On your “live an amazing life” bucket list I highly recommend adding “take the boat taxi across Lake Kivu from Goma to Bukavu.” It’s a high-speed dart across a beautiful and nearly pristine body of water shared with traditional fishing boats and bounded by Rwanda on one side and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on the other. You’ll skim along the water in a boat that rides so low that you’ll actually be partially underwater for the sensational ride.

But before you go you should read this week’s story called “A Day in the DRC” by Armin Rosen at The Atlantic. Full disclosure: Oxfam helped fund his trip to Goma and environs to report on what he saw. Full disclosure: When we asked him to go, I didn’t care at all what he wound up writing. Full disclosure: he’s a damn good writer and you should hear his take on a region that has seen unspeakable crimes, still sees them, and yet still lives.

“I set out with James [a local tour guide] … to see things that had no overt connection to the eastern Congo’s many tragedies; to gather evidence that life here is more than just displacement and conflict, even in a city this battered, ” writes Rosen.

Children collect water from lake Kivu, near Goma, in late 2012. Photo: Kate Holt/Oxfam

“Even in war, people try to live their ordinary lives,” James tells him at one point. “It’s a reflection of the Congolese people. Even if you go to a death ceremony, people will cry. And then they start to relax – to laugh, to sing.”

The whole piece goes on like that. Really, it’s a great read.

Rosen’s story is the first I have read (and probably you too) that includes mention of a cobbled-together foosball table or teenagers breakdancing on the floor of a former church. These images are, really, the whole point of asking a great writer if he’d be interested in spending some time in an amazing place and telling readers about it.

You see, I’d argue that there’s quite an appetite, especially within the US media, for the stories about a brutal Africa. For the Africa of wars and child soldiers. For poverty and militias. Fascinating, necessary, stories all, and we need them to be told. And goodness knows that had some of these stories been told 10 or 20 years ago in this very place, some of the tragedies that people experienced might have been avoided. But we also need the foosball stories, the breakdancing stories, and the everyday life-in-the-world stories.

This is the Goma that I know. It is a place filled with people dealing with a sometimes brutal history, an too-often brutal present, and figuring out the best place to breakdance or kill a few hours playing foosball. It’s sticking your hand out the window of a boat, dragging your hand across the water, and marveling at one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

OxfamBuzzList is a blog series about the movies, books, articles, music, and more that have Oxfam staff and supporters talking. We welcome guest contributions.

Last week, I had the chance to hear Amy Wilentz speak about her new book, Farewell Fred Voodoo, at Oxfam’s Boston headquarters. “Fred Voodoo” is a term that international journalists in Haiti used for the typical Haitian. When reporting a story, they would look for the Fred Voodoo quote – the average Haitian perspective on the topic at hand. It’s something like what “Joe the Plumber” became in the 2008 election.

Living in Haiti as a journalist, Ms. Wilentz experienced the small, storied Caribbean nation as an outsider. While I haven’t spent the same length of time in Haiti, my work with Oxfam brings me there frequently, and I can definitely relate. Ms. Wilentz talked about traveling around Haiti in what felt like a bubble. Trying to listen, be open, learn – to not be that all-too-typical outsider arriving with all the solutions for a “better” Haiti. In Kreyol, white people are blans, basically their version of Fred Voodoo. I’m a blan, I’m Jane American Pie.

With Farewell, Fred Voodoo, Ms. Wilentz signals the end of that era of stereotyping Haitians in journalism – and even beyond journalism to development and the overall international presence in Haiti. If the 2010 earthquake did anything positive, it showed the world who Haitians really are. The devastation, the bravery, the strength, the strife, the hunger, the vitality. Fred Voodoos they are not.

I attended Ms. Wilentz’s talk – as I think many of my colleagues did – to gain some perspective about Haiti. To get some answers to some of the most puzzling questions that plague us about how we can be of best use in Haiti, how we can help and not contribute to the complex problems there. But Ms. Wilentz didn’t come to the table with answers, or advice, or declarations. She came with questions. And her book does the same. It’s not a journalist’s job to write solutions and occasionally insert a Fred Voodoo quote. Just like it’s not my job, as an Oxfam media officer, to answer questions on the Haitian people’s behalf to my US audience.

Jane American Pie will never fully understand what will bring sustainable change to Haiti. But if I drop that label for myself, and we all say farewell to Fred Voodoo, asking the right questions of ourselves and each other will get us there.

OxfamBuzzList is a blog series about the movies, books, blogs, music, and more that have Oxfam staff and supporters talking. If you’d like to contribute a guest post or suggest a topic, please leave a comment below

If you’re a fan of Ra Ra Riot, or of music in general, then let me recommend the band’s excellent new album, Beta Love. Released this past Tuesday to much critical acclaim, Beta Love relies less on the string-heavy arrangements of previous albums that allowed critics to pigeonhole them as “chamber pop.” Ra Ra Riot incorporates many more synth sounds on the new album, which allow the band’s knack for writing singalong hooks to shine at a brightness not seen on the first two albums.

