Riversong’s whispers

   Starting June 10th, Stop Genocide Now will bring you For 12 consecutive days, i-ACT (interactive-activism) connects you with the faces, names and lives of Darfur refugees who escaped, for now, genocide in their homeland. Watch daily videos from the field team; read journal entries and add your comments; take action daily that will change the way the world responds to genocide. The violence in and around Darfur has escalated since our last trip in February 2008, when there was an attempted military coup in Chad. Since diplomatic ties have been but cut between Chad and Sudan, and thousands are stranded on the border in between. Visit Stop Genocide Now i-ACT (www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact) to join the community and connect with a Darfuri who needs your voice and action.

The situation on the ground is unstable, and the rainy season has begun. But we feel that at this time the refugees need to be heard by the international community and to feel your hope more so than anytime in the past. Escalating violence in Darfur, Khartoum, S. Sudan, and Chad threatens their already hard life in the camps and adds to the trauma they have already felt.

The field team will include: Gabriel and KTJ from SGN, and Scott Warren and Colin O'Brien from STAND (Student Anti-Genocide Coalition).

For 12 consecutive days, i-ACT will bring you daily videos from the field so you can reconnect with so many of our friends, like Adam, Yakoub, Islam, and Anima; and meet new friends. We hope to visit Camps Kounoungo and Mile once again; and sit down and speak with newly resettled refugees who escaped the most recent bombings in Darfur. We will also be posting our journal entries, and encourage you to post your own comments to us, the refugees, or to one another. i-ACT will also offer daily action items for you and your community to participate in. Please join us as an i-ACTivist in this journey and experience.

Link to Us for during this time please add this banner to your site:
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact4/2008/01/08/368

By "attending" you are pledging to follow our journey and meet the beautiful people of Darfur who have experienced brutal violence - rape, killing, beating, burning - and have been displaced with no home to return to. Please join our community

Tune in to: www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact to participate

Well vacations are over, the trip to the Yukon was glorious!  and we got back 1 day before school started!

This year after 11 year of homeschooling, all my big kids went to school!  what a traumatic time, baby Keiara and I cried for the first four days, neither of us could stand the quiet house!  but we've survived, and I console myself by remembering that it's only for the first semester and then I have all my babes in arms again to go to Africa in the new year.

I worked frantically on the road in hotel rooms to finish the house and furnishings I designed for this month's edition of Prim Perfect.  Being designer of the month was an amazing opportunity, but I was in terror thinking I wouldn't get it all done.

Thank goodness Delia and Zeke were around to give interviews as Better World Island was also featured on the cover of the magazine as the SIM OF THE MONTH!  Editor Saffia Widdershins did an excellant job of describing our amazing island in her feature article.  I'm so proud of the work we've all done and are continuing to do.

Prim Perfect Sept 2007

Fall is silently creeping up on us here, leaves yellowing and the smell of woodsmoke in the air as people start their stoves and fireplaces up in the cool evenings.  I love the smell of fall!   Soon it will be Halloween, Thanksgiving and then horror of horrors!  Christmas!  LOL LOL  time flies...

hugs to all,

River

O.K. so I got home from camping stayed put for 5 days and now I'm on the road again, have traveled 2400 kms in the last 3 days and have finally made it to Whitehorse Yukon :)  I love it up here, it's like coming home.  We are here for a few weeks of fishing, gold mining and relaxing :)  We are traveling with 6 kids this time...you would think that having four of my own would deter me from bringing the neighbourhood!  LOL LOL   

Sadly I couldn't resist bringing my PC with me, actually I have work to do...I'll be the featured designer in the SL Interior Design magazine Prim Perfect in the August/Fall issue.  I've designed an asian style house and all it's furnishings.  One lucky reader will win a free month of residing on the house.  When the month is up they get the house and furnishings.   If you want to see it come by Better World Island about 3 weeks from now :)  I'm really excited because Better World Island will be profiled as well as my stores in SL and my RL charity work.  It's really an honor and I can't thank my dear friend Saffia enough for asking me to be part of her great mag.

So the "Far North" and Second Life...LOL what a funny combo but that will be my weekend :)

wishing you all gentle pathways,

river

Well today I'm off to camp for 10 days, with way too many kids :)

Happily Ray is finally around to help...

I"m so tempted to pack up my PC and take it with me!  OMG I"m so addicted..

feels like leaving behind a body part ! 

  "River, there is no wireless out in the bush"

btw dont' look up internet addiction on google :)...

luv to you all :)

R.

Internet_addiction

So, I joined the "Real News Junkies" the online community for The Real News, I have a feeling I'll be blogging about this later because it's really cool...but.....as I was joining I had to define myself or rather my occupation and I realized I''ve become a social activist.

So I thought, hey fancy phrase there, Riversong my girl,  but what does it really mean to be an activist...what is activism...so of course I had to google around a bit and I found the most amazing Bulletin from Interpares.ca (check them out they are a very cool organization that works with social change organizations around the world. 

So here is an excerpt that sums up who I want to be and the work I want to do. :)

……”activism is a vocation. It is a

“calling” – a calling to active hope in the

possibility that together we can do the

things that are necessary to make the

world a better place.

It is a recognition

that events in the world do not just happen,

but are the result of actions and

choices of real people and institutions,

public and private.

It is a recognition

that the way our world is organized and

governed has been invented, and can

be re-invented over time by citizens,

by our communities, our clubs and

associations, and by our governments.

Activism is the decision we take,

individually and collectively, to participate

in the political and social processes

that make and re-make the world every

day, and to participate consciously and

responsibly with others who share our

vision and values.

