tagged w/ Eve Ensler
-
Eve Ensler's -
Ambiguous UpSparkles From the Heart of the Park (Mic Check/Occupy Wall Street)
. . . .besides,....Bush is a dick,....uhm,....so is Rick,.....but I digress,......this is about what SHE said,.....and SHE said - - -
( about OCCUPY WALL STREET )
~ excerpt ~
[ It is a cry against what appears to be scarcity and what Naomi Klein calls a distribution problem and, I would add, a priority problem. It is a spontaneous uprising that has been building for years in our collective unconscious. It is a gorgeous, mischievous moment that has arrived and is spreading. It is a speaking out, coming out, dancing out. It is an experiment and a disruption.
We all know things are terribly wrong in this country. From the death of our rivers, to the bankruptcy of our schools to our failed health care system, something at the center does not hold.
A diverse group of teachers, thinkers, students, techies, workers, nurses, have stopped their daily lives. They have come to gather and reflect and march and lay their bodies down. They have come from all over the country and the world. Some have flown in just to be here. I met students last night from a college in Kentucky who had just arrived committed to sleeping out for two nights in solidarity.
Occupy Wall Street is a work of art, exploding onto a canvas in search of form, in search of an image, a vision.
In a culture obsessed with product, the process of creation is almost unbearable. Nothing is more threatening than the moment, the living breathing ambiguity of now. We have been trained to name things, own things, brand things and in doing so control and consume them. Well, the genius of Occupy Wall Street is that so far it is not brandable and that's what makes its potential so daunting, so far reaching, so inclusive, and so dangerous. It cannot be defined and so it cannot be sold, as a sound bite or a political party or even a thing. It can't be summed up and dismissed.]
and THIS-
[ To make sure the human microphone is working properly the speaker calls out Mike Check and the crowd repeats Mike Check and by doing this it becomes clear if the voice of the speaker is being carried through the entire crowd. I think our media needs a general Mike Check. So last night I committed to creating a column that would carry the stories of the occupiers at the heart of the park.
There are certain hand signals that are used in the group to signify response. My favorite is the signal for agreement, or something you like a lot .
People lift their hands and wiggle their fingers. This has come to be called Upsparkles. ]
Read the whole thing, it is worth your time. She writes really well,.....go figure.
p.s. ( for a woman )
p.p.s. There - THAT should generate some interest !
LINKeroooooooo - - -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/ambiguous-upsparkles-from_b_1003908.htmlEve Ensler's -
Ambiguous UpSparkles From the Heart of the Park (Mic Check/Occupy... more
-
-
Valentine's Day came early for Jurate Kazickas at a celebration in early February in the Democratic Republic of Congo marking the opening of the City of Joy, a recovery sanctuary for rape survivors. Eve Ensler was radiant at the center of it all.
The opening ceremonies here for the City of Joy were full of singing, dancing, cheers and signs of hope--in the smiling faces of women who had survived rape--of being safe at last.
The City of Joy is a project to empower the women of the Democratic Republic of Congo, centered around a compound of buildings that the women envisioned for themselves: small houses for privacy, meeting rooms, open fields for gardens and children's playgrounds.
A six-month program for its 90 residents will include psychosocial treatment, literacy and life skills and vocational training. The goal is to create a movement of female leaders for a peaceful future in the country.
"This is a turning point for the women of the Congo," said Eve Ensler, founder of V-Day, the international organization against gender-based violence, and the guiding light behind the program. "The City of Joy will be a gathering place for the women to find their voices, their vision and their power. And when the women find their power, all of the Congo will change."
Ensler, who was wearing her hair cropped short after coming through chemotherapy treatments, called the opening day "the happiest day of my life."
During the 13 years of the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is estimated that over 500,000 women have been raped and tortured in the most brutal and savage way, resulting in serious medical and psychological suffering.
