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5/6/08 Tracy

Ok so here's the plan: we'll have as much as possible to one another by Saturday at noon. Then Penny and Theresa will give finals drafts to Tracy by noon on Monday, and Tracy will compile everything, send it back to everyone, and turn it in.

Here is our outline:

Penny- Intro to Landless Worker’s Movement

• Landless Worker’s Movement
  • Origins
  • Their main issues
  • Recent activity
  • Their goals
  • Current organization
• Role of Indigenous Women in the Landless Worker’s Movement
  • Access to education
  • Access to healthcare
  • Mobility

 

Theresa- Green Belt Movement & Education

·      Define the agenda of the GBM

·      What they do in terms of education

o      Health

o      Economic

o      Literacy

·      Emphasis on Women

·      What programs could be beneficial in Brazil

 

Tracy- Incorporate the Green Belt Movement into the Landless Worker’s Movement

•  
  • Ways the GMB and Landless Worker’s Movements have parallel goals
  • How the GMB addresses the specific issues that Brazilian women are suffering from
  • Research needed for GBM to work in Brazil
    • Current and desired forest cover
    • Indigenous trees
    • Soil types
    • Water availability
    • Living wage needed for women
    • Women’s access to education
      • Particular subjects needed for women’s education

 

 

5/6/08 Theresa

Penny, Tracy: Could this be a possible title for our proposal. Should we just put in Brazil?

Transnational FeminismEducational Curriculum: Greenbelt Movement in Latin America

Plan de Estudios: El Movimiento Greenbelt en América Latina

Below are quotes that I found pertinent to our concerns regarding land distribution and injust legislation in Brazil. I thought we might be able to include one of them in our proposal, on the side, like many of the articles have done in our class, just a thought. Theresa, Paz.  

I am translating the goals, mission and vision of the Greenbelt Movement in Spanish right now.  

Socially and economically marginalized populations are among those hardest hit by long-standing and systemic weaknesses of the criminal justice system. The problems of forced labor and human trafficking, as well as rural violence and land conflicts, also target the country’s poorer citizens. As in the past, perpetrators of human rights abuses enjoy impunity in the vast majority of cases. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/13/brazil9845.htm

Human Rights Overview Brazil

Rural Violence and Land Conflict   Impunity and Access to Justice  http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/13/brazil9845.htm

The vast majority of human right crimes in Brazil go unpunished, reflecting widespread corruption and other factors. Lack of access to justice—especially for the poorest and most vulnerable sectors of society—is a major problem, even according to Brazil’s own Secretariat for Human Rights. Though the federal government created a Public Transparency and Anti-Corruption Council in September 2004, additional efforts are necessary to increase transparency and to ensure that human rights abusers are punished adequately

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/13/brazil9845.htm

Though urban violence in Brazil grabs the most attention, the problem of rural violence is extremely serious. The Pastoral Land Commission has reported that 1,349 people were murdered in rural areas between 1985 and 2003. Only seventy-five cases have gone to court, however, and, of these, forty-four resulted in acquittal. In 2003 alone, seventy-three rural laborers were murdered, the highest number since 1990 and up nearly 70 percent from the previous year.  

 In January 2004, twenty-nine illegal diamond miners were killed on the Roosevelt reservation, home of the Cinta-Larga indigenous peoples in the state of Rondônia. Members of the tribe claimed responsibility for the massacre, stating they were acting to protect their land, which has been the site of violent clashes and invasions by miners for decades.   Human Rights NewsUniversal Periodic Review of Brazilhttp://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/04/10/global18497.htmHuman Rights Watch's Submission to the Human Rights CouncilIn rural regions, violence and land conflicts are ongoing, and human rights defenders suffer threats and attacks. And, while the Brazilian government has made efforts to redress human rights abuses, it has rarely held accountable those responsible for the violations.

 

 

5/3/08 Theresa

Dear Tracy and Penny: Just so you know the Six Sigma book for small businesses is a helpful resource. I am not sure if Tracy overheard our conversation, but with Penny we discovered it in class on the internet/computer. The book discusses well how the curriculum portion to be organized so that it is as effective as possible. They define four major steps in the book and I am planning to model my portion on their guidelines.

1. Communication and Education, which includes contacting both organizations and discerning the feasibility of this pilot program being used in their context.

2. Selection process of leaders in both organizations that have the skills necessary to lead the project and be responsible for it as well throughout the entire program.

3. The Training Curriculum itself, which they affirm is the most important part of the program, it's effectiveness and application.

4. Discerning the Final Project itself, in our case both groups would need to discern how the Greenbelt Movement program could be applied within their geographical region. 

I started writing up the steps that would need to be taken to go through these processes so that individuals would be prepared for a training when it came to that. I haven't translated anything into Spanish. I am going to keep working on the proposal in English and then discern while I am doing that the necessity of other resources written in Spanish. I didn't get an email back from the contact person in Costa Rica which I was hoping to. I know that we are all in the same boat and are doing the best we can especially given it is the end of the semester. I am hoping to post something written up by Tuesday if at all possible. Maybe we should plan to meet one more time out of class before we turn the paper in a week from this Tuesday. Thinking and praying for both of you. Lovingly, Theresa

4/22/08 

Ok quick summary of our final research proposal:

Penny is going to do an introduction and summary of the Landless Worker's Movement in Brazil.

Then Theresa will talk about translating the Green Belt Movement material into Spanish... and what changes would need to be made in the curriculum to help it work in Brazil.

Then Tracy will talk about incorporating the Green Belt Movement curriculum into the Landless Workers Movement.

We will submit outlines to one another on Saturday May 3, and Tracy will post them on the wiki.

 ~Tracy 

 

 

4/24/08 Theresa sent an email to an organization in Costa Rica that is presently working on translating Greenbelt Movement materials into Spanish. I am also working on translating the Greenbelt movement vision and mission statement into Spanish. Peace to everyone. Theresa

 

Dearest Jamie:Peace. Paz.My name is Theresa Ann Yugar and I am writing you to follow-up on an email I received from Christina from the organization Leaf Pack Network. Please let me first say I am sorry for the delay of this email but I personally got swamped with presentations and papers because the year is winding down here at Claremont Graduate University.I am not sure how much Christina told you. This semester I am blessed to be in a Transnational Feminism class here at Claremont. The whole semester we have been studying themes relating to women on a national and international level. We have also been accutely aware of our privilege as students who are in an academic setting and would like to help women on a grassroots level.For our final project we are being asked to write a proposal, using our academic background, that could be given to an NGO with the possibility of the organization being able to use the information that we have gathered. As a group, we are interested in implementing a proposal that is similar to the Greenbelt Movement in Africa. I was able to speak with a Greenbelt Movement representative in Washington, D.C. and she was very supporting, stating that she didn't believe that this program was being implemented in Latin America. I am emailing you because my part of the proposal is the education piece. My goal is to reflect on ideas on how to educate and implement this type of program in Brazil. My first realization is that literature from the Greenbelt Movement should be translated into Spanish first, and then into Portuguese. I am writing to you because I am very interested in the literature from the Greenbelt Movement that you are translating into Spanish at present.I am hoping that we could communicate by email and that I could learn from you your insights into the education piece of this project.Again, I am sorry for the delay of this email, but do look forward to hearing from you and sharing ideas together. Just to specify further, the we chose this project because our proposal is particularly interested in helping women to organize themselves so that they could enhance their economic situations.

