France’s ‘Everyday Sexism’ Starts at School

France (Conversation) – In France, the #MeToo movement has a livelier name: #BalanceTonPorc, or “Name and Shame Your Pig.” It inspired hundreds of women to denounce sexual harassment on the streets and in the boardroom. The latest workplace harassment scandal, exposed online in mid-February, involved France’s so-called “LOL League” – an anonymous boys club in the media industry – that in 2010 began bullying female colleagues online. Prominent news editors, including the managing editor of the French edition of Slate and of the venerable news daily Libération, had targeted female…

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Why Federal Student Aid Should Be Restored for People in Prison

United States (Conversation) – Congress is thinking of lifting a longstanding ban on federal student aid for those serving time in prison. The “Restoring Education And Learning Act of 2019,” or the “REAL Act of 2019,” seeks to reinstate federal Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated individuals. Pell Grants are federal grants meant to help students who need money to go to college. If Pell Grants were reinstated for those serving time, about 463,000 people in prison would become eligible for the grants. As director of the University of Baltimore’s Second…

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Central American Women Fleeing Violence Experience More Trauma After Seeking Asylum

United States (Conversation) – The number of Central American women who make difficult, often harrowing, journeys to the United States to flee domestic and gang violence is rising. I’m a social science researcher and a social worker who has interviewed hundreds of women after they were detained by immigration authorities for my research about the relationship between violence against women and migration. I find that most female asylum seekers experience trauma, abuse and violence before they cross the U.S. border seeking asylum. What these women go through while detained by…

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A Quest to Reconstruct Baltimore’s American Indian ‘Reservation’

United States (Conversation) – A few years ago, I invited a group of students to go on a short walking tour of the Lumbee Indian community of East Baltimore. Lumbee are indigenous to North Carolina but have been present in Baltimore since at least as early as the 1930s. My grandparents moved here in 1963 with their three children, one of whom was my mother. I was born here, and that makes me a first-generation Baltimore Lumbee. I grew up to be a community-based visual artist and a folklorist. I’m…

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What Do We Tell Our Kids About Drugs?

This article was prepared by Stíofán Caomhanach who is a Researcher and Activist, and the Founder of Legalize Cannabis Ireland for Talking Drugs. World (TD) – I’ve been studying drug policy and advocating for drug policy reform for years now, so I didn’t expect to be so unprepared when asked: “What do we tell our kids about drugs?” This question prompted me to put serious thought to the issue and try to come up with a comprehensive answer. The slightly vague short answer is… the truth. But that is to ignore the vast…

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Extinction Rebellion: Disruption and Arrests Can Bring Social Change

United Kingdom (Conversation) – Extinction Rebellion burst onto everybody’s screens with disruptions and mass arrests across the UK and around the world, in protest against government inaction on climate change. Radical disruptions have been at the heart of Extinction Rebellion’s activism since it was founded in 2018 – from January’s disruption of London Fashion Week, to the infamous naked protest in Parliament – but the scale of the most recent actions has finally succeeded in forcing mainstream news cycles to start giving the politics of climate change the attention it…

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Ban Leggings on Campus? Ludicrous – Wearing Leggings Allows Women to Move Like Superheroes

United States (Conversation) – I’m writing this at my office computer wearing leggings and a short skirt. I wear the leggings because I ride my bike to work and they keep my legs warm. I add the skirt when I get to the office because most here would consider leggings alone inappropriate work attire for a middle-aged academic administrator. After this week, it’s clear that some people don’t think they are appropriate attire for students on campus either. Maryann White, a mother of four sons, made news with her plea…

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10 Preps Your Should Not Cheap Out On – WGTTA

World Wide (SurvivalSullivan) – Prepping entails a significant amount of physical and material preparation, and with the latter making ready entails significant expense. Most of us are not made of money, and even for those of us who are financially secure, there is always good cause to spend thriftily and steward your resources. Unfortunately the hunt for a good deal or an excellent bargain can sometimes take a wrong turn into Cheapo-ville. The wares in this blighted place are almost never worth their asking price, and worse than fleecing you of…

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A Political Stalemate Over Puerto Rican Aid Is Leaving All US Disaster Funding in Limbo

United States (Conversation) – Senate Democrats recently blocked US$13.5 billion in relief for Americans whose lives were disrupted by hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, flooding and other natural disasters. The objections had to do with Puerto Rico. In addition to aid for Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska, this bill included $600 million to cover six months’ worth of nutritional assistance requested by Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló. But Democrats refused to back the bill because it lacked funds that would protect the island from floods and rebuild its electrical grid. The result…

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Children Educate Teachers With Their Testimonies From War Zones

World Wide (Conversation) – Fatima’s dream is recalled in a single sentence: “Once I dreamed I fell from a ship and then I woke up… and was afraid.” Fatima’s dream attests to a haunting reality that leaves her sleepless and afraid in waking life. In the short documentary and animated film Fatima’s Drawings, award-winning photojournalist Magnus Wennman unravels Fatima’s story, attesting to her experience of war in Syria. The film featuring Fatima’s dream and drawings, and my full story about it, is found online at Museum of Dreams. The site…

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