International Day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
Some information on the event in Dublin City this Thursday. A great line-up of speakers at what is a very important event.
Date: Thursday 4th February
Time: 10am – 1.30pm
Venue: European Public Information Centre (EPIC), 18 Dawson Street, Dublin 2
A seminar to highlight the work of the National Steering Committee and work overseas by Ireland to combat FGM
Speakers include;
Senator Ivana Bacik
Melanie Verwoerd – Executive Director of UNICEF Ireland
Colm O’Gorman – Executive Director of Amnesty International (Irish Section)
Sioban O’Brien Green & Salome Mbugua – AkiDwA
Eileen Morrow – Programme Officer for East Africa with World Vision
Ahmed Gadaf & Ifrah Ahmed – Somali Community in Ireland
Hosted by the National Steering Committee
The National Steering Committee is comprised of AkiDwA, Amnesty International, UNICEF Ireland, Barnardos, Cairde, Children’s Rights Alliance, National Women’s Council, the HSE, Somali Community in Ireland, Integrating African Children in Ireland, Irish Aid, Integrating Ireland and Refugee Information Services, Christian Aid, IFPA and others.
RSVP: alwiye@akidwa.ie
Women, Ireland and Abortion
Three women have taken a case, highlighting Irish legislation regarding abortion laws. The case is before the European Court of Human Rights because the Irish government refuse to acknowledge and support the 7,000+ women who travel from Ireland each year for abortion services that are illegal in Ireland.
The Guardian today has some good articles on this issue:
Summary of Irish Abortion Report
A State of Isolation: Access to Abortion for Women of Ireland
Ireland Accused of Exposing Women to Anti-Abortion Lies
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Last summer a small group of pro-choice activists lined O’Connell Street from the Spire to the statue of Jim Larkin (?). With home-made signs and collective will it was a means of providing a voice for all the women who have to travel away from their homes, support and friends for abortion services outside of Ireland. This gathering was also a means a of providing reasoned presence to the anti-choice, pro-religiosity parade that was taking place that day. The debate and rhetoric continues while Ireland’s horrendous reputation for ignoring sexuality, poor provision of realistic sex education, and a dearth of support for women and children continues. At this stage it is up to Europe to rescue the women of Ireland from their State’s inaction and ignorance.
Holocaust Memorial Day 27th January
The Holocaust Education Trust of Ireland will be having a memorial on 31st January, the Sunday closest to the 27th of the month. There are many different ‘events’ and awareness raising happenings across the world. Today an article in the Guardian by Stuart Jeffries talking about the relevence of remembering history, lest we repeat it. After all these years people are still managing to excel in exclusion of other people, hurting, abusing and killing. If people are not part of changing and challanging all of this abuse, we are part of it. It seems that despite all the wonderful advancements, knowledge, care, memories and love people can pass on to other, we are unable to remember and communicate the lessons of the past. “Never again” rings hollow in this world.
Death to those who do not matter? Girl children in China and genocide in Sri Lanka,
It has been a difficult day- conversations of Haiti, genocide in Sri Lanka and now a piece about the killing of ‘worthless’ girl children in China. It is almost too much to bear.
The People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka, held recently in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland has found many violations of the Geneva Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the Government of Sri Lanka, including:
• Forced “disappearances” of targeted individuals from the Tamil population;
• Crimes committed in the re-starting of the war (2006-2009), particularly during the last months of the war:
• Rape and sexual violence against women
• Torture
The findings of the Tribunal need to be read, the information passed to the media and most importantly solidarity with the people who remain prisoners in the internment camps.
From the Tribunal Report
5.4 The right of any human being to be under the protection of humanitarian law.
The so-called “global war on terror” has produced the idea that any act committed in such a war
should be allowed as the best means to defeat a most dangerous enemy. This kind of new security
paradigm has led to the justification of human rights violations against those members of the population
labeled “terrorists”. It is fundamental for the verdict of this Tribunal that even considering crimes
committed by the LTTE forces, the alleged “terrorists” are under the protection of humanitarian law.
Neither war crimes, nor crimes against humanity (the charges that have been recognized by this Tribunal)
would be justified by any act committed by the victims.
The importance of highlighting this question is that, within this new security paradigm, members of the population labelled as “terrorists”, or any other extreme qualification, would be excluded from the rest of humanity and therefore would not enjoy any protections ensured by human rights law. This assumption would deny the existence of human rights law as such.
