Author Archives: Alireza Hayati
Ubuntu
Ubuntu is a very nice story from Africa. The motivation behind the Ubuntu culture in Africa is that an anthropologist proposed a game to the African tribal children.
He placed a basket of sweets near a tree and made the children stand 100 meters away. Then announced that whoever reaches first, would get all the sweets in the basket.
When he said ‘ready steady go!”, they all held each other’s hands, ran together towards the tree, divided the sweets equally among themselves, ate the sweets and enjoyed it. When the anthropologist asked them why they did so, They answered “Ubuntu.”
Ubuntu meant ‘How can one be happy when the others are sad?’ Ubuntu in their language means “I am because we are”, a strong message for all generations. Let all of us always have this attitude and spread happiness wherever we go. Let’s have a “Ubuntu” Life.
I AM BECAUSE WE ARE.
Facebook even snoops on you using your camera’s scratches
I recently found out about this. Facebook can figure out people you might know by analyzing the pattern of dust and scratches on a camera lenses. Facebook filed a patent for their “people you might know” feature, the thing that recommends someone that you might want to become friends with on the social network site.
And the way that it works is this: Imagine we’re at an event and I’m taking pictures. I take a photo of you that you really like. We don’t know each other but I show it to you, I send it to you and you post it on your Facebook page. I do the same thing with someone else.
So none of us are in the pictures, none of us know each other, I’ve just taken a picture of you and someone else, and you both posted them on your Facebook pages.
Facebook can then analyze the scratches and dusts on your camera lenses that were on my camera and find the invisible artifacts that those scratches left in the photo to determine that you both had your pictures taken by me at the same time and then recommend that you become friends.
When reporters found this patent, Facebook denied that they were using it in their system but there’s no way to know if they’ve started using it since or if they’ve put it in something like Instagram and WhatsApp.
This is how much trouble we have to protect our privacy.
Happy International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8 March around the world. It is a focal point in the movement for women’s rights.
After the Socialist Party of America organized a Women’s Day in New York City on 1909 February 28, German delegates Clara Zetkin, Käte Duncker, Paula Thiede and others proposed at the 1910 International Socialist Woman’s Conference that “a special Women’s Day” be organized annually.
After women gained suffrage in Soviet Russia in 1917, March 8 became a national holiday there. The day was then predominantly celebrated by the socialist movement and communist countries until it was adopted by the feminist movement in about 1967. The United Nations began celebrating the day in 1977.
Women around the world are suffering from inequality and need special attention. I don’t believe men and women should be treated exactly the same. People should be treated good and without discrimination, not completely equal. Being equal doesn’t bring justice and doesn’t eliminate discrimination.
Commemoration of International Women’s Day today ranges from being a public holiday in some countries to being largely ignored elsewhere. In some places, it is a day of protest; in others, it is a day that celebrates womanhood.
Siraf beach time-lapse
Systemic racism explained
Imagine Jamal. Jamal is black person living in a poor neighborhood. Jamal has a friend named Kevin, a white kid living in a wealthy neighborhood. All of Jamal’s neighbors are black and all of Kevin’s neighbors are white.
Because Jamal’s school is funded mostly by property taxes, his school is not very well funded. his classrooms are overcrowded, his teachers are underpaid, and he doesn’t have access to high quality tutors or extracurricular activities.
Kevin’s school district is also funded by property taxes, so high school is very well funded, his classrooms are never crowded, his teachers are very well-paid, and he has access to high quality tutors and lots of extracurricular activities.
Kevin and Jamal live only a few streets away from each other so how come they’re growing up in such different worlds with such different opportunities for success?
The answer is systemic racism.
Continue readingI’m not your nigger
I’ve been called a nigger, sand nigger, monkey, subhuman, and many other derogatory terms and I know how that hurts. It makes you deeply sad and sometimes vulnerable. But after some time, you learn to stop worrying and caring about it. It also made me look into history of the word and learn about it.
Look, there’s absolutely no problem in using the word nigger. Words in and on themselves don’t have any meaning. It’s the context that matters. I use the word nigger when I’m talking about it and it has no problem, because well it’s a word. But how it makes problem when people use it? I’m gonna explain.
Continue readingWhatsApp and the domestication of users
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Red Hand Day
On Red Hand Day or the International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers, February 12 each year since 2002, pleas are made to political leaders and events are staged around the world to draw attention to child soldiers: children under the age of 18 who participate in military organizations of all kinds.
The aim of Red Hand Day is to call for action to stop this practice, and for support for children affected by it.
Hundreds and thousands of handprints have been collected in more than 50 countries and handed over to politicians and to responsible parties, including UN Secretary General. There is progress, but there are still 250,000 child soldiers in the world.
Our demands are
- Straight 18: No child under the age of 18 may be used or trained in armies, armed groups or other military units.
- Punishment of those responsible.
- Care, protection, and political asylum for former child soldiers.
- Expand financial support for aid programs for child soldiers.
- Stop of arms exports.
- Promotion of peace education.
“Defund the police” explained
“Defund the police” is a slogan that supports divesting funds from blue pigs departments and reallocating them to non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as social services, youth services, housing, education, healthcare, and other community resources.
On 2020 June 5th, the Washington, D.C. mayor unveiled a statement, painted down the street leading to the White House, “Black Lives Matter.” Within 24 hours, Black Lives Matter activists responded with their own message: “Defund the Police.”
This slogan caught on rapidly among tens of thousands of people protesting police brutality in the United States. But what does it really mean to defund the police? And what if it’s not as radical as it sounds?
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