Blog #12 Escaping the Strongholds of Culture: Female Genital Mutilation

Amani Wright
4/19/11
1:50pm

Nancy, a young teen girl, though very obedient and well-behaved, has refused to undergo the routine labia and clitoris removal of her culture. This practice was started centuries ago to keep wives from straying when husbands were away. Now it is a way to prove that one is strong enough to be a part of her culture.

A teen girl, Gertrude, reports that her friends who have had the operation were all cut with the same knife. If any of them had a disease, they would all have it.

An older woman describes how teen girls bleed profusely, go into shock, and even die during this operation.

Culture is the very thing that makes us who we are before we even know who that person is. However, there are people who rebel against this predetermined identity, because they don’t agree with it. Nancy has been scared into bravery. While it is her culture to have her clitoris and labia removed, she says ‘no’; ‘No’ to possible infection, ‘no’ to the pain and blood in the name of culture. Many people all over the world have begun to rebel against certain cultural practices as a way of liberating themselves from the stronghold of something that doesn’t make sense to them.

While not going through with this mutilation will hold Nancy at a low place in society, making her ineligible for marriage, she feels it is her right not to put herself at risk of disease, and even death, and she doesn’t need to do so to achieve her life goals.

Female Genital Mutilation in Kenya: Local Girls Fight Back Against the Controversial Rite [with video]

Blog #13 Growing Global Threat From Chinese Cyber Hackers

Again there is a rise in the threat from cyber attacks, mostly found coming from China. Their main targets are the information that has been stored in the Pentagon, but they have also targeted French, German, and British governments. They have counted the amount of attacks from Chinese hackers they an estimate of 1.6 billion attack happen each month. Even with a large amount of people trying to hack the Pentagon only a few have been successful in doing so. "Even the strongest security systems have holes," one 21-year-old self-trained hacker said. The Chinese government has been arresting many people for this illegal hacking and has even shut down a online hacking school that had over 180000 members. In 2009 they tracked a network of hackers called Ghostnet, which was the largest network of cyber attacks all of which were traced back to China. Many of the hackers now are targeting many oil and gas companies along with Morgan Stanley bank. These hacker are not just a threat to government, they are a threat to us as well. Your identity and bank accounts can easily be hacked into with today’s technology. The hackers today are finding ways to get around certain types of security making most security software today useless and they just walk in. This can be a huge problem to many people as if ones info is stolen then the hacker can easily get most of the things you own. I believe we should have a way to tack the hacker to the source and not just an area as China is a really big place to look for one hacker.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/04/18/growing-global-threat-chinese-cyber-hackers/#ixzz1JvPPnKwu

Final Blog: Afghan Midwives deliver life-saving birth education

This blog struck at my heart. It is about an Afghan woman who lost nine of her children shortly after birth before becoming educated. She now has three living children. Having nine children of my own I just could not imagine the emotional pain. Rogul now works as a midwife in Guldara district, just 20 minutes outside of Kabul. Many babies in Afghanistan die because of traditional cultural practices. It is common for babies to be washed in freezing water immediately after birth, unsterile knives are used to cut umbilical cords and babies are often placed on dirty floors to ward off evil spirits. Newborns are often feed melted butter at birth, because the mothers colostrum is seen as dirty, preventing the infant from receiving vital nutrition for their immune system.
Stories of ignorance prevail. Teenage girl had no idea how pregnancies happened, even after they were married. Many young girls who are married have no idea that sex with their spouse equals pregnancy. The key to education is using local people to education this population. The British Charity Save the Children along with the ministry of public health has launched a program to train 400 new midwives a year. Rogul has saved the lives of many children in the Guldare district. The number of women giving birth with the help of a trained midwife has more than triple since 2003. There are still not enough midwives to go around, but more than 2,400 midwives have been trained since 2002. This is a positive move in the right direction.


Sorry this is late. My blog folder show it was empty and I did not know how to access the site. Dr. Sills told me to also e-mail him.

