Current TV

Every morning I watch a little bit of Current TV. There really is some great stuff there. Recently a segment on Current TV discussed a wonderful business in Kenya that combines development, fair labor practices and environmentalism. The business is called “Ecosandals.” This business, is a cooperative currently employing about 30 people to recycle old truck tires into sandals and selling them directly on the internet. From their website:

Ecosandals is a non-profit importer and reseller of sandals produced by Akala Designs Limited, a cooperative business based in Nairobi, Kenya.

This astonishing international e-business, based in one of Nairobi’s most destitute neighborhoods, currently employs nearly 30 Kenyans in the designing, manufacturing, marketing and selling of really great sandals made with recycled tire treads.

We are funded entirely by the work of volunteers. No one in Ecosandals earns a salary. As a non-profit company, Ecosandals exists solely to support the Korogocho, Kenya project in their efforts to improve their standard of living and the opportunities in their community.

Ecosandals is a community-based dot-com story that is on its way up, not out. Throughout Kenya, Korogocho is known as a rough place. Jobs are scarce. Violence is rampant. Quality health care is non-existent. Even shelter tends to be both poor and temporary. It is a place where most Kenyans fear to walk even during the daytime.

[UPDATE: Salon.com has an article covering similar ground. The evidence is clear...fundamentalist Islam is thriving and moderates are finding it harder and harder to survive]

As Bush tries to convince us that he is winning his Forever War Against Terror, it is increasingly clear that we are losing the REAL war against fundamentalist extremism throughout the world. As the Taliban and al-Qaeda thrive in Pakistan and Afghanistan, even in Iraq, where we are surging merrily ahead, secularism is dying out and fundamentalist extremism of BOTH Shi'ite and Sunni varieties, thrive.

I call this the Republican enabling of a growing fundamentalist Caliphate, a concept I introduced more than a year ago (leading to my being asked by BBC radio to be part of a phone in radio program) and has recently been more openly advocated even in Indonesia.

Recently on Current TV I saw further evidence that we are losing to extremists...even in Iraq where Bush assures us we are winning. Here is a highly disturbing segment from Current TV describing how secular Iraqis are being forced out as refugees, leaving Iraq to be taken over by extremists.

Current TV is running some amazing footage from Hurricane Katrina today. They have five segments, adding up to an hour long program, filmed by Doug Kiesling, a freelance Weather Journalist. My wife and I watched it from 7-8 AM. It is next on at 11 AM (then presumably 3 PM, etc.).

Doug went to New Orleans to cover Hurricane Katrina. And he did cover it, driving around the city throughout the entire storm, filming it as it happened. The footage is amazing. The first segment shows New Orleans the day before Katrina hits when many still thought the hurricane would miss the city and few people were taking it seriously enough. The second segment covers the hours just before the storm hits. Doug talks with levee personnel and people who stayed on as the hurricane approaches. Up to that point, his footage is interesting, but not really amazing. It is from the third segment on that it is hard to look away. The third segment is filmed along Canal St. DURING the hurricane. No one else is on the road other than the police as debris flies around and the water rises. As Doug is filming, he begins to realize just how bad things are getting and decides to get the hell out. The fourth segment shows his attempts to get out as flood waters occasionally reach OVER the hood of his truck. Whatever kind of truck he had, it performed amazingly under conditions you are NOT supposed to be driving in! Finally he escapes and reaches his hotel. The fifth segment shows the aftermath and tells the horrible statistic that 20% of New Orleans' population were so poor they had no resources to evacuate the city. They were stuck there...abandoned by our government.