Day 294: #HoldACokeWithYourBoobsChallenge is now a thing

The Internet did it again.The  #HoldACokeWithYourBoobsChallenge is going viral. Woman taking selfies holding a can or bottle of coke with nothing but their boobs is apparently a bid to raise awareness of breast cancer. The irony here is quite thick, because those who had breast cancer and mastectomies will never be able to hold anything up.

 Showing your Boobs and how much of it you have and your ability to hold up a can of coke is more like a slap in the face to those who had a mastectomy. Not to mention that coke itself is not a very healthy drink…

The reason this is getting so much attention is simple, very few men would not want to see a woman showing off her breasts. It’s the height of narcissism to post half-naked selfies for their own sake but it’s also pretty duplicitous to claim you’re doing it for a valiant reason.

Even the Breast cancer foundation had this in response: 

“Breast Cancer Research Foundation does not support this campaign and we do not plan on accepting any donations from this campaign. Breast cancer is a serious global health issue that impacts millions of women and men around the world and we believe that breast cancer should not be trivialized.”

There is no problem with raising awareness for a cause or to help a cause, but the Boob challenge is not the way. Rather do something that will actually help. Many woman do not know how to check for lumps that could be a sign that’s its cancer. Instead of putting a coke between your breasts a better option would be to do an educational video on how to check for lumps or something like that. Unfortunately even that will become more about the sexual part ( BOOBS) than the actual educational part, but still would be better than what is currently going on.

To sum up – if you are going to do something for a cause make sure it will actually benefit and help the cause. The #HoldACokeWithYourBoobsChallenge is not helping anything, only narcissism…

Movie ‘The Giver’ - What does it show about ME?

 

Where shall I start? At the beginning. The reason behind the memory wipe the community decided on was because they saw that Humans were destructive. The only way to ensure survival was to take away the things that caused humans to be destructive: Emotions and free will and making everything the same.

That is part of the big problem we humans face and those 2 things play a major role in why the world is so screwed up currently. Free will and emotions actually work together – The things we do and decide upon are largely based on emotions. We follow what we feel and are directed by our emotions, so in the movie they take daily medications to suppress emotions.

Now, the concept behind the new way of life the people in the movie are living is actually quite cool, BUT it’s all based on the assumption that the only way for humans to live together in peace is to block all emotions, take away everything that represent diversity and live in “Sameness”. Essentially removing anything that could possibly trigger all the bad stuff humans are made of.

The thing is that it’s not our emotions or freewill or diversity that makes us do all the bad stuff we do like fighting, greed, spite and jealousy. Sure, removing that stuff like they did in the movie might stop it for a while, but the problem is that it’s only suppressed. It’s still existent inside the people in the movie, it’s just suppressed.

The key here is to realize exactly what the problem is: You and I. Each of us has accepted greed and anger and all those things as part of who we are – we accepted this to be “Human Nature”. We are allowing ourselves to be directed by our emotions and that determines our whole existence. And that is the real problem. We do not really have freewill when our decisions are based on our emotions. The problem is also the solution.

By understanding and seeing that we do not have to accept this as part of our nature – or more that we as humans have the capacity and power to change our accepted nature. We can remove the triggers within ourselves – all the things that makes us not able to live on this planet in peace. We can End Wars, End Poverty, End Famine, End Abuse – We have that power within us. The power to Change.

Day 268 - Are Fireworks Really worth All of this:

 

Statistics from the RSPCA* show that, in addition to the huge number of pets given sedatives to control their fear of firework bangs and flashes across England and Wales, every year up to 5,000 pets are treated for firework-related injuries. - See more at: http://bank.marksandspencer.com/explore/media-centre/press-release/2003/10/remember,-remember,-your-pets-this-november/PR100011/#sthash.rONNSgo7.dpuf

• In 2011, fireworks caused an estimated 17,800 reported fires, including 1,200 total structure fires, 400 vehicle fires, and 16,300 outside and other fires. These fires resulted in an estimated eight reported civilian deaths, 40 civilian injuries and $32 million in direct property damage.
• In 2012, U.S. hospital emergency rooms treated an estimated 8,700 people for fireworks related injuries; 55% of 2012 emergency room fireworks-related injuries were to the extremities and 31% were to the head.
• The risk of fireworks injury was highest for young people ages 15-24, followed by children under 10.
• On Independence Day in a typical year, far more U.S. fires are reported than on any other day, and fireworks account for two out of five of those fires, more than any other cause of fires.
• http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/holidays/fireworks

When I was a kid I absolutely loved fireworks. Load bangs and rockets and different colors – what kid wouldn’t like to set off some fireworks? I was never allowed to light them without supervision and on the rare occasions that we did light them we had to do it in an open field far away from animals. Looking back at it now, even though we did it far away from houses, it would still have been load for animals.

This did not go on for too long, eventually the danger of fireworks became clear and my parents chose to not do it anymore. This was the right thing to do and still is.

Currently I live in an environment where there are lots of different animals ranging from dogs and cats to various other wildlife, and fireworks would be absolutely devastating to these animals. So even though It would be cool and fun to set some off I simply cannot, because we have to consider those we share this living space with.

In the Cities this is a big problem for animal lovers. When the fireworks go off the pets are terrified. I have seen and heard horrific stories of pets running away never to return. Some pets actually run through glass doors or get stuck trying to push through fences. Some even rip their nails off trying to get away by digging through concrete.

Horror stories aside, we should all consider whether it’s worth it to light fireworks for the sake of personal enjoyment when it has such unfortunate consequences. Maybe it would be better to have a designated area where there are no animals around where people can go light fireworks – that would be far more beneficial than having these poor animals in terror in the festive seasons.

2015 Happy New year OR Crappy new year?

 

  Is it a Happy New Year? It really depends who you are and where you are and what you are. New Year’s is no special day for me, it’s simply another day, but let’s look at some stats regarding 2014:

· 1020 Rhino Poached in 2014, compared to 333 in 2010. Despite Millions thus far spent on charity organizations the number of rhinos poached tripled in 4 years. Not a Happy New Year ahead for them.

· Half the world still lives in poverty.

· Nearly 1 Billion people suffer from “chronic undernourishment “ aka hunger.

· 80% of the world population lives on less than $10 a day.

· An average of 3.5million people experienced homelessness in the U.S., despite the fact that there are enough empty housing for them all.

The tradition of wishing somebody a happy new year has many complications, sure we can want for other to have a good year, or maybe you are glad that you made it through another year, but for me a happy new year will be finding ways make the statistics above less.

How great would it be if humanity was able to completely eradicate poverty? Bring the amount of hungry people down to zero? Or even have the rhino poaching at a big round zero for a whole year? We certainly have the capacity and resources to do so. For example to put every child in the world through education all we need is 1% of the military budget of the U.S. We have the means to do so.

The Living Income Guaranteed will also be a solution for all the problems above. If it’s implemented it will bring the number of people in poverty down to zero. Money will no longer be a factor for whether or not a child gets an education . People will also have enough to actually live and buy the food they need. There will also be no more homeless people, because they would be able to afford a home.

That would make a truly Happy New Year.