World On Fire

What can you do with $150,000?
I bet you’d find a bunch of cool scenarios in your head to make yourself happy.

Well, Canadian diva Sarah McLachlan chose to make a million happy people with it instead.
She donated the budget for her new music video to charities around the world.
And instead of an expensive fancy music video she put together a touching video about the difference her fancy music video budget money could make in third-world countries for only $15.

You can check out the video at worldonfire.ca.

The list of charities and sum of money donated to each can be found here.

A great and touching move from one of my favourite female singers.
Way to go Sarah!

[Via: And Far Away]

Muhammad: The Last Prophet

The first animated movie depicting the life of the Prophet Muhammad will be screened in North America after delays due to 9/11.

Muhammad: The Last Prophet will premiere in cinemas in 37 US and Canadian cities for one week from 14 November on Eid al-Fitr – a Muslim holiday marking the end of fasting in the month of Ramadan.

The 90-minute film that chronicles the early life and teachings of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad was produced for Badr International by RichCrest Animation Studios, the creators of animated classics such as The King and I, and The Fox and the Hound.

Because of Islamic traditions prohibiting the visual representation of religious figures, no images of Prophet Muhammad appear in the film.

The Council on American Islamic Relations, America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group, said the movie was an excellent opportunity for parents and children of all faiths “to learn more about a historic figure like Prophet Mohammed and events that shaped today’s world”.

John Voll, director of Georgetown University’s Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding, said: “The movie is especially relevant in the current time when so much of the media presentations of Muslims and Muslim life is so negative.

“And this provides an alternative perspective,” said Voll, among a group of academics consulted about the movie, budgeted at more than $10 million.

[Source: Al Jazeera]

Global Vote 2004

Even if you are not a US citizen, the November 2 presidential election will have a huge impact on your life. The very idea of democracy requires that you should have a say in choosing who determines your destiny. This site therefore allows non-Americans to vote in the 2004 US presidential election.

GLOBALVOTE2004.ORG is totally neutral. You may vote for any candidate. Your vote will be kept secret. And you may only vote once. They will count the votes 48 hours before the election and submit the result to the US media. They think that just letting US citizens know how the world has voted could influence what looks like a tight race.

[Via: Sabbah]

Mahathir Mohamad On US Elections

In an interview with Malaysia’s The Star newspaper published Tuesday, Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said neither Bush nor Kerry want to address the root problem of terrorism because that would “annoy the Jewish group (voters).”

“If you mention Palestine as the root cause (of terrorism), you will lose the election. So neither Kerry nor Bush will mention Palestine,” he said.

“But surprisingly, the electorate appears to be willing to accept a person who told a blatant lie and to elect a liar as their president,” he said, referring to Bush’s claims about Saddam Hussein stockpiling weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

“The American people are, by and large, very ignorant and know nothing about the rest of the world. … Yet they are the people who will decide who will be the most powerful man in the world,” he said, adding that he thinks Bush will win the November 2 election.

“They (accepted) Blair, and I am sure they will accept Bush. They have already accepted Howard who told a blatant lie,” he said without elaborating.

But Mahathir apparently sees Kerry as the lesser of two evils.

In an open letter dated October 15 to America’s Muslim community, Mahathir urged them to vote for Kerry, saying Bush has been “the cause of the tragedies” across the Muslim world.

“Vote Bush out of office,” Mahathir said.

[Via: CNN]

Let The Next Generation Change

Just last week I visited a well-known high school in Jerusalem. A good many of the students I spoke to told me appalling things. They said: When we are soldiers, we will kill old people, women and children without giving it a thought. They said: We will expel them, we will put them on planes and fly them to Iraq. We will fly hundreds of thousands of them. Millions. And most of the students in the audience applauded those opinions. They supported them even when I pointed out that that is how people talked 60 years ago in Europe.

Avrum Burg, former Speaker of the Knesset: On The Eve Of Destruction

[Via: Lawrence of Cyberia]

As long as the next generations are brought up to think that way and not taught to use reason to try and understand the problem and seriously take steps to solve it, this problem will exist forever.

We have to teach the next generations that the use of power doesn’t solve problems, it only makes them bigger.

We all need a change of hearts, a change of minds, a new beginning to reach a precious and lasting peace.

Voters Offered Free Striptease

Ukrainian voters are being offered a free striptease in a bid to win their votes for a presidential candidate.

Campaigners for current Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich organised the free striptease shows in the Santa Fe bar in Donetsk hoping they could get people to re-elect their man, local media reported.

One organiser said: “We hope the voters will remember who gave them this show for free when they go to the ballot box.”

They sure will remember!

Now if only we had elections like that, lol…
Just kidding, of course ๐Ÿ˜›

[Via: Ananova]

Passport to Nowhere

So, it seems Microsoft’s Passport is going down big time.

The whole idea didn’t really catch on from the beginning and only Microsoft-owned sites and a handful of close partners jumped on board. And after a bunch of high profile technical glitches and huge privacy concerns it just went sour.

I just read on Anil Dash’s blog that Monster.com sent out an email last week saying that they were discontinuing the option to sign in using Passport.
And it seems that eBay has taken the same step too.

Microsoft itself hasn’t been talking about Passport anymore, and their directory of sites using passport is gone. It’s like they know it’s a lost cause now.

Oh well, I’m sure Passport will still be around for things like msn messenger and other basic stuff, but gone are the days when it was hailed as the big web authentication service, our passport online.

Global Anti-Semitism Law

US President George W. Bush said he had signed into law a bill requiring the State Department to monitor global anti-Semitism and rate countries annually on their treatment of Jews.

“This nation will keep watch; we will make sure that the ancient impulse of anti-Semitism never finds a home in the modern world,” Bush said.

Of course, no one cares about Muslims and the ever growing Anti-Islamism in the world!

In fact, it’s the opposite, countries that treat Muslims well could end up being blacklisted for it.