by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

In times of war and during the peace process, women have played key roles, particularly in the protection of their rights and those of their children.

• Cultures clash in the Philippines as US military presence targets Muslim schools and mosques in the ongoing war on terrorism. Photograph by
Dominic G Diongson. •

Mindanao has long been considered the poorest island, having the highest incidence of poverty of any region in the Philippines. Continual armed conflict has only aggravated that poverty.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

“The stories we listened to made us bleed inside, the genital wounds we later had to help nurse evoked us, the long distances we traveled every day and night to educate girls on their rights made us strong, the songs of joy and sorrow the girls sang made us more passionate, everything to do with girlhood and the fact that we were there for the girls pushed us to do even more and more from the heart, soul, mind and all. The fact that we finally claimed the girls' spaces where the girls now live and develop free of violence makes it imperative that we share these great tidings” - GCN Director and Founder Betty Makoni

• Betty Makoni has led thousands of girls towards a brighter future.
Photograph courtesy of GCN •

When I first heard Betty speak back then, I immediately fell in love with her. This woman spoke with so much passion and emotion about the issue of rape and abuse of young girls. She was equally disturbed by girls’ general lack of opportunities in life when compared with those given to boys.

by Jessica Mosby
USA

When you think of Afghanistan, smiling women in shift dresses attending college is not the first image that comes to mind. Decades of violence has devastated the country, leaving little more than bomb craters, crumbling buildings, families struggling to rebuild shattered lives and oppressed women who suffered at the hands of the Taliban. After watching years of newsreels depicting the country in such extreme peril, I cannot envision any other Afghanistan.

• Image courtesy of
Tora Bora Pictures •

In the summer of 2004, Wazhmah went to Afghanistan with her friend and camerawoman Kelly Dolak to make a documentary film about the modern-day situation in Afghanistan. It was Kelly’s first international trip. After filming for three months in a country Wazhmah hardly recognized, the filmmakers had more than enough footage for the serious, issue-focused documentary they planned to make. But in the editing room something happened: they realized that the real story their documentary needed to tell was Wazhmah’s - specifically the physical and emotional process of returning to and connecting with her homeland after more than 20 years of living in the United States.

by Sarah Wyatt
USA

“The Arctic is not a wilderness or a frontier. It is our home. It is our homeland…Our entire way of life as we know it may end in my grandson's lifetime."

• The unprecedented melting of the polar ice caps threatens the Inuit way of life. Photograph by Ville Miettinen. •

Sheila Watt-Cloutier has been warning the world about the degradation and shrinking of the polar ice for years. She should know: she and her people, the Inuit, live in the Arctic. For them, the situation is far from academic. As she has said more than once, “It is a matter of livelihood, food, individual and cultural survival.” Some 170,000 Aleuts, Indians, Eskimos, Métis and other indigenous people live north of the Arctic Circle in Russia, Alaska, and Canada.

by Michelle Chen
USA

"Rich men dam the water
Flooding the hill rice field, causing problems for Mother
Rich men dam the river
Flooding the roof and making Mother homeless"

• The lives of the Karen are threatened by Burma's dam projects. Photograph by Pithawat Vachiramon. •

For thousands of years, the Salween has flowed freely through China, Burma and Thailand, nourishing lush ecosystems and indigenous communities throughout its 2,800-kilometer course. But the military junta, which has ruled Burma since it seized power in August of 1988, has caught up to the possibilities of international “development” by deciding to harness the latent energy of the Salween. The dictatorship known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is now driving four massive multibillion-dollar dam projects that would exploit the river for the first time with the intent of producing hydroelectric power. Human-rights groups say that the multiple emerging Salween dam projects will ignite the latest spark in the Burmese people’s long-smoldering struggle against this government.

by Tess Raposas
Philippines

• Thousands flock to Obando Bulacan for its annual fertility festival. Photograph
by Darwin Go. •

The town of Obando, just 16 kilometers northwest of the capital, Manila, sits on flat, low-lying coastal plains bordering Manila Bay to the west. Fishing is the major means of livelihood, along with raising ducks, other poultry and hogs. There is also garment and jewelry making and some food processing. 14% of the population live in rural barangays (Tagalog for barrios, otherwise known as districts or wards, the smallest local government unit). The rest of the households make up the urban population. The average monthly income is slightly below what the Department of Social Welfare and Development has established as the minimum for a family of six.

by Vera von Kreutzbruck
Germany

• Hamburg boasts pint-sized anti-Nazi graffiti.
Photograph by Photocapy. •

The Nazis offered incentives to German women to procreate and introduced the “Lebensborn” program (fount of life in German) to create a master race of blond, blue-eyed children. Mothers with three or more children under 10 years old received “honorary cards” allowing them to jump shopping queues and get discounts on their rent. Cheap state loans were offered for parents, and there was the “Mother’s Cross” medal: bronze for four children, silver for six and gold for eight.

by Victoria Stirling
Canada

"It's not the fact that one day I will die," Joan said, ” The problem I have is wondering just how it’s going to happen!"

