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Index January 2009

Written on January 31st, 2009 in Monthly Index by heidi

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Freshta Shikhany – Pakistan ex Afghanistan

Written on January 31st, 2009 in World People by heidi

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Linked with INTERNEWS, with PACT radio – Pakistan, with Houda Mahamat Malloum – Chad, and with The Elders.org.

“With radio, I can give my community a voice,” says Freshta Shikhany, one of few women reporters in Pakistan. Shikhany reports for Da Pulay Poray (On the Borderline). The weekly program, started by Internews and produced by a team of Pakistani and Afghan radio journalists, covers issues affecting populations along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and airs on 15 radio stations in the region. Shikhany also has her own show on Buraq 104 Peshawar’s first independent FM station. Shikhany received early education in refugee schools and later joined an unregistered Afghan university to study journalism. She had family support, but no Pakistani institution would accept her as a student to allow her to finish her degree. Then she learned about the journalism training program run by Internews at the University of Peshawar. Shikhany was admitted as a special case due to her refugee status and went on to complete the course … (full text).

Freshta Shikhany, aka “DJ Malaika,” is a study in determination. She fled Kabul in 1992 at age 9 when “rockets were flying all over the city” and sought refuge in the border town of Peshawar in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province. Freshta got her early education in refugee schools and later joined an unregistered Afghan university to study journalism. A year into the course, Pakistani authorities closed down the school. Undaunted, Freshta and a few other students continued to study with volunteer teachers from the defunct university. Their classes, started in the backyard of a refugee organization, soon grew into a university when more refugee students joined. But two years later, this too closed down. Freshta had family support, but no Pakistani institution would accept her as a student and allow her to finish her degree. Then she learned about the journalism training program run by Internews at the University of Peshawar. She was admitted as a special case due to her refugee status. Freshta went on to complete the radio journalism course offered by Internews … (full text).

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Freshta Shikhany – Pakistan ex Afghanistan

Read this 4 pages pdf: internews-pakistanwomen-2007march.

More Pioneering Women Journalists of Pakistan (besides of Freshta Shikhany): Rashida Kiani; Nabeela Aslam; Nighat Hunzai.

Farishta Shaykani was born in Kabul but actually she belongs from Shaykhan village of Panjsher, in Afghanistan. As a ten-year old girl, she and her family became refugees in Pakistan. She was in her final year at the Peshawar-based Ibn-e-Sina Afghan University, when the University was closed. But this disappointment turned out to be a new opportunity for Farishta, since it gave her the chance to attend a journalism course at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Peshawar University. Farishta chose radio because it is very popular among Afghans. Besides working as refugee reporter for PACT, she also works as a Farsi DJ at Radio Buraq, the first Pakistani FM station to conduct programmes for the Afghan community in their own language … In December 2007, Farishta Shaykhani was promoted from reporter to producer, Da Pulay Poray programme. She is responsible for producing the second weekly Da Pulay Poray programme.  (full text).

… Like other PACT reporters, Farishta has remained committed to PACT, even when there have been no funds with which to pay her. Explaining her commitment to PACT Radio, she said: Through Din-o-Dunya and Da Pulay Poray, I am able to help people. I will never abandon that help … My family says to me, you are working so hard, following people around the place, don’t you get paid anything? I reassure them and say, it’s okay, I am helping people, and this work has become part of my life. I cannot give it up now. She has done many reports for PACT, bringing out best aspects of Pak-Afghan peaceful co-existence and harmony, which she herself embodies, having lived most of her life in Pakistan. One of the hallmark reports which she made in this regard was a report on Pak-Afghan relations, on a people and politician level … (full text).

Sorry, thats all I found in the internet on Freshta Shikhany, Pakistan ex Afghanistan.

More about Press freedom and other items in Internews:

  • Internews Celebrates World Press Freedom Day: What Does Press Freedom Mean to You? – As we mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3, Internews honors those journalists around the world who are devoting their lives to ensure that people can get the news and information they need to make decisions for themselves, their families, and their larger communities. What does press freedom mean to you? Please e-mail us your thoughts, which we may include in future newsletters or on our web site. In this issue: … (find here five relevant articles).
  • The Elders Celebrate World Press Freedom: … (full text).
  • Good Morning Afghanistan: On the Front Lines of Building Independent Media: … (full text /scroll down).
  • … and more.

links:

Sign up to receive news from Internews;

Galerie de photos d’Internews Network, and its photostream;

Search Sialkot;

Women Journalists on UN jobs;

Profiles on wyki.org;

About press freedom on wikipedia:

Alice Schwarzer – Germany

Written on January 30th, 2009 in World People by heidi

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Linked with So long, Marianne.

Alice Schwarzer (born December 3, 1942 in Wuppertal) is the most prominent contemporary German feminist. She is founder and publisher of the German feminist journal EMMA. As the daughter of a single mother she spent her childhood with her grandparents. In 1969 she started working as a journalist. From 1970 to 1974 she worked as a freelancer for different media in Paris. At the same time she studied psychology and sociology, amongst others lectured by Michel Foucault. She was one of the founders of the Feminist Movement in Paris (Mouvement de Liberation des femmes, MLF) and also spread their ideas to Germany. In 1971 she raised public attention for the first time with her project “Frauen gegen den § 218″ (Women against Paragraph 218, which was the German statute that made abortion illegal). In autumn 1971 she released her first book of the same title. She contributed substantially to the abortion debate in Germany, resulting in legalization in 1974. (See Abortion in Germany.) One of her best known books is “Der kleine Unterschied und seine großen Folgen” (The little difference and its huge consequences), which was released in 1975 and made her famous beyond the borders of Germany. It was translated into 11 languages. Since its release, Schwarzer is considered as Germany’s best known, but also most controversial contemporary feminist. She is a second-wave feminist representing concepts of feminist equality, similar to Simone de Beauvoir. One of her goals was the realization of economic self-sufficiency for women. She argued against the law which required married women to obtain permission from their husbands before before beginning paid work outside the home. This provision was removed in 1976. In January 1977 the first issue of her journal EMMA was published. The next years she concentrated on the work for her journal, serving as chief editor and publisher. With her PorNo campaign, started in 1987, she advocates the ban of pornography in Germany, arguing that pornography violates the dignity of women, constitutes a form of medial violence against them, and contributes to misogyny and physical violence against women. The ongoing campaign has not seen much success … (full text).

… Alice Schwarzer not only made her name as an author and activist, but as a publisher as well. In 1977 she launched the monthly magazine EMMA, Europes only independant feminist magazine. Still published today, it regularly sparks heated debates and high-interest campaigns. Although Alice Schwarzer (now aged 57) hails from the pioneer generation of the 1970s, she enjoys an even more prominent position in the public dabate today at the start of the twenty-first century. Her latest book is one of this autumns most eagerly anticipated arrivals. (full text Kiepenheuer and Witsch, 2000 /her book publisher).

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Alice Schwarzer – Germany

Her official homepage in german.

She says (on Angela Merkel): … “ Sixty years after Hitler and 87 years after gaining the right for women to vote, the people may have elected her, but the majority of the powerful are still far removed from conceding the highest  office to a woman” … and: “For the first time, we’ve got a woman as head of government. That means something. I hope that this woman really gets a chance and doesn’t continue to be surrounded by disrespect and intrigue” … (quotes).

She is named as political heroe.

… But when it gets dark and the rioting begins, there is not a single woman left on the streets. For on fiery nights like these, the “whores” are in just as much danger as the “sons of whores” … (full text).

Specially some books:

Find her and her publications on better world links; on Frankfurt Bookfair 2007 – Alice Schwarzer; on literatur-map.com; on IMDb (in german); on Google News-results; on Google Image-results; on inauthor Google-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

An honor killing or honour killing is the murder of a family or clan member by one or more fellow family members, when the murderers (and potentially the wider community) believe the victim to have brought dishonour upon the family, clan, or community, normally by (a) utilising dress codes unacceptable to certain Islamic people or (b) engaging in certain sexual acts. These killings result from the perception that defense of honour justifies killing a person whose behavior dishonours their clan or family. The United Nations Population Fund estimates that the annual worldwide total of honour-killing victims may be as high as 5,000 … (full long text).

She says also: … “While we have entertained the contention that a deed may make more propaganda than hundreds of speeches, thousands of articles, and tens of thousands of pamphlets, we have held that an arbitrary act of violence will not necessarily have such an effect” … and: “The god of the Christians, as we have seen, is the god who makes promises only to break them; who sends them pestilence and disease in order to heal them; a god who demoralizes mankind in order to improve it” … and: (next page) “It is the lash of hunger which compels the poor man to submit. In order to live he must sell – `voluntarily` sell – himself every day and hour to the `beast of property” …`(quotes).

… They look back at women’s passionate struggle for their right to vote. What seems so normal today was considered a scandalous, outrageous demand in those days. Not only notoriously misogynistic men rejected women’s suffrage, but also the political parties, from left to right. But then women all over the world rallied together: from Germany’s sharp-tongued Hedwig Dohm to the militant Emily Pankhurst in England right up to America’s legendary Susan B. Anthony … // … Alice Schwarzer, born 1942, journalist and essayist, since 1971, has been one of the most successful authors in Germany. Her books have been translated into numerous languages.  Other titles with Kiwi: Simone de Beauvoir. Weggefährtinnen im Gespräch (2008), Romy Schneider. Mythos und Leben (2008), Marion Dönhoff. Ein widerständiges Leben (2008). (full text).

Continue Reading…

Jawed Naqvi – India

Written on January 29th, 2009 in World People by heidi

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Linked with If winter comes, can spring be far behind? Linked also with Map of the
North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan.

You may find a huge amount of his articles, but it seems difficult to get privat informations on Jawed Naqvi. The following was available on the net:

  • Jawed Naqvi, New Delhi is a former Chief Reporter of Gulf News and News Editor of Khaleej Times, and a veteran journalist who has also worked for many years with Reuters in Delhi. He has covered wars from frontlines in Iran, Iraq, Western Sahara, Lebanon, Yemen, Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Jaffna. After the nuclear tests of 1998, he embarked on a mission of cross-border journalism, campaigning against nuclear madness and human rights abuses. He writes as a freelance journalist for the Karachi Dawn and the Dhaka New Age. Occasionally writes for Tehelka and appears as an analyst for TV channels. (sarai waag exchange platform); … same, and: Occasional analyst for TV channels (OSDIR.com).
  • Jawed Naqvi is a noted Indian journalist who contributes a weekly column for Dawn, the leading English daily of Pakistan. (Chowk).
  • JAWED NAQVI is a Delhi-based journalist and writes for Dawn, Karachi (biblio.india.org); … same, and: can be reached by e-mail (on indo.gram.com).
  • (Sagarika Ghose asks in an interview with Jawed Naqvi): you are one of the many eminent writers, journalists and activists who have contributed to the book and you have made a persuasive case of state terror that’s existent in Kashmir. But books written in English within India do tend to address an elite audience … (full interview text IBNlive.in.com).

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Jawed Naqvi – India

Some of his many articles:

Find him and his publications on South Asian Citizen Web sacw.net ; on DAWN.com; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

He writes:

  • NEW DELHI, Jan 25: Anti-terror police killed two suspected members of Lashkar-e-Taiba near the Indian capital on Sunday and said they might be linked with the gunmen in Mumbai and were planning to attack the Republic Day military parade here on Monday. United News of India said the potentially major plot was blown up when the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh police gunned down the two alleged LeT militants in an encounter in the early hours in Noida. The men were on their way to New Delhi when police intercepted them at the Expressway, Uttar Pradesh State Additional Director General of Police (ATS) Brijlal said in Lucknow … (full text, January 26, 2009).
  • … At another level, there is a mismatch between the spaces that civil society groups have forged for themselves in Pakistan and their Indian groups who are getting increasingly marginalised from the mainstream struggles. The Pakistanis have thrown out a military dictator, restored the dignity of their judiciary and generally created a consensus for democracy to strike roots in an otherwise difficult terrain in their country. They are standing tall even in the unequal battle against religious fundamentalism. Indians were way ahead of their Pakistani counterparts in having a better-choreographed struggle, like the one they displayed in the overthrow of the emergency regime … (full text, January 26, 2009).
  • … In the absence of Dr Singh, Mr Mukherjee “will look after the functioning of the government”. He will also represent the prime minister during the Republic Day parade on Monday … (full text, January 24, 2009).
  • NEW DELHI, Jan 20: The Indian government is nervous about the policies the new US administration, headed by President Barack Obama, could pursue on Kashmir, CTBT and other tricky issues, which it didn’t worry about with the Bush presidency, the Mail Today reported on Tuesday. “On Monday, a day before President-elect Obama formally takes charge as the 44th US president, India’s foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said he was ‘nervous’ about this change,” The Mail said. It quoted senior analysts and Foreign Secretary Menon as expressing apprehensions about the Democratic administration … (full text, January 21, 2009). Continue Reading…

Aisha Abubakr Subaira Adam – Sudan

Written on January 28th, 2009 in World People by heidi

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inked with DARFUR Peace and Development, with The Elders.org, and with Crossing Conflict Lines to Promote Good Governance.

Aisha Abubakr Subaira Adam is the peace and development office coordinator for the Community Development Association in Sudan. Formerly a member of parliament in Darfur, Ms. Adam is a member of the leading council of Darfur Forum for Peace Dialogue and Peaceful Coexistence. She was a member of the gender expert support team and headed the power-sharing committee in the 7th round of the Darfur peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria. Ms. Adam is a graduate of Khartoum University with a degree in English. She also graduated from the Teacher Training Institute; she taught English for 16 years in the United Arab Emirates. Ms. Adam is an activist for a peaceful resolution of the crisis in Darfur and for increasing the role of women therein. Standing up for the principles of the Universal Declaration … (full text).

Same on the beta HUB.

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Sorry, no photo is published in the internet for Aisha Abubakr Subaira Adam, Sudan.

The life of Aisha is proof that a woman can be far more learned than men and that she can be the teacher of scholars and experts. Her life is also proof that a woman can exert influence over men and women and provide them with inspiration and leadership. Her life is also proof that the same woman can be totally feminine and be a source of pleasure, joy and comfort to her husband. She did not graduate from any university there were no universities as such in her day. But still her utterances are studied in faculties of literature, her legal pronouncements are studied in colleges of law and her life and works are studied and researched by students and teachers of Muslim history as they have been for over a thousand years. The bulk of her vast treasure of knowledge was obtained while she was still quite young. In her early childhood she was brought up by her father who was greatly liked and respected for he was a man of wide knowledge, gentle manners and an agreeable presence … (full text).

