My Nana Florence told me about this exhibit over the holiday and reading through the various stories, I was moved to share them here...

www.apronchronicles.com

For my birthday this year, my mother made me a beautiful apron with beautiful bright colors on one side and dancing dia de los muertos skeletons on the other side. (She gets teased a lot for her love of all things Day of the Dead, but I think it's because we have lost so many loved ones in the last 10 years - those little figurines remind me of how previous life is and how thin the line is between life and death.) She embroidered my name on it and finished it with piping. I wore it last night while I made navy bean soup and reflected on 2008, looking forward to the new year, hoping that 2009 proves more peaceful, sane and joyous for the planet.

When I opened up my email this morning, I found the link to this beautiful and touching project.

I remember my Nana Jane wearing an apron in her big farm house in Corralitos, California - I have a vivid memory of laying on my belly on the lawn with her while we watched a parade of ants as they climbed up blades of grass. Though I was only 3 or so, she had me imagine what it would be like to be an ant and started me thinking in abstract terms.

She died when I was 12 and I have always wished that we had had more time. There are so many questions that I would ask her if she were still alive. But whenever I think of her and talk to her now, she's right there. In some ways, it's like she never left.

I had promised to write a post about the situation with water in my country, Bulgaria, in this month. Because today is Dec. 31, I must make an effort to meet my deadline :-).
Because Bulgaria has sufficient water resources and good chlorination system, the population has success to safe drinkwater. Indeed, water companies as "natural monopolies" backed by government try their best to deteriorate people's lives. Even when European investors come to our water companies, they very soon learn the good Bulgarian traditions of corruption and making profits by robbing and harassing poor people. A good example is "Sofiiska voda", the company with British participation that supplies my city Sofia with water. It made its contract with the Municipality of Sofia in a way allowing it to break the contract with impunity while the Municipality owes absurd, astronimic-size payments if it ever decides to terminate the contract. So now the monopolist "Sofiiska voda" makes whatever it wants, e.g. not investing in water pipes and instead forcing the population to pay for the entire quantity of water lost from perforations in the old pipes. Also, I have a friend living in an apartment block with many Gypsies. Because the latter consume much water and don't pay their bills, "Sofiiska voda" chooses the easiest way out and tries to force the correct Bulgarian tenants such as my friend to pay also the huge bills of the Gypsies. As reports the Dnevnik site, in November "Sofiiska voda" was fined by the anti-monopoly authority for stopping the water supply to some apartment buildings where many bills were unpaid (http://www.dnevnik.bg/show/?storyid=584535).
However, there is worse. In many villages and some towns, water supply is characterized by an outrageous phenomenon I call water regime. In 2006, in a blog post titled "Water regime, or how to create and perpetuate misery", I wrote, "A number of cities and many towns and villages in Bulgaria suffer regular stopping of water for hours and days. This is called rezhim na vodata (water regime); I don't know whether the word regime has such a meaning in English, because I have never read about a similar phenomenon in another country! I don't know how many Bulgarians live under water regime - tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions? My city Sofia is spared from it..." (http://mayas-corner.blogspot.com/2006/08/water-regime-or-how-to-create-and.html)
The situation is slowly improving and some towns that used to be under water regime now have constant water supply, e.g. the ancient Danube town of Nikopol. I visited it in a summer more than 10 years ago; the water was stopped for hours every day and the only source of running water during these dry hours was one built by the Romans. Now, I know from a friend that the water supply in Nikopol is constant.
For the purpose of the present post, I searched the Web for information about the current situation with water regime in Bulgaria - how many villages and towns and how many people still suffer from it. I failed to find such information because in Bulgaria water regime isn't considered news but rather the way things are. What I found were articles like one titled "Water regime is threatening half of Bulgaria" from May 14, 2007, the Dnevnik site (http://www.dnevnik.bg/show/?storyid=339743). Let me translate the beginning: "Almost half of Bulgaria is threatened by water regime if the population in these regions doesn't spare the drinkwater and continues to use it for watering the gardens, warned on Monday water experts from the Ministry of Environment." Do you see? Our government officials, instead of blushing and providing apologies for their failure to provide a vital service to their taxpayers and voters, are instead arrogantly blaming the population and threatening! (The same article mentions that "Spain, France and Italy have already introduced water regime". I'll be very thankful to any reader from these countries who provides information about the water regime in her country.)
In the beginning of my 2006 blog post, I described the situation in the village of Rasnik, where my family spends most weekends. This autumn, my husband called men with a water probe and they worked until reaching water at some 25 meters depth. This costed us about EUR 1500; I wonder how the villagers, who are much poorer than us, have managed to dig their water wells. But at least now we'll enjoy constant water supply and don't depend on the mercy of government-backed monopolists.

