ria's corner

Abstract ( Public Safety, Peace and Violence against Women)

2011-02-26T09:57:00.000-08:00

Kathleen Staundt, Public Safety, Peace and Violence against Women, pp159-174.

Abstract
The article discussed on violence against women in the peacetime and war, by analyze the separation between public and private, and include violence. Violence against women is compounded by legal pluralism, double standard and male-only human right enforcement. Staundt emphasized, no matter with gender specific or gender neutral law, law must be gender-strategic, addressing the institutionalization of female subordination and media portrayals of gender relations. Promoting women’s right meaning that women’s practical and strategic interest should be expanded in the public agenda with including their safety whether in the peacetime or war and rehabilitation.

Susan Moller Okin: Gender, The Public and The Private.

2011-02-07T08:20:00.000-08:00

from my assignment for Gender politics, civil society and human rights

Abstract
Susan Moller Okin in this article discusses the dichotomy of public and private (hereinafter she refers the dichotomy as public and domestic) through gender lens. As well as many feminist, she also criticize the separation of the public and the private, not only in many political theories in the past but also in most of contemporary political theorist, that ignoring the family (family is non political) also the false gender neutrality (using gender neutral term without real awareness of gender). Overlooking political thought of family and the use of gender ‘neutral’ language have been influence in strengthening the dichotomy of the public and the private and neglecting the issue of gender. She argued that public and domestic sphere can not be separately interpreted, and gender plays crucial significance for the political theory and also in understanding those two spheres, also the need of revision in liberal theory related with the public and the domestic, which is still remain as the basis of political theory today. On this article, she also discussed the value of privacy and questioning it regarding the legal equality of women and child rights. She concludes with the importance of women having equal opportunities as well as men in the public sphere or for benefiting from the advantages that privacy has to offer.

Tootsie

2011-02-02T06:35:00.000-08:00

"I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man. I just have to learn to do it without a dress."

-Michael "Tootsie"-

Djakarta

2011-01-21T21:03:00.000-08:00

Jakarta is the capital city of Indonesia and also metropolitan city. Amid the frenetic capital, we can see the contrast between the have and the have not. It is ironic, you can found luxurious house and almost 65% circulation of money in Indonesia taken place in this city, but in the other hand you can found poverty.
The poor in Jakarta are the people that can not compete with another people because they did not have enough education and skill. Most of them are immigrant from the rural area and mostly from Java (because of the ease of transportation) but also from another region in Indonesia (i.e. Sumatera and Sulawesi). It means that the poor are heterogeneous. They live in slum areas. Mostly the slum area located near with the river or the rail road or under the bridge or near with rail way station or bus station or traditional market. Their live are haunted by flooding (since Jakarta is vulnerable with flood) and eviction from the government officer because they live illegally. The poorest live in the street.

Based on the National Statistic Bureau’s data, the numbers of the poor in Jakarta are decrease. In 2008, there are 379.600 people and in 2009 there are 323.170 people or 3.62% (BPS, 2009). But I am sure that in the reality the number might be bigger than that data, and the number of the poor are increase, because every year a lot people come to Jakarta to find a job and some of them did not have enough education and skill so they can not find job and increase the number of the poor in Jakarta.
The condition in the slum area are getting worse, because of too much people come, and make the slum are more crowded. It worsened by the environmental degradation, like in case of rubbish, flood, etc. The poverty gave impact to women and men differently, and also to the children. Most of them both women and men are working in the informal sector. Mostly the men jobs are scavengers (by using small ship), sailor, worker in the fish exporter company, street musician, beggars. And for the women, their jobs are scavengers, beggars and domestic worker. Even for the pregnant women, they should still work. Different with men, besides generating income, women should do the reproductive work. Most of them have a lot of children, because of the expensive price of the contraception so they can not access it. The women also face difficulties when she having a birth, because the expensive cost of the hospital. The government giving subsidiary for health access but it’s only for the Jakarta citizen. Unfortunately most of them did not have Jakarta ID Card.

Poverty also give impact differently to the children, they live in the unsafe condition. They were growing faster than their age, i.e. because of the small size of the house so children know the sexual activity of their parents. Children have less immunity than adult, so living in the slum area giving different impact to the adult and children. Poverty also gives different impact between girls and boys. Because of the economic condition, the children can not attend school. The girls take care of their little sister or brother and doing reproductive job while the boy working in the informal sector as a scavenger, street musician, etc. And also in case of drugs and alcohol, most of the children who use it are boys. For the street children, they are vulnerable with sexual harassment. There are some cases of sodomy and rape which appear in the newspaper, but I think the number of that case is big, just like iceberg phenomenon.

Article Review: Gender, Information Technology and Health: the Case of Women Workers in Export Zones in the Philippines

2010-11-26T19:47:00.000-08:00

Abstract
The article is based on a research which conducted in two export zones in Philippine, to examine the linkage between work, gender, health and technology in the export zone as the consequence of the globalized economy. The study showed that the growing of export oriented industries which are followed by the use of new information technology as the intensification strategy in order to maximize the productivity, not only changed the work place, but also shaped gender division of labor and create new hazard and illness. Women as the majority of the worker threaten by new hazard and illness. Illness is no longer understood from the medical lens, but also through social lens, in where the social and material conditions also lead illness or social production of illness.

The globalization process not only alerted by the moving of people and information technology, but also capital. As a response to globalization, many countries develop their economic zones in order to boost their economic growth and strengthened the national economy. Along with the emerging of economic zone, in order to intensify the production, information technology is being used.

The emerging of economic zone also leads the feminization of labor phenomenon, in where there is high demand of women worker, especially in the garment and electronic company. The feminization of worker can not be separated from stereotype and also capitalist economy. Women are preferred rather than men because of the perception on women worker as low skilled and cheap labor and also their characteristic such as patient, docile, attuned to do boring, monotonous and repetitious task also women’s nimble fingers. This kind of perception leads the assumption that women are fit to the global definition of productivity (Lu,2007). Not surprisingly, beside identical with information technology and global capital, economic zone also identical with women workers.

As well as another developing country, economic zone became one of the economic strategies of the Philippine government. One form of the economic zone is Economic Processing Zones (EPZs). The formed of EPZs opened job opportunity to the Filipinos, and it employs more than half a million Filipinos with the majorities of the worker are women. The high number of women worker in EPZs, also can be found in Bangladesh, thousand of women working in the factories producing garment for export (Car, 1998). The emerging of EPZs seems giving opportunity to the women, but in her study, Edralin (2001) found that the company hired women, because they need people who are capable of repetitive and meticulous work and want to bring wages even lower. It means that the high demand of women worker is because of the perception and stereotype of women.
As well as the economic zone, the existence of EPZs can not be separated by the used of information technology in terms of maximizing productivity and profit. As the consequence, information technology has changed the working environment, such as fast pace of work, possibility to do multitask job etc. Beside these positive sides of new technology, it also brings negative side. The used of new technology caused some kind of health problem, and women as the majority of worker are being threatened because of it. It worsened by the race to the bottom, which keeps low wages and less social benefit, so the women as the majority of labor in the disadvantage position.
Through her research in Laguna and Cavite zones (two of the big EPZ in Philippine), Jinky Leilanie Lu showed how globalized economy through the garment and electronic industries in Philippine economic zone and also the use of information technology has affected women workers’ health. Beside wrote well organized article, she also give significant evidence through her research finding related with health condition of the women worker in two EPZs in Philippine. It was very important, to give explanation on women worker health condition and how the used of new technology and also globalized economy affected women’s worker health. Moreover, there are very few studies on women workers’ health (Attanapola, 2005), and it means that this article would enrich the information on women workers’ health with local specific.

Based on the research findings, the most of accidents which are reported by women workers are eye infection due to dust and wound due to sharp objects, while the most reported illness are headache, body ache also cough and cold. The research also found that the use of information technology create the new hazard and illness. The bad working place is exacerbated by the bad impact of information technology use which is change the condition of work.

The women worker also face bad working environment such as the implementation of apprenticeship system in the garment industry, over time work, less social benefit, bad condition of the workplace and too much work demand. The use of technology has created new forms of hazards and new types of organizational management. It also leads to intensify work, contributed on producing physical and psychological ill health (Lu, 2007). The article showed how bad working environment triggered stress and manifested on illness. There are also new health issue, such as chronic sleep debt, ‘mystery disease (could not be differentiated), and persistent fatigue. It means that the use of new technology not only caused physical illness but also producing mental illness, meaning health and illness can not defined by purely physical term but also consider on psychological effect on health and well being (Doyal & Pennell, 1979).

