damn, huh. that was 2002.
(...and one promised to quit, but never did.)
fracture, shatter, disunity, dismay.
i see your nostalgia and raise you some sadness.
---
Showing posts with label dave winer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dave winer. Show all posts
January 21, 2008
June 27, 2007
threads of hope
So the fabulous artist e. popped into chat, and while we were talking about yards and bloggers and threads and art and school's out for the summer, she mentioned the challenges a lovely knitting blogger named Annie is going through right now due to her husband Gerry's battle with multiple myeloma. Another knitting blogger posted about Annie and her family, and the knitting blog community is out in force to help, including a new site to help raise money for Annie's family's medical expenses. Or you can download a pattern from Annie and add a little something for their medical expense fund.
The knitters could use some help in this worthy cause. Gerry is going to the Mayo Clinic, and medical expenses are increasing.
SO I challenge the tech bloggers and web 2.0 bloggers to help the knitting bloggers help Annie and her husband with the most important battle of their lives.
If you can donate, please do. If you can help in some other way, contact info is on the we love annie site.
And I'm pretty sure they're accepting prayers too.
---
The knitters could use some help in this worthy cause. Gerry is going to the Mayo Clinic, and medical expenses are increasing.
SO I challenge the tech bloggers and web 2.0 bloggers to help the knitting bloggers help Annie and her husband with the most important battle of their lives.
If you can donate, please do. If you can help in some other way, contact info is on the we love annie site.
And I'm pretty sure they're accepting prayers too.
---
June 15, 2007
Stormhoek and Corporate Social Responsibility
One of the groups mentioned in the recent discussions on the Blog-Marketed, South African wine Stormhoek -- a conversation ripe with questions about how much the company is doing to remedy the social ills in South Africa that stem from its industry and the legacy of the dop system -- is the Women on Farms Project. (Another is ActionAid, which is broader in focus).
I noticed these two groups in this article from 2006, "Worker Pleads with Tesco to Honor the Fruits of Her Labor, which South African blogger Mike Golby linked to in his post, "Tell The Truth, Nigga." From what I have read, my understanding is that Gertruida Baartman became a spokesperson for underpaid laborers in her fight to secure a wage more than the three dollars and change per day she was being paid to pick fruit for Tesco.
Awareness of Ms. Baartman shamed Tesco into action on Baartman's behalf. (ActionAid bought one share in Tesco in Baartman's name, giving her the right to speak up at the retailer's annual meeting. The share cost about the same as she earns for her nine-hour shifts.). But what has happened since then?
What are companies like Tesco and Stormhoek doing to make sure that paying wages in the currency of booze (still prevalent on 3 to 5 percent of South African vineyards according to one estimate) stops? What is being done to help displaced workers--when the CSR action of the day is to say: OKAY you sixth generation live-in laborer, you're free to go. (What? No mule? No 40 acres?) What are these companies doing to help reverse the alarming rate of alcoholism and fetal alcohol syndrome that are a direct legacy of the dop system?
Why am I interested in this story? Lots of reasons, because it has lots of hooks for me. As a blogger, I see a company using bloggers to market its product--a product no one really needs but some enjoy--and I wonder if they know how it got to them. Are they being exploited? Do they know? Do they care? As a PR blogger, I see an opportunity for vineyards and wine companies to actually come together as competitors to do something larger than their profit margin or next blog promotion, to help people who ARE being exploited. As a woman, as a mother, and as someone keenly aware of the legacy of slavery in this country and its toxic generational impact, I give a shit.
Stormhoek isn't going out of business because a few bloggers want to know about the practices in its associated vineyards, about its CSR programs, about the laborers who give Hugh a product to glue his cartoons on. But it would do well to address the questions
Mean Kids Disclaimer 230: I am not trying to poke holes in Hugh's project for poking's sake. I am really trying to find out what the current situation and practices are, and -- given the OPPORTUNITY TO DO SOMETHING POSITIVE (all bloggers like Positivity and Higher Purposes, right?), plus the wealth of EXPERTISE in and around the blogosphere ((which incidentally IS Stormhoek's marketing engine)) -- discuss what can and should be done.
For example, do Stormhoek vineyards have a Woman on Farms Committee on site, like Lanzerac, Kaapzicht, Fine Farms, Uitkyk, Blyhoek, Elsenburg, De Clapmuts, Spier, Groenland & Labonheur do? Do they have any representatives on the WOF's District Forum?
