octolevi asked: I am a chilean law student and it's difficult for me to see all these news and posts about "things happening in Aleppo and we're just witnessing it without doing anything about it". Can a simple 22 year old law student from South America do anything to help? (I kinda struggle a lot with the frustration of not being able to do anything that matters)
We all struggle with wanting to do more, but part of the challenge is to recognize our own limitations and maximize what we can do. My advice is to pursue a three-fold strategy: Donate, Educate, Advocate.
DONATE: There are some amazing organizations doing work in Syria and with Syrian refugees. Support them. In particular, those that are started by the Syrian diaspora. One of my favorites is Karam Foundation (www.karamfoundation.org). Others like Sunrise USA (www.sunrise-usa.org) and the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS - www.sams-usa.net) also do great work. All these folks have teams on the ground in Syria and in refugee camps. I would also add the White Helmets (www.whitehelmets.org), an amazing group of volunteer rescue workers inside Syria. Their work is inspirational. Others exist, small and large, so find whatever you are comfortable with.
EDUCATE yourself about the situation in Syria. Read. But do so wisely. In particular, learn what Syrians and people intimately involved with the situation are saying and writing. ISIS is *not* the biggest threat in Syria; the Syrian regime is. Assad is. Don’t fall prey to those who equivocate on this fact. They are either grossly misinformed or willfully advocating for an authoritarian ruler. Equip yourself with information. There are folks like Hadi Abdullah and Leila al-Shami providing witness from on the ground. Find them on social media and follow them.
Other people have been writing on the conflict. Here are a few authors I would recommend: Idrees Ahmad, Robin Yassin-Kassab, Hassan Hassan, Rania Abouzeid, Samar Yazbek, Rami Jarrah, Yassin al-Haj Saleh, Sam Charles Hamad, Fred Hoff, Charles Lister, Moses Brown, Janine di Giovanni and Deborah Amos. They write articles, books, take pictures and some blog. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Read. Then teach others.
ADVOCATE for Syria. Not just refugees, but Syrians inside the country. For starters, push for four things: safe havens in the country for civilians, lifting regime’s sieges that are starving entire populations, humanitarian corridors for aid and a political settlement. Ask your countries to be more proactive. Most governments don’t think Syria and the human suffering there matters to their own populations. They assume there is no political will. This does not have to be the case. Start your advocacy in the easiest way you can: in your own circles, with your friends, social media, etc. Don’t let Syria and Aleppo just be a headline for a passing moment. Keep paying attention. Demand that your politicians pay attention. Let apathy be your enemy.
If you want to know what you can do about the terrible interruption to humanity going on in Aleppo, Adnan Zulfiqar, a Sharswood Fellow at Penn Law, is answering your asks right now. Read his Answer Time over on our Action Tumblr.
A few things you need to know about this hot coffee case:
It wasn’t an issue of the coffee being because no fucking shit coffee is hot, but McDonald’s had over heated their water to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 121C. Not just hot, but really FUCKING hot. Your fancy Starbucks lattes are brewed to 150 degrees.
The 79 year old woman had this cup of 250F (121C) coffee between her legs when it spilled so 250F (121C) coffee spilled on her genitals
She got third degree burns…on her genitals. THIRD DEGREE.
She had to have skin grafts to repair the damage
When she sued McDonald’s, it wasn’t for millions of dollars, it was for $20,000 to cover hospital costs and court fees. 20-fucking-thousand.
It was the courts that awarded her the amount of money she got. Again, she only wanted hospital bills and court costs
McDonald’s changed their heating policy, but not before making her sign a gag order keeping her from talking about this case
So she had to live on hearing little shits like you call her stupid and money-grubbing, and other horrendous stuff because she dared ask the company in the wrong to fix what they fucked up.
MORE FUN FACTS:
9. The woman who was burned was not driving the car, she was a passenger.
10. The car was not in motion when she was burned. The car was parked so she could add cream and sugar.
The coffee case is one of the biggest examples of a carefully-crafted smear campaign by a company that is in the wrong trying to hide that.
