OH LOOK SOME ACTIVE COLLECTIVE BLOGGING

um. so you may or may not have seen john mayer's unfortunate comments in an interview with playboy:

(not bolded by me or mayer)

MAYER: Someone asked me the other day, “What does it feel like now to have a hood pass?” And by the way, it’s sort of a contradiction in terms, because if you really had a hood pass, you could call it a nigger pass. Why are you pulling a punch and calling it a hood pass if you really have a hood pass? But I said, “I can’t really have a hood pass. I’ve never walked into a restaurant, asked for a table and been told, ‘We’re full.’"
PLAYBOY: It is true; a lot of rappers love you. You recorded with Common and Kanye West, played live with Jay-Z.
MAYER: What is being black? It’s making the most of your life, not taking a single moment for granted. Taking something that’s seen as a struggle and making it work for you, or you’ll die inside. Not to say that my struggle is like the collective struggle of black America. But maybe my struggle is similar to one black dude’s.
PLAYBOY: Do black women throw themselves at you?
MAYER: I don’t think I open myself to it. My dick is sort of like a white supremacist. I’ve got a Benetton heart and a fuckin’ David Duke cock. I’m going to start dating separately from my dick.
PLAYBOY: Let’s put some names out there. Let’s get specific.
MAYER: I always thought Holly Robinson Peete was gorgeous. Every white dude loved Hilary from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. And Kerry Washington. She’s superhot, and she’s also white-girl crazy. Kerry Washington would break your heart like a white girl. Just all of a sudden she’d be like, “Yeah, I sucked his dick. Whatever.” And you’d be like, “What? We weren’t talking about that.” That’s what “Heartbreak Warfare” is all about, when a girl uses jealousy as a tactic.

...

MAYER: Here’s what I really want to do at 32: fuck a girl and then, as she’s sleeping in bed, make breakfast for her. So she’s like, “What? You gave me five vaginal orgasms last night, and you’re making me a spinach omelet? You are the shit!” So she says, “I love this guy.” I say, “I love this girl loving me.” And then we have a problem. Because that entails instant relationship. I’m already playing house. And when I lose interest she’s going to say, “Why would you do that if you didn’t want to stick with me?”
PLAYBOY: Why do you do it?
MAYER: Because I want to show her I’m not like every other guy. Because I hate other men. When I’m fucking you, I’m trying to fuck every man who’s ever fucked you, but in his ass, so you’ll say “No one’s ever done that to me in bed.”


he has since retracted them, on twitter i think, but um, this clearly raises some issues. i don't know. i don't think i need to really explain anything,you know, just keeping you aware that john mayer is a c*nt. second, um, err, um. have some links instead.

racialicious
tvnz

you don't need anymore, really. so basically john mayer's casual racism is creating a shitstorm in the media, with everyone talking about what a c*nt he is, and i didn't really think anything of it beyond that till i saw the video below.



while what mayer said was borderline horrific, and at best abusive and sexist and racist, and that he marginalised and attacked what is probably a significant section of his fan (read: consumer) base (actually mayer managed to tick almost every box, so lets put it at, like, 98% of his fans and similar persons). but in the end, mayer seems almost like too easy a target. nobody in their right mind would take what he said seriously, consider it to be a well thought out, logically reasoned opinion. it instead simply serves as a really great headline, that tvnz article even spending a good half promoting mayer himself. and if you'll refer to the video above, this is not the sort of dialogue we need. while, yes, mayer got called out for what he said, which is, y'know, a good thing, the media storm isn't addressing the issues around racism that desperately need changing (institutional racism). AND still the media comes out smelling like roses, even though, especially in the states, mainstream media participation in the dialogue on race is crucial, and media companies are simply failing to live up to that expectation. and, really, all mayer ended up getting was some sort of slap on the wrist anyway. and while disgusting comments like mayer's we should reasonably expect to be reported, they are, really, the smallest blip in the grand scheme of things - john mayer is only one, lone, ridiculous souding man, after all. the greater disservice, really, is the failure to comment on what is, really, a much larger issue than any words out of a single persons mouth could be.


edit: eek. i know i write about problems in the states a lot but i would just like to point out that we are a global melting pot, and that what affects people in other countries affects us too. also new zealand is most certainly not without its own share of similar problems - just look at hone harawira, although i do, as a rule, tend to believe that our media had slightly more scruples than the states. then again, half our papers are owned by rupert murdoch, so i don't know..

