People everywhere want to know how they can help. Do you want to know how you can help?

If you haven’t yet decided to make a contribution, put yourself, your loved ones and your family in this position. I know that not everyone is in a place to make a monetary contribution, but your time is just as valuable as your money. Check out local charities that are sending aid to Haiti. If they haven’t already started looking for volunteers to help sort food, clothing and other donations, they will be looking for them soon.

If you’ve decided to make a contribution, deciding which organization to donate to can be overwhelming.

Here are my suggestions

The Help Haiti Blog Challenge: If you provide products or services and would like to contribute a portion (or all) of your profits to the relief effort in Haiti, check this out. If you are participating in the Help Haiti Blog Challenge, please let me know, as I would love to promote your work.

Direct Relief International in collaboration with Reddit.com: Reddit users were concerned about what their contributions would be used for. In response, Reddit did some research and partnered up to ensure that 100% of donations go directly to the relief effort. Reddit’s contributions are already on the way.

Individuals doing big things

Naomi @ the Rockstar Diaries

Isabelle Debrosse Hardesty @ Debrosse Hardesty Etsy Shop (For more Etsy sellers who are contributing proceeds to disaster relief check out apartment therapy.)

Jenn @ IndieFixx

Do you know someone who is doing something wonderful to contribute to relief efforts in Haiti?  Are you doing something wonderful to contribute? Please share!

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i173/ohsodramatric/papers.jpg

I have to admit that I’ve been so busy shopping for others (er..and myself), that I’ve paid very little attention to what’s been going on in the world. This morning I decided I would do a little shopping catching up on current events. I skimmed through CNN, Reddit, NYtimes and here are some interesting and not so interesting stories being covered in today’s news.

Tiger Woods and Governor Mark Sanford are unfaithful. Mrs. Sanford is filing for divorce, Tiger’s wife moved to a different house in the same neighborhood. I could have lived my entire life having never read these stories and I would be just fine.

Terrorists! Americans arrested in Pakistan because they thought they ought to wage jihad. With terrorism becoming a regularly featured topic on the news (not to mention how lightly the term is used), I’ve become rather desensitized to stories like these. Two thumbs down.

In more relevant news Kucinich plans to force vote on US withdrawing from Afghanistan. This was in response to Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s announcement that he wants the American troops to hangout in Afghanistan for the next 15 years. The focus had been on Iraq for so long that I was compelled to do some refresher reading on Afghanistan. I found this great article in TIME magazine.

Obama accepted his Nobel Peace prize. You can find my opinion on there here.

They’re talking about Climate in Copenhagen. Judging by the articles on the NYTimes site dedicated to this, they are talking a lot!

And this concludes my morning of catching up on current events.

As for the shopping, you can blame Emily at Cupcakes and Cashmere for inspiring me to go on a spending spree. Stay tuned for what not to do when you should be on a budget.

And whatever you do, don’t miss my Recessionista Party tonight!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aheram/ / CC BY 2.0

President Obama’s recent Nobel Peace Prize came as a shock.

This has received way too much attention from the media people. Get over it!

My internal dialogue may appear ignorant–and crazy!– to the untrained eye, but please allow me to take you on a trip back in history!

While many of the world’s most scholarly books including encyclopedias and well-known dictionaries claim that the Nobel Peace Prize is the most prestigious peace prize in the world, it’s clear the times have changed. Mr. Nobel’s original intent was that “the prize for peace was to be awarded to the person who “shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding of peace congresses” (nobelprize.org).

In 1917, during the first World War, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Committee of the Red Cross. ” During the First World War, the ICRC undertook the tremendous task of trying to protect the rights of the many prisoners of war on all sides, including their right to establish contacts with their families” (nobelprize.org). A noble cause indeed! I would say they were more than deserving of such a “prestigious” award.

In 1919 U.S. President Thomas Woodrow Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his roll in establishing the League of Nations. “The League’s goals included upholding the new found Rights of Man such as right of non whites, rights of women, rights of soldiers, disarmament, preventing war through collective security, settling disputes between countries through negotiation, diplomacy and improving global quality of life” (Wikpedia). A well deserved Nobel Peace Prize, if I may say so myself.

Now let’s fast forward…

“In 1994, the Peace Prize was awarded to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for the Oslo Agreement, which brought about a mutual recognition and a framework for peace between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel. The three politicians had accomplished much, but they were still far from establishing a final peace between Israelis and Palestinians” (nobelprize.org). Wait a minute…they gave him the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for thinking about bringing peace?

