World People's Blog

• 2007-05-01: Rashida Bee – India;
• 2007-05-01: Champa Devi Shukla – India;
• 2007-05-02: Udo Ulfkotte – Germany;
• 2007-05-03: Emma Leslie – Cambodia;
• 2007-05-04: Lalao Flaurence Randriamampionona – Madagascar;
• 2007-05-05: Marie Rose Cimpaye – Burundi;
• 2007-05-06: Samir Kassir – Liban (May 5, 1960 – June 2, 2005);
• 2007-05-07: Florence Muia – Kenya;
• 2007-05-08: Kevin Phillips – USA;
• 2007-05-09: Jacob S. Hacker – USA;
• 2007-05-10: Ana Lucina García Maldonado – Venezuela;
• 2007-05-11: Khadija Al-Haisami (Khadigah Ahmad al-Haisami) – Yemen;
• 2007-05-12: Patricia Gaffney – England;
• 2007-05-13: Haifa Abu Ghazaleh – Jordan;
• 2007-05-14: Sr. Bhikkhuni Dhammananda alias former Dr. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh – Thailand;
• 2007-05-15: Lynnsay Rongokea Francis – Cook Islands;
• 2007-05-16: Mehreen Jabbar – Pakistan;
• 2007-05-17: Gendun Choephel – Tibet (1903 – 1951);
• 2007-05-18: Zarina Khan – Tunisia & France & worldwide;
• 2007-05-19: Omar Khayyam – Iran (Persian, 1048 – 1131);
• 2007-05-20: Yanar Mohammed – Irak;
• 2007-05-21: Jo Wilding – England;
• 2007-05-22: Bibek Debroy – India;
• 2007-05-23: Malek Chebel – Algeria & France;
• 2007-05-24: Dick Marty – Switzerland;
• 2007-05-25: Heisoo Shin – South Korea;
• 2007-05-26: Jerry Mander – USA;
• 2007-05-27: Samir Amin – Egypt;
• 2007-05-28: Elisabet Sahtouris – USA & Greece;
• 2007-05-29: Hernando de Soto – Peru;
• 2007-05-30: Parmaben Sava – India;
• 2007-05-31: Bettina Renz – England.

Linked with Chatham House, with The Russian and Eurasian Security Network RES, with the Centre for Russian and East European Studies CREES, and with Russian Analytical Digest RAD.

Bettina Renz is Lecturer in Defence Studies at King’s College London/ Royal Air Force College, Cranwell. She completed her MSc by research in Russian Studies at the University of Edinburgh and her PhD at CREES, entitled, ‘Civil-Military Relations in Post-Soviet Russia: The Case of “Military Politicians”’. From 2002-2003 she worked as a Research Fellow on the ESRC project, ‘The Securitisation of Contemporary Russian Politics’, and in 2004-2005 as a Research Fellow on an ESRC consultancy, ‘UK Social Science and Central and Eastern Europe’. From 2005-2006 she held an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests have included security sector reform, civil-military relations, media-military relations, “new” security issues, and the perception of security threats in Russia and in other post-Soviet states. Her current research focuses on the evolution of the Russian security sector with a particular emphasis on the topic of counterterrorism. She is Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies. (full text).

See: Lunchtime research seminars, summer 2007.

Bettina Renz – England

She contributed to ‘the russian analytical digest’, to be download on RES/latest Publications/No. 17: “Siloviki” in Politics – Russian Military Reform/March 20, 2007. (in german: russland analysen).

Biography: Dr Bettina Renz graduated with an MA and MSc from the University of Edinburgh and received her PhD on the topic of civil-military relations in contemporary Russia from the University of Birmingham in 2005. Her research interests have included security sector reform, civil-military relations, media-military relations, “new” security issues, and the perception of security threats in Russia and other post-Soviet states.

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Linked with Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan KMVS.

She is She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: “I am getting old but I shall continue to provide my services to all who ask for them, as long as my health permits. I am happy and satisfied, but I am concerned about others around me”.

Without formal education and facing great odds, Parmaben has succeeded in her mission to bring healthcare to Kutchi women … HER earlobes hang almost touching her neck. Thick, white bangles cover her forearms; her richly woven kanjaria and audni speak of her desert-home. She has never had any formal education, and has only recently learned to write her name. (full text).

Parmaben Sava – India

She works for Pachcham (or Kutch) Mahila Vikas Sangathan PMVS (KMVS).

Parmaben Sava is a traditional birth attendant, a midwife who became a leader within her community by educating women on reproductive health issues and rights. A Dalit by birth, she has concentrated her energies and efforts in the Kutch area around the Indian border with Pakistan, changing the lives of the women she has interacted with, and of the generations she has helped bring into the world.

Parmaben was born in Juna (in the Pachcham block), one of five children. Her childhood was very similar to those around her: no education in anything but housework, and marriage at the age of 16. In fact, it was only after she started working with the Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS) in the late 1980s that she learnt to sign her name.

By that time, though, Parmaben had given birth to four daughters (moving to Dhrobana after marrying), and realized the difficulties a pregnant woman faces, and the pathetic birthing situations.

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Linked with The Institute for Liberty and Democracy ILD, with Peru police evict market traders, and with Hernando de Soto’s texts and videos.

Mr. de Soto is currently President of the ILD —headquartered in Lima, Peru— considered by The Economist as one of the two most important think tanks in the world. Time magazine chose him as one of the five leading Latin American innovators of the century in its special May 1999 issue “Leaders for the New Millennium”, and included him among the 100 most influential people in the world in 2004. (full text).

His main thesis: Need for private ownership (for everyone) ! The main tenet of de Soto’s books is that people in developing countries lack such an integrated formal property system, leading to only informal ownership of land and goods. He argues that the fruition of economic success of American and Japanese capitalism relied on a clear system of property rights which was created during the times of the ‘frontier’ in America and in Pre-WWI Feudal Japan. The lack of such an integrated system of property rights in today’s developing nations makes it impossible for the poor to leverage their now informal ownerships into capital (as collateral for credit), which de Soto claims would form the basis for entrepreneurship. Hence farmers in much of the developing world remain trapped in subsistence agriculture. As such, he argues that this informal ownership should be made formal, for example by giving squatters in shanty towns land titles to the land they now live on. (full text).

Hernando de Soto – Peru

Peru’s most distinguished economist, Hernando De Soto, was among the key speakers at an event held by the Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA International) in New York City. (full text, May 16, 2007).

