Ron Finley: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA/TedTalk

Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA — in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where “the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys.”

Ron Finley grows a nourishing food culture in South Central L.A.’s food desert by planting the seeds and tools for healthy eating.

Via www.ted.com

Haiti Struggles with Humanitarian Disaster

In Haiti, as many as 1,000 people have died and an estimated one million left homeless after the impoverished country was hit by four major storms and hurricanes in less than a month. We speak to the renowned physician Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health, a group that provides free medical care in Haiti. After visiting Gonaives over the weekend, Dr. Farmer wrote, “After 25 years spent working in Haiti and having grown up in Florida, I can honestly say that I have never seen anything as painful as what I just witnessed.” [includes rush transcript]

via Democracy Now!

read more | digg story

Black America: A Neglected Priority in Global AIDS Epidemic

08_left_behind-1.jpg

According to a new report by the Black AIDS Institute, if blacks in the United States constituted their own country, that nation would rank sixteenth in the world in the number of people living with HIV. Two percent of adult black Americans are infected with the virus, and only four countries outside Africa have a higher HIV prevalence.

Visit www.blackaids.org for  more info. Download the full report here.

Hear journalist Kai Wright discuss this report on Democracy Now! The brotha is holdin it down for real on this and subprime crime.

read more | digg story