A prayer vigil in support of restaurant workers was held recently in front of Tony Moran's Restaurant in New Oleans.

Oxfam America’s Andrew Blejwas reports on the findings of a new study on the disparities restaurant workers face.

Finding good food in New Orleans is like catching a string of beads during Mardi Gras: stand in the right place and it’s likely to hit you in the face. From Creole to Cajun—and everything in between—the city’s food is as diverse and interesting as its population. And just as New Orleans’s food mirrors the diversity of American culture, the conditions facing restaurant staff in the city reflect American disparities broadly.

A new series of reports, Behind the Kitchen Door, outlines the dramatic racial, gender, and economic disparity among workers in Orleans and four other American cities: Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Portland, Maine. The reports are by the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), an Oxfam America partner in New Orleans. Based on surveys of more than 2,500 workers, the reports reveal two main findings, according to Jose Oliva, ROC’s national policy coordinator: “One, the restaurant industry is resilient, even in the face of this Great Recession. The other is that these are not the kind of jobs we want to have in America when we come out of the recession.”

The reports reveal a number of startling figures about the jobs that are available: Read the rest of this entry »

Sent by BlackBerry from Oxfam organizer Sophia Lafontant to Oxfam colleagues at 5:16 a.m. this morning.

At this point, you have heard about the massive quake that hit Haiti. Naturally, I am a wreck and have the biggest heartache. As some of you might know, I was able to get in contact with friends and family in Portau Prince. The scene described was something out of a movie or war zone. Grey filled skies, dust debris, and broken structures and bodies.

Sophia Lafontant. Photo by Cheryl Colombo/Oxfam America.

After work, I when to my aunt’s house to be with family and wait for news.  We were all huddled in front of the TV and on cell phones sick with grief. My focus for the better part of the evening was my family in the capital city.  I was mainly concerned about them stupidly thinking that other parts of the island were safe. I did get word that my paternal grandma, aunt, and family orphanage are safe. The house has been damaged but we don’t know the extent of it.

Then later in the evening around 9 p.m. my cousin in Miami called to say that Jacmel—which is in the SE corner and maybe 25 miles away from Port-au-Prince—was badly damaged. I was shocked;  I hadn’t thought other parts were hit (as I wasn’t watching TV).  Her mother-in-law’s house (which is 5 miles from my maternal grandma’s) was split in two. I immediately got sick to my stomach and proceeded to try to reach my family there again. I had tried earlier but wasn’t able to get through but assumed they were ok since they weren’t at the epicenter of the quake.  I called cell phones but no answer. Read the rest of this entry »

From Heather Coleman, senior policy advisor at Oxfam America.

We at Oxfam have joined the world in waiting for an agreed upon outcome to be announced today in Copenhagen. It’s possible that negotiators will need to stay through the weekend to hammer out the details based on what heads of state agree upon today.

Today’s meetings between heads of state are unprecedented. Few of us can remember a time when world leaders were called in to the negotiating table without a deal already having been struck. In fact, the Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva voiced his frustration in being called in to negotiating sessions that ended past 2:00 am last night and noted that it reminded him of his early years as a trade union negotiator. It’s not all that often that heads of state get pulled into such mayhem.

Much of the focus continues to be on the US and China as President Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao work through some of the remaining issues regarding emissions reduction commitments, the transparency of reporting, and finance.

The positive sign is that so many world leaders (more than 110) have come together in Copenhagen to tackle the issue of climate change. Regardless of the agreed upon outcome in Copenhagen, there’s global momentum at the highest levels to help propel us towards a fair, ambitious, and binding outcome. 

From Heather Coleman, senior policy adviser at Oxfam America.

Earlier today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Copenhagen and announced in a speech that the US is willing to commit to a collective fund of $100 billion per year by 2020 to support efforts to help poor countries build up their resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Oxfam is making an ice wall sculpture (featuring Pres. Obama's face) to deliver a message to the administration. Photo by Rully Prayoga/Oxfam International.

Read the rest of this entry »

Oxfam America supporter Thao Nguyen (of Thao with the Get Down Stay Down) is a San Francisco-based singer-songwriter. Her latest album “Know Better, Learn Faster” was released earlier this year.

I have never been to Copenhagen, but I heard it is pretty and the air is brisk and sometimes the city oh, I don’t know, hosts world leaders convening to discuss climate change and climate treaties for two weeks, starting today, December 7th.

Those of us who will not be in Copenhagen can still participate. Oxfam representatives will be in attendance and keeping us updated: go to the Oxfam America Climate Action Hub (www.oxfamamerica.org/climate) to find out more, discuss, and read testimonies from those all over the world who face the grave realities of climate change.

ALSO do you like action? Take some this week in time for the Dec. 12th Day of Action: Help raise awareness and support in your community for a climate treaty that will actually help people.

But back to Copenhagen: Directly below is roughly what I hope will not happen, and below that is what I and Oxfam hope will happen. Roughly.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jonathan Coley stands outside the office of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

Jonathan Coley is a CHANGE leader for Oxfam America and a student at Samford University. Here’s his account of a recent visit to Immokalee, Florida, where many of the nation’s tomatoes are grown—and often picked under grueling conditions.

When you’re enjoying your sandwich or burrito at lunch, do you think about the hand that picked your tomatoes?

Despite working in one of the most dangerous industries in the United States, the average farm worker earns just $7,500 a year with few benefits and no overtime pay. Children as young as 12 work in the fields.

I knew many of these facts before I traveled to Immokalee, Florida, recently for the annual gathering of the Student/Farmworker Alliance. However, I was not prepared for the realities I confronted when I walked the streets of this little-known Florida town. Read the rest of this entry »

Terraces around the village of Ashenge have been built to help conserve the soil. Photo by Marc Cohen/Oxfam America

Marc Cohen is Oxfam America’s senior researcher on humanitarian policy and climate change. Here’s his account of a recent visit to northern Ethiopia where famine struck a quarter century ago.

Twenty-five years ago, Michael Buerk’s dramatic BBC footage from Korem, in northern Ethiopia, brought a devastating famine to the world’s attention. Tens of thousands of people had sought refuge from war and drought in the town. Every 20 minutes, a camp resident died from hunger and related diseases. Buerk called Korem “the closest thing to hell on earth.”

Last year, I traveled to Korem while working on a research project about decentralization in Ethiopia and how that affects men and women farmers’ access to services. My colleagues and I arrived in the town just as the regional Orthodox Christian patriarch was inaugurating a large new church; hundreds of people had turned out for the colorful ceremony. This celebration was a big contrast with the grim images of 1984.

But it was a meeting with Merzeneb Firkado—her first name means “honey from heaven”—that made me realize how much has changed for people in the Korem area since that terrible period. Read the rest of this entry »