APPLE COMPUTERS BAD ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL PRACTICES

(Pictures below of Greenpeace protest in from of the Apple Store in NYC.)



THE ISSUE:
Globally, between 22 and 55 million tons of electronic waste gets trashed every year. Many of these materials are toxic and carcinogens (lead, PVC, BFRs) and end up in landfills and incinerators, and often get shipped to the developing world to get dismantled by hand in horrendous conditions by poor workers and their children. Many of these children use the parts as toys after they are done helping their parents assemble parts. The waste leaks into water sources and planting areas and end up being consumed by the whole region. Since 2003, Greenpeace has been working with the main electronics companies in the world to help reduce or eliminate these toxic materials, and most companies have agreed to reduce, and in some cases eliminate the most dangerous chemicals. With one main exception.: Apple Computers.



THE CAMPAIGN:
Apple computers has scored one of the lowest of all main computer companies: 2.7/10Apple now uses of the highest concentrations of carcinogens and toxic chemicals on their production.Their products are now manufactured with a life span of about a 1 year ( just about as long as the warranty lasts and as often as new Ipods come in the market). After Greenpeace had been discussing the issues with Apple for about 3 years, back in April 2005, Steve Jobs publicly called environmentalists' concerns about Apple "bullshit". Come on Steve, we'd expect that kind of reaction from fat corporate CEOs who dump polychlorinated biphenyls into rivers, not from a cool, potentially eco-friendly titan of the information age.



THE ACTION:
All we want is for Apple to agree to the same changes all the other companies have already agreed to, so we are planning a friendly, visual way to ask them to change their ways.

You can find more information at:
http://www.greenmyapple.org/itox.html

Election Day NY Style

New Yorkers were trying to make a very clear point today. We are sick of what's been going on, sick of politicians using The World Trade Center as a means to getting their way and tired of how misrepresented we have all been. But in typical manner, we at least had a sense of humor about it. A few moments from today:

- Astor Place, 2 PM.
A man with a megaphone (who happened to be a retired veteran who was evicted), asking people to vote because "rent is too damn high". Also publicizing his personal party and website: http://rentistoodamnhigh.org/.
Which is.. well... interesting. EVERY page plays the "rent is too damn high" song which is distributed by Hamster Records (seriously..) and takes forever to load since nothing was optimized. He is also looking for sponsors to pay for the "rent is too damn high" merchandise.
As crazy as the whole thing is.. gee, rent IS too damn high in NYC.

- Brooklyn Heights, 4 PM

A dog is sitting on a chair in front of the subway, and a small crowd is gathering to read the sign below:



One has to love NY....(yes, you guessed it. I am in a good mood because the Democrats seem to be taking most of the seats... Yeepee)

Barbra Streisand Concert Woes and Freedom of Speech

To anyone who has known me for a while, it comes as no surprise that I am a very avid Barbra Streisand fan. I had been a little disappointed because what attracted me most to her (besides what I consider to be one of the greatest voices of our times) was the courage she has always shown, be it in the career moves she has made or in the honesty of her opinions and how passionately she defends them, and I had been feeling that she had only be making safe choices recently, with her music and her movies.

It is also known to anyone who has followed her career that she is an outspoken liberal who has started using he influence early on and even participated in her first political fund-raiser, for George McGovern (an act that would place her on Richard Nixon's enemies list), and continued to support liberal causes and singing at benefits, like she did for Clinton.

And yet, during her recent tour, in every city she's been in, there has been some kind of "audience outburst" whenever she does a skit in which she jokes with a Bush impersonator. It happened in Philadelphia, here in NY (though we are mostly liberals) and now in Florida, where someone actually threw a drink at her during the show.Why? How? And why does it seem so much like a set up?

Let's see the facts:
~ Barbra Streisand comes back to the stage to get funds for the Streisand Foundation (http://www.barbrastreisand.com/foundationguidelines.html). Her organization which has made grants totaling nearly 15 million dollars to national organizations working on preservation of the environment, voter education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, women’s issues and nuclear disarmament.
~ She is one of the most known democratic and liberal celebrities in this country (Bill and Hillary Clinton were sitting by me at Madison Square Garden) who regularly posts political statements on her blog (http://www.barbrastreisand.com/statements.html).
~ The ticket prices varied from a few hundred to $5000 dollars, being that those sitting on the cheaper seats were too far to be able to reach her with anything, so the assumption is that the turmoil was caused by someone from the $5000 section, which was most of the lower levels of the stadiums.
~ Anyone willing to pay $5000 to see someone would have to be a very big fan.

