OK.  Time to write.  Another two months since the last entry.  Perhaps i should set expectations for 6 updates a year.

Much has transpired since the last one.  We were at the MCC Compact signing with Burkina Faso for an almost $500M grant.  The MCC is the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a government agency attempting to reduce poverty through sustainable economic growth.  This was exciting not only because the President of Burkina was in the room, but because it felt great to be congregated with so many people who deeply love this country.  Ambassador Kafando of the UN Permanent Mission, Ambassador Yonli of the Burkina Embassy to the US, and Jeanine Jackson of the US Embassy to Burkina were all in attendance along with representatives from many NGO's.  We met with the country director and the MCC person who will be working from Burkina and hope to be in touch soon regarding funding for "girl-friendly" schools in the area we'll be focusing on when we're next in country. 

I have to say although half a billion dollars sounds like a lot of money and it's great that Burkina has a cash infusion for the areas its government identified as most in need, it still seems like a drop in the bucket given the problems the country is facing and the work needed to eradicate extreme poverty.  At one point during the proceedings Ina & I asked each other, 'what's all the fuss when so much more is needed'.   Let's hope that the MCC Compact itself is like a threshold grant (the process Burkina had to complete successfully in order to sign the Compact) to a new tier of foreign aid and humanitarian assistance in the not-too-distant future.

We also attended the first International Water Conference at the UN produced by NY Institute of Technology.  This two day event was a veritable education for us on the subject and connected us with many wonderful people working in the field.  Especially inspiring was Charlie Engle who ran across the Sahara and with the help of friends created the H2O Africa Fund to raise awareness of global water scarcity and funds for water initiatives.  The big takeaway from the conference: we are already in a global water crisis.

The past two months were very heavy.  Not only is the workload we have on our plate more challenging than anything i ever experienced in the corporate world, the work itself is revealing how dire a crisis we're in and how hopeless it sometimes feels… indeed, there have been recent times during which i really feel like human civilization is not going to make it, that we've already gone too far in the wrong direction, that the system of consumption and exploitation is so entrenched that there is little way out of it.  Things got so bad that after watching an evening's worth of videos on Circle of Blue, the Pacific Institute's amazing and informative and sobering sister site, i could barely eat and i marvelled that anyone could even care about art or anything that isn't directly related to addressing the emergency that our planet is experiencing.  A friend drove by the house the next day who epitomizes living in the Now, a good antidote to the depression that was welling upon my heart.

Just yesterday i was in a giant supermarket, overwhelmed by the sheer amount of food, choices, packaging, packaged cooked and peeled beets ready to eat, hundreds of turnips each individually wrapped in plastic, rows of sprouts that were all going bad and would need to be discarded later that evening… all the breads that would get thrown away if they're not purchased within a day or two (as i was contemplating this, the baker brought out 2 dozen more loaves)… i thought of Africa and our friends in Burkina, their children and families who go hungry, who are malnourished due to lack of vitamins and nutrition in their food… it was very upsetting, almost dizzying.

I read Bill Gates in Time Magazine on Creative Capitalism and while i agreed with the things he said about how corporations need to be more socially responsible and creative in addressing global crises, i couldn't believe his assumption that capitalism is the de facto paradigm for the entire planet.  Moreover he does not address the dwindling resource base on which capitalism is dependent for its insatiable thirst for short-term profit.  These issues of the war of natural resources and paradigms was brought to our attention by Elsa Stamatapoulou, Chief Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues who introduced us to a book that can change lives: Paradigm Wars by Jerry Mander and Victoria Talui-Corpuz.  We've been showing this book to everyone lately and seem to bring it up in every conversation.  Globalization is happening at the expense of indigenous peoples, their human rights and the lands they have stewarded for millennia.

This issue has been the primary impetus behind a focused effort to cast the work of the Consortium through a lens of policy reform.  Many of our friends have said to us that we must bring the work we do in Africa back home, and of course that is what reciprocity is all about… a part of bringing it back home has become a clear initiative to look at US policy on issues of indigenous rights, culture, as well as the separate but related issue of foreign aid assistance to Africa (currently US aid is based more on selfish than selfless interests and therefore does not go where it is most needed. In fact, a country like Burkina which is the 3rd poorest in the world gets far less aid than richer countries because it has no gold, coffee, cacao, or oil to export and on top of that, it is landlocked so there is no port that can benefit the US either).  BARKA is making preparations to gain the ear of the Presidential Transition Team in order to get these issues on the radar screen of the new administration.

