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Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Favourite Wildlife Pics.

December 21, 2016 0 Comments

Wildlife Conservation Society's favourite pictures of 2016

 

 Rodrigues fruit bats and Amur tigers are among the species supported by WCS, which operates five wildlife parks in New York City and works to save wildlife and wild places in nearly 60 countries and all the world’s oceans

The Bronx zoo recently opened a blue iguana (C yclura lewisi) exhibit in the reptile house. This is a critically endangered species that was once functionally extinct with fewer than 20 individuals remaining. Bronx zoo veterinarians have been working with partners in the blue iguana’s native range on Grand Cayman where conservation programmes have successfully re-established wild populations on the island.

 

The great hornbill ( Buceros bicornis) is considered to be near-threatened by IUCN due to habitat loss and hunting. Earlier this year, Cites took action to protect the helmeted hornbill, which is now critically endangered due to overhunting. This image was taken during WCS surveys in Myanmar’s Hukaung Valley wildlife sanctuary, which WCS helped establish. Photograph: WCS Myanma   
A juvenile western lowland gorilla ( Gorilla gorilla gorilla) rides backwards sits on its mother in the Congo Gorilla Forest at the Bronx zoo. There are five young gorillas under the two-years-old at the Bronx zoo, making for a very busy exhibit. Entry fees to the Congo Gorilla Forest are used to fund WCS conservation programmes in Africa and have contributed more than $14m (£11.3m) since the award-winning exhibit opened in 1999.
For the second year in a row, the zoo’s gelada baboons ( Theropithecus gelada) produced offspring. The family groups can be observed at the zoo’s Baboon Reserve.

A man who vow to save Children from a torment he stills suffers.

December 21, 2016 0 Comments

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Steve has been battling to save children from addiction.
He is the man who got up from his death bed vowing to save children from the torment he still suffer.

 By Gerrishon Sirere

 Most of youths are thrilled by that the 'show' has got them out of a tedious lesson.
They've heard this guy with the lined face and tough eyes is different, he's been there, big time. Steve plays each audience as it comes.

Steve tells me about a scenario where he saw kids surreptitiously sliding dope into friend's pocket. They know. They're the experts. They're 15 years old.

The runaway girl who hooked up with Steve

    That was the age of a runaway girl who hooked up with Steve. She already had the flat, blank eyes of someone who'd cut herself loose from hope. She pestered Steve for weeks to help her 'shoot up', ignoring his shouts to wise up and get lost.
Eventually she wore him down.


Carefully, he chose the vein in her groin. After a couple of seconds, he felt her body relax and she fell backwards onto the couch.

His blue-jeaned legs are taut, his face etched with the lines that years of drugging, drinking, electric-shock therapy and near-death experiences have carved. His eyes and cheeks are hollow and he's having massive dental reconstruction; his teeth were destroyed by the heat mandrax creates as it's sucked through a broken bottleneck. His dentist tells him of primary school kids who come in with cracked teeth caused by the same heat.
When he started school, over 50 years ago, about 10% of kids abused drugs. Today, he says it's more like 80% who are drinking, drugging or both. Now is not the time for him to stop. Irritation flashes across his scars.
He speaks with the crusading zeal of a convert, which comes wrapped in the addiction he wakes up to each morning. He lives by the AA and dictum: Live one day at a time.
People ask him how long he has been clean and he explains that is not the point. It's been over 18 years for him but he knows a person who was clean for 30 years and the craked.

Music can trigger a craving. Beer lurking in a friend's potjiekos, nearly hooked Steve again. Cough mixture, shaving lotion, homeopathic drops can contain alcohol.

'We were taught in the army, "Know your enemy," My enemy could be the hotel chef who puts wine in the sauce,' he says.
The 'enemy', initially, was his dad. The alcoholic who, with what seemed like 79 brandies in his gut, pulled his six year old son onto his lap and forced him to drive home along a busy highway. The constant family tears, screaming and beating took a second place to Steve's greatest craving: affection and approval from the dad he adored.
A craving that turned to rejection and then hatred as his family fell apart and his mother left home with his baby sister.
A hatred that turned to disgust when the drugged teenager was chucked into a police cell one night and recognised a familiar figure too drunk to recognise him.

