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saddayfordemocracy · 2 years

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Earth Overshoot Day is today !

Earth Overshoot Day Falls on July 28, Two Days Earlier Than in 2021

Some one million species are threatened with extinction and 75 percent of environments on land are "severely altered" by humanity, according to a report from the United Nations.

Another report from IPCC suggests that evidence of human influence on extreme weather has strengthened, especially when it comes to events like extreme rain, droughts, and cyclones.

In less than eight months, humanity has exhausted Earth's budget for the year.

Photo by Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP

#earth overshoot day #earth #humanity #human rights #sustainability #ecology #Consumerism #saddayfordemocracy #nature #deforestation #animalrights #humanrights #children's rights #biocapacity #human footprint #movethedate

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sorrysomethingwentwrong · 5 years

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James B. Featherstone, “Into America”

#art #photography #america #human rights #humanity #homeless #james B. featherstone #equal rights #poor people #saddayfordemocracy #money monster

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moodboardmix · 6 years

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“Lady Soul” Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018)

After Angela Davis was arrested with Nixon branding her a "terrorist," Aretha Franklin offered to post a quarter million dollars in bail.

"I have the money. I got it from black people and I want to use it in ways that will help our people."

R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

#aretha franklin #rip #rip aretha franklin #queen #soul #queen of soul #music #diva #star #iconic #respect #angela davis #blacklivesmatter #saddayfordemocracy #R&B #lady soul #grace #amazing #gospel

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socialsf · 4 years

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#nuffsaid #saddayfordemocracy thank you #RobertFKennedy #voteblue2020 https://www.instagram.com/p/B8M7ZFFHY0j/?igshid=1xdnwqst5h9ly

#nuffsaid #saddayfordemocracy #robertfkennedy #voteblue2020

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rt-science-blog · 5 years

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APA References: Item Sources

BatConservation. (2018, January 28). Retrieved June 7, 2019, from https://save-the-bats.tumblr.com/post/170227069797/instead-of-a-bat-burrito-today-we-have-a

Bedenehapsedilenruhlar. (2018, March 03). Retrieved June 7, 2019, from https://bedenehapsedilenruhlar.tumblr.com/post/171488363912

Biomorphosis. (2014, January 04). Retrieved June 12, 2019, from https://biomorphosis.tumblr.com/post/72131773039/bombardier-beetle-when-threatened-sprays-the

Earthstory. (2019, April 04). Retrieved June 11, 2019, from https://the-earth-story.com/post/183921424901/original-caption-a-team-of-cetacean-scientist

Festival, W. S. (2015, February 24). Retrieved May 30, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4CYyEO6aPQ

Gomedorgohome. (2017, October 27). 27.10.17 | Snapshots from the lab. Retrieved June 14, 2019, from https://gomedorgohome.tumblr.com/post/166850254082/271017-snapshots-from-the-lab-as-ive

Il-Etait-Lune-Fois. (2017, June 29). Retrieved May 31, 2019, from https://il-etait-lune-fois.tumblr.com/post/162368532594/une-série-dillustrations-sur-lhistoire-du

Josh Gabbatiss Science Correspondent @josh_gabbatiss. (2018, May 25). Methane from cow burps could be dramatically cut by feeding them seaweed. Retrieved June 10, 2019, from https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/cows-seaweed-methane-burps-cut-greenhouse-gas-emissions-climate-change-research-a8368911.html

Reactions. (2016, April 19). Retrieved June 12, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCWPnmQj6LE&feature=youtu.be

Saddayfordemocracy. (2019, May 19). Retrieved June 8, 2019, from https://saddayfordemocracy.tumblr.com/post/184975298878/the-destruction-of-arctic-ecosystems-forces

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saddayfordemocracy · 4 years

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The Twilight of a Corrupted Government...

In Lebanon, citizens are accustomed to fury at the government, with the crumbling economy, hours-long electricity cuts, and an armed group dominating much of the country’s politics.

But the shock and horror following Tuesday night’s explosion at the Beirut port, which has claimed over 150 lives so far and left thousands wounded, marked a new low for an already demoralized public. In the midst of one of the worst crises in Lebanon’s history, the catastrophe marked what many called a new, painful nadir.

The evidence points to government negligence. The official government account indicates that 2,750 metric tons (about 3,000 tons) of highly explosive ammonium nitrate ignited Tuesday night. The explosive material had been idling in the harbor since 2013.

