tagged w/ Social Activism
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CISPA, or the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protect Act, also known as HR 3523 is a cybersecurity House bill that’s already gained over 100 sponsors and is perhaps the worst of them all. It would allow companies to collect and monitor private communications and share them with the government, and anyone else. So is it really as scary as it sounds? EFF’s Trevor Timm explains.CISPA, or the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protect Act, also known as HR 3523 is a... more
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.“
~Margaret Mead
Bilal's Stand was created by high school and college students in the city of Detroit. Taking four years and several maxed-out credit cards to complete, it debuted at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and won the Crystal Heart Award at Heartland.
Now it is being turned into a movement, the TAKE A STAND campaign, aimed to inspire and empower youth across America. We are hustling to get it out to 1000 schools this winter starting MLK Jr. Day (Jan. 17, 2011) - that's a reach of 1,000,000 students! This is a first in film, and we're super excited about the potential! But to get there, we need support to put the finishing touches on the movie and movement."Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the... more
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Join us on 10.10.10 for an unprecedented event. Every Nation, 24 hours and You.
Across the planet, documentary filmmakers, students, and inspired citizens will record the human experience over a 24-hour period. By participating in this historic event, you will help capture the diversity of life and culture on this planet. Together we will create a document that is a gift to the world.
One Day on Earth is a documentary and new media project about the amazing diversity, conflict, tragedy, and triumph that occurs in one 24-hour period on Earth. More than a film, One Day on Earth is a multi-platform participatory media project. The flagship of this project is a 120-minute documentary to be released theatrically. Through the One Day on Earth platform we will establish a community that not only watches, but participates.
We are currently enlisting film-makers and citizens in every country to participate by documenting a cause they hold dear, a topical event, their region of the world . The content parameters are wide reaching, as is our aim; ultimately, our end goal is to make this world a little smaller, to illustrate our commonalities, to celebrate our differences. Our immediate goal is to continue to expand interest and enlistment to the project...
Please check out our website and consider signing up to participate!
www.onedayonearth.orgJoin us on 10.10.10 for an unprecedented event. Every Nation, 24 hours and You.... more
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Upcoming events in Sacramento relating to social justice issues and 9/11 truth.
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In response to the ban on gay marriage, a California man is attempting to get an initiative put on the ballot that would outlaw divorce in the state of California.
His reasoning?
The logic behind the "No non-traditional marriage" initiative was that it was just an attempt to protect traditional marriage.
This California man says he is just trying to further the cause of protecting the aforementioned institution of traditional marriage.In response to the ban on gay marriage, a California man is attempting to get an... more
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Read my mind at Community Matters.
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Bring your picnic set-up and some beverages for a fun day in the park. Live music, spoken word, DJs and live art. See it for yourself: entertainment with a message and a party with a purpose.
Featuring:
The Globetroddas
WHOGAS
DTEK
Bells + Whistles
Con Brio
Relapse
The Vagina Monologues
Poetry Mission
Sunday, Aug 16 12:00p to 6:00p
Jerry Garcia Amphitheater
40 John Shelley Dr. in McLaren Park
San Francisco, CA 94134
Turning Negative Into Positive (TNIP) is an annual celebration of people who have created a positive outcome out of a tragedy. TNIP uses spoken word, art, music, inspirational speakers and theatre performances to inspire community to create positive action. This is a community-minded program that models forgiveness, gratitude and responsibility as an effective method to stop violence.
more info:
http://events.sfgate.com/san-francisco-ca/events/show/88190798-turning-negative-into-positive
contact:
nicole@createsocialchange.orgBring your picnic set-up and some beverages for a fun day in the park. Live music,... more
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It is around nine in the night in a seemingly sleepy village in Gujarat, India. You can sense there is something different today. Instead of being in their homes and sleeping, there is commotion at the village center. There are around 300-400 people, including women who are discussing their land rights after watching a film about Agricultural Land Rights, produced by few youngsters from their own village, in their very own language. They are surprised to know that any landless person is entitled to land from the government; they never had this information. Villagers from across 25 villages, who have seen this film on Land Rights, decide to get together, take out a rally and file applications with the Collector asking for the land they should rightfully get. Around 750 Dalits (the lower-caste of India) from the most feudal parts of Gujarat, file applications to get their land rights with the Collector and are forcing the government to distribute land to the landless, marginalized communities, land which is illegally occupied by the so-called ‘Upper castes’ or being given out to big industrial units.
This is just a glimpse of what Community Media can achieve. It has the ability to empower people, give them a voice, organize communities and initiate social action. A strong alternative grassroots media movement is springing throughout the world and India is a huge part of it. Community Media is all about turning the mass media upside down. The passive ‘receivers’ of mass media messages are turning into active media ‘producers’, creating their own messages and meaningful media.
