In her second report from Women's Worlds 2008, Patricia Daniel explores women and the global economy: New Zealander Marilyn Waring argues feminists must develop a new economic paradigm, and Sonía Parella Rubio examines a global care crisis.

Another wonderful speaker, New Zealander Marilyn Waring renowned academic, formerly the youngest member of the NZ parliament, anti-nuclear campaigner and currently gender advisor to the Solomon Islands, updated for us her seminal work from 1988: Counting for nothing - what men value and what women are worth.

In the first of two reports from Women's Worlds 2008, held in Madrid 3^rd-9^th July, Patricia Daniel is taken from Cambodia to Egypt, through moving presentations from Somaly Mam and Nawal el-Saadawi.

Held every three years since 1981, the international interdisciplinary forum Women's Worlds continues to flourish: located each time in a different capital, it has travelled across the five continents and more than 40,000 people from over one hundred countries have taken part. It provides the opportunity to explore all areas of academic study - and of life itself - from a feminist perspective. In Madrid there were discussions on fourteen different themes, with 130 invited speakers and hundreds of other contributions in exchange workshops every afternoon. This tenth event took as its overall theme "New frontiers: changes and challenges" and its slogan, open to a number of interpretations: "Equality is no utopia."

by Patricia Daniel

I think it's worth recalling the origin of the international day for the elimination of violence against women. It actually commemorates the assassination of three sisters, members of the underground working to depose the dictator Trujillo, on the 25^th of November 1960 in the Dominican Republic.

The picture shows a mural of the Mirabal sisters, called ‘Song of Liberty', on the seafront in Santo Domingo. It was painted on an obelisk erected by Trujillo and thereby subverts him in more ways than one.

The collective code-name for the three sisters was las mariposas (butterflies) which gave the title to a 1998 novel based on their experiences "In the time of butterflies" by Julia Alvarez.

This was later (in 2001) turned by and with Salma Hayek into a movie which was doubtless further romanticised.

But still, how often do we have the chance to see a strong female role model in the cinema these days? Even Joe Queenan has said: "I think women need to start their own film industry: this (mysognynist) one isn't working."

November 25th was initially declared International Day Against Violence Against Women at the first Feminist Encuentro for Latin America and the Caribbean held in Bogotá, Colombia, July 1981. Almost twenty years later, in 1999, thanks to lobbying from the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University in the US, the special significance of November 25^th was officially recognized by the United Nations.

by Patricia Daniel

I'd recommend the film Brick Lane based on Monica Ali's book (which I haven't read).

It's a salutary reminder of the everyday violence which is visited on so many women because decisions about their future, their behaviour and their aspirations, are made by other people - family, community, religious representatives and so on. No wonder the making of the film caused a little controversy among those same (male) community leaders in Brick Lane.

I didn't change my ideas as regards the general approach needed for addressing climate change (from the bottom up) or the importance of women's contribution to, and the benefits they can derive from, sustainable development. I did learn a lot more of the science and technology, which, as Margaret Minhinnick says, helps to give confidence when talking about the issues - and certainly was a wake-up call to me on the urgency of the problem.

I spoke to Tanya Hawkes who has been working as a manager at CAT (the Centre for Alternative Technology) for four years. As a single mother with a young child and as a feminist, she has found that the cooperative approach used at CAT (employing 150 personnel at the height of the season) is a direct way of empowering women workers. CAT has evolved organically since the 1970s and now women and men have equal roles, with a majority of older women on the elected management group. ("Although that's a voluntary role, " she muses, " perhaps if it attracted extra pay or other benefits, there might be more men on it...") (more...)

Are women in Venezuela taken in by superficial male charisma? I think there's enough evidence to indicate that the system is delivering a little more than that (more...)

(Energy Wales)

The Guardian Weekend's front-page headline was "Police to use terror laws on Heathrow climate change protestors". Under these laws police can stop and search without even grounds for suspicion and people can be detained without charge.

