Marian's Blog

Hurricane Gustav: Evacuation Priority

We're tracking Hurricane Gustav which many say could be worse than Hurricane Katrina almost exactly three years ago. New Orleans is now under a mandatory evacuation order, this time around providing bus transport for its residents without cars. Gustav has left Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, etc. into the Gulf of Mexico, headed for the U.S. coast, in particular New Orleans.

$200/barrel Oil? Choosing sustainability

My cab driver, transplanted from Ethiopia, told me first. That was weeks ago. But I couldn't believe it till I read the headline of today's Independent (London): "Price of oil will double." Folks, we have now reached 'put up or shut up' time. Time to re-tool our out-of-whack, hyper-industrialised U.S./western lifestyle - much of which is so wastefully over-indulgent. Let's take the news as a wake up call, not doom-and-gloom. I prefer something akin to Lucile Alder's poetic view (Dancing toward the future, published in the same journal with Meadows, Meadows and Randers' 1992 follow-up to their 1972 The Limits of Growth). Make good use of age and even perhaps of wisdom. In short, finally learning, as human society, to wise-up while we have time.

"-- To become a dancer so late
To be determined so late to become
A dancer is to become part
Of the dream of the humble heart
Determined to dance to the beat
Of this one dawn becoming day
Caught by a great blush and throb
Of laughter at such a becoming
Such a desire to become a dancer
In the sense of one moving, clumsy
With effort, yet effortlessly becoming..."

Lucile Alder, Dancing toward the Future

State of the Black Union on CSPAN!

My brother just shared with me that the annual, public, free SOBU conference - the State of the Black Union - sponsored by broadcaster Tavis Smiley, is now being televised on CSPAN. Tavis says there are 5,000 persons attending the conference in Houston, Texas, plus scores more watching nationally and internationally via CSPAN. Thanks bro. Check it.

Back to Burning Women at the stake? South Dakota's move to end abortion & women's most basic freedom of choice

I am a 'pro-choice mom'. I am a mother (and Grandma) - I am a mother by choice and I am highly concerned over South Dakota's state government positioning itself for its assault on Roe v. Wade - the US law that gives women the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy. My guess is that with its large population of Native Americans and including Indian "reservations" (Native 'reserves' in Canada) such as Rosebud and Pine Ridge, hard-pressed American Indian women will be disproportionately affected. Monica Davey writes in her NYTimes article, "If enacted, the bill, the most sweeping ban approved in any state in more than a decade, requires the signature of Gov. Mike Rounds, a Republican, who opposes abortion." Well of course; just what we need. In South Dakota's long and racially exclusionary "racially hostile" political tradition, one more white guy awarded the reins of power who pretty obviously never had an abortion and never will need to even consider one for his own body, yet politically poised to run roughshod over thousands of women's (and other men's) lives. Read my lips. In the long run any effort that might ban legal access to safe and affordable abortion will backfire. It is not going to work. You can try to destroy Roe v. Wade, but women's lives, minds and our political organisation will not turn back to pre-1973. ...Come to think of it, not even pre-2003. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mike.

Oilman's view of the State of the Union

Today's MSM news sounds like one of the chief talking points of Bush's state of the union speech was "Americans are addicted to oil." I thought we'd realised that in the '70s. So I suppose in another 30 years Bush will pronounce the world is experiencing global warming. He says it's technology that will save us. MEMO TO MR BUSH: Technology alone will not save the people of the US and the global North (along with the rest of the world) from its their own wasteful behaviour. Technology is a means - not a saviour.

BBC: 'Rollercoasters can stop hearts' - American Heart Association

A BBC article reports cardiologists' findings: "people with weak hearts should avoid riding roller-coasters as they could be risking their lives" - i.e., riding a roller coaster can stop your heart. I already knew this. In my heart. The report adds that rollercoaster riding should not affect 'healthy' people. Does this mean you should go ahead and ride to find out just how healthy you really are? Stress - emotional stress - seems to be a risk factor.

Hurricane WILMA Roaring toward Yucatan and South Florida

The US national hurricane center - based in Miami - is one of the best places I know to get latest info on hurricanes present and past. Only two days ago I warned weather scientists were tracking a new tropical depression in the Caribbean. I think it was #24 of the season. Now it's been named Wilma. Hurricane Wilma. Between then and today Wilma went from a depression to a tropical storm, and then overnight since yesterday from a Cat. 1 hurricane to the biggest, baddest Category 5 storm in tracking history. Haiti and Jamaica have already been hit. Central America seems about to be. This storm is currently on track to come aground somewhere along Mexico's Yucatan peninsula near Cozumel and over the coming weekend it may consume South Florida. That information and the course of this storm could change, which is why we need to pay attention and share information. If you have details to share about this storm and what's happening currently, please add them here as a comment. Between natural disasters and everything else going on all over this planet, around the world populations most likely to be affected need as many of their own people as possible - children, adults, women as well as men - to have the most appropriate and well-conducted disaster training and preparation that can be made available. I don't know all the parties out there responsible for things like this. But I do believe someone reading this does.