Sorry, no other results found for Aisha Abubakr Subaira Adam, Sudan.

links:

The elder’s Darfur Mission: In support of those working to end the atrocities in Darfur, Elders Desmond Tutu, Graça Machel, Jimmy Carter and Lakhdar Brahimi travelled to Sudan to meet with a wide segment of leaders and civil society. Their report presents an action plan to galvanize the international community into bringing an end to the region’s suffering. Read three reports (in word and pdf); also support, and take action. Click also on video and photos.

Women Moving Millions, on Hunt Alternatives Fund;

directory of women experts;

Every Human Has Rights’s Media Library;

Text written by Denise Halel A Woman For All Seasons: Aisha bint Abu Bakr (Muhammad’s young wife);

Aisha bint Abu Bakr (died 678, Muhammad’s young wife) on wikipedia).

ECOSOC for AEHRF and the NGO world

Written on January 27th, 2009 in my comments by heidi

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we have a new blog telling our maraton for ECOSOC status … since 2002

The blog will be updated continuously, today you find a new post with 6 new UN’s questions, to be answered to satisfy the ECOSOC Committe. If you are interested, you may find all under the link below.

ECOSOC for AEHRF and the NGO world

Houda Mahamat Malloum – Chad

Written on January 27th, 2009 in World People by heidi

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Linked with INTERNEWS, and with Stigmatisée par la société.

When Houda Mahamat Malloum first applied to work as a journalist in her native Chad, she was turned down because of her gender. But she persisted, and became the only female member of a small group of journalists-in-training at the Internews office in Abéché, eastern Chad. There, Malloum learned reporting skills and digital sound editing. Now she is a full-time host, reporter and producer at La Voix du Ouaddaï, a community radio station set up by Internews in Abéché to serve refugees from Darfur as well as local Chadians. In this conservative Muslim society, the 25-year-old journalist often faces disapproval for her choice of work … (full text).

Houda Mahamat Malloum is a full-time host, reporter and producer at La Voix du Ouaddai, a community radio station in Abeche, Chad, set up by the non-profit Internews network to serverefugees from Darfur and local Chadians. As well as presenting the news at noon every day, Malloum produces Internews’ weekly radio show, “She Speaks, She Listens.” The program focuses on violence against women and girls, covering taboo subjects such as rape, female genital cutting and forced child marriage … (full text).

Watch: Internews reporters Houda Mahamat Malloum (left) and Al Haram Oumar (right) interview Darfuri women at the Farchana refugee camp in Chad (scroll down).

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Houda Mahamat Malloum – Chad

… In the middle of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the Darfur area, three radio stations based along the Chad-Sudan border have been giving a voice to refugees, internally displaced and local populations, and delivering news critical to their survival as well as information and entertainment making life easier in these extreme circumstances … (full text).

Internews first “Every Human Has Rights” Media Awards.

She says: … Girls are commonly married off as young as 10 years old. It was the episode about child marriage that evoked some of the strongest responses, and which touched Malloum the most … and: “People in Abéché criticize girls who work with men, but I close my ears so as not to hear it,” Malloum says. “I am proud of my work, and my parents are proud of me, too” … and: “The young girls that I interviewed said they couldn’t continue to live as they wanted because they were married too young. They are now parents, they couldn’t continue to study, they couldn’t work,” Malloum says. “It’s not just a problem for them. It’s a consequence for the development of the country also” … (full text).

… Houda Mahamat Malloum est journaliste pour la radio La voix du Ouaddaï, qui émet dans ces camps dans l’est du Tchad. Pour elle, circulation de l’information et de l’aide alimentaire sont intimement liées. “Imaginez une veuve africaine avec huit enfants, qui n’a rien à manger, à qui l’on donne cinq à huit kilos de mil par mois. C’est très difficile. Nous allons dans les camps, nous rencontrons ces gens, nous prenons leurs doléances. Ensuite, nous rencontrons les humanitaires pour voir comment trouver une solution”, explique-t-elle à FRANCE 24. Selon elle, certaines personnes utilisent aussi la radio afin que leurs demandes soient écoutées par les responsables et les humanitaires … (full text).

Pourquoi ce travail? Est ce que ces femmes sont obligées de faire ce travail? Que font les hommes si tout est fait par les femmes. C’est la question qu’on pose souvent quand on visite les camps des réfugiés soudanais … (full text).

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Shelley J. Anderson – Netherlands and USA

Written on January 26th, 2009 in 1000 Peace Nobel 2005 by heidi

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Linked with IFOR’s Women Peacemaker’s Program WPP, and with the International Fellowship of Reconciliation ifor.

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

At the heart of the Women Peacemakers Program (WPP) and Shelley Anderson’s approach is dialogue and listening. “We actively ask the women we work with ‘What do you need?’ and really try to listen,” she says. The requests for nonviolence training are increasing every year. Since the WPP began in 1997, they have trained at least 15,000 people. Shelley Anderson was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA. At the age of 19, she went into the military to earn enough money for university. During her time in the US Army, though, she had a crisis of conscience. “Even though I was not actually pulling a trigger I was involved in a system that was working for death. What became very clear to me as I struggled with this was that I would like to die without blood on my hands,” she said.

It was during this period that Shelley became interested in peace issues. She found a group of Quakers who explained to her conscientious objection, and she started looking for opportunities to educate herself about issues of women and peace. “I was lucky because I was raised in a time when the civil rights movement, the anti-Vietnam war movement, and the women’s movements were all very active. As a young girl I had the feeling that change was possible, and that people could make change. All of those inspired me” …

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Sorry, no downloadable photo found for Shelley J. Anderson, Netherlands and USA

She works for the International Fellowship of Reconciliation’s Women Peacemakers Program IFOR WPP.

… The critical turning point in moving Shelley to leave the military was attending a speaking tour organized by Quakers of Habakusha, Japanese people who survived the US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “On the tour there was a Japanese woman who was a Habakusha,” she said. “She had a daughter who had been pregnant several times, had several miscarriages, and when she was able to bring a baby to full term, it was so deformed that it died very quickly. Now the daughter was pregnant again, and the family was living in fear.

Immediately after this Japanese woman an American woman, also on the tour, spoke. Her husband had been a US soldier who was sent in immediately after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to clean up. He had recently died from leukemia. They had a daughter who had been pregnant several times and miscarried. When she was finally able to bring a baby to term, it was so deformed that it died. Her daughter was pregnant again.

Shelley remembers: “This was like a slap in the face to me. I thought ‘this is what war really is.’ I looked at the Japanese woman and the American woman and I thought ‘the Americans were supposed to have won and the Japanese lost, but both of these women’s families are living in fear.’ That was a turning point for me. I decided to leave the military. I did not know what the consequences would be, but I would leave and I would start working for peace, especially to get rid of nuclear weapons.”

After leaving the military as a conscientious objector in the early 1980s, the first peace group Shelley worked for was a local group in Minneapolis, Minnesota called Friends for a Nonviolent World. The organization was a Quaker peace group and her supervisor, who had worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was an inspiring example of total dedication to the struggle for peace and justice.

Anderson went to university and majored in women’s studies. “I’d always known that if we want a better world, we have to improve the status of women,” she said. “Women are going to change the world.”

She moved to the Netherlands in 1986 and worked for an international news service called Disarmament Campaigns. She began work at the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) initially as a volunteer in 1988 and has been with the organization ever since.

Continue Reading…

Philip Emeagwali – Nigeria and USA

Written on January 25th, 2009 in World People by heidi

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Linked with Africa Must Produce or Perish.

Philip Emeagwali (born in 1954) is an Igbo Nigerian-born computer scientist /geologist who was one of two winners of the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize, a prize from the IEEE, for his use of the Connection Machine supercomputer – a machine featuring over 65,000 parallel processors – to help analyze petroleum fields … Biography: Emeagwali was born in Akure, Nigeria in 1954. He dropped out of school in 1967 because of the Nigerian-Biafran war. When he turned fourteen, he was conscripted into the Biafran army. After the war he completed a high-school equivalency through self-study and came to the United States to study at university under a scholarship. He received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Oregon State University in 1977. He received a master’s degree in environmental engineering from George Washington University in 1981, and another master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1986. He also received a post-master’s degree in ocean, coastal and marine engineering from George Washington University in that year. He was also working as a civil engineer at the Bureau of Land Reclamation in Wyoming during this period … (full text on wikipedia).

… Nigerian born Dr. Philip Emeagwali first entered the limelight in 1989 when he won the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize for his work with massively parallel computers. He programmed the Connection Machine to compute a world record 3.1 billion calculations per second using 65,536 processors to simulate oil reservoirs. With over 41 inventions submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Philip Emeagwali is making big waves in the supercomputer industry, amazing achievements only surpassed by an even more amazing life … (about.com /Inventors).

… In 1974, based on a 1922 science fiction novel he read, Emeagwali worked on a theory about using 64,000 processors distributed around the world to forecast the weather, calling it a HyperBall network.  His idea was rejected, but in the late 1980s, he was able to test his theory when the Los Alamos National Laboratory had access to 65,536 processors, and Emeagwali had permission to remotely program them.  These computers were able to perform 3.1 billion calculations per second, and in 1989 he was making magazine cover stories about the capabilities of supercomputers. His HyperBall idea was given credibility”. In 1989, Emeagwali received the Gordon Bell Prize for his work on the Connection Machine, one of his many prizes.  Emeagwali is a popular speaker and contact for various subjects, including the arts. (full text).

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Philip  Emeagwali – Nigeria and USA

His personal Homepage.

Watch two of the 289 Google video-results:

He says (excerpt of an Interview): … Question – You speak about the influence nature’s own creativity has had upon your science theories, how did this begin?
Philip Emeagwali – I have expertise in five different fields which helps me to easily understand the analogy between my scientific problems and those occurring in nature. First, I identify an analogous problem in nature and borrow from it. It is smarter to borrow from nature than to reinvent the wheels … (full interviw text).

He writes: … As the gap between rich and poor countries continues to widen, it is becoming clear that intellectual capital and technology are the new fronts for acquisition of wealth and power. Natural resources such as oil, gold, and diamonds are no longer the primary determinants of wealth. This is demonstrated by the fact that nations with few or no natural resources are realising higher growth rates than OPEC countries … (full text).

More articles:

Find him and his publications on emeagwali.com (for articles, videos, photos); on Google Video-search (announcing 289 results); on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

… In 1989, he shocked the computing industry by winning singlehandedly, as an unknown, the Gordon Bell Prize, considered the “Nobel Prize of supercomputing.” He reformulated Newton’s Second Law of Motion as 18 “grand challenge” equations and algorithms and then re-created those as 24 million algebraic equations. By programming 65,000 processors to work as one seamless unit, he solved those 24 million equations at a speed of 3.1 billion calculations per second, setting three world records and garnering international headlines … (full text).

Continue Reading…

Peter Piot – Belgium

Written on January 24th, 2009 in World People by heidi

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Linked with Global HIV/AIDS: Five Leadership Issues.

Peter, Baron Piot (born 1949 in Leuven, Belgium) is Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the UN specialized agency UNAIDS. In 2004, he was awarded the Vlerick Award. After he qualified as a Doctor of Medicine at the University of Ghent (Belgium) in 1974, he co-discovered the Ebola
virus in Zaire in 1976. In 1980 Peter Piot received a PhD degree in Microbiology from the University of Antwerp (Belgium). He was also a Senior Fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle. In the 1980s, Dr. Piot participated in a series of collaborative projects in Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Tanzania and Zaire. Project SIDA in Kinshasa, Zaire was the first international project on AIDS in Africa and is widely acknowledged as having provided the foundations of our understanding of HIV infection in Africa. He was a professor of microbiology, and of public health at the Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine, in Antwerp, and the Universities of Nairobi, Brussels, and Lausanne … (full text).

His Bio in 5 UN languages.

… In 1992, Dr Piot joined the Global Programme on AIDS of the World Health Organization, in Geneva, as Associate Director. Born in 1949 in Belgium, Dr Piot is fluent in three languages and is the author of 16 books and more than 500 scientific articles. He has received numerous awards for scientific and societal achievement, and was knighted as a Baron by King Albert II of Belgium in 1995. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States and the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, UK. (full text).

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Peter Piot – Belgium

Watch these videos:

During a visit to Bangkok, Thailand, UNAIDS Executive Director Dr Peter Piot met with the Prime Minister of Thailand and celebrated the International Women’s Day with the Executive Secretary of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and with Ms Joana Merlin-Scholtes, the United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Thailand. Dr Piot released a statement stressing the importance of addressing gender inequality and the feminization of the AIDS epidemics. Read the statement here … (full text).

First UN HIV/AIDS director Peter Piot joins Gates Foundation; rest of UN coming soon, Jan. 15, 2009.

He says: “I arrived here yesterday from South Africa, where I saw very positive signs of strong new leadership on AIDS. The National AIDS Council has a clear agenda, and it is good to see government and civil society really rallying together to achieve this”. (Speeches, on UNAIDS).

Find him and his publications on Speeches on UNAIDS; on Google News-results; on Google Video-search; on inauthor Google-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

… Ban, in a speech before the 2008 High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, praised Piot for being a “tireless leader who has been at the vanguard of the response to AIDS since the earliest days of the epidemic.” A successor has not yet been named. Piot, a Belgian who co-discovered the Ebola virus in Zaire in 1976, has led the UN’s response to the AIDS epidemic as executive director of the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) since its inception in 1995. In a little noticed statement in April, Piot said he would step down when his term ended at the end of this year … full text, June 11, 2008.

UNAIDS chief Peter Piot to direct new Institute for Global Health at Imperial College London, 16 Oct 2008.

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Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht – Germany and USA

Written on January 23rd, 2009 in World People by heidi

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Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, best known as “Sepp” Gumbrecht, is a German-born American literary theorist and currently the Albert Guérard Professor on Literature in the Departments of Comparative Literature, French and Italian, German, and Spanish and Portuguese at Stanford University. Born in 1948 in Würzburg, Germany, Gumbrecht received his education in Paris, Munich, Regensburg, Salamanca, Pavia and Konstanz, receiving his Ph.D. at the University of Konstanz in 1971 where he was also an assistant professor from 1971 to 1974. He had appointments at the universities of Bochum, Siegen, and has been at Stanford since 1989 … (full text … his Work, the Honors).

Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (* 15. Juni 1948 in Würzburg) ist ein deutsch-amerikanischer Literaturwissenschaftler, on de.wikipedia.

He says: … “I arrived from Germany in 1989, knowing I can’t live without team sports. Of course, you can watch soccer here, but you want an environment where people get excited about it and can competently talk about it. I’m an American citizen now and very proud of it, but Americans talking about soccer are as bad as Europeans talking about baseball. They don’t get it. So I made this rational decision. I decided I’m going to become a football fan” … (full text).

Announcement: Schweizer Fernsehen, SF1, Sternstunde Philosophie, 25. Januar 2009 /11.00 Uhr: … über die politische Philosophie Barack Obamas (in german).

At Stanford.edu: his Homepage; his CV.

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Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht – Germany and USA

Watch this video in german: Joseph Vogl und Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, 08.53 min, Aug 29, 2008.

… Ken introduces Hans Gumbrecht, author of many works including “In Praise of Athletic Beauty” and Albert Guerard Professor in Literature at Stanford University. John asks Hans: Don’t people care more about their team winning than looking beautiful? Aren’t championships and goals what attract people to sports? Gumbrecht agrees completely, but thinks that even in the most diehard fans there exists a certain amount of
appreciation for the beauty of the game. Gumbrecht argues that beauty is the least mentioned of the important reasons why people love sports, and that is why it is interesting to discuss … (full text).

… The disastrous term “Leitkultur” (something like, “defining culture”) should therefore be dissociated from institutions of citizenship as soon as possible – and then forgotten, never to be replaced. One can hope that new citizens will be open to the culture of their new country but this can definitely not be forced by means of state institutions, and the word “Leitkultur” seems to mask the wish to implement cultural adaptation through legislation … (full text).

He writes: For a European academic in California, the ubiquitous question “You ok?” typifies self-help culture in which everybody becomes a therapist in need of a patient. Activities that ought to be sheer pleasure, like wine drinking or sex, become opportunities for nursing, while an event such as the timely death of a relative becomes a tragedy. But is the critical spirit of the European tradition not the reverse side of the same desire to take care of other people’s lives, “The surgical mode of the nursing complex”, as the letter-writer puts it? … (full text).

Find him and his publications on Project MUSE; on amazon; on GoodReads; on his current projets at Stanford; on wikipedia /publications; on allBookstores; on Barnes and Noble; on inauthor Google-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Blog-search.

Left and Right simultaneously will not solve any problems, says Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht on the eve of the German election. What exactly is so irritating about the events leading up to the elections slated for September 18, 2005? Why are we bothered, even after the Federal Constitutional Court decided that the elections, which were precipitated by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s purposefully losing a vote of confidence in parliament, could go ahead? It can hardly be held against a government that it “clears the way for new elections”. On the contrary, in the tradition of parliamentary democracy such decisions are generally seen as a sign of statesmanly verve … (full text).

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Wanda Nowicka – Poland

Written on January 22nd, 2009 in World People by heidi

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Linked with ASTRA Network, with Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in EU and non-EU countries, and with The Elders.org.

Wanda Nowicka is a leading activist for women’s sexual and reproductive health rights in Poland. She is co-founder and director of the country’s Federation for Women and Family Planning, and co-founder of ASTRA, the Central and Eastern European Women’s Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Nowicka is an outspoken advocate of women’s right to a legal and safe abortion, accessible contraception and comprehensive sex education. Through her work at ASTRA, government commitments to this crucial aspect of women’s health and rights are now monitored and reported on nationally and internationally. Nowicka has worked tirelessly to enable women to have access to legal support where the system fails them on their reproductive rights and health, recently taking a case as far as the European Court for Human Rights … (full text).

Wanda Nowicka (ur. 21 listopada 1956) – filolog klasyczny, działaczka ruchów kobiecych i praw człowieka, feministka, polityk lewicy. W latach 1985-1993 nauczycielka łaciny i angielskiego w liceach warszawskich. Współzałożycielka Stowarzyszenia na rzecz Państwa Neutralnego Światopoglądowo Neutrum (1990). Współzałożycielka (1992) i przewodnicząca Federacji na rzecz Kobiet i Planowania Rodziny. Współzałożycielka Polskiego Komitetu Organizacji Pozarządowych – Pekin ‘95. Współzałożycielka (1999) i koordynatorka sieci regionalnej ASTRA (Central and Eastern European Women’s Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights). W latach 1995-2002 ekspertka Światowej Organizacji Zdrowia (Program dot. ludzkiej rozrodczości). W 1994 r. laureatka polskiej edycji konkursu Kobieta Europy. W 2000 laureatka Tęczowego Lauru. W 2003 r. współpracowała z holenderską Fundacją Kobiety na falach i koordynowała udział organizacji polskich w wizycie statku Langenort, pełniącego rolę gabinetu aborcyjnego, we Władysławowie. W 2005 r. odebrała nagrodę 100.000 funtów od Fundacji Sigrid Rausing dla sieci ASTRA za wyróżniające się przywództwo. 16 maja 2008 r. Nowicka odebrała prestiżową Nagrodę Uniwersytetu na Wygnaniu (University-In-Exile Award) od nowojorskiego Uniwersytetu New School. Nagroda Uniwersytetu na Wygnaniu została ustanowiona w celu uhonorowania osób instytucji wspierających rozwój demokracji i praw człowieka. Jej mężem jest Światosław Florian Nowicki. Ma trzech synów – Michał Nowicki jest aktywistą komunistycznym działającym w Lewicy Bez Cenzury, Florian Nowicki jest działaczem skrajnej lewicy i politykiem Polskiej Partii Pracy … (full text on polnish wikipedia).

Her CV.

In polish: her personal blog.

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Wanda Nowicka – Poland

Watch these videos:

She says: “I advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights, especially for the right to legal and safe abortion, modern and accessible contraception and comprehensive sexuality education at the national and international level” … (full text).

Each year the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers highlights sixteen women, men and organizations that standout in the fight against gender violence. Representing December 9th, is: Wanda Nowicka … (full text).

The position paper on SRHR from Wanda Nowicka of ASTRA – Central and Eastern European Women’s Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights … (full text).

Find her and her publications (in polnish and english) on Women on Waves – Press releases; on EMM; on AOL-video; on Google Video-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search.

On January 29, the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality of the European Parliament (EP) held a public hearing on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).  During the hearing, five panelists spoke: Wanda Nowicka of the ASTRA Network; Irene Donadio of the International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network (IPPFEN); Jana Tutkova of the Centre for Bioethical Reform; Sandra Dahlén, an author and gender and sexuality educator; and Douglas Sylva of Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) … (full text).

Some articles in polnish:

… Honorary degree recipients include sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, urban planner Majora Carter, theater director Elizabeth LeCompte, and management educator Henry Mintzberg. Women’s rights activist Wanda Nowicka will receive the University in Exile Award … (full text).

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Natacha Atlas – Belgium and UK

Written on January 21st, 2009 in World People by heidi

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Natacha Atlas (Arabic: نتاشا أطلس‎; born March 20, 1964) is a Belgian singer known for her fusion of Arabic and North African music with Western electronic music. She once termed her music cha’abi moderne (an updated form of Egyptian pop music). Her music has been influenced by many styles including Arabesque music, drum ‘n’ bass and reggae … /// … Personal Life: In 1999, Atlas married Syrian kanun player Abdullah Chhadeh. The couple divorced in 2005. Atlas considers herself to be a Muslim with an interest in Sufism.  She is, however, open to other forms of spirituality because “it’s important to be tolerant”. In 2001, she was appointed by Mary Robinson as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Conference Against Racism. Robinson chose Atlas because “she embodies the message that there is a strength in diversity. That our differences – be they ethnic, racial or religious – are a source of riches to be embraced rather than feared” … (full text).

Her Solo career.

As befits her globetrotting lifestyle and influences, Middle Eastern singer NATACHA ATLAS continues to create a body of work that refuses to be neatly categorized. Over the past decade, she has entrancingly fused North African and Arabic music with western electronic beats to produce a unique dance music hybrid. This sound has constantly been fed by fresh musical passions and testing in new sonic settings. With her latest album MISH MAOUL, her career comes full circle to touch base with her roots. The new album harks back in its sound and traditions to the music she grew up hearing in the Moroccan suburb of Brussels, particularly when the Golden Sound Studio Orchestra of Cairo makes its entrance. It also reunites her again with the Temple of Sound’s Nick Page aka Count Dubulah, with whom she first worked in Transglobal Underground and who helped produce her very first solo album Diaspora (and many subsequent collaborations) … (full text Biography).

Her Homepage on Beggars Group.

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Natacha Atlas – Belgium and UK

Watch these videos:

… “The Arabic form doesn’t need any alteration, Atlas said in an interview “World Music Central”. “You don’t need to f*** about with the Arabic scales, they’re beautiful as they are,” she said a few years ago. “If you just mix them together with modern European sounds and dub sounds, you’ve got a great blend.” Atlas says her 2008 outing and tour “shows the Western public that, actually, Arabic composers have been fusing music, East and West, a lot longer than I have” … (full text).

Natacha Atlas – Gone:

  • He went on a journey and left
  • He crossed the seas
  • And nobody knows where he might be
  • And he’s gone … (full text).

… With a heritage that connects Egypt, Palestine, Morocco, Belgium and the UK, the unique singer Natacha Atlas represents a one-woman Migration. Indeed, she has described herself as “a human Gaza strip”. An international star for two decades, she is famed for her collaborations with Transglobal Underground, Nitin Sawhney, David Arnold and Jah Wobble. Tonight Natacha goes acoustic to present the music from her acclaimed album ‘Ana Hina’, a sensuous evocation of the Egyptian and Lebanese singers she first heard through her father’s record collection, and in which her incredible voice takes centre stage … (full text, January 5, 2009).

… Another London-based world music talent, Natacha Atlas, is doing a short tour in support of her sublime recent album Ana Hina, on which she moves away from her more club-based music to a fairly restrained take on traditional Arabic music. Joining her will be the Mazeeka Ensemble, who also played on the album. They’ll be at the Salisbury Arts Centre (01722 321744) on 28 January, St George’s, Bristol (0845 402 4001) on 30 January, the Union Chapel, London (08700 600100) on 1 February, and the Norwich Arts Centre (01603 660352) on 2 February … (full text, 4 January 2009).

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Ram Puniyani – India

Written on January 20th, 2009 in World People by heidi

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Linked with Centre for study of Society and Secularism CSSS, with SABRANG.com – Protecting and Promoting Human Rights in India, and with Invoking India’s Fuhrer.

Ram Puniyani is a Professor in Biomedical engg. at the Indian Institute of Technology, Powai. Apart from his teaching and research activities, he pursues a parallel track concerned with issues related to social problems,particularly the one’s related to preservation of democratic and secular ethos in our life. Also has serious interest in the understanding the Human Rights of weaker sections of society. He is a member of EKTA, Committee for Communal Amity, Mumbai and has been associated with different secular initiatives for many years. He has also been engaged in understanding global and local changes, which have resulted in communal violence. He is particularly concerned with the adverse effects of globalisation and the rise of fundamentalism, particularly in India. Ram has contributed articles to various magazines and journals on these themes. He has authored three books around these subjects: Fascism of Sangh Parivar, The Other Cheek and Communal Politics: an illustrated primer. At present Ram is continuing with his endeavour to understand these phenomena with a focus on human relationships geared around substantive liberty, equality and fraternity … (full text). Same on Plural India.

His Book Review of: The RSS and the BJP, A Division of Labor, by A.G.Noorani – … The strongest point of the book is of course the thorough research, which has gone in to the writing of the book, which has very impressive list of resources and rare references. Noorani has done a yeoman service in marshalling the facts in this book, in turn making it a crucial source book for all those who wish to understand this organization and its wily methods of operation … (full text).

His website Plural India.

A List of Some Secular Education Material in India, by Ram Puniyani, EKTA, Committee for Communal Amity, 2002.

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Ram Puniyani – India

Mukto-Mona congratulates Prof. Ram Puniyani on Winning the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration, November 01, 2007.

He writes:

  • … Why is the world witnessing such a massive erosion of human values, the trampling of international norms, conventions? US after its humiliation in Vietnam had decided not to send its armies to outside countries for some time and during that time, to counter the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, it propped up Al Qaeda type terrorists. From last three decades its aggressive designs are rampaging not only the countries of the world but also the spirit of humanism as a whole. The undermining of United Nations by US arrogance has been a major reason contributing to miseries of the World today. US actions to couch its politics in the language of religion, to prop up the theory of Clash of Civilizations, to demonize Islam and Muslims can be regarded as one of the worst sins against humanity in contemporary times … (full text, 03 January, 2009).
  • … Many a scholars of Islam and social scientists have produced remarkable literature explaining the nature of Islam, showing the difference between religion as moral values, religion as an institution, religion as part culture, and abuse of religious identity for political goals by social layers or global super powers today. But of course these remain in the world of academia and libraries where not many people read them; some review of these books is carried out in an odd journal here and there, while the popular perceptions against Islam and Muslims are deepening by the day … (full text, March 03, 2008).
  • The humiliating defeat of BJP in the parliamentary elections followed by Maharashtra Assembly  elections has created a crisis in the party. One of the measures taken to offset this demoralization and despondency has been to appoint, once again, Mr. L.K. Advani as the president of the party. Since so far the party has been operating on the plank of Hindutva and it seems this slogan has lost its sheen along with the issues which have been identified with it Ram Temple, Article 370 and Uniform Civil Code. This Hindutva has got politically and socially manifested in a rabid anti-minoritism as seen in the burning of Pastor Graham Staines and the state-sponsored carnage in Gujarat … (full text, 15 November 2004).
  • Orissa is witnessing unprecedented violence against the tiny Christian minority. On August 23, Swami Laxmananand along with his four followers was killed, probably by a group of Maoists. Immediately, anti-Christian violence began on a large scale. The way it began it seemed as if preparations for it were well afoot. It was systematic and widespread … (full text, Sept. 14, 2008).
  • One always wondered as to why the patriarch of Sangh combines, the plethora of organizations pursuing the goal of Hindu Nation, RSS, is an exclusively male organization. While one hears quite a bit about Uma Bharati’s, Sushma Swaraj’s currently and one heard about Vijaya Raje Scindia and Sadhvi Ritambhara in the recent past, one knew that even they could not enter the hallowed precincts of the controller of Hindutva politics, the RSS itself. We were enlightened about this recently by none other than the RSS Supreme dictator (Sar sanghchalak), Mr. K. Sudarshan himself … (full text, 25 April 2005).

