jenny cares 

Claudia ~ For the Oceans~ Looking for Her Lost Friends

I'm back.....


Those who know Claudia will be keen to catch up with her now that she's back on Care2. Pls pass this on to your network, if you have time and energy.
Claudia's page 

Naturally Protect Your Skin From Mosquito Bites

Taken from Care2's 'Daily Action':
Before you head for the hills or enjoy an outdoor evening BBQ, think twice about using DEET-based mosquito repellents.
Research shows that regular use of chemical repellents like DEET can:

• Damage brain cells and Interact with medications.
• Cause brain cell death and behavioural changes- as observed in animals exposed to DEET after frequent and prolonged use. *
• Result in up to 15% of DEET being absorbed by the skin into the bloodstream.

Learn from Michelle Schoffro Cook how you can protect yourself and your loved ones from mosquitoes without covering your skin in dangerous chemicals.
Mosquito-Free Naturally
Here are some of Michelle's recommendations for natural mosquito repellents: (N.B. see details on each via the link supplied)
- Citronella
- Soy oil
- Catnip
- NEEM seed oil
- Lavender essential oil
- Garlic
Michelle Schoffro Cook, BSc, RNCP, ROHP, DNM
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*This of course means that animals in laboratories suffered 'frequent and prolonged' cruel experiments.
I implore you not to reward the people making money from DEET products with your custom. 
It is your choice... you can:

• STOP MAKING SUCH PEOPLE RICH;
• STOP DECREASING YOUR OWN QUALITY OF LIFE.

Please forgive me as I won't be able to participate in groups, nor take action.
It's impossible to know how long this flare will last. Days, weeks, months, years...?
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Many thanks for all of your personal messages, comments, testimonials, notices, and green stars. Sorry I won't be able to reply.
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Pls don't contact me for a while...apart from private messages with news about yourself. Can't keep up with fwds, ecards, petitions or chain mails in particular.
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I'm sending all of you and your respective loved ones healing hugs and love. I've been lighting candles for you, at gratefulness.com
Love, Jenny
PS it's taken me approx an hr to produce this message.

Please Help – Climate Justice Faster facing prison
To members of I support Climate Justice Fast!

Dear Friends,
Despite the Gulf disaster, no one from BP has been arrested and sent to jail. But today I write to inform you that one of America's best global warming activists, and a Climate Justice Faster, is probably facing several months of jail. Why? Because he peacefully dropped two banners on Capitol Hill that said: "GREEN JOBS NOW" and "GET TO WORK."
I'm not joking. Ted Glick was convicted by a jury May 13th of peacefully dropping the banners inside the U.S. Senate Building last September. You can see a three-minute video of Ted's September "crime" right here. He's the guy toward the end simply lowering the banners. Period.
http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/09/09/wind-energy-assembly-line-welcomes-back-senators-from-recess/
Now Ted is facing up to three years in jail. Based on the judge's comments last week, it really does appear that he will be incarcerated for at least a month or two.
So here's what you can do:
Please write a respectful but firm letter to Judge Frederick H. Weisberg telling him why you think Ted should not go to jail. The judge's address is
Judge Frederick H. Weisberg
DC Superior Court
500 Indiana Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20001
The letters should be respectful. Describe the urgency of the climate issue and the need to pressure the US government to take action on it; Give your views on what would be a justice-based approach by the legal system toward nonviolent actions of the kind Ted took part in.
You can email Ted at ted@chesapeakeclimate.org, or you could send by regular mail to Ted's attention at CCAN, P.O. Box 11138, Takoma Park, Md. 20912.
Paul Connor for Climate Justice
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=132869499637

Thousand of 'hunting' tourists from Europe and the USA travel to South Africa to bring home dead animals instead of photos as souvenirs.
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Canned Hunting
The most extreme variety of trophy hunting is “Canned Hunting”...
...the animals are locked up in a cage and then simply shot.
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Born to be killed – Lion hunting in South Africa
The lions are bred on farms and hand-raised, so they aren't very shy of humans. Anyone can hunt lions in South Africa – a hunting licence or proven hunting experience is not usually necessary. This means that many lions experience an agonising death.
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For trophy hunting in South Africa, lions are bred on more than 160 farms, usually raised by hand and accustomed to humans.
In the last six years, the number of farm lions has risen by 250%.
Today, more than 3,500 captive animals are threatened with the same fate. From 2006-2008 lion shootings in S'Africa has tripled:
 - 322 lions were shot in 2006
 - 700 lions were shot in 2007
 - 1,050 lions were shot in 2008
These figures are confirmed by the export of lion trophies.
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Aww, so cute!
Many of the young animals start life as tourist attractions. Unwitting tourists pay to pat the lion cubs, take photos and take them for walks...they don't realise they are supporting a horrific industry.
Then shoot...
When the lions reach the 'trophy' age (4-7 yo) they are offered to wealthy clients for shooting.
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'Trophies' include:
 - Male Lions (€25,000 to €45,000)
 - Lionesses (€5,000 or less)
 - Some farms also offer Lion Cubs and Tigers (even though Tigers are not indigenous to South Africa.)
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Experts estimate that there are only 23,000 lions living in the wild on the African continent.
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WHAT YOU CAN DO:
 - Sign the petition asking for a ban and help FOUR PAWS influence South African decision makers!
 - Refuse to visit any breeding of hunting farms.
 - Avoid tourist attractions in which young animals are exposed to direct contact with humans.
 - Inform your travel agent, friends and family about South Africa’s lion industry’s background and Canned Hunting.
 - Be careful in the choice of jobs or work experience in South Africa (Volunteering).
 - Make sure that you are not giving your support to institutions that raise lions and other animals by hand for commercial purposes.

One evening, 88 year old Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital.
Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold's care from the first moment.
Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see Harold in the hospital.
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Adapted from Elderly Gay Couple Separated by Sonoma County Officials, Ignoring Couple's Express Wishes: written by Steve Williams
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The following story documents [an] incident of discrimination against a same-sex couple from Sonoma, California, who took all the required legal steps to establish their health care directives and power of attorney rights, but whose preparations were allegedly ignored by county officials that, despite the couple's 20 year relationship, considered them nothing more than "roommates" and kept them apart when, after an accident, one of them was hospitalized in 2008.
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From the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) case summary:
   Clay and Harold did not take advantage of California's domestic partnership law and obviously weren't married in the brief time between California's marriage bans.
   Instead, and like many older gay and lesbian couples, they relied on having drafted all the other appropriate legal documents naming each other as beneficiaries of their respective estates and agents for medical decisions and the like, so as to protect their wishes and assets in case of an emergency. This should have been enough. Apparently, it wasn't.
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The next part of this story is truly heartbreaking and is taken from a separate, more detailed post from the NCLR:

... [While] Harold was hospitalized, Deputy Public Guardians went to the men’s home, took photographs, and commented on the desirability and quality of the furnishings, artwork, and collectibles that the men had collected over their lifetimes.
Ignoring Clay entirely, the County focused on Harold, going so far as to petition the Court for conservatorship of his estate. Outrageously referring to Clay only as a “roommate” and failing to disclose their true relationship, the County continued to treat Harold as if he had no family. The County sought immediate temporary authority to revoke Harold’s powers of attorney, to act without further notice, and to liquidate an investment account to pay for his care.

The court, however, chose to deny that motion, but did grant county officials what the NCLR calls "limited access" to Harold's finances in order to pay for his care. This, it seems, was insufficient. The NCLR goes on:

Then, despite being granted only limited powers and with undue haste, the County arranged for the sale of the men’s personal property, cleaned out their home, terminated their lease, confiscated their truck, and eventually disposed of all of the men’s worldly possessions, including family heirlooms, at a fraction of their value and without any proper inventory or determination of whose property was being sold.

Adding further insult to grave injury, the county removed Clay from their home and confined him to a nursing home against his will—a different placement from his partner. Clay was kept from seeing Harold during this time, and his telephone calls were limited.

Three months later, Harold died in the nursing home he had been placed in, and Clay, because of the County's actions, could not be at his partner's bedside during those final months.
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With the exception of but one photo album that Harold had painstakingly put together for Clay during his declining weeks of life, Clay has been left without any of his personal possessions to remind him of the 20-year relationship he shared with Harold as, to date, he has not been able to recover any of the items that were auctioned off.
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Clay has reportedly now been released from the nursing home following an appeal by his court-appointed attorney, Anne Dennis. Now, Ms. Dennis along with Stephen O'Neill and Margaret Flynn of Tarkington, O'Neill, Barrack & Chong, will be representing Clay in legal action against the County, the auction company and the nursing home, with technical assistance being provided by the NCLR.
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A trial date has been set for July 16, 2010 in the Superior Court for the County of Sonoma.
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It is perhaps pertinent to note that Sonoma County voted against Proposition 8, California's gay marriage ban, by 66.1 percent in 2008, and that it is largely considered to be a progressive area where LGBT issues are concerned. As such, the emergence of this story serves to highlight the need for Thursday's memorandum, as it demonstrates that instances of discrimination can occur mostly anywhere.
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However, President Obama's memorandum grazes only one of the 1138 rights that marriage affords heterosexual couples that are currently denied their same-sex counterparts. As such, the need to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is also brought into stark focus if we are to ensure that same-sex couples are not left vulnerable beyond the narrow focus of Thursday's memorandum.
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For more information on end-of-life issues and the legal problems facing older LGBT people, please click here.
the related C2NN story to help raise awareness of this tragedy.

HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE:
DON'T LET THIS URGENT MATTER SLIDE!
PETITION: Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill Threatens Human Rights
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If passed, Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill would start a witch-hunt for homosexuals in the country. Its punishments include:
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* A 7 year jail sentence for consenting adults who have LGBT sex
* A life sentence for people in same-sex marriages
* Extradition and prosecution of LGBT Ugandans living abroad
* The death penalty for adults who have LGBT sex with minors or who communicate HIV via LGBT sex, regardless of condom usage
* Jail for anyone who doesn't report suspected LGBT activity within 24 hours
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The bill also endangers HIV/AIDS programs, and may be exploited by those wanting to abolish these programs.
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This proposed legislation is anti-ethical, anti-equality and anti-human rights. Tell Uganda's President Museveni that this bill is unacceptable, and that people should not be criminalized for sexual orientation or gender identity.
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Already signed the petition?
Thank you! Please consider forwarding it to your friends to spread the word.
To find out more on Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill, links to our continued coverage of this story are provided below:
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President Obama Condemns Uganda's 'Odious' Anti-Homosexuality Bill
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Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill: Rick Warren Speaks Out
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Ugandan Gay Death Penalty Bill: Sweden Threatens to Withdraw Aid, Should the USA?
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Uganda's Gay Death Penalty Bill is 'Morally Repugnant' Says United Reform Church
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Uganda's 'Kill the Gays' Bill on the Backburner?
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ARTICLES - TO DO LIST... 
Add comments; follow up; blog; newsify; add to facebook; email; tweet and retweet! 
                 
My thanks to Steve Williams for caring enough to make a difference.

Fight Violence Against Women on International Women's Day‏
Africa Faith and Justice Network  


AFJN  Despite the tremendous advances celebrated today on International Women's Day, evidence shows that violence against women worldwide is still a daily occurrence with an unconscionable number of victims. The WHO estimates that in some countries, as many as 70 percent of women experience sexual coercion, physical assaults, or other forms of abuse during her lifetime.
Even further, "women and girls are particularly targeted by the use of sexual violence, including as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instill fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilians member of a community or an ethnic group," as stated by the United Nations in security council resolution 1820.  This atrocious tendency has been particularly disturbing in the DRC, where 200,000 cases of sexual abuse have been reported over the past decade, with countless more unreported.
This year's International Women's Day, encourage our [USA] leaders to take action against violence against women worldwide! The International Violence Against Women Act of 2010 (H.R. 4594), introduced in the House and Senate early February 2010, empowers the US government, through its foreign assistance, to pursue effective remedies to violence against women worldwide.
By forming the Office for Global Women's issues within the department of State, calling for ambitious and accountable country-specific programming, and requiring the integrating women's issues into all aspects of US foriegn policy, the passage of this bill will demonstrate to the world that the US doing its part for women. While fighting impunity for acts of sexual violence, H.R 4594 would also direct the US, through its support of local organizations, to empower women in politics, economy, education, human rights promotion, and participation in peacebuilding.
H.R. 4594, represents an window of opportunity for many women worldwide. Tell your representative to co-sponsor today! 
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In Peace,
Rocco, Bahati, and Allison
P.S. Check out our April Conference

"Justice in Africa: On Whose Terms?" on Facebook!
Register Today!
................................................
Africa Faith and Justice Network
125 Michigan Ave NE, Washington, DC 20017
202.884.9780 | fax 202.884.9774 | afjn@afjn.org