Peacekeeper Truth Serum Blog

Founded in 1987, Domestic Violence Awareness Month is a chance to bring together people around the world to join in the common cause of ending violence against women and their children.

The 2012 Day of Unity was celebrated Monday, October 1, and was commemorated with events across the country. Here are a few of our favorite events, activities, and thoughts about DVAM:

• Hungry for Justice: Food Security and Violence Against Women. Author Sarah Kalloch eloquently discusses the disturbing correlations between world hunger and domestic violence. (Note: World Food Day is tomorrow, October 16th; read this essay to see how you can participate.)
• In Tonawanda, NY, the local YWCA is lit up with purple spotlights to increase awareness of domestic violence and women’s support services.
• Bliss Tree made a list of 8 ways to spot domestic abuse.
• If you’re interested in creating an event of your own, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence has a list of resources and activity ideas.
• And last but not least:  President Obama’s DVAM 2012 Proclamation.

How have you celebrated Domestic Violence Awareness Month?  Leave us a comment sharing your stories.

With Love,
The PeaceKeeper Team
www.iamapeacekeeper.com

PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics is the first cosmetic line to give donations to urgent human rights issues globally.
Want to become a PeaceKeeper too? Take a peek at our products and check out the causes we support.

This week, we’re shouting out to NYC’s hottest new approach to sustainable technology – The Lowline!

Inspired by the success of the High Line (an NYC elevated freight line converted into a stunning public park) a group called The Delancey Underground Project aims to create an underground green space using an abandoned trolley terminal beneath Delancey Street, on New York’s Lower East Side. The designers are planning to use cutting-edge green technology to enable a functional below-ground ecosystem; sunlight, reflected underground, would save electricity while allowing plants, trees, and grass to thrive.

It looks like their dreams may become a reality very soon; The Delancey Underground Project recently had a successful Kickstarter run back in April, and they are hosting events through the month of September to increase community interest in the project. Ultimately, the creators of the Lowline hope to “provide tremendous opportunities for creative expression, while challenging assumptions of the way humans work, live, commute, and interact”; this includes community programs such as art exhibits, farmers’ markets, and educational series. “This space will be more than a space,” says the project’s website. “It will generate community, and it will inspire in the way beautiful environments can inspire.”

We at PeaceKeeper are super excited to have a new park in NYC, especially one that’s using cutting-edge sustainable technology to make the world a greener place! To find out more, you can visit thelowline.org or check out their old Kickstarter campaign.

Image courtesy Delancey Underground Kickstarter.

With Love,
The PeaceKeeper Team
www.iamapeacekeeper.com

PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics is the only cosmetics company to give donations to urgent human rights issues around the world.
Want to become a PeaceKeeper too? Check out our products and the causes we support!

Hi PeaceKeepers,

If your calendar’s anything like ours, it’s packed with amazing Summer events; weddings, birthdays, outdoor concerts, even a block party or two! While you’re out having fun in the sun, you want to look as gorgeous as possible without breaking a sweat, and PeaceKeeper’s got the perfect products to help you out.

Through July 31, check out our Midsummer Sale and get 20% off everything – and we mean everything: our USDA-approved YUM Balms (in four fruity flavors), our shimmery Lip Glosses, and our Vegan Nail Paints – perfect beauty products for a hot day! Use promo code JULY at checkout.

With Love,
The PeaceKeeper Team
www.iamapeacekeeper.com

PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics is the only cosmetics company to give donations to urgent human rights issues around the world.
Want to become a PeaceKeeper too? Check out our products and the causes we support!

Mission:  Possible?  When you’ve got PeaceKeepers, anything is possible!

PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics has a chance to become a finalist in Mission: Small Business, Chase’s competition for a lucky small business to win $250,000 – and we need YOUR help to win it!

We only need 200 more votes by June 30 and EVERY VOTE COUNTS! Here is why you should take the time:

• PeaceKeeper wants to continue to fund women who have been trafficked, indentured or who live in extreme poverty. (Check out our Philanthropy page to see what we support.)

• PeaceKeeper wants to launch a college campus program to help young women engage in activism and learn what real beauty is (which is our philanthropy, humanity and how we give back to the world).

• PeaceKeeper sources certain raw ingredients from developing world farmers gives their families loans when we can. (Read about Sanvardhini Agro, one of the many organic farms from whom we source our ingredients.)

By taking the time to vote PeaceKeeper, you are voting for all companies and founders who try to help heal the world with our buying power.

Here’s How To Vote…

1. Visit www.missionsmallbusiness.com/.

2. Look for “Log in via Facebook to support your community” (the app will not give away your personal information, and you can even remove it from your account once voting has ended).

3. Type “PeaceKeeper” in the Search bar at the bottom of the page.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the page. The VOTE button is on the far right.

5. Click on it ONCE and you are done!  Thanks for helping PeaceKeeper save the world!

With Love,

The PeaceKeeper Team

PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics is the first eco-green cosmetics company to give donations to fund urgent human rights issues.  Want to become a PeaceKeeper too?  Check out our products and learn about the causes we support.

