Saturday, May 06, 2006
Light at the end of the tunnel?
On May 5, 2006, the government of Sudan signed an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA). However, the agreement was rejected by two other, smaller groups, Justice and Equality Movement, and a rival faction of the SLA. [66] The agreement was orchestrated by the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Robert B. Zoellick, Salim Ahmed Salim working on behalf of the African Union, AU officials themselves, and other foreign officials in Abuja, Nigeria. The accord calls for the disarmament of the Janjaweed militia, and for the rebel forces to disband and be incorporated into the army. [67][68]
taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict
taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
There, I did it.
So I transfered several of my blogs that I've written from my myspace and posted it here... as proof that I am not a bum and that I have been writting, just not here =P.
Also, check out this hilarious video. Its Mr. Colbert bashing Bush in his face at a Correspondent's Association Dinner.
Kudos Colbert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcIRXur61II
Also, check out this hilarious video. Its Mr. Colbert bashing Bush in his face at a Correspondent's Association Dinner.
Kudos Colbert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcIRXur61II
Gao Zhisheng; Chinese Human Rights defender
Gao Zhisheng; Chinese Human Rights defender
"On certain issues, I cannot be swayed, because it is a matter of principle. How could you persuade me to turn a blind eye towards the most bloody and ruthless persecution in today's China? How can this be right?"
"At present, they are not taking a stand on the most important issues, and this will be a big disappointment for human rights defenders of the future. My decision, and those of some others, to stand up for these people's rights will definitely reflect positively on the human rights protection movement in China."
I am not completely familar with Gao Zhisheng but if his story is true, I hope nothing but the best of him, with my picture of him thus far. He is a human rights attorney in China, and if you know anything about China, you know that he is in a world of strangers and dangers.
Full story below.
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/6-1-24/37330.html
"On certain issues, I cannot be swayed, because it is a matter of principle. How could you persuade me to turn a blind eye towards the most bloody and ruthless persecution in today's China? How can this be right?"
"At present, they are not taking a stand on the most important issues, and this will be a big disappointment for human rights defenders of the future. My decision, and those of some others, to stand up for these people's rights will definitely reflect positively on the human rights protection movement in China."
I am not completely familar with Gao Zhisheng but if his story is true, I hope nothing but the best of him, with my picture of him thus far. He is a human rights attorney in China, and if you know anything about China, you know that he is in a world of strangers and dangers.
Full story below.
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/6-1-24/37330.html
Columbine: Whose Fault is it?
Columbine: Whose Fault is it?
This article was written by Marylin Manson, and it is very interesting read. Its old, but the message still rings in my mind.
Columbine: Whose Fault Is It?
by Marilyn Manson
It is sad to think that the first few people on earth needed no books, movies, games or music to inspire cold-blooded murder. The day that Cain bashed his brother Abel's brains in, the only motivation he needed was his own human disposition to violence. Whether you interpret the Bible as literature or as the final word of whatever God may be, Christianity has given us an image of death and sexuality that we have based our culture around. A half-naked dead man hangs in most homes and around our necks, and we have just taken that for granted all our lives. Is it a symbol of hope or hopelessness? The world's most famous murder-suicide was also the birth of the death icon -- the blueprint for celebrity. Unfortunately, for all of their inspiring morality, nowhere in the Gospels is intelligence praised as a virtue.
A lot of people forget or never realize that I started my band as a criticism of these very issues of despair and hypocrisy. The name Marilyn Manson has never celebrated the sad fact that America puts killers on the cover of Time magazine, giving them as much notoriety as our favorite movie stars. From Jesse James to Charles Manson, the media, since their inception, have turned criminals into folk heroes. They just created two new ones when they plastered those dipshits Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris' pictures on the front of every newspaper. Don't be surprised if every kid who gets pushed around has two new idols.
We applaud the creation of a bomb whose sole purpose is to destroy all of mankind, and we grow up watching our president's brains splattered all over Texas. Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised. Does anyone think the Civil War was the least bit civil? If television had existed, you could be sure they would have been there to cover it, or maybe even participate in it, like their violent car chase of Princess Di. Disgusting vultures looking for corpses, exploiting, fucking, filming and serving it up for our hungry appetites in a gluttonous display of endless human stupidity.
When it comes down to who's to blame for the high school murders in Littleton, Colorado, throw a rock and you'll hit someone who's guilty. We're the people who sit back and tolerate children owning guns, and we're the ones who tune in and watch the up-to-the-minute details of what they do with them. I think it's terrible when anyone dies, especially if it is someone you know and love. But what is more offensive is that when these tragedies happen, most people don't really care any more than they would about the season finale of Friends or The Real World. I was dumbfounded as I watched the media snake right in, not missing a teardrop, interviewing the parents of dead children, televising the funerals. Then came the witch hunt.
Man's greatest fear is chaos. It was unthinkable that these kids did not have a simple black-and-white reason for their actions. And so a scapegoat was needed. I remember hearing the initial reports from Littleton, that Harris and Klebold were wearing makeup and were dressed like Marilyn Manson, whom they obviously must worship, since they were dressed in black. Of course, speculation snowballed into making me the poster boy for everything that is bad in the world. These two idiots weren't wearing makeup, and they weren't dressed like me or like goths. Since Middle America has not heard of the music they did listen to (KMFDM and Rammstein, among others), the media picked something they thought was similar.
Responsible journalists have reported with less publicity that Harris and Klebold were not Marilyn Manson fans -- that they even disliked my music. Even if they were fans, that gives them no excuse, nor does it mean that music is to blame. Did we look for James Huberty's inspiration when he gunned down people at McDonald's? What did Timothy McVeigh like to watch? What about David Koresh, Jim Jones? Do you think entertainment inspired Kip Kinkel, or should we blame the fact that his father bought him the guns he used in the Springfield, Oregon, murders? What inspires Bill Clinton to blow people up in Kosovo? Was it something that Monica Lewinsky said to him? Isn't killing just killing, regardless if it's in Vietnam or Jonesboro, Arkansas? Why do we justify one, just because it seems to be for the right reasons? Should there ever be a right reason? If a kid is old enough to drive a car or buy a gun, isn't he old enough to be held personally responsible for what he does with his car or gun? Or if he's a teenager, should someone else be blamed because he isn't as enlightened as an eighteen-year-old?
America loves to find an icon to hang its guilt on. But, admittedly, I have assumed the role of Antichrist; I am the Nineties voice of individuality, and people tend to associate anyone who looks and behaves differently with illegal or immoral activity. Deep down, most adults hate people who go against the grain. It's comical that people are naive enough to have forgotten Elvis, Jim Morrison and Ozzy so quickly. All of them were subjected to the same age-old arguments, scrutiny and prejudice. I wrote a song called "Lunchbox," and some journalists have interpreted it as a song about guns. Ironically, the song is about being picked on and fighting back with my Kiss lunch box, which I used as a weapon on the playground. In 1979, metal lunch boxes were banned because they were considered dangerous weapons in the hands of delinquents. I also wrote a song called "Get Your Gunn." The title is spelled with two n's because the song was a reaction to the murder of Dr. David Gunn, who was killed in Florida by pro-life activists while I was living there. That was the ultimate hypocrisy I witnessed growing up: that these people killed someone in the name of being "pro-life."
The somewhat positive messages of these songs are usually the ones that sensationalists misinterpret as promoting the very things I am decrying. Right now, everyone is thinking of how they can prevent things like Littleton. How do you prevent AIDS, world war, depression, car crashes? We live in a free country, but with that freedom there is a burden of personal responsibility. Rather than teaching a child what is moral and immoral, right and wrong, we first and foremost can establish what the laws that govern us are. You can always escape hell by not believing in it, but you cannot escape death and you cannot escape prison.
It is no wonder that kids are growing up more cynical; they have a lot of information in front of them. They can see that they are living in a world that's made of bullshit. In the past, there was always the idea that you could turn and run and start something better. But now America has become one big mall, and because of the Internet and all of the technology we have, there's nowhere to run. People are the same everywhere. Sometimes music, movies and books are the only things that let us feel like someone else feels like we do. I've always tried to let people know it's OK, or better, if you don't fit into the program. Use your imagination -- if some geek from Ohio can become something, why can't anyone else with the willpower and creativity?
I chose not to jump into the media frenzy and defend myself, though I was begged to be on every single TV show in existence. I didn't want to contribute to these fame-seeking journalists and opportunists looking to fill their churches or to get elected because of their self-righteous finger-pointing. They want to blame entertainment? Isn't religion the first real entertainment? People dress up in costumes, sing songs and dedicate themselves in eternal fandom. Everyone will agree that nothing was more entertaining than Clinton shooting off his prick and then his bombs in true political form. And the news -- that's obvious. So is entertainment to blame? I'd like media commentators to ask themselves, because their coverage of the event was some of the most gruesome entertainment any of us have seen.
