Maude Barlow Speaks on the Global Water Crisis at SMC

As I mentioned in my last two posts, this past week at SMC we've been celebrating Earth Week, and tonight we had the privilege of hosting our keynote speaker, Maude Barlow, in the McCarthy Arts Center. Mrs. Barlow is a well-known activist for human and water rights issues, a best-selling author, the recipient of eleven honorary doctorates, as well as an incredibly personable human being. Her talk today was on the topic of the "global water crisis", which was incredibly informative as well as appropriate given the recent Bottle Free SMC campaign, which is backed by Green Up.

She began her talk with a funny anecdote about a student at an American university who, while she was speaking at a sustainability weekend there, offered her a plastic water bottle. She politely refused, she said, and then shocked the student when she told him that she would be fine drinking water from a tap. The audience laughed, and it was nice because it was a light-hearted way of showing that we, as a species, have a long way to go. 

After this, she mentioned the photo of her that was projected on a screen (pictured right, in poor quality) standing next to some SMC students while at the Keystone XL Protest surrounding the White House last November. For those who don't know, this protest was against plans by a corporation called TransCanada, which was planning to build a crude oil pipeline from Alberta, CA, through the Oglala Aquifer (once one of the biggest groundwater systems in the world) and down to the gulf of Mexico to be refined. Mrs. Barlow briefed the audience on this conflict, and highlighted the sheer absurdity of the situation. 

"So what do you do when you have a wonderful aquifer like that, that's already in danger, with many thousands of jobs dependent on it? Well, just put a pipeline that for sure is going to leak with the world's most corrosive oil, of course that's what you do; I mean are we all crazy?"

She then transitioned into her talk about the "global water crisis". She began by saying that "the most important thing I want you to come away with today...is that we're a planet running out of fresh available water." These words might take some people by surprise, because it discounts the idea most of us learned in elementary school that there's a cycle of water which cleans and contains all fresh water. But this is apparently not true, and she explained why; "we're taking water from where we can access it, and we're polluting it, or we're diverting it, or pumping it out of the ground." These practices neither benefit the planet nor replace the removed water, and this is a problem, she said.

My mind was blown, and what ensued for the next thirty minutes was a combined slew of some things I already knew, some things which I thought I had known that were apparently not true, as well as some things that I had no idea were true. Some examples: most major rivers don't reach the ocean anymore because they're diverted to grow things like food and cotton in inappropriate areas, massive amounts of land-based water is sent from major cities as waste into the ocean (which is a huge factor in rising sea levels), and a lot of the water we lose can be understood through the concept of "virtual water".

Virtual water is a concept which basically represents the amount of water that is used to produce any given thing, and the example that she used was of a beef steak taking an Olympic-sized swimming pool amount of water to be produced. Throughout the duration of her talk she explained why both virtual water and real water are connected to other issues, such as climate change and food justice. They're all connected, she said. And they're all relevant to everyone. It's easy for us to write off a drought in the third world as something that's too far removed for us to be able to deal with. But when these droughts are a result of our current economic system of trade agreements and otherwise, and when there are forty-thousand something people in Detroit without running water who have to walk to retrieve enough to bathe (reminiscent of women and children in the third world doing the same), we have a different issue. But it's always been this issue; it's always been this close to home, it's just that it's increasingly visible and always getting worse. Unless something is done about it.

I came away with something extremely important from this talk. Like she said, that we're running out of fresh available water, and that we need to do something to change it. But more than that, we're in a position to change it. We're the 1% in a global consumer perspective, and we have the power and the capital to change this issue and so many more.

At the end of her talk, she left us with the words of her ninety-five-year-old activist friend. In regard to the commonly shared feeling of being overwhelmed by social justice issues to the point that it feels like we have to pick and choose, or care about one over another, she quoted this friend, saying "Activism is like taking a bath, you do it every day, or you stink".

Green-Uppers posing for a photo with Maude Barlow after the event.

Thanks for reading, and a HUGE thanks to Maude Barlow for coming to SMC!

Ambassador Barrie Walkley

Today, the newly-appointed ambassador to the Great Lakes region of Africa came to SMC to make remarks regarding the current situation in that area. His past experience is impressive; he began his career as a diplomat serving in the Peace Corps for two years in Somalia, is multilingual and has previously served as a foreign diplomat in Guinea, Sao Tome, Gabon and Principe.

