Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth

We, the peoples and nations of Earth:

considering that we are all part of Mother Earth, an indivisible, living community of interrelated and interdependent beings with a common destiny;
gratefully acknowledging that Mother Earth is the source of life, nourishment and learning and provides everything we need to live well;
recognizing that the capitalist system and all forms of depredation, exploitation, abuse and contamination have caused great destruction, degradation and disruption of Mother Earth, putting life as we know it today at risk through phenomena such as climate change;
convinced that in an interdependent living community it is not possible to recognize the rights of only human beings without causing an imbalance within Mother Earth;
affirming that to guarantee human rights it is necessary to recognize and defend the rights of Mother Earth and all beings in her and that there are existing cultures, practices and laws that do so;
conscious of the urgency of taking decisive, collective action to transform structures and systems that cause climate change and other threats to Mother Earth;
proclaim this Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, and call on the General Assembly of the United Nation to adopt it, as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations of the world, and to the end that every individual and institution takes responsibility for promoting through teaching, education, and consciousness raising, respect for the rights recognized in this Declaration and ensure through prompt and progressive measures and mechanisms, national and international, their universal and effective recognition and observance among all peoples and States in the world.
Article 1. Mother Earth
(1)  Mother Earth is a living being.
(2)  Mother Earth is a unique, indivisible, self-regulating community of interrelated beings that sustains, contains and reproduces all beings.
(3)  Each being is defined by its relationships as an integral part of Mother Earth.
(4)  The inherent rights of Mother Earth are inalienable in that they arise from the same source as existence.
(5)  Mother Earth and all beings are entitled to all the inherent rights recognized in this Declaration without distinction of any kind, such as may be made between organic and inorganic beings, species, origin, use to human beings, or any other status.
(6)  Just as human beings have human rights, all other beings also have rights which are specific to their species or kind and appropriate for their role and function within the communities within which they exist.
(7)  The rights of each being are limited by the rights of other beings and any conflict between their rights must be resolved in a way that maintains the integrity, balance and health of Mother Earth.
Article 2. Inherent Rights of Mother Earth
(1)  Mother Earth and all beings of which she is composed have the following inherent rights:
(a)  the right to life and to exist;
(b)  the right to be respected;
(c)  the right to regenerate its bio-capacity and to continue its vital cycles and processes free from human disruptions;
(d)  the right to maintain its identity and integrity as a distinct, self-regulating and interrelated being;
(e)  the right to water as a source of life;
(f)   the right to clean air;
(g)  the right to integral health;
(h)   the right to be free from contamination, pollution and toxic or radioactive waste;
(i)    the right to not have its genetic structure modified or disrupted in a manner that threatens it integrity or vital and healthy functioning;
(j)    the right to full and prompt restoration the violation of the rights recognized in this Declaration caused by human activities;
(2)  Each being has the right to a place and to play its role in Mother Earth for her harmonious functioning.
(3)  Every being has the right to wellbeing and to live free from torture or cruel treatment by human beings.
Article 3. Obligations of human beings to Mother Earth
(1)  Every human being is responsible for respecting and living in harmony with Mother Earth.
(2)  Human beings, all States, and all public and private institutions must:
(a)  act in accordance with the rights and obligations recognized in this Declaration;
(b)  recognize and promote the full implementation and enforcement of the rights and obligations recognized in this Declaration;
(c)  promote and participate in learning, analysis, interpretation and communication about how to live in harmony with Mother Earth in accordance with this Declaration;
(d)  ensure that the pursuit of human wellbeing contributes to the wellbeing of Mother Earth, now and in the future;
(e)  establish and apply effective norms and laws for the defence, protection and conservation of the rights of Mother Earth;
(f)   respect, protect, conserve and where necessary, restore the integrity, of the vital ecological cycles, processes and balances of Mother Earth;
(g)  guarantee that the damages caused by human violations of the inherent rights recognized in this Declaration are rectified and that those responsible are held accountable for restoring the integrity and health of Mother Earth;
(h)  empower human beings and institutions to defend the rights of Mother Earth and of all beings;
(i)    establish precautionary and restrictive measures to prevent human activities from causing species extinction, the destruction of ecosystems or the disruption of ecological cycles;
(j)    guarantee peace and eliminate nuclear, chemical and biological weapons;
(k)  promote and support practices of respect for Mother Earth and all beings, in accordance with their own cultures, traditions and customs;
(l)    promote economic systems that are in harmony with Mother Earth and in accordance with the rights recognized in this Declaration.
Article 4. Definitions
(1)  The term “being” includes ecosystems, natural communities, species and all other natural entities which exist as part of Mother Earth.
(2)  Nothing in this Declaration restricts the recognition of other inherent rights of all beings or specified beings.

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¹ The term “being” includes ecosystems, natural communities, species and all other natural entities which exist as part of Mother Earth. ² Nothing in this Declaration restricts the recognition of other inherent rights of all beings or specified beings.

Proyecto de Declaracion Universal de los Derechos de la Madre Tierra

 

Nosotros, los pueblos de la Tierra:
Considerando que todos somos parte de la Madre Tierra, una comunidad indivisible vital de seres interdependientes e interrelacionados con un destino común;
Reconociendo con gratitud que la Madre Tierra es fuente de vida, alimento, enseñanza, y provee todo lo que necesitamos para vivir bien;
Reconociendo que el sistema capitalista y todas las formas de depredación, explotación, abuso y contaminación han causado gran destrucción, degradación y alteración a la Madre Tierra, colocando en riesgo la vida como hoy la conocemos, producto de fenómenos como el cambio climático;
Convencidos de que en una comunidad de vida interdependiente no es posible reconocer derechos solamente a los seres humanos, sin provocar un desequilibrio en la Madre Tierra;
Afirmando que para garantizar los derechos humanos es necesario reconocer y defender los derechos de la Madre Tierra y de todos los seres que la componen, y que existen culturas, prácticas y leyes que lo hacen;
Conscientes de la urgencia de tomar acciones colectivas decisivas para transformar las estructuras y sistemas que causan el cambio climático y otras amenazas a la Madre Tierra;
Proclamamos esta Declaración Universal de Derechos de la Madre Tierra, y hacemos un llamado a la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas para adoptarla, como propósito común para todos los pueblos y naciones del mundo, a fin de que tanto los individuos como las instituciones, se responsabilicen por promover mediante la enseñanza, la educación, y la concientización, el respeto a estos derechos reconocidos en esta Declaración, y asegurar a través de medidas y mecanismos prontos y progresivos de carácter nacional e internacional, su reconocimiento y aplicación universal y efectivos, entre todos los pueblos y los Estados del Mundo.

Artículo 1: La Madre Tierra

1. La Madre Tierra es un ser vivo.
2. La Madre Tierra es una comunidad única, indivisible y auto-regulada, de seres interrelacionados que sostiene, contiene y reproduce a todos los seres que la componen.
3. Cada ser se define por sus relaciones como parte integrante de la Madre Tierra.
4. Los derechos inherentes de la Madre Tierra son inalienables en tanto derivan de la misma fuente de existencia.
5. La Madre Tierra y todos los seres que la componen son titulares de todos los derechos inherentes reconocidos en esta Declaración sin distinción de ningún tipo,  como puede ser entre seres orgánicos e inorgánicos, especies, origen, uso para los seres humanos, o cualquier otro estatus.
6. Así como los seres humanos tienen derechos humanos, todos los demás seres de la Madre Tierra también tienen derechos que son específicos a su condición y apropiados para su rol y función dentro de las comunidades en los cuales existen.
7. Los derechos de cada ser están limitados por los derechos de otros seres, y cualquier conflicto entre sus derechos debe resolverse de manera que mantenga la integridad, equilibrio y salud de la Madre Tierra.

