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

Anne posted a request for help getting a cat down which was at the time of her posting stuck on outside of a building on the 13th floor for a couple of days already. It appeared that no-one else was paying any attention and I had some time on my hands.

Embrace your inner fireman
I must start off with saying that I’m scared of heights, not full blown acrophobia, but a good case of getting jelly legs & feeling very shaky when I get close to the edge of a high place. I had to give myself a proper pep talk before going over that edge and definitely thought “What was I thinking to volunteer for this?!”

Enjoying the view from 16 floors up

The request was to just locate the cat as they had lost sight of it. From there they would place a baited cage and hope for the best. In the end my whole effort was a bit of a waste of time: we had some miscommunication regarding where I should look and I left my phone on the roof – by the time I got back up to phone Anne they had spotted the cat again. From there I helped  little with setting up the cage and left.

Two days and a second cage later the cat was safely inside. Anne took it to the vet for a checkup and reports that it was all skin & bone but otherwise healthy.

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

Please do take the time to sign this petition, or any other that you know of: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/295/–if … onkerning/. Don’t be polite, tell these people to fuck off. If we don’t stand together and in a united voice tell them and whoever follows to shove their drills where the sun don’t shine, we’ll lose the place forever. If you need any convincing, go google “fracking” and see how they have ALREADY destroyed many pieces of land, but still claim it’s safe. Don’t leave the Karoo people to fight this alone, it affects us all.

Fracking the Karoo – The People Say No!
By Julienne du Toit
Somerset East; Jan 31, 2011
“Do you know what fracking the Karoo is like?” demanded Esme Senekal of Somerset East. The people from Royal Dutch Shell and their consultants didn’t reply, their faces impassive.
“It’s like you coming and drilling holes in our mother, and then leaving us to look after her and take her to hospital. Leave the Karoo alone!

Heaven forbid
“This is the last piece of holy nature in this country. No money is worth this. You can’t replace pristine nature with money.”
The surrounding sunburnt Karoo farmers, not a group usually given to high emotion, loudly applauded her.
The public meeting, organised by Shell’s consultants, Golder Associates (slogan: “Engineering Earth’s development, protecting Earth’s integrity”), was held at the Somerset East Town Hall, and started with a prayer to protect God’s creation, nature.
Most of the attendees bowing their heads were farmers who face the possibility of losing everything if, heaven forbid, shale gas is found under their farms – or for that matter, anywhere in the Karoo.
The municipality, which has just as much to lose since Somerset East depends completely on groundwater, had sent not a single representative. In fact, most Karoo towns depend wholly on groundwater, as do farmers.
What the Frack?

Fracking is simply this: it is a process of drilling 1 to 5 km under the surface to a layer of shale where natural gas is trapped. Using millions of litres of water, sand and an array of chemicals (many of which are carcinogenic, endocrine disrupting or just plain toxic), the rock is repeatedly fractured by high-pressure explosions underground, allowing the gas to be collected. Tens of thousands of wells have been dug in 32 American states, Canada, Australia and many other parts of the world, and a groundswell of popular protest has started.
This is because groundwater has frequently been contaminated as a result, either with methane or the chemicals.
Just Google ‘fracking’ (short for hydraulic fracturing) on the internet and you’ll be hard put to choose between the hundreds of heartrending accounts and YouTube videos from all around the world. Ordinary people who have experienced this method of gas extraction close to their homes have recorded their experiences.
Poison, radioactivity, contamination

They are horror stories. The water coming out of their taps becomes flammable, contaminated with methane and oil, undrinkable. They suffer strange lesions, cancers, tumours. Their livestock is poisoned, sometimes with radioactive substances brought up from underground as waste material. Arsenic and other substances poison their vegetables and crops.
Each account is a little different, but almost every one mentions the fact that the oil and gas companies who came to drill and fracture the earth assured them that it was safe.
Shell did the same to this crowd, but the attendees had done their homework and remained completely sceptical except for one emerging farmer who asked hopefully about job creation.
No benefits, only risk

Shell at least had the good grace not to even pretend there will be jobs or any benefit whatsoever to the community. The only ones to benefit will be Government (which owns any and all minerals, gas and oil underground) and Shell, and they admitted as much.
Again and again Shell were asked if they could give an assurance (and to back it with money) that groundwater and therefore the health, livelihoods, communities and towns in the Karoo would not be affected. All Adam Dodson could say was that Shell had never any incident of contamination while doing exploratory fracking.
He also said the Government was the only recourse for compensation of any kind. There was a stifled groan from the crowd.