Blog #12- Easy on those Knees

Kerris McKoy
4/18/2011
12:42AM

Studies show that obesity can be a risk factor of arthritis. Being overweight doubles a person’s risk for osteoarthritis of the knees. Dr. Weiya Zhang, one of the review's authors from the University of Nottingham in the UK explains, "It’s very challenging for doctors to treat this disease. Therefore prevention of this disease becomes very important.” Weight loss is the main prevention of avoiding the risks. The researchers calculated that as many as half of all cases of knee osteoarthritis could be prevented if obesity was eliminated. Zhang and his colleagues reviewed 47 studies that compared the chance of developing knee osteoarthritis in normal weight, overweight, and obese people, including a total of almost 450,000 participants. The results of the study were that one in ten people over age 55 have severe knee arthritis. Also, there are many more people who suffer from chronic knee pain. Arthritis occurs when cartilage around the joint begins to break down, causing inflammation, pain, and stiffness. It is commonly treated with anti-inflammatory drugs, but many people continue having symptoms despite treatment. People who were overweight were about twice as likely to get knee osteoarthritis as people of normal weight. For obese people, the risk was almost 4 times higher. Even though this information has been observed through research, this cannot prove definitely that being obese/overweight causes arthritis. But based from the results of the study, there is a clear view of the correlation between the two. Extra weight can lead to the knee falling apart, because the knees don’t deal well with extra weight. But people should keep in mind that being obese/overweight is not the only risk of developing arthritis. Jobs that consist of steady movement whether involving lifting, carrying, hast movement of the fingers, etc are at risk of arthritis as well. Thus saying it is important to maintain a healthy weight, and be conscious of body movement.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/15/us-weight-arthritis-idUSTRE73E4C520110415?pageNumber=1

Kathryn Summers Blog#12 Knows no other way

Kathryn Summers

SOC-202-01

Dr. Sills

April 17, 2011

Blog#12

Knowing No Other Way of Life.

The article speaks of a girl named Asma. Asma is one of six siblings in urban Bangladesh. Her father is a bike puller, and her mother is a home-maker. She used to go to school, but was forced to work in a factory instead. She knows her family needs her income, but she also wants to go to school. The factory requires 12 hour days and 6 days a week. The factory does not have safe working conditions. Though Bangladesh is making an effort to have children enrolled in primary school, and have very many enrolled, their effort is not enough. Bangladesh has many children that are still employed rather than in school. The UNICEF spokesman says that too many families cannot afford to send their children to school. One reason is that school costs too much. A second reason is that the families need the income of the children. He says that if these problems are not attended to, there is no way the Millennium Goals for education of all primary school children.

Asma is another example of why child labor is bad for education. This child wants to go to school, but is not able. She works in poor conditions and for little pay. Children working rather than going to primary school has been deemed a problem by the United Nations, however, in many countries 2015 is coming too soon. Many countries have made a good effort toward the goal, however there are many children suffering poor conditions, and poor education.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8570692.stm

Obama Administration Unveils Internet ID Plan

The Commerce department on Friday came up with a plan to create a national cyber- identity that would give people the ability to make secure transactions on the internet without worry of cyber theft. With this you get a single password and identity to use, this is a voluntary system only made to protect your identity and your online transactions, “which hit 8.1 million people last year, at a total cost of $27 billion. The problem: The current system of half-remembered passwords jotted down on post-it notes and based on pets and maiden names simply aren’t good enough.” People need to think of more complexes passwords to use when using secure things such as online transactions. This new source will have a onetime digital password for which users will use each time the need to use the software. This new service is great for many people who use the internet for certain transactions and have information they want to keep safe. "This ecosystem will provide citizens with a variety of choices for authenticating their identity online while helping to protect their security and privacy," said Scott Charney, corporate vice president of Microsoft. This will help many around the world, people in China or Egypt can keep their info safe using a program like this instead of insecure websites. Protecting the information of people and help creating a secure network will greatly reduce cyber theft all around the world saving people thousands and help reduce theft.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/04/15/obama-administration-unveils-internet-id-plan/#ixzz1Jp8ZC9Ay

