by Nina Somera

By now, a lot of people are cringing over the Philippine President’s predatory kiss to a Filipino migrant worker during his State visit in South Korea. But what if it were Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who smooched the woman on stage in front of the cameras? The Prime Minister was adored as an #APEChottie during his 2015 Manila visit. His boyish smile, toned body, gentle demeanour and crisp outfit make quite a foil against a geriatric, unkempt, foul-mouthed, and philandering fellow Head of State, who has mandated the murder of 20,000 suspected drug users [1]. But would handsomeness and hunkiness render the act less predatory?

Marilee

by Nina Somera

Isis International’s founder Marilee Karl has been given the 2017 Women Have Wings award

There is a boundless energy as she grips the handles and turns to whatever direction she desires. It is her walker that slows her down. Her mobility may have taken the toll of toiling for years, but not her mind and spirit.

At 80, Marilee Karl lives by herself in a Strasbourg apartment, near her daughter Alice and 3 young grand-daughters. Surrounded by the most interesting books among literature lovers and more interestingly, rare materials on Southern feminist movement-building, the voracious and critical reader in her can easily be linked to her solid and uncompromising voice as a story-teller.

Asia-Pacific Women's Recommendations on Media for Beijing+20

Excerpts from the Civil Society Statement on the Beijing+20 Review
Bangkok, Thailand, 14-16 November 2014
Asia Pacific CSO Steering Committee
Read the complete statement and the final CSO Forum Report.

"The women at the Asia Pacific Beijing+20 Civil Society Forum collectively recognise the following concerns and priorities for women in Asia and the Pacific regarding the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, the post-2015 development agenda, and beyond.
........

Women and the Media

Access to the media must be universal. To address digital and media divides, governments must have the political will to address economic, social-cultural and political divides that perpetuate gender inequality and discrimination against women. There must be increased support by government for women-driven media that reaches different audiences with different needs.

gdc meetingBy Sonia Randhawa

Annually, the world's largest convention of techies, corporation, governments and policy advocates meet at the Internet Governance Forum to help chart the directions in which the internet will grow. It's one of the world's most open policy-making forums, partly because there is no pressure to make decisions or come out with binding policy resolutions, but it provides an opportunity for CSOs, corporations and governments (allegedly on an equal footing) to listen to each other.

GuyEstradaSylvia Estrada Claudio, MD, PhD

Professor, Department of Women and Development Studies

College of Social Work and Community Development

University of the Phillipines

 

(Delivered at the “ASEAN, Asia-Pacific and Global Trends in Women’s Studies: Women Connecting Communities and Claiming Spaces in the Digital Era”, International Symposium of the Asian Association of Women's Studies.

 In coordination with University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), UP Center for Women’s Studies and Women’s Studies Association of the Philippines.

Held at the Centennial Center for Digital Learning (CCDL)

University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), Los Baños, Laguna, September 22-23, 2014.)