Additionally, several people had been badly burned by McDonald’s coffee prior to that case, both employees and customers, and McDonald’s had been fined and told to lower the heat of their coffee. They refused to lower the coffee’s heat, continuing to serve a product they KNEW from EXPERIENCE was dangerous, because they could.
When she was burned, she reached out to McDonald’s for them to cover her medical expenses. They sent her a coupon booklet as a big eff yuu.
She required skin grafts not just on her genitals but on her thighs, buttocks, and I think stomach. Like, it was a lot of skin grafts! And did you know that skin grafts don’t always take? She was very severely hurt by a product that McDonald’s knew for a FACT was dangerous.
But nah, go on talking about how she was just foolish and greedy, that’s obviously the case, big corporations have all of our best interest in heart, really they do.
Her name was Stella Liebeck. She has since passed away but I think it’s important to name the victim in this story. Her name was Stella Liebeck and the coffee was so hot that it fused her labia together. It melted her genitals closed. But it’s all just a giant joke, huh?
At that point, she had medical bills of over $11,000. She was anticipating more. She didn’t have much money.She just wanted McDonald’s to pay for the damage their coffee had done so that she could get medical treatment. Seems reasonable, right?
And there weren’t several people who were burned before Liebeck. It was a LOT worse than that.
During discovery, McDonalds produced documents showing more than 700 claims by people burned by its coffee between 1982 and 1992. Some claims involved third-degree burns substantially similar to Liebeck[’]s. This history documented McDonalds’ knowledge about the extent and nature of this hazard.
So McDonald’s knew that their coffee was burning people–in some cases, causing third-degree burns. They knew it for TEN YEARS. And they did nothing about it.
Oh, and the jury award?
The jury awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages. This amount was reduced to $160,000 because the jury found Liebeck 20 percent at fault in the spill. The jury also awarded Liebeck $2.7 million in punitive damages, which equals about two days of McDonalds’ coffee sales.
:::
The trial court subsequently reduced the punitive award to $480,000 – or three times compensatory damages – even though the judge called McDonalds’ conduct reckless, callous and willful.
So all of the jokes about how rich Liebeck got off the settlement? Nope. McDonald’s ended up not even haping to pay most of it.
Don’t forget that the REASON that they serve their coffee at DANGEROUSLY high temperatures (Injuring literally thousands of customers) is because coffee brewed and kept at those DANGEROUSLY HIGH temperatures tastes fresher longer, so less undrunk coffee has to be thrown out throughout the day, so McDonalds can MAKE MORE PROFIT on their damn coffee sales.
When I was a freshman, my sister was in eighth grade. There was a boy in two of her periods who would ask her out every single day. (Third and seventh period, if I remember correctly.) All day during third and seventh she would repeatedly tell him no. She didn’t beat around the bush, she didn’t lie and say she was taken–she just said no.
One day, in third period, after being rejected several times, he said; “I have a gun in my locker. If you don’t say yes, I am going to shoot you in seventh.”
“I’d love to act and direct. I’d love to make a great American hero cat film. You don’t see a lot of narrative films with cats as heroic main characters, it’s always dogs. Like they’re the only ones who can warn people of danger, or play basketball.”
“Can you warn people of danger? Or play basketball?”
“No, but it’s acting. I could act like I can do those things.”
This is literally the real-life equivalent of that time when Ginny Weasley was taken into the Chamber of Secrets and Gilderoy Lockhart pops up and starts talking all about how he could have prevented it, if only he had been there, and the other Hogwarts professors just stare at him and slowly start to plot his death…
i would literally rather have darth vader be our next president than donald trump. if darth vader ran in the 2016 elections, and it came down to him and donald trump, i would vote for darth vader without even thinking
this post is interesting because it implies a future in which darth vader won the democratic primary
No but this could totally be a thing.
Like he’d look at gay marriage and be like “I too have known what it’s like to not be able to get married simply because of who you are.” Marriage for everybody.
He’s pro gun-control. Light sabers are much more elegant weapons, anyway.
He’d probably be for raising the minimum wage. He grew up a slave, living in the worse kind of poverty. He knows how important it is for single mothers to be able to support their children.
