it takes a village to erase an idiot

October 14, 2007

When feminist anarchist Emma Goldman said “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal” – she obviously wasn’t anticipating Howard using less blatant tactics to hinder the voters who love him least.

With the November 24th federal elections now announced, eligible voters have until this Wednesday night to enrol, update your addresses and remind any overseas friends who can vote that it’s on. Then hopefully the political ad spam will be over and we can get on with the real thing.

Thanks to the Libs new enrollment legislation – reducing the time period that you can enrol in once the election’s been called – larger numbers of voters will ‘miss out’ on their voter rights this election. With compulsory voting, the figures of 1st time youth voters especially will be influenced, when they’re more pro-Rudd overall. AEC media release + link about enrolling.

Australian Electoral Commision

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has been advising the public during 2007 that there have been important changes to the deadlines for enrolling to vote at federal elections.

“If you’re not on the electoral roll and you’re entitled to enrol, you must fill in an enrolment form immediately and return it to an AEC office by 8pm, Wednesday 17 October,” …

“If you’re already on the roll but still need to update your address details, to ensure your vote you must complete an enrolment form and return it to an AEC office by 8pm Tuesday 23 October”.

Enrolment forms can be downloaded from the AEC website at www.aec.gov.au and are available at any Australia Post outlet or AEC office and now also at any Medicare, Centrelink and ATO office and selected Rural Transaction Centres.

You can check your enrolment online at www.aec.gov.au or by phoning 13 23 26.

And there’s still anarchy, activism, local media, Get Up & You Decide for those too young or stateless to vote to speak for yourselves about the impending state election spin.

*In the 2004 federal election, 136,000 youth voters (aged 18 to 25) enrolled after the election was called. Up to 100, 000 youth stand to miss that chance in 2007.

1 Comment | In other news, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Anna

No license to abuse in anyone’s culture

June 7, 2007

The issue of violence against women, and particularly violence within certain cultural and religious communities have characterised some of the most heated debates on race, culture , immigration and women’s rights in recent times.

Wo! magazine interviews two academics- Dr. Christina Ho, a lecturer in Social Inquiry at the Faulty of Humanities and Social Science, and Penny Crofts a senior lecturer in law, at the University of Technology, Sydney- at the “No license to abuse” conference in Bankstown. The forum was a one-day event which aimed to address awareness about racialised violence against women survivors of domestic violence in particular the access women from diverse backgrounds have in accessing protection from the law.

We talk Dr. Chris Ho to on her address “Hijacking Feminism- The politics of Women’s Rights in contemporary Australia” in which Dr. Ho looks at the representation of violence against women in Australian politics. Dr. Ho argues that violence against women is a global issue but many Australian commentators portray it as a problem of cultural minorities; in particular within the Lebanese or Muslim communities. She addresses why conservative commentators are only concerned with violence against women when men of minority backgrounds are the perpetrators. Dr. Ho analyses the politics behind these current debates and offers some thoughts on how advocates of women’s rights can respond.

We also have a chat to Penny Crofts, a specialist in criminal law theory. In her address “Tolerating intolerance: Liberal Culturalism and Ethnicity in Provocation” Penny discusses the legal principles relating to the cultural defence in domestic violence cases. In her overview of the use of the Provocation defence in law she refers to theoretical framweorks which argue that liberal cultures are not ‘colour-blind’ and she poses such questions as: is the court truly neutral? If so, what capacity does the court have to recognise cultural differences; and how far should cultural differences be recognised if at all where there are values of bodily integrity to be resolved.

Comments Off | Politics, law, media, race, racism, violence, violence against women | Permalink
Posted by Anna

Stop the presses!

May 23, 2007

If it were now to die, ‘Twere now to be most happy, for I fear My soul hath her content so absolute That not another comfort like to this Succeeds in unknown fate…
Dylan is coming on a tour of Australia!! *insert sighs, screams and fainting spells*

Comments Off | Culture, Dylan, art, beauty, celebration, fanfare, pop-culture | Permalink
Posted by Anna

You’ve been on my mind

May 12, 2007

Again not official Wo! business (my justification is that subversive ideas need to be accompanied by/is good art and music)…

So need to share this gorgeous song i’ve already played a thousand times on Dylan’s bootleg series. This stuff is glorious. Dylan sings it with former lover-singer-collaborator Joan Baez (who substitutes Mama for Daddy). It works either way (and let’s not get into a whole Freudian thing about this…)

(“If you gotta go, go now” on the Bootleg series is also pretty hot. It’s up there with “All i want do (is baby be friends with you) in terms of my favourites.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments Off | Culture, art, beauty, celebration, pop-culture | Permalink
Posted by Anna

Woman! Be fruitful and multiply!

