because I’m tired of the ‘male love interest can’t navigate a kitchen to save his life bc apparently even microwaves are a menace to romantic leads’ trope - *squints at fsog* - I now present a list of culinary aus that I need as of right now:
rival chefs au
chef trying to impress this one picky food critic au
“you said you would help me make dinner but now you’re criticising my onion chopping skills and when exactly did this turn into a not-so-friendly round of master chef???” au
“when I questioned your ability to critique food I wasn’t expecting you to be this good at bullshit about the ‘flavour notes’ you detect and ‘spring-plucked plums’ and… wtf even is ‘umami’? shit this pretentious pedant thing might be a teeny bit hot” au
NO RESERVATIONS AU
“you simply happen to be the only foodie I know and so what if that means I occasionally blow off dates to check out that new French restaurant downtown with you it’s not like it means anything” au
“yes, I am blackmailing you into wearing that novelty apron fite me” au
“no, you can’t just make me dinner and think that will make it all better… but it wouldn’t hurt” au
“when I said we should experiment with some chocolate sauce sexytimes I didn’t expect you to immediately bring out the double boiler! I mean, I have simple tastes, I could totally go pick up some Nesquik- alright, alright, I won’t mess with the ‘integrity’ of the thing bc wOW this is absolutely delicious and… babe of course I’m still into the whole sex part of the plan but is that a hint of chili I detect?!” au
“I started singing 'feed me seymour’ and I’m not stopping until you either burst into song or make me a snack” au
“what do you mEAN you bought a whole round of roquefort WHEN WOULD WE EVER NEED THAT MUCH CHEESE” au
“bringing me leftovers of the meal you cooked with mY gourmet prosciutto does not negate thieveryeven if it was delicious. worst. roommate. ever.” au
“so we may have set off the fire alarm. twice. and I know there’s a worrying amount of flour everywhere. but we made cupcakes together without killing each other and that’s the importan- nO OF COURSE WE DIDN’T MAKE OUT ok maybe a little” au
Just once I would like the mentor’s beautiful daughter to actually, sincerely hate the hero’s guts.
Like, not like ‘belligerent sexual tension’ hate his guts. Not ‘learn a valuable lesson about resentment and gets over it’ hate his guts. No, just straight up, 100%, wouldn’t-piss-on-you-if-you-were-on-fire, the-sound-of-your-name-makes-me-puke-a-little-in-my-mouth hate his guts.
And my entire kingdom for a story where she ‘helps’ him train and then goes and hands a detailed list of all of his weaknesses and strategies to his rival like ‘kick his fucking ass’.
Alternatively, how about the ‘hero’ is actually the villain, because it turns out that the mentor not trusting his own daughter’s capabilities enough to let her be the chosen one and instead granting phenomenal cosmic powers to the first rando farmboy who comes along actually wasn’t the smartest idea he’s ever had.
Having trolled some of the AO3 Fury Road tag, I’ve learned something interesting.
I am AGGRRESSIVELY here for everything involving Max and Furiosa.
I like them best as Epic Lifelong Drift-Compatible Postapocalypse Badass Bros. They are the BroTP to end all BroTPs. But hey.
Aromantic casual sex buddies who snark and spar? I’m down, let’s go, I’m so down with that shit.
Asexual partners who drive around and sleep next to each other because it makes them feel safe? Give it to me.
Soul mates in every way, sexual, romantic, practical, all of the above, who cobble together a slapdash system for running the Citadel and work through their issues? Hell yeah, hELL FUCKING YEAH.
Long-suffering pseudo-parents to the Wives (who ship it like FedEx) and the War Boys (who worship both of their badassery in a much more healthy way than they worshipped Joe)? I AM READY.
okay but like can we talk about star trek just for one second.
because.
like.
so much tv and so many movies and so many books are all about how the future is a disaster because technology ends the world and aliens attack and humanity is awful.
and then there’s star trek. motherfucking star trek. where, yeah, shit goes wrong all the time, but technology lets us reach and grow and learn, and humanity builds itself starships and warp cores and makes contact with aliens and builds this interstellar family out of all these disparate cultures and it names its flagship Enterprise because that’s what it is, it’s this enterprise of hope and discovery, and no matter how often they all risk their necks and get in fights and end up shooting it out with the Borg or the Klingons or the Romulans or whatever, humanity still looks up at the stars and says “you know what, let’s boldly go, motherfuckers,” and that’s the kind of future I wanna see.
