Although the filmmakers and dolphin advocates of The Cove did not engage in any real physical confrontations (as in getting punched, etc.) Activism, I feel, will begin taking on a much more interventionist role. I am not just speaking on behalf of the Sea Shepherds, or some other shows that you may see on Animal Planet. Politics, money, and media are beginning to take on an even bigger role in keeping some of the inhumane activities in business. Such as Japan’s ‘partnerships’ with poorer countries such as Cambodia, to further their grasp in the IWC to permit whaling to be a bit more open then it is already. A compelling read on how Cambodia is being involved says:

Cambodians have never had to load harpoon guns and head for the deep ocean in the search of extra protein. So just what is Cambodia doing among the 88 nations of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which meets up in June in Morocco for a crucial meeting on the future of whaling?

Ordinary Cambodians might ask why their government is forking out about $10,000 a year, plus the costs of travel and accommodation for its delegation to attend meetings, to be part of the commission.

The answer is that maybe it doesn’t.

“We have not researched the facts with regard to Japanese Overseas Development Aid (ODA) to Cambodia but know that in many other cases ODA has been used to recruit nations for Japan’s benefit. In these cases it is believed that Japan has also paid the membership fees for joining the IWC and the travel and accommodation costs of delegations,” says Greg McNevin of Greenpeace International.

Underhanded, but legal in most cases because of politics, no real answers may ever be charged or even found. The portion that struck me the most had to do soley about the victims of these countries:

DEATH BY NUMBERS

More than 30,000 whales have been killed since the ban on commercial whaling began in 1986.

Before organised whaling began in the 1800s, there were 1.5 million humpback whales, today there are just 20,000.

Amazing that 30,000 thousand whales have been killed, even after it was banned commercially in 1986. I don’t think we need 30,000 dead whales for research, do we?

This is the part I get angry about, there are agencies such as Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd and Oceana (and to clarify, when it comes to the issues between Greenpeace and SSCS, I side with SSCS) that do a wonderful job in advocating for the lives and well being of animals. However, sadly that doesn’t seem to be enough anymore. I am speaking about whales primarily since that seems to be the allure that most people lean to, maybe because of how majestic they are, or simply their size and grace. Sea Shepherd of course is a more interventionist organization, it’s sad to see that it takes their members getting arrested and being away from their families to 1. stop whaling in any way they can, and 2. get other people (general populations) to turn their heads and notice. It’s sad really, people not being able to realize what we are doing to our ocean’s and wanting to do more about it. Even signing a petition or passing on  a link helps. Although, I understand that may not be the popular thing to do, since standing in line for hours for an iphone is much more advantageous, or watching and sharing youtube video’s is much more interesting and compelling to watch.

Hence a youtube video for you to watch:

Sorry, not exactly as fun as watching a kid on a skateboard fall off a flight of stairs, however, it’s much more painful. To give some notes on this video and its content, a whale shark has been de-finned. The fins were cut off to make soup from a poacher that had no regard for the life of the animal, and discarded its body to be left in pain, and with the inability to live, but die slowly. Whale Sharks have no teeth, they are not any type of threats as predators to us, but are the biggest fish in the ocean that are also some of the most gentle. I have not had the opportunity to skin dive with one, and they are fairly elusive, however, our filmmaker and activist at 21st Paradigm, Vanessa Schulz has, and she tells me its nothing short of astonishing, and what of the greatest moments of her life. To be next to an animal that large, in its own realm, and being able to spend time with it while it moves harmoniously through the water. Why would you want to cut of the fins of something that is supposed to be protected because of their dwindling populations? Incomprehensible.

This sort of issue isn’t good for my health, or even yours for that matter. Not because these types of acts get my blood pressure moving, but because we are destroying our oceans. We are directly interfering with the circle of life in the waters throughout the world, and as Captain Paul Watson has said, we cannot live ourselves with a dead ocean.

Issues with the inhumane acts on animals does not stop in our oceans. The movie that 21st Paradigm currently has in production focuses on the neglect and viciousness that some people inflict on man’s best friend. A stretch of Riconanda in Chile, people are blatantly throwing away their dogs along with countless other stray dogs to live in oblivion. Without food, without water, and without any love that should be shown to these 4-legged animals. There are, however a few people trying to help out in Chile, by helping bring food to the homeless dogs, as well as bringing some sort of shelter to them so they can survive in the cold.

These Puppies below didn’t make it unfortunately, they passed away last Winter, no one ever loved them the way they should have, no one ever tried to help but the few that continues to try to make a difference.

This unfortunately continues, especially after the devestating natural disasters that has happened there such as the Volcano eruption and Earthquakes, it only seems to be getting worse.

