Dear friends,

Today could be the day we save the free Internet. We’ve flipped the White House and Congress is on the back foot. Now Wikipedia’s blackout has pushed the US web censorship bills to the top of the news. Today we’ve reached the tipping point. Let’s bury the bill for good. Click to sign the petition:

Today could be the day we save the free Internet.

The US Congress was poised to pass a law allowing officials to censor access to any website around the world. But after we delivered our 1.25 million strong petition to the White House, it came out against the bill and with public pressure at a boiling point even some bill backers are switching sides. Now, the Wikipedia – led blackout protest has rocketed the public campaign to the top of the news.

We are turning the tide. But the dark forces of censorship are trying to revive the bill right now. Let’s bury it for good today. Click to sign this emergency petition to save the Internet now and if you’ve signed already, to email, call, Facebook, and tweet Congressional and corporate targets. Then send this to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet_action_center_b/?vl

The bill would make the US one of the worst Internet censors in the world — joining the ranks of countries like China and Iran. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) would allow the US government to block any of us from accessing sites like YouTube, Google, or Facebook.

We got the White House to switch sides and now our global campaign and the growing public pressure is forcing Congress to abandon the bill. Last weekend, Senator Cardin, who cosponsored the legislation, announced he will vote against it! Then six prominent Republicans penned a letter requesting that the bill be shelved. Now the lower house vote is reportedly on ice.

Just days ago we were told it was impossible to stop the corporate censorship cabal, but now this is at a tipping point and amazingly we could win! Let’s stop US censorship today. Sign this emergency petition to save the internet now and forward it to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet_action_center_b/?vl

This US legislation could infringe on all of our freedoms. But if we win, we will show that when people unite with one voice from all over the world we can stop the abuse of power anywhere. We have brought this bill back from the brink. Now, if we amplify our voices today, we can put an end to the most powerful Internet censorship threat that the world has ever seen.

With hope,

Dalia, Ian, Alice, Ricken, Diego, David, and the Avaaz Team

Sources:

White House statement:
https://secure.avaaz.org/whitehouse_internet_statement

Wikipedia joins web blackout in SOPA protest (BBC):
http://www.avaaz.org/bbc_sopa_wikipedia

American Censorship’s fact sheet on SOPA:
http://americancensorship.org/infographic.html

Everything you need to know about Congress’s online piracy bills in one post (Washington Post):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/everything-you-need-to-know-about-congresss-online-piracy-bills-in-one-post/2011/12/16/gIQAz4ggyO_blog.html

SOPA and PIPA sponsors caving in to opposition (Talking Points Memo):
http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/sopa-and-pipa-sponsors-caving-into-opposition.php

White House will not support SOPA, PIPA (Huffington Post):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/14/white-house-sopa-pipa_n_1206347.html

Controversial online piracy bill ‘shelved’ until consensus is found (The Hill):
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/204167-sopa-shelved-until-consensus-is-found

“Interfering with information undermines the very need of [information providers],” Khoza said.

Yes. Please keep your voters as uninformed as possible.

From Avaaz:

Dear friends,

In 24 hours, world leaders meet to discuss the global economic crisis, and banks and big corporations are sponsoring the meeting in exchange for an all access pass. This, while ordinary citizens are locked out. Let’s raise a massive petition to Nicolas Sarkozy to kick out the corporations and keep the G20 for the people.

It’s unbelievable. The G20 — the most powerful summit of world governments — meets tomorrow to discuss the global economic crisis, and who is sponsoring the meeting? Banks and corporations!

No wonder the site of the meeting — the French city of Cannes — is completely locked down to any ordinary citizens, while banks and large corporate CEOs have all access passes to tell our governments what to do.

Corporations have captured our governments, winning vast corporate bailouts despite destroying our economy. Now they are buying their way into the very meeting that could decide the financial future for much of the globe. Together we can persuade summit host Nicolas Sarkozy to cancel the sponsorship — let’s build a massive public outcry that causes a media firestorm and forces Sarkozy to kick out the corporate sponsors and clean up the G20. Sign the petition and forward widely:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/occupy_g20/?vl

The line between corporate power and responsible government has steadily blurred. Politicians take money from corporations for their campaigns, make policies that reward them when in office, and then take high-paid jobs with them after they leave. It’s corruption, plain and simple.

