body

(h/t wikigender)

Organised jointly by the OECD Development Centre and UNESCO

Friday, 12 March 2010
Room (tbc), OECD Headquarters,
2 rue André Pascal,
75016, Paris (FRANCE)

The workshop will provide an excellent opportunity to improve our understanding of the linkages between gender, culture and progress in societies, as well as to take concrete next steps in this regard. It will be attended by high-level policy makers and government representatives from around the world as well as leading academics, gender equality experts and development practitioners. This should allow for a very rich exchange of experiences and viewpoints.

A preliminary programme is available at www.oecd.org/dev/gender/progress. Should you wish to attend, please register by filling in the registration form that you will find on the website and by returning it to Mrs. Pamela Marqueyrol (tel: 01 45 24 82 86, e-mail:pamela.marqueyrol@oecd.org).

As places are limited, we will confirm your registration as soon as possible.

By Eloise Gibson

A proposal to put human genes into goats, sheep and cows to try to get the animals to make human proteins in their milk will be in the public spotlight next week.

Submitters will have Monday and Tuesday to tell the Environmental Risk Management Authority what they think of plans by AgResearch to breed and keep genetically modified animals at its Ruakura research facility, near Hamilton.

AgResearch says that if the experiment works, proteins from the animals could be used to make cheaper "biopharmaceuticals" to treat human diseases.

The company has already been breeding transgenic cows. Now it wants approval to continue working with the cows, and add sheep and goats to the trial.

The breast cancer drug Herceptin was developed using genetic modification and AgResearch says such treatments have "huge" marketvalue.

But opponents say it has exaggerated the possible benefits of the trial, and given authorities far too little information about what it plans to do with the proteins if it can makethem.

More than 90 per cent of the 1545 people who made written submissions opposed the plan - most using a pre-prepared form. Four submissions supported it and six did not say.

Photo by Eric Francis.

So there I was at this beyond-gay party in a high-rise apartment with Manhattan as the landscape, stalking her by scent. Watching her move around the room, tracking this succulent critter and enjoying the subtlest details of her existence.

I felt amazingly, solidly sexually centered in myself. I recognized the feeling, rooted in an orgasm a day before, seeing myself with Jane on the line. She was listening, holding open the space of absolute approval of my submission of self-to-self as I faced a mirror. We do this for one another. I dropped into place, then. My soul settled into my hearth. I took that feeling with me: my sense of self-approval.

I don’t remember how or when, but next I was leaning against the island kitchen counter, facing the city, while the waiters plied their trade: hand-manufactured those cute crab salad cones and so on, and bustled off into the giddy environment of the soiree and passed around the treats. You’ll always find me in the kitchen at parties.

And then, though I don’t know how exactly, I was face to face with Maggie. That was her name.

• En Espanol
• На русском языке
• Українською мовою

The Disability Rights Fund (DRF) seeks to strengthen the participation of Disabled Persons’ Organizations (DPOs) in the advancement of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) at country level in the Global South and Eastern Europe/former Soviet Union.
The 2010 “Moving Rights Forward” grant cycle will consist of two grantmaking rounds:

1. The first grantmaking round (described below) is directed at DPOs in Indonesia, Mexico, Ukraine and eligible states and cities in India (Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and the National Capital Territory of Delhi). The deadline for Small Grants applications for this round is Monday, 29 March 2010 at 24:00 (midnight) your time. The deadline for National Coalition Grants applications for this round is Monday, 12 April 2010 at 24:00 (midnight) your time.
2. The RFP for the second grantmaking round will be publicized in July 2010.

FIRST ROUND
Applicants can apply as:
a) single organizations or partnerships for Small Grants; and/or
b) national DPO-led coalitions for National Coalition Grants.

Single organizations or partnerships can apply for 12-month grants ranging from USD 5,000 to 20,000 to:

Increase DPO skill in addressing the CRPD by
(a) building more inclusive organizations or partnerships; and/or
(b) internal capacity building; and

Do rights-based advocacy and monitoring through:
(a) increasing DPO participation in decision-making processes regarding the CRPD at state or local levels; and/or
(b) directly addressing implementation of CRPD Articles.

