Originally published at IPPF/WHR

“How will you marshal your power, skills, and values to make the world a place in which all people matter?” asks Jennifer Baumgardner in her recently published book, F 'em! Goo goo, Gaga, and Some Thoughts on Balls. For more than 15 years, Baumgardner has used her own unique skills as a writer to passionately promote sexual and reproductive rights, especially the right to access safe abortion.

A provocative and engaging activist, Baumgardner spoke to us about why she supports reproductive freedom and where she finds the inspiration for her work.

Why did you become an advocate of sexual and reproductive rights?

The ability to control our own bodies is an essential part of reproductive freedom. Even in the places where abortion and birth control is legal, there are a lot of ways in which we don’t truly have control. Something can be signed into law, but that’s not enough. Roe v. Wade, which is so important, is not holding up so well now because many people in our society still don’t support the basic right to control our bodies. There is constant legal encroachment and barriers that prevent access to reproductive health services. We need to create a culture that both supports people’s right to control their own bodies and freely access the services they need to do so.

What has been the most challenging part of being an advocate for sexual and reproductive rights?

I used to struggle to stay inspired because I mistakenly thought that the people who do this work professionally were the only ones I should be inspired by. But I changed my mind when I realized how many amazing stories I was missing out on that I should have been listening to. You don’t have to be a self-proclaimed expert or work in an advocacy organization to have something meaningful to contribute. It is really important for pro-choice activists to make room for people to tell the truth about what they know and be a central part of the reproductive rights conversation.

Why is it important for women to tell their stories?

Lately, I’ve felt like women have been made invisible again – or that they aren’t being seen as a necessary part of the story of reproductive rights. I think we need to look at how women have diverse experiences and what sexual and reproductive rights means to different people. It’s so hard to do things like speak out about having an abortion or having a child as a teenager because, even though these are both pretty common things to do, there is a stigma attached to them. Having to keep these things secret is so isolating for women, and it really demonstrates how we still lack power in the world. We should be able to be our whole selves, not just certain parts of our selves.

What role can stories play?

When I hear what people have lived through, I feel so appreciative of the struggles we have overcome. And when I connect to people’s stories I feel overwhelmed with a sense of possibility. Listening to someone who is being vulnerable and honest is unbelievable powerful. It helps me to think through the issues with more clarity and reminds me of how important it is to not take others’ experiences for granted.

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Originally published at IPPF/WHR

According to the World Health Organization, over 4,000 women in Brazil die from pregnancy and childbirth related causes every year. This loss of life accounts for more than a quarter of maternal deaths in all of Latin America. Due to restrictive abortion laws, more than one in ten maternal deaths in Brazil can be attributed to unsafe abortion.

Although the maternal mortality rate in Brazil is decreasing, this progress is not without inequality. Rural women, indigenous women, and women who live in poverty have a harder time accessing quality sexual and reproductive health services, and therefore, are at greater risk of injury and death.

With the stated aim of meeting the UN Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff drafted and enacted a new law last month, Provisional Measure 557 (PM 557), which establishes a national system of registration, surveillance, and monitoring of pregnant and postpartum women. Under PM 557, every pregnant woman who enrolls is entitled to R$50 (≈ $27USD) to assist with prenatal care, and the law intends to "improved access, coverage, and quality of maternal health care, especially in high-risk pregnancies."

However, PM 557 is not being received with open arms. Some fear this new registry is a way to further restrict women who may seek an abortion. In an article for Slate, Gillian Kane of Ipas Brazil writes:

What PM 557 does is raise questions about preserving a woman’s human rights: her right to privacy, which would be violated by the compulsory government registration to control and monitor her reproductive life; her right to autonomy and dignity, which would be violated by denying her the freedom of choice; and her right to liberty, which would be completely void as she’d be legally obligated to have all the children she conceives (protecting the rights of the “unborn,” which is flagrantly unconstitutional) and will be monitored by the state for this purpose.

For more than 45 years, IPPF/WHR's Member Association, BEMFAM, has been working to improve maternal health in Brazil by expanding access to basic reproductive health care, particularly for vulnerable populations. In 2007, BEMFAM began a women’s health and maternal mortality project that has since brought together over 1,700 governmental and non-governmental allies to increase communication between government and civil society regarding maternal health. In 2009, BEMFAM launched a new initiative to strengthen joint action, especially at a local level, to advance policy changes that would benefit pregnant women.

BEMFAM provided over 7.3 million sexual and reproductive health services at 6,620 locations throughout Brazil in 2010. In poorer regions, women have a harder time accessing sexual and reproductive health information and services. That is why BEMFAM's programs are specifically designed to reach those with increased need, including indigenous people, rural populations, LGBT individuals, women experiencing gender-based violence, and youth and women who live on the street. In the world's fifth largest country, BEMFAM is hard at work fulfilling its mission to "advance the basic human right of women, men, and youth to freely and consciously determine their own sexual and reproductive health."

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Originally published at IPPF/WHR

Last week The Nation published a story on "Mexico's Anti-Abortion Backlash." In the article, writer Mary Cuddehe examines the criminalization of abortion in Mexico and how the recent "personhood amendment" push in the United States bears strong similarities to anti-abortion strategies enacted by our southern neighbor. When discussing the impact Mexico's anti-abortion laws are having on women's health and safety, Cuddehe writes:

...state prosecutors dusted off the old abortion penal codes—most of which call for prison terms or fines—and opened investigations: ten in Veracruz, thirty in Puebla and thirty-one in Hidalgo. In 2009 in the southern state of Quintana Roo, a Mayan woman was wrongfully jailed for what turned out to be a spontaneous miscarriage, and in 2010 an 11-year-old girl who was raped and impregnated by her stepfather was denied an abortion because she was four months pregnant—one month past the allowable twelve weeks.

