Happy Birthday to Me!

Posted on December 19th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Relationships, Education, Personal, Politics, Feminism, Omnia Vanitas, Current Events, Money, Give, Random.

For my birthday, my boyfriend sent me the most wonderful gift I received this year. Instead of sending me the usual bouquet of flowers (a staple of the long distance relationship dance we’ve been doing for the last decade or so), Ed made a donation in my name through Changing the Present to educate Afghani girls. Not only did this thoughtful gift show an understanding of three of the causes most important to me — education, feminism, and the promotion of human rights on the global scale — it really made me feel loved. I wish I could have made the actual email card I received display properly, but during this busy season I simply don’t have the time to futz with the code. To find out more about how you can honor a loved one with a charitable gift, click the link above, or if you’re interested in the cause of educating Afghani girls, click the banner below. Trust me, it’s a gift that will keep on giving!

ChangingThePresent

Problem

Under the Taliban, education was prohibited for girls. Now, the hard-won right of simply attending school in Afghanistan for girls is becoming more and more difficult. Experts estimate that every day in Afghanistan a girls’ school is destroyed or a teacher is murdered. Attacks have closed schools in several entire districts in Afghanistan — nearly one-third of all districts have no schools.

The Gift

We cannot allow the destruction of women and girls’ education to continue, with education so crucial to long-term empowerment. The Feminist Majority Foundation is working to keep Afghan girls’ schools open, as well as to reopen those schools that have been closed. We must do all we can to ensure that the rights of Afghan women and girls do not slip away again.

Your donation of $60 will pay the salary of a teacher in Afghanistan for one month. Without teachers, who are being targeted by extremists in Afghanistan, the right for girls to go to school is meaningless.

3 comments.

WHO Urges Public Smoking Bad?

Posted on May 29th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Personal, Politics, Current Events, Money, Random.

I do, that’s who! :) But so does the World Health Organization (WHO), calling on all countries to ban smoking at indoor workplaces and in public buildings, stating that:

At least 200,000 workers die each year because of exposure to smoke at their offices and factories, according to the U.N. labor agency. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that about 3,000 deaths from lung cancer each year occur among nonsmoking Americans.

As a smoker, I can tell you that I would welcome such a move.  I can also tell you, for a fact, that if such a ban had been in place six years ago, I would not be a smoker.  More than any anti-smoking campaign, not being able to smoke in bars or restaurants would have kept me from transitioning from a “social” smoker into a habitual one, because anyone who starts smoking while still caring what a parent thinks probably doesn’t pick up the habit in their living room, you know?  Since I paused to consider what happens to workers in smoking environments, I only smoke outside or in my home, and I’m trying to stop that, too. I am horrified to think about Fraser ever picking up a cigarette, and the idea of him comprehending why Auntie Gail steps outside every so often is almost as horrifying.  If it was up to me, tobacco would be illegal, and it’s a disgusting statement about the importance of money in our country that it is still sold over the counter.

0 comments.

Rings Like Anchors

Posted on May 29th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Relationships, Personal, Politics, Feminism, Omnia Vanitas, Meta-Fors, Sponsored Posts, Random.

So my 11th anniversary is coming up in July. Because we’re not married, we celebrate our relationship from the day we met, and since we do not plan to let the government tell us that our commitment matters, we probably will continue to do so until we die or implode, just like other couples, rings or not. But I think its impossible to be a girl in this society, and not feel the pressure surrounding the “Miss” or “Mrs.” divide (BTW, I’m a Ms., thank you very much). From pity to scorn, those of us not wearing diamond rings on our left hands get to experience the whole gamut of judgments from everyone around us. Just to be clear, while I understand the important role marriage plays in our society, I personally believe it is an antiquated tradition that is going to die out within a few generations, for a number of good and not-so-good reasons. I’ll blog more on that later. But I do believe that commitments for life should be recognized and celebrated by the couple, their family, and community. They should be personal and relevant to the people concerned. This is the primary reason I like PrimeStyle’s concept of how to buy jewelry. They state that:

Jewelry requires thought. It should fit your looks, personality and lifestyle. Personal style should be reflected in jewelry. It’s important to find the right piece for the right person. If you approach a jewelry store for something special, they’ll ask questions before showing jewelry, like “ask you what your job is, what your life is like” and try to learn all about you.

Recently, my boyfriend and I have been considering getting rings (okay, he doesn’t want to wear one, but I won’t if he doesn’t! :) ) for ourselves. Not diamonds, which we oppose on both moral and economic grounds, but something that represents us and our personal feelings of commitment to each other. PrimeStyle would probably be one of the places we’d look in our quest, although I’m pushing for iolite as previously mentioned. Rings, like tattoos, can serve as a reminder of the other half of your life when you’re apart. Like an anchor, a ring is meant to keep you grounded. How much more effective they are when they are special, meaningful, and not tarnished by the ugliness of the diamond trade!

0 comments.

1/3 Of U.S. Neither Entitled Nor Qualified To Voice Opinions

Posted on May 28th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Education, Politics, Omnia Vanitas, Random.

Another great one from The Onion.  Whenever I’m down, I can always count on them for at least a little chuckle.  A recent “report” on an opinions study conduct by the same team which “shook the academic world by conclusively proving the existence of both bad ideas during brainstorming and dumb questions during question-and-answer sessions,” discovered the following:

“On topics from evolution to the environment to gay marriage to immigration reform, we found that many of the opinions expressed were so off-base and ill-informed that they actually hurt society by being voiced,” said chief researcher Professor Mark Fultz, who based the findings on hundreds of telephone, office, and dinner-party conversations compiled over a three-year period. “While people have long asserted that it takes all kinds, our research shows that American society currently has a drastic oversupply of the kinds who don’t have any good or worthwhile thoughts whatsoever. We could actually do just fine without them.”

ROTFLOL! I think I might post that inside my gradebook for my own personal amusement. :)

0 comments.

Independence?

Posted on May 4th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Politics, Current Events.

I’m a Scot by heritage, an American by birth. I don’t have a complete understanding of the politics of my homeland, so I was somewhat surprised to see a New York Times article on how Scottish Nationalists recently upset the Labor Party in the mid-term elections. As you can probably guess, this party’s unifying goal is independence from Britain. I guess surprised isn’t the right word, as one of the things you can’t help but notice in that country is a deep and abiding bitterness to the folks south of the border, but Labor always wins. Apparently, the results in Wales were similar, which makes this a potentially interesting time in UK politics. I will be curious to see how this affects the situation in Ireland . . .

0 comments.

Older »