Tim Waggoner’s Nekropolis – Chapter 3

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As part of the Robot Army I’ve been given permission to post the first five chapters (one each day) of one of their recently released titles: NEKROPOLIS by Tim Waggoner.

Click “Fullscreen” to read. Enjoy!

Tim Waggoner’s Nekropolis – Chapter 2

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As part of the Robot Army I’ve been given permission to post the first five chapters (one each day) of one of their recently released titles: NEKROPOLIS by Tim Waggoner.

Click “Fullscreen” to read. Enjoy!

Tim Waggoner’s Nekropolis – Chapter 1

Posted on by
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As part of the Robot Army I’ve been given permission to post the first five chapters (one each day) of one of their recently released titles: NEKROPOLIS by Tim Waggoner.

Click “Fullscreen” to read. Enjoy!

It Starts With You

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As part of the week leading up to the “Walk A Mile In Her Shoes” event on October 1st, I decided to repost some previous entries on violence against women. Ending violence against women starts with educating men and boys on gender equality and teaching them to respect the women and girls in our lives. The White Ribbon Campaign does very important work around this so if you know anyone that is walking in this event (and yes, it will be in heels!), then you should definitely sponsor them.

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The White Ribbbon Campaign is launching a new campaign called It Starts With You, It Stays With Him. As per the WRC’s mandate of “Men working to end men’s violence against women”, this campaign is aimed at men in various roles (Fathers, Family Members, Educators, Coaches/Leaders) and their involvement with the boys in their lives. It has resources for how they can better role model and help them to build healthy equal relationships. Go check it out!

Women Empowerment, Cornerstone of Aids Prevention

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As part of the week leading up to the “Walk A Mile In Her Shoes” event on October 1st, I decided to repost some previous entries on violence against women. Ending violence against women starts with educating men and boys on gender equality and teaching them to respect the women and girls in our lives. The White Ribbon Campaign does very important work around this so if you know anyone that is walking in this event (and yes, it will be in heels!), then you should definitely sponsor them.

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Women Empowerment, Cornerstone of Aids Prevention

Author: Anirudha Alam

Women Empowerment, Cornerstone of AIDS Prevention

Anirudha Alam

There are some forms of risky behavior that directly makes women vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in the developing countries like Bangladesh. It should be cornerstone of life to get rid of risky behavior through improving living standard any how. For the greater involvement of vulnerable women in every aspect of curbing epidemic, they have to be able to respond to the epidemic in a meaningful manner.

In a society, if women and girls are not empowered to develop life skills they are severely vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Gender discrimination, sexual violence, women trafficking, dowry, early marriage and low levels of reproductive health literacy are considered as key factors in the spread of STIs.

A large proportion of women is infected with HIV from regular partners who were infected during paid sex. For instance, in Mumbai and Pune (in Maharashtra), 54% and 49% of sex workers, respectively, had been found to be HIV-infected in 2005. Across sub-Saharan Africa, women are more likely than men to be infected with HIV. The unfortunate fact is that vulnerability among women is mounting all over the world. Only women empowerment can contain this vulnerability.

Profound advocacy can be an important and familiar way of breaking down barriers for undermining gender discrimination and stigma. The spread of HIV/AIDS is being fueled among the women of developing countries through such risky factors as exorbitant prevalence of HIV in the neighboring countries, increased population movement both internal & external, existence of commercial sex with multiple clients, high prevalence of STIs among the commercial sex workers, unsafe sex practice through bridging population, sexual bondage, the trend of rise of HIV among injecting drug users, unprotected pre-marital sex as well as dire poverty. On the other hand, sustainable family bondage as well as integrated praxis of religious and social values make these countries less vulnerable comparatively.

According to AIDS researcher Mohammad Khairul Alam, “Women empowerment is the first step to stamp out gender discrimination and stigmatization. If we promote gender equality poverty will be reduced significantly. It is recognized that poverty helps to trigger vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. So women empowerment through development initiatives should be ensured to keep HIV/AIDS in bay. In this aspect, such promotional activities as organizing gender sensitization workshop, seminar, symposium, open discussion, popular theatre, door to door work, advocacy session and so on may play important role bringing about effective social mobilization. Thus counting on local resource mobilization and capitalizing on collective action, women empowerment program may be led by integrated approach more efficiently to undermine vulnerabilities to HIV/AIDS.”

It is estimated that more than 14,000 people are getting infected with HIV all over the world every day. Among of them, 2000 are children under 15 years mostly getting infection of HIV through mother to child transmission. So mother to child transmission (MTCT) is considered as an important issue in spreading HIV/AIDS. There is scientific evidence of likely presence of HIV virus in breast milk. Therefore gender issues comprising improved services as to maternal & child care should be ensured through the HIV/AIDS prevention program.

As per the findings of National Assessment of Situation and Responses to Opioid/Opiate use in Bangladesh (NASROB) conducted in 2001, 14% of the female heroin smokers started heroin use below 18 years of age and 38% by 18 year. 22% of the current female injectors started injecting drug by 19 years of age. BEES (Bangladesh Extension Education Services) found that 90% young girls (15-25 years) of Bangladesh are very much vulnerable to AIDS and STIs that they do not know how to take care of their reproductive and sexual health. They have no inclination or are not enough empowered to believe it necessary to seek advice on safe reproductive health as well.

Reproductive health is still a taboo in Bangladesh, particularly with adolescent girls. With very limited access to health care facilities, knowledge and education, they have no understanding about the ways of protecting themselves. But women should be empowered through developing life skills that they can have more control over their reproductive and sexual health. Consequently HIV/AIDS prevention program will sustain comprehensively attaining high watermark of success in reducing vulnerabilities to STIs.

