I've just learned about a very important training offered by The Center for Partnership Studies. This exciting program directly relates to The WIP’s goal of helping to build a more just and sustainable world. The REAL WEALTH COMMUNITY PRESENTERS PROGRAM is a free training for volunteers who want to create the major grassroots "mind shift" urgently needed at this critical time.

Drawing from The WIP’s Advisory Board member Riane Eisler's groundbreaking book, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics, the training is modeled directly on the highly successful design used in Al Gore's Climate Change Project. The goal is to have an enthusiastic, well informed cadre of presenters who will engage their various communities in lively discussion about an economic system that gives real visibility and value to the work of caring for people -- the work stereotypically done by women for little or no pay -- and the work of caring for nature.

The Center for Partnership Studies is a 501(c)3 organization founded by Riane Eisler, and was developed by Alene Moris, nationally recognized trainer and consultant, and Cheryn Weiser and Sara Saltee from Strategic Learning Resources. The training will take place in Seattle, Washington from the evening of November 6th through midday November 8th, 2009.

This is a chance to make a difference -- and engage others to do the same! Space is limited to the first 100 applicants accepted. For more information and to access the application, click here.

Please apply now as the deadline is September 15th.

California’s recent budget stalemate is nothing new to our state. In fact, it’s been happening for years and is the result of an ineffective state requirement of more than a simple majority to pass budgets. California’s two-thirds majority rule produces a drawn out circus of negotiations that lawmakers have forced us to endure nearly every year for the past 32 years. Education suffers annually from the instability and uncertainty of this process and is usually on the chopping block when Democrats make concessions to Republicans in order to win their votes - this year $11.6 billion was cut. Without a better system to pass a budget, how can we hope to address the education problems facing our state?

This year California’s stalemate was record breaking. On Friday, February 19th, lawmakers finally agreed on a combination of tax increases, spending cuts, and borrowing to eliminate California’s $41 billion dollar budget gap - after nearly a week of political horse trading in Sacramento. In the Senate, the two-thirds majority was finally reached after Democrats made adequate concessions to Senate Republican, Abel Maldonado. Maldonado joined two Republican colleagues and the Democrats to hit the needed threshold. In the end, California got a budget that resolves the shortfall but at the expense of crippling cuts pushed by the minority in order to break the stalemate. According to State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O’Connell, the recent budget “essentially transfers our state cash flow problem to local schools and districts.”

Proponents of the two-thirds majority claim it is a necessary safeguard so the minority party is not irrelevant to the budget process. But what does that say about our Democracy? What about the will of the people and the candidates we vote for to represent us at the state level?

Our current system essentially tells California voters that although you elect your representatives, the minority party actually knows better than the voter what is right for California. It is a system that dilutes the power of our elected officials who are in the majority. As it currently stands, Democrats have majorities in both the state Assembly and Senate. They are prohibited, however, from passing a budget without at least a few Republican votes in both houses. Since Democrats and Republicans have very different ideas about what’s best for California, shouldn’t it be that if Republicans want a louder voice, they must win more support from Californians for their way of doing business?

The final budget wasn’t particularly palatable to either Democrats or Republicans. According to Karen Bass, Democratic Speaker of the California State Assembly, who spoke with Rachel Maddow on the eve of the final passage, “California is ready to go over a cliff and that will happen tomorrow because tomorrow, 276 more projects, which will lead to tens of thousands of people being put out of work, will be called to a halt tomorrow if we don’t get that one Republican vote tonight.”

Because of the severity of the situation, our Republican governor and legislative leaders from both parties had spent months negotiating a budget together that would fix the deficit problem and not bring state projects to a costly halt. But even teamwork could not prevent what the two-thirds majority guarantees – an obstructionist minority party has the power to bring the budget process and the state to its knees.

Although I disagree with Senator Maldonado’s need for concessions from the Democrats before doing what is right for California, it certainly took a lot of courage to join the Democrats. Maldonado, like all the Republicans in our state legislature, signed a pledge never to raise taxes. Republicans who break with the party in order to do what is right have literally been threatened by right-wing talk radio shows across the state. In her interview with Maddow, Bass described one station that posted caricatures of Republican legislators’ heads on sticks on its website, and has threatened to have them recalled.

The two-thirds majority debacle is not limited to legislators passing budgets. In 1978, Proposition 13 expanded the two-thirds vote requirement to raising any tax in the state. Last November here in Monterey County, ballot Measure Z won 62.55% of the vote to improve our roads and provide alternatives to driving. Though Measure Z was supported by all five county supervisors, Republicans and Democrats, and all 12 City Councils in the county, it still came up short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass.

