Equality Now Update

It absolutely boggles my mind that anyone thinks this is okay. Here’s a little update from Equality Now I got in my email inbox today. The ick factor is so unbelievably high on this one.

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EQUALITY NOW
NEWS ALERT: SAUDI ARABIA
JUNE 2009

Urgent call for annulment of marriage of 10 year old girl

Amneh Mohmad Sharahili, a 10 year old Saudi schoolgirl, has been married off by her father to a 25 year old Saudi man. Although Amneh’s marriage contract was executed in mid-February 2009, she has not yet been handed over to her husband and continues to live with her parents. Her father intends to hand her over in July 2009. Amneh, who is eager to continue school and eventually become a teacher, does not quite comprehend what it means to be married. However, she now feels different from her classmates saying “while they will become teachers and doctors, I do not know what my fate and future will be other than being married since I was 10 years old.” The marriage will, among other things, deprive Amneh of an education and severely jeopardize her right to mental and physical well-being.

Amneh’s case is one of many such early marriages of girls in Saudi Arabia highlighted by Saudi human rights activists. Another recent highly publicized case was that of an eight year old girl from Onaiza who had been married by her father to a middle aged man to settle a debt. The mother of the girl went to court to petition for a divorce but was told that she had no legal standing. The case went through the Saudi courts, but the Saudi legal system, which does not have codified law but rather is based on individual judges applying their interpretations of shariah, failed to produce a just outcome and ultimately the husband had to be prevailed upon to grant the eight year old a divorce. While the Saudi Minister of Justice has condemned early marriages, the only effective solution to this issue would be an edict from the Saudi King prohibiting such marriages.

Studies conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Population Council show that early marriage has physical, emotional, psychological, intellectual and sexual implications on children. Child marriage violates the human rights of girls by excluding them from decisions regarding the timing of marriage and choice of spouse. It may mark an abrupt initiation into sexual relations, often with a husband who is considerably older and a relative stranger. Premature pregnancy carries significant health risks and pregnancy-related deaths are the leading cause of death for girls aged 15-19 years. Early marriage also jeopardizes girls’ right to education. In addition, married girls have few social connections, restricted mobility, limited control over resources, and little power in their new households, and studies by UNICEF have found domestic violence to be common in child marriages.

Saudi Arabia has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Article 1 of the CRC defines the child as “every human being below the age of eighteen years.” Article 16(2) of CEDAW states that the “betrothal and the marriage of a child shall have no legal effect, and all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify a minimum age for marriage and to make the registration of marriages in an official registry compulsory.” Article 16(1)(b) of CEDAW also stipulates that women shall have the same right as men “freely to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent.” However, Saudi Arabia has neither defined a minimum age of marriage nor taken other steps to eliminate early and/or forced marriages. On the contrary, Saudi Arabia’s commonly accepted practice of male guardianship over women is directly contradictory to international human rights standards. In Saudi Arabia, a woman is considered to be under the guardianship of her father or closest blood-related male all her life. This severely limits her ability to make decisions relating to issues of personal status, including marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance, property ownership and decision-making in the family, and the choice of residency, education and employment.

Recommended actions

Please write to the King of Saudi Arabia asking him to issue an edict establishing a minimum age of marriage and banning all child marriages. Call upon him to take urgent action to annul the marriage of Amneh and all other child brides whose marriage contracts have been executed, but who have yet to be handed over to their husbands. Also ask him to ensure that child brides already living with their husbands are given a real choice to annul their marriages and, if they opt for annulment, to ensure that this happens swiftly without negative repercussions on the girls. Please also urge the King to support the establishment of a codified personal status law to guarantee the rights of women in marriage and divorce, ensuring that such law is based upon principles of equality and non-discrimination. Please send a similar letter to the Minister of Justice. Letters should go to:

His Majesty, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Fax: +966 1 491 2726
His Excellency Dr. Muhammad bin Abdul El Karim Abdul Azziz El Issa
Minister of Justice
University Street, Riyadh 11137
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Fax: +966 1 401 1741

With a copy to: The Human Rights Commission, P.O. Box 58889 Riyadh 11515, King Fahed Street, Building 373, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Email: hrc@haq-ksa.org

Sample letter

[His Majesty King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Fax: +966 1 491 2726]

[His Excellency Dr. Muhammad bin Abdul Elkarim Abdul Azziz El Issa
Minister of Justice
University Street, Riyadh 11137
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Fax: +966-1-401-1741]
[Date]

[Your Highness] [Dear Minister],

I am writing to express my deep concern about the marriage of Amneh Mohamed Sharahili, a 10 year old schoolgirl whose marriage contract to a 25 year old man was executed in February 2009 with the consent of her father and who will be handed over to her husband in July 2009. It is commonly accepted that early marriage has physical, emotional, psychological, intellectual and sexual implications on children and violates their human rights. Amneh’s marriage will, among other things, deprive her of an education and severely jeopardize her right to mental, emotional and physical well-being.

I urge you to take urgent action to annul the marriage of Amneh and all other child brides whose marriage contracts have been executed but who have yet to be handed over to their husbands. I also ask you to ensure that child brides already living with their husbands are given a real choice to annul their marriages and, if they opt for annulment, to ensure that this happens swiftly without negative repercussions on the girls. I urge you to support the establishment of a codified personal status law to guarantee the rights of women in marriage and divorce, ensuring that such law is based upon principles of equality and non-discrimination.

I thank you for your attention.

Sincerely yours,

Cc: The Human Rights Commission (email: hrc@haq-ksa.org)

Abney Park

I love them. You should love them too. If you don’t love them, little clockwork street urchins with crappy English accents (like Chris Claremont bad, and that’s bad) should have every right to throw things at you and taunt you and generally point out how much you suck, because if you don’t like Abney Park, you probably do. Well, at least a little bit. I point at you and mock you in your inferiority. I mean, seriously, what’s wrong with you? They write songs about drunk airship pirates and Hamlet and mythology, and all things totally geeky and awesome. The lead singer (”Captain Robert!” Like a pirate!) has a voice I totally crush on, and there is belly dancing goodness and adorable steampunkiness, so you tell me, what’s wrong with any of those things? Nothing, that’s what. If you’d like to kill some time and sample their sound (and look), go to:

www.abneypark.com

Go and check them out. Go NOW. I have spoken.

I have a soft spot for Steampunk. I’m not sure why, but I do. And since we are talking about steampunk, I would like to point out once again some freelit downloads on Steampunk Magazine (www.steampunkmagazine.com.) One of their early issues has an interview with the band.

You’re welcome.

Más Bonita

Now, I know I haven’t been keeping up with the blog as much as I used to, and I’m sorry for that because I know if you’re desperate enough to read the thing, you must really be bored at work, but sometimes I hear something so absolutely fucktarded that I can’t keep it to myself, so I must share it with the intervoid.

It’s official. Joe Quesada really just needs to keep his mouth shut. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, and despite what comes out of his mouth, I’m sure he has enough brainpower is his head to run a major company, but sweet merciful Minerva, somebody shut him up already.

Marvel Divas: Not Sexist, Just Loud

He just came off as clueless before, which was almost cute in a dumb kind of way, but now he just sounds like a moronic douche.

My parents have a funny saying for times like this when someone says something really stupid: Calladita te ves más bonita. Let someone else do the heavy thinking for you, Joe. Why don’t you run off and buy something pretty for yourself in the meantime, ‘kay? I mean, since all of us fangirls are going to be throwing you our hard earned cash instead of buying cute shoes and frilly pink bits now that Divas is out, I’m sure you have enough cash for something absolutely precious.

Run along now, the big girls need to talk.

Stop Marketing to Me

Oh for crying out loud. Just stop it already. I’m so sick of companies trying to market to women, as if we’re some kind of seperate alien community. As if we haven’t been shopping for shit since there were places to shop. Blah blah blah the power of the female dollar, I get it. Stop it already. Just stop, please. Instead of marketing to me, how about making your shit work right, or look better, or, hey Marvel and DC, how about just writing decent stories that don’t suck? You know one of the things that makes stories not suck for women? Having well-rounded characters of both sexes. And for the love of god, if I see one more commercial where the women are talking about shoes just because women are supposed to like shoes, I think I’ll lose my freakin’ mind.

This rant brought to you, btw, by the idiots who are marketing Marvel Divas. You know, the story could be great, but I’m so turned off my the hype surrounding it, that I really can’t see myself buying the book. It’s not that I’m against Marvel trying to court the female audience, it’s just that they suck at it. I mean, come on guys, really?

Really? And I’d say the same for DC with their Gotham City Sirens schtick, but I’m sure there is no way DC believes they are marketing to women with this title, because it seems like one giant catfight, and I have yet to read Didio saying anything too stupid about how they are marketing this to those damn comic chicks. I mean, hell, the girl geeks got Spoiler back, what the hell else do they want? I hope I’m right, but I really don’t think Didio expects this to scream “this will get more female readers!”

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking I’m mad because the Marvel Diva girls all look so porntastic. Actually, that’s not it at all. It’s not just the art, although I really wish comic artists would learn how to draw a decent pair of tits and a costume that may look like it would actually be a costume and not body art. It’s the crap logic behind this. Supposedly Marvel is trying to court a female audience, maybe even an audience new to comics. Girls who read comics already read comics. We don’t need a special pink “girl comics” line. Girls who don’t read comics, whom you would like to read comics, probably won’t be terribly impressed when they see that bit of art, whether or not it’s the actual cover to anything. That’s the art you chose to promote it, and it stinks.

Allow me to try explaining it another way. It would be as if I were the head of Oxygen, a TV channel supposedly geared more for women, and I said to the TV watching world at large “hey, I want to broaden the appeal of this channel by making it more guy friendly.” Then I turned around and started marketing “guy friendly TV” with ads like this:

and this:

Instead of this:

And this:

Yes, there are plenty of guys out there who prefer the first two images, but if we are making a broad, sweeping generalization about an entire gender the way Marvel Divas is supposed to be making a broad sweeping generalization about an entire gender, wouldn’t it make more sense to go with what the broad sweeping generalization generally tends to be? It’s like that old sitcom joke where the clueless husband buys his wife a power tool for her birthday, when it’s pretty obvious he’s buying it for himself. Then the clueless husband turns around and says “what do you mean I never give you anything? I bought you that expensive drill!” Because that’s what comic book chicks want–another power drill.

Gee, thanks, Marvel. You shouldn’t have.

Falling to Pieces

I know this is going to date me terribly, but I don’t care. Have you ever stumbled upon a song you haven’t heard in yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaars, only to discover that it’s still awesome and you must have it RIGHT NOW! Yeah, it just happened to me. Remember Faith No More? Oh come on, I know you do. They were big in the 90’s. Anyway, I, like many of my high school compatriots, still have my copy of Angel Dust, and probably play it more than is healthy even today. I never did pick up The Real Thing though, which was the other required Faith No More CD of my generation. So I’m playing around on iTunes today, trying to recapture some songs I lost when my PC died a year ago (yeah, I’m still trying to rebuild my music library. Curse you PC!!), when I come across an ad for the video for “Falling to Pieces.” Huh. Wait, do I remember that song? Sounds familiar. Then I play the preview, and OMG! YES YES YES! I remember that song! How could I possibly forget that amazing, kick ass bass? I absolutely remember dancing around my bedroom during my teen years, banging my head like an idiot to this song. So of course, I have to download it.

This goes along with my last post, btw, since I have been trying to explain to my students just how lucky they have it with iPods. The spoiled little turds will never know what it’s like to have a fat leather notebook of CDs riding shotgun in their car, and trying to find exactly the song you want to hear right then while speeding down I77 at 75 miles per hour. Once again, I have to confess that I am Apple’s bitch.

Faith No mOre – falling to pieces

Perspective

As I passed by some of our older equipment here in the library a little while ago, I was reminded of yesterday’s Mellon class. (If you remember, I teach a 10 week class centered around librarianship and library recruitment.) We were discussing an article they were required to read as homework, and the article was written in 1994, when the Internet was just starting to become a cultural phenomenon. The article made some interesting predictions as to what the future would possibly hold in librarianship, and I was struck by a paragraph pointing out that, once libraries became fully wired, there would be a desperate need to figure out what to keep and store, and what to completely discard as useless. When I pointed this out, I used our own library’s microfiche and microform readers as an example.

Then I got blank stares. One of the students piped up and asked me what microfiche was. I felt very old, just then! Still, I know an educational opportunity when I see one. We happened to have some old microfiche that was never discarded lying around in one of the drawers that a co-worker handed to me to pass around as an example. Man, you should have seen their faces! They couldn’t believe anything like that was ever used.

Anyway, I bring this up in order to make a point. For those of you out there who are teachers, professors, librarians, or hell, even parents, stop and think about just how rapidly our technology changes over the years. I graduated from college about 10 years ago, and we were still using print indexes at the time. I remember the college switching from card catalogs to computer catalogs while I was there. Some of my students don’t even know what a card catalog looks like. It may not seem that long ago for you, but it may as well have been the Stone Age for them.

Now, pardon me while I go shine my walker and drink some prune juice. I better not catch you kids on my lawn! :b

Cutbacks

Oh yeah, we’re all feeling the pinch. The economy blows, and thanks to NPR and some personal research, I learned that NC is now ranked number 48 out of 51 (don’t forget DC!) on the list of places you don’t want to try finding a new job. The honey and I are on a pretty tight budget, which is why I’ve moved the blog from Typepad to WordPress. Understand, I’ve had a good run on Typepad, and I do enjoy it. But let’s face it, unless you’re running a blog for commercial purposes, and I’m obviously not, there’s really no need for all that blog. Plus, I’m not spewing my babble into the inter-void as much as I used to because life has gotten a little crazy lately, so I couldn’t really justify paying even a small charge every month for something I can very well do for free elsewhere. Simple economics, really.

So welcome to my new and maybe-not-necessarily-improved blog. Sadly, when I did the export/import thing from Typepad to WordPress, my blogrolls and lists didn’t transfer. I have to re-add everything manually, and I’m kind of lazy, so if you would like me to re-add you to the list, or if, for some reason, I missed you last time around, please leave me a little comment. Also, even though I managed to do the dreaded transfer with only a few minor injuries, the older posts may look a little weird. Some pictures and links and such got lost in the translation. It happens. I’m not geeky and OCD enough to comb through every single one of my old posts and fix them, so if they look funky, just chalk it up to the move and assume it wasn’t me being technologically inept (although, that might actually be the case in some of them.)

Reports of My Death Blah Blah Blah

Yeah, yeah.  I'm still alive.  Been recovering from a bit of the ick, but otherwise no worse for wear.  Decided to check into the bloggoverse, but as I'm not entirely coherent, I'll just speak in nuggets.

• Saw The Watchmen last week, before the Itis took a swing at me.  It's just like the graphic novel, with a few tweaks and edits.  If you liked the GN, you'll like the movie.  If you, like me, don't know what the big fraggin' deal is over The Watchmen and why comic geeks wet their pants at the very mention of Dr. Manhattan, feel free to skip it.  I do kinda like My Chemical Romance's take on "Desolation Row," though.  Call me sentimental.

• Speaking of The Watchmen, Debbie Schlussel has made my Douchnozzle of the Week list.  Thanks to the folks at YABS for pointing out this little nugget.  In the screenplay of life, right wing conservatives need better script writers.  Their characterization is starting to become so predictable and two-dimentional.  Much like the writing for Heroes.

• I am probably the last person on the planet to start watching Lost, and it was because my honey wore me down.  I'm starting with Season 1 and working my way up.  Fun story, and it makes me want to hit the beach something fierce, but I don't understand the obsession.  Still, equal opportunity semi-nakedness between Kate and Sawyer, and I do so appreciate the eye candy factor.  Sawyer may be a jackass, but damn that boy has nice pecs.

• Random thought:  While waiting in the Holding Area for Plague Victims (aka Emergency waiting room) for the doctor to see me because of the Ick, I noticed that sick babies make sounds like zombies when they cough.  Kinda gross, actually.

