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There are only a few hours left before 2008 and this year like the year before, had its good and bad times. I already talked about non-profit organizations and peace movements on this blog, we are approaching the moment of the traditional new year’s resolutions, and this is when I look back and hope the new year coming will be better than this one. I am not saying each new year is worse than the previous one, but the betterment is thin, if nonexistent. Environment has become a real issue, freedom of speech is threatened in many countries and for different reasons (I couldn’t not mention here Pakistan‘s former Prime Minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, assassinated a few days ago), peace movements are put down (Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi and a thousand monks. Again.) and volunteers working for nonprofit organizations are risking their life everyday in some part of the world.

It is like that every year, the situation is the same and sadly confirms what I wrote about Darfur: when History is a never ending story. Nonetheless, the hard work and the perseverance of people of good will offer a glimmer of hope, although the changes take at least years, decades or centuries to be seen. I am very close to volunteers working for humanitarian organizations in Africa, some of them face extreme danger while providing help to the needy. But a NPO (or NGO) can also be about prevention, legal aid, literacy, education for a lifetime or financial assistance in both industrialized and developing countries. I don’t want to sound banal or state the obvious, but I am very respectful to people who work out of the spotlight. They are not looking for any kind of recognition and are barely paid; they, and the organizations they work for, are a crucial part of our societies.

I recently had a very interesting discussion with the husband of a friend of mine who volunteered as a doctor running a mobile clinic across Africa for almost 20 years. His devotion is remarkable and what he did changed his life and the one of many others for ever. It is always enriching to talk to experienced people, it somehow improves your outlook on life. Then we talked about Darfur. Almost four years ago, we signed a petition to raise both political and public awareness about Darfur and he couldn’t imagine it would take so much time to be done. I remember when we first talked about what was happening there, it was in late 2003 early 2004. And most of the people I know only discovered the crisis in Darfur in late 2006 early 2007 when George Clooney came back from Sudan. In the same way, I saw people really scared about environment issues only after they watched Al Gore‘s documentary: ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. Kinda confusing an actor known to be ‘the world’s sexiest man’ and a man who ‘used to be the next president of the United States of America’ are the ones bringing these situations in the spotlight. I am not saying they are not legitimate or that they don’t believe in the cause they defend, they are absolutely right to use their fame the way they do. I am just saying that sometimes the gap between the glamour of the style and the hardness of the substance in the field can be baffling for some aid workers, at least the ones I have been talking to.

So I think all the initiatives and the people involved into them should have our full support. I say ‘our’ as us being citizens of the world, not only of our sole country. Whether we donate money or time, or ‘only’ contribute to spread the word and awareness about a crisis (Reporters Without Borders slogan is: “Don’t wait to be deprived of news to stand up and fight for it“) is important, as well as not looking away because we think we are not concerned. In our own country but also far away from where we live, I think it is essential to care about the others, and to be curious about the world around us is crucial if we want to solve pending issues.

Below is a non exhaustive list of non-profit organizations I support or I know people working with/for (Claude, John, Jeremy, Elena, Greg, Bouni…). There are many, many others and at the dawn of 2008, I wanted to mention their amazing work. Again, tall oaks from little acorns grow.

• Unicef
• Reporters Without Borders
• Doctors Without Borders
• Realizing The Dream
• New Orleans Habitat for Humanity (NOAHH)
• WWF
• Amnesty International
• StarlightStarbright Children’s Foundation
• Globe For Darfur
• Human Rights Watch

I wish to all of you a peaceful and healthy New Year! ^_^