Hope Restored in Burma

 

The Lady is free!!

 

Who is The Lady, you ask? And why should you care?

 Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi – who spent 15 of the last 21 years under house arrest while the country’s ruling military junta systematically worked to break the spirit of not only Suu Kyi’s as an indivudual, but of the Burmese people collectively. Today the junta ended her isolation and The Lady emerged to greet supporters who have endured abuse and harassment for supporting her cause.

Suu Kyi was placed under arrest when her political party won elections in 1990. A powerful clique of military men seized power, tossed the election results, changed the country’s name, sealed the borders and began a standoff with Suu Kyi that appears to have ended today.

And the truth is she could have left. She could have walked away. The junta gave her the chance (though it would have resulted in her exile). But she refused. Refused because she believed in something bigger than herself.

Continue reading Hope Restored in Burma

Tis the season … to Give Clean Water

My regular readers will remember a couple months back I participated in the P&G Give Health Clean Water Blogivation to provide clean drinking water to people in the developing world.

Bloggers, myself included, who participated in the inaugural challenge collected an amazing 21,000 days of clean water!!! My original post can be found here.

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The company has decided to extend the program in a

 bid to provide 100,000 days of clean water by the end of 2010.

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All you have to do is click below, and verify your vote – and someone in the developing world will get one days of clean water.

This is NOT a contest – it is simply an opportunity to take a few seconds out of your day to help someone in need.

I hope you will vote, and vote often.

Thank you!!!

Happy Birthday to me … and a present for you!

I turn 40 today ….!

Or to be more precise, I turned 40 at 4:17 a.m. (East Coast U.S. time) this morning.

 

There is a part of me that’s upset about the whole thing …

40? Really?!?! Wasn’t I just 14 not that long ago? You know, back when 40 was “old” …

 

But a wise friend, or ten, recently reminded me that “Life begins at 40”

…. Ummm, right. I’ll let ya know in another decade.

Continue reading Happy Birthday to me … and a present for you!

Dead On …. And I am terrified

How The Walking Dead confirmed my worst nightmare

 

Ok, so, my regular readers (all three of you) know that I pride myself (endlessly) on my Horrordentials. I love “le freak” – the gorier, the better.

But this past week, a brand new series about the shambling hordes — The Walking Dead – actually really and truly freaked me out.  

And, yes, I am going to tell you why …..

After the premiere of the show last week I jumped on to AMC’s official site to snoop around and decided – for a hoot – to take The Walking Dead Survival Test to see what character I would be in a survive-the-apocalypse situation. We all know who I think I would be, but I wanted to see if I was right.

I thought about my answers (as much as you can in the 30 seconds they give you).

I answered honestly (as honestly as I could knowing the “real” me).

I came up as:

Glenn, the plucky sidekick.

(Who is, of course, also smart, brave, loyal, forever funny – my additions)

 

Little did I know at the time, because I have not (gasp) read the graphic novels that inspired the series, that just one week later Glen would face my worst nightmare. Seriously ….

Continue reading Dead On …. And I am terrified

When did Le Freak become Le Norm?

There was a time when my magenta hair, black leather biker jacket, combat boots and black fingernail polish made me a bonfide freak…. At least in the eyes of my parents’ friends.

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I just liked what I liked. And odd?

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Well, sure, if you count that my favorite music was Metallica and Mozart, and my favorite books Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries. And, yes, ok so my love for Ziggy Stardust and weekends that included a backpack full of toilet paper, rice and a squirt gun for the midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show might have gone a titch outside the boundaries of normal.

Continue reading When did Le Freak become Le Norm?

My Favorite Freaky Things

Ok, so I may not win the 2010 prize for originality, but given the onslaught of #lefreak into mainstream pop culture, the following seemed only appropriate for an All Hallows’ Eve.

With no offense intended toward the incredible Julie Andrews or the Sound of Music, here is my version of …. My Favorite Things

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Bloodstains on collars and entrails on the outside

Fangs on a Skarsgard and a Zombieland thrill ride

Jamie Lee Curtis cowering in a closet

These are a few of my favorite things

 

Continue reading My Favorite Freaky Things

“Night” I joined the Zombination

Now most of you know I pride myself on my Horror-dentials and love the fact that I am the head of my very own (self-created) #zombiesurvivalcrew 

(yes, I’m serious … and yeah, go ahead and laugh …. Just don’t come crying when the zombie apocalypse begins!).

