My Shot at the News

Many of my friends' Blogs are concerned with world and local news (i.e. Scott and Brooke, Erin...) and their thoughts on the issues at hand, as opposed to being centered on just their daily lives, and I thought I might take a shot at some issues that concern me every so often. While I don't have a personally set policy on everything under the sun, there are a few things I can discuss at length with a definitive opinion. So let me get ranting now, with my dogmatic self:

I read this article on the BBC today:

US exports anti-abortion policy
by Nadene Ghouri, Social Affairs Specialist, BBC Radio 5

Wendy Wright is a genuinely concerned woman. Concerned Women of America is the name of the political lobby group she works for. Fiercely anti-abortion, their aim is to bring biblical values to US policy.

"It's funny how the moral positions are usually the healthier, safer and politically sensible positions," she says, speaking at her home in Washington.

On his first business day in office, with the support of voters like Wendy, President George W Bush started a war few people have heard about - his war on abortion.

He reinstated an old policy from the Reagan days called the Mexico City policy or "gag rule". The rule states that the United States will not allow its overseas aid money to be used to fund groups that carry out or provide any kind of advice or information about abortion.

Hundreds of women's health organisations in the poorest nations of the world - places where maternal mortality and infant death are high - faced a tough choice. Either sign the gag rule and be silenced on abortion, or refuse and lose millions of dollars in US aid.

Most refused to sign. As a result, thousands of family planning clinics across the developing world have closed their doors, making access to vital contraceptives hard to come by.

The US aim was to cut abortion worldwide, but has it worked?

Back-street abortions
I travelled to Ethiopia - a country where abortion is illegal but where a
recent study at Addis Ababa hospital found half of all female deaths there
were caused by botched back-street abortions. Here the cost of silence can
be high.

If they are forced to give birth they throw the children into latrines or abandon them for the hyenas to eat them

Amare Badada, Ethiopian Family Guidance Association
One of the most upsetting moments was standing outside a one-room tin hut where Asmara, a prostitute, had bled to death just hours earlier.

Aged 22, she received condoms from the local Marie Stopes clinic. It closed when
the US cut its cash after it failed to sign. She got pregnant and died.

"She had no money to go to hospital, so became too weak to move, then she died," her friend told me.

On the other side of Addis Ababa is Molu, living with nine children in one room. She has been told one more baby will kill her.

But the clinic that gives her the pill for free is shutting. There is no other clinic.

Molu says if she gets pregnant again, she will carry out her own abortion with wire. "Either way I will die," she says with chilling fatality.

'Hypocritical'
In the region of Nazareth in Ethiopia's highland plains, I met Amare Badada of the Ethiopian Family Guidance Association.

Mr Badada lists rape, forced marriage and genital mutilation as part of daily life for women.

"These women will always find a way to abort somehow," he said. "If they are forced to give birth they throw the children into latrines or abandon them for the hyenas to eat them."

Mr Badada refused to sign the gag rule, and has since watched his organisation's family planning clinics close down one after the other. In the region of Nazareth, there were 54 clinics last year. Next year there will be just 10.

Each clinic serves approximately 500 women who walk an average of 10
kilometres (six miles) to get there. The impact of the closures is immense.

"Under the gag rule, I can treat a woman who comes bleeding after an illegal abortion but I am not allowed to warn her of the dangers before she goes," Mr Badada said. "We should not be told what to think and say.

"It is hypocritical to allow US taxpayers' money to be used to fund abortion in the States but not here.

"The US is driving women into the hands of back-street abortionists."

Getachew Bekele, Ethiopian director of Marie Stopes International, who also refused, says: "It hasn't worked to cut abortion. All it has done is deprive women of condoms."

Abstinence
A key aim of the American anti-abortion lobby is to silence Marie Stopes, which is
lobbying to overturn the abortion laws in Ethiopia and other places where it is illegal.

Under President Bush, the anti-abortion movement is stronger than ever.

