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Steve Gilliard, 1964-2007
It is with tremendous sadness that we must convey the news that Steve Gilliard, editor and publisher of The News Blog, passed away June 2, 2007. He was 42.
To those who have come to trust The News Blog and its insightful, brash and unapologetic editorial tone, we have Steve to thank from the bottom of our hearts. Steve helped lead many discussions that mattered to all of us, and he tackled subjects and interest categories where others feared to tread.
Please keep Steve's friends and family in your thoughts and prayers.
Steve meant so much to us.
We will miss him terribly.
Seitan Worshipper: "International Women's Day"
"In Russia, truck drives you" - hack comedian Yakov Smirnov
Thanks to SW who sent in this insightful (and brief) thought - THANKS SW!
We're more than 1/2 the world and all we get is one day. [sigh] Anyway, here's what the UN hopes to accomplish:U.N. chief urges single world agency for women
By Michelle Nichols
Thu Mar 8, 3:12 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world body on Thursday to create a single agency to empower women and girls and fight for their rights.
In an address to mark International Women's Day, Ban said the 192-member United Nations should take the lead in the global battle with a fully funded new agency that combines the work currently done by three different U.N. bodies.
"Such a new body should be able to call on all of the U.N. system's resources in the work to empower women and realize gender equality worldwide," Ban said. "It should mobilize forces of change at the global level and inspire enhanced results at the country level."
A U.N. panel recommended in November that the U.N. Development Fund for Women, the U.N. Division for the Advancement of Women, and the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues be combined into one ambitiously funded agency.
The combined budgets of the three units is currently less than $80 million annually.
Ban said much more needed to be done in the fight for women's rights, particularly in combating violence against women and girls around the world, which is the theme for this year's International Women's Day.
"Most societies proscribe such violence -- yet the reality is that too often, it is tolerated under the fallacious cover of cultural practices and norms, within the walls of the home," Ban told a U.N. International Women's Day event in New York.
- posted by Seitan Worshipper