by Aloosh Devrim
-Syria-

Araa, a 37-year-old mother, dashes through the house, hysterically inspecting one room after the other. She is shivering in panic. She tries to collect as much as she can from the shattered household items.

Here and there she stops, interrupted by a flashback triggered by the memories scattered all around her home. In the devastated TV lounge, Araa had celebrated her master’s degree with her family. In the left corner of her living room, she had cried all night when her husband was posted to another city. Now she stands in the children’s play area of her large living room. She sees glimpses of the last six years of her life with her husband and children.

by Alexandra Marie Daniels
-USA-

On March 13, 2013 Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Maria Bergoglio, 76, was elected by the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church to succeed Pope Benedict XVI. Although hailed for both humility and service to the poor, The WIP is republishing the following interview with Pink Smoke Over the Vatican filmmaker Jules Hart in recognition of the continued discrimination women face in the Catholic Church. - Ed.

In a coffee house on Alvarado Street in Monterey, California I sat down with documentary filmmaker Jules Hart to talk about her film Pink Smoke Over the Vatican. Pink Smoke, a story about the controversial movement for women’s ordination in the Roman Catholic Church, is a subject I would normally shy away from. I have actively avoided formal religion for most of my life. But when my friend Rick Chelew, who made the film with Hart, emailed me and said “This is a perfect story for The WIP,” I was intrigued. Pink Smoke Over the Vatican is about the Catholic women and men who have taken a stand, despite excommunication, to put an end to 2,000 years of misogyny, sexism, and silence.

by Priyanka Bhardwaj
-India-

Corruption inextricably linked with bureaucratic hassles has always existed in India. Yet, however hard some of us may try to understand them as ‘inescapable miseries’ that need to be adopted as preferred routes to get small things done, in the long run they poison the system by eroding the validity and rule of law.

There was a time when one would hear of an official being bribed to get something wrong or illegal done. But today grafts have to be paid even for getting good, lawful things done. Poisonous elements pervade all levels of approval and enforcement agencies, adversely impacting the basic rights and services of the common citizenry.

by Manar Ammar
-Egypt-

“I was weeping and called on my mother for help, but the worst shock of all was when I looked around and found her standing by my side. It was her, yes. I could not be mistaken, right in the midst of these strangers, talking to them and smiling at them as though they had not just participated in slaughtering her own daughter just a few minutes ago,” writes Nawal al-Sa’dawi - the influential Egyptian feminist, novelist, physician and international speaker on women issues - in her book The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World.

Sa’dawi was describing her own very real, very horrific experience of female genital mutilation (FGM) or circumcision. The ancient practice is forced on over 140 million women around the world, most notably in Africa, the Middle East, and South East Asia, according to UNICEF. FGM aims to keep girls ‘pure’ and to take away their ability to enjoy their own body, all in the name of virtue.

by Olga Ghazaryan
-Yemen-

The stories from Yemen generally covered by the media are those about the Al Qaida insurgency, political turmoil, and occasionally the shocking levels of hunger and poverty. However, there is another story unfolding in Yemen that is going largely untold - the rising up of the Yemeni women.

by Caroline Achieng Otieno
-Netherlands-

The Netherlands is a beautiful country. A typical Dutch postcard displays Friesian cows grazing in lush green fields with huge windmills looming in the background. Others are adorned with colourful tulips of the Keukenhof gardens, or Dutch folk richly dressed in their traditional garb complete with clogs, posing with large blocks of yellow cheese. The country, however, is known for another attraction: The Red Light District.

by Fernande van Tets and Aline Sara
-Egypt-

On Monday night it was announced that Mohamed Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq would progress to the run off next month of the Egyptian presidential elections. Both are conservative candidates; Shafiq was prime minister under the former regime of Mubarak and Morsi was the candidate for the Freedom and Justice Party, the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm.

Although comprising 52 percent of the Egyptian population, some 40 million plus, the women’s vote was ignored. The Egyptian presidential candidates’ programmes minimally addressed women voters, leaving a wealth of support untapped. Only in the last few days did some candidates make an effort to woo these women voters, but there was no candidate women could unite behind.

by Joyce J. Wangui
-Kenya-

Though the name Lilian Mogiti Nyandoro may not mean much to those in Nairobi where she is based, in a small village in Kimana, Oloitoktok District her name speaks volumes. She has demystified the female gender. She has helped local women regain their dignity and brings smiles to their faces.

In this region, women had always succumbed to male patriarchy. The practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) had been an accepted norm, but not anymore. Lilian has ensured that men and women alike are slowly abandoning the barbaric act. Girls in the area praise the anti-FGM crusader and her organization for rescuing them from the knife. As the world marked the International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM on February 6, an elated group of Maasai women could not hide their appreciation for this unsung heroine.

by Rita Banerji
-India-

I am on a Google alert for “dowry,” a practice that is recognized as one of the underlying causes of India’s female genocide/gendercide. Recently there was an avalanche of ‘dowry’ alerts as Indian and foreign media eagerly reported on the new Facebook game, “Angry Brides,” launched by the private Indian marriage bureau Shaadi.com. Players are invited to throw things like virtual shoes and tomatoes at grooms demanding dowry. Every time a dowry-demanding groom is hit, the dowry amount is lowered.

What I find appalling is how media reports depict “Angry Brides” as a commendable way to raise “social awareness.” The Vice President of Shaadi.com is quoted as calling “Angry Brides” an “innovative” plan to get more customers and engage with them about “the nuisance of dowry.” While the corporate giant Shaadi.com, with its base of 20 million customers, is recognized among the world’s top 50 most innovative companies, the term “nuisance” grossly understates the actual impact of the practice of dowry.

by Aloosh Devrim
-Syria-

Sunk deep in thoughts, Rania sits alone in her dark room oblivious to the thumping of feet on the roof where neighbor’s children are playing. The screams of Yousaf, her three-month-old, and the ringing telephone simultaneously interrupt her thoughts. She carries the baby on one arm and takes the call with the other hand.

This is a phone call she has been waiting for all day long. As she boards this emotional roller-coaster, her husband Muthana gently takes Yousaf in his arms.

by Wojoud Mejalli
-Yemen-

I met with the Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman in Oslo during the Nobel Peace Ceremony on December 10, 2011. After the ceremony, a few minutes were stolen away from other concerns to have a cup of coffee and learn the latest, both personally and politically, from my old Yemeni friend. She shared with me her perspective on recent political changes in our country, the rising youth movement in Yemen, and the relations between the East and West, especially after the Arab Spring.

by Nusrat Ara
-Indian administered Kashmir-

My heart sinks as I look at the collage, carried by almost all the local newspapers, of children standing before judges in the local court. Looking forlorn and lost, the children are handcuffed and accompanied by police officials.

The newspapers report that the children were booked on charges of stone pelting. They had been kept in the local police station for a week before coming before a magistrate who directed them to a juvenile home, recently opened due to an outcry by human rights groups and civil society.

by Jessica Mosby
-USA-

For almost a year I have been experiencing insufferable allergies. Many doctors’ appointments and medications later, I still wake up in the morning with my skin inflamed and my eyes swollen shut. By the time I watched Farmageddon:The Unseen War on American Farms, I was ready to try just about anything.

by Kate Hughes
-UK-

Ten years ago, Afghan women were promised a bright future. After decades of civil war, and repressive Taliban rule, they entered a new era in which they were once again able to work, send their daughters to school, and even stand for parliament. But now these hard-won gains are under threat, and women fear that they will be abandoned as international military forces prepare to withdraw by the end of 2014.

by Tess Bacalla
-Philippines-

Thirty-nine years ago this month, the Philippines found itself plunged into darkness when then-President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law. Ostensibly to modernize the country and prevent a communist takeover, the multi-headed hydra that was the brutal Marcos dictatorship snuffed the life out of a nation that was once the envy of its Asian neighbors for its vibrant economy and thriving democracy. Fourteen years later, in 1986, the Philippines mounted a peaceful uprising that toppled him from power.

by Rita Banerji
-India-

In January, a Toronto police constable told a group of students at a school safety forum that to prevent being sexually assaulted they should “avoid dressing like sluts.” This victim-blaming message sparked a global grassroots protest movement called ‘SlutWalks.’ –Ed.

India wrote off the SlutWalk organized in Delhi as a terribly insignificant event. According to a police report, there were about 700 attendees in all, including 400 police personnel and 200 media people. That means the actual number of participants was probably not more than a 100 – a ridiculously miniscule number in a country with a population of a billion plus.

by Alexandra Marie Daniels
-USA-

Someone tried to silence Anna Politkovskaya. An investigative journalist with a bleeding heart, she was assassinated on October 7, 2006 at age 48 in her apartment building in Moscow.

As expressed in the opening scenes of the new film A Bitter Taste of Freedom, Anna was Russia’s conscience. Despite fear, earlier assassination attempts and arrests, she exposed the wrongdoings of Russian authorities and became a voice for the innocent victims of the Chechen war.

by Manar Ammar
-Egypt-

In a sea of local press coverage and media appearances of presidential nominees for Egypt’s upcoming election, Bothaina Kamel’s name is left out. As the country’s first woman to nominate herself for Egypt’s highest position, she is doing more on the ground than any of her male competitors.

The 49-year-old former talk show host is no stranger to breaking social norms of what a woman can and cannot do. A self-proclaimed social democrat, her campaign motto is simple: “Egypt is my agenda.”

by Holly Kearl
-USA-

Carrying banners and signs with messages like, “We will not tolerate harassment,” “Islam forbids men from insulting women,” and “I have the right to walk freely in my city,” on July 14, 50 brave women and men marched together from Kabul University to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. As they marched, they handed out fliers to raise awareness about the problem of street harassment in their country.

by Katharine Daniels
Executive Editor

This commentary was originally published on Silent Heroes, Invisible Bridges and has been republished on The WIP under Creative Commons licenses. -Ed.

Does the successful bin Laden mission prove that U.S. values as a nation need not be compromised to wage a war on terror? Relying on old-fashioned intelligence techniques like surveillance and data analysis, the Obama administration successfully killed the head of al-Qaida, a figure who remained illusive to the Bush Administration in their eight-year quest to find him.

by Hebah Ahmed
-USA-

This article originally appeared on Silent Heroes, Invisible Bridges, an Istanbul-based not-for-profit media organization that promotes peaceful co-existence amongst nations, cultures, and religions. WIP Contributor Alia Turki Al-Rabeo is a founding member of the website which offers exclusive content in English, Arabic, Turkish and Urdu languages. By republishing Hebah’s opinion piece, we support Silent Heroes’ objective to add healthy debate and discourse about hurdles in cross-cultural, cross-religion integration such as the niqab ban in France. – Ed.

by Leymah Gbowee with contributions by Thelma Ekiyor
-Ghana-

On March 3, 2011, hundreds of women gathered to protest peacefully in Cote d’Ivoire to end the political stalemate and the worsening security situation. The Ivorian women took to the streets of Abidjan to put pressure on their leaders to end the stalemate and allow peace to prevail. Seven unarmed women protestors were killed in the process by forces loyal to former president Laurent Koudou Gbagbo.

by Katie Palmer
-Philippines-

What happens to a country where there is a tight marriage between the State and the Catholic Church as well as an absence of a national population policy and nationwide inaccessibility to contraceptives, particularly among the poorest of the poor? A population crisis—much like the one seen in the contemporary Philippines.

by Manar Ammar
-Egypt-

On Friday, February 11, 2011 President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt stepped down, ceding power to the Egyptian military. Vice President Omar Suleiman made the announcement via state television. - Ed.

The news from Egypt arrived: People are revolting against Mubarak. They are marching in the thousands, chanting their demands. The fear that had its tight fist around our necks has been broken. And in revolting, we won back part of our freedom: the freedom to say no.

by Reem Abbas
-Sudan-

On January 9 citizens of South Sudan will begin voting in a week-long vote on whether they will secede from or remain united with the North. This referendum involves more than the yes or no vote. After decades of civil war, this referendum may have implications for people’s citizenship, safety, and the place they call home.

In 1995 Al–Jaaley arrived in Jabarona, an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp on the outskirts of Omdurman, where hundreds of thousands of IDPs from the South, the Nuba Mountains, and, recently, Darfur live.

Jabarona literally means “we were forced” in Arabic. It began as a direct result of the massive displacement caused by the civil war raging in the South. Jabarona is one of four official camps in Khartoum.

by Aralena Malone-Leroy
-France-

Résiste
Prouve que tu existes
Cherche ton bonheur partout, va,
Refuse ce monde égoïste
Résiste
Suis ton cœur qui insiste
Ce monde n’est pas le tien, viens,
Bats-toi, signe et persiste
Résiste

- Résiste, France Gall, 1981

Resist! Prove that you exist! ... Refuse this selfish world. … Fight, make your mark, and persist! came to my mind while I listened to yet another group of protesters hurl words of indignation at the pension reforms proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s administration this summer. These celebrated lyrics by France Gall, first broadcast in the early 80s, speak to the Gallic instinct of not accepting political change sitting down.

by Eloisa Morra Pucacco
-Italy-

After the great battles of the Italian feminist movement in the 1970s – when fascist codes on “family law” were modified and women obtained the rights of divorce and abortion - it seems that today we are having a backlash. In Italy, as in many countries, women often study faster and with better results than men, yet at work they are paid less than their male colleagues. Violence against women is increasing. The current Italian government is not working to create laws against discrimination.

At the heart of what appears to be a backward trend is Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who owns three private TV channels and many national newspapers. Every day Italian families absorb his vision of the world. Italian TV shows are filled with naked women in imagery similar to pornographic movies.

Despite this, a “new Italian feminism” is emerging. To understand what it means to be a woman in Italy, I find it useful to have an outside point of view. In “Notes on Visconti’s Bellissima,” a brilliant essay written in 2009, English novelist Zadie Smith writes, “In the Piazza della Madonna dei Monti, in the ombra del colosseo, expats gather to complain. Italian women is a subject to stretch from morning coffee to midday ravioli. ‘The land that feminism forgot!’ And on cue it all rolls out like an index: the degrading sexualisation of, the nightly televisual humiliation of, Berlusconi's condescending opinion of, perilous abortion rights of, low wages of, minimal parliamentary presence of, invisibility within the church of, et cetera. Yet there exist confusing countersigns, in the land that feminism forgot.”

by Cheery Zahau
-Burma/India/Thailand-

It is a critical time in my country’s history. The military junta, called the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has ruled Burma since 1962 through violence and the severe repression of dissidents, ethnic armed-resistance groups, and pro-democracy leaders.

On Sunday, November 7, the SDPC will hold a general election, the first since 1990 when they rejected the result of National League for Democracy's (NLD) landslide victory and placed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi – a leader who has the potential to lead the country forward - under house arrest and unable to contest the elections.

At first glance, an election seems to offer new hope for the people of Burma who have been fighting for democracy for so long. Yet, while the authorities claim the elections will be free and fair, the political space is tightly controlled, and opponents of the ruling regime are routinely harassed, detained, tortured, and imprisoned.

by Jessica Mosby
-USA-

On Tuesday you may think that you are going to the polls to choose your next elected official, but the upsetting reality of many congressional and state elections is that incumbent politicians have manipulated district boundaries to decide the outcome of elections before any votes are cast. During every election we experience the effects of gerrymandering, and yet outside of high school civics class, the term “gerrymander” is not commonly used or understood by most voters.

To Gerrymander: To divide (a territorial unit) into election districts to give one political party an electoral majority in a large number of districts while concentrating the voting strength of the opposition in as few districts as possible.

The new film Gerrymandering clearly explains its namesake while documenting how racial, partisan, and incumbency gerrymandering are responsible for the state of our democracy. Director Jeff Reichert approaches his subject matter with a sense of urgency, as the United States will once again redistrict in April 2011 based on the results of the 2010 census.

by Rosebell Kagumire
-Uganda-

Political participation of women has changed since 2005 when Uganda, under donor pressure, opened political space to allow political parties in a country that had been largely a one-party state. With these new political changes, more women found space to engage in politics.

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni took power in 1986 after a five-year guerilla war. His rule has been marked by steady economic growth and relative stability in the southern part of the country, but Northern Uganda has seen persistent conflict since he came to power. Thousands have lost their lives in the fight against the Lord's Resistance Army rebels.

Museveni’s government has been marred with corruption, tribalism, and nepotism. Corruption scandals include the swindling of Global Fund money intended for HIV/AIDS and Malaria patients. Museveni himself crafted an amendment to the Ugandan constitution removing presidential term limits, and Uganda faces a possible life presidency situation that many fear will lead to political instability. Yet, according to the President, he is the only Ugandan with a vision to lead the country.

by Susan Enuogbope Majekodunmi
-USA-

Being Nigerian and having many relatives still living there, I keep abreast of political and economic events. Nigeria is blessed with many natural resources and brilliant, hardworking citizens, but corruption over decades is draining her resources.

This oil rich, corruption challenged country lacks both basic amenities and economic opportunities for the masses. Most businesses are laced with bribery and greed, sending citizens seeking greener pastures into self imposed exile in the West. So a Nigerian attempting to eradicate corruption is notable.