I HAVE SOME THOUGHS AND THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE TO PUT THEM MAYBE WE SHOULD REVIVE THE ACTIVE COLLECTIVE BLOG

Okay. i have some thoughts to share, even if the AC blog is, for all intents and purposes, as dead as Britney Spears' acting career (yes?) I, for one, would be brought immeasurable joy by seeing a new active collective blog post, even if I only happened to come across it months later. So you better be partying down right now.

Anyway. My topic. What I'm writing about? um. first, a confession. Sometimes, when we used to discuss issues in the AC, I simply didn't care; i enjoyed taking sides and winning arguments and showing everyone i had clever, informed opinions, but for the most part, i was rarely riled up enough (and far too lazy) to even consider doing something about it. I doubt this is very surprising to you, yet, i think this is one of the most pervasive issues within the (now defunct? oh no, i don't know if I can still talk about the AC as a current, functioning body or whether this should be in past tense>? say it isn't so!) active collective, and, indeed, with how we go about (went about!!??!!) our primary function - to raise awareness and concern for all sorts of political, economic and social issues globally. We (though i would like to exclude a few notable people from this generalisation - you know who you are- and am in no way bagging the active collective) quite simply didn't always care enough about the people and issues we were talking about, and as a result, found that our effectiveness was inhibited.

Right now, you might not be agreeing with me (Heck, I don't even know if i;m agreeing with me - i counted on figuring this out as i went along), but bear with me, please. i think i have a point to make that you may agree with. So so far we have established that I don't care, some of you might not care, and I'm willing to bet a whole lot more people out in the wider world do not care. Why? Now this isn;t amazing and it isn;t revolutionary and this too will not suprise you, btu the point of this post is too point out, to me at least, the most obvious fundamental flaw int he way we (I) approach the world. We (I) do not care because I have zero understanding, zero empathy, zero knowledge fo people outside of my situation. I'm not saying that we all have to walk a google miles in someone elses shoes; indeed, the only shoes you can walk in without squashing your toes and eventually falling over in a ridiculously comic way are your own. What I'm saying is that if we have to find a way to care so that we can do something, and if the way you care about someone is you get to know them, then we all need to do a heck of a lot more getting to know people in slippers and Geta* and those without shoes at all, as opposed to just the worlds of people in roman sandals and skate shoes. We need to know about these people to care about them - I for instance, would be much more concerned about the petrol station next to lily's house blowing up (actually in hindsight i think i would have a really proper freakout concern for this, how far do petrol station explosions reach? enough that if lily's family was at home they would be hurt? lily, i think it's just safer for you to never return home until that home is not situated, like, right next to an inflammable service station of death), or even the petrol station near, say, chris nelson's house, someone i only really tangentially know, than the numerous explosions going on with the express intent to hurt many people all over the world every day. As horrible as this is(and hopefully some other people to decrease how much of a bad perosn I am) because I don't have any idea who those people are, I feel close to zero responsibility to care, which is not right at all because we are a global, connected community - as john donne said, no man (or woman) is an island.

(*oh this has led me on a world of shoe adventure. did you know, for instance that the Patten was this like, shoe add-on in the middle ages that was like, a kind of stilt/mud version of the snowshoe? the more you know...)

But I;ve been talking about knowledge and for most of you, you have knowledge. you support fair trade because otherwise people get screwed over and you know, at least, that lots and lots of things in the worlds suck, so then why is hasn't this blog post ended and why atre you still reaifng me (okay, i have to say that i have been going round in circles because I forgot my point and it is 3 int he morning shit 3 in the morning I am going to collect myself and sail on tjhrough). I think the problem is though, that we think we know heaps because we know more than say, some of our classmates, when the reality is, we don;t know nearly enough at all. and I'm not saying you have to know everything and everyone and care for everyone because that is impossible btu what i am trying to say is that we need to know more people and care about more people and communities and be more aware of what life is like in for people with all different kinds of shoes. we need to find ways of caring and in part this is what i realised things liek the world vision ads (which i have "opinions" on) are trying to do - make people feel smethign, and then connect them with someone else in some part of the world entirely remote from their understanding but the problem with world vision is that that is all it encourages people to do, effectively letting everybody well off enough to to assuage their guilt while expanding their base of knowledge of other people and situations and perspectives very little.

