Thursday Feb 26th, 2015
A plea for my immigration status to be reconsidered
To whom it may concern
Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is Tee (I have deliberately omitted my full names because of fear), I am 26years old and I hailfrom Nigeria. At the moment, excluding my older sister who lives in the UK with her husband and family, the entirety of my family live in Nigeria. Although I do not speak any Nigerian language, I spent some time in the UK and I speak English as my first language, with intermediate Korean language being my second language. I have been in Korea since March 2008, 6 years now to be exact. I would please like to urge you to have an open mind while reading this and not let my nationality - I understand Nigerians do not exactly have a good reputation in Korea - cloud...
Politics
Dear you,
I'm sure you've already heard all the reasons why it's important that you get out and vote. All of them are meant to pull on your heartstrings - this is especially true if you are a woman; a woman who doesn't vote might invoke the wrath of all those past suffragettes who in some cases actually died to get a vote. But, when all is said and done, voting needs to invoke hope for the future, not rememberance of the past. And it is for that reason that I am writing this letter.
We have a funny old system in this country for voting. First past the post makes it sound like a horse race, and with the number of old Etonians running for the top, you could be forgiven for thinking that this was not just a name. However, what this means is that your vote only counts in your...
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Dear Ana Moura,
Your Irish fans and the many Irish lovers of Fado music will be eager to give you a warm Irish welcome when you perform in our National Concert Hall on 19th January next.
However, if you persist with your plan to perform in Israel on 27th January, in violation of the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of the Israeli state, that welcome will be balanced by a demonstration against your indifference to the fate (= “fado”) of the Palestinian people.
In his Christmas message, the Mayor of Bethlehem, Victor Batarseh (a Roman Catholic) has called for “boycotting Israel culturally, educationally, in sports, economics and trade. This is the only way to make Israel come back to the negotiating table and make peace… It worked with South Africa.”
The Mayor is not...
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Dear Mr. Kittiratt Na-Ranong Minister of Finance,
As students of the San Francisco-based Presidio Graduate School’s Masters of Business Administration program, we are collaborating with a small startup business in Thailand in attempting to identify potential funding sources. Our research has revealed that there is a significant funding gap for small and medium startup enterprises (SMEs) in this region. We are writing in order to bring greater attention to this problem, as well as offer a few recommendations that might help close this crucial gap.
The Funding Gap
According to the Bank of Thailand, in 2010, lending to large enterprises totaled 3.6 trillion baht for approximately 86,000 ies, while lending to small and medium sized enterprises totaled 1 trillion baht for over 958,...
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Dear Governor Oshiomhole:
I will like to congratulate you on your July 14th election victory and successful swearing-in ceremony for a second term as the Governor of Edo State on Monday, November 12, 2012. The Edo people have given you the mandate to continue the infrastructural development projects you started during your first term and they expect nothing less in your second term.
As an Edolite, I am writing to you to express my opinion and expectations for your second term’s administration. In one of your press interviews on assumption of office in 2008, you said “But in Edo State we are going to evolve a government that will be led by the people, by which we mean a bottom up approach in policy formulation, because there are so many things/challenges confronting our people...
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Dear Mr. Badass Veteran Nick Powers,
As-salamu alaykum.
I read your open letter to ISIS with much enthusiasm, and thought a badass veteran like you deserved a response.
First off, nice grammar and punctuation. My 12-year-old son fighting in Tikrit sounds more coherent and he has never had a day of formal education. Believe it or not I was actually made aware of the insignificant communication platform you people call a ‘blog’ while I was cutting the head off of someone who does not agree with my own beliefs.
Strange how this world works.
Anyway, you do sound impressive in your open letter. I am sure your combat experience has hardened you into a truly formidable warrior. What was the worst part about being deployed to my part of the world? The long lines in your “Green...
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Dear Mr President,
The world is watching as your administration responds to the most recent evidence of torture and degrading treatment of Iraqis at the hands of US personnel. While Amnesty International welcomes official statements that the allegations are being taken seriously, the ultimate proof of this will be in actions not words. In this regard, your government's record in the context of "war on terror" detentions gives cause for concern, as fundamental principles of law and human rights continue to be violated despite the administration's stated commitment to these principles.
Amnesty International recalls your statement on 26 June 2003, made on the occasion of the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, in which you said that "the United States is...
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Dear Representative,
The Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA is a social justice network dedicated to the fundamental human rights of sex workers and their communities, focusing on ending violence and stigma through education and advocacy. Members of the Seattle chapter of SWOP, SWOP-Seattle, are hoping to offer a dissenting opinion to the pervasive myth that all sex work is inherently damaging and exploitative.
(This letter is in response to multiple bills in both the House and Senate which increase penalties for patronizing a prostitute to include asset seizure and the reclassification to a gross misdemeanor, and widening the definition of “human trafficking”.)
Of particular concern to us is the language inserted into recent bills which conflates prostitution with “human...
3,277
Dear Home Secretary,
I understand that, like me, you personally oppose the death penalty. You may have seen that a majority of British voters now share this position, and that public support for capital punishment has fallen to its lowest level since records began.
Your rejection of capital punishment is of course consistent with the stance of the Government in which you serve, which has a “five year strategy” to abolish the death penalty worldwide.
I am writing to ask how you reconcile this position with your Department’s active support for thousands of death sentences overseas; many of which have been handed down to women and children who faced sham trials in kangaroo courts.
Under your tenure as Secretary of State, the Home Office has been Europe’s most generous funder of...
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Dear Members of Parliament,
Please accept this collective open letter as an expression of the signatories’ deep concern that Bill C-51 (which the government is calling the Anti-terrorism Act, 2015) is a dangerous piece of legislation in terms of its potential impacts on the rule of law, on constitutionally and internationally protected rights, and on the health of Canada’s democracy.
Beyond that, we note with concern that knowledgeable analysts have made cogent arguments not only that Bill C-51 may turn out to be ineffective in countering terrorism by virtue of what is omitted from the bill, but also that Bill C-51 could actually be counter-productive in that it could easily get in the way of effective policing, intelligence-gathering and prosecutorial activity. In this respect, we...
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