Gloomy

I didn’t work my restaurant job today. I really needed some money, but I had lots of errands to run, so I gave it up. I wound up with a little time left over, so I took myself to lunch thinking I could knock out some reading while I was there.

In the end I was able to. But at first all I could think of were two similar events. One is a scene in the movie The Idiots. In an introductory scene a woman, dining alone, is ridiculed by her server for being cheap. In the last minutes of the film it is revealed that she was dining out to have time to her self, an attempt to do something nice for herself after the recent death of her infant son.

The second happened a month or two ago while Casey and I ate at The Omlettry. A woman unexpectedly flew off the handle when she was told that she couldn’t serve herself. It wasn't that she was receiving poor service - actually, its a little complicated. I was irritated with her for quite a while before I understood what was going on. The Omlettry is cash only, and she had not remembered this when she arrived. She wanted to serve herself so that she wouldn’t be taxing the servers because she didn’t have money for a tip. So, being told that she wasn’t allowed to do so frustrated her, and she quickly began to quiver, yell, and then sob. With fragments of speech, sandwiched between sobs, she told the manager that her husband had recently died. It was raining and she was sad. She kept repeating that she had just wanted to have a nice lunch. They had frequented the place, she said, and he had proposed to her there. The situation made me extremely uncomfortable, and extremely sad. The manager did the only thing that could be done and listened while she spoke of him until she was calm enough to go home.

It's been swimming around my brain all day. I had to write it down before I could get any studying done.

****The Omlettry is another of my favorite places here. I think I need to make a huge "Guide to Austin - Through The Q's Eyes" post. This would be a huge undertaking. Do not expect it any time soon - I'm reading Chaucer.****

Goodness, me!

I want one of theese with a cameo center!

Uterus Pin

At least there isn't James Spader.

It's the glasses that make me look like James Spader.

If I find a photo without glasses I'll try again. Hmm, where are those photos from my sister's wedding?

And - is anyone else wondering what the hell is going on with Jeneane Garofalo's hair?

Oh My Goodness!

I found one of my favorite people, who took a break from the blogosphere for a while. It is so good to have her back, and to hear that her tumor is shrinking. Go and check her out, especially the scarves she's knitting. Maybe you know someone who will need one this winter? Maybe you'd like to commission a scarf? Make her an offer, it seems that these days all she does is knit and ruminate.

As The Tumor Turns

I am running out of steam on the woman-posts. I know I will not get one done today, or tomorrow - I work a double - so look forward to one Monday.

I am such a disappointment.

Human Rights and Women

Maybe the most recent international well known human rights violation is the case of Mukhtaran Bibi, the Pakistani woman who was gang raped for her brother's alleged crime, and went public with her story.

In 2005 she was Glamour Magazine's woman of the year. With the money the government tried to pay her off with she opened a school, and has travelled to tell her story and bring awareness to human rights violations in Pakistan.

While searching for topics today I came across an Amnesty International Page.

The topics I think are best include:

In the name of honour: Domestic Violence in Pakistan

The Promise of Safety: Afghan Women Refugees

UNIFEM is celebrating 30 years and has this to say about women's human rights.

So, let's talk about "The Disappeared."

You think that I have a typo, right? Most times I do, but today is different.

Defined by Wikipedia as "when an organization forces a person to vanish from public view, either by murder or by simple sequestration. The victim is first kidnapped, then illegally detained in concentration camps, often tortured, and finally executed and their corpse hidden. In Spanish, "disappeared people" are called "desaparecidos", a term which specifically refers to the mostly South American victims of state terrorism during the 1970s and the 1980s, in particular concerning Operation Condor."

Operation Condor just sounds dumb, right?

It was a horrible, horrible practice. People were kidnapped, tortured, and then forced or thrown out of an airplane over the Atlantic Ocean. No remains were found. Families don't know the answers to all of the questions they've been living with for 20 years.

Mothers are missing their children; Wives, their husbands; children their fathers. Women are among the missing as well. What is remarkable is who is still looking for answers.




