"I'm what the world considers to be a phenomenally successful man. And I've failed much more than I've succeeded.
And each time I fail, I get my people together, and I say, "Where are we going?" And it starts to get better." - Calvin Trager

With Ya, my Ga tutor in Mallam
The Rev. Mike Kinman
Executive Director
Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation
Age: 38



Check out Forsyth School ...
where Robin teaches and
the boys attend.

Since you're already blowing time surfing,
why not do some cool stuff

  • Watch the Make Poverty History videos
  • Watch Sara McLachlan's "World on Fire" video
  • Take a seat at Oxfam America's Hunger Banquet
  • Look at the "Eight Ways to Change The World" photo exhibition
  • See how rich you are on the Global Rich List
  • Make a promise to do something cool -- and get people to do it with you
  • Use your computer to fight HIV/AIDS and other diseases

    While you're at it, do these things
  • Join the ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History
  • Join the Episcopal Public Policy Network
  • Join Amnesty International
  • Subscribe to Sojourners Online newsletter about faith, politics and culture
  • Sign the Micah Call and join other Christians in the fight against poverty
  • Subscribe to a great new magazine about women and children transforming our world

    People who show us What One Person Can Do
  • Liza Koerner (Teaching soccer and doing mission work in Costa Rica)
  • Erica Trapps (Raising money so Tanzanian children can go to school -- check out her photo gallery)

    What's happening in Sudan might
    surprise (and shock) you

  • Episcopal Diocese of Lui
  • South Sudanese Friends International
  • The Sudan Tribune
  • SudanReeves -- research, analysis and advocacy
  • Save Darfur
  • Darfur: a genocide we can stop

    For your daily fix on the irreverent...
  • Jesus of the Week
  • The Onion

    Interesting People Who Are Great To Read
  • Beth Maynard's excellent U2 sermons blog
  • Global Voices Online
  • Neha Viswanathan - poetry, commentary, humor, reflections

    Some interesting organizations and programs
  • Borgen Project - poverty reduction through political accountability
  • CARE
  • Center of Concern
  • DATA: Debt, AIDS and Trade in Africa (Bono's site)
  • El Circulo de Mujeres/Circle of Women
  • Engineering Ministries International
  • Episcopal Peace Fellowship
  • Episcopal Relief and Development
  • FreshMinistries
  • Global Campaign Against Poverty
  • Global Ministries
  • Global Work Ethic Fund -- Promoting philanthropy and fundraising in developing and transition countries.
  • Karen Emergency Relief Fund
  • Magdalene House
  • The M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
  • Natural Capitalism
  • NetMarkAid - Humanitarian Entrepreneurs
  • North American Association for the Diaconate
  • Peace Child International
  • People Building Peace
  • Project Honduras
  • Results - Creating political will to end hunger
  • St. Paul's Institute
  • Stop Global AIDS
  • TakingITGlobal -- connecting youth for action in local and global communities
  • Tanzania Educational AIDS Mission
  • TEAR (Transformation, Empowerment, Advocacy, Relief) - An Australian Christian anti-poverty movement
  • Working For Change
  • Xigi.net -- an open-source tool to aid discovery in the capital markets that fund good.

    Some Episcopal churches and dioceses doing cool things
  • Companions of Swaziland - Diocese of Iowa's Companion Relationship
  • International Development Missions -- St. Paul's Church, Sparks, NV
  • The Malaria Villages Project - St. Paul's Church, West Whiteland, PA

    Must-read books and websites about them
  • What Can One Person Do: faith to heal a broken world -- Sabina Alkire & Edmund Newell
  • The End of Poverty -- Jeffrey Sachs

    Learn more about things you really should know more about
  • UN Millenium Development Goals
  • The Millennium Campaign
  • AIDS Matters - a resource for global AIDS professionals
  • Christian Aid's in-depth report: "Millennium Lottery: Who lives and who dies in an age of third world debt?"
  • Foreign Policy In Focus
  • Poverty Mapping
  • Solutions for a water-short world
  • Transparency International: The global coalition against corruption
  • UNICEF's State of The World's Children report 2005

