Millions of rabbits and other animals are killed for their fur every single year. Most of the fur on trashy boots or the collars of tacky jackets comes from fur farms, where rabbits are kept in tiny, filthy cages for years. They spend their entire miserable lives standing on cage floors made of thin wires, never having a chance to jump, dig, or play. Fur farmers kill the animals in horrible ways—some are killed by having their necks broken or their skulls beaten in, and others are killed by anal or vaginal electrocution. Yep, you read that right.
Animals like their fur. They don't want to die so that someone else can wear it. Can you blame them?
We have already reached our first goal of 100,000 Strong Against Fur, but we still want to get as many people as possible to tell the fur industry that people are over fur and that they want animals to stop being killed for their fur. The more, the merrier!
So sign our fur-free pledge and become one of the more than 100,000 Strong Against Fur!
I found this link of a fur warehouse in New Yorl absolutely repulsive, with photos of models saying: "see our new collection" and selling chinchilla and mink jackets, fox coats, mink coats, lynx coats (lynxes are an endangered species they not even exist in portugal anymore!!!), sable coats!!!
Activists of New York, it's forbidden to sing and play in the John Lennon's memorial in NY so how come this bloody minded warehouse be open?
Before: a friendly and inocent finn raccon
After: a heartless silly bitch vain of her cruelty
We need you to help stop Burberry! We live in a world where compassion and fashion should be one and the same, but companies like Burberry are showing little compassion to the animals who die for their clothes. With fur alternatives readily available, it's kinda messed up that Burberry is still intent on using the fur of animals for their coats. All we can think is that they are trying to scare off their chav buyers by producing clothes so tasteless and disgusting that even they wouldn't buy them.
How messed up is it that Burberry still uses dead animals for decoration in their clothes? Arctic foxes, red foxes, minks and Finn raccoons are among the victims of their bloody-minded fashion choices. The life that these animals lead is shrouded in misery right from birth. Being kept in steel cages with little to no room to move, they are treated as nothing more than objects which will eventually be drowned, anally electrocuted or beaten to death and skinned for their coats.
Greepeace organization ~got wondering who is using all the rainforest that is being destroyed in Indonesia and discovered that lots of it ends up as packaging of all kinds of well knowing brands (Disney, Mattel, Hasbro and Lego).
Their first clue was what some companies print on their boxes so they sent the toy packaging to the USA, where a global expert on paper analysed what they were made of and the scientist discovered something bad: there was MTH on those packaging.
MTH=MixedTropical Hardwood is regularly used to make packaging and it comes from the rain forests of Indonesia.
And onlty two big companies must be buying their papers from one of two papers companies with huge mills in Sumatra where they pupl millions of trees from Indonesia's rainforest every years.
So Greenpeace went to the rainforest for investigate and found that the companies cutting down the rainforests are breaking some of Indonesia's laws wiping out tigers in the wild and making climate change worse...and they are even linked to corruption.
Risking all this:
"The rain forest is a global treasure that stabilizes the climate and its home to most land life on the planet and to millions of people. It's taken thousands of years to grow and once it's destroyed it's gone forever. Unless laws against these sorts of forest crime are rigorously and urgently enforced to protect the rainforest and its people we'll have a biological catastrophe on our hands" Paulo Adario
"The rainforest is an important element on Earth its purify the oxygenwe breathe, people get medicine from its plants and it gives different animals a place to live. We should do anything we can to save it" Janine Licare
32 facts about rainforests:
1- Amazon rain forest represents a little over half of the rain forest left in the world.
2-Factors that lead to the destruction of the rain forest include cattle ranching, mining and agricultural practices(WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GO VEG!!!)
3- The Amazon river basin covers approximately 40% of the south american continent.
4- Just in the twentieth century at least 90% different native tribes living in the Amazon disappeared.
5-At least 85% of Africa's tropical rain forest has been so destroyed.
6-Some experts believe that if destruction of the rain forest continues we might have a species extintion rate akin to the dinossaurs.
7-Many products of rain forest includes cofee, chewing gum, chocolate and vanilla.
8- Of the 1.2 billion people around the world living in extreme poverty 90% depend on forests to their livelihood.
9-Rain forests now cover 2% of the planet's surface and 6% of its land surface but in 1950 rain forests covered an estimated 15% of the world's land surface.
10-Every minute about 2000 trees are cut down in the rain forest.
11- Between 1960 and 1980 Asia lost a third of its tropical rain forest.
12- Approximately six million indigenous people were living in the Amazon before the years 1500.
13- Approximately 60% of the world's forests are found in developing countries.
14- The largest cause of rain forest destruction is commercial loggin.
15-Because of tropical deforestation we lose about 100 species every day (!!!) as well many we didn't know even existed.
16- Of all water 16% flows through the Amazon delta.
17- More than 56 square miles of natural forest are destroyed every years.
18- A great diversity of life exists in the Amazon than anywhere else on Earth.
19-The world's rain forest help regulate temperatures and weather patterns.
20- Of the wood cut in tropical forests an estimated 70% is used in homes for fuel.
21- At one time there were about 6 million square miles of tropical forest worldwide. Due to deforestation there are now approximately 2,6 million square miles.
22- An estimated 90% of rain forest in west Africa has been destroyed.
23- Every second an area of the rain forest the size of football field is destroyed.
24- There are more species of fish in the Amazon river than in the entirety of the Atlantic Ocean.
25- Approximately one quarter of western medecines come from ingredients found in rainforests (as cortisona).
26-Every year about 250 000 parrots are imported to U.S.A to be sold as pet.
