~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Floating coffins


 Avaaz's profile photo
Dear friends,The most persecuted peoples on our earth are right now taking to ‘floating coffins’ to flee violence and seek sanctuary for their families. But instead of responding with humanity, our governments are closing their doors, letting them starve and drown at sea.

The Mediterranean and Andaman Seas are becoming graveyards.

Burma is driving the Rohingya out, and thousands of families are drifting helplessly at sea, forced to drink their own urine because Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia had turned them away. Syrians and Africans risk drowning every week off the coast of Southern Europe, braving the terrifying crossing as their last hope to escape torture, hunger, and traffickers.

We are facing the biggest refugees crisis since World War II, but so far governments have let them die in a climate of rising xenophobia. Now it has reached a crisis, and our community has a unique chance to jam the culture of fear with a wave of compassion.

If we each chip in a small amount now, we’ll help fund rescue operations at sea; build an Avaaz refugee team to assist those missions and resettlement, and create effective lobby cells to get leaders to open up borders; and launch ads to counter the racism.

Together we can help rescue refugees, and rescue our shared humanity.

Unless we act fast, 2015 could become the year of the boat people!

Pledge to urgently launch the Avaaz refugee campaign — Avaaz will only process your donations if we raise enough to start saving lives:

To pledge another amount, click here.
Avaazers have already kick-started this campaign in the UK. The government has only allowed in 143 Syrians out of the 4 million refugees! In response, over 1,000 Avaazers have joined forces to challenge this disgraceful policy by offering to help refugees resettle, and calling on their local councils to give homes to 50 Syrian refugees each. Already 4 councils have agreed and with our pressure, we hope many more will too.

But this isn’t just a UK and Syria problem. It is a crisis of humanity when our planet’s most vulnerable are treated as criminals and left to die. Here’s a five point plan of the most critical actions Avaaz could take if we raise enough together:

  1. Support organisations that are bravely rescuing the refugees at sea.
  2. Launch Flotillas for Humanity with more private boats to assist rescue operations.
  3. Build an Avaaz refugee team to lobby governments, the EU and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to push for effective search and rescue operations, and increased numbers of refugee places.
  4. Support local groups in Europe and South East Asia to provide assistance to refugees arriving in reception centres, and into communities.
  5. Run hard hitting billboards and newspaper ads to counter the culture of xenophobia.

30 thousand refugees could drown in the Mediterranean this year. These families are fleeing terror and misery, and their choice to board a boat may be the only choice they have. Let’s join forces to stop these tragedies at sea. Pledge now:
Our community is one of the only in the world with millions of citizens in both the countries from which these families are fleeing and the countries they are seeking help. We have already funded extraordinary work to tackle Ebola and humanitarian work in Nepal. Now let’s take on this emergency and catalyse change with acts of inspired love and inspired bravery.

With hope and determination,

Alice, Ben, Oli, Diego, Mais, Emily, Dalia, Ricken and the Avaaz team

SOURCES:

Myanmar Muslim migrants abandoned at sea have been ‘drinking their own urine’ to survive  (The Independent UK)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/myanmar-muslim-migrants-abandoned-at-sea-drinking-their-own-urine-to-survive-after-thailand-refuses-boat-entry-10249854.html

Syria Refugee Regional Response (UNHCR)
http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php

Mediterranean migrants: Details emerge of deadly capsize (BBC)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32399433

Lost at sea, unwanted: The plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya ‘boat people’ (CNN)
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/19/asia/rohingya-refugee-ships-explainer/

Stranded Rohingya migrants say: ‘We’re dying on board’ (Al Jazeera)
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/05/stranded-rohingya-migrants-dying-board-150517130244345.html

~ FDA/USDA ~~ Alerts & Safety, ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

EdNet: The National Food Safety Educator’s Network


FoodSafety.gov

EdNet, the National Food Safety Educator’s Network, is a monthly, multi-agency electronic news journal from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). EdNet provides educators, consumer advocates, government officials, and industry representatives with a quick monthly summary of news about food safety programs and activities.

In this issue:

Advisories, Alerts, and Warnings

Resources for Educators

Industry

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Amazon … a Petition by Caroline Charles


Petitioning Amazon

Amazon – Stop Selling RooshV (Daryush Valizadeh) Rape Books
Petition by Caroline Charles
London, United Kingdom
87,555
Supporters

Warning: This petition contains details about sexual assault.

When I first read about Roosh V (real name Daryush Valizadeh), an American citizen and professional “pick up artist,” I became physically sick. His views on rape, women, and “dating” are that repugnant. His books, known as the “Bang” series, are thinly veiled guides to getting away with rape — a crime which he has repeatedly said should be made legal.

And yet Amazon.com, the largest online bookseller, currently stocks all of his books. They’re making money from a man telling other men how to rape women. So is he.

In one of the books sold on Amazon, “Bang Iceland,” he openly confessed to raping a woman:

“While walking to my place, I realized how drunk she was. In America, having sex with her would have been rape, since she legally couldn’t give her consent. It didn’t help matters that I was sober, but I can’t say I cared or even hesitated. I won’t rationalize my actions, but having sex is what I do.”