    General cool and/or goofy stuff
  • Alicebot chat robot
  • Bono Quotes -- but what's really wild is that it's from a page on Boycottliberalism.com!
  • Buffy Slanguage
  • Big Bunny

    Useful web tools
  • Gcast - make your own podcast
  • Podzinger - podcast search engine
  • Orb - streaming digital media


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    Listed on Blogwise
  • Saturday, May 01, 2004
    Jeffrey Sachs says the UN Millennium Development Goals are acheivable. Many say he is wrong, that we can't do it

    For all those who say we can't ... two figures I came across today:

    $2.9 billion/month - amount of additional U.S. aid needed to achieve UN Millennium Development Goals (source: UN Development Programme)
    $4.7 billion/month - current cost of military operations in Iraq (source: Pentagon officials, quoted in an article by MSNBC's Christopher Farrell)

    For $1.6 billion less a month than we are spending in Iraq, we could be paying our fair (and pledged) share to improve the lives of the world's neediest 2 billion people.

    The questions are so obvious that they become rhetorical:

    What is the better way to fight terrorism -- creating animosity toward us in the Arab world or being the patron saint of the world's poorest?

    What is the better way to spread democracy -- turning Iraq into a police state or acheiving universal primary education and equality for women?

    What is the better way to live out the Gospel of Christ -- killing or healing?

    It's easy to look at these figures and say "well, it's not that simple." Actually, it is. Would there be barriers in making sure that $2.9 billion a month got to the places it needed to go? Absolutely. Can we work to overcome them? Absolutely? Can you make an argument that the people in Iraq are better off because of the war? Sure (though I am not sure I buy it, but you can make a good argument for that.).

    But there is no argument that makes any sense to me that says spending more money on something that is less effective at achieving our stated objectives is anything but pure stupidity.

    I watched Nightline last night -- fortunately PAX TV aired it after the corporation that owns Channel 30 censored it. It was incredibly powerful to sit there for 35 minutes watching nothing but names and faces of those who had been killed. It gave you a taste of the enormity of it.

    But those names and faces are only a fraction of the sin, of the death and pain of this war.

    There are the names and faces of the Iraqi people who have been killed, maimed or had their homes destroyed.

    There are also the names and faces of the millions of people worldwide we could have been saving from things like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, starvation, and many other things that we CHOOSE not to save because we CHOOSE to spend our money on waging war in Iraq.

    We are all busy people. We have lots going on in our lives and it is important stuff. But, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said "evil prospers when good people do nothing." We meet Christ when we feed the hungry and tend to the sick. We become Christ when we feed the hungry and tend to the sick. There is nothing more important in our lives, nothing that will bring us more meaning, more joy, more purpose than bearing Christ to those in need.

    It's not always popular to speak out against the war. It's tough when people we love like Paul Scharre are (possibly?) over there. But it's just too important not to.

    It's not about politics. It's about saving lives. It's about following Christ.
    |
    Mike at 5/01/2004 04:15:00 PM

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    Episcopalians for
    Global Reconciliation

    EGR is an organization resourcing a grassroots movement of spiritual transformation in the Episcopal Church to end extreme poverty on this planet.

    The structure for this movement is the Millennium Development Goals -- 8 goals committed to by all member nations of the UN and a unique partnership of governments and civil society to:

    *End extreme poverty
    *Achieve universal
    primary education

    *Promote gender equalty
    *Improve maternal health
    *Reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
    *Promote environmental sustainability
    *Build a global partnership for development

    EGR resources and connects the church to embrace what one person, one congregation, one diocese and one church can do to make this mission of global reconciliation happen.

    Want to find out more ... check our our website at www.e4gr.org.

    "Christ's example is being demeaned by the church if they ignore the new leprosy, which is AIDS. The church is the sleeping giant here. If it wakes up to what's really going on in the rest of the world, it has a real role to play. If it doesn't, it will be irrelevant."
    - Bono








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    What I'm Reading
    Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
    by Doris Kearns Goodwin