Since 2008, 18 of Mexico's 31 states changed their constitutions to legally establish that life starts at conception. During that same period, 130 people in those states were sentenced for seeking or providing abortion services.

MEXFAM's high quality sexual and reproductive health services, including contraceptive distribution and Ob/Gyn services, brings rural and marginalized populations lifesaving health care to which they would not otherwise have access. Although obstacles remain, MEXFAM is a leading service provider and advocate of sexual and reproductive health rights for all Mexicans.

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Cross-posted from Other Worlds.

Remember, you are marching today for those who couldn’t be here,
To say to them, “We haven’t forgotten. We’ll never forget.”
And to say to those that are still here,
We will take a stand for the rebuilding of Haiti.
- Right to Housing Collective, January 12, 2012

On the morning of January 12, 2012, a group of women, children and men wound their way through the city wearing white, the Haitian color for mourning. Part memorial, they deposited wreaths of flowers on sites that had become mass graves during the 2010 earthquake, and part protest, they carried a banner that read “Two years later: Enough is enough.” They alternated between singing a funeral dirge and chanting, “We need houses to live in!”

• On the second anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, a protestor's sign reads, "If there is land for factories, there should be land for housing." Photo by Ben Depp. •

Although political and social divisions have long fissured Haitian movements, organizations from across historic divides are demanding many of the same things. One clear, common emphasis is the immediate need for land and housing for the displaced.

Excerpts from declarations and speeches on or around January 12, all with a focus on the right to housing, follow.

From a joint press conference of the International Lawyers’ Office (BAI) and residents of Camp Mariani, denouncing the threat of illegal forced eviction by the landowner in complicity with the local government:

We raise our voices to denounce with all of our might, before the national and international community, the threat of forced eviction, and arbitrary and illegal acts of violence being carried out against us by the major. We can’t take the pressure anymore. We ask all the institutions involved (the president, the government, the mayor, NGOs assisting displaced people, human rights organizations, etc.) to press, press our case, to take this issue into consideration so that the government and mayor sign a moratorium to block the aggression against people living in this camp, to plan what should be done with regards to displaced people, to respect the rights that we have as people. As Article 22 of this country’s constitution and Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declare, “All people have the right to housing.”

From a speech given by Marie Frantz Joachim of Haitian Women's Solidarity (SOFA), on behalf of the National Coordination of Women’s Organizations (KONAP), composed of a wide variety of feminist organizations, during the January 12, 2012 memorial march:

Out of respect for the battle our ancestors carried out, we too undertake the struggle to force our leaders to take responsibility for… the people living under tents. The housing problem is a structural problem and demands a structural response. Displaced Haitians cannot continue to live in the chicken cages that are being constructed for them. Haitians should be living in dignity… And so we say, “This is our battle: the right for people to live in adequate housing.” And we ask that everyone in the social movement, all organizations, come together so that we can clearly, collectively, respond.

From the Eye-to-Eye Platform (Platfòm Je nan Je), a 12-member grouping that includes four of Haiti’s largest peasant associations, in a declaration to the Haitian Parliament following a march attended by thousands of protestors:

The Eye-to-Eye Platform supports people from all four corners of the country by submitting the following demands and recommendations to the government:

- Remove people from under tents as quickly as possible; but that doesn’t mean to send them back to pre-existing slums or to the shantytowns created after the earthquake;

- The government must implement a disaster risk management plan to identify safe construction sites, with land for farming set apart from land for housing;

- The government must create and implement a housing policy, with urban planning and zoning; In this plan we must clearly see what needs to be done in both urban and rural areas; This plan needs to designate responsibility for land and housing to state institutions;

- Guarantee the security of displaced people, especially in the places to which they are being relocated.

From the report by the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH), one of Haiti’s most prominent human rights organizations: Advocacy for the Situation of January 10, 2010 Earthquake Victims:

Recommendations of RNDDH to the relevant institutions:

- Plan an effective re-location strategy with the participation of displaced people;

- Develop a public housing policy with the involvement of the Haitian government’s own Public Enterprise for the Promotion of Social Housing (EPPLS);

- Strengthen state institutions necessary to effectively control the situation in camps and relocation sites;

- Insist that all actors involved in rebuilding the country adopt a human rights-based approach to everything that they do.

From a speech by Colette Lespinasse and Reyneld Sanon of the Right-to-Housing Collective, made up of 30-some Haitian organizations, grassroots groups and displacement camp associations.

We, organizations of survivors living in internally displaced persons’ [IDP] camps, as well as social and grassroots organizations, state:

- The government must define a land use policy for the country;

- The Parliament must draft and vote on a law to guarantee the right to housing;

- The government must look for and acquire land though expropriation [eminent domain] so that there is sufficient space to respond to the housing needs of the population;

- Women, children and the disabled, and the population in general must participate in decision-making regarding housing;

- All neighborhoods should be places where people can live in dignity and security.

We resolve to remain mobilized in the struggle to change our society and our government. We resolve to regain the sovereignty of our country to construct a society in which we can enjoy guaranteed access to housing and all our fundamental rights.

From a presentation on housing in Camp Carradeux on January 12, 2012 by Olrich Jean Pierre of Noise Travels, News Spreads (Bri Kouri Nouvèl Gaye), an alternative media group doing advocacy and public education:

When we struggle for housing, we’re not just asking for houses. There are other services that should accompany housing. A house in an area where potable water isn’t available does not respect the right to housing. People need access to healthcare. The battle for housing is not simply a battle for 4 square meters to live in. It’s a battle for public schools to educate our children so that they don’t have to go work in factories. It’s a battle to have access to healthcare when we’re sick.

We’re not just mobilizing to denounce the situation. No, the struggle before us is the struggle to pressure the government, to ask them, “Where are the houses that you’ve prepared for us?” And then to ask if there are toilets inside of them. Because we are a people with dignity. And with rights that need to be respected.

