Monday, February 25, 2013

broken, February family self portrait



Broken (Brooklyn)




***

The family self portrait  project started in January 2011. I take one portrait of the whole family, myself included, once a month.  

I started doing this mainly because I realised that I was never in any of the family photos. It was initially meant to last for the duration of 2011, but we enjoyed  it so much that we decided to carry on. Don't know when or where it will end.

Every family should do this. 

To see previous months click on the links below:


March 2012 - hell is the other
February 2012 - lazy mornings in bed
January 2012 - mimes

2011
December 2011- Occupy your life
November- BAM!
August - waiting for Irene, yeah, the hurricane

Thursday, February 21, 2013

broken

I've got a little one down with a broken tibia....


Thursday, February 14, 2013

one Billion Rising





WHY WE RAISE


ONE IN THREE WOMEN ON THE PLANET WILL BE RAPED OR BEATEN IN HER LIFETIME.*

ONE BILLION WOMEN VIOLATED IS AN ATROCITY

ONE BILLION WOMEN DANCING IS A REVOLUTION

On V-Day’s 15th Anniversary, 14 February 2013, we are inviting ONE BILLION women and those who love them to WALK OUT, DANCE, RISE UP, and DEMAND an end to this violence. ONE BILLION RISING will move the earth, activating women and men across every country. V-Day wants the world to see our collective strength, our numbers, our solidarity across borders.
What does ONE BILLION look like? On 14 February 2013, it will look like a REVOLUTION.

ONE BILLION RISING IS:
A global strike
An invitation to dance
A call to men and women to refuse to participate in the status quo until rape and rape culture ends
An act of solidarity, demonstrating to women the commonality of their struggles and their power in numbers
A refusal to accept violence against women and girls as a given
A new time and a new way of being

SIGN UP TODAY

happy non-lover Valentines Day

Sinai Desert, Egypt

People (especially non-Americans) love to mock Valentines Day as a consumeristic hallmarks holiday. They especially like to mock the increasing tradition to celebrate not only your lover/spouse/b-g friend but everyone else in sight (school kids hand out card to their classmates and the like).

Valentines Day also gets a lot of bad rap from people who argue that it makes single persons depressed.

You know me, I welcome a celebration where I can get it and I welcome the excuse to think of those I love.  And I particularly like that the focus does not have to be just on the traditional love-lover sphere.

I am surrounded by love, all types of love, and it makes all the difference. So to all my friends, to all of you who make my days and my life  better,  happy Valentines Day, and may the love you spread come right back at ya.


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

taste takes time... photo post


I've recently decided to join Project Life 365, which gives you a daily photo theme. Probably (like for sure) will not be doing this every day, but I will today.

today's theme is "good times"

Sunday, February 10, 2013

homecoming _December family portrait

Brooklyn
A home to the nomad is a mecca. 

A place of worship that one can visit but never fully own.

An unattainable dream...

...until now.

we got it!



***

The family self portrait  project started in January 2011. I take one portrait of the whole family, myself included, once a month.  

I started doing this mainly because I realised that I was never in any of the family photos. It was initially meant to last for the duration of 2011, but we enjoyed  it so much that we decided to carry on. Don't know when or where it will end.

Every family should do this. 

To see previous months click on the links below:

August - waiting for Irene, yeah, the hurricane

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

It's zero tolerance for FGM (aka torture) day



FGM stands for female genital mutilation. A wide spread practice to initiate  women, for cultural or religious reasons, by cutting away part or the whole of their clitoris. In some more extreme cases the outer lips are cut away, sometimes they are sown shut, other it  leads to labia adhesion and the need to  repeated FGM. 


Between 100 and 140 million girls and women in the world are estimated to have undergone such procedures, and 3 million girls are estimated to be at risk of undergoing the procedures every year. 

It is widespread in Africa and known to take place in some countries in Asia and Latin America. It is also prevalent  among certain immigrant communities in North America and Europe. 


Female genital mutilation has no known health benefits. 

On the contrary, it is known to be harmful to girls and women in many ways. First and foremost, it is painful and traumatic. Normally practiced outside of a medically setting, many women die from shock, bleeding or infection.  It  interferes with the natural functioning of the body leading to pain and/or blood loss both during sex,  menstruation, urination and childbirth, as well as  increased urinary track infections, sexually transmitted infections and exposure to HIV/aids.  What is perhaps less knows is that it also endangers the life of their unborn, as babies born to women who have undergone female genital mutilation suffer a higher rate of neonatal death compared with babies born to women who have not undergone the procedure.  The incidences of caesarean section and postpartum haemorrhage are also  substantially increased.


Seen from a human rights perspective, the practice reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes, and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women. Female genital mutilation is nearly always carried out on minors and is therefore a violation of the rights of the child. The practice also violates the rights to health, security and physical integrity of the person, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death. 


Despite some successes, the overall rate of decline in the prevalence of female genital mutilation has been slow. Penalisation of the practice has often led  to it being hidden and the children being denied healthcare in order to avoid confrontation with the law.

It's zero tolerance for FGM day, in case you were wondering.


source: Elimination Female Genital Mutilation interagency statement, UNICEF, UNDP, UNHCR, OHCHR, UNAIDS, UNECA, UNESCO, UNIFEM, WHO



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