Blog #12 Getting Equal and Rid of Abortions

Even as fetus girls are still secondary to boys, in India a family will have an ultrasound done to find out the sex of the baby and if it is a girl they will abort her. The families state that the reason for this is because girls are seen as a liability and so they rather have a boy. When a girl is born and reaches the age when it is time for her to get married the family has to pay her husband dowry to marry her and they also have to take care of her if the marriage does not work out the way that it is suppose to. This issue is turning into a social issue because of the lack of girls they believe that the future generations will suffer; if no girls are being born then there will be no women to give birth to babies and eventually the population will die off. Even though this article was predominately about the aborting of females in India and how this is affecting society and the population I look deeper into this article and I relate it with women inequality. The women in India do not have the “choice” to whom they may marry but also sometimes they are married into a family and then sexually exploited. The husbands’ family members may use her for sexual things. They are trying to change this and one step they are taking is teaching young guys that the girls in their class are their equals and hopefully this will in turn change the opinions and ideas as far as giving women more equality. I think this could be good for all countries because even her e in the United States women isn’t completely equal to men.

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/14/135417647/in-india-number-of-female-children-drops

pollution #12

Jamel Johnson

SOC 202-01

4/17/2011

Nitrogen is a key in helping to feed the world. But pollution comes with this. Nitrogen pollutes the air, water, and soil. A study was done to see how much the damage cost, by 200 different exports from 21 countries. They found out that the damage across Europe cost 70 billion to 320 billion euros. They said that almost half of the world pollution comes from synthetic nitrogen based fertilizer. They said this could be solved by more efficient use of fertilizers and manures, and people choose to eat less meat. Agriculture makes up for about 80 of nitrogen emissions. That goes for the food to feed the livestock and to feed us. So if we cut down on the about of meat we eat that would help a lot, if you think about it animals eat more vegetation than we do, so that where most of the nitrogen is going. Also don’t miss judge nitrogen; it is critical part of human’s wellbeing. We just have to find a good balance of it so it so it can help us instead of hurting us. In Europe they have been making progress since 1990, Britain has dropped 60 percent nitrogen oxides. So they are going in the right direction. This is something the whole world needs to look into. Also I feel if we cut back on the meat it would make people healthier. I see that we pollute our body with things like we do our earth. We pollute our body with too much meat and alcohol and etc.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/11/us-nitrogen-idUSTRE73A0YF20110411

Blog #12 Unveiling Violations of Human Rights.

Alycia Clark

4/16/2011

11:48 pm

Blog #12

On Monday April 11^th, France enacted a law that would ban the wearing of veils such as burqa’s and niqab’s. President Sarkozy pushed for this movement, because of his own personal beliefs that “veils imprison women, and contradict this secular nation’s values of dignity and equality” and that “veils are not welcome in France.” sadly much of the public supported the ban. Punishment for breaking this rule consists of $215 (150 euro) or a French citizen class. The punishment is even higher if the police have to force a woman to remove it, or if they are a minor. Police are not allowed to remove a veil, and are not allowed to take women to jail because of it. After the law was put into place, a protest was held in front of Notre Dame Cathedral, which included many women wearing the veils despite the ban. This protest ended up with two women being taken away for taking part in an un-authorized protest.

This ban is argued very strongly by both sides. Those who are for it, believe that it is against French ways, and that these people need to assimilate, and act and dress as the French people do. Those who are against it, feel as though it is a racist act that is directly targeting Muslim women. They also believe that it is against their human rights, that in a truly free and democratic nation, people should be able to dress however they please.

It’s funny how, in today’s world, an act such as wearing a face veil that ultimately promotes religion and modesty, would be looked down upon. it may be slightly extreme for some, but modestly used to be looked on as a good thing. I believe that it is a small way of trying to come against the “enemy of the west”; the Muslims. Muslims are the second largest group in France, and this is just an all too common form of pitting one group over another, through subtle differences. Granted, it may not be for everyone, but those who chose to follow this practice, especially if due to a good, moral, religious reason, they should be allowed to. This is definitely a violation of human rights by violating the freedom of expression, and even religion. Although Sarkozy feels as though he is “liberating” these women, allowing them to make the decisions they please, is the most liberating thing he can do.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/11/france-burqa-ban-takes-ef_n_847366.html