The stories of the marginalized have continuously been ignored by the mass media and they find no voice, no space, and no visibility in the dominant paradigm of global mass media. Only the upper middle classes and rich class find a representation in the media. Messages which are important for the underprivileged are hardly ever communicated to them. They have no control over the content in the mass media; hence, they can not communicate about their issues to the larger world either. This is what Community media is changing.
One such community media initiative started in India sets up ‘Community Video Units’ across India. It was started in partnership by Video Volunteers (a US based organization) and Drishti Media, Arts and Human Rights (Ahmedabad, Gujarat). Under this initiative around 70 people from different parts of India, all belonging to marginalized communities, have been trained in filmmaking and produce videos on their own local issues. These issues range from communal harmony, to basic infrastructure to women’s rights. These videos are then screened on a wide-screen projector across pre-decided 25 slums/villages around that local Community Video Unit. The film screenings are followed by discussions, which open up a space for communities, to discuss issues pertinent to their development and deciding on individual and community actions to be taken to solve that issue. They confront and challenge government authorities, like getting non-functional Public Health Centers restarted; they participate in an active citizen life taking responsibility for improving their own conditions, for instance, organize cleanliness rallies in the villages; the communities get a public sphere; where they get together and make decisions impacting their lives. In many places people for the first time got together to discuss issues, for the first time women spoke up in public. In short they get initiated into an active citizen life, making democracy a functional one and fighting oppression in their personal as well as political lives.It is around nine in the night in a seemingly sleepy village in Gujarat, India. You... more
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I am truly surprised at the film that is on everyone’s mind right now and the fact that it happened to be shot just 30 minutes away from my home in Mumbai, India. Slumdog Millionaire is an energetic film with an interesting storyline and was shot entirely in two locations that are close to where I live - the world’s largest slum, Dharavi, and in slum areas of Juhu. These locations are also near the homes of many of Channel 19 community producers, and for some of them like Venkatesh, these locations are their home!
Perhaps I am out of the loop, but it does feel like the film just popped up out of nowhere and bagged 5 of the 6 awards at the Critics Choice Awards and then went on to be the star film at the Golden Globe Awards this year. The film picked up awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and most notably, for Best Music Score – awarded to the famous South Indian composer, A.R. Rahman.
So does this put India on the map? Finally, an Indian artist who is ‘behind the scenes’ is granted an international award? And more importantly, finally here’s a film which does not profile the villages of remote India exotifying ‘the east’ nor does it show-off the glitz and glam which only a small percentile of the upper-crust in India can relate to but everyone dreams of. Instead, this film shows the reality of modern India by portraying life in the slums and speaking with and working with slumdwellers rather than hiring actors and researchers.
I’d like to share these realities through some of the videos made by Channel 19 producers about living conditions in slums in Mumbai
Check out this video about “Black Day in Dharavi” made by Hamari Awaaz CVU. It is a silent protest about housing rights in the megaslum, Dharavi, which is one of the shooting locations of Slumdog Millionaire:I am truly surprised at the film that is on everyone’s mind right now and the... more
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I was not born yet when Doc Ellis pitched his final game in 1979, but his place in baseball history will always be known as of spectacularness, flare, and tragedy.
He was known for his flare and enthusiasm in the dugout and on the field.
He pitched the Pirates to a World Series championship in 1970, and was a big piece to the Yankees 1976 World Series trip...
But what he will always be known for was his 1970 LSD induced no hitter against the lowly San Diego Padres of 1972.
Right before the game, at the airport, Dock loaded up and wowed crowd who had no idea the circumstances of his performance.
It wasn't until years later did he reveal the dark truth behind his feat... (like in modern days when David Wells claims he was wild drunk when he threw his perfecto)
His interview describing his feat in detail is up on YouTube.
He spoke openly about racial issues especially in baseball and once told reporters that he wound's start the All Star Game against Vida Blue (in the AL) because MLB would never allow "two soul brothers) to go against each other.
The other great story, fans would murmur remember-whens about was that time in 1974, when Dock Ellis starting a game against the legendary Big Red Machine (a lineup of Cincinnati Reds greats: Pete Rose et al.) and he beaned the first three hitters loading the bases.
He tried to bean cleanup hitter Hall of Famer Tony Perez who ducked every pitch and drew a walk...
He then threw two fastballs at Pete Rose...
Oh those were the times...
We all hear those stories so much, especially the Joe Nuxhall recollection so many times, it's almost like we were actually there for all the excitement.
Dock suffered from heavy alcohol and drug abuse, and it eventually took its toll on him, destroying his liver.
He would later serve as a community, corrections and motivational speaker.
