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September 21, 2011 - Washington DC. 2011World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings. Public Lecture: From People Power to Accountable Government, with Philippine President Benigno Aquino III. Photo: © Deborah Campos / World Bank
Photo ID: 092111_Philippines_054_F World Bank
On Wednesday 24 April 2013, an 8 storey building housing several garment factories collapsed in Savar, a sub-district on the outskirts (24 km to the northwest) of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. An estimated 3,000 people were inside the building at the time of the collapse. Media reports place the death toll from the disaster at more than 380 people as of 29 April, with dozens still unaccounted for. Whilst ActionAid does not have an Local Rights Program in the affected area, we have been responding to the disaster.
A five-member team from ActionAid Bangladesh reached the spot immediately after the incident.
Two EFAST groups (Emergency First Action Support Team) are working everyday in the spot on rotational basis and are keeping close liaison with the Department of the Fire Service and Civil Defense (FSCD), BGB and Army personnel.
ActionAid's rescue team is providing emergency drinking water, dry food and first-aid box to the volunteers. In addition to this, ActionAid Bangladesh is continuing to supply more crucial rescue-safety equipment to FSCD rescue operation team: hydraulic jack, electric concrete cutter, hacksaw blade, lock cutter blade, charger fan, gloves, masks etc...
In collaboration with its partners, ActionAid Bangladesh is carrying forward a need-assessment on the victims to provide them psycho-social care and rehabilitation support.
If you would like to contribute to the rescue effort and support the ActionAid’s work in Dhaka, please donate via our Emergency Action Fund.
Follow us at @ActionAidUK
Like us on Facebook
Photo: Amiruzzaman Tamal,
Deputy Manager-Communications, ActionAid Bangladesh
Excess equipment is inspected before disposal at Caserma Ederle Aug. 25.
This year’s U.S. Army Europe Supply Excellence Award winners are at it again, and they haven’t got much to show for it.
Not much, that is, in terms of the excess equipment and supply backlog that U.S. Army Africa, Headquarters Support Company, Supply team has just about eliminated since the command came into being in late 2008.
“Nobody really sees what it was like here two and a half years ago,” said Staff Sgt. Tasha Falcon, HSC Supply Seargent.
In that time, Falcon and her staff have accounted for, documented and removed 3,000 pieces of various equipment valued at $1.6 million from Army Africa’s inventory: military end items, computers, digital printers — a small mountain range of diverse material that wound up on the supply company’s to-do list in mid-2009.
“Nobody ever knew how to turn in equipment, I suppose,” Falcon said.
“When I first got here, there was nothing. The supply room had no system at all. We built this from scratch. It’s been about two and a half years of working on it. Now it’s a question of maintaining,” she said.
Whatever the source of the landslide of stuff that has made its way through the company’s motor pool on Caserma Ederle since then, Falcon and her crew have cleaned house with flying colors. HSC Supply has two back-to-back, first-place finishes in the annual Army Supply Excellence Award competition at the USAREUR level to prove it.
With any luck, the HSC Supply Company may go all the way to the winner’s circle at the Army level later this year.
“By winning, the Department of the Army will now come down to inspect us. That should be in the November-December timeframe. We don’t have an exact date yet,” Falcon said.
“Once they come, they do the evaluation. It’s not really an inspection; they just talk to you like normal people and evaluate you. But your adrenaline’s running. Even just getting put into the system, to be evaluated by DA, is an accomplishment. To be able to call home and say, ‘Hey, Mom, I won this.’ They’re so proud. It’s great.”
Though the big bulge in the python’s belly may have passed, there’s always something to prepare for removal from Army Africa’s inventory. Falcon and her staff of two soldiers and two contractors have another deadline looming Oct. 1.
“That’s a date we set on the heels of the DA Campaign Plan on Property Accountability to get rid of our excess,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Joachim Consiglio, USARAF G-4 Supply Division chief.
In the past week alone, HSC Supply accounted for and emptied three 20-foot cargo trailers, making the property available for removal to the Lerino Supply Support Activity, said Daniel Brown, G-4 Property Book Office.
“There were lots of technical inspections to turn in the paperwork. My main priority is — still to do my job, but focus on deadlines,” Falcon said.
“They’ve done an outstanding job; in fact, we’re ahead of schedule,” said Consiglio. “Our end state was Oct. 1, and at the rate the team has been executing, they will exceed the milestone date,” he said.
A visit to the supply company by USARAF Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, in August had a positive effect on the overall process, Falcon said.
“We’ve always had support, but he put the word out. Everybody was . . . ‘What can we do to help?’ So now it’s a focus,” Falcon said. “By Oct. 1: everything gone. We can take care of it, we can do it right here ourselves.”
And with a little help from Army Africa’s friends in USAG Vicenza Directorate of Logistics, said Consiglio.
“Since requesting support from DoL, their director made us the priority for our excess turn-in, and this has been the key enabler in allowing us to surge at such a higher rate. Their staff has been fantastic, from the SSA support to doing technical inspections for us during the 45-day process,” he said.
What’s next after the Oct. 1 finish line?
“Just keeping up on the daily paperwork and the filing system,” said Spc. Benjamin Roalson. “Just the day-to-day thing that keeps us rolling.”
“The next benchmark is preparation for the DA CSA Supply Excellence competition, continual cultural awareness of supply discipline across the command, and monitoring lifecycle replacement,” said Consiglio.
Whatever follows, Falcon will be on the job and taking the lead. The Houston, Texas, native has taken to the trade, and to the Army too.
“I’m extending. I just got my grade,” Falcon said.
“I really enjoy working supply and logistics. It’s hard work; it’s long hours. I go home at the end of the day thinking there’s not enough hours in the day,” she said.