This week at PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics, we’re giving a shout out to one of our favorite ingredients:  shea butter!

Organic shea butter is extracted from the nut of the shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa), which grows naturally in the savannah belt of West Africa and the Ethiopian highlands.   Shea nuts are edible and high in protein; once the pulp has been eaten, the seed is crushed, roasted and ground into a paste.  Water is added to this paste to separate out the butter curds, which are then slowly boiled.  Once the butter is melted, it is put aside to cool and harden, at which point it is shaped into balls.

There is a multitude of uses for shea butter.  It is edible and can be used as a cooking oil, but it is commonly used as a moisturizing agent in cosmetics, hair conditioners, and medicinal ointments.  In Africa, shea butter is also used as a strengthening agent for musical instruments, as well as an ingredient in candles and soap.

The major producers of shea butter are rural women living near the poverty line – in Burkina Faso, one of the largest shea butter exporters, nearly 400,000 women are directly responsible for the extraction process.  The international demand for shea butter, therefore, ensures that the poorest citizens of developing countries are economically supported and not marginalized by the rapidly growing global economy.

Shea butter is a major ingredient in many PeaceKeeper products!  All our Lip Glosses, Lip Paints, and YUM Balms contain organic shea butter, as does our Superfruit Mega Balm.  It provides healthy moisture, soothing chapped lips and making them soft and beautiful.

To learn more about our ingredients, you can visit our website, http://www.iamapeacekeeper.com/ingredients.htm.

With Love,

The PeaceKeeper Team

Image courtesy PRLog.

PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics is the first cosmetics company to give donations to fund urgent human rights issues globally.
Want to be a PeaceKeeper too?  Take a peek at our products or check out the causes we support.

Last week, the Paycheck Fairness Act failed to receive the 60 votes it would need to pass in the Senate, with every Republican voting against it.

We at PeaceKeeper are heartbroken and disappointed that this bill, which would have enabled women to receive equal pay as men and ended employer discrimination, was deemed unfit to be passed into law by the GOP. We hope that one day, this bill may be brought back to the Senate for a winning fight for gender equality in the workplace.

In the meantime, we leave you with the words of Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), one of the bill’s authors, courtesy of The Huffington Post:

“Mikulski said she refuses to let her bill “die on parliamentary entanglements” and, after quoting Abigail Adams, called on women everywhere to keep fighting until the bill becomes law.

“Put on your lipstick! Square your shoulders! Suit up and let’s fight for a new American revolution where women are paid for equal work! Let’s end wage discrimination in this century once and for all.”"

With Love,

The PeaceKeeper Team

(PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics (www.iamapeacekeeper.com) is the first cosmetic line to give donations to fund urgent human rights issues globally.
Want to become a PeaceKeeper too?  Check out our products and learn about the causes we support.)

As I type this, two hugely important bills are making their way through state and federal government:

The New York State Workforce and Development Bill, approaching the State Senate floor TODAY;

And the Paycheck Fairness Act, set to arrive on the Senate floor the week of June 4.

The NYS Workforce Development Bill was created by State Senator Joseph Robach and Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee. If the bill passes today, it would require the New York Department of Labor to provide workforce training for women, helping them qualify for higher paying jobs and careers, particularly those that predominantly hire men.  Though the Workforce Development Bill is up for a vote at this minute, you can still learn more about it at the New York Senate website.
The Paycheck Fairness Act was created in 2009 by then-Senator Hillary Clinton and Representative Rosa Delauro to counteract the loopholes in the 1963 Equal Pay Act and close the wage gap between genders (women currently make $0.76 to every dollar that men make). It failed to pass the Senate in January 2009 and November 2010; if passed in 2012, the Act will allow women to receive full compensatory and punitive damages for wage discrimination, require employers to submit any pay data regarding gender or ethnicity, and reinstating pay equity enforcement programs in the Department of Labor.
The Act has become a major factor in the ‘war over women’; GOP presumptive presidential candidate Mitt Romney has refused to comment on its potential passing, while President Obama is a strong supporter.  According to political blogger Greg Sargent, Democrats will move to make the bill a major issue in upcoming Senate races (Washington Post).

In the days before the Paycheck Fairness Act re-approaches the Senate, you can petition your congressman to support it, and check out the National Women’s Law Center for information on how the Act will strengthen current equal pay legislation.  You can even check out our website  for articles on how to research your fair wage and ask your boss for a raise!

To commemorate the Paycheck Fairness Act in 2010, we created the Fairness Gloss, a subtle golden shimmer that’s perfect for daytime.  You can take 20% off its retail price through June 10th with promo code FAIRPAY.

With Love,

Jessica, PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics
(www.iamapeacekeeper.com)

Since its inception in 2006, Twitter has exploded from a simple microblog to a hotbed of political struggle. Users all over the world – politicians, celebrities, ordinary citizens – have taken advantage of the site’s to put forth their political views in concise bursts of 140 characters or less.

This past week incited a Twitter firestorm on two accounts:

- In response to complaints about the lack of racial diversity in HBO’s new sitcom Girls, writer Lesley Arfin tweeted: “What really bothered me most about Precious was that there was no representation of ME.”