The Times They Are a'Changin'- FREE Vanunu Mordechai! Now! Began on Face Book on November 15, 2008 by an Italian with a vision for a Global V Day.

The groups objective is "to help VANUNU enjoy in full his human right and to promote confrontation and a new mental approach toward the Palestine tragedy. Open your minds, stop hate."

On June 4, 2008 Vanunu wrote:

Dear Editors

I am Mordechai Vanunu, the man who told the truth about Israel's Nuclear Weapons. Program in 1986 and paid with 18 years of my life in Israel Prison. I was released in April 2004, but Israel denied me, my human rights of free speech and freedom movement. I am not allowed to leave since 1986 until now; 2008.

On July 8, 2008, I will return to court to appeal a new 6 months prison sentence for speaking to foreign Media, since my release 2004,

I am asking the Media to report on my case and on the efforts of Norwegian Lawyers and citizens to grant me asylum.

Israel claims I still have a secret about their underground nuclear plant-a place I have not been to in twenty-three years and international atomic energy inspectors never have.

I said all I knew about Israel's Nuclear weapons Programs in 1986, because I [listened to] the voice of my conscience and wanted to avoid a nuclear wars. Since 2004, I have spoken with thousands of tourists and pilgrims in east Jerusalem and taped hours of video available on the World Wide Web.

Israel was founded contingent on upholding the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I am asking the world to demand they honor it. And not only in this case,

Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.- Article 13-2.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. -Article 19.

VANUNU MORDECHAI J C.
KIDNAPPED IN ROME SEP' 30 TH'-1986.
AFTER 18 YEARS IN ISRAEL PRISON.
Waiting In East Jerusalem.To Be Free,To Leave.
P.O.Box 20102. Salah Adin St'.
East Jerusalem. 91384
Mobile ( 9 7 2 ) 0 5 2 3 7 4 4 5
http:/www.vanunu.com

On July 8, 2008, Israel convicted Vanunu on 14 counts-from over a hundred interviews he gave foreign journalists in 2004.

His Supreme Court appeal has been put off until 2009.

From an email of July 9, 2007, Vanunu wrote:

Since my release from prison on April 21, 2004, Israel has denied me the right to speak with any foreigners and I have openly defied this unjust order by speaking with thousands of human beings because human beings have rights and States have obligations.

My photographic evidence taken in 1985, before I departed the Dimona for the last time has not caused Israel a breach of security, nor has any of my speaking to human beings.

I never received any payment for my photos or from the over 100 interviews I gave to journalists in 2004, which were used as testimony against me.

All I am asking is to leave the state for my life is in danger in Israel and I am unable to find employment in occupied East Jerusalem.

All I am asking for is the right to leave Israel and have a life that is not under occupation.-vmjc

In April 1999, thirty-six members of the House of Representatives signed a letter calling for Vanunu's release from prison because they believed "we have a duty to stand up for men and women like Mordechai Vanunu who dare to articulate a brighter vision for humanity."

President Clinton responded with a public statement expressing concern for Vanunu and the need for Israel and other non-parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty to adhere to it and accept IAEA safeguards.

Israel still has not signed the NPT nor have they ever allowed IAEA inspectors into the Dimona; a place Vanunu has not stepped into since 1985-yet Israel claims he still has untold secrets.

In March 2006, just a few weeks after the beginning of his FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial, Mordecahi Vanunu sent Senator Clinton and USA Christians the following message regarding The Wall:

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=47537156583&h=EtyE0&u=pPp4v

Of all the terrible policies enacted by the Bush Administration, the eleventh hour “Medical Conscience” ruling is one of the most deplorable. The New York Times reports that the move is heralded by supporters as a necessary step to prevent medical practitioners from having to choose between their morals and their professional standing. Like many citizens and patients, I see right through that logic to the truth: it seriously undermines public health in the name of allowing individual health care employees to impose their own moral code on their vulnerable patients.

