Author: stevekuusisto

Poet, Essayist, Blogger, Journalist, Memoirist, Disability Rights Advocate, Public Speaker, Professor, Syracuse University

On Behalf of the Association for Feminist Anthropology: The Right to Breastfeed

 

 

The Association for Feminist Anthropology Executive Board of Elected and Appointed Members, 19 September 2012 Memorandum

The Association for Feminist Anthropology Executive Board consisting of elected and appointed members (the AFA Board) voices its concern for what appears to be a censure of breastfeeding and a lack of recognition of parental needs on academic campuses and in the wider society. Such problems have a long history, but recently were highlighted in the situation of an assistant professor of anthropology at American University who breastfed her baby during a class meeting.

As feminist anthropologists, we contend that: 1) breastfeeding should not be stigmatized or hidden from view, and indeed should be considered a basic human right; 2) breastfeeding is not inherently unprofessional or distracting, and increased recognition of how the demands of infant care, and of breastfeeding in particular, shape the challenges parents face in the workplace is crucial for improving conditions for all families;  3) childcare needs on campuses tend to marginalize and create obstacles to parents of all genders seeking educational and career mobility as students, faculty, and staff;  4) campus needs for childcare, including services to care for sick children, deserve more consideration by institutions, unions, and policymakers.

We urge others to join us in using this incident as a ‘teachable moment’ that fosters critical analysis and education by feminist anthropologists and others, and promotes political mobilization.

 

The AFA Board is sending this statement out through AFA social media platforms and other outlets, including an EBlast to the entire AFA membership when that format is next available at the beginning of October. For further information, please contact Jane Henrici, Ph.D., President, Association for Feminist Anthropology, afapres@gmail.com


Late September, Afternoon Thoughts

 

 

Attention to detail is, to the unconscious, like a starving mule–morsels of the day enhance darker appetites. 

 

“Please,” says the mule, “hurry with the twilight.” 

 

When sunset finally comes, the sweet grass of dream feeding gets eaten at last. 

 

Stuff I think about in meetings. 

 

Day night, our hooves prancing…

 

Late September Morning, First Thoughts

 

 

The little dog, marking his territory in a neighborhood of big dogs–a bit like academic poetry, but cleaner. 

 

Leaves in the maple across the street, deciding. 

 

I want to keep my dignity in the last garden. Wonder if I can do it.

 

Most reports of famous people’s last words are false. Apparently Oscar Wilde died thirty five times. 

 

I want to jump into the ocean again.

 

Here comes the king from last night’s dream, still carrying the cake.

 

Christopher HItchens, arguing women aren’t funny: there’s such a thing as having too much fun and not enough. 


Freud: “Where Id was, there shall ego be, it is reclamation work, like the draining of the Zuyder Zee.” 

 

What the little dog knows: meaning is new, or not at all.

 

Plato’s ideal state requires the abolition of the family, and probably little dogs, and most certainly poetry. What’s left? Oaths and cigars. 

 

Little dog, here’s a sketch of my heart in its crystal box.

 

Now, all the combat hardened soldiers of my unconscious are feeding their firebirds.

 

Coffee. Please. Afterwards I will change into my direct contrary.

 

 

 

Disability and the Man in the Moon

Man in the Moon Carrying a Bundle of Sticks

 

Few remember today that the man in the moon was sent there for stealing sticks. He is also associated with thorn bushes and in some legends he actually steals thorns. Sometimes when I’m walking alone late at night with my guide dog I think about him, our old probationer standing in the arid climes. I wonder if he got away with a few sticks under his shirt. Additional versions of the tale suggest that his crime wasn’t so much stealing sticks but that he stole them on the sabbath. You see how this goes. Thorns, sticks, theft, holy days–the man in the moon is the story of poverty. In this way its also very likely the story of disability, for who would steal sticks on Sunday but the hunch back, the deaf man, the half blind woman, gathering fire wood when no one is around to watch, to point and make jests. This is hardly an idle supposition. Disability has always been the story of ostracism and this is why the exceptions matter. Meantime, the man in the moon with his cleft palate and his gnarled hands was picking up god’s dropped branches hoping to sell them or, perhaps, host his very own fire. Five, six, pick up sticks. Last night, walking with Nira, her harness jingling, and no one about, I felt deeply affected by my brother on the moon. I stopped on the sidewalk and said a little votive poem for him. Bring your moon near the earth and make men mad. Shine right in our faces friend. In any event, walking in public with my meager eyes shut from fatigue, my excellent dog navigating in the dark, I think of the long history of people like me.       

Ending Violence Against Children with Disabilities

http://srsg.violenceagainstchildren.org/story/2012-09-13_538

 

WUNRN

 

 

 

 

SRSG CALLS FOR ENDING VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES – IMPORTANCE OF SECURE, PROTECTIVE ENVIRONMENT

 

13/09/2012  – SRSG Santos Pais participated in a roundtable discussion on children with disabilities during the fifth session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, alongside with Government representatives, namely Ms. Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, Deputy Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities of South Africa, UNICEF and civil society representatives.

In her presentation, SRSG Santos Pais stressed the very widespread pattern of violence endured by children with disabilities, acknowledged positive and encouraging progress in preventing and addressing incidents of violence and highlighted strategic recommendations for future action.

Ms. Santos Pais identified five key areas to secure a protective environment for children around the world including investing in early childhood development and education; promoting public awareness, capacity building of professionals working with and for children, enacting in all countries strong legislation to ban all forms of violence against children, including within the home, and universal ratification and effective implementation of core human rights treaties including the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure, adopted in December 2011 by the General Assembly.

Moreover, SRSG Santos Pais recognized the decisive contribution children and young people can make to this process of change.

“We should work together to put in place the right conditions to enable children with disabilities to participate and act as real partners in our important reflections in future sessions of this  important conference of States Parties.”

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Message from SRSG on Violence against Children on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples

09/08/2012 – The past years have been marked by a strengthening of the rights of indigenous peoples, including the rights of indigenous children. Together with other international standards, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols remain a crucial reference in this regard. The new third Optional Protocol to the Convention on a Communications Procedure will allow children to bring complaints to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. With this new instrument children, just like adults, will have an access to international human rights bodies.

The Protocol has a special significance for indigenous children since it strengthens their ability to seek justice in case of violation of their rights, including when incidents of violence take place.

Despite these important developments, the gap between international human rights instruments and their implementation remains wide and challenging. Still too often, indigenous children live in extreme poverty, suffer from poor health and face inequalities in accessing and enjoying education. Moreover, indigenous children are oftennot covered by birth registration efforts. These conditions make them highly vulnerable to violence, abuse and exploitation. Exposure to violence, marginalization and social exclusion erodes their identity and sense of self-esteem and compromises their ability to seek advice and benefit from services of quality.

The United Nations Study on Violence against Children urged all States to promote non-violent values and awareness-raising, and to promote change in attitudes and behaviour that condone violence, perpetuate stereotypes and allow discrimination against children. I see a great potential in indigenous media in promoting the protection of indigenous children from violence; at home, in schools, places where children work, institutions and communities, as well as in our societies at large. Indeed, international instruments have little meaning if children, their families and people working with and for them are not aware of children’s rights and the available means to protect them. Indigenous media can help fill this information gap!

Let’s work together to create a sustainable environment for indigenous media and build a better world for indigenous children!

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Disability life is transitional life, liminal, ironic, filled with contradictions. As Norman O. Brown put it: "Meaning is not in things but in-between; in the iridescence, the interplay; in the interconnections; at the intersections, at the crossroads. Meaning is transitional as it is transitory; in the puns or bridges, the correspondence." In this way, disability is meaning itself.