[i] HAITI Emergency Shelter and Camp Coordination Camp Management Cluster, Displacement Tracking Matrix V2.0 Update, November 30, 2011.

See Other Worlds’ recent article, Home: From Displacement Camps to Community in Haiti, for more detail on the right-to-housing movement in Haiti and how Haitian organizations are responding with advocacy and alternatives.

Copyleft Other Worlds. You may reprint this article in whole or in part. Please credit any text or original research you use to Alexis Erkert and Other Worlds.

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Imagine a world without craigslist, Wikipedia, Google, or your favorite sites? it will be pretty bad.

News Corp, RIAA, MPAA, Nike, Sony, Comcast, VISA & others want to make that world your reality.

80 Members of Congress are in their sway, 30 against, the rest undecided or undeclared.

Please take a minute to tell your Members of Congress you OPPOSE PIPA & SOPA

If you support 968 "Protect IP Act" (PIPA) & H.R. 3261 "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA), you are potentially supporting an impending black out of your favorite website. Tell Senate & Congress you OPPOSE them!!

Corporate supporters of Senate 968 (PIPA) and HR 3261 (SOPA) demand the ability to take down any web site (including craigslist, Wikipedia, or Google) that hurts their profits -- without prior judicial oversight or due process -- in the name of combating "online piracy."

PIPA and SOPA authors and supporters insist they'd only go after foreign piracy sites, but Internet Engineers understand this is an attempt to impose "Big Brother" controls on our Internet, complete with DNS hijacking and censoring search results. Incredibly, many Congress Members favor this idea.

Try to imagine jack-booted thugs throttling free speech, poisoning the Internet (greatest of American inventions, the very pillar of modern democracy), and devastating one of the our most successful industries. Totalitarian, anti-American, massively-job-killing nonsense.

Tell Congress you OPPOSE Senate 968 "Protect IP Act" (PIPA) and H.R. 3261 "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA):

Phone your Member of Congress.

Contact Senators who are refusing to meet with constituents about PIPA.

Opponents of PIPA and SOPA: Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, eBay, AOL, Mozilla, Reddit, Tumblr, Etsy, Zynga, EFF, ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Darrell Issa (R-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Ron Paul (R-TX)

Where does your Member of Congress stand on PIPA and SOPA?

PIPA and SOPA Are Too Dangerous To Revise, They Must Be Killed Entirely.

Congress needs to hear from you, or these dangerous bills will pass - they have tremendous lobbying dollars behind them, from corporations experts say are attempting to prop up outdated, anti-consumer business models at the expense of the very fabric of the Internet -- recklessly unleashing a tsunami of take-down notices and litigation, and a Pandora's jar of "chilling effects" and other unintended (or perhaps intended?) consequences.

Don't believe it? Monster Cable has labeled craigslist a "rogue site," earmarked for blacklisting and full-takedown under PIPA -- resale of stereo cables by CL users reduces Monster 's new cable sales. (reddit).

There is still time to be heard. Congress is starting to backpedal on this job-killing, anti-American nonsense, and the Obama administration has weighed in against these bills as drafted, but SOPA/PIPA cannot be fixed or revised -- they must be killed altogether.

Sen Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep Ron Wyden (D-OR) are championing an alternative to SOPA/PIPA called Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) that addresses foreign sites dedicated to piracy, without disrupting basic Internet protocols, or threatening mainstream US sites like craigslist.

Tim O'Reilly, a publisher who is himself subject to piracy, asks whether piracy is even a problem, and whether there is even a legitimate need for any of these bills.

Google to learn more about SOPA, Protect IP (PIPA), and Internet Blacklisting.

Today, Tuesday, January 17, 2012 is the 51st anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba by the United States and Belgium (Belgium apologized in 2002), in cahoots with select Congolese elites. Congolese people and friends of the Congo throughout the globe commemorate Lumumba's assassination each year to bring attention to the Congolese people's pursuit of freedom and liberation in the heart of Africa.

This year's commemoration is particularly special because the November 28th elections resulted in the stealing of the vote and the voices of the Congolese people. Congolese throughout the globe have risen up to reclaim the stolen will and voices of the Congolese people.

Friends of the Congo, Institute for Policy Studies' Foreign Policy In Focus Project, Africa Faith and Justice Network, Congo Global Action, Washington Peace Center and others are rallying in solidarity with Congolese in their pursuit to reclaim the stolen voices and advance democracy and self-determination in the heart of Africa.

Join us for a day of demonstration, film screening and teach-in on the current crisis in the Congo and how you can join the global movement in support of the sons and daughters of the Congo:

January 17, 2012

Solidarity Rally and Teach-In

Speakers: Nita Evele, Congo Global Action

Clarence Lusane, Associate Professor School of International Service, American University

Carrie Crawford, Chair, Friends of the Congo

Times/Events
4 pm - 6:30 pm - Solidarity Rally at the White House
7:00 pm - 7:30 pm - Screening of Crisis in the Congo:Uncovering The Truth
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm - Panel Discussion With Election Observers

Location: The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church
1313 New York Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20005

January 17, 2012

New York, NY

Commemoration of Patrice Emery Lumumba

Time: 6:00 pm – 11:30 pm
Venue: Taj Lounge: 48 W. 21 st Street, New York, NY
Tickets: $20 advance / $25 door

To learn more about this great man, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba

For more information about the events, call 202-584-6512, email: events@friendsofthecongo.org or visit www.friendsofthecongo.org

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This weekend I will be at German Gems. I'm super excited about this year's festival as I had a great time last year. Such exciting Q&As with filmmakers and actors!

I asked organizer Ingrid Eggers her favorite thing about organizing and running the festival, "Organizing is my least favorite part of this endeavor but when it all comes together it is great to see an enthusistic audience embracing German films." She viewed over 50 German films and picked her top five to screen this weekend.

