Weekly update from New Orleans

From our team in NOLA, written by Leigh Durham:

The summer-like weather has unfortunately run its course and New Orleans has joined the rest of the country in chilly December temperatures! Although most of our student volunteers are in the midst of final exams, we have several exciting updates.

We held our first of many Saturday open studio hours at our French Quarter base this past week and plan to hold another this weekend! We made around 650 bones while enjoying the sun outside in the studio courtyard in just three hours. Katie and Lizzie, both from Tulane University, came and updated the group with the progress they’ve made in moving forward our partner Raise Hope for Congo’s Conflict-Free Campus Initiative. We’re excited to support them in their efforts in gaining student support in approaching the administration this spring to agree to a resolution.

Looking ahead, we have found the ideal location for our preview installation of 50,000 bones here in March. If anyone knows New Orleans, Jackson Square is one of the most iconic locations in the city. On the fences surrounding the park, local artists can be found selling their work everyday, tarot card readers set up shop, and street musicians abound. We think holding the installation on the block in front of the Square, with the St. Louis Cathedral and Mississippi River on either side, would be a perfect spot. Now that we’ve found a location, we’ll need to approach the city in hopes of obtaining all the necessary permits we need to make it happen! Fingers crossed that things will work out in our favor!

As for the elections in the DRC.  There's nothing new to report; the results tally has been delayed by two days to give them a chance to collect all the ballots.  That means Joseph Kabila, whose term actually ended at midnight on Tuesday, remains in power until the results are released.  He is in the lead and the entire country seems to be on tenterhooks.  As soon as we learn anything new, I'll post it here. 

If they're not already, all eyes SHOULD be on the DRC

Tomorrow, we'll get the election results from the DRC.  If the people of the DRC are lucky, we will see their would-be leaders take a deep breath and figure out how to negeotiate their differences (which we know they're going to have) in a lawful way.  In a way that doesn't cause the death of hundreds or possibly thousands of their people. In a way that says we want what is best for Congo.  

Here's the problem: I don't think anyone believes this is possible. 

Here are some thoughts on the situation...

From The Africa Report

From The Guardian

And this is a video and accompanying report from Al Jeezera English

More tomorrow.

Friday post from NOLA

For those of you wondering what the heck NOLA is...it's New Orleans, Louisiana.  

This post comes from NOLA intern Leigh Durham

Greetings from NOLA! I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday with their friends and family. One thing that we’re grateful for here is our recent partnership event with the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, or NOCCA.  NOCCA is an arts training center for secondary-school age students. The program is tuition-free to Louisiana students.

On Monday, November 21, Naomi and I went to NOCCA’s beautiful campus in the Bywater neighborhood to introduce the mission of One Million Bones to over 600 students during two afternoon sessions. Since its inception in 1973, our OMB event was the first time NOCCA had gathered the entire school together under one cause. Following a presentation and a video of the Albuquerque 50,000 Bones Preview Installation, students spread out across the campus to make bones! The arts department at NOCCA graciously provided all of the materials and clay and even offered to store the bones made from the event as part of a campus display until our New Orleans preview installation in March 2012.

We were thrilled at the enthusiasm of the administration, teachers, and students and amazed at the creativity exhibited. I saw a full ribcage created by an especially determined volunteer! We’ll have a final count after the clay bones are fired, but we estimate that we made over 2,500 bones in one day!  That’s 2,500 closer to the preview installation and they count towards the Students Rebuild tally.

As for other news from New Orleans, we will be holding our first Saturday open studio this week from 11-2 at our location here at Unfold Media in the heart of the French Quarter. We’re inviting volunteers to stop by and make bones, learn more about the project and get to know one another! We’re also moving along in our goal to pass a Conflict-Free Campus Initiative at Tulane University and plan on forming a coalition of students at other local universities to work towards passing the same resolution.

Here’s to many more inspiring events like that at NOCCA and thanks to all who are supporting our mission in New Orleans!

From both the Albuquerque and NOLA OMB teams, have a fantastic weekend!

Burma in the news

Burma is on the top of of minds today.  For the first time since 1955, the United States has sent a leading official to Burma.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Burma just hours ago for a two-day visit with Burmese officials and pro-Democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

This story in The Guardian gives the background on the trip, and this link will lead you to the Council on Foreign Relations website where you can find a video interview with Aung San Suu Kyi.

And this link will take you to the U.S. Campaign for Burma website where you can find resources and more critical information about Secretary Clinton's visit as well as the historical context of the crisis.

The on-going abuses in Burma are so rarely in the news that we must use this opportunity to call attention to the situation.  Take a few minutes and call your representatives to let them know that you believe in U.S. support to investigate and help end the human rights abuses in Burma.

As with all the crises we focus on at One Million Bones, we don't believe the U.S. can or should try to solve the problems in Burma, but we do believe, as a nation, we have the ability and responsibility to offer our help where we can. Keeping a focus and pressure on countries like Burma to work towards abolishing human rights abuses can help.  But, our government won't do it unless we tell them that's what we expect of them.

Elections in the DRC

All of the One Million Bones team are back, well rested and grateful for the time with our families and friends.

And now our eyes are entirely on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

This is a link to a CNN video story.

This links to a report about voter fraud.

And, an overview can be found here.

We'll post more here as we learn about what's happening.