He says: “What my definition of capital is, for the purposes of this book, are all those values that are hidden in assets and that come forth when property is well defined. It’s much more interesting to talk to dead Americans than to live Americans, because dead Americans two centuries ago were facing the same problems we are now”. (full text).

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Linked with The Bainbridge Graduate Institute BGI.

Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris is an evolution biologist, futurist, author, and consultant to organizations. Sahtouris is a member of the World Wisdom Council and a fellow of the World Business Academy. She is a citizen of the United States and of Greece, with a Canadian Ph.D. … (full text).

She says: “I think it was during my postdoctoral fellowship, when I was in Manhattan in New York City and saw so many social problems — people who were becoming homeless, being evicted, breathing foul air. I caused some unrest at the Museum of Natural History because they had paid a lot of money to do a very expensive pollution exhibit. This was around 1969. At the same time, the museum was belching black smoke all over northern Manhattan so women couldn’t hang their laundry out in the vicinity. I pointed out the contradiction between their pollution exhibit and what they were doing themselves. So there were many little lessons in seeing that science has such blinders on that it does not relate itself to the larger society”. (full text).

Elisabet Sahtouris – USA & Greece

• Look at all her Scholar Articles on Google:
• Read: Evolving Our Beliefs to Evolve Our Lives;
• Look at Lifeweb;
• Look at her website;
• Look at her writings;
• Read: Seeing The Post Corporate World, Life After Capitalism.

Listen to her videos:

• After Darwin pt1, 9.25 min, April 2007;
• After Darwin pt2, 8.39 min, April 2007;
• After Darwin pt3, 3.28 min, April 2007;
• UN Forum on Our Common Humanity, November 29, 2006.

In her unique approach, called Living Systems Design, Sahtouris applies the principles of biology and evolution to organizational development so that organizations may become more functional, healthy living systems, with increased resilience, stability, and cooperation.

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He is an Egyptian political author. He currently lives in Dakar, Senegal. He is born September 3, 1931 … After finishing his thesis, Amin went back to Cairo, where he was from 1957 to 1960 manager of Études de l’Organisme de Développement Économique. Subsequently Amin left Cairo, to become advisor in the Ministry of Planning in Bamako (Mali) from 1960 to 1963. In 1963 he was offered a fellowship at the Institut Africain de Développement Économique et de Planification (IDEP). Until 1970 he worked there as well as being a professor at the university of Poitiers, Dakar and Paris (of Paris VIII, Vincennes). In 1970 he became a chief of the IDEP, which he managed until 1980. In 1980 Amin left the IDEP and became a director of the Third World Forum in Dakar. (full text).

… Amin argues for a globalization based on the needs of the periphery, not the center, and for “de-linking” development from capital investment … (full text).

He says: ”History has proven that capitalism, like all social systems, is able at each stage of its expansion to overcome its own permanent contradictions, but not without worsening the violence with which they will be experienced by succeeding generations. This is not at all foreign to the Marxian spirit, which I express in the proposition that the human enterprise remains underdetermined, that it is not foreclosed by some necessity that is tied to the development of either the productive forces or any other metasocial force. More than ever humanity is confronted with two choices: to let itself be led by capitalism’s unfolding logic to a fate of collective suicide or, on the contrary, to give birth to the enormous human possibilities carried by that world-haunting spectre of communism”. (full text).

Samir Amin – Egypt

Listen to this video: Mangoro Dja. Entrevista Samir Amin, 8.51 minutes (in french with spanish subtitles);

Read: U.S. Imperialism, Europe, and the Middle East, November 2004.

… This commitment to reflection, debate, and self-critique continues to flourish, as exemplified by the rich reader/sourcebook ‘A Political Programme for the World Social Forum WSF‘. Compiled recently by Jai Sen and others at the India Institute for Critical Action: Centre in Movement (CACIM), the volume serves as a framework for ongoing dialogue about the Bamako Agreement, itself an ambitious attempt to articulate a political platform for the WSF spearheaded by Samir Amin and the World Forum for Alternative (WFA) … (full text).

Find: his articles on Google Scholar.

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Linked with the International forum on globalization, and with the Foundation for deep ecology. And with Jerry Mander of November 30, 2007.

He is an American activist best known for his book ‘Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television’ (1977), and for his contribution to a book on an unrelated topic, ‘The Great International Paper Airplane Book’ (1971). Mander worked in advertising for 15 years, including five as partner and president of Freeman, Mander & Gossage in San Francisco. In 1971 he founded the first non-profit advertising agency in the United States, Public Interest Communications, which worked on campaigns to prevent dams in the Grand Canyon, found Redwood National Park, and stop the American project to build a supersonic transport. He is currently the director of the International Forum on Globalization and the program director for Megatechnology and Globalization at the Foundation for Deep Ecology. (full text).

He says: ”The point is the way new technologies are introduced to us without a full discussion of how they are going to affect the planet, social relationships, political relationships, human health, nature, our conceptions of nature, and our conceptions of ourselves. Every technology that comes along affects these things. Cars, for example, have changed society completely. Had there been a debate about the existence of cars, we would have asked, do we want the entire landscape to be paved over? Do we want society to move into concrete urban centers? Do we want one resource – oil – to dominate human and political relationships in the world? The Gulf War resulted from our choice of the car a hundred years ago”. (full text).

Read: How I moved from advertising glamour to anti-globalisation fervour, 2006. (full text).

Jerry Mander – USA

Some of Jerry Mander’s many videos on YouTube:

• Interview, 6.23 minutes, March 18, 2007;
• Globalisation and Indigenous Culture, 3.40 minutes, January 8, 2007;
• Globalisation and Indigenous Culture, 4 minutes, November 28, 2006.

He says also: “Our culture lacks a philosophical basis, an understanding of the appropriate human role on earth, that would inform these developments before they happen.

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Linked with Asian Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development APWLD, and with Korea Women’s HotLine KWHL. And also with Korea fails to tap female workforce.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She is currently Vice-Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, a representative on the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and a visiting professor at the Graduate School of NGO Studies, Kyung Hee University in Seoul. Ms Shin is a past winner of the 1st Women’s Human Rights Award – Women, Law and Development International, Washington DC. (full text).

She says: “We have established that rape and sexual slavery during wartime are violations of women’s rights and should be punished. Because of our movement, hopefully such a thing will never happen again”.

Heisoo Shin – South Korea

She is in the executive committee of the ‘Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan‘, (Homepage). She works for the Korea Women’s HotLine, and for the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law & Development.

