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Hungary's Orban: Good relations with Russia are a necessity
Oct. 30, 2019 at 12:36 pm Updated Oct. 30, 2019 at 1:57 pm
PABLO GORONDI
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary's prime minster said Wednesday after hosting a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that good relations with Russia are a necessity because of his country's geographical location.
Analysts see Prime Minister Viktor Orban as Putin's closest ally in the European Union and Hungary has long advocated for the end of sanctions against Russia for actions in Ukraine, saying they hurt the Hungarian economy. Trade between Hungary and Russia increased in 2018 for the first time since sanctions were put in place.
"It's a simple geographical fact: No country can change its address," Orban said during a news conference with Putin about Hungary's need to cooperate with Russia. "Every country is located where God created it. For Hungary, it means being in a Moscow-Berlin-Istanbul triangle."
Orban mentioned Hungary's membership in the European Union and NATO but said that it did "not rule out establishing political cooperation with Russia on certain issues."
Orban said Hungary, which depends greatly on Russian gas and oil, was trying to cooperate with Russia on issues like preventing migration to Europe, stabilizing the Middle East and aiding Christian communities around the world.
Orban also said it was a priority for his country to join the TurkStream gas pipeline to increase supply routes to Hungary for Russian gas.
Putin said that Russia expects to complete construction of the TurkStream pipeline to Turkey this year and build extensions to Bulgaria and Serbia the following year. He added that an extension to Hungary could be built quickly, and Orban welcomed the prospect.
Putin pointed to Hungary's role as a top customer for Russian natural gas and as a key transit hub.
"Russian gas supplies to Western Europe go via Hungary, and its underground depots allow serving European customers when consumption peaks," Putin said. "We view Hungary as a priority partner in the distribution of Russian natural gas in Europe," Putin said.
The Russian leader also praised Orban for organizing a meeting with representatives of Christian communities from the Middle East, saying that Russia sees the protection of Christians in Syria and other conflict areas as a top priority.
"The Middle East is the cradle of Christianity, and Christians are in peril there, facing persecution, being killed, raped and robbed. Russia will do everything to protect Christians in the Middle East. We must help them restore and preserve their holy sites, preserve their congregations," he said.
Putin added that the Russian military in Syria is also helping restore mosques and assisting Jewish communities.
Speaking later at a meeting with Christian leaders from the Middle East, Putin said, "We are concerned with a massive exodus of Christians from the Middle East."
"We are watching what's happening to the Christians in the Middle East with tears in our eyes," Putin said.
Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.
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Math Expressions Anytime Problems for Grade 5 Unit 3. These are meant to print on Avery labels # 5162. There is 1 page for each problem, so you can print as many pages as you need of each problem.
These problems can also be printed onto paper and have the students cut them out and glue them in their journals to answer.


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Prehistoric Arabia Brought Early Humans from Africa
This undated photo provided by the Palaeodeserts Project in September 2021 shows the Jubbah Oasis in northern Saudi Arabia. (Ceri Shipton/Palaeodeserts Project via AP)
New evidence suggests that the desert of the Arabian Peninsula once had water and plants that brought early humans and large animals from Africa.
Until 10 years ago, scientists trying to rebuild the story of early human movements out of Africa knew little about the Arabian Peninsula.
Much more is known about early human settlements in the Levant region. The Levant is the area that includes modern-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and parts of Syria. Archaeological research has been carried out there for more than one hundred years.
But a recent study published in Nature suggests that the Arabian Peninsula may have served as a bridge between Africa and Eurasia.
In this undated photo provided by the Palaeodeserts Project in September 2021, a storm arrives during an archaeological excavation of the remains of an ancient lake in northern Saudi Arabia, where ancient humans lived alongside animals such as hippos. (Klint Janulis/Palaeodeserts Project via AP)
Michael Petraglia is one of the writers of the study. He is an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany. The research team included scientists from Germany, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Britain and other countries.
He said, "Arabia has not been part of the story of early human migration because so little work was done there before."
Huw Groucutt is also based at the Max Planck Institute. He travels to archaeological places in the northern Arabian Peninsula where rolling sand dunes, or hills, extend as far as the eye can see.
Scientists started to look closely for archeological remains in the region after satellite images showed signs of prehistoric lakes in the areas that are now desert. "We noticed color patterns made by ancient lakes — sand dunes are kind of orange-colored, while ancient lakes are tinted white or gray," said Groucutt.
Over the past 10 years, archeologists have found stone tools from several periods of prehistoric settlement by early human groups. The oldest was from 400,000 years ago.
This undated photo provided by the Palaeodeserts Project in September 2021 shows the site of Khall Amayshan 4 in northern Saudi Arabia, where evidence of repeated visits by early humans over the last 400,000 years was found. The visits were connected with the remains of ancient lakes. (Michael Petraglia/Palaeodeserts Project via AP)
Researchers found that, during several periods in the past, the region had lakes and was covered with grassland, or savannah. Study of rocks and soil from the ancient lakes and remains of animals like hippopotamuses, or hippos, suggest water was available.
The researchers said early humans and animals moved from northeast Africa into the Arabian Peninsula during these windows of welcoming climate.
Petraglia said, "flowing rivers and lakes, surrounded by grasslands and savannah, would have attracted animals and then the early humans that were in pursuit of them."
Hippos require bodies of water several meters deep to live. Remains of other animals, including ostriches and antelopes, show "a strong biological connection to northeast Africa," he said.
Rick Potts directs the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He said the research has combined archaeology and climate records going back 400,000 years. It showed that early humans moved across the land when the climate changed.
Potts was not involved in the new study. But he said the periods in which there were and were not humans in the area followed changes in climate.
Christina Larson reported this story for The Associated Press. Gregory Stachel adapted it for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor.
region – n. a part of a country or of the world that is different or separate from other parts in some way
archaeological –adj. related to the science that deals with past human life and activities and the study of bones, tools and objects of ancient people
pattern – n. something that happens in a regular and repeated way
pursuit – n. the act of following or chasing someone or something
Cave Paintings Show Neanderthals Were Artists
Study: Just 7 Percent of Our DNA Is Special to Modern Humans
Egypt Looks to Ancient Finds to Bring Tourists Back
Afghan Relics Returning Home

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Q: iOS UITableView content offset iOS7 moving tableview when loading In my app i have a TableView which has a header that i want to hide initially until the user scrolls the tableview. My problem is when the view loads, for 1 second you can see the tableview moving up. I dont want to see this movement.
How can i achieve this correctly?
This is my code:
- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
    [self performSelector:@selector(hideSearchBar) withObject:nil afterDelay:0.0f];
}

- (void)hideSearchBar
{
    self.tblView.contentOffset = CGPointMake(0, 40);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Kratylos (řecky Κρατύλος) byl starořecký předsókratovský filozof, přívrženec Hérakleitova učení a příslušník Efezské školy. Byl učitelem Platónovým (ještě před Sókratem), Platón po něm pojmenoval svůj známý dialog, v němž řeší otázku vzniku jmen a vyrovnává se s herakleitismem (tedy s tezí, že vše plyne – "panta rhei"). Platón v dialogu tvrdí, že zatímco Hérakleitos soudil, že "nelze dvakrát vstoupit do téže řeky", Kratylos ho opravil, že "nelze ani jednou vstoupit do téže řeky". Kratylos prý tak málo věřil, že slova mohou popsat neustálý pohyb, že raději tento pohyb ukazoval prstem beze slov. Hovoří o něm i Aristoteles ve své Metafyzice.

Externí odkazy
 Heslo na Vševěd.cz
 Profil na Oxford index

Antičtí filozofové
Řečtí filozofové
Předsókratici
Narození v 5. století př. n. l.
Úmrtí v 5. století př. n. l.
Muži
Platón

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SAP HANA database and application development platform enables programmers to build corporate products that allow to make deep insights into business performance and analyse large amounts of data.
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I moved in with my roommate about 3 months ago. We had been friends for a few months and worked together. She told me she was searching for a roommate and I was still living at home with my parents. I figured this was a great opportunity to move out on my own. I moved in the following week and everything went really well. After about a month, her true colors started to show and I realized this was not someone that I wanted to live with. She complained about everything around the house and offered little help to get things done. I thought it would be better if I moved out to save our friendship.
I thought about continuing to live with my roommate, but as the days went on, the more I wanted to move out. Since I hadn't talked to her about it yet and I wasn't sure how to break the news to her, I kept putting it off. I didn't want her to take it personal. I waited until she got off of work one night and I told her that I was going to move back into my parents house. I let her know I had to save money up because renting wasn't for me. I let her know I wanted to save up to buy a home and in order to save, would need to live with them. She took it well and said she would be able to find someone else to move in.
The following week, I packed my things and moved back into my parents house. It is such a relief to be living with them again and I really have been able to save money.


