the bad guys

Something's beeen bugging me: everyone seemeed so excited about Al Zarqawi's death. But the man was never tried. Of course we just know he was a bad guy; it's totally different from the Guantanamo guys; or the people whose bank accounts are being spied on by the Bush administration. It is totally different; or is it?

In other news, the Senate continued to fund the existence of the deathly School of the Americas and ILEAs (International Law Enforcement Academies) in Latin America. How do they think Latin Americans are feeling? Something like after a good beating? You gotta wonder: where in the world is the US making friends these days? Saudi Arabia?
If you simply google "School of the Americas", the top pages (except for the US military's site) all mention human rights abuses. Excerpts: "Training manuals used at the SOA and elsewhere from the early 1980s through 1991 promoted techniques that violated human rights and democratic standards. SOA graduates continue to surface in news reports regarding both current human rights cases and new reports on past cases.
Another way to look at it: is it worth spending the many (7.5) millions required to keep the SOA open? Or should we rather not cut budget on items like shelters domestic violence victims (35).

An interesting report on "the great divide: how westerners and muslims view each other"; includes European muslims' views as well.

A rare point of agreement between Westerners and Muslims is that both believe that Muslim nations should be more economically prosperous than they are today. But they gauge the problem quite differently. Muslim publics have an aggrieved view of the West - they are much more likely than Americans or Western Europeans to blame Western policies for their own lack of prosperity. For their part, Western publics instead point to government corruption, lack of education and Islamic fundamentalism as the biggest obstacles to Muslim prosperity.

The chasm between Muslims and the West is also seen in judgments about how the other civilization treats women. Western publics, by lopsided margins, do not think of Muslims as "respectful of women." But half or more in four of the five Muslim publics surveyed say the same thing about people in the West.

Concerns over Islamic extremism are widely shared in Western publics and Muslim publics alike. But an exception is China, where 59% express little or no concern over Islamic extremism.

Nearly four-in-ten Germans (37%), and 29% of Americans, say there is a natural conflict between being a devout Christian and living in a modern society.

location, location, location... which location?

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

Which continent? which timezone? which language?
Which culture? Which educational system? Political reality? Cost of living? Cultural events?

What weather?
What vistas?

Which set of friends and family would you choose to be close to? or far from?

Which running trail would you have in your back yard? Which bakery down the road?

Iranian women's fight for equal rights

I have the privilege of working with women's rights organizations and advocates in several countries around the world. On most days I feel pretty giddy about my job, on some downright humbled...

Our partners in Iran recently demonstrated for an end to legal discrimination against women. The peaceful demonstration was answered with violence.

Updates on the demonstration and arrests ; photos; as well as specific legal changes sought.

terrifying responsibilities

Terrifying responsibility: Trimming the little one's littlest toe nail (it was also sort of falling back; scary) - surface before trimmage: 1.5 mm2; after trimmage: puny.

The word is out: she is precocious... in teething. Has started teething at the bright young age of three months and a few weeks. Ouch. The funny part is it's added a whole new dimension to her vocabulary: a whole set of oooh ooh ahh uuuuh uuuuuuuuumh. She's become very vocal. The not so funny part is it means a little fever, and some aches that keep her up and keep her howling, and there's not much we can do after we've done the homeopathic sugar pills (which she adores) and the frozen teething devices (which she adores less). So we're expanding: we've added car rides to our bag of teething tips, and in the mail we've got ... some natural iris root and an amber necklace on the way. I'm not kidding! Wait till you have a little one in pain and you'll fall for all kinds of crazy stuff :).

I'm writing a manual for work... to be published and all that serious stuff.
Does anyone beside me find this amusing and scary? I generally feel like they're putting a lot of faith in my abilities (good); but perhaps more faith than I have in my abilities (frightening).

Regarding Guantanamo detainees, Bush has said: "We're now in the process of working with countries to repatriate people, but there are some that - if put out on the streets - could create grave harm to American citizens and other citizens of the world." If the others were of no grave harm to citizens, why were they being detained, with no due process at that?

I'm also having a hard time swallowing the framing of the 3 Guantanamo suicides as an "act of warfare", or "a smart PR move" on the suicidees' part. It looks more like an act of desperation to me.

Finally this week is bringing a new challenge to my doorstep. In general I work 4 hours in the late afternoon/early evening, while P babysits the lil one. At times it's the best setup; at other times it feels like a rare form of torture to hear my crying baby while I'm "at work". This week though I get to experiment with a different setup: P's away at a conference, and the babysitter's AWOL. So I juggle.