Mois : mai 2007

Linked with The Manthan AIF-Award, with Body mass politic, and with ‘We are 30 years behind China in terms of development‘.

He is a well respected and clear-headed Indian economist. He was educated in Presidency College, Kolkata, Delhi School of Economics and Trinity College, Cambridge). He has worked at Presidency College (Kolkata), Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (Pune), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (Delhi), National Council of Applied Economic Research (Delhi) and as Consultant, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. He was also the Director of a project known as LARGE (Legal Adjustments and Reforms for Globalizing the Economy), set up by the Ministry of Finance and UNDP to examine legal reforms. Books Authored or co-authored. (full text).

He says: “It is important to change not only the base and the basket of commodities, but also the method and processes used to compute these indices, which have been strongly criticized. Even the time taken for data collection is pretty long. These things must improve for the indices to be effective”. (full text).

Free download: A message of empowerment, a 174 pages pdf-text by Bibek Debroy.

Bibek Debroy – India

His columns on the Financial Express.

The Indian economy is fast losing competitiveness, not because RBI chose to inject some exchange rate volatility for various reasons but because the economy’s readiness to handle a permanently higher level of aggregate demand has been stopped in its tracks. That is the crux. The UPA government is part of the problem not only because it is an “unproductive asset” (acknowledge Bibek Debroy) but also since it is pursuing CPA—a counterproductive agenda. One should not deny India’s communists their credit in this state of affairs. (full text, May 15, 2007).

Read:

• Back to lazy banking, May 9, 2007;
• Wish he were duty-bound, March 1, 2007;
• Call it disparity, not rural-urban divide, November 30, 2006;
• Improving India’s Investment Climate, April 11, 2005;
• We must scrap Pay Commissions, July 2004;
• Integrating the Rural Poor into Markets, 2004.

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Linked with the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq OWFI, and with Honor Killings in the New Iraq, The Murder of Du’a Aswad.

She says: « After this war started on Iraq I immediately decided to go back to set up an organization and to be the voice for free women there, and since the beginning, in my organization, we decided to do demonstrations, to do campaigns, to make petitions, and to see whatever is needed. And it started with speaking out against the human trafficking of women, and we were the first to demonstrate. It was a few months after the [March 2003] beginning of the war – in August 2003 – we started that. But later on, our work was mainly on sheltering women from honor killings, and also on seeking out the reports of women’s trafficking, and later on in the last two years we found out – especially after the breakout of the scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison, we found out that it is very important to have a presence in all the women’s prisons and see what’s happening there. So, we managed to become regular visitors to the central prison – it’s called Khadamiyah, a women’s prison, and we interviewed all the women in there, and we found out terrible things happening before they reached the prison. Six of them, actually, spoke out about being assaulted, about being raped, some of them serially raped by the staff of the police station before they reached the prison. So, we decided: This is a program that we will have to pursue immediately. And the surprise here is that most of this work we do with very minimal funding – mostly depending on volunteer work ». (full text, May 18, 2007).

Read: Feminists Yanar Mohammed of Iraq and Dr. Sima Samar of Afghanistan on the Dire Situation for Women Under U.S. Occupation and Rising Fundamentalism, May 14, 2007.

Irak-photos: bombed people.

Yanar Mohammed – Irak

She works for Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq OWFI.

The 2007 honorees receiving the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Global Women’s Rights were Dr. Sima Samar, chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and highest-ranking female in the Afghan government; Yanar Mohammed, founder and president of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq; Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, founder of Women on Waves, a mobile clinic offering safe abortions and inspiring legalization campaigns internationally; and Laurie David, environmental leader and producer of the Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth. (full text, May 18, 2007).

Read: Bringing feminism to Iraq, May 10, 2007.

Read: Women Under Attack, The Talibanization of Iraq, May n09, 2007.

Read: Voices from the Front—Women Face a “Mutilated Beast”. May 01, 2007.

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Ghiyās ol-Dīn Ab’ol-Fath Omār ibn Ebrāhīm Khayyām Neyshābūrī, or Omar Khayyam, born: May 18, 1048 in Nishapur, Iran (Persia) – died: December 4, 1131), was a Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher and astronomer. He is best known for the collection of poetry, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. (full long texts about him, the Khayyam’s shrine, his time as Student, writer and poet, Mathematician and Astronomer, his view about Islam, his poems as a sceptic, but also Miscellaneous and References, you’ll find all on wikipedia).

