Dear Friends:

Jesse Foote (AFSO 2000) sent along the following, for which many thanks:

Position

Project Coordinator, OFS Green Building Services



Description

The Harvard Office for Sustainability (OFS) Coordinator, Green Building
Services (GBS), is responsible for supporting the GBS team as they
facilitate green building design, construction and operations across
campus. The position will assist GBS as they provide building
commissioning, energy auditing, energy conservation measure project
management, and green building consulting services and create and
deliver green building educational materials. There will be a large
learning component as the employee is exposed to a variety of different
tasks and ...   more »

Dear Friends:

A thoughtful email from Cathy Buckle in Zimbabwe describing the small and slow
changes taking place there now.

Jack Shepherd


Dear Family and Friends,

For some weeks I've been trying to decide who it was that most changed the lives
of ordinary Zimbabweans in the last year.

At first the choices seemed obvious. Morgan Tsvangirai, our Prime Minister who,
despite winning the March 2008 elections and then living through two personal
tragedies, did not give up on Zimbabwe.

He stood firm in his determination to
start bringing change to the country; he came in for much criticism and ...   more »

Dear Friends:

Here are two emails, from Eddie Cross and Cathy Buckle, regarding recent events
and the continued imprisonment of Roy Bennett in Zimbabwe. For me, the account
is an illustration of the ways that the Mugabe government is maneuvering around
the 2008 agreements with the opposition party, of which Bennet is a member, and
retaining control and power within the state while appearing to be part of a coalition
government. It also highlights the importance of the rule of law within any state,
and the power that ensues when that rule is broken.

On another note, I am reading ...   more »

Friends:

I am sure most of you continue to follow events in southern Africa and Zimbabwe
through CNN, BBC and other outlets. Here, after a pause, are Eddie Cross and Cathy
Buckle bringing us up-to-date from their perspectives inside the region. Eddie
Cross discusses the possible political structure that Zimbabwe might take in the
near future, and his impressions of Jacob Zuma's recent visit with Mugabe.

Cathy Buckle writes about everyday life inside Zimbabwe. I found her descriptions
of the early burning of the dry grasslands and roadsides in preparation for spring
planting very evocative. I especially remember the msasa ...   more »

Friends:

Just in case you are following, as I am, the rising events in South Africa around
the World Cup for 2010.

Jack Shepherd

--- Forwarded Message from "Michael K. Dorsey"
---

...   more »

--- Forwarded Message from "Mundy" ---

Friends:

I thought this might be interesting, especially to those of you interested in
mediation, conflict management and reconciliation efforts.

Jack Shepherd

[17th July 2009]
Three Days Dedicated to National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration
24th, 25th and 26th July

The following declaration, issued by the President, was published in the Government
Gazette Extraordinary dated 15th July, 2009,
 General Notice 92 of 2009. [Note these days are not being declared public holidays.]

INTERPARTY POLITICAL AGREEMENT
Declaration Authorising the Organ on National Healing,
Reconciliation and Integration to Embark on the National
Dedication Programme
HIS EXCELLENCY THE ...   more »

Hello Friends:

Ingrid Nelson, Dartmouth 2005, has sent along the following call for papers, before
she heads out to Mozambique for a year of research in Zambezia province .

Prof Shepherd

--
From: Sarah Van Mill
sarah@fairtourismsa.org.za
Date: 24 July 2009

Cross-posted from H-Africa

Note deadline: 10 August 2009

Call for Abstracts
Special edition of Development Southern Africa
Working title: Tourism Impacts: Lessons for Policy, Programmes and Projects
To be published in December 2010

1. About Development Southern Africa

Development Southern Africa is published five times per year by Routledge
Press in collaboration with the Development Bank of Southern Africa ...   more »

Dear Friends:

A very interesting analysis from Eddie Cross regarding Zimbabwe's zig-zag along
the path to recovery and the state of its current economy. I personally sense
here some improvement and optimism from Eddie Cross.

Cathy Buckle is insightful and offers a graphic description of these economic
changes and their impacgt, if any, at the very local level.

Jack Shepherd

--- Forwarded Message from "Peter Soal" ---

...   more »

Friends:

A superb point, counterpoint on Zimbabwe's history and farming/land issues. I
was particularly taken with Cathy Buckle's account of having lost her farm despite
holding a legal title to it.

Jack Shepherd

--- Forwarded Message from "Peter Soal" ---

...   more »

Friends:

A very moving free-verse narrative of life in Zimbabwe today. Those who have been
there will remember the rattling of seed pods in the wind during the end of the
dry season. I was especially taken by the idea of Tree of Life circles and reconciliation
meetings, and by the ending of the verse.

I also recommend a superb book by a former Peace Corps volunteer, Kris Holloway,
who worked with a midwife, Monique, in Mali for two years. The book is titled
"Monique and the Mango Rains" and for me it captured the rough beauty of life
in ...   more »

Dear Friends:

Some very good news out of Zimbabwe from WFP with regard to maize production and
the inflation, which has incredbily dropped to "zero" from an equally incredible
56 million percent.

