United Arab Emirates largest city-state of Dubai follows a new mantra. The drive to become a sustainable city has become their chief ambition. In October, Dubai held a three-day convention with over 167 countries consuls to win a bid to host the World Expo. The exhibition showcases developments in sustainability, the international financial system, and advocates improvements in the “quality of life for the world’s population.”
Dubai considered hosting vital to its development. Previous hosts of the expo experienced striking economic growth. 2010 host Shanghai developed into the profitable and “cultural” hub of China, previously an industrial outpost.
Oil discovery in the 1960’s brought tremendous wealth. Unfortunately, unlike other cities in the U.A.E., Dubai had “limited” oil “reserves”. By the 1980’s, drastic economic reforms were instituted in Dubai. The Crown Prince at the time Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum proclaimed Dubai a “free-trade oasis” in an effort to attract foreign corporate business interests.
Economic sustainability without oil became substantial. Dubai transformed into a colossal “global financial center”, flaunting feats of architecture, such as “record-setting skyscrapers.” Dubai’s repeal of pseudo-feudal land system in 2002 was fundamental. The new land-system allowed foreign investors to own land, not just lease its use.
Real estate in Dubai became desired. Many intrigued foreign investors were escaping political instability, legal difficulties, and fiscal insecurity. Dubai’s real estate appealed to “magnates” and “kleptocrats.” Dubai was publicized as a first-rate investment.
Immigrants were captivated by “tax-free salaries,” while affluent “expatriates” and “international businessman” saw the metropolis as a tariff-free ‘capitalist paradise’. Over “96 percent” of the cities working population is “foreign born.” Jobs became abundant in the expanding economy. Dubai began looking to foreign nations for their “luxuries, laborers, architects, accents, even its aspirations.”
The 2008 global economic crisis altered Dubai. Land prices diminished by 50 percent. Countless “abandoned construction projects” littered the cities scenery. Dubai’s excessive spending on infrastructure left the country with a debt that was over “100 percent” of their GDP. Undeterred by their financial woes, Dubai has shown signs financially rebounding.
Oil was no longer its key economic foundation, becoming responsible for only five percent of its annual GDP. Dubai enacted legislative measures to make Dubai “sustainable, livable and comfortable.”
The Arab Spring’s “after-shocks” enticed international business to “relocate to the city.”, persuaded by it’s political stability. Dubai’s location near the “emerging economies of Africa, India and East Asia” became vital to investors.
Their sustainability approaches attracted “sustainability professionals” who see the emerging green initiatives as profitable. Many migrant workers who came for employment are finding Dubai as the preferred option than returning to their “home country.”
Socially responsible measures promote more environmentally safe and more economically viable development projects. New construction ventures boast new features such as “reduced electricity and water consumption.” Dubai began promoting comprehensive “recycling programs” and developing “solar energy plants.”
Dubai focused on using more “local materials and services” rather than importing and being more fiscally responsible with expansion projects. Many of the ‘pet’ projects that were derailed by the economic crisis are expected to return in the future, but under stricter procedures to mix environmental sustainability and economic responsibility.
Time will tell whether Dubai can actually become a sustainable city. Many of their ventures are still only in the planning stages, and increasingly poor financial choices are still affecting their economic recovery. The first step in recovery is realizing the problem that resulted in the situation, and Dubai’s shift in rhetoric shows a city that wants to move past their irresponsible choices.
– Joseph Abay
Sources: Gulf News 1, 2, BBC News 1, 2, The National 1, 2, 3, The Independent, The Guardian, Gawker, Next City, Zayed University, TIME, Expo 2020 Dubai, ZME Science, The Lawyer, KTN
Photo: Florida International University
Digging Up the Truth, Yasser Arafat
As the President of the Palestinian National Authority, Yasser Arafat dedicated his life to combating Israel for the sake of his nation’s right to self-determination. After decades of activism and leadership, Arafat’s life came to an end on November 11, 2004 after having suffered from a mysterious month-long illness. More puzzling than the onset of Arafat’s undetermined illness was his unexpected death.
Since Arafat had died while undergoing treatment in a French military hospital, no autopsy had been carried out immediately after his death. Under French law only his wife, Shuha, had the legal authority to request an autopsy at that time. Due to the absence of an autopsy, in the years since Arafat’s passing, a spectrum of rumors ranging from HIV to poisoning have been circulated. However, after years of speculation, Arafat’s body was exhumed for an autopsy in 2012.
