Sudanese Journalist Jailed for Reporting Activist’s Rape
7 August 2011
According to Sudan’s constitution, freedom of the press is guaranteed. However, in practice, the right to report news without fear of government action seems fragile at best, and nonexistent at worst. Case in point: Fatima Ghazali, a journalist who was recently jailed for a month for writing articles about the alleged rape of Safiya Ishaq, a female activist who was arrested following an anti-government protest in February. The judge in Khartoum convicted Ghazali of publishing lies, and ordered her to pay a $600 fine or spend a month in prison. She chose to go to prison.
Five more people are set to be tried for writing about Ishaq, who claimed online in several videos that she was repeatedly raped by three security officers after she was arrested. Ishaq has since fled the country, but the journalists remain to face the consequences. Ghazali’s editor at the Sudanese daily Al-Jarida was also fined, and has yet to decide whether he wants to pay the fine or spend the requisite amount of time in jail.
The punishment meted out to Ghazali and her editor is not severe, but it’s troubling on a number of levels. First of all, although Ishaq’s rape had not been proven, the journalists had the right to write about her allegations. Certainly, until the case was proven, they were not “publishing lies.” Secondly, the nonprofit organization Reporters Without Borders claims that this is part of a pattern of harassing journalists for covering human rights violations.
In a piece last month, RWB condemned the “disgraceful way the authorities are harassing and prosecuting journalists in Khartoum and the north of the country in an attempt to silence them and stop embarrassing revelations about human rights violation by the security forces.”
It’s only a matter of days before South Sudan gains international recognition, as the elections last winter stipulated, and the interim constitution expires. While journalistic freedom may get better in South Sudan, many fear that North Sudan will crack down on freedom of the press in its attempts to enforce Sharia law. In other words, it’s hard to know what will happen to journalists after Saturday. Although Ghazali’s imprisonment is unjust, she may have escaped with a lenient punishment compared to could happen to journalists who are perceived to threaten the Sudanese government in the future.
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/sudanese-journalist-jailed-for-reporting-activists-rape.html
Are Women and Girls Groomed to Choose Oppression?
7 August 2011
At the Women’s Worlds congress in Ottawa, Canada, one of the July 4 sessions focused on marketing to the female demographic, looking at examples of marketing aimed at girls and women. While the presentations covered a broad spectrum, from Bratz dolls to “female friendly” businesses to Barbie and the pornification of society, they all came back to the idea that the marketers are grooming women and girls to choose oppression. The advertising industry in particular, and society in general, sends continuous messages to the female demographic, from infancy through to adulthood, about who they are, what they should desire, and who they should try to become.
Lauren Levesque from Ottawa, Canada spoke about her paper, Media Culture, Artifact, and Gender Identity: An Analysis of Bratz Dolls. Through interviews with mothers and daughters, she found that the mothers were concerned about the influence of the dolls on their daughters. They described the dolls as materialistic, trashy and hyper-sexualized. The girls, on the other hand, saw the dolls as nice, fashionable, and beautiful. They didn’t see the negative aspects of the dolls that their mothers saw. In her research, Ms. Levesque found that girls took pleasure in being objectified. She concluded that children should not be put in a position of making that type of choice and should instead just be able to enjoy being young without being pushed to identify with much older and damaging images of what a girl or a woman should be.
Nathalie Elaine Meza Garcia, a political scientist from Colombia, talked about Barbie. Her presentation, Imperceptible Fundamentalisms: The Perfect Woman and the Multiple Roles of Barbie, examined the ways in which Barbie tries to break away from the patriarchy while still leaving her oppressed. The Barbie slogan, “We Girls Can Do Anything” is intended to be a feminist slogan. However, there is a hidden inconsistency in this. Women are able to enter into new spaces and break glass ceilings, but they still have to be beautiful, nurturing mothers, good homemakers, and doting wives. Essentially, women have demanded the right to do anything that men can do, but they have not shed any of their old roles, duties or subjugation in doing so.
Joanne Baker from Flinders University examined the way that the color pink is being used to restate and refresh gender stereotypes of oppression in her presentation called Resisting Pink – Again. She gave examples of the way that pink is used to market to women, such as a “female friendly” accreditation that is given to brands in Australia that merit a “pink tick” for catering to women (e.g. a garage that doesn’t have nude photos of women and has client toilets). She also showed images from numerous other campaigns aimed at women, from products designed to support breast cancer to make-up to financial services. Ms. Baker characterizes this type of marketing as post-feminist pink because it appeals to women who not only reject and oppose feminism, but who also hold an attitude that feminism is no longer relevant (even though it did have a use in the past). Essentially, these marketers are using the convenient parts of feminism (e.g. empowerment, choice) to appeal to a progressive female audience and convince them to buy products and buy into concepts that further their oppression.
Some women are speaking out against this pink oppression. Ms. Baker told the audience about the sisters Abi Moore and Emma Moore who founded the Pink Stinks campaign in the United Kingdom.
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/are-women-and-girls-groomed-to-choose-oppression-video.html
Norway's child protection services do whatever they want to helpless children
7 August 2011
"You will never see your mother again," officers of Norwegian child protection agencies (barnevern) told a 13-year-old boy when they were taking him away from his home. The boy is currently living with a foster family. His biggest dream now is to get back to his mother as soon as possible. Seeking help, the boy wrote several emails to the Russian embassy, in which he told his story.
Pravda.Ru has published several articles about the fate of Irina Bergseth (maiden name Frolova), a Norway-based Russian citizen. The woman accused her Norwegian husband of committing sex crimes against their common four-year-old son.
Local social services took the woman's two children away from her. The younger son, Misha, a citizen of Norway, was delivered to his father. The elder son, Sasha, 13, a Russian citizen, was settled in a foster family.
Also read: Russian mother desperately fights for her abused children in Norway
Sasha's new parents do not let him use the computer. However, the boy managed to send several emails to the Russian embassy pleading for help. Pravda.Ru also had a chance to read them.
"Hello. I would like to write a little about the day when I was taken away from home. That day I was staying with by best friend, we were playing PlayStation. My mother called and said that the barnevern were coming to take me. She said that they had already taken Misha. The first thing that the officers of child protection services told me was - I will never see and live with my mother again. I got very angry and upset. I've never been so unhappy in my life before. I wanted to break away from the car, but the officers blocked the doors. They were going and saying that it was bad for me to live with my mother. They were also saying that it would be much better for me to live in the place where they were taking me and my brother, but this is not going to be better!" Sasha wrote in pain.
"I was talking to the lady who was conducting my case in the child protection agencies. She didn't want to listen to me. She told me that she had made the decision and that she didn't want to change anything. She also said that she wanted to do her best to deliver me to a foster family for good. I told her that she was ruining my life, but she was just saying that I will be fine afterwards. This is not true. Nothing is going to be fine. By July 6 it will be five weeks since I saw my mother last. I don't know what to do. It all looks so bad."
Afterwards, the boy wrote about the "advantages" which he obtained in his new family.
"On Saturday, I seriously turned my ankle and strained tendons. They showed me to the doctor only in two days. The doctor said that I should go on crutches, but the lady, whom I live with, refused to buy them for me. I couldn't walk, but they wouldn't even rent the crutches. There was a graduate party at my school on June 21, but they didn't let me go there. They didn't let me go with my class to a theme park on June 23 either. I was waiting for that day for a whole year, but they don't let me go anywhere. The child protection services are breaking my life."
"They give little food to me, and I am hungry. Nobody wants to talk to me or take care of me in the foster home, and I feel completely lonely here. Please help me get back home to my mother, or please help me find a lawyer so that I could sue the child protection services. I've already written to a local committee (Fylkesnemda), but they don't want to listen to me. Please, help me get back home to my loving and caring mother. I have a very good family. I can't use the computer or the phone. I feel so bad. PLEASE HELP ME GET BACK HOME!"
Watch the video of Irina Bergseth's story
It is hard to read these emails. Even if we cast away the emotions about the fact that the officers told the boy that he would never see his mother again, there is one question left. What is the boy being punished for? What has be done for Norway if they treat him so cruelly?
He was deprived of his mother, as well as of his friends. Sasha was also forbidden to attend skateboarding and tennis classes, which he really enjoyed. Was he sent to a foster family or to prison? Don't child protection services understand that they are committing violence against the boy and damage his psyche? We would like to believe that those people have higher education. What if they are perfectly aware of what they do, but they still do it deliberately? What if they want to make him understand at such an early age, what it is like - to struggle against the system. His mother tried to do it and accused a Norwegian citizen of pedophilia, but now they want to declare her a mentally unbalanced individual. Social officers said that to Sasha too.
They keep on telling him that it will be better for him to live in a foster family rather than with his mother, which is insane. They do not show any support to the child. They didn't take him to the doctor, they didn't buy him the crutches, they didn't replace his brackets on time. Now the boy has to start the brackets all over again. This is an expensive dental procedure, which the boy's family may not want to pay for.
If the boy's mother were doing such things to him, the authorities would impute her with those actions. However, this all seems to be absolutely normal if such things happen in a foster family. This brings up the question of double standards in the approach of Norwegian child protection services. One and the same action or minor offense can be approached depending on who committed that action - either parents of origin or foster parents.
There is another very important aspect. Sasha is a Russian citizen. If Norwegian social agencies believe that it is bad for him to live with his mother, then they are supposed to send the child to Russia, where he has a grandmother and an uncle. Those people are ready to take care of the boy. However, they do not even think to think about such an opportunity. The child has virtually become a prisoner in Norway.
Norwegian child protection services are very powerful. They can literally kidnap children from their parents. There is also the court, of course, to which Irina Bergseth turned. There is a hope left that the woman will be able to have at least her elder son back.
However, there are incidents when desperate parents prefer not to wait for the court ruling, which may not be in their favor. They prefer to act at their own risk.
A family from Poland, who had their child taken away from them by the authorities, experienced a similar situation. The story was published by the Polish newspaper Super Express. The Polish citizens - a man, his wife and daughter - arrived in Norway several years ago. Everything was fine until the day when their daughter, Nicola, a girl of nine years, didn't come back home from school. As it turned out, it was the child protection services that didn't let her go home.
Also read: Russian boy becomes sex slave to his own father in Norway
Officers said that the girl was coming to school in a very bad mood for several days. This was the reason for the services to accuse her parents of improper treatment of the child. As a matter of fact, the girl was very worried about her grandmother, who fell seriously ill in Poland. The girl's parents were told that their daughter would be delivered to a foster family. The parents did not want to wait for the court ruling and addressed to Polish detective Krzysztof Rutkowski.
The detective helped Nicola escape from the foster family. The girl got into his car and they drove away towards the border.
"I am still so shocked that it is hard for me to collect thoughts. When I was able to put my arms around my daughter, it was the happiest moment of my whole life," Nocola's mother said.
The detective said that he was acting in accordance with FBI's principles: "You can do anything you want before you get caught," he said.
Polish newspapers wrote that Norwegian child protection services take as many as 300,000 children away from their parents, presumably immigrants, every year. They mostly target children of the white race, who do not differ much from Norwegian foster families. It is possible that someone simply wanted to have a pretty little girl from Poland. Luckily, her story had a happy ending. But who is going to help Sasha Frolov?
Source: http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/07-07-2011/118418-norway_children-0/
Women jailed for miscarriages
7 August 2011
Four days after Chinese immigrant Bei Bei Shuai gave birth to her daughter Angel, she rocked the baby in her arms for hours in an Indianapolis hospital room. There, in her mother’s arms, the newborn passed away.
Shuai is in another facility in Indiana now, but its Cell Block 3F in a Midwest jail. She’s been there for three months, awaiting trial for the murder of her baby.
It began on December 23, 2010. Shuai was planning to wed her boyfriend until she found out that he was already married and was leaving her and the unborn child behind. In a panic, Shuai tried taking her own life by ingesting rat poison she purchased from a hardware store. She was hospitalized, treated and gave birth to Angel on New Year’s Eve. Four days later, though, her child died from complications resulting from the poisoning. When doctors took Angel off of life support, they alerted the authorities.
Shuai spent a month in a psychiatric ward before trying to rebuild her life. Since March, however, she has been behind bars facing life imprisonment for murder and attempted foeticide.
“This case has huge implications for pregnant women, not only in Indiana but across the country," says American Civil Liberties Union attorney Alexa Kolbi-Molinas to The Guardian recently. "If we allowed the state to put a woman in jail for anything that could pose a risk to her pregnancy, there would be nothing to stop the police putting in jail a woman who has a drink of wine or who smokes. So where do you draw the line?"
And Kolbi-Molinas is quite right. Similar incidents are occurring across the United States. Women are facing life-long sentences in cases that transcends both anti-abortion legislation and civil rights.
In Mississippi, Rennie Gibbs is facing life behind bars after she suffered a miscarriage back in 2006. Gibbs was only 15 years old at the time, and while there is no concrete evidence linking her miscarriage to a cocaine abuse problem she suffered from, prosecutors have nonetheless charged her with “depraved-heart murder,” which carries a mandatory life sentence. The charge, which has been on the books for 130 years, is filed when someone is suspected of placing another in imminent danger of death.
“If it’s not a crime for a mother to intentionally end her pregnancy, how can it be a crime for her to do it unintentionally, whether by taking drugs or smoking or whatever it is,” says Gibbs' attorney Robert McDuff, a civil rights lawyer.
Nearly 40 states in the USA have fetal homicide laws on the books. These legislations were largely created so that third-parties could be prosecuted in cases of assault against an expecting mother, but according to the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, only one man has been charged with the crime in South Carolina, while 300 women have been arrested under the law.
Amanda Kimbrough is facing a ten year sentence in Alabama after the state charged her with “chemical endangerment” after her premature baby passed away minutes after birth. The state attests that she had taken drugs during her pregnancy, though Kimbrough argues otherwise. “That shocked me, it really did,” Kimbrough tells The Guardian. “I had lost a child, that was enough.”
Authorities didn’t file charges against Kimbrough until six months after she lost her child. In the meanwhile, she is raising her other three children.
“It’s just living one day at a time, looking after my… other kids,” she says to The Guardian. “They say I’m a criminal, how do I answer that? I’m a good mother.”
“States pass feticide or similar laws in the wake of some horrible violence against a pregnant woman,” says Lynn Paltrow of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. “They claim to protect pregnant women, but prosecutors turn around and use these laws against women themselves.”
“This is the predictable and increasingly common result of a growing movement in this country to treat fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses as separate from the women who carry them,” she adds.
Indiana University law professor David Orentlicher tells The Daily Beast that these cases of prosecution are radical interpretations of inane laws. In the case of Shuai, charged with killing her daughter Angel, Orentlicher says that Shuai’s state doesn’t even prosecute people for attempted suicide, “so now this prosecutor is saying, ‘If you're suicidal, you better not get pregnant, because you might get thrown in jail.’ That to me is a very important constitutional problem.”
“We just don't miss a chance to kick a woman in the head,” adds author Jeanne Marie Flavin. “What happens is that when a woman needs counseling, or when a woman needs drug treatment, when a woman would most benefit from the support, we respond to her most harshly. We lock her up.”
“I hope it’s not a trend that’s going to catch on,” says Robert McDuff, Gibb’s attorney in Alabama, to The Guardian. “To charge a woman with murder because of something she did during pregnancy is really unprecedented and quite extreme.”
Unprecedented until now, it seems. With cases continuing to be opened up against the mothers, the ordeal looks far from over.
Source: http://rt.com/usa/news/women-shuai-pregnant-life/
Video: The Permaculture Garden
See attached:
http://www.care2.com/causes/video-the-permaculture-garden.html
Vietnam Era Weapon Being Used to Clear the Amazon
7 August 2011
Agent Orange is one of the most devastating weapons of modern warfare, a chemical which killed or injured an estimated 400,000 people during the Vietnam War — and now it’s being used against the Amazon rainforest. According to officials, ranchers in Brazil have begun spraying the highly toxic herbicide over patches of forest as a covert method to illegally clear foliage, more difficult to detect that chainsaws and tractors. In recent weeks, an aerial survey detected some 440 acres of rainforest that had been sprayed with the compound — poisoning thousands of trees and an untold number of animals, potentially for generations.
Officials from Brazil’s environmental agency IBAMA were first tipped to the illegal clearing by satellite images of the forest in Amazonia; a helicopter flyover in the region later revealed thousands of trees left ash-colored and defoliated by toxic chemicals. IBAMA says that Agent Orange was likely dispersed by aircraft by a yet unidentified rancher to clear the land for pasture because it is more difficult to detect than traditional operations that require chainsaws and tractors.