May 2, 2007

The archaic ministers of the Howard Government are at it again. Whether it’s controlling access to abortion or accusing Deputy Opposition Leader Julia Gillard of the heresy of being “barren” it seems as if women’s bodies, choices and lives are a recurring obsession with them. And we thought we had enough of these hijinks with Hilarious Hilaly running around comparing women to “cats meat”.

Does it scare anyone that we have these men in authority with their perverse perceptions of female sexuality influencing policy??

The boys club of politics seems like an oversized fraternity- unable to deal with the presence of real women as equals and competitors in modern life they resort to puerile jibes at their opponent’s femininity as a way of discrediting them. It’s a recurring theme in politics- Whether its Bush feeling up Germany’s Chancellor at an international conference or US Presidential hope Hilary Clinton being accused of getting plastic surgery- these insults are so cheap their laugable. Grow up!!

2 Comments | Politics, choice, femininity, wtf?! | Permalink
Posted by Anna

Save Iranian Teen Prisoner on Death Row

April 24, 2007
COURTESY OF LILY MAZAHERY- President of the Legal Rights Institute, Washington DC.
Approval of Delara’s Death Sentence in Distinction Branch of the Supreme Court

A source familiar with Delara’s case reports that Delara’s death sentence has been approved and the order will be soon issued to her lawyer.

Delara Darabi, accused of murder, has spent the past 3 years in prison. Recent beatings in prison have left her with a broken arm and she is not feeling well.

Yesterday, Delara’s father filed a letter with the head of the judiciary, seeking a transfer of prison for his daughter. In this letter, Delara’s father states: “Delara is in dire condition and is suffering greatly. She is only accused. We have reasons to show that she is not a murderer. However, even if she were guilty, she has a basic right to be treated fairly in prison, not to have her arm broken. If Delara is a murderer, she should be executed once, not a thousand times. Yet, in Rasht prison, she is executed a thousand times a day. I need your help to save my daughter.”

According to our reporter, given the approval of Delara’s death sentence by the Distinction Branch of the Supreme Court, the only person who can commute this sentence is the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Shahroudi. By finding fault in the case, he can issue a new trial.

Click HERE to view the original report in Farsi.

Please take immediate action to prevent the execution of Delara Darabi by taking the follwing steps:

1. Sign the petition objecting to the impending execution of Delara Darabi and encourage your friends, colleagues, associates, and family members to do the same.

2. Contact the office of Ayatollah Shahroudi by fax or mail to voice your objection:

Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice,
Panzdah-Khordad Circle,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
(From United States, dial 0 first)
Phone: 98 (21) 391-1109
Fax: 98 (21) 390-4986
You can also send your appeals electronically via the judiciary website:http://iranjudiciary.org/contactus-feedback-fa.htmlNote: The fields are written in Persian. 1st line is for your Name; 2nd your Email; 3rd the Subject (which should read “URGENT LETTER TO AYATOLLAH HASHEMI SHAHROUDI REGARDING DELARA DARABI“); 4th is for your Comments.

Should you have any questions, please contact info@SaveDelara.com . For more information, visit: www.SaveDelara.com

4 Comments | Ayatollah's Theocracy, Politics, World, fundamentalism, law, violence | Permalink
Posted by Anna

Gang rape filmed on mobile phone

April 6, 2007

From the Herald

A TEENAGER was brutally raped by a gang of boys who filmed the scene on their mobile phones, then sent the footage to school friends, police said yesterday.

Five boys have been charged with aggravated sexual assault of the 17-year-old girl, and distributing a video of the attack.


Why?

For Lorraine Corne, a Sydney clinical psychologist, the seeds of that answer might be found on our televisions.

