kenyan women institute sex ban

sent:

BBC article: Kenyan women hit men with sex ban

reasoning:

looking at the last two post and now this, i’ve got sex on the mind. come to think of it, i wouldn’t mind devoting this entire blog to sex – the culture, how to, how not to, my lack of it, etc. but this post has more to do with than just sex… or actually i guess it doesn’t. if anything, the women’s activist groups are more hoping the kenyan unity party government will stop fighting under the subtext that ‘they did it all for the nookie’ (oh, limp bizkit – how pop culturally relevant you are). at first, i thought this ban was an interesting move in demonstrating the power women can possess over men, like that phrase “behind every good man is a woman” – i think that talks specifically about men in power, whether it be business or government.

wouldn’t it be great if the government infighting really did stop after the week-long sex ban, especially if the wives of the PM and President join in. but wait – what’s to stop these men from just getting their need for ass somewhere else? a politician sleeping around with people other than their spouses is nothing new. the women’s activist groups say they will pay prostitutes to abide by the ban, as well. but surely there are more women in kenya that aren’t the wives of politicians or prostitutes that might still be intrigued and willing to sleep with a married government man.

Jimi Izrael of The Root brings up a good point that this ban may have ‘women’s empowerment’ written on it, we’re almost going backwards to tarzan/neanderthal thinking that men are ruled by their penises. Does one withholding sex really motivate the partner to get their shit together? kelly moore argues it has the opposite effect and can be more damaging in the long-run, perhaps that’s why this ban is only supposed to last a week. but sex is one of the enjoyable parts of being a human being, can we really say we are above physically needing it because we are now ’sophisticated’, ‘advanced’, and ‘developed’ people with better things to do?

may is national maturbation month

sent:

reasoning:

May is the month of many things: flowers, Asian Pacific American Heritage, Jewish American Heritage, Mental Health Awareness, Bike-to-Work Day, Better Sleep Month, Date Your Mate Month, National Waitresses/Waiters Day, National Hamburger Month,  Mother’s Day, Memorial Day… and now to add to the list National Masturbation Month. this is something i can actively support. everybody can use more loving, even especially self-loving.

to help you get inspired, if you aren’t already….

more about “May is National Masturbation Month“, posted with vodpod

the water war myth

recipient:

The Chronicle of Philanthropy/ PO Box 48/ Boulder, CO 80329-9954

sent:

BBC article: Water cut off in Mexican capital 

reasoning:

more and more stories about water shortages,  and water cutoffs are popping up, along with scholarly articles that the next resource wars will be over water. i’ve bought into this ‘water crisis -> water war’ concept for quite awhile. but then Slate comes out with this article Dispelling the Water-War Myth.  it summarizes Wendy Barnaby’s essay in Nature that water wars have not happened because countries have worked through their water issues with trade and international agreements.  so why all the hysteria? water is certainly a scarce resource, and it is something everyone needs to survive. but the problem of water now and in the coming years/decades/centuries (?) is a combination of geography and then within those geographic areas –  who has access to as much water as they need. but how much people need and want is another example of the dichotomy between rich/poor, north/south and white/black. we’re having fights over oil in  complex, methodical and ridiculous ways now, so it would make sense for the ‘water wars’ to go the same way as the battle for oil. but maybe what Barnaby’s case studies show is that provisions are being made and set in place (trade and int’l agreements) so we won’t need to resort to arrows and steel armor {i always pictured ‘water wars’ to be set in trojan times}, but to consider access and distribution of water in a civilized manner, instead. 

Photo credit to daveynin

the future of our cities

recipient:

Service Center/ PO Box 15114/ Wilmington, DE 19885-5114

sent:

Philadelphia Inquirer Commentary “Put cities’ health on to-do list“: a letter to the future president, written by Norman J. Glickman of Rutgers and Robert H. Wilson of University of Texas-Austin, with illustration by Eric Sailer. 

reasoning:

my good friend, Eric Sailer, a visual communications major out of the University of Delaware, has busted his butt all summer making contacts with newspaper and magazine editors, and just officially started his hopefully life-long and legendary career as a freelance illustrator. last sunday, his work was published in a major metropolitan paper, the 3rd oldest surviving newspaper in the country, the Philadelphia Inquirer. already, the class of 2008 is off doing great things. very happy for him, i know Eric’s gotten a lot of skeptical reactions when he’s said he is going to be an artist, specifically an illustrator. but he’s gone about it in a very realistic fashion, and he’s made incredible strides. he’s published at the age of 23. amazing. check out his comic strip: Lost Without Eve.  i just started reading Susan Shapiro’s Only as Good as Your Word: Writing Lessons from my Favorite Literary Gurus – to be a freelance artist, whether with word, drawing, or craft sounds wonderfully romantic. more power and my total admiration to those who have the talent and work hard to follow their passion, despite the doubts and calls to “get a real job”.

