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siney1 · 7 years ago

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So, this month is flying by which makes me insanely happy since in 1 week and 21 hours* the boyfriend lands into the land of maple syrup, moose and Timmies!

But it also means I have been extraordinarily busy 😦 I mean someone could have warned me that doing a PhD would involve a lot of work. Just saying a heads up would have been nice.

The pace and difficulty are definitely increasing significantly (p<0.05). But it is also becoming much more interesting. Perhaps there is a correlation, maybe even causation? OK, I will stop now with thinly veiled statistical terminology references.

But it is not all work, I am fitting a little play also. So July in Calgary is also known as Stampede month. Stampede for the uninitiated is a cowboy based city wide celebration of all things related or closely related to western/ cowboy/ country life.

There are multiple concerts, funfair, shows including motor bike jump show and of course a gillzillion shows based around people on horses doing weird things There is also fireworks and an evening entertainment show. Oh, and did I mention the food. Oh, the food. There was deep fried, well, everything! From coffee, yes coffee, oreos, cheesecake and some pretty weird food mixes. For example, maple syrup and bacon doughnuts, bacon flavoured vodka and doughnut bacon burgers.

I skipped most of it as there was so much on but most of it involves standing and walking which my ankle would protest but I did catch a few shows. The highlight being ‘The Strumbellas’ who was amazing. I would recommend looking them up if you are in the search of new music. The other highlight was fish tacos with mango salsa. They were exquisite. A close second was mini doughnuts with cinnamon sugar.

So aside from working and stamping, I have also embraced my inner artist trying to paint once a week. I may be a wee bit off from going professional but it is wonderfully therapeutic to create something that expresses how you feel or what you think in that moment. It is also so special to me as I have been for the last few weeks been painting while in mindful presence with a dear friend. We (via skype) “sit together” and work on our respective crafts. We pass comment and talk just as much as we sit in comfortable silence. I can’t explain it but it so restorative for the soul to have that time.

And of course, I have been trying to keep up with Moosey as I chase after him as he is always getting into mischief…..

So now I am going to sign off and sit back to enjoy the sun since I have been writing this outside a cafe, with the warm sun warming my skin as a gentle breeze stops it from roasting**.

*at the time of writing this sentence 😀 So presumably it is less now. Yay!***

**never got posting this on the day I wrote it so now I am going sign off and go make dinner 😀

*** It is now a lot less… it is 2 days 20 hours. WOOHOO!!!!!!

Stamping, hopping and chasing So, this month is flying by which makes me insanely happy since in 1 week and 21 hours* the boyfriend lands into the land of maple syrup, moose and Timmies!

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siney1 · 7 years ago

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My week in numbers - 4, 150 and 25

My week in numbers – 4, 150 and 25

4: I had a follow-up appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon on Wednesday and unlike the doomsday doctor from ER, this was one full of good news. The chip that was ripped of my bone has already set, meaning it is back in position. This means surgery is all but ruled out which I can tell you is a relief. More so, I can already start to wean myself off the air cast boot as much as I can tolerate.…

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siney1 · 8 years ago

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So, one of my new and extraordinarily nice colleagues, who we shall call J, suggest ‘let’s go for a hike’, it will be wonderful and fun. It be good for us to out of the city, get some fresh air and boost our mental and physical health*

*I may be paraphrasing a tad.

I was easily convinced and plans were made. The day rolled round, shoes were laced up and off we set… see even Moosey got to tag along.

Moosey eager to start the hike!

It was all going wonderfully, well bar my general lack of fitness and our slight 1hr accidental detour. We were enjoying ourselves and taking in the scenery, navigating rivers, fallen trees and rough terrain.

It was all going so well till soon after turning back disaster struck! Ankle bent, bum hit the ground hard, ego smashed to smithereens. The initial pain was def a 9 but it so quickly receded to a steady 2 ish on the pain scale and I could walk on it a few minutes after my graceful clash with gravity. So I figured a twisted ankle, nothing a few days rest and some sympathy wouldn’t fix.

