Showing posts with label green revolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label green revolution. Show all posts

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Free the Slaves (video)

Wisdom Quarterly (Green Fest LA, Oct. 29, 2011), FreeTheSlaves.net
Together we can end it: 1320 19th St. NW Ste. 600, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 775-7480.

Now that Demi Moore is divorcing a philandering Ashton Kutcher, who will bring attention to child sex trafficking and the plight of underage prostitutes in the US? Who will stop the beatings of unpaid laborers? Who will get rights for domestic help treated worse than pets?

Jessica Gardiner answers questions and admires newborn. "Our mission is simple: We liberate modern slaves around the world then help them build their lives as human beings" (WQ/Seven).

Slavery goes far deeper than girls being forced to be molested to profit pimps and impoverished madams in secret brothels, who frequently trick parents into selling their children into indentured servitude or a better future -- never realizing what that means.


How to do something about it: info@freetheslaves.net

Impersonal economic forces ruin lives, but so do the very personal choices of white slavers, purchasers, money launderers, and capitalists with the next best thing to gold: free disposable labor. Most of us are "wage slaves," but at least we get wages and can act as if we were free. Imagine losing even those two perks.

Talking about an incomprehensible topic sometimes means just pointing at pictures. Gardiner grieves while producer Harold Linde fields questions (WQ/Seven).

Free The Slaves occupied a booth across from John Perkins -- the former self-described "economic hitman" for the US military-industrial complex -- at this weekend's Green Fest. Twin ghosts, beautiful young ladies with gaunt and haunted faces called attention to a taboo topic. An oversized picture book by Lisa Kristine. FTS


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Success in solving the problem feels good, so celebrate!

Monday, October 24, 2011

What the Occupations Want

Wisdom Quarterly at Occupy Los Angeles, October, 2011
"Capitalism is Socialism for the 1 percent." A tiny desert pueblo became a megalopolis.

"Edward Sharpe gave an amazing performance full of love, light, and hope. I approached and told him his music was beautiful. He smiled, thanked, and hugged me. Occupy LA (OLA) is RADICAL in more ways than one!"

After the concert, it was on to class at the free Collective University. Topic du jour, "The Truth About the Economy." From college, it was off to temple, sitting in devotion and concentration in the holy tent.



The permanent Meditation Temple tent at Occupy LA


After church, it was power to the people rocking the mic. Not the people's mic (which comes on anytime anyone shouts "Mic check!")

Open mic poetry was followed by a theatrical performance piece, dancing to music, talking with like minded folks (there are folks of all minds available for talking), and committee meetings to stack at on all corners of America's largest Occupy encampment on par with Zuccotti Park.

Occupied L.A. Theatre & Company accepts all creative actions (Wisdom Quarterly).

What Does the Occupation Want?
Meetings are taking place. There is a search for a solution, presentations are being given, classes are being taught, and a free library is in operation. It's the society we were promised, stolen from us by the greed of corporations and the corruption of politicians, the brutality of police and the undermining of privacy by our many American spying apparatuses.

() Marianne Williamson gave a stirring speech at her weekly address on Oct. 20, 2011, reminding us how every movement is ridiculed before the change it effects is taken for granted. A massive labor march was approaching (Wisdom Quarterly).

Why do the committees vote as a group then take their consensus to the General Assembly? It is to BE the change we want to see in the world! At 7:30 every night on the south steps of City Hall in the pueblo de los angeles ("the city of angels"), Angeleno Occupiers discuss the issues. They vote, that is, they "take the temperature" as a group about what actions to take as a movement!

The Hug Deli serves fresh three-breath hugs with a two compliment limit. Too many thank yous hold up the line (Wisdom Quarterly).

"The people united will never be defeated." Everyone gets a chance to speak, everyone is heard, everyone is treated with respect. What do we want, what do we want? The world is looking at it! We want what we were lied to about and promised all along. We want the democracy we don't have in the "real" world.

"Members of Congress should be like members of NASCAR and wear the names of their sponsors across their bodies!" Power to the people (obrag.org).

This is Democracy Now! Democracy in action! This is not Woodstock. It's not a circus, carnival, or freak show. Of course the mainstream media has to portray it that way. The media is the message -- and the message is corporatism. News Corp, FOX, CIA/CNN, The Times, Lying Inc.

SEIU and other labor groups organized a massive march and approached the south steps where Marianne Williamson was speaking (Wisdom Quarterly).

Imagine a well organized, nonviolent movement. But just so you don't have to tax your imagination, ride the Metro into downtown and see it in real life. For the love of love, the love of democratic principles, the love of each other, see it. ALL are welcome. Every voice is needed.


No degree will save you when corporatists run the university.


