The Nutritional Superiority to Pasture Raised Animals - David Kirby
This is a great article on why it is superior to eat produce raised on grass than grain. Just some "food" for thought.
Human trafficking
Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking
You can hear about an Indonesian woman who was enslaved in Jakarta and then in LA at "The Story."
Just found this group through www.thestory.org. I love NPR.
You can hear about an Indonesian woman who was enslaved in Jakarta and then in LA at "The Story."
Just found this group through www.thestory.org. I love NPR.
Making a Difference in Nigeria
Please forgive me. I've never been super wonderful at keeping up with my blogs. And being a locavore in Iowa is pretty difficult (maybe even impossible) during the winter - nothing grows here for months, and considering I am unable to grow a garden at my apartment, I couldn't store up food all winter to keep up my ambitions.
So, for now, I encourage you to check out this great article one of my students wrote for the IRIS blog: Amanda Leha and Women's Empowerment. Amanda has really impressed me this year. When she arrived and we went on our trip to Washington DC, I had to yell at her a lot because she was so headstrong. That and she lost her passport for a few hours, which really could have been a huge disaster. But I see now that her willfulness is an asset to her. She sees the world, but refuses to just be or do whatever authority tells her. That can be dangerous in some societies, but this year in Iowa has helped her form some very new ideas of what life should look like, as opposed to what she's always been told. I am no advocate for telling different cultures how to do things - especially not "our way." But I do appreciate when someone from Culture A can look at Culture B and say, "I think this would benefit us, too." If only Americans were more willing to do this, instead of running around the world like ethnocentric, hegemonic asses. Can't really think of a better way to say that.
Amanda and her host mom, Anne, at the Iowa State Fair, 2009
So, for now, I encourage you to check out this great article one of my students wrote for the IRIS blog: Amanda Leha and Women's Empowerment. Amanda has really impressed me this year. When she arrived and we went on our trip to Washington DC, I had to yell at her a lot because she was so headstrong. That and she lost her passport for a few hours, which really could have been a huge disaster. But I see now that her willfulness is an asset to her. She sees the world, but refuses to just be or do whatever authority tells her. That can be dangerous in some societies, but this year in Iowa has helped her form some very new ideas of what life should look like, as opposed to what she's always been told. I am no advocate for telling different cultures how to do things - especially not "our way." But I do appreciate when someone from Culture A can look at Culture B and say, "I think this would benefit us, too." If only Americans were more willing to do this, instead of running around the world like ethnocentric, hegemonic asses. Can't really think of a better way to say that.
Amanda and her host mom, Anne, at the Iowa State Fair, 2009
({v})
This entry isn't necessarily about living simply. But the point of the blog is to make a positive change in the world - generally I try to do this by living simply, but there are unlimited ways we can make a difference in our local and global communities.
One way I plugged myself in recently was being part of The Vagina Monologues. Please visit www.vday.org if you don't know much about The Vagina Monologues or V Day. V stands for valentine, victory, and vagina. Eve Ensler wrote TVM in 1996, and it has been translated into over 45 languages since then and been performed around the globe. Eve began by doing interviews with over 200 women, asking them about their views of sex, relationships, and violence against women. "Women's empowerment is deeply connected to their sexuality," Eve once said. "I'm obsessed with women being violated and raped, and with incest. All of these things are deeply connected to our vaginas."
The point of TVM was to showcase the idea that nobody wants women to talk about their vaginas. We aren't supposed to acknowledge our periods, historically we aren't supposed to enjoy sex, we aren't supposed to be able to do anything without the help of a man, we aren't supposed to think of ourselves as beautiful - let alone see our vaginas as a fabulous part of ourselves. But if we can't talk about it, can't welcome it and respect it and love it, we'll never be able to have an open discussion about the violence against women. If we can't talk about sex, we can't talk about rape, incest, molestation, etc. We need a place to embrace our womanhood, and this is a place to do it.
The Vagina Monologues turned into a movement called V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls. Each year, V-Day raises around 50 million dollars to help find ways to fight against sexual violence against women and girls. Can you imagine that each year, 50 million dollars is put up to fight sexual violence, and each year, there is still sexual violence?
200 thousand woman in the U.S. are raped every year. And we think we have such a great country. Consider the rest of the world.
