On Tuesday I was in Lexington, SC with Gov. Mike Huckabee to watch the results of the Michigan Primary come in.
Gov. Huckabee gave a short stump speech and I was there with a few other ONE members to make sure that he remembered the poorest of the poor while campaigning in the first-in-the-south SC Primary.
Just as the Gov. was walking out the door, I got a few seconds to talk with him and thanked him for his strong endorsement of PEPFAR and slipped him a ONE band.
There were many people packed into the small restaurant, but I know that Gov. Huckabee will come across many more ONE members hitting the trail in South Carolina and across the nation to make sure that our next president knows that saving lives in Africa is a priority!
Dan Robinson, ONE member, mountaineer and British navy pilot, has begun his climb up Mt. Aconcagua. This is the first peak of seven that he will climb in the name of ONE. As he climbs the Seven Summits, he’s planting a ONE flag on the top of each. Read his almost daily updates at www.dan-robinson.com.
-Chandler Smith
Thursday, January 17, 2008
15-16th Jan…Casa de Piedra to Plaza Argentina (Base Camp)
Hey guys. Managed to get some internet access but it is very slow and very expensive so I’ll combine the last two days. Yesterday we moved from Casa de Piedra to Base Camp at Plaza Argentina. It was a climb of over 3000ft in elevation and around 8 miles. The climb took just over 6 hours and upon arriving at base camp, it was the first time that I really noticed the affects of altitude. Base camp itself is like something out of a Star Wars movie as it is a very dry, rocky environment surrounded by huge mountains including Aconcagua and its Polish Glacier. I woke up this morning with a mild headache, sore throat and a nose bleed that have stayed with me throughout the day. Other than that I feel okay! I look up at the summit of Aconcagua and sometimes I dare to imagine myself raising the ONE campaign banner at the top. It is a very long way and there are lenticular clouds sitting menacingly on the summit. An indication of very high winds that sometimes can range from 100-200mph. I have a lot of work ahead.
Thought for the day:
Our generations challenge is to help the poorest of the poor to escape the misery of extreme poverty so that they can begin their own ascent up the ladder of economic development. The end of poverty, in this sense, is not only the end of extreme suffering but also the beginning of economic progress and of the hope and security that accompany economic development.
A few of us were able to attend a rally with Bill Clinton on Monday. Angela Tomasello and Matt Higginson joined me for the event with our ONE signs and T-shirts.
During his stump speech President Clinton looked over to us and addressed ONE’s issues directly – citing the need to fight extreme global poverty and the fact that 1 billion people live on less than $1/day and over half the world’s population lives on less than $2/day.
President Clinton also talked about how his Clinton Global Initiative has teamed up with other NGOs such as ONE to supply inexpensive HIV/AIDS vaccines to Africa and the developing world.
We were able to snap a photo with him after the event to which he proclaimed, “I love the ONE Campaign!”
Barack Obama came to Las Vegas on Friday and held a rally at Del Sol High School. The line to get in was so long that it wrapped around the high school parking lot, but we were fortunate enough to get in. Apparently about 2000 people were not so lucky, including a few of our ONE volunteers. Before Senator Obama came inside to the rally he held an impromptu rally in the parking lot with those who didn’t make it in.
When we got inside, my wife and I were asked by an Obama staffer to sit on the stage behind the Senator in our ONE T-shirts. It was a unique perspective for the rally but we weren’t able to ask a question during the Q & A. We were, however, able to get those ONE T-shirts on all the local news stations coverage of the rally.
During his speech, Obama spoke about the need to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa and the importance of providing proper education to children in parts of the world where they are taught hatred of America rather than reading, writing and arithmetic.
Ambassadors Jenna Morton and Cisco Aguilar were on hand Tuesday night to spin their way through the post-debate analysis. ONE Vote ’08 was an official co-sponsor of the debate and the logo could be seen every time Chris Mathews did a live shot of spin alley.
ONE Vote ’08 volunteers fired up the crowd outside and passed out wristbands to debate watchers. Check out the awesome video ONE’s Matt Higginson put together from footage outside the debate.
ONE volunteers aren’t the only people letting the next president know which foreign policy issues are priorities to them – former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s new book, Memo to the President Elect, outlines her vision also. Last week, I was lucky enough to get a chance to thank Dr. Albright for including “addressing the negative effects of globalization” as one of her top five foreign policy priorities for the next president and hand her information about ONE. She accepted it with a smile and said she already knew us though. Riding home on the L, I flipped directly to the relevant chapter in her new book, and was pleased to read this (page 137):
“Reducing poverty should be a central theme of your administration. This is smart politically, right morally, and makes sense economically…. Take advantage of the global antipoverty movement, which includes rock starts, billionaires, evangelists, students, and the producers of American Idol; don’t underestimate the power of enthusiasm – some jobs can best be done by people too inexperienced to know exactly how hard the jobs are.”
I’m proud to be counted in the “inexperienced” and will keep working to grow the antipoverty movement. I hope the next president joins us in the fight against extreme poverty and makes me unemployed.
-Annisa Wanat, ONE Regional Field Organizer, Chicago
On Sunday ONE LA and ONE Santa Monica co-hosted a team meeting at the Church in Ocean Park in Santa Monica. Rachel Andres, of Jewish World Watch, was our guest speaker and spoke to us about the Solar Cooker Project.
Right now, women and girls in refugee camps in Chad risk rape and other forms of gender-based violence when leaving the relative safety of the camps to collect firewood – which is essential for cooking the basic food supplies provided by relief agencies.
Solar Cookers are devises that cook food using electricity from the sun’s rays and the Solar Cooker Project aims to improve the safety and survival of women in refugee camps in Chad.
Rachel gave an emotional presentation about this wonderful project and her very recent visit to two refugee camps in Chad where the project has been put to work. (more…)
Right now, some of the world's biggest oil companies are fighting to keep some of their deals with foreign governments secret. Let's tell big oil we won't be bullied.
Cuts to poverty-fighting programs won't balance the budget, but they will set back progress on Canada's development priorities and risk jeopardizing existing investments.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
