Miriam Makeba, 76, Singer and Activist, Dies

(read more here)

singing with Paul Simon

“Mr. Berlusconi’s stupid joke is a further demonstration of the racism and intolerance that grow inside Italian population, helped by the embarrassing attitude of Italian politics.”

Many Italians reacted with incredulity and outrage after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called the first African-American president-elect in United States history “young, handsome and suntanned.”

Mr. Berlusconi made the remark while meeting President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia, saying that Senator Barack Obama’s good looks, his youth and his so-called suntan were “all the qualities” for Mr. Medvedev and the future president to “develop a good working relationship.”

Many Italian newspapers gave the comment nearly as much front-page attention as Mr. Obama’s victory itself. The journalist Curzio Maltese wrote in the center-left La Repubblica that “bookmakers wouldn’t even take bets” on how long it would take for Mr. Berlusconi to let slip another of his famous gaffes. “Mr. Berlusconi never fails to live up to our worst expectations.”

From: “Obama Joke by Premier Has Italy in an Uproar” Read NewYorkTimes article here

The federal government announced that they will not be funding the Australian National Academy of Music in 2009.

“Australia’s young elite music talent deserves the best possible training in order to flourish in what is a fiercely competitive field.” Alex Millier, Principal Bass Clarinet, West Australian Symphony Orchestra (read letter)

“There’s a tune called ‘Yiddishe Momme’ – ‘Jewish Mother’. It’s a very popular tune of family life. The words are very touching words, [they] make [a] lot of people cry.” LEO ROSNER

Musician Leo Rosner saved by Schindler dies at 90,

Jewish News article here

Tonight I opened last week’s Jewish News paper and saw that Leo Rosner had died. When my mother realised my eyes had welled with tears she said, “Did you think that generation would live forever?”. “No, of course not, but I always thought he might play at my wedding”…

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As part of the United Nation’s International Year of Sanitation, more than 120 million children across South Asia are to simultaneously wash their hands. The UN’s message is that sanitation routines such as hand washing with soap is one of the most effective ways of preventing diseases responsible for the deaths of million’s of children each year.

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In a country with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world….

painting by mary ann rock

India has drafted guidelines giving women the right to a fee for surrogacy…(surrogacy is still illegal in many countries). Having a baby at the Rotunda clinic in Mumbai costs around £13,000 (US$22,400). Each surrogate is paid between £2,500 and £3,500 (supposedly the equivalent of 10 years salary for some of these women).

“India’s surrogate mother industry” by Poonam Taneja, BBC News, Anand, Gujarat

see also “Mother for only nine months” by Sunita Thakur, Anand, Gujarat

David Marr (The Sydney Morning Herald) launches his new book The Henson Case, about the public outcry over an exhibition of images of naked adolescents by the photographer Bill Henson at Paddington’s Roslyn Oxley9 gallery, in May, which was subsequently raided by police

Photos, audio: David Marr on what the Bill Henson controversy revealed about Australia.

Highest maternal mortality in the world in Northeastern Afghanistan

For almost 16 babies born, one woman will die in labour. As a country, Afghanistan is ranked second in the world for maternal mortality rates after Sierra Leone. But health professionals in the province are optimistic that a new project is reducing the numbers of deaths.

A midwife trainee programme, run by the Aga Khan Health Services, selects bright young women from districts across the province. The students take an 18 month course in the provincial capital, Fayzabad, before returning to their villages as trained midwives. About 50 women have graduated from the programme since it started in 2005 – Article by Martin Patience BBC News, Badakshan, northern Afghanistan, 4 October 2008

see also ReliefWeb and World Food Programme (WFP)

In the “post a comment” words of… whoever mad05963 is:

Ladies and gentlemen, the future Vice President of the United States. here

In my name website here

Be the generation to end poverty

In countries where the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are on track, people are living with new hope to escape poverty. But while some progress has been made, many governments have fallen disgracefully behind schedule. Rich countries are back-tracking on their aid promises and poor countries are not investing enough in education and health care which is undermining people’s fundamental rights.

If things continue as they are, none of the MDGs will be fully met by the 2015. What we need is immediate and sustained action by nations, both rich and poor together. In My Name is a global call to action against poverty and demand world leaders keep their promises on millennium development goals.

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1To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman— in Kathleen Parker’s “Palin Problem’

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Fractured  Fairytale Snow  White meets Rapunzel 1137

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Research, please forgive us. Our relationship with you is clearly dysfunctional. We proclaim to the world how much we care about you, yet we fail to treat you with the respect you deserve. We value you conditionally, listening only when you tell us what we want to hear. We sneak behind your back even while basking in the glow of your reputation. If you don’t leave us, it must be because you’re blind – maybe even double-blind – to our faults.

Alfie Kohn, 2006 “Abusing Research: The Study of Homework and Other Examples”

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