the editorial is a brief, but detailed summary that reads like Urban Studies 101, the professors start off with LBJ’s various programs such as the Head Start and Medicare that were specifically targeted towards addressing the problems of major urban areas in America. but in recent years, cities have been neglected: suburbanization, exurbanization, rise of middle class, globalization, rise of the service-sector, decrease in federal aid, etc, etc. Here, Professor Glickman and Professor Wilson write to the next president of the United States and hope they will add the troubles of urban areas onto their agenda.  they advice for 6 steps towards revitalizing urban areas

the USPS on green bandwagon?

the no postage required envelopes have been a little hard to come by these days, i think it might be b/c i’m away at school, and all the credit card offers, and nonprofit donation envelopes are being sent to my home in PA. but that will all change soon as i graduate, reluctantly move back home for (one week at the most!), change all of my addresses and my childhood identity and move to DC. once that happens, i’m sure i’ll be swimming in free envelopes and addresses.

but i found this on the internets: the USPS (my beloved) is kickstarting a new recycling program where people can pick up envelopes at their local post office and send in ink cartridges, PDAs, cellphones, digital cameras, or iPods to be recycled. all the cartridges or small electronics are processed by Clover Technologies Group where it is either refurbished or scrapped for parts. The group has a “zero waste to landfill” policy, so there’s a concerted effort to recycle everything.

Press Release Here

“As one of the nation’s leading corporate citizens, the Postal Service is committed to environmental stewardship,” said Anita Bizzotto, chief marketing officer and executive vice president for the Postal Service. “This program is one more way the Postal Service is empowering consumers to go green.”

The Postal Service recycles 1 million tons of paper, plastic and other materials annually. Last year, USPS generated more than $7.5 million in savings through recycling and waste prevention programs. The nation’s environmental watchdog, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded the Postal Service eight WasteWise Partner of the Year awards, the agency’s top honor

it’s nice to hear that even though the very business and industry of the USPS is paper goods -one of the most recycled, but also most wasted – they are working towards being as environmentally friendly and sustainable as can be. certainly with computers, email, the internet, etc. mailing through the postal service is becoming a less and less frequently used service, they are undoubtedly losing money. things look to be on an imminent downward decline for the USPS, i mourn the day they may have to go out business. so they could have chosen to not put in the funds or effort to recycle and use resources effectively, but this press release makes me appreciate that while they are losing because of the capitalist globalization model, they are not necessarily following the same business model of cutting costs, and maximizing profits. they are keeping customer interests, as well as the larger environmental sustainability in mind, perhaps even at the expense of costs and profits.

pro-choice love?

recipient:

Lucky Magazine/ PO Box 37650/Boone, IA 50037-2650

sent:

“I Love Pro-Choice Boys” and “I Love Pro-Choice Girls” stickers from NARAL Pro-Choice America, a leading advocacy group for privacy and a woman’s right to choose, who conduct their work by helping to elect pro-choice candidates, organizing local communities, lobbying Congress, and conducting research & analysis on the federal, but also state and local levels as well.

reasoning:

a magazine like Lucky with its focus upon shopping, clothes, and other goods, and its primary target being women would most likely be pro-choice or female reproductive freedom-friendly, so these stickers should seemingly be right in line. perhaps they’ll even look up the website, and the merchandise, and feature it in the back pages of ads as something you can buy online.

it’s interesting to note that these “I love pro-choice boys” and “i love pro-choice girls” sticker seem cute, laughable, and irreverent at first glance, and something most progressive, liberal-minded folk would gladly wear or display. but as my housemate, charactersketch, pointed out, would it be ok for a boy to wear an “I love pro-choice girls” sticker, with perhaps an implication that he could do whatever he wanted with them, and sleep around, and they may or may not exercise their choice in possibly aborting the baby that may result from one of their late-night trysts? and if i a girl were to wear an “i love pro-choice boys” sticker, to mean that she is attracted to like-minded boys who wouldn’t mind if she chose to get an abortion. this speaks only of heterosexual relationships, what about homosexual, queer, or uncategorized acts of love, what does one person wearing this possibly signify to the other?

it may seem that we’re both reading too much into the words and first glance meaning of the sticker, but these sayings on stickers, pins, and t-shirts are becoming ever-popular. people are adopting them to say the things they feel but do not want to necessarily constantly verbally express. so while the purpose behind “i love pro-choice boys” and “i love pro-choice girls” may be a seemingly superficial attempt to tell people one’s own political views, and to hopefully attract looks or chuckles from seemingly like-minded people, there’s a power behind words, languages, and clothing as a form of expression. i’d be cautious because the implications of this saying reach far deeper into the pro-choice/pro-life debate to being whether or not the act of an abortion is allowed, acceptable as a form of birth control, or excusable, and also the need to commodify every movement, feeling, and expression in our consumerist culture today.