I think that the National Rifle Association is far too powerful to take on, so most people choose Doom, The Basketball Diaries or yours truly. This kind of controversy does not help me sell records or tickets, and I wouldn't want it to. I'm a controversial artist, one who dares to have an opinion and bothers to create music and videos that challenge people's ideas in a world that is watered-down and hollow. In my work I examine the America we live in, and I've always tried to show people that the devil we blame our atrocities on is really just each one of us. So don't expect the end of the world to come one day out of the blue -- it's been happening every day for a long time.
MARILYN MANSON
(May 28, 1999)
This article was written by Marylin Manson, and it is very interesting read. Its old, but the message still rings in my mind.
Columbine: Whose Fault Is It?
by Marilyn Manson
It is sad to think that the first few people on earth needed no books, movies, games or music to inspire cold-blooded murder. The day that Cain bashed his brother Abel's brains in, the only motivation he needed was his own human disposition to violence. Whether you interpret the Bible as literature or as the final word of whatever God may be, Christianity has given us an image of death and sexuality that we have based our culture around. A half-naked dead man hangs in most homes and around our necks, and we have just taken that for granted all our lives. Is it a symbol of hope or hopelessness? The world's most famous murder-suicide was also the birth of the death icon -- the blueprint for celebrity. Unfortunately, for all of their inspiring morality, nowhere in the Gospels is intelligence praised as a virtue.
A lot of people forget or never realize that I started my band as a criticism of these very issues of despair and hypocrisy. The name Marilyn Manson has never celebrated the sad fact that America puts killers on the cover of Time magazine, giving them as much notoriety as our favorite movie stars. From Jesse James to Charles Manson, the media, since their inception, have turned criminals into folk heroes. They just created two new ones when they plastered those dipshits Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris' pictures on the front of every newspaper. Don't be surprised if every kid who gets pushed around has two new idols.
We applaud the creation of a bomb whose sole purpose is to destroy all of mankind, and we grow up watching our president's brains splattered all over Texas. Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised. Does anyone think the Civil War was the least bit civil? If television had existed, you could be sure they would have been there to cover it, or maybe even participate in it, like their violent car chase of Princess Di. Disgusting vultures looking for corpses, exploiting, fucking, filming and serving it up for our hungry appetites in a gluttonous display of endless human stupidity.
When it comes down to who's to blame for the high school murders in Littleton, Colorado, throw a rock and you'll hit someone who's guilty. We're the people who sit back and tolerate children owning guns, and we're the ones who tune in and watch the up-to-the-minute details of what they do with them. I think it's terrible when anyone dies, especially if it is someone you know and love. But what is more offensive is that when these tragedies happen, most people don't really care any more than they would about the season finale of Friends or The Real World. I was dumbfounded as I watched the media snake right in, not missing a teardrop, interviewing the parents of dead children, televising the funerals. Then came the witch hunt.
Man's greatest fear is chaos. It was unthinkable that these kids did not have a simple black-and-white reason for their actions. And so a scapegoat was needed. I remember hearing the initial reports from Littleton, that Harris and Klebold were wearing makeup and were dressed like Marilyn Manson, whom they obviously must worship, since they were dressed in black. Of course, speculation snowballed into making me the poster boy for everything that is bad in the world. These two idiots weren't wearing makeup, and they weren't dressed like me or like goths. Since Middle America has not heard of the music they did listen to (KMFDM and Rammstein, among others), the media picked something they thought was similar.
Responsible journalists have reported with less publicity that Harris and Klebold were not Marilyn Manson fans -- that they even disliked my music. Even if they were fans, that gives them no excuse, nor does it mean that music is to blame. Did we look for James Huberty's inspiration when he gunned down people at McDonald's? What did Timothy McVeigh like to watch? What about David Koresh, Jim Jones? Do you think entertainment inspired Kip Kinkel, or should we blame the fact that his father bought him the guns he used in the Springfield, Oregon, murders? What inspires Bill Clinton to blow people up in Kosovo? Was it something that Monica Lewinsky said to him? Isn't killing just killing, regardless if it's in Vietnam or Jonesboro, Arkansas? Why do we justify one, just because it seems to be for the right reasons? Should there ever be a right reason? If a kid is old enough to drive a car or buy a gun, isn't he old enough to be held personally responsible for what he does with his car or gun? Or if he's a teenager, should someone else be blamed because he isn't as enlightened as an eighteen-year-old?