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Do not, I repeat, do not get this coverage. They hide fees from you, make changes without your consent and will keep ALL of your money when you cancel. I got a quote, paid the downpayment and 4 days later found better, cheaper coverage. Contacted the general as I still had required paperwork that needed to be submitted and was told I would get a full refund. I got $15 back out of my $296 payment. For 13 days of coverage (because that's when they finally canceled a policy.) If this isn't a scam, I dont know what is. My policy that I received never said anything in regards to fees to cancel but my original paperwork said short rate basis, which to them is a fee. AGAIN, my policy said nothing about a FEE in the cancellation section or anywhere else. They play on words and semantics. Customer service is rude and they talk over you. Shaq has put himself with a horrible company.
Progressive Home Advantage® policies are placed through Progressive Advantage Agency, Inc. with affiliated and third-party insurers who are solely responsible for claims, and pay PAA commission for policies sold. Prices, coverages, privacy policies, and PAA's commission vary among these insurers. How you buy (phone, online, mobile, or independent agent/broker) determines which insurers are available to you. Click here for a list of the insurers or contact us for more information about PAA's commission. Discounts not available in all states and situations.


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Kopalkaktus (Strombocactus disciformis) är en monotypisk art inom kopalkaktussläktet Strombocactus och familjen kaktusväxter. Arten beskrevs för första gången av Augustin Pyramus de Candolle 1828, men då under släknamnet Mammillaria.

Referenser

Kaktusväxter
Ko Växtindex
Växter i Mexiko


The two siblings were complete opposites. While Davey was always getting into trouble, Dora was quiet and reserved. Dora was often stuck with the impossible task of keeping her brother out of trouble. Davey's mischievous behavior became a nuisance for Rachel Lynde, which threatened Rachel's life long friendship with Marilla.
After Rachel had an equally troublesome tooth removed, she was able to cope with Davey's behavior, which allowed the Keith twins to remain at Green Gables.
Much of Davey's problems in school were attributed to his inability to read. After Sara discovered Davey's illiteracy, she promised to help him develop his reading skills (5.4: A Friend in Need).
Despite Sara's tutoring, Davey continued to get into trouble. In 1909, Rachel Lynde suffered a stroke after seeing Davey playing on the roof.
She was taken to Saskatoon with her son, Robert, and the Keith twins stayed at Rose Cottage with Hetty King (6.5: The Trouble With Davey). Following another stroke, Rachel returned to Avonlea where the Keith children helped her recover.
Davey and Dora would continue to live with Rachel Lynde and Hetty King at Rose Cottage. In later years, Davey joined the military and fought in the first World War (Mentioned in Happy Christmas Miss King).


The Sorento's silver paint colour is the easiest to keep clean! This Sorento has never been smoked in and is in great condition inside and out. Inside the car, enjoy the use of as well as features such as: heated seats, Bluetooth handsfree calling, cruise control, air conditioning, CD/AUX input and much more!


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All surgery is performed in an isolated sterile suite using isoflurane and sevoflurane anesthesia. The patient is carefully monitored by a technician using pulse and respirator monitors or a pulse oximeter.
We perform a full range of surgical services from routine spays and neuters to more complicated soft tissue and orthopedic procedures, such as anterior cruciate repair procedures. We also maintain a close relationship with a number of board-certified surgeons locally and at the regional teaching hospitals at North Carolina State and Virginia Tech.
All patients are prepared for surgery in our surgical prep area adjoining the surgical operatory. This space is set aside to prepare our patients for surgery, as well as to watch them carefully while they recover from surgery and anesthesia. The surgeon scrubs at the surgical sink and dresses in a sterile surgical gown, mask, cap and gloves.


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Sara Evans Shares Emotional Tribute to Son, Avery, With 'Letting You Go' Video
By Gayle Thompson - September 6, 2018 10:41 am EDT
Sara Evans wrote "Letting You Go" about her son Avery, who just left for college. The song, which is on her latest Words album, became a tribute to her oldest child, and a glimpse into the mother and son's long goodbye.
"I'm just going to be stone cold. I'm not going to think and I'm just going to talk," Evans says in a video shared exclusively with PopCulture.com. "When Avery was born, I became a mom, and that was the greatest joy of my life."
As the song plays, with Evans singing lines like, "Wasn't I brushing the hair from your face / Wasn't I just drying your tears and singing you sweet dreams at night / Seems like it was just yesterday / Suddenly you're seventeen and it's just 18 months 'til goodbye," images flash of Avery on the screen, from his early days as a baby to his last year of high school.
"You're about to leave a whole household of people that love you unconditionally, and love you no matter what. I believe that God has a plan," Evans tells Avery, before pausing to get her emotions under control.
The song, which also says, "Loving you is holding you / Lifting you up / Planting the seeds and then watching you grow / Even though it's hard to do / It's letting you fall / And giving you wings so you fly on your own / 'Cause part of loving you is letting you go," became a self-fulfilling prophecy for the young man, who just celebrated his 19th birthday.
"He deserves everything he's dreaming of and more," the proud mom concludes. "He really and truly does."
Evans previously shared a photo on social media of Avery's room, shortly after he left their home in Alabama for Nashville.
"So I just got home from moving Avery to Nashville and I walked upstairs and saw his empty bedroom," Evans write. "For all you moms out there with your eldest child just leaving home, let's all say a prayer for each other tonight. This is REALLY REALLY difficult. More than I thought it would be. I knew this day was coming but wow, it hits you like a ton of bricks! My girls and I have been crying for several days.
"However, I do know that we are so blessed and I know that this is all a part of life and I am so happy for my son and excited for him to begin his journey into his adult life," she adds. "Anyway, cheers to all the parents and siblings out in the world tonight going 'someone is missing.'"
Download "Letting You Go" on iTunes.
Photo Credit: Kristin Barlowe


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Home / Featured / Ghost Walk 2016
Ghost Walk 2016
The Albemarle's premier living history event, The Historic Elizabeth City Ghost Walk, will take place October 14 and 15, from 5:30 to 9:30 each night. Ghost Walk is celebrating its 20th anniversary with the Best of 20 Years of Ghost Walk. Eight sites will host characters from Elizabeth City's past, including a Vaudeville musical reminiscent of the James Adams Floating Theatre at Arts of the Albemarle.
Here's a run-down of this year's ghosts:
Nell Cropsey, the beautiful 19-year-old whose 1901 murder has never been solved. She'll appear at the Episcopal Cemetery, near the Pool family vault, where her
body spent one night—the night of her autopsy.
Tamsen Donner taught school in Elizabeth City in the 1830s and married a man from Camden. After his death she moved to the Midwest and met George Donner.
Together they perished in the Donner party tragedy, trying to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains during an early blizzard. Tamsen's body was cannibalized by other members of the party. She'll appear at 1207 Riverside Avenue.
Orville and Wilbut Wright traveled here by train many times between 1900 and 1909, on their way to Kitty Hawk. They'll appear in the former Fowler Store on Water Street, where the Wrights actually purchased supplies to set up camp in Kitty Hawk.
Captain Israel Perry took Wilbur Wright to Kitty Hawk on his fishing boat Curlicue, on Wilbur's first trip there in 1900. Captain Perry will give a droll account of his experience with his soon-to-be famous passenger and the storm that almost capsized them. He will appear at 905 Riverside Avenue.
The famous American poet Robert Frost visited Elizabeth City in 1894, when he was a young man. In a fit of pique over a failed romance, Frost traveled to the Great Dismal Swamp with the intention of ending his life. There he met up with a group of duck hunters who brought him to Elizabeth City. Frost wrote of the experience many years later in his poem "Kitty Hawk." Frost's ghost will haunt 1210 Riverside Avenue.
Luther "Wimpy" Lassiter was an international billiards phenomenon who was a native and life-long resident of Elizabeth City. The six-time Nine Ball Champion will appear at Coaster's Bar and Grill on Poindexter Street.
Moses Grandy was a maritime slave from Camden County in the early 1800s. A skilled river pilot, Grandy worked to buy his freedom three times—having been cheated of it twice by his master. He published his life story in London in 1843. Moses Grandy will appear at the Coast Guard Park on Riverside Avenue.
Ghost Walk tickets are $12; $10 for military and early responders. Tickets may be purchased at Muddy Water Coffee House, Page After page Book Store, Bryon's
Hot Dogs, and Arts of the Albemarle. A preview of the Vaudeville show at Arts of the Albemarle's Maguire Theatre will be held on Thursday, Oct. 13, at 7:00.
The preview will be $5 at the door.
Ghost Walk 2016 Reviewed by kensunm on 7:00:00 PM Rating: 5
Museum of the Albemarle -- By: Wanda Lassiter, Cur...
Interior Custom Creations
Dear Dr.Crime
Gun Tips -- By Lloyd "Duke" Hodges
Sammy's Barber Shop
Frisco Pier -- by Jake Worthington
Fitness Warehouse
Neither a borrower nor a lender be. -- By: Stella ...
Quality Hearing Care
Grandma Swain's Gingerbread Cake w/ Blackstrap Mol...
Own your Own Business.
Cushing's Escape Paddle -- By: David Bennett, Cura...
SCUPPERNONG RIVER FESTIVAL 2016 -- By Jimmy Flemin...
1st Annual Scarecrow Fest
Possession of firearms by people convicted of felo...
You'll Know It When You See It
Hand Carved Decoys by Ron Stevens
Perquimans Art League's October Show --- By Collee...
Clown 'n' Around
What's in your diet? by Warren Green
ABC Medical in Elizabeth City
Classes at the Bead Spot
The Tax Lady
Andy's Pancake and Steakhouse
The Villa in Elizabeth City
The Freeze!
Museum Anniversary -- by By: Wanda Lassiter, Curat...
Allegiant Pest Control
Suggestions to Get Started with Your Estate Plan ...
Albemarle Tradewinds September edition now online!...
Pasquotank Senior Center
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Currituck Wildlife Festival
All types of welding
Listing your Property or need to Buy?
Restaurants! Free Placemats and / or Cups!


