Herizons articles from March 2006

Herizons archives from March 2006

Six degrees of separation.(first word)(Stephen Harper's election)
March 22, 2006... You have to give Stephen Harper credit. He polished his public facade and pulled off a purposefully dull campaign to lull voters (not frighten them) and it worked. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With only a slim minority, he won't be sending...

African prez a first.(nelliegrams)(Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf elected as president of Liberia )(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... In January, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was inaugurated as president of Liberia, becoming Africa's first woman president. Johnson-Sirleaf's victory draws a parallel with the country's checkered history. Both the woman and her country are celebrated...

Chile heats up.(nelliegrams)(Michelle Bachelet elected as president)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... Michelle Bachelet was elected president of Chile in January with 53.5 percent of the vote, defeating businessman Sebastian Pinera and becoming the nation's first woman president. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Bachelet, a former health and...

Germany elects first female chancellor.(nelliegrams)(Angela Merkel)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... Angela Merkel, leader of the Christian Democrats, became Germany's first woman chancellor in November. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A conservative, Merkel heads a coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats. She is also the first...

Rat trap provokes debate.(nelliegrams)(Sonette Ehlers created female condom can control rape)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... South African inventor Sonette Ehlers created a female condom designed to harm rapists. The Rapex condom is also designed to protect women in the country where one in nine is HIV-positive. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The latex device is...

HPV vaccine to come?(nelliegrams)
March 22, 2006... Drug manufacturer Merck released the results of the first round of clinical trials for a vaccine against human papillo-mavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted virus associated with cervical cancer. The vaccine, designed to protect against the...

Carol's party.(nelliegrams)(Carol Shields Memorial Labyrinth)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... The Carol Shields Memorial Labyrinth will be located in King's Park in Winnipeg, just south of the University of Manitoba, where Shields taught. Shields, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose literary works have been honoured by readers in...

Quote of the month.(nelliegrams)
March 22, 2006... "Feminism is nonnegotiable. If you are not a feminist, you do not deserve to live."--Comedian Margaret Cho, from her book, I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Anti-dote for racism.(news)
March 22, 2006... (VICTORIA) Five teenaged girls and four women sit in a small circle at the Victoria Inter-Cultural Association and discuss what it's like to grow up as a member a visible minority in the city. Fourteen-year-old Marisa begins: "Most of the...

Tsunamika means hope.(news)(handmade dolls)
March 22, 2006... (AUROVILLE, INDIA) It has been more than a year since the December 26 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands of the people in Asia. The worst-hit states in India were the states of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. ...

Get with the pension program.(news)(women elderly workers)
March 22, 2006... (VANCOUVER) A new report published in B.C. lays much responsibility for women's poverty in old age at the feet of government. According to Women Elders in Action, funding cuts by governments to social programs and an increasing trend of...

Polygamy schmolygamy.(Campaign Update)(social law)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... A recent report says Canada should get rid of its law banning polygamy and change other legislation to help women and children living in multiple-spouse relationships. The research is part of a controversial $150,000 polygamy research...

Join the peace train.(Campaign Update)(Women Say No To War Campaign in Iraq)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... Women are mobilizing around the globe to call for an end to the occupation in Iraq. The Women Say No To War Campaign is an online campaign gearing up for 100,000 signatures by International Women's Day on March 8, 2006. The petition...

Over-the-counter interrogation.(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... Last April, when Health Canada decided to change the Emergency Contraceptive Pill (ECP) from a prescription drug to a non-prescription product, feminist health advocates were elated. ECP can help reduce unintended pregnancy. It is a safe,...

Reports of abuse up.(Campaign Update)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... The second Canadian study of reported child abuse and neglect shows that the rate of substantiated abuse in Canada (excluding Quebec) increased 125 percent, from 9.64 substantiated cases per thousand children in 1998 to 21.71 in 2003. The...

AIDS efforts need focus on woman.(Campaign Update)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... Prevention, treatment, care and support programs and policies do not address the needs of girls and women in Canada, says a report published by the Atlantic Centre of Excellence in Women's Health. Although the majority of those living...

