Black Gold

please watch this series of videos! its about how starbucks exploits the people of Ethiopia.

And The World Goes On: a rhyme by yours truely

I wake up in the morning and I try to figure out
What went wrong did I lose myself?
Is that everything is continuously changing?
Or in my head my memories are constantly rearranging?
With every single day that passes me by
I look back and I wonder and I ask myself why
Didn’t anybody stop!? and try to realize
that we repeat the same motions and our lives are a lie
As if that’s how its supposed to be
Waiting for all the blind folk to open their eyes and see
Well I’m changing and so is the world but
I’d be a damn fool to keep my mouth shut
Some folk say I’m too demanding, I want people to start changing
I want business to come back and stop outsourcing
So ill tell you my thoughts and show you that I’m not afraid
And if you want to follow or lead, then go ahead !
Don’t only blame the powers that be for all the destruction
It is us who sits by and allows their pollution
And when you’re sick and tired of being the only one
Rise up throw your ideas out, but still have your fun
Step back and watch their motives change
If nothing else happens, you’re not the only one to blame
Remember if no one out in the world is loving you
At least you know that to yourself you’ll always be true

And the world goes on…
As life goes on…

It seems like there’s too many people doing blaming
And not enough people doing the changing!
When will the world come to realize
That the number one country hides behind a disguise
Its like Halloween 24/7
Except underneath is the fucking ugliest section
It’s as though the whole world has an infection
And the worst spot, is this spot! the most corporate
infested
I always wonder where are the Revolutionaries?
The activist and the humans rights armies
It’ll be a sad day…
When you hear that the last of the open minded passed away
I’ll be damned if I let that happen
As long as I’m here I’ll keep my mind clean and mouth rappin
I wont ever let it be in my time
And when I leave this world I’ll pass on my rhymes
Metaphorically speaking that’s how ill keep the torch going
I’ll make sure that the young and old are always knowing
About the corporate lies and the hate crimes
On countries and people who want peaceful lives
I dare any of you to try to stop me,
I’ll hail down on you with a mirage of lyrical bullets hard
and swiftly.
Hopefully it’ll never come to that
I rather chill with my homies, make progress, and kick back
Right now it’s a lonely world
There’s so much poverty it could start take us all over
With their motherfucking capitalistic plans
I have faith one day our earth will be in better hands

And life goes on
As the world goes on…

Individualism

In broader context people seem to think that individualism is merely trying to be different from their family and peers, but that train of thought is only one of many preconceived mindsets that is enthralled and fixed into our society. It is a result of people only being aware of their immediate surroundings and influences and not the context in which engulfs us all (meaning everyone in the world). The problem with this idea of individualism is that they are trying to experience something other than what is expected of them but it’s limited to their little bubble of comfort. In order for them have a broader perspective and understanding of their self, their culture and their world it is almost necessary to look at ones self from the outside, as if you were looking down on the planet from outer space and you see yourself and every action you do compared to every action everyone else does. Only then may you understand your part in the greater society of the world. It’s kind of like a puzzle, but this puzzle has billions of pieces and is extremely complicated. In that case being an Individual would certainly be a hard task to achieve. Trying to obtain true individualism is a sort of self curiosity that many people lack due to their fear of rejection by society (aka the puzzle’s picture). One can only truly understand how the world works once they understand how it is that they work in the world and if you so choose to be an individual and you achieve it, you will certainly find that it is not easy and the odds are against you, but there is still hope! If enough people like yourself choose to follow the same path as you, then you can create a new puzzle, one that lays on top of the old one you use to be a part of, a layer of hope I call it. With this layer of hope their will be new pieces and a new picture, but once again you are no longer an individual. So tell me is that truly what you want, to be an Individual? Or do you want to find more people who fit into the same part of the puzzle as you? Don’t worry this question has no right or wrong answer just a solution.

Start Supporting Your Local Businesses

for every hour you work you're making someone else at the least 10 times as much as you're getting per hour sometimes as much as or more than 100+ times your hourly wage before taxes. We continue to act as though that is normal and its what is necessary
but that is not the case!

as little as thirty years ago people made around 30% more money per year than we do now. as companies yearly gross profit percentage goes up, our yearly pay goes down or stays stagnant in certain job areas. Majority continue to overlook this problem b/c they make excuses such as:
at least we are getting something or I have to do what is necessary to survive. Well the truth is we are just settling for the bottom of the barrel. We are suffering in the long run as most of the money goes into a select few's pockets and less of it goes back into ours and our communities. As the majority of the population we should get majority of the money!

