a massive explosion just rocked the capital city of lebanon, beirut. footage of the explosion has been captured, and it is horrific and terrifying. dozens and maybe even hundreds of people have been injured and the reports have confirmed at least 10 people dead. reports are still coming in.
hospitals are overwhelmed. the lebanese red cross has sent out an urgent message in need of blood donations of all blood types. open transfusion centers to help aid in this disaster are currently
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if you have loved ones in lebanon or you are aware of someone who has loved ones in lebanon, i strongly urge you to reach out to them as soon as possible. if you donât have loved ones in lebanon, i hope you at least spread the word to help others and keep beirut in your thoughts today.
this all started just barely two hours ago, and the reports are still coming in with updates. keep an eye on the news, if you can. stay safe.Â
the country of lebanon and itâs people have been struggling intensely recently due to political unrest, famine, covid-19, and an economic crisis. please read this twitter thread by a lebanese user for more information and how to help, along with this carrd
additionally, a carrd has been made concerning the beirut explosion and it consists of information on emergency relief, access to breaking news about the catastrophe, and, especially, information on blood donations.
multiple lebanese twitter users have urged against monetary donations as they will have a far far smaller impact than intended. what they are asking for is blood donations and raised voices, along with the sharing of these resources on current events in lebanon.
please keep your heart, mind, eyes, and ears open to lebanon, the city of beirut, and its people right now.
Mona Alkurd , one of the Palestinians Israel is trying to kick along with 28 families out of their decades long homes in Sheikh Al Jarrah , the last Palestinian block in Al Quds ( Jerusalem ), to complete the restriction of the area to Israeli Jews .. simply an Apartheid by settlers.
â Your posts and tweets are treasures to us â
Here a rough translation of what she said:
â It falls on us and Palestinians and the honorable people supporting us with posts and tweets. You have no idea how much that means to us. Everyone who shares even one short post or tweet. Donât feel like youâre doing nothing. Those posts and tweets are treasures to us. Help us get our cause heard. We are 28 families. 500 individuals. If we are removed, then there will be no Palestinians in Al Quds. And in the end, Allah is our hope. And it falls on us. And we will remain here to our last breath defending our lands and homesâ
Palestine's case is one of the rare ones where retweets, hashtags, reblogs, etc... are one of the most effective forms of support (besides boycotting and protesting) because donated money goes nowhere and petitions do not work in an apartheid state that seeks to eliminate its victims openly. We need the rest of the world watching and protesting and speaking out.
So this is just a PSA, y'all should never sign a contract until you read it. Iâm talking in rl right now. I just got through reading my employee handbook/service contract and my bosses slipped in a lot of bullshit like telling me I canât complain about my job on social media, demanding I work off the clock in the name of good service, expects me to show up on time during inclimate weather, and considered disability or religious accommodation a direct threat to the company.
These are all things I took issue with and brought to my employer for further discussion before signing the contract. Most of my coworkers signed without reading, treating it like an internet terms of service contract.
Tl;dr real life is serious shit, lawyers write contracts to protect your employer FROM YOU, read contracts before you sign them - fucking ARGUE about contracts before you sign them
Also important to note, and something my bf has repeated to me many times: a contract is a negotiation until it is signed, and YOU ARE ALLOWED TO AMEND IT. Tech companies often put some bs in there about âwe own everything you make while you work for usâ which broadly applied also means anything done on your own time. He always ALWAYS does write-in amendments with initial and date to state that they only own things done FOR the company, on company time, because there have been companies that enforced that bullshit when somebody had a personal side project the company decided they wanted to steal. Thereâs only one company that threw a fit at his attempts to amend it and he considered that a huge red flag and refused to sign, turned down the job.
Never. EVER. Sign shit without reading it. Also: if your prospective employer wonât let you take the thing home to read before you sign it and says you need to sign it then and there THAT IS A RED FLAG. The job I had that turned out to be abusive as shit was like that. Every other job Iâve been able to bring the contract home to my parents to have a more experienced set of eyes on it. Itâs also common practice in some fields to have oneâs attorney look over it before signing. So never let them tell you that you canât look over it with someone else. Thatâs a fat load of shit. For âlower levelâ jobs they may not accept amendments to the contract but if they wonât even give you the proper time to read it over, theyâre trying to pull some bullshit on you and youâre going to regret it if you sign. Even if thereâs nothing bad in what you signed itâs an example of how they are going to treat you while youâre there. Take it to heart and run like fucking hell.