To the dismay of many, even the autopsy of Arafat yielded inconclusive results. After separate laboratory testing conducted by Al Jareeza, France, and Russia, each result yielded inconsistent findings. According to Russia, an insufficient amount of polonium-210 was found in the remains of Arafat in order to conclusively declare poisoning as the cause of death. However, Al Jareeza ardently maintains the conviction that Arafat had indeed succumbed to poisoning by polonium-210. On the other hand, France stands a slightly neutral stance by concluding that while unusually high levels of polonium had been discovered in Arafat’s system, the cause of death was most likely natural causes in conjunction with a generalized infection.
Although the results and interpretation of Arafat’s autopsy are inconclusive, the staggering price of his exhumation is less bewildering. No official statements regarding the cost of the former Palestinian leader’s exhumation has been issued yet. However, according to The Guardian, a typical exhumation in the UK is priced at approximately £5,000 or $6, 867.
Under the assumption that a family of four needs $146 per week to purchase adequate and healthy groceries, the cost of exhuming Arafat could have bought a family of four living in the United States groceries for 46 weeks. Furthermore, since 50 percent of the world’s population subsides on less than $2.50 a day, Arafat’s exhumation could have also enabled an individual living in a non-industrialized nation to secure shelter, food, and clothing for almost 2,747 days, or roughly 7.5 years.
Although uncovering the truth behind Yasser Arafat’s death holds momentous political implications for Palestine and its international relations, the cost of the exhumation also has enormous political merit- we live in an age in which digging up the past is given more care than shaping the immediate future. The cost of a single exhumation could also have been utilized to allow an impoverished child to see his or her 7th birthday.
– Phoebe Pradhan
Sources: The Spectator, The Guardian 1, 2, USA Today, World Bank
Photo: The Times
Syrian Refugee Camps in Demand
Overfull and varying widely in accommodation, Syrian refugee camps have become an international crisis. The United Nations has made the largest humanitarian appeal for aid ever at $5 billion to relieve the situation but has received less than $2 billion to date. Some 2.2 million refugees are currently scattered across Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt while more Syrians are fleeing war at an alarming pace. Estimates say more than 3 million refugees will be in those areas by January.
Such numbers are startling given the Syrian population before the onset of war was only 22.5 million. Lebanon, for example, has no official camps despite having more than a million refugees in its borders and does not allow the building of permanent refugee structures. Those who can afford it rent apartments or rooms in the cities at an exorbitant rate while others share the homes of sympathetic civilians or even inhabit abandoned buildings in depressed areas. In the northeast region, an average of 17 people per household are packed together according to a study conducted by Doctors Without Borders last year.
Water, food and healthcare are rationed out slowly and insufficiently, with less to go around as numbers rise. Employment for refugees was around 20% last year in Lebanon, and the economies of Iraq, Turkey and Jordan are in little better position to provide opportunities for such a rapid influx of labor.
Dependency on humanitarian aid is heightened and the desperation of the situation has many refugees working for extremely low wages in poor conditions and engaging in child labor. Economic and physical insecurity in Jordan’s Zataari camp has led parents to arrange hurried marriages for their teenage daughters as young as 14. Matchmakers recruit young girls for Saudi husbands but often end up as prostitutes or victims of “pleasure marriages” where the suitor divorces them after consummation.
Though some of Syria’s displaced persons find bourgeois housing in Cairo or end up in one of Turkey’s refugee camps that consist of metal trailers with access to satellite T.V. and air conditioning, most see basic necessities and sanitation as luxuries. The Domiz camp in Iraq is made up primarily of tents and has 45,000 residents despite being designed for just 30,000. In just two weeks between August and September, more than 1,500 people were treated for upper respiratory infections there by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Security is also an issue in these camps with reports of rape, theft, kidnapping and murder being common. In the Zataari camp, Jordan security forces restrict entry but lack the manpower to adequately police the camp’s 120,000 residents. Other camps in Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey reportedly funnel arms and recruits back into Syria. In Lebanon, crime has increased by 30% and increased tensions between Hezbollah and Sunni refugees may be behind the recent bombing of the Iranian embassy in Beirut.
Syria’s bordering nations are gradually increasing restrictions for entering refugees. Lebanon and Turkey are both planning to relocate some people to camps they wish to build within Syria’s insecure borders. Only about 25% of Syria’s refugees are actually in camps now, the rest are trying to survive by their own means. There are also an additional 3.8 million who are internally displaced.
