los anjalis

Cure This is a website that a few of us developed in the past two years to feature voices around health & healthcare, human rights, and healing.  It seeks to engage those who’ve been affected by the healthcare system, those who work to transform our culture, those who create innovative models.  We were fortunate to be approached by Bonnie Fortune about Cure This being part of an exhibit in Chicago, and we are grateful to her for the invitation.  The exhibit “presents work by artists and activists representing historical and visual exchanges around feminist health movements”. Take a look at the website for the event.  The blog Art Talk Chicago also has a piece with photos from the exhibit.  Check it out if you’re in or near Chicago.  And take a look at the websites and artwork of various artists, performers, and other multimedia contributors to the event (more below).

EveryBody!: Visual resistance in feminist health movements, 1969-2009

Melissa Harris Lacewell, “Countering Anti-Choice Terrorism”:

I believe the murder of George Tiller was an act of domestic terrorism whose aim was not only to assassinate a single man, but also to frighten a generation of doctors and to shame and terrify women and families who are making difficult choices. While the murderous rage of Tiller’s assassin is not representative of the broader anti-choice movement, I believe that the anti-choice community operates with a totalitarian impulse that generates a culture of terror rather than a culture of life.

and

Often women must wade through disgusting, painful, and misleading “information” about abortion just to get basic medical advice. While there are political, judicial, and structural aspects to this issue, I want to also make an appeal for the power of our personal narratives to fight back against anti-choice terrorism.

Check out the whole piece…

And this is why:

PLEASE donate. I just donated some money to INCITE! Women of Color against Violence — an organization that has done amazing work in health and healing in New Orleans (they collaborated with health practitioners to create the Womens Health and Justice Initiative and the New Orleans Womens’ Health Clinic). Please donate if you can, and PLEASE pass this on, forward this widely.

Dear INCITE! friends and supporters,

CLICK HERE to DONATE

On the eve of the 3 year anniversary of the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and subsequent government criminal negligence and assaults on the low income people of color on the Gulf Coast, our sisters from INCITE! projects in New Orleans (including the local chapter, the Women’s Health and Justice Initiative, and the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic) are bracing for the potential landfall of Hurricane Gustav, which is currently projected to hit the Louisiana coast on Monday or Tuesday at a category 4 or 5. Voluntary evacuation of New Orleans has already begun, and mandatory evacuation could be declared as early as today. INCITE! organizers in New Orleans have made over 700 phone calls to women of color and their families that make up the constituency of the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic, working to prepare and implement evacuation and safety plans.

Your assistance is urgently needed to help low-income women of color and their families evacuate safely if need be, stay safe for the duration of the evacuation, and return to the city as soon as possible so as not to fall prey to the pushout that has kept so many folks from being able to return to New Orleans since Katrina. Local organizers are using whatever resources and funds at their disposal to help women and their families evacuate, bond people being held in Orleans Parish Prison out, and support those who make the choice to stay in whatever way they can.

(more…)

(cross-posted at Cure This)

On Memorial Day, Helen Benedict writes about the challenges facing our women warriors as they return home from duty. She follows up with a strong call to action. From “For Women Warriors, Deep Wounds, Little Care”:

Women make up some 15 percent of the United States active duty forces, and 11 percent of the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly a third of female veterans say they were sexually assaulted or raped while in the military, and 71 percent to 90 percent say they were sexually harassed by the men with whom they served.

This sort of abuse drastically increases the risk and intensity of post-traumatic stress disorder. One study found that female soldiers who were sexually assaulted were nine times more likely to show symptoms of this disorder than those who weren’t. Sexual harassment by itself is so destructive, another study revealed, it causes the same rates of post-traumatic stress in women as combat does in men. And rape can lead to other medical crises, including diabetes, asthma, chronic pelvic pain, eating disorders, miscarriages and hypertension…

As women return for repeat tours, usually redeploying with their same units, many must go back to war with the same man (or men) who abused them. This leaves these women as threatened by their own comrades as by the war itself. Yet the combination of sexual assault and combat has barely been acknowledged or studied…

As the more than 191,500 women who have served in the Middle East since 2001 return home, they will increasingly flood the Veterans Affairs system. To ask those who need help for post-traumatic stress disorder to turn to a typical Veterans Affairs hospital, built in the 1950s and designed to treat men, is untenable. Women who have been raped or sexually assaulted often cannot face therapy groups or medical facilities full of men.