America loves to find an icon to hang its guilt on. But, admittedly, I have assumed the role of Antichrist; I am the Nineties voice of individuality, and people tend to associate anyone who looks and behaves differently with illegal or immoral activity. Deep down, most adults hate people who go against the grain. It's comical that people are naive enough to have forgotten Elvis, Jim Morrison and Ozzy so quickly. All of them were subjected to the same age-old arguments, scrutiny and prejudice. I wrote a song called "Lunchbox," and some journalists have interpreted it as a song about guns. Ironically, the song is about being picked on and fighting back with my Kiss lunch box, which I used as a weapon on the playground. In 1979, metal lunch boxes were banned because they were considered dangerous weapons in the hands of delinquents. I also wrote a song called "Get Your Gunn." The title is spelled with two n's because the song was a reaction to the murder of Dr. David Gunn, who was killed in Florida by pro-life activists while I was living there. That was the ultimate hypocrisy I witnessed growing up: that these people killed someone in the name of being "pro-life."
The somewhat positive messages of these songs are usually the ones that sensationalists misinterpret as promoting the very things I am decrying. Right now, everyone is thinking of how they can prevent things like Littleton. How do you prevent AIDS, world war, depression, car crashes? We live in a free country, but with that freedom there is a burden of personal responsibility. Rather than teaching a child what is moral and immoral, right and wrong, we first and foremost can establish what the laws that govern us are. You can always escape hell by not believing in it, but you cannot escape death and you cannot escape prison.
It is no wonder that kids are growing up more cynical; they have a lot of information in front of them. They can see that they are living in a world that's made of bullshit. In the past, there was always the idea that you could turn and run and start something better. But now America has become one big mall, and because of the Internet and all of the technology we have, there's nowhere to run. People are the same everywhere. Sometimes music, movies and books are the only things that let us feel like someone else feels like we do. I've always tried to let people know it's OK, or better, if you don't fit into the program. Use your imagination -- if some geek from Ohio can become something, why can't anyone else with the willpower and creativity?
I chose not to jump into the media frenzy and defend myself, though I was begged to be on every single TV show in existence. I didn't want to contribute to these fame-seeking journalists and opportunists looking to fill their churches or to get elected because of their self-righteous finger-pointing. They want to blame entertainment? Isn't religion the first real entertainment? People dress up in costumes, sing songs and dedicate themselves in eternal fandom. Everyone will agree that nothing was more entertaining than Clinton shooting off his prick and then his bombs in true political form. And the news -- that's obvious. So is entertainment to blame? I'd like media commentators to ask themselves, because their coverage of the event was some of the most gruesome entertainment any of us have seen.
I think that the National Rifle Association is far too powerful to take on, so most people choose Doom, The Basketball Diaries or yours truly. This kind of controversy does not help me sell records or tickets, and I wouldn't want it to. I'm a controversial artist, one who dares to have an opinion and bothers to create music and videos that challenge people's ideas in a world that is watered-down and hollow. In my work I examine the America we live in, and I've always tried to show people that the devil we blame our atrocities on is really just each one of us. So don't expect the end of the world to come one day out of the blue -- it's been happening every day for a long time.
MARILYN MANSON
(May 28, 1999)
Don't donate to the Red Cross?
Don't Donate to the Red Cross?
Don't Give Your Hurricane Donations to the Red Cross
source: Prison Planet
Establishment charities have history of withholding disaster funds
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones | September 1 2005
As the aftermath of hurricane Katrina continues to wreak mayhem and havoc amid reports of mass looting, shooting at rescue helicopters, rapes and murders, establishment media organs are promoting the Red Cross as a worthy organization to give donations to.
The biggest website in the world, Yahoo.com, displays a Red Cross donation link prominently on its front page.
Every time there is a major catastrophe the Red Cross and similar organizations like United Way are given all the media attention while other charities are left in the shadows. This is not to say that the vast majority of Red Cross workers are not decent people who simply want to help those in need.
But what the media fails consistently to remember in their promotion of the organization is that the Red Cross have been caught time and time again withholding money in the wake of horrible disasters that require immediate release of funds.
The Red Cross, under the Liberty Fund, collected $564 million in donations after 9/11. Months after the event, the Red Cross had distributed only $154 million. The Red Cross' explanation for keeping the majority of the money was that it would be used to help 'fight the war on terror'. To the victims, this meant that the money was going towards bombing broken backed third world countries like Afghanistan and setting up surveillance cameras and expanding the police state in US cities, and not towards helping them rebuild their lives.
Then Red Cross President Dr. Bernadine Healy arrogantly responded when questioned about the withholding of funds by stating, "The Liberty Fund is a war fund. It has evolved into a war fund."
