Can you believe how much money the Russian government put into the Sochi Olympics? Like, do you even know how much money that was? I mean, I don’t know exactly, but it was like billions of dollars, I heard. And where do you think that money comes from?

It’s not just sitting there, waiting to be spent on hockey games. It came from killing dogs, you guys. You people need to know that. You should know it, I posted a Huffington Post piece about it. Maybe if people stopped caring so much about what medal their country got in the skeleton or whatever and read the internet for once, they’d see what’s really going on.

The president of Russia killed a guy because he didn’t get a medal in figure skating. It’s true. I read an article about it. Well, I read the headline and the first two paragraphs, but that’s what it said. And there’s all this stuff happening in Ukraine, you guys. Like, really bad stuff. I don’t think you realize how bad it is, but it’s bad. You want to know how bad? I’ll tell you exactly what’s happening there; there are so many news articles about it online, on CNN.com and stuff you can go read. I posted a bunch of them yesterday on Facebook, so just check out my profile to see them.

See, maybe I just care too much about what’s going on in the world or something, but I can’t help feeling that I’m doing so much more than my part to make a difference. If more people read these articles, maybe they’d see that something has to be done. We can’t just keep sitting around doing nothing, we have to get engaged and make a real difference. That’s why I hit “share” on so many of these links. If no one else is willing to do it, how will we ever make any progress?

In fact, just earlier today I posted a status admonishing people for caring so much about a hockey game, even if it was the gold medal one, and expressing my hope that now that it’s done, maybe they can take a look at what’s going on in the world around them. And you know what? That status update got several likes. Now that’s what I’m talking about when I say making a real difference. The world needs more people to spread awareness like that. It’s called having an impact, and most people just don’t seem to have the guts to do it.

I watched a bit of this TED Talk the other week, and the guy in it was saying something about how nowadays with the internet and social media we’re all more connected than ever before, but at the same time we’ve never been so distant from each other. Was “distant” the word he used? Whatever, something like that. Like, he was saying that even though we’re all communicating with each other all the time, we’re not, like, really saying anything, or anything. Y’know? I posted the link, you should check it out.

“Disconnected!” That’s the word he used, not “distant.”

Anyhow, I guess I can sort of understand why so many people don’t care enough to get involved. It can be hard work a lot of the time. I’ve spent so much of my time the last couple weeks telling people why they shouldn’t be paying so much attention to what’s going on in Sochi when there’s so much terrible stuff happening outside Sochi. It’s been exhausting. And that came right on the heels of me spending weeks telling people why they shouldn’t be paying so much attention to what Justin Bieber is doing, but should be outraged by what’s happening in Sochi! It can be overwhelming.

If you’ve read this far, you’re obviously someone who’s concerned with what’s happening, and wants to make a difference. Or if you’ve just skipped to the last couple paragraphs to see what the point of the whole article is, which is what I usually do. So I encourage you to share this with your friends. And not just this, but every link you come across that talks about important stuff. Without people like you and me to take the problem into our own hands and make a difference, nothing will ever change.

We need to get the message out. That someone needs to do something. We have a voice. And we owe it to ourselves, and to the world, to use that voice to make it clear to everyone we know that we’re serious about this change. And we need to do it with the smallest possible amount of effort from ourselves. So, please, click “share.”

 

Photo by jcburns via Flickr

Yesterday footage of Kossac militia in Sochi beating and actually whipping members of the now-infamous political punk group Pussy Riot while they were performing in protest of the Olympics made its way around the mediasphere and the web. While it’s astonishing that a country already struggling with bad press would allow its police to use such archaic yet brutal means of repression in front of the world media, I find it more astonishing and impressive that the group went right back into the belly of the beast just a short time after some of their members were released from jail after being incarcerated for doing a similar type of performance/protest.

I’m equally impressed with their ability to get the music video they were filming guerilla-style when the whip-yielding cops busted in out so quickly…and presto, here it is, their video for Putin will teach you how to love, shot outside of the Sochi Olympic Games, with an English translation of the lyrics below the video:

50 billion and a gay-driven rainbow,
Rodnina and Kabaeva will pass you those flames
In prison they will teach you how to obey
Salut to all bosses, hail, duce!

Putin will teach you how to love the motherland

Sochi is blocked – Olympic surveillance
Special forces, weapons, crowds of cops
FSB is an argument, the police is an argumentState tv will run your applause.

Putin will teach you how to love the motherland

Spring to Russia comes suddenly
Hello to the messiah as a shot from Avrora
The prosecutor will put you down
Give him some reaction and not those pretty eyes

A cage for the protests, vodka, matrioshka
Prison for May 6, more vodka and caviar
The Constitution is lynched, Vitishko’s in prison
Stability, the prison meal, the fence and the watchtower

For TV Rain they’ve shut down the airwaves
They took gay pride down the washroom
A two-ass toilet – a priority
Sentence to Russia, medium security, 6 years

Putin will teach you how to love the motherland

The motherland
The motherland
The motherland