Anti-abortion billboard in SoHo

I. AM. FUCKING. ANGRY.

I think that says it all. Read more about this horrendous atrocity here.

Update: the billboard has been taken down.

National Close the Gap Day - 24 March

The statistics are clear: five years after the launch of the Close the Gap campaign, improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health remains one of our nation’s greatest challenges.

While there are some improvements, with the Prime Minister reporting to the nation recently that we are making significant progress in reducing the much higher rate of Indigenous deaths in children under the age of one, we have still made however little progress in closing the 10-17 year life expectancy gap as a whole.

National Close the Gap Day – Thursday 24 March – is a way you can deepen understanding of the issue in your community and keep the issue upper-most in the minds of our political leaders.

By hosting an event on or around this day, you and your friends or work colleagues can join with tens of thousands of other Australians to send a powerful message to all our political leaders about the need to maintain the focus on closing the gap.

Events take place in homes, workplaces, schools, universities, medical centres or wherever you think people may be interested in finding out more about the Close the Gap campaign. Some events are attended by hundreds of people, others by just a handful of friends or family.

What you can do:

• Register to run your own event
• Find an event near you
• Join the Facebook event and tell your friends
• Spread the word on your own site or via Twitter
• Find out more about the Close the Gap campaign

First published on Oxfam Blogs

Portlandia - Dream of the 90s

"Portland is a place where young people go to retire."

Oh my yes. The ideals, way of life and dreams of the 1990's is alive and well, thanks to hipsters.

via @ben_hr

Help our NZ bru's

I think this says it all. Please donate to the New Zealand Red Cross to help those affected by the Christchurch earthquake.

via @Paris_David

Hipster Bingo

OK, I'm gonna have to say it: Paul Buller is a genius.

Welcome to... Hipster Bingo.

Want. So bad.

International Women's Day 2011

During the week of 8 March 2011, join us in celebrating women's achievements for International Women's Day.

Oxfam knows that women around the world achieve amazing things every day. We’ve been there supporting and empowering them to succeed against great adversity, encouraging their successes and celebrating with them as they achieve their dreams.

We've participated in projects like our Sisters on the Planet series, which tells stories of women in their struggle against the impacts of climate change.

There are thousands of inspiring women in the world, but sadly millions more women and girls still need our support to have something to celebrate.

• Women in developing countries are feeling the impacts of climate change the most.
• 40 million girls worldwide are denied access to education.
• Every minute a woman with inadequate medical care dies during pregnancy or childbirth.
• Domestic violence is the biggest single cause of death and injury in women worldwide.

Please take the time this International Women’s Day to support women as they show the world what they can do.

What you can do:

• Watch Martina’s story
• Watch Bonnie’s story
• Download our quick facts sheet on Women and Climate Change
• Tell the world that you’ll be doing your bit on International Women’s Day
  
  • Share this page on Facebook
  • Tell your friends on Twitter

First published on Oxfam Blogs

KFC medical clinic

Aside from how awesome this BBC News interactive photo report is, this photo of a KFC store that has been appropriated by protesters in Cairo's Tahir Square is so many kinds of win.

I'm a fan of recycling.
I'm a fan of up-cycling.
I'm a super fan of greasy, disgusting, mass-produced American chain food outlets being re purposed into actually useful emergency medical stations in the midst of a citizen-led uprising.

The Twin Paradox

A cute, simple animation explaining the concept of time dilation as a result of high speed space travel? Thank you Yuanjian Luo.

Tuvalu King Tide – Thurs 17 Feb 2011

As the king tide hits the small Pacific island of Tuvalu, photographer Rodney Dekker is on the ground for Oxfam to record this event. We’ll be updating you as his reports come in.

Don’t forget to ask your own questions that we’ll then put to the locals on the island.



The airport runway is used for recreation when airplanes are not landing. A fire truck positioned adjacent to the airport signals a planes approach, warning people to get off the runway. One plane arrives and departs every Tuesday and Thursday - during other times the runway is used as a recreational hub. In the late afternoon people play volleyball and train for soccer and rugby. Significant sections of the runway will be flooded when the king tide arrives.



Eileen Kavatia waters the family's tomatoes. Her mother says that the drought, which started in October, has killed the families cabbage, cucumber and pawpaw as there was insufficient water to maintain the plants.



Lastman Lee collects water for the tomatoes that have recently been planted. They have one water tank for a family of 8 people.



Peleuila Iopo feeds his pigs. Because of the drought it's more difficult keep the pigs alive due to water shortages.

Photos: Rodney Dekker

First published on Oxfam Blogs

Tuvalu King Tide - Wed 16 Feb 2011

As the king tide hits the small Pacific island of Tuvalu, photographer Rodney Dekker is on the ground for Oxfam to record this event. We'll be updating you as his reports come in.

Don't forget to ask your own questions that we'll then put to the locals on the island.



Fuel drums are being utilised as sea walls providing effective protection against coastal erosion, southern Funafuti, Tuvalu.



Sesilina Iosia (22 years) stands in front of taro pits that supply food for the family.



