Monthly Archives: April 2008

Feminism

No change in premature baby survival rates

April 12, 2008 – 9:01 am

I’ve found this in only two papers this morning, despite its importance as a scientific contribution to the coming debate on the abortion bill: in short, despite claims to the contrary from anti-abortion rights people (who are adopting the American tactic of trying to nibble away at rights in Britain) there has been no increase in the survival rates of extremely premature babies born before 24 weeks (the current abortion limit).

The Guardian presents it straight: “The EPICure 2 report, produced by a study group of neonatal experts, is based on analysis of all severely premature births across England in 2006. It found 40% of infants born before 23 weeks die on the labour ward, an increase of 8% since the last study was conducted in 1995. Of those who survived labour nearly 75% died in neo-natal units.”

The Telegraph, after a bit of twisting and turning, has to report the same thing.

It appears not to be reported in the Times or the Indy, so far as I’ve found.

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Theatre

A magnificent show

April 11, 2008 – 12:07 am

Not perfect, but powerful, witty and sophisticated: I’ve reviewed over on My London Your London Howard Barker’s I Saw Myself – with one of the finest parts for a mature female actor that I’ve ever seen. It is on until April 19 – see it if you can.

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Carnival of Feminists

Carnival of Feminists No 57

April 10, 2008 – 11:48 pm

I traditionally offer a drumroll to announce a new Carnival of Feminists, but I feel, since No 57 is on Pandemian*, where issues and tales are not thumped down on the table, but crept upon, slyly, wittily, until you burst out laughing at an inappropriate moment (as when web browsing on the bus), I feel like I need something different – a trill, a shriek then a belly laugh perhaps… there’s a wonderful range of posts: why is it OK to lust after cake, but not sex? the birth control pill for men, could you trust them? and much, much more.

So don’t waste time over here, do please drop over there and check it out!

*And I can date myself as a blogger by saying I can still remember when she was Green Fairy.

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Environmental politics

Today’s quiz tip: grass

April 8, 2008 – 10:15 pm

Q. What’s the largest crop in America?

A. Grass.

No, no … not that kind. The suburban mow-it-on-Sunday kind – occupying 30 million acres.

Just imagine how much you could grow on all of that land – things that there was actually some point in growing, like food for example ….

Yes, you might say I’ve an allergy to grass, not the biological kind, but the sociological kind of allergy that comes from growing up in the suburbs.

And even with the millions of acres of land covered over with even worse stuff, you could do a lot with what has been dubbed “asphalt gardening”. I look out on the internal courtyard of my flats and think what a nice lot of mini-allotments the parking spaces would make – and this would probably be the way to do it…

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Environmental politics Feminism

Because I’m not in a mood for bad news…

April 5, 2008 – 2:43 pm

* A lovely piece in the Independent about Beatrice de Cardi – “an expert on the pre-Islamic history of the Lower Arabian Gulf states and the civilisations of her beloved Baluchistan”, who just happens to be aged 93. Strongminded hardly covers it.

* It has a typically snarky Times headline – but this piece reports on some young people who’ve taken ecological concerns to heart. “A recent survey by the Future Foundation found that 20 per cent of the teenagers questioned saw themselves as ‘hardcore greens’.”

* And well this is a small advance – but any advance for Saudi women has to be welcomed – a mechanism is to be established to allow Saudi women to marry without their father’s approval.

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History

My famous ancestor (well maybe)

April 3, 2008 – 11:30 pm

Received from my grandmother is an article from Australian Geographic (October 2007) containing an article about Australia’s “little Cornwall, the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia”. It reports that just before Christmas in 1859, James Boor, a shepherd, was at work when he saw green-tinged dirt, which as a Cornishman he knew was a sign of copper. By 1876 the biggest mine in the area had paid £1m (more than £100m today) in dividends.

The story goes that James was my grandmother’s great, great, great grandfather on her father’s side.

Further evidence: “My mother made great pasties.”

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