The caucuses are fast approaching in Iowa and that means you never know who will show up on campus. On the Monday of finals week, I finished my first exam and headed across campus with some friends to see what former President Bill Clinton had to say to the residents of Ames, IA. We got seats right up in the front row.

Due to the weather, the President was about an hour late arriving for the talk, but it was worth the wait. He spoke positively about all of the democratic presidential candidates and why he supports Hillary as an “agent of change.”

After his hour-long address, he shook hands with the crowd. I thanked him for the work he’s done to supply malaria drugs to those in need and handed him a ONE band. Then President Clinton paused, turned and told me about how he’d just had a meeting with Bono a few days earlier before and continued shaking hands as he held the ONE band.

At long last, the Xth (can you do that with roman numerals?) edition of “What’s an ROA”!

Hello my name is Gelila Asnake and I am a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania. I was born and raised in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, where I attended an international French school. My move to the US in 2003 was a surprising one, but also one that opened doors to many of my dreams. I started activism work at Westchester High School in Los Angeles, taking part in a union that I am passionate about: the Bus Riders’

Union, a project of the Labor/Community Strategy Center, promotes environmentally sustainable public transportation for the entire Los Angeles population, on the premise that affordable, efficient, and environmentally sound mass transit is a human right.

BRU members fight for the expansion of social, political and economic rights of historically oppressed communities in the struggle for economic democracy and redistribution of wealth. We all know LA is the most polluted city in the US and less accessible public transportation system in the country. If you live/study in the LA area, check out the BRU. Here is a link to their site: http://www.busridersunion.org/engli/index.html. I also did door to door voter registration and education in South Central.

Although I am not an American, I feel obliged to tell Americans how privileged they are to live in a country that holds presidential candidate debates that airs on public television, and to write to their senators to voice their concerns. Where I come from, these privileges are nonexistent or corrupt. I always believed that to create change you need to be in an environment where people are willing to hear what you have to say. The US did just that.

At the ONE Campaign, I am able to join other Americans who believe extreme poverty, malaria, fair trade, to name a few, are important issues of our generation.

The truth is that we are at a time in history, where countries such as the USA who benefited greatly from globalization have the tools to end poverty in third world countries. How willing are we as Americans is the only question remaining. I believe I have a moral obligation to promote this cause as an young Ethiopian woman who has witnessed these conditions at first hand. If you want to know more about my experience growing up in Addis, please contact me. I love talking about my people, my culture and my history, so don’t hesitate. If you are a Upenn student, please join our facebook group at http://upenn.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13807675098.

From the Pacific to the Rockies, if you’re in the OCC, odds are your ROA is Betsy Avila:

This is Betsy Avila, your fearless ONE ROA for the friendly states of CA, NV, AZ, HI, NM and CO. I attend the University of Southern California, and am a double-major in Fine Arts and Political Science. Born and raised in the city of Los Angeles, I love the hustle and bustle of urban areas. A few quick facts about me:

Favorite Fiction Novel: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Favorite Movie: Back to the Future
Favorite 18^th-Century German Philosopher: Immanuel Kant
Favorite Italian-Baroque Artist: Caravaggio
Zodiac Sign: Libra
What I do when I’m not studying: Paint. Always, always painting.

And how I ended up here: A little over two years ago, I was browsing through the bookstore down the street when I came across Jeffrey Sachs’ The End of Poverty. Having heard great reviews about the book, and decided to invest in the purchase. Sach’s book opened my eyes to a completely new and practical view on the power of our generation. As he wrote: “Social commitments are the commitments of individuals.” Since finishing the book, I became heavily involved with ONE, as well as other social and political organizations, and I love what I do. And what makes me love what I do is meeting individuals from all over the country that have the strong will and hope that will make our common goal a reality. And that the strength of our voices does not stop here – we’re just getting started. Fight on, everyone!

UNLV won our hearts (and 1,000 points) with their OV08-shirt wearing Santa.

We’re back for our last few ROA profiles, today we have Carol:

It was a dark and stormy night… all was a still except for…yea- Just kidding! My name is Carol John and I’m the ROA for IN, IL, WI and PA. As you can tell I’m a rather silly person but it’s within a decent balance. I am a 2nd year at Drexel University in Philadelphia (GO DRAGONS!) and I have managed to major in International Area Studies with a concentration in Human Rights and Social Justice, focused in Africa and the Middle East, while also minoring in Environmental Health.

