A Spekuláns Emberei / The Blacklist

(English translation below)

Figyelő

2018.04.12 - (18,19. oldal) - [9441302]

A spekuláns emberei

NÉVSOROLVASÁS Több száz Sorosnak, illetve az általa pénzelt szervezeteknek dolgozó embert tudtunk azonosítani, miután a milliárdos egykori bizalmasa kikotyogta, mekkora lehet a magyar hálózat.

Legalább kétezer ember dolgozik Magyarországon, hogy érvényre juttassa Soros György akaratát - ismerte el egy hangfelvétel tanúsága szerint Tracie Ahern, a Soros Fund Management, azaz a spekuláns amerikai hedge fundjának, pénzügyi alapjának korábbi vezetője. A Magyar Idők által közzétett dokumentum alapján azt is mondta, erre a célra Soros már több milliárd dollárt költött. Orbán Viktor miniszterelnök a "zsoldosok" kifejezést használta.

Megpróbáltunk utánajárni, pontosan kikről van szó, így átnéztük a milliárdoshoz közvetlenül vagy akár csak közvetve kötődő, jelentősebb magyarországi szervezetekben dolgozók névsorát - már ahol egyáltalán van ilyen. A teljes feltérképezés bajosan lehetséges, ahogy azt sem lehet bizonyosan megmondani valakiről, hogy tudatában van-e annak, kinek is dolgozik, vagy éppen milyen küldetést teljesít.

Egyetemes alakok

Mindazonáltal előkelő helyen szerepelhetnek a lajstromban a CEU-n oktató tanárok, így mások mellett Balázs Péter egykori külügyminiszter, Barabási Albert László, Bokros Lajos volt pénzügyminiszter, Boytha György, Csaba László, Cole Durham, Yehuda Elkana, Allen Feldman, Patrick J. Geary,

Ernest Gellner, Herbert Gintis, Hanák Péter, Donald L. Horowitz, Julius Horvath, Karády Viktor, Kis János volt SZDSZ-alapító, Kornai János közgazdász, Klaniczay Gábor, John Doyle Klier, Will Kymlicka, Michael Miller, Anton Pelinka, Perczel István, Jacek Rostowsik volt lengyel pénzügyér, Sajó András alapító, az Emberi Jogok Európai Bíróságának a balos kormányok által delegált volt tagja, Tóth István György, Ürge-Vorsatz Diána, Várady Tibor, Enyedi Zsolt, illetve mindenekelőtt Michael Ignatieff rektor. A felügyelőbizottság tiszteletbeli elnöke maga Soros, az ügyvezető elnök pedig Leon Botstein, aki vezető tisztséget tölt be a CEU "testvéregyetemében", a Bard College-ban is. A nemzetközi testület egyetlen magyar tagja Chikán Attila közgazdász, az Orbán-kormány nagy kritikusa. Bár nem szerepel semmilyen állományban, nem lehet kihagyni Demszky Gábort, az intézmény útját főpolgármesterként egyengető volt szabaddemokratát, ahogy az oktatási miniszterként besegítő, a milliárdos érdekeit ma is képviselő Magyar Bálintot.

Akárcsak egykori párttársukat, a Magyar Helsinki Bizottság alapítóját, Kőszeg Ferencet. Ez a szervezet az egyik "ékköve" a hazai hálózatnak, jelenleg Pardavi Márta és Kádár András Kristóf társelnök vezeti. Munkatársaik Alföldi András, Bakonyi Anikó, Barcza-Szabó Zita, Gál Anikó, Gruąa Matevľič, Fazekas Tamás, Győző Gábor, Gyulai Gábor, Ibos Anna, Iványi Borbála, Kirs Eszter, Kovács Petra Helga, Léderer András, Moldova Zsófia, Németh Dóra, Novoszádek Nóra, Pohárnok Barbara, Aiski Ryokas, Seregély Ágnes, Simai Anna, Somogyvári Zoltán, Sparing Stefánia, Szegő Dóra, Szekeres Zsolt, Tarnai Dóra, Tóth Balázs, Tüske Anna, Vig Dávid, Zádori Zsolt.

Fontos szerepet tölt be a jogvédő munkában az Amnesty International, amely a terrorizmusért elítélt, a magyar rendőröket a déli határon megdobáló Ahmed H. mellett aláírásgyűjtéssel is kiállt. Elnöke Fülöp Ágnes, az elnökség tagja még Sütő Péter, Le Kim Evelin, Alexy Norbert, Jósa Bálint és Lipcsei Szilárd. Munkatársaik: Iván Júlia igazgató, Demeter Áron, Mérő Vera, Horváth Noé, Landy Annamária, Sztraka Andrea, Csákány Viktória, Jeney Orsolya.

A Társaság a Szabadságjogokért (TASZ) elnökségében Bíró Ágota, Kállai Ernő volt kisebbségi ombudsman és a CEU-n is oktató Sándor Judit szerepel. Munkatársaik: Asbóth Márton, Baltay Levente, Bartakovics Balázs, Benkő Flóra, Bognár Zoltán, Bordás Róbert, Boros Ilona, Döbrentey Dániel, Dojcsák Dalma, Fernezelyi Borbála, Gyárfás Vera, Harmat Gabriella, Hegedűs Arno, Hegyi Szabolcs, Hüttl Tivadar, Jovánovics Eszter, Kapronczay Stefánia, Kardos Tamás, Kertész Anna, Milanovich Dominika, Mráz Attila, Rubi Anna, Szabó Attila, Szabó Máté Dániel, Szegi Péter, Szeles András, Torma Judit, Tóth Anita, Várkonyi Réka, Velényi Réka, Vissy Beatrix,

Zeller Judit.