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David Cerny – Czech Republic

Written on January 19th, 2009 in World People by heidi

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Linked with Entropa: art of politics, heart of a nation, and with About the State, the State-owned and the Non-state Owned Cultural Sector in Bulgaria.

David Černý (born December 15, 1967 in Prague) is a Czech sculptor whose works can be seen in many locations in Prague. His works tend to be controversial. He gained notoriety in 1991 by painting a Soviet tank pink that served as a war memorial in central Prague. As the Monument to Soviet tank crews was still a national cultural monument at that time, his act of civil disobedience was considered “hooliganism” and he was briefly arrested. Another of Černý’s conspicuous contributions to Prague is “Tower Babies,” a series of cast figures of crawling infants attached to Žižkov Television Tower. In 2005, Černý created Shark, an image of Saddam Hussein in a tank of formaldehyde. The work was presented at the Prague Biennale 2 that same year. The work is a direct parody of a 1991 work by Damien Hirst, the Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. In 2006, the work was banned twice, first in Middelkerke, Belgium, then in Bielsko-Biała, Poland. With respect to the Belgian situation, the mayor of that town, Michel Landuyt, admitted that he was worried about the potential of offending Muslims in a year already marred by tensions associated with Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed … (full text).

His (english) CV on his website (click on the red face).

The Czech Republic’s David Cerny is one of the country’s most original but also most provocative visual artists. His work includes the giant black babies that crawl up Prague’s Zizkov TV tower and the famous Pink Tank – the Soviet tank, a memorial to the liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945, which David Cerny painted pink overnight. But this time, it is David Cerny’s sculpture called “Shark”, which caught the attention of the citizens of the Belgian town of Middelkerke. It features a life-size Saddam Hussein in underpants with his hands tied behind his back, floating in a large glass tank filled with the embalming fluid formaldehyde. The sculpture was supposed to be exhibited on one of the town squares as part of this April’s Beaufort 2006 Modern Arts Festival … (full text).

His personal Website: the Bulgarian Homepage; the english Homepage.

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David Cerny – Czech Republic

Watch these videos:

entropa vs. the muhammad cartoons, January 16, 2009: it appears that Europe can laugh at the gods but not at itself. let this be a lesson: don’t ever underestimate the power of cheap patriotism. (a comment on stephanides).

It seemed like such a good idea at the time: what better way to celebrate the Czech Republic’s presidency of the European Union than a giant art installation, with input from every member state, showing what we really feel about our place in Europe? Eccentric sculptor David Černy was charged with the task of sourcing contributions from up and coming artists from the various countries … (full text, January 14, 2009).

… The problem is, it seems, Europe doesn’t see the joke. The Bulgarian government has summoned the Czech ambassador to Sofia for an explanation, and more protests could follow. That leaves the Czech government in a awkward position – deputy prime minister Alexandr Vondra is due to switch on the 16 square meter work at Thursday’s official launch; he must now decide whether the giant-sized model kit shouldn’t be put back in its box. (full text).

Entropa: Fake artists and offense… Brilliant! January 14, 2009.

… Cerny is an artist that enjoys getting a reaction from his audience. He is famous for works like his “Shark” sculpture, where a model of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Husseim is suspended in a glass box filled with formaldehyde. It’s a tribute to everyone’s favorite bad boy, Damien Hirst and his “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living” work … (full text, June 13, 2007).

David Cerny on Gargantuan Media.

… Now, I love big elaborate instillation that cause controversy. One of my earliest museum memories is of the Sensation Exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. I consider the Atheist Bus Campaign as a great example of a provacative instillation. There are parts of Entropa I like. France with a huge “Strike” sign? Sure. Romania as a vampire fun house? Hell year.  Italy as a eternal soccer match? Sounds about right. But Bulgaria, represented by overlapping squat toilets, really got reamed. I’m not Bulgarian, and I thought it was crossed a line … (full text, January 16, 2009).

Art Installation at Franz Kafka Museum: Sculpture, by David Černý.

… It was several days, however, before anyone complained and the EU began to smell a rat. Only when Bulgaria – depicted as a Turkish lavatory – objected did the Czechs start to question the organiser of the project, the artist David Cerny. Yesterday Mr Cerny admitted that the whole thing had been a hoax, and that he had created all the sculptures himself and invented the names of the “up-and-coming” artists from the 27 member states … (full text, Jan 16, 2009).

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(William) Bill Drayton – USA

Written on January 18th, 2009 in World People by heidi

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William (Bill) Drayton is a social entrepreneur. Born in 1943 in New York City, U.S. Drayton was named by US News and World Report as one of America’s 25 Best Leaders in 2005. He is sometimes mistakenly credited with having coined the phrase “social entrepreneur”, although it was already in use by 1972 … The American Society of Public Administration and the National Academy of Public Administration jointly awarded him their National Public Service Award and he has also been named a Preiskel-Silverman Fellow for Yale Law School and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences … (full text on wikipedia).

William (Bill) Drayton is a social entrepreneur with a long record of founding organizations and public service. As a student, he founded organizations ranging from Yale Legislative Services to Harvard’s Ashoka Table, an inter-disciplinary weekly forum in the social sciences. After graduation from Harvard, he received an M.A. from Balliol College in Oxford University. In 1970, he graduated from Yale Law School. After working at McKinsey and Company, he taught at Stanford Law School and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. From 1977 to 1981, while serving the Carter Administration as Assistant Administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency, he launched emissions trading (the basis of Kyoto) among other reforms. He launched Ashoka in 1981. He used the stipend received when elected a MacArthur Fellow in 1984 to devote himself fully to Ashoka … Bill Drayton, USA is Chair and CEO of Ashoka. (full text on ashoka).

He explains: … “First, you have to give yourself permission to be one (a social entrepreneur)! And that may be the biggest barrier – you have to very politely ignore those people who will tell you that you will fail” … (full text).

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(William) Bill Drayton – USA

Watch these two videos:

Everyone a Changemaker, 18 pdf-pages, Feb 23, 2006.

He says also: “Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry” … (full text).

He says: … “A $20 donation represents much more to us than just the money. It means that the investor, begins to explore the field of social entrepreneurship. It means one more person becomes aware of the powerful work of social entrepreneurs around the world and it means one more person will hopefully be inspired to create social change. And of course, it also helps provide support to Ashoka Fellows and gives them the freedom to pursue her/his idea. Once launched, the impact will grow and multiply for decades. And success will provide a powerful role model encouraging many, many others to step up and become change-makers. That is the enduring value of a donation to Ashoka” … (full text, December 3, 2007).

Muhammed Yunus and Bill Drayton at Santa Clara University, October 19, 2008.

… In the summer of 1963, Bill Drayton witnessed the power of a simple idea to effect vast social change. A Gandhian named Vinoba Bhave was walking across India and persuading individuals and whole villages to legally “gift” their land to him. Bhave then redistributed the land more equitably to support untouchables and other landless people, thus breaking an endless cycle of poverty. Drayton, just 20 years old and on summer break from Harvard, drove a red-and-white Volkswagen van from Munich to India to join him … (full text, 10/31/05).

He says also: … “(a)big idea with a good entrepreneur: there’s nothing more powerful. That’s just as true [for] education and human rights as it is for hotels or steels” … and: “The social entrepreneurs are governments’ best friends … “Yes the social entrepreneurs are challenging the governments, but that’s very healthy” … and: “Two of the last three Nobel [peace] prize winners have been social entrepreneurs. This is a recognition that our field is maturing” … (full text).

Find him and his publications on NationMaster-Ecyclopedia; on BetterWorldHeroes; on Backbone Cabinet;
on changing the present.org; on amazon; on Google Video-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

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Mogullamma – India

Written on January 17th, 2009 in 1000 Peace Nobel 2005 by heidi

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Linked with GlobalGiving, and with Action on Disablility and Development ADD.

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

Disabled, with no strength in her legs since childhood, Mogullamma has been a crusader for the rights of disabled people. She started with an NGO working with disabled people, eventually becoming a psychotherapist. Mogullamma is today involved mainly with the facilitation of life skills among disabled women, and providing them with legal literacy on public works department rights. The Andhra Pradesh

government has adopted her concept of a “neighborhood center” for people with disabilities.Mogullamma, 23 years old, comes from a poor Backward Caste family of the Munnuru Kaapu community in Andhra Pradesh. She was just one year old when, in treating a small problem, local quacks injected her with a chemical that resulted in the loss of sensation in both her legs. Her parents, both of whom are daily-wage farmers with an annual income of less than Rs 10,000, took her to a doctor in a nearby town, where they were informed that she would never be able to feel any sensation in her legs again, leave alone walk – she had been stricken with polio. Mogullamma’s family is from one of the worst drought-affected parts of India, a place where hunger suicides are common as day, and abject poverty is the order. The status of women is abominable – economic backwardness has, over the years, set in place some cult practices, many of which target women as the basic cause of the lack of soil fertility. It inevitably leads to atrocities against women  … Mogullamma, finally self-mobile in her motorized wheelchair, has become a resource center, training disability activists in social mobilization and community organization … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

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Sorry, not any photo found for Mogullamma in big India

1000peacewomen 2/2: … Despite their initial depression over her diagnosis, Mogullamma’s parents chose not to let her handicap affect her or their family. Her education would continue. Right through her childhood, Mogullamma’s father carried her to school and back. After she grew up, Mogullamma hobbled to and from school on all fours.

Although her parents learned to live with Mogullamma’s disability, it wasn’t as easy for her: her disability, as it is in many social setups in India, was a source of amusement and ridicule. By the time she finished her graduation, she was moving around in a tricycle.

Mogullamma began working, even as she was an undergraduate, with a society her mother belonged to. There was a vacancy for the post of a bookkeeper, and an educated youngster was formally called for: Mogullamma had already been working as a bookkeeper at the organization, albeit unofficially, since she was in the IX standard. She applied, and landed the job easily enough, continuing as a bookkeeper for three years.

But it was after joining Commitments – an NGO working with the disabled – that she finished her graduation in 2000 and came into her own. Commitments had advertised for activists who were themselves disabled and were interested in working for other disabled people. A public-trust organization, Commitments works for the overall development of people with all categories of disability–physiological, visual, oral, aural, mental, and psychological–through community-based rehabilitation programs.

Mogullamma has rehabilitated people with different disabilities, as well as persuaded PWDs to set up groups to give disabled people training in different vocations. Some of her work also involves dealing with the particular problems of different people; many children have benefited from her initiatives to get them corrective surgeries, and she often acted as physiotherapist to many of them.

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Carol Chomsky – USA (1930 – 2008)

Written on January 16th, 2009 in World People by heidi

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This morning’s NY Times is reporting the sad news that Carol Chomsky, retired from the faculty of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and a pioneer in the field of child language acquisition, passed away last Friday at the age of 78. Chomsky’s 1969 monograph, The Acquisition of Syntax in Children from 5 to 10, remains an important psycholinguistic work today. For generations now, the focus in much research on child language development has been on the earliest (pre-school) years … (full text, Dec. 21, 2008).

Carol Chomsky (July 1, 1930 – December 19, 2008) was an American linguist and education specialist who studied language acquisition in children. Chomsky was born in Philadelphia as Carol Doris Schatz on July 1, 1930. She married Noam Chomsky in 1949, the two having known each other since she was five years old. Her mother had been a teacher at a Hebrew school where his father was the principal.[2] She was awarded a bachelor’s degree in French from the University of Pennsylvania in 1951. The couple spent some time living on a kibbutz … (full text wikipedia).

Brilliant and accomplished, Carol Chomsky taught for many years at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and wrote oft-cited articles about how young children learn to read. And yet, she possessed talents that didn’t easily fit on a curriculum vitae … (full text).

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Carol Chomsky – USA (1930 – 2008)

“She was a pretty remarkable person,” said Judith Chomsky of Philadelphia, who is married to the younger brother of Dr. Chomsky’s husband, Noam. “She was very athletic, and, until she was ill, she was fishing and water skiing and doing things people wouldn’t normally associate with her. She played the accordion. She could fix a car. She was mechanical. I mean, she was the one who fixed everything at the house” … (full text).

… According to a New Yorker profile of Chomsky, they first met when she was three and he was five; they had been married for 59 years.

… I must pay respect to the unknown (and known outside of me) contributions that her very existence has given to the common good and our (now) higher knowledge. The Chomsky family has given the world of the upper-classes a window into how to live a life of grace, solidarity and to attempt a sincere commitment to justice. And as a gift to us in the working classes, we’ve been given (for almost nothing) a frame of reference, history and a language to help guide our liberation. Mrs. and Mr. Chomsky could have (with their intellects and positions) chosen very different lives for themselves. They stayed (and stood) with us. This is inspiringly unusual … (full text).

… Please keep all her family, from the littlest up to Poppa Bear Chonky himself, in your thoughts.

WHEN Carol Chomsky arrived at a kibbutz in Israel with her husband, Noam, she wanted to drive a tractor or work as a mechanic. “The kibbutz wasn’t quite ready for that,” she once said. “It was way before there were even words for women’s rights”. Carol, who went on to become a prominent linguist and educator, didn’t mind getting her hands dirty. “She could fix a car,” said a sister-in-law, Judith Chomsky. “She was mechanical. I mean, she was the one who fixed everything at the house … (full text).

… My friend Manuel put it best: May the company of all who love you surround and support you in gratitude for all you have given us. To Carol and Noam.

… in Israel. Despite her interest in becoming a mechanic or driving a tractor, at the time of the Chomsky’s stay in 1953 “the kibbutz wasn’t quite ready for that. It was way before there were even words about women’s rights” according to Judith Chomsky, who is married to the younger brother of Dr. Chomsky’s husband Noam. She earned a doctoral degree in linguistics from Harvard University in 1968, having attended the school in order to ensure that she would be able to make a living in the event that her husband would be sent to jail for his active opposition to the Vietnam War … (full text).