I learned of Nuhu Ribadu because his anti-corruption activities - not sparing rich and politically powerful people - make him a Nigerian media fixture. Trained as a lawyer he spent 18 years as a police officer fighting corruption. From 2003-2007, as Executive Chairman of the Economics and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), he investigated financial crimes and led anti-corruption public sector reforms. In 2007, at the height of his success, he left Nigeria for safety reasons.

by Moira Birss
-Colombia/USA-

Fulfilling expectations after a solid showing in May’s first round, former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos handily won Colombia's June 20th presidential run-off election. Though Santos and his contender, Antanas Mockus, the former mayor of the capital city Bogota, had been neck-in-neck in opinion polls leading up to the first round of elections, the May 30th results gave Santos a substantial lead that he never lost. On June 20th Santos won 69% of the vote.

by Jessica Mosby
-USA-

The Chinese have ruled Tibet since 1959. For Tibetan refugees living around the world, the dream of returning to a free Tibet continues to define their existence in exile.

The new documentary film The Sun Behind the Clouds captures the plight of Tibetan refugees and their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, with a very personal approach. Filmmaker Tenzing Sonam, who also narrates the film, was born to Tibetan refugee parents living in Darjeeling, India. He and his filmmaking partner and wife, Ritu Sarin, approach their subject matter with insiders’ knowledge.

by Melissa Hahn
-USA-

When Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed Senate Bill 1070 into law, she thrust the state into the national spotlight as a catalyst for immigration reform. As the reverberations pulse across the country, the law is best understood in the context of Arizona’s unique circumstances.

Locally, immigration has been a hot-button issue since the 1990s, when increased border security in California and Texas transformed Arizona into the nation’s illegal immigration artery. Across nearly two decades, the number of estimated illegal residents in Arizona jumped 500% as prosperity north of the border was matched by instability to the south. Census data shows that between 1990 and 2009, Hispanics rose from 16% to 30% of the population- double the national average.

by Patricia DeGennaro
-USA-

Israel’s May 31, 2010 attack on the Freedom Flotilla in international waters garnered nothing more than global condemnation. The assault on six ships with approximately 700 activists carrying 10,000 tons of aid to the besieged Gaza strip is a shocking reminder that the Israeli government feels that the only way to continue the Palestinian occupation is with overwhelming military force.

After the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 a brief hope existed that Israel and an independent Palestine could coexist peacefully. The reality on the ground, however, quickly extinguished any optimism. Mutual recognition appeared to do little good and casualties on both sides continued to accumulate. The beginning of the second intifada in 2000 and the growing strength of the Islamic and more radical Hamas led to more Israeli casualties. But the numbers continue to be lopsided and far more Palestinians have been killed.

by Anna Kirey
- Kyrgyzstan-

The small, mountainous, post-Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan rarely makes international news. When it does, the headlines are either related to the presence of US and Russian military bases or protests against the government.

Years of government corruption, nepotism, and severe restrictions on political freedoms led to the popular uprising on April 7th, 2010 that resulted in the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Over eighty people were shot by security forces during an the attack on a government building in the capital city of Bishkek. Young men from all over Kyrgyzstan lost their lives.

by Paula Humphrey
-USA-

The Obama administration has worked furiously in the past year to leverage new strategies against two primary threats: the illicit production of nuclear weapons, and their potential use by terrorists or “rogue” states. Arriving this week at the Eighth Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the U.S. boasts a historical year of significant changes in the terrorism and nuclear realm. However, also important and less discussed, are the minor policy shifts that may indicate a broader change in U.S. diplomacy overall. One of the more remarkable of these is the decision to reframe the definition of the war on terrorism.

• The bilateral meeting room during the Nuclear Security Summit. The Nuclear Security Summit logo in the background is what prompted Fox News Channel to note a resemblance to the crescent moon appearing on many Muslim Countries’ flags. Photograph courtesy of the U.S. State Department. •

by Vera von Kreutzbruck
- Germany -

Howl, a biopic centered on beatnik Allen Ginsberg’s seminal poem and the resulting obscenity trial, was the most moving and intellectually engaging film presented at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.

by Moira Birss
- Colombia -

The other day I was translating at a meeting between a U.S-based NGO director and a Colombian human rights lawyer. The NGO director remarked how the situation in Colombia reminded him of the story of a frog that, placed in a pot of lukewarm water, doesn’t realize his awful plight as the water is slowly heated to a boil. I translated frog as sapo, which is more accurately the word for toad. Though it didn’t occur to me in the moment, it is also a colloquial term in Colombia for a snitch. “Ah,” said the lawyer, “that’s why Uribe wants sapos!”

by Wazhmah Osman
- Afghanistan/USA -

Today Afghanistan finds itself in a state of collapse and at the center of a powerful network of global terrorism. Kabul is a city filled with anxiety, insecurity, instability, trauma, and uncertainty; lost souls at the mercy of warlords turned government officials and disillusioned by development aid that has only reached and made a small sector of society obscenely rich. Suicide bombs, corruption, military planes, armored vehicles, and convoys of tanks are a regular part of everybody else’s lives.

by Mandy Van Deven
- India -

Barker is aware of her own complicated position as a colonial outsider in the bittersweet story she shares, and smartly uses her power to leverage an increasing awareness of the challenges faced by this small South Asian country that has been persistently ravaged by conflict and a recent natural disaster that stunned the world.

by Moira Birss
- Colombia -

“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid,” Jorge tells me. “Your right to freedom disappears - you have to limit your movements and activities.”

I would be afraid, too; Jorge and I sit talking after I have spent a good ten minutes trying to convince his bodyguard to let me see him. But I don’t mind the hoops I had to jump through - I actually would have been happy to undergo a bit more security, perhaps a metal detector or something more intimidating. After all, in a country like Colombia, where human rights defenders are targeted by both the judicial system and paramilitary actors, Jorge Molano is a walking target.

by Wazhmah Osman
- Afghanistan/USA -

I was born in Kabul, Afghanistan during the good years, in the early seventies. Among my fondest memories is walking to and from school holding the hand of my stylish mother who was then a French teacher at Lycee Malalai where I was in the first grade. I remember a lively city where men and women, Afghans and non-Afghans, wearing a variety of ethnic and western outfits, all mingled at the busy outdoor bazaars. On Christmas Eve 1979, the world as I knew it was shattered when the Soviets invaded, throwing Afghanistan into a war that has yet to end. It was one of the saddest and darkest days in Afghan history and for my family.

by Aditi Bhaduri
- India -

As US President Barack Obama commits a troops increase in Afghanistan and a recognition of the “good Taliban,” and as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paves the way for India’s nuclear energy program, many here anticipate that the US might pressure India to keep its traditional ally in the region, Pakistan, in good humor. Add to that the contentious territorial dispute over Kashmir and the announcement by the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) that it would soon appoint an envoy on the territory, the US’ considerable diplomatic influence could put India in a difficult position.

by Dr. Emel Baştürk Akca
- Turkey -

“We mothers, whose hearts are burning, have come together so that there will be no more pain. We do not want our children to die.” These words belong to Nurten Ekinci, a woman who lost her son during his military service. Another woman, Sakine Arat, lost three children after they joined the pro-Kurdish terrorist organization, the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). "This war does not benefit anyone,” she says. “It has lasted for years, and it needs to end."

Nurten and Sakine are only two women among many who are aggrieved because of the conflicts between the Turkish Armed Forces and the PKK. They came together on September 1st at a meeting with other military and PKK mothers in the Southeastern province of Diyarbakır to promote peace and support the government’s new Kurdish initiative.

by Natasha Dokovska
- Macedonia -

"I have 15 years seniority over the human resources officer and the highest level of education. Eight years ago, I was the head of the department, but in the last two years I have been [systematically] demoted. Now I drink daily, take 10 pills, and have been referred to the neuropsychiatry patient clinic - all because of the pressure on me to perform in a new managerial structure at the organization where I work.” Declining to give her name for fear of retribution, 42-year-old A.S. says she doesn’t know what to do or where to complain.

In the current conditions of the continued global economic crisis, “mobbing” - or workplace bullying and harassment - is becoming a prevalent phenomenon in Macedonia’s public and private sectors. Fearing for their jobs, large numbers of employees are dealing with the stress of job insecurity by targeting others. Often this “mobbing” occurs vertically, from high-level employees to those who work under them. Ridiculing, ignoring, threats, and reducing earnings are all forms of mobbing. Evidence indicates that “mobbers” (those who mistreat their colleagues) are often not aware of what they do.

by Moira Birss
- Colombia -

The sparse media coverage of Colombia tends only to give vague descriptions of a violent country with a thriving drug trade. But I’ve come to understand in my 15 months living and working here as a human rights observer and accompanier, that, like many armed conflicts in the world, the war continues because it serves the interests of the rich and powerful, from the Uribe administration to multinational corporations.

Despite its claims to the contrary, the Colombian government’s policies do little to end the violence. Spanning over nearly five decades and multiple administrations, the internal conflict has resulted in countless deaths and over 4 million internally displaced Colombians.

by Aditi Bhaduri
- India -

A mini revolution is underway in India. On July 2nd the Delhi High Court read down a 149-year-old archaic law that criminalized same sex relations. It is a tiny victory for a battle that has long been fought in courtrooms, bedrooms and counseling halls across India.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

There have been many obstacles that threaten the already shaky power sharing agreement between the ZANU PF and MDC political parties, stalling much needed progress in Zimbabwe. Convincing the donor community to assist or investors to come back to the country when things are upside down like this is like asking ZANU PF’s Robert Mugabe to leave office.

by Shailja Patel
- Kenya -

And they asked him:
Why do you sing?
And he answered, as they seized him: I sing because I sing

And they searched his chest
But could only find his heart
And they searched his heart
But could only find his people….

From “Poem Of The Land” – Mahmoud Darwish

This poem evokes my friend, Philo Ikonya, who has also sung while being violently seized by police. Philo is the President of the Kenya Chapter of PEN, the worldwide association of writers for freedom of expression. She is a lifelong activist, an artist to her fingertips. She looks unflinchingly at the horrors of poverty and violence and brings the voices of their survivors into the spaces where powerful elites gather. She mentors Kenyan girls raped in the post-election violence, protests government corruption, and wields her pen with fierce, lyrical intelligence in the global media.

by Shreyasi Singh
- India -

The UNDP’s Human Development Indices 2008 gives India a rather embarrassing rank in its crucial Gender Development Index (116th out of 157 countries). But, for many of us tracking politics in India today, the factoid is somewhat difficult to interpret.

by Saskia van Alphen
- Argentina -

The current Argentinean government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has made Justicia or human rights one of the main items on its political agenda, so much so that it aims to judge and imprison all military staff involved in the army’s illegal activities during the country’s latest dictatorship (1976-1983). It also intends to give (financial) reparations to the victims or their surviving relatives. With this Juicios por la Verdad or Judgements for Truth campaign, Fernández de Kirchner continues the work of her husband, former president Néstor Kirchner, who converted the ESMA, a navy school that operated as one of the biggest clandestine detention and torture centers during those years, into state property and a Space for Memory. By pursuing these initiatives, Fernández de Kirchner hopes to establish a collective memory for this tragic episode in Argentinean history.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

It has been a year since I last wrote for The WIP and it’s really good to be able to share what has been happening in our country.

Every weekend for the past eight months, my husband and I have been forced to make the 20-kilometer trip by road from our home in the high-density suburbs of Harare to the affluent suburb of Belvedere to fetch clean water. In the early morning hours while our little angels are still fast asleep, we load up into the car empty 20-liter plastic containers for refill.

We have tap water where we live, but it can hardly be said to be safe for human consumption. When you pour the water into a clear cup or container and let it sit for a few minutes, a green, sewage-like substance settles to the bottom.

Although this journey is cumbersome and costly for us, it is has become a necessary expense for us to stay alive.

by Abigail Wendle
- USA -

When Hamid Karzai became Afghanistan’s first democratically elected president in 2004, the new government established a constitution that proclaimed equality for men and women, promising to enforce international standards of human rights. But throughout his 5-year term, many have viewed the government as corrupt and ineffective, and the women of Afghanistan continue to be oppressed. The situation only seems to be growing worse now that President Karzai is up for re-election in August.

by Patricia DeGennaro
- USA -

This year, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization celebrates its 60th birthday. President Obama will take his first European trip since the presidential campaign to meet NATO’s twenty-six members. While there, he’ll have to pinch every last pressure point to induce the other members to “step up to the plate” in Afghanistan.

by Afsaana Rashid
- Indian-administered Kashmir -

In what is being hailed as a victory for democracy, the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir recently concluded a two-month round of elections at the end of December. Despite calls from separatist groups like Hurriyat Conference to boycott the polls, Kashmiris came out in overwhelming numbers to vote.

by Philo Ikonya
- Kenya -

On the 17th of December, a year after the country flared up in violence, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga signed an agreement as the first step in what is popularly known as the Waki Commission, created to examine Kenya’s Post Election Violence (PEV). They barely beat the midnight deadline by hours. As a result of the agreement, a recommendation put forth by the Commission for a Special Tribunal for Kenya is in the process of being fulfilled - much to the happiness of many Kenyans. This Tribunal will continue to investigate Kenya’s violence, which started in December 2007 as soon as presidential poll results were announced.

by Aditi Bhaduri
- India -

It has been a momentous year for Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. It began with the state government’s controversial transfer of land to the Hindu Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, and ended with the just concluded elections. 2008 saw mass demonstrations and protests erupt in Kashmir, as much against the Indian state as local politicians and leaders. When elections were announced for November-December, they were met with astonishment. What followed, however, has left many in Kashmir and in India surprised.

by Jennifer I. Fenton
- USA -

"Steal my horse, run off with my wife, but damn you, don't touch my water." - Unknown

Unlike many modern cities and towns across the United States, the town of Bishop, California bursts in failed attempts to sprawl across the landscape that surrounds it. Pressed into the floor of the Owens Valley, and hedged in by looming mountain ranges to the East and West, Bishop’s city limits have remained virtually unchanged for decades. But while Bishop's population remains stagnant, to the South, the city of Los Angeles continues to grow at breakneck speeds - growth that would be impossible without the clear gold that flows from the Sierra, through the Owens Valley, and into the gaping mouth of the City of Angels.

by Handan T. Satiroglu
- Turkey / Western Europe -

Not too far from the Baroque palaces and Gothic cathedrals that made the city of Vienna famous, a group of jubilant men and women are packed into a café. Glasses clink with each congratulatory toast. Jubilations like “long live populism,” and “Austria is the Freedom Party” fly randomly across the room. On that memorable September evening, I watched the celebration of the far-right triumph in Austria. It was the Austrian ‘extremist’ right’s best performance since World War II.

by Patricia DeGennaro
- USA -

Barack Obama promised Americans that he would move to withdraw American troops from Iraq once he takes office as President of the United States. As troops were “freed” from that war, he would send them to Afghanistan. “That’s where the real war needs to be fought,” said (then) Senator Obama. As President, however, Mr. Obama may find it difficult to keep his campaign pledge.

“It is easy to leave,” says a military colleague of mine, “but the real question we need to ask is, ‘What is our primary mission?’ If it is just leaving Iraq, we could do so at a deliberate pace in 18 months; if it is to set up a sustainable transition, it could take years.”

by Rupa Chinai
- India -

In the aftermath of Mumbai’s most recent encounter with terrorism, there is the feeling of isolation felt by those pleading for sense and reason. These voices are being drowned out amidst the jingoism and war cries of an “eye for an eye” currently heard on the streets of the city.

In this chilling environment of unreason, I wonder what would be the reaction to people like me, who feel pity for the path chosen by young men like Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving terrorist from the attacks? This sentiment does not seek to justify the heinous crimes he committed or protect him from the punishment he deserves through the due process of law. But how can one find the words to urge people to understand the context from which youth such as Ajmal develop and how civilized society must respond to the challenges they pose?

by Zubeida Mustafa
- Pakistan -

Peace activists in Pakistan and India are attempting desperately to be heard above the din raised by warmongers – elitist by all counts and claiming to be patriotic as well – in the wake of the Mumbai carnage. Jingoism is in the air - be it from so-called nationalists (posing as analysts on television) advocating a nuclear attack for the defense of their country, or the man on the street. Be they from Pakistan or India, they speak of war with great abandon as if it is child’s play. For the electronic media it is a race for sensationalism.

by Saskia van Alphen
- Argentina -

The terrain of the Escuela Mecánica de la Armada (the ESMA or Navy Mechanics School) has been open to the public for a year now. Once one of the biggest detention and torture centers during the last military dictatorship in Argentina (March 1976 to December 1983), it is now being transformed into the Space for Memory and the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights. The initiative is jointly sponsored by the national government and the city government of Buenos Aires. The management of the Space for Memory also includes representatives from 14 social organizations, such as the Mothers of the Disappeared, HIJOS (Children), various human right organizations and ex-prisoners of the ESMA, who have an important counseling roll.