Despite their faults, the refugee camps provide essential support and the need for more camps is evident, but where they can be built and how they will be funded is not so clear.
– Tyson Watkins
Sources: Medecins Sans Frontieres, World Health Organization, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Syrian Arab Republic,
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Moving Refugees, The Guardian, Integrated Regional Information Networks, BBC, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Syrian Regional Response Plan, Aljazeera, The Daily Star United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Stories from Syrian Refugees, The New York Review of Books
Photo: NPR
UN Foundation: Connecting UN And The World
In the face of toughest global challenges, the United Nations Foundation (UN Foundation) links problems with solutions to foster global peace, prosperity, and justice. It connects people, ideas, and resources to help the United Nations (UN) solve the most intractable global problems, such as energy access, climate change, global health, women’s empowerment, population, hunger, and poverty eradication. In fact, it literally reflects its motto, “Connecting You with the United Nations.”
Established by entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner in 1998, the UN Foundation has been an advocate for the UN and helped the UN address pressing and far-reaching international issues through partnerships, campaigns, and fundraising.
A worldwide partnership between the public and private sectors is indispensable and very significant. The UN Foundation has a wide range of dynamic and win-win partnerships with corporations, organizations, and influences around the world. Since the UN Foundation was founded, it has established more than 300 organizational partnerships with over 40 UN agencies and more than 100 governments.
A great example of its corporate partnership is the collaboration between NBA Cares and the UN Foundation campaign Nothing But Nets, a global grassroots campaign to save lives by preventing malaria, a leading killer of children in Africa. Not only does the message about malaria reach wide audiences via the platform provided by NBA Cares, but it also highlights the involvement of NBA Cares in the campaign. In this way, the UN Foundation offers its partners the ability to do good in the world while also promotes their corporate causes.
To strengthen the connection between the UN and influences, the UN Foundation supports the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) to run the UN Creative Community Outreach Initiative (CCOI), which acts as a liaison between the UN and top level content creators, such as directors, new media professionals, and writers. The initiative aims to inform people about the activities of the UN and its priority issues via TV, film, music, and new media.
Because of the approaching 2015 deadline of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a blueprint accepted by all the world’s countries and leading development institutions, discussion over the Post-2015 Development Agenda has become one of the most important and influential conversations of this century. As a longstanding and strong supporter of the UN, the UN Foundation will convene informal meetings and workshops on thematic issues and facilitate global dialogues among developing country think tanks, thought leaders, civil society and private sector partners.
– Liying Qian
Sources: UN Foundation, UN Business, UN CCOI, UN Association
Photo: PR Web
A Sustainable Dubai: Reality or Fiction?
United Arab Emirates largest city-state of Dubai follows a new mantra. The drive to become a sustainable city has become their chief ambition. In October, Dubai held a three-day convention with over 167 countries consuls to win a bid to host the World Expo. The exhibition showcases developments in sustainability, the international financial system, and advocates improvements in the “quality of life for the world’s population.”
Dubai considered hosting vital to its development. Previous hosts of the expo experienced striking economic growth. 2010 host Shanghai developed into the profitable and “cultural” hub of China, previously an industrial outpost.
Oil discovery in the 1960’s brought tremendous wealth. Unfortunately, unlike other cities in the U.A.E., Dubai had “limited” oil “reserves”. By the 1980’s, drastic economic reforms were instituted in Dubai. The Crown Prince at the time Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum proclaimed Dubai a “free-trade oasis” in an effort to attract foreign corporate business interests.
Economic sustainability without oil became substantial. Dubai transformed into a colossal “global financial center”, flaunting feats of architecture, such as “record-setting skyscrapers.” Dubai’s repeal of pseudo-feudal land system in 2002 was fundamental. The new land-system allowed foreign investors to own land, not just lease its use.
Real estate in Dubai became desired. Many intrigued foreign investors were escaping political instability, legal difficulties, and fiscal insecurity. Dubai’s real estate appealed to “magnates” and “kleptocrats.” Dubai was publicized as a first-rate investment.
Immigrants were captivated by “tax-free salaries,” while affluent “expatriates” and “international businessman” saw the metropolis as a tariff-free ‘capitalist paradise’. Over “96 percent” of the cities working population is “foreign born.” Jobs became abundant in the expanding economy. Dubai began looking to foreign nations for their “luxuries, laborers, architects, accents, even its aspirations.”
