Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, May 01, 2012.
OND is a regular
community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - proper respect is due.
---
This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Mayday!!! by Flobots
Please feel free to browse and add your own links, content or thoughts in the Comments section.
Any timestamps shown are relative to each publication.
---------------------------------------
|
|
Top News |
|
Environment Key to Preventing Childhood Disabilities
By (ScienceDaily)
|
The United States government would get a better bang for its health-care buck in managing the country's most prevalent childhood disabilities if it invested more in eliminating socio-environmental risk factors than in developing medicines.
. . .
Referencing numerous studies, the authors track how declining infections and rising prenatal and childhood exposure to environmental toxins is "shifting the burden of illness among children and adults from infectious to chronic diseases."
. . .
Toxins, such as airborne pollutants, lead, tobacco, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), as well as suspected ones, such as organophosphate pesticides and bisphenol A, are combining to increase the incidence of prevalent childhood disabilities.
Asthma, obesity, mental illness and neuro-behavioural problems, such as ADHD and autism, are among these disabilities.
|
KSM, 4 others to face murder charges again in Guantánamo
By Carol Rosenberg
|
. . .
The Pentagon is resetting the clock and restarting the Sept. 11 terror trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, 46, and four alleged accomplices, seeking to write the final chapter of the five men nearly a year to the day after Special Forces hunted down and killed Osama bin Laden.
These are the men whom President George W. Bush had brought to the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba for trials by military commissions in 2006, proceedings that President Barack Obama had halted to reform them with Congress in a bid to make them more credible in international law and human rights circles.
. . .
In his war court charge sheet he comes off as a meticulous micromanager of the largest mass murder in American history — coaching the mostly Saudi hijackers on the most basic brutish English for their mission — “if anyone moves, I’ll kill you” — then having them practice the art of slaughter on sheep, goats and camels.
Nowhere does it mention that the CIA waterboarded him an unrivaled 183 times to break him at secret overseas prisons, using interrogation techniques the Obama administration now brands as torture. Nor does it note that he became so accustomed to the treatment that he counted off the seconds of near-drowning with his fingers, having realized that the CIA was not authorized to actually kill him.
|
New child farm labor regulations dead — thanks to Sarah Palin’s expertise?
By Claire Thompson
|
Last week, the White House abandoned proposed changes to labor rules that might have kept young people working on farms quite a bit safer. It was a move widely characterized as a cave to political pressure from Republicans and some Big Ag-friendly Democrats.
. . .
Opposition to the updated regulations hinged on the argument that they would hurt family farms, stirring fears of the Feds swooping in to arrest Farmer Joe for sending Joe Jr. out to milk the cows in the morning. But the new rules would not have applied “to children working on farms owned by their parents,” as the U.S. Department of Labor clearly stated when it announced the proposed changes.
. . .
But — like Palin — people from all over the industrial agriculture world stayed on message in the media, beginning last fall, when headlines read, “Child labor change under fire in farm country” and “Labor Dept.’s overreach could threaten life on the farm.” Even somewhat progressive sources like Natural News reported that the laws would somehow “criminalize small farmers” and drive them away from the land.
And this media storm worked. The Labor Department’s statement announcing its withdrawal of the rules played directly to false claims that the regulations threatened family farms: “The Obama administration is firmly committed to promoting family farmers and respecting the rural way of life, especially the role that parents and other family members play in passing those traditions down through the generations.”
|
Occupy Wall Street stages day of US protests
By (BBC)
|
Occupy Wall Street protesters have staged rallies across the US as they called for a nationwide general strike to mark International Workers' Day.
Thousands gathered to protest peacefully in Union Square in New York City.
. . .
In Oakland, California protesters clashed with police as flash-bang grenades and tear gas were used.
Demonstrations and strikes were also held in Washington DC, the Los Angeles International Airport, Atlanta and in Chicago, where about 2,000 activists marched through the city to callfor immigration reform.
|
|
|
|
International |
|
Obama in Afghanistan: Defeat of al-Qaeda is withing reach
By Aamer Madhani and David Jackson
|
President Obama slipped into Afghanistan late Tuesday night and marked the first anniversary of the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by signing a strategic agreement that narrows the U.S. military mission there while codifying long-term U.S. support for the government in Kabul.
. . .
The deal doesn't include specifics about how many American troops will remain in Afghanistan after the U.S. combat role ends in 2014. But the agreement specifically allows the U.S. to stage troops inside the country to train Afghan forces and carry out limited counterterrorism operations targeting al-Qaeda presence inside Afghanistan. The pact also calls for the administration to request money from Congress annually to pay for training of Afghan troops and other programs, but it doesn't set funding levels.
The Afghanistan visit — the third of Obama's presidency — came as Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and GOP lawmakers have accused Obama of politicizing the death of bin Laden. A senior administration official denied that the Afghanistan visit was timed to benefit Obama politically. The official, who briefed reporters ahead of Obama's speech on the condition of anonymity, noted that Afghan and U.S. officials have been negotiating a settlement for nearly 20 months. Both Karzai and Obama had set the goal of having a deal in place before this month's NATO summit in Chicago.
|
Bolivia nationalizes Spanish-owned electrical grid
By Simeon Tegel
|
Bolivia’s army occupied the installations of the country’s electricity grid Tuesday after President Evo Morales nationalized the Spanish-owned company that runs it.
The president, an avowed socialist, ordered the seizure of the assets of Madrid-based firm Red Electrica in Bolivia as part of his stated policy of bringing strategic areas of the impoverished Andean nation’s economy under state control.
. . .
The news comes as yet another blow to Spain’s stalled economy. Unemployment is at 24 percent while the government is slashing public spending in a desperate effort to bring the national debt under control and avoid being booted out of the euro zone.
|
Greece election: Wind of change sweeps through Athens
By Theopi Skarlatos
|
Slogans are everywhere. Pinned to trees, stuck to houses, hung up like Christmas lights across town. Voices boom out of loudspeakers intermittently and there are constant late night gatherings. It is the last week of campaigning across Greece before one of the country's most critical elections of the last three decades.
. . .
The two main parties which make up the outgoing coalition - the centre right New Democracy and Socialist Pasok - bear the brunt of public anger.
A frustrated population blames them for the past two years of painful austerity, no economic growth and a lack of change in the political system. The sentiment of the Greek public is easy to see.
|
Angola's businesses beat most of Europe to 4G mobile services
By Egon Cossou
|
It is 10 years since the end of Angola's civil war.
The country has made enormous strides in rebuilding its economy, which is expected to grow by around 8% this year.
. . .
But infrastructure growth doesn't just mean more office blocks and motorways.
It also means a big upgrade in the mobile phone network available to Angolans. They're in the process of getting high-speed 4G services - ahead of most of Europe and many parts of the US - thanks to a $100m project underway there.
|
China drugs scandal hot on the hoof of meat ban
By Wu Zhong
|
Medicine by definition is for treatment of diseases or injuries. But drugs contaminated with unwanted poisonous stuff (some poison are necessary to cure certain diseases) will do harm to human health instead. Hence medicine makers must have the social conscience and responsibility to ensure the safety of their products.
It is therefore totally justified for Chinese public to become outraged upon learning that over a dozen commonly-used drugs have been packed into capsules made from industrial gelatin made from waste leather materials. As such the capsules contain excessive amounts of chromium, which is hazardous to human health. Amid suspicion that a lot more drugs are similarly tainted, many people in China, especially the aged, now refuse to take capsuled medication.
Added to the growing panic over contaminated medicine is the renewed fear of unsafe foodstuff especially red meat prompted by reports that Chinese sports authority has instructed athletes in training for competition in the London Summer Olympic Games in July not to eat pork, beef and lamb to avoid taking in substances banned under anti-doping rules of the international sports event. A question is naturally asked: is red meat safe for others to eat if it is deemed unsafe for athletes?
|
|
|
|
USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
|
Poll: Approval of U.S. Supreme Court slips
By (UPI)
|
A survey pegged public approval of the U.S. Supreme Court at its lowest point in about 25 years with the displeasure crossing political-party lines.
. . .
When viewed along party lines, Pew found not much difference among Republicans, Democrats and independents. A favorable opinion was held by 56 percent of Republicans and 52 percent of Democrats and independents.
Pew said in a written statement that while healthcare reform deeply divided the electorate, it did not have much influence in the previously held views of the court.
|
Adis Medunjanin, NYC man, convicted of subway terror plot
By Priyanka Boghani
|
Adis Medunjanin, a US citizen, was found guilty on Tuesday of plotting a suicide bomb attack targeting the New York City subway, according to the BBC.
Medunjanin was convicted by a federal jury of plotting, along with two former schoolmates, to bomb the subway on the anniversary of 9/11 in 2009.
. . .
Defense attorney Robert Gottlieb said he would appeal, but also stressed that a trial in the US court system was better for prosecuting suspected terrorists than a military tribunal. He said, "The world and our national government including all our politicians should take note that this is the way crimes should be decided, not in a military commission, not in a star chamber, but in America," according to the AP.
|
Obama Administration Backs Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Program
By Kate Sheppard
|
. . .
The HHS Office of Adolescent Health lists the Heritage Keepers Abstinence Education as one of the 31 "evidence-based programs" that "met the effectiveness criteria" for preventing teenage pregnancy. Reproductive Health Reality Check flagged its inclusion on Tuesday, noting that the program was quietly added to the list sometime in April. The program is based in South Carolina and focuses on schools in the state.
. . .
The HHS fact sheet on the program lists five different sections, on topics like "sexual abstinence" and "family formation." The "STD Facts" section "discusses how to refuse sex in different settings." Students are also taught a "four-step plan for resisting sexual activity," and provided with "role-playing exercises to help students practice it." In other words, don't count on learning anything along the lines of what young people should do if they are having sex. There's no talk about condoms or birth control. And if you're gay, forget about it.
The RH Reality Check piece notes that an August 2007 report on the Heritage program prepared for HHS found that it "had little or no impact on sexual abstinence or activity." So it's not exactly clear why it's on a list of "evidence-based programs" that "met the effectiveness criteria" for HHS.
|
if I have a stroke today, Tovia Smith, it’s your fault
By Freddie deBoer
|
I’m serious, about the stroke. I just can’t function in a world where quality journalism is so important and yet so hard to find. Here’s Tovia Smith, of NPR, making the same argument that Columnist Boyardee made the other day—that our recent colleges graduates are struggling because they didn’t take “practical” majors. I promise, I’m looking at this less as a matter of defending the liberal arts and more as a matter of asking for absolutely elementary journalistic quality. If you are writing a story that suggests that our recent graduates are struggling because they didn’t take practical majors, you have to perform at least two minimal functions.
Number one, you have to demonstrate that in fact many people are taking these majors.
Number two, you have to demonstrate that there are in fact actual bad economic consequences for these majors.
Not only does Tovia Smith fail to demonstrate those things, she seems not to understand that these are basic requirements for such a story.
|
|
Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
. . . i agree saying to stand up and change them before everyone is like this and everything is like things. change it now, before its too late.
one more thing, its saying, alot of children are born into this, so its like if we dont change it now, then its going to be a continous thing
Back to what's happening:
|
|
Environment and Greening |
|
EPA official out over 'crucifixion' remark
By (UPI)
|
. . .
Al Armendariz had come under fire after comments he made in 2010 surfaced in which he had compared his enforcement strategy to the way ancient Roman conquerors would use terror, in the form of crucifixions, to keep order, The Hill reported Monday.
A number of Republican lawmakers had called for the resignation of Armendariz, EPA's Region 6 administrator whose responsibility included oil-and-gas producing states such as Texas and Louisiana, despite his apology for the remarks.
. . .
"As I have expressed publicly, and to you directly, I regret comments I made several years ago that do not in any way reflect my work as regional administrator. As importantly, they do not represent the work you have overseen as EPA administrator," he wrote.
|
Clouds Are the Last Hope of the Climate Deniers
By Kevin Drum
|
The New York Times reports today that climate skeptics have pretty much run out of plausible pseudo-science to support their claim that global warming is a myth. Sunspots are a joke. Weather station innacuracy isn't an issue. Paleoclimate reconstructions seem to be fine. Urban heat islands aren't distorting measurements. And no, it hasn't been getting cooler since 1998.
According to Justin Gillis, the deniers have only one arrow left in their quiver: cloud formation. Climate scientists remain unsure of the effect of cloud formation on weather patterns, and this has given MIT's Richard Lindzen all the opening he needs:
. . .
If Lindzen is the climate deniers' last hope, they should probably just give up the fight right now. But they won't, because Gillis is wrong: clouds aren't their last hope. Human greed and self interest are their last hope, and there's very little chance of that diminishing anytime in the near future. The deniers don't want to believe, so they don't.
|
Water companies turn hose on drought naysayers
By John Vidal
|
Water companies reached for words like "irony" today to explain to 20 million customers why they should save water even as rivers overflowed, gardens were swamped and fields became lakes after a further inch of rain fell in some regions in the space of 12 hours, and 36 flood warnings remained in place.
. . .
"The drought still stands. We're seeing lots of water on the surface but it needs to get down to the ground water. It's having some beneficial effects. It's good for farmers and gardeners, and the cool temperatures will ease the pressure on fish and wildlife in rivers. After two years of exceptionally dry weather, the continuous rain in April has started to restore water levels below ground, but it will take much more time and more rain to undo the effects of two dry winters on groundwater stores."
According to the agency, what were exceptionally dry soils are now soaking up much of the rain, but where the soil has been compacted the water is rushing off into rivers which cannot cope, and are overflowing. "But it is not reaching down far enough to top up groundwater supplies, which is what we really need," she said.
|
By growing food, Occupy the Farm helps a movement grow up
By Jason Mark
|
It doesn’t take an agricultural expert to know that you can’t grow vegetables without water. So it wasn’t surprising that after hundreds of people marching under the banner “Occupy the Farm” took over a University of California (UC) agricultural testing station on April 22, UC officials responded by shutting off water to the site. The next day, a late-season storm brought a half-inch of rain to the San Francisco Bay Area, irrigating the thousands of vegetable starts in the ground and lifting the spirits of the urban farming activists who are determined to save the site from development. Score: Occupiers, 1 — UC administrators, 0.
. . .
The land seized by Occupy the Farm is the last parcel of Class 1 agriculture soils left in the East Bay and the final remnant of a 104-acre spread bequeathed to the University of California in the 1920s. For decades this sliver of prime farmland has been used as an agricultural testing station by researchers from the USDA and UC-Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources. But a 2004 UC Master Plan for the area proposes a “commercial redevelopment” for the site. World War II era buildings on the south end of the property are slated to be turned into housing for UC faculty and graduate students, as well as retail space (including, ironically, a Whole Foods). The land currently used for agricultural trials would be re-zoned for “open space and recreation” and could include the construction of little league fields, a community center, or a childcare facility.
The Occupiers say getting rid of this final vestige of farmland would be a horrible mistake: “Farmland is for farming,” Occupy the Farm said in an April 26 statement. “We cannot allow the UC to destroy one of the best resources for urban agriculture in the Bay Area.”
|
|
|
|
Science and Health |
|
Ancient fleas plagued ancient dinosaurs
By (UPI)
|
No creature is safe from fleas, not even dinosaurs that had to endure the bites of giant flea-like insects 165 million years ago, a U.S. zoologist says.
George Poinar Jr., a zoology professor at Oregon State University who wrote a commentary on the find of fossils of the giant insects by Chinese scientists, said they were probably 10 times the size of a flea you might find on the family dog.
. . .
The soft-bodied, flea-like insects found in fossil form in Inner Mongolia may be the evolutionary ancestors of modern fleas but are more likely a separate and now extinct lineage, he said.
|
Community Health Centers serve 3 million
By (UPI)
|
The Obama administration said grants under the Affordable Care Act will help fund renovation and construction of 398 projects at U.S. Community Health Centers.
. . .
Since the beginning of the Obama administration in 2009, employment at health centers nationwide increased by 15 percent and, because of the Affordable Care Act and the Recovery Act, community health centers are serving nearly 3 million additional patients today, the White House press secretary said in a statement.
The statement said repealing the Affordable Care Act would mean 485 health center construction and renovation projects and the creation of 245 new community health center sites creating 6,000 jobs would not be built during the next two years, and 1.3 million additional new patients who would have gotten care at a Community Health Center would need to look elsewhere for care or go without.
|
Man sues BMW claiming motorbike gave him 2-year erection
By David Pescovitz
|
Henry Wolf filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court against BMW North American and Corbin-Pacific, Inc., claiming that the "ridged seat" on his bike gave him priapism, a medical consisted in which the penis becomes erect and does not become flaccid for a long period. Apparently, Wolf's penis remained erect for two years. . .
Wolf said he rode the motorcycle in San Francisco on a four-hour round trip on May 1, 2010 and developed the priapism soon after. . .
|
|
|
|
Technology |
|
Ancient Egyptians Recorded Algol's Variable Magnitude 3000 Years Before Western Astronomers
By (The Physics arXiv Blog)
|
The Ancient Egyptians were meticulous astronomers and recorded the passage of the heavens in extraordinary detail. The goal was to mark the passage of time and to understand the will of the Gods who kept the celestial machinery at work.
. . .
Nothing else in the visible night sky comes close to having a similar period so it's reasonable to think that the 2.85 and the 2.867 day periods must refer to the same object. "Everything indicated that the two best periods in [the data] were the real periods of the Moon and Algol," say Jetsu and co.
. . .
This is where the astronomy becomes a little more complex. The period of binary star systems ought to be easy to predict. But in recent years, astronomers have discovered that Algol's period is changing in ways that they do not yet fully understand.
. . .
So not only did the ancients' discover the variable stars 3000 years before western astronomers, the data is good enough to help understand the behaviour of this complex system. A truly remarkable conclusion.
|
Online-Only News Outlets Struggle to Find Funding
By (ScienceDaily)
|
The first report to systematically assess how online-only news websites across Western Europe are faring has found that new start-ups are struggling to find business models that can cover their operating costs. It suggests that the funding environment is more challenging for new start-ups than for traditional media outlets that also have online content, because the latters' operations can be subsidised by revenues from offline businesses.
The report, published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) at the University of Oxford, finds that although internet use and online advertising is growing fast across Europe, and there is much experimentation in the online news space, the stumbling block continues to be the absence of a viable business models for new forms of journalism. Even the most innovative online enterprises in Europe have found it difficult to break even.
. . .
The report suggests there are two main challenges for online-only news sites: firstly, the market for online news continues to be dominated by legacy media organisations like newspapers and broadcasters; secondly, the market for online advertising is dominated by a few very large players like Google, which undermines the ability of small and medium-size players to generate significant revenues.
|
FCC: Google Knowingly Used Street View Cars to Snoop on Emails, Texts
By Jason Mick
|
Did senior level Google Inc. (GOOG) managers know of and condone one of their engineer's audacious schemes to "wardrive" the United States and Europe, using the company's "Street View" cars? That's what U.S. government officials at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission are accusing [Scribd].
. . .
The project was supposed to be for the betterment of mankind, or something along those lines. But Google's altruism has been called into question when it was revealed that it was using its wired Street View vehicles as warwagons to troll unsecured wireles connection connections. Further, the Google cars were discovered to be intercepting unsecured email and SMS traffic, data mining peoples' private conversations.
. . .
Google cast this hidden capability as a "bug" in the Street View code, created by a misguided engineer. But according to the FCC while Google appears to have broken no laws in spying on people on unsecured lines, emails between the engineer in charge of the program and two other employees -- including a senior manager -- indicate that the program was not a rogue effort. It was in fact on the radar of at least some members of Google's senior staff.
|
Germans Find Treasure Trove of Al Qaeda Docs Hidden Within Porn Film
By Jason Mick
|
. . .
The surprising contents were found almost a year ago during the May 16, 2011 detainment of Austrian Maqsood Lodin, 22, who returned overland to Germany after a trip to what is known as militant regions of Pakistan. The investigators found a memory card hidden in his pants. On that card were numerous files including one which seemed typical enough for a 22 year old male -- porn.
But hidden inside the pornographic movie -- "Kick Ass" -- German investigators discovered an encryption-protected data file, which was also masked by sophisticated software. When they finally decrypted the file four weeks later, they gained access to a treasure trove of over 100 documents, detailing high-level Al Qaeda plans for terrorists attacks in the U.S. and Europe.
The documents hint that Al Qaeda is facing an identity crisis, having been unable to carry out a major attack in several years, its vision of destruction continually thwarted. One document suggests faster training for Al Qaeda operatives, to avoid law enforcement scrutiny. Traditionally Al Qaeda recruits trained for months or years, fighting in Afghanistan or Pakistan. However, the international intelligence community has learned to flag anyone who goes on one of these "extended stays" as a person of high interest, making it nearly impossible for them to effectively attack.
|
Facebook in organ donation push
By James Gallagher
|
The NHS and social networking site Facebook have joined forces in an attempt to increase the number of organs being donated.
People will be able to register as an organ donor through the website and share their intentions with family and friends.
Three people die every day while waiting for a transplant, NHS says.
NHS Blood and Transplant said the partnership was an "exciting new way" to encourage donation.
|
|
|
|
Cultural |
|
Five Reasons Robot Sex Partners Won't End Human Trafficking
By Christopher Mims
|
"Robots, Men and Sex Tourism," a paper in the journal Futures highlighted by Big Think and io9, makes the case that in the not too distant future, robots will replace humans as sex workers.
