all the cool kids are doing it.

i've emailed it, even facebooked it (wha? i know), and now time to blog it:


http://supportwri.blogspot.com/


to anyone who has not received this petition yet, please sign it, and please tell your friends. this is a very constructive response to the WRI's closing. join us all to keep women's studies alive at BYU! we don't want it to go the way of social work, african studies, and international development... BYU is more than the marriott school!

today would be a good day to hug sadie.

i watched the documentary children underground last night, and i simply cannot get the images of the tragic film out of my head.

the movie documents the lives of 5 of the 20,000+ street children in romania, a result of the anti-contraception policies of former communist leader nicolae ceausescu. as many of you know, orphanages in romania were overflooded, and now as the children are growing up, nearly all have simply taken to the streets and live a completely tragic life of drug abuse, physical violence, neglect, and starvation.

i have seen many a tragic movie in my day - i know i'm uniquely drawn to them. but this may have been the worst. perhaps it's because i now deal with children's issues for a living that it all particularly hit home.

today at work i'm writing up a text for unicef on civil society groups in mozambique, how unicef can better work with these groups to help protect children and secure their rights. this assignment is also particularly hitting home because of the summer i spent in mozambique five years ago, working with kids at the colegio infantil, and seeing first hand how widespread abuse and neglect of children is in mozambican communities torn apart by civil war and poverty.

the point of the text i'm writing is to argue that engaging with governments will never be enough, especially for children. a child is completely vulnerable to his/her family and community. national legislation or even state-run programs have little sustained impact on the lives of children. not compared to home-grown change in communities. in children underground you see how social workers fought to improve the lives of the romanian street kids - but ultimately they could do so little. the kids needed homes, families, people who loved them consistently and gave them daily support. i applaud the social workers and their indefatigable efforts, but after watching this documentary in addition to my own experiences with battered children (in the US and abroad), it is so obvious that external programs can only reach so far.

the problem is i'm writing this text for unicef in response to the donor community at large, which simply wants little to nothing to do with civil society (meaning community groups, churches, NGOs, etc.). donors want to work with governments, and this is where they will put billions of dollars into. perhaps it's good to leave civil society groups outside of the corruptible aid-machine, but at least there needs to be further recognition that it is only in the grassroots that children are actually protected. local groups need support from unicef and others to develop their capacity to affect change, which i know they can do better than almost anyone else. i want local action to be supported - and i'm happy unicef does actually stress this as much as it can.

sigh. sorry for the long, downer post. posting helps me release a bit, and these things are critical and need to be talked about... it just absolutely breaks my heart when i see films like children underground, or come into work and try to politically argue for the protection of kids i knew and worked with - ah, just to see families torn apart and children left scattered and abused. it's all too much.

but just remember to hug your kids a lot - even though i know all of you do :) they're all so lucky to have such love in their lives. so huzzah for that! and here's a scrumptious picture of moe and sadie just to make everything feel all better :)

so proud.

i'm in the middle of the busiest day of a very busy week at work (sigh) - but just wanted to point out the profound snowballing effect that has occured from monday's revelation that byu was shutting down the WRI. when i found out, i emailed my closest feminist friends from byu, one of whom, dearest sara vraneshka, is still a student. she then alerted the masses - one of her most profound talents :) she has truly taken up the call and the fight, and is hosting a save the WRI rally in provo tonight on campus (ah! how i wish i could be there). newspapers, bloggers, and commentators are also now coming out with strong voices of concern.

if you have a moment, please read this wonderful post an old co-worker of mine from the womanstats project wrote. it expresses so many of my same feelings. this is all so important to me, and i'm sad to be far away and swamped in unicef work. but i'm happy the call has gone forth and the response has been so strong! it shows how critical this issue is, and how deeply so many care about it. which is fantastic news. (as an aside - some of the bloggers etc. have taken this to an erroneous level, however, that i very much disagree with. this decision does not negate the doctrines of our church. remember, the WRI was founded by apostles. and i agree with what elliott wrote in the comment below, that this is in many ways a reflection of the short-sighted action of a handful of professors. it still needs to be protested, but i sincerely hope it does not cause undue wrath. passion, yes, but thoughtful, intelligent passion.)