Read: Carol Chomsky: Creativity and Innovation in Child Language (April 1975, 18 pdf pages).

… A nationally recognized authority on the acquisition of spoken and written language, Professor Chomsky was on the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Education from 1972 until her retirement in 1997. In retirement, she was a frequent traveling companion of her husband, the linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky, as he delivered his public lectures. Carol Chomsky was perhaps best known for her book, “The Acquisition of Syntax in Children From 5 to 10” (M.I.T. Press), which was considered a landmark study in the field when it appeared in 1969. In it, she investigated children’s tacit, developing awareness of the grammatical structure of their native language, and their ability to use that awareness to extract meaning from increasingly complex sentences over time … (full text).

The Way They Were (and Are): Carol and Noam Chomsky, July 2001.

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Elza Berquó – Brazil

Written on January 15th, 2009 in 1000 Peace Nobel 2005 by heidi

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

In 1969, Elza Berquó (1931) had to interrupt a brilliant career as a university professor because of the military regime. She was invited to work abroad, but she did not leave Brazil. The reason that made her stay is her belief in scientific knowledge as an important instrument against social injustice. Author of major researches on exclusion and population inequality, she provides the means for social movements and governmental entities to act. Demographer, PhD in Biostatistics (Columbia University, New York), Elza Berquó was returning from a trip when she heard, on the radio, her name on a list of professors whose licenses had been revoked by the military dictatorship. “I was a professor at the School of Public Health in the University of São Paulo, and was forced to retire. It was a tragedy, it was my life” … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

Elza Berquó, professora titular aposentada da Faculdade de Saúde Pública da USP, é presidente da Comissão Nacional de População e Desenvolvimento (CNPD), coordenadora do Programa de Saúde Reprodutiva e Sexualidade do Nepo-Unicamp, membro do Conselho Técnico do IBGE, membro da Academia Brasileira de Ciências e coordenadora da Área de População e Sociedade do Cebrap. Sua produção científica nos últimos anos cobre as áreas da demografia da família, da mulher e da população negra. (CEM).

… Under the firm and inspirational leadership of the demographer Elza Berquó, this second survey renewed and expanded the proposition of the previous study to cover a vast range of essential questions relating to sexual and reproductive health. It also included topics like domestic violence and the abuse of alcohol and other psychoactive substances, which were explored in detail for the first time within the sphere of the present survey. It was backed by an advisory committee of specialists within the fields of statistics, epidemiology and sexual and reproductive health involving professors and researchers from the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ) and Fundação Getúlio Vargas São Paulo (FGV-SP) … (full text, June 2008).

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Elza Berquó – Brazil

She works for the Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento CEBRAP – (and in english: the Brazilian Center for Planning and Analysis / see its Homepage).

She says: “Peace is the respect for every human being, regardless of race, religion and political beliefs”. (1000peacewomen).

… Chair Chowdhury and Brazilian Elza Berquo discuss Brazil’s proposal, Brazilian proposal, which called for review of laws containing punitive measures against women who have undergone illegal abortion, and urging health systems to train and equip health service providers and take other measures to seek to ensure that abortion is safe and accessible in circumstances where abortion is not against the law … (full text).

How has Brazil’s decline in fertility affected women’s lives? In a series of papers, Brazilian women’s health advocates examine the impact of family planning on women’s empowerment. The papers include discussions of: AIDS and reproductive health, motherhood and women’s participation in the work force, contraceptive practices and abortion, violence against women, and children’s education and gender. Summaries of the papers are presented here in English … (full text).

Find her and her publications on Brazil’s WHO commissioners;on scientific commons; on USP; photos on abep.org.br; on BiomedExperts; on BookFinder.com; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

Read in portugese language:

  • Todos os caminhos levam à urbe, 16 de abril de 2008;
  • Academia Brasileira de Ciencias;
  • FECUNDIDADE EM DECLÍNIO;
  • Pensata, para demógrafa, programa é desnecessário porque a taxa de crescimento populacional está caindo, 26.1.2004; http://www.coleguinhas.jor.br/pensata/2004_01_25_pensata_arquivos.html
  • discursos de abertura do V encontró;
  • Sexo e Vida – Panorama da Saude Reprodutiva no Brasil, Elza Berquo, 2003;
  • and finally: O movimento negro no Brasil ainda não tinha há 20 anos o mesmo peso político que tem hoje, quando a fundadora do Núcleo de Estudos de População (Nepo) da Unicamp, professora Elza Berquó, explanou sobre as pesquisas que propunha e apresentou as colaboradoras Estela María García de Pinto Cunha e Alícia Marta Bercovich, ambas argentinas, durante encontro da SBPC. “Como uma pesquisadora branca, juntamente com duas ‘gringas’, pretende estudar a população negra, se isto deve ser de nossa alçada?”, questionou uma pessoa negra na platéia. A resposta de Elza Berquó foi convincente: “Porque o Brasil ainda não tem demógrafos negros.Vamos torcer para que tenha, mas a demografia pode oferecer elementos importantes para a luta de vocês” … (full text).

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Nirmala – India

Written on January 14th, 2009 in 1000 Peace Nobel 2005 by heidi

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Linked with Mahila Samakhya, all Indian (Gov),  and with Janaki – India.

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

When Nirmala (born 1959) began work with women at the village level, she had to find ways to dodge her family so that she could attend school. Today, Nirmala is a strong campaigner for women’s rights, and an active member of women’s courts. A seasoned arbitrator, Nirmala is adept at sorting out issues amicably, steering both parties away from the police court rigmarole. She has also brought about a revolution in the way midwives operate in the region: they display a high level of professionalism and attention to hygiene. Wheatish complexion, slightly plump and always quick with a smile – that’s Nirmala. Born in 1959, she hails from the Raidas community. After her marriage, Nirmala moved to the village Vishwanath, where she lives today with her husband and three daughters, two sons, and their wives. The family’s sustenance is from agriculture … Nirmala’s husband would question her about where she was going and what she was doing: “What do you get for the work you’re doing?” and “Where do you stay at night when you are out on work?” …

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Sorry, no downloadable photo found for Nirmala in the endless India.

She works for Mahila Samakhya (Department of School Education and Literacy, Gov. of India).

… But Nirmala was determined to continue. With a colleague’s help, she managed to attend Mahila Samakhya meetings, enroll in the Women’s Education Center, and pass Class V.

Nirmala attends cluster meetings of the women’s group regularly now, laughing off her husband and his family’s jibes, and does not let them interfere with her work or dispirit her. She is well-known at the village and block level as a strong campaigner for women’s rights.

An active member of the women’s courts, she has a knack for solving tricky questions amicably. She listens to both sides of a matter, and then judges matters objectively. However, she is particularly alert to instances of discrimination against women, and invariably stands up for their rights.

In one case that she helped resolve, a woman had gone back to her parents’ home, unable to handle the daily domestic fights. Her parents approached the women’s court to help resolve the issue. The woman’s in-laws were powerful people, and responded negatively. When the women’s court requested them to be present at a hearing for the third time, the husband’s relatives turned up drunk. The court refused to discuss the matter with them, and called for the husband.

He turned up with some alacrity, both parties met face-to-face, and matters were resolved. The two now live amiably with the husband’s family.

Nirmala is also remarkably progressive in her outlook on women’s rights. In a neighboring village, a girl continued to live with her parents after marriage. When her parents finally approached the women’s court and asked them to resolve the matter, the court spoke to the girl, who told them that her husband was many years older, and was epileptic. She stolidly refused to go back: Nirmala spoke to her in-laws and managed to get her a divorce. Today, the girl is a schoolteacher, has remarried, and is happy.

Nirmala’s attempt is always to sort out all issues through mutual consent. Whenever a dispute arises, she believes, it ought to be solved in the village at the women’s group. This ensures that neither party gets mired in the unending police-court rigmarole, wasting both time and money. However, in cases where either party is uncooperative, she bounces them to the police and the courts.

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John Case alias Jim and Carolyn Hougan – USA

Written on January 13th, 2009 in World People by heidi

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John Case disambiguation on wikipedia)

(On this page Jim and Carolyne Hougan and their publications are presented as: Jim Hougan, as Carolyne Hougan, and as both named John Case).

Linked with Response: TARP, Full Employment and Other Sticky Details.

John Case is the pseudonym of Jim (1942 – *) and of Carolyn (1943 – 2007) Hougan, husband and wife, both published authors in their own right. Jim Hougan is also an award-winning investigative journalist and broadcaster. He lives in Afton, Virginia. Under the pseudonym, the Hougans authored 6 novels: The Genesis Code, The First Horseman, The Syndrome (a.k.a. Trance State), The Eighth Day, The Murder Artist, and Ghost Dancer (a.k.a. The Dance of Death – UK ed.). The joint writings of Jim and Carolyn have now ended following the untimely death of Carolyn Hougan from cancer on February 25, 2007. (wikipedia).

Bios of Jim Hougan: on Spartacus schoolnet; on fantastic fiction.

Bios of Carolyn Hougan: on John Case.com; Farewell to Carolyn Hougan, Charlottesville novelist: 1943-2007 on CVilleWords.

Carolyn Hougan, 63, a novelist who wrote under her own name as well as the pseudonym “John Case” for thrillers written with her husband, died of cancer Feb. 25 at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville. Ms. Hougan wrote “Shooting in the Dark” (1984), “The Romeo Flag” (1989) and “Blood Relative” (1992). She teamed up with her writer-husband, Jim Hougan, to pen a series of thrillers of which the best known is “The Genesis Code” (1997), a bestseller about Vatican intrigue. Their latest novel, “Ghost Dancer” (2007), has been nominated for the Dashiell Hammett Award for the best literary crime novel … // … They lived in Alexandria and Washington from about 1980 until last August, when they moved full time to their home in Charlottesville. Ms. Hougan enjoyed gardening, sailing and spending summers in Phippsburg, Maine. (full text, March 2, 2007).

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John Case alias Jim and Carolyn Hougan – USA

The woman on the left, known far and wide as “Herself,” is the critically-acclaimed author of four novels and the co-author of six others.  So she’s not what you’d call “at a loss for words.”  Nevertheless, it has fallen to me, her co-conspirator in all things, to pen a biographical note in her behalf – if only to shame her into writing one of her own. The daughter of Samuel and Elisabeth Johnson, Carolyn made her debut in a shotgun shack in New Iberia, Louisiana…some time ago. She is, nonetheless, a Jersey girl by virtue of her graduation from Scotch Plains High School (where the students are exhorted to “Buckle down, Blue Raiders, buckle down!”).  A Peabody scholar at the now defunct Western College for Women, she is an honors graduate of the University of Wisconsin … (full text).

Another tremendous blast from the out-of-print past by the impeccable folk at Felony & Mayhem is Carolyn Hougan’s shamefully neglected 1989 thriller THE ROMEO FLAG – a veritable Faberge egg (there’s a real one at the heart of the plot) full of treasures and delights that begins in Shanghai just as the Japanese are invading; sweeps along a tangled trail through Moscow and the upper reaches of the CIA; and winds up in the Maine home of an apparently perfectly ordinary teacher named Nicola Ward with a history that just won’t quit. (full text, May 16, 2006).

… Classic mysteries are immensely satisfying reads, but difficult to locate without expert guidance.  If you find an author you like, you track down every other book written by that author and impatiently await the next title.  If you learn of a favorite author’s death, like Sarah Caldwell (And Thus Was Adonis Murdered), the loss is sharply felt … Last night I finished The Romeo Flag by Carolyn Hougan, a 1980 Cold War espionage story … (full text).

Carolyn Hougan writes thrillers. After penning four novels of suspense on her own (including Blood Relatives), she teamed up with husband Jim to write as John Case. “John Case” is New York Times bestselling author of five thrillers including the Genesis Code. 3/19 10 a.m. (vabook).

Find Carolyn Hougan and her publications on goodreads; on alibris; on amazon; her bibliography on Mystery File; on fantastic fiction; on flipkart; on a book trader; on Gibson books; on cover to cover books; on e-bay; on inauthor Google-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

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Jim says: … I think the United States entered this quagmire in the way that it enters all quagmires, with wonderful good intentions and very fuzzy objectives. … The American intention, insofar as it had a mission that could be articulated — which is itself questionable — was to stabilize Lebanon after the Israeli invasion, to retrain and reconstitute the Lebanese army, which was composed of many ethnic groups, most of which were at war with another, and to create a kind of Western democracy out of what was really a confessional nightmare. And it was probably doomed to failure … (full long interview text).

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Salma Khadra Jayyusi – Palestine

Written on January 12th, 2009 in 1000 Peace Nobel 2005 by heidi

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Linked with The Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre KSCC, and (on January 13, 2009) with Palestine Family.net.

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

Salma Khadra Jayyusi, is a Palestinian poet, critic, translator, and anthologist. Born in Salt in East Jordan, she spent her childhood in Acre, then lived in Jerusalem where she finished her secondary education.She graduated in Arabic and English literature from the American University of Beirut and, later, obtained a Ph.D. from the University of London. Her doctoral thesis, Trends and Movements in Modern Arabic Poetry, was published by Brill, Leiden, in two volumes. She has traveled widely and has lived in many places in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, first as a diplomat’s wife, then as professor of Arabic literature. She has taught at the Universities of Khartoum, Algiers, and Constantine, and in America at the Universities of Utah, Washington, and Texas. She has published her poetry and critical writings in many journals in the Middle East and abroad. Her first collection, Return from the Dreamy Fountain, was published in 1960.The June 1967 war made her suspend publication of her second diwan, and since then she has published little of the poetry she has written. Shocked at the fact that very little Arabic literature has been translated into the leading modern languages, in 1980 she founded PROTA (Project of Translation from Arabic), which aims at the dissemination of Arabic culture abroad, and to this enterprise she dedicated her full time and energy. In addition to the present anthology, she has finished editing two others: Modern Arabic Fiction and Drama (forthcoming, Columbia University Press), and The Literature of Modern Arabia (forthcoming, Kegan Paul International). (On zoominfo, original no more available).

Another bio on zoominfo with the original no more available:  arabworld.nitle.org/texts.php?module_id=7&reading_id=30 – Published on: 11/6/2007, Last Visited: 11/6/2007.