His father eventually stopped drinking- and never touched a drop again to the day he died of a heart attack, which just happened to kill him the day he and Steve had their most vicious exchange of words ever. His family had been reunited but, as Steve heard the news and saw his father's shoes returned home in a paper bag, he took to his heels and kept running, deeper and deeper into the drug territory.

For the next 10 years he abused every drug he could- from dagga to crack cocaine, mandrax and heroin. He pimped, robbed and nearly killed for drugs. He was in and out of hospitals, 11 rehabilitation centres and jail.
Steve will not recommend rehab centres, insisting methods that involve using medicine (drugs) don't work.

A rehab Centre


'You need hugs, not drugs. Abstinence is the only way, because once an addict, always an addict,' he insists. 'Of course there's a place for rehabilitation, but if you're serious about it- go clean. Legal drugs can kill you- know your poison and avoid it,' he says as he chain smokes. 'Yes, this will me too, eventually.'

Steve stopped drugging the day he lost the will to live. As he lay dying in a rehab ward, he was aware of people praying around him, of the intense love of his mother, who never gave up on him and is still, always there for him. He became aware of a voice, saying, 'They're lying to my children. Save my children.'
He got up, walked past the duty sister who tried in vain to get him back into bed and began talking to rehab patients.

He's not stopped talking since. He talks about the alcohol that young pupils mix into their school fruit juice bottle; about dagga that giggling kids smoke in school toilets; about the lies: One puff won't hurt. A few drinks won't harm you. 'What they don't know is that doing drugs can unmask or aggravate any dormant psychological disorder, whether it's a quick temper or undiagnosed schizophrenia.'

When parents ask how they can prevent their children from abusing alcohol or drugs, he tells them stuff they don't wanna hear, like spend time with them, get down on your knees and hug them, eyeball them as you give them the love and approval that will satisfy cravings better than any drug ever will.
 


Monday, December 19, 2016

Pupil👩 data shared with Home Office🏫 to 'create hostile environment' for illegal migrants

December 19, 2016 0 Comments

Department for Education has agreement to share information of up to 1,500 children a month with Home Office

Recently disclosed agreement gives the Home Office personal details of up to 1,500 children a month. Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty Images 

 

Education officials have an agreement to share the personal details of up to 1,500 schoolchildren a month with the Home Office to “create a hostile environment” in schools for illegal migrants, a newly released document has revealed.
The agreement, which has been in place since June 2015, is outlined in a memorandum of understanding between the Department for Education (DfE) and the Home Office that was released on Thursday after several organisations made a freedom of information request.
It says: “Where it is suspected that an [immigration offence] has been, or is being committed, the DfE will [share] their data with the HO [Home Office] to assist in the process of identifying potential new contact details (including addresses) for the individual(s) and their family members.”
Later, it adds that the “strategic aims” of the data sharing include re-establishing contact with families the Home Office has lost contact with, to reduce the population of illegal migrants, and to “create a hostile environment for those who seek to benefit from the abuse of immigration control.”.
The memorandum passed to the Guardian, which the DfE said was the latest agreement, says the department would share pupils’ names, recent addresses, school and some attendance records, including earliest and latest attendance dates. That data is collected through the annual school’s census and collated in the national pupil database.
Martha Spurrier, the director of Liberty, said: “This isn’t a data-sharing agreement – it is a secret government programme that turns the Department for Education into a border control force with an explicit aim to create a hostile environment in schools and assist with mass deportation of innocent children and their families. This has Theresa May’s fingerprints all over it.”
The revelation comes after an uproar over plans to include questions on schoolchildren’s nationalities and countries of birth on the annual schools census, which campaigners warned could turn teachers into de facto border guards and stoke divisions in the classroom.
Human rights groups urged parents to boycott the questions, which are not compulsory, and the DfE was forced to respond to the backlash with a public commitment to change the existing data-sharing agreement so that information would not be shared with the Home Office.
In a further attempt to address privacy concerns, the school system minister, John Nash, said in a letter to peers, seen by Schools Week, the new data would be held separately from the national pupil database, and claimed this would prevent other departments from accessing it.
Gracie Mae Bradley, coordinator of Against Borders for Children, said: “This latest report confirms what we always suspected – that the Home Office had intended to access and use nationality data collected from every single pupil in England to help it carry out immigration enforcement against migrant children and families. It seems that only after we intervened in September and wrote to Justine Greening expressing precisely that fear that the policy was overturned.
“However, this newly released MoU makes clear in chilling detail that the DfE still plans to collaborate with the Home Office to share the personal details on over 1,000 children every single month, including name, address, and school details. Using school records to track down and deport migrant children and families is totally indefensible. Schools should be a place where all children feel safe.”
Fears over the collection of children’s nationality and country of birth data took on a fresh urgency earlier this month when leaked Cabinet Office letters revealed that Theresa May, as home secretary, wanted children of parents living unlawfully in the UK to be dropped to the bottom of the lists for school places.

