ken atchity door to door: May 2009

It's not the despair that kills you--it's the hope.--John Cleese [via Dennis Palumbo]

Defining The Art Of Love Through The Art Of Yoga With Christine Burke

Sunday May 31st 2-4pm- Suggested Donation $20 - Benefits Yoga Gives back!

Our entire lives are affected and driven by our ability to give and receive love. Our relationship to love and how we define it for ourselves colors, informs and often decides our relationship with ourselves, others and the planet on which we live. When we feel out of balance, stuck or disconnected it is often due to a lack of clarity about what love means to us. This may lead to feeling that we don't know how to "get it" ot "keep it" or "experience it". Yoga can give us the space and context in which to explore this powerful feeling, which is actually a state of being and which is actually what we are - LOVE!

Come spend a liberating afternoon with Christine and begin to unlock the doors of your heart through an all levels vinyasa class that will include mudra, mantra, chanting and meditation. There will also be a raffle and vegan and veggie pizza!

Yoga Gives Back is an incredible organization founded by our very own Joel Bender, Kayoko Mitsumatsu and orgaized and produced by other dedicated yogis including other Liberation students such as Jason Oslo Kolker.

Visit www.yogagivesback.org to learn more.

AEI CLIENT DENNIS PALUMBO TAKES DICK CHENEY TO TASK

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Dennis Palumbo

Posted: May 23, 2009 07:01 PM

THE DICK CHANEY "PROBLEM": A MODEST PROPOSAL

To my teenage son's chagrin, I'm kind of clueless about computers. In fact, I only half-jokingly refer to myself as a Luddite when it comes to technology.

Well, I'm up-grading from Luddite to full-blown Quaker, because after watching and listening to former Vice-President Dick Cheney's relentless attacks on President Obama's policies, I'm now in favor of bringing back public shunning. If anyone needs to be shunned, it's a guy who favors torture, unnecessary wars, and outing CIA agents.

Hell, maybe shunning isn't enough. Maybe we should take a leaf from the Bush administration's playbook and subject Cheney to the "enhanced interrogation technique" known as putting people in stocks. It could be that a couple days in an enforced sitting position, locked in wooden stocks in the public square, while outraged citizens and bemused schoolchildren point and laugh would prompt an attitude adjustment on Cheney's part. Though, admittedly, I doubt it.

What Cheney is doing with his incessant attacks on Obama is nothing less than attempting to undermine the presidency, which---paradoxically, given his so-called concerns---has the net effect of actually making us less safe. By emphasizing his lack of trust and belief in the current administration, Cheney makes strengthening our ties with allies a much more difficult task. It also makes Obama's goal of clarifying our commitment to national security while maintaining our core values as a nation all that much harder to attain.

After 9/11, former Vice President Al Gore admirably threw his support behind George W. Bush, and urged everyone, including his still-dispirited supporters, to do the same. Where is this sense of patriotism and putting-America-first from Dick Cheney? Usually only too happy to wrap himself in the flag, Cheney apparently has no compunction about trying to undermine this new administration, even before it's been in office six months.

So I say let's put on our colonial peaked hats, break out the wooden stocks, and make a statement of our own. Maybe then Dick Cheney will have the decency shown by his former boss and just slink back to some ranch somewhere, start clearing some pesky brush, and save his self-serving vitriol for his inevitable memoirs.

JOHN STEWART ON OBAMA VS CHENEY “EVERYBODY DUCK!” [via Nina Reznick]

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

American Idealogues

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Economic Crisis

Political Humor

You never give up, because the next one could be a hit. The next one could change your life. My film school is a man named Darryl F. Zanuck. I learned everything I knew from him. Story. Story. Story. Story. It was the story that really made the movie.—David Brown [on a laminated buckslip on the desk of Donald Deline, Produced By Spring 2009]

Yoga Gives Back Fundraiser next Sunday

Hi Everyone!

Please come, join us this special class by Liberation Yoga Studio Owner Christine!!

E mail back to me, to register early to get 5 dollars off.