Artículo 2: Derechos Inherentes de la Madre Tierra

1. La Madre Tierra y todos los seres que la componen tienen los siguientes derechos inherentes:
   1. Derecho a la vida y a existir;
   2. Derecho a ser respetada;
   3. Derecho a la regeneración de su biocapacidad y continuación de sus ciclos y procesos vitales libres de alteraciones humanas;
   4. Derecho a mantener su identidad e integridad como seres diferenciados, auto-regulados e interrelacionados;
   5. Derecho al agua como fuente de vida;
   6. Derecho al aire limpio;
   7. Derecho a la salud integral;
   8. Derecho a estar libre de contaminación, polución y desechos tóxicos o radioactivos;
   9. Derecho a no ser alterada genéticamente y modificada en su estructura amenazando su integridad o funcionamiento vital y saludable;
   10. Derecho a una restauración plena y pronta por las violaciones a los derechos reconocidos en esta Declaración causados por las actividades humanas.
2. Cada ser tiene el derecho a un lugar y a desempeñar su papel en la Madre Tierra para su funcionamiento armónico.
3. Todos los seres tienen el derecho al bienestar y a vivir libres de tortura o trato cruel por los seres humanos.

Artículo 3: Obligaciones de los seres humanos con la Madre Tierra

Todos los seres humanos son responsables de respetar y vivir en armonía con la Madre Tierra;

1. Los seres humanos, todos los Estados, y todas las instituciones públicas y privadas deben:
   1. actuar acorde a los derechos y obligaciones reconocidos en esta Declaración;
   2. reconocer y promover la aplicación e implementación plena de los derechos y obligaciones establecidos en esta Declaración;
   3. promover y participar en el aprendizaje, análisis, interpretación y comunicación sobre cómo vivir en armonía con la Madre Tierra de acuerdo con esta Declaración;
   4. asegurar de que la búsqueda del bienestar humano contribuya al bienestar de la Madre Tierra, ahora y en el futuro;
   5. establecer y aplicar efectivamente normas y leyes para la defensa, protección y conservación de los Derechos de la Madre Tierra;
   6. respetar, proteger, conservar, y donde sea necesario restaurar la integridad de los ciclos, procesos y equilibrios vitales de la Madre Tierra;
   7. garantizar que los daños causados por violaciones humanas de los derechos inherentes reconocidos en la presente Declaración se rectifiquen y que los responsables rindan cuentas para restaurar la integridad y salud de la Madre Tierra;
   8. empoderar a los seres humanos y a las instituciones para defender los derechos de la Madre Tierra y todos los seres que la componen;
   9. establecer medidas de precaución y restricción para prevenir que las actividades humanas conduzcan a la extinción de especies, la destrucción de ecosistemas o alteración de los ciclos ecológicos;
   10. garantizar la paz y eliminar las armas nucleares, químicas y biológicas;
   11. promover y apoyar prácticas de respeto a la Madre Tierra y todos los seres que la componen, acorde a sus propias culturas, tradiciones y costumbres;
   12. promover sistemas económicos en armonía con la Madre Tierra y acordes a los derechos reconocidos en esta Declaración.

Artículo 4: Definiciones

1. El término “ser” incluye los ecosistemas, comunidades naturales, especies y todas las otras entidades naturales que existen como parte de la Madre Tierra.

Nada en esta Declaración podrá restringir el reconocimiento de otros derechos inherentes de todos los seres o de cualquier ser en particular.

Frederick Douglass

  

Author: Carole D. Bos, J.D.

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born in 1818 near the town of Easton, Maryland. Like most slaves, he did not know his birth date. Like many slaves, he had a black mother and a white father. Although he never could be sure, folks said his daddy was the plantation master, Aaron Anthony.
Because his mama, Harriet Bailey, worked as a field hand twelve miles away, little Frederick rarely saw her. His grandma was his primary care giver.
When Fred was about seven, Harriet died. Her son (the fourth of six children) was not allowed to see her when she was sick or when she passed away. Speaking of the few times he actually saw his mother, he later observed:

I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day. [She had to walk 12 miles, one way, to visit him.] She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone. Very little communication ever took place between us.  (Narrative, page 18.)

When he was about six, young Fred went to work. No longer in the care of his grandma, he would serve the needs of others until he ran away. When he found freedom, he also took a new name: Frederick Douglass.

Before the thought of freedom entered his mind, and before he was old enough to work the fields of a southern plantation, Frederick Bailey played with other children near his grandma’s cabin. He could not read or write since most slave owners believed literate slaves were dangerous slaves. School held no place in a slave child’s routine.
Lack of education was not the only factor which distinguished southern black children from southern white children. Where they lived, what they wore, what they ate always depended on the color of their skin. As an adult, in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, the now-literate man describes the clothes he wore as a child:

In hottest summer and coldest winter, I was kept almost naked - no shoes, no stockings, no jacket, no trousers, nothing on but a coarse tow linen shirt, reaching only to my knees.

On what kind of bed did he sleep?

I had no bed. I must have perished with cold, but that, the coldest nights, I used to steal a bag which was used for carrying corn to the mill. I would crawl into this bag, and there sleep on the cold, damp, clay floor, with my head in and feet out. My feet have been so cracked with the frost, that the pen with which I am writing might be laid in the gashes.

What of the food he ate? Was there enough to keep him well-nourished?

Our food was coarse corn meal boiled. This was called mush. It was put into a large wooden tray or trough, and set down upon the ground. The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs they would come and devour the mush; some with oystershells, others with pieces of shingle, some with naked hands, and none with spoons. He that ate fastest got most; he that was strongest secured the best place; and few left the trough satisfied.

Slave children, like young Fred, saw things children should never see. Beatings of loved ones, for example, were not uncommon. The day Fred saw his master beat his beautiful Aunt Hester, within a breath of her life, was life-changing:

I was so terrified and horror-stricken at the sight, that I hid myself in a closet, and dared not venture out till long after the bloody transaction was over. I expected it would be my turn next. It was all new to me. I had never seen any thing like it before. I had always lived with my grandmother on the outskirts of the plantation, where she was put to raise the children of the younger women. I had therefore been, until now, out of the way of the bloody scenes that often occurred on the plantation. (Narrative, page 21.)

It wasn’t long before Fred himself met the end of the cowskin lash.

 

America’s system of chattel slavery meant that slaves were the property of slave holders. Put differently, people legally owned other people.
When slave owners died, their slaves were processed - often at auction - just like other items owned by the decedent. It is impossible to comprehend how human beings felt as they were valued along with horses and plows, silverware and table linens. When he was between the ages of ten and eleven, Frederick Bailey went through the humiliating experience:

We were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women, old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep, and swine. There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the scale of being, and were all subjected to the same narrow examination. Silvery-headed age and sprightly youth, maids and matrons, had to undergo the same indelicate inspection. At the moment, I saw more clearly than ever the brutalizing effects of slavery upon both slave and slaveholder. (Narrative of the Life, [at page 45] of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself.)

How was it that slaves, en masse, did not routinely revolt? Why did they not band together to throw off the yoke of chattel slavery? Young Frederick learned the answers to those questions early in life when he was sent to Baltimore to serve as a house slave. Having the good fortune to live with a kindly mistress, who had never before controlled a slave, Frederick was given a rare opportunity: She would teach him to read. The lessons didn’t last:

Very soon after I went to live with Mr. And Mrs. Auld, she very kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she assisted me in learning to spell words of three or four letters. Just at this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read. (Narrative, page 33.)

