the hunger games: a book review and film update

I recently read a young-adult novel entitled, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.   This fast-paced novel is the first in a trilogy and is set hundreds of years into the post-apocalyptic future when America has turned into an entirely different land called, "Panem".

In Panem, most of the citizens struggle daily for survival and live at the mercy of "the Capitol", the central governing body whose residents have access to riches, opulence, and luxury, not to mention more than enough to eat.  To keep the citizens in line, every year the Capitol produces a live-broadcast of a brutal contest where 24 young people are randomly selected from throughout Panem to kill each other until only one is left standing.

It is an intense premise but one which is not really all that far from current reality.  Collins apparently got the idea for the book while watching a reality series on television, and flipping through the channels where she saw news coverage of the war on Iraq......

Every single day, all across this planet, millions of people are struggling to surivive.  Their food supplies are compromised by policies of globalization, the natural resources of their land raped by foreign interests, and their governments in bed with these same foreign interests, their hands tied behind their backs while their faces smile in business suits on international television.

In Haiti, a country of roughly 8.5 million people, millions struggle to survive.  Many children do not make it beyond the age of 5, their bellies distended, their hair turned red from malnutrition.

Is it a televised contest to the death?

Not exactly.........but it is happening in full view and most people in the developing world prefer to flip that channel right back to a contrived "reality" show rather than watch for even a few minutes the reality of life for the majority of humans on this planet that we share.

However, there are those who are giving their time, their education, their training, and their hearts to live among the starving and to initiate sustainable programs to recover the dignity, economic solvency, and food sovereignty for these populations.

SOIL (www.oursoil.org), its co-founder Dr. Sasha Kramer, and her staff in Haiti are among this honorable few and it is my privilege and honor to tell their story with the Holy Crap! film.

Currently I am re-configuring the trailer for the film and will be able to show it to you very very soon.  In the meantime I am developing the longer film and am desperate for an intern to support this process.  If any of you know of someone who might be available/interested to support me in releasing this film, please contact me asap at jenniferbenorden@gmail.com.

And in the meantime, give thanks for the food that you eat, give thanks for the ground beneath your feet, for the fresh air you are able to breathe, for the clean water you can drink, and for the heart-work of organizations like SOIL around the world.......

state of the human

*this post has nothing to do with my film exactly.....*it is me venting and ranting about politics so be fore-warned*

Obama is doing his annual State of the Union address right now and all around the world, he has the attention.  He is so eloquent, so stunningly intelligent, warm, friendly, and poised.   Compared to his predecessor I feel like I can actually listen to him, like he has considered his words and that they will be unusually inspiring and triumphant! (And yet, oddly vague....)

I have to be honest though - I never make it a point to listen to this annual speech.   I just can't handle the bullshit, if you'll pardon my French.  Republican, Democrat, whatever.  How can anyone stand up there and represent a nation with such dirty hands and yet come off looking so clean?

It is a surreal how the stage is set, the flag and the podium, the perfect suit, the lighting....

Do I seem bitter?

I am.  

It's because of the U.S.'s role in Haiti.

What business is it of ours?  

We should be asking. 

And if President Obama doesn't address this issue tonight, which I very much doubt he will, I have absolutely no interest in hearing a word he says.

That is how I feel about it. 

P.J. Crowley from the U.S. State Department said on the matter of Baby Doc Duvalier returning to Haiti that "this is a matter for the government of Haiti" and when asked about Jean Bertrande Aristide returning he said, "Haiti doesn't need any more burdens". 

The U.S. is blocking Aristide's rightful return to Haiti.  They are the ones who twice removed him after he was twice elected by an overwhelming majority of Haitian people in free, independent elections, and the U.S. now holds the key for his return.  

But just do a simple search on Baby Doc Duvalier  (who has been back on Haitian SOIL for over a week now after 25 years in exile -) and it will be very apparent that human life means absolutely nothing to the United States of America if they have anything to do with this man's return to Haiti. 

I mean come on, it is really that simple.  And I am not in the mood to mince words.  Here's a nation so racked by trauma from sheer bad luck (natural disasters), combined with hundreds of years of slavery followed by over 200 years of economic slavery which leads us to today where millions of people quite literally struggle to survive.  

For politics?

Because somebody makes more money that way?

Duvalier is known to have embezzled millions and millions of dollars from the Haitian government.  Why would the U.S. back this?

He is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Haitian people.  

Why would the U.S. back this?

Oh - that's right - because we're all about freedom!  

And democracy!

That's why........

And I'm sure President Barack Obama is right now just wrapping up the year in statistics, all the ways good, hard-working Americans are taking the economy back, blah blah blah.......