and that is what this is essentially about - perspective. how we view others and ourselves in relationship to those others and whether we view ourselves in relation to them at all. Chimamanda Adichie gave this talk



where she encouraged people to look beyond the "single story" that they were being told about, mainly people other than them. She argues, basically, that telling a single story, even for altruistic purposes, such as charity to help a family because they are poor, or of all of the sucky things happening all over Africa in an effort to get people to help and care reduces them to that single element, eliminating your ability to see them as another person with a multi-faceted life just like yours or mines and instead as only that story told of them. It is stereotyping in its worst form, and the reason it is in this blog post at all is because the single story effect affects (i hope i got those right) a persons ability to care. Repeatedly being shown images of malnourished, unidentifiable African children, instead of inducing concern and horror eventually dehumanises those being shown, and desensitises those viewing the images and everyone loses. you are nto going to care or help someone you have no empathy for and you can't gain empathy until you see people who need help as being more than that and oh god, i am forgetting my point, and to do that, we have to look beyond the single story.

I think that needs to be the mission of each and every one of us. Not every person ont he continent of Africa is poor, illiterate, dying of aids and starving; not everyone in mexico is desperately trying to get into the USA (and actually, i just saw a marcel theroux documentary? on americans who move to Mexico to gain subsidised healthcare) and not every teenager is glued to their phone and ignorant of world happenings. We have to care, we have to know, we have to know about more than one side of the story. When Elsie refused to support the guy who lost out to ahmadinejad in the iranian elections, while i believe she was partly just trying to be contrary, she was also acknowledging that it wasn't a black and white issue - there were people who liked ahmadinejad and people who weren't about to protest and while they were perhaps not the people who needed sticking up for, they were people too? um. this was going somewhere. and we are lucky that we live in an age where we can look at twitter feeds in an entirely different language from an entirely different part of the world because no person is ever an island except sometimes it seems we are doing our darnedest for never leave our own little archipelago oh god, what point have I made? we need to care, we need to knowledge to care, we need to understand that our current knowledge of people and situations is not even close to being adequate, because we are all being fed stories from one perspective, and most of all, we can do something about it. yes. read more, talk more, research some for an ac blog post debunking conventional perspectives on people and situations, and most of all, figure out how to utilise things like the internet to do these things, to gain a greater understanding of the world because right now in time, we are connected like never before. what we choose to do with this power, is up to you.

i hope that all made sense. i'[m not quite sure idf it does in my brain so you might need to prepare for some heavy editing of this post. um. dont judge me for a post that instead of being groundbreaking rested the obvious. i restated it because it needs to eb restated. too often we dont take the time to think beyond the representationwe are given oh god

Promiscuity and labels

Hello everyone! This blog has been a desolate wasteland of activity recently, so I thought it was time for some guest post action! Um, yeah, so I was in my politics tutorial today and we were discussing "sexuality and modernity". One of things that came up was why there existed a double standard in the labelling of men and women who had a number of sexual partners. I.e. a woman who has a lot of partners is labelled a "slut" or a "whore" or "loose" and yet no such negative terms for men exist (to the best of my knowledge), only positive labels like "player". I thought it was an interesting question (you may have thought about it before), and wanted to pose it to y'all.

My thoughts were that it has to do with the gender roles we have constructed for men and women - it is traditionally a man's role in society to initiate things, and a woman's to waylay his advances. It's a woman's place to say no. If a woman is not conforming to that role of protecting her body from advances, and instead has sex with abandon, society labels her a deviant and the men she sleeps with popular people or something. But yeah, I didn't get very far. Why do you think such a discrepancy in labels exists?

Um. Last year to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UDHR, a series of films were made to demonstrate the fundamental significance of human rights. This was one of them,.

Impasse from Reel 13 on Vimeo.

Coca Cola

How many of you drink it?
Will you still, when you learn that when Colombian trade unionists have been killed fighting for better working conditions at the Colombian coca-cola bottling factories? Many have also been tortured or kidnapped by Coke's paramilitary forces that they have contracted/directed to in order to suppress dissent (from 1990-2002, 8 men have been killed).
Coca Cola has also over exploited India's water source not only through usage but through their waste, polluting the waters (www.indiaresource.org). However, it's not only India, but Mexico and Ghana as well.
Coca Cola has also been pinned for benefitting from child labour in cane fields in El Salvador (as documented by Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org (but...i also found out in the US, Coca Cola has been using Corn Syrup instead since 1985, so....))
Coca Cola basically practices anti-worker and anti-environment conditions world-wide, generally in places more easy for exploitation of course (www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org & www.waronwant)
I don't think this is particularly nice of Coca-Cola and I am really glad i don't drink soft drinks.
They're not so summery after all.
And, why can't we have anti-commercial commercials as commercials?/Anti consumerism ads as ads?

