NZAID changes will harm women in developing countries

Scoop: NZAID changes will harm women in dvlping countries

Wednesday, 11 March 2009, 9:21 am
Press Release: United Nations Development Fund for Women

NATIONAL COMMITTEE
NEW ZEALAND

“UNIFEM is becoming increasingly concerned about the messages that are coming through from the Minister of Foreign Affairs. We oppose the move from the NZAID goal of poverty elimination to economic development. This move would be actively harmful to women in developing countries”, said Rae Julian from the National Committee of UNIFEM New Zealand in response to the announced reviews of NZAID.

The Minister has initiated a review of NZAID, with the possibility of reintegrating it within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Despite requests from a number of non-governmental organisations, there is no provision to receive submissions from the public to this exercise. The review includes a reconsideration of NZAID’s core policy of poverty elimination.

NZAID was reviewed twice since its inception in 2002, by the OECD and by Dr Marilyn Waring, a former politician from the Minister’s party. Both reviews were very positive about the work of the agency, praising its semi-autonomous status and its focus on poverty elimination.

UNIFEM’s main concern is the possible effect of any changes on the women in developing countries who have benefitted from NZAID’s policies on both poverty and gender. Women in those countries are likely to be the poorest. If they survive the possibility of death in childbirth, they are then threatened by preventable diseases or violence. Many raise children alone with no financial support.

We support the economic development focus – if the development is targeted to benefit those in greatest need, and the poor are part of the necessary planning. Economic development should ensure that all of the people, including women, can be at a level where they can participate. This implies access to basic education and good health services as a starting point – rather than as an outcome of the process. It requires good governance processes at all levels, peace building and conflict prevention. Fair trade and private sector development are also components to increase income generation for all.

Aid must not become a tool of foreign policy, a carrot used to persuade developing countries to support New Zealand’s political agenda or a stick to punish those whose policies we do not like. There are other ways to ensure that effective aid gets past corrupt governments to where it is needed, especially through working with civil society organisations in those countries. NZAID funding support for governance programmes from the Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific has been stopped by the Minister. These programmes, often led by women, have been invaluable in a number of Pacific countries.

“We add our voice to those asking to have input to the review of NZAID. Empowerment of women through aid is too important to be sacrificed to political whims”, concluded Rae Julian.

ENDS

The Latin Americanist: Latino assaulters in possible hate crime

The Latin Americanist: Latino assaulters in possible hate crime

1600 show up to help little girl with Leukemia

In NY 1600 people showed up in the hopes that their bone marrow would be a match for little Jasmina Anema.

Jasmina has Leukemia and needs the bone marrow to survive.
Read this heart warming story here:

http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/blacknewsblackviews.html

The Grim Sleeper- 11 Black Victims, No Suspect

Go to The Grim Sleeper Killer.com

How long will it take for police to investigate the serial murders of 11+ Black women? Tell me? Is it going to take 10 more years as in the South Side Slayer serial murder? I want to know. Here's an article at BlackVoices on the Grim Sleeper murder:

"'The Grim Sleeper': A Dozen Black Victims, Two Decades, No Suspect
Posted Mar 4th 2009 9:00AM by Denver LouisFiled under: BlackSpin, Crime and Courts, News
The LAPD is staking it's claim as the most inept police department in the country. In nearly two decades, 11 or more people have been murdered by the same man, with the police department nearly powerless to stop it. Recently, an emergency call from 1987 was released in hopes of getting a lead on L.A.'s most notorious serial killer, dubbed the "grim sleeper" for the significant time lapse in between his killings. The killer has been at large since 1985, despite a $500,000 reward and samples of his DNA on file. As far as the police know, all of his victims have been black. So what's taking so long? ...

The biggest lead the police have is a call from a man who says he saw a body being thrown out of a van. Unfortunately, the caller couldn't identify the driver and declined to identify himself.According to the Associated Press...

Six victims were found with the killer's DNA on them but a search of prisoner databases came up blank. Detectives went on to ask the California Department of Justice to run a DNA search that sought possible matches to the killer's relatives.''

Can the police and the community connect the dots sooner on the murders and diligently find the suspect? Had they done their jobs, some of those women would have been alive.

The Grim Sleeper Killer

Thank you, Ann, for finding more details of the Grim Sleeper Killer. The media and society in general place far less value to Black life. There's a pattern in LAPD which never give priority to solving murders of Black women in LA. Nor do the public give a thought about the murders. What's worse is that some Blacks don't give a thought to the murdered women, shrugged them off as "prostitutes" when many aren't. They are decent everyday people with lives of their own. It's time to end this neglect.

Little girl fighting Leukemia needs help

Jasmina was diagnosed with NK cell Leukemia on Jan. 20.

Jasmina Anema turns 6 years old Wednesday, and the birthday party planned for her - with a fashion show, cake and an appearance by singer Kelly Rowland - is a dream come true.
But the celebration could be Jasmina's last.

The bubbly Greenwich Village kindergartner is suffering from a rare and especially fatal form of leukemia that doctors fear will take her life within two months unless she receives a bone-marrow transplant.

Read the entire article here: http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/blacknewsblackviews.html

Pamela Butler is missing

Pamela Butler of washington DC is missing. It is believed that she went missing on 02/12/09. Learn more about Pamela by using the link below:

http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/missingblackwomen.html

Black Girl Beaten By Two Jailers

Where's Al or Jesse on this one? Black men aren't the only ones who are abused by police.