• The author in her early nursing days. Photograph courtesy of Victoria Stirling. •

I’m aware that this is a highly sensitive subject for a lot of people, but it’s one I feel needs to be talked about openly. It's often been said that taxes and death are two inevitable facts of life; this reality applies equally to every one of us, no matter where we reside. Well, our taxes change, but dying remains the same singular experience it has always been. Each of us has to face that final end of life; no one else can do it for us.

From the late seventies up to the end of the nineties I worked as a staff nurse in an acute care hospital. My primary clinical experience was working on a respiratory, cardio-vascular unit. Sadly during that time I was witness to many patients' demise. Some patients went peacefully to sleep, while others endured rigorous resuscitative measures before finally expiring. A number of them suffered much pain, and often prayed or pleaded for release.

by Viktorija Plavcak
Slovenia

Slovenia, a new member of the European Union since September 2007, is a state where the rights of individuals are trampled on every day and nobody cares. Some may feign concern in public, but in the solitude of their homes they spit on those who don't fit in. They curse them and their children, calling them thieves, crooks and killers. Even worse, they threaten them with violence and want the government to evict them from any safe haven they might find in the country.

• Ljubljana, capital city of Slovenia. Photograph by Rosino. •

When the Gypsies came to town

When I was little, it was a holiday in our village when Gypsies came to town. Their air of mystery made our imaginations soar. We adored it when they came on horseback, with all sorts of haberdashery and kitsch. When they set up a carousel, we kids rode round and round for hours, making us very late getting home from school. Winter or summer, they wore only light clothes. They made a lot of noise. Old gypsy women offered to tell our fortunes or begged for money, food or clothes, and my parents never refused. They didn't always come in groups; sometimes individual travelers came to mend all sorts of things from umbrellas, to pots and pans, or they sharpened knives and scissors.

by Cecelia Fuentes
USA

One day in July, after picking up the New York Times, an article, “A Voice of Developing Nations Asks the West for Compromise on Trade” attracted my attention. My eye was caught less by the title of the article, a subject in which I am very much interested, but more by the photo accompanying the piece. Looking out from the page was the face of Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry for India, a man the reporter was calling “the unofficial voice of the deadlocked World Trade Organization (WTO) talks,” adding that he had also been called “stubborn and irresponsible.”

• A demonstrator at the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference held in Hong Kong.
Photograph by Fuzheado. •

The article said that Mr. Nath and Brazil’s foreign minister, Celso Amorim, had walked out of the latest round of WTO trade talks in a show of unity. A deadlock had occurred when the United States refused to consider a meaningful reduction of US agricultural subsidies.

by Imelda V. Abano
Philippines

When I visited a dumpsite last week to do a story about scavengers, I saw a group of children sifting through mountains of trash and asked: "What do you do when you're hungry?" They stared and laughed at me before replying: "When we're hungry, we just tighten our belts."

• In the Philippines, many of
the country's poor scavenge
from dumps to survive.
Photo by Imelda V. Abaño. •

Elena is just 35 years old, but she looks much older. She has five children. She sorts with her bare hands through the putrid waste, looking for anything of value - plastics, some glass, aluminum, bits of cardboard or metal - and stuffs her finds into a sack. Elena rises at 4am; 13 hours later, she will have filled several sacks, each weighing around 40 kilos, with recycled detritus. After 13 hours of work, she tosses her sacks up onto her back and hauls them to the middlemen. They will buy everything she and her children have managed to salvage in a day – and for that effort, she collects a measly $18 USD. Then she goes home to a nearby slum to prepare the family meal.

by Natasha Dokovska
Macedonia

A scandal recently occurred at the Macedonian Parliament on September 28th, when the Albanian members of parliament physically attacked each other. Even worse, the fight escalated into a bigger brawl between the police (who are much too fond of exercising their power) and the well-meaning journalists who were just doing their job by covering the events in a professional manner.

• Deputies of the Macedonian Assembly regroup just moments after
violence broke out in parliament.
Photograph by Robert Atanasovski. •

The melee erupted on the heels of a heated discussion over election laws (that had just passed in the Macedonian Parliament) when one of the Albanian representatives made disparaging remarks about the Albanians from the opposition party.

When the insulted Albanians realized Abduladi Vejseli was talking about them, they responded with physical force: they began shoving and pushing each other in front of everyone present.

by Jessica Mosby
USA

100 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa will have been infected with HIV/AIDS by the year 2010. Another 26 million children will be orphaned by the virus. The idea that two ordinary people could affect, much less save, the lives of hundreds of children dying of HIV/AIDS in Africa seems naively idealistic. For many of us, myself included, our main contribution to the epidemic in Africa is buying a Red iPod.

• Image courtesy of
Dream Out Loud Films •

What really resonates is the ability of the children, even those that are HIV-positive, to still have hope while living in a country that isn’t exactly blazing any trails in its response to the virus. There are countless scenes of kids dancing, singing, chasing chickens, and having fun. The Cloetes have not only built a safe haven for children to live, they have created a future for hundreds of children that would otherwise be dead or living in extreme poverty.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

Most of us here in Zimbabwe thought he was joking when we first heard President Robert Mugabe tell the public that his government was going to "pounce on greedy businesspeople" because they were increasing the prices of goods by the day to deliberately fuel inflation.