She says: “In my view there is no more demanding work that deserves our dedicated collaborative efforts at the present time than inter-cultural understanding”. (1000peacewomen).

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Salma Khadra Jayyusi – Palestine

She works for The Project for the Translation of Arabic PROTA (on arizona.edu).

… The effort to translate Arab women writers into English is now more systematic. The Project for Translation from Arabic (PROTA), established and directed by the Palestinian poet, editor, and translator Salma Khadra Jayyusi, has helped bring out in English works by Palestinian women writers like Fadwa Touqan, Sahar Khalifeh, and Liana Badr, along with works by other Arabs. Recently, Garnet Publishing of London began a series called “Arab Women Writers” edited by the Jordanian novelist and critic Fadia Faqir. The five novels published so far are by the Palestinian Liana Badr, the Iraqi Alia Mamdouh, the Syrian Hamida Na’na’, the Egyptian Salwa Bakr, and the Lebanese Huda Barakat … (full long text, August 1996).

Find her and her publications on amazon; on alibris; on LibraryThing; on Banipal 2008; on zoom.info; on pipl; on Google Video-search; on inauthor Google-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

Specially her book: Modern Arabic Fiction: An Anthology (Hardcover), by Salma Jayyusi.

… Jayyusi later realized that it was equally important to introduce cogent cultural studies as well into the programme. She then founded East-West Nexus, and her first work in this field was The Legacy of Muslim Spain, a 1,100-page book written by 42 world scholars. Published by Brill in the Netherlands, it has gone into several printings in hardback and paperback and was declared by Brill an absolute bestseller. In 1999, she received a Fulbright Fellowship to do research on the life of the Palestinians in the 20th century as depicted in their personal account writings, and spent the years 1999-2000 doing research in Syria, Jordan and the West Bank, three places with a large concentration of Palestinians. Jayyusi has received several awards for her outstanding achievements and continues to be involved in numerous projects. Her most recent work, My Jerusalem: Essays, Reminiscences and Poems appeared last year. (full text).

Google download books:

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Angelica Edna Calo` Livne – Israel and Italy

Written on January 11th, 2009 in 1000 Peace Nobel 2005 by heidi

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Linked with Israeli theater group encourages Arab and Jewish youngsters to take off their masks, with the Beresheet La’Shalom Foundation BLF.

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

Angelica Edna Calo Livne is an educator and advocate of peace through arts, among children from different religious and cultural backgrounds. In 2002, Angelica created the Rainbow Theater, in the Upper Galilee of Israel, involving young Jews and Arabs, Christians, Muslims and Druses, who with mime and dance narrate what goes on in the mind of an adolescent living in a country at war. Using their bodies, the actors express their inner thoughts and burning desires to accept people and be accepted as they are. One of Angelica’s projects is to help children physically hurt by terrorist attacks. Angelica Edna Calo Livne, born to a Jewish family in Rome in 1955, has been living in an Israeli Kibbutz, on the border with Lebanon, since she was 20. Married and the mother of four sons, she has been for many years a teacher in multi-cultural schools, and in schools for difficult boys. She obtained her PhD from Tor Vergata University of Rome, Arts in Education to Reach Peace. She also completed a MED in “Integration of the Arts in Education” from Lesley University Boston, Graduate School of Arts. She has obtained several diplomas from different international universities, such as the Tel Hai College, Diploma of “Leadership in Education”; the Tel Hai College, Diploma of “Negotiation and Mediation”; the Seminar Oranim College, Diploma of Director for Educative Theatre; the Seminar Hakibbutzim College, Diploma of Theatre, Acting and Direction; the University “La Sapienza” Studies of Sociology; and High Rabbinical School of Rome Studies of Hebrew Culture and Philosophy … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She says: … “The most important message that we can give now to all the humanity is that difference is the richness, that dialog is so important now for everybody, not (only) for us in Israel. This is now the imperative, I think” … The Arcobaleno-Rainbow Theatre Group uses the universal language of music and dance to convey their massage. Their play “Beresheet” is a call for peace, tolerance and mutual respect. Edna Angelica Calò Livné is the group’s inspirational founder and artistic director. She believes people can use art and theatre to positively influence the society in which they live … (full text).

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Angelica Edna Calo` Livne – Israel and Italy

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Angelica Edna Calo` Livne is the coordinator of all educational activities of the Foundation. Born in Rome, Italy, she was one of the leaders of the youth Zionist Movement Hashomer Hatzair and she studied in the Rabbinical College of Rome. She has a B.A. degree in Social Theatre, M. Ed. in Integrating the Arts in Education and a PhD in Italian Literature. She has received several awards for her activities for peace and was candidate to Saharov Prize by the Euro Parliament and Nobel Prize for Peace 2005. She has written two books in Italian and lectures all over the world about her rich experience of education to peace. (on Beresheet La’Shalom Foundation).

… mi chiamo Angelica Edna Calo Livne, sono nata Roma e vivo da molti anni in Israele in un Kibbuz al confine con il Libano. Ho quattro figli e accanto al mio compagno, Yehuda, nato nel Kibbuz, dedichiamo la nostra vita all’educazione al dialogo, alla pace, alla coesistenza e al rispetto per l’altro. Nel 2004 abbiamo creato la Fondazione “Beresheet LaShalom”  Per educare alla pace attraverso le arti. Fondazione Beresheet LaShalom e’ stata fondata nel 2004. e questi sono i suoi obbiettivi: … (full text).

Yehuda and Edna live in Kibbutz Sasa on the Lebanese border and they have four boys: Yehuda Calo` Livne is the administrator and the executive manager of Beresheet Lashalom. He was born in Kibbutz Sasa. He teaches Communication and Technology and he has 25 years of experience in formal and non-formal education. He specialized in educational work with special needs students. As educational director for three years of the youth movement Hashomer Hatzair in Israel, he led several pedagogical and political projects for peace. Yehuda and Edna founded the Beresheet La’Shalom Foundation BLF (see there the Founders).

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Zahira Kamal – Palestine

Written on January 10th, 2009 in 1000 Peace Nobel 2005 by heidi

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Linked with Women’s Learning Partnership WLP.

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

Ms. Zahira Kamal is the Director of Palestinian women Research and Documentation Center (UNESCO project). She was appointed as the first Minister of Women’s Affairs in November 2003. Ms. Kamal has written a number of articles and studies on Palestinian women, women’s empowerment, peace and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, women and citizenship, enhancing the role of women machineries. (on RICO).

She was part of the International Womens Commission for a Just and Sustainable Palestinian-Israeli Peace
Joint Steering Committees Meeting, Hosted by IWC Member Antigoni Antigoni, July 12-15, Athens, Greece: IWC members of Palestine: … 3. Zahira Kamal, Director, Women Centre for Studies and Research … (full text).

She says: “It is not strange that historical events of Palestine were the driving force that has determined my life. I grew up hating the Israelis without even knowing or meeting them” … and:  “I believe that women have a strong desire and need for peace. I also believe that we are able to work out our relationships and live with each other, or next to each other, in peace and harmony” … (1000peacewomen).

She works for the Palestinian Ministry of Women’s Affairs PMWA and the Women’s Study Center for Legal and Social Consultation WSCLSC (for both not mention in the net), and for the Palestinian Democratic Union PDU (named on: global security.org; and on wikipedia).

Zahira Kamal and Naomi Chazam were jointly awarded the Peace Builder Award by the Southern California Chapter of Neve Shalom/al-Wahat Salam for their support of peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. Kamal is a leader of the Palestinian Democratic Party while Chazam is the deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset … (full text).

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Zahira Kamal – Palestine

… “We like to stress that the women’s movement is part of the national movement. We believe that both personal and national liberation go hand in hand” … (full text).

She says also: … “I believe in the power of women. Women are grounded in the awareness of the sanctity of all human life” … (on USaid.gov).

Find her and her publications: on answer.com; on Women’s Learning Partnership WLP; on source-watch; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

The Emerging Generation of Leaders.

… With much of the Arab world falling deeper under Islamic control and clamping down on women’s rights, it’s easy to assume that all Arab women are veiled and silent. The idea of an active women’s liberation movement existing within Arab nations seems incongruous. Yet such a movement exists within the Palestinian community, and Zahira Kamal is a principal force behind it. Kamal, the director of gender planning and development for the Palestinian National Authority and a member of the Palestinian Parliament, works for the empowerment of Palestinian women on a broad basis in an environment often hostile to women … (full text).

She writes: … A look at what happens to women in mixed groups (primarily dialogue and track two) may throw some light on why many women prefer all-women groups. As participants of over more than twenty years in a myriad of dialogues and track two activities, our observations are that women tend to be ignored in mixed groups. They are not invited to the planning or agenda setting for the meetings, especially track two meetings. Thus they are not perceived as proactive participants even if they are invited to join the larger groups. As participants, if and when they speak, they are interrupted more than men, and their contributions are frequently attributed to men, as if a comment or proposal coming from a man carries greater legitimacy … (full long text). (My comment: this is totally same with Swiss men).

In the town and village meetings where Zahira Kamal, a member of the negotiating team, often discusses the progress of the Israeli- Palestinian peace talks, men file into the meeting place first, then teenage boys. Finally, young girls and then women enter, almost hesitantly, to stand awkwardly in the comer. It is symbolic of women’s subordinate status in Arab society, and the scene is reproduced daily, over and over again … and: Zahira Kamal has played a large part in this modernization of Palestinian society. Starting from the traditional role of woman as teacher, she become a political activist, aligned with the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and since the 1970s has been in the vanguard of the Palestinian women’s movement. She is one of the three women (along with Hanan Ashrawi and Suad Amiry) on the Palestinian team participating in the Middle East peace talks. She is outspoken and direct but, to date, less well known than those delegates to whom the media gravitate. She is concerned with substance, and shies away from the TV cameras … (full long text).

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Nafeesa Al Deek – Palestine

Written on January 9th, 2009 in 1000 Peace Nobel 2005 by heidi

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

Nafeesa al-Deek: 1940, Kufr Ne’meh village near Ramallah. Grassroots leader and political figure who spent her life for others. She was able to bring services to her village and surrounding areas that led to her house being used as a center for rehabilitation and teaching, sewing, knitting, embroidery and cooking for local women. As a political activist, she was detained by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) twice in 1981 and in 1993 she was put on military trial. She overcame illiteracy by convincing an NGO to open up adult-literacy classes in her village in 1981. She raised money to develop the girls’ school in her village in 1986 and convinced her village residents of the importance of teaching their girls. Nominated for the Noble Peace Prize 2005. (on Arab Thought Forum – see their homepage).

She says: “The three divine religions honor human beings. Injustice is not a matter of religious conflict; all I seek to achieve is equal rights for all people”. (1000peacewomen).

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Nafeesa Al Deek – Palestine

She works for the Kafr Ne’meh Women Society KNWS (no internet presence found).

Sorry, beside the text on Arab Thoughr Forum, no other internet presence found for our peacewomen, Nafeesa Al Deek, Palestine (the price for being too much modest).

I could get only the text found on 1000peacewomen: Nafeesa Al Deek was born in 1940. Like many other women in her village, she was married to her cousin at the age of 16. While still pregnant with her third child, her husband walked out on her and immigrated to Brazil, leaving her with a difficult responsibility of raising two sons. Shortly after he had left she gave birth and had a baby daughter. Al Deek had to work and support her family. But since she did not have sufficient educational qualifications she became a seamstress.

Despite these challenging circumstances, she managed to secure a house for her family and to educate her children well. Um Hani, as people call her, began teaching sewing to young girls and women. However, she felt that if she had been educated, she could have done a better job. That is why she strongly supports girls’ education to secure themselves against the hazards of life. Al Deek is said to have learned many of the chapters of the Holy Quran by heart after overhearing the students reciting them. She decided to defeat her illiteracy by enrolling in one of literacy evening classes that were run by the local associations that she has helped to found. Now she is fond of reading celebrated classical poems by Jubran khaleel Jubran and Nizar Kabbani.

Known for her spontaneity and intelligence, Nafeesa Al Deek participated in many demonstrations against the occupation. She recollects one of the incidents where she was arrested by Israeli forces, and says, “I was arrested at the age of 40 when I started going to adult-literacy classes. The interrogator asked me why I wanted to study at this age. I responded to him, ‘Jesus says: learn from birth to tomb.’ I have raised my children to love Palestine, and I am so proud of what I have achieved. They beat me up, but I never felt down. I used my wittiness to get myself out of the difficult circumstances.”

With the aid of a German association, she orchestrated a group of women from her village to found the first women’s association to teach women sewing, needlework and cooking. This project helped many women to generate new work skills and to be self-dependent, a very demanding issue after the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. The association employed hundreds of women from Kufr Nime and the surrounding villages.

Um Hani is considered a source of inspiration for her village, and therefore she has won the acclamation of all. She was involved in social and patriotic work since she was still young. She helped to accommodate the refugees who were forced to flee to her village from the coastal areas after the Israeli occupation of Gaza. “I have always felt that I am a soldier standing up for justice for my people, especially women and the less-privileged persons. I pledged myself to fight for women’s rights,” she said. During the 1970’s she wrote a number of patriotic poems about Palestine and encouraged her children to rehearse them. Um Hani has played a distinguished role in her community, and has been incessantly supportive to the education of young children.

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Haya Shalom – Israel

Written on January 8th, 2009 in 1000 Peace Nobel 2005 by heidi

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Linked with Women in Black Movement – worldwide, with the Coalition of Women for Just Peace CWfJP, and with Center for Women’s Global Leadership CWGL (on 15. Jan.).

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

Haya Shalom was born on December 4th 1944 in Jerusalem,Israell, to an Israeli-Sephardic fifth generation family. She is a graduate of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in History Studies. As a feminist, human rights activist and a Lesbian, Shalom is especially sensitive to issues concerning women’s oppression. Shalom is one of the first women who joined and assisted the Women in Black Movement, protesting for more than 16 years against the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West bank. She strongly believes in the efforts she makes towards peace advocacy, despite the difficulties of being often unpopular and positioned at the sidelines of society. She is optimistic about the possibility of effectuating change, even if it is slow and gradual. Shalom’s vision for a peaceful future is based on the initiation of a radical change that will crumble the definitions of the patriarchal society. She emphasizes,:“Not only to achieve minor changes, but to implement a drastic change that will enable the feminine language to brake through and place a different shade on issues concerning solidarity, war and peace, violence against Women, non-violence resistance, Lesbian rights and more” … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She is named as Political Heroe.