In 2006 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank for their efforts to create economic and social development from below. I am fairly certain that, while Mr. Yunus and Mr. Bank were lovely people, they were not the first pair to attempt to break developing nations out of poverty. After all, there is still lots of poverty plaguing developing nations.

I’ve drawn some conclusions about the reasoning behind  the 1994, 2006 and 2009 Nobel Peace Prizes, including a few other prizes that were awarded in between. At some point the prestigiousness of the award was tainted. The prize began to be awarded based on “good intentions” and “great potential,” rather than major accomplishments. Why would they do that? Aren’t people accomplishing anything anymore? Of course they are! The Nobel Peace Prize is being awarded for potential. It appears that it is supposed to serve as motivation to fulfill that potential. Well now that I put it that way, Mr. Obama fits right in! It has become a prize for those who are both popular and liberal minded, because they have the potential to make change happen. Can we really manipulate politics with this no-longer-prestigious award? I think not! But best of luck trying.

Other Interesting Facts About the Nobel Prizes From nobelprize.org

• In 1896, Alfred Nobel specified in his will that a certain amount of his wealth were to go to establishing the Nobel Prizes
• Nobel left no explanation as to why the prize for peace was to be awarded by a Norwegian committee while the other four prizes were to be handled by Swedish committees.
• The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901
• Other U.S. Presidents who won the Nobel Peace Prize: Theodore Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter Jr., Thomas Woodrow Wilson

To read more on the history of the Nobel Prize check out nobelprize.org

Capitalism: A Love Story

Spoiler Alert: this love story does not end happily-ever-after.

While Mr. Moore’s humor makes the movie uproariously entertaining, I found myself feeling sad and desperate during this film. It all boils down to one simple phrase. The problem is profit. Eric has been saying this to me for quite some time now; I only hope that Moore’s audience will also interpret the moral of the story as such.

Profit is why our Capitalistic society, isn’t actually Capitalistic. Excuse me if I’m starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but when you get a glimpse of the corruption that is government (not just in the U.S.), the wheels should start turning. If your wheels don’t start turning, you should have them checked out.

I am compelled to clarify the difference between profit and an exchange. I don’t want anyone thinking I’m a crazy breed of communist…I’m trying to establish myself as a source for information! When you go to work, you get paid. You are being paid in exchange for your work.  According to Dictionary.com, profit is  “the monetary surplus left to a producer or employer after deducting wages, rent, cost of raw materials.”  My question, and possibly the solution to many of the world’s problems, is this: why do we need so much money left over once employees, rent, and cost of raw materials are paid? I understand the value in having money set aside for expansion, emergencies and even reasonable investments. However, if this obsession with profit didn’t exist, our economy wouldn’t be melting. What good does it do banks to give  loans to people who can’t pay them back? We know now that not only does it not do any good, but can cause entire economies to collapse. Why didn’t they think of that before they started “giving away loans?” The problem is profit.

Back to my theory, not a conspiracy! Capitalism, “typically refers to an economic and social system in which the means of production (also known as capital) are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in new technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor” (wikipedia). I know…Wikipedia is hardly a reliable source, but it’s working in supporting my point.

Let’s start with “in which the means of production are privately controlled.” It appears that our government has blurred this line. Actually, they’ve completely eliminated this line. We have corporation owners in politics and politicians in corporation owning. These people are looking out for their own interests, just like everyone else. Aww how can we blame them? Reality is that when I look out for my own interests I purchase a new shirt instead of donating to charity. Mr. Corporation-Owning-Politician-Man, however, is capable of destroying the lives of the general public (think economic collapse or private insurance companies), because he was looking out for his bottom line a little too much. Don’t these people have any common sense, self-respect, or maybe just a friend with morals that they could run this stuff by?

Michael Moore proposes a call to action at the end of his movie. Sitting here ranting about how profit is the problem won’t solve anything. Unfortunately, I don’t quite have the complete solution.  Education might help. What if people knew and believed that in a democracy, the people are supposed to have the power? What if the people were motivated and educated enough to take the power back?

I know I’ve simplified this. I have books to read and news publications to study, before I can understand the true severity of the issues at hand. But I know this is important and I know that my generation is about to inherit this corruption. Now I just have to figure out what we’re going to do about it.