“Logistics is constant, constant, constant.”
To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil
Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica
Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica
Excellent journalism, after all, has never been simply about information. It’s information provided to enable knowledge, published or broadcast as a public exchange by people accountable for its accuracy. Networks can enhance quality by linking the work of newspeople and many others to support journalism’s public service functions: accountability, timeliness and accessibility.- Melanie Sil, The Case for Open Journalism Now
www.annenberginnovationlab.org/OpenJournalism/
www.annenberginnovationlab.org/OpenJournalism/SillOpenJou... (PDF)
Slideshare
Scenes from the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) Side Event: A Feminist Accountability Framework: What the World Needs to Achieve Gender Equality and All the Sustainable Development Goals, co-sponsored by ICRW and its partners Equal Measures 2030, Save the Children, Global Citizen, Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO), UN Women, the Government of Costa Rica, and the Government of Zambia. Held at the Church Centre in New York on 18 July 2017.
Pictured Above: Ambassador Rolando Castro, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent of Costa Rica to the United Nations
Speakers included:
Eleanor Blomstrom, Co-Director and Head of Office at WEDO, Women’s Major Group Chair
Charlotte Bunch, Founding Director and Senior Scholar, at the Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers University
Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women
Ambassador Rolando Castro, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent of Costa Rica to the United Nations
Wallace Nguluwe, Gender Specialist, Ministry of Gender, Zambia
Sai Jyothirmai Racherla, Program Director, ARROW (representing Women’s Major Group)
Alison Holder, Director, Equal Measures 2030
Jenny Ottenhoff, Policy Director, Global Health at ONE
Grace Choi, Associate Director for Global Gender Policy & Advocacy, Save the Children USA
Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown
On Twitter: twitter.com/UN_Women/status/887388056600399873
Bradley Manning Support Network -> www.bradleymanning.org/
The Bradley Manning Torture Accountability Project -> bradleymanningtorture.com/
“I have to abide by certain classified information,” Obama said on a video that quickly began to circulate among media outlets Friday. “If I was to release stuff, information that I’m not authorized to release, I’m breaking the law. … We’re a nation of laws. We don’t individually make our own decisions about how the laws operate. … He broke the law.”[1]
Compare that statement of President Obama with Presidential Candidate Obama from Change.gov:
"Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process."[2]
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This is how politicians operate; they protect themselves and degrade those who strive after protecting the citizenry. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are war criminals by the standard of law, but both are offered the cover of government. Why?
This is how governed societies operate; the system self-protects and the citizens self-correct. Until the people strive after education on a substantive level apart from the latest celebrity gossip or political spin, this will be the cycle of American life. Striving after education is a course towards improving the inward person. We can make all the improvements to every notion deemed civilized, but until people begin to address their own internal frictions and outward fictions, civilization will continue to escape the civilized.
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“With any legitimate trial of whistleblower Bradley Manning still being at an unspecified date in the future, it would seem that what is presently on trial here is Western culture itself. When the persecution of an individual who has exposed an evil is pursued so ruthlessly and yet the evil itself is studiedly ignored, all of us know that there is something very wrong with the way that our society is conducting itself. And if we do not protest in the strongest terms about what is being done in our name, then we become complicit.
There is no third option. Bradley Manning and others like him everywhere are vital to our continued moral health and well-being as a people, and unless we offer them our full support in their often dire and isolated circumstances, it is we, as a people, who will end up the losers.” -Alan Moore
www.bradleymanning.org/news/releases/alan-moore-bradley-m...
"The US has shown remarkable energy in its pursuit of alleged whistleblowers. Has it investigated the deaths of those innocent civilians with the same vigour? With any vigour whatsoever? And which would you consider a crime? To conceal the deaths of innocent civilians, or to reveal them? I know what my answer would be." -Les Barker
"If Bradley Manning did what he’s accused of, then he’s a hero if mine and I think he did a great service to this country. We’re not in the mess we’re in, in the world, because of too many leaks. . . . I say there should be some secrets. But I also say we invaded Iraq illegally because of a lackof a Bradley Manning at that time." -Daniel Ellsberg
www.ellsberg.net/archive/daniel-ellsberg-on-colbert-report
“It is a privilege to join the campaign to support Bradley Manning for his courage and integrity in serving his country by helping make the government accountable to its citizens, and to inform the world of what its people should know." -Noam Chomsky
www.bradleymanning.org/learn-more/supporters
"To suggest that lives were put in danger by the release of the WikiLeaks documents is the most cynical of statements...Lives were put in danger the night we invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq, an act that had nothing to do with what the Bradley Mannings of this country signed up for: to defend our people from attack. It was a war based on a complete lie and lives were not only put in danger, hundreds of thousands of them were exterminated...For those who organised this massacre to point a finger at Bradley Manning is the ultimate example of Orwellian hypocrisy." -Michael Moore
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/15/bradley-manning-camp...
At 23, Private Manning is the world’s pre-eminent prisoner of conscience, having remained true to the Nuremberg Principle that every soldier has the right to "a moral choice." His suffering mocks the notion of the land of the free." -John Pilger
original.antiwar.com/pilger/2011/01/14/the-war-on-wikileaks/
"If Bradley Manning was the person who copied the secret US diplomatic cables to WikilLeaks, he is a hero for exposing human rights abuses" -Peter Tatchell
twitter.com/#!/PeterTatchell/status/15842478221434880
"I was Bradley Manning." -Daniel Ellsberg
=============================================
1. Barack Obama on Bradley Manning: 'He broke the law' -> www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53601.html
2. Protect Whistleblowers: change.gov/agenda/ethics_agenda/
Africa Day, jointly organized by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, was devoted to an in-depth discussion on critical legal issues in Africa’s development process. The Law, Justice and Development Week 2013 explored how law and justice concepts, tools and knowledge can be used to improve development delivery and help translate the values of voice, social contract and accountability into development impact. It took place at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC from November 18 to November 22 and was organized by the legal functions of the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)
Photo: Deborah Campos / World Bank
Photo ID: 112013_LJD_Day3_121_F
Scenes from the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) Side Event: A Feminist Accountability Framework: What the World Needs to Achieve Gender Equality and All the Sustainable Development Goals, co-sponsored by ICRW and its partners Equal Measures 2030, Save the Children, Global Citizen, Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO), UN Women, the Government of Costa Rica, and the Government of Zambia. Held at the Church Centre in New York on 18 July 2017.
