The Genuine Article

 Please, with everything that I have in me, I am begging for help for a family of 2 disabled black siblings (my autistic brother & myself with a physical disability) to not go homeless again during this pandemic.

 For those who don’t know, I am a physically disabled black woman and the sole caretaker of my autistic brother. Last year, we lost the home our father worked his entire life for after he passed away. My brother and I were made homeless.

 Since, we’ve been able to rent a home. But with our unique situation of no income, no rental history, no credit… nobody wants us as renters and the only deal we were able to get was to pay our entire YEAR’s worth of rent up front.

 The last I updated you all, we were waiting on a hearing to determine the status of my brother’s disability case. We have been fighting for his disability for the whole year since we moved across the country, and after it was illegitimately denied TWICE before… the hearing that was set for June 3rd finally came. It was our last hope to get the funds we need to pay our upcoming rent. But when the date came… after waiting tirelessly… we were informed that it was postponed until 3 months from now.

 Three Months.

 Our lease ends at the end of July, we DO NOT have Three Months. The way the disabled are discarded like nothing is unbearable. You have no idea the pain I felt that day… seeing them treat a case that is so important that it stands between us and our home… like just another file. Like it means nothing. And this is what I mean when I say…

 They Do NOT Want Us To Live.

 It would have been our last hope at stable income to be able to pay our rent normally. We do not have any income at this time. Even the art that I was making was taken down by Etsy. Everyday I wake up in agony of not knowing what’s going to happen next.

 Call after call with no leads to any help. I haven’t had any transportation for the entire year since we were first kicked out of the only home we ever knew, and it’s been so unbelievably hard to find any work that I’m capable of without it. 

 I have given my everything.

 And I have gotten nothing back.

 And with all of it, I still sit here with my only sliver of hope to reach out to anyone who might see this.

 For the past several months, I have been trying to work up the courage to ask for help again. The strength to reach out again. If it was just me, I don’t think I could do this. But my brother, who has no way whatsoever of taking care of himself… what is he supposed to do if we lose our home? It has taken everything in me to sit here and write this cry for assistance.. but cry, I must.

 I have done nothing but look for other options. Tirelessly, day in and day out I have reached out to so many of these “resources” who are supposed to help us in times like this and time and time again, I have been shut down. My willpower has been crushed so much it’s not even describable.

 If you can help us, please know that even the lowest amount that you can possibly afford could help us right now. I’m so scared of losing everything again.

 I haven’t been able to rest. Every moment I’m awake just brings me back to the trauma I’ve experienced this year.

 I would just like to say with you all that

 Disabled Black Lives Matter.

 We deserve to feel safe and secure. We deserve a world that cares what happens to us. I know there are people out there who do. So I am asking you, one more time.

 We need your help.

 Please help us, share our GoFundMe, share our story, donate anything you can at this time. If we can reach our goal we can be safe for AT LEAST another year.

 Help us keep a roof over our heads so that we can KEEP TRYING.

https://gf.me/u/ykgw4w

A few months ago I reblogged a post sharing Jazzy’s gofundme, a girl who was poisoned by her roommate, noting that she only had about half her goal despite the fund being up for several years. I saw a lot of people reblog that version; Just a month or so later when I checked her fund again it had been reached!! And tons of people still reblog it.

I think when people are just scrolling and they come across these posts they don’t check immediately and forget about it, seeing all the notes and assuming the fund is doing well- I think more people need this visualized to realize this person REALLY needs help.

We can’t let Lakeith continue to be punished in this repulsive system. Please make sure him and his fund get the attention Jazzy does and let’s do everything we can to get him to the goal!! We have to reunite him with his family by any means possible.

the accident info was posted 14hrs ago as of 1:30pm PST, 9/23/2020

Look, I know a good number of you are from the US and things aren't amazing there either, but my country is literally on the brink of collapse. So I'd love it if we could talk about that for a minute.

If you can't do anything else, please just read and reblog.

if you can toss me a couple bucks that would be a huge help.

my v*nmo is @ percyannearchist

5. Walk with your keys in your hands and keep a key between each finger

6. If they put you in the trunk kick out the headlights

E.g.

If your gut is telling you to cross the street or change your path, do it. Don’t risk it. Your body knows.

If you can, buy a large umbrella and walk holding it. Studies say that predators are less likely to attempt an attack on someone that could fight back. Keys around your knuckles is fine but you’ll need to get very close to do damage. Umbrellas are more precise.

Avoid wearing headphones if you are alone on an empty street. Look aware.

Again: Stay. Away. From. Walls.

Entering an uber alone? Call your father (or anyone you trust) and say “hey dad! Yep, I’m almost there, I’m sending you the route.” outloud. Then proceed to send them the route so they can follow the uber drive. This will most likely intimidate the predator.

