Islam and Toleration

A colleague just alerted me to the website of an organization dedicated to promoting toleration both for and among Muslims: the Libforall Foundation. It looks quite interesting — the mission is certainly of vital importance. Another organization that works to promote toleration for Islam and among Muslims is the American Islamic Congress, which is sponsoring the “Dream Deferred” essay contest with which I’m working..

The Lamp of Liberty offers a complementary product, which is the spread of liberty among speakers of Arabic (not all of whom are Muslim).

Scholarships and Internships -- Run, Don't Walk, to IHS

Students and friends of students should check out the excellent scholarships and internships from the Institute for Humane Studies. The deadlines are fast approaching (December 31 for the Humane Studies Fellowships and mid- to late-January for the summer internships). IHS is a great organization and involvement with their programs and their team can make an enormous difference for good in one’s life.

UPDATE: My colleague Greg Newburn has reminded me that the Cato Institute has a very fine internship program, as well. Besides the work part, it includes workshops on political thought, economic analysis, logic and argumentation, writing skills, public speaking, and more. So add that to your list of things for which to apply or to which to donate much needed funds.

Promoting Transatlantic Dialogue

Robert F. Rich, Tom G. Palmer und Stephan Fuchs in
Munich speaking on “The Economics of Knowledge”

A very fine organization, the Council on Public Policy, has released its latest newsletter (in English and in German), which includes a few items involving yours truly (including the conference on “The Economics of Knowledge” in which I participated last July and some discussion of Olaf Gersemann’s Cowboy Capitalism). The Council is directed by an outstanding sociologist and political scientist (or political sociologist), Michael ZÃ?¶ller.

A Memorial for Adam Smith

The Proposed Statute and Location

Some years ago I took a trip up to Edinburgh from Oxford and visited the gravesite of Adam Smith. It wasn’t a pleasant thing to see, as the site was covered with beer cans and rubbish. Needless to say, I picked up the trash and tried to restore a little dignity to the location of the great man’s body. My friends at the Adam Smith Institute in London have resolved to do better and are raising funds to commission and erect a bronze statue of Smith in the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. I’ve contributed to the project myself and have sent out letters asking Cato Institute Sponsors to contribute, to which quite a few Cato Sponsors have responded. Anyone interested in making a donation, whether grand or modest, may find the relevant information here.

Broken Hearts

Andrew Roccella and Corinne Schillings

Just over a year ago, a beautiful young woman died in an accident on Baltimore harbor with her boyfriend, who had just purchased a ring with which he planned to ask her to marry him. Corinne Schillings was a colleague at the Cato Institute and she is sorely missed. The story of her mother’s grief is the start to an article in the Washington Post Magazine on how grief can cause people to suffer heart failure. The scientific content is certainly interesting, but the way that the author wrote about Corinne and Andrew and their love for each other (as well as their parents’ love for them) brought tears to my eyes.

Her parents established a foundation in her name. They offer grants to college women to learn about other cultures through the study of languages, something from which Corinne, herself cultured and multilingual, had greatly benefited.

Anyone wishing to join me and many others in sponsoring cultural enrichment for college women may make donations in Corinne Schillings� memory:

The Corinne Jeannine Schillings Foundation c/o Homewood-Flossmoor Credit Union
P.O. Box 388
Flossmoor, IL 60422
ATTN: Nancy

Philanthropy in a Dangerous Place

Joey, a Soldier in the Army National Guard, Distributing some of the
Shoes He’s Arranged to Have Shipped for Shoeless Iraqi Children

If you’ve got to be in a place that’s dangerous and whose people have suffered (and are still suffering) from seriously bad men, you can still arrange to do some serious good. Joey, whom I met when as a student he promoted a lecture I gave at his university on globalization and free trade, is now in Iraq with his Army National Guard Unit. After he noticed how many Iraqi children go shoeless, he worked with family and friends back home to collect and ship a lot of shoes and clothing for children. For those who don’t have the network of family and friends (not to mention the personal dedication) that Joey has, the Iraqi Orphans Project is doing important work, as is Mercy Corps. I contribute to both.

