- Turned off by Tumblr, uninterested in Twitter, not savvy enough for Reddit and too ugly for Instagram, Steemit is the perfect environment for me to introduce myself. I will be uploading articles on a range of subjects including anthropology, politics, and culture, sampling paragraphs from my book, and interacting with other users as I read, learn and interact with their work.
I see Steemit as a platform for us to have intelligent and engaging conversations on a number of topics that are relevant today and in the future, while providing the user demographics to help build Steemit as a community of free-speech enthusiasts, where quality produce is admired, and where we can talk without needing to resort to insults or violence or the threat of government intervention.
I will be keeping myself anonymous, not through any intent of trolling or posting controversial material deliberately created to cause uproar, but to protect my rights and civilities as a denizen in a country that closely observes outspoken critics of the government. While fortuitous to reside in a country that allows (in theory) free; press, speech, and religion, I'd prefer to keep my identity to a minimum until I feel safe within a large community of Steemers that are not afraid of growing right-wing governments, where suggestions to help change the system are not pushed into the dirt through either censorship or legal threats in the form of fines, imprisonment, harassment or torture, and where I can feel safe to discuss opinions without needing to use an avatar. I wish for Steemit to help us grow as a community that upholds the right of free-speech above all.
That will not mean that my articles will be impersonal; I will be uploading photos of the city I live in, hinting at what I do for a living, of where I like to eat and explore, and using examples from my everyday experiences to help support posts that I think might be interesting for other users to read.
My home-city is one that is undergoing social change, gentrification of the old and new, and growing civil unrest. Historic, packed with plentiful green spaces and parks, infamous for its literature, music, art and science, and full of it's fair share of charisma, my city is one that it's residents and visitors hold with love, excitement, and enthusiasm. My city has produced many important figures who have helped cure diseases, create characters in novels known in thousands of different classrooms across the globe, and introduce many human right laws that we now enjoy today. While prideful and adorned with history and memory, my home-city and our residents are ones that will listen gladly to tales of adventures from visitors, show newcomers to the city the best places to eat, relax and pray, and emphasise a strong community of togetherness and tolerance amongst neighbours, no matter where they have come from or where they have been.
There is no monetary gain for me to write my articles. My job allows me to have a bed and food, my employees to have a comfortable living, and my dog to get a new tennis ball every week. I am in a privileged position compared to many other human beings, and while not content to simply rest and simply be, I wish to help those that cannot help themselves. Where children are maimed in Syria through continual war, women are still undergoing FGM in rural African communities, and illegal human harvesting occurring on prisoners in China, I can see from my lofty privileged watchtower that there are many injustices, hardships and heartbreaks happening to people that I would never be able to feel (and never wish to). Observing the impact that these negative influences have on other people's lives, I desperately want to be the cure and not the cause for those people afflicted the most.
We should all be fighting for universal suffrage, to ensure that people of all race, age, faith, sex and capability are given the chance to succeed in life without discrimination or hatred. We should be fighting to allow everyone to have a voice, and not just those that can pay the most to have their opinion heard. We should be fighting for women to run for presidency, for gay teenagers to talk about their sexuality without being ostracised or violently upheld, for young girls to say no to arranged marriages, we as people in privileged positions should be fighting the most to help other humans survive. That privilege might only be a minimum wage job, or a home with central heating, but in an international community of such polarising sides of poverty and prosperity, we as a species as a whole should be trying a lot harder to help those at the bottom.
Who I am, what my name says on a piece of paper, my age or gender or class are not important. When ashes return to the ground when we are dead, we always remember what impact that person had on their life. If he was a good person. If he managed to buy that yacht he had been saving up for. If he managed in his capacity as a experienced doctor to help save countless lives, our inert characteristics should not be discriminated against in the actions or words we speak. It is what we do with our lives that is important, not the way we perceive our peers should see us.
In that regard, discarding all information about who I am, is it more relevant to ask who I want to be? Do I wish to see the continual injustice of a world dominated by capitalism in a rat race to reach the top, stomping all those before me including starving child slaves and sacrificing their daily ration of rice (along with their health and happiness) in exchange for a new pool on my holiday villa? Then, no I do not wish to be that person.
Do I wish to be someone that will raise discussion on how we can help that child not to only receive his ration of rice, but earn a wage, an education, the chance to marry a woman or man of his choice, to have a home that is warm and safe, to be free to practice his beliefs without being stoned or murdered, to have clean hospital beds to help soothe his sores and diseases, and to allow to him to prosper enough to provide his children with enough of a good life so that they too can have children with better living standards than previous generations, then yes, that is the person I wish to be. I want this community to also be that person, and if you are, please introduce yourself to me. I wish to meet you all, to talk and learn and to implement action.