I seriously doubt that it will prevent the obstetricians who refuse to perform abortions (and other doctors who keep quiet about legally approved procedures in their own field to their patients’ detriment) from losing some sort of standing amongst their peers. A staunchly scientific community, it is already difficult for religious extremists to find colleagues who share literal interpretations of the Bible or a belief in miracles. Additionally, doctors ALREADY have the right to refuse to perform an abortion under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on religion. In this tightly-knit professional community, doctors know of each others’ reputations, and these personal opinions- which make or break careers- are not likely to change just because the few outcasts now have the law behind them.

The new ruling is not going to smooth out the wrinkles in the relationship between morally-torn doctors and their colleagues- although even if it could, this would be heavy-handed big government interference at its worst. What the ruling WILL do is prevent patients from around the country from receiving all of the legal options available to them in their individual health situation. Given the limited availability of medical choice in rural areas- in addition to the restrictions placed on individuals by health insurance policies- this rule sets the US on a course to even more unequal access to care.

Imagine being pregnant in Nebraska, in a small town with only one clinic. Perhaps you would like to take the emergency contraceptive Plan-B, perhaps you would like to have an abortion, or perhaps you would like to carry the baby to term and either raise it yourself or give it to another family through adoption. All of these options are legally permitted in this country, and yet, because you live in X town or Y town, you may not have a full range of choices. Not because your city or township or county laws prohibit you from making an informed decision, but because your doctor doesn’t approve of your lifestyle or doesn’t approve of one of the options.

Under the new law, the doctor may not only refuse to perform procedures he or she disapproves of, but can also withhold ANY information with you that he or she wishes not to share. Maybe as a patient, you would like to discuss the likely physical or emotional side effects of an abortion. As soon as you begin talking, the doctor can simply hold up his or her hand and prevent the discussion from going further. Their moral values will be forced upon you, making care even more unequal than it was before.

If you lived in a metropolitan area, you may have had the opportunity to scout around to different hospitals and clinics. However, even if you did live in an area with multiple options, it sounds like a wild goose chase to call multiple practitioners a day with your list of questions, just to find a pharmacist that will fill your medication or a doctor who will follow your care by YOUR preferences AND who is covered by your health plan.

While the law was undoubtedly crafted to address concerns by doctors and pharmacists who have been unable to separate their professional and political feelings on the divisive topic of abortion, it will affect EVERYONE- men, women and children, young and old. I can imagine a couple that would like the husband to take Viagra, that would like growth hormones to be prescribed (or not) for their child, who would like to try a more holistic approach for serious illness over radical pharmaceuticals. In each case, the doctor in question could simply deny one or more options based on his own personal beliefs. Perhaps he doesn’t believe in sex over fifty, in hormone treatments or in “touchy-feely medicine”.

What of a couple that wishes to have a vasectomy or other irreversible procedure preventing further children, making the choice for their own family that they have enough children? A doctor who believes otherwise may simply not perform the procedure. What about a doctor who believes that vaccines cause autism? Will they abstain from delivering certain ones? Will the elderly be permitted to make painful end of life decisions without the moral authority of the doctor bearing over them?

Medical ethics- a growing and critical field- has barely begun to deal with many of these issues under the old atmosphere. This new mandate throws a wrench into the entire process, skewing public ethics in favor of an individual doctor’s own religious beliefs or political views.

All of us will be patients at some point in our lives- at least at the beginning and the end. How we make our decisions is a personal and complicated process, and one in which we take into account our OWN religious beliefs. However, the only person who should matter in patient decisions is the one whose body and health is being affected: the patient. Instead of wringing our hands over doctors who chose to enter a profession so seemingly at odds with their own rigid beliefs, we should be concerned with the rights of patients. Alongside the Hippocratic Oath should be the right to have the best care possible, without the interference of anyone else’s religion. A separation of church and hospital. Now that would be progress.

I love my right to free speech as much as the next blogger and being a journalist, I happen to be a big fan of the US Bill of Rights. The problem is, those rights are extended to ignorant and bigoted fools as well. The right to bear arms is a prime example of an American freedom gone awry, with every wacko and potential psychopath having only to walk to Walmart to exercise that right. But I won’t go into the number of Americans who die from guns now. That’s another post.