Shirkat Gah women's NGO earthquake relief

Pakistani women's resource centre Shirkat Gah is another NGO involved in earthquake relief and will appreciate your help. They are also associated with the JAC joint committee group mentioned in my last blog entry, and this info is from the same item on the website of Women Living Under Muslim Laws. Shirkat Gah is based in Lahore (Pakistan) and the centre coordinator is Ms Farida Shaheed. Ms Shaheed advises that "Gulnar" at Shirkat Gah is the contact person or "focal point" for quake relief and she can answer questions. My advice before contacting them: keep in mind how swamped these folks must be. Gulnar's contact is: gulnar at sgah.org (dot) pk. Shirkat Gah has some good strategic advice on how to collect and send humanitarian assistance funds. This would apply to sending almost any donation. "If you are sending [relief assistance] money to Shirkat Gah, please email Gulnar to inform her of the amount, date and reference number of the remittance, so that we can email you to acknowledge receipt. We will send you updates whenever possible... bank transfer is best, rather than sending bank drafts and international cheques which take too long to clear. It would also be better for one person or group to collect money from friends or family to send in one go, rather send small individual transfers since the bank deducts too much money per transaction. Some Pakistani banks with overseas branch[e]s may agree to transfer the money without bank charges. At least some are doing so in the United Arab Emirates. Shirkat Gah's office in Peshawar is working with others in that area to deliver direct assistance to one particular village. If you want to support that effort, then please inform us." Send contributions to:

Account name: Shirkat Gah Women's Resource Centre
Account No. 3582-050996-001
SWIFT code: SCBLUS33, ABA CHIPS UID 057048
Standard Chartered Bank
1 Evertrust Plaza, Suite 1101 (11th floor)

Jersey City, New Jersey 07302 USA

With instructions for onward telex / swift remittance to:
Standard Chartered Bank
Karachi, Pakistan
Account No. 3582-050996-001 SWIFT CODE: SCBLPKKX
For further credit to:
Shirkat Gah
US$ Account No. 05-5307597-79
Standard Chartered Bank
New Garden Town
Lahore, Pakistan

NGO Sungi - Sending Help to South Asia Quake Survivors

Uh, note to Typepad admin: I have no idea where my earlier draft went but this is the second and final time I'm writing this entry... Obviously 2005 has been a helluva year for natural & "other" disasters. My "other" category includes certain disasters that arguably are largely 'masculine-made' yet which could not be executed without varying levels of indifference, tolerance &/or support from some women. In the Americas right this moment meteorologists are monitoring "tropical depression #24" of the 2005 hurricane season; #24 is potentially another future tropical storm &/or hurricane currently dumping tons of rain on Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. I'm checking the Women Living Under Muslim Laws website for a variety of other issues, including their take on sending aid to South Asia quake survivors. (Whether Darfur, Malawi, Afghanistan, Iraq, Guatemala, the Gulf Coast or Kashmir, I prefer to think of people as survivors and not just victims, and those who sadly have not survived are now sheltered in the hand of God.) WLUML's website advises: "... Pakistani human rights organisations in the Joint Action Committee for Citizens Rights (JAC) have banded together for the relief work, with the NGO [nongovernmental (non-profit/non-lucrative) organisation] Sungi in the lead. Sungi has previous experience with relief work since they started with a flood relief programme some decades ago. The organizations in the JAC have long worked with local communities in the region of the earthquake and are thus able to access remote villages through social networks that are not available to the military and large donor organizations. ..." Makes sense to me; so, alongside other options you have, you may want to consider contributing to the JAC combined relief effort directly by sending funds to the Sungi NGO:

Sungi Development Foundation

www.sungi.org
US Dollar account no. 412-2
Branch Code: 0585
MCB Start Branch Abbotabad
Swift Code: MUCBPKKAA

Financial aid for HBCU students affected by Hurricane Katrina

This information is from the Southern University New Orleans (SUNO) campus website. Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund is offering US$500 emergency scholarships to students affected by Hurricane Katrina who normally attend SUNO, and also to students who are from New Orleans who attend a member school of the Marshall scholarship fund. Click for more info. Also - students from Xavier, Dillard and SUNO are eligible for a $1000 scholarship through the Tom Joyner Foundation. Deadline for this second source is 31 October 2005 - email HBCURelief /at/ blackamericaweb.com - send your full name, the school from which you are transferring, the school you are attending and a phone where you may be reached. Other important financial aid links for students from SUNO's fine website:

Hurricance Katrina Information for Students and Parents

Hurricane Katrina Information for Federal Direct Loan Borrowers

Hurricane Katrina Information for FFEL Borrowers