Peace. Paz. I look forward to hearing from you. Theresa Yugar, School of Religion, Claremont Graduate University 

4/17/08

I have been overwhelmed recently...not with school work or time constraints really, but with the violence and horrors of our world. My research on the Chernobyl disaster, in addition to doctors finding that my mom has a malignant tumor in the last week, has just almost been too much for me. It seems that everywhere we turn we are exposed to cancer causing materials and that eventually our bodies turn on us.... not that I want to think about a dualism between the mind and the body... but it just seems that in the same way that the world is reacting to climate change by having more intense natural disasters, our bodies eventually react to everything that we are exposed to by having cells just go out of control... All of this just makes me disgusted with everything that I am touching and breathing. I long for naturally occuring materials, for green fields, for trees, for clean water... and in theory we (Americans) have all those things... and still the poisons get to us. 

All this said, I guess this makes me more aware of the continued need for organizations like the Green Belt Movement. So this weekend I am planning to begin thinking seriously about the environment of Brazil... including indigenous species of trees, soil issues, water availability, run-off problems, issues concerning living wages... etc. I will also begin looking into the Landless Poeple's Movement that Rosemary suggested. Perhaps we could think about incorporating the Green Belt Movement into the curriculum at their schools. This seems like it might be a natural fit that could address ecological, political, educational, and gender issues in conjuntion with one another. I think our project will be really exciting.

~Tracy 

 

 

4/17 Message From Theresa: Tracy, bless you, I feel like we did a good job for our presentation last Tuesday. :-)

During the last two weeks, particularly, the week before last I spent a significant amount of time researching the Greenbelt Movement web-site. My main interest was to peruse the web-site for educational resources and/or alliances that this movement has in Latin America. Though I did find some alliances of the Greenbelt movement in LAmerica, they were minimal. I ended up calling up the Greenbelt Movement U.S. office in Washington, D.C. and speaking with their contact person about our project and interest in implementing a Greenbelt Movement in Latin America. She was very excited about this because at this point in time there is no Greenbelt Movement affiliate or organization in Latin America. She was very helpful and did give me advice about an organization in Brazil that she said we should contact who are doing significant work in the area of ecology. What she found exciting about our project was that, to her knowledge, the project in Brazil did not have a program that specifically focused on the issue of gender. In terms of the education piece which is my portion of the paper she advised me to buy the book: The Ten Step Model: The Greenbelt Movement. I plan on ordering it today. As well, through the Greenbelt Movement web-site I contacted one of their programs called the Leaf Network which provides educational materials particularly for younger audiences relating to this movement. They did contact me, were very excited about our project, and this person gave me a person to contact in Costa Rica who at present is in the process of translating materials relating to the Greenbelt Movement. Because of time, papers and other presentations, I have not been able to follow-through on this contacts yet. My plan for today to spend the time necessary to follow-up on these recommendations as well as research on the internet the organization that Rosemary gave to me yesterday in class. I will continue to keep you posted about what transpires through these connections. Peace and blessing for a good day. Lovingly, Theresa

4/14 Any new conversations? You need to post every week if you can. Thanks. Kebokile 

4/8/08

 Greetings Theresa, Penny, and Jeongho. I agree with you Penny that the costs of the war are unthinkable. The ways that art, educations, and healthcare have been overlooked to continue to fund this war are only a few of the ways that we see patriarchal concepts of power at play in our world. Thinking about it too much just makes me feel hopeless. But I've been thinking recently that the worse thing to do is begin to feel hopeless... that is internalizing the power structure and paralyzing yourself. Instead, we just have to keep finding ways to work a little at a time to bring justice to the world. I know that sounds like empty optimism, but I don't think it is. I think this class is an example of the multitude of ways that women throughout the world are effecting change... small at first, but building momentum.

As for our presentation and our final paper, I think we are all on the same page. My understanding is that I will do the Chernobyl articles and it seems like everyone else knows what they are doing as well. YAY! Penny please do just take care of yourself and let us know if we can do anything to help! Also, Jeongho, are you planning to put together the power point again? Should we aim for getting our material to you be Friday again? And then you email us back the final version by like Sunday night?

As for our final paper, I think that trying to talk about what the Green Belt Movement would look like if we moved it to Brazil would be an excellent topic. And it seems like Theresa is already up and running on that project. I am slightly concerned that we need to be careful not to get people's hopes up that we will actually start the Green Belt Movement in Brazil. We are only supposed to write a paper on what it might take to do so. I don't think that we will at all have the resources to begin putting our research into practice. Although it would be awesome if someone could... Anyway, it is also my understanding that we will be getting further instructions about that in class either this week or next. I hope you are all well.

~Tracy 

4/5/08

Dearest Penny: I did not know about the "green card soldier" situation. I agree with you that our country is in crisis, not only economically but politically as well. I am saddened as well by what you said about funding for artists versus funding for war. I only hope that whoever the new president will be can help us through this crisis as well as be a leader with vision with their primary interests in the people of our country.

In reference to our presentation I am working on the articles relating to Ivone Gebara, there are two of them, one on her and one on Conspirando, an organization that she is working with. Tracy was interested in presenting on the articles relating to Chernobyl. Our hope was that you could give an overview of the first few articles relating to Climate Change. There are actually four articles. I would peruse them and see if there is a particular article of interest to you. There is one on Gender, Miliarism and Climate Change which would fit in well with last week's conversation and your interest in militarism as well. 

For my part of the presentation I decided that I am going to translate some parts of the Conspirando web-site because it is all in Spanish. I am going to translate their vision, their journals since 1991 (so that individuals can get a sense of their interests in feminism and ecofeminism), lastly I would like to speak about particular articles in their journals that I have read for Rosemary Ruether's Spanish reading group class. By doing this I can give the class a sense of the theological perspectives and critiques that are coming from the voices of Latin American women theologians, both feminist and ecofeminists.

Hope this helps you Penny. Tracy, does this sound ok to you. Penny do what you can, most of all do your best to take care of yourself too. Blessings to you both. Theresa

4/3/08

Hi Tracy and Theresa,

I need to know the articles that you will talk about for next presentaion. I am trying to put my part together before I leave for Taiwan next Wednesday. And as far as I understand, our final project will be the Green Belt Movement proposal in Latin American countries... or Brazil... Am I right?