“The first thing that occurs to me is that in our society we allow people to be videoed in all sorts of degrading ways,” she said.

“For example, in Big Brother, in internet porn and in Funniest Home Videos. In all of these there is humiliation. And there are no boundaries.”

Comments Off | rape, rape culture, violence, violence against women | Permalink
Posted by Anna

Why Dylan Rules…

March 29, 2007

Ok so this is not really related to Wo! business but it will interest die-hard Dylan fans out there.

A symposium for Dylan obsessives has convened for a fan meeting in America.

Except these are no ordinary obsessives but groups of scholars and academics (or Dylanologists as they call themselves), including dons of Oxford and Harvard, who are meeting to rapturously gush on the poetry, romance and beauty of Dylan’s stunning body of work.

On Tuesday, a whole crowd of them wrapped up a four-day symposium, billed as the largest ever of its kind, at the University of Minnesota in the state where Dylan was born.”Dylan has entered my day job,” said Richard Thomas, a professor of Greek and Latin at Harvard University who lectured on Dylan’s similarity to ancient epic poets like Ovid and Virgil.

 
 
 

“I’ve come to see him as someone as worthy as the great poets on whom I’ve been fortunate enough to work.”

The article goes on to muse on the Dylan’s reaction to his analysts:

And what does the cryptic singer think of this kind of attention?

Well, he once famously derided Dylanologists who “dissect my songs like rabbits.”

But that is not likely to stop the dissecting.

Take British literary critic Christopher Ricks, a 73-year-old professor of poetry at Oxford University who in 2003 published Dylan’s Visions of Sin, a 500-page examination of biblical themes in Dylan’s music.

“I should think people need to explain themselves if they’re not intrigued, enthralled and obsessed with Dylan,” Hicks said during a lecture at the symposium.

“Those of us who are, we don’t have any explaining to do.”

Vindication at last!

4 Comments | Culture, art, beauty | Permalink
Posted by Anna

I have just…

March 12, 2007

discovered a gorgeous band “Outlandish”- an amazing Danish band with beautiful songs that will make you shiver. This stuff confirms my belief in Pain and dislocation as the crucible for Art and Beauty.

The band form a web of complex identities, two of them – Danish-Moroccan Sam Bachiri Azouaoui and Danish-Pakistani Waqas Ali Qadri are both devout muslims and the third Lenny Martinez from Honduras is a strict Catholic. The combination is an explosive synergy of rap, desi punk, arab melody and latin-spanish sounds.

My favourite:
“Fatima’s Hand”

Fatima is 21
And around here – when your 21
u gotta start thinking about getting a man
getting a son – getting it done
just like her mom when she was 21
but even though Fatima’s not ready for it
she not gonna say some
she feels she gotta do this for the parents
cuz they’ve been on her for the last 5 years
a lotta men from motherland
came up here hoping she say yeah
but she ain’t down
wants somebody that can make her feel alive
chill every time she wanna cry
the one in a million type of guy
but her mom keeps telling her
“compromise, this ain’t no fairy tale my child
do not waste your time
u’ll regret u didn’t say yes to this guy”
everyday is the same
like a battlefield
she gets the blame
bringing shame on the family name
just cuz the streets be babbling
like a Bedouin in a dessert storm
she lays low from all their songs
try to make’em understand
but it’s like talking to the wall
her desire’s burning to change her ill state
it’s strange – for the first time
in a long time – she sees the light in the end

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments Off | Culture, World | Permalink
Posted by Anna

Inspiring news of the day.

March 9, 2007

Three NY High School students ignored directives from their teachers to not read excerpts from The Vagina Monologues at an open mic night. They were then suspended for daring to utter the V word. One of the students, Elan Stahl said:

“Our aim was not to get in trouble. We want to put the word (vagina) out there and make people comfortable with using it.

“If they can just admit that the word vagina shouldn’t have been censored because it’s not lewd or obscene … then that apology would be gladly accepted,” she said.

Congrats to these girls for being so switched on.

Still, how depressing that vagina is a word that people find offensive. I suppose if they’d changed it to ‘pussy’ or ‘hoo-ha’. It would have been alright *sigh*.

1 Comment | sexism, sexuality, struggle | Permalink
Posted by Anna

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