On a more positive note, thanks to the Hilton Fund and its annual Humanitarian Award, we discovered Tostan, an organization that reminds us of what our own aspires to be, and has worked with indigenous peoples passionately for 30 years to co-create community-led development in West Africa.  We've made contact with their DC office and hope to meet the founder, Molly Melching, when we can get to Dakar.  They have a blazed a trail of effective empowerment of indigenous women and their work and Molly's dedication is inspiring.

We're now readying the launch of the Consortium on September 21st, the International Day of Peace and fund raising for our next trip to Burkina.  We'll be able to announce the Consortium live on September 19th at the World Shift Festival and are planning a celebration in Berkshire County in mid October with local Consortium partner The Colonial Theatre, the city of Pittsfield and other Berkshire organizations and schools.  Stay tuned for more.  Thanks for listening.  Time for bed.

Dear Ones All,

Apologies.  It is over two months since the last entry… was hoping to write at least monthly.

WARNING: This blog post is liable to be long.

it's been so full-on busy that there simply hasn't been time. 

Pangea Day, May 10th was a great day for us, a real coming-out party for BARKA within our local community of the Berkshires.  We joined together with Monument Mountain High School, Greenagers, Railroad Street Youth Project,  The Colonial Theatre, Pathways to Peace, Healing Winds and Center for Peace through Culture to raise over $4000 for the first well we plan to drill in Burkina Faso… following the Walk for Water we hosted a 4-hour Pangea Day film screening at The Colonial.  The Pangea Day broadcast was disappointing- too commercialized and glossy for our tastes (the worst was when some interviewer in London went right on with the script instead of responding to his guest who just revealed that his mother and sister were shot at that morning in one of the world's greatest conflict areas), but still, Jehane's dream was realized and there was significant unification around the world in a vibration of peace and One Family… hats off to TED for pulling it off.  We're bummed that TEDAfrica was cancelled for this year- we had applied for fellowship.

Since Pangea Day it's been nose to the grindstone on IDP.  These dates are bookends for us- Pangea Day (PD) was when we announced the develoment of the BARKA Burkina Consortium, the collaborative effort to achieve MDGs in Burkina by 2015, and IDP, the International Day of Peace is when we will unveil the partners and begin work on drilling the first well.

Last week we hosted the Tibetan Lamas from Drepung Loseling Monastery during their week-long residency at The Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield.  Months ago, at a luncheon on the stage of The Colonial organized by Fidel & Susan, David Fleming, Executive Director of the Colonial said, "I have these ten monks coming to the Berkshires and I'm not sure what to do with them"… after some debate between Ina & I about whether or not such an idea was really on target for us and not a distraction, we decided to approach David, who we didn't know from Adam, and tell him about BARKA, its mission to preserve and share ancient wisdom traditions, and suggest creating an itinerary for the monks basaed on our deep connections with the local Berkshire region and beyond.  "By the way", we asked, "have you heard about Pangea Day?  Would you consider hosting a free screening with us?"  David looked in his calendar, said May 10th was free and a beautiful relationship was born.

Ina & i were blessed continuously by being present with the monks each day last week.  Fidel gave them a traditional Native American welcome, we booked accomodations for them at Kripalu, hosted a Q & A on Tuesday night, arranged a kirtan for Wednesday night (jojo tag-teamed!), drove them to Shantigar on Thursday where they did a barn-blessing for the re-building of Jean Claude's barn on the site where it burned down, Thursday night was an interfaith gathering of local spiritual leaders and Friday the monks all came to perform the Lama Chopa ceremony at Monument High School (thank you Maeve Hitzenbuhler, you are such a visionary!) before a full assembly of students.  The Lama Chopa is a prayer of gratitude and offering to one's enlightened teachers, gurus or realized masters… perfect for a school setting and very unusual (apparently there was only one freaking-out faculty member).

Ina & I filmed the entire week with the monks including their Saturday night performance and Sunday closing ceremony and destruction of the sand mandala… we got some great footage of the creation of the mandela as well.  There will be a film at some point…

We told the monks about the IDP concert in Ouaga and before we even finished telling them about the indigenous wisdom aspect of the event, they said, "We're coming!".  They also told us the best way to extend an offer to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  So mote it be.