Wow. This is so true. There aren’t many women patients at VA hospitals and clinics. The facilities are often limited and specifically and traditionally for men, and they’re hardly equipped to treat women dealing with PTSD or sexual abuse. The urgency of this cannot be understated.

At the moment, the Department of Veterans Affairs operates only six inpatient post-traumatic stress disorder programs specifically for women. And although all 153 department-run hospitals will treat women, only 22 have stand-alone women’s clinics that offer a full range of medical and psychological services…

Women are the fastest-growing group of veterans, and by 2020 they are projected to account for 20 percent of all veterans under the age of 45. Not all of these women will have suffered sexual assault, but many will have medical or psychological needs that conventional department hospitals cannot meet.

The Department of Veterans Affairs must open more comprehensive women’s health clinics, designate more facilities for women who have endured both combat and military sexual trauma and finance more support groups specifically for female combat veterans. The best way to honor all of our soldiers is to do what we can to help them mend.

An important call to action.

And an open question — what resources are available and what organizations are working on this issue?

How is it that a white “feminist” blogger who has been called out in the recent past for appropriating the work of women of color bloggers, publishes a book with retro-racist cover art, changes the cover art in response to calls of racism, and several months later comes out with the first printing of said book, with numerous other racist retro-art images STILL contained in the book, even though they do not relate to the book’s content, finds herself again amongst criticism of racist imagery, then apologizes and states that the second printing of the book will omit those images?

I mean, there’s a point where the supposed “ignorance” about imagery in your OWN damn book TWO different times reaches blatant INDIFFERENCE to the issue. A perceptive 10 year old could tell that the images were racist. Don’t tell me that a prominent white “feminist” blogger couldn’t. And that many of her fans think the images are being taken too seriously by many women, and that they’re just there for irony’s sake. This, after ALL the recent controversy about this said author appropriating. Fascinating. Just fascinating. And absolutely despicable.

More on the issue here (and much more articulately stated than my post):

Feministe (Holly) — It’s a Jungle in Here

Dear White Feminists (tagline: “Quite Goddamn Fucking Up”): Update

I understand that Amanda Marcotte has apologized for the racist imagery in her book, and that Seal Press (the publishing house) has apologized for the same, and that’s wonderful and all, but you know it’s just NOT ENOUGH. Especially after Marcotte’s repeated snarky comments about not appropriating women of color bloggers’ work and her refusal to accept her mistake in not at least linking to some prior work by WOC feminists on her alternet piece on immigration/violence/gender. This is a typical comment from her:

I dislike, strongly, people who treat feminism like a cool kids club and guard the borders to make sure that we don’t grow. There’s a lot effort spent trying to bash people who popularize ideas, and then everyone sits around wondering why young women don’t call themselves feminists. Gosh, maybe we should have reached out more, no?

And Seal Press, who I can’t see as respectful, after comments like this in response to a a comment from a woman of color blogger (best summarized here):

I get that you all engage best through negative discourse, but I find that too bad. It’s not servitude when we pay our authors advances. And book publishing is not an industry of outreach as much as it is editors being presented with an idea and engaging would-be authors in creative co-creation. I just find it curious more than anything that you all are wasting your time hating (yes, purposeful reuse of the word) rather than actively engaging in changing something you find problematic. I totally respect the creative space.

I recall seeing that comment and being SO very incensed at the comment aimed at women of color bloggers as a group: “I get that you all engage best through negative discourse.” Seal Press later apologized about their reactions on their blog, but failed to apologize for this very statement. Classic.

