Stress Management

This morning I forced myself to go for a little run since I had only been up for less than an hour and my shoulders were already feeling tight. The weather seems to have broken here and it is actually cooler than 70 degrees in the morning here now!

I didn't have that much time but I thought 20 minutes was better than nothing.

So I ran up my street, around the corner, and up the hill to this other residential neighborhood. And all of a sudden, ahead of me I started seeing women in pink t-shirts walking up the street. As I knew what it was...... I was coming upon the route for a breast cancer walk. And I started tearing up.

For my birthday in 2006, I participated in the Susan G Komen 3-day Breast Cancer Walk. It was an amazing, inspiring experience that I undertook partially because a friend of mine from grad school had been previously diagnosed with breast cancer a couple months after we graduated, and 2 weeks after she got married to another classmate, at the age of 29. I will have to paste more about her later......

I need to find a way to do more to others......

Looking for a tax write-off?

Just thought I would take the time to remind all of you that if you are looking for another tax write-off as the year comes to a close, consider charitable giving. Here are a few of my favorite foundations and organizations trying to make a difference (some of these may not be tax-deductible):

Project Red - Working with the Global Fund to provide medication, services and education about HIV and AIDS to men, women and children throughout Africa. In partnership with a number of retailers and manufacturers, varying % of profits from purchases of Project Red merchandise go to Global Fund programs. Partners include Motorola, the GAP, Converse, Emporio Armani, Amex and Hallmark.

Keep a Child Alive - dedicated to providing African children affected by HIV with much needed services and medication. 100% of donations go to directly to their programs.

Make it Right - to help families in the Lower 9th ward in New Orleans still struggling after Katrina.

ReNew Orleans - Purchase merchandise and 25% of the sale price is donated to 3 foundations dedicated to revitalizing New Orleans in an authentic way, Common Ground Initiative, Tipitina's Foundation and Replant New Orleans. Also hear music from New Orleans musicians.

The Humane Society - Donate to help save neglected and abandoned animals across the country.

Heifer International - Donations go to helping disadvantaged families around with world by providing livestock and training to make them more self-reliant.

Kiva - Microlending in a digital age. Make a small loan to a struggling entrepreneur in a developing country and give them to leg up they need on the road to economic empowerment.

My new favorite white person!

Alright, I already liked him because of his work on Project RED. For information see my previous post from and go get your Project RED t-shirt!) but now, I think I LOVE him! (i am exaggerating a bit but you get the idea....)

I really have to give Bono his props. He really is truly dedicated to helping the lives of people in Africa. And, in his latest endeavor, he has become to guest editor for Vanity Fair for the July issue which is dedicated ENTIRELY to the challenges and what can be done to improve the future of the the African continent.
There are also 20 different celebrity covers, shot by Annie Leibowitz, pairing different celebrities and thought leaders. Here are some of my favorites!


So go to the newstand and pick up a copy or two! And if there is a particular cover you want, you purchase a copy online here. Here is a listing of the table of contents for the edition:

Vanity Fair Special Issue: Africa

84 GENERATION KENYA
After decades of one-party rule, 90s Nairobi was a nonstop hustle, steeped in booze and corruption. No one was more surprised than Binyavanga Wainaina when Kenya began to trust itself.

96 THE TUTU CONNECTION
Archbishop Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize for opposing apartheid in South Africa. Talking with Brad Pitt, he explains why the fight for equality must go global. Photographs by Annie Leibovitz.

104 AT THE DESERT'S EDGE
Tunisia may top the list of Africa's success stories. Yet, as Christopher Hitchens discovers, five years after a devastating al-Qaeda attack, the threat of Islamic extremism still lingers in the air.
126 ENTER CHINA, THE GIANT
China's desperate oil grab is helping to fuel some of Africa's most vicious conflicts, including Darfur. Sebastian Junger follows the money, the guns, and the cycle of oppression. Photographs by Teun Voeten.

140 JEFFREY SACHS'S $200 BILLION DREAM
Extreme poverty can be eradicated, insists superstar economist Jeffrey Sachs—all it takes is determination, focus, and, well, money. In Uganda and Kenya, Nina Munk gets a tour of his ultimate battleground. Photographs by Guillaume Bonn.

156 THE LAZARUS EFFECT
aids is no longer a death sentence, thanks to miracle drugs. But millions still can't afford them. Enter the consumer-action strategy of (Product) Red. On the ground in Rwanda, Alex Shoumatoff learns what a difference buying (Red) can make. Photographs by Antonin Kratochvil.

162CONGO FROM THE COCKPIT
Despite being blacklisted, the Congo's rogue airline pilots keep trade flowing with jerry-rigged planes. As William Langewiesche finds, the family behind one charter outfit has an equally dramatic saga of wreckage and survival. Photographs by Guy Tillim.

168A MAN CALLED HOPE
When Nelson Mandela stepped out of the political spotlight, in 1999, he moved center stage in the struggle against H.I.V./aids. Bill Clinton, who took a similar path, shares his stories of the legendary freedom fighter.

