Australian Cat Ladies snatch Australian Christian Lobbys Domain-Name
Australische Feministen haben der Christlichen Lobby in Australien (ACL) die Domain geklaut und machen dort unter Australian Cat Ladies und machen damit Stimmung für die Gleichstellung gleichgeschlechtlicher Ehen. Nice one!
A trio of Melbourne feminists, calling themselves the Australian Cat Ladies, pounced on the domain name AustralianChristianLobby.org when the ACL, which only uses acl.org.au, failed to buy it. Their site, called Australian Cat Ladies, says it stands for marriage equality, the rights of couples to abortion, an end to discrimination, sex education and responsible cat ownership.
The link went viral on social media, earning the site about 260,000 views since its launch last night. A spokeswoman for the Australian Christian Lobby told Leader the group would continue to use its old website to communicate with members. Site co-founder Hilary Bowman-Smart said the founders’ intention was not to embarrass the ACL but “we would certainly not be upset if we did”.
“We’re really not fans of them,” she said.
NZ Parliament sings Māori Lovesong after voting for Marriage Equality
Youtube Direktlove, via Boing Boing
Toller Moment im Parlament von Neuseeland: Nach der Abstimmung für die Gleichstellung gleichgeschlechtlicher Ehe brechen zunächst die Besucherränge in den Love-Song „Pokarekare Ana“ aus, worauf die Abgeordneten mit einstimmen. Wunderbare Erinnerung daran, dass Politik vor allem immer noch von Menschen für Menschen gemacht wird. Aus dem neuseeländischen Parlament gab’s diese Woche noch einen Clip von einem Abgeordneten, der ein paar ziemlich lustige Antworten auf die „Burn In Hell“-Vorwürfe religiöser Fundies hatte.
Hong Kong Apartments shot from above
Spannende Fotoserie der Society for Community Organization aus Hong Kong, die überfüllte Cubicle-Apartments in Weitwinkelaufnahmen von oben zeigt.
human rights organization Society for Community Organization recently commissioned a series of photographs showing what a number of unacceptable living spaces look like when viewed from directly overhead.
North Korea Gulag Reviews
Google hat anscheinend neues Kartenmaterial aus Nordkorea bei Maps online gestellt und schon rauschen die Reviews für Gulags rein:
If your looking for a the best death camp look no further. The country can barely feed it self so just imagine a gulag. Want to loose some weight? Just one visit to Bukchang and the pounds will fall right off. Activity include but not limited too manual labor, sleep desperation, disease and a high chance of death. Looking for some alone time? No worries all family are separated upon entry. Who knows what adventures await you in North Korea’s leading death camp.
#Aufschrei in der NYTimes:
Der #Aufschrei ist in der New York Times angekommen: Germany’s Sexism Provokes Backlash (falls die Paywall zuhaut: NYT Clean). Spätestens hiermit dürfte #Aufschrei die bis jetzt erfolgreichste politische Internetkampagne Deutschlands sein. Kudos, well done!
Inside North Koreas Kwangmyong-Web
Die BBC hat ein paar ziemlich interessante Details aus dem Kwangmyong, der nordkoreanischen Version des Internets. „Publisher“ müssen beispielsweise einen Code einfügen, der den Namen von Kim Jong-un ein paar Pixel größer darstellt, als den Rest.
There’s a curious quirk on every official North Korean website. A piece of programming that must be included in each page’s code. Its function is straightforward but important. Whenever leader Kim Jong-un is mentioned, his name is automatically displayed ever so slightly bigger than the text around it. Not by much, but just enough to make it stand out. It’s just one facet of the “internet” in North Korea, a uniquely fascinating place. […]
There’s just one cybercafe in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang. Anyone logging on at the cafe would find themselves at a computer that isn’t running Windows, but instead Red Star – North Korea’s own custom-built operating system, reportedly commissioned by the late Kim Jong-il himself. A pre-installed readme file explains how important it is that the operating system correlates with the country’s values.
The Hawkeye Initiative points its Finger at Sexism in Comics:
The Hawkeye Initiative zeichnet Hawkeye in den Posen weiblicher Comic-Charaktere und entblößt damit den allgegenwärtigen Sexismus in der Comic-Industrie. Wenn sie jetzt noch ein bisschen Zeichentalent hätten, könnte man das ganze auch tatsächlich herzeigen, aber darum geht’s wohl auch nicht.