Betty Jean Susie Baucum

In Memorium: Betty Jean Baucum March 7, 1970- March 10, 1994.

A sweet virtuous young woman with a beautiful smile, Betty Jean Susie Baucum was going places. Her life was cut short when a serial killer took her life, leaving a beautiful adopted daughter and many relatives and friends.

May she rests in peace.

Victims of the Grim Sleeper Killer

Here are the victims of the Grim Sleeper Killer (LA NEWS):

• On August 10, 1985, Debra Jackson, 29, a cocktail waitress, left a friend’s home in Lynwood to take a bus back to her apartment in South-Central. Days later, her decomposing body was found in an alley near West Gage Avenue. She had been shot in the chest three times with a small caliber pistol.

• On August 12, 1986, Henrietta Wright, 35, was found dead in an alley south of 2514 West Vernon Avenue. Her mouth had been gagged with a cloth. She had been shot twice in the chest.

• Two days later, Thomas Steele, 36, was discovered dead in the middle of the intersection of 71st Street and Halldale Avenue, with a single gunshot wound in his head. The San Diego native had come up for the day to visit his sister.

• On January 10, 1987, Barbara Ware, 23, was found dead in an alley at 1356 East 56th Street, shot once in the chest. According to the autopsy report, neighbors saw a man remove Ware’s body from a vehicle and hide it in a heap of trash.

• On April 15, 1987, Bernita Sparks was shot in the chest, strangled and beaten. Originally listed as Jane Doe No. 25, she had told her mother that she was going to the store to buy a pack of cigarettes. She was found in a trash bin the next morning, covered with garbage, on the 9400 block of South Western Avenue.

• On October 31, 1987, Mary Lowe, 26, told her mother, Betty, she was going to a Halloween party. “I said she was crazy to go out in the rain like that,” recalls Betty. “She kept on walking.” Lowe was found the next morning, in an alley near bushes behind the 8900 block of Western Avenue. According to Betty Lowe, a neighbor saw Mary Lowe get in a car with a young black man driving a rust or orange Ford Pinto.

• On January 30, 1988, Lachrica Jefferson, 22, died from two gunshot wounds to the chest. She was found in an alley north of 2049 West 102nd Place in Lennox by L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies. A napkin placed over her face had the word “AIDS” written on it.

• On September 11, 1988, Alicia “Monique” Alexander, 18, asked her father if he wanted anything from a liquor store on 68th Street and Normandie Avenue, then she vanished. Her father, Porter Alexander, remembers, “I woke up and asked my wife where she was. She said she hadn’t come back. ... I never saw her again.” Alexander was found dead a few days later, in an alley around 43rd Place and Western Avenue. She had been shot once in the chest and sexually assaulted.

• Just before a 13-year gap in these related cases, in November of 1988, a young black man driving an orange Ford Pinto picked up a young black woman in South Los Angeles, shot her in the chest and raped her. She persuaded her attacker to allow her to escape, and she is the only known eyewitness survivor of the Grim Sleeper. She is not being named by L.A. Weekly.

• On December 21, 2001, Princess Berthomieux, 14, vanished, and was found March 19, 2002, strangled and beaten in an alley behind 8121 South Van Ness Boulevard in Inglewood.

• On July 11, 2003, Valerie McCorvey, 35, was found dead by a crossing guard in an alley west of Denker Avenue between 108th and 109th streets. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted. Police initially suspected her boyfriend, but he was ruled out when DNA found on her body matched DNA found on Berthomieux, killed in 2002, and Mary Lowe, killed in 1987.

• On January 1, 2007, Janecia Peters, 25, was found dead by a homeless man near 9500 Western Avenue. She’d been shot in the back and placed in a garbage bag. Her death barely registered with the local press, which even misreported it, calling it a stabbing.

Grim Sleeper Killer

WHY 20 YEARS? Why wait until now to find a serial killer that is stalking South L.A. Such callous disregard for human life. It's a repeat of the South Side Killer that stalked LA 25 years earlier.


Cops Hunt for 'Grim Sleeper' Serial Killer
By THOMAS WATKINS

LOS ANGELES (Feb. 25) - They have a sample of his DNA, a description from a survivor and a $500,000 reward, but detectives investigating the city's most notorious serial killer have hit a wall.
On Wednesday, they released a recording of a 1987 emergency call in hopes of tracking down the man dubbed the "Grim Sleeper," who has killed at least 11 times in nearly a quarter century.
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"It's a long shot, that's for sure," said Detective Dennis Kilcoyne. "I am hoping a couple people call us. ... Maybe that will lead us to something."
Kilcoyne heads a squad of seven Los Angeles homicide detectives who for nearly two years have been assigned exclusively to the case. The killer most recently struck Jan. 1, 2007, and his first known victim was in 1985.
Police have pored over investigative files from all the killings and are now focusing on the January 1987 slaying of Barbara Ware, a 23-year-old with a history of prostitution who was found shot to death in a South Los Angeles alley.

A man saw a blue-and-white van dump her body. He called police with his account and gave the license plate number of the van. Within about an hour, police had tracked the van to its registered address at a church.

For more, click here

"The engine was still warm to the touch," Kilcoyne said.

Recession? Black women's hair a priority

Recession? What Recession?

It seems that while many black women are cutting back and saving more money the one place where they are drawing the line is when it comes to their hair.

One quote from the story seems to sum things up.

"Every woman wants to be beautiful no matter what color, but Black women have a special pride that includes taking care of their hair,"

Read the entire store here: http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/blacknewsblackviews.html