Posts Tagged ‘March 2011’
Millions In Motion
By Peter Molenaar The people in this neighborhood of the world have yet another opportunity to experience an enhanced human connection””to elicit a smile and eye contact from the Arab people among us. For example, don”'t just plop coins on the counter at the corner convenience store, but boldly ask: “What”'s your opinion regarding the Egyptian Revolution?” You are likely to discover a knowledgeable person. Why the commotion in Arab lands? In Egypt, we are told, the corruption of the old regime cost more than $6 billion in public money per year. Estimates of the former president”'s accumulated fortune range as high as $70 billion. Mubarek”'s good buddies became merely billionaires while millions lived on less than $2 per day. Heartless brutality appears as the hallmark of a regime which sadly was considered to have been a “good friend of the United States”. (more…)
Editorial “A Smile is”¦the shortest distance between people.”
The final piano number at the recent Grand Opening of the American Swedish Institute”'s Victor Borge Exhibit was the nostalgic Claire de Lune played by pianist Glenn Henriksen. The last quotation shared by Janet Borge Crowle, a daughter of Borge, following nearly an hour of fascinating reminiscing about her “Papa,” the famous “Great Dane” and Clown Prince, was, “A smile is the shortest distance between people.” Claire de Lune was always Borge”'s final song. It is also a reminder that even with turbulence in his life composer Claude-Achille DeBussy was able to compose contemplative and even romantic music like this song of the moon. (more…)
Concrete Beet Farmers Puts Down Roots in Midtown Phillips
By Dusty Hinz What do you get when you mix a global environmental crisis, an industrial food system that threatens our food security, a city with an increasing number of vacant properties, and six conscious young people with an entrepreneurial and community spirit? The answer is a micro urban farm that seeks to help re-localize our community food system, beautify our neighborhood, and combat climate change. Concrete Beet Farmers is a new urban farming venture being started in a vacant lot in the Midtown Phillips neighborhood that attempts to be part of this solution. The team of six entrepreneurs consists of four current Macalester students, a recent Augsburg graduate, and a recent University of Minnesota graduate now living in the neighborhood. This farming venture will not be held captive to the sole pursuit of profit; rather, it will strive for ecological resilience, long-term financial sustainability, and community food access and education. This small-scale, tangible [...]
