Ashaiman women vow nude protest

Posted on February 3, 2012 by admin

Ashaiman women have vowed to march nude and sleep with the Deputy Prime Minster of Local Government & Rural Development, Maxwell Kofi Jumah. This is in protest of the Ashaiman-Adenta municipality’s decision to make Adenta the capital of Ashaiman. Yaa Asantewah, Queen Mother of Ejisu had once resisted white rule with her band of Ghanaian women. Now Madam K. K. Agogoe, Acting Queen Mother of the Ashaiman Market, has stated that since Ashaiman has been in existence for over 100 years, it is unfair to think of making Adenta the new capital. All Africa reports that at a recent hastily called meeting of Ashaiman elders the women unanimously demanded that the government decision be reversed. They pointed out that Ashaiman is logistically better suited for being the area’s capital. The meeting was attended by a veritable who’s who of the Ashaiman people. The importance of this protest is not in the meetings or even the location of the capital. Rather it is in the chutzpah of the women. One wishes that Bihar’s women would teach a similar lesson to the strongman Bahubali who has recently been accused of raping and murdering a woman. African women have been a neglected lot. The international community has well nigh forgotten them. Africa is in the news whenever there is civil war in any one of the continent’s nations. White supremacists immediately point out why they should have never left Africa in the first place. The African people are barbarians who need whites to keep them in check. Only a few days back, Watson of DNA structure fame has unabashedly declared that whites are intellectually superior to blacks for the genes have so decreed. It is in this context that we ought to analyze this women’s uprising. They can manage their own and rightfully claim what belongs to them. And such women’s solidarity is to be seen together with such African female peer-groups like Empowering Hands. The latter is an organization started by escapee warlord-abused children. Here we must also remember that in Manipur women stripped to protest the Indian Army’s atrocities. It is these courageous women throughout the world, marginalized and ignored who are fast becoming beacons to a lost world. At least some where, some people have not yet become spineless. White supremacists of this world better beware black girl-power. Why do women have to take these extreme measures to convince a hardened patriarchy? Are men losing the battle-of-the-sexes? Vengefully, only when women demean themselves, they will deign to hear. Sociologists need to study this issue in the above-mentioned global context.

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The age old tradition morphs into a “Human Zoo”

Posted on February 3, 2012 by admin

Have you ever witnessed a “human zoo”, a place where humans, more specifically women are exhibited in lieu of just £4? I know it sounds absurd but it ain’t. Women of the Kayan tribal community in Northern Thailand come under the paraphernalia of such an exhibition, why? well because of their “Long Necks” and hence they are also termed as “Giraffe Women”. The age old tradition – of winding coil around the neck of a girl till the adulthood is still carried out by the people which happen to become a tourist attraction – has actually sealed the fate of women which compels them not to think about education, housing, full citizenship and, above all, peace. Burmese migrants especially the Kayan ethnic group, who entered the neighboring province Thailand so as to escape from the 58-year-long civil war that tormented the lives of the natives, discovered no solace in the new region as well. No doubt the opportunities came to them but were nothing more than a mere mirage. For instance, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and foreign governments have put pressure on the Thai authorities to allow 20 Kayan to take up the opportunity of resettlement in New Zealand and Finland but the authorities did not pay any heed to the said verdict. Rather the Thailand Government is working very hard to keep these women a tourist attraction after all, at least one Thai village head collects tens of thousands of pounds a year from tourists visiting their village to see the spectacle of the “Long Necks”. Nearly ten thousand tourists visit the village per year to see as many as 50 long-neck women and girls who pose for photographs and sell postcards, bracelets and souvenirs. Out of this the women and their families are supplied rice, chilli and cooking oil. The refugees have no other option than to accept what is being offered to them since they are living without hope or any positive prospects coming from anywhere that could provide them with a helping hand. What is it behind winding coil around the neck? There are two beliefs supporting the said notion, first, it was carried because of its personification with the feminine beauty, later the coils also became symbols of wealth and status and were worn as jewels. Secondly it also hints at the society which is saturated with chauvinism where men put the rings on their women to deter slave traders. This reminds me of the age old custom of Foot Binding which was carried out in China, can’t say whether it still persists today or not but what ever the case the maybe one thing is sure, we have never witnessed any such weird tradition, like that of body modification being carried out by men … or is there any?