Enjoying the view before heading back down, unaware of the danger that awaits!

Fast forward through five days of swollen foot and a sore grumpy Siney till eventually, everyone’s nagging convinced me to see a doctor. The doctor looks at my ankle, pokes it a bit, I say ouch, he refers me to a radiologist. They poke and push it a bit more then, approx 20mins after seeing the original doctor, the words I dreaded were uttered out loud “Your ankle is broken, specifically you have a ‘displaced talus fracture'”.

So off the ER, it is for me. A lot of form filling, a LOT of waiting, a quick visit from J, more waiting and eventually the doctor saw me. So apparently when I went down on my ankle I tore my (ligament or tendon, which one connects to the bone again? m in the ligament, m in muscle, oh yeah), tendon which ripped a chunk of bone off my talus bone.

So I have to now be non-weight bearing on my foot for a few weeks and wear a boot thingy in the hope it heals enough I can avoid surgery on it. Though the doctor did warn me this type of break often needs some surgical intervention.

From this

To this

So the next time someone suggests, go for a hike, it is good for you, just say NO! Or you know just wear hiking boots and watch your footing…..

Cracked mug, nope cracked bones!! So, one of my new and extraordinarily nice colleagues, who we shall call J, suggest 'let's go for a hike',

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siney1 · 8 years ago

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It's ok (not) to be ok!

It’s ok (not) to be ok!

May is Mental Health Month and kept starting blogs wanting to write something for the month that is in it, but unsure exactly what I wanted to say. It was a year ago I wrote “my mental illness story” and I feel like I should I don’t know, celebrate it like an anniversary or something but nothing really feels right. Then ’13 reasons why’, the much discussed and much-criticised tv show came out on…

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#mentalillness mentalhealth mentalhealthmatters

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siney1 · 8 years ago

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Canadian Chronicles: 3: I built a bike and other things...

Canadian Chronicles: 3: I built a bike and other things…

Bikes and the likes: So, what have I been up to? Well, I bought a bike. Well, actually I built it, well some it. There is this amazing NFP organisation “The good life bicycle shop” in Calgary, right near 17 Ave SW for those who may read this and want to check it out. They accept donated bikes and sell them as is, fix them up and sell them, or break them down and recycle the reusable parts. A big…

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siney1 · 8 years ago

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Ending old love affairs and starting new ones

Copenhagen, we need to talk. It has been great and I have had a blast but I think it is the time I see other countries. I want to explore before settling down, test out different options. You did nothing wrong, it is not you, it is me. I grew restless, got tempted by someone new. I’m sorry. Maybe we can still be friends? Dublin, I am sorry. I am not leaving Copenhagen for you. You will always be…

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siney1 · 8 years ago

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So where did I leave off? Oh yes, a sunset ride to the Airbnb apartment. Well beyond setting up and confirming three viewings for the next day I didn’t do much except crash into bed and sleep.

Sadly, my hopes of avoiding jetlag were dashed when I woke up at 4 am. No matter how hard I tried to go back to sleep it was a lost cause and I soon found myself scavenging the surprisingly well stock Airbnb for sustenance.

I found coffee and milk to my delight. As well as porridge. So I was all set for a feast :D Then I checked in online to see what was happening on the other side of the world as I slept. Getting up so early was traumatic but it did allow time for a skype session with the boyfriend which was lovely.

Then it was time to make myself presentable and head out the viewings of which I will recount in the style of the classic story I am sure you can guess from the title.

There once a girl called Sinéy and went for a bus ride one day. She found herself near a small neighbourhood called Capitol Hill. She went inside the first basement suite but it was too cold (jokes). It was nice enough, a bit high in rent but okay. It would have required me mowing the lawn once a week so that was an issue for my poor hayfevery eyes.