Jacqueline Paulette Drouilly Yurich
Diana Frida Aron Svigilsky
Lumi Videla Moya

There are quite a few names listed at http://www.memoriaviva.com/english.htm, but there are a suspected 30,000 people who were killed.

Desaparecidos.org
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo - Mother of the disappeared
Mothers of the Disappeared - U2-

Last night (or tonight, to me) I did so much homework I didn't get to my woman-related post. So I am reopening an argument.




So, is dove doing a good enough job at revealing "real beauty?" Or are their own models not real enough?

Tired.

I did have half of the day off as far a shift work is considered. After a VERY fast/busy day at work Mr. A and I had dinner up at work, and then went to the horse farm and I rode. Now we're watching Lars von Triers' The Kingdom. I have a love/hate relationship with old Lars...

Today was the Race for the Cure, and so that is my focus for women's topics. I know, it's a lack-luster attempt, but it's all I got in me right now.

Lots of things at work made me sad today, young babies with Downs Syndrome, families celebrating their child's 1st birthday without so much as a cupcake. Gray skies and rain. Blegh.

Go read up at the Susan G. Komen Foundation website.

NaBloPoMo - With A Cause IV

I love Wikipedia because it has great things like the following chart for days when I am not feeling so energetic about my posts. When I did a search Wikipedia for "AIDS, Africa," This was my best result. From it I got the following table. As well as this one.

So what just these two charts tell us is 1) World wide, one of every one hundred people you'd come across has HIV/AIDS. In Sub-Saharan Africa it's more than 1 in 10. 2) In Botswana and Zimbabwe, as well as Lesotho, 3 in 10 are infected. Can you imagine that?

At TIME.com you can find the article, "Death Stalks A Continent." In it we learn that one cause of AIDS is that AIDS patients are afraid to admit their disease, for fear that they will be made social outcasts. Millions are not educated about HIV/AIDS, and how it is spread, and even though many people are educated, they still allow AIDS to spread sexually. Of course, a large part of Africa is also extremely poor, leading to an inability to care for one's self financially - including health care, transportation to a treatment center or the ability to simply eat well enough to stay nourished.

Another thing we learn from the TIME is that the reason women are so susceptible to HIV/AIDS is that it is not uncommon for a man to be unfaithful, and a woman is criticized for asking her husband to use protection. So as the article states it, "[An African women] risk[s] [her] life in every act of sexual intercourse." According to UNAIDS.org over the past two years the rate of infection in girls and women in every region of the world. In Sub-Saharan Africa, females make up nearly 60% of the infected population.

This is nowhere near the information I could give you on HIV/AIDS infection. I instead encourage you to do some look around the web. Visit UNAIDS.org - Women, and learn something. Or read Stop Violence Against Woman - FIGHT AIDS. Or go to Interact Worldwide to learn about World Aids Day and what you can do to help make a difference.

Raise Your Hand if You HAVEN'T Heard of Female Genital Mutilation.

Is there anyone out there raising their hand?

I first learned about female genital mutilation when I was a kid - about 12 - from 60 Minutes.

So since we all know about it, here are some links, starting with Wikipedia:
Different forms of Female Genital Mutilation

In 1998, the BBC wrote about how many untrained people were in charge of performing the operation.

NPR tell us about how an Atlanta Female Circumcision Case Stirs Concern

The BBC, again, reminds us the 'female circumcision' put women at risk for birth related problems, including obstruction and mortality.

And here's the WHO's PoV.

Maternal Mortality is determined as a pregnancy related death when pregnant or within 42 days of termination of the pregnancy.
An estimated 529,000 women die annually from maternal causes. For each woman who dies approximately 20 suffer injury, infection or disibilty.

So that is... 10 million women affected each year?

Most often women die because of post partum hemorrage, but along with that, sepsis, abortion related complications, obstructed labor (the same kind that causes Obstetric Fitsula), and even hypertansive disorders related with pregnancy.

Death could be prevented if obstetric care and equipment were available so that a C-section could be preferomed, or a hemorrage stopped.

