A taste of Dublin

Yesterday I saw a tuktuk driver wearing a Dublin GAA Irish Football geansa.

Probably one of the strangest things I've seen here. Arnotts logo a blaze across it. Have they outsourced to Cambodia? Check your labels GAA fans and let me know.

How do you spend your money?

I am absolutely disgusted with this article from the Economist

If women decide to spend their 20s clubbing rather than child-rearing, and their cash on handbags rather than nappies, that's up to them.

The author's attitude is appalling. Not only does he (assuming gender) demonstrate a profound disrespect for women through his clubbing and handbag remark, but he also reduces women to baby making machines.

There are a number of issues to be tackled here. Firstly women have the right to spend their money on whatever the hell they want and should not be reprimanded by some patriarchal notion or by paternalistic second rate hacks. How magnanimous the author is with "that's up to them". Yes how we spend our money is up to us and no permission is required. Who the hell do you think you are to label women as either "baby maker" or "superficial and selfish" and then presume to permit us to choose how we spend it?

Secondly how dare he assume that women have the sole responsibility for spending their money on childrearing. Is childrearing not supposed to be a partnership? It seems to me that this is the kind of attitude that wants the little women barefoot and uneducated in the kitchen. I am not amused.

As a women in her twenties, I reject utterly his puerile statements. I, like the majority of women I know, spend my hard earned cash on further education and my career. I live in developing countries from from my family to do so. I do not intend to make babies just because I can. Apart from the other issues, it is irresponsible to bring a child into the world without proper consideration. Just because something is possible, it does not mean that one should engage in it - armour-piercing bullets for instance.

Let's all write letters to the editor and express outrage at the attitudes towards women. I've already composed mine.

Been sick for a while but all better now. Being sick is so boring but I did watch much TV and had visits from friends so all is well! I'm back now though

Benedict does it again

Benedict has done it again. How does he manage to alienate so many leaders of society? It must be a special gift.

Pope Benedict XVI reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches and Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation.

The commentary repeated church teaching that says the Catholic Church ''has the fullness of the means of salvation.''

''Christ 'established here on earth' only one church,'' said the document released as the pope vacations at a villa in Lorenzago di Cadore, in Italy's Dolomite mountains.

The other communities ''cannot be called 'churches' in the proper sense'' because they do not have apostolic succession -- the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ's original apostles -- and therefore their priestly ordinations are not valid, it said. (Source)

Charming, absolutely charming. That's exactly what we need at the moment, a religious figure sowing dissent. Wars of religion have been among the most savage and in the current conservative climate, another reason to fight is not what we need.

Remember the joy and sense of hope in the 1990s when the Berlin Wall came down, the Cold War was over, lefty governments were in power and there was a real sense of hope that finally peace was breaking out all over the world. Flash forward to now and

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity. - WB Yeats

sums the situation up quite nicely. Now right-wing nutjobs are in power, war is raging, terrorists are striking, racism is on the rise, and the religious divide is expanding horribly.

And it is in this climate the Pope Benedict XVI approves a document to say "nyah nyah nyah nyah. I'm right and you are wrong and you'll burn in the fiery pits of hell". What ever happened to "love thy neighbour" or "judge not lest you be judged"?

Benedict is dividing in a world of extremes, where Christian and Muslim fundamentalists that prize their version of the truth over morality. It is profoundly irresponsible and dangerous to fan the flames of intolerance. Build not destroy should be drummed into his head once he takes it out of the sand.

A flicker of common sense

First Lady Laura Bush revealed recently that, while she believes that abstinence education is an important component of HIV prevention efforts, she would be supportive of waiving the earmark mandating that 33 percent of US prevention funds be spent of abstinence-only programs. In an interview with CNN's Suzanne Malveaux during a trip through several African countries, Laura Bush commented that condoms are "absolutely necessary" and that she was "perfectly fine" with the proposed idea -- now passed in the House and introduced in the Senate -- that the abstinence only provision be waived from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

Passed in 2003, PEPFAR required that one-third of the global prevention program’s funding go to the promotion of abstinence only education. In 2006, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the abstinence programs were actually "undermining the global efforts to prevent 7 million new HIV infections by 2008," the Center for Health and Gender Equity reports. (Source)

Finally! A little late to the table but finally some common sense. Condoms are vital for preventing the spread of HIV no matter how deeply one sticks one's head in the stand.