By default, Microsoft gets to see your location, keystrokes and
browser history – and listen to your microphone, and some of that stuff
is shared with “trusted [by Microsoft, not by you] partners.”
You can turn this all off, of course, by digging through screen after
screen of “privacy” dashboards, navigating the welter of tickboxes that
serve the same purposes as all those clean, ration-seeming lines on the
craps table: to complexify the proposition so you can’t figure out if
the odds are in your favor.
Oh, and if you’ve already chosen to use Firefox as your default browser, Microsoft overrides your decision
when you “upgrade” and switches you to the latest incarnation of the
immortal undead monster formerly known as Internet Explorer.
The idea of biological sex is false. It equalizes genitals with gender when in reality it's just that they have certain genitals, such as a penis or vagina. If you need to know something about a person don't ask what's your biological sex, just ask what chromosomes or genitals the person has, because those things don't determine gender. Stop using the term, it's harmful to trans people and unnecessary in the first place.
I assume you’re referring to this post and I understand your point, anon. I will even acknowledge that I could have phrased that better, but I wasn’t sure how. I personally am not trans, but please realize that I realize that dysphoria can be incredibly destructive to trans/nonbinary individuals. If my wording was insulting or hurtful to you in some manner, please know that I am genuinely sorry for my error and was coming from a place of concern for people’s physical health, and I will do my best to explain the reasons that I used the wording that I did in the hopes that you will understand.
First and most simply, most of the trans/nonbinary people I know find asking about their genitalia incredibly invasive and exceptionally rude (not to mention rather exclusive of intersex individuals), which makes sense, doesn’t it? It makes sense to me, at the very least, and as a result I would make an effort to avoid such a question in a medical situation unless absolutely necessary.
And the idea that genitalia is defined by chromosomes is also quite problematic from a medical perspective, because (contrary to what your high school biology class might have said) chromosomal alignment does not necessarily determine genitalia/physical sex at birth. A good example of this would be Swyer syndrome, or (more technically) XY gonadal dysgenesis. What this essentially means is that a person is born externally and internally female (although lacking ovaries), but has the normally-male chromosomal arrangement XY, which can have effects ranging from relatively minor (lack of breast/hip development, lack of menses) to potentially highly dangerous (adrenal failure). This link will take you to the Wikipedia page, which is rather brief but includes more helpful links at the bottom of the page. Swyer syndrome affects approximately 1 in 80,000 people, and there are a number of other chromosomal conditions involving a mis-arrangement of sex chromosomes. These include such things as Turner syndrome (one X chromosome, child will be designated female at birth), Klinefelter syndrome (XXY chromosomes, child will be designated male at birth), or even XXXY syndrome (child will be assigned male at birth). So, yes, for many people asking their chromosomal arrangement would answer the necessary question, but beyond the strictly medical issues, it can be very intimidating to start asking about their genetics, particularly someone in pain or in the midst of a panic. People suffering from an acute medical issue tend to already be very afraid, and it’s human nature to jump to the worst case scenario, which, when you start throwing around words like ‘chromosome,’ could be many a terrible thing.
The final reason I used the phrasing ‘biological sex’ is because sex and gender are fundamentally different, although through the vagaries of the English language the two concepts often become confused and conflated. In the strict definitions, gender refers to someone’s identity–man or woman; binary or nonbinary; him, her, them, or another pronoun. Sex, on the other hand, refers to what you were discussing, genitals and (in all likelihood) chromosomes, the category to which an individual was assigned at their birth.
