Posts Tagged ‘Global’
Saturday, May 8th, 2010
Bruce Elder: 8/5/10,
Irvine Welsh and others; Vintage, 189pp, $24,95
If you believe we should all be treated equally, regardless of race or sex, then you will already be appalled by those countries and societies where prejudice against young girls, simply because they are female, is part of the fabric of everyday life. It is easy to register that the life of a female child in Egypt, the Sudan, Brazil, Togo, the Dominican Republic, Liberia and Sierra Leone is far worse than it is for a boy but it is hard to break free from the easy torpor of indifference and attempt to do something about that horrific injustice.
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Tags: Children, Global, Human Rights, Women
Posted in Health & Children, Human Rights, Womens Rights | No Comments »
Saturday, May 8th, 2010
Jo Chandler; 8/5/10
International health literature is loaded with graphs and studies describing, in antiseptic terms, the three obstacles that prevent a pregnant woman from getting the care she needs to survive childbirth.
-First is social: will her family recognise when she is in trouble, will culture allow her to seek help, can she afford it?
-Next is access: are there the roads, communications, vehicles to get her to care?
-Finally there is the quality of care at journey’s end: will she find skilled staff, clean facilities, vital drugs and equipment?
To see these factors at work, step out of the literature into messy reality, into the Tarin Kowt Hospital in Afghanistan.
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Tags: Children, Global, Women
Posted in Gender & Marriage, Health & Children, Human Rights, Womens Rights | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
7/5/10
Days before G20 leaders meet in June, women from the world’s 20 leading economies are to hold their own “G(irls)20 summit” to highlight women’s contributions to global economic prosperity. From June 15 to 18, the women will discuss the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals that affect girls and women, notably eradicating poverty and hunger, and improving maternal health, organisers announced on Wednesday. Delegates are to debate education, contraception and the role of women in a modern society. They will also be encouraged to propose ways to bolster women’s economic participation. The summit was inspired in part by a suggestion by Lawrence Summers, former World Bank chief economist and current economic adviser to US President Barack Obama, that a woman invests 80 per cent of every dollar earned in her family and community, compared to 30 per cent by men.
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Tags: Global, Womens Rights
Posted in Human Rights, Womens Rights | No Comments »
Friday, April 30th, 2010
30/4/10
A huge die-off of bees worldwide, a major threat to crops depending on the honey-making insects for pollination, is not due to any one single factor. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said yesterday that parasites, viral and bacterial infections, pesticides and poor nutrition resulting from the impact of human activities on the environment had all played roles in the decline. At normal times, bee communities naturally lose about 5 per cent of their numbers but with the syndrome known as colony collapse disorder, up to 90 per cent of the insects can be wiped out. In the US, government figures released last month showed a 29 per cent drop in bee numbers in beehives last year, coming on the heels of declines of 36 and 32 per cent in 2008 and 2007. The mysterious decimation of bee populations in the US, Europe, Japan and elsewhere in recent years threatens agricultural production worth tens of billions.
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Tags: Environment, Global
Posted in Environment | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
Clay O’Brien, 27/4/10
The latest figures released on international aid show again how Australia is lagging behind the rest of the developed world. Each time these types of figures are released, we comfort ourselves by saying: “Yes, but we give a lot to worthwhile causes as individuals.” But that does not show us in a better light either. Figures released recently by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development indicate the Australian government contribution to foreign aid was $US2.76 billion last year. Based on the percentage of our gross national income, our aid is equivalent to 0.29 per cent and ranks Australia 16th out of 23 countries.
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Tags: Aid, Australia, Global, Trade
Posted in Aid / Trade, Australia, Environment, Human Rights | No Comments »
Saturday, April 24th, 2010
Alex Wodak; 24/4/10
Alex Wodak is a physician, director of the alcohol and drug service at Sydney’s St Vincents Hospital and president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation.
Twenty-nine years after the announcement of a new pandemic, the world still struggles to come to terms with HIV. Sometimes logic, rationality and compassion have prevailed in our responses, but all too often emotion has triumphed over evidence. Earlier this month in Sydney the National Centre for HIV Social Research held its biennial conference to review responses to this infection. Former High Court judge Michael Kirby spoke about a recent meeting he attended in The Netherlands where leaders of the world’s religions discussed this challenging epidemic. Kirby described how most participants were moved by compassion for vulnerable minorities, but a few steadfastly refused to approve any declaration that acknowledged the minority groups at highest risk in the West. One of the speakers at the Sydney conference wept while describing her two decades of hard work spent trying to achieve more humane responses to drug users. Kirby, noting her tears, rejoiced that there were some among us who still felt great passion about this epidemic at a time of growing HIV fatigue and the increasing dominance of newer concerns and threats.The number of people in the world newly infected with HIV has started declining. But an estimated 2.7 million people are expected to get infected this year.