Read:

• United Nations: Reconciling Tradition With Progress Main Challenge For Vanuatu’s Women, Anti-Discrimination Committee Told, May 19, 2007;
• United Nations: Emerging From Civil War, Sierra Leone Faces Serious Challenges Implementing Women’s Anti-Discrimination Convention, May 19, 2007; Expert Committee Told.
• Violence against women, situation of minorities … Serbia’s first ever report, May 16, 2007.

Heisoo Shin has been a leader in bringing the issues of sexual slavery and other women’s human rights abuses to the forefront of the international justice agenda. She served for seven years as president of Hotline for Women in Need, created to receive information from women forced to serve as sexual slaves by the Japanese military in World War II.

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Linked with Does one have to fight tyranny with the instruments of the tyrants?

Dick Marty is a member of the Council of States of the Swiss Federal Assembly and a member of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, where he is President of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. As special rapporteur for the Council of Europe he was asked to give a report on the alleged existence of CIA secret prisons in Europe. In 2007 he received the Swiss Award in the category of politics. On February 1st, 2007 he was invited to the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland), where he gave a lecture entitled: “Research on Phantom Airplanes and Secret Detention Centres: Does one have to fight tyranny with the instruments of the tyrants”? (full long text, May 18, 2007).

Same text/same date on Global Research.ca.

CIA agents’ testimony to boost new report into secret renditions: Swiss Senator Dick Marty said yesterday that the latest volume of his report for the Council of Europe into the alleged secret transfer of terrorist suspects by the United States will include statements from disgruntled CIA agents. “They spoke to me because they found what was happening to be disgusting”, Marty said in an interview with Swiss newspaper La Liberte. “Their statements will help to ’strengthen the findings of the first report’ published on June 6, 2006, on the secret activities of the CIA in Europe”, Marty said. The latest volume of his report will be presented to the Council of Europe on June 8 in Paris. (full text, May 5, 2007 AFP).

Dick Marty – Switzerland

An Opportunity Seized: In its zeal to please U.S., Romania tramples foreigners’ rights, by Paul Radu, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, May 24, 2007.

CIA secret rendition exposed, May 4, 2007.

Put the word GUANTANAMO in the search tool of YouTube and find more than 2000 shorter or longer Videos.

Read: Information Memorandum II, by Rapporteur Dick Marty, Switzerland, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

Listen to this Videos (all three in italian):

• Voli segreti CIA, il caso Al Kassim, 11 minutes;
• Voli CIA, Giornalisti nel Mirino, 10 minutes;
• Voli CIA, l’Europa indaga, 12 minutes.

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Malek Chebel was born in the Algerian town of Constantine in 1953. He studied in Algeria until 1980 and then in Paris, where he now lives. As a psychologist, anthropologist and sexologist, an indefatigable archaeologist of the world of the Arabian and Islamic imagination, he has published major works on the real and imaginary Arabic world of Islam: ‘Le corps dans la tradition au Maghreb’, ‘La Formation de l’identité politique’, ‘L’Esprit de sérail’, ‘La Féminisation du monde’, ‘L’Encyclopédie de l’amour en Islam’, ‘Dictionnaire des symboles musulmans’, ‘Traité du raffinement’, Payot, 1999, etc.

He is an advocate of plain language and his preference is for highly meticulous analyses and rational arguments. He endeavours to gain a better knowledge of the basic writings of Islamic culture by studying them academically. Click on the links and listen to his speaks … (full text).

He says: “In France, Muslim girls want to wear the veil at school, whereas in Qatar, 200 girls demonstrated to be allowed to go to school without a veil … and: A Muslim Cleric is Better Received When He Speaks to People Who Are Frustrated and Have No Prospect of Sensual Pleasure”.

Malek Chebel – Algeria & France

Manifeste pour un Islam des lumières (Broché), de Malek Chebel (Auteur).

He says also: ”Europe is too lenient with Islamists … Fundamentalist Muslims are true fanatics. They consider progress the enemy of Islam [...] They are narrow-minded ideologues who use the Koran to achieve sinister political aims … We must acknowledge that it is European, Western and modern countries that grant Islam the possibility to express itself, whereas at the same time, the sharia is being strongly fought against in a few Arab countries … As a Muslim, I feel more protected by the higher democratic principle of the [secular] nation-state than by the sharia, which is interpreted by the religious authorities as they wish, sometimes according to their moods … Sharia has never been a model of good governance in the Arab world. In any case, it must be separated from the political sphere … Too much space is given to Islamists in the media. The more space you give to fundamentalist Islam, the less there is for enlightened Islam. And it is the latter you need in order to live. Only enlightened Islam is compatible with world civilization, with Europe, and with the spirit of the [French] Republic. But times are difficult for moderate people”. (full text).

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Linked with The Manthan AIF-Award, with Body mass politic, and with ‘We are 30 years behind China in terms of development‘.

He is a well respected and clear-headed Indian economist. He was educated in Presidency College, Kolkata, Delhi School of Economics and Trinity College, Cambridge). He has worked at Presidency College (Kolkata), Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (Pune), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (Delhi), National Council of Applied Economic Research (Delhi) and as Consultant, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. He was also the Director of a project known as LARGE (Legal Adjustments and Reforms for Globalizing the Economy), set up by the Ministry of Finance and UNDP to examine legal reforms. Books Authored or co-authored. (full text).

He says: “It is important to change not only the base and the basket of commodities, but also the method and processes used to compute these indices, which have been strongly criticized. Even the time taken for data collection is pretty long. These things must improve for the indices to be effective”. (full text).

Free download: A message of empowerment, a 174 pages pdf-text by Bibek Debroy.

Bibek Debroy – India

His columns on the Financial Express.

The Indian economy is fast losing competitiveness, not because RBI chose to inject some exchange rate volatility for various reasons but because the economy’s readiness to handle a permanently higher level of aggregate demand has been stopped in its tracks. That is the crux. The UPA government is part of the problem not only because it is an “unproductive asset” (acknowledge Bibek Debroy) but also since it is pursuing CPA—a counterproductive agenda. One should not deny India’s communists their credit in this state of affairs. (full text, May 15, 2007).

Read:

• Back to lazy banking, May 9, 2007;
• Wish he were duty-bound, March 1, 2007;
• Call it disparity, not rural-urban divide, November 30, 2006;
• Improving India’s Investment Climate, April 11, 2005;
• We must scrap Pay Commissions, July 2004;
• Integrating the Rural Poor into Markets, 2004.

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Linked with Circus2Iraq C2I.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: “What I wrote in Iraq was based on my first hand experience of talking to Iraqi people, whom I lived and worked with. They informied me about what’s happening to them now and during the war, suffering under the UN sanctions, while UK and other countries were funding, supporting and arming the former Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, despite his well-known human rights violation record”.

