A LIFE OF DIGNITY & EQUALITY

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS 1948- belongs to each and everyone of us. Do you celebrate life in its spirit? Do you dance in the winds of freedom? Have you read all 30 articles? When was the last time you read it? Does your society/country adhere to the basic human rights? Are you aware of unacceptabl & blatant violations of these rights? Are you Sweat-free? Did your cotton t-shirt/trendy sneakers come from sweat shops using bonded labour in dangerous working conditions without fair pay? Your company directors on their business trips may be purchasing services of prostitutes who are trafficked sex slaves sold as commodity? Did you know or are you just too busy, too tired, or simply don't give a damn?

For those of you who do, UDHR is translated into 359 languages-click here to find your choice of language-http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Pages/Introduction.aspx

PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

UMA's SAVE THE WORLD IN 30 DAYS- April 09

The ripple of love needs to come from within you. If you love yourself (different from egoistic pride) you will begin to take care of your body- ranging from the food you eat, the air you breathe, the lotion you put on your skin, the detergent you use. You will also begin to nourish your soul with acceptance, respect and compassion and allowing space to express what you have inside. Slowly but surely, with self-love and its consequential joy and happiness, love for other beings (family, friends, even strangers), our land, our trees, our air, our ecosystem will also arise spontaneously. And you may begin to see the interconnection between you, your neighbours, strangers, the trees, the flowers, the air, the plastic sea, the sewage, the land fill etc. And you may awaken to the reality that we are what we eat, drink, do and think. The bleach you used in your cleaning is going back to the water reservoir you are drinking from. The plastic you just put in your bin is adding to the already frightening plastic sea from Japan to Hawaii. And so in UMA's save the world in 30 days- it always starts with you and your actions are not based on an obligation or duty but out of your love for yourself, your children and their children.

1. Love yourself i.e. accept yourself as you are.
2. Stop condemning yourself.
3. Be compassionate with yourself.
4. Respect yourself.
5. Spend time alone everyday.
6. Smile when you are on the phone.
7. Take your dog for a walk.
8. Breathe fully and gently.
9. Put yourself in another’s shoes.
10. Walk gently on earth.
11. Smile at all times, esp on blue n rainy days.
12. Say 30 Thank you(s) every day.
13. Be Aware! You are what you think, do, eat and drink.
14. Eat less meat
15. Be vegetarian 2/3 times a week
16. Buy seasonal and local.
17. Buy Organic n natural.
18. Eat less processed foods.
19. BYO coffee mug for coffee/tea take out.
20. BYO travel cutlery set (fork, spoon and chopsticks)
21. Get a full health check up.
22. Exercise at least once a week.
23. Help a stranger.
24. Finish what is on your plate.
25. Tell someone about the “Plastic sea”
26. Watch less TV.
27. Shut down not stand by your PC at night.
28. Do not litter.
29. Pray for speedy recovery of the global economy.
30. Pray for world peace.

From Earth Hour to Inconvenient Hour...

I did not any plans for the earth hour, except to just relax n meditate in my lights off room. But things always have their own way of manifesting. After a call from a friend, I found myself in Life Cafe in SOHO where earth hour was welcomed and celebrated with candles and a band of talented yogis on guitars, playing self-written songs on spirituality, margaritas, save the human... and hip hop jamming. Amazingly positive energy created with crowds at dinner table, organic beers served at the bar, and die-hard supporter taking the lower seats on the floor! But I turned my head to look outside and saw lights (sigh....I guess they were the other camp voting for global warming...).

Post earth hour, I picked up a copy of the Positive News from Life and decided to take the bus home (my action of the night to reduce carbon footprint). As I turned the pages of Positive News- my inconvenient hour began. Some seriously inconvenient facts were reported about livestock production being the biggest man-made contributor to green house gases in the world (18% of all global output from livestock production vs 14% from transport). Translation = what we are eating and our eating habits are one of the main causes for global climate change. I was not aware of the intensity of the issue until now- I am truly disturbed and this is a topic requiring further research on my part.

Bobsy, the co-founded of Positive News HK, Bookworm and Life cafe seems to have done the research and found the severity of the impact of livestock on the planet so pressing and serious that he recently founded the "SAVE THE HUMAN" Campaign launched on 1 March 2009. The Campaign aims at promoting public awareness through media communications and community services. You can go here to learn more http://www.100waystosavetheplanet.org/.

I had been a vegetarian for fives years until my health gave in with weak body and yellow/green face. I was "told" by my doctor to start eating meat again. Being responsible with myself and so taking care of my health I started eating meat again, a few times a week, albeit very very very reluctantly. My reason for being vegetarian was not ecological then, rather it was based on equality- that all beings are equal and human beings have no birth right to be having other animals for dinner. Just as we want to live, all other animals want to live too. My last straw was the Chicken incident. You need to be open minded to listen to my chicken incident. I was walking through the wet market in Causeway Bay where there were chicken stalls. Yes, I don't mean to sound freaky but a chicken spoke to me-I was receiving signals from a chicken asking me "if we are all equal and why are you (humans) slaughtering us?" I could not defend that one and became vegetarian since.

Tonight, it was no coincidence that my earth hour turned into inconvenient hour, it's the universe telling me what can I do as an individual about global warming. Turning off lights for 1 hour is an alarm bell ringing on global warming, but the crux must be to understand the issue and what we can do as an individual, a country and a nation to change the situation. Remember, small actions by many many people give us the change we are looking for. I am truly concerned and am re-evaluating the issue of meat vs vegetarian- especially now it's not only a matter of equality and compassion but one of saving the planet and its inhabitants. Three things for sure, I will be eating less meat, researching more on livestock production and global warming and looking for ways to be a healty vegetarian. If you have any suggestions/comments, please shout them my way.

