Miley Twerking On Things We Should Talk About

The last few days my Facebook news feed has been inundated with ‘news’ from the MTV Video Music Awards. Newspapers are picking up on the ‘drama’ from the award ceremony, and the internet is aflutter with ‘controversy’ around Miley Cyrus and her overtly sexy routine and her ‘twerking’ on Robin Thicke. There are arguments from all corners, and to be honest, I couldn’t care less.

What I am interested in is this new Tumblr blog: Miley Twerking On Things We Should Talk About. Its sentiment “If she’s twerking on it, maybe we’ll pay attention” is a sad indicator of how we perceive issues and their relative importance today. Since this is the IPF, we are clearly more interested in world events than Miley, so we thought we’d share some of our favourites from the blog.

Egypt: 

Key Reads: 

• Egypt: “I Literally Felt a Bullet Pass Over my Shoulder” 
• Watch: Egypt’s Epidemic of Sexual Violence 
• A New Hope?
• F.A.Q. on U.S. Aid to Egypt: Where Does the Money Go, And How Is It Spent?

Leaking:

Key Reads:

• Chelsea Manning Denied Transgender Rights in Prison
• Snowden, Censorship & the Surveillance State
• Does the NSA Tap That? What We Still Don’t Know About the Agency’s Internet Surveillance
• Snowden, the NSA, and Latin America: Beyond the Headlines

Dirty Wars:

Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill is pulled into an unexpected journey as he chases down the hidden truth behind America’s expanding covert wars.

http://dirtywars.org/

Garment Factory Collapse:

Back in April a garment factory collapsed in Savar, Bangladesh killing 1,129 mostly female workers and injuring roughly 2,500 more.

Most of the clothes we buy from major retailers in the West come from a global network of factories where women work extreme hours for miniscule pay in deplorable conditions.

Key Reads:

• Bangladesh Factory Collapse: A Call For Change
• Is Your Love Of Fashion Supporting Bonded Child Labour?

What issues would you add to the list?