Dear lovers of point and click adventure games,

I just finished this game 'Life is Strange' I found on steam; the description was; 'life Is Strange is a five part episodic game that sets out to revolutionise story based choice and consequence games by allowing the player to rewind time and affect the past, present and future.' - so I thought I would give it a shot.

Seriously, it has been one of the BEST games I have ever played. Good graphics, great soundtrack, and amazing twists and turns. Starts off in a college where you play the character of Max who wants to become a photographer. At first when I started playing the game thought it was incredibly 'teenagery' and thought 'oh man why did I download this' but I stuck through with and it became incredibly dark but in the best possible way ever.

Edit: (also) --> ESRB Rating: MATURE with Blood, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol

Recommended!!

​Check it out.

This will be a constantly updated list of websites / initiatives / terms / ideas I find online that can help with questions : 'What can I do to be more sustainable and ethical?'. Don't panic, baby steps are the way forward.

1. Ethical Banking? - Why not try move your money from banks that rule the world and make risky investments to banks that invest in social causes, charities and social businesses?

Here is one option: Charity Bank.

2. Live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle!

3. Alternative ways of consuming? Here is a very small Wikihoıw list of where to begin.

4. Join local parties / initiatives or communities that promote positive social change!

5. Freecycle / Upcycle / Share tools and resources.


​That's it for now. =) 

It has been some of the strangest few days of my life. From hearing F16 jets flyby at night and explosions shaking the ground whilst hiding out in friends houses after hearing of a coup; knowing there are tanks streets below as you struggle to comprehend what is going on. Friends joining lines and lines of people at ATM machines, spaghetti running out at the markets as no one truly knows how long they are going to be trapped inside.
​
Thankfully, we are now not trapped; the initial chaos from Friday night is over. Instead of analysing the situation that ensued afterwards and what is going on now (as it isn't that clear); I would just like to say that it is very easy to see how a country that is relatively stable can disintegrate into a situation of potential war, complete terror and instability overnight.

This region of the world has been played at for decades, perhaps even centuries. We are indeed pieces on a chess board. Worldwide economic and social domination by a few very rich and greedy people is the reason why thousands of children die of starvation everyday, why approx 1 billion learn to live on less than 1 dollar a day, why some countries are completely sold to foreign corporations etc. etc. etc.

I'm tired of asking questions such as;
Why the f* are there permanent security council members ? 
Why does one family (Rothschild) own nearly all central banks worldwide?
Why do we have to work to make money to pay our electricity and water bills and buy food when these things would be very simply provided if resource distribution was in place. 
etc. etc. etc.

I feel I am living as a hypocrite myself. We always discuss of conscious consumption. Yes, I am better than I used to be at being careful regarding what and how I consume but I truly feel that there needs to be some sort of radical dissent in terms of this. This chaos and extremism ensuing across the region, Europe and the world is not just going to simply disappear. It will get worst if we do not act. And if it is indeed the economy that makes the world go round. That is where we must hit the hardest. How exactly, I'm not entirely sure.

(Edit/Addition: Oh, and to fight extremism we must indeed remember that there are chilrden being brain-washed into believing extremist views. We can fight that by equally making as compelling counter articles/videos. These people (if not already taken away and being trained on the ground) are influenced by their solitary lonely lives, the bullshit environment they are in and mostly by what they are reading and watching on the internet). We must tell young vulnerable children and young people: THERE IS another way.)

Technology, hacking, whistle-blowing- this has lead to more transparency but has also caused a lot of trouble at other times. We must be smart. Cyber-security and cyber warfare is one of the greatest threats that face the planet at the moment in terms of keeping 'the system' alive and well.

The reason we are governed, the reason we value money is only because we allow ourselves to be government, because we 'trust' money and put value onto it ourselves. We in our lives our doing as much as we can I can see that. There is too much information, overwhelming misinformation, our brains are trying to compute all of this as well as our emotions of what is going on the world constantly. It is too much to take.

We then, of course need to to calm and relax, meditate, laugh with friends, make art, music, love. Cook. Feel alive. There are different ways of radical dissent - truly living and believing in the way you believe as a form of resistance. Living 'off grid'. Choosing to live alternatively, sharing, free-cycling, networking, truly seeing the beautiful different colours of the people and the world we live in.