A korrupcióellenességet világszinten űző Transparency International magyarországi ügyvezető igazgatója Martin József Péter, jogi igazgatója Ligeti Miklós, működési igazgatója Papp Krisztina. Munkatársaik: Nagy Gabriella, Salgó Ella, Sebestyén Diána, Mucsi Gyula és Rechnitzer Dóra.

A balos ellenzék közös államfőjelöltje, a kormányellenes tüntetések lelkes szónoka, Majtényi László vezeti a Soros által szintén jelentős támogatással dotált Eötvös Károly Intézetet. Itt dolgozik még Somody Bernadette, Miklósi Zoltán, Köves Nóra, Lázár Domokos, Pásztor Emese és Zsugyó Virág.

Az egykor az LMP-s Szél Bernadettnek is munkát adó Menedék - Migránsokat Segítő Szervezet munkatársai: Adóba Éva, Aradi Eszter, Bálint Petra, Barcza Ildikó, Berta Judit, Bisztrai Márton, Bognár Katalin, Csizovszki Dávid, Faragó Renáta, Forgách Péter, Ftaimi Ahmed, Gajdos Bea, Gervai Gábor, Hassan Anab, Hetzer Katalin, Jávor Kata, Jenei Orsolya, Katona Noémi, Kertai Brigitta, Kiss Szilárd, Kováts András igazgató, továbbá Lakatos Zsombor, László Zsuzsa, Lovig Tímea, Marosváry Barbara, Mécs János, Medjesi Anna, Nezam Ilaha, Papp Aranka, Perák Zsuzsanna, Pisák György, Ragályi Lili, Sándor Kornél, Schuller Csaba, Szabó Krisztina, Szabóné Lippényi Dóra, Szász Ildikó, Szük Borbála, V. Szabó Júlia és Zentai Lilla - közülük a legtöbben szociális munkásként tevékenykednek.

Áttételes kötődés

A már inaktív, a magyar államot több fórumon is a szegregáció vádjával perlő Esélyt a Hátrányos Helyzetű Gyermekekért Alapítvány kisebb stábbal dolgozott, ám fontos megemlíteni vezetőit, Mohácsi Erzsébetet és Ujlaky Andrást, továbbá Kegye Adél ügyvédet, aki a hasonló portfóliójú Rosa Parks Alapítvány munkájában máig részt vállal.

Kapott pénzt Sorostól a K-Monitor oknyomozó portál is, így Léderer Sándor, Barsi Orsi, Juhász Attila, Merényi M. Miklós és Vincze Orsolya. A Nyílt Társadalom Alapítványok is segítik a Direkt36 csapatát: Pethő Andrást,

Sáling Gergőt, Szabó Andrást, Vorák Anitát, Weyer Balázst, Wirth Zsuzsannát, Zöldi Blankát, Galambos Mártont, Ellen Hume-ot, Orbán Sándort.

Szintén jutott forrás a Romaversitas Alapítványnak, amelynek egykori vezetője, Daróczi Gábor egy ideig Karácsony Gergely árnyékkormányában vállalt szerepet. Ott dolgozik ma is Dinók Henriett, Paskó Ildi, Visy Katalin és Kadét Ernő, a kuratórium tagja Bogdán Mária, a volt SZDSZ-es Horváth Aladár, Józsa Márta, Kóczé Angéla és Szőke Sándor.

Bár Gulyás Márton aktivista tagadja, hogy Soros pénzelné, akárcsak a Migration Aid-es Siewert András, valamilyen formában korábban mind élvezték a milliárdos támogatását. Nem találtuk nyomát listának, de a Nyílt Társadalom Alapítványok budapesti irodájában, mivel régiós központ, állítólag százan dolgoznak, köztük hatvan magyar. Elődjét, a Magyar Soros Alapítványt egy ideig Halmai Gábor vezette, s támogatták mások mellett György Péter esztéta törekvéseit.

*Csanády András

ENGLISH

Figyelő


4.12.2018. pp.18-19.


by Andras Csanady



People Under Speculation


CALLING OUT NAMES We were able to identify hundreds of people who are working for Soros or organizations funded by him, since a trusted source of the billionaire accidentally babbled out how big the Hungarian network can be.


At least 2.000 people work in Hungary in order to make the will of George Soros come true,
acknowledged Tracie Ahern on a recording. Ahern is former financial leader of Soros Fund Management, which is the American speculator’s hedge fund. Based on a document that was published by Magyar Idok, she also said that Soros had already spent billions of dollars for this end. Prime Minister Viktor Orban used the expression "Soros mercenaries."

We tried to investigate exactly who these people are, therefore we examined the list of employees in those main Hungarian organizations that are directly or indirectly connected to the billionaire – if there is such a list, at all. It is rather difficult to make a full list, as it also cannot be said of anyone for sure, whether they are aware who they work for, or what kind of mission they are carrying out.


University people


No matter what, CEU professors take a prominent position on the list. Among others, they are former Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Balazs, Laszlo Albert-Barabasi, former Minister of Finance Lajos Bokros, Gyorgy Boytha, Laszlo Csaba, Cole Durham, Yehuda Elkana, Allen Feldman, Patrick J. Geary, Ernest Gellner, Herbert Gintis, Peter Hanak, Donald L. Horowitz, Julius Horvath, Viktor Karady, former SZDSZ founder Janos Kis, Economist Janos Kornai, Gabor Klaniczay, John Doyle Klier, Will Kymlicka, Michael Miller, Anton Pelinka, Istvan Perczel, former Polish Minister of Finance Jacek Rostowsik, the delegate of


leftist governments to the European Court of Human Rights Andras Sajo, Gyorgy Toth Istvan, Diana Urge-Vorsatz, Tibor Varady, Zsolt Enyedi, and above all President and Rector Michael Ignatieff. The honorary chair of the Board of Trustees is Soros himself, the Chair is Leon Botstein, who holds a prominent position at Bard College, the "sister-university" of CEU. The only Hungarian member of the international board is Economist Attila Chikan, who is a big critic of the Orban government. Although he does not appear on any employee list, Gabor Demszky cannot be left out. As the liberal Mayor of the City, he was the one who evened the path of the institution. Balint Magyar cannot be left out of the list either. He used to help in as Minister of Education and he still represents the interests of the billionaire.