Women and young girls have endured kidnapping, sexual slavery and forced prostitution. Due to the stigma attached to rape, those who survive are often too ashamed to go back to their villages and have no way to support themselves and their children.
But inadequate funding limits the outlook for many of the rape survivors who can't come to the City of Joy. Little of the $17 million U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged 16 months ago to fight sexual violence has been delivered to the area.
"You know, money is not the answer," a U.S. government official at the ceremonies told Women's eNews, saying the volatile politics over control of the Democratic Republic of Congo's vast resources and the after effects of the Rwandan genocide, which has created a serious humanitarian crisis, had to be resolved.
The City of Joy was designed pro bono by the Chicago architecture firm Stephen Rankin Associates, with funding from V-Day, private donations, Panzi Foundation and UNICEF.
And it's easy to find other opportunities to invest in women here.
One afternoon Ensler took a number of us to the countryside to visit the Green Mamas, an organization of rape survivors. The women were farming a small parcel of land, planting green beans and cassava, feeding goats with leaves and then using goat waste to fertilize the land. They use the produce to feed their families and sell it in the markets.
The women came dancing and singing down the road to greet us, carrying a banner for the Women's Association for Conservation and Sustainable Development.
Their leader, Mama Germaine Buttendwa, told Ensler how she wished they had more fields to grow more crops closer to their villages so the women did not have to walk so many miles to work.
"How much does an acre cost?" Ensler asked.
"Four thousand dollars," said Buttendwa.
Ensler made eye contact with one of her V-day board members from San Francisco who smiled and nodded.
"Done."
When Buttendwa told the news to the women, they broke into joyous cheers.
http://www.womensenews.org/story/rape/110212/city-joy-celebrates-survival-love-and-fundingValentine's Day came early for Jurate Kazickas at a celebration in early February... more
-
-
A recent report from Enough Project ranked the top 21 electronics manufacturers, showing their progress in creating products with conflict-free minerals and the steps they've taken to ensure that. EP estimates that conflict mining is a $185 million business, which is even more shocking when you consider the World Bank says average the average miner makes only $5 a day.
====== report ===================
By Michelle Castillo, TechLand, on December 15, 2010
Many of our electronic devices are made up of minerals like tantalum, used to make the capacitors in most cell phones, and tin, which makes up the inside lining of some cell phones and is used to solder circuit boards. Unfortunately, many of these materials come from conflict-ridden areas of the Congo, where increasing profits from electronic sales help fund the inhumane treatment of people who live and work in the country. The Enough Project, an advocacy group focused on ending genocide and crimes against humanity, estimates that conflict mining is a $185 million business, which is even more shocking when you consider the World Bank says average the average miner makes only $5 a day.
According to Raise Hope for Congo, more than 5.4 million people have died from the continuous wars that ravage the country. The organization urges people to tell companies that they want conflict free products. Congo's minerals are especially attractive to electronic manufacturers because of unregulated mining practices and cheap labor. Minerals from the African nation cost half or a third as much the same materials from other countries, according to the Washington Post. Though the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Act requires manufacturers to identify and get rid of conflict minerals in their products and similar legislation will be mandated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2011, Congolese mines are often controlled by armed groups and militias. These groups smuggle the minerals out of the country to smelting companies on other continents, which means the origin of the minerals can often be masked even from the company commissioning the product. Even though Congo's president announced a ban on all artisanal mining in eastern Congo last August, the ruling has not been enforced by the country's national military and has even negatively affected the citizens who work in the mines as a main source of income.