I intended for it to be a more gentle way of asking that question, and if I was wrong I’m deeply sorry and invite any trans/nonbinary individuals to suggest a better one. In retrospect, I possibly should have phrased it as ‘what sex were you assigned at birth.’ The reason I would ask someone that question in a medical crisis is because if I’m speaking with a woman who has stubble and a bass voice, I don’t want to ask “did you used to be a man” because maybe she never was, or maybe she’s a man some days and a woman on others. I don’t want to ask “what is your genitalia” because if they have had gender reassignment surgery that question won’t be helpful, and if they haven’t then I don’t want to trigger a bout of dysphoria. I could ask “what are your chromosomes”, but I don’t want to scare them in the event that they would infer that I think they have a genetic disorder. In a high-pressure situation, I know myself well enough that I prefer direct questions over beating around the bush, because sometimes time really is of the essence. So I would probably say, “I’m sorry that I have to ask you this and I assure you that I will use whichever pronouns you prefer, but I need to know which biological sex you were born with.” Again, if this is a harmful way to phrase the question, I would gladly take any other suggestions from trans or nonbinary individuals, but there really are some times when that information is necessary for the patient to receive the best care possible. The system has many flaws related to the issue of gender, yes, from professionals who refuse to use the correct pronouns to the lack of distinction between ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ on many intake forms/patient records, but I do not intend to let that stop me from caring for people as best I can. Thank you very much for your input, anon, and I hope you understand where I was coming from.
I don’t know how I feel about authors who write constant unhappiness for their characters.
It doesn’t have to be happiness and rainbows all the time, because obviously there will be no conflict if constant happiness. But, Jesus, there needs to be some hope.
I hope you don’t mind if I
jump in and say: I can’t stand it.
The problem, in my opinion,
is that these kind of stories – the ones where the heroes never seem to catch a
break –now fall under the blanket term of “gritty realism”.
In the past couple of years “gritty realism” has become a really
popular theme, not just in books, but across all media. At first it was great
and refreshing, especially when it was done well. But now, it’s so overdone
that it’s become its own cliché. It has somehow evolved from stories that reflected
the true dark side of humanity and how sometimes there are no happy endings, to
stories that literally put characters through hell only to put them in even
worse hell after they climb out of it, with absolutely no hope, no future,
nothing going for them. That is not the same thing and the fact that we are
sold these super depressing stories sold under the terms of “gritty realism” is
kind of bullshit.
It’s one thing when things look bleak and it seems like there’s
no way out, that is fantastic in terms of suspense and heart-string pulling.
But if that’s all the book is then what the hell are they fighting for? What is
the point of all their pain? I know that life isn’t all sunshine and
butterflies, but let’s be honest it’s not all hell-fire and pain either. I as a
reader want to know that there’s hope for these characters however little. I
want a fucking payoff for their pain. Even if they don’t get their happy
ending, I want their pain to mean something. I don’t want to ride a
roller-coaster that only goes down. I have quit books, movies, and shows
because as a very empathetic person the situations and the hopelessness of
their lives have made me feel depressed.
So I’d
like these creators selling their sadomasochism as “gritty realism” to fucking
stop.
Not enough people talk about the fact that Leonardo da Vinci was gay. Like, he’s literally the father of modern technology and one of the smartest human beings to ever live and I never ever learned in school that he was gay.
If all the LGBT people are as “DOOMED” as the bible thumpers think we are, hell, at least we’re in good company.
I was about to say I can’t believe I didn’t know this
and then I remembered the American education system
Yes, I can fucking believe I didn’t know this.
But yeah. Leonardo da Vinci was gay. Pass it on.
Leo painted a picture of his lover as Jesus and that’s the image we use today
Fun fact, my main man Leo was actually arrested briefly for sodomy because…well, long messy story involving the di Medicis and other powerful families of the day wanting him to basically sit down and shut up. Also he tended to have very attractive male ‘assistants’ and ‘apprentices’ who liked to draw dicks and butts in their sketchbooks, and if that doesn’t tell you some shit, I just dunno what to say.
IF YOU LIKE THOSE TWO, THEN YOU ARE IN FUCKING LUCK. WHY? BECAUSE WE’VE WRITTEN A MOTHERFUCKING BOOK CRAMMED FULL OF BOTH OF THOSE.
