To teens in the first decade of the 21st century

While hard work and discipline are essential to the successful life, true success is not in an award, or bank account balance. It’s in the number of real friends you have, and intangibles such as your ability to enjoy life in deep and profound ways, and to have stood for something far greater than your own comfort, convenience, and bank account.

Dammed, displaced and democratized

As founder of the earthen building movement in Thailand, Jo Jandai has contributed much to the concept of living sustainably. … We later stopped at a mountain community that had formed in the wake of a ten-year protest. I had been intrigued by this band of villagers that had set up camp on the lawn of the elegant parliament building in Bangkok. The villagers had lost their homes due to a large dam project (funded by the World Bank) flooding their land.

Metals – May 14

Military cracks down on scrap-metal scavengers
Metal theft plagues troubled neighborhoods

Some homes worth less than their copper pipes
Copper theft could have been deadly

Preventing home copper-tubing theft
Steel once again a hot commodity