admin August 29th, 2008
From KBS Culture News:
Frances Moore Lappe, social change activist and winner of the 1987 Right Livelihood Award (referred to as the “alternate Nobel Prize”), tells the story of a “living” democracy that could change the world in her book, “Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad.”
Lappe states that a system of elected governments and market economies is a “Thin Democracy,” or a democracy that is incompetent. [Read the rest here.]
admin July 11th, 2008
An excerpt from a new review of Getting a Grip:
“Lappé tackles the shortcomings of our current political and economic framework and gives us hope for the future by proposing a new lens through which to see and act in our world. Simple and effective graphics capture the book’s big ideas, and key themes are highlighted with poignant quotes. [...] Getting a Grip is ultimately about reclaiming democracy, and it provides paths for each of us to find our parts in it.”
The review comes from The Orton Family Foundation, an operating foundation that seeks to help communities in the Northeast and Rocky Mountain West to identify, articulate, enrich, and protect their “heart and soul.”
Read the review learn more about the OFF here.
admin June 24th, 2008
KUOW 94.9 FM recently put up a podcast of Frances giving a talk at the Elliott Bay Book Company (Seattle) where she explained the power of ideas asking, for example, why there could be hunger in our world of plenty. Frances boils down her ideas clearly and engagingly, always with the desire to share and learn. Listen to her talk about the ideas behind Getting a Grip here:
http://kuow.org/program.php?id=15165
admin June 17th, 2008
It’s been quite a month for Frances. If you’ve been following this blog, then you know she won the James Beard Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year Award, and has a done a good deal of high-profile and wonderful indy press. In addition, her latest book, Getting a Grip, has been named the winner of the Gold/”Best in Small Press” Nautilus Award this year.
Frances shares the honor with some fine company. You’ll find a list of the other honorees here.
And to see more of the recent coverage of Frances, Getting a Grip, and her ongoing work as an author, food and world-hunger expert, and “Living Democracy” advocate, just scroll down — and keep coming back.
admin June 2nd, 2008
In this new piece from the New York Times‘ Sunday Book Review, Frances’s first book Diet for a Small Planet, and her latest, Getting a Grip, have been recommended (by Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver, no less) as must-reads for the next US president.
Writing about Diet (as well as of Wendell Berry’s Unsettling of America, Pollan writes: “In Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore Lappé shone a light on the wastefulness and environmental costs of meat-eating, predicting that humanity’s growing appetite for meat would lead to hunger for the world’s poor. Together these two visionary writers — who fell out of favor during the cheap-food and cheap-energy years that began in the ’80s and are just now coming to a calamitous close — still have much to say about the way out of our current predicament.”
About Getting a Grip, Kingsolver writes: “Forget the personality claptrap: our next president will need to know how to restructure the carbon-based economy, pronto. I assume all the candidates have read An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore, so they understand that anything they promise will have to be delivered without cheap fossil fuels. For further reading, Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy and Frances Moore Lappé’s Getting a Grip offer new definitions of progress and economy with an eye toward the human aptitudes for resourcefulness and community.”
admin May 1st, 2008
The following is adapted from an essay written by Bruce Haynes, a writer and slam poet from South Africa who has become very committed to working for change and Living Democracy. It was originally written as part of an International Essay Contest being held by the Goi Peace Foundation (http://www.goipeace.or.jp/). The contest’s theme is “My project to create positive change in my environment. How can I foster sustainable development in my community?”
Being that Bruce was inspired by Getting a Grip, he sent it to us and we in turn asked his permission to share it with you. We hope you’ll enjoy it.
I’m so excited about life. I’m using my power. I’m using my capacity to act. I’m trusting the process. And I’m loving it.
My name is Bruce Haynes. I’m a recovering stutterer. I’m also a 19-year-young Slam Poet. Goi Peace foundation, are you hearing me? Tokyo, Japan! Are you hearing me? Humanity! Do you hear me? I spent nine months in the UK last year with the purpose of finding out about what was really going on with the climate change situation. I did! I went back to my home country for three months with the intention of finding my voice. I did! My life has become a project to create positive change, and fostering sustainable development will come as a by-product of turning this whole situation upside-down. I believe very strongly that we can do that. I believe strongly that we can co-create positive change. Continue Reading »
admin January 1st, 2008
On this first day of 2008 I’m about to go live with Rose Aguilar on KALW radio in San Francisco, 91.7FM. She wants to talk about “possibilities” awaiting us in 2008.
Outside, the snow is falling. Hmm… what will I say?
Could this year be the beginning of the wake-up? Enough people finally realizing that blaming George Bush or even replacing George Bush — that neither is enough. Instead we can go to the root: We can change the system that corrupts our political choices—the system that generates 61 Washington lobbyists for every congressperson and elects a president who trammels constitutional principle.
In Getting a Grip I argue that elections plus a market do not a democracy make. Continue Reading »
jess December 10th, 2007
(Frances) I’m flying home from the almost-final trip of my fall tour for Getting a Grip. After two delays totaling five hours, I am pretty droopy when in Denver I begin the final leg home.
Okay, I admit, I’m not too tired to call a good buddy to tell her the exciting news that my book just made the San Francisco Chronicle quality paperback bestseller list.
Still pinching myself about that!
But the flight goes surprisingly fast because of a fabulous book by my hero, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. His title Conscience of a Liberal suggests the book might be an overly nice, preachy essay. But it isn’t. Continue Reading »
jess November 28th, 2007
(Frances) Sitting here just after sunrise in a Sonoma, California coffee shop, I’m filled to the brim with the presence of the extraordinary people I’m encountering on this tour.
The themes of power and peace surround me. Just two nights ago, at San Francisco’s legendary City Lights bookstore, there in the front row were Jan and Dave Hartsough—friends of 30 years. I was overjoyed to see them. Dave is a founder of Nonviolent Peaceforce — a nonpartisan and unarmed peacekeeping force of trained civilians. In conflicts, members use proven nonviolent strategies to help protect human rights, thereby enabling local peacemakers to carry out their work.
Continue Reading »
admin November 28th, 2007
(Mark, Media Marketing Director) Bernie Sanders posted an interesting article on global heating on The Nation today. It’s worth a visit, but the gist is: we can fix our climate problems with new technology.
“[T]he situation is by no means hopeless.”
I resonate with the content of Sanders’ article, especially the need to keep a positive frame of mind and to strive after solutions that are substantive, not what Frances calls “random acts of sanity,” but which are genuine efforts made with every belief that we are, indeed, hope in action. Still, there is an even deeper need I fear Sanders doesn’t address.
Continue Reading »
