Icaro Doria, a Brazilian man, working for a magazine in Portugal started this campaign using real data from the UN and flag images, he’s created whats known as Meet the World. The colors within the flags from its respective country are used to represent current, geographical relevant issues. Take a look.
white privilege is watching the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony and hearing the British and American commentators poke fun at the names of…
A rose is held up to the face of Rokshana Rahimi who was near death at Herat Public Hospital. Rokshana set herself on fire when her husband, who left her to go to Iran 14 years earlier, demanded she return to him. She died in the hospital from her wounds. More than 700 women have set themselves on fire in Afghanistan, in a desperate cry for help.
- Women perform 66% of the world’s work, but receive only 11% of the world’s income, and own only 1% of the world’s land.
- Women make up 66% of the world’s illiterate adults.
- Women head 83% of single-parent families. The number of families nurtured by women alone doubled from 1970 to 1995 (from 5.6 million to 12.2 million).
- Women account for 55% of all college students, but even when women have equal years of education it does not translate into economic opportunities or political power.
- There are six million more women than men in the world.
- Two-thirds of the world’s children who receive less than four years of education are girls. Girls represent nearly 60% of the children not in school.
- Parents in countries such as China and India sometimes use sex determination tests to find out if their fetus is a girl. Of 8,000 fetuses aborted at a Bombay clinic, 7,999 were female.
- Wars today affect civilians most, since they are civil wars, guerrilla actions and ethnic disputes over territory or government. 3 out of 4 fatalities of war are women and children.
- Rape is consciously used as a tool of genocide and weapon of war. Tens of thousands of women and girls have been subjected to rape and other sexual violence since the crisis erupted in Darfur in 2003. There is no evidence of anyone being convicted in Darfur for these atrocities.
- About 75% of the refugees and internally displaced in the world are women who have lost their families and their homes.
- Gender-based violence kills one in three women across the world and is the biggest cause of injury and death to women worldwide, causing more deaths and disability among women aged 15 to 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accident, and war.
Joseph Kony is a man from Uganda, located in Central Africa who kidnaps children when they’re sleeping and forces them to fight the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army). The must not only kill people they don’t know but their own parents also. The boys are handed a gun to fight, and the young girls are used as Kony’s sex slaves. 90% of the army is children, and there are 30,000 children right now being forced to fight. The United States government is well aware of this in Uganda, and last year it came to Obama’s attention. He sent out troops to Uganda help the Ugandan Army track down Kony and bring justice and to disarm the LRA and to free all the children. But a 14 year old boy recently escaped from the army and reported that Kony now knows about the United States’ involvement and is changing his tactics. This means it will be harder to find him. Which is why I’m making this. We need to make Joseph Kony and his crimes well known. Hundreds and thousands of kids are fighting against their will right now and its wrong.
Watch the video of this is below. Its long but its worth it. Spread it on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, whatever network you’re on.
“And suddenly, I looked at the bull. He had this innocence that all animals have in their eyes, and he looked at me with this pleading. It was like a cry for justice, deep down inside of me. I describe it as being like a prayer - because if one confesses, it is hoped, that one is forgiven. I felt like the worst shit on earth.”
This photo shows the collapse of Torrero Alvaro Munera, as he realized in the middle of the his last fight… the injustice to the animal. From that day forward he became an opponent of bullfights.
The Keffiyeh is not a fashion statement. It is a political statement. Know what you’re wearing before you falsely adorn it.
Outside of the Middle East and North Africa, the keffiyeh first gained popularity among activists supporting the Palestinians in the conflict with Israel.
Its prominence increased in the 1960s with the beginning of the Palestinian resistance movement and its adoption by Palestinian politician Yasser Arafat. Another Palestinian figure associated with the keffiyeh is Laila Khaled, a female member of the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. These photos often included Khaled wearing a keffiyeh in the style of a Muslim woman’s hijab, wrapped around the head and shoulders. This was unusual, as the keffiyeh is associated with Arab masculinity, and many believe this to be something of a statement by Khaled, denoting her equality with men in the Palestinian armed struggle.The colors of the stitching in a keffiyeh are also vaguely associated with Palestinians’ political sympathies. Traditional black and white keffiyehs became associated with Fatah. Later, red and white keffiyehs were adopted by Palestinian Marxists, such as the PFLP. Today, Palestinian Marxists have virtually disappeared, and red and white keffiyehs are instead identified with Hamas.
