Future Fridays... You Broke It? You Pay for It?

Nicaragua is one of the nations most affected by climate change and yet has a low carbon footprint.  While several industrialized countries like the United States of America still have over 15 tons of carbon (CO₂) per capita¹, Nicaragua has only 0.63 tons of carbon per capita… putting Nicaragua low in the ranking of polluters in the world.

Last year the United States and China produced over 40% of the world’s CO2 emissions   The top 15 countries in CO2 emissions produced 72.2% of the total global emission, while the REST of the world only produced 27.7% … with Nicaragua producing 0.03% of all global emissions.  These are current statistics.

Historically, while wealthier countries were using carbon, belching pollution into the atmosphere as they industrialized, countries like Nicaragua were being colonized by them.  Nations like Nicaragua were losing their natural resources to the industrialized countries.  They were having their people killed in wars as well as from imported diseases and slavery.  Nations like Nicaragua were not allowed to choose their own destiny.

As Dr. Paul Oquist Kelly² asked in his speech to the 2019 UN Climate Change Conference, COP25, in November 2019, why should countries like Nicaragua bear the brunt of climate change and the polluters not pay indemnities to Nicaragua and others for the damage they have done to the world and to nations such as Nicaragua?

For those of us who come from the wealthier and more industrialized nations like the United States, this may seem like a fanciful notion.  But when we live nearby an industry that pollutes the water, air, and causes unspeakable damage, we think nothing of insisting that that industry pay for the pain, suffering, death and damages in order for those of us who have suffered to be able to change things and make a better life.

There is a disconnect when it comes national borders.   We understand fully the concept of our neighbor or community business paying for damages but with regard to countries… it seems unthinkable.

Nicaragua is a small country with few people compared to my home country of the United States, but it has endured being stepped on, plodded through, manipulated, and polluted by my homeland.  Nicaragua was the 6th most affected nation from climate change from 1998-2017³. Why shouldn’t those who cause the damage pay for the damage?  This was PART of the Paris Climate Treaty that the U.S.A. abandoned… one reason Pres. Trump did not want to pay for damages.

For a person who has brought suit after suit against so many people and businesses, one would think Pres. Trump would understand paying for damages pretty well.

-Kathleen

¹ https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions
² Dr. Paul Oquist Kelley Minister-Private Secretary for National Policies Presidency of the Republic of Nicaragua
³ https://germanwatch.org/files/Global%20Climate%20Risk%20Index%202019_2.pdf

NOTE: If you are reading this blog using the mobile version, click on "web version" to see the full blog with all the features including "subscribe to blog by email".  Please join us and also share on your social media.

Donate here to the ongoing work of the CDCA in Nicaragua:

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca

Helping the Harvest?... Angels in Jeans

In Nicaragua, harvest time is late November through January.  We currently have bags of raw organic sesame being held for processing in a large building.

Our strong “drying” fan (that we use inside to dry our wet clothes) is being used to separate the sesame seeds from the trash left from the threshing done in the fields.  The seeds will then be re-bagged to go to the sesame processing plant for cleaning, polishing the husks off the seeds, inspecting, and bagging for transport and shipping.

COPROEXNIC’s Board of Directors* and management rented acres of land this crop season and planted sesame trying to guarantee enough product to fulfill the contracts that the farmers made with the buyers… buyers who take a risk with these farmers of small farms.   Mike is on their board and he has been donning his boots and hat to tromp through the fields to see how it is all going.

Several of the CDCA staff who are also members of COPROEXNIC are participating in the growing process as well… trying to make a little more money to take home as costs in Nicaragua slowly rise.

So far, we anticipate a good sesame yield; the problem is financing.  Taking risks with the poor is rarely done, and those who do so are angels – well, I was going to say “in suits” but the ones we know – in jeans.