That is why i propose we all start supporting local business more and more with each new day and start boycotting big businesses such as Walmart, Starbucks, McDonalds etc.

If you want to make a difference in your life and future generations lives even one small little change in your life right now can influence the future and make it a little better for everyone else yet to come. Stop being the greedy individual society has socialized you to be and realize that there are others who are less fortunate and will need us to make smarter more informed decisions to insure that prosperity and security of their future!

Coffee Shop Secret Survey Part 1

While working for a cafe in a little bookstore I shall not name for legal purposes I secretly conducted a survey which to my ability is as accurate as possible without offending people. The Data is as follows:

Body mass index (BMI) is how i measured most of these people. Since I did it secretly I had to do it by eye. It was very obvious which people were overweight obese or not. I probably cut people a lot more slack than they deserved, but with that said here is the BMI percentages I used and how i roughly judged by eye which category they fell under.

# A BMI of 18.5–24.9 is normal weight (meat on their bones or skinny)
# A BMI of 25.0–29.9 is overweight (protruding stomach and thick legs/arms/neck)
# A BMI of 30.0–34.9 is class I obesity (overlapping fat and as well as the overweight symptoms)

this guy is way too hardcore to drink coffee! haha

Approx 1/3 or 33% of the coffee customers were found to be not overweight, but they weren't in top physical shape either. 80% of them bought regular brewed coffee the other 20% either got coffee with flavored syrup or with liquid ice cream in it.

Around 45% of the coffee consumers were most definitely overweight and seemed to favor the espresso coffee with more syrup and ice cream than the lower weighted consumers.

The Obese customers which comprised of about 22% of the coffee customers also found the sweater syrup filled coffees and ice cream based coffee malts more appealing.

I believe the Age relation to these weight levels has a lot today with how each of the generations was raised. Here's that data:

Ages 10-14 99% loved the ice cream based coffees
Ages 15-19 80% purchased the espresso coffees with syrup or ice cream base.
Ages 20-29 about 90% of them went with the espresso coffees adding syrup and whip cream
Ages 30-39 purchased approx. the same data as the 20-29 year olds
Ages 40-50 were split down the middle, 50% going with regular old fashion coffee
and the other 50% branching off to try the newer generation's choice of
high calorie and sweat caffeine beverage.
Ages 50+ there wasnt a large number elderly coming to the shop to buy coffee, but
if they did buy coffee it was just a regular brew either medium or dark.



With this rough data and my own personal experience of selling this product every day it seems to me that people over the age of 40 are more prone to buying a regular brewed coffee as compared to one made with espresso shots and liquid ice cream. The espresso drinks with added syrup and the ice cream based coffees are more popular with the younger crowd. could this be due to some cultural changes in the past couple of decades? I would think so.

Oppression, and Do We Have It!?

The signs of being oppressed are all here. Just like the signs of a cold, you may have one or two or maybe all of them at once, sometimes they don't show up till a later time. Sometimes they are so common that you get use to the idea and shrug it off like it's no big deal until it gets worse that is...

Today's American society is far more worried about obtaining a false sense of wealth rather than what some call true power. The wealth advertised in the media displayed to the united states citizens is just a mere smoke screen to what having true wealth or power is really like. These same people also known as the elite call most if not all of the shots dealing with our economic, political, and social decisions as a nation by what I'd like to call Mass Distributor Influence. That is basically when one or more persons with a highly ranked economic and/or political, and/or social status has enough power to influence one or more huge corporations to shift the direction they are going, whether it be a message or product, creating a domino effect among all the businesses affiliated with the huge corporations to benefit the common interest of the elite. Which there after the products and/or message of these corporations either have a negative or positive effect. Most often a negative effect that is unknowing to the consumers that ignorantly support it and therefor support the elite's interest and agenda.

This is definitely one of the major ways we are oppressed, by the controlling of products whether tangible or not (information) we are further oppressed by the lack of debate of these issues and the erosion of civil liberties such as freedom of speech. These are most certainly no the only ways the people of the united states are oppressed and we are certainly one of the less oppressed compared to other less fortunate countries, but the guilt resulting from the actions of these corporations should not be thrusted upon the minds of this countries citizens when they are unknowingly contributing to the demise of other countries and their people. Instead they should be made aware of these actions and be allowed to judge for themselves whether it is right or wrong to support the elite and leave it up to people of other countries to see that our country is made up of a variety kind hearted people with individual ideas that are rendered unselfish and that the people hurting the less fortunate countries (a.k.a. corporations) and if anyone should be held responsible it should be the ones oppressing the less fortunate countries as well as the ones that oppress the citizens of the United States.

