by Sarah Lyall, New York Times, USA - The writer Carol Ann Duffy was appointed Britain’s poet laureate on Friday, becoming the first woman to take a 341-year-old job that has been held by, among others, Dryden, Tennyson, Wordsworth, Cecil Day-Lewis and Ted Hughes.
by Katie Hamann, Asia Calling, Indonesia - Smoking rates in Indonesia have increased significantly in recent years, placing the nation on a par with India and China as the nations with the highest smoking rates.
by Amrita Nandy-Joshi, Counter Currents, India - Across the globe, women’s rights have been gained after years of political and social struggles. Yet these treaties are easily disregarded by the State as well as fundamentalists, both invoking local customs and religion, which really are the founts of patriarchal norms.
by Alisha Ryu, Voice of America, USA - A pledge by donor nations last week to provide more than $200 million to enhance security in Somalia is being hailed by some, criticized by others.
by Audrey Mbugua, Pambazuka, Kenya - You don’t have to be a transsexual person to understand the injustices transsexual people get subjected to.
by Michelle Chen, Race Wire, USA - The Indigenous People’s Global Summit on Climate Change called for holistic solutions to global warming, democratic grassroots participation in environmental policy-making, and protection of social and cultural rights.
by Dahlia Lithwick, Slate, USA - One way to think about the quest for racial equality in voting in America is to liken it to a long and arduous car trip.
by Nosheen Abbas, Dawn, Pakistan - In Pakistan one out of six women of age 15-19 is already married.
by Laura Carlsen, Americas Mexico Blog, Mexico - Mexico’s grand experiment in sink or swim neoliberalism included privatization and erosion of health systems and basic services. “The notorious delay in the response of the federal government can be attributed in part to the decentralization of healthcare promoted by international finance institutions such as the World Bank."
by Anne S. Walker, IPS, Italy - Fiji, a multi-racial, multi-cultural country of 300 islands in the South Pacific, has undergone another coup - the fourth in 22 years. The women of Fiji want their voices to be heard as they work on ways to bring peace back to their country, and they are asking for the United Nations to support their efforts.
by Naomi Wolf, Guardian, UK - The sudden clamour to prosecute the CIA operatives who carried out waterboarding is the height of hypocrisy.
by Golnaz Esfandiari, Radio Liberty, Czech Republic - For many observers, Roxana Saberi has become a victim of the contentious relations between Tehran and Washington. Some have described her as a political pawn used by the Iranian hard-liners to sabotage U.S. President Barack Obama's efforts toward engagement with Iran.
by Breda O'Brien, Irish Times, Ireland - Pornography has been mainstreamed. Slippers for three- year-old girls bear the Playboy logo. Anything goes. Is it any wonder, then, that buying sex has become virtually acceptable, “so long as it is everyone’s free choice”?
by Laura Flanders, Grit TV, USA - Imagine if we'd declared an Economic Health Emergency after Enron, and the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and the collapse and devaluation of the Russian ruble?
by Marnie Chesterton, Radio Netherlands, Netherlands - The IJsselmeer is a feat of Dutch engineering. The largest lake in Western Europe, it was created by building the Afsluitdijk, a dyke closing off a vast expanse of water from the North Sea. It is also a huge source of untapped energy that can provide energy for thousands of homes without damaging the environment.
by Shirley Genga, The Standard, Kenya - When Anne Nzilani got into the beadwork industry, she had one goal — to transform the lives of marginalised producers, especially women, from a life of abject poverty to that of economic prosperity and social fulfilment.
by Allison Malecha, Janera, USA - The cruise industry is no small affair. Despite the global economic crisis, cruise lines are projected to attract 13.5 million passengers this year – up 2 percent from 2008. There is no shortage of vacationers willing to forsake environmental awareness for a week of fun out on the Caribbean blue.
by Emma Graham-Harrison, Reuters, UK - Shi'ite farm women in a remote Afghan valley shrugged off a new law that has created an international uproar about their rights, saying it largely reflects the reality of lives governed by their husbands.
by Danielle Chubb, On Line Opinion, Australia - People smuggling is not a security dilemma. It is a humanitarian challenge.
by Shona Bhattacharyya, France 24, France - Twenty-three years ago, 4,000 people died after one of the reactors of Chernobyl's atomic plant exploded. A new steel sarcophagus, built in part by French company Bouygues, is due to cover the damaged reactor in 2012.
by Frida Ghitis, Miami Herald, USA - You don't need to care about Israel or agree with its policies to see the missed opportunities caused by the anti-Israel obsession.
by Christina Lamb, The Times, UK - Attending a reading and writing class like this one could end in mutilation or murder for Afghan women — and simply leaving their homes could mean death.