Observe, listen, take classes with amazingly smart and sincere people, learn, and participate. An illiterate man taught me to share. A Ph.D. taught me to yawn while pretending to scratch my nose. A skateboarder taught me to spin a hula hoop with lights in it. A Buddhist taught me to regard every beggar as a best friend capable of giving an opportunity to practice generosity and make merit in the process.

Free energy technology exists. Corporations know it, government knows it, but the profit motive keeps anyone else from it. We're lucky to have gotten solar (Wisdom Quarterly).

It is important! It is our world. It is now (partly) running on solar power. There are designated "Waste Free Zones." Gardens are about to be built. Compost toilets are coming online. We need town criers, free kitchen help... imagine everything a FREE world would be if someone weren't trying to put profit before people, before the environment, before the planet, before personal growth, before liberation. Then come make it.

West Coast Occupy Venice in and Occupy LA stand in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street.

Love blossoms all across town from Venice Beach to Skid Row (Wisdom Quarterly).

How the occupation of Los Angeles began ()

Powerful Beyond Measure

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” - Marianne Williamson

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

"GasHole" - alternative fuels vs. oil (trailer)


()

"GasHole" is a documentary film about the history of petroleum prices and the future of alternative fuels. The film is a wide yet detailed examination of US dependence on foreign oil supplies. What are the causes that turned America from a leading exporter to the world's largest importer? What are the forces that contributed to that change and that impede its solution?

There are many potential solutions to our oil dependence. Starting with claims of buried technology that easily and dramatically improves gas mileage right now, to navigating bureaucratic and industry roadblocks, to evaluating different fuels available, to questioning the American consumer's reluctance to embrace alternatives. If you buy gasoline, see this movie! Directed by Scott Roberts and Jeremy Wagener.


An optimistic (and witty) discovery of what we do, could do, and
might do to prevent this climate crisis. Directed by Peter Byck.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Germany to close all nuclear power plants!

Reuters, May 30, 2011

Banner says "ATOMIC POWER, NO THANKS." Demonstrators protest in front of Biblis nuclear power plant on March 20. In the wake of the Fukushina disaster, Germany plans to abandon nuclear energy (Reuters/Ralph Orlowski).

Germany will move out of nuclear power, keeping shut eight suspended reactors and closing the rest by 2022 in response to Japan's Fukushima disaster and following after a dramatic policy reversal by the coalition government at the weekend.

The decision, which came amid mass demonstrations against nuclear power, must be legally validated in parliament and could face strong opposition from utility companies.

Below is a list of the country's seven oldest reactors which were suspended after the Fukushima incident and an eighth, Vattenfall's Kruemmel, which was shut for other reasons. These were going to be shut until at least mid-June for safety reviews and now will probably never restart. More

Friday, April 22, 2011

Earth Day festivities 2011

Topanga Earth Day 2011

Earth Fest, California 2011

KPFK is going solar

Greenwashing: False "Green" Claims (video)

() For big business, going "green" has become the trendy and profitable thing to do: On the shelves of any store we can find products that boast "green" claims -- eco-friendly, energy-efficient, organic, partially recycled.

But how many of these claims do you think are either partly untrue or completely false? If you guessed that 99.9% are false, you are correct! It's called whitewashing, only it's green. But the only green thing about them is the money to be made as corporations go green with envy for natural product companies' gains in market share.

According to a study from Terrachoice Environmental Marketing, out of 1,018 common consumer products reviewed, only one product did not commit one of the "Six Sins of Greenwashing."


When looking for an eco-friendly product that actually backs up its claims by being good for the planet, where can we turn?

Unfortunately this study shows that these products do not exist. Here's why: According to Terrachoice's research, over 50% of products tested with "eco-friendly" labels fail to mention the enormous environmental drawbacks such as containing hazardous waste and travel costs.

These need to be factored in when considering to buy and eco-friendly product. For example, even eco-popular CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs) contain mercury. This means they cannot be thrown away in the trash. (They are hazardous waste that need to be disposed of properly or they will pollute the environment). Moreover, 90% of them have been manufactured and shipped from China! This is called the "sin of hidden trade-off" by Terrachoice.

Think of it this way. No matter which way you slice it, a can of soda will never be good for our health or the health of the environment. Diet soda has replaced the [14 teaspoons per can of] corn and cane sugar with an artificial sweetener that has proven to be an excito-toxin and a known carcinogen. In many cases the diet sodas still contain excessive amounts of caffeine, artificial chemicals: colorings, flavors, phthalates (from the plastic lining inside the aluminum can). Forget the nonexistent nutritional value of carbonated and sweetened chemicals harmful to our health.

When we factor in a manufactured can that needs to be recycled and the travel costs, what is the impact on our health and the environment?

But by calling their products "green," companies are making a mint. Let's take a stand against greenwashing.