Do myself, along with the rest of the 21st Paradigm team need to head down South America to intervene? Do we need to do even more filming of cowardly people throwing their dogs away, out of their cars into the cold and unforgiving world of homelessness. Do we need to hide in the bushes, as we film, and then follow these types of people, only to hunt them down and ask them why they would do something like that? Do we then take those notes and make examples out of them by plastering their faces around the internet just like the Japanese fisherman trying to stop the filmmakers that were getting footage of the dolphin slaughter? Interventionists seem to be inevitable. Especially since democratic run countries are also at fault because of their general populations laziness in voting into office the wrong people. We get more politicians that hold seats that they have no business  being in, and make deal with countries to allow them to keep doing heinous things to our environment (see BP, ie Oil Spill from offshore drilling).

The campaign’s of the 70′s such as ‘Save The Whales‘, are still felt with the activism of a few, but are not big enough, especially with growing populations, and money being more important than lives, and more important then what you think is right.

I am a huge turtle lover. They are older, and their populations are wiser than any of us humans will ever be, and sadly even they are in danger of human slaughter. Turtles that don’t attack humans, and pose no threat to hurting any of our interests. We currently own  2 red eared sliders in our backyard pond, and my daughters absolutely adore them. Always wanting to feed them, and watch them swim around, the turtles return that interest by always swimming up where my daughters are around the pond. They aren’t the largest of turtles, but they like any other deserve to have the room to grow, swim, and live properly. Event the largest of turtles are endangered, killed for their meat and eggs, and sold to markets for profit.

Besides the ‘Green’ initiative, and global warming issues that are becoming more prominent around our planet, we need to understand that wiping out creatures in our oceans, and not respecting and loving the animals that share the same dirt to walk on like we do, will only do more harm to us, and our planet. There are amazing things that animals can teach us, not just as loving companions, but with education. There have been instances where our canine friends, being as loyal and attentive as they are, help kids read better, since they basically are a fantastic audience.

There is much to learn from animals, even those we keep as domesticated animals, and I don’t mean learning from them by weighing their stomach contents. We are killing ourselves, and our planets, and we will have no where to go. This phenomena is happening sooner than you think, especially with UN experts predicting our ocean’s fish can disappear in 40 years.

Something I stand by saying consistently. As humans we pride ourselves on being the superior race on this planet because we have the ability to reason. However, we are the most unreasonable species to inhabit it.

I started by getting some cheap cherry colored lumber from Home Depot, that was on sale of course, I am not anticipating this pond having a life that is too length, but good enough for now until I can build my dream backyard. The pond’s is approximately 4′x4′, a tad bigger, and the first cuts are below.

After putting together the initial frame, I laid down a small blanket of gravel and sand which serves as a type of barrier between the wood at the bottom of the pond and the liner, I don’t want any puntures. A few braces were added around the inside as well because I didn’t want any of the metal to really be visible from the outside. In the photo below you can only see the horizontal braces, however, vertical ones were added also.

After some Thompson’s Water Seal was applied, I was lucky enough to get a used liner from my father-in-law, and cut it down to size appropriately. I also added some water and decided to give the turtles a chance to stretch their legs in their new water home.

I put a couple of redwood planks around the rim, and continued cutting away the excess liner. At this point I am also getting ready for the pump/filter, but it is not pictured here unfortunately.

My daughter gets a kick out of it, and is constantly looking for the turtles and wanting to feed them. Below a few Hyacinth were added, that were also given to us from my Father-in-law.

Not the biggest project, but at least something that keeps me away from the computer keys and life of design/development. I have some sketches in my head that I really need to draw out of what I would do with the backyard ultimately. I love architecting and landscaping, as I once was aspiring to do architecture; I should really get back into it. This weekend I had also ordered seeds for Coast Redwood Trees and Chinese Elms, as I want to try my hand again at bonsai sculpting. I decided to try from germination, but also may purchase a couple of junipers and Japanese Black Pines to practice on as well. I had also recently recieved 2 cuttings from a tree that I was wanting to try.

Update!

A few extra photos my wife had taken:

This year we planted a few things, and came out fairly well. Tidah’s pride and joy so far has been the Strawberries and  BlueBerries. There have been a ton of strawberries this year, just about a bowl full of them each week. The blueberries,  not so much, however, the previous owner of the plant apparently didn’t take care of them very well, and with the soil  that they were in was pretty much dry and low on nutrition, we spruced it up with Miracle Grow and some Azalea  food. Blueberries love the acidic taste.