Anirudha Alam

Deputy Director

(Information & Development Communication)

BEES (Bangladesh Extension Education Services)

183, Lane 2, Eastern Road, New DOHS

Mohakhali, Dhaka 1206

Bangladesh.

Phone: 8801718342876, 88029889732, 88029889733 (office), 88028050514 (res.)

Ref: UNDP, UNESCO, World Bank

About the Author:

Anirudha Alam is a prominent AIDS researcher and working in a national NGO BEES (Bangladesh Extension Education Services) as a Deputy Director (Information & Development Communication). He writes and edits more than forty books and a good number of articles on various issues like women empowerment, human rights, education awareness, social development, income generating activities, environment awareness, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS awareness, juvenile literature, short stories and so on. His noteworthy books are Kulsums and Karims (a collection of success stories of disadvantaged people of Bangladesh), Kulsums (a collection of success stories of disadvantaged & destitute women of Bangladesh), The Reflections (a collection of posters on literacy & education of Bangladesh), Towards a New Hope, Social Assistance Message Collection, Social Assistance Advocacy Manual, Eaisab Rat Din (a collection of juvenile poems), Du Sha Bachharer Sera Bangla Kishor Galapa (a collection of juvenile Bengali stories of two hundred years) etc.

Intimate Partner Violence – How Can Men Make a Difference?

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As part of the week leading up to the “Walk A Mile In Her Shoes” event on October 1st, I decided to repost some previous entries on violence against women. Ending violence against women starts with educating men and boys on gender equality and teaching them to respect the women and girls in our lives. The White Ribbon Campaign does very important work around this so if you know anyone that is walking in this event (and yes, it will be in heels!), then you should definitely sponsor them.

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Intimate Partner Violence – How Can Men Make a Difference?
By Dr. Kathleen Young

Intimate partner violence (also known as Domestic Violence) is intrinsically connected to the societal oppression of women and other marginalized groups. At it’s core it is about not just violence, but violence used systematically and repeatedly in the service of having power and control over another.

Intimate partner violence is everywhere, in every segment of the population. In my career I’ve worked to raise awareness of domestic violence in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities, for example. The media doesn’t always cover it as such. Stories are often framed in ways that describe it as an assault in general or even worse, hold the victim of violence accountable. Assault, mutual fighting, these can be terms used that serve to help keep intimate partner violence invisible. Yesterday a bit of lyric on the radio prompted my pondering these issues anew. It was a refrain that seemed to be suggesting a violent response to a perpetrator of domestic violence.

That certainly got my attention! A Chicago radio station giving this air play? I am usually out of the loop in terms of celebrity news, but even I was well aware of the alleged intimate partner violence Rhianna experienced at the hands of Chris Brown. I’ve seen the usual mixed and disappointing coverage of the issue, the victim blaming, the minimizing. Youth, who are especially attuned to media messages, are also exposed to dating/intimate partner violence at an alarming rate: 1 in 4 adolescents reports verbal, physical, emotional,or sexual abuse from a dating partner each year. So is it any surprise that youth continue to buy into victim blaming messages? An informal poll in of 200 teenagers in Boston showed that nearly half those interviewed held the victim, Rhianna, responsible for the violence she allegedly experienced at the hands of her boyfriend, fellow music star Chris Brown.

What exactly is the message being conveyed by these lyrics? Is it about responding to violence with violence, or a more general statement about holding intimate partner violence perpetrators accountable for their actions?

In no way do I see violence as the solution to violence. As Ghandi said, “an eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind”. As a trauma therapist I am keenly aware that prior exposure to violence, either as a victim or witness is often in the history of those who become perpetrators of violence as adults.

I did a bit more research regarding this musical response to intimate partner violence. Reading all the lyrics and a bit of an interview of one of the group suggest that this is a message of accountability, not vigilante justice. According to the Jump Smokers’ website, a portion of the proceeds from the sales of “My Flow So Tight” will benefit three organizations for battered women.

“I was really upset with the way a lot of celebrities and people were handling the situation. Not enough people were speaking out against Chris Brown,” one of the group’s members, C.W. Griz, told the AP about Chris Brown, who is scheduled to be arraigned Monday. “What he [allegedly] did was a thousand percent wrong. We’re not trying to take advantage of a horrible situation. We want to take a positive stance.”

I think it is really crucial that men speak out about domestic violence and hold each other accountable. I’ve written previously about an organization, A Call to Men, working towards just this vision, a vision of men working to end violence against women.

Hopefully, this incident provides us with an opportunity to engage in a broader discussion about violence against women.

Dr. Young is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 20 years of experience. She has been in private practice in Chicago, Illinois since 1992. She incorporates aspects of psychodynamic, relational therapy and dialectical behavior therapy into her approach to psychotherapy. Her career focus has been on treating trauma and its aftermath. She is also an EMDR trained therapist and has completed the Illinois 40-hour Domestic Violence Training. She has coordinated a program dedicated to providing education about and treatment for intimate partner, interpersonal and community violence in the LGBT communities. Dr. Young received her doctorate in clinical psychology (Psy.D.) from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology in 1990. For more information see my my website, http://www.drkathleenyoung.com

David’s note to add: One such organization of men working to end violence against women that I support is the White Ribbon Campaign. They have a new initiative out called It Starts With You, It Stays With Him. Go check it out. http://itstartswithyou.ca