He said: « Up from Earth’s centre through the Seventh Gate I rose, and on the throne of Saturn sate, And many knots unravel’d by the road; But not the knot of human death and fate ». (full text).

See: his tomb as a modern monument.

Omar Khayyam – Iran (Persian, 18 May 1048 – 04 December 1131)

Professor Marcel Conche (in french) from the french Sorbonne, calls him ‘the Islamic Voltaire’/Voltaire en terre d’islam. (Found in ‘Les nouveaux penseurs de l’Islam, RevueLe Nouvel Observateur, hors-série, avril-mai 2004’).

The great Persian mathematician, astronomer, freethinker and epigrammatist, who derived the epithet Khayyam (the tentmaker) most likely from his father’s trade, was born in or near Nishapur, where he is said to have died in AH 517 (AD 1123). At an early age he entered into a close friendship both with Nizam-ul-mulk and his schoolfellow Hassan ibn Sabbah, who founded afterwards the terrible sect of the Assassins. When Nizam-ul-mulk was raised to the rank of vizier by the Seljuk sultan Alp-Arslan (AD 1063-1073) he bestowed upon Hassan ibn Sabbah the dignity of a chamberlain, whilst offering a similar court office to Omar Khayyam. But the latter contented himself with an annual stipend which would enable him to devote all his time to his favorite studies of mathematics and astronomy. His standard work on algebra, written in Arabic, and other treatises of a similar character raised him at once to the foremost rank among the mathematicians of that age, and induced Sultan Malik-Shah to summon him in AH 467 (AD 1074) to institute astronomical observations on a larger scale, and to aid him in his great enterprise of a thorough reform of the calendar. The results of Omar’s research were a revised edition of the Zij or astronomical tables, and the introduction of the Ta’rikh-i-Malikshahi or Jalali, that is, the so-called Jalalian or Seljuk era, which commences in AH 471 (AD 1079, 15th March). (full text).

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Linked with Amnye Machen Institute (with its Centre for Advanced Tibetan Studies).

He was a Buddhist monk of Tibet. A film about him is called ‘the angry monk’.

He said: « In Tibet ist alles, was alt und traditionell ist, ein Werk Buddhas. Alles Neue hingegen ein Werk des Teufels. Das ist die traurige Tradition meines Landes » … and: « Now we’re fucked! » (at the occupation of Lhasa by the Chinese army).

Gendun Choephel was born in 1903 in a small village in eastern Tibet, near the silk road, at the Chinese border, in a remote region populated by nomads. This region was inhabited by Muslims, Chinese and Tibetans that were constantly fighting each other. The villages often were attacked and looted by warlords. In this explosive and mixed cultural climate Gendun Choephel started to be interested in his Tibetan identity early on. He received a traditional education as a monk in the most important monastery of the region, where he developed a friendship with an American missionary that the other monks and his family resented. In 1927 he left the monastery and moved to Lhasa with a caravan of merchants. (full text).

Gendun Choephel – Tibet (1903 – 1951)

Apart from his occasional dabbling in poetry, Gendun Chophel wrote little in Tibet. By the time he returned from India twelve years later, he had authored a staggering number of works: a travelogue, an unfinished history book, an erotica literature, a pilgrimage guidebook; also an English translation of a Tibetan tome on history of Buddhism, Tibetan translations of Indian classics like Shakuntala, Bhagavad Gita and Ramayana, and the Pali Theravadin cannon, Dhammapada; numerous Tibetan newspaper articles and essays in English for one Mahabodhi Society Journal. His muse, in short, hit him bad when he was on the road. (full text).

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She is a filmmaker. She had an extensive portfolio at a young age. After directing her first play in 1994 when she was just 23 years old, Mehreen went on to create a work which ranges from short independent art films to commercial serials and series for television. Her success as a director can be assessed by the fact that her work has appeared in many film festivals around the world including The Hong Kong International Film Festival, The San Francisco Asian-American Film Festival, and The Leeds Film Festival in U. K. to name a few and her short film, Beauty Parlor, was recently screened in New York. At home, in Pakistan, her unconventional style of story telling has earned her much acclaim and several awards. (full text).

Cannes is a marketplace: As for Mehreen Jabbar, director of her upcoming movie ‘Ramchand Pakistani’, she (Actor Nandita Das) says, “Mehreen has a unique cinematic sensibility, very quiet and dignified, a bit like the European style of cinema. The fact that she has her roots in Pakistan reflects in her work », May 08, 2007. (full text).