This is the last year for the festival, so I highly recommend if you're in the Bay Area that you stop by the Castro Theatre today or the Arena Theater tomorrow.

Recently, as we discussed international political events, a friend told me, “Countries are like people: they react in the same manner.” I didn’t quite realize the full import of her words until now that I view the seemingly inevitable path to war between the United States/Israel and Iran.

There are abundant historical examples to prove that an effective weapon in creating antagonism between countries as a prelude to war is by dehumanizing the enemy. Although the Holocaust during World War II and the Rwandan genocide are extreme cases of enemy dehumanization, a similar process exists almost every time there is war.

This is also true in the case of Iran, whose leaders have described their enemies pejoratively. However, that same language has also been used in describing Iranians, which further exacerbates an extremely delicate situation.

Anthropologists Ashley Montagu and Floyd Matson wrote that dehumanization could be considered the “fifth horseman of the apocalypse” because of the damage it has caused society and wrote, “The possible attainment of full humanness –the transformation of the species from Homo sapiens to Homo humanus- rests upon our recovery of the lost world of fellow feeling, the source of all human connection.”

In a beautiful poem entitled “How to Create an Enemy” Sam Keen, an American former professor of philosophy and religion, expresses similar feelings:

Start with an empty canvas
Sketch in broad outline the forms of
men, women, and children.
Dip into the unconsciousness well of your own
disowned darkness
with a wide brush and
strain the strangers with the sinister hue
of the shadow.
Trace onto the face of the enemy the greed,
hatred, carelessness you dare not claim as
your own.
Obscure the sweet individuality of each face.
Erase all hints of the myriad loves, hopes,
fears that play through the kaleidoscope of
every infinite heart.
Twist the smile until it forms the downward
arc of cruelty.
Strip flesh from bone until only the
abstract skeleton of death remains.
Exaggerate each feature until man is
metamorphosized into beast, vermin, insect.
Fill in the background with malignant
figures from ancient nightmares – devils,
demons, myrmidons of evil.
When your icon of the enemy is complete
you will be able to kill without guilt,
slaughter without shame.
The thing you destroy will have become
merely an enemy of God, an impediment
to the sacred dialectic of history.

Is there, one wonders, some other way to face what seems to be an inevitable rush to widespread destruction and death? I believe there is. Untested diplomatic approaches could be applied in the current situation with Iran.

A possible first step before time runs out is to declare a moratorium on confrontational actions from both sides, while making an effort to know the other better. This could be achieved through a series of exchanges of scientists, doctors, artists, students, and sportspersons among the countries in conflict.

The recent rescue at sea from Somali pirates of 13 Iranian fishermen by American sailors shows what these kinds of actions can do to improve relations among people in conflict. Iranian fishermen could not hide their appreciation to the Americans for their rescue. We can make a conscious effort to create an atmosphere for peace with the same steadfast determination we use to create an atmosphere for war.

This approach will probably be dismissed as hopelessly naïve by many learned pundits. It does not conform to their idea that Iran is a devious power which will only respond to force. However, there can be no peace if an atmosphere of peace is not created among the common people. All other options have so far been ineffective. This is the moment to give a constructive proposal a try.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

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Cross-posted from The Guatemala Times.

Guatemala City. The Guatemalan mainstream media has unleashed an increased and endless flow of bad press for President Colom and his government since Otto Perez won the election. Just as it started out in January 2008, the mainstream media – with the only exception of La Hora, had extra-officially declared: no mercy, we take no prisoners. Very much like Fox news treated President Barak Obama when he was elected.

The Media

Anyone who has the illusion that in Guatemala the President elect is the real power is a fool. The power behind the power is and always has been the Guatemalan elite, much the same as in the US, where President Obama has not been able to do anything of what he promised, because it is not convenient for the big money. It is a “moneycracy” not a democracy. Money rules, not the people.

Now the Guatemalan media smells blood and they must endear themselves to the newly elected government of Otto Perez. They are getting bolder and bolder, more offensive and disrespectful as the Presidency of Colom is coming to its end.

Nobody is more lonely then an unpopular President who is going out of office. In Guatemala we have a saying: “when the tree has fallen, everyone wants to make firewood.”

Corrution or corrupters?

Some of the criticism is legitimate; yes there was corruption under Colom. ¿More corruption then under Berger, Portillo and Arzu? We very much doubt it. The complete Guatemalan Congress is corrupt, as has been pointed out by a recent, unusually candid editorial of Prensa Libre, they described that members of congress where paid 130,000.00 quetzales to vote for the new telecommunication’s bill.

Corruption is an issue, the corruptors are another issue. We wrote back in 2008 and 2009, that the narco-gangs and transnational crime that was migrating in from Mexico would have more money then the entire country, they would be able to buy every single public official, politician and military if needed. They would infiltrate the state and the private sector. Cash is always welcome, especially in hard times.

Especially the USA did not listen, the originators of the migration of transnational crime into Guatemala, the American war on drugs in Mexico and Colombia, they pretended that it was all right, a total success, at our expense. No time to think about the countries between their “star war operations”. They forgot about Central America and just re-discover it about 2 years ago.

It was not news then. The Berger government had successfully keep the narco problem a secret, the press did not even know that he left 60% of the Guatemalan territory in the hands of transnational crime. Berger’s Vice -.President, Eduardo Stein, who benefited greatly from his experience, now heads an institution that analyses this very issue. He gave statements to the press 2 years ago where he described the situation. He told the truth too late. There is a saying, never solve a problem that can provide you with future income, Stein definitely applied that logic.

President Colom certainly did not benefit from a good debriefing in security issue form his predecessor. Colom had no idea. His issue was social justice that was his only agenda.

In normal times, it could have worked. But Colom's presidency was by far a normal presidency.