Supporters believe every woman has the right to have as many babies as God plans. They also believe the high death-rate of mothers in labour, and the numbers of unwanted babies can be tackled with an alternative solution - abstinence.

Mr Bush has won plaudits for his promise to spend $15bn to fight Aids, but few people know that one-third of the money set aside for prevention is to go to faith-based, abstinence-only programmes.

But not all Americans agree. Wendy Turnbull works for Population Action International - a pro-choice lobby group.

"How can we look Africa in the eye and say here you go - here's the money, but we tell you how to spend it. How arrogant is that?"

But Wendy Wright remains convinced America knows best.

"It's not that I know what is right for other women," she says. "It's that I know what is right."

You can hear Nadene Ghouri's report Bush's Other War on Radio 5 Live at 1030 on Sunday 29 June.

Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr//2/hi/americas/3028820.stm
Published: 2003/06/28 17:01:13 GMT© BBC MMV


Yesterday there was some equally horrific article about our present administration's policy in regards to the UN declaration on women's rights. Has our President ever studied history, or even attempted to follow his own party's chronology? In 1960, even the Republican Presidential hopeful, Senator Barry Goldwater of Alabama, said, "You can't legislate morality."

That thought still holds true today. When we have tried to "legislate morality" in the past, perhaps most notably with Prohibition in the 1920's and even in the past few decades with our "War on Drugs," it has been an abject failure. In a free and democratic society, you cannot tell anyone how they are to think on any particular issue. Even the party lines of Democrat and Republican blur when it comes to the so-called "moral" issues.

I came across this argument, from a 20th century sociologist while I was whiling away my time on the web that illustrates a beautiful point:

What then is the relation of law to morality? Law cannot prescribe morality, it can prescribe only external actions and therefore it should prescribe only those actions whose mere fulfillment, from whatever motive, the state adjudges to be conducive to welfare. What actions are these? Obviously such actions as promote the physical and social conditions requisite for the expression and development of free—or moral—personality.... Law does not and cannot cover all the ground of morality. To turn all moral obligations into legal obligations would be to destroy morality. Happily it is impossible. No code of law can envisage the myriad changing situations that determine moral obligations. Moreover, there must be one legal code for all, but moral codes vary as much as the individual characters of which they are the expression. To legislate against the moral
codes of one’s fellows is a very grave act, requiring for its justification the most indubitable and universally admitted of social gains, for it is to steal their moral codes, to suppress their characters.

by: R.M. MacIver (1882–1970), Scottish sociologist, educator. The Modern State, ch. 5, Oxford University Press (1926).

Chillingly, a large number of Americans decided to vote in the November elections based on "moral issues." While the 527's administering these broad-based exit polls never clearly defined the meaning of such a broad category as "moral issues," it seems to me that morality was fairly well defined during the debates and in my own contact with the general public through my job with a political watchdog in Philadelphia as dealing with abortion, gay rights, religion and the War on Iraq issues.

Today, however, I am dealing with the abortion issue. While I personally have never had to make such a difficult decision, nor can I completely understand all the emotions and consequences due to such an action, I don't understand why people can't agree to disagree. Why can't abortion be a legal procedure without the church and other such advocates deciding that for their devotees it is not an option? In other words, why are so many people hell-bent on making decisions for other people?

I do not feel the need to consult the President of the United States when faced with the choice of boyfriends, cars, careers, and other external forces, so why should I be shackled by laws that aim to regulate religious thought and what I do with my own body? As a woman faced with so many other degradations on a daily basis because of the simple fact that I was born without a penis, why would I want to give up what little control I have in my own life?

While many Bush supporters claim that the current administration does NOT violate our historical separation of church and state ideal, it is clear to me that he is pushing his Christianity onto all of us, even with something so simple as cutting back all foreign aid to country programs that support abortion measures (i.e. cutting off your nose despite your face) and putting 1/3 of U.S. funding for international AIDS programmes into faith-based initiatives that preach abstinence only. Does he not realize that in certain countries this is not a choice for women? Incidence of rape, molestation, and genital mutilation are common practices in other parts of the world.