Despite the family members of victims of 9/11 complaining bitterly to a House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight panel, the issue seemed to be brushed under the carpet and the mud didn't stick.
The Red Cross' scandalous activities reach back far before 9/11.
After the devastating San Francisco earthquake in 1989, the Red Cross passed on only $10 million of the $50 million that had been raised, and banked the rest.
Similar donations after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the Red River flooding in 1997 were also greedily withheld.
Smaller charities that were involved with the 2004 Tsunami relief project went public to say that large charities like Red Cross and United Way were engaged in secret backroom negotiations with each other that meant a large portion of the donation money was purposefully restricted from reaching the most needy areas affected by the disaster.
The history is clear, the Red Cross and other large so-called charities are in actual fact front group collection agencies for the military industrial complex.
Many informed historians have even alleged that the Red Cross was used as a Skull and Bones cover to overthrow The Russian Czar and pave the way for the rise of the Bolsheviks.
Do not give any money to the Red Cross unless you support the expansion of empire abroad and police state at home. Find a smaller trustworthy organization in the local area of New Orleans and make your donation to them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am not sure if the Red Cross is actually a front group collection agency for the military industrial complex....but this is not the only source that has dirt on the Red Cross. Just google "Do not donate to the Red Cross"
Don't Give Your Hurricane Donations to the Red Cross
source: Prison Planet
Establishment charities have history of withholding disaster funds
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones | September 1 2005
As the aftermath of hurricane Katrina continues to wreak mayhem and havoc amid reports of mass looting, shooting at rescue helicopters, rapes and murders, establishment media organs are promoting the Red Cross as a worthy organization to give donations to.
The biggest website in the world, Yahoo.com, displays a Red Cross donation link prominently on its front page.
Every time there is a major catastrophe the Red Cross and similar organizations like United Way are given all the media attention while other charities are left in the shadows. This is not to say that the vast majority of Red Cross workers are not decent people who simply want to help those in need.
But what the media fails consistently to remember in their promotion of the organization is that the Red Cross have been caught time and time again withholding money in the wake of horrible disasters that require immediate release of funds.
The Red Cross, under the Liberty Fund, collected $564 million in donations after 9/11. Months after the event, the Red Cross had distributed only $154 million. The Red Cross' explanation for keeping the majority of the money was that it would be used to help 'fight the war on terror'. To the victims, this meant that the money was going towards bombing broken backed third world countries like Afghanistan and setting up surveillance cameras and expanding the police state in US cities, and not towards helping them rebuild their lives.
Then Red Cross President Dr. Bernadine Healy arrogantly responded when questioned about the withholding of funds by stating, "The Liberty Fund is a war fund. It has evolved into a war fund."
Despite the family members of victims of 9/11 complaining bitterly to a House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight panel, the issue seemed to be brushed under the carpet and the mud didn't stick.
The Red Cross' scandalous activities reach back far before 9/11.
After the devastating San Francisco earthquake in 1989, the Red Cross passed on only $10 million of the $50 million that had been raised, and banked the rest.
Similar donations after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the Red River flooding in 1997 were also greedily withheld.
Smaller charities that were involved with the 2004 Tsunami relief project went public to say that large charities like Red Cross and United Way were engaged in secret backroom negotiations with each other that meant a large portion of the donation money was purposefully restricted from reaching the most needy areas affected by the disaster.
The history is clear, the Red Cross and other large so-called charities are in actual fact front group collection agencies for the military industrial complex.
Many informed historians have even alleged that the Red Cross was used as a Skull and Bones cover to overthrow The Russian Czar and pave the way for the rise of the Bolsheviks.
Do not give any money to the Red Cross unless you support the expansion of empire abroad and police state at home. Find a smaller trustworthy organization in the local area of New Orleans and make your donation to them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am not sure if the Red Cross is actually a front group collection agency for the military industrial complex....but this is not the only source that has dirt on the Red Cross. Just google "Do not donate to the Red Cross"
27 Million slaves
There are an estimated 27 million slaves today.
That is more slaves today than there has ever been in history combined. Ironically, nearly every country in the world has a law that outlaws slavery. In 1956, the UN passed the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, The Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery- a big long name pretty much saying that the international community is against slavery and slavery-like practices. A slave is forced to work through threats, and is owned or controlled by an employer. Salves are dehumanised, treated as commodities, bought and sold like property. Often times they are physically constrained, or not allowed to move freely.