Infinte blessings and thanks to Avon Mattison and Michael Johnson of Pathways to Peace, our partners in the Consortium and IDP event.  They have brought in Rick Garson and his Global Harmony production company who is working with Hal Uplinger and others involved in Live Earth, Live 8 and Live Aid.  Bob Geldof, where are you?  We are talking about linking the IDP concert in Ouaga to a similar concert in the DMZ zone between North & South Korea and possibly others taking palce around the world on that day.

The three components of the concert are:

• creating a culture of peace
• rasing funds to drill wells throughout Burkina Faso, the first step of the Consortium
• indigenous wisdom and enabling elders to deliver their message to a global audience

Yes, we're talking about an international television broadcast, A-list talent and as big a scenario as we'd ever dreamed of… global peace leaders coming to speak, elders from Eagle, Condor and Jaguar Nations, the fulfillment of prophecy.

This evening we arrived back from DC where we met with the Ambassador of Burkina Faso to the US.  We had an extraordinary meeting with him and he has opened the doors to securing the 45,000-seat soccer stadium, as well as numerous governmental Ministires including the Ministry of Tourism, Culture & Communication, Promotion of Women, Handicrafts (there will be a crafts fair adjacent to the stadium), Foreign Affairs, Youth, and others.  We are extendng an invitation to the President of Burkina to give a proclamation of Peace at the concert and Insha'allah this too shall come to pass.

We told the Ambassador of our hope to bring international attention to Burkina as a place known for building peace… that we are intending for this to be an annual event and for it to bring greater awareness of IDP in Burkina and the entire African continent.  He agreed with it all and informed us that at that very minute the Minister of Foreign Affairs was meeting at the UN in NYC to discuss peacekeeping efforts in Darfur.

We spoke a little native Gulimanchema with the Ambassador– coincidentally he is from Fada, the geographic area of focus of BARKA's work in Burkina– he knew the family that hosts us when we stay in Fada, as well as our 100-year old grandmother, eeyah, the Queen.  We made such a heart-connection– what a blessing.  Thanks to all those who were in prayer during the time of our meeting- our prayers were answered and this encounter defintely was of service to the greater good.

If you asked us where we were going to be on the solstice about two weeks ago we'd have said in the Grand Tetons with Blue Thunder, a Native American medicinekeeper who was part of the The Gathering of One in Yellowstone before he distanced himself from G.W. Hardin & crew because they were commercializing ceremonies and not following the protocols of peace.  We were hoping to attend Blue Thunder's alternative gathering in the Tetons in order to participate in the tremendous healing work taking place on the planet at this time and to extend invitations to indigenous elders to join us at the IDP concert in Ouaga.  Alas, we needed to stay very foused on IDP concert planning and fundraising, hence this week's trip to DC, and plan to sequester ourselves in our home, packing it up before our trip to Burkina, and getting everything else in order that needs to be in order before we leave…

we're looking to get to burkina within the next two weeks to jumpstart the local steering committee and begin planning from the ground in Ouagadougou… not sure if we'll stay out there for just a few weeks or straight through til December… in addition to pre-production, launching the Consortium, and producing the IDP concert, we intend to build a part-time home in Fada and also in La Petite.  The blessed journey has begun.

The UN is having its 61st Annual NGO Conference sponsored by the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) in Paris this September and have invited Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) to provide their input on their round-table discussions and breakout sessions.

For more info about the conference you can check out the UN NGO website: http://www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/index.asp

We wanted to share our comments below on our growing website.  We hope it offers some insight about how deeply we value the wisdom and insight of indigenous culture, and how important we believe it is to bring the indigenous voice to a seat at the table of world discourse on the crises facing our global village.

Input re: Round-table I        15:00 – 18:00
Application of the human rights treaty system worldwide – universality and indivisibility of human rights; focus on diverse Conventions (I.e. CEDAW, CERD, CRC, Convention on the Rights of Indigenous People, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Geneva Conventions)

The BARKA Foundation is working with indigenous cultures to learn and preserve their spiritual traditions and to create the conditions for those wisdoms to be shared with the modern world.  This spiritually motivated work is manifesting in the physical world through an effort to achieve MDGs in the areas in which we work.

Too often we see the unintended and disastrous consequences of an approach to raise living standards in a developing country without the requisite sensitivity, respect and reciprocity needed for an indigenous culture to truly thrive on its own terms as it enters the "new world".

BARKA is committed to mitigation, re-education, policy reform and reciprocity and would like the conference committee to take these issues into account within larger discussions. 

For us, achieving MDGs in Burkina within a context of reciprocity and responsibility is a core component of human rights for the indigenous communities with which we're blessed to be working.