Over the years many California communities have faced the same uphill battles to pass school bonds and other initiatives. When a two-thirds majority is needed, the will of the few often supersedes the good of the majority. And, when ideology obstructs logic and inhibits the state’s ability to take care of its people, we clearly have a system that is broken.

It will take a vote before the people to change the two-thirds majority rule in California. Hopefully, after this year’s budget stalemate and subsequent fallout for the state’s most vulnerable citizens, California voters will be ready to take on this campaign and vote to repeal this flawed system.

My blog is part of a month-long series on education in California,
published in partnership with the University of Phoenix and our publishing platform
Six Apart. WIP Contributor Kimberly Chase is also participating.
Be sure to look for both of our articles, as features and Talk blogs each Monday in March.

On December 16th I posted EngenderHealth’s first video in series of five to advocate for improved global reproductive health policy under the Obama administration. Don't miss video #2 just released and posted below that poses the provocative question, "If you had $1 billion to change the world, what would you spend it on: easing world hunger, reducing global instability, or preserving natural resources?"

Their answer is that you don't have to choose: Spend $1 billion on family planning and we can make a difference in all of these areas. The cost? Less than 1/20th of 1% of the proposed federal budget (.03%) -- less than a penny per day per American. EngenderHealth has set up a site where you can tell Obama that international family planning is a priority for you and it should be one for him, too.

According to a September LA Times article, high unemployment rates are driving some Californians back to school. With more than 1 in 10 out of work (10.1% of our workforce) are Californians turning this downturn into an opportunity? Will the economic hardships facing our state become California’s diamond in the rough?

Higher education is considered by most Californians to be a pre-requisite for a good job. In fact, a college degree now represents what a high school diploma did thirty years ago. But in the last thirty years, budget cuts have devastated California’s high school and elementary schools. Students are left without the critical support they need not only to prepare and apply for college but also to stay in school.

For years these California students have been the innocent victims of bad governance at the state level - with low graduation rates and college attendance as the result. Just last week a school district in my county – which has already sacrificed teacher’s aids, janitors, clerks and school bus services in past cuts – was forced to put dozens of teachers’ jobs on the line, despite the district’s success in the classroom and rising test scores.

In July, using a new and improved system for tracking dropouts, the LA Times reported that one in four California students quit school before graduation. But this shouldn’t come as a surprise. With each new budget cut, California has made it increasingly more difficult for students to stay in school and succeed. My county is not unique. Throughout the state almost 10,000 custodians, bus drivers and food service workers have lost their jobs. California schools boast the largest class sizes and the greatest shortage of librarians, counselors, and other support staff in the country.

It is time for the state to rectify the neglect and burden placed on yesterday’s students. We can do this by creating educational opportunities for those Californians who never had the support to make the transition from high school to college and who now find themselves out of work. These Californians should be able to return to school and earn their degree. And somehow, despite today’s dismal economic climate, California must support them in their effort to do so.

Unfortunately, instead of measures to support out-of-work Californians returning to school, California’s recent budget will slash $8.4 billion in cuts for schools including community colleges.

The state of California has three public higher education systems – the University of California (UC), the California State University (CSU), and the California Community College (CCC). Both the CSU and the CCC have traditionally been more accommodating to older re-entry students than the UC. Both offer more degree programs in the evenings and additional online courses. The requirements for admission to the CSU are generally less stringent than the UC system and the cost to attend is roughly half. The California Community College system is open to all adults, and California residents do not pay tuition to attend. They pay an enrollment fee per unit, which is substantially less than the cost to attend a California State University. With 110 Community Colleges in the state, the CCC system is the largest system of higher education in the world.

But unfortunately, like the UCs and CSUs, many of our community colleges are strained beyond capacity. Some of the strain is produced by the overflow from our four-year universities. This year, the CSU system faced an enrollment boost, forcing the closure of its freshman application period early and cutting off an estimated 10,000 students. And in January the UC Board of Regents voted to cap freshman enrollment for 2009-10 in response to continued underfunding by the state. According to the LA Times, while community colleges can absorb the cost of educating more students in the short term, by next spring or fall they will have to receive more funding or be forced to cut back course sections.