These research findings support the idea of social production of illness in the relation of work, technology and health. It means that illness is no more the product of biological/ physical agent and process but also because of social and psychosocial forces that influence the pattern and expression of illness (Burry: 2005). The relation between social-psychosocial factors (pressure of work, overload time and work, less social benefit, etc) and illness; is also explained by Scambler with effort-reward imbalance model. He argued that jobs which combine a high degree of effort but low level of gain in the form of financial or emotional rewards, employment security or career advancement lead to emotional distress, job strain and illness (Scambler, 2008).

In the end of the article, Lu argued the importance of accountable agencies in order to regulate the processes and procedures related with occupational health, the need of informal and formal capital for the women workers, also social responsibility and response from company and state. Furthermore the author suggest that the findings on the research can help on formulating policy in order to strengthen formal capital in terms of laws and regulation to protect workers (especially women).

Based that research, it is implicitly seen that the women worker face double situation. First in terms of globalization, in where women as the cheap labor and hired because of the perception of women worker, and the second one in term of the used of information technology. The use of information technology to maximize productivity and profit, not only affected the division of labour but also occupational health. These kinds of condition related each other and positioned women in the vulnerable position.

On my opinion, information technology is neutral. In term of health, the use of information technology can gives bad effect to everybody, whether women or men. But, in the reality because of the gender inequality, information technology gives impact to women and men differently. For example the gender division of labour as the result of gender inequality, that divide feminine and masculine job and it was strengthened by the stereotype and perception of women as I already mentioned earlier. This situation has placed women and men in the different position and situation, and further the different position and situation give different consequence. Because of the perception and gender division of labour, mostly women positioned in the repetitive, monotonous and low skilled job and these kind of job affected women worker’s health. Furthermore the situation is exacerbated by the women sub-ordinate position in where women have less power and the institutionalized of women roles.
The article only focuses on women, although it also a little bit compared the situation between female and male supervisor. In my opinion it would be better if the author also explain the different kind of female and male worker’s job and also the occupational illness that face by female and male workers. It would give better understanding in terms of how information technology affected women and men’s health differently.

The used of information technology, the working environment and the situation in the EPZs can not be separated with neo liberal system in the light of capitalism. As mentioned by Eliang that the effect of occupational health hazard in the third world are likely to be serious rather than the advanced capitalist countries (Doyal & Pennell, 1979). The third world as a source of cheap labour and resources should compete each other. As the impact the company giving less social benefit to the workers and seems did not care with the occupational health, because they only focus on how to maximize the productivity. Lu (2007) also mentioned that health is associated with the politics of representation of women in the new international division of labour. Meaning that health also determined by content and context of development. In the Philippine case, in order to maintain the low wages of labor and maximize productivity, the company hired women worker, and they face health risk because of the working condition.

In order to understand the effect of technology to the occupational hazard, we should consider the social differentiation in the society. And it is not about women and men, but also among women, among men, between developing and developed country. Technology gave impact to each group differently; as White (2009) argued that the experience of sickness and disease is an outcome of the organizational of the society. It means that social differentiation leads different risk of illness, even difference access to health and health care (Doyal, 2002).

To conclude, the used of information technology and in terms of globalized economy give positive and negative side. The positive side is giving opportunity to the women to gain economic independence and also help to maximize productivity and doing multiple tasks. But, in other hand it also has negative impact in terms of occupational health, which gave different impact to women and men worker due to the division of labour. Furthermore, the use of technology and the working environment creates social production of illness. Women as the majority of the worker in EPZs zone which positioned in the low level work are vulnerable in terms of occupational work. To cope with this problem, the policy to protect worker is needed and also the effort to enhance working condition.

“As we look to the future, we must always remember that human beings are not servant of economies. Rather, economic development and production must serve women and men. Occupational safety and health is a crucial means towards that end.” (Kofi A. Annan)

References
Books
Bury, Michael (2005). Health and Illness. Cambridge, Polity Press.
Doyal, Lesley and Imogen Pennel (1979). The Political Economy of Health. London, Pluto Classic.
Lorber, Judith and Lisa Jean Moore. Gender and the Social Construction of Illness. Oxford, AltaMira Press.
Lu, Jinky Leilanie (2005). Gender, Information Technology and Health. Quezon City, The University of Philippines Press.
Scambler, Graham (2008). Sociology as Applied to Medicine. Saunders Elsevier.
White, Kevin (2009). Sociology of Health and Illness. London, Sage.

Journal
Attanapola, Chamila T (2004). ‘Changing Gender Roles and Health Impact among Female Worker in Export Processing Industries in Sri Langka’. Social Science & Medicine, 58, 2301-2312.
_______ (2005). ‘Experiences of Globalization and Health in the Narratives of Women Industrial Workers in Sri Lanka’. Gender, Technology and Development, 9 (1), 81-102.
Doyal, Lesley (2002). ‘Putting Gender into Health and Globalization Debates: New Perspectives and Old Challenges’. Third World Quarterly, Vol 23, No. 2, 233-250.
Lu, Jinky Leilanie (2007). ‘Gender, Information Technology and Health: the Case of Women Workers in Export Zones in the Philippines’. Journal of International Women’s Studies, Vol 8#4, 93-106.
Thorborg, Marina (1991). ‘Environmental and Occupational Hazard in Export Processing Zones in East and South Asia: with Special Reference to Taiwan, China and Srilangka’. Toxicology and Industrial Health, Vol 7, No 5/6, 549-561.
Electronic Information - Internet
Edralin, Divina M (2001). Assessing the Situation of Women Working in CALABARZON. Retrieved from the PASCN Secretariat, November 12, 2010, from http://pascn.pids.gov.ph/DiscList/d01/s01-14.pdf.
Sarkar, Sumita (2007). Globalization and Women at Work: A Feminist Discourse. Retrieved November 12, 2010, from http://www.feministagenda.org.au/IFS%20Papers/Sumita2.pdf.
World Health Organization (2009). Gender, Health and Work: Today’s Evidence Tomorrow’s Agenda. Retrieved November 11, 2010, from http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2009/9789241563857_eng.pdf.

Patriarchy

2010-10-03T16:59:00.000-07:00

source: thefiendish.com

What is patriarchy?
There are a lot of concepts to explain patriarchy, in the different ways. Nevertheless, patriarchy has 2 similar core elements, first, gender inequality and second is a degree of systematicity. The first core can be expressed as the domination of men over women. The domination here is based on the social dimension, not using biological categories. If patriarchy using biological categories, the way to overcome patriarchy is by eliminating one category it means the destruction of human species.

Patriarchy derived from patriarch, meaning: elder men. There are some definitions of patriarchy:
principle of the dominion of senior males over juniors, male as well as female, in the family, tribe or nations, allied with the reckoning of descent in the male line. (dictionary)

a set of social power relation that enable men to dominate women (sokoloff).

a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women (walby).

To sum up, patriarchy can be defined as a system of social structures and practices in which enable men dominate, oppress and exploit women as well as the domination of the older to the younger.

Walby defined 6 structures of system of patriarchy: patriarchal relations in household work, patriarchal relations in paid work, a patriarchal state, male violance, patriarchal relations in sexuality and patriarchal relations in cultural institutions.

There have been two major form of patriarchy (Walby): public and private. Private patriacrhy is based upon household production, in where a patriarch controlling women individually and directly in the relatively private sphere of the home. While public patriarchy is based on structures rather than the household.

women vs women
Patriarchy is embedded on the society and institutionalized. Ironically, sometimes women take a part on that system and oppress another women. This situation clearly defined on the relationship between mother in law and daughter in law.

capitalism and patriarchy
Capitalism has close connection with patriarchy. There have been various ways of analyzing that relationship, depending on the degree and form of their engagement (walby). First, they become not merely symbiotic but fused into one system (Eisenstein,1979). Patriarchy provide a system of control and law and order. While capitalism provides a system of economy, in the pursuit of profit. Second, patriarchy and capitalism can be regarded as analytically distinct (Hartman, 1979). Hartmann sees patriarchal relations as the oppression of women's labor by men in the two key sites, household and paid work. Patriarchy and capitalism are mutually reinforcing system. Third, mid way position on the separation and integration of patriarchy and capitalism. Mies sees capitalism as another form of patriarchy. Patriarchy is maintained by series of structures and practices, including family, systematic violence and the expropriation of women's labor. Capitalist-patriarchy is the current system which maintains women's oppression.

the end of patriarchy?