A recent report from Enough Project ranked the top 21 electronics manufacturers, showing their progress in creating products with conflict-free minerals and the steps they've taken to ensure that. Leading the pack was HP with an over 30 percent improvement. The company has endorsed anti-conflict mineral legislation and advocates for strong US regulations for all manufacturers. Apple, who uses tantalum not only in their smartphones but in iPods as well, were given a yellow score, which means there is much room for improvement. (Though several of their top executives have spoken out against conflict mineral mining in the Congo, they did not weigh in on key US conflict mineral legislation.) Toshiba received the worst score of the bunch; they have barely made any changes at all according to the study. Enough Project knows it may be hard for the average consumer to tell whether or not they are helping fund a war over natural resources just by looking at a product. Still, the group hopes that especially this holiday season when people are out shopping for the latest gadgets that by being little more knowledgeable about which companies are taking a stand against genocide and human rights abuses, shoppers can judge for themselves whether or not to support these crimes against humanity.
##### ARTICLE HERE ##################
Is Your Mobile Device or Laptop Funding Conflict Mineral Wars?
By Michelle Castillo on December 15, 2010
http://techland.time.com/2010/12/15/is-your-mobile-device-or-laptop-funding-conflict-wars/A recent report from Enough Project ranked the top 21 electronics manufacturers,... more
-
-
The United Nations has ordered 900 peacekeepers to a remote region of Democratic Republic of Congo, where the LRA killed more than 1,000 adults and children around Christmas in 2008 and 2009 and kidnapped hundreds more, to head off feared Christmas attacks by Lord's Resistance Army fighters.
===== report ==============
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations has ordered 900 peacekeepers to a remote region of Democratic Republic of Congo, to head off feared Christmas attacks by Lord's Resistance Army fighters, a spokesman said Tuesday.
UN forces will go to a region where the LRA killed more than 1,000 adults and children around Christmas in 2008 and 2009 and kidnapped hundreds more.
The UN mission in DR Congo is also sending extra humanitarian supplies to the region, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters.
A special operation against the LRA has been launched in the Dungu district of Upper Uele region and would carry on until mid-January because of fears of the "holiday season" attacks, Nesirky said.
The announcement came after the UN Security Council called for greater international action against the LRA, which is led by Joseph Kony who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The LRA sprang out of a rebellion in Uganda in the 1980s but now terrorizes communities in Central African Republic, southern Sudan and DR Congo.
The Security Council welcomed an African Union move to set up a joint task force to fight the LRA and deploy joint border patrols.
"It calls for the countries of the region to enhance coordination and information sharing regarding the the threat posed by the LRA," said a Security Council statement on efforts to bring peace to Central African Republic.
Ugandan special forces currently lead the international hunt for Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In December 2008, LRA fighters killed 865 men, women and children in the northeastern DR Congo and in southern Sudan, and kidnapped hundreds of others.
A year later 300 people were murdered between December 14 and 17, also in northeast DR Congo.
The United States has promised to support a new effort to catch Kony and halt the conflict generated by the LRA, but in a report titled "Ghosts of Christmas Past," 19 aid agencies said the Security Council should do more.
The report said LRA attacks remote communities in Sudan, Central African Republic and DR Congo almost four times a week.
"These communities await Christmas with fear," added the groups, who include Oxfam, Christian Aid, Refugees International, World Vision and War Child UK, among others.
The UN refugee agency said in October that the rebels had killed 2,000 people since December 2008, kidnapped more than 2,600 and displaced more than 400,000 in DR Congo, the Central African Republic and southern Sudan.
"The acute suffering and mass population displacement the LRA has generated across international borders is undermining stability in an already fragile region, where southern Sudan is preparing to hold a landmark referendum on secession in early 2011," the report said.
The aid groups welcomed recent steps by the United States and the African Union. But it said kidnapped people had to be helped to return home and villages had to be protected.
The aid groups called on the UN Security Council to set up an expert panel as "there is a chronic lack of information about the motivation, composition and location of the LRA."
The LRA began their rebellion in northern Uganda in the late 1980s, but have not carried out an attack there since 2006.
Since south Sudanese-hosted peace talks broke down in 2008, the fighters have roamed the jungles of central Africa and been repeatedly blamed for the slaughter of defenseless civilians.
The African Union has said the LRA should be called "terrorists" rather than rebels.