I just want to share some afterthoughts for this week's guest speaker's speech. When the Iraq war started, the California Arts Council cut more than 10 million dollars from it's budget. Many art organizations went out of business, and directly affected thousands of musicians, artitists, dancers, theater actors, music teachers, art teachers, etc. Just seeing how much LA county spends on Iraq war makes me sad and angry. Many of my musicians friends left the country... Culture vs. Military. Hmmm...

I also want to point out if any of you know such a thing called "green card soldier." Basically the US government will grant green cards to those who sign up to be in the military. But many soldiers die in the battle field before receiving their green cards. How sad...

Anyway, just some thoughts.

paz, Penny

 

 

4/2/08

Tammy, Penny, Jeongho. . . a contact person emailed me from the LEAF Pack Network and are very positive about what are doing. In Costa Rica there is an organization that is currently working on translating materials into Spanish. I will follow-up on this later today because I have things I need to get done this morning, but I just wanted to let you know that I did receive a response and some more advice which will be helpful to our overall project, I believe. Blessings for a good day. Theresa

Welcome to the LEAF PACK NETWORK®!

Dear Theresa,

Thank you for joining Leaf Pack Network® (LPN). Your participation is valuable and essential to the goals of LPN and we look forward to working with you.

I am most intrigued by your note to me. Thank you.  As you may have seen on our LPN website, we have worked with the Green Belt Movement and Wangari Maathai.  Coincidentally your timing is perfect as we are currently working on a project where we are having the LPN manual translated into Spanish – we are working with one of our partners in Costa Rica on that, as we have a research station in Costa Rica.  I would like to put you in touch with James Blaine who is leading our leaf pack effort in Central and South America. I have copied him on this email. In the meantime, I’m happy to help with any implementation and any questions you have about the study.


Regarding your LPN registration:  As of today, you are ready to start entering data. Notice upon log-in that you can download the most up-to-date procedures and data sheets.  From time to time you will be getting emails from this account, the Leaf Pack Network® Administrator, regarding updates, changes, etc.  Please add this email to your address book so that you don’t miss any of those:  leafpacknetwork@stroudcenter.org.  

If at any time you need help remembering your user name and password please go to: http://www.stroudcenter.org/lpn/Login.asp and click on, “Forgot your password?” An automatic email will be sent to your registered email address with your user name and password provided.

If you ever have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you again and I look forward to seeing your data soon.

Sincerely,
Christina

Christina Medved
Leaf Pack Network® Administrator
Education Department
Stroud Water Research Center
970 Spencer Rd.
Avondale, PA 19311
(610) 268-2153 ext. 258
(610) 268-0490 {fax}
www.stroudcenter.org/lpn

4/1/08 Theresa Yugar continued

The woman I called at Greenbelt International in Virginia called me back and gave me some very good information and insights. She said that at present there is no Greenbelt movement established in Latin America but she was very excited about the possibility of this happening. When I asked her about educational information that is talked about on their web-site she recommended that we find the book: The Greenbelt Movement: Ten Step Model, which explains how one could replicate this movement in other countries. We should see if CGU has this book in their library or if we could get it through link plus or should we just buy it. She also said that there is a big environmental group already working in Brazil called The Nature Conservancy. On the web-site there is contact information for the group in Brazil that we should follow-up on to see the type of work that they are already doing so that we do not replicate projects. The one thing she did say was that she didn't believe this group had projects that were specifically geared toward women, which is a question we could raise to them in conversation with them via email. This woman is interested in seeing our final project proposal and then passing it along to the Nairobi office so that they know about this idea. Her name is Shelley Fine and her contact information is on the Greenbelt International web-site. She also said a couple of other things too. She recommended us contacting an organization called Lambi Fund of Haiti which provide financial resources for trainings, technical assistance, for projects throughout Latin America. She also said that the Counsel of Foundation located in Washington, D.C. is also a good resource in terms of writing grant proposals. In her experience she said that "buy in" from the government was important in terms of having a project implemented or not in another country. We most definitely could call her again if we have other questions for her. It was very exciting talking to her. I think this could really work. We could contribute something small, yet work for something larger, bigger in terms of change for women in Brazil. Peace and love to you, Theresa

4/1/08 Theresa Yugar

Penny, last week during class we had time to talk about our final project which is to write a proposal in the area of women and the environment. Tracy had a very good idea. She proposed that we each do some research related to implementing a Greenbelt movement project within a Latin American context. We were thinking of Brazil because of deforestation that has occurred in diverse regions there. She separated the project into three different areas; one of which was education, which I said I would do since I have background as a teacher. Tracy when you do your comments today would you define those three categories for Penny. Today during class we can confirm whether this is a topic we would like to do as a group. 

In terms of the education piece, my first instinct is that material from the Greenbelt Movement needs to be translated into Spanish, but if we do Brazil it wouldn't be Spanish, but Portuguese. I would like to start translating the page on the Greenbelt movement web-site: What is the Greenbelt Movement, which includes its mission, vision and values. As well, I saw on the web-site that they have two educational programs; one which is geared toward adults, another that is geared toward younger individuals. The two programs names are: GBM: Kenya: Civic and Environmental Education and the Leaf Packet Network. On the web-site I saw the contact information for the Greenbelt Movement International which is in Arlington, Virginia. I called the number this afternoon, no one answered, so I left a message, simply stating my name, number and interest in their educational programs, possibly to be implemented in a Latin American context. When or if, she calls me back, I will inquire about whether this program is already implemented ina LAmerican context, and if they have literature in Spanish or Portuguese. I am interested in obtaining an educational packet to look at. I did sign up via the computer also to request a Leaf Packet for young people as well. If and/or when she calls me back are there other things that you think we should ask her or talk about. 

Once we decide for sure that this is what we will be doing as a group I think it would be wonderful if we could email Ivone Gebara, let her know about our task for this class, and ask her for her insights and/or help. What do you think about this? Should we write the email together? I have emailed her before relating to something for Rosemary Ruether. She was very kind in my email and I do believe that she would email us back and possibly be interested in working with us.

Lastly, I was thinking of an organization that would possibly fund this project. The organization that came to mind was Mary's Pence, it is a non-profit organization that gives small amounts of money to support Catholic women pursuing graduate studies as well as projects organized by women that are engaged in social justice work.

This is all I can think of for now, I look forward to seeing you at class today. Peace and love, Theresa

3/25/08 Theresa Yugar

Hi there Tracy, Penny, Jeongho:

Peace to everyone. Hope your spring break was restful. I agree with you Tracy that our presentation before break did go very well. Thankyou again Jeongho for helping us with the power point aspect our presentation.

I agree with you Tracy that we need to look ahead at the readings for our next presentation. For the next presentation we are going to look at organizations that are working in our regions on the issues of women and the environment. For my geographical region I am interested in presenting on a group called Conspirando, an organization which is located in Chile, but works as well with women throughout Latin America on ecofeminist related issues. I am interested in the themes they cover in their journals as well as the activities that they sponsor as a group to address these same issues.

