thegoodfellas/blogset-br huggingface dataset:
makes me a minority in Brazil, though it definately did not seem that way. Brazil, like so many other places will give you a head start just because you have money. Anyways, I am now trying to use this opportunity to help bring a sense of equality back to light.I have invested in myself to be all I can be for the benefit of other people (of course, I realize I am no martyr, I have made sure to enjoy the ride). The plan is to see as much as I can, talk to as many people as I can, gain perspective and dimension and share it with everyone I can. So, a few years into my journalism and social science courses at Uni, I decided to travel the world to fulfil what I was set off to do. It was very subjective journey. I worked in orphanages in Argentina, foster homes, schools, I have camped in Central America, survived the jungle, the heat. I have seen loads, met some of the most amazing people, heard the most bizarre stories and have been plenty inspired in the way.Everyday I feel more confident and more prepared to put myself out there and reach for anyone who wants to meet my hand. I have learnt loads in the way and have got attached to many children I have been in contact with.In february, I got really close to a class of eleven year-olds in Rio. They made me want to invest in them, and because of them I decided to restart my studies and my life in Rio. These children are amazing and they really touched my heart. They taught me more than I could ever think possible.One student in my class, Wesley Gilbert was a happy little chap, chirpy and extremely full of life. Sadly, one week before I came to Africa, in July, I received the news that he was hit by a stray bullet. Sad as it was, he was inside the school, in a maths lesson and a bullet from a street cross-fire (policemen x drug dealers) and killed him. It was devastating. It gave me, however, a confirmation and a stronger desire to raise a generation away from drugs and degrading street life.Aim:To make everyday more pleasant for as many people as possible. To make it easier to smile, to make it easier to recognize how life can be good. To show people respect and to have a venue to share what we are and what we know.Practically, to create a space to bring together people to promote exchange in message, to broaden peoples horizons and incite joy and laughter.Volunteers are invited to teach kids any skill, to tell jokes and to connect as equals. Difference in backgrounds, views on life are most welcome as to increase their field of reference, to show the infinite amount of options kids can chose to conduct their experience. This will help them develop an analytical mindset which will allow them to become self-sufficient individuals.What I believeMoney is not fundamental to run this
organisation. Time and energy and good spirits are requirements to start this. I believe that knowledge and love put forth can only become something bigger and positive. You might not harvest the fruits of your actions immediately. But be sure that one day your smile has inspired someone to act more compassionately towards someone else, and this has made some other person more kind and could possibly prevent a violent action. Smile like you would like to be smiled at and that will bring change. The more good energy you put out, the more results you will see.Situation in BrazilThe situation in Brazil is always described as being complex. I am sure it is. I confess I am still very young and have got just enough tools to give you an idea of the situation. This will be mainly come from personal observation.The thing in Brazil is that you have a really bad distribution of wealth. What does that mean? Very simply, you have the country divided in the very rich and the very poor. This means there is a handful of owners: of land, of major companies, of the media and then, you have the people who work for them.The way politics and media have written history means that the wealthy remain wealthy and the poor remained poor. As long as they kept opportunity of the poor extremely dire, they could not have the strength/voice to pose any threat to the status of the wealthy.So there it is: the polar society.Unfortunately, so many of us have been brought up with values that reinforce the alienation of the rich and the poor. It has snowballed and we cannot even be classified as the same species though we are (in case you forgot). I will definately post some more thoughts I have on the subject and will further explain the nitty gritties of it all.Thank you so much for reading this far. I will keep you guys posted and would love the support.Special thanks to my dear friends: Tracy Hinton (England), Sarah Iqbal (England), Zahrah Sharif (England), Alison Elrick (Scotland), Ian Nickels (Essex boy), Eugena Oram (Wales), Ewan Johnston (Scotland), Chris Paine (Scotland), Amber Hayward (Scotland). I really appreciate the love.