MYTHS ARE F***ING GREAT CONTAINS 188 PAGES OF OUR FINEST MYTHS, COVERING A WIDE RANGE OF WORLD MYTHOLOGIES AND AN EVEN WIDER RANGE OF CREATIVE BULLSHIT EXPLETIVES. IT’S ALSO GOT MORE THAN YOU COULD EVER HAVE WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE AUTHOR, AND A SMALL NUMBER OF EXCLUSIVE BONUS MYTHS THAT WE’VE NEVER PUT ON THE BLOG. YOU’LL FUCKING LOVE IT.
BUY ONE. BUY LOTS. BUY IT FOR YOURSELF. BUY IT FOR YOUR FRAGILE AND EASILY WORRIED GRANDMA (WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS). BUY IT FOR YOUR CAT. DON’T HAVE A CAT THAT CAN READ? YOU POOR SAD FUCKER. BUY IT FOR SOMEONE ELSE’S CAT AS WELL.
IT’S NOW AVAILABLE FROM A NUMBER OF CLASSY-AS-FUCK ESTABLISHMENTS.
Do you mean doctors who spent years learning about abled white cis men’s bodies
do you know anything about the world besides what you read on tumblr
Okay but this is true?? Shut up with your bullshit, the medical industry for a very very long time has used the able bodied white cis male as their standard and that has very real healthcare consequences for a lot of people.
Do you know why most women don’t know when they’re having heart attacks? Why heart attacks kill more women than men? Because symptoms of a heart attack are different for women and the ones that doctors usually recognize and publicize are the symptoms experienced by men. Do you know why it’s so difficult for Black and Brown people to get diagnosed if they have skin cancer? Because doctors have been taught to recognize it on white people. People of size are constantly told that their problems are entirely because of their weight and doctors don’t even bother to look beyond that to be sure that’s the case. So those people have medical conditions go undiagnosed properly for years, and die in the process. Fuck, even just the fact that people think it’s okay to charge women more for healthcare because “they have extra parts” (?????) is indicative of the way the male body has been considered the standard for fucking ever. And the healthcare needs of disabled people or trans people? Forget about it.
OP is 1000% right. The medical industry has used the able cis white male body as their standard of care for CENTURIES and that has real consequences for the rest of us today. It’s getting better but it’s not where it should be. So fuck off with your snarky commentary, you’re wrong. The healthcare industry is not equipped to handle the needs of people with disabilities, women, PoC, trans people, people of size, etc. and that’s in large part due to the fact that the established body of medical knowledge was created by studying able, cis, white male bodies almost exclusively.
Hey there folks, speaking as a trained EMT and a pre-med student, I can confirm that the above person is approximately 7000% accurate. In my EMT training, I would repeatedly ask ‘’but what if my patent is a woman” or “what is my patient is a person of color” and at first all I got was shock. Then I got confused bumbling. I got some answers–basic symptoms of a heart attack in women, how to recognize cyanosis in someone of color, the basics of how to work with an autistic patient or someone who for whatever reason can’t communicate well with you. In fact, EMTs and other EMS workers are getting a lot better at learning the differences between the health care for a person of color or someone disabled. We were even told that we would need to ask our patients for their biological sex (I know, I’m really sorry, I know that there are people who find this intensely uncomfortable or even harmful, but there are real medical reasons for this and most decent EMTs will use whatever pronouns you ask them to). But most if not all of the answers we were given about women were directly related to gynecological issues. The guys teaching me? They were good guys. Nice. Funny. Smart. Devoted to caring for patients. Impassioned about protecting people, especially women and teenaged girls, from assault. Largely not sexist toward me or their coworkers. Hell, they were even smart enough to say “listen, boys, the women in this class have a higher pain tolerance than you, they just do, and as a rule if a women says their pain is a 5 on a scale of 1-10, assume it’s somewhere around an 8” when a kid laughed during the gyno unit. But they just didn’t know what to say when I asked “so if you’re supposed to palpate the patient’s chest, what do you do if your patient’s a triple-D” or when I asked “so if your patient gets menstrual migraines, how do you know if this headache is a stroke or not.” They had never been taught. This is a real problem, one that many medical professionals work hard to remedy once they start practicing. But this is not bullshit. At all. The standard patient is a cis white guy with no disabilities or chronic illnesses. It’s a huge fucking problem and I’m going to need you to step down with your bullshit, there, friend.
On the one hand, yes, I’m reblogging this every time I see it because it’s fucking important and I’m not going to hear otherwise.
On the other hand…bonehandledknife reblogged my rant. I am awaited in Valhalla. Someone fucking witness me before I have a heart attack.
Today is August 2nd. Today is Romani Holocaust Remembrance day. Today, in 1944, the Gypsy camp at Auschwitz was liquidated. Today marks 71 years since brave Roma and Sinti lost their fight against the Nazi’s Final Solution. Today marks 71 years without reparations or even acknowledgement of a Romani genocide during the Holocaust. Today marks 71 years of continued state-sanctioned oppression and brutality. Today, there is still Romani genocide. Today, we still lose our brothers, fathers, and children to police and Neo-Nazi violence. Today, we continue to be exploited for our labor and forced into slavery. Today, we still live in ghettos and camps. Today is August 2, 2015. Today, our stones have become words and books and education. And today, we will not stop fighting.
okay but like can we talk about star trek just for one second.
because.
like.
so much tv and so many movies and so many books are all about how the future is a disaster because technology ends the world and aliens attack and humanity is awful.
and then there’s star trek. motherfucking star trek. where, yeah, shit goes wrong all the time, but technology lets us reach and grow and learn, and humanity builds itself starships and warp cores and makes contact with aliens and builds this interstellar family out of all these disparate cultures and it names its flagship Enterprise because that’s what it is, it’s this enterprise of hope and discovery, and no matter how often they all risk their necks and get in fights and end up shooting it out with the Borg or the Klingons or the Romulans or whatever, humanity still looks up at the stars and says “you know what, let’s boldly go, motherfuckers,” and that’s the kind of future I wanna see.
Okay honestly here’s how I feel about Riley. I’m all for her representation of mental illness and substance abuse, but so far the show hasn’t done her justice as to saying exactly how she helps THE CLUSTER. She sure as hell helps the audience, but I want to know what her skills do to help like… The cluster. Does she help the show itself? Yeah of course. Does she help the audience? Yes completely. Is her character representation important? Of fucking course, people deal with mental illness everyday and it’s important to have someone you can relate to. But I just wanna know what she brings to the CLUSTER. She’s a good character with so much potential honestly, but I think the show didn’t explain what she brings to the table to the cluster. So pretty much this all comes down to season 2 explaining this to me. SHE’S A FUCKING SURVIVOR TAKE THAT INFORMATION AND DO SOMETHING WITH IT SENSE8 WRITERS!!!
I think the whole point is that not everyone has to bring something to the cluster. The sensates aren’t ‘the chosen ones’, they didn’t become sensate because they have special abilities that bring them together as a kick-ass crime fighting team who are going to save the world. They are just people. People who are interconnected due to a gene mutation.
In a way, Riley brings courage to the cluster. She brings love and heart to the cluster in a way that the others can’t. Her connections to the characters are always deep, and she was the person that brought all eight of the cluster together for them to see their births, which is the most draining visiting moment they’ve had on the show, because it’s between eight people all sharing one mind and they’re not only tapping in to Riley’s birth, but also her tragic moment up on the mountain. (I also feel like in seasons to come she will be sort of like Angelica, birthing a new cluster, but as I’m still not 100% on what that actually means I won’t elaborate)
But my point is, you’ve said ‘do something with that information’ and they have. You’ve literally said it yourself. She helps the show and the audience and gives representation, which is very important and a big part of her character.
You don’t need to have a clear skill set to be useful, and sometimes, just being the kind of person who can get up and have strength every day despite not wanting to is enough to make you a hero in your own right.
Eeep. THIS. *smacks kiss on your forehead* unless you’re not cool with that in which case *vigorously approving nod from respectful distance*
So people are freaking out about Windows 10′s “Wi-Fi Sense” app.