Yes, we do need to think about the topic for the final paper in this class. Pollution is a plausible topic. I haven't done any research on this area yet in Latin America, but I will start to do so this week.

Blessings to everyone. Theresa

Week 9: 3/25/08 Tracy Hawkins

Hey friends, so I thought our presentation went really well! YAY!

For our next presentation, we need to focus on at least two areas...so we'll need to look ahead to the readings and see what we want to talk about. Asia. Latin American, and the Middle East are all still possibilities I think. Remember we also need to run our plan by Marirose the week before.

Also, did you all think that pollution was what we wanted to talk about for our final paper? If so, we could start researching that now.

Also, we are missing some of our page. There are about two weeks worth of postings that are now missing...I know that happened to another group as well...so we'll have to figure that out.

2/28/08 Theresa Yugar

Forgive my ignorance, I did not know Teresia Hinga was an African theologian, I was thinking she was a theologian from Latin America. This was my assigned area. Currently, she is a teacher on the west coast at Santa Clara University up north. As well, we were blessed that she was a visiting lecturer at Scripps in the Spring of 2006, and that it was documented on their (Scripps College) Public Relations web-site: Scripps Cast.

From the reading thus far, the idea of land, seems to be an important part of both the ecofeminist movement and the colonialization project. Reading about the Greenbelt movement in Africa, women planting trees as a movement for "rural women" to address the serious problem of deforestation, I was wondering if it would be a interesting project, group activity, for the class to reflect on their images and/or understandings of land as well as possibly, like younger children do in grammar school, lead the class in planting a seed, within dirt. I wish as part of the excercise too that the individuals in the class would be invited to touch dirt, we would bring dirt, and then respond to what this symbol has historically meant for them in their lives, for a Western (European) perspective (person), and then reflect back on this in terms of its value of the indigenous women in Africa. In my research on Latin America and an ecofeminist movement I will look for movements that are possibly of "rural women" as well and see how these movements frame their missions (visions/goals) in relation to land. For both Africa and Latin America the theme a colonialism, or as she affirms a colonial ethic of domination versus a traditional environmental ethics. Something that came up for me last year in Ruether's class while reading Carol Christ's book was that individuals in the United States don't have the same connection to land as the natives of this land. Thus, when one does not have a relationship of any kind to someone/something, of course their level of respect for "it," in this case land is lowered. Maybe the question we could end with is: How can we as individuals, born immersed in a U.S. Western ideological framework, begin to create relationships of respect to land, and thus consequently to each other, and all people of land.

Penny, I would like Latin American music, from Brazil for our presentation. I happen to have a cd of a woman from Brazil who is a singer. I am thinking Brazil because a focus of my presentation will be on leading ecofeminist in Latin America Ivone Gebara.

These are just some ideas to ponder. Theresa

2/26/08, Penny Pan

I finally can get into this blog... After some research, I think I will focus on women and enviroment in rural area in Asia ( South East, China, etc.) By the way, if you guys want some music background with your region, let me know.

Week 6, 2/26/08, Theresa Yugar

Friends: I began doing some research on the theme of ecological issues currently being addressed in Latin America. I discovered that there are many organizations throughout Latin America that are raising issues and concerns relating to the environment. Much of the information on the internet was in Spanish. What I need to do is to take more time with these documents and see what ecological issues are raised in relation to women's experience in Latin America. As of yet I do not know what primary issue I will be highlighting as a concern for my presentation. My hope is for next week that it will be clear to me what issue I will be presenting on for our group discussion for the following week, March 11th.

Week 6, 2/26/08, Tracy Hawkins

Well friends, after our discussion in class last week it seemed that our plans were a little confused. I don't think that we all have to address the same issue (pollution) for our presentations. I think we can each just address whatever seems to be the biggest problem in our region. And we will each present for about 5 mins and then have a few discussion questions. Then for the research proposal I think we need to address one issue (perhap pollution) but we only need to address it in one region. If that isn't what people want to do, let me know. Anyway, if everyone is ok with it I think that I am going to talk about women in the middle east and water. I have only done a tiny bit of researrch, but it seems that there are plenty of sources. People are discussing the lack of water generally in the region and how women are harmed by that and how they can be part of water management solutions. Then for the second presentation, I'll try to find a transnational organization that is working on that issue. Penny, have you gotten on the Claremont Conversation yet?

Week 5, 2/19/08, Tracy Hawkins

Ok, so here is a summary of our plans:

Theresa will focus on Latin America; Penny will focus on Asia; and Tracy will focus on the Middle East. For the first presentation, each of us will discuss women and the environment in our region. We will discuss issues included deforestation, water cleanliness and availability, perhaps artgricultural practices that effect women, etc. For our second presentation, each of us will address organizations working in our region on issues of women and the environment. Furthermore, we will attempt to address ways in which we (Americans, living in the LA area) can get involved with helping these organizations or helping to eradicate the problems faced by women in our region. Does this sound good to everyone?

Week 4, 2-18-08 Kebokile Dengu-Zvobgo

These are great conversations and I have a couple of questions. How will your study fit the TRANSNATIONAL feminism framework? What Networks and discourse make this topic transnational?

Week #4, 2/11/08, Tracy Hawkins

So from Theresa's post, it looks like it would be a great idea to address the way enivornmental issues are impacting the lives of Latina women. We could use that to cover one of the regions for our presenations. Is there a specific issue that these women are particularly effected by? If we could pick one environmental issue and then look at it in several regions of the world, that would be great. Perhaps Theresa could help us narrow down an issue that Latina women face? Are we thinking urban latina women, or women living in more rural desert areas? Either way, we could certainly address the way women face similar issues in other parts of the world. I think we will have some time in class tomorrow to discuss our topic, so let's be thinking about these suggestions. :)

Week #4, 2/11/08, Theresa Yugar

Hi there, friends, this is Theresa Yugar, I am fascinated that there is an immense interest in earth friendly, green issues now being discussed in the Los Angeles area. Two weeks ago on the news there was a gathering of individuals at the Los Angeles City Council meeting to discuss how these issues affected not only women but the Latino community community as well. I just looked on the internet and there is a cite on the www.lacity.org website entitled: Environmental Issues: Department Reports. Though for some reason I could not log onto to it.

Again, this weeked on the Spanish news, there was coverage of groups of organizations that are critiquing environmental issues and lobbying for more earth friendly politices. I did attempt to write down some names and organizations represented on these broadcasts and will add them to my blog as soon as I am able to.

Week #2, 1/28/08, Tracy Hawkins

Hello Group,

I've been thinking about some approaches we could take to Women and the Environment... the first one I thought of is to explore the way microloans work and how women have been able to start gardens with the money; my second idea was to work on women and water and the way that with clean water affects health, etc.; thirdly, we could of course think about the patent issues in India that Vandana Shiva talks about. Those are just a few basic ideas to get us started... does anyone have particular interest in a region or issue?

