Mois : mars 2008

Linked with Displaced women tell of misery in the chaos.

Judy Thongori is the Chairperson of CREAW and heads the board that comprises of eight (8) members. Her goal is to work in development and legal initiatives that gear towards achieving an equitable society in which there is zero tolerance to Gender-Based Violence and respect for human rights. She has the experience of seventeen years of practice as a lawyer with six of those years in implementing programmes on women’s rights issues. Part of her work has involved provision of legal services to the under-privileged and taking on public interest litigation. She has been in the forefront in spreading legal awareness through public awareness, seminars, workshops and the media. She has also been proactive in lobbying for laws that are responsive to the needs of women. Judy is married to John Thongori and they have two children. (CREAW).

She says: « Kenya lacks an automatic domestication clause, which provides ways for ratifying and implementing international covenants and charters. Thus, international agreements such as the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and the Beijing Platform for Action remained undomesticated ». (full long text).

Read: Gender and Economic Growth in Kenya, 161 pdf-pages.

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Sorry, no photo found for Judy Thongori, Kenya.

Prostitution is illegal under Tanzanian law, and there is also a prohibition against brothels and defilement of children below age 14. The law similarly forbids child pornography and prostitution and considers any sexual act with a girl below the age of 18 to be rape, which is punishable by life imprisonment. However, enforcing these provisions is very difficult, because, although the law considers sex below the age of 18 to be rape, other provisions set the legal age for marriage at 15. The penalties for raping an adult woman are also very strict, with imprisonment ranging from a minimum of 30 years to a maximum of life. (Judy Thongori, in “The Proposed Amendments to the Laws on Rape and Defilement: Do the Proposed Amendments Fill the Gaps?,” 3 December 2003). In addition, the offender must pay the victim compensation for damages suffered as a result of the rape (ECPAT International Online Database, 24 April 2003).

ECPAT International, a network of organisations and individuals working together to eliminate the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
Judy has front line experience of providing legal services to poor women. She has acted in public interest litigation aimed at increasing their access to justice. A key aspect of her work has been to empower women and other marginalised sections of society through training and media campaigns. She trains to build capacity for self-representation through the justice systems, and on proactive advocacy for responsive laws and policies. She has worked with the judiciary and with Parliament on programmes to increase justice for women, and is currently a Visiting Justice for a women’s prison in Nairobi. (full text).

Matter: whether Sexual Harassment amounts to Sex Discrimination Under International Law and the Kenyan Constitution. Legal Expert Mr. Wachira Maina and National Lawyer Ms. Judy Thongori, September 2004.

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Linked with Pluralism of gate identities or pluralism of competing identities, and with ASR Association for the Sociology of Religion.

A specialist in the study of Evangelical Protestantism, Sebastien Fath is currently a full-time researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research CNRS. He lectures at Sorbonne University Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes EPHE, and is in charge of a scientific research program on contemporary mutations of religion in Western societies. He is the author of ten books and has recently published Dieu bénisse l’Amérique. La religion de la Maison Blanche (Paris: Seuil, 2004), Militants de la Bible aux Etats-Unis. Evangéliques et fondamentalistes du Sud (Paris: Autrement, 2004. This book was awarded the Chateaubriand History Prize), and Du ghetto au réseau. Le protestantisme évangélique en France 1800-2005 , (Geneva, Labor et Fides, 2005). He is born 1968 in Strasbourg, France … (full text).

He writes: « In describing Christianity in France, History and Sociology have had lasting difficulties escaping from the “sect-church” opposition. The heavy dominance of Catholicism is a probable reason. Contrarily to the American situation, characterized by a competitive religious market in which religions are structured in various “denominations”, the French landscape seems to be defined as religiously “dry”, in a very secularized context. Today, with declining churches, the dominant trend would be the “decomposition” of religion, instead of its restructuration. This process takes two forms : “religious bricolage”, or narrow sectarian belonging. The field of Evangelical Protestantism invites us to question this interpretative scheme » … (full long text).

Barack Obama et le vote religieux, Janvier 4, 2008.

