Real Issues In Our World Today
-
-
cozy-sweaters-and-shiny-things I've not got a words with way.
![youurlove:
Junius Stinney was the youngest person in America to be executed on death row in 1944 at age 14. He was quickly accused by the (white police) of ‘killing’ two little (white girls) with lack of evidence. His conviction and sentencing opened and closed in one day. There were no witnesses called and there was no transcript of the trial details and black people were not allowed inside the courtroom during that time.
[I always repost this because i don’t want anyone to forget about him!]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/dddcc33c678c6bd5cf2ee29aa31a06b1/tumblr_ml2cyk5tGq1qb0ideo1_500.jpg)
Junius Stinney was the youngest person in America to be executed on death row in 1944 at age 14. He was quickly accused by the (white police) of ‘killing’ two little (white girls) with lack of evidence. His conviction and sentencing opened and closed in one day. There were no witnesses called and there was no transcript of the trial details and black people were not allowed inside the courtroom during that time.
[I always repost this because i don’t want anyone to forget about him!]
(via withadon)
WTF
Subject: THIS IMAGE SHOULD BE SEEN IN THE WHOLE WORLD
While magazines and TV chains report about the lives and love affairs of movie actors and actresses, football players and other celebrities, the Chief of the Kayapo tribe heard the worst news of his entire life:
Mrs. Dilma, the president of Brazil, has given her approval for the construction of an enormous hydroelectric central (the world’s third largest one).
This means the death sentence for ALL the tribes living at the shores of the river because the barrage will flood more or less 400 000 hectares of the forest.
More than 40 000 natives will have to find other living surroundings where they will be able to survive.
The destruction of the natural habitat, the deforestation and the disappearance of several species of plants and animals will be a fait accompli.
We know that a simple image is the equivalent of a thousand words, it shows the price to be paid for the “quality of life” of our so-called “modern comforts.”
There is no space in the world anymore for those who live differently. Everything has to be smoothed away, that everyone, in the name of globalization must lose his and her identity and way of living.
If this enrages you, I urge and implore you to forward this message to all your friends, relatives and acquaintances.
Thank you in the name of life, nature and biodiversity.
©Hans van Raamthe lack of notes is disturbing
A petition can be found here:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/amazon_under_threat/SIGN AND SHARE WIDELY.
stop scrolling! everyone needs to sign this the amazon rain forest is already being lost at a horrifying rate
(via starksexual)
I’ve seen a lot of posts on my dash tonight about users who are threatening suicide, with other Tumblr members posting in effort to try to get ahold of them. I think you all should see this:
IF THERE IS EVER A TUMBLR USER WHO HAS POSTED A GOOD-BYE MESSAGE, SUICIDE NOTE, VIDEO, OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT, PLEASE FOLLOW THIS POST.
1. Scroll to the top of your dashboard.
2. See the circular question mark icon at the top? It’s the third one over from your home symbol. Click on that, and a screen similar to the one in the picture will come up.
3. Where you can type in questions, the box with the magnifying glass at the top, type in the word “suicide.”
4. Click on the first link that shows up. It should say, “Pass the URL of the blog on to us.”
5. Type in the user’s URL and tell Tumblr admin that the user is contemplating suicide and has posted a message indicating that they are going through with it or will be attempting. Hit send! Tumblr administration will perform a number of actions to contact the user and take the necessary steps to prevent the suicide.
TUMBLR: THIS COULD SAVE A USER’S LIFE. PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE SUICIDE THREATS.
Reblog this to keep other users aware. Suicide isn’t a joke, and neither is someone’s life. If you didn’t know this, someone else may not, either. Pass it on.
I really didn’t know that tumblr did this, but that’s pretty amazing.
I will say this right now.
Someone has done this on my behalf. It alerts Tumblr staff, and they will personally message you and give you help.
This isn’t just a “oh signal boost for the sake of signal boosting.” It does do something and it will have an effect.
(via withadon)
Hey Guys, this is the admin of the I Can Read blog …we have a cool opportunity today to save hundreds of women and children from domestic violence!
We’re committed to this for the next 24 hours….Will you join me by purchasing one of these awesome shirts that will help place these victims in Safe Houses?
The Republican critics of Mitt Romney have had enough of their party’s failed presidential nominee. After Romney told donors his loss was due to “gifts” Obama and Democrats bestowed on women and minorities, Republicans are essentially coming together in a collective “go away, Mitt.”
(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)
Ultimately, racism blinds us to our shared humanity, keeps up from seeing each other as fully human, and in need of each others’ help. This time it cost two young lives, and we are all little less for it.
more, about the two little boys swept out in the surging waters of Hurricane Sandy.
This story broke my fucking heart.
Read each of the links. To top everything off, the man who refused to let this desperate woman in, proceeded to blame her for the death of her boys. Despicable.
(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)
Is your latte too hot? Mine was this morning. I was at the bustling Oasis shopping center in Kampala, Uganda, and I took one sip and then spilt it all over me. You know who else has these problems? The local Ugandans that frequent this shop, and make up the majority of it’s clientele.