Though the band claims inspiration for this album from the works of futurists William Gibson and Ray Kurzweil, my ears hear equal influence from ’80′s popsters like Steve Winwood and Robert Palmer. It’s likely the smartest dance record you’ll hear this year.

For a taste of Ra Ra Riot’s new sound, watch this video of the band performing “I Shut Off” from their new album recently at a studio in NYC:

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Brian Rawson is senior advisor for community organizing at Oxfam America, and a musician who performs around Boston and Providence.

What’s the greater thrill? Watching the David Wax Museum live last week at the Royale in Boston? Or seeing the band emerge into success over the past several years from a mere twinkle in an Oxfam intern’s eye? If you haven’t yet heard their high-octane mix of rock, Mexican folk, and Americana, you should check it out now, before they become even more massive: The band just won the Boston Music Awards’ Song of the Year for “Harder Before It Gets Easier” and the video (below) also ranked in Paste Magazine’s top 10 videos of 2012.

Singer/guitarist David Wax is first and foremost a poet. I remember when we used to jam at Oxfam to whatever audience we could find – usually a couple of interns – and the comments (and adoration) would always turn to David’s lyrics. And I remember when he commented on the folk poetry of Mexico he would highlight the ironic humor, the crass poking fun at life’s heartbreaks, finding comedy in the tragedy of everyday life.

This was during his stint as fair trade coffee intern at Oxfam America. Fast forward several years, including one year of music study at the feet of Mexico’s traditional Son players, and David has brought humor, insight, and above all intensity to the stage. A line jumped out at me at last week’s Royale show: “Give me something /so goddamn true/ Salvador Allende/ in the final moments of the coup.”

As a friend and fan of David Wax Museum, another line also sticks with me: “the rise and fall/ of your chest… it’s not a word I’ve used but for the first time I feel blessed.” A year or so into his life as a touring musician, David returned to Oxfam to join a lunchtime jam session with some of our in-house musicians. Most of us played in muted volume and sang in hushed voices so as not to disturb colleagues working nearby. When it was David’s turn to lead a song, he belted it out full volume. “I don’t have any other way,” he said.

I think of this statement often as I watch the David Wax Museum rising, and their sound getting bigger.

OxfamBuzzList is a blog series about the movies, books, blogs, music, and more that have Oxfam staff and supporters talking. If you’d like to contribute a guest post or suggest a topic, please leave a comment below.

Lissette Miller is a former Oxfam Action Corps organizer and student volunteer. She lives in Washington, DC.

I’m quite picky when it comes to films (I’m that guy), but even the rain couldn’t stop me from enjoying the film También la Lluvia (Even the Rain), which I first saw last year at the Coral Gables Arts Cinema in Miami.

For one, the story touches upon issues that will make you want to join a picket line. It takes place in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where a movie is being filmed about the Columbian voyage to the “New World” and their unexpected encounters with its inhabitants. Gael García Bernal plays the director, who hires the local townspeople to portray “Native” people like Hatuey, a 16th century Taíno chief known for leading uprisings against the colonizers. Things get cray when the filmmakers discover the actor playing Hatuey is, in his own life, an active protestor against the privatization of his city’s water plant (a direct allusion to the Cochabamba Water Wars).

Also, Gael García Bernal. I mean, c’mon, the man’s face looks like it was carved by angels. More importantly, he’s a social justice activist at heart who’s been working with Oxfam since 2005. He’s visited Chiapas, Mexico, to meet farmers directly affected by unfair global trade practices. He’s had a hand in urging world leaders to address climate change, and is a supporter of Oxfam’s GROW campaign, or CRECE en Español. Gael, along with friend and fellow actor Diego Luna, founded the non-profit Ambulante, which screens documentary films and hosts training programs in places where they are rarely available.

In También la Lluvia, however, Gael plays a far from compassionate character, who knowingly makes a profit off his low-paid Bolivian crew and continues shooting his movie even as the water protests turn violent.

Stimulating story, aside, I also appreciated that this was a subtitled movie, with the actors speaking Spanish. Seriously, what’s with the movies set outside the US with non-English speaking characters, yet with all-English dialogue? As if everyone in the world is speaking English to one another in weird, obscure accents, maintaining every other aspect of their culture save for their language. Oh, Hollywood, you sly devil, you.

Bottom line: If you’re an Ox-friend, you’ll dig this this movie. También la Lluvia highlights certain injustices done to poor, often-silent populations, and the power they wield when they stand together in opposition, while somehow never straying into preachy-land.

OxfamBuzzList is a blog series about the movies, books, blogs, music, and more that have Oxfam staff and supporters talking. If you’d like to contribute a guest post or suggest a topic, please leave a comment below.

Michael Borum is the web manager at Oxfam America.

Has there ever been a better time in history to really bring stories to life inexpensively, with the narrative impact of film, and the reach of the Internet? Oxfam has for years embraced video as a storytelling medium. When done well, it’s hard to do much better to connect our audiences with the work we do. In the age of YouTube, it’s inevitable, and it’s consistent with the tried and true storytelling mantra: show, don’t tell.