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China’s Lost Girls – This piece written by Xinran is in The Guardian newspaper today. A radio presenter and journalist she took care of, Xue’r – Little Snow. The girl was born to a mother who died soon after her birth and a father who completed suicide. Having seen the distruction of a new-born girl child in a village in China, Xinran was later forced to leave Xue’r in a ramshackle orphanage.
“While doing a story in the Shandong province, I visited a peasant family. We had scarcely sat down in the kitchen when we heard a moan of pain from the bedroom next door. The village head’s wife said politely, “Pay no attention. My daughter-in-law is in labour. We’ll just eat our dinner.”
The cries from the inner room grew louder – and abruptly stopped. There was a low sob, then a man’s gruff voice said accusingly: “Useless thing!”
I thought I heard a movement in the slops pail behind me and automatically glanced towards it. To my horror, I saw a tiny foot poking out of the pail. It wasn’t possible. The midwife must have dropped that tiny baby alive into the slop pail! I nearly threw myself at it, but two policemen who had accompanied me held my shoulders in a firm grip. “Don’t move, you can’t save it, it’s too late.” ”
The Permanent People’s Tribunal Sri Lanka – www.pptsrilanka.org
People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka- People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka PDF
China’s Lost Girls- http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2010/jan/23/xinran-china-girls
The United Nations UNiTE To End Violence Against Women- http://www.un.org/en/women/endviolence/
Haiti- How to Help
Sitting here in the quiet Irish countryside, watching the horrendous scenes happening in another small island on the other side of the world, it does not take much of a stretch of the imagination to realise the accident of birth that has this writer sitting in comfort while another person like me lies in an unmarked grave with thousands of her compatriots. Below is a list of organisations who are channelling aid as much as possible to the people who need it.
UNICEF-Working in Haiti for the children of Haiti. We have all seen the devastation, the fallout and the human loss happening every second. There are many other places that need support but right now, if there is extra money Haiti and the vulnerable children need all the support people can afford. Check out UNICEF site here and to donate click through; or go here to pledge some cash.
“UNICEF’s response, is aimed at the children and women, who are the most vulnerable in times of crisis. Children under 18 make up nearly 50 per cent of the 10 million population of Haiti. Last night, in the town of Jacmel, 2,500 kitchen kits and 5,000 1 litre bags of water will be distributed to enable the local population to prepare the food supplies by the World Food Programme. A cargo plane also landed last night in Haiti, containing €3500,000 of supplies to assist 10,000 people, including oral rehydration salts, water purifications tablets, tarpaulins and tents to provide temporary housing.”
Christian Aid- This is an organisation that works with local agencies and groups across the world to combat poverty and work for global justice. In Haiti it is Aprofisa. Some members of staff have been lost in the earthquake and now the organisation is working from the backyard.
“Christian Aid and its partners are sourcing emergency relief items for distribution to more than 15,000 people in eight communities. We are targeting areas that are getting little help from other agencies. Five partners hope to provide food, tents, hygiene kits, blankets, jerry cans for water and water purifiers. One of these partners, Aprosifa, is a specialist healthcare organisation, and will also be providing medical support.”
Article from today’s Guardian: Haiti’s Suffering is a Result of Calculated Impoverishment
Damned humans and their rights! What about the share price??
Google- Finally it is reaching back, way back, to the motto that it began with- ‘Don’t Be Evil‘- and doing/not doing things to that effect. Today after four years of Google.cn, Google has announced that it might pull out of China. Was it because of the already horrendous human right record has only now ocme to light? Or because of the execution of thousands of people every year? Or because of the dictatorial regime of the oligarchs and their hench-people? It has to be because of the recent riots involving Muslim Uighurs or the invasion of Tibet and the subjugation of ethnic minorities…right?
We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.
Google are considering pulling out because it has been attacked, well and truly hacked in fact. It and other companies have had their systems accessed by third parties, perhaps working for the Chinese government in someway. Data/information/email accounts were hacked. Email accounts of human rights activists working for people’s rights in China were accessed by third parties. This is a serious incident considering people have been and will be executed in China for advocating freedom of speech and any sort of independence and autonomy.
The Full Google statement A New Approach to China can be accessed here. Read on and whoop with delight that finally something other than the joys of doing business in China, the fantastic production rates and the ‘willing’ people is making the news headlines. Youssef Squali, an analyst from Jefferies and Co. (as quoted on MarketWatch) said
“While we commend Google’s management for ‘doing the right thing’ on important issues of human rights and online censorship, the company’s inability to participate in China’s growth will be seen as a long-term negative, and therefore cause a valuation discount in the stock”.
Damned humans! What about the share price?
The Economist considers this move to be about poor business prospects in China as much about the ethics of the move.