She says: “We need to achieve and implement a drastic change that will enable the feminine language to break through and tackle issues concerning solidarity, peace and violence against the rights of women”. (1000peacewomen).

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Haya Shalom – Israel

She works for the Women in Black Movement WiB: find WIB.org, and (old, but with Address to the Security Council of the United Nations): WIB.net, for Coalition of Women for Just Peace CWfJP (homepages in english, in hebrew and in arabic), and for the International Gay and Lesbians Human Rights Commission IGLHRC.

Haya Shalom, a spokesperson for the radical left Israeli group “Women in Black” told IMRA today that Aliza Olmert, wife of Acting PM Ehud Olmert “was never a member of Women in Black, never attended nor was ever invited to attend any activity of Women in Black” … (full text, 14 February 2006).

Haya Shalom on the vigil.

Find her on Google Book-search, and on Google Group-search.

She visited the Center for Antiwar Action, in Kosovo.

(1000peacewomen 2/2): … Between 1980 and 1984 Shalom was an active member of “Kol Haisha” (The Woman`s Voice) in Jeruslem, Co-Organizer of the first women protest against the invasion in Lebanon.

In March 1986 she participated in the International Lesbian Conference in Geneva. This conference inspired her to found the Community of Lesbian Feminists in Israel, in 1987. Its mission was to help advance Women and Lesbians’ rights in Israel. Since its inception in January 1988 the Committee has organized the activities of Women In Black.

In December 1988 Shalom co-founded the Women and Peace Coalition. She was the coordinator of “Bat Adam”, a coalition of women’s organizations to prevent violence against women. Since 1991 Shalom has participated in international women’s and lesbian conferences. Among the issues she has dealt with are solidarity, peace promotion, violence against women, non-violence resistance and the role of lesbians in our society.

From February 1993 to June 1994 she was a coordinator of the International Coalition of Women’s Organizations for Agunah Rights. (Agunah in Hebrew means “a chained” woman: a woman bound in marriage by a husband who refuses to grant her divorce or who is missing and not proven dead).

In March 1995 Shalom initiated and organized the first Women Poets’ Festival. Since 1996 she has been a member of the International board of advisory of the International Gay and Lesbians Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).

During 1996 and 1997, Shalom was a member of the Board for Bat Shalom, the Women Center for Peace. She was also elected as Chair of Board of Members of “Kol Haisha” (The Women’s Voice), a feminist multicultural center in 1999- 2000. In recognition of her invaluable efforts towards supporting the rights of gays and lesbians, Shalom was awarded the Community Prize of the Gay and Lesbian Community In 2000.

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Hanan Ashrawi – Palestine

Written on January 7th, 2009 in 1000 Peace Nobel 2005 by heidi

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Linked with Israel and Palestine in these times, with Israel and Palestine on my blogs, with  Hanan Ashrawi and the Price of Dissent, and with General Union of Palestinian Women GUPW.

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

Dr Hanan Daoud Khalil Ashrawi (b. October 8, 1946) is a Palestinian legislator, activist, and scholar. She was a protégé and later colleague and close friend of Edward Said. Ashrawi was an important leader during the First Intifada, served as the official spokesperson for the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East peace process, and has been elected numerous times to the Palestinian Legislative Council. Ashrawi is a member of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s Third Way party. Ashrawi serves on the Advisory Board of several international and local organizations including the World Bank Middle East and North Africa (MENA), United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and the International Human Rights Council. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in literature in the Department of English at the American University of Beirut. Ashrawi also has a Ph.D. in Medieval and Comparative Literature from the University of Virginia … (full text).

Her political activism on wikipedia; her bio on world-trek and on globetrotter; .

She says: “I do not look at people on the basis of their religion. I believe in the separation between religion and the state”. (1000peacewomen).

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Hanan Ashrawi – Palestine

She works for the Miftah Palestinian Liberation Committee MPLC (no other internet presence dedected); for Women for Peace and Justice in Palestine WPJP (named in: Groups to Hold Silent Vigil to Mourn Palestinian Women and Children, April, 2002; and in an archive list of Indimedia, 8 April 2002); and for the National Reform Committee NRC (named on: local development forum).

Watch her video: Riz Khan – Hanan Ashrawi (on english Al Jazeera), 25 Apr 07, 17.40 min.

Find her and her publications on amazon; on Google Video-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

Arabs & Israel 8679: Hanan Ashrawi for the P.A., oct. 4, 2002.

She says also: … As a teacher myself, as an academic, I’ve always felt it’s a learning and teaching situation; but one thing I think that comes through is the confidence that comes from self-respect. To demand respect of others you have to respect yourself and you have to be confident  to stand up also to injustice and not to accept it, not to be intimidated. I’ve always told my students, and I enjoy that, that they can question, that they can provoke. Even when I was a minister I always told them, “Provoke reality, don’t acquiesce to it. Challenge it. Speak up.” The courage to speak out, not to be complacent, not to accept the givens, not to accept also, as my father said, the limits. “To be daring,” he said, “be daring in the pursuit of right, of what is right, justice.” And a sense of daring, of questioning, of not being deflected, comes also from a recognition that your humanity is what you have in common with others. There is a common language that emerges, regardless of whether it’s Arabic, English, French, German, Japanese. There is a common human language that recognizes no boundaries. At the same time, the human will and the human spirit are the determining factors in everything you do. There will always be small-minded, narrow-minded, power-driven, power-hungry people who will try to set limits, who will try to give you constraints. And the human spirit to refuse such constraints. The willingness to take risks and to vindicate your humanity, it seems to me this is essential … (full long 5 page interview text – see also the first page).

Sorry, I stop here pasting actual or past articles from different writers inside or outside of the Israel-Palestine communities. I do not want amplify the already running battle of justifications, mutual accusations, re-writing the history, belonging to particular viewpoins who of each side should be right or wrong … I just stop here the play for my blogs.

(Here only what’s on the website of 1000peacewomen): Hanan Ashrawi was born in 1946 in Nablus in an Anglican Christian family. Her father, Da’ud Mikhail, was the leader of Sulayman Al-Nabulsi’s National Socialist Party who settled his family in Ramallah after 1948 war.

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Hannelore Vonier – Germany and USA

Written on January 6th, 2009 in World People by heidi

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Linked with Heide Göttner-Abendroth – Germany, with Matriarchy.Info, and with The International Academy Hagia.

As an autodidact, Hannelore Vonier became an expert on matriarchy, when she realized about 10 years ago, that there is another social system that can help us out of the misery patriarchy is offering us. Constantly studying, reading and writing about it in German, she is focusing more on English readers now, especially on the internet. Hannelore says: People, who know me, could say I am obsessed with the matriarchy-issue, because every normal talk is leading me to the matriarchal/patriarchal subject sooner or later. But I consider this as important and actually I am only doing my “job” in close connection with the spirits – you can call it Goddess or ancestors or spiritual guides … (full text).

She writes: … “Peaceful societies are contemporary groups of people who effectively foster interpersonal harmony and who rarely permit violence or warfare to interfere with their lives. This website serves to introduce these societies to students, peace activists, scholars and citizens who are interested in the conditions that promote peacefulness. It includes information on the beliefs of these peoples, the ways they maintain their nonviolence, and the factors that challenge their lifestyles” … (full text). (Go to Peaceful societies).

Contact Hannelore Vonier through Matriarch/contact.

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Hannelore Vonier – Germany and USA

Watch her video: Awareness of Wisdom, 2.17 min, added March 2, 2007.

She writes more: in english:

She writes also: on Sexual equality in matriarchy: … Harmony and reciprocity between men and women is an important feature of these societies. Matriarchies are societies in balance. This means that the relationship between man and woman is no “battle of the sexes,” no “marital war”; there are no hen-pecked husbands, bridled by some “Xanthippe,” no women’s shelters offering refuge to abused women. How, then, does it work? And what does a couple’s relationship look like? …
… The anthropologist Dr. Shanshan Du investigated four socio-cultural frameworks for the equality of the sexes, which … :

  • mother-centeredness
  • the complementariness of the sexes— “different, but equally valuable”
  • the meaninglessness of the sexes— the exact opposite to our society
  • or, the unity of the sexes— together forming a whole.

… Tatsache ist: Wir müssen etwas anziehen, uns irgendwie frisieren, eine Brille aufsetzen usw. Damit treffen wir eine Aussage. Wir setzen Signale, ob wir wollen oder nicht. Die falsche Farbe kann einen müden Eindruck hinterlassen, unpassende Stilelemente können irritierend auf unser Gegenüber wirken und beides kann eine Karriere hemmen. Die meisten Signale senden wir unbewusst, d.h., wir sind uns oft nicht im Klaren darüber, was unser Image anderen mitteilt. Schauen Sie sich an, wie Körpersprache arbeitet … (ganzer Text).

And she writes: In Matriarchy subsistence is until today the only way to provide goods for the community and standing for autarchy. Private ownership is unknown. Inheritage is matrilineal, that means passing from mother to the (often youngest) daughter. So, what could be inherited, if there is no private property? ‘Things’ like:

  • Responsibility for well-being of the clan
  • Responsibility for distributing goods and work adequate
  • Administration of the clans common property
  • Responsibility for keeping the fire alive in the family hearth
  • Taking care of the children equally

and more suchlike lifetime tasks … (full text).

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Heide Göttner-Abendroth – Germany

Written on January 5th, 2009 in 1000 Peace Nobel 2005 by heidi

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Linked with the International Academy Hagia, with Hannelore Vonier – Germany and USA, and with Matriarchy.Info (will appear on Jan. 6, 2009).

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

… Heide Goettner-Abendroth has been working in this field for 30 years, and is the most well-known matriarchy scholar in the world. She has developed a coherent theoretical basis that combines the different aspects of matriarchy research, convincingly presenting it as a new socio-cultural science. In this way she has become the founding mother of Modern Matriarchal Studies. Her own matriarchy research, and that of many international guest lecturers, is presented dynamically and attractively in her seminars, as well as in international study trips offered by Academy HAGIA … (full text).

… In 1980 she was visiting professor at the University of Montreal, Canada, and in 1992, at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. In 1993 she received a scholarship from the University of Bremen, Germany for her research. Since 1998 she is member of the Institute of Archaeomythology in California (USA). In 2003, she organized and guided the First World Congress on Matriarchal Studies: “Societies in Balance” in Luxembourg, Europe (sponsorship: Marie Josée Jacobs, Minister for Women’s Affairs of Luxembourg), and in 2005, she guided the Second World Congress on Matriarchal Studies: “Societies of Peace” in Texas, USA (sponsorship: Genevieve Vaughan). In 2005, she was elected by the “Initiative 1000 PeaceWomen” as one of these women from all over the world. (full text). (Detailed Biography).

Heide Göttner-Abendroth (b. 1941 in Germany) is a German feminist advocating a branch of feminist anthropology known as Matriarchy Studies (also Modern Matriarchal Studies), focussing on the study of matriarchal or matrilineal societies … (full text).

Find her also on the german wikipedia.

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Heide Göttner-Abendroth – Germany

She works for the International Academy Hagia.

Her website: in german; and in english.

She says: “Matriarchy presents us a well balanced, egalitarian and peaceful society without wars of conquest and the rule of dominance. I am convinced that matriarchy is needed for a humane world”. (1000peacewomen).

A Radically Different World View is Possible.

Did matriarchal forms of social organization exist in Catal Hüyük?

The relationship between Modern Matriarchal Studies and the Gift Paradigm.

Find her and her publications on english wikipedia /bibliography); on alibris; on Library Thing; on the german wikipedia; on her page of 1000peacewomen (scroll down); on amazon; on inauthor Google-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

She writes: Despite all the hostility directed against modern Matriarchal Studie, it is not possible to disregard it findings. It presents us with a well balanced, egalitarian and basically peaceful society which can exist without life-destroying inventions like wars od conquest and the rule of dominance. This is why I am convinced that matriarchy will be successful in the struggle for a humane world. (on Societies of Peace).

She writes also: … Summary of the criteria of the matriarchal society:

  • Economic criteria: society with self-supporting gardening or agriculture; land, house are property of the clan, no privat property; women have the power of disposition over the source of norishment; constant adjustment of the level of wealth by the circulation of the vital goods in form of gifts at festivals – societies of reciprocity.
  • Social criteria: matriarchal clans, which are held together by matrilinearity and matrilocality; mutual marriage between two clands; visiting marriage with additional sexual freedom for both sexes; social fatherhood – non hierarchical, horizontal societies of kinship.
  • Political criteria: principle of consensus in the clan-house, on the level of the village, and on the regional level; delegates as bearers of communication, not as decision-takers; absence of classes and structures of domination – egalitarian societies of consensus.
  • Cultural criteria: concret belief in rebirth into the same clan, cult of ancestresses and ancestors; worship of Mother Earth and the Goddess of Cosmos; divinity of the entire world; absence of dualistic world view and morality; everything in life is part of the symbolic system – sacral societies as cultures of the Goddess.

… (full 8 pages text, 2004).

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Kalinga Seneviratne – Sri Lanka and Singapor

Written on January 4th, 2009 in World People by heidi

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Linked with The Digital Divide., with MEDIA-PHILIPPINES: Community Radio – Balm in Troubled Areas, and with Financial Meltdown Decolonising Asian Minds.

Kalinga Seneviratne is a journalist, radio broadcaster, television documentary maker and a media analyst. He was born and raised in Sri Lanka, lived in Australia for more than 20 years and is currently a senior research associate with the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre AMIC … (full text).

… He specializes in development journalism and feature writing and has been writing for the Inter Press Service (IPS) newsagency  since 1991.  He has been part of the IPS ‘Terra Viva” reporting team at a number of international conference. In addition he has been an award-winning community radio broadcaster in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s; In 1987 he won a UN Media Peace Award for a series broadcast on Australian community radio titled “We don’t Want No Peace” looking at the relationship between rich and poor countries.  He has taught radio production, international communications and journalism at tertiary level in Australia and Singapore … (full text).

