MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: XOXOXO

We bought THREE, count 'em THREE, XO laptops from our campaign from Dec 16 - 23.

My paypal account charged me $15.57 in fees which I am covering and I donated another $20 from myself. We raised a total of $642.

We have $45 remaining. I asked for a single donation on Twitter of $144 to buy a fourth. We'll see what happens. Otherwise, I will keep the $55 for next year's campaign unless someone really needs their donation returned. I'll gladly do that.

Greetings from Amazon Payments,
Your Dec 27, 2008 payment to OLPC Foundation for $597.00 has completed successfully. Here are the payment details:

Payment details:
---------------
Transaction ID: 13PSPJ55814IM1IOEJFCR32FGAB8Q6

VHHGA
Recipient: OLPC Foundation
For: Donation to provide children in developing countries with a laptop
Amount: $597.00
Date: Dec 27, 2008
Payment method: Mastercard XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-7018
Reference: Donation to provide children in developing countries with a laptop
Thank you for using Amazon Payments.

CHECK OUT 2008 THANK YOU'S
FROM ACTUAL KIDS WHO GOT AN XO LAPTOP

HERE'S THE FINAL COUNT

2:30 Section
$324 in total donations from 40% of a class of 20 students
from Daniela, Caroline, Melissa, Lynda (and her mom), Kashif, Victor
and special thanks to Yaroslav. Oh and I forgot to add Jessica Gil!!

4:10 Section
$228 in total donations from 38% of a class of 26 students
from Nicaury, Terentiy, Claumery (special thanks to her office), Craig,
Jou-man/Erica, Nuzzy, Ivana, Gabrijela, Jiaying, Kayla, Maimouna and Xiang.

Also Prof. Sarah Ryan and I made contributions to the overall effort.

NEXT YEAR / 2009:
I will send out an announcement. Best way to keep in touch is through our blog. Check back in November or contact me directly. I invite you all to participate. We will start November 1 next year. I learned SO MUCH that will make next year's campaign SING! and GENERATE LOTS OF DONATIONS! I would love to have a meeting to organize things in September of 2009. If you're interested add your email and name to the comments below.

CONGRATULATIONS TO EACH AND EVERY CLASS MEMBER ON OUR MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Rhode Island: An Immigrant Jail in an Immigrant Town

So many of you were moved by the last Conformity & Conflict chapter we read on immigrants vs. refugees. Happened upon this video from NYTimes this week on immigrants in Rhode Island. One of the things I am concerned about relative to illegal immigrants is creating a culture where the institution of the family is not at all respected among those whom we deem "illegal". They are still human beings and creating a capitalistic culture of wealth on top of family's misery seems unethical no matter what circumstances led to that plight.

NYTIMES: U.S.
An Immigrant Jail in an Immigrant Town

Locking up unauthorized immigrants for deportation is a growth industry. The jail in Central Falls, R.I., tried to cash in, but in a town full of immigrants, one result is a community living in fear.

Prof. G is going to TED2009!

I am ecstatic!!! I am getting SO EXCITED about going to TED Feb 2-6, 2009!

They just sent me the line up of speakers that includes Bill Gates on Day One. It is said that you can measure your influence by the people you interact with. My influence will be exponentially shifting from this event and it's already shifting from my introduction to the other 30 fellows. We are movers and shakers on the planet. About the conference theme:

Our theme is "The Great Unveiling" and every speaker is planning to share something they've never shared in public before. Stand by for new discoveries, new ideas, new beginnings. (In addition to the featured speakers, we have more than 50 members of the audience offering shorter contributions.)

I won't be speaking on stage but I have the opportunity speak among the TED fellows and be recorded for a TED U TALK!!! I am there!! Enjoy the video and stay tuned to the blog in February. I'll blog each day about it. For now, check out this teaser that was sent to us.



PS. There is one AMAZING TED talk I didn't get to show this term. It's by HANS GOSLING. Look in our tag cloud and check it out. It is relevant to what we think about the THIRD WORLD and how to debunk the stereotypes we have about us vs. them. Simply look for Hans Gosling in the blog's tag cloud.