27- In the Amazon scientists have discovered 200 species of ant on just one tree.
28-A simple pond in Brazil can sustain more species of fish than all rivers in Europe.
29-Scientists estimate that the canopy of the Amazon rain forest, which is less studied that the ocean floor, may contain half of the world's species.
30-More than 20% of the oxygen used in the world is produced in the Amazon rain forest.
31-If the Amazon rain forest were a country it would be the 9th largest in the world.
32-If forest destruction continues at its current rate it is predicted that rainforests will become extinct in 2060.
Concluding if we destroy all rain forests in order improve our economy and our unbearable style of life there will no livable life for all those animals and for us, humans: no air will be produced so we won't be capable breathe...leading the world to asphyxia. If you have about my age, early 20, I think you shouldn't have kids without thinking in what kind of world you'll let them: if you're 20 now and have a kid about the age of 30, in 2060 (where is estimated the extintion of rainforests if this all continues on) if you're alive you''ll be 70 and your son 50, you probably would have grandchildren by the time with 20 years or even great-grandchildren. The previous generation after us (our parents) are gone and we inherited this agonizing world from them. This all means that the present and future of the world relies on us! It's such a painful heritage but we have to do all we can to make future possible because now it's not even a certainty it's a hypothesis!!! This is one of the of the reaons why I think world's population should be controlled, this years will ascend at 7 000 000 000 human beings on earth and the perspectives is of a continued growth...until 9 billions by 2050...and everyone wants a car, drinking water, eat every day, etc, etc. I think if we want to give more to more human more life conditions we should controll human population by just volunteering to not have more than 1 child or none at all. These perspectives is for a world that continues with this high exploration of natural resources but what happens is that with the increase of human population and developing economies (as China, Brazil, India) this will be worse...much worse! I really don't think that if I have children I'll offer them a peaceful and good for living world...the same way I and my generation inherited this dying world.
That's why too, I think rain forests should World Heritage, but not in a way we all could destroy it to get more economical benefits, in a way we could protect them from this atrocious capitalism, together. The same way I get so sad when I see that companies like Mattel are paying indonesian poor men to destroy their rain forests in order to Mattel make cheap paper to wrap Barbies, and then a kid gets so happy when she receives a Barbie...and the paper is straight sent to the garbage! This process envolved painful damages to environment and wonderful creatures living there as tigers and orangutans. If you want Mattel to stop this atrocity sign this Greenpeace petition: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/forests/asia-pacific/barbie/
Recently the brazilian congress agreed to pass a law to allow amnesty fo forest crimes and reduce the size of protected areas (even against the will of the majority of brazilian people (about 79%) and the European Parliament). Conservative estimates of the new law project 47 million hectares of deforestation- at least the size of California and Sweden!!! Allowing congress to weaken Brazil's forest protection and legalize miles of deforestation could be a step backwards for Brazil fight against poverty, decads of deforestation in the Amazon has proven to be an ineffective way to lift people out of poverty in rural areas. And the world cannot adress global warming without Amazon! Sign this petition to ask Brazil causing deforestation in Amazon: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/brazil-without-poverty-is-a-brazil-with-fores/blog/37134/
a message from brazilian activists to brazilian president Dilma Roussef: "Dilma, a Brasil without poverty is a Brazil with forest"
And there's another recent threat: the brazialian congress aproved (against the will of the bazilian people) the construction of a barrage that has been delayed for more than a decade: the dam of Belo Monte in the Rivor Xingu, right in the deep heart of Amazon forest! The previous three presidents of IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of Nature and Natural Resources) resigned themselves because they didn't approved the construction of the barrage, they knew it is an ecologiacal crime! More shocking is the fact that the electricity produced in that barrage is to provide mining industry (of iron, copper, gold and bauxite) what would increase even more the deforestaion. The construction of the barrage will be an environmental, social, biological, economical cataclysm! Millions of people from a near city would be kicked out from their homes and the river is the livehood of more than 25000 indigenous from 24 ethnicity , the fishes wouldn't be able to go upriver and reproduce, the barrage also would flood a surrounding area bigger that the city of Rio de Janeiro, to divert such a huge river it would be necessary to dig two artificial channels bigger than the panama channel...two artificial channels constructed deep inside the forest! It's repuslive to know that most part of the money to construct the barrage is from teh brazilian state that is funding the work with public money as pension funds! The rivers are the blood of the Amazon, let's save them! http://www.avaaz.org/po/pare_belo_monte/97.php
Well let's just say goodbye with a positive note, people that signed a petition for Greenpeace asking Nestlé to stop deforestation in Indonesian rainforests to extract palm oil to make the chocolates made it! So believe it's possible again, sign the petitions and try all you can do to be sure whatever you consume was not from an abusive exploration of rainforests, be in alert to Greenpeace actions and other nature organizations, don't buy mahogany wood, don't have exotic animals as your pets, try to use recycled paper (I don't know why I almost don't see it selling and why it is so much more expensive!), demand true actions from your government, don't buy anything that is from rain forests (except medecines of course), don't eat meat...take action and believe. Well in the end, all you can do is your part, so that's what you must do! If we all defend the nature we can save rain forests.
Portugal. The Man is one of the most wonderful musical secrets I've ever found. I remember to ask myself: "is there any other band that I can be addicted to again? the kind of band with a supreme music, who I can identify myself?". For a long time I even get tired of the music I used to hear but when I was searching stuff about Portugal (the country) I found out that exists a band with the name: Portugal, The Man. Of course at first what intisified my curiosity about the band was its name but when I heard the first music I just fell in love with their melody. This was the first music I heard: "People say"
OUTSTANDING! Isn't it? One of the best musics I've ever heard.