How could learning a basic skill - like reading - be so detrimental? Frederick answers that question, using Mr. Auld’s own words:

It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy.” These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought.

More importantly, the young slave began to understand the source of the master’s power over his people:

I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty - to wit, the white man’s power to enslave the black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom.

That "pathway" was education. And education began with learning to read and write.

Although she had been kind to Frederick when he first arrived, Mrs. Auld soon followed her husband’s directive. Not only were the reading lessons over, so were her endearing ways:

Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me...The first step in her downward course was in her ceasing to instruct me. She now commenced to practise her husband’s precepts. She finally became even more violent in her opposition than her husband himself...Nothing seemed to make her more angry than to see me with a newspaper...She was an apt woman; and a little experience soon demonstrated, to her satisfaction, that education and slavery were incompatible with each other. (Narrative, page 37.)

Undeterred in his quest to read, Frederick befriended white children in his Baltimore neighborhood. He developed a good barter system - he would give them food if they would give him lessons:

The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street. As many of these as I could, I converted into teachers. With their kindly aid, obtained at different times and in different places, I finally succeeded in learning to read...I used also to carry bread with me...This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge. (Narrative, page 38.)

The more he read, the more upset he became with the whole concept of slavery. This passage of his Narrative, recited here (scroll to the bottom) by his great-great grandson, Frederick Douglass IV, emotionally makes the point:

The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery. (Narrative, page 40.)

There was nothing for Frederick to do but escape.

As he grew older, and was hired out as an employee who worked for others, Frederick Douglass was forced to give all the money he earned to his master. Not only was he outraged about this unacceptable predicament, his plight caused the now-literate slave to think about escaping from his unchanging environment.

I was now getting...one dollar and fifty cents per day. ($26.37 per day in 2003 dollars.) I contracted for it; I earned it; it was paid to me; it was rightfully my own; yet, upon each returning Saturday night, I was compelled to deliver every cent of that money to Master Hugh. And why? Not because he earned it, - not because he had any hand in earning it, - not because I owed it to him, - nor because he possessed the slightest shadow of a right to it; but solely because he had the power to compel me to give it up. (Narrative, page 99.)

 

The first time Frederick Douglass tried to escape, he was caught and spent months in jail. By 1838, he was working as a caulker in a Baltimore shipyard and had many good friends in the city. One of those friends was a black free-woman named Anna Murray.

Increasingly weary of turning over income to his master, and of his bondage in general, Frederick picked Monday, September 3, 1838, as his escape day. By this time, he and Anna Murray had fallen in love; she gave him some of her savings to help him as he made his way north to a non-slave state.
To protect those who assisted him, Frederick did not provide details of his escape in his first two autobiographies. Only from his third book, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, written much later in life, do we know those details.
Frederick had obtained a Seaman’s Protection Certificate from a free black free sailor (such as this 1854 document held by the Library of Congress) to help him get past railroad conductors, and others, who would check his identity papers. The documents he held did NOT match his physical description. If anyone scrutinized the Certificate, Frederick would be "found out."
Dressed as a sailor, Frederick left Baltimore bound for New York City:

In my clothing I was rigged out in sailor style. I had on a red shirt and a tarpaulin hat and black cravat, tied in sailor fashion, carelessly and loosely about my neck. My knowledge of ships and sailor's talk came much to my assistance, for I knew a ship from stern to stern, and from keelson to cross-trees, and could talk sailor like an "old salt." On sped the train, and I was well on the way, to Havre de Grace [in Maryland, his home state] before the conductor came into the negro car to collect tickets and examine the papers of his black passengers. This was a critical moment in the drama. My whole future depended upon the decision of this conductor. (Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, page 198.)

For some reason, the conductor (who had been harsh with other passengers) was surprisingly calm with Frederick:

"I suppose you have your free papers?" To which I answered: "No, sir; I never carry my free papers to sea with me." "But you have something to show that you are a free man, have you not?" "Yes, sir," I answered; "I have a paper with the American eagle on it, and that will carry me round the world." With this I drew from my deep sailor's pocket my seaman's protection, as before described. The merest glance at the paper satisfied him, and he took my fare and went on about his business. This moment of time was one of the most anxious I ever experienced. Had the conductor looked closely at the paper, be could not have failed to discover that it called for a very different looking person from myself, and in that case it would have been his duty to arrest me on the instant, and send me back to Baltimore from the first station. (Life and Times, page 199.)

Onboard the train, Frederick saw people who would have recognized him had he not been wearing sailor clothes. But when he left the train at Wilmington, Delaware (the "last point of imminent danger"), to catch a ship for Philadelphia, no one suspected he was a runaway.

Within twenty-four hours of his Baltimore departure, "Fred" reached the free soil of New York City. (Later, his escapade was memorialized - and fictionalized - in song and verse.)
On September 15, 1838, days after his escape, he and Anna were married in New York. Frederick changed his last name from Bailey to Douglass, after the lead character in Sir Walter Scott’s poem The Lady of the Lake.

Bertrand Russell

People who failed

Levels of consciousness

There are four levels of consciousness. Most people never make it out of level one and are condemned to suffer in this self-imposed hell of an inner world. Here are the four levels of consciousness:


1. Unconscious Unconsciousness
At this stage you are not even aware that you are unconscious. You attract negative things into your life at a rapid pace, as if you have developed a negative ball of energy rolling down hill. Nothing is ever your fault and you are always looking for someone to blame.


2. Conscious Unconsciousness
Here you are aware of your negative thinking and the consequences that it might bring. You might see your negative pattern and have become aware of what it is that you are attracting. You may not like what you are attracting, but you have taken responsibility for it.



3. Conscious Consciousness
You deliberately decide to focus pure and positive thought on something and remove all resistance to its arrival. And, sure enough, it arrives. Your creation might be something as simple as visualizing a parking space opening up for you at the mall. You deliberately intended it, allowed it to come to you and acknowledged it when it arrives.




4. Unconscious Consciousness
When you get to this point, you do not have to work so hard to create things in your life. You are a believer in how the mind game is played and you spend conscious time each day making your mind important. New creations come to you easily and quickly. You have built a positive ball of energy that continues to roll forward in your favor. People call you the "lucky one".

David Icke

People

L'AFFAIRE COCA COLA

Buddha

Dolphin help

Lucky Larry

Atheist

Terence Mackenna

Good doctor

Mandela

Greatest Gift

 

Our Story

“Don’t Give Up . . . Don’t Ever Give Up!”®
Serving as the heartbeat of The V Foundation for Cancer Research, formed by ESPN and Jim in 1993, his words throughout the ESPY speech have never been more meaningful. After being diagnosed with cancer at the young age of 46, Jim dreamed of finding cures for cancer. Passionate and committed, he wanted to see his fight through to victory. As a former coach, he began to recruit his team of family and friends to lead the Foundation in his quest to eradicate the disease.
As a cancer patient, Jim recognized the need to invest in young physician/scientists to help establish their careers—after all, someone had invested in him early in his career! Addressing the need to help early-career cancer investigators develop into promising future research talents was the first goal of the Foundation. The V Scholar concept was developed in 1994 to address that need. Today, this highly respected award is eagerly sought by young physician/scientists at the nation’s leading cancer centers.
As with any patient, Jim discovered first-hand how slowly science progresses from the lab to the patient’s bedside. He wanted faster solutions, more progress and better answers. Eight years after his death, The V Foundation announced its Translational Research Grants, designed to accelerate laboratory findings with the goal of benefiting patients more quickly.
Although Jim lost his battle with cancer less than two months after delivering the ESPY speech, his dream of a cure lives on through research grants bestowed in his name. The V Foundation has awarded more than $100 million to more than 100 facilities nationwide and proudly awards 100% of direct donations and net event proceeds to cancer research.
A relatively young organization, The V Foundation has a strong presence in the scientific community. The Foundation is guided by an elite, all-volunteer Scientific Advisory Board who recommends the research projects funded. This Board is comprised of top physicians and research scientists from prominent universities and cancer centers throughout the country. Working with this team of talented professionals, we are proud to carry out Jim’s vision for the future.
Jim’s dream of finding a cure for cancer is one shared by millions. Although we have not yet achieved this goal, every day we get a little bit closer and will continue to honor his inspiring words, “Don’t Give Up . . . Don’t Ever Give Up!” ®

 


I know that Jimmy Valvano is looking down from heaven, watching a lot of college basketball and smiling.

