Media Recognition for a Freedom Fighter
Marie-Noelle Ferrieux Patterson, Vanuatu's internationally-respected ombudsman, is under increasing attack from politicians whose misdeeds and corruption she regularly exposes. Some are agitating to remove her from her position. But Ferrieux Patterson's work has received welcome recognition from an unexpected source, the region's main news media organization.
Meeting in Port Vila, the Vanuatu capital, for its annual convention, the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) broke from precedent. It awarded Ferrieux Patterson for her fearless efforts to use her knowledge of the law and accounting to bring into the public domain questionable practices by people in public office. She was hailed for her determination to make sure her findings continued to be available to the local news media and the people of Vanuatu.
Ferrieux Patterson herself had praise for the Vanuatu news media. The independent newspaper Vanuatu Trading Post had shown courage and determination to publish the truth through the publication of her reports, she said. She also thanked Radio Vanuatu for detailed interviews. The growing role of the Pres Klab blong Vanuatu had contributed to letting the public know how important a free press is to the nation, she added.
The convention, hosted by Pres Klab blong Vanuatu, saw the association unanimously adopt plans to take it into the new century. They included:
- Setting up radio, television, newspapers and magazines, and national associations groups;
- Electing its first president from Fiji, William Parkinson, the managing director of Communications Fiji, operators of four national FM stations in Fiji and two in Papua New Guinea
- Launching a major programme to train more Pacific Islanders as journalism trainers and educator;
- Launching pioneering training on the use of the Internet for both print and broadcast media on the region
- Next year's PINA convention will for the first time be held in the French Pacific, with French Polynesia winning the bid to host it in Papeete. It reflected the growing role both the New Caledonian and French Polynesian news media are playing in PINA.
Women Take Back the Media
A new movement called "Take Back the Media" urges women to consciously support independent and alternative media and to fight corporate image factories which spread disempowering images of women. The campaign describes today's media as "a dangerous landscape of images that work to communicate powerlessness in women by continuing to represent women as victims." Women are trying to flourish in an environment where they are bombarded with negative images. These images don't depict women accurately— whether they are women in your community or across the world. The goal of the "Women Take Back the Media" campaign is to provide an alternative to confusing, misleading, and harmful images of women and to connect media makers producing alternatives.
The campaign suggests that supporters use creative ways of showing their support for positive images of women in media. In particular, it asks supporters to:
- Wear a photo button depicting a positive image of a woman to provide an example of a better way to represent women.
- Purchase media with positive images of women—be it video, magazines, newspapers, music, computer, etc.
- Send a photo of a woman to show your vision of the future for women, for use in their video tapestry of women entitled "Beyond Beijing: The International Women's Movement."
(Source: off our backs, June 1997)
Women Strategize on Violence Against Women in the Media
A Multi-Media Forum on Media and Violence Against Women will be held to strategize on how activists interested in improving media's coverage and representation of violence against women can actually do this. The forum, co-organized by Isis International-Manila and the United Nations International Fund for Women (UNIFEM), will be held in New York in time for the Commission on the Status of Women meeting in March 1998.
Media's representation of violence against women has increased tremendously despite the focus of the 1995 Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women. To address this situation, actions are being taken to increase women's participation and access to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of communication, and to promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in media.
The multi-media forum will be an occasion to present an assessment of media policy on the portrayal and coverage of women. It will also be an opportunity for groups to share experiences and strategize on how to establish effective media monitoring enforcement and mechanisms. The forum aims to draw up the broad outlines of an Asian regional strategy' that women can use to bolster their working relationship with media. The organizers hope to use the results of the forum to persuade media and advertising to develop or strengthen their codes of conduct relating to the portrayal and coverage of violence against women.
Apart from the forum, there will be an exhibit of ads that positively portray women. The exhibit will also feature "before and after" ads, ads that improved after individuals or groups intervened.
Those who wish to participate in this event should contact Isis International-Manila at phone numbers (632) 435-3405 and 4360312; Fax: (632) 435-3408 and e-mail <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>.