Last week, in another part of the Amazon, an investigation conducted by the agency uncovered approximately four tons of the highly toxic herbal pesticides hidden in the forest awaiting dispersion. If released, the chemicals could have potentially decimated some 7,500 acres of rainforest, killing all the wildlife that resides there and contaminating groundwater. In this case, the individual responsible was identified now faces fines nearing $1.3 million.
According to a report from Folha de São Paulo, the last time such chemicals were recorded in use by deforesters was in 1999, but officials say dispensing the devastating herbicide may become more common as officials crack down on environmental crimes.
“They [deforesters] have changed their strategy because, in a short time, more areas of forest can be destroyed with herbicides. Thus, they don’t need to mobilize tree-cutting teams and can therefore bypass the supervision of IBAMA,” says Jerfferson Lobato of IBAMA.
While Agent Orange was originally designed to clear forest coverage in combat situations, its use became a subject of controversy due to its impact on humans and wildlife. During the Vietnam War, the United States military dispersed 12 million gallons of herbicide, impacting the health of some 3 million, mostly peasant, Vietnamese citizens, and causing birth defects in around 500 thousand children. Additionally, the chemical’s effect on the environment have been profound and lasting.
Last month, over three decades after Agent Orange was last used in Vietnam, the US began funding a $38 million decontamination operation there. Meanwhile, in the Brazilian Amazon, the highly toxic chemical was being discovered anew and sprayed over the rainforest.
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/vietnam-era-weapon-being-used-to-clear-the-amazon.html
Wear makeup or leave Harrod's tells employee
7 August 2011
For refusing to wear makeup, 24-year-old Melanie Stark, says she was “driven out” of her job as a sales assistant at the luxury Harrods department store in Britain. Stark had worked in the HMV department of Harrods for four years without wearing makeup; indeed, she had, says the Guardian, not worn makeup during her interview and had been rated as one of the best employees by her manager. But following a “floor walk” by senior managers last August, she was sent home for not wearing makeup.
Stark first worked part-time at Harrods for three years; after earning a masters in philosophy, religion and ethics from King’s College London, she worked full-time. She has legal grounds to sue Harrods under the Equality Act 2010, says Lawrence Davies, director of Equal Justice solicitors:
“On the facts, she performed her role well for five years without makeup, so it is clearly not a valid prerequisite for her role.”
Of the dress code, he said “custom and practice would suggest that her contract has changed over the years to allow her to not wear makeup”.
Stark said she had been given a copy of the Harrods dress code at her interview, and that the store had not sought to enforce it until that “shop walk” in August. The day after that, she was sent to work in a stockroom. Stark’s floor manager then told her she had the choice of wearing makeup or leaving, but she was at first able to return to work until June of this year, when a new floor manager informed staff that she had to be “made up.” Stark was transferred to another store but decided to resign as she felt it was “time to move on.”
The dress code for female employees of Harrods is, to put it lightly, quite exacting:
The two-page “ladies” dress code stipulates: “Full makeup at all time: base, blusher, full eyes (not too heavy), lipstick, lip liner and gloss are worn at all time and maintained discreetly (please take into account the store display lighting which has a ‘washing out’ effect).”
When Stark refused to follow this, she was told she could “see what you look like with makeup” at a workshop. Says Stark:
“I was appalled. It was insulting. Basically, it was implying it would be an improvement. I don’t understand how they think it is OK to say that.”, she said.
I know what I look like with makeup. I have used it, though never at work. But I just could not see how, in this day and age, Harrods could take away my right to choose whether to wear it or not.”
Stark had complied with all other aspects of the dress code. “But it’s not like wearing black trousers, or a black shirt. This is my face.
“Make up can change your features completely, especially if I was to wear all of what they were asking. I would look like a different person to me. And I never chose to look like that.”
The dress code for male employees is quite barebones, notes the Guardian:
Slick, sophisticated and debonair”, male staff must apply deodorant, trim fingernails, avoid visible tattoos and refrain from growing mutton chops.
Mocking aside, the Harrods code is deeply sexist. It implies that a woman, however clean and presentable, can pass muster only in heavy makeup, and that anyone opting out is by default shabby and below par. The only sensible course of action, with both the Harrods mandate and its sales’ staff’s faces, is to take it all off and start again.
Debating about the dress code, and the insistence of female employees wearing makeup, at a department store might seem trivial. But it’s appalling to read about the store’s attempts to dictate and control the appearance of its workers — especially after tacitly allowing Stark to go without makeup for quite a few years — and the punishment meted out to those who don’t “look right.” Clearly Harrods has a long way to go before grasping the basic truth of “beauty in the eye of the beholder” and, until it does, it’s got a big clod of mud in its eye.
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/wear-makeup-or-leave-harrods-tells-employee.html
India's 'shocking' child sex-change epidemic
7 August 2011
Parents in the world's largest democracy are reportedly paying surgeons $3,200 to turn their young daughters into young sons. What's behind this "social madness"?
India is known for preferring sons over daughters, most famously (and troublingly) through the demographics-distorting practice of gender-based selective abortion. Now, hundreds of daughters age 1 to 5 are reportedly being "converted" into boys through a sex-change procedure known as genitoplasty, which involves fashioning a penis out of female sex organs, then pumping the child full of male hormones. This "shocking, unprecedented trend, catering to the fetish for a son," is drawing parents from all over the nation to the central Indian city of Indore, the Hindustan Times reports. Ranjana Kumari, a top campaigner against aborting girls, blames "social madness" and greed. "People don't want to share their property or invest in girls' education or pay dowries," she says. "It's the greedy middle classes running after money." But there's no excuse for forcing your child to have a sex change… right?
Right. This is beyond awful: India obviously takes its gender preference seriously: It has 7 million more boys than girls under age 6, says Meredith Carroll at Babble. But really, "it’s beyond reprehensible to subject babies to something this serious because of financial reasons or social status." And whether a parent aborts the girl or turns her into a mental and physical wreck of a boy, it's "beyond warped" that any willing parent wouldn't just love their child, "whichever flavor comes their way."
"Extreme gender preference: Indian baby girls…"
OK, but the money factor isn't insignificant: As awful as these "corrupt doctors" are for re-gendering the girls, it's arguably better than the "not uncommon" blight of female infanticide, says the International Business Times. And when you compare the $3,200 it costs to turn your daughter into a son (of sorts) to the dowries of up to $100,000 that parents have to cough up for their daughter's wedding, "it is not surprising to see girls' parents" opt for the sex-change.
"Indian daughters transform into sons to avoid dowry"
There must be a better explanation: The "claim that this is all the fault of the 'greedy middle classes running after money' sounds dubious," says Margaret Hartmann at Jezebel. And there's a grey area for intersex children born with male and female sex organs. But if this "shocking" report is true, and parents really are forcing healthy girls to become sterile boys, that's "an extreme and very disturbing sign of what happens when women are undervalued."
"In India, parents push surgical attempts to turn girls into boys"
Source: http://theweek.com/article/index/216854/indias-shocking-child-sex-change-epidemic
Soon one in four children will be living in poverty
7 August 2011
Corporations in the United States are showing massive profits, even as unemployment stays high and the recession lingers on. Now, it’s becoming even cleared who are the hardest hit by this growing gap between the rich and the poor — young children.
According to CBS News, the poverty rate for children is expected to shortly hit 25 percent, making this the largest group of children to suffer since the Great Depression. Poverty is defined as a family of four making less than $22,000 annually.
Signs of poverty? More and more children living in cars, vans, and even short term motel rooms. And the numbers are increasing quickly. “Nationwide, 14 million children were in poverty before the Great Recession. Now, the U.S. Census tells us its 16 million – up two million in two years. That is the fastest fall for the middle class since the government started counting 51 years ago.”
Many of the children rely on their schools for free lunches, sometimes even breakfasts, because those are the only meals they eat. They go to bed hungry. And in order to not have to rescind the Bush era tax cuts on millionaires and corporations, food stamp programs that could provide additional support to stave off hunger are being cut instead.
So much for protecting the most vulnerable.
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/soon-one-in-four-children-will-be-living-in-poverty.html
Greece: The beginning of the end, or a new beginning?
7 August 2011
It is by now patently obvious that there are two languages being spoken in Athens: that among the political class desperate to keep the Euro-wagon on the road and that of the Greek people, who at this moment represent the hearts and minds of the Europeans, which spells out the message that we do not want this European Union.
Apart from not wanting this European Union, we do not want this system. They told us their system was better than the Socialist model, which provided free maternity care, maternity leave, free and excellent education and extra-curricular activities, free and excellent University or further education, a guaranteed job, a decent salary, subsidised staple foodstuffs, including drinks, subsidised or free public utilities, a free house, a free or subsidised car, social mobility, excellent and free healthcare, including dental treatment, security of the State, security on the streets, protection against drug addicts, porn and the filth that was practised in western countries, free or subsidised transportation, social mobility, a decent and indexed pension and free leisure-time activities, free or heavily subsidised medication and culminating with a free funeral.
They told us their model was far, far better. And what, pray, was their model? For a start, never did they ask us whether or not we wanted the Euro and rarely did they ask us if we wanted the EU or any part of it. In the few instances they did so, at best the vote was split 50-50 and more often than not, the poll was a resounding NO!, after which they cynically reworded the vote, altering the date to a sunny June summer's day when everyone would be at the beach and repeated the exercise ad infinitum until people gave up and the YES won - with around 13 per cent of the electorate. A classic example of anti-democracy.
And had this undemocratic European Union bothered to explain things to us and then asked us how we wanted to vote, we would have said Nein! Merci beaucoup! Or in plain English, Up yours!
Did they ask us if we wanted the Euro? Did they tell us that prices would more than double while salaries stagnated? Did they tell us that the convergence rates would now bind us together using parameters which might make sense in Germany but are nonsensical in an economy like Portugal's? If they imposed such measures, then why didn't they start giving German salaries to the Portuguese?
Oh no, they wouldn't do that, would they? They gave southern Europe northern European obligations without the tools to meet them then told northern Europe to pay for it. It is a lose-lose situation, being the fault of neither region but being very much that of the wonderfully colourful motley group of Eurocrats who glued this monster together against our collective will.
But that is not the end of it. They told us that in this wonderful capitalist system, the small trader had the freedom to start his own business and to employ people, making the economy grow, creating prosperity. Fine. But is this what they implemented? No, it is not. Look around you on the high street and tell me how many small traders you can see. Correct. Now deny that the Big Spaces have swallowed them all up, that the same Big Spaces negotiate supply contracts which favour not small local producers but the mega-sized food brokers who are selling foodstuffs at future prices, being the cheapest on the market, of what age and of what quality?
Coupled with that, the European Union destroyed the industry, agriculture and fisheries in many countries, handing everything to Germany, France and Spain in that order, destroying jobs down the line for future generations. True, the governments in power upon and just after adhesion to the EU are to blame but that does not help anyone now, does it?
And then what did they do? To compound everyone's misery, they started trading not in concrete commodities - oh no, that wasn't enough - they started trading in weird and wonderful products, SWAPS, futures and you name it, based entirely upon speculation, gambling our money away, and worse, taking out all sorts of insurance policies to guarantee what they now term "complex products". Complex, or downright stupid?
Because if anyone had bothered to ask the people along the way, those of us who know a little about these things would have stood up and explained to the others that what they were doing was bound to fail.
But we haven't finished yet. Added to this, these grey failed politicians called Eurocrats (who couldn't get a proper job at home and had to waste billions - I repeat, billions - of our money in Strasbourg and Brussels) not only spent all the money they had, deriding centuries of economic history based upon the Gold Standard but then started issuing sovereign debt, which amounts to loans for the future based upon an interest rate controlled by the credit rating of ratings agencies in New York (Standard and Poor's, Moody's and Fitch). Now, just how much more manic could this get?
Right. It couldn't. Greece is the end of the line, the beginning of the end of this European Union, or put another way, the end of its beginning. However, it could also be a new beginning.
This time let us be sensible. Let us ignore the fantastic ideas of those generations of Eurocrats which have put us in the situation we are in, imposing this madhouse upon us without asking our opinions and this time, let us do what the people of Europe want us to do. How?
Well to be frank, I believe the chair of economics in all Universities these days should be banished because if the economics courses are supposed to produce economists, who in turn have created this hell-hole they call market-oriented capitalism and now say there is no Plan B, because it is too complicated, then it doesn't say very much for them collectively, does it?
It is perfectly simple and not complicated at all. For a start let us stop all this nonsense about the possibility of Greece "going bankrupt". Greece is bankrupt, period. Otherwise it wouldn't need constant injections of billions upon billions in loans, which anyway it will have to pay back tomorrow at inflated prices. How is its economy supposed to grow at a rate which will mean that the same situation will not arise again, and again, and again? For the Greeks, impending disaster, under this system, is a given factor. For those who pay, well, how long are the northern Europeans going to see their hard-earned tax-Euros squandered in paying off Greece, or Portugal, or wherever, when "Sorry Mr. Brown, we cannot afford your cancer treatment because we've bailed out Greece, oh! and we've spent 300 million Euros supporting terrorists in Libya"?
So if the economists cannot produce a Plan B, then I will. Greece? Be a man, drop this Euro nonsense, tell the European Union to go stick it and go back to the good old Drachma, not the silly little coins they were using just before the Euro, but the proper Drachma, those nice chunky coins and those pretty notes which actually meant something.
OK? Now, having done that, pass a law accepting your debt in Drachma. Done that? OK now devalue your Drachma by half and lo and behold! You have halved your debt! Ha ha ha, well not quite but almost. Numerically you still have the debt to pay but you can now use the Drachma for leverage to renegotiate it over time. Forget those interest rates, and tell them the interest rate will be created by you, otherwise there isn't a cent for anyone. Send Moody's and Fitch and their friends to Hell where they belong.
Now, they will tell you that this is terrible for imports because things will cost more. Exactly! Now here is your opportunity. It if costs more to import, then conversely it will be easier to export and now you can start rebuilding the production units you lost, recuperating your agriculture, fisheries and industries the EU took away from you and wow, you will see that you are suddenly creating jobs and markets and futures for your children. The State is receiving more income from taxation and hey! Yes you can afford those social schemes they told you that you could not. Amazing, eh?
The world is a small place, you can go out there looking for places downstream for your production to flow into. And with this upturn in your economy, buoyed by consumer confidence (the Feelgood Factor, the National Card - Buy Greek!) now you can start thinking of real economic growth, servicing your debt as and when you are able to pay it and building a brighter future for your children.
Tell Brussels to shove its Convergence Rate up where the Sun does not shine, tell Strasbourg to keep its silly Euro laws about the size of oranges and the size of a fishing net you cannot use but foreigners can, in your waters.
And there, ladies and gentlemen, we have the funeral of this European Union. Rest in Peace and for Christ's sake stay there. See, they tried to go too far, too fast. The experiments should never have left the desks of the academics who, bored shitless no doubt on a Friday afternoon, maybe after lunch, cooked them up. What were they smoking?
All the people of Europe every really wanted was a loose trading agreement life EFTA, possibly something along the lines of free movement of goods, maybe to a certain extent of peoples and nothing more than that. If our dear beloved Eurocrats had bothered to ask us in the first place…
So Greece, please. Your first move, the rest of us will follow suit! Or are the 500 million citizens of Europe too cowardly to fight this monstrosity which is today eating away our pensions and the futures of our children? Mark my words, if the monster isn't killed today it will come back tomorrow. With its friends.
Source: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/29-06-2011/118350-greece_end-0/
Poland prepares to go on crusade against Russia
7 August 2011
Poland has become the chairing state of the European Union on July 1. The plans of the Polish administration leave no doubt about the fact that the country will primarily be concentrated on the eastern direction of its foreign policy. In particular, Poland will do its best to pull Ukraine and Belarus apart from Russia.
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk shared the ideas about the goals of the country's presidency at the EU several days ago. During his speech in the parliament, Mr. Tusk said that Poland was supposed to become the new engine of the European Union. When speaking about priorities, Tusk particularly mentioned the signing of the agreement of association between the EU and Ukraine. The first priority for Poland will be the reanimation of Eastern Partnership Program, the anti-Russian undertone of which was obvious a long time ago.
The program was proposed three years ago by foreign ministers of Poland and Sweden. It unites Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldavia, Ukraine and Belarus. All these countries were promised the following: economic assistance, simplified visa regime, the establishment of the free trade zone and special relations. No one has ever asked Russia to join the program. Therefore, the program is an attempt to create a zone of EU influence near Russia's western and southern borders.