Now Société Générale, a French bank that received a US$12 billion bailout three years ago and has a massive vested interest in Europe’s response to the Euro crisis — this summit’s main topic — has paid to have its logo prominent as an official sponsor. The US Chamber of Commerce and its equivalents from other countries are invited for a cosy ‘B20 summit’ to tell our leaders what they think.

The only way to get policies that protect jobs, tackle speculators and guarantee a fair future for us all is to kick back against the lobbies and prise our leaders away from corporate interests. Let’s tell Nicolas Sarkozy and the other leaders that their future depends on ditching the sponsors now and agreeing to no more corporate capture of our governments. Sign the petition and send to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/occupy_g20/?vl

The global economic crisis resulted from greed and narrow self-interest. But when people are most under pressure they can come together in amazing ways, as we have seen repeatedly this year. From Wall Street, through London, to Melbourne, tens thousands of people are today occupying their cities — we can join them in their call for responsible government and kick the corporations out!

With hope and determination,

Alex, Maria Paz, Emma, Ricken, Morgan, Wissam and the rest of the Avaaz team

SOURCES

Business leaders press G20 (Financial Times)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/21ccfea6-02e6-11e1-899a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1cMLOw7GP

Business 20 summit parallel to the G20
http://www.b20businesssummit.com/guests/business-organizations

Ottawa Steered Clear of Corporate Sponsorships for G20 (Globe and Mail)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/g8-g20/news/ottawa-steered-clear-of-corporate-sponsorships-for-g8-g20/article1608401/

List of G20 Cannes Sponsors
http://www.g20-g8.com/g8-g20/g20/english/the-2011-summit/partnerships/partnerships.69.html

Société Générale gets $12 billion in AIG bailout (New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/business/16rescue.html

In four days, MPs could pass an outrageous secrecy bill that undermines the constitution and South Africa’s democracy — helping the government keep wrongdoing from the people and enabling cover-ups of corruption and human rights abuses. But there are four people that could make or break this bill: the Chief Whips.

Despite top lawyers warning that the bill is unconstitutional, the majority of MPs are expected to vote it through. But it will be up to the Chief Whips to rally the MPs to vote for or against the bill. If we flood their inboxes with messages from across South Africa calling on them to respect the law and oppose the secrecy bill, they could think twice about pushing it through.

Let’s appeal to the Whips’ sense of democratic responsibility and call on them to protect hard-won constitutional rights and freedoms, and transparent government. Click now to send a message straight to their inboxes and urge them to say No to the Secrecy Bill, then share this with everyone — we will release the number of messages sent to the media on the eve of the vote.

  http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_secrecy_bill/?vl

Throughout the last year, we have joined campaigners across the country to stop this draconian law. But despite repeated objections from communities in the Right2Know campaign, the media, academics, lawyers, politicians, COSATU and even high-profile figures from within the ANC, last Monday the Committee adopted a draft that is seriously flawed: the security sector will have carte blanche to label anything it terms national security as classified, and anyone who possesses or publishes that information can be jailed for up to 25 years, even if the information is in the public interest.

Whistle-blowers, journalists or anyone who discloses classified information for the public good — information that exposes abuse of power, human rights violations or wrongdoing — could be punished. It’ll be up to the police, defense and intelligence forces to decide what we should or should not know. This will both thwart our ability to keep tabs on our government and obstruct important anti-corruption investigations.

But we know that our outcry works – in the last year, massive public pressure has won some important changes from the original draft. Minimum sentences have been removed, the power to classify information is now restricted to the intelligence and security sectors, and the definition of what needs to be classified due to national security has been limited. Now if we all stand together again and object to this shocking final draft, we could push the Whips to move against the vote and force a redraft that protects both the government and the public. Click now to send an message to the Chief Whips now and send this to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_secrecy_bill/?vl

If this law passes it will trample on our constitutional rights, muzzle the media and critically damage this fragile democracy. Our massive movement opposing this regressive bill has repeatedly pushed back and won clause after clause. Now this is down to the wire, and we only have five days. If we stick together and raise our voices now, we can persuade the National Assembly to stand with the people that they represent, not endorse this democracie’s destruction. 

