the cotton fields west of Delhi and then all the way to the factories in the slums of Mumbai. These young adults are completely laid bare as they witness and participate in the clothing industry Soon after I posted the youtube videos they were removed because copyright restrictions. Was I ever disappointed.

Today I decided to search online regarding the series and came across a new documentary that has spun off of Blood, Sweat, & Tshirts. Stacey Dooley, one of the people who participated in the initial BS&T series was so moved by her involvement that she has become a social justice advocate for children. She hosts a documentary series titled Kids For Sale.

Kids for Sale is currently posted on youtube and I am going to try again to post these videos over the next week or two. Hopefully the vids will not be removed as the last series was. I am posting part 1 of 6 parts to this initial show in this blog entry. If you have 10 minutes please click on play below and become aware of the huge needs out there…

Empowered Women: India

Paul — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:15:15 +0000

[Canmore, AB 12-01-09] My life partner, Corey, and I watched “Silk Ceiling” Pt. 1 on BBC News Channel regarding the inability for most women in S. Asia to break through the barrier imposed by culture to gain gender equality. This documentary is hosted by Ritu Bhardawaj who herself grew up in a rural village but has become a well-known journalist on News X in India. There is one story in particular regarding African Indians who live in Jambur, Gujurat, India. This one woman nicknamed “Forest Diamond” started a cooperative and basically a trust bank for women all on her own… incredible. Corey and I were very moved and so sense that this is what the journey ahead is… empowerment and sustainability.

Below is an excerpt from the documentary website: Back in India, Ritu visits the area in Gujarat where the Siddi tribe are descendants of migrant workers who came hundreds of years ago from Africa. She goes to meet the woman they like to call Hirbai Ben Lobi – the Diamond of the Forest. The Forest Diamond tells Ritu about the old days – when the Siddi lived in the forest – and women were harassed and exploited.


"When the girls of our village went to the forest to collect firewood... the forester used to harass them a lot... It is from this incident that I realized that we should not go into forest to collect wood anymore! Instead we needed to save our money up! But at that time the bank would not open accounts for us since some of us could not read or write. They asked us ‘who will fill your deposit slips?’ I was outraged and I told them that tomorrow my colleagues will fill the slip."
The Forest Diamond and her friends formed a co-operative. Their savings fund businesses - their own businesses. Now - unusual in South Asia - 900 village women hold assets in their own names. Money from the co-op even helps the village school. If more women went to school - and got paid jobs - it’s been estimated the Asia-Pacific region could be ninety billion US dollars a year better off. 
Says the village headmaster: "If a poor and uneducated woman can do so much, if women are educated and they come forward, this will bring a great change in society."
A local woman tells Ritu: "Thank God I am a woman. If I were a man I would have done nothing. It is because I am a woman that I can accomplish so much. I am happy to be a woman, I don’t want to be a man…" 
(Source: www.tve.org/lifelines)
POWERFUL!!



2 conversations on my way to Van Island
Paul — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:22:29 +0000
[Mill Bay BC 11-22-09] Yesterday I took a plane ride from Calgary to Victoria. Actually it was divided up into two flights, Calgary to Vancouver and Vancouver to Victoria. When I fly a rule of thumb for me is if the person next to me is open to chat and interesting I will engage as it makes the flight way pass more quickly and I definitely enjoy dialog. This was the case on Sat afternoon for both flights.

YYC - YVR (First Leg)

I discover I am sitting next to a brilliant engineer from Toronto. He just sold his company and was disappearing for a while. He was on his way to New Zealand and Australia. We talked about a myriad of subjects and what intrigued me is that he really knew things beyond the technical details to the historical events that led to discoveries or court decisions. He talked about his home as a child in India and some of the projects he worked on over their as an adult. And he talked about his experiences on the ground in Northern Alberta working the oil patch as well as his special with Ontario Hydro in nuclear energy.  
So here are a few of the things I caught… the whole corn starch plastic is not the answer, in fact, it is a problem. In Canmore it has become a huge thing at all our events that corn plastic plates and cutlery are used because “it is far more environmentally friendly” (the reason: it will breakdown as opposed to the other plastic that never will.) I discovered it is not friendly because it is still plastic. The corn starch is used as a binding agent to keep the plastic together and ‘if’ this plastic is continually exposed to sunlight it will break down in the sense that it is no longer a recognizable piece of something like a mug, fork or whatever… BUT the plastic still is plastic just in small pieces that can possibly float and be breathed in and cause horrific things like cancer! 
The other thing I learned was that synthetic oil that you buy at a typical retail automotive shop is not really synthetic in the full sense of the word. My engineer friend gave me the history of synthetic oils through WWI and WWII re airplanes and how conventional oil wasn’t holding up and the engines were breaking down. So they discovered that sap down in the Brazilian rainforest that was not burning up with the trees and took the properties of this sap to create a synthetic lubricant. Long and short of this is that the current ’synthetic’ oil out there made by a couple of the BIG oil companies actually has mineral oil in it with some synthetic content. He told me the year and location of the court case where one of the big oil companies won the case to use ’synthetic’even though it wasn’t. I actually looked this all up online after the conversation and he nailed it. I am very disappointed as my TDI Jetta has been on a steady diet of ’synthetic’ oil. All that money…
YVR - YYJ (second leg)

On my short haul flight, like 15 min in the air and 15 min taxiing I sat next to a bona fide horticulturist who has retired from his government job. He now chairs different national boards like the farmers’ market board and agricultural tourism board. It was great to hear his journey from Trenton to Victoria when he was a young man in the 70s, a Neil Young-type. He discovered Vancouver Island and could not get it out of his mind’s eye. For eight years after his first visit he looked for the opportunity to find work to justify the move from Ontario. In 1980 he made that move and became a true Islander. He wore a little wool cap/toque, grey hair resting on his neck with a gotee on his face. He told me stories of the first test vineyard on Vancouver Island just a few kilometres from where I am sitting right now. I loved the brief visit hearing his passion for caring for the earth and the need to grow our food from untainted soil… very cool!
It was a very educational journey to say the least. I am looking forward to my time here in Mill Bay and to the flight home. Who will I sit with next time?




