Visions From Far And Near
 
Since January 7, 2005, my daily travel has been chiefly up and down the information superhighway, a magical, hypnotic dream path, which has turned up for me--a childhood pal from Bombay, the Urbs Prima in Indis, and a couple of relatives from my parents' birthplace--Kerala, India's fabled God's Own Country, all of whom I'd lost contact with in the 1950s after they set out on their long, exciting, challenging, migratory journeys; plus the wonderful people from two continents who have taken time from their exciting work remaking our small planet to share their visions through the medium of--
 
US-India Writing Station:

Valerie Street
Hong Hunt
Ian Moore
Peter Kline
Ralph Dranow
Joseph Kaval
Quentine Acharya
Amanda Gerrie
Brenda L. Coleman
Edathil Prabhakar Menon
Tricia Holloway
Judith Anne Buchman
 Richa
Mona Lee
Prakash Joshi
Neil Marcus
Marisa Fernando.
Blair R. Williams
Rev. Carol Estes
Gary Ivanek
Dr. Tezuka Osamu
 
 

Visions for Summer 2007

 
  I am enjoying the sunny day in San Francisco. Everything sparkles, the way it did when I was a kid back in Bombay.

In the past few weeks, I have been working on two visual artists
for Career Visions for a Small Planet,
one Japanese, one American:

~ Dr. Tezuka Osamu, Japan's "God of Comics (Manga)" ~

“The God of Comics?” inquires the headmaster of the school I attended (oh, so many years ago), charging into my imagination, pushing aside my muse, as I sit down to write my review. “What did I teach you about brain rot?”

He shoots a fiery glance down at me, an eyebrow arching dangerously as if he would let loose a corrective lightning bolt. “You worshiped him at someplace called the AAM?”

And I imagine bouncing back, “No, Headmaster, I attended a one-of-a-kind exhibition of the works of Japan’s God of Comics, Dr. Tezuka Osamu, at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, one of the largest museums in the world devoted to Asian art, 6,000 years of it.”

Read on @:

http://indiawritingstation.com/tezukas-marvelous-manga/


~ An East Bay photographer known for his "unlimited attention"  ~

“I have taken 800 photos of Neil [Marcus]— we’ve done it for four or five years, and may continue doing it,” Gary Ivanek says in a quiet, upper floor corner of Café Med, which is located on Berkeley’s world famous Telegraph Ave.

I am interviewing him a few doors away from the city’s greatest contribution to human development — the Center for Independent Living where I first met Neil about a quarter century earlier.

Eight hundred photos! Four or five years!

Read on @:

http://indiawritingstation.com/gary-ivaneks-visual-world/

Having loved comics, movies, and Life magazine when I was growing up, I enjoyed doing these two pieces.

I hope you find their work inspiring.

And I hope you have a pleasant summer.
 
 
 
 

On Career Visions'

Winter Compendium (2006-2007)


In this compendium, you'll meet several visionaries
working on three of my favorite topics:
 

Disability and Equality.
 
Ending Homelessness.

Digital Literacy.

I hope you find them inspiring.


Rev. Carol Estes works for justice,

equality, and spiritual wholeness

   

“Living with a visual challenge has definitely shaped my world differently,” says Rev. Carol Estes who is legally blind. “My response to the world stems from this place.”

Valerie Street, a long-time supporter of the Jobs for Homeless Consortium, nominated Rev. Estes.
 
http://indiawritingstation.com/carol-estes-spiritual-journey/



Judi's and Richa's actions

in 2006 give hope for 2007


Judi and Richa's peaceful actions during 2006 on homelessness, health care, helping children grow, healing the heart of conflict, and community journalism give me hope for our Small Planet in 2007.

http://indiawritingstation.com/judi-richa-ending-homelessness/
 
 


Grand Rapids residents help

Spanish-speaking immigrant families


In their homes these digital literacy volunteers rebuild, assemble, and setup  computer systems for donation.

http://indiawritingstation.com/blickleys-reduce-digitaldivide/



Keep hope alive!

Those of you who'd love to do a Career Visions' interview but don't like to answer a whole lot of set questions, may want to consider a photo story like the one on digital literacy in Grand Rapids, or a story-letter-with-photos like the one on Judi and Richa. Let me know. In 2007, I'm open to a World of Possibilities!