He is probably proud of his friends. After all, this is Jimmy V Week at ESPN.

I cannot believe it is almost 17 years since he left us.

I remember something he said to his friends near the end of his life, one which was cut short by the dreaded disease of cancer. He told several people that cancer would not be cured before he left, but we needed to do research to beat it in the future.

Jimmy did a lot of great things on the basketball court, roaming the sideline with so much passion and energy. I think about Jimmy V and the North Carolina State Wolfpack shocking Phi Slama Jama in 1983. Nobody thought they had a shot. That Houston team had Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, but the image of Dereck Whittenburg putting up that last-second shot and Lorenzo Charles dunking it for the win and the Cinderella story as national champion ... wow!
What Jimmy had to do earlier in the tournament was incredible. I don't know if people remember but his team beat North Carolina with Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins and company; I would say that was a pretty good team, baby! Then they had to come back and beat Ralph Sampson and Virginia (in the ACC tournament) just to get into the big dance. The Wolfpack had struggled to beat Pepperdine, coached by Jim Harrick, in the first round.
The way the Wolfpack were able to run the table like that in Albuquerque was unbelievable. Jimmy had the crowd. He had the media and the fans. He was wowing them and having them eat out of the palm of his hand! You know, at the time, his wife was expecting and he said to me that if they had a boy they were going to name him Al B. Kerke. That's how much he wanted to win at the Final Four. Fortunately, they had a girl.

That said, Jimmy's legacy is so important after his life ended. You see his 1993 ESPYS speech and watch it in amazement. His battle against cancer rages on, and I am so proud to be on the board of directors of The V Foundation.

The team assembled is truly awesome, baby, with a capital A! Nick Valvano leads the team and he has put so much time and energy into the cause. His leadership is so important as he is so passionate about helping his brother's dream turn into reality.

Jimmy's former teammate at Rutgers, Bob Lloyd, is the chairman of the board for The V Foundation. His guidance and leadership have been so important.

Coach K, the best leader in all of sports, has been so vital to the success of the foundation. His friendship with Jimmy V meant so much to the whole Valvano family.

ESPN's John Saunders was as close as anyone to Jimmy. He named one of his daughters with Jimmy's initials of JTV. John has been a major factor in The V Foundation, too.

Then there is an office in North Carolina with passionate people fighting to beat this dreaded disease.

Jimmy has a great team still working hard for him. I hope that you will join it by calling 1-800-4-JIMMY-V, or you can help me out as I try to raise $1 million for cancer research through my Dickie V gala. It will be in Sarasota, Fla., on May 20, 2011, as we honor North Carolina's Roy Williams and Kentucky's John Calipari.

It will be an emotional time at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. It always is as we reflect on Jimmy's life, listen to his speech as it plays on the Garden scoreboard. Jimmy will be looking down, smiling as Kansas faces Memphis and Michigan State meets Syracuse.

Jimmy's two great passions will be in play: college hoops and fighting cancer.

Joe Rogan

Avocado Benefits

by Anna Hunt

If you ask your friends if an avocado is a fruit or vegetable they may not know, but they’ll probably be able to tell you that avocados are high in fat. This fact about the mild-flavored green fruit (yes, avocados are fruits, or more specifically large berries) has given avocados a bad rap as a contributor to obesity, but is this really the case?
Avocados are a very healthy and nutritious food. They are rich in 13 vitamins (A, C, D, E, K, E and 8 types of B vitamins including B-6, B-12 and folate), and are packed full of other nutrients such as potassium, lutein, monosaturated fats and antioxidants. And since avocados can be eaten raw, baked, made into delicious dips and soups, or even blended into your morning green smoothie, avocados really are a tasty and versatile way to boost your health.
Here is a short list of just some of the benefits of regularly including avocados in your diet:
The abundance of monounsaturated fats in avocados help lower cholesterol. This is the ‘good kind of fat.’With 30% more potassium than bananas, avocados help regulate blood pressure and prevent circulatory disease.Avocadoes are high in florine, which is used by the body to create hard surfaces on teeth and in bones. Florine also helps protect the body from viruses and germs.The lutein content of avocados will aid in eye health, protecting the eyes from oxidative stress, macular degeneration (loss of central vision) and cataracts.Studies have shown that eating avocados can inhibit growth of cancerous cells, such as ones leading to oral cancer. Avocados contain phytonutrients that are beneficial in preventing prostate cancer, as well as oleic acid that is effective in preventing breast cancer.Avocados are effective in stopping bad breath!Rich in antioxidants such as glutathione, avocadoes encourage a healthy nervous system and boost the immune support system.The high folate content of avocadoes aids in brain and tissue development, especially during stages of rapid cell growth. This makes them an ideal food for pregnant women. Being high in folate but low in complex carbohydrates makes avocados also good for infants 6 months or older.Vitamin E in avocados helps protect the skin from free radicals.The nutrients and enzymes of avocados ease digestion issues by soothing the lining of the stomach and small intestines, and thus allowing the body to absorb carotenoids and nutrients from our food.Avocado is a yin fruit. It helps build red-blood cells as it is rich in copper. It also harmonizes several organs, including the liver, lungs and intestines.
So what about this business avocados being fattening?

Yes, it is true that avocados have a high fat content of about 30 grams of fat in a medium size avocado (similar fat content to a regular fast food burger). But there’s good news! Avocados contain the “good” monounsaturated fat that is easily digested and assimilated into the human body. Since our bodies know what to do with monounsaturated fat, it is quickly turned into raw energy and used efficiently by the body. And for a touch of irony, avocados also contain the enzyme lipase, which is complimentary to weight loss because it breaks down fat that is already stored in the body.
So next time someone mentions to you that avocados are fattening, share what you know about this magical fruit. Enjoy tasty avocado meals often, and your body will thank you for it.

