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_ News Worth Discussing _ How Will Free Wikipedia Access Change Africa and the Middle East? - ReadWriteWeb
Posted by: Newsfeed
<img alt="" height="1" width="1" />http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHG5LFcRwWTxxzpvhy7iclJ5tKB5Q&url=http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2012/01/how-will-free-wikipedia-access.php
ReadWriteWeb
By Joe Brockmeier / January 25, 2012 3:30 PM / View Comments Many of us take cheap high-speed Internet access for granted. I think nothing of downloading an MP3 album from Amazon MP3 while streaming a movie from Netflix on the Roku and browsing the Web ...
http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&ned=us&ncl=dohKGsInWYWvMnM
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHG5LFcRwWTxxzpvhy7iclJ5tKB5Q&url=http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2012/01/how-will-free-wikipedia-access.php
Posted by: thekohser
Comment:
QUOTE
Africans will now have even easier access to important information about smotherboxes, frenum ladders, and emetophilia. These are the sorts of pages that get a disproportionate amount of Wikipedia traffic -- is there any reason to expect Africa to behave any differently than the First World?
Posted by: Cunningly Linguistic
QUOTE(thekohser @ Thu 26th January 2012, 3:43am) 
Comment:
QUOTE
Africans will now have even easier access to important information about smotherboxes, frenum ladders, and emetophilia. These are the sorts of pages that get a disproportionate amount of Wikipedia traffic -- is there any reason to expect Africa to behave any differently than the First World?
Yes? And?
If that's what people are interested in then that's where the beaten path will lead. Just because it doesn't meet your prurient standards doesn't mean that others, African or otherwise, are so inhibited.
Posted by: thekohser
QUOTE(Cunningly Linguistic @ Thu 26th January 2012, 4:22am)
If that's what people are interested in then that's where the beaten path will lead. Just because it doesn't meet your prurient standards doesn't mean that others, African or otherwise, are so inhibited.
Who said I have "prurient standards"? Goodness knows, the ticket to solving poverty and starvation is to build a better smotherbox!
Posted by: Cunningly Linguistic
QUOTE(thekohser @ Thu 26th January 2012, 1:59pm)
QUOTE(Cunningly Linguistic @ Thu 26th January 2012, 4:22am)
If that's what people are interested in then that's where the beaten path will lead. Just because it doesn't meet your prurient standards doesn't mean that others, African or otherwise, are so inhibited.
Who said I have "prurient standards"? Goodness knows, the ticket to solving poverty and starvation is to build a better smotherbox!
Why not? It could become a local trade and bring in some well-earned money to the region.
Posted by: thekohser
QUOTE(Cunningly Linguistic @ Thu 26th January 2012, 9:01am)
Why not? It could become a local trade and bring in some well-earned money to the region.
Yes, imagine the locally-hewn afzelia, blackwood, and ebony being hand-crafted into some of the finest smotherboxes in the world!
The thing is, would Ebay allow their sale? Woot! It's http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/adult-only.html!
Posted by: Selina
if it could stop FGM then all would be forgiven...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16665748, BBC News, 21 January 2012 — "The Muslim Brotherhood's http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak?
QUOTE
The FJP has announced that it will nominate Saad al-Katatni as the assembly's speaker. Mr Katatni is a long-term Brotherhood official and sat in the old parliament as an independent.
I can't stand randroidists, but:http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/clitorectomyfgm-islamic-misogyny
QUOTE
"Nothing in Islam forbids clitorectomy," said Saad al-Katatni, president of Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood.
afp
According to the illustrious historian and Human Rights commission Geneva NGO David Littman, over 95% of the women in Egypt have been clitorectomized (more here and here). I guess we can now look forward to 100%.
And checking the source of the quote goes back to http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g77xIc21c7ycxZkrB3EEzzYRop0wafp
According to the illustrious historian and Human Rights commission Geneva NGO David Littman, over 95% of the women in Egypt have been clitorectomized (more here and here). I guess we can now look forward to 100%.
QUOTE
(AFP) – Jun 7, 2008
[..]the subject of fierce parliamentary debate for several weeks.
Those who supported the practice argued it was appropriate when female genitals protruded too much, adding that it was needed to preserve the woman's virtue.
"Nothing in Islam forbids circumcision," said Saad al-Katatni, president of Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood
Also quoted here: http://www.forwarduk.org.uk/news/news/318[..]the subject of fierce parliamentary debate for several weeks.
Those who supported the practice argued it was appropriate when female genitals protruded too much, adding that it was needed to preserve the woman's virtue.
"Nothing in Islam forbids circumcision," said Saad al-Katatni, president of Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood
http://www.forwarduk.org.uk/about
QUOTE
The Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development - FORWARD - is an African Diaspora women's campaign and support charity (registered in the UK).
We exist to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights as central to the wellbeing of African women and girls. We work with individuals, communities and organisations to transform harmful practices and improve the quality of life of vulnerable girls and women.
FORWARD was established in 1983 in the UK, in response to the emerging problems caused by female genital mutilation being seen by health professionals. Since this time FORWARD has been working to eliminate the practice and provide support to women affected by FGM. At our twenty year review FORWARD formally incorporated into its mandate other issues allied to Female Genital Mutilation, in particular vesico-vagina and recto-vagina fistulae and child and forced marriage.
Our Vision
We have a vision where women and girls live in dignity, are healthy, have choices and equal opportunities.
We exist to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights as central to the wellbeing of African women and girls. We work with individuals, communities and organisations to transform harmful practices and improve the quality of life of vulnerable girls and women.
FORWARD was established in 1983 in the UK, in response to the emerging problems caused by female genital mutilation being seen by health professionals. Since this time FORWARD has been working to eliminate the practice and provide support to women affected by FGM. At our twenty year review FORWARD formally incorporated into its mandate other issues allied to Female Genital Mutilation, in particular vesico-vagina and recto-vagina fistulae and child and forced marriage.
Our Vision
We have a vision where women and girls live in dignity, are healthy, have choices and equal opportunities.
http://www.meforum.org/1629/is-female-genital-mutilation-an-islamic-problem
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/physical_health/conditions/female_genital_mutilation.shtml
I googled statistics and the phrase being used on the websites talking about it is apparently straight eithe from Wikipedia or Wikipedia copied it from them: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt article cites: http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/fgm/prevalence/en/index.html
QUOTE
Country Year Estimated prevalence of female genital mutilation in girls and women 15 – 49 years (%)
Egypt 2008 91.1
Burkina Faso 2006 72.5
Côte d’Ivoire 2006 36.4
Central African Republic 2008 25.7
Chad 2004 44.9
Djibouti 2006 93.1
Eritrea 2002 88.7
Ethiopia 2005 74.3
Gambia 2005/6 78.3
Guinea 2005 95.6
Guinea-Bissau 2006 44.5
Kenya 2008/9 27.1
Liberia 2007 58.2
Mali 2006 85.2
Mauritania 2007 72.2
Nigeria 2008 29.6
Senegal 2005 28.2
Sierra Leone 2006 94
Somalia 2006 97.9
Sudan, northern (approximately 80% of total population in survey) 2000 90
Yemen 2003 38.2
Egypt 2008 91.1
Burkina Faso 2006 72.5
Côte d’Ivoire 2006 36.4
Central African Republic 2008 25.7
Chad 2004 44.9
Djibouti 2006 93.1
Eritrea 2002 88.7
Ethiopia 2005 74.3
Gambia 2005/6 78.3
Guinea 2005 95.6
Guinea-Bissau 2006 44.5
Kenya 2008/9 27.1
Liberia 2007 58.2
Mali 2006 85.2
Mauritania 2007 72.2
Nigeria 2008 29.6
Senegal 2005 28.2
Sierra Leone 2006 94
Somalia 2006 97.9
Sudan, northern (approximately 80% of total population in survey) 2000 90
Yemen 2003 38.2
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/644689-human-rights-watch-you-are-disgusting
QUOTE
Human Rights Watch – You are Disgusting!
By MARYAM NAMAZIE - NOTHING IS SACRED
Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth [..]‘The international community must … come to terms with political Islam when it represents a majority preference, he said. ‘Islamist parties are genuinely popular in much of the Arab world, in part because many Arabs have come to see political Islam as the antithesis of autocratic rule.’
I beg to differ. Even if a majority prefers something, it doesn’t necessarily make it good and right, nor does it mean that the new option is the ‘antithesis of autocratic rule’. Islamism is also autocratic and in many places supported by the West.
Read more
By MARYAM NAMAZIE - NOTHING IS SACRED
Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth [..]‘The international community must … come to terms with political Islam when it represents a majority preference, he said. ‘Islamist parties are genuinely popular in much of the Arab world, in part because many Arabs have come to see political Islam as the antithesis of autocratic rule.’
I beg to differ. Even if a majority prefers something, it doesn’t necessarily make it good and right, nor does it mean that the new option is the ‘antithesis of autocratic rule’. Islamism is also autocratic and in many places supported by the West.
Read more
As of a couple of hours ago the new government just started stopping people from charity groups leaving the country:
http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFL5E8CQ1YV20120126, Reuters, Thu Jan 26, 2012 11:50am GMT
"Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That's why they're called revolutions. People die, and nothing changes." —Sir Terry Pratchett, http://squidoo.com/reading-pratchett