And the question is, what kind of fan who would be willing to pay $5000 for a ticket to see an artist would be ignorant enough to offend her and throw things at her during the show?What kind of person would do that to an artist under any circumstances? And what are the chances of that randomly happening in SEVERAL CITIES?

If that really were a random event, then, by gosh, this country is in worse shape than we think. If it were, as many suggest, someone planted in the shows to discredit her (they managed to make her curse here in NYC and that was all over the news), then this country is STILL in worse shape than we think.

Below is a reminder of some basic principles we seem to be forgetting:

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, provides, in Article 19, that:

Everyone has the right to opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.

Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.

N.J. and Gay Marriage

The times have been sobering to say the least. So much violence, so much suffering and the inescapable feeling that the world is moving backwards. We seem to have taken a turn towards religious sectism, narrow views, intolerance and war. The issues have been so depressing and so many I have chosen not to write about them. It feels like every topic almost deserved a book, not the concise and easy read format of a blog.
Well, a topic has just caught my attention in a black hole of bad news. N.J. is moving towards legalization of gay marriage.

I have to admit to having fallen for the NYer stereotype. I was not a huge fan of N.J. Having dwelled there for a short period of time, I don’t have many good memories of the town where I lived. I was always aware of how ridiculous the usual comments were, that people who moved to N.J. have exchanged a rich cultural life for a large house, but deep inside I couldn’t help but have my own thoughts that maybe there was some truth to the comments.

And then something happens to prove us all wrong. In a moment of enlightenment and civil rights justice, N.J. starts moving towards the legalization of one of the most basics of social steps towards a truly democratic system, that which ensures all of its citizens the same basic legal privileges to all direct family members. Seems logical, doesn’t it? But because of extremist religious groups (and the amount of money they have been using to manipulate the system) and a lack of understanding of what liberty and democracy really means, this country has been denying its citizens the right to pick the people they love and to provide for them in times of need.

I am still to understand why some people believe they have a right to dictate who others can or cannot love. I live under the principles that your life is yours to live unless your choices harm someone else. And love is never really the reason why people get harmed, now, is it? If anything, we are in dire need of some more of that to go around.

So I bow my head in shame. Shame for not giving N.J. the respect it deserved. For making the same generalizations I criticize others for making, and for assuming the narrow minded influential minority would make enough noise to bring us one more step towards the middle ages
So there is hope...
Bravo, N.J.
Let’s just stay the course (the right one)…

September 11th, 2006

So we wake up on Sept 11th like we do every day, except that there is some tension in the air that we try to ignore to help us go through the day as if it were any other day. But the truth is that it's not. It can't be. At least not yet.

There is a lot of pain still in the hearts of all of us affected by this atrocity, and there are many reasons why we cannot settle and just move on. The main reason is, of course, because that hole in our souls that was caused by the sudden death of our friends and family members will never really disappear. But there are other reasons, many other reasons...

If you are watching the news coverage of the events, in particular the reading of the names of the three thousand victims of 9/11, one thing becomes clear watching some of the readers stumbling or mispronouncing many of the names, the victims were from all over the world, all kinds of backgrounds, all religions.

One brutal, prejudiced, unjustified, criminal, cowardly act does not justify another, and most of what we have seen since 9/11 has been a reaction from individuals and from the government that mirror what has been done here.

The terrorists attacked us due to an uneducated and enlightened view of the world that is composed of manipulative leaders who brain wash them into believing that what they think is right, religious fanaticism that increases their hatred for anyone who doesn't have the same believes they do and a desire for revenge that makes them lose their humanity and make them incapable of realizing that the people they are attacking are just like them.