The Los Angeles Times wrote that Ellis had no health insurance, but received help paying his medical bills from friends in baseball.
2 years, Bryant Gumbel on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO did an extensive profile on the life and times of Dock Ellis, what his legacy meant to baseball and how he's using lessons from his past demons to give back to the community.
It was truly one of the most touching pieces we had
He held on for as long as he could before passing away last Friday.
His LSD no hitter recollection is even up on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNzMBwq1uqU
Baseball truly lost a great, a maverick, an irreplaceable character.I was not born yet when Doc Ellis pitched his final game in 1979, but his place in... more
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kozeki
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added this
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3 years ago
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This week, I've given a lot of thought to how poor communities on the other side of the digital divide are able to connect. The Internet is now only accessible for a tiny portion of humanity. Probably less than 20% of humanity has regular internet access, and in rural India, where 700 million people live, it must be a far, far smaller number. When all of us English-speaking urbanites have forums to share and learn and grow, but vast numbers of people don't, it only increases the inequality of the poor. In addition to their financial poverty, they are becoming increasingly information poor. Tons of great people are putting their minds to this challenge, and some possible solutions in the country I know best (India) are the "one laptop per child" initiative and village Internet kiosks run by groups such as Drishtee.com in Delhi.
Here's what the digital divide means concretely in Video Volunteers' work. We have trained 75 Community Video Producers from slums and villages of India along with our NGO partners. Every two months they make a film on a different critical issue like health, education, water and corruption and screen them on widescreen projectors in 25 villages.
These folks live in twelve different geographies in India, ranging from the slums of Mumbai to lush isolated rural areas 1000 kilometers away, to villages in the foothills of the Himalayas. They have so much to share and learn about. Every year, we bring them together in two week long group trainings. The ideas fly, and it is an incredible experience to watch them comment on and give feedback on each others' 'video news magazines.'
But here's the challenge. We can only bring the Producers together physically once a year or at most twice. Money, distance, time and their regular work grind makes it impossible to do it more frequently. They do stay connected. Producers with access to cell phones will text each other or talk on the phone. Two producers -- one from a rural Community Video Unit ('CVU') and one from an urban CVU -- got married a few weeks ago, so the connections are obviously pretty intense when they do meet at these group training. But it is only the leaders of the group who speak on the phone regularly, and I bet most of what they do is gossip, not talking about what they can learn from each other.
We want to build a "network" of community video producers, but a network that is for collaboration and sharing, not gossip. We think this Network can be strong, because of the unique perspective they have of the issues as people who have 'lived' the issue as opposed to just observed it. Professional journalists have wire services, web sites, and other things to stay in touch. But community journalists in the developing world don't have any of that.
At Video Volunteers, we've increasingly come to realize the only solution to 'networking our network' of Producers is the Internet. The Internet is the only way for community journalists in the developing world to stay connected and be in touch, and it could be a very powerful tool for sharing and learning. In my 'dream' platform, our Producers are posting the rough cuts of their video news magazines to a website for peer review. They are uploading directly from the field, from their cell phones, videos of closed schools or doctors offices, and getting feedback from their peers via SMS on what to say to the officials when they go to confront them. They are requesting music suggestions for their films or other visuals that their fellow Producers email them directly from their own CVUs.
They are talking about solutions to challenges -- how do you get more people to a community screening on a widescreen projector in the center of the village? How can you use local advertising to earn revenue? How do you motivate community volunteers to help in finding stories?This week, I've given a lot of thought to how poor communities on the other side... more
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The town of Port Gibson, Mississippi is in need of your help. Declared "too beautiful to burn" by Ulysses S. Grant during the notoriously destructive Vicksburg Campaign of 1863, Port Gibson has become one of the most historically significant towns in the South. Now, a highway expansion project and almost twenty years of indecision and infighting threaten to transform Church Street, a lovely, tree-lined avenue, into a major interstate. Meet a few locals determined to save this national treasure.
Help unite the community around an Eastern bypass!
Sign the petition to save Port Gibson at:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-port-gibson-mississippi
For more information on other ways you can help the cause, please visit:
www.portgibsonheritagetrust.org
Credits -
A Pete's House Production
A film by Grady McGahan
Shot by: Robert Northrup
Archival Footage: Robert Clark
Music: "The Second Battle of Port Gibson" by Lonesome Mel, Mary Mac, and Larry
Special Thanks: Bob Thibodeaux, Terry Merritt, Jane Ellis, Al Hollingsworth, Shirley & Willie Daigle, Georgia's at the Depot, and Port Gibson Heritage Trust
If you like the music, be sure to check out www.myspace.com/lonesomemelThe town of Port Gibson, Mississippi is in need of your help. Declared "too... more
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