What is to be done?

I have watched the video of Neda Agha-Soltan brutally killed in Tehran. I felt I owed it to her somehow. That I needed to witness it. To shed that cloak of insulation and comfort I have in Canada was to achieve something for those struggling for freedom so very far away. Awareness at least by one more spoiled, lazy, contented Westerner. Maybe something would come of it. I don’t know the intent of the video maker except to add proof of the brutality of the government.

It’s not clear Neda wanted anything more than to go home. “Go home” seems to me to be the two sweetest, sad words right now. I imagine my young son saying that, and what those words mean to him; safety, security, peace.

Then I imagine the grief of Neda’s father. His baby girl is dead. Killed in an instant. In less than 90 seconds she is dead in the street. Killed by an unseen assailant, who will never be found. My little girl sleeps peacefully not ten feet from me. My heart aches for Neda’s father. My pain is merely a shadow of his own. Does it make it any easier for him, thinking others share his pain? Does is ease his burden?

I seriously doubt it, but if so, he is a better man than I am.

Surviving Difficult Times

Many nonprofit arts organizations are nearing the end of their fiscal year (June 30) and are staring a good amount of red ink in the face. I expect to see some stunning and saddening announcements over the next twelve weeks as seasons close up, audits are completed and management and boards consider whether their organizations are going concerns.

With that in mind, I’m revisiting some good materials I’ve been fortunate to read this past year, chief among those is an article called “Surviving Hard Times: A Guide for Cultural Organizations” by Paul Ideker, Principal, Ideker Associates.

Credit to him for what follows, blame to me for errors in paraphrasing.

First a key quote:
“The groups that come out of the challenge successfully will be those that rise to the occasion with renewed dedication to their mission, hard work, and solid strategic thinking about how to get through these tough times.”

I feel that rededication to the core mission of the organization, innovation born out of scarcity, and solid strategic thinking and communication are all key to survival.

Can I boil it down further? Focus on what you do best. Spend less and innovate more. Have a plan and be very clear with everyone on what it is.

OK, back to Ideker:

Stay on your donors’ radar screens.
Find every excuse to talk to your donors about how important they are and how important and successful you are. Don’t always ask them for money, show them what their money does, and they’ll decide before you even ask them.

Stay visible in tough times to the press and patrons.
Tell them what you’re doing to address these tough times. Now is not the time to disappear or hunker down. Now is time to show your best practices and that you are a market/industry leader. Even if you are having real trouble, showing that you are trying to address it will reassure donors, keep them from speculating, and might even draw some assistance.

Increase the transparency of your organization.
Along the lines of don’t hunker down. Don’t be secretive. People need to know where the money is going. Nonprofits rely on the public trust. Earn that trust with open, honest communication and multiple access points for people to lend a hand.

Review the strat plan assumptions, the clarify the core mission, communicate it, and stick to it
This is not likely to be a short term downturn. Best take another look at those growth assumptions. Don’t start anything new. Stick to your core mission, your core competencies, and shore up your weaknesses. What’s the one reason people give you money or buy tickets? That is your core mission.

Stabilize leadership, both board and key staff
If you’ve got a good board and staff, reinforce them any way you can. Engage them in the problems at hand. Break down communication barriers. Budgets don’t accomplish things, people do. An informed, engaged, dedicated person can do more with less.

Be proactive in fundraising.
Everybody will have a hand out. Get in there and fight for it. Have a good message and a good team. Ask for help and show how it will have a positive, measurable outcome/impact. Don’t wait to find out bad news. Go actively looking for support and you will find out who needs to sit this year out.

Remember its not all about you.
Thank people. Ask for advice not money. Get people to talk for you about how important you are. Ask what you can do for your patrons/donors. Pay attention to the big picture. Know your place in it.

Here’s some added things I’ve learned from others:

Show Your Face. Show Compassion.
Now is not the time to be officious (is there ever?). Get everybody in the room together for good news and bad. You might have layoffs or furloughs. Get out front. No emails. Meet in person. This goes for internal as well as external communication. There should be only be closed door meetings if you must legally have one (personnel issues for example).

My personal opinion is that everyone should know everything all the time. Work backwards from that premise.

It is impossible to talk too much about your core mission and ideals
Seriously, everyone should know what you stand for and what you are trying to accomplish. Then all you have to do is tell them how they can help you get there. This goes for staff, volunteers and board. You’d be surprised how many people don’t know what’s going on. Most companies are not so large that you could not meet with everyone individually, and you certainly could do so regularly as a group. Not only should you be able to justify your existence, so should all your people.