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Ethnic rivalry behind increase in Congo rape-cases

Posted on February 2, 2012 by admin

Despite many efforts of United Nations and human right organizations in Africa, plenty of cases related to forced sexual intercourse still hits headlines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It had proved to become the biggest epicenter of one of the world’s major humanitarian crises. In Congo, men of an ethnic group uses rape as weapon to take revenge from other rival group. It is the country where the national army is battling local and foreign militias in a struggle involving unresolved ethnic conflicts. Congo’s rich mineral resources could make the country rich and prosperous but unfortunately regional power dynamics and greed of leaders of different ethnic society have never let them put full stop on current bloodshed in Congo. It is brutal reality that rape has been used to terrorise and punish civilians. In Congo, many women are not able to access medical facilities within the 72 hours after being raped due to poor transportation facilities. So, many women are suffering from HIV and other sexual transmitted diseases. In most of the countries Rape is considered as crime against humanity, but in Congo the rapists are unpunished and roaming free to repeat their crime again and again. Here Congolese authorities need to strengthen the judicial and penal systems to punish rapists. The leader of the national and provincial governments, military commanders, the Catholic Church and other religious authorities should come forward to create small units which start sexual awareness training programme in remote places in Congo.

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Girls gone political…

Posted on February 2, 2012 by admin

The history of the world is filled with women success stories. Though they could not get equal opportunity in every walk of their lives, they made a distinct and special place in history of human race. Ingrid Mattson, a Canadian Muslim convert professor and activist and the current president of the Islamic Society of North America, said, Our history is not a history of the marginalization and exclusion of women. Our history is a history of the empowerment of women. We’re not trying to invent something new. We’re trying to pick up where we left off. Who can forget Sarah B. Knowles, the writer and animal rights activist; Jane Addams, a founder of the Settlement House Movement and first woman to receive noble prize; Clare Boothe Luce, a U.S. Congresswoman and ambassador to Italy? The women who have been considered as second citizen are writing success stories in their professional lives. Furthermore, women are lagging behind men in the fields that were earlier owned, ruled by them. Yes! In the present scenario, I am going to mention few names who are role models for all of us and who contributed a lot towards society. Women have come a lone way but we still have a very long way to go before we have an equal share of the real power in this world. According to news reports, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, popularly known as Latin Hillary Clinton and the wife of Argentina’s president, Nestor Kirchner, has become the first woman to be elected as president in Argentina’s history. In the starting of this year, Pratibha Patil wins the most prestigious position of becoming president of India despite many obligations and charges created by opposition parties here. In her victory speech, Patil said her election will be a boost to millions of Indian women. In the neighboring Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan like a fighter who is standing firmly against undemocratic ruling of Pakistan. Despite being attacked by Suicide bomber, she is ready with her campaign plans to establish democracy in Pakistan. In Africa, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a Harvard-educated economist and former World Bank official won presidential election, last year. In Philippines, President Gloria Arroyo has been re-elected for the post of President in 2004 again by the people who were very much satisfied with her initiative to eradicate poverty there. In the nut shell, many women work hard in the background to support male members of the family, and this makes them lose out on the most visible, and most profitable positions in their life’s career.

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Create Your Own Greeting Cards

Posted on February 2, 2012 by admin

A lot of greeting cards that are sold in stores these days have messages that seem to be a bit cheesy and none are really very personal either, when you give a person one of these cards it shows that you didn’t really make the effort to give them something that you personally made which is from the heart. So, instead of spending a lot of money on boring and cheesy store bought cards you should create your own, there are many sites that allow you to create your very own personalized greeting cards and you can design them whichever way you want and for whichever occasion you need whether it be a birthday, anniversary or birth it doesn’t matter. Creating your own unique greeting card designs for holidays shows your family and friends that you want to personally create something for them and they will feel loved and like the fact that you created something unique just for them. This gives you the freedom to include images that are as personal as the customized messages that you attach to your designs. You may perhaps decide that you would like to sell your cards or you may just need a lot of them and don’t have the time to print as many as you need – in this case there are many companies that offer online printing and you simply have to send your design to them and they will print it for you without any problem. Making use of these services is an effective and very inexpensive method by which you can make as many personally designed cards as you need to. The best thing about it is that, despite being cheap, it is fast and accurate, meaning that you are guaranteed to have high quality cards in as short a time as possible.