Think of all the bail-outs that have gone to banks… what would have happened if instead of giving the banks bail-outs for the rich to keep getting richer, if the bail-outs went to the poor?  Bailing out people who lost their homes?  Bailing out farmers who lost their land?  Bailing out people who go bankrupt from medical bills?

For some reason giving “hand-outs” to the rich is acceptable but to the poor, not.  Taking risks with the rich even when they take and take and take and give little back is “good business” but to the poor, not.

The farmers here NEED financing and they work extremely hard to grow organically to take care of the consumers’ health, their own health, their land, and our environment.  If you can help, please contribute or loan to the Vida Fund, a risk sharing invest fund.

-Kathleen

*COPROEXNIC is a cooperative of small organic farmers, with whom we have been working for twenty years.

NOTE: If you are reading this blog using the mobile version, click on "web version" to see the full blog with all the features including "subscribe to blog by email".  Please join us and also share on your social media.

Donate here to the ongoing work of the CDCA in Nicaragua:

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca

Future Fridays: A Dozen Years of Continuing Change

Dr. Paul Oquist Kelly¹, Nicaragua’s representative to the Climate Change Conference COP25 in November 2019, gave an address to the conference.  In this blog I will share with you the successes this Nicaraguan government has had regarding climate change and poverty.  Next week I will continue with more of the essence of his speech.

From 2007 to 2018, Nicaragua moved from 25% renewable energy to 62% while expanding electrical coverage to 95% of households. In 2007 the coverage was only 54%.

Nicaragua is committed to restoring almost 7 million acres of forest that had been historically deforested through agriculture.  The government is also committed to the Forest Carbon Partnership to capture 11 million tons of CO2(e)  [carbon dioxide equivalent] over the next five years.

Nicaragua is also adapting the dry corridor (like the area we live in) to the new reality of climate change…like planting trees with roots that are shallow and spread out to hold water and planting crops that do better with less rainfall and need less irrigation.   The government has planted lots and lots of trees in roadway medians and during the dry season trucks come along and spray water on them.

Since 2007 when this administration won the elections, all of the above steps have been happening up through 2019 (when the speech was given).  Besides those steps in just twelve years they have also:

• Reduced maternal mortality rate from 92.8 per 1,000 to 34.1;
• Reduced infant mortality rate from 29 per 1,000 to 12;
• Reduced chronic malnutrition in schools by 66%;
• Reduced general poverty from 47.9% to 34.1% and extreme poverty from 17.3% to 6.9%;
• Lowered the inequality in consumption from a GINI² scale of 0.41 to .0.33 according to the GINI (1 being equal). 
• Raised the equality of gender in government, society and businesses from being ranked 90th in the Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum to 5th in the world, only ranking below the Nordic countries;
• And allowed the indigenous and Afro-descendant population along the east coast of Nicaragua to set borders and gain titles of 37,800 square kilometers of ancestral lands as well as set up their own local government and have control of its own resources.

Quite impressive, I think.  I read all of this and then hear MY president at a rally in Milwaukee³ talking about bringing back incandescent lightbulbs, dishwashers that use a lot of water, eliminating restrictors on faucets, shower heads, and toilets.  And I sigh.

-Kathleen

____________________

¹Dr. Paul Oquist Kelley is Minister-Private Secretary for National Policies Presidency of the Republic of Nicaragua

²“In economics, the Gini coefficient (/ˈdʒiːni/ JEE-nee), sometimes called the Gini index or Gini ratio, is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income or wealth distribution of a nation's residents, and is the most commonly used measurement of inequality. It was developed by the Italian statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini and published in his 1912 paper Variability and Mutability (Italian: Variabilità e mutabilità).