I'm sure anyone knows by now (excepting the urban hermit), that New World now charges $0.5 per checkout plastic bag. So friendly and thoughtful of them! Mother Nature shall bless them and forget all the other plastic bags new world has on dispensible rolls to put 1 apple in or 3 carrot sticks, or, the countries of Glad-Wrapped half Cabbage and Pumpkin pieces. Yes but no, but- it's actually a great step forward but it's just made me wonder when did the bio-degradable status of their bags also get kicked out?

VETO THE VETO

As part of Model UN this year, I participated in a model security council.  And I learnt something.  THE SECURITY COUNCIL IS PURE EVIL.  

For those of you who don't know, there are two most important branches of the UN are the general assembly and the security council.  The general assembly what most people think of when they think of the UN - all the delegates from all the countries sitting in rows, Krushchev beating his shoes on the table.  An international parliament, if you will.  However, the GA actually has very little power.  It can only recommend actions for member states to take, not enforce them.  The security council, however,  welds a large amount of power, as, unlike the GA, its resolutions are binding for all member states.  The security council is the select branch of the United Nations responsible for dealing with "threats to world peace".   The security council does many things - it controls the UN peacekeeping forces, it can demand a ceasefire, it recommends candidates for the Secretary-general position, and it can authorize"enforcement measures"  such as economic sanctions, suspension from the general assembly and military action, on member states who do bad things.  (a better explanation of the powers and responsibilities of the security council)

The security council is made up of ten rotating members who are elected to the council by the GA in year terms.  Then there are the permanent five, five member states who have sat on the security council since 1945 and will continue into the forceable future.  They are: 

• THE UK
• FRANCE
• RUSSIA
• CHINA
• THE USA

These five members of the security council have veto power.   This means that if any one of them chooses to vote against a resolution, that resolution automatically fails.  During the Cold War, the presence of both Russia and the USA as permanent members of the security council meant that its effectiveness was greatly compromised - everything just got vetoed.   Since then, the rate of actual vetoes has been greatly reduced.  This is deceptive, however - there is still a great imbalance of power, and, as I quickly learnt at mun, it is still possible of the P5 to manipulate the Security Council without actually vetoing.  The mere threat of a veto is usually enough to force through any amendments desired, as faced by a decision between an altered resolution and no resolution at all, the other members will usually agree to make the amendments.   This is known as a "hidden veto" and can often mean that a resolution is passed only after its most worthwhile clauses have been removed.  

So why should these countries have such great power?  Well, simply, because they won World War II.   The UN was established in 1945, after a decision made by Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt during the Yalta conference.  As the victors of the war, Britain, the USA and the USSR were the greatest world powers at the time, and so were made the permanent members of the security council.  Their ally, France was also made a permanent member, because it was struggling to remain a power and losing control of its colonies, and the others need it to be a powerful nation so it could help keep an eye on Germany, amongst other things.  Oh, and China was there so the rest of the world didn't feel totally left out.

But the world has changed a lot since 1945.    The superpowers of 1945 are no longer the superpowers of today.  Then, most of Africa and Asia were western colonies, now they are free and independent states.  Britain and France never really got over the strain of two successive world wars (and the loss of all their colonies), but new powers are rapidly emerging.  More and more, people are calling for reform of the security council, to change it so that it reflects a modern world order.  

Many believe the easiest way to do this would be to expand the security council, adding more permanent members -  current world powers, who represent a wider range of areas.  Brazil, Japan, India, Germany, Nigeria and South Africa have all tried to persuade the world they should be permanent members.  However, some believe that this would only hinder the Security Council, making it harder for consensus to be reached.  Others support the idea of a larger security council, but not more permanent members.  It doesn't really matter though, because the only way it can be changed is by changing the UN Charter - which requires the agreement of all five permanent members of the security council.  And they don't want to share the power.

But you know what?  I don't think the security council needs anymore permanent members.  I don't think it needs ANY permanent members, much less ones with that much power.  Call me idealistic, but I think that we should get rid of the veto all together.  Think of it like this - if the UN is like an international parliament (which it isn't really), then the Security Council is like, the cabinet ministers.  Or something.  And the P5 are the evil (possibly schizophrenic?) dictator at the top.  It's not democratic.  And how can we expect to fix the problems of the world if those with the most problems have no say?  