I was never really sure what I wanted to do with my life but if I can paraphrase a quote from Hotel Rwanda it sums up what changed – “people see this footage and think, Oh My God that’s horrible and continue eating their dinners.” I knew then and after other experiences like visiting an orphanage in India and working for a food delivery service to those who can’t provide for themselves that I’d like to devote my life to changing others. But, the reason I love ONE so much is that it offers normal every day American citizens the opportunity to eat their dinners but also do something whether by calling a Senator or writing a letter. We don’t just have to just watch – we have the chance to enjoy the blessings of our lives while at the same time affording others the chance to have a better life too. My passion lies in giving voices to people who don’t have it from stigmatized populations of AIDS victims, to trafficked children. And (I hope) it reflects in everything I do.

I’ve actually spent most of my life in cities and originally from Brooklyn, NY I’ve had NYC for my playground. I really love people and their cultures, art from graffiti to Monet. I love watching movies and TV but I also love to read and write. Lastly I’m a little crazy when it comes to what I like in terms of fashion (new and intense!) I really just like trying new things and I simply can’t refuse even meeting new people.

All in all, being a part of ONE has really helped me gauge just how little people know and just how important it is to keep learning. I have a few years left at school and a whole life in front of me in which I really hope to make an impact preferably by experiencing life in Sub-Saharan Africa and areas of the Middle East. I’ve got a lot of big dreams and high aspirations. And I’m learning that my example can make a real difference when it comes to showing other people just how necessary a voice is.

Reuters: US loses status as top World Bank donor to Britain
Fri 14 Dec 2007, 13:11 GMT

By Iain Rogers

BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States lost its status as the largest
donor to the World Bank, the lender said on Friday, as Britain pledged
more in the latest funding round which secured a record amount for
around 80 poor countries.

Losing its position as the top donor could weaken Washington’s influence over the bank, which is the world’s largest provider of development assistance to poor countries, and over the policies that decide how its cash is spent.

“The U.S. pledged a very substantial contribution but is now down to
second place after Britain,” World Bank Vice President Philippe Le
Houerou told a news conference after two days of talks among donor
countries in Berlin.

The Washington-based lender conducts a fund-raising campaign among its richer members every three years to determine funding for the
International Development Association (IDA), the bank’s lending arm.

Forty-five donor countries promised a record total of $25.1 billion at
the Berlin talks, with a further $16.5 billion coming from within the
bank and previous donor pledges for financing debt forgiveness,
officials told the news conference.

The total of $41.6 billion, also a record, will help the poor countries
with grants and loans from next summer until June, 2011 and represents
an increase of $9.5 billion over the previous funding period.

In a coup for World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who was in Beijing
this week, China was one of six nations joining the list of donors for
the first time, along with Cyprus, Egypt, and the three Baltic states.

“This is the largest expansion in donor funding in IDA’s history,”
Zoellick said in a statement. “The donor community has demonstrated its full commitment to helping countries overcome poverty and achieve
sustainable growth, especially in Africa.”

WEAKER DOLLAR

The latest talks were complicated by slowing economic growth in rich
nations and the weakening dollar. At the same time, the bank’s mission
is widening, with governments demanding more help in developing
sophisticated economies and markets.

The United States, whose economy is almost six times as big as
Britain’s, has been keen to hold on to its No. 1 spot as the bank’s
largest donor but is also struggling with a budget stretched by the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The U.S. share of contributions has slowly declined from 22 percent in
1960, the year of the fund’s inception. After the last round of IDA
negotiations in 2005, the U.S. share stood at 13.8 percent and Britain’s
at 13.2 percent.

Officials were reluctant to give any details on how much each country
had pledged this time, saying only that Britain was the biggest donor
ahead of the United States, with Germany in fourth place. Japan was
third last time.

Zoellick said the money would go towards helping 2.5 billion people in
poor nations across five continents.

IDA-financed projects support education, basic health services, clean
water and sanitation, as well as environmental safeguards,
infrastructure and policy and institutional reform.