OLPC Mission Part 1

Let's say you can't donate. Then be part of the marketing of our video!

To help promote our video over the next three days, got to YouTube and rate and comment on it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSWu6CLVL6Y

Also Nicholas Negroponte, founder of OLPC, throws the XO laptop! Check it out!

BARUCH XO CAMPAIGN GOES PUBLIC!!

Thanks to all who participated in making the concept, the video and making it all happen with your time and your dollars! What can $199 buy? A World of Difference!

One Laptop Per Class and other models for giving back

Hey I am going to miss the Fa08 generation of ANT1001!!

To the 2:30 section representin' SEEK, keep playing and loving and being great with each other all the way to graduation - NO JOKIN!! No one left behind! This is your greatest opportunity to shine beyond anything you've known before. But it takes 4 years!! Come on!

To the 4:10 section, I learned SO MUCH from you about other countries that I never had known. Taiwan, Albania, Serbia, Bangladesh, and Brooklyn much much more!! Your group presentations rocked my world!! And your listening to one another -- priceless!

Special thanks to you! Yes you! who is reading this. Without you, none of what happened was possible. Get that!!

The ONE LAPTOP PER CLASS video will be edited by Jeffrey from the 2:30 section.
What we are up is launching a yearly campaign called ONE LAPTOP PER CLASS where each Baruch class (700+) will be asked to by a $199 laptop. We already raised $199 + $280 from our two sections alone!! And we haven't collected all the donations yet.

TO MAKE A DONATION: click here

If each student and faculty of each class participates the cost is less than $10 per person for a class size of 20 - 100. We are doing the final edits on a viral video to entice other colleges and universities to join us by Dec 31st this year and to create buzz for next.

We just started finals today and we have already raised the funds for at least 2 laptops from both sections. The viral video is based on the Mastercard priceless commercial ads + Mike Wesch's Students Today videos. It will be launched in a day or two to catch the Dec 31 deadline for this year's OLPC.com campaign.

ALSO
Check out Darius Goes West
http://www.dariusgoeswest.org/

In this multi-award-winning documentary, fifteen-year-old Darius Weems and eleven of his best friends set off across America with the ultimate goal of getting his wheelchair customized on MTV’s Pimp My Ride. The result is a rarely seen testament to the explosive idealism of today’s youth, as well as a vivid portrayal of adventure, of brotherhood, and of the character and strength it takes to shed light on an uncertain future.

Not only does Darius Weems bravely face his own inevitable fate with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), but through his unflinching humor and his extraordinary laugh, he sparks a revolution in the lives of everyone who crosses–and then shares–his courageous path.

Raul Midon - Life Beyond Research Papers + Blindness + New Technology

MY MOTTO: "I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong." Richard Feyman

Dialogic Editing 101

I told you before I left for the funeral that I'd get you something on Dialogic Editing. Sorry for the delay. Here it is.

This practice helps tease out the difference between your etic view and their emic view of the culture (in some of your cases, there may be some overlap between the two).

After you have completed your draft. Submit it to your cultural consultant(s).

STEP 1
Have them read your draft.

STEP 2
Capture their reactions and feedback like a 2nd interview.

STEP 3
Read the one page from an article on Dialogic Editing
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhnm7kdd_22fzkcd7gd

STEP 4
Write a response titled (see below) based on the following questions. Keep it brief and succinct. You may go over your page limit if needed.

SECTION TITLE Dialogic Editing: A Postscript and Conclusion.

1. Ask your cultural consultant what they thought of your essay. Did you get what was important and what mattered to them? Or just what you saw from the outside?

2. Is there anything you missed that they thought must be included? Were there any misunderstandings? If so, try to notice why you misunderstood and write about that in this section.

3. Do they have any comments, after thoughts, or questions about the process or even suggestions regarding the interaction, your questions, or the essay? If so, capture the exchange and notice what you learned about the dialogic process of seeing from different points of views about a culture (from within and from without).

4. What did you learn from the dialogic editing? And from the entire project and process?

ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD/ THE XO COMPUTER

When I first got to Baruch in 2006, I heard a question raised about our prized diversity at Baruch from President Waldron. She said we know we are the most diverse institution but how does that translate to our culture or school on the whole?