In fact, there are many instances of rape and molestation in the United States which need to be addressed as well. Science has thus far determined that human life does not exist until at least the third trimester of pregnancy. Prior to that, I see no real problem for women to make an educated choice on what is best for them (morally, financially and spiritually). If that woman is a devoted Catholic, then maybe she will side with the Pope. If that woman was raped, or is in physical danger due to the pregnancy, then maybe she will decide to go through with the procedure.

What it seems to really come down to is one's choice of faith, and that, my friends, is EXACTLY why we cannot legislate against performing or receiving abortions. With the separation of church and state that we hold so dear in this country, it is not only illegal but it is downright silly to start creating laws based on a religious faith, whether it's a commonly held religion or not.

As Americans, we cherish the idea of living our lives in "pursuit of happiness," free from the religious and social persecution of others. I don't make any bones about greatly disliking the Bush administration, and abortion is only one more issue that makes me feel like a persecuted minority in this country. I can't wait until 2008, when we can get this religious and thought-challenged zealot out of office for good.

Yesterday...

...All my troubles seemed so far away...

And there ends my rendition of the infamous Beatles song.

What I really want to talk about is my walk to the library yesterday. The new Boss Man let me leave early as he thought I might have trouble getting home if I waited too long (yes, an insult to my native New England sensibilities), which worked out in my favor as the library decided to close early because of the BIG BAD SNOW. That was the longest walk to the library I have ever experienced.

To give you an idea of what it was like, I must ask the question, "Have you ever been outside in a hail storm with no hat on?" That is exactly what it felt like. The jackass that I am, I failed to bring any sort of headgear or umbrella with me to work yesterday so it was just me, the twenty mile an hour headwinds and snow that melted the second it slapped me in the forehead. By the time I reached the library, I was wet, I was cold, I was miserable, I was completely red-cheeked from the wind, and I was faced with a man who wouldn't stop rumbling in a rich baritone that criss-crossed the voluminous lobby area, "The library is now closing...the library is NOW closing."

Like a scared bunny rabbit, I ran from the Popular Library where I returned one book and re-borrowed another to the History division where I re-borrowed two more books. The swift kick in the ass was that I could re-new all the books online EXCEPT the two reference books I borrowed from the History Department. Technically, I could re-new those books via telephone, but the line was busy for a half hour before I finally decided to walk out there anyway.

The worst part? I had to leave the library directly and walk to the gym, which is about 15-20 blocks away. Brrrrr....

But I did go to the gym, so that's a major plus. I skipped the aerobic workouts all last week and my goal is really to earn back about $200 from my health insurance by logging in enough workouts. All I need to do is just stay on track.

Last night I also watched an excellent Argentinian film called Son of the Bride. To put it mildly, I bawled like a baby. In fact, I cried so hard, and for so long, that I had to put myself to bed by 9PM because I had such a raging dehydration headache. You should definitely go out and rent it - if you're a straight guy, it will make you look sensitive and cultured in front of that special lady, and if you're a girl, it will remind you of all the beautiful things in your life. Go get it, tiger!

Twice in One Day!

I just can't stop myself from writing again. I am doing my best to stay awake today, but it seems that nothing but a good, long nap will help me make it through to quitting time. Meanwhile, the snow still rages (that's right, "RAGES!") on outside my window and I pray to the gods of justice that there will be enough inchage by 8AM tomorrow to require school closings and no more work until Wednesday.

My job just underwent a big transition to a new Board leadership in December, and then last week, our staff of three dropped to a staff of two for a few days as our Executive Director was ousted and a new PRESIDENT AND CEO (to be said in a big, booming voice like the title implies) was installed. All this turmoil and transition is the real reason they want to keep me onboard here and why they pushed through my raise. There is no one else who knows my job and, if I left, the Board would have more to tangle with than just figuring out the right spin to their newest PR campaign. At least, that's what I tell myself to get through the day. Repeat after me: "I am NOT replaceable, I am NOT replaceable, I am NOT replaceable..."

