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THIS WEEK on CHANGE.ORG Save the SerengetiPlus: Deporting Vietnam Vets • Musicians Boycotting Tobacco • North Carolina’s “Legal Rape” • Children Building Stadiums • “Bumfights” Star Redeemed There’s a place in the world where global issues like climate change, poverty, threatened indigenous cultures and mass species extinction converge. It’s one of the most recognizable wild places on earth, and it’s in danger of becoming roadkill. That place is the Serengeti, a World Heritage Site and home to the largest land migration of wildlife in the world. The people of Tanzania have protected the Serengeti for the role it plays in their culture since the birth of their country. Now their government plans to sever it with a 31-mile, two-lane highway. For those of us who are used to the six-lane highways stretching thousands of miles across the U.S., one little road might not seem like a big deal. However, this project has been mapped out right across the migration path of over a million wildebeest and other animals. Wildebeest numbers will plummet if they can’t reach the Mara River in Kenya, impacting the food chain from the top down. Lions and other predators would face a food shortage. Without wildebeest grazing to maintain the grasslands, leading biologists warn that grass fires could destroy the region and turn it into a source of carbon emissions. Despite the potential for ecological disaster, there has been scant media attention about the planned road. One of the few bright spots is the group Save the Serengeti, which is using Change.org to mobilize thousands of people within Tanzania and across the world to stop the road’s construction. Join the call for the world community to help Tanzania find a better transportation solution than to build a road directly through one of the world’s natural treasures. Because we won’t have a second chance. For more news and action from the world of change this week, see the summaries from your favorite causes below: |
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Deporting Vietnam Vets in IMMIGRANT RIGHTS Valente Valenzuela has lived in the U.S. legally since childhood and received a Bronze Star for bravery in the Vietnam War. His brother, Manuel, also served honorably. Now, under zero tolerance immigration law, the decorated veterans face deportation for crimes from years ago, crimes that most likely resulted from war-related post traumatic stress disorder. Not only will 62-year-old Valente be sent back to a country he left over half a century ago, he’ll lose all veterans benefits and the ability to continue attending PTSD counseling. America cannot so callously turn its back on immigrant veterans who sacrificed for the red, white, and blue. Read more » |
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Musicians Boycotting Tobacco in HEALTH The main sponsor of Indonesia’s largest music event, the Java Rockin’land Festival, is one of the country’s leading tobacco companies. The pressure is on for the headlining acts, including The Smashing Pumpkins and Wolfmother, to follow in the footsteps of Alicia Keys and Kelly Clarkson and refuse to continue their Indonesian tours unless tobacco sponsorship ends. But will they? Read more » |
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North Carolina’s “Legal Rape” in WOMEN’S RIGHTS Welcome to North Carolina, where rape is legal! If you consensually begin having sex in the great state of North Carolina, want to stop, and your partner forcibly restrains you to continue having intercourse, even causing injury, well, too bad. Women’s Rights blogger Alex DiBranco reports that due to a 1979 state Supreme Court decision, a woman gives up all control of her body upon penetration and cannot withdraw consent. Recently, a young woman found this out the hard way when her rape case was dropped. Read more » |
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Children Building Stadiums in END HUMAN TRAFFICKING In India, child labor is not uncommon. But even in India, child advocates were horrified to learn construction managers have been bribing poor parents to bring their children to dangerous work sites to build stadiums for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. The result? Children as young as three have been seen working in dangerous piles of rubble on a construction project that has already killed at least 45 people, including a two-year-old girl. It’s time to tell the Commonwealth Games Federation that child labor is not sporting. Read more » |
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“Bumfights” Star Redeemed in END HOMELESSNESS One of the men featured in the infamous “Bumfights” videos of the early 2000s is clean and sober and filled with regret. Rufus Hannah, a 50-something homeless man, published a memoir this month. He says he can’t forget the day in 2001 that a 17-year-old cameraman paid him in alcohol to beat his friend until the man had a broken ankle and was carried off in an ambulance. How could he? He has “Bum Fight” tattooed across his knuckles. His redemption story is not just uplifting, writes End Homelessness blogger Josie Raymond. At a time when violence against the homeless is increasing, it’s also vital. Read more » |
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| Have a great week. And remember: voter registration deadlines occur in many states at the end of the week – so make sure you’re registered today.
– The Change.org Team |
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