FREEGANISM for all...

Am back with some real good stuff this time..take a few minutes and think about this...
Do you throw away things that have a re-usable value??
How bad is that? Sadly, that is the state of most of the things that could be re-used in our day-to-day activities. We have been gradually introduced to throw away items that have a re-usable value because many corporate organizations plainly survive on that. By throwing away things we can use again, not only do we increase the amount of garbage but also fail to see the true value of the item.
Corporations create new commodities every second and do not care if they are truly useful. They somehow make it sound useful and with the help of advertisements create useless products and manipulate the minds of the consumers into buying them. With bright colors and catchy designs they entice the consumers to spend their hard earned money into things like this which mostly get disposed off after the first time they are ever used.
Think about this and we could do a lot to help save the environment.
Try taking your own bags to the grocery stores instead of accepting the plastic bags from the shop. And even if you do have plastic bags , do not just throw them away...you could use them more than once..they should serve some purpose right?
plastic bottles are another whole issue..and you even have people who campaign that if you use plastic water bottles more than once, you have a risk of getting infected from the plastics...think twice before fully believing anything anybody says...be open and think about the re-usable value of each item you use.
There are a whole bunch of FREEGANS who practice FREEGANISM...
There are a lot of free exchange of items that take place...amongst Freegans..and is it not good to share what you have and do not use?
Check this alternate way of life and see how much you can contribute!!
Reduce unnecessary consumerism which fill Capitalist pockets and exploit you!
HAPPY THINKING AND REALIZING!!!
Related Articles:
http://www.cnn.com/2006
wikipedia
FOOD NOT BOMBS

World Wide PostCard Sharing is..GRR..OWING...

Hey!! I don't know if you guys visited the worldkidsblogspot recently and read about our postcard sharing in New Jersey, USA. We went to this Brownie meeting and met these amazing and creative kids who were so enthusiastic in taking the WORLDWIDE POST CARD SHARING to the next level. Well, we first started this in SIRAGU as you all know and then it went across to Ontario, Canada (we haven't got the post cards from them yet, and we'll keep you posted once we do) and then now it was these kids from the Brownie meeting here in New Jersey, USA.
We cannot even begin to explain the eagerness of the kids and the love that came right across from their hearts, when they joyously accepted the cards from India and started doing their art work in turn for the kids across the world.
Anybody could come into this postcard sharing...and kids especially can come and share any of their creative work in this platform...by this, we cannot imagine how many of them will have friends all over the world by the time they enter their senior grades...
It is a constant learning process for us as children are innocent and so loving by nature and have so much to offer to bring this world together..
PLEASE GO TO WWPCS FOR FURTHER DETAILS...
So, once again we lovingly say...CHILDREN OF THE WORLD, UNITE!!
Related links:
Siragu Documentary

Violation of Body & Soul

Can't believe I was actually reading this about Delhi - The Rape capital of India. It's 2007 and still we haven't really advanced to a state of security and protection for women. Leave alone the moral and psychological battles we need to wage against the phenomenon, but what about Law enforcement and the judicial system. Don't we need stricter laws? Stringent measures to prevent rape? Ok but then again, in spite of all this, we need to do some community outreach, towards a more holistic approach in dealing with rape prevention and its effects.
Just so that we are more informed, here are a couple of links on Rape and Prevention.
Child Rape prevention
Preventing Rape
http://www.indianchild.com/sexual_harassment_india.htm
Rape protective measures

We are not alone in this world. Together we can make it Happen!!!

In this big world we are not left alone to save our Mother Earth. There are so many organizations who are already working on making our world a better place. I came across this interesting website VOICE YOURSELF. This site has so much information about how you can live an organic life by consuming Organic Products, prepare Organic Food, reduce Carbon emission and how to protect our mother Earth from all this chaos.

And some other ways you can reduce pollution and lead a simple and a healthy life. Here are some ways to reduce the usage of Plastic bags and lots of other useful tips.

Its not just enough to just feel bad about how we are polluting the environment and not do anything about it, so here is a list of sites where you can really contribute and make a difference

Previous in our blog we have several posts on pollutions like Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emission, Reduction of air pollution - An Awakening, Alternate means of Transportation to reduce Pollution

Related Items
Inexhaustible Natural Resource - SUN
Phases of Nature!
Natural Consequences - PAYBACK TIME?