Founder of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and former [liberal] party member Ferenc Koszeg cannot be forgotten either. This organization is one of the "crown jewels" of the Hungarian network, currently led by Marta Pardavi and Kristof Kadar Andras co-chairs. They work together with Andras Alfoldi, Aniko Bakonyi, Zita Barcza-Szabo, Aniko Gal, Gruąa Matevic, Tamas Fazekas, Gabor Gyozo, Gabor Gyulai, Anna Ibos, Borbala Ivanyi, Eszter Kirs, Petra Helga Kovacs, Andras Lederer, Zsofia Moldova, Dora Nemeth, Nora Novoszadek, Barbara Poharnok, Aiski Ryokas, Agnes Seregely, Anna Simai, Zoltan Somogyvari, Stefania Sparing, Dora Szego, Zsolt Szekeres, Dora Tarnai, Balazs Toth, Anna Tuske Anna, David Vig, Zsolt Zadori.


Amnesty International plays a central role in the human rights campaign, which has also stood by and started a petition for Ahmed H. who was sentenced for terrorism and threw rocks at policemen at the southern border. Its president is Agnes Fulop, other members of the leadership are Peter Suto, Le Kim Evelin, Norbert Alexy, Balint Josa and Szilard Lipcsei. Staff: Director Julia Ivan, Aron Demeter, Vera Mero, Noe Horvath, Annamaria Landy, Andrea Sztraka, Viktoria Csakany, Orsolya Jeney. In the chairmanship of TASZ Agota Biro, former minority ombudsman Erno Kallai and CEU Professor Judit Sandor also appears.


Fellow workers: Marton Asboth, Levente Baltay, Balazs Bartakovics, Flora Benko, Zoltan Bognar, Robert Bordas, Ilona Boros, Daniel Dobrentey, Dalma Dojcsak, Borbala Fernezelyi, Vera Gyarfas, Gabriella Harmat, Arno Hegedus, Szabolcs Hegyi, Tivadar Huttl, Eszter Jovanovics, Stefania Kapronczay, Tamas Kardos, Anna Kertesz, Dominika Milanovich, Attila Mraz, Anna Rubi, Attila Szabo, Daniel Szabo Mate, Peter Szegi, Andras Szeles, Judit Torma, Anita Toth, Reka Varkonyi, Reka Velenyi, Beatrix Vissy, Judit Zeller.



Transparency International does anticorruption on a world-class level, its executive director is Martin Jozsef Peter, its legal director is Miklos Ligeti, the Chief Operating Officer is Krisztina Papp. Their staff is Gabriella Nagy, Ella Salgo, Diana Sebestyen, Gyula Mucsi and Dora Rechnitzer.


The opposition’s candidate for president, spirited speaker of anti-government protests, Laszlo Majtenyi leads the Karoly Eotvos Institute that receives substantial funds from Soros. Bernadette Somody, Zoltan Miklosi, Nora Koves, Domokos Lazar, Emese Pasztor and Virag Zsugyo works here.


The staff of Menedek (Hungarian Association for Migrants) that has given work for Bernadett Szel (politician of Hungarian party LMP - Politics Can Be Different) is the following: Eva Adoba, Eszter Aradi, Petra Balint, Ildiko Barcza, Judit Berta, Marton Bisztrai, Katalin Bognar, David Csizovszki, Renata Farago, Peter Forgach, Ahmed Ftaimi, Bea Gajdos, Gabor Gervai, Anab Hassan, Katalin Hetzer, Kata Javor, Orsolya Jenei, Noemi Katona, Brigitta Kertai, Szilard Kiss, Director Andras Kovats, and Zsombor Lakatos,


Zsuzsa Laszlo, Timea Lovig, Barbara Marosvary, Janos Mecs, Anna Medjesi, Ilaha Nezam, Aranka Papp, Zsuzsanna Perak, Gyorgy Pisak, Lili Ragalyi, Kornel Sandor, Csaba Schuller, Krisztina Szabo, Dora Szabone Lippenyi, Ildiko Szasz, Borbala Szuk, Julia V. Szabo and Lilla Zentai – most of them work as social workers.


Secondary Connections


The now inactive Chance for Disadvantaged Children Foundation that has accused the Hungarian Government of segregation and has sued it on different fora, worked with a smaller staff, but it’s worth mentioning its leaders, who are Erzsebet Mohacsi and Andras Ujlaky, and Adel Kegye lawyer, who continues to work for the Rosa Parks Foundation, an organization with a similar profile. K-monitor, a site doing investigative journalism also got money from Soros, its staff is Sandor Lederer, Orsi Barsi, Attila Juhasz, Miklos Merenyi M. and Orsolya Vincze. The Open Society Foundations help the team of Direkt36, that is Andras Petho, Gergo Saling, Andras Szabo, Anita Vorak, Balazs Weyer, Zsuzsanna Wirth, Blanka Zoldi, Marton Galambos, Ellen Hume and Sandor Orban.