She went inside the second basement suite and it was too hot. Nah jokes again :P It was actually a lovely place, done up really nicely. But sadly the price reflected the niceness and the size of it putting it out of my price range.

Then she went to the third basement suite and it was just right. No jokes this time. It was furnished and well maintained. It was well within the price range and the landowner was lovely. It has a lovely big garden with an apple tree and wooden patio area. Best of all, the tenants are not responsible for the upkeep of the garden. It is a stone’s throw to college though I probably will cycle to college, not throw stones at it. All in all, it was the best a girl could hope for.

So I quickly got the application in and was approved instantly :D So I am now no longer homeless at least. Once I move in and add my finishing touches, which yes is mainly throwing lego everywhere I will post some pics of the place.

Other stuff I did yesterday was walk through the nearby shopping centre. In the short exploration of said centre, I found a British shop, so my Cadbury fix is sorted (though it will cost a paycheck per bar, so anyone who wants to be a good samaritan and post some to me will be a hero to one and all, well mostly will be a hero to me :D ) and an extensive board game shop. Two very good finds if I say so myself.

I also then walked to college from new place and explored the grounds a bit. Yes, I am a nerd and the first place I checked out was the library. It was unfortunately only accessible by student card but I peered in longingly :D

The college’s slogan is ‘as gaeilge’ which is nice and overall has a really nice vibe about it.

The Univeristy’s motto “I will lift up mine eyes” for those non-Gaelic speakers

Then I was near ready to collapse from dehydration and heat stroke as I had dressed for cold and Calgary decided it should bring it best sunshine. So off home I headed and despite my best efforts to stay awake until a normal bed time to conquer jet lag I fell asleep about half way through Cool Runnings.

And that was day two. A most successful and very pleasant day.

Here is some random snaps I snapped as I moved around Calgary:

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In Scandanavia the people were tall, in Calgary the buildings are tall!

Snapped as rushed by on bus so sorry for the blur but…….COSTA!!!!!

The Scottish shop, bit of Ireland….HUH?

A classic Canadian food and delicious I might add :D

a classic Sinead experience and once again delicious

Part of me wants to leave it there, but I do want to portray both the good and the bad aspects of immigrating. So here is the bad side.

I woke up this morning again about 3 or 4 am and in a kinda sleepy daze rolled over to reach for the boyfriend before I realised he was far, far away. It just hit me hard all over again and I had a little cry session to myself. Only two days in and I miss him like crazy. I keep wanting to share stuff with him. Like every time I see a squirrel, I want to open his pockets. Long story but he’ll get it if he reads this.

And it is not just him. When I found the board game shop, I instantly thought of my old board game group ( yes you guys, if you read this, I miss you too). I had an instinct to text them to see if they were free soon for a meetup.

Moving to a new country is a wonderful experience but it is not all fun and games. Every time you leave somewhere you leave behind people, friends, family and partners. It is so hard starting over, and not having the people who love on hand. It is especially hard with this specific move as the time difference makes it hard to connect. Everything comes through on time delays.

For example, I got home yesterday and wanted to share my good news re: accommodation searching but at this stage, it was like 2/3am in Dublin/Copenhagen so everyone I know was asleep. So I sent the messages but then nothing.

Anywho, that is it for entry two. I kind of feel like I am ending on a downer so let me add one more thing. I spotted this out when I was walking between viewings. It was just there in someone yard……

One word: Awesome :D

The Canadian Chronicles: 2: Goldilocks and the three homes So where did I leave off? Oh yes, a sunset ride to the Airbnb apartment. Well beyond setting up and confirming three viewings for the next day I didn't do much except crash into bed and sleep.

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siney1 · 8 years ago

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The Canadian Chronicles: 1: Flying High, Flying Long!

Ok folks, here I am back blogging again, as I chronicle my journey to Canada and the settling in process. It has been an eventful few days but let me begin from the beginning. As challenged by a good friend, I won’t mention names but he is Australian and does respond to Edward I will be honest as much as I can about the good and the bad aspects of this time in my life. I adopted a moose :P This…

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siney1 · 8 years ago

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Not all heroes wear capes....