Current laws mean all under-16s have the right to a school place, even if their parents entered the country illegally, a policy in line with international law, including article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Nicky Morgan, education secretary at the time, is understood to have blocked the move.
Jen Persson, coordinator of defenddigitalme, one of the organisations that had requested the memorandum, said: “This collection has lost all legitimacy. It can’t continue to grab every child’s personal data under false pretences of the purposes for its collection.
“It’s time to call off the changes in the school census before its next due date on 19 January and a review needs to take place of the whole use of pupil census data, with full transparency, safeguards and independent oversight built into its safe management.
“If this policy continues it will come at an enormous cost of public and professional trust in all data collection by the department and undermines its data integrity and its reputation.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “Without evidence and data, we cannot have a clear picture of how the school system is working. We take privacy extremely seriously and access to sensitive data is strictly controlled.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

A letter to … My father-in-law, who hates me 

December 15, 2016 0 Comments

 The letter you always wanted to write

I feel truly sorry for you. However, you are a person without limits. You know no bounds. I will not let you bully me. I will never crawl in front of you.’ Composite: Getty

 By Anonymous.

    I never thought we would get here. This is such a cliche. Your son and I have been together for over five years. I always thought that we got along well. I had the impression that you were supportive of our relationship and I felt like you wanted me to be part of the family.
I also genuinely used to like you.
When you came to visit us recently, I was excited to see you. I thought that we knew each other well enough now to just be ourselves. I was looking forward to that.
You stayed in our flat, sleeping in the living room.
It all started when I wanted to do some exercise on my own and asked if you could continue reading in another room. You started shouting and packing your things. You said that we were treating you like a dog. How dare I ask for 20 minutes of alone-time.
You are an abusive person. That was the first time I got to see that.
Things calmed down later. I was seriously uncomfortable in my own flat, but I thought that you just had a bad moment and that you were going to contain yourself.
That was not true.
You started again the next morning. We were discussing some mundane thing about where to have dinner after work. You said that we were excluding you. How dare you treat visitors like that? This time I did not stay to listen to you shout in my own home. I just went to work and hoped that you would not be there when I came home.
This went on for the rest of your stay. After you left, I thought this would all be over. I could not have been more wrong.


You sent a long letter to your son containing only negative things about me. How I am selfish and arrogant. A person with no breeding or courtesy.
You constructed an absurd narrative where every small thing I did was a clear insult to you. How dare you. You came to stay in my flat. I cooked for you. I took time off work to show you around town. I tried my best.
Your words were so hurtful, they were stirring in both of us for weeks. I did not know that you had so much hate in you. So much hate for me. So much hate for our life.
The thing is, I pity you. I know that your life has not been easy. I know that you are alone. That you are getting old. I know that you sit around in the evening thinking about all the people you hate. I know that you are deeply unhappy. I know that you need help.
I feel truly sorry for you.
However, you are a person without limits. You know no bounds. I will not let you bully me. I will never crawl in front of you.
I promise that I will not hold what you did against you for the rest of your life. I promise that if you want to make amends, I will try my best.
However, the things you said will never go away completely. This will affect our relationship for ever.