Portugal, the Man is an american psychedelic rock band based in Portland, but originally from Wasilla in the icy state of Alaska. Their first album is from 2006 but they have already recorded 7 studio albums which means they recorded a new album every year, and even two albums in 2009. Their last album is from 2011 and it's called "In the Mountain In the Cloud". They got a new wonderful song and video clip of that album it's called "Sleep Forever",which lasts for almost 14 minutes and it's like a small movie (with some morbid parts). Take a look:
ASTONNISHING! (I hope his coat is not real fur 'cause if it is I'll start hatting this band straight away!) How could I ignore for 6 years this amazing talent? Their so indie spirited and they're not a commercial band. They have lots of freedom to create (they even created their own editor before going to Atlantic records) and put all their efforts to the extreme, the result is magical: their music. As I said their band seems to be a bit of psychedelic rock, indie rock but also has some sonorities of soul, blues and folk...in other words: they're so different from everything I've ever heard, so so awesome.
So it's not just because of the name of the band that I love them, they have real good music! The band have already been in Portugal in 2009 during a summer festival, unfortunatelly by the time I had no idea that existed a band called Portugal, the Man with such a good music. So I really hope they come back some day.
But why they decided to have such a name: "Portugal, the Man" a name of such a small, discrete, medieval and so far from the frozen Alaska, country? Well there is no real explanation for it. The band's name is based on the idea of David Bowies's "bigger than life" fame. They wanted the band to have a bigger than life feel but didn't want to name it after one of their members. The lead vocalist John Gourley explains it better:
"A country is a group of people. With Portugal, it just ended up being the first country that came to mind. The band's name is 'Portugal'. The period is starting that, and 'The Man' states that it's just one person."
The name has more personal meaning as well: Portugal. The Man was going to be the name of a book that Gourley had planned to write about his father and his many adventures. But the original band name was 'Portugal. The Man and the Approaching AIRbaloons'.
But still I still couldn't get it: why not: 'Alaska. The Man' or 'America(n). The Man'?or 'Portland. The Man'? Because they even got a song abou americans it's called 'so american' that refers the Cold War in Vietnam: ".just a mission made of guns that they give boys in vietnam...oh boys all you boys think you're so american...man, oh man you think you're so american".
Isn't it just the most amazing protest song you've ever heard! OMG I loved it!
Back to the their band name again, I saw an interview in which an american douche bag reporter asked Gouley in a mocking way: "why didn't you chose a slightly better country? like Afghanistan. The Man, Cazaquistan. The Man, etc". No harm to that it only shows how ridiculous some americans can be ignoring and despiseing ancient countries like Portugal with almost 1000 years of existence and who were the pioneers of globalization with fantastic maritime adventures of barve sailors (if you don't know our mark is out there in the world, a world that speaks portuguese: from Brazil to East Timor in Oceania passing through 5 countries in Africa and even Macau in China, and Goa in India, we even built architectural wonders all across the globe...and yes we might have been no saints in all that globalization medieval process but we didn't exterminate all the indians like americans did and then were delightful of making western movies to brag that slaughetr...anyway what's past is past what I can't handle is their general stupidity 'cause yes there is a rest of the world out U.S.A...americans, didn't you know??? oh yes there existed history far too long before U.S.A even exists...that country has only few more than 200 years).
Anyway I'm so flattered of an awesome band like this having the name of my country! If I'll have a band someday I'll call it "Portugal. The Band", it difinetely sounds good!
When I think humsnity can't shock me more than they did yesterday, each new day is a discover of cruelty committed agaisnt animals. This new post is really shocking, I never ever could imagine that the so called rational kind and superior of the other animals could do this harm to inocent beings!
"The city Lysychansk (eastern Ukraine) is shooting and burning animals alive as part of Football Preparations for Eurofoot 2012. The captured animals are thrown alive into the oven to 900 degrees C. According to locals, the dogs and cats burned alive.
The concentration of stray animals is not critical and can easily be controlled. The problem of stray animals to be solved by sterilization. We are horrified to learn the problem of stray animals in the Luhansk region in the town Lysychansk in Eastern Ukraine will be "solved" in this way and ignoring the Law on Cruelty to Animals.
Ukrainian Authorities are now using a mobile crematorium to exterminate stray animals. The local government bought a mobile crematorium for the disposal of stray animals. The mobile team of drivers and dog catchers are armed with a gun to shoot strays. The mobile crematorium also lends it to other cities and districts of the region."
What I think it should be controlled proliferation of idiot person in the world, I'm so revolted and heartbroken. Why and how people can be so cruel? How can they kill those animals with no mercy?
It was better for the world those idiots to be in the 900ºC oven instead.
This petition appeals to Adidas to stop using kangaroo leather in their products. Each year, approximately 3 million kangaroos are killed in what is widely regarded as the largest wildlife massacre on the planet.
While peacefully grazing at night, kangaroos are targeted by shooters driving trucks with bright lights designed to spot and startle kangaroos. Although the shooters are supposed to kill them by a single head shot, many kangaroos are shot in the neck, jaw or chest which causes a slow and excruciating death. Mother kangaroos with furless joeys or 'at foot' young are also brutally shot leaving countless joeys orphaned and at risk of dying from exposure to cold, starvation and predation from wild dogs and foxes.Shockingly, the number one supporters of this barbaric trade are sports shoe manufacturers, who purchase the skins and turn them into football boots. Because Adidas is a customer of the kangaroo industry, their use of kangaroo leather is supporting an industry that has no regard for kangaroos. Please sign and help encourage Adidas to end the use of kangaroo leather!
