Unbowed: A Memoir Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, is the founder of the Green Belt Movement in her home country of Kenya, an environmental group that has restored indigenous forests and assisted rural women by paying them to plant trees in their communities. Since 1977, it has planted more than 30 million trees in Kenya and has been replicated in dozens of other African countries. Maathai is currently Kenya's Deputy Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources and a Member of Parliament.
In her new book, "Unbowed," she shares the story of her life: her message of hope and self-sufficiency despite her struggles, both personal and political, in the changing landscape of Kenya. She has dedicated her life to empowering others, especially women. As the extent of Maathai's popular influence became clear, she was continually hounded, beaten, and jailed. She persisted and eventually prevailed; her Green Belt Movement has planted tens of millions of trees, and in 2002, multiparty democracy and free, fair elections returned to Kenya.- Codys Books
Bio
Mayor Tom Bates
Tom Bates (born February 9, 1938) is a California politician, currently serving as the Mayor of Berkeley, California.
He is married to Loni Hancock, a former mayor of Berkeley who currently represents the 14th District in the California State Assembly. Bates is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. While at Cal, he played on the Golden Bears 1959 Rose Bowl team. After college, Bates served in Germany as a Captain in the United States Army Reserves and later worked in real estate.
He previously served in the California State Assembly representing the 14th District (the East Bay Area) from 1976 to 1996. During those 20 years, Bates was known as one of the legislature's most liberal members. Under Republican governors, Bates authored over 220 bills that became law, including the creation of the East Bay Shoreline State Park, a number of progressive social policy laws, the founding of the first Community Bank in the Bay Area, and the first legislation in the country allowing "brew pubs" - establishments that brew their own beer for sales on and off the premises and are typically combined with a restaurant.
After retiring from the Assembly in 1996, Bates taught at the University of California, Berkeley and worked to ensure healthier foods in the Oakland and Berkeley school districts. In 2002, Bates was drafted out of retirement to challenge the two-term incumbent Mayor of Berkeley, Shirley Dean. He won the race with 55% of the vote.
Mayor Bates' priorities include: expanding youth and education services, creating stronger environment policies, improving relations with the University of California, Berkeley campus, building more housing in the downtown, and restoring civility to Berkeley, California government.
In November 2006, Mayor Bates won re-election in a landslide, defeating former City Planning Commissioner Zelda Bronstein 63% to 31% -- the largest margin of victory in a Berkeley mayor's race since 1967. (Native American and community activist Zachary RunningWolf and Christian Pecaut won 5% and 1%, respectively.)
Patricia de Jong
Patricia de Jong has been Senior Minister of the First Congregational Church of Berkeley (FCCB) since 1994. She is a graduate of Western Michigan University and Pacific School of Religion. Before coming to Berkeley she served as Minister of Education for Christian Discipleship at The Riverside Church in New York City (1984-88) and as Senior Minister of the Urbandale United Church of Christ in Des Moines, Iowa (1988-94).
Pat de Jong's special interests include reading, old movies, Native American art, international travel, theater and the arts. She is currently enrolled in the Doctor of Ministry Program at United Theological Seminary in New Brighton, Minnesota.
Wangari Maathai
Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, is the founder of the Green Belt Movement in her home country of Kenya, an environmental group that has restored indigenous forests and assisted rural women by paying them to plant trees in their communities.
Since 1977, it has planted more than 30 million trees in Kenya and has been replicated in dozens of other African countries. Having helped transform Kenya from a vicious dictatorship to a fledgling progressive democracy, Maathai is currently Kenya's Deputy Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources and a member of Parliament.
Group of people within a society who possess the same socioeconomic status. The term was first widely used in the early 19th century, following the industrial and political revolutions of the late 18th century. The most influential early theory of class was that of Karl Marx, who focused on how one class controls and directs the process of production while other classes are the direct producers and the providers of services to the dominant class. The relations between the classes were thus seen as antagonistic. Max Weber emphasized the importance of political power and social status or prestige in maintaining class distinctions. Despite controversies over the theory of class, there is general agreement on the characteristics of the classes in modern capitalist societies. In many cases the upper class has been distinguished by the possession of largely inherited wealth, while the working class has consisted mostly of manual labourers and semiskilled or unskilled workers, often in service industries, who earn moderate or low wages and have little access to inherited wealth. The middle class includes the middle and upper levels of clerical workers, those engaged in technical and professional occupations, supervisors and managers, and such self-employed workers as small-scale shopkeepers, businesspeople, and farmers. There is also often an urban substratum of permanently jobless and underemployed workers termed the “underclass.” See alsobourgeoisie.
member. 