More on the Heroic Institute for Justice's Fight for Justice

Fighting for Her Rights
Susette Kelo is fighting for her home. She doesn’t want to sell it. She doesn’t want to move. The city fathers of New London want to swap her out for what they consider a better class of taxpayers. So they’re trying to take her home from her.

Joan Biskupic of USA Today describes Ms. Kelo’s fight to keep what is hers, but alas, fails to mention that the case is being handled by one of my favorite organizations, the Institute for Justice. (You can find IJ’s updates and legal briefs here; the Cato Institute’s legal brief in the case of Susette Kelo, Et Al. v. City of New London, Connecticut, Et Al., prepared for Cato by Richard Epstein, can be found here.)

Naturally, it’s voluntary donations that support the efforts of the Institute for Justice and the Cato Institute. Anyone who’d like to stand up for people like Susette Kelo can do so with their voices (letters-to-the-editor and letters to lawmakers do help) and with their dollars.

Hat tip for the USA Today story to David B. Brown.

A Story of Parental Love

I read some time ago about the struggles of a couple who are raising their daughter, Juliana Wetmore, under very difficult circumstances. The little girl was born without a face. The story is recounted in the following items:1, 2. I sent in a check with a note expressing my hope that it would help with the bills but that there was no need for an acknowledgement. I just received a lovely new year’s card from the parents with a photo of their daughter, who I hope will flourish, thanks to the love of her family and some help from friends and strangers.

Anyone else who is touched by the love Juliana’s parents are displaying and who’d like to help can send a donation, by check or by wire transfer, made out to Juliana Wetmore, as follows:

The mailing address is: Vystar Credit Union
PO Box 45085
Jacksonville, FL 32232 The wire routing number is:
263079276

Another Valuable Charity

My friend Gabi Huiber (an economist I met in Oxford years ago when, as an eager undergraduate, he hitchhiked from Transylvania to take part in a conference I organized with the Institute for Economic Studies; among many other things, he is translator into Hungarian of JosÃ?© PiÃ?±era’s manifesto on Social Security reform) recently contacted me with news of what he’s up to. He put in a good word for a charity he supports that’s working to build civil society in Iraq: www.spiritofamerica.net. I’m sending off a donation.

Charity

I’ve just made a modest donation to Mercy Corps, which I believe is one of the best and most effective of those charities oriented toward helping the poor. Even ten or fifteen or twenty dollars can save a life. (And Mercy Corps doesn’t spend its money lobbying for governments to tax people more and give the money to them; it actually uses my donation to help people in need.)

Effective Philanthropy

I’m careful with my charitable donations, since I want them actually to help people, which means to help them to become independent when possible, and to do so efficiently. Two that I support are the Fistula Foundation, which funds ahospital in Addis Ababa that rescues young women from the horrors of being damaged during labor and then thrown out to be eaten by hyenas. A relatively small donation can save the life of a woman. The other is Mercy Corps, which has an admirable record of providing the kind of help that poor and oppressed people actually find useful. They are very active in Darfur, Sudan and remain active in Iraq. (You can specify which program you wish your donations to support.) And, of course, I also support groups that help to educate people about liberty, such as the Foundation for Economic Education, the Institute for Humane Studies, the Institute for Economic Studies - Europe, the Council on Public Policy, and others. (I think that the latter provide excellent value for money in educating Europeans about the values of freedom, entrepreneurship, and the free market.)

And, naturally, I encourage people to become involved with the Cato Institute as Sponsors. Cato has a good 15,000 financial Sponsors, who provide about three quarters of Cato’s funding. Having such a broad base of individual sponsorship helps to keep me and my colleagues on our toes; I meet lots of Cato Sponsors when I travel and that makes me aware that when I make a decision at Cato that involves spending any money, it’s their money that I’m spending. Our Sponsors have entrusted me and my colleagues to spend their money — for which they worked — wisely. It does tend to focus the attention and make one more careful.