Why should you care about the Blaine House Conference on Maine’s Creative Economy?

What does it matter to you?

On the surface, it’s an easy question to answer. About 600 leaders from the business, education, arts and development community will descend on the Bates Mill Complex for a two-day event, which starts this morning.

They’ll get a firsthand, close-up introduction to Lewiston and Auburn and everything the communities have to offer.

The conference will result in a short-term jolt in the arm to local merchants, and Bates Mill will be the beneficiary of positive exposure and an investment of at least $250,000 to put the conference on.

All that’s great. But for the people who don’t live or work downtown, who don’t own eateries or hotels, for those who don’t have exhibits and aren’t planning to attend, what does it matter?

Look through your checkbook. Car repairs, mortgage payments, day care, groceries. For most people, that’s where the money goes, that’s the economy they see every day.

It’s the other side of the ledger that makes the creative economy matter.

According to a study by a University of Southern Maine economist, about one in six Maine workers already draws a paycheck from some part of the creative economy. That’s about 63,000 jobs statewide.

Large, industrial employers are a thing of the past for much of Maine. Small businesses – based on creativity, innovation, invention and entrepreneurship – are the future. The conference recognizes the changing nature of the state’s business community.

The creative economy is a fuzzy idea. It’s tough to get hold of. It’s not like a Wal-Mart distribution center that brings promises of hundreds of jobs and decent pay.

But ask this: Will our kids stay or come back after college for those Wal-Mart jobs or others like them? If the answer is no, then understanding and growing the creative economy matters. This conference matters.


Another U.N. tragedy


Once again, the credibility of the United Nations is strained.

Sudan was elected Tuesday to a three-year term on the U.N. human rights commission. Unbelievable.

Right now events in Iraq and at Abu Ghraib prison test U.S. standing on the issue of human rights in world opinion. But the American delegation was right to walk out on the election.

Sudan’s Islamic government is complicit, if not directly responsible, for ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region of the country. Thousands upon thousands of black Africans have been murdered and close to a million more driven from their homes by Arab militias.

Until just a few weeks ago, international aid groups and investigators have been barred from entering the country while the slaughter continued.

There is no excuse for the actions in Iraq at Abu Ghraib. As more and more details emerge, the enormity of the allegations is impossible to deny. According to the military report by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, the problems at the prison went far beyond the actions of a few soldiers and into the ranks of senior officers. But pointing to the misdeeds of American soldiers does not excuse the misdeeds of others.

Sudan has the potential to become the next African tragedy. After nearly a million people were killed in Rwanda’s genocide 10 years ago, the world – speaking through the United Nations – said never again.

While world leaders sit on their collective hands, it’s happening again. But instead of bold action, the United Nations panders to totalitarians and murderers.


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