The Romaversitas Foundation, whose former leader, Gabor Daroczi was, for some time, member of Gergely Karacsony’s shadow cabinet, also benefitted. Its current employees include Henriett Dinok, Ildi Pasko, Katalin Visy and Erno Kadet, and members of its board of trustees include Maria Bogdan, Aladar Horvath (formerly of SZDSZ), Marta Jozsa, Angela Kocze and Sandor Szoke.


Although activist Marton Gulyas denies being financed by Soros, he, as well as Andras Siewert of Migration Aid, has enjoyed the billionaire’s support in one way or another. We haven’t found a list, but the Budapest office of the Open Society Foundation as a regional center allegedly employs a hundred employees, 60 of whom are Hungarian. Its predecessor, the Hungarian Soros Foundation was led by Gabor Halmai for a while, and supported, among others, the ambitions of aesthete Peter Gyorgy.

My Revolution Lives In This Body

#eveensler
#OBR
#riseinsolidarity

Men say Thank You

Men saying hank tou to the midwife who gave birth to fathers.

This short video was made in solidarity with Agnes Gereb, the imprisoned Hungarian midwife. She advocated for the presence of fathers at births in hospitals.

Please share.

https://youtu.be/qiuvKlXkyQM

The fathers are saying, “köszönöm” (thank you).

Kisfilm az apák méltóságáról, a férfiak szüléshez való viszonyáról. Hálamondás az apás szülés lehetőségéért.

#FreeGerebAgnes #budapest #riseinsolidarity#OBR #midwife #fathers

Agnes Gereb Action

Ina May Gaskin. Her equal in Hungary is Agnes Gereb. Agnes will be imprisoned for her work. (English version of her bio & story posted on Facebook event description).

You can join this action by posting a picture of a flower with the hashtag #halaviragok to show solidarity with Agnes Gereb on January 20th. (English description on Facebook event).

https://www.facebook.com/events/1788302658138728/

#orban #womensrights #budapest #OBR

Agnes Gereb

Hungarian is the language of love. Not French. You will fall in love with a person speaking French. You learn Hungarian after you fall in love with a person when you discover their Hungarian origin. I did. And the language and the country and the man I fell in love with still leave me speechless at times. 

Today I am using my voice in solidarity with a Hungarian woman, Agnes Gereb, who was sentenced to two years in jail for charges relating to her practice as a midwife. Hungary, led by the nationalist, Viktor Orban, has passed public policy that encourages birth. For a country that knows its population (and power) are decreasing, there are seemingly only two responses: women have to give birth and refugees have to be turned away. In this country that seeks to create a culture that values family, at least procreation, it seems the ultimate irony that they simultaneously persecute a midwife. 

Yet it is far from ironic. It is cynical. It rings true for the famously pessimistic, long-suffering Hungarians. It is worse than cynical, however. It is tyrannical. It is the establishment (patriarchy, government, medicine) exercising power. It is rape. We should not limit rape to the invasion of a body. It does not do justice to the systematic abuse of power that seeks its own existence rather than serving the people. It is illiberal. Which is exactly what Orban has articulated. He seeks to create an illiberal democracy that controls its population rather than defends its citizens. 

Times up, Orban. My Hungarian friends in Budapest, where I lived with my two children for five years, see themselves as citizens first. They are outraged at Agnes’ incarceration. Their message is clear: We see Orban’s duplicity. We stand with Agnes Gereb and demand justice for her, for all of us. Hungarians need to act with their hearts, speaking the language of love, to defeat the cynicism that defines and limits them.

#midwife #Hungary #womensrights #birth #illiberal #Orban #OBR

Bitching

Hello,

I attended the Sunday 1:00 pm performance of the Wizard of Oz at the Opera House.I bought four tickets and attended with my daughter, a friend, and her daughter. The tickets were $119 and we were seated in the orchestra, row u, seats 105,106,107,108. We experienced two problems:

Handicapped seats were placed on both ends of our row. Both patrons were unable to stand once seated. This forced us to awkwardly crawl over an elderly lady to enter our seats and at intermission, even at the end of the show. Surely there must be a better solution?

Also, at intermission we went directly from our seats to the women's restroom. Nevertheless, my daughter and friend (who needed the facilities) were unable to do so in time. They missed two major musical scenes because of the long lines or lack of suitable women's restrooms. This is infuriating. After spending nearly $500 on tickets, I feel this is an unacceptable way to treat a patron. Especially a nine-year-old girl.

Many thanks for your attention,

Janet Kelley

Women Who Work

This woman is raising her four kids by carrying her own body weight in goods. Every. single. day. pic.twitter.com/nrUBzqJsIv

— AJ+ (@ajplus) January 4, 2018

Mother

#amandapalmer #mother #trump #breastisbest


https://vimeo.com/242575536

Kids are More Powerful than Guns

If this populace believes that the 2nd amendment teaches unrestrained access to guns, then I am going to teach my kids that they are more powerful than guns. I will raise the next generation to think politically about what is best for our citizenship. Who is with me to develop lesson plans for kids regarding gun control? #education #lifelonglearner #longview

"Plot" by Elizabeth Willis

Plot

Elizabeth Willis

The second stage is sleeplessness.

At first there was worry.

The third stage is “ordinary people.”

The fourth: what to do.

The first stage is chaos.

The second is invention.

The steam engine. The napkin.

The picnic table. Money.

First you were walking across a bridge.

Then you were flying.

Then you were sweeping the floor.

First comes love.

Then nausea.

First pleasure.

Just a little pinch.

First the pupa, then the wings.

Wordlessness. Night.

The first thing is labor.

The second, we don’t know.

First comes water.

Then air.

A hurricane. A sigh.

Abigail. Norma. Laquisha.

Molly. Sylvia. Roxanne.