We’ve tried making shakes out of them, however, most of them get eaten on a a daily basis quickly and Adrianna can’t get enough. She has a tendency of going to pick them straight off the plant and into her mouth. Thankfully we don’t use an pesticides, just some garlic to scare the Rollie Pollies away.

Our biggest success was the Basil family. Both Sweet and Thai got humongous, and are still getting bigger. The Thai  basil has been especially large. That is however, a good thing in terms for our family. My wife makes an awesome pot  of Pho, amongst other uses, and we are constantly kicking around the idea of opening a small restaurant. The type of  noodles she makes isn’t really near a Vietnamese type of recipe, but much closer to a Thai boat noodle recipe.

While this is deviating from my normal non profit and code posts, it is something we like to do, just to get our minds  off everything else. Plus it not only helps our daughter’s understand the basics of growing and nurturing something,  they also literally get to see the fruits of their labor.

A few other plants that was grown was Green Onion, Parsley, Oregano, Sweet Peas, Bell Peppers, and Tomatoes.  Although it took nearly 2 months for the tomato plant to sprout from seed, it is doing fairly well now. It is in  a large  container but once we can get some more room freed up, we will give it more space to flourish.

The Jalopeno’s pictured to the left have been finally bearing a ton of items. These are another huge necessity in  Piseth’s recipes, although I can’t handle as much as she can. However, again Tidah loves to be the one to pick these  things off as they have been probably the quickest growing vegetables thus far. I suspect the tomatoes will be catching  up shortly.

Of course we do have other things around the backyard. Recently, I’ve been on a mission to build our recently adopted  turtles a small pond, which is raised in the middle of our backyard. I still need to get the liner and pump set up, but  once it’s done, the turtles that are named Kobe (Boy), and Zero (Female, and named by Tidah, so I have no idea why)  will have a much bigger place to play around. Although I know that turtles tend to eat  lot of vegetation in site, we will  probably toss a few Water Lettuce plants in as well, and I hear we may be getting a few large Koi fish donated (bigger  than the  turtle’s so hopefully won’t be eaten). I will do a little write-up detailing more on it later, and its construction.  We want to make sure the little reptiles have plenty of space, not to mention some hiding places from a few critters  that may want to bug them around here. Should be a fun project to watch completed, not necessarily an oasis, but kinda nice to have some sort of water feature in back. Other plants that are in the backyard that I will mention are a few Aloe Vera plants that have started growing after being replanted from an original Aloe Vera tree that I had received from my Grandmother’s house. Also, I believe we have 3 types of plumeria growing throughout, there are a total of 4 plants, and have been getting larger, really quick.

Again, something different from my normal posts, but it’s something we like to do, as its nice to get out of the house and just sit outside, even if it is the backyard.

Per the Vimeo page: “Narrated by Lucy Liu, REDLIGHT is a powerful feature documentary about child sexploitation, an epidemic happening in every country around the world. Filmed over a four year period, REDLIGHT focuses on the personal stories of young Cambodian victims and two remarkable advocates for change: grass-roots activist Somaly Mam and politician Mu Sochua. Both have since been nominated for the Noble Peace Prize. The filmmakers Guy Jacobson and Adi Ezroni won the prestigious Global Hero Award for their work in Cambodia.”

The Huffington Post has an article written on behalf of the movie, as the author details how the “staggering figure of 2.5 million children aged 18 months to 18 years exploited for their young bodies made his skin crawl. They can be raped 20 – 30 times a day, and up to half of them will die from shock, torture, drugs, and/or AIDS.”

The trailer is below, and perfectly narrated by Lucy Liu. Please have a look.

REDLIGHT Trailer from jillian selsky on Vimeo.

You can use Twitter for the same, but I see it used as most people’s momentary issues, or interesting links that you find. Retweeting, and spreading the word of someone elses post that you feel your followers can see is outstanding to spread virally.

However, I find it disturbing that I can post something about a sporting event, and or funny youtube videos, and get far more response out of it, then if I posted something for a non profit. Now, let me explain as that I don’t condone posting wonderful things outside of the non profit realm, because the fact is we love to indulge in sports, television, and other material things and thats fine. However, unless a large event happens such as the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, or the devastating earthquake in Haiti, we don’t pay much attention to the other travesties that are going on around us.

I tend to post a lot of news that refers to homelessness and the current non-profit I work for, 21st Paradigm. Homelessness strikes me alot, not because I have ever been in that dire of a situation, but because of when I had hard times in the life of my own family, it does make me feel for others that are out there hurting. As mentioned in my last post, seeing children in homeless situations is completely inexcusable for our society to not pay more attention to. Per the last report on CNN, there are approximately 1/2 a million children in the United States that are living in poverty and homeless. Although I admire some of the good stories that come from the strength of some of those kids, it just simply isn’t enough. We have to do more, even if its donating clothes, baby items, or your time. In the past, I have personally donated car seats, because a friend of mine that works for a shelter, simply needed to be able to transport children that were homeless, and was difficult to do so without.