One opportunity California’s students will have is in the federal stimulus package, which increases spending on Pell Grants from about $19 billion this year to $27 billion. This federal grant, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, does not require repayment and is awarded to candidates based on financial need.

California has the unique opportunity to take the worst job market our state has faced in decades and make it a time to prepare and train Californians for a better tomorrow. But California’s workers cannot do this alone. California must innovate and reinvent its system of higher education to best serve the needs of its students. We must make higher education more available and affordable – especially to those out-of-work who may also be the same Californians robbed of a decent education when they were younger.

It is my hope that government will recognize that now is not the time to slash funds for education. Instead, in this time of great hardship, we have the opportunity to train and strengthen our workforce so when we rise again we will do so better prepared and more able to meet tomorrow’s challenges.

My blog is part of a month-long series on education in California,
published in partnership with the University of Phoenix and our publishing platform
Six Apart. WIP Contributor Kimberly Chase is also participating.
Be sure to look for both of our articles, as features and Talk blogs each Monday in March.

WIP Contributor Pilirani Semu-Banda was given an award by The Elders, a club of influential world figures, for her story on child labor. The award ceremony was held in Paris in the presence of former US President Jimmy Carter, former Irish President Mary Robinson, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other members of The Elders.

Speaking during the ceremony, Robinson said, "Journalists are an incredible way of carrying the message."

The awards were held in conjunction with the year long 'Every Human Has Rights' campaign, which was inspired by The Elders as a way of raising global awareness on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Read full article here.

Congratulations, Pilirani. We are very proud of you!

The Global Gag Rule was first established in 1984 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. It prohibits any overseas organization receiving U.S. aid from having anything to do with abortion. Organizations that do not meet this condition lose all U.S. funding, including essential supplies of contraceptives.

Please watch this video and sign EngenderHealth's petition asking President-elect Obama to overturn the Global Gag Rule. Then, be sure to help spread the word by forwarding the video and petition to your friends.

Together we can make sure that issues like eliminating the Global Gag Rule don't get pushed far down on the priority list—with terrible consequences for women, men and children in the developing world.

Leo, Tobey, Forrest, Ellen, Eva, Sarah and the rest of Hollywood tell YOU not to vote. Why? Watch to find out!

A colleague of mine just sent me a link to the new website The Girl Effect. Their mission is to create opportunities for girls and for the world. Here are just a few facts to consider when watching this exciting short slideshow:

- When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.

- An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent. An extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25 percent.

- Research in developing countries has shown a consistent relationship between better infant and child health and higher levels of schooling among mothers.

- When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man.

Powerful stuff!

In 1994, in just 100 days, one tenth of Rwandas population was killed, nearly 800,000 people.

Today an independent Rwandan commission has made public a report that says France was aware of preparations for the genocide and helped train the ethnic Hutu militia perpetrators.

According to the BBC, the commission spent nearly two years investigating France's alleged role in the genocide.

It heard testimonies from genocide survivors, researchers, writers and reporters.

Are you in France or Rwanda? Please share your reaction to this story with us here at The WIP.

Tens of thousands are expected to march today for immigration reform in cities across the United States. The biggest march is expected in Los Angeles. Last year the protests were marred by heavy police force despite the peaceful nature of marches which each year are comprised of families, children, music, and vendors.

I was in Los Angeles on May Day 2006, appropriately donned The Great American Boycott of 2006. I am not in Los Angeles this year but I hope readers in Los Angeles will blog about the day here on The WIP.

Below I copied an entry from my journal from the day of The Great American Boycott in 2006:

My sister and I took to the streets of Los Angeles to document history today. We walked miles, pedaled boulevards, marched routes and sang songs of protest in solidarity with all immigrants that came out to march. Despite the lower figures reported in the LA Times, I am certain there were at least a million people on the streets.

At the end of the day, after Mayor Villaraigosa and Dolores Huerta, after the sun had begun its western descent below the horizon, after “If I Had a Hammer” and several prayers, when we began to notice the distance we had walked in our calves and thighs, my sister and I packed our cameras and backpacks and got on our bicycles and headed home down an empty and quiet Wilshire Boulevard.

On April 4th, 2008, The Women’s International Perspective is presenting its first public event, a panel discussion on Making Visible the Violence Against Women -- in Iraq and Worldwide. Haifa Zangana, the noted Iraqi activist and author of the recently released City of Widows, An Iraqi Woman’s Account of War and Resistance, will be the featured speaker.

