Thanksgiving Day Appeal Update -- Long
David Albert
David H. Albert
SKYLARK SINGS
1717 18th Court NE
Olympia, WA 98506
360 352-0506
E-Mail: shantinik@...
February 13, 2000
Dear friends:
Please forgive the form letter, but I want to get this out to you as quickly
as possible, and on my 50th birthday! Let me take this opportunity to thank
you all for contributing to my project to help families in southeast India
build their own cyclone-proof housing under the auspices of Land for the
Tillers Freedom (LAFTI), which was founded by my mother and father
Krishnamal and S. Jagannathan.
I called them on the third day of Pongal (South Indian Thanksgiving) to
announce that we had raised all the necessary funds for the brickmaking
machine. My brother, a psychiatrist working with children of war victims in
Cambodia but home for the holidays said that they were ready and planned to
build 8,000 houses in three years. My mother, standing in the background,
yelled into the telephone �Two years!� This will really be a dream come
true for 11,000 families who, even twenty years ago, could not have even
dreamed of eating three square meals a day, no less owning their own land,
starting cottage industries, or having real roofs over their heads.
More good news: with funds raised from sales of my book (�And the Skylark
Sings with Me� � visit my website at www.skylarksings.com for more
information � credit card orders now accepted), I was able to purchase two
used portable computers for LAFTI�s offices. This will enable the foster
kids to communicate with their supporting families (who are mostly in
Italy), for LAFTI to communicate with funders and supporters more
effectively, and my father to stay in touch with ecological organizations
and developments around the world. A friend from my Quaker meeting was kind
enough to transport the computers, which should have arrived today.
But now for the biggest news of all: on Wednesday, I received an e-mail from
Sweden, informing me that Krishnamal and S. Jagannathan had been nominated
for the Year 2000 International Right Livelihood Award. The Right
Livelihood Award is best known as the �Alternative Nobel Peace Prize�, and
is given to individuals and groups �offering practical and exemplary answers
to the crucial problems facing the world today.� It is awarded at ceremony
before the Swedish Parliament the day before the Nobel Prize presentations.
A list of previous winners since 1980 reads like a who�s who of the best of
ecology, community development, human rights, peace, and justice programs
worldwide. (To read more about the Award, visit www.rightlivelihood.se)
The e-mail I received from the Director, Kerstin Bennett, specifically
solicited letters of support. So I invite those who know of the efforts of
my parents and LAFTI to please write to the Awards Administrative Office.
They said they prefer to receive letters by mail. Send to: International
Jurors, Right Livelihood Award, c/o Kerstin Bennett, Administrative
Director, Administrative Office, PO Box 15072, S-104 65 Stockholm, Sweden.
If you can�t write a letter, an e-mail will do: info@...
Enclosed you will find a sample letter which I hope you can improve on. And
if you can�t see your way to writing your own letter, I hope you will
consider signing and sending this one along. (P.S. -- just ask, and I'll
forward the letter to you in WORD.)
Thanks again to all of you for making this best 50th birthday celebration
I�ve ever had! (I can�t wait for the next one!)
David H. Albert
(P.S. Tax-deductible donations to the Gandhian Foundation are still being
accepted and will be used for purchase more tools needed in the
housebuilding program. Thanks!
______________________________________
February 20, 2000
International Jurors
Right Livelihood Award
c/o Kerstin Bennett � Administrative Director
PO Box 15072
S-104 65 Stockholm
Sweden
Dear Distinguished Jurors:
I am writing to you to support the nomination of S. and Krishnamal
Jagannathan and the Land for the Tillers Freedom (LAFTI) organization to
receive the Year 2000 Right Livelihood Award.
The work of the Jagannathans on behalf of the poorest of the poor people of
South India now spans some six decades. Through their tireless efforts,
thousands of families � many of whom were landless for up to forty
generations � now are able to own and till their own land, provide for their
families, and build strong, vibrant communities. And they can do so not as a
result of government largesse or large scale international assistance, but
through their own labor. The Jagannathans have returned to the people
themselves a sense of their own power and the responsibility that comes with
it.
The Jagannathans are a living example of what it means to do more with
less. They have, with the support of their communities but without any
institutional or organizational backing, confronted major ecological
devastation caused by multinational corporations and assisted by
governmental indifference, and in the face of overwhelming odds, have
prevailed. In doing so, they have educated their communities on the
importance of being forever vigilant, and the power of committed communities
willing to stand together and, harnessing the power of nonviolent action,
confronting obstacles in the path of sustainability.
As you know, LAFTI was literally formed out of ashes � the deliberate
burning to death of 43 women and children who were rounded up and locked in
a house which was then set afire in the village of Killevanmani in 1968. To
this day, Krishnamal Jagannathan says she carries the light of those 43
women and children in her heart, and sees this light growing stronger in the
faces of the thousands of children who now know a freedom they never would
have imagined even a generation ago. In honoring the Jagannathans, who are
now in the 90s and 70s respectively and still going strong, the Right
Livelihood Award would be honoring the memory of these women and children,
and help the flame of human rights, justice, and community and ecological
sustainability blaze ever so much more brightly, both for their descendants
and for generations to come
I do hope you will give this nomination the most careful and favorable
deliberation.