Inexhaustible Natural Resource - SUN

Do you think Nature is exhaustible?? Well, you are totally wrong! Nature has always provided us with the best of its resources which we use, enjoy, exploit to the best of our ability.
How about the SUN?
The SUN is an eternal source of energy but most of the time we take things like this for granted. Well, there are many people who realize this and make the best use of its energy. Our forefathers have had so much insight on the natural resources and their uses to the beings on the earth but all we have been doing for the past hundred years is run behind Globalization and Capitalism thus exploiting the natural resources and suffocating the earth as much as we can.
I have seen and heard about solar cookers and solar energy all my life but never gave it much attention. (you know how self-absorbed we can become running behind routines) It was then that I again came across solar cookers in a Forum I recently attended.
Though the concept of solar energy has long come into our system, it has not penetrated enough into the actual-common-man's home.
There are people struggling really hard to make a difference and help a lot of homes all around the world. One such group of people is the SOLAR COOKERS INTERNATIONAL
and they provide all the needed information and it is absolutely free for anybody. Anyone can read the GUIDE TO SOLAR COOKING and learn about Solar cooking.
It doesn't matter even if you live in urban areas, you could always try to solar cook on a beautiful sunny day!

Related Links

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Global Warming on the Loose??

The Chomsky Solution: Nuclear Non-proliferation

Imagine this - You are in the middle of an earthquake with thousands of people running all around, screaming for help. You know a way out and are screaming your lungs out so that someone will hear you out. Everyone knows they are in trouble but want something to happen - magically. But they aren't willing to listen. The outcome - Chaos, chaos and more chaos.

Does this seem hypothetical? Out of your immediate reality? Third-person effect? Well, think again. You are smack in the middle of the world of Nuclear Proliferation(earthquake) and the so-called civilized, developed countries(screaming people). At a time when Nuke non-proliferation is becoming increasingly dangerous with war rhetoric and non-acceptance of diplomatic measures, we have to look at SOLUTIONS. This is specifically related to the US-led war rhetoric and it's unacceptance to agree to international proposals (surprise, surprise). Here's an article by Noam Chomsky, the thinker, media critic and political activist - focusing on the current situation with Iran's nuclear program.
Check out this article: "Solution in Sight"
Image courtesy: Wikipedia

PeaceTreeSpirit Blog by Kids!!

Hey all you wonderful people there!!
Kids from Canada have started a new blog spot called PeaceTreeSpirit
Check it out and read the posts written by young peace visionaries(they have to be called that rightfully)
I was so overwhelmed when I read their posts...Please go to the site and share your thoughts with the kids. They are absolutely amazing!!
They have even completed the Post Card workshop and will be sending their Postcards to Siragu School kids. It will be great when the kids in India get the cards and lots of friends through this.

Preview Clip 2 - Men of Burden

Here's a second Preview clip from "Men of Burden - Pedaling Towards a Horizon". Updates coming up soon.

Men of Burden - Preview clip 1

Watch out for our documentary film's Exclusive Screening in New York City next month. Date/Venue to be announced soon. Till then, here's a preview clip of "Men of Burden - Pedaling Towards a Horizon". Check out the Intro/Trailer HERE.

BLOGGERS' Online strike SUCCESSFUL !!

CHECK THIS ! YAHOO has made the following statement following the bloggers' protest against PLAGIARISM.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20070308/tc_pcworld/129675;_ylt=AsxNXWnRPm3CEyePyY_K13kjtBAF
If this is the case for PLAGIARISM...then think of the PEACE PROTESTS through the blogging community...why don't we write an article on PEACE and start a PEACE CAMPAIGN...???
...and we can get as many people to blog in their site...and someday it will grow BIG enough so all the peace lovers can show the rest of the non peace loving minority that we are a BIG crowd!

Some more MUSIIIIII...CCC !!

Hey guys am back with some International music this time..I know it has been a while...I'll try to be more regular...hmm...
Was browsing through YouTube...and found these...
I've always wanted to listen to music from different countries...
Long Live the Internet!!...and the YouTube community for sharing this with us..

This one is a song from SOMALIA...and it is absolutely soul clenching..
MARYAN MURSAL is simply wonderful....the song is here...

The next one is an ARABIC song...here...

Another song in GREEK...here...

One in RUSSIAN...here...

Will be back with new songs..enjoy these!!!
:)

WHADOYUTHINK?? Question:1

What would happen if everyone in the world were paid equally for any job they did? Would that put Money and equality in place??