She says also: “Play and laughter is so important to the mental and social environment of children, which is enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Children”.

‘Send in the clown’, Jo Wilding’s unembedded reports from Fallujah brought home the horror of the American assault on the city. But when she wasn’t blogging, she was wearing stilts and trying to cheer up Iraq’s traumatised children. She tells Emine Saner why she risked her life for total strangers. (full text).

Jo Wilding – England

She works for Circus2Iraq C2I.

See her own website (’Don’t Shoot the Clowns’).

Read: A letter to the Prime Ministre.

Originally motivated by political demonstrations, Jo set off to the Middle East to advocate peace and justice in Palestine, Israel and Iraq, sometimes risking her life in these vulnerable areas. She has constructed a cyber website where she writes extensively about people who are physically and mentally traumatized as a result of of armed violence.

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Linked with the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq OWFI, and with Honor Killings in the New Iraq, The Murder of Du’a Aswad.

She says: “After this war started on Iraq I immediately decided to go back to set up an organization and to be the voice for free women there, and since the beginning, in my organization, we decided to do demonstrations, to do campaigns, to make petitions, and to see whatever is needed. And it started with speaking out against the human trafficking of women, and we were the first to demonstrate. It was a few months after the [March 2003] beginning of the war – in August 2003 – we started that. But later on, our work was mainly on sheltering women from honor killings, and also on seeking out the reports of women’s trafficking, and later on in the last two years we found out – especially after the breakout of the scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison, we found out that it is very important to have a presence in all the women’s prisons and see what’s happening there. So, we managed to become regular visitors to the central prison – it’s called Khadamiyah, a women’s prison, and we interviewed all the women in there, and we found out terrible things happening before they reached the prison. Six of them, actually, spoke out about being assaulted, about being raped, some of them serially raped by the staff of the police station before they reached the prison. So, we decided: This is a program that we will have to pursue immediately. And the surprise here is that most of this work we do with very minimal funding – mostly depending on volunteer work”. (full text, May 18, 2007).

Read: Feminists Yanar Mohammed of Iraq and Dr. Sima Samar of Afghanistan on the Dire Situation for Women Under U.S. Occupation and Rising Fundamentalism, May 14, 2007.

Irak-photos: bombed people.

Yanar Mohammed – Irak

She works for Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq OWFI.

The 2007 honorees receiving the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Global Women’s Rights were Dr. Sima Samar, chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and highest-ranking female in the Afghan government; Yanar Mohammed, founder and president of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq; Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, founder of Women on Waves, a mobile clinic offering safe abortions and inspiring legalization campaigns internationally; and Laurie David, environmental leader and producer of the Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth. (full text, May 18, 2007).

Read: Bringing feminism to Iraq, May 10, 2007.

Read: Women Under Attack, The Talibanization of Iraq, May n09, 2007.

Read: Voices from the Front—Women Face a “Mutilated Beast”. May 01, 2007.

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Ghiyās ol-Dīn Ab’ol-Fath Omār ibn Ebrāhīm Khayyām Neyshābūrī, or Omar Khayyam, born: May 18, 1048 in Nishapur, Iran (Persia) – died: December 4, 1131), was a Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher and astronomer. He is best known for the collection of poetry, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. (full long texts about him, the Khayyam’s shrine, his time as Student, writer and poet, Mathematician and Astronomer, his view about Islam, his poems as a sceptic, but also Miscellaneous and References, you’ll find all on wikipedia).

He said: “Up from Earth’s centre through the Seventh Gate I rose, and on the throne of Saturn sate, And many knots unravel’d by the road; But not the knot of human death and fate”. (full text).

See: his tomb as a modern monument.

Omar Khayyam – Iran (Persian, 18 May 1048 – 04 December 1131)

Professor Marcel Conche (in french) from the french Sorbonne, calls him ‘the Islamic Voltaire’/Voltaire en terre d’islam. (Found in ‘Les nouveaux penseurs de l’Islam, RevueLe Nouvel Observateur, hors-série, avril-mai 2004′).

The great Persian mathematician, astronomer, freethinker and epigrammatist, who derived the epithet Khayyam (the tentmaker) most likely from his father’s trade, was born in or near Nishapur, where he is said to have died in AH 517 (AD 1123). At an early age he entered into a close friendship both with Nizam-ul-mulk and his schoolfellow Hassan ibn Sabbah, who founded afterwards the terrible sect of the Assassins. When Nizam-ul-mulk was raised to the rank of vizier by the Seljuk sultan Alp-Arslan (AD 1063-1073) he bestowed upon Hassan ibn Sabbah the dignity of a chamberlain, whilst offering a similar court office to Omar Khayyam. But the latter contented himself with an annual stipend which would enable him to devote all his time to his favorite studies of mathematics and astronomy. His standard work on algebra, written in Arabic, and other treatises of a similar character raised him at once to the foremost rank among the mathematicians of that age, and induced Sultan Malik-Shah to summon him in AH 467 (AD 1074) to institute astronomical observations on a larger scale, and to aid him in his great enterprise of a thorough reform of the calendar. The results of Omar’s research were a revised edition of the Zij or astronomical tables, and the introduction of the Ta’rikh-i-Malikshahi or Jalali, that is, the so-called Jalalian or Seljuk era, which commences in AH 471 (AD 1079, 15th March). (full text).

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Linked with The Zarina Khan Productions, and with Le Dictionnaire de la Vie.

She is one of the 1000 Women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price.

She says: “The world has to give birth to its soul. Perhaps through theater. Theater and cinema are a way to reach thousands, maybe even millions of people” … and: “I am lucky to say I do not know where I come from. I come from the world, from different religions, different countries. This is the gift I received, which
enables me to push borders beyond the stars”.

She says also: “I think that, after the event, we can always tell our story in a rational way. But like love stories, certain forces are profoundly rooted, part of our personal path before becoming an objective mission. I say that because I have set myself a mission, my own personal reasons arise from my family’s story. My life story was shaped by momentous events in the 20th century. My mother’s White Russian grandparents fled Russia in 1917 because of the revolution, widespread massacre and incomprehension. Yet they aspired to social equality. Their travels led them to discover the world and other cultures. They ended up in Tunisia where they were welcomed with open arms. Lawyers, engineers, and doctors were seen as fundamental architects for the country’s structure.”

See two videos of her production (with ethno music, in french):

• - Rencontres croisées, 17.32 minutes;
• - Itinerance theatral, 15.59 minutes.

