Write to a political prisoner

For imprisoned activists and prisoners of war, communication with the outside can make a world of difference, keeping them informed, reminding them that they haven't been forgotten, and simply easing the boredom of incarceration. http://denverabc.wordpress.com/political-prisoners-database/ contains a list of political prisoners held in the US (obviously there are political prisoners in many countries, but this list is just for starters).


Several websites have guidelines for corresponding with prison inmates. A short-and-sweet version:
1) Find out from the prisoner and the prison authorities what the rules are there.
2) Use a return address. This can be a post office box.
3) Be careful about saying anything that touches on illegal or otherwise sensitive matters.
4) Don't be disappointed if you get a delayed response or no response at all.
5) Be cautious. Don't send money or things you can't afford. Don't give financial information.
6) Don't give false hope. 
7) You're interesting too - tell the addressee about yourself.


Effort involved: writing a letter takes a bit more work than writing an e-mail, of course, but that's part of what makes letters more personal. Also, you just may end up writing to a future president of the Czech Republic or Brazil, which would be a cool thing to bring up at dinner parties 20 years down the line.

Thank an old teacher

In this era of rampant e-stalking, being able to easily find the contact details of old acquaintances can be used for good as well as evil. For instance, you can send a teacher - anonymously if you have a fear of social interaction - a belated thank-you. This doesn't have to be a high school history teacher or a college writing professor; it can be a coach, tutor, the family friend who taught you to play the recorder, or the neighbor kid who was the first to show you how to ride a skateboard. As supremely talented and perfect as you are, you most likely didn't spring forth that way from the womb. So it's a nice gesture to thank someone who was influential, in however small a way, during your formative years.


Effort involved: a few minutes to look up an address, a few minutes to write a note. Simple!


Image from http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/332755-skateboarding-dog-is-a-web-hit

Start a food sharing group

Food waste is inefficient both environmentally and socially, as overconsumption (through waste) by the wealthy often drives up food prices for the poorer, making basic foods less affordable. One way to combat food waste is by getting together with a few friends, neighbors or colleagues and agreeing to place all food that will go bad soon in a communal space or listing these items in emails. This is a great way to get rid of food that can't be given to food banks or other organizations because of open packages, very small quantities, etc. And everyone in the group gets to try new food for free, which is a definite plus.


Effort involved: not much, really. This group can be as informal as you want, e.g. just leaving some of that ridiculously large bag of cinnamon you impulse bought on a table at work, then watching bemusedly as your free-food-whore coworkers swoop down on each fresh addition.

Sign a petition

www.change.org is full of petitions ranging from the serious to the frivolous, and the perfectly logical to the totally incomprehensible. I defy you to find one that doesn't strike a nerve in you.


Effort involved: very minor. A little clicky-clacky and a bit of typing - that's all.

Take magazines to a waiting room

Most likely the office manager will be pleased to be able to put out new reading material (which is old to you). You get to declutter, and the experience of waiting for a doctor or dentist gets marginally less horrible for those doing the waiting (even if, for some, one of the few pleasures of visiting a dentist, doctor, etc. is skimming through decades-old publications they'd be embarrassed to have in their own homes).


Effort involved: only as long as it takes to load up some magazines and find a waiting room. If you're reluctant to talk to people inside, you could always anonymously leave them outside.

Get inspired by a vegan e-zine

Reducing consumption of animal products has long been a goal of environmentalists as well as those concerned with inequities in global food distribution. Luckily, online magazines like 

exist to provide vegan inspiration in the form of recipes, articles and pretty, pretty pictures. This newly issued magazine is available at http://issuu.com/chickpeamag/docs/fall2011. And it's free!


Effort involved: low. You don't have to get up to skim through the thing, and it'll give you ideas for dinner. Nice.

Call for an Olympics human rights committee

For several years now, Human Rights Watch has been pushing for the International Olympics Committee to create a human rights standing committee. The aim would be to prevent future rights abuses of the type that took place at the Beijing games (detention of activists, a crackdown on Chinese journalists, and other forms of unpleasantness). To that end, Human Rights Watch has created a letter to the president of the IOC that is all too easy to sign.