Take the Cambodian case, despite not receiving PEPFAR funding. There are a lot of sex workers in this country. Men visit sex workers on a regular basis. These men may subsequently transmit the HIV virus to their wives, who then run the risk of having HIV+ babies. One can rant on, as I have before, about the morality, sexism and suffering that this causes, but one thing is for sure, abstinence-only policies do not work.

Often the sex workers cannot find other employment and are supporting their whole family, paying for food, education and rent. Until adequate alternative livelihoods can be provided with support systems, abstinence is wholly unrealistic. Finally Mrs Bush has recognised that all over the world women often do not have the choice to abstain. Women barter sex for shelter and protection and it is the best they can do with the means they have.

It will be a great day when pragmatism is the guide for politics and issues including development, drug trafficking, corruption and sex education.

Officials complain as usual

Cambodian officials (CPP lawmakers and the Culture Ministry) are bitching about not winning a spot on the New Seven Wonders of the World competition. They claim that that the competition is illegitimate and unjust as Angkor Wat did not win a coveted spot.

Yeah the voting was done by internet and telephone so it was an uncontrolled popular vote but the people were urged to vote by the posters and the papers that have littered the streets for quite some time now. Unfortunately Angkor Wat did not win, perhaps because of the telecommunications in Cambodia or perhaps not enough people have visited the site.

This was a worldwide vote and the vast majority of countries did not have an entry in the competition and were voting for Wonders that were not their own. So perhaps Cambodia's telecommunication standard played less of a role. Rather than bitch about justice and legitimacy for a largely irrelevant competition why not accept defeat graciously.

Perhaps the government could use this competition as a wake up call and put fast affordable internet connections in place. $40 a month is the cheapest broadband access in Phnom Penh but that is too expensive for schools and most households. It is interesting to note that in Vietnam, a household can get broadband for $5 a month, which would permit thousands more people to vote for Angkor Wat in the next popular vote.

At the end of the day the digital divide creates more inequalities and the only way to overcome it is to provide cheap or free broadband internet and training.

Alcohol doesn't kill brain cells

NEW research, to be revealed at a conference of some of the world's top neuroscientists in Cairns today, has found alcohol does not kill off brain cells as always thought.

For years imbibers have been told a big night on the drink wipes out entire sections of human brain cell function with much the same destructive equivalent as a napalm bombing strike.

According to Queensland Brain Institute director Professor Perry Bartlett, this is not true.

There is no evidence drinking alcohol leads directly to the death of brain cells, he said.

"Some of the best studies, done in Italy, show a bottle of wine a night can reduce the risk of dementia in old age," Professor Bartlett said.

In moderation, alcohol has positive benefits for blood vessel health and stroke prevention. And, as an added bonus, new brain cells are generated every day of our lives.

Research by Professor Bartlett and his team has found we all have an inbuilt repair kit replenishing the more than 100 billion cells - or neurons - in our brain. (Source)

Yay and here's to a bottle of wine a night to beat dementia!

New wonders

The news is out. There are seven new wonders of the world. These are, in no particular order, *drumroll*








Of the old wonders of the world only the Great Pyramid of Giza still stands.

Take the pledge

I PLEDGE:

1. To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;

2. To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become "carbon neutral;"

3. To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2;

4. To work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation;

5. To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal;

6. To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests; and,

7. To buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the 21st century.

Take the pledge

For info on 07 07 07 events in Cambodia click here

Mortal enemies?

Khieu Kanharith said: “Since before, he used to work with the Khmer Rouge, and he is a man who always opposed Hun Sen. Secondly, we need to ask who in ’97 were warring in Cambodia, was it the Khmer Rouge or Funcinpec? I am currently congratulating Funcinpec officials because they are patriotic, that was why we fought only for two days. But because Brad Adams used to work for the Khmer Rouge, for those who live in the camps (resistance fighters along the border with Thailand), that’s why he is a mortal enemy of Hun Sen. (Source)

Yes of course, that is exactly why Brad Adams, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch, criticised Hun Sen. They are mortal enemies. It is strange that any criticism of any government official, is attributed to personal vendettas or mortal enemies, rather than the real abuses of human rights in Cambodia. I wonder why that is...