His english blog: FRENCH WINDOWS, Asterix goes Global – Civil Society, Religion & Politics, Evangelicalism.

Sébastien FATH, son Weblog scientifique et citoyen (en français).

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Sebastien Fath – France

His book: Politics and Religion in France and the United States.

Both France and the USA do like to teach the World about values. These two great democracies share a common emphasis on universal rights, and it is no surprise if the world debate about the Iraqi war in 2003 turned around what France and what the US had to say. How to explain that? By going back to History, particularly in studying the relationship between politics and religion in France and the US … (French Windows, scroll down to Dec. 14, 2007.

GSRL Groupe Société, Réligions, Laïcités au EPHE/CNRS.

He writes also: « The White House [has been] taken hostage by a fundamentalist sect » (Mercier 2003:44). This kind of comment, found in the columns of a major, Catholic friendly, weekly magazine is quite revealing of the French perception of religion. The president of the United States is not portrayed as a church member, because the word « church » is too positive a term for what the journalist wishes to say about the American President. Thus, he is shown as being under the influence of a « sect » (or « cult »), which is synonymous with bad religion. The « churchsect » dichotomy is characteristic of the French way of seeing religion. This might partly explain why Ernst Troeltsch’s approach of religion has only been discovered in the 1980s, decades after Max Weber’s sociology (Seguy 1980). While Weber usually favored a dual approach of religious structures (church/sect) familiar to the French, Ernst Troeltsch adopted a more nuanced view: he included the mystic type and the « Free church » model. (full long text).

Religion et Sociologie: 29 articles sur le protestantisme évangélique et 14 articles sur les USA et leur mutation socio.réligieuse.

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Linked with Announcing the Orion Project, with The Orion Project, and with The Disclosure Project.

Steven Macon Greer (June 28, 1955) is an American physician known as a proponent of openness in government, media and corporations when it comes to advanced technologies that he and others believe to have been shelved and hidden from public awareness for reasons of profit and influence. To this end he has founded the Disclosure Project in 1993 and the Advanced Energy Research Organization AERO in 2007. (full long text on wikipedia).

It is said: It is said: He brings a unique combination of scientific knowledge, credibility , vision, humor and inspiration to his lectures. Dr. Greer relies on first hand knowledge of extraterrestrial activity world wide and has direct sources for information regarding covert operations dealing with the subject. Supporters of his world are as diverse as Apollo astronaut, Dr Edgar Mitchell, who walked on the moon in Apollo 14, to benefactor and philanthropist Laurance Rockefeller, to former British Ministry of Defense Head and five star admiral, Lord Hill-Norton, to folk legend, Burl Ives … (full text).

Books written by Steven M. Greer.

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Steven M. Greer – USA

See the following videos:

• Disclosure Project – Extraterrestrial Contacts, 1 hr 22 min, 25 Apr 2007;
• Dr Steven Greer and Hon. Paul Hellyer Discuss ET/UFO Disclosure, 1 hr 7 min, 9 May 2006;
• The Disclosure Project, the National Press Club Conference of May 9th 2001, 1 hr 55 min, put on the web on 18 Feb 2006.

He says: « The universe is teeming with intelligent life. In fact, the universe itself is intelligent and alive. The multiplicity of life in the universe, while diverse, is essentially a singularity; beyond division, it exists in the unitive state, a marvelous, conscious Oneness. All that there is exists in its true nature as pure, undifferentiated, eternal Mind. And yet from the awareness of that which is relative, we find inner and outer, mind and body, good and evil, oneness and separation. Truth is often born from the contemplation of these paradoxes; both perspectives are true, but are dependent on the level of awareness of the observer. As we ponder the universe and a new cosmology which accounts for the existence of advanced non-human life forms, the lesson of the paradox will visit us over and over again. But if we look intently with the eye of oneness, perhaps the cosmos will offer up a few of its mysteries » … (full long text).

WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND IS « PLANET X » APPROACHING? January 1, 2006.

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Linked with WorldPulse Magazine, and with CREAW.