Zetas leader arrested for role in San Fernando massacres

Greg Garraway
4/16/2011
Blog 12
11:45 PM

Zetas leader arrested for role in San Fernando massacres
In the article I chose, Mexican marines arrested a Zetas cell leader and five other people for their alleged roles in a series of massacres that took place in San Fernando, Tamaulipas. "Mexico's Naval Secretary Mariano Saynez reported on his Twitter account on Saturday afternoon that Omar Martin Estrada-Luna is in custody. Estrada-Luna, who goes by the nicknames "Comandante Kilo" or "El Kilo," is believed be one of the authors of the massacres. The Mexican Navy (SEMAR) confirmed the arrest and said in a statement the Estrada-Luna is believed to be responsible for a series of mass graves recently found in San Fernando. Authorities have recovered 145 bodies but fear there may be more than 200 hidden in graves throughout the area."
Estrada-Luna played a part in recent massacres as well as other slaughters back in August 2010. His arrest exposed his rank as a plaza boss. There are still a case with around 39 suspects including 16 San Fernando police officers involved.
Analysis: Overall the crime issues seem to be growing steady as well as arrest and captures increasing as well. By the many drug busts and arrests the balance is leveled. By taking down a leader of a gang that can hinder the group's activity until the group finds a new leader or moves on its own. The arrests do help but it still seems that crime activity is always active and young members of society still seem to be always joining in and the society in certain parts of the world can easily form or accept gang members to join in numbers.


http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?list=195019&id=606459

Blog #12 Syrian: Rampant Torture of Protesters

On April 15^th, 2011 reports from the Human Rights Watch stated that protesters in Syria are being tortured for protesting the government. Of the nineteen people that were interviewed by the Human Rights Watch, seventeen said that they were beaten during their arrest and also while being held as a detainee in Daraa. Not only were they victim to beatings, they also witnessed daily beatings in the prisons by the mukhabarat. Among those being beaten were women and children of all ages. Those interviewed also told Human Rights Watch that other detainees were subjected to other forms of torture such as electro-shock, beatings with cables and whips, starvation, hunger, and sleep deprivation.

This amount of brutality issued by the Syrian State Security Force is unnecessary and uncalled for. What more uncalled for is the lack of help that these protesters are receiving. In my opinion, the United Nations should be using the power that they displayed in helping to end the same type of abuse in Egypt to end this suffering. By having the United Nations step in and enforce the international policies against human rights violations, the United Nations would send a message to the rest of the world saying that human rights abuse will not be tolerated no matter where it happens. Earlier in the year, Secritary - General Ban Ki-moon was criticized for being slack on enforcing laws against human rights violations and promised that things would change during the year but one success is clearly not enough to end world human rights issues.

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/04/15/syria-rampant-torture-protesters

World Water Day: Iraq wastes 50% of water

Michelle Yazvac

4/16/11

Blog #11

According to the UN, around 6 million Iraqis are without clean water and half of the country’s water resources are wasted.
"Iraq faces difficulties in meeting the target of 91 percent of households using a safe drinking water supply by 2015," due to decades of conflict, sanctions and neglect, theUNICEF children's fund stated.
50% of water is wasted due to waste, seepage and system inefficiencies. One in five Iraqis go without clean water. According to the article more than 500,000 Iraqi children access their water from a river or creek and over 200,000 access their water from an open well. Diseases could be derived from the water because of pollution and the accumulation of people using the same water resource.