By keeping the buildings as they are, the center’s planners are giving them the status of commemorative monuments, and opening a museum that will document the dictatorship, the years preceding the coup and the consequences of the military regime. Other buildings will house a library and archive, as well as provide offices for human rights and other organizations concerned with those years of repression.

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

This incredible story of average Liberian women coming together to fight for peace is the subject of the new documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell, which is currently playing in theaters. Filmmakers Gini Reticker and Abigail E. Disney capture the inspiring story of the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) with compassion and reverence. Their story of unbelievable heroism in the face of unspeakable violence makes for a dramatic and heart-wrenching 72 minutes.

by Kavita Bedford
- Australia -

Those seeking insight into the Chilean mentality should explore the footpaths of Santiago and Valparaíso. The desires, fantasies and messages of the last forty years are boldly expressed on walls, metro stations and buildings. Here, the streets have a voice.

The memories and consequences of Pinochet’s rule live on in Chile, but in the world of art, repression and prohibition no longer reign. The past decade has seen a powerful resurgence in artistic communities as new galleries, shows and exhibitions are popping up on every re-invigorated street corner. Yet, in formal art spaces there is a distinct lack of comprehensive and challenging visual work. Museums are lagging in attendance and flagging amid a strong collaboration of ideas between the artists and their communities.

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

At the tender age of 19, Claudio Duran opened the door of his Santiago home in the middle of the night to find military secret police ready to arrest him. The officers took him to Villa Grimaldi, ironically known as the Palace of Laughter – a Chilean prison used by General Augusto Pinochet after the 1973 military coup. At that moment, he says, “my life changed.” Duran (now known as Quique Cruz) chronicles his imprisonment and the art that helped him reconcile his painful past in the new documentary Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi. The film debuted at the 2008 Mill Valley Film Festival.

by Nancy Van Ness
- USA -

Their hats adorned with artificial flowers identify them at many of the protests in which I participate. The Grannies also show up on New York City's Union Square to sing their signature anti-war lyrics to well known tunes.

I hold in mind a vivid image of some of them who were arrested for trying to stop military recruitment, onstage in Philadelphia, outside Constitution Hall the Saturday after the 2006 elections. Behind them stood young Iraq Veterans Against the War - two of the bravest groups of patriots in the United States, standing together, opposing US aggression.

by Natalie Hart
- Chile -

“Impunity for human rights crimes is not just a matter of the past, but also something that continues today.” - Irene Khan, Amnesty International Secretary General

On the tenth anniversary of former military dictator General Pinochet’s arrest in London, Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan led a delegation to Chile to investigate the country’s current human rights situation. Far from a finding nation that has firmly closed the door on its dark past, Khan reports unratified human rights conventions, unresolved cases of regime era disappearance and torture, and an indigenous community subjected to marginalization and discrimination – a country that has failed to put the ghosts of its past to rest.

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has made nineteen trips to the Middle East in the last two years in hopes of securing a regional peace accord. But as the Bush administration comes to an end, Rice’s goal of a two-state solution will not be realized. During her most recent trip last week, she admitted that they’re not “at the finish line” of the peace process.

by Natalie Hart
- Chile -

From the Qur’an standing on the sideboard, to the ornate Palestinian mosaic boxes decorating the room, to the anguished expressions of heavily made up Arabic soap stars filling the television screen, one could be forgiven for thinking that they were somewhere in the Middle East. We were, in fact, in La Calera – a dusty industrial town in Chile’s Quillota province, 118km from the capital Santiago – in the home of a Palestinian refugee.

by Bia Assevero
- USA / France -

Youth is wasted on the young.

How many times have we heard that before?

In my case though, I’m beginning to wonder if the right to vote isn’t wasted on me as well. I have endless people telling me that I have to vote; it’s my duty as a conscientious American citizen – never mind that I also have a French passport.

by Afsaana Rashid
- Indian-administered Kashmir -

With the US presidential election just days away, people in the Kashmir valley are not much enthused with the changing of the guard. Although there is some hope that the new president will help resolve the Kashmir issue, people in the valley largely believe that US policy on Kashmir has not been people friendly. Opinions on the tenure of outgoing President George W. Bush range from uninspiring to accusatory.

by Cheery Zahau
- Burma / India -

Burma has become well known to the world, not with good reason but for its worsening human rights violations perpetrated by the military junta ruling the country. According to Amnesty International, the regime now has more than 1,300 political prisoners, 175 of whom are women according to the Burmese Women Union Report. Last summer, the women of Burma showed their courage by resisting the junta’s many injustices during the Saffron Revolution. The regime responded violently to the protesting unarmed women citizens, nuns and monks.

by Jennifer Fenton
- USA -

Imagine what would happen if the nations of the world spent as much on development as on building machines of war. Imagine a world where every human being would live in freedom and dignity. Imagine a world in which we would shed the same tears when a child dies in Darfur or Vancouver. Imagine a world where we would settle our differences through diplomacy and dialogue and not through bombs or bullets. Imagine if the only nuclear weapons remaining were the relics in our museums. Imagine the legacy we could leave to our children. Imagine that such a world is within our grasp. - Mohamed ElBaradei (2005), Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency

Garnering national attention, peace activist Cindy Sheehan is now running for office against incumbent Democrat Nancy Pelosi in California's 8th Congressional district. Cindy promised the House Speaker that if impeachment proceedings against George W. Bush did not start when Pelosi took control of the House last year, she would run against her in the next election.

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

I vividly remember the 1988 presidential election, or more accurately the months of campaigning that led up to the election. At the time, my family did not have cable television and all that was on the few channels available was election coverage. Throughout the entire summer and fall, my parents forced me and my siblings to watch the Democratic and Republican conventions, and then the nightly news coverage. Once I returned to elementary school in September, someone decided it was a good idea for everyone to gather in the cafeteria and watch more election coverage. I sat there thinking, I had to watch this all summer. Can’t I just get a break? My unending boredom was aggravated by my disinterest in candidates Michael Dukakis and George H.W. Bush. And I couldn’t even vote!

by Emily Rose Herzlin
- USA -

“I'm voting because I care about the future of this country. It's my right as a U.S. citizen [to vote] and it'd be shameful not to; it'd be like a slight to the founding fathers and women like Susan B. Anthony who all believed in the right to vote. If the next four years are terrible and I don't vote, I have no right to complain as I made no attempt to have it be otherwise.” – Nicole Long, 21

“I’m from a swing state. It’s necessary for me to be heard and have my vote counted.” – Dorie Kurtz, 22

“I already have my absentee ballot in hand. This is the first major election year that I can vote, so I'm taking full advantage of that.” – Allison Ahlgrim, 20

“Yes I'm voting – My mom would remove me from the family if I didn't.” – Lily Mundy, 21

by Melissa Hahn
- USA -

John McCain is the one constant in my life, elected for the first time the year that I was born. Voters from Arizona continue to re-elect him by a landslide, and yet most citizens would be hard-pressed to tell you what, exactly, he has done for the state.

Hardly a public figure, McCain is associated with Arizona by commentators in a way that locals would never consider. Calling himself a Washington outsider, he actually is one in Arizona. McCain moved here upon his second marriage and through Cindy, the daughter of an influential Phoenix magnate, he acquired the connections and resources to fund a political campaign. Residing here barely long enough to qualify for the ballot, he soon returned to his real comfort zone: the Beltway.

by Rosie Kuhn, Ph.D.
- USA -

My husband Todd and I traveled to Colorado recently to facilitate the 2nd Annual Colorado Wonderful Women’s Retreat in Estes Park. But first we went down to Colorado Springs for an overnight visit with my daughter Elissa. We loved the city’s small town feeling. Tucked into the side of the mountains the city is cozy; pockets of neighborhoods, each with their own unique qualities, and the small scale of the downtown area, full of interesting shops, engaged us to be curious about what might be right around the corner.

While having our tea at a local coffee shop, Todd perused the newspaper. What he found almost stopped his heart. In the State of Colorado, Proposition 48 is up for vote, which in essence defines legal personhood at fertilization and gives rights to a zygote, or premature fetus, that supercede those of the woman who happens to be carrying it. If this proposition goes through, a woman in Colorado will be committing murder if she aborts a pregnancy. Not only that, if there is any kind of unusual occurrence in the pregnancy, the woman legally can’t do anything to save her own life until an emergency presents itself. By law, the pregnancy must take its own natural course.

by Elena Ilina
- USA -

My friends and colleagues cannot wait for election day - for many of them, a new administration gives hope that the newly elected leader will address many of the critical issues facing us in domestic policy, especially the economy, and of course, cutting nuclear weapons stockpiles. Indeed, the new U.S. President will have a long laundry list of problems and issues to tackle once in office, but I strongly believe that a deep and comprehensive re-evaluation of the U.S.’ foreign policy should be the top item on the Presidential agenda.

Being a political analyst by education and profession, I have the opportunity to not only learn, but constantly analyze the implications of U.S. foreign policy for the international community, particularly Russia.

by Martín Granada
- USA -

One of the first times I ever saw my mother cry was the night Reagan was elected president. She cloistered herself in her bathroom and drank an uncustomary glass of wine. I found her crying with her face in her hands. After unsuccessfully trying to conceal her wineglass, she sobbed, "Ronald Reagan won! Ronald Reagan, every time I hear his name I think of Donald Duck. Our country has elected Donald Duck as the president!"

At the time I didn't understand what she meant, however, several months later I began to catch on when my mother began dying her hair with a product called Loving Care. Every time it came out too dark, she asked me if she looked like Ronald Reagan.

Shortly after Reagan came into office, my father lost his job as an affirmative action officer and the neighborhood where my mother taught elementary school transformed. Every morning the school janitors began having to sweep away pipes and needles from the playground. My mother transferred me to a private school, closer to home. Though I lived in a safe community, in a four bedroom house, whenever I watched President Reagan speak on the television, I wondered how he could justify that all was well? Didn't he see all that I saw?

by Priti Sehgal
- India -

Across India, the tale of baby Manhji has made headlines and gripped the nation’s attention. Born to a Japanese father and surrogate Indian mother, the two month old is caught in legal limbo. In a way, she has three mothers but none who will raise her, and she cannot return to Japan with her father due to complications of Indian law.

The saga began when Japanese citizens Dr. Ikufumi and Yuki Yamada were unable to conceive a child of their own. They obtained an egg from an anonymous donor and then travelled to India to locate a surrogate mother. In November 2007, the fertilized embryo was implanted into Pritiben of Ahmedabad, and the Yamadas began the nine month wait for their child.

The couple’s dream of completing their happy family was dashed when Ikufumi and Yuki divorced just one month before Manjhi’s birth. Apparently wanting a complete separation from her old life, Yuki took the additional step of disowning the newborn.

by Parul Sharma
- Sweden -

As it is, love can either be a blessing or a poison, depending on various aspects. But when love is felt for someone of the same sex, in some cultures, that love becomes a living hell - or simply a love created by a lesser God. Yes, a lesser God - not as strong and creative as the God we are used to. This lesser God created love but forgot to do the ample marketing needed to share the selling points of this particular love, such as poetry, music and literature.

Love knows no boundaries, but maybe our minds do. Otherwise why would I have asked my friend, Are you sure this is love and not just a greater friendship?

by Pilirani Semu-Banda
- Malawi -

No political meeting happens in Malawi without song and dance. Clad in colorful political party regalia, women and girls are the traditional singers and dancers for the country’s political parties. They sing adoring songs of praise for the political leaders they support and mock those who represent political interests different from their own. The majority of Malawi’s politicians are men.

As the country’s Presidential and Parliamentary elections draw closer, the women of Malawi want to move away from being mere singers and dancers; 425 women have mobilized to contest for the country’s 193 parliamentary positions in next May’s elections.

An aspiring MP Margret Nyakondowe says she is contesting because she understands the challenges facing people, especially women and children, better than any man.

"I am a mother and I know the needs of mothers in this country. I would like to see an end to those challenges and I will advocate for them in Parliament," says Nyakondowe.

by Afsaana Rashid
- Indian-administered Kashmir -

As the world observed the International Day of the Disappeared last month on August 30th, Asima Mohi-ud-Din attended a silent protest rally organized by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP). For the last three months, protests over the transfer of 800 kanals of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) have prevented the APDP from holding their monthly protests. Desperate to share her story with the world, this eighteen-year-old resident of the Baramulla district in Indian-administered Kashmir penned her grievances in an open letter.

"The sorrow that cannot be overcome has to be tolerated,” she begins. "This is a true story of a family that lived happily until an evil spirit caught it.”

Asima was only three years old, but the incidences of that evening are burned into her memory forever. On June 22, 1993 at 11:30 p.m., her household was awakened by a sudden knock at the door. As her grandmother approached the door with a flashlight, a band of unidentified armed men broke in.

by Shenali Waduge
- Sri Lanka -

“While nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer, nothing is more difficult than to understand him” - Mikhailovich Dostovsky

The tiny island nation of Sri Lanka has been plagued by terrorism for the past 25 years. Citing irreparable differences with the majority ethnic group, the armed militant group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelaam (LTTE) is demanding 35% of the country’s landmass and over 75% of its surrounding sea for a separate Tamil state. Constituting only 6.5% of the country’s population, over half of the country’s Tamils currently live amongst the majority Sinhalese.

It was the LTTE that reshaped conventional warfare by introducing suicide bombers – in particular, the female suicide cadre. The LTTE arguably still remains the global leader in suicide terrorism, carrying out two-thirds of the world’s suicide attacks. The real “men of steel” for the LTTE have been its female suicide bombers, who account for 40% of its suicide activities. It’s difficult to understand how a woman would choose to become a human bomb.

by Jennifer Fenton
- USA -

"We have an entire generation of people in their twenties and thirties who have never gone through a war…the media and government have gotten so good at the creation of messages, people don't know the reality" - Casey J. Porter

Army Sergeant Casey J. Porter has many battles to fight, and unlike the dramatizations of politicians and media commentators, his battles are concrete, real, and hard fought. During his time as an enlisted soldier deployed in Iraq, Casey has undergone an evolutionary process, one that has taken him from warrior to peace activist. His talent and passion for filmmaking have given him the perfect medium for his personal expression. Utilizing his current circumstances and natural talent as a filmmaker to speak out against the war, Casey's films have turned the heads of people like Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and filmmaker Michael Moore.

by Julie Chowdhury
- Sweden -

Every morning when you wake up and perform what you may perceive as insignificant chores, you might not realize that for 2.6 billion people around the world, your morning shower or just one flush of the toilet is the essence of luxury. The United Nations has declared that every human being is entitled to 20 liters of safe water every day. In Europe, we have the privilege of using 200 liters per day, while in the US, the average person uses up to 400. The average person in the developing world tries to manage on less than 10 liters of contaminated water to do all their daily chores.

by Vera von Kreutzbruck
- Germany -

Even before Elite Squad was released commercially in October 2007, the hugely popular film about police violence and corruption in Rio de Janeiro was already a major success in Brazil. Eleven million Brazilians saw the film on pirated copies and almost 3 million spectators were drawn to the theatres. It will be released this month in the United States.

by Shenali Waduge
- Sri Lanka -

At only a year old, would a child know that she was in front of a cake attempting to blow out something called a candle? When my daughter turned one she was pretty clueless - about the little Barbie that stood in front of her as much as the beaming faces egging her on. Her toothless grin in photos from that day show a little girl, full of glee and quite oblivious to all the challenges that we adults endure on a daily basis in Sri Lanka.

by Lijia Zhang
- China

Sundown left a trail of blood-red clouds in the western sky, yet evening offered no respite from the burning heat. With the plum rain season at an end Nanjing renewed its reputation as one of China’s four furnace cities, the temperature soaring over 40 degrees, or so we all believed – the government reported only 38 or 39. Yes, even the temperature was dictated by the authorities. Once it officially exceeded 37 degrees one working hour would be cut from the day. If it topped 40, all could go home.

The loudspeakers spitting propaganda and stirring tales of model workers were all the more unbearable in such heat. But I was riding away from them.

by Afsaana Rashid
- Indian-administered Kashmir -

Kashmir’s ongoing armed conflict over the past two decades has had physical, cognitive, emotional and behavioral consequences for everyone living in the valley. Although no official figures exist, everyone agrees there has been an increase in the number of both physically challenged and mentally ill in Kashmir over the last 20 years.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

Hillary Clinton’s speech has been highlighted, delivered and duly dissected. Bill’s, too. But, as focus shifts to Obama, the elephant in the hall that will linger past the DNC convention for the nearly 9 million engaged Hillary voters that aren’t yet throwing their vote to Obama is the question: why didn’t he choose her as his running mate? The Democratic Party would be naïve to suggest these people just ‘get over it,’ Hillary’s verbal push and roll call acclamation not withstanding.

Hate her or love her. It’s still a valid question given the 18 million votes and major swing states she captured, particularly for the women who did and do identify with her, and for the men who advocate equality. And it’s a question that Obama needs to at least acknowledge, if not address.

by Melissa Hahn
- USA -

On August 20th, 2008, Polish and American officials signed a missile defense agreement long pursued by Washington and strongly decried by Moscow.

