Letters and Movies: SID Style

Hey SIDers,
First up: Don't forget, no SID meeting tomorrow night. Instead, we'll be going to the Hare Krishna temple on Saturday to help them prepare their facilities for the winter. We'll be meeting at the Duck Pond south of campus at 9am to carpool up to Spanish Fork--we hope to see you there! Feel free to check out Zach's post on the activity from last year.

Last week's SID meeting was twofold. We started with a ONE letter writing campaign. SIDers brought canned food to donate and wrote letters to Senator Bennett, asking for his support for the plan to commit $1.3 billion towards smart agriculture programs that give farmers across Africa the means to pull themselves out of poverty. Want to help? Write a letter to your state representative in Congress or sign ONE's petition. Want to learn more? Check out the following posts from the ONE Blog:
Multilateral agriculture fund announces plans, rejects 19 countries due to lack of resources
A smart agriculture program that saves time and makes money for women in Mali

For the rest of the evening we were honored with a visit from SID Alum, Blaine Johnson. After incredible experiences like working with Dr. Yunus, studying with Thai monks and chilling with the Dahli Lama, Blaine is currently working with Open Air Cinema, screening movies across the developing world. Open Air Cinema is a for-profit company based in Lindon that makes inflatable outdoor movie screens. While the screens are usually sold/rented for profit, they've recently created a humanitarian branch of the company, partnering with organizations like FilmAid International, Rwanda Cinema Center and Shine Global and Fine Films to take their outdoor screens to locations across South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Blaine was kind enough to take some time to introduce us some of the films that Open Air Cinema has been screening across the world.

First up? War Dance--a documentary about a group of refugee children from Northern Uganda and the national music and dance competition that helps them to begin to heal after their traumatizing experiencing with the Lord's Resistance Army.



The movie is available to stream on Netflix. I watched it last Friday and absolutely loved it. I feel obligated to warn you though, it's a very serious film. Each of the three children featured in the film share their own horrific experiences with the LRA in fairly explicit terms. At the same time, however, it's also a story of hope and joy. "We want people to know that just because we're from a war zone does not mean that we can't do good things," one of the children tells the camera--and thank goodness for that!

Next we learned about Burma VJ, a film about protests in Burma (now Myanmar). Again, another heavy film but also a good one to watch, especially after Aung San Suu Kyi's recent release



The movie, divided into 9 parts, is available in full on youtube. Another that I'd recommend watching.

Finally, we watched Bhutan: Gross National Happiness together as a club. Bhutan is a small, fairly closed-off country lying between India and China. Instead of focusing on raising Gross National Products the former Bhutanese king, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, created a plan to increase Gross National Happiness.