Catégorie : World People

He says as Major-elect: “We can solve the problems of Oakland. We can be a great city.” And: “I accept this responsibility with honor, humility, optimism and idealism,” Dellums said. “We can solve the problems of Oakland. We can be a great city.” (See People’s Weekly World).

He said: « What am I ducking about? I am equal to you intellectually, I am equal to you as a human being. I respect you, you respect me. And in an honest discourse in a free and open society, I have to have the right to step up and define who I am. What gives you the right to define who I am? I am not here to judge you, who are you to judge me? And if we’re going to deal with each other in a free and open society with a legitimate exchange of ideas in the marketplace, then I cannot put myself in a second-class role to you to allow you to assume the capacity to even think that you could judge me. So if I’m not going to judge you and you don’t judge me, now there are two equals in discourse. So I don’t accept the labels that you place upon me. And if there are other people out there who are wondering what all these labels are about, let me tell you who I am. » (See the whole interview on berkeley interview).

He was legislating for the people, as a U.S. Representative from California from 1971 until 1999.

See also R.V.Dellums Homepage.

Ronald V. Dellums – USA

The contest between Dellums and De La Fuente — Oakland’s longtime City Council president — triggered a debate over Oakland’s civic identity and a referendum on the eight-year tenure of outgoing Mayor Jerry Brown. While race per se was not an issue, class was. A housing and development boom under Brown forced out many lower-income residents, mainly African Americans, while more middle-class residents moved in. The result was an expanded tax base that boosted business activity in Oakland, but simultaneously left many lower-income residents feeling excluded. For poorer residents, Oakland is in crisis, with violent crime increasing and the schools in state receivership.

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William Blum is an author and critic of United States foreign policy. A former State Department employee, he left in 1967 due to his opposition to the Vietnam War. His work devotes substantial attention to CIA interventions and assassination plots. Blum describes himself as a socialist and has supported Ralph Nader’s presidential campaigns. From 1972 to 1973 Blum was in Chile, where he reported on the Allende government’s « socialist experiment ». In the mid-1970s, he worked in London with ex- CIA and KGB agent Philip Agee and his associates. Agee wrote a scathing critique of CIA operations in his book Inside the Company: CIA Diary. (See wikipedia).

He writes: If you flip over the rock of American foreign policy of the past century, this is what crawls out … invasions … bombings … overthrowing governments … suppressing movements for social change … assassinating political leaders … perverting
elections … manipulating labor unions … manufacturing « news » … death squads … torture … biological warfare … depleted uranium … drug trafficking … mercenaries … It’s not a pretty picture. It is enough to give imperialism a bad name … (See this on his Homepage).

William Blum – USA

« It was in the early days of the fighting in Vietnam that a Vietcong officer said to his American prisoner: « You were our heroes after the War. We read American books and saw American films, and a common phrase in those days was ‘to be as rich and as wise as an American’. What happened? » An American might have been asked something similar by a Guatemalan, an Indonesian or a Cuban during the ten years previous, or by a Uruguayan, a Chilean or a Greek in the decade subsequent. The remarkable international goodwill and credibility enjoyed by the United States at the close of the Second World War was dissipated country by country, intervention by intervention. » William Blum. (See Third World Traveler).

See also: Biography and more.

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Linked with our presentation of Freud’s Requiem.

He says: « When I was growing up, the idea of anyone writing about my life, or about people like me, was inconceivable. Asians, and particularly those who had migrated to or grown up in Britain, were a kind of anti-subject matter ». Hanif Kureishi, a literary godfather to a generation of British Asians, has now written a memoir of his own father. Sukhdev Sandhu meets the writer who saved him from adolescent despair. (Read this very long article on the Telegraph).

Hanif Kureishi – England & Pakistan

Excerpt: … Not only is Kureishi very cute, but very open about his relationships with
other men. Many of his books have autobiographical elements. One of my
favorites, « The Buddha of Suburbia » was made into a four hour movie
staring Naveen Andrews (from The English Patient) as the Karim, the
protagonist of the novel who falls in love with his male punk rocker
friend from school. An interesting aside is that Kureishi attended school
in England with a young man named William Broad who later changed his name
to Billy Idol … (Read more about his book: My son, the fanatic).

Excerpt: … His book The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) won the Whitbread Award for the best first novel, and was also made into a BBC television series with a soundtrack by David Bowie. The book Intimacy (1998) created some controversy. The story includes a man leaving his wife and 2 young sons, for he feels physically and emotionally rejected by his wife.

Continuer la lecture de « Hanif Kureishi – England & Pakistan »

Linked with our presentations of some of her texts on our blog for Humanitarian Texts: Exile and the Kingdom, and Love and Betrayal in Colonial Africa, and also The Cult of the Ethnic Autor).

She says: « These days, being a Muslim woman means being saddled with what can only be referred to as the « burden of pity. » The feelings of compassion that we Muslim women seem to inspire emanate from very distinct and radically opposed currents: religious extremists of our own faith, and evangelical and secular supporters of empire in the West ». (Read this whole long article on The Nation).

