I say hang'em!
It is human, silent and unobtrusive. I say, ban the mow-blow-and-go "gardeners"- they are not. One of the special pleasures of travel in Central America are the old fashioned loundry rituals. There, it is not question of choice. Laundry is done by women's hands and is hang outside, watched carefuly, hastily carried inside when rain comes. For many women it is the only source of income. These women, I once thought, should also be awarded all those big green prizes that go to somebody else.
I think more hanging laundry would make our USA neighborhoods safer. Perhaps the sight of children playing ouside would return with it. fib
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November 18, 2009 | 1 comments
U.S. residents fight for the right to hang laundry
Carin Froehlich has help from her granddaughter Ava as they hang some laundry in the front yard of her residence in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, November 12, 2009. REUTERS/Tim Shaffer
PERKASIE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Carin Froehlich pegs her laundry to three clotheslines strung between trees outside her 18th-century farmhouse, knowing that her actions annoy local officials who have asked her to stop.
Froehlich is among the growing number of people across America fighting for the right to dry their laundry outside against a rising tide of housing associations who oppose the practice despite its energy-saving green appeal.
Although there are no formal laws in this southeast Pennsylvania town against drying laundry outside, a town official called Froehlich to ask her to stop drying clothes in the sun. And she received two anonymous notes from neighbors saying they did not want to see her underwear flapping about.
"They said it made the place look like trailer trash," she said, in her yard across the street from a row of neat, suburban houses. "They said they didn't want to look at my 'unmentionables.'"
Froehlich says she hangs her underwear inside. The effervescent 54-year-old is one of a growing number of Americans demanding the right to dry laundry on clotheslines despite local rules and a culture that frowns on it.
Their interests are represented by Project Laundry List, a group that argues people can save money and reduce carbon emissions by not using their electric or gas dryers, according to the group's executive director, Alexander Lee.
Widespread adoption of clotheslines could significantly reduce U.S. energy consumption, argued Lee, who said dryer use accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. residential electricity use.
Florida, Utah, Maine, Vermont, Colorado, and Hawaii have passed laws restricting the rights of local authorities to stop residents using clotheslines. Another five states are considering similar measures, said Lee, 35, a former lawyer who quit to run the non-profit group.
'RIGHT TO HANG'
His principal opponents are the housing associations such as condominiums and townhouse communities that are home to an estimated 60 million Americans, or about 20 percent of the population. About half of those organizations have 'no hanging' rules, Lee said, and enforce them with fines.
Carl Weiner, a lawyer for about 50 homeowners associations in suburban Philadelphia, said the no-hanging rules are usually included by the communities' developers along with regulations such as a ban on sheds or commercial vehicles.
The no-hanging rules are an aesthetic issue, Weiner said.
"The consensus in most communities is that people don't want to see everybody else's laundry."
He said opposition to clotheslines may ease as more people understand it can save energy and reduce greenhouse gases.
"There is more awareness of impact on the environment," he said. "I would not be surprised to see people questioning these restrictions."
For Froehlich, the "right to hang" is the embodiment of the American tradition of freedom.
"If my husband has a right to have guns in the house, I have a right to hang laundry," said Froehlich, who is writing a book on the subject.
Besides, it saves money. Line-drying laundry for a family of five saves $83 a month in electric bills, she said.
Kevin Firth, who owns a two-bedroom condominium in a Dublin, Pennsylvania housing association, said he was fined $100 by the association for putting up a clothesline in a common area.
"It made me angry and upset," said Firth, a 27-year-old carpenter. "I like having the laundry drying in the sun. It's something I have always done since I was a little kid."
(Editing by Mark Egan and Paul Simao)
Sez Me at 05:41 PM on 11/18/09
On the 4th day of September, with the temperature of 104’; we held a rally & marched up to Buck Mckeons office. Yes we we were unannounced, but I think the element of surprise, was essential. See article. (http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/17635/ ). We were small in size, but effective. 5 adults, 2 children & Brian Charles of the Signal Newspaper, stood on the corner, with many people stopping by to thank us for our effort.