I'm very revolting to see how the australian government and CITIZENS allow such a slaughetr, and even more shocked about sport labels demand to do this for making shoes!! Destroy a biodiversity treasure in danger of extintion and national symbol of Australia in order to make shoes???????
I will stop buying adidas, puma and nike. How can someone be so heartless?? We can't let this go on!
2) Sign a petition to end the slaughetr of whales and dolphins in Faroe Islands (Denmark)
Hundreds of pilot whales are slaughtered every year on the Faroe Islands, a small group of islands north of Europe. Faroe men go out with boats to drive these animals into a fjord using nets to block their way back to sea. The whales then beach themselves, or are pulled ashore with a blunt hook lodged in their blowholes. Once beached and defenceless these whales are killed by having their spinal cords and major blood vessels cut. It can take up to three and a half minutes for a whale to eventually die.
Other than pilot whales, several species of dolphins are also killed using these same methods.
Due to the harsh climate that makes it difficult to grow food on the Faroe Islands, the meat and blubber of these animals was once an important part of the diet of the Faroe people. But nowadays their food supply is diverse and plentiful, the cruel whale and dolphin hunt continues primarily for the sake of 'tradition'
3) Sign a petition to stop the extermination of the Amazon Pink River Dolphin
"These gentle creatures are being killed and exported to other counties due to the complete lack of a serious ambiental policy in Brazil.Besides being affected in their numbers due to extinction of forest areas and the illegal fishing of the species, brazilian authorities simply do not ssem to care.Ignorance made it a belief that they have "magical powers", and that eating their flesh leads to an increased sexual performance. This is one of the main reasons for their decreasing numbers in Amazon. They are hunted and killed to supply this stupid and equivocated market of ignorant consumers.With no real serious concern of the responsible legal agencies such as Ibama.Another reason for their near extinction is that they are being used as baits for fishing. Hunters are being hired to kill them to that effect, so that their flesh is used in Colombia for the fishing of the "piracatinga" .Many foreign TVs have come to document this tragedy."
4) Sign this petition to stop the slaughter of seals in Namibia
"The hunt in Namibia is the second largest commercial seal hunt in the world, and it would not comply with most other nations' laws protecting marine mammals. It is inhumane and unsustainable. Its high quotas are non-precautionary and violate modern basic principles of good wildlife management."
With simple actions like this you as a single individual, with me and tens, hundreds, thousands, millionsof other people can contribute a better world free of cruelty. Want an example of what we have accomplished?
Well this an old new (2005) but I decided to post it to show how living abroad can be tough for immigrants no matter where they're from.
In 2005 the Canadian government deported several portuguese families that have been in the country for 7 years, and some of them with 10, 15 years of living abroad: they had honest jobs and paid the taxes contribuiting for the productivity and the GDP of Canada. They had all their family living there, their house, friends, their pets and their cars. What happened is that after all that years some of the portuguese people had not being accepeted by the immigration services so they were not legal although they had jobs, children born in Canada and studying at canadian schools so most part of that kids not even knew how to speak well portuguese. They were honest people, some of them were volunteers in the comunity, they never had committed any crimes or public disorders. But after all that years they received a letter and in a period of a week they had to return to Portugal without having time to sell their homes and cars, basically they left all there and get back to Portugal without anything.
Some of that portuguese people asked for legalization but is was always denied so to be legal they claimed for refugee status which makes no sense at all since we have no civil war and Portugal is the one of the safer places in the world.
I know they were illegal and they were not refugees at all, saying that is trying to deceive the canadian state and is a very lame excuse I know, but what makes me mad about this is why they took 7, 10, 15 years to decide to deport them? and then just left them a week to move out?
This video is a video done by an opposition party against the deportion of portuguese workers with very irony:
Lots of people, inclusively canadian and chiefs of canadian enterprises tried their best to avoid the deportation of the portuguese because they had lack of work force in the construction and because it's unfair.
I never had no interest in move to Canada let's be clear, but still,I don't like when other countries banish my people who have always been honest and peaceful.
But the same way several people in Portugal are waiting for too many years to be legal and work here. And we still being one of the countries that gives the biggest amount of nationalities to foreign people!
I think a country should deport the people that commit crimes, do robberies there or prostitue themselves.
There's almost no cases of a rowdy portugueses abroad because portuguese immigrants are hard workers, respectful and honest.
Also you can see by what happens in Switzerland, Luxembourg and France, the portuguese are a very potent work force to that countries and helped to build a strong economy by working and paying taxes.
What if the canadian government sent back Nelly Furtado's family after all that years living in Canada?
After all Nelly Furtado was born in Canada but all her family were portuguese and there were sent back young kids that were born in Canada too! That's right you would never be proud of saying: "Nelly Furtado is canadian!" (well, supposing you are Nelly's friend...I am :D).
Nelly furtado is a luso descending that was born in Canada
This kind of things trully disgust me, and I remeber my dad (who receieved several job offers abroad) saying: "you can move, you can run, you can try to forget but you will never ever feel as good as you feel here, there's no place like your country!".
Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz said that too in the movie: "there's no place like home!".
And after all, despite of all that I say the truth is that I don't know how is the world outwards but I see it has not to be excessively better. To be honest, the more I know the world out there, the more I like Portugal!
There's no place like home and after all my home is awesome!