Don’t forget the “little people”
Every little bit helps, every little bit hurts. Your receptionist can have a greater effect on your bottom line than your CFO if you are not careful, or if she is. That intern might have the hookup you need to solve a problem. Everyone can contribute, anyone can blow a budget line. That little old lady might want to be a angel to you. We hit a ticket sales goal this year when an artist walked up and put us over the top by buying a ticket on closing night to see a friend in the show. You cannot afford to piss anyone off right now. And with social media blooming, one angry customer can literally “go viral” on you, sapping attention and resources from the important core mission.

In conclusion
There are some rough times ahead. The team that sticks together, stays on the objective, communicates well, and supports one another will survive. I have often compared leading a non-profit to leading a scout troop. Pick your own metaphor, but stick to the notes developed by far more experienced and smart people than me, and you are far more likely to get your troops through the forest in one piece.

To all my colleagues and any friends I may have in the non-profit world: Good luck and best wishes.

Responsibility to Protect

In a world where we are capable of knowing, almost immediately of almost any atrocity, what is our responsibility to act?

In a world of escalating technology devoted to the extermination of humanity, are the mechanisms by which we decide as a nation to act functional?

If you take November 1938 as a start of the Shoah, the Nazi regime exterminated nearly 6 million humans of the Jewsh faith in about 7 years. By June 1942 the US and UK knew and 3.9 people were already gone. By June 1944 when the BBC and NYT ran their first stories, it was over.

Today, we know about it practically as it happens.

Would the same death toll of the Shoah be less horrifying or more horrifying if it had been conducted over 60 years instead of 7?

In 2006 the UN adopted the Doctrine of “Responsibility to Protect”, which I’ve written about before.

Also in 2006 Vaclav Havel, Kjell Magne Bondevik(PM Norway) & Elie Wiesel authored a report called “Failure to Protect” which called for UN action against North Korea. The NYT ran an op-ed the same day by Havel on the matter.

I share a birthday with Havel and liked his plays, so I pay attention when he writes, plus the guy is like a Czech version of a saint. He won the Ghandi Award for Peace for cryin’ out loud. And Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize for goodness sake. Turns out Bondevik founded the Oslo Centre for Peace and Human Rights, so he’s no slouch either.

Canada has had diplomatic relations with the DPRK since 2001, although they seem pretty limited and unattended to, given the last update on the Canadian govt. website is 2006.

At least the Harper govt. condemned the latest tests. I have to agree that everybody’s idea that engaging the North Koreans and soft pedaling the human rights stuff in the hopes that would get them to back off the military options does not seem like it’s working. If we thought they’d play nice if we didn’t piss them off, that’s certainly not how it’s working out.

Furthermore, it looks like all the food aid we give them is just letting them cut back on food purchases. Then they take the money they would have spent on food, and put it towards nukes.

So all that food aid over the years has essentially subsidized their nuclear programs to the tune of over $2 billion over the last ten years.

And some question if the famine of the DPRK is not entirely the fault of the government, since foreign currency and arms sales appear to bring in more than enough money to support the food needs of the population. As one writer has suggested, the DPRK basically has put us in charge of feeding their population while they concentrate on weapons of mass destruction.

We seem to have the most bizarre relationship set up.

We feed their people so they can spend money on nukes, then they ramp up the nukes and we threaten to cut off the food, so they threaten to nuke us, so we give food aid again, so they can continue working on nukes.

Canada has a unique responsibility to act. It is one of the few western countries to have diplomatic ties to North Korea. It also chaired the ICSS which came up with the Responsiblity to Protect doctrine. The Havel-Bondevik-Wiesel report is very straightforward in making its case that the DPRK situation fits nearly perfectly the situations which require action under the Responsiblity to Protect.

Canada, at the very least should call for the full implementation of the Havel-Bondevik-Wiesel report recommendations, which call for immediate UN Security Council action.

Canada’s leadership in R2P, ICSS, and now the HBW report gives it the opportunity to take the moral highground here.

I hope we have the moral courage to take it.

Paul Blart, Mall Robot

Drop the Slurpee!

Oh, this can’t be good….

Maybe there’s been a less intimidating guard drone developed by the U.S. military. But I haven’t seen it, yet.

The ROBART III is the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center’s prototype for a mechanical rent-a-cop replacement — designed to detect intruders, and pop ‘em with a “pneumatically powered six-barrel Gatling-style weapon that fires simulated tranquilizer darts or rubber bullets.”

Drop the freezee or I’ll …………oh shit…

Dead Aid or Broken Aid?

I think I will get the book Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo. Buy it from your local independent bookstore, I’ve only put that link there for convenience.

She makes the case that aid to Africa has stifled growth of the contries there, empowered dictators and disengaged the political system from the populous. She says, “You get the corruption — historically, leaders have stolen the money without penalty –and you get the dependency, which kills entrepreneurship. You also disenfranchise African citizens, because the government is beholden to foreign donors and not accountable to its people”.