Moscow bans protest against political repressions ‘due to lack of political repressions’
Wie grandios, auf so ‘ne absurde WTF-Idiots-Art: Russland verbietet Proteste gegen Menschenrechtsverletzungen, weil es in Russland keine Menschenrechtsverletzungen gäbe, weil die Verfassung Menschenrechte gewährleiste. Die Begründung muss ich mir merken.
The Moscow authorities have refused to grant permission for a rally against “political repressions” and “violations of human rights,” saying that state law does not recognize such a phenomenon in the country. The application to hold the event was rejected by the authorities on the grounds that the “current law does not provide any measures used by the state for repression based on political motives,” the official refusal letter reads.
The letter further explained, “in accordance to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the government guarantees equal rights and freedom of the individual.” The letter also said that the constitution rejects any forms of violation of human rights based on “social, racial, national, language or religious affiliation.” The constitution also guarantees judicial protection.
Moscow bans protest against political repressions ‘due to lack of political repressions’
Lana Wachowskis LGBT-Speech
Lana Wachowski (The Matrix, Bound, V for Vendetta) sprach auf einer Human Rights zum ersten mal seit forever. Die Dame (und ihr Bruder) geben seit dem Erfolg mit der Matrix keine Interviews und treten nicht öffentlich auf, jetzt haben sie das geändert und Lana erzählt auf der Gala über ihre Kindheit als Transgender, Mobbing, Identitätsprobleme und Akzeptanz durch die Gesellschaft.
Sie liefert mit der Rede einen der intelligentesten („The Pathology of a society that refuses to see acknowledge the spectrum of gender in the same blind way they refuse to see the spectrum of race and sexuality“) und bewegendsten („[My Mum] tells me to look at her but I don’t want to, because when I do I am unable to understand why she cannot see me“) Beiträge zum Thema seit „It gets better“… und einen der lustigsten („[My hairdresser's] seen the drunken pornographic pictures of our honeymoon in Mykonos“).
Ich empfehle, das komplette Ding anzusehen (Ab circa Minute 5) oder das Transkript zu lesen:
Invisibility is indivisible from visibility; for the transgender this is not simply a philosophical conundrum — it can be the difference between life and death.
A few short weeks ago after my coming out, the three of us, Tom, Andy and I were being interviewed, one of the reporters ventured away from the subject of the film towards my gender. Imagine that, a reporter. My brother quickly stepped in, “Look, just so we’re clear,” he says, “if somebody asks something or says something about my sister that I don’t like, understand that I will break a bottle over their head.” [applause] Few words express love clearer than these.
I am here because Mr. Henderson taught me that there are some things we do for ourselves, but there are some things we do for others. I am here because when I was young, I wanted very badly to be a writer, I wanted to be a filmmaker, but I couldn’t find anyone like me in the world and it felt like my dreams were foreclosed simply because my gender was less typical than others.
If I can be that person for someone else [pause, applause] then the sacrifice of my private civic life may have value.
Lana Wachowski Reveals Suicide Plan, Painful Past in Emotional Speech, Lana Wachowski’s HRC Visibility Award Acceptance Speech (Transcript) (via Boing Boing)
A Girl With A Book
Vorhin schon gefacebookt, will ich aber auch hier haben: Brillante Karikatur von Pat Bagley für den Salt Lake Tribune anlässlich des feigen Anschlags der Taliban auf die 14jährige Malala Yousufzai, einer pakistanischen Aktivistin, die mit ihrem Blog über das Leben eines Mädchens in Pakistan für die BBC weltbekannt wurde.
Empathy Captcha vs Homophobes keeps out Bots, Trolls, Idiots
Die schwedischen Aktivisten der Civil Rights Defenders haben ein Captcha entwickelt, das nicht nur Bots, sondern auch Trolle und Vollidioten vom kommentieren abhalten soll. Ob’s funktioniert ist fraglich, aber ‘ne nette Idee für ‘ne gute Sache ist es definitiv. Anlass ist die Absage einer LGBT-Demo in Serbien durch die Polizei, wegen befürchteter Übergriffe durch Nazis.