In December of 2011, another family of ten portuguese members was sent back with nothing after being 11 years in Canada working. They never lived from state subsidies and always worked in honest jobs. Anyway after 10 years of being illegal, although working, they were all sent back. That family tried everything to stay in Canada but their request of legalization was always denied. I've been hearing people saying that Canada doesn't want people from abroad there ( even honest and hard working people as it seem), which shows they're a bit xenophobic, and after all why are they like that (attention there is no excuse for being xenophobic)? they have no identity as a country! Please, their head of state is Queen Elizabeth from England and they still being a constitutional monarchy populated by people from everywhere expect the native ones who were almost exterminated (the indians of course).
I wish the deported families the best wishes to start all over again in a place where they can ever be deported (they're country)...or as I heard them saying because of the unemployment very high in Portugal they can return to Canada and be legal there. For you to have an idea that families are having the support from their canadian bosses to return, they really must to be hard working people. Wish them good luck!
"ONU send a letter for each country with the question: "please, say honestly what is your opinion about the scarcity of food in the rest of the world".
The research was a failure. The europeans did not know what 'scarcity' was, the africans did not know what is 'food', the cubans didn't know what 'opinion' is, the argentines didn't know what 'please' is and the north-americans not even can imagine what is the 'rest of the world'. The brazilian congress is debating what 'honestly' means."
(Atention: I wrote this before investigating more about the Nine Eleven and before I was convinced by the facts that well something really just doesn't sound right...)
I couldn't take more time without talking about what happened 10 years ago on 11-September-2011. If I didn't do it earlier was because I didn't felt prepared for it. After all I usually write some mean stuff about America but that doesn't mean I dislike american people at all.
Nine Eleven change my life and it was sadly unforgettable, I still have psychological scars...and they're deeply disturbing!
In America there are about 70 000 daily flights and the place under the twin towers was an underground station where every 90 seconds a train stopped by and 1000 persons get out of the train and moved to the rolling stairs. So that place was very bustling. Fortunately the underground station was closed when the first plane crashed the tower. This is just to let you know how bustling USA is, specially NYC.
In that day I was a normal european kid with 11 years old and to be honest by the time I didn't understand why that fuss was all about, to me it looked like just two ugly buildings falling apart, but then I saw that buildings were burning because two planes crashed into and then I thought: "how come did two aeroplanes destroy that towers?", it sure sounded premeditated, and then I thought about the people, it sure must have people inside the buildings!And then the horror came in front of our screens: people suicide themselves jumping out of the windows because they rather die smashed than burned...it was absolute despair! And it kept going, people run away screaming until the two buildings were scaterred to ash...as millions of lives!
And then a group of islamic extremist proclaimed they made the attack...and then a new reality came out: Terrorism.
And for this 10 years we've seen this kind terrorism also in Europe: in Madrid,Spain and in London,United Kingdom.
That terrorists proclaimed the Western Nations (specially USA and Europe) as kafirs, this is unfaithful to (their) God, they advocate that those countries have no moral and their God charged them to kill them all because they don't deserve to live. The reward for making them explode themselves is going to Heaven with their God which will offer each one 70 virgins. When I read and saw in the news that terrorists believed in this I was stunned, Einstein said that human stupidity is infinite but I never thought it could be this astonishing big!
The twin towers and the Pentagon were the major symbol of the supremacy of USA in the world, specially in the world's economy so that's why it's said it was the target of the terrorists.
And in 10 years I read some books, one of them was "Divine Anger" from Jose Rodrigues dos Santos, a journalist from RTP, a portuguese TV station. Well he read the Alcoran and wrote a thrilling story about a terrorist, the book was read by an ex member of that terrorist organization (Al Qaeda) and that person said that what that extermists characters defended was what that the real members defended too.
It is said that in Alcoran are two perspectives of Maomet which makes the two biggest difference between the xiitas and sunitas : sunitas are the major part of muslims and they are more moderated and peaceful than the xiitas who are the extremists. That's why daily in Iraq and Pakistan it's made bomb attacks: xiitas against sunitas. One of the news it shocked me the most was about a suicide bomber who said that in the city centre someone will take them to work in a paid work, hundreds of men waited concentrated and then the bomber made explode himself and killed hundreds of innocents who just wanted to get a job to feed their starving families. For xiitas the sunitas are kafir and they advocate they should die even being muslims too. The same for those who have a different faith or are atheist or agnostic.
What happens is that a group of radicals make brain wash to other desperate people specially kids who were born and raised always just knowing that reality so they never saw beyond that, they grow up and become terrorists.
To be honest I never read Alcoran but we all know there are some parts that defend the Holy War against the kafirs. In the bible too! Well there were the Christian Crusades hundreds of years ago against the muslims who were said to be the unfaithful ones by christians! Yes it happened too! But we moved along, now that kind of scriptures make no sense at all, it's out of context we can't guide ourselves from what it's written in there!
What an extremist and awful God we can read from the holy scriptures! Fortunately I can separate what people say from God from what I think from God...well if He does exist at all, and if He exists He must be good, amorous, friendly and just want us to live happy together respecting each others. He's sure a positive and harmonious energy...otherwise He wouldn't create life, life is harmony and happiness not death and destruction. But He might have walk away and left us alone wondering if we are willing to love or willing to hate.
Listen I don't really believe if He exists but when we see people killing and dying if we're good persons and have compassion we get really morose, sad and even feel angry and disgusted about the assassins.
There are a lot of bad people outside, malevolent souls consumed by hate wanting to make other's suffer and even take pleasure from it but anyway I still thinking the good ones are the majority...and we can win them.
Anyway to make things clear I have no religion but I believe in compassion and love and friendship...it might be a big harmonious energy out there and I call it God! I think you can be spiritual and not religious and this came out the need I had to stop believing in what people said about Him, because what people said about Him was just awful, it always seemed to me people fear God much more than trully love Him. Let's just focus in what you think He's like, the Universe tells me is good and you just need to help other people and living creatures and the planet.