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Women trafficking: Nepal struggling to erase social evil

Posted on February 1, 2012 by admin

Trafficking of women and young girls is on the rise in the tiny Himalayan country of Nepal. It is of no surprise that women from the impoverished parts of the country make up the majority of the trafficked victims. Years of political uncertainty, civil war and the massive growth and influence of South Asian flesh trade mafia have contributed to the rise in trafficking. For regional governments, trafficking is a growing concern. In Nepal, women and child trafficking is a profitable business for the traffickers. The victims are forced into the sex industry, illegal adoptions, factory labor, organ transplantations, etc. According to many unofficial estimates, around 15,000 Nepali women are trafficked each year, although some suggest that this figure has increased two-fold due to the current political and social unrest across the country. Poverty and lack of education make the Nepali women, particularly in the rural areas, vulnerable to the problem. Due to the lucrative nature of the prostitution business in the urban areas, socially and economically deprived women find no other options but to take it as a profession. The Maoist insurgency has played an important role in increasing the trend of trafficking. Many women were left homeless by the bloody conflict making them vulnerable to trafficking middlemen. Sexual abuses against women and girls were common during the insurgency and social restrictions in the Nepali society have made the victims easy targets for traffickers. The porous border between Nepal and India has assisted in the alarmingly high rate of trafficking. Less than satisfying border checks, incompetence in handling trafficking suspects, and bribing have made India the hub for trafficking of Nepali girls and women. Most of the trafficked women are brought to Kolkata from where they are sold to Mumbai and Delhi. Trafficking certainly is not helping Nepal and other South Asian states in tackling the HIV/AIDS virus. A BBC study has revealed that about 40% of the Nepali women trafficked to India have returned to their homes with HIV positive. If trafficking is not controlled, it would be very difficult for an impoverished country like Nepal to handle a HIV epidemic. Nevertheless, the situation is not totally out of control. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has taken some useful steps in combating the evil of trafficking. Various NGOs and governmental organizations are working tirelessly to raise awareness among the rural poor. Organizations such as Maiti Nepal, ABC/Nepal, SAATHI, etc, are actively working in preventing violence and exploitation against women and children. With some sort of political stability around the corner for Nepal, one can hope for the best but having said that, this is by no means an easy task which would require the active participation of all sections of the society. Link: Kantipuronline

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Black beauties face gender-pay gap

Posted on February 1, 2012 by admin

Many times we have witnessed that the women are facing ‘discrimination’ at home and office for being a woman in spite of having similar intelligence, talent and dedication to work as their fellow male counter parts. Women are paid less from what male counterparts are paid at most of the work places. If you believe on the statistics of the study done by Fawcett society and UNISON that reveals that many black women working full-time earn on average 17 percent less an hour than men working full-time. The study was done on many black women of different society. African Caribbean women have the highest pay levels and Indian women got the second highest position in pay level in UK. All the time, woman has being paid differently than men for doing the same job. To fill this pay gap fully, both Fawcett society and UNISON have started Women’s No Pay Day campaign in which women only being paid to October 30 and working for the rest of the year for nothing. What do think why women are paid less? Some people say that men are willing to work harder and more hours than woman workers because woman workers want to spend time with their families and that could be one of the reason behind pay gap. The ‘pay gap’ exists for the simple reason that women are more likely to take time out of their careers to have children than men are. Many women take a less demanding job (paying less) so that they can have more time or energy for their children. But what about those women who are hardworking and sacrificing their personal lives to make out their career? At least those women should be paid equal to men. So, it could be said that companies are very careful not to make pay levels transparent. Efforts should be taken to tackle the gender pay gap such as greater transparency around pay, reforms to outdated pay laws and allowing women to take group actions so that the burden is not on individual women to speak out.

