Asian hate Crimes: “it was a really bad day”

March 16: “It was a really bad day”

What is this a diary entry?

A BAD DAY. THAT’S WHAT YOU WANT TO HEADLINE A MURDER? 8 people were shot in 3 Asian-owned day spas in Acworth & Atlanta in Georgia, and you want to say that this guy had a “bad day”?? And that’s not all, he wanted to “eliminate” his “temptation” and his “sexual addiction” which led him to do what he did. He was feeling horny and sad and decides to pull a trigger. It disappointing to see that this is the response.

It’s stupid, no actually, it’s disgusting and mortifying.

Being targeted on the basis of their race. Hate crimes. One of many.

This isn’t an isolated case: there’s the 84-year-old thai man who was knocked to the ground in San Francisco who died 2 days later, the 61-year-old filipino man who was attacked on the subway resulting in his face being slashed, the 51-year-old woman who was hit on the head with an umbrella resulting in stitches after being called anti-asian remarks, and the list of people going through similar experiences is growing.

This isn’t new. Crimes against asian communities have gone on for so long now. It goes deep into history and systemic oppression as a consequence of imperialism, yellow peril, internment camps, exploitation. Then there’s Hollywood, the media, pop culture portraying the model minority, whitewashing, stereotypes of Asian women as exotic, industrious, eager to please, submissive, hyper-sexual, to the harmful “harmless joke” we’ve normalised today.

This issue has existed for ages. Ever since covid, its gotten worse. Since the start of the pandemic, hate crimes against Asian Americans have SOARED. BY HOW MUCH? By 1900%!!!!! This year alone there were about 3,800 anti-Asian attacks. Xenophobic violence has spiked about 150%.

This issue isn’t just happening in America. In the UK, hate crimes targeting East and Southeast Asians have gone up 300% since the pandemic. Hate crimes in Vancouver rose by 717% against Asian Canadians.

Asians are regularly being beat, harassed, jumped, spat on, and murdered. And, a lot of the attacks in the asian community are towards elders, too. The vulnerable are being target. It’s cruel.

Anti-asian racism is very real. It’s very destructive, and it’s getting stronger. This hate is a virus.

Know their stories: https://www.standagainsthatred.org/stories

Please do whatever you can to help, and stand in solidarity with us. This community is in danger, and silence is deadly. We want SOLUTIONS. Share this post and others like this. Call out xenophobic aggressions when you see it. Check in on your Asian friends. Amplify our voices. Donate.

Thank you for reading this, stay safe everyone!

Brandon bernard

Our justice system is messed up.

Brandon Bernard, may he rest in power, was executed on December 10, 2020, at 9:27 pm by lethal injection by the federal government of the United States. This was murder, just because it was government sanctioned, it doesn’t take away from the fact that it was murder.

Brandon Bernard was 18 years old when he was sentenced to death for a crime committed in 1999, the government and jurors had an incomplete picture of Brandon and what he did. Stacie and Todd Bagley were the couple who was shot and murdered by Christopher Vialva (executed on September). Bernard was tasked with getting rid of the evidence by burning the couple’s car. He didn’t have a leading role in the crime. The couple was dead before this fire. I’m not excusing what Bernard did, it was wrong, and it was bad. However, Brandon did not deserve to be put to death.

Brandon was a father of two daughters. He was a son. He only saw his family through a glass wall. Throughout his 20 years of incarceration, he demonstrated positive behavior, he changed his behavior for the better, and helped at risk youth with the intention of leading them away from going down the wrong path. 5 of the 9 jurors (the same ones from 20 years ago) regret their prior decision to sentence him to death.

“Bernard’s last words, which were more than three minutes long, were directed to the Bagley family, according to the pool reporter present at the execution. “I’m sorry,” he said. “That’s the only words that I can say that completely capture how I feel now and how I felt that day.” ( CBSNEWS )

If these are my last days… I hope that my death will bring a meaning other than destruction and it will ripple through generations positively.

– BRANDON BERNARD

It’s important to remember that Brandon Bernard’s case is not a one time thing. It’s the system that we currently have that make POC in this line of fire of injustice and inhumane treatment. We need to keep on fighting and keep on putting our voices out there to change this. We need to keep educating ourselves and helping each other in whatever way we can. Spreading the word, sighing a petition, making a call, being vocal, keep on keeping on to help in creating a positive change. There’s already so much pain and hurt and hardship that’s been affecting everyone especially this year. Your voice is heard and what you do is important. No justice, no peace.