Poland attaches great importance to the Eastern Partnership Program indeed. It can be seen even on the website of the Polish Embassy in Moscow. The website has a special section devoted to the program. The website particularly says that the European Commission has assigned 700 million euros for the program, but the Poles intend to seek more. The central event to be held during the Polish presidency is the summit of the Eastern Partnership, which is slated to take place in Warsaw on September 29-30 of this year.
"Eastern Partnership is a historical chance for Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldavia…For the first time in history, the countries of Eastern Europe will have an opportunity of close economic and political integration with the European Union…The cooperation is based on common values, such as freedom, democracy, the supremacy of law and human rights," the website of the Polish embassy says.
In addition, Poland will create the international solidarity fund during its presidency. The fund will deal with the promotion of democracy in other regions of the world. The first "client" of the fund is Belarus. The EU toughened sanctions against this country, and Poland had had no small share in that. The Poles have not left North Africa out of attention either. African "fighters for freedom" will also have the honor of enjoying Poland's attention.
There is a contradictory detail to all that, though. Alexander Lukashenko, "Europe's last dictator," the "suppressor of freedom" and his Belarus are listed as members of the Eastern Partnership Program. Lukashenko was barred from traveling to the countries of the European Union. However, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on June 27 that Belarus would be invited to the summit of the partnership on the top level.
Here we go. Democracy is democracy, but geopolitics is geopolitics. Lukashenko is a bad guy, but they just turn a blind eye on it for Eastern Partnership. It is also interesting that the Poles do not say a word about Russia in the program.
Pravda.Ru asked expert opinion from Mr. Bogdan Bezpalko, a historian at the historical department of the Moscow State University, an expert for Poland.
"What do you think could be an explanation to the fact that for Eastern Partnership, the Poles are ready to shrug off the fact that Belarusian politicians are not allowed to enter EU states?"
"Geopolitics always stipulates double standards. If there's a need to use military force, they speak about national interests. If they need to interfere in other countries' affairs, they speak about democracy. This is the situation about Poland's approach towards Belarus. The cooperation within the framework of the partnership does not cancel Poland's intention to show influence on political affairs in Belarus to promote democracy there."
"Does Poland want to create its sphere of influence in the east of Europe with the help of Eastern Partnership?"
"This is exactly so. Historically, Poland considers Ukraine and Belarus its sphere of influence, and the country dreams to have it back. The Poles have another goal - to turn Eastern Europe into the main region of the European Union. Poland has been striving for its leadership in the region, and they will try to use their presidency in the EU to anchor this leadership.
"How do Belarus and Ukraine treat Poland's Napoleonic plans about themselves?"
"When Russia is putting pressure on Belarus, there is a risk that Belarus will eventually turn towards Poland and the European Union. The administration of Belarus is willing to cooperate with Russia, but they are also interested in cooperating with the West. The Ukrainian administration has changed, but the country is still interested in having special relations with Poland. Ukraine also wants to become a member of the European Union. Ukraine has been cooperating with NATO actively. Even if it never becomes a NATO member, it will remain close to the alliance."
"How can you explain the fact that Poland does not mention Russia at all in the description of Eastern Partnership Program?"
"This program does not take account of Russia's interests at all. Poland tries not to consider Russia as a serious entity in Europe and Eurasia. They also continue to perceive us as a geopolitical rival. It has been so for many centuries, and it still remains so today."
"Poland wants to set up the international solidarity fund. Do they really want to democratize North Africa?"
"They most likely speak about North Africa to attract more attention. Poland is the staunchest ally of the United States in Eastern Europe, so it has to confirm it. However, this is most likely nothing but a declaration. North Africa is a prerogative of the USA and several countries in Western Europe. Poland is more concentrated on Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, Central Europe, Moldavia and the Caucasus."
"Do you think that Poland's presidency at the EU will aggravate the relations between Russia and the European Union?"
"The relations between Russia and the EU will most likely become more intense because of Poland. Poland will be attracting more attention to these ties, but they are not going to be ruined."
Source: http://english.pravda.ru/world/europe/01-07-2011/118369-poland_russia-0/
Cops beat, pepper spray and use Tasers on disabled boy
27 July 2011
A 17-year-old mentally handicapped boy was opening the front door of his Dayton, Ohio home last week when police officers fired their Tasers at him before allegedly punching the disabled child in the chest and spraying him with mace.
The incident arose after Jesse Kersey was approached by police while on his bicycle on Saturday. The boy’s mother, Pamela Ford, says her son was stopped by Officer Willie Hooper, who tried to talk to Jesse and then mistook his speech impediment as disrespect towards the copper.
"Prior to the incident … Hooper knew Jesse and was aware that Jesse was mentally challenged,” his mom says in a statement, however.
Jesse became confused when Hooper began shouting, though, and began heading back to his house to have his mother help communicate for him. There on his front steps, two officers fired their Tasers.
In a civil complaint filed in Dayton County this week, Ford says that officers Hooper and John Howard entered the home and struggled with her son. She says Jesse was standing against a door with his hands in front of his face, pleading “Please quit, please quit.”
Then, she says, Jesse was “hogtied” and put into a police car and eventually jail.
Around 20 officers by then had reported to the scene.
Ford says that a neighbor tried to alert Officer Hooper that Jesse was disabled as he chased the boy home, but he was instead reprimanded and warned that, if he did not go back into his home, he would be arrested.
That statement also notes that "On numerous occasions, Ford and a family friend, Christopher Peyton, informed Officer Hooper that Jesse was mentally challenged/handicapped, and that Jesse did not understand what was happening.”
"At no point, even after being advised of Jesse's mental challenge/handicap by Jesse's family and numerous bystanders, did defendant Hooper, defendant Howard, or any other police officer present, attempt to communicate with Jesse or explain in terms he could understand as to why Jesse was being chased.”
Somehow the ordeal pinnacled with Jesse being booked for assault, resisting arrest and obstructing official business, but charges were dropped by the Montgomery County Juvenile Court after the boy was declared incompetent.
Now Ford and an attorney are seeking damages from Dayton and Hooper and Howard for false imprisonment, false arrest, malicious prosecution, assault, battery, excessive use of force, infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy.
The plaintiffs have not yet specified how much they will be seeking, other than it should total at least $300,000. Richard Boucher, a Dayton attorney for over 23 years, will be representing the family.
Source: http://rt.com/usa/news/disabled-boy-hooper-jesse/
48 gwałtów na godzinę - ten kraj to piekło dla kobiet
27 lipca 20111r
Najnowsze dostępne dane wskazują, że w Demokratycznej Republice Konga każdej godziny gwałconych jest 48 kobiet. To ponad 400 tysięcy ofiar rocznie. Sprawcy zazwyczaj pozostają bezkarni, a Kongijki - bez pomocy.
Grupa amerykańskich badaczy posłużyła się informacjami z rządowego spisu zdrowotnego przeprowadzonego w 2007 roku. Na ich podstawie naukowcy oszacowali skalę problemu w DR Konga. Wyniki przedstawili w "American Journal of Public Health". Są szokujące.
O tym, że przemoc seksualna w sercu Afryki jest codziennością, wiadomo było od dawna. Dekady brutalnej kolonizacji i wyzysku, potem lata dyktatorskich rządów, a na końcu krwawa wojna domowa - w państwie o takiej historii ludzie zawsze cierpią.
Jednym z założeń na temat gwałtów w Kongo było to, że są one sprawką zdziczałych partyzantów i żołnierzy, a zdarzają się przede wszystkim w niestabilnych wschodnich prowincjach. Kobiety są tam traktowane jak łupy wojenne. Seks jest nagrodą za walkę i sposobem na poniżenie przeciwnika.
Wyniki ostatnich badań pokazują, że było to uproszczenie. Za co czwarte przestępstwo seksualne odpowiadają nie ludzie z bronią, a cywile. Czasem są to mężowie lub sąsiedzi ofiar. Do gwałtów dochodzi równie często w spokojnej Prowincji Równikowej na zachodzie, jak i w płonącym Północnym Kiwu na wschodzie.
"Przemoc seksualna jest znacznie powszechniejsza, niż sądziliśmy", przyznają autorzy badań. Co gorsza, jest społecznie akceptowana, a na pewno - przemilczana. Gwałciciele, w większości przypadków, nie ponoszą kary za swe czyny.
Przeraża także rozmiar problemu. Raporty ONZ podawały do tej pory, że w DR Konga dochodzi do 16 tysięcy gwałtów rocznie. Bazowały na statystykach policyjnych i danych ze szpitali. Amnesty International mówiło o 40 tysiącach. Autorzy najnowszego badania twierdzą, że prawdziwa liczba przekroczyła 400 tysięcy. To około 1150 ofiar dziennie. - Ale to i tak ostrożne wyliczenia, ponieważ wielu przestępstw ciągle się nie zgłasza z powodu stygmatyzacji, wstydu i przeświadczenia o bezkarności sprawców - powiedziała BBC dr Amber Peterman, szefowa zespołu naukowców.
Odwrócić wzrok
Konflikt w DR Konga był najkrwawszym od końca drugiej wojny światowej. A właściwie - ciągle jest. Chociaż oficjalnie zakończył się w 2003 roku, walki nadal trwają. Są zacięte, brutalne i zdecydowanie zbyt częste, by mówić o jakimkolwiek pokoju.
Ale chociaż przez ostatnie kilkanaście lat zginęło w Kongu ponad 5,5 miliona osób, świat przez długi czas całkowicie ignorował tę tragedię. Kiedy w mediach co i rusz mówiono o Kosowie, Afganistanie czy Darfurze, w Demokratycznej Republice z powodu wojny umierało 45 tysięcy ludzi miesięcznie. W większości były to dzieci do piątego roku życia. W wieczornych wiadomościach rzadko jednak o tym wspominano.
Aktywiści, którzy chcieli nagłośnić koszmar Konga, nie potrafili zainteresować tym tematem stacji telewizyjnych. Nic dziwnego. Opinia publiczna chce śledzić konflikty, które potrafi pojąć; takie, w których podział na dobrych i złych jest jasny, a geneza i rozwiązanie - wystarczająco proste. Wojna w DR Konga była zupełnie inna. W kongijskiej dżungli walczyło osiem państw, około 50 organizacji partyzanckich i jeszcze więcej grup etnicznych o skomplikowanej historii. Biły się o władzę, minerały, prestiż; z chwilowości, w zemście lub w samoobronie. W kraju panował głód, w zatłoczonych obozach dla uchodźców i przesiedleńców wybuchały zarazy, z dymem szły kolejne wioski. Jeden lud cierpiał, a za chwilę sam mordował. Raz rządowi żołnierze ochraniali miasteczko przed rebelianckim atakiem, a za moment gwałcili jego mieszkanki.
Jak opisać takie piekło? Jak przedstawić je w 30-sekundowym filmie, wytłumaczyć w krótkim artykule, uchwycić na fotografii? W zawiłościach kongijskiej wojny gubili się eksperci i dziennikarze. Przypadkowy obserwator nie miał szans go zrozumieć. Media na całym świecie odpuściły więc sobie Kongo.
Przełom nastąpił w 2007 roku. Wtedy to koalicja organizacji praw człowieka, ze wspieranym przez hollywoodzkie gwiazdy Enough Project na czele, postanowiła zmienić swoją nieskuteczną strategię. Aktywiści zrezygnowali z prób pokazania pełnego spektrum kongijskich nieszczęść. Zamiast tego skupili się na dwóch plagach: "krwawych minerałach" oraz przemocy seksualnej. Był to strzał w dziesiątkę. Nowa kampania przemówiła do zachodniego - zwłaszcza amerykańskiego - odbiorcy. Zainteresowanie tematem wzrosło, podobnie jak liczba darczyńców. W kongijską sprawę zaangażowały się najsłynniejsze nazwiska: Ben Affleck, Angelina Jolie czy Javier Bardem.
Publiczna presja zmusiła Kongres USA do zainteresowania się kryzysem w Demokratycznej Republice. Wielu polityków, w tym ówczesny senator Barack Obama, zajęło się tworzeniem ustawy, która miałaby chociaż trochę poprawić los Kongijczyków. I być może coś się uda w tej kwestii osiągnąć. W tym roku w Stanach w życie wejdzie tzw. akt Dodd-Frank Wall Street, który mocno zaostrzy przepisy dotyczące importu minerałów mogących pochodzić z obszarów wojennych. Ma to ukrócić proceder pośredniego sponsorowania okrutnych watażków przez koncerny wykupujące kongijskie bogactwa naturalne.
Kwestia tysięcy gwałtów przyciągała do tej pory mniej uwagi niż "krwawe minerały". Wyniki badań opublikowanych w "American Journal of Public Health" mogą to zmienić. W anglojęzycznej prasie wywołały już poważną dyskusję na ten temat. A niewątpliwie jest o czym mówić.
Porażka
We wschodnich prowincjach, szczególnie w Północnym i Południowym Kiwu, od lat grasują rozmaite bojówki. Większość z nich nie przestrzega żadnych zasad. Odczłowieczeni przez lata ukrywania się w tropikalnym lesie, partyzanci regularnie napadają na niechronione wioski. Bez skrupułów plądrują, palą i mordują. Gdy gwałcą, to nierzadko w grupach i z użyciem kolb karabinów i kijów.
Wojsko niewiele robi, by temu zapobiec - jest źle wyszkolone, niezdyscyplinowane i brakuje mu sprzętu. Żołnierze sami bywają gwałcicielami, zwłaszcza gdy wkraczają do miejscowości podejrzanych o wspieranie wrogów. Nie jest to zaskoczeniem. Wielu mundurowych to byli rebelianci, którzy w wyniku umów z rządem zostali wcieleni do armii. Przynieśli za sobą stare przyzwyczajenia.
Zgwałcone kobiety znajdują się w tragicznej sytuacji. Mają nie tylko rany psychiczne, ale i bardzo poważne uszkodzenia ciała. Stan kongijskiej służby zdrowia jest fatalny, więc lekarze przeważnie nie są w stanie przeprowadzić bardziej skomplikowanych operacji. Pomoc psychologiczną uzyskują tylko te ofiary, które mają szczęście spotkać pracowników organizacji humanitarnych.
Co gorsza, skrzywdzone kobiety niekiedy zostają zupełnie same. Ich sąsiedzi spoglądają na nie z mieszaniną odrazy i zawstydzenia, a mężowie opuszczają. - Mówią: "nie mogę więcej patrzeć na moją żonę". Za każdym razem, gdy ją widzą, widzą kogoś, kogo nie potrafili ochronić - wyjaśniła w rozmowie z BBC Jocelyn Kelly z Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. - Czują się jak przegrani i nie potrafią sobie poradzić z tym inaczej, niż odrzucając małżonkę i zaczynając od nowa.
Bezkarność
Jak jednak wytłumaczyć skalę przemocy seksualnej w spokojniejszych częściach kraju?
Kongijskie społeczeństwo jest bardzo patriarchalne. To świat zdominowany przez samców. Rola kobiety ogranicza się do rodzenia dzieci i usługiwania mężczyznom. A seks jest traktowany jak jedna z usług. - Podejście jest takie, że seks to święte prawo mężczyzny i nie ma sposobu, by go nie dostał, gdy ma ochotę - stwierdziła Jocelyn Kelly. Kongijczycy biorą zatem to, co chcą. Jeśli trzeba, również siłą.
Prawo nie odstrasza gwałcicieli. Mimo wprowadzenia wielu zaostrzeń w 2006 roku, nadal jest bardzo nieskuteczne. Kodeks automatycznie definiuje dziś seks z osobą poniżej 18. roku życia jako gwałt. Jednocześnie zezwala na zawarcie małżeństwa w wieku 15 lat, co jest w Kongo normą. - Społeczeństwo, a nawet sędziowie, nie uznają nowych praw, bo są niedostosowane do kongijskiej kultury i realiów - powiedziała agencji IRIN Marie Josée Mijinga ze Stowarzyszenia Sędzin.
Chociaż policja ma obowiązek rozpoczęcia dochodzenia w ciągu 30 dni od otrzymania powiadomienia o gwałcie, w praktyce wygląda to inaczej. W zeszłym roku, według ONZ, w Południowym Kiwu zajęto się jedynie co trzecią sprawą. Problemy finansowe są głównym utrudnieniem. Policji brakuje wszystkiego - samochodów, paliwa, sprzętu biurowego. - Jeśli policjant nie ma nawet długopisu do pisania, to nie może prowadzić śledztwa czy pojechać w teren, by zbierać dowody - wyjaśniała Mijinga.