Temperance. Emma. Delilah.

Daphne. Wilhelmina. Georgette.

Landfall. Rubble.

The first stage was childhood.

The second stage was Beatrice.

The first stage was Beatrice.

The second stage was hell.

First the city, then the forest.

The second stage was Virgil.

The third stage was expurgated.

The fourth went unnoticed.

The last stage was a letter.

A single meaningless hum.

What came first the money launderers or the flatterers.

What came first the Catherine wheel or the icebox.

In the beginning a voice.

In the beginning paramecia.

First carbon.

Then electricity.

Then shoes.

In the beginning a tree.

Before the house, a cave.

Before the cave, a swamp.

Before the swamp, a desert.

The garden was in the middle.

Between the sidewalk and the street.

In the beginning soup.

Then tables. The stock market.

Things on four legs.

In the beginning I was frightened.

Then the darkness told a joke.

Which came first the river or the bank.

Which came first the priest or the undertaker.

Which came first crime or punishment.

Which came first the firemen or the cops.

Which came first conquest or discovery.

The fork or the spoon.

The point or the lineup.

The FBI or the CIA.

Which came first gravity or grace.

Which came first cotton or wool.

Which came first the slaver or the ship.

Which came first the ankle or the wing.

The hummingbird or the frog.

Puberty or ideology.

Which came first memory or forgiveness.

Which came first prohibition or women’s suffrage.

Coffee or tea.

What came first yes or no.

What comes first silver or gold.

Porcelain or silk.

Pen or paper.

What came first Kyoto or Dresden.

What came first the renaissance or the reformation.

What would you rather be a rabbit or a duck.

Who is more powerful Mephistopheles or Marguerite.

Who’s it going to be me or you.

What would you rather do burn or drown.

In the beginning I was invincible.

In the middle I came apart.

First there was a library then there was a café.

Then there was a wall of glass.

Which came first The Melancholy of Departure or The Double Dream of Spring.

Which came first repression or resistance.

Grammar or syntax.

The siren or the gunshot.

Which came first granite or marble.

The army or the drone.

The whistling or the blackbird.

Which came first sugar or rum. Pineapple or bananas.

The senate or the corporation.

Was the story half-empty or half-full.

What feels better pity or anger.

What scares you more life or death.

What describes you best, the steam in the engine or a penny on the tracks.

What were you thinking, a whimper or a bang.

What would you choose, a sandwich or a phone call.

What did you expect, a question or an answer.

A piano or a clock.

Take all the time you want.

Elizabeth Willis is the author of “Alive: New and Selected Poems,” a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize.

This is America

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/10/07/pantsuit-power-flashmob-video-for-hillary-clinton-two-women-170-dancers-no-police/

Dear Girls

This piece was created for a talent competition for high schools in Reykjavík, Iceland.




This piece was created for a talent competition for high schools in North Carolina, America.

Gender Tales: At the Toy Store

Leo, with great pleasure and excitement, trying to make small talk, says to the (male) attendant at the toy store:  "Look, we have this same toy in the nursery school!" (Lifts up a plastic hair dryer.)

Attendant:  "Oh, that's cool!  But you don't play with it, right?"

Leo: Returns the toy to the shelf.

Leo:  "No."

Me: "I'm sure you do.  It's a cool toy."

Leo:  No comment


Whom do he think he listens to?




previous posts on gender, kids, and Budapest:

http://jkkelleywritenow.blogspot.hu/2014/06/kids-are-not-dumb-what-boy-learns-from.html

http://jkkelleywritenow.blogspot.hu/2014/04/raising-kids-in-budapest-gender-tales.html

My Revolution: I am not a survivor, not yet.

I am a mother, a teacher, and a writer.

I am not a survivor of domestic abuse. 

I am not a survivor of sexual assault or rape.  At least not yet.

It is the “not yet” that I have grown up with.  That is the story I was told by my mother, and caring adults who wanted to keep me safe.  It is the only story I knew.

When I began working with V-Day and One Billion Rising, I heard many stories from survivors.  I am not a survivor, but I listened to their stories.  I became a witness.

And once you are a witness, you have a choice.  I choose to stand up for them.  I choose to stand against violence.  I choose a new story:  This is my revolution, a new story. 

Stand up! Shout it! Celebrate it! Write about it in your novels.  Write new song lyrics.  Include it in your paint.  Serve it with your evening meal. 

Tell this story:  you don’t have to live with the “not yet.”  You don’t have to accept the fear, the sadness, the anger, and the helplessness.  Whisper it into every child’s ear at bedtime:  You are loved.  Your body is holy.  We are beautiful creatures.  Whisper into your son’s ear:  You are loved.  Your body is holy.

1 in 3 women, 1 in 6 men are abused, assaulted in their lifetime.

Let’s take those numbers and bear witness to them.  Be in awe.  Be in shock.  And then do something:  Tell a new story.  Together we can bear witness and demand change.

I am not a survivor, not yet.  My children are not survivors, not ever.

-----written for One Billion Rising Revolution 2015

One Billion Rising Budapest: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Onebillionrising-Budapest/386519391435246?ref=br_tf

One Billion Rising One:  http://www.onebillionrising.org/

Conchita Wurst - Rise Like A Phoenix (Austria) 2014 Eurovision Song Contest

Obama at Notre Dame

Right-wing Catholics vs. Obama

by Joan Walsh

Wednesday April 1, 2009 17:04 EDT

I've tried to ignore the controversy over the University of Notre Dame's invitation to President Obama to give its commencement speech in May. I don't believe the effort to block his visit can succeed. For more than 30 years it's been a tradition for the renowned Catholic university to invite the new U.S. president to give the address and receive a doctorate from the law school. Nobody protested when George W. Bush visited, despite his ardent support for the death penalty, which the Catholic Church opposes.