Rape victim fights deportation.(news)
March 22, 2006... (OTTAWA) For eight months, Maoua Diomande has been in sanctuary in an Ottawa church to avoid being deported to the Ivory Coast, where she was gang-raped by government soldiers. Diomande was a teacher who organized mothers into a...

Shticking it to em.(Noam Chomsky's potrayal in Manufacturing Consent)
March 22, 2006... A word of warning for next winter: When it's cold outside, and you're getting up when it's still dark, and Stephen Harper is your country's prime minister, do not re-watch Manufacturing Consent, the NFB film about Noam Chomsky. ...

We're next--get ready.(feminism)
March 22, 2006... Recently, my mother, sitting disgruntled in her retirement home lobby, cast her gaze to another resident who was sleeping in a chair, head back, mouth gaping open. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Who wants to be looking at that all day?" my...

Healing traditions: a profile of activist Mary Martin.
March 22, 2006... A member of the Tla-o-qui-aht Nation near Tofino, in Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Martin spent seven years working as an alcohol and drug counsellor. Then she spent two years working on the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Healing...

Pump up the volume: Tanya Tagaq adds new sound to a centuries-old women's cultural tradition.(throat singing)
March 22, 2006... Throat singing isn't a sound that's easy to describe, even for Tanya Tagaq, so she relies on comparisons. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "It's breath, it's rhythm. To be very, well, pompous about it, it's like the sushi of sound." She shakes...

A tribute to literary mothers.(women writers' motherhood)
March 22, 2006... Most of the great women writers of the past were childless. Not only obvious lesbians like Gertrude Stein and Radclyffe Hall, and spinsters like Jane Austen and the Brontes, but George Eliot, George Sands, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and...

Too hard to swallow.(drug regulations' effect on women's health)
March 22, 2006... There are many entry points into the story about how the pharmaceutical industry and the failings of Canada's drug regulatory regime combine to compromise women's health. One place to begin is last year, when Health Canada issued a safety...

Cats are not people.(body politic)(human-animal relationships)
March 22, 2006... Questions you should ask yourself when considering the line between cats and people: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 1. Who eats first in your house, you or the cat? It's the cat, isn't it? Maybe I'm mean, but in my house, humans eat...

The Body Acoustic.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... THE BODY ACOUSTIC Cyndi Lauper SONY, 2005 The Body Acoustic proves three things about Cyndi Lauper. First, beyond the quirky clothes that initially attracted so much press attention at the start of her career, there is one of...

Oral Fixation Vol. 2.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... ORAL FIXATION VOL. 2 Shakira SONY, 2005 Before Shakira came to prominence shilling for Pepsi with "Whenever, Wherever" (a tune that shamelessly borrowed from The Pretenders and the B-52s), she was a superstar in her native...

In The Cool.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... IN THE COOL Pieta Brown VALLEY ENTERTAINMENT, 2005 Pieta Brown has the type of voice that plays well with the dozen "hurtin' songs" that make up her third studio album, In The Cool. The daughter of folkie Greg Brown has been...

Divine Brown.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... DIVINE BROWN Divine Brown UNIVERSAL, 2005 Divine Brown's a popular handle these days. It was the name of the prostitute caught with Hugh Grant back in 1995. It's also an all-male rock group. And it's the name of one of Canada's...

I'm a Mountain.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... SARAH HARMER I'm A Mountain UNIVERSAL, 2005 Sarah Harmer has had an interesting career. She fronted a band called Weeping Tile before going the singer/songwriter route. Her first solo album, Songs for Clem, was a tribute to her...

I Will Internalize.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... MARTHA WAINWRIGHT I Will Internalize MAPLEMUSIC, 2005 Martha Wainwright not only had celebrity parents to contend with, she has a musical sibling named Rufus. And while that may be a lot of music history to cart around, Martha...

Anomaly.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... ANOMALY Anne Fleming RAINCOAST BOOKS, 2005 Listen to this: "This world harrumphed November at her like it was clearing its throat to spit." And this: "The teacher, a blob with That Girl hair and Nana Mouskouri glasses, took her...

An Audience of Chairs.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... AN AUDIENCE OF CHAIRS Joan Clark KNOPF CANADA, 2005 I was a little apprehensive before I began to read An Audience of Chairs. I had thoroughly enjoyed all of Joan Clark's previous fiction, most recently the luminous Latitudes of...