Too often, we as a people jump on board only when we see huge support. It takes allot of courage to be the first to step forward. I applaud those that did. Dennis Bartash, a Veteran and Senior; Pattie Sulpizio, An activist/former Delegate, member of DAA; (the largest democratic club of Santa Clarita) and our calm voice of reason; Sarah Reader & Jasmine Romero, both single mothers; One a current student at C.O.C., the other aspiring to become one soon; myself, Sherryan Lima a OFA Organizing Lead in Santa Clarita and Mother of 6, representing the uninsured; Brian Charles a Signal newspaper reporter, whom has found it necessary to stand up, speak out, challenge and hold accountable those that should be telling the truth but have chosen to do otherwise and Finally, Jordan Lima-Kuderer & Kai Romero representing the future.
We told our stories and encouraged Buck to take this moment to step up and do the right thing for his constituents. To represent us when he goes back to Washington. To tell the truth, (no more miss leading statements). To work in a bipartisan way with the President; for the common goal of affordable health care for all.
Will he hear us? That still remains to be seen! I am not going to let up. What is small today, will surly be larger tomorrow. We as a people will continue to step up. Continue to speak out. Dennis is right, we are a Government run "By the people for the people" I for one, take that “RIGHT’ seriously!
Go to the link’s below to see some of the events planned for the month of September in Santa Clarita. Make your voice heard, you will effect change. I Promise!
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/myevents?source=sidenav
http://www.daa.org/
http://www.dn38.org/
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Thank you for writing to express your opposition to proposed restrictions on private coverage of preventative services for reproductive care in health reform legislation. I appreciate the time you took to write to me on this important issue, and I welcome this opportunity to respond.
The Senate Finance Committee is currently debating health care reform proposals. One proposal would create a Health Insurance Exchange through which individuals and small businesses could purchase health insurance. In order to assist those not able to afford health insurance, some individuals and families would receive subsidies to help pay for the health insurance. Insurers would provide an essential benefits package, which would be determined by the Department of Health and Human Services after receiving recommendations from a federal advisory committee. The Senate Finance Committee is currently considering restrictions on the insurance packages offered in the Exchange, specifically restricting preventative services for reproductive care, including abortion.
I share your concerns about the proposed restrictions, and I have contacted Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) to express these concerns. These restrictions would leave many American women worse off than they are today. I believe that reproductive health services should be treated no differently than any other health care service or benefit in the current health care reform discussions. While I understand that many individuals may not want to purchase health insurance that covers reproductive services, everyone should have the opportunity to select health insurance without those services restricted.
I support preventative reproductive care because I believe that services such as family planning are incredibly valuable. Please know that I will keep your comments in mind as I continue to review health care reform legislation in the 111th Congress.
Again, thank you for writing. If you have any further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact my Washington D.C. office at (202) 224-3841. Best regards.
Further information about my position on issues of concern to California and the Nation are available at my website http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/. You can also receive electronic e-mail updates by subscribing to my e-mail list at http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ENewsletterSignup.Signup.
more from NARAL:
Dr. Welch's essay touches upon the uneasy grounds of our health business that I have known from my own experience. I am glad somebody elso wrote it first, and is a physician. FIB
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July 28, 2009
Essay
To Overhaul the System, ‘Health’ Needs Redefining
By H. GILBERT WELCH, M.D.
"The Canadians haven’t figured it out. Neither have the Japanese, the French or the British. No health care system has seriously grappled with the question most fundamental to its task: what constitutes health?
As the United States contemplates an overhaul of its system, maybe we should take a stab at it.
For years the question has been deferred to those with a financial interest in the answer — health professionals entwined with pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology firms, manufacturers of medical devices and diagnostic technologies, free-standing diagnostic centers, surgical centers, hospitals and academic medical centers — a group aptly labeled some 30 years ago by the editor of The New England Journal of Medicine as the “medical-industrial complex.”
It’s an industry that has learned a lot over those years. I know, because I’ve been part of it. And increasingly it has settled on a most convenient answer: health is the absence of abnormality.
In the past, people sought health care because they were sick. Now the medical-industrial complex seeks patients. It encourages those with minor symptoms to be evaluated and urges those who feel well to get “checked” — just to make sure nothing is wrong.
So, if health is the absence of abnormality, the only way to know you are healthy is to become a customer.
But healthy people aren’t great customers; they’re like the people who pay off their entire credit card balance each month. The money is in those in whom an abnormality can be found.