She says also: « I was writing before getting married and becoming a parent, but it’s true that it becomes a challenge to find the time to write. I’m fortunate that I have a supportive spouse and I’m also extremely disciplined, so it all works out ». (See this interview by Dan Wickett on 6/20/2005).

Laila Lalami – Morocco

The picture that emerged from the Casablanca attacks was the kind of cliché that drives conservatives to hysterics. The bombers — all young men, all single, all unemployed or hustling for jobs — came from the sprawling slum of Sidi Moumen, just outside the city. Sidi Moumen is home to 200,000 people squatting in shacks with corrugated tin roofs. There is no running water. Trash pick up is sporadic and open sewage makes its way down dirt alleys. Unemployment is sky high. In addition, the bombers were recent recruits to Islamic fundamentalism; some had been going to the underground mosque at Si Larbi for only a few months.

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She is professor emerita of sociology of Northwestern University and the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, has been writing about and studying cities for more than fifty years. Her books include From Urban Village to East Village: The Battle for New York’s Lower East Side; Changing Cities: Urban Sociology; Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350; Rabat: Urban Apartheid in Morocco; and Cairo: 1001 Years of the City Victorious, among many other publications. In 1999 she received the Robert and Helen Lynd Award (American Sociological Association, Section on Community and Urban Sociology) for distinguished lifetime contributions to the study of cities. (Read more on beHeard.com).

Sorry, I do not find any photo of Janet L. Abu-lughod – USA

But here a photo of one of her books

Some of her Books:

Writing Women’s Worlds, Bedouin Stories, by Lila Abu Lughod. Publisher Comments: In 1978 Lila Abu-Lughod climbed out of a dusty van to meet members of a small Awlad ‘Ali Bedouin community. Living in this Egyptian Bedouin settlement for extended periods during the following decade, Abu-Lughod took part in family life, with its moments of humor, affection, and anger. She witnessed striking changes, both cultural and economic, and she recorded the stories of the women. Writing Women’s Worlds is Abu-Lughod’s telling of those stories; it is also about what happens in bringing the stories to others.

Continuer la lecture de « Janet L. Abu-lughod – USA »

Added July 2008: She is also one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005. Her peacewomen-bio.

Unwanted infants that are left at Edhi emergency centers are are given shelter and cared for at Edhi homes. These children are then handed over for adoption to couples in need. Bilquis Edhi personally meets and conducts interviews with the prospective adopting parents. The background of the prospective parents is thoroughly checked. So far more than 14,700 children have been adopted through the Edhi Foundation after personal approval from Bilquis Edhi. (Read this very long article by Faisal Abdulla on Women of Pakistan).

Text: just need somebody to lean on.

Wife of Abdul Sattar Edhi. One of the most active philanthropists in Pakistan. She heads the Bilquis Edhi Foundation. She is a professional nurse who reputedly proposed to him. They both received the 1986 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service. She is also the recipient of the Lenin Peace Prize. Her charity runs many services in Pakistan including a hospital and emergency service in Karachi. (read on answers.com).

Text: An Inspiration for Pakistanis.

Bilquis Edhi – Pakistan

Bilquis got married at a very young age. She met Maulana Edhi at the same place which was then a dispensary, now a hospital and the Edhi headoffice, where she was serving as a nurse. It was an arranged marriage. Bilquis recalled that Maulana Edhi started his social work immediately after independence, on a small-scale among his Memon Jamaat. However, he did wanted to be a part of a larger community. “I’m proud that the Almighty Allah brought his dream true and today he is part of the world now,” She said. “We have 350 centres in Pakistan, 600 cars, one helicopter, three planes and 17 homes for women, children and mentally ill men,” she said. “Once a week we give an advertisement in newspapers, appealing to parents not to throw away children for poverty or other reasons. We keep them carefully and later childless couples adopt them.” (Read this long article on
this site).

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Linked with Poor women and economy; also with Microcredits and poor women; and also with Self Employed Women’s Association’s response to crisis.

She says: « As long as microenterprise development is offered as a substitute for meaningful social development … it will only impede progress towards finding real answers to the very real problem of poverty in the South ».

Reema Nanavaty – India

She writes on global fairness.org: Poor people’s membership based producers organizations have been unable to take advantage of increasing trade openness and break into global markets. There are a growing number of organizations working in this area, yet the scale of their impact continues to be low. Fair trade observers, for example, estimate worldwide annual sales at about $500 million in 2000, and that number is growing rapidly. This total, however, amounted to the equivalent of less than 0.3% of WalMart Corporation’s annual sales in that same year. The gap between local producers organizations and global markets is large, making it difficult for poor people’s organizations to connect with buyers/retailers in the North.

