Daily Archives: February 18, 2014

Feminism, healthcare, innovation

This Woman Invented a Way to Run 30 Lab Tests on Only One Drop of Blood – Wired Science

Theranos requires only a pinprick and a drop of blood. With that they can perform hundreds of tests, from standard cholesterol checks to sophisticated genetic analyses. The results are faster, more accurate, and far cheaper than conventional methods. The implications are mind-blowing. With inexpensive and easy access to the information running through their veins, people will have an unprecedented window on their own health. And a new generation of diagnostic tests could allow them to head off serious afflictions from cancer to diabetes to heart disease. None of this would work if Theranos hadn’t figured out how to make testing transparent and inexpensive. The company plans to charge less than 50 percent of the standard Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates. And unlike the rest of the testing industry, Theranos lists its prices on its website: blood typing, $2.05; cholesterol, $2.99; iron, $4.45. If all tests in the US were performed at those kinds of prices, the company says, it could save Medicare $98 billion and Medicaid $104 billion over the next decade.

via This Woman Invented a Way to Run 30 Lab Tests on Only One Drop of Blood – Wired Science.

Feminism

Feminism’s blind spot – Le Monde diplomatique – English edition

Such thinking seems also to apply at the global level. Contrast the response to the conviction and jailing of the Russian pop group ‘Pussy Riot’ (all white European women) where there was a chorus of opposition from feminists, with the virtual silence with respect to the likes of Saudi women bravely campaigning for the right to drive, and risking life and limb in doing so; of Indian women protesting against rape; of the Afghan singer Aryana Sayeed, a judge on a talent show programme in Afghanistan, who has been subjected to death threats for refusing to wear the veil and for her song Banoo-e Ahtash Nesheen in which she sings ‘I am a dishonour to culture and tradition, I am a black mark on faith and religion’; of the Sudanese Amira Osman Hamed, who has been sentenced to receive up to 40 lashes for ‘indecent or immoral dress’ because she refuses to cover her hair; and of a city on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island which is about to force female students to pass a virginity test before they can go to high school.

Back in 1999, Germaine Greer, then a leading light of the feminist movement, controversially argued that attempts to outlaw female genital mutilation (FGM) amounted to ‘an attack on cultural identity’, adding: ‘One man’s beautification is another man’s mutilation.’ Such excessive cultural relativist thinking is now rightly thought to be beyond the pale by mainstream society and FGM has been outlawed, but it was not because of campaigning by white feminists.

I believe that western feminists need to do more. They ought to take heed of the sober advice of Deeyah Khan: ‘We need to claim girls like Banaz as our own. We need to move beyond cultural sensitivity and let people ask questions. The moment people feel they can ask the silly or awkward question that they haven’t dared to ask, the layers start to come off.’ It is high time these layers of cultural sensitivity come off and feminists stop viewing girls and women from ethno-religious minority communities, like their sisters around the globe, as being part of ‘the other’ and claim them as their own. By so doing, they can make a significant contribution to improving the lives of countless girls and women in their own countries and throughout the world.

via Feminism’s blind spot – Le Monde diplomatique – English edition.

Fail!, human rights, racism

Kellogg’s Boasts ‘Diversity,’ But Locks Out Black Workers | Labor Notes

“We want every person to bring their ‘whole self’ to work every day,” says a Kellogg’s human resources manager in the company’s latest “diversity and inclusion” report.

But for more than three months now, 220 locked-out cereal workers in Memphis, a majority black, have had to settle for bringing their “whole self” to the frigid picket line at the Kellogg’s factory entrance. Workers maintain a 24/7 picket, with four to 10 workers holding signs.

Production continues uninhibited by the picketers. Scabs brought in by an Ohio company enter through a back gate. Cereal leaves by the trainload, heading east.

At a rally on Martin Luther King Day, the president of the Memphis chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) called for a boycott of Kellogg’s products.

Rev. Dwight Montgomery said he had spoken with an organization of 300 ministers in the Memphis area, and that they had decided to ask “our congregation members to go talk to their friends, family neighbors… We are not going to buy any Kellogg’s products.”

via Kellogg’s Boasts ‘Diversity,’ But Locks Out Black Workers | Labor Notes.

Fail!

Rock Salt Bound for New Jersey Is Held Up by Decades-Old Maritime Law – NYTimes.com

The delivery of salt has been complicated by the Jones Act — formerly known the Merchant Marine Act — which was passed in 1920 as a way of ensuring that the country is able to maintain a viable merchant marine fleet.

It requires that any shipment going directly from one port in the United States to another be carried on vessels built in the United States and operated by an American crew.

While there have been waivers granted in the past, they are rare, according to a government official familiar with maritime regulations who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not involved in the matter involving the salt shipment.

via Rock Salt Bound for New Jersey Is Held Up by Decades-Old Maritime Law – NYTimes.com.

Feminism, human rights, innovation

The Academic Feminist: Melanie Klein on Yoga and Feminism

1) You credit feminism and yoga with being the two main influences of your work. Can you describe how the two are linked for you?

Ultimately, for me, they’re both equally about raising consciousness, wiping the fog from the mirror, seeing the world (including ourselves) through fresh eyes, thereby moving in the world from an authentic and grounded place. And, in the end, this means we’re capable of being a more effective agent for social change, whether you’re making changes in your home, the workplace, the media or politics.

Feminism provided the intellectual and ideological framework to recognize, deconstruct, analyse and critique the structured inequality that is the hallmark of the system of patriarchy. That veil was lifted when I found feminism and my first mentor, a Radical Marxist feminist who is now well into her eighties. One of my biggest “a-ha” or “click” moments is when I realized, “It’s not me! It’s patriarchy.”

via The Academic Feminist: Melanie Klein on Yoga and Feminism.