Anonymous
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Justin Trudeau: 'Globalisation🌎 isn't working for ordinary people

December 15, 2016 0 Comments


Justin Trudeau: ‘We are subject to the same kinds of tensions and forces that so much of the world is facing right now.’ Photograph: Chris Wattie/Reuters 

 

Ordinary people around the world have been failed by globalisation, Justin Trudeau, as he sought to explain a turbulent year marked by the election of Donald Trump, the Brexit vote and the rise of anti-establishment, nation-first parties around the world.
“What we’re facing right now – in terms of the rise of populism and divisive and fearful narratives around the world – it’s based around the fact that globalisation doesn’t seem to be working for the middle class, for ordinary people,” the Canadian prime minister said in an interview at his oak-panelled office in the country’s parliament. “And this is something that we identified years ago and built an entire platform and agenda for governing on.”
Last year, at a time when Trump was being described as a long shot for president and the threat of Brexit seemed a distant possibility, Trudeau, 44, swept to a majority government on an ambitious platform that included addressing growing inequality and creating real change for the country’s middle class.

One year on, what has emerged is a government that seems to go against the political tide around the world; open to trade, immigration and diversity and led by a social media star whose views on feminism, Syrian refugees and LGBT rights have provoked delight among progressives.
But as he enters his second year in power, Trudeau – a former high school teacher and snowboarding instructor – is under pressure to show the world that his government has found an alternative means of tackling the concerns of those who feel they’ve been left behind.
He cited the signing of Ceta – the free trade deal between the EU and Canada – and a hotly contested decision to approve two pipelines as examples of this approach.
“We were able to sign free trade agreement with Europe at a time when people tend to be closing off,” he said. “We’re actually able to approve pipelines at a time when everyone wants protection of the environment. We’re being able to show that we get people’s fears and there are constructive ways of allaying them – and not just ways to lash out and give a big kick to the system.”

Canada has not remained immune to such pressures, he said – despite what the fresh wave of interest in migrating to the country in the wake of Trump’s victory and the Brexit vote would suggest. “I think there’s a lot of people saying ‘oh well, Canada is a special place,’ and we are,” said Trudeau. “But we are subject to the same kinds of tensions and forces that so much of the world is facing right now.”
Trudeau said he is keenly aware that the world is watching. “I think it’s always been understood that Canada is not a country that’s going to stand up and beat its chest on the world stage, but we can be very helpful in modelling solutions that work,” he said. “Quite frankly if we can show – as we are working very hard to demonstrate – that you can have engaged global perspectives and growth that works for everyone … then that diffuses a lot of the uncertainty, the anger, the populism that is surfacing in different pockets of the world.”
In January, Trudeau’s government will face off against its greatest challenge to date: a Trump presidency. When it comes to US relations, few countries have as much at stake as Canada – last year saw nearly three-quarters of Canada’s exports head to the US while some 400,000 people a day cross the shared border.

 Trudeau’s father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister during the late 1960s, 70s and 80s, once likened living next to the US to sleeping with an elephant. “No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt,” he told the Washington Press Club in 1969. 


Nearly five decades on, his son is poised to weather what will probably be one of the toughest tests of this sentiment. The prime minister and the president-elect seem to have little in common; Trudeau is a self-described feminist who appointed his country’s first gender-balanced cabinet, while Trump’s campaign saw more than a dozen women come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct. Trudeau has sought to champion trade deals such as Ceta, while Trump has threatened to rip up Nafta and bury TPP.
The contrast was captured last December after Trump and Trudeau catapulted into global headlines within days of each other over their response to the Syrian refugee crisis; Trump, who had called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US, suggested that families fleeing war could be Isis infiltrators; Trudeau, in contrast was at the Toronto airport to greet the first wave of the tens of thousands of Syrian refugees airlifted to Canada in the past year.
Trudeau skirted past these differences, instead highlighting the links that bridge both administrations. On Syrian refugees, for example, Trudeau pointed to underlying concerns around security. “Certainly in a world where terrorism is a daily reality in the news, it’s easy for people to be afraid,” he said. “But the fact is that we laid out very clearly – and Canadians get – that it’s actually not a choice between either immigration or security, that of course they go together.”