Good night.

VOTE LOVE, VOTE BLACK, VOTE EARTH.

VOTE FOR LOVE
VOTE FOR CHANGE
VOTE FOR OUR CHILDREN
VOTE FOR OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN
VOTE FOR ONE BILLION WORDS
VOTE FOR ONE BLACK HOUR
VOTE FOR MOTHER EARTH
SWITCH OFF YOUR LIGHTS SATURDAY MARCH 28 @ 2030-2130
REGISTER AT http://www.earthhour.org/signup/

THE MESSAGE IS VOTE EARTH 328@2030hours

Date & Time- March 28 2009, 2030 -2130hours

Event-First global election- between Earth n Global Warming.

Voting vehicle= your light switch

Swift off = Vote for Earth

Leave on= Vote for Global Warming

Target= 1 billion votes for Earth, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009. This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol. It is the chance for the people of the world to make their voice heard.

PLS REGISTER 2B COUNTED at http://www.earthhour.org/signup/

March series- Uma's save the world in 30 days

Starting from now, I will a post monthly UMA's save the world in 30 days check-list. Wanna join me to do one small thing everyday? The logic is simple- one small action x many people = big change. For instance, there are 7mil people in HK, taking a conservative assumption, let's say half of the population care and take action, so each person uses one less plastic bag a day meaning HK will use 3.5 mil plastic bags less a day. Multiply that by a week, 2 weeks, 1month, etc etc, the cumulative effect continues. The truth is everytime you throw away something plastic, you are adding to the "plastic soup" floating in the Pacific Ocean, which by the way, is growing at such an alarming rate stretching from Hawaii to Japan.

1. Hug someone.
2. Never leave home without your own bag so BYOB.
3. Laugh with reckless abundance.
4. Visit someone sick.
5. Earn less air miles by flying less.
6. Donate your small change to charity.
7. Recycle, recycle, recycle.
8. Read the Basic Law (if you are in HK or your contry's constitution law).
9. Listen to somebody.
10. Watch less TV.
11. Plant a tree.
12. Look on the bright side.
13. Switch off the lights when not needed.
14. Shut down (not stand by) your PC .
15. Smile at the world.
16. Pray for world peace.
17. Take the lower seat.
18. Pick up rubbish from the ground.
19. Stay silent for 30mins with your TV/Radio/Phone OFF.
20. Love & be kind to yourself.
21. Forgive yourself.
22. Cook a meal from A to Z, with all fresh n organic ingredients.
23. Sing a song in foreign language.
24. Stop smoking.
25. Sleep by 11pm
26. Bring your own boxes for take cut.
27. Make you own laundry detergent. http://www.ecofriendlydaily.com/home/eco-friendly-laundry/
28. Give away your unwanted clothes. (e.g. red cross, oxfam, green collection boxes, your relatives, your friends)
29. Before you buy anything, think "do I really need this?"
30. Tell someone a joke.
31. Speak gently-even if you are mad/annoyed/unhappy etc etc

Are you Tree Free, Are you O'bon?

Sometimes the universe does send you feedback...here is how... these past few days, other than suffering from a somewhat frozen left shoulder, my mind has been pre-occupied with "...recycle, recycle recycle..." then my brother manifested from KL before me and said "check out this impossible to break O'bon pencil made from recycled newspaper."
Ladies & Gentlemen, may I present you the innovative & revolutionary O'bon superlovers - saving the trees and our children. The very concept of recycling newspapers into pencils, pens and ring binders is something to applaud. Products such as those at O'bon make the world a better place. Much better than making money and destroying our not infinite natural resources at the same time. Plus, O'bon certainly is up to passing John Elkington's Triple Bottom line test i.e. measuring business success in the broadened criteria of economic, social and envrionment.

O'bon's (http://www.obon.us/) offer a range of stationary such as pencils, pens, erasers and ring binders. The O'bon pencils are their flagship products and unlike traditional wood pencils, they are made from rolling recycled paper with O'bon super tight roll-on method (i hope they have patented this secret technology!) with water based glue. This way of rolling means the O'bon pencil is shock free when dropped. Since the graphite is not broken easily when dropped, it will last longer! And they are 100%toxin-free, conforming with EU standard of safety-this is good news, even I (someone who is not a mother) know about how kids love to put fingers in their mouths!
The pencils come in many series such as Original, Newspapers, Fruits, Wildlife and my favourite the Rainbow series.

The ring-binders are also very vibrant in colours and design. Most imporantly they are dioxin-free. Want to know about dioxin, the actions you can take to reduce dioxin consumption - click here to hear from the experts:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/medical_notes/358889.stm

http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/CFM/nceaQFind.cfm?keyword=Dioxin

The Patriot pens are also dioxin-free! It seems that one of the marketing strategies is to encourage companies use their products. If so, my suggestion is that O'bon may want to create a black & white or other cool clours corporate series as an alternative for the more serious corporate. Or consider house-branding O'bon products for a big client- bottom line permitting of course. There are so many creative ways to distribute the products and thus passing on the new black message. If you have not realised already, green is the new black.
And by the way, I am independent blogger who writes with absolute unfettered discretion. Nor do I receive any incentive, financial or otherwise from O'bon. (In fact, O'bon is probably not aware about this log, and I just wrote to them seeking their consent to display the two images above- if they are not happy with it, I will remove the pics). I applaud superlovers out there and write about products or whatever which support my vision to make the world a better place-which reminds me- I will need to add no. 11 to UMA's tips to go green "Say No to wood pencils and use O'bon pencil" and also amend no. 8-say NO to plastic to include pens and ring-binders.