A lot of us (including myself) feel paralyzed about 'what exactly to do'. We don't trust political systems, we choose systems that are not necessarily hierarchical to be a part of ; the vast consciousness of the internet is a part of this . We share, we are in power, we can reach billions at a click. What we also need is focus and discipline. We cannot do everything. Which is why we collaborate and we focus. We do indeed need to be brave. Bravery and stupidity also can be a very thin line when people wait outside your house ready to beat you up.

I'm babbling but I need to . The point is, friends, it is time for some more radical thought and action. (When I say radical I do not mean let's go and wreck the place). I mean - time to be smart with our emotions, thoughts, our environment, our awareness, time to shake off the hopelessness, time to embrace that we are together, time to accept the horror that surrounds us, time to see we must do all we can to stop this. Time to learn to protect ourselves online, physically, mentally. Time to be prepared for everything; to be 'safer' rather than 'sorry'.

We have to keep doing what we have been doing; sharing info etc. We need to 'think globally, act locally', we need to make this fight not against something or another- we must fight for 'humanity' ; for all beings on this planet. If we continue to find this in ourselves, that is the most important step. The rest comes naturally.

Let's not let these assholes rule the planet. At some point, 'whatever it takes' will be what we are saying to one another.
​
Enough is enough.

Peace and Love.

You know things are messed up when you start planning war and escape scenarios with your friends with alternative plot twists and endings.
The reality is I just think us human beings never really allow ourselves to feel the horrors of war / systematic violence we see in the world. We truly don't want to face our own demons and the demons of society. Which is understandable - we have the day to day to deal with. But when death knocks on your door a few times and you realise more and more that you are alive by chance - something weird clicks in the brain and says....hang on a minute.

Until we face ourselves and the horrors of the world TRULY and try to deal with our own principles on a fundamental level this horror is going to continue all across the globe. With rapid increase of technology, scarcity of resources things are only going to get scarier unless mass conscious revolution takes place.

I do not know what will happen in all the hundreds of other countries around the world where people die everyday because of money mania and greed. This in reality is not a local / country issue - this is a global issue. The s*** has literally hit the fan - had hit the fan looooong time ago. We are literally trying to scrape the remnants of what dignity we have as human beings and turn it into a much better place to live for ourselves and future beings on this planet.

People are dying everyday. Because of extremism, corruption, hate - all stemming from fear. We really must stop the cynicism, stop the hopelessness, learn to face the reality of what  is going on head on, bite the bullet, and try our best to PROVE love exists in the world and it is in reality the ONLY thing that is going to change anything. 

Just let that sink in for a while. This isn't some hippie dippie babble. What has ever changed our societies for the 'better' in the world? Why do we have a sense of what is right and wrong? Why is it that love is incredibly powerful? Why is it the same reason that fear is the same? How do sub-cultures that change society come about? Why? How? How do they spread? Why is art, music, literature so important in this process? Why must we reject apathy, laziness, cynicism?

Because the camel's back has already broken. Just accepting that 'the world is crap, we are gonna die anyway' is a poor excuse to me.

These feelings are a lot more prominent these days when you keep receiving 'threats' to your cities in forms of various violent acts - be it bombing, street clashes etc. etc.
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I'm not saying go and be Gandhi.

All I am saying is think about yourself, learn to love yourself (yes this is LEARNT! as we are not taught about any sort of way to deal with our emotions in life and we focus on the brain and logic and producing - not being compassionate and caring), then you will love others more - so on so forth. 

Do what you love, do it with passion.
Spread the love. It is MUCH needed. ​

I beg you.

“Kindness is the light that dissolves all walls between souls, families, and nations.” 
― Paramahansa Yogananda

With love,
Melissa

In the wake of mass privatisation of water across the globe that has been taking place over the past decade I would like to share a few resources/facts with you today.

Water, H20, is arguably the most important natural resource on the planet and the most important thing that humans need to survive and lead healthy lives. Unfortunately according to WaterAid, 2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation, one in three of the world's population AND 748 million people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one in ten of the world's population.                                                                                 (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) Report 2014).

The reality of this situation will never quite hit those of us have fortunately had access to clean water our whole lives. Yet there are some drastic problems that really cannot be ignored. We have just as much as a part of this and need to face the reality of the situation. The act of the privatization of water for example hit me hard when I watched a few documentaries a few years ago. Watching ‘Tapped’ for the first time really allowed questioning the bottled water industry and my own consumer habits.