To this end, I was even privy to a champagne lunch at the Philadelphia Club last week. There is nothing quite like asparagus and shrimp bisque, horseradish-encrusted sea bass, steamed vegetables, potatoe pancakes, and peppermint ice cream in the middle of the afternoon. (The champagne was only a sidenote as I barely sipped more than two quaffs - champagne is icky!) The Club is in a completely renovated home, replete with cathedral-height ceilings, fireplaces in every room, chandeliers, original wood furniture, and crown moulding galore. It is not exactly the kind of home I would want to live in (even if I could afford it), but I certainly have the ability to admire the beauty of its furnishings. If nothing else, it is an elegant, old-world place to visit.

On the other hand, sitting down to dine with several of the "they's" and "them's" who control everything (i.e. the old white men who puppeteer Philadelphia politics in their spare time, and with their spare money), along with the new PRESIDENT AND CEO and my one other colleague, is not exactly my idea of an afternoon perfectly enjoyed. They discussed this, that, and the other Philadelphia thing, and my inability to spark an ounce of concern for the topic of discussion was a real drag. Lucky for me, I drank enough tea to keep me running to the ladies room every ten minutes...

Okay, so I have now just realized that I have nothing else to discuss. Maybe I should just close up shop and run off to the library befor total white-out conditions encroach upon my adventures in reading. Oooh, which reminds me, I should probably call the library and make sure they are open. And I'm off!

Flakes - They're Not Just for Your Scalp Anymore!

Once again, my friends, it is snowing. Not that I particularly mind today, except for the fact that I have to walk to the library and should pick up my dry cleaning this evening. Although if this is the extent of that HUGE Nor'easter the weathermen have overblown into a story of mammoth proportions, then I really think we ought to revolt against a weather segment on the nightly news. What a rip-off! At the very least, I expect several feet of powdery white stuff and a couple of old-people deaths to start of the day if they're threatening me with THE BIGGEST STORM SINCE THE ICE AGE! And I really mean those all-caps.

As for my actual weekend, I had a wonderfully boring time with my honey in Philadelphia on Saturday and Sunday. Since he was working Friday night with the First Lady of Mexico (or someone along those lines), I spent Friday night doing nothing but watching crap t.v. and reassuring myself that my reading, applications, etc. can wait. Saturday I spent reading, cleaning the apartment, grocery shopping, and pampering Anthony; Sunday was full of homemade strawberry pancakes and bacon, several hours of clothes shopping that led to a new pair of work shoes for Anthony and a single t-shirt for me, and then a sweet-sweet five hours of Academy Awards bruhaha with my Mama Palma's and several bowls of neopolitan ice cream with berries on top.

Now it hurts to be awake, but that was the least disappointing Oscars I've seen in many moons. Whoever arranged the ceremonies this year certainly did a good job on time (it only ran over about 15 minutes), and cut out a lot of the really dull speeches that have come to mark most awards shows as a type of sleep-inducer. I am really proud of the Academy also for not choosing Martin Scorcese and The Aviator as Best Director and Best Film. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I think there was so much genuine competition out there that I didn't want to see another, "Well, you did really great with past movies, so we're going to give you this award because we think it's about time." I HATE when sub-par movies/actors/directing jobs/etc. get recognized far later than they should, thereby NOT honoring another person who clearly deserved recognition that year.

At least the Academy recognized a few independent gems this year, granting that industry some clout in the years to come (the most recognition going to Jamie Foxx with his Best Actor Oscar, but kudos also going to Sideways for Best Adapted Screenplay and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for Best Original Screenplay). On a personal level, I was really happy to see Finding Neverland gain some recognition, even if it was only for Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures. It was such a beautiful little film, and I cried like a baby in the theatre all by myself.