Zarina Khan – Tunisia & France & worldwide

She works for The Zarina Khan Productions.

And she says: “One of the main obstacles facing us all is the way society hides behind ‘bunkers of categories’. We cannot say, who we are if we cannot say, where we come from or which community we belong to. That is a major obstacle, which must be undone, urgently. My work is about undoing frontiers and categories. An urgent process, because those bunkers are where war begins.”

See her homepage.

Zarina Khan (born 1954), philosopher, poet, actor, theater and movie director is a true world citizen. In 1993, as war raged in Sarajevo, Zarina set up a workshop there. This gave rise to “The Dictionary of Life,” a play that toured Europe, and has been renewed in new contexts in Beirut, the Balkans, and strife-ridden suburbs, wherever one struggles for human dignity.

Author of several books on human rights, architect of many projects on children’s rights, Zarina’s articles on “a new way of teaching peace” have been published in many languages.

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Linked with Amnye Machen Institute (with its Centre for Advanced Tibetan Studies).

He was a Buddhist monk of Tibet. A film about him is called ‘the angry monk’.

He said: “In Tibet ist alles, was alt und traditionell ist, ein Werk Buddhas. Alles Neue hingegen ein Werk des Teufels. Das ist die traurige Tradition meines Landes” … and: “Now we’re fucked!” (at the occupation of Lhasa by the Chinese army).

Gendun Choephel was born in 1903 in a small village in eastern Tibet, near the silk road, at the Chinese border, in a remote region populated by nomads. This region was inhabited by Muslims, Chinese and Tibetans that were constantly fighting each other. The villages often were attacked and looted by warlords. In this explosive and mixed cultural climate Gendun Choephel started to be interested in his Tibetan identity early on. He received a traditional education as a monk in the most important monastery of the region, where he developed a friendship with an American missionary that the other monks and his family resented. In 1927 he left the monastery and moved to Lhasa with a caravan of merchants. (full text).

Gendun Choephel – Tibet (1903 – 1951)

Apart from his occasional dabbling in poetry, Gendun Chophel wrote little in Tibet. By the time he returned from India twelve years later, he had authored a staggering number of works: a travelogue, an unfinished history book, an erotica literature, a pilgrimage guidebook; also an English translation of a Tibetan tome on history of Buddhism, Tibetan translations of Indian classics like Shakuntala, Bhagavad Gita and Ramayana, and the Pali Theravadin cannon, Dhammapada; numerous Tibetan newspaper articles and essays in English for one Mahabodhi Society Journal. His muse, in short, hit him bad when he was on the road. (full text).

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She is a filmmaker. She had an extensive portfolio at a young age. After directing her first play in 1994 when she was just 23 years old, Mehreen went on to create a work which ranges from short independent art films to commercial serials and series for television. Her success as a director can be assessed by the fact that her work has appeared in many film festivals around the world including The Hong Kong International Film Festival, The San Francisco Asian-American Film Festival, and The Leeds Film Festival in U. K. to name a few and her short film, Beauty Parlor, was recently screened in New York. At home, in Pakistan, her unconventional style of story telling has earned her much acclaim and several awards. (full text).

Cannes is a marketplace: As for Mehreen Jabbar, director of her upcoming movie ‘Ramchand Pakistani’, she (Actor Nandita Das) says, “Mehreen has a unique cinematic sensibility, very quiet and dignified, a bit like the European style of cinema. The fact that she has her roots in Pakistan reflects in her work”, May 08, 2007. (full text).

Mehreen Jabbar – Pakistan

Listen to her short video presentation, 1.25 minutes.

Discussing gender, sexuality through a film festival (Cannes): … “Beauty Parlour” comes from Mehreen Jabbar in Pakistan … , May 10, 2007. (full text).

She says: “I don’t really look at plays as issues, I look at stories. The stories that appeal to me are small stories, like conflicts within a household and conflicts between two individuals. More than social issues, that obviously plays a part, but I don’t direct to make a point” … and: “I’ve never had an interest in acting.
I think it’s an extremely difficult job and it’s not for me! I find directing is my forte because this is how I love telling stories. Directing is like giving birth, creating, moulding. the high is incredible as are the rewards. To see all the elements come together from the script to the actors, to the camera work, to the crew and to see that produce something that was the original vision is irreplaceable” … and: “I have not written my own plays but I work with the writers. We come up with a story, sometimes the writer will come up with something, sometime I will and then I sit with them and they write and we just take the whole script from start to finish, and then it is devleped from there on. So it’s a very collaborative process. I work with only a couple of writers” … and: “I’ve never worked in the film industry. That is in Lahore, mostly. But a group of us (independent filmmakers) have started the KaraFilm Festival which is Pakistan’s only international film festival. We started that two years ago and it was developed with the aim to encourage producers and directors to produce and show their works at the festival and to enable people to view films from around the world and meet with other filmmakers”. (full interview text).

Read: Acting is a self-obsessed profession.

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Linked with Asian Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development APWLD.

She is APWLD’s Regional Coordinator.

She says: “My involvement with APWLD was through Imrana Jalal, who invited me to attend the first Feminist Legal Theory and Practice training in the Pacific back in 1998, it was my introduction to feminism and a critical analysis of the law in theory and practice.

Being a member of the network has brought me into contact with many women activists and advocates from the Asia Pacific region, who come from diverse backgrounds and have shared experiences. I have come to realise what empowerment means and the importance of understanding the experiences and realities of women’s lives when applying the law to address women’s issues to bring about social change. It has also equipped me with the skills and knowledge to mobilise communities to bring about policy, legislative and constitutional change in the Cook Islands where I come from.

Lynnsay Rongokea Francis – Cook Islands

As a newly appointed Regional Coordinator, I bring to APWLD a combination of experiences and skills in non-formal training, project planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and management, having worked in community development, on issues of gender, human rights and the law at both national and regional levels in Pacific Island countries, with government and non-government as well as regional organisations. Although some progress has been made in some areas within the Pacific region, women are still disadvantaged in political, social, cultural and economic life, due to the fact that Pacific political decision makers continue to be overwhelmingly male and are reflected in the failure to address issues that concern women.

With the support of the APWLD governance bodies, the secretariat and members of the network and especially with the support of my Pacific women colleagues, friends and network and my commitment to the organisation and women’s movement I believe I have the experience and skills that are much needed at this time to ensure APWLD continues at the forefront of the women’s movement to shape and lead the way forward towards shared goals”. (on apwld.org, scroll down).

She is also founding member of the PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM SECRETARIAT, in Suva, Fiji.