If you see someone in an uncomfortable or possibly dangerous situation, walk up to them and say “Betty, oh my god, I haven’t seen you in so long!”. If she gets slightly confused, you can whisper and let her know you’re trying to help and that she should follow along. Walk together to another station or away from where you are. The man will most likely not follow. I have done this one 2 times and can be very helpful.

If you are unsure she needs help, you can pass her a note saying something like “hey, I noticed this man beside you is making you uncomfortable. If you’d like help, fake a sneeze right now and I will come up to you and pretend we are friends.” This is a long note, but its an example. Be discrete. If she follows along, proceed with the previous tip. This is helpful when you’re in a crowded train and you notice harassment.

So in the Philippines, the national government has been handling the pandemic horribly. Contact tracing is decentralized, implementation of travel restrictions were delayed (which could’ve helped curb the spread earlier), absurd restrictions have been imposed (which gave way for police to abuse their power against quarantine violators, who were usually out for essentials) –all the while killing activists, spreading disinformation and implementing a law that targets critics of the administration and our freedom of speech. (and also putting ₱389-million pesos worth of dolomite sand on Manila Bay in the middle of the pandemic which could’ve been used to feed millions). Oh and as of writing, we are tallying up to 9,000-10,000 cases daily.

That being said, millions of low-income households around the country are struggling to put food on the table. Government payouts per household (which goes as far as ₱1,000- 8,000 pesos/$20-160 depending on your wages) are not enough to sustain months of lockdown and no income.

Tired of witnessing inaction, a local woman named Patreng Non made a makeshift pantry right outside her community in Quezon and named it the “Maginhawa Community Pantry”. The rule was simple. It simply wrote “Magbigay ayon sa kakayahan, kumuha batay sa pangangailangan.” (translation: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”)

The pantry gained traction, and after that, donations started pouring in from local farmers, fishermen and other regular folks

First Photo: Patreng Non refilling the community pantry Second Photo: Local fishermen about to donate 50 kilos surplus of fish Third Photo: Cardboard saying: “Free sweet potatoes from the farmers of Paniqui, Tarlac” Fourth Photo: Tricycle drivers helping repack donations received Fifth Photo: Current pantry with signages designed by local students

There was no panic, no hoarding, and people only took what they needed and left. Soon enough, community pantries started to pop up in different provinces.

This pantry and the nurturing community behind it has done more for the community in a week than what the government has done for the Filipino people in months. 

if you can toss me a couple bucks that would be a huge help.

my v*nmo is @ percyannearchist

AO3 is specifically relies on donations, rather than ad revenue, because it is the Archive Of Our Own, and is not answerable to any political agenda other than protecting and maintaining, again, all the fanfiction uploaded to it. there are checks and balances, and there’s a governing board, and they’re all dead serious about making sure that the archive endures any attempts by outside parties to censor or remove its content, no matter how abhorrent that content is.

the archive is an archive, not a social network or a platform. it hosts content and it serves that content to users in an efficient way–hence the phenomenal tag system–but it is meant to safeguard writers and their writing, not to profit from its users. it literally can’t profit off of its users or monetize their interactions in any way, just by virtue of its own structure: all money given to a nonprofit goes towards furthering that organization’s mission.

see, when a company or corporation makes money, it pays for labor and upkeep and then the guys that own the company keep the rest of the money, and that’s profit. when a nonprofit makes money, it pays for labor and upkeep and then if it has extra, it reinvests in various ways, like building new things or improving old things, or it saves the money for future labor and upkeep it might need.

the archive cares that users are able to control their own experiences of it, and filter out the stuff they don’t want to see. they care that users are protected from harassment. but they don’t profit from users’ engagement with the site, so they don’t do anything to encourage traffic the way a for-profit site that’s monetized engagement has.

hopefully this explanation helps someone.

Building the airport in this location will destroy an ancient landscape, one shaped by the Incan people with terraces and routes.

Critics also suggest that planes flying low over the nearby village of Ollantaytambo and its archaeological park filled with ruins and a massive Inca fortress with large stone terraces, would cause incalculable damage to fragile Inca ruins there and destroy the peace and beauty of the area.

The new airport will make access to the site much easier, and thus encourage greater numbers than ever before to visit.

But Machu Picchu is already overwhelmed by almost double the limit of tourists as recommended by UNESCO. [see also India’s Taj Mahal - an incredible site simply reeling under a relentless, ineffectively managed tourist, both domestic and international, onslaught]

hey! peruvian here

to be completely honest, there is probably nothing anyone can do about this at this point because it has been in the works since the 90’s. as you can most likely tell, our government is a fucking joke. still, this needs international attention. a lot of it. this is my country’s history, culture and one of the most beautiful things we have to offer at risk.