"We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims."
"Make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone."
Although I have a distrust of politicians, the political process requires somebody to work the democratic process, and if completely unattended to, and everybody disengages completely, those who care little about justice take the reins. The emergence of a reasonably apolitical appearing non-politician with a justice-based political platform deserves attention, which it probably won't get, because in all likelihood the message will be drowned out by noise.
Unite America Party-USA and Unite America Party of Kentucky Endorses Drew Curtis Independent Candidate for Kentucky Governor.
The Unite America Party-USA & Kentucky has formally endorsed Drew Curtis for Kentucky Governor because Drew Curtis has been the most receptive candidate to our Party’s platform and efforts to expand citizen ownership in our Commonwealth of Kentucky and throughout the USA and world.www.uniteamericaparty.org
The Unite America Party is a new political party with a mission to close the growing wealth and power gap between the top 1% and the bottom 99% — without taking existing wealth or property rights from the top 1%.
We are ordinary citizens from all walks of life, ethnicities, religions, creeds, and political affiliations. We are also independent thinkers who are more interested in “what’s right” than “who’s right.”
We agree with the majority of Kentuckians and Americans that the two major political parties are leading us to division, gridlock and financial ruin and we have a plan to turn that around and make Kentucky & America better for all (100%) of its citizens.
Flowers kiss the rain. Drizzle dots sherbet colors. Rain patters thirst.
A conversation I had with the father of an 11 year old girl with a learning disability keeps looping, dogging me, In another loop, in choral response, I keep hearing Les Brown reading his audio book, Live Your Dreams, imploring "you need to let life touch you," Having listened last night to a tribute to Dr. Wayne Dyer just before bed, during my morning walk with Mabel at Green Spring Gardens, I never got around to listening to music or an e-book, but instead ruminated, wondering Why? What should I do? And let the mood sink in as Mabel and I meandered in the rain.
"Test me, show me how stupid I am?" the father, a mathematician, challenged. He raised higher level mathematical proofs by Euler, the significance of why dividing by zero would undermine the entirety of modern mathematics, and other matters beyond my level of interest or curiosity, as I wanted to return the discussion to a more prosaic discussion about his daughter's needs as her math teacher. Describing myself as an English Major, as "more of a muscular than a finesse mathematician," unlike my mathematical hero, Gauss, I explained that I had never really thought about the question, but had simply accepted the impossibility of dividing by zero. Subconsciously, I was somewhat taken aback that I had reached a college educated professional, not the typical parent of poverty.
At his insistence, I reluctantly replied, "Oh, I don't know. Here's a stupid question, "What is an integer?" The professional mathematician incorrectly described only Whole Numbers {0, 1 2, 3, ...}, a fault I dismissed as lower order thinking, and insisted that he was far smarter than I am in math.
I had called home because his little girl had gone home sick, picked up by her mother in the middle of the day on the first Friday of school, immediately prior to Math and Reading, Wondering if my offer that morning of a space for the child to work on her project during lunch had resulted in panic, overload, and ultimately flight, I had called to discuss why she might be avoiding Math
My initial observation that I thought his daughter was capable of performing far better on her state testing than she had done in the past was met with a caustic response, "You are the first person who has ever said that." The father launched into a muted tirade against Common Core, politely excusing his f-bombs, and highlighting his daughter's artistic ability,
"Standards are a graduation requirement," I replied, which is why I wanted to stress the importance of her attending class every day. He inquired pointedly about the curriculum, I referred back to the syllabus and my letter home describing expectations for the course, a letter he described as "aggressive," but one that he liked, although he had thought it had been written by a woman.
After the final bell, I was in the teacher's lounge and had a brief conversation with the child/s reading teacher. The Reading teacher wondered whether her proposed schedule change, which would have the child come directly to Reading after Math, instead of going to lunch with her friends, might have led to the child's visit to the clinic. I dropped by the Counselor's office. I later pulled her records and studied the data, leaving with more questions than answers.
Averages are a poor measure of central tendency except for very large populations. How does the upper tier of American students compare with the upper tier in other countries? Probably about the same. I think we need to be very careful about exactly what it is the researchers are comparing, so naturally I tend to be a little skeptical whenever I look at data.
