Shepard Fairey, the man who created the HOPE posters for Obama, has now created a new work of art, in support of Aung San Suu Kyi.
“This Human Rights cause is something I believe in strongly,” said Fairey. “I created this portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi to raise awareness of her on-going house arrest and the oppressive nature of the military regime ruling Burma.”
Who is Aung San Suu Kyi?
1) She is THE ONLY Nobel Peace Prize Recipient currently IMPRISONED, and has been under house arrest for 13 years
2) She is a leader for the rights of the people of Burma, a country with a regime that has destroyed over 3,300 ethnic minority villages, forced at least 1.5 million people to flee their homes, becoming refugees and internally displaced persons, recruited tens of thousands of child soldiers, and employ modern-day slave labor.
3) Her political party, the National League for Democracy, won 82% of the seats in parliament in Burma's last election, however, none of those people were allowed to take their seats. 2,100 political prisoners, including some of those members of parliament, still remain locked up today.
Please look at this new website has been created to heighten awareness of the cruel situation of Burma, and the role of Aung San Suu Kyi, found at http://freedomtolead.causecast.org/
Read, learn, and pass it on! Link the website as your status on facebook or myspace, send out an email, blog it! The more people who know about the situation, the more who can act!
It is a time for us to raise our voices, raise awareness and highlight those in the world who cannot exist in their homes. It is an unimaginable life for many of us, which is why it is so important we recognize it as something so horribly real.
The situation in Darfur has caused over 200,000 refugees to inhabit Chad, and there are also 1.2 million displaced persons still within Sudan.
It is critical that we address this issue, that we realize that the nightmare doesn't end for those who escape Darfur after the horrific attacks that occur. They then are forced to live in a foreign place, in strange conditions, with no real control over their lives from that point onward.
Stop Genocide Now has an excellent program which brings direct awareness to these refugees, that puts faces to the phrase, and that reminds us of the raw humanity of all of these people.
The i-ACT team brings us real footage from these camps, and tells us stories of their experiences there, giving us a glimpse into what life is like for the refugees. One recent story that really stood out to me was posted by Gabriel earlier today,
"Abdulaziz had a small plate with cookies at the end of our live
event with DC. UNHCR brought some for the refugees, and our teacher
friends wanted to include us in the snacking. Everyone from i-ACT, in
chorus, said no thank you and please give to the children that were
still crowding around our makeshift movie theater.
In a matter of seconds, the moment Abdulaziz turned around, a cloud
of sand kicked up from all the children rushing the plate with a few
cookies, the cookies flying in all directions, and the children diving
on the ground, pulling and pushing to get one little morsel. They had a
serious, intense look in their eyes. There was no laughing.
It felt very uncomfortable to see that. Abdulaziz immediately asked
the children to move back and put the plate up high, where they could
not reach. The little boys and girls stepped back. As soon as Abdulaziz
turned around, children crawled on the ground and started to dig
through the sand to grab any crumbs that were left behind.
It makes me uncomfortable to even write this and have the images, so very clear, jump in and out of my mind."
Another special feature for World Refugee Day is located HERE!. Live footage from a refugee camp in Chad, Camp Djabal will be playing, with a live chat area and also twitter feed.
Use technology to help raise awareness!
Pass on this information to people tomorrow, maybe post the live feed on your facebook or myspace status, twitter about the refugee situation, pass the i-ACT link on to your friends!
I recently posted about the horrors and atrocities currently occuring in Burma. The militia have rectuited tens of thousands of child soldiers, destroyed over 3,300 villages, use rape as a weapon, and force hundreds of thousands of Burmese people into forced labor.
These refugees are fleeing Ler Per Her Camp.
This is a home that has been burned down by the army.
In the past, with situations such as Darfur, the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda, the United Nations Security Council has voted to create a "Comission of Inquiry", to investigate such abuses. This Comission then makes reccomendations to the UN Security Council for actions.
While no such Comission has yet been created for Burma, two members of Congress are now trying to change this.
Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and Don Manzullo (R-IL) have organized a letter to President Obama asking that he pressure the UN Security Council to create a Comission of Inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes comitted by Burma's military regime.
They are circulating this letter in Congress and asking other members of Congress to sign on. The more people who sign this letter, the more of an impact it will have.
1) Check if your Congress member has signed the letter at the bottom of this list HERE
2) If not, then go to THIS LINK and find your state on the list
3) Follow the steps shown, starting with finding your representative
[To find your representative, go to house.gov and type your zip code in the box in the upper left corner]
While sometimes calling government leaders might seem scary, it's the best way to create change. Just remember, they are representing YOU. What you say does and will make a difference to them.
Posted on: 06/03/09(1 ratings) Author: mariebiscuit
It is estimated that 100 million people worldwide are homeless – and that a further 600 million live in inadequate or hazardous “houses”.
In Africa, these houses are commonly dubbed “shacks” – houses built from cardboard, tin sheets, road signs or any material a person can get his hands on, really. These shacks are then usually in settlements, which South Africans call “squatter camps”- or, more politically correct, locations or informal settlements.
Picture: An informal settlement in South Africa
Unfortunately, not only are these houses desperately small and unhygienic, but they are also fire hazards, collapse easily and are not suitable for plumbing or electricity.
Now it seems that a temporary solution has come in the form of “fold away houses.” Two South African inventors, Rajen and Elsie Harinarain, responded to a government plea for suggestions regarding the housing crisis with regards to victims of floods and fires.
The houses are literally foldable, and can easily be set-up by ten men within four minutes. The standard size is 14 m² - hardly a mansion, but by all means bigger than most informal houses. It can also be fitted with a solar panel and a 500 liter (132 US-gallons) water tank as well as air vents. Doors and windows are lockable and the materials used are not particularly flammable.
Picture: Women standing outside a completed fold away house.
Although these houses were designed with disaster victims in mind (think as far as things like Hurricane Katrina, if you want), the possibilities suddenly seem endless. These houses are made to have a lifetime exceeding five years – now imagine refugee camps with these houses, instead of threadbare tents. Imagine the homeless having one of these instead of sleeping on park benches or under bridges.
To illustrate, South Africa’s government has made housing one of their primary aims, but a lack of financing, contractors taking their sweet time at building and then bad quality when it is finally done, has affected this goal rather negatively. Along with that, the waiting lists for these low-cost houses are miles long.
Obviously, it would be preferable to give these individuals nice built homes, but while they wait (some have been waiting for more than ten years), these fold away houses may be the ideal solution to homelessness.
I am very excited about these houses – hopefully, with adequate marketing, governments will latch on to the idea and reduce homelessness among the poor, the disaster victims and the refugees… thus attacking a rather large factor concerning global poverty.
At this moment in Sudan, there is a horrible genocide occurring. The Janjaweed, a militia group funded by the Sudanese government, are entering villages in Darfur, and attacking the people there.
400,000 have died.
2.2 million are considered internally displaced persons, or people still within Sudan who have no home.
200,000 are refugees.
60% of these 200,000 refugees are children. That's 120,000 children with no real place to call home, haunted by the memories of death and destruction.
The most hope that these children have lies in their education, in the opportunities that it will grant them. With an education, these children will be empowered to move past the refugee camp, and into a world where they can make a positive difference.
But they need our help.
There is a fabulous new program, Darfur Dream Team, put together by ENOUGH! that is connecting schools in the United States with schools in these refugee camps, to encourage awareness and education for the situation in Sudan, and also to hopefully raise funds for the educational programs for these children.
UNHCR Photo/Credit H.Caux
Check out THIS LINK, it has the steps you can take to help your class, school, or club become involved with the program. This is a great opportunity to help your community come together and stand up against genocide, take action on a cause that needs your help.
Here is a video about the school system in the refugee camps, it is so inspiring to see all the hopes and dreams of these children who have been through so much, yet still want to make a difference.