I AM IN NO WAY SIMPLY WRITING THIS TO POST THE PHOTO

OBAMA AND MY ALL TIME BFF DMITRY MEDVEDEV AGREED TO CUT NUCLEAR WARHEADS BY ABOUT 1000 A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO. THIS IS TOTALLY EXCITING. BE EXCITED OR PUTIN WILL KILL YOU IN YOUR SLEEP FOR HURTING DIMA'S FEELINGS.

Iran Update

Source: Christiane Amanpour's facebook page

Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri of Iran has posted a statement on his website (which I'm not going to link to because it's in FARSI, not English. there's a translated version of the letter here though.) condemning the rigging of the elections. For those of you not in the know, the grand Ayatollah is like, one of the top clerics of Islam in Iran. There are, like, 20 Grand Ayatollah's in the world, and they're basically like super-priests.In Iran, his views and opinions have a lot of sway over the people. Montazeri was slated to take over from the Supreme Ayatollah Khomeini, who was basically insane (and insanely powerful; he was the guy who ordered the fatwa on Salman Rushdie), but Montazeri is way cool, supporting things like civil and womens rights, so they didn't give him the job. Anyway, his Wikipedia page if you need to know more, is here, (and his official website, if you can read Farsi) but I'm going to post the letter below anyway to make your life easier.

In the name of God

People of Iran

These last days, we have witnessed the lively efforts of you, brothers and sisters, old and young alike, from every social category, for the 10th presidential elections.

Our youth, hoping to see their rightful will fulfilled, came on the scene and waited patiently. This was the greatest occasion for the government’s officials to bond with their people.

However, unfortunately, they used it in the worst way possible. Declaring results that no one in their right mind can believe, and despite all the evidence of crafted results, and contrary to the people’s protestations, in front of the eyes of the same nation who carried the weight of a revolution and 8 years of war, in front of the eyes of local and foreign reporters, attacked the children of the people with astonishing violence. And now they are attempting a purge, arresting intellectuals, political opponents and Scientists.

Now, based on my religious duties, I will remind you:

1- A legitimate state must respect all points of view. It may not oppress critical views. I fear that this will lead to the loss of people’s faith in Islam.

2- Given the current circumstances, I expect the government to take all measures to restore people’s confidence. Otherwise, as I have already said, a government not respecting the people’s vote has no religious or political legitimacy.

3- I invite everyone, especially the youth, to continue reclaiming their dues calmly, and not to allow those who want to associate this movement with chaos succeed.

4- I ask the police and army personnel not to “sell their religion”, and be aware that receiving orders will not excuse them before God. Recognize the protesting youth as your children. Today, censorship and cutting telecommunication lines can not hide the truth.

I pray for the greatness of the Iranian people.

Also, this was the hundreth post to the AC blog

If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament

As it was recently brought to the attention of what I hope was everyone in the Active Collective, by the fantastic speaker from Both Eyes Open (whose name very temporarily escapes me), abortion in New Zealand is still illegal. And while, in practice, I believe that the system is relatively lenient, it still leaves the question of why we aren't more involved in the debate on abortion. In that vein, (and mostly because I can't be arsed writing a lengthy post that no one reads anymore, anyway) I'd like to leave you with a link.



The cartoon above I'm pretty sure I've seen in a NZ paper, although why and how I'm not quite sure...



It's essentially a collection of editorial cartoons on abortion. As pointed out in the prompt for the post,

"…when pregnant women are depicted, they are often faceless, voiceless, or shown without any agency. Oftentimes they are not depicted at all, and the fetus is used as the cartoonist’s mouthpiece."

I thought this was really interesting, and I was wondering if any of y'all had an opinion on why this is. As shown by the second cartoon above, and a couple of others at the source, it's something that happens in both pro- and anti-abortion images. is it because, as the cartoon above suggests, cartoonists are simply making them representative of all women? Or is it because the debate over abortion is one no longer concerned with individual women, rather the law-makers and abortion advocates?

Where democracy fails.

Now don't get me wrong; having democratic systems of government, as opposed to power by force, is the only way to guarantee that governments are accountable to their people. Countries that aren't democratic have far higher rates of human rights abuses, because, really, they don't owe their citizens anything. Democracy, overall, is the best system we've got. But sometimes you just have to over-rule the will of the people.

