Delegates counterbalance CO2 with light clothes
above image: self-aware hypocrites
We’re all hypocrites, and isn’t it funny when you realize that you are. You have to counterbalance your ways in a way that is blatant to the ones you know are watching your hypocritical ways. You go on a date, say you hate cheapskates, don’t leave a tip for the waitress, your date makes a comment about how you said you hate cheapskates, then you spend 70 dollars at the carnival trying to win that big stuffed animal for her because money is of no concern to you. Here’s the equivalent of that scenario on a larger scale.
Filed Under Environment
Need a toilet? Send a message
There you are, cheerful tourist in wonderland, patiently walking around the city with that classic open mouth that almost draws a smile. What a great place to be, you think, but as nature works, sooner or later you get the call; the unstoppable, the inexorable, the undeniable, because after all, when you have to go, that’s it, you better go.Is there anything more frustrating that not finding a toilet whenever you need it?Benevolent London’s Westminster City council launched “SatLav” a toilet-finding service for cell phone users, and where tourists, theatergoers, shoppers and pub patrons in London’s West End can now text the word “toilet” and receive a text back with the address of the nearest public facility. This service, besides relieving visitor’s bloated bladders (and nervous systems), it is also expected to stop people from urinating in alleyways, since apparently some 10,000 gallons of urine ends up in Westminster streets each year.The texts cost about 50 cents, but under such circumstances, who cares about money anyway…
Filed Under Modern Life, Technology
Proud to be tree planters
When speaking about sustainable development one of the things I hear more often is the invitation to plant a tree, as a symbol of all the small things each of us can do to save the planet and be in harmony with the nature. I’ve always thought there is too much demagogy in it, while what is needed to fight climate change is more and more pragmatism. Yet, apparently I should change my opinion on that. According to the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme (UNEP), indeed, last year more than one billion trees have been planted worldwide, in response to Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai’s call for action. She thinks that mass tree planting will help mitigate effects of pollution and environmental deterioration, since trees contain carbon that accumulates the heat-trapping gases blamed for climate change. Mostly developing countries followed Maathai’s advice, with Ethiopia and Mexico leading the group with 700 million and 217 million trees planted respectively. So, now, guys: go out for real and plant a tree. It wasn’t just a slogan.
Filed Under Environment
Comfort women supported by Canada
Japanese authorities, in the 1930s and during World War II, forced women into sexual slavery for Japanese military brothels, hoping that by providing easily accessible prostitutes, the morale and ultimately the military effectiveness of Japanese soldiers would be improved as well as the control of STDs. This “comfort women,” as they were called, came from Korea, China, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Dutch East Indies, Indonesia, and other Japanese-occupied territories. They were arrested on the streets, or induced by the offer of plenty of money, estimating around 200,000 victims. Women working at the brothels “most likely served 25 to 35 men a day,” some of them were not old enough to have started menstruating, and most cases also involved violence: “Fifteen-year-old young girls were subjected to torture and raped by countless men for weeks, months and years on end.” Read more
Filed Under History & traditions, Human Rights, Politics
African? Switzerland is not for you
Stay there. I’m serious. It’s not really worth crossing a sea to have a shit life here. It’s funny how part of the anti-immigration practices in Europe have turned from a violent, often racist attack to the immigrants already inside the destination country to a series of patronizing advices directed to the people who are still in their country of origin. In this spot, run at half-time during last week’s football match between Nigeria and Switzerland, the Swiss Government invites African people to stay where they are since what they would find in Switzerland is a life of troubles, poverty, violence and persecution. The video will be shown also on Nigerian and Cameroonian TV, in the hope to persuade African people to be realistic about the kind of life that expects them once in Switzerland. From fear to honesty: a positive turn in communication practices.
Filed Under Media & Society
Facebook vs. the Baath Party
Syrian members of the self-proclaimed “social utility,” known as Facebook, had their access blocked on Friday in what has been called a “crackdown on political activism on the Internet.” Syrians are not allowed any amount of public criticism against their government, the Baath Party, which Facebook can provide, with civic groups of all interests forming outside of government control. Dissidents are jailed, and large numbers have been so in the past year. One prison in Syria even has an Internet political crimes’ ward.
Sad to say, but maybe the “social utility” was just never meant to be a “social change utility.” How are we to change this? Until someone comes up with the answer I’ll be sending out superpokes to all my friends.
By the way, whatever happened to the Syrian government’s end on its media monopoly?
Filed Under Human Rights, Media & Society, Politics
Locating Nazis in South America
Have you ever wondered what happened to Nazis after World War II, when they were overthrown? What pattern did they follow after being witnesses and authors of the killing of millions?In the search of getting a normal life and fit into the new ‘diverse’ society, many lower and mid level former Nazi’s took up government/civil service/teacher positions in the western German nation. Higher ups were in some cases held for trial. In eastern Germany the Soviets took over and for the most part Nazis were sent to camps in Siberia to be worked/starved to death. Some were executed without trial or imprisoned. Some committed suicide rather than live under the USA/British/Soviet yoke.Also, some fled the country, many going to South America, mainly Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, where most of them had a peaceful, ‘normal’ life.But a “final effort” is under way in there to track down and prosecute ex-Nazi war criminals before they die.Operation Last Chance -a scheme devised by the Simon Wiesenthal Center- attempts to locate Nazis in hiding, by taking the form of a media campaign and offering financial rewards for any information that results in conviction and helping to bring more than 1,100 Nazi war criminals to justice in the decades after the genocide in World War II.The two principal groups persecuted and killed by the regime, both numbering in the millions, were Jews and Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). Large numbers of Roma (or Gypsies), Roman Catholic Poles, political prisoners, homosexuals, people with disabilities, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others—including common criminals—were also sent to the camps.
Filed Under Diversity, History & traditions, Human Rights