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(alias former Dr. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh).

Linked with Sakyadhita, The International Association of Buddhist Women,
and with The Chaing Mei Declaration.

Dr Chatsumarn Kabilsingh is a scholar and activist in social justice and women’s issues in Asia. She is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Thammasat University in Bangkok, and author of the book Thai Women in Buddhism. She is also past President of Sakyadhita (Daughters of Buddha) International, a Buddhist women’s organization. Monte Leach interviewed her for Share International. (full text).

She is now a Buddhist nun.

See photos:
on pluralism.org;
on bpf.org (click on links).

She says: “I am very much a feminist for Buddhism, and I draw my strength as a feminist from Buddha’s teaching” … and: “The Buddha set up the bhikkhuni order more than 2500 years ago to give women equal access to spiritual practices, He warned that the strength and wellbeing of the movement relied on four pillars: bhikkhu (male monks), bhikkhuni (female monks), upasaka (male laypeople) and upasika (female laypeople)” … and: “it was difficult to give up wealth and career”, (but she felt the time was right). (full text).

Sr. Bhikkhuni Dhammananda alias former Dr. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh – Thailand

A lone female monk has riled the religious hierarchy by waging a fight for ordination of women, reports Connie Levett from Nakhon Prathom, Thailand. (full text).

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She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: “I believe in my personal capabilities, and this pushes me forward to achieve my dreams in protecting and enhancing women?s rights” … and: “During my 30 years of experience in development issues, I was able to plan, supervise, coordinate and implement interdisciplinary development programmes pertaining to community, women, and gender issues in a multicultural environment”. (1000PeaceWomen).

She says also: “The situation for Arab women has improved slightly in all spheres of public and private life. Women’s access to education and health has increased considerably compared to past decades and their participation in the economy, environment and decision-making spheres is steadily growing” … and: “The rights of women in the Arab region are constantly violated….women are still deprived of exercising their basic rights due to unawareness of these rights or simply because of weak monitoring systems to ensure the realisation of their rights. The application of laws is also prejudiced against women since judges, prosecutors and lawyers are generally hesitant to take up cases involving women’s rights because of societal views that these issues ought to be resolved within the family”. (full interview text).

Listen to: Let’s End Violence against Women (UNIFEM, 2007), 1.05 minutes.
Listen to: UNIFEM english PSA, 0.31 minutes.

Listen also to: Malalai Joya’s Speech on Afghanistan in Sydney (Part 3), 9.43 minutes, added March 29, 2007. (see also Malalai Joya on this blog).

Haifa Abu Ghazaleh – Jordan

She works:

• for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem), mainly for its Arab States;
• for the Jordanian Ministry of Education, with a website in arabic language, and its english short version;
• and for the ‘General Federation of Jordanian Women’ GFJW.

The GFJW has not its own website, but is mentionned in english on the following sites:

• - Arab Youth Directory;
• - ILO;
• - Queen Noor of Jordan;
• - Embassy of Japan in Jordan;
• - Jordan Times, April 21, 2006;
• - Arab Women Organization of Jordan;
• - Jordan Times, June 16, 1999;
• - Jordan Information Center. (etc. etc.).

For over 30 years Haifa Abu Ghazaleh has worked with governmental ministries, NGOs and UN bodies, striving to integrate women’s economic, political, social and cultural rights into development planning.

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Linked wit the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development CAFOD, with Comprehensive Future, with the Pax Christi British Section PCBS, and with the Peace Education Network PEN.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: “Creating connections, crossing barriers of time and place and being human with one another are paramount peacemaking elements for me”.

Patricia Gaffney – England

She works for the Pax Christi British Section PCBS, for the Peace Education Network PEN, and for the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development CAFOD.

Patricia was raised in a hard-working Irish immigrant community in west London, with strong Catholic roots. After training as a schoolteacher, she taught for six years at a Comprehensive in west London. In 1980 she joined the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development CAFOD as Schools and Youth Education Officer. Since 1990 she has been the General Secretary of Pax Christi.

Through annual monitoring Patricia has played a key role in calling on church institutions to cease investment in arms industries. As a result, no Catholic dioceses or religious orders now have arms investments. Through annual monitoring Pat has been a key person in calling on church institutions to cease investment in arms industries. As a result, no Catholic dioceses and religious orders now have arms investments.

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Linked with TOWARDS THE RISE OF WOMEN IN THE ARAB WORLD, with Yemeni Federation of Women’s Organizations, and with the Human Rights Information and Training Center HRITC.

She is Minister of Human Rights in the Yemen Government, see the Yemen Embassy, London, and see also the Ministry of Human Rights of the Yemen Gov.

She is also:

• the Dean of the National Institute for Administrative Sciences.
• A professor of Political Sciences in Political Sciences section – Faculty of Commerce and Economics, Sana’a University.
• A vice-Manager of Women Studies Center, Sana’a University.
• A member of censorship on printings and publications in the Ministry of Culture.
• A professor in the following: International Relations, the Principles of Politics, Political Geography, Women and Development in the Faculty of Commerce and Economics and Women Studies Center.
• A coordinator of women and development subject in Women Studies Center.
• A supervisor on special studies and researches on women and development subject in Women Studies Center.
• The first Yemeni lecturer in the Faculty of Command and General Staff in Sana’a (military college).
• A founder member of The Gulf and Arab Island Union in Sana’a.
• A local consultant in the Council of Environment Protection in the Cabinet.
• A member in the Arab Teaching Staff Syndicate of in Sana’a.
• A member in the Council of Olympic Committee Administration and the General Association in Sana’a.
• A member in the National Organization of the Censorship on Elections in Sana’a.

Khadija Al-Haisami (Khadigah Ahmad al-Haisami) – Yemen

She says: “It’s of crucial importance to pay closer attention to public rights and freedoms and it is important to reinforce a culture of human rights culture Yemenis and further social awareness by initiating a partnership between the ministry and civil society organisations in Yemen. To ensure the success of such an initiative the Ministry has signed an agreement with the European Union to initiate a joint project to develop the partnership between the Ministry and civil society organisations” … (Yemen Times).

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She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: “That hateful discrimination against illegitimate children, adulterers, foundlings, and those outside the church is finished forever” … and: “I had not discovered the situation during my studies; I had no consciousness of the existence of the laws that discriminated against women. I had no consciousness that the law discriminated against my self”.

Read in spain: Orden Josefa Camejo, 14 de febrero de 2007.

