Sciamachy
Open letter to Caroline Lucas
Matt Moran
12:45 (0 minutes ago)
to caroline.lucas.
Dear Ms Lucas,
(Open letter published on my Tumblr & Wordpress blogs)
I’m pretty badly disappointed in you. After your colleague Jason Kitcat & his Green controlled council voted to cut Brighton Council workers’ pay by up to £4K/year (http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/that-wonderfully-progressive-greens-party-is-about-to-bring-in-scab-labour.311238/ ) you rushed to defend the Green Party’s left wing credentials, joining a GMB sit-in & saying you’d get Kitcat to rethink his position. http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/lucas-joins-strike/ Now it seems you’re going round picking up litter in Brighton, effectively scabbing against the GMB workers. http://www.libcom.org/news/caroline-lucas-green-scab-17062013
I had been arguing with various trades union types that the TUC ought to switch from funding Labour to funding the Greens since according to the Political Compass the Greens were the only party left on the Left Libertarian quadrant - everyone else is in the right-wing authoritarian quadrant which gives us lefties little choice, especially when in order to conserve funds the Greens only field candidates where you believe you have a fighting chance. Given the lack of campaigning in areas where you don’t stand, that’s a catch-22 position, but one that getting the TUC on-side would sort out. Labour could fade into obscurity & irrelevance as the party that betrayed the working class while the Greens take up that mantle, and the right wing vote gets split between the Tories, UKIP, LibDems & what’s left of Labour.
But that’d be difficult if you go around saying you’ll back the unions on one day & then go scabbing against them not long after. What’s happening, seriously? I don’t want to be a spoiled ballot in the next general election. I want to vote Green, but I can’t if you do this.
Hopefully yours,
Matt Moran
Everyone should read this.
this is actually so important.
I want a 2-headed giant Himalayan Tentacle Bear! :-D
93,086 notes (via chelseachristian & photomanic)
“After this I go to work at a pizza shop. My wife and I were college professors in Bangladesh. I taught accounting. But one dollar in America becomes eighty dollars when we send it back home.”
People forget, when immigrants come to this country they start from scratch. They could have been lawyers in their home country, but in the US..it means nothing. You think a HS diploma from Bangladesh means anything in this country? My mom was a top student in the country, went to all the best school and got the best of everything…but when she got here it meant squat and she was cleaning other people’s homes and scrubbing their toilets. This is why I get pissed of when people talk smack about immigrants. They at least are doing something…..heading for a goal..making sacrifices…what are you doing with your life?
^ My parents were college-educated teachers in their home country and came to the U.S. with nothing but empty pockets, a dash of hope, and a belief in God. They also scrubbed toilets in people’s homes to make enough to provide for their children, and that’s probably not something a lot of educated professionals would be able to do. I know I wouldn’t be able to do it. Pride would get in the way.
THIS IS TOO IMPORTANT.
It’s ridiculous that these qualifications aren’t respected in the US. If you did a degree at a respected university, it should stand. Maybe you need to re-qualify for American accountancy etc professional bodies, to pass their certification, but that should be a formality, a matter of a course that covers the differences between the immigrant’s former home country’s accountancy (or whatever) laws & those of their new home. You’re wasting so much talent, so much learning & wisdom.
27,171 notes (via randompanser & humansofnewyork)
Changing the World..?
¿Qué hace uno cuando se da cuenta de qué no puede cambiar el mundo?
(Translated into English: “What do you do when you realize why you can not change the world?”)
I’m not sure I agree with the assumption here. Breaking it down: the assumption is you cannot change the world. Individually, maybe, we have little chance to change the big things throughout the entire world within our lifetimes. Some things cannot realistically be changed anyway - gravity will always draw you downwards, water will always be wet & the sun always warm, fire always burns, etc. BUT you can group together with like-minded people, and in groups there is much we can change. You can change things that are under your direct influence, within your own sphere, and by exercising power over your own life you become an example to others. So, you can change the world - it’s just a big freaking deal to do so & it’s not guaranteed anyway.
If there is a reason why you can’t change the world - is that reason a removable obstacle? Can you un-block yourself from your goal? Is the reason something that you value more than the goal - i.e. a loved one or people who would be harmed by you making the change you want?
Even when you have seemingly little power though, you have some power. Even a prisoner in a prison camp has power over their own thoughts & behaviours & attitudes. Viktor Frankl found this as a prisoner in Auschwitz ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man’s_Search_for_Meaning ). Nelson Mandela had similar things to say about his incarceration, as did Brian Keanan when he was held hostage in Beirut.