Według niektórych danych, zaledwie jedna na dwadzieścia ofiar zgłasza przestępstwo. Jest ku temu wiele przeszkód. Po pierwsze - pieniądze. Urzędnicy - od mundurowych po sędziów - często domagają się opłat związanych z "kosztami dochodzenia". Po drugie - sprawcy, jeśli już staną przed sądem, dostają zazwyczaj bardzo niskie wyroki. Kobiety obawiają się, że po wyjściu z więzienia ich ciemiężyciele mogliby się mścić za "donos".
Trzecim powodem jest wstyd. W kulturze Bantu zgwałcona kobieta uważana jest za nieczystą. Wiele z nich woli więc milczeć, by uniknąć potępienia. Niekiedy posuwa się to jeszcze dalej. - Tradycyjni wodzowie wiosek albo seniorowie rodów widzą poślubienie młodej dziewczyny przez jej oprawcę za swego rodzaju odkupienie win - opowiadała reporterowi IRIN sędzina Epiphane Zoro. - Czasem nawet takie rozwiązanie wybiera ofiara. Woli to od zniesławienia, a szans na inne małżeństwo praktycznie już nie ma, bo nie jest dziewicą - dodała.
Czy można wyobrazić sobie większe zwycięstwo gwałciciela?
5 Saudi Women Arrested For Driving
27 July 2011
Two weeks ago, at least 42 Saudi Arabian women took to the streets by driving in a number of cities. While Saudi Arabia does not have a written law banning women to drive, women are forbidden to do so under a fatwa or religious edict issued by senior clerics following Wahhabism, a strict brand of Sunni Islam. Women have since been driving in the capital of Riyadh and other cities in defiance of the ban. But on Tuesday, five women were detained as they drove in the city of Jeddah on the Red Sea Coast, according to rights activist Eman al-Nafjan.
According to the New York Times, the four women, ages 21 and 22, were riding in one car. After being arrested by the religious police, they were taken to a police station where they signed a pledge not to drive again just as Manal al-Sharif, the Saudi women whose arrest and imprisonment sparked the campaign to overturn the driving ban, was forced to sign a pledge not to drive again or to speak to reporters before she was freed.
The fifth woman was arrested separately on Tuesday night while driving in the neighborhood of Suleimaniyah.
As Nafjian said in the Guardian:
“This is the first big pushback from authorities it seems. We aren’t sure what it means at this point and whether this is the start of a harder line by the government against the campaign.”
Saudi Women for Driving, described by the New York Times as an “informal coalition of leading Saudi women’s rights activists, bloggers and academics,” said that “these arrests will encourage more women to get behind the wheel in direct defiance of this ridiculous abuse of our most basic human rights.” Citing the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere as an inspiration, Saudi Women for Driving has called for “high-level western backing” and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and female leaders in Europe have indeed expressed their support for the campaign.
However, Clinton’s support of the campaign could put her and the Obama administration in a “delicate position,” as Saudi Arabia is a close US ally and the US is “increasingly reliant on Saudi authorities to provide stability and continuity in the Middle East and Gulf amid uprisings taking place across the Arab world.” Clinton herself has said that the Saudi women drivers “are acting on behalf of their own rights and not at the behest of outsiders like herself.” Again the question arises: How far can or will the US stick out its neck in supporting pro-democracy movements in Arab countries, while maneuvering to protect its own interests?
Źródło: http://www.care2.com/causes/5-saudi-women-arrested-for-driving.html
Austriacy nie ufają Kościołowi katolickiemu
27 lipca 2011r
Z sondażu przeprowadzonego przez pismo "Kurier" wynika, że większość Austriaków nie ma zaufania do Kościoła rzymskokatolickiego.
Zgodnie z danymi przedstawionymi przez gazetę aż 61 proc. Austriaków nie ma zaufania do Kościoła rzymskokatolickiego, 35 proc. z nich deklaruje, że ufa Kościołowi, a 4 proc. nie ma zdania na ten temat.
Komentując wyniki sondażu, dziennikarze "Kuriera" piszą, że niskie zaufanie do Kościoła w Austrii jest spowodowane przede wszystkim skandalami dotyczącymi pedofilii, które miały miejsce w ostatnich latach w wielu krajach Europy. Ich zdaniem w wielu przypadkach Kościół ukrywał przypadki pedofilii wśród księży i odmawiał współpracy z krajowymi wymiarami sprawiedliwości. W Austrii bardzo głośna jest też sprawa dwóch niemieckich prawników, Christiana Sailera i Gerta-Joachima Hetzela, którzy kilka miesięcy temu oskarżyli obecnego papieża, Benedykta XVI o ukrywanie pedofilii wśród księży i wysunęli wniosek o pociągnięcie go do odpowiedzialności karnej.
Sondaż został przeprowadzony w dniach 26–28 maja i wzięło w nim udział 1000 dorosłych mieszkańców Austrii.
Źródło: http://www.lewica.pl/?id=24744
Guatemala Introduces Women-Only Buses
27 July 2011
In an attempt to protect women from sexual harassment, IPS is reporting that Guatemala City’s transit system launched a women’s only bus pilot project a couple of weeks ago. There are now dozens of women-only buses running during peak hours (6:00 to 7:30 am and 5:30 to 7:00 pm). Other than drivers, the only males allowed on the buses are boys under the age of twelve. The pilot was introduced due to the large number of complaints about men groping and rubbing up against women and girls on buses.
These buses are a small step in helping women to feel safer in Guatemala, which the United Nations lists as one of the most violent countries. The buses being used in the pilot program are newer buses with improved safety measures, such as prepaid cards, video cameras and security guards on buses. While IPS reported that women do feel safer on these buses, they also noted “off the bus, harassment is still an issue.” Ultimately, the buses are not the solution to Guatemala’s problems, but they may help remove one small stressor from the lives of women who deal with violence day in and day out.
Guatemala City is not the first city to introduce women-only buses. There were also women-only buses introduced this month in Bandung, Indoensia. In 2010, women-only buses were introduced in Malaysia, and in 2008 they were introduced in Mexico City. Back in 2009, Care2 reported on several other female-only transportation initiatives:
Following what seems to be something of an international trend, the Mexican city of Puebla has offered a new service to women plagued by “leering drivers”: a fleet of taxis, driven by women and catering exclusively to women. This comes on the heels of women-only train cars in Japan and Brazil, all-female transportation in Tehran, and “ladies’ specials” in India, all designed to free women from the sexual harassment that public transportation seems inevitably to bring.
The problem, of course, with all of these women-only transportation initiatives is that they are treating the symptoms, rather than the causes of sexual harassment. Of course they are a good idea and help to provide women with some level of protection in an environment where they are unsafe. However the bigger challenge is addressing the culture that makes it both acceptable and common for women to be sexually harassed and abused. In the IPS article, Ana Silvia Monzón of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences was quoted as saying: “I hope it’s only temporary and that men’s behaviour will improve, but for that to happen, other measures are needed as well.”
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/guatemala-introduces-women-only-buses.html
It’s Cool To Be A Babushka! (VIDEO)
27 July 2011
To watch + read:
http://www.care2.com/causes/its-cool-to-be-a-babushka-video.html
Gdy matki zabijają córki
27 lipca 2011r
Oczekujemy, że kobiety, szczególnie matki, będą w stanie przeciwstawić się obyczajom społecznym, by uratować swoje dzieci. Czasem rzeczywistość jest jednak całkiem inna. Dwie muzułmańskie wdowy, żyjące w Uttar Pradesz w Indiach, pomogły sobie wzajemnie w zamordowaniu swoich dorosłych córek, Zahidy i Husny. Powodem zbrodni była miłość dziewcząt do nieodpowiednich mężczyzn.
Przytrzymywały swoje córki i powoli zadusiły je na śmierć. Zabite dziewczyny naprawdę wierzyły, że mają prawo do poślubienia nie-muzułmanów, do miłości i do tego, że społeczność muzułmańska ponownie je zaakceptuje. To jest typowe dla wielu ofiar morderstw honorowych. Te dwie młode kobiety wiedziały wystarczająco dużo, by skontaktować się z policją i prosić o pomoc. A ta istotnie zmusiła rodzicielki do podpisania zgody na to, że nie „skrzywdzą" swoich dzieci — był to jednak tylko nic nie warty kawałek papieru. Tęsknota córek do pojednania i naiwna nadzieja przyczyniły się do ich zguby. Matki zgodziły się ich nie skrzywdzić i namówiły do powrotu. Kiedy dziewczęta były już w domu, stały się zdobyczą przeznaczoną na ołtarz ofiarny. Życie poza kręgiem rodziny jest nie do pomyślenia dla kogoś, kogo tożsamość jest uzależniona od grupy i tak było w tym wypadku.
Żadna z matek, ani Chatun, ani Subrato, nie wyraziła najmniejszej skruchy. Obie czują się usprawiedliwione, ponieważ ich córki przyniosły hańbę swoim rodzinom. Według policji Chatun powiedziała: -Zabiłyśmy je, bo przyniosły hańbę naszej społeczności. Jak mogły uciec z hindusami? Zasłużyły na śmierć. Niczego nie żałujemy.
Oczekujemy, że kobiety, szczególnie matki, będą w stanie przeciwstawić się obyczajom społecznym, by uratować swoje dzieci. Rzeczywistość jest jednak całkiem inna. Najmniejsze wykroczenie, szczególnie dokonane przez kobiety, narusza olbrzymie sieci wzajemnych zależności i obala stabilność społeczną. Nikt nie zechce wziąć małżonka/małżonki ze „zhańbionej" rodziny. Rodzina taka będzie na zawsze bojkotowana, wyrzucona na margines społeczny i najprawdopodobniej skończy bez potomstwa. Matki, ojcowie, krewni są bardziej lojalni wobec zwyczajów społecznych swojego plemienia niż wobec jednostki, nawet jeśli ta jednostka jest ich własnym dzieckiem. To system wymaga takiego barbarzyństwa i przyzwala na nie, poświęcenie jednostki uważane jest za służbę większej, opartej na plemieniu lub kaście strukturze społecznej.
Ponadto nieludzkie traktowanie kobiety przez kobietę jest powszechnym zjawiskiem w Indiach, gdzie teściowe regularnie pomagają swoim synom w spaleniu synowej. Znane jest to jako „zabijanie za posag", ponieważ dokonuje się tego, kiedy nowa panna młoda nie może przynieść dodatkowego zysku ubogiej lub po prostu zbyt chciwej rodzinie. W więzieniu w New Delhi jest specjalne skrzydło dla takich teściowych. Zabójstwa dziewczynek są od dawna praktykowane zarówno w Indiach, jak w Chinach. Często zdarza się, że zarówno kobiety jak i mężczyźni kradną dzieci w Indiach i sprzedają je do adopcji za granicę, najczęściej do niewoli seksualnej.
Co najdziwniejsze, sondaże pokazują, że kobiety w Indiach uważają, iż zasługują na bicie. Być może mówią w ten sposób, że kobiety po prostu powinny spodziewać się, że to się zdarzy. Wiele hinduskich i muzułmańskich matek odmawia przyjęcia z powrotem do domu ciężko pobitej nieletniej panny młodej. W Afganistanie często prowadzi to do samobójstwa, zazwyczaj przez samospalenie.
Uznanie należy się Sądowi Najwyższemu Indii, który niedawno oświadczył: - Pora położyć kres tym barbarzyńskim, feudalnym praktykom, które są plamą na naszym narodzie. Ale czy to pomoże?
Źródło: http://religia.onet.pl/racjonalisci,39/gdy-matki-zabijaja-corki,297.html
Skazane na prostytucję
27 lipiec 2011r
Do dalszego czytania:
http://religia.onet.pl/publicystyka,6/skazane-na-prostytucje,359,page1.html
Pracownik Blackwater zabił cywila - dostał za to 2,5 roku
27 lipca 2011r
Były pracownik firmy ochroniarskiej Blackwater został skazany przez sąd w USA na dwa i pół roku więzienia za zastrzelenie w maju 2009 roku w Kabulu nieuzbrojonego afgańskiego cywila. W poniedziałek prawnicy skazanego zapowiedzieli apelację.
Pracownik Blackwatera został uznany w marcu za winnego nieumyślnego zabójstwa. Do czasu rozpatrzenia apelacji pozostanie na wolności.
Wraz z innym pracownikiem firmy, również Amerykaninem, mężczyzna ostrzelał tył samochodu, który wyminął ich w ciemnościach po tym jak jeden z samochodów jadących w ich kolumnie miał wypadek. Pracownicy Blackwatera bez pozwolenia eskortowali do domu swojego tłumacza jadąc jedną z najbardziej niebezpiecznych dróg na świecie. Jego kompana skazano wcześniej na trzy lata więzienia.
Mężczyźni pracowali w Afganistanie jako szkoleniowcy dla firmy Paravant należącej do Blackwatera (dziś nazywa się Xe Corp.).
Holandia: Kościół katolicki zapłaci ofiarom księży pedofilów
27 lipca 2011r
Holenderski Kościół rzymskokatolicki zgodził się na wypłatę odszkodowań dla ofiar księży pedofilów w tym kraju. Porozumienie jest wynikiem pracy niezależnej komisji powołanej do zbadania seksualnego molestowania dzieci w instytucjach prowadzonych przez Kościół.
Komisja ustaliła, że co najmniej 1975 osób w dzieciństwie padło ofiarą molestowania seksualnego przez przedstawicieli Kościoła holenderskiego. Według rekomendacji komisji odszkodowania mają wynosić od 5 tysięcy do 100 tysięcy euro. Członkowie komisji zgodzili się też, że ofiarom księży pedofilów należą się przeprosiny oraz uznanie przez Kościół katolicki odpowiedzialności za ich cierpienia.
Holandia jest kolejnym krajem, w którym przyznano odszkodowania dla ofiar księży pedofilów. Procesy związane z pedofilią w Kościele katolickim rozpoczęły się około 10 lat temu. Sprawy związane z pedofilią wśród księży wyszły na jaw między innymi w Niemczech, Irlandii, Australii, Belgii, Austrii, Kanadzie i USA.
Źródło: http://www.lewica.pl/?id=24738
Swedish Preschool Eliminates Gender
27 July 2011
Sweden is known for being one of the most progressive countries in the world, and even their preschools are pushing the envelope. At “Egalia,” a taxpayer-funded preschool in a liberal district of Stockholm, teachers refrain from using gendered pronouns like “him” or “her,” and refer to the children as “friends,” rather than “boys” or “girls.” The school also carefully plans the color distribution of toys and choice of books so that children don’t fall into gendered stereotypes.
“Society expects girls to be girlie, nice and pretty and boys to be manly, rough and outgoing,” explained Jenny Johnsson. “Egalia gives them a fantastic opportunity to be whoever they want to be.”
The Swedes are dedicated to breaking down gender roles by making sure that early education has as few gendered expectations as possible. This means, at Egalia, no books that feature traditional gender roles or relationships – meaning few heterosexual couples, and lots of gay or single parents and adopted children. Conventional fairy tales, like “Cinderella,” or “Snow White,” are not permitted.
The school seems to be successful; there’s a long waiting list for admission and only one child has been removed. But their methods are still controversial and attract a great deal of attention, just like the Canadian couple who recently decided to raise their child gender-neutral.
Sweden is clearly a leader in gender equity as well as in gay rights, and I understand the desire to raise children, from a young age, to be blind to gender. But the question is whether the children will be able to function outside their preschool, or even within the context of their families. One of the most important issues is linguistic; at Egalia, teachers use a Swedish gender-neutral pronoun to avoid the fact that gender is built into the language. It’s unclear to me whether this is sustainable. Even if small children hear gender-neutral language in school, will their parents abide by it? If they do, more power to them – I tried to go through an entire session of a women’s studies class only using gender-neutral language, and failed after 20 minutes.
If nothing else, Egalia seems like a fascinating social experiment. And it could begin to prove that gender is, as feminists argue, a social construct. The question is whether it will be successful in the long run – and if a place like Egalia could exist anywhere except Sweden.
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/swedish-preschool-eliminates-gender.html
Russian legislators under fire for proposed abortion restrictions
27 July 2011
A push by the Russian government to raise childbirth statistics has driven lawmakers to propose a bill limiting a pregnant woman's options for abortion. Critics oppose the initiative saying it is wrong and an ineffective way to deal with the problem.
When she heard she was pregnant again, Elena Semikhina had already been through two caesarian sections and had two healthy sons to make her life complete. Along with her diabetes, the third pregnancy was a huge risk. Now, though, she cannot imagine life without her Sasha.
“I look at my little miracle and cannot even imagine that once I had thoughts about getting rid of him,” she said. “I have never regretted my decision.”
Elena was able to make her choice freely. Had she wanted a termination, nothing would have stood in her way.
