Positive News Update 9-14-05
US NEWS
People to People
From the Blessed Dressed Thrift Shop
in New Orleans to Camp Algonquin in
Cary, Illinois. People are coming together
and helping each other through one of the
largest disasters to ever strike America.
People like our friends from WestJet,
Canada's Low-Cost Airline.
On August 31, the Turn Around Crew
(baggage/ground crew) in Calgary
assembled a team of volunteers to
deliver 11,000 pounds of equipment
and Search and Rescue personnel to
aid in the humanitarian relief effort.
Famous People from all areas of entertainment
from sports, movies stars, musicians, actors in
fact every walk of life are all pitching in to help.
In ways we haven't seen since 9/11, and while
private efforts cannot approach the magnitude
of resources that state, local and federal agencies
can bring to bear in an emergency such as
Hurricane Katrina, they serve as an example
of what individual determination can accomplish.
Here's a few more examples...
Two private charter flights organized and paid for
by former Vice President Al Gore ferried 270 ill
New Orleans residents to safety during a period
when the federal relief effort had hardly begun.
While Gore has criticized the slow federal response
to the disaster, he declined interviews concerning
his personal relief efforts.
In the same spirit, former Rockets basketball player
and television sports analyst Kenny Smith almost
single-handedly organized an exhibition game in
Houston at Toyota Center over the weekend that
raised millions of dollars for storm relief.
The event also brought some of the game's biggest
stars for morale-raising visits to storm shelters at
the George R. Brown Convention Center and Astrodome.
"This was the most important basketball game that's
ever been played," declared Smith, a veteran of Houston's
NBA championship teams. "This game meant more to
more people than anything else."
The efforts of the Houston branch of the Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals provided care
and shelter for hundreds of stranded pets and relieved
the anxieties of already distraught flood victims.
Texas oilman Boone Pickens and his wife, Madeleine,
chartered a Continental jet to fly a planeload of dogs
out of Baton Rouge to animal shelters on the West Coast
in a project dubbed Operation Pet Lift.
Animal protection organizations are continuing to struggle
to find shelter and transport for an estimated 50,000 cats
and dogs abandoned or lost in the storm zone.
Such individual efforts to comfort storm victims have been
multiplied thousands of times among the volunteers who
flocked to Houston relief shelters and worked round the
clock, once again demonstrating the heart of this community
and its generosity toward others.
To help the animals that survived the flood
please contact The US Humane Society: www.hsus.org
or the ASPCA www.ASPCA.org
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
For the first time in history, there is a feasible plan
to end extreme poverty in our lifetime, and you can
help make it happen.
IN PRAISE OF MTV!?! While many in the media are
always ready to pounce on MTV for the videos they find
in questionable taste, far too often the media overlooks
the positive ways the channel attempts to inform and
involve it's viewers in the greater social good.
The Diary of Angelina Jolie and Dr. Jeffrey Sachs
in Africa premieres September 14 at 7 PM and
coincides with the United Nations World Summit
on Poverty.
More than 1 billion people face extreme poverty living
on less than one dollar a day, and more than 22,000
people die every day from extreme poverty and
preventable diseases - needlessly.
The facts are staggering - but there is hope.
There is a now feasible plan to end extreme poverty
in our lifetime, and Sauri, a cluster of villages in Western
Kenya, helps to show the world how we can make that happen.
In this special think MTV episode of Diary, actress and
United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie
journeys to Kenya with the world's leading expert on
poverty, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs.
On their journey, they witness how the challenges of hunger,
disease and isolation in Africa are being overcome in this small
village beset by hunger, AIDS, and malaria.
Spending two long days in Sauri, Sachs exposes Jolie to
every corner of village life to reveal his vision for ending
extreme poverty by 2015.
In a small hut, he demonstrates how a simple $10.00 bed net
keeps families safe from Malaria, a disease that kills over three
million people every year.
In an open field, Jolie learns how basic instruction in proper
farming techniques and fertilizer use can produce enough
food to keep villagers alive on land that has failed to yield
sustainable crops for generations.
And, in a moving sequence featuring the town's young people,
Jolie discovers how free school lunches are giving children a
reason to come to class and learn - and that one computer is
connecting this tiny village to the rest of the world.
The images and stories that often emanate from Africa are bleak.
But, The Diary of Angelina Jolie with Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa
offers actual solutions to famine, plague, and conflict.
Thanks to the vision of Dr. Sachs and the humanitarian concerns
of Jolie - Sauri has a message for the rest of the world - it is alive
and fighting back.
More: http://www.mtv.com/thinkmtv/features/global/diary/angelina_jolie/
NOTE: If Hurricane Katrina has taught us anything it is that
we are all in this together and a committed group of people
can do AMAZING things for their fellow humans.