I am not asking for everyone to jump off a couch and support every non profit organization, activist, or unfortunate circumstance that you come across. A simple forward of a message of these types of people, would help though.

The new film from 21st Paradigm entitled ‘Lost Dogs‘, is another situation that I like to talk about a lot. The plight of the animals in Chile, being left homeless, and there sterilization that has not occurred has caused the numbers of unfortunate dogs to escalate in to the 100′s of thousands. I have heard people leave messages like: “Well, thats great and all, but why can’t we do that closer to home”, and to that sort of response, I would agree. However, I don’t believe that we can only focus on that sort of issue on our own soil alone. I don’t believe that these animals should be condemned because of what piece of land they were born on. I am in no way saying we should try and fix the issues throughout the world alone by ourselves, but we can educate, and do something to help what we can, and give people the tools and knowledge to help themselves as well.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to adopt yet, but we are planning in the near future. If we can save 1 life, and you can save 1 life, and we continue to spread the message of spaying and neutering, and sterilizing populations, then we can make a difference. I think its fantastic that California has just announced a new special license plate plan to support the effort to spay and neuter animals, and the money that is earned extra from those plate sales will go directly to animal shelters.

I have seen my wife post tons of links to heinous acts going on around the world that deals with Sex Trade, specifically in Cambodia. Females young and older being used and abused for sex, and its incredibly popular because of tourists. The United States aren’t excluded from this trend, as it is said that especially United States tourists are getting involved and becoming perpetrators in these disgusting acts of violence. Fortunately, there are people trying to get involved, but it is a very dangerous to try and break up these sort of rings, let alone report on it. Groups that are trying to help, I find are trying to rehabilitate women that have been trapped in these situations, and try to get them back on their feet and show them the ability of courage to sustain their life. It is truly heart breaking to watch and or read any of it, especially when it comes to minors. Again, being a father, it strikes a nerve deeper, and I am happy to see my wife getting more involved in wanting to help bring these issues to light.

We may not be able to save the world, but we can at least try.

Or at least a retweet.

Today, I saw great photos of my little girl, playing at the park, blowings bubbles and having fun. It breaks my heart to not be around her more and always having to be so busy. It bothers me like crazy to not be able to see all of the little moments that she creates with her smile, voice, or silly dancing.

I saw a post from Mark Horvath on twitter: “Sandy just called me. We all met her last fall http://ow.ly/1qxowJ broke my heart. A mechanic ripped her off & she no longer has a car”. I remember seeing this post about Sandy, and that bothered me. Someone so obviously competent, having as hard of a time as she was, but unfortunately normal in this economy. Not knowing the full story, but interested in knowing why the officer that gave the $400 citation to a homeless woman, didn’t have time to stop and see if he can locate some help for her. Disturbing.

It bothers me that this happens to good people around us, and a lot of cheeks get turned. It makes me pay even more attention to detail, to be able to create a good living situation for my own daughter, so she won’t have to ever experience such things. However, that other little girl I saw yesterday with her father, I wish I could do even more to help.

It bothers me that I haven’t done enough to help yet. I hope my daughter is able to look up to her daddy someday, and take notice of what I have done, something positive, and continue to build. I know she will do well, my little girl who loves to blow bubbles.

Please read more on how you can get involved in helping these dogs, as well as dogs in your own community. If you are able to, a donation helps with the completion of the movie and please spread the word as much as possible. Movies such as The Cove, has shown to be truly effective and inspiring to those who are wanting to act on the travesties that are occurring around us. We really appreciate your support! For the dogs!

A New Hope

Ok, so yes, I am upset at Steve Jobs refusal to allow the flash player enter his handheld iDevice’s platforms. I know many other people are upset, and even Kevin Lynch (aka Adobe CTO) is saying Adobe will just take their ball and go home. However, I feel it will be useless to keep kicking my legs, and complaining about it. This decision is logically based on the fact that I will not be changing Steve’s mind.

So what to do now, I advise all other developer’s to perhaps think about this point, and simply work harder. What do I mean? If you believe in the open platform, and if you believe in technologies such as Flash and Android. Then work extremely hard, and collaborate on wonderful ideas, to prove that they are more than worthy to be on Apple’s coveted 2 pieces of hardware.

That’s what openness is all about right? Then let’s get to work, and let your actions of developing speak louder than Steve Jobs’ words (cheesy I know, but give me a break!).