Please also tell your coworkers. Inform others. Tell everyone. Please, for the lovee of everything TELL PEOPLE THEY ARE ALLOWED TO DO THESE THINGS.
Companies BANK on the fact youâre not going to read it. Then they slip in shit like âyou canât talk about your wagesâ because they want you to keep quiet, so thy can pay that guy six bucks, and pay the guy over there fifteen and pay you eight. They want you to accept it all blindly. PLEASE DONâT STAY BLIND.
Yes, Iâve lost out on jobs because I wanted to read it and they didnât want me to. Or they wanted m to resign and I said no to to the things they added that I pointed out were unfair and borderline illegal.Â
Read shit. Tell everyone else to read shit. BE INFORMED.Â
Never ever ever sign shit without reading and re-reading it! Take it home, show it to someone more experienced, if you can, show it to a lawyer. A contract is supposed to work for both sides. A company in Toronto tried to make me sign a contract with clause that in event of me leaving the job I will not work in a similar position anywhere in Ontario. Yeah, right, not enforceable in court, dudes, you canât prevent me from making a living. Read the shit and donât let them intimidate you.Â
Hi. Iâm a lawyer. Ask for at least 24 hours before you sign a work contract. You do not have to sign within 30 seconds of the contract hitting the desk. It is absolutely standard procedure. It gives you time to show it to a lawyer or go to a public counselor and have them look it over. In-room signing is another way companies blindside and intimidate you. Donât be rushed. This is an absolutely normal thing to do. People who try to harangue you or hurry you along are sketchy.
âreblogs arenât important youâre just whinyâ
yeah because when you see this
tell me you donât get annoyed.
tumblrâs algorithm only cares about posts that are reblogged, it doesnât count likes. posts donât get promoted or circulated when they only have likes (the way instagram functions), only reblogs matter for increasing reach on tumblr as a platform.
support content creators.
like y'all are fuckin killing tumblr (& content creation) but okay
you think thatâs not a lot of notes? thatâs cute.
but yeah, tumblrâs system definitely doesnât advantage non-popular artists, but thereâs a big problem from within the community too. i have over 400 followers and i consider myself lucky when more than 2 people reblog my art, so imagine how much worse it is for people with even less followers.
reblog content creators, guys. liking posts doesnât do anything.
Sorry to break it to you but theyâre all right. Tumblr isnât Instagram. Likes donât get us anywhere. Everybodyâs âdrop a heart and keep scrollingâ mentality has murdered all of my original content sideblogs. Each and every one of them.
As a arospec and ace person we are valid! our feelings matter, we are so fucking amazing.
people saying aro/ace people donât deal with discrimination can come back once they look at the corrective rape, the âfixingâ, and lack of understanding towards this community. they deal with discrimination as much as any other identity.
support those aro/ace people who may be sure of their identity, questioning, or even closeted. support ace/aro people like you would anyone else.
executive dysfunction be like *wants to do something* *doesnt do it* *feels bad* *wants to do something* *doesnt do it* *feels bad* *wants to do something* *doesnt do it* *feels ba
I recently learnt that executive dysfunction can be broken down into two main categories: anxiety that your attempt wonât be satisfactory, or confusion about where to start or how to break it down into steps. As much as we feel bad about it, itâs extremely important to remember that it is NOT laziness and we in fact shouldnât feel bad.
My mom (the only family I had) died, my cat died, and then my momâs house got burglarized and vandalized
Hi, Iâm Yas, Iâm a biracial disabled lesbian and my girlfriend got outted, I had to put my cat to sleep, and then my mom died all in the same week. If that wasnât enough, my birth father tried to hide my moms death from me because I live out of state. I got physically and verbally assaulted at the funeral home by my uncle and my dad refused to help pay for anything because I got my mom cremated like she wanted. When my father and my brother and everyone else realized I was the sole next of kin that was of age and in full control of everything, they started harassing me and sending me death threats, along with my godmother and a bunch of other people. They think thereâs some kind of money to be inherited by my motherâs passing, but the sad truth is that we were extremely poor and my moms disability check wasnât even enough to cover rent, and I had to pay for everything else like groceries and medical bills with my credit card and my only savings.