Jack Shepherd


FAO/WFP News Release
25 June 2009

ZIMBABWE: HIGHER PRODUCTION
BUT FOOD INSECURITY PERSISTS

ROME ­ High food insecurity persists in Zimbabwe in spite of improvements
in agricultural production and a more liberal import policy this year,
according to a report issued today by the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

Good rainfall meant 2009 production of the staple crop, ...   more »

Friends:

I found this obituary of Zimbabwe's Judge Washington Sansole very touching: his
struggle for an education ( as the text below says, "at the peak of white suptremacy
in Southern Africa"), his efforts to help others and to bring justice to Zimbabwe,
his kindnesses to others -- all of which were returned to him in small ways, such
as the calls for "air" and help, prisoner-to-prisoner, during his time in jail
most recently. This moment above all others tells us of the true life of this
kind man.

Jack Shepherd



Message -----
From: Trudy Stevenson
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Sent: Sunday, ...   more »

Friends;

A very interesting essay from Eddie Cross, and (of course) a nice match with Cathy
Buckle following his work here also.

Eddie Cross explains something I did not realize or understand before: That the
negotiated coaltion government of Zimbabwe (MDC and ZANU-PF) is being forced to
work "consensually on everything" despite their very different views. This could
serve an important purpose, over the next two years until the elections, of creating
understanding and indeed consensus among the willing and the agreeable of both
sides. It could almost be a form of reconciliation.

Very interesting ideas in here, from both ...   more »

Friends:

If you are into reconciliation techniques and methods of political healing, this
is a very interesting document and photo from Zimbabwe. It attracted me because
of the insight into an early process that may be (and perhaps should be) underway
inside this country that has suffered so gravely. I am reminded of South Africa
in about 1990-1992, as they began to take steps and to work out their emergence
from a long period of darkness.

Jack Shepherd

--- Forwarded Message from "Mundy" ---

...   more »

Friends:

A detailed and extraordinary account of the losses of farmland and production
since the "fast-track" occupations of the commercial farms in Zimbabwe.

Jack Shepherd

...   more »

Friends:

A very thoughtful analysis of Zimbabwe from Eddie Cross (via Peter Soal). Zimbabwe
is at a delicate pause, the moment when talks are over, government formation
underway, and the time for planting winter crops at hand.

The moment, and the metaphor, are about pause and preparation, of action and anticipation.
As we in the north enjoy our rising spring, we think of you our friends in the
south laying up stores real and spiritual against the coming winter.

Our thoughts are with you all, as always.

Jack Shepherd



--- Forwarded Message from "Peter Soal" ---

...   more »

Friends:

This is a very interesting analysis of how many Zimbabweans are trying to move
toward a new consitution and from that to a new government. I thought the process
of state-building was impressive and worth discussing.

Jack Shepherd


From: Trudy Stevenson
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 9:19 PM
Subject: [Grouppet] Timeline for a new Constitution and fresh elections

Kubatana  - Amanda Atwood 28.3.09
« A new kind of politics kubatanablogs.net/kubatana
Dangerous desperation »
Timeline for a new Constitution and fresh elections

 
The Global Political Agreement signed in September last year makes it very clear
that it is ...   more »

Dear Friends:

St. Patrick's Day has come and gone, but we need to pause and consider the life
of Steven Dunne, 59, the bass drummer of the Police Pipes and Drums of Bergen
County.

As the New York Times reported last Wednesday, 18 March 2009:

Mr. Dunne and his pipes band were marching up the Irish-green stripe in the center
of Fifth Avenue last Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day, when he collapsed and died of
a heart attack. His band had been marching for a hour and was 11 blocks from the
end of the parade.

The entire parade halted while ...   more »

Friendss:

Some cautious gooid news and quiet hope out of Zimbabwe by our friend Cathy Buckle.

Jack Shepherd

--- Forwarded Message from "Mundy" ---

...   more »

Friends:

Here is a challenging and upliftying statement from Morgan Tsvangirai on the Resolutions of the Party's National Council Meeting at the end of January.

I found it helpful in bringing up-to-date the various positions of SADC and other organizations in the process of moving Zimbabwe toward reconciliation and majority rule. We will hope, and watch, as these possible changes are put into play.

Jack Shepherd


--- Forwarded Message from "Peter Soal" ---

...   more »

Friends:

A particularly troubling analysis by Eddie Cross in Bulawayo, about the enforced closing not only of the state-run schools, but this week the private schools of Zimbabwe as well. In effect, if I am reading this correctly, education for ALL of Zimbabwe's school kids is now being denied.

This reminds me very much -- well, actually, it's a distant echo -- of the enforced closing of our own public school systems across the US South after the US Supreme Court declared that "separate but equal" public education was illegal (Brown vs. Board of Education). In response, some communities and ...   more »

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