Category Archives: Uncategorized

Santa Muerte Shrine To Open in Lebanon

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Following the outrage of some Lebanese that other Lebanese were outraged at a possible shirtgate involving demonizing a Virgin Mary icon are not aware of well-rooted Mexican folklore, the Mexican embassy, in collaboration with the Lebanese government, will be building a Santa Muerte shrine in the village of DeirBella.

Issuing a brief statement on the matter, the Mexican embassy noted the “overwhelming support” their not-recognized saint has gotten over the past few hours in Lebanon. They were “absolutely dumbfounded” by the well-rooted knowledge of Santa Muerte among the Lebanese populace whereby everyone seems to be quite the expert. “We didn’t know Santa Muerte had so many fans in Lebanon,” they said, “this makes us quite excited about possible culture fusion between the countries.” The embassy was also quite “enthusiastic” about the culture fusion prospect in Lebanese society, à la St. Patrick’s Day and Thanksgiving.

“It shouldn’t be exclusive to the…

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Bershka Lebanon Insulting The Virgin Mary

The style takes it’s inspiration from a combination of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico and their Day of the Dead All Hallows Eve celebration during which they visit the grave or the relatives – The skull is not meant to mock. Good design and tee!

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

A friend of mine just sent my way the following shirt being sold by Bershka Lebanon for 49,000:

Bershka Shirt Lebanon Christianity - 1Bershka Shirt Lebanon Christianity - 2

The shirt called Lady of Skulls features a Virgin Mary-esque image that cannot, even with the most out-of-the-box approaches, not be considered as a distortion of many Christians icons of Mary

I am not the most sensitive person when it comes to religious jabs. In fact, I think we need some of them more often so people can light off a little. Caricatures or comedic approaches to some religious symbols might be acceptable – they are to me – but demonizing religious holy figures for the sake of having fun such as in this case is, quite frankly, unacceptable. I find it revolting and offensive.

 

It’s not about freedom of expression or freedom to wear whatever you want. This isn’t a book I’m saying you should not be reading or…

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Egyptian Aak: Week 14

I am sure that many wish their land would awake from what now seems to many as a bad dream That will only happen if you raise your voices loud enough to wake even the deepest sleeper!

Nervana

Coptic death (Coffins of dead Copts following Saturday sectarian clashes – Twitter  via @auscma)

Main Headlines

Monday

Tuesday

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Mark Knopfler Is a True Friend of the Russian People

Mark is true to the “Walk of Life!”

chtodelat news

This is what everyone who is in Mark Knopfler’s position should do. Not “try and talk some sense” into fascist homophobes like Vitaly Milonov, as the otherwise admirable Stephen Fry recently did. Or “stand in solidarity” with political prisoners Pussy Riot on a Moscow concert stage, as Madonna did, all the while raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars in concert fees. The first tack violates the old anti-fascist “no platform” rule, while the second does that, too, while also generating tons of buzz for the Milonovites. More important, it rewards the relatively well-off strata of the Russian urban populace, the people who can afford tickets to Madonna and Knopfler concerts and the like, who are in fact the real bulwark of Putinism (rather than some imaginary post-Soviet “conservative” provincial “grassroots” post-proletariat), at least (but only at least) insofar as these people have been mostly absent from the fight against Putinism or any of its manifestations…

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And they’re off: the National Youth Climate Exchange Summit

Grow Dat Youth Farm

This afternoon I’m boarding a plane with three Grow Dat Policy Interns – Amber Young, Josh Kemp, and Kamau Johnson – to attend the National Youth Climate Exchange (NYCE) in Pennsylvania.

Grow Dat is honored to join the NYCE, the latest Global Kid’s Human Rights Activist project. Youth from Grow Dat in New Orleans are participating in a 3-day climate action summit with Build it Up West Virginia and Global Kids students from NYC and Washington, DC.

Addressing climate change is key to us at Grow Dat because food system emissions account for  between 19%-29% of all total greenhouse gases. And agricultureaccounts for 80%-86% of emissions within the food system. Check out the infographics from CGIAR:

FoodSystemEmissionsScreen Shot 2013-04-04 at 12.58.31 PM

On our farm, youth grow food using sustainable and chemical-free methods. Our commitment to carbon reduction and environmental stewardship ensures that agriculture is part of the solution, rather than remaining a leading contributor to the…

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A Day in Grey for Joseph Massenburg

A Lifetime Of Service

nccc ribbbon

On the evening of April 1, 2013, 18-year-old AmeriCorps NCCC member, Joseph Massenburg, was shot and killed while deployed in New Orleans. As part of the AmeriCorps family, we mourn the passing of a member of our community. Click here to read the news coverage.

Today, join us in “A Day in Grey for Joseph Massenburg” as we wear our grey & green shirts for Joseph and his team, Delta 4, from the Vicksburg, Mississippi  – Southern Region NCCC campus. We wear these colors to remember and celebrate Joseph’s lifetime of service. If you no longer have your AmeriCorps shirts, please join us in spirit. In addition to AmeriCorps Visibility Day, today is a day to unite and make our AmeriCorps community visible to others.

AmeriCorps Alums will also be collecting photos and condolences on our Facebook page to share with the Vicksburg campus and Massenburg…

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Salud, Dignidad y Justicia Más Allá De Nuestras Fronteras

Nuestra Vida, Nuestra Voz

By: Dian Alarcon

Mil gracias por todo el apoyo y enseñanzas en esta semana de abogacía. Realmente fue una experiencia enriquecedora. No importa cuántas veces la hagas siempre es una experiencia nueva que te enseña el poder que tiene tu voz. Aunque solo seas uno, es como el cardumen de peces, si esta solo es más fácil que un depredador se lo pueda comer pero cuando está acompañado por miles o cientos de peces, los depredadores piensan que eres un animal demasiado grande y poderoso para atacarlo y desisten de comerlos.
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Para mí la mayor reflexión esta semana es que cuando trabajamos ordenadamente en equipo, con pasión y todas con el mismo enfoque logramos llevar nuestro mensaje de Salud, Dignidad y Justicia más allá de nuestras fronteras.

NLIRH hizo un ejemplo de trabajo en equipo, muy ordenadas y cada una sabiendo cual era su roll en esta semana. Soy muy…

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