- – - – - -

This is just salt in the wounds of ANOTHER recent controversy involving Amanda Marcotte and white feminist’s appropriation of women of colors’ writings. Others have written about this said controversy in very thoughtful ways, so instead of trying to restate what’s been so beuatifully said, I’ll link to some of the pieces that give it context and reflect on it (with the caveat that tens of bloggers have written amazing posts on this issue, i’m just linking a few):

Feministe: “This has not been a good week for women of color blogging”

Problem Chylde/Sylvia: “Don’t Hate, Reappropriate”

Dear Whilte Feminists: “An Open Letter to the White Feminist Community” (where about 30 other bloggers’ responses to the controversy are also linked)

PhysioProf: “Intellectual Appropriation, Attribution of Credit, and Privilege”

One of the most amazing writers I’ve ever known, Brownfemipower, who I had the wonderful grace of hanging out with during the United States Social Forum last year, has shut down her blog as a result of this controversy. On a daily basis her writings have previously helped me unlearn and re-learn the truth about marginalized communities, violence, and dreaming about a better world. I learned more from her writings in the last two years than I did through most of college and beyond.

Brownfemipower has written a response to all the controversy: “Some Context”. An excerpt:

No, actually, I know I’m brownfemipower and I want to end violence against women. And I wanted to do that with all the women who keep insisting to me that we are all in this together and we have common problems that we have to work against and we’re all sisters, and there is such thing as a commonality of experience between us all—as I said in my original post—I thought feminism was important because it brought women together (I had thought at one time that feminism was about justice for women. I had thought it was about centering the needs of women, and creating action in the name of, by and for women. I had thought that feminism has its problems but it’s worth fighting for, worth sacrificing and sweating and crying and breaking down for.)

But how can it have “brought us together” when my implicit goal in feminist centered media justice is to write erased communities into existence—and the result of the work of the ’sister’ down the street is the erasure of the same communities I’m working to write into existence? (And no, I do NOT accept that I or any other fucking Latina out there should just be “grateful” that our work is being talked about while we remain hidden in the shadows. Even now, as a person who explicitly rejects feminism, I KNOW that Latinas have the right to demand that the work we do not be hidden in some dark silent space that nobody talks about and everybody avoids even as everybody else eats all the fruit that we pick. Yes, even Latina writers have the right to fucking unionize and come into the light.)

There is no “feminist movement” because the work being done is not just conflicting with the work of other “sisters”—it’s directly negating it.

Something to think very seriously about.

It’s comforting to know that a lot of serious reflection has occurred in the “blogosphere” after these controversies, but still, there’s major work to be done and wounds to be healed.

As BFP often says, La lucha continua…

The above is a small celebration of Women-of-Color feminism and bloggers. I’m blessed to be included in the prelim video that Sudy put together and know that there are many others more deserving of a place in this montage.

Sudy ends the video with this quote:

“Power is never given back. When it’s stolen, if you want it back, you have to take it.” – M. Caballero

Carnivals are cruise ships.  Carnivals are also blog roundups on a variety of issues.  I’m a big fan of the recently created “Carnival of Radical Action”.  Other than just sounding kickass, it’s a powerful blog roundup of posts that speak to effective actions, education, and radical thought.  Here’s the latest carnival (number 3), which is, even more excitedly focused around the Allied Media Conference from last month, in Detroit.  I was slated to go, speak, but was most excited to meet some of these people i hope to always surround myself with — energetic media makers, radical thought-sayers and beautiful booty shakers. Alas, I wasn’t able to make it, but thanks to the carnival that Nadia put together this month, I (and you too) can get a taste of the delicious deliveries of the conference. It’s posted at No Snow Here, so check it out.

Welcome to the third edition of the Carnival of Radical Action! This installment is inspired by the recent Allied Media Conference, and themed on media as a tool for organizing, education and social change…

In putting together this collection of blog posts, articles, poems, photos, videos and zines, I am even more convinced that we are populating the world with our messages by all means available to us. We aren’t just using media, but redefining media, to communicate with each other, speaking our truths, documenting our experiences, and recording our movements.