Not all heroes wear capes….

Hans Rosling 1948 -2017 Data revolutionist, Data revelationist! Yesterday a tragedy occurred. A great man died. Many will know of him, many more probably won’t. He wasn’t a famous actor or singer. He did not have a celebrity status, yet to those who knew him, and knew of his work he was a legend among men. He, without any doubt, influenced the world for the better. Hans Rosling died, aged 68.…

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#hans rosling

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siney1 · 8 years ago

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Flying time, New news and Cracked bricks!!

Oh my, where has the month gone! It has been such a busy month but busy with lots of wonderful stuff !! So what is keeping me so busy? Well, there is good news, great news and troubling news! I’m going to start with the great! I quit the bar job (which is sad) but it means I eventually started my new job (which is awesome) and it is so nice as it is back where I use to work so had none of those…

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siney1 · 8 years ago

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So as the general sentiment goes, 2016 sucked! People are finishing this year with such a negative view of the previous 12 months.

But why? Bowie died. Prince died. Alan Rickman died. Harper Lee died. Leonard Cohen died. Many more notables died! Zika virus ripped through communities and populations in the Americas. Aleppo was and continues to be destroyed repeatedly. Trump was elected president – elect. BREXIT happened. The protests at the Dakota Access pipeline happened. The German Christmas markets were attacked.

But every year has deaths of beloved celebrities, its fair share of natural disasters and bad political decisions. (Though perhaps none as dramatic or shocking as Trump) and sadly of late its share of terrorist attacks.

So is 2016 really unique in its awfulness or are we just being dramatic and sensationalist? An article asked 10 historians to nominate their ‘worst year’. Answers ranged from circa 72,000 BC all the way up to 2013 with reasons of near extinction due to a near cataclysmic volcanic eruption (72,000BC) to the global epidemic of the black plague (1348) to 1836s legacy of racism and reckless capitalism in the form of slavery to either of the World Wars (1919 and 1943).

Suffice to say there are a lot of contenders for the ‘worst year’ title. Also a lot of ways of defining what make a year the worst. But I argue 2016 is the worst year, not because of any one event but more so a trend that showed itself throughout the year. We were given so many opportunities to act humanely and we did not do so. We have compromised our belief and value of the fundamental human rights as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. (Can be read in full here)

Why despite the largest ever record of human displacement has the rest of the world talked about everything and anything but this ongoing crisis? Children are going missing most likely being trafficked, families are being torn apart as they just try to find somewhere safe to rest and be. It is one of the human rights that we established in 1948, the right to shelter, safety and dignity. Yet, we wring our hands and talk about economic pressure, the threat of terrorism and the shortage of jobs while 65.3million people go without the rights we once deemed the essential and most important aspect of life.

I believe we have forgotten the value of the UDHR. That driving concept fuelled by love, compassion and kindness towards our fellow man. This loss has allowed the refugee crisis to reach crisis levels and remain there, allowed Trump to win arguably the most powerful position in the world, allowed terrorist attacks and school shootings to become normal news headlines. It has allowed xenophobia, racism and sexism (and other hate based POV) to resurge in terrifying numbers and with terrifying consequences.

This year has proven there is a discontent and a fear within people which is causing a lashing out of vitriol and hate towards anyone who is not the same as the assumed ‘norm’. An example of how xenophobia has become the norm is this email I received announcing the word of the year. Xenophobia literally is defined as the fear of others, of foreigners and it is this word that is defining 2016.

Word of the year, according to dictionary.com

So where did we leave our humanity? And this is where I will contradict myself a bit. Since I believe we have been stumbling on along this path long before 2016 began. But 2016 saw the climax and conclusion of a series of events, decisions and consequences that have been building for quite some time.

