Links
I just got back from watching Milk, which brought back a lot of memories (I came to California in 1978 to go to Stanford, was involved in the campaign against the Briggs Initiative, and remember where I was when I heard of the deaths of Moscone and Milk). More on that later.
In the meantime, I want to promote a link that Peter Hoh suggested in a comment: incubators for premature infants, made entirely out of car parts. The idea is to have something that’s maintainable in developing countries, since
In truth, experts say, the developing world doesn’t need more incubators. It needs incubators that work. Over the years, thousands have been donated from rich nations, only to end up in “incubator graveyards” — most broken, some never opened. According to a 2007 study from Duke University, 96 percent of foreign-donated medical equipment fails within five years of donation — mostly because of electrical problems, like voltage surges or brownouts or broken knobs, or because of training problems, like neglecting to send user manuals along with the devices.
Some links found on the #griots Twitter channel:
Greece unrest eyewitness reports – 20 December 2008.
Anarchists (not in Greece) write about the importance of anarchists in the current unrest in Greece, and the ways in which Greek anarchists are more effectively organized than those in other countries.
Some updates on several conflicts in Africa:
Talks between Mugabe and the Zimbabwe opposition are still deadlocked.
Violence intensifies in Darfur.
A proposed UN force to replace the European peacekeepers in Chad next year.
Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony is on the run and headed back to the Central African Republic.
The LRA have been moving between South Sudan, DR Congo and the Central African Republic via Dungu for the last two years. They were able to access fertile and populated areas of Haut Mbomou Prefecture, southeastern CAR.
(Reminder: the LRA are rebels against the government of Uganda, though Kony seems to manage to be everywhere but in Uganda.)
Peace talks resume in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Though I’m putting off the Milk blogging for later, I do want to point out this, written by my husband some years ago: The Martyrdom of
Mayor George Moscone.