I won’t go on and on about my own opinions but I would love to share few resources with you as water for thought:

1.       First of all take a look at WaterAid for some more facts and figures. WaterAid's mission is to transform lives by improving access to safe water, improved hygiene and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities.

2.       ‘Tapped’ documentary. Examines the role of the bottled water industry and its effects on our health, climate change, pollution, and our reliance on oil.

3.       ''You'll be buying Evian just to take a f...bath''. Mos Def’s great hip-hop tune ‘New World Water’. You can find the lyrics here.   Appeared on his 1999 album ‘Black on Both Sides’. Lyrics speak for themselves.

4.       Water: The Great Mystery. A documentary about the history of Water . Great cinematography.

5.       Check out this article regarding Nestle’s CEO who is pushing for the privitasion of water worldwide. This article is more about his discussion regarding GMOs (which is another topic entirely which I am hoping to write about ) however if you do your own research online regarding his opinions on water privitasion you can find many more resources. Corporate watch,  an independent research group that investigate the social and environmental impacts of corporations and corporate power, discuss Nestles's unethical policies in depth here. For example, they state about Nestle's water policies:

“Nestlé production of mineral water involves the abuse of vulnerable water resources. In the Serra da Mantiqueira region of Brazil, home to the “circuit of waters” park whose groundwater has a high mineral content and medicinal properties, over-pumping has resulted in depletion and long-term damage.”

6. A video I just came across today by WorldVision called the 'Zambia Project' . Even thought I do not necessarily like the way this Project has been marketed* (I am not criticising it), it does paint a realistic picture of the situation in a lot of countries across the world.

The reason I wanted to share all of the above was it because it has indeed helped me have a wider view regarding how much we take for granted. Spreading knowledge in this age of connection is incredibly valuable, so there you have it.

*I wrote my MA thesis on the resbonsiblity of Images and messages used in humanitarian fundraising campaigns with a special focus on LiveAid and the Ethiopian Famine of 1984; I also took a look at what had changed 20 years on by the time of Live8. In a nutshell,  my research lead to me to the opinion that the 'pornography of poverty' does not at all help in changing the perception of poverty, creates unnecessary guilt, a feeling of apathy and numbness towards horrific realities that exist. This does not fix the problem of poverty. It SHOWS poverty but not the REASONS for poverty, which are complex reasons that our embedded in the global economic and social system that we are a part of. By the end I ask for responsible representation, one that is indeed perhaps slightly more political, context-ridden, that allows people to realise they ARE indeed a part of the problem AND solution, that they DO have agency to take action other than for example donating money (not that this is a bad thing) and forget about what's  going on in their daily lives. I say this because most people do prefer to feel they are actually making a change through their own actions. If ıinterested in my thesis please get in touch.

This morning I came across a video on Facebook called 'What are we teaching our children?'. It was a pretty heartbreaking study that looks into the preconceived ideas and prejudices children have against people with different skin colour.  The study takes place in America but I feel is definitely a reflection of our 'global society'. 

In the video children are asked if they prefer a  black or white skin coloured doll and why. In addition children are asked what colour skin they would prefer to have as well as which children are 'dumb' or 'smart' etc. I won't say any more, you can watch that video here.

Just a quick browse on YouTube and you can find many studies on the same topic. Here is another video for e.g. (also linked to the above study) that shows also how clueless children are regarding WHY they have such prejudices. The question does really come to 'What are we teaching our children?'

It made me think of a very important experiment that I watched a few years back conducted by Jane Elliott, a former school teacher and anti-racism activist. 

Commonly known as the 'blue eye / brown eye experiment' , 'The Eye of The Storm' is ''A wake up call for all ages [that] teaches about prejudices using a dramatic framework  [which] provides an examination of the realities of discrimination as experienced by actual students in [her] classroom of [third graders]. Elliott [demonstrates] how quickly children can succumb to discriminatory behaviour.  The video chronicles her, now famous, exercise where she divides her class based upon the colour of their eyes and bestows upon one group privileges and on the other group impediments.'' (Source: www.janeelliott.com) 

What's interesting is the follow up of the experiment that came 15 years later, 'A Class Divided' that explores what the children ''in Jane Elliott's daring classroom exercise learned about discrimination and how it still affects them today. Ms. Elliott meets with some of her former students to analyse the exercise in pejudice and its impact on their lives'' (Source: www.janeelliott.com).

I strongly recommend everyone to watch the above two documentaries and read about Jane Elliott's experiments. 
Prejudice is truly killing us. Enough is enough!