I just think Humanity is not reliable and all religions have stupid manners and beliefs that's why I proclaimed myself as unconvertible.
But let's go back to Nine Eleven, during the past 10 years I've been watching all the moves after that tragic episode and I concluded something: USA decided to invade Iraq and took with them the other fellows from NATO because they said there were hidden a massive nuclear arsenal...10 years later the dictator Saddam (who commited crimes against humanity) was executed, the terrorist Bin Laden who was the leader of Al-Qaeda was killed...but no weapons were found!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS AT ALL!!!
And NATO still being there shooting, killing and doing horrifying things even to mere civilians (wikileaks agitated the world when published a video about american soldiers pressing a button to explode a warehouse which they found was odd and they didn't even waited for the pedestrian to finish passing by to shoot! as the result an inocent was killed and it was just an empty warehouse....but are so many many more cases! I read on the news that a dad in Iraq was taking his kids to school and stopped by to help people who were spilling blood on the road, the american soldiers shoot them and after all what they killed were just innocent persons trying to have a normal life in a destroyed and hideously occupied country! I wish instead of spending money in guns NATO spend it reconstructing the country.
But let's take a look at what is happening in Libya now...do you think it's different?
Despite of Kadaffi being a dictator who killed lots of persons who were against his polity he made some good stuff for Lybia who were before the invasions a country with a high HDI (a measure of well being in a country), see it for yourself in wikipedia (if you trust in wiki): Libya. In Libya too was constructed a big engennering project: the biggest irrigation system of the World which provided drinking water to people in the desert and promoted the farmer industry. If you check the map of Human Development Index (HDI) in wikipedia HDI you can see that it's pretty high (0,755), or used to be: it's higher that the HDI of Brazil and comprable to some European countries as Portugal (0,795), Poland, Romania, Croatia and United Kingdom (0,85). What I'm trying to say is that at least some good things must have been done there because they have/ used to have a high HDI, something was done in order to improve people's lives...and now something is being done to destroy it all!
After all what it looks like NATO is doing now is simply invade other's countries in order get economical profits, it's a geopolitical and geoestrategical policy to get what makes the world move: OIL!!!!!!!
For a while I believed in thad thing of allies and fight the terrorism but now I see that what is being done is get an excuse, say that they're there to protect and defend people's interests and well being, free them from the ditactor and give them democracy (in the case of Lybia they're being helped from the oponents of the dictatorship they just didn't invade it without some "welcomes"). How can NATO help and defend people? destroying their homes and cities? making them war refugees and them DENY THEM ACESS TO ESCAPE THAT HELL? I'm talking about Europe denying access to refugees that come in boats starving and dying of thirst...they're sent back! SENT BACK! I mean those who didn't die! And meanwhile we see Italy receiving some persons and then they move all Europe...and what it's done? France closes the borders with Italy and Denmark with Germany and Sweden. USA and allies create a problem but don't deal with the consequences...with the HUMANITARIAN consequences. The most disgusting thing of all this do you know what is it? is that who's paying for all that wars and destruction is us! People who work honestly paying taxes for the well being of a society and gets against our will our money used to kill inocents! And this is regretable!
A lot of things have changed in 10 years, one of the most shocking things was the terrible day all the horrors of the world implode in front of my eyes through a screen, that was the day all the cruel reality fell over me and I discovered how people can be so indescribable ugly, dread and evil! I knew that people killed each other I just never thought they cut their heads off to do it, and with 12 years old I saw on TV a beheading of a young american soldier by terrorists. I never ever knew what a beheading was because I never knew how cruel people could be to each others, I was so innocent and pure...but when that day came I was never ever the same smiling kid! I found out that the world is ugly, I felt just out of place and each new day I discovered horrible things everywhere...I just wanted to leave this place, I just wanted to escape from the hell of living. I had several nightmares about this disturbing issue for years, but I never confided to anyone that this really disturbed me for my entire life. In that day the TV was tuned in this new and I was just passing by the screen to go to my bedroom, nobody was there near me, next thing I remeber was to be in shock, didn't want to come out my bedroom, didn't want to talk, didn't want to watch TV anymore specially news...I closed myself with my deepest thoughts and became a depressive and loner teenager disgusted with the world. Later I read in the Divine Anger book that beheading a kafir was what their holy book said they had to do to kill their enemies. Maomet himself did it several times and encouraged others to do it (well this is what I read).
I read a fantastic book: "From Bagdade with love" about an american soldier (a marine) who fell in love with a little puppy, it was one of the most notable and emotional books I've ever read.
Well in a day of fighting in Iraq the marines occupied an empty house to sleep the night and they found a small lost puppy that was left behind possibly when its family have to run away from the horror Bagdade was in.
After a day of slaughtering, bombing and shooting the soldiers looked to the little puppy and smiled, caressed and played with him. A little bit later the Marine Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman enters the shelter and sees that, he told the soldiers they couldn't take care of the dog and that was against the army rules (soldiers can't feed or help animals, women and children in fact they don't even can talk to them or make some contact...why? because soldiers are trained to be like war machines: don't feel, don't think by themselves so the best way to do it is keep them far from any warm feelings as compassion and taking care of a little dog can bring them their lost or numb humanity and that can compromise the militar operations).