I'll stop now. But feel free to continue the conversation. Markets are, you know.
---
I noticed these two groups in this article from 2006, "Worker Pleads with Tesco to Honor the Fruits of Her Labor, which South African blogger Mike Golby linked to in his post, "Tell The Truth, Nigga." From what I have read, my understanding is that Gertruida Baartman became a spokesperson for underpaid laborers in her fight to secure a wage more than the three dollars and change per day she was being paid to pick fruit for Tesco.
Awareness of Ms. Baartman shamed Tesco into action on Baartman's behalf. (ActionAid bought one share in Tesco in Baartman's name, giving her the right to speak up at the retailer's annual meeting. The share cost about the same as she earns for her nine-hour shifts.). But what has happened since then?
What are companies like Tesco and Stormhoek doing to make sure that paying wages in the currency of booze (still prevalent on 3 to 5 percent of South African vineyards according to one estimate) stops? What is being done to help displaced workers--when the CSR action of the day is to say: OKAY you sixth generation live-in laborer, you're free to go. (What? No mule? No 40 acres?) What are these companies doing to help reverse the alarming rate of alcoholism and fetal alcohol syndrome that are a direct legacy of the dop system?
Why am I interested in this story? Lots of reasons, because it has lots of hooks for me. As a blogger, I see a company using bloggers to market its product--a product no one really needs but some enjoy--and I wonder if they know how it got to them. Are they being exploited? Do they know? Do they care? As a PR blogger, I see an opportunity for vineyards and wine companies to actually come together as competitors to do something larger than their profit margin or next blog promotion, to help people who ARE being exploited. As a woman, as a mother, and as someone keenly aware of the legacy of slavery in this country and its toxic generational impact, I give a shit.
Stormhoek isn't going out of business because a few bloggers want to know about the practices in its associated vineyards, about its CSR programs, about the laborers who give Hugh a product to glue his cartoons on. But it would do well to address the questions
Mean Kids Disclaimer 230: I am not trying to poke holes in Hugh's project for poking's sake. I am really trying to find out what the current situation and practices are, and -- given the OPPORTUNITY TO DO SOMETHING POSITIVE (all bloggers like Positivity and Higher Purposes, right?), plus the wealth of EXPERTISE in and around the blogosphere ((which incidentally IS Stormhoek's marketing engine)) -- discuss what can and should be done.
For example, do Stormhoek vineyards have a Woman on Farms Committee on site, like Lanzerac, Kaapzicht, Fine Farms, Uitkyk, Blyhoek, Elsenburg, De Clapmuts, Spier, Groenland & Labonheur do? Do they have any representatives on the WOF's District Forum?
I'll stop now. But feel free to continue the conversation. Markets are, you know.
---
March 09, 2007
having the 3,040th most popular blog in the world is hard work
no... no actually, it's not. at least 3,039 people work harder than I do.
Did i mention dave winer was in my dream last night? That is just weird.
What Dave represents to me is quite complex and layered. Like fiesta dip, but different. I think in this case Dave was my guilt for not blogging lately, or my latent desire to quit, or my stupid outbursts online. I dunno. I think he represents my sometimes loud mouth. He represents not having to worry about money.
I'm trying to remember the whole dream, but the part I remember is that Dave came to visit, but it was more like my friend Audrey's house even though it was mine in the dream, and Dave looked kind of like Welcome Back Kotter's Gabe Kaplan, not Dave Winer.
In the dream, we got along. He took one of my monitors with him when he left--in my dream Dave Winer had never seen a flat screen monitor before. He had to have it. So I let him.
From what I can discern, the moral of the story is, don't eat tortilla chips before bed.
Did i mention dave winer was in my dream last night? That is just weird.
What Dave represents to me is quite complex and layered. Like fiesta dip, but different. I think in this case Dave was my guilt for not blogging lately, or my latent desire to quit, or my stupid outbursts online. I dunno. I think he represents my sometimes loud mouth. He represents not having to worry about money.
I'm trying to remember the whole dream, but the part I remember is that Dave came to visit, but it was more like my friend Audrey's house even though it was mine in the dream, and Dave looked kind of like Welcome Back Kotter's Gabe Kaplan, not Dave Winer.
In the dream, we got along. He took one of my monitors with him when he left--in my dream Dave Winer had never seen a flat screen monitor before. He had to have it. So I let him.
From what I can discern, the moral of the story is, don't eat tortilla chips before bed.
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