Though traditional slavery that we think of today, where people are abucted and taken to far away lands to work for nothing is still existant today, most slaves today are slaves under bonded labor. Essentially, poor people are tricked or forced to take a loan from a factory owner, slave trader, etc, and in order to pay off the loan they must work for them. And of course, their labor is never enough to pay off the debt so they end up having their wives and children work under implorable conditions in order to pay off the original loan that keep gaining interest- and is passed on from generation to generation.
Think slaves are still in some far off third world poor country in South East Asia? Think again. the US State Department estimated that there are nearly 1 million people trafficked across our borders every year under the idea of forced labor. People are lured into big/major cities with the hopes of a promising future, only to be told that if they do not people prostitutes, drug peddlers, etc, they will be shot and their family that lives 2,000 miles away will be killed as well. 1 Million people. The United States of America. Didn't we defeat slavery in 1865?
Bureaucratically yes, but in practice we are actually losing the battle. Again, there are more slaves today, then there has ever been in combined history. And if numbers like that don't strike you as shocking, the average slave in the American South cost nearly 40,000 dollars in today's money. The average slave today cost just around 90 dollars. 90.
Irshad was trafficked from Bangladesh to the United Arab Emiratesby a friend of his father's. He was only four years old. Irshad was then given to a master to be trained as a camel jockey. Camel racing is exceptionally dangerous to young children. The boys are loosly tied to their camels that can run up to 35 miles per hour. To keep the boy's weight down, they are given very little food and water. Irshad's parents tracked him down in Dubai, but the man who abducted Irshad told police that he was the boy's father- Irshad's real father was hadned over to the police and deported from the country. It wasn't until some time afterwords that a government official from Bandgladesh recognized Irshad and had him returned to his father.
That story had a "happy" ending; even though Irshad is I am sure still living in a hole somewhere deep below the poverty line.
"But what can I do, I am 1 person living in a modern industrial society... where the heck is Bangladesh anyway?"
"Anti-slavery campaignist Kevin Bales says that there are 3 things that need to happen. First, there has to be an public internation concensus that it is time to end slavery for good-and we must tell our politicians that. Secondly, we need to spend more money- but as Bales says, not nearly as much as you think. ( I can't get a real figure =..) And thirdly, governments must enforce their own anti-slavery laws and understand that if they don't they will face serious pressure from the international community. "
So what can you do? Literally take 5 minutes of your time. Do it instead of making your 3rd check on myspace for the day. Goto a government website to contact your congressman and woman. Write to them a few of the facts youve learned here, and tell them that they need to voice concern. That's all.
27 million people can be saved so easily, its the least and best thing you can do.
That is more slaves today than there has ever been in history combined. Ironically, nearly every country in the world has a law that outlaws slavery. In 1956, the UN passed the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, The Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery- a big long name pretty much saying that the international community is against slavery and slavery-like practices. A slave is forced to work through threats, and is owned or controlled by an employer. Salves are dehumanised, treated as commodities, bought and sold like property. Often times they are physically constrained, or not allowed to move freely.
Though traditional slavery that we think of today, where people are abucted and taken to far away lands to work for nothing is still existant today, most slaves today are slaves under bonded labor. Essentially, poor people are tricked or forced to take a loan from a factory owner, slave trader, etc, and in order to pay off the loan they must work for them. And of course, their labor is never enough to pay off the debt so they end up having their wives and children work under implorable conditions in order to pay off the original loan that keep gaining interest- and is passed on from generation to generation.
Think slaves are still in some far off third world poor country in South East Asia? Think again. the US State Department estimated that there are nearly 1 million people trafficked across our borders every year under the idea of forced labor. People are lured into big/major cities with the hopes of a promising future, only to be told that if they do not people prostitutes, drug peddlers, etc, they will be shot and their family that lives 2,000 miles away will be killed as well. 1 Million people. The United States of America. Didn't we defeat slavery in 1865?
Bureaucratically yes, but in practice we are actually losing the battle. Again, there are more slaves today, then there has ever been in combined history. And if numbers like that don't strike you as shocking, the average slave in the American South cost nearly 40,000 dollars in today's money. The average slave today cost just around 90 dollars. 90.
Irshad was trafficked from Bangladesh to the United Arab Emiratesby a friend of his father's. He was only four years old. Irshad was then given to a master to be trained as a camel jockey. Camel racing is exceptionally dangerous to young children. The boys are loosly tied to their camels that can run up to 35 miles per hour. To keep the boy's weight down, they are given very little food and water. Irshad's parents tracked him down in Dubai, but the man who abducted Irshad told police that he was the boy's father- Irshad's real father was hadned over to the police and deported from the country. It wasn't until some time afterwords that a government official from Bandgladesh recognized Irshad and had him returned to his father.