What are the risks and benefits of participating in research?
What is the chance that the study will cause me harm?
If there is a chance of harm, how much harm could I experience?
If you are interested in participating in a study, ask the researchers any questions that will help you decide whether to participate. Taking time to share your concerns will help you feel safe if you do decide to volunteer. (You can find sample questions at the end of this booklet.) It may be helpful to involve close family members, your doctors, or friends in this decision-making process.
The nature of the risks depends on the kind of study. Often, clinical studies pose the risk of only minor discomfort that lasts for a short time. For example, in some mental health studies, participants take psychological tests; this is obviously a different kind of risk from undergoing surgery as part of a study. A participant in a study requiring surgery may risk greater complications. Risk can occur in many different ways, and it is important to speak with the research team to understand the risks in a particular study.
The treatment involved may have health risks for you, such as unwanted side effects.
The study may require more time and attention than standard treatment. You may need to visit the study site, take additional blood tests, stay in the hospital, or manage complex dosage requirements for medication.
The treatment may not make you or other participants better.
You may enroll in the study hoping to receive a new treatment, but you may be randomly assigned to receive a standard treatment or placebo (inactive pill).
Whether a new treatment will work cannot be known ahead of time. There is always a chance that a new treatment may not work better than a standard treatment, may not work at all, or may be harmful.
The treatment you receive may cause side effects that are serious enough to require medical attention.
Treatment with experimental or study medications not widely available elsewhere.
Care from a research team that includes doctors and other health care professionals who are familiar with the most advanced treatments available.
Treatment that has been reviewed by many people, including other doctors and researchers.
Research-related care or medicine at no cost.
The opportunity to learn more about an illness and how to take care of it.
The satisfaction of helping others by contributing to medical knowledge, or helping to identify possible new treatments.


