All posts by nedhamson

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

Government already stopping unemployment benefit to women for being pregnant

I thought they wanted more British babies? whazup?

Pride's Purge

(not satire – it’s the UK today!)

Iain Duncan Smith yesterday flagged up the possibility of refusing child benefit to women who have more than two children.

But women who are pregnant with their first child are already being refused unemployment benefit.

An unemployed woman has lost her unemployment benefit after she was put on light duties at a workfare placement in B&Q when she informed them she was 23 weeks pregnant.

Full story here:

Ashton Job Centre sanctions young woman for being pregnant

This is not the first time – or the last time – that unemployed women have been targeted by the DWP for being pregnant.

In fact, this is not the first time in our history we’ve seen this kind of treatment of women in poverty who have the audacity to get pregnant ………..

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Please feel free to share. And comment.

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Afghan Women’s Writing Project | They Do Love Me Too

      In our house

I can’t go to school like my brother,

But I know my parents love me too.

I have to wait till my brother eats so I can eat what remains;

But they do love me too.

I ride my brother’s bicycle—secretly,

But they do love me too.

I am not the one who gets new toys.

But they do love me too.

I can’t have friends and go outside;

But they do love me too.

My world starts and ends in a kitchen—everyday

But they do love me too.

They hide me whenever there is a guest.

But they do love me too.

I love our house and my brother.

My brother lets me clean his room and look at his books

He always leaves half of his food for me

He teaches me to bike when no one is home

He tells me the stories of outside

He always leaves half of his food for me

I know my parents love me too

And I do love them.

By Masooma

Photo by Sarah Menzies/Afghan Cycles

via Afghan Women’s Writing Project | They Do Love Me Too.

PEGIDA demos march for the ninth time in Dresden | News | DW.DE | 15.12.2014

However, on Monday, the group was met by counter-demonstrators from the group “Dresden for all,” who brought 9,000 people to the streets calling for more tolerance last week.

In a similar counter-protest on Sunday, around 15,000 people marched in a peaceful demonstration against xenophobia and right-wing extremism in the western German city of Cologne.

Associated movements

An associated protest under the name “BOGIDA” also took place in the western German city of Bonn on Monday evening. On their Facebook page, the group described the event a “peaceful evening stroll against Salafists in Bonn, the Islamization of the occident and misled refugee and immigrant policy in Germany.”

via PEGIDA demos march for the ninth time in Dresden | News | DW.DE | 15.12.2014.

Egypt – Kick a public trash bin and off to a military court you go?

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi recently issued a decree which expanded the jurisdiction of military courts to include anyone who attacks the state’s “vital” facilities.

Various human rights organisations condemned the law, including Human Rights Watch, which stated that the law gives military courts “the widest legal authority since the birth of Egypt’s modern republic in 1952”.

via 40 referred to military prosecution: FJP – Daily News Egypt.

Rare Survivor

Mega-good story and good reminder to be on the lookout for asbestos lurking in your environment – they even required steel i-beams to be sprayed with it as a fire retardant – duh. So it is still in thousands of commercial buildings, and like lead will dry out and get into air inside buildings.

Silvia Writes

7-Victory

Cancer — a shocking diagnosis, triggering fear that strikes to the bone. Even in best-case scenarios, as those affected know, looking ahead tests every granule of strength.

Until recently I knew precious little about a form of cancer called mesotheliomaLung cancer brings to mind smokers, but mesothelioma goes beyond smoking, or exposure to second-hand smoking, the risk factor being exposure to asbestos.

The Patient

Last week I received an email from someone I’ve never met, Heather Von St. James, a rare mesothelioma survivor, cancer advocate, and Huffington Post blogger, among other sites. She asked if I would help share her story, and couple of email exchanges later brought us here.

If you goggle her name, Heather’s story is sure to overwhelm.

At the age of 36, soon after the birth of her daughter, Heather fell ill. She was losing weight rapidly, had no appetite, and felt like a…

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Here, There and Everywhere

Petchary's Blog

The past couple of weeks have been a little… well, busy would be an understatement. Here are a few quick highlights of some significant happenings in Kingston, Jamaica – a kind of growing intensity of pre-Christmas madness. This has all been interspersed with daily showers of rain, many heavy and lengthy and soaking in nature – an unusually wet December, so far. It is in a way rather a shame that so many events have been squeezed into a short space of time, with many occurring on the same evening. I am not very good at dashing from one place to another; I am lacking in physical stamina these days, especially since the “chik v” arrived. Well – we will all collapse over Christmas soon enough I suppose, with a glass of sorrel in our hand and platefuls of ham, Christmas cake and other goodies… Enjoy!

Two speakers at the National Volunteer Symposium, Miguel "Steppa" Williams and Kimberley Issa Sherlock chat at the JN Foundation's National Volunteer Symposium on December 5. (My photo) Two speakers at the…

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