That story had a "happy" ending; even though Irshad is I am sure still living in a hole somewhere deep below the poverty line.
"But what can I do, I am 1 person living in a modern industrial society... where the heck is Bangladesh anyway?"
"Anti-slavery campaignist Kevin Bales says that there are 3 things that need to happen. First, there has to be an public internation concensus that it is time to end slavery for good-and we must tell our politicians that. Secondly, we need to spend more money- but as Bales says, not nearly as much as you think. ( I can't get a real figure =..) And thirdly, governments must enforce their own anti-slavery laws and understand that if they don't they will face serious pressure from the international community. "
So what can you do? Literally take 5 minutes of your time. Do it instead of making your 3rd check on myspace for the day. Goto a government website to contact your congressman and woman. Write to them a few of the facts youve learned here, and tell them that they need to voice concern. That's all.
27 million people can be saved so easily, its the least and best thing you can do.
1/3 of the world is at war
1/3 of the world is at war.
Information taken from "50 Facts That Should Change the World" by Jessica Williams.
Project Ploughshares reported that in 2002, 30 countries around the world were engaged in long-term conflict; a total of 2.29 billion people were engaged in warfare. Project Ploughshares compiles a list of armed conflicts annually, and defines armed conflict as "a political conflict involving armed combat between armed forces of at least one state, or one or more armed factions seeking to gain control of all or part of a state." Armed conflict must also involve a minimum of 1,000 people. There were 37 armed conflicts in 2002, all of which were civil wars.
1/3 of the world is at war in present; this doesn't even factor in war-torn countries, where people are struggling to rebuild what war has destroyed. For instance, during the Vietnam War American troops sprayed the defoiliant Agent Orange over jungle areas and agricultural lands- 25 years later those areas are still contaminated and are unable to produce crops. 2/3's of Kuwaits aquifers- a major source of drinking water- are still polluted from oil spilled from the First Gulf War. NATO bombing campaigns in Kosovo targeted chemical and oil refineries. This resulted in black rain in several cities including Pancevo- effectively releasing carcinogenic chemicals like dioxin in concentrations hundreds of thousands of times above the safe level- that poisoned the crops grown there and the people that consumed them.
Unimpeded humanitarian access and specialized judicial courts are necessary to pull these war-torn countries out of the cycle of death and destruction, but powerful countries likes those that sit on the Security Council of the UN need to hold countries accountable. The UN countries need to square with these countries and ensure that full humanitarian access is granted and protected and that there is a judicial system to reconcile with the battered civilian population.
US President Dwight Eisenhower once said, "Everyone gun that is made, every warshipped launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
Information taken from "50 Facts That Should Change the World" by Jessica Williams.
Project Ploughshares reported that in 2002, 30 countries around the world were engaged in long-term conflict; a total of 2.29 billion people were engaged in warfare. Project Ploughshares compiles a list of armed conflicts annually, and defines armed conflict as "a political conflict involving armed combat between armed forces of at least one state, or one or more armed factions seeking to gain control of all or part of a state." Armed conflict must also involve a minimum of 1,000 people. There were 37 armed conflicts in 2002, all of which were civil wars.
1/3 of the world is at war in present; this doesn't even factor in war-torn countries, where people are struggling to rebuild what war has destroyed. For instance, during the Vietnam War American troops sprayed the defoiliant Agent Orange over jungle areas and agricultural lands- 25 years later those areas are still contaminated and are unable to produce crops. 2/3's of Kuwaits aquifers- a major source of drinking water- are still polluted from oil spilled from the First Gulf War. NATO bombing campaigns in Kosovo targeted chemical and oil refineries. This resulted in black rain in several cities including Pancevo- effectively releasing carcinogenic chemicals like dioxin in concentrations hundreds of thousands of times above the safe level- that poisoned the crops grown there and the people that consumed them.
Unimpeded humanitarian access and specialized judicial courts are necessary to pull these war-torn countries out of the cycle of death and destruction, but powerful countries likes those that sit on the Security Council of the UN need to hold countries accountable. The UN countries need to square with these countries and ensure that full humanitarian access is granted and protected and that there is a judicial system to reconcile with the battered civilian population.
US President Dwight Eisenhower once said, "Everyone gun that is made, every warshipped launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
20% of the world goes hungry everyday
20% of the world's population goes hungry everyday
Some 800,000,000 people go hungry everyday.
2,000,000,000 suffer from chronic malnutrition.