As Africa stabilizes across the continent, Westerners forget that average daily problems in Europe or North America are not that far off from that of the African middle class. Our smart phones sometimes freeze up. That’s annoying. The DJ is playing shit, so we leave the club.
Which is not to say that there aren’t problems. It’s not to pretend that all of Kampala or Nairobi or Kigali is a paradise of African wealth where the biggest problem is a warm beer. There is real, stark, damaging poverty here. But there is similar poverty in Clichy Sous Bois in Paris. There is similar poverty in Brooklyn. In Chicago. The outskirts of Amsterdam.
The idea that an African can’t have similar issues to those living in London is a mistake. It is a mistake rooted in the idea that Europe is somehow superior or has vast amounts of wealth. In reality, the East African GDP has been steadily on the rise for years, whereas the economic outlook in both North America and Europe have been steadily declining. Angola just gave a loan to their former colonialists, Portugal. Our cities now have thumping clubs, eclectic cuisine and most of these places are owned and invested in by locals.
Stop feeling bad for Africa. It doesn’t need your pity.
If you want to do something to help those who survive on very little, try investing in it. Instead of buying Tom’s shoes which give away free shoes (and therefore remove jobs from hardworking Africans making shoes) invest in Sole Rebels. A woman-owned Ethiopian based shoe company that pays their workers a livable wage.
Tonight I am going with Ugandan friends and some expats to watch the Poland vs. England match, live on DSTV at my local pub. I will eat grilled tilapia and drink some beer. This is not an extraordinary life here. This is the new Kampala average. This continent is far from perfect. Uganda is far from perfect. But it is getting there, and if you think for one minute Africans do not experience massages, cupcake shops, foam on our coffee, car trouble, banking woes and hangovers after too much fun, you are dead wrong.
It’s not all flies on babies. Welcome to the real Africa.
(via casual-isms)
60,000 children in Kenya wake up each morning with extreme hunger pains.
This week, you can silence a hungry belly! 1 shirt gives 21 life-saving meals that are specifically designed to save a child battling severe malnutrition.
I think this speaks for itself. Accepting a person doesn’t mean you get to put limits on their freedom. You can’t be an ally and want us to stop talking, or labeling, or demanding to be heard.
Acceptance has no exceptions. Period.
(via projectqueer)
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is history, right? Not entirely.
The U.S. military still considers transgender identity to be a mental health disorder, so trans people are still barred from open service, in spite of DADT’s repeal. Many trans people serve in the armed forces anyway, but they do so silently for fear of losing their jobs or worse.
This story from The Advocate speaks with several of these soldiers, on the condition of anonymity, about what it’s like.
Andy is a trans man and Army Major who is on active duty in the Active Guard Reserves. Military policy means he has “to work so hard to have to be a female, and it would be so much easier to just be who I am, and be a guy.”
But it’s not like the institution is entirely oblivious to what’s happening. Those who’ve successfully served while trans say there is a difference, for example, in how gender non-conforming women are treated from gender non-conforming men in the military.
“I think there’s more of a turning of a blind eye,” said Andy. “Because people kind of just identify you as a butch lesbian, or just an effeminate man that’s gay. It’s OK to be gay [since DADT was repealed], so it’s easier to blend in.”
“I’d like to say that there’ve been more positive [attitudes] toward any aspect of feminine-based personality traits [since DADT repeal],” said Jennifer, a trans woman and Army Sergeant who is serving in the southeastern U.S. “But when it comes to the military, it’s still very much a hypermasculine, macho-based ideology.”
Read the piece. How far we have to go.
Astonishingly, kiva.org is offering free trials to the next several thousand new kiva members—this means your first $25 loan to an entrepreneur in the developing world will be totally free.
Kiva is a microfinance site that connects well-run microfinance organizations from around the world with lenders like you and me. It’s a great community committed to offering entrepreneurs in the developing world access to the same kind of inexpensive credit we take for granted here so that they can grow their businesses.
Click here and sign up while the free loans are still available! Then, reblog and talk about the entrepreneur you just helped out!
A three-year-old has been barred from registering at a religious school because he has two fathers.
Hope Christian School sent the boy’s family a letter that read in part:
“Same gender couples are inconsistent with scriptural lifestyle and biblical teachings,” and “Home life doesn’t reflect the school’s belief of what a biblical family lifestyle is.”
The letter also says since the school is private, it is free from “excessive government interference in matters of religion.”
Irony of ironies: the school will receive more than $60,000 in federal tax dollars this year to be used for “educator professional development,” because the school qualifies for that money under federal guidelines.
A school that openly discriminated against a little boy because he has two loving fathers qualifies for federal money. I don’t even need to say how sad and messed up this is. You get the picture.
Harvard biologists have developed oxygen-filled microparticles that can be directly injected into oxygen-deprived patients (like those who aren’t breathing). Rabbits tested with the technology obtained normal blood oxygen within seconds, and were able to survive without a breath for 15 minutes.
Considering that critical brain regions can die within ten minutes of oxygen starvation, and a mere five minutes starvation can lead to brain damage, this could change medical treatment of cardiac arrest.
And I can’t be the only person thinking of how deep someone is going to try and dive underwater using this stuff … right?