This afternoon, Fox News analyst Monica Crowley reacted to the announcement of Sandra Fluke’s engagement with the following tweet: “To a man?” When attacked as a bigot, a homophobe, and a terrible person, she claimed it was a joke, tweeting “I love exposing the Left’s total lack of a sense of humor.”

Couple these inciting incidents with the growing use of Twitter to chronicle political movements in real time (Occupy Wall Street, the protest of Facebook’s all-male board of directors), and it’s clear that Twitter is a huge part of the growing movement to make social media political too.

Now, we at PeaceKeeper love our Twitter account (@PeaceKeeperCaus) and so should you, but if you’re a novice Tweeter looking to get your voice heard, here are a few advantages and disadvantages of using your Twitter as your political platform:

1. Connected. With hashtags, you can add your name to the conversation about any current political issue. This not only ensures that your voice will be heard and responded to; it also allows you to listen and respond to like-minded people!
Additionally, the ability to tweet (or re-tweet) at important figures in the conversation (a celebrity, the President) you have the chance to express your thoughts directly to the people who can make the biggest impact.

2. Concise. Tweeting is a quick and easy way to get your thoughts across, but with its 140-character limit, it forces you to get rid of the B.S. and say what you really mean.

3. Easy to Use. A tweet is basically a combination of a petition signature and a Facebook status! Like a petition signature, it lets you show your support to a larger audience than just your friends or family, and it receives attention from the most important people in the political movement. Like a Facebook status, it gives you the chance to express your own opinions alongside the opinions of like-minded people, thus allowing for a new voice to be heard in the conversation.

With all this in mind, here are a few things to think about when engaging in political Tweeting:
1. Remember that everything you post is going to be there forever. Lesley Arfin deleted her tweet and posted an apology, but not before it was screencapped and published on all the major news websites. Think very carefully about what you tweet, especially if it could be radical or offensive.

2. Stay on topic. It’s very hard to say everything you want in 140 characters or less (especially if you include a link), but try to state your opinion clearly and succinctly without straying from the main point. When everyone is using the same hashtag to talk about wildly different things, the conversation gets lost and it’s harder to effect change.

Do you use Twitter? Do you think it’s effective? How would you use it to get involved in political change? Leave a comment below!

With Love,
The PeaceKeeper Team

Here at PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics, Earth Day (April 22) is kind of like our New Year’s: Everyone in the office makes an eco-friendly resolution, from volunteering at a local park to taking shorter showers. But with the Billion Acts Of Green campaign, we discovered a way to really make our resolutions count!

Billion Acts of Green is a campaign created by the Earth Day network, and it is currently the largest environmental service project on the planet. On the Billion Acts of Green website, users can pledge their own Act or choose from a list of Earth Day Favorites. Submissions on the site include eating more local food, picking up trash and recyclables, harvesting rainwater, and even cleaning up Malaysia’s waterfalls.

You can visit the official Billion Acts Of Green website at http://act.earthday.org/ . Three days before Earth Day, they’re at over 980 million pledges, so now’s your chance to pledge your Act of Green – and stick to it!

With Love,

The PeaceKeeper Team

(Image courtesy schoolofwisdom.com.)

Last week, following a massive protest march through Madrid, 400 protesters camped out in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol Square as part of the Democracia Real Ya (Real Democracy Now) grassroots movement. Despite numerous police attempts to chase the protesters away, thousands of people started migrating to the square out of solidarity. Now, over a week later, the protesters number 25,000 strong per day alone, 3,000 of which have been sleeping in the square every night.

What makes this such an extraordinary event? The demonstration had been organized via text messages, Facebook and Twitter–yet another illustration of the power of mankind to achieve great things, even with something so simple as a computer or a phone.

Democracia Real Ya, formed by “18 or 20 deadbeats with a budget of a thousand euros”, is fighting for the Spanish government to own up to its responsibility for the country’s economic crash and staggering unemployment rates. The movement’s motto, “We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers”, is a direct response to the inability of Spain’s government to rein in the economy from its steady downward slide–and the protest itself is putting even more pressure on the country’s upcoming elections.

Though Spain’s government has issued several ultimatums to the protesters to leave the square, a decisive showdown on Wednesday May 18th–in which the police, despite ordering the protesters to evacuate by midnight, ultimately did nothing–has left them powerless against the sheer numbers and conviction of their people. According to an interview with Madrid teacher Sam Robson, 70 percent of people polled on television were in favor of the camp, and firefighters have refused to take down protest banners that cover commercial advertisements.

We at PeaceKeeper definitely wish we were in Spain right now to see history in the making! All 25,000 (per day!!) are in our thoughts and we hope that Spain’s government receives the justice it deserves.

To learn more about the protest, you can check out this interview with Sam Robson (mentioned above) or this article from El Pais.

With Love,
The PeaceKeeper Team

(Writer:  Jessica Smith.  Picture courtesy Shawsblog.

For more information about PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics, visit www.iamapeacekeeper.com.)