Students from both sections of ANT1001 today agreed to launch a plan to invite the Baruch Community to participate in a ONE LAPTOP PER CLASS campaign (classes of 20 or more). We can donate money for an XO laptop for a child in the Third World that is being nationally advertised on TV and radio.

(How many classes do you think there at Baruch?)

DIVERSITY AT BARUCH AND FOR THE WORLD
As a diverse school representing over 121 countries, we as Baruch College have a unique opportunity to give laptops to educate the children of the world. The buy one get one campaign is $349 a pair but its only $199 to give a laptop. Let's just give laptops!!

With 20 students in a class, that $10 per person. $20 for two.
With 30 students, it's only $6 per person or $12 for two.

There are 57 students combined in both sections. 95% of those present were willing to support the campaign and/or contribute to a laptop. I am going to contact OLPC and see if THEY'LL set up a system for us. I already sent the email just now.

We have a committee of 8 students (Daniela, Enki, Bilal, Kashif, Ellie, Nuzzy, and Diana and maybe Angel) working to organize things.

ON THU DEC 11: We are creating a viral video on Thu and if approved it would be shown on the video kiosks on campus and linked as an announcement on Baruch sites and emails.

VIRAL CAMPAIGNING
We are on to an effective viral campaign. It could be city wide universities and colleges or even nationwide. Every child should have access to an education no matter where they are from. By tapping our own diversity at Baruch we can bridge the gaps that divide us (between students/faculty/staff, between nations/ethnicities, sexes, abilites, etc.).

If we play it right, we should contact OLPC with this as a idea to launch at all universities and colleges with Baruch as the leader.

I am writing for your support and participation. Regarding collecting money, given the short notice, we will simply use Amazon.com this year and create an old-fashioned (paper and pen) system of accounting for how much each class raises as well as posting it on our blog.

DATES
The span of the campaign would be from Fri Dec 12 to Wed Dec 23. If anyone wanted to contribute through Dec 31 online that would be fine too as long as they could note that on our blog.

I am aiming for at least 400 laptops this year. Next year? let's see how we do this year!

The mission of the OLPC campaign is to be able to provide laptops children can take home every night in an entire school. I think we could do something amazing (Obama like) in just 10 days.

CAN I COUNT ON YOUR SUPPORT?
This is a SIMPLE viral, online and email campaign. No paper flyers. I want to send an announcement inviting all faculty and staff to participate in all three schools by Friday.

Prof. G - Just some thoughts on your posts of late

I have been really enjoying the comments and reactions to Majora Carter's TED Talk and the post on Social Responsibility. I wished more of you responded to my previous post about whether "individual" or "fear" are social constructs. I am very interested in leading you all to consider that if most ideas we live by are socially constructed, like myths we live by, and all human cultures have their own way of thinking, believing, behaving and feeling about this common humanity we share, why is it so difficult to change something we made up? How do we get stuck with these things? It has implications for economics, for how we talk about our times. "We are in a financial crisis" gives a particular point of view of life when we might have had the same amount of money or even more during the Clinton administration boom and been worse off. Why?

Daniela was responding to the TED talk about the South Bronx with Majora Carter who is an excellent and passionate non-profit leader for greening the ghetto. Daniela as well as Edwin made some AWESOME comments--go back and read them. But often we can talk about change and what's missing but because we live in the US more often than not we have the luxury of talking but not necessarily acting.

We have so many luxuries here in the U.S. The luxury of a democracy, of money, of our position in the world, of choice, of free speech. They are awesome and wouldn't trade em for the world.

“Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind”

Henry David Thoreau (American Essayist, Poet and Philosopher, 1817-1862)

What do you think would have Thoreau say this and what about what you learned this semester from doing/reading/participating-observing/writing about anthropology, what aspects of what you have learned would you use as evidence for your answer?

AFTERTHOGHT: Hey what if "luxury" is something you can simply create (words create worlds)? What would you create in your speaking and how? Maybe it begins with simple pleasures.

A Refugee Crisis in Afghanistan - NYTIMES Video