Abortion in Russia is available on request up to 12 weeks into the pregnancy, and is permitted at any stage if the pregnancy puts the mother’s life in danger.
The proposed legislation would end free abortions at state clinics and make women wait for a week before the termination to think over their decision. The “morning-after pill”, now available at any pharmacy, would also become prescription-only.
“If we managed to avert at least 20 per cent of abortions annually, we would have a clear increase in birth rates instead of a demographic decline,” said Igor Beloborodov, Director of Demographic Research Institute.
Tatiana Popova, a qualified psychologist working at one of Moscow’s maternity hospitals, says the stress of an unplanned pregnancy often makes women rush into a decision they might later regret.
“My task is not to talk a woman out of abortion, just show her the alternatives, so that she does not end up tormenting herself later with questions like how old the baby would have been now and what he or she would have looked like,” she said.
Experts say the only way forward is to give women the security needed to embark on motherhood.
Single mother Olga Myasnikova found the help she was so desperate for at a Moscow charity, which now provides food for her increased family.
“My husband left me when I was pregnant,” she said. “I did not have any means to feed the kids I already had, let alone raise another one.”
However, opponents of the proposed legislation believe limiting a woman’s choice breaches her health rights and human rights.
“My body is my business” is just one of their slogans.
“History shows that banning abortions has never led to a baby boom,” one of the activists told RT.
When the Soviet Union outlawed abortions in 1936, the result was an enormous increase in the maternal death rate.
That is what doctors fear most – that restrictions on legal abortions will only push women to find risky backstreet alternatives, even if it threatens their health and life.
Some believe that restricting abortions could lead to more women abandoning their newborn children.
“In Russia 40 per cent of women decide against pregnancy,” said Galina Dikke from the Department of Reproductive Medicine and Surgery. “If a woman is determined not to have children, she will not, and that includes simply abandoning them.”
Abandoned children did not choose to come into this world and be deprived of their basic right for parental love. One day they might find someone to call their family. However, the issue is whether restricting abortions will lead to more children abandoned after being born against their mothers’ will.
Source: http://rt.com/news/abortions-russia-restrictions/
Norway tests Russian women for maternal instinct
27 July 2011
Another Russian woman, who lives in Norway, has addressed to Pravda.Ru for help. Irina Nolund is having a legal dispute with local social services which took away the woman's child. The authorities of Norway claim that the Russian woman is incapable of raising the child. Moreover, they say the woman does not have the maternal instinct. The boy, who is not even two, was transferred to a foster family.
Irina gave birth to her first and only child when she was 42 years old. The woman has had 13 miscarriages before. Her successful pregnancy became the easiest one, which is very surprising. According to Irina, she didn't have any problems at all during the pregnancy. She gave birth to a healthy baby boy. When he turned 14 months, tests showed that the boy was developing very fast: he was eight months ahead of his peers. Social services of Norway took the child away from his mother when he was only 16 months old.
Irina was told during the pretrial hearings that she would be deprived of custody of her child till the boy turns 18 years. She was allowed to see the child only four times a year, for three hours per meeting. The woman was told that if she wanted to see her son more often than ordered, she may cause damage to the child's psyche.
Irina Nolund was not planning to move to Norway. She would often visit Norway before for business to buy goods for a shop in Murmansk - her home city. She met her future husband during one of such visits.
"Our affair was developing very quickly. He was saying that I should move to Norway, that we should get married," Irina said. It turned out later that her husband was unemployed and had a very large debt. He was not paying for his house for almost a year. As it usually happens in Russia, Irina started to solve her husband's problems. She started paying the debt for him.
"I then realized that I was a profitable wife for him. I was 16 years younger, I was independent and I had money," she said.
Irina could speak the Norwegian, so she found a job at a local food store and started working. Her family life did not work, though. The woman left the husband after six years of life. She was fed up with his scandals and extortions. Some time later, she met another man, who became the father of her child.
Some time late, the woman broke up with her common-law husband. Irina started living alone with her child, but she also started having health problems. The woman realized that she would not be able to raise her son alone. She asked child protection services for help.
Also read: Russian woman desperately fights for her abused children in Norway
"I was hoping that they would help me find a baby sitter, at least for several hours a day or for weekends. However, they offered me a place in a kindergarten, which was an hour walk away from my home," she said.
She later learned that the services were supposed to pay taxi bills, although no one told her anything about it. In a state of despair, she took several sleeping pills, but called the ambulance afterwards.
"I explained to the psychologist later that I was not trying to commit suicide. It was a howl of despair. I wanted them to pay attention to my situation," she said.
The woman attracted attention indeed: she was sent to a rehab. Afterwards, she was recommended to undergo a special course in a center for problematic families. If she had not agreed, the services would have taken the child away from her immediately.
"Me and my son were accommodated in a basement near the laundry, which was working 24 hours a day. The child could not sleep because of the noise. My legs were aching, and it was very hard for me to walk up and down the stairs all the time. I was asking for help, but they would decline all my requests," the woman said.
Irina was sent to work at the kitchen. When she said that she could not work there anymore, everyone though that the woman simply did not want to live by local rules. Irina was breaking many rules indeed. She would argue with psychologists about raising children - she was trying to defend her point of view. She though that her opinions meant something. Irina also thought that she would be treated as a mother who was responsible for her son.
"You see, never-ending pressure and control is not the most terrible thing. They don't listen to me at all - this is what's horrible. You are trying to explain something, but they just look at you as if you don't even exist," Irina said.
The assessment report from child protection services said that Irina was incapable of raising her child. The document also said that the woman was mentally unhealthy and could not play with the boy. Aside from that, Irina was shocked to read that she had no maternal instinct.
"I can be accused of having a hyper-instinct. I gave birth to my son at not a very young age and I was cherishing him as much as I could," she said.
"Local child protection services are incredibly powerful in this country. All they say is decisive, even if their statements are not substantiated by medical specialists," Irina said.
Being foster parents is very profitable in Norway. For each child the state pay the allowance between 300-500 thousand krones ($90,000) a year. There is also an additional monthly payment of up to 10,000 krones for clothes, etc. If a child lives for two years with a foster family, no one will be able to return the child to their parents afterwards.
"I know a woman, who had her two children taken away from her. The court in Strasbourg found in her favor, but Norwegian officials said that they could not return the kids to their mother, because the children had been living with foster parents for more than two years," Irina said.
Nowadays, Irina helps other woman to deal with the problems of Norwegian laws. She became a member of public organization called "Women Can". "I will fight for my child till the end." It is frightful to imagine what kind of end it may be.
Source: http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/24-06-2011/118308-norway_russian_woman-0/
Mankind ready to eat its own faeces
27 July 2011
Businessmen of the world begin to invest in human faeces. The Bill Gates Foundation is allocating $1.5 million for the project to process human excrement into methane and biodiesel fuel. The Japanese found their own special way for gaining profit from their own excrement. They put forward an idea to turn faeces into meat. It seems that they have created the food of the future for billions of those living in the third world.
Human excrement has become particularly interesting for agricultural specialist and those seeking alternative fuel. According to them, human wastes, which represent concentrated organic material, is much more efficient in terms of energy than other types of biological fuel.
Spokespeople for the Bill Gates Foundation believe that scientists will be able to invent a new, alternative source of fuel. Apparently, they do not know that faeces as fuel is a moth-eaten theory.
Marine vessels use systems with special bacteria that turn excrement into H2O. The first vessel, which was equipped with this system, was the Pioneer of Moldavia, a timber carrying vessel.
Modern-day technologies allow to produce both synthetic petrol and fuel gas from waste waters. Hydrocarbon fuel is received from biogas with the help of the thermal reactor. Such systems are already used in cattle breeding. A ton of animal excrement gives 60-65 cubic meters of biogas. The production of biogas from chicken manure is the largest - 130 cubic meters from one ton.
The idea to use human excrement for the production of fuel appeared not so long ago. There is a mini heating and electric station working on biogas in Moscow. The station was launched during Luzhkov's stay in the office, but the idea did not become popular much.
The idea to use human wastes as sources of heat looks reasonable indeed. However, as it usually happens, the Japanese do it better. Japanese scientists achieved the real fecal breakthrough in the world. They synthesized food from human wastes.
The story started when a Tokyo-based service company asked scientists to find a solution to a fecal problem. They asked them to find a way how to use tons and tons of faeces, which the Japanese capital produces.
The scientists came up with something unthinkable. The most technologically advanced nation in the world has created edible fecal meat. The new meat was used in so-called shitburgers. Those insane volunteers who ate the burgers said that they tasted like ordinary meat. What else could they say? A shitburger contains 63 percent of proteins, 25 percent of carbs, as well as some fats and minerals.
Source: http://english.pravda.ru/business/companies/21-06-2011/118270-faeces-0/
Ukamienowali ją, ciało podpalili, bo… odeszła od męża
27 lipca 2011r
Na terenach plemiennych Pakistanu ukamienowano kobietę oskarżoną o odejście od męża. Do zabójstwa doszło w rejonie Doliny Swat, odległej o niecałe 200 kilometrów od stolicy kraju Islamabadu. Do niedawna działały tam ugrupowania talibów żądające wprowadzenia na tym terenie prawa koranicznego, szariatu.
Na skutek nieporozumień z mężem kobieta przeniosła się do domu swej matki. Dzień przed tragedią została wezwana przez lokalną radę plemienną do wyjaśnienia swej decyzji. Gdy pojawiła się przed wioskową starszyzną samozwańczy sędziowie skazali ją na ukamienowanie za opuszczenie męża.
Egzekucji dokonało ponad 10 mężczyzn, którzy następnie podpalili ciało kobiety. W tradycji plemiennej Pakistanu tego typu zabójstwa określane są mianem honorowych.
Podobne przypadki zdarzały się w Pakistanie już wcześniej. Amina Khan, wywodząca się z plemiennej społeczności Pasztunów przypomina, iż w jej rodzinnych stronach ukamienowanych zostało dwoje młodych ludzi, których małżeństwa nie akceptowała lokalna rada plemienna. - Zwołali radę starszyzny, uznali ich za winnych i zostali ukamienowani - wyjaśnia. Zdaniem Aminy Khan działania te nie są zgodne z islamem. - To, co talibowie robią wobec kobiet, to nie jest szariat - mówi.
Sprawę ostatniego ukamienowania kobiety z Doliny Swat bada policja.
USA: Sąd Najwyższy odrzucił pozew o dyskryminację
27 lipca 2011r
Półtora miliona kobiet, pracujących w największej sieci supermarketów na świecie Wal-Mart, złożyło zbiorowy pozew do Sądu Najwyższego USA, oskarżając firmę o dyskryminację ze względu na płeć. Według pracownic mężczyźni zarabiają więcej i częściej awansują.
Sędziowie odrzucili pozew uznając, że zbiorowy pozew narusza federalne przepisy dotyczące takich pozwów. Ich zdaniem zróżnicowanie stanowisk kobiet, pracujących w trzech i pół tysiącach sklepów na terenie całego kraju z różnymi kierownikami powoduje, że nie mają one ze sobą wystarczająco dużo wspólnego, by występować razem.
Prawnik reprezentujący pracownice Wal-Martu Joseph Sellers stwierdził, że jest to zwycięstwo dużych firm, ponieważ moim zdaniem z decyzji sądu wynika po części, że istnieją firmy zbyt duże, by pociągnąć je do odpowiedzialności na jednym forum za tego typu praktyki. Dodał on, że obecnie rozważana jest możliwość złożenia pozwów przez mniejsze grupy lub skarg indywidualnych.
Źródło: http://www.lewica.pl/?id=24707
$12 Billion For Them - 1.5 Million Homeless For Us
15 July 2011
Does anyone possess a clue as to why our U.S. government spends $12 billion every 30 days in Afghanistan and Iraq while 1.5 million of our citizens remain homeless and 13.4 million American children live in poverty?
"There are 770,000 homeless children enrolled in public education systems," said a spokesperson at Homeless Support Network. <http://www.homelessus.org>www.homelessus.org
"On any given night there are 100,000 homeless veterans," said the spokesperson at Homeless Support Network. "At least 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness each year."
What doesn't add up here? Answer: just about everything!
Our government has forced those two bogus wars upon our soldiers with terrible death and injury tolls for the past 10 years. Is it possible that they are not winning on purpose or that they can't win because these wars are unwinnable? Does that make sense? Does it show rational thinking on the part of the military to urge President Obama to continue military operations in those two sandbox, backward and poverty stricken countries? If we can't win in Afghanistan in 10 years in a country that doesn't have a single tank, war plane or radar unit-what's the point?
How can the government force taxpayers to pay $12 billion for two inane wars every month while millions of our citizens live in poverty?
With millions suffering in America, wouldn't it make more sense to spend $12 billion a month on our own people? Wouldn't it make sense to pull them out of poverty by offering jobs, workfare, housing, education and job training?
Exactly what is being accomplished in Iraq and Afghanistan? Answer: absolutely friggin' nothing!
Bin Laden died several months ago. Muslim terrorists can train in a dozen other countries besides Afghanistan. Let's face it; Muslims terrorists train inside the United States at this moment-thanks to our idiot Congress importing 100,000 Muslim immigrants annually. Ask the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Denmark about their rapes, bombings, cultural disruption, honor killings and female genital mutilation results with Muslim immigrants.
How could that $12 billion spent on war be used to aid 13.4 million American children? Answer: schools, supplies, food, clothing, tutors and support! The latest news reports show that less than 18 percent of our students know the identity of President Abraham Lincoln. They do not know the three branches of government. They don't know their own senators from their states. But they can "sex-text" while they're driving 70 miles per hour down the expressway!
Key points on homelessness:
It's caused because people cannot procure a job of any kind. They can't earn money. They cannot support themselves.
· The nation's homeless population increased by approximately 20,000 people from 2008 to 2009 (3 percent increase). There were also increased numbers of people experiencing homelessness in each of the subpopulations examined in this report: families, individuals, chronic, unsheltered.
· A majority 31 of 50 states and the District of Columbia - had increases in their homeless counts. The largest increase was in Louisiana, where the homeless population doubled.
· Among subpopulations, the largest percentage increase was in the number of family households, which increased by over 3,200 households (4 percent increase). Also, the number of persons in families increased by more than 6,000 people (3 percent increase). In Mississippi, the number of people in homeless families increased by 260 percent.
· After population reductions from 2005 to 2008, the number of chronically homeless people in the country remained stagnant from 2008 to 2009, despite an 11 percent increase in the number of permanent supportive housing units.
· Nearly 4 in 10 were living on the street, in a car, or in another place not intended for human habitation. In Wisconsin, twice as many people experienced homelessness without shelter in 2009 as did in 2008.
Could it be that we need to offer jobs to 14 million Americans rather than keep China's people working as they sell us everything we buy from "Free trade" agreements brought to us by our U.S. Congress?
My point is this: we suffer enough problems in our own country to fill Lake Superior. But we ignore them to battle camel jockeys and goat herders in two countries 10,000 miles away. We suffer 14 million unemployed and 43 million subsisting on food stamps while we blast away and march over two backward countries that don't want us there in the first place. We create more terrorists than we are killing.
I am sick of the irrational actions of 535 Congress critters and a lame-duck president. I am sick of our government continuing ridiculous actions that benefit no one and cause much harm in the world. I am sick of Weiner-gate, Arnold-gate, Clinton-gate, Lee-gate, Edwards-gate, Spitzer-gate and the next scandal that rises out of the pond scum in Washington DC.
Is there any chance our government would or could function with rational thought, a clear plan and logical actions toward solving our problems here in America?
I won't hold my breath.
Source: http://www.rense.com/general94/12b.htm
Israeli Dog to be Stoned to Death
15 July 2011
A synopsis: A Jerusalem rabbinical court condemned to death by stoning a dog it suspects is the reincarnation of a secular lawyer who insulted the court's judges 20 years ago, Ynet website reported Friday. According to Ynet, the large dog made its way into the Monetary Affairs Court in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, frightening judges and plaintiffs. Despite attempts to drive the dog out of the court, the hound refused to leave the premises. One of the sitting judges then recalled a curse the court had passed down upon a secular lawyer who had insulted the judges two decades previously. Their preferred divine retribution was for the lawyer's spirit to move into the body of a dog, an animal considered impure by traditional Judaism Clearly still offended, one of )the judges sentenced the animal to death by stoning by local children.
Source: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/4/sign-to-saveisraeli-dog-to-be-stoned-to-death/
Azad Essa: Niewielu dobrych mężczyzn w RPA?
15 lipiec 2011r
Nowy raport sugeruje, że 79 procent południowoafrykańskich mężczyzn dopuściło się jakiejś formy przemocy wobec kobiet.