Mehreen Jabbar – Pakistan

Listen to her short video presentation, 1.25 minutes.

Discussing gender, sexuality through a film festival (Cannes): … « Beauty Parlour » comes from Mehreen Jabbar in Pakistan … , May 10, 2007. (full text).

She says: « I don’t really look at plays as issues, I look at stories. The stories that appeal to me are small stories, like conflicts within a household and conflicts between two individuals. More than social issues, that obviously plays a part, but I don’t direct to make a point » … and: « I’ve never had an interest in acting.
I think it’s an extremely difficult job and it’s not for me! I find directing is my forte because this is how I love telling stories. Directing is like giving birth, creating, moulding. the high is incredible as are the rewards. To see all the elements come together from the script to the actors, to the camera work, to the crew and to see that produce something that was the original vision is irreplaceable » … and: « I have not written my own plays but I work with the writers. We come up with a story, sometimes the writer will come up with something, sometime I will and then I sit with them and they write and we just take the whole script from start to finish, and then it is devleped from there on. So it’s a very collaborative process. I work with only a couple of writers » … and: « I’ve never worked in the film industry. That is in Lahore, mostly. But a group of us (independent filmmakers) have started the KaraFilm Festival which is Pakistan’s only international film festival. We started that two years ago and it was developed with the aim to encourage producers and directors to produce and show their works at the festival and to enable people to view films from around the world and meet with other filmmakers ». (full interview text).

Read: Acting is a self-obsessed profession.

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Linked with Asian Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development APWLD.

She is APWLD‘s Regional Coordinator.

She says: « My involvement with APWLD was through Imrana Jalal, who invited me to attend the first Feminist Legal Theory and Practice training in the Pacific back in 1998, it was my introduction to feminism and a critical analysis of the law in theory and practice.

Being a member of the network has brought me into contact with many women activists and advocates from the Asia Pacific region, who come from diverse backgrounds and have shared experiences. I have come to realise what empowerment means and the importance of understanding the experiences and realities of women’s lives when applying the law to address women’s issues to bring about social change. It has also equipped me with the skills and knowledge to mobilise communities to bring about policy, legislative and constitutional change in the Cook Islands where I come from.

Lynnsay Rongokea Francis – Cook Islands

As a newly appointed Regional Coordinator, I bring to APWLD a combination of experiences and skills in non-formal training, project planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and management, having worked in community development, on issues of gender, human rights and the law at both national and regional levels in Pacific Island countries, with government and non-government as well as regional organisations. Although some progress has been made in some areas within the Pacific region, women are still disadvantaged in political, social, cultural and economic life, due to the fact that Pacific political decision makers continue to be overwhelmingly male and are reflected in the failure to address issues that concern women.

With the support of the APWLD governance bodies, the secretariat and members of the network and especially with the support of my Pacific women colleagues, friends and network and my commitment to the organisation and women’s movement I believe I have the experience and skills that are much needed at this time to ensure APWLD continues at the forefront of the women’s movement to shape and lead the way forward towards shared goals ». (on apwld.org, scroll down).

She is also founding member of the PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM SECRETARIAT, in Suva, Fiji.

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(alias former Dr. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh).

Linked with Sakyadhita, The International Association of Buddhist Women,
and with The Chaing Mei Declaration.

Dr Chatsumarn Kabilsingh is a scholar and activist in social justice and women’s issues in Asia. She is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Thammasat University in Bangkok, and author of the book Thai Women in Buddhism. She is also past President of Sakyadhita (Daughters of Buddha) International, a Buddhist women’s organization. Monte Leach interviewed her for Share International. (full text).

She is now a Buddhist nun.

See photos:
on pluralism.org;
on bpf.org (click on links).

She says: « I am very much a feminist for Buddhism, and I draw my strength as a feminist from Buddha’s teaching » … and: « The Buddha set up the bhikkhuni order more than 2500 years ago to give women equal access to spiritual practices, He warned that the strength and wellbeing of the movement relied on four pillars: bhikkhu (male monks), bhikkhuni (female monks), upasaka (male laypeople) and upasika (female laypeople) » … and: « it was difficult to give up wealth and career », (but she felt the time was right). (full text).

Sr. Bhikkhuni Dhammananda alias former Dr. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh – Thailand

A lone female monk has riled the religious hierarchy by waging a fight for ordination of women, reports Connie Levett from Nakhon Prathom, Thailand. (full text).

Continuer la lecture de « Sr. Bhikkhuni Dhammananda – Thailand »