Their version doesn’t just present a scrambled word to be deciphered, but instead forces a person to choose the right word to unscramble based on the proper emotional response to a human rights violation. Civil Rights Defenders, the Swedish-based group that developed the tool, hopes the Civil Rights Captcha will help sites block spiders and bots, while letting humans in — and hopefully educating the humans at the same time.
One hopes that being required to choose “Terrible” rather than “Fascinated” when asked how you feel about gay people being beaten will keep out the trolls — but that’s probably asking too much. But perhaps forcing a troll to repeatedly choose an empathetic response will, over time, soothe the ravages of comment sections around the net. Okay, that might also be asking too much, but at the very least spreading information about human rights abuses certainly can’t hurt, even if the jerks of the internet (see, for example, YouTube comments) remain beyond help.
PHP Library und API gibt’s hier: Civil Rights Captcha is a free Anti Spam Service that takes a stand for Civil Rights Issues across the Globe, Wired: Fend Off Trolls, Bots and Jerks With ‘Empathy’ Test
Iranian Woman beats the Crap Out of Cleric
Ich bin kein Freund von Gewalt, aber hier kann ich nicht anders. This chick got some serious balls:
“I politely [told] her to cover herself up,” said Hojatoleslam Ali Beheshti, an Iranian cleric in the city of Shamirzad in Semnan Province, describing a recent encounter with a woman he believed was improperly veiled. “She responded to me by saying: ‘You [should] close your eyes.’” The cleric, who spoke to the semi-official Mehr news agency, said he repeated his warning to the “bad hijab” woman, which is a way of describing women who do not fully observe the Islamic dress code that became compulsory following the 1979 revolution.
“Not only didn’t she cover herself up, but she also insulted me. I asked her not to insult me anymore, but she started shouting and threatening me,” Beheshti said. “She pushed me and I fell to the ground on my back. From that point on, I don’t know what happened. I was just feeling the kicks of the woman who was beating me up and insulting me.”
He said he was hospitalized for three days following the attack.
Free Pussy Riot-Protest by Amnesty International
Pussy Riot sind ‘ne feministische Punk Band und Seitenarm der russischen Anarchie-Kunst-Gang Viona. Der der Damen wurden im März verhaftet, nachdem sie einen Anti-Putin-Song in einer Kirche aufführten und könnten für nen Song sieben Jahre im Knast landen. Hier die Petition dagegen von Amnesty International, hier der Protest Tumblr: We Are Pussy Riot. (via Osocio)
Three young women are being detained by Russian authorities for allegedly performing a protest song in a cathedral as part of a feminist punk group “Pussy Riot”.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich were arrested in March 2012 and charged with “hooliganism”. If found guilty, they could be jailed for up to 7 years.
The three women deny any involvement in the protest although even if they took part, the severity of the response of the Russian authorities would not be a justifiable response to the peaceful – if, to many, offensive – expression of their political beliefs.
African Vaginal Mutilation Cake-Art
Makode Linde, afrikanischstämmiger Schwede und Performance-Künstler, hat auf für Schwedens Art Week eine Installation gebaut, in der er selbst einen Kuchen-Unterleib und -Torso hat, der vom schwedischen Kulturminister im Genitalbereich angeschnitten wurde und die Genitalverstümmelungen von Frauen in Afrika symbolisieren soll.
A male artist, in the most offensive caricature blackface imaginable, creates an anatomical nude female red velvet cake and invites Sweden’s Minister of Culture to give him/her a symbolic cliteridectomy by cutting the genital slice first. Oh, and Mr. Linde screams and moans. Then he eats the cake.
Das tolle Blog Osocio (über unkommerzielle Werbung und soziale Aktionen) hat eine gute Zusammenfassung des ganzen Boheis, der mittlerweile um die Aktion entstanden ist. Am stichhaltigsten erscheint mir ein Bit vom Afro-Europe-Blog, auch wenn der letzte Satz mindestens angezweifelt werden darf:
Makode Linde is known for in his art, which is based on racism, xenophobia and slavery. The cake, which was part of his work, was to make a Western perception of Africa in contrast to the real picture of slavery and oppression. He also stresses that the main purpose of the cake was not to depict mutilation.”
Racism? Art? PSA? Or all three? The disturbing spectacle of Makode Linde’s human cake