With hope,

Alice, Sam, Pascal, Ricken, Mia, Shivendra and the rest of the Avaaz team

More information:

Campaigners call to scrap Protection of Information Bill
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-09-01-right-2-know-calls-to-scrap-secrecy-bill/

Protection of Information Bill could be taken to Constitutional Court
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/info-bill-could-be-destined-for-concourt-1.1130197

Committee passes final draft of Protection of Information Bill to the National Assembly
http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/info-bill-anc-gets-its-way-1.1130624

Tech juggernaut Apple had a whopping $76.2 billion in cash and marketable securities at the end of June, according to its last earnings report.” …. read the rest here.

Wow not bad. But then again, Uncle Sam’s trigger happy troops has fired at least161 Tomahawks to flatten Moammar Gadhafi’s air defenses and pave the way for coalition aircraft. Well hell, who’s counting you might ask. With the bill running up to nearly a quarter of a billion dollars I hope someone is. Each missile cost a cool $1.41 million. Read the rest here.

Click here to see an interesting visualisation of how much cash the US needs to pay it’s debts.

Over here is a real time debt-clock.

Not so pretty hey?

Justin’s guessing that there’s another big dip coming, we’ll have to wait and see…

Dear friends across South Africa,

‘Corrective rape’, the vicious practice of raping lesbians to ‘cure’ their sexuality, is becoming a crisis in South Africa. But brave Cape Town activists have built a massive online campaign and are risking their lives to get urgent action — and finally Minister Radebe is beginning to respond. Let’s help stop these vicious rapes — sign the petition and send it to friends!

Millicent Gaika was bound, strangled, tortured and raped for five hours by a man who crowed that he was ‘curing’ her of her lesbianism.

She barely survived, but she is not alone — this vicious crime is recurrent in South Africa, where many lesbians live in terror of attack. But no one has ever been convicted of ‘corrective rape’.

Amazingly, from a tiny Cape Town safehouse a few brave activists are risking their lives to ensure that Millicent’s case sparks change. Their appeal to Minister of Justice Radebe has exploded to over 140,000 signatures from around the world, forcing him to commit on SABC to meeting with them.

Let’s show the government that South Africans and citizens across the whole world stand with these activists and call on President Zuma and the Minister of Justice to publicly condemn ‘corrective rape’, criminalise hate crimes, and ensure immediate enforcement, public education and protection for survivors. Sign the petition now and share it with everyone — we’ll deliver it to the government with our partners in Cape Town.

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_corrective_rape_za/?vl

SOURCES:

Blog of Luleki Sizwe, South African organization leading the call to their government to stop ‘corrective rape’, and provides support to victims
http://lulekisizwe.wordpress.com

Minister of Justice Radebe’s nationally televised interview (SABC)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkx-PYqHM0U

Protest against ‘corrective rape’ (The Sowetan)
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2011/01/06/protest-against-corrective-rape

Rape of lesbians a ‘hate crime’ (Business Day)
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=130862

Petition launched on Change.org by activists from Luleki Sizwe
http://humanrights.change.org/petitions/view/south_africa_declare_corrective_rape_a_hate-crime

“Exploring homophobic victimisation in Gauteng, South Africa: issues, impacts, and responses” (Centre for Applied Psychology, University of South Africa)
http://www.avaaz.org/out_ucap_gauteng_study

“We have a major problem in South Africa” (The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/nov/18/south-africa-murder-rape

“South Africa: Rape Facts” (Channel 4)
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/south-africa-rape-facts

“Understanding men’s health and use of violence: interface of rape and HIV in South Africa” (Medical Research Council)
http://gender.care2share.wikispaces.net/file/view/MRC+SA+men+and+rape+ex+summary+june2009.pdf

“Preventing Rape and Violence in South Africa” (Medical Research Council)
http://www.mrc.ac.za/gender/prev_rapedd041209.pdf

Prospecting on the Vaal (News24):  “A controversial mining company has been given the rights to go prospecting for coal in at least 162 spots next to the Vaal River.   

The Department of Mining awarded the prospecting rights without notifying landowners next to the river – something that is required by law.

Environmental experts agreed that it could lead to coal mines next to the Vaal River and that this would mean an ecological disaster for South Africa’s most important river.”

And yes, the aforementioned mining company has ties to President Zuma.