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5/6/08 Tracy

Ok so here's the plan: we'll have as much as possible to one another by Saturday at noon. Then Penny and Theresa will give finals drafts to Tracy by noon on Monday, and Tracy will compile everything, send it back to everyone, and turn it in.

Also, Theresa, you are a superstar for all the translating you are doing! I also think that is a great title for our presentation, so let's go with it unless Penny has a problem with it.

 

5/6/08 Theresa

Penny, Tracy: Could this be a possible title for our proposal. Should we just put in Brazil?

Transnational FeminismEducational Curriculum: Greenbelt Movement in Latin America

Plan de Estudios: El Movimiento Greenbelt en América Latina

Below are quotes that I found pertinent to our concerns regarding land distribution and injust legislation in Brazil. I thought we might be able to include one of them in our proposal, on the side, like many of the articles have done in our class, just a thought. Theresa, Paz.  

I am translating the goals, mission and vision of the Greenbelt Movement in Spanish right now.  

Socially and economically marginalized populations are among those hardest hit by long-standing and systemic weaknesses of the criminal justice system. The problems of forced labor and human trafficking, as well as rural violence and land conflicts, also target the country’s poorer citizens. As in the past, perpetrators of human rights abuses enjoy impunity in the vast majority of cases. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/13/brazil9845.htm

Human Rights Overview Brazil

Rural Violence and Land Conflict   Impunity and Access to Justice  http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/13/brazil9845.htm

The vast majority of human right crimes in Brazil go unpunished, reflecting widespread corruption and other factors. Lack of access to justice—especially for the poorest and most vulnerable sectors of society—is a major problem, even according to Brazil’s own Secretariat for Human Rights. Though the federal government created a Public Transparency and Anti-Corruption Council in September 2004, additional efforts are necessary to increase transparency and to ensure that human rights abusers are punished adequately

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/13/brazil9845.htm

Though urban violence in Brazil grabs the most attention, the problem of rural violence is extremely serious. The Pastoral Land Commission has reported that 1,349 people were murdered in rural areas between 1985 and 2003. Only seventy-five cases have gone to court, however, and, of these, forty-four resulted in acquittal. In 2003 alone, seventy-three rural laborers were murdered, the highest number since 1990 and up nearly 70 percent from the previous year.  

 In January 2004, twenty-nine illegal diamond miners were killed on the Roosevelt reservation, home of the Cinta-Larga indigenous peoples in the state of Rondônia. Members of the tribe claimed responsibility for the massacre, stating they were acting to protect their land, which has been the site of violent clashes and invasions by miners for decades.   Human Rights NewsUniversal Periodic Review of Brazilhttp://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/04/10/global18497.htmHuman Rights Watch's Submission to the Human Rights CouncilIn rural regions, violence and land conflicts are ongoing, and human rights defenders suffer threats and attacks. And, while the Brazilian government has made efforts to redress human rights abuses, it has rarely held accountable those responsible for the violations.

 

 

5/3/08 Theresa

Dear Tracy and Penny: Just so you know the Six Sigma book for small businesses is a helpful resource. I am not sure if Tracy overheard our conversation, but with Penny we discovered it in class on the internet/computer. The book discusses well how the curriculum portion to be organized so that it is as effective as possible. They define four major steps in the book and I am planning to model my portion on their guidelines.

1. Communication and Education, which includes contacting both organizations and discerning the feasibility of this pilot program being used in their context.

2. Selection process of leaders in both organizations that have the skills necessary to lead the project and be responsible for it as well throughout the entire program.

3. The Training Curriculum itself, which they affirm is the most important part of the program, it's effectiveness and application.

4. Discerning the Final Project itself, in our case both groups would need to discern how the Greenbelt Movement program could be applied within their geographical region. 

I started writing up the steps that would need to be taken to go through these processes so that individuals would be prepared for a training when it came to that. I haven't translated anything into Spanish. I am going to keep working on the proposal in English and then discern while I am doing that the necessity of other resources written in Spanish. I didn't get an email back from the contact person in Costa Rica which I was hoping to. I know that we are all in the same boat and are doing the best we can especially given it is the end of the semester. I am hoping to post something written up by Tuesday if at all possible. Maybe we should plan to meet one more time out of class before we turn the paper in a week from this Tuesday. Thinking and praying for both of you. Lovingly, Theresa

4/22/08 

Ok quick summary of our final research proposal:

Penny is going to do an introduction and summary of the Landless Worker's Movement in Brazil.

Then Theresa will talk about translating the Green Belt Movement material into Spanish... and what changes would need to be made in the curriculum to help it work in Brazil.

Then Tracy will talk about incorporating the Green Belt Movement curriculum into the Landless Workers Movement.

We will submit outlines to one another on Saturday May 3, and Tracy will post them on the wiki.

 ~Tracy 

 

 

4/24/08 Theresa sent an email to an organization in Costa Rica that is presently working on translating Greenbelt Movement materials into Spanish. I am also working on translating the Greenbelt movement vision and mission statement into Spanish. Peace to everyone. Theresa

 

Dearest Jamie:Peace. Paz.My name is Theresa Ann Yugar and I am writing you to follow-up on an email I received from Christina from the organization Leaf Pack Network. Please let me first say I am sorry for the delay of this email but I personally got swamped with presentations and papers because the year is winding down here at Claremont Graduate University.I am not sure how much Christina told you. This semester I am blessed to be in a Transnational Feminism class here at Claremont. The whole semester we have been studying themes relating to women on a national and international level. We have also been accutely aware of our privilege as students who are in an academic setting and would like to help women on a grassroots level.For our final project we are being asked to write a proposal, using our academic background, that could be given to an NGO with the possibility of the organization being able to use the information that we have gathered. As a group, we are interested in implementing a proposal that is similar to the Greenbelt Movement in Africa. I was able to speak with a Greenbelt Movement representative in Washington, D.C. and she was very supporting, stating that she didn't believe that this program was being implemented in Latin America. I am emailing you because my part of the proposal is the education piece. My goal is to reflect on ideas on how to educate and implement this type of program in Brazil. My first realization is that literature from the Greenbelt Movement should be translated into Spanish first, and then into Portuguese. I am writing to you because I am very interested in the literature from the Greenbelt Movement that you are translating into Spanish at present.I am hoping that we could communicate by email and that I could learn from you your insights into the education piece of this project.Again, I am sorry for the delay of this email, but do look forward to hearing from you and sharing ideas together. Just to specify further, the we chose this project because our proposal is particularly interested in helping women to organize themselves so that they could enhance their economic situations.

Peace. Paz. I look forward to hearing from you. Theresa Yugar, School of Religion, Claremont Graduate University 

4/17/08

I have been overwhelmed recently...not with school work or time constraints really, but with the violence and horrors of our world. My research on the Chernobyl disaster, in addition to doctors finding that my mom has a malignant tumor in the last week, has just almost been too much for me. It seems that everywhere we turn we are exposed to cancer causing materials and that eventually our bodies turn on us.... not that I want to think about a dualism between the mind and the body... but it just seems that in the same way that the world is reacting to climate change by having more intense natural disasters, our bodies eventually react to everything that we are exposed to by having cells just go out of control... All of this just makes me disgusted with everything that I am touching and breathing. I long for naturally occuring materials, for green fields, for trees, for clean water... and in theory we (Americans) have all those things... and still the poisons get to us. 

All this said, I guess this makes me more aware of the continued need for organizations like the Green Belt Movement. So this weekend I am planning to begin thinking seriously about the environment of Brazil... including indigenous species of trees, soil issues, water availability, run-off problems, issues concerning living wages... etc. I will also begin looking into the Landless Poeple's Movement that Rosemary suggested. Perhaps we could think about incorporating the Green Belt Movement into the curriculum at their schools. This seems like it might be a natural fit that could address ecological, political, educational, and gender issues in conjuntion with one another. I think our project will be really exciting.

~Tracy 

 

 

4/17 Message From Theresa: Tracy, bless you, I feel like we did a good job for our presentation last Tuesday. :-)

During the last two weeks, particularly, the week before last I spent a significant amount of time researching the Greenbelt Movement web-site. My main interest was to peruse the web-site for educational resources and/or alliances that this movement has in Latin America. Though I did find some alliances of the Greenbelt movement in LAmerica, they were minimal. I ended up calling up the Greenbelt Movement U.S. office in Washington, D.C. and speaking with their contact person about our project and interest in implementing a Greenbelt Movement in Latin America. She was very excited about this because at this point in time there is no Greenbelt Movement affiliate or organization in Latin America. She was very helpful and did give me advice about an organization in Brazil that she said we should contact who are doing significant work in the area of ecology. What she found exciting about our project was that, to her knowledge, the project in Brazil did not have a program that specifically focused on the issue of gender. In terms of the education piece which is my portion of the paper she advised me to buy the book: The Ten Step Model: The Greenbelt Movement. I plan on ordering it today. As well, through the Greenbelt Movement web-site I contacted one of their programs called the Leaf Network which provides educational materials particularly for younger audiences relating to this movement. They did contact me, were very excited about our project, and this person gave me a person to contact in Costa Rica who at present is in the process of translating materials relating to the Greenbelt Movement. Because of time, papers and other presentations, I have not been able to follow-through on this contacts yet. My plan for today to spend the time necessary to follow-up on these recommendations as well as research on the internet the organization that Rosemary gave to me yesterday in class. I will continue to keep you posted about what transpires through these connections. Peace and blessing for a good day. Lovingly, Theresa

4/14 Any new conversations? You need to post every week if you can. Thanks. Kebokile 

4/8/08

 Greetings Theresa, Penny, and Jeongho. I agree with you Penny that the costs of the war are unthinkable. The ways that art, educations, and healthcare have been overlooked to continue to fund this war are only a few of the ways that we see patriarchal concepts of power at play in our world. Thinking about it too much just makes me feel hopeless. But I've been thinking recently that the worse thing to do is begin to feel hopeless... that is internalizing the power structure and paralyzing yourself. Instead, we just have to keep finding ways to work a little at a time to bring justice to the world. I know that sounds like empty optimism, but I don't think it is. I think this class is an example of the multitude of ways that women throughout the world are effecting change... small at first, but building momentum.

As for our presentation and our final paper, I think we are all on the same page. My understanding is that I will do the Chernobyl articles and it seems like everyone else knows what they are doing as well. YAY! Penny please do just take care of yourself and let us know if we can do anything to help! Also, Jeongho, are you planning to put together the power point again? Should we aim for getting our material to you be Friday again? And then you email us back the final version by like Sunday night?

As for our final paper, I think that trying to talk about what the Green Belt Movement would look like if we moved it to Brazil would be an excellent topic. And it seems like Theresa is already up and running on that project. I am slightly concerned that we need to be careful not to get people's hopes up that we will actually start the Green Belt Movement in Brazil. We are only supposed to write a paper on what it might take to do so. I don't think that we will at all have the resources to begin putting our research into practice. Although it would be awesome if someone could... Anyway, it is also my understanding that we will be getting further instructions about that in class either this week or next. I hope you are all well.

~Tracy 

4/5/08

Dearest Penny: I did not know about the "green card soldier" situation. I agree with you that our country is in crisis, not only economically but politically as well. I am saddened as well by what you said about funding for artists versus funding for war. I only hope that whoever the new president will be can help us through this crisis as well as be a leader with vision with their primary interests in the people of our country.

In reference to our presentation I am working on the articles relating to Ivone Gebara, there are two of them, one on her and one on Conspirando, an organization that she is working with. Tracy was interested in presenting on the articles relating to Chernobyl. Our hope was that you could give an overview of the first few articles relating to Climate Change. There are actually four articles. I would peruse them and see if there is a particular article of interest to you. There is one on Gender, Miliarism and Climate Change which would fit in well with last week's conversation and your interest in militarism as well. 

For my part of the presentation I decided that I am going to translate some parts of the Conspirando web-site because it is all in Spanish. I am going to translate their vision, their journals since 1991 (so that individuals can get a sense of their interests in feminism and ecofeminism), lastly I would like to speak about particular articles in their journals that I have read for Rosemary Ruether's Spanish reading group class. By doing this I can give the class a sense of the theological perspectives and critiques that are coming from the voices of Latin American women theologians, both feminist and ecofeminists.

Hope this helps you Penny. Tracy, does this sound ok to you. Penny do what you can, most of all do your best to take care of yourself too. Blessings to you both. Theresa

4/3/08

Hi Tracy and Theresa,

I need to know the articles that you will talk about for next presentaion. I am trying to put my part together before I leave for Taiwan next Wednesday. And as far as I understand, our final project will be the Green Belt Movement proposal in Latin American countries... or Brazil... Am I right?

I just want to share some afterthoughts for this week's guest speaker's speech. When the Iraq war started, the California Arts Council cut more than 10 million dollars from it's budget. Many art organizations went out of business, and directly affected thousands of musicians, artitists, dancers, theater actors, music teachers, art teachers, etc. Just seeing how much LA county spends on Iraq war makes me sad and angry. Many of my musicians friends left the country... Culture vs. Military. Hmmm...

I also want to point out if any of you know such a thing called "green card soldier." Basically the US government will grant green cards to those who sign up to be in the military. But many soldiers die in the battle field before receiving their green cards. How sad...

Anyway, just some thoughts.

paz, Penny

 

 

4/2/08

Tammy, Penny, Jeongho. . . a contact person emailed me from the LEAF Pack Network and are very positive about what are doing. In Costa Rica there is an organization that is currently working on translating materials into Spanish. I will follow-up on this later today because I have things I need to get done this morning, but I just wanted to let you know that I did receive a response and some more advice which will be helpful to our overall project, I believe. Blessings for a good day. Theresa

Welcome to the LEAF PACK NETWORK®!

