New Facts

New facts: - The Nehru Museum is free, but the Planetarium Star Show (Hindi or English) is not. I discovered this today with six girls from Holy Family Asha Niwas. - The first Indian in space was in a Soyuz capsule. - You can picnic on the lawn in FRONT of the museum, but not in back.  There is no apparent reason. - Elements (i.e. helium, hydrogen, carbon - think early universe formation) seem to have no Hindi translation. - Flowers appear in parks that seemed nothing but trash merely weeks ago. Tiny vest-pocket pieces of greenery have exploded in…

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President Jimmy Carter

President Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center have a long history of diving into unpopular causes.  His diplomatic efforts stretch from the Sudan to the Middle East, Haiti, Bosnia, and North Korea.  He has taken on, and stuck with, programs to eradicate Guinea Worm and schistosomiasis in West Africa, two diseases which are incredibly debilitating and can be prevented but do not make it to the priority list of governments and foundations looking for sexy, technology-oriented new initiatives. He has supported legalized abortion in the US and demonstrated that a deeply religious person can support that position. He has promoted…

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NGO Connect Workshop: April 3rd

Forty NGOs from all over Delhi will be getting together at the Eros Hotel, Nehru Place, to share experiences and learn from each other on Thursday, April 3rd. I have been working with the organizing group on this initiative for nearly a year and I'm happy to say it's finally coming to fruition. International support groups representing a diverse community - France, Australia and New Zealand, America, Britain, Japan, Spain, Delhi Network, and more - have invited NGOs they work with to come together and discuss income generating ideas, using volunteers, surmounting leadership challenges, and other topics. Just some of…

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Roger Angell

Born September 19, 1920, steeped in the family business and sports, he is a national treasure.  The family business is The New Yorker, and the sport is, of course, baseball. His parents were Katherine Angell White, the accomplished longtime fiction editor of The New Yorker and Earnest Angell, a lawyer and one-time head of the American Civil Liberties Union.  So he comes by accomplishment naturally.  But step-father E.B. White is the name that is famous, so Angell's close connection to E.B. White is how many people know him. Roger Angell is 93 and still writing.  This Old Man appears in…

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Jagori: Awaken Women!

I had read many of Jagori's studies in the past but I was thrilled to know that a Jagori representative would be at the ORF Conference on Women and Safe Cities yesterday.  It is a delight to have organizations such as this is in Delhi - they are right on top of key issues facing women in India today, providing material and advocacy in a thorough, well-researched manner that pulls no punches.  Among other things, they have conducted detailed safety audits looking at the exact impediments to women's safety. JAGORI means "awaken, women!" and their mission is to inform, inspire…

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Women Migrants

Discrimination against women seems to occur even on the move: more and more women are engaged in 'desperation migration,' according to William Lacy Swing, Director of the International Organization for Migration, where they are far more likely than men to encounter physical risk and violence. Though women migrate for many reasons, poverty and pervasive gender bias chief among them, women often find themselves victims of even further discrimination later in the migration cycle.  Unskilled and undocumented women are supremely vulnerable to physical violence, sex trafficking, and the predations of a single employer who can threaten deportation. The ranks of women…

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ORF Conference on Women and Safe Cities

On Wednesday I'll be attending the ORF (Observer Research Foundation) conference on women in cities Half a Billion Locked In: Perspectives on Safe Cities and Women Empowerment. ORF strives to provide a forum for reasoned debate and policy formulation on the key issues confronting India today.  The ability of women in India - those half a billion! - to move freely without unreasonable fear is fundamental not only for human and civil rights but also for economic development, educational advances, health care, and political participation.

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“SPOILED?” – Theatre

Work continues on the development of Spoiled? (working title), a play exploring violence against women (VAW) and images of masculinity in India and the USA.  In collaboration with actor and playwright Elizabeth Hess, we hope to bring this to the stage, somewhere in the US, by next November. The seeds of this project were sown a few years ago, but we finally got together last December and a plan emerged.  See more under my Current Projects tab and stay tuned for updates.

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Nature Deficit Disorder

Richard Louv is a man after my own heart.  I first heard him speak on NPR years ago and was prompted to buy an early edition of his book, Last Child in the Woods.   I owe him a huge debt.  In this book he ties together trends I had been observing but never quite connected  - at last not nearly as well as he does. Impeccably researched and fantastically readable, this book shows us the connections between modern children's disconnection with nature and such trends as: the rise in obesity and attention deficit disorder;  our emotional well being; notions…

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