Ana Lucina García Maldonado – Venezuela

She works for the Federación Latinoamericana de Abogadas(*), for the COMITÉ DE SAN FELIPE DEL AGUA (scroll down), and for the Fedla (Latin American Federation of Lawyers).

(*) named on Maria Telo, and on Ayuntamiento de Astorga.

Ana Lucina García (61) managed to unify her two passions, and with them, she was the driving force behind the legal changes that resulted in the overcoming of gender inequalities in her country. She is a diplomat by vocation and a lawyer by profession. Her practice as a lawyer, besides her work as a parliamentarian and diplomat, demonstrates her continuous commitment to the feminist cause. Through this work, she contributes to the building of a real peace.

She was born into a Conservative family in Venezuela. Her roots are deeply linked to the Andean geography.

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Linked with the Social Science Research Council SSRC, and with Economic risk has shifted … .

He is Professor of Political Science and Resident Fellow of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies. He is also a Fellow at the New America Foundation and a former Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows … Currently, he is heading a Social Science Research Council project on the “privatization of risk,” co-chairing the National Academy of Social Insurance’s 2007 conference. (full text).

He says: ” … No matter how well educated and hard working, many Americans fear that bankruptcy could be just one unexpected lay off or health crisis away. In The Great Risk Shift: The Assault on American Jobs, Families, Health Care, and Retirement And How You Can Fight Back, New America Fellow Jacob S. Hacker lays bare the new economic realities facing American families”.

Listen to his conference-video on Google, The Great Risk Shift, duration 1 hr 26 min 57 sec., registered on Oct 31, 2006, by The New America Foundation.

Jacob S. Hacker – USA

About actual HEALTH CARE DEBATE:

• Read: The best won’t be the easiest, April 21, 2007.
• Read: PREVENTION IS THE ONLY REAL HEALTH CARE SOLUTION, April 10, 2007.
• Read: Where Will The Sick Go Now? April 12, 2007.
• Read: Meaningful Reform Requires Thinking Outside the Box, April 11, 2007.
• Read: The Missing Link in the Health Care Debate, by Sara Horowitz … In all the plans we’re seeing from Democrats, which Jacob Hacker has helpfully anatomized, one thing seems to be missing: intermediaries. There’s the single-payer model; the public/private hybrid, which assumes that competition will drive efficiency; … (full text, April 24, 2007).

He says also: ‘(Hacker is the progressive Dems academic guru on health care. At the conference, we asked him – why not single payer? – ) … “I am someone who is quite appreciative of single payer,” Hacker said. “But countervailing that political story, which is certainly a true story, are the political risks of displacing the private insurance of highly paid workers and the fiscal costs of creating the system in one fell swoop.

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Linked with American Theocracy.

Kevin Phillips (born November 30, 1940) is an American writer and commentator, largely on politics, economics, and history. Formerly a Republican Party strategist, Phillips has become disaffected with his former party over the last two decades, and is now one of its harshest critics. He is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio, and is a political analyst on PBS’ NOW with Bill Moyers. (full text).

He says: “Now what I get a sense of from all of this – and then topped obviously by spending all the money in 2000 to basically buy the election – is that this is not a family that has a particularly strong commitment to American democracy. Its sense of how to win elections comes out of a CIA manual, not out of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution” …

… and: “Few have looked at the facts of the family’s rise, but just as important, commentators have neglected the thread – not the mere occasion – of special interests, biases, scandals (especially those related to arms dealing), and blatant business cronyism. The evidence that accumulates over four generations [of the Bush family dynasty] is really quite damning”. (full text).

Kevin Phillips – USA.

Videos:

• Kevin Phillips speaks in San Diego, 29 minutes.
• Kevin Phillips – What’s Next for the Republican Coalition? 6.36 minutes.
• Revelle Forum: Kevin Phillips on Religion, Oil and Debt, 59 minutes.
• Bush – Signs of the Apocolypse (on CNN), 6.07 minutes.
• Comments on the Forthcoming 2006 Elections, 1 hour 26.03 minutes.

He says also: “Well, the plutocracy … and I think we have one now and we didn’t, 12 years ago when I wrote THE POLITICS OF RICH AND POOR is when money has ceased just entertaining itself with leveraged buyouts and all the stuff they did in the ’80s, and really takes over politics, and takes it over on both sides when money not only talks, money screams. When you start developing philosophies in which giving a check is a First Amendment right. That’s incredible. But what you’ve got is that this is what money has done. It’s produced the fusion of money and government. And that is plutocracy”…

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Linked with Upendo Village NFP.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: “I believe every single life is worth living. If we can help even one out of the two million, then I think for me that will be a great achievement”.

• Photos Documenting the HIV/AIDS Crisis in Africa.
• Photos Upendo Children’s Home.

Google Videos:

• Hamilton Masakadza speaks out on HIV/AIDS.
• While Africa sleeps tonight.
• HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe.
• ORPHANS OF MATHARE trailer.
• Info Video with Jars of Clay.
• Red Rose “Thank You Mama” and “AIDS” Poems.

Florence Muia – Kenya

She works for the Upendo Village NFP.

Sister Florence Muia, 45 years old, is the fifth of nine children. She was born and bred in Machakos District, Eastern Kenya, and has been an Assumption Sister of Nairobi ASN for 28 years. Sister Florence ministers mainly to women and children affected by HIV/Aids at Upendo Village in Naivasha, Kenya.

As a visionary, she dreamed of a safe haven for women and children affected by the disease. Upendo, the Kiswahili word for love, is such a sanctuary. She devotes her energy, commitment and skills to the success of this ecumenical project. She directs the outreach programs of Upendo Village and works on securing funding and resources in Kenya.

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Linked with The Democratic Left Movement DLM, with A time to rethink, and with ‘Why do many Muslims mistrust secularism?‘.

Samir Kassir (May 5, 1960 – June 2, 2005) was a university professor, journalist and historian born to a Lebanese Palestinian father and a Syrian mother. He held both Lebanese and French nationality. A prominent left-wing activist, he was a strong advocate of freedom for the Palestinians, democracy in Lebanon and Syria and a vocal critic of the Syrian presence in Lebanon. He was assassinated on 2 June 2005 and his assailants remain unknown. A French investigation is currently underway but its results have yet to be released. (full bio, works, sources, links).

He said: “Still, there is space for this secular movement that has become frustrated with the liberal experience. In my opinion, there is a need for an effort that helps he establishment of social justice while taking into consideration all the qualifications and reservations against the welfare state”. (full text).

See his Homepage (english, french, arabic).