The medical-industrial complex has made that relatively easy to do.
It develops diagnostic technologies able to find smaller and smaller abnormalities. So more and more of us are found to have damaged cartilage in our knees, bulging discs in our backs, and narrowed blood vessels throughout our bodies. And far too many are also found to have “spots” or “shadows” that are seldom significant but are said to be “worrisome.” So more and more of us have knee surgery, back surgery, angioplasty and more diagnostic investigation.
And the medical-industrial complex has another way to find more abnormalities: it simply narrows the definition of normal. Take blood pressure. In the past, relatively few were said to have abnormal blood pressure. Now a normal blood pressure is said to be below 120/80. This means that well over half the adult population of the United States is abnormal. The same is true for cholesterol. And although it involves a smaller portion of the population, narrower definitions of normal are expanding the number of people said to have diabetes and osteoporosis. So more and more of us are treated for these conditions.
Finding more abnormalities has been a great strategy for our industry. But it has been a disaster for health-care costs.
Some believe that finding more abnormalities is the right strategy to improve the nation’s health, but how much it reduces death and disability is open to debate. The new abnormalities being found are generally not severe, but mild: they are not life-threatening, and in many patients they won’t ever produce symptoms. When the benefit of treatment is known, it is known to be small — so small that many people, sometimes hundreds, must be treated for one person to benefit. But more often than not, the value of treating these mild abnormalities is simply not known.
What is known is that others are invariably harmed in the process. Admittedly, the harms are often mild — lightheadedness or fainting from too much blood pressure medication, for example. But occasionally they are more severe, even fatal; last year, for instance, a major study of intensive diabetes treatment was stopped because it caused more deaths.
But while these harms are rare, so are the benefits— if they exist at all. Nevertheless, the medical-industrial complex has systematically exaggerated the benefits and minimized or ignored the harms. The reality is more nuanced: whether a strategy does more good than harm is often a much closer call than is ever advertised.
And then there is a larger question. How does “absence of abnormality” affect our perception of health? This construct is both too narrow and too broad. It’s too narrow because there is more to being healthy than striving to avoid death and disease. Health is more than a physical state of being; it’s also a state of mind.
And it’s too broad because all of us harbor abnormalities. The construct drives the system to look for things to be wrong — a search that will be successful in most of us. We then feel more vulnerable. This induced vulnerability undermines the very sense of well-being and resilience that in many ways defines health itself. Viewing health as the absence of abnormality thus conflicts with the desire for a healthier society.
Furthermore, the strategy has created a host of other problems: doctors who are overwhelmed by the number of ailments their patients allegedly have (and who are often distracted from the most important ones); doctors in training who are increasingly confused about who is really sick and who is not; lawyers who increasingly have a field day with the charge of “failure to diagnose”; patients who get too much treatment or lose health insurance because they been given a new diagnosis; and a frazzled, fearful public adrift in a culture of disease. Oh, and did I mention that it has been a disaster for health-care costs?
If you are one of the millions of Americans adversely affected by the unrelenting growth of health costs — an employer that can’t afford insurance or a patient who can’t afford prescription drugs or can’t find insurance at all — you have to take back responsibility for deciding what health really means, not surrender that decision to “experts” with strong financial incentives.
And even if you are one of the few who doesn’t need to worry about money, you still need to take back this responsibility. Your health may depend on it."
H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in Hanover, N.H., is the author of “Should I Be Tested for Cancer? Maybe Not and Here’s Why.”
© UNICEF Afghanistan/2009/Walther
A baby girl born on 1 August, the first day of the World Breastfeeding Week, in Malali Hospital, Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
We talk too much about health insurance and not enough about health. I know we need to settle the first issue first, and we are going to win this battle! If we help these coming weeks.
Now, about health - I think that anything that separates Mothers from their infants and babies is the scourge of the modern times, including work outside home and powdered milk. I am serious. What's good for Afghanistan is as good for the United States.