The Marine Kopelman said someone had to kill the dog (it's the army orders), but all soldiers said they wouldn't do it because they had enough blood in their hands just for a day and they didn't want to sleep after killing a little puppy, enough nightmares they said. Well it was up to Jay to do it but when he was getting ready to shoot, the little puppy looked at him and started playing with his shoelace...he just couldn't kill the dog and said it was okay stay with the puppy for a night, and then they fed it and gave it water. That night was the begginig of a friendship, the little dog slept next to Jay, and since that day he just couldn't get rid of the dog, he protect him and hide the dog from his superiors. When they found out they separeted Jay from the puppy but Jay made up a plan and paid a taxi driver to take the dog to the place they were moving in, he was with the puppy (named Lava) one more time. But then Jay had to return to USA and stop his activities there and they didn't allow him to take the dog. It was very tough for him to separate from his little friend but he thought that when he gets back in the USA he could get over it...but he just couldn't stop thinking about the little dog every day and every night...he tried everything and he could rescue his little dog! Now they live happy together in USA! This is trully an amazing story that really commoved me.
Well in that book the Marine Jay Kopelman tells us too awful details about what was going on Iraq, the most impressive things was that the marines found human slaughters full of encaged prisoners and human corpses as well DVD's that filmed that tortures and murderers. In the news it was told too that that kind of hedious DVD's were sold in streets as if it was an entertainment product.
Also the streets of Bagdade were full of human corpses that were eaten by starving dogs and there were the constant threat of suicide bombing for that the terrorists even used bomb-strapped cows and other animals as donkeys and retarded kids. No doubts if there is a Hell it was in Bagdade.
So we can look at the little Lava as a miracle and believe that even in a destroyed and soulless place there can still exist hope and love.
One of the things that came after the 11-9 was my favourite band: My Chemical Romance which I saw performing in July 2011 Lisbon. The 1st song of the band was written by the leader singer, Gerard Way and it's about what he felt when he saw people suiciding themselves jumping out of the windows and falling to the emptiness. The song it's called: Skylines and Turnstiles.
I just remembered another epic song about all this theme, it's from the amazing Green Day (who I saw performing too in Lisbon in September 2009) it's called Wake Me Up When September Ends and it's about the soldiers sent to war.
And by the way I let you with some magnificient quotations of Einstein:
"The pioneers of a warless world are the young men (and women) who refuse military service. "
"Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it. "
"Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. "
Einstein said too that the problem was not the existence of evil persons but the fact that the others let them win doing the evil acts they order them to do it.
I just want express my admiration for all the people that revolted against the terrorists aboard and rather make the plane crash in Pensilvania then cause more deaths of course if this story is true...) and express all my admiration too for all the firefighters and volunteers that risked or lost their lives to rescue and save the victims with so much courage and nobility. You are the true Heroes!
But what I have to say too is that we made the Nine Eleven overrated: about 3000 people died on that attack but about 700 000 died in the consequencies of the war in Iraq.
So tell me please, who is the biggest terrorist? I still don't get the media point...
Just Wake Me Up When September Ends!
Related posts:
I hate to do generalizations, and usually avoid to do them.
First of all, I'm not anti-America or something like that, I'm just anti stupidity. Unfortunately USA for all the reasons I can find is one of the most stupid nations I ever could imagine, so that's why I write so much mean stuff about USA. In fact, north-american people is the closest we can have to alliens.
USA is said to be the biggest nation on Earth, but why are they trully that big?well because USA has the largest number of fat people, and I'm not talking about people with more 10 kg or 15 kg, I'm talking about deadly fat people with more 100kg or 200 kg, it's a major problem of health and people just seem not to care about changing it. They have 24h open gym and single meals with 3000 kcal (when a normal person only eats about 2000 kcal each day)!
Well so when I thought I couldn't be more shocked about USA people that's when I got even more shocked: in the USA a young woman with kids weights 320 kg but she wants to get in the Guiness World Record with 730 kg!To do that she eats 20 000 kcal each day (the amount of kcal 10 people eat each day).
This is the kind of new I really don't know if I should cry or laugh. In USA each year 25 million tons of perfectly comestible food are thrown away more 70 million tons of food from the supermarket! If american people give to the starving children all the food they eat and buy they could save lots of lives, instead they rather explode in their own grease.
And more, people I know who went to USA told me that if people are thirsty they don't drink water they rather drink refrigerants with lots of sugar: fanta, 7up, pepsi, coca cola....
And even in the fast food restaurants you can drink as much soda as you want and chips!
People who travelled there too told me that what's normal in USA is being fat, if you're no fat probably you're an actor or a famous athlete or dancer or singer....everything is made in a large scale, friends of mine told me that single bed looked like double bed in Europe, even the chairs in restaurantes were much larger. It's usual to see really obese people with a bag with oxygen in the back....they're so fat that they not even can breathe! As if all this was not enough they not even walk in the streets like a normal person: they use segways!
In the context of the american huge debt, the president of United States of America, Barack Obama said in a conference: "the good new is...we're not Portugal", he said this in a mocking tone, but what happens is that after all for us it sounds like irony.
My fellow americans, if you're reading this do you know where is Portugal? do you know what is Portugal after all?
Well if you don't know I can explain you quickly, but first of all check it in the google world or google maps...done? Ok, it's in Europe, Europe is a continent, Portugal is in the western south of Europe...and no, it's not a spanish province it's a real country with a real and old history and identity...not like some new pre-fabricated countries like yours, Canada or Australia. So as a real country we really have our own language, it has some similarities to spanish and italian because it comes from latin, an extincted language. And if you have no idea about it, our language is portuguese and is spoken by 250 million people in the world across all inhabitaded continents: Europe (Portugal), America (Brazil), Africa (Angola, Mozambique, S. Tome & Principe, Guine Bissau, Cabo Verde), Oceania (Timor), it's also a 2nd official language spoken in China in the city of Macau and is a non-official language in India in Goa. What makes the portuguese language in the 7000 actual languages spoken world-wide the 6th with more number of speakers, the 5th with more countries that have it as an official language, the 3rd more spoken amongst the western languages (behind english and spanish).
