One professor commented on the effect the book has had on her class, “…it helped them reach beyond the overwhelm that some have felt about the extent of world problems…” going on to say “…they took many ideas and lessons from your book on trying to help people recognize the big ideas about democracy, power/powerlessness, and fear that might keep them from acting, and on helping them realize the significance of individual actions to turn things around.”

Already in German and Korean, the book is soon to appear in Spanish as Tenemos Las Reinas. For a limited time, you can now order Frances’s new book Liberation Ecology, and Getting a Grip together for only $25 plus free shipping. Read a piece of Getting a Grip’s message in Tikkun.

Beginning Monday, May 11th at the Café Schöne Aussichten in Hamburg, Frances is traveling through Germany to tell people about Getting a Grip which has just been released there as Packen Wir’s An! (Let’s go for it!). The Grip tour will end in Salzburg, Austria on 20 May: check out Google Maps for cities and dates.

Follow the tour on Twitter with Frances and Annegret Torspecken (pictured with Frances) who is managing the launch events for publisher J. Kamphausen.

Frances’ interview in Berlin is featured live: watch and listen!

Frances featured in the Bielefeld newspaper.

While in Berlin, Frances visited a school teaching the concepts of living democracy and was presented with “The Dove of Peace:” A live-size golden dove carrying an olive branch, sculpted by German artist Richard Hillinger for the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, and adopted at the third session of the UN General Assembly. The artist made thirty statuettes to represent the thirty articles of the Human Rights Declaration. In 2009, all of these doves, each as a symbol of peace, are “flying” through the whole of the world from person to person, from institute to institute. To learn more, visit Collage United Nations.

Because we are creatures of the mind, says Lappe, it is the power of “frame” - our core assumptions about how the world works - that determines outcomes. She pinpoints the dominant, failing frame now driving our planet toward disaster. Then, with fresh insights, startling facts, and stirring vignettes of ordinary people pursuing creative solutions, Lappe uncovers a new, empowering frame emerging worldwide.

She writes: “My book’s intent is to enable us to see what is happening all around us, but is still invisible to most of us. It is about people in all walks of life who are penetrating the spiral of despair and reversing it with new ideas, ingenious innovation - and courage.”

See below for other recent VoA coverage of Frances and her work.

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.]

For the past few months we have been connecting with organizations around the country that embody the core elements of Living Democracy. Below you’ll find an example of one such organization and what it is doing to help our planet. We find their phenomenal efforts inspiring and know that you will, too.

Want to become a Small Planet Partner? Please email us at team@smallplanet.org

Redefining Progress

“Redefining Progress is the nation’s-leading public policy think tank dedicated to environmental, economic, and social justice. Our team does original, unbiased research about the disproportionate effects of climate change on low-income families and people of color. We develop measurement tools such as the Ecological Footprint and the Genuine Progress Indicator that point people and governments towards environmental and economic sustainability.

“Utilizing our research and tools, Redefining Progress outlines policy initiatives at the state and national level to address pressing environmental issues in ways that are economically and socially just. We are available as sustainability consultants and researchers to businesses, labor unions, schools, communities, and governments that seek to become more sustainable or need in-depth information on the impact of policies on their sector. We’ve created free resources for teachers who want to introduce concepts of sustainability in their classrooms and we host the popular Ecological Footprint Quiz (http://myfootprint.org), the world’s most well-known personal measure of sustainable living.”

The National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture

“The National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture promotes grassroots involvement in the creation of federal policy for food systems and rural communities that are healthy, environmentally sound, profitable, humane and just. We are built on farm- and community-based knowledge–proven quite literally in the field–that sustainable agriculture can produce the food we need, and generate jobs and a healthy rural economy, without environmental harm. Our process of dialogue and consensus building enables us to generate agreement and unified action among groups who have traditionally found little common ground.”

YouthBuild USA

“YouthBuild is a youth and community development program that simultaneously addresses core issues facing low-income communities. These include housing, education, employment, crime prevention and leadership development. A network of 226 local YouthBuild programs help low-income youth rebuild their communities and their lives. In March, 2008, at the Skoll World Forum Award Ceremony in Oxford, England, the Skoll Foundation unveiled a seven-minute film about YouthBuild as a solution to the issues affecting low-income youth in the United States.”

Watch the film here: http://www.youthbuild.org/site/c.htIRI3PIKoG/b.4126063/

In her latest piece, “A Shortage of Democracy, Not Food”, Frances revisits her Diet for a Small Planet’s days and the revelation that the root of world hunger is not a lack of food but a lack of democracy. “Because no human being chooses hunger, hunger is proof that a person has been denied a voice in meeting survival needs. And, since a say in one’s future is the very essence of democracy, the existence of hunger belies democracy.”

Read the article here.

“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.

http://kuow.org/program.php?id=15165