5 Power Packed Posts to Keep You Thinking After Blog Action Day

October 20, 2008 · by Joanna Paterson · in

Blog Action Day was last week (October 15th).  Over 12,000 bloggers took part in the end, reaching an estimated audience of 13.5 million people.

I don’t know about you but I found the experience of reading so many ideas, thoughts, hopes and fears on one issue, on one day, much more powerful than I was expecting.

One of the risks of a concentrated focus of attention is that we switch our attention away again once the day is gone.  Back to election news, the credit crunch, football scores, productivity hacks or whatever else we’re concerned about or searching for.

But I know that some of the pieces I read have had and will continue to have a lingering impact.  Some of the ideas and suggestions I picked up will turn into action.  Some of the big, difficult, exciting, interesting questions will continue to run in my mind.

Here’s a selection of the posts that ‘spoke’ the most powerfully to me on Blog Action Day.

The Poverty Snowball: What Is Your Life Worth? by Dave Navarro at Rock Your Day

You have something that other people don’t.  You have time, even if it doesn’t feel like it (you made the time to read this, didn’t you?).  You have money, because you spend at least some of it on things you don’t need.  You have influence, because you interact with other people online each day.

Power.  Influence.  Value.  Are you using it to enrich your life only, or do you realize exactly how much you can enrich others?  I’m not trying to guilt trip you – but what I am doing is trying to smack you upside the head and realize how you can help change the world – even if you have the most limited of means.

You see, your spare change – or even your modest donations – may not make much difference in your first/second-world nations, but they can literally save lives and change the future of millions over the coming decades in third world countries.   But only if you take command of the massive personal power you have to direct even a fraction of your power, influence and value there.

How To Get Delightfully Rich (And Still Keep Your Soul) by Sonia Simone at Remarkable Communication

The thing that kept her on that death bed wasn’t her illusion, it was ours: that HIV is too big a problem to stop, that the millions who are dying, and the children they leave behind, are beyond our hope. Better not think about it, because it’s too big a problem to fix.

Except it isn’t. We in the developed world can make donations, and incredibly passionate, energetic people will turn those donations into saved lives.

We take action, and that action leads to results. We are rich.

Overcoming Poverty – It’s Not About the Money! Ariane Benefit tells a deeply personal story at Joyful Jubilant Learning

As a kid, I experienced a constant sense of disdain, pity, prejudice, and even fear from many people.  The kind that people have for people who are different from them – and they don’t even realize how they hurt people. I felt it from kids at school, friend’s parents, teachers, people at church, people in stores, etc. I couldn’t afford to dress well. I had a thick, lower class Massachusetts accent. It was quite obvious to everyone around me that I was poor and I got treated that way. People would be genuinely shocked when they would look past all that and get to know me and realize that even though I was poor I was also quite resourceful and intelligent.

When Did You Last Show Anyone How to Fish? by Janice Cartier at Painting a Day - a post about a project she was involved in, and the inspiration/invitation to think how you could do something similar

So I designed an Artist in Residence program, pitched it, got the gig. And not for anything near what it is worth. But lets not talk about how the arts are valued here. Here’s the point. I did it anyway, in spite of the time and effort it cost me. That Artist in Residence program, that effort, touched over a hundred kids, poor and rich. And it is replicable. We worked together. Let me say that again: with public and private resources we worked together creatively using the arts and literacy to impact over a 100 children and their sense of community. Take a moment. Reread that last sentence.

17 Images of Poverty shared by Digital Photography School

It’s where I found the picture of smiling poverty… that I’ve included here.

Looking at the photographs made me think about the care, the responsibility, we need to take with our words.  It’s easy to look at these images and think: wow, how powerful, or optimistic, or moving, or how cleverly captured.  It’s easy to look, and think ‘wow’, and move right on by.

But the pictures aren’t there just to hold our attention, to give us that feeling of being moved for a brief second.  There’s a story behind the pictures too, and an invitation to get involved.

A number of the pictures, like this one, are found on carf’s flickr stream.  Carf is the Children at Risk Foundation and the pictures are of the street children they are working with in Brazil.  They are connecting with a wider community through Flickr – a community of changemakers who are invited to help in practical ways.  Follow the links – you’ll find out how.

Blog Action Day Isn’t Just For a Day

Those are the posts that are still running round my mind.  I realise I only managed to read a fraction of the 12,000 posts written, so if there are other power packed posts you’ve read, or written, please do feel free to share them in the comments below.  It’s another way to keep on talking, learning, and working out how to move things forward.

And if you’re still looking for some practical suggestions for things you can do:

10 Things You Can Do To Make Poverty History by Wonderwebby

88 Ways to Do Something About Poverty Right Now by Easton at Blog Action Day

Bloggers Change Poverty: It Just Makes Cents by David Zinger at Joyful Jubilant Learning