I can't take it anymore.  I don't know what to do about it, but I'll start by publishing this blog post, and I'll finish this post by leaving you with two quotes from Jean-Bertrand Aristide's book, Eyes of the Heart, which I highly recommend:

"We have not reached the consensus that to eat is a basic human right. This is an ethical crisis. This is a crisis of faith." 
— Jean-Bertrand Aristide (Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a Path for the Poor in the Age of Globalization)

"Pa gen lape nan tet, si pa gen lape nan vant (there is no peace in the head if there is no peace in the stomach)."
— Jean-Bertrand Aristide (Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a Path for the Poor in the Age of Globalization)

haiti: a love story and a public prayer

all year long i have held you so close to my heart, rocked to my core by the depth of your endurance, of your loss. i have prayed for you daily, sung for you, seen for you, with my third eye, what i also see for myself: access to education, health-care, housing, clean water, sanitation, jobs, and a safe and loving community. oh great spirit that moves in all things!!!! may it be so for haiti and for all humans........ayi bobo!

here we are moving into year number 2 since the catastrophic event of january 12, 2010 occurred.  we all know the numbers, know the money hasn't been given, know it's only getting worse.  

the question i am asking myself is: what will it take to effect real positive change in Haiti?  what is it going to take?

i'm going to take a stab at a strategy and visualize. i invite your input but please be kind because it's only a game:  u.s. out of haiti to start with.  why do we need to be meddling in someone else's democracy?  we say we're going around the world to "restore democracy"  - then why in god's name are we taking out democratically elected presidents and banishing them from the country which elected them?

jobs - rebuilding haiti!!!!  oh it's so beautiful, all the buildings that will be built, giving haitian carpenters and masons a chance to show off their skills.  

ecological sanitation - this one is my personal favorite of course, but think about it - a rebuilt haiti where instead of installing complicated plumbing systems throughout the cities or in the villages, wasting more water which then needs to be treated, and costing lots of money to maintain, there are dry, composting toilets in people's homes, in local schools, churches, at soccer fields and all throughout the country where the wastes are collected and properly treated by trained agronomists until it is safe to be used as fertilizer, and gardens are sprouting up everywhere to feed people and provide more jobs!

cultural revival - haiti begins to shine again more for its cultural richness than for its impoverished condition, and people begin traveling to there to study and learn and to be entertained by the wealth of creative talent, culture, and charm.

for me, it's a matter of principal.  in my thinking, human life is valuable.  i value human life.  and i also value the power of the human mind to affect change.  the more i think about it, the more it begins to happen.  the more i see my life unfolding before me with a full heart resonating with joy and vibrance, the more i experience joy and vibrance........

and so i ask you all to take a moment now at the end of my little facebook note to think about your vision for haiti, how you see it unfolding, and if you want to you can share your vision with us so we can fill up our hearts with it and energize a group mind of healing for haiti, and for us all who share the very cells of human trauma in our own blood (once again transmitted through the mind and because we are all of this earth, made of star-dust, spinning through space on a single orb very, very quickly)....

(and as for my love story with haiti, i had to post-pone my trip, so will be returning the last week of january for just a few days to get just a little bit more footage for the film.  ayiti m' sonje ou e nou we tale'....nou pa bliye ou!!!  

Access: Using the Bathroom

Every animal, of every species, is making poop, *every single day*, everywhere on this planet.

I mean to tell you there is poop happening all. the. time.

If you are alive, and you are an animal, you will be -- making sh*t happen!!!!!

hahahahaha

Birdies just let theirs fly.  Whoop, off ya' go!  No matter where it lands.....

Kitties bury theirs meticulously.  Doggies make a big scene and do it right out in public. Cows leave 'em in big patties on the ground.  Babies....well babies fill up their diapers indiscriminately according to everything that has passed through them -- just like all other animals (but with fancier diapers).

In the U.S. where I live, for us humans once you're weaned from a diaper, most people start to use the toilet.  It's great!  You just sit down on it or stand next to it to do your business, and when you're finished you just flush a handle and - swoosh -- it washes away!  Ne'er to be seen again.....

Pretty convenient when you think about it -- the only time I ever have to deal with my "stuff" (unless I'm camping or traveling) -- is when my toilet backs up!!  (Get out the plunger and hope for the best, right?!  Gross!!)  I mean, I pay my utility bills, but I don't really think about what it means -- what I'm paying for, ya know?

Can you imagine what it would be like if we couldn't do that??

If you couldn't flush your stuff?

Can you imagine moving into an apartment or house anywhere in the U.S (that is up to code!) that doesn't have a bathroom - ??   As any carpenter or architect will tell you, our modern houses and indeed - our cities and towns are completely built around massive and brilliantly hidden plumbing, electrical wiring, gas lines, and what is known as "infrastructure".