This is one of the ideas underpinning the campaign Why Poverty?, which kicked off earlier this month. The unaffiliated campaign (Oxfam is not a participant), supported by more than 20 worldwide partners and broadcasters, has commissioned award-winning filmmakers to produce eight documentaries about poverty, along with some new and emerging voices, for a total of 30 shorter films. They’re taking on big issues and asking difficult questions through stories that are thought-provoking, nuanced, and utterly creative.

Most of us are by now familiar with the “KONY2012” phenomenon that was one of the most viral videos in recent memory. I think the Why Poverty? approach is often more subtle, and broadens the scope of poverty as a systemic, complex global issue that touches all of us in ways mere “viral” videos can’t or perhaps shouldn’t. I appreciate how these films illustrate stories that can be difficult to put solely into words or sound bites.

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Before the arrival of my son last year, I had big plans for the kind of child I would raise. He would be an excellent eater, eager to consume whatever I offered him. But reality intervened: At 16 months, he poked suspiciously at anything resembling a vegetable.

With my sights set on our upcoming Thanksgiving dinner—and a vision for my little cherub to join us for our annual family feast—I sought the advice of author Karen Le Billon. In her book French Kids Eat Everything, she recounts her family’s food and cultural immersion from a year living in France.

The French have a strong culture of food. More than just feeding their children for nourishment, they consider teaching kids about food to be a critical part of their early education. The unwritten rules of eating in France challenge Le Billon to rethink her approach, as she assumes greater ownership of deciding what and when her kids eat. She and her husband and kids eat together; they offer the children a wide range of dishes, cheerfully insisting that they try what’s served, all the while instilling good table manners and patience for slower-paced meals.

At first the children protest, and Le Billon admits to failed attempts. However, with persistence and enthusiasm, both of her young children happily enjoy fresh, healthy, and diverse meals.

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In my quest to be the best-informed citizen I can be, I, like much of America, have been glued to the recent presidential debates. I’m smart enough to recognize that in addition to the actual debating of important issues, there’s a certain amount of gamesmanship and strategy employed by candidates at these events. However, like many people, I’ve been dismayed and disappointed with the blatant careless attitude both candidates (and their spokespeople) have had with being truthful and accurate. Trustworthiness, I would think, is the most basic quality a candidate for any office would want to display when given the chance.  Sadly, it seems this year that bluster is better strategy than honesty.

To prove my theory that I’m not the only one who feels this way, Oxfam supporter and cellist Ben Sollee released a new video today for his very timely song, “A Few Honest Words”.

“Like nearly everyone,” explained Ben, “my attention this week has been focused on Sandy and all of her devastating effects … There are so many people dealing with fundamental challenges in their lives at this moment: food, shelter, clean water, etc. These are things that are not debatable or points of policy; they are human needs. And as the country inevitably shifts its gaze back to the final stretch of the election, I’m hoping we can keep the human-to-human conversation going.”

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If you want to begin to understand some of the challenges the Democratic Republic of Congo faces today, there’s no better place to start than with Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost, the history of the brutal exploitation of one of Africa’s most resource-rich nations. I read it a few years ago and instantly became a Hochschild fan, not only of his storytelling but also of his passion.

What, I wanted to know, makes Hochschild tick?

It wasn’t until last month, when I got my hands on Half the Way Home–a memoir and his first book–that I had the answer to my question. It’s the story of the sometimes difficult relationship between Hochschild, an only child, and his father, the head of a major mining company with interests all around the world. Raised in the kind of luxury familiar only to the top of today’s One Percent–house servants, chauffeur-driven limousine, a private summer estate in the Adirondacks–Adam Hochschild tells of his gradual awakening to what propped up that life of extreme privilege.

“All though it took a long time to sink in, growing up in such surroundings was the best political education I could have had. I did not need leftist theorists to convince me that class is the great secret that everyone wants to deny…As I grew older, I became more accustomed to this way of looking at life. What I mean buy that is an ever clearer perception of how the joys, the power, and the riches of the world are divided so unfairly: between classes, between countries, between races, between men and women. When you feel the injustice of that division in one category–and for me it was the first–then your eyes begin to open to the others as well.” Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I met Razia Jan, one of the finalists for CNN’s Hero of the Year award. Razia is the founder of a small nonprofit organization called Razia’s Ray of Hope that is doing some of the bravest work I know of today.

I first heard about Razia during a conversation with my aunt about the book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, which focuses on Mortenson’s mission to build schools in rural regions of Pakistan. (Though Mortenson’s book has generated some controversy, I still found the ideas behind the story inspiring.)

My aunt told me about her friend Patti Quigley, who lost her husband in the 9/11 attacks. Rather than shunning the region of the world from which the attackers came, Patti focused her energy on understanding it. That led Patti to meet Razia and become involved with, and eventually Executive Director of, Razia’s Ray of Hope.

On Friday, I heard Razia tell her story at an event here in Boston. A native Afghan, she lived in the US for over 38 years. After the 9/11 attacks she was compelled to return to Afghanistan to fight terrorism from the ground up. She knew, through a deep understanding of the culture, that educating girls was a key part of the solution.

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