The events that defined his presidency

1. 2008 -2009 world wide economic crisis.

2. The infamous Rosenberg case that almost served the elite to topple the government. It paralyzed Guatemala for almost a year. The cost of that paralysis was enormous for the nation.

3. Natural disaster of unprecedented magnitudes, Agatha and other natural events causing billions of dollars in damages to infrastructure and production, climate change has made Guatemala the second country in the world to suffer the deadly and devastating effects.

4. Narco migration from Mexico, causing unprecedented violence and murders and using up resources for the security sector and justice sector that could have been prevented by the US, but was not.

Colom's biggest weakness, his lack of support and friendship with the military and the Guatemalan elite, ended up being his biggest strength.

Because he had nothing to loose he allowed the work of CICIG. CICIG could only prosper and gain such prominence because Colom´s government was weak in security issues. He needed CICIG and the international community to stabilize the justice sector which had been systematically weakened by his predecessors and their puppeteers.

The people who benefitted the most from impunity wanted impunity to stay in place. The military, the private sector, bankers, corrupt politicians, corrupt ex-politicians, ex- government officials, etc.

The persecution and trials of ex-military involved in massacres and genocide was only possible because of Colom's distance from the military. If Otto Perez had been elected in 2007, this would have never happened.

The unprecedented publications of the national police archives, the military plans Sofia, and many other documents from the internal conflict would have not happened without Colom.

The much celebrated Attorney General Paz y Paz would have never happened under Otto Perez.

The strengthening of the voices of human rights activists, ecological activists, and the civil sectors of society could only happen because there was a vacuum of power that was filled for the fist time by others then the military or the catholic church of Guatemala. For a brief time it was the civil society that had some voice and some power.

Historic memory

Colom's government for the first time in Guatemalan history provided a platform to present the reality of the internal conflict that tore the country apart for 36 years.

Social Solidarity Programs

Another of his weaknesses turned into a historical accomplishment. His ex- wife Sandra Torres was able to implement the Social Solidarity programs, against all odds. She was able to get the resources that no other government had wanted to provide for the Guatemalan poor. Colom was weak or he used her as a tool to be able to do the one thing he really believed in, a little bit of social justice. What Sandra Torres did is historically unprecedented. What she is as a person, more good or more evil, history will decide.

Much can be criticized about this government, many accidents and unforeseen international and national events took Colom by surprise, just as they did to other presidents in the world.

We think that corrupters and bribers are the source of the problem, much more so than the corrupted.

But it is sexy to report about corruption, it is not sexy to report about the corruptors and bribers. They are known to the journalists, here in Guatemala and in most countries, there is a bribery index developed by Transparency International and Global Integrity, the emphasis is on the corrupted, never on the bribers.

That has to change, the cause of corruption are the corruptors, not the other way around.

Just like the drug war problem, the cause of the problem are the user countries, not the transit countries that don’t even get the economic benefit, only the violence, as a return of that scourge.

Colom's team

President Colom had a turbulent, difficult presidency. His team was extremely mediocre, disloyal and in most instances self-serving, betraying the president. It has nauseating to watch many ministers and members of congress only serving their own interests and sacrificing the country. Should these people go to jail for their criminal acts? Absolutely. But then we have to apply the same rules to all members of previous governments in the executive, legislative and justice branches.

Only history can tell the impact of what Colom achieved by accident or intend. History will be the judge, never the media.

Barbara Schieber is Guatemalan, she is a Physician and has a Masters in Education, Evaluation and Research. Her work has been as international expert and activist for Maternal Mortality and Women’s rights. She was a columnist, then she founded her own news site, The Guatemala Times, the only news outlet in English, a window of Guatemala to the world, it is run as a volunteer organization.

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Originally published on the IPPF/WHR blog.

As the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon is uniquely positioned to heighten awareness of pressing international issues. This month marks the beginning of Ki-moon's second five-year term, and he has already made his commitment to global health clear.

“We have to connect the dots among climate change, [the] food crisis, water scarcity, energy shortages and women’s empowerment and global health issues. These are all interconnected issues,” he told UN Radio.

Over recent decades, popular understanding of the relationship between population, sustainability, and global reproductive rights has advanced significantly. We now know that it is not an “either-or” situation when it comes to reproductive rights and reducing carbon emissions: ensuring healthy and sustainable communities requires collaboration among environmentalists and reproductive rights advocates.

As a first step toward cooperation and movement building, in May 2011 IPPF’s governing council adopted a policy on climate change and sustainable development, and IPPF/WHR Regional Director Carmen Barroso partnered with Sierra Club Chairman Carl Pope for a blog series on population issues at RH Reality Check. We are excited to learn Ki-moon has a likeminded perspective.

“Together, nothing is impossible,” he said. “If we strengthen these partnerships among governments, business communities, civil organizations, and philanthropists, then I think all these powerful partnerships can bring us towards the right direction.”

Watch the full UN Radio interview with Ban Ki-moon below:

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The deteriorating global economic outlook is increasing worries among health experts on the effects that the economic crises will have on people’s health. As the World Health Organization stated in 2009, “It is not yet clear what the current financial crisis will mean for low-income and emerging economies, but many predictions are highly pessimistic.”

In low-income countries, economic crises lead to a reduction in the demand for imports – including medicines and medical supplies and technology - tighter access to capital and falling remittances from family members working outside the country. In addition, there is less government revenue to finance health and social services.

A recent article in Lancet, highlights those effects in Greece, one of the European countries most affected by the ongoing global economic crisis. As a result, there has been a significant increase in unemployment, which rose from 6.6% in May 2008 to 16.6% in May 2011. Even more troublesome, youth unemployment rose in the same period from 18.6% to 40.1%.