An investigation by Al-Jazeera found repeated letters from Customs Director Badri Daher asking for the cache of ammonium nitrate to be removed. No action was ever taken by authorities.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun stumbled through a speech at a Lebanese cabinet meeting on Wednesday, barely raising his eyes from his screen as he promised that the government would uncover the truth behind the explosion and punish those responsible “with the full measure of the law.”

“They promised to find those responsible. Responsible? Really? Look no more. You are all sitting around the table. And you all represent the failures that led us here. You are the criminals!” Henri Chaoul (former financial adviser to the government who resigned in mid-June)

A new hashtag began trending on Lebanese social media — “Prepare The Gallows.” Photos of Aoun with the caption “Fall” and “Leave” began circulating as well.

Others told Lebanese MTV that foreign donors should not give money to the government, because the government would “steal all the foreign aid as they stole it before.”

For many Lebanese, the explosion is just the latest episode in an endless array of wide-ranging government negligence and corruption that they believe has dragged their country into one of the deepest crises in its history.

The explosion rendered 300,000 Beirut residents temporarily homeless.

Since May, with a government unable to agree on basic economic reforms in the midst of a pandemic, a protracted economic crisis has sparked a disastrous death spiral for the Lebanese lira.

While the International Monetary Fund pleaded with Lebanese politicians to be more transparent, ordinary Lebanese saw their savings vanish overnight as the currency plummeted by more than 85%. As people rushed to buy basic goods, price soared, cruelly, ever higher. Many businesses closed, even in Beirut’s downtown area.

Perhaps in anticipation of a wave of protests, the government has declared a state of emergency for the next two weeks.

“This is an attempt to clamp down on protests rather than an attempt to maintain public security,” Daoud said.

Without some kind of reform — and with 300,000 homeless Beirut residents in the streets — it seems unlikely that Lebanese anger and despair with their government will cool off anytime soon.

“Even Israel, your greatest enemy, didn’t do this to Beirut. You destroyed Beirut,” one young Lebanese man said in a widely-circulated video on Twitter addressing the Lebanese government, which he called “the world’s biggest failures.”

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saddayfordemocracy · 3 years

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“The problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power.”

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, after seizing power in 1986.

The 76-year-old Dictator has held onto power in Uganda for 35 years by doling out patronage to preserve loyalty, while deploying his security forces to intimidate critics and muzzle the media.

After a bloody campaign (the campaign period has been characterized by killings, beatings and violent dispersal of opposition supporters) an internet blackout and accusations of vote tampering and rigging (On 9 January Facebook shut down dozens of pro-government accounts claiming they were “fake and duplicate accounts” linked to the country’s Ministry of Information to make content appear more popular ahead of the elections), the Dictator Yoweri Museveni, was declared victor of a sixth, five-year term in office. Previous ‘presidential’ elections have been marred by fraud allegations.

On 24 February 2014 Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law. It includes life sentences for gay sex and same-sex marriage. The new law allows life imprisonment as the penalty for acts of "aggravated homosexuality" and also criminalises the "promotion" of homosexuality", where activists encourage others to come out. The sponsor of the bill, MP David Bahati, insisted homosexuality was a "behaviour that can be learned and can be unlearned".

Constitutional amendments in 2005 abolished presidential term limits and set in 2017 a new age limit on the ‘presidency,’ which was previously 75.

Dictator’s wife, Janet Museveni, is the Education and Sports Minister, his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, part of The Special Forces Group, is also responsible for providing security at Uganda's oil installations...

the country’s per capita income (each Ugandan’s earnings per year) is $800 (Shs 2.9m).

For the world, Uganda’s election was a vivid demonstration of how autocrats use elections to cement their hold on power.

#Uganda #museveni #dictatorship #muhoozi kainerugada #bobi wine #election #human rights #equal rights #social justice #justice #saddayfordemocracy #democracynow #lgbtq rights #david bahiti #Quote of the Day #Social media #freedom #freedom of expression #yoweri museveni

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saddayfordemocracy · 4 years

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John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020)

After years of putting his body and his freedom on the line as an activist, he spent more than three decades in Congress.

John Lewis, who went from being the youngest leader of the 1963 March on Washington to a long-serving congressman from Georgia and icon of the civil rights movement, died Friday. He was 80.

As a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Lewis was a committed participant in some of the key moments of the movement — an original Freedom Rider in 1961, a principal speaker at the March on Washington in 1963, one of those brutally clubbed during a 1965 march in Selma, Alabama. Through it all, he faced taunts, beatings and dozens of arrests.