Foreigner - you pay more

The Government has doubled the price of admission to the Royal Palace for foreigners to $6.50 per person. The price for Cambodians is $0.25. There is a considerable difference between the two admission fees. This price hike only serves to reinforce the "screw the foreigners" mentality that is prevalent. In any country $6.50 is especially expensive and tourists, including most backpackers, will skip the palace at such extortionate rates.

Thailand's national museum: $1.60
The Prince's Palace, Copenhagen: $0.00
Muzium Negara Malaysia : $0.60
Royal Palace of Cambodia: $6.50

Many museums and palaces do charge but have one free day, such as the first Sunday of every month, but there is no such provision in Phnom Penh. Ultimately the price hike will bring down the number of visitors and profits will suffer. If at the time the gov raises the prices again, well, I won't be surprised.

Language matters

All girl UN squad a success

Why is the BBC using such a sexist infantilising title to refer to adult soldiers. I imagine it is to tantalise male readers with the image of "sexy girls in uniform", which is a disgusting tactic to use on UN peacekeepers.

Imagine the outrage if male soldiers were called boys. The protests would inflame the blogosphere. Why is it so acceptable to belittle and infantilise women? Why is a somewhat reputable source of international news as the BBC demeaning over fifty percent of its readers?

It is a pity because the article itself is interesting and informative and more importantly is manages to be so without infantilising adult soldiers. One point, of some import, is that the reason women were chosen for this mission is extreme sexual violence in Liberia.

The UN is experimenting with all female units because female soldiers are seen as less threatening and more approachable in post-conflict situations, where populations are recovering from years of violence and fear.

In Liberia this is of particular importance because the country has experienced an epidemic of sexual violence against women.

Lucia Williams, a midwife who works at a free medical centre with Medecines Sans Frontiers in Monrovia, says rape is on the increase and "has become a sport."

As part of the ongoing campaign to end sexual violence, it is hoped the visible presence of female soldiers will empower local Liberian women and encourage them to join the police force. (Source)

The all female peacekeepers were chosen to because of the rampant sexual violence in Liberia. (See here for more information including a video) Anybody see the irony in belittling the female peacekeepers who are there because of the all male units in the past?

The use of the term "girls" shows a clear a lack of respect when applied to adult women and seems to be implying that, hey, if a bunch of girls can do it - anybody can. It cheapens the peacekeeping work of these and other soldiers.

The world's first all-female unit of United Nations peacekeepers has been deemed a success, and has had its mission extended for another six months.

A 105-strong paramilitary police unit of women from India has been based in Liberia since January, working to help keep the peace in a country which is still recovering from 14 years of civil war.

For the last six months, the unit has patrolled the capital, Monrovia, 24 hours a day. They have kept guard at public buildings such as the foreign ministry and protected the unarmed, recently-trained Liberian National Police officers as they gained "on the job" experience. (Source)

On the BBC there is nothing but respect for male soldiers who are serving overseas. All I and others ask is for the same courtesy. Do not infantilise women.

The Vikings are coming!

A Viking ship has set sail for Dublin from the Danish port of Roskilde, in an attempt to recreate the voyages undertaken by early Norsemen.

The 30m (98.5ft) long replica, called Sea Stallion, is said to be the world's largest reconstructed Viking vessel.

It is based on a ship made nearly 1,000 years ago in Ireland, which in 1962 was excavated from the Roskilde fjord.

A crew of 65 volunteers will travel the 1,900km (1,200 miles) to Dublin, using only oar and sail power.

The original, which was made in 1042, is believed to have taken part in clashes between the Anglo-Saxons and Normans in 1050-1060, when many Danish Vikings lived in Ireland.

The boat sank in the Roskilde fjord at the end of the 11th century, while defending the country's coast from Norwegian Vikings. (Source)

During the 8th century the Vikings raided and pillaged up and down the Irish coast. They fought battles with the kings of Ireland for two centuries, until they were defeated by the High King of Ireland, Brian Boru.

It was a tad complicated due to the intermarrying. Brian was married to Gormlaith, who was the mother of Sitric Silkbeard, who was the leader of the Norsemen in Dublin and Sitric, himself, was married to Brian's daughter.

On the 23th of April in 1014 Brian's forces met Sitric's on the field of battle. Brian won the Battle of Clontarf, but he and his firstborn son and grandson were killed on the field of battle. The Norsemen suffered heavy losses including those who drowned in an attempt to swim back to their ships. The battle essentially ended the Viking Age (795-1041) in Ireland.