Hurricane survivors have something to say

There are lots of people making decisions about the rebuilding of New Orleans, but the hurricane survivors and evacuees are rarely among them. The future of the city that was once full of the life and culture of the Caribbean, the Cajuns, the African diaspora, is being rebuilt, and the people of the city are being left out.

There's signs that this might change. A Hurricane Survivors Assembly, a March for Human Rights, and a Gulf Coast Youth Assembly are all planned for next week. Over 50 grassroots organizations that make up the People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition, and the Mississippi Distress Relief Coalition and the people most affected by the hurricane will discuss the solutions that will affect their future, and how they can have a voice in the decision making.

Here's to the people of New Orleans who made the city the cultural mecca that it once was -- and here's to hearing their agenda for the rebuilding. Who else could bring back the city in its former glory while changing the conditions that need to be changed?

And by the way, there is nothing more important to healing from a trauma than having a say over the future conditions of your life. The youth assembly could be the most healing thing to happen to the young people, still suffering from the sense of uncertainty and loss that the hurricane and subsequent mistreatment created.

Wal Mart movie's grassroots launch

The new movie on Wal-Mart launches this weekend, but not at your local corporate-owned cineplex. In 7,000 living rooms, coffee shops, church basements, union halls, and bookstores around the U.S. and in more than a dozen other countries, ordinary people will be gathering to watch Robert Greenwald's new film, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.

If, as Marshall McLuhan said, the media is the message, the message here is the power of the grassroots. Maybe Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and Fox TV want to keep dishing out mind-numbing repetitions, and maybe they succeed by their standards -- selling our attention to advertisers who turn creative, thinking people into docile consumers (and sometimes misguided voters).

But many of us do want to think, to debate, and to have some control over the future of our communities.

Grassroots screenings like these are not only great ways to get around the filters of the big corporate film distributors, they also bring people together, and when people get organized, they get powerful.

If you want to find a screening near you, you can find one here.

How to help Himalayan earthquake victims

Winter will be arriving soon in the earthquake-struck regions of Pakistan and India, where steep mountain terrain and the size of the disaster are making relief extremely difficult and the needs of the millions of earthquake survivors increasingly desperate.

Here are some ways you can help:

The Mountain Institute in Washington, DC, is accepting donations for tents for earthquake victims. A 12-person tent costs $145. The Mountain Institute will pass along the entire contribution directly toward the purchase of the tent. You can make a donation on line with a credit card or by check:
Send to:
The Mountain Institute
1707 L Street NW, Suite 1030, Washington, DC 20036 USA

In either case, specify that you want your donation to go to "Tents for Himalayan Earthquake Victims."

You can get more information by emailing the tent appeal.

Here are some other places you could send donations, as recommended by Grantmakers Without Borders:

• American Jewish World Service
• Association for the Development of Pakistan
• Association for India's Development
• The Citizens Foundation
  
• Give2Asia
• Global Fund for Women

Grantmakers Without Borders recommends organizations that emphasize long-term, grassroots-based rebuilding, with special attention to marginalized communities, especially women and indigenous peoples.