What I’ve been considering lately, as have German politicians, is how to deal with the freedom of speech, expression and peaceable assembly, when some citizens happen to be bald-headed, combat-boot wearing thugs who have a strong dislike of Jews and immigrants. The German constitution protects their rights too, although it’s illegal to present or wear a Swastika in public and the old Nazi salute was banned after the war.

But even without wearing Swastikas or rigidly extending their arms, their beliefs are obvious. It’s not illegal to hate someone for being non-German or Jewish, as long as it doesn’t result in violence. But often it does. In some parts of Germany, some degree of neo-Nazi violence (from vandalizing Jewish cemeteries to physically attacking foreigners of color) is an almost daily occurrence.

The violent neoNazis are easy to arrest, throw in jail and make a news story out of, until the shock dies down and the incident goes into the archives. Harder still are the far right political parties in Germany that have actual representation in state parliaments, and are getting more popular!

As unemployment rises, factories close and the welfare state becomes less generous, far right parties like the NPD garner more votes from people who aren’t necessarily mentally challenged bigots but Germans simply afraid their jobs will be taken by a foreigner (sound familiar America?)

Last Saturday, a neoNazi knocked on the door of a Bavarian police chief, stabbed him in the stomach and passed on “greetings from the national resistance movement.” Since then, the fundamental problem of neoNazis has come back to the limelight. Now, it’s getting scary. They’re not only going after immigrants, they’re attacking prominent Germans.

The incident has got politicians and pundits worked up in a frenzy. Some German politicians call for banning far right political parties, but they can’t always prove ties to neoNazi thugs. And, well, there is that whole freedom of expression thing.

As despicable as neoNazis are (and we have plenty in America, too. And lots of other nuts like that church that holds up “We hate fags” signs up at funerals of US soldiers who fell in Iraq), we can’t infringe on their right without infringing on everyone else’s. We learned this all too well in the aftermath of legislation like The Patriot Act and similar laws passed in the EU.

It is quite a quandary, because to ban them is undemocratic but to let them grow and thrive is dangerous. What do you think?

This post is from my blog: http://currentsbetweenshores.blogspot.com

The Global Gag Rule was first established in 1984 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. It prohibits any overseas organization receiving U.S. aid from having anything to do with abortion. Organizations that do not meet this condition lose all U.S. funding, including essential supplies of contraceptives.

Please watch this video and sign EngenderHealth's petition asking President-elect Obama to overturn the Global Gag Rule. Then, be sure to help spread the word by forwarding the video and petition to your friends.

Together we can make sure that issues like eliminating the Global Gag Rule don't get pushed far down on the priority list—with terrible consequences for women, men and children in the developing world.

Spread the holiday cheer by giving the gift of free music to a Soldier in the U.S. Army this holiday season, free of charge by going to http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/soldier/sendasong.shtml

Billboard's got the free tunes. You choose one message from: We support our troops! Happy Holidays! Or Happy New Year! And they will send your message and a unique PIN Code for two free music downloads to a currently enlisted Soldier. The program runs through December 31st 2008.

Thanks for encouraging our troops!

