New Community Project

Hello young adult friends. Welcome to the December edition of You asked for it… no, not the things you asked for on your Christmas list, but NCP’s monthly email to folks like you (sorry!). Nevertheless, I hope you’re looking at a nice Christmas week—and that some of the things on your list actually show up under the tree.

In this edition

• NCP friend shot in Ecuador
• Being young adult: “Young, Black and Frisked” and other articles of interest
• Eco Fact, Justice Fact, Faith Fact

If you’re still not quite sure what to give your mom, friend, or violin teacher for Christmas, let us know and we can get gift cards in the mail to you for girls’ scholarships ($10=2 months school in South Sudan or Burma; $18=hygienic kit), planting trees in Sudan ($10=100 trees) or saving the rainforest in Ecuador ($20=1/10th acre). Just call us Santa’s Little Helpers. And as always, 100 percent of contributions go to the projects themselves. Contact Heidi Gross (hgross@newcommunityproject.org)

Take care—have a great holiday!

David

December edition: You asked for it…

NCP Friend Shot
A few weeks ago an Ecuadorian friend of mine, Mariana Almeida, was shot by assailants near her home outside of Quito. She’s a well-known advocate for protecting the rainforest, saving the whales and defending the rights of native people, and the leader of NCP’s partner group for our work in the Amazon. Some speculate that the shooting may have been related to these things, as one easily offends the rich and powerful when speaking out about such positions.

Mariana is recovering well from her wounds, although her daughter says the psychological trauma is now the main challenge to full healing. We hope for the best, as the world can’t afford to lose the likes of her, and will look forward to seeing her again on our Amazon Learning Tour in June.

Young Adults in the News
I came across a couple young adult-related news stories I thought might be of interest to you.

• In this one, a young African American gives us a window into his world of on-going police harassment
• Here’s an article about the difficulty of young military vets finding work—30 percent can’t. Contrary to recruitment promises, their combat skills don’t necessarily translate to the civilian workforce.
• In the wake of the Penn State scandal, do colleges end up selling their souls when they get into Big Time athletics? Here are a couple coaches who are trying to buck the trend.

Eco-Fact: We’ll buy about $27 billion in electronic gear this Christmas. Total electronics purchases in the US this year will create 3 million tons of e-waste (that’s 6,000,000,000 pounds!); only 13.6 percent of which will be recycled—the rest will end up in the landfill or incinerator. And over half of what is recycled is shipped overseas to have the toxic parts dissembled under unsafe working conditions.

Justice Fact: We’ll spend around $9 billion on Christmas decorations and wrapping paper this year—about what our nation gave in aid to Africa this year.

Faith Fact: On Christmas Eve, 1914, on the frontlines of World War I battlefields, English and German soldiers spontaneously put down their guns and sang Christmas songs to each other, and even exchanged gifts of food and souvenirs. “Never was I ever so acutely aware of the insanity of war,” said one soldier involved in this Christmas Eve ceasefire.