If that STILL wasnât enough, as soon as a family friend I had stupidly trusted ratted to my father and brother that I was on my way back to california and was almost there, they broke in and stole anything of value (furniture and TVs I had worked really hard to buy for my mom) and destroyed the place causing upwards of $5,000 in damages, my landlord estimates. Iâm going to be held financially responsible for it since my name was still on the lease. The police would not let me make a police report in my home state, so I had to drive 8 hours and make a police report, I had witnesses, my brother even called the landlady (who is willing to testify) and ask her if she could âopen the window so he could get in and get the wires to the tv and couch he was trying to sellâ which was a full confession. The police really arenât taking it seriously considering when I called to correct some information they told me the detective thatâs been assigned to my case was âon vacationâ. I had to change my number due to the death threats (police wonât do anything about them, Iâm in the process of at least getting a restraining order), and within hours my father sent a âwell checkâ to my door as a subtle way to let me know he still knew where I live.
I already had 5k in credit card debt from taking care of my mom because I couldnât work anymore, I kept having breakdowns and my body was deteriorating and it seems like I have Crohnâs but I have no insurance to get it treated or checked out. I havenât even had a second to grieve my mother, who was the most important person in my life and I worked an extremely physically demanding job 50 to 60 hours a week (usually more) for years just to make sure all the bills were paid since I was 15 to make sure she was ok and I was trying to even go back to work and damage my body even further just to save money to move her out here with me when she died. Iâm really broken. Iâm angry. Iâm only 24 and I feel completely alone and any âfamilyâ I had left is threatening to kill me over money that doesnât exist. My girlfriend had to put the $2200 of cremation expenses on her credit card. Iâve had to make 3 separate 8 hour trips so far to my homestate to get this all situated. I lost everything when my mom died and somehow I owe even more after her death. Right now Iâm looking at owing a minimum of $12,200 and thatâs not counting the gas and expenses of consistently driving and getting everything filed and such. I have severe anxiety, depression, PTSD from the abuse my father put me and my mother through, my body feels like itâs dying every morning I wake up and I just want to give up. I keep having panic attacks and manic episodes. Itâs been really hard to hold it together to get all this done. Iâm just really struggling, I miss my mom, and everything is adding up and Iâm scared that my father and/or brother will try to break into my apartment here.
My mom was a really sweet and open minded person and deserved better than being harassed to death by my dad and brother over a child support case she didnât even have control over. Thereâs even more shit to this but Iâm not gonna make this post even longer. Iâm not even asking for money for a memorial because I just donât have the money. I have negative money at this point.
If you can spare anything, I would really appreciate it. My PayPal is @jessaminewaters. I have a Venmo too or zelle if thatâs easier, you can message me if you have any questions. Signal boosts are appreciated â€ïž
Honestly, I think the whole âdonât pay the writersâ thing boils down to the notion that everybody thinks they can write. Itâs the old saw about the novelist at a cocktail party having to hear someone say, for the millionth time, âIâd love to write a book someday.â
SomeoneâStephen King? Pretty sure I saw this in a Stephen King forewordâonce said theyâd like to say to a brain surgeon, âBoy, Iâd love to do brain surgery someday.â
We treat âthe ability to put words into a sentenceâ like itâs just the same as âthe ability to form a coherent narrative that engenders a variety of emotions within the reader and puts them in a scene and shows them what they didnât see beforeâ.
And thatâs like me drawing a stick figure and saying Iâm an artist.
Writers are constantly devalued because everyone thinks they have a book in them and donât realize the level of skill and commitment it takes to finish even a short story, much less a whole book.Â
This goes well beyond fandom, but man, I wouldâve hoped fandom would know better.
I feel like other creatives become collateral in this attitude too. I would have many dollars if I had a dollar for every time someone came up to me with a âgreat ideaâ they want me to illustrate for free.