L.O.A.S.H’S ECO SWITCH: Reusable Bags

Quote of TRUTH: “The Earth is a fine place and worth fighting for.” – 

Sup, my eco-peeps, back again with an ECO SWITCH. Heck yeah. Let’s get this party rolling. Parrttyyy. Okay, serious game face. seriousness.

dot. dot. dot.

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Single-use plastic bags = NO!!!! Food, food is good. It’s necessary. It’s yummy. It’s the essence of- okay, let’s get back to the point. Remember those plastic bags that we use? The ones we use for like food, groceries, vegetables, and other stuff? Yeah, we kind of need to change it up. Like ASAP, ASAP. Did you know that there are billions (it’s a pretty big number) of plastic bags being consumed yearly?? Plastic bags win the majority of grocery bags in the United States alone. Estimated only 1 out of 200 plastic bags we use get recycled. In coastal cleanups, there are so many plastic bags popping up. Dude, it’s not good. at all.

How do you switch this up? Invest in a reusable bag! Stay committed by always remembering to bring this bag with you when you go grocery or someplace else. To get your own eco plastic bag switch, one option would be to get it from your local grocery store. Sometimes they do sell reusable, durable bags! There are other places you could order from, too. Another option for you could be to purchase one from these links:

 

Reusable Shopping Bags

 

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These reusable bags are durable, compact, washable, and can fit a good amount of groceries in them. Click here or the image to check them out!

 

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Reusable Shopping Bag w/ Wheels

 

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This is better for when you have heavier and more groceries with you. When you aren’t using it, it can be folded! It’s a great size and good quality. Click here or the image to check them out!

 

 

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Reusable Mesh Produce Bags

 

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These are amazing for vegetables and fruits and moreeee! They are durable, eco-friendly, see-through, and breathable. Instead of grabbing those one-time-use plastic they have, use these ones instead. You can even clean the veggies with the bags, too! Click here or the image to check them out!

 

 

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invest. commit. share.

🙂

 

Yours truly,

L.O.A.S.H

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© Elizabeth Anne Villoria

Mexico and the Dead Zone *DUN DUN DUN*

The situation occurring in Mexico’s dead zone hasn’t improved, in fact, it has gotten worse. 

What is a dead zone? It’s an area in an ocean or big lake, found in lots of places around the world, with hypoxia, in other words, oxygen depletion. When there is oxygen depletion, the area affected by this problem causes the instability to support marine life. When there are too much growth and bloom of algae it chokes the water and makes it not possible for marine like to survive with the inadequate amount of oxygen. But, how does nature suddenly start blooming and getting all these nutrients enough to keep spreading this hypoxia? Well, it doesn’t work alone. It’s also our fault because one way or another the nitrates and phosphorus that our farmers use in farming eventually seeps into our water systems and into the ocean which makes the algae flourish and grow and bloom and other things that shouldn’t happen because it (LITERALLY) chokes the ocean and the marine life below it.

Since we covered the basics and everything you will probably need to know about hypoxia and dead zones, we can now focus on a specific ‘dead zone’ and that is in the Gulf of Mexico.

On April 20, 2010, one of the biggest oil spills in the BP (British Petroleum) and American records and history occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. It happened just a day after they sealed the 70-kilometer deep hole with concrete followed by a metal valve used to stop the flow of oil entering the ocean. While the men were doing their inspection of the day old concrete, they noticed that oil and gas have actually been spilling out into the water through the faulty concrete and failed valve.

87 days past before they finally sealed the oil spill which already gave out 5,000 gallons of oil per day! Let’s do the math here: It would be an estimate of 5,000 x 57 which equals to 435, 000 gallons. HOLY MACARONI. Imagine how much has spread already? Especially since the oil spill was close to the dead zone, which made a few people worry things would get much worse. Honestly, a LARGE oil spill next to a DEAD ZONE. Nah-uh not a good combination nor timing. Won’t it affect the surviving animals living in the area? Think about it. The people in the restaurants were worried about the food they’ve been serving thinking it might affect the people, but they trusted it was all in good hands.