 he two governments are also keen to create policies that address those who feel that globalisation and trade have failed to benefit the middle class and those working to join it, said Trudeau. “There are differences in the policies, the solutions for it, but I know that when we talk about making sure there are good jobs for the middle class, that is a place where we are going to be able to find agreement and alignment on.”
A silver lining for Trudeau may lie in Trump’s pledge to resurrect plans for TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline. When the Obama administration rejected the plan last year, Trudeau said in a statement he was “disappointed” in the decision. When Trudeau called Trump to congratulate him after the election, the two briefly spoke about Keystone, said Trudeau, adding that it remains to be see how the US will move forward with plans for the pipeline.
Any reticence to move forward on climate change south of the border could be a boon for Canadian companies across various sectors, said Trudeau. “I know Canada is well positioned to pick up some of the slack and when people finally realise that it’s a tremendous business opportunity to lead on climate change, Canada will already have a head start.”
But he also cast doubt on Trump’s ability to completely derail US efforts towards combatting climate change. “You know quite frankly at the subnational level in the United States, states, municipalities are already showing that they understand that climate change is real so that the potential for the federal government to ease off on actions is not total,” he said. 

Trudeau has previously said he was ‘disappointed’ in Obama’s decision to reject the plans for TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline. Photograph: LM Otero/AP

Last week’s announcement of a national carbon price is a key part of Trudeau’s environmental policy – one that has been derided by environmentalists for enabling the expansion of fossil fuels, compensated by initiatives that include investments in clean tech and promises to phase out federal subsidies for oil and gas companies. The policy saw Trudeau recently approve a liquefied natural gas project in British Columbia as well as two pipelines that will offer Alberta’s oil sands nearly a million barrels a day in increased capacity.
The approvals have sparked broad opposition among environmentalists, some First Nations and several of the communities affected by the planned infrastructure projects. “There is a number of people out there who’ve always [believed] if you stop pipeline, you stop the oil sands,” said Trudeau. “Well, actually as we’ve seen, it doesn’t work that way and what we end up with is much more oil by rail.” 

 The discontent has chipped away at Trudeau’s unprecedented political honeymoon, along with revelations of fundraisers that offered access to Trudeau and his ministers for a price, a government decision to push forward with a C$15bn ($11bn) deal to sell weaponised military vehicles to Saudi Arabia amid outcry by human rights organisations as well as speculation that his government is moving away from a promise to reform the country’s voting system. Still, recent polls suggest that were Canada to hold an election today, Trudeau’s team would earn an even greater proportion of votes than they did last year. 

 The government’s environmental policy takes a long view on the transition to a carbon-free economy, said Trudeau. “It’s not going to happen in a day, or in a week, but it will happen over years and perhaps a decade or two,” he said. “I know there are people out there extremely passionate about the environment, who don’t think I made the right decision on approving a couple of pipelines. But I think that everyone can see at least what it is we’re trying to do and that we’re consistent with what I’ve always said which is, you protect the environment and you build a strong economy at the same time.”
The double-barrelled approach, said Trudeau, echoes his government’s broader effort to address the tensions currently wreaking havoc on the political status quo around the world. “People get that we need jobs, we need a protected environment,” he said. “On the other hand, if people have no jobs, if they have no opportunity, they’re not going to worry about protection of the air and water if they can’t feed their kids.”

Dubai’s teen👰 Eco-warrior: ‘It was preordained that I'd take care of mother earth’ 

December 15, 2016 0 Comments


 Kehkashan Basu’s activism began when she planted a seed in her parents’ garden. Thousands of trees later, she has inspired young people and won a peace prize

Kehkashan Basu accepts the Children’s peace prize from social entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus. Photograph: Rick Nederstigt

 Supported by 

By Gerrishon Sirere

When she turned eight, Kehkashan Basu decided that she was grown up enough to begin her lifetime’s work. And so on her birthday she planted a sea grape seed in the garden of her parents’ apartment block in Dubai.

