Warm-yourself-up Chili

Nothing like a hearty bowl of chili, served with grated mozarella and sour cream (or yogurt). MmM! This recipe is and adaptation from one on famouschilirecipes.com.

Red Hot Chili Peppers by Cao Quan-Tang

 Ingredients
 • small package of ground beef (or Yves fake meat)
 • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
 • 3 cups beef broth or onion broth
 • 1 can of kidney beans
 • 1/2 can of crushed tomatos
 • 2 soft fresh tomatoes diced (a good use of tomatoes that have been in the fridge a bit too long...)
 • 2 large onions, diced
 • 1 large potato diced
 • 2 sticks of celery chopped finely
 • 2-3 carrots chopped
 • tomato paste (optional, to thicken)

 • 6 cloves garlic, minced
 • 3 tablespoons chili powder
 • 1 tablespoon sugar
 • 3 tablespoons cumin, ground
 • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
 • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
 • 1 teaspoon black pepper, ground
 • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

It's easiest if you start by chopping everything ahead. In a large pot, heat the brown the ground beef, making sure to continuously break up large pieces with a spoon or spatula. Add onions, potato, celery and carrots to the ground beef and cook over medium heat with stirring until the onions are soft and translucent. Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, sugar, thyme, cayenne powder, oregano, and black pepper. Heat over medium heat with stirring for 12 minutes. Pour in the broth, kidney beans, diced tomatoes and crushed tomato. Stir to mix well. Reduce heat to low and simmer for at least 2 hours before serving or refrigerating. If too liquid, add 1 can of tomato paste. Serve with grated cheese and yogurt. Makes excellent leftovers.

Food and You

by Oxfam International Youth Partnerships (see them here).

Dear readers,

This has been an extremely busy fall and I am going to put this blog on hold until after Christmas. Please check in again later!

Thank you,

Mag

Choice vs. Life

The pro-choice vs pro-life debate is peppered with extreme clashes of fundamental values, emotionally charged circumstances, and socioeconomic inequity. Stir into that a little political power and demographic overpopulation, and you’re reaching into a really sticky issue.

 Often thrown amidst the mix of why we believe in life over choice come thoughts of our own birth, or the birth of people we cherish. If I had not been born? If they had not been born?

Certainly, I think it’s unfair to regret and grieve for something that did not happen. And, even in giving women the choice to give birth, it will continue to be that those who are, are and those who aren’t, aren’t. No one can know what would’ve been. I think by questioning this, we lose sight of our reality. Our own birth was never a question, because we are here.

I feel for the women who undergo an abortion and must defend themselves till the end, sometimes in their own heads as it is constantly rubbed in their faces in visually gruesome pro-life campaigns. Can they not grieve for a child they never wanted? Perhaps the child that they could not afford or the one they were not allowed, they need not rationalise it. The aborted foetus never was and never will be.

And furthermore, to force a woman, as in the past, to carry her child to term and give it up for adoption seems to be an even crueller sentence. Knowing that she cannot keep it and will not keep it, to go through the process of pregnancy and the intensity of birth, she will grieve doubly but will not be permitted to show it because she wanted to get rid of the child.

To be born unwanted from your mother does not mean unloved, nor does being the product of a violent encounter. But women, being the only half of the population to be capable of doing it, need to be able to make an empowered choice, un-coerced. Once that choice is made, they need immense support. Regardless of the outcome, I believe that both lanes are dark ones, to keep the pregnancy or to lose it, I feel the women lose a piece of themselves. She is the only one who will live with her choice, no one else may feel it the way she does.

And when she is put through the intricacies of visualizing unborn foetus’ eyes or limbs, you throw salt in the wound and impose her body as a reproductive machine. It is not her alone that is upholding the survival of the human race, and if a man can’t give birth than why should she?

Fruit-From-Your-Foodbox Crumble

My friend baked this today, roughly by following this recipe. Delicious! Looking forward to the cooler weather for some baking and roasting! It's also Halloween (and the same friend also carved the pumpkin!)!

Topping:
1/2 cup (65 grams) all purpose flour
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
1/4 cup (55 grams) light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fresh or ground nutmeg (optional)
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (84 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup (30 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup (40 grams) chopped walnuts or pecans

Filling:
2-3 tablespoons (30 - 45 grams) light brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch (corn flour)
1 1/2 pounds (680 grams) Granny Smith Apples or other firm, tart-tasting apple - peeled, cored, and sliced into 1 inch (2.5 cm) chunks
1 1/2 pounds (680 grams) ripe Bartlett or Anjou Pears, peeled, cored and cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) chunks
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries and/or strawberries

Apple Crisp: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Butter or spray with a cooking spray, a 9 inch (23 cm) deep dish pie plate or an 8 x 8 x 2 inch (20 x 20 x 5 cm) baking dish. (Can also make 8 individual ramekins.) Set aside.

For Topping: Place all the topping ingredients (flour, sugars, spices, butter, oats and nuts) in a food processor and process until the mixture is crumbly (looks like coarse meal) and there are no large pieces of butter visible. (This can also be done with two knives or your fingertips.) Set aside while you prepare the filling.

