Mean World Meditations: November 2010

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Dan Buettner: How to live to be 100+ | Video on TED.com

What do Seventh-Day Adventists in California, the residents of Sardinia, Italy and the inhabitants of the islands of Okinawa, Japan have in common? They enjoy the longest, healthiest lives on the planet. Dan Buettner assembled a team of researchers to seek out these "hotspots of human health and vitality," which he calls Blue Zones, and to figure out what they do that helps them live so long.

Buettner, a world-renowned explorer and a writer for National Geographic, travels the world seeking out new Blue Zones (he's found five, to date) and speaking at seminars and on TV, sharing the habits that lead to long life. He is the founder of Quest Network, and has set three world records for endurance cycling.

"Dan Buettner takes us on a journey to explore the secrets of longevity and in so doing introduces us to a world of joy in aging ... at 91, this is very good news!"

Walter Cronkite

Dan Buettner: How to live to be 100+ | Video on TED.com

To find the path to long life and health, Dan Buettner and team study the world's "Blue Zones," communities whose elders live with vim and vigor to record-setting age. At TEDxTC, he shares the 9 common diet and lifestyle habits that keep them spry past age 100.

"Dan Buettner takes us on a journey to explore the secrets of longevity and in so doing introduces us to a world of joy in aging ... at 91, this is very good news!"

Walter Cronkite

Peter Eigen: How to expose the corrupt | Video on TED.com

Some of the world's most baffling social problems, says Peter Eigen, can be traced to systematic, pervasive government corruption, hand-in-glove with global companies. At TEDxBerlin, Eigen describes the thrilling counter-attack led by his organization Transparency International.

From the website of Transparency International comes this elegant definition: What is corruption? Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It hurts everyone whose life, livelihood or happiness depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority.

Peter Eigen knows this. He worked in economic development for 25 years, mainly as a World Bank manager of programs in Africa and Latin America. Among his assignments, he served as director of the regional mission for Eastern Africa from 1988 to 1991. Stunned by the depth and pervasiveness -- and sheer destructiveness -- of the corruption he encountered, he formed the group Transparency International to take on some of the main players in deals with corrupt officials: multinational corporations.

Eigen believes that the best way to root out corruption is to make it known. Thus, Transparency International works to raises awareness of corruption, and takes practical action to address it, including public hearings.

Deborah Scranton on her "War Tapes" | Video on TED.com

Filmmaker Deborah Scranton talks about and shows clips from her documentary The War Tapes, which puts cameras in the hands of soldiers fighting in Iraq.

Filmmaker Deborah Scranton helps real people tell compelling, honest stories. Her 2006 documentary The War Tapes put cameras in the hands of National Guard troops stationed in Camp Anaconda, in Iraq. Through their raw footage and diaries, they brought home a truth that we at home would never otherwise know about what one soldier calls "the war for cheese."

Scranton has also created the TV documentary Stories from Silence, Witness to War, which tells the stories of World War II veterans in living New Hampshire. Her latest film appeared at the 2010 Tribeca film festival. Entitled Earth Made of Glass, the film examines the consequences of the Rwandan genocide on the personal and political level 15 years later. She's currently working on a nonfiction feature film that will, in her words, "tell the US-Mexico immigration and border story from the inside out -- putting cameras in the hands of the Border Patrol ... ranchers who live on the land being crossed, humanitarians who leave water in the desert trying to save lives, coyotes ..."

William Ury: The walk from "no" to "yes" | Video on TED.com

Friday, November 19, 2010

United Fruit Company

Before Big Oil there was Big Fruit. During most of the 20th-century, the United Fruit Company was said to be the ill of most of Central America’s problems. The company was the largest employer in Central America, growing tropical fruit (think bananas and pineapples) on its plantations, shipping them to port on their railroads, and bringing them to America on their ships. The company interfered so intensely in the politics of Central American countries that the term ‘Banana Republic’ was coined. At one point, United Fruit even ran Guatemala’s postal service.

United Fruit was headquartered in Boston until a hostile takeover by New Orleanian Sam Zemurry in 1933. Zemurray brought the company to its height, playing the ‘communism’ card to keep the American government at his beck-and-call. Elected leaders from Guatemala to Panama that showed any tendency contrary to United Fruit’s interest were labeled leftists and quickly deposed. The entire corporation came down in 1975 when the Securities and Exchange Commission charged United Fruit with bribery. The company had allegedly given Honduran President Arellano $2.5 million for certain privileges. Since then, United Fruit was purchased by American Financial and became Chiquita Brands.