Rules for being human

Ruy Barbosa de Oliveira

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Empezó a vivir como una mujer libre hace sólo 13 años, cuando rompió con su familia en Somalia al decidir escaparse de un matrimonio concertado. Fue diputada al Parlamento holandés y está amenazada de muerte por su lucha por los derechos de las mujeres musulmanas y por la libertad

Al nacer, hace 37 años, Ayaan Hirsi Alí pesó poco más de un kilo y medio. A su madre le pronosticaron: "Este bebé no va a vivir". Su madre se decía a sí misma: "Este bebé no va a vivir". Ayaan no iba a vivir cuando enfermó de malaria y neumonía. Ni cuando le extirparon los genitales y creyó morir del dolor, y después de una herida que no cicatrizaba. Iba a morir cuando un delincuente le colocó un cuchillo en el cuello en Nairobi y decidió no degollarla al escuchar su acento, que le identificaba con su misma tribu. Estuvo a las puertas de la muerte cuando el maestro que le enseñaba el Corán le fracturó el cráneo. Pero vivió. Supo encontrar "salidas de emergencia", como ella misma dice. "Sigo viva, y eso es mucho más de lo que pueden decir los millones y millones de mujeres musulmanas que han tenido que rendirse, que viven encerradas en una jaula llamada islam". Anatema. Blasfemia. Impura. Sus palabras le han supuesto una sentencia de muerte. El guión que escribió para la película Submission: Part I le costó la vida al director de cine Theo van Gogh, acribillado a balazos, degollado y su pecho utilizado como tablón de anuncios: el asesino clavó allí una nota para Hirsi Alí, una carta muy concisa, como una fetua -según los testigos, Van Gogh llegó a esgrimir el sentido común holandés antes de morir ajusticiado: "¿Seguro que esto no podemos hablarlo?", aseguran que dijo-.
Hirsi Alí llega a la cita buscando refugio dentro de su abrigo negro. La tarde está muy fría en Washington. Parece frágil y pequeña entre los dos guardaespaldas que la acompañan. Pero su voluntad es inquebrantable, y su fortaleza, la de un roble. Desde septiembre de 2006, esta fiera defensora de la libertad vive en la capital de Estados Unidos. "La situación se hizo insoportable en Holanda. De un día para otro me quedé sin empleo [diputada en el Parlamento holandés], sin nacionalidad [la ministra de Inmigración Rita Verdonk le retiró su pasaporte tras alegar que había mentido al solicitar el asilo], sin hogar [sus vecinos pidieron que fuera expulsada de su casa por creer que comprometía su seguridad], sin futuro; vivía escondida, estaba amenazada de muerte".
Estados Unidos le abrió las puertas. Christopher Demuth, presidente del American Enterprise Institute (AEI), un instituto de estudios de Washington, le ofreció empleo. Desde luego que habrá quien, al saber que Hirsi Alí trabaja en el Centro de Estudios de carácter conservador, ha sonreído complacido como diciendo: "Ahora se explica todo, ya lo sabíamos: era del equipo de Bush". En el mundo de lo políticamente correcto que vivimos, Ayaan Hirsi Alí dice verdades que duelen, es una gran crítica de los relativismos culturales que tanto proliferan en Occidente y que, a su juicio, encierran a los seguidores del islam en su atraso. "Eso es racismo en su acepción más pura".
Tras dos años y medio como diputada, estaba desencantada y quería abandonar la política holandesa. "Estoy muy agradecida a Holanda y a Europa. Pero Estados Unidos sigue siendo un país en el que existe libertad intelectual, las cosas que yo he dicho sobre el islam no son nada comparadas con las que se publican aquí en libros o se dicen en tertulias. Y no me asusta la idea de que me tilden de derechista. Cada cual puede tener sus ideas sobre EE UU, pero yo creo que sigue siendo el líder del mundo libre. No creo estar vendiéndome por pensar, plasmar mis ideas en estudios en EE UU. En Washington tendré mucho más tiempo para pensar que cuando formaba parte de la política en Holanda e intentaba que el ideario del partido recogiera mi sensibilidad; me propuse que el islam formara parte del debate político y lo logré. E insisto: no me he ido de Holanda por el asunto de mi nacionalidad holandesa, la decisión es estrictamente personal, tomada mucho antes de que comenzara aquella pesadilla. Cuando di mis primeros pasos en política, creí que ésta era una actividad noble. Y lo sigo creyendo. Pero he aprendido que también puede ser un juego muy sucio. Cuando he defendido la idea de que había que cambiar la situación de las musulmanas de inmediato, la respuesta que he obtenido es la de que hay que tener paciencia. ¿Fue eso lo que dijeron a los mineros del siglo XIX cuando luchaban por los derechos de los trabajadores? Europa parece estar cegada por el llamado multiculturalismo, subyugada al imperativo de ser sensibles y respetuosos con la cultura de los inmigrantes, defendiendo a los relativistas morales. ¿Es cultura ser lapidada? Espero que observar el poder sea más agradable que ejercerlo. EE UU no es ni blanco ni negro. ¿Cuántas nacionalidades se pueden encontrar? Todas, el mundo entero".
Pues... ¡Bienvenida!
Gracias, muchas gracias. [Ríe y descansa, no ha dejado de hablar desde que se ha sentado y toma fuerzas bebiendo sorbitos de su zumo de tomate. Por su bien dibujada boca, las palabras salen a borbotones. Es una mujer intensa, pero parece una niña, aunque su afilado sentido del humor determina a mujer adulta].
¿Tiene miedo?
Convivo con él. Mi vida cambió el 2 de noviembre de 2004. Cuando asesinaron a Theo [Van Gogh]. Ha sido muy difícil adaptarme a las severas medidas de seguridad, a andar siempre acompañada, a mirar a los lados. Llegué a vivir en una base militar, escondida del mundo.
¿Cambió también la vida de la pacífica y tolerante Holanda ese 2 de noviembre?
Mi país [su nacionalidad le fue devuelta y hoy vuelve a ser holandesa] es y será un gran país democrático. Sólo hemos perdido la inocencia.
¿Cómo se vive sabiéndose amenazada de muerte?
Es como enterarse de que se tiene una enfermedad crónica. Puede recrudecerse y matarte, o puede que no. Tal vez suceda en una semana, o tarde años. O no suceda nunca y muera de manera natural. Pero siempre digo a quienes me preguntan esto que en Occidente la vida se toma como si estuviera garantizada para siempre. Donde yo nací, y en toda África, la muerte está en cada esquina. Virus, bacterias, guerras, sequías, inundaciones, hambrunas, soldados y torturadores se la pueden arrebatar a cualquiera en cualquier momento. Incluso amenazada y con guardaespaldas, siento el privilegio de estar viva.
"La primera vez que me caí de una bicicleta me sentí libre". Eso fue hace poco.
Sí, hace muy poco, poco más de una década. [Ríe, con una risa que le ilumina los ojos; traviesa, recuerda cómo con una paga que le dieron en Holanda dentro de su estatuto de refugiada se compró unos pantalones baratos y se despojó su larga y púdica falda. Así su indumentaria no se podía calificar de indecente, cumplía con las normas de una buena musulmana. Cuando probó la bicicleta se cayó…]. Soy libre. Mi libertad comenzó hace 13 años cuando tomé el tren rumbo a Amsterdam, cuando decidí escapar de un matrimonio concertado. Fue entonces cuando opté por una vida en libertad, por una vida en la que no me vería sometida a alguien a quien yo no había escogido y en la que mi espíritu también sería libre.
Hirsi Alí estaba condenada a una vida de sometimiento. A Alá. Al clan. A su padre. A los varones de la familia. Su abuela -"una mujer iletrada que vivía en la edad de hierro y que consideraba los sentimientos una necedad autoindulgente"- aterrorizó su infancia: "Una mujer sola es como un pedazo de grasa de oveja a pleno sol. Acudirá cualquier cosa y comerá de esa grasa. Antes de que os deis cuenta, las hormigas y los insectos la habrán invadido hasta que apenas quede una mancha de grasa". Durante años, esa imagen protagonizó las pesadillas de la pequeña Ayaan, a quien dijeron que, al igual que las cabras, una chica joven era una presa fácil para un predador. También le dijeron que una violación era mucho peor que la muerte, pues manchaba el honor de todos y cada uno de los miembros de la familia. Hirsi Alí creció entre palizas de una madre amargada, sometida, sin respeto por ella misma, estricta observante de la religión musulmana. Se crió en Somalia, de donde huyó con su familia para refugiarse en Arabia Saudí, Etiopía y Kenia.