Have we been acting any differently? We have attacked a country that never attacked us because our leaders lied and convinced a large part of the population that it was for the best. Since that Invasion of Iraq by the USA, it is estimated that over 46000 civilians have been killed. That is over 15 times the number of people killed at 9/11. But somehow, that is viewed as being acceptable.There have been 2,897 coalition deaths, 2,668 Americans, two Australians, 117 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, four Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 31 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, two Romanians, two Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of September 11, 2006. That is as many people as those killed in the World Trade Center. And for what? Oil?

There is also another interesting twist to the government's excuse that this is all being done for our safety and so that we can keep our "democratic and free" way of life.Instead of trying to fix the causes for terrorism in the world, we have been reduced to a cat and mouse game.
In a new age of government monitoring of private conversions and actions and all the civil rights violations of the Patriot Act, of lies about the handling of political prisoners, abuses and the recent admission of secret illegal prisons found by an European investigator which held detainees in Europe that were hurriedly shipped out to North Africa a month ago when word leaked out.

The current American freedom of widespread ID checks, locked and bulletproof cockpit doors in airliners, armed pilots, tracking foreigners' visas and monitoring Muslim and Arab communities, to even prohibiting shampoo from being brought on board, tapped phones and monitored internet access. All done for our freedom and safety.

Let's also consider, as we watch the images of ground zero, that that same Department of Homeland Security has just slashed New York City anti-terror funds by 40 percent. FORTY PERCENT!!!Their explanation is that New York has no national monuments or icons. Of course, The Empire State Building, The United Nations, The Statue of Liberty and others found on several terror target hit lists are probably not important. There are also landmarks, such as the New York Public Library, Times Square, City Hall and at least three of the nation's most renowned museums: The Guggenheim, The Metropolitan and The Museum of Natural History.

Let's also forget that NYC is the financial capital of the world, home to Chase, JP Morgan, Citi Group, The New York Stock Exchange, The Commodities Exchange, American Express, George Soros funds, Michael Gabelli's funds, Lazard Frere and Salomon Brothers, to name just a few of the more prominent banking interests located here.

How about ignoring a commuter population of more than 16 million around the city twice struck by fundamentalist terrorists and twice more targeted in plots halted in pre-operational stages. Or more than eight million residents and the largest rail ridership in the nation - more than five million. It is those commuters and rail riders who are expected to suffer most from the cuts since mass transit is listed on most DHS alerts as the top terror target.

Yes, there is a lot of sadness today. Let us all hope for better days...

FringeNYC has come of age...

Every year a mysterious phenomenon happens in lower Manhattan. Theater lovers find incredible shows they want to see. Audience members find out they can actually afford to see many shows without going broke. People who have never been to the theater discover its magic. Teens find out theater is actually cool. And all of that is caused by a marvel called The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC.org).
FringeNYC, for those who don't know is the largest multi-arts festival in North America, with more than 200 companies from all over the world performing for 16 days in more than 20 venues with almost 2000 performances, art events, free classes and outdoor performances.

FringeNYC started this year with a series of internet issues, with a British company stuck at the airport for 3 days and with one of the actors suffering from collapsed lungs and having to cancel his show, and yet, its spirit and power has been stronger than ever. For the 16 days of the festival, lower Manhattan is transformed. It changes from being the business area of NY, the sad resting place of 9/11, the executive stronghold of the Big Apple to becoming the heart of the creative pulse of NYC.

Streets are taken over by characters and artists, volunteers race to get to theaters so they can help with the crowds, shows move about spreading the word about their perfomances and audience members come to FringeCENTRAL (27 Mercer street) to share their experiences. They talk about being moved to tears by "Sakura", a show from Japan, about laughing until their cheeks hurt at the crazy guys with spatulas from "Minimum Wage", about being shocked at the honesty of the art of "Billy The Mime" or about the hypnotizing dialogue of a jewel called "Americana Absurdum".

FringeNYC has come of age. It has turned 10 this year. Let its spirit, passion and art endure for many decades to come...

FRINGENYC
http://fringenyc.org/
For information on the shows, podcasting and more.

Just a light post for a change..

Hi everyone
So I figured it was about time to just post something light, non-political and with a touch of fluff.