Abuse, Addiction, and Obsession

I fear what we call a normal person these days wouldn't be able to distinguish the difference between these words. It's sad how our society has let the meanings of words become so infused with others, leaving the difference of one word to another insignificant. I will make my point by letting you think about examples in your head then think about what each of the words above mean to you and how they are related to one another...


Okay now I'll begin to explain in my own words the best I can starting with Abuse.

Abuse is when a person has harm inflicted upon themself by any means. for example when a very sad and lonely person gets extremely drunk to "dull" the pain of a loss or when a kid who got a bunch of pain killers from the dentist pops the whole bottle to loosen up to have some fun etc. There is a cause for everything so until the cause is no longer there then the abuse will continue in other forms if the prior one is not available.

Animal Abuse. Estimated 17,403 cases are brought to the court in the U.S. every year, imagine all the ones that aren't known...

The continuation of abuse can lead to addiction when the body realizes it use to have a bunch of a certain chemical in itself and no longer has it so it tricks the mind into thinking it needs it or the other way around when the addictions comes first and makes the user abuse it.

Heroin Addict who Abused.

Addictions help you... make stupid decisions.


Remember Thomas the little train that could? " i think i can i think i can" well your brain is a very powerful thing. If it thinks it needs it, your body will need it. It's that simple, until the addiction is weened and the cause for abuse is gone. Addiction can mentally and physically hurt a person and their loved ones for obvious reasons. I'm a strong believer in if a person does not want help destroying their addiction then truly they may never become clean and independent of the need for the substance.

Because of Abuse this Child is Scarred for Life.


Now the dependency on a substance is not to be confused with the dependency on an object or activity which is more mental then physical. Obsessions start in the brain as well but more thought is involved. Obsessions start with an idea and then the person becomes afixiated on the idea or feeling associated with something. Like a person who's obsessed with shopping because it brings them the feeling of happiness or wealth etc which are triggered by chemicals in the brain. All of these things are related to one another and can be experience at the same time or separately. I'll try to demonstrate this below.

abuse --> abuse + addiction
obsession --> obsession + addiction or --> Obsession + addiction + abuse
addiction --> addiction + abuse

as you can see abuse is the worst scenario and obsession can trigger addiction followed by abuse.
The body is a fragile thing and should be respected as well as the meaning of words otherwise you might become very confused and end up abusing the image of our society by showing others the inability of our nation to use our own language correctly.

Power

Power, the force in which one has the authority and/or ability to control and manipulate something. That is what we all struggle for. Sometimes it's as simple as having the power to make the decision on what you are wearing today or sometimes its about what we want our life to be or mean. Regardless of what you want to have control of it's a constant struggle between you and the opposing forces.

Who might those opposing forces be? Many people are unaware of them due to modern distractions that are imprinted into our minds thanks to things like our friends, family, and in general the Media. The Media is mostly Controlled by only 5 corporations. The 2nd largest being viacom which owns TV stations like mtv, vh1 and many others along with stations and movie production companies etc.

The majority of young Americans are influenced to go to college to get a high paying job or to save up to by that fancy new gadget at the local electronics store, but what good is a high paying job if the American dollar is worth less every day? The word power is often used to describe someones physical and brute strength or the might of a nation's military, but it's not just that, It's your ability to make conscious decisions and reactions to your surrounding environment. Next time someone tells you that you can or can't do something because it's illegal, morally wrong, or they just don't want you to, remember everything is for a reason and just because you don't know it doesn't mean it does not exist. Whether you disagree or not and want to make it change is up to you. Changing something big as one person is very difficult. It's the constant struggle between the power of one person and the power of the law or social norms of a society.

When there is one or more people involved then the sides of power are shifted further from The authority. If a group of people are joined together for the cause of one or more things, then their combined ability to control and manipulate the social norms can shift the situation if they so choose. Therefore, the more people united together for a single cause, the more control the people have, the less effective corruption becomes, resulting in democratic power being obtained by the people to get what is wanted...