The assumption that Tumblr is taking as fact because that’s what Tumblr does:
“Wi-Fi Sense gives your wi-fi password to your Skype friends list, your Facebook friends list, your AIM friends list, and every other friends list on your computer; all without you knowing. Please be informed and follow this tutorial to turn it off.”
The truth:
- Wi-Fi Sense has to be manually downloaded, first off.
- Secondly, it doesn’t give your wi-fi password out. It gives access to your network to anyone on your Skype/Facebook/whatever buddy lists, so they don’t need you to TELL THEM your password.
- The purpose of this is simple: If your friends come over with their laptop and they wanna use your internet, you can passively give them access because you have them on your Skype buddy list. This way, you don’t have to give them a receipt with blue sharpie on it that has a fucking 480 character password on it so they can get into your wi-fi.
- The password isn’t stored anywhere on their computer, it’s stored on yours, just as it’s always been, just as it always will be. All Wi-Fi Sense does is give them access to your wi-fi without a password.
- Therefore, Wi-Fi Sense is actually leaps and bounds more safe and secure than just normal wi-fi usage. You literally don’t have to tell anyone your password. Like ever. Hell you don’t even have to tell it to your own family, you can just select their computer on the network and allow or deny them access remotely.
I’m not gonna ask everyone to spread the word here because it’s gonna fall on deaf ears once it hits the Anti-Win10 crowd, but if you’ve been seeing the BS about Wi-Fi Sense going around, don’t believe it. Once again, Tumblr is extremely misinformed and didn’t take the time to search Google for about 12 seconds.
Never in my life did I think I would live to see the day where an entire fandom is in denial of, not only A character’s death, but a majority of a film’s characters’ deaths in general.
Mad Max: Fury Road
Everyone lives according to this fandom, and there’s no telling them, ahem, us otherwise.
Okokok Chinese-born person here. Growing up, 1989 was just *not* something you talked about in the country. It’s just not. (my parents were okay talking about it when we were no longer in China) I have a feeling that people who talked about it will get monitored as fuck and maybe disappear.
Now, imagine, decades later, and the same young people are evoking that sense of rebellion against a tyrannical and current government, the same spirit of their predecessors of the sit in. But they can’t talk about it or celebrate it. Then, all of a sudden, T-Swift comes with her “1989” emblazoned merch. People by the fuck out of it because she’s a pretty, successful, American, pop/country singer.
All of a sudden, 1989 can’t be solely associated woth rebellion anymore. And instead of going like “fuck I want to talk about 1989 but not get arrested”, youth get T-Swift merch (maybe even the knock-off) ones. And when people come asking, they go “what rebellion? we just really like T-Swift. don’t you?”
Let’s turn T-Swift into a secret symbol of subversion.
WOW AMAZING, NOW DELETING THE ARTIST’S/ORIGINAL POSTERS CAPTION IS LIKE 10000000000% EASIER! WAY 2 GO TUMBLR, YOU HEAP OF SHIT. YOU’RE REALLY LOOKIN’ OUT FOR US, HUH.
If you’re asking yourself if it’s weird to comment on a fic that has been up for years, that hasn’t been touched in ages, that was posted long before you were even in a fandom or even if you think the writer isn’t around or doesn’t care–
The writer cares. Leave the comment. You are the best person alive in that moment just because you have something to say. Even if they don’t hit you back for a while, even if they don’t EVER respond, it is NOT weird to comment on that fic. Fire away.
I love comments and usually write way to much in response out of sheer fucking gratitude. Like a person who hasn’t spoken to another adult in years, hobbling around, offering them stale cookies and talking way too much.
Someone recently said to me ‘you know you don’t have to reply to every comment’ and I was like ‘NO BUT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND.’ I feel all of this so hard.
There is no expiration date on reading or liking a thing, much less letting the author know it.
Deliberate omission of grammar to show e.g. defeatedness, bewilderment, fury. As seen in Tumblr’s ‘what is this I don’t even’.
