Local Cost of War: Proposed FY2008

Crude Awakening photo by David Chamberlain

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." -George Washington

National Priorities Project analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent.

Click on a state to find a list of the cities, towns and counties for which we have calculated the taxpayer cost of proposed spending on the Iraq War in fiscal year 2008. For more information about the cost of the Iraq War, and what to do if you don't find your hometown, click here. To read more about the FY2008 war-related spending request, click here . To find out the taxpayer cost for what Congress has already appropriated, click here.

To find out what Iraq War spending could buy in your state and congressional district if the money were spent on other priorities, go to the NPP Trade-offs page.

The taxpayer cost of the Iraq War is broken down for various towns, cities and counties across the U.S. for proposed spending in FY2008. The breakdown is based on a cost of $155 billion. Congress has yet to appropriate this money and leadership has stated that Congress will not consider the request until next year. If Congress appropriated this money, the total cost of the war would rise to approximately $611 billion, not including future costs.

NPP cost of Iraq War estimates are based on analyses of administration requests, Congressional legislation and other research.

The state-level costs are based on how much each state contributes in tax revenues, according to IRS data. The local-level costs are based on the state costs, and on relative population and income levels in each location. These numbers were updated for the latest IRS data in Sept 2007.

National Priorities Project (NPP) is a 501(c)(3) research organization that analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent. Located in Northampton, MA, since 1983, NPP focuses on the impact of federal spending and other policies at the national, state, congressional district and local levels.

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Empowering Feminine Energy: Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel

Future President of a free Burma by David Chamberlain

So often in our world we tend to think of strength as a quality that arises from a place of firm determination and a will to succeed no matter the cost.

Even though we might want to think of a strong woman as being defined in this way, what really makes a woman confident is her capacity for listening to her true self and being able to call upon her feminine wisdom to any situation that may arise.

A woman does not need to step into an assertive role or act like a man in order to be effective at what she does -she simply needs to get in touch with her insight and sense of compassion to truly demonstrate the depth of her strength.

Listening to the feminine side of ourselves may not seem easy at first for this type of energy is something that is often overlooked in many aspects of our everyday lives. If we can connect with this part of who we are, however, we will find that there is an unlimited wellspring of strength available to us. Our capacity to tap into our intuition and listen to our inner guides, to take into account the needs of those around us, and to view a situation with compassion and love are ways that we can show the world the true power that is part of our feminine nature.

When we learn to integrate this source of strength into our daily tasks and decision-making, we will find that we can be more flexible and open to the things that happen around us and more receptive to new ideas.

Not only will we see the world in a different light, but we will truly start to realize the potential for this form of energy to both empower ourselves and those around us.

As we cultivate our feminine energy we can redefine the meaning of strength.

By embracing our feminine power as something that is strong in its own right, we are able to use it with true assurance and determination and draw upon what truly belongs to us.

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Travelers Philanthropy: Creating Peace

Travelers Philanthropy in Otavalo, Ecuador with Exquisite Safaris

Travelers Philanthropy: Enlightened Luxury Each of us is more than capable of helping the world, despite our fears and limitations and the uncertainty that holds us back.

It is commonly accepted that it is impossible to make a difference without unlimited funding or free time, yet most healing, cleansing, and spreading of joy is accomplished in a matter of minutes. If we vow to make the world a better place one day at a time, the true significance of small good deeds reveals itself to us. We come to see that we can be of service without dedicating our lives to recognized charities or giving up the pleasures we enjoy.

The warmth we feel when we help the world is only a tiny part of the affirmative transformations that take place when we make altruism a part of everyday existence, smile at everyone we meet, and lend a hand to those in need of aid our assistance.

As we learn, we inadvertently improve the world because we can only be truly involved when we are informed. Even enthusiastically sharing ideas with others generates positive energy that then serves as the motivation for more tangible change.

Selfless and helpful deeds remind us that we exercise some degree of control over a world that can seem chaotic at times. Even the smallest of such deeds is a demonstration of the fact that we are capable of changing the world in a positive way.

So much negative energy is generated by the suffering, pain, and close-mindedness we are regularly exposed to, but we can counteract it in a constructive way by thinking and acting altruistically when opportunities to do so arise.

Helping the world often takes no more than a moment, just a wish for the world is a beautiful gesture and can be done by even the busiest of people effortlessly. The gift you give each day need not be grand or attention-worthy because the broader benefits are the same no matter the literal repercussions. Once a day, you can affect reality, and you can reap the rewards of knowing that you are making the world a better place, day by day.