By reciprocity, we are also implying that the indigenous world has something of great value to share with the industrialized world- particularly the wisdom of ancient traditions that can help restore peace and balance to the planet.

There could be no better way to affirm the human rights and dignity of indigenous people than to foster a responsible and sustainable relationship of reciprocity.  In its largest context, such a relationship would acknowledge the atrocities of slavery and colonialism and work toward healing those Ancestral wounds that many of us still walk with today.

——

Round Table III 
re: preservation of culture and human rights values in a profit driven environment

Solution: Creating a more Enlightened Capitalism through the teachings of indigenous gift economy

Preservation of culture within a profit driven economy is an important issue to BARKA and one we address on a daily basis.  To provide a fuller picture of this issue, we would suggest the inclusion of the concept of the Gift Economy as it functions within indigenous culture. 

We are interested in learning, sharing and discussing ways that the current capitalist model can incorporate heart-based consciousness through the indigenous economic paradigm, leading to a more universal and
enlightened capitalism, one that is based on giving and receiving, sustainability and reciprocity, as opposed to exploitation and inequity.

How can we achieve MDGs and improve standards of living in indigenous culture without an onslaught of commercial enterprise swooping into a new market to exploit?

Are we resolved to living in an imbalanced, unequal, unfair and unsustainable global village, or do we work together to find a new model, along with instituting policy reform of the laws that govern corporations requiring greater social awareness and responsibility?

Hernando Desoto is an expert here, and if you are interested in other potential speakers on this subject, please let us know.

—-

Round-table IV        10:00 – 13:00
Human rights, education and learning

Within a context of human rights and education in developing nations, it is especially important to understand cultural difference and to honor the values and unique consciousness of the indigenous population. Moreover it is vital to recognize one's own oftentimes unconscious cultural values and assumptions in the process of providing education to others, especially those from a completely different culture, one we may not even understand. 

Anthropologists, missionaries, scientists and many other constituencies have historically looked at indigenous culture as primitive, inferior, and having a less evolved consciousness.  We are waking up to the fact that the consciousness is different, and in some areas, especially those that exist beyond language, i.e., in spiritual dimensions, far more developed and sophisticated than ours.

Without going through the difficult yet rewarding process of becoming aware of the cultural values inherent in us and holding those acculturated values in abeyance to the greatest extent possible, our noble intention to empower indigenous communities through education could be undermined. The danger is in repeating the arrogant mistakes of colonialism and "westernizing" these communities rather than educating them. 

The truth of our experience in the bush of Africa is that our modern culture has a great deal of learning to do from the indigenous people.  Where, when and how does that get talked about?

—-

Round-table V        10:00 – 13:00
Justice, protection, empowerment and peace (International and national mechanisms for justice and protection; Responsibility to protect; justice and compensation; civil society contributions to prevention, conflict resolution, reconciliation, peacebuilding; SC Res 1325; the right to peace)

BARKA and Pathways to Peace are working to achieve MDGs within a context of peace.  Shashi Tharoor said "Peace begins with breakfast". In a nation that does not have food or water, peace is not achievable or sustainable. 

It is interesting to apply this kind of thinking to the Round-table on justice, protection, empowerment and peace.  We mentioned briefly above the notion of reconciliation and healing between industrialized nations and indigenous communities.  We strongly believe that this is a healing that needs to take place, and something that also seems virtually impossible in the light of corporate giants and a consumer-based culture that has little awareness of the unfair treatment of indigenous people in the building of that empire.

We would welcome a discussion topic that included the questions of how industrialized nations can work together with Africa and indigenous cultures to heal from the wounds of slavery and colonialism.  Perhaps with the support of the UN something in this direction can take place in our lifetime.  Another question to address is reparations, and what kind of repair is needed to be put in place for healing to occur.  For us, this effort must begin on the spiritual plane, with prayer, intention and acknowledgment of the crimes of our Ancestors.

Our Ancestors and children's children's children are waiting for us to do this important work.

——–
 

Dear Ones All,

Ina has returned, and is still decompressing from her intense 6 week journey. I have been working non-stop organizing the meeting we'll be leading on 4/17 at the United Nations, pulling together elements for Pangea Day- the film screening, marketing, the Walk for Water, jumpstarting Street Teams at high schools throughout Berkshire County, and promotion to tell the world about the Consortium we're announcing with Pathways to Peace to achieve MDGs in Burkina.