Mann (1986) has argued that patriarchy no longer exist, although there is still gender inequality. This assumption comes because he defines a patriarchal society as one which power is held by male head of households, there is a clear separation between private and public in the spheres of life. Walby countered that argument, that key element of patriarchy is systematically structured gender inequality.

I totally agree with Walby, the important key of patriarchy are the structures and practices in where women are oppressed. Until today, we still see that condition.

References
Walby, Patriarchy and Economic Development: Women's Position at the end of the Twentieth Century, 1996, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Patricia Uberoi, Problems with Patriarchy: Conceptual Issues in Anthropology and Feminism in S.Rege (ed), Sociology of Gender, the Challenge of Feminist Sociological Knowledge, 2003, Sage Pub

Juillet en Indonésie

2009-10-05T22:09:00.000-07:00

from my course task...

L’Indonésie est un pays tres varié.
Vouz aimez la montagne? Allez randonner dans Kelimutu en l’île de Flores. Au sommet de la montagne, il y a tríos lacs avec trois couleurs diferentes.

Vouz préférez la mer? Detendez vous sur la plage de Senggigi en l’île de Lombok.

Curieux d’histoire? Visitez le temple de Borobudur. Le temple est un gigantesque temple boudhiste et construit au 9éme siécle.

Envie d’un spectactle? Juillet est la saison des festivals. Par examples le Festival de Togian á Sulawesi Tengah, le festival de cerf-volant á Pangandaran et vous puvez aussi regarder le Ballet de Ramayana au temple de Prambanan.

Et n’oubliez pas en Indonésie, il y a 17.508 îles, 33 provinces. Chaques province, chaque île, chaque commune ont une histoire, des langues, des traditions, des paisages.

Il y en a pour tous les goûts!

Dealing with Failure

2009-09-02T22:21:00.001-07:00

In our life, everybody have face failures, may be related with their study, love or work. But, the important thing is how to deal with failure. If we couldn't have deal with failure we would feel satisfy on life and face the life better. There are several ways to deal with failure.

First one is forgive our selves. Sometimes it's seems hard, moreover if the failure make us feel guilty and have negative thinking. Based on that, forgive our selves is the solution on continuing our life. But the important thing is forgive our selves not becoming excuse argument. To forgive should be followed by self commitment to do better.

Next is failure learn. If we get failure, we should learn from that case, not blaming everything. Everything that we face is life process that we should study.

Effective Future Community Leadership in the Developing Safer and Better World

2009-08-09T20:43:00.000-07:00

“If your action inspire other to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader” (John Quincy Adams).
Based on that quotation, the leaders have big impact for their community. In the frame to develop safer and better world, the leaders have significant role. As we know that today we live in the dynamic changing society and face several challenges, more over in the globalization era. We face several social problems, such as poverty, disintegration, social conflict, etc. to solve that problems, the effective community leadership is needed. The question is what is the characteristic of effective leadership? There are several characteristic of effective leadership:
1.Listening and involving to their community
By listening and involving to the communities, the leader understands well about the condition of the communities. It would make them know what their community needed and have sensitivity to their communities.

2.Pro-poor and have gender sensitivity
Poverty is social problem that we still face today. The leader that have pro-poor vision would make decision that give benefit for the poor, as the vulnerable groups in the frame of developing welfare community.
Having gender sensitivity is an important thing; moreover we live in the communities with patriarch culture. Women and child as the vulnerable groups in the society need special attention.

3.Using community resources effectively
4.Empowering local communities

kartini

2009-03-30T07:13:00.000-07:00

Kartini was born on 21 April 1879, and next we celebrate that day as Kartini Day to honor the render of Kartini on women movement in Indonesia. To celebrate it, the competition and activity is hold to commemorate her. Ironically, those activities usually stressed on gender role that is given to the women, like competition of cooking, floral arrangement, and choir. In fact it reduces the value of Kartini’s spirit.

Actually, there are lots of women patriots in Indonesia, such us Cut Nyak Dien, Cut Meutia, Dewi Sartika, Christina Marthatiahahu, Nyi Ageng Serang, Roehana Kudus, Maria Walanda Maramis, etc. But, Kartini is the famous, like the lyrics of Ibu Kita Kartini’s song by W.R. Supratman.

Although Kartini is the patriot of women emancipation in Indonesia but there are controversy about Kartini. For example, the opinion if Kartini too Java-centrist and couldn’t represent women movement in outside of Java

Maria Walanda Maramis, a Feminist from Sulawesi

2008-11-25T07:31:00.000-08:00

Not much article about Maria Walanda Maramis. It’s ironic, because she gave big contribution on the history of women emancipation in this country.

Maria Josephine Chaterine Maramis that well known as Maria Walanda Maramis was born on Kema, small city in North Minahasa Regency on 1 December 1872. Maria is the youngest in her family. Her sister named Antje and her brother, Andries . In coming days, Andries involved on national movement.

When she was 6, her parents died. Her uncle, Rotinsuli take care of her and Antje and moved them to Maumbi. Rotinsulu sent them to school on Sekolah Melayu that equal with Elementary School. In there, the students learn how to read, write and a little of science and history. At that moment, education for girl is very low, because they are expected to get married and take care of her child.

Fortunately, Rotinsulu is one of highly regarded in Maumbi and have lots of friend especially Dutch, so Maria have wide relationship although she only got elementary education. Her close friend is the family of clergyman, Ten Hoeven. He have modern view of education than influent Maria. Then, Maria have a dream for the Minahasa Women progression. It’s related with the condition at that time, in where customs and tradition is the obstacle for the women. Because of their low education, lots of women didn’t know about health, household and take care the child.

When she was 18, she married with Yosephine Frederik Calusung Walanda, a language teacher in HIS Manado. From her husband, she learned more about language and knowledge, like the condition of the society in Sulawesi. On July 1917, Maria founded PIKAT (Percintaan Ibu Kepada Anak Turunannya/ Mom’s Loving to Her Child and Generation) with the support of her husband and friends. The purpose of that organization is to educate women on household matter, like cook, sew, take care of baby, etc.

On Maria’s opinion, women is the pole of family, in where the future of the child on women’s shoulder. So, women should get well education. Maria saw the reality, which lots of girls have skill like nurse, midwife, etc but they could develop their skill because they should be house wife. By her article on Tjahaja Siang daily in Manado, Maria spoke her mind about women.

To the other women in other part, Maria promote them to found the branch of PIKAT. Then, there are branch of PIKAT in Minahasa like in Maumbi, Tondano, Sangirtalaud, Gorontalo, Poso and Motoling. There are also PIKAT’s branch in Java and Kalimantan, on Batavia, Bandung, Bogor, Cimahi, Magelang, Surabaya, Balikpapan, Sangusangu dan Kotaraja. On 2 July 1918 in Manado is founded household school for young women, named Huishound School PIKAT).

Maria was sell cake and handicraft to finance that school. This initiatives makes most of highly regarded person on Manado have contribution for that school. Maria also held drama show Pingkan Mogogumoy, a Minahasa classical story. From her effort, dormitory and school building was successfully found.

Monthly, Maria arranged meeting with the committee of local branch. Like Pandano, Amurang, Airmadidi,and Bolang Mangondow. Maria also implanted nationality on the hearth of women by proposed to wear traditional cloth and speak Indonesia.
On 1932, PIKAT founded Opieiding School Var Vak Onderwijs Zeressen or Sekolah Kejuruan Putri. Maria actively did to make her dream realized, that is women have same rights as man. Maria curtained that women could have high education like man. Beside it, Maria tried in order to women have political rights like have position on Volksraad.

Maria died on 22 April 1924. 45 years later, the government presented her as national heroine.

