There are saints, then there is Paul Farmer, the co-founder of Partners in Health.
He values all life equally. I’d like to think I do too, but I don’t. Not like Farmer.
The New Yorker did a feature on him and asked how he would set the ratio of the love for his own children and his love for unknown children.
“I don’t know where I’d set it,” Farmer answered, “but I would not let many children die so my kids could live. I don’t think that two kids should die so that one of my kids has comfort, and I don’t know that two children should die so…
I started the #ten4tues project on Tuesday and I was thrilled to have a number of participants via Twitter, Facebook, and this blog.
This week I’m giving away a copy of The Life You Can Save by Peter Singer. I assigned all the participants a number and then used this random number generator to make the final selection. And the winner is…
Rob Reed! Rob gave to the Clinton-Bush Haiti initiative.
I’m in the process of selecting next week’s organization to donate my $10 to. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.
Also, I’m actively seeking folks who would be interested in donating something to the giveaway. I’m donating $10 every week and can’t afford to buy and ship a prize each time. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy. …
I couldn’t have written “Where Am I Wearing?” today.
First, lenders aren’t exactly handing out second mortgages any more and I used mine to partly fund my global quest.
Second, our health care costs have skyrocketed.
In 2009 we were on four different health insurance plans the first four months of the year. Starting January 1st, 2009, Annie’s coverage at work became way too expensive. Still we had to bare the expense until Harper was born because…
Health Insurance is Killing us Reason #1: You can’t get coverage if you’re pregnant.
Health Insurance is Killing us Reason #2: Small businesses can’t afford to offer insurance because of the high cost. Yet employees can’t afford to have a job that doesn’t offer them health insurance. …
Sometimes my travel recollections are less memories and more hauntings. I’m haunted by a legless beggar in Nepal who chased me around a stupa swinging wildly at my legs with a stick. I’m haunted by the smile of an orphan in Guatemala. I’m haunted by the smell of a dump in Cambodia.
I never know what will trigger a travel haunting. The other day I was speaking at a high school in San Francisco and another one surfaced.
I was in the village of Matlab in Bangladesh. My translator, Dalton, was giving me a tour of the village when a serious looking man approached us. He grabbed me by the arm and led us through the worn dirt paths around rice paddies and ponds until we stood in a…
Old truck tyres never die, they just turn into sandals. For decades that has been the tradition in Ethiopia, where everyone from farmers to guerrilla fighters has fashioned worn-out road rubber into cheap, long-lasting footwear.
But now, thanks to a young woman entrepreneur who has combined the internet‘s selling power with nimble business practices more often associated with Asian countries, the idea has been turned into an unlikely international hit. By adding funky cotton and leather uppers to recycled tyre soles, Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu has sold many thousands of pairs of handmade flip-flops, boat shoes, loafers and Converse-style trainers to foreign customers.
Annie’s cousin Steph sent me this with the title “Marketing for your next book.” I have no idea what this is, but I’m considering paying Swedish broadcasting fees anyhow.
It’s strange not being able to read a book that you’ve written or even your name. But such is the case when I received the Korean translation of “Where Am I Wearing?” in the mail.
A lot of folks have worked on the book, but few have spent as much time with it as this translator. I would love to sit down and have a chat with them to see how they went about translating “fella” and “undercover underwear buyer.”
I suspect Korea was interested in the topic because they had a thriving garment industry in the 1960s which is anything but thriving today. Need proof? Inventory the clothing labels in your closet.
I had nothing to do with selecting the winners. I just handed you the clues on a silver platter, especially that last video where I say Honduras several times.
The good folks at Wiley, my publisher, just emailed me the names of the randomly selected winners.
The grandprize winner of the HD flipcam and Frommer’s guides is Melissa Markofski, a longtime follower of my blogging exploits. Congrats Melissa!
The runner-up winners of Frommer’s guides are Phillip Bohning and Simon Tatum. Yes, the Simon Tatum of film-making fame.
Thanks everyone for entering. There were nearly 400 entries. Special thanks go out to Diana Bernardo and Larry Olson of Wiley for scheming up this idea and providing the goodies, and to all the awesome folks at Rule29, the best darn designers west of the…
I couldn’t have written “Where Am I Wearing?” today.
