The sleeping giant has awoken...
Ricken Patel - Avaaz
Dear Avaaz community,
Across the planet, millions of people young and old are flooding the streets and mobilising online to reject corruption and injustice and speak of a more beautiful world. A new Twitter hashtag in Brazil tells the story: #OGiganteAcordou. Translation: “The sleeping giant has awoken".
And Avaaz - now nearly 25 million strong! - is there almost everywhere it's happening. In one example, the Brazilian Senate repeatedly cited our community last week when they voted to give any 500,000 citizen petition the power to directly introduce measures to the government.
We're growing by well over 1 million people per month, and it's accelerating. As more citizens shake off the slumber we are realising that the world really is ours and, while we face great challenges, what happens next, depends on all of us.
Because when we come together, and stay together, we win. Scroll down for victories and updates, just from the last several weeks:
Brazil says NO to Corruption, YES to 21st Century Democracy!
Brazilians are saying enough is enough to rampant corruption. First it was the hugely successful Clean Record Law campaign, to bar politicians convicted of crimes from running for office -- which studies have shown Avaaz played a key role in winning. Now an Avaaz member has created the biggest online petition in Brazilian history -- with over 1.6 million voices demanding that Senators kick out the Senate President, a disgraced politician under a cloud of corruption allegations. He’s still there for now, but we’re close to ending the secret voting process which allowed him to get the Senate top spot.
Even better, the Senate just voted to make it easier and faster for citizens to force politicians to take action. Avaaz was repeatedly cited during the Senate debate, in which they agreed to halve how many people need to sign popular initiative petitions, and they determined that online signatures can count! Now we’re going all out to get the lower house on board.
avaaz@avaaz.org |
Delivering our 1.6 million voices to Brazil's Senate