“I was born on 5 June, which is World Environment Day,” says Basu . “I thought it was preordained that I’d grow up to take care of mother earth and become an eco warrior. So at the age of eight I thought I could start doing something good for the planet on my own.”
The plant is still going strong and Basu’s activism is also going from strength to strength. Earlier this month she was awarded the Children’s peace prize, started by charity KidsRights, for her eco work. Now 16, Basu’s goal is to mobilise children across the world to help promote sustainability.
Basu’s achievements outstrip those of the most ambitious teenagers. After planting her sea grape tree, she started doing ground-level environmental campaigning when she was nine, and was elected the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep)’s global coordinator for children and youth at the age of 12. In the same year, she founded her organisation Green Hope, which advocates for grassroots environmental youth activism and eco education.
Planting trees with Green Hope. Photograph: Green Hope 
 Green Hope now has 1,000 members and Basu says that the organisation planted the majority of the trees in Dubai’s Festival City district.
Basu believes that carbon offsetting is the way forward. People cannot be expected to sacrifice everything, she says.
“For everything I do that has a big carbon footprint, I plant trees based on the carbon dioxide emitted, so you don’t feel guilty about doing something,” she says. “You have to live your life, so whatever you do you start by offsetting. Tree planting is the simplest and most effective way of doing this.” Basu has travelled the world for her work – that must mean a lot of trees dotted across Dubai.
Basu admits that many of her classmates had “the misconception that the environment was boring”. But Basu, determined as ever, turned attitudes around and soon had her school planting trees and cleaning mangrove plantations. “We kayak into the mangroves, clean up the plantations and then kayak back.” The work has had a powerful impact on her classmates. “They realised what was at stake – our future – and they got involved.”
Children are ideal people to educate, Basu says, not just because they will be around for longer, but because they wield an influence many people underestimate: “A lot of children can convince their family and schools – and from there it grows out.”
Basu visited restaurants in the Al Qusais area of Dubai to talk them into recycling, and she convinced beauty salon owners to stop using harsh chemicals. Then she started spreading the message via her friends and talking to nearby schools. Al Qusais is near the industrial area of Dubai, which proved to be advantageous. “If I spread awareness at schools, they would spread it to the parents who work in the industrial area,” she explains.
There’s no doubt Basu’s parents have been enormously influential. She says her work was inspired by them as they were always diligent about reducing waste – turning off lights, not wasting water – and going to charity drives every Friday night. “They’re always behind me, whatever I choose to do, and they always tell me to follow my dreams and not let others put me down.”
Her father is a general manager for a company that distributes electronic products in the United Arab Emirates, and her mother is the programme coordinator of Green Hope. So she is her mother’s boss? There’s a slight pause. “I wouldn’t say boss because we are all equal in my organisation. But yeah, I work with my mom,” she says.

It’s easy to forget that Basu is a teenager. She’s more intelligent and better informed than most adults, as well as diplomatic. When asked about Donald Trump’s climate-sceptic stance she doesn’t go off on an adolescent rant about older people ruining the future for the young, but says instead: “We live in uncertain times … we should continue to do what we’re doing and not lose hope.”
Her Twitter feed features pictures of her at conference or of children wielding plastic bin bags and picking up litter in Dubai. “I have been practising time management since I was eight,” she says when asked how she fits in school work around everything else.
Does she ever feel like she’s missing out on the carefree fun of being a child? “I think everyone’s definition of fun is different,” says Basu. “I love doing my work. If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t be doing it. I have involved so many children, including my friends, and we enjoy it.”
When she’s not doing schoolwork or environmental campaigning, Basu plays the piano (she’s just passed her grade eight exams) and the guitar. “My favourite band is the Beatles, I think they’re awesome.”
Asked to name her inspirations, Basu says Ban Ki-moon and Achim Steiner, former executive director of Unep. Anyone slightly less bureaucratic? “Wangari Maathai and Jane Goodall. Green Hope works extensively with Maathai’s organisation, the Green Belt Movement, and with the Abu Dhabi branch of Goodall’s Roots and Shoots. It’s female empowerment as well as doing stuff for the environment.”

