14 years ago today my uncle loaned me $3k to buy my first dream Mac computer with design softwares. I promised to pay him $150 a month until it was paid off. I would design business cards, newspaper ads, flyers or what ever came my way to make payment. A few years ago my uncle left for Taiwan for work and gave me an envelope, in it were the last few checks I wrote to him. He never deposited them. I almost forgot about the whole thing. He then told me, it was his best investment ever.
When it comes to Government, law and politics. They all want to be our friends only to f*** us over.
Taken with instagram
Baltimore
Taken with instagram
Taken with instagram
A Wonderfully Surreal World, Where Buildings Are Shaped Like Guns And French Fries
(via npr)
Krony 2012
I caved, I took the time to watch Kony 2012 and did some research on the organization Invisible Children. Although I really admire the thought and effort, I was starting to think how this is really going to pan out. I’ll admit it, I’m getting shallow. I was more fascinated with the viral effect and the awesome execution of this campaign. How it reached so many so fast (GO INTERNET!). It gave me hope for humanity. Heck all the celebrities jumped on it like a hot trend. If anything, what I got out of this is, people are willing to blindly jump on the wagon and support a group instead of the cause. Its a very educational video, never-mind the facts, mind you. My fear is if the people behind it really give a rats ass. I mean, $1.07 mil spent in a year of traveling? $400k in office rental? Almost $700k on computer equipment? What did they buy? NASA’s computer system?
$8.9 million they spent in 2011, this is the breakdown:
$1.7 million in US employee salaries
$357,000 in Film costs
$850,000 in Production costs
$685,000 in Computer equipment
$244,000 in “professional services” (DC lobbyists)
$1.07 million in travel expenses
$400,000 in office rent in San Diego
$16,000 in Entertainment etc…
Only 2.8 million (31%) made it to their charity program (which is further whittled down by local Ugandan bureaucracy) - what do the children actually get?
(Thanks M.D.for digging into the facts)
http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com
Translation: let’s start a movement. Set an organization, a non profit. We will need $5mil to make a movie about it. But focus it on me, my vision and how wonderful I am for being aware of a situation. We’ll make it a hot trend and get the celebrities to tweet and endorse it. The world will know! We will need a kickass office space and a shitload of computers an “stuff”. This will require extensive traveling… LOTS! We’ll give ourselves $80+k salaries, nice place to live and nice cars to drive around. Then what’s left we will give to the cause. Cool?
Those who know me, know damn well I’m a very compassionate person. Im an activist at heart. Some of you are probably pissed reading my rant. This is a prime example of capitalizing on a serious issue. Listen nobody likes being bamboozled. Its hard to admit it. Know this, Invisible Children wanted to raise awareness and they did. Now what? Where did all that money go? We should always rally the world and teach our youth to stand up for a cause. If we want to teach them to become activists, do it right. Set a fucking example. It’s living for that cause, not living the life exploiting a cause. We need to research the issue/s and organization/s. Teach our children to love, care and act. Teach them to do so with knowledge not out of blindness. As for the celebrities, you should always use your star power for something you believe in. I recommend truly believe in a cause and not a trendy bandwagon. This shows celebrities are suckers for the media just like us.