"Two young, attractive blonde women are duscussing the latest discoveries in quantum physics and molecular biology. Suddenly one of them suggests changing the subject to haircuts, because a man is approaching." This joke underscores a stereotype prevailing in society - that women have lower affinity for science than men.
I don't intend to discuss this stereotype here, so let me assume for simplicity that it corresponds to the truth. Most stereotypes do, and this is why people stick to them. It is quite possible for women to be more suited for the subconscious, emotional reasoning known as intuition than for the more specific type of thinking needed to do or even understand science. When Oprah Winfrey pointed out to anti-science crusader Jenny McCarthy that the latter's opinion about her son's condition contradicted the current scientific consensus, McCarthy pointed to the boy and replied, "He is my science". I have recently engaged in a similar discussion somewhere else in the WIP site, which inspired me to write this post.
It is far from obvious, however, whether we really have a choice about our attitude to science - for the simple reason that if a necessary job must be done and the most suitable people don't agree to do it, then it goes to whoever else is here to take the burden. As mothers and grandmothers, we are the first people to whom children turn with science questions. Later children go to schools and universities that are slowly but steadily evolving into women-only institutions. Laura Clark says it all in the title of her MailOnline article "Goodbye, Mr Chips: Two out of three teachers are women as men shun the classroom". The reason is clear - the chronic underpayment of teachers, who are regarded by society as low-rank servants and cheap babysitters. And once the payment and social status of a particular profession have fallen to the point where massive feminization occurs, the downfall continues in a vicious positive-feedback circle. As said my female friend who is secondary school teacher, "Once a profession is feminized, society will believe every libel against its members - that they are stupid, that they do no useful job, that they don't deserve even the pennies they get; because society, including women, has very low opinion about women and so is keen to believe every evil nonsense, as long as it is said against women."
So, girls, if we value the science and technology and don't want to return back to basics (i.e. to the superstitions and epidemics of the Dark Ages), let's roll up our sleeves - the job of teaching science is ours. And I think that responsibility belongs not only to professional teachers but also to the numerous women with community-related jobs - nurses, aides, journalists, social workers etc., and also to all those who have children and youths in their families. So I think that every woman with such duties (i.e. every woman) should keep the ABC of science in her head and be able to answer immediately the most basic science-related questions, such as, Why sky is blue?
After all, women are disadvantaged also in spatial orientation skills yet they drive their cars in the entire Western world; and I am sure women would even make the bulk of professional drivers if driving was as underpaid as teaching is. So believe in yourself, take the driver seat and don't be afraid!
(The author is university teacher of biology.)

If you go to www.LetsSayThanks.com you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it send it to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq. You can't pick who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services.

How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!! It is FREE and it only takes a second. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these?

Whether you are for or against the war, our soldiers over there need to know we are behind them. This takes just 10 seconds and it's a wonderful way to say thank you. Please take the time to send them a card and please take the time to pass it on to others as well. We can never say enough thank yous to them.

Thanks for taking the time to support our military!

I’ve told my eldest son several times that pirates are not real, which is pretty much true since the parrot-toting, one-eyed characters in his books don’t really exist.

The problem is, my son has caught on to the fact that pirates sure seem to be mentioned a lot in the news as of late. He doesn’t watch TV but he does listen closely when I try to get in a couple minutes of English-language radio every day. “You know mom,” he said, “I don’t think you’re right about pirates. Are you listening to this?”

Indeed, I was listening to the news and I regretted having left it on. I had two options. Tell my son the full, very complicated truth: These pirates are not cute little boys in costumes but poor and desperate people watching ships transport valuable commodities past their homes. They're probably being manipulated by a bigger mafia that organizes the stints and leaves the "pirates" with as little money as big-time drug dealers do their errand boys. And, like drugs that eventually poison a community, the pirates even prevent aid from getting to their own shores. And do I tell him that these pirates don’t have swords and canons but Kalashnikovs that traumatize unsuspecting sailors? Or do I go with option two and sugar coat it?

I looked down at his excited eyes and opted for a combination of the two.

“Well,” I began. “They are talking about pirates but not the pirates you see in your books.”

“So?”

“So, I just mean that these pirates are different. They don’t have patches or hooks.”

“But they do have ships!”

“Well, they have boats.”

“Then where do they put all the gold?”

“They don’t have gold, they don’t have anything. That’s why they’re robbing the ships.”

“They’re robbers?” I saw a light in my son’s eyes dim. “Are they bad guys?”

I thought about all the times I told him to tell the truth, how lying would only get him into trouble because the truth always comes out. So was I lying when I told him about Santa Claus? He’s eventually going to figure that one out, unless reports of a fat man in a red suit start airing on the radio. But as I watched a report about the pirates on television, while my son slept, I realized the truth wasn’t completely true either. Yes, robbers are technically “bad guys” but then I remembered what one of the masked pirates told the TV journalist, “We won’t hurt the sailors and we’re not political. We’re just hungry.” This truth, I decided, was far too complicated for my five year-old.

“Not all of them are bad guys but they’re doing a bad thing by robbing the big ships,” I said. “That’s why they, er, that’s why they have to swing away really fast on the ropes.”

“So they can get away!” my son exclaimed.

I sighed. “Yes, so they can get away.”

“Do they always get away?”

“Depends on how fast they are.”

“And what about the parrots?"

“The parrots? Oh well, the parrots have it easy. They can just fly away.”

“Do you think Santa will bring me a parrot for Christmas?”