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Equality and Effectiveness: Lessons Learned
Under : Development , Gender Equality , Uncategorized
About the Authors: Stephenie Foster is a Co-Founder and Partner at Smash Strategies, Yeva Avakyan is Associate Vice President, Gender Equality at Save the Children, and Kristin Kim Bart is Senior Director, Gender Equality, International Rescue Committee. All three are recognized experts in this field.
We recently participated on a panel marking the launch of Save the Children's Gender Equality Hub. The Hub is a cross-functional team that has been established to oversee the development and implementation of Save the Children's Gender Equality Strategy through collaborative, cross divisional efforts.
Each of us brought unique expertise on how to promote gender equality and empower women and girls. Collectively, our work spans the government, business, and non-profit sectors. Each sector is different, but we identified overarching lessons learned to increase the effectiveness of this work across sectors.
Why a focus on gender equality? In business and development, we ignore gender equality at our peril. While the term "gender" is often used interchangeably with "women and girls," the terms are distinct. In short, gender equality is not just about women or girls, but about the different ways women and men experience their lives, have access to resources and take advantage of opportunities. A focus on gender broadens our perspective, so that policies and programs reflect these differential experiences and concentrates work on structural constraints to gender equality. Importantly, this helps us create systems and structures to promote equal opportunity and outcomes for everyone: women and men, boys and girls. It increases organizational effectiveness and helps ensure we use all of the talent available to solve problems and address challenges in a sustainable and durable way.
Here are some key lessons:
We must design, and operate, for change. Words aren't enough. An organization needs to be purposeful in how it designs a gender strategy and implements it, and use this process to be clear about what success looks like. A gender equality strategy is relevant to both an organization's internal operating environment and implementation of its outward facing work. It guides an organization's substantive work to ensure that the differential impact of policies and programs is taken into account. Internal gender teams or working groups can help guide the work so that knowledge is shared within the organization, and the work isn't siloed. These linkages between organizational and programmatic work ensure better coordination and implementation. Organizationally, gender mainstreaming across functions is important, but can dilute the focus on gender and decrease accountability for real change. It's critical to ensure that there is a functional group (or person) that only focuses on gender, and helps hold the organization accountable. This helps ensure a sharp focus on gender equality doesn't get lost along the way.
Organizational leadership is key. Commitment from the top sends a strong signal to others at every level of the organization that paying attention to gender is fundamental to success. But, that's not enough. Leaders are needed at every level who are committed, and have the resources, financial and otherwise to integrate gender issues into the way the organization functions and to do their jobs. The organization's leader should refer to gender issues or gender equality in public comments, on social media and during internal meetings throughout the year – not just around International Women's Day in March. Attention to gender should be integrated into annual (or other) job evaluations so that everyone in the organization is held accountable for implementing a gender policy.
A vision about how a gender focus enhances organizational effectiveness is critical. In addition to a rights-based case for a focus on women and girls — and gender — it's also important to make a case that focusing on gender translates into more effective policies and programs. In the economic sphere, the data is clear: When women's participation in the labor force increases, GDP rises. When women start businesses, communities flourish. When women are promoted to senior management and appointed to corporate boards, companies do better. This compelling data is important to highlight and can provide an entry point to skeptics.
Meet people where they are. As a corollary, you will encounter organizational and individual roadblocks and skeptics. It's important to understand that not everyone prioritizes the issue the way gender experts do. We need to listen to what people say and the concerns they raise, and respond in a way that respects their views. We won't convince everyone (and there are some who will never be convinced), but it's critical to make sure we use every opportunity to have this critical conversation and frame it in a way that moves people. Using data and research, and continuing to build the case for why a gendered approach matters using stories, as well as sex-disaggregated data and metrics, helps with these arguments. Sex-disaggregated data is fundamental. It examines differing needs, constraints, and opportunities for women/girls and men/boys. It provides the information to see if interventions are reducing gender disparities in access to, and control over resources, wealth, opportunities, and services, or increasing capability of women and girls to realize their rights and influence decision-making in the public sphere. You won't know the differential impact of your programs if you don't segregate the data.
Develop and customize training programs that are practical and help people do their jobs more effectively. Off-the-shelf tools and toolkits aren't the only answer, but they help practitioners across disparate offices and locations get the start they need. More specialized, hands-on workshops where gender experts help the rest of the staff see how gender can be taken into account in their day-to-day tasks helps make the issue of gender manageable, and something that staff can relate to as they do their work.
Finally, we know it's important to go beyond gender in recognizing that men or women are not homogenous groups. They have intersecting social identities of race, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, social class, physical ability among others. In doing a gender analysis, taking into account these intersecting inequalities is critical for understanding lived experiences, constraints and needs of different population groups. This is a long game, but worth every step. Making the case everyday — and in every meeting, forum and conversation — matters.
Toward a Feminist Foreign Policy in the U.S. – a starting point
Posted By : Susan Markham/
Under : Democracy , Development , Diplomacy , Gender Equality , Security
A new paper, Toward a Feminist Foreign Policy in the United States, was recently released. With the launch of Sweden's Feminist Foreign Policy in 2014, Canada's Feminist Foreign Assistance Policy in 2017 and France's Feminist Foreign Policy in 2019, a group of Washington-based foreign policy experts and advocates for global gender equality came together over the course of three days in August to sketch out what such an effort might look like for the U.S. I was happy to take part in the gathering.
Our discussion built off of a research review of feminist foreign policy as expressed by other countries, ideas surfaced from consultations with more than 100 feminist activists from over 30 countries and a paper Smash Strategies recently released. This paper is much broader covering policy ideas in the following areas: diplomacy, defense, foreign assistance and trade, as well as in the cross-cutting issue areas of climate change and sexual and reproductive health and rights.
This paper is just a starting point. A final policy agenda will be refined through global consultations and input of additional experts and organizations, and will be published ahead of events marking the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and resulting Declaration and Platform for Action. This document elucidates a vision for the highest standard of U.S. foreign policy that promotes gender equality, human rights, peace and environmental integrity. It includes a proposed definition, key principles and policy recommendations that will be expanded and refined over coming months.
Defining a Feminist Foreign Policy for the United States
A country's foreign policy is a statement of its values and priorities. The implementation of foreign policy, across all of its various levers, is one demonstration of how a nation lives its values. Now more than ever, the United States needs a feminist approach—one that fundamentally alters the way the nation conducts itself, prioritizing the importance of diplomatic solutions, cooperating with allies and international institutions, embracing a progressive, inclusive and rights-based agenda, valuing the voices of the most marginalized and addressing racist, ableist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic and patriarchal and/or male-dominated systems of power.
Foreign policy shapes how a government defines and prioritizes peace and security, structures trade, provides humanitarian aid and development assistance and works with other nations and non-state actors. Coherence across all aspects of foreign policy is paramount for a feminist approach; so too should coherence extend across domestic and foreign policy, with both embracing the same feminist values.
To clarify the goals of a feminist foreign policy and to promote coherence of a feminist approach across policy domains, the following draft definition is proposed:
Feminist foreign policy is the policy of a state that defines its interactions with other states, as well as movements and other non-state actors, in a manner that prioritizes gender equality and environmental integrity, enshrines the human rights of all, seeks to disrupt colonial, racist, patriarchal and male-dominated power structures, and allocates significant resources, including research, to achieve that vision. Feminist foreign policy is coherent in its approach across all of its levers of influence, anchored by the exercise of those values at home and co-created with feminist activists, groups and movements, at home and abroad.
Taking that as the guiding vision for feminist foreign policy, there are a number of key principles and policy recommendations that apply across the whole of the U.S. government.
Key Principles for U.S. Feminist Foreign Policy
Given the complicated legacy of U.S. global engagement as both a colony and colonizer, as well as its associated history of struggles for racial, gender and environmental integrity both at home and abroad, a number of key principles should underpin a U.S. feminist foreign policy.
First, human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights. U.S. foreign policy must respect the rights recognized by international and domestic law and should place itself on the side of those seeking to defend and expand the rights and freedoms of individuals and groups around the world.
Second, U.S. policy should be representative, inclusive, responsive and accountable to stakeholders. Foreign policy has traditionally been informed by patriarchal and discriminatory social norms and implemented through male-dominated institutions. A feminist approach demands gender parity in representation, as well as active commitment to gender, racial and other forms of diversity, equity and inclusion. A U.S. government commitment to diversity and inclusion should not exclusively focus on rhetoric and internal processes, but also on the impact of its policies and public-private partnerships on diverse communities. As such, this principle includes a government-wide commitment to consultation with civil society and feminist movements outside of government, including and especially in the Global South.
Third, a feminist foreign policy should take an intersectional approach to feminism. This is an approach that takes into account and seeks to address the multiple and often intersecting forms of discrimination such as gender, race, age, class, socioeconomic status, physical or mental ability, gender or sexual identity, religion or ethnicity.
Fourth, a feminist foreign policy should promote and protect bodily autonomy. Recognizing that the oppression of women and gender-nonconforming individuals has traditionally been expressed in the regulation and restriction of bodies and rights, a feminist approach would model its inverse, starting with the basic principle of bodily autonomy. A feminist approach embraces sexual and reproductive health and rights, which according to the Guttmacher Institute is defined as: "A state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being in relation to all aspects of sexuality and reproduction, not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction, or infirmity. Therefore, a positive approach to sexuality and reproduction should recognize the part played by pleasurable sexual relationships, trust and communication in promoting self-esteem and overall well-being. All individuals have a right to make decisions governing their bodies and to access services that support that right." This approach should also enshrine bodily autonomy, which the Blueprint for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice defines as: "Achieving the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health and rights is based on the fundamental human rights of all individuals to: have their bodily integrity, privacy and personal autonomy respected; freely define their own sexuality; decide whether and when to be sexually active; choose their sexual partners; have safe and pleasurable sexual experiences; decide whether, when and whom to marry; decide whether, when and by what means to have a child or children and how many children to have; and have access over their lifetimes to the information, resources, services and support necessary to achieve all the above, free from discrimination, coercion, exploitation and violence."
Fifth, environmental integrity. Here, environmental integrity is defined as the sustenance of biophysical processes that support all living organisms, by protecting diversity, ecological functions and resilience of all ecosystems. Climate change erodes human freedoms and limits choice. However, the impacts of climate change are not felt equally. Climate change affects everyone, but women and men experience the impacts differently, and women are often disproportionately negatively affected. Women, compared to men, often have limited access to resources, more restricted rights, limited mobility and a muted voice in shaping decisions and influencing policy. Climate change can also impact security, particularly for those who are already most vulnerable in a society, often women, girls, gender minorities and LGBTQIA+ persons, those with disabilities and most especially those with intersecting marginalized identities. Threats related to the climate crisis generally viewed as a "threat multiplier- a phenomenon that can worsen or exacerbate other sources of instability and conflict, such as competition for natural resources and ethnic tensions." By way of just one example, following extreme climate-related flooding in Bangladesh, child marriage rates soared. All efforts to adapt to and mitigate climate change must include specific protections for and acknowledgment of the harm to communities of color, indigenous peoples and other frontline and marginalized communities around the world, while seeking to address gender inequality.
Cross-Cutting Recommendations for Implementation of Key Principles
There are five cross-cutting elements that are necessary to advance feminist foreign policy across the whole-of-government: (1) High level leadership with mandate to promote feminist foreign policy; (2) Commitment to gender parity, diversity and inclusion both internally, among leadership and staff, and externally, co-created with feminists outside government; (3) Training and capacity-building to ensure robust implementation; (4) Gender analysis underlying all aspects of foreign policy; and (5) Adequate resourcing to ensure all of the above.
Following this in the paper, specific policy recommendations are made for each of the major levers of foreign policy—aid, trade, diplomacy and defense. This is not yet a complete policy package; additional consultations and efforts will augment, refine and supplement this opening salvo over the course of ensuing months. However, it is a solid start.
If you are interested in taking part in an upcoming consultation or would like to send written feedback, please contact me at smash@smashstrategies.com.
Operationalizing a Feminist Foreign Policy – Recommendations for the U.S. Government
Under : Democracy , Development , Diplomacy , Gender Equality
This document focuses on how to operationalize a new feminist foreign policy within the U.S. context. The complete document can be found HERE. Current events and conversations challenge us to consider a new way of thinking. They take place at a unique time when the U.S. leadership role is being transformed in part due to the rise of China and other powers. The use of cyber weapons, the greater role of non-state actors, and the ability of technology to give citizens access to their governments and demand greater transparency are upending the way diplomacy works. Further, the Trump Administration has thrown away the rule book by antagonizing allies, pulling out of international accords, and shattering traditional foreign policy thinking. It has "hyper-masculinized" the U.S. approach to national security. Finally, Sweden's groundbreaking adoption of a feminist foreign policy has spurred a deeper consideration of how a feminist policy applies in other countries.
As we ground the principles of human rights and equality in foreign and national security policy, we must envision how a country as unique as the United States with a bureaucracy as large as the U.S. government can turn these ideas into practice. These recommendations will help the U.S. foreign policy establishment actors and officials promote gender equality, defend human rights, and protect fundamental freedoms by addressing power imbalances, utilizing gender analysis to increase the range of issues and solutions considered, increasing the number of feminist voices promoting gender equality, and increasing the number of women leaders.
CHANGE THE INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE
In envisioning a feminist foreign policy, it is important to note the unique role of the United States and its large footprint in global economic and political affairs. The US federal government is large and complex. With a population of 327 million people, the U.S. government employs over 2 million people,14 includes 15 executive departments or agencies, and has an annual budget of about $4 trillion. There must be thought given to how to best integrate this policy across the executive branch agencies. Further, the coordination mechanism, and the individual leading that work, must be at the highest level and only dedicated to implementing this policy.
Example: There have been far-reaching structural changes made in the US government in the past. Following the attacks on the United States in September 2001, President Bush established the Department of Homeland Security, transforming the federal government by combining 22 federal departments and agencies into a unified cabinet agency to respond to threats. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) was created by Congress in 2004 to apply a new approach to U.S. foreign aid.
HOLD INSTITUTIONS AND INDIVIDUALS ACCOUNTABLE
As part of transforming government institutions, the people implementing policy need to change the way they do business. Promoting gender equality and women's empowerment should be a shared responsibility of all who work in foreign policy and national security: staff, contractors, military members, and appointees. This work must be championed by leaders, carried out at every level, and not only be the purview of "gender offices" and "gender experts." Performance evaluations and promotion criteria should be changed to reflect this priority.
Example: Promoting women's empowerment and equality is not new to the US government. At USAID, the 2013 Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Policy set forth the policy's goals and principles and included roles and responsibilities for all of its staff, including the regional, functional, and administrative offices in Washington and in the field. Moreover, Gender 101, a mandatory online training course, was launched to increase the understanding of gender in development. Every USAID staff person involved in the program cycle was required to take it within their first two years of employment.
DIVERSIFY REPRESENTATION
As noted above, there are not currently enough women in senior-level positions. Given the slow speed at which the number of women in foreign policy and national security is growing, US government institutions should consider the following to reach gender balance. The President must commit to a gender-balanced cabinet and instruct the head of each executive branch agency that she wants a gender balance in political appointees at every level.
An overhaul of the civil service and foreign service recruitment and selection processes is needed to more easily recruit and promote qualified women already working in think tanks. Nongovernmental organizations and other parts of the government should focus on increasing the number of women in leadership positions across foreign policy and national security fields, including arms control, counter-terrorism, intelligence and analysis, and military strategy.
Example: Increasing the number of women in leadership is possible. During Secretary of State John Kerry's tenure, one of the two Deputy Secretaries was a woman; the majority of Undersecretaries were women, and all but one of the regional Assistant Secretaries were women.
ENSURE INPUT FROM THOSE AFFECTED
Beyond the women who work for the U.S. government, foreign policy and national security decision-makers must listen to, and consider, the voices and views of those most affected. By consistently reaching out and listening to these individuals and organizations, these professionals will have a better understanding of not only how actions and interventions will affect people but how those actions will be perceived. This can build stronger relationships at the grassroots level that are not tied to those in power, who often say what they think the US government wants to hear or diminish flash points that should be factored into decisions. Memos and reports must include the perspectives of those outside of government and powerful elite.
Example: There are fierce internal battles about how the principals and other high-level US government officials spend their time, especially when they travel. As a result, whom they meet with has a disproportionate impact on how they understand a place or an issue. On Secretary Kerry's first trip to Afghanistan as Secretary of State, he met a group of eight Afghan businesswomen. After that, his speeches often recounted those interactions as a basis for reaffirming the importance of Afghan women to the future of the country.
PRIORITIZE INFORMATION AND INTELLIGENCE
Those who provide analysis for the intelligence community, and others in the foreign policy and national security agencies, must make it a priority to gather information about what is happening in a country with respect to women and other gender issues. Incorporating a gender analysis provides a broad and deep understanding of the situation. Beyond the standard "F" indicators at the U.S. State Department, there must be new ways to measure accountability regarding the participation of women in security, political, and economic processes; track US government budget expenditures to implement feminist foreign policy; and measure outcomes. Collecting sex-disaggregated data allows issues to be seen, measured, and addressed.
Example: Through its gender policy, adopted in 2006, the MCC requires that gender issues and metrics are integrated throughout the threshold and compact cycle, from the initial country selection and assessment to the development and design of programs, project implementation, the monitoring of program results, and evaluation of program impacts. More recently, the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation has started to apply a gender lens to all its investment projects to help ensure women will benefit.
INCREASE RESOURCES
Along with setting a new policy framework, it is critical that there are sufficient funds and other resources to support the implementation of these laws and policies. This includes funds to hire specific gender experts as well as educating all US foreign service, development, and military professionals about this policy framework. This means everything from equal access to development assistance for women and men, to increasing the number of women in security forces abroad by funding slots for women in professional foreign military education. This all costs money and takes time. The US government, both the executive and legislative branches, must be willing to put the needed resources toward this new way of doing business.
Example: Successful and lasting initiatives are backed by resources. The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is widely considered the most consequential initiative ever launched against HIV/AIDS. Through 2017, the United States had spent more than $70 billion on PEPFAR activities, dwarfing that spent by other donors to eradicate HIV/AIDS.
UTILIZE TECHNOLOGY
The use of technology, from social media to online banking, is transforming the lives of millions of people in developing and high-risk parts of the world. It can deliver information, connect people, and close gender gaps in information and employment. Like any other tool, technology used for foreign policy will not be as efficient or effective without planning that ensures a diverse set of users has access to the technology and frameworks that collect usable and informative data.
In the foreign policy arena, technology can help us gather data and information and analyze it in a way that informs policy decisions. This can encompass the use and collection of both macro-level data (i.e., about changes caused by climate change) and micro-level data (i.e., about the incidence of violence).
Example: New technologies have been used by the government through the Presidential Innovation Fellows program, which makes it possible for technologists to take on temporary projects within government to help agencies take advantage of technological advances.
We are at an inflection point both within the United States and in the world. Rethinking U.S. foreign and national security policies is critical to restructuring the role of the United States as a global leader and to creating a safer and more stable world. These policies will be more effective if we infuse them with the principles outlined in this paper. This paper provides a road map for those within the U.S. government to operationalize a feminist foreign policy.
Gender vs. Women's Empowerment in Development
Under : Development , Gender Equality , Women
In many discussions, the term "gender" is often used interchangeably with "women and girls." These concepts both get at gender norms and roles, but are different. Here's a overview of these terms and how they differ. In short, we've learned that gender equality is are not just about women or girls, but about the different ways women and men experience their lives, have access to resources and can take advantage of opportunities. It broadens our perspective, so that policies and programs take into account those differential experiences of women and men, and address structural constraints to gender equality. Importantly, taking gender into account also encourages programs to include men and boys – political, business and religious leaders as well as husbands, brothers and fathers – because their gender or social roles will also change.
While "sex" refers to the biological characteristics that define us as female or male, "gender" refers to the economic, political, and cultural attributes and opportunities associated with being male or female. How gender is defined varies among cultures and changes over time.
Gender equality is the concept that all human beings, both men and women, are free to develop their personal talents and abilities and make life choices without the limitations set by stereotypes, rigid gender roles, or prejudices. It does not mean that women and men are the same, but that their rights, responsibilities, and opportunities should not depend on whether they are born male or female.
The role of women and the idea of "gender equality" in development has changed over time. For a very long time, development programs did not take sex or gender into account. Commodities or services, such as food, healthcare or education, were provided by richer countries to developing ones without attention paid to the characteristics of the beneficiaries.
A few decades ago, discussions and program implementers began to take into account that women might have different needs than men and/or might prioritize assistance in a different way. An example — for a long time rice was distributed around the world in 50 lb bags. While most men could haul the bags onto their backs and carry them home, the weight made collection of this food almost impossible for women. A simple change, made at women's request, made the bags of rice lighter so that women could transport them.
Next, development organizations began to consider how men and women benefited from their programs. For instance, asking if both boys and girls were able to attend school, and what the barriers might be if there weren't equal attendance rates. Or, if an agriculture program was teaching how to improve crop yields, were both male and female farmers benefiting from that knowledge. If all of the intended beneficiaries were not being reached or the outcomes were not being reached as planned, implementers started asking questions.
In the last ten years, technical experts have moved from a focus on women to gender. What was acknowledged was that in order to "empower" women, their social or gender roles had to change. For example, if the aim of a program is to create more women business owners in order to increase her family's income and move them out of poverty, then the program cannot focus solely on the female entrepreneurs-to-be. Training women about how to start and run a business is key, no doubt, but the program must also take into account the local laws that prevent women from having access to credit, and, very importantly, how her income will create a new balance of power within her home. We now know that when a woman, a wife, earns her own income it can change the gender roles of both the woman and her husband. If a women begins contributing to family income (when she didn't before), this can make her husband feel shame that he cannot solely support his family and lead to an increase in violence against her. And the same is true when women learn more about how their bodies function, play a greater role in politics or even stay in school a few more years.
The United States government, particularly the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has kept abreast of this growing field of gender and development just as it has with other technical fields, gaining new knowledge and improving its programs to spend U.S. taxpayer dollars more efficiently as it ends extreme poverty. USAID collaborates with other governments, private companies and implementing partners to know more and do better for women around the world.
While the gap between the number of boys and girls in primary school has been eliminated, the number of women in elected office has increased and the number of women in the formal workforce is higher than it has ever been, now is a good time to remind ourselves about the importance of these issues, how we arrived at this moment and the need to continue this critical work.
SDG Five, Target Three
Under : Development , Gender Equality , Sustainable Development Goals
Within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or Global Goals, Goal 5 is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. For Goal 5, there are nine targets. In this, we will focus on SDG5 Target 3: Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.
Unfortunately, data on these critical issues is not regularly collected in the United States. While we believe that less than 5 percent of girls in the United States are married before the age of 16 and that female genital mutilation is rare or limited to ethnic minority enclaves, we do not know for sure.
Early, Forced and Child Marriage: At the federal level, there is no law against child, early and forced marriage because laws on the age of marriage in the United States are set at the state level. Twenty-seven states have no minimum age for marriage; four states allow girls as young as 13 or 14 years old to marry; and in many states, 16 and 17 year olds can marry with parental consent alone. According to data compiled by Unchained At Last, at least 207,468 minors married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2015. This likely does not reflect the breadth of the issue because ten states provided no or incomplete statistics. A few other nuances:
Eight-seven percent of the minors who married across the country between 2000 and 2015 were girls, with the majority aged either 16 or 17.
More than 1,000 children aged 14 or under were granted marriage licences. (Source)
There have been some advocacy campaigns to set or increase the age of marriage at the state level to match the age of consent for sex. However, in 2017, the Governor of New Jersey rejected legislation that would have banned marriage before age 18, without exceptions. "An exclusion without exceptions would violate the cultures and traditions of some communities in New Jersey based on religious traditions," the Republican governor wrote. (Source)
Globally, one third of girls in the developing world are married before the age of 18 and one in nine are married before the age of 15. In 2012, 70 million women aged 20-24 had been married before the age of 18. If present trends continue, in the next ten years, 150 million girls will be married before their 18th birthday. While countries with the highest prevalence of child marriage are concentrated in Western and Sub-Saharan Africa, due to population size, the largest number of child brides reside in South Asia. (Source)
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM): A federal law making it illegal to perform FGM was passed in 1996, and was amended in 2013 to make it illegal to knowingly transport a girl out of the U.S. to inflict FGM abroad. Since 1990, the estimated number of girls and women in the U.S. who have undergone or are at risk of the practice has more than tripled. This increase is due to rapid growth in the number of immigrants from countries where FGM is a common practice. These girls and women are concentrated in California, New York and Minnesota. Though at-risk girls and women are thought to live in every state but Hawaii, only 25 states have enacted laws against FGM. Prosecution under these laws depends on the age of the victim; who performed the procedure; whether the victim was taken out of the country for FGM; and, whether the accused uses cultural reasons as a defense. Punishments include as much as 30 years in prison and fines that reach $250,000. The first prosecution in the U.S. did not occur until 2017 when two Michigan doctors and the wife of one of the doctors were charged with performing the banned procedure on two 7-year-old girls. (Source) There has been some discussion about more formal data collection about the incidence of FGM in the U.S. with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Globally, an estimated 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM in the countries where the practice is concentrated. Furthermore, there are an estimated 3 million girls at risk of undergoing female genital mutilation every year. The practice has been documented in 30 countries, mainly in Africa, as well as in the Middle East and Asia. Some forms of FGM have also been reported in other countries, including among certain ethnic groups in South America. (Source)
SDG Five, Target One
Within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or Global Goals, Goal 5 is a stand alone goal focused on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. There are nine targets for Goal 5.
Here, we will focus on SDG5, Target 1: End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.
It is important to examine the U.S. legal framework that the U.S. to achieve gender parity, as well as the gaps that exist in that framework. While the U.S. does have both federal and state laws and policies to address discrimination based on sex or gender, there is not a comprehensive or constitutional framework for gender equality.
The first gap is that the U.S. is not a party to CEDAW, The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women which is often described as an international bill of rights for women, and was adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly. CEDAW has been ratified by 189 states. There are only six other UN member states that have not ratified CEDAW: Iran, Palau, Somalia, Sudan, Togo and the Vatican.
President Jimmy Carter signed CEDAW in 1980, but despite numerous advocacy campaigns, the U.S. Senate has not yet ratified CEDAW. When ratifying the Convention, countries commit to undertake a series of measures to end discrimination against women in all forms. CEDAW is the only human rights treaty which affirms the reproductive rights of women, and targets culture and tradition as influential forces shaping gender roles and family relations. Countries that have ratified or acceded to the Convention are committed to submit national reports, at least every four years, on measures they have taken to comply with their treaty obligations.
Further, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution has not been ratified. The ERA would ensure that rights guaranteed by the Constitution apply equally to everyone, regardless of their sex. After the 19th Amendment affirming women's right to vote was ratified in 1920, suffragist leader Alice Paul introduced the ERA in 1923. In 1972, the ERA was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. The original seven-year time limit was extended by Congress to June 30, 1982, but at that deadline, the ERA had been ratified by only 35 states, three states short of the 38 required to amend the Constitution. The ERA has been re-introduced in every Congress since the deadline.
Another framework for the U.S. to consider is an overarching national plan to advance gender equality. Such a plan would provide guidance to help the government, in conjunction with non-governmental organizations, strategically work towards greater equality. The U.S. government already has several gender oriented action plans, such as the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, which outlines how U.S. foreign assistance programs will help other countries increase women's leadership, and the Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence. What's needed is a concerted effort to knit these strategies together with other strategies and plans to advance the empowerment of women and girls, so that work is driven toward one set of goals.
This would complement the many, individual pieces of legislation focused on ending discrimination against women in the U.S.
The Equal Pay Act (1963) made it illegal for employers to pay men more than women performing the same job.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964) prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, sex, or ethnic origin.
The Fair Housing Act (FHA) (1968) prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on sex among other characteristics.
Title IX of the Education Amendments Act (1972) prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded education programs.
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) (1974) guarantees an equal opportunity to obtain credit and prohibits creditors from discriminating against credit applicants on the basis of sex among other characteristics.
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (1978) prohibits employment discrimination against female workers who are (or intend to become) pregnant, including discrimination in hiring, failure to promote, and wrongful termination.
The Affordable Care Act (2010) stopped the discriminated by insurance companies against women in coverage and cost, however, that provision, among others, may be repealed.
Looking at the big picture, these laws in the U.S. are a patchwork and gaps, such as with political representation, remain.
Overall, the United States ranks 49th out of 144 countries with regard to the gender-based gaps that exist in access to economic resources and opportunities, according to the 2017 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap report. There are ongoing advocacy efforts to have the U.S. ratify CEDAW and pass the ERA and send it back to the states for ratification.
Using Soft Power is Not a Hard Choice
Under : Advocacy , Development , Gender Equality , Politics , Women
Effective U.S. foreign engagement is based on both soft and hard power. Soft power – winning hearts and minds — helps shape global public opinion about the United States, showcases our values, core beliefs, and aspirations, and highlights who we are as a people. Soft power is about diplomacy, both public and private, providing development assistance and aid, and facilitating direct exchanges and interactions between people. Military leaders, charged with the responsibility for hard power, acknowledge that soft power goes hand in hand with the tools they wield. In 2013, now Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis now famously said "[i]f you don't fully fund the State Department, then I need to buy more ammunition."
What is soft power? Besides governments talking to each other in formal and informal settings, soft power is comprised of programs and policies that have an impact on people's lives. Examples include PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), President George Bush's signature initiative to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS; the prestigious Fulbright program, which for 71 years has brought scholars to the U.S. and sent American scholars abroad to teach and study; and our role in providing humanitarian assistance to countries in crisis. We do this work, and so much more, spending only one percent of our federal budget. The impact is real, though sometimes difficult to measure and quantify, and a critical long-term investment in our global stature and role as a nation with values that others want to emulate.
I have seen first-hand how this makes a difference. I spent the last five years at the U.S. Department of State, working to bring a focus on women and girls into US foreign policy. I served at the US Embassy in Kabul, where we helped women learn entrepreneurship skills, girls go to school, and ensure woman had better access to maternal health services. When I returned to the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues in Washington, DC, we did this same work – empowering women politically, economically and socially – because it builds strong societies, increases stability and prosperity, and because it reflects our core values of inclusion, utilizing talent, and our interest in stability and fighting extremism.
I watched John Kerry meet with women business leaders from every corner of the globe; advocate for ways to end sexual violence in conflict; and encourage women and girls to fully participate in every aspect of their lives. This type of engagement – from the Secretary of State on down — promotes our values and beliefs, as well as approaches to problem solving that we have seen work at home. This happens everywhere, and using every possible platform. Whether it is working with China on how to address domestic violence, Malawi on ensuring that girls can access education, Liberia on developing a strong rule of law and legal system, or Vietnam on how to build job skills, these engagements matter. We not only help others, we help ourselves, building good will, understanding and working with leaders who will be influential in their countries for years to come.
We need soft power – and we need to wield in constantly, everywhere and with a strong voice about who we are. Living in a secure and stable world is important to every U.S. citizen. The more people know about us, and about what we stand for, the better able we are to participate in the global public square, and convince others to join us.
The Importance of Women's Networks and Beyond
April 7, 2017/
Under : Development , Gender Equality , Networks , Politics
Earlier this week, I spoke on a panel at the Wilson Center on women in politics. We all agreed on the importance of women's networks as an empowerment tool. Networks can provide women with several kinds of support. First, a network of similar women allows members to share strategies as they face similar situations. An example of this could be an association of women engineers. Second, a network of diverse women can give women the opportunity to meet women that are unlike them in some ways but could be helpful to them financially or politically precisely because of their differences. An example of this kind of network could be a parliamentary women's caucus. A third kind of network for women could provide the members access to resources they might need but find hard to acquire. This network might include mentoring or a "pitchfest" event where younger entrepreneurs share their business ideas with potential funders. Another is the annual conference put on by EMILY's List that brings together candidates with journalists and potential donors. Supporting a variety of networks is often a part of a gender equality development program.
5 Ways to End Poverty by Focusing on Women and Girls
We know that women and girls are a powerful force for change. And when we put women and girls at the center of development, we can break the cycle of poverty. We can help them delay their marriages, choose the timing and spacing of their pregnancies, access needed services and information, complete their education, and gain the knowledge and skills they need to participate in the economy and in their country's development.
Yet, all too often gender inequality gets pushed aside because of competing priorities or a lack of resources. People say that gender equality isn't their area or that gender equality is a "women's issue."


