moment
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Everything posted by moment
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Cheng Man Ching
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The power of the dance and the dancers transcending their physical world:
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OK, you too @liminal_luke, dance challenge, bring it on:
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OK, @silent thunder, dance challenge! it's on:
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Absolutely fabulous!
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Cleisthenes Who is the father of democracy? Not Thomas Jefferson, as many people oddly seem to think. It was, in fact, the little known Cleisthenes. He first introduced democracy to the Greek city states (undoubtedly following some of the principles previously set forth by Solon) in 508 BC, after he gained political power in Athens. From 508 to 502 BC, he began to develop a series of major reforms, leading to the formation of Athenian Democracy. He made all free men living in Athens and Attica citizens, giving them the right to vote as part of a democratic society. He also established a council (boule). All citizens over the age of thirty were eligible to sit on the council, encouraging public involvement in the government. While the format may not be the same as the many democracies around the world today, there is no doubt that this was the first step.
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The Gulabi gang The Gulabi Gang are a group of female Indian vigilantes, who all wear a pink sari. The group fight against child marriages, the dowry system, abusive husbands and female illiteracy
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Dr. Megan Coffee A specialist in infectious diseases, Dr Coffee has been working in Haiti since the earthquake in 2010. She arrived in Haiti after the earthquake and established a new sanatorium in Port-au-Prince. She still works there, without pay, taking public transport to work, treating patients.
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“There are times when we stop, we sit still. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.” —James Carroll
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After I'm dead, I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one. ------Porcius Marcus Cato
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Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them. You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor. ---Aristotle
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Have you heard the one about the man who kept shouting “broccoli” and “cauliflower”? He thought he might have florets.
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Rodrigue Katembo Put his life on the line to protect endangered animals such as Rhino and Gorillas. 160 park rangers have died in the past 15 years in Congo’s Virunga National Park alone, only marginally less than total number British casualties during the invasion and occupation of Iraq. In addition to having to deal with the threat of poachers, park rangers have to deal with tropical diseases, illegal miners, forest fires, trekking through miles of inhospitable terrain, and in the case of Virunga National Park, Park Rangers face threats from rogue militias and oil corporations. There are only 780 Mountain Gorillas left in the wild of which 30% reside in Virunga National Park. The money brought by tourism from the gorillas is vital for the local economy, but this has made the gorillas a target from Mai Mai Rebel Militias keen to inflict as much damage on the government as possible. As a result, Park Rangers have been placed on the front line of a war. In 2014, Virunga National Park came under attack by British Oil Company, SOCO, who wished to explore the national park for oil in spite of the fact it is one of the most bio-diverse and important national parks in the world. Using the vast resources at their disposal, SOCO issued bribes to park rangers, the Congolese Army, and local government officials in order to encourage them to remove regulations for them. Once an enforced child soldier, the ranger Rodrigue Katembo reported oil exploration vehicles entering the park illegally and alongside Park Director, Emmanuel De Merode, carefully documented and filmed undercover the corruption threatening the livelihood of Virunga even though he was putting his life at risk. The price Katembo paid for just stopping a SOCO team from building a telecommunications antenna inside the park was an arrest and 17 days of torture. His boss, Emmanuel De Merode, suffered an even worse fate, being ambushed and shot five times in the stomach and legs in 2014, narrowly escaping with his life. Katembo’s work played a key role in the making of the 2014 Oscar winning documentary, Virunga, which helped pile huge levels of international and political pressure on SOCO, forcing them to abandon plans to explore for oil in the region. However the numerous threats that face Virunga and other Congolese national parks has not abated. Even to this day, Katembo has to live apart from his family in fear of their safety and receives death threats from illegal miners, Mai Mai rebels and poachers. Currently Katembo is chief warden at Upemba National Park and still continues his hard work protecting the 8000 square mile park to great levels of success despite only having 160 rangers instead of the minimum required 400. Since his appointment in 2015, Upemba National Park has seen deforestation decrease and numbers of Elephants increase from 0 to 68.
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Bayard Rustin Rustin was an African-American who inspired and taught the most prominent figures of the US civil rights movement – including Martin Luther King. Having grown up during the Depression, from a young age Rustin campaigned for change, inventing tactics that inspired the later mass-movement that finally achieved it. He was arrested for protesting about segregated bus seating 13 years before Rosa Park’s famous act of defiance. Crucially, inspired by Gandhi, in 1956 he convinced rising leader Martin Luther King that a policy of non-violent protest was vital to achieve equal rights. His plan worked, but as the movement gained momentum, a political rival who knew of Rustin’s homosexuality threatened to accuse Rustin and King of having an affair. In order to protect the cause, Rustin stepped into the shadows, relinquishing his place in history.
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Enheduanna Enheduanna lived about 2300 BC and was the world’s first writer to be known by name. High Priestess of the Temple of Sumer, she reconciled the opposing forces behind the Sumerian and Akkadian gods to create stability in her fathers' empire. At the same time, she scribed the first hymns, psalms, poetry and prayers – models that were later copied by the Hebrew Bible and the Homeric hymns, and even influenced early Christianity.
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Stanislav Petrov He disobeyed orders and Russian protocols, convinced that the six missiles, shown on radar coming from the USA, was a malfunction, and by refusing to authorize a retaliatory strike, probably saved the world from a nuclear war.
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You too!