As one might expect at such an event, his remarks were well informed but vague; as a politician would be. For me the lecture was purely educational since the situation in Congo is something that I unfortunately don't know a lot about. But following his remarks the Ambassador took questions from a student panel as well as the audience, and needless to say there was debate. The student panel was in a position such that they had to pose their questions in an indirect and formal manner, but the audience had more freedom to be impassioned and direct in their inquisitions, and they did not hesitate to exercise this freedom. From an Anthropological standpoint, it was fascinating, and now I find myself more informed on the issue.

But in a situation like this, being informed can be overwhelming. It seems that there is so much going on and it's hard to fit yourself into the equation. At events like this, I often find myself leaving somewhat let down because for this reason. It's so easy to care and much harder to figure out exactly what you can do to make a change.

This is both a blessing and a curse of going to college, I've accepted. But it is a blessing; it shows that there are so many people who care about so many things; enough to bring Ambassadors to campus in order to raise awareness of their respective causes, and hopefully bring about change. So applause to the Dear Hillary campaign for bringing the Ambassador to campus tonight! You can learn more about the campaign here.

Thanks for reading!

Cool Stuff on Campus; Common Ground.

So far at St. Mike's I've been pretty involved in a few clubs and activities on campus, and I didn't think I was going to check out any new ones this semester; I'm pretty busy! But I've been hearing great things about Common Ground (the LGBT group on campus) and this past Monday decided to give it a go.

They meet on Monday nights in Eddie's Lounge at 5pm (shameless plug). Like I said, my first meeting was just this past week, and I was even late because of ski practice. That aside, it was a great experience! Definitely something I plan to be involved in this semester. While I was there I got to hear about stuff they've done as a group, as well as their plans for this coming semester; and they seem like a cool group of people!

One awesome part of going to this meeting was watching the SMC Athletics/Common Ground "It Gets Better" video. If you don't know what that is, check out the website here. But basically people have been posting videos on the internet under the title "It Gets Better" since the massive amount of gay teen suicides in the fall of 2010, with the objective of giving hope to anyone who might be having struggles; whether it be with gender/sexual identity, or any other issues that cause people to think about suicide. A variety of people have made them; tons of celebrities from Obama to Ke$ha, as well as people who just want to share their stories and help someone out who needs it. Check out the one SMC made below! 

There are tons of these videos to browse on youtube and other websites, and I recommend it if this is an issue you care about. They can be really moving (this is my favorite one; it's long, but if you've got the time it's worth watching).


Thanks for reading!

The Occupy Movement, from Burlington to New York.

The Occupy Wall Street movement started on September 17th in New York City. It's spread to cities all over the world since then, and through opportunities as an SMC student I've been lucky enough to catch glimpses of the Occupy movement in Burlington, Washington D.C and most recently, New York City.

As a disclaimer, I'm just going to mention that I wont push my political views in this post. Although I have made it clear in earlier posts that my political leanings tend to be democratic and that the environment is an issue of concern for me, I only want to report on my experiences with the Occupy movement, not whether I support it or not (although it would be difficult to say that one supports the movement or they not, since it represents such a wide range of issues).

OCCUPY D.C.

Tents at Occupy D.C, K Street location.

I first saw an Occupy encampment in Washington D.C, when I was there for the Tar Sands Protest. Unfortunately we weren't there for very long, but I got a glimpse of the movement, the people and their goals (which were many; they were also coming to the Tar Sands Protest). Frankly, it left me with the same impression I got from the media. Some impassioned intellectuals, and more than a few vagrant hippies, all sleeping in a bunch of tents. But it was interesting nonetheless.

OCCUPY BURLINGTON

Gogol Bordello live at Occupy Burlington.

Another experience I had with occupy was right here in Burlington, VT. One Wednesday I dropped in on a S.L.A.M (Student Labor Action Movement) meeting with my friend Dan, where we heard that Gogol Bordello was going to be playing at Occupy Burlington that night. We then proceeded to ride our bikes into Burlington and wait approximately 2 hours for a show that we weren't even sure was going to happen. But while we waited I got the opportunity to learn more about the Occupy movement, and I was impressed by one UVM student who seemed to know a lot about it. If I can remember correctly, his argument was something to the effect that our current economic system in unsustainable, because the rich have too much money to spend, and the poor have so little money that they have to spend it constantly, but mostly on necessities (not enough to keep the economy going). Excuse me for just this blurb on such a complex topic.