I know this isn't exactly NEWS.....but I point it out as a way to demonstrate how easy it is for those of us in the modern world to forget about it!  It is actually a privelege millions -- indeed -- billions of humans who share this planet with us do not have.

Imagine!  Not being able to "use the bathroom" - anywhere!

Where would you go?!  What would you do?

It has to happen -- otherwise quite honestly you will die of toxic poisoning.

I think it's fair then that we could call this a "basic necessity" for human existence.  So it's hard to understand why so many people (2.5 billion or HALF the population of the world - Unicef.org) have no access to this and other such actual necessities, such as clean water, food, and shelter.  (As opposed to a box set of "Lost".....).

The thing is, the health hazards which begin to multiply within days of losing one's access to basic sanitation are deadly, particularly if you don't have access to clean water with which to clean your hands either.....and it's hard to know where to place the blame, who to go to for help, what to do.

And yet -- there is a simple way to intervene in the above process!

Instead of leaching into the ground water and infecting people trying to live their lives, instead of expensive collection techniques that transport the wastes from public latrines to open pits of raw sewage further compromising public health in the region (can you say "cholera"?), instead of leaving people with the indignity of having to figure out what to do with their own "stuff" --

This film tells the story of a very simple solution to the above recipe for disaster, where human wastes are managed and recycled in such a way as to actually create healthy fertilizers.

HOLY CRAP!

SOIL is a non-profit organization working in Haiti since 2006 that is implementing a technique known as "Ecological Sanitation" (EcoSan).  SOIL and its partner Haitian organization SOL have built over 200 dry, composting toilets in displacement camps in Port au Prince in the past year, hired 300 Haitian staff to collect the "poop barrels" and deposit them at compost sites throughout the city, where they are mixed with sugarcane bagasse and monitored closely according to the staff agronomist.

Soon SOIL will begin a process of selling the wastes and actually stimulating the local economy!

All with a simple, ecological, sustainable, clean, urine-diverting toilet.

Stay tuned.....

home is where the heart is

(journal entry, 11/4/10)

3 days back and i'm finally remembering my name.  "what i do" combining with "how i do it" and i step back into the routines of my life, while the thick rocky streets of port au prince linger in my mind, the tires sorting it out with the unmade roads....

i hear the sounds, smell the smells, feel the heat, see the faces....and yet i am here in my living room with the small lamp shining sparkles onto my drum-kit, my heater turned on, socks on my feet, and a huge, warm, clean bed waiting for me to climb into.

port au prince, the home of african kings and queens, the land of lions and dragons, the schools and the wagons, grace mixed with passion, and a great deal of fashion, style worn in attitudes, displayed with fortitude, traffic exhaust pot-holes gas-fumes, heads held high with huge smiles wide, generators roosters water trucks church choirs........

ayiti chere

(film update:  working on it!  got some graphics comin up, a website happening, first meeting with my editor tomorrow night.......stay tuned!!)

right now; a rant in verse

Right now
I rest on my couch
with my cat
a solid day having been spent
in my house, the rain
light-showering the trees out
side and the drive.
The drive rests in styrofoam sleeves
in a box
full of footage I can't see, captured
images of people, before the outbreak
turned, before the shots were fired before
when I was there, only a month ago.

Haiti.
What do I know about it?
I've only been there 3 times.  A foreigner.
ANOTHER.
foreigner with a cause, a camera, and a computer.....

We all mean well!  Don't get me wrong.

But some times,  I do wonder, seeing the t-
shirts matching with "save haiti" plastered
in easy font a pastel flag of hope and pig-
tails flying behind at the gas station,
(where we had lunch, a cafe of international
proportions on the way to Trutier, a shrine
to bad planning and the Port au Prince city
dump), whether this trip, this "mission"
you might say, with the matching t's and the
morning prayer meetings.

I don't know what I want to say about it except.
Something.

Just by the nature of traveling to Haiti people think
I'm going there to "help".

I honestly feel like I get more help from the Haitian
people I meet than I bring with my camera my limited Kreyol
and my good intentions!  It's SOIL who is really doing
the work on the ground in Haiti; I'm so lucky
I get to tell their story!

See that's the thing.  Here I've had a gentle day,
idyllic really, so mellow with my desk all cleared
off and my closet, magically organized and my film
still trapped on the drive.  But when I think
of the people who don't have homes, the people
here in Oakland, the people in San Francisco, Palo
Alto, Port au Prince, New York City, Belize, Jamaica,
Ghana, India, Afghanistan, France.  How does anyone do it?

Living under a tarp?

Sleeping on a side
walk? Under a blanket with toes
sticking out or in a tent, babies lined up
no kitchen, no bathroom, no closet no job.