The color symbolism of the scarves is by no means universally accepted by all Palestinians or Arabs. Its importance should not be overstated, as the scarves are used by Palestinians and Arabs of all political affiliations, as well as by those with no particular political sympathies.
today, this symbol of Palestinian identity is now largely imported from China. With the scarf’s growing popularity in the 2000s, Chinese manufacturers entered the market, driving Palestinians out of the business.In 2008, Yasser Herbawi, who for five decades had been the only Palestinian manufacturer of keffiyehs, is now struggling with sales. The Herbawi Textile Factory has 16 machines. In 1990, all 16 machines were functioning, making 750 keffiyahs per day. Today, only 2 machines are used, making a mere 300 keffiyahs per week. Unlike the Chinese manufactured ones, Herbawis uses 100% cotton. Yasser Herbawis son, Izzat, states the importance of creating the Palestinian symbol, in Palestine, “the keffiyah is a tradition of Palestine and it should be made in Palestine. We should be the ones making it.”.
If you’re going to buy a Keffiyeh, make sure it is made in Palestine or the Mid East. Not China.
In 2007, the American clothing store chain, Urban Outfitters, stopped selling keffiyehs after “a pro-Israel activist… complained about the items”, and the store also issued a statement that “the company had not intended ‘to imply any sympathy for or support of terrorists or terrorism’ in selling the keffiyehs and was pulling them”.
And that is why I never shop at Urban Outfitters.
Point being people, know what it symbolizes. It’s not cute, it’s not on sale, it’s not ‘what’s in’ …it’s a support for freedom.
Fuck yes. Amazing post!
There is also at least one Israeli company now. Don’t buy them from Israel either for goodness sakes. And be aware that MANY Palestinians don’t think outsiders (non-Arabs) should be wearing them at all.
Keep Calm and Fight For Syria
May Allah empower them, protect them, and guide them to victory
Syria, your victory will be reality soon.
My heart is at Syria may Allah give them strength
- Ignorance: I’m worried about Iran. They are building a nuclear weapon, then they will blow up Israel and we will have even more terrorist attacks on our country. We most protect ourselves. The only way to do that is to attack Iran before they attack us.
- Knowledge: Why do you think Iran would have a nuclear weapon?
- Ignorance: Because they are a violent country and they have a crazy president.
- Knowledge: Do you know when the last time Iran attacked another country was? It was 300 years ago.
- Ignorance: Well, they have a crazy president who would do it.
- Knowledge: What would they do?
- Ignorance: They would attack us with a nuclear weapon.
- Knowledge: Did you know that the national intelligence estimate has concluded that there is no evidence that Iran is working on a nuclear weapon. It is the consensus of 16 different US intelligence agencies including the CIA, the DIA, army intelligence, navy intelligence, air force intelligence, the department of energy as well as the department of homeland security.
- Ignorance: I don’t care. They have nuclear ambitions.
- Knowledge: What exactly do you mean by ambitions?
- Ignorance: That is what they say on the news. It means they want to build a bomb to attack us.
- Knowledge: That is what the media and politicians say because they know that there is no evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons program, but they want us all to be scared and to believe that the Iranian government would be crazy enough to use a nuclear weapon against us. That way our government will have the support of the American people if we decide to take military action against Iran just like when we invaded Iraq. We would be able to say that we are protecting ourselves in self-defense.
- Ignorance: Saddam was a bad man.
- Knowledge: But Iraq did not have any nuclear weapons either. Can you tell me which is the only country to have ever used a nuclear weapon against another country? I will give you a hint. It begins with a U and ends with an S.
- Ignorance: But we signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
- Knowledge: Iran also signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. It was one of the first countries to sign.
- Ignorance: But Iran has threatened to wipe Israel off the map.
- Knowledge: That is not an exact translation, but yes. That was what the Iranian president said. However, Ahmadinejad is just the president and not the supreme leader. Even if he wanted to attack Israel, he wouldn’t have the authority to order it. Only the supreme leader can declare war or mobilize troops. However, the supreme leader has already spoken out against having nuclear weapons. Speaking of military action, what do you suppose it means when the US says “Nothing is off the table”? Do you think that could possibly mean nuclear attack?
- Ignorance: Of course, it means nothing is off the table.