Asian Cinema and Globalization
The higher visibility of Asian cinema in international festivals, overseas theaters, and among academicians and professionals worldwide, masks reality, for in a number of countries once-thriving film industries face dire prospects as they contend with globalization and the forces of transnational corporations and new information technology-. Consistent throughout Asia is the trend of foreign (mainly United States) films increasing their take of box office receipts and, in some cases, diminishing local production almost to oblivion. In 1995, receipts for foreign films shown " in Hong Kong were up 32 percent while those for Chinese-language pictures dropped by 16 percent. In Taiwan, domestic production has dropped from an average of 215 feature films in a year in the 1970s to fewer than 50 annually in the 1990s. The number for domestic films in China decreased from 150 in 1995 to an estimated fewer than 100 the following year, again attributable to the entry of Hollywood movies very popular with young people.
Source: Media Asia, Vol. 24, No. 2, 1997
Iranians Rule
Islamic Games for Women
TEHRAN (Reuters)—Athletes from 24 Islamic countries competed last December for a week of games only for women in Iran which were dominated by the host country.
Iran took first place with 58 golds, followed by Kazakhstan, Syria, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Bosnia and Jordan. More than 1,000 women athletes competed in 12 sports in locations around the country during the games which were only watched by women spectators. Men were allowed to watch only the opening ceremony, where women were covered from head to foot in headscarf, overcoat, and track suit.
Iran, which also hosted the first games in 1993, has been a main force behind the competitions promoted as a viable Islamic alternative to Western women's sports events. Iranian women, who have to follow a strict Islamic dress code are not allowed to attend most sports events. Iranian officials say the language and behavior of some fans make the events unsuitable as family outings.
Source: Today, 29 December 1997
Spouse Rape Soon a Crime
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Women legislators and activists were exuberant over Congress' approval of a hotly debated bill that would make rape by a spouse a crime. The Law against Domestic Violence outlines prison sentences of between 8 and 14 years for those convicted.
This bill is a victory that women have been looking for many years," independent congresswoman Carolina O'Farril said.
The measure, which passed the Lower House 254-90, split the three major parties. Some members of the right-center National Action Party objected to treating husbands the same as strangers in rapes.
"Should a husband be given the same sentence as a rapist?" asked National Action congressman Emilio Gonzalez.
If approved by the Senate, the bill would go to Mexico's president to be signed into law.
Expert reports prepared for the debate indicate that domestic violence— including beatings, rape, and psychological abuse—is on the rise but is seldom reported and even more rarely punished.
For years, women's groups, the Roman Catholic Church, and other organizations have demanded stronger punishment to crack down on domestic violence. House and Senate committees have been lobbying for the bill for more than a year.
The campaign picked up momentum following 6 July elections in which the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party lost its absolute majority in Congress.
Source : http://members.aol.com/nemdr/index.html
Many Women-run Businesses Really Run by Men
by Carrie Mason-Draffen, Newsday
NEW YORK—More than half of white female federal government contractors in the manufacturing and wholesale industries are "fronts" for white men, a Detroit professor told a minority trade group in Manhattan recently.
Timothy Bates, a professor of labor and urban affairs at Wayne State University in Detroit, reached that conclusion after studying US Census Bureau data that profiled small businesses from 1992-96. He maintained that in more than 55 percent of the companies, a man was actually the owner of such businesses. "I was shocked at how extensive the problem is," Bates said. He warned a gathering of the National Minority Supplier Development Council that recent Clinton administration moves to open a key federal minority contracting program to white women could lead to more fraud and shift benefits away from those it was originally intended to help.
Fronts have long been a problem in federal programs aimed at helping women and minorities. Over the years, the US Small Business Administration (SBA) has tightened up the process that ensures the companies are properly classified.
Steve Sims, a vice president of the supplier group, said that because of the fronts and "because you are talking about a finite slice of pie, you have women and minorities fighting each other for an even smaller slice."
For his study, Bates crosschecked Social Security data identifying companies as women-owned with answers provided on a profile questionnaire the Census Bureau sent to businesses last year. At one point on the questionnaire, respondents are asked the gender of the owner. Bates identified government contractors as those that derived at least 10 percent of sales from the government.
While the Census Bureau uses a similar methodology in counting women-owned companies, a statistician there emphasized that the agency has never measured the problem. "We have these issues and they are real," said Ruth Runyan. "But they've never been quantified anywhere."
In the fiscal year ended 30 September 1996, women-owned businesses obtained $3.4 billion, or 1.7 percent, of prime federal government contracts, according to the SBA. "Prime" means they were the lead company on the contract. A company is considered female-owned if a woman owns at least 51 percent.
In fiscal year 1996, minority-owned companies received $11 billion, or 5.5 percent, of federal contracts. Many minorities bid for contracts through the SBA's program, which the Clinton administration has proposed opening up to white women.
Source: Today, 24 October 1997
Reforms Needed to Motivate Women to Work
TOKYO (Reuters)—Japanese women have long been shut out of the mainstream work force but change is essential for one of the world's fastest aging societies to cope in the future, the government said in a report recently.
In its annual white paper on national life, the government said Japan lagged far behind other countries in giving women opportunities outside the home.
The report said there were powerful disincentives for women to pursue career-track positions in corporate Japan and women usually got the short end of the stick in terms of pay and opportunities for advancement.
Forty percent of Japanese working women are office assistants and many are part-timers. Only eight percent have managerial-level jobs, compared with 42 percent in the United States and 33 percent in Britain, it said.
Surveys showed that the majority of men and women thought women encountered discrimination at work, and the average wage of women workers was only 63 percent that of men compared with 76 percent in the United States.
Those women who pursue higher-paying careers do so outside Japan's big corporations, in specialist professions such as accounting.
At the root of the problem are Japanese employment practices that require years of service and long hours before significant wage gains are made, the report said. "Women who have children and quit work aren't motivated to go back to a full-time job because they know they haven't put in the time to get a good wage anyway," said Kiyoshi Ota, director of the Economic Planning Agency's Social Research Division.
Source: Today, 5 November 1997
Body and Witchcraft: Victim Cremated
By Shobha Gautam
In Kathmandu, Nepal, the young woman Saraswati Adhikari died after being beaten, burned, and denied food and water for three days. This was what her husband claimed to be "the proper treatment for a witch."
Saraswati's husband and the "witch doctor" who tortured her are under investigation in police custody.
The victim's dead body was taken for cremation the day of her death by a rally of journalists, human rights activists, and women's activists, several of whom had tried to rescue her.
Saraswati was brutally treated by her husband after she was reportedly possessed by spirits. She was tied to a plank and kept in an outhouse above the toilet for three days.
When she started complaining of excruciating pain, her husband brought the "witch doctor" to their home.
This woman declared that Saraswati was a witch and needed treatment that could only be done at her house.
When activists came to rescue her, she smelled horribly and was almost unconscious. She was in no condition to speak and only opened her eyes after her children called to her. After some time, Saraswati asked for water and, after drinking the water, she repeated, "I have not done anything," again and again. Shortly thereafter, she lost consciousness again and never recovered.
The activists raided the witch doctor's home with the help of the local police, but Saraswati's neighbors remained silent spectators. Not one raised a finger to help her. Even the police did not take the report seriously and arrived a half-hour too late. Since the victim was a woman, they did not take immediate action.
In Nepal, 80 percent of all women suffer from anemia. Saraswati was also severely anemic, and her weakness only contributed to her suffering.
Accusations of witchcraft are common in Nepal, where many ills are treated by traditional medicine and superstitions persistently use women as scapegoats.
Perhaps most shocking of all, this crime took place in Katmandu, the capital of Nepal which is the most abundant and most highly developed in the country. Now the city with the best medical care in Nepal witnesses a woman killed for supposedly being a witch.
Source; Women's Health Journal, 3/ 97
Northern Marianas No Paradise for Foreign Workers
By William Branigin The Washington Post
WASHINGTON—Older Americans remember the Northern Mariana Islands as the scene of horrific fighting between US Marines and Japanese troops during World War II.
Today they are a battleground of a different sort, a remote US commonwealth in the western Pacific where local politicians, federal officials, and members of Congress have been slugging it out over immigration laws, the minimum wage, garment sweatshops, and the alleged exploitation of foreign workers.
Those differences came to a head last October with a lobbying visit here by the island's governor, Froilan Tenorio, and the introduction in the Senate of legislation aimed at reining in what the Clinton administration regards as the territory's abuses of its privileges under a 1976 "covenant" with the United States.
The governor, a Democrat, strongly opposes the bill and has completely fallen out with the Clinton administration. In a campaign to defeat the proposed legislation—and to help advance his bid for reelection next month against a Republican who happens to be his uncle—Tenorio has been courting the GOP in Congress. Over the past year, he has invited several members of Congress and dozens of staff members to visit his tropical isles on expense-paid junkets.
The proposed legislation, introduced by Sens. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawaii, would extend federal immigration and minimum-wage laws to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and restrict the use of "Made in the USA" labels by its $625 million-a-year garment industry. The powerful industry has benefited from local control of immigration and the minimum wage by bringing in thousands of cheap and docile temporary foreign workers, mostly Chinese, to toil in factories that turn out clothing for the US market.
Because the commonwealth is a US territory, the garments made there carry the "Made in USA" labels and enter the United States without duties or quotas, even though the workers and materials are all imported and the factories are largely foreign-owned. The result, US officials say, is an end-run around the quotas and tariffs that apply to garment import, as well as the minimum wage and workers' rights mandated in US domestic manufacturing.
Moreover, garment factories in the Northern Marianas often pay their workers less than the islands' current $3.05-an-hour-minimum wage, force them to work long hours with no overtime, and require them to live in crowded "barracks" with restrictions on their freedom, according to workers and human rights organizations. Before they leave China, workers must sign contracts with the Chinese government that violate their rights on US soil, the Interior Department says.
One such contract says the worker "is forbidden from engaging in any political or religious activity" on the islands, must not request a raise or go on strike, and "cannot fall in love or get married." Violators face penalties back in China.
Source; Today, 24 October 1997
Women in Action with ISSN 101-5048 is published by Isis International-Manila, an international non-government women's organization, founded in 1974 to promote the empowerment of women through information sharing, communication and networking. Its network reaches over 50,000 individuals and organizations in 150 countries.
Isis International-Manila has sister offices in Santiago, Chile and in Kampala, Uganda where the Isis' Women's International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE) is located.
Isis International-Manila acknowledges the support and financial assistance of the following partner-donor organizations: Australian Agency for International Development (Australia), Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad, Inc. (Australia), Bilance (The Netherlands), Canadian International Development Agency (Canada), Christian Aid (UK), CIDA-ASEAN (Singapore), Commission on Interchurch Aid of the Netherlands Reformed Church, DIAKONIA Asia Regional office (Thailand), Evangelisches Missionwerk (Germany), Foundation for a Compassionate Society (USA), Global Fund for Women (USA), Global Ministries-The United Methodist Church (USA), Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (The Netherlands), the John D. and Catherine T.MacArthur Foundation (USA). The Minister for Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Netherlands, National Centre for Cooperation in Development (Philippines), Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norway), Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Denmark), Swedish Church (Sweden), Swedish International Development Authority (Sweden), United Nations Development Fund for Women (USA), Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (USA), World Association for Christian Communication (UK).
Isis International Advisory Council: Nigar Ahmad (Pakistan), Shamima Ali (Fiji), Millicent Aligaweesa (Uganda), Kamla Bhasin (India), Ximena Charnes (Chile), Foo Gaik Sim (Malaysia), Noeleen Heyzer (Singapore), Helen Hill (Australia), Khushi Kabir (Bangladesh), Kuman Jayawardena (Sri Lanka), Mary John Mananzan, OSB (Philippines; Chairperson), Yayori Matsui (Japan), Ana Maria R. Nemenzo (Philippines, Trustee), Susanna Ounei-Small (New Caledonia), Siriporn Skrobanek (Thailand), Marianita Villariba (Philippines; Executive Director-lsis International Manila), Marilee Karl (USA; Founder and Honorary Chairperson).