My latest contribution to the World Vision Report aired this weekend. It’s about my experience with the workers who made my flip-flops. Here’s the official description:
Many people from rural China have migrated to cities in the country’s coastal provinces, in search of steady jobs. Travel writer Kelsey Timmerman met one such couple in the city of Guangzhou. Three years ago, they left their son with his grandparents, and haven’t seen him since.
Tonight I’m speaking at Manchester College and students who attend can earn Values, Ideas, and Arts Credit (VIA). Here’s what the college’s calendar says:
Thursday, September 24 7 p.m.
Wine Recital Hall Kelsey Timmerman on Where Am I Wearing?
What’s it like to go undercover as an underwear buyer in Bangladesh? Kelsey Timmerman can tell you. In 2007, he took out a second mortgage on his house so he could travel across the globe to meet the people who make our clothes. The result is his book, Where Am I Wearing? A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People That Make Our Clothes. Says Timmerman: “If we reduce global issues to…
As someone who has had to answer the question, “So what brings you to Bangladesh?” by holding up a pair of Jingle These Christmas boxers and saying, “My underwear were made here,” some might think I could vie for the title ofThe World’s Craziest Traveler.
But there’s a whole level of crazy that can’t be matched by underwear quests funded by second mortgages.
I was working at an adventure outfitter in North Carolina, when I encountered the craziest traveler I’ve ever met.
“I need a sleeping bag,” the man said, “a warm one.”
He looked normal enough: well dressed, bathed, no slobber.
“Where you heading?” I asked, expecting to hear something…
4) If you’d be interested in having me speak at your school, church, organization, business, or cult, I made this handy page to help you.
5) I got grass stain on the knees of my jeans for the first time in a long time. It feels good. I was playing Aerobie (those things are magic) with my nephew Jared and I dove (okay, I…
Do you ever feel like a dog in your indecision? You know those times when you are trying to convince your dog to do something new and they start to whimper and walk circles. That’s how I felt yesterday.
I was driving and listening to one of my favorite talk shows on NPR “On Point”. There are bigger and more popular shows on the radio, but there are few hosts I would rather sit down and chat with than Tom. I sent Tom a copy of “Where Am I Wearing?” with a note expressing how much I enjoy the show. I didn’t hear back, but I’ve kept listening. Unfortunately I rarely catch the show live. Instead I listen to the podcast, which is convenient but I don’t have an…
(This weekend I got into a conversation on Twitter with @sloane about microfinance. The Grameen Bank is a shining example of how giving women access to credit can lift families out of poverty. Here are a few photos I took when I visited the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 2007 . Below that is an excerpt from “Where Am I Wearing? about the experience. )
Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammad Yunnus believes in Bangladesh, too. He formed the Grameen Bank, which gives microcredit loans to people who couldn’t get loans from a traditional bank.
I went with a representative of the Bank to see the program in action.
I heard primatologist Jane Goodall, Champion of the Chimps, on the Diane Rehm show today. She’s been fighting for our closest primate cousins for decades. She said something that really resonated with me.
“You’ve got to find a way to get into somebody’s heart. And just shouting at them and telling them they’re doing bad things and blinding them with numbers and statistics…you’ll never get anyone to change.”
She was referring to environmentalists who take more aggressive and political approaches to the issues. Her issue-centered philosophy dominates her work. A caller asked her about Diane Fossey (the Gorillas in the Mist lady). As contemporaries, Goodall tried to talk Fossey into reaching out to the Gorilla poachers. They were doing the awful…
I heard primatologist