Download the details of the DRF Small Grants Request for Proposals (RFP) and the Grant Application Form here.
(MS Word Format)

By Armin Rosen

NEW YORK, Mar1, 2010 (IPS) - Last fall, the push to reform healthcare in the United States was all but hijacked by one of the country's most passionate recurring cultural debates.

On Nov. 7, 2009, Congressmen Bart Stupak, a liberal Democrat, and Joseph Pitts, a conservative Republican, sponsored a stipulation in the healthcare reform bill that would severely limit federal funding for abortions in a reformed healthcare system.

If Barack Obama's comprehensive reform bill were passed, consumers would be able to buy discounted health insurance from an index of government-subsidised providers. But under the Stupak-Pitts amendment, an insurer could only be included on the index if its plans excluded abortions from its coverage.

The amendment passed, 240-194, and the debate over health care reform turned into a debate over abortion rights. Suddenly, a vote for reforming health care was also a vote for curtailing lower and middle-income access to abortions in the United States.

Wendy Chavkin, a professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, is a member of a group of academics that authored a position paper on the place of reproductive health in the healthcare reform process.

MIUSA is excited to offer a 16-day exchange program to Costa Rica with a focus on youth leadership and cultural perspectives on disability rights. Young adults with disabilities of diverse backgrounds from New York City, especially those who are first-time international travelers, are encouraged to apply.  

Where: San Jose, Costa Rica

Program Cost:   

Sliding scale $220 - $1,100, which includes all: round-trip international airfare from Newark International Airport (EWR) to San Jose, Costa Rica; one-day pre-departure orientation near EWR; accessible ground transportation, lodging, meals and activities in Costa Rica; disability related costs, including sign language interpreters, materials in alternative formats, and funding for personal assistants.  

h/t re:Cycling

I have to say that I like it when we embrace our bodies with humor and familiarity.  I much prefer that over the shame, vilification and objectification that patriarchal domination models are known for.  That may be my justifying why my daughter and I still laugh at fart jokes. 

Be that as it may, this video came out a while back and played around with several common experiences. 

Not content to be a viral video, the creators have taken the idea into the blogosphere.  You can find them at The Period Fairy Blog or here on our blogroll.  I am looking forward to more from them.  What's not to love about a character flitting around with a tub of ice cream and laying into our self estem?

While you're at it, you should probably check out an older favorite of mine - The Self-Doubt Fairy by Rachel Nabors.

-arvan

Welcome to another edition of my new series sharing perspective on gender and sexuality.  Each week, I discuss a topic on sex, gender & identity from topics sent to me by viewers like you.  If you have a question that you would like to see answered, please email show@buckangel.com.

Check out more of Buck Angel Entertainment at www.buckangelentertainment.com. 

By Nicole Nepton [Cybersolidaires]

The Minister of State responsible for Women's Helena Guergis has made several announcements in recent weeks for small grants to various organizations here and there in Canada, including those that promote and coordinate educational projects to support women entrepreneurs in the spirit of the new slogan of Status of Women Canada, "The strength of women is the strength of Canada." By cons, no announcement has talked about funding the initiative Sisters in Spirit of the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC). "We have not said anything," says the director of Sisters in Spirit, Kate Rexe. "The government remains silent on the issue."

Sisters in Spirit held an initial grant of $ 5 million in five years compiling a database of more than 520 women have disappeared or been murdered over the past 40 years. The organization has prepared kits for use by families and police when a woman disappears and developed policies and programs aimed at breaking the cycle of violence.

NWAC is ready to implement policies and community programs focused on three priority areas: the judiciary, the welfare of children and poverty. But these initiatives remain unresolved because Ottawa refuses to say whether he intends to continue to fund this work. "It's incredibly frustrating. We have all the knowledge and dynamism. We can initiate change now, but we can not even know if we can continue this planning. "