Modus Cooperandi

Making Poverty History

I pulled this from a  woman, Michelle whose posts I read on another list.  It's a who set of videos on the ONE project to make poverty history.  In spite of being a little tired of the colored wrist bands, I could go for one of these.

What is The ONE Campaign?
ONE is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans – ONE by ONE – to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. The ONE Campaign is engaging Americans through a diverse coalition of faith-based and anti-poverty organizers to show the steps people can take, ONE by ONE, to fight global AIDS and poverty.

Cooperative Religion

I have been waiting a while to interview a priest in Wisconsin who is the head of a parish that used to be three parishes.  They had a crisis where they were forced to consolidate the three parishes.  In the past there would have been six to nine priests serving that population.  Now there is only one.

To deal with this, the parishoners themselves had to step up and take on many responsibilities formerly dedicated to the clergy.  This had the effect of giving the parishoners ownership of their own faith.  This ownership strengthened the parish.  In short, less leadership created a stronger community with a stronger faith.

Recently Ulises Ali Mejias presented at the Los Angeles Latino Muslim Association's annual meeting this discussion about the intersection of collaborative technologies and Muslim believers.  Despite the fact that at this echo the two comments engendered were not favorable, I find it very consistent with the Catholic experience above.

Ali Mejias is noting that when religion becomes closer to the person, closer to the heart, practitioners of a faith are forced to come to terms with the intersection of that faith and how they live day to day.  In most cases, these examinations are most effective when done with a community.  While the danger of group think is always possible, the benefits of peer review and support often outweigh.

In this case, the parallel between open source coding and religion, I feel, is apt.  Persons of faith need to work at home on the own (introspection) and need to collaborate with others (community) in order to provide a good product for themselves and society as a whole.

Feeding the World Online

I have a particular interest in the problem of hunger.  Not that I'm generally hungry, in fact, I don't get terribly hungry most of the time.  Hunger is strange.  Most of us have never felt it much.  My father decided a few years ago that in order to understand what being hungry was like, he would just not eat one day a week.  He did it for quite some time.  What he discovered was sort of interesting.  He ate well enough most of the time, that in some 18 months, he was only really uncomfortably hungry a few times.  Most of the time, a cup of tea was enough to make the sense of hunger go away.

I really don't like the idea of people not having enough to eat.  I don't like the idea of people in crisis, temporary or long term, going without food. 

What I love is that more and more, there are stunningly simple ways to be part of a movement to feed the hungry, online.  Whole online communities or even just quick site hits.  The Hunger Site gives food  away every time someone clicks a link on their site.  Business donate the food in exchange for eyes on their ads.  Sojouners' Jim Wallis has been beating the drum that hunger in the world is a moral issue.  Yesterday I got an ad for a new group I hadn't seen before called  Bread for the World which has the tagline Seeking Justice Ending Hunger.  It's a group that shows you how to lobby politicians, among other things, to approach the issue of hunger. Bread for the World has a page of links to other organizations looking to end poverty and hunger.  There's a great online community collaboration site sponsored by the World Bank with the header "Connect - Collaborate - Change your world."  Just another great way that online communities of people are getting together, collaborating, sharing ideas, working together to hit an issue.
 

Culture and the Feeding Tube

I was very moved by this NPR story this morning regarding Terri Schiavo.  Overall, my own feelings about the case were so strong and clear that I was not going to write about them.

It didn't seem like it really fit with this particular blog or its goals of exploring elements of cooperation.

However, given yesterday's blog entry, this is an amazingly powerful piece.  In it Barbara Bradley Hagerty explores the situation by expressly asking religious scholars from many faiths what their interpretation of the case is and why.

My friend Trevor once told me "Never condemn someone for trying to do good."  It is clear that people here (Terri's parents and husband) are trying to do good, although we are witnessing it in a very public and ugly way.

Cooperation and mutual understanding are very difficult in a situation so emotionally charged and with such immediate consequences.

Our Dysfunctional Relationship with Culture

In discussing cooperation with my Seattle think-group, we kept coming back to issues of culture.  Is this an American thing to be studying?  How do other cultures regard cooperation in its various forms?  Things like that.

We do this because we like to be "multi-cultural" and "inclusive."  Certainly laudible goals in their own right. 

But the relationship with Americans a culture / race is a tenuous one.  A tightrope we walk daily -- always wanting to respect various cultures but not offend them.  There are a variety of reasons for this.

The largest two being:

1. When does a subculture become a culture?
2. Where is the dividing line between respecting someone's culture and defining them by it?

Given that every person on the planet is an individual, we all fit into our various cultures in a personal way.  And many people may visibly "belong" to a culture that they have no community or personal association with.

Ask any second or third generation Asian American what country they are from or what their native language is and you'll catch on pretty fast.

The latest installment in our internal struggle with these issues is exemplified in the case of Los Angeles Judge Gold.  Judge  Gold "conspired" (to use the loaded term from the article) with the District Attorney's office to systematically exclude Jews (like himself) and black women from death penalty juries.

That sounds pretty bad and it likely is.  But it is borne of this social dilemma of cultural interaction. 

Benson's Cultural Dilemma

Treating assumed culture or race as an infallible indicator of individual intent  obliterates interpersonal understanding.  Ignoring culture or race  when evaluating individual intent is to willingly take actions of out context.

In the case of Judge Gold, he examined his knowledge of the Jewish faith and came to the conclusion that no practicing Jew could vote for the death penalty.  While being the textbook example of discrimination, it is also harsh pragmatism and consistent with the voir dire process. 

Note in the voir dire link these two sections (5 and 6):

Inquire about relationships affecting your case. You should inquire whether any panel members know anything about the facts of the case, have seen or heard any publicity relating to the case, know any of the parties, know or have business dealings, ownership interest in, or financial involvement with the opposing party, know any of the lawyers on the other side, know any of the witnesses, or have ever been involved in a similar incident or a similar lawsuit.

General areas of bias or prejudice. These may include whether the jurors have ever had legal or medical training, have ever handled the investigation of claims or accidents, have ever been a plaintiff or a defendant in a lawsuit, or a member of any group regarding tort reform or "lawsuit abuse," have any personal, religious, political, or other opinions regarding lawsuits or what they may have seen and heard regarding tort reform which would affect their opinion in this case.

While I wouldn't have worded some of these things this way, this illustrates that in voir dire strikes for reasons of culture are common and perhaps encouraged.  In the preemptory phase of voir dire, no reason needs to be given for striking a juror.  They are entirely based on discretion.

Judge Gold's alleged blanket application of culture, race and gender in striking jurors was, if true, obviously wrong.   His tactic would have been more sound to note the presence of people apparently falling into various identifiable categories and then base voir dire questions to test his (or the DA's)  assumptions.

Actions such as these are built on our over-estimation of labels over human beings.  Our relationship with culture in all its forms is, in my opinion, our most pronounced social dilemma today.