Samir Kassir – Liban (May 5, 1960 – June 2, 2005)

There was created a Samir Kassir Award for freedoom of the press, see their Homepage: in english, en français. Read:

• the SAMIR KASSIR AWARDS FOR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS 2007;
• Enter the Samir Kassir Award contest, March 8, 2007.

Samir Kassir (très exhaustif) dans le wikipedia français.

The work, and the questions, continue:

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Linked with Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development ACORD.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: “Hagukora ikibi wogikorerwa … It is better for one to suffer than to make someone else suffer.”

Marie Rose Cimpaye – Burundi

She works for Habamahoro.

Marie Rose Cimpaye, of the Tutsi ethinic group, was born in 1961 in Karuzi, Burundi. She enjoyed the good relations among her neighbors, until they fled for their lives in 1993. That was a shock that triggered her to action. She decided to act to create a better life for all.

She now has to strive to regain the lost social environment. With her friend and neighbor she founded a women’s association, Habamahoro, meaning “Let there be peace”. She is of the Tutsi ethinic group and was born in 1961 in Karuzi, Burundi.

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Linked with Consortium de Solidarité avc Madagascar CdSM.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: “The people possess the cultural wealth and know-how and have unexploited potential and they must be supported so that they can take control of the country’s development”.

She says also: “The peoples possess the cultural wealth, know-how and unexploited potential that must be supported so that they can take into their own hands the development of their territory”.

Lalao Flaurence Randriamampionona – Madagascar

She works for

* the Coalition of Women Associations DRV (not any reference found by Google in english, allowing being sure of the text).

* also for the NGO Fiantso (Fikambanana Andrin’ny Tambazotra sy ny Olom-pirenena = Support to Citizen Networking), mentionned:

• - on ‘Astrid in Madagascar’;
• - on icco.eu;
• - in the annual report MISONGA;
• - on euforic;
• - or on diam penina.

* and for the NGO Taratra, mentioned:

• - on madatsara.com;
• - on ropepump.com;
• - on auzoma.com.

(I have strongly re-structered this peacewomen-text): For the last ten years, Lalao Flaurence Randriamampionona (64), an anthropologist and sociologist, has been actively involved in diverse development activities involving women, children and the most impoverished in Madagascar. She lives in Antananarivo, Madagascar. The last born of five children, she was born to two teachers. She is married to an engineer, has one child and one grandchild.

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Linked with The Action Asia Network.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: “I am frustrated with people who say that there is nothing you can do about a particular issue and thus, do very little. I do not want to be like that” … and: “I saw these terrible pictures of Cambodian children and adults starving while I always had food on the table” … and: “Several organizations, government, trade unions and NGOs, have theories of their own. So even when they are in the same room, they have conflicts”.

Emma Leslie – Cambodia

She works for Action Asia Network.

Emma Leslie (born 1971), an Australian actively engaged in peace building and conflict transformation, came to Cambodia in 1997 and helped develop a peace education curriculum for Cambodian high schools and peace training programs. Emma and her colleagues established Action Asia Network, a regional network of peace builders, focused on supporting people living in violent conflict.

She also works internationally in conflict transformation through the South Africa-based Action International and the UK-based organization Responding to Conflict RTC. Emma Leslie was introduced to Cambodia at the age of eight when she learned about the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime. Eighteen years later, Emma came to work in this country, to contribute to its reconstruction and peace building.

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Linked with THE WORLD – upside down.

Udo Ulfkotte (born 20 January 1960), in Lippstadt, Germany is a professor and journalist, renowned as a security and intelligence services expert, as well as a critic of Islamic extremism. His was formerly an editor for one of Germany’s main dailies, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).

Dr. Ulfkotte studied jurisprudence and politics at Freiburg and London. He was an advisor to the Kohl government. Between 1986-1998, Ulfkotte lived predominantly in the Islamic states of Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan. (full text about his work).

He says: ”Islam is slowly but surely taking a grip on the European culture, … traditional values, customs and judicial standards are gradually customized to meet Muslim requirements”. (full text).

Udo Ulfkotte – Germany

He says also: “On the Interneht, Islamists celebrated the statements of the Office of the Prosecution in Frankfurt . Most of the media joined them in their triumph. Suddely I was a criminal. Old friends started avoiding me, neighbors started to refuse to accept packages for a “criminal”, and my wife lost her means of income. A picture of her offices from the outside appeared in a yellow-journalism newspaper and made sure that the clients of her accounting service were warned not to do business with a “criminal”. As her lease ran for another 12 months, my wife had to pay rent for a full year without income from clients, collateral damage from the German security authorities. At the same time, Lueneburg Universitry had decided to give me a full professorship. Now I have to wait for the criminal charges against me to be dismissed”. (full long text).

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Linked with Rashida Bee – India.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Champa Devi Shukla has been a leading figure in the international campaign seeking justice for the survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide Gas Tragedy in Bhopal. Starting with protests and rallies in India, Champa took her fight against Union Carbide Company (UCC) and its partner, Dow Chemicals, to the streets of New York and other American cities. Dow Chemicals is today fighting a series of cases filed by Champa and other protesters.

Champa Devi Shukla – India

Champa was awarded the 2004 Goldman Environmental Prize for bringing the Bhopal disaster to the international center stage. It has been over two decades since the Union Carbide methyl isocyanate gas leak killed more than 30,000 people in Bhopal – the worst industrial disaster in history. The survivors, and the subsequent generations, continue to suffer the consequences of the disaster. But in 52-year-old Champa Devi Shukla, the survivors found new hope. For 19 years now, she has been a leading figure in the international campaign to seek justice for the victims.

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Linked with Champa Devi Shukla – India.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: “A woman’s life involves discarding relationships that she has known from infancy and adopting strangers as her own … If she can face the world outside at such a fundamental level, then why should any other struggle for empowerment scare her”.

Rashida Bee – India

Rashida Bee is a leading personality in the global campaign to secure justice for the survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide Gas Tragedy in Bhopal, the biggest industrial disaster in history. Rashida took her fight with Union Carbide Company and its giant partner, Dow Chemicals, to the streets of New York. Dow Chemicals is battling a series of cases that Rashida and other protestors filed against it.

Rashida received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2004 for internationally center-staging the Bhopal disaster. On December 3, 1984, the Union Carbide Company’s (UCC) methyl isocyanate gas leak (MIC) progressively killed more than 30,000 people in Bhopal, the worst and most shameful industrial disaster in history. Among many others, 48-year-old Rashida Bee, a providential survivor, has been a leading personality in the global campaign to get justice for the survivors, direct and indirect.

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