But the growing movement to stop Obama's visit isn't your ho-hum sort of Catholic League media dust-up, where Bill Donohue harumphs on television and then goes away. It's part of a well-funded lobbying effort by a group of right-wing Catholics to run liberal Catholics, and dissenting doctrine, out of the church, and to recruit the remainder of the faithful for the GOP. As the L.A. Times' Tim Rutten reports, it's been organized by the Cardinal Newman Society, no relation with the nice liberal Newman Centers that do outreach to Catholic kids on college campuses.

This is a group of rabid right-wingers who came together to make sure Catholic universities enforce Catholic doctrine. They publish the work of ultra-right Opus Dei member Rev. C. John McCloskey, who has argued that "for a university to be truly Catholic," its faculty must be "exclusively" Catholic. Operation Rescue fanatic Randall Terry, who converted to Catholicism recently, is bringing his special kind of crazy to the movement. "The faithful Catholic world is justly enraged at the treachery of Notre Dame's leadership," Terry rants. "Notre Dame will rue the day they invited this agent of death to speak." Once a thug, always a thug.

Today the Washington Post's Michael Gerson weighs in with what purports to be a fair and balanced approach to the controversy. He urges the protesters to back off some -- they should respect the office of the president, if not Obama! -- but he accuses Obama of stiffing Catholic supporters in his first 70 days, due to his moves to lift the antiabortion gag rule on contraception counseling abroad and Bush's ban on federal funds for stem-cell research. Gerson warns darkly that Catholics are turning their backs on Obama, pointing to a Pew poll that found the number of Catholics who disapprove of his job performance has increased 9 percent over the last month (Gerson says 9 points, but it looks like it increased 14 points to me). But 59 percent of Catholics still think Obama's doing a good job, the same percent as Americans do overall.

Even more interesting is this Gallup poll, released Monday, that finds Catholics are actually more liberal than other Americans on the so-called moral issues the Cardinal Newman Society seeks to use as a wedge. Polling more than 3,000 people, Gallup found that Catholics are more likely to think abortion, stem cell research, gay relationships and sex before marriage are "morally acceptable" than non-Catholic Americans. Even devout churchgoing Catholics are more liberal on those issues than devout churchgoing Christians of other denominations.

Although Father Andrew Greeley's research has been documenting Catholic liberalism since the 1970s -- Catholics are more likely than other religious groups to intermarry, religiously and racially, for instance -- my people have long been stereotyped as close-minded. There's still some class disdain that hangs over from 19th century WASP derision of dumb white "ethnics," particularly the Irish.

This also has personal resonance with me because my daughter attends Fordham University, New York's great Jesuit institution in the Bronx, where she's a leader of the College Democrats and is thriving in the free-thinking, compassionate community she's found there. This month her College Republican colleagues are bringing Newt Gingrich, the twice-divorced GOP leader who in fact served his first wife her divorce papers when she was recovering from breast cancer. Not terribly Christian, if you ask me. But no one challenges Gingrich's right to speak at Fordham -- including me.

We don't need a new Inquisition in our Catholic universities, we need them to model reason and compassion, and most do. One factor that helped us choose Fordham was a serendipitous NPR profile of Rabbi David Hartman, who runs the Shalom Hartman Institute for interfaith community in Jerusalem, and who credited his time at Fordham for helping him more deeply understand Judaism. That's the kind of environment a college student deserves; if Fordham ever adopted the Cardinal Newman Society approach, it wouldn't be Fordham anymore.

Luckily, Notre Dame's president, Father John Jenkins, is holding fast to his plan to host Obama, calling the president "an inspiring leader." According to Tim Rutten, 73 percent of Notre Dame students -- and 97 percent of its seniors -- support the Obama invitation. Young Catholics are even more liberal than their parents, so the work of the Cardinal Newman Society will be increasingly futile as the years pass. Futile, but noxious nonetheless.

-- Joan Walsh

Sunday Funnies: Yes, Pecan!

Stolen without permission from: http://justprettydeep.blogspot.com/

Primary Decision

I'll admit it. I am still undecided. I am one of "those" people interviewed in the street on the eve of a primary vote who claim indecision.

Although I am sure I am the last to hear of the Washington Post "Choose your Candidate" quiz, I'll pass it along here. I found my results informative, but not shocking. It takes time, but it is worth it. Even if you are already "decided."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/candidatequiz/

God in the Dust by Donna Freitas

God in the Dust:
What Catholics attacking 'The Golden Compass' are really afraid of
By Donna Freitas November 25, 2007

ON DEC. 7 New Line Cinema will release "The Golden Compass," starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, the first movie in a trilogy with the massive budget and family blockbuster potential of "The Lord of the Rings."

Yet, even before it opens, "The Golden Compass" finds itself at the center of a controversy. The Catholic League, a conservative religious organization, launched a campaign on Oct. 9 calling on all Catholics to boycott the film. The group also published a lengthy pamphlet attacking the story and distributed the pamphlet to Catholic schools across the country. Other groups have joined the fray, including the evangelical nonprofit Focus on the Family, whose magazine Plugged In urged parents to keep kids out of theaters showing the film. And the Christian blogosphere is alive with warnings not only about the movie trilogy, but also about the series of books it is based on.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, charges that the books, known as the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, are deeply anti-Christian. Donohue says he fears that the film will inspire parents to purchase "His Dark Materials" for their fantasy-hungry kids on Christmas, unaware that the third book of the series, "The Amber Spyglass," climaxes in an epic battle to destroy God. Some of the book's villains are referred to as the Magisterium - a term used to refer to the Catholic hierarchy. The British author, Philip Pullman, has said openly that he is an atheist, and Donohue charges that his books are designed to eradicate faith among children.