Direct Trade in 2010
Paul — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:43:52 +0000
[Canmore, AB 10-23-09] The past three years of development and launch of encounter earth has literally been a education. The ee team been schooled in fashion, in business, international trade, retail storefront, supply chain, fair trade, and the list goes on. There is much to learn and much more to journey to find what, we believe, is the ideal… Direct Trade.




This first phase of ee operations has been to discover what is currently available in the fashion industry that is truly fair made and sustainable. There is a growing group of manufacturers/suppliers who see the need to bring change. In light of the entire industry it is still but a drop in the ocean but there are many more drops forming.
As we look ahead to 2010 the encounter earth team believes that opportunities are unfolding to see us begin to transition from fair to direct trade. The biggest difference between these terms is first, fewer people are involved in the process of bringing the products to market and second, the stories of the workers and their communities stay with the clothing/accessories and do not get lost after flowing through many companies’ hands.
Dialog has begun regarding Colombia, Peru, Dominican Republic and India. Trips are being planned to some of these locations. The journey towards ee partnering directly with people in cooperatives and small factories is coming closer to reality. We will keep you updated as the changes begin to happen.




ee spotlight: goodsociety
Paul — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:40:09 +0000
[Canmore, AB 09-09-09] As the dream for an encounter earth retail store was still in concept form a key development was the commitment to make jeans a cornerstone product. Jeans are by far the most worn pair of pants in north america. The casual revolution has taken hold in most parts of the continent. I believed that encounter earth had to have fair + sustainable jeans in the store in order to hit the vibe I was looking for. So the hunt for a supplier began… it wasn’t easy! 
In my early research I came to realize that the original “fair trade” jean was a very scary looking thing… style and quality control were not in vogue. The basic style was a pair of denim sweat-like pants with a drawstring… yuck! Then I was star struck as I surfed the internet and found a company in the Netherlands that make very cool f+s jeans in Peru. It took me two to three months before I finally received word from this company that they did not distribute to North America. I was crushed. I could not believe that I could look at these jeans but I could not order them. I took a deep breath and had to let go.
A couple of months later I decided to Google one more time “fair trade jeans” even though I had accepted the futility of even trying. To my amazement I came across goodsociety, a jean company out of Seattle, USA. They had fairly made organic jeans from a small factory in India that was owned by a father of one of the team members back in the US. I literally sat back and could not believe my eyes. I made the phone call and sure enough this was for real and encounter earth could place an order! And oh, did we order a lot of jeans… they were shipped directly to Canada from the factory in India. 
goodsociety jeans have been a big hit… most people who try them on fall in love with them. The design is incredible, simple and clean. The raw denim is by far the most popular. encounter earth is very thankful for the partnership we have with goodsociety and look forward to carrying these jeans for years to come. If you have not tried a pair on I really recommend coming by and if you are not in the area check out a local eco store. If you do own a pair please comment on this blog entry and let us know your experience with your goodsociety jeans.







Invisible Children
Paul — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 09:56:20 +0000
[Canmore, AB 08-22-09] Northern Uganda is a very dangerous place to live for anyone! The LRA - Lord’s Resistance Army, led by their mystic-leader Joseph Kony, have targeted parts of Uganda, Sundan and DR Congo. Since 1987 this group has terrorized the land trying to establish their own theocratic state. This is the longest running conflict in Africa… over 22 years in length. Children have been the most vulnerable through this war. The LRA goes into villages and abducts the children to make them soldiers for their cause. They recruit and exploit the weakness of young children brainwashing them into believing they must fight and kill. It is so sad and something must be done… but over 20 year?! How can we bring change on this side of the world? 
Invisible Children [IC] is an NGO in Los Angeles led by some young adults who are trying to advocate for sisters and brothers in Nothern Uganda. I spent some time on their website over the past few days. The guys over at goodsociety who make the jeans we sell at encounter earth also support this organization. IC is active in creating awareness regarding the children and families who have been abducted and killed for the LRA cause. Below is a video from the IC website to help create awareness and encourage participation in making a difference.









For more information and vidoes go to invisiblechildren.com




Lifesaver - Clean Water for ALL!
Paul — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:06:15 +0000
[Canmore, AB 08-06-09] One of the most difficult challenges that children of the third world face is bad water. This bad water is full of viruses and diseases that often leads to diarrhea and death. According to UINCEF over 4000 children die daily from water-related diseases and over 1.8 million people (mainly children) die annually. That is difficult for many including myself to process and fathom. 
I often go to TED.com to be inspired and encouraged by thinkers and innovators. Today as I watched the video below with an engineer Michael Pritchard from the UK I was stirred with hope. Please take 10 minutes to watch the video below regarding Lifesaver, an incredible water bottle or a jerry can with an water filter system, that can take the worst sewer-infested water and in seconds make it safe, sterile drink water!
It is clearly time to “think differently” and consider the possibilities of changing the world…