When American Bar Association president Robert Hirshon was preparing for his presidential year, he went looking for unconventional ways to attack the challenge of providing justice for all citizens.
While those might not be obvious factors in improving access to justice, Hirshon, a Maine attorney, said he found them to be dominant factors, especially with young lawyers.
He noted that in the 1950s, over 12 percent of those who graduated from law school took some sort of public service job, but more recently that had dropped to 3.3 percent.
"We are facing a public service squeeze, and unless we do something about it, we are going to have an entire generation who is going to be unable to make a contribution," Hirshon said.
When he graduated in 1973, Hirshon said, law students might have had a debt of a few thousands dollars — not enough to make a difference in a starting private sector job at $15,000 or a legal aid job at $10,000.
"People now graduate with $80,000 to $90,000 of debt. They have an incredibly crushing burden of debt, and they don't know how to get out of it," he said, adding he recently met with a group of Tulane law students and everyone had a debt exceeding $100,000.
Starting private sector salaries can now reach $140,000 for law student graduates — plus bonuses, Hirshon said, while salaries for public service jobs have not kept pace.
He told of one student who wanted to take a $28,000 public service job in environmental law. But he couldn't afford it because his $115,000 student loan debt would require $10,000 a year in payments.
One of Hirshon's commissions will study ways to improve loan repayment and loan forgiveness programs for new lawyers who take public service jobs. He said he hopes to make proposals both at the state and national levels, including duplicating for lawyers the federal program that repays doctors' educational loans when they practice in underserved rural areas.
The second commission will look at how the emphasis on the billable hour has affected the legal profession and possible alternatives.
Law students may not realize the burden they face when accepting high paying jobs that carry with it the requirements to bill 2,300, 2,400, or 2,500 hours a year — and many hours they work will not count toward that total.
The ABA recently did a study that showed lawyers who had been in practice for three to four years are "leaving the practice at an alarming rate," Hirshon reported. "Those lawyers were telling us if this is what it was all about, they were gone.
He noted the billable hour came about 40 to 50 years ago after the FTC prohibited fee schedules commonly imposed by bars around the country. The ABA commission will study alternatives, and its members include U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who has expressed concern about falling public service performed by lawyers, as an honorary member.
Hirshon appeared only a couple weeks after taking over the ABA leadership from Tallahassee's Martha Barnett. He said he was eager to come because of his mutual interest in legal access issues with Florida Bar president Terry Russell.
He noted that in his foreign travels, particularly in Eastern Europe and countries that were in the former Soviet Union, the American lawyer is seen as a hero and the person responsible for ensuring justice for everyone. That's a message that needs to be repeated at home, he said.
Reprinted with permission of The Florida Bar News.