American officials argue that the deal to locate ten ground-based ballistic missile interceptors in Poland is a necessary step to protect the US and Europe from attacks by “rogue states” such as Iran and North Korea. Still awaiting ratification by the Polish Sejm, the deal allows the United States to build and maintain a military base on Polish territory. The installation is part of a broader global network of radar stations and anti-missile missiles (interceptors), including a radar station planned in the Czech Republic.

Outraged at what they see as America’s attempt to establish a permanent foothold in the region under the guise of the War on Terror, Moscow has responded quickly and without mincing words. According to the BBC, Russia’s foreign ministry stated that they "will be forced to react, and not only through diplomatic demarches."

by Lijia Zhang
- China -

Since the reform and opening up, a handful of young people have begun to worship capitalism,” preached political instructor Wang Aimin, the ideologue-in-chief of our unit, spittle flying over his notes and out into the audience. His cold eyes blinked in- voluntarily, lending a sinister look that belied his given name, Aimin – Love the People.

“Unable to distinguish between fragrant flowers and poisonous weeds, these young people pick up capitalist trash like the ‘trumpet trousers’ and rotten music,” Wang spat. “We must resolutely defend the ‘four cardinal principles’ of socialism!”“

by Beena Sarwar
- Pakistan -

President Pervez Musharraf's resignation from office on August 18th under intense pressure has raised questions, particularly in the West, about the future of Pakistan's "war on terror". The following article takes a historic and political look at the background and possible future of this war. - Ed.

When the British colonizers left India in August 1947, they granted India independence, dividing it along religious lines which saw Hindus and Muslims as two different nations. Pakistan, conceived as a nation-state for Indian Muslims, consisted of the Muslim-majority provinces or states, including two states with nearly equal Hindu and Muslim populations - Punjab and Bengal on India’s eastern border, situated a thousand miles away from the other four Pakistani provinces. Two other Muslim-majority states ended up in India’s control: Kashmir to the northwest (which Pakistan also laid claim to), and Hyderabad in central India.

The two-nation theory bypassed the reality of the multinational, multi-faith and multilingual communities that make up India and Pakistan. Attempting to develop a homogenous national identity (largely to counter India), successive Pakistani governments tended to focus on Islam as the unifying factor. They also continued the authoritarian and colonist policies of the British, resulting in religious, ethnic or linguistic groups feeling excluded and discriminated against. For most of its existence, Pakistan has been governed by military rulers who have prioritized weapons and military training over education and social welfare, resulting in a sense of injustice and deprivation, and divisions along religious, sectarian, class and ethnic lines.

by Melissa Hahn
- USA -

The stunning Caucasus soar nobly over their valleys, sheltering quilt squares of villages below. Sadly, this bucolic landscape harbors ancient animosities and modern hostilities in its crags; a simmering violence which this month threatened to escalate into full-scale war.

On August 7th, Russian peacekeeping troops responded to a Georgian military action in the latter’s breakaway province of South Ossetia. Before a French-brokered cease-fire could be reached five days later, 1,500 people had died, with 100,000 more displaced. Only hours after the agreement’s announcement, fresh allegations re-emerged from both sides, dampening international hopes for peace.

With South Ossetia seizing the opportunity for self-determination, Georgia battling to escape its geographic reality, and Russia striving to regain its influence in the “near-abroad,” each refuses to back down without a fight.

by Lijia Zhang
- China -

CLICK, CLACK, CLICK, CLACK ... When the percussive tap sounded from the corridor outside I was instantly alert. Soon, the source arrived in the doorway and walked into the workshop.

“Masters, have you all eaten?” Little Zhi, a colleague who tested electric gauges in another room along the corridor offered the common greeting in China – one which required no answer. A giant by local standards at 1.86 metres tall, his eyes were long and thin; the sparse moustache on his young face as out of place as legs painted on a snake. He settled cross-legged in a chair, one foot in the air showing off his shining leather shoes with half-moon metal plates on the soles – the source of the tapping. They were considered attractive – not everyone could afford leather footwear. As the only son of the most senior deputy director of the factory, and, perhaps more importantly, the newly found nephew of a man living in Taiwan, Zhi could afford certain luxuries.

by Lijia Zhang
- China -

The end of 1980 saw the dawn of reform but also roaring unemployment. To address the problem, the government introduced a temporary policy, allowing young people to take over their parents’ positions. My mother, aged only 43, having pickled machine parts in acid most of her working life, decided to take advantage and retire, worried I might never land such a good job. Chenguang Machinery Manufacture in Nanjing, with its army of 10,000 workers, was among the largest and most prestigious enterprises in China, churning out civilian as well as military supplies, including the country’s “fist product” – missiles.

From free nurseries to cremation, with countless bowls of rice in between, the life of a state employee provided cradle-to-grave security. Workers were hailed as “big brothers”, “the masters of the nation”.

by Vera von Kreutzbruck
- Germany -

Barack Obama cast a spell on Germany. Even weeks before his visit to Berlin on July 24th, he dominated the headlines and was the talk of the capital city. Then, after much anticipation, the 47-year-old US senator delivered an idyllic speech, conquering the hearts of most Germans.

• Berliners flocked to the Brandenburg gate to hear Barack Obama's only European speech. Photograph by Vera von Kreutzbruck. •

“He is an incredibly fascinating person,” journalist Peter Intelman, 47, told me at the rally. “I just spoke with a young woman and she said: when he says ‘yes, we can,’ I believe him. He radiates credibility and this is what is so fascinating about him. But I don’t know if he will be able to fulfill his promises.”

Another Obama enthusiast, Fanny, a 22-year-old French law student told me: “Most of the European countries are Democrats so we have more affinities with Obama than with McCain. Besides, I think he can change things. I’m sure that it will be better with him than how it was with Bush.”

by Mridu Khullar
- India -

• Tibetan writers are using literature and new languages, Chinese and English, to share information about Tibet's struggle for freedom with a wider audience.
Photograph by Sirensongs. •

Their language of choice—Tibetan, English, and surprisingly, now even Mandarin.

“Although the exile Tibetan community [in India] has been very effective in providing a high level of cultural production in religious areas, it is inside Tibet that Tibetan intellectuals and artists have been able to make achievements in secular culture, such as poetry, literature, music, painting, and some forms of scholarship, despite the difficulties they face,” says Dr. Robert Barnett, Director of Modern Tibetan Studies at Columbia University and author of Lhasa: Streets with Memories.

The writings of these poets and essayists have transformed over the past decade from musings about an exotic culture and history, to more real issues of human rights, political policies, and memoirs of people loved and lost. The Tibetan writers of today, regardless of their genre, seem to write with an agenda: to spread the word about the declining situation of the Tibetan freedom movement to readers both inside and out of China.

by Michelle Chen
– USA –

“I can scream, and nobody can hear me.”

The walls had been closing in on Monica Bejar for years. She and her husband had both crossed over the U.S.-Mexico border for work, like countless other migrants. But only he had secured a green card. For over a decade, Monica’s hopes of obtaining legal status depended, as far as she knew, completely on the man who battered her.

A host of legal binds tightened the grip of abuse. Bejar had banked on the hope that her husband would help her become a legal resident. Instead, to prove a point, he tore up her immigration paperwork and threatened to report her to authorities if she tried to leave. She feared losing her children.

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

Neil Young does not mince words. During his Freedom of Speech 2006 tour with on-again-off-again band mates David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, the group energetically performed Young’s new songs titled, “Let’s Impeach the President” and “Lookin’ for a Leader.” But the responses to CSNY’s new songs haven’t all been positive; one woman walked out of the group’s Atlanta concert saying, “Neil Young can stick it up his ass.”

Music, politics, and controversy are all part of the powerful new documentary CSNY Déjà Vu. The film – directed by Young under his filmmaking moniker, Bernard Shakey, and currently playing at theaters nationwide – follows the “four balding hippie millionaires” (as one concert review described the aging rockers) while they tour country with their anti-war message.

by Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation
- USA -

Dear Senator Obama,

We write to congratulate you on the tremendous achievements of your campaign for the presidency of the United States.

Your candidacy has inspired a wave of political enthusiasm like nothing seen in this country for decades. In your speeches, you have sketched out a vision of a better future--in which the United States sheds its warlike stance around the globe and focuses on diplomacy abroad and greater equality and freedom for its citizens at home--that has thrilled voters across the political spectrum. Hundreds of thousands of young people have entered the political process for the first time, African-American voters have rallied behind you, and many of those alienated from politics-as-usual have been re-engaged.

You stand today at the head of a movement that believes deeply in the change you have claimed as the mantle of your campaign. The millions who attend your rallies, donate to your campaign and visit your website are a powerful testament to this new movement's energy and passion.

by Remi Adeoye
- Nigeria -

There is stiff opposition to the proposed Niger Delta Summit slated to be held in Abuja, Nigeria. The Delta’s most prominent militant group, known as The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), called it a “circus,” and "a face saving measure” by the slow-moving Yar'Adua administration to show that it has a plan to solve the area’s problems. The line of battle has been drawn between the federal government and the militants, with tensions increasing after the deployment of more soldiers and two naval warships to the oil-rich Delta, which militants described as a “callous, wicked attempt to wipe the Ijaw nation from the face of the earth.”

• The environmental devastation from installations like this one in Ikot Ada Udo has left nearly everyone living off the land without a livelihood. Photograph by Kadir van Lohuizen/NOOR. •

To the indigenous Egi women of Ijaw, it is crucial that more come out of the Abuja summit than political posturing. As the women say, “We are farmers, fisherwomen and hunters. With all the flaming and pumping oil into our swamp areas, the oil companies have denied us every living thing. Today, we have no hope, while they are making billions of naira with our gifts from God. They don’t care or hear our cry; they only throw tear gas on us, beat us, and drive us out of our land.”

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

Paying upwards of $10 USD to see a movie about economics, particularly in these increasingly desperate financial times, hardly seems like a prudent decision – much less a pleasurable way to spend a Sunday afternoon. But if you’re willing to shell out the cash to see the new documentary I.O.U.S.A., which opens in theatres this August, you may be surprised at just how enjoyable and educational a film about America’s economy can be.

The federal debt seems too incredible a sum to even fully grasp; an easier way to understand such an enormous figure is that if the debt was equally divided among the country’s population, each American would owe over $30,000.

If you have no idea or don’t even care that this debt exists, I.O.U.S.A. makes you want to learn. The film’s complex premise and daunting numbers are made more accessible by the use of colorful graphs and illustrations. Creadon effectively contrasts what average people think (or think they know) against experts’ analysis, which keeps the film from being too weighed down by statistics and theories. The film’s tone can be summed up by student activist Mike Tully who yells at passersby in one scene: “Would you like to go on a date with me? No! Would you like to learn about the debt? Yes!”

by Beena Sarwar
- Pakistan -

It was painful to think of Rehmat Shah Afridi on death row, haggard and ill.

I had worked with him at the English language daily paper he launched from Lahore in 1989, The Frontier Post, originally started from Peshawar, capital of his native North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in the mid-1980s. He was not highly educated but he had a liberal, progressive vision of independent media and had brought one of the country’s finest journalists, Aziz Siddiqui, on board as the editor.

• Rehmat Shah Afridi celebrates his release from prison with his sons. Photograph by Rahat Dar, The News on Sunday. •

Aziz Siddiqui had by then joined the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) as co-director along with his close friend and fellow journalist I.A. Rehman who was Director of HRCP. The organization was among those that protested Afridi’s arrest in 1999 on what most journalists believe to be trumped up charges of drug trafficking. After a district court on June 27, 2001 condemned Afridi to death by hanging, he spent the next three years on death row. There was sporadic news of him once he was convicted. One of his lawyers told me that he was terribly ill at one point and had lost much weight. The Lahore High Court on June 3, 2004 commuted his death sentence on the grounds that trafficking in hashish is not a capital crime. Still, he remained in Lahore’s notorious Kot Lakhpat Jail for nearly a decade, with courts periodically turning down his bail applications, pleas to move him to a prison in Peshawar closer to his family and appeals for proper medical care. He was finally released on bail in May this year.

by Nadia Gouy
- Morocco -

The results of the September 2007 elections were no landmark victory for female representation in the Moroccan legislature – apart from the 30 female lawmakers elected through a 2002-instituted quota system, only four women were able to squeak into the lower house. Yet, for a country that is determined to lead the Arab pack in gender equality, the executive is a good counterbalance. And the new government counts five female ministers along with two undersecretaries, accounting for 19.2 percent of the total ministerial posts – a percentage that earns Morocco the 39th rank, second to no other Arab country, in the 2008 Women in Politics Report jointly prepared by the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

• Anti-corruption crusader, Yasmina Badou has met with resistance by what many have referred to as her “inflexibility and refusal to negotiate” in her attempt to improve Morocco's health care system. Photograph by Houda Andaloussi. •

Just like any Moroccan, I took a deep interest in Yasmina’s proclaimed crusade for reforming the health sector. Born to a family that could pay the doctor’s bill in a city that has the lion’s share of clinics and hospitals, I was under the delusion that high maternal and infant mortality rates were ancient history. Yet, pursuing a Master’s in international development showed me the bitter reality. An ever-ailing health sector, all the more blighted by the flagrant inequalities between the up-to-date private clinics and hospitals and their dilapidated public counterparts, is a good enough reason for Morocco to rank 126th out of 177 countries according to the UNDP-commissioned Human Development Report 2007-08 – this time behind most Arab countries. Among the disquieting facts and figures: the number of physicians per 100,000 people stands at 51 with an extremely disproportionate concentration in the urban areas; among the poorest 20 percent, only 30 percent of births are attended by skilled health personnel compared to 95 percent among the richest 20 percent; the infant mortality rate stands at 62 per 1,000 live births against 24 for the richest 20 percent; and the mortality rate for five years and under stands at 74 per 1,000 infants compared to 26.

by Diane Solomon
- USA -

Like Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. before them, when Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez organized California’s exploited and marginalized farm workers into the United Farmworkers of America (UFW) in the 1960s they built a nonviolent movement that empowered poor and disenfranchised people to help themselves.

• Dolores Huerta, circa 1968. Photograph courtesy of the Dolores Huerta Foundation. •

During her career with the UFW, Huerta organized field strikes, directed boycotts, and negotiated and administered agreements. Huerta also was one of the first to speak out against pesticides that harm farm workers, consumers, and the environment. Five years ago she left the UFW and started the Dolores Huerta Foundation to teach community organizing. She still works as an advocate for farmworkers, whose pay and working conditions have worsened in recent years.

I spoke with Huerta at Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose, California.

by Eva Sohlman
- Sweden -

In Haiti people eat cakes baked with mud for lack of flour. In Bangladesh, Indonesia and across Africa, riots are spreading among the hungry. And in the world’s richest country, the United States, the breadlines are growing.

• Photograph by Bruce Gilbert, courtesy of The Earth Institute. •

by Susan Enuogbope Majekodunmi
- USA -

As a child growing up in Nigeria, I was familiar with military coups. I would wake up in the morning and on TV a new President in military uniform would state that there had been a coup and he was now our new leader. He would order everyone to stay home until the situation stabilized. Later that night, on the 9pm news, he would reappear to tell us how he was the person to rescue the country from the clutches of the one he seized power from. However, time would show our new leader repeating exactly what he accused his predecessor of doing, many times to an even higher degree. As time passed, it would also become obvious that our new president had no intention of leaving office, ever.

• Despite widespread criticism, Robert Mugabe attended the global food summit in Rome in early June. Photograph by Malcom M. •

In Nigeria, military dictator Sani Abacha, who seized power from his fellow military predecessor, annulled the June 12th, 1993 democratic election of Chief Moshood Abiola, a civilian businessman who, by all accounts, won the election. Abacha refused to give up power and Abiola fled abroad for his safety. However, he was lured back to supposedly take what was rightfully his, only to be swiftly charged with treason and killed while in Abacha's custody. Since I lived close to Abiola's residence at the time, I witnessed the chaos and violence his death caused as many people took to the streets to protest.

by Riane Eisler
- USA -

There’s an invisible elephant in today’s political debates: a major issue that’s getting no attention. Sure, there’s some recognition that behind many attacks on Hillary Clinton lie virulent traditions of sexism. But so devalued is anything stereotypically associated with women that crucial matters that directly impact our lives and our families aren’t even mentioned.

• Women's issues take a backseat in American politics. Photograph by Rebecca DeLisle. •

This relegation of “women’s issues” to a secondary place is obviously terrible for half of America (actually the majority, since women are 52 percent). But it’s also terrible for the political and family health of our entire nation.

