Tag Archives: non-profit organizations

The Road to Diamond, Day 76: Peeling Unripe Mangoes

2
Posted by on in collaborating, Community, distraction issues, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

February 13, 2025, Manila- I have, through careful attention to the matter, managed to peel three unripe mangoes and a ripe one, without slipping and slashing. This is something that is expected of people who live in tropical areas. Even in temperate places, like Malta, being able to peel fruit without cutting oneself is just a natural element in the rhythm of life.

Now, the present operation, if you want to call it that, of the United States government, looks for all the world like a combination of a Jackson Pollock paint-a-thon and a game of Crash-Cars. Whoever can cause the most distraction gets a prize. Whoever takes the most advantage of the distractions, gets a bigger prize. Those looking for services from the government get a booby prize.

There are solutions to some of this: Those government services that are cut can be replaced by services from non-profit organizations OR they can be provided by entrepreneurs, for a hefty fee. Time will tell whether the cuts take hod. If they do, then we will see which type of organization takes the place of government agencies.

Some of you are bound to tell me, “Oh, come off it! Human beings don’t do bad things to one another, on a large scale, anymore!” Hmm. Hitler’s genocide happened a bit more than 80 years ago. Stalin’s pogroms ended only with his death, in 1953. Mao’s depredations came to an end in 1976, when he died. The Ku Klux Klan only faded into the woodwork, in the 1970s-and it’s not dead. by any means. Pol Pot was ousted in 1979. Rwandan butcher Felicien Kabuga was only brought to justice in 2020.

Human beings may presently be less inclined, on average, to do bad things to one another on a large scale-for ideological reasons. (Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar and Sudan are exceptions) The profit motive and the personal power card, however, are still very intense incentives to do bad things, especially to people who one may never know on a personal level. Before you tell me that those now in power have no need of more wealth, let’s steer clear of that dis-ingenuity. Many have heard the fable of the man who asked a djinn for a larger house, then for a mansion, then for a palace and finally, to be equal to God. Guess how the story ends. Money and power fill a hole in the psyche of someone who has wanted to be needed, almost since birth and certainly since childhood. Read the biographies of anyone, from Chinghiz Khan to our current President-and that of the CEO of Space X, for that matter, and make the connection.

The mango peeling analogy is this: Sooner or later, those engaged in the devolution of the United States government are going to get carried away, depend too much on Artificial Intelligence and do something ridiculous, because they can. They will then engage in the equivalent of peeling the mango with their eyes closed, or at least whilst looking away from fruit and knife.

I was recently cautioned to not make key decisions while in a state of revelry. I repeat that caution to those who think they don’t need the good will of the common people. “The frowns on the faces of the jugglers and the clowns” that Bob Dylan mentioned, in “Like A Rolling Stone”, are mere grimaces now, but that will change and get more ominous.

Pay attention to your surroundings; the people in them are paying attention to you.

Chapter 67

12
Posted by on in Community, Family, Social, Spiritual

November 28, 2017, Prescott-

Two events occupied my time, this evening,

even as a creeping fatigue occupied my body.

The first was a  tableau of non-profit organizations,

one of which I am deeply connected:  Prescott Farmers Market.

The two young ladies who oversee it are like daughters to me,

never mind that their own fathers are fine men.

I made contact with several other NPO’s.

One was represented by a man with a handshake like a vise-grip.

He’s occupied with reaching out to fatherless boys,

so that grip is a good thing.

Another was represented by a man whose mind was elsewhere.

I spent a few minutes with him, anyway.

An hour later and eight miles away,

I joined an interfaith devotional.

The hostess served up a German chocolate cake,

complemented by another friend’s homemade Green Tea ice cream.

The hostess led a singalong,

which, to me, is best spent listening to her megaton voice.

“Happy Birthday”, though, was a genuine group effort.

I was starting to fade,

when it came my duty to cut the cake,

and was gently reminded of this.

Fade-out didn’t hit, full force,

until my head hit the pillow,

forty minutes after I bid my friends

thank you and good night.

Chapter 67 began

with a reminder of how much

I’m loved here,

and how fallible we each remain.

Nauru

4
Posted by on in children, Personal Values, Social

August 24, 2016, Prescott-  I listened to a report, on NPR this morning, about the incarceration of minor children who are undocumented immigrants, caught in Australia.  They are transported to Nauru, a mini-state that was administered by the Australian government, before gaining independence in 1968.  It functioned as a country for some forty years, until the phosphates which abounded on its small land frame, ran out.  Now, Nauru operates as a tax haven and as a prison island.

The detention centre used by Australia lies in a desolate, worn-out mining district.  The treatment meted out to the children, according to a former monitor, who defied Australian law, by speaking out, is violent and as abysmal as the surroundings.  NPR will give Save The Children- Australia, allegedly a partner in the abuse, a chance to present its side of the story, tomorrow.  The Australian government is also being afforded an opportunity to respond to the charges.

Generally, when “child-centered” non-profit organizations turn away from their stated mission, it has become a matter of bringing in enough revenue to meet operating costs, and to avoid angering the powers that be, who are often acquiescent to a “measure” of abuse.  I have seen this in several places, from the Navajo and Lakota Sioux nations, to Phoenix and eastern Massachusetts.

Being complicit, or complacent, in or towards abuse and neglect is a crime against humanity.  To shrug one’s shoulders, and say “Well, money pays the bills.”, will not set well in the eventual court of law that gets to deal with the case.  I will not be surprised to see several Save The Children officials, and people in both the Australian and Nauruan governments, facing a higher court, very soon.