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June Just Posts

July 10, 2008 by Susanne 4 Comments

buttonjune2008

Welcome again to the Just Posts roundtable.

When last month I wrote about child poverty in the introduction to the Just Posts there were a lot of marvelous comments. I’m especially thankful to Hel for pointing out that not everyone of us is living in a “rich country”. I forget that, sometimes, in the same way that I’m not really comprehending the fact that it’s winter now, where she lives, while I’m in the middle of summer.

I knew instantly what to write about for this month’s introduction when I heard about the Expo 2008 on the radio. It’s all about water and sustainable development.

When I wrote about my guilty conscience when staying in the shower for too long, one of readers mocked me. And she is right, water is not that much of a problem where I live. It’s raining as I type this, and the water we drink comes from nearby. In past years we were advised not to give it to infants, and the town I live in helped families with newborns so that they could buy bottled water for them, but for the past years, and ever since my son has been born the water has been of good quality.

The situation in the nearby Bavarian capital is a bit different. While they have water that is pure and marvelous, and they have plenty of that, it seems a bit weird to me that that water comes from somewhere in the Alps. There are big pipelines fueling it to the city. But there isn’t a problem with the water as such. It’s good, it’s pure, and there’s plenty.

Of course, that’s not true for everyone in the world. Good water for drinking is a scarce resource and is becoming increasingly rare. Imagine living in a place where you had to chose between drinking something that makes you and your children sick, or not drinking at all. Imagine living somewhere where most of your day is spent fetching water from a place that’s hours away.

It’s sad that it always seem to come back to this these days, that there are people who have pools, and washing machines, and who take showers and baths every day, and who don’t even drink water because it’s so common, and there are people who barely have enough to survive, or even less.

I don’t know what to do about it, I know that I can’t send my unused shower water to the desert but it would be great if I could.

And now to something different, here is the list of posts that were gathered by you:
Andrea at Punk Rock Mommy with Planting the seeds of my own garden
Andrea with The burden of perfection
Averagebean with Freedom of speech?
Blog Antagonist with Speak English Me
Chani with Wellness Wednesday: take back your time
Christine Kane with Making Friends with Songs and Food
Defiant Muse with The mommy myth
Flutter with I am an omnivore
Girlgriot with Gotta do more than holla and We can, I mean WE can
Hel with Afternoon in an urban footgarden
Her Bad Mother with Joy, And Pain
Identity Theory with The weapon of rape
Indigenous people’s issues today with Five key indigenous people’s issues
Jen with Where the streets have no name and the shattered ceiling and what it means for our children
Julie with Kids and sex?
Kaliroz with indifference to me, is the epitome of evil
KC with Wheels
Mayberry Mom with 20 lousy pairs of scissors
MOMocrats with Moms need help in California family court system
Moosh in Indy with the healthcare of stereotypes
No Caption Needed with High Noon in Sadr City
The Expatriate’s Kitchen with World Refugee Day
Toddlywinks with The powerlessness of three
Tossing Pebbles in the Stream with To laugh or be outraged
Susanne with Corsets, coolness, caps, and cosmetic surgery
Suzanne Reisman on blogher with Banning the Pill Kills Women. Period. and “Third Genders” in Societies with Rigid Gender Roles
WhyMommy with Thank you, AmVets

The ones who read:
Janet
Moosh!
Alejna

And, as always, there are Mad, and Jen the ones who started this. Please, check out what they have to say this month. And Jen will be going to BlogHer and talk about this here roundtable, how marvelous.

Filed Under: green living, health, just post

May Just Posts

June 10, 2008 by Susanne 6 Comments

Time for the Just Post Roundtables again. As every month Mad, Jen, and me have gathered a wide variety of posts about social justice.

buttonmay2008

This month I want to use my introduction to this excellent list of posts to talk about child poverty. For once I’m concerned with something that’s going on in my own country. It seems that there are more and more children living in poverty in the rich countries, Germany among them. And that here where I live their number has doubled between 1989 and now. Poverty in this case means that their families have to live on less than 50% of the average income.

According to a study by unicef countries like Denmark and Finnland have the lowest levels of child poverty among the rich countries, and the United States have the highest. What is so alarming about my own country here is that there are more and more people getting poor, especially children, while the rich get richer and richer. The most children in poverty live in either immigrant families or with single parents.

The article I have linked to in the paragraph above was written in 2005. Since then the whole thing has become worse instead of better. It’s a shame that in one of the richest countries in the world there are 1.5 million children living in poverty, almost ten percent of all children. Of single parent families forty percent live in poverty.