‘Because [noun]’. As in ‘we couldn’t have our picnic in the meadow because wasps.’
Use of kerning to indicate strong bewilderment, i.e. double-spaced letters usually denoting ‘what is happening?’ This one is really interesting because it doesn’t really translate well to speech. It’s something people have come up with that uses the medium of text over the internet as a new way of communicating instead of just a transcript of speech or a quicker way to send postal letters.
Just the general playing around with sentence structure and still being able to be understood. One of my favourites of these is the ‘subject: *verbs* / object: *is verb*’ couplet, as in:
Beekeeper: *keeps bees* Bees: *is keep*
or
Me: *holds puppy* Puppy: *is hold*
I just love how this all develops organically with no deciding body, and how we all understand and adapt to it.
Is your latte too hot? Mine was this morning. I was at the bustling Oasis shopping center in Kampala, Uganda, and I took one sip and then spilt it all over me. You know who else has these problems? The local Ugandans that frequent this shop, and make up the majority of it’s clientele.
As Africa stabilizes across the continent, Westerners forget that average daily problems in Europe or North America are not that far off from that of the African middle class. Our smart phones sometimes freeze up. That’s annoying. The DJ is playing shit, so we leave the club.
Which is not to say that there aren’t problems. It’s not to pretend that all of Kampala or Nairobi or Kigali is a paradise of African wealth where the biggest problem is a warm beer. There is real, stark, damaging poverty here. But there is similar poverty in Clichy Sous Bois in Paris. There is similar poverty in Brooklyn. In Chicago. The outskirts of Amsterdam.
The idea that an African can’t have similar issues to those living in London is a mistake. It is a mistake rooted in the idea that Europe is somehow superior or has vast amounts of wealth. In reality, the East African GDP has been steadily on the rise for years, whereas the economic outlook in both North America and Europe have been steadily declining. Angola just gave a loan to their former colonialists, Portugal. Our cities now have thumping clubs, eclectic cuisine and most of these places are owned and invested in by locals.
Stop feeling bad for Africa. It doesn’t need your pity.
If you want to do something to help those who survive on very little, try investing in it. Instead of buying Tom’s shoes which give away free shoes (and therefore remove jobs from hardworking Africans making shoes) invest in Sole Rebels. A woman-owned Ethiopian based shoe company that pays their workers a livable wage.
Tonight I am going with Ugandan friends and some expats to watch the Poland vs. England match, live on DSTV at my local pub. I will eat grilled tilapia and drink some beer. This is not an extraordinary life here. This is the new Kampala average. This continent is far from perfect. Uganda is far from perfect. But it is getting there, and if you think for one minute Africans do not experience massages, cupcake shops, foam on our coffee, car trouble, banking woes and hangovers after too much fun, you are dead wrong.
It’s not all flies on babies. Welcome to the real Africa.
Please please please be safe, there is an amoeba in the drinking and tap water, which is highly dangerous.
It’s around St. Bernard Parish, Jefferson (where my boyfriend lives) and all of the Parishes around.
If you want to drink or bathe in the water it’s recommended that you RUN THE TAP FOR 5 MINUTES to clear the pipes, then BOIL FOR 1-2 minutes which will make the water safe. Please DO NOT fill pools with hose water! DO NOT touch the water before its boiled! DO NOT allow any water to go up into your nose! If it goes up your nose within two days and you start feeling symptoms get to the hospital right away! The amoeba infects you through the nose so please be careful!
SYMPTOMS:
“Initial symptoms, which start within the first week of infection, include headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, and stiff neck. Later symptoms include confusion, loss of balance, seizures, and hallucinations. Death typically occurs within 12 days.”
Again, everyone in Louisiana be safe, watch the News to find out when your area is safe and clear!
****SIGNAL BOOST****
Got a couple friends I know are in that state, but for them and all of you, be safe, k?
This is happening up north here in Minnesota too so BOOST
ALSO, if you weren’t already aware, NEVER EVER do Neti pot with tap water. That’s how someone in Louisiana got a scary-ass brain-eating bacteria a few years ago.
