Last week I wrote about Wangari Maathai, the first African Woman to have won the Nobel Peace Prize. This post is in turn dedicated to Rigoberta Menchú. Rigoberta Menchú is the first Latin American woman to have won the Nobel Peace prize. She received it for her work advocating indigenous rights and human rights protection. Rigoberta and …
Category: Women
Sep 23
African Lesbian Makes U.S. History Part 2: FIRE
Fire burns, true, but fire also purifies. Count my words as fire, burning embers that purify an unspeakable truth spoken at last. Two lesbians of African descent abandon fear for risk, decide to marry in New York City, breaking social taboo while making U.S. history. But did their struggle for equality pay off in Africa? …
Sep 22
Unknown and Unwanted
What if your home was no longer yours? What if you were a guest in a place you once called your own? As I prepared for a fact-finding trip to Colombia in May 2010, I tried to do my homework. I looked up demographic and country data, information on the people I was meeting with …
Sep 21
The Lost Dream: Migrating to America
On a daily basis, the news will report on cases of labor exploitation in restaurants, sweatshops or agricultural fields in urban and rural America. In more severe cases, we hear of people being enslaved and forced to work against their will as victims of human trafficking. People migrate to escape hardship back home. Poverty and …
Sep 21
Social Good Summit Recap – Day 2
So day two of the Social Good Summit, was another jam packed day of speakers and social media. Key Takeaway- Empowerment of women is more important than ever Geena Davis, actor and advocate, shared a startling statistic that the United States is responsible for 80% of all media, so we are in fact exporting many …
Sep 13
African Lesbian Makes US History Part One
The same-sex lesbian couple are among a group of gay, lesbian, transgender, queer folk in New York making U. S. history by breaking social taboo, vowing to cement their lifelong commitment to each other through marriage, illegal in New York State before then. Both Renee and Kelebohile, a native of the mountainous southern African country …
Aug 26
Women’s Equality Day
“I call upon the people of the United States to celebrate the achievements of women and recommit ourselves to the goal of gender equality in this country.” – President Barack Obama Today has officially been declared Women’s Equality Day in the United States—yet it is widely unheard of by most Americans. On August 26, 1920, …
Aug 24
PETA Porn: Effective or Extreme?
Members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, also known as PETA, have gone to extreme measures to get their animal rights messages across to the public in the past. As the largest animal rights organization in the world, with millions of members and supporters, PETA has managed to attain many successful and high-profile …
Aug 12
Freedom of Speech or Insensitive Gibberish?
I am all for freedom of speech but not when it becomes abusive and offensive. On Wednesday, the New York Post released their daily newspaper displaying a controversial image and relaying what many are calling a highly absurd and unreasonable message to the public. The Post, in their attempt to metaphorically compare the recent highs …
Aug 05
Is Polygamy a Form of Human Trafficking?
Warren Jeffs, a polygamist religious leader and head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), was found guilty yesterday of child sexual assault charges stemming from a 2008 raid on his Yearn for Zion (YFZ) Ranch in Texas. This was not his first stint with the law, as he was …