I think the important thing is to accept what genuinely can’t be changed, but to know how much power you have in you to effect change, and to know when & how you can do so. Be like water: find the cracks you can get into & widen, the boulders you can roll & wear down the rock. Flow around what you can’t. David Graeber holds up the example of the Malagasy tribespeople who exercised their own anarchism in the face of government encroachment. When the government turned up, they just weren’t around. They retreated whenever the government came to get them. Non-confrontational, non-violent but effective resistance.
Sorry about my long-winded English answer - Lo siento, mi español es una mierda. :-)
12 notes (via therainbow-whale)
Giuliana Vallone, repórter da Folha, foi atingida por um disparo de bala de borracha da tropa de choque da Polícia Militar (foto: Diego Zanchetta/Estadão Conteúdo) (x)
…injured journalist in São Paulo riots…follow their tumblr for updates. be the media.
366 notes (via amandapalmer & feridosnoprotestosp)
Last month, Metropolitan Police officers raided three east London sites where homeless people were sleeping. In the course of the raid, police officers reportedly not only evicted the rough sleepers, they also took away their sleeping bags and food parcels they had been given.
25 notes (via anticapitalist)
So, to all of you who follow me and who are not from Brazil, you should read this, and please reblog, if you can.
These are some photos of what is happening to our country today. São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are facing protest all over the cities. To fight for their rights. Our country is living a hidden dictatorship. The protests started because the bus fee raised 20 brazilian cents. Which doesn’t seem that much, but you all should know that millions of brazilians live with a monthly income of no more than 700 brazilian reais (something like 350 american dollars). Some people live and raise families with that money. Monthly. To these people, $0,20 for each bus means a lot.
But the thing is: what initially was intended to be a protest against the bus fee turned into a protest against the dictatorial government. A government that every year, steals millions of dollars of their people, in their own benefit. A government so corrupt, the population got used to it, and make jokes about it. In this country, a school teacher has a yearly income of $8400. The governors, on the other side, earn, for the same time, about $300.000. To work less. And they don’t even show up to work. And besides that salary, they steal.
And now, people are going to the streets. And the response is photographed. The government is brutally attacking everyone. I mean everyone. Protesters, pedestrians, reporters, photographers. Everyone. For no reason. They just attack. And bomb. And hurt.
The media is absolutely corrupted. The brazilian media makes it look like a violent act, that has to be fought with equal violence. That is a lie. 15 thousand people are going to the streets of Sao Paulo with no guns, no fire, no weapons. And they are being hurt, persecuted, and arrested. Some of them have to pay bail fees up to $20.000.
If you came all the way down here, please, reblog this. Help making the world know what is really going on here. This country, this beautiful country, with beautiful beaches, and women, and music, is now screaming in protest. This is the country in which the World Cup will be in 2013. A country that worries about the World Cup much more than it worries about the welfare of its citizens.
It’s sad being here. But we’re fighting.
9,494 notes (via therainbow-whale & vchronicles)
Dying right now.
I cannot believe this got so many notes. But this is the continuation.
Right in the nuts for being such a… I can’t come up with an insult that matches his behavior. This girl rules one million times!!!
THIS! This happen to women all the time and is horrible.
This happened to a friend of mine on G+ & we made it go viral. This should be held up as a model of how to deal with this kind of harassment.
112,916 notes (via therainbow-whale & yerawizardmary)
This is one of the most upsetting videos I have ever seen in my life. In Portuguese, Brazilian protestants are shouting “no violence” while occupying the streets of São Paulo in a Bus-Fare Protest. The protests are against 10-cent increases in bus and subway fares.
Now you must think 10-cents shouldn’t be that much of a big deal, but it is. Brazil is one of the most corrupted governments in the entire world, and when it comes to taxes around here, we work 5 months a year to pay tax. By the age of 70, the average Brazilian will have worked 30 years just to pay tax. Brazilians pay around 61 different taxes.
And while thousands of protestants are occupying the streets to reclaim their rights, the police is answering with violence.
There is a video where a policeman breaks his own car window in order to incriminate the protestants. There is proof of use of rubber bullets, vinegar and gas bombs, among other things that could be lethal.
This is violence. The media is pretending none of this is happening, or that it’s our fault for protesting. Don’t let them silence us! We will be heard!
33 notes (via therainbow-whale & forgottencapital)
During this week, in many cities in Brazil, people have taken the streets to protest against bus fare increases. All the manifestations began pacifically but most of them ended with brutal repression from the Military Police. They use mace, tear gas bombs and rubber bullets.
The police arrested more than 50 people for carrying vinegar. Yes, vinegar. They were going to use it to protect their eyes and noses from the mace and the tear gas and they were arrested for it.
Our media insists in showing the protesters as vandalists and the police as just doing their job, but luckily we can count on the real information coming from the people who were there.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=658874737474532 In this video we can see some protesters shouting “NO VIOLENCE!” and the police responding with random shots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=043RmwFwero - In this one, we can see the protesters being dispelled by the rubber shots and from 0:44 on we can see around 4 or 5 police officers cornering and beating up a journalist.
