RAPE AS GENOCIDE - MAKES MY HEART BLEED!

Organic Cotton Not So Airy Fairy afterall!!!!

I knew the cotton industry was dirty and polluted the environment, I never knew the full toll the industry took on the farmers, especially those in Africa where there's little regulation.  Check out this video for more info and a horrific account of life growing cotton slowly being poisoned by pesticides.

EA founder Jeff Toolan heads to Sundance, DC and beyond to promote sustainable socially just thinking!

Traveling first to Park City, UT for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, then to DC for the single most incredible day of my life, the inauguration of President Barack Obama, our country's first NON-white president!

Needless to say, leaving the 80 degree smoggy town of LA for the slopes of Park City was a thankful change to the daily grind.  The economic situation and housing bubble burst has pushed an additional 40,000 people into the streets.  Ironically, I've noticed and influx of quite nice large "family" tents into the area known as Skid Row in LA.  Let's just say that the demographics of homeless in LA have begun to switch turning to entire FAMILY's being sent to the streets!

Ready to forget about LA and all it's social ills, I was ready head to Utah where the air was clean, water pure and people open (yeah right!) to attend the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, one I thought was going to be at the cutting edge of Green Living and Sustainable Design.  Boy, was I in for a surprise.  Needless to say as the NY Times pointed out "The Films May be Green, but is the Festival?"  

Surrounded by Hummers, Plasmas, Fur Coats, and A hundred thousand bottles of everything...I really began to wonder the same thing! Repurpose Compostables fortunately had partnered with us to help out the Queer Lounge Sponsored by Absolute as well as the Wire Image Puma Lounge, in addition we supplied a ton of cups until late in the morning at the infamous Ed Hardy Mansion Party! 

Needless to say with back to back events and everyone trying to cram the entire festival into the first weekend to avoid overlap with President Obama's inauguration, the festival was a great Lineup of incredible films including my favorite the Only Good Indian among many others of substance and merit. 

The festival had a number of green events and green themed venues, none of which screamed Green to me, some of which used styrofoam cups and plastic disposable plates.  Needless to say, we do have a long way to go to get to authentic sustainable living. 

Sundance was as you know the Film Festival founded by Robert Redford at the Original Sundance resort, which BTW is extremely Green, beautiful and thoughtfully preserved.  I just didn't see much of that original vision built on respect for the planet and ecosystem in Park City - maybe it's because not much of the planet was visible beneath the Hummers, Plasmas and Plastic!

Following this amazing escapade in the land of Stars, Sunshine and Skiing, I headed to DC with acclaimed photojournalist Tish Lampert to capture history as Barack Obama was to become our next president!

Arriving in DC late on the 19th to bitter cold, I had missed a day with Tish shooting the images of shoes being thrown at Bush, but was going to be at the Mall at 4AM to capture the sunrise on the dawn of a new beginning for the United States of America. 

The day was incredible, filled with sunshine and beauty!  Unlike the DNC in Denver, where battering rams and riot gear were the norm, the Iraq Vets against the war caged with the college kids and hippies, over 400 Arrests and hundreds of injuries...including Tish's nose being broken (more to come)....the Inauguration in DC was incredible peaceful, joyous and amazing!  It was truly remarkable that over 2 million people were gathered without a single arrest or injury...that's practically a miracle! 

2009 is going to be an totally different year with a renewed approach to solution creating to get us out of the mess the last 8 years, the last 80 years of unsustainable extractive capitalism have created! 

2009 Return of Traditional Knowledge

2009 - The Year of the Return to Traditional Knowledge.

With society more wrecked than any point since the dark ages, isn't it time NOW to listen to our Indigenous Elders, those who have maintained their relationship to the planet for thousands of years. 

I had the opportunity last Fall to cook for many of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers at the Groton Hotel in Upstate NY's beautiful Fingerlakes Region.  The Grandmother's were visiting for the Women's Gathering pioneered by Janet Fish, a good friend of mine, bringing together an intergenerational team of Indigenous Grandmothers and Leaders, locals, academics, cultural leaders and others for extended discussions of the relationship of humanity and the planet. 

It was clear that all those attending were aware that human's were destined at this pace to outstrip resources, destroy biomass and pollute all the air and land on earth in a few short decades unless something dramatic was done.   This is why the Grandmother's had come to this gathering, to share their respective traditional knowledge about mother earth. 

I had the amazing opportunity during this amazing Week Long Event to make a fire with two sticks and a bow...what an amazing experience and in my home town of Groton, just 10 minutes from Ithaca and Cornell University.

I learned a lot from this experience...including how to make fire, but most of all I learned that there was still hope, that humanity could indeed return earth to Homeostasis using the technology we now have.  I was most touched when the Grandmother from the Arctic shook her head at me and simply said..."no more down, only up up up!"  The message was clear, no more looking back, pointing fingers or losing hope.  The time to act is now.  We must all make sacrifices and changes to our lives to end the continual pillage of our mother, the earth, and therefore improve our own relationships with each other in the process.

2009 is the year I dedicate to Traditional Knowledge and the Indigenous Around the World!

New year, new approach to Effortless Activism.  Look for a whole new approach, great new style and tons more content in 2009 at EA.  

With the changes about to take place, it's now time for all of us to make a difference, contribute to change and recuperate our semi-failed society.   With wars plaguing much of the planet, famine and natural disaster affecting many of the rest, we in the developed nation must thank our lucky stars for our food and shelter.  

Never before has action been necessary and never before will inaction lead to so much devastation.  Let's create a new world where each and everyone is filled with basic human dignity and has access to education and opportunity. 

Look forward to much more to come in 2009 for EA, Multeepurpose and the rest of the team!

Jeff Toolan