You are doing great work out there, and I'd like the world to share your inspiration, so we keep hope alive.

 
 
 

On the November 2006 Issue of

Career Visions for a Small Planet #20

 
Blair R. Williams had an epiphany when he
returned to visit the land of his birth
after leaving it two decades earlier.
Out of it came a vision that is
transforming the lives of many,
including his own.
Read all about it @
 
 
 

On the October 2006 Issue of

Career Visions for a Small Planet #19

 
Peacemaker Marisa Fernando, who works
 
for peace amidst Sri Lankan strife, recommends:
 
Cover stories of how people have
 
discussed their conflicts and
 
learnt to live together
 
Read all about it @
 
 

On the September 2006 Issue of

Career Visions for a Small Planet #18

 
Fly and Soar with

~Neil Marcus~

Banishing Fear & Dread of

People with Disabilities

Read all about it @
 
 

On the August 2006 Issue of

Career Visions for a Small Planet #17

 
Here's:

Prakash Joshi as He

Struggles for a New

Beginning For All of Us.

 Read all about it @

http://indiawritingstation.com/prakash-joshis-reconciliation/

On the July 2006 Issue of

Career Visions for a Small Planet #16

 
Here's:

Mona Lee,

A "World Person" With Guts And Courage

Who Is Circumnavigating the Globe on a

Tandem Bicycle with Her Husband to Promote

World Peace, Justice, and Democracy.

 Read all about it @

http://indiawritingstation.com/global-citizen-mona-lee/
 

On the June 2006 Issue of

Career Visions for a Small Planet #15

 
Hope you are well.

In June's Career Vision, you'll meet Richa, a homeless person
whose witness at City Hall continues into its second decade,
five nights a week -- spring, summer, fall, or winter.

Is this City Hall Berkeley? Chicago? New York? San Francisco?

Read all about it @

http://indiawritingstation.com/richas-witness/

Having covered City Hall meetings for less than four daytime hours
a week for about four years back in the 1970s, I am in awe of
Richa's enduring witness for peace, justice, and a better world for everyone.

Hope you get a chance to meet Richa on US-India Writing Station.

Ayubowan (Sinhalese) -- May you have a long life.

PeaceShalomSalaamShantiSamadaanam.
 
 

On the May 2006 Issue of

Career Visions for a Small Planet #14

 
Today is May Day, a good day for immigrants to make themselves heard and seen, instead of being hidden in sweat shops, cellars, back rooms, and hidden rooms.

It is also a good day to honor our peacemakers. So, this immigrant would like to share with you the story of a remarkable peacemaker from America's heartland: Judith Anne Buchman.

“My spirituality is at the center of my life,” writes Judith Anne Buchman, the farm girl from northwest Ohio who went to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in her early twenties and who has for over three decades focused her life on peace and justice activities.

Ms Buchman’s spiritual attitude stood out for me when I first interviewed her, Richa (Richard Chandler), and Kathi Byrne in 1976 [see Lifeboat Ethics & The Making Of The Trash Pickers: The Issue Of Personal Responsibility] for New River Free Press of Grand Rapids — a community newspaper that I edited and published, as it does in the May 2006 Career Visions for a Small Planet e-mail interview .

She says she is a diffident writer.

Diffident, maybe — like most of us.

But her writing resonates with lines direct from her heart.
 
And the simplicity of her words speak to our hearts.

A clue to the harmony she works towards can be found in the following
Mahatma Gandhi quote that is a postscript to her e-mails:

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
 
- Mahatma Gandhi


You can read more about how "Judith Anne Buchman Lives Her Faith As A Peacemaker" @:
 

When you visit my website, you'll find a host of changes. I hope you like them.

And if you haven't read my short story —— Life, the 27 Bryant Version ——
that Apollo's Lyre has published in its Spring 2006 issue, here's the link:

http://www.apollos-lyre.com/id227.html

Apollo's Lyre is a "Writer's Digest 101 Top Web Site 2006."

I hope you like the story.

Feel free to pass these stories forward and/or to link to them.
And feel free to make another nomination for a Career Visions interview.
 
 
 

On the April 2006 Issue of

Career Visions for a Small Planet #13

 
May the sun shine on you in April.

In March, I missed the sun when outdoors in San Francisco. (We have had more days of rain in March than in any other year in recorded history.)