Women at a higher risk have stunted height from malnutrition in childhood, are Anemic, or have undergone female genital mutilation. The same factors affect the survival rate of the child, resulting in an estimated 8 million infant deaths each year.


www.safemotherhood.org, "Maternal Mortality"

According to Reproline, Every Minute:

380 women become pregnant
190 women face unplanned or unwanted pregnancy
110 women experience a pregnancy related complication
40 women will have an unsafe abortion
1 woman will die from a pregnancy-related complication.

According to www.UNFPA.org, a woman living in sun-saharan Africa has a 1 in 16 chance of dying in childbirth or pregnancy. A woman in a developed nation's chance of mortality is only 1 in 2,800. Of those previously mentioned 529,000 deaths annually, 95% of those were in Africa and Asia.

UNFPA.org's suggestions for progress in reducing maternal mortality:

Meeting the existing demand for family planning services would reduce maternal deaths and injuries by 20 per cent or more.

According to reproductive health benchmark set by the ICPD+ 5, by 2005, at least 40 per cent of births should be assisted by skilled birth attendants where maternal mortality is very high, and 80 per cent globally.

Targets for the percentage of assisted births have been set at 50 and 85 per cent, respectively, by 2010, and 60 and 90 per cent by 2015.

Evidence shows that maternal mortality can be reduced without first achieving high levels of economic development. In fact, maternal mortality itself constrains economic development, because of its severe impact on the lives of young children, the family and society in general.

NaBloPoMo - With A Cause

Chances are I will be posting more than once each day. Hanging out with my blog so much lately has had me wanting to write more and more. However, just as I previously mentioned, I am planning on posting on a certain topic everyday. One with a little more meaning than the "This Is My Life" theme I normally have.

I am currently enrolled in a course titled, "Issues and Policies in American Government." I know, the name alone give you chills from excitement - yes? The class focuses on social movements in the US versus those abroad. While wrapping up our focus on the modern women's movement in the US, the professor took a moment to focus of the women's issues in developing countries, because our comparison in class is only with the Chilean Women's movement. I've known about female genital mutilation, and oppression in some Islamic states, but her list kept going and going.

I realized right then what I wanted to focus on.

So, forgive me, dear readers, if you cannot hack the factual and emotional pleas I will be making for the next month. I promise to sprinkle it with personal anecdotes, and to keep it fairly short. With lots of links. Pictures, too (remember that I like to make my links to important things photos).

So to begin, this week is women's health week. I am sure some topics will over-lap, and may get kind of muddy. I am doing my best to organize, and that's still not great.

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Ever heard of Obstetric fistula?

I hadn't. It's horrible - and entirely preventable and treatable when not prevented.

Fistula is a childbirth related injury. It occurs when a labor is obstructed and goes on for 3-7 days, even though the fetus normally dies after two or three days of labor. While the fetus is in the birth canal it's head puts pressure on the soft tissues around it against the pelvic bone or the rectum. This extended pressure prevents blood from getting to the tissue, causing it to die and leaving a hole between the vagina and bladder, or rectum, or both.

The result is incontinence. Because of the woman's inability to control her urine or feces she is often shunned by her family, unable to get a job, and left to rely on charity. There can be medical consequences, too. Women with Fistula can suffer from chronic ulcerations and infections. Some women drink as little as possible to prevent embarrassment and only succeed in dehydrating themselves. Others suffer nerve damage and are unable to walk. In most cases the child is still-born.

Fistula can be prevented by an emergency cesarean section, and occurs most often in area where emergency services are unavailable. The surgery to repair it and post-op care costs about $300, and has a 90% success rate in uncomplicated cases. Many women who suffer from fistula cannot afford the $300, or do not know a solution exists.

Please visit www.endfistula.org, RENEW: The Campaign to End Fistula, to find out more, see pictures of the women affect and helped by the campaign, and to learn what you can do to help.

If you, or someone you know, has an idea about how to bring attention to Fistula, please let me know in the comments section.