Raising Bitcoin Donations, How Highways Wrecked American Cities, & Uyghur Forced Labour in Fashion.
Follow the money…
Friends,
In October 2000, John Diaz survived a plane crash with Singapore Airlines. When Oprah asked him why he thinks he survived, this is what he said.
“I don’t believe it was divine. I did see – as I got knocked back into the plane – it looked like Dante's inferno with people strapped into their seats and just burning. And it seemed to look like an aura was leaving their bodies. Some brighter than others. And it gave me a kind of new spirituality in the sense that life continues on.
And I thought the brightness and dimness of the auras were how one lives one’s life so to speak. That’s one of the major things that really has changed me since then is: ‘I wanna live my life so my aura, when it leaves, is very bright.” – John Diaz
I, too, want to live a life so that when my aura leaves it burns very bright.
From The Misfit
On Thursday, I published If Technology Is Supposed to Make Things Cheaper, Why are They Getting More Expensive Instead? If you haven’t already checked it out, make sure you do. I hope it gives you lots to think about. A massive THANK YOU to Rick for his kind words on this piece. I mean every word when I say that your lovely comments and feedback keep this solo writer going.
On another note – do you remember the profile feature I wrote about Lorraine Marcel: The Kenyan Entrepreneur Teaching African Women about Bitcoin? It’s been a year since she launched her program, Bitcoin Dada, which seeks to teach African women about Bitcoin. On top of creating great Bitcoin education, she’s managed to create a wonderful community of women seeking financial freedom. Watch this moving testimonial by one of her students praising the program. It’s beautiful to see.
Bitcoin Crowdfunding is Lightning: El Salvador School Program Hits 1 BTC in Donations
Crowdfunding platforms, like PayPal or GoFundMe, have historically taken massive cuts from people donating money. At times even censored projects based on ideological beliefs, contrarian behaviour, or political affiliations. That’s why Bitcoin can be a great way to raise donations.
Bitcoin’s censorship-resistant and self-sovereign properties make it an ideal way to send, raise, and donate money. It also helps that the Lightning Network (Bitcoin’s layer-2 solution) makes it cheaper and faster to transfer money.
One crowdfunding platform taking advantage of Lightning’s unique properties is Geyser Fund. Through Geyser Fund, Mi Primer Bitcoin (or My First Bitcoin) – a Salvadoran nonprofit program – raised over 1 bitcoin in donations.
“Donations flooded in from countries like Venezuela, Poland and Canada as hundreds of people worldwide sent satoshis (Bitcoin’s smallest denomination) over the Lightning Network to fund the expansion of My First Bitcoin’s Bitcoin Diploma program.” – Joe Hall, journalist
It’s a thing of beauty to watch as bitcoiners support each other despite an economic crisis and the relentless fear that mainstream media instills in the masses. Whatever comes their way, bitcoiners keep building, or at least supporting, the future they wish to see… at lightning speed.
Full link here: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-crowdfunding-is-lightning-el-salvador-school-program-hits-1-btc-in-donations
…and while we’re on the topic of money…
Fedi Raises $17M (to 'Accelerate the Adoption of Bitcoin and Lightning’)
So, this is really cool.
Fedi is a bitcoin-focused company that allows communities to custody (hold) bitcoin and lightning together. They raised $17 million to grow this vision and help the adoption of bitcoin grow.
“Fedi aims to be the world’s first federated operating system. It will empower individuals to collaborate through “federations”—made up of friends, families, neighbours, nonprofit organisations, social clubs, businesses, conferences and other forms of community—to take control of their money, their data, and their digital lives while still protecting user privacy and autonomy. It provides a resilient, privacy-protecting, and simple way for people who don’t have access to or don’t trust centralised alternatives to secure and use their data and money.” — Fedi
The idea of giving people (and communities) the power to own their money, their data, and privacy is revolutionary. In the fight between centralization vs. decentralization, Fedi is helping carve a future that is (hopefully) safe and decentralized.
Full link here: https://www.fedi.xyz/blog/fedi-inc-announces-raising-17-million-in-series-a-round
Uyghur Forced Labour in the Fashion Industry
Since publishing the piece China’s ‘Re-Education Camps’ for Uyghurs & How Bitcoin Mining is Revitalizing Forgotten Towns last week, I have continued down the rabbit hole of the genocide against the Uyghur people. Unfortunately, I discovered there is a prevalence of Uyghur forced labor in the fashion industry.
“According to the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region, an estimated one in five cotton products in the global apparel industry are believed to be linked to Uyghur forced labor. Despite this, brands have not been forthcoming about their potential connections to the issue, so consumers don’t know whether they’re buying into the problem.” — Human Rights Foundation (HRF)
But, there is a way to know if a brand may be linked to Uyghur forced labour.
“Our Uyghur Forced Labor Checker is making it easier for shoppers to hold brands to a higher standard and force the fashion industry to take a stand and say no to the use of Uyghur forced labor in their supply chains.” — Jenny Wang, Human Rights Foundation Manager of Asia Policy and Programs
It’s inspiring to see the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) increasing awareness about the fashion industry’s involvement in the Uyghur genocide and empowering us – the consumers – to make informed, ethical, and compassionate purchases.
Full link here: https://hrf.org/hrf-in-times-square-end-uyghur-forced-labor-in-the-fashion-industry/
How Highways Wrecked American Cities
Did you know cities like Los Angeles used to be walkable? That all changed in the 1920s, when urban areas were designed and built for cars.
At the demand of lobbyists for the automobile, oil, and chemical industries, cities tore out their streetcar lines and replaced them with bus systems. By 1950, General Motors bought up more than 100 municipal streetcar lines and replaced them with GM manufactured buses. Between 1950s and 1990s, federal and state transportation agencies built 41,000 miles of freeways “with the federal government fronting a whopping 90% of the $138.9 billion price tag.” This created a fertile ground for the explosion of car ownership.
Almost every American family would eventually come to own a car, profiting the pockets of the automobile industry, without realizing what they had to lose in the process.
“The percentage of American families who owned cars increased from 54% in 1948 to 74% in 1959, and by 2016, 95% of Americans owned cars.” – Hazel O’Neil, writer & journalist
These new roads would alter the United States in big ways. It would:
Allow suburban development to thrive – which would be restricted to white home ownership (at the time)
Run through neighbourhoods of colour – as a way to tear apart colour communities
Inadvertently prevent children from playing safely outdoors, or the elderly and disabled from having easy mobility
Convert wild and agricultural lands into low-density homes and shopping malls
In other words, these roads would create:
“Ecological destruction, social alienation, traffic-related disease, injury, and death, economic harm, unwelcome urban environments.” Hazel O’Neil, writer & journalist
This article was a brutal reminder that we may think we get a say in how our societies are shaped. In reality, money speaks louder than our voices. It is those with deep pockets who have the loudest voices and who get to shape our societies for better or for worse.
If we ever wish to understand why things work the way they do, why they have been built the way they have been, we must simply follow the money. We get a lot of clarity when we follow the money.
Full link here: https://sf.streetsblog.org/2021/09/09/how-highways-wrecked-american-cities/
Friends, thank you for reading The Misfit today. Live your life so that your aura, when it leaves, is very bright.
— Ayelen xx
Thanks for opening my eyes. I had no idea these things were going on with the fashion industry but also the creation of Fedi!
Always happy to like and share your posts. Keep up the great work!