As always, there will be raffles and refreshments after sweating together. We thank you for your generosity and look forward to seeing you all there.

Join our Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yoga-Gives-Back/97145415476

Kayoko Mitsumatsu
yoga gives back
Los Angeles, California
tel: 310-991-9599
http://www.yogagivesback.org/

If you enter deep enough, remain long enough, you will find what you seek. But you’ve got to enter with heart and soul—and check your belongings outside. (By belongings I mean—fears, prejudices, superstitions.)—Henry Miller

All depends on one’s point of view. To make life more beautiful, more wonderful, more deep and satisfying, we must gaze with fresh, clear vision upon every contributing element of life.—Henry Miller

CLARK LITTLE - WAVES

Today we seem animated almost exclusively by fear. We fear even that which is good, that which is health, that which is joyous. And what is the hero? Primarily one who has conquered his fears. One can be a hero in any realm; we never fail to recognize him when he appears. His singular virtue is that he has become one with life, one with himself. Having ceased to doubt and question, he quickens the flow and rhythm of life.—Henry Miller, The World of Sex

Mr. Fitzgerald, I believe that is how he spells his name, seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home. -Zelda Fitzgerald - [via Adria Lang]

"Tim Robbins Finds his Dad's Picture on the Wall, Gil Robbins of The Highwaymen

Find more videos like this on MANNY'S VIRTUAL WALL

Read about it: The New Yorker Magazine

"All that is really worthwhile is action. Personal success or personal satisfaction are not worth another thought." - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

“I’ll escort you to your boat, but I won’t go on.”—overheard in the Suquet, 5/15/09

CLARK LITTLE - TUBES

OBAMA WOWS PRESS WITH HIS UNIVERSALLY CAUSTIC STAND-UP ROUTINE [via Nina Reznick]

PART ONE

PART TWO

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

FINALLY A DRUG FOR THE OVERLY CHIPPER [via Nina Reznick]

K.M.: I don’t lose things.
KJA: That’s the truth. You haven’t even been able to lose me.
--5/8/09 walk to Grove

NATURE’S OWN STAINED GLASS [via Nina Reznick]

Transparent Butterfly

It comes from Central America and is found from Mexico to Panama . It is quite common in its zone, but it not easy to find because of its transparent wings, which is a natural camouflage mechanism. A butterfly with transparent wings is rare and beautiful. As delicate as finely blown glass, the presence of this rare tropical gem is used by rain forest ecologists as an indication of high habitat quality and its demise alerts them of ecological change. Rivaling the refined beauty of a stained glass window, the translucent wings of the Glasswing butterfly shimmer in the sunlight like polished panes of turquoise, orange, green, and red. All things beautiful do not have to be full of color to be noticed: in life that which is unnoticed has the most power.

AEI CLIENT TRACY PRICE THOMPSON STEPS OUT WITH DELTA SIGMA THETA

Swine Flu ***HELPFUL HINTS

WHAT NOT TO DO [via Steven Kates]

DON'T DO THIS AND YOU SHOULD BE O.K!

More Bits of Wisdom - Tolle & Fish

Being at one with what is doesn’t mean you no longer initiate change or become incapable of taking action. But the motivation to take action comes from a deeper level, not from egoic wanting or fearing. Inner alignment with the present moment opens your consciousness and brings it into alignment with the whole, of which the present moment is an integral part. The whole, the totality of life, then acts through you.—Tolle

The marvel is that focused intensity can be achieved even in the act of failure, even by someone who knows what to do but most of the time can’t quite do it. And it is for that intensity — not its object or its goal — that one plays, for in those moments of surrender to the game all one’s troubles, all one’s strivings, all one’s petty irritations fall away. And if, occasionally, you actually do set the hard pick or deliver the perfect pass or make the improbable shot, well, that’s just icing on the cake.—Stanley Fish (New York Times) via Vincent Atchity

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Yoga Gives Back

Written by Kayoko Mitsumatsu

From Posture To Power: Microcredit Changes Lives On Both Sides of the Ocean

We can talk about making change. But affecting real change in the world comes from impacting the lives of individuals. It comes from empowering people to be independent and able to make a living on their own while at the same time being fully integrated in our interdependent global community. Sometimes it takes something that seems to be radical to make this change, but these shifts can be deceptively small. They can be even as small (or as large) as the cost of a Los Angeles Yoga class.