… but I wasn’t always the brave, uber-organized, escape-plan-packed-in-boxes-in-the-garage zombiephone …

And so I shall kick off my Halloween week observance with a tip of my hat to the man who first scared me silly, … the one, the only ….

George Romero

 

It was, of course, a night or two before Halloween … one of those years where most of the leaves on the towering Buffalo trees had changed colors and fallen to leave the ground crunching under your feet.  The kind of night that would send every gust of wind sneaking in through the seams of my jacket to tickle the hairs on my arms. In other words, a perfect atmospheric storm of spooky!

Continue reading “Night” I joined the Zombination

Global Call for Justice in the DRC

Congo Week: Day Six

 

Guest Post from:

Kambale Musavuli

Student Coordinator, Spokesperson
Friends of the Congo

 

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This week – October 17 – 23 – Friends of the Congo is running its third Congo Week – Breaking the Silence – in a bid to raise awareness of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and help end the violence. All week I will be featuring blog posts related to the DRC from activists, academics and Congolese citizens.

Today – Friends of the Congo’s Kambale Musavuli examines what you can do to support the Congolese-led call for justice in the DRC. The views are his own. Global Citizen has done only mild editing for length and clarity.

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October 1st, 2010 marks a historic date where finally the Congolese people have been given a chance to demand justice for the atrocities that have been taking place in the Congo since 1996. On that day, the United Nations Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights published a report documenting 617 alleged violent incidents occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo between March 1993 and June 2003. In light of this report, people throughout the globe have issued a worldwide call for justice in response to the greatest crimes committed against humanity at the dawn of the 21st Century in the heart of Africa.

Continue reading Global Call for Justice in the DRC

Warscape: Rape and Commerce in the DRC

Congo Week: Day Five

 

Guest Post from:

Pamela Scully

Professor of Women’s Studies and African Studies,

Chair of Dept of Women’s Studies

Emory University

 

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This week – October 17 – 23 – Friends of the Congo is running its third Congo Week – Breaking the Silence – in a bid to raise awareness of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and help end the violence. All week I will be featuring blog posts related to the DRC from activists, academics and Congolese citizens.

Today – Emory University Professor Pamela Scully examines “economic Warscape” — the use of rape as a weapon of war and a means of driving profit. The views are her own. Global Citizen has done only mild editing for length and clarity.

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The Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is a perfect example of what I call an economic Warscape—a place where individuals, groups, and companies profit off systemic and systematic violence.  Structures of exploitation in the DRC now depend on fermenting and regulating “chaos.” What look like random acts of rape and terror, are in fact part of complex negotiations and structures that have emerged in the eastern DRC in the conflagration of the region in the wake of Rwandan genocide of 1994.

Continue reading Warscape: Rape and Commerce in the DRC

Getting Active for Congo

 

Congo Week: Day Four

 

Guest Post from:

Sadia Hameed

Raise Hope for Congo Campaign Manager, the Enough Project

 

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This week – October 17 – 23 – Friends of the Congo is running its third Congo Week – Breaking the Silence – in a bid to raise awareness of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and help end the violence. All week I will be featuring blog posts related to the DRC from activists, academics and Congolese citizens.

Today – The Enough Project’s Raise Hope for Congo Campaign Manager Sadia Hameed takes a look at the differences she observed in the DRC as a result of action by Congolese civil society, U.S. consumers and constituents – and the need to get, and stay, involved. The views are her own. Global Citizen has done only mild editing for length and clarity.

 

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After spending over a week in eastern Congo I find myself staring out of my office window watching the bustle of DC streets contemplating how to give voice to the many complexities that I learned, witnessed and discussed in my exchanges with Congolese men, women and youth. One clear recollection I have is how not a single person I met or spoke with was unaffected by the conflict – it is pervasive and touches everyone, even if they have not been directly targeted by armed groups.  Their stories told tales of surviving brutality that I can barely begin to digest, but despite the haunting sorrow, trauma and loss recounted, they each emanated strength and conviction that a future unstained by death and devastation will be realized. Their sheer resilience in the face of steep challenges was both staggering and deeply inspiring. I witnessed the energy of Congolese professionals, activists and survivors, actively engaged in combating the effects of conflict and finding solutions toward peace and stability, often at the risk of their lives, security and bodily integrity.

Continue reading Getting Active for Congo