Why We Must Struggle Against All Forms of Oppression

A comment posted by brownfemipower on her own blog entry: Denying people food is a Male Thing.

ONe of the incidences that I had the pleasure (not) of participating in with a white feminist involved her showing me pics of an Afghani woman who had twin children, one boy and one girl, and she feed the boy breast milk and the girl watered down formula. She didn't think that she had enough milk to feed two kids, so she gave the girl formula–and of course, she’s freaking poverty stricken and can't come up with enough water to make the formula–and of course, when you're starving, what do you do, but portion out and restrict the food you do have? So anyway, the girl wound up dying.

The white feminist I was talking to was positive that this horrific thing happened because Afghani culture values men. Well, it's true that in a patriarchal culture, men are valued. But when you are a single afghani mother who can't forage for food on your own and you’re starving to death isn't there also a very real legitimate reason that you value male life? Do we really think that a well off Afghani woman in Canada that has plenty of food is going to starve her daughter to death and lavish breast milk on a son?

Desperation *creates* and/or *reinforces* gender imbalances–many times, those gender imbalances didn’t exist prior to the introduction of "desperation". Look in Iraq, for example–women are now confined to their houses in ways that they weren’t under saddamn. Is a little girl that requires food but can do nothing to help *get* the food really going to be valued?

and then, really, in the case of this woman, it really pissed me off that this white woman was decrying the sexism, but NOT the fact that a mother has to water down formula to make it last longer or deny her child all together because she simply doesn't have water. Those conditions of extreme horrific poverty were created BY US and the USSR. Do we have no responsibility at ALL in that child's death?

I think this anecdote illustrates nicely the connection between patriarchy and economic injustice. All forms of domination and oppression are connected, and ALL have to be struggled against. That is why Condoleeza Rice represents nothing for our struggles: as a black woman she has been invited into the "other side" of the racist, patriarchal, classist divide. That does not eliminate the divide. Frustrating: white wealthy women (who can choose to be stay-at-home moms because of their priviledged social position) and support right-wing parties and say feminism is dead. Grrrr...

Media Face Off: China's Stock Market vs. Migrant Workers in the News

China migrant 'underclass' emerging
According to Amnesty International "China's millions of migrant workers are denied access to healthcare, education and good working conditions and are fast becoming an 'urban underclass'".

But all we hear about is the freakin' stock market crash. Search for China Stock Market in Google News today, and you get over ten thousand results:


Now, search for china migrant workers. Under 600 results.

It's even worse if you search for china underclass: 107 results.

Just a simple example of how capital gets far more coverage than labour. china business gets 32,766 results today while china labour gets 1,710.

Ever notice there's a business section in all newspapers, but no labour section? This makes no sense when you think about the proportion of people who work for wage or salary, compared to those who own a business or live off of investments. Somehow the interests of capital and those who own it have become paramount, overshadowing the interests of everyone else.

Families of the Detained : Victimizing Innocent civilians in the name of defeating Shabia is a crime

Check back with ETP for more news throughout the day

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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: Ten French tourists were kidnapped in northern Ethiopia Today by unknown people, a businessman and a tour operator who work in the region said. (More on this below...)
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Also in the news:
[US ambassador working to get political prisoners released] - [First AU peacekeepers land in Somalia?] - [Uganda Denies Peacekeepers In Somalia ] - [ our force will not disarm Somali militias: Museveni]

International:
[North Korea pledges to denuclearize, intensify diplomacy] - [Italy's senators vote to give Prodi another chance ] - [Iran indicates it will join US at Baghdad conference] - [Wall Street resumes plunge after reprieve] - [Superstition sparks toilet cleaning craze] and more of today's top stories!

(Picture - Dejazmatch Demissew Nessibu, hero of Adwa)
One-hundred and eleven years ago this week, the European "man in the street," opened his newspaper to learn that, for the first time since the Carthagian Hannibal marched into the Valley of the Po some two thousand years earlier, an army from Africa had decisively defeated a large and well equipped European force.

The battle of Adwa, as an example of colonial warfare on an epic scale, it cannot be surpassed. As an example of the twin follies of arrogance and underestimation of one's enemies, it will never be forgotten. historynet/Tezeta.

(More on the battle of Adwa and its significance on tomorrows issue of ETP)

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March 2 - worldwide candlelight vigil for prisoners of Conscience in Ethiopia

March 4 - Candlelight vigil in front of the White House

100,000 letters-in-ten-days campaign

Surely, by now you have heard of the 100,000 letters-in-10-days campaign, but have you participated yet? (More...)_____________________________________________________

US ambassador working to get political prisoners released

Donald Yamamoto's quiet diplomacy to get the leaders of CUD released may be working, American Embassy sources who wanted anonymity told this blogger today. Yamamoto has been pressing for the release of thearkpolitical prisoners for two months now.

The sources said his style is to avoid the megaphone diplomacy which made the wavering Tim Clark, Head of EC's delegation in Addis Ababa, to fall out of favor with both the EPRDF and the CUD.

Yamamoto is also winning the hearts of Ethiopians who work at the US embassy staff who were shocked with the abrasive and biased approach of his predecessor, Vicki Huddelstone. "With him, it is diplomatic niceties coupled with a judicious approach to the issue.

He is doing his job well; and there has never been as big hope as now that the prisoners will be released and political dialogue will re-open ," one source commented.(More....)
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(letter handwritten and sent from Ethiopia, From the families of the detained)

Victimizing Innocent civilians in the name of defeating Eritrea (shabia) is a crime! (More....)

Also see:
-SOS: Cry of help from brothers in torture chamber
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10 French tourists kidnapped in northern Ethiopia, say businessman and tour operator


ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: Ten French tourists were kidnapped in northern Ethiopia Thursday by unknown people, a businessman and a tour operator who work in the region said.

The tourists were in a convoy of four vehicles in Dalol, 800 kilometers (500 miles) northeast of Addis Ababa, traveling to salt mines in the Afar region when they were kidnapped, said the businessman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

One of them escaped, got to another group of tourists and made a satellite phone call to authorities in the area to report the kidnapping, which took place around 4 p.m. (1300GMT), the businessman said.(More...)

Ethiopia: President Girma Leaves for U.S.

A senior government delegation led by President Girma Wolde-Giorgis left here Tuesday to pay a working visit to the United States.

In a statement sent to ENA yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said during its stay in the US, the delegation is expected to visit various institutions.

The President would discuss with members of Ethiopian communities in various states, it said. (Source)

First AU peacekeepers land in Somalia

BAIDOA, Somalia (Reuters) - The Ugandan vanguard of an African peacekeeping force intended to help Somalia's interim government tighten its tenuous grip on the anarchic nation flew into the country on Thursday, witnesses said.

Underlining the mammoth task awaiting the African Union (AU) mission, gunmen shot dead three people at the house of the director of Mogadishu's port, the latest of a wave of guerrilla-style attacks in the coastal capital. (More...)

Uganda Denies Peacekeepers In Somalia

(AP) A Ugandan military spokesman has denied that an advance team of the African peacekeeping force expected in Somalia has arrived in the country, contrary to an earlier statement made Thursday by a senior Somali police officer said.

Capt. Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for Uganda's peacekeeping mission, told the AP that the Ugandan deployment will not happen until next week. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is expected to preside over a final ceremony Thursday for the peacekeepers in Jinja, Uganda. (More...)
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Open letter from... Accused number 44 under the Case File Engineer Hailu Shawel(Ato Berhane Mewa)

(More...)

(Audio)Letter narrated by Berhane Mewa
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Ethiopian bolsters Washington-Addis Ababa route

Ethiopian Airlines says it will add two additional flights between Washington Dulles and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The new flights begin June 1, giving Ethiopian six weekly flights on the route.

The carrier will offer one round-trip flight every day except Sunday. The flights will be operated on Boeing 767 aircraft and will make a 45-minute refueling stop in Rome.

"The airline has long understood the size and potential of the U.S. market, and has begun an aggressive program with travel agents and tour operators to better promote the wonders of Ethiopia, and the quality of our airline," Ethiopian COO Tewolde Gebremariam says in a press release.(More...)

Ugandan force will not disarm Somali militias: Museveni

JINJA, Uganda (AFP) - President Yoweri Museveni on Thursday said Ugandan troops due to become part of an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia would not seek to disarm militias causing chaos in Mogadishu.

"We are not going to disarm the Somali militias because if we empower the Somali people, it will be up to them to decide whether it is necessary to disarm," Museveni told a gathering of around 1,500 troops due to leave for Somalia.

Somalia's capital Mogadishu has seen a rise in insurgent attacks and fighting since Somali government fighters backed by the Ethiopian military ousted a powerful Islamist movement late last year.(More...)

Today's Top Stories

-Chad Wants Only U.N. Police for Refugees
-North Korea pledges to denuclearize, intensify diplomacy (North Korea's No. 2 leader has told a senior delegation from the South that his country will "make efforts to realize" the nuclear disarmament plan)
-Iran indicates it will join US at Baghdad conference
-Wall Street resumes plunge after reprieve
-Italy's senators vote to give Prodi government another chance
-Physicist Stephen Hawking to make zero gravity flight
-Superstition sparks toilet cleaning craze




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