FacilitiesA range of services and facilities awaits guests of the hotel, offering a comfortable stay. The hotel offers internet access and wireless internet access.RoomsFurthermore, a safe is available. Features include a fridge, a microwave and tea and coffee making equipment. Internet access, a telephone and wireless internet access are provided as standard. A hairdryer can also be found in each of the bathrooms.Sports/EntertainmentThe hotel offers an outdoor pool.


Pipetech is a specialist manufacturer of pressure vessels and associated petroleum industry products. With a modern facility located at Burton containing state-of-the-art equipment, we are able to work with carbon steel, stainless steel, special alloys, copper, aluminium, titanium and most other materials.
Pipetech is part of NDA Group, with five other companies spread across New Zealand, Australia and North America. This makes NDA Group the largest stainless steel and specialty alloy fabricator in Australasia.
We have a full range of capabilities and modern equipment at Pipetech to take on your industrial stainless steel and specialty alloy fabrication projects.
Pipetech is a specialist manufacturer of pressure vessels and associated petroleum industry products including heat exchangers, columns, filter vessels and reactors.
At our modern facility at Burton in Adelaide's northern suburbs, we can manufacture to large capacities – with flexibility depending on your needs. Our six thousand square meters of undercover workshops are fitted with state-of-the-art equipment, which allows us to work with carbon steel, stainless steel, special alloys, copper, aluminium, titanium and most other materials.
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Зали́жня (до 1940 р. Ляшки) — село в Україні, у Червоноградському районі Львівської області. Населення становить 300 осіб. Орган місцевого самоврядування - Смиківська сільська рада.

Село завжди було частиною Волині, за часів Російської імперії це була Волинська губернія, за міжвоєнної Польщі — Волинське воєводство. 1940 р. було утворено Горохівський район Волинської області, село входило до його складу, на 1946 р. було центром сільської ради, до якої належали сусідні села Матів та Смиків.

Село Залижня 19 січня 1961 року зі складу Горохівського району Волинської області були передані до складу Сокальського району Львівської області.

У ніч з 15 на 16 травня 2011 р. у селі згоріла дерев'яна церква св. Миколая XVIII ст. (1760 рік) — пам'ятка архітектури місцевого значення (реєстр. номер: 1480-М). За часів Російської імперії ця церква була приписною до Свято-Троїцького храму у Шпиколосах.

Посилання
 На Львівщині згоріла ще одна дерев'яна церква XVIII століття
 Погода в селі Залижня

Села Львівської області
Населені пункти Сокальської міської громади
Населені пункти Червоноградського району
Села Червоноградського району


Deionized water, hydrolyzed jojoba esters, glycerin, sodium hyaluronate, retinol, cucurbita pepo (pumpkin) seed extract, caprylic/capric triglyceride, tocopherol, sodium ascorbate, hordeum vulgare seed extract, sodium phytate, prunus persica (peach) leaf extract, citric acid, acacia senegal gum, avena sativa (oat) seed extract, xanthan gum, ethylhexylglycerin, phenoxyethanol.
*Note: Stabilized Retinol may cause slight skin sensitivity (dryness, flaking, peeling and/or redness). This is a normal process and should decrease over time. Please reduce or discontinue use if skin sensitivity does not subside.


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Black Friday Gets Busted by Covid-19 in Sign of Retail's Future
Matt Townsend and Carolina Gonzalez, Bloomberg News
Customers wearing protective masks shop at Macy's store during Black Friday on November 27, 2020 in New York. Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Getty Images , Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Getty Images
(Bloomberg) -- Black Friday -- once the ultimate U.S. shopping day -- is being disrupted like so much else in these Covid-19 times, with consumers largely avoiding malls and instead flocking online.
What that means for overall sales for the holiday season remains to be seen, but it's becoming clearer that the pandemic has only accelerated the move away from big in-person shopping events that have defined American consumerism for the better part of a century.
After debuting and expanding online services during the pandemic -- from video chats to in-car order pickup -- retailers are now stress-testing how well the new options work in the busiest and most-crucial shopping part of the year. Brands also extended their promotions for a longer time this year, with many starting in October. If the industry can produce a solid fourth quarter during a recession and a pandemic, it's hard to see it turning back to the old ways.
"Black Friday became Black November, now it's Black October and Black November," said Doug Stephens, founder of consulting firm Retail Prophet. "Soon, we'll be looking at a Black Quarter."
So far, the Black Friday weekend is starting out weaker than expected. Thanksgiving Day online spending came in nearly $1 billion lower than predicted in the U.S., according to Adobe Analytics. That backs up other evidence that Americans shopped for the holidays earlier than ever.
In-store visits also appeared lackluster. A decade ago, Black Friday was defined by long lines of shoppers waiting to get into malls and Walmart stores. That intensity has waned over the years, and it dwindled to a trickle in 2020. Many Americans remain wary of public places during the resurgent pandemic.
Sparse Shopping
Inside Macy's Inc.'s Manhattan flagship, it looked like a normal day, instead of what's supposed to be the busiest shopping event of the year. In the past, the location featured a bonanza of patrons amid television news crews.
At Atlanta's Atlantic Station, the scene was mixed. Around noon, the Dillard's had only a handful of shoppers browsing aisles while groups of employees anxiously hovered nearby, ready to help. Meanwhile, the Bath & Body Works teemed with customers and the adjacent Victoria's Secret had a line. Even struggling Banana Republic filled up. At Old Navy, an employee ran out the door to deliver an online order to a customer's waiting car.
"Curbside pickup is going to stick for sure," said Deloitte vice chairman Rod Sides. "It will continue to grow over time."
The biggest buzz in many shopping centers came at GameStop, where customers lined up for a chance to buy a PlayStation 5 or the latest Xbox. The newly released video-game consoles have been hard to find.
But even these scenes reflect the broader shift to e-commerce. Scalpers using software, often called bots, sucked up online inventory and posted it for sale on the secondary market at twice the sticker price or more, according to reports. So camping out was the best chance for many.
All-Nighter
At a quarter to midnight on Thanksgiving, Daniel Buffenbarger, a 32-year-old from Ludington, Michigan, tried his luck online. He failed three times on Walmart.com to get the new PlayStation, which he planned as a Christmas gift for himself. He also entered an online queue on the website for Meijer, a Midwest supermarket that also sells electronics. When he saw that 222,000 people were in front of him, he doubted his chances. But around 6 a.m., after staying up all night, his number came up, and he made the purchase.
"It was joyful," said Buffenbarger, who works as a cook at a KFC and scheduled an in-store pickup for his PlayStation later Friday. "It made my exhaustion go away."
Many retailers have deployed video chats and other one-on-one communication options during the pandemic, and shoppers continued to use them on Black Friday. At Chico's FAS Inc., store employees are contacting clients virtually to show them new shoes and jackets, according to CEO Molly Langenstein.
"It's another way of reaching out to customers, especially for the Black Friday weekend, and going for customers who aren't comfortable to go into a store," Langenstein said in an interview.
Ultimately, the benefits of shopping in-person remain a draw for some. At International Plaza and Bay Street mall in Tampa, Florida, Christine Able wanted to buy the only item she couldn't find online: a gift for her son from Lululemon that had been out of stock on the website. With digital options failing her, she woke up early to stand in line before the store opened at 9 a.m.
Joe Cavaliere, who lives in Pensacola, Florida, was in the Tampa area for the holiday and shopped the Louis Vuitton store to get his wife a handbag that he couldn't find at his local mall.
"I like the experience of coming into the store," he said. "I don't know what I will get when I buy something online. I like seeing exactly what I am buying."
Meta has lost consumer trust, favour Alphabet and Amazon for FANG buys right now: Hatem Dhiab
Stay away from the FAANG, but remain invested in tech: Strategist
Darren Sissons discusses the FAANG stocks and Microsoft
Amazon breakout would be a 'really big deal': Fairlead Strategies founder Katie Stockton
Investors to see 'nothing but blowout earnings' for this quarter: Belpointe's David Nelson
McCreath: April CPI data spooks equity markets