Rupert to the Rescue?

A few of those attending told me they were buoyed by the front page story in the Afrikaans weekly, Rapport (30 January 2011), which had come out the day before. In it, industrial giant Johann Rupert (no stranger to mining, but a man who has property and roots in the Karoo – in particular the Graaff-Reinet area) pinned his colours to the mast.
“We are not against responsible exploration or extraction; we are against Russian roulette.”
Rupert gave his assurance that he and his family will be fully involved in the battle against Shell to the bitter end, and added they will not be using Shell products.
Not a Clue

Wherever public meetings have been held in the Karoo (including Graaff-Reinet and Hofmeyr), angry community members asking pertinent questions came away with nothing.
According to Adam Dodson, Shell’s Unconventional Oil & Gas Exploration Manager (New Ventures), they still have no idea where the millions of litres of water needed for fracking will come from. Possibilities at this stage included treated surface water (for which read sewage), deep saline aquifers or seawater trucked in by train.
They also could not say which of the chemicals would be used underground, what quantity remained underground after fracking (in other parts of the world, between 20% and 40% have been found to remain).
In fact, Shell and Golder made it clear there would be no real answers at all – this was just the first phase of a very long campaign.
“You’ll be seeing us a lot,” Tisha Greyling of Golder Associates assured the discontented crowd.
The Karoo lives on Groundwater

Also present at the meeting was Ernest Pringle, president of Agri-Eastern Cape and a farmer in the affected district. He stood up in front of the meeting to emphasise the importance of groundwater. The recent crippling drought in the Bedford and Somerset East region was just a reminder, he said.
“I spent all my time trying to pump up more groundwater to keep going. So we want to know with certainty what the effects will be to the underground water supply.”
When asked if there was any kind of possibility that contamination could happen, Dodson pursed his lips and looked down.
Dr Fiona Brown, who also farms nearby, implored Shell to use the precautionary principle.
Radioactive Karoo

“You know nothing about the Karoo’s groundwater and how aquifers are interconnected. No one does. And you don’t know what can go wrong.”
Shell and Golder representatives were unmoved. Tisha Greyling of Golder conceded that there will, inevitably, be unhappy people.
One of the things that can go wrong of course, is that the Karoo is riddled with uranium, and the chance of raising radioactive waste rock to the surface is better than excellent.
Still, despite the complete lack of information coming from Shell or Golder Associates, a few eyebrow-raising facts did come through. One was that Shell was not alone in wanting to frack the Karoo. Just south of their concession was Falcon Oil & Gas’s one. This American company received a permit from the Petroleum Agency of South Africa late last year.

Attack of the Falcon
Their concession area covers a slightly narrower band than Shell’s band including the towns of Merweville, Leeu Gamka, Rietbron, Jansenville and Aberdeen. Sasol and other companies are looking at another broad swathe northwards, including Bloemfontein and surrounds.
Also, they revealed that the long term plan for the gas was that it would be used for power stations to be set up across the Karoo (with the attendant power lines, substations and the rest).
After the repeated entreaties for Shell to drop the bid or to rather look into solar and wind energy, the last ominous word on the matter came from Tisha Greyling of Golder Associates.
“If it’s not Shell, it will be someone else.”

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

The end of seafood by 2048?
The ocean without fish.
Your meals without seafood.
Imagine the global consequences.
 
Narrated by Ted Danson this award winning, groundbreaking film reveals the impact of overfishing on our oceans. This is the future if we do not stop, think and act.

PS: Be sure to keep an eye out how the guys breeding GM fish will use this as an excuse to further their cause, say NO!

“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