But this is a sad misreading of the trilogy. These books are deeply theological, and deeply Christian in their theology. The universe of "His Dark Materials" is permeated by a God in love with creation, who watches out for the meekest of all beings - the poor, the marginalized, and the lost. It is a God who yearns to be loved through our respect for the body, the earth, and through our lives in the here and now. This is a rejection of the more classical notion of a detached, transcendent God, but I am a Catholic theologian, and reading this fantasy trilogy enhanced my sense of the divine, of virtue, of the soul, of my faith in God.

The book's concept of God, in fact, is what makes Pullman's work so threatening. His trilogy is not filled with attacks on Christianity, but with attacks on authorities who claim access to one true interpretation of a religion. Pullman's work is filled with the feminist and liberation strands of Catholic theology that have sustained my own faith, and which threaten the power structure of the church. Pullman's work is not anti-Christian, but anti-orthodox.

This emerging controversy, then, is deeply unusual. It features an artist who claims atheism, but whose work is unabashedly theistic. And it features a series of books that are at once charming and thrilling children's literature, and a story that explores some of the most divisive and fascinating issues in Catholic theology today.

Pullman wasn't always "the most dangerous man in Britain" as he has been called by columnist Peter Hitchens. Pullman studied literature at Oxford, went on to become a schoolteacher, and then discovered he had a knack for drawing middle-school-aged children to the edge of their seats over classics like "Beowulf." Pullman began to write stories of his own in the early '80s.

It wasn't until Pullman married his talent for epic adventure with the genre of children's fantasy in "His Dark Materials" that he reached a wide audience. The book the movie is based on, "The Golden Compass," came out in 1995 and won the Carnegie Medal, awarded for an outstanding book of children's literature. The sequel, "The Subtle Knife," was released in 1997, and the final installment, "The Amber Spyglass," was published in 2000 to wide acclaim, including the prestigious Whitbread Prize, the first given for a children's book. The series has sold some 12 million copies worldwide.

In interviews, Pullman has gone on record as an atheist, not only doubting God's existence but charging that organized religion has been an instrument of evil in world history. He has criticized C.S. Lewis's Christian allegory "The Chronicles of Narnia," because Pullman sees in "Narnia" a world in which innocence is so prized that Lewis never allows his heroines and heroes to grow up.

But to reduce Pullman to these few juicy sound bites is to ignore the whole of a complex, exuberantly curious intellectual who has infused his writing with a complex, crisply rendered theology.

The trilogy is a retelling of Milton's "Paradise Lost," the classic epic poem from which Pullman borrowed a line, "His Dark Materials." Milton tells of the battle between Lucifer's army of fallen angels and God's rule in heaven. In "Paradise Lost," God prevails. But in Pullman's book, the two child protagonists help to defeat the rule of the Authority and the Authority dies.

When critics say that Pullman's series advocates killing God, this is what they mean. But that is the most literal possible reading, and misses the point of the books.

The "God" who dies in "The Amber Spyglass" is not a true God at all. Pullman's Authority is an impostor, more like Milton's Lucifer than like a traditional conception of God. In the novels, the universe's first angel tricked all other angels and conscious beings created after him into believing he is God, and has spent an eternity building a corrupt empire for the purpose of hanging on to absolute power.

Readers of the trilogy know that the Authority is a tyrannical figure who uses his power to deceive, to conceal, and to terrorize. His death not only liberates all beings, but reveals the true God, in which and in whom all good things - knowledge, truth, spirit, bodies, and matter - are made. The impostor God has spent an eternity trying to wipe out all traces of the divine fabric of the true God - what Pullman calls Dust - because it is so threatening to his rule.

Most Christians are taught to imagine God through the first and second parts of the Trinity, through the Father (God) and the Son (Jesus). Pullman's vision of God is much closer to the third part of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit. Dust is the Holy Spirit.

For Christians, then, perhaps the most important concept of all in the story is that divinity isn't just a being, but a substance that loves us and animates us, yet has a mind of its own. In the books, Dust's love for humans is unconditional, even though they often do things to hurt and deplete Dust's influence and presence. Dust has many names in "His Dark Materials": Wisdom, Consciousness, Spirit, Dark Matter.

Dust also has a distinctly female cast. When Pullman personifies Dust, and he does on occasion, he uses the pronoun she. Evoking the third person of the trinity as female is nothing new - in fact it's biblical. Wisdom (Sophia in Greek) is the feminine aspect of the Holy Spirit. One finds God spoken of as she in both Proverbs and the Psalms (among other places). Framing the divine through Spirit-Sophia is nothing new either - this is a move made famous by the work of revered Catholic feminist theologian Elizabeth Johnson, a professor at Fordham, in "She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse," now a classic text among Christian feminist scholars.

God is not dead, then: A false God has died and the true God - a feminine divine - is revealed.

The universe of "His Dark Materials" is far from atheistic or anti-Christian, but to understand why, we must allow ourselves to open up to a theological vision that exceeds the narrow agenda set by some Catholics.

Pullman's Dust certainly moves beyond orthodox Christian ideas about God. Dust is a "spirit" that transcends creation, but all living beings are made of Dust, so Dust is a part of creation. While Dust is indeed the divine fabric of the worlds of "His Dark Materials," Dust is not all-powerful, all-knowing, and immutable. Dust is as dependent on creation for its sustenance as we are dependent on Dust for ours.

This view of Dust echoes many of the theological ideas that the Catholic Church finds threatening today. The most obvious thread is liberation theology, the Marxist and socially progressive rereading of the Gospels born among Catholic theologians in Latin America in the 1960s. Liberation theology teaches that Jesus is a political revolutionary who loves all that God has created and wants all creation to flourish on this earth, not just in heaven. Liberation theology also holds that believers should disregard doctrine that leads to oppression.

This is not an idea in favor with the current leadership of the church. In placing the common welfare above the dictates of church authorities, this movement has sparked a long running battle with the Catholic hierarchy. The Church has issued high-profile attacks on liberation theologians, both in official Vatican documents and, perhaps most famously, in the reprimands issued to the former Brazilian Franciscan priest Leonardo Boff by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Vatican office led by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The cardinal is now Pope Benedict XVI.

Dust also reflects strains in feminist theology that reframe the divine as feminine and hold that Christians' relationship with the divine is mutual, not hierarchical: We make ourselves vulnerable to God as God makes God's self vulnerable to us. Many see this feminized God as a kind of heresy - a rejection literally embodied in the fact that women are forbidden to represent Jesus through the Catholic priesthood.

Pullman's characters who discover the true God fall so deeply in love with the divine that they will sacrifice everything - even the bonds of first love. They are willing to hold on to this God even if it requires that they wage war with the powers that be, the authorities called Church and Magisterium - those who rule by secrecy and serve a false God who takes the form of the old man in the sky.

It is a beautiful story, and a Christian story. It is a story that could prompt believers to reflect on their faith. It is just not a story that everyone may want you to read.

Donna Freitas is a visiting assistant professor of religion at Boston University. She is the coauthor of "Killing the Imposter God: Philip Pullman's Spiritual Imagination in His Dark Materials," and author of the forthcoming "Sex and the Soul" from Oxford University Press.

Link to Boston Globe's Article: http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2007/11/25/god_in_the_dust/?page=full

Donna Freitas's Web Site:
http://www.donnafreitas.com/

Kristoff Offers Trip Opportunity for College Students and Schoolteachers

March 11, 2007 Op-Ed Columnist
New York Times
Win a Trip, and See a Different World
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Cast your eyes above and meet Hidaya Abatemam, whom I met last month in a remote area of southern Ethiopia. She is 6 years old and weighs 17 pounds.

Hidaya was starved nearly to death and may well have suffered permanent mental impairment, helping to trap her — and her own children, if she lives that long — in another generation of poverty.

Yet maybe the more interesting question is not why Hidaya is starving but why the world continues to allow 30,000 children like her to die each day of poverty.

Ultimately what is killing girls like her isn’t precisely malnutrition or malaria, but indifference. And that, in turn, arises from our insularity, our inexperience in traveling and living in poor countries, so that we have difficulty empathizing with people like Hidaya.

I often hear comments from readers like: “It’s tragic over there, but we’ve got our own problems that we have to solve first.” Nobody who has held the hand of a starving African child could be that dismissive.

That lack of firsthand experience abroad also helps explain why we are so awful at foreign policy: we just don’t “get” how our actions will be perceived abroad, so time and again — in Vietnam, China, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Latin America — we end up clumsily empowering our enemies.

Part of the problem is that American universities do an execrable job preparing students for global citizenship. A majority of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day, but the vast majority of American students graduate without ever gaining any insight into how that global majority lives.

According to a Roper/National Geographic poll, 38 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 consider speaking another language to be “not too important.” Sixty-three percent of those young Americans can’t find Iraq on a map of the Middle East. And 89 percent don’t correspond regularly with anyone outside the U.S.

A survey cited by the Modern Language Association found that only 9 percent of American college students enroll in a foreign language class.

Let’s face it: We’re provincial.

That’s one reason that I always exhort college students to take a “gap year” and roam the world, or at least to take a summer or semester abroad — and spend it not in Paris or London, but traveling through Chinese or African villages. Universities should give course credit for such experiences — and offer extra credit for students who catch intestinal worms.

So I’m now putting my company’s money where my mouth is. On Tuesday, in partnership with MySpace.com, The New York Times and I will announce a second annual “win a trip” contest to choose a university student to travel with me on a reporting trip to Africa. And this year, in addition to a student, I’ll choose a schoolteacher — from a middle school or high school — to accompany me as well. We'll probably travel together to Rwanda, Burundi and Congo.

Last year I chose a young woman from Mississippi, Casey Parks, and we traveled together through central Africa. Casey and I saw malnourished children just like Hidaya, and visited burned-out villages in areas of the Central African Republic that had been caught up in the furies of the spreading Darfur genocide. Pygmy trackers led us through the jungle to see gorillas and elephants, and we managed to be held up at gunpoint by bandits.

In Cameroon, we interviewed a doctor about maternal mortality — and then found a woman named Prudence, a mother of three, dying in the next room. A dead fetus was decomposing inside her, setting off a raging infection, but the doctor didn’t care about her. And so she died. You can know intellectually that half a million women die in pregnancy each year, but it’s still shattering to see a woman die so unnecessarily in front of you.

If you win the trip, you won’t be practicing tourism, but journalism. You’ll blog and prepare videos for the New York Times and MySpace Web sites. I’m betting that you’ll be able to connect with young readers and viewers — and galvanize them to care about these issues — in a way that I can’t.

So please spread the word about the contest. Rules and applications will be posted Tuesday [March 13] at www.nytimes.com/winatrip and at www.myspace.com/kristofontheground.

And for those who apply but don’t win, go anyway on your own. You’ll learn more than you ever would from an equivalent period in the classroom. And you’ll gain not only the occasional intestinal parasite but also an understanding of why we should fight to save children like Hidaya.

To read the original article online at the New York Times, visit
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/opinion/11kristof.html