Several studies have shown that unemployment increases both the risk of psychiatric and somatic disorders. For example, a strong correlation has been found between job loss and clinical and subclinical depression, substance abuse, anxiety and antisocial behavior. In addition, several studies have shown that prolonged unemployment increases mortality rates.

In Greece, there has been a 17% increase in suicides between 2007 and 2009. During that same period, homicide and theft rates almost doubled. 25% of callers to a national suicide help line reported financial difficulties in 2010. The inability to pay high levels of personal debt may be one of the explanations behind the increase in the number of suicides, which had a 40% increase in the first six months of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010.

Also, a surge in intravenous drug users may explain a rise of more than 1000% HIV infections among them. In addition to intravenous drug use, prostitution and unsafe sex are also responsible for the increase in HIV infections in the general population, estimated to be 52% higher in 2011 than in 2010.

Although in Greece patients with social insurance may visit general practitioners (GPs) free of charge or attend outpatient clinics for a very low fee, there was a reduction of those visits in 2009 compared to 2007. At the same time, there was a 24% rise of public hospital admissions in 2010 compared to 2009 while admission to private hospitals declined by 25-30% during the same period. This situation may be a result of a 40% cut in hospital budgets causing understaffing and occasional shortages of medicines and medical supplies.

Another example of the effect of the economic crisis in Greece on vulnerable groups is the increased use of street clinics run by NGOs, such as the Greek chapter of Médecins du Monde, which report an increase on those seeking medical attention from their street clinics from 3-4% before the crisis started to about 30% now.

That their health situation has worsened as a result of the crisis is demonstrated by the number of Greeks who consider that their health is “bad” or “very bad”, which has increased by 14% from 2007 to 2009. To make matters worse, a third of the country’s outreach programs have been eliminated as a result of budget cuts in 2009 and 2010.

By many accounts, Greece’s public health care system is riddled with corruption and inefficiency. Oftentimes, patients offer doctors informal payments to receive treatment, particularly when they are not covered by their social insurance fund. In addition, hospitals frequently face shortages of materials and equipment.

The situation in Greece may be a harbinger of what may happen –or is happening- in countries with similar social and health care systems and which may go through similarly difficult economic situations. And it is up to the governments in those countries to rationalize resources, increase efficiency and protect their most valuable asset: the health of its citizens.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant.

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Originally published on the IPPF/WHR blog.

As 2011 came to a close, President Obama signed H.R. 2055, a “megabus” spending package of $1 trillion for fiscal year 2012, which includes support for international family planning and reproductive health programs. While the funding is largely the same as the previous budget, there was a slight decrease. A funding increase is sorely needed, but heavy lobbying by IPPF and the bill's success in the Senate wasn't enough to persuade the House, which remained opposed and wanted deeper cuts. The compromise among the two was to maintain fairly level funding.

The State Department and foreign operations bill section of the bill includes $610 million in bilateral and multilateral family planning and reproductive health funding. Comparable FY 2011 funding totaled $615 million.

• Photo credit: Claudio Toledo •

Despite pressure from the House, H.R. 2055 does not reinstate the Global Gag Rule. The Senate wanted to prohibit the President from reinstating it; however, this is not in the bill either.

IPPF/WHR is a recognized leader in the international movement to ensure access to sexual and reproductive health care as a human right for all people. www.ippfwhr.org

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By Alexis Erkert and Beverly Bell
January 4, 2012

As 2012 begins, a growing movement of displaced people and their allies in Haiti is actively claiming the right to housing, which is recognized by both the Haitian constitution and international treaties to which Haiti is signatory.

Haitians displaced by the earthquake two years ago face many crises, but perhaps none worse than ongoing homelessness. One of the 520,000 people still living in displacement camps, [i] Dieula Croissey describes conditions where she lives in Cité Soleil: “We’re living in insecurity, our lives are threatened, our daughters are used.” In addition to insecurity and violence, especially against women, people living in camps face deteriorating shelter materials – shredding plastic tarps and tattered tents – hunger, and lack of adequate water or toilets. Despite Haiti’s declining rates of cholera infection,[ii] the dearth of sanitation options leaves real risk for contracting the disease.

• Displaced Haitians are actively claiming the right to housing through advocacy and alternative housing models. Photo by Ben Depp, www.bendepp.com. •

• Pass a law guaranteeing the right to housing. While Article 22 of the Haitian Constitution recognizes the right to decent housing, it does not guarantee it;
• Enforce existing rent control legislation. Renters report prices rising up to 17 times higher than pre-earthquake;
• Take proactive measures to sort out land tenure and create a registry of ownership, as a first step toward an urban and rural land redistribution program;
• Define a land use policy that prevents housing speculation and facilitates decentralization from Port-au-Prince by encouraging rebuilding outside the capital;
• Give small grants and credit to help people repair or build their own houses, where the government doesn’t provide public housing. The movement is calling on foreign organizations to do the same;
• Tackle gender bias in housing and land ownership, so that women’s names are consistently included in titling and their legally protected right to own and inherit land is enforced; and
• Ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This covenant, recognized by 160 countries, has been signed by the Haitian government but not yet passed into law. Doing so would hold the government responsible for providing housing, education and other human rights accountable to international standards and monitoring.

While urging systemic and legislative solutions, Haiti’s right-to-housing movement is also constructing transformative paradigms of housing and community. This is especially important because what little housing has been created since the earthquake has largely missed the mark in terms of need. Colette Lespinasse, director of the Support Group for Repatriates and Refugees (GARR by its French acronym) says, “What we were seeing in terms of housing plans has come largely from foreigners, with proposals for pre-fabricated houses that responded more to the interests and needs of businessmen. In general, the proposals don’t correspond to Haitian culture or our climate, and also don’t give people a chance to learn techniques themselves that they can use to continue building on their own.”