Let’s start with politics. For both the mullahs in Iran and the rightist-fundamentalist alliance in the United States, “getting women back into their traditional place” in a “traditional family” has been a top priority. There’s a basic reason for this. Rigidly male-dominated societies are also authoritarian and violent. Along with the imposition of a brutal dictatorship by the Nazis, their mantra was returning women to their "traditional" roles in a male-dominated family. Nor is it coincidental that the 9-11 terrorists came from cultures where women are terrorized into submission. Or that regressive fundamentalists in the United States (who also believe in top-down rule and “holy wars”) first organized as a powerful political block around a “women’s issue”: the defeat during the 1970s of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

by Parul Sharma
- Sweden -

“The truth, however, is that the male is the enjoyer and female a thing to be enjoyed…” - Manu Smiriti

Social and psychological discrimination appeared in an Indian courtroom on April 3rd, 2005, when minutes before sentencing was due, a convicted rapist offered his victim a marriage proposal. The man, who said he was offering to marry the woman because the stigma of rape in India meant no one else would, was convicted of raping and seriously injuring a 22-year-old nurse in September 2003 at the hospital where they both worked. The survivor was asked in court whether she would accept the proposal from her attacker, who had hoped it might lower his sentence. The judge postponed sentencing until the next day, when the rape victim told the court she had rejected his petition.

So many questions come to any sane person’s mind, most importantly: did the court, as a “law-making” institution, even consider the dangers such a precedent would pose to women?

by Katharine Daniels & Sarah McGowan
- USA -

Sunday’s news that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn from the Zimbabwean runoff race spurred international media coverage and outrage on a crisis that has been raging for years. According to the opposition’s Movement for Democratic Change, "some 86 of its supporters have been killed and 200,000 forced from their homes by militias loyal to the ruling Zanu-PF party."

• An image from last year's violent police crackdown on Zimbabwean activists. Photograph courtesy of The Zimbabwean. •

WIP Contributors Constance Manika and Lelety Mabasa, along with Sharon Njobo, Grace Kwinjeh and Sandra Nyaira, have published article after article over the past year, outlining the methodical behavior of a political despot who is both cunning and ruthless, and who will stop at nothing to preserve his power.

In our second week of publication, Sharon Njobo (living in exile in Canada) wrote about women in her country taking the lead to protest against Mugabe's economic policies. In this early article we first learned of Zimbabwe's skyrocketing inflation rates (currently at 355,000 percent), and the rising price of basic foodstuffs - putting cooking oil, cornmeal, bread, and milk beyond the reach of many families in a country that was once considered the 'food basket' of Africa. The deteriorating Zimbabwean economy has now earned the country the dubious distinction of having the lowest life expectancy in the world for women. At just 34 years, a woman's life span (37 years for a man) is now half of what it was only 18 years ago.

by Suad Hamada
- Bahrain -

Most of them came by sea through tough journeys, seeking better lives. They loved their new homelands both before and after the oil era that brought wealth beyond anyone’s expectations. Many of them fought for independence and development in their new countries. But what did they get in return?

They didn’t get awards or national recognition, instead they were just marked with an unbearable word for the rest of their lives: Bidoon or stateless. Even their children and grandchildren, who have never known another homeland, are counted as stateless. Most of the young men who came to the Gulf states in the 1920s and 1930s are long dead and buried under the soil of countries that never accepted them as citizens.

by S. Jean
- Gaza City -

Boom! I can feel a rumble under my feet and hear the windows clatter lightly in our two-bedroom apartment. My husband and I live on the third floor of an apartment building in Rimal, regarded as a safe neighborhood in Gaza City. The Gaza Strip is tiny, only 140 square miles, and we can easily hear explosions, even those a couple towns away.

• This building is part of a government complex that the Israeli Air Force bombed using an F-16. Ten children from nearby homes were wounded in this attack, launched in the middle of the night in the Tel Al Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City. •

You name it… it's all a normal part of our lives here in Gaza. And little stops us, and everyone else, from going about our day-to-day activities. After all, it's only 7:30 in the morning and we are getting ready to go to work. We don't even check the TV for news about the blast.

by Yu Sun
- China -

The earthquake that struck Sichuan recently has shown China’s capacity to mobilize resources, cope with emergency situations and handle crisis. China conducted its own prompt media coverage and provided unprecedented access to foreign media on the quake-hit area. China has demonstrated its preparedness and ability to hold the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games.

The So-Called Boycott Won’t Affect the Olympic Games

• Olympic torchbearers were met with widespread protest around the world. Photograph by Steve Punter. •

The Olympic flame does not belong to China, but to the whole world and carries a message of global peace. Disrupting the Olympic torch relay is not only contrary to the Olympic spirit, but endangers the personal safety of torchbearers and violates the rights of those who welcomed its arrival.

A few countries’ leaders have pondered not attending the opening ceremony of the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing. I’m amazed to read this kind of the news.

What is China going to lose from this possible boycott? After all, tens of thousands of athletes from different countries will still compete in Beijing, and that's what matters.

by Glory Mushinge
- UK -

In much of the world, life for an eight year old is considered just started, but in Colombia, girls that age are dying, fighting in the military.

“As soon as they said they were going to kill us, we grabbed a change of clothes and anything else we could carry and took off running. We got in a boat and didn’t look back. We left our animals, crops, land and home behind… they came looking for us, to kill us and we weren’t there. Now we really need help because they tell us there are no resources.”

• A Colombian schoolgirl particpates in a peace march. Photograph by CAFOD/Annie Bungeroth. •

Recently, members of the Catholic Church in Colombia visited the UK to seek help for the country’s conflict, something they refer to as a ‘forgotten crisis’ because the international community has ignored Colombia’s issues.

Archbishop Reuben Salazar and Monsignor Héctor Fabio Henao, President and Director of the Social Department of the Catholic CARITAS Colombia, said during their visit that they travelled to England and Wales to raise awareness of the problems in Colombia and to bolster support for the church’s vital peace-building work.

by Elena Ilina
- USA -

There are five nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZ) in the world, comprised of more than 100 countries. Significant tools for disarmament and nonproliferation, such zones assist in strengthening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and contribute to the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. They also promote trust, cooperation and security in the region establishing such a zone.

• As more countries in the Middle East express interest in developing nuclear capability, NWFZs have never been more important. Photograph by Omid Tavallai. •

Key disarmament experts participated in our project, including UN Secretary General High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Ambassador Sergio Duarte, Permanent Representative of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the United Nations, Ambassador Maged A. Abdelaziz, and former diplomat Richard Butler, who served as UNSCOM Chairman. Our class spent the entire semester negotiating the treaty, studying the positions of relevant countries and gathering after class in the school cafeteria to conduct secret meetings to figure out each other’s positions. Our work was guided by the general rules of international forums, with two elected chairmen and representatives of various agencies observing our negotiations. At the last meeting of the semester, we were unable to conclude the treaty – our national positions and interests could not be reconciled.

by Cheery Zahau
- Burma / India -

In the devastating aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, international scrutiny highlights the military junta that rules Burma, a Southeast Asian country that shares borders with China, India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Laos. Adding greatly to the number of victims claimed by the storm, the Burmese government prevented aid from entering the country until pressured by the international community. Burma’s notorious military regime seems to enjoy watching its people suffer, turning deaf ears to victims in need, denying entrance of international aid groups and failing to properly prepare the region, despite prior warning from regional weather centers.

• The author interviews a woman who was raped by Burmese soldiers. •

With a population of over 50 million people, Burma is comprised of eight major ethnic nationalities: Burman, Shan, Karen, Karenni, Mon, Chin, Kachin and Arakan. Burma’s ethnic groups demand equality, autonomy and self-determination, but are systematically denied their rights by the junta. Instead, they are met with human rights violations: forced labor, forced relocation, religious persecution, arbitrary arrest and detention, destruction of thousands of ethnic villages, the driving out of hundreds of thousands of ethnic civilians to neighboring countries, and the forced internal displacement of an estimated one million people.

by Lelety Mabasa
- Zimbabwe -

Always faithful in shocking the world, Zimbabwe has scored yet another first, and as usual, for all the wrong reasons.

• Basket case: A fruit seller in Harare hunts for change. •

"The latest innovation seeks to bring convenience to our farmers who, starting this year's marketing season, are receiving competitive prices for their produce," said acting RBZ Governor Charity Dhliwayo last week.

The RBZ also launched a new Z$500 million bank note for the general public.

What baffled most people, however, was that bearers can use Agro Cheques to purchase goods in supermarkets, just like we do with ordinary notes.

"Either the people at the central bank are now confused or they were too embarrassed to say we are launching such high denominated notes for the public," speculates Noleen Moyo, an employee with a Zimbabwean bank. "To them, that would mean admitting failure in running the economy."

by Faye M. Anderson
- USA -

With only three primaries remaining, the Democratic presidential nomination battle is nearing the finish line. While Barack Obama has won a majority of pledged delegates, he is still short of the 2,026 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.

• Presidential candidate Barack Obama. Photograph by jurvetson. •

The fact is, Obama racked up his insurmountable delegate lead before snippets of sermons by Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. exploded on Americans’ TV screens and computer monitors. While Obama has since severed ties with Wright, the political damage has been done.

by Binalakshmi Nepram Mentschel
- India -

Our world is hovering at the edge of an abyss, driven there by man’s unreason. One crisis is cresting on top of another… The sinister developments in the advance towards the brink of disaster all interact, worsened by the calamitous threat - namely the arms race and militarization. These essentially ethical problems of wars, weapons, and tools of violence have existed since time immemorial, but in the present era they have been deeply aggravated and will continue to be aggravated if a halt is not called for. – Nobel Peace Laureate Alva Myrdal

May 24th is celebrated globally as International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament. This article was written in honor of the many women who have campaigned tirelessly for global peace.

by Suad Hamada
- Bahrain -

“The land that I grew to love, hates my babies.” This is sadly what many Bahraini women of stateless children think to themselves every single day of their lives.

Like outcasts, they feel helplessly pulled between a country they call home and their children who should be recognized as citizens but aren’t, only because they decided to marry foreigners.

by Pilirani Semu-Banda
- Malawi -

Sixty-three year old Gladys Kasito, in Malawi’s capital city, Lilongwe, only has one wish – to die peacefully, preferably in her sleep. Kasito says she feels trapped and threatened in her own country. Her community, including her own family, has disowned her. She says everyone is baying for her blood. Kasito has been labeled a witch.

Her face is heavily scarred, she walks with a limp, and has no front teeth. Kasito is recovering from the wounds she sustained when her neighbors demolished her house early one February morning and beat her up. A few passers-by rescued her and took her to hospital.

“All I want is to die, but peacefully. I no longer want to go through the mental and physical ordeal that I was subjected to. They call me a witch just because I am old and no longer pretty,” worries Kasito.

by Anna Clark
- USA -

Who talks about prisoners these days? Certainly not the US presidential candidates or most others up for election in 2008, unless it’s in tangential “get tough on crime” rhetoric. In the media, quality coverage such as Jeff Gerritt’s Pulitzer-nominated series on medical care in Michigan prisons, which appeared last year in The Detroit Free Press, is overshadowed by courtroom dramas and legal thrillers. MSNBC has built something of a franchise in its “To Catch a Predator” series, which lures people to a Dateline set, humiliates them by reading their chat room transcripts with someone they thought was underage, and then calls on a police crew to rather unnecessarily tackle them in an arrest sequence right out of a summer blockbuster.

Authentic communication from and about prisoners exists, but it’s relegated to a niche market outside of most print and online news sources, of influential political blogs, of the catalogues of big publishers, and of the speeches of election year candidates. Presumably, its minimal share of attention is justified because decision makers think their audiences don’t care much about prisons and the people in them.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

In the early hours of April 25th, Tariro Gweru and her husband Wellington awoke to a deafening knock on their bedroom hut. Wellington says he identified the frantic voices of his two friends, Simon Takavada and Misheck Dzikamai, got up and quickly opened the door.

As his two friends made their way breathlessly into his house, Wellington knew there was something seriously wrong. Simon and Misheck indeed had bad news: while coming home after having a beer, the two spotted trucks packed with ZANU PF youths, war veterans and soldiers making their way to their village.

by Nancy Van Ness
- USA -

I knew it was bad, but I didn't know just how bad. Colonel Ann Wright, retired US Army, grabbed the audience’s attention at a panel called Women in the Military, hosted last month by Women Center Stage in New York City, when she said that one in three women in the military is sexually abused by her male colleagues. Ann wants to see huge signs displaying this statistic in every recruiting office, to let young women know what to expect if they sign up.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

How sad. Exxon Mobil, the universe’s largest publicly traded company, which also happens to be enjoying some of its biggest profits ever thanks to the almost doubled price of oil during the past year, didn’t quite live up to Wall Street expectations this week. In fact, its stock fell nearly 4% the day it announced its first quarter of 2008 earnings.

Unfortunately, this does not make the pain at the pump pulsing through the nation any more bearable. Apparently, Exxon could have made more profit, had it not chosen to hold back further gas price hikes. Instead, earnings in its refining business (which converts crude oil to gallons of useable gas) weren’t as strong as it had wanted. Yes, that’s right – Exxon would have made even more money had they passed more pain onto the public. They were just being “nice.” Right.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

"The moment the people stop supporting you, that's the moment you should quit politics."

These were the seemingly reasonable and even wise words President Robert Mugabe used in the Highfield suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, when he cast his vote on March 29th. He was responding to a journalist who asked whether he would step down in the event of defeat in the presidential election. Until Saturday it looked as if Mugabe might have spoken too soon.

by Megan Tady
- USA –

For Maureen Mullaney, helping her kids with their homework takes more than just proofreading their papers. Fed up with a painfully slow dial-up Internet connection at home, Mullaney often drives her children into town, where they sit outside the library to pick up a wireless Internet signal on their laptops in order to do research.

“How silly is it that in this day and age, you have to get in your car in the middle of winter, drive to the center of town, sit in your car with it running, while your child can research the traditional clothing of Chile?” asks Mullaney, who lives in Ashfield, Massachusetts.

Mullaney says her children’s ability to do research for school reports is “ridiculously hampered” by their dial-up connection, particularly when they need to include images with their assignments. “You can’t see [the images] quickly,” Mullaney says. “You click on one and then you wait. And oh, that’s the wrong one.”

The process can be so frustrating, that sometimes Mullaney and her kids give up. “I just say, ‘Forget it, I’ll look it up for you when I get to work,’” she says. “So then I end up doing their research? What’s that all about?”

by Vera von Kreutzbruck
- Germany -

Andrzej Wajda was 13 years old when World War II broke out. Together with his mother he lived most of his life in the vain hope that his father might have survived the war: his father’s name had never appeared on any official list of Polish soldiers killed in combat. The truth, discovered years later, was that Captain Wajda had been shot cold-bloodedly by the Soviet secret police in a prison in the western Soviet Union. Andrzej and around 22,000 other people had waited for their loved ones in vain.

by Michelle Chen
- USA -

Tanya McLeod’s marriage was hurting, but her husband thought he could make it up to her when he brought her a cute dog as a “peace offering.” The family stayed together and the dog grew up alongside her children—until the day her husband decided to destroy the animal with his bare hands.

At that point, McLeod says, “I knew that he was capable of killing me.”

by Katie Thompson
- USA -

Elections invite a whirlwind of campaign promises: some that are feasible, some that are not, and some that will be forgotten on Inauguration Day. One of the most prominent issues for the Democratic candidates has been healthcare reform, a campaign promise the American people definitely won’t let the new president forget. In the United States, the National Coalition on Health Care says 47 million people are without health care coverage. In addition, according to Consumer Reports, 43% of Americans who have health insurance coverage say their coverage is inadequate to deal with an expensive medical emergency. Clearly, healthcare is an issue that requires a solution. The real question is whether a national healthcare plan is a feasible solution. I would argue that it is not.

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

“Rape has always been used as a weapon of war” is the opening line of the new documentary film The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo. For 76 minutes the film exposes the incredibly brutal civil war that has raged for over ten years in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Not only have over four million people been killed, but over 250,000 women and girls have been raped, kidnapped, and tortured.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

On Saturday, March 29th, I was one of the millions of Zimbabweans who went to the polls to choose a new president. I cast my vote to choose both a lower and upper house of assembly representative in parliament and a councilor in my constituency.

• MDC opposition, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, claims victory in Zimbabwe's presidential election. Photograph courtesy of the Movement for Democratic Change. •

They say “your vote is secret” but mine is not: I went and voted President Robert Mugabe and his cronies out of power. I believe their time is up -- they have done enough damage to our lives. This is why I woke up at 5am on Saturday morning to vote, just like many other disheartened Zimbabweans who are ready for change. I was determined to vote dictatorship and tyranny out.

And, so far it appears we have succeeded.

by Ellen Snortland
- USA -

Midnight. Intensely urban downtown neighborhood in Los Angeles where the alleys reek of urine and garbage. Dark Craftsman house in the Carpenter-Gothic style. My home. I cross the threshold and meet an interrupted burglar who raises his knife, ready to plunge it into my throat or heart. My scream is so intense he drops his knife, grabs his ears and runs like hell. “Thank you, mister,” I neglect to yell, because I was yet to know the impact this event would have on the balance of my life.

by Eva Sohlman
- Sweden -

What kind of leader does tomorrow’s America need? And who among the presidential candidates is best suited to meet the challenges that the next leader of the world’s superpower will face? These are some of the questions American voters face as they are showered with political propaganda and a pumping, election-driven news flow where “experience” is weighed against “leadership for change.”

