Don’t let your generosity be fooled: when signing a petition, you’ll be asked to ‘chip in’ to help promote the cause. ‘Chipping in’ sounds benign but it’s just a way of asking for money while you are in a vulnerable frame of mind.
Having just signed a petition on change.org urging the Iranian regime not to execute a young protester, Hassan Firouzi (see below), I was asked to ‘chip in’ to help spread the message of the petition. What concerns me is the vaguely misleading way this is done; we are encouraged to think that by chipping in we’re helping to promote the cause. Well, yes, insomuch as it helps fund change.org’s for-profit business.
I searched for some more info, and found this, at lifehacker
When a petition was launched to demand that the police officers who killed George Floyd be charged for their actions, it got more than 17 million signatures. And as you can imagine, a considerable portion of those 17 million people chipped in—more than half a million, according to The Verge.
While the call-out box on the petition page made it clear that funds would go not directly to the cause but only toward the promotion of the petition, a growing group of former Change.org employees says it’s misleading and harmful to ask for money that way.
“Change.org is siphoning resources away from organizations that are accountable to black people and equipped to do deeper, long-term, community-based organizing for black lives and liberation,” the open letter to Change.org leadership says. In fact, the letter argues that since Change.org is a for-profit corporation, it’s “profiting from the death of black people.”
Since the open letter was published on Medium, Change.org has disabled the chip-in feature on some of the site’s most popular petitions.
When it comes down to it, Change.org can do whatever it wants with any money it raises through its site, and it’s not obligated to be transparent about how much money is collected or how it gets spent.
Change.org petition notice:
Hassan Firouzi, only 34 years old, has been sentenced to death by the Islamic Regime in Iran after being arrested on November 26th for protesting. He was taken to Iran’s notorious Evin Prison and has been severely tortured and forced into a false confession. He has not been allowed proper legal counsel and was given a sham trial, before being sentenced to execution. He is to be executed once his injuries heal and was only granted medical attention so that he would “look healthy” for his execution. Hassan’s only wish is to see his newborn daughter one last time before his execution. These are his own words from his last phone from the hospital before he was transferred back to prison:
“I only have one request from the Iranian people. Do something to help me see my daughter one more time. Whether or not I sign confession papers, they will kill me. My only wish is to see my daughter one last time. After 10 years, God finally gave us a child. I only got to see her for 18 days (before being arrested for protesting). I miss my daughter so much. My only wish is that I get to see my daughter one last time before they kill me.”
We cannot let another innocent life be taken away. We cannot let an innocent man be taken away from his daughter and hung to his death, simply for asking for freedom. The Islamic Republic of Iran is known for not executing those whose names are trending and those that have gained worldwide attention. Let’s get his name trending! Be the voice of HASSAN FIROUZI.
SIGN AND SHARE THIS PETITION, SPREAD THE WORD, SHARE HIS NAME.
EMERGENCY NOTE:
Following the executions of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini on the 7th January, we are extremely worried that Hassan Firouzi’s life is in extreme danger and that he could be executed at any moment.
| Sign now with a click |
It appears to me, nation wide, in only very recent times, police officers from sevearal states have been aired in media with criminal charges. The media generally protect their masters, and silence is the agenda.
I have to say there is a movement within Australia, against corrupt cops in every State and Territory, Corrupt Politicians, Corrupt Bureaucrats, and Corrupt Judiciary, including the Federal Government who are ultimately in control and responsible for the welfare of the people, Citizens, Residents and Visitors.
What I can foresee, is a Civil War in Australia which was sparked at Glenrowan and been simmering in the country and the burbs ever since; unless change occurs; rapidly. The best start for change, for the welfare of the people in Australia, is the establishment of a National Criminal Case Review Commission.
Act in the ACT. God Bless Australia. Owen.
An interesting point of view Owen.
The reality and honest history is that the policing in Victoria, and probably all along the east coast, was driven by the doctrine of an administration following Londons Metropolitan Police, and the functionality/practices of the disgraced Irish Constabulary, (then the Royal Irish Constabulary). A well recorded and recognised quasi militarised, armed, and brutal thug outfit that recruited from the lower echelons of a then stratified and culturally ignorant community that was comfortable in carrying out the British desires of racial and religious persecutions/crusades, with the sole aim of enforcing and empowering the then British Empire. Most policing types I have read came from Irish backgrounds, but the administrative officialdom has always been in the control of the British exclusives themselves.
In efforts to keep a somewhat balanced perspective with regard to the then supposedly justified extrajudicial murders, (Ben Hall for one), and brutality against certain selected races and religiously defined sections of the colonial Australian community, I place the colonial Australia era recorded experiences in the same paradigm as other timelines involving British exploitation, extortion and thuggery, globally. A quick review of British involvement in wars at that time in Africa, Asia, Europe, India, and our own Oceania, confirms the pattern that continued in a very young anglo celtic white Australia, as it wilted under the barbarity of monstrous, British colonial rule.
The recognised and remembered factor is that to this day, very little has changed within the cowardly cultures of policing. Sanctified extrajudicial murders by policing forces are rampant across our nation, along with the misuse of supposed judicial processes that in turn through devalued probity, highlight the inadequacies and failures of our systems today. (Sue Neill Fraser is a classic example).
Ultimately it is only correct that awareness through communication and modern day technology expose the failures of sections of our administrations to govern honestly, pragmatically, and impartially.
The step back to the colonial era is sadly, but seemingly not a difficult one to make for many among our public servants, in all states and territories.
The Iran government is nothing less than a gang of mad fools using some crazy religious belief to dictate their miserable lives and the lives of all others under the pathetic dictatorship.
The actions of the queensland police on Palm Island cost queensland 30 million in damages-after one well liked Aboriginal in the community was bashed to death in police custody-