Category Archives: Rock on-Peace Out

Bundeswehr signs up 2,000 to fight Ebola in West Africa | News | DW.DE | 24.09.2014

On Wednesday, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen announced that 2,000 German soldiers had volunteered for duty in Africa to aid in the battle against Ebola. The deadliest outbreak on record has infected almost 6,000 people in West Africa and killed nearly half of them, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

via Bundeswehr signs up 2,000 to fight Ebola in West Africa | News | DW.DE | 24.09.2014.

It’s on us to go beyond ‘It’s On Us’

(Photo credit: Larry Downing/Reuters)

“Identify situations in which sexual assault may occur.

If you see something, intervene in any way you can.

If something looks like a bad situation, it probably is.

Get someone to help if you see something.

Get in the way by creating a distraction.”

The White House’s flashy new bystander intervention campaign, It’s On Us, makes sexual assault sound a lot like a bad thunderstorm — unfortunate, inevitable, striking seemingly out of nowhere, and devoid of human agents. The solution, then, is easy and comfortable: “Identify situations in which [a-tornado-I-mean-sexual-assault] may occur” and guide your friend to safety; remember: “If something looks like a bad situation, it probably is.”

Gender-based violence is not like the weather. It has direct, immediate human agents and is structural and systemic at its core. But the new campaign de-politicizes and de-genders sexual assault, portraying it as an easy-to-avoid problem solely between individuals, and making perpetrators out to be vague “someones” who do “something” to other “someones.” In reality, perpetrators are disproportionately likely to be men and their victims are disproportionately likely to be women (particularly queer and trans women, women of color, and women with disabilities), queer men, and gender non-conforming folks.

The It’s On Us campaign’s failure to conceptualize of violence as systemic and structural guts meaningful responses to it. While bystander intervention more broadly may be usefully integrated into a more comprehensive anti-violence approach, it has serious limitations. And the way it’s framed in It’s On Us, it offers a strategy to avoid violence, not meaningfully reduce it. The campaign’s tips — like guiding your friends away from perpetrators at parties — might help an individual woman avoid a rapist in an individual instance but it won’t stop that rapist from turning to the next girl down the bar. It makes the problem seem discrete and manageable, with a quick fix that fits comfortably within an existing structure of how our world works, who has power, and who doesn’t. It enlists men, for instance, to protect their female friends at a bar but not to recognize their own power and privilege, the subtle ways in which they enact violence all the time.

via It’s on us to go beyond ‘It’s On Us’.

Photos: Fearless “Daredevil Caulker” Risks It All For The Love Of Caulk: Gothamist

Tipster “angelmay1978” sent us photos this morning of a man she describes as a “Daredevil Caulker,” observed in the building across the street from her. “He’s on the 10th floor standing/squatting on the window sill caulking the outside of the window frame…no harness,” our witness reports, noting the building in question is located at Madison Avenue and 49th Street. “I’m about to have a panic attack,” she adds.

Yes, this definitely seems dangerous, but the caulker’s courageous work this day will be remembered in that office for generations. Fortune favors the bold.

via Photos: Fearless “Daredevil Caulker” Risks It All For The Love Of Caulk: Gothamist.

Zombie 5K Run – Habitat for Humanity Greater Cincinnati | Cincinnati, Ohio

October 10, 2014

Start And Finish:

Coney Island

6201 Kellogg Avenue

Cincinnati, Ohio 45230

The obstacle run will begin and end at Moonlite Gardens at Coney Island. The run will pass through the amusement park and parking lot of Coney. The finish line will lead into the after-party area.

Awards:

If you “survive” the zombie run, you will receive an award for your participation. In addition, trophies will go to the first male and first female runner to finish with at least one flag. Medals will go to the next top 10 men and top 10 women to return with at least one flag.

via Zombie 5K Run – Habitat for Humanity Greater Cincinnati | Cincinnati, Ohio.

Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Mistake

Not far from there,

I see her running with joy.

I hear her laughing,

I read her writing,

I listen to her teaching,

I am inspired by her talent.