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Understanding International Voluntourism

As the popularity of "international voluntourism" continues to grow, so does the debate over just how beneficial volunteer vacations are to the communities and people they purport to help.

Last summer (2007), one of the oldest and largest international volunteer charities -Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) said, "many people would be better off simply traveling for fun, rather than volunteering with "spurious" aid organizations that offer little help to those in need."

"Spending your gap year volunteering overseas has become a rite of passage for young people and the gap year market has grown considerably," said Judith Brodie, Director of VSO in the United Kingdom. "While there are many good gap year providers we are increasingly concerned about the number of badly planned and supported schemes that are spurious-ultimately benefiting no one apart from the travel companies that organize them."

She added: "Young people want to make a difference through volunteering, but they would be better off traveling and experiencing different cultures, rather than wasting time on projects that have no impact and can leave a big hole in their wallet."

GEORGE RUPP is the President & CEO, International Rescue Committee

Expert advice on International Voluntourism by George Rupp, President & CEO of the International Rescue Committee

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Considering Voluntourism?
Questions to consider provided by Judith Brodie VSO

1. Will you be given a defined role and purpose?

2. Can you meet face to face with your provider and get detailed information about the volunteer placement?

3. How much will it cost and what does this pay for?

4. How will you be supported with training and personal development before, during and after your placement?

5. How do volunteers work in partnership with the local community and is there a long-term benefit to the community?

6. Does the organization you are going with have offices overseas that partner with local people?

7. Does the organization guarantee health, safety and security assistance?

8. Does the organization have a commitment to diversity amongst its volunteers?

9. How does the organization encourage long-term awareness of real development issues?

10. How will your work be monitored and evaluated so that others can build on what you have done?

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"Who gains the most from volun-tourism?" -Christina Jelly is a senior majoring in biochemistry and philosophy at the University of Arizona.

The University of Arizona sends record numbers of students to study abroad every year. Increasingly, international exchange is viewed as a vital component to the enrichment of our academic career. Not only does study abroad add dimension to our academic studies, but international travel broadens cultural perspectives and imparts invaluable lessons about the complexity and variety of our world.

The growth of study abroad and student exchange programs is illustrative of a broader phenomenon - not only are students venturing out of the country to study, but they are also traveling to developing countries to build schools for the poor, preserve threatened wildlife habitats and volunteer with AIDS patients.

And students are not alone. According to the Travel Industry Association of America, more than 55 million Americans have participated in so-called volunteer vacations - vacations including a jaunt in charitable activities abroad - and some 100 million Americans are contemplating similar trips.

The American commitment to volunteerism fused with our intrepid thirst for travel has created a burgeoning industry of volunteer-abroad service providers. This new brand of volunteer service differs from organizations like the Peace Corps in that it often thrusts untrained individuals into projects in developing countries for a much shorter time period.

Whether volunteers serve for two weeks or two years, they arguably provide a developing community with economic and social benefits, all free of The American commitment to volunteerism fused with our intrepid thirst for travel has created a burgeoning industry of volunteer-abroad service providers. charge and largely motivated by good will. Check out any of the glossy brochures distributed by the volunteer travel industry and you'll find a diverse range of virtuous projects: community development, conservation, health improvement, teaching, etc.

Yet, volunteer tourists are often equally motivated by the opportunity to travel and feel the personal rewards of philanthropy. Personal satisfaction may be an indivisible element of altruistic acts, but how much are these short-term voluntourism projects aimed at satisfying the personal impulses of the volunteer rather than the needs of the project and the target community?

Many voluntourism providers are for-profit agencies, and as such their priority is to satisfy the consumer. Volunteer service providers like I-to-I and Cross-Cultural Solutions spend hefty sums developing projects that guarantee the volunteer moral satisfaction. Accordingly, they charge high prices for their services - a two-week teaching stint in Ghana can cost up to $1,495. That fee doesn't even include the thousands of dollars you'll need to pay for inoculations, flights, meals, in-country transport and visas.

When such agencies spend more time and resources satisfying the desires of volunteers, the sustainability and needs of the volunteer project come second to the caprices of wealthy tourists cum humanitarians. Admittedly, some part of the program fee goes toward the project, but the vast sums of money could probably be better spent on building pre-existing infrastructure within the target community or even right here in the United States.

