Striving for a Better World

so, look. the capital city of my country just got kamikaze bombed today. jakarta, indonesia. i live a few hours from there. you know what got bombed? a mall. but the terrorists didn’t just target the entire mall, they specifically targeted American shops. McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks. right after, the terrorists started shooting the police and citizens. The officials speculated that it was ISIS. but you know what?

there is no #prayforjakarta trending in twitter. do you know how my people responded right after the bombs and the shootings? the workers continued working. the drivers continued driving. the cooks continued cooking. we know that this is a terrible and sad event, yet we do not want to remain in the past and retaliate against those who did against us. when paris got bombed, they got global support and coverage. all the first-world countries encouraged paris to bomb syria right back. and they did. obviously, i’m not speaking against paris and the people at all, but i’m just saying that indonesia, a muslim country, got terrorized by ISIS, and even without support of acknowledgement, we managed to mourn and move forward. just that. none of us blamed america (since they specifically targeted american-brand shops), nor syria, since we know that ISIS is NOT syria, which many, many people seem to have forgotten. we blame ISIS. we do not want to blame those who did nothing to us. i myself am catholic, and yet i do not hate any of my muslim friends and fellow citizens. 

i just find it odd that when a first-world white city was bombed, everyone freaked out and told them to bomb syria right back, and yet when a muslim country is bombed, nobody seems to care. 

why is #prayforsyria not trending? why is #prayforjakarta not trending? why is it that when ISIS terrorize muslim countries, everyone seems to turn blind?

and hey, i’m not going to apologize for my bad english. 

I think it’s safe to say that we all know at this point how unsafe chest binding with Ace bandages can be.  I also know that it’s not always financially possible to afford binders, especially if you’re unable to get another job, have other expenses, etc.  So I did a little research and came up with this list of charities and organizations where all my trans and non-binary friends and followers can find free binders!

Note: Many of these programs have to limit the amount of binders they give out based on the amount of binders they receive.  If possible, please donate either money or gently used/new chest binders to help out someone else in need.  Unfortunately, most of these programs are US only, but I will keep trying to find programs in other countries.

Free Youth Binder Program 

Replace the Ace 

In a Bind

Point 5cc

Big Brothers Binding Program

Binder Buck’s Recycling Program

The ultra-conservative Law and Justice party has made clear its intentions to “fix” Polish society after eight years of liberal government. The government, with great majority support, is passing a law to fire all executives in TV and Radio who are against the government’s traditionalist stances.

Piotr Gliński, Poland’s culture minister, has made clear his intention to “re-Polonise” the country’s media and promote “national interests” in its coverage. In a recent interview on the public TVP channel, Mr Gliński refused to answer questions and told the interviewer she was “broadcasting propaganda, and that will soon be over”.

Lorelei Williams was brought to tears when she heard a national public inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women is really going to happen — and family members like her will be part of the process.

“I can’t believe this is actually happening,” said Williams in the CBC Vancouver newsroom as she watched Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennet make the announcement Tuesday.

Williams’ aunt, Belinda, went missing in 1977 and the DNA of her cousin, Tanya Holyk, was found on serial killer Robert Pickton’s farm.

“We have been fighting for this for so long, and it’s got me very emotional.”

Dawn Anderson (left) was just 37 when she died. Her sister Hilda Anderson-Pyrz is hopeful about the national inquiry announced today. (Supplied)

In Winnipeg, Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, whose sister Dawn Anderson died in 2011, is optimistic that the government plans to consult families of missing and murdered women and investigate root causes.

“I think it’s very empowering and it’s very hopeful to indigenous people across Canada that this government is actually hearing what our people have been saying for years.”

Roughly half of all kids living in the U.S. — 33 to 36.5 million — have a parent with a criminal record, and 2.7 million of them have a parent behind bars. Those kids are more likely to live in poverty and develop mental illnesses.

Second article:  Referring to men and women who were asked on a lie detector about their sexual past, and also how women lie about “not wanting sex at all” when in fact it’s that they want sex from the man that’s about their social caste.  @eee-in - I’m sure you can also vouch for this.

Third article:  It’s exactly on point.  Alpha dudes get the chicks 9.5 times out of 10 (if not more).  The below statement they use is incredibly true, and MOST chicks, even the feminist ones will admit this somewhere in their hearts:

It’s encouraging men who don’t look good, make a ton of money, or have time to hit up the gym and be a socialite to TRY acting a little more leader-like regardless…because a leader will attract the women by LOOKING like he’s above a woman’s social caste.  Otherwise she’ll dismiss him as some “peon” because they have a princess mentality.

Fourth article:  Fell for the title, I see.  The context is that most American women (though me saying this will make feminist and anti-feminist women team up together and scream “NOT ALL WOMEN” together despite me not even saying that) go for easier jobs in the fields of childcare and “gender studies” despite there being groups out there attempting to push women into ACTUAL hard work (like mechanical engineering, computer science, working hard labor or something that requires a lot of physical work).

Fifth article:  Are we suddenly not okay with making jokes about SJWs now?  I thought anti-feminists KNEW that SJWs and their ilk were liars?  This article would actually be VERY agreeable if anyone took time to read it…or are we going to emotionally assume things just like feminists do?