Another mining house is moving in on Bronkhorstspruit (News24): “….a mining company which wants to start an open-pit coal mine bigger than 1 000 rugby fields in the Wilge River catchment area right outside the town.

Duvenhage said on Facebook if Muhanga Mines were allowed to mine in this ecologically sensitive area, 21 natural springs would either dry up or be polluted with acidic mine water.

According to a report by an independent environmental expert ….. ‘No area can ever be completely rehabilitated after mining’”

The Exxaro mining company has been told to cease it’s Mooifontein operations AFTER they managed to (translated from Beeld) “almost completely destroy the wetland. Environmental specialists estimate that it would cost R200m – R400m to rehabilitate the wetland to some degree”

(Aside: Exxaro subsequently denied having be told to halt operations - more on that here. Furthemore, there are widespread concern over the apparent gross over estimation of our coal reserves – read more on that here and here. )

Our electricity problems in recent years ( our governments’ other shining example of resource mismanagement) was a national joke. But I don’t think it would be so funny if there are no more water left to drink – hard to make fun of that.

I believe, and please feel free to amend and add, we need:

• A zero tolerance attitude on water pollution from the president down to the municipal managers of sewerage plants.
• Adherence and strict enforcement of current law. No prospecting along rivers: Prospecting = future mining.
• Aggressive and visible action with regards to current problems.
• New legislation where needed to address loopholes and grey areas, as soon as possible. Looking at the acid mine water disaster unfolding in Gauteng and the Exxaro Mooifontein closure, it’s clear that what’s done can never be truly undone – we need to stop doing the damage first and then try to fix it later.

 Please help if you can:

• I’ve requested campaigns to be launched at www.activist.co.za and www.avaaz.org. Please encourage them to take action and launch a campaign on our behalf by either posting a comment of support on this site or contacting them directly and also requesting a campaign to be launched. Make up your own email, or use this as a template:

Hi

Please launch a campaign on the behalf of concerned South African water users. Our government is not doing enough.

I (we) believe <and please feel free to amend and add> we need:

- A zero tolerance attitude on water pollution from the president down to the municipal managers of sewerage plants.
- Adherence and strict enforcement of current law. No prospecting along rivers: Prospecting = future mining.
- Aggressive and visible action with regards to current problems.
New legislation where needed to address loopholes and grey areas, as soon as possible.

See an article on http://www.chicks-dig-scars.com/a-run-on-our-water for some details of current problems, some links to sources, messages of support etc.

• Pass this information along to your friends & family. It might be common knowledge to you, but some people are blissfully unaware of country’s water woes.

 I for one would like to be able to swim in (at least some of) our rivers.

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.  ~Cree Indian Proverb

Photo by Nico van Wyk. The Wilge river running through the Ezemvelo reserve are among the rivers threatened by planned mining activities.

Swimming in the Wilge rivier

“Thanks, Emile, for the mention. This petition was individually suggested/ requested by about 100 South African members of Avaaz, says the Campaign Director Alice Jay. (I was one of them and literally drove Avaaz crazy until they took the decision to go ahead).

The petition was launched amongst the 60 000 SA Avaaz members at 5pm on Wednesday 22 September 2010 (only a week ago). Its first 20 000 signatures (achieved in less than 2 days) was delivered by letter to Pres Jacob Zuma and leaders of ANC Alliance partners at their National General Council in Durban, as well as to relevant Parliamentarians in Cape Town, on Friday 24 Sept 2010.

Earlier today, we reached 30 000 signatures. The aim is now 50 000.

If any of you have ideas on how to go about delivering the petition again (say when it reaches 50 000), please let me know.

Benita”

This is not going to fix itself, enough people need to make a noise about this:

http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/nzimande-slams-media-1.682207
Print media in South Africa was a threat to democracy, SA Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande said in a report published on Tuesday.

“We have a huge liberal offensive against our democracy… The print media is the biggest perpetrator of this liberal thinking,” Nzimande said at the National Education,

http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/editors-concerned-by-anc-rules-1.682508
Johannesburg – Editors on Wednesday voiced concerns over restrictions placed on the media at the ANC’s national general council in Durban last week.

Sign the petition here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/protect_south_africas_democracy/98.php?CLICKTF