############# ARTICLE LINK #############
UN peacekeepers to head off Christmas massacre
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iduTBApHLCmGUF9clnqdrlk-L8TQ?docId=CNG.a3cd72112889141b0229f761dc840322.2a1
(AFP) – Dec 13, 2010The United Nations has ordered 900 peacekeepers to a remote region of Democratic... more
-
-
Leaders from 11 nations in the conflict-ravaged Great Lakes region of central Africa on Tuesday signed a pledge – partly drafted by a Canadian organization – to stamp out the illegal trade of conflict minerals.
Signed at a summit in the Zambian capital of Lusaka by governments including the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, the pledge commits signatory states to take steps to implement a regional certification system to track such minerals as they are exported from Africa for smelting in Asia.
The summit was called to address mining practices that have helped to fuel mass rapes and massacres in the eastern provinces of Congo. The illegitimate mining of minerals such as coltan, tungsten, tin and gold, which are used in electronic devices, is widespread in the region and often finances armed groups.
Among the mechanisms to be implemented is a “bag-and-tag” system in which minerals are tagged at their point of origin. The African nations also said they would create a database to make it easier to identify and track minerals that originate in areas of conflict.
The move by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region comes as governments in the United States, Canada and Europe consider legislation that would make roughly 6,000 manufacturers, including BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd., responsible for tracking the minerals used in their products.
#################################
PLEASE GO AND READ THE ARTICLE !
IAIN MARLOW AND OMAR EL AKKAD
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010 2:02PM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010 6:57PM EST
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/african-leaders-pledge-to-wipe-out-trade-of-conflict-minerals/article1839121/?cmpid=rss1Leaders from 11 nations in the conflict-ravaged Great Lakes region of central Africa... more
-
-
Hundreds of women and children were raped over and over during 3 days in July, another incident reported in August... estimates indicate many thousands of women and girls are brutalized each year on a gross scale ...for the creature comforts of civilized society. Efforts to combat illicit mining of coltan and other minerals are gaining traction, as politicians in Canada and other Western governments look to establish tough penalties against the practice. When we glance at the holocaust in Congo, with about 7 million dead, the clichés of Africa reporting tumble out: this is a "tribal conflict" in "the Heart of Darkness". It isn't. The United Nations investigation found it was a ****war led by "armies of business" to seize the metals*** that make our 21st-century society zing and bling. The war in Congo is a war about you.
(Mash-Quoted from various articles included below. When you see 5.4 million quoted, that is up to 2007, estimates for up to today are at 6.5 to 7 million.)
"Dr. Mukwege [see below] believes the number of women who have been raped since the beginning of the conflict is far higher than the U.N. estimates of 200,000-300,000, saying the real figure is more like half a million."
Over 6,000 rape incidents a year (in recent years) are conservatively estimated based just on what gets reported.
And we do not see the continuing dismemberment and murders (possibly decapitations), nor much footage from the few doctors you may read about working in the tranches.
"Exploited African oil, coltan, chocolate, bauxite, gold, coffee, platinum, chromium, iron, gas, flowers, agriculture and animals are dripping in the blood of African people, making billions of dollars for Europe and America. "
"In the end, it will be consumer education and pressure that will make the difference."
Lets wake up. There's more we can be doing...
Over 10 years, and its still going strong... "The mining industry in that country relies on slave labour, violence and sexual assault. Since the popularity of smartphones has risen, warlords in the country have taken control of the mines to retrieve the precious metal, then sell it on the international market to manufacturers of the gadgets that will ultimately end up under our Christmas trees." more at this link-->
http://www.care2.com/causes/human-rights/blog/smartphones-the-new-blood-diamonds/
Consider how much of this is about our cell phones and laptops, DVD players, computers, digital cameras, video games, vehicle air bags, jewelry (gold and diamonds), chocolate, and more... all the things so many feel they cannot live without [sic].
And so what can we do? What are we doing? Are we forgetting to keep an eye on this?