- Knowledge: Well then, that means the United States has threatened the use of nuclear weapons against Iran, which also happens to be a violation of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty we signed. George Bush, Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, John McCain, and other American politicians have all said nothing is off the table when referring to Iran.
- Ignorance: John McCain said to bomb Iran. He sang a song and it was funny. Bomb bomb Iran.
- Knowledge: Do you know that the United States has already drafted a military plan of attack against Iran. Iran has also been called part of the evil axis by President Bush. So do you think Iran might actually have a reason to fear an attack from the United States? The United States have invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, which both have borders with Iran. The United States also has troops in military bases in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia as well as a very large naval presence in the Persian Gulf. The United States is allies with Israel, who has nuclear weapons, and which has already discussed and advocated an attack on Iran. And Israel will not sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty either. So do you think maybe Iran might possibly have a reason to want to protect itself?
- Ignorance: We can’t let Iran have a nuclear bomb they will attack us again, just like 9/11.
- Knowledge: Then if that is really what you want, why in God’s name should we be doing everything humanly possible to provoke and threaten Iran and give them a reason to make a nuclear weapon to defend themselves? Do you see even the slightest sense of logic in the US foreign policy if we don’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon? Don’t you think if we really didn’t want a country to have a nuclear weapon, then you would not threaten to attack it or invade its neighbors or have military troops surrounding it from all sides? Would the United States feel threatened if Iran invaded Canada and Mexico and conducted naval military exercises in the Caribbean?
- Ignorance: I don’t want another 9/11.
- Knowledge: Do you even know where the 9/11 hijackers were from?
- Ignorance: I don’t care.
- Knowledge: They were from Saudi Arabia and Egypt not Iran. Yet both Saudi Arabia and Egypt happen to be US allies. We give them both billions of dollars in aid every year.
- Ignorance: I don’t like any of them. They attacked us.
- Knowledge: Who are they? Arabs. Iranians are not Arabs.
- Ignorance: Well, they attacked. I mean they were responsible for… I mean they… they… they hate us.
- Knowledge: You blame them for hating us?
- Ignorance: They are not democratic.
- Knowledge: Iran used to have a democratic government.
- Ignorance: Then they were not smart enough to keep it.
- Knowledge: No. Actually, they had a popular democratic leader, but the United States CIA overthrew the prime minister, Mohammed Mossadeq, in a kill in 1953. In other words, we overthrew their government.
- Ignorance: That does not make sense. The United States supports democracy like in Afghanistan.
- Knowledge: Hamid Karzai is the president of Afghanistan and was a formal ally of the US and a former CIA contact during the 1980s, when they were fighting the Soviet Union. So we supported him as president because Karzai aided what the US and Britain wanted him to do.
- Ignorance: That is what I mean. He is democratic.
- Knowledge: So is Mohammed Mossadeq. Mossadeq was the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran in 1953 before he was removed from power by the United States because he did not do what we wanted him to do.
- Ignorance: He was a communist.
- Knowledge: Mossadeq wanted Iran to keep the profits from their own oil to help their own country, so British Petroleum would not take it all.
- Ignorance: They spilled oil in the Persian Gulf.
- Knowledge: No. Actually, British Petroleum spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico. They used to be called the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in the 1950s because Britain got all of its oil from Iran.
- Ignorance: Anyway, they support terrorism.
- Knowledge: Who?
- Ignorance: The Iranians.
- Knowledge: The United States government gives financial support to the MEK and PJAK which are all terrorist groups that operate within Iran, and are responsible for attacking, kidnapping, and assassinations in Iran. So tell me, what is the difference? Terrorism is terrorism. It is just as bad no matter who does it or supports it. In 1988, a United States navy ship shot and blew up an Iranian passenger jet in the Persian Gulf killing 274 innocent civilians. Isn’t that a terrorist attack?
- Ignorance: It was an accident.
- Knowledge: Can you think of any other time in the history of aviation that a passenger jet has been shot down by mistake? So then, I suppose the one time it does happen it just coincidently happens to be by one country against its adversary right at a time of heightened tension? Can you imagine how the US would react if the Iranian military shot down a US passenger jet and killed 274 people, mostly American?
- Ignorance: It was not on purpose. It was an accident. How come I’ve never heard of this before?