Starting with the fluff:
After having several friends email me, call me and message me about the show Final Fu on MTV2 I finally decided to record a few and check them out, and I am completely hooked. Who knew Martial Arts drama could be so much fun.
The show is basically a competition of different styles and is represented by great martial artists like Ernie Reyes Jr. (who hosts the show), Matt Mullins and a group of blackbelts who can be a lot of fun to watch and who seem to be representing their art to their best abilities. Of course, there is always the bad guy of the bunch, Brian W, who is an embarrassment to martial artists anywhere, by cheating, breaking rules and basically making comments about why he wants to be the "Final Fu" which can make his fellow Taekwondoists cringe with shame.
All in all a lot of fun for martial artists and with enough drama to keep other audiences entertained too.

Now, the web:
Am I the only person who has noticed a bunch of sites having issues at the same time and who suspects it might be more than a coincidence?
Let's see.. four of the webservers I use seem to be either down or having major issues right now, gmail is having difficulties, MySpace has been down or having serious problems for a while now and several of the main sites I visit are either experiencing difficulties, down or very very slow. It's not some problem from my end, they all have warnings about it. What's going on?

INVISIBLE CHILDREN

So we have a group of inexperienced filmmakers, from a typical spoiled American background who decide to go to Africa to document on the war that has been going on there for the past two decades. The result is an amateur documentary that goes from just plain silly to an incredibly moving report on the condition of the children whose lives have been destroyed by the ravages of this insane war. You can see it in its entirety on Google Video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3166797753930210643

And do something by going to:
http://www.africare.org/index.html
or to
http://www.invisiblechildren.com/

World on Fire

I have been away for a long time. It's not because I haven't had things going on, actually, I have had too many things going on to post. But back once again. Things that really caught my attention recently:
The Amazing march of the millions of immigrants all over the USA for legalization Rights:

Jan 16, 2006: The first woman president takes office in Liberia, Africa
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a graduate of Harvard University who worked as a waitress here in the US to pay for her education becomes the example that the world needs to follow. How a low income self educated african woman can overcome obstacles and become a leader in women's rights in a continent with the highest rape and violence towards women and children in the world. Her first action: making rape illegal in a country that saw it simply as " men misbehaving".

And in an act that should be followed by many other artists in the world, Sarah McLachlan creates a video with $15 and distributes the rest of the estimated cost of it to charities around the world.
Watch the video here:
http://www.worldonfire.ca/

What a year...

Starting Dec 26th, 2004 - Tsunami hits southeast Asia. 230 thousand dead.
First Iraqi elections.
Bush starts 2nd term.
6.4 earthquake devastates Iran.
Palestine and Israel declare truce
Car bomb kills former Prime Minister in Lebanon. Syria blamed.
Pope John Paul ll dies. Pope Benedict XVl elected.
Charles marries Camilla.
Deep throat reveled.
L yndie England guilty of atrocities against prisoners of war.
Iran elects new president.
Sandra Day O'Connor resigns.
Lance Armstrong wins 7th Tour de France.
Terrorists bomb London, 16 days later car bombs shatter Egypt.
Discovery damaged, fleet grounded.
Five planes crash in one month.
Cindy Sheehan ignites anti-war protests.
Israel removes settlers from Palestinian territories.
Hurricane Katrina devastates Gulf Coast.
Government slow to respond, average Americans rush to help. FEMA directors resigns.
7.6 Earthquake hits Pakistan. 86 thousand killed, 3.5 million homeless.
U.S. deaths in Iraq reach 2000.
Avian flu grips the world.
Most active hurricane season in record.
Race riots grip Australia. Parisians riot.
Bush defends domestic spying.
Debates intensifies over torture.
11 Million Iraquis vote for national assembly.
Gas prices rise, Bush approval plummets.
Hussein goes to trial.
White Sox win World Series.

Appointed:
John Roberts - Chief of Justice.
Condoleeza Rice - Secretary of State.
John Balton - U.N. Ambassador.
Alberto Gonzalez - Attorney General.

Indicted:
Tom Delay - House Majority Lead.
Scooter Libby - VP Chief of Staff.



Deaths:
Peter Jennings, ABC news anchor.
Prince Rainier of Monaco.
Richard Pryor, comedian.
Shirley Chisholm, 1st black congressman.
Simon Wiesenthal, Nazi hunter.
Rosa Park, civil rights pioneer.
William Rehnquist, U.S. chief justice.