Dear Theresa,

Thank you for joining Leaf Pack Network® (LPN). Your participation is valuable and essential to the goals of LPN and we look forward to working with you.

I am most intrigued by your note to me. Thank you.  As you may have seen on our LPN website, we have worked with the Green Belt Movement and Wangari Maathai.  Coincidentally your timing is perfect as we are currently working on a project where we are having the LPN manual translated into Spanish – we are working with one of our partners in Costa Rica on that, as we have a research station in Costa Rica.  I would like to put you in touch with James Blaine who is leading our leaf pack effort in Central and South America. I have copied him on this email. In the meantime, I’m happy to help with any implementation and any questions you have about the study.


Regarding your LPN registration:  As of today, you are ready to start entering data. Notice upon log-in that you can download the most up-to-date procedures and data sheets.  From time to time you will be getting emails from this account, the Leaf Pack Network® Administrator, regarding updates, changes, etc.  Please add this email to your address book so that you don’t miss any of those:  leafpacknetwork@stroudcenter.org.  

If at any time you need help remembering your user name and password please go to: http://www.stroudcenter.org/lpn/Login.asp and click on, “Forgot your password?” An automatic email will be sent to your registered email address with your user name and password provided.

If you ever have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you again and I look forward to seeing your data soon.

Sincerely,
Christina

Christina Medved
Leaf Pack Network® Administrator
Education Department
Stroud Water Research Center
970 Spencer Rd.
Avondale, PA 19311
(610) 268-2153 ext. 258
(610) 268-0490 {fax}
www.stroudcenter.org/lpn

4/1/08 Theresa Yugar continued

The woman I called at Greenbelt International in Virginia called me back and gave me some very good information and insights. She said that at present there is no Greenbelt movement established in Latin America but she was very excited about the possibility of this happening. When I asked her about educational information that is talked about on their web-site she recommended that we find the book: The Greenbelt Movement: Ten Step Model, which explains how one could replicate this movement in other countries. We should see if CGU has this book in their library or if we could get it through link plus or should we just buy it. She also said that there is a big environmental group already working in Brazil called The Nature Conservancy. On the web-site there is contact information for the group in Brazil that we should follow-up on to see the type of work that they are already doing so that we do not replicate projects. The one thing she did say was that she didn't believe this group had projects that were specifically geared toward women, which is a question we could raise to them in conversation with them via email. This woman is interested in seeing our final project proposal and then passing it along to the Nairobi office so that they know about this idea. Her name is Shelley Fine and her contact information is on the Greenbelt International web-site. She also said a couple of other things too. She recommended us contacting an organization called Lambi Fund of Haiti which provide financial resources for trainings, technical assistance, for projects throughout Latin America. She also said that the Counsel of Foundation located in Washington, D.C. is also a good resource in terms of writing grant proposals. In her experience she said that "buy in" from the government was important in terms of having a project implemented or not in another country. We most definitely could call her again if we have other questions for her. It was very exciting talking to her. I think this could really work. We could contribute something small, yet work for something larger, bigger in terms of change for women in Brazil. Peace and love to you, Theresa

4/1/08 Theresa Yugar

Penny, last week during class we had time to talk about our final project which is to write a proposal in the area of women and the environment. Tracy had a very good idea. She proposed that we each do some research related to implementing a Greenbelt movement project within a Latin American context. We were thinking of Brazil because of deforestation that has occurred in diverse regions there. She separated the project into three different areas; one of which was education, which I said I would do since I have background as a teacher. Tracy when you do your comments today would you define those three categories for Penny. Today during class we can confirm whether this is a topic we would like to do as a group. 

In terms of the education piece, my first instinct is that material from the Greenbelt Movement needs to be translated into Spanish, but if we do Brazil it wouldn't be Spanish, but Portuguese. I would like to start translating the page on the Greenbelt movement web-site: What is the Greenbelt Movement, which includes its mission, vision and values. As well, I saw on the web-site that they have two educational programs; one which is geared toward adults, another that is geared toward younger individuals. The two programs names are: GBM: Kenya: Civic and Environmental Education and the Leaf Packet Network. On the web-site I saw the contact information for the Greenbelt Movement International which is in Arlington, Virginia. I called the number this afternoon, no one answered, so I left a message, simply stating my name, number and interest in their educational programs, possibly to be implemented in a Latin American context. When or if, she calls me back, I will inquire about whether this program is already implemented ina LAmerican context, and if they have literature in Spanish or Portuguese. I am interested in obtaining an educational packet to look at. I did sign up via the computer also to request a Leaf Packet for young people as well. If and/or when she calls me back are there other things that you think we should ask her or talk about. 

Once we decide for sure that this is what we will be doing as a group I think it would be wonderful if we could email Ivone Gebara, let her know about our task for this class, and ask her for her insights and/or help. What do you think about this? Should we write the email together? I have emailed her before relating to something for Rosemary Ruether. She was very kind in my email and I do believe that she would email us back and possibly be interested in working with us.

Lastly, I was thinking of an organization that would possibly fund this project. The organization that came to mind was Mary's Pence, it is a non-profit organization that gives small amounts of money to support Catholic women pursuing graduate studies as well as projects organized by women that are engaged in social justice work.

This is all I can think of for now, I look forward to seeing you at class today. Peace and love, Theresa

3/25/08 Theresa Yugar

Hi there Tracy, Penny, Jeongho:

Peace to everyone. Hope your spring break was restful. I agree with you Tracy that our presentation before break did go very well. Thankyou again Jeongho for helping us with the power point aspect our presentation.

I agree with you Tracy that we need to look ahead at the readings for our next presentation. For the next presentation we are going to look at organizations that are working in our regions on the issues of women and the environment. For my geographical region I am interested in presenting on a group called Conspirando, an organization which is located in Chile, but works as well with women throughout Latin America on ecofeminist related issues. I am interested in the themes they cover in their journals as well as the activities that they sponsor as a group to address these same issues.

Yes, we do need to think about the topic for the final paper in this class. Pollution is a plausible topic. I haven't done any research on this area yet in Latin America, but I will start to do so this week.

Blessings to everyone. Theresa

Week 9: 3/25/08 Tracy Hawkins

Hey friends, so I thought our presentation went really well! YAY!

For our next presentation, we need to focus on at least two areas...so we'll need to look ahead to the readings and see what we want to talk about. Asia. Latin American, and the Middle East are all still possibilities I think. Remember we also need to run our plan by Marirose the week before.

Also, did you all think that pollution was what we wanted to talk about for our final paper? If so, we could start researching that now.

Also, we are missing some of our page. There are about two weeks worth of postings that are now missing...I know that happened to another group as well...so we'll have to figure that out.

2/28/08 Theresa Yugar

Forgive my ignorance, I did not know Teresia Hinga was an African theologian, I was thinking she was a theologian from Latin America. This was my assigned area. Currently, she is a teacher on the west coast at Santa Clara University up north. As well, we were blessed that she was a visiting lecturer at Scripps in the Spring of 2006, and that it was documented on their (Scripps College) Public Relations web-site: Scripps Cast.

From the reading thus far, the idea of land, seems to be an important part of both the ecofeminist movement and the colonialization project. Reading about the Greenbelt movement in Africa, women planting trees as a movement for "rural women" to address the serious problem of deforestation, I was wondering if it would be a interesting project, group activity, for the class to reflect on their images and/or understandings of land as well as possibly, like younger children do in grammar school, lead the class in planting a seed, within dirt. I wish as part of the excercise too that the individuals in the class would be invited to touch dirt, we would bring dirt, and then respond to what this symbol has historically meant for them in their lives, for a Western (European) perspective (person), and then reflect back on this in terms of its value of the indigenous women in Africa. In my research on Latin America and an ecofeminist movement I will look for movements that are possibly of "rural women" as well and see how these movements frame their missions (visions/goals) in relation to land. For both Africa and Latin America the theme a colonialism, or as she affirms a colonial ethic of domination versus a traditional environmental ethics. Something that came up for me last year in Ruether's class while reading Carol Christ's book was that individuals in the United States don't have the same connection to land as the natives of this land. Thus, when one does not have a relationship of any kind to someone/something, of course their level of respect for "it," in this case land is lowered. Maybe the question we could end with is: How can we as individuals, born immersed in a U.S. Western ideological framework, begin to create relationships of respect to land, and thus consequently to each other, and all people of land.

Penny, I would like Latin American music, from Brazil for our presentation. I happen to have a cd of a woman from Brazil who is a singer. I am thinking Brazil because a focus of my presentation will be on leading ecofeminist in Latin America Ivone Gebara.

These are just some ideas to ponder. Theresa

2/26/08, Penny Pan

I finally can get into this blog... After some research, I think I will focus on women and enviroment in rural area in Asia ( South East, China, etc.) By the way, if you guys want some music background with your region, let me know.

Week 6, 2/26/08, Theresa Yugar

Friends: I began doing some research on the theme of ecological issues currently being addressed in Latin America. I discovered that there are many organizations throughout Latin America that are raising issues and concerns relating to the environment. Much of the information on the internet was in Spanish. What I need to do is to take more time with these documents and see what ecological issues are raised in relation to women's experience in Latin America. As of yet I do not know what primary issue I will be highlighting as a concern for my presentation. My hope is for next week that it will be clear to me what issue I will be presenting on for our group discussion for the following week, March 11th.

Week 6, 2/26/08, Tracy Hawkins

Well friends, after our discussion in class last week it seemed that our plans were a little confused. I don't think that we all have to address the same issue (pollution) for our presentations. I think we can each just address whatever seems to be the biggest problem in our region. And we will each present for about 5 mins and then have a few discussion questions. Then for the research proposal I think we need to address one issue (perhap pollution) but we only need to address it in one region. If that isn't what people want to do, let me know. Anyway, if everyone is ok with it I think that I am going to talk about women in the middle east and water. I have only done a tiny bit of researrch, but it seems that there are plenty of sources. People are discussing the lack of water generally in the region and how women are harmed by that and how they can be part of water management solutions. Then for the second presentation, I'll try to find a transnational organization that is working on that issue. Penny, have you gotten on the Claremont Conversation yet?

Week 5, 2/19/08, Tracy Hawkins

Ok, so here is a summary of our plans:

Theresa will focus on Latin America; Penny will focus on Asia; and Tracy will focus on the Middle East. For the first presentation, each of us will discuss women and the environment in our region. We will discuss issues included deforestation, water cleanliness and availability, perhaps artgricultural practices that effect women, etc. For our second presentation, each of us will address organizations working in our region on issues of women and the environment. Furthermore, we will attempt to address ways in which we (Americans, living in the LA area) can get involved with helping these organizations or helping to eradicate the problems faced by women in our region. Does this sound good to everyone?

Week 4, 2-18-08 Kebokile Dengu-Zvobgo

These are great conversations and I have a couple of questions. How will your study fit the TRANSNATIONAL feminism framework? What Networks and discourse make this topic transnational?

Week #4, 2/11/08, Tracy Hawkins

So from Theresa's post, it looks like it would be a great idea to address the way enivornmental issues are impacting the lives of Latina women. We could use that to cover one of the regions for our presenations. Is there a specific issue that these women are particularly effected by? If we could pick one environmental issue and then look at it in several regions of the world, that would be great. Perhaps Theresa could help us narrow down an issue that Latina women face? Are we thinking urban latina women, or women living in more rural desert areas? Either way, we could certainly address the way women face similar issues in other parts of the world. I think we will have some time in class tomorrow to discuss our topic, so let's be thinking about these suggestions. :)

Week #4, 2/11/08, Theresa Yugar

Hi there, friends, this is Theresa Yugar, I am fascinated that there is an immense interest in earth friendly, green issues now being discussed in the Los Angeles area. Two weeks ago on the news there was a gathering of individuals at the Los Angeles City Council meeting to discuss how these issues affected not only women but the Latino community community as well. I just looked on the internet and there is a cite on the www.lacity.org website entitled: Environmental Issues: Department Reports. Though for some reason I could not log onto to it.

Again, this weeked on the Spanish news, there was coverage of groups of organizations that are critiquing environmental issues and lobbying for more earth friendly politices. I did attempt to write down some names and organizations represented on these broadcasts and will add them to my blog as soon as I am able to.

Week #2, 1/28/08, Tracy Hawkins

Hello Group,

I've been thinking about some approaches we could take to Women and the Environment... the first one I thought of is to explore the way microloans work and how women have been able to start gardens with the money; my second idea was to work on women and water and the way that with clean water affects health, etc.; thirdly, we could of course think about the patent issues in India that Vandana Shiva talks about. Those are just a few basic ideas to get us started... does anyone have particular interest in a region or issue?

[More]

5/6/08 Theresa

Penny, Tracy: Could this be a possible title for our proposal. Should we just put in Brazil?

Transnational FeminismEducational Curriculum: Greenbelt Movement in Latin America

Plan de Estudios: El Movimiento Greenbelt en América Latina

Below are quotes that I found pertinent to our concerns regarding land distribution and injust legislation in Brazil. I thought we might be able to include one of them in our proposal, on the side, like many of the articles have done in our class, just a thought. Theresa, Paz.  

I am translating the goals, mission and vision of the Greenbelt Movement in Spanish right now.  

Socially and economically marginalized populations are among those hardest hit by long-standing and systemic weaknesses of the criminal justice system. The problems of forced labor and human trafficking, as well as rural violence and land conflicts, also target the country’s poorer citizens. As in the past, perpetrators of human rights abuses enjoy impunity in the vast majority of cases. http://hrw.org/english/docs