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Tags: Australia, Global, HIV/Aids
Posted in Australia, Health & Children, HIV-AIDS | No Comments »
Monday, April 19th, 2010
19/4/10; (2 Items)
When Pat Bond told her lover, Henry Willenborg, a Franciscan priest, she was pregnant, he urged her to have an abortion. Ms Bond, who was 28, had a miscarriage and then became pregnant again. This time, the church urged her to give up the child for adoption. Ms Bond, from Missouri in the US, kept the child but agreed to a vow of silence. In a signed contract with the Catholic Church, she undertook to keep the priest’s identity secret in exchange for financial support for her son, Nathan. In the US, Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy and Austria, women made pregnant by priests have signed such pledges in exchange for hush money from the church. The Pope refused to comment on the scandals yesterday during his flight to Malta, saying only that the church had been “wounded by our sins”. But he faces a new battle over the children of priests. Many former lovers and their offspring are preparing to mount lawsuits.
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Tags: Celibacy, Christianity, Global, Pedophilia, USA
Posted in Christianity, Health & Children, Human Rights, USA | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
13/4/10
Citing a series of fatal malfunctions dating back to 1777, flag manufacturer Annin & Company announced Monday that it would be recalling all makes and models of its popular American flag from both foreign and domestic markets. Representatives from the nation’s leading flag producer claimed that as many as 143 million deaths in the past two centuries can be attributed directly to the faulty U.S. models, which have been utilised extensively since the 18th century in sectors as diverse as government, the military, and public education. “It has come to our attention that, due to the inherent risks and hazards it poses, the American flag is simply unfit for general use,” said Annin & Company president Ronald Burman, who confirmed that the number of flag-related deaths had noticeably spiked since 2003. “I would like to strongly urge all U.S. citizens: If you have an American flag hanging in your home or place of business, please discontinue using it immediately.”
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Tags: Global, Human Rights, USA, War
Posted in Human Rights, USA, War | No Comments »
Saturday, April 10th, 2010
10/4/10;( 2 Items)
It’s like a death notice wrappen in pink. A pregnant woman in India has an ultrasound, and when her bill drops into her letterbox it’s in a pink envelope, signalling that she’s having a baby girl. In a country where parents-to-be are not permitted to learn the gender of their unborn child, this is one of several means used to sidestep the law. For those desperate to have a son, the letter can mean a trip to an abortion clinic (where the operation will often be justified with the catch-all “foetal abnormality”) or the more ghastly alternative of post-birth infanticide. The traditional preference for male offspring is the driving force behind the now drastic gender imbalance in China (where by 2020 there will be 4o million more boys than girls) and India (where already there are 24 million more boys).
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Tags: Children, Global, Womens Rights
Posted in Health & Children, Human Rights, Womens Rights | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
Joan Chittister; 7/3/10
For all the certainty about the facts of the case, there is still an aura of discontent everywhere about the situation surrounding clerical sex abuse in the church. No one disputes the data now; everyone disputes the nature of the problem. And worse than that, the data simply keeps piling up on all sides. First, the world called it an “American problem.” As in, those Americans are a wild bunch anyway, what else can you expect?” The Vatican went so far as to dismiss the issue as simply another demonstration of American exaggeration — what the Irish call the American tendency to be “over the top.” Then Ireland found itself engulfed in the problem and suddenly the outrage was no longer seen as “over the top.” On the contrary, it became a display of integrity. Nor were the numbers seen as being exaggerated by the media. On the contrary, the numbers of child victims, the world began to understand, had, if anything, been minimized. Now, the boil has broken in Europe, too: in the Netherlands, in Austria, in Germany, and, oh yes, in the Vatican, as well.
