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Arab Tech Emerging — Enabling the Next Generation of Innovators Featuring global business development experts from When: Thursday, February 2nd / Reception 6pm — 6:30pm, Program 6:30pm — 8pm Who should attend the event?
Space is limited. You may purchase tickets here Official invitation and additional details to follow Contact Caroline Silver for more information |
Happy New Year!! It’s going to be a big one.
Democracy is on the march across the world, and our community is at the heart of the struggle, but to win we’re going to need to choose our course wisely. Click below to take the annual Avaaz all-member poll, and let’s decide together where to focus our energies in 2012.
The poll takes a few minutes to complete, but the more of us take it, the wiser our course will be:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/january_poll_2012/?vl
And if you don’t have time to take the poll right now, we can all see the results as they come in here:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/january_poll_2012_people_power/?bv11891
Last year we ran hundreds of campaigns and played a key role in dozens of victories, including:
• Putting a wrench in Media-Mogul Rupert Murdoch’s march to world domination
• Breaking the Syria media blackout and supporting courageous democracy movements across the Middle East
• Taking on Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi at every turn until his corrupt regime fell
• Blocking the Gay Death Penalty Bill in Uganda
• Stopping a mega highway that sliced right through indigenous protected lands in Bolivia
• Building a massive anti corruption movement in India that has repeatedly forced the government to back down
• Building a global movement for Palestinian independence
• Saving the Kyoto Protocol and UN climate process from polluting powers determined to wreck it
..and much, much more.
With the world undergoing profound change, and our community twice the size it was last January, imagine what this year’s list could look like. The challenges may be coming thick and fast, but when we stick together, we can transform them into opportunities to build the world we all dream of. Here’s to building dreams in 2012.
With hope,
Ricken, Alice, Benjamin, Diego, Emma, and the whole Avaaz team
For the past decade, Congress has had no problem spending over $120 billion to rebuild schools, roads, bridges and other essential infrastructure in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, America‘s infrastructure is crumbling and millions of people are out of work. Contact your member of Congress and tell them it’s time to rebuild America.
It just takes a second using our form: http://www2.americanprogress.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=163
All the Republican leaders in Congress voted to approve massive amounts of funding to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan without a penny in offsets. But now they are opposing President Obama’s proposal to rebuild America even though it’s fully paid for.
Contact your member today and demand we invest at least as much in our own communities as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan. And let us know what you hear back from your representatives.
Best,
Judd
Judd Legum
judd@thinkprogress.org
202-682-1611
Muntaha’s sixteen year old son was abducted from a peaceful democracy protest by Syrian security forces. She has spent the last eight weeks scouring the country for her child — braving warnings from the Syrian regime that her other son would also be “disappeared” if she continued with her search. Our urgent action now can help her son and the thousands of other disappeared Syrians.
Since March, almost 3000 people have been taken by regime forces and disappeared into secret jails. The international community has spoken out, but done little to stop this attack — but India, Brazil and South Africa have close ties to Syria and could push for an international human rights delegation to find the missing and reunite families with their loved ones.
Our massive global membership can force key leaders to act now, pressuring Syria to allow an international delegation to investigate the thousands of disappeared. Sign the petition — it is being delivered by high profile media outlets around the world including the Times of India, the Guardian, CNN, and Der Spiegel:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/syrias_disappeared/?vl
India, Brazil and South Africa dragged their heels on a Security Council resolution that would have allowed for strong international action on Syria. Still, they remain committed to democracy and peace and have called for an end to the brutality of Assad’s regime. We can hold them to account for their actions and demand they use their close Syrian ties to protect the democracy activists. An international human rights delegation could effectively reunite Syrian families and end the terror of disappearances for good.
The international media has already stepped in to help with our call. Today, major newspapers are launching massive interactive web tools that tell the stories of disappeared people like Muntaha’s son, explain the political crisis in Syria and link to our petition for urgent action. These newspapers not only reach readers around the globe, but also reach opinion makers, world leaders and decision makers directly. Our campaign makes this all possible!
When democracy protests rocked the Arab world, Avaaz sprung into action and, with thousands of donations from around the world, we broke a media blackout in the Middle East — supporting protesters across Syria and Yemen. Since then, our network of citizen journalists has generated almost 20% of all TV coverage out of Syria and our work with the emerging democracy movements has helped build a real alternative to the dictators that refuse to step down. But brutal regimes are still clinging to power and the courageous activists need our help now. Sign the petition to find Syria’s disappeared and forward to everyone:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/syrias_disappeared/?vl
Egypt and Tunisia showed that people power can win against oppression. Our global community has supported these democracy revolutions, helped broadcast the stories of the brave activists and the violence against them, and forced our governments to action. Now if we act together we can help find Yazan and the thousands of other stolen Syrians and see the dawn of a peaceful, democratic nation in Syria.
With hope and determination,
Stephanie, Sam, Wissam, Maria Paz, Rewan, Benjamin, Pascal and the whole Avaaz team
More information:
Syrian protesters seized at rate of one every hour, say activists (Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/28/syria-protesters-disappeared-avaaz
International activism comes to the rescue to find missing Syrians (Al Arabiya)
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/07/28/159687.html
Almost 3,000 Syrians listed as ‘disappeared’ (Financial Times)
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/bb3055fc-b872-11e0-b62b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1TO2QmeIX
Protesters killed amid huge Syria protests (Al Jazeera)
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/07/2011722171756722811.html
Videos Appear to Show Violence in Syria (New York Times)
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/videos-appear-to-show-violence-in-syria/?scp=4&sq=syria&st=cse
Syria protests to intensify during Ramadan-activists (AlertNet)
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/syria-protests-to-intensify-during-ramadan-activists
In Syria-Qatar rift, a ‘shrewdly calculated divorce’ (France24)
http://www.france24.com/en/20110720-syria-qatar-rift-shrewdly-calculated-divorce-jazeera-assad
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