How did we get to this point, when we are more afraid of an economic burden than the staggering number of children going missing from refugee camps after already suffering the trauma of fleeing their country due to war. As Helen Lovejoy so emphatically cries in The Simpsons, “would someone please think of the children”. When we almost roll our eyes at yet another shooting at a school or college because America can’t sort it guns laws out. We have dulled our sympathy to the victims and amplified our contempt.

It is the accumulation of apathy for politics and an ignorance of one owns apathy. We have allowed ourselves to become numb to the bigger picture, especially as the picture got more and more entangled and complex. To the point now we never know or comprehend the full story and will settle for catchy slogans (Make America Great again?) and quick sound bites that paint a simple picture, often breaking down a story of Us vs Them. The ‘them’ can be anyone, it doesn’t matter, as long as it is not us. We have washed our hands of our political responsibility to understand the situation and accepted simple slogans and soundbites instead.

This is in fact how we ended in this Neoliberalist world and we didn’t even realise. Including myself. I was reading an article about how Trump is the epiphany of a neoliberalist and I had no idea what was. So let me share with you a brief lesson on Neoliberalism, baring in mind I am not a political expert and I do want to keep this brief.

In essence, Neoliberalism was a political ideology paid for by the rich and powerful (alarm bells going off yet?) and designed or reasoned by Frederick Hayek in his book “The constitution of liberty” (published 1960). Its main points include:

Competition defines human relations

There is a natural hierarchy of winners and losers and anything that impeded that process such as significant tax regulation was counter productive to a progressing society.

That the entrepreneurs, if left to their own devices ie unregulated would create wealth that would trickle down to everyone.

It is all focused around a skewed version of liberty, defining it as an absence of coercion. But in his world coercion includes universal rights, political freedom and equal distribution of wealth. Basically, anything that impinged on the behaviour and wealth potential of the already wealthy and powerful. He promoted the concept of “if a philosopher can think the unthinkable, the rich should be free to do the undoable without moral constraint or by public interest or opinion”!

Now who does that remind you off, a rich man who can do the undoable and not be held up with moral constraint or public interest? Hmmm, I wonder?

Hayek was against trade unions, progressive taxation and welfare based policy supported financially by the state. He was also against free health care and conservation of natural resources.

Again, who else has these views? Anyone springing to mind?

But how does one book written so long ago have any relevance to us today? Well, Trump did not win on his policy, nor did Hillary lose on her policies. Their policies barely came into it at all. People have become disconnected from the government, we are long past the concept of government – of the people, for the people, by the people. Sorry Ab! We have now, a government disconnected from the people they are meant to represent, just as the neoliberalist mindset wanted. A government for the wealthy and the corporations.

So when such a crucial event like the 2016 US elections come by or the vote for BREXIT, people were caught unaware and uneducated. So they resorted to emotional responses to issues. They cut every issue into a simple black and white, good vs bad and no one was better at this than Trump and his presidential campaign. Though it is also very telling the day after the BREXIT vote the most googled term from UK was ‘what is the EU?/ What does it do?’ or other variations of that nature.

The most powerful rhetoric at play currently is the Us vs Them narrative. Trump made it simple. America will be great again we just need to kick everyone who is not Us out. A simple argument of Us vs Them that sufficient people lapped up without questioning it enough, or at all. Trump is not the only one, not the first one and sadly won’t be the last one to use this scarily successful rhetoric. He took the disenfranchised and the frustrated and used their vague sense of anger towards the government, politics and the general state of the world and gave them an easy target. Quite similar to another rising politician who was the catalyst for a world war, but I won’t mention names.

I think this simple solution to a complex problem had such a mass appeal that people clung to it like a drowning man to a life raft. It has happened before, is happening now and more than likely will happen in the future. We humans, if nothing else are creatures of habit.