Pictured Above: Sai Jyothirmai Racherla, Program Director, ARROW
Eleanor Blomstrom, Co-Director and Head of Office at WEDO, Women’s Major Group Chair
Charlotte Bunch, Founding Director and Senior Scholar, at the Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers University
Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women
Ambassador Rolando Castro, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent of Costa Rica to the United Nations
Wallace Nguluwe, Gender Specialist, Ministry of Gender, Zambia
Sai Jyothirmai Racherla, Program Director, ARROW (representing Women’s Major Group)
Alison Holder, Director, Equal Measures 2030
Jenny Ottenhoff, Policy Director, Global Health at ONE
Grace Choi, Associate Director for Global Gender Policy & Advocacy, Save the Children USA
Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown
On Twitter: twitter.com/UN_Women/status/887394069361680385
This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report:
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-19-590
U.S. ASSISTANCE TO CENTRAL AMERICA: Department of State Should Establish a Comprehensive Plan to Assess Progress toward Prosperity, Governance, and Security
Scenes from the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) Side Event: A Feminist Accountability Framework: What the World Needs to Achieve Gender Equality and All the Sustainable Development Goals, co-sponsored by ICRW and its partners Equal Measures 2030, Save the Children, Global Citizen, Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO), UN Women, the Government of Costa Rica, and the Government of Zambia. Held at the Church Centre in New York on 18 July 2017.
Speakers included:
Eleanor Blomstrom, Co-Director and Head of Office at WEDO, Women’s Major Group Chair
Charlotte Bunch, Founding Director and Senior Scholar, at the Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers University
Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women
Ambassador Rolando Castro, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent of Costa Rica to the United Nations
Wallace Nguluwe, Gender Specialist, Ministry of Gender, Zambia
Sai Jyothirmai Racherla, Program Director, ARROW (representing Women’s Major Group)
Alison Holder, Director, Equal Measures 2030
Jenny Ottenhoff, Policy Director, Global Health at ONE
Grace Choi, Associate Director for Global Gender Policy & Advocacy, Save the Children USA
Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown
Scenes from the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) Side Event: A Feminist Accountability Framework: What the World Needs to Achieve Gender Equality and All the Sustainable Development Goals, co-sponsored by ICRW and its partners Equal Measures 2030, Save the Children, Global Citizen, Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO), UN Women, the Government of Costa Rica, and the Government of Zambia. Held at the Church Centre in New York on 18 July 2017.
Pictured Above: Jenny Ottenhoff, Policy Director, Global Health at ONE
Eleanor Blomstrom, Co-Director and Head of Office at WEDO, Women’s Major Group Chair
Charlotte Bunch, Founding Director and Senior Scholar, at the Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers University
Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women
Ambassador Rolando Castro, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent of Costa Rica to the United Nations
Wallace Nguluwe, Gender Specialist, Ministry of Gender, Zambia
Sai Jyothirmai Racherla, Program Director, ARROW (representing Women’s Major Group)
Alison Holder, Director, Equal Measures 2030
Jenny Ottenhoff, Policy Director, Global Health at ONE
Grace Choi, Associate Director for Global Gender Policy & Advocacy, Save the Children USA
Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown
On Twitter: twitter.com/UN_Women/status/887394403370905601
Scenes from the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) Side Event: A Feminist Accountability Framework: What the World Needs to Achieve Gender Equality and All the Sustainable Development Goals, co-sponsored by ICRW and its partners Equal Measures 2030, Save the Children, Global Citizen, Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO), UN Women, the Government of Costa Rica, and the Government of Zambia. Held at the Church Centre in New York on 18 July 2017.
Pictured Above: Wallace Nguluwe, Gender Specialist, Ministry of Gender, Zambia
Speakers included:
Eleanor Blomstrom, Co-Director and Head of Office at WEDO, Women’s Major Group Chair
Charlotte Bunch, Founding Director and Senior Scholar, at the Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers University
Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women
Ambassador Rolando Castro, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent of Costa Rica to the United Nations
Wallace Nguluwe, Gender Specialist, Ministry of Gender, Zambia
Sai Jyothirmai Racherla, Program Director, ARROW (representing Women’s Major Group)
Alison Holder, Director, Equal Measures 2030
Jenny Ottenhoff, Policy Director, Global Health at ONE
Grace Choi, Associate Director for Global Gender Policy & Advocacy, Save the Children USA
Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown
On Twitter: twitter.com/UN_Women/status/887388242462613504
The driver of this Honda Accord hit my car while attempting to parallel park near Eastern Market in DC. They did not leave a note, or call back after I left them a note.
So much for person responsibility and accountability.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
May 21, 2013
Around 20 protesters rallied outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis. They called for more accountability in the banking industry, demanded the Obama administration prosecute bankers for their role in the financial crisis of 2008 and called for relief for families and communities devastated by foreclosures. This event was in solidarity with Wall Street Accountability Week of Action in Washington, D.C., May 18-23.