I run upon this issue today because I was also struck couple days ago by the infant mortality rates for Afghanistan (I was looking for Honduras statistics and then swayed elsewhere) - which remain cataclysmic.
here they are:
Under-5 mortality rank
2
Under-5 mortality rate, 1990
260
Under-5 mortality rate, 2007
257
Infant mortality rate (under 1), 1990
168
Infant mortality rate (under 1), 2007
165
Neonatal mortality rate, 2004
60
Total population (thousands), 2007
27145
Annual no. of births (thousands), 2007
1314
Annual no. of under-5 deaths (thousands), 2007
338
GNI per capita (US$), 2007
250
Life expectancy at birth (years), 2007
44
Total adult literacy rate (%), 2000–2007*
28
Primary school net enrolment/ attendance (%), 2000–2007*
61
% share of household income 1995–2005*, lowest 40%
-
% share of household income 1995–2005*, highest 20%
Definitions and data sources
country comparison to the world: 3 male: 156.01 deaths/1,000 live births female: 147.7 deaths/1,000 live births
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_Afghanistan#Infant_mortality_rate
We need to work together, or we all loose. This has nothing to do with progressive, or conservative, your way, or their way, it has to do with us finally coming together to get health care reform on the table. Do you not think that the Republicans are watching. If we represent the President, then shouldn't we trust him and his decisions Who's divisive method of divide & conquer, by way of fear, are we using. We must keep in mind the bottom line, The Goal. Which is reform. If we don't, not one congressmen will listen. We must make a united front behind the President, in order to succeed in achieving real reform in Washington, just like we did during the campaign. Are we adult enough of a party to get past ourselves and support the man we asked to do the job at hand? For our children's sake, I hope so!!!!!!
IT REALLY MADE MY DAY!
i LOVE MICHELLE WITH ALL MY HEART, AND HER ENTIRE FAMILY.
DO NOT MISS IT.
MERCED IS A VERY NEW CAMPUS IN CALIFORNIA, AND ALREADY
SO MUCH AHEAD OF THE VENERABLE NOTRE DAME.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
What is your opinion? fib
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By Herman Baca, President Committee on Chicano Right
With Tuesday’s special election, California voters will vote whether or not to raise taxes to supposedly address the state’s $42 billion dollar hemorrhaging deficit. With California being the most heavily taxed state in the U.S. with one of the highest unemployment rate (over 10%), the question for voters and especially poor people is: how should we vote?
Our organization that has dealt with issues affecting poor people for over 40 years, has taken the position that voters cast an unequivocal NO VOTE on all of the propositions on Tuesday’s special election.
In urging a NO VOTE the issue to our organization is the lack of accountability from political elected representatives, and the need for them to begin meeting the needs of residents, small businesses, poor people, instead of the vested interests in Sacramento.
The strongest politic argument for a NO VOTE is that voters take note as to what has happened in National City (NC) after a similar proposition was railroaded by vested interest politicians and supporters that saddled the city with one of the highest sales tax rate (9 3/4%) in California.
NC a blue color worker community comprised of so-called minority residents; 65% of Mexican ancestry, 16% Filipinos, 7% others and 12% Anglo with 19% of its residents living under the poverty line is the poorest city in San Diego County, and the 3rd poorest in California. For voters who want to know what will happen to California communities and especially poor people if Governor Schwarzenegger and state politicians succeed in convincing voters to vote yes, then NC is the perfect political case study.
Before California had a deficit, NC politicians created (from a surplus) a $6 million dollar deficit. The reasons for the deficit was that like drunken teenagers with dad’s credit card NC politicians over spent during the worst economic crisis since the 1930 depression on non-essentials such as:
· Bonuses for top management, salary increase for public employees, and a golden parachute pension fund employees that allows police, firemen, and city employees (political contributors) to retire after 30 years of service with 90% of their pay while contributing zero into the fund!
· $70,000 statues, 2.5 million dollar loans to out of the country developers, $25,000 for a Charger survey, etc.
· A number of raises to the Mayor’s “personal” secretary,
· Contracting a lobbyist for Sacramento.
With unemployment increasing, car dealer-ships closing, house foreclosures, etc. NC’s Mayor and City Council have added insult to financial injury just two short weeks after Chula Vista voters defeated a similar tax proposition (A), and right before Tuesday’s special election by arrogantly voted again to dole out raises and “bonuses” to NC executives and managers.