By his middle years, he was in Congress and sometimes referred to it as its “conscience.”

Lewis died on the same day as civil rights leader the Rev. Cordy Tindell "C.T." Vivian, who was 95.

Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) is photographed in his offices in the Canon House office building in Washington, D.C., on March 17, 2009. Jeff Hutchens—Getty Images.

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saddayfordemocracy · 4 years

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Iran Court Passes Double Death Sentence On Protester In Shiraz

The Islamic Criminal Regime of Iran's Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence of national wrestling champion Navid Afkari for his 2018 protest against the regime in Tehran.

Iran’s Clerical Dictatorship imposed two death sentences, six years and six months in prison, and 74 lashes on Afkari.

His brother, Vahid Afkari, received a prison sentence of 54 years and six months in prison and 74 lashes.

The third brother, Habib, was slapped with a prison term of 27 years and three months and 74 lashes.

Iran International reported that “Navid and Vahid Afkari were severely tortured to give confessions, and the testimony of witnesses about their beatings and torture are even referenced in the case, but the court has ignored it.

”An “informed source," according to Iran International, said the case is filled with baseless accusations including many mentions of “producing tools for criminal activity” which refers to carrying a nail clipper, a screwdriver and masks.

Iran’s judiciary charged the brothers with 20 different crimes including “attending illegal gatherings, assembly and conspiracy to commit crimes against national security, and insulting the supreme leader.”

Iran’s judiciary is notoriously opaque and fails to meet international standards for prosecutions and due process, according to human rights organizations.

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saddayfordemocracy · 3 years

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Pro-Trump protesters force US Capitol into lockdown as Congress meets to certify 2020 election results!

The chaotic situation came after Trump, who has refused to accept the results of the election, spoke to a large crowd in front of the White House. He angrily vowed to never concede to Biden and baselessly asserted that the election results were fraudulent.

Pro-Trump protesters entered the Capitol building and engaged with riot police as Congress held a joint session to count the Electoral College votes which would clear the path to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration later this month.

One person was shot amid the melee, according to The Associated Press and NBC News.

Sad Day For Democracy...

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saddayfordemocracy · 4 years

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“At first I thought I should just shut up and listen to black people about this issue.

But why would I do that? It’s not their problem, it’s mine.

People of color are being failed by the system. The white system. Like a broken pipe flooding the apartment of the people living downstairs. The faulty system is making their life a misery, but it’s not their job to fix it. They can’t – no one will let them in the apartment upstairs.

This is a white problem. And if white people don’t fix it, someone will have to come upstairs and kick in the door.”

– Banksy

#art #graffiti #banksy #ripgeorgefloyd #georgefloyd #murder #black lives matter #flag #america #in memoriam #saddayfordemocracy #american flag #racism #humanrights #humanity #equal rights #streetart

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saddayfordemocracy · 3 years

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Saudi Arabia: Charged with incitement to change Saudi regime and serve foreign agenda, Women’s rights activist Loujain Al Hathloul sentenced to 5 years and 8 months in prison

The Riyadh Saudi Criminal Court on Monday sentenced Loujain Al Hathloul to five years and eight months in prison for incitement to change the Kingdom’s ruling dictatorship’s regime, local media reported.

The 31-year-old women’s rights activist was arrested in May 2017 on charges of incitement to change the ruling regime and cooperating with individuals and entities involved in terrorist crimes to serve a foreign agenda.

The court suspended two years and 10 months of her sentence. Al Hathloul can challenge the ruling within 30 days.

She was arrested with other women’s activists under anti-terror crime law.

Loujain Al Hathloul is charged with recruiting some persons in charge of sensitive government positions with the aim to destabilise the kingdom and breach its social structure.

In 2014, Loujain Al Hathloul was also arrested for her attempt to drive from the UAE to Saudi Arabia.

Her trial started in March 2019 one month before the kingdom abolished its ban on women’s rights to drive.

Several human rights groups have repeatedly called for her release.

#saudiarabia #dictatorship #islamic dictatorship #human rights #women's rights #islam #al hathloul #loujain al-hathloul #social justice #saddayfordemocracy #political prisoners

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saddayfordemocracy · 4 years

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On August 10, Benoît Maria, a human rights defender who worked with the Ixil and Q'eqchi indigenous communities of Guatemala in defense of their rights and in the sustainable and community development of their agriculture, was assassinated.