“What type of leader is needed depends entirely on the times,” says US anthropologist, psychoanalyst and leadership consultant Michael Maccoby, whose 35 years studying leadership have broken ground within the field. His recently published book, “The Leaders We Need and What Makes Us Follow,” finds him being frequently interviewed by American media about leadership styles, and which of the current candidates is best suited for the presidency.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

Tinashe Choruma and his wife Irene live in the suburb of Epworth here in the capital, Harare, where many of city's poor reside. The housing is poorly constructed - some homes are made from mud and pole, with no clean water or sanitation services. The suburb could very much pass as a shanty town.

Tinashe came to the city in 2000 from rural Murehwa to take up a job as a librarian; he was staying with his wife and their two children in the high-density suburb of Glen View. But after Robert Mugabe ordered all "illegal" houses to be destroyed during Operation Murambatsvina, the backyard cottage he used to call home was destroyed. He was left homeless.

by Sandra Nyaira
- UK -

On a chilly Saturday afternoon as rain drizzles continually from the grey London skies, Trafalgar Square slowly fills with women from all walks of life, braving the winds and cold. Exiled Zimbabwean men and women now living in the United Kingdom descend on the Square from all directions to support the fight for democracy in Zimbabwe, to restore dignity to its long-suffering women and to highlight their vital role in the country’s struggle for freedom.

by Nancy Van Ness
- USA -

In a heap on the studio floor as though they had collapsed under some disaster, fallen birds present a scene of despair. I am drawn toward them. They are a very powerful artistic reinterpretation of the Japanese tradition of the thousand cranes that people traditionally make from beautiful origami paper as signs of hope (most recently that would be hope for peace).

A closer look reveals that the defeated origami cranes are made from newspaper accounts of war, violence, cruelty; indeed these birds have succumbed under the weight of the torment and anguish of needless human suffering all over the world. I found them when I visited another studio at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, Nebraska, where I was briefly in residence.

by Rose-Anne Clermont
- Germany -

When Pam’s fiancé, Charles, was deployed on his second tour to Iraq in December of 2004, he feared what awaited him. On his first tour, a year prior, he had witnessed the chaos and the bloodshed, the friends who didn’t return home. Charles had escaped with a shot to his jaw the first time, but, preparing for the worst, he gave Pam power of attorney for his belongings. Still, in a hopeful moment before his deployment from Fort Bragg, Charles put an engagement ring on Pam’s finger. “I cried all night when he left,” remembers Pam.

• Sgt. Charles Eggleston with friends in Iraq. •

Seven months after he’d said goodbye to Pam, Charles’ front-line unit was hit by an IED in Mosul. Six of his fellow soldiers died in the attack and, amidst the confusion, Charles, known as Sgt. Charles Eggleston, was counted amongst the dead. The call to Charles’ mother had been a mistake — one that Pam had been lucky enough not to know about until she’d finally talked to Charles again, three days after the attack.

by Grace Kwinjeh
- South Africa -

Last week Zimbabwe’s civil society and opposition held a commemorative vigil marking the anniversary of the gruesome torture of opposition leaders (myself included) at the hands of the Mugabe government. The world watched in shock and disgust at the media’s images of our battered leaders, days after our illegal incarceration and brutal beatings on March 11, 2007 by the country's security forces. After being tortured, we were hidden and held illegally for almost 72 hours in various police stations, denied access to our lawyers and much needed medication as many of us had suffered broken limbs, internal head injuries, soft to deep tissue injuries and assorted traumas. Four women suffered on that day: me, Sekai Holland, Memory Kumupaya and Christine Mhaka.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

The Starbucks, sidewalk and subway comments continue to flow abundant as New Yorkers processed the country’s latest made-for-TV sex scandal. The reality that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, Time Magazine’s former Crusader of the Year, the man now dubbed “George Fox” and “Client #9,” had repeatedly gotten too hot and heavy with various high-class call-girls broke in salacious bits. This is the stuff that causes political dreams in America to dissolve even faster than the seismic destruction unleashed by the subprime mortgage crisis and the economic recession that has followed it.

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

- March 8th - Today we celebrate International Women's Day with our sisters and mothers, aunts and grandmothers, cousins and daughters, and most of all, with our writers, who have become family. On this important day, we find it appropriate that Jessica's review is of a film about a group of remarkable women in Argentina who found their voices and by doing so transformed themselves from victims into successful entrepreneurs. The women of Brukman are yet further proof that women who empower themselves cannot be stopped. - Ed.


Christmas should be a happy time for families to congregate over lengthy meals while watching little kids open presents, but in 2001 Argentina’s economy collapsed a week before the holiday. Almost immediately factories shut down, business owners fled the country, and low-paid workers were out of their jobs just when everyone needed a little extra money. Yuletide joy was harder to find than a job. However the amazing women featured in the documentary film The Women of Brukman didn’t let the crumbling economy destroy their livelihoods, their spirit, or their Christmas.

• Delicia works the presses, perfectly ironing every piece of clothing that leaves the Brukman factory. Photograph by Gunes-Helene Isitan. •

One day in late 2001, the workers of the Brukman garment factory arrived for their shifts, only to find that the factory’s owners had fled the country – neglecting to pay anyone! The predominately female workforce decided to go about their jobs just like it was any other day; no one had any extra money and, with the recent economic collapse, few employment opportunities elsewhere. Everyone assumed that the Brukman family would eventually return to Buenos Aires and want the factory back.

by Eva Sohlman
- Sweden -

The hope for change is tremendous after nearly eight years of George W. Bush in the White House – both in America and around the world. But regardless of who becomes the next president, we are all in for a big disappointment cautions Strobe Talbott, director of Brookings Institution, one of America’s most influential and oldest think tanks. He warns that the expectations concerning what the US will be able to accomplish as an international actor are exaggerated.

“Never ever in American history has a new president in the White house faced foreign-policy challenges of this magnitude or of this complexity!” The slender and energetic 61-year-old Talbott sighs deeply and shakes his head as he talks about the challenges that lie ahead. At the time of the interview, which takes place in his open and inviting home in Washington, Talbott lights a fire in the living room to defy the chilly weather outside, eagerly assisted by his two hunting dogs.

by Philo Ikonya
- Kenya -

The women of Kenya have always been aware of injustice in our society, all through the years. And they have fought for justice: in 1922 Mary Nyanjiru faced the colonialist’s gun fearlessly after stating that if the men would not fight, they could give her their trousers and she would don them and do the fighting. She died for her rights, as Mekatilili Wa Menza did before her, who fought just as courageously for her people. Analysts say that what Kenya has experienced in 2008 has its roots in colonial times. Well, the stifling of women’s voices is no exception.

• Without a voice in policy, women in Kenya have few opportunities to better their lives or those of their children. Photograph by Angela Slevin. •

Many women, though recognizing the charm of the slogan, have never been convinced that the hakuna matata (no problems) mentality worked in the real lives of people. What a shame that we neglected women’s voices, the most resourceful and prophetic we have. I was at Limuru for a conference on poverty in 2005, when a woman from a pastoral community presented the Vice President with the mini household items she was able to purchase with less than a dollar. A tiny bit of salt, a little bar of soap (to wash her husband’s clothes), a tiny bit of fat and sugar - all acquired in what we call the kadogo (mini) economy. Of course, even in the mini economy, none of it was for her.

If anybody knows what poverty is - the kind of poverty that for many girls means missing school because they have their period and not having a pad to wear, try banana fibers instead - it is the women. If anyone knows what it means to have little children who need to be bathed but who must “rush-rush” to the well to fetch water to make tea for a visitor - again it is the women. Women alone know how to let a baby suckle their drying breasts during a famine - those awful times when in parts of Kenya everything withers and even the camels (the animals most resilient to drought) die in the relentless scorching sun.

by Bia Assevero
- USA -

It didn't take a genius to predict that Nicolas Sarkozy was going to be a president, the likes of which France had never seen before. But no one, not even Nostradamus, could have predicted where things would stand after Sarkozy’s first nine months in office.

His approval ratings are plummeting, hitting new low after new low, but it’s not because of his politics. Truth be told, Sarkozy has made very little progress on the reforms that he swore he would execute, but he’s hardly the first politician to break campaign promises.

So why then, are the French people cringing in horror at their president’s behavior?

by Philo Ikonya
- Kenya -

Dear Njeri,

Tonight, I am unable to sleep. You see, my country - our country - is on fire. It is almost the end of February: is it the end of Kenya as we knew it? Kenya beloved and full of potential. Kenya our country.

• A woman seeks refuge in a church, one of the many internally displaced people fleeing Kenya's violence. Photograph courtesy of the Human Coalition. •

Before we had passed the years when we could only turn on BBC for trustworthy news even before we elected Kibaki on a reform platform in 2002, let me come back to how I feel and why I am unable to sleep. It is because of you Njeri, my sister in the struggle. It is because you told us how you have received persistent death threats because you believe in human rights and standing up for the truth. I have to write this letter to you tonight, even if it is an hour to midnight.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

On March 11th, 2007, 64 year old Sekai Holland woke up unusually early. She was restless and anxious because of the scheduled protests that her party was going to go ahead with against the police's will. She knew it was going to get nasty.

by Shailja Patel
- Kenya -

A February 7th article in The Economist, "Ethnic Cleansing in Luoland," dangerously presents the crisis in Kenya as an issue of inter-communal violence. It focuses on the violent attacks on Kikuyu Kenyans in Western Kenya, by their Luo neighbors, following the December 27th election.

The term "ethnic cleansing" is both inaccurate and unhelpful to Kenya's current crisis. It fuels the buildup by the Kibaki (Party of National Unity) camp to the declaration of a state of emergency, the deployment of the military or, worse, the usurpation of civilian governance by military governance.

Unquestionably, victims of the current violence experience the violence as being directed at their ethnicity. But the violence is politically instigated. It finds ethnic expression or manifests itself ethnically because Kenyan politics are organized ethnically.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

Depending on the measure of ‘liberalness’ used to evaluate past voting records, there is next to no difference between Clinton and Obama. In fact, with all her emphasis on ‘experience’ and his on ‘change,’ their voting patterns are almost identical. Both follow the party line, 97.1% of the time for Clinton, 96.5% for Obama - which doesn’t particularly highlight unique experience nor change.

• Finding her voice, Clinton campaigns in Arizona. Photograph by Dugi Jenkins. •

So, does the mere rhetoric of change trump the reality of past behavior? And is unity amongst political views – ‘no red states or blue states, just the United States’ - really a philosophy that will provide the majority of Americans (not the middle class, but the non-wealthy class) a more secure domestic future? Will that philosophy be able to drive more legislation and assure that funds are spent on equalizing citizens? What is needed is to lower the cost and expand the availability of necessities like health care, education, gas and energy, a home that the banking system isn’t stealing, and financial stability from birth through retirement.

by Bia Assevero
- USA -

Are you bored yet?

Have you seen one talking head too many?

Does exit poll sound like a dirty word?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then fear not. You are very probably not alone. We are one year on from the launch of the party nomination campaigns. By the time the next President is elected in November 2008, we will have survived nearly two years of constant and intense political bombardment. In a country that is big on instant gratification and where attention spans can be shorter than one episode of American Idol, this is to put it mildly, a problem.

For as much as Republican and Democratic candidates have bandied about the word change - as if it was the latest “in” word, something a teenager might use in lieu of “whatever” or “as if” or “wicked” – the process itself is unchanged. The candidates’ policies and positions are forced to take a back seat because the elections process itself is flawed.

by Lelety Mabasa
- Zimbabwe -

There was chaos and pandemonium at Harare’s city center on January 23rd, as thousands of ordinary people came face-to-face with the wrath of the police’s riot squad, who were summoned by Zimbabwe’s aging President, Robert Mugabe. That day, about 40,000 people, including shoppers, workers on lunch break and those who were in bank queues joined together to form the largest procession ever seen in Harare. They were intent on peacefully expressing their disgruntlement over the country’s continued economic meltdown, now in its eighth year. Thirty-seven Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters were injured in the skirmishes, 21 of them seriously, when the police tear gassed and beat them up as they headed towards Glamis Stadium where MDC’s president, Morgan Tsvangirai was due to address them.

Before dawn at 4:30am, plainclothes policemen from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Law and Order section had swooped down on Tsvangirai’s residence and arrested him. They also arrested two other MDC officials, Ian Makone, the party’s Secretary for Elections, and Dennis Murira, Director of Elections. The three were detained for more than four hours at Harare Central Police Station where they were quizzed about their party’s intention to “cause mayhem in the city.”

by Michelle Chen
- USA -

Feb. 5th - Today marks Fat Tuesday in New Orleans and the most celebrated day of Mardi Gras festivities. As thousands of visitors flock to the city to celebrate, thousands more have yet to return home. - Ed.

• Despite demonstrations and resistance, the demolition of New Orleans' public housing continues. Photograph by
Mavis Yorks. •

Her home survived Hurricane Katrina, but it will crumble under the city’s plan to demolish low-income housing in the name of “redevelopment.”

To the 33 year-old single mother of three, the officials pushing to raze St. Bernard are carrying out disaster by design. “How could they just get away with it?” she asks.

The pending demolition of the St. Bernard, B.W. Cooper, C.J. Peete, and Lafitte projects has confirmed the fears of the city’s poorest, blackest, and hardest hit communities: that New Orleans’ “recovery” in the wake of the storm is built on the city’s old demons of racial and class strife.

by Susan Lavine
- USA -

Quoting from a historic speech given by Robert F. Kennedy during his visit to South Africa in 1966 to show solidarity with Martin Luther King and South Africa’s struggle for civil rights, Barack Obama brought his campaign to American University in Washington, DC. As Obama eloquently calmed the crowd he recited the words, “It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.”

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

In my last article I wrote that the situation here is so dire that many Zimbabweans, including myself, can now only pray for divine intervention to rid us of this dictator, Robert Mugabe.

Based on events that are currently unfolding, I think God may be answering our prayers in a way that we couldn’t have ever imagined!

I reported previously that by using former war veterans to help him garner support, Mugabe was "endorsed" as the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s (ZANU PF) candidate for the harmonized March elections.

Mugabe joined the presidential and parliamentary elections through a constitutional amendment. In previous years these two elections were held two years apart. When I vote in March I will drop two ballot papers: one for president and one for a legislator or member of parliament.

The “harmonization” is part of Mugabe’s exit plan; after these elections are held simultaneously, he can elect his trusted party members into ministerial posts and then retire. By doing so, Mugabe will have ensured that he will not be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.

by Roshi Pejhan
Community Outreach & Development, The WIP
- USA -

by Neeta Lal
- India -

While Benazir Bhutto’s tragic assassination has rudely jolted Pakistan – a country already torn asunder by political instability and terrorism – it has also had a strong resonance across all of Asia especially in India. As its immediate neighbor, India has always shared a volatile relationship with the Muslim nation.

What does Bhutto’s death really signify for India? For one, it will have far-reaching political ramifications. The death of Pakistan Peoples’ Party’s (PPP) charismatic leader, a frontrunner for the 2008 elections, will deal a severe blow to Indo-Pak peace talks. It will also mean a go-slow on bilateral talks on many key issues: like the Kashmir imbroglio, terrorism, the Siachen glacier - called the ultimate symbol in the dispute over Kashmir, and the much-needed strengthening of cultural ties between its people. None of these developments augur well for the sub-continent in these times of heightened political tension and unrest.

by Eva Sohlman
- Sweden -

Harold Bloom, Yale literature professor and cultural critic, is one of America’s most prominent and provocative intellectuals. Unabashedly, he has always spoken up for what he calls “the fight for truth and beauty” making a lot of foes in the process, but also some friends. As one of the first critical voices against the Bush administration and the war in Iraq, Bloom landed in the hot seat with the satire “MacBush” in 2004. Lately, he sparked worldwide outrage by calling Harry Potter “garbage”. Speaking at his home in New Haven where he is recovering from a recent health scare, a pale and weak Bloom seems to have symbolically embodied what he calls the “poor state of the nation”.

“I am 77 years old and I have never seen this country in such a bad state. It is madness. What we are seeing is the fall of the Roman Empire, only now it is the fall of America, the glory of our Empire. This war is what Parthya was to Rome.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

In Zimbabwe 2007 closed on a very sad note. December was a very eventful month: it was President Mugabe’s busiest and most desperate month, as he fought to stamp out the criticism of his leadership arising even from within his own party, in order to cling to power.

• In a desperate bid to maintain power, Mugabe coordinated a massive march aimed at intimidating his rivals. Photograph by Sibongile Mlilo. •

It required an “extraordinary special congress” in order for Mugabe to be able to be chosen to stand in the March 2008 election; however some within the party ranks were opposed to Mugabe’s re-election, while others supported his appointment.