For Filling: In a large bowl combine the sugar and cornstarch (corn flour). Peel, core, and slice the apples and pears and toss them, along with the berries, in the sugar mixture. Once thoroughly combined transfer to the prepared baking dish. Spread the topping evenly over the fruit.

Bake for approximately 35-45 minutes or until bubbly and the topping is golden brown and crisp. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve with softly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Refrigerate leftovers and reheat before serving.

Makes about 6 servings.

Fertility Awareness: Temperature

Of the three fertility signs (the others being cervical fluid and cervical position), this one amazed me the most and I think as a starting point it's pretty simple to initiate. Basically, the second you wake up, you take your temperature. I don't even have to look at the result, I can just sleep merrily on, because it shows me the next time I turn it on.

The magic is that waking temperature rises higher by about a tenth of a degree after ovulation occurs. Note this is after ovulation, so for the sake of not getting pregnant this is a bit of a late sign. The temperature stays high, as I described in the last FAM post, because of the progesterone released by the yellow body (corpus luteum). As the yellow body disintegrates, if the egg is not fertilized, progesterone diminishes and menstruation starts, beginning the cycle again and temperatures come back down.

Like I've also mentioned before, this luteal phase spans a finite amount of time, between 12 and 16 days. So, by knowing when ovulation probably occurred by looking at ones charts, one can predict just about when menstruation will start. This can be very convenient!

It's also important to note that there are ups and downs in the day to day temperatures, but only in looking at the general trend can you see the tendency for lower temperatures in the follicular phase (before ovulation) and the tendency for higher temperature in the luteal phase (after ovulation). To get technical about it, in Celsius, temperatures in the follicular phase are about 36.1 to 36.3; and in the luteal phase about 36.4 to 36.6. Pretty minute changes, but noticeable and certainly chartable.

Tips from TCOYF:
1. take your temp first thing upon awakening, before any other activity (including, drinking water and going to the bathroom)
2. take it about the same time every morning, give or take an hour
3. use a digital thermometer, until it beeps
4. take your temperature orally and be consistent about it.


You can find plenty of charts on the TCOYF website here. And you're set to get started!

Irene Klar

Twilight Patterns

Precious Bundles

My most recent thrift store find is a poster of a watercolour by Irene Klar for Amnesty International. I couldn't find the exact one, but these (all from her website, here) give you a taste for her beautiful patterns in vibrantly coloured paintings.

Woman of Canyon Del Muerto

Soba Noodle Salad

My sister makes very tasty soba noodle salad and trying to copy her, I made one based on the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook. Not as tasty as hers, but it will have to do! I would definitely make it again because it is so simple.

a few big handfuls of baby spinach
2/3 cup of chopped scallions
1/2 block of extra firm tofu, cut into small cubes
1 package of soba noodles

Sauce
- 1 Tbs brown miso paste
- 1/3 cup of hot water
- 2 Tbs of apple juice
- 2 Tbs of sesame oil
- 1/4 cup of tamari or soy sauce
- 1 Tbs of finely grated fresh ginger
- 2 Tbs rice vinegar

Sesame seeds as topping (optional)

Bring a large covered pot of water to a rapid boil. Cook the noodles until just tender, about 3 minutes. Drain, rinse under cold water, and drain again.

While the pasta cooks, prepare the sauce: In a small bowl, dissolve the miso in the water. Whisk in the apple juice, sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, and vinegar. Chop the scallions.

In a serving bowl, toss the baby spinach, tofu, scallions, and sauce with the noodles. I put the spinach in first to allow it to wilt a bit with the warm noodles. Sprinkle with sesame seeds right before serving.

Serve warm or cooled.

Knitting in paintings

Paul Cézanne

Albert Anker: Strickendes Mädchen vor Fensternische

Dutch Painting in the 19th Century - Haverman - The Knitting-Lesson

Tricoteuse paintings by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Jean-François Millet - The Knitting Lesson

I was pleased to note the number of paintings that come up with women, particularly girls, knitting, because I'm sometimes told, "well, aren't you a little too young to be knitting?"

All photos are from Wikipedia

Knitting, the Yarn Swift and the Ball Winder

With the quickly changing season, I have become completely engrossed in my knitting. I am making, for the first time, a throw blanket. All in one piece, I'm making it on an 80cm round needle to hold all 137 stitches. You can see how my hands have been quite tied up! If found the pattern on Knitty (website here, pattern here). I think it might turn out to be the biggest thing I've ever made and I'm getting a callous on my pointer finger on my right hand to show it. I'm about 2/3rds done. Of course, mine does not look anything like the picture because I'm using up a few different balls of colour and I haven't blocked it yet. Blocking is when you wet a finished knit, stretch it and pin it down till it dries to the exact shape/size you wanted. But I suspect I will run into trouble there because of my strange left-handed (despite being right-handed) knitting.

In other exciting news, my weekly knitting group has started. We had a pretty fun time last week with a swift (the thing that resembles a miniature clothes drying rack) and a ball winder (that looks like a defunct blow dryer). Both parts are used to turn a newly bought hank (twisted yarn) into a ball. I learned a great deal in the last five minutes in trying to write that last sentence. I also came across some rather nice pictures of swifts, seen below.

Of course, the reason you use the swift with the hