All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Sharpshot Nature .Com 01631-tod-033034 Sandhill Crane

Sandhill Crane

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2020-11-20 01631-tod-033034 Sandhill Crane

NIKON D7500 – ƒ/6.3 1/500 600mm ISO560 – Crex Meadows Wildlife Refuge, WI

Source: Sharpshot Nature .Com 01631-tod-033034 Sandhill Crane

Spain to grant residency to thousands of migrants in the country illegally – Los Angeles Times

Spain will grant residency and work permits each year for the next three years to about 300,000 migrants who are in the country illegally, the country’s migration minister said Wednesday.

The policy will take effect next May and aims to expand the country’s aging workforce. Spain has largely remained open to receiving migrants even as other European nations seek to tighten their borders to illegal crossings and asylum seekers.

Spain needs around 250,000 registered foreign workers a year to maintain its welfare state, Migration Minister Elma Saiz said in an interview on Wednesday. She contended that the legalization policy is not aimed solely at “cultural wealth and respect for human rights, it’s also prosperity.”

Source: Spain to grant residency to thousands of migrants in the country illegally – Los Angeles Times

End Violence against Women | More Enigma Than Dogma

In this month to consider the place of violence in our times, we reflect on The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women observed November 25 in honour of the Mirabal sisters, three political activists from the Dominican Republic who were brutally murdered in 1960 by order of the country’s ruler, Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).

In October of this year the United Nations announced:

“More than 600 million women and girls are now affected by war, a 50% increase from a decade ago, and they fear the world has forgotten them amid an escalating backlash against women’s rights and gender equality, top U.N. officials say.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a new report that amid record levels of armed conflict and violence, progress over the decades for women is vanishing and “generational gains in women’s rights hang in the balance around the world.”

The U.N. chief was assessing the state of a Security Council resolution adopted on Oct. 31, 2000, that demanded equal participation for women in peace negotiations, a goal that remains as distant as gender equality.”

The report says the proportion of women killed in armed conflicts doubled in 2023 compared with a year earlier; U.N.-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence were 50% higher; and the number of girls affected by grave violations in conflicts increased by 35%.”

Gender Equality at Peace Talks

Guterres went on to say “the transformative potential of women’s leadership and inclusion in the pursuit of peace” is being undercut — with power and decision-making on peace and security matters overwhelmingly in the hands of men. While this feminist idea goes unchallenged, suggesting that women are super human or extra humane is to ignore the reality that with a few exceptions female world leaders in conflict zones have demonstrated the same direction of violence as their overwhelmingly numbered male counterparts. Violence is a human condition. But to his point, having women in peace negotiations would at least give a female perspective to how war uniquely affects them (ie: rape as a weapon of war).

Here’s an idea: why not select negotiators who are committed to peace rather than to war; this would be a better idea. It is not just that peace and security matters are overwhelmingly in the hands of men, it is that negotiations are as violent as the war – after all, each side is committed to winning; peace on the other hand is considering what you are willing to lose – what price you’re willing to pay to achieve peace. In this regard, we should be selecting men, women, and children who have no commitment to violence as they negotiate their way to peace. What a radical idea that would be…

Source: End Violence against Women | More Enigma Than Dogma