After the workshop discussion a nice woman called Sandra accosted me and asked: "Are you a journalist? Here's what protesters should do. For every one that gets arrested, there should be another ten or twenty people ready to jump out and say: "Take me too!" The police are trying to scare us, let's frighten the police instead. The jails are overflowing already, they can't arrest everyone." (more...)

The festival was so popular I had to stay outside Machynlleth, at the Gwesty Minffordd in the Talyllyn valley. Set in probably the most breathtaking scenery in Britain the hotel is right at the base of the mountain known in Welsh as Cadair Idris (the armchair of the giant astronomer Idris). This latter is an appropriate spot in relation to the Victor Jara festival because the Welsh bards used to climb to the summit to sleep, in the hope they would find inspiration for poetry writing (more...)

La nueva canción is the Latin American musical movement that began in the 1960s. Like the US protest song revival of the 60s (with Joan Baez and Bob Dylan) it was radical in both its political and artistic goals. La nueva canción movement sought to revitalize Latin American song by combining traditional music with expressive poetry and contemporary social themes. (more...)

In 1977 the Centre for Alternative Technology initiated a process of collaboration with the renewable energy experts of the day, which led to the UK's first Alternative Energy Strategy. The influence of that radical plan was limited because the problems it addressed were not visible at the time. Now it's a lot clearer to see the problems of energy security, global equity and climate change. Thirty years on, through a series of consultations, CAT has built a fresh consensus around a pragmatic new energy strategy called zerocarbonbritain. In July this was launched at the AGM of the All Parliamentary Party for Climate Change Group who have this to say about it: (more...)

Italian singer Silvia Balducci recorded a series of songs by Victor Jara in 2003 entitled Homage a una sonrisa (homage to a smile). This is her second visit to Machynlleth to the festival. In an interview last year she talked about her motivations. Silvia considers herself one of the daughters of Chile's socialist musical tradition. She remembers she was eight years old on the day of the military coup in 1973 when Pinochet ousted Allende and supporters of socialism were rounded up, tortured and shot. The group Inti Illimani, exiled to Italy, popularised the songs of Victor Jara among others, especially El pueblo unido jamás será vencido, which, she says, became for the Italians a hymn of hope and social justice.(more...)

So now I understand more clearly why there is so much anti-Chavez press. And it reminds me of the propaganda war against Nicaragua in the 1980s. Then as now it's the threat of a good example, the worry that an entirely different approach to development might actually be proved successful - and be replicated in other countries. But the threat of Venezuela is rather more serious - because unlike Nicaragua and Cuba, Venezuela has such abundant natural resources (more...)

El Sueño Existe. The dream lives on. Mae'r freuddwyd yn fyw.

London may enjoy la Carneval del Pueblo, the largest Latin American event in Europe, at the beginning of August - but I spent the weekend of August 10-12 in Machynlleth, mid-Wales, blogging a Welsh Latino Extravanganza. The event is inspired by the life and work of Victor Jara - a leader of the New Song movement in Salvador Allende's Chile - and aims to support contemporary popular democratic movements in Latin America. (more...)

by Patricia Daniel

by Patricia Daniel

This new report was launched yesterday by the Sahel Working Group and the International Institute for Environment and Development. It provides hard-hitting conclusions in relation to continuing vulnerability for people in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, three of the poorest countries in the world, already subject to annual drought and under additional threat from the effects of climate change. But what are the root causes of chronic vulnerability in the Sahel? As ReliefWeb summarise: “The imposition of external ideas about what constitutes good development and a focus on economic growth as a driver for national development are not addressing the needs and realities of the most vulnerable rural poor…. The few exciting positive developments in the region derive almost exclusively from long-term project work based on good learning from the communities concerned.”

A new report was launched yesterday by the Sahel Working Group and the International Institute for Environment and Development. It provides hard-hitting conclusions in relation to the continuing vulnerability of people in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso - three of the poorest countries in the world, already subject to annual drought and under additional threat from the effects of climate change.