I've heard some criticism against The Vagina Monologues since I began, and I have to say that most of it came from people who stopped listening after they heard the word vagina. And most of those people were women. Can someone explain this to me?
Criticism has ranged from:
- that's feminist bullshit that I can't stand
- it's only for women, men have nothing to do with it
- there isn't a problem with rape in this country, so it's not necessary to show that
- it's vulgar
- it's amoral
- it's disgusting
- it's only for lesbians, and wants everyone to hate men
All I can say is, that's all wrong. It's about ending sexual violence against women and girls. The monologues are real women's stories. You may not agree with all different women's perceptions, you may not relate, but does it matter? The goal is to raise awareness that there IS sexual violence going on, and we need to embrace women as human beings who deserve nothing less than total respect, as all humans do. If you don't want to see the show, okay. But don't bash it, especially when you don't know anything about it. And maybe consider making a donation to www.vday.org to help us help those who have been victims of this violence. 10% of our proceeds for the performance went to the women and girls of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where women and girls are dealing with a femicide (see http://www.vday.org/drcongo/background). The rest of the proceeds went to ACCESS, http://www.assaultcarecenter.org/, where I am going to begin volunteering next week!!!
What are you passionate about? Find a way to help. You're on the internet right now anyway - educate yourself now!
This hasn't been the most coherent blog ever. But I haven't had my coffee yet today.
PLEASE read http://www.vday.org/about/more-about for more information. ({})
One way I plugged myself in recently was being part of The Vagina Monologues. Please visit www.vday.org if you don't know much about The Vagina Monologues or V Day. V stands for valentine, victory, and vagina. Eve Ensler wrote TVM in 1996, and it has been translated into over 45 languages since then and been performed around the globe. Eve began by doing interviews with over 200 women, asking them about their views of sex, relationships, and violence against women. "Women's empowerment is deeply connected to their sexuality," Eve once said. "I'm obsessed with women being violated and raped, and with incest. All of these things are deeply connected to our vaginas."
The point of TVM was to showcase the idea that nobody wants women to talk about their vaginas. We aren't supposed to acknowledge our periods, historically we aren't supposed to enjoy sex, we aren't supposed to be able to do anything without the help of a man, we aren't supposed to think of ourselves as beautiful - let alone see our vaginas as a fabulous part of ourselves. But if we can't talk about it, can't welcome it and respect it and love it, we'll never be able to have an open discussion about the violence against women. If we can't talk about sex, we can't talk about rape, incest, molestation, etc. We need a place to embrace our womanhood, and this is a place to do it.
The Vagina Monologues turned into a movement called V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls. Each year, V-Day raises around 50 million dollars to help find ways to fight against sexual violence against women and girls. Can you imagine that each year, 50 million dollars is put up to fight sexual violence, and each year, there is still sexual violence?
200 thousand woman in the U.S. are raped every year. And we think we have such a great country. Consider the rest of the world.
I've heard some criticism against The Vagina Monologues since I began, and I have to say that most of it came from people who stopped listening after they heard the word vagina. And most of those people were women. Can someone explain this to me?
Criticism has ranged from:
- that's feminist bullshit that I can't stand
- it's only for women, men have nothing to do with it
- there isn't a problem with rape in this country, so it's not necessary to show that
- it's vulgar
- it's amoral
- it's disgusting
- it's only for lesbians, and wants everyone to hate men
All I can say is, that's all wrong. It's about ending sexual violence against women and girls. The monologues are real women's stories. You may not agree with all different women's perceptions, you may not relate, but does it matter? The goal is to raise awareness that there IS sexual violence going on, and we need to embrace women as human beings who deserve nothing less than total respect, as all humans do. If you don't want to see the show, okay. But don't bash it, especially when you don't know anything about it. And maybe consider making a donation to www.vday.org to help us help those who have been victims of this violence. 10% of our proceeds for the performance went to the women and girls of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where women and girls are dealing with a femicide (see http://www.vday.org/drcongo/background). The rest of the proceeds went to ACCESS, http://www.assaultcarecenter.org/, where I am going to begin volunteering next week!!!
What are you passionate about? Find a way to help. You're on the internet right now anyway - educate yourself now!
This hasn't been the most coherent blog ever. But I haven't had my coffee yet today.
PLEASE read http://www.vday.org/about/more-about for more information. ({})
Kimmy P
Soup's on!