It is sad to think that the first few people on earth needed no books, movies, games or music to inspire cold-blooded murder. The day that Cain bashed his brother Abel's brains in, the only motivation he needed was his own human disposition to violence. Whether you interpret the Bible as literature or as the final word of whatever God may be, Christianity has given us an image of death and sexuality that we have based our culture around. A half-naked dead man hangs in most homes and around our necks, and we have just taken that for granted all our lives. Is it a symbol of hope or hopelessness? The world's most famous murder-suicide was also the birth of the death icon -- the blueprint for celebrity. Unfortunately, for all of their inspiring morality, nowhere in the Gospels is intelligence praised as a virtue.A lot of people forget or never realize that I started my band as a criticism of these very issues of despair and hypocrisy. The name Marilyn Manson has never celebrated the sad fact that America puts killers on the cover of Time magazine, giving them as much notoriety as our favorite movie stars. From Jesse James to Charles Manson, the media, since their inception, have turned criminals into folk heroes. They just created two new ones when they plastered those dipshits Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris' pictures on the front of every newspaper. Don't be surprised if every kid who gets pushed around has two new idols.We applaud the creation of a bomb whose sole purpose is to destroy all of mankind, and we grow up watching our president's brains splattered all over Texas. Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised. Does anyone think the Civil War was the least bit civil? If television had existed, you could be sure they would have been there to cover it, or maybe even participate in it, like their violent car chase of Princess Di. Disgusting vultures looking for corpses, exploiting, fucking, filming and serving it up for our hungry appetites in a gluttonous display of endless human stupidity.When it comes down to who's to blame for the high school murders in Littleton, Colorado, throw a rock and you'll hit someone who's guilty. We're the people who sit back and tolerate children owning guns, and we're the ones who tune in and watch the up-to-the-minute details of what they do with them. I think it's terrible when anyone dies, especially if it is someone you know and love. But what is more offensive is that when these tragedies happen, most people don't really care any more than they would about the season finale of Friends or The Real World. I was dumbfounded as I watched the media snake right in, not missing a teardrop, interviewing the parents of dead children, televising the funerals. Then came the witch hunt.Man's greatest fear is chaos. It was unthinkable that these kids did not have a simple black-and-white reason for their actions. And so a scapegoat was needed. I
remember hearing the initial reports from Littleton, that Harris and Klebold were wearing makeup and were dressed like Marilyn Manson, whom they obviously must worship, since they were dressed in black. Of course, speculation snowballed into making me the poster boy for everything that is bad in the world. These two idiots weren't wearing makeup, and they weren't dressed like me or like goths. Since Middle America has not heard of the music they did listen to (KMFDM and Rammstein, among others), the media picked something they thought was similar.Responsible journalists have reported with less publicity that Harris and Klebold were not Marilyn Manson fans -- that they even disliked my music. Even if they were fans, that gives them no excuse, nor does it mean that music is to blame. Did we look for James Huberty's inspiration when he gunned down people at McDonald's? What did Timothy McVeigh like to watch? What about David Koresh, Jim Jones? Do you think entertainment inspired Kip Kinkel, or should we blame the fact that his father bought him the guns he used in the Springfield, Oregon, murders? What inspires Bill Clinton to blow people up in Kosovo? Was it something that Monica Lewinsky said to him? Isn't killing just killing, regardless if it's in Vietnam or Jonesboro, Arkansas? Why do we justify one, just because it seems to be for the right reasons? Should there ever be a right reason? If a kid is old enough to drive a car or buy a gun, isn't he old enough to be held personally responsible for what he does with his car or gun? Or if he's a teenager, should someone else be blamed because he isn't as enlightened as an eighteen-year-old?America loves to find an icon to hang its guilt on. But, admittedly, I have assumed the role of Antichrist; I am the Nineties voice of individuality, and people tend to associate anyone who looks and behaves differently with illegal or immoral activity. Deep down, most adults hate people who go against the grain. It's comical that people are naive enough to have forgotten Elvis, Jim Morrison and Ozzy so quickly. All of them were subjected to the same age-old arguments, scrutiny and prejudice. I wrote a song called "Lunchbox," and some journalists have interpreted it as a song about guns. Ironically, the song is about being picked on and fighting back with my Kiss lunch box, which I used as a weapon on the playground. In 1979, metal lunch boxes were banned because they were considered dangerous weapons in the hands of delinquents. I also wrote a song called "Get Your Gunn." The title is spelled with two n's because the song was a reaction to the murder of Dr. David Gunn, who was killed in Florida by pro-life activists while I was living there. That was the ultimate hypocrisy I witnessed growing up: that these people killed someone in the name of being "pro-life."The somewhat positive messages of these songs are usually the ones that sensationalists misinterpret as promoting the very things I