R.I.P. Molly Ivins…

In 1976, her writing, which she said was often fueled by “truly impressive amounts of beer,” landed her a job at The New York Times. She cut an unusual figure in The Times newsroom, wearing blue jeans, going barefoot and bringing in her dog, whose name was an expletive.

- Katharine Q. Seelye, “Molly Ivins, Columnist, Dies at 62″, New York Times, 2/1/07

Ha! And another tribute…

Molly had the most amazing sense of humor. Let’s face, the girl was laugh out loud funny. But funny with a purpose. She really understood how to use satire as a political weapon in the tradition of Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift.

And on top of that, unlike so many of the smart-assed satirists of our day, she was a woman. A classy lady with a pair of brass cojones. For any fan of nerve, humor, and spunk, it was impossible not to adore her.

– Arianna Huffington, “Good Golly, how we’ll miss Molly”, Alternet, 2/1/07

[above photo from BBC World News]

Friends, check out a video from La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper, if you can stomach it (it’s disturbing): here’s the [link] and then read the pieces below…

The women speak:

We overcame our fear

The unarmed women of the Gaza Strip have taken the lead in resisting Israel’s latest bloody assault

by Jameela al-Shanti in Beit Hanoun
The (UK) Guardian
Nov 9, 2006

Yesterday at dawn, the Israeli air force bombed and destroyed my home. I was the target, but instead the attack killed my sister-in-law, Nahla, a widow with eight children in her care. In the same raid Israel’s artillery shelled a residential district in the town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, leaving 19 dead and 40 injured, many killed in their beds. One family, the Athamnas, lost 16 members in the massacre: the oldest who died, Fatima, was 70; the youngest, Dima, was one; seven were children. The death toll in Beit Hanoun has passed 90 in one week.

This is Israel’s tenth incursion into Beit Hanoun since it announced its withdrawal from Gaza. It has turned the town into a closed military zone, collectively punishing its 28,000 residents. For days, the town has been encircled by Israeli tanks and troops and shelled.
All water and electricity supplies were cut off and, as the death toll continued to mount, no ambulances were allowed in. Israeli soldiers raided houses, shut up the families and positioned their snipers on roofs, shooting at everything that moved. We still do not know what has become of our sons, husbands and brothers since all males over 15 years old were taken away last Thursday. They were ordered to strip to their underwear, handcuffed and led away.

It is not easy as a mother, sister or wife to watch those you love disappear before your eyes. Perhaps that was what helped me, and 1,500 other women, to overcome our fear and defy the Israeli curfew last Friday – and set about freeing some of our young men who were besieged in a mosque while defending us and our city against the Israeli military machine.

We faced the most powerful army in our region unarmed.
The soldiers were loaded up with the latest weaponry, and we had nothing, except each other and our yearning for freedom. As we broke through the first barrier, we grew more confident, more determined to break the suffocating siege. The soldiers of Israel’s so-called defence force did not hesitate to open fire on unarmed women. The sight of my close friends Ibtissam Yusuf abu Nada and Rajaa Ouda taking their last breaths, bathed in blood, will live with me for ever.

Later an Israeli plane shelled a bus taking children to a kindergarten. Two children were killed, along with their teacher. In the last week 30 children have died.

As I go round the crowded hospital, it is deeply poignant to see the large number of small bodies with their scars and amputated limbs. We clutch our children tightly when we go to sleep, vainly hoping that we can shield them from Israel’s tanks and warplanes.

But as though this occupation and collective punishment were not enough, we Palestinians find ourselves the targets of a systematic siege imposed by the so-called free world. We are being starved and suffocated as a punishment for daring to exercise our democratic right to choose who rules and represents us. Nothing undermines the west’s claims to defend freedom and democracy more than what is happening in Palestine.

Shortly after announcing his project to democratise the Middle East, President Bush did all he could to strangle our nascent democracy, arresting our ministers and MPs. I have yet to hear western condemnation that I, an elected MP, have had my home demolished and relatives killed by Israel’s bombs. When the bodies of my friends and colleagues were torn apart there was not one word from those who claim to be defenders of women’s rights on Capitol Hill and in 10 Downing Street.