Some Answers are below...

Marianne says through DROPPING KNOWLEDGE.

I think if all were paid the same for any profession, job, there would be freedom to do whatever you wanted to do, whatever you were interested in doing. However, it might also stifle seeking a higher potential and a higher reward. As far as making all peoples equal, I don't think that would happen until societal groups cease thinking they are better than another group. The Human Being is very judgmental still.

srena says...If you do a great job, you should get paid more than someone who does a horrible job. If we all get paid the same, what is the incentive to do your best?

iluvrain says...Being paid equally sounds more like socialism/communism. The problem with being paid the same with any job would have its benefits of having no social classes, etc. However, think of how a doctor with a Ph.D. is getting paid as much as a elementary more...

Fire Horse says...Although everyone is the same in that we all have pain and insecurities, we all experience those things differently and are all unique. While people can be treated the same on a broad spectrum (ie not judging others based on race, religion, gender, or socioeconomic background), every individual person is different and more...

V says...Umm....communism? And most people would stop putting forth effort - what the heck, get paid more...

john C says...Equality is not possible by the efforts of humankind, nor would it be desirable. Total equality would be absolute boredom. There would be no competition, thus no contests, no competitive events such as all sports,etc. Equality in all things would mean more...

patdacat1 says...Before proceeding, I think I should point out that an ocean or a mountain range is a geographical (geographic?) boundary so, whether you believe more...

Reading don't suffice!!

Reading, reading and more reading. I was contemplating this mode of activity. Now that the Internet provides an abundance of information, everyday I sit down and read for about 3-4 hours about information from all over the world. I also see to that I read about things of which I have no clue about or things that ‘I DON”T KNOW THAT I DON”T KNOW’!!

Now the main problem comes next. What do I do with this information and how do I take any action that is related to this galore of information that I imbibe from the internet??

Say for eg. I read about the situation of the refugees who fled from Darfur conflict areas to the camps in Chad and their food, health and living conditions and the hopelessness they face. What do I do next?

Does my reading do any help to the situation there? Does the information I read ever push me to take any action unless I want to get myself of the so-called comfort zone and do something about it? Then what is the use of such information on a longer period of time?

My sympathizing and feeling bad for these fellow humans definitely sends my good intentions across but does it really help them if I just sit in some warm cozy room in some other part of the world and not take any action?

But at the same time when I just browse for fun, and cannot use any information for anything worthwhile, what is the actual purpose of this reading? I do not understand the necessity of any such information which I cannot use to make this world a better place. But I still read to understand this huge world of which I am such a tiny piece!

Reading together with taking action in this current situation has become such a pressing issue that it is directly proportional to the contentment I get from living this life!

In this world, sitting back, and just plainly talking and writing and reading about situations alone do not suffice anymore!

There was a period in the life of humans where each and every one could sit back and invent and discover new methods to make this world better in a different way.

But, now is the period where we have to get together and make this world a better place with the sole idea of bringing PEACE to it!

PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, UNITE!!

The Evolution of "Wings of Evolution"

We came to know about Siragu and Suyam, two NPOs in Chennai, India who were doing so much for the street children in Chennai, India. They were in great need of Media attention and donations to improve their school facilities. So we initially created a post to let the world know more about Siragu School in this blog Media Attention Needed: Suyam and Siragu. They did get some publicity but that was not enough.

After talking with Uma and Muthuram for a while we became good friends with them, the founders of Siragu and Suyam. They started Siragu with the objective of providing International quality of Education to first-generation learners, the children of the scheduled tribes, pavement dwellers and mendicants and also children from brick chambers and from various parts of the so-called under-privileged people of this society.

Our main motive is to make Films for Change, after hearing so much about the school, the children and their life, we were so much interested in making a documentary film about the school. We went to Chennai to start our documentary film Siragu Documentary - In Production on Dec 15th, 2006. Wow, what a wonderful experience to be with those children. They are young, energetic and full of energy. They knew so much information about the Trees, Global Issues, Pollutions,.etc.

During our course of filming we met the parents of Siragu students, and Meenakshi , a cute girl who will join Siragu in few months, you can see the picture of her in our post Siragu Documentary Update. We also filmed a unqiue feature in Siragu where the kids talk to trees and make friends with them and you can see some of their alien friends in those pictures. We had so much fun playing with those kids and finally wrapped up the shoot after a week. After coming here we started a new blog for Siragu Montessori School where we posted our experience and it is being updated by Muthuram regularly with the school activities.