Ann Njogu is the executive director of the Centre for Rights Education and Awareness in Nairobi, Kenya. In recognition of her contribution toward gender equity, Njogu received the International Community Awareness Award given by Rainbow House in Chicago, Illinois. (OSI-Forum).

She asks: … “If indeed the commissioners were in possession of the files, how did they get access to them yet the chairman is on record that they needed a court order to access the documents? When did they obtain the order?” … (full text of Crucial files lost in ECK drama, March 3, 2008).

Listen her on this video on YouTube: Ann Njogu, 2.46 min, February 13, 2008. Same video on AOL-video, same video on e-mule.com.

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Ann Njogu – Kenya

She works as Executive Director of the Centre for Rights Education and Awareness CREAW in Nairobi, Kenya.

Ann Njogu named in Charity Ngilu’s wikipedia-text.

It was an assassination attempt on the life of Mwalimu Mati, Ouma Odera and Okoiti Omtatah. There was also a brutal attack on Ann Njogu and Hon. Charity Ngilu Minister of Health who was roughed up when she went to Ann Njogu’s rescue. All five leaders were removed from central police station without the knowledge of their families, olleagues and friends in an attempt to assassinate them. The police alerted the media that they had released the civil society leaders when in fact they had not … (full text, August 1, 2007).

Female Candidates in Kenya Say They Face Discrimination, Violence, Dec. 24, 2007.

… Sexual abuse on children and young adolescents is also increasing at family level. The World Health Organisation estimates a prevalence of 25 per cent for girls and eight for boys. Mrs Ann Njogu, executive director of the Centre for Rehabilitation and Education of Abused Women (Creaw) decries harassment by police when dealing with rape cases. The harassment, she says, discourages many victims from reporting rape cases. (full text, March 10, 2008).

Women’s Property Rights in Kenya’s Draft Constitution, A Joint Letter to Delegates of Kenya’s National Constitutional Conference, August 2003.

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Linked with Rationality And The Lived World.

She says: ” … Fundamentalisms are to be understood as political projects by certain groups in the different societies aimed at gaining or keeping political and/or economic power. They project a vision of community and more often of a nation, based on a certain identity-related understanding suggesting that only one societal concept is in accordance with the vision of community/nation. Behind these fundamentalist projects we can find special political forces that use religion – be it Christian, Muslim, Jewish or other religions – to impose a certain “holy” concept of society as the only true one. They deny the right to choose between different societal concepts, and present their vision as the only legitimate. They do not leave room for opposition, for alternative ways and for individual rights. They try to silence opposition, put pressure on it and form a homogenised society …  » (full text of her speak at the Panel-discussion: « Feminists versus Fundamentalisms », 09.09.2005).

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Durre Sameen Ahmed – Pakistan

(She) started her academic education at Punjab University in Lahore/Pakistan, from where she received an MA in Clinical Psychology. She continued her education in the USA at Columbia University, where she received her PhD in communication and education after having finished an MA. Currently she is the director of the first research program of its kind in South Asia in communications and cultural studies at the National College of Arts in Lahore, where she has been working as a professor already for many years. Additionally she is a visiting professor at the Catholic University in Mechelen/Belgium and the director in Institutional Development of the Lahore Society for Education and Research. For her academic achievements she was honored with numerous national and international awards. She publishes regularly about gender issues, religion, family, drug addiction, tradition and women. Besides that she has done well reviewed work in Conceptual Art and has been working as an advisor to the Punjab government. (Read on Congress Femme Globale 2005).

Find her and her publications on Google Book-search; and on Google Scholar-search.

Her lifeworld is described in the following book: … Fifteen women of various age-groups, from different cultural, religious, social and geographical backgrounds, were asked to write about the lives of their grandmother, their mother, themselves and their daughters (or, if this was impossible, other women of those generations close to the family) … (full text):

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Linked with Council for secular Humanism, and with the Institute for the Secularization of the Islamic Society.