Sania Lototele (5yrs) is learning to make bead necklaces. The necklaces her family make provides their only income; they sell them to tourists at the airport. When the king tide strikes in a couple of days, water will lap against the bottom of their house and may flood the lower level which is positioned on one metre stilts



Sesilina Iosia stands on the sea wall that was built to protect their house in Kavatoetoe, Funafuti after the king tides flooded the whole place in 2001.

Sesilina's grandfather, Laloniu Samuelus, has been living in Funafuti for more that 20 years and noticed a significant change in the level of the tides [and how] "it's getting hotter and hotter". He has adapted to the impacts of climate change by building a sea wall that now protects his family home and by building concrete walls around crops that have been effective in mitigating the impacts of flooding and salinity.

Photos: Rodney Dekker

First published on Oxfam Blogs

Land: is life

There are many small Pacific island nations like Tuvalu and Kiribati that, at their highest point, are just metres above sea level. Increases in the frequency and intensity of severe weather events and rising sea levels due to climate change, are having terrible impacts including: salt water intrusion killing crops; erosion of shorelines and the destruction of property.

In August 2010, our team accompanied Australian photographer Rodney Dekker in a trip to the Pacific island nations of Tuvalu and Kiribati to capture stories and images of how climate change is affecting daily life on these fragile islands. The Land is life series are the result of this trip.

• Watch: the Land is Life multimedia series
• See: the Land is Life photographic tour
• Act: tell your local MP to take action on climate change
• Tell us: what you would like to know about life in Tuvalu
• Stay informed: check back in as our team reports back from the king tide in Tuvalu

First published on Oxfam Blogs

Carbon Nation

This looks good - Carbon Nation, a documentary about climate change that doesn't care if you believe in climate change.

Financing Economic Justice for the World’s Poor

"There cannot be effective development without economic justice"
Otaviano Canuto, Vice President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network (PREM), World Bank

While world poverty has decreased over recent years, we still live in a world where economic justice has not been achieved. Almost two thirds of the world's people live without the security of knowing that they can earn enough to sustain themselves and their families. This means they are unable to do the things we take for granted - like sending their kids to school, being able to go to a doctor, having a job, or even having access to land to grow food. The poorest of the poor (just under 1 billion) don't even know where their next meal is coming from.

For poor women, achieving economic justice can be a particular challenge. Women engage in much of the world's unpaid labour, both at home, on the farm and in the community at large. Even when included in the paid workforce, women face obstacles in obtaining fair pay and safe working conditions. The world will continue to face many new challenges that threaten to undermine any progress towards economic justice. These include the global financial crisis, governance and economic policies, natural disasters and climate change, amongst others. Despite the fact that people living in poverty bear the least responsibility for creating these problems, these issues have a disproportionate impact on them. When you’re desperately poor, any impact at all can be a matter of life or death.

Oxfam is proud to partner with One Just World to present the Who Should Get What and Why? Financing Economic Justice for the World’s Poor forum.

How do we go about financing economic justice? Who takes the lead? Does the responsibility for economic justice lie with developing countries themselves? Do multi-lateral institutions or non-government organisations have a role to play? Or, as argued by proponents of a 'Robin Hood' tax, should the global banking sector finance economic justice?

Tuesday, 22 February 2011
BMW Edge, Federation Square, Melbourne

Speakers include:

• Andrew Hewett - Executive Director, Oxfam Australia
• The Hon Emilia Pires - Minister for Planning and Finance, East Timor
• Mary Ellen Iskenderian - President and CEO Women’s World Banking
• Ross Buckley - Professor of International Finance Law, University of NSW
• and moderated by Liz Jackson - Reporter, Four Corners, ABCTV

You can register for this free event here

Read more about the Robin Hood Tax

First published on Oxfam Blogs

Zach has two mums, and he turned out fine.

I realise I'm a bit late in watching this, but this speech by Zach Wahls from Iowa just made me cry a bit.
Zach has two mums, and took the opportunity to address the Iowa House of Representatives over their decision to amend the state constitution to specifically discriminate against same sex marriages.
Beautifully said, Zach.

Shit that Atheists really care about

via BB

Robotic rainbow painting

This gives me a happy.

via The Daily What

McBain: the movie

Remember the awesomeness that was McBain on the Simpsons?
It turns out that if you stitch all the snippets together, you get the whole movie!
Sure, it's only four minutes long, but still... truly magnificent cinematic genius.
In my humble opinion, Rainier Wolfcastle's finest performance.

Have you seen yourself?

Wow. The innate human desire to be left alone (or perhaps it's the global fear of strangers, video cameras and interaction) is amazing.

This guy drove around a parking lot, asking people if they had seen someone with their exact description. They all fobbed him off and tried to get away.

via Laughing Squid

Explaining the UK

I never found this a hard concept to understand, but apparentely a lot of Americans don't understand the difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England and the Commonwealth. C. G. P. Grey attempts to explain. Really really fast.

A magazine is born

This is strangely similar to how I make magazines.
Just replace the hipster inner-city London office with a dark room in the suburbs of Melbourne, the pristine white desks with an oversized worn desk from an old bank, the large amount of equipment and technology with an ageing MacBook Pro and the several hipster editors, subeditors, designers, illustrators and proofers with myself and Lefa.