Category: Direct Action

Clean Water from a “Hamster Ball”

Clean water is hard to access in a lot of places around the world. Sometimes water is accessible but not potable, this problem inspired a graduate student to create an easy to use way to purify water using something similar to a hamster ball.

Liow’s design was driven by a need to help the 900 million people around the world who lack access to safe drinking water. Over two million children die annually from preventable causes, triggered largely by contaminated water. It is an increasing problem in developing nations due to rapid urbanisation and population growth.

‘After visiting Cambodia in 2008, and seeing the immense lack of everyday products we take for granted, I was inspired to use my design skills to help others,’ Mr Liow said.

Mr Liow’s simple but effective design is user-friendly and durable, with a weather-resistant construction, making it well suited to people in hot, wet, tropical climates with limited access to resources.

Read the rest of the press release.

SlutWalk Toronto

A few weeks ago a member of Toronto’s police force was speaking at a law school and something akin to ‘women get raped because they dress like sluts’. An outrageous comment to say the least, well a lot of people are outraged and are doing something about it.

As a direct reaction to the crazy claims from the Toronto police is SlutWalk.

We are tired of being oppressed by slut-shaming; of being judged by our sexuality and feeling unsafe as a result. Being in charge of our sexual lives should not mean that we are opening ourselves to an expectation of violence, regardless if we participate in sex for pleasure or work. No one should equate enjoying sex with attracting sexual assault.
We are a movement demanding that our voices be heard. We are here to call foul on our Police Force and demand change. We want Toronto Police Services to take serious steps to regain our trust. We want to feel that we will be respected and protected should we ever need them, but more importantly be certain that those charged with our safety have a true understanding of what it is to be a survivor of sexual assault — slut or otherwise.
We are tired of speeches filled with lip service and the apologies that accompany them. What we want is meaningful dialogue and we are doing something about it: WE ARE COMING TOGETHER. Not only as women, but as people from all gender expressions and orientations, all walks of life, levels of employment and education, all races, ages, abilities, and backgrounds, from all points of this city and elsewhere.

SlutWalk’s official website.

Fair Trade Jewellery

Blood diamonds have been a part of the jewellery industry for too long, and now FTJCo in Toronto is “North America’s original certified fairtrade fine jeweller”.

It’s great to see a jeweller that understands that fair trade and social justice can be a key part of their business. If you need new jewellery you should always try to buy from sources that are people and earth friendly.

Certified participants in the Condoto Community Council’s Oro Verde initiative, the source for our metals, receive a guaranteed minimum price, a social premium, and the opportunity to empower themselves through a stronger base for bargaining, better knowledge of market values, and the possibility of sourcing pre-financing from prospective buyers.

Fairtrade Fairmined certification provides an incentive for sustainable mining, keeping communities together.

ENVIRONMENTAL GOOD
The Condoto miners use no toxic chemicals such as cyanide or mercury, key causes of many challenges associated with industrial mining and prospecting activities.

Oro Verde’s environmentally friendly approach and the Fairtrade Fairmined certification place the responsibility for land stewardship in the hands of these miners, balancing it with tangible incentives and rewards for minimum-impact practices.

Check out the fair trade jewellery here.

5 Easy Ways to Recycle Electronics

In the 21st century we tend to use a lot of electronics and to save the planet we should dispose of electronics properly. Lucky for us, LifeHacker has made a list of easy ways to recycle electronics.

Many towns, cities, counties, and states have their own e-cycling programs that offer convenient drop-off locations for old computers, big monitors, and other electronics. The EPA suggests a cluster of search sites for helping you find a local ecycling program, including EcoSquid and the Consumer Electronics Association’s MyGreenElectronics. And beyond the picks you see below, the EPA has a grid list of consumer-friendly e-cycling programs from stores and manufacturers.

Read more at LifeHacker.

Wikileaks Makes a Difference

Wikileaks is a site dedicated to getting information that is held behind closed doors into the open. The recent leak of a collection of American embassy cables has shone a lot of light on many diplomatic issues around the world.

The good news is that thanks to cables, people in oppressed regimes are seeing what the USA truly believes about their country. The most recent example is in Tunisia where an uprising as thrown out a bad dictator.

I asked our experts at Human Rights Watch to canvass their sources in the country, and the consensus was that while Tunisians didn’t need American diplomats to tell them how bad their government was, the cables did have an impact. The candid appraisal of Ben Ali by U.S. diplomats showed Tunisians that the rottenness of the regime was obvious not just to them but to the whole world — and that it was a source of shame for Tunisia on an international stage. The cables also contradicted the prevailing view among Tunisians that Washington would back Ben Ali to the bloody end, giving them added impetus to take to the streets. They further delegitimized the Tunisian leader and boosted the morale of his opponents at a pivotal moment in the drama that unfolded over the last few weeks.

This point might not be worth dwelling on, except that it suggests something interesting about how the United States, and the State Department in particular, approaches the challenge of promoting human rights and democracy in countries like Tunisia. Consider the following proposition: None of the decent, principled, conscientious, but behind the scenes efforts the State Department made in recent years to persuade the Tunisian government to relax its authoritarian grip — mostly through diplomatic démarches and meetings with top Tunisian officials — had any significant impact on the Ben Ali regime’s behavior or increased the likelihood of democratic change. Nor did the many quiet U.S. programs of outreach to Tunisian society, cultural exchanges and the like, even if Tunisians appreciated them and they will bear fruit as the country democratizes.

My personal take on this is that the people were clearly ready to act but needed a push, Wikileaks helped with that in Tunisia. Hopefully soon we’ll see other countries overthrow evil leaders and bringing more peace and well-being to more and more and more people.

Read the rest of the article.