Friday, June 7, 2013

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Food poverty: a national disgrace

Posted: 06 Jun 2013 09:15 AM PDT

foodbank, poverty, national scandalThe scandal of food poverty in C21 Britain; over 500,000 people are now reliant on food aid.

Government figures, last updated for 2010–11, show that around 13 million people are in poverty in the UK.

And according to the Food Ethics Council, at least four million of them suffer from food poverty.

There is currently no established government measure of food poverty, but a recent report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research defined households who have to spend more than 10 per cent of their annual income on food as being in food poverty.

And the Food Ethics Council points out that food poverty means that an individual or household isn't able to obtain healthy, nutritious food – they have to eat what they can afford, not what they choose to.

This explosion in food poverty and the use of food banks is a national disgrace.

And it undermines the UK's commitment to ensuring that all its citizens have access to food – one of the most basic of all human rights.

Church Action on Poverty and Oxfam estimate that over 500,000 people are now reliant on food aid – the use of food banks and receipt of food parcels – and this number is likely to escalate further over the coming months.

This is substantially higher than the headline figure of 350,000 supplied by the Trussell Trust, as at least half as many people again are provided with food parcels or other forms of food aid by non-Trussell Trust food banks and other emergency food aid projects.

Some of the increase in the number of people using food banks is caused by unemployment, increasing levels of underemployment, low and falling income, and rising food and fuel prices.

The National Minimum Wage and benefits levels need to rise in line with inflation, in order to ensure that families retain the ability to live with dignity and can afford to feed and clothe themselves and stay warm.

More alarmingly, up to half of all people turning to food banks are doing so as a direct result of having benefit payments delayed, reduced, or withdrawn altogether.

Figures gathered by the Trussell Trust show that changes to the benefit system are the most common reasons for people using food banks; these include changes to crisis loan eligibility rules, delays in payments, Jobseeker's Allowance sanctions and sickness benefit reassessments.

There is clear evidence that the benefit sanctions regime has gone too far, and is leading to destitution, hardship and hunger on a large scale.

There is a real risk that the benefit cuts and the introduction of Universal Credit (which will require internet access and make payments less frequently) will lead to even larger numbers being forced to turn to food banks.

Food banks may not have the capacity to cope with the increased level of demand.

The growth in food aid demonstrates that the social safety net is failing in its basic duty to ensure that families have access to sufficient income to feed themselves adequately.

The exponential rise in the creation of food banks reflects a growing problem and only delivers mitigation.

Food banks provide a vital emergency service to the people they support but they do not address the underlying structural causes for the growth of food poverty.

Food banks should not replace the 'normal' safety net provided by the state in the form of the welfare state.

Even in developing countries, food aid is increasingly seen only as an emergency stop-gap measure.

International practice would now indicate a preference for cash payments over food handouts, not least because they distort local markets and are not part of a long-term development or anti-poverty strategy.

It is unacceptable that while thousands are being forced to turn to food banks and millions are unable to meet the rising cost of living as a result of the Government's austerity programme, wealthy individuals and corporations continue to dodge their obligation to pay their fair share of taxes.

Recommendations:

The House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee conducts an urgent inquiry into the relationship between benefit delay, error or sanctions, welfare reform changes, and the growth of food poverty.

The Department for Work and Pensions publishes data on a regular basis on the number and type of household who are deprived of their benefits by reason of benefit delay, error or sanctions; the numbers leaving and returning to benefits after a short period of time, and the number of referrals from Jobcentre staff to local food banks.

The Department for Work and Pensions commission independent monitoring of the roll-out of Universal Credit, to ensure that there is no unintentional increase in food poverty.

All referrals to food banks/emergency food aid provision, made by government agencies, be recorded and monitored in order to establish more accurate numbers on people experiencing food poverty in the UK.

HM Treasury makes tackling tax dodging an urgent priority, including promoting robust and coordinated international action at the forthcoming G8 meeting in Northern Ireland in June – to reduce the need for future cuts in benefits, and restore the principle that benefits should at least rise in line with inflation.

The report – and other resources on food poverty – is available from Oxfam and Church Action on Poverty.

Or feel free to write a scathing letter to your MP, or start Tweeting on this  subject: #foodpoverty

Women score at last with FIFA

Posted: 06 Jun 2013 07:00 AM PDT

BlatterFootball’s ruling body has elected a woman to its executive committee for the first time.

It has been a week of significant developments for women in sport.

First, amateur snooker player and nine-time women’s champion Reanne Evans set to become the first woman ever to qualify for a ranking snooker tournament final on an equal footing with her male counterparts.

Now FIFA, the ruling body of international football, also seems to be emerging from its prehistoric slumber: for the first time in its 109 year history, it has elected a woman to its executive committee.

The hallowed halls of snooker and the bilious boardrooms of football may be never be the same again.

One can only hope.

Snooker's Evans will compete in China next month at the Wuxi Classic against some of the worlds top ranked players, and Lydia Nsekera, the current President of the Burundi Football Association, is the newest elected member of the FIFA Executive Committee.

While both sports have traditionally been hostile to women participants (never mind executives), development from FIFA is particularly newsworthy, not least because president Sepp Blatter also seems to be the unofficial CEO of ‘Sexists-R-Us’.

The gaffe-prone FIFA chief dropped another clanger last week when discussing the candidates for the elected position on the Executive Committee.

Initially, four women were shortlisted for the position; one to be elected for a four-year term, and two to be co-opted members for one year. However, one dropped out last week.

Favourite to win the prestigious position right up until the dying minutes of extra time was former Australia international Moya Dodd, and many were surprised when she was pipped at the post in a last minute comeback from Lydia Nsekera.

Commenting earlier in the week on Dodd's pedigree, her contribution to the game and suitability for the position, Blatter said that Dodd was 'good… and good-looking'.

Right.

Clearly fully qualified in his book then.

And he said it in front of the delegates from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) at FIFA’s conference in Mauritius.

Yikes.

But wait: it gets worse. After all, we are talking about Sepp Blatter.

On announcing the appointments of Nsekera as elected member and of Moya Dodd and Sonia Bien-Aime as co-opted members, he said, “Say something ladies, you are always speaking at home, now you can speak here.”

How utterly patronising.

His throwaway sexist comments simply serve to trivialise the induction of women into football’ corridors of power. They may be depressingly tedious, but they are not particularly surprising.

Bear in mind that this is the same man who, when deliberating on how best to promote women's football, said out loud:

“Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball. They could, for example, have tighter shorts. Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so.”

And it was only little over a month ago that Alexandra Wrage, a member of FIFA's independent governance committee and an authority on corporate anti-corruption (and boy, did they need her expertise), resigned citing 'blatant sexism.'

But despite all the bladderings of Blatter, there are now three women on FIFA's Executive Committee. But they may have their work cut out for them.

Nsekera, however, brings experience and tenacity to the table.

She already has a year’s experience with FIFA, having served a year in a co-opted role to the Executive Committee.

She has been head of the Burundi Football Association since 2004, a groundbreaking achievement in itself, and has been on FIFA's organising committee for the last two world cups.

Speaking of her appointment, Nsekera said:  “I am very happy to be the first woman elected. It is important for Africa, it is important for Burundi, it is important for women.

“I will inspire women to believe they can lead and I will support women in member associations.

“In the executive committee, we work as a team, but personally I will carry on working in order to have more women as coaches in grassroots football.

“I will push for more women to be elected and ask parents to let their daughters play football.”

Dodd said that the inclusion of a woman as elected member on the Committee was a 'landmark moment for the game.'

“It’s a historic day for football and a great day for women,” she said.

“Football is the sport everybody loves; no-one should be excluded. And we should not only protect the game, but also fight against discrimination outside of football.”

Let's start with Sepp Blatter, shall we?

You know what they say… one goal at a time.

Comet and star-finding women in new play

Posted: 06 Jun 2013 05:48 AM PDT

nebula, herschel, stella, playSiobhán Nicholas talked about her new play, Stella, which premiered at the Brighton Fringe last week.

Three years ago, Nicholas stumbled across a quote from the astrophysicist, Jocelyn Bell Burnell: "We are all made of star stuff".

Burnell discovered the Pulsar Star – for which two other (male) people received the Nobel Prize for Physics – and went on to become first female president of the Royal Astronomical Society and has spent her life nurturing young astrophysicists and encouraging women into science.

She also inspired Nicholas to write Stella, a play about women and astronomy.

Stella had a public reading at The Old Market (TOM)  in May, last year and  twelve months later opened the show at TOM in the Brighton Fringe.

Stella focuses on two women astronomers: the real-life astronomer Caroline Herschel (1750 – 1848) and Jess, a fictional C21 astrophysicist.

Caroline, having discovered eight comets and eleven nebulae, became the first female honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society; a genius who longed for independence, her own family and her own home.

Then there's Jess, with so much technology at her fingertips, witnessing the wonders of the universe while negotiating a very earth-based battle between loved ones and work.

Is Jess truly in a far better position than her past counterparts?

Nicholas said she certainly “doesn't believe that brilliant female minds have to renounce "love" in order to discover why we are made of star stuff but I do think that – for most women – the cosmic balance still remains elusive.” 

The Take the Space theatre company will tour Stella throughout the UK and then to Dublin for the Festival of Curiosity at the end of July.

New X-men team is all women

Posted: 06 Jun 2013 01:09 AM PDT

imageA new page for women in comics as the X-Men features an all-women team.

There is something slightly different about the latest X-men issue to hit the stands: all the X-men are women.

X-men #1 features Rogue, Storm, Jubilee, Kitty Pryde, Psylocke and Rachel Grey as they fight off an alien invasion and a feud between twins that has spanned millenia.

It is the first time the X-men team has consisted solely of women.

Despite having some strong female characters, there has been a shortage of female-led comic titles in the Marvel Universe.

In 2011, Wolverine’s clone X-23 had her series cancelled; at the time, it was Marvel’s only female-led solo title.

Jumping ahead two years and things have certainly improved, with five female-led comics: Captain Marvel, Red She-Hulk, Journey into Mystery, Fearless Defenders and of course X-Men.

Unfortunately, due to low sales, Red She-Hulk has been cancelled, and the final issue is appearing in July 2013.

When it comes to women and comics, the problem lies not only in a lack of female characters, but in the way they are depicted.

With their inhuman body proportions, very revealing costumes and being portrayed in uncomfortable and hypersexualised poses, female superheroes have not always spoken to women.

And although this new X-men line-up is a welcome move towards the showcasing of more female characters, not all fans were pleased when Marvel announced the new series.

Some of the responses from existing fans were disappointingly predictable.

Jeanine Schaefer, editor of the series, said in an interview with The Mary Sue, that she could have created a pre-printed bingo set for the comments: “pandering”, or even “countdown to adding men to the line-up”.

Brian Wood, writer of X-men, tweeted about some of the letters he had received about the series, letters which called the female crew ‘reverse sexism’ or argued that male characters would improve the book.

However, these reactions do not reflect the response the issue has received since its release.

Kelly Thompson, from Comic Book Resources, gave the issue five out of five stars, saying that ‘Teeming with powerful, fascinating characters, enticing action, a smart villain, high stakes and stunning visuals, “X-Men” #1 is on the short list for best superhero book of the year’.

A poll saw almost half of respondents give the issue five out of five.

Perhaps part of the success of this issue lies in the fact that although the all-women team signals a departure from the norm, they have not been relegated to a special edition one-off or spin-off; they simply happen to be the protagonists in the new X-men series.

When it comes to how this series was launched, it is clear that it was a natural progression rather than a shoe-horned exercise.

Series writer Brian Wood’s last X-men team was predominantly female, with one male character, Colossus. After seeing how well that team worked, Jeanine Schaefer asked Brian whether they could try an all-female team.

As she explained in a recent interview, he loved the idea and ‘had about 75 ideas for stories he wanted to tell and characters he wanted to play with’.

With the X-men and its wealth of complex female characters, an all-woman team could be created without their gender becoming the focus, or becoming a particular ‘thing’, because ‘they’re all X-men’.

The focus is very much on the X-men being about what they have always been about.

As Schaefer said, ‘Saving the world, punching villains, romance, it's everything you'd expect to find in any X-Men comic’.

Many people have asked why this series, featuring all women isn’t called X-Women rather than X-men.

It’s very simple, tweeted Brian Wood, ‘They’re classic X-men, they haven’t been anything but’.