The oil soon mixed and glued itself to the plankton and other bacteria i

n the ocean which caused marine snow to sink to the bottom. What if small creatures and animals start eating this. These are some of the worries fishermen had when catching the food. But, fortunately, due to the natural oil seeps, the flora and fauna of the ocean have adapted to the oily marine snow. Yes, there are actually natural oils that seep from the earth. Th- WAIT, what is marine snow you wonder? It looks like the picture below —>

How dangerous it would have been to be the person underwater checking out the valves and the fear of it not properly functioning. There have been many oil spills through history. One after another there has news flashes saying “Now this one is the biggest oil spill..” It just keeps getting bigger. Luckily, they got to shut out the rest of the oil spill, even though it was after 87 days. 

According to National Wildlife Federation, below are the lists of affected animals near the Gulf of Mexico:

Dolphins and Whales

• Nearly all of the 21 species of dolphins and whales that live in the northern Gulf have demonstrable, quantifiable injuries.
• The number of bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Bay and the Mississippi Sound – two places particularly affected by oil – are projected to decline by half. Multiple studies have determined that the injuries to bottlenose dolphins were caused by oil from the disaster.
• It is estimated that it will take approximately one hundred years for the spinner dolphin population to recover.
• There are only a few dozen Bryde’s whales in the Gulf. Nearly half this population was exposed to oil, and nearly a quarter of these whales were likely killed. The long-term survival of this population is in doubt.

Sea Turtles

• Scientists estimate that as many as 167,000 sea turtles of all ages were killed during the disaster.
• In 2010, the once-remarkable recovery of the endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle halted abruptly. Scientists remain concerned about this species of sea turtle, which is known to congregate and feed in areas that were oiled off the Louisiana coast.
• Heavy oil affected nearly a quarter of the Sargassum – a type of floating seaweed – in the northern Gulf. Sargassum is an important habitat for juvenile sea turtles.

Fish

• Studies have determined that oil is particularly toxic for many species of larval fish, causing deformation and death. The federal study estimates that the disaster directly killed between two and five million larval fish.
• At this time, the data does not indicate that the oil spill caused significant decreases in populations of commercially harvested fish species.
• However, a number of species of fish have documented oil spill injuries. For example in 2011, some red snapper and other fish caught in oiled areas had unusual lesions, rotting fins, or oil in their livers. Oil spill impacts have been documented in fish species such as southern flounder, redfish, and kill fish.

Birds

• At least 93 species of bird were exposed to oil. The resulting loss of birds is expected to have meaningful effects on food webs of the northern Gulf of Mexico.
• Species particularly affected include brown and white pelicans, laughing gulls, Audubon’s shearwaters, northern gannets, clapper rails, black skimmers, white ibis, double-crested cormorants, common loons, and several species of tern.

The Gulf Floor

• Scientists estimate the habitats on the bottom of the Gulf could take anywhere from multiple decades to hundreds of years to fully recover.
• A significant portion of the Gulf floor was affected by oil. The federal study confirmed that at least 770 square miles around the wellhead were affected, while a separate analysis determined that at least 1,200 square miles were affected. Both studies suggested that a significant amount of oil was likely deposited on the ocean floor outside the areas of known damage.
• Coral colonies in five separate locations in the Gulf – three in deep sea and two in shallower waters – show signs of oil damage.

 

Dolphins, whales, turtles, fish and birds are getting affect by this and they already have lots of other things to worry about such as plastic. Now, here’s the most shocking truth. This 2017 they found out that the dead zone at the Gulf of Mexico is the size of New Jersey! NEW JERSEY. The size is about 8776 square miles.

 

We can stop this. Start gathering solutions people you can do it! Some ways are to stop utilizing the products that help in causing the blooming, like nitrate. Keep thinking creative my awesome readers.

Yours truly,

L.O.A.S.H

 

 

 

 

What is Globalization? 🌏

An interesting way to think about this is that Globalization is comparable to a jungle. It sorta runs on the rule of survival of the fittest. Therefore, we either flourish or we perish.

What is Globalization?

To simply put it, globalization is the result when the trade and cultural exchange brings the world to be extremely interconnected. When this happens, different countries come together and form a large global economy. This makes the international trade much, much easier. If you haven’t gotten the full idea of globalization, then maybe you would understand this definition better if you knew that globalization happens when the barriers between national economies get “broken” down and there is this large rush of services, goodies, investments, capital flow, technology and labor immigration which

If you haven’t gotten the full idea of globalization, then maybe you would understand this definition better if you knew that globalization happens when the barriers between national economies get “broken” down and there is this large rush of services, goodies, investments, capital flow, technology and labor immigration which get encouraged.

