-
1 week ago
-
1 week ago
-
Notes: 12881 / 1 week ago from johnny-escobar (originally from johnny-escobar)
Matte Black Aventador
-
Notes: 3373 / 1 week ago from johnny-escobar
Lamborghini Aventador
-
Notes: 4539 / 2 months ago from thedailywhat
On Kony 2012: The Visible Victims Speak: Considering that Kony 2012 — the most viral video in Internet history — exploits the suffering of northern Ugandans to raise money, Victor Ochen, a victim of the Lord’s Resistance Army and a founder of the nonprofit African Youth Initiative Network (AYINET), thought it only right that they should get to see it too.
Ochen traveled to the city of Lira, where he and his NGO set up a makeshift outdoor theater so locals could watch Invisible Children’s much-discussed fundraising campaign, and decide for themselves if it helps or hurts.
According to a statement released by AYINET, over 35,000 people attended the screening, many of whom rode in on bikes from neighboring villages. Additionally, some two million northern Uganda residents tuned in to a live broadcast of the audio aired simultaneously on five FM radio stations.
Al Jazeera reporter Malcolm Webb, who was on hand to gauge people’s reactions, filed the following account:
People I spoke to anticipated seeing a video that showed the world the terrible atrocities that they had suffered during the conflict, and the ongoing struggles they still face trying to rebuild their lives after two lost decades.
The audience was at first puzzled to see the narrative lead by an American man – Jason Russell – and his young son.
Towards the end of the film, the mood turned more to anger at what many people saw as a foreign, inaccurate account that belittled and commercialised their suffering, as the film promotes Kony bracelets and other fundraising merchandise, with the aim of making Kony infamous.
A woman Webb spoke with afterwards compared IC’s approach of selling products with Kony’s image to “selling Osama Bin Laden paraphernalia post 9/11,” which she felt would be offensive to many Americans, irrespective of how “well-intentioned” the fundraising campaign was.
Last night’s screening was AYINET’s first and last. It announced this morning that it had suspended further screenings of Kony 2012 in light of the outrage it caused. Wrote Ochen: “It was very hurtful for victims and their families to see posters, bracelets and t-shirts, all looking like a slick marketing campaign, promoting the person most responsible for their shattered lives.”
“Why give such criminals celebrity status?” asked people in attendance, according to AYINET. “Why not make the plight of the victims and the war-ravaged communities, people whose sufferings are real and visible, the focus of a campaign to help?”
-
2 months ago from bookmarklet
-
2 months ago from bookmarkletLargest Solar Storm In Years to Hit Earth Thursday
The most powerful solar storm in half a decade is about to hit our planet Earth, putting electrical systems, satellite navigation and other technology at a slight risk of failure. The Sun released a Coronal Mass Ejection, a mighty explosion of plasma, on Tuesday evening. The effects of that ej… -
2 months ago
The Dark Knight’s (my Ford Fiesta) first official club pictorial.
-
Notes: 39 / 3 months ago from tonyontheradio
Written by an African child and nominated by The United Nations
as the Best Poem of 2006.
And you calling me colored??
When I born, I black.
When I grow up, I black.
When I go in sun, I black.
When I scared, I black.
When I sick, I black.
And when I die, I still black.
And you white people.
When you born, you pink.
When you grow up, you white.
When you go in sun, you red.
When you cold, you blue.
When you scared, you yellow.
When you sick, you green
And when you die, you grey…
And you calling me colored -
Notes: 114 / 3 months ago from afternoonsnoozebutton (originally from morningsnoozebuton)
The Truth Within Foxconn’s Walls
Foxconn has raised wages for workers by 25%.
The Chinese-based manufacturer has also promised to limit wages. This wage raise comes on the eve of Apple allowing ABC cameras into their factories after a PR firestorm connected to Foxconn has caused the company some major problems in the last few months.
Background
Foxconn is a Taiwanese-owned manufacturer that makes parts for Apple, Hewlett Packard, Dell, and Microsoft. It employs about 1.2 million workers, primarily in mainland China.
A group of worker suicides in Foxconn factories in 2010 grew a large amount of media scrutiny. Last month, a group of dozens of workers at a Foxconn factory at Wuhan gathered on the roof and threatened to commit suicide.
A special done on PRI’s “This American Life” did a special about Foxconn which included the following details. You can read the full transcript of the show here.
- The Chinese city of Shenzhen is where most of our “crap” is made. 30 years ago, Shenzhen was a little village on a river. Now it’s a city of 13 million people — bigger than New York.
