Martin Richard, 8, Dorchester, Massachusetts
Lu Lingzi, 23, Shenyang, China
Krystle Campbell, 29, Arlington, Massachusetts
Sean Collier, 26, Somerville, Massachusetts
Let’s not forget the victims here.
RIP
Powerful quake in China leaves at least 156 dead
Reuters: A strong 6.6 magnitude earthquake in China’s Sichuan province on Saturday has killed at least 156 people and left more than 5,500 injured.
The quake is the worst to hit China in three years. 6,000 Chinese troops are headed to the region to help with relief and recovery efforts.
Follow the latest at Breaking News.
Photo: A girl gives offerings to the dead by the side of a badly damaged building in Longmen township, in southwest China’s Sichuan province on Saturday. (AFP - Getty Images)
why do they say troops？they are not troops to invade other countries, they are servers to protect the safety of people
First poster for Spike Lee’s Oldboy
The first poster has arrived online for Spike Lee’s Oldboy remake, and as you might expect, it’s a suitably grisly affair…
It was a rare, rare moment when the city seemed truly whole; when people came together—for free—to watch an event, and they cheered the back-of-the-pack plodders as enthusiastically as they did the whippets who led the way. I was so moved by it that I was choked up for most of the twenty-six miles, seeing this crazy display of community and generosity… The special thing about big-city marathons, like New York and Boston, is that they are occasions when the clashing and whirring of urban life quiets, and everyone stands together to see a bunch of people trying to do something very simple that is also very hard. It’s marvellous… If the explosions were purposeful, whoever did it knew that it would catch people at an exceptional, joyous moment, when they come together in the sweetest way, helping each other fly.
Remembering Hillsborough
A note:
Originally, this was set to be posted yesterday morning as a commemoration of sorts to the victims of the 1989 Hillsborough Tragedy. While polishing the post and gathering a few accompanying photos, I received a text message alerting me to the fact that something terrible had occurred near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
Like with most instances of breaking news, I scanned my Twitter feed, looking for any bit of information that might confirm the horrible event that my friend had alluded to, and then, seeing a few photos tumble down my timeline, the day changed.
Everything else seemed inconsequential; the workday effectively over. How could one dedicate themselves to their own interests when such an event had happened? How could we obsess over something as insignificant as football when people were still missing, families separated and victims in the midst of emergency operations?
A misery overtook me, and the rest of the day was spent sitting in front of a television screen, fervently searching for any update.
Today, while stories of the strength and resiliency of the people of Boston give us a sense of optimism and confidence, the pit remains in my stomach. But while I had initially thought to scrap this post, I realized that much of it applies to yesterday’s events. We cannot push away tragedy because it is too painful, and we cannot simply overlook the past, no matter how heartbreaking it may be. We must not allow tragedies to fade, but rather, keep them in mind, as we honor the victims by remembering them not as statistics, but as they were, people, with their own hopes, dreams and families.
Whether Hillsborough or yesterday’s events in Boston, we must honor their legacy by remembering them as they would have wanted, and never ending our search for justice.
Crowdfunding nearly doubled last year with 1M successful campaigns
still a long way to go for the booming Asian market
Merchants of hope
“When someone gives you hope, here it is on a plate, there it is. Here is the price. You’ll pay it. They’ll profit. It’s disillusionment. Total disillusionment.”
For all the pride that African footballers such as Didier Drogba, Michael Essien and Samuel Eto’o have instilled in their respective nations, their successes have come with a cost. Each year, thousands of young African footballers become victims to predatory agents, finding themselves stranded far from home with no way back.
Typically, the process is fairly straight-forward: an agent approaches a talented youngster, promising to schedule try-outs with European teams in exchange for a small fortune. His family, struggling to survive, readily agrees, selling off possessions and quickly delivering their savings in the hope that soccer can pull them out of poverty. Occasionally the agent travels with the youngster to Europe, and sometimes sets up a try-out with a local side, but more often than not, the agent abandons the youngster abroad, vanishing with the family’s fortune and condemning the child to a bleak future. While we obsess over salaries and transfer rumors, the underbelly of the transfer market is based on human trafficking.
This documentary by Current TV explores a side of soccer hidden from the public’s view. While it’s a few years old, it’s still required viewing. [Posted by Maxi]
Uruguay lawmakers legalize gay marriage
AP: Uruguay became the second country in Latin America and the third country in the Americas to legalize gay marriage yesterday after Congress approved a bill to do so.
“We are living a historic moment,” said Federico Grana, a leader of the Black Sheep Collective, a gay rights group that drafted the proposal. “In terms of the steps needed, we calculate that the first gay couples should be getting married 90 days after the promulgation of the law, or in the middle of July.”
Eleven other countries around the world have legalized gay marriage.
Photo: A same sex marriage activist holds up a multi-colored fan outside Parliament where lawmakers voted on the same sex marriage law in Montevideo, Uruguay. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)
Wisdom on writing from Roger Ebert (RIP), echoing Chuck Close, E. B. White, Tchaikovsky, Jack White, and Isabel Allende.
truth
