Stories about Women & Gender from November, 2011
Trinidad & Tobago: Impressed with Miss Miles
Dingolay reviews the new play about Gene Miles (a whistleblower for a political corruption scandal in the 1960s, who subsequently became a social outcast), admitting she was “a bit chilled by the fact that what happened to Gene Miles could happen again today, woman PM or no.”
ActionAid: halve world hunger by 2015
“Let's fight climate change & hunger. Together” is a new video released by ActionAid & produced by the LatteCreative team, to support the world food crisis campaign and keep the ‘pressure on governments to deliver on their promise to halve world hunger by 2015′.
Cuba: Mariela's Red Light Comment
Ernesto Morales Licea takes issue with Mariela Castro's now infamous statement to Radio Netherlands during her visit to Amsterdam's Red Light District.
Barbados: Response to Crime Affecting Tourism?
Barbados Free Press questions the role of the local police “in what has become an all-too-familiar story of covering up crime against tourists.”
Guyana: Calling Violence Against Women by Name
CODE RED “felt very frustrated yesterday when someone told [her] that to say ‘violence against women’ is discriminatory, that it should be called ‘relationship violence'”, explaining: “There are a range of gendered ways in which women are targeted for violence, not all of which are ‘domestic’. Erasing the language feminists...
Panama: Women Marched on International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women
Panamanian women marched on Friday, November 25, the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women. “So far this year, 53 women have been murdered in Panama, 35 at the hands of their partners, La Critica reports. The most recent case of femicide occurred Wednesday morning in Villa Lucre. The...
Trinidad & Tobago: Men and their Role
“International Men's Day kind of came and went without much fanfare here, even though the darn thing was actually ‘inaugurated in 1999 in Trinidad and Tobago'”, says West Indian Mother, who wonders whether “we [are] denying good men their role.”
Bahamas: Male Violence Against Women
Womanish Words would like the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women to be called what it really is – the International Day for the Elimination of Male Violence Against Women, and posts a rant poem in an “honest attempt to contribute to the naming and defining of...
Cuba: Photos of Violent Arrests
Uncommon Sense weighs in on photos showing the violent arrest of “two Cuban female activists, Yris Pérez Aguilera and Donaida Pérez Paseiro, as they tried to leave Yris’ home in Placetas so she could see a specialist for treatment of head injuries she suffered during a beating by a police...
Trinidad & Tobago: Plot Against the Prime Minister
ttgapers.com reports on an alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and other members of her Cabinet. Limited Twitter commentary about it is here.
Guatemala's Alarming Femicide Statistics
“According to official statistics, seven hundred women have been murdered so far this year in Guatemala (see here and here). According to CONAPREVI, 838 women were murdered in 2010. Therefore, if women continue to be killed at the same rate in November and December as they have been all year (an average of 70...
South Sudan/Sudan: Refugee Narrates Her Emotional Story
Amanda Hsiao talks to Miriam, a Sudanese refugee in Ethiopia. The post is part of a series based on Enough interviews with Blue Nile refugees in Sherkole refugee camp and Kurmuk, Ethiopia. Details of these testimonies are impossible to verify, but accounts Enough heard have been generally consistent.
Cuba: Ladies Detained Again
The Ladies in White were once again attacked this weekend as they tried to attend Mass, babalu reports; two of the group's members are allegedly “still being held in a Castro prison.”
Côte d'Ivoire: Pregnancy and Lifestyle
Kingsuy blogging from Côte d'Ivoire writes in this post [fr]: “Fad or symbol of unconsciousness of some mothers? Either way, it is difficult to figure why so many young pregnant women are still drinking so much while attending “maquis” (local eatery); but many of them will still find a way to convince you...
Trinidad & Tobago: A Father's Rights
Jumbie's Watch “adds his voice” to that of a Trinidadian father who was not allowed to stay in the hospital overnight with his sick son, saying of the powers-that-be: “They find ways of justifying any and everything without referencing policy and behaviour against some higher guiding principle, or logic.”
Cuba: No Respect for Parents
“The love of the mother for her child is unconditional — according to Cubans — as are the child’s feeling toward its mother”, says Regina Cano, but notes that “in more than an insignificant percentage of instances nowadays, this image is broken and the pieces of the picture go flying.”
Barbados, St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Domestic Violence
Barbados Underground links to an article about the high rate of domestic violence in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and suggests that “often times we discuss the issue of domestic abuse through a myopic lens.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Bull S**t Artists
Plain Talk explains why he thinks that Trinidad and Tobago needs a National Bullshit Council.
Zambia: Porn Video Sparks Debate on Gender, Culture and Morality
A video clip of a young female student at one of Zambia’s expensive colleges having sex with her boyfriend has surfaced on a hardcore pornography website. The case has generated a lot of debate online about culture, morality and gender in the country.
Greece: Giving Aid to Inmates of Elaionas Women's Prison
A team of bloggers [el] is cooperating with social workers at the Elaionas women's prison in Thebes, Greece, in order to give aid to imprisoned mothers and their children. The blog lists the team's actions, as well as inmates’ current needs, for anyone wishing to volunteer material aid.
United States: What Your Kids Talk About on Facebook
For the online exhibition “Voices of Motherhood” by the International Museum of Women, Kathy Halper in the U.S. was inspired by the experience of “friending” her own daughter on Facebook to embroider copies of photos posted by teenagers on the social network. The embroideries show drunken parties, sexual innuendo, and...