Image Credit: @SaraCurruchich

#humanrights #benoit maria #rip #rip benoit maria #assassination #murder #ixil #q'eqchi #guatemala #sustainability #sara curruchich #saddayfordemocracy

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saddayfordemocracy · 3 years

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Shithole’s Last Act!

Shithole (Aka tRUMP) has worn his vileness like a snakeskin tuxedo ever since he first stepped onto the public stage, where, in 1980, he demolished the gracious Art Deco Bonwit Teller building on Fifth Avenue to make way for his clichéd black glass Trump Tower, and in the process instructed his illegal immigrant workers to jackhammer the decorative friezes he had promised to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

His last act on the public stage, four decades later, has left the Capitol smashed, looted, and smeared with blood and feces.

Kate Kretz, “Lie Hole IV” (2017),

Colored pencil on black Rives, BFK paper, 10 x 8 inches, from the “Lie Hole” series (image courtesy the artist). / Hyperallergic

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saddayfordemocracy · 4 years

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Abdel Wahab Yousif (aka Latinos)

A young Sudanese poet’s prediction of his fate came true last week when he drowned in the Mediterranean.

Abdel Wahab Yousif, better known as Latinos, died when a rubber boat packed with African immigrants sank into the sea shortly after setting off from Libya on its way to Europe.

Latinos was well-known among the young generation of poetry fans in Sudan. The cocktail of hardships he had endured in his short life colored his verse with thick shades of melancholy:

I’ll run away from a homeland scourging my back with lashes day and night;

From a woman who doesn’t know how to feed my soul from her body’s nectar.

I’ll run from everything,

nonchalantly embrace demise.

Born to a poor family in Manwashi, Southern Darfur, Latinos managed against the odds to shove his way into the University of Khartoum. But even the bachelor’s degree he obtained from the Faculty of Economics failed to open up any window of hope. And, like scores of Darfurian youth, his last resort was Libya, a gateway through which successive waves of Africans continue to brave all perils in the hope of getting safely to European shores.

Latinos’ tragic departure last week sent shock waves among his friends and poetry fans in Sudan. Adding to the tragedy was the realization that the way he died was a perfect demonstration of a scenario that was depicted in his recent verse.

You’ll die at sea.

Your head rocked by the roaring waves,

your body swaying in the water,

like a perforated boat.

In the prime of youth you’ll go,

shy of your 30th birthday.

Departing early is not a bad idea;

but it surely is if you die alone

with no woman calling you to her embrace:

“Let me hold you to my breast,

I have plenty of room.

Let me wash the dirt of misery off your soul.”

The poet hit the zenith of despair in the last poem he published shortly before his death:

You are destined to go;

Today, tomorrow,

or the day after.

No one can halt the heavy wheel of destruction

running over life’s body.

It’s all in vain

no last-minute savior will come

and rescue the world’s body.

It’s all in vain

no flash of light,

to scare away the darkness.

Everything is dying:

Time. Language.

Screams. Dreams.

Songs. Love. Music.

All in vain.

Everything is gone,

except a violent vacuum

dead bodies wrapped in melancholic silence

and a heavy downpour of destruction.

The sad departure of this young man underscores the evolving tragedy of the people of Darfur. Although the Sudanese people managed to uproot al-Bashir’s 30-year dictatorship in December 2018, the people of Darfur are still enduring ceaseless spates of violence while peace talks between the transitional government and the rebel forces hit one stumbling block after the other. Meanwhile, more and more desperate youth seem intent on taking this perilous course, sacrificing their lives in the hope of a better future.

By Adil Babikir

Abdel Wahab Yousif

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saddayfordemocracy · 5 years

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Tiananmen Square 1989-2019

The west is complicit in the 30-year cover-up of Tiananmen

Beijing’s continued whitewashing cannot expunge our collective memory of the killings of 4 June 1989

The events of 4 June 1989, when the Chinese government deployed the full might of its military to purge Tiananmen Square of students who’d been peacefully protesting there, have become known in China as the “June Fourth Incident”.

Thirty years on, it is still thought of as an “incident”, a one-off event. In fact, it was part of a political movement in which every major Chinese city participated.

To this day, a complete definition of 4 June 1989 as a historical event has not been realized, because defining a historical event requires not only the full facts but also multiple perspectives. And in its aftermath, the Chinese government intensified its oversight of free expression in China, deploying various tactics to suppress, arrest, detain and imprison anyone who spoke about “June Fourth”.