· The above is aside from the mayor and council granting $145,00.00 in 2008 to the same city’s executives and managers as a “one-time” retention incentive and bonuses of 5% to 6% and,
· In 2007, $20,000 bonuses, also to the highest paid city administrators and $22,000 and a $750 car allowance to NC do nothing City Attorney George Eiser III.
The above bonuses and raises were granted to bureaucrats, most who earn over $100,000 while NC residents, the poorest in SD County struggle daily to put food on their tables, clothes on their children’s backs, pay rent, and pay for the basic essentials of life.
Governor Schwarzenegger’s and his vested interested groupies will spend millions up until election day using “scare tactics,” that police, fire will be cut back, gangs will take over, houses will burn down etc. to frighten and convince voters to vote yes, like NC politicians did.
As NC politicians have proven, after levying the highest tax on the poorest people in California; politicians will never, ever be accountable to residents, taxpayers or voters, once they get your money.
Don’t be mislead, send a message to all politicians, VOTE NO on Tuesday on all the State propositions.
Who killed the public transport?
Well, many are guilty. Like those of us who do not use it even though it is there for grabs.
But especially guilty are designers of public transportation vehicles who are not regular users. Or perhaps just have “visited” a train between driving their well cushioned four door luxury sedans. I was close to a heart attack when I saw the “designs” for the new BART trains – the public train system in San Francisco Bay area. I use it all the time. And I have CFIDS. These photos made me dizzy by just looking at them.
Please read the comments following the article. I am sure glad that I am not alone in my feelings. Let's not let them squeeze us any more! We are working people. We deserve respect and comfort.
And MUNI, the San Francisco bus system, is going to raise the fair 50 cents. The highest rise in century!
All this when the Planet is warming every day more.
I am mad! fib
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BART lays out ambitious plans for new railcars This design includes three doors, and keeps the seating configuration fairly similar to the existing BART Cars at the far ends of the car, but changes the middle seating to allow longitudinal (side facing) seating. This opens up considerable room for passenger flows and standees. (Courtesy of BART)
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"BART is set to embark on a $3.4 billion project to replace its existing trains with 700 new cars that will carry more people, move passengers through stations faster, and meet the needs of suburban and urban riders.
"This is a significant undertaking for this agency, one we don't even make every generation," BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger said Thursday. Many of the 669 BART cars now in service have been running since the system opened in 1972.
BART officials are confident they can get $1 billion, most of which would come from the federal government, to pay for 200 cars and hope to get a further $2.4 billion in funding to pay for the remaining 500 trains in the fleet. Some of the costs could be paid for by fare hikes and bridge toll increases.(...)"
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/08/BAKO17GMMN.DTL
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World Report 2009
Events of 2008
January 14, 2009
The 19th annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. It reflects extensive investigative work undertaken in 2008 by Human Rights Watch staff, usually in close partnership with human rights activists in the country in question.
Sixty years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the governments demonstrating the clearest vision on international rights protections, sadly, are those seeking to undermine enforcement. In their foreign policies and in international fora, they invoke sovereignty, non-interference, and Southern solidarity to curb criticism of their human rights abuses and those of their allies and friends. Governments that champion human rights need urgently to wrest back the initiative from these human rights spoilers.
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Rapes targeting girls as young as seven are on the increase in Afghanistan where conditions for women are little better than under the Taliban, the U.N. and rights groups say.
In its annual report on human rights, the U.N. warned conditions were deteriorating in the war-ravaged country despite U.S.-led efforts after the 2001 removal from power of the hardline militia.
"Violence is tolerated or condoned within the family and community, within traditional and religious leadership circles, as well as the formal and informal justice system," said Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.
The "Afghan government has failed to adequately protect the rights of women despite constitutional guarantees."
With a resurgent Taliban targeting NATO forces, government security forces and civilians, violence has been on the increase in Afghanistan..
The number of civilian casualties in 2008 totaled 2,118 -- the highest number recorded since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, the U.N. said, urging greater protecting for ordinary Afghans.
Violence against women comes in the form of rape, "honor killings," early and forced marriages, sexual abuse and slavery, the report says. "The security is the big issue," said Suraya Pakzad, founder of the Voice of Women Organization, which promotes education and awareness of women's rights and protects women and girls at risk in Afghanistan.