The 2008 global economic crisis altered Dubai. Land prices diminished by 50 percent. Countless “abandoned construction projects” littered the cities scenery. Dubai’s excessive spending on infrastructure left the country with a debt that was over “100 percent” of their GDP. Undeterred by their financial woes, Dubai has shown signs financially rebounding.
Oil was no longer its key economic foundation, becoming responsible for only five percent of its annual GDP. Dubai enacted legislative measures to make Dubai “sustainable, livable and comfortable.”
The Arab Spring’s “after-shocks” enticed international business to “relocate to the city.”, persuaded by it’s political stability. Dubai’s location near the “emerging economies of Africa, India and East Asia” became vital to investors.
Their sustainability approaches attracted “sustainability professionals” who see the emerging green initiatives as profitable. Many migrant workers who came for employment are finding Dubai as the preferred option than returning to their “home country.”
Socially responsible measures promote more environmentally safe and more economically viable development projects. New construction ventures boast new features such as “reduced electricity and water consumption.” Dubai began promoting comprehensive “recycling programs” and developing “solar energy plants.”
Dubai focused on using more “local materials and services” rather than importing and being more fiscally responsible with expansion projects. Many of the ‘pet’ projects that were derailed by the economic crisis are expected to return in the future, but under stricter procedures to mix environmental sustainability and economic responsibility.
Time will tell whether Dubai can actually become a sustainable city. Many of their ventures are still only in the planning stages, and increasingly poor financial choices are still affecting their economic recovery. The first step in recovery is realizing the problem that resulted in the situation, and Dubai’s shift in rhetoric shows a city that wants to move past their irresponsible choices.
– Joseph Abay
Sources: Gulf News 1, 2, BBC News 1, 2, The National 1, 2, 3, The Independent, The Guardian, Gawker, Next City, Zayed University, TIME, Expo 2020 Dubai, ZME Science, The Lawyer, KTN
Photo: Florida International University
Kenneth Cole: Wearing Advocacy
Getting involved has never looked so good.
When he’s not introducing some of the most fashion-forward and innovative clothes in the industry, fashion icon Kenneth Cole is promoting Awearness.
A careful reader, or spelling-stickler, will surely be screaming right now about a typo in the previous paragraph. But “Awearness” is actually a pun and the charitable vision of Kenneth Cole: “wearing” Kenneth Cole clothing promotes awareness of the many issues championed by the fashion label. From HIV/AIDS advocacy to Disaster Relief, Cole’s Awearness foundation has supported many laudable causes.
One of the organization’s greatest achievements is the Kenneth Cole Haiti Health Center (KCHHC). The Center opened in 2012 and functions as a critical source of medicine and advanced health care in the region. The KCHHC has treated 6,000 patients each year since its opening. It is also a base for the continuing effort of providing relief in the aftermath of the earthquake from 2010 that left the country reeling.
Cole is also the chairman of the board for amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. A notable accomplishment during his tenure at amfAR is the introduction of four new anti-HIV drug treatments. Using his role as chairman, Cole routinely partners his fashion line with amfAR to raise funds for HIV/AIDS research. For instance, all sales of the specially designed “amfAR Watch” will benefit the organization’s research. A battery-free skeleton watch, wrapped with a rose gold frame and the AIDS Awareness ribbon on the watch’s back, makes for both a wonderful gift idea during the holiday season and a great way to fight for HIV/AIDS research.
Kenneth Cole has always prided himself on being a bit of an iconoclast in the fashion world. His pun-filled advertisement campaigns do not shy away from heavy subject matters. One advertisement includes two fashionable young women carrying Kenneth Cole designer bags with the pithy slogan, “We are all potential carriers.” The ad is a great example of the blending of Cole’s fashion with his AIDS advocacy. Another example can be seen in a campaign ad on New York subway trains: “Latest AIDS statistic: 0,000,000 vaccinated.”
But Kenneth Cole’s largest mantra is, “What You Stand For Is More Important Than What You Stand In.” It’s a sobering reminder that being fashionable is meaningless in the face of being an advocate for change.
– Taylor Diamond
Sources: Awearness Foundation, AMFAR, Kenneth Cole, Amazon
Photo: PhilanthrophyIs
Techo Enlists Students to Reduce Poverty
“I believe poverty is not an inherent part of society, but can be overcome if everyone works to achieve it.”-Jessica Beck.