I noted recently on Twitter (my nemesis) statments by Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, calling for an end to reliance on foreign aid for his country through market forces. I am however, chastened in my opinion of these statements due to Mr. Kagame’s involvement in coups, invasions, genocide, and more invasions of neighboring countries. I would be very uncomfortable as the author, since repeatedly Mr. Kagame cites the book, and the book and Mr. Kagame are often cited together in news articles.

Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade has similar comments. I can’t comment on his politics despite a search.

Of course other critics who’ve actually read the book (unlike me) say she oversimplifies by blaming aid for corruption, as if removing it would remove the corruption. Also problematic from some reviewers’ point of view is her reliance on market forces to correct the problems. I would be tempted to seriously doubt that the market would be any less corrupt given recent history.

I do think it is legitimate to ask where the money is going. It is particularly useful to ask during stained economic times.
My concern is that I’m stuck in a moral quandry. You know the old saying, “Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime.”

But what if the guy can’t fish worth a damn? What if there are no fish for him to catch?

I’m also reminded about a Dennis Leary comedy routine that includes the harangue to “Move where the f*ing food is!”

I also think of my ancestors, who lived through the Irish potato famines of 1740, 1842, and 1845. Twenty to twenty-five percent of the population died, and another 20 – 25% emigrated. In raw numbers that’s about 1 million to 1.5 million dead and another equal number emigrating.

The worst famine in Africa may have been in 1980 Uganda, where 21% or about 900,000 people died. Just to give you a sense of comparable scale, 30 million died in China from famine 1958-1961, North Korea loses probably 600,000 a year, Vietnam lost 2 million in 1945, and India lost 1.3 million in 1966-69 due to famine.

So famine in Africa is not new, not particularly large in scale. It might be more widespread, but I can’t find data that lines up famine deaths by year in Africa. It seems that something else might be at work to cause all this suffering. Certainly China, North Koren, Vietnam, and India had corruption, failing political policies, internal strife. Somehow most of them (DPRK not included) have largely eliminated the crisis aid that flows into African nations. How and why?

I don’t think you can argue that Africa somehow has problems greater than Asia. All have, or had rampant communicable fatal diseases, coups, civil wars, external wars of agression or defense, and China in particular has had ample natural disasters. So why have they turned out better than most African nations?

I think it is worth a look at the political structures of the countries and their natural resources. Having done my undergraduate thesis on comparative political structures, I learned the power of beaurocracy. I can’t help but think that hobbled by rampant colonialism, most of these countries did not establish a sustainable political system capable of tending to the needs of their rapidly growing populations before crisis hit. Faced with mass casualties and a failing state, many reached out to their oppressors for financial aid, most of it with strings attached. In the end, they became beholding to their old masters, now their new masters. These masters in turn, I am afraid, placed a higher priority on political stability and alliances than on the long term security of the populations of these countries.

In the west we may stand on the shoulders of giants, but what if those giants that came before us and built these great lands stood on the necks of the weak to do so? Our obligation to right the wrongs of the past will have to be the subject of a future post.

7 Robots Most Likely To Rise Up Against Humanity

Our Robot Overlord Speaks

Kung FuRobots

Our robot masters will be cute…at first…

Zombie Survival

How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse

1. Get Prepared: Buy and read The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks
2. Know your enemy: The Virus is contagious by transference of body fluids, 100% lethal w/in 20 hours, and has one goal: reproduction. Respect it.
3. Know its weapon: Zombies are carriers with one goal: your death. Mindless, slow, and virtually unstoppable but for the ever-effective head shot.
4. Figure Out How Bad it Is: Class 1 (small and local), or are we talking Class 4 Zombie Apocalypse? This will determine the rest of your survival plan.
5. Arm Yourself: Blades don’t need reloading, M-16′s are for pussies, chain saws are for idiots. Go M-1, AK-47. Think katana, machete, trench spike for close combat. If you’re using a pistol, you’ve gotten too close and you’re making too much noise…but if it makes you feel better, go for it.
6. Tight clothes, short hair = zombie killer chic.
7. Defend: Get up stairs, then destroy them. You know that 72 hour survival kit every Canadian is supposed to have? Bulk it up. Then stay quiet, alert and be ready to run.
8. Run: Know your terrain and your goal and stick to it. Small groups travel fast and silent. Stay out of the cities and away from cars, trucks and SUVs. Hike, bike, or get a horse.
9. Attack: When its time to hunt the hunters, remember your advantages: communication, discipline, strategy and firepower. A fall back and escape route are a must as well.
10. Start Over: New Eden needs to be remote, have water, good soil, natural defenses, and ample resources to rebuild civilization. Oh, and it’d be best if you kept is secret.

Planning to survive a worldwide apocalypse is more than a top ten list can handle. Only by reading the book, watching for the signs and preparing for the worst can you hope to be among the few survivors.

Good Luck and God Speed.