The main article prompting me to post is marked as such below. I have included a lot of links to other interesting articles, almost all within the last couple months. There are a couple of key things we all can be doing...
- we need to keep an eye on manufacturers and govt actions behind the statute in the Dodd-Frank bill discussed below
- there's a really provocative video in my third post below, please check it out... the ideas expressed there seem to make very good sense for changing things that matter.
----------------------
Q&A: DR Congo conflict (first, a little down and dirty overview)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11108589
"In November 2009, a report by UN-commissioned experts said UN involvement had done nothing to quell the violence - with rebels continuing to kill and plunder natural resources with impunity and claims the rebels are supported by an international crime network stretching through Africa to Western Europe and North America."
Timeline: Democratic Republic of Congo
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1072684.stm
Prevalence of Rape in E. Congo Described as Worst in World (sep 2007)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090801194.html
===========================
MAIN ARTICLE
IPS: Activists Slam World's "Grotesque Indifference"
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=44965
The following are Excerpts - go read the article:
"TORONTO, Canada, Dec 3 (IPS) - International lust for the enormous mineral and resource riches of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) abetted by international indifference has turned much of country into a colossal "rape mine" where more than 300,000 women and girls have been brutalised, say activists."
""Rape is being used as a deliberate tool to control people and territory," said Eve Ensler, a celebrated U.S. playwright and founder of V-Day, a global movement in 120 countries to end violence against women and girls."
"This "blood coltan" - akin to blood diamonds -
**generates billions of dollars of sales every year for electronics manufacturers in rich countries***
and brings
****hundreds of millions of dollars to rebels and others who control the coltan-producing regions.****
Coltan is also produced in other countries, and the DRC's "blood coltan" is often transported to those countries to give it a sheen of conflict-free provenance. "
There is a lot of news brewing if you look for it. I am disconcerted to seen almost none of it on Current. So you will forgive me if I post what may seem like to much information... I don't think you can have too much of this information and awareness about this.
What is ailing them is not isolated to "them over there". WE are a strong hand in their lives, and deaths, and suffering, by what we do, and what we fail to do.
Do you think it matters to be making an effort during your news sojourns 'out there' to find and read some news in/on Africa?Hundreds of women and children were raped over and over during 3 days in July, another... more
-
-
On his first couple of days in office, Barack Obama has put an emphasis on transparency and the freedom of information. Indeed, one of his first acts was a directive to all government agencies urging them to "adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure." A good first step? Yes. But what does it mean in terms of policy? And how can the progressive community influence politics in the Obama administration?
Geoffrey Millard, President of the DC Chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War(IVAW) asks whether war funding is going to be debated and put into the budget. Will the books be open? How will the war in Afghanistan be funded? IVAW works to withdraw military support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Eve Ensler, Geoffrey Millard, Cindy Domingo, and Dr. Maya Rockeymoore discuss what needs to happen after the inauguration, from Busboys and Poets Cafe in Washington D.C.On his first couple of days in office, Barack Obama has put an emphasis on... more
-
-
GRITtv
-
added this
-
3 years ago
- |
-
We are taking the Rovian bait when we give Palin attention. She's a decoy to take our minds off the fact that the US didn't think McCain was a good candidate before he picked her, and he still isn't.
We DO need to call McCain out for hiding behind a woman's skirts! How pitiful of him, how uncharacteristically non-macho for a guy who struts his war heroism as his single biggest qualification. Flip-flop!
McCain's presidential bid was failing, so they decided to capitalize on his age & poor health - the very thing that makes him unfit for the job. They WANT people to look at Palin for President, without having to admit that's what they're doing. They also provided a convenient excuse for all those who cannot admit they simply won't vote for a black man. So they are appealing to our darker nature: shallowness and bigotry.
Same old strategy: They are counting on more Americans voting on fear than hope. We are taking the Rovian bait when we give Palin attention. She's a decoy to take... more
-
