Quitting Facebook for January.

This month I quit the Social Media giant Facebook…

http://theshenanigansofmw.com/2016/01/19/facebook-detox-2016/

Scottish Campaigners join parties in their Tens of thousands.

The people of Scotland are refusing to allow a ‘No’ vote to stop change happen in Scotland, setting a valiant example to the rest of the UK.

“Since Scots voted to stay in the UK last week, tens of thousands have flocked to pro-independence parties in Scotland. In less than a week, the Scottish Greens has more doubled in size to over 5,000 members. In just one week, more than 38,000 people enlisted in the Scottish National Party, making the nationalists the third largest party in the whole of the UK, behind only Conservatives and Labour.”

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/scotland-referendum-political-mobilisaion-peter-geoghegan-910

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-29393578

Hong Kong’s fight for Democracy

“Thousands of people are occupying the Admiralty district of the city in continued opposition to the Chinese Government’s refusal to let them select their own candidates for leadership elections in 2017, allowing only Beijing-backed politicians to stand.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/hong-kong-protests-demonstrators-clean-up-and-recycle-after-night-of-clashes-with-police-9761598.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/28/hong-kong-pro-democracy-protests_n_5896408.html

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Ed Milliband pledges to boost NHS spending through Mansion Tax.

I like this idea, but it needs to go further. Tax their mansions, their second homes, their 4th and 5th cars. Some people argue that this way you’re taxing people for working hard, and to this I always think “Well, I see tax and my insurance in case I’m not so lucky” and “Why shouldn’t my earnings be used to help others?”. Tax the heck out of the 1% and bring them back down to reality. The fact we have an NHS is simply awesome, and people should feel privileged (not robbed) that part of their earnings are going towards helping millions of people a year.

“He will say a “mansion tax” on homes worth more than £2m will help pay for the extra funding.

Labour is currently refusing to comment on what it describes as “speculation”.

The party has yet to spell out details of how its mansion tax would work. It could raise around £1.7bn a year, the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) says.

The Liberal Democrats also propose a mansion tax, while the Conservatives have ruled out such a plan, saying it is “not sensible”.”

Read the original BBC article here.

Emma Watson #HeForShe Launch Speech, and her 4Chan threat.

This video has gone viral, and for good reason. I wholeheartedly agree with Emma Watson’s speech (in fact it’s something I’ve believed for some years now), but as a result unfortunately the users of 4Chan have threatened her with nude photo leaks. That is nothing short of horrendous, but ironically it validates her point even more.

Vanity Fair  “Watson is pushing back against recent campaigns like Women Against Feminism. As Watson puts it elsewhere in her speech, these campaigns portray the feminist cause as “man-hating.” By involving both genders in the HeForShe campaign, Watson hopes to abolish the “us vs. them” mentality.”

Slate “Though there’s no way to know if this is a real threat, or just an ugly prank, Jill Filipovic of Cosmopolitan captured some 4chan users explicitly suggesting nude photo leaks to punish Watson for her outspoken feminism. “That feminist bitch Emma is going to show the world she is as much of a whore as any woman,” wrote one. “She makes stupid feminist speeches at UN, and now her nudes will be online, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH,” wrote another.”

Charming.

The speech has, however, been rightly and intenigently critiqued. I particularly appreciated Black Girl Dangerous’ blog post here:

The underlying message here is that women deserve equity and equality because of our relationships to men. Continuing to re-enforce the idea that men should respect women and fight for women’s equality because mother/sister/daughter/whatever perpetuates the idea that women don’t already deserve those things based solely on our status as human beings.”

Femmephobia

Scottish Independence, the aftermath.

Some interesting thoughts. I fancied a Yes vote, not because I believe I have any right to have a say in the matter, but as a historian I welcome change and I would have been interested to see Scotland develop independently. Hopefully the surge in political participation created by the referendum will live on, and the 80something% turnout will not be a one off event!

Counterfire: ‘No to independence, but no confidence in the Union’, by Chris Banbery.
Huffington Post:  ‘Scottish Referendum Has to Bring Real Change Across the UK’, by Natalie Bennet.
BBC News: ‘Green Party seeks ‘radical’ new political settlement’.

Monika Bulaj: “The Hidden Light of Afghanistan”

My undergraduate dissertation sparked a love affair between the History of Afghanistan and myself. Check out this awesome TED talk shows you why.

I’m all grown up and graduated now!

And have moved onto bigger and better things i.e. started a new blog!

Check it out here: http://daonchairdeas.wordpress.com/

P.S. Look who made it to Peru!

Description:

”

Just 21 year old recent-graduate who likes philanthropy, education, travelling, believes nobody is a know-it-all, and fancies herself as a blogger.

Sometime last year made a plan to ditch my original life-plan (to do a PGCE and teach), and see where the fates take me. As a result, this summer I’ll be teaching English with Education First (EF), followed by working as a Senior Mentor with NCS with The Challenge , before finally jetting off to Madrid in September to Aupair and learn español.

Read for posts about my travels, opinions, and general blabberings about the directions the fates and all that hippy jibba jabba decide to tug me towards.

Oh, I am also unbashedly dyslexic, so expect confused sentences, grammatical and spelling errors!

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/megan-wright/6b/201/200
Follow me on Twitter: @Nobodysaknwitall
Check me out on about.me: http://about.me/nobodysaknowitall “

Don’t ask me anything about music.

I know nothing, but I like the sound of these beauties: