Five ways to speak up for Peace and be safe

Ever worry that your words in the internet will take you to jail? Stop worrying. Do something. I present you five ways to get involved, create new conversations, and get away with it being secure! World Pulse is a platform that gives us a lot of safe spaces to speak up, but when we search for safe spaces locally, there are not many such spaces, but we can create them. Keep reading.

1. Your local voice

Your international and your local voices may have different languages and different approaches. What they have in common is that both instances need to be open and safe. Locally, the use of social media platforms that already have millions of people visiting every day, is the way to go. Being safe at any or all of those social platforms includes a big decision that you will need to make: What idea will you defend, cherish and make blossom? 

Weather it is liberty, democracy, a gender issue, or simply the right of girls to have tampons available, the idea must be crystal clear to you. That being said, it is how you express your idea that will determine two things: the number of followers and people who agree with you, and the number of detractors or trolls you will attract. You must work and be very attentive to get trolls out of the way, and keep fans growing with you.

2. Let us say you are defending democracy. The way you defend this principle of life can make you stronger or weaker to your audiences. Always remember the type of audience you have and be trrthful, honest and caring. If to defend democracy you need to insult people, something is very wrong. Think again, Use words wisely. Do not intimidate with your truths. Make your truths desirable instead. The good things of life are seen as better when they are presented beautifully. Read these two phrases:

a) A dictator is full of crap in his head

b) A dictator will make your life hard through ideas that make you a slave, without you knowing it.

You can use both, but by using phrase a you will become the easy prey of trolls sent by the government to disqualify you as a person, and you will soon be involved in endless fights over persons, not ideas. That is not what you need if you want to be safe in the internet.

Use phrase b instead, and you will find yourself leading conversations about ideas, not people. Conversations about your ideas, not about you, and about how democracy is the right bet, and not about how mean and hateful the dictator is. Much safer for you.

3. Make people think about your ideas by asking questions and openning the conversation about them. You can ask, for instance:

\"What is better for us, a country full of opportunities for people to work, or a country full of endless laws that no one can keep up with and where opportunities are only available to people in tune with the dictator´s will?\"

With such a question you will surely make people think about the subject of your interest, but you will not be a target from weird justice led by the dictator´s people.

4. Present many pictures. Be attentive in the streets and be ready to take pictures of situations that show the naked truth. Present your pictures with questions about them. Let the people make their own conclusions about what others are saying about the specific situation presented by your work. This is the safe way of making people see the truth for themselves, and you can relax because you are challenging the power, but you are not becoming prey. Do not worry about how many likes or opinions you get. Remember that you are working for a cause, not for popularity. 

5. Always give likes, hearts and such to all your like minded friends and praise their work all the time. This is the way to build your community and be safe, because you will have a lot of people taking care of you, as they will be sure that you take care of them too.

Relationships in the internet, in my experience, are very nice and fruitful when made with a purpose. A good purpose, such as working for a cause. I do not advice people to get together just for fun in the internet, as this is such a wonderful means of making your ideas travel, that using it just for fun, is loosing a big part of your time in nonsense activities that take valuable time from your family.

Make yourself be known for your ideas in any subject, for defending something bigger than us, for being a person who cares for the community. Then come to World Pulse and share with us the results of your local work. This is a community filled up with leaders that will help you round up your work.

Are you willing to share with me the challenges that you have found in your work as an activist? Go ahead and tell us in the commments, so that we will try to help you and make you go one step forward. Always forward.

Love,

Jackie