Today is the 5th anniversary of the massive 2004 Tsunami

Thousands attended prayers and ceremonies of remembrance around the world on Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami   The huge waves left hundreds of thousands displaced on coastlines across Africa and Asia and killed about 250,000 people in 14 countries five years ago.

Today is World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day. For your own health and peace of mind, please get tested for HIV. There are over 85,000 people living with HIV in the United Kingdom; 1/4 of them do not know they are infected. There are an estimated 1 million Americans living with HIV and over 33 million people worldwide infected with the virus. President Obama made a proclamation declaring the day World AIDS Day. To find an HIV Testing location near you in the United States, send a text message with your ZIP code to KNOWIT (566948) or visit http://www.hivtest.org/.

Resources: http://www.worldaidsday.org/ and http://www.hhs.gov/aidsawarenessdays/days/world/index.html

Nigerian Idol: the Jackson 5

Hilarious! Check out Nigerian Randy!

The results are in: Caster Semenya is a....

An Australian newspaper, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, is reporting a confidential source leaked the gender test results for South African world champion runner Caster Semenya. According to the paper, the source says Miss Semenya "is a hermaphrodite with no womb or ovaries." Reportedly she has internal, undescended testes, but she still possesses external female genetalia.

The IAAF urges caution when accepting the Australian paper's claims because the IAAF has not released any offical statement, nor have they concluded their investigation; weeks of testing and expert evaluation lay ahead. The IAAF will discuss its findings with Miss Semanya prior to releasing any findings to the public.

Last Week the South African magazine YOU asked Miss Semenya about the uproar over her gender. She replied, "I see it all as a joke. It doesn't upset me. God made me the way I am and I accept myself. I am who I am and I'm proud of myself. I don't want to talk about the tests. I'm not even thinking about them."

It should be noted that modern medicine considers gender to be a continuum with an astonishing array of hormonal and genetic conditions resulting in individuals with ambiguous genetalia and/or apparent gender conflicting with internal anatomy and chromosomal makeup. Normally the sex chromosomes XX denote female and XY denote a male; in some extremely rare circumstances there have been XY females and XX males. Some individuals have, like the Australian paper claims Semenya has, internal anatomy that is at odds with their external anatomy. Some individuals are born with both ovaries and testes internally, though it is almost unheard of for an individual to have both male and female external genitals.

The question becomes, 'what actually determines a person's gender?' Semenya's birth certificate lists her as female, she was raised as a female, and she considers herself to be female. Do her heretofore unknown of testes make her male? Does the perception of many who meet her determine her gender? Is she neither female nor male or both? This is the assertion of some intersex advocates, 'intersex' being the preferred term for individuals formerly called 'hermaphrodites.'

Semenya stands to be stripped of her medals depending upon the decision of the IAAF even though they admit there was no cheating involved in her win. South Africa has lodged a human rights complaint with the United Nations alleging racism and gender discrimination over the flap. What do you think? Should Semenya keep her medal? Should the world be allowed to know what gonads and chromosomes she possesses? Is she really a man or a woman?

source

Sudanese reporter arrested for wearing trousers

Lubna Hussein, a Sudanese reporter for the United Nations, was arrested for public indecency for wearing trousers in the culturally and religiously divided nation. Hussein, who was wearing professional trousers women in most parts of Asia, Europe, the U.S., and other western nations take for granted, was found guilty and fined by a Sudanese court.

10 of the other 11 women arrested with Hussein have already plead guilty and been whipped, but Hussein says she refuses to pay the fine and is prepared to go to prison to prove her point. Her attorney maintains the indecency laws are unnecessarily vague and broad. There is a large divide between the mostly Islamic Arab-oriented north and the mostly Christian, sub-Saharan oriented south.

Hussein's case has galvanized the women's movement across the Sudan where thousands of women and girls have been beaten and harrassed under the guise of public indecency laws since the 1990's.

I wonder what you would get for wearing this?


(Tamar Braxton, Toni's sister.)

Source: Reuters

Jesse Jackson Visits Ivory Coast Comes Back A King

They wasn't covered up in National Geographic or Penthouse.

This actually happened a couple of weeks ago, but the Rev. Jesse Jackson returned to Chicago with a golden scepter, a crown and a royal title. During a ceremony featuring bare-chested women, fresh goat’s blood and a tribal king, Jackson was bestowed with the ceremonial title of royal “dignitary” while visiting the village of Krindjabo near Zamunda in the Ivory Coast this week.

“It’s a joyous occasion and a great honor,” Jackson said during a telephone interview. “We are committed to working with the people in the village.” But it hasn’t all been joyous for Jackson, who was visiting the West African nation promoting a fair and transparent national election, set for later this year.

Shortly after giving a speech Thursday from a makeshift stage inside a packed soccer stadium in Abidjan, the country’s largest city, the stage collapsed. Jackson’s wife, Jacqueline Jackson, suffered a broken tibia. She was sent back to the states, but that didn't stop the civil rights icon from receiving the royal treatment. While traveling about the country in a 20-car motorcade Jackson's public appearances have drawn thousands of spectators.

The Rev. Dignitary Jackson's final words to the people of the Ivory Coast after the stage collapsed were prophetic: "We fall down, we get up. We fall down, we get up. Because the ground is no place for a champion. You are all champions," Jackson said through a translator.

Corazon Aquino passed away this weekend

Tens of thousands of Filipinos lines the streets to bid farewell to the Phillippines' first female president, Corazon Aquino. Pres. Aquino passed away Saturday after a long battle with colon cancer. Mrs. Aquino came to power in 1986 following in the shoes of her slain husband, Benigno "Noy Noy" Aquino. Mrs. Aquino ran against dictator Ferdinand Marcos but lost amid voting irregularities and widespead cheating. A military coup then overthrew Marcos and sent him into exile, installing Aquino amongst widespread support from the Filipino population. The street demonstrations in which ordinary people formed a live blockade to protect the military mutineers and nuns knelt in front of tanks clutching the rosary began a wave of grassroots activism which spread across the globe; The Aquino-inspired uprising is credited as one of the inspirations behind the toppling of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communist isolation of East Germany, as well as serving as the model for other popular uprisings throughout Asia and the Soviet Union.