In March, I didn't miss the sun as I gave the finishing touches to my interview article with Tricia Holloway.

You can read it @:
 
 
 You can also read it @:
 
 

On the March 2006 Issue of

Career Visions for a Small Planet #11

 
Featured this month are Social Worker-Facilitator Brenda L. Coleman and Peace Activist Edathil Prabhakar Menon.

Brenda L. Coleman's

Blend of Empathy And Understanding


In this month's Career Visions for a Small Planet, through an in-person interview in Oakland, I bring you the vision of Brenda L. Coleman, a social worker and facilitator who has been helping people for 14 years because she has been helped. I found that this former Jobs for Homeless Consortium team member is happiest when Good triumphs over Evil.

You'll find my interview with her at:
 
 
 
The interview can also be viewed at:

http://careervisionsbrendalcoleman.blogspot.com/
 
 
 

Edathil Prabhakar Menon's Long March

For Peace Through World Education

 
From the other side of the world, from Bangalore, through
the miracles of digital literacy, I bring you
Edathil Prabhakar Menon's long march to
promote non-violent development for justice and equality.
As a young man in the early 1960s he undertook a monumental
10,000-mile walk around the world for peace and
disarmament.  His long march for peace through world
education continues unabated. In the U. S. , Prof. Menon
was associated with the World Education project of  the
Friends World College and later became its South Asia director.

You'll find his interview @:
 
 
    

On the February 2006 Issue of

Career Visions for a Small Planet #10

 

This month, from places far and near, across the world-expanding superhighway, I bring you visions of a career coach and trash pickers, and a remarkable story of the awakening among India's untouchables.

From the East Bay city of Oakland, we have Career Coach Amanda Gerrie's vision for Following Your Bliss. Ms Gerrie, who collaborated with Jobs for Homeless Consortium when she was an employment counselor at Peralta colleges, was nominated for the interview by Katie Hudson, former manager of Jobs Consortium's RelyAble Choices Staffing Services. The Amanda Gerrie interview is at:

 
 


From Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the American heartland, President Gerald Ford's hometown, fabled environments that produced Amway, Steelcase furniture, and Hushpuppies, we have Trash Pickers' Non-Violent Action Creates Snowball Effect, Resulting In Thousands Receiving Food. This story, in two segments, the first one done three decades ago, the second in 2005, is at:


[It is also available at:

Next, we we have a review article that explores the rising of 165 million Indians out of bondage, who are making footprints for the first time in history. You will find my review of Narendra Jadhav's Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Journey Out of the Caste System in Modern India at:



Peace/Smaadaanam
Michael Chacko Daniels

PS: Please feel free to pass forward Career Visions for a Small Planet
to anyone anywhere who might find it interesting.
  

 

______   *   ______ 

 

Have you visited the rest of

Michael Chacko Daniels' website,

US-India Writing Station?

If not, please do and be sure to

bookmark it. If you wish to

refer others to it, here's the URL:





Feel free to visit, and explore: Fiction, Poetry, Community Service, Homeless, Commentary, & Discussion On The Road To Remaking The World We Live In . . . San Francisco, Grand Rapids, Evanston, Bombay, Kerala, Oakland, Berkeley, Monterey, Bangalore, Calcutta . . .

Feel free to share the above link with others.
____________________________


Have you read Michael Chacko Daniels' flash fiction story,
Sing an Indian Name, on Denver Syntax's free online magazine?
If not, here's the URL:

http://www.denversyntax.com/issue5/fiction/daniels/indian.html

Feel free to share the above link with others.
_________________________
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

  

And the following

Popular History Pages


 
 

____________ * ____________

 

A Grand Rapids Popular History

 

Pages from New River Free Press, 1973 to 1977

 

Your Friendly Guide to Urban Survival & Improvement:

 

grhistory.blogspot.com/

 
  _____________________

Signed, Limited Editions

An avid reader's comment about

Michael Chacko Daniels'

handcrafted books:


"The books are beautiful,

they look like little treasures."

--Brenda Coleman


Each copy is

a work of art in itself.

Click here to read more about
 
 Michael Chacko Daniels' books.
 
 

Click here to view a digital version of


Anything Out of Place Is Dirt
 
on Google Book Search 
 

Click here to view a digital version of


Split in Two
 
on Google Book Search