My name is Jerry Peloquin and yes, I'm a drummer. I'm also the wack job behind this grand scheme to run simultaneous, linked, interactive drum circles in cities all around the world. The drummers in all cities will be able to play together. People at home will be able to play as well. I'm going to do this on April 7th. This blog is about who, how, and why I'm doing this. If you want to see how all this turns out ... read along but bring your sneakers as I expect the going will get rough at some points along the way.
Although it's true that most drummers today are poor (not all, just most) that's not what this blog is really about. It's about how and why I'm planning to run a trans global drum circle between Africa and Washington, DC. and maybe Bangalore, India, Japan, etc, etc .. and in as many cities as I can manage to organize. A little about who I am might inform you as to my particular brand of insanity, or hubris, or audacity, whatever!
Back in the day before the day, I was a drummer. I played with a number of rock bands in the early sixties and on to the early seventies. Someone once said that "If you remember the sixties, you weren't there." Those were the days, sex, drugs, and rock'n roll and no serious STD's either. I ended up in San Francisco in 1963. I became a founding member of the now legendary Jefferson Airplane, If you want to know more about that one, go google me. It's all there. I also played a with Nina Simone, Jose Feliciano, The Paul Winter Consort, The New York Electric String Ensemble, Wings ... ...I finally quit got married (another story for another blog) and went back to school became an Organizational Psychologist. I worked in many places around the world before landing back here In Washington, DC. I got here in the middle of the Bush Jr. Presidency and witnessed 9/11 from my home in Columbia, MD. At that time I was a consultant for The Agency for International Development (US AID) I worked for the Global Health Bureau and we ran 500 womens reproductive health centers globally.
That's where I learned what poverty really means. I'm not going to fill this blog with the horror of poverty ... we've all seen the terrible pictures of starving children. You know all about that. Let me just say that poverty really, really sucks! Two quotes and I won't really mention it again. Why? Because I'm in a position to actually DO SOMETHING about it. Quote One: Jeffrey Sachs, PhD I'm paraphrasing here .. every year 8 Million people die simply because thay cannot afford to stay alive. The second is by the great Mahatma Ghandi. "Poverty is the worst possible form of violence."
This blog will chronicle my uphill and hopefully successful effort to create a global event to drum up attention to the fact that we can now, for the first time in human history really take a crack at ending abjject structural poverty. The tools are Microfinance, Micro Credit, and Micro Venture. another blog will explain those in detail to those who want to know more. This one is about my attempt to sart with nothing! No money, no real organization, and no real knowledge of the playing field and create a team and organization that will run a global media event to raise $5 Million dollars every year. Don't believe me? Well, read this blog and we'll both find out together.
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