The Gini coefficient measures the inequality among values of a frequency distribution (for example, levels of income). A Gini coefficient of zero expresses perfect equality, where all values are the same (for example, where everyone has the same income). A Gini coefficient of one (or 100%) expresses maximal inequality among values (e.g., for a large number of people, where only one person has all the income or consumption, and all others have none, the Gini coefficient will be very nearly one).”  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient 

³https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/01/15/milwaukee_crowd_cheers_trumps_promise_to_deregulate_dishwashers_give_you_more_water_so_you_can_actually_wash.html

NOTE: If you are reading this blog using the mobile version, click on "web version" to see the full blog with all the features including "subscribe to blog by email".  Please join us and also share on your social media.

Donate here to the ongoing work of the CDCA in Nicaragua:

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca

The Privilege of Planning

Last night I hung out our granddaughter Samantha’s diaper laundry.  Her coverings for her diapers are bright and cheery… just like her.  She brightens our days.

Birth control* allows us to enjoy our children more.  When babies are planned then parents are not stressed out,  and there are fewer single mothers struggling with job, home, and children… in other words family planning is a gift from scientists and ultimately from the Divine… this I believe deeply**.

Our clinic provides extremely low-cost birth control.  Condoms are free, and for the last three years we have provided birth control implants.  These are safe for teen girls and provide protection for 3 - 5 years.  I mentioned in an earlier blog the story of a young mother, 16 years of age, with TWO children, walking in and saying “I want an implant.”

Teens have some logic issues because the frontal lobe part of their brain has not yet fully formed… a girl living in poverty sometimes looks at an older man and thinks he represents security, so she has a baby with the man… it seldom works out.  Girls sometimes feel embarrassed coming to a clinic for birth control because “everyone will know” …  “everyone” definitely knows when their belly starts growing.
 

Adding to poverty, desperation, and sometimes lack of knowledge, teen girls are at risk of rape or incest.  Having implant protection means AT THE VERY LEAST that an unwanted baby doesn’t add to their trauma.

Many Nicaraguan women living in poverty are the financial stability for the family.  When they can control how many children they have, then they have even more control over the family’s food allowance, clothing, and shoes for the children they chose to have.  They can slowly, with help, begin to lift their children out of poverty.

The initial available implants were good for only three years, and it has been three years now.  We just spent over $5,000 for 200 implants, good for up to five years, which is very inexpensive, BUT buying them all at once has put a huge dent in our budget.  We spend $50/woman for lab tests, PAP readings, and putting in the implants, including the cost of the implants themselves.  Please support one teen girl, one woman, one single mother, one mother overwhelmed with poverty… all too poor to secure their own security.

We took a chance and spent the funds because we have seen the difference the implants make in these girls’ and women’s health and lives.  Will you help our clinic staff help them?

-Kathleen

* Again, not writing about abortion which is illegal in Nicaragua.

** I became pregnant three times while on birth control and STILL believe it is a blessed gift. 

NOTE: If you are reading this blog using the mobile version, click on "web version" to see the full blog with all the features including "subscribe to blog by email".  Please join us and also share on your social media.

Donate here to the ongoing work of the CDCA in Nicaragua:

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca

Future Fridays: the Scary Tax Word?

Future Fridays: the Scary Tax Word?

We delighted in watching Bill Nye, the science guy, when he was on John Oliver’s show.  Mike loved it so much, he has it saved to show anyone who will watch it.

And it all revolves around carbon tax… that scary word… tax.

Why do taxes scare so many people?  We think nothing of going into a store and paying for whatever items we want or need.  We think nothing of tipping someone for the services they provide.  But mentioning taxes is a no-no.

Bill Nye simply illustrated in his above-mentioned piece that when we have too much carbon in the atmosphere the atmosphere heats up which causes droughts, fires (like in California and now Australia), floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and other intense weather. 

Following and during the disasters…

•     Fire fighters and fire plane pilots work long, dangerous hours.
•         Property is damaged and lost.
•         People are hurt, hospitalized, maimed permanently, or killed leaving family behind… which means…

Billions of dollars in public money is spent to take care of the messes, the losses, and the injured.  Who pays for it?  All of us.