It remains the most taboo and politically sensitive topic in China, much like the questions of Tibet and Xinjiang for the Chinese Communist party (CCP) and its machine of propaganda and censorship. Yet the facts and significance of “June Fourth” are not discussed in China.

The exact events, the persons responsible for issuing directives, the methods of execution, the number of people killed and detained, and the killers responsible for the cumulative political decisions remain unclear.

The memory of the past is an individual’s property. To deny it is to obliterate humanity.

What now, 30 years on, is its significance? The need to examine this question is vital, rational and urgent. If the CCP relied on violent revolution to overthrow the previous regime and establish its legitimacy, then “June Fourth” once again overthrew the legitimacy of the ruling party. The Communist party is a regime that used violence to supplant dialogue, directing its army and tanks against unarmed citizens to maintain its existence. Despite attempts to cover up, whitewash and misinterpret “June Fourth” over the past 30 years, from the moment the first bullet was fired that day the regime’s legitimacy was compromised. Nothing can change that.

On 4 June, CNN’s 24-hour live broadcast conveyed the event and its developments to any audience that could receive its signal. I watched from New York. Viewers in New York probably witnessed a more comprehensive version of the incident than my family in Beijing. In New York, I organised and participated in many demonstrations of solidarity with the students in Tiananmen Square, protested before the Chinese consulate, and took part in a hunger strike at the United Nations.Why does a political power attempt to suppress reality? I have always wondered about totalitarian regimes’ fear of facts. As a political dissident, I insist on seeking the truth and resist attempts to change my memory of events. Because facts constitute the foundation of my understanding of the world. Upholding reality is a precondition for the mind to function. Otherwise, the world before us is disordered and chaotic; a world gone mad.

Why do autocratic and totalitarian regimes, in fact most forms of power, fear facts? The only reason is because they have built their power on unjust foundations. Once facts are established, justice will be restored. And this is the greatest fear of powerful regimes. This is true not only of China, North Korea, or most non-democratic societies, but also some societies with democratic frameworks.

When I consider the experience of whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning or Julian Assange, they remind me of my time living in a totalitarian society that suppresses and whitewashes fact, creates no-go zones and fears the light of public disclosure. Even if the lives of an entire generation are wiped out, no prisons and no amount of lies or censorship can expunge or conceal the facts. This is why memory – individual and collective – is such an important part of civilisation. To remove the memory of the past is to rob what is left of an individual, because our past is all we have. Without it, there is no such thing as a civilised society or nation. Any attempt to destroy, remove or distort memory is the act of an illegitimate power.

China is a society without citizens. It is dominated by the CCP. And even after 70 years in power the government still does not trust its people: 1.4 billion have never in those 70 years had the opportunity to vote for their rulers. As a result, there is no freedom of speech and information. The memory of the past is an individual’s property. Its details are the veins carrying blood in the body, giving life to truth. To deny them is to obliterate humanity. Happiness, sorrow, wealth or poverty is all we possess. Once that is taken away, we simply have no future: when there is no past, the word “future” loses its meaning.

When we talk of the past and of fact, it is essential to emphasis the importance of freedom of speech. When facts are changed, freedom of speech does not exist and has no meaning because this freedom cannot exist without an individual’s understanding, vision, emotion and interpretation. What we call social justice could never exist without open discussion in the public sphere because fairness and justice are necessary for public welfare and to maintain a harmonious society. Whenever social justice is missing, there will be crisis and tragedy. This is why we cleave strongly to fact and refuse to forget. This is how we give definition to an individual’s mind, and why we must protect the dignity of being.

What occurred on 4 June is not merely a Chinese issue. It is not simply an event that happened 30 years ago. Injustice is timeless. It haunts us and affects our state of mind until the day justice is served.

At the same time, the tolerance of injustice and distorted information is an act of encouragement and complicity. Such tolerance allows authoritarian regimes to transgress any red lines. This is exactly what happened after “June Fourth”, when the west bought into the excuse that Chinese society would become more democratic after it became richer. China has become wealthier and more powerful on the world stage, but it has never matured into pluralism or democracy.

It continues to reject fundamental values of openness, social justice, fair competition and freedom. We will all pay the price for this failure.

Ai Weiwei

#tiananmen #tiananmen square #ai weiwei #freedom #saddayfordemocracy #democracy now #china #dictatorship #Injustice #human rights #humanity #social justice #purge #ccp #free press #Press Freedom #massacre #memory

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