99 women

2007-10-30T05:33:00.000-07:00

Megawati Sukarno Putri / Former President of Indonesia
> 2. Sri Mulyani Indrawati / Minister of Finance
> 3. Kristiani Herawati Yudhoyono / Indonesia's First Lady
> 4. Miranda Gultom / Senior Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia
> 5. Siti Hartati Murdaya / Social Entrepreneur, businesswoman,
> politician
> 6. Mari Elka Pangestu / Minister of Trade
> 7. Mooryati Soedibyo / Entrepreneur, politician
> 8. Kartini Mulyadi / Entrepreneur
> 9. Itjih Nursalim / Entrepreneur
> 10. Yanti Sukamdani / Head of Hotels Association
> 11. Butet Manurung / Social Worker
> 12. Yenny Wahid / Director of Wahid Institute
> 13. Melinda Tedja / Entrepreneur
> 14. Shanti Soedarpo / Entrepreneur
> 15. Erna Witoelar / MDGs Indonesia Chairwoman
> 16. Siti Fadilah / Health Minister
> 17. Fatimah Kalla / Entrepreneur
> 18. Meutia Hatta /Minister of Women Affairs
> 19. Khofifah Indar Parawansa / Politician
> 20. Dewi Fortuna Anwar / International Researcher at LIPI
> 21. Viven G. Sitiabudi / Business Executive
> 22. Sinta Nuriyah Abdurrahman Wahid / Gender Issue Activist
> 23. Suciwati / Human Rights Activist
> 24. Rina Ciputra / Entrepreneur
> 25. Ratu Atut Chosiyah / Governor of Banten
> 26. Herelina Candinegara / Entrepreneur
> 27. Ratna Maida Ning / Entrepreneur
> 28. Nani Wijaya / Director of Jawa Post Group
> 29. Dian Soedarjo / Entrepreneur
> 30. Pia Alisjahbana / Entrepreneur, Journalist
> 31. Krisdayanti / Artist
> 32. Kanjeng Ratu Hemas / Sultan Jogja's Wife
> 33. Yani Panigoro / Entrepreneur, Social Engineer
> 34. Martha Tilaar / Entrepreneur
> 35. Orie Andari Sutadji / President Director of PT. Askes
> 36. Siti Hardijanti Rukmana / Entrepreneur
> 37. Christine Hakim / Actress
> 38. Sukmawati Widjaja / Entrepreneur, Socialite
> 39. Agnes Monica / Artist
> 40. Marwah Daud Ibrahim / Politician
> 41. Titik Puspa / Entrepreneur, Artist
> 42. Emmy Hafild / Walhi & Transparency International
> 43. Wardah Hafidz / Chairwoman of UPC
> 44. Sri Indrastuti Hadiputranto / Lawyer
> 45. Rini Soemarno / Entrepreneur
> 46. Roosniati Salihin / Deputy Director of Panin Bank
> 47. Giwo Rubianto / Chairwoman of Children Protection Commission
> 48. Koesmariharti / Telecommunications Regulator
> 49. Rita Subowo / Chairwoman of Indonesian Sport Commission (KONI)
> 50. Dita Indah Sari / Labor Activist
> 51. Nursyahbani Katjasungkana / Gender Issue Activist, Politician
> 52. Siti Fadjriah / Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia
> 53. Rustriningsih / Regent of Kebumen
> 54. Winny Hasan / President Director of Bank DKI
> 55. Maria Lukito / Publisher of Indonesian Tatler
> 56. Catherine Hambali / Entrepreneur
> 57. Eva Rianti Hutapea / Entrepreneur
> 58. Suryani Motik / Entrepreneur
> 59. Ratna Ani Lestari / Regent of Banyuwangi
> 60. SK Trimurti / Senior Journalist
> 61. Lily Kasoem / Entrepreneur
> 62. Harkristuti Harkrisnowo / Director General of Law
> 63. Tri Mumpuni / Activist
> 64. Susi Darmawan / Entrepreneur
> 65. Inke Marris / PR Consultant
> 66. Lily Widjaja / Banker
> 67. Non Rawung / Social Entrepreneur
> 68. Husniah Rubiana Thamrin / Chief of National Agency of Food and
Drugs
> 69. Obin / Fashion Designer
> 70. Betti Alisjahbana / President Director of IBM Indonesia
> 71. Melsiana Tjahyadikarta / Entrepreneur
> 72. Shinta Kamdani / Entrepreneur
> 73. Lie Phing / Entrepreneur
> 74. Mia Dinata / Director, Film Maker
> 75. Ratna Sarumpaet / Film Director
> 76. Gadis Arivia / Feminist
> 77. Felia Salim / Activist
> 78. Lisa Tirto Utomo / Entrepreneur
> 79. Puan Maharani / Activist
> 80. Dyah Maulida / Director General of Foreign Trade
> 81. Siti Nurbaya / Secretary General of Regional Representative
> Council (DPD)
> 82. Herawati Diah / Journalist
> 83. Retno Iswari Tranggono / Entrepreneur
> 84. Kemala Chandrakirana / Chairwoman of Komnas Perempuan
> 85. Baby Jim Aditya / Activist anti AIDS/HIV
> 86. Dewi Motik / Entrepreneur
> 87. Poppy Dharsono / Entrepreneur, Fashion Design
> 88. Nunun Nurbaetje Daradjatun / Entrepreneur
> 89. Mira Lesmana / Film Director
> 90. Maggie Liem / Specialty Fashion Retailer
> 91. Tri Sudwikatmono / Entrepreneur
> 92. Titi Said / Chief of Film Censor Board
> 93. Shally Bachtiar / Entrepreneur
> 94. Sandra Ang / Entrepreneur
> 95. Saparinah Sadli / Psychologist
> 96. Retnowati Abdulgani-Knapp / Author
> 97. Rosianna Silalahi / Editor in Chief of Liputan 6 SCTV
> 98. Mien Uno / Motivational Trainer
> 99. Veronica Colondam / Social Activist YCAB

Most error in interview

2007-10-30T05:24:00.000-07:00

The best way to avoid the most common and dangerous interview mistakes is to
think ahead and decide not to make them... Read on for a whistle-stop tour
of the top ten interview clangers!

1. Lying
Although it's tempting, it doesn't work. By all means gloss over the
unflattering things. But out-right fibbing NEVER pays.

Mark Twain said: "If you tell the truth, you never have to remember
anything." Think about it. They will catch you out later.

2. Slating your current company or boss
Fed up with your current job and would give anything to leave because
they've treated you badly? Your job interview is NOT the time to seek
revenge. Bear in mind that the interviewer will be listening to your answers
and thinking about what it would be like to work with you. Ask yourself: do
you like working with people who constantly criticise others? Isn't it a bit
wearing? The trouble is that the interviewer draws massive conclusions from
your answers. So your throwaway comment about your boss or employer may be
interpreted to be your "standard" way of thinking. It makes you look bad,
not your employer.

3. Being Rude
If you find you were accidentally rude, then apologise calmly and genuinely.
Then leave it behind you and get on with the rest of the interview. If you
dwell on it, it will affect your performance. What's "rude"? Well, that
depends on your audience. As a rule of thumb, avoid cracking jokes about
potentially sensitive topics and beware of being too "pally" with the
interviewer: polite and friendly is enough. After all, you're not in the pub
with them. So stay professional. Also bear in mind that everyone you meet
could be involved in the selection process. So blanking the receptionist or
talking down to the junior members of staff could cost you the job.

4. Complaining
Ok, so your train journey might have been a nightmare and maybe you thought
the tube would never arrive, or the tailbacks on the motorway were endless.
But your interviewer doesn't want to know that!
Complaining, even in jest, is not a recommended icebreaker. It may be
completely harmless, or it might simply make the interviewer switch off.
Don't let complaining set the tone for the interview!

5. Talking about people you don't get on with at work
These days, it's common to be asked how you deal with conflict. Companies
realise the importance of interpersonal relationships in the working
environment. So if they ask you about difficult people or situations, make
sure you hold back from character assassination and blaming others for
problems because it won't do you any favours! If you accidentally do "break"
this rule, apologise and explain what you "really" meant.

6. Not Being Prepared
Re-read the relevant version of your CV and the job advert, just before the
interview. You'd be surprised how many people can't remember what they wrote
on their CV. And if you remember what type of person the job advert was
looking for, it's easier to demonstrate that you have those qualities.
Make sure you've brought with you anything you were asked for. It's fine to
bring a note-pad and pen, but make sure they're tidy. It's even ok to bring
notes with you; particularly if you have any questions you want to ask. It
shows you're taking the job application seriously. Ill-prepared candidates
rarely get job offers.

7. Appearing to be too nervous, or too confident
If you appear too nervous they'll think you're not confident enough to do
the job. However, appearing too confident will make them think you won't fit
into the team. If interview nerves are an issue for you, it's worth getting
practical help from a professional, such as an interview coach.

8. Making a weak first impression
Unfortunately, no matter how hard the interviewer tries, a lot of "don't
want to hire them" decisions are made in the first few minutes of contact.
If you make a strong first impression, the interviewer will be more inclined
to overlook "imperfections" in your answers.

9. Not having researched the company

As a general rule, the more famous the brand, the more they will expect you
to have done your homework. Researching the company shows you're serious
about the job.

Example from a real interview for a major food brand:

Candidate: "Hello Mr. Interviewer. Yes, I'd love to work for your company. I
think your brand is great and I really believe I could make a contribution
to your marketing strategy."

Interviewer: "So what do you think about our current merchandising, compared
to our competition? "

Candidate: "Oh... Errr.... Well, I haven't had time to check it out,
really."

Likelihood of getting the job? Low.

10. Putting your foot in it and not noticing
Yes, we know, you didn't mean to put your foot in it. But it doesn't really
matter what you intended. What counts is how the other person reacts. So
what can you do? Be prepared to simply say "sorry, that's not what I meant!"
This requires you to actually be paying attention to the interviewer, rather
than your own thoughts and feelings. Once you've apologised, leave it there,
take a deep breath to help you relax and move on with the job interview.

Global Warming

2007-08-26T14:50:00.000-07:00

Global warming is one of the global issue today, because it was the most serious challenges facing us today. To protect the health and economic well-being of current and future generations, we must reduce our emissions of heat-trapping gases by using the technology, know-how, and practical solutions already at our disposal.

Global warming refers to the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation. The term "global warming" is a specific example of the broader term climate change, which can also refer to global cooling. In common usage the term refers to recent warming and implies a human influence.The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) uses the term "climate change" for human-caused change, and "climate variability" for other changes. The term "anthropogenic climate change" is sometimes used when focusing on human-induced changes.

Over the past several years, public perceptions and attitudes concerning the causes and importance of global warming have changed.Increased awareness of the scientific findings surrounding global warming has resulted in political and economic debate. Poor regions, particularly Africa, appear at greatest risk from the suggested effects of global warming, while their actual emissions have been negligible compared to the developed world. At the same time, developing country exemptions from provisions of the Kyoto Protocol have been criticized by the United States and Australia, and have been used as part of their rationale for continued non-ratification. In the Western world, the idea of human influence on climate and efforts to combat it has gained wider acceptance in Europe than in the United States.

Fossil fuel organizations and companies such as American Petroleum Institute and ExxonMobil, represented by individuals such as Philip Cooney and some think tanks such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute, have campaigned to downplay the risks of climate change, described by some as climate change denial. Environmental groups and public figures have launched campaigns emphasizing the risks. Recently, some fossil fuel companies have scaled back such efforts or called for policies to reduce global warming.

This issue has sparked debate regarding the benefits of limiting industrial emissions of greenhouse gases versus the effects on economic activity. In the U.S., the political manipulation of scientific testimonies and reports has also become an issue.There has also been discussion in several countries about the cost of adopting alternate, cleaner energy sources in order to reduce emissions.

Another point of debate is the degree to which newly-developed economies, such as India and China, should be expected to constrain their emissions. China's CO2 emissions (mainly from coal power plants and cars), are expected to exceed those of the U.S. within the next few years (and according to one report may have already done so.China has contended that it has less obligation to reduce emissions, since its emissions per capita are about one-fifth those of the U.S.; the U.S. contends that if they must bear the costs of reducing emissions, so should China. India will also soon be one of the biggest sources of industrial emissions, and has made assertions similar to China's on this issue.

Poverty and Education

2007-07-28T21:27:00.000-07:00

There is a quite interesting true story in the local tabloid today. It is about a girl who is now working as a migrant worker—a housemaid—in one neighboring country of Indonesia.
She was born in a very poor family. When she was born, her poor parents had to give her to one relative, a widow, because they did not have enough money to raise her. They focused more on her older siblings. However, as poor as her own parents, the widow could not support her education well. She stopped supporting the writer’s education after she graduated from elementary school. Luckily, her first sibling who already worked at that time was willing to support her education until she graduated from senior high school.
After graduating from senior high school, she lived together with this first sibling and helped doing household chores, taking care of her niece and nephew. Unfortunately, the first sibling in fact treated her as unpaid maid. Perhaps it was as a way to pay back for the fund for her education?
Feeling worried about her future, the writer who was smart enough, joined one PJTKI, one institution in Indonesia whose business is to send workers abroad. She worked in Malaysia for four years. Her experience, luckily, belongs to the lucky migrant workers who can get much money. Her plan actually was to get enough money to continue her study to college. However then she changed her mind after going home. When she saw that her adopted mother lived in an almost broken house, she decided to use her money to help build a decent house for the widow who raised her. This caused jealousy in her own parents. Besides, the first sibling asked her to pay back all the money she used to study in junior and senior high school. Her other relatives also came to her to ask for her help in finance.
Her disappointment because she could not make her dream come true—to continue to study in college—made her go abroad again. This time she worked in Hong Kong as a housemaid too. She was “lucky” too because she got good employers. Her problem was still the same—her relatives who kept asking her to send them most of her paycheck.
However, this time she was determined to continue her study. She started to be strict to her relatives. She told them that she wanted to use her money for her future investment—education . She wanted to study in Hong Kong while she was still there. Of course her relatives were very disappointed to hear that. They said that she had better think of getting married, being a good wife, and taking care of children now that she was almost thirty years old. However, she stayed put.

take from: http://afeministblog.blogspot.com

Indonesia 40's richest

2007-07-28T20:48:00.000-07:00

FORBES ASIA's kickoff list of the 40 richest Indonesians reveals the emerging nation's biggest asset: its people. Indonesia is the fourth-most- populous country in the world, with 230 million folks who call its 17,500 islands home. As a result, more than half of Indonesia's Rich Listers made their fortunes catering to the mass market.

Billionaires Rachman Halim, R. Budi Hartono and Putera Sampoerna all rank in the top five and made their fortunes selling kreteks, the cigarettes that contain a combination of cloves and tobacco. Indonesia's top real estate mogul, Trihatma Haliman, amassed $900 million selling apartments throughout Jakarta. Then there are the consumer goods that are household names in Indonesia: Wing Biru laundry detergent, sold by Eddy William Katuari's Wings Group; Indomie instant noodles from Liem Sioe Liong's Indofood; and Soegiharto Sosrodjojo's Teh Botol Sosro tea, a top-selling bottled beverage.

Still, the combined net worth of all these magnates is $22 billion and trails the $28 billion held by the 40 wealthiest in Singapore.

Indonesians are also going after the country's natural resources. The other two in the top five, Sukanto Tanoto and Eka Tjipta Widjaja, worth $2.8 billion and $2 billion respectively, built fortunes turning Indonesia's trees into paper and pulp. Number 14, Martua Sitorus, is banking on the promise of Indonesian palm oil as a biological source of fuel through his listed Wilmar International. A minimum of $80 million was needed to be included on Indonesia's 40 Richest.

Unlike FORBES' annual billionaires list, this ranking is broadened to include fortunes shared among family members. To compile it FORBES ASIA looked at shareholdings in both public and private companies. We calculated the values of publicly traded holdings using recent share prices and exchange rates and estimated what private companies would be worth if they were public.

The FORBES INDONESIA staff includes Shoeb Kagda, Albertus Weldison Nonto, Ishak Rafick, John Riady, Reiner Simanjuntak and Yus Husni M. Thamrin.

Why feminist theory

2007-07-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

In her article “Taking the Gold Out of Egypt: The Art of Reading as a Woman”, Susan Schibanoff emphasizes that feminist theory means “reading as a woman”. How important is this “reading as a woman”?

In this era, it is still very important to use this theory because it is undeniable that everywhere around the world, the patriarchal culture still stays put strongly, in many aspects of human being’s lives. Women are still considered the second sex, no matter big progress in women’s lives has been reached after the women’s movement started to spread to all around the world.

‘Reading as a woman’ is really important so that people will really listen to what women want, based on their way of thinking, and not based on patriarchal society’s way of thinking. Saying that all women want the same thing (let’s say for education and profession) is a naïve thing.

Yesterday a female student of mine told me about her mother’s suggestion to take English Department major after she graduates from senior high school. Her mother reasoned, “To be an English teacher is feminine, very “woman”. Besides, it is easy, not hard. You don’t need to study hard, for example by studying in Engineering faculty. That is your future husband’s responsibility.”

If I use Schibanoff’s “reading as a woman” to view this simple ‘text’, I will come to the conclusion that what my student’s mother said did not purely come from women’s point of view that was free from patriarchal culture’s influence. She just followed the stereotyping that as weaker sex, women did not need to study hard, or to work hard, because as women we were born to be feminine creatures.

It doesn’t mean that I want to blame that idea. No. The choice to work hard or not is on my student’s hands. But of course I do hope that “reading as a woman” consensus is spread more widely so that women know that it is okay for them to make their own choice, to make up their mind, free from patriarchal culture’s stereotyping. They can choose “feminine” profession, such as teacher (however, I never think that my being teacher makes me more feminine LOL), nurse, secretary, flight attendant etc. Women can also choose to study in “macho” or “masculine” majors, such as mechanical engineering, and have “masculine” profession, such as boxer, scientist, astronaut, etc.

I am wondering if one day this theory “reading as a woman” is no longer needed because people stop viewing women as the second sex. And people choose education and profession not based on sex, but based on interest and capabilities.

PT56 11.35 240707
Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open.
(Sir James Dewar)

from : http://afeministblog.blogspot.com

the war is lost (2nd)

2007-07-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

By Peter Galbraith

The Iraq war is lost. Of course, neither the President nor the war’s intellectual architects are prepared to admit this. Nonetheless, the specter of defeat shapes their thinking in telling ways.
The case for the war is no longer defined by the benefits of winning — a stable Iraq, democracy on the march in the Middle East, the collapse of the evil Iranian and Syrian regimes — but by the consequences of defeat. As President Bush put it, “The consequences of failure in Iraq would be death and destruction in the Middle East and here in America.”
Tellingly, the Iraq war’s intellectual boosters, while insisting the surge is working, are moving to assign blame for defeat. And they have already picked their target: the American people. In The Weekly Standard, Tom Donnelly, a fellow at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, wrote, “Those who believe the war is already lost — call it the Clinton-Lugar axis — are mounting a surge of their own. Ground won in Iraq becomes ground lost at home.” Lugar provoked Donnelly’s anger by noting that the American people had lost confidence in Bush’s Iraq strategy as demonstrated by the Democratic takeover of both houses of Congress. (This “blame the American people” approach has, through repetition, almost become the accepted explanation for the outcome in Vietnam, attributing defeat to a loss of public support and not to fifteen years of military failure.)
Indeed, Vietnam is the image many Americans have of defeat in Iraq. Al-Qaeda would overrun the Green Zone and the last Americans would evacuate from the rooftop of the still unfinished largest embassy in the world. President Bush feeds on this imagery. In his May 5, 2007, radio address to the nation, he explained:
If radicals and terrorists emerge from this battle with control of Iraq, they would have control of a nation with massive oil reserves, which they could use to fund their dangerous ambitions and spread their influence. The al Qaeda terrorists who behead captives or order suicide bombings would not be satisfied to see America defeated and gone from Iraq. They would be emboldened by their victory, protected by their new sanctuary, eager to impose their hateful vision on surrounding countries, and eager to harm Americans.
But there will be no Saigon moment in Iraq. Iraq’s Shiite-led government is in no danger of losing the civil war to al-Qaeda, or a more inclusive Sunni front. Iraq’s Shiites are three times as numerous as Iraq’s Sunni Arabs; they dominate Iraq’s military and police and have a powerful ally in neighboring Iran. The Arab states that might support the Sunnis are small, far away (vast deserts separate the inhabited parts of Jordan and Saudi Arabia from the main Iraqi population centers), and can only provide money, something the insurgency has in great amounts already.
Iraq after an American defeat will look very much like Iraq today — a land divided along ethnic lines into Arab and Kurdish states with a civil war being fought within its Arab part. Defeat is defined by America’s failure to accomplish its objective of a self-sustaining, democratic, and unified Iraq. And that failure has already taken place, along with the increase of Iranian power in the region.
Iraq’s Kurdish leaders and Iraq’s dwindling band of secular Arab democrats fear that a complete U.S. withdrawal will leave all of Iraq under Iranian influence. Senator Hillary Clinton, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden, and former UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke are among the prominent Democrats who have called for the U.S. to protect Kurdistan militarily should there be a withdrawal from Iraq. The argument for so doing is straightforward: it secures the one part of Iraq that has emerged as stable, democratic, and pro-Western; it discharges a moral debt to our Kurdish allies; it deters both Turkish intervention and a potentially destabilizing Turkish-Kurdish war; it provides U.S. forces a secure base that can be used to strike at al-Qaeda in adjacent Sunni territories; and it limits Iran’s gains.
In laying out his dark vision of an American failure, President Bush never discusses Iran’s domination of Iraq even though this is a far more likely consequence of American defeat than an al-Qaeda victory. Bush’s reticence is understandable since it was his miscalculations and incompetent management of the postwar occupation that gave Iran its opportunity. While opposing talks with Iran, the neoconservatives also prefer not to discuss its current powerful influence over Iraq’s central government and southern region, persisting in the fantasy — notwithstanding all evidence to the contrary — that Iran is deeply unpopular among Iraq’s Shiites and clerics. (At the same time, U.S. officials accuse Iran of supplying Iraqi Shiite militias with particularly lethal roadside bombs.)

On June 25, without giving the press or White House any advance notice, Richard Lugar, the most respected Republican voice on foreign affairs in Congress, spoke in the Senate about “connecting our Iraq strategy to our vital interests.” On the face of it, the idea is as sensible and conservative as the senator delivering the speech. He observed that political fragmentation in Iraq, the stress suffered by the U.S. military, and growing antiwar sentiment at home “make it almost impossible for the United States to engineer a stable, multi-sectarian government in Iraq in a reasonable time frame.” Lugar noted that agreements reached with Iraqi leaders are most often not implemented, partly, as Lugar observed, because the leaders do not control their followers but also because Iraqi leaders have also discovered that telling the Bush administration what it wants to hear is a fully acceptable substitute for action.
Lugar is blunt in his description of the situation in Iraq:
Few Iraqis have demonstrated that they want to be Iraqis…. In this context, the possibility that the United States can set meaningful benchmarks that would provide an indication of impending success or failure is remote. Perhaps some benchmarks or agreements will be initially achieved, but most can be undermined or reversed by a contrary edict of the Iraqi government, a decision by a faction to ignore agreements, or the next terrorist attack or wave of sectarian killings. American manpower cannot keep the lid on indefinitely. The anticipation that our training operations could produce an effective Iraqi army loyal to a cohesive central government is still just a hopeful plan for the future.
Lugar concluded his speech by urging that we “refocus our policy in Iraq on realistic assessments of what can be achieved, and on a sober review of our vital interests in the Middle East.” After four years of a war driven more by wishful thinking than strategy, this is hardly a radical idea, but it has produced a barrage of covert criticism of Lugar from the administration and overt attack from the neoconservatives.
Lugar’s focus on the achievable runs against main currents of opinion in a nation increasingly polarized between the growing number who want to withdraw from Iraq and the die-hard defenders of a failure. We need to recognize, as Lugar implicitly does, that Iraq no longer exists as a unified country. In the parts where we can accomplish nothing, we should withdraw. But there are still three missions that may be achievable — disrupting al-Qaeda, preserving Kurdistan’s democracy, and limiting Iran’s increasing domination. These can all be served by a modest U.S. presence in Kurdistan. We need an Iraq policy with sufficient nuance to protect American interests. Unfortunately, we probably won’t get it.