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Government Regulation is Such a Joke

Posted on February 1, 2012 by admin

Well, we know how well giving massive loans to the auto industry has panned out (more of the same wasteful garbage under a bunch of grinning sales people who seem happy not to have sunken the ships as of yet). And we know that lending is continuing down a path into what can best be described as “the mouth of madness.” So once again, why don’t we just let the government step into our lives and pretend it’s taking care of us, while it completely misses the entire objective, with the net result being that lives are either inexorably altered for the worse or lost outright? In this case, we’re talking about prescription drugs, and all their purported “benefits.” The FDA generally makes me roll my eyes. I watch commercials for drugs, and sometimes I don’t immediately get what they’re intended to treat (I may miss the start of the commercial, or read an ad where it isn’t immediately apparent). Then I either read or hear the laundry list of side effects of any given drug, and I wonder something that maybe nobody else does. I wonder if these “treatments” (for really, how many cures are there anymore?) are worse than what they’re trying to help us get rid of. And why is it that these drugs are even reaching consumers, when they’re so absurdly dangerous? There is a birth control drug known as either Ocella, Yazmin or Yaz. And I guess having three names was supposed to compensate for its safety issues – which apparently such advanced nomenclature doesn’t quite grant to a drug. Apparently, it’s caused the deaths of 50 women – and while I personally have no interest in having children, this seems to be a rather “gallows humor” method of preventing births. I guess the company that makes old Yaz decided to go the Terminator route, providing abortion via the death of the mother. That this drug made it all the way through clinical trials just boggles my mind. While 50 deaths out of (most likely) hundreds of thousands of women using a drug is relatively small… I wouldn’t say anything coldly statistical about it around those women’s families. So in short, what we basically have is yet another instance of a supposedly regulatory agency dropping the ball when it comes to expecting companies to do anything for the interest of anyone besides themselves. Maybe I should stop being surprised…

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China: Suicidal rates are higher in case of women

Posted on January 31, 2012 by admin

hina is the only nation where suicidal rates are higher in case of women than men and that the ratio is soaring in rural regions postulated the state media. Yang Fude, vice-president of Beijing Hui Long Guan Hospital quoted, China is the only country where suicides among women outnumber men. According to an official study done in 2002 in China, 287,000 people commit suicide every year. Suicide is the highest ranking cause of death in the age group of 15 to 34. It is the fifth largest for the general population. Stress and depression have been responsible for majority of such cases. Certain reports like gulping down of pesticides by women or jumping off the buildings have been directly linked with constant tension and hopelessness. This trend is not only limited to women rather high school students too are grappling with it. A survey has given forth that 20% of 140,000 students had considered committing suicide. The Chinese government keeps on commending the virtues of communism but I’m shocked to see that they are not bothered about the women folk and the growing generation, so what virtues are they actually talking about?

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Venus unhappy on earth: The 21st century suffrage

Posted on January 31, 2012 by admin

After the Suffrage movement in 1890s, one thought that emancipation of women will be incessant and there shall be no looking back. Today, in 2008, again a woman feels the need to revolt, to fight for her right and to get rid of the step-mother treatment that this world never fails to give her. She is a modern suffragete, the one who is fighting for equality and who, with sheer belief in herself, shall shatter the glass ceiling that exists everywhere. The glass ceiling that the two women namely Ann Robinson and Rita Pullen wrote so passionately about in the Guardian, UK. They are not core-feminists or bra-burners, but they resent not having an egalitarian society where a boss can scowl at you for not pouring tea or a woman’s inability to sign a legal document for renting a television! Ann Robinson particularly holds women responsible for their own plight for the ones who succeed see the gender battle as won, but they do not realize that they need to fight for women as a whole and it is not an individual fight! Rita Pullen, on the other hand, brought to notice the difference between girlification and pornification. She also made us realize that there is no need to take pride in the fact that you are educating girls for it is no favour, it is simply what they deserve. This discussion reminds me of the classic John Lenon song, Woman is the nigger of the world, I wonder, when will she stop being that?

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