Barriers to Poor Producers’ Participation: Global markets do not offer a level playing field. Poor producers face a number of entry barriers which make it difficult for them to compete in global markets:

Continuer la lecture de « Reema Nanavaty – India »

June 14, 2006: TEHRAN – A group of Iranian cinema directors met Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Tuesday. The Leader said that the need for the development of Iran’s cinema is strongly felt, and the important art of cinema is essential for the country. Cinematic officials can play their role in developing the country by boosting hope, motivation, and self-confidence and promoting Islamic beliefs in society, he added. Ayatollah Khamenei stressed the need for cinematic officials to focus on the Iranian nation’s sacrifices during the eight-year Iraqi-imposed war. The directors discussed cinematic, artistic, cultural, and social issues with the Leader. They also emphasized the necessity to make efforts to establish a national cinema, to boost relations between officials and directors and artists, to better focus on artistic and cultural values in movies, particularly on the theme of the family, and to avoid imitating Western and Indian styles. Tahmineh Milani, Fereidun Jeirani, Rasul Sadramoli, Majid Majidi, and Ebrahim Hatamikia were among the directors who attended the meeting. (See on tehrantimes.com).

She says:  » … the danger in filmmaking is that you can begin the process with one ministry official and by the time your film is complete, someone new has taken his place who might not like your work (it took seven years to get ‘Two Women’ approved) … Filmmaking is very much dependent on our political and social situation in Iran » … (see on NewEnglandFilm.com).

Tahmineh Milani – Iran

Her website in english and farsi.

Iran’s director Makhmalbaf under the spotlight in Munich: TEHRAN, May 23, 2006 (MNA) — Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf will be honored at the 23rd Munich International Film Festival, which is to be held from July 15-22, the student news agency ISNA reported here Tuesday. The festival will also be screening his credits’ retrospective. Makhmalbaf is writing his new film’s screenplay in Afghanistan. The festival also honored other Iranian filmmakers such Mohammad-Ali Talebi and Tahmineh Milani at the 21st and 22nd editions respectively. The annual event aims to highlight the blockbusters of the cinema world. (See this on Mehrnews.com, and also on ISNA.ir).

Continuer la lecture de « Tahmineh Milani – Iran »

Linked with our presentation of Towards an Inclusive Interpretation of Conflict, and with our presentation of International Center on Conflict and Negotiation – Georgia.

Linked also with our presentations of Irina Yanovskaya – Georgia, who works in the same International Center.

He says: « The common point in all major crises is that you cannot overcome them without transforming your mind ».

He is the Chairman of Board of the International Center on Conflict and Negotiation (ICCN) based in Tbilisi, Georgia (since 1998); Director of the same Center (full time; since 1994). He is also Professor of Conflict and Peace Studies, Department of International Law and International Relations, Tbilisi State University (part time; since 1994), and Professor of Conflict Studies, Humanitarian-Technical Dept., Georgian Technical University (part time; since 1998).

George Khutsishvili – Georgia

Bio: November 15, 1948 in Tbilisi, Georgia, then USSR, he is now since 1990 Honorary Citizen of Atlanta, Georgia, USA;
1993 Research Fellowship at the Center for International Security and Arms Control, Stanford University (IREX Program in International Security Studies, extended to full academic year with support from Mr. David Packard);
1993 NATO Research Fellowship (Democratic Institutions Individual Fellowships Program);
1994 The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Grant (ICCN has been established with this grant);
1995, 1997 Open Society – Georgia Foundation Grants;
1995 Norwegian Refugee Council travel grant for the Negotiation Training Course at Harvard Law School;
1997 International Studies Association Grant to participate in the ISA Annual Convention in Toronto;
1997 Distinguished Leadership Award from the American Biographical Institute (Note: Also look in the publications part).
For the rest of his long CV, Memberships, Fellowships, Awards and Honors, his Workshops, Conferences, Courses and Books see al on his Homepage.

links:

Conciliation Resources;

Assistance Georgia, and this text;

about the Kosovo-Conflict;

Since 1984, Algeria has had an Islamic family code, which considerably disadvantages women. Nadia Ait Zai is a lecturer in family law at Algiers University, a committed campaigner for women’s rights in the Maghreb and founder of the “Centre d’Information et de Documentation sur les Droits de l’Enfant et de la Femme” (CIDDEF) in Algiers. In this interview with D+C/E+Z, she elaborates on the work of her initiative and explains the proposals for reforming Algerian Family Law.

She says: « We’re at the bottom of the class in North Africa, … Algeria is now the only country where women need a man’s permission to get married. » (see on quantara.de).

Sorry, I can not find any photo of Nadia Ait Zai, Algeria (see also my comment ‘Brave women without photos‘).

Nadia Ait Zai is the president of the Women’s and Children’s Information Center of Algeria.

She says also: « Basically, if we really wanted to be modern, polygamy should be outlawed altogether. But when it (the Islamic family code) was reintroduced in 1984, certain conditions were attached. If the first wife objects, she can apply for a divorce. Anyway, polygamy is rarely practised. We know that women today very rarely accept becoming a second or third wife. Whenever they do, the husband is financially so well off that accommodation presents no problem. Having said that, most women choose divorce because they see polygamy as an affront to their dignity. I do not really focus on the issue of polygamy because I know that women are strong enough to say no » … and … « What we need in Algeria, I think, is space for dialogue. Whenever there’s a demonstration, we see evidence of people’s need to express their views. Newspapers are a possible forum but women don’t use them.

Continuer la lecture de « Nadia Ait Zai – Algeria »