We met with the Town of Great Barrington's Board of Selectmen this evening about approval of our May 10th event and a question was raised by Board member Margaret Beckwith, that has compelled me to write, even though it is 1:42 am and i am exhausted.

She asked why we're choosing to do this kind of work in Africa and why we're not focused in this country, our own backyard, for the people of South Berkshire County, Massachusetts, or the people in New Orleans who suffered from Katrina.We've heard this question before. Actually when someone says something like this, i'm beginning to realize the blessing of it, because it provides an opportunity to speak the truth. What strikes me most about this question is that it is very tribal. 1st chakra. Nationalist. It's a very us vs. them mentality, as if can't you help someone else when your own kind are in need of help. I responded by sharing our philosophy that we are in the business of creating reciprocity and that by connecting people in the Berkshires to the indigenous people of Burkina Faso, we are helping Americans by enriching them, by opening their eyes to a wider, more global perspective, by giving them a sense of purpose through helping those in the most dire need of help. What i wish i added was this:

Help is needed all over the world. However if you want make comparisons, Margaret, and we use analytical statistics and objective data, Burkina Faso is tough to beat in terms of how much more help it deserves than almost any other place in the world. Did you know that Burkina Faso means "Standing Tall" and was named for the sense of pride exhibited in Burkinabes? Burkina is the 3rd poorest country in the world and the lowest in literacy. There are only 9 other countries in which mothers bury more children under the age of 5 than in Burkina. One quarter of the population of the entire country makes less than a dollar a day.

There are many people who have gone down to New Orleans to help the people and situation there. Derek Gentile, the reporter sitting in the front row has gone down with State Rep Smitty Pignatelli. Brad Pitt has devoted a great deal of time and money to the hardest hit region of New Orleans. But Margaret, hardly anyone is going to Burkina Faso. The US government isn't interested in helping Burkina because it doesn't have much of anything that western nations or China can exploit.

Besides, on a personal note, ina & i haven't just chosen this place randomly… said to ourselves one day 'let's go and devote our lives to indigenous cultural preservation and start in Burkina Faso'. We have been Divinely guided there. We surrendered to being of service and this is where we have been led.

Dear Online Community-

Greetings everyone. Bahnee Day, as they say in La Petite.

Ina is there now. This has been a momentous day for BARKA. Something was birthed today. Ina had a meeting with the bush village that we call home (known as “La Petite Village”) in Burkina Faso. About 35 women showed up and we got to explain why we’re there, what our intentions are, and more importantly got to have a two-way conversation and learn what they have to say and to figure out how we can join hands together to help their terrible situation of not having enough food, clean water, clothing, medical care, education, all the most simple and basic human needs of life.

There had been talk that we were there to steal their culture, and after the white man’s track record in Africa, we can’t say we blame them for having such thoughts. Ina spoke (eloquently I’m sure) from her heart about our interest in creating a new model, one of reciprocity in which our gifts can be shared with each other. That we believe we have so much to learn from them, and at the same time, that the West can help bring better standards of living.

Our friend “Peace” Sarambe translated Ina’s English into French for Karim who translated Peace’s French into Gulimanchema for the rest of the village. Peace said Karim did a fantastic job getting our message across- that he was right there with it. Youmandia, our friend and brother who is the architect of most of our experience with the Gour’mache people, watched from the sidelines. This must have been particularly rewarding for him too- the culmination of three years of work.

[Historical note: In 2007, Ina & Esu were gifted land in La Petite by the King’s family and plan this year to build a traditional home, drill a well, and install a solar-powered irrigation system for a year-round, drought-resistant garden; See BARKA La Petite for more].

The women said that there was so much poverty, so much need, they didn’t know what to do. Ina asked the question, “Where do we begin?” The women responded, “The water”.

[On May 10th, Pangea Day, BARKA is organizing with Monument Mountain Regional High School a 6-mile “Walk for Water” to raise funds for drilling a well in La Petite. 100% of the funds will go toward the costs of the well. 6 miles is the average length an indigenous African woman has to walk each day for water for their family.]

The meeting must have gone well because a lot of celebrating ensued. The women danced, sang, and shook Ina’s hand goodbye. We were both crying as she relayed the story to me, she on her cell phone, me on skype. She kept reiterating how beautiful it all was.

This is the first time we have actually initiated a conversation with the extended village about our purpose there. For the past three years we have been working pretty much exclusively with our group of Burkinabes and the King’s family.

Before hanging up Ina said, “Esu, this is huge” and to us, it certainly does feel like it.