THE REASON I BLOG FOR PEACE ❧ POST #5

Corporations, such as Monsanto, have proven that they don't care about the human race and the planet. Corporations own our politicians in the USA. And we fight to have rights that we won years ago, such as rights to have unions.

Another reason that I blog for peace is that I think common sense solutions by one or more human beings - no matter where they live on the planet Earth - should not be obstructed by politicians, should be allowed to happen and let the elements of the planet decide from there the result(s).

Yesterday, I saw a documentary film on POV (Point of View), Independent Lens, that lasted less than an hour. The title is Taking Root - The Vision of Wangari Maathai. An inspiring story that benefits the people, the families, the community, the environment, the planet. They claimed back land that had been damaged and planted trees on it. And common sense proved how uncommon it is. The healing of the land began and the people reaped from the healed earth a life-giving source to sustain their lives.

And yet, in so many places the common sense of planting trees would run into government blocks in the name of protecting corporate development which is "sold" as a point of being beneficial. But we all know that is usually a lie. If corporations get to decide, the people of the community and the planet's environment and safety... looses, more often, than not. And so do we all. So, a story like this is simply uplifting.

Spread goodness, kindness, heal the planet and we will begin to heal ourselves.

...........................................................

...........................................................
Hummingbird

...........................................................

...........................................................
Taking Root tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy—a movement for which this charismatic woman became an iconic inspiration.
takingrootfilm.com

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you, not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson in Return to Love

The following information is from takingrootfilm.com

Planting trees for fuel, shade, and food is not something that anyone would imagine as the first step toward winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Yet with that simple act Wangari Maathai, a woman born in rural Kenya, started down the path that reclaimed her country’s land from 100 years of deforestation, provided new sources of food and income to rural communities, gave previously impoverished and powerless women a vital political role in their country, and ultimately helped to bring down Kenya's twenty-four-year dictatorship.

TAKING ROOT weaves a compelling and dramatic narrative of one woman's personal journey in the context of the turbulent political and environmental history of her country. Raised in the rural highlands of Kenya, educated in the United States during the 1960s civil rights era, and the first female to receive a PhD in East Africa, Maathai discovered the heart of her life's work by reconnecting with the rural women with whom she had grown up. They told her that their daily lives had become intolerable: they were walking longer distances for firewood, clean water had become scarce, the soil was disappearing from their fields, and their children were suffering from malnutrition. Maathai thought to herself, "Well, why not plant trees?" Trees provide shade, prevent soil erosion, supply firewood and building materials, and produce nutritious fruit to combat malnutrition. With this realization Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organization encouraging rural women to plant trees.

A seemingly innocuous idea, Maathai soon discovered that tree planting had a ripple effect of empowering change. In the mid 1980s, Kenya was under the repressive regime of Daniel arap Moi under whose dictatorship group gatherings were outlawed. In tending their nurseries women had a legitimate reason to gather outside their homes and discuss the roots of their problems. These grassroots women soon found themselves working successively against deforestation, poverty, ignorance, embedded economic interests, and political oppression, until they became a national political force.

As the trees and the Green Belt Movement grew, a spirit of hope and confidence also grew in ordinary citizens – especially in women – only to be met with violent opposition from the government. Maathai and her colleagues soon found themselves victims of President Moi's political oppression. In response, Maathai’s political activism only grew. At great risk she lead numerous confrontations in defense of the environment and social justice each of which brought her country closer to democracy.

Through TV footage, newspaper headlines, and chilling first person accounts, TAKING ROOT documents these dramatic confrontations of the 1980s and 1990s and captures Maathai's infectious determination and unwavering courage. Through perseverance and widespread grassroots organization, Kenya's fight for democracy finally prevailed. In 2002 a new democratically elected government replaced Moi's, and Maathai became a member of the new Parliament and Assistant Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources.

And the trees continue to grow. Today there are more than 6,000 Green Belt nurseries throughout Kenya that generate income for 150,000 people, and thirty-five million trees have deeply altered the physical and social landscape of the country. The Green Belt Movement has also started programs teaching women about indigenous foods, income generating activities, AIDS, and self-empowerment. Through cinema verité footage of the tree nurseries and the women and children who tend them, TAKING ROOT brings to life the confidence and joy of people working to improve their own lives while also ensuring the future and vitality of their land.

Through intimate conversations with Maathai, whose warm, powerful, and luminous presence imbues much of the film, TAKING ROOT captures a world-view in which nothing is perceived as impossible, presenting an awe-inspiring profile of one woman's thirty-year journey of courage to protect the environment, ensure equality between men and women, defend human rights, and promote democracy--all sprouting from the achievable act of planting trees.