Of course, Million Dollar Baby was the big winner this year. Morgan Freeman got Best Supporting, Hillary Swank got Best Actress, Clint Eastwood got Best Director, and the movie garnered Best Motion Picture of the Year. For those same awards, my picks wouldn't have differed greatly: Freeman for Best Supporting, Winslet for Best Actress, Eastwood for Directing, and of the movies up for Best Motion Picture I would have liked to see Ray or Finding Neverland win (although I know the whole world is not behind me).

Other thoughts on the awards:

• Sean Penn is still an ASS, who really didn't deserve last year's Oscar for Mystic River;
• My favorite acceptance speech of all time was Ben Affleck and Matt Damon for Good Will Hunting a few years ago - they were so young, so exuberant, so truly NOT HOLLYWOOD that it was a refreshing sight to see them win;
• Halle Barre's acceptance speech last year was painful, but not nearly as painful as her acting inabillity in Monster's Ball (why again did she get that Oscar?);
• I have to give a shout out to Chris Rock for a) retorting to Sean Penn so well, b) conducting a real-life interview of average movie-goers, most of whom's favorite movie of 2004 was White Chicks (egads!), and c) mentioning Boat Trip, the most god-awful movie that Jimmy and I had the pleasure of watching on our Dominican vacation (Cuba, what were you thinking???);
• Renee Zellweger should never go brunette and should start eating again before I mistake her for a starving tsunami aid child;
• Drew Barrymore makes a better blonde;
• Why don't they actually have some kind of viewing of all the shorts before or during the Oscars? Then we might actually have a chance of seeing some of them;
• Carlos Santana and Antonio Banderas should never collaborate to destroy a beautiful song again with their live performance;
• Costume Design should have gone to Lemony Snickett, if only because there was no time period for the designers to review and each design had to be imagined first instead of stolen from another age;
• House of Flying Daggers should have received Best Cinematography;
• and the Best Supporting Actress should have been anyone BUT Cate Blanchett, who impersonates just a shell of the late, great Katherine Hepburn (probably learned from watching too many old movies, instead of figuring out what kind of person Hepburn was in her private life

And that's all I have to say about that. Other than... next year I need to find someone else to watch the awards show with because Anthony is the WORST date for that kind of thing. He has such a dislike for Hollywood and actors that he can't keep his hate inside, which was made even more obvious after he drank about six glasses of beer and a glass of wine. It makes for a very tense viewing of the glitz and glamour that is the Academy Awards - and really, for something as silly as an awards show, who needs all that?

Self-Involvement

Have you ever looked closely at yourself without the aid of a mirror, in the midst of having a conversation with yourself, and asked, "Why are you such a miserable pessimist of a human being?"

I have been doing that all day, while I silently rage against the world and Anthony is on the telephone verbally expressing his dismay at having to work so hard and for so long, with nary a rest between jobs. Sometimes I think, "How much more selfish can I be?" And then I follow that up with, "And why not be selfish? You deserve to vent your anger and frustration at the world sometimes too..."

And all this to say that there is a battle raging in my head these past few weeks, stress and frustration and uncertainty uppermost in my mind, keeping me awake long hours into the night far after I've climbed wearily into bed. Poor Anthony, like those legions of men (and by "legions" I mean a whole TWO GUYS) before him, has to endure all my crazy neuroses, where I analyze myself and him and my roommates and my friends and my family and all those "what-ifs" that may never come to be. It must be EXHAUSTING to put up with me. How does he do it?

Now he is grumpy and tired, constantly venting in my general direction and I can't even bring myself to be as nice as I want to be (or even as nice as he usually is to me). In my mind, it's always all about me and I don't know where this selfless love is supposed to come from, but I am apparently missing that gene. Why can't I just be a nice girl - listen sympathetically (i.e. SHUTUP RYAN!), speak very little (i.e. WHO ASKED FOR YOUR OPINION?!!), and act like a 1950's housewife (i.e. cook, clean, launder, and have a whiskey on the rocks in hand when the breadwinner comes home - because god knows I'm not making any money!).