also! i have to mention quickly the golden moment of my week: last winter i was asked by some lawyers here in new york to write an expert affidavit for a nigerien woman who was seeking asylum in the US from her family who would force her to undergo FGM and forced marriage upon return to niger. i met with the woman and the lawyers many times, wrote my bit, and found out yesterday that her asylum is now granted! huzzah! she's safely installed in new york, under the care of catholic relief services, and her life is truly beginning.

so it is a good week for women after all :)

feminism is the radical notion that women are people.

i can't shake this - and i had to share/vent/cry: a few hours ago i received the news that my first alma mater, byu, is shutting down the women's research institute (WRI), which just celebrated it's 30-year anniversary after its founding by apostles dallin h. oaks and jeffrey r. holland. (bless them.)



i'm totally devastated, and my utter disappointment in byu has only been amplified. byu has already shown zero support for african studies - they shut down the international development major, and now this!



remember this article from nick kristof on how critical it is to support women for poverty reduction and general social benefit? and how important it is to acknowledge that women are grossly and disproportionately maltreated and mutilated and abused - the majority of their perpetrators met only with impunity? his article only gave a prominent voice to research and truths that many of us have been saying for decades, and that the faculty at the WRI tried to project to BYU's (often narrow-minded) campus.



the WRI gave me a grant to go to syria to do research on women. they housed the womanstats database project i worked on for 2 years. but most critical of all, they gave an actual voice and call to the world that byu was concerned about women, understood that their problems were critical, and should not be shelved as "special interest."



and now? oh byu - you're steadily making me lose hope in you completely.

these pictures are from the glory days: my last semester sara, thelms, brittany, ali, and i mounted a grand domestic violence advocacy event on byu's campus for international women's day. we had to be so political in framing it to byu's administration, but we did it. and it was a great success. and mom and dad stopped by, and lincoln helped out TONS. sigh. i miss those days. i hope byu students will continue to carry the torch for women's rights! down with domestic violence! help us break the silence!

Gottes Bild auf Kräutern und Steinen

"I tried taking pictures, but they were so mediocre. I guess every girl goes through a photography phase. You know, horses... taking pictures of your feet." ha! perfect. 100 points for identifying this quote... or 5,000,000 for the one in the post title... a bit more obscure...

happy november to you all from the trees of manhattan's own central and fort tryon parks! :)

[quiet] is the winter of our [dis]content

if my blog accurately reflected the comings and goings and otherwise -ings of my life, i would still be utterly ill at the moment. but luckily this blog is really only a snippet of daily proceedings, so no i am no longer vomiting out of taxi windows, but am instead happily healthy once more. huzzah for health!

to celebrate my last week of non-sickness, i returned to normal new york routines: a great deal of working, meetings, film screenings, lots and lots of park-walking (the leaves! the leaves!!!), park avenue-apartment wine/cheese-ings, but mostly i feel that the best moments of my hours outside unicef are filled with an ever-increasing amount of home-cookin'.

i tell you. something snapped when i was in berlin. the combination of working from home, having a loveable someone to cook for on a regular basis, and the uber-attractive glow of food blogs has turned me into a bona fide domestic:


maybe it's also that i'm getting "old"? ha! i will be a WHOLE quarter century this week - and look at this picture i just took with my computer (laughing whilst looking down at my roommate):


old - right? ok, maybe it's just the dark lighting.

but in addition to those scrumptious lemon-lime baby cakes above, tonight i made the best curry possible, and am wondering if one can start a food blog which simply reviews all other food-blogs? i may go down that road should i find myself for-whatever-reason-unemployed within the next year. (not likely, however - unicef is very good to me.)

but in other news, i'm staying in tonight. is this further proof of my burgeoning domesticity + age + eventual boredom? if so, bring it on. i'm incredibly content to step my way into a quiet winter. revisiting authors i've let fall by the wayside, make more yummy food, and simply bask in calm - so utterly scarce in manhattan. my life is so very full: there is a great deal of love in it, i am healthy and comfortable, i feel regularly renewed to learn and grow, and the future is hopeful. could i ask for anything more at this stage? methinks no.

so here's me transmitting love and baked goods to you all from my quiet apartment tonight in upper upper manhattan :)