Gender equality is part of Basu’s vision. “Without it you cannot achieve a sustainable world. Both halves of humanity need to work together.” Basu has been subject to the sexism many women and girls experience, including being told that she couldn’t be a pilot when she expressed an interest in it as a young girl. People also ask why she wants to be CEO of her own organisation “because that’s something for males”. The negativity hasn’t put her off: she wants to expand Green Hope to every country , and even though she still has two years of school left, she’s already set her sights on an MBA at Harvard.
When she was 12, Basu gave a rousing speech to Unep’s governing council. In it, she quoted Mother Teresa: “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” She already has.



 

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Seed Money.

December 13, 2016 0 Comments
         

A pastor named Denny Bellesi once asked for volunteers to join him at the atlar of the Coast Hills Community Church in Aliso Viejo, Calif.
When just a few came forward, the pastor trolled the aisles, pointing at parishioners.
The pastor handed $100 bills to 100 church members and told them, "Invest in the needy."
"It turned out to impact more people than any of us thought possible," says Bellesi. He estimates that the original $10,000 has multiplied 25-fold.
Terry Zwick told friends about the pastor's challenge and collected $1800. With that, single mother Lisa Panzica bought food and paid rent.
Brooks Berry passed a cookie jar at Cub Scout meetings. He donated the money, plus his $100, to ua pack that couldn't afford uniforms. "The boys were incredibly proud to get those shirts." he says.
Steve and Cathy L'Heureux put up a Christmas tree in their neighborhood and decorated it with tags requesting gifts for three families. People donated $8000 worth of gifts and grocery certificates.
On sundays, worshipers eagerly await the latest chapter in the saga of the C-notes. Says Bellesi, "The best are still to be told."

Friday, November 25, 2016

The voice of a naturalized American󾓦

November 25, 2016 0 Comments






By Nikita Boudreaux  

Today, I was fortunate to meet a Mexican woman who represents my America. She reounted coming to America over streams and between bullets at 4 years old. "Raised traditional Mexican", she described as marrying at 18,having four kids before 25, and living a pessimistic life. She defied her ex-husbands howls to hold her back from becoming an RN.   

  Even though, always "the sister that always needed help", she never expected to become a homeowner but she gave in to a realtor friend who implored her to begin working on her credit. 7 months later, she is in the back of my Uber, selectively telling 1 friend she is going into escrow. In 7 months, this divorced mother of four paid her debts and saved enough for down on 450k home. Not only did she sacrifice, but her children as well! " I'm sorry no Christmas this year, we have to save guys" , she would say, but her 5 year old would respond, "It's ok, we will be happier later, right?" - no crying while driving uber. I asked how this might change her dating life, but she mentioned that she is dating a well to do Jewish guy who is also divorced with children as well. At at recent party at his home in Newport Beach, all of his friends treated her "like a novelty" and literally surrounded her. They were all rich and white and sincerely asking her feelings about Trump, but simultaneously making Tequila jokes, etc. about being Mexican. She said she laughed to be agreeable, which I responded, "have you ever considered that you live as a 2nd class citizen?" Of course she said no, but I asked her if she had ever taken the 'White Temperature" of a room, waiting to see how one will interact with you so you know your place with them. She gasped and said she had been doing it her whole life bc her mom sent her to a white school in junior high. "We must conform to be in their presence, in their places, however the same is not true for them in our places", I said. I ended the ride by elating that her story needed to be heard and shared as a true voice of a naturalized American. She may be the 1st of my Coming to America series... #rollingpapers

Sonita Alizadeh- Activist against child marriage

November 25, 2016 0 Comments

Sonita Alizadeh, rapper, activist against child marriage

“Rap music let’s you tell your story to other people. Rap music is a platform to share the words that are in my heart.” - Sonita 