Basically, globalization is the process of when different countries come together through trade and others.

What are the Pros of Globalization??

Well, in my opinion, I think globalization is great in some many ways also because it allows people to communicate, elaborate and link together. And, because of Globalization, some parts of the has changed the ways that other people (maybe including yourself) travel, arrange and do meetings and see the world.

According to Future of Working, below are the following pros:

• It Improves the Global Economy

This is a big help to different companies as it aids them to reach huge and rapidly expanding markets every day. This helps Global Economy through the access of international sale and business.

• The Expansion of the Knowledge of Foreign Cultures

Because of globalization, people from different places on earth are given the opportunity and access to freely communicate with each other. This helps people to destroy that cultural barrier that has hurt the integration of countries for centuries. This helps to gain a better understanding of the different life – styles different people go through.

• Free Trade! = Happy Economy

Since globalization lifts those invisible gates of heavy and crazy taxes and annoying restrictions, people are able to sell goods around the world to help other struggling economies.With this, poverty and unemployment rates are improving.

These are most of the pros that I’ve just bombarded with you, which I hope you understood. ^_~

What are the Cons of Globalization???

Since there are pros there are cons….. well, except for pizza, all they have are pros.

So, you probably knew this day would come. The day where you learned the bad side of globalization. Yes, yes, I know…. you might be wondering “huh?!?!?!?” Just kidding.

There are always to side to a story, just like a coin. We’ve learned the good side but now to learn the bad side | A.K.A | the cons. DUN! DUN!! DUN!!!

The Cons of Globalization:

• Rich become Richer | Non-rich become poorer

This is one of the top problems of globalization. Just from the title, I’m pretty sure you understand this is a big con. Actually, this is a pro for the rich and a con for the poor. How unfair is it that the non-rich become poorer?!

• Smaller Countries Suffer the Most

Unfortunately for less developed countries, they don’t normally get the benefit from globalization and instead suffer from it. But, this is the case that smaller and less developed countries encounter. I feel like we need to help these less developed countries and enable to get the same amount of level playing field benefits that globalization offers.

• Negative Impact on Environment

In the process of trading and transporting goods from one place to another, the amount of fuel generated and used contributes and increases in the pollution levels in the environment. It is kinda sad that some places have the guts to actually cut down mountains in order to create tunnels or highways. Unfortunately, more roads are being seen by most as progress rather than the destruction of our earth. Another example that struck me was the incident that occurred in 2010 when one of the containers of the British Petroleum leaked and caused damage to the ecosystem. But, wait! There’s more. Unfortunately. The consumption of plastic has grown as they’ve used it for packaging and preserving the goods. Not only is plastic terrible when exposed to the sun for quite some time (which could happen during the hours of traveling) but because of this, it has led to widespread environmental pollution. 

•  Loss of Cultural Identity

As I might have mentioned above, globalization allows people to learn more and more about different cultures and other languages. The thing is the increased number of people moving from one place to another and spreading their cultures, the original culture seems to be fading. Now, let’s think about it. 

 

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L.O.A.S.H’s Guide to (nearly) Everything: Restarting Storage on Your Mac (Easy)

We wanted to clear the storage in our Mac Book but deleting all the files in the finder and countlessly searching on the internet didn’t seem to be helping us achieve our goal. If you go to the About this Mac, and select storage, you would see something like the screenshot below:

 

My mom kept murmuring about that she couldn’t delete her movies and that it was taking up to much storage space on her computer. I deliberately went to her to stop the fuss. In this blog, you will learn how to make your storage space lessened.

Step 1:

Go to System Preferences.   <— Looks like this. If you have a hard time looking for it, you can find it the spotlight at the top right area of your computer screen. It looks like a magnifying glass. 

Step 2:

When you open up your System Preferences, go to Startup Disk. I circle on the screenshot below.

 

Step 3:

When you are already on your Startup Disk, select the following to make changes. When you click on this, a verification will pop up asking you to put your password of your computer. Put your password and click Unlock.

 

 

 

 

Step 4:

When you are able to make changes, select the system and press Restart.

First, Select your system.

 

 

 

Then, select Restart.

 

Step 5:

After your computer restarts, you will be asked to sign in to your apple id. And, Tada!

Yours truly,

L.O.A.S.H