ctrp338 The Story of the Living Planet Fund

What happens when a someone living in the big money banking sector one day quits it all and tries out the world of environmental activism and conservation? Chiew Y. Chong did just that over 18 years ago when he joined the WWF.

As we strolled through the beautiful gardens in the Chinsan-zo area of Tokyo, Chiew told the story of how once he got to WWF, he had some ideas that had never been tried before by that organization… a sustainable investment fund. He explained the goal of such a fund and what makes it unique. Beyond all that, with a wise and curious spirit, Chiew tells more than a story about a fund, he tells the story of a personal evolution that he believes has been and will continue to spread throughout the planet like wildfire.

To read more about the Living Planet Fund, visit their website.

Cat Interlude

Greetings once again from the neon streets of Tokyo. The TBLI conference is in full swing here and that means yours truely is working hard to make sure technology works during this two day event. Therefore I shall interrupt the serious citizen journalism with a little interlude worthy of the worst and most distracting entertainment websites on the internet today. Yes as of this post, I too am guilty of promoting cat humor.

The following is what I believe to be a very unique cultural experience here in Tokyo, a place where those who cannot or do not own cats can pay a small fee and go spend time in a wonderland of felines.  Here they can sit for hours just watching cats or actively petting and playing with them.  Why? Who cares? All these questions are valid, and as your intrepid reporter, I considered these questions.  With help from my Japan anthropologist friend Semisara, here is what we learned in the form of a video entry.

Tokyo Type Questions

After 36 followed by 25 hours on the Trans-Siberian train last month, flying 12 hours to Tokyo was a walk in the park.  A walk in the park followed by a long nap where you wake up in a mecca of neon lights and video-game-style pre-recorded voices.

Wandering the streets of Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Akihabara and beyond, I’m observing a culture and a city that for my entire adult life people have been explaining or trying to describe to me.  Yet of course it is one thing to be told about Japan and this crazy capital, yet it is entirely something else to experience it first hand.

This type of writing isn’t unique because it is found on this blog; throughout the internet, intrepid and less-intrepid travelers have been musing about Japan for as long as there has been a WWW.  Before that they stuck to tv documentaries, films, novels, and I’m sure many a pamphlet.

Still, my Japanese experience is most unique in that it is shaped by all of you. You being the twitter people, the facebookers, the comment leavers, the online and offline friends. Through your recommendations, your photo-memories, and your in-person meetups, in what is a short visit to such a culture and adventure rich nation, I manage to learn and soak in more than I would have otherwise; on my own, with a guidebook.

Many would say, I’m curious to travel to Japan and far away places like that, but I would feel lost or intimidated by things I don’t understand.  But the online-offline communities I have the good fortune of being a part of – the hackers, the journalists, the podcasters videobloggers, the couch surfers, the frisbee players – they all ensure that no matter what, I’m never truly traveling on my own, unless I want to.

I hear the lamenters. Those who say – ah but traveling on your own is rewarding too. Discovering things for yourself is important. I hear them and I keep this in mind as I do indeed take the time or the effort to discover things for myself. However when I turn a corner that I would not have otherwise turned, because someone walking next to me or following me on twitter recommend I do so, and I find myself somewhere magical, those fears about how things are changing, don’t seem so important.

ctrp337 Touring the Ger District

During my brief time in UlaanBaatar, I was recommended a contact person, Susan Griffeth, who had founded an organization working in the Ger (Yurt) district almost 10 years ago.  Susan was kind enough to pick me up one afternoon and take me to the district and for a visit to her organization, Flourishing Future, to learn about all the community development and assistance activities they were involved in .  From there another member of the FF team– Troy, who also helps run a travel agency (Rinky Dink Travel), led me on a tour of the area. During this walk he explains how things work or don’t work for the more than half a million people living in such neighborhoods in Mongolia’s capital city.  The following is a 1 hour podcast of that adventure.

Clinical Protest

“…if you live in a state institution and you’re diagnosed with schizophrenia in the United States in the present day, the chances are exponentially greater that you are going to be in a prison than in a hospital…” – Jonathan Metzl on All in the Mind.

A recent edition of All in the Mind, ABC Radio National’s Mental Health radio program, looked at historical connections between protest and mental illness.  One of the main points of the program is to point out that historically, those active in protest movements of various kinds, have often been said to be or officially diagnosed as mentally ill. In this way their goals or grievances with social structures and practices are seen as not worthy of being taken seriously, as they are brought on by a sickness.

The main interviewee on the program was Associate Professor Jonathan Metzl, author of the book The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia became a Black Disease, published by Beacon Books. Through his work Metzl explains a long list of cases where black people active in the civil rights struggle in the US were in incarcerated and while in prison diagnosed as schizophrenic or psychotic, then having their sentences extended and the array of treatments and medications expanded til the point that even if they had never been mentally ill before, they would become so.

From the era of slavery to the days of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr, the discussion is a very interesting one that still has a big impact today in how we look at people in mental institutions, prison, and protest movements.

Highly recommended listening, full transcript is also available.

A-Ren Turns 6

This website has existed in different forms since 2001. In that time, alot of people have come and gone, regular readers, occasional visitors, frequent comment leavers. For those that remember the days when the title of the site was “The Communique” and my focus was on more than under-reported news but also life in Holland, family, friends and internet culture in general, then you’ll surely remember when my nephew A-Ren was born. Its hard to believe 6 years have gone by.  To this day when I travel, when I run into friends or aquaintences that know my site, people still ask me “How’s A-Ren?” Naturally I always smile and say He is GREAT!

In honor of his birthday (yesterday) I present a classic film from his toddler days, and here are two classic posts about my nephew for your reading pleasure.

I realize some new readers out there might find it strange to hear about the personal stuff, the family details, and my feelings… but to them I say – this here is and always has been a blog. And blogging is fundamentally, beyond everything else, personal.