How could this be? In the practice of microcredit, lending seemingly small amounts of money to small-scale entrepreneurs allows them to succeed and change their circumstances. This is the fundamental basis of microcredit’s transformative power; it’s a revolutionary concept in finance. This practice shifts the emphasis from financial transactions being focused only about large loans and large scale businesses, which are out of reach of many one-person operations, institutions and organizations – to lending practices that actually make a positive difference in a person’s life. Microcredit practices based on social justice and empowerment operate through a combination of small-scale loans based on trust and community support, with structured repayment plans and programs that encourage savings. In these situations, people actually have the opportunity to solidify long-term change in their lives.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the Yoga Gives Back Team: Joel Bender, Leslie Hendry, Dr. Muhammad Yunus and Kayoko Mitsumatsu (left-right)

In 2006, economist Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the institution he founded, the Grameen Bank, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This award was in recognition of their revolutionary efforts to create this micro-credit model, support sustainable economic practices, and provide an alternative to what were exploitive norms. When a person is caught in a cycle of poverty, they may become trapped in the system, particularly since large banking institutions have historically ignored people without assets or credit histories, who are just starting out and who may not have already proven themselves. Most banks prefer to lend large sums of money that represent a greater profit margin and are set up only for large loans in order to make a profit themselves. And even making it more challenging, people at the bottom of the economic scale worldwide have had to rely on moneylenders charging usurious terms and interest rates to obtain funds to plant the next crop, buy inventory of new equipment, or upgrade a business in any way. Institutions such as the Grameen Bank and their affiliates are offering another approach. It’s one that has significantly impacted millions of people.

As Dr. Yunus described in an exclusive interview with Yoga Gives Back in May, 2009, “We started in 1976, and today within Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, eight million people borrow micro loans, ninety-seven percent of them women.” This represents an enormous potential for change and empowerment that just did not exist on a large scale in this form prior to 1976.

There is a social cycle in economics, and Dr. Yunus explained this: “Poverty is not inside the person. Poverty is forced from outside. Poor people are as capable [a] human being as anybody else. They have the same power and energy, same potential. But they are denied such facilities. They cannot express themselves. Money is one of the most important items missing in their lives. You need a dollar to catch a dollar. You cannot catch a dollar with an empty hand. So, that first dollar, nobody has given to her. So she remains dependent on someone else. She has to be hired, to slave; she has to work to make food available on the table. What we have done, we have put that first dollar into her hands as a banking proposition. Conventional banks never come to the poor people. They go to rich people to make more money. The person who does not have a dollar – she cannot get it. So we did it. We did it in a way that is affordable to her. Because we do not insist on collateral. There is no collateral.”

While that may seem like a radical concept, the Grameen Bank has proven that their success is much more than ideological. Dr Yunus cited statistics for us, “The repayment rate is almost 100%, without collateral or anything. This is the strength of microcredit which is now spread all over the world. There are by now at least 150 million borrowers in the world today. Bu it is still very small comparing to the need. We need more microcredit organizations in the world so that more people can be reached.”

Yoga Gives Back is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization begun in LA, with the goal to provide a way for Western Yoga practitioners to give back to India, the birthplace of Yoga, which has given us so much. We’re heeding Dr. Yunus’ call to reach more people through expanded opportunities for and awareness of microcredit and have targeted India and Indian families, women, and would-be entrepreneurs, who would be otherwise stuck in the cycle of poverty that Dr. Yunus described. Yoga Gives Back supports microfinancing operations in India, through the Grameen Foundation, headquartered in Washington, DC. Donations go directly to Grameen Koota, Bangalore, South India and our YGB awareness campaign focuses on the real stories of how poor women are changing their lives with small loans from Grameen Koota.