Over 360,000 cases of diarrhea was an occurrence as a result of polluted drinking water. There is a lack of an awareness for hygiene among local communities In the first six months of 2010, there were over 360,000 diarrhea cases as a result of polluted drinking water and a lack of hygiene awareness among local communities more so with women and children. UNICEF is supporting Iraq’s water problem by creating an awareness and providing training camps. More investments will be made towards this organization for water infrastructure to try and keep these resources from being polluted.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/world-water-day-iraq-wastes-50-of-water

Blog 11 Dam Folly

Alex Clute
April 16, 2001
0930 EST

An article in Al Jazeera reports that in Brazil environmental and indigenous activists are currently struggling to prevent the construction of the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon. First conceived during the 1980s under the behest of a military government, the $10 billion project would divert 80% of the river, flooding over 100,000 acres of endangered habitat in the Amazon forest and forcing 20,000 indigenous people to relocate. If built the dam will be the third largest in the world and President Dilma Rouseff along with elements in the government claim that the dam will provide electric for 23 million homes and generate jobs and that the dam is needed to bolster Brazil's economic growth, which 7.5% last year.

Businessweek reports that the Belo Monte dam project has been order to halt by the Brazilian courts until twenty-nine undisclosed environmental criteria are met. The Businessweek article places the land that would flooded at 127,506 acres while placing the number of people being relocated at 1000. The dam would be built and controlled by a state-owned companies Eletrobras and Norte Energia.

A study conducted by International Rivers, entitled Environmental Impacts of Brazil's Tucurui Dam, on a similar dam project on the Tucurui River, also in Brazil, during the 1980s concluded that the construction of the dam consistently placed economic interests over those of the environment and people. And also found that the dam was built to fulfill the interests of foreign investment and the aluminum smelting industry. The results of the Tucurui dam were health and social problems coupled with large-scale environmental destruction. While noting that in theory Brazil has improved its environmental and social record, it is likely that future projects will follow the same course. The study calls for transparency in the planning of new development projects so that who benefits may be clearly determined.

Bosnian Immigrants accused of War Crimes

Chelsea Smothers Blog #12 4/15/2011 11:03 PM On Wednesday, two Bonsian immigrants were arrested in the Pacific Northwest on charges for war crime. They were accused of targeting Croats during the Balkans' bloody sectarian war in the 1990s. The two men were Edin Dzeko who is 39 and from Everett, Washington and Rasema Handanovic who is 39, also, and from Beaverton, Oregon. They were taken into custody on an extradition request from the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the U.S. attorney's offices in Washington and Oregan said in separate statements. The pair helped to lead an attack on the village of Trusina, in April of 1993. Sixteen people were killed and four civilians, which included two infants, were injured seriously due to the attack. Dzeko immigrated to the United States in 2001 and became a citizen in 2006. He allegedly forced a man out of his house at gunpoint, another member of Dseko's unit shot him. Dzeko also shot another man with an automatic rifle, said the extradition request. In 2002, Handanovic became a United States citizen. In the same incident, he allegedly shot a civilian woman and an elderly couple. Handanovic has also been accused of participating in "firing-squad-style executions" of unarmed captured Croatian soldiers and civilians in Gaj, said the Oregon U.S. attorney's office. David Gehrke, who is Dzeko's attorney, said that authorities may likely have the wrong man. Dzeko was 20 at the time of the incident, but he was described in the extradition request as a "senior staff member" of his unit. His attorney also added that Dzeko's name is common in Bosnia. Wheter Handovanic had an attorney was unclear. Referring to Dzeko's attorney, who stated that the wrong man may be being accused of such crimes, I personally believe is wrong. I feel like if enough information was collected to accuse this man of such war crimes, then it must be true. The killing and injuring of innocent people is absurd. Espicially the harming of two infants, it is morbid. What is to gain from such crimes? How heartless and cold does a person have to be? The same goes for Handovanic. She commited crimes just like Dzeko did. All of it is pointless, and cold, and morbid. I believe both should be punished for what they have done. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-war-crimes-20110414,0,3846020.story

Blog Number 12: 27 Year Old Mother goes on Hunger Strike in Hopes that Officials Will Release Her Family

Colleen Mills

10:30 PM

15 April 2011

The 27 year old mother of a baby girl is also the daughter of a prominent rights activist of the Bahraini opposition. Today was the fourth day of her hunger strike in an attempt to have her father, her brother-in-law, husband and uncle who were all carried away by police earlier in the week. She said that ‘armed masked men’ came into her father’s house on Saturday and beat him until he lay unconscious and then carried him away. He was detained for documenting human rights abuses in Bahrain and the other men were detained for supporting such documentation. All of the arrests were made in Manama.