First the good:

Reuters: Donors pledge $8.9 billion for AfDB loan fund
Wed 12 Dec 2007, 8:23 GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - Donor countries pledged $8.9 billion to the African Development Bank to be made available in loans to the continent’s poorest countries, the bank said on Monday, a more than 50 percent increase.

Representatives at a donor meeting in London said the focus would be on infrastructure, governance and regional integration promoting agriculture, gender equality, environmental sustainability, climate change adaptation and private sector development, a statement said.

“If we are serious about giving Africa a chance, then we have to be serious about backing African institutions,” said British development minister Shirti Vadera. “If not now, when?

The bank said the new pledges increased resources available to its African Development Fund, which provides loans for development projects and is replenished every three years, by 52 percent over the previous 2005 to 2007 period.

The bank said 7.5 percent of the resources would be put into a fund for fragile states recovering from conflict, 17.5 per cent on multinational operations promoting greater integration on the continent and 75 percent distributed based on the performance of African countries themselves, with the aim of promoting good governance and accountability in each country.

Now the bad:

This week the Senate rejected two amendments to the farm bill that would put caps on subsidies to large US farming operations: the Lugar-Lautenburg FRESH Amendment and the Grassley-Dorgan Payment Limits Amendment.

Farm bill subsidies hurt small farmers in developing countries across the world by causing US farmers to flood international markets with corn and other crops. This makes it difficult for small farmers to get a decent price for their crops so that they may earn a livable wage.

The Grassley-Dorgan Amendment came very close to the 60 votes it needed to pass. The final count was 56-43. While the amendment didn’t pass, a lot of momentum was gained. In five more years, when the farm bill is up for renewal again, we might just have enough momentum to finally reform subsidy payments. Keep the pressure on!

Go here to see if your senators supported the Grassley-Dorgan Amendment.

Nick Stevens, OCC Regional Outreach Ambassador

So I know that I implied that Brandeis cheated with phone calls to presidential candidates, but the fact of the matter is that they didn’t.  They got people together and made dozens of phone calls.  Brandeis showed that having lots of people sign up is really just a start, what really makes a difference is getting people to take action time after time.

And today we got further proof that the judges are committed: their mascot Ollie now is a ONE supporter.

For our next ROA we have the second West Coast Rachel, tricky.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” My name is Rachel Leuck, and I am the ROA for Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. I am a freshman at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire; I am majoring in Politics, and I am pursuing my Environmental Studies Certificate. I will be going abroad for peace, conflict, and development studies in Rwanda and Uganda within the next few years, and the Peace Corps is definitely in my post-graduate plans. I hope to spend my life making a real difference in the area of sustainable human development, as far as it concerns the environment, poverty, and impacts on human rights, politics, and peace.

I am a native West Coast girl. I was born on Whidbey Island (just off the coast of Seattle) in Washington; at age 2, my family moved back to California. I have immense California pride; even so, I decided to go 3,000 miles away for college, just for the adventure! I am a humanitarian at heart. I am not afraid to stand up for what I believe in, even if that means time behind bars. I embrace all faiths and cultures, and I try to like everyone. I’d rather have laugh lines than regret wrinkles, so I am always smiling!

Other than that, I am your typical hug-loving vegetarian! I enjoy politics, traveling, hiking, camping, writing, photography, relaxing at the beach, riding horses, and cuddling. Running is my de-stressor and my anti-drug. I love learning about the world, and I love wolves. My favorite books are “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen and “The End of Poverty” by Jeffrey Sachs. Everyone needs to watch these three films at some point: “The Girl in the Cafe,” “Yesterday,” and the BBC “Planet Earth” series.

Have a great holiday! I can’t wait to meet you all at the ONE Conference in January… and remember: “The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river.” The world knows that extreme global poverty is a problem; our generation can and will end it.

The Senate voted this morning on the Dorgan-Grassley Amendment, and it didn’t go so well, we got 56 votes, but thanks to a threat to filibuster, we needed 60 votes instead of the normal 50.

Thanks for jumping into the fray and making a couple hundred calls. We got very close on this one, and you can bet your boots that the Senate hasn’t heard the last of us.