Effort involved: see 'all too easy to sign' above.

Give away the cost of a (free) museum ticket

In the US, tomorrow is Museum Day, which translates into free admission at many museums. Details are here: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/. So the suggestion for today is to enjoy a visit to one of the participating museums, but use the money you would have spent on a ticket in a charitable way. You don't have to be in the US to take part. Anyone can visit a free museum or other entertainment locale, estimate how much a ticket would have cost and give away that amount. Through the magic of creative accounting, you're no poorer than you would have been if you'd paid to enter the museum.


Effort involved: some. But you get to check out a museum you've been meaning to go to, as well as support an organisation (or busker, whatever) you've been meaning to acknowledge.

Sign up to an organ donation registry

If you have a ghoulish bent, the idea of your organs kicking around in someone else's body after your death has to be appealing. If not, though, there are spiritual, medical, practical and golden-rule-al arguments as well. (And did you know that corneas can be donated?) If you're in the US, check out http://www.organdonor.gov/Default.asp. And UK would-be donors can visit

http://www.uktransplant.org.uk/ukt/how_to_become_a_donor/how_to_become_a_donor.jsp.

Effort involved: only a little. Most of the hard work takes place once you go.

Send a fan letter to someone who isn't famous

People tend to enjoy having their work praised by a stranger, especially when it's not a common occurrence. Sending a fan letter is one tried-and-tested way to acknowledge someone's work. This has some potential pitfalls, but these can be mitigated:

 

1) It could seem patronizing. To avoid this, pick someone whose work you genuinely enjoy (e.g. the chef at the hole-in-the-wall taco stand whose food makes you drool noisily).

2) It could seem creepy. Sending the letter to the organization/general location (e.g. sending an e-mail to the address of the local bowling team or leaving a note in a place where your favorite graffiti artist is known to work) will help. Also, although this should be obvious, avoid saying anything remotely sexual or stalker-ish.

Effort involved: infinitesimal. Crafting a note is easy, and could be as simple as leaving a "Nice snowman!" note in a mailbox.


Image from http://www.life360.com/blog/10-awesome-snowmen/

Microlend to a business in a developing country

Talk about your win-wins. With www.lendwithcare.org, entrepreneurs in Benin, Togo, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines post their projects and funding needs online. You lend money, from £15 on up, to the business you choose, getting to (virtually) meet with the loan recipient and track the progress of the loan. The business gets up and running, you get your money back, the principle of economic self-sufficiency is strengthened (if that's your bag), and you can add "venture capitalist" to your business cards (again, if you're into that sort of thing). Default rates are less than 2% and the lending is overseen by CARE International in conjunction with local microfinance institutions, making these secure and appropriate investments.

Effort involved: no physical effort, unless your wallet's in another room.

Make someone a movie mix

What's a movie mix, you ask? It's like a music mix, but, well, a compilation of movie scenes you love, that you think another person will love too. It's easy enough to grab iconic movie scenes off YouTube and create a playlist, or something fancier if you're technologically clever and have video editing software. It makes a great unexpected gift.


Effort involved: moderate, but you'll probably enjoy it.

Leave a book you love in a public place

The British newspaper The Guardian is running a book swap this week: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/15/guardian-book-swap-15000-volume-giveaway. The idea is brilliant but simple, so you don't need to be in the UK to take part. Just leave a book you love in a park, street corner, bus, train, etc. with a note explaining why you love it. You can always crouch behind a tree in the park, street corner, etc. and wait for someone's paroxysms of joy and delight when they come across your book. However, this may lead to heartbreak if the stranger callously discards your book and/or note, so I wouldn't recommend this form of spying.

Effort involved: not much. You grab a book from your shelf, write a short note and drop it off. This is totally enjoyable effort, given that most people really like being literary (or musical, or cinematic, or whatever) evangelists.

Recycle one item you normally wouldn't

Cardboard toilet paper roll? Batteries? Onion skins? Bike? Couch? Envelopes? Ink cartridges? Aluminum foil? Nail clippings?