The challenge and

opportunity of activism is to give breath

and heart to innovative and alternative

ideas for developing and conserving

creative, tolerant, caring and dynamic

societies.

It is a role of nurturing mutual

support and social solidarity, of promoting

values of social responsibility and reciprocity,

of supporting and mobilizing

citizenship in the interests of the entire

community.

The essence of this activist

role is participation – indeed, is citizenship

itself. It is, as we have expressed

it before, “thinking about the world in

the active voice”.”

I can’t share this without mentioning one of the most amazing activists I know, Gabriel Stauring who as I write is on his third trip to the refugee camps on the Chad/Sudan border.  Gabriel’s amazing video blog will touch your heart, inspire you to action, and take you up close and personal with everyday struggles in the lives of the victims of the genocide in Darfur.  Today was day 3 so log and quick and catch up!!

I-ACT

The following is Gabriel’s post on stopgenocidenow.org

We're going back. It is my third trip to the Chad-Darfur border, and it is Yuen Lin's and Connie's first. For the team that stays back home and does all the hard work of keeping us, the team-on-the-ground, connected and visible, it is also a third i-ACT (Interactive-Activism). They don't get on the plane, but they for sure are with us. (More about the i-ACT3 team, here and back home, coming soon.)

I go back with so many mixed feelings. Sitting here on the plane, I feel determined and committed to doing all that I can to help the people we're going to see at the refugee camps. We must put a face on the numbers. We must not forget that those millions of people that are barely hanging on to life, and all of those that have died already, are individuals just like us. Some have been sitting in the camps for four years; others have just arrived—the victims of recent violence. We must stay committed.

I also feel a deep sense of sadness. Although there is a growing movement in the US, and around the world also, we have not found the formula for solving the problem of genocide and other mass atrocities. The world fails to respond appropriately. I go back to see friends at the camps, and they will still be there, going through hardships and suffering. I get to jump back on a plane to go back home relatively soon.

Please join us for the next two weeks. Let's build community with the people of Darfur and find a solution together. We must lead our leaders. I will be looking forward to your comments and questions. I'll keep you posted on what we're seeing and hearing, and you'll soon get to interact with our friends from Darfur.

Paz,
Gabriel

Wow, I haven’t posted for ages, this spring and summer have taken me by storm.

I feel like each day is just a reactionary battle, nothing gets done, just reacting to each new crisis!

Ray has been gone almost continually since his 6 week African odyssey, and I’ve been running doing both our jobs, I’m doing a lot of stuff and none of it very well. 

We’ve shipped one 40 foot container to Swaziland , and have enough for two more in the next few weeks.  It’s been hotter than hell here…oh for a breeze J J

Things in SL are moving along, but I’m not happy with our progress on Better World there are so many things we could do, but I must be content with being consistent with things already in progress.  Lord, give me time this fall!! 

I was really happy with the turnout at the Darfur event organized by In Kenzo and Ubuntu Gregiore it was a real refresher for Camp Darfur , and I’ve got high hopes for adding additional international content, so that visitors can connect with activist groups in their own countries and languages.  This is just another thing to add to my massive to do list!  J

Delia’s LIVE EARTH concert event went off fantastically over 200 avatars visited us that day until the counter at the hub went berserk and stopped counting! 

I’m so thrilled with Delia and the amazing work she does at the Center for Water Studies, she is an integral part of BWI’s future.

This week at Wayne Macphail’s prompting I explored ning.com…very very cool!!!

I started an online community for Better World Island , will play around with the potential in the next few weeks.  I would like to make this the central point for our activities, events, calendar, and scouts recruiting….am bugging Sue for resources..and since she has as much free time as I do!  LOL we’ll see how we do J

One of my all time favorite sites is spark people.  I joined when they were in the infancy stages and I still find their site relevant to my life, it improves with age.   I had the privilage of meeting the "spark guy" Chris Downie on the Omidyar Network, and got to thank him for the encouragment, and "gentle nudges" that spark people has brought into my life :)

Best of all this site is FREE :)  and was voted best health site by Business Week in 2006  Check it out :)

 p.s. this embed feature is not working out like I planned :)  :)

Life’s most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?

~ Martin Luther King, Jr

In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Only a life lived for others is worth living.

~ Albert Einstein

 You give but little when you give of your possessions.  It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

~Kahlil Gibran

I subscribe to Google alerts and to my surprise and delight this gem showed up as number one for today!

Reuters AlertNet-Can Avatars Save Darfur?

Mark Jones, Global Community Editor for Reuters blogs about Camp Darfur on Better World Island in Second Life!

http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs /3/2007/02/18-073557-1.htm

This is a great read!  and a great boost for Camp Darfur and Better World, our visitor numbers to Camp Darfur have already gone up.

I especially like the last line about fund raising and "online donations look like a natural fit"  GO UBUNTU!!!

and Zeke! amazing pic woman!  you are a lovely representation of the Better World Scouts

Zeke in Camp Darfur

We have so much work to do for the people of Darfur, we can't let up for a minute until they have peace and justice.  I'm so thrilled we can touch people everyday in Second Life, make them aware, and let them particpate in actions that will make a difference. 

Please visit www.stopgenocidenow.org this is the amazing site of our beloved friend and activist Gabriel Stauring who just returned from the refugee camps in Chad in January and brought back with him his second powerful video blog.  Watch I-ACT 2005 and 2006. Gabriel's real life Camp Darfur  exhibit is our inspiration for the virtual one on Better World Island.

Happy St. Patricks Day

Kiss me!  I'm so damn Irish!!!