And yeah damn it Portugal has only 10 million inhabitants, less than an average brazilian city, and its size would be a XXS with 92 090km² of area!!! Neverthless we were huge, in fact we still being as you can see it (or can't see it...)
Now that you know wtf is Portugal we can talk about the main issue of this post:
So, in fact, Obama is so damn right when he said USA is not Portugal. And you know why?
Well as Manuel Ferrer wrote (if something here isn't true let me know about it, if you have something to tell about this tell me too please, anyway feel free to say anything here even to say "screw" me, haters are welcome too):
1-In USA 50% of the population have no health care and 25% can't take any treatment in any hospital (health care is a real business, so if you're poor and you need to have health care and can't afford that...they just let you die).
2-In USA the public debt rose at a level impossible to be paid for several generations and already exceeded the hundreds of thousands of U.S § per family.
3-In USA children with 12 years old are condemned to life imprisonment for stealing a bicycle (well about this new I haven't found a direct post about but we all know how crime is unbelievable common in USA and it's kind of violent country, also USA has the stupidest laws to judge people for 25 years of prison or lifetime imprivisionment just for try to steal something even without any violence or carrying weapons, check this: stories, as you can read there, for instance:
"Leandro Andrade, 44 years old, was given not one but two sentences of 25 years-to-life for stealing nine children's videotapes, including "Snow White," "Cinderella" and "Free Willie 2.The tapes were worth $153.54. He says:" I’m not a killer. I'm not a rapist. I'm really not a bad person once you get to know me.Do I deserve to be locked up for the rest of my life, because a certain judge feels that's what he deserves?”.
Under his sentence, Andrade will be 87 before being eligible for parole.
Also in the big USA children have fun with their families shooting guns, and a 12 years old kid killed with a his stepmother and other with 12 years old kid who killed his brother beating him to death will be in jail forever.
And if you put in a jail someone just because robbed or tried to rob a thingy believe me, how would you do if happened there the same that happened in England this year? looting because they wanted to? no jail would be enough!
4-In USA 1/5 of black people are in jail (racism? I mean in the way to chase only the blacks? there must be a lot of white guys with a tie working in banks stealing millions from people...and I even know a white terrorist that lived in Washington DC in a fancy white house...).
5-In the USA 6% of people daily survive with one canned food meal...for animals.
6-The public school it's said to be totaly uselles and is on its way to extintion.
7-In USA it's said to be more than 450 police organizations and the judiciary is not independent of the executive, it's named for him! (that explains a lot....).
8-In USA it's said that the 2 biggest industries are the army and porn. The porn industry said Mark Hitchcock about USA have 12 billions of dollares of profits per year.
9-In USA it's said that 1% of the population controlls and receives about 90% of the national PIB.
10-In USA the meat and eggs production legally uses chemical growth promoters (a source of cancer if you didn't know about that).
11-In USA there's no minimum wage and the unskilled workers are paid 4 euros/ hour.
12-The USA is envolved in tens of armed conflicts dirty and dubious to carry out coups favorable to their interests and those of Israel (what I know about that is the invasions of Iraq, I remember Bush to tell us they had nuclear weapons....but not even one nuclear weapon was found! Just for don't talk about Lybia...you want to save people from tyrants? But USA is the biggest tyrant on Earth specially for Earth resources).
13-The USA raise the world's best brains to its army industry and "force" their "allies" to buy them.
14- The USA is the world's largest market for hard drugs and a major producer of amphetamines and other chemical doping
15-The U.S.A printspaper money andthrough treatieswith itsArabcoloniestransformed theU.S.$ ininternational means of paymentinstead ofgold (maybe it's the reason why when the USA economy is down all the world follows the drop).
Check: http://www.minyanville.com/mvpremium/ten-industries-in-which-the/?refresh=1
So Obama is so damn right! None of these (fortunatelly) happens in Portugal!
One more important detail: the USA is completely bankrupt and more than 10% population already live in camps without any sanitation or basic public services (maybe this have to do with the subprime crisis: people had no money to pay their debts so banks pawned their houses and they had to live in camping areas forgotten from the society...what is happening now is that even banks can't afford the pawn of the house, paying the maintenance and municipal taxes...so now numerous houses are being sold just for a dolar! But still people don't buy it because they have no way to afford it after, also USA have 46 million of citizens living below the poverty line).
SO THANKS GOD! WE ARE NOT AMERICA!
Only to end: So USA participated in two wars that weren't paid? I remember the previous government saying that we had to fight against terrorism and invade Afghanistan and Iraq because they had nuclear war weapons. In the end, nobody found nuclear weapons...because they didn't really existed! But meanwhile NATO troops killed and still killing civilians. Well the only reasonable answer for that is one: geostrategical and geopolitical interests...the black gold: oil.
Here's my piece of advice to the Nobel Peace Prize: about the wars NATO didn't pay I don't know how USA had money to do them but USA shouldn't start other wars like in Libya (which they started!)
It's all just to remind Obama that a Nobel Peace Prize shouldn't do war!
A portuguese group of humorists made a music with the declarations of Obama: "We're not Portugal, we're not Greece", portuguese sarcasm and ironcial sense of humor has no limits!
USA we're glad you're not Portugal!