If it's organic, it likely can go in the compost. If it's electronic and you live in a city, there are probably special facilities for it. If it's a larger item like an appliance or piece of furniture (still working), charity shops may be happy to take it off your hands. You get the idea.


Effort involved: very little to slightly more than very little. You may need to do a bit of research to find out where your unwanted things can go, but it will be well worth it to have a little bit of extra space.

Clean up after yourself in a store

Retail workers don’t appreciate having the extra work, no matter how many “That’s their job!”s your douchey friend may have used as justification for making a mess in a store. If you don’t do these already, the next time you’re in a shop, put the clothes back where you found them, take the shopping cart to the dedicated space for them, or place that Woody Allen book back in the film section, rather than the crime section just because that’s where you’ve ended up and can’t bother expending the extra calories it would take to walk back to "film". You’ll burn about 3 or 4 calories (not exact figures) and avoid evil glares as well!

Effort involved: an insignificant amount.

Help stop a dubious execution

Regardless of your feelings about capital punishment in general, the use of the death penalty in a case full of doubts and inconsistencies is hard to defend. Amnesty International is therefore running a campaign to stop the execution of alleged murderer Troy Davis, which is planned for Wednesday in Georgia, US. In a nutshell, the problems with the case are:


"- 0 physical evidence
  - 6 witnesses have recanted their testimonies 
  - 7 out of 9 witnesses say another committed the murder"


The Amnesty website is encouraging three actions, involving Twitter and email. To make it easier they've even written the damn letter for you!


(For an interesting article about the death penalty in the US and its political implications, there's http://www.slate.com/id/2303922/.)


Effort involved: see the bit about "written the damn letter for you" above.

Give change to charity

The British Red Cross has made this very simple, by partnering with Coinstar to collect the change fed into machines at supermarkets: http://www.redcross.org.uk/Get-involved/Get-fundraising/Help-in-other-ways/Change-for-charity. But anyone outside the UK can get in on the act as well. If you have a coin jar, designate its contents for the charity of your choice. Or scrounge around in your car, bag, pockets, place-where-you-throw-all-your-international-currency, bed (but this won't work if you have a cool Spiderman-type bed that hangs from the ceiling), etc. to locate all your loose change. Take it to the bank and donate the equivalent to charity. It probably won’t be much, but if you make a habit of doing this you’ll have the satisfaction of giving away money productively without feeling any poorer, since what you’re giving away is money you didn’t even realize you had.

Effort involved: some. But surely your bank isn't too far away.

Pick some fruit

Most towns have fruit trees that are under-utilized. Reduce waste by knocking on someone's door and asking if you can pick from their trees; they'll probably be relieved and grateful, especially if you give them some of your haul. If you collect more than you and your neighbors can eat, there must be schools, shelters or other organizations in your neighborhood that would be glad to have some free fruit.

Effort involved: well, slightly more than sitting on the couch and wondering what kind of sandwich to make, but climbing trees is fun. Scoring free food is also nice. 

Give rice through trivia quizzes

Sadly, this doesn't involve getting rice for free. Happily, it does involve giving it for free. As you play vocab-building and other trivia games on www.freerice.com, rice is donated through the UN World Food Program. The revenue is generated through ads that appear with each correct answer, but these are easy enough to ignore. If you're feeling industrious you could even tape a long piece of paper across the bottom of your screen so you won't be distracted by these banner ads.


Effort involved: about as much as a grain of rice.

Compliment a stranger

People are surprisingly easy to please sometimes. It just takes a few words in praise, and like Pavlov-conditioned canines, we smile goofily and automatically in response. Try it and see. Approach a person you'd never normally talk to (note that this isn't an excuse to chat up an attractive stranger), and say something as simple as "Nice hat." A sincere, spontaneous compliment from someone who doesn't want anything from you is a fantastic thing.


Effort involved: very little. We think complimentary things about strangers all the time, but the next step of actually saying them out loud is the daunting one. 

Send an ecard

Ah, the ecard. Fast, environmentally sensible, and more importantly free. Step 1: Send a friendly ecard to someone you haven't spoken to in a while. Step 2: Imagine their paroxysms of delight. Step 3: Wait to get your very own ecard (or at least polite thank you) in response!


