Monthly Archives: March 2015

The Lie We Live

Despite every effort to present original material as much as possible, there are times we can not do better than what someone else has created. We also believe in recognition and attribution to intellectual or creative property, so will only share what does not violate copyright infringement. When we found this, we decided it was one such case.

We watched this video several times and could not find any statements not factual and accepted by reasonable, intelligent and educated people today. If you do, please share your thoughts!

What struck us was the collection of these issues in such concise, meaningful and livid conveyance. Ghandi told us to “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” It starts with critical thinking. The rest is up to you, and only you.

The video was made by Spencer Cathcart. We found it in an article titled “Eye Opening Short Video Summarizes Everything That’s Wrong With Our Society“

Not A Nuke Nuke Joke

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Senator Tom Cotton. Photo via Wikimedia Commons

We at Occupy World Writes try to be apolitical as much as possible. We find both parties to be hypocritical to a large degree, and we’d rather remain equal opportunity critics. However, the chuckleheads who have taken over conservative politics are especially worthy of our scorn.

We could talk about their fiscal irresponsibility or their tone deafness in their statements about women, minorities and unions. We could talk about their denial of science, or their demonizing of intelligence. We could name many, many more examples why the Republican party of today is the most inept and derision worthy group of clowns we’ve seen in our lifetimes. However, their most obvious fault (and the most dangerous one at the moment) is their willingness to put party before the good and safety of their country. Continue reading →

How Not To Celebrate International Women’s Day

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Yesterday, while the national media was still busy with the 50th anniversary of the events in Selma, there was a large international event taking place that received limited coverage; International Women’s Day. There were marches all around the world as men and women took to the streets calling for an end to sexual violence and gender discrimination.

Li Tingting and Zheng Curan. Photo via Shanghaiist

In the world’s most populous country though, the message from the government was anything but encouraging. On Friday, China detained at least 10 women’s rights activists who were planning a nationwide campaign against sexual harassment on public transportation. which would overlap with International Women’s Day. At least five remain in custody. Continue reading →

IWD: Make Change Happen

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Kurds celebrating Newroz, Diyarbakir, Turkey, March 2013. Image via Flickr.

Sunday, March 8, 2015 is International Women’s Day. This year’s theme is “Make Change Happen” and will be recognized around the world as women gather in discussion, workshops, rallies and through outreach programs to not only celebrate the achievements of women in the past, but to also encourage future endeavors and accomplishments.

Make Change Happen. We thought about that theme in the process of selecting our International Women’s Day choice for 2015. We thought about all the struggles women face, and recognized that the basic survival many women are challenged with is fundamental to all other rights. The right to exist, to breathe, to speak, to live, this is needed before all else. Continue reading →

Same As It Ever Was

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Fifty years ago today, 600 civil rights marchers started walking east on US 80 out of Selma, Alabama. The march was led by Reverend Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

The march had two goals that should sound familiar to all of us; to protest the obstacles to voting put in place by state and local officials and to protest police violence against the black community.

Alabama police attack Selma-to-Montgomery Marchers, March 7,1965. Photo by Federal Bureau of Investigation [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The protest went well until they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge and left Selma. There, they met a wall of troopers and “deputized” locals – County Sheriff Jim Clark had issued an order for all white males in Dallas County over the age of twenty-one to report to the courthouse that morning to be deputized. Continue reading →

HARD BARGAINING: Corporate America’s NEW PLAYBOOK

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By Gretschman for Occupy World Writes

When the Great Recession struck with full force in 2008, many companies demanded deep concessions.

Workers across North America, including thousands of IBEW members, made numerous sacrifices to help their employers make it through those tough times.

Since then the economy has made a major turnaround — but most of its benefits are going to the top 1 percent of earners.

Profits have hit an all-time high. At the same time, wages as a percent of the economy have hit an all-time low.

Even at unionized companies, IBEW negotiators are confronting cash-rich employers who have replaced mutually beneficial collective bargaining with a winner-take-all, adversarial relationship — an approach some union activists are calling “hard bargaining.” Continue reading →

The world’s girls: no voice, no rights

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How can we address the global threat to women’s rights with no space for girls’ – or even women’s – voices at the UN? How will we design a post-2015 framework that responds to the needs of the most marginalized?

Written by Lyric Thompson. Published 02-16-15 in Open Democracy.

Malala Yousafzai. Photo via Malala Yousafzai

2015 is a milestone year that stands at the intersection of several major anniversaries for human rights and development. Perhaps most visibly, this is the 15th anniversary of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and therefore the year world leaders will formally close out the Millennium Charter and adopt a new global development framework. For women and girls, it’s the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and its crucial policy framework, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

One would think, therefore, that 2015 would be a year in which the global community would come together and imagine new rights standards that will set lofty goals for the next generation. Yet so far, this does not seem to be the case. Rather, global leaders are taking a more cautious – or even overtly conservative – approach to negotiations on women’s and girls’ rights. Advocates must not only push governments to set new standards, but must ensure they simply affirm, or worse still, not lose ground on, old ones. Continue reading →

Tough to swallow: TTIP’s threat to our food and farming

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For the sake of our food and its impact on our environment, TTIP needs to be stopped.

Written by Magda Stoczkiewicz. Published February 26, 2015 in OpenDemocracy.

TTIP protest in London, July 2014. Photo by World Developement Movment [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

TTIP protest in London, July 2014. Photo by World Development Movement [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

For a decade, dozens of trade deals have been negotiated, signed and implemented without garnering much public attention in Europe. So what is it about the EU-US trade deal, currently being hammered out, that has caused such an outcry?

The opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, has surprised many. 50,000 marched in protest on a cold winter’s morning in Berlin. Municipalities across France have declared themselves “TTIP-free”. The Slovak Food Chamber demanded that food and farming be excluded from any deal. Nearly 1.5 million people have signed a petition to have the negotiations stopped.

Environmental, social and labour groups across Europe – Friends of the Earth Europe included – are outraged and actively campaigning. Continue reading →

To create positive change, trust your instincts

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At a time when fear and terror seems pervasive, individual and group instincts can triumph.

Written by Sonya Likhtman. Published February 20, 2015 in Open Democracy.

World Health Organization workers gearing up to go into old Ebola isolation ward in Lagos, Nigeria. Photo by CDC Global (WHO in PPE) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

We are overwhelmed by information. A 24/7 news cycle and constant social media compete for our attention, while society demands that we explain our decisions logically, like a storyboard of causes and consequences.

In a bid to escape, we turn to yet more sources of information, such as self-help books and lifestyle advice columns. They tell us to meditate. To walk 10,000 steps each day.

Yet relying solely on guidance from external sources overshadows our internal decision making tools. According to life fulfilment guru Oprah: ‘‘Learning to trust your instincts, using your intuitive sense of what’s best for you, is paramount for any lasting success. I’ve trusted the still, small voice of intuition my entire life. And the only time I’ve made mistakes is when I didn’t listen.” Continue reading →