Jessica Beck is the founder of FIU TECHO, a branch of the Techo organization at Florida International University. Techo is an international non-profit organization provides humanitarian aid to the poor citizens of Latin America and the Caribbean. The focus is to educate the residents on how to implement long lasting solutions to the issues of education, malnutrition, poverty, and corruption.
One Techo branch at Florida International University is participating in the Wynwood Miami Art Walk, a local artist event held the second Saturday every month. The Techo letters will be found along the walk and members can write down their hopes and goals towards ending global poverty and making the lives of others so much better. Notoriously broke, college students participating for Techo in the Art Walk are proving that anyone can make an impact – no matter how little people think they might have to give.
Sustainable development means formulating economic and environmental growth policies that don’t detract from environmental health, meaning they will be successful policies in the long run. Societies can’t function on infrastructures that are not environmentally sound because eventually the negative consequences of those policies will force the society to restructure yet again.
Founded in 1997, Techo is a Latin American non-profit organization focusing on providing aid to people living in slums through volunteers working with families struggling with extreme poverty. The organization uses an ‘implementation’ method that targets community development. The Non profit’s fundraising headquarters are in Miami, Florida and it is lead by young volunteers. Volunteers are present in 19 countries including Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru, Panama, Ecuador, and Venezuela.
Recruitment for volunteers takes place exclusively in college universities, and the organization actively seeks contribution from people less than or equal to 30 years of age. Students with a strong passion for humanitarian work are targeted in the hopes that their dedication will enhance their work. Experience with working in slums helps to qualify volunteers to pursue a professional career in global relief and poverty reduction. The way that Techo works is a mutual effort between volunteers and slum residents. Residents are reassigned houses based on severity of living conditions and are responsible for taking on 10% of the new home cost.
Funding comes from a variety of sources. The Boston Consulting Group and The Inter-American Development Bank are two of Techo’s main partners. Donators known as ‘techo friends’ are monthly financial contributors at a fixed rate. A donator giving 30 dollars a month can support a family that functions on one dollar per day. It is incredible the difference just one dollar can make and sheds light on the common misconception that global poverty is an impossible issue to solve. The condition is reminiscent of something Nelson Mandela once said – “It always seems impossible until it is done.”
– Kaitlin Sutherby
Sources: FIU, Facebook, Techo
Cost Comparison: Christmas Trees
Every year millions of Americans know the joy of spending the day or evening putting up their Christmas tree. And with Christmas fast approaching it is interesting to take a look at everyone’s favorite coniferous tree.
Decorating one’s home with evergreen trees is an ancient tradition dating back to the Romans. An ancient symbol of life in the midst of winter, this practice was eventually adopted by Christians at some point in the 16th century. Over the course of the next few hundred years the trees went from decorations of fruit and nuts, to candles and tinsel to today’s modem electric color, candy cane variant.
However you choose to decorate it, the Christmas tree has become a powerful symbol of Christmas. It just doesn’t feel like Christmas until old faithful is setup and decorated. It’s hard to imagine a Christmas without one—where would you put the presents?
In the U.S. there are approximately 25-35 million real Christmas trees and 9.5 million fake ones sold every year. At any given time there are 350 million Christmas trees growing on farms. Given that each tree takes about 7 years to fully mature that is a lot of space dedicated to Christmas trees.
Still, every year consumers purchase tees to the tune of $1.07 billion and $670 million for real and fake trees respectively. That is a lot of money for a decoration that last about two weeks on average.
In comparison, the cost of helping rebuild homes in the Philippines is $10.25 million. Habitat for Humanity is taking donations now in an effort to help rebuild homes that were devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan. They currently have raised nearly $500,000 of an estimated $10 million needed. According to their website that equates to 87 homes rebuilt.
This year when you are enjoying your Christmas tree in the comfort of your home, give a thought to the thousands who were displaced and the millions suffering without a home in the Philippines.
– Pedram Afshar
Sources: Statistic Brain, National Christmas Tree Association, History, Habitat for Humanity
Photo:
Kenya Plans To Close All Refugee Camps
Kenya in recent decades has become a place of refuge for people from all countries in Africa. Nonetheless, this past week, Asman Kamama, the Chairman of the Kenyan Administration and National Security Committee, stated that Kenya would attempt to close all its refugee camps within the next two years. This goal, however, depends upon the stability and improvements made within the countries where the refugees are coming from, particularly Somalia. Of Kenya’s 592, 219 refugees, 476,635 (80%) of these refugees are Somalis.