"Because of security we, unfortunately, day by day, we have to pull out of areas where last year we operated, we have our operations. We were able to work with the women, but this year we cannot," she said.
"We have to leave the area because security is getting worse day by day."
"Rapes in the country have been growing tremendously, particularly child rapes within the ages of 9, 8, 7, even lesser than that," said Wazhma Frogh, director of Global Rights Afghanistan.
"So these are the issues that are all born by this lack of security where women have no place in ... security decisions."
Domestic violence against child brides is widespread, said Suraya Pakzad, the founder of the Voice of Women organization, who was married at age 14 and has six children. She said girls as young as 10 face "violation" by husbands 40 years their senior. "By the end ... women, or girls, run away."
But women without husbands, especially widows, may have it even worse in Afghanistan, the report says. Without a spouse, the women are reduced to begging to feed their children.
Options outside the home are limited where the Taliban holds sway in Afghanistan. The Taliban's interpretation of strict Islamic law, or sharia, has included banning girls from school and the workplace.
Even in areas not overrun by the Taliban, women face risks outside the home.
"The assassination of the most prominent national female senior police officer, in Kandahar in September 2008, underscores the tremendous risks faced by women in public life," the report says.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/03/06/afghan.women/index.html
Beneath the veil
Carla Garapedian, producer/director of the Dispatches programme, Lifting the Veil, assesses how far life has changed for women in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime
Whack! The soldier's baton hit me hard against my back, knocking out any illusions I had about women's progress here in Afghanistan.
The burka – the head-to-toe garment that has come to symbolise women's oppression in Afghanistan - is now optional, according to the Karzai government. Yet, my Afghan translator and I were physically punished for not wearing them. I was hit from behind. She was hit square on her chest.
Are women better off now? In our journey across the country, we found women still fearful of being punished if they don't wear their burkas, if they speak without permission from their male relatives, if they venture out into the workplace. After decades of civil war, many are wary of the new government, which is sending mixed messages about what they can and can't do.
Permission required
In Kabul's women's prison, many of the conditions have improved since the Taliban's downfall. But the cells are nearly full again; women are still being incarcerated in violation of their basic human rights for crimes such as travelling without being accompanied by a man or marrying without their families' permission.
'It's wrong to say it was just the Taliban that pressed for the introduction of a radical version of Islamic law. This has always existed in Afghanistan,' says Martin Lau, an expert in Islamic law at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies.
The Karzai government claims to have overturned Taliban laws and to conform to international standards of human rights. But with trials held in secret, no access to defence lawyers and no hope of bail, the girls in Kabul city prison know better.
Freedom in theory
Certainly, women are being encouraged to go back to work - what little there is. They are buying cosmetics and going to the beauty parlours - activities once banned to them. All over the country we saw government posters urging parents to send their girls back to school. We visited three girls' schools that were all full to the brim.
But for many women, re-entering public life is still risky. Najiba Asseed, a young woman who has returned to Kabul University medical school, wants to become a doctor. She's facing heavy opposition from her husband and death threats from her brother.
Najiba has petitioned the new Women's Ministry for a divorce. Despite the fact that her country is desperate for doctors, that one child in four dies before the age of five and that Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, Najiba was told to quit medical school, go back to her husband and have children. 'The government has given women the right to work and to be educated,' she told us, 'but they will not defend any other rights.' If a woman has no right to divorce a man who forbids her to work or receive an education, those rights may as well not exist for her.
Under attack
In this unstable context, attacks against women are on the increase. We tracked down Azda, an 11-year-old girl, who had had acid thrown at her and whose school was firebombed. Since we filmed her, at least seven other schools have been attacked. UNICEF representative Eric Laroche says: 'A girl that goes to school and sees her school being burnt down is deprived of her rights.'
A teacher in Kandahar was threatened with death if she continued working. 'If you go to school I will kill you,' a man told her. He threatened to cut her up into little pieces. He was eventually arrested. 'He was al Qaeda,' the local militia captain told us. 'Al Qaeda's purpose is to try to damage the government,' he said. 'They're making propaganda, putting pamphlets around, like warnings.'
But not all the attacks are coming from the Taliban or al-Qaeda. A 17- year old girl was killed in a neighbourhood near Kandahar. We found the girl's mother. She told us the girl was killed by her brother because she was seeing a boy without his permission. He used a Kalashnikov - not acid.