• Mugabe's inflation control scheme has left Zimbabwe's shelves empty as retailers can't afford to restock
their plundered goods.
Photograph by Anthony Easton. •

On that day in June, Mugabe was speaking on national television at a state function. We all knew his anger and fury had been caused by the then US ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell.

In an interview with Britain's Guardian Newspaper, Dell had predicted that Zimbabwe's inflation would reach 1.5 million percent by the end of 2007 and that Mugabe's government was "likely to inflict regime change against itself through mismanaging the economy."

Dell also predicted that hunger would lead the people of Zimbabwe to forcibly remove Mugabe from power. He was quoted as saying:

"Things have reached a critical point. I believe the excitement will come in a matter of months, if not weeks. The Mugabe government is reaching end game, it is running out of options. By carrying out disastrous economic policies, the Mugabe government is committing regime change upon itself."

by Patricia Vásquez
Managing Editor, The WIP
USA

Think about it. The headlines scream it out. Lives of unspeakable pain and loss. And usually it is women, the caretakers of children and a vulnerable population by themselves, bear the vast brunt of the suffering. But even worse is that a pattern of growing violence, more and more barbaric, is being directed at women at a level never seen before in the annals of human history.

Genocide. Ethnic Cleansing. War. Terrorism. Torture. Human rights abuses. Repressive military governments. Repressive religious fundamentalist governments. Rape as a tool of war. Child soldiers. AIDS. Ebola. Global warming. Epic drought. Famine.

by Michelle Chen
- USA -

• Students line up to enter KGIA on the first day of school. Photograph courtesy of Brooklyn Paper (Tom Callan) •

The recent New York Times article focused on key players in the political wrangling over the school. We believe the WIP’s coverage of this issue complements the Times’ investigation by highlighting the voices from the communities involved–students, grassroots groups pushing for multicultural education in the city, and the youth activists who, in an effort to bring visibility to Arab community issues, found themselves swept up in a political firestorm.

by Nancy Van Ness
USA

Forty Years Ago - I was flying. The other dancers and I, in lines, executed jumps across the studio, immediately turning and coming back - jumping over and over again - propelled by music from a pianist skilled at marking the rhythm for dancers. Though one of my feet touched the floor briefly at regular intervals, my consciousness was only of my soaring body. The physical work was very vigorous, but in that moment, it seemed effortless.

• Van Ness (right) performing. Photograph courtesy of American Creative Dance. •

•

That was exactly four decades ago, but that exhilarating experience and moment of encouragement from my teacher have sustained me many times in my life as an artist. When the money runs out, when I don't know where the next opportunity or the next gig is coming from, when I am looking for support for the company I founded and don't know what will happen, when life seems tenuous and precarious, I will suddenly find myself back in that light filled studio with the piano pounding - defying gravity - easily, joyously flying. Remembering that time, I know that no matter what, I must keep going. I also know that the art I make is good and that it is the most important thing in my life.

by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

The bloody military crackdown in Burma (also known as Myanmar) was bound to happen.

Some people called it "pure democracy" as hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters joined with 10,000 of the Buddhist monks the entire nation reveres to stage the biggest pro-democracy demonstration in 20 years, demanding an end to 45 years of military rule. Many see the development as a critical turning point in Burma's history.

• Thousands of buddhist monks marched in Burma on September 24th to protest the country's military junta.
Photograph by Robert Coles. •

by Neeta Lal
- India -

Kaveri Nambiar, 25, a Brahmin woman from Chennai in southern India, married a farmer’s son in Punjab, up north, a few months ago. But rather than glowing with the happiness of newly married bliss, the young bride is undergoing treatment for depression! The reason? Major socio-cultural disorientation on all fronts: from her inter-caste marriage to the stress of being uprooted and replanted in a culture almost as foreign to her as if she were living in another country: she has had to adjust to the different language and customs of her new home, it’s no wonder that Kaveri sought help. “Mom, please let me come back home,” is her constant request to her hapless mother over phone.

• As men outweigh women in India, many grooms seek brides from other regions and castes. Photograph by Curtis Palmer. •

by Lelety Mabasa
Zimbabwe

Vongai stumbles into the house and fumbles as she pulls her room key from her bra. After she struggles with the lock for several minutes, the door finally creaks open. She slips into the room, trying to get accustomed to the darkness. She doesn’t bother with the switch - no need to.

• Photograph by Paul Thomas •

Vongai wakes up with a start, a flicker of light enters her room through the window. She can hear her landlord exchanging morning greetings with the neighbors. It must be around 7am but she doesn’t know for sure because her landlord's radio, which serves as her clock, is off. She smiles wryly when she realizes that she’s been asleep for the past 12 hours. ZESA did not wake her up because for the fourth day in a row, ZESA has neglected her community. Nobody knows when the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority will finally turn the electricity back on!