hi, today i’m actually studying. i mean actually actually. usually i just study and be done and …
for example, i only studied 2.5 hours yesterday even thought i had the whole day to study. hahahaha. lame. but today. i’m actually studying.
but still not a lot. i’m doing random things and stuff. but i memorized a bit of stuff and edited a bit of stuff. and now i’m onto bs-ing something stuff. and my eyes are kinda of hurting. but, eh, that’s irrelevant.
so this bs-ing business. is getting me kinda stuck. i’m sort of writing the samet hing over adn over in differnt phrases and my thoughts are not really coming to me. i feel like i can bs better with actual new thoughts. but then that may not coutn as bs.
this blog is bs. haha. more updates later.
disclaimer: I am simply reporting what happened at the conference - i may/may not agree with some of the things they are arguing.
I did a reaction at the end of all the topics, though.
Back from the Santa Monica Conference hosted by the Feminist Majority and here are some of my notes on the current issues of women:
human trafficking: 80% of human trafficking is women and trans-national. A house in El-Monte was found to have enslaved Thai-women for 8 years making textile clothes. Most women are tricked into working in a foreign country because the schemers say that they will be offered work in the US (for example) and will be able to earn money and come back to their native country with more money to support their children. They then enslave them or sell them into the sex trade in Europe and the United States. The Human Trafficking Protection Act of 2000 states that women who were tricked into human trafficking will be able to stay in the US (if they so choose so) if they are freed from the trafficking system. Men are also trafficked to work as well, to beg on the streets, for example. Human trafficking functions on mind control and fear. To report human trafficking go to castla.org.
Human Trafficking Awareness month is 1/11-2/12 (Lincoln’s birthday)
under-representation: women make up 52% of the US population yet only 17% of the senate are women. There are no equal rights without equal representation. Not a true democracy. Top company executives also include only 5% women.
wage-based discrmination: women do 2/3 of the work in the world but only get 76 cents for every dollar a man makes.
health care: women pay 50-70% higher for health care because of pre-existing conditions such as pregnancy and rape. Conditions that are out of the women’s control (rape) and are natural to being a women (pregnancy) - thus it charges higher simply because we are women. Abortion and other reproductive treatments are not covered by health care. Abortions are very expensive.
reproductive rights: women should have control over their own reproductive rights. If a college student has to drop out of school to have a baby, what gives someone the right to force her to do that? One’s own reproductiveness is one’s own privacy and right. In fact, it is one of the most private parts of a person’s life. Abortion is illegal in Philippine and their hospitals are filled with women who have attempted to abort their own babies but have failed and are now in peril. A 15 years old, for example, was raped and tried to abort her own baby. Luckily and unlike many others, she is alive. Women will abort, it’s a question of whether if it’s going to be safe and legal or if it’s going to be unsafe and more costly (because the failed attempts will bring more women to the hospital so much that the actual pregnant women will not have enough medical attention as in the Phillipines).
fake pregnancy clinics: There are fake pregnancy clinics funded by the government called crisis pregnancy clinics around college campuses. They are fake because they do not provide all real options for girls - which should be abortion, adoption, or keeping the baby - but simply persuade the girls to keep the baby and then give it up to Christian or otherwise qualified families. They have been sued for coercing girls to give up their babies after the babies have been born. Some do not have real health professionals. Action should be taken to find out about clinics around your campus and to inform the student body.
forced genital mutilations: forced genital mutilations are when girls (or guys) are forced to undergo genital mutilation. This is illegal in the US but still happens. In Africa, for example, girls 13-15 of age are forced to have their outter labia then the opening of their vagina is sewed up. When intercourse occurs, the girls must cut open their vaginal arena which has been sewn up. The girls are then forced to marry older men, who use them for sex slaves. After the older men are done with the young girls, they are sold into the sex trade in Europe and the US.
global problems/connection: US foreign policy affects all nations across the globe and if we lose the fight here, we lose the fight everywhere. Bush cut United Nations funding for pregnancy across the globe, causing thousands of women to die. Also implemented the gag rule over family planning which Obama has lifted. Women in Afghanistan oppose US occupation/invasion. They used to be highly educated and leaders*.iranian women are way worse now than they were before US invasion. Iraqi women are now slaves under Iraq regime. Before, Iraq women used to be the most respected in the Middle East for their freedom. Israel policies harm Palestanian women.
*Actually, for extra credit to my Gender and Women’s Studies class, I heard Molalai Joya who is known as the greatest woman of Afghanistan, who talked about the misogynist fundamentalist government in Afghanistan that is being supported by the US governement and how the US is using the excuse of getting rid of the taliban to keep the war going, thus creating chaos in Afghanistan and preventing the peace-loving/justice-loving people in Afghanistan to choose their own destiny as a nation.
violence against women: ineffectiveness of rape kits, rape, domestic violence, sexual harrassment, death due to pregnancy (1/3 in developing nations).
eco-feminism: women are disproportionally affected by global warming.Women are frontline envrionmentalists. Only 3% of the world get enough water - women and girls don’t get enough water. As the globe warms and water becomes scarce women will have to travel further to get water, which means they will not have time for education, trapping them in their impoverished state, creating a vicious cycle.
