Infants are willing to help according to a new study. The CBC is repotting that infants show altruistic behavior to help adults.
“In 84 per cent of cases, infants as young as 18 months, who were not familiar with Warneken, would help retrieve the peg. During the test, he never asked for help. He also did not thank or reward the child, since the study was designed to show if the toddlers could show altruistic behaviour.”
A new website, Favorville, is all about people helping people. It’s international yet dedicated to the local. It’s easy to help people, all you have to do is register and tag what things you are good at and what favors you can provide. The site is international in its reach but also thrives on communities helping each other in the real world. A really neat idea!
It’s a fantastic social experiment because it connects people who can help each other out. Need a favor? Can help someone help? Be sure to check out Favorville.
A small NGO founded by a couple to help a slum in India has now become a profitable venture. It all starts with discarded plastic bags that are found in a dump.
From the high Commission of India, London:
“It may sound hard to believe, but handbags for sale in some of London’s fashionable boutiques started out as used plastic bags scavenged from the rubbish tips of Delhi. They are the product of a cottage industry run out of the living rooms of a handful of houses in a Delhi slum. The plastic bags are ferreted out by the rag-pickers, the poorest of Delhi’s poor, who make their living hunting for scraps in the rubbish of their richer neighbours.”
Truly a fantastic demonstration of a small amount of capital being used to make big chances in impoverished communities.
Thanks, Justin!
Coming up on Christmas two sons have given their mother the gift of life………… in the form of a lung. Their mother, Brenda Kinnear, 51, has pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that destroys the lung’s ability to transfer oxygen into the bloodstream. Her two sons decided to each donate 1/2 a lung to their mother in a risky operation that puts both the donor and the recipiant at risk. The surgury will relieve much of the stress Brenda Kinnear faces on a daily basis since patients with lung diseases are at increased risks during cold season. If the sugury is sucessfull, Brenda and her sons will enjoy many more long years together.
Today is infamous Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s 90th birthday. 
This is not the great news. The great news is that he didn’t have the big birthday party he was planning – with artists, military bands and lots of expensive food. Yesterday, judge Montiglio ordered his (at home) arrest, so the party was called off.
Pinochet is accused of more than 300 crimes. He is responsible for the killing of some 1000 people – including democratic elected Salvador Allende – in Chile and abroad and the theft of millions of dollars from Chilean state.
Happy birthday, Mi General!
(Just a thought: where should George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney spend their last years?)
Picture from www.rel-uita.org