If we accept the premise of the article, which I will do for the sake of argument, the natural thing to do is to consider possible causes. Here's what I think: public education, especially the college pipeline, is often viewed as a commodity, and of decreasing value to many American students, in their limited perception, largely because the linkage between a "good education" and a "good job" has increasingly become unbound. Labor, itself, has become the quintessential commodity, and when compared to capital, its value has increasingly become diminished, both from a survival standpoint, and from a spiritual standpoint. Wherein lies the dignity of work? Perhaps a decline in the humanities is at the root of the decline, as an increasing percentage of students entering the college pipeline are ill-equipped to handle metaphysical questions, having been ill-prepared by the college pipeline, which often operates under the questionable premise that the purpose of education is to get a good job. Jefferson was certainly not operating under that premise when he founded the University of Virginia and personally resurrected the Library of Congress after the British burned it to the ground during the War of 1812. What would Jefferson say about the decline in American education?
Another, perhaps more sinister factor, could be a more generalized cognitive decline correlated to a decline in the quality of the living conditions for theaverage American student, Keith Stanowich famously described a correlation between the ratio of neural connections in rich vs. impoverished environments as the "Matthew Effect": https://youtu.be/lF6VKmMVWEc ... The rich get richer and the poor get ... well, screwed. In the Darwinian contest for student attentions, Halo 10, Books 0. I read an article today about the decline in "play" at the preschool level, in which researchers found a correlation between diminished play opportunities and diminished vestibular (kinesthetic) development, "caused" by a premature, inappropriate focus on "academics" by pre-schools. Another factor to consider is how the average secondary student "plays"? Does technology, i.e., video games, cell phones, computers, etc., in fact, cause people to become stupider because of how it limits how people interact with the natural world?
On Thursday evening, at my father's invitation, with Mabel at our feet, I had a conversation with Jean-Marie Bukuru of Barundi, a man of science, a truly noble, uncorruptible man, the kind of person who risks his life to take a stand of generational consequence on behalf of his nation, based on logic and reason. As Jean-Marie shared with me details of how corruption works, I began envisioning the possibilities of an epic movie based on the true story of a man who refused to accept even a watch during a high stakes negotiation. Because Jean-Marie, in his position as lead negotiator for Barundi, as Head of Land Planning and Development, Ministry of Water, Environment and Land Planning, forcefully defended Barundi's upstream water interests along the Nile in international courts, ceded by his country to Colonial powers to benefit Egypt at Barundi's expense, because Jean-Marie persuaded Barundi's President to sign an agreement which allowed Barundi full rights of access to the Nile, including for the purposes of irrigation and hydroelectric power, and because Jean-Marie pointed out the logical flaws in the argument that Al-Shabab, at the service of Mubarik, posed a realistic military threat to Barundi, Jean-Marie was made an assassination target by foes within his country who had been corrupted by Egyptian agents. Jean-Marie left his wife and ten children behind in Barundi, becoming a political refuge, escaped certain death, and eventually found his way to my parent's home in Arlington, after the expiration of his 2014-2015 Humphrey Fellowship. Today, Jean-Marie is seeking urgent funding for the introduction to Barundi of kenaf, which is in Jean-Marie's estimation as an agricultural scientist, the ideal cash crop for Barundi, based on Kenaf's of it's unique properties:
6' taproot, which enables it to thrive with minimal rainfall.
Can be harvested 3 times per year.
Used in bioreactors to generate electricity
Used as an insulation product in automobiles
Inexpensive and easy to grow
Below is Jean-Marie's statement, which I have taken the liberty of posting on my blog, as I am sure Jean-Marie would not object:
Statement of Jean-Marie Bukuru
(May 20, 2015)
I am Jean-Marie Bukuru from Burundi. Because of the
current political crisis in Burundi, where I am considered an opponent of the
current President Pierre Nkurunziza, I am seeking assistance to relocate myself
and my family out of Burundi, until the democratic political process is
restored.
My background is in Agricultural Engineering. I have
worked as an official of the Burundian government with various international
development institutions including The World Bank, the European Union and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved with poverty reduction, human
rights, water supply, water productivity, food security, rural infrastructure
development, wetlands management and climate change adaptation projects.
Today I am in the US as a Fulbright scholar and
Hubert Humphrey Fellow, having recently graduated from a one-year professional
development program at Cornell University in Agricultural Economic and Rural
Development.