The Tent.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... THE TENT Margaret Atwood MCCLELLAND AND STEWART, 2005 It's no surprise that The Tent exudes the biting satire, dark humour and other unsettling, yet somehow charming qualities we've come to expect from the Queen of CanLit. ...

The Walking Boy.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... THE WALKING BOY Lydia Kwa KEY PORTER, 2005 I was so upset by Lydia Kwa's latest book that I almost gave up on it. I persevered because I believe that books are meant to disturb our equilibrium. Kwa's account of life in...

Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... FOREVER BARBIE: THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF A REAL DOLL M.G. Lord GOOSE LANE EDITIONS, 2004 Barbie is a strong contender for the most overdetermined gender performance of the last half-century, argues M.G. Lord in Forever...

Troubling Women's Studies: Pasts, Presents and Possibilities.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... TROUBLING WOMEN'S STUDIES: PASTS, PRESENTS AND POSSIBILITIES Ann Braithwaite, Susan Heald, Susanne Luhmann and Sharon Rosenberg SUMACH PRESS, 2004 Even though I had requested this book for reviewing, it sat on my shelf for a...

The Good Body.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... THE GOOD BODY Eve Ensler VILLARD, 2004 In the preface to The Good Body, Eve Ensler writes: "I see how other women's [bodies] have come to occupy their attention, so that we have very little left for the war in Iraq--or much...

Bare: The Naked Truth about Stripping.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... BARE: THE NAKED TRUTH ABOUT STRIPPING Elizabeth Eaves SEAL PRESS, 2005 Bare: The Naked Truth about Stripping is Elisabeth Eaves' chronicle of her time in this sleazy, sexy world. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Originally from...

Becoming a Goddess of Inner Poise: Spirituality for the Bridget Jones in All of Us.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... BECOMING A GODDESS OF INNER POISE: SPIRITUALITY FOR THE BRIDGET JONES IN ALL OF US Donna Freitas JOSSEY BASS, 2005 I want to meet the man who can read every word of this book. Then I want to meet the guy who can grasp Chick Lit...

Fresh Lipstick: Redressing Fashion and Feminism.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... FRESH LIPSTICK: REDRESSING FASHION AND FEMINISM Linda M. Scott PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, 2005 One woman wears no makeup and Birkenstocks. Another has on platform boots and glitter nail polish. Can you spot the feminist? ...

100 Canadian Heroines.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... 100 CANADIAN HEROINES Merna Forster DUNDURN PRESS, 2004 Merna Forster's new book, 100 Canadian Heroines, gives a quick and easy introductory education on the subject of Canadian women's history. A book of encyclopedic...

Womankind.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... WOMANKIND Text by Donna Nebenzahl Photographs by Nance Ackerman RAINCOAST BOOKS, 2004 This global time capsule is a contemporary version of Heroines. While Heroines goes back in time to record women's past deeds, Womankind shows...

The Woman's Bible.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... THE WOMAN'S BIBLE Elizabeth Cady Stanton NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY PRESS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 1895 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Elizabeth Cady Stanton is undisputedly one of the reigning matriarchs of feminism. She was instrumental...

Wick burns with passion: Hayley Wickenheiser is full of fire for women's hockey. A new book chronicles the rise of the star player. We interview her about her dreams. Which include a professional women's hockey league.(ARTIST PROFILE)(Interview)
March 22, 2006... Hayley Wickenheiser has had a fervour for hockey since she was three, when she began playing shinny on the family's backyard rink in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "It has to be a passion in order to play with...

It's torture.(global warning)(George W. Bush torture policy)
March 22, 2006... It was the "Mission Accomplished" of George W. Bush's second term, and an announcement of that magnitude called for a suitably dramatic location. But what was the right backdrop for the infamous "We do not torture" declaration? With...

Marriage of inconvenience.(on the edge)(polygamy in Bountiful, British Columbia)
March 22, 2006... In an effort to maintain a facade of sanity, I try to look upon most things in life through a prism of humour. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sometimes this works well, as with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the so-called president of Iran. He's the...