Analysis by Beena Sarwar KABUL, Oct 18 (IPS) - `Give peace a chance' may just be another cliché for many, but for women who have suffered the ravages of war, endless strife and other forms of conflict, joining hands to find meaningful solutions to their collective aspiration lends it a whole new meaning.Within the South Asian region, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan have for decades been torn by internal and external conflicts that have cried out for, but have not quite found, a lasting resolution. "We waited for a long time to see what the men would do for peace," Zahira Khattak, a member the think-tank formed by Pakistan's Awami National Party (ANP), told IPS. For Khattak and scores of other women in this region, not only has peace proved elusive, they have also been left out of much of the peace efforts by their respective states. "Why should this be so?" argued Khattak. "For 5,000 years women have been sitting in `jirgas' (tribal councils), at least in Afghanistan. We have `jirgas' all over Pakistan's tribal areas also, and we thought why not introduce this concept?"
Back in September, my Boing Boing co-editor Xeni Jardin blogged a photo of a Japanese Ralph Lauren store display featuring model Filippa Hamilton with her proportions digitally altered so that "her pelvis was bigger than her head." Xeni posted the image as a brief and pithy comment on the unrealistic body image conveyed by couture advertising - in other words, she posted it as commentary, and thus fell into one of the copyright exemptions that Americans call "fair use" and others call "fair dealing".
The Ugandan anti gay bill has been tabled in parliament and now it awaits the president Yoweri Museveni to sign and make homosexuality officially illegal. The previous code was not clear but now the bill called "The anti homosexuality Bill 2009" tabled by a member of parliament David Bahati which states that any homosexuality act or tendencies might face the death penalty or face life imprisonment. The Ugandan writes:
In a report for the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, experts said the results backed the findings of lab experiments. They wrote: "We found that individuals walking while talking on a cell phone displayed inattentional blindness in a real-world situation. "Even a task as practiced as walking can be disrupted by cell phone conversations. Although walking and talking on a cell phone on campus seems unlikely to be particularly hazardous, it can cause problems. A cell phone user walking slower and changing directions complicates the navigation task for everyone else." Professor Hyman added: "Cell phone use causes people to be oblivious to their surroundings while engaged in even a simple task such as walking. "Cell phone users walk more slowly, change directions and weave more often - and fail to notice interesting and novel objects. The effect appears to be caused by the distraction of a cell phone conversation, because people walking in pairs did not display the same range of problems. Something about the conversation seems to limit attentional capacity. "If people experience so much difficulty performing the task of walking when they're on a cell phone, just think what this means when put into the context of driving safety. People should not drive while talking on a cell phone."
Professor Hyman added: "Cell phone use causes people to be oblivious to their surroundings while engaged in even a simple task such as walking.
"Cell phone users walk more slowly, change directions and weave more often - and fail to notice interesting and novel objects. The effect appears to be caused by the distraction of a cell phone conversation, because people walking in pairs did not display the same range of problems. Something about the conversation seems to limit attentional capacity.
"If people experience so much difficulty performing the task of walking when they're on a cell phone, just think what this means when put into the context of driving safety. People should not drive while talking on a cell phone."
New maps show population hotspots