- Knowledge: The US news media does not like to talk about it because they don’t want Americans to think our government has engaged in acts of terrorism. They want us to believe it is only the behavior of countries like Iran. Everything I am saying is fully documented. You can check it yourself on Google or Wikipedia. If you are really opposed to terrorism, I don’t see the difference if one country supports it or another. Isn’t it all equally as bad?
- Ignorance: We should attack Iran.
- Knowledge: Just because the Iranian government is bad in many ways, does not mean we should simply attack the country. I don’t think you fully realize what would happen if we really did attack Iran. There are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world. What do you think would be their reaction if we attacked an Islamic country, after what we have already done in Iraq and Afghanistan?
- Ignorance: I don’t care what they would think. It doesn’t matter.
- Knowledge: On a scale of 1 to 10, where do you think the level of anger would be against the US if we attacked another Islamic country?
- Ignorance: It doesn’t matter.
- Knowledge: Is it more likely to go up or go down? If you are trying to protect America, then why would you want to increase the anger in this world against us? Iran is three times the size of Iraq with three times the population and a very powerful military unlike Iraq, and yet we still don’t have a stable situation in Iraq after 7 years and 2 trillion dollars.
- Ignorance: But Saddam was a bad man, so it was worth it.
- Knowledge: Fortunately for us, many of the Iranian people like Americans, and do not like their government.
- Ignorance: That is a good thing, so it will be an easy job for us.
- Knowledge: Then what do you think would happen if we attacked Iran?
- Ignorance: They would greet us with flowers.
- Knowledge: Did we greet Al Qaeda with flowers after they attacked the twin towers in New York City? Instead, did most Americans put aside our complaints and rally behind our government in a show of nationalism?
- Ignorance: I put a flag on my car. I don’t understand what you are saying.
- Knowledge: Don’t you think the Iranian people would also put Iranian flags on their cars if the US attacked them?
- Ignorance: Yes.
- Knowledge: Then why would anyone in America want to push the Iranian people away from liking the US to support the very government we despise so much?
- Ignorance: Of course. No one would want to do that.
- Knowledge: Then please give me any sensible reason why the United States should attack or even threaten to attack Iran?
- Ignorance: I don’t need a sensible reason.
- Knowledge: Why?
- Ignorance: Because I’m a racist hater who supports violence against people I hate.
- Knowledge: Maybe Iran should attack the United States after all.
Few videos could highlight the tenuous situation in Syria as one published Sunday afternoon showing a boy with his jaw completely blown off.
The video also contains other children with their limbs removed during Syrian President Bashar Assad’s violent crackdown on dissent.
The condition of the boy is unclear at the time of this post.
This is what Russia and China vetoed. This is what the world is staying silent over.
Don’t watch this.
“It’s a real massacre in every sense of the word. I saw bodies of women and children lying on roads beheaded. It’s horrible and inhuman. It was a long night helping people get to hospitals.” - Abu Jihad, Khalidiya resident
“We are not getting any help, there are no ambulances or anything. We are removing the people with our own hands. […] We have dug out at least 100 bodies so far, they are placed in the two mosques.” - anonymous Syrian activist
“We were sitting inside our house when we started hearing the shelling. We felt shells were falling on our heads.” - Waleed, Khalidiya resident
“It does not seem that they get it. Even if they kill 10 million of us, the people will not stop until we topple him.” - anonymous Syrian resident
As many as 260 people have been killed since Friday across Homs, Syria, according to several opposition groups, marking the deadliest day of violence since anti-government protests began in mid-March.
The UN Security Council will meet Saturday morning to vote on a resolution condemning the Syrian government’s violent response to the ongoing protests.
Multiple Syrian embassies across Europe and the Middle East were attacked by demonstrators Friday and Saturday to protest the recent assault on anti-Assad activists in Syria.
This month marks the 30th anniversary of the massacre in Hama, Syria. In February 1982, President Hafez Assad, Bashar Assad’s father attempted to crush a rebellion by shelling the city of Hama and bringing in bulldozers to destroy the neighborhood. An estimated 20,000 people were killed over three weeks.
[Photos: A Syrian rebel stands next to a destroyed government forces tank decorated with Syrian revolution flags in Homs, Syria, on Wednesday. Credit: Local Coordination Committee; A boy holds up a sign during an anti-regime demonstration in the Syrian village of al-Qsair, on Friday. Credit: Alessio Romenzi/AFP/Getty Images; Signs of damage are visible at the Syrian embassy in central London on Saturday, after protestors broke into the embassy. Credit: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images]