Iba a decirle que me hablara de su infancia...
[Ríe] Pues tuve una infancia normal, normal para los que eran como yo, claro. Por eso, cuando llegué a Holanda y vi que los pequeños tenían derechos, que los padres leían libros sobre cómo educar y sobre cómo jugar con sus hijos, pues... mi mundo empezó a ser otro, el de una persona libre que no vive atemorizada por la religión ni por la casta ni por su sexo. La razón no existía. Se obedecía y punto. Cuando a los 14 años tuve mi primera menstruación creí que tenía un corte en el vientre y que iba a morir, pero no dije nada. Imaginaba que aquello era algo vergonzoso, no sabía por qué. El día en que mi hermana enseñó a mi madre mi ropa interior manchada de sangre, mi madre lo primero que me gritó fue "sucia prostituta" y empezó a golpearme con el puño cerrado. Mi hermano mayor me tuvo que rescatar y explicar que lo que me estaba sucediendo era algo normal. "Ya eres mujer y ahora puedes quedarte embarazada", me dijo. Nunca se hablaba de esos temas, eran tabú.
"Yo era una mujer somalí y, como tal, mi sexualidad pertenecía al amo de mi familia, mi padre o mis tíos", escribe en su libro.
Así es; además, se encargaron de coserme para garantizar que llegara virgen al matrimonio, entre otras cosas. Esa barrera sólo la podría romper mi marido.
Usted ha sufrido la ablación. ¿Qué edad tenía?
Cinco años. Fue a esa edad cuando mi abuela decidió que me sometiera al rito de la purificación, en contra del deseo de mi padre que no apoyaba esas ideas por considerarlas antiguas y aberrantes. Pero mi padre no estaba. Y en Somalia, al igual que en muchos países de África y Oriente Próximo, se purifica a las niñas mutilándoles los genitales. Con lo que un buen día, mi severa abuela decidió que nuestros kintir, nuestros clítoris, eran muy largos. "Tu clítoris llegará a ser tan largo que se balanceará de un lado para otro", nos decía a mi hermana y a mí. Nosotras no teníamos ni la menor idea de lo que hablaba. Yo no entendía nada. Hasta que un día me tocó vivirlo. Recuerdo que un hombre llegó a casa; casi seguro que era un circuncisor tradicional itinerante del clan de los herreros. Primero, mi abuela se encerró con mi hermano y le hicieron algo, no sabía qué, pero había sangre y mi hermano se quejaba, tenía la cara desencajada y la mirada aterrada. Luego me tocó a mí. El hombre tenía unas inmensas tijeras en la mano. Mi abuela y otras mujeres me sujetaban. Aquel hombre puso su mano sobre mi sexo y empezó a pellizcarlo, como mi abuela cuando ordeñaba las cabras. "¡Ahí está el kintir!", dijo una de las mujeres que ayudaban en el rito. Entonces las tijeras descendieron entre mis piernas y el hombre cortó mis labios interiores y el clítoris. Lo oí perfectamente. Clack. Como cuando se corta en una carnicería un pedazo de carne. El dolor que se experimenta no tiene palabras, me subía por las piernas, no dejaba de aullar, me invadió entera, un dolor imposible de explicar. Pero después de que te han mutilado, después de que notas cómo la sangre te corre por las piernas, me cosieron. Aquel señor tenía una enorme aguja sin punta y con ella remató su faena. La aguja pasaba entre mis labios externos. Yo intentaba defenderme, chillaba, protestaba, la abuela no dejaba de repetirme que sólo era una vez en la vida, que a partir de ahora estaría limpia, que tenía que ser valiente. No acababa nunca la pesadilla. Hasta que aquel hombre cortó el hilo con sus dientes. No recuerdo más de mi propio dolor, pero sí del de mi hermana pequeña; sus chillidos me helaban la sangre. Haweya [quien vivirá una existencia dura y acabará muriendo tras una violación en Nairobi cuando estaba embarazada] luchó tanto, intentó zafarse de tal modo, que al hombre se le escapaba de las manos. Le cortó los muslos y las cicatrices las llevó de por vida.
Hay muchas Ayaan. Muchas Haweya. Miles de niñas mueren durante o después de la ablación, a causa de infecciones. Pero, además de la muerte, esta brutal práctica provoca otras complicaciones que causan inenarrables dolores que pueden llegar a prolongarse durante toda la vida. En Somalia, donde casi todas las niñas están mutiladas, esta práctica se justifica siempre en nombre del islam. Si no son purificadas, serán poseídas por diablos, caerán en el vicio y la perdición, y se prostituirán. Los imanes aconsejan vivamente este rito: mantiene "puras" a las mujeres. Cuando Hirsi Alí intentó, desde su papel de mujer política en Holanda, abordar temas como la ablación o los crímenes de honor, sus compañeros de entonces, los del PvdA, socialdemócrata [llegará a ser diputada con los liberales], le echaban en cara que no respaldara sus argumentos con datos. Y es que no podía hacerlo. Porque no existen. Los funcionarios del Ministerio de Justicia holandés alegaban que no contabilizaban los crímenes de honor porque, al establecer ese criterio, se estaría "estigmatizando a un grupo de la sociedad". Holanda registra la cifra de homicidios anuales relacionados con las drogas y los accidentes de tráfico, pero no el número de asesinatos basados en el honor. Ni siquiera Amnistía Internacional tenía entonces estadísticas sobre cuántas mujeres en todo el mundo eran víctimas de crímenes de honor. Conocían cuántos hombres eran encarcelados y torturados, pero eran incapaces de elaborar tablas con los números de mujeres flageladas en público por fornicación o ejecutadas por adulterio. "Ése no era un tema", explica Hirsi Alí.
¿Cuál es la relación que tiene con su cuerpo? Tantos años viviendo en la convicción de que el mundo era 'haran' (pecado), tantos años negando su sexualidad…
Soy capaz de contemplarme desnuda ante el espejo, fugazmente, pero no es fácil. Disfruto el sexo. Pero tengo muchas amigas que no pueden, por razones físicas, porque el clítoris les fue extirpado, o porque sencillamente son incapaces, siguen prisioneras.
Mujer. Negra. Musulmana. Ayaan Hirsi Alí resume así su vida: "Me crié en África. Vine a Europa en 1992, a la edad de 22 años, y fui elegida diputada por el Parlamento holandés. Hice una película con Theo van Gogh y ahora vivo con guardaespaldas y circulo en coches blindados". Así resume esta mujer elegante el camino que la llevó desde una infancia africana a convertirse en afamada diputada y escritora. Mi vida, mi libertad (Galaxia Gutenberg / Círculo de Lectores) es el relato autobiográfico de una mujer que ha luchado para dejar de ser esclava de la religión islámica y formarse como persona, llevada casi exclusivamente por su propio ímpetu, en una trayectoria en la que destaca la sinceridad que es la que al final le ha permitido distanciarse tanto del fundamentalismo islámico como de la corrección política europea. Con un estilo directo, claro, transparente, contundente e inteligente, la ex diputada desgrana en su libro la dramática historia de una revolución personal.
¿Por qué abandonó su religión?
Sentí que me estaba convirtiendo en una apóstata tras el 11-S. Todas las declaraciones que Osama Bin Laden y su gente citaron del Corán para justificar los atentados, las busqué y estaban allí. Bin Laden citaba verdaderamente las aleyas de nuestro texto sagrado. "¡No es posible!", pensé. Pero lo era, ¡allí estaban! El rechazo fue algo natural. Más tarde leí un libro, un libro que sabía que no me hacía falta leer porque yo ya había roto con Dios: El manifiesto ateo. Antes de llegar a la cuarta página sabía que había echado a Dios de mi vida. Me había vuelto atea. Lo descubrí estando de vacaciones en Grecia, y como no tenía a nadie a quien decírselo, me miré en el espejo y me dije: "No creo en Dios". Hablé muy despacio y en somalí. Y me sentí bien, no experimenté ningún dolor, sino una gran claridad. La perspectiva de abrasarme en el infierno desapareció y mi horizonte se hizo muy amplio. Dios, Satán... Todo era producto de la imaginación. A partir de ese momento iba a pisar con aplomo el suelo bajo mis pies y orientarme a través de la razón y mi amor propio. Mi brújula moral estaba en mi interior, en absoluto en las páginas de un libro sagrado.
El asesinado político holandés Pim Fortuyn dijo que el islam era retrógrado.
Según el Informe de desarrollo humano árabe de Naciones Unidas, si se mide a la luz de tres criterios (libertad política, educación y condición de la mujer), lo que dijo Fortuyn no es una opinión: es un hecho.
¿Qué piensa usted del islam?
Yo siento que el islam se halla en una crisis verdaderamente terrible en todo el mundo, está llamado a desaparecer. ¿Sabe que el mayor número de muertes en el mundo se producen entre musulmanes? ¿De verdad algún musulmán puede seguir ignorando el choque entre la razón y nuestra religión? Durante siglos nos hemos comportado como si el conocimiento estuviera en el Corán, nos hemos negado a cuestionar nada, nos hemos negado a progresar. Nos hemos ocultado de la razón durante tanto, tanto, tanto tiempo porque éramos incapaces de afrontar la necesidad de integrarla en nuestras creencias. ¿Son los derechos humanos, el progreso, los derechos de la mujer ajenos al islam? Al declarar infalible a nuestro profeta y no permitirnos dudar de él, los musulmanes establecimos una tiranía estática. Hemos fosilizado la perspectiva moral de millones de personas con la mentalidad del desierto árabe propia del siglo VII. No sólo éramos sirvientes fieles de Alá; también sus esclavos. Las sociedades islámicas tienen que enfrentarse a los mismos problemas que la cristiandad antes de la Ilustración. Yo no tengo nada en contra de la religión como fuente de consolación, pero rechazo la religión como forma de vida.
¿No cree que pueda haber un islam moderado?
La gente dice que los valores del islam son la compasión, la tolerancia y la libertad, y yo observo la realidad, las culturas y los Gobiernos, y veo que eso, lisa y llanamente, no es así. En Occidente, muchos aceptan ese tipo de aseveraciones porque han aprendido a valorar las religiones o las culturas de un modo no demasiado crítico por miedo a que les llamen racistas. Lo peor que se le puede llamar a un holandés es racista. Su pasado colonizador, el apartheid en Suráfrica… Para que nunca les puedan llamar racistas no tienen que cuestionar la inmigración, incluso cuando ésta socava los valores de Occidente. Me produce mucha risa la Alianza de Civilizaciones del presidente Zapatero. ¿Es civilización provocar un sufrimiento intolerable a las mujeres, señor Zapatero? ¿Es civilización violar los derechos humanos haciendo de las esposas, las hijas, una propiedad? ¿Es civilización la corrupción moral de los países islámicos?
El islam necesita un Voltaire.
Como se necesita el aire. Ojalá se encuentre entre los 15 millones de musulmanes que viven en Occidente.
Es la europea del año 2006. La revista Time la consideró en 2005 una de las 100 personas más influyentes del mundo. Cuando le comunicaron la noticia, Hirsi Alí corrió a comprar un ejemplar. Pero faltaban semanas para que el número estuviera en los quioscos. El Time que compró hablaba de la pobreza en África. En la portada había una mujer joven y delgada con tres niños pequeños. Llevaba una ropa como la que llevaban su abuela y su estricta madre, y en sus ojos se leía la desesperación. Dice la mujer que pesó un kilo y medio al nacer, que aquella imagen la transportó a Somalia, a Kenia, a la pobreza, a la enfermedad y al miedo. Pensó en la mujer de la fotografía y en los millones de mujeres condenadas a vivir como ella. La revista Time acababa de incluirla a ella en la categoría de Líderes y revolucionarios.
¿Qué se hace con tamaña responsabilidad?
Intentar que el mundo musulmán despierte. Decir a quien quiera escuchar que los valores del mundo de mis padres generan y perpetúan la pobreza, y la tiranía y la opresión de las mujeres. Si los musulmanes se enfrentan a la cruda realidad en que viven, pueden cambiar su destino. [Hirsi Alí habla en plural y en singular, pasa de uno al otro; a pesar de echar a Dios de su vida, se sigue sintiendo musulmana. Se viste de manera occidental, lleva pantalones, pero no se adivina casi ninguna curva de una figura que promete ser hermosa]. ¿Por qué no estoy en Kenia en un campo de refugiados agachada ante un hornillo de carbón cocinando? ¿Por qué me convertí en parlamentaria holandesa? He tenido suerte. [Le digo que yo creo que hace falta algo más que suerte para recorrer un camino como el suyo... Pero sigue hablando, no quiere ser interrumpida]. Soy afortunada. No muchas mujeres son afortunadas en los lugares de donde vengo. Estoy en deuda con todas ellas de alguna manera. Necesito encontrar a las mujeres que permanecen atrapadas en la jaula mental del islam, en la estructura de la irracionalidad y la superstición, y convencerlas de que tomen en sus manos las riendas de sus vidas. En los últimos 50 años, el mundo musulmán se ha visto catapultado a la modernidad. Entre mi abuela y yo media un lapso de tan sólo dos generaciones, pero en realidad el salto es milenario. Hoy, cuando se cruza la frontera con Somalia, se retrocede en el tiempo cientos de años. Y no creo que hagan falta 600 años de reforma para que los musulmanes cambien el concepto de igualdad y derechos individuales. Ya tienen el modelo, sólo hay que copiarlo.
En 1989, el año en que el ayatolá Jomeini dictó una fetua contra Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Alí era una devota estudiante matriculada en la Escuela Musulmana para Chicas de Nairobi. Su padre, un líder somalí rebelde, había intentado el año anterior un golpe de Estado contra el dictador Mohamed Siad Barre. La familia vivía en el exilio en Kenia. A la edad de 20 años, la hija de la Ilustración hacía cuatro que vestía la hijab. Cuando la noticia del edicto contra Rusdhie llegó a su instituto, tanto ella como sus compañeras se solidarizaron de inmediato con Irán y Jomeini, incluso a pesar de no ser chiíes. "Nos dijeron que el libro decía algo horrible sobre el profeta, algo blasfemo", recuerda. "Lo primero que me vino a la cabeza fue: "¡Oh! Sin duda, debe morir".