In public forums and in interviews, women in camps make a distinction between housing and homes. They point out that while lodging can provide a roof over their heads, what they want is a nurturing space that is free of violence, where the common good is prioritized, and where power dynamics between men and women can shift. In the absence of initiative by the government, some Haitian non-profit and human rights organizations have stepped out of their normal missions to provide different kinds of housing. They have teamed up with local communities to create do-it-yourself solutions. They hope to inspire others, including their government, to envision and to dare to create viable community spaces with local participation.

Colette says, “You can’t just denounce what you don’t want. We’re meeting with others, as well as drawing inspiration from housing movements, networks and cooperatives in other countries. We want to propose alternatives that our country’s leaders could use as models.”

In one of these alternatives, the peasant support group Institute of Technology and Animation (ITECA) in Gressier, 90 minutes or so west of Port-au-Prince, is building 1,700 permanent homes for residents who lost theirs, in an approximately ten square kilometer area. With funding from Caritas Switzerland, the houses offer water and electricity, almost unheard of in the countryside, and moreover in environmentally low-impact ways - through a rainwater collection system and solar panel on each roof. Each is equipped with an outdoor latrine. They are earthquake and hurricane-resistant and use local building materials, like stones, to the degree possible. Another rare feature is that the home-owners themselves do all of the work that doesn’t require specialized skills. ITECA is also working with the mayor to ensure that each owner will receive proper land and housing titles.

Chenet Jean-Baptiste, director of ITECA, explains, “We aren’t building houses to meet a need for housing, but rather as a work of community process. For us, housing is an entry point for re-organizing concepts of land ownership and social and economic relationships. Our fundamental mission is to accompany communities and encourage them to become principal agents of change. After all, what’s the point of giving someone a house only for them to die of hunger inside it?”

A second initiative is GARR’s dream to create land and housing cooperatives. The vision springs from a 40-year-old experiment in Uruguay, where 25,000 members of housing cooperatives manage their housing and land communally. It is also reminiscent of land reform communities in Brazil and elsewhere. In this model, according to Colette, “the very poor pool their money together and pull their internal resources to resolve their own problems, to find land and care for the land together. Everyone is responsible for the community.” GARR has started two model cooperatives, made up of 42 families on the Haitian-Dominican border. One is a landowners’ cooperative where families with small properties merge their properties to manage together. The second is cooperative housing, on land donated by the government. With assistance from Christian Aid, GARR has constructed 15 out of 40 projected houses on this land. The visionaries hope that the cooperatives will continue to grow and that “villages of life” will evolve, thriving communities with on-site or nearby clinics and schools, and job opportunities in agriculture or small business.

In Cap-Rouge, in South-eastern Haiti, the Haitian Platform to Advocate Alternative Development (PAPDA) is working together with an organization called Hope for the Development of Cap-Rouge (VEDEK), to repair 500 destroyed homes using local building materials. According to Franck St. Jean, coordinator of PAPDA’s Food Sovereignty Advocacy Program, core principals of the project include strengthening local wisdom, culture, and economy; conserving biodiversity; and empowering community. Though currently funded by European non-profits, PAPDA and VEDEK are ultimately trying to create a model that doesn’t depend on external funding or knowledge.

Similarly, the Support Group for Rural Development (GADRU) is repairing homes around the towns of Carrefour and Kenscoff in Haiti’s western province. Their objective? To promote community development wherein konbits, or volunteer, collective labor teams, of 10 families each build one another’s homes. GADRU, too, is working with local construction techniques and materials – wood, stone and earth – and designing the homes to withstand natural disasters.

As with every other element of reconstruction from the earthquake, displaced people and grassroots organizations are insisting that they must have input in developing solutions. Calling on the Haitian government to provide a comprehensive solution to the housing crisis, they are also paving the way with participative models of what that solution could look like. Reyneld Sanon of the Force for Reflection and Action on Housing (FRAKKA) says that people have to be part of planning the reconstruction of “their neighborhoods, of their cities, of their country, and of their dignity.”

“People have needs and they have ideas, they have visions for the way that houses can be built,” he said. “Go into a camp, and ask any child to make a drawing that shows what kind of house they want to live in. And you’ll see. You’ll see. Even children have ideas and ideals.”


[i] This is the most recent figure available. (HAITI Emergency Shelter and Camp Coordination Camp Management Cluster, Displacement Tracking Matrix V2.0 Update, November 30, 2011).

[ii] When rainy season ended, the number of new cholera cases declined from an average of 500 a day to 300. As of November 18, 2011, 521,195 people have contracted cholera and of those, almost 7,000 have died. (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Humanitarian Bulletin (19 November -19 December 2011), December 19, 2011; Republique d’Haiti Ministère de la Santé Publique et de la Population, Rapports journaliers du MSPP sur l'évolution du choléra en Haiti, January 3, 2012,   http://www.mspp.gouv.ht/site/index.php option=com_content&view=article&id=117&Itemid=1).

[iii] In August 2011, the Haiti Shelter Cluster reported that 9,4879 temporary shelters had been constructed. (Haiti Shelter Cluster, Shelter Report by Municipality, August 31, 2011).

  Copyleft Other Worlds. You may reprint this article in whole or in part. Please credit any text or original research you use to Other Worlds.

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Russia cannot be understood with the mind
Or measured with a common yardstick,
She has a peculiar character-
In Russia, one can only believe.

Thus wrote Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev (1803-1873) considered one of the last three great Romantic poets in Russia. Perhaps Prime Minister Vladimir Putin should have remembered those words, when he dismissed the reaction of the Russian people to the last parliamentarian elections in the country, which the people widely considered to have been rigged.

Although Russia under Mr. Putin, and his designated successor Medvedev, has achieved progress in several areas –incomes were raised, there were more consumer goods available and people were free to travel- the tens of thousand of people demonstrating in the street were doing so against what they rightly believe was Putin’s intentions to remain indefinitely in power through rigged elections.