Why should we Palestinians have to accept the theft of our land, the ethnic cleansing of our people, incarcerated in forsaken refugee camps, and the denial of our most basic human rights, without protesting and resisting?

The lesson the world should learn from Beit Hanoun last week is that Palestinians will never relinquish our land, towns and villages. We will not surrender our legitimate rights for a piece of bread or handful of rice. The women of Palestine will resist this monstrous occupation imposed on us at gunpoint, siege and starvation. Our rights and those of future generations are not open for negotiation.

Whoever wants peace in Palestine and the region must direct their words and sanctions to the occupier, not the occupied, the aggressor not the victim. The truth is that the solution lies with Israel, its army and allies – not with Palestine’s women and children.

[Jameela al-Shanti is an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council for Hamas. She led a women's protest against the siege of Beit Hanoun last Friday]

Now, here’s an excerpt of an Al-Jazeera newspaper article on a resolution that simply called to condemn the Israeli attack of 19 civilians in Beit Hanun:

The US has vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution condemning an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip that killed 19 Palestinian civilians…

The text of the resolution, which was sponsored by Arab states, had also condemned the firing of rockets by Palestinian fighters into Israel.

Ten of the council’s 15 members voted in favour and four -Britain, Denmark, Japan and Slovakia – abstained.

As one of the council’s five permanent members along with Britain, China, France and Russia, the US has veto power which it has now used 82 times, often to shield Israel from censure.

America’s previous use of the veto was in July to block a Qatari-sponsored draft resolution that would have condemned Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza as “disproportionate force” and would have demanded a halt to Israeli operations in the territory.

…and it’s striking how different a take the United States mainstream media (leftist media, as some would falsely accuse the NYTimes of serving as) has on the resolution:

The United States ambassador, John R. Bolton, told the Council that the resolution “does not display an even-handed characterization of the recent events in Gaza, nor does it advance the cause of Israeli-Palestinian peace.”

The resolution, introduced by Qatar, the Arab representative on the Council, had been amended during two days of negotiations to meet objections that it was not balanced. But Mr. Bolton said it remained “in many places biased against Israel and politically motivated.”…

New language was inserted condemning the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel and calling upon the Palestinian Authority to take “immediate and sustained action” to end the rocket fire. But while the resolution named Israel as liable for the attacks on Gaza, it was silent on who or what group was responsible for the attacks on Israel.

In other changes, a reference to “indiscriminate” Israeli violence became “disproportionate” violence, and the words “military assault,” “aggression” and “massacre” were dropped in favor of the general phrase “military operations.”

Another provision had proposed that a new United Nations observer force be sent into the area to monitor a cease-fire, but it was substituted with language suggested by France that called for the creation of “an international mechanism for the protection of civilians.”…

The United States traditionally opposes what it considers one-sided Security Council resolutions on Israel, and Saturday’s vote was the fourth time in three years that Washington had taken such action.

…Unlike Security Council resolutions, those passed in the General Assembly are nonbinding and largely symbolic. But they generally attract widespread support when Israel, and, by extension, the United States, are the targets.

By the way, as President Bush talked of working with Democrats and working in a bipartisan manner after the elections, his first move after the elections was to slap America in the face by moving to have John Bolton serve another term. (though as Kos on dailykos mentioned, it’s not a done deal yet)

And the formal Israeli PM’s response? Sensitive, of course. From the BBC News:

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert said the strike, which hit a civilian area, was the result of a “technical failure”.

“I’m very uncomfortable with this event. I’m very distressed.

“I checked it and I verified it. This is not the policy,” the Associated Press reported Mr Olmert saying.

But military operations against suspected Palestinian militants would continue, he added, admitting that further mistakes “may happen”.

Physicians for Human Rights is counting (thank you PHR), and these are the stats on how many have died in Gaza since the end of June:

Total: 247 fatalities
155 civilian deaths
57 deaths of children
996 wounded, including 337 children (34%)
Source: Physicians for Human Rights (28 June to 27 Oct)