The discussion, presented in sponsorship with The Monterey Institute of International Studies, will start at 7pm at The Institute’s Irvine Auditorium on Pierce Street in Monterey, California.

Joining Haifa will be Riane Eisler, social scientist and author of the international bestseller The Chalice and the Blade; Eva Sohlman, a distinguished Swedish journalist and author of the book, Arabia Felix in the Time of Terror – Journeys in Yemen; and Institute student, Joyce Laker of Uganda, a survivor of the 22 years of conflict in Northern Uganda and activist on sexual violence in her country, now a Fulbright Scholar living in Monterey.

Haifa Zangana will discuss the effects of America’s continuing presence in Iraq on women there, highlighting their long history of political activism and social participation in contrast with their current struggle against religious extremism, which has mushroomed under the occupation. But the struggles of women in conflict zones are not limited to Iraq. Eva Sohlman will comment on oppressive situations for women, especially in the Yemen, while Riane Eisler will add her unique perspectives on the broader issues of violence and oppression against women worldwide. Joyce Laker will add her personal insights on women’s issues in conflict zones.

By presenting the voices of these thoughtful women from around the world, The WIP hopes divergent cultures, opinions, and ideas will come closer together in dialog. As an online news publication providing unique and personal perspectives on global issues, The WIP is honored to host this event. We invite the community to help us welcome these remarkable women. This event is free.

For more information email info@thewip.net.

See you on Friday!

Loading the headlines just now the majority coming in from the wire were bombings, blasts, death, and injury. They read: Two dead in Afghan suicide blast near foreign troops; Pakistan bomb kills Turk, wounds 5 Americans; One dead, 13 injured in bomb blast in Thai south; Considerable' number killed, 200 hurt in Albanian munitions blast – and this was all on Saturday.

I’ve made space for all the ‘other’ news in our headlines. But really, these headlines are too dreadful to ignore.

What do we say when:

A suicide bomber blew up an explosives-filled car near international troops in eastern Afghanistan Saturday, killing two Afghan boys and wounding a NATO soldier, officials said.

A series of powerful blasts rocked an army depot housing communist-era munitions near the Albanian capital Saturday, killing at least five people and injuring 200, with many more feared dead, officials said.

A Turkish woman was killed and five Americans were among 11 people wounded in a bomb attack on a restaurant in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Saturday night, police said.

A powerful car bomb exploded at a hotel car park Saturday, killing at least one person and injuring 13 others in Thailand's restive Muslim-majority south, an army spokesman and hospital official said.

Let’s talk.

This was sent to us this weekend. Please share this shocking story. -Kate

To Those Who Share Our Concern:

Please join us in calling for the immediate pardon and release of FAWZA FALIH , a Saudi Arabian woman who has been sentenced to death by beheading for the alleged crime of "witchcraft. " As Human Rights Watch has declared, the conviction of Fawza Falih is a travesty of justice.

A letter to His Royal Highness KING ABDULLAH has been drafted and signed by clergy and members of various faith traditions all over the world. The letter may be read online where you may also sign it. Please do so as soon as possible at:

http://www.petition online.com/ AIDFAWZA/ petition.html

We would greatly appreciate it if you would also forward this request to whomever else you think will share our concern.

Time is of the essence.

Further information on the case is available at:

CNN Reports Saudi Witch Case http://www.cnn.com/video/ #/video/world/2008/02/15/verjee.saudi.witchcraft.cnn

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH Saudi Arabia: Fawza Falih's Case Reveals Deep Flaws in Saudi Justice System http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/02/14/saudia18051.htm

To read the letter from Human Rights Watch to King Abdullah: http://hrw.org/ english/docs/ 2008/02/13/ saudia18046. htm

BBC News Pleas for condemned Saudi 'witch' http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7244579.stm

HuffingtonPost: Saudis to Execute Woman for Witchcraft http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/14/saudis-to-execute-a-woman_n_86642.html

Thank you for your help.

Rev. Phyllis. W. Curott, J.D., Assembly of World Religious Leaders

Mike Mohamed Ghouse, President, World Muslim Congress

Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor of Tikkun Magazine, Chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives...

We've heard from some of our readers that the new page has a big white space in the center. This is a cached style sheet. In your browser, try holding down the shift key and clicking refresh at the same time.

This was a great excuse to post the very first blog to The WIP Talk. Now it is your turn! Remember, a blog can be whatever you want it to be - anything from your thoughts on a news story to your favorite recipe for peace...

We are looking forward to hearing from you!

-Kate