People to People
From the Blessed Dressed Thrift Shop
in New Orleans to Camp Algonquin in
Cary, Illinois. People are coming together
and helping each other through one of the
largest disasters to ever strike America.
People like our friends from WestJet,
Canada's Low-Cost Airline.
On August 31, the Turn Around Crew
(baggage/ground crew) in Calgary
assembled a team of volunteers to
deliver 11,000 pounds of equipment
and Search and Rescue personnel to
aid in the humanitarian relief effort.
Famous People from all areas of entertainment
from sports, movies stars, musicians, actors in
fact every walk of life are all pitching in to help.
In ways we haven't seen since 9/11, and while
private efforts cannot approach the magnitude
of resources that state, local and federal agencies
can bring to bear in an emergency such as
Hurricane Katrina, they serve as an example
of what individual determination can accomplish.
Here's a few more examples...
Two private charter flights organized and paid for
by former Vice President Al Gore ferried 270 ill
New Orleans residents to safety during a period
when the federal relief effort had hardly begun.
While Gore has criticized the slow federal response
to the disaster, he declined interviews concerning
his personal relief efforts.
In the same spirit, former Rockets basketball player
and television sports analyst Kenny Smith almost
single-handedly organized an exhibition game in
Houston at Toyota Center over the weekend that
raised millions of dollars for storm relief.
The event also brought some of the game's biggest
stars for morale-raising visits to storm shelters at
the George R. Brown Convention Center and Astrodome.
"This was the most important basketball game that's
ever been played," declared Smith, a veteran of Houston's
NBA championship teams. "This game meant more to
more people than anything else."
The efforts of the Houston branch of the Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals provided care
and shelter for hundreds of stranded pets and relieved
the anxieties of already distraught flood victims.
Texas oilman Boone Pickens and his wife, Madeleine,
chartered a Continental jet to fly a planeload of dogs
out of Baton Rouge to animal shelters on the West Coast
in a project dubbed Operation Pet Lift.
Animal protection organizations are continuing to struggle
to find shelter and transport for an estimated 50,000 cats
and dogs abandoned or lost in the storm zone.
Such individual efforts to comfort storm victims have been
multiplied thousands of times among the volunteers who
flocked to Houston relief shelters and worked round the
clock, once again demonstrating the heart of this community
and its generosity toward others.
To help the animals that survived the flood
please contact The US Humane Society: www.hsus.org
or the ASPCA www.ASPCA.org
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
For the first time in history, there is a feasible plan
to end extreme poverty in our lifetime, and you can
help make it happen.
IN PRAISE OF MTV!?! While many in the media are
always ready to pounce on MTV for the videos they find
in questionable taste, far too often the media overlooks
the positive ways the channel attempts to inform and
involve it's viewers in the greater social good.
The Diary of Angelina Jolie and Dr. Jeffrey Sachs
in Africa premieres September 14 at 7 PM and
coincides with the United Nations World Summit
on Poverty.
More than 1 billion people face extreme poverty living
on less than one dollar a day, and more than 22,000
people die every day from extreme poverty and
preventable diseases - needlessly.
The facts are staggering - but there is hope.
There is a now feasible plan to end extreme poverty
in our lifetime, and Sauri, a cluster of villages in Western
Kenya, helps to show the world how we can make that happen.
In this special think MTV episode of Diary, actress and
United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie
journeys to Kenya with the world's leading expert on
poverty, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs.
On their journey, they witness how the challenges of hunger,
disease and isolation in Africa are being overcome in this small
village beset by hunger, AIDS, and malaria.
Spending two long days in Sauri, Sachs exposes Jolie to
every corner of village life to reveal his vision for ending
extreme poverty by 2015.
In a small hut, he demonstrates how a simple $10.00 bed net
keeps families safe from Malaria, a disease that kills over three
million people every year.
In an open field, Jolie learns how basic instruction in proper
farming techniques and fertilizer use can produce enough
food to keep villagers alive on land that has failed to yield
sustainable crops for generations.
And, in a moving sequence featuring the town's young people,
Jolie discovers how free school lunches are giving children a
reason to come to class and learn - and that one computer is
connecting this tiny village to the rest of the world.
The images and stories that often emanate from Africa are bleak.
But, The Diary of Angelina Jolie with Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa
offers actual solutions to famine, plague, and conflict.
Thanks to the vision of Dr. Sachs and the humanitarian concerns
of Jolie - Sauri has a message for the rest of the world - it is alive
and fighting back.
More: http://www.mtv.com/thinkmtv/features/global/diary/angelina_jolie/
NOTE: If Hurricane Katrina has taught us anything it is that
we are all in this together and a committed group of people
can do AMAZING things for their fellow humans.
posted by Mr. Positive! at 6:18 AM
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