Another thing I observed, and actually my original reason for going, was the art/culture aspect of the movement. Like a lot of social movements, Occupy has produced some pretty cool art, especially posters. I see them around Saint Mikes all the time, here's a favorite:

Photo credit: http://huff.to/ur6Rp9

Here's another, which I like but have not seen around campus:

Click here to find this poster and others.

Emerging from the Occupy Movement is another activist culture. I've observed this, an older man at Occupy Wall Street shared this observation with me; I think that a lot of people have noticed this. I remember at the Tar Sands protest a woman proclaiming that our generation is the generation that's going to change things, like the famous protesters of the Vietnam war and others of the same era. It's exciting and intriguing to see this happening with people my age and to have been a part of it myself. It makes one wonder where this new-found activism will take our country, and the world.

I also learned on this night that Gogol Bordello was my new favorite musician.

Occupy Wall Street

Onlookers at food justice rally at Occupy Wall Street.

Finally, this past Saturday, the 19th of November 2011, I had the opportunity to go to New York and see where it all began. At first, there weren't many people and I was a tad disappointed (we were all aware that the camp had been raided and disbanded the previous Monday, but according to Twitter and other online sources, they were still congregating). Although that changed pretty quickly, as you can tell from the picture above.

There was a ton of stuff going on during the day. We brought signs, and passers-by took pictures of us holding them, there was a food justice group speaking, union workers, "911 was an inside job" marchers (whom some were convinced had been hired by Fox news to make Occupy look ridiculous). 

A lot of what I had recognized during Occupy Burlington I noticed again, and amplified, at Occupy Wall Street. Before, I used the term Micro-Culture to describe it, but the legitimacy of that word was questioned so instead I will use microcosm. What I found in New York was a very democratic microcosm of society, fit with its own laws, culture, barter system; and that's nothing to what it was before, according to one unnamed Occupier, who claimed that "we could perform minor surgery in here before they tore us down". Whether that's true or not I can't say for sure, but from what I heard and what I saw, they had at least been very well established. 

The most impressive thing I saw here, though, was the General Assembly. It was the epitome of democracy; everyone was allowed to participate, granted they adhered to the rules of etiquette set by the people during previous G.A.'s. The purpose of these meetings is to make decisions for the movement through horizontal organization and participation from all those who care to do so. When someone isn't adhering to the rules, there is a hand signal that participants put up to encourage that person to stop. Facilitators ask permission of the assembly if it's alright with the assembly that they facilitate. It is all up to the assembly; every little detail. There is no official leader, and anyone who takes a leadership position of any sort asks permission to do so first. It is very much how you wished Animal Farm would have turned out while you are reading it.

While I was there, one man was arrested for allegedly having blown cigarette smoke in a police officer's face (although everyone around him claimed that wasn't the case, and even if it were, it would not be grounds for arrest), someone who appeared to be a Wall Street worker gave my friends and I the finger, and all day I saw different people from all over the place, occupying Wall Street. Finally, we left around 8.20PM after the General Assembly, fit with lots of videos, photos, stories and, something I thought was pretty clever, a few issues of The Occupied Wall Street Journal.

The Occupy movement is a hot topic of controversy and discussion, and after these experiences I feel that I have gained more understanding on where the Occupiers come from, even if others aren't sure where they're going. I think the problem isn't that the movement lacks direction, but that there's so much change to be had, and they're willing to accept anyone who is looking to create this change. So whether New York wants them there, or Boston, London, Seoul, Los Angeles, or hundreds of other cities want them there, occupiers are looking for change, and they're not backing down until they get it.

Also, check out this short film called "Why Do You Occupy" by my friend Dan Quigley, about our trip to NYC, and why people choose to occupy Wall Street!

Thanks for Reading!

Cool Stuff on Campus: The Shack

This week is Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week and students at SMC have been observing it in a few different ways, including an Oxfam Hunger Banquet, fasting, canned food collecting, vigils and The Shack.

The Shack is set up in the lawn outside the academic buildings, and students can sign up to stay in it for various amounts of time; both throughout the day and overnight. Last night, my Shack Buddies and I took on the challenge, and stayed in the shack from 8pm to 8am (except myself, I have a bad cough and was having trouble in the cold so I went back to my dorm around 1am; but it was cool while it lasted!). We had some visitors, including Father Brian, who came over to say hi and asked if we knew what day yesterday was (the Feast of St. Edmund). Anyway, it was a cool experience and *hopefully* was helpful in raising awareness of the fight against Hunger and Homelessness!