I have recently traveled to Haiti and so yes, I can say that the level
of poverty in Haiti is distinct than here in the U.S. or other places
I have traveled but poverty.  Poverty is no relative concept for millions
of people who cohabitate this planet.  Poverty goes far beyond
the number of dollars in one's bank account just the same way wealth
does.

What you don't have doesn't determine your existence -- your value --
any more than what you do!

Nonetheless, certain things have been determined as basic.
Human rights.

Basic.

Rights.

Human.

And that is where I cannot
be silent.  And that is where I do
raise my voice.

Ten years ago!  Ten years ago the U.S. blocked
aid for clean water solutions for Haiti.

The year: 2000.  Ten years of water purifications in Haiti
would have really been a major impact!

But now.  Now we have a cholera epidemic brewing,
we have people.  People living under these tarps, people
whose plight beckoned billions of dollars in aid from around
the whole world.  Eleven months ago.

Eleven months and still the aid - MOST OF THE AID - has
not been distributed.

I know it seems like one can't really do anything about it sitting
here in our homes all cozy after dinner and preparing for a night
of sleep (most of us on beds with sheets and everything!) but I don't
understand how to deal with my anger about this situation.

It's not right.  People should not be dying of cholera.  Just as people
should not be dying of starvation either - or violence through war or
civil unrest.....

I recognize that I'm speaking in very broad terms.

I am speaking in my own terms, and that is another hidden
privilege that comes from being white, american, middle class
and relatively well-educated....

My friends, I do give thanks for my computer,
my cause, my camera, and the cash I was given
to make this film.

May it shed new light on a complicated situation;
may it bring forward the unnecessary nature of
much injustice:  simple solutions, cash-flow, and
sustainable jobs for Haitians are already being
staffed!!

Holy crap!!  (Toilets never smelled so good......)

Hope for Haiti is hope for all humanity!!!

Bless you for reading my food for thought, and may you have a Thanksgiving full of gratitude, good food, and positive vibrations.....

Hand-to-mouth

"Hand-to-mouth -- "barely enough food or money to satisfy immediate, basic needs"

This phrase occurred to me a couple of days ago as I was wrapping up filming and packing for a few days in Cap Haitien.  The entire time I've been in Haiti I have been being extremely cautious about putting my hands to my mouth, and have been especially careful not to get water into my mouth when bathing.   So far this trip has served as my first trip here without getting sick!!

But how do you love someone genuinely - in the way we love each other out in the streets, like a neighbor greeting you kindly as you walk by their mangoes neatly lined up on a fabric on the ground, and with an open heart, grateful to be in their country, graced by their culture, in awe of their kindness -- then walk away spritzing your hands with sanitizer.....?

Hand to mouth.......my hand embraces your hand......we stare into each others eyes for a moment with a great deal of joy and delight........and I walk away to a car and spray spritzer on my hands......

I find this part of traveling here to be extremely confronting.  Hopefully, my Haitian brothers and sisters are spritzing their hands too.  You never know what these foreigners are bringing into the country.....

But the phrase has taken on a whole new significance for much of Haiti, as this cholera outbreak threatens to move into epidemic status.   It was discovered yesterday that the ground water of Port au Prince is contaminated with cholera (I do not have a reference for this, nor do I know if it refers to all of Port au Prince or only certain regions.  But I did hear it from a reliable source.....)

How would you clean your hands before eating if the only water you had was contaminated water?  What if the only water you have access to drink is contaminated water?  Or how about this -- what if the tent where you live with your family is literally a few feet away from open raw sewage, contaminating the air you breathe let alone the ground beneath your feet?

One of my new friends in Haiti, Daniel, says Haiti is surrounded by angels, protecting and guarding it and its inhabitants.  I am using all my psychic/spiritual/shamanic powers to view these angels guarding every hand, every mouth, every one who lives, eats, drinks, sleeps, and loves in Port au Prince.

Certainly SOIL is taking every precaution, going to 20,000 tents door to door to educate and inform people about how to avoid, recognize, and treat cholera.  In addition they are implementing new safe practices for their staff,  and I view their efforts as part of that powerful tribe of angels, protecting a peaceful people from yet another devastation......

One would think that the billions of dollars of aid that was promised to this tiny country might finally be released to ward off an epidemic.   Would you consider contacting your representative to ask them why the aid promised by the U.S. government has not been released?

Houses for Haiti!  Clean water for all humans!  Adequate, sustainable sanitation in every home!  No more hand-to-mouth, no more basic human rights lost to political agendas, no more lives lost due to de-valuing of the poor and displaced......

Hope for Haiti is hope for all of humanity --