"Chwycił mnie za włosy i wciągnął do wejścia do swojego domu. Wiedziałam, że zabiera mnie do sypialni i wiedziałam co to oznacza. Jedną ręką pociągnął moje długie warkocze, podczas gdy drugą przytrzymywał moją twarz, dusząc mnie, jego palce wchodziły mi do oczu… Przytrzymałam się bramy i nie pozwoliłam by wziął mnie do środka, wtedy odgryzł mi połowę ucha".
Trzy tygodnie wcześniej, czterdziestosześcioletnia Gugu Mofokeng opuściła schronisko, w którym mieszkała przez rok, ukrywając się przed swoim agresywnym byłym partnerem. Jej rehabilitacja była owocna; została wolontariuszką dla lokalnej stacji radiowej i pracowała przy wspomaganiu komunikacji między wykorzystywanymi kobietami. Teraz planuje otworzyć własne schronisko dla wykorzystywanych kobiet i dzieci.
Były partner Mofokeng odnalazł ją, prosił o przebaczenie i obiecał spełnić jej marzenie o otwarciu schroniska. Na początku wszystko układało się pomyślnie - miał pieniądze i samochód. Ale Mofokeng nie mogła poradzić sobie z faktem, że to ten człowiek pomaga jej otworzyć schronisko dla innych maltretowanych kobiet.
Wkrótce znów pojawiło się znęcanie. "Poszłam do schroniska dla wykorzystywanych kobiet prowadzonego przez białych chrześcijan, więc zaczął mnie oskarżać o sypianie z białymi mężczyznami" - wyjaśnia Mofokeng. "Pogorszyło się kiedy powiedziałam mu, że to nie poskutkuje". Jej były partner nachodził ją przez wiele dni, zanim zaatakował ją przed jej domem.
Historia Mofokeng może wydawać się szokująca, ale nie jest niespotykana w RPA. Genderowi aktywiści przez długi czas alarmowali, że przemoc wobec kobiet w tym kraju występuje w "epidemicznych" proporcjach. Pomimo wprowadzenia kilku zmian w legislacji i stworzenia Komisji do Spraw Równości Płci nie polepszyło się zbyt wiele.
Skala występowania
Badanie z 2009 roku przeprowadzone przez Radę Badań Medycznych (Medical Research Council - MRC) spowodowało falę wzburzenia w kraju, bo wskazało, że jeden na czterech mężczyzn w nadmorskich prowincjach Eastern Cape i KwaZulu-Natal przyznał się do popełnienia gwałtu.
Rezultaty nowego raportu, Badania Pilotażowego Wskaźników Przemocy Międzypłciowej w Gauteng, opublikowanego w czasie trwania 16 dni międzynarodowej akcji przeciw przemocy międzypłciowej sugerują, że sytuacja może być jednak o wiele gorsza niż początkowo sądzono. W badaniu przeprowadzonym w 1000 domów w Gauteng, najzamożniejszej i najludniejszej prowincji RPA, w której skład wchodzi Johannesburg i stolica Pretoria, stwierdzono, że 78,3 proc. mężczyzn przyznało się do stosowania jakiejś formy przemocy (emocjonalnej, fizycznej lub seksualnej) wobec kobiet.
Badanie, które było wspólną inicjatywą MRC i organizacji pozarządowej Gender Links, opierało się na dokładnych wywiadach przeprowadzonych z mężczyznami i kobietami. Dwadzieścia pięć procent przepytanych kobiet przyznało się do doświadczenia jakiejś formy przemocy seksualnej, ale tylko 3,9 procent zgłosiło przestępstwo policji. Jedna na trzynaście przepytanych kobiet odpowiedziała, że została zgwałcona przez osobę nie będącą partnerem, ale jedynie jeden na dwadzieścia pięć gwałtów został zgłoszony policji. 37,4 procent przepytanych mężczyzn przyznało się do popełnienia aktu przemocy seksualnej przynajmniej raz.
Rachel Jewkes z MRC przyznała, że czytanie wyników badań nie było łatwe. "Niezwykłe jest to, że tylu mężczyzn zgodziło się odpowiedzieć: ‘tak, zrobiłem to’". Dodaje, że badanie było pierwszym tego rodzaju ponieważ próbowało ustalić rozpowszechnienie przemocy międzypłciowej poprzez sondaże gospodarstw domowych. Wykorzystana próba odzwierciedlała dynamikę populacji w prowincji, ale została wybrana losowo i nie opierała się na policyjnych danych.
Brakująca historia
Według oficjalnych statystyk południowoafrykańskiej policji, między marcem 2009 i marcem 2010 odnotowano 68 332 przestępstw o charakterze seksualnym, oznacza to spadek w porównaniu z 70 514 przypadkami odnotowanymi w poprzednim roku.
Vish Naidoo, rzecznik południowoafrykańskiej policji (SAPS), stwierdził, że policyjne statystyki pokazują, że ofiary gwałtów ujawniają to częściej niż kiedykolwiek wcześniej. "Dzięki wysiłkom zmierzającym do nauczenia ludzi zgłaszania przestępstw, stali się oni pewniejsi w ich zgłaszniu i po 1994 odnotowano wzrost liczby przestępstw". Uważa on, że badania takie jak, to przeprowadzone przez MRC i Gender Links ukazują jedynie "fragment problemu". "Często policyjne statystyki nie pokazują tego, co dzieje się w domach i społecznościach lokalnych… w tym badaniu jedna na 25 kobiet zgłosiła przestępstwa o charakterze seksualnym, podczas gdy prawie trzy czwarte mężczyzn przyznało się do używania przemocy" - stwierdziła Jewkes.
Według Kubi Ramy z Gender Links, badanie pokazuje, że policyjne dane nie odzwierciedlają prawdziwej skali problemu. "Pokazuje nam to, że potrzebujemy ogólnokrajowych badań nad występowaniem przemocy, ponieważ oficjalne statystyki nie mówią całej prawdy".
Ale Naidoo podkreśla, że dostęp do organów wykonawczych nie jest częścią problemu: "Istnieje wiele interwencji w społecznościach lokalnych, fora policji społecznościowej, około 1380 w całym kraju".
Czy RPA jest wyjątkowa?
Statystyki dotyczące przemocy międzypłciowej są zazwyczaj niejasne, ale RPA nie jest pod tym względem wyjątkowa. ONZ szacuje, że około 70 procent kobiet na całym świecie doświadcza jakiejś formy przemocy przynajmniej raz w życiu.
Kampania ONZ-u UNITE to End Violence Against Women (Zjednoczeni by zakończyć przemoc wobec kobiet) ogłosiła, że według Banku Światowego, kobiety między 15 a 44 rokiem życia są bardziej zagrożone przemocą domową i gwałtem niż rakiem, wojną, wypadkiem samochodowym czy malarią. Ponadto jedna na pięć kobiet na świecie została zgwałcona. Anthony Collins, badacz na wydziale psychologii Uniwersytetu KwaZulu-Natal, uważa, że RPA jest na wyjątkowej pozycji, ponieważ posiada "infrastrukturę do zbierania danych Pierwszego Świata i warunki do życia Trzeciego Świata".
Podczas gdy RPA przechwala się swoim najbardziej postępowym na świecie prawodawstwem przeciw wykorzystywaniu kobiet, ONZ ocenia, że jeszcze przynajmniej 102 kraje muszą podjąć działania przeciw przemocy domowej, a 53 inne kraje wciąż jeszcze nie kryminalizują gwałtu małżeńskiego.
Lisa Vetten, z Centrum Pomocy Prawnej Tshwaranang (TLAC) specjalizującego się we wspieraniu i reprezentowaniu kobiet będących w trudnych związkach, uważa, że pomimo gwarantowanej przez prawo i konstytucję ochrony kobiet "jeśli te rozwiązania nie są wdrażane, jest to wielką porażką". Niedawne badanie przeprowadzone przez TLAC pokazało, że jedynie cztery procent z około 2000 spraw dotyczących gwałtu odnotowanych od 2003 roku, zakończyło się skazaniem. "Jeśli prosisz ludzi, by zgłaszali przestępstwo, ale potem nie są wyciągane żadne konsekwencje, to w rzeczywistości jedynie pogarszasz sprawę" - stwierdza Vetten. "Ten system po prostu nie działa".
Kultura przemocy
Wielu aktywistów zdaje sobie sprawę z tego, że wysokie wskaźniki przemocy seksualnej w RPA muszą być rozumiane w szerszym kontekście. Od marca 2009 do marca 2010 odnotowano 16 834 morderstwa, 17 410 usiłowań morderstwa i 113 755 rozbojów z użyciem broni. "16 dni aktywizmu wskazuje na męską przemoc przeciwko kobietom, ale ludzie powinni pamiętać, że szanse mężczyzny na zginięcie z ręki innego mężczyzny są siedem razy wyższe" - ogłosił Collins, dodając, że nie można oddzielić przemocy międzypłciowej od ogółu brutalnych przestępstw w RPA. "RPA jest kopalnią sprzeczności" - mówi. "Z jednej strony istnieje nowy Dokument dotyczący Przemocy Domowej, zestaw bardzo progresywnych zaleceń, wprowadzono sądy zajmujące się ochroną dzieci, ale z drugiej strony, mamy społeczeństwo, które sprzeciwia się ograniczeniu stosowania kar cielesnych wobec dzieci i brutalną męskość, którą emanują nasi przywódcy".
Jacob Zuma, prezydent RPA, był krytykowany za praktykowanie poligamii, która zdaniem aktywistów podkopuje zasadę równości płci. Tymczasem Julius Malema, przewodniczący Ligi Młodzieży Afrykańskiego Kongresu Narodowego, wygłosił oświadczenie, które rozsierdziło działaczy gender. "Istnieje dialog w sprawie praw, ale jednocześnie istnieje też całkiem inna rzeczywistość" - wyjaśnia Collins.
Zbiorowa amnezja
Mbuyiselo Botha, aktywista Sonke Gender Justice Network, twierdzi, że dostanie się do źródeł przemocy w RPA wymaga otrząśnięcia się ze ogólnej amnezji dotyczącej przeszłości tego państwa. Botha, który pracuje nad rehabilitacją agresywnych mężczyzn, uważa, że skupianie się na przeszłości nie może być wymówką. "Musimy pamiętać, że międzypłciowa przemoc w RPA jest jednym z typów przemocy, obok napaści na drodze (road rage) i wysokich wskaźników zabójstw". Dodaje: "Jesteśmy narodem, który wykorzystuje się wzajemnie, ponieważ wydaje się to być jedynym językiem, jaki rozumiemy. Kuszące jest doznać amnezji w odniesieniu do tego wszystkiego, co wydarzyło się w przeszłości… Warto pamiętać, że jesteśmy społeczeństwem powstającym z nienormalnego systemu, który stworzył nienormalne jednostki, które z kolei też utworzyły nienormalne społeczeństwo".
Collins zgadza się, że przeszłość pomaga utworzyć kontekst, ale ostrzega, że takie rozumowanie spotyka się z oporem: "Można uważać, że problem powiązany jest z tradycyjnymi lub kulturowymi nawykami, które go normalizują. W innym rozumieniu, wywodzi się on z kolonializmu a następnie apartheidu, który powodował opresję, w której także mężczyźni byli ofiarami, a przemoc była wpleciona w ich życie. Ale takie opinie coraz bardziej polaryzują opinię publiczną… ludzie zaczynają pytać: ‘nie powinniśmy ruszyć do przodu… minęło już szesnaście lat?’"
Ukrywanie rzeczywistości
Według Ramy, ta dyskusja przesłania sprawę rosnących nierówności między płciami. "Tu chodzi o patriarchat, nierówność płci, a nie o biedę czy po prostu historię. Wiele innych państw ma traumatyczną przeszłość i złe warunki społeczne, ale mimo tego nie ma w nich takiej skali przemocy, jaka jest w RPA". Debata na temat równości płci często staje się polem bitwy między zwolennikami "afrykańskiej tradycji" i "zachodniej edukacji". "Wprowadzanie równości między płciami jest często traktowane jak kolejna kolonialna, zachodnia idea - zagrożenie dla tradycji" - powiada Collins. "Można się zdziwić, jakim poparciem cieszy się takie rozumowanie".
Ironią jednak jest, że przemoc międzypłciowa w RPA przekracza podziały rasowe i klasowe. "Mamy do czynienia z kryzysem pojęcia mężczyzny i nie rozwiąże się on, dopóki nie odbędzie się dyskusja, która rozładuje agresywne tendencje" - mówi Botha. "Myślę, że chodzi tu o kwestie zmiany, wzmocnienia, konfuzji i bólu spowodowanego nieznajomością sposobów radzenia sobie z transformacją w naszym społeczeństwie… Trudzimy się w tym kraju z zaakceptowaniem usamodzielnienia kobiet i uznaniem tego za coś szlachetnego i wartego obrony".
Niektórzy aktywiści sugerują, że społeczny i kulturalny bagaż apartheidu może mieć wpływ nie tylko na biednych, czarnych mężczyzn. "Skupiamy się na ofiarach i to samo w sobie nie jest złe, ale starajmy się nie zapominać, że pozbycie się problemu wymaga sięgnięcia do źródeł typu męskości wymaganego do dominacji w społeczeństwie" - twierdzi Collins, dodając, że badania przeprowadzone w okresie apartheidu znalazły korelację między powrotem żołnierzy a wzrostem przemocy. "Pomyślcie o brytyjskiej kolonizacji, o szkolnym systemie używającym rózg i zimnych pryszniców, o rodzaju brutalnego psychologicznego warunkowania, które właściwie wytworzyło agresorów służących celom imperium".
Tworzenie przestępcy
"Musimy dowiedzieć się co wytwarza przestępcę" - mówi Collins, dodając, że istnieje powiązanie między doświadczaniem przemocy w okresie dzieciństwa a przestępstwami w dorosłości, dotyczy to sprawców oraz ofiar. "Wiemy, że ponad 90% obywateli RPA stosuje kary cielesne… oraz o tym, że przemoc ma swoje źródła w dzieciństwie".
Z tym wnioskiem zgadza się też Gugu Mofokeng. "Pochodzę z agresywnej rodziny; Znęcano się nade mną od kiedy ukończyłam dziewięć lat, byłam wyrzucona z domu i zmuszona do spania w toalecie" - opowiada. "Zdałam sobie sprawę, że mój dziadek również był agresywny i to chyba może wyjaśnić dlaczego moja matka była agresywna, a ja sama skończyłam w takim związku".
Jewkes uważa, że to teoria, którą należy traktować poważnie. "Nie doceniamy socjalizacji do ról płciowych kobiet dorastających w domach, w których występuje przemoc przeciwko ich matkom czy siostrom. Stają się znieczulone". Jewkes wierzy jednak, że postawy mogą się zmieniać, nawet jeśli zachowanie pozostaje takie same. "Wygląda na to, że coraz mniej osób uważa ofiary gwałtu za winne" - stwierdza. "Uważam, że rok temu było by inaczej".
"To ważny pierwszy krok, ale potrzebujemy szerokich zmian prawnych by dokonać zmiany na stałe. Jak rozwinąć równość płci? Powinniśmy zacząć w szkołach, powinny one odgrywać kluczową rolę w edukacji w okresie kształtowania się człowieka, podobnie ze wzmocnieniem roli rodziny i opieki rodzicielskiej".
Obecnie Mofokeng prowadzi we własnym domu schronisko dla maltretowanych kobiet i dzieci zwane Wioską Odnowy (Recovery Village). Środków mają mało, ale mówi, że mimo to nie odprawi nikogo z kwitkiem. "Nie mamy żadnych funduszy ani strony internetowej… Mam adres emailowy, ale nie mamy dostępu do Internetu" - żartuje. "Zapraszam kobiety i dzieci, które nie mają gdzie się podziać, mogą korzystać z moich ubrań, a ja będę motywowała młode kobiety do patrzenia w przyszłość". Mofokeng twierdzi, że to próba przełamania spirali przemocy. "Już nie jestem ofiarą, jestem teraz zwycięzcą. Przeżyłam, czuję się błogosławiona i ta część historii musi zostać opowiedziana".
Źródło: http://www.lewica.pl/?id=24704
Tylko usiąść i płakać
15 lipca 2011r
http://blog.onet.pl/41515,archiwum_goracy.html
Oto kto najczęściej kradnie w pracy
15 lipca 2011r
Blisko 87 proc. popełniających nadużycia w firmach to mężczyźni - wynika z najnowszego badania przeprowadzonego przez KPMG. Piastują oni stanowiska kierownicze, zajmują się finansami lub sprzedażą. 96 proc. badanych uczyniło z nadużyć regularne źródło dochodu.