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Tags: Christianity, Global, Pedophilia, USA
Posted in Christianity, Health & Children, USA | No Comments »
Sunday, April 4th, 2010
Joan Chittister; 11/3/10
I got an invitation today. It wasn’t to me. It was to Glenn Beck. Let me give you a little background so you can understand how it happened. There is a nun in the country this week, a Sister of the Good Shepherd, from Syria. Now, that may not seem much like international news to you but it is. And not only to me. In fact, Sr. Marie Claude Naddaf is here to receive the U.S. State Department’s “International Women of Courage Award.” Given to 10 women around the globe who have shown “exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women’s rights and advancement,” the awards purpose is to support women who are working for the equality of women everywhere. And any woman who has ever spoken up for women’s equality in any arena that counts – in politics, in business, in law, in the home, in the church – know exactly how much courage that requires. Even now. Even here.
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Tags: Christianity, Global, Syria, Womens Rights
Posted in Christianity, Human Rights, USA, Womens Rights | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
Bradley Burston; 31/3/10; (6 Items)
[All fill the last of the four cups of Seder wine]
We built this city.
We built this city on freedom.
We built this Jerusalem, this faith, this people, on the idea that God cannot be seen nor touched, that God cannot be built of stones, nor destroyed in fire, nor claimed by one people alone, nor translated into the language of maps, nor used as a weapon to shun other peoples, malign other faiths, or deny others this city.
We built this city on courage. We built this city on the kind of belief that it took to leave our slavemasters behind, everything we know behind, to take the step into the sea that had nothing but miracles holding back its walls from drowning everyone that it did not first crush.
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Tags: Christianity, Global, Israel, Passover/Seder, Religion
Posted in Christianity, Israel & Palestine, Religion | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
31/3/10
Human rights group Amnesty International has called on China to publicly state how many people it puts to death each year. In its annual report on the use of the death penalty worldwide, published on Tuesday, Amnesty said the number of people executed by Beijing last year was likely “in the thousands” – estimated to be more than the total in the rest of the world.”Chinese authorities claim that fewer executions are taking place. If this is true, why won’t they tell the world how many people the state put to death?” Claudio Cordone, the Amnesty International interim secretary general, said in a statement. The 41-page Death Sentences and Executions in 2009report refused to even estimate the toll in China, saying that the organisation believed publicly available statistics “grossly underrepresent” the actual figure.
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Tags: AI, Asia, Capital Punishment, Global
Posted in Asia, Capital Punishment, China, Human Rights | No Comments »
Saturday, March 27th, 2010
Tess Livingstone; 27/3/10
More than 200 Traditional Anglican Church parishes from around the world have petitioned the Vatican to be received into the Catholic Church. Archbishop John Hepworth of Adelaide, primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, said petitions had been sent on behalf of 100 parishes in the US, 30 in Britain, 26 in Australia, nine in the Torres Strait, and dozens more in Canada, Latin America and Puerto Rico. And a second raft of British parishes are expected to apply. Melbourne Catholic bishop Peter Elliott, who has been appointed by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference to liaise with Anglicans interested in taking up Pope Benedict XVI’s offer of full communion, said he was pleased with the progress but that interest in the issue extended well beyond the TAC, a breakaway group, into the mainstream Anglican Church.
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Tags: Christianity, Global
Posted in Christianity | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
Paul Maley & Paige Taylor; 24/3/10
The number of refugees seeking asylum in Australia jumped by almost 30 per cent last year despite global numbers remaining steady, challenging Kevin Rudd’s claim that instability abroad is behind the surge in refugee boats. As Border Protection command yesterday intercepted two more asylum boats, the third in as many days, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees released its annual report on global asylum trends.
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Tags: Australia, Global, Migrants & Refugees
Posted in Australia, Human Rights, Refugee & Migrant | No Comments »
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
22/3/10
The battle to save some of the world’s most endangered species is turning bloody, with wildlife charities deploying guns and military vehicles to protect elephants, rhinos and tigers from a surge in poaching. At least one organisation, Care for the Wild International, is buying military-style field equipment and supporting the deployment of armed guards, while the US-based International Fund for Animal Welfare has bought ammunition, night-vision supplies and light aircraft. WWF, formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund, has hired former SAS soldiers to train African wildlife wardens, and the Zoological Society of London is funding elephant-mounted armed patrols to protect rhinos in Nepal. The trend towards militarisation follows an estimated 150 deaths among game wardens in Africa in gunfights with poachers. The disclosures coincide with a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Qatar, which has angered activists by dismissing proposals to protect bluefin tuna. This week, their fury could increase with the likely approval of plans to restart sales of ivory.
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Tags: Environment, Global
Posted in Environment | No Comments »