Katharine Daniels
Founder & Executive Editor, The WIP
- USA -

Every year this nation’s priorities move further and further away from the concerns of the majority of American citizens, making daily life harder and harder. The prices we pay for housing, utilities, medications, transportation and food are all going up. Meanwhile, big business interests, profiting every time we lose, monopolize our policymakers’ attention. While companies boasting record profits are rewarded with tax breaks, ordinary citizens struggle each day to get basic needs met for themselves and their families.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

The movie, Atonement, is a heart-breaking love-story, a historical WWII saga. Without giving away the ending, which must be seen to be adequately felt, it tells the tale of two lovers’ lives irrevocably changed by false testimony against one of them - for a crime he did not commit. Thus, it’s also a condemnation of unreliable witnesses, the willingness of people to believe the worst, particularly of those in a lower economic-class, and the havoc that a false accusation and conviction can wreak upon human life. It’s a film and message that every judge, jury member, and prosecutor should see and consider before convicting or sentencing anyone accused of a crime.

by Nadezhda Banchik
- USA -

On December 3rd, Russia had yet another parliamentary election. Here in the US elections are a normal part of a citizen’s life and changes in power aren’t extraordinary, “revolutionary” events. Here no leader of a party who calls his opponents “enemies like hungry jackals seek[ing] money from foreign embassies” would even get elected; instead he would be regarded as crazy and dangerous.

• Massive banners declaring, "Moscow Votes with Putin!" were posted throughout the city's most trafficked areas during the elections. Photograph by Dusdin. •

Younger generations who didn’t live through the Cold War might not understand how damning the President’s message is.

I am from the Ukraine. I was raised during the Brezhnev era, when Russia and the Ukraine were unified; that Soviet Union was also deaf to dissenting voices. Then during Gorbachev’s turbulent Perestroyka (or “Rebuilding”), I witnessed new independent states emerging from the ashes of the old communist empire. I watched as the difficult but seemingly peaceful birth of the new Russian Federation unfolded. We hoped that it would not draw us into another apocalypse. I held my breath happily during the coup in August 1991 that eradicated what we hoped would be the last attempt of the old regime to regain power. And Boris Yeltsin reigned victorious as President of a new Russia. However, before long any opponent of his administration, whether at the local level or at the very top, was considered an “enemy” of the state who should be arrested. And “elections” only offered a single candidate who “ran” unopposed.

by Patricia Meehan Vásquez
Managing Editor, The WIP
- USA -

In 2006, what to Saudi society seemed a routine case settled in Sharia court, exploded into headlines of outrage, protest and disbelief across the globe. Qatif is a center of the very large Shia minority in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia, near where I lived for almost eight years. Most of Saudi practices the Wahhabi interpretation of Sunni Islam.

• Taken with a camera phone, public photography is banned in Saudi Arabia. Photograph by Majib. •

by Michelle Chen
- USA -

After spending years living in the homes of strangers, Andreah Moyer finally found her way back to her grandfather at the age of seventeen.

• Over half a million children are in foster care today, many of them shuttling from placement to placement. Photograph by Michael J. Fajardo. •

For her first eight years, Moyer’s grandparents helped raise her in rural Iowa. But her parents’ substance abuse eventually forced the household apart. Moyer and her two brothers were swept into the state’s foster care system, and she spent most of her adolescence isolated from her family. By the time she left foster care in her late teens, Moyer had bounced through more than 15 state-funded substitute homes.

After they reunited, her grandfather told her that throughout those years, her grandparents desperately wanted her back home again. But as a farm family living on a fixed income, they were convinced their hearts stretched beyond their means.

by Rose-Anne Clermont
- Germany -

BERLIN - Seventy years ago, every kernel of a German’s identity was accessible by the government; financial statements, personal correspondence, family and religious information remained unprotected and defenseless. Private was what could be hidden in an attic, in the lining of a coat, or quickly swallowed in desperation. The absence of data protection allowed for Nazi officials to easily pick apart its citizens and brand them with a star or deem them racially superior.

• Patriotic Way in Rostock, Germany. Photograph by Fabian Bromann. •

“There were some things we just didn’t say outside of our house,” remembers Barbara Boock, 73, of both regimes. “One never spoke about politics outside of the family.” Boock was born in a small eastern town outside of Jena, in 1934, a year after the Nazis came to power. Because her parents were Anthroposophist, (a spiritual philosophy known mostly for Waldorf schools and biodynamic agriculture) the family was scrutinized by the Nazis. “I remember coming home from school and watching the Gestapo storm through our house and take away all of our Anthroposophist books.”

by Susan Enuogbope Majekodunmi
- Nigeria -

Nigeria is an oil-rich country in West Africa also endowed with other mostly unexploited natural resources, such as coal and tin, iron ore and other valuable minerals. Colonized by the British, their influence is still evident in many ways; an obvious legacy is that Nigeria’s official language is English. Nigeria gained its independence on October 1st 1960 and was initially ruled by democratically elected officials. However, from 1966 to 1999, the country was ruled by military dictators who seized power in coups d'état; the only exception was a short-lived second republic from 1979-1983. Upon assuming power, each democratic or military government has promised reforms, but none ever delivers. This roller coaster ride of regimes has allowed widespread corruption to flourish and has created both political and economic instability, and as a result many people have chosen to build a better life elsewhere.

by Aralena Malone-Leroy
France

When in 2002 President Jacques Chirac resuscitated a proposal for the creation of a museum of immigration, he was honoring an unpopular dream that had been in gestation for nearly 15 years. First proposed in 1989 by Zaïr Kedadouche, a second-generation Algerian municipal councilman, with support from a small group of historians, the project was considered too politically risky by then-President François Mitterand. Almost ten years later, in 1998, riding high on the euphoria of France’s post-World Soccer Cup win, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin tried to renew interest in the project, even recruiting representatives from the Human Rights League and various public officials to launch a proposal for a site - but the initiative stalled and faded again.

By Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

I am always left cursing and depressed and angry after covering assignments where I meet with People Living With HIV and AIDS. (We call them PLWAs here.)

• Weighing only 90 pounds when she began antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, this woman has benefitted greatly from both the New Life Support Group as well as ARVs. She now weighs a healthy 132 pounds. Photograph courtesy of PSI-Zimbabwe. •

I know almost everyone's "story", including deep secrets they say they never have and never will tell anyone else. I am invited to their private family parties; they ask me to cover their support group functions. They even phone to update me on their health; when they are too sick to call me, they ask their relatives or spouses to do it on their behalf.

I always listen, comfort, offer advice and help where I can; I have become very close to many people affected by AIDS. I appreciate the fact that they trust me that much. And I love talking to them. But when these " friends" confide in me, they usually have problems and depressing news.

Often I am left stressed, because I cannot help. This special community of friends all know I have no financial means to help them, being the underpaid journalist that I am. They know that I, too, struggle to make ends meet in this harsh economic environment that is Zimbabwe.

What is my life like? I have chosen to work for the so-called independent press. Supposedly I am playing a very crucial part in writing the history of Zimbabwe. Yet I live on less than $0.43 USD a day! Here is how I calculate this $0.43 USD cents per day: it’s very simple. I currently earn a salary of Z$13 million a month. When divided by 30 days in a month, this means that I earn $43 USD per month!

by Louise Belfrage
News Editor, The WIP
Argentina

• Flag of Argentina. Centered in the white band is a radiant yellow sun with a human face known as the Sun of May. Courtesy of CIA World Factbook. •

True, but nonetheless, the always-crowded Plaza de Mayo was empty that night. No one was there except for the usual scores of doves flying about.

by Katharine Daniels
Executive Editor, The WIP
USA

On Monday afternoon Managing Editor Patricia Vásquez and I changed gears and filmed seven questions The WIP wants answered by the next President of The United States. Reporting to you from behind a camera is something I will certainly have to get used to, but nonetheless these powerful questions coming from Bahrain, Malawi, Argentina, Germany, Zimbabwe and the USA get to the heart of the US policies that matter most to the international community.

by Suad Hamada
Bahrain

Women’s empowerment apparently clashes with the not-so-hidden agendas of Kuwaiti and Bahraini parliamentarians. Dirty politics have resulted in the recent resignation of the first two female ministers ever to join the cabinets in either country.

In Kuwait, Health Minister Dr. Massouma Saleh Al Mubarak resigned shortly after being grilled by the parliament over irregularities in her ministry, as well as about a fire that broke out in a public hospital that caused the death of one patient and injuries to others. Last month in Bahrain, Health Minister Dr. Nada Haffadh resigned over conflicts and arguments with Shiite Conservative MP Mohammed Al Mizal so heated that they made newspaper headlines.

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 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 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 Jessica Mosby
USA

In an admirable effort to contribute to the dialogue on what to do to save the planet, Leonardo DiCaprio has recently released a documentary film, The 11th Hour, which he produced and narrates. However, if you are already feeling overwhelmed by the world’s problems and suffering, you probably shouldn’t see it. It might push you over the proverbial edge as surely as if you were a polar bear slipping unexpectedly off a melting glacier!

• Image courtesy of Warner Independent Pictures •

One problem is The 11th Hour’s narrative structure, or lack thereof: it is painfully short on the pizzazz needed to take environmentalism from the grassroots of individual action to an international movement. Instead, one expert pops up briefly on the screen (name, title, and credentials are dutifully noted) to lecture for a few minutes while seated in front of a black wall, then the film cuts to the next expert, and then the next. Occasionally the monotony of “expert” footage is broken up by cutting to montages of very basic news reels set to a musical score; at other times, digitally drawn diagrams appear, imposed next to an expert’s head to illustrate their points.

by Kelly Vásquez
USA

I have always been deeply affected and influenced by music. Depending on my mood, I happily switch between drastically varying genres, but from age six when I first heard Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong deftly banter back and forth at one another, I was hooked on jazz.

• A vintage sign from America's past. Photograph courtesy of The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia •

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

As I write this piece, a soldier is in critical condition at the army hospital after residents from the notorious suburb, Mufakose attacked him and three of his colleagues for "harassing innocent civilians". It’s another manifestation of what everyone in this country knows: Robert Mugabe has for all intents and purposes succeeded in turning the Zimbabwean army and police against their own people. Effectively, the police and the military have become extensions of his arms.

• Dzivarasekwa residents step over raw sewage leaking from unrepaired pipes. Photograph by the Combined Harare Residents Association. •

The police and army attack women and children who sell their wares to earn a living. Confiscating their goods, they charge that the women are conducting businesses in "undesignated" locations, yet the government destroyed these "legal" vending areas during Operation Murambatsvina! (To find out more, read Constance's article on Operation Murambatsvina)

The police and army have been known to disrupt demonstrations and protests - they are not ashamed to even beat up women with children on their backs. The unlucky ones arrested at these demonstrations are denied food and water, medical care and access to legal representation. When human rights lawyers seek their release, they are either chased away from the police stations or threatened with arrest themselves.

by Vera von Kreutzbruck
Germany/Argentina

• Sept 12 - Austria: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner meets with Austrian chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer. •

by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

• Anti-Estrada protestors in 2001. Photograph by Imelda V. Abaño. •

The court found Mr. Estrada guilty of plunder - a capital offense - in a 262-page decision, though the former president will avoid the death penalty as it was recently abolished. He was acquitted of the perjury charges that alleged he had falsely declared his assets.

by Jessica Mosby
USA

• Image courtesy of IFC •

The documentary film, The Devil Came on Horseback, which is currently playing across the United States, spends 85 minutes answering that very question. The film is pure humanitarian propaganda: a call-to-action to stop the killing and displacement of innocent people.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

• Harare, Zimbabwe.
Photograph by Gary Bembridge. •

The new legislation grants the president the right to intercept any communications he considers necessary to protect "the interests of national security or the maintenance of law and order".

by Patricia Vásquez
Managing Editor, The WIP
USA

• Haleh Esfandiari. Photograph courtesy of the WWICS •

The outlook was grim. That day, Sharon McCarter, communications director of the Woodrow Wilson Center declared, “We are extremely dismayed about Haleh’s situation, and our concerns about her health and mental well-being have only increased as weeks of captivity have stretched into months. A renowned scholar and a tireless advocate for greater dialogue between Iran and the United States, Haleh has committed no crimes.”

by Faye Anderson
USA

Every hour sees the black man elbowed out of employment by some newly arrived emigrant, whose hunger and whose color are thought to give him a better title to the place.

- Frederick Douglass (1853)

• Photograph by Tony Warren •

Why? Jobs.

A new report by the Center for Labor Research and Education at UC-Berkeley confirms that more than half of black workers are employed in low-wage, dead-end jobs. The report, “Job Quality and Black Workers: An Examination of the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York,” looks at black employment rates. While the full report is embargoed until Labor Day, its findings include:

by Louise Belfrage
News Editor, The WIP
Sweden

Yesterday, August 8th, was an auspicious date, symbolically, for China – it was one year to the day before the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Unfortunately, a well known and extremely effective activist and frequent spokesperson for the Tibetan independence movement, Lhadon Tethong, the Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet International, was detained by the Chinese authorities on undetermined charges. She had been in China for only six days while covering the human rights situation at the one-year run-up to the Olympic Games.

• Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet, gives a speech in New York City on March 10th, 2007. Photo courtesy of Students for a Free Tibet. •

By the third day of her stay, her blog had become increasingly popular, especially in Tibet, where many saw her visit to China as courageous and inspiring: she was putting her own freedom at risk for the cause of Tibet. Before being detained, Ms. Tethong had said, “The Olympics is an opportunity to push China for change, and it’s our responsibility to take the mask off the face of the Beijing regime.”

At first, the Chinese authorities had ordered only a few security officers to follow Tethong, but by the 5th day there were up to 30 plain clothes “minders” (aka plain clothes security agents) as well as vehicles following her every step.

Tethong had reported on the action that took place on the morning of August 8th at the Great Wall: the hanging of a “Free Tibet” banner by six international activists. She began her coverage of the arrests by saying, “I am at a loss for words. This morning, six amazing people of conscience risked their lives to defend the Tibetan people.” These six -- three Americans, two Canadians and one British citizen -- were detained after two hours, on charges that they threatened national security. The whereabouts of the six activists are still unknown.

by Patricia Vásquez and Katharine Daniels
The WIP

On August 7, 2007, The WIP, in its Byline Portal, linked to an outstanding and shocking article, “The Black Sites: A rare look inside the C.I.A.’s secret interrogation program” by Jane Mayer, a reporter for The New Yorker. Mayer conducted a “major investigative report” amassing interview after interview with C.I.A. analysts and interrogators, with professors, journalists, and Washington insiders. Despite the Bush Administration’s repeated declarations that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed divulged information of tremendous value during his detention, she concludes that the CIA and the US government have been lying both about many of their “successes” in uncovering terrorist networks and crimes, and have been lying to hide the degree to which they have tortured detainees. What a shock.

It’s hard to say which are the most surprising revelations in Mayer’s report. Several of the experts she cites have serious doubts as to whether the notorious captured terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed actually is guilty of killing murdered American journalist Daniel Pearl -- even though Condoleezza Rice herself told Mariane Pearl in 2003 that Mohammed had confessed not only to masterminding that crime, but to the actual beheading of her husband.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

Hopefully, readers may remember the piece I wrote for The WIP in May 2007 about prominent Zimbabwean playwright Cont Mhlanga, and the premiere of his most recent and controversial play yet, “The Good President.” The play had opened in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital and largest city, on April 12, to good crowds. While theatre buffs praised it as a highly entertaining play which was admirable for calling for the society to take the moral high ground, its plot certainly provoked serious debate.

To quote myself from the May article, the play kicks off with a scene in a police station where two police officers are assaulting the leader of an opposition party, acted by a look-alike of Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe’s strongest opposition, Movement for Democratic Change.

In addition to beating him up, they search his pockets and steal all his money and leave him for dead. And it goes on from there.

by Andrea Benedict
USA

In these past few days since the sudden collapse of the I-35W bridge, the citizens in Minneapolis, Minnesota have experienced panic, shock and perhaps most of all, anger. The yet-to-be-determined death toll hangs like an eerie cloud over our city. Right now, patience is running thin, very thin.

• Earlier photo of the I-35W bridge. Photograph by Dan Schultz •

As we individually and collectively try to find meaning in this event, there are still so many unanswered questions.

When this eight-lane, 1,900-foot (579 m), heavily-trafficked bridge over the Mississippi River went down, luckily, I was still at work. Normally, I wouldn’t have said being stuck at work made me feel lucky, but mundane hold-ups saved a lot of people from being on the bridge at that time.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

In 2003, gender activists from the Zimbabwe Women Writers group published a book entitled A Tragedy of Lives: Women in Prison in Zimbabwe. It revealed shocking human rights abuses in the country’s prison system.

Irene Staunton, publisher of the Weaver Press of Zimbabwe, not only published but also co-edited the book with Chiedza Musengezi, a founding member and director of Zimbabwe Women Writers. (Musengezi also co-edited other compilations of women’s voices, such as Women of Resilience and Women Writing Africa.)

The distinguished Weaver Press, which publishes books from and about southern Africa on political and social history, the environment, media issues, and women’s and children’s rights, among other things, works closely with the award-winning James Currey Publishers in the UK. Currey Publishers won the 2000 American Sociological Association’s Special Achievement Award for “the most extensive and impressive Africanist list in print.” In short, the Weaver Press keeps good company.

