This is something my father has said to my brother, sister and I all of our lives.  I try very hard to live by this, which is evident by the fact that I have not said anything online about people in my life who deserve it.  I feel that having a public forum like my blog is a place to be positive and peaceful and although I would love to call out people who have done me wrong, it is irresponsible and unacceptable.

This post was brought on because today I was on Formspring – a site where people can ask you questions – and one of the profiles that I follow is a huge DWW fan.  They call themselves their “biggest fans” and two separate anonymous people wrote negative questions/comments to them saying that they are not friends of the band and that they haven’t been fans for very long.  I had to respond to this negativity because it is just so unnecessary and childish – which may be due to the age of the commenter.  It really upset me that anyone would think to knock down a friend or fan of anyone.  We are all entitled to our own opinion, of course, but to be negative or put down someone on a public forum is just beyond ridiculous.

It baffles me that people bully each other online.  I find it absolutely disgusting that people do this and clearly anyone that does is immature, insecure and does not have respect for themselves or others.  It is sad that bullying has been the cause of so many young people’s suicides and that people still continue to do this with no thought of how it will affect another person.  We’ve all read Perez Hilton’s site and he was notorious for being rude, negative and a bully to celebrities.  He realized that what he was doing was detrimental to everyone’s lives and has made an real effort to clean up his blog and turn over a new leaf.

I am putting out a challenge to all of you – friends, fans, family, haters and anyone else who has a public persona online – to stand up and say NO to bullying and putting out negativity towards others online.  You can be the voice that is heard, you can be the one to stand up and maybe even save someone’s life.  No one deserves to be put down, harassed, embarassed or called out for their likes, beliefs, sexuality or being different.

Have you been a victim of bullying online?  Have you been the bully?  Share your stories in the comments.

“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”

My brother sent this to me today.  Watch it, read it, share it.

Chapter 14 – WHOA IS ME in India from Oana Dragan on Vimeo.

Many people talk about the rise of India today, yet one sixth of the entire population face many forms of appaling injustices and discrimination (http://www.ncdhr.org.in/ncdhr2/dalits-untouchability/dalits-untouchability). That is part of the reason I was compelled to create this music video. However, I wanted to spread the message in a creative and unique way that is not generally associated with the traditional charity/raising awareness type videos. I wanted to portray these kids as they really are; full of life, full of potential, and just like any other kids I have ever met. Thus, I used elements of our own popular culture so that we could look past the poverty they live in and see them for what they really are, us.

Please note, that although we were working in a Dalit village I cannot confirm that ALL of these kids featured in this video were in fact Dalit. I don’t think it matters because the point is still the same; all kids, regardless of background, deserve to be valued and deserve to have equal access to opportunities.

For more information on Dalits please visit these sites or you can do some research on Google:

http://www.ncdhr.org.in/ncdhr2/dalits-untouchability/dalits-untouchability

http://www.dalitnetwork.org/

For more information on how you can help these kids out by either becoming a volunteer, donating or starting your own fundraiser, please check out the site and read below:

www.golongitude.org

The Association of Relief Volunteers and Longitude were the organizations that I volunteered with. The following is information sent to me by a fellow volunteer at Longitude:

“Since 2005, Longitude has been sending international volunteers to India to work with ARV. The vast majority have taken part in work camps to help build houses. ARV and Longitude also collaborate to run a child’s education initiative, called a Child’s Chance Program. This program was implemented in the Fall of 2009 in 5 villages that ARV already works in, with Chevuru being the first and most successful program.

Based on the living conditions for the people of Chevuru and their isolation to a greater community, many of the village children do very poorly and drop out of school. Often, their parents do no understand the value of an education and place greater importance on domestic chores and agricultural work for an income. Even if a child wanted to learn and succeed in school, there are many factors working against them.

The Child Chance Program seeks to improve this situation by providing more accessibility to education for Chevuru children. Generous donations have allowed ARV to supply a certified teacher to Chevuru to provide 3 hours of after-school tutoring and lessons 6 days a week! And our attendance records have proved that these children want to learn by showing up everyday. In our first year alone, 100% of students improved their grades and/or attendance at school for at least a term. 30 of 35 10th year students passed their exams in order to continue their education to secondary school and college!

These successes will ultimately be the catalyst that lifts these families out of destitute poverty. We are very excited about the positive changes we’ve already seen, and hope for even greater changes to come! Please visit our website to learn more about the program. Make sure to stay involved reading blogs, donating to Child Chance campaigns, and starting your own fundraiser to educate and sponsor these children in their efforts to build a better life.”