Along with these men, 30 doctors and 150 health ministry workers have also been arrested for supporting anti-government protests and working for their people’s rights.

Saudi Arabia has also attempted to cease the protest by allowing their troops to enter in Manama.

The Bahrain government has been facing troubling times as the people have been protesting, more often than not peacefully, for their rights and a future of constitutional monarchy and a voice in their government.

This is a global social problem because Saudi Arabia has entered the situation. The human rights violations are just a small example of how many countries in the Middle East are working for democracy and are either extremely successful or failing miserably. It appears that the people of Manama are failing miserably. With the end goal of a constitutional monarchy in sight, I hope the people of Manama don’t give up their fight.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/174712.html

Clinic gives Nigerian Woman new lives- Blog #12

KaRika Jones
April 15, 2011
7:05pm

     Amina, 17 years old, is one out of 2 million women in the world (almost 800,000 in Nigeria) with fistula. This disease happens when a mother is in labor and the child's head is pressed against the mother's pelvic bone. The blood supply to the tissue died which resulted in a hole in Amina's bladder and vagina. She was abandoned by her husband like many others, so she spent the next 19 years interacting with her immediate family. The obstetric care is so poor that it would take a woman a day to get to the hospital and another day to be treat. So because of this result, one of eighteen Nigerian women die at childbirth, compared to one of 4,800 in the United States. Culture plays an important role in this situation. Woman marry young like below the age of 18 in Nigeria. Men are also very dominate and are the ones who give the woman permission to go to the hospital and to do any procedures. This causes further emergency delays.
     For ways that people and governments are trying to prevent fistulas is by opening a fistula/maternity ward and outreach program in hopes to get women to give births in hospitals because its safer. Surgeon Said Abubakar reconstructs the vaginal walls for those who were already afflicted. For therapy the women listen to music and dance. The fistula issue has been address to the U.S. Congress by Representative Carolyn Maloney, but advocates of maternal health felt the issue has been neglected.
     In all seriousness, I am glad the Nigerian women have a great hope of getting a second change to live. Since women are most conscious and emotional, its important that these women have something to look forward to. I believe that's why the therapy is set up that way so women can feel more vibrant since they have been shunned away from their community by the fistula disease. As for the United States, though we have a low chance as women of getting the disease I believe the country should still be a part of the prevention movement. United States has the best resources of spreading awareness and prevention programs. I feel that these resources should go to other countries because its affecting over 2 million women every year.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/nigeria/110325/clinic-fistula-women?page=full

Blog12- WHO appeals for better baby care

Sha'Nese Jones
4/15/2011
6:27pm

WHO appeals for better baby care

The world health organization is appealing for the need of more basic health care for babies to prevent millions of deaths during and soon after birth. It’s said that half a million women die in childbirth every year, along with 11 million under-fives. The WHO appealed for a substantial increase in funding to help improve maternal and infant healthcare. The UN says that a lot of these conditions that contribute to the deaths can be easily avoided or treated. Reports say that the half a million women who die of pregnancy related deaths was a scandal. They also say that twenty children under five die every minute along with one woman who will die in pregnancy or childbirth. Of the 11 million deaths it includes more than four million newborns that die within a month not including the 3.3 million stillbirths every year. According to the World Health Report less than two thirds of women in developing countries give birth with the help of qualified assistance. Which drops to fewer than one-third in the poorest countries. For those children under five it’s found that they mainly die from Pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, measles, neonatal ailment and Aids. The UN says that $9Bn is needed every year over the next ten years, within the countries most needed to help reach the United Nations development goals on child mortality.

Eleven million under five deaths is an astonishing number that still seems very much unimaginable in the world that we have today. With so much advancement within the world one would think that there would be a better contribution towards maternal and child health. There should be a way to contribute to helping those within developing countries for better health care for mothers and their child. Within the developing countries a lot of it is probably due to the areas and the environments in which the women stay that prevents them from getting care. The contributing money could help in training those within the developing areas to become certified in helping within childbirth.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4419161.stm