Here are some pictures!

Fellow Shack-Buddies Sophie, Emily and Kelly.  

Brendan playing the Ukulele. 

One big, happy Shack family!

Photo Credit goes to Brianna Coughlin.

Thanks for reading!

Protesting in D.C

In my last post, I uploaded some pictures from my recent trip to Washington D.C with Green Up. Some of them are goofy, but some of them show how massive and important this protest was.

Off the bat, a few fun facts. Approximately 12,000 protesters were in attendance from all over the country (I ran into a former ski team mate who goes to school in Florida; her school, Eckerd College, had a huge turnout), we fully encircled the White House for the first time since 1960, a floor-mate of mine, Dan Quigley, was interviewed by the Associated Press and mentioned in this article (he also got a mention for SMC), and since the protest, Obama has decided to delay his decision on the pipeline. While that is neither a "loss" nor a "victory" for the Tar Sands movement, it does mean that it's not being built right now.

So, about the trip; it was awesome. I went into it with the expectation that a lot of the people there knew more than I did, and I wanted to learn from them. And between the discussion we had Saturday night at the All Souls Unitarian Universalist church, talking to fellow SMC students about the pipeline, and hearing what was said at the rally, I learned a lot.

At All Souls (as I mentioned in passing), there was a rally Saturday night to unify the protesters, inform them of the logistics and planning, and also to get the ball rolling on actions after the protest. A few of the key organizers spoke, and each of them of a surprisingly different background. It was interesting to see, in the organizers and in the protesters, the variety of people that cared about this protest. The most represented age groups were teens/twenties and fifties/sixties. The latter kind of surprised me until later I was made aware that most of the fifties/sixties had been environmentally active in the 70's, and were getting back into it now that the movement was making a comeback.

We left All Souls at around 9, went to the church we were staying at (St. Stephen's), made a quick run to IHOP, and were in bed around midnight... only to wake up at 6 in the morning.

The protest didn't start til 2, so until then we had time to explore the city, which was pretty cool cause I hadn't ever been before. We had a good (if not kinda pricey) breakfast, walked around some monuments, went to an Occupy D.C location, and met at LaFayette Square around 1:30pm.

After that it was pretty nuts. At the rally there were people with signs (some of them very clever; I saw "if you build it, it will leak", "thank you big oil, I hate polar bears", "fossils are friends, not fuels"...), a large pipeline that said "Stop Keystone XL", awesome speakers (including Bill McKibben), and the feeling was overall really exciting and united. I had never felt so connected to such a large group of people; it was like being at a concert, but with more protesting and less fighting (amongst the crowd, anyway).

Probably a little after 2pm (I lost track of time) we began to circle the White House. It took a while. We went in 4 mass-migrations of people; I went with the 3rd one.

Once we got into place, it was unreal. I almost didn't want to talk; I wanted to just stand there, holding my sign, remaining silent and stoic and feeling like I was really making a difference. I did stay silent for a while, but eventually I started shouting with the crowd, which was also fun.

About 20 minutes after we got into place, the organizers came around and told us we had completely encircled the White House for the first time since 1960, and it felt like we won. People started shouting louder (I tweeted about it ;p) and it kind of felt like the climactic moment of the trip.

After some celebration, we were told we could go back to the rally or go back home, so the crowd began to dwindle, and eventually we headed back to our bus, and were back on the road to SMC.

During this weekend, I learned so much, I felt like I was making a difference, and I discovered a new-found passion for activism that I hadn't really experienced before. Definitely one of the most important things I've done since I came to college!

Thanks for reading!

Pictures from D.C!

Hey guys, here are some of my favorite pics from D.C! I've been kinda swamped since I got back, but expect an informational post on the trip this week. Enjoy!

Prof. Greg Delanty wearing my sunglasses.

Sleeping friends. 

Protesting in the street.

In front of the White House.

Polar bear with sign "Keystone XL: Game over for my arctic home".

More protesters.

Me and my friend Lauren in front of the White House!

So these are just a few, I promise more to follow/a more detailed post on the entire event and weekend!

Thanks for reading! 