Effort involved: very, very little. That's the point of the ecard.

Switch banks

With many businesses, it can be difficult to know where your money goes after it leaves your sweaty palm. Banks are notorious in this regard; in the UK, Barclays' investments in South Africa in the '70s were believed to be aiding the apartheid regime, and Barclays currently is the largest investor in the weapons industry. Compare this to the Co-operative, which in addition to a strict ethical investment policy, actively campaigns on environmental and social justice issues. The Co-op is about as un-evil as a large chain business can get. And with every post office in the UK acting as a mini Co-op bank of sorts, managing money with the Co-op is incredibly easy.

To switch to the Co-op, visit www.co-operativebank.co.uk. If you're outside the UK, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_banking has useful information under "List of ethical banks."

Effort level involved: moderate. Filling out forms and canceling accounts can be a pain. But the form-filling and account-canceling won't take as long as whatever sitcom you were planning to watch tonight. Well worth it to know that your money is going toward microfinance projects rather than cluster bombs in poor countries.

Pre-order "Kinshasa One Two"

Damon Albarn is pretty much a god. While so many other iconic '90s musicians have faded away into irrelevance or tabloid fodder for slow news days, in the past decade he's consistently made eclectic, interesting and surprising choices: the quietly gorgeous album "Mali Music"; 

the staggering opera "Monkey: Journey to the West," based on a 16th-century Chinese novel;

and, of course, everyone's favorite eccentrically spelled virtual band, Gorillaz. 


Through it all he's surrounded himself with  supremely talented collaborators, and his latest project, an album recorded by Congolese musicians in aid of Oxfam's work in the DRC, looks set to follow. "Kinshasa One Two" can be pre-ordered, and tracks from the album can be streamed, here: http://bleep.com/index.php?page=dynamic&module=drc_kinshasa_one_two. Your ears will thank you. 


Effort involved: almost none. You need new music anyway, don't you?

Fight child slavery in the chocolate industry

Like rainbows, slavery is pretty uncontroversial. Just as most people agree that rainbows are pretty, it's not hard to come to a consensus that slavery is a bad thing. Of course, sometimes the border between slavery and merely exploitative labor is hazy, but it's hard to mount an argument for forced labor.

Anti-Slavery International, which combats modern-day slavery in its multiple forms, is hosting a letter template to send to executives of large cocoa trading companies that use child slaves in Cote d'Ivoire. 


Effort involved: very little. Signing your name to a template is about as easy as it gets. If you're feeling more energetic, the Anti-Slavery International website has suggestions for other campaign actions as well.

Correct someone's English - but nicely!

Pointing out someone's linguistic errors is a delicate business. Divorces have occurred for less. But it can be justified on the grounds that you'll be helping to expand someone's knowledge and preserve the richness of the English language - as well as the emotional well-being of all grammar nerds in the vicinity.


The key is to not sweat the petty stuff. For example, the English language isn't going to suffer because of people using "less" rather than "fewer" when referring to countable nouns, but the famously inappropriate use of "literally" to mean, well, "not literally" is quite different. In such cases try combining the correction with a compliment:



"God, you're sexy. Also, did you know that 'simplistic' is a negative term, indicating something reductive or naive, while 'simple' is neutral?"

or 


"Interestingly, 'discrete' refers to something separate and distinct, while 'discreet' is used with regard to a delicate matter that has to be handled cautiously. By the way, if I had to choose one person to be stranded on a desert island with, it'd be you."


Effort involved: not much. But the risk - of the other person becoming offended, irritated, etc. -  is high. Be careful with this one.

Try a new search engine

GoodSearch (www.goodsearch.com) is a search engine that donates 50% of its advertising revenue to the charity of your choice. Search for "obese orangutan", for instance, and a tiny bit of money trickles to whatever cause you've selected. Even searching for deviant porn will seem just a little bit more virtuous now.


Effort involved: minimal. It takes a minute to register your preferences and confirm your account (longer if you decide to download the toolbar or tell other people).