170SHOWTIME IN THE SAHARA
Like a rowdy mirage, "the world's most remote" music festival fills the Sahara with explosive rhythm. MTV founder Tom Freston has scoped a lot of bands, but in Mali he hears a whole new dimension. Plus: Youssou N'Dour's West African playlist. Photographs by Jonas Karlsson.

176PORTFOLIO: SPIRIT OF AFRICA
Some see only Africa's poverty, disease, and corruption. They should look a bit closer. From archbishops and athletes to doctors and movie directors, V.F. focuses on 71 Africans who are defying the status quo. Portfolio by Jonas Karlsson, Mark Seliger, and other top photographers.

110OUT OF AFRICA
The DNA shared by the world's six-billion-plus people ultimately comes from the same place. Leading the Genographic Project, Spencer Wells traces a global debt to Africa.

116HALL OF FAME
Bobby Shriver and Evgenia Peretz nominate the Buffett siblings and the One Campaign for narrowing the gap between Africa's have-nots and America's haves. Photographs by Christian Witkin and Gasper Tringale.

118THE CONTINENTAL SHELF
Attending the first-ever Kwani? literary festival, in Nairobi, Elissa Schappell and Rob Spillman identify the grand old authors and hot young talents of an African renaissance. Photographs by Brigitte Lacombe.

198DIANA'S FINAL HEARTBREAK
As she divorced, Princess Diana found a very public new mission—to ban land mines—and a very private new man: Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan. In an excerpt from her forthcoming book, Tina Brown explores how Diana's promising second act turned dark.
Special Section

45"IT'S BONO, ON LINE ONE"
Following the 21-person relay on Annie Leibovitz's historic cover series—Warren Buffett to Oprah to George Clooney, among other high-profile handoffs—Lisa Robinson reports on their Africa connection.

FANFAIR
67
Like a prayer—Madonna's Malawi documentary brings hope to orphaned children. The Cultural Divide. Kelly Slater surfs J-Bay with the locals. Lisa Robinson's summer festivals.
Vanities

149
PHETO attraction. V.F.'s guest editor and Ed Coaster swashbuckle from Bamako to Soweto. Chris Rock's African vacation. George Wayne gushes over Liya Kebede.

A cool way to make a difference!

So I just happened to watching ABC Evening News tonight and was told about one of the coolest things ever! (well, I don't expect you to be as excited as I am but hopefully you will be inspired as well...)
I have been familiar with the concept of microfinance and microcredit for many years now. One of the things that has economic development in empoverished and developing countries is the inability for entrepreneurs to have access to capital. A vegetable seller wants to borrow $100 to set up a stand in the local market. Where can he go to borrow that money? There were very few options. He has no credit history since he has never had a bank account, no real collateral, and the amount he wants to borrow is much less than the loan minimum a traditional bank would lend. Previously, there was no place to for him to get the funds for his dream. But increasingly, there are options for these types of small scale entrepreneurs. You may have heard about the most recent Nobel Prize winner, Mohammad Yunus. He was just a Pakistani economics professor who saw the need for these types of loan in his native Pakistan and has turned it into a large lending organization that has one of the highest repayment rates and lowest default rates of a lending organization in the world. (He also founded Grameen Phone which provides loans for cellphones to women in villages with little or no phone service, who then resell use of the phone to their village mates -- when a person would typically have to travel a day or two to use a phone, this is an invaluable service.) The impact that these loans have on the people who get them and the economies that benefit from them are immeasurable! I had even looked into getting a job with the organization but the headquarters is located in Seattle :-( For more information on Grameen Bank and its sister organizations, click here.

At any rate, while these organizations sound great, there have not really been ways for regular people to be involved in them. Until now......

Meet Kiva.org!

Kiva.org brings microlending to the people. The organization, whose name means "agreement" in Swahili, partners with microfinance organizations and allows you to search through opportunities in numerous countries to lend money to needy entrepreneurs. And even cooler, there is an opportunity to pool your money with other lenders. You don't have to take on the risk of the entire loan requested. Instead, donate however much to have to spare toward the amount requested. And in the 3 years the site has been in existence and of the 9,000 loans they have enabled, they have only have one default! The site also provides information and pictures of the person requesting the loan as well as allows you to create a profile that will be shared when you make a loan. It is the personal connection that is created that is particularly appealing. You get a feeling for where and to whom your money is going. So I urge you all to go to the site, take a look and maybe donate a few dollars. Just think, for the cost of a martini or two, you could give a family in Uganda a cow!

One of the reasons ABC News did a story on Kiva was that they just recently started offering loans to entrepreneurs in Iraq. So if you feel frustrated about the war or helpless to try to find a way to help the situation in Iraq, you can make a loan. Other countries where
you can make a difference include Samoa, Togo, Kenya, Ecuador, Mexico, Azerbaijan, Nicaragua, Honduras, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ukraine, Tanzania, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Senegal, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cameroon, Bolivia, Uganda, Vietnam, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Guatemala & Bangladesh.

To view the ABC New story, click here.