D.C : 5 days

I've mentioned before on this blog that I'm involved with a group on campus called Green up. Green Up is awesome, we are the environmental group that does stuff like reusable-cup coffee hours on Thursday mornings, and hosts Harvest Fest, which you can read about below.

So this Saturday, I'm going to D.C with 30 or so other students from Green Up to join the Tar Sands Action protest. Basically what is happening right now is that Trans Canada, the company building something called the Keystone XL pipeline, has plans to build that pipeline through America's heartland and down into Texas, where it will be refined and exported to Europe and Latin America, tax-free. Further, a burst in this pipeline could destroy drinking water for 2 million people, since the plan is to build it through a major water reservoir. They estimated the Keystone might have a burst once every 7 years; it's already burst 12 times in one year in places where it's already been built.

Building this pipeline could have hugely negative environmental repercussions, and there's no economic gain for the American people. The only person who has to say yes or no to this deal is Obama, and that's why we're going to protest at the White House this Sunday.

This is a really important issue to all of us at Green Up, so my goal is to keep this blog, my twitter and my facebook updated throughout the event, and about the issue in general. Stay tuned!

Harvest Fest 2011

Since I decided to attend school in Vermont, I've noticed a lot of people think that students who choose to come here for college are all eco-friendly hippies and peace activists. And while there's no formal census that's been done on the subject (to my knowledge), I'd say that this isn't untrue.

Green Up is SMC's "environmental" group, if you will, and I feel like the name kind of gives away the mission. We work to bring awareness to the college and the community about environmental change, and take steps as a group to reduce our own carbon footprint, and give others the opportunity to join in. Such steps include SMC's own organic garden, helping local farmers, as well as events like Harvest Fest.

Harvest Fest, which will take place on the Library Lawn of SMC campus from 3-6pm on Saturday, October 22, 2011; is an annual event hosted by Green Up to promote local products, listen to good music, and have an all-around good time while maintaining our commitment, as a group, to the environment.

Since I'm a freshman, this will be my first year attending the event, but I can promise that it will be awesome! There will be home-made vegetable soup, beverages, and other assortments of local treats served for free to anyone who attends; BUT THEY MUST REMEMBER TO BRING THEIR OWN BOWLS AND MUGS! Green Up won't be supplying disposable ones. Also, there will be live music from Dirty Paris and The Turtle Underground, and after the festivities have settled down, we'll pitch a Tent City on the Library Lawn.

So this event should be pretty rockin', and anyone who can come should definitely check it out!

Thanks for reading!

Manejando Juntos (Driving together)

This past Wednesday night, I went on my first drive with Juntos.

Juntos (meaning "together" in Spanish) is a UVM-SMC coalition group that works closely with the VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project (VTMFSP), and basically, the goal of the group is to reach out to migrant farm workers in this area of Vermont. We do this by providing them with a transportation network of volunteer drivers, promoting human/civil rights in the community and, eventually, we hope to provide ESL lessons for the workers.

So Wednesday night, I met with Keelia, a fellow SMC student and Blogger, to go on our first drive. She'd gone on Study Abroad last semester, and we talked about living in Europe and the Spanish language on the drive over to the Vermont Worker's Center. Once we finally figured out the directions (it took a minute), we got to the Center towards the end of a meeting about the Secure Communities Act. The meeting, held by the VTMFSP, was to promote community activism, with the goal of making sure that worker's rights are respected. The meeting was all in Spanish, which rocked.

At the end of the meeting, we introduced ourselves to everyone there. Then we met Over, the guy we were driving. He's from Chiapas, Mexico. The ride started out pretty well, we introduced ourselves in Spanish and made some small talk, and then it was quiet for a little while. We weren't really sure what to talk about. Then, when Keelia was about to ask whether to turn or not, Over said, "you can take a left here", in what sounded like really good English.

The rest of the ride was on-and-off conversation, in Spanish and English, but it was clear that Over spoke decent English. And it made me feel like he was the one doing us a favor, speaking in Spanish with us.

So there is something to our name. I've just gotten involved, but that drive the other night and having been at that meeting makes me feel a sense of solidarity or togetherness (juntos-ness? ;p). It's an awesome organization, I'm really excited to be a part of it during my time here!

For any SMC kids who are interested, shoot me an email at brosbrook@mail.smcvt.edu, and I can help get you involved! Or if anyone has questions about the group feel free to ask!