am decrying. Right now, everyone is thinking of how they can prevent things like Littleton. How do you prevent AIDS, world war, depression, car crashes? We live in a free country, but with that freedom there is a burden of personal responsibility. Rather than teaching a child what is moral and immoral, right and wrong, we first and foremost can establish what the laws that govern us are. You can always escape hell by not believing in it, but you cannot escape death and you cannot escape prison.It is no wonder that kids are growing up more cynical; they have a lot of information in front of them. They can see that they are living in a world that's made of bullshit. In the past, there was always the idea that you could turn and run and start something better. But now America has become one big mall, and because of the Internet and all of the technology we have, there's nowhere to run. People are the same everywhere. Sometimes music, movies and books are the only things that let us feel like someone else feels like we do. I've always tried to let people know it's OK, or better, if you don't fit into the program. Use your imagination -- if some geek from Ohio can become something, why can't anyone else with the willpower and creativity?I chose not to jump into the media frenzy and defend myself, though I was begged to be on every single TV show in existence. I didn't want to contribute to these fame-seeking journalists and opportunists looking to fill their churches or to get elected because of their self-righteous finger-pointing. They want to blame entertainment? Isn't religion the first real entertainment? People dress up in costumes, sing songs and dedicate themselves in eternal fandom. Everyone will agree that nothing was more entertaining than Clinton shooting off his prick and then his bombs in true political form. And the news -- that's obvious. So is entertainment to blame? I'd like media commentators to ask themselves, because their coverage of the event was some of the most gruesome entertainment any of us have seen.I think that the National Rifle Association is far too powerful to take on, so most people choose Doom, The Basketball Diaries or yours truly. This kind of controversy does not help me sell records or tickets, and I wouldn't want it to. I'm a controversial artist, one who dares to have an opinion and bothers to create music and videos that challenge people's ideas in a world that is watered-down and hollow. In my work I examine the America we live in, and I've always tried to show people that the devil we blame our atrocities on is really just each one of us. So don't expect the end of the world to come one day out of the blue -- it's been happening every day for a long time.MARILYN MANSON(May 28, 1999)
The Meat Industry Online"Because one species is more clever than another, does it give it the right to imprison or torture the less clever species? Does one exceptionally clever individual have a right to exploit the less clever individuals of his own species? To say that he does is to say with the Fascists that the strong have a right to abuse and exploit the weak - might is right, and the strong and ruthless shall inherit the earth."Richard Ryder On Whales, Dolphins and Effective ActivismAugust 31, 2010by Mary Martin.I recently caught up on Whale Wars. When I first started watching the series I was a big fan. Then less so, feeling more like the characters on the South Park episode that pokes fun at the show and its oftentimes keystone cops-esque shenanigans. Then theres the single-issue issuethat going after a single issue isnt effective or is even a problem. Im not one to believe that (exhibit A: my anti-greyhound racing passion), but I do understand the point that no single issue, other than the use of sentient nonhumans, is the source of the problem for the animals. The same line of reasoning that criticizes Whale Wars can be applied to The Cove and the tragedies that have befallen dolphins at the hands of man. But this is all a narrow conversation that leaves out some fairly significant points and fails to acknowledge effective activism.Regarding Whale Wars, the Sea Shepherd crew frequently reminds the audience that although their plans to sabotage the Japanese whalers often (and I mean oftencan you say prop fouler?) dont work, the goal is to keep the whalers occupied and moving and not killing (or processing) whales. Economic damage is their goal. And at the end of the season, the whalers were 528 whales under their quota. In other words, through the failed prop foulers, the potato gun, the paint balls and the destruction of the multi-million dollar Ady Gil, 528 individual lives were not cut brutally short. In addition, the international media attention to whaling in the Southern Ocean due to various actions (not to mention the broadcasting of a weekly series) has resulted in unprecedented pressure on the Japanese whalers. Mainstream America is now aware of this issue (and that the Sea Shepherd ship serves only vegan food), whales have been spared, the global political community is applying pressure. Our job as individual activists is to decide whether our donation of whatever amount has been well spent.Regarding The Cove and Blood Dolphins, which premiered on Friday, the crucial connection is that what happens in The Cove isnt just about slaughtering dolphinsits about capturing dolphins who will then be held captive and made to entertain humans at marine parks. And as Flipper-trainer-turned-activist Ric OBarry said: in captivity, theyre surviving, but theyre not living and doing. Again, we are increasing awareness about not just killing, but using animals. Sure, were talking about dolphins, whose likability quotient is probably third after puppies and kittens in the minds of people, but at least were talking about it. And if theres
anything Ive learned in my decades of talking to people about our relationship with nonhuman animals, its that change happens at a glacial pace. And we need all of the strategies and tactics and angles we can find to get others to pay attention and to care and to act.But those are just my thoughts, and I dont claim to have all of the answers.What do you think?
