Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and the author of the seminal A People’s History of the United States, died on January 28 at the age of 87 of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California. He was in a swimming pool doing laps and was spotted immediately by lifeguards but died instantly.
Anyone who has reveled in Middle Eastern or Mediterranean cuisine knows the important role olives play in giving their taste buds cause to cheer. Whether eaten whole or through their oil, olives complete nearly any meal. Yet, here in Palestine in particular, zaytoun (olives) provide flavor to our lives beyond simply satisfying our palates. They are a vital part of the Palestinian economy, and are the nation’s largest commercial crop. According to UN figures, olive trees account for more than 45 percent of all farmland and 80 percent of all orchards in Palestine. They also happen to be a consistent target for Israeli settler and military attacks.
Source: The Nation
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By Afsaneh Najmabadi - The meaning of a Muslim woman’s veil is both multiple and historically contingent, its meaning has been subject to callenges and negotiations to which Muslim women themselves have been, and have become even more so today, a major party. As much as for some Muslim women the veil has become an oppressive requirement, for others its observance is what makes it possible to be part of modern public sociability. See full text (pdf format) - Source: Monthly Review
The CEDAW is made up of 16 substantial and 14 procedural articles. It is a surprisingly significant convention because it deliberately goes beyond conventional equality approaches and puts forward “positive measures” to promote women, and contains active political and legal steps towards gender equality. See WIDE information and analysis (pdf format). See also WIDE - CEDAW Campaign and Blog .
Source : Gender Action - Gender Action announces the publication of its fourth “Gender Action Link”, Gender, the IFIs and Debt, which highlights how International Financial Institution debt exacerbates the feminization of poverty and undermines gender equality. The Link specifically examines typical gender impacts of IFI loan conditions on female workers such as an increase in the amount of care-work for women and the exclusion of poor women and girls from essential health services. Read the rest of this entry »
Sex workers in Denmark are protesting a campaign against prostitution during the UN Climate Change Conference. The city of Copenhagen wants to discourage delegates from buying sex, despite the fact that it is perfectly legal there and has nothing to do with climate change. The sex workers’ interest group, SIO (Sexarbejdernes Interesseorganisation), was not consulted and so, annoyed, they are offering free sex to any conference delegate who turns in his ridiculous postcard (see below), which also went to 160 hotels. See full text on “Border Thinking on Migration, Trafficking and Commercial Sex”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The League of Arab States, Karama, and UNIFEM to Commemorate 30 Years of the CEDAW Treaty to End Discrimination Against Women
Are women passively waiting for policymakers to decide their fate with respect to access to ICTs? “No” says Helen Hambly Odame, Associate Professor at the School of Environmental Design & Rural Development at the University of Guelph in Canada. She writes, “Women are not ‘waiting’ for access to ICTs, but rather using ICTs when they are available to get around the constraints they face in politics, society and economy.” See full text
The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution - emissions trading - on the negotiating table at Copenhagen and in other capitals. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the “devils in the details” in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from what’s really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you’ve heard about Cap &’ Trade, but aren’t sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you.
The Story of Cap & Trade from Story of Stuff Project on Vimeo.
Choike.org updates Social Watch Blog