(I can assure you the kind of people who do that have really terrible ideas)
@ any of my British moots, please suffer with me at the knowledge that not only do most Americans not have kettles, they apparently make toast in the oven đ„Č
PLS ?? You just flip a switch and it boils the water in a safe, contained environment for you?? How to you get the water out the microwave ?? Donât you burn ur hands?? đđ
AYO AMERICANS DONT HAVE KETTLES?? youâre telling me you have to pull out a pot, wait for your stove to heat up and THEN you wait for the water? my kettles done in under a minute- I could never have the patience for a stove đ aND RAMEN MICORWAVED- Iâm losing it. My lovely American moots pls buy a kettle...and a toaster...pls...?
i was debating on whether or not i should post this on tumblr but seeing as there havenât been posts about this yet, here it is. iâm exposing my real location and nationality but it doesnât matter.
if you have been active on twitter, you may already know #savemyanmar is trending. long story short, there has been a military coup. several nations have released statements but i want to share insight on whatâs happening in the country.
memes about a coup have been circulating around for a couple days and when i slept at 2 am last night, we were still under the rule of the National League for Democracy (NLD). while they are not technically democratic, they are the closest weâve got. when my mother woke up at 6 this morning, she was notified that the country was now under the rule of the military.
banks services are no longer available. wifi was cut at around 7-8. some people got wifi again earlier but many got it barely thirty minutes ago. this is bad for businesses especially ones that require international communications. additionally, international students like myself are experiencing anxiety; how do we pay for and attend classes if weâre not sure wifi is a given?
myanmar has a long, complicated history with military governments. the last time the military went into rule was in 1962 and only stopped in 2011, following the 2010 elections. there was a huge protest in 1988 lead by students that resulted in lots of death. during the military junta, resources like rice, water, oil, were scarce. the gist is military rule is bad for us.
all of my followers are not myanmar citizens, iâm sure but as part of the international community, please help us. here is a petition that you can sign (although iâm not sure if that can do much). there may be protests in front of myanmar embassies so look out for those. most of all, please help spread awareness.Â
the people here are coping with dark humor, primarily in the form of memes but we donât know how long this rule will last, even though the official statement said only a year. hereâs something that pretty much sums up our coping mechanism:
again, even a reblog helps
update :: all telecommunication means will be cut off at 12 am MMT
I'm not hatin on you or anything, im all for it but why do you keep hating on white people? You are being quite offensive ngl
deep breaths, kai. deep breaths. iâm prepared to lose more followers for this. so letâs discuss this ask, shall we?
i could go on and on and on about the different microaggressions or racist stereotyping I have experienced as an Indian (common culprits are âwhere are you REALLY from?â, âyouâre so pretty for an indian girlâ or, in terms of stereotypes, the âindians all run pharmacies and smell badâ and âall indians have poor englishâ [i speak gujarati at home fluently and am learning both spanish, hindi, mandarin and korean, excuse me if my english is not perfect] which probably require another post altogeher) but Iâll keep this focused on what you were probably referencing; my post about white mh activists not uplifting POCs.Â
there is a distinct difference between being offensive to white people (not racist, offensive. you cannot be racist to white people as white people have never historically been marginalised, nor has your race ever limited any opportunities for you. the dictionary defines racism as: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalised.) and pointing out the faults in a system built specifically for white people, by white people; a system that still refuses to give POCs the same privileges as white people. were you offended by me saying that white mental health activists should uplift and give platforms to POCs who suffer from mental illnesses instead of talking over them?Â
Generations of systemic and institutionalised oppression and racism by a system built for white people by white people to benefit white people warrants some kind of frustration, doesnât it? if youâre offended by someone pointing out the flaws of almost each and every system in society, (Iâm quoting Hank Green here), âthatâs probably because itâs messing with a power structure that benefits YOUâ.
this got long, so read under the cut.Â
time and time again POCs are systemically oppressed in every walk of life. be it in the justice system, the medical sector, hell, even in the job market... speaking of the job market, i bet you didnât know that the University of Oxford conducted a study that sent out around 3,000 false job applications for all kids of jobs; their study found that if youâre BAME (black, asian or minority ethnic) you have to send out 60% more job applications than your white counterparts. if you would like to read the study, you can find it linked above.Â
as @fruityutasâ said, black women are twice as likely to die in childbirth than their white counterparts in the US (in the uk, itâs a fivefold higher mortality). seeing as itâs current, letâs discuss covid-19, shall we? if youâre a POC in britain, youâre more likely to die from covid-19 than a white person.Â
think iâm making this up? have a look at what Public Health England have to say about it.