  Each year, 13.5 million girls are married before the age of 18. That is 28 girls every minute. 1 every 2 seconds. This is unacceptable and therefore we stand in solidarity with Sonita Alizadeh and all global advocates campaigning to end child marriage for good. 
Child marriage is not only a basic human rights infringement, but also exposes girls to reproductive health risks and early pregnancy, as well as violence and exploitation. This perpetuates the cycle of poverty and the disproportionate effect it has on girls and women.
With the recognition that this brutal practice often leads to girls feeling disempowered and can prevent them from accessing healthcare and education, we call on world leaders to enact and enforce laws to make child marriage illegal, as a key step forward in achieving gender equality.
We call on you to #LeveltheLaw by committing to end child marriage. As Sonita says, we must work together to “build a world where every girl is allowed to reach her full potential, make her own choices, and live the life she chooses for herself.” We stand alongside Sonita and all girls and women to create a brighter future for all.

 When Sonita Alizadeh was 16 her parents were prepared to sell her to a man for marriage. Now, thanks to bravely using rap to speak out and tell her family how she felt, she's studying on a full scholarship in the United States and working to end child marriagefor girls all around the world.
In Afghanistan, where Sonita is originally from, 57% of girls are married before they are 19. And this year alone, 13.5 million girls worldwide under the age of 18 will be forced marry before they have finished school or their bodies have matured. Almost one third of these girls will be under the age of 15.
These girls are being robbed of their childhood and their right to live a life of their own choosing, while they could grow up making significant contributions to the social and economic development of their communities.
To end forced marriage we need to ensure that governments enact and enforce laws against this abusive practice. We must also work at the grassroots level with families, communities, religious leaders and advocates like Sonita to effect change.
Sonita is a true champion of human rights. After liberating herself, she directed her attention to all the other young girls who are unable to break free from child marriage.
Stand with Sonita and sign the petition to make sure world leaders #LeveltheLaw and hear our message: The time to end child marriage is NOW.
The time to end child marriage is NOW.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

San Antonio Shooter Apologizes For Shooting Cop, Has Interesting Reason For Why He Did It

November 23, 2016 0 Comments


 

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By, Jen Nicole
Follow Jen Nicole on FB & IG @bloggerjennicole

   When 31-year-old Otis Tyrone McKane was asked if he had anything to say to 50-year-old Detective Benjamin Marconi’s family after he fatally shot him Sunday afternoonhe responded with, “I’m sorry.”
“Marconi was pulling over a driver and went back to his car to write a ticket when McKane allegedly pulled up in a car behind him. He then reportedly shot Marconi in the head, and then a second time, before returning to his car and driving away.”- theroot.com
And as a Black man I know everyone thinks oh he shot the cop on purpose because he hates cops, he is probably with Black Lives Matter and all these other assumptions but McKane actually had a VERY different explanation for why he chose to shoot Detective Benjamin Marconi that day.
When police asked McKane on Monday why he was upset, McKane said, “Society not allowing me to see my son. I lashed out at somebody who didn’t deserve it. I’ve been through several custody battles, and I was upset at the situation I was in.”
So that wasn’t the answer most people expected lol but you know Black people are human and we go through personal problems. Not everything we do is because of the hate we have for others (cough cough).
Of course even after the answer he gave above, the cops still think he specifically targeted the cop though because most Black men have issues with the cops (eye roll).
“Based on the actions of this individual prior to the shooting, we have a fairly good video documentation of what he was doing,” said San Antonio Police Chief William McManus. “I am still convinced that he was targeting blue—targeting a San Antonio Police Department officer, no matter who it was. It was any officer he came across.”
So basically because he probably had pro-black posts on his social media, from the standpoint of the cops he purposely chose to shoot and kill a cop. Isn’t that what they are saying, without actually saying it? 
McKane was arrested by a SWAT team on Interstate 10 on Monday while riding with a woman and a 2-year-old child.
Source: theroot.com


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