“In Silicon Valley, the home of Google, the decision has been widely applauded. But some are asking whether it was “more about business than thwarting evil” to quote TechCrunch, a popular website.“
Meanwhile Amnesty International has urged the Chinese government to end censorship of the internet.
“Amnesty International has been calling on companies operating in China to respect the right to freedom of expression for web users and not to cooperate with the authorities in censoring the internet and self regulating the flow of information.”
This debate will rage and rage…until another gross global conglomerate thinks of something else to boost its PR rating.
What the Tech Blogs are buzzing with
Google’s New Approach to China: Stop the Censoring
Women, Religion, The NY Times and Jimmy Carter
Thanks to Nichloas D. Kristof for writing an excellent piece on women and religion in Saturday’s New York Times . Kristof talks about The Elders’ campaign to highlight how leaders and violaters use religion to justify the oppression, rape and death of women. Currently in Ireland there is nothing particularly blatant about the androcentric religious organisations using religious texts as a basis for abuse. However, as people tell their stories of abuse by priests from the Roman Catholic Church, it comes as no surprise that across the globe the abuse of those deemed lesser human beings (women) by men in continues to flourish.
“Religions derive their power and popularity in part from the ethical compass they offer. So why do so many faiths help perpetuate something that most of us regard as profoundly unethical: the oppression of women?”
Back in December 2009 in a speech to the Parliament of World Religions in Melbourne, Australia, Jimmy Carter pointed out how religious leaders and religious believers use religious texts and teachings to justify the subjugation of women and girl children.
“Every generic religious text encourages believers to respect essential human dignity, yet some selected scriptures are interpreted to justify the derogation or inferiority of women and girls, our fellow human beings.”
Following on from reading Jimmy Carter’s speech I took a look at information on the UN site, UNiTE- To End Violence Against Women. Here is some information from the UN with details and statistics:
How Widespread is Violence Against Women? UN Fact Sheet:
The most common form of violence experienced by women globally is physical violence inflicted by an intimate partner. On average, at least one in three women is beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused by an intimate partner in the course of her
lifetime.
• Women aged 15-44 are more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, motor accidents, war and malaria, according to World Bank data.
The Elders- http://www.theelders.org
UNiTE- http://www.un.org/en/women/endviolence/
New York Times- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/opinion/10kristof.html
Gumtree’s ‘Win Some Wheels’
Gumtree’s ‘Win Some Wheels‘
A great competition but what’s even better is there is a worthy candidate taking part. Seomra Spraoi is a fantastic social space in Dublin’s City Centre.
“Seomra Spraoi is a self managed and self funded social center in Dublin. For the past five years we have provided resources, food, gigs, culture and space for a massive range of groups in Dublin and across the country. We also host a kindergarden run by the parents themsleves. At the moment we are totally strapped for cash, so if you vote for us, you’d be helping the long term sustainability of the project, and help us continue to provide physical and social resources for the all to use. Please vote for us today”
Vote here: http://www.gumtree-winsomewheels.com/individual_entry.php?id=660
The Gulf Stream- Irish Snow
The Gulf Stream- every Irish student hears about it in primary school. Despite our northerly position the Gulf Stream is the natural force that keeps our harbours ice-free during the winter months. Well, for the last four weeks the power of the Gulf Stream have been lessened by the presence of a high pressure area over Ireland and Great Britain. This has ‘allowed’ the very cold weather forces from northern Europe to power over the two islands. There is now extremely low temperatures, heavy falls of snow, salt/grit shortages and emergency departments filled to capacity.
The main question: has the lessening influence of the Gulf Stream added to the irresponsibility of the Irish government? Will that be the next things held responsible for the appallingly poor response to the weather? Defence Minister Willie O’Dea proclaimed the army as being ‘pro-active’ – it is ready to respond to any requests from local councils for help…sigh. Point of interest: the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey is on a holiday, some place warm. Ahh…the joys of rescinding responsibility.
Check out RTE for more information, random statements by government ministers and images of people incapable of moving for fear of falling.
Mary Daly has died
From The Advocate:
By Trudy Ring
Mary Daly, a controversial lesbian feminist theologian, author, and longtime professor at Boston College, died Sunday at age 81. She had been in poor health for two years.
Daly, brought up Catholic, once considered herself a worker for reform in the church, but early in her career she became a “radical, post-Christian” feminist, according to SheWired.com. As her obituary in the National Catholic Reporter put it: “Eventually, in her life and scholarship she developed a sweeping analysis of ‘patriarchy’ as the root of women’s oppression and of all social ills in which people are treated as objects.”