Sometimes democracy is bad. People aren't always nice. Occasionally, we promote things solely to benefit ourselves, ignoring the detrimental effect that it has on others. Take, for example,lower taxes for the rich, stealing, slavery. As Darwin kind of said, it's survival of the fittest, a dog eat dog world out there. And the will of the majority is often to harm the minority.

And that is exactly what democracy promotes; instead of a select few imposing their will on everyone, instead, sheer numbers create ruling classes. When you say the will of the people is always right, someone has to ask back, which people? Governments are only accountable to slightly over half of their people. National has a fair idea of who voted for them, and it certainly wasn't those on welfare; so why help them?

Recently in the U.S.A, teh California Supreme court refused to nullify Proposition 8, because it believed its role was to interpret, not alter the constitution. But if not them, who? When the human rights of a minority are being violated, it is not the masses who will stand up for them, so those with authority must. The American people didn't issue the Emancipation Proclamation
, a man ignoring the will of the people who elected him, Abraham Lincoln did. Was he right? Heck yes! So why aren't more people willing to stand up, against popular opinion, for human rights?

(Quick sidebar, click here for Rob Thomas' fantastic piece on why we should support gay marriage, especially over civil unions, which is what NZ (and most other nations) have currently)

democracy is not always the bastion of civilisation. People who aren't willing to think deeper, or to see the effects of decisions beyond their own backyards, are those who the people in charge are often kowtowing to. President Obama, who overwhelmingly won the US presidential election because he promised change has been forced to reneg on many of his campaign promises (for example, the closure of prisoner dentention camp Guantanamo Bay), because his Seante wont fund him. Why wont his Senate fund him? Because he wants to do what is right, but not politically popular; people are suddenly willing to trash their values in favour of peice of mind, because the reality of having dangerous prisoners that close is now too much for them. And that's what this boils down to; for a truly democratic society, are we willing to sacrifice doing what we know is right?

Things that make me go "blerg".

Because all my friends are dancing the night away at the semi-formal and I am stuck here at home in my pajamas with a streaming nose and hacking cough, I am going to make a list of things that are really getting up my goat at the moment. Actually, it is pretty awesome staying at home in pajamas not going to the semi and watching American Idol instead. But I'm going to make the list anyway!

• The military junta in Myanmar/Burma who've charged pro-democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi with violating her house arrest after an American man allegedly snuck into her home last week. She now faces a prison sentence of up to five years, weeks away from the end of her house arrest. It's clearly been timed so she won't be present for the elections the junta has promised. Last election in 1991 her party won a landslide vote, but she has been in house arrest for 13 of the last 19 years. Call for her release here.


• The National government, predictably. This time they've decided to abolish the Department of Labour's Pay and Employment Equity Unit. Even though NZ women on average are paid 12% less than men in the same positions. But that seven kazillion dollar motorway way more important, eh John? (Okay, I don't really know what motorway I'm talking about. But I'm sure it exists.)


• New Zealand's Next Top Model. Arrrgh. This is surely one of the worsts programs on television at the moment, and this is coming from a huge fan of Dawson's Creek. But seriously, tonight this contestant Ruby was measured by some sleazy Hollywood model agent and was declared "too fat" to be a proper model and told she needed to slim down. She's 17 years old, and so is half the audience. I think that probably launched a thousand eating disorders. Okay, I know modelling is a harsh career and you've got to have the right stuff and they're just preparing her blah blah blah but this girl is HEALTHY sized and aren't non-skeletal models all the rage in the fashion world at the moment? They are with me anyway.


• Danny Gokey. (American Idol contestant.) Hmmmm. How can I fit this in with activism? That scream at the end of "Dream On" was a violation of my Hearing Rights. Sounds like Human? Okay, okay, sorry, moving on.


• The Producers of Avatar. Stoopid.

Happy weekend everyone!

Coffee Break photos!

Thank you everyone for helping out with the Coffee Break yesterday! Everyone contributed in some form or another and it was great especially to see our newest members getting involved.

It seems this event is also a bit famous on the web. Here is Lily, Georgia, Bonnie, Flora and Jessica on the front page of the school website.

Also, I signed us up on the Big Action Big Change website. You can view our profile by clicking on the link under the heading "Winner of the Day"- that's right, we won! Specifically a Trade Aid goodie pack worth $100. While I haven't been contacted about it yet, when it arrives, are you thinking shared lunch? Because I so am!