He is also Judge for the Asia Pacific Rice Journalist Award 2008:   Kalinga Seneviratne – Senior Research Associate with the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), Singapore

Find his CV on the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre AMIC.

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Kalinga Seneviratne – Sri Lanka and Singapor

Watch the video by Dr. Kalinga Seneviratne, 3.30 min, August 15, 2008. The video is on the presentation in the annual conference of AMIC in Manila Hotel, 14-17 July 2008. The title of the presentation was “ Indonesia: Turning The Tide of Cultural Imperialism With Dangdut”.

… The country’s population, with an annual growth rate of 2.34 percent, is projected to reach 90 million this year. In 2007, the Philippines’ human development index ranking fell seven places, to number 90. “The problem of population growth is the problem of poverty,” argues Father Francis Lucas, president of the Catholic Media Network. “Don’t blame population growth for poverty. The problem is disparities in the income levels.” (full text, August 05, 2008).

SRI LANKA: Building Ethnic Harmony With Community Radio, by Kalinga Seneviratne, July 2008:
KOTHMALE, June 4, 2008 – In this tea-growing hill country, about 150 km from Colombo, a staterun community radio station is creating harmony among the country’s Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim ethnic groups by broadcasting from the villages and opening up the airwaves to people’s participation. ”People all over Sri Lanka are talking about peace, but this community radio has been doing it from the beginning,” P. Pavitheran, an announcer at the Kothmale Community Radio (KCR) told IPS … (full text).

… Dr Kalinga Seneviratne, Head of Research at AMIC, confirmed the claim made by Sasako and that it “reflects correctly what happened.” Dr Seneviratne said he was “disappointed” that Sasako could not make it but expressed support for Sasako “as a journalist and also as a person who could take the voice of the Pacific to international forums” … (full text, November 16, 2008).

He writes: … SINGAPORE, Sep 3 (IPS) – Threatened with arrests and canings, activists planning demonstrations at the annual meet of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), to be held here this month, are organising a parallel event on the nearby Indonesian island of Batam. But, even in that ‘free trade zone’ they are going to be less than free. Commander Anggaria Lopis, a spokesman for police in the Riau Islands province (where Batam is located) told the ‘Jakarta Post’ newspaper on Thursday, that permits would not be issued for holding the parallel event. Freedom of expression laws, introduced in Indonesia after the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998, have done away with permits for public gatherings or demonstrations. All that is needed is to inform police three days beforehand so that security arrangements can be made. However, Indonesian law does not allow foreigners to protest on the streets. Thus, foreigners taking part in a proposed anti-IMF/WB protest rally on Sep.18 could be breaching Indonesian law … (full text, January 03, 2009).

Find him and his publications on daylife SOURCE HUB; on inauthor Google-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

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Saskia Kouwenberg – Netherlands

Written on January 3rd, 2009 in 1000 Peace Nobel 2005 by heidi

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Linked with East Timor and Indonesia Action Network ETAN, with the International Fellowship of Reconciliation IFOR, and with IFOR’s Women Peacemaker’s Program WPP.

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

Saskia Kouwenberg has spent 25 years – half her life – as an activist. Everything from indigenous people’s land rights, to national independence, to anti-nuclear and anti-war work has been the focus of her campaigning. Although not affiliated to one group, she has worked alongside Amnesty International, the United Nations, and Moluccan and East Timorese organizations, in all kinds of ways. From mediating in conflict resolution classes to trespassing on military bases, Saskia will try any method to achieve her goal of a better, safer, fairer world. It is not very often that you meet someone who, over their 52  years, has been a barefoot hippy, spent six months as a novice nun (“I would have stayed longer, if they had not thrown me out!”), made movies, smuggled (more of that later), been a monkey-keeper, marcher, conflict resolver, anti-nuclear and anti-imperialist people’s rights campaigner. Yet today I find myself in the lucky position of talking to one of Amsterdam’s unsung heroines. Saskia Kouwenberg has been an “independent human rights activist,” as she calls herself, for nearly 25 years now. “I was not somebody who said on their twelfth birthday ‘I want to be a peace activist when I grow up.’ In my village politics were non-existent,” she says, as she makes tea in the kitchen of her canal-side, Oud-West flat. It is a nice pot of Tension Tamer, appropriate for a woman who has seen more than her fair share of conflict hot spots. This is the place where she has lived on and off, between stints of campaigning, for the last 25 years … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

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Saskia Kouwenberg – Netherlands

She says: “Responsibility does not end at borders. I cannot see boundaries. The only boundaries are that you have 24 hours in the day and you cannot do everything you want to do in your life”. (1000peacewomen).

Tijdens manifestatie op de Dam, 15 feb. (20039, Toespraak Saskia Kouwenberg.

Hulp door militairen is vaak funest voor hulpverleners, by Saskia Kouwenberg: Militairen in conflictgebieden krijgen steeds vaker civiele taken. Dat kan leiden tot een gevaarlijke verwarring van rollen, vindt Saskia Kouwenberg, mede doordat de situatie in oorlogen steeds onoverzichterlijker wordt omdat er zoveel partijen bij betrokken zijn … (full long text).

She writes: Militairen in conflictgebieden krijgen steeds vaker civiele taken. Dat kan leiden tot een gevaarlijke verwarring van rollen, vindt Saskia Kouwenberg, mede doordat de situatie in oorlogen steeds onoverzichterlijker wordt omdat er zoveel partijen bij betrokken zijn … (full text, 18-08-2004).

Find her and her publications on Film Database; on PSYCHOLOOG direct.be; on pipl; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

Rapport Blix/El Baradei geen enkele invloed op oorlogsvoornemen Bush, 07-03-2003.

(East Timor-) POSTERS FROM SOUTHERN CROSS UNIVERSITY (AUSTRALIA).

(on 1000peacewomen 2/2):  … The village she is talking about is Zundert, a farming place down in Noord-Brabant, where she was born into a vegetable trading family. It is famous for one thing only, being the birthplace of Vincent van Gogh – not necessarily the kind of place you would expect a political activist to come out of, among all that slow-moving agriculture, but Saskia is convinced that her life’s mission found its roots back there.

She had a comfortable, middle-class upbringing when, at the age of 19, she went off on a round-the-world trip, along the hippy trail. “I did not go as a hippy but I came back as one.

In India and Afghanistan especially, virtually everything that I saw there questioned what I was brought up with. I met people with totally different views on life, and they thought they were right too. That was a very big surprise to me. Plus, I saw incredible poverty. I did not know about these things.”

After that, she felt she could not be contained by her nationality, a fact which goes a long way to explain her peripatetic lifestyle since: “From then on I felt like a world citizen. I felt that responsibility does not end at borders: where I am born, the village, or the family. I cannot see boundaries.”

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Grace Paley – USA (1922 – 2007)

Written on January 2nd, 2009 in 1000 Peace Nobel 2005 by heidi

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Grace Paley has passed away on August 22, 2007

Linked with the War Resisters League WRL, and with Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom WILPF.

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

Grace Paley (December 11, 1922 – August 22, 2007) was an American short story writer, poet and political activist. Biography: Born as Grace Goodside in the Bronx, Paley’s Jewish parents, Isaac and Manya Ridnyik Goodside, Anglicized the family name from Gutseit on immigrating from Ukraine. The family spoke Russian and Yiddish along with English. The youngest of the three Goodside children (sixteen and fourteen years younger than brother and sister Victor and Jeanne, respectively), Paley was a tomboy as a child … // … Paley continues the stories of Faith and her neighbors in the collection Later the Same Day (1985). All three volumes were gathered in her 1994 Collected Stories, which was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Paley’s other honors include a 1961 Guggenheim Fellowship for Fiction, the Edith Wharton Award (1983), the Rea Award for the Short Story (1993) the Vermont Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts (1993), and the Jewish Cultural Achievement Award for Literary Arts (1994). In 1988 American composer Christian Wolff set eight poems from Leaning Forward (1985) for soprano, bass-baritone, clarinet/bass-clarinet and cello … (full long text, has been updated on 27 December 2008).

She said: “I think it’s like a dark, dark cloud and a period of great anxiety. If we lose, it’s horrible, and if we win, it’s horrible. Those of us in this movement want every soldier saved and home”. (1000peacewomen).

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Grace Paley – USA (1922 – 2007)

She worked for the War Resisters League, for the Greenwich Village Peace Center, (named on: war resisters.org, on PEACEMEAL: A COOK BOOK FROM THE GREENWICH VILLAGE PEACE CENTER), and for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom WILPF.

Watch her on this video: Grace Paley at the Organ Barn ‘02, 02.58 min, Sep 16, 2007.

How aptly named: Grace Paley. For “grace” is perhaps the most accurate, if somewhat poetic, term to employ in speaking of this gifted writer who has concentrated on short, spare fiction through her career of nearly five decades … (full long text).

She said also:… “I’m optimistic because of that one moment when the whole world came out against the war. That has made me optimistic, but apart from that, I have a lot of anxiety about the state of the world. When you think of the things that have happened in Rwanda and Darfur, that are still happening in Darfur, it’s very discouraging. The degree of just plain murder is incredible. What’s happening in Iraq, where they’re all killing each other, is just terrifying. I’m neither optimistic nor pessimistic; I’m just on my knees hoping that things change somehow” … (full interview text).

Find her and her publications on amazon; on alibris; on us.mac millan; on wikipedia /bibliography, and on wikipedia /further reading; on Google Video-search; on inauthor Google-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

Grace Paley, the celebrated writer and social activist whose short stories explored in precise, pungent and tragicomic style the struggles of ordinary women muddling through everyday lives, died on Wednesday at her home in Thetford Hill, Vt. She was 84 and also had an apartment in Manhattan. Ms. Paley had been ill with breast cancer for some time, her literary agent, Elaine Markson, said yesterday … (full long text, Aug. 23, 2007).

… Popular and respected by teachers of writing, Grace Paley’s stories have been used as models in writing workshops. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Ms Fiction, Mother Jones and other magazines. She began teaching in the early 1960’s with courses at Columbia and Syracuse Universities and then became a member of the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. She has also taught at the graduate school of City College in New York.
Much of Grace Paley’s life has been spent in political action. A member of the War Resisters League, she opposed American involvement in the Vietnam War and was a member of a peace mission to Hanoi. She attended the World Peace Conference in 1974 and in 1985 visited Nicaragua and El Salvador, after having campaigned against the U.S. government’s policies toward these countries. She was one of “The White House Eleven,” who in December 1978 were arrested in December 1978 for unfurling an anti-nuclear banner on the White House lawn. She was fined and given a suspended sentence … (full text).

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Jacqueline Pitanguy – Brazil

Written on January 1st, 2009 in 1000 Peace Nobel 2005 by heidi

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Linked with Cidadania, Estudo, Pesquisa, Informação e Ação CEPIA.

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

Jacqueline Pitanguy, a sociologist and political scientist, is the Founder and Director of Cidadania, Estudo, Pesquisa, Informação e Ação (CEPIA), a non-governmental organization based in Rio de Janeiro. At CEPIA Ms. Pitanguy coordinates research on gender issues and facilitates advocacy and educational programs relating to violence against women and reproductive health. She has been a Professor at the Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Rio de Janeiro and at Rutgers University, where she held the Laurie New Jersey Chair in Women’s Studies from 1991-92. She held a cabinet position as President of the National Council for Women’s Rights (1986-89), designing and implementing public policies to improve women’s condition in Brazil … (full text).

… “Ms. Pitanguy is a co-founder and member of the Board of Directors of the Commission on Citizenship and Reproduction, Commission on Citizenship and Reproduction based in Sao Paulo. She is a member of the Boards of the Inter-American Dialogue, the Society for International Development, and the Women’s Learning Partnership, and is currently the Chair of the Boards of the Global Fund for Women, and of CARE-Brazil, where she recently assumed the presidency. She was also a member of the International Human Rights Council, headed by former President Jimmy Carter, of the International Advisory Group of the MacArthur Foundation, and of the Institute for Education of UNESCO. “Ms. Pitanguy has published extensively and is frequently interviewed by the national and international media on issues related to women’s rights, and participates in numerous national and international conferences. She is fluent in French, Spanish and English. Portuguese is her native language”. (She is) Member of the Steering Committee, World Movement for Democracy … (full text).

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Jacqueline Pitanguy – Brazil

She works for Cidadania, Estudo, Pesquisa, Informação e Ação CEPIA (in portugese) /Citizenship, Studies, Information, Action (see its Google Scholar search-results).

Watch this video: an Interview with Jacqueline Pitanguy, time not indicated, June 2, 2008.

She says: “The characteristic of the feminist movement is the search of the interlocution with others. Wars happen when the channel of expression of conflicts fails”. (1000peacewomen).

Jacqueline Pitanguy, a sociologist and political scientist, is the Founder and Director of Cidadania, Estudo, Pesquisa, Informação e Ação (CEPIA), a non-governmental organization based in Rio de Janeiro. At CEPIA Ms. Pitanguy coordinates research on gender issues and facilitates advocacy and educational programs relating to violence against women and reproductive health. She has been a Professor at the Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Rio de Janeiro and at Rutgers University, where she held the Laurie New Jersey Chair in Women’s Studies from 1991-92. She held a cabinet position as President of the National Council for Women’s Rights (1986-89), designing and implementing public policies to improve women’s condition in Brazil … (full text).

She was presenter for Reflections on the International Women’s Movement: 10 Years After Beijing, May 10, 2005.

Find her and her publications on Google Video-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

She writes: … When we think of human security as a concept that is molded on a power arena, we can understand why it takes certain meanings in certain countries and not in others. We can understand why at a particular time and in a particular country it’s understood basically as related to protection against terrorism and why, for instance, in this same moment in another country, such as Brazil, it is deeply related with food security. Human security is not a neutral concept. It is also important to note that if a certain conceptualization of human security is dominant in a certain place it doesn’t mean that it is consensual. And this gives us hope of transformation. Indeed, different sectors— representing different visions and different interests—interact, struggle, and negotiate at national and international arenas around the definition of human security because this is a key concept. It’s a key concept because it affects budget allocation, legitimizes governmental policies in security, and affects the allocation of priorities in public policies and many other government actions. It is a key concept for local and global governance directly affecting people’s everyday lives. So I would be very careful in handling the concept of human security because it can and has been used very differently, and for very different purposes, at different moments and in different countries … (full text, 4 pdf pages, not dated).

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