“I feel sad. I don’t know where my son is. I feel a huge amount of sadness…When he left he said, ‘Mum, I’ll call you in 12 days’, but I never heard from him again. I still have hope.” – Mother of Migrant (Mexico, 2010)

Every year tens of thousands of people leave their homes in Central and South America and journey north through Mexico, seeking a better life in the United States. As irregular migrants they do not have legal permission to enter or remain in the country.

Inspired by the stories of the people who make the journey, actor and producer Gael García Bernal ("Amores Perros", "Y tu mamá también", "The Motorcycle Diaries") and director Marc Silver ("Resist", "The Games") collaborated with human rights agency Amnesty International to produce  The Invisibles (Los Invisibles), a series of films depicting the lives of irregular migrants in Mexico.

The four films record the journey of hundreds of migrants from the border between Guatemala and Mexico on their way to the United States. The premiere of The Invisibles coincides with the start of this year’s Global Forum on Migration and Development, taking place in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

"You don't imagine that your dreams can end in a moment on this journey." – Migrant from El Salvador (Mexico, 2009)

+ Watch the films
+ Take action

At the top of the list is Burma where Burmese blogger Maung Thura is serving a 59-year prison sentence for disseminating video footage after Cyclone Nargis last year.

“Governments are quickly learning how to turn technology against bloggers by censoring and filtering the Internet, restricting online access and mining personal data," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "When all else fails, the authorities simply jail a few bloggers to intimidate the rest of the online community into silence or self-censorship.”

In 2008, more bloggers were imprisoned than any other category of journalist, surpassing print and broadcast journalists for the first time.

Following Burma on CPJ’s list are Iran, Syria, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Tunisia, China, Turkmenistan and Egypt.

Those who know me well, know I care more about being people-friendly and quite a bit less about being eco-friendly.

I've often participated in debates around why industrialized societies devote so much time and energy to "greening" the world, rather than exhausting the same amount of energy to "peopling" the world.

My overarching question is always, "With so many acts of war, genocide, femicide, rape and other atrocities that occur daily against humankind, why are environmentalist so concerned with whether I drink out of a glass or plastic bottle?"

Or, to bring the question closer to home, "How do we counter the immediate needs that are a result of high unemployment rates, substandard public education, senseless violence and unaffordable housing in communities of color by reducing our waste?"

As Jimi Izrael put it in a recent post on The Root, "Poor people live in the now...I'm too busy trying to survive to spend any time worrying about the environment."

Unfortunately, I have found that eco-fanatics are rarely humanity-fanatics.  Although quick to reassure that "going green" is for the betterment of future societies, environmentalist rarely explain how we can integrate Earth-friendly initiatives with those that address basic human rights violations today.

"When you're broke, it's not about sustaining the environment. It's about staying alive in the moment," continues Izreal. "That's the way I was raised. I've always looked at environmentalism as middle-class folly, but I understand why it's important. We want our kids to have a better world, or whatever, and I get it."

Yes, we get it.  We get how environmental efforts create a better world for us all -- kumbaya.

But like Izrael, I have to ask, "How do you make Earth Day and 'green living' relevant and important to poor people as well as folks in the 'hood?"

How do we address the humanitarian issues plaguing populations now while planning for the longevity of the planet?

Related links

National Geographic’s New Environmental Rankings
Don’t Buy Green

Photo by James Brandon King.

In April 1994, one of the most heinous genocides in world history began in the African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of 100 days, close to one million people were killed in a terrifying purge by Hutu nationalists against their Tutsi countrymen - all while the West stood still.

@Negrita reminded me that today marks the 15th anniversary of the genocide and the international day of remembrance for the great lost that forever changed her country.

Many of you are still reveling in the success of last month's Earth Hour.  The success of the event definitely shed additional light on our worldwide eco ills. However, I'd like to challenge you to take that same fever and apply it to transforming humankind.

Today, I request your solidarity in recognizing one of mankind's greatest atrocities by not only joining me in lighting a candle for Rwanda, but using the day as a means to teach at least one person about the history of the genocide and other human rights horrors currently taking place around the globe.

I've listed some resources below.  Solutions are plausible.

Resources

The Triumph of Evil
100 Days of Slaughter
Human Rights Watch
Amnesty International
United Human Rights Council
Genocide Watch

To help you commemorate day 8 of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence campaign I've compiled a list of films you may have missed.

The Sari Soldiers
Filmed over three years during the most historic and pivotal time in Nepal’s modern history, The Sari Soldiers is an extraordinary story of six women’s courageous efforts to shape Nepal’s future in the midst of an escalating civil war against Maoist insurgents, and the King’s crackdown on civil liberties.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell
A story of sacrifice, unity and transcendence, Pray the Devil Back to Hell honors the strength and perseverance of the women of Liberia, who came together to pray for peace and staged a silent protest outside the Presidential Palace. A compelling testimony of how grassroots activism can alter the history of nations.

Trouble the Water
Trouble the Water opens the day before Katrina makes landfall, just blocks away from the French Quarter but far from the New Orleans that tourists know. Kimberly Rivers Roberts is turning her video camera on herself and her 9th Ward neighbors trapped in the city. “It’s going to be a day to remember,” Kim says excitedly into her new camera as the storm is brewing. It’s her first time shooting video and it’s rough, jumpy but dense with reality. Kim’s playful home-grown newscast tone grinds against the audience’s knowledge that hell is just hours away. There is no way for the audience to warn her. And for New Orleans’ poor, there is nowhere to run.

I'm Not A Boy
Julie Joyce is not a boy. She is more than just an intense, fast-talking New York City sixteen-year-old. She’s a trans-gendered youth who wants what all young people want – to be heard and to have a positive space to live and grow.

The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo
Since 1998 a brutal war has been raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Over 4 million people have died. And there are the uncountable casualties: the many tens of thousands of women and girls who have been systematically kidnapped, raped, mutilated and tortured by soldiers from both foreign militias and the Congolese army. The world knows nothing of these women. Their stories have never been told. They suffer and die in silence. In The Greatest Silence these brave women finally speak.

Where the Water Meets the Sky
An inspiring story of a group of women in rural Zambia who learn how to make a film as a way to speak out about their lives. Produced in partnership with Camfed, all funds raised through the film will support Camfed’s work to educate girls and invest in economic and leadership opportunities for young women in Africa.