I cringed at the thought of the noise level such a creature would bring into our already loud house. “Well, maybe not a real one, they’re hard to find on the North Pole. But a stuffed animal parrot, I bet Santa could manage that.”

This text appeared originally on my blog on December 9, 2008 at http://currentsbetweenshores.blogspot.com

We are in a recession but the inauguration is still coming and there has been much talk about Michelle Obama's inauguration dress. Well as you know designers will do anything for publicity and now many are vying to dress the first-lady elect for the inauguaration including the established designers. Not that is any of my business however, I totally don't agree with her choosing one of the dresses offered by these brand name designers.

To go with the Obama's "Change" theme, in my opinion Michelle should not go with a brand name designer. If not for her position they would never have paid her any attention. Just like her and her husband were a longshot at one point and put in the position by everyday people, she should select an unknown designer who is good and use this as an opportunity to launch the person's design career.

We all see that her husband's emerging cabinet is full of people who are part of the established Washington elite and we really can't blame him for that because he needs the best experienced hands to do that, but for something like the inaugural dress, this is the time to shine the light on an unknown.

On the flip side of this is the fact that I believe since so many people are being financially challenged right now the celebrations should be toned down and all excesses cut out. These monies and others such as the money for redoing the white house to suit them should be put to more neccessary use. When America is back to where it used to be, there'll be plenty of time for partying and excesses.

I am very passionate about women's issues because I come from a culture where women are often treated as second class citizens. Where did the notion that a woman's life is worth nothing come from?

It always breaks my heart when I read about how women are being mistreated all over the world. It happened again today as I read about the honor killings occuring in Iraq. After reading the story, I googled and was appalled to read of the honor killings occuring everywhere including right here in America.

I am blogging today to as a reminder to the WIP community that our sisters are being mistreated and killed all over the world and we have to continue to be the voice of these women who cannot speak for themselves.

To all the women who have been victims of honor killings, may your souls rest in peace.

As America ushers in a new administration, the developing world, including Africa, is keen to know what improvements will trickle down from the world’s super-power. For the women of Malawi, a poor southern African country where up to 45 percent of the country’s 13.1 million people lives below the poverty line of $1 a day, their very lives depend on it.

Malawi has one of the worst indicators when it comes to women’s health. The country’s maternal mortality is among the worst in the world - up to 807 women die per every 100,000 live births. Pregnancy in this country is locally referred to as pakati, which literally means “between life and death.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has been trying to improve the desperate health situation facing Malawi’s women. The UN agency is, among other things, supporting the country’s ministry of health in reducing maternal mortality.

UNFPA Malawi has also championed the empowerment of communities in reproductive health in a few target districts. Through this approach, community leaders, village health committees and community distribution agents of contraceptives are fully involved and trained to enable their own community members to participate and make informed choices in reproductive health issues. This approach has helped local communities to identify existing harmful reproductive health practices and come up with their own initiatives.

UNFPA Malawi helped create the Safe Motherhood Task Force which is in charge of following up on pregnancy outcomes, has increased male participation in reproductive health and increased the number of reproductive health services accessed by families. The UN agency has also led the fight against Obstetric Fistula as well as procured condoms, both male and female for the national Reproductive Health program.

These successes are but isolated cases in a country where only one doctor looks after 54,000 people. The unmet need for contraceptives in Malawi is 28 percent, indicating that a large number of pregnancies are unplanned. Thirty percent of these pregnancies are teen pregnancies. Every day, 16 women die in childbirth amounting to 6,000 maternal deaths every year. All these negative consequences, faced by women and girls, can be prevented by empowering them to access their reproductive health rights.

In Malawi, the wellbeing of a woman benefits not only her family but her entire community. If a woman is ill or dies, there are wide-spread costs to her society which include mounting poverty levels.

The time has come to hasten the provision of resources to ensure that health services reach the women that need them most – the women of Malawi are just a fraction of those in need in the developing world. Vital services such as skilled attendance at birth, emergency obstetric care, family planning are needed immediately. Women’s health should be a global priority for the world’s leaders if the Millennium Development Goals are to become a reality.

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In response to the Community Chat, "American Foreign Policy and Women's Global Health" hosted by The WIP and Americans for the UNFPA, Pilirani Semu-Banda offers her concerns in this essay and will participate in the conversation.