- Foxconn, one of the companies that builds iPhones and iPads (and products for many other electronics companies), has a factory in Shenzhen that employs 430,000 people.
- There are 20 cafeterias at the Foxconn Shenzhen plant. They each serve 10,000 people.
- One Foxconn worker Mike Daisey interviewed, outside factory gates manned by guards with guns, was a 13-year old girl. She polished the glass of thousands of new iPhones a day.
- The 13-year old said Foxconn doesn’t really check ages. There are on-site inspections, from time to time, but Foxconn always knows when they’re happening. And before the inspectors arrive, Foxconn just replaces the young-looking workers with older ones.
- In the first two hours outside the factory gates, Daisey meets workers who say they are 14, 13, and 12 years old (along with plenty of older ones). Daisey estimates that about 5% of the workers he talked to were underage.
-
Daisey assumes that Apple, obsessed as it is with details, must know this. Or, if they don’t, it’s because they don’t want to know.
- Daisey visits other Shenzhen factories, posing as a potential customer. He discovers that most of the factory floors are vast rooms filled with 20,000-30,000 workers apiece. The rooms are quiet: There’s no machinery, and there’s no talking allowed. When labor costs so little, there’s no reason to build anything other than by hand.
- A Chinese working “hour” is 60 minutes — unlike an American “hour,” which generally includes breaks for Facebook, the bathroom, a phone call, and some conversation. The official work day in China is 8 hours long, but the standard shift is 12 hours. Generally, these shifts extend to 14-16 hours, especially when there’s a hot new gadget to build. While Daisey is in Shenzhen, a Foxconn worker dies after working a 34-hour shift.
- Assembly lines can only move as fast as their slowest worker, so all the workers are watched (with cameras). Most people stand.
- The workers stay in dormitories. In a 12-by-12 cement cube of a room, Daisey counts 15 beds, stacked like drawers up to the ceiling. Normal-sized Americans would not fit in them.
- Unions are illegal in China. Anyone found trying to unionize is sent to prison.
- Daisey interviews dozens of (former) workers who are secretly supporting a union. One group talked about using “hexane,” an iPhone screen cleaner. Hexane evaporates faster than other screen cleaners, which allows the production line to go faster. Hexane is also a neuro-toxin. The hands of the workers who tell him about it shake uncontrollably.
- Some workers can no longer work because their hands have been destroyed by doing the same thing hundreds of thousands of times over many years (mega-carpal-tunnel). This could have been avoided if the workers had merely shifted jobs. Once the workers’ hands no longer work, obviously, they’re canned.
- One former worker had asked her company to pay her overtime, and when her company refused, she went to the labor board. The labor board put her on a black list that was circulated to every company in the area. The workers on the black list are branded “troublemakers” and companies won’t hire them.
- One man got his hand crushed in a metal press at Foxconn. Foxconn did not give him medical attention. When the man’s hand healed, it no longer worked. So they fired him. (Fortunately, the man was able to get a new job, at a wood-working plant. The hours are much better there, he says — only 70 hours a week).
- The man, by the way, made the metal casings of iPads at Foxconn. Daisey showed him his iPad. The man had never seen one before. He held it and played with it. He said it was “magic.”“
You can track all Morning Snooze Button coverage about Foxconn here.
(Source: morningsnoozebuton)
-
5 months agoKick Off 2012 with Project 365
If you were going to blog about one thing for an entire year, what would you choose?
Would you post photographs of your favorite place? Interview different people from your hometown? Create a new…
-
5 months agoNew Theme: Nuntius
If you’ve been itching to turn your blog into an online newspaper or magazine, Nuntius could be your perfect companion. Based on the highly-popular News theme designed by Justin Tadlock, Nuntius…
-
5 months agoWordPress for Android 2.0 Now Available
It’s Android blogging, re-imagined. Today we’re announcing the release of WordPress for Android 2.0, a major update that focuses on a new UI and enhanced post editor features. Check the video:
-
Notes: 23891 / 5 months ago from quote-book (originally from observando)
Yep! That pertains to Twilight!
-
5 months ago from bookmarkletMike the Headless Chicken - Photo Gallery - LIFE
Mike is fed through eyedropper, directly to his esophagus. Apparently the ax that was meant to make him dinner for a family in Colorado missed his jugular vein, and left its brain stem intact.
Visit my site:
SnitchCentral on Facebook
View My Stats
Following