John Oliver hates Unfair Trade

Hey ladies! Coffee Break was AMAZING, I'll have some pictures up soon. In the meantime here is a video from my favourite Daily Show correspondent (okay, apart from Wyatt).

John Oliver: Terrifying Times
John Oliver - Unfair Trade
comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

Opinion Piece on Fair trade

This is a thing about my personal experience not eating non fairtrade coffee, chocolate, or anything with cocoa in it. So if you don't want to, dont read it.
I'm in a mood so it may be a slight fatalistic.

As you all know, I am a mere mortal and am prone to weakness. You have all seen me breakdown, however loudly or quietly, and cast aside my morals, to eat chocolate. Obviously when I hit all time lows, even if i try to keep it inside, i do occasionally eat chocolate. Afterwards, I feel like a failure as a person, with no self control on top of that, for not standing by my scruples. I often feel the need to regurgitate it all, it makes me feel sick, but I don't normally carry this out, don't worry!

Because, I have drilled into myself so often that non-fair trade chocolate is bad, that it hurts so many people and brainwashed myself with thoughts and images of the horrors many families go through, I often almost can mentally taste their blood in it.
I know if I went to a supermarket with the intent of buying an apple, and saw slaves, or children, or a starving, uneducated, poor, impoverished family walk outside to pick it for me, I wouldn't eat it. The problem is, we don't see this. Or if we see it online, we block it out.

I read a story in some pamphlet of children who had to work with sugar, and were paid nothing, and beaten if a certain ammount wasnt harvested/ picked/whatever. I can't remember what they did with the sugar. I remember that when some children tried to escape, they cut the children's feet with razors to punish them, so they wouldn't attempt it again.

The point of this rambling is that we just don't care and don't want to know.
Because we're human. And all of us are failures. That's why there is poverty.

Beeee-yoootiful!

You need to click on it.

An Impassioned Plea.

I had a dream.

I had a dream where one day, the active collective would rise up out of room 56, and produce something amazing. 

I had a dream where we'd try and share our thoughts and ideas with the rest of society,  where we'd do something to take action against the injustices of the world. 

I had a dream where I'd eventually hold in my hands the creamy white pages of The Active Collective Zine.  

But now that dream is dying, and  I'm asking myself all sorts of disheartening questions - Why doesn't anybody want to write any zine articles? Does anybody love me?  What's my purpose in life? Is the active collective actually active, or are they all just talk and tetris playing?

I know you've all got something to say; that's why you're in the the active collective. (I assume.  Although we do also get cool badges.) The zine is the perfect venue for you guys to speak out about those things you're passionate about, whether that be the environment, body image, the middle east, human rights, the economy, fair trade, or just what's wrong with our own school.  Everybody in the Active Collective is above averagely informed about most of these issues, and this is our chance to share what we know and think about these issues with our peers,  hopefully encouraging them to think about them too.

So please,  make the world a better place.  Write a zine article today!  

Send it to jessiewhoisawesome@gmail.com

People who have made false promises of zine articles and whom I therefore no longer love: Romana, Lily, Emily G & Helena, Julia.

Happy Easter Everyone

Thanks Romana for putting an end to the blogging drought- it's been far too long since we've updated.

The subject of Romana's post, aid, will be the focus of our meetings for the beginning of next term, so why not spend your easter weekend researching aid? Hmm, okay, maybe not, but if you're interested, check out the Institute of Policy Studies' website for some of the powerpoint presentations of the speakers at the Symposium Jessie and I attended. I particularly recommend Salil Shetty's presentation. That dude's awesome.

So just relax, do some research, maybe write an article for the zine(!) and we'll be back ready to roll in term 2!

To finish off, here's a recipe for fair trade easter eggs. Yum. Alternatively, I think Scarborough Fair makes chocolate easter eggs.

Charity still sucks.

Clearly, I'm saving up all of my amazing blogging skills for the zine, but I had something i'd like to share with y'all.

Basically, there's this woman named Dambisa Moyo, making waves everywhere beacuse she wrote a book asking the west to stop giving aid to Africa. I'm far to tired to write a proper, attention grabbing description beyond that, but please, click here, even if you don't agree with what she's saying. We should be constantly reviewing how effective 'solutions' to global problems are, and hearing her out would be a really massive step in doing this.