18,000,000 die each year from hunger-related diseases.
About 50% of the deaths from hunger-related deaths are from children under the age of 5.
Interestingly enough, some parts of the world has been consuming more and more calories whereas other parts have been losing daily calories. Consider the fact that nutritionists argue that a healthy diet consists of about 2,500 calories a day. In the US alone, an average of 3,800 calories are consumed. In countries like Somalia, an average of 1,500 calories are consumed.
World food production has kept in pace with demand, as newer agricultural techniques and technologies have improved crop yeild and the prices for staple foods like rice and grains have fallen from previous years averages.
This begs the question, why are some countries getting fatter, while others are slimming? Sadly there is a simple answer: War. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that of 18 African countries that were facing food emergencies in 2001, 8 of them were involved in conflicts and a further 3 were suffering from war's after-effects. For instance, in Rwanda 1995, 3 out of 4 farmers were displaced and nearly cut the food production for that year in half. People in war torn countries spend less time farming, and more time running or fighting. The nation's youth grow up learning how to point a gun instead of learning how to plow a field. Governments spend less money on improving agriculture and more money on the production or buying of weapons to fight. A country that is already weakened by fighting can be hit really hard with natural disasters such a drought or flood. Add war and natural disasters to a corrupt mismanaged government and you have a whole lot of people in a world of hurt.
So what is to do? There are no overnight solutions but the first would be to get awareness of the world-wide hunger epidemic out to industrialized countries. Director-General Emeritus of the World Health Organization (WHO), Gro Harlme Brundtland, claims that "a strong human rights effort is needed to bring on board the millions of people left behind by the 20th century's health revolution."
Secondly, more money is needed to help improve the farming techniques for developing countries. They must not become too dependant on food hand outs, improving their infrastructure will not only increase a nation's GDP and standard of living, but it will also ensure a more sound political environment so that war may not be a part of everyday life. Lastly, improving education is also key for every country regardless of the state that they are in. In countries with an adult literacy rate of about 40%, their GDP average is about $210. In countries with an adult literacy rate of 80%, the average GDP is about $1,000+. Furthermore, girls who go to school and get an education tend to marry later and have fewer children. Farmers with a minimum of 4 years of total education are at least 10% more productive a year.
Some 800,000,000 people go hungry everyday.
2,000,000,000 suffer from chronic malnutrition.
18,000,000 die each year from hunger-related diseases.
About 50% of the deaths from hunger-related deaths are from children under the age of 5.
Interestingly enough, some parts of the world has been consuming more and more calories whereas other parts have been losing daily calories. Consider the fact that nutritionists argue that a healthy diet consists of about 2,500 calories a day. In the US alone, an average of 3,800 calories are consumed. In countries like Somalia, an average of 1,500 calories are consumed.
World food production has kept in pace with demand, as newer agricultural techniques and technologies have improved crop yeild and the prices for staple foods like rice and grains have fallen from previous years averages.
This begs the question, why are some countries getting fatter, while others are slimming? Sadly there is a simple answer: War. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that of 18 African countries that were facing food emergencies in 2001, 8 of them were involved in conflicts and a further 3 were suffering from war's after-effects. For instance, in Rwanda 1995, 3 out of 4 farmers were displaced and nearly cut the food production for that year in half. People in war torn countries spend less time farming, and more time running or fighting. The nation's youth grow up learning how to point a gun instead of learning how to plow a field. Governments spend less money on improving agriculture and more money on the production or buying of weapons to fight. A country that is already weakened by fighting can be hit really hard with natural disasters such a drought or flood. Add war and natural disasters to a corrupt mismanaged government and you have a whole lot of people in a world of hurt.
So what is to do? There are no overnight solutions but the first would be to get awareness of the world-wide hunger epidemic out to industrialized countries. Director-General Emeritus of the World Health Organization (WHO), Gro Harlme Brundtland, claims that "a strong human rights effort is needed to bring on board the millions of people left behind by the 20th century's health revolution."
Secondly, more money is needed to help improve the farming techniques for developing countries. They must not become too dependant on food hand outs, improving their infrastructure will not only increase a nation's GDP and standard of living, but it will also ensure a more sound political environment so that war may not be a part of everyday life. Lastly, improving education is also key for every country regardless of the state that they are in. In countries with an adult literacy rate of about 40%, their GDP average is about $210. In countries with an adult literacy rate of 80%, the average GDP is about $1,000+. Furthermore, girls who go to school and get an education tend to marry later and have fewer children. Farmers with a minimum of 4 years of total education are at least 10% more productive a year.