Voluntourism promotes sentimental concern for the needy abroad that can blind us to the poverty at home. You don't have to travel to Bolivia or Vietnam or Tanzania to find causes or individuals in need of assistance. Voluntourism can, however, potentially inculcate the pretentious fiction that the only needy beneficiaries of volunteer service are in developing countries. It's easier that way: after our adrenaline rush of charity we can return to our privileged lives knowing we've satisfied our duty to help others.

Yet, the most successful community development and volunteer endeavors are the products of sustained and committed involvement -which a two-week spell cannot imitate. The brevity of volunteer travel programs that makes them so popular also detracts from their efficacy. Projects may be long enough to provide moral fulfillment to the individual volunteer, but they might be too fleeting to have matching benefits to the community.

Granted, the spirit of volunteer travel is noble: international volunteerism fosters solidarity, trust and reciprocity among diverse cultural groups and heralds global community cohesion.

As students, when we embark on our voluntourism adventures, we should ensure programs prioritize the short- and long-term gains of the project over the wants of the volunteer.

Similarly, we should pledge to use our unique assets and skills to generate tangible benefits for the community, not just impressive additions to our resumes.

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Approaching the Omega Point: Philanthropic Travel

xlr8r

"Someday after mastering winds, waves, tides and gravity, we shall harness the energies of love, and then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will discover fire." -Teilhard de Chardin

There are times when we share with others a special, fully interconnected consciousness. When great music thrills us, or we are mutually inspired by an awesome sunset, or when we fall in love, we are transported temporarily into a shared world which is remarkable.

This state of true intermingling is rare, for most of us, but it is experiential, and that means we know it for what it is; we feel it immediately as real and filled with meaning. When such an experience is past and we return to our normal, separated perceptions, the experience becomes a vulnerable memory, and our educated personality may reject the consciousness that knew this deeper connection.

Yet, the suspicion remains that there is something of mind that is not just inside our heads. We feel interconnected with each other and the world in a profound and important way. We know at some level that we are not isolated, but interdependent, so that a subtle energy of mine can reach out and mingle with yours, allowing us to share a moment that is important to both of us.

If we think of this potential extending beyond the two of us to a world full of living beings, we have the foundation for a model for global consciousness. Maybe, as Teilhard de Chardin believed, the world ultimately needs that shared consciousness and is actively growing toward it.

The research described here points to subtle indications that we do live in an interconnected, potentially conscious world, in which we surely play an important role. We have shown immense capacities for both destructive and creative impact, and this implies that the future is ours to mold.

It will be a desirable future in proportion to our level of consciousness, individually and globally.

-Roger Nelson

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Meaningful Legacies: Travel Philanthropy

Himba children and David Chamberlain in Namibia

By definition, a legacy is something that comes down to someone from a predecessor or from the past. Most of us want to leave behind some kind of legacy for our children and grandchildren, or for future generations.

Many people think of a legacy only in terms of some financial bequest or gift. Those with the means to do so might build a wing on a hospital or fund a professorship or a scholarship. And these are wonderful and meaningful ways to leave behind a legacy. A legacy can mean many things besides money or endowed professorships or hospital wings it can also be ancient wisdom or a contagious commitment to improving the community, or even the story of our lives, the good times and the bad times, and the important life lessons we learned.

Some people simply want to try to teach future generations so they will not make the same mistakes. There are many ways to leave a meaningful legacy, even if you are not wealthy.

Here are a few ideas to start your thinking about the kind of legacy you might want to leave behind.

1. Share the stories your predecessors passed down to you. Many stories are actually living accounts of history. If they are not passed down, they are lost. Whether you record them on audio or video storage or you write them down, it is safe to assume that. Another way to leave family stories behind is to work with your local library or an internet site and let them help you record the stories.

2. Share your thoughts on the big events of your lifetime. Each of us has lived through a time of many monumental historical and social events and changes. Your thoughts and reactions to those events tell the stories from different angles. Your point of view might be very important to future generations. Share your actions, but also share your reactions -your thoughts and feelings. Share your thoughts about how those events changed your life and the lives of others.

3. Share your reasons for the deeply held beliefs and commitments of your life. Share the principles by which you live. It is often fairly easy for later generations to get a sense of what we did in our lives. It is not always so easy to understand why we did things or made choices. Understanding how your beliefs influenced your life might help someone else discover a helpful approach to directing their lives.

