Category Archives: Politics

Environmental politics

An ecological success story from Italy

January 7, 2007 – 11:38 pm

A small, traditionally poor area, the Cinque Terre is being transformed, apparently against the odds.

…so successful is it becoming, that in recent years the residents of Riomaggiore and the other hamlets strung out along the Ligurian coast have been enjoying a lifestyle their predecessors could only have dreamed of.
Courtesy of the National Park, they now receive free natural medicine, massage treatments and health screenings.
There is a free shopping service for elderly residents and subsidised child care for working parents. Cars are banned – replaced by electric buses.
It has become a farming utopia; a place where tourists and others from outside are in the front line of conservation.

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Feminism

A campaign has some effect…

January 7, 2007 – 3:11 pm

Still no guarantees, but at least Azanin Fatehi, the 19-year-old Iranian sentenced to hang for defending herself against a would-be rapist, has a new trial, after an international outcry. But what this exposes about Iranian law is horrific.

…232,492 signatures have been delivered to the Iranian government, and a trust fund set up which has enabled Ms Fatehi to have access to one of the best lawyers in the country. The young woman’s sentence was stayed in June last year and a retrial ordered. The first stage of this was held last August, and the case continues on Wednesday. If it upholds the first verdict, it will need to be approved formally by Iran’s Supreme Court.
Under Iranian law, self-defence is a valid defence in a murder trial, but its application depends largely on the circumstances. Negar Azmudeh, a Canadian lawyer who has previously spoken out on Ms Fatehi’s case, said that the fact that she and her niece were in a park in the evening may have some bearing on whether the defence is considered valid.
Ms Azmudeh cited a case where a woman was prosecuted for injuring her boss as he tried to rape her at work: “Because she had showed up at work on a Friday [a weekend day in Iran] they could not claim ‘self-defence’ because her presence at the office on a Friday when she knew the boss was there constituted her ‘invitation’ to be raped.

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Feminism

Women in London (and the UK)

January 4, 2007 – 11:55 am

Just found an interesting message board thingy (yes that is a technical term) labelled “women in London” but actually containing messages of interest to feminists around the UK and beyond. It was while I was exploring the Feminism and the Body conference, Jan 25-27, that I’m hoping to get to at least part of.

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Environmental politics

Another record we don’t want

January 4, 2007 – 11:33 am

The meterologists reckon this year will be even hotter than the world’s last record year:

The scorching predictions for 2007 are due partly to global warming and partly to a moderate El NiÃ±o event. … The previous hottest year, 1998, was also a strong El NiÃ±o year with a global average temperature of 14.52C. The Met Office is predicting that this year will be 0.02 degrees higher.

That comes with confirmation that 2006 was an all-time record year for Britain, “average temperature of 9.7C – 1.1 degrees celsius above average”.

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Feminism Politics

Sign this petition: “Stop Stoning Forever”

January 4, 2007 – 11:22 am

The Stop Stoning Forever campaign aims to end the use of this form of execution by torture (almost always of women) in Iran. Pressure has obviously had some effect in that Iran did announce the end of the use of the penalty in 2002, but in practice its use has continued and at least nine women and two men are under the sentence.

The petition is here. It explains:

In May 2006, in the city of Mashhad, a woman Mahboubeh M. and a man Abbas H. were both stoned to death. Prior to carrying out the stoning, prior to their death, these two people were treated as if they were dead. In accordance with the Islamic tradition, their bodies were washed as if they were lifeless corpses, and wrapped in the kafan or white shroud. Then their wrapped bodies were buried in the ground, Mahboubehâ€™s body was buried up to her shoulders, and Abbas was buried up to his waist. The crowd, who had gathered to stone the two to death slowly as specified by law, then targeted them with their stones.

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Environmental politics