Along with this film, we also started a project WorldWide Postcard Sharing this post has a short video, where the kids drew some postcards for the kids around the World. We distributed those to the kids, Peace Tree organization in Ontario, Canada. And they have already finished their postcards and are gonna send it to Siragu Kids. As a result we started this new blog for World Kids Unite, where we put all the postcard images for the kids around the globe to view and comment. We initiated this as an effort to bring the Kids of this World Together and PEACE.

Yeah, forgot to tell you we named this Documentary Film “Wings of Evolution”

Corporate Plagiarism?

When an individual steals content (or anything) from a corporation, he/she is brought down to their knees and made to pay for the 'crime'. But when a corporation does it to an individual, then the issue is swept under the carpet and conveniently forgotten. I for one believe in open sourcing of information, free usage of information by anybody, but when someone(especially a corporation who are the torch-bearers of the concept of copyright violations) crosses a certain line by lifting content from an independent person, saying the original work is theirs, without crediting the content creator, then it should be dealt with seriously, which is exactly what's happening now.
In regard to the story below where the Yahoo India(malayalam) portal has purportedly stolen content from an independent blogger Suryagayathri at Karivepilla,
Check out the reactions from the blogger community who are raising their voices against corporate plagiarism. There is a Protest happening today March 5th, 2007 against this copyright violation where Yahoo India is being asked to either issue an apology or compensate for the use of the independent blogger's content.

Yahoo India launched a beta version of their Malayalam (an Indian Language) portal and what do they do to fill their pages? Lift content just straight from small web magazines and blogs without asking a word or adequately compensating for those. What a shame!
We all like the idea of giants like Yahoo launching multiple Indian language portals. But that doesn’t give Yahoo India the right to lift contents, word by word and put those on their Malayalam portal.
View Suryagayathri's food blog.
They have copied some(6 and counting) of her recipes word by word. The only thing is that they changed the picture. What an easy way to cook up a portal. I can only laugh and sympathize at their confidence that their portal wont be read :). What other reason to copy contents?

For more related links on the issue, visit http://sajithvk.blogspot.com/2007/03/protest-aganist-plagiarisation-of-yahoo.html

Did you know? "Shift Happens"

Informational video on the developments/progress of the world and the human race from http://www.glumbert.com/media/shift
Although it's easy to imagine the 'phenomenon', it's amazing how we cope up with our creations. Know, Imagine and enjoy!

Who is poor?

1. A person with a billion dollar on mars with no food, water , oxygen or

2. A person with no money on earth but with food water and oxygen.

There is no pay, if you post a comment.

Intro/Trailer Revisited: Men of Burden

Though the Trailer/Intro for "Men of Burden - Pedaling Towards a Horizon" has been up on our website Accessible Horizon Films for a while now, we just thought it might be a good idea to revisit it because of some new updates regarding the film (which will be out soon). More clips to follow soon.

Outrage: NYC Pedicab (Cycle Rickshaw) Regulations

NYC against alternative transportation? NYC against reduction of green house gas emissions? NYC council against a better tomorrow?
This is what we call purely outrageous. Can you believe it? NYC council has passed a regulation against the Pedicab (Cycle Rickshaw) industry on its streets owing to 'congestion' and 'safety standards'...whatever that means.
I just got off the phone with the man who pioneered the Pedicab Business and is still fighting the regulations of the NYC council - George Bliss. He needs the support of everyone who's for the pedicab industry. Just remember that there are larger ramifications if we don't fight this right now. Check out this article for more information - NY State Vs. NYC
Also check out Times Up, which is a New York City-based not-for-profit direct-action environmental group that uses events and educational programs to promote a more sustainable, less toxic city.
This is mostly due to the lobbying of the Yellow cabs/Medallion in NYC which are trying to suppress the pedicabs. Check out this video "Inclusively Green" which is an antidote to the video by the yellow cab lobbyists.
Images courtesy: http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/02/14/pedicab-rally-in-the-news/

This is especially disheartening because our documentary film "Men of Burden - Pedaling Towards a Horizon" is advocating the cause of Cycle Rickshaws (Pedicabs)
For more information, check out our website www.AccessibleHorizonFilms.com