Jak wynika z ogólnoświatowego badania firmy doradczej KPMG "Kim jest typowy sprawca nadużyć - analiza globalnych schematów nadużyć", wzrasta liczba nadużyć popełnianych przez kadrę kierowniczą wyższego szczebla.
"W ostatnich czterech latach, liczba audytów śledczych przeprowadzonych przez KPMG, gdzie dyrektor zarządzający lub prezes byli podejrzanymi, wzrósł z 11 proc. w 2007 roku do 26 proc. w 2011 roku" - czytamy w raporcie KPMG. Z kolei odsetek sprawców wśród członków zarządów przedsiębiorstw wzrósł z 11 proc. w 2007 r. do 18 proc. w tym roku.
- W odróżnieniu od tendencji globalnej, w Polsce i Europie Środkowej sprawca nadużyć częściej jest pracownikiem departamentu zakupów lub sprzedaży, niż finansów. Departament finansowy nierzadko jednak sankcjonuje działania sprawców - powiedziała dziennikarzom Agnieszka Gawrońska-Malec z KPMG prezentując wyniki badań. Nie pracują w zawodzie i … są szczęśliwiPolscy szefowie boją się, że nie znajdą pracownikówKto ma najmniejsze szanse na pracę?Czy Twoi pracownicy również myślą o zmianie pracy?Zaniżają pensje, unikają podpisywania umów. Jak oszukują za Odrą?
Wyjaśniła, że osoby z dłuższym stażem zatrudnienia w firmie częściej popełniają nadużycia, niż osoby o krótszym czasie pracy.
- W 2011 r. okazało się, że 60 proc. badanych sprawców pracowało w firmie ponad 5 lat przed wykryciem nadużycia, w tym 33 proc. pracowało dla firmy 10 lat lub dłużej - powiedziała Gawrońska-Malec.
Badanie wykazało, że w tym roku 61 proc. badanych sprawców działało w porozumieniu z osobami z zewnątrz (w 2007 r. było to 32 proc.). Najczęściej byli to dostawcy (48 proc.) oraz klienci (22 proc.). Do działań w porozumieniu z innymi osobami było skłonnych 64 proc. mężczyzn i 33 proc. kobiet.
- Najczęstszym motywem działania wśród sprawców było uzyskanie osobistych korzyści finansowych - powiedziała.
Wyjaśniła, że 45 proc. nadużyć jest wykrywane dzięki formalnym, wewnętrznym procedurom przedsiębiorstwa. Nieco mniej, 35 proc. wykrytych oszustw to zasługa działania metod nieformalnych. Zewnętrzne, formalne procesy pozwalają na identyfikację 13 proc. nadużyć. Jak powiedziała, firmy często ignorują sygnały ostrzegawcze o tym, że ich pracownik jest nieuczciwy, może to być m.in. styl życia, który nie jest adekwatny do zarobków.
Podczas gdy mężczyźni byli sprawcami większości wszystkich badanych nadużyć (87 proc.), odsetek kobiet-sprawców różnił się istotnie w zależności pod regionu. Ameryka Północna i Południowa oraz kraje Azji oraz Australii z Oceanią odnotowały prawie trzykrotnie wyższy odsetek kobiet-sprawców niż Europa z Afryką i Bliskim Wschodem.
Badanie "Kim jest typowy sprawca nadużyć - analiza globalnych schematów nadużyć" z 2011 r. opiera się na wynikach 348 audytów dochodzeniowych przeprowadzonych przez KPMG w 69 krajach na całym świecie w okresie od stycznia 2008 r. do grudnia 2010 r. Jest to kontynuacja badania na temat nadużyć i zachowań prowadzących do ich popełnienia, przeprowadzonego przez KPMG na rynku europejskim w 2007 r.
Źródło: http://praca.wp.pl/strona,2,title,Oto-kto-najczesciej-kradnie-w-pracy,wid,13511647,wiadomosc.html
US Women Dying Younger Than a Generation Ago
15 July 2011
In many parts of the US, life expectancy for women today is declining and, in some parts of country, men and women are dying younger than people the same age in Syria, Panama and Vietnam. In a new study, Population Health Metrics, researchers describe a widening gulf between the healthiest and the least healthy due to wealth, cultural norms and public health efforts.
There are places in the US, including areas near Washington, the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere, where life expectancy is among the highest in the world, even topping that of Japan and Switzerland. But in poor, mostly rural parts of the South and in hard-hit urban centers like Philadelphia and St. Louis, people die the youngest; in Baltimore, where men live only 66.7 years on average, someone who lives in an affluent suburb has a life expectancy 20 years longer than someone in the city. (The Forbes blog does point out, one reason for the higher life expectancies for women in some parts of the US is simply that people move around, factors that the study’s data need to be adjusted for.)
What’s very troubling is that the US is falling behind other industrialized nations in life expectancy, with women in 737 US counties dying at younger ages between 1997 and 2007. Says Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which carried out the research, in the Baltimore Sun: “There are just lots of places where things are getting worse. We’re not keeping up.”
Indeed, we are not. Women’s life expectancy at birth in the US was 81.3 years in 2007, placing the country 35th in the world — in 1987, the US was in the 20th place. Men’s life expectancy did increase to 76.7 years, or 24th best in the world, up from 32nd two decades earlier.
Population health experts cite smoking, high blood pressure and obesity as candidates for women dying younger. Notes the Baltimore Sun:
American women historically smoked more heavily than women in other countries, particularly after World War II, said Samuel Preston, a University of Pennsylvania demographer who co-chaired a 2011 National Academies panel that looked at life expectancies in high-income countries.
That had a delayed effect that drove up lung cancer rates among women as this generation aged. The trend may ease as that age group passes and the effects of more recent efforts to reduce smoking are felt, Preston said.
But Preston cautioned that the impact of other unhealthy lifestyles may undermine that progress. “In place of smoking, we have substituted obesity,” he said.
34 percent of Americans were classified as obese in 2010 — more than double the rate in 1980.
Worldwide, women’s life expectancy declined between 1987 and 1997, according to the study.
Again, researchers note that wealth is not the only factor in living long. Los Angeles county has one of the highest life expectancy rates in the country, even though its poverty rate is above the national average. Cultural factors play a significant role, it seems:
This may be evidence of what demographers and public health officials call the “Hispanic paradox,” a long recognized phenomenon in which Latino immigrants are generally healthier than non-Latinos of similar income.
Nearly half of Los Angeles County’s 10 million residents are Latino, and more than a third are foreign-born, according to census data. By contrast, less than a sixth of the population nationally is Latino, and less than an eighth is foreign-born.
One explanation of that phenomenon is that the people who become immigrants tend to be healthy. “These are not random people. They are the healthiest people who could get here,” said Carmen Nevarez, former president of the American Public Health Association.
But David Hayes-Bautista, who heads the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at UCLA, said other factors, including social support networks, diet and even physical labor, may play a role as well, because not all immigrants have as good health outcomes as Latinos.
A 2006 Harvard University longevity study found that Asian women in New Jersey’s northern Bergen County have the highest life expectancy in the nation, typically reaching 91 years old. However, Bergen County is not among the top 25 counties in the US for life expectancy; 11.6 residents of Bergen County are Asian, while 82 percent are white and 6 percent are black. Howard Shih, manager of census information at the Asian American Federation of New York, suggested that cultural factors and wealth were key to the women’s long lives, with each Asian group offering a different explanation:
Raw tuna and green tea keep the Japanese alive, said Hiroyuki Gunji, a chef at Mitsuwa, a Japanese supermarket in Edgewater. East Indians depend on a diet heavy on vegetables and low on red meat , said Ravi Mehrotra, president of the Asian Indian Association of New Jersey. Prayer is the key for Filipinos, many of whom are Roman Catholic, said Nora Trivino, a member of the Filipino American Society of Teaneck. The Korean secret to long life is obvious, said Ji Yun Yoo of Fort Lee. “It has to be kimchi,” she quipped.
My own grandmother (on my father’s side), Ngin Ngin, died in October of 2009 at the age of 103 years. She had a number of ailments when she died including diabetes and high blood pressure, but, until her late 90s, was still doing pretty much everything I remember her doing her whole life, from cooking up a storm, to sewing clothes that ended up the racks of big department chains, to taking the bus to Reno, to babysitting her great-grandchildren, to walking to Oakland’s Chinatown, to calling my dad and talking up a storm. She didn’t smoke; she was never svelte. She emigrated from China to the US in the 1920s. She had no formal education to speak of (she was unable to read or write in Chinese or English). She was always surrounded by family members up to the moment she passed. She was the last of her generation to go; no one was nearly as old as her at her funeral.
What might we learn about longevity from studying cultural and social factors?
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/us-women-dying-younger-than-a-generation-ago.html
Solar Energy Powers One Million Bangladeshi Homes
15 July 2011
It was recently announced that the number of Bangladeshi households producing their own electricity through solar power has passed the one million mark, demonstrating the fastest solar industry expansion in the world.
Bangladesh had set a goal of powering one million households with solar energy by 2013, but achieved the landmark 18 months ahead of time. Officials say that over 5 million Bangladeshis now have access to home electricity because of solar technologies.
Without access to affordable electricity, some 60 percent of Bangladeshi’s population must rely indoor fires for heat and kerosene lamps for lighting. Both of these energy sources pollute indoor air and increase health risks.
According to the AFP, years of under-investment in infrastructure means state-owned power plants generate only around 4,700 megawatts of electricity a day against demand of 6,000 megawatts — which is growing by 500 megawatts a year.
Increasing funding for solar power development in rural area is one way developing countries could bypass the seemingly requisite dependence on fossil fuels.
Attracting companies that will manufacture, install, and train local residents to maintain solar systems instead of spending money to build coal, gas, and nuclear power plants would allow developing countries to compete with or even surpass Western countries that are dragging their feet on renewable technologies.
Encouraged by its success, Bangladesh has set a new target to achieve 2.5 million solar-powered homes by 2014.
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/solar-powers-one-million-homes-in-bangladesh.html
Trial starts for contractor raped in Iraq
15 July 2011
Six years after she alleges she was raped on the job in Iraq, a former contractor for Halliburton affiliate KBR is now sitting before a jury.
26-year-old Texas native Jamie Leigh Jones says that she was drugged, beaten and sexually assaulted by her co-workers at KBR while it was owned by Halliburton back in 2006. Jones was working as a clerical worker at Camp Hope in Baghdad, and says that, after the incident, she was placed under armed guard and held in a shipping container for hours.
The trial finally going underway this week, nearly six years after the incident, pits Jones against KBR, the parent company and a co-worker she alleges was the rapist—Charles Bortz.
Jones claims that Bortz, a firefighter at Camp Home, raped her so violently that her breast implants were ruptured. The lawsuit says that “When she awoke the next morning still affected by the drug, she found her body naked and severely bruised, with lacerations, blood running down her leg…” US Army physician Jodi Schultz confirmed Jones’ incident and administered a rape kit at the time.
The kit, however, disappeared for two years. When it was found, crucial details of it were missing.
Jones has since had to resort to reconstructive surgery to repair pectoral muscles that she says were also torn in the incident.
The rape is said to have happened on July 28, 2005, and Jones believes she was drugged with Rohypnol before being assaulted by Bortz and several others. An attorney for the accused, however, claims that the sex was between Jones and Bortz was consensual and has filed a countersuit against her in response.
Jones’ attorney, though, said that KBR has created a hostile workplace for its employees for decades and that employees were scared to report incidents.
“KBR did a lot to keep this secret. KBR doesn't take care of its people,” said Jones' attorney Lannie Todd Kelly in his opening statement.
In an earlier statement, an attorney for KBR and Halliburton said that the companies “welcome the opportunity to present what really happened in Iraq.”
“Jamie has waited six years to have her day in court and she’s happy to finally talk to a jury,” said Kelly.
Halliburton and KBP parted ways shortly after the incident.
Source: http://rt.com/usa/news/contractor-iraq-kbr-jones/
Władze Warszawy nie wiedzą ile oddały budynków?
15 July 2011
Warszawskie Biuro Gospodarowania Nieruchomościami nie posiada całościowych informacji na temat tego, ile budynków zostało zreprywatyzowanych.
BGN odmówiło odpowiedzi na wniosek o dostęp do informacji publicznej złożony przez Warszawskie Stowarzyszenie Lokatorów w grudniu 2010 roku.
Warszawskie Stowarzyszenie Lokatorów chciało uzyskać informację o ilości budynków, które zostały przekazane prywatnym właścicielom w toku reprywatyzacji. Pytało również o liczbę zamieszkujących w tych budynkach rodzin oraz szacunkowe dane na temat liczby budynków mogących podlegać reprywatyzacji i zamieszkujących je rodzin.
Zarządzające miejskimi nieruchomościami BGN w odpowiedzi stwierdziło, że nie posiada takich danych i aby udzielić odpowiedzi musiałoby przetworzyć różne informacje. Urzędnicy uznali, też, że informacja o skali reprywatyzacji nie jest szczególnie istotna dla interesu publicznego, w związku z tym nie ma potrzeby takiego przetworzenia.
Zdaniem BGN, uzasadnienie przedstawione przez WSL było niewystarczające. W opinii Biura, która została zawarta w decyzji o odmowie udzielenia informacji publicznej z dnia 2 czerwca br., WSL reprezentuje jedynie część - a nie całość, mieszkańców Warszawy oraz nie wykazało w jaki sposób uzyskane dane zostaną wykorzystane do poprawy funkcjonowania organów administracji i lepszej ochrony interesu publicznego
Źródło: http://www.lewica.pl/?id=24621
Dozens arrested for child rape photo trade
15 July 2011
Over two dozen New York residents were busted in a child pornography ring where people swapped images of children as young as one year old being raped and abused, said a Manhattan District Attorney today.
DA Cyrus R Vance, Jr. announced on Tuesday that felony charges have been brought against 26 people for the possession and distribution of violent pornography over the Internet in an investigation that the DA’s Office of Cybercrime and Identity Theft Bureau has spent five months perusing with the help of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations Child Exploitation Group.
“These images are not pornography or pictures of erotica intended for sexual excitement,” Vance said in a statement. “These are babies, these are toddlers.”
A 32-year-old substitute teacher, a corporate attorney and an employee of a NYC Alice in Wonderland-themes eatery are among those charged for using peer-to-peer file sharing network to trade images. The teacher, Joshua Ruiz of the Bronx, has admitted to having child porn on his computer to investigators—calling it an obsession—and is currently free on $15,000 bail. Court documents reveal that Ruiz says he has “never touched a child sexually in any way.”
Prosecutors, however, argue that Ruiz asked for advice online on how to meet children.
Other involved in the ring, ranging in age from 18 to 63, have allegedly shared pornographic material with other children. One of the men charged is suspected to having coerced a 16-year-old Canadian boy into engaging in a sex act on his webcam while he watched, the investigation reveals.
"These images were disseminated on the Internet, feeding the appetites of pedophiles seeking new victims," said Vance. The images, “tens of thousands,” he said, were swapped like “baseball cards” and show babies, toddlers and children being raped, assaulted and exploited by adults.
“There are so many images, that sadly, you could choose an age and a sex act, and it would be in these files,” Vance said.
A banker, a high school student, a bartender and a member of the National Guard have all been charged as well.
Source: http://rt.com/usa/news/dozens-nyc-child-ring/
Disabled Gay Couple Kicked Out of Kentucky Public Pool, Because “It’s In The Bible”
15 July 2011
Earlier this week, a disabled gay couple were kicked out of a public pool in Hazard, Kentucky. A staff member at the Hazard Pavilion recreation center told the two men and their aids that they needed to leave because “‘gay people’ weren’t allowed to swim there.” And why not? Apparently, because “it’s in the Bible.”
The two men, who are developmentally and intellectually disabled, arrived at the pool accompanied by staff from Mending Hearts Inc. The organization provides support for people with certain disabilities and helps guide their behavior in public. “Neither of these young men was exhibiting inappropriate public behavior as witnessed by their direct support staff,” said Julia Oiler Spiegel of the Kentucky Equality Federation.
Shirlyn Perkins, Mending Hearts’ Executive Director, told the Kentucky Equality Federation that “Pavilion staff immediately entered the pool area and asked my clients and their staff to leave the Pavilion.”
“My staff asked The Pavilion staff why they were being asked to leave, and they were informed that ‘gay people’ weren’t allowed to swim there. [They] told this man that what he was trying to do was discrimination,” Perkins continued. “The man stated that what he was doing was in the Bible and he could do it. My staff continued to argue with this man, but was ultimately forced to leave.”