Women were targets even before the Taliban came to power - especially between 1994 and 1996, when Kabul was bombed by competing factions of the mujahedeen. Women not wearing burkas were accused of sympathising with the Russians, the country's former occupiers. They were attacked, and in many cases raped, by groups anxious to prove their ideological credentials. So it was then; so it is now.
Shame and punishment
The gang-rape we documented in Lifting the Veil is part of this violent culture. In northern Afghanistan, power is constantly shifting between four ethnic groups: Pashtuns; Tajiks; Hazaras; and Uzbeks. The soldiers there rape girls because they know the family of a rape victim will often move away from their home, to escape the shame. Rape has become an instrument of ethnic cleansing.
The 14-year-old girl we interviewed was brutally raped by four soldiers. Her father and brother now beat her because she is no longer a virgin; she has brought shame on her family. 'Unfortunately, this is the Afghanistan culture,' says Dr Ahamd, an Afghan doctor who worked in Mazar-i-Sharif for 12 years for the Halo Trust. 'If one girl has been raped by somebody, either by force or by agreement [in some cases families have invited the soldiers in], even her father wants to kill her. Even if it's not her fault.'
I don't know why the government isn't stopping them. I don't know why the American soldiers aren't stopping them,' Tajwar Kakar, the Karzai government's women's deputy minister, tells us. 'Isn't part of the problem that western governments are supporting the Northern Alliance and the attacks are coming from the Northern Alliance – so your hands are tied?' I ask. 'I'm sorry I can't answer this,' she replies, 'because I'm part of this government.' The Karzai government includes members of the Northern Alliance.
Losing ground
Women in government are themselves under threat. Three months ago, the first women's minister, Sima Samar, was forced out office after being accused of not fully supporting the new Islamic republic.
For now, at least, the message is clear. The Taliban is dead. Long live the Taliban.
About Afghanistan
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At the Summit of Americas Hugo Chavez came with a gift for President Obama: The Spanish original signed by himself of this book:
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Receive a 20% discount
ISBN: 0-85345-991-6 $18.00 paper ISBN: 0-85345-990-8 $34.00 cloth 360 pp.
also by Eduardo Galeano: DAYS AND NIGHTS OF LOVE AND WAR
Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano Translated by Cedric Belfrage New Introduction by Isabel Allende
“A superbly written, excellently translated, and powerfully persuasive expose which all students of Latin American and U.S. history must read.” —CHOICE, American Library Association
“I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Galeano’s vision is unswerving, surgical and yet immensely generous and humane. This book, written more than thirty years ago, contains profound lessons for contemporary [? Americas]. Eduardo Galeano ought to be a household name in this country.” —Arundhati Roy
Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx.
Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organized the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation. Thus he is concerned with gold and silver, cacao and cotton, rubber and coffee, fruit, hides and wool, petroleum, iron, nickel, manganese, copper, aluminum ore, nitrates, and tin. These are the veins which he traces through the body of the entire continent, up to the Rio Grande and throughout the Caribbean, and all the way to their open ends where they empty into the coffers of wealth in the United States and Europe.
Weaving fact and imagery into a rich tapestry, Galeano fuses scientific analysis with the passions of a plundered and suffering people. An immense gathering of materials is framed with a vigorous style that never falters in its command of themes. All readers interested in great historical, economic, political, and social writing will find a singular analytical achievement, and an overwhelming narrative that makes history speak, unforgettably.
This classic is now further honored by Isabel Allende's inspiring introduction. Universally recognized as one of the most important writers of our time, Allende once again contributes her talents to literature, to political principles, and to enlightenment.
About the Author EDUARDO GALEANO is the author of Days and Nights of Love and War (winner of the 1978 Casa de las Americas Prize), The Book of Embraces, and the highly acclaimed Memory of Fire trilogy. ISABEL ALLENDE is the author of several bestselling titles including In the House of the Spirits; The Infinite Plan, and Paula.
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Eduardo Hughes Galeano, Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Galeano
some quotes from Galeano:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eduardo_Galeano
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Day in pictures
Bangladeshi people in Dhaka celebrate the Bengali New Year, or Pohela Boishakh.