. . .
This seems like a narrow view of what prostitution is actually about, so I asked a few peers to weigh in about why this future seems so unlikely.
1. Sex trafficking isn't about sex
. . .
3. Economics
. . .
|
Facing Death, Afghan Girl Runs To U.S. Military
By Quil Lawrence
|
In a remote part of Afghanistan early last year, a girl was sentenced to death. Her crime was possession of a cellphone. Her executioners were to be her brothers. They suspected her of talking on the phone with a boy. The girl, in her late teens, had dishonored the family, her brothers said.
"My older brother took the cellphone from me and beat me very badly. It was dinnertime. They told me that they would execute me after dinner. They said to me this would be my last meal," says "Lina," a pseudonym.
. . .
Lina's story illustrates the point: When she came to an American military base pleading for help, U.S. officials had to figure out how to save her life without enraging the local community.
. . .
Afghan advisers told Americans at the base very bluntly: To keep peace with the community, Lina had to go home, even if it meant her death. Her original "crime" now paled in comparison to the fact that Lina had spent weeks living with non-Muslim soldiers, says Huma Safi, a women's rights advocate in Kabul.
. . .
When she was brought before a female Afghan judge, Lina asked for help. The judge said she knew a young man looking for a wife. Lina insisted on seeing him first, and that she not be made a second wife to a married man. They met, and after a short discussion, decided to get married. She is now expecting her first child.
|
May Day: Russia buys a bunch of parades
By Khristina Narizhnaya
|
Millions of Russians celebrated May Day today, with the bulk of the celebrations taking place in the capital.
President-elect Vladimir Putin and outgoing president Dmitry Medvedev took part in the May 1 procession for the first time. They led the biggest of the day’s marches, organized by the Federation of Independent Unions of Russia and attended by many from the ruling United Russia party, through Moscow’s central Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street, along the Red Square and toward Tverskaya Square.
. . .
A family of three, after expressing support and solidarity with workers of the world, said they came to the rally from a Moscow suburb after applying on massovki.ru, a website that provides extras for movies. They will each be paid 300 rubles at the end of the rally, they said.
. . .
“It was the same before, jobs offered days off and other perks [for showing up to rallies],” Yevgeniya said. “Nobody had much patriotism back then either.”
|
Leonardo da Vinci: How accurate were his anatomy drawings?
By Robin Banerji
|
Based on what survives, clinical anatomists believe that Leonardo's anatomical work was hundreds of years ahead of its time, and in some respects it can still help us understand the body today.
. . .
From a notebook dated 1489, there is a series of meticulous drawings of the skull.
. . .
According to Peter Abrahams, professor of clinical anatomy at Warwick University in the UK, Leonardo's image is as accurate as anything that can be produced by scientific artists working today.
"If you actually know your anatomy, you can see all the tiny little holes that are in the skull," says Prof Abrahams.
|
Women's rights in Mali 'set back 50 years' by new 'Family Code' law
By Soumaila T Diarra
|
. . .
In this strongly patriarchal society, where many women need to ask permission from their husbands just to leave the house, women's groups have been pushing for change for the last 10 years. The hopes of women activists were pinned to a new Family Code to strengthen the legal rights of women. Its provisions included raising the minimum legal age of marriage for girls, improving women's inheritance and property rights and removing the clause demanding a wife's obedience to her husband. The law was adopted by the National Assembly in August 2009 but was withdrawn following uproar from conservative Muslim groups.
Provocative headlines in newspapers warned that women would no longer have to obey their husbands and thousands took to the streets in protest. A task group formed by Mali's top Islamic council called it an "open road to debauchery" and the National Union of Muslim Women's Associations said the law reflected the wishes of a tiny minority of women. When the Family Code was finally enshrined in law in January this year, it was substantially watered down. Campaigners say that far from protecting women's rights, the code perpetuates discrimination.
. . .
In Mali 90% of the population is Muslim and certain aspects of family life, such as inheritance, divorce and marriage, are based on a mixture of local tradition and Islamic law and practice. One major point of contention between Muslim groups and women's activists is around religious and secular marriage. The 2009 bill would have made secular authorities the only ones allowed to perform marriages. Now religious ceremonies are also recognised as legally binding.
|
|
Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already. |