The Zimbabwe Women Writers expected that once A Tragedy of Lives: Women in Prison in Zimbabwe was published, it would cause a huge outcry that would surely result in prison reform. But nothing of the sort happened. The book wasn’t even reviewed, because newspaper publishers feared political prosecution because the findings in the book were so sensitive.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

• A woman cries amongst her possessions. Photograph by Fidelis Zvomuya. •

At just about this time of year in 2005, I traveled to Bindura on assignment to observe first-hand the devastating effects of Robert Mugabe’s Operation Murambatsvina. Officially known as “Operation Restore Order,” but directly translated as “Operation Drive Out the Filth,” it wreaked havoc, leaving millions of the urban and rural poor homeless or destitute.

by Patricia Vásquez
Managing Editor, The WIP
USA

• Haleh Esfandiari. Photograph courtesy of the WWICS •

The would-be documentary claims it demonstrates the “confessions” of Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, Director of the Wilson Center’s Middle East Program and her fellow Iranian-American, New York-based social scientist Kian Tajbakhsh. The program featured blurry footage of revolutions in progress in Eastern Europe; only snatches of the two prisoners’ voices could be heard.

by Patricia Vásquez
Managing Editor, The WIP
USA

An incredible story broke worldwide on Tuesday, July 17, 2007:

• Haleh Esfandiari. Photograph courtesy of the WWICS •

Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh both spoke in Farsi and appeared to be in homes or offices. Esfandiari was sitting, wearing typical Islamic clothing - a black headscarf that completely covered her hair, and what appeared to be the traditional black cloak called a chador.

by María Suárez Toro
Costa Rica/Puerto Rico

On the one hand, the Republicans currently have - due to Bush’s performance - the lowest level of popularity they have had in a long time. So much so that it would not be an exaggeration to think that a Republican candidate stands little chance in the 2008 elections. The image of Republicans in government is not popular.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

“When elephants fight, it is the grass which suffers.” – African Proverb

When this program was launched, the Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr David Parirenyatwa, openly admitted that his government had no resources to expand. Rather, Zimbabwe was counting on the assistance of the international donor community to provide more people with the ARV treatment.

Katharine Daniels
Executive Editor, The WIP
USA

On the 29th of June The WIP posted a link to Anti-Americanism Hits New Record in Turkey from Today’s Zaman, an online Turkish newspaper. Apparently Turks now dislike the United States more than any other country in the world. A report from The Pew Global Attitudes Project documented that today only 2 percent of Turkish respondents had a favorable opinion of US President George W. Bush’s foreign policy, despite the fact that only five years ago 52 percent were supporters of The United States. This is in Turkey, a US ally and a member of NATO!

by Suad Hamada
Bahrain

by María Suárez Toro
Costa Rica/Puerto Rico

Millions of tourists have visited Costa Rica, affectionately know as “ticolandia,” for decades, attracted to it largely because its protection of both its lush forest and coastal areas means it offers inviting, pristine beaches and unique natural beauty.

But the pending US elections may result in changes that could affect our country very profoundly, with very negative effects.

Call of the Wild

Costa Rica is what you might call a species in threat of extinction by CAFTA agreements. The majority of people in Costa Rica have become protectionists of the rare species of government and life that we have, which is now actively being eaten away at by some of its own as well as by outsiders: the pressure of the US Administration, multinational corporations and the local elites with close links to both.

by Lelety Mabasa
- Zimbabwe -

Reeling under severe economic hardships which have earned it the world's highest monthly inflation rate, Zimbabwe is to be dealt yet another blow as far as foreign investment is concerned. The impending disaster will take the form of the enactment of the controversial “National Indigenization and Empowerment Bill.”

• Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe. Photograph by Christopher T. Snow •

All foreign investors seeking to invest in Zimbabwe will be made to seek joint ventures and partnerships with black Zimbabwean business people. According to President Robert Mugabe's government, “they cannot continue holding controlling stake” in the country's enterprises. The government is also planning to use the National Indigenization and Empowerment Fund to mobilize resources and provide loans to new aspiring black business tycoons.

by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

TORONTO - “What has happened to me can never be undone!”

• Maher Arar addressing journalists in Toronto. Photograph by Imelda V. Abaño •

Even after five years, even after being officially cleared by a prolonged government study, Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen and telecommunications engineer from Ottawa, still carries the pain.

Maher Arar became an innocent victim caught up in the little-publicized US policy known as "extraordinary rendition" - a covert practice of sending terror suspects to third countries for detention and interrogation.

In September 2002, he cut short a family vacation in response to a request to report back to work in Montreal. Then, at New York’s JFK Airport, he was stopped by US officials. To his astonishment, he was interrogated about his supposed links to terrorists. But things quickly worsened. He was then transported to Syria, where for ten months he was physically and mentally tortured.

by Bia Assevero
USA/France

Nicolas Sarkozy’s election to the French presidency last May 6th, signals that the French people

That is the thing about Nicolas Sarkozy. He is a love-him or hate-him kind of guy and there is little, if any middle ground. He is a Machiavellian character; expediency may as well be his middle name. He is aggressive and brash, and political correctness is not high on his list of priorities.

Anyone who doubts that need only remember that during the 2005 riots in Paris’s poorer suburbs, he referred to those neighborhoods as slaughterhouses that need to be hosed down to rid the country of the racailles. In English, that word translates to “scum,” but in French it carries an even more negative connotation. It was a shocking statement to many French people, but Sarkozy stood by it, never once appearing remotely repentant.

by Remi Adeoye
Nigeria

As early as 5am, a very young boy named Tunji is awake. At eleven years old he knows what it means when one says, “no work - no pay”. Searching under the two shirts he uses as a pillow, he pulls out a sachet of pure water and uses it to rinse out his mouth quickly. He uses the rest to wash his face and he is ready to go. Even without a wristwatch, Tunji instinctively knows he hasn’t spent more than 10 minutes getting ready for work.

From under the Ikeja bridge, which serves as his home, he walks as quickly as his little legs will carry him to the park hoping to find work for the day. He gets there just in time to displace another boy two years older than him. Lucky once again, Tunji has secured money for the day as a contracted conductor on a commercial bus. After a whole day’s work, he is only entitled to 500 Naira (US $3.99). But for Tunji, the meager amount makes his portion of daily bread and survival possible.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

On March 30, 2007 Zimbabwean journalists here woke up to sad and disturbing news: Edward Chikomba, a former cameraman with the government-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (the country’s only television station), had been abducted from his home by state security agents.

The circumstances of his abduction were chilling. According to his brother, unknown assailants had arrived at the journalist’s house in the capital, Harare, the day before, on March 29. They hit him savagely on the mouth with rifle butts in full view of neighbors, then threw him into an unmarked vehicle. In a desperate attempt to save him, Edward’s brother ran after the vehicle, but he could not catch it, stumbled and fell hard on the tarmac.

We had every reason to worry about Chikomba’s safety. Edward’s abduction occurred just two weeks after police had disrupted a scheduled prayer meeting organized by a Christian opposition organization known as the Save Zimbabwe Campaign in Harare.

by D-L Nelson
France

Geneva, Switzerland - “The chair is back,” Geneva residents are saying to each other.

The Broken Chair

The simple brown wooden chair would look good at any dining room table if it were of normal size and if it had four instead of three and a quarter legs. The fourth leg is broken off, leaving shards of jagged wood, yet the chair does not tip.

by Imelda Abaño
Philippines

On May 14, 2007, as the Philippines is scheduled for national elections.

For this year's general mid-term elections, 87,000 candidates are running for 17,000 national and local positions, which include all of the 250 seats in the House of Representatives and half of the 24 Senate seats. All of course are wooing the women's votes as half of the estimated 40 million voters are women.

In short, the absence of the women's votes is really a big factor considering that there are more women registered voters than men and considering that there is always a higher female voters' turnout than the male counterpart.

It was 70 years ago when over 400,000 women in the Philippines voted for the first time in an election that eventually paved the way for their participation in government.

Since then Filipino women have always been an important electoral force.

by Victoria Aitken / photography by Piera Constantini Scala
- UK -

Inspired by her friend Piera's lost heritage, writer Victoria Aitken traveled to Western Sahara to understand more about the plight of a people ousted from their land.

The mineral-rich region of Western Sahara, on the northwest coast of Africa between Morocco and Mauritania, was occupied by Morocco (and initially, by Mauritania) after the Spanish, her original colonizers, left. Despite the International Court of Justice’s ruling in 1975 that Western Sahara should not be immune to the rules of decolonization, no other country has stood up to Morocco or tried to make her back out of Western Sahara, or even denounced the construction of a 1500-kilometre fortified wall. No one talks about a wall that divides every Saharawi refugee family from their relatives and friends in the occupied parts of Western Sahara.

by Katharine Daniels
Executive Editor, The WIP
USA

For The WIP’s first article of the 2008 United States election season, I am dedicating this piece to three of the underrepresented voices in American politics: Women, African Americans, and Latinos.

In the United States women make up half the population, nearly 42 million Latinos are residents, and it has been over 135 years since the Fifteenth Amendment gave African Americans the vote. Yet we still have never had a President from any minority group.

I sat among delegates and the press listening to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, and Denis Kucinich appeal for support. I was pleased to hear both a local and a global message from each candidate.

I wonder if such candidates can change politics through the introduction of a new perspective, a perspective that develops from the bottom-up versus the traditional top-down power structure we are so used to in the United States.

The WIP has invited each campaign to submit stories about their candidates introducing them to our readers worldwide.*

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

Zimbabwean theatre lovers have had something to talk about for the past two weeks. Cont Mhlanga's riveting new play, The Good President, premiered here in Harare, Zimbabwe, on April 12.

This politically charged satire, written and directed by Zimbabwe's most controversial playwright, summarizes the country’s 30 years against British colonial rule, focusing specifically on events leading to Zimbabwe's independence. It goes on to highlight what has happened in the 27 years since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980. All in one tight hour of compelling action.

The play kicks off with a scene in a police station where two police officers are assaulting the leader of an opposition party, acted by a look-alike of Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe’s strongest opposition, Movement for Democratic Change.

In addition to beating him up, they search his pockets and steal all his money and leave him for dead. One of the police officers, Wangu, who had been shown in a previous scene sadly telling his girlfriend that he had no money to meet her demands, is suddenly ready to finance all of her requests.

These events bounce back to haunt Wangu when his grandmother comes to the city for an eye treatment. In one of their many conversations, Wangu is told that his father, himself a former leader of the opposition, was murdered by state agents during the 1983 Gukurahundi, the civil war that erupted in Zimbabwe soon after independence between two ethnic groups—the Shona and the Ndebele.

by Susan Mwape
Zambia

According to a Zimbabwean Proverb, even the smallest bird can sing from the tallest tree.

Zambian Irene Banda, a 25 year old social activist, scooped up the Sheila McKechnie 2007 International Campaigner Award. Irene first got involved in campaign work in 2002, when her organization conducted research on how government funds to all constituencies in the country were being used. This fund is called the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and, as the name suggests, it is supposed to be used for developing the local constituencies’ social setup. From their research in selected communities of Zambia, it was found out that some of the local citizens were not even aware that such a fund existed, must less what it was actually used for. After the research was performed, Irene’s role was to go round talking to people in focus group discussions, in an effort to find out if people had access to these funds, if they knew the funds existed and how the funds should be used to develop their communities. This took a lot of work on the ground and gave Irene her first experience in campaigning for social justice.

In 2003, Irene joined the Big Noise campaign spearheaded by Oxfam International, working alongside 300 other volunteers to collect over a million signatures. It was during this campaign that she was able to meet key political and traditional leaders in selected areas of the country that she felt were influential to further spread the message of the trade justice campaign.

by Sarah Hurd
USA

Like most Americans, I did not know that the District of Columbia, our nation’s capitol, does not have full voting rights. To make matters worse, the United States is the ONLY democratic country in the world that has such an arrangement (which is in direct violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by Congress in 1992). This is one of the many reasons why the League of Women Voters has designated Washington D.C. Voting Rights as one of its priority issues this year, and is diligently working to educate and advocate on its behalf.

So what does this really mean? I can hear you ask. Plainly put, it means D.C. gets no votes in the Senate or the House. It also means that Congress has exclusive authority over D.C.’s local budget, and can annul laws it passes. Additionally, Washington D.C. does not have control over its local judiciary and prison systems; the President oversees them and appoints the judges.

At its core, the residents of our nation’s capitol live in a state of “taxation without representation.” They pay one of the highest per capita federal income taxes in the country, fight in America’s wars, serve on juries, and yet still do not have full voting representation.

by Susan Mwape
Zambia

Since last month, the Lusaka City Council (LCC) has been demolishing illegal settlements in the City of Lusaka. The City Council has earmarked even more area to be razed despite the pleas by the residents to formalize these areas.

The ongoing demolition has left a good number of people in the city homeless, as most of the people whose homes have been destroyed say they were not given notice. Youths have cried foul over this exercise by the City Council. They have argued that it is the council’s poor planning that has caused the mushrooming of illegal settlements.

“The best the council can do is to legalise these settlements instead of demolishing and leaving people homeless,” said Theresa from the Bauleni Compound in Lusaka.

According to Charles of the Youth Knowledge Network, the council should start by demolishing the bars that have risen in a number of townships within Lusaka. He said it has become normal for bar owners to open their bars as early as 5 am and go until way after midnight.

“How come the council is failing to demolish these bars that are a hazard to the youth and school going children?” Charles asked.

by Louise Belfrage
News Editor, The WIP
Argentina

Buenos Aires, April 10th - On April 4th, Argentine public school teachers in the provincial capital of Neuquén, the largest city in Patagonia, held a rally for higher salaries, demanding more than their current pay of 1000-1200 pesos (USD 300-360) a month. A raise of 24% had been offered by the federal government, which the workers had taken as an insult.

During police intervention of this non-peaceful protest, a chemistry teacher, Carlos Fuentealba, was killed when he was hit in the head by a tear gas cartridge.

The following day, approximately 30 thousand people were mobilized into the streets of Neuquén, surrounding the federal government building and demanding the resignation of Governor Jorge Sobisch, accusing him of murder.

Demonstrations and public protests are commonplace in Argentina. They are always noisy, often aggressive, and seldom successful. In an election year such as 2007, they are also of great political importance.

by Glory Mushinge
Zambia

The procrastination of government over the enactment of the Freedom of Information Bill (FOIB), which gives the public and journalists free access to public information, has ignited concern, with some members of the judiciary and parliament joining the media in fighting for the bill’s passing.

by Glory Mushinge
Zambia

Africa recently hosted the World Social Forum, which was held in Nairobi, Kenya from the 20th to 25th of January.

Like always, the preparations towards this event, like with many other events like this, carried so much excitement, and a lot of work and money was spent in order to carry out the event successfully.

However, despite whatever expectation one would have had about this, it was no different from past social fora. We heard the same enchantments and themes about problems and issues we have heard about in the past. It was the same people making similar presentations, with new presenters only adding their voices to similar concerns.

by Esther Nakkazi
Uganda

Upon taking office in January, Ban Ki-Moon, the new UN Secretary General, announced that he would appoint a woman as the second in command at the UN Secretariat. That his appointment turned out to be East African activist, a woman, and someone outside of the UN system, was a pleasant surprise.

by Suad Hamada
Bahrain

Women come as second or third priority to the Parliament in Bahrain as MPs consider them to be weak voters. This is the case even though 148,000 women participated in the parliamentary and municipal election in 2006 from a total of 295,000 voters. MPs and election candidates don’t take them seriously as they believe that they are influenced by their male relatives.

by Pilirani Semu-Banda
Malawi

Last Christmas Eve, just days before Hilary Clinton announced her intentions to run for the US presidency, a woman parliamentarian in Malawi, Loveness Gondwe, also indicated her intentions to run in the 2009 presidential elections in her small southern African country.

by Halima Abdallah Kisule
Kampala, Uganda

Kenya, however, may not be a safe haven for the warriors as a similar disarmament exercise is taking place. Both Kenya and Uganda maintain liaison officers in each other’s countries.

Sudan, which is a big source of guns, is not yet on board. That is why Uganda’s Minister of Defense plans to meet his Sudanese counterpart soon to address the issue of Toposa who cross the border to raid in Uganda. The two ministers will also talk about the gun market inside Sudan.

by Sharon Njobo
Zimbabwe

Sibongile Ncube wakes up earlier than usual today. She has a busy day ahead of her.

This 35 year-old mother of four looks way older than Oprah’s 50 years. Her husband is cycling to the industrial site one hour away as his earnings can’t afford him the luxury of a bus or taxi commute. Her two primary school children have only have thin cornmeal porridge for breakfast. She waves goodbye at them saddened, as she knows she may not see them for another day or two.

By Halima Abdallah Kisule
Kampala, Uganda

The ongoing disarmament process in Karamoja has taken a nasty turn as Karachunas (warriors) are engaging the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) soldiers in battle, escalating an already bad security situation in the region.

For a long time, the warriors furthered illegal gun trafficking with weapons sourced from Sudan and Kenya. They also engaged in cattle rustling, looting, ambushes, and the killings and raping of women within and outside Karamoja, ultimately sending thousands of people in the neighboring areas within Uganda into displacement for the past 20 years.