Okay, so maybe I won't be turning back the feminism, but it couldn't hurt to be a bit more empathic (or is it "empathetic?"). I know there are things on my mind lately - I sorely dislike my current job, which doesn't pay me much; I'm applying to new jobs but am not really sure which direction I want to take; I'm poor; I'm applying to Columbia for a program and may also eventually have to take the GRE (depending on which career track I take); I'm studying for the foreign service exam, etc. - but there are things that are weighing on Anthony, too.

I guess what I'd like to know is how other couples out there do it. If you're both under tremendous outside pressure, how do you make each others' loads a little easier to bear? I feel like I always react in the wrong manner, as if everything I have to give just isn't good enough anymore. It's a very new and strange feeling, having always been so confident in myself in life. Anthony doesn't seem to want anyone, not even me, to help him and I am terrible at accepting the solution-based conversation of men. Yet I can't seem to get enough of him and he tells me he loves me. Where are we going wrong today?

I must be having a bad day. It's either that or an analytical breakdown.

On a completely different topic, our newest intern smells really tasty. I mean, seriously. I don't know what he does in the morning - puts on a nice cologne, swims in his deoderant, takes a bath - but whatever it is, it makes the entire front office smell like a sweet, sweet version of baby powder.

Whence Came This Word Vomit?

I haven't had much to write about in the past week or so, and with none of the time to write it in I just haven't been around the Blog for a "snatch" (to steal my Jimmy's favorite word). Although now my curiousity is peaked, what with two comments on my last post and them's being ANONYMOUS and all...

I know you're all dying to know where I've been, but I honestly have been busy with boring things: studying, laundry, college applications, and the like. I didn't even do anything exciting on Valentines Day, unless you consider watching Anthony fall asleep by 6:30PM every night for three days an exciting time (he just got back from his whirlwind tour of Europe and the Middle East with Condaleeza and managed to capture a head cold on the trip back). Although it would have been nice to have done something wonderfully special for the holiday, my baby just got back from two weeks of busy travel and, having experienced that life myself, I can't really work up the righteous anger to throw in his face. It just doesn't work that way.

Although we DID have a fairly romantic brunch at Bubby's in Brooklyn with Mel on Sunday. And I actually saw MEL EAT FRUIT AND GRANOLA. There wasn't even a speck of meat on her entire plate - even when I tempted her with my sausage! The woman is on a one-way track to a diet (that's "DIE" with a "t," folks). She's even been at the gym every day for a week...will wonders ever cease??? I just can't believe my "meat, with a side of meat" gal has gone all green! (Although I did have to explain to her that the little cabbages are called "brussel sprouts," right hon?)

Anthony and I even decided that Mel was our new Tsunami Aid child...long story, but it was funny at the time. Even funnier when he suggested that we each grab a little hand and swing Mel between our 6-foot frames (hey, I had heels on!).

So really, that was my one and only story. Now it's time to go back to my dull and uneventful life, where my linens don't clean themselves and the books don't get read all on their own.

Hey Jude...

...don't make it bad
Take a sad song
and make it better...

I am having the worst week ever, which has prevented me from writing, but I decided that today was my official "throw caution to the wind" and "avoid as much work as possible" day. I've been running on full steam for over a month now, and I've just about had it. What with working for very little pay, not even covering my bills, never going out, studying for the foreign service exam, applying for jobs, and keeping up with my regular housework, life is just one trying day after another. What a PAIN IN THE ASS.

On the upside, I got a raise this week - although having my salary move from "totally deplorable" to "just slightly less deplorable" isn't exactly a feat. At least now I have more of a bargaining chip when the job offers start rolling in (there's that Class-A wishful thinking for ya)...

No matter. My Anthony is returning home tomorrow and that, my friends, makes it all worthwhile! I may have failed to finish the story of my Dominican vacation, failed to make ends meet once again this month, and failed to put on a happy face for all of society yet again, but at least I have him. Mine, mine, mine, mine, MINE!

Whew. I sound like the biggest maniac on the planet...