But it was when I moved away,

after I was separated from yesterday,

I remembered when she cried; she was hit,

before her voice rose up.

After, she smiled,

but her life was regarded

as a mistake, which no one

wanted to exist.

When she went out,

eyes stared

and lusted after her.

It is how it is there.

My heart hurts with stopped breath,

when I do not know if we

are the wrong gender,

Or if we are born

in a mistaken place.

We cannot choose

these things ourselves.

But it touches my tears

when it comes in my mind

and in front of my eye.

By Basira

via Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Mistake.

Her name is Tune | Poetry for Palestine

Two awe-inspiring poems by child poet Nagham Sami El-Yaziji

(her names means Tune)

Translation (by Nahida Exiled)

Peace be with you, mercy and blessings

I am poet Nagham Sami El-Yazji

From Gaza,

But my native city is Yaffa

God willing, we will return to Yaffa

* * *

First poem (recited in Palestinian dialect)

I am eight

EIGHT years of bombing and destruction,

Fear and dispossession

I survived three wars

THREE wars

Each is more horrific than the previous

* * *

Is there a little girl, in this entire universe

who ever lived three wars, in such a brief age?

I was asleep, in the arms of mama and baba

Safe, tranquil and serene

Suddenly, they bombed our home

Our home is destroyed

My family were martyred

Mama died

Baba died

* * *

At night, who will embrace me when I hear the bombing?

Who will buy me Ramadan’s lantern?

Who will buy me Eid clothes?

* * *

I don’t want anything from you

I don’t want food, clothes or toys

All I want is safety, tranquility and peace

I want my family

I want my home, my beautiful memories

I want to sleep in serenity, wake up in serenity and play free

O world

O WORLD

Is that too much to ask?

Is that too much for me, a Palestinian child, to ask?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nagham reads her second poem in Classical arabic

I am Naghamu

I am a child

The nectar of my dreams infuses my lungs with life

Love runs in my veins

I embroider my tears in my heart

A dress of sorrow

Swathing me with light of dawn

I am a child

I am Naghamu

* * *

People say, my name is a tune

People say, I am a song, soft and delightful

They didn’t know that phosphorus bombs have ignited our calm nights

They didn’t know that the bombing has created my first revolution

The revolution of my exiled father

The revolution of my childless grandmother

The revolution of our budding childhood

The revolution of our traumatised home

The revolution of our usurped neighbourhood

The revolution of our parched blood

* * *

What is my name?

What is the meaning of my name?

The relevance of my name?

When a nightmare is crushing my lungs

Without food, without a home, without a name

Without hope, without love, without a dream

* * *

What is my sin?

What is my sin? answer me

I, what did I… do?

What did I do?

* * *

Did I commit a crime for loving this universe, O mama?

Is my crime that I fell in love with this universe for a moment, mama?

I don’t adore it any more

How can I adore it without mama, without Muna, without Huda, without Rami?

I am Naghamu

via Her name is Tune | Poetry for Palestine.

People’s Climate March set to attract thousands around the world – live | Environment | The Guardian

Tens of thousands of people across 150 countries are taking to the streets to march for action on climate change

Dubbed the ‘People’s Climate March,’ it has been flagged as the biggest global call-to-action on climate change in history

People are demanding world leaders take action on climate change as they prepare fo a United Nations summit in New York on Monday

via People’s Climate March set to attract thousands around the world – live | Environment | The Guardian.

No, ‘Django Unchained’ Actress Won’t Apologize To The LAPD: LAist

her boyfriend wrote a post on Facebook earlier this week explaining why she was quick to assume the LAPD was racially profiling her, “What we experienced this past Thursday, September 11 was the THIRD time in the past few months that D and I have had to deal with cops profiling a ‘black and white couple.’ This is the THIRD time, an officer has realized his error and had to let us go because we weren’t breaking any laws.”

He writes that in one incident, neighbors in Loma Linda called police to report that a suspicious black and white couple were loitering in the area and that there may have been a potential robbery. He said it was just he and Daniele trying to go through storage in his father’s garage.

via No, ‘Django Unchained’ Actress Won’t Apologize To The LAPD: LAist.