Twenty-One Years Later - Tiananmen Square

The 21st anniversary of an outrage. From Amnesty blog. Amnesty International (US section; see page for your country)

A Christmas Cat for GG - Week's End

Friday Update: Snow storm on its merry way & we're busy getting ready. So this is week's end for sake of balance. We shall return over the weekend. Cheers! (You can still help out Toys for Tots online--no excuses!) The Management

Actually, this was for GG. But. Toys for Tots donations are far below expectations; the situation is quite desperate. The IKEA kitty is going to the big toy box near GG Central. Please, please, please: donate to Toys for Tots if you are in the States. The IKEA 2009 Soft Toy Campaign runs through 24 December. Prices are low, cuteness level is high; donations go to UNICEF & Save the Children. [image via ikea.com]

ciao-meow/GG's editor

The Girl Effect

This first week of December, start a positive chain reaction.

[domino cascade by Nauticashades via wikipedia]

L'acqua per il Darfur

Ciao. [photographs all rights reserved]

"How unpleasant, must we talk about Darfur?"

Yes, we agree; how terribly unpleasant it all is: Darfur, Congo, Burma, etc. How very seven years ago (in the case of Darfur).

But you know what strikes us as really bad manners? Allowing people to starve, be brutalized, raped & remaining silent. The fact remains that these things are happening & as we've said before, it's in your self-interest to do something about it. No one is asking you to give your entire life over to a cause; what's 15 minutes? We waste that x 2 nearly every day watching a Seinfeld repeat. (Not all activists are humorless wretches--truly.) There are links all over this page for anyone to visit. We hope you will....

We continue this week with some repeats from last year because we are still unwell & there are some lovely photos that most people haven't seen. We'll check email every day. Thanks so much.

[school children at Ain Sero & women collecting firewood near Kutum by Susan Burgess-Lent/DPDO/all rights reserved. Taken in May 2008; things are much worse now.]

You can help Aung San Suu Kyi--will you?

We interrupt our illness to plead for a little online advocacy on behalf of Aung San Suu Kyi . Since 1988 we've had a poster of the great Nobel Laureate on our wall at home & at our office. She is an inspiration every single day.

A great injustice is happening again (still); we need not recount it. What you do matters. Please go to the online sites & sign the petitions. Go to Amnesty International & sign whatever is there. To the U.S. Campaign for Burma. Canadians have a stake in this, too, of course as she is an honorary citizen of that wonderful country. There were protests in Canada this week but we've not been able to keep up. In case you've not signed those petitions, here is the link to Canadian Friends of Burma .

We are very tired but felt that with the trial going forward in Rangoon & the outrageous last few weeks, we have to say something. Thank you.

photo via scan of personal copy of Letters from Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi

Never Again: What You Do Matters

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
— Elie Wiesel

The Days of Remembrance this year are 19-26 April. Holocaust Remembrance Day, this year is tomorrow, Tuesday, 21 April 2009. (See here for explanation of date system & for 5 Things You Don't Know about Anne Frank.) See here for this year's theme (Never Again: What You Do Matters), activities, & reading from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. President Obama will give the annual memorial speech in the Capitol Rotunda on Thursday, 23 April. We will listen closely for his thoughts about Darfur. There is a fascinating exhibit at the USHMM on Nazi Propaganda; you can make a virtual visit if you're not planning to be in DC anytime soon. (photo credit)

Note: Unfortunately we cannot allow comments or back-links to/on this post. We are very sorry but cannot risk the possibility of a recurrence of what happened with the Rwanda post.

If you think about it...

...there's a lot you can do. Please visit humanitarian links on this site...photograph by the lovely Giampaolo Macorig in Rome. xo/gg