¿Cuántas mujeres nacidas en el hospital Digfeer de Mogadiscio (Somalia) en noviembre de 1969 siguen vivas? ¿Y cuántas de ellas tienen voz propia? "La decisión de escribir este libro no me resultó fácil. ¿Por qué iba a mostrar al mundo unas memorias tan íntimas? No quiero que mis argumentos se consideren sacrosantos por el hecho de haber vivido experiencias terribles, algo que además no es del todo cierto. En realidad, mi vida se ha visto marcada por una enorme dosis de buena fortuna". Habla Ayaan Hirsi Alí, hija de Hirsi, que era hijo de Magan, y éste de Isse, e Isse de Guleid, que a su vez era hijo de Alí… Una familia que salió de Arabia hacia Somalia hace 800 años, cuando comenzó el gran clan de los Darod. Hirsi Alí es una Darod, una Harti, una Macherten, una Osman Mahamud. Es de la rama llamada la Espalda Más Alta. "Eres una Magan. Recuérdalo siempre", le advertía su abuela, agitando una vara delante de ella mientras la obligaba a memorizar a sus descendientes. "Los apellidos te harán fuerte. Son tu linaje. Si los honras, te mantendrán viva. Si los deshonras, te abandonarán. No serás nada. Llevarás una vida miserable y morirás sola".