To participate in this Community Chat, you must be logged into your account. If you haven't already created an account, be sure to do so before joining the conversation. This Community Chat is scheduled for Monday, December 8th, 10am-12pm PST. To join the conversation on Monday, visit our homepage to link to the chat.

Click here to return to the main article.

Modern technology, combined with a cultural preference for sons rather than daughters, has led to the mushrooming of neo-natal clinics across India where parents can check the sex of their unborn child, despite this practice having been illegalized. Originally an urban phenomenon, it is worrying to see the practice of sex-selection emerging in rural areas as the technology spreads. Diagnostic centers and clinics with ultrasound scanners advertise “spend 600 rupees now and save 50,000 rupees later,” - in other words, save your dowry money today.

The right to health is an unquestionable right, whether it’s health care for a girl child or services for a mother during her pregnancy. The young mother in the photograph did not receive proper medical care during her pregnancy. However, had she received medical care, she would probably have removed her unborn girl child. When I asked her why she doesn’t bring her very ill daughter to the doctors, she simply replies, “I would have had it been a boy.” I am not judging this young mother, but only trying to see how the right to health and the attitudes towards it easily become inherited by a daughter from her mother.

One of the biggest challenges for today’s decision-makers in the health sector is to break this system of silence, this inheritance of silence. Unfortunately, there is no medical cure for silence, but a very strong and clear global voice declaring that the girl child is equal and worthy will help change this norm. We must do what we can – she, too, will be someone’s mother tomorrow.

- Photograph by Parul Sharma

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In response to the Community Chat, "American Foreign Policy and Women's Global Health" hosted by The WIP and Americans for the UNFPA, Parul Sharma offers her concerns in this essay and will participate in the conversation.

To participate in this Community Chat, you must be logged into your account. If you haven't already created an account, be sure to do so before joining the conversation. This Community Chat is scheduled for Monday, December 8th, 10am-12pm PST. To join the conversation on Monday, visit our homepage to link to the chat.

Click here to return to the main article.

In a country that has been ruled by the military junta since 1962, where its ethnic women are raped with impunity by military soldiers, and where less than 3% of the national budget is spent on healthcare, Burma must not be forgotten by the international community.

Half of Burma’s 54 million people are women. The ignorant and failed policies of Burma’s military regime have caused women and children to endure extreme suffering. UNIFEM reports a high rate of maternal mortality (approximately 517 per 100,000 live births), and their children suffer from an extremely high rate of moderate malnutrition and preventable diseases. A UNICEF study reveals that out of the 1.3 million children born every year in Burma, more than 92,500 will die before they reach their first birthday and another 138,000 will die before the age of 5.

The situation is even more dire in Burma’s conflict zones, where official investment in health, especially reproductive health, is essentially non-existent. Abuses against the predominantly non-Burman population are rife, including the brutal and systematic rape of women and girls.

In these conflict zones, as many as 1 in 12 women will die as a result of pregnancy-related causes, a number far worse than Burma’s national figure of 1 in 75 - already the worst in the region. These deaths are mainly preventable, the result of postpartum hemorrhage, unsafe abortion, and obstructed delivery. Further, high fertility rates, reflecting lack of access to reproductive technologies, as well as the high prevalence of conditions such as malnutrition and anemia, increase the risk of unnecessary death from pregnancy. In eastern Burma, only 4% of births are attended by skilled birth attendants, far lower than the official figure of 57% for the rest of the country.

Though international NGOs have published reproductive health education materials in Burmese, they are usually not provided in ethnic languages as the regime fails to promote the rights of ethnic/indigenous people. The lack of health care, educational facilities, economic mismanagement, and ongoing severe human rights abuses drive many people out of the country. Burma’s problems are a threat to the region’s security and stability. So far, the regional governments have ignored the reality of Burma.

For the women who have suffered greatly, I hope that the Obama administration will bring Burma’s crises to the UN Security Council as a main concern and continue to support an economic sanction policy. It is the only way to ensure that agencies like the UNFPA and others will be able to provide the much needed services and hope to the Burmese people.

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In response to the Community Chat, "American Foreign Policy and Women's Global Health" hosted by The WIP and Americans for the UNFPA, Parul Sharma offers her concerns in this essay and will participate in the conversation.

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