{"id":522,"date":"2010-02-05T19:36:14","date_gmt":"2010-02-06T00:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/?p=522"},"modified":"2014-04-05T19:36:57","modified_gmt":"2014-04-06T00:36:57","slug":"mag-helps-to-improve-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/?p=522","title":{"rendered":"MAG Helps to Improve Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>MAG Helps to Improve Lives<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">We shared a little of what we trust is our mutual pride the other day as we sent off a \u201cdecent-sized\u201d check to Mines Advisory Group (MAG) representing our 3% of sales from the Thanksgiving Weekend sale, as well as some direct donations from generous Eugenians.\u00a0 The essential and humane task of clearing unexploded ordnance (UXOs) continues at a pace matched only by the world\u2019s donations and the Lao government\u2019s dedicated, but under-funded, effort to free its people of the leftover horrors of war.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Over 35 years after the bombing has stopped, some innocent Lao person \u2013 perhaps a farmer with a plow, or a child discovering a shiny round metal ball \u2013 is still killed every other day by old ordnance.\u00a0 Cluster bombs are the worse culprit, as some 30% of the 100,000,000 bomblets the US dropped on this nation still lie, live, in the fields and jungle that is their backyard.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">There is only one way to make this land safe.\u00a0 Wherever people live, the soil must be screened by metal detectors and then the explosives carefully exposed and safely detonated.\u00a0 The UXOs are not only a direct threat to life and limb, but also hinders Laos\u2019 ability to carve a new road, dig a village site for a new schoolhouse, or develop infrastructure for tourism or business, keeping these talented and capable people in continuous poverty.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Now, long after the political crisis has dissipated, we must make amends and help clear the land of our dangerous detritus.\u00a0 Your donation, whether directly through MAG (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.maginternational.org\/\">www.maginternational.org<\/a>) or through <b>Above the Fray<\/b>, helps Laos recover from its present crisis.\u00a0 And thank you, Oregon Senators Wyden and Merkley, for supporting the bill to eliminate cluster bomb munitions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MAG Helps to Improve Lives We shared a little of what we trust is our mutual pride the other day as we sent off a \u201cdecent-sized\u201d check to Mines Advisory Group (MAG) representing our 3% of sales from the Thanksgiving &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/?p=522\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":523,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions\/523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}