In the US, by the way, that number is 20%. Every fifth child lives in poverty. And being poor makes it much harder to be healthy, successful, and employed.

If you want to know more about it, here’s a link to the unicef report from 2005 as a pdf-download: Child Poverty in Rich Countries.

And now the rest of the table:

Ally with a post not fit for mother’s day
Beth with growing new hope for refugees
Bipolar Lawyer Cook with don we now our gay apparel
Bon with dignity
Cecileaux with Argentina’s farmers are not exactly old, that 70’s oil crisis is baaack and oh those gay and lesbian sinners
Chani with we are all special just like everyone else and Wellness Wednesday: eliminating pain
Defiant Muse with balancing the scales and kicking and screaming
Emily with not into yoga?
Erin with Calling All Steel Magnolias: Come Out From Behind Your Ruffles
Grilgriot with only wild animals act like that and a little video slap
Hel with Truth recedes only to re-appear
Jen with Untitled, twenty four years two months nine days and I think it was the fourth of july
Jenn with Up from the ashes
Julie Pippert with ‘Whatever’ is not an actual salary and it really doesn’t buy the groceries, either
Kyla with doors
Magpie with hardwood in burma
Mary with broken string
MOMocrats with Dockworkers Display War Opposition Strength in Historic Ports Shut Down
Stella with impacts
Susanne with Why I mostly eat organic food
Suzanne Reisman on blogher with Genocide, Childlessness, and Female Guilt
The Dana Files with Apparently I just need more training
The little green house with happy birthday wesley
The r house with color consciousness not color blindness
Thor with more sleeps
Walk with me with what’s a girl to do
Why Mommy with spring cleaning
Won’t fear love with because children are our future

the readers:
Moosh!
Emily
Mary
Bon
Alejna
Joanne

As always thank you very much for writing, for pointing us to other’s posts, and for reading. And please, go over to Mad and Jen as well to see what they have to say.

Filed Under: just post

April Just Posts

May 9, 2008 by Susanne 2 Comments

buttonmar2008
It’s time again to share the posts we have read and written about social justice matters. Here in Germany we will be celebrating Mother’s Day on Sunday. I have always felt a bit ambivalent about it (You can read all about that in this very old post of mine.) but it’s a great occasion to think about the work we all do as mothers, and how important that work is. Also that it is hard and that you don’t get much time off.

I’m very grateful though that at least I don’t have to worry about my son having enough to eat or drink, warm clothes and a home. All my worries are small ones. Nonetheless it’s nice to have a day to think about mothers everywhere, and a day where our children think about what we do for them.

So I was all set to introduce this month’s roundtable with a few words along these lines and then last week I read somewhere about Mother’s Day and that we deserve being celebrated. Great. And then it went on with “Do you get breakfast in bed? Does your husband do the laundry?” because obviously that seems to be part of being a “mom”. When you’re a mother you are the one doing the laundry. I, of course, didn’t know. Because it’s my husband who does most of the laundry. And he’s not the only one.

And this got me thinking about what fathers today are doing with and for their children, and that maybe these days Mother’s Day should be Parents Day. Maybe we should just all take a day off on Sunday and pat ourselves on the back for trying as hard as we can.

So here’s this month’s list of posts:

Alejna with NYC Goddam
Alpha Dogma with Yearning for Lyin’
Babyslime with Shampoo free
Beck with Get out Yer Cheque books
Brenda Dayne with You and me, baby.
Chani with Mad dogs and mean girls
Gina with For shame, 40 years and we still have so far to go and For children
Gwen with Feeling Ranty
Jen with Flags of our brothers
Kyla with The speech
Mad with Kick at the darkness ’til it bleeds daylight
Mir Kamin on blogher with Earth Day Every Day: Raising Eco-Conscious Kids
MOMocrats with MOMocrats exclusive: Obama answers readers questions and And now for something completely different: John McCain unveils his plan for healthcare
Painted Maypole with taking stock on Earth Day
Sage with At Least the Issue is Getting Some Press and My Real Problem
Sin with Benediction
Sober Briquette with Three Month Check-up
Suzanne Reisman on blogher with Which Paper Towel Would You Buy, or Why are Household Products Commercials Stuck in 1961?, How Do You Feel About Diet Foods?: Some Feminist Navel-Gazing, Keep Your Open Source Away from My Tits, Or I’ll Open Source You, Buddy! and US Companies and Politicians: Paying Women Less for the Same Work is A-OK as Long as It is Kept Secret
No Caption Needed with Have we no decency?
One swell Foop with Her heart beats in me
Thor with A Reform is a correction of abuses…
Lia with Fair Pay
The Reluctant Housewife with It’s not all about bra burning and man hating

Please, do also go to Mad and Jen to see what they are writing about this month. Hel who has been co-hosting this roundtable with us has more pressing things to do and resigned. I’d like to thank her for this and her thoughtful, beautiful posts. Also I forgot to put on the list Joanna who sent in links.

Filed Under: just post

Just a quick reminder

May 6, 2008 by Susanne Leave a Comment

I’m busy again, so this is just a short post to say thank you to you. Your responses to my last post were incredibly uplifting. Since writing it I went to an improvisation workshop, to a fabulous concert, and wrote another story, and I’ll tell you all about it soon.

Right now though I’m headed out the door again.

Nonetheless I’d like to remind you that tomorrow is the last day to submit your own or other people’s posts to the just post roundtable. Just send me an e-mail at creativemotherATwebDOTde.

If you’re new to this and don’t know about the just posts, click on the button below:

justpost

See you soon.

Filed Under: just post

March Just Posts

April 10, 2008 by Susanne 3 Comments

justpostmar2008

Time for the Just Post Roundtables again! For those of you new to this this is a monthly thing where Mad, Jen, Hel, and I collect links to posts about social justice. Everybody can send links to posts written by others or themselves, and then we end up with a nice list of interesting posts.

Did you realize that it has been three months since the baby shower? Back then we wanted to do a little more than just write about social justice and so a couple of us decided to take action towards social justice too. How has it been going for you? Were your commitments doable? Fun?

I still feel like I should be doing more but that’s a feeling very familiar to me, and applicable to all aspects of my life so I just tell that nagging little voice to shut up. And go on knitting tiny socks. (I committed to knit at least one pair of preemie socks every month for Frühchenstricken.)

Even small actions do make a difference. Really. So here’s the roundtable list for you:

Beth with Have you gotten greener?
Beyond the fields we know with Thursday Poem – Testimony
Bob Dylan with Arbor Day
bon with In Praise of Universal Health Care
Carrie with People are people
Chicky Chicky Baby with Both ends of the spectrum of animal abuse
Daisy with Stranger than fiction, my job is, Teddy bear, teddy bear and Politics as usual – or not
Fretful with Sense of pride
Gary in Thailand with Free Tibet
Gina with Three trillion dollars, four thousand dead, five years, one man and Not your sweetie
Girlgriot with Believing the hype
Heart in San Francisco with What art is not
Jen with My sad lament and Unhappy Anniversary
Julie Pippert with The United States: it’s okay, it’s an easy mistake to make
Kelly with Anti-poverty protesters shut down city council meeting
Kevin Charnas with Running to save
Kevin at Life has Taught Us with Olympic Spirit and Is this the Olympic Spirit?
Kyla with What would you say? and The Interview and Where I’m Not
Lost White Kenyan Chick with Food for thought for International Women’s Day
Maithri with Beyond borders
Mary with Five years forward, a thousand years back
Mir Kamin on BlogHer with Attention 8-Year-Olds: You Should Be Pampered, Primped, and Hairless
Mother-Woman with Where Was I?
No Caption Needed with The silent costs of war
Pixiedust with Great-full Friday: Community
Reluctant Housewife with My Gayest Look
Sandra with I am not an aboriginal woman
Superlagirl with The drymouth will fade, but the involuntary movements are yours to keep forever
Susanna’s sketchbook with We can do it
Susanne with Body image, or Would you recognize your own belly button?
Suzanne Reisman on BlogHer with Legalize Prostitution
The Expatriate’s Kitchen with Is it just me
The Elementary with Everything we have , One for the road and No man is an island
WhyMommy with One regret

Some of the Just Readers
Christine
Anne
Chani
Jess
Mary
Alejna

Please check out what Mad, Jen, and Hel, are saying this month too. Thank you all for participating by writing, and reading.

Filed Under: just post

February Just Posts

March 10, 2008 by Susanne 2 Comments

justpostfeb2008

It’s time for the Just Post Roundtable again. You might have noticed that I haven’t written anything about social justice this month. In a way this was due to the fact that I had too much things to write about. If only I could find a way to siphon my thoughts directly into the computer I would have one or two posts daily. The things I wanted to write about but haven’t were:

1. Women’s Day on March 8th. Sadly gender still is an issue. Those of you who can read German might want to have a look at the short post Frau Kaltmamsell wrote about that. For those who can’t, basically it quotes an article that reminds us that while more than half the human beings are female there are still a lot of areas where there are only men to be seen. (For years I had a graph hanging at my wall showing how in academia women make more than half of the students but only something like ten percent of faculty members.)
2. V-day. I received an e-mail about this which I’m quoting:

V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Eve Ensler’s play, The Vagina Monologues. This year, 2008, marks V-Day’s 10-year anniversary. To date, V-Day movement has raised over $50 million and educated millions of people all over the world about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it.

3. Goods4Girls. An initiative started by Crunchy Chicken. She is working with organizations to distribute cloth menstrual pads to girls in Kenya and Uganda so that these girls can stay in school. You really should read the whole story on the Goods4Girls site.
4. Elections and voting. Voting is very important because it’s one of the few ways we can change anything about our local politics. In my head I had a long post all mapped out about the moral dilemma of whom to vote for. We had a few local elections here, one of them was about electing the town’s mayor. I didn’t know whether to vote for the candidate that I agreed with, who was very likely not going to win, or for the candidate that seemed the lesser evil against the one that I absolutely didn’t agree with. (In the end I decided to follow my conscience. “My” candidate had about 10 % of the votes. The one whose policy I heartily dislike had 45 %. Interestingly he didn’t win but there will be a second ballot, a second chance.)

I know this is a bit much for a mere introduction to the roundtable, I apologize for that. As usual, don’t forget to check out what Jen and Mad are writing too. Hel won’t join us this month but you might want to go to her place anyway because there are pictures of puppies. (And who can resist puppies?)

Aliblahblah with Imagine
Attila the Mom with Language is powerful
Awake with Cyclical
BipolarLawyerCook with Free school lunches and social stigma
Cecileaux with Yes, we can vote for a black man and No-cajones congress
Celeste with Immunization controversy and The revolution will not be televised
Chani with Put a little love in your heart and Sacred life Sunday on Saturday
Crunchy Chicken with Using your sewing skills for good, and Operators are standing by
Cynematic with Unable to mind my own beeswax part 2
Deb with Naivete
Eileen with home visits in America
Elspeth with What the Dream House was/is for: building dreams and a real house
Emily with Real dads don’t suck and Her name
Gina with vote and wasteful
Guilty with an Explanation with Ain’t nobody’s business if I do
Gwen with Say it absolutely nothing
HeartFeldt Politics Why we must embrace controversy
Her Bad Mother with Juno’s Choice
Ian with Emerging from the mines at last
It’s Not a Lecture with Facebook: Still clueless
Izzy with the one where i get all aggro and lecture everyone
Jangari with Eleven years in the making, The Prime Minister who apologised and Sorry business Jen with Water boarding and other unnecessary evils, Little big girl and stars in their bucky eyes jo(e) with Filled with Groceries
Julie Pippert with Putting a face to the health care crisis for kids (and families) as health insurance options expire and vanish
Karen with Super Tuesday
Karen (needs new batteries) with Just call me Rosenblum Hussein
Kevin with 935 lies
Kyla with Hate to waste $30
League of Maternal Justice with I need to start somewhere
Liz at Los Angelista with our acceptance of the code and religious freedom
Mary with No good answers
MOMocrats Women with Just call me Hussein: The meme
MOTR with more evidence emerges about dangers of EBA exposure
No Caption Needed with The evolution of violence in the 21st century
Pundit Mom with Super Tuesday not so super
Reality Testing with In the mix: Helping our children become successful in school and in life
Sarcastic Mom with Carroll Community Cleanup
Shakesville with Call to action to help tornado victims
Sin with Backwards in Time
Surrender, Dorothy with The US and our spy satellites: Fear disguised as concern
Suzanne Reisman on blogher with Women are Dumb. Let’s Educate Girls and Boys Separately! That Will Solve Everything., Would the American Economy Collapse if Women Stopped Hating Their Natural Appearance? A Look at Makeup, and A Letter to My Body
Wayfarer Scientista with Bird friendly coffee/chocolate
Writing as J(oe) with Teaching in the dark
Readers
Mary
Catherine
Hetha
Jess
Emily
Chani
Joanne
Alejna

Filed Under: just post

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Subscribe to Handgemacht » Podcast

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Subscribe to know when Susanne’s next book comes out

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Manic Writing & Such

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Archives

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  • family (20)
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  • just post (28)
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