Officially my Hubert Humphrey Fellowship will be
completed on June 12, 2015 after I finish my professional affiliation at the
Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) and Equity Expansion
International (EEI). I am supposed to return to Burundi to implement the professional
and leadership skills I have learned in the US.
Unfortunately, there is now a political crisis in
Burundi caused by the current president who wants to run for a third term, in
violation of the constitution and Arusha peace accord. He has been the
President of Burundi for the past ten years in two consecutive, five-year terms
from 2005 to 2015.
During his second term, President Nkurunziza has
acquired a widespread reputation for nepotism and corruption, assassination of innocent
people, suppression of free speech and the private media, and establishment of
an authoritarian regime. By seeking to
change the constitution in order to run for a third term, he has provoked
protests by opposition parties and other civil organizations. Using police
acting under his militia name “Imbonerakure,”
the President has recently jailed more than 500 and killed more than 20
peaceful protestors. He has rejected advice not to run for the third term from the
US Government, European Union and African Organization Union.
As a founder of Burundi Sustainable Development,
Agenda 21 (a Burundi non-profit organization opposing all human rights
violations, corruption, lack of leadership and bad governance), I fear for my
life if I go back now to Burundi, because I am considered part of the opposition
to the current President.
I have been a political target since 2011, when I
fled Burundi and became a refugee for 2 years in Sweden. At that time I was a
Technical Advisor and Committee Member in charge of the Nile River Initiative
Program for Burundi. I was responsible for negotiating a new Cooperative Framework
Agreement (CFA) on the Nile River. The purpose of the new CFA was to create a
program which authorizes all countries sharing the Nile River to develop rational
use water programs for the benefit of all member countries including Burundi, Egypt,
Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC).
On May 14, 2010 Egypt and Sudan (“downstream”
countries) refused to sign the new agreement, and tried to influence other
“upstream” countries like Burundi and DRC by bribing officials of those
countries not to sign the agreement. The result of this would have been to deny
the right of upstream countries to develop their own irrigation and
hydroelectric systems connected to the Nile River.
In January 2011, I convinced the protocol chief of
the current President of Burundi who persuaded the President to join other
countries in signing the CFA. Because I didn’t support the high-level Burundian
officials who had been bribed by members of the Egyptian government (under
former President Mubarek), these corrupt Burundian officials accused me of
acting against the institution of the Burundian Presidency. One colonel named
Leonard Ngendakumana, a former Director of Burundi’s Intelligence Agency, threatened
me with imprisonment. I decided to seek asylum in August 2011 and lived in
Sweden for two years.
In January 2013, I decided to go back home because
the current President invited all Burundian refugees to return home, following
his promise to the international community that he would establish peace and
human rights, and that no returning refugee would be mistreated. But when I
arrived in Burundi, the Minister of Water, Environment, Land Management and
Urban Affairs refused to let me return to an appropriate professional position,
even though I had brought home new skills in urban and land use and environmental
planning.
I was sent by the Government to work in the countryside
near the Tanzanian border. I was given an office without a chair, desk,
computer or telephone, to make it clear to me that I would not have essential
resources to perform my responsibilities, and that I should quit my work. Instead,
I decided to create the “Burundi Sustainable Development, Agenda 21,” a national
association dealing with human rights protection, fighting corruption,
evaluating projects and programs affecting the Burundi community, training
people in leadership and good governance, empowering thinking for change, and promoting
broad-based ownership opportunities among people who want to be the pioneers of
market-based economic democracy in Burundi.
Our Association, which operates with an
all-volunteer staff, received its authorization signed by the Ministry of
Interior Affairs on June 14, 2013. This was at the same time I was applying to
the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program for 2014-2015. I was selected among 176 qualified candidates
out of 3,500 applicants from all over the world who applied to this competitive
program.
Today I am a Fulbright scholar and Hubert H.
Humphrey fellow in Agricultural Economics and Rural Development. I am seeking
help so that I can provide leadership and exercise my professional skills
within my country and other countries in Africa. Additionally, I need to be
able to support myself and my family outside of Burundi, until I can return to
my country to implement the knowledge and skills I have gained in the US from Cornell
University and other institutions of learning.