The Kentucky Equality Federation called the incident “completely outrageous.” “The Pavilion is owned by the City of Hazard and paid for by our tax dollars,” said Jordan Palmer, the organization’s president. “[Religion] has no place in government.” The Advocate reports that Palmer’s group and others are planning to protest at the Pavilion and Hazard City Hall.
“My clients, whom already feel ridiculed and different, left the city-owned facility crying and embarrassed for trying to participate in ‘normal’ activities that everyday ‘normal’ people do,” Perkins said of the incident.
Zabijane, gwałcone, poniżane - to nie kraje dla kobiet
15 lipca 2011r
Przemoc, ograniczony dostęp do służby zdrowia i głębokie ubóstwo sprawiają, że Afganistan to kraj, w którym kobiety są najmniej bezpieczne - wynika z sondażu przeprowadzonego dla agencji Reutera. Kolejne pozycje w zestawieniu zajęły Demokratyczna Republika Konga, Pakistan i Indie.
Badanie przeprowadził prawny serwis informacyjny agencji Reuters, TrustLaw. Poprosił on 213 ekspertów tematyki płci z całego świata, by pogrupowali kraje według sześciu kryteriów: zagrożenie dla zdrowia, przemoc na tle seksualnym, inne rodzaje przemocy, czynniki kulturowe lub religijne, brak dostępu do pieniędzy i handel.
- Konflikt w kraju, naloty NATO i zwyczaje kulturowe sprawiają, że Afganistan jest miejscem bardzo niebezpiecznym dla kobiet - powiedziała Antonella Notari, przewodnicząca grupy wsparcia dla kobiet-przedsiębiorców Women Change Makers.
- Kobiety, które chcą wyrazić swoje zdanie lub pełnić funkcje w życiu publicznym (…) np. jako policjantki, są często zastraszane lub zabijane - wskazuje. Eksperci zwrócili uwagę też na wysoki wskaźnik śmiertelności okołoporodowej, ograniczony dostęp do lekarzy i niemal zerowe prawa gospodarcze.
"Światowa stolica gwałtu"
Drugie miejsce w niechlubnym zestawieniu zajęła Demokratyczna Republika Konga. Co roku ofiarą gwałtu pada tu ponad 400 tys. kobiet - wynika z badań USA. ONZ określiło Kongo "światową stolicą gwałtu".
"Wojna, gwałt stosowany jako broń, wcielanie kobiet do armii i późniejsze ich wykorzystywanie jako seksualnych niewolnic" - wykazują statystyki Biura Pomocy Humanitarnej (ECHO) w Komisji Europejskiej.
Zagrożenie dla kobiet w Pakistanie (miejsce trzecie) wiąże się ze zwyczajami kulturowymi i religijnymi, które są dla kobiet krzywdzące. Są to m.in. oblewanie kobiet żrącym kwasem, małżeństwa zawierane między dorosłym a dzieckiem czy kamienowanie. Pakistan ma najwyższy na świecie wskaźnik tzw. zabójstw honorowych i wcześnie zawieranych małżeństw.
Mordowanie dziewczynek
Indie zajęły czwarte miejsce głównie ze względu na zabijanie żeńskich płodów, noworodków i handel żywym towarem. Wg szacunków indyjskiego MSW, w 2009 roku ok. 100 mln kobiet i dziewczynek stało się przedmiotem handlu. W indyjskich domach publicznych wykorzystywanych jest około trzech milionów prostytutek, z czego 40% stanowiły dzieci.
- To proceder równie często spotykany co dochodowy, więc policja i rząd przymykają na niego oko - ocenia Cristi Hegranes z Global Press Intitute, organizacji kształcącej dziennikarki w krajach rozwijających się.
Szacuje się, że przez ostatnie 100 lat w łonie matki lub krótko po narodzinach zabito ok. 50 mln dziewczynek.
New movement: Slutwalk
15 July 2011
It started in the USA and Canada after a Toronto policeman said if women want to avoid being raped or victimised, they should not dress like sluts. The reaction was instead of telling women how to dress, the police should tell men not to rape. Now the movement has come to Europe. Thousands of "sluts" took to the streets in London on Saturday.
Over 5,000 women took to the streets in London on Saturday in the latest Slutwalk, a movement which defends a woman's right to dress as she pleases without the insinuation that if someone says something or gropes her, "she was asking for it".
The notion that a woman should not dress in a certain way to avoid being raped or victimised is as absurd as it is insulting, the result of hundreds of years of macho culture and male supremacy, running along the same lines as "women are too emotionally unbalanced to form an opinion and vote" and in some countries, for instance post-Saddam Iraq, a man has the right to beat his wife "if she misbehaves".
A sluttish man?
The word "slut" seems to have had several meanings and interpretations over time. Its etymology comes from the Germanic Schlutt (slovenly woman), Swedish slata (idle woman). It was originally taken to mean lazy or of careless or uncared-for appearance. Hard pieces in bread arising from sloppy kneading were called "slut's pennies" in the 18th century. However, it was not restricted to women. In the 14th century, Chaucer uses the word sluttish to describe an untidy or unkempt man. Samuel Pepys (17th century) uses the word to describe a happy, bold girl: "Our little girl Susan is a most admirable slut, and pleases us mightily. [Pepys, diary, Feb. 21, 1664] ".Therefore the origins of the word "slut", a bold character and an uncared-for appearance lent its use more generally to the type of behaviour one might expect from a prostitute (dressing provocatively, acting boldly and "having loose morals").
Women's rights
However, a prostitute has a name and a prostitute is a human being, with rights. She cries, she laughs, she loves her children and if the female prostitute exists, then she exists because there is a male client. There is no chicken without the egg. However, there is a difference between a prostitute (who might or might not be performing her job willingly), who might or might not decide to dress in a provocative way, and a woman or girl who chooses to make the most of her body by using clothes which show it off, rather like the perfect seasoning on a nice meal.
It says a lot about our societies if a woman cannot dress the way she pleases without intruding eyes ogling and prying, intrusive body language (a hard and aggressive gaze following her as she walks past) or worse, a disgusting and offensive comment (Cor! Look at those boobs! Hey! I could plug THAT! ) And if she turned round and gave him a slap on the face, not just a tap, but one of those that sent him sprawling on his backside in the mud?
To insinuate that a woman is "asking for it" if she dresses in a certain way is an admission that males are collectively a bunch of savages, are born stupid and get worse with every passing day, or are totally uncivilised and culturally inept. There is a difference between a lewd and coarse remark and a knowing smile with a polite nod of the head showing appreciation and recognition of the effort made to be presentable and let's be honest, pretty.
How different societies behave
Different societies deal with this issue in different ways. In the Iberian Peninsula, the "piropo" or "cantada" or "remark from a male to an attractive female" can be coarse (1. "Great legs, what time do they open?") to neutral (2. "What's the quickest way to your heart?") to an art form (3. "Wow! I didn't know mermaids could walk!"). The first might provoke a grimace, the second a smile and the third a grin. They might also provoke the replies: (1) "Someone's got four balls hanging down, trouble is only two of them are his"; (2) "Plastic surgery, a new brain and three years in the gymnasium"; (3) "And I didn't know apes could talk".
Further south and east, in the Moslem world, there are varying degrees of covering the female body up, based on hundreds of years of tradition. I remember an argument I had with an Afghan woman in which I said how terrible the burqah was and she attacked me for imposing my culture on hers and how dare I say whether she should wish to reveal herself only to her husband or not. And she was absolutely right.
Then we come to France where wearing the veil is forbidden, well, sort of…not near Mosques and not on religious days. The further we get into it, the more complex it becomes. If you can't wear the veil, then what about the cross? Do we adopt the adage from Ortega y Gasset "Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia" (I am what I am and what surrounds me) or do we accept the globalization of values in an already globalized world? In which case, whose and over whom?
The transition
Quite how Mankind imposed himself over Womankind is perhaps the subject matter of many doctoral theses to come in the areas of marketing, semiotics, political science and the psychology of the masses. Interesting it is to leaf through the pages of prehistory, where we find that at the time of Matriarchal societies, the Moon (feminine in most languages) was the Goddess (female), imposing her colour (white) on life and death. White was worn to funerals, white effigies were buried with the dead. The doctor of the tribe was the woman, the medicine woman, who had the power to cure snake bites (again, feminine in most languages), hence the stick and snake used as the symbol of pharmacy today.
Then there came a time when Patriarchal societies supplanted these. The Moon gave way to the Sun (masculine), male witch doctors replaced the females and black replaced white as the colour not of life, but of death. Black became evil (the bullfight, Man over Beast, Good over Evil).
And ever since then the main religions have done what they could to relegate the role of the female to childbirth and to perpetuate and eternalise the gender roles of thousands of years ago. Today, the woman's place is not in the kitchen, it is in the boardroom. Get used to it.
Source: http://english.pravda.ru/society/family/12-06-2011/118179-slutwalk_movement-0/
Austria wrze - rząd chce sprywatyzować szczyty w Tyrolu
15 lipca 2011r
W Austrii zawrzało, ponieważ rząd wystąpił z planem sprzedaży dwóch alpejskich szczytów we Wschodnim Tyrolu. Parę szczytów w Alpach Karnickich, Grosse Kinigat i Rosskopf, można nabyć za jedyne 121 tys. euro.
Powierzchnia sprzedawanej wysokogórskiej działki wynosi około 1 mln metrów kw., a nabywca nie będzie mógł ograniczać osobom postronnym prawa przejścia przez ten teren - informuje we wtorek agencja AP.
Grosse Kinigat o wys. 2689 m leży na granicy między Austrią (Wschodni Tyrol) a Włochami (prowincja Belluno). Bliźniaczy szczyt Rosskopf wznosi się na wysokość ok. 2600 m n.p.m.
Planem sprzedaży tyrolskich wierzchołków wzburzyli się nie tylko lokalni politycy. Przeciwny sprzedaży jest austriacki minister gospodarki Reinhold Mitterlehner, który zapowiedział, że spotka się w tej sprawie z przedstawicielami agencji prywatyzacyjnej.
Na swojej stronie internetowej austriacka federalna agencja nieruchomości Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft (BIG) zachwala widoki obu szczytów, chętnie odwiedzanych przez turystów.
"Dla mnie to zagadka, dlaczego chcą właśnie teraz sprzedać te szczyty - głowi się burmistrz miasteczka Kartitsch, Josef Ausserlechner. - W Grecji wyprzedają wyspy, w Austrii - góry".
Ausserlechner obstaje, że Kartitsch ma prawo pierwokupu, ale miasto stać jedynie na symboliczne "kilka tysięcy euro".
Zainteresowani kupnem mają czas do 8 lipca. Podobno zgłosiło się już 20 chętnych.
Źródło: http://biznes.onet.pl/austria-wrze--rzad-chce-sprywatyzowac-szczyty-w-ty,18569,4419463,1,news-detal
Adult indifference fails children in need
15 July 2011
Russia suffers one of the highest rates of teen suicide in the world. According to recent school polls, “ways to commit suicide” is one of the most popular internet searches among teenagers. Psychologists say parental indifference is often the cause.
Just days before final exams, a TV crew reported on students gearing up for the adult lives that lie ahead of them. The teachers pointed to Polina Belova, their brightest student who, it seemed, had her future figured out.
“I want to be a journalist,” said Polina. “I think this profession will open the doors to the world for me.”
But instead of a school-leaving celebration, Polina's classmates gathered for her funeral. Sensing she may not be the best, she ended everything by hanging herself.
“We had been getting ready for the exam for weeks and Polina was the one who worked the hardest of all. She solved a whole load of math problems and she was very nervous. She wanted to graduate as an A-grade student,” recalls one of Polina’s classmates.
For many countries, the stress of exams in late December and early June sees peaks in the number of children taking their own lives. But in Russia, it is a year-round problem. Roughly 1,500 children and teenagers kill themselves every year – that is much higher than the average seen in the United States and Britain.
“The problem is so out of hand that when I was informing the president about it, he found it hard to believe,” says Pavel Astakhov, the country’s children's ombudsman. “But the figures are truly frightening. Every year up to 4,000 children make attempts on their lives.”
Girls are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide, yet it is still boys who by a long way actually succeed in killing themselves.
Igor Larov is different. He has tried to take his life three times, with the latest attempt being just six months ago.
“I’d just had enough,” says Igor. “I was tired of fighting with my mum. My girlfriend left me. I was fed up with studying. I couldn't stand seeing the streets and hearing all this noise. I just wanted everything to end. And I wanted peace.”
What is driving the problem in Russia is what experts call a low emotional literacy. Psychological or psychiatric help is underdeveloped and not easily available. Then there is the stigma.
“Most suicides are attempted or committed in a state of emotional distress, which builds over time. There are warning signs. But even if parents notice them, many would rather ignore them than take their kid to a psychologist or psychiatrist,” says Boris Polozhy, psychologist.
Added to that, there are continuing social and economic shifts, making it harder for parents to feed their children’s feelings, leaving little time to listen.
There is a monument in the center of Moscow dedicated to children who have fallen victim to adult vices. Alcoholism, drug abuse, prostitution – any one of those can drive a child to take his or her own life. But in the center of these wicked-looking figures stands one that seems far less frightening, almost commonplace. Yet it represents what experts say is the main reason Russia is leading Europe in the number of teen suicides. And that is indifference: seeing no evil, hearing no cries for help.
Source: http://rt.com/news/adult-indifference-children-suicide/
Włosi odrzucili w referendum cztery ustawy rządu Berlusconiego
15 lipiec 2011r
Pierwsze wstępne dane wskazują, że ponad 90 procent Włochów z 57 proc, które wzięły udział w referendum 12-13 czerwca, opowiedziało się za uchyleniem czterech ustaw i norm, które były przedmiotem głosowania. To zaś oznacza klęskę prawicowego rządu Silvio Berlusconiego, który nawoływał wręcz do bojkotu referendum, uważając je za zbędne. O udział w głosowaniu i "cztery razy TAK" dla uchylenia przepisów apelowała centrolewicowa opozycja.
Dwudniowe referendum jest ważne, gdyż według danych MSW głosowało w nim 57 proc. wyborców, a więc wymagana większość. To pierwsze we Włoszech referendum uznane za ważne od 1995 roku.
Włosi odpowiadali na cztery pytania, dotyczące propozycji uchylenia obowiązujących ustaw i przepisów, między innymi w sprawie zarządzania usługami publicznymi, takimi jak dostawa wody przez prywatne firmy oraz zasad ustalania taryf za dostawy wody. Ponadto przedmiotem referendum była przyjęta przed rokiem z inicjatywy koalicji rządowej ustawa, na mocy której premier i ministrowie mogą usprawiedliwić swą nieobecność w sądzie na procesie karnym obowiązkami, wynikającymi z pracy w rządzie. Ustawę tę opozycja oceniła jako przyjętą dla doraźnych potrzeb szefa rządu, uwikłanego w procesy sądowe.
Kolejne pytanie dotyczyło rządowych planów powrotu do produkcji energii jądrowej. Zakładały one budowę, we współpracy z Francją, czterech elektrowni atomowych, łącznie - ośmiu reaktorów. Rozpoczęcie budowy zapowiadano na rok 2013, a produkcję energii - od 2020 roku. Docelowo energia jądrowa miała pokryć 25 procent zapotrzebowania kraju.
Premier Berlusconi oświadczył 13 czerwca, że obowiązkiem rządu i parlamentu jest w pełni przyjąć odpowiedź udzieloną w referendum przez obywateli. Powiedział: Wysoka frekwencja ukazuje wolę udziału obywateli w decyzjach na temat naszej przyszłości, której nie można lekceważyć (…) Także dla tych, którzy uważają, że referendum nie jest odpowiednim narzędziem rozwiązywania złożonych kwestii, jasne wydaje się, że Włosi jednoznacznie wyrazili swą wolę we wszystkich sprawach, będących przedmiotem konsultacji.
Centrolewicowa włoska Partia Demokratyczna, największa siła opozycji, natychmiast zażądała dymisji rządu Berlusconiego. To, co było bezsprzecznym kryzysem politycznym, teraz obiera formę głębokiego oderwania się od obywateli - stwierdził lider partii Pier Luigi Bersani. To było referendum na temat rozwodu między rządem a krajem - ocenił.
Jak donosi Sylwia Wysocka dla PAP, w Rzymie rozpoczęły się spontaniczne zabawy na znak radości z rezultatów głosowania. Ogromny korowód utworzono na placu przed Ustami Prawdy. Na ulicach w centrum Wiecznego Miasta wznoszone były toasty.
Żródło: http://www.lewica.pl/?id=24647
