Orchardist

humansofnewyork: Seen on the subway. I love you right up to...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:46:00 -0700

Seen on the subway.

I love you right up to the moon - and back.

jonathancarrollstories: Stop Being So Religious by Hafiz What...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 22:53:37 -0700

Stop Being So Religious
by Hafiz

What
do sad people have in
common?
It seems
they have all built a shrine
to the past
And often go there
to do a strange wail and
worship.
What is the beginning of
happiness?
It is to stop being
so religious
like that.

(Jonathan Carroll)

Beginning of happiness.

xerxes93: I would just like to show you all the best Cosplay...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 22:48:41 -0800

xerxes93:
I would just like to show you all the best Cosplay at Emerald City Comicon. All other cosplays can go home.

Grinder on Flickr.

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 23:00:32 -0800

Grinder on Flickr.

Bins on Flickr.

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:59:43 -0800

Bins on Flickr.

Swatches on Flickr.

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:59:26 -0800

Swatches on Flickr.

Turning heads on Flickr.

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:58:42 -0800

Turning heads on Flickr.

Wet street reflections on Flickr.

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:57:41 -0800

Wet street reflections on Flickr.

Waiting to cross on Flickr.

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:56:28 -0800

Waiting to cross on Flickr.

stfuconservatives: thepeoplesrecord: World’s 100 richest...

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 23:42:21 -0800

stfuconservatives:

thepeoplesrecord:

World’s 100 richest earned enough in 2012 to end global poverty 4 times over
January 20, 2013

The world’s 100 richest people earned a stunning total of $240 billion in 2012 – enough money to end extreme poverty worldwide four times over, Oxfam has revealed, adding that the global economic crisis is further enriching the super-rich.

“The richest 1 percent has increased its income by 60 percent in the last 20 years with the financial crisis accelerating rather than slowing the process,” while the income of the top 0.01 percent has seen even greater growth, a new Oxfam report said.

For example, the luxury goods market has seen double-digit growth every year since the crisis hit, the report stated. And while the world’s 100 richest people earned $240 billion last year, people in “extreme poverty” lived on less than $1.25 a day.

Oxfam is a leading international philanthropy organization. Its new report, ‘The Cost of Inequality: How Wealth and Income Extremes Hurt us All,’ argues that the extreme concentration of wealth actually hinders the world’s ability to reduce poverty.

The report was published before the World Economic Forum in Davos next week, and calls on world leaders to “end extreme wealth by 2025, and reverse the rapid increase in inequality seen in the majority of countries in the last 20 years.”

Oxfam’s report argues that extreme wealth is unethical, economically inefficient, politically corrosive, socially divisive and environmentally destructive.

The problem is a global one, Oxfam said: “In the UK inequality is rapidly returning to levels not seen since the time of Charles Dickens. In China the top 10 percent now take home nearly 60 percent of the income. Chinese inequality levels are now similar to those in South Africa, which is now the most unequal country on Earth and significantly more [inequality] than at the end of apartheid.”

In the US, the richest 1 percent’s share of income has doubled since 1980 from 10 to 20 percent, according to the report. For the top 0.01 percent, their share of national income quadrupled, reaching levels never seen before.

“We can no longer pretend that the creation of wealth for a few will inevitably benefit the many – too often the reverse is true,” Executive Director of Oxfam International Jeremy Hobbs said.

Hobbs explained that concentration of wealth in the hands of the top few minimizes economic activity, making it harder for others to participate: “From tax havens to weak employment laws, the richest benefit from a global economic system which is rigged in their favor.”

The report highlights that even politics has become controlled by the super-wealthy, which leads to policies “benefitting the richest few and not the poor majority, even in democracies.”

The report proposes a new global deal to world leaders to curb extreme poverty to 1990s levels by:

- closing tax havens, yielding $189bn in additional tax revenues

- reversing regressive forms of taxation

- introducing a global minimum corporation tax rate

- boosting wages proportional to capital returns

- increasing investment in free public services

“It is time our leaders reformed the system so that it works in the interests of the whole of humanity rather than a global elite,” the report said.

The four-day World Economic Forum will be held in Davos starting next Wednesday. World financial leaders will gather for an annual meeting that will focus on reviving the global economy, the eurozone crisis and the conflicts in Syria and Mali.

Source

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Remind me again why the rich need more money and the poor need less?

"She tapped her chest with her fingertips. “We are born with everything in here; everything we need..."

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 04:18:50 -0800

“She tapped her chest with her fingertips. “We are born with everything in here; everything we need to be happy and complete. But as soon as things start frightening us, we give away pieces of ourselves to make the fear go away. That’s the deal: you want it to stop scaring you, so you give it a part of yourself. You give away your pride, your dignity, or your courage.
“When all you feel is fear, you do not need dignity. So you do not mind giving it away— at that moment. But you will later. You willl need all those pieces later. By then though they are gone; you cannot ask them for help.””

- Jonathan Carroll (via browndresswithwhitedots)

Ripple on Flickr.

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:02:30 -0800

Ripple on Flickr.

Asphalt #23

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 11:36:25 -0800

Asphalt #23

Hydrangea

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 11:34:19 -0800

Hydrangea

Steps

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 11:31:25 -0800

Steps

"Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a..."

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 11:22:44 -0800

“Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make; you can destroy your life every time you choose. But maybe you won’t know for twenty years. And you’ll never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out. Just try and figure out your own divorce. And they say there is no fate, but there is: it’s what you create. Even though the world goes on for eons and eons, you are here for a fraction of a fraction of a second. Most of your time is spent being dead or not yet born. But while alive, you wait in vain, wasting years, for a phone call or a letter or a look from someone or something to make it all right. And it never comes or it seems to but doesn’t really. And so you spend your time in vague regret or vaguer hope for something good to come along. Something to make you feel connected, to make you feel whole, to make you feel loved.”

- Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York (via mirroir)

John Franklin Stephens, global ambassador

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 20:30:03 -0700

John Franklin Stephens, global ambassador:

An honor indeed.

Statement on Rape and Pregnancy

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 21:42:16 -0700

Statement on Rape and Pregnancy

Walking to work.

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 22:30:36 -0700

Walking to work.

Alt-j Breezeblocks. Stuck on repeat.

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 18:34:47 -0700

Alt-j Breezeblocks. Stuck on repeat.