No, committing rape is what he does.

Valizadeh claims protest against him only ‘makes him stronger’. So let’s hit him where it hurts — financially. Help petition Amazon to remove his works from their their stock; sign and share.

To those who’ll cry ‘censorship’ – back off. He’s entitled to write and think and say what he likes. He’s not, however, protected from the backlash against his output, or removal of platform. This isn’t about banning books, it’s about ensuring he, and Amazon, can’t profit from rape.

I’m not going to link his site here; it’s too awful.  If you want to read up, I am warning you; it’s grim. Help us shut him down. Together we stopped a similar “pick up artist” named Julien Blanc from getting a visa to enter the UK — now let’s see if we can make Amazon hear us as well.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Fix Overtime For Latinos


By

The Obama Administration’s Proposed Overtime Rules Would Benefit Millions Of Latino Workers

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: the middle class could use a raise. The Obama administration’s proposed new rule to raise the overtime threshold would do just that. Raising the overtime salary threshold is like raising the minimum wage for the middle class. And like raising the minimum wage, the Latino community would see disproportionately large benefits from the new overtime rule.

Here are a few numbers showing the impact the new overtime rules would have on Latino workers:

  • 34.4 percent: the percent of all salaried Latino workers—2.1 million total—who would directly benefit from the new rule.
  • $50,070: the new annual salary threshold to guarantee workers overtime pay under the proposed rule, up from the current threshold of $23,660.
  • 15.5 percent: the percent of all salaried workers who would benefit from the new rule who are Latino. For comparison, Latinos make up only 11.6 percent of the salaried workforce but 15.5 percent of all workers who would benefit from the proposed rule.
  • 48 percent: the percent of all Latino women workers who are currently exempt from overtime pay who would gain coverage under the new threshold.

Strengthening overtime rules will ensure that Latino workers are fairly paid for all the hours that they work. Reforming overtime protections is a crucial step in increasing economic security for Latino workers, but it won’t happen on its own. That’s why we need your help. We need to let the Department of Labor know that support for the rule is strong. If you haven’t already, go to FixOvertime.org or MisHorasExtras.org to submit a comment.

BOTTOM LINE: Latino workers make up a disproportionately large percentage of all workers who would benefit from the new overtime rules, but ensuring that a hard day’s work earns a fair day’s pay is good for all workers. More money in the pocket of workers means more money put back into the whole economy.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

compare contrast check … 2nd hand & consignments


Shirts Hanging on Clothes Rack

I will be keeping all names confidential …

I went on a thrift buy and to be quite honest – to scope out what other small business owners of “thrift” are selling etc. I set out to compare, contrast and what I found was surprising, a bit disappointing. I live in an area that could cross the line of middle toward upper middle class.

I was not sure what price point I would be facing. I was looking forward to going to my favorite 2nd hands, but I only went to four shops as one of the most popular went out of business right around the 2008 economic crisis and the other; the biggest and the oldest in my area decided they were done with the whole 2nd hand business

I parked my car ready to be amazed but was overcome by the smell and ok, yes some 2nd hand/consignments stores may mean accepting some cleaning odors and this shop has great vintage items like women’s hats dated back to the 1920’s. They had some great looking vintage luggage, but then they decided to dedicate a whole section maybe half of the store to very new trendy items that were very ethnic and expensive. I found most of my own comparable 2nd Act/consignment items that were competitive or in slightly better shape and of course as a vintage/consignment shop, they offered a wide range from a house dress look some of our moms probably wore to some very beautiful vintage jewelry. I spotted some sheet music but that was not on the list. I walked a few blocks down to what used to be a favourite 2nd hand/consignment shop for designer clothes because of the abundance of smaller sized clothing. It was packed though unlike the first shop, it was in transition with a tag sale making room for recent donations. Good golly the smell!

looked at my phone and had to get going, the walk down to a very small store was wonderful as the weather was just as fabulous as the metro parking space … free. I admit I drive past this store all the time but the hours are not usually conducive as they have limited weekday hours.  It was open, thank goodness though somewhat dark as most of the clothes are designers in black, gray and white. I used to love this store and since most people wear black white and gray etc. the biggest issue for me was size not that the clothes weren’t great but the sizing just did not seem correct and all sales were final which makes sense, sometimes the risk works out, but … I took a pass.

It was a great morning to go hunting for deals and great surprises and while I came home without a 2nd hand/consignment item. I did find out that one of my favourite farmers market moved across the street.

It was not a failed trip by any means.

So, after a couple of hours of what turned out to be an eye opening experience … safe to say everything at http://www.beaseedforchange.org offers is clean, fresh fab finds, not tried on by hundreds of people and we are not against negotiating our prices.

Sometimes bigger is not always better and more inventory isn’t either unless of course it‘s about viable repeats, furniture, tiles and kitchen stuff …

Stay tuned

Be a Seed for Change

Buying from Be a Seed for Change makes you a part of our movement to Recycle Reuse Reclaim Reduce – The amount of materials going into Landfill and your Eco-Footprint

politics,pollution,petitions,pop culture & purses