People were also reacting to what they saw as widespread corruption under Putin. Over the past decade, one in six businessmen in Russia has been prosecuted for an alleged economic crime. In addition, people feel that the state has failed to provide ordinary citizens adequate health care, good education, security and justice.

In Russia, words and symbols often count more than reality. And Putin has repeatedly tried to use symbols to gather support for his policies. One of those symbols has been the use of Russia as an isolated and besieged fortress surrounded by powerful enemies. One of the most powerful enemies was the U.S. through its anti-missile system, which he portrayed as an existential threat to Russia, a point of view that was strengthened by Dmitry Medvedev’s bellicose statements.

Two important factors seem to have been the trigger that led to people’s fury. One was the acknowledgment by Putin that his job swap with Medvedev had already been planned long ago, and the other, the obviously manipulated elections. Interestingly, the popular demonstrations against Putin and the government are taking place not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also in smaller cities around the country.

Putin tried to dismiss the significance of the demonstrators saying that they lacked a program, a leader and specific demands. He may have misinterpreted them. People were clear in asking for the removal of Vladimir Churov, head of the electoral commission, the release of imprisoned political activists, registration of all political parties and clean elections.

In addition, some among the demonstrators seem to have special clout. One of them is Alexei Navalny, a popular blogger, who has extensively used the power of social networking to confront Putin and Medvedev’s power. Navalny acquired widespread notoriety when as a response to being asked about his opinion of the United Russia party he answered, “I think very poorly of United Russia. United Russia is the party of corruption, the party of crooks and thieves.” Few words resonated as much among protesting Russians as these two last nouns.

There was ample reason for that. According to a recent article in the New Yorker magazine, Russia is one of the few countries in the world to slip consistently in Transparency International’s annual rankings of corrupt countries, and is now in a rank similar to Cambodia, Guinea-Bissau and the Central African Republic. As a confirmation of this fact, last October President Dmitry Medvedev stated that a trillion rubles –roughly thirty-three billion dollars (equivalent to three percent of the country’s G.D.P.) disappears annually on government contracts.

In the meantime, the situation in Russia continues to deteriorate. Inflation and unemployment are close to eight percent, and there is low purchasing power and increased capital flight. In addition, while the economy grew by a yearly average of around seven percent between 2000 and 2007, it has declined since then and it is estimated that it will have grown by four percent at the end of 2011. In addition to corruption, Russia is beset by high rates of crime and widespread unemployment.

Nobody can predict where the present demonstrations against the government will take Russians. So far, the government has made only minor moves as a response. One of them was making Vladislav Surkov, who had been deputy chief of the presidential administration and a man with wide ranging powers, deputy prime minister in charge of economic modernization But opposition forces believe that proposed reforms are too little too late.

Proud of their past, Russians are also eager to be able to express freely their political wishes. It is highly improbable that Vladimir Putin will relinquish his grip on power and allow for a repeat of the parliamentary elections. However, it was also considered unlikely a year ago that the Arab Spring would engulf the Arab world as a ball of fire in the way it did so far.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

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Perhaps one of the most important questions in the United States now is who the real Barack Obama is, and what can we expect from him from now on, as we move towards next year's presidential elections facing unrelenting opposition of the Republicans in Congress.

Many people, disillusioned with the Obama administration, insist on the little enforcement of his campaign promises and on his lack of principles. No one can speak of the achievements or failures of President Obama, however, without mentioning the factors and groups that brought him to power and which continue to influence his actions.

Perhaps the most notorious among those groups is the so-called military-industrial complex, about which General Dwight D. Eisenhower had already warned in his farewell address as president of the Unites States. Today, more than before, the military-industrial complex has a marked influence on the decisions of the U.S. president.

Similar to the nightmare that Iran was for Carter, Obama had to face the tremendous challenge posed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although theoretically the Iraq war has ended its aftermath remains, including sectarian violence that costs the lives of tens of people weekly and has left a country still in chaos. In Afghanistan, only the total withdrawal of U.S. troops could eventually lead to a state, if not of peace, at least of less chaos and bloodshed.

Other factors, however, influence the actions of the U.S. president. To the enormous power of the military-industrial complex one must be add the power of Wall Street and that of the international financial institutions.

Among the groups of influence there is also the exclusive and secretive Bilderberg Club, whose members are politicians, government ministers, international financiers, bankers, and leaders of the most powerful media in the United States and Western Europe. This group helps define the international economic agenda and has considerable political influence.

Thus, although theoretically U.S. power is in the hands of the President, he is under the influence of the real factors of power that can be called the military-industrial-financial complex (MIFC).

These factors can, in turn, act directly and indirectly on the three branches of U.S. government. Different "lobbies" such as the pharmaceutical industry, farmers, national and multinational corporations, and groups that respond to foreign interests exert their pressure on these branches of government. This represents, therefore, a veritable "spaghetti bowl" of influences that partly explains the difficulties that President Obama faces in carrying out the government agenda that he originally proposed.

One can see how difficult it is for President Obama to eliminate government subsidies to oil companies, whose current earnings are skyrocketing, or his inability, particularly when the House of Representatives is in Republican hands, to increase taxes on the richest people in the country. As he tries to do so, Republicans in Congress threaten to eliminate or lower the most basic social benefits to the most vulnerable sectors of the population.

Despite the difficult situation he inherited and the stark opposition not only from Republicans, but also from some Democratic lawmakers, President Obama has had significant achievements. These include increasing health care coverage for the majority of the population; overcoming, at least partially and temporarily, the economic crisis; signing a nuclear arms treaty with Russia, and withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. Taking into account the difficult circumstances that he has to face, these results show Obama to be a pragmatic and realistic individual who prefers the incremental achievement of his policies and wants to avoid unnecessary confrontations.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

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