Ms. Vinatha M Reddy

Grameen Koota was started by visionary teacher and philanthropist, Ms. Vinatha M Reddy (pictured, above) in 1999, who learned about Nobel Peace Recipient Dr Muhammad Yunus’ microfinancing and immediately began exploring ways of replicating his work in her hometown. In 2000, she started providing small microcredit loans, averaging $25.00 a month, to fifty local women. Today, Grameen Koota’s work is reaching out to over 280,000 women in Bangalore, Mysore and many areas of Karnataka state, in South India, making real impact on these women’s lives as well as on the local economy.

Yoga Gives Back

The Los Angeles-based Yoga Gives Back has a worldwide reach and began out of the inspiration and dedication of my Yoga mentor Joel Bender and me. Our group has suddenly started growing almost daily and our mission is shared by a quickly expanding and loving Yoga community.

When I was growing up in Japan, which is a very middle-class society, I had never experienced or seen any real poverty, especially growing up in Tokyo in 1960s and 1970s, when Japan's post-war economic miracle was taking place. Then, I had a chance to live in Brazil in the late 1970s for two years, where as a teenager, I saw the divide between poverty and wealth, the reality of the real slums, kids on the streets begging every time you stopped the car at the traffic light, all very much like India. Social injustice hit me hard.

Once I started Yoga practice and feeling my life being so enriched by it , I felt a need to use my resources to help others. I was producing a documentary on Social Entrepreneurship and learned about microfinancing. I shared this information with Joel [featured in the teacher profile in this month’s issue of LA YOGA] who had been looking for the way he could give back to India since his first visit there – so we teamed up.

When I think about the growth of Yoga Gives Back thus far, I give a lot of credit to the entrepreneurship and volunteer spirit of Americans, willing to embrace and support a new grass roots campaign like ours.

Kayoko Mitsumatsu, co-founder of Yoga Gives Back, is a documentary filmmaker whose films deal with social justice issues, including First They Killed My Father a memoir of a Cambodia’s Killing Fields’ survivor.

A Life Changing Story of Microcredit: Jayashree

Jayashree

Jayashree lives in the suburbs of Bangalore and is married and the mother of two children. We visited her at her humble dirt floor one room home for the first time in 2007. We were touched by her warm smile and most generous hospitality, serving us hot tea and cookies.

Jayashree was born into a very poor family in Bangalore. When she was a child, her family’s financial situation became so severe that she had to drop out of school and work at a garment factory. She toiled throughout her childhood and after she got married at fifteen, her meager earnings had to support her ailing in-laws. She had two children. Her husband’s rickshaw business was not enough to pay her sons’ education or secure food for the family.

In 2007, Jayashree learned from her neighbors about Grameen Koota’s microcredit program and applied for her first loan. She was granted a first loan of 7,000 rupees ($175), and immediately bought her husband’s auto rickshaw. Owning their own rickshaw business increased their income significantly.

Jayashree was able to pay back her entire loan in one year and became eligible for her second loan in 2008. Having proven her diligence, her second loan amount doubled to 15,000 rupees ($375). This time, she bought a sewing machine and started stitching bags. The family’s earnings have now tripled and she is earning 150 rupees ($3.75) a day. In addition, she opened a small shop next to her house to sell her products which is earning her an additional 100 rupees ($2.50) a day.

She is sending her elder son to a medical school. Her son dreams of becoming a doctor and thanks his mother’s business for providing his education, their own home and daily food.

To participate in a Yoga practice where the proceeds support Yoga Gives Back and directly impact the transformation of not only your own life, but that of someone in India, start your Thanksgiving week at Yogaglo, Sunday, November 22, 10:00 A.M. - 12 noon. Some of the teachers include John Sahakian, Felicia Tomasko, Alexandra Aiken and Ally Hamilton; more to be announced. Yogaglo.com; yogagivesback.com.

For more information on Yoga Gives Back or to host a Yoga Gives Back class at your own studio or location, visit: yogagivesback.org or contact yogagivesback@earthlink.net.