'Mi vida, mi libertad', de Ayaan Hirsi Alí, editado por Galaxia Gutenberg / Círculo de Lectores (traducción de Sergio Pawlowsky)

Antonio machado

He andado muchos caminos
He abierto muchas veredas;
He navegado en cien mares
Y atracado en cien riberas.
En todas partes he visto
Caravanas de tristeza,
Soberbios y melancólicos
Borrachos de sombra negra.
Y pedantones al paño
Que miran, callan y piensan
Que saben por qué no beben
El vino de las tabernas.
Mala gente que camina
Y va apestando la tierra...
Y en todas partes he visto
Gentes que danzan o juegan,
Cuando pueden, y laboran
Sus cuatro palmos de tierra.
Nunca, si llegan a un sitio
Preguntan a dónde llegan.
Cuando caminan, cabalgan
A lomos de mula vieja.
Y no conocen la prisa
Ni aún en los días de fiesta.
Donde hay vino, beben vino,
Donde no hay vino, agua fresca.
Son buenas gentes que viven,
Laboran, pasan y sueñan,
Y un día como tantos,
Descansan bajo la tierra.

Bradley Millar

AWAKENING

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Dawna Markova

Giving without Giving Ourselves Away: An interview with Dawna Markova 
Dawna Markova is the creator of SMARTWired and a renowned educator, researcher, and author who has served as a thinking partner to several Fortune 50 CEOs. She is the author of I Will Not Die an Unlived Life, and The SMART Parenting Revolution, and co-creator of Random Acts of Kindness. In the following interview with Leverage Points editor, Vicky Schubert, she discusses her fascination with building our capacity for cultivating collective wisdom.
LP: In the verse that opens I Will Not Die an Unlived Life, you write, "I choose to risk my significance, to live so that which came to me as seed goes to the next as blossom, and that which came to me as blossom goes on as fruit." Is it possible to help people develop that kind of generative outlook, particularly when the turmoil gripping so much of the world right now – whether political, cultural, or climatological – seems to result in a general feeling of apathy or disengagement?
DM: I think that the fragmentation and disengagement we're experiencing now comes, in large part, from the fact that we're living in a culture that doesn't cultivate wisdom. We don't know how to honor questions, and therefore we're not accessing the part of our minds that creates meaning and coherence out of our lives. If you don't cultivate a garden, you don't get fruit.
It's primarily in response to that need that my husband Andy Bryner and I have returned to teaching the study groups we began twenty years ago. We want to explore the question, "How do you risk your significance?" In other words, how can we use the gifts we were given on behalf of what we care deeply about? The format is based on the approach we followed with several communities of commitment, as we called them. They were made up of a mix of people from education, the healing arts, social services, nonprofits, as well as artists from many disciplines. It's a joy to return to them now because, after a decade away, we're able to see how these relationships have endured and resulted in sustained learning. We think it's a powerful model for today.




LP: How was the learning structured?
DM: These groups met for five days every other month for close to twenty years. In order to join the study group a person would have to name one thing in their life they really wanted to do that would be a risking of their significance; something that they couldn't do by themselves, but needed a community to support them.
Over the course of the five days we did multidimensional awareness practices — body work, walking in nature along the ocean — in order to find the central question our lives were asking us. We used music and every variety of the creative arts we could think of to live inside of that question. We used storytelling practices. Different people would come into the center of the circle, and they would move or express their question in some form. Then they'd sit down in the center of the circle and everybody else would stand up and they would mirror back to them what they had seen or felt or heard. Then the focal person stood up and took the question one step further.
After that we formed what I call "thinkubators.” Each of us sat surrounded by four or five people to share our questions and what we had learned thus far about them, and we also shared what our particular talents and assets were. The group then brainstormed resources and ideas to integrate the two.
LP: How do you think this learning model can be effective in helping us cultivate collective wisdom?
DM: I think it's important to understand how our internal awarenesses inform our outer work in the world, and how we integrate the two. One image that helps me reflect on this is a Mobius loop which, as you know, would be a circle except that one twist — what I call the turning point — connects the internal and the external. The kind of learning communities I'm describing, with individual questions at their core, can stimulate our capacity for turning attention inward to integrate internal awareness with external action. From this can come an understanding of how, as author Parker Palmer says, we can discover how to live in an energized way instead of frenzied and rest instead of going inert.
Neuroscience today is rich with fascinating new discoveries about how the brain is neuroplastic — how it can make new synaptic connections throughout our lives. For the last three years, I've been part of a group of 100 neuroscience clinicians and researchers from around the world who are participating in a moderated telecourse to explore this growing edge. One of the things we discovered is that none of us had ever been given or taught a definition of mental health. This is fascinating when you think about it, because if you don't know even what the outcome is, how do you make the journey? I believe this has contributed to the deficit focus we have today about human capacity.
This group has come to a working definition of mental health: The capacity to integrate. And I've been playing with extrapolating that to larger systems and asking "How does a healthy system integrate the forces of standardization and differentiation?" In corporations, we see the same thing that we see in school systems and governments — that healthy systems, as far as we can understand them, are stable, adaptable, flexible, and energized (It spells SAFE). Organic systems are always seeking to balance all four of those conditions.
When a system goes to the extreme of stability it gets rigidly standardized, brittle, and it breaks — which may be where we are right now in the United States. If it gets too far toward the differentiated end of the spectrum it gets overly chaotic. The system has to keep creating a balance, a Mobius loop if you will; a dance between standardization and differentiation. In my work with CEO's, they often said they wanted me to help their leadership teams think well together. But what they were usually talking about was making them all be able to think the same. They didn't understand that it would actually be more effective to help the team differentiate; help them understand how each one carried a unique gift to the rest of them. The more they differentiated, the more they could integrate. Each person understood the unique value he or she brought to the team.
Large systems tend to try to create stability without understanding that the system needs to balance on the differentiating end. They try to create stability through cohesiveness. In mathematics, cohesive is a term that describes a set of things with an impermeable membrane around them. But a healthy system, instead of cohesive, is coherent. In coherence, the membrane around the system is permeable so that the system internally is influenced by what is going on outside. It changes as it integrates.
Now, the healthy human brain is always seeking coherence by integrating right and left hemispheric functioning, rational and intuitive, logical and relational thinking, inner reality and outer. As new elements enter the human field of awareness, the internal field grows. I think this understanding has important implications for creating communities of people who can think together in order to cultivate wisdom.
LP: And as individuals, we have to risk our own significance to get there together?
DM: That's the key question that my life is asking me right now: How do I risk my significance? How do I give without giving myself away? I believe that in living that question we cultivate collective wisdom. We can help each other develop strategies for bringing tomorrow into today's choices by falling in love with beautiful, dangerous, mysterious questions that can't be answered, by reminding one another that what matters to us is important, that our questing does make a difference, and by remembering those who stand behind us.
In a culture as stuck in standardization as this one is, it can be very difficult to get over to the right side of the brain and imagine a possible future. Sometimes, we need to first look back in our lives to a time when we felt fulfilled and did make a difference. Then we can mine that tiny piece of history to think about how we could design a future. What we can conceive, we can create.