âAn analysis of survival among confirmed COVID-19 cases shows that, after accounting for the effect of sex, age, deprivation and region, people of Bangladeshi ethnicity had around twice the risk of death when compared to people of White British ethnicity. People of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Other Asian, Black Caribbean and Other Black ethnicity had between 10 and 50% higher risk of death when compared to White British...â
â...The relationship between ethnicity and health is complex and likely to be the result of a combination of factors. Firstly, people of BAME communities are likely to be at increased risk of acquiring the infection. This is because BAME people are more likely to live in urban areas, in overcrowded households, in deprived areas, and have jobs that expose them to higher risk. People of BAME groups are also more likely than people of White British ethnicity to be born abroad, which means they may face additional barriers in accessing services that are created by, for example, cultural and language differences.â (2020)Â Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. Available at:Â https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/908434/Disparities_in_the_risk_and_outcomes_of_COVID_August_2020_update.pdf (Accessed: 18 January 2021).
or, alternatively, if youâre sick of hearing about covid, how about the fact that the NHS is slow to respond to health problems that disproportionately affect certain ethnic minority groups? POC patients that require treatment for hepatitis B, myocardial infarction (heart attacks), hypertension and diabetes have to wait longer despite having similar symptoms to white patients.Â
sick of the science? how about we talk about the fact that doctors from BAME backgrounds are less likely to be promoted to consultant posts in the NHS than white doctors? BAME doctors are also more likely to experience bullying and harassment as well as face more complaints and disciplinary actions.Â
Now, letâs discuss what iâm guessing prompted this accusatory ask; the disparities in incidence of mental illness in BAME communities versus white communities. Compared to white people, black women are more likely to experience anxiety disorders or depression, south Asian women are at a higher risk of suicide and black individuals are more likely to be sectioned under the mental health act in the United Kingdom.
From ârethink mental illnessâ:
ââŠPeople from BAME backgrounds told us that some of the barriers they face when accessing mental health care are:
cultural barriers where mental health issues arenât recognised or arenât seen as important,
language barriers
professionals having a lack of knowledge about things that are important to a person of colour or their experiences,
white professionals not being able to fully understand what racism or discrimination is like,
lack of publicity of mental health support and services in some communities,
stereotyping. For example, some white people think that black people with mental health issues will get angry or aggressive, conscious and unconscious bias, and
stigma about mental illness in some communities stops some people of colour seeking help. They can feel ashamed.â
White people will never be able to understand what it is like to be a POC, just like how a cishet person will never know what itâs like to be LGBTQ+ . Comparing the experiences of a white person with that of a POC is like comparing apples and oranges (I group POCs together for the sake of argument; of course I, as an Indian experience privileges that a black person does not experience).Â
In spite of the greater incidence of mental illnesses in BAME communities, white people have an easier time accessing mental health care than us POCs. coming back to the argument that white people will never be able to understand racism and cultural issues that can lead to mental illness, which, as iâve said before, is looked down upon in POC communities coupled with the notable lack of BAME therapists and psychiatrists means POCs who have the luxury of accessing therapy will more often than not have to discuss their issues with someone who will never be able to relate to them.Â
but i was offensive to white people because i said white mental health activists talk over the already-suppressed voices of POC activists. okay.
why would i fuck a demon? simple, the status. imagine rolling up into hell already havin had ur back blown out by one of their own. imagine you and a gang of other losers standin at the gates of hell, theyâre all crying, scared to death about having a pitchfork up their ass for eternity and you just walk into the arms of your sugar demon? legendary.
pretty shitty how baseline human activities like singing, dancing and making art got turned into skills instead of being seen as behaviors
so now itâs like âthe point of doing them is to get good at themâ and not âthis is a thing humans do, the way birds sing and bees make hivesâ.