4. Share the stories of why some of the things you will leave behind are important to you. It is not uncommon for a grandchild to be left some seemingly insignificant item when a grandparent passes on. It means far more when they are also given an explanation of why you cherished the item and why you chose that individual to have the item when you are gone.

5. Share the joys in your life and the intangible things that made you who you are. Write or record for the next generation why you love, for example, jazz or classical music. Tell them what it brings to your life. Leave behind a list of the books you found meaningful and think everyone should read -and tell them why.

Each of us is a link in the chain of life. Every part of the legacy we leave behind keeps a chain intact. The parts of the legacy we don't pass on may be lost forever. No matter who you are, where you live, or what you did for a living, you are a unique and important individual.

As you design your personal legacy, don't forget to pass on the extremely important intangibles that give life true meaning.

Your experience matters.

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Inspired Philanthropy

View of the Pacific Ocean from Exquisite Safaris USA

The third, much expanded, edition of Tracy Gary's book, Inspired Philanthropy, has just been published. Included is a chapter on creating a legacy plan on which she and Phil Cubeta collaborated.

To accompany the book Tracy has provided a new website. The site provides in downloadable form the exercises and worksheets that are the backbone of the book. These exercises and worksheets have been proven in literally thousands of classes Tracy has taught to donors. Most of the worksheets were written in airport lounges, between gigs, by a woman who has dedicated her life to this work for nearly three decades. The exercises and worksheets help givers, whether wealthy or of ordinary means, to sort out their vision, their passion, their current giving, their strategic giving goals, and their future giving plans. Also included for download (under the Appendices in Resources) are tools for donors and advisors to bring them together in common purpose. These materials assist the donor in articulating her legacy vision to advisors in terms advisors can understand and that advisors can implement within a prudent and inspired estate plan or financial plan. So, if you are a donor, an advisor to donors, or a nonprofit working with donors, you now have a first-rate free resource online.

Tracy is giving this stuff away in faith, hope and charity. She may sell some books too, but the motive is to uplift the field.

To promote the book, and more importantly to promote inspired giving, The Harnisch Foundation is funding what is called, The Donor Diva Challenge. If you buy a copy of the book by November 6 a free copy will be donated to the nonprofit of your choice. More than 10,000 books will be given away with your participation.

Finally, a Donor Diva blog is planned. Getting Tracy and her donor friends into the conversation online will be a major plus for all of us philanthropy bloggers.

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The Prophecy of the Condor and the Eagle

Temple of Forgiveness -Burning Man 2007

The dawning age of intuition and spirit: Generosity. Wisdom. Respect. Integrity. Strength. Fortitude. Collaboration. Humility.

"Nearly every culture I know prophesies that in the late 1990's we entered a period of remarkable transition. At monasteries in the Himalayas, ceremonial sites in Indonesia, and indigenous reservations in North America, from the depths of the Amazon to the peaks of the Andes, and into the ancient Mayan cities of Central America, I have heard that ours is a special moment in human history, and that each of us was born at this time because we have a mission to accomplish.

The titles and the words of the prophecies differ slightly. They tell variously of a New Age, the Third Millennium, the Age of Aquarius, the Beginning of the Fifth Sun, or the end of old calendars and the commencement of new ones. Despite the varying terminologies, however, they have a great deal in common, and "The Prophecy of the Condor and Eagle" is typical.

It states that back in the mists of history, human societies divided and took different paths: that of the condor (representing the heart, intuitive and mystical) and that of the eagle (representing the brain, rational and material). In the 1490's, the prophesy said, the two paths would converge and the eagle would drive the condor to the verge of extinction. Then, five hundred years later, in the 1990's a new epoch would begin, one in which the condor and the eagle will have the opportunity to reunite ad fly together in the same sky, along the same path. If the condor and eagle accept this opportunity, they will create a most remarkable offspring, unlike any seen before.

"The Prophecy of the Condor and Eagle" can be taken at many levels - the standard interpretation is that it foretells the sharing of indigenous knowledge with the technologies of science, the balancing of yin and yang, and the bridging of northern and southern cultures. However, most powerful is the message it offers about consciousness; it says the we have entered a time when we can benefit from the many diverse was of seeing ourselves and the world, and that we can use these as a springboard to higher levels of awareness. As human beings we can truly wake up and evolve into a more conscious species."

-From Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (page 209) by John Perkins

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