Why Are You Vegan?August 18, 2010tags: veganismby Marji.When I posted an article about a pig farmer going vegan to my sanctuarys Facebook page, I found a few of the responses interesting.The farmer went vegan for health reasons and no mention was made whether he still raises pigs.One person was angry, because the farmer makes no mention of how his behavior inflicted immense suffering on the animals he raised and consumed. Another person suggested we should create a more supportive community and that, whatever their reasons, all vegans should be welcomed and embraced.I went vegan because I love animals. In my 13-yr-old brain, eating animals = not loving them. Granted, it took my 22-yr-old brain to realize milk and eggs came from suffering animals too. Once I knew, gone were dairy-based milkshakes and scrambled eggs. All very simple for me.If you are vegan, what compelled your choice? If you did so for health reasons, did you eventually embrace the ethical reasons too?Should we embrace people like this pig farmer who isnt vegan because he cares about pigs but because he cares about himself? If so, how? The City that Ended HungerA city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger.by Frances Moore Lappeposted Feb 13, 2009To search for solutions to hunger means to act within the principle that the status of a citizen surpasses that of a mere consumer.CITY OF BELO HORIZONTE, BRAZILMore than 10 years ago, Brazils fourth-largest city, Belo Horizonte, declared that food was a right of citizenship and started working to make good food available to all. One of its programs puts local farm produce into school meals. This and other projects cost the city less than 2 percent of its budget.In writing Diet for a Small Planet, I learned one simple truth: Hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but a scarcity of democracy. But that realization was only the beginning, for then I had to ask: What does a democracy look like that enables citizens to have a real voice in securing lifes essentials? Does it exist anywhere? Is it possible or a pipe dream? With hunger on the rise here in the United Statesone in 10 of us is now turning to food stampsthese questions take on new urgency.To begin to conceive of the possibility of a culture of empowered citizens making democracy work for them, real-life stories helpnot models to adopt wholesale, but examples that capture key lessons. For me, the story of Brazils fourth largest city, Belo Horizonte, is a rich trove of such lessons. Belo, a city of 2.5 million people, once had 11 percent of its population living in absolute poverty, and almost 20 percent of its children going hungry. Then in 1993, a newly elected administration declared food a right of citizenship. The officials said, in effect: If you are too poor to buy food in the marketyou are no less a citizen. I am still accountable to you.The new mayor, Patrus Ananiasnow leader of the federal anti-hunger effortbegan by creating
a city agency, which included assembling a 20-member council of citizen, labor, business, and church representatives to advise in the design and implementation of a new food system. The city already involved regular citizens directly in allocating municipal resourcesthe participatory budgeting that started in the 1970s and has since spread across Brazil. During the first six years of Belos food-as-a-right policy, perhaps in response to the new emphasis on food security, the number of citizens engaging in the citys participatory budgeting process doubled to more than 31,000.The city agency developed dozens of innovations to assure everyone the right to food, especially by weaving together the interests of farmers and consumers. It offered local family farmers dozens of choice spots of public space on which to sell to urban consumers, essentially redistributing retailer mark-ups on producewhich often reached 100 percentto consumers and the farmers. Farmers profits grew, since there was no wholesaler taking a cut. And poor people got access to fresh, healthy food.When my daughter Anna and I visited Belo Horizonte to write Hopes Edge we approached one of these stands. A farmer in a cheerful green smock, emblazoned with Direct from the Countryside, grinned as she told us, I am able to support three children from my five acres now. Since I got this contract with the city, Ive even been able to buy a truck.The improved prospects of these Belo farmers were remarkable considering that, as these programs were getting underway, farmers in the country as a whole saw their incomes drop by almost half.In addition to the farmer-run stands, the city makes good food available by offering entrepreneurs the opportunity to bid on the right to use well-trafficked plots of city land for ABC markets, from the Portuguese acronym for food at low prices. Today there are 34 such markets where the city determines a set priceabout two-thirds of the market priceof about twenty healthy items, mostly from in-state farmers and chosen by store-owners. Everything else they can sell at the market price.For ABC sellers with the best spots, theres another obligation attached to being able to use the city land, a former manager within this city agency, Adriana Aranha, explained. Every weekend they have to drive produce-laden trucks to the poor neighborhoods outside of the city center, so everyone can get good produce.Another product of food-as-a-right thinking is three large, airy Peoples Restaurants (Restaurante Popular), plus a few smaller venues, that daily serve 12,000 or more people using mostly locally grown food for the equivalent of less than 50 cents a meal. When Anna and I ate in one, we saw hundreds of dinersgrandparents and newborns, young couples, clusters of men, mothers with toddlers. Some were in well-worn street clothes, others in uniform, still others in business suits.Ive been coming here every day for five years and have gained six kilos, beamed one elderly, energetic man in faded khakis.Its silly to pay more somewhere else for lower quality food, an athletic-looking young man in a military police uniform told us. Ive been eating here every day for two