A palm filled roof, hot summer night air and glistening bodies doesn’t sound like the typical charity event, but that was the scene at MGIH last night. Thank you to the 250-300 of you came out in the heat to help our 3 amazing nonprofits – South Sustainable South Bronx, City Year, and StartingBloc – there were some great ideas, contacts made and awareness raised.

We’ll be following up shortly with each group on how ride the wave of energy and action from the night. KIT

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The state of Burma has been sad, infuriating and mind boggling. But finally, 5 weeks after Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta, the country’s leaders have granted admission to foreign relief groups.

Fearing a hidden “Western agenda”, they’d only accepted funds and supplies, while rejecting aid workers, and the use of foreign military and UN civilian helicopters. Only now has Burma’s leader, Gen. Than Shwe, told visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Friday that he would be more flexible on access.

The UN estimates that up to 2.4 million Burmese need emergency assistance–nearly 80,000 people are said to have died; 56,000 are counted as missing.

Calls on China and other Asian allies to pressure the junta to allow for aid have gone unheeded, with China insisting that Burmese sovereignty must be respected above all. That sovereignty expressed itself in the junta extending house arrest for Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, quickly passing a new constitution, and police arresting droves of the newly homeless.

ADB Action

ADB has a direct connect with some monks in Burma (who tend to do some of the best relief work). Monks have been providing aid to victims, reaching 300 villages with supplies and turning his monestary into a refugee center. They’re looking to buy more generators and water purifiers so help them out by donating here.

ADB may be turning out some monks here in the states for a benefit event too… keep an eye out for red robes.

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“If you had to rebuild your city, how would you rebuild it?” Almost three years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is still recovering from a storm that destroyed 80% of the city. While many are still struggling, New Orleans has also attracted thousands of young people from diverse backgrounds, who are passionate about rebuilding an American City in a more equitable way. The city is attracting innovators from top schools like Harvard & Stanford young creative professionals from all over the world.

NOLAYURP, an organization based in New Orleans, and CEOs for Cities are hosting a conference called Urban Next Summit from July 24th – 25th. They’re expecting around 150 young leaders from around the country to help answer questions such as “what makes a city a magnet for passionate young people?” and “how can a city engage this talent and hold onto them for the future?”

Conference attendees will have the opportunity to hear from distinguished speakers, learn about innovative strategies for cities and explore New Orleans is an insider. If interested, you can apply to be an attendee by clicking here. Find out more information by visiting nolayurp.org.

If young innovators around the world had a chance to rebuild a city, what would it look like? I would make all the houses green and move all the roads underground. Ahhh, that would be nice!

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The theme, ‘Emergence: Creative pioneers in uncharted territory’ was chosen to resonate with the context of the emergence of a historically rich Governors Island. This show, in the ‘Commanders House’ (Building 14) is part of the growing cultural renaissance of the island and an exploration of its creative potential.

The Commanders house has morphed from an abandoned outpost into an inclusive, interactive, 3-dimensional, living exhibit, featuring contributions from visual artists working across fields of media which include but are not limited to sculpture, installation art, aerial kinetic sculpture, photography, and computer graphic sequencing. The installation will change over the course of the summer as a result of the interactive elements and the engagement of visiting participants.

What are the resultant artifacts in the experience of discovery of land, creating a new set of rules and culture? What is the romanticized idea of moving to a brave new world? These can include authentic objects and ephemera of time or contemporary objects that reference people and things of the past. Who are the people who lived and passed through the island? The present reveals our questioning of economic, political, environmental, social and sustainability issues. What are challenges that we are facing today? Creative explorations of the future will reveal new inventions, manifestos and fantasies that illuminate our understanding of self, place, change and time

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The Budget Fashionista, a quirky and popular blog dedicated to “helping the world be fabulous for less,” came up with a creative and easy way to donate to Breast Cancer research. For every comment posted on her site, she’s donating $1 to the Breast Cancer Research Fund. Her goal is to donate at least $1000 and she’s about a third of the way there. Ditto to one of the more recent comments: “Great cause! You go girl!”

There were 4,641 applications submitted and we’re grateful to have made it in the final 100. Last week alldaybuffet made it to the Case Foundation’s “Make It Your Own Awards” top 100 semifinalists! Check out the others that made the cut here.