[oh yes and duh - happy halloween! nowadays the only point of this holiday as far as i'm concerned is to see nieces and nephews look cute in their costumes. blog away with pictures fam! i can't wait to see! :)]

tender is the night

i'm horribly ill today... worse now in the night. sicker than i can remember being in a long while. it came suddenly - violently - today at work, forcing me into a cab at 3pm - vomiting out the side window as we drove up the FDR from midtown to harlem where i crawled in between sheets, bowl at my side, and tried to sleep to prevent myself from feeling all the pain and yuckiness.

since then i have watched a full 2.5+ hour documentary and then fictional film on rembrandt's "nightwatch", whilst (nervously) eating saltines to regain some strength...

and all this rembrandt night watching (literally) reminded me that i live within a subway ride from a whole room of gorgeous rembrandts and resolved myself to go to the met more than i have been this last year. (when i can actually stand upright that is.)


sigh.

i really do need to sleep now! i simply can't seem to. sickness and all that mean sleepless, long, reflective, weary, and tender nights for me...

so in the meantime i'm reading keats...*

*ironic, yes - considering i'm just nigh on turning 25. (weird!) but i'm comforted to know it's not 1821, and i do not have consumption. even if it kinda feels like it.

back at my desk (with a few alterations)

1. i'm wearing the FAB red curdoroy dress that steph very kindly made me. (click on the link and you can get one yourself! they're wonderful!)

2. i'm sipping the DELISH mighty leaf african nectar tea that mom lovingly bestowed on me.

3. i'm staring at the INTENSE playbill posted on my cubicle from the broadway production of hamlet (with jude law no less) which leslie and i were privileged to attend on saturday.

in other words, the weekend of the p fam women was a success, and i'm still reaping the benefits. thanks mom, les, and steph for coming all the way back east to the freeeezing cold city :) it was absolutely the best new york weekend i've had in a long long while :)

love you all lots and lots.

(sorry les: totally stole those pictures from you! hope you weren't going to blog them! ha!)

excited! excited!

SO excited that ...the angels will be in town this weekend to kick the yankees' trash.
(though NOT excited that the cheapest way-in-the-back-bench-not-even-real-seats-tickets are over $150 - dang yankee stadium)

...my boss is working from home today, so after my afternoon meeting i'm bookin' it home to complete my assignments there.
(NOT excited that she didn't tell me friday or earlier this morning she would be working from home, or else i would have never left)

....i can eat more of my banana bread yumminess stored in my freezer this afternoon while working. seriously everyone - make this stuff. it's amazing.

but above all, i am STOKED beyond STOKED that mom, les, and steph (and maybe stella!) are all descending on the city this weekend! ah! it will be so fun. i'm bouncing in my seat now thinking about it. i love visitors. especially when they happen to be the fam.

huzzah! go angels!

home early tonight

ah! i'm getting into this hyper-stimulation mode again. stepping into a thriving place like new york just morphs me into this huge sponge where every subway encounter and cultural event i am exposed to soaks up into me...

and after 3 over-full weeks of such sponging, i end up feeling really, really tired. ha.

today was such a day of almost overindulgent absorption: 'twas the first day of open house new york, where hundreds of awesomely interesting locales in the city typically closed and locked to the public are opened up for free perusal. awesome, yes? yes. after visiting 10 such sites scattered far far apart throughout the boroughs, topped off with an excellent film screening tonight at the maysles institute, i just had to come home. i planned to stay for the post-screening poetry reading, and then meet more friends to go dancing on the lower east side... but... all the way back down from harlem to avenue A after a week of readings and screenings and subway insanity and i just couldn't muster the strength. heck, i can't even muster the strength to tell you all about what awesomely interesting locales i went to and visited.

instead i was home by 10 to bake some banana-cinnamon-sugar-chocolate-bread-cake amazingness. and speaking of that, why yes that photo is in fact 3 stacks of oatmeal chocolate chip cookie pancakes that me and dear xarissa made last weekend to celebrate general conference. we feasted that weekend, with a perfect farewell-to-summer key lime coconut cake as well. oh and did i further mention that i also made my first scones recently?

homemade bagels are next.

and a very large p.s./fyi.. i cannot express in proper words how much i miss this:





















and maybe that's where most of the actual exhaustion comes from after all. :(

11 weeks until we're reunited. (not that i'm counting or anything)