Groups from Ethiopia, Sudan, Congo, Rwanda, Eritrea, Burundi, South Sudan and Uganda also compromise the population of Kenyan refugee camps. As a result of the mass amount of refugees, the populations in refugee camps have swollen and strained the resources available. For example, Dadaab refugee camp, located in Kenya, is ranked the largest refugee camp in the world.
However, the United Nations has denied that an effort has been made to close the Somali refugee camps in Kenya. Kitty McKinsey, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Refugee Agency, stated that the United Nations does not believe “that there is any order for the refugee camps in Kenya to be closed.” McKinsey added, “The Kenyan government and the Kenyan people have been very generous to the refugees over the years, and we certainly have every reason to expect that will continue to be the case.”
The fate of refugees in Kenya is yet to be seen. If Kenya does close the refugee camps, Kamama explained that the return of these refugees will be peaceful and smooth.
– Lienna Feleke-Eshete
Sources: VOA News, All Africa
Photo: Womens News Network
Rodman to Visit North Korea Again
Dennis Rodman is set to visit North Korea for the third time, meeting with its current ruler, Kim Jong-Un, with whom Rodman has established a friendship.
The primary reason for Rodman’s visit is to help train North Korea’s national basketball team, an American sport that the North Korean ruler enjoys. The training is said to last for four days.
Rodman’s visit comes at a time when Jang Song-Thaek, Kim’s uncle, was recently executed by the state on charges of treason and conspiring against the state. The execution was allegedly demonstrated in front of other would-be conspirators of the coup d’état.
The Daily Mail reports that this would be only the beginning of a possible purge set against members of the old regime, under Kim’s father, Kim Jong-Il. Such a display would make room for a newer crew under the new regime.
Furthermore, old state records are being erased, including those of Jang Song-Thaek. The deleted online records were estimated to range upwards to 35,000 documents.
Rodman himself is set to coach the national team in preparation for a match against former NBA players that will be held in the near future. The game, called “Big Bang in Pyongyang,” is to be hosted by Paddy Power, an online gaming company from Ireland.
For the upcoming exhibition match, Rodman hopes to recruit Karl Malone and Scottie Pippen, his former Chicago Bulls teammate.
As for the Obama administration’s response, Marie Harf, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, cites that the only comment is the official State Department caution on traveling to North Korea. U.S. citizens should refrain from traveling to an isolationist country – a country with which the U.S. does not have current diplomatic ties.
Rodman’s NBA career consists of five NBA championships. Rodman won his first two championships with the Detroit Spurs between 1989-1990. The latter three were won as a part of the Chicago Bulls between 1996-1998 alongside Michael Jordan.
– Miles Abadilla
Sources: Daily Mail, ESPN, Huffington Post, New York Times, Time Magazine
Photo: World News
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Champion Equality
The rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community have become an issue at the forefront of international politics. In addition to penetrating the political sphere, this topic has become a hot topic in the pop world; countless movies, television episodes and songs have been dedicated to the advancement of LGBT rights. One of the most popular efforts has been by hip-hop artists Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Macklemore, a 30-year-old rapper from Washington, stormed onto the hip-hop stage in 2005 with his socially conscious songs that address topics ranging from homosexuality to drug abuse. He met his partner and soon to be producer, Lewis, in 2006, and they have been an unstoppable duo since.
This past year, Macklemore and Lewis won numerous awards for their newest album, “The Heist,” that includes “Same Love,” a song featuring the vocals of Mary Lambert. The song addresses urges the legalization of same-sex marriage and LGBT rights. The song has sold over 2,000,000 copies and peaked at #11 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 charts. This past week, the United Nations Free & Equal Campaign recognized Macklemore & Lewis as “Equality Champions” for their contributions to the LGBT community.
The Free & Equal campaign was created by Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, as a response to the increasing number of human rights violations against LGBT people. The United Nations also created its first resolution to address the inequality. Macklemore and Lewis responded to the honor by thanking the U.N. for allowing it to “help spread a message of equality and respect.” Macklemore also added, “Ryan and I have always believed that human rights are for everyone- no exceptions.”
Other celebrities, including Ricky Martin, have also taken part in the Free & Equal campaign.
– Lienna Feleke-Eshete
Sources: All Africa, YouTube, UNFE
Photo: The Masked Gorilla