• I bought and listened to U2's new CD after some brief preview's from iTunes.  I am glad to say it doesn't suck.  Some naysayers have been crying about how it's not this and that, not Joshua Tree enough of Achtung Baby enough, but to those people I'm going to have to say something that may be painful to hear.  Get ready old school U2 fanboys and girls, because this is going to sting a little.  Ready?  U2 WILL NEVER COME OUT WITH ANOTHER JOSHUA TREE EVER AGAIN!  Get over it.  It's done.  The Joshua Tree was great, still is great, and should probably be in every music geek's must-have collection, but it will never happen ever again.  This is probably a good thing, as it came out TWENTRY FREAKIN' YEARS AGO.  Get over yourselves.  Considering the last CD, I'm actually impressed they came out with something this good.  Compare it to the other crap that's on the radio now, and it still manages to hold its own.  It's upbeat and fun and light and manages to maintain that irritating wide-eyed optimism that Bono is so good at selling even after all these years.  It's not their best, but it's pretty okay.  "Magnificent" and "Stand-Up Comedy" are actually decent tracks.  I'm pretty sure the latter will be their next single.  (Remember, you heard that prediction here first, folks!)  I gave the CD a listen this weekend while cleaning the kitchen, and it has my "feel good music for the weekend" stamp of approval.

• Speaking of U2, their tour does not have them coming to Charlotte.  Denied once more.  I wonder if ticket prices to gone down from WTF to OMG.  I miss them every time they tour because of their insane ticket prices.  Booooo.  Haven't seen them since Zoo TV.  They put on a fun show. 

Lions and Tigers and Bears…and Monkeys!

Did I mention I have the best guy ever?  He promised me a fun surprise for Valentine's Day last week, but not only did we get rained out, we got monied out.  This has been a hard couple of months money wise, but I can't complain too much because it's been hard on everyone.  Anyway, we had to postpone the surprise to this Saturday.  It was a long drive, but it was so worth it.  When we got there, I saw a big sign advertising a place called "Tiger World."  TIGERS!!  OMFG!!  I felt like a little kid for a second.  Tigers!  Weeee!

For those of you who don't know, I've long since said that in my next life, I want to come back as one of the guys whose job it is to play with tigers all day.  I saw a show on it a few years back, one of those Animal Planet-type doodads talking about people who are trying to save tigers and rescue them from all these different places.  Apparently, for the tigers' health and rehabilitation, they are required to play with these handlers.  It was like watching gigantic kitty cats frolic around.  And these dudes are huge, so it's funny to see them hauling ass, and Mr. Tiger is all "la dee da dee…GOTCHA!"  I know it makes me insane, but that looks like an awesome job.  

Anyway, my honey knows me so very well.  The place opened last summer, so it's not even a year old yet.  I had never even heard of the place until that point.  Apparently, it's like this conservation effort/zoo thing that houses all kinds of animals, but mostly big cats.  For $5, you can get a bag of goodies and feed the bears and birds and monkeys.  Not the tigers.  Basically, you toss whatever you got to the animals in the cages, unless of course they are ducks or peacocks.  No one is afraid of them, and they don't throw poo, so they get free range of the place.  The monkeys, being the clever animals they are, saw us coming and started waving at us to give them cookies.  Those little guys can catch!

It made me a little sad to see some of the tigers cooped up in cages, though.  Some of them were on their way to other zoos, and they looked restless and bored.  It hurts the heart to see what the big cats of the world have been reduced to.  Still, I guess it's better than being extinct, and the tiger is well on its way thanks to us stupid humans.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  I sound like one of those hippie nature show hosts, but I don't care.  The big cats make me happy, and I hate to see them go. 

I hope they get some baby cubs soon.  I've always wanted to hug one.

For more information on Tiger World, click the brochure:

Fred Phelps Hates You

But don't feel bad.  Fred Phelps is a hateful douchebag who hates everyone.  Jewish, Swedish, Irish, Queen Elizabeth II, John Kerry, Heath Ledger, Mr. Rogers–everyone. 

Yes. Even you.

Now, normally I wouldn't waste time pointing to a crazy person and saying "boy, that guy is crazy," because I think it should be obvious.  I mean, wow.  Except, apparently it isn't.  What bothers me isn't that he's is shit-throwing, screaming-at-the-walls coo-coo, it's that other people listen to his crazy and adopt it as their own.

That's a little scary, don't you think?