Violence Against Women

In July 2010 and creation of UN Women, the United Nations and its UN Member States took an HISTORIC STEP in accelerating the Organization’s goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women. The FIRST focus issue is VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. 

Key findings of the UN Offices of Statics:

• Violence against women is a universal phenomenon.
• Women are subjected to different forms of violence physical, sexual, psychological and economic – both within  and outside their homes.
• Rates of women experiencing physical violence at least once in their lifetime vary from several per cent to over 59 per cent depending on where they live.
• Current statistical measurements of violence against women provide a limited source of information, and statistical definitions and classifications require more work and harmonization at the international level.
• Female genital mutilation – the most harmful mass perpetuation of violence against women – shows a slight decline.
• In many regions of the world longstanding customs put considerable pressure on women to accept abuse.

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/vaw-stat-2005/

Why the UN has a special agency for WOMENS ISSUES

UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. 

A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. 

Click to view the six focus areas of this organization:  http://www.unwomen.org/  Click on each of the six areas.

New Role For Women In the United Nations

UN WOMEN will continue ongoing efforts to make women visible, 

to look at women’s issues as human rights.

"GENDER EQUITY MUST BECOME A LIVED REALITY."Michelle Bachelete

       

Michelle Bachelet            

former Chilean president 

New Leader of UN WOMEN,                   

NEW UN agency on women's empowerment.                

 
 



UN WOMEN is the MERGER of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW)        http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/

Declaration UN International Widows Day on June 23

Why support International Widows Day?

• 245 million widows and over 500 million children suffer in silence worldwide.
• Over 100 million widows live in poverty struggling to survive.
• Widowed women experience targeted murder, rape, prostitution, forced marriage, property theft, eviction, social isolation, and physical and psychological abuse.
• 1.5 million widows’ children die before their fifth birthday.

http://www.theloombafoundation.org/about/issues

A Hidden Calamity - The plight of Widows painting by Reeta Sarkar

Leader of the United Nations: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

"The role of the United Nations is to lead. Each of us here today shares that heavy responsibility. It is why the UN matters in a different and deeper way than ever before. To lead, we must deliver results. Mere statistics will not do. We need results that people can see and touch - results that change lives - make a difference." 

(Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in remarks to the General Assembly after being elected for a second term, June 21, 2011)

Ban Ki-moon is the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations.

All about FRACKING

I have come to the end of what I want to share with you regarding FRACKING.  There is more that can be said like:

         - Why do the energy companies not disclose the chemicals used in FRACKING?  Texas had to pass a law for this information.

         - Why do energy companies not have to file detailed environmental surveys before beginning to FRACK?

         - Is the public informed on the amount of water used in the FRACKING procedures

                     and that water from FRACKING is unusable?

        - Is the public informed that wells have to be re-FRACKED to continue to produce-- more water, more chemicals, greater cost?

        - Are energy companies held responsible for the environmental damages?

        - Are we aware that FRACKING became important when the easily available oil deposits decreased?

       

I leave this topic with The Fracking Song.

Please continue your own research on this topic.

Fracking is a Global Reality

For information on global deposits of shale oil deposits, click on the following web site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_shale_reserves

Fracking Finds a Way - video (Credit: Earthjustice through YouTube)

Fracking and Big Money

Shale Boom in Texas Could Increase U.S. Oil Output

“Oil money just makes life easier.” The remarks of Bert Bell, a truck company manager …making $525,000 leasing mineral rights around his family’s mobile home in Texas.  The new drilling makes economic sense as long as oil remains above $60 a barrel, according to oil companies.  At current prices of about $100 a barrel, shale wells can typically turn a profit within eight months – three times faster than many traditional wells.

EOG (EOG Resources, Inc. is one of the largest independent (non-integrated) oil and gas companies in the United States. EOG has been called a no-excuses company.)  began quietly buying the rights to thousands of acres in the Bakken and Eagle Ford, in Texas.

                                                                                    New York Times, May 28, 2011

WHO WILL CONTROL THE COST OF GAS IN THE NEXT TEN YEARS?

Water and Oil do not MIX

New York Times, Saturday, May 28, 2011 - “Oil Hidden in Shale Sets Off a Boom in Texas"

"Risky New Method May Increase the Nation’s Output” 

…“There is only one catch: the oil from the Eagle Ford and similar fields 
of tightly packed rock can be extracted only by using hydraulic fracturing, 
a method that uses a high- pressure mix of water, sand and hazardous 
chemicals to blast through the rocks to release the oil inside 

…. The oil industry says any environmental concerns are far out-weighted  
by the economic benefits of pumping previously inaccessible oil ….”

The Question: Would you choose gas in your car OR clean water?

"The State of Water"

Have you heard the statement, “Our future wars will be over water, not gas.” Many would say that this time is now, as many regions through out our planet earth address the fracking issue, a technique in which a mixture of water and sand and chemicals are forced under pressure into the ground into oil-bearing rock and thus release more oil or gas. (It’s interesting that this word has yet to enter the dictionary, but IT IS HERE.) If given a lucrative contract to drill on your land, would you choose gas in your car or clean water? To understand the issues that fracking is raising, let’s first check out some facts about water.

 

Click on the picture to view the Powerpoint presentation.