553 filed complaints. 45% including sexual harassment and assault. About half of these complaints include theft. The remaining are largely personal injury or vandalism according to the Tagesschau.

The BKA currently has 32 suspects. Of the 32 suspects nine are Algerian, eight Moroccan, five Iranian, four Syrian, one Iraqi, one Serbian, one US-American and three Germans according to Die Welt. 22 are asylum seekers. The police in Cologne has 23 suspects, all foreign, of which ten are asylum seekers and nine are probably illegaly in Germany. None of them are said to live in Cologne.

Head of the BKA agrees that the incident was most likely organised. The ministry in North Rhine-Westphalia has so far no evidence that the incidents in different cities were directly connected, however.

Minister Ralf Jäger says there were no orders to keep quiet about the incident.

Photos and final product for Mq. & Mrs.’s amazing lgbtq coloring book for kids.

queer:

bi:

transgender:

gay/lesbian:

2) Because putting $50 towards a house (which is like throwing a match at a forest fire) when you’re possibly starving, freezing, etc. is reasonable.

3) This entire thread, from the original post to the comments, assumes two very big lies: that homeless people are homeless because they are lazy, and that homeless people don’t work.

This information is a few years old, but, according to this source, 44% of homeless people have jobs.  This, this, and this source confirm that fact.

Reasons for homelessness:

domestic violence

loss of job

loss of a caregiver

PTSD

physical disability

mental illness/disability

addiction

(x, x, x, x)

So not only do you have a basic lack of compassion, you’re spreading ignorant misinformation in the name of political rhetoric.

Sultanahmet bomber’s identity revealed

Suicide bomber who claimed 10 people’s life in Istanbul’s touristic Sultanahmet district is revealed to be Saudi Arabia born Nabil Fadli. Police are still investigating the 27 year old perpetrator’s connections and motive.    GMT

Like, say someone says they’re demisexual. Okay, cool. But who are they attracted to? Men? Women? Both? Any and all? It literally says nothing about your sexuality. You don’t want or feel the need to have sex with someone unless you’re in love with them (or, in some peoples’ definitions, can’t feel that attraction until you’re in love). But that doesn’t actually describe who you’re attracted to, which is the definition of sexual orientation (a person’s sexual identity in relation to the gender they’re attracted to).

M.G.’s refrigerator in her apartment in Gilmor Homes, a public housing complex in Baltimore, had been broken for years. She filed numerous work orders seeking to get it fixed or replaced, but nothing ever happened.

Until 2008, when an employee of the housing authority by the name of Michael Robertson told her that she had to have sex with him in order to get a new refrigerator.

“I was desperate,” she said in a sworn affidavit. “I am on disability and have limited means. I was consistently losing food and I was not able to afford new food. I felt that I had no choice.” She gave in and had sex with him twice. Afterward, she got two refurbished refrigerators over the course of two years.

On Friday, lawyers for M.G. and 18 other women who alleged that employees of Baltimore’s public housing agency demanded sex in return for critical housing repairs announced a settlement for all victims of sexual harassment in public housing.

Besides a financial award between $6 million and $7.5 million, the settlement required Baltimore to fire and ban all the abusers from Housing Authority property, move the plaintiffs into livable homes. The Housing Authority also created 50 new maintenance positions with new policies and procedures, and cut down their backlog of repairs from over 4,000 to 1,500.

The lawsuit, filed in September, alleged that maintenance men demanded sex from women living in public housing before they would make repairs to their “deplorable conditions,” which included rodent and insect infestations, lack of heat, mold, and electrocution risks. It also claims that at least one employee threatened a woman with violence if she didn’t give into his demands for sex, while another offered a woman cash for sex. The men also allegedly tried to intimidate women out of requesting repairs by sexually harassing them.

“These victims are too poor to move out and relocate their families,” the complaint says. “Consequently, they are left with the impossible choice of either succumbing to unwanted sexual demands in order to save themselves and their children from life-threatening conditions in their homes, or, living in squalor.”

The complaint claims women of nearly all ages — under-aged to in their 50s — and both the disabled and able-bodied were targeted by the harassment and abuse. “These affronts are about power and control over the most vulnerable members of society, including the poor, the young, and the disabled,” the complaint states.

The stories are harrowing. In a sworn statement, a single mother who moved into public housing to flee an abusive relationship described a housing employee she called Mr. Coleman exposing himself to her in his office and telling her she could get extra repairs on her house if she figured out “what can you do with this?”

When there was a gas leak in her house, she said she feared for her life and finally gave in, having sex with Coleman in order to get him to fix the leak. “I thought about my safety and the safety of my daughter to get through it,” she states. She kept needing repairs — such as a fix to a door that wouldn’t latch, leaving her and her daughter exposed to break-ins, and heat that didn’t work — and had intercourse with him four times and oral sex once. “After each time I gave in, Mr. Coleman had long-overdue work done to my unit,” she says.

The mother of a four-year-old says her daughter developed health problems related to peeling paint. Coleman sent her a video of himself in the shower naked and then demanded she send him pictures of her in her underwear. Worried for her daughter’s health, she sent him the pictures, after which he did some repairs.