Sincerely yours,
SKYLARK SINGS
1717 18th Court NE
Olympia, WA 98506
360 352-0506
E-Mail: shantinik@...
February 13, 2000
Dear friends:
Please forgive the form letter, but I want to get this out to you as quickly
as possible, and on my 50th birthday! Let me take this opportunity to thank
you all for contributing to my project to help families in southeast India
build their own cyclone-proof housing under the auspices of Land for the
Tillers Freedom (LAFTI), which was founded by my mother and father
Krishnamal and S. Jagannathan.
I called them on the third day of Pongal (South Indian Thanksgiving) to
announce that we had raised all the necessary funds for the brickmaking
machine. My brother, a psychiatrist working with children of war victims in
Cambodia but home for the holidays said that they were ready and planned to
build 8,000 houses in three years. My mother, standing in the background,
yelled into the telephone �Two years!� This will really be a dream come
true for 11,000 families who, even twenty years ago, could not have even
dreamed of eating three square meals a day, no less owning their own land,
starting cottage industries, or having real roofs over their heads.
More good news: with funds raised from sales of my book (�And the Skylark
Sings with Me� � visit my website at www.skylarksings.com for more
information � credit card orders now accepted), I was able to purchase two
used portable computers for LAFTI�s offices. This will enable the foster
kids to communicate with their supporting families (who are mostly in
Italy), for LAFTI to communicate with funders and supporters more
effectively, and my father to stay in touch with ecological organizations
and developments around the world. A friend from my Quaker meeting was kind
enough to transport the computers, which should have arrived today.
But now for the biggest news of all: on Wednesday, I received an e-mail from
Sweden, informing me that Krishnamal and S. Jagannathan had been nominated
for the Year 2000 International Right Livelihood Award. The Right
Livelihood Award is best known as the �Alternative Nobel Peace Prize�, and
is given to individuals and groups �offering practical and exemplary answers
to the crucial problems facing the world today.� It is awarded at ceremony
before the Swedish Parliament the day before the Nobel Prize presentations.
A list of previous winners since 1980 reads like a who�s who of the best of
ecology, community development, human rights, peace, and justice programs
worldwide. (To read more about the Award, visit www.rightlivelihood.se)
The e-mail I received from the Director, Kerstin Bennett, specifically
solicited letters of support. So I invite those who know of the efforts of
my parents and LAFTI to please write to the Awards Administrative Office.
They said they prefer to receive letters by mail. Send to: International
Jurors, Right Livelihood Award, c/o Kerstin Bennett, Administrative
Director, Administrative Office, PO Box 15072, S-104 65 Stockholm, Sweden.
If you can�t write a letter, an e-mail will do: info@...
Enclosed you will find a sample letter which I hope you can improve on. And
if you can�t see your way to writing your own letter, I hope you will
consider signing and sending this one along. (P.S. -- just ask, and I'll
forward the letter to you in WORD.)
Thanks again to all of you for making this best 50th birthday celebration
I�ve ever had! (I can�t wait for the next one!)
David H. Albert
(P.S. Tax-deductible donations to the Gandhian Foundation are still being
accepted and will be used for purchase more tools needed in the
housebuilding program. Thanks!
______________________________________
February 20, 2000
International Jurors
Right Livelihood Award
c/o Kerstin Bennett � Administrative Director
PO Box 15072
S-104 65 Stockholm
Sweden
Dear Distinguished Jurors:
I am writing to you to support the nomination of S. and Krishnamal
Jagannathan and the Land for the Tillers Freedom (LAFTI) organization to
receive the Year 2000 Right Livelihood Award.
The work of the Jagannathans on behalf of the poorest of the poor people of
South India now spans some six decades. Through their tireless efforts,
thousands of families � many of whom were landless for up to forty
generations � now are able to own and till their own land, provide for their
families, and build strong, vibrant communities. And they can do so not as a
result of government largesse or large scale international assistance, but
through their own labor. The Jagannathans have returned to the people
themselves a sense of their own power and the responsibility that comes with
it.
The Jagannathans are a living example of what it means to do more with
less. They have, with the support of their communities but without any
institutional or organizational backing, confronted major ecological
devastation caused by multinational corporations and assisted by
governmental indifference, and in the face of overwhelming odds, have
prevailed. In doing so, they have educated their communities on the
importance of being forever vigilant, and the power of committed communities
willing to stand together and, harnessing the power of nonviolent action,
confronting obstacles in the path of sustainability.
As you know, LAFTI was literally formed out of ashes � the deliberate
burning to death of 43 women and children who were rounded up and locked in
a house which was then set afire in the village of Killevanmani in 1968. To
this day, Krishnamal Jagannathan says she carries the light of those 43
women and children in her heart, and sees this light growing stronger in the
faces of the thousands of children who now know a freedom they never would
have imagined even a generation ago. In honoring the Jagannathans, who are
now in the 90s and 70s respectively and still going strong, the Right
Livelihood Award would be honoring the memory of these women and children,
and help the flame of human rights, justice, and community and ecological
sustainability blaze ever so much more brightly, both for their descendants
and for generations to come
I do hope you will give this nomination the most careful and favorable
deliberation.
Sincerely yours,