Peter W. Galbraith, a former US Ambassador to Croatia, is Senior Diplomatic Fellow at the Center for Arms Control and a principal at the Windham Resources Group, a firm that negotiates on behalf of its clients in post-conflict societies, including Iraq. His The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End is now out in paperback
This article appears in the August 16th issue of the New York Review of Books.

the war is lost (1st)

2007-07-21T21:32:00.000-07:00

On May 30, the Coalition held a ceremony in the Kurdistan town of Erbil to mark its handover of security in Iraq’s three Kurdish provinces from the Coalition to the Iraqi government. General Benjamin Mixon, the U.S. commander for northern Iraq, praised the Iraqi government for overseeing all aspects of the handover. And he drew attention to the “benchmark” now achieved: with the handover, he said, Iraqis now controlled security in seven of Iraq’s eighteen provinces.
In fact, nothing was handed over. The only Coalition force in Kurdistan is the peshmerga, a disciplined army that fought alongside the Americans in the 2003 campaign to oust Saddam Hussein and is loyal to the Kurdistan government in Erbil. The peshmerga provided security in the three Kurdish provinces before the handover and after. The Iraqi army has not been on Kurdistan’s territory since 1996 and is effectively prohibited from being there. Nor did the Iraqi flag fly at the ceremony. It is banned in Kurdistan.
Although the Erbil handover was a sham that Prince Potemkin might have admired, it was not easily arranged. The Bush administration had wanted the handover to take place before the U.S. congressional elections in November. But it also wanted an Iraqi flag flown at the ceremony and some acknowledgement that Iraq, not Kurdistan, was in charge. The Kurds were prepared to include a reference to Iraq in the ceremony, but they were adamant that there be no Iraqi flags. It took months to work out a compromise ceremony with no flags at all. Thus the ceremony was followed by a military parade without a single flag — an event so unusual that one observer thought it might merit mention in Ripley’s Believe it or Not.
Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi national security adviser, attended the ceremony alongside Kurdistan’s prime minister, Nechirvan Barzani, but the Iraqi government had no part in supervising the nonexistent handover. While General Mixon, a highly regarded strategist with excellent ties to the Kurds, had no choice but to make the remarks he did, Mowaffak al-Rubaie acknowledged Kurdistan’s distinct nature and the right of the Kurds — approximately six million people, or some 20% of Iraq’s population — to chart their own course.
On July 12, the White House released a congressionally mandated report on progress in Iraq. As with the sham handover, the report reflected the administration’ s desperate search for indicators of progress since it began its “surge” by sending five additional combat brigades to the country in February 2007. In recent months the Bush administration and its advocates have been promoting the success of the surge in reducing sectarian killing in Baghdad and achieving a turnaround in Anbar province, where former Sunni insurgents are signing up with local militias to fight al-Qaeda.
Although reliable statistics about Iraq are notoriously hard to come by it does appear that the overall civilian death toll in Baghdad has declined from its pre-surge peak, although it is still at the extremely high levels of the summer of 2006. Moreover, the number of unidentified bodies — usually the victims of Shiite death squads — has risen in May and June to pre-surge levels. How much of the modest decline in civilian deaths in Baghdad is attributable to the surge is not knowable, nor is there any way to know if it will last.
The developments in Anbar are more significant. Tribesmen who had been attacking U.S. troops in support of the insurgency are now taking U.S. weapons to fight al-Qaeda and other Sunni extremists. Unfortunately, the Sunni fundamentalists are not the only enemy of these new U.S.-sponsored militias. The Sunni tribes also regard Iraq’s Shiite-led government as an enemy, and the U.S. appears now to be in the business of arming both the Sunni and Shiite factions in what has long since become a civil war.
Against the backdrop of modest progress, much has not changed, or has gotten worse. The Baghdad Green Zone is subject to increasingly accurate mortar attacks and is deemed at greater risk of penetration by suicide bombers. Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric whose Mahdi Army was a major target of Bush’s surge strategy, remains one of Iraq’s most powerful political figures. The military activity against his forces seems only to have enhanced his standing with the public.
Even if the surge has had some modest military success, it has failed to accomplish its political objectives. The idea behind Bush’s new strategy was to increase temporarily the number of U.S. troops in Baghdad and Anbar. The aim was to provide a breathing space so that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government might enact a program of national reconciliation that would accommodate enough Sunnis to isolate the insurgents. Meanwhile, Iraqi forces, improved by their close relations with U.S. troops and additional training, would take over security.
The core of the national reconciliation program is a series of legislative and political steps that the government should take to address the concerns of Iraq’s Sunnis, who feel left out of the country they dominated until 2003. These steps include an oil revenue-sharing law (to ensure that the oil-poor Sunni regions get their share of revenue); holding provincial elections (the Sunnis boycotted the January 2005 provincial and parliamentary elections leaving them underrepresented even in Sunni-majority provinces); revising Iraq’s constitution (the Sunnis want a more centralized state); revising the ban on public sector employment of former Baathists (Sunnis dominated the upper ranks of the Baath Party and of the Saddam-era public service), and a fair distribution of reconstruction funds. Both the administration and Congress have placed great emphasis on the obligation of the Iraqi government to achieve these so-called benchmarks. Congress has, by law, linked US strategy on Iraq and financial support of the Iraqi government to progress on these benchmarks and other steps.
Iraq’s government has not met one of the benchmarks, and, with the exception of the revenue-sharing law, most are unlikely to happen. But even if they were all enacted, it would not help. Provincial elections will make Iraq less governable while the process of constitutional revision could break the country apart.
Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, likes to talk of the disparity between the Iraqi clock and the U.S. clock, suggesting that Iraqis believe they have more time to reach agreement than the American political calendar will tolerate. Crocker is the State Department’s foremost Iraq hand but, more generally, American impatience often reflects ignorance. For example, both Congress and the administration have expressed frustration that the ban on public service by ex-Baathists has not been relaxed, since this appears to be a straightforward change, easily accomplished and already promised by Iraq’s leaders.
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim leads the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC, previously known as SCIRI), which is Iraq’s leading Shiite party and a critical component of Prime Minister al-Maliki’s coalition. He is the sole survivor of eight brothers. During Saddam’s rule Baathists executed six of them. On August 29, 2003, a suicide bomber, possibly linked to the Baathists, blew up his last surviving brother, and predecessor as SCIRI leader, at the shrine of Ali in Najaf. Moqtada al-Sadr, Hakim’s main rival, comes from Iraq’s other prominent Shiite religious family. Saddam’s Baath regime murdered his father and two brothers in 1999. Earlier, in April 1980, the regime had arrested Moqtada’s father-in-law and the father-in-law’ s sister — the Grand Ayatollah Baqir al-Sadr and Bint al-Huda. While the ayatollah watched, the Baath security men raped and killed his sister. They then set fire to the ayatollah’s beard before driving nails into his head. De-Baathification is an intensely personal issue for Iraq’s two most powerful Shiite political leaders, as it is to hundreds of thousands of their followers who suffered similar atrocities.
Iraq’s Shiite leaders are reluctant to spend reconstruction money in Sunni areas because they believe, not without reason, that such funds support the Sunni side in the civil war. In a speech in late June on the Senate floor Indiana Republican Richard Lugar reported that Iraq’s Shiite-led government has gone “out of its way to bottle up money budgeted for Sunni provinces” and that the “strident intervention” of the U.S. embassy was required in order to get food rations delivered to Sunni towns.
Iraq’s mainstream Shiite leaders resist holding new provincial elections because they know what such elections are likely to bring. Because the Sunnis boycotted the January 2005 elections, they do not control the northern governorate, or province, of Nineveh, in which there is a Sunni majority, and they are not represented in governorates with mixed populations, such as Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad. New elections would, it is argued, give Sunnis a greater voice in the places where they live, and the Shiites say they do not have a problem with this, although just how they would treat the militant Sunnis who would be elected is far from clear. The Kurds reluctantly accept new elections in the Sunni governorates even though it means they will lose control of Nineveh and have a much-reduced presence in Diyala.
The American benchmark of holding provincial elections would also require new elections in southern Iraq and Baghdad. If they were held, al-Hakim’s Shiite party, the SIIC, which now controls seven of the nine southern governorates, would certainly lose ground to Moqtada al-Sadr. His main base is in Baghdad and new elections would almost certainly leave his followers in control of Baghdad Governorate, with one quarter of Iraq’s population. Iraq’s decentralized constitution gives the governorates enormous powers and significant shares of the national budget, if they choose to exercise these powers. New local elections are not required until 2009 and it is hard to see how early elections strengthening al-Sadr, who is hostile to the U.S. and appears to have close ties to Iran, serve American interests. But this is precisely what the Bush administration is pushing for and Congress seems to want.
Constitutional revision is the most significant benchmark and it could break Iraq apart. Iraq’s constitution, approved by 79% of voters in an October 2005 referendum, is the product of a Kurdish-Shiite deal: the Kurds supported the establishment of a Shiite-led government in exchange for Shiite support for a confederal arrangement in which Kurdistan and other regions like the one SIIC hopes to set up in the south, are virtually independent.
Since there is no common ground among the Shiites, Kurds, and Sunnis on any significant constitutional changes in favor of the Sunnis, such changes must come at the expense of the Kurds or Shiites. Since voters in these communities have a veto on any constitutional amendments, they are certain to fail in a referendum. A revised constitution has no chance of being enacted but its failure will exacerbate tensions among Iraq’s three groups.
Constitutionally, Iraq’s central government has almost no power, and the Bush administration is partially to blame for this. When the constitution was being drafted in 2005, the United Nations came up with a series of proposals that would have made for more workable sharing of power between regions and the central government. The U.S. embassy stopped the UN from presenting these proposals because it hoped for a final document as centralized as (and textually close to) the interim constitution written by the Americans.
When the constitution finally emerged in its present form, then U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad brokered a deal with several Sunni leaders whereby, in exchange for Sunni support for ratification, there would be a fast-track process to revise the constitution in the months following ratification to meet Sunni concerns. Like the Bush administration, the Sunnis want a more centralized state. While the U.S. insists that constitutional revision is a moral obligation, the Sunnis actually never lived up to their end of the bargain. Almost unanimously, they voted against ratification of the current constitution.
With input from the United Nations (belatedly brought back into the process last year), the Iraqi Parliament’s mainly Arab Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) is considering amendments that would strip Kurdistan of many of its powers, including its right to cancel federal laws, to decide on taxes applicable in its own territory, and to control its own oil and water. The Sunni Arabs would also like Iraq declared an Arab state, a measure the non-Arab Kurds consider racist and exclusionary.
Thanks to Khalilzad’s expedited procedures, constitutional revision may be the final wedge between Kurdistan and Arab Iraq. If approved by the CRC, the constitutional amendments will be subject to a vote in the parliament as a single package and then to a nationwide referendum. Kurdistan’s voters are certain to reject the proposed package (or any package affecting Kurdistan’s powers), and this could push tense Sunni-Kurdish relations into open conflict. Kurdish NGOs, who ran a 2005 independence referendum, are poised to make a “NO” campaign on constitutional revision a “No to Iraq” vote. In its July 12 report to Congress, the White House graded the CRC’s work as “satisfactory,” an evaluation that was either grossly dishonest, or, more likely, out of touch with Iraqi reality.
For the most part, Iraq’s leaders are not personally stubborn or uncooperative. They find it impossible to reach agreement on the benchmarks because their constituents don’t agree on any common vision for Iraq. The Shiites voted twice in 2005 for parties that seek to define Iraq as a Shiite state. By their boycotts and votes the Sunni Arabs have almost unanimously rejected the Shiite vision of Iraq’s future, including the new constitution. The Kurds’ envisage an Iraq that does not include them. In the 2005 parliamentary elections, 99% of them voted for Kurdish nationalist parties, and in the January 2005 referendum, 98% voted for an independent Kurdistan.
But even if Iraq’s politicians could agree to the benchmarks, this wouldn’t end the insurgency or the civil war. Sunni insurgents object to Iraq being run by Shiite religious parties, which they see as installed by the Americans, loyal to Iran, and wanting to define Iraq in a way that excludes the Sunnis. Sunni fundamentalists consider the Shiites apostates who deserve death, not power. The Shiites believe that their democratic majority and their historical suffering under the Baathist dictatorship entitle them to rule. They are not inclined to compromise with Sunnis, whom they see as their longstanding oppressors, especially when they believe most Iraqi Sunnis are sympathetic to the suicide bombers that have killed thousands of ordinary Shiites. The differences are fundamental and cannot be papered over by sharing oil revenues, reemploying ex-Baathists, or revising the constitution. The war is not about those things.

By Peter Galbraith

Blanc: “A team with experience and quality”

2007-07-12T23:41:00.000-07:00

“If I think of our situation just a month ago compared to now, or if I think that more or less one year ago, on the 14th of July last year, the first degree verdict was issued, relegating Juventus to Serie B, with a lot of points deducted too, and that now we're about to start a new season in Serie A, well I can only be happy."

A radiant Jean–Claude Blanc closed the press conference for the start of the season, held at the Vinovo Sports Centre. Juventus' M.D. talked about the new signings, which everyone in the industry has considered of the highest quality: “We have built a young team, the average age is around 25, but in which there are many internationals, and as many as four World Champions, as well as another player who appeared in the World Cup Final. Both the players and the management staff have experience and quality and now will have to demonstrate their value on the pitch. I'm convinced that if we work hard we will reap the rewards”. The final achievement for Juventus was ensuring that Pavel Nedved is staying: “A football team has to convey emotions, but the club also has to find a balance, and work for the future, and indeed our new players have signed four-year contracts, to guarantee continuity. With Pavel we acted differently because he's part of a larger project that goes beyond a single contract, and last night we reached an agreement that satisfies both him and us. It's up to him, alongside Ale, Gigi, Mauro and David, to pass on the new values and the DNA of Juventus”.

Despite the many new signings, Juventus could still purchase other players: “We have until the 31st of August, at midnight. We have already built a strong team, I'd say we've done 98%, but we'll be ready anyway to seize any opportunities that may arise. What did I think of the summer transfers market? Well I had already followed last year's operations, but they were more in terms of selling. This year I saw the other side of the coin: it's a very competitive world, because quality players are all under contract and we have to take into consideration the players' needs and their agents' needs, as well as those of the clubs. In any case we tried to sign quality players that could be useful to Juventus, at the right price”.

The fact that Juventus won't take part in the Champions League this year didn’t have any influence on the deals: “Absolutely not, both in terms of renewing our own players' contracts and in terms of purchasing new players. Juventus are still Juventus, with or without the Champions League”. At the end of the press conference Blanc mentioned the Delle Alpi Stadium situation: “When the Board of Directors meets in August we will submit our plan. There are different possibilities, but the one we're more interested in also happens to be the most ambitious one, that is to rebuild the Stadium entirely, making it the best one in Italy”.

from www.juventus.com

Top 30 Most Popular Newspapper Website in June

2007-07-12T22:26:00.000-07:00

The New York Times once again, tops the list of newspaper Web site traffic in June, according to data from Nielsen//NetRatings . There was a slight change in positions, with The Boston Globe beating out The Wall Street Journal for the No. 5 slot in June. In May, the Journal was No. 5 in terms of traffic.

The Journal’s sister publications, Ottaway newspapers, climbed in the June rankings to No. 12 from No. 27 in May.

The alternative weekly chain Village Voice Media, as well as the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, also made an appearance in the top 30 in June.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitutio n lost its grip on the highest time spent per person of the top 30 ranked newspapers. That honor goes the New York Times, though its average slipped in June to about 27 minutes from about 29 minutes in May.

Below is the list of the top 30 newspaper Web sites for June from Nielsen//Net Ratings (owned by E&P’s parent, The Nielsen Co.)

Brand or Channel, Unique Audience (000), Time per Person (hh:mm:ss)

NYTimes.com -- 12,535 -- 0:27:34
USATODAY.com -- 8,592 -- 0:12:45
washingtonpost. com -- 8,181 -- 0:18:34
LA Times -- 5,097 -- 0:10:24
Boston.com -- 4,254 -- 0:18:47
Wall Street Journal Online -- 4,240 -- 0:15:57
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle -- 3,953 -- 0:12:18
The Houston Chronicle -- 3,859 -- 0:16:00
Chicago Tribune -- 3,118 -- 0:18:38
New York Post -- 3,057 -- 0:07:14
Atlanta Journal-Constitutio n -- 2,840 -- 0:21:12
Ottaway Newspapers -- 2,124 -- 0:04:41
Chicago Sun-Times -- 1,997 -- 0:07:20
Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- 1,859 -- 0:06:01
Daily News Online Edition -- 1,821 -- 0:05:34
Azcentral.com -- 1,770 -- 0:26:28
DallasNews.com - The Dallas Morning News -- 1,761 -- 0:04:55
Newsday -- 1,751 -- 0:03:46
Sun-Sentinel -- 1,611 -- 0:11:27
International Herald Tribune -- 1,597 -- 0:02:12
Philly.com -- 1,547 -- 0:07:24
NJ.com -- 1,535 -- 0:07:25
The Detroit News -- 1,424 -- 0:11:39
The Washington Times -- 1,407 -- 0:04:08
Orlando Sentinel -- 1,400 -- 0:06:52
The Seattle Times -- 1,354 -- 0:11:33
Rocky Mountain News -- 1,300 -- 0:04:10
Village Voice Media -- 1,294 -- 0:04:16
Detroit Free Press -- 1,243 -- 0:07:58
Boston Herald -- 1,233 -- 0:07:36

By E&P Staff
http://www.editoran dpublisher. com/eandp/ news/article_ display.jsp? vnu_content_ id=1003610636