Stephen Gallagher is a philosopher and writer who lives and works in North Carolina. He recently addressed the International Philosophers for Peace conference on the history of religiously based prison discourse in America … (full text).

He says: « Quality is not a thing. It is an event … It is the event at which the subject becomes aware of the object…Quality is the event at which awareness of both subjects and objects is made possible … This means that Quality is not just the result of a collision of subject and object. The very existence of subject and object themselves is deduced from the Quality event. The Quality event is the cause of the subjects and objects ». (full text).

Stephen J. Gallagher’s favorite links.

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Stephen J. Gallagher – USA

He writes: … At the moment I’m juggling several balls in the air:

• Wrapping up a review of Barry Lynn’s book, « Piety and Politics »,
• Fleshing out an essay tentatively titled « Forgetting Guantanomo »,
• Reworking a short play I wrote into format suitable for a radio play,
• Last but not least, the big kahuna on my list of To Do’s, I’m working on a book tentatively titled « Leaps of Faith: When Mania Meets Modernity ».

Yep, I’m a busy guy … (full text).

He writes also: … Even in a period when the fallibility of the death penalty has been repeatedly exposed, roughly two out of three Americans still support it. In Texas, current United States president George W. Bush personally supervised the executions of 152 people – and he is proud of that fact. That the blood of this slow-motion massacre on the president’s hands is a political asset says everything about current U.S. values. As the civilized world goes in one direction on this question, the United States goes in another. Proudly. If the whole, long, desperate struggle of rational thought is to have any meaning, then I must renounce my all-too-human craving for revenge and blood. We all must. (full text).

His conferences.

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Linked with terra choice.com.

He is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Professor by Courtesy of Energy Resources Engineering.

The main goal of Jacobson’s research is to understand physical, chemical, and dynamical processes in the atmosphere better in order to address atmospheric problems, such as climate change and urban air pollution, with improved scientific insight and more accurate predictive tools. He also evaluates the atmospheric effects of different solutions to climate change and air pollution problems, supports mapping and analysis of winds for wind energy, and studies issues related to combining renewable energies … (full text stanford 1/2).

He says: « These aerosol particles are having an effect worldwide on the wind speeds over land; there’s a slowing down of the wind, feeding back to the rainfall too », … (full text).

Watch his video: Ethanol may lead to more ozone-related deaths, 3.54 min, April 24, 2007.

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Mark Z. Jacobson – USA

His Blog: Mark Z. Jacobson.

The study found that carbon dioxide increases ozone and particulate matter – unhealthful pollutants in smog – by increasing temperatures and water vapor in the atmosphere. What’s more, it showed that ozone, in particular, increases the most where it is already high. This does not bode well for California, which has six of the 10 most polluted cities in the United States: Los Angeles, Visalia-Porterville, Bakersfield, Fresno, Merced and Sacramento. (full text).

Newest articles with reference to Mark Z. Jacobson:

• Are Florida ethanol plants worth it? By Asjylyn Loder, March 3, 2008.
• Carbon Dioxide Tied To Air Pollution Mortality, Mar. 4, 2008;
• CO2 new member in the ‘killer gases’ group, Febr. 23, 2008.

He says also: « Ethanol is being promoted as a clean and renewable fuel that will reduce global warming and air pollution, » said Jacobson, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.  »But our results show that a high blend of ethanol poses an equal or greater risk to public health than gasoline, which already causes significant health damage …  » (full text).

Effects of Ethanol (E85) Versus Gasoline Vehicles on Cancer and Mortality in the United States.

Mark Z. Jacobson, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, recently published that « a blend of ethanol poses an equal or greater [environmental health] risk than gasoline, which already causes significant health damage ». His paper, based on computer models, appeared in the online edition of Environmental Science and Technology. The study suggested a net few hundred more people in America might suffer respiratory illnesses if the nation were to switch all vehicles to 100% ethanol. It received mainstream media attention this week, given that ethanol proponents have long maintained that the fuel is substantially less polluting, citing volumes of data … (full text).

Fundamentals of Atmospheric Modeling, 16 pdf-pages.

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