Who should pay more?  Those who create and use carbon sources.  It just makes sense.  Let’s clear our vision and make 2020 the year to cut our carbon emissions drastically and save money as well as our earthly home.

-Kathleen

NOTE: If you are reading this blog using the mobile version, click on "web version" to see the full blog with all the features including "subscribe to blog by email".  Please join us and also share on your social media.

Donate here to the ongoing work of the CDCA in Nicaragua:

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca

Laughing Through 2020

Laughing Through 2020

When our youngest, Joseph, first went to Bennington College (VT), he went as an international student and as such went a week early to be oriented.  He loves telling the story of being a part of five international students with one upper class student from California as the host.  The international students would tell awful stories of horrid things from their schools and they would all laugh while the Californian would be appalled.

Living in day-to-day horror or poverty or harshness tends to lead to dark humor.

When we ran shelters in North Carolina, we joked and laugh about the realities we saw that made many gasp.  Here in Nicaragua, dark humor sometimes reaches such a level of excellence that if you have a comfortable life you would be shocked.

Nicaraguans give each other nicknames that call out whatever disability one might have.  And they are not mean, but simply an acknowledgement of their struggle.  Laughter is shared.

Laughing is spitting into the darkness.
Laughing is giving the hard life a middle finger.
Laughter is coping.
Laughter is also clarity.

As we move into 2020, let us not despair but laugh, make fun of the hardness, and work for change.

-Kathleen

Future Fridays: Our Home is on Fire

Future Fridays: Our Home is on Fire

This past week President Trump moved us closer to another war in the Middle East.  Maybe he has scaled his reactions back to the point that an all-out war will be avoided, maybe not.  I know that the assassination of Gen. Soleimani has moved the state of fear up even higher than before, for so many people globally.

At the beginning of his book,  Fear: Trump in the White House*, Bob Woodward quoted Donald Trump saying “Real power is – I don’t even want to use the word – fear.”

In the time when we are facing a global crisis of climate change and scientists are saying we really have only 10 years to reverse the way the atmosphere is heating up, wasting more time on war is ridiculous.

Jane Fonda* has been taking to the streets demanding that the U.S. government take action now regarding climate change.  Summarizing what she said on The Late Show with Steven Colbert, “We’ve tried the lawful ways to get the government to take action.  Now it is time for civil disobedience.”

When our home is on fire, it is ludicrous to attack others on the block. 

photo:Noah Berger/AP

-Kathleen

*“Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump in an interview with Bob Woodward and Robert Costa on March 11, 2016, at the Old Post Office Pavilion, Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C.”

**Join Jane and others, https://firedrillfridays.com/

Future Fridays: 2020 the Time is Now!

Future Fridays:  2020 the Time is Now!

I have a notebook where I keep lists of things to do.  I separate the days and if I don’t get something done that day it goes onto the next day… and just between you and me there are some things that I have moved day-to-day for months!

The United Nations Development Programme says, “Climate Change is the defining threat of our time.  We are in the middle of a climate crisis.  But we have the international frameworks, technology and human and financial capital to solve the problem.  We must act now.”[1]

In other words, we cannot keep doing like I do, postponing our actions until tomorrow.  We must act now.

2020 can and must be a year of change for the global community.  We have not only started a new year but a new decade as well.[2]

20/20 is seeing clearly.  We need to see what is happening and not let non-science cloud our vision.

Let’s elect people who will make climate change their priority and who will actually enact laws that make us procrastinators do today that which absolutely cannot wait until tomorrow.

-Kathleen

---

[1] https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/events/2019/climate-2020.html

[2] In this footnote, I give a bow to the “technically” correct who say the new decade starts on the 2021 (i.e. our children).

NOTE: If you are reading this blog using the mobile version, click on "web version" to see the full blog with all the features including "subscribe to blog by email".  Please join us and also share on your social media.

Donate here to the ongoing work of the CDCA in Nicaragua, aiding small organic farmers in their struggle to adjust to climate change:

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca