It is rare to find accounts and personal stories of Africa and HIV/AIDS that are not told through the filter of northern white liberals; I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning first hand about African women´s experiences with AIDS and the way in which people react to this illness.
The authors are Ugandan women writers who know the women they write about. They also understand the obstacles, the hardships, the cultural attitudes and family problems that surround HIV. Although HIV/AIDS was publicly identified very early Read more [...] Author Archives: Theresa Wolfwood. Director, The Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation
Kiguli, Susan N. & Violet Barungi. I DARE TO SAY: 5 testimonies by Ugandan women living positively with HIV/AIDS. 2007. Femrite Publications, Kampala, Uganda.
It is rare to find accounts and personal stories of Africa and HIV/AIDS that are not told through the filter of northern white liberals; I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning first hand about African women´s experiences with AIDS and the way in which people react to this illness.
The authors are Ugandan women writers who know the women they write about. They also understand the obstacles, the hardships, the cultural attitudes and family problems that surround HIV. Although HIV/AIDS was publicly identified very early Read more [...] Comments Off on Kiguli, Susan N. & Violet Barungi. I DARE TO SAY: 5 testimonies by Ugandan women living positively with HIV/AIDS. 2007. Femrite Publications, Kampala, Uganda.
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Kent, George. FREEDOM FROM WANT: the human right to adequate food. 2005. Georgetown University Press, USA.
Freedom from want; the right to adequate food is included in many international agreements, most notable, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There is enough food for all on earth, even as our population increases. But many people are hungry; food security may be the major issue of our time. Some of us enjoy the over-abundant food availability of the minority world; but we may soon face food insecurity as the petroleum basis of our industrial agriculture dries up. Then the human right to adequate food may not be ’out there’, but ’right Read more [...]
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Kelly, Kathy. OTHER LANDS HAVE DREAMS: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison 2005. CounterPunch & AK Press, USA &UK.
“...This is my home, the country where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my sacred shrines.
But other hearts in other lands are beating,
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine. ...”
Words by Lloyd Stone set to O, Finlandia by Jean Sibelius
This song was translated so that Iraqi children in the Baghdad School of Folk Music and Ballet could sing it for the author. After the school was ransacking, following the USA invasion, the tape of this song was all that survived of the school. Kelly heard it and remembered.
She Read more [...] Comments Off on Kelly, Kathy. OTHER LANDS HAVE DREAMS: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison 2005. CounterPunch & AK Press, USA &UK.
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Keefe, Patrick Radden. CHATTER: Uncovering the Echelon Surveillance Network and the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping. Random House.
With all the publicity surrounding Wiki leaks´ technology, management and the revelation of many governments´ secret documents, we should not forget that our private communications are regularly hacked and monitored by a sophisticated system of spying posts and satellites by our government and others -using our tax money to fuel this clandestine industry.
Echelon is the network that the USA/UK has created to spy on any electronic or telephone message they choose. Menwith Hill in Yorkshire, England is one of the largest spy stations, known to Read more [...]
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Karmi, Ghada. IN SEARCH OF FATIMA: A Palestinian Story. Verso 2002 London, UK.
This is a poignant and sad memoir, and a vivid description of the life of one of the many Palestinians displaced by the “Nakba”, told by a woman torn from her childhood Jerusalem home with her family, forced into a permanent exile that was promised to be brief – the first of countless betrayals for her and many Palestinians.
We never set eyes on Fatima or our dog or the city we had known again. Like a body prematurely buried, unmourned, without coffin or ceremony, our hasty, untidy exit from Jerusalem was no way to have said goodbye to Read more [...] Comments Off on Karmi, Ghada. IN SEARCH OF FATIMA: A Palestinian Story. Verso 2002 London, UK.
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Kaldor, Mary. New & Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK. 1999.
The UK academic shows the links between militarism, globalization, crime and the breakdown of society in this well documented book.
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Jones, Esyllt and Adele Perry. PEOPLE´S CITIZENSHIP GUIDE: A response to conservative Canada. 2012. Arbeiter Ring Publishing. Winnipeg, MN, Canada.
“Canada has a capitalist economy which means that the bulk of decisions are made by private, for–profit firms hiring wage labour…The Canadian economy is an unequal one… Since the 1980s Canada has become more liberal and less equal. Its tax system is less progressive.”
Intended for recent immigrants as a response to the official citizenship guide which lauds Canada´s military history and the monarchy, this book is a little gem which should be read by all Canadians. A group of Canadian academics, activists and writers have produced a Read more [...]
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Johnsson—Latham, Gerd. A study on gender equality as a prerequisite for sustainable development. The Environmental Advisory Council, Ministry of the Environment, Sweden.
This is a booklet, readily available from the above site. It gives, in absolutely simple, jargon—free English the clearest and best written analysis of women´s place in the physical environment I have ever read. The author illustrates how, wherever they are, women consume less than men, even as those of us in the minority world consume far more than the majority of the world´s population. She also explains how crucial it is, that these different consumption patterns need to be taken into account in any planning of sustainable development. Read more [...]
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Johnson, Chalmers. NEMESIS: The Last Days of the American Empire. 2006. Metropolitan Books. USA.
NEMESIS: In Greek mythology,/ the goddess of retribution,/ who punishes human/ transgression of the natural,/ right order of things and/ the arrogance that causes it.
So begins this detailed account and analysis of USA foreign and military policy which the author believes carries the seeds of its own destruction. Johnson is a prolific writer of history and political criticism and a scholar of Asian affairs. He is president of the Japan Policy Research Institute.
NEMESIS is the third of a recent series which includes Blowback and the Sorrows Read more [...]
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Isitt, Benjamin. FROM VICTORIA TO VLADIVOSTOK: Canada´s Siberian Expedition 1917-19. UBC Press. 2010. Vancouver, BC.
“Canada lost in Siberia, its first foray as a world power, and then quietly ignored this history.”
On December 21, 2010, peace activists gathered outside the armed forces recruitment centre on Fort Street, Victoria. Just a few feet away, at the corner of Quadra, a group of conscripts returned from WW1, mutinied on December 21, 1918 against being forced to fight against the new Russian government. For some of us it was the first time we had acknowledged or learned about this hidden rebellion.
Isitt´s research provided the background Read more [...] Comments Off on Isitt, Benjamin. FROM VICTORIA TO VLADIVOSTOK: Canada´s Siberian Expedition 1917-19. UBC Press. 2010. Vancouver, BC.
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Hooks, Margaret. Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary. 1993. Pandora, HarperCollins Publications, London UK.
Tina Modotti came from a poor family in Italy to the USA: her beauty and strong character lead her into a modelling and acting career. She became a model, mistress and assistant of USA photographer, Edward Weston. Together they went to Mexico; she fell in love with that country and stayed after he went home and became an amazing photographer in her own right — first with photos of flowers but soon her political convictions moved her to social documentary photography.
She was a friend and colleague to many of the art and left Read more [...] Comments Off on Hooks, Margaret. Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary. 1993. Pandora, HarperCollins Publications, London UK.
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Honoré, Carl. In Praise of Slow: How a worldwide movement is challenging the cult of speed. Vintage Canada. 2004.
"There is more to life than increasing its speed"
Gandhi, quoted in this book
It started with the slow food movement which has spread from Italy to many countries. So Honoré starts his journey of slowing down with a report of the most popular slow movement, but his own epiphany as a frantic London-based journalist trying keep up with he demands of work and his attention to his small children. He saw an "AD" for "The one-Minute Bedtime Story". Too good to be true - until he realizes that his whole life has become an exercise in hurry – Read more [...]
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