2013-05-21 This is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Give attribution for: Fibonacci Blue
In order to complete their duties, peacekeepers must remain fit, agile and ready to deploy on short notice.
UNFICYP military personnel, including Force Commander Maj Gen. Cheryl Pearce, recently completed a competitive training exercise to stay in top shape.
I started dieting April 15, 2012. Yes, I remember the day bc I glorified it for so many years. I started bc I didn’t physically feel well a lot of the time & I struggled with body image. We all know the cure for that: DIET & EXERCISE! Right?? I posted about my journey for “accountability” and got so much positive feedback. “You look amazing! You’re such an inspiration! Can you help me too?” I was so excited bc I hadn’t ever moved my body or honored it in anyway prior to that. Fueled by the results & positive reinforcement, I kept looking for better ways to diet and exercise for a few years. Then I found CrossFit, an entire global community of dieters & exercisers looking to do as much of both as possible. Perfect! For over 5 years I learned to micro-manage every seed I put into my mouth and sweat more than I ever had in my life. I was so proud to be a woman that was strong. And I still am. But things started to change eventually.
Every morning I’d wait until I pooped to weigh myself naked so that I would know the REAL number. What’s this?? How did my weight go up when I paid someone to tell me exactly how much to eat?! Must have been too much broccoli. I’ll pack food to bring to the pizza party. I’ll go “super clean” before the trip, party, event, etc. Everything I learned about, I tried. When information conflicted, I hedged my bets and restricted more of it. I wanted to be the gold standard and I wasn’t going to let anything mess that up. I even became Precision Nutrition “certified” because paying people to tell me what they learned in that one book - that apparently gave them the legal right to charge people to help them restrict food without any other credentials in nutrition or psychology - wasn’t working, so I opted to just become certified myself. And then the inevitable happened... it all stopped working. No matter what I did, who I paid, the results just stopped. My body began to bloat in ways I couldn’t anticipate, no matter what I added or eliminated. Physical discomfort I didn’t know how to stop. The stress of this sent me spiraling emotionally. The only logical explanation was that I was doing something wrong, that there was something I wasn’t doing, and that I wasn’t doing enough. My mind and time were consumed with how to control my body through food & exercise. Devastated when those around me succeeded with less perceived effort than me. I gave myself no leeway.
In May 2017 I was in the thick of this. I had been single for about a year and was ready to start dating again. I had been strict intermittent fasting, 8-10 hours of eating & 14-16 off, no matter what. I was asked on a date by someone I was actually really excited about. We had met a few years back working a wedding together and he was really cool. We made the date for a Wednesday night. I was coaching early on Wednesdays then, which meant I needed to start eating earlier in the day. 7-5 to be exact. I decided to do this even though I knew I was going out that night. NO EXCUSES!! Unfortunately the 2 drinks I had over the 4 hour date left me absolutely drunk and spinning.
We were having a fun evening up until that point.
I didn’t feel unsafe going back to his place to sober up.
I thought I could trust him.
I was tragically mistaken.
When I came to and stopped him I remember him trying to explain why it was ok that he was doing what he was doing. He really liked me and would be my boyfriend, he said. Date rape is a terrible and confusing thing to have happen to you. It took me over a week, walking around like a zombie, and a very concerned response from a friend when I told her the story, to really understand what happened to me. I broke ties with him immediately and tried to move on. I acknowledged the truth, felt what I needed to, and opted to learn from it. That year I only shot one wedding and it was out of state. I pulled up to the venue and I see him walking towards me. Out of all the videographers they could have possibly hired, they chose him. And I worked with him. I knew I had to. I could not go up to a bride on her wedding day, as she’s getting ready, and tell her I can’t do it. I learned a lot about my strength as a woman that day.
I think it’s important to understand that this happened to me at a time when I least expected it to. I was, and still am, at a point in my life where I consider myself to be a very happy person. I had become self-employed and was enjoying the successes of that. I didn’t view my dieting and exercising as anything bad at the time, and took a lot of pride in my discipline and knowledge. I was happy being single and very selective about who I went out with. I was confident I’d never put myself into a dangerous position again. I felt strong and empowered. It took me a long time to realize how my dieting/exercise routine had contributed to the events of that night. That guy is 100% responsible for his actions that night. It also breaks my heart to think about that version of myself that was so afraid to eat food. A version that weighed her options and chose to drink on an empty stomach and put her trust into her date’s hands.
My best friend got married in August 2019, and I was thrilled to be her Maid of Honor. A very special role with a lot of responsibilities and investments. I cleaned up my eating for months beforehand, and was exclusively strict for the month leading up to the big day. By the time the wedding day came, I was happy enough with my results. I was still struggling with my body image and not looking how I felt I should have with the amount of effort I put in. All that effort paired with the time and money invested into the wedding, I became terrified that if I ate any of the food at the wedding I would either A.) get sick because I knew how my body would react to foods I hadn’t been allowing myself to eat, and/or B.) bloat up and undo all the hard work I’d put in for months to look a certain way. So when everyone else was grabbing slices from the pizza food truck, or sampling the dessert options, I was eating cucumbers and hummus at my table. I wasn’t happy about it either. I felt sorry for myself and made up for it at the open bar. I had a great time at her wedding, but know now just how much more fun and enjoyment I could have shared on this most memorable of occasions.
The dangers of diet culture were completely unknown and unheard of in my life until I met my friend Iona. She and her partner run a movement based community in Boston, and I fell in love with them immediately. They used to be Crossfitters so I knew I would be understood there. She would talk a little bit about Crossfit and why she wasn’t doing it anymore and why she had stopped restricting food. Sounded good for her, but I couldn’t imagine not watching what I ate. But we’d keep chatting, and followed each other on social media so I was seeing the things she was sharing on the topic. Some things she shared didn’t sound like me at all. I had never been as great as she was and didn’t feel like our stories were the same. I had started a deep mediation practice at the beginning of 2019 that started to shake the foundation of my food & body beliefs. As I listened more to her story, and as I deepened my own personal awareness, I found myself deeply resonating with her. I was having a hard time putting uncomfortable feelings into words. She recommended two books to me: The Fuck It Diet by Caroline Dooner, and Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole.
It has been a year since I read The Fuck It Diet, and it shook me down to my core. So much of what she was describing sounded just like everything I was feeling. I felt angry at an industry I was a loyal disciple of for years. I felt ashamed of all the preaching in it’s favor I had done over the years. I felt overwhelmed in realizing that all the work I had put into optimizing my body was actually doing the opposite. I knew without a doubt that this was what my body and soul needed. A release from the confinement of diet culture. So I purchased Intuitive Eating and the accompanying workbook, and spent the last year slowly chipping away at the 10 principles of IE. In TFID she mentions that it can take 3-6 months for people to heal from disordered eating, some more and some less. I figured I’d be done nice and quick. Nope. This shit is HARD. So hard. Especially when the world shuts down 1 month into your practice and turns your world upside-down. I suffered a lot during the quarantine, and I did it silently. I couldn’t share my pain, and didn’t know how to. But I kept at it. I knew I couldn’t give up on this, too much was on the line. I moved in with my boyfriend during the pandemic which threw in a whole new twist and added challenges. I started unfollowing influencers & nutrition pages by the dozen. I utilized a food delivery service to help me take the pressure off of thinking about food so much. I was sick of it. I reached out to Iona for support. And I kept at it, even when it felt like I wasn’t making any progress. I kept at it. I knew my life depended on it.
Then some amazing things started to happen. I would put the pint of Ben & Jerry’s back in the fridge instead of eating it all at once. I could eat half my food at a restaurant and easily ask to bring the rest home. A package of cookies went stale in the cabinet because I just didn’t feel like eating them. I started buying new clothes that fit my body now, and even went as far as to go shopping when I felt most uncomfortable and bloated so I knew I could trust my clothes to truly bring me comfort. I can say no when I’m not hungry. I’m starting to be able to truly identify my hunger and fullness cues, and honor them. I’m starting to trust that my body knows what it’s doing and that it knows what size it wants to be. I can trust myself around food now because I know, without a doubt, that I can have it if I want to. Restriction is what leads to overeating, not the other way around. This, by far, has been the hardest but truest lesson I’ve learned in the decade I’ve spent educating myself on fitness and nutrition. I still have a lot of work to do, practice makes progress, and progress is never linear.
I have chosen to share this experience for a few reasons. First, the bravery of my friend sharing her vulnerable yet powerful healing experience inspired me to do the same for myself. This is the biggest hope for this project. We don’t get to choose who we influence, or how our influence is received. But we all have a story, and someone out there needs to hear YOUR story. Second, this has been one of the biggest personal items I have been working on recently and has caused a big upheaval in how I approach my life and my work. I pride myself on being openminded and allowing myself the grace to change my mind. Changing my mind on fitness and nutrition was not something I was expecting, and it is not what big diet culture wants us to believe. It is woven into our healthcare, media, and schools. Third, this is a topic I know millions of people, especially women, struggle with every single day. Fourth and final reason is the intersection of so many things in this experience. Self-worth, body image, sexism, science as a religion. Too much of what we think has been put there by someone else. My hope is that sharing my experience with diet culture, date rape, and orthorexia (eating disorder with the preoccupation with eating healthy food) that someone else will be inspired to free themselves from these cages and live life a little happier. Food CAN be neutral and our bodies do know what they’re doing.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
May 21, 2013
Around 20 protesters rallied outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis. They called for more accountability in the banking industry, demanded the Obama administration prosecute bankers for their role in the financial crisis of 2008 and called for relief for families and communities devastated by foreclosures. This event was in solidarity with Wall Street Accountability Week of Action in Washington, D.C., May 18-23.
2013-05-21 This is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Give attribution for: Fibonacci Blue
In order to complete their duties, peacekeepers must remain fit, agile and ready to deploy on short notice.
UNFICYP military personnel, including Force Commander Maj Gen. Cheryl Pearce, recently completed a competitive training exercise to stay in top shape.
This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report:
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-21-154
COMMERCIAL SPACE TRANSPORTATION: FAA Should Examine a Range of Options to Support U.S. Launch Infrastructure
Minneapolis, Minnesota
May 21, 2013
Around 20 protesters rallied outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis. They called for more accountability in the banking industry, demanded the Obama administration prosecute bankers for their role in the financial crisis of 2008 and called for relief for families and communities devastated by foreclosures. This event was in solidarity with Wall Street Accountability Week of Action in Washington, D.C., May 18-23.
2013-05-21 This is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Give attribution for: Fibonacci Blue
The Inspection Panel is completing 25 years in its role, as an accountability mechanism of the World Bank. As you are aware, the Bank’s failure to comply with its operating policies was seen by the entire world in the Bank’s financing with the Sardar Sarovar Dam project on River Narmada. The tenacity of massive grass-roots uprisings from our communities in the 80’s and the sustained hard work of our social movements along with our resoluteness to link it with international coalitions to question the hegemony of the Bank, subsequently led the Bank, for the first time, to commission an independent review of its project. The Independent Review Committee (Morse Committee) constituted by the Bank in 1991 to review the social and environmental costs and benefits of the dam, after years of consistent struggle by Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada Movement) and its allies led to a demand from the civil society around the globe for the creation of a grievance redressal system for project-affected communities, which ultimately pressurized the Bank to constitute the Inspection Panel in 1993. We expected this might be a crucial backstop and an opportunity for us to raise our issues of livelihoods, economic loss, displacement from our lands, alienation from natural resources, destruction of environment and threat to our biodiversity and cultural hotspots, where Bank invested in large, supposedly ‘development’ projects like mega dams, energy and other infrastructure projects. Yet, the outcome we expected rarely delivered sufficient remedy for the harm and losses people have experienced over the years.
A number of accountability mechanisms over the next couple of decades in several development finance institutions were formed following the model of World Bank, commonly known as ‘Independent Accountability Mechanisms’[IAMs]. Each year the number of complaints rise which is an indication of the increasing number of grievous projects happening around the world. While IAMs of most MDBs are advertised to provide strong and just processes, many of our experiences imply that the banks are accommodating practices which suit their own needs and their clients, which are borrowing countries and agencies, and not the people for whom the IAMs were built to serve.
Many a time, we have been disappointed by these mechanisms, since these are designed by the banks who are lending for disastrous projects in our lands. And as a result, the already existing narrow mandate of IAMs is further restricted.
In our efforts to hold the lending bank accountable, the communities are always presented with the arduous process of learning the complex formalities and detailed procedures to initially approach the IAMs and get our grievances registered. Our many years’ time and energy then is channelised into seeing through the various cycles of these complaint handling mechanisms, that our entire efforts go into this process, and often our complaint gets dropped off in midst of the procedural rules of the IAMs. People are made to wait many months to clear procedural levels and our cases with the IAMs get highly unpredictable. Further, we face intimidation and reprisals from the state and project agencies for having contacted the IAMs who themselves do not possess any authority to address the violations hurled out to us when we seek dignity, fair treatment and justice from them. There are many of us who feel a loss of morale after long years of struggling with lenders when we fail to see concrete benefits or changes in our circumstances, by which time considerable irreplaceable harm is already done to our lives, environment and livelihoods.
In this manner, our immediate and larger goal of holding banks for their failure to consult with and obtain consent from communities before devising action plans for our lands, water and forests is deflected in the pretext of problem-solving and grievance hearing offered to us in the name of IAMs.
With over 50 registered complaints sent to different IAMS from India in the past 25 years, many more left unregistered due to technical reasons and only a few got investigated, assessed and monitored at different levels, we have a baggage of mixed experiences with the IAMs. A few of the prominent cases from India apart from Narmada project are Vishnugad Pipalkoti Hydro Electric Project [WB’s IP], Tata Mega Ultra-01/Mundra and Anjar [IFC’s CAO & ADB’s CRP], India Infrastructure Fund-01/Dhenkanal District [IFC’s CAO], Allain Duhangan Hydro Power Limited-01/Himachal Pradesh [IFC’s CAO] and Mumbai Urban Transport Project (2009) [WB’s IP].
As we now know, what is being witnessed recently is an influx of approved and proposed investments majorly in energy, transport, steel, roads, urban projects, bullet trains, industrial zones/corridors, smart cities, water privatization and other mega projects in India. This has been financed from different multilateral and bilateral sources, foreign corporations, private banks as well as Export-Import Banks (ExIm Banks). It has become a brutal challenge for communities, social movements and CSOs, with lenders and governments constantly shutting their eyes and ears to us who demand accountability for their actions. A compelling and timely need has arisen among diverse groups amongst us to gather together and critically analyze the various trajectories of our engagements with accountability mechanisms of MDBs in order to bring together past 25 years’ learning, insights and reflections of various actors of this accountability process. This urging demand is also an attempt to define the collective experiences in India among our social movements, projected-affected communities and CSOs with IAMs and lending banks, especially appropriating the global political opportunity of Inspection Panel celebrating its 25 years this year.
Speakers:
Thomas Franco, Former General Secretary, AlI India Bank Officers’ Confederation
Arun Kumar, Eminent scholar, Former Professor Jawaharlal Nehru University
C.P. Chandrashekar, Economist, Professor Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Sucheta Dalal, Managing Editor, Moneylife
Soumya Dutta, National Convener, Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha
Dunu Roy, Hazards Center, New Delhi
Medha Patkar, Senior Activist, Narmada Bachao Andolan
Tani Alex, Centre for Financial Accountability
M J Vijayan, Activist and Political commentator
Joe Athialy, Centre for Financial Accountability
Anirudha Nagar, Accountability Counsel
Madhuresh Kumar, National Alliance of People’s Movements
A J Vijayan, Chairperson, Western Ghats and Coastal area Protection Forum
Meera Sanghamitra, National Aliance of People’s Movements
Vimal bhai, Matu Jan Sangathan, Uttarakhand
Daniel Adler, Senior Specialist, Compliance Advisor Ombudsman
Joe Athialy, Centre for Financial Accountability
Birgit Kuba, Operations Officer, Inspection Panel
Anuradha Munshi, Centre for Financial Accountability
Bharat Patel, General Secretary, Machimar Adhikar Sangharsh Sangathan,Gujarat
Awadhesh Kumar, Srijan Lokhit Samiti
Amulya Kumar Nayak, Odisha Chas Parivesh Surekhsa Parishad, Odisha
Dr. Usha Ramanathan, Legal Scholar
Manshi Asher, Himdhara Environment Research and Action Collective, Himachal Pradesh
Minneapolis, Minnesota
May 21, 2013
Around 20 protesters rallied outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis. They called for more accountability in the banking industry, demanded the Obama administration prosecute bankers for their role in the financial crisis of 2008 and called for relief for families and communities devastated by foreclosures. This event was in solidarity with Wall Street Accountability Week of Action in Washington, D.C., May 18-23.
The speaker is Ty Moore, Socialist Alternative candidate for Minneapolis City Council in Ward 9
Signs read:
STAND TOGETHER
STOP
FORECLOSURES
STOP EVICTIONS
occupyhomesmn.org
2013-05-21 This is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Give attribution for: Fibonacci Blue
A slide from my presentation at TCEA in February 2006, "Cultivating Digital Literacy Through Blogging and Podcasting." (Available as an audio-only podcast and enhanced podcast.)
Also see www.speedofcreativity.org/2010/06/05/nclb-damages-us-educ...
High Level Event co-organized by Estonia, Georgia, the Republic of Korea and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on the margins of the 71st UN General Assembly
19 September 2016
Prime Minister of Georgia George Kvirikashvili, President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Korea Yun Byung-se and UNDP Administrator Helen Clark discussed how effective, accountable, inclusive and transparent institutions are playing a critical role in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Click here for Helen Clark's remarks: www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/speeches/20...
Photo: UNDP
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue listens to Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Plant Protection and Quarantine program (PPQ) National Detector Dog Training Center (NDDTC) Caretaker Supervisor Ken Gaines as he talks about the pod layout of the kennels, scheduled medical checks, location accountability, clean and safe food preparation areas, facility sanitation equipment, play areas, and other health and wellness features of the kennel facility, in Newnan, Georgia on April 5, 2019.
USDAâs PPQ program detector dogs speed the efforts to determine foreign pest or disease outbreak, infestationâs boundaries and identify pest-free areas. They could also work at ports, sniffing entire shipments of commodities to detect traces of insect larvae or plant disease.
For decades, PPQ has been training canines to sniff out fruits, vegetables, and certain meat products. They have detected prohibited or restricted agricultural imports with impressive effectiveness. In 2016 alone, PPQ experts trained 67 dogs and 91 canine handlers for use by PPQ, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, State departments of agriculture, county agricultural commissioner's offices, and foreign agriculture ministries.
PPQâs National Detector Dog Training Center started in 1984 with just one dog and one trainer. Today, the Center is located in Newnan, GA, on 17 acres with 8 buildings and 100 kennels. The Center provides standard training on inspecting passenger baggage, cargo, mail, and parcels for prohibited or restricted agricultural items.
On average, dogs have hundreds of millions of scent-detecting cells in their nasal cavities, as compared to humans who only have 5 million. In addition, dogs are able to detect a single scent among complexes of many, overlapping scents.
Related USAF story and photos of USDA handler and dog detecting brown tree snakes at an airbase in Guam.
www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/587659/usda-dogs-...
USDA photo by Lance Cheung.
Nozipho Mbanjwa, Anchor, CNBC Africa, South Africa, Sipho M Pityana, Chairman, AngloGold Ashanti, South Africa, Ngaire Woods, Dean, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, United Kingdom and Blair Glencorse, Founder and Executive Director, The Accountability Lab, USA speaking during the session New Solutions to Tackle Corruption at the World Forum World Economic Forum on Africa 2019. Copyright by World Economic Forum / Jakob Polacsek
April 22, 2022—Administrator Samantha Power met with Ethiopian Minister of Finance Ahmed Shide to discuss a range of development and humanitarian issues in Ethiopia. The Administrator and the Minister discussed the impact of Putin’s war in Ukraine on food and fertilizer prices in Ethiopia and the cascading effects of rising food prices in East Africa. The two also discussed accountability for human rights abuses.
This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report:
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-22-104364
Cybersecurity: OMB Should Update Inspector General Reporting Guidance to Increase Rating Consistency and Precision
President Metsola updated MEPs on measures being taken to increase Parliament’s integrity, independence and accountability, at the opening of the session.
Here is President Metsola’s full statement on the new measures:
“I also wanted to speak about the decisions needed on measures in this House to increase integrity, independence and accountability.
The European Parliament prides itself on its openness, its accessibility and its defence of legislating in the public eye. We are not in some imaginary ivory tower. The principle of ‘openness builds trust’ is one we hold dear and defend. And any abuse or misuse of the tools that we created for this purpose must be addressed strongly, systematically and with any potential weaknesses addressed.
The events of the past month have led to a need to re-build trust with the European citizens we represent. We must acknowledge this. And citizens, rightly, demand accountability and integrity. We will respond.
I promised you last month, that we will come back with a series of reforms.
With group leaders, we have agreed on a first step approach on a number of points that can go a long way. This is the beginning, not the end. We will start with measures that we can implement quickly while starting the process for longer-term reform. And consultations will continue across the board.
As a starting point, we will look at how we can implement a revolving door policy, at how we can ensure more transparency. Of how we can improve accountability and checks of interest representatives, of how we can better control who has access to our premises. We will ask for more transparency also when it comes to those representing the interests of third countries and from former members.
We will shine a brighter light on what we do as Members with more and clearer information being made available to the public. We will enforce rules that disallow any activities that could create confusion with official European Parliament Activities - particularly when it comes to interaction with third countries.
We will do more to ensure that the public has clear information on our financial declarations and we will ensure more training on whistleblowing and compliance. We will boost measures to boost the fight against corruption and on how we can push back against foreign interference.
We will strengthen our systems, address any shortcomings and be honest and open throughout this process.
And we will do all of this while protecting the freedom of our mandate as elected representatives. We will not hinder that - we will do the opposite and do so while highlighting the important, crucial, role played by MEPs in European decision-making and our role in making the lives of Europeans a little bit safer, a little bit fairer, a little bit more equal.
Our House is the embodiment of European parliamentary democracy and I need your help to ensure that the pillars holding it up are strengthened. We owe this to our citizens, to all those who came before and to all those who will come after.”
The President also announced that the Belgian authorities have requested that the immunities of MEPs Andrea Cozzolino (S&D, IT) and Marc Tarabella (S&D, BE) be waived. This request will be referred to the Committee on Legal Affairs.
She also announced that on Wednesday 18 January, Parliament will hold an election for a new Vice-President to replace Eva Kailli.
Minute of silence for former President Sassoli
MEPs held a minute of silence in memory of President David Sassoli, who passed away one year ago, and for MEP Miroslav Číž (S&D, SL), who died on 29 December 2022.
Iran
On Iran, President Metsola repeated Parliament’s call for the international community to respond forcefully to the regime. Those responsible for killings and executions must be held accountable, she added.
Ukraine
Following a series of indiscriminate strikes by Russia against Ukraine in the last few days, the President said that Europe will continue to show political, humanitarian, financial and military support for Ukraine. The €18 billion financial package that the Parliament voted for will begin to be disbursed this week and the Generators of Hope campaign is in full swing with towns, villages, cities all doing their best to help power Ukraine, she concluded.
www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20230112IPR6631...
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This photo is free to use under Creative Commons license CC-BY-4.0 and must be credited: "CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2022– Source: EP". (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) No model release form if applicable. For bigger HR files please contact: webcom-flickr(AT)europarl.europa.eu
Supporting Social Accountability For Better Results Event at the 2012 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. on April 19, 2012. Robert Zoellick, President, The World Bank; Maya Harris, Vice President, Democracy, Rights and Justice Program, Ford Foundation; Laila Iskandar Kamel, Managing Director, Community and Institutional Development Group, Egypt; Corazon “Dinky” Juliano Soliman ,Secretary, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Philippines; Sam Worthington, President and CEO, InterAction. Photo by Ryan Rayburn/World Bank
7-10 November 2022, Nairobi, Kenya
A cross-section of the Sudanese legal community from Khartoum and Darfur, including former and current prosecutors, individual members of the Ministry of Justice, and independent lawyers, received training on transitional justice, domestic application of international legal concepts and norms, the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its limitations, modalities of complementarity with the ICC, accountability for cases of conflict-related sexual violence, as well as national and international reparations.
Photo: Elise Carreau, Wayamo Foundation.
For more inspirational wallpapers, pictures, motivational posters, motivationalposters, cartoons, political humor, funny depictions of the president of the United States of America, pundit comments and quips, Barack Obama (Barack Hussein Obama) cartoons, demotivational posters, see the full gallery of motivational posters online for your enjoyment at www.motivationalpostersonline.blogspot.com .
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Supporting Social Accountability For Better Results Event at the 2012 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. on April 19, 2012. Robert Zoellick, President, The World Bank; Maya Harris, Vice President, Democracy, Rights and Justice Program, Ford Foundation; Laila Iskandar Kamel, Managing Director, Community and Institutional Development Group, Egypt; Corazon “Dinky” Juliano Soliman ,Secretary, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Philippines; Sam Worthington, President and CEO, InterAction. Photo by Ryan Rayburn/World Bank
Supporting Social Accountability For Better Results Event at the 2012 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. on April 19, 2012. Robert Zoellick, President, The World Bank; Maya Harris, Vice President, Democracy, Rights and Justice Program, Ford Foundation; Laila Iskandar Kamel, Managing Director, Community and Institutional Development Group, Egypt; Corazon “Dinky” Juliano Soliman ,Secretary, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Philippines; Sam Worthington, President and CEO, InterAction. Photo by Ryan Rayburn/World Bank
This image is related to a U.S. GAO report:
Combating Wildlife Trafficking: Agencies Are Taking Action to Reduce Demand but Could Improve Collaboration in Southeast Asia
Op 9 juni 2017 vond in de Tweede Kamer in Den Haag de tweede editie van Accountability Hack plaats, een hackathon waar met open data de prestaties van de overheid in kaart worden gebracht. Accountability Hack is een initiatief van de Algemene Rekenkamer en de Tweede Kamer samen met het CBS en de ministeries van Binnenlandse Zaken, Buitenlandse Zaken, Financiën en Infrastructuur en Milieu. De hackathon werd georganiseerd in samenwerking met Open State Foundation. Kijk voor meer informatie op accountabilityhack.nl/
Supporting Social Accountability For Better Results Event at the 2012 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. on April 19, 2012. Robert Zoellick, President, The World Bank; Maya Harris, Vice President, Democracy, Rights and Justice Program, Ford Foundation; Laila Iskandar Kamel, Managing Director, Community and Institutional Development Group, Egypt; Corazon “Dinky” Juliano Soliman ,Secretary, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Philippines; Sam Worthington, President and CEO, InterAction. Photo by Ryan Rayburn/World Bank
Supporting Social Accountability For Better Results Event at the 2012 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. on April 19, 2012. Robert Zoellick, President, The World Bank; Maya Harris, Vice President, Democracy, Rights and Justice Program, Ford Foundation; Laila Iskandar Kamel, Managing Director, Community and Institutional Development Group, Egypt; Corazon “Dinky” Juliano Soliman ,Secretary, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Philippines; Sam Worthington, President and CEO, InterAction. Photo by Ryan Rayburn/World Bank
Supporting Social Accountability For Better Results Event at the 2012 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. on April 19, 2012. Robert Zoellick, President, The World Bank; Maya Harris, Vice President, Democracy, Rights and Justice Program, Ford Foundation; Laila Iskandar Kamel, Managing Director, Community and Institutional Development Group, Egypt; Corazon “Dinky” Juliano Soliman ,Secretary, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Philippines; Sam Worthington, President and CEO, InterAction. Photo by Ryan Rayburn/World Bank