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I’m surprised how not more people are feminists given our blatantly masculine and sexist society where we face sexual discrimination almost everywhere we go and see. Not only are women only valued for their sex because the media portrays women for their sex or no at all, but masculine traits are far more valued than feminine ones. In addition, the stigma behind feminists hating men is ridiculous. Just because you respect women or yourself as a woman does not mean you hate men. On the other hand, if you are not a feminist, it implies that you’re fine with the inequalities that women must endure in this world simply because they are women and think that you yourself as a woman or that your sister, girlfriend, wife, mother does not deserve the same social opportunities, rights, and equalities as men despite their competency and qualifications.
Why is progress so slow for women? Why are so many so passive about this? We must see that if we’re not part of the solution, we’re contributing to the problem. We must know that the only way to create a more equal tomorrow where both masculine and feminine traits are valued and can work in harmony is if we combine our voices and speak for all the outrage, injustice, and hate suffered in silence. For the women that are still suffering in silence. For your sister. For your mother. For your friend. For the little girl’s dreams and her belief in humanity. For you. For us. For the heart that I know beats within.
why is the timing inaccurate - it’s not 11/4/09 it’s 11/3/09 10:17pm - i blogged twice today.
so we decided to study at the library today at around 10 but when we got there it was packkedd ]]]: i mean, we could not find 2 seats together to save our lives… why ]: so saddd.
i love studying @ the cal libraries - they are the most gorgeous things on this planet. I love the lights and everything. they’re sooo beautiful [: i feel very very lucky. except when i can’t find seats. I’m very glad that they’ll be bringing longer hours to the libraries next semester so they won’t get taken.
although I do hope they don’t raise our tuitions. ]: noooooo townhall meeting this thursday and I’m not sure if i’m going to go. I mean, there’s this women’s conference. but it’s very unorganized. and i have to committ thursday, friday, AND saturyday which is a huge time committment and we have no where to stay and we’re just booking a hotel and I’m going to be absent (2nd time) for my section… with only 1 freebie. So I’m not sure if I’ll go. SIGH… i don’t know. but then I already bailed on SBLC for PBL AND i emailed Johntell. but I don’t know… that conference is starting to look more and more forboding. really. it’s so disorganized and I haven’t even paid and it’s going to get expensive with the hotel and everything. so i just don’t know. and i don’t even know if i can still sign up for SFBLC or whatever it’s called. gosh darn it. ]:
yeah. so i’m studying at the library and everyone is studying at the library. i don’t know why there are so many people here… is it finals season already? but i just got done with my 7 essays … “/ booooo why so soon? although there’s not that many weeks of school left.
we only have one more week after thanksgiving. awwww. i’m going to miss berkeley. i really love it here. [: although, i have been slightly bored this week for reason… maybe need to rebalance/spark up my life with something.
anyway, the yoga thing… i need to apply for the scholarship, it’s supposedly life-changing. but you know, i don’t know, i fall asleep when i try to do yoga. Not really the sit and meditate kind of person. more active and whirling thoughts person. mmmm oh well, the person was espeically nice. and i missed the deadline. oh shoot, i need to sign up for an interview with ASUC grant for DJ battle.
wowww to many things going on. but not a bad studying day over-all. time is of the essence. go!
OK, i am definitely getting the freshmen 15.
yesterday was my first day eating at CKC (clark kerr) because idk, i just never get to go and am very busy.
but they had this heavenlyyy chicken and I ate so much that food started coming up -_-x… not good.
then today, had lunch with lynn, brian & razi @ cafe 3 and over ate again and now i have this huge food baby and I am in pain cuz it feels like my stomach’s gonna pop. not good. Because! they have buffets, and being asian, I feel like i should get my money’s worth. but… of course that’s delusional (oh! i’m listening to that by mariah carey;) becaues they’re meal points and we eat that everyday.
oh goshhh, i am SOOO bloated and have the biggest food baby yet.
this is how people get freshmen 15: they eat beyond their capabilities and … their stomachs contract and get bigger and then, you have a bigger capacity and you can eat even more, but you’re constantly eating over your limit and you get fat]: i do not like feeling bloated ]: this is unhealthy!!! ]8
although, cal has pretty good food [: or maybe i’m just not that picky with food. i’ll eat anything you give me [: especially sweets :D
Oh, how i wish i could write like so again. but there’s always the drowsiness to it, the young too-romantic girl feel, the generic form, the banal repetition of the same voice that isn’t my own - where do we shred off the voice of all the novels of our childhood, of f. scott fitzgerald, and charlette bronte and pick a voice that is decisively our own. there’s the scientific writing - much like the cogent arguments we make in AP English. those are always straight-forward and contain little voice. although, i suppose, the best ones incorporate incorporate the voice of the writer. I, however, have never managed to combine logic with emotion. Because when you write an argument, it’s about the argument, the evidence, the logic behind the argument and emotion defers such arguments, as reason must be separated from passion as Aristotle suggest. Enough rambling though, i will write of Nietzsche and his deprived Twilight of the Idols and how it relates to political economy. Oh, how important one feels writing such things. i feed on vanity. really. i do. everything in vain. i love me. but how can i love anyone else if i don’t love myself? LOl
by the way, there are two or three blond girls sitting across from me in the library computers and are speaking some weird language… sounds like Swedish… or syletherin from harry potter.
this is how i amuse me.
this is why i’m hot.
what a weird post… o.O LOl
halloween around the corner :D