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The Road of Good Intentions and the Vested Interest in Race Consciousness
Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed
By Jason Riley
Encounter Books, New York, 2014
HB, 205 pages, US$23.99
Click here to buy Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed
Reviewed by Mary Grabar | September 4, 2014
Jason Riley illustrates that old adage about the pavement on the road to hell in a reportorial account that reads with the ease of a memoir. This book is something of a compact sequel to many by Thomas Sowell and Shelby Steele who have busted destructive liberal myths about race. In six succinct chapters Riley deals with the issues of politics, culture, crime, labor, education, and affirmative action. He uses personal anecdotes and research to show how liberal policies have harmed instead of helped blacks.
Unlike Thomas Sowell and Shelby Steele, to whom the book is dedicated, Riley had the benefits of growing up after implementation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Wrong-headed court rulings, legislation, and the encouragement of destructive behavior, however, nullified the benefits that should have accrued for the black community.
Griggs v. Duke Power in 1971 on the "disparate impact" from the employer's requirement of a high-school diploma and minimal IQ scores is one such ruling. It replaced equal opportunity with equal results, thus fundamentally taking away the incentives needed for long-term success.
Riley knows from firsthand experience what such misguided policies do. He grew up in Buffalo in the 1980s. His parents, although divorced, stayed involved (especially important in the case of his father) and moved from a black inner-city neighborhood to a largely white suburb. Unfortunately, Riley's two sisters and best friend succumbed to the culture that is increasingly more difficult to escape. He did not and went on to join the Wall Street Journal, where he now sits on the editorial board.
The influence of Thomas Sowell's clear-headed approach is evident in each of the book's chapters. In the first one, "Black Man in the White House," Riley illustrates how political power among black and other ethnic groups (namely, the Irish) has not translated directly into well-being for the group. Between 1940 and 1960 the black poverty rate fell from 87 percent to 47 percent, but between 1972 and 2011 it declined only from 32 percent to 28 percent and remained three times the white rate. Demands for political racial power have resulted in gerrymandered black districts that have increased polarization and decreased the well-being of most blacks. For example, the racial preference programs in hiring and contracting instituted by successive black mayors in Atlanta have not translated into advantages for average blacks and the black underclass.
In chapter two, "Culture Matters," Riley relates the pressures placed on him while growing up to not "act white," e.g., to speak ungrammatically and neglect school work. Added to this is the message of victimization by the NAACP, the National Urban League, and most black politicians. Such messages lead to an achievement gap between black and white students even in affluent suburbs, like Shaker Heights, near Cleveland, Ohio, as John Ogbu, professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, found in his study, Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement.
The third chapter, "The Enemy Within," is a devastating critique of black crime, the overwhelming majority of it black-on-black. Riley speaks from the experience of being stopped by police because of looking like a criminal suspect. Sadly, given crime statistics, police go on probability, as do black store owners. Riley connects increasing crime rates–by 139 percent during the 1960s—to the expansion of criminal defendants' rights: "In the 1950s, when segregation was legal, overt racism was rampant, and black poverty was much higher than today, black crime rates were lower and blacks comprised a smaller percentage of the prison population." Riley addresses outrageous claims that equate incarceration to slavery and Jim Crow by "celebrated academics," such as Michelle Alexander, and asks "is it any great shock that black people without advanced degrees have less sympathy for black thugs?"
In the subsequent chapter, "Mandating Unemployment" Riley connects minimum wage laws to their origins by unions that wanted to exclude black labor and use upward pressure for their own wages. The unemployment rate for young black men began exceeding that of young white men when the minimum wage law was amended to catch up with inflation in 1950. There are more statistics: only 5 percent of hourly workers earn minimum wage, and most are 25 or younger and work part-time. An increase typically benefits not the single mother in the ghetto but the suburban teenager.
In his chapter entitled "Educational Freedom," Riley lays out how teachers unions act out of self-interest to increase their own numbers, driving up costs of education. They give vast sums to Democratic candidates in exchange for favors. In spite of an increase in federal per-pupil spending by an inflation-adjusted 375 percent between 1970 and 2010, the learning gap between black and white students remains what it was in 1970. Presenting the improved academic performance of some Harlem charter schools as evidence, Riley proposes school choice as a viable solution.
Lastly, the chapter "Affirmative Discriminations" shows how race-based affirmative college admissions harm intended beneficiaries like the black law-school graduates who fail the bar exam at four times the white rate. Riley quips, "Michigan's law school likes to tout its diversity, but is it doing black students any favors by admitting them with lower standards and setting them up to fail?" Affirmative action harms the reputation of blacks across the board, as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas found out when employers assumed that he had benefited from preferential treatment.
Some of Riley's observations will be familiar to readers of Thomas Sowell's excellent work. But Riley marshals the evidence into a compact account, told from the perspective of a younger generation. It's still not working, is the message. Will liberals listen?
Yes, if they are willing to give up the benefits that such a focus on race grants them. Riley writes that "underprivileged blacks" have become "playthings for liberal intellectuals and politicians who care more about clearing their conscience or winning votes than advocating behaviors and attitudes that have allowed other groups to get ahead."
We know what would happen if they did get ahead, if we did become the post-racial society liberals claim to want.
Many academics, pundits, and civil rights leaders would be out of jobs, and the political left would have to find something else to unite around.
Mary Grabar, Ph.D., has taught college English for over twenty years. She is the founder of the Dissident Prof Education Project, Inc., an education reform initiative that offers information and resources for students, parents, and citizens. The motto, "Resisting the Re-Education of America," arose in part from her perspective as a very young immigrant from the former Communist Yugoslavia (Slovenia specifically). She writes extensively and is the editor of EXILED. Ms. Grabar is also a contributor to SFPPR News & Analysis.


Singhvi, who was in Kolkata on Thursday, said, "CPM's allegations ... are malicious, baseless, unfounded, defamatory and false. They raised childish objections on March 12 during the submission of nomination forms.
Brushing aside the CPM's allegations that there were discrepancies in his nomination papers, Congress' Rajya Sabha candidate from Bengal Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Thursday said the rival party was making "baseless, false" charges against him to save face. On Wednesday, CPM announced that it had lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against Singhvi after finding some "discrepancies" in his nomination papers, and demanded that they be cancelled.
In the Rajya Sabha polls which will be held on March 23, six candidates from the state are in the fray for five seats. While TMC fielded its candidates for four seats and extended its support to Singhvi from the fifth seat, the Left Front nominated CPM leader Rabin Deb against Singhvi.
"They (CPM) have purportedly referred to some pages in my 2006 affidavit for Rajya Sabha election from Rajasthan to suggest that I claimed to be 43 years in 2006 and hence cannot be 59 today," Singhvi told reporters here, according to PTI. He further said that he would explore legal steps to file a defamation suit against Deb but added that he has not taken a final decision.