#worldalmighty

This question is massive, so I’ll probably forget a million things, but under the read more are some things that I find particularly important.

Thank you to all of you who:

submitted to Action1D

submitted LGBTQ+ related videos

participated in our LGBTQ+ action week with action1dproject

submitted something about diversity/intersectionality, hosted by our sister project worldalmighty

You’ve all done an amazing job and together, we created a voice of tens of thousands that can’t be unheard! 

Hi everyone!

Our launch “1 Thing” campaign, in collaboration with TMHFN/Rainbow Direction, came to a close a week ago along with the end of Ramadan. So first of all, we want to say a massive thank you to every single person who participated in any way: writing posts, sharing them, and reading them! We are very grateful, and we hope that you enjoyed learning a bit about the different cultures represented by the individuals that make up our fandom.

We received submissions from a range of places including Basque Country, Bolivia (the most popular post - about the flower Harry picks in the Between Us fragrance commercial!), Canada, China, Corfu, Denmark, Finland, Indonesia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey (x), and the USA (x).

And it was fantastic to see how many different facets of your cultures you chose to share: religious celebrations, unique landscapes, urban legends, special dishes, healthcare systems, beautiful poetry, pop culture references... Thank you again for your contributions! We are currently preparing an educational article on Intersectionality, and we will also be continuing to support Action 1D: see our previous post here to get involved in this great initiative and watch this space for more to come....

Today as part of Action 1D, the boys have asked you to “show and tell where in the world you live”.

Videos of where we spend our daily lives - whether at home, somewhere in town, or outdoors - can send a powerful message, demonstrating the global reach and diversity of this fandom.

Please join us in sending videos that show what your daily life is like, or show something people from other parts of the world might not know about on where you live...and be as creative as you’d like!

HOW: Upload your videos here - then if you post the individual link(s) to your video(s) on your blog and tag them with #worldalmighty, we will share them too!

Here are a few examples:

from Orizaba, Mexico

from Texas, USA

from Amman, Jordan

Action 1D is an opportunity for us to call upon world leaders to set ambitious goals to fight poverty, inequality and climate change, since the 2015 Millennium Development Goals are set to expire. World Almighty and RainbowDirection/Takemehomefromnarnia see this as a chance for all of us to make a real difference in the world.

It is important for our leaders to hear from voices representing all of our different identities, so that they can set and implement goals that are inclusive of all ethnicities, religions, genders, orientations, etc because discrimination leads to inequality, poverty and the slowing of sustainable development for all.

1Thing about Finland

The Finnhorse

So, this may not be the most obvious choice for 1Thing about Finland, but I will (hopefully) give a satisfactory explanation to this. Because yes, I have a real reason behind this, this is not just me being a giant horse nerd (I am that too though).

The Finnhorse is my 1Thing because it is the perfect symbol for Finnish national identity.

Okay, this may seem like an odd addition to #1thing but give me a minute to explain. In 1976, Sylvester Stallone released Rocky, a small independent film he wrote and starred in. The plot revolves around a small time, ameteur boxer who is offered the opportunity to take on the heavyweight champion of the world. Naturally the movie features many training sequences, but none better, nor more famous, than Rocky running through the streets of Philadelphia and eventually up the steps of the Art Museum (seen above). The scenes are some of the best in the film, showcasing Rocky’s grit and determination as well as the signature (now famous) Rocky theme music. 

Rocky was a huge hit, made a ton of money and went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. To this day, the movie and the music have been embraced by the city of Philadelphia. All of our sports teams use the theme during games, encouraging fans to cheer loudly, as can be seen here. But even more amazing than the music and the story has been the ongoing tradition of running up the Art Museum steps. On any given day, you can be standing outside the museum, or even along the parkway, and see people just take off and sprint up the stairs, cheering with arms held high when they reach the top. 

This phenomenon has been captured in the book Rocky Stories by Michael Vitez, a pulitzer-prize winning writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer. (with photographs by Tom Gralish) For a year these two men sat on the steps and watched countless people, every day, run up. They asked them for their stories and were blown away by the reasons behind their runs and by how far some had traveled for this experience. Whether they are running for luck, to celebrate a victory or just to say they did it, there is nothing more American than this statement of dedication, hard work and independence. 

Hi! Thank you so much for being interested in volunteering for World Almighty and our 1Thing Campaign.

Since we are a new project, the main help we need at this point is in spreading the word. We would be grateful for volunteers who would be keen to reblog and ask their friends/followers to both share posts and partipate in the campaign by submitting. The Twitter account for the project has just been set up, so we would be happy to have some active tweeters onboard too!

Also, we would really welcome volunteers’ ideas about what WA and 1Thing can do next - honest, constructive and creative input (the more innovative the better) is always so helpful. As a volunteer, you would be in regular contact with our core team and it would be a collaboration and conversation for the duration of the 1Thing Campaign and beyond.