The media also insists in saying that the protesters somehow began the violence by throwing stones or bottles at the police officers and their cars. In this video we can see one of them intentionally breaking their own car’s window: http://youtu.be/kxPNQDFcR0U
The protests WON’T STOP. BRAZIL WILL STOP UNTIL THEY HEAR US. The media wants to show the protesters as terrorists. We are fighting for the people but the media doesn’t want the people to be united.
International media has already started giving some attention to the protests:
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/12/world/americas/brazil-protests/index.html
http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2013/06/12/actualidad/1371000636_370579.html
But we need to show the world what REALLY is going on. We cannot trust our media. This is barely a democracy anymore.
Please HELP US SPREAD THIS!
Gah, governments… We’re seeing this in Brazil, Turkey, Chile, all over the place. :-(
286 notes (via therainbow-whale & voodoo-queen)
I need a moment…
…just to say that I FUCKING HATE IT OMG when people say “You’re really pretty without glasses” …actually, more accurately it would be “YOUR really pretty without glasses” because apparently GRAMMAR is difficult…BUT BACK TO THE POINT…Glasses do not take away from a person’s beauty, they are a necessity to fucking see. VISION. God.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkLH_5ErxqY
You’re really pretty, full stop. Glasses or no glasses.
26 notes (via randompanser)
tw: rape, rape denialism
my-feminism:Help spread the truth:
source for the stats in the image:
http://communityvoices.post-gazette.com/opinion/the-radical-middle/27667—one-in-one-thousand-eight-hundred-seventy-seven
Department of Justice criminal victimization survey:
http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv11.pdfWorld Health Organization’s data on violence and causes of death
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_causes_of_death_by_rate
http://www.who.int/whr/2004/annex/topic/en/annex_2_en.pdfThree cowardly and ideological fascists advocate sex-selective censorship : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/an-open-letter-to-faceboo_1_b_3307394.html
Yes, because taking three universities (which is different from a college) and averaging them together is accurate. /sarcasm Think a little. -Brianna
Someone challenged Brianna’s world outlook, so being snarky is totally the best response instead of some simple investigation.
Here is the one out of four study:
http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/e03021472.pdfKeep in mind that rape is HIGHLY underreported especially on a college campus. Even more so for male victims.
If there is so much rape on campuses then why aren’t women reporting it? Seriously? Why?
And I only reblogged this mainly because I thought the persons response was pretty cheap and shitty.
• embarrassment and shame,
• fear of publicity,
• fear of reprisal from assailant,
• fear of social isolation from the assailant’s friends,
• fear that the police will not believe them,
• fear that the prosecutor will not believe them or will
not bring charges,
• self-blame for drinking or using drugs before the rape,
• self-blame for being alone with the assailant, perhaps in
one’s own or the assailant’s residence,
• mistrust of the campus judicial system, and
• fear that their family will find out.I was raped while I was a student. It really fucking sucked, but reporting it and the aftermath sucked MORE. I honestly was traumatized more by the admin response, rather than felt better about what happened to me. Administrators don’t know how to handle it. Knowing what I know now from my experience and from working with other campus survivors, this is why people hesitate to report campus rape.
- Many administrators are not trained on rape culture and trauma
- A lot of schools would rather protect the schools reputation than punish a rapist
- Reporting someone you know as your rapist (and/or someone popular on campus) will open you to retaliation/gossip on campus
- A lot of people don’t want to “ruin” the lives of their rapist(s)
- A lot of people struggle with identifying their experience as rape because we’re not educated about it - a lot of the time we only think about the “Stranger in the alleyway”phenomenon
- We don’t trust the police (esp as a woman of colour, I can say that)
- We know how shitty the court system is when it comes to rape cases anyway
- Going through the process of reporting will trigger a long process of interviews, judicial cases
- A lot of people have “less than perfect” histories and don’t want their past being revealed and their name dragged through the mud
- While juggling a difficult semester, the last thing you want to do is to add another thing on your place (going through the judicial process)
- People talk: you hear how shitty the school is at addressing rape, so then you dont want to go through a futile process.
- Nothing ever fucking happens to the rapist.*
*clearly this isn’t always the case, but this happens an overwhemingly majority of the time
1,275 notes (via fuckyeahfeminists & gummogoth)
the world wasn’t ready for the kind of knowledge pac was spittin
*sigh* Tupac… Such a handsome & intelligent chap. Damned shame he’s dead.
115,086 notes (via lasswar & causingcoloradomischief)
Wonder Woman will not stand for your shaming bullshit
Slut shaming? Not on Wonder Woman’s watch!
35,096 notes (via therainbow-whale & wouldyouliketoseemymask)
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