The Make It Your Own Awards™ is about people connecting with others in their community, forming solutions, and taking action.

The Make It Your Own Awards™ came about in response to research showing that many people feel disconnected from public leaders and institutions and don’t believe they have the power to make a real difference in their community. These findings were the reason for a paper we released last fall, Citizens at the Center: A New Approach to Civic Engagement* by Cynthia Gibson, which suggests that if people are actually going to get engaged and stay engaged in their communities, one thing has to happen first — they must have more chances to connect with one another (including those they might disagree with) and figure out how they can work together for the common good.

This isn’t a “bottom-up” or “top-down” approach. It’s a combination of both.

… alldaybuffet anyone?

The top 100 finalists will get $100 from the Case Foundation to jump-start their idea. Next, twenty finalists will receive a $10,000 grant to make their idea into a reality. The final four (chosen by a public online vote aka: all of you) will get an additional $25,000 grant — for a total of $35,000. Everyone who applies will receive GOOD Magazine and online tools to help them share their idea with others and raise funds online.

So stay tuned! We may need your help getting out the vote and we’ll want your help and ideas on what alldaybuffet should expand to next. As you know, we’ve been expanding our Cause for Drinks monthly happy hours, but who knows what could be next? A clothing line? Music festival? The possibilities are endless (especially if we get $35,000 in the bank) just let us know what you think they are!

Cause for Drinks is TONIGHT Wednesday, October 24th in six, yes six cities now for Burma. For those of you that do not know what’s going on there, Burma’s 50 million people have suffered at the hands of repressive and often brutal military dictatorship. Religious persecution, ethnic cleansing, forced relocations, summary executions, arbitrary arrests, the use of civilians as human mine sweepers, slave labor and gang-rapes have been documented in reports. As a result of these abuses, more than 800,000 refugees have been driven out of Burma into neighboring Thailand, Bangladesh and India. The recent wide-spread protests by monks and civilians, and ensuing violent crackdown, has opened a new window of opportunity to end impunity for the ongoing crimes against humanity being perpetrated by the SPDC. This is our chance to help. This month proceeds will go to the Burma Lawyer’s Council:

By vigorously opposing all unjust and oppressive laws, and by helping restore the principle of the Rule of Law, the Burma Lawyers’ Council aims to contribute to the transformation of Burma where all the citizens enjoy the equal protection of law under the democratic federal constitution which will guarantee fundamentals of human rights.

October 24, 2007
Wednesday
6:30-8:30pm

NOLA:
LePhare
523 Gravier
lepharenola.com

NYC:
Blue Owl
196 Second Avenue
blueowlnyc.com

AUSTIN:
Molotov Lounge
West 6th Street
molotovlounge.com

RICHMOND:
Blackfinn
1001 Haxall Point
blackfinnrichmond.com

WASHINGTON DC :
Marvin
2007 14th Street NW
(202) 797-7171

We drink because the people of Burma are under siege by their military government. $2 from every drink will assist grassroots efforts to restore basic human rights, democratic rights, and the rule of law in Burma. Who said that drinking only produces a hangover?

Received this in an email from a friend yesterday who got it from her mom..

“I just noticed that you joined “Caused for Drinks” on Facebook. Very admirable, but you should know that the Parrotheads have been “partying with a purpose” since the early 80’s. So don’t you gen next-ers think you made that up, ok? In the last five years, Parrotheads have donated over $10.5 Million and almost 1.8 Million Volunteer Hours. Not too shabby for a bunch of middle aged, overweight, midlife crisis bound concert go-ers.”

She’s right, Parrotheads, have raised millions of dollars! Check out the stats from the past couple of years…

In 2002: Over $1.4 Million and 360,000 Volunteer Hours
In 2003: Over $1.6 Million and 365,068 Volunteer Hours
In 2004: Over $2.2 Million and 404,690 Volunteer Hours
In 2005: Over $2.7 Million and 663,543 Volunteer Hours
In 2006: Over $2.6 Million and 173,000 Volunteer Hours
Five Year Total: Over $10.5 Million and almost 1.8 Million Volunteer Hours

Sky’s the limit. I think we can catch up to them next year…