Though I have focused on Trump a bit (maybe a bit too much but there is just so much material there) it is not exclusive to America. Europe too is suffering from a neoliberal/ fascist rise and is also struggling with the ‘Us vs Them’ mentality. Though the world at large needs to own their role in the refugee crisis, none more so than Europe. Europe and the EU were uniquely position both figuratively and literally in terms of geography to help but we hemmed and hawed and dragged our feet while the death tolls rose and rose.

ISIS too has twigged this mentality, this rhetoric as a weak point in the western world, and they use it to great advantage. They strike fear and terror into the very hearts of us and cause to look at our neighbours as threats, not allies. Distracting and dividing us so we can not see the real threat, the real problem is the hate and suspicion much more than the reality. The real success of terror attacks is not the immediate and tragic death and destruction but the insidious seeping paranoia and distrust that spawns from the attacks.

So how do we counter this Us vs Them narrative that has shaped 2016? We remind ourselves that though we have LGBTI rights, women’s rights, muslim rights and so on, ultimately what we have, or need is human rights. We need to recognise that even if we are not gay, or black or muslim, that our fellow human who is gay, black or muslim deserves the right to be those things, unhindered and unthreatened. That we should value, respect, protect all human rights regardless of their direct applicability to our own situation.

I believe, I truly believe humans are ultimately good and more importantly want to be good. We are in biological terms a social species, we as individuals thrive when we are within a social network, a group when we work together. Right now society is promoting the ideology of individual, independence and the power of I. But this while can strengthen each individual in the short term, it over all weakens the herd and we will never be stronger alone than together.

So we need to as a herd, change our perspective because once we go from an I to a We, we will be much closer to action when we see the crisis of the refugees that is still ongoing, We will be much more prepared to fight Trump when he brings in or tries to bring in reform that will adversely affect anyone of the subgroups of a society, women, LGBTQI, Muslims, anyone who is not ‘Us’.

I am not Muslim, I am not gay but I have friends who are but even if I didn’t it should still be important to fight for their rights. Because if their rights can so easily be overturned, it undermines all the rights we have worked hard on to establish.

This is why 2016 was is the worst year in my opinion, because of the damaged it did to and the continued threat to our fundamental human rights. All the progress we have made in terms of women’s rights, black rights, LGBTQI rights and human rights is so easily unravelled if we do not continuously and enthusiastically push for it every day.

If we do not prioritise the dignity and well being of EVERY human, then we get a person who can run for arguably the most powerful position in the world not due to experience and qualification but with an amoral and hate fueled rhetoric and win. We get a country that decides to leave the EU based on the promises of tighter immigration laws. A political veil for justifying hatred against the “others”, the not “us” mindset.

As long as we have a “Us vs Them” mentality, we can go on ignoring the mass human rights violations that happening right at our feet.

We can sit around and ask How? Why? But the answer to these is questions is not as important as what we do now, on the brink of 2017. We can no longer be lead down this path of poor politics, brazen media manipulation and we must stand tall in the face of hate and say No.

I choose not a”Us vs Them”world, but a “we are all in this together” world. The world is not so big as we believe and we are not so independent as we think. Each country is sovereign yes, but not independent. We all need each other and this is evident by the fact that when BREXIT happened all countries were affected some way or another, same again when Trump was announced as the president-elect.

Ultimately the fundamental human rights that were agreed on in 1948, was not only for human like you but for all humans. So regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender or any other category, we all have the right to basic entitlements such as safe shelter and dignity which we are currently denying to the millions of refugees holding on on Europe’s edges.

I just hope we remember the lesson of WWII that led to the Declaration of Human Rights before we are doomed to repeat the lessons we have lost.

I just hope we make 2017 the year we stand together and fight for each other, not against each other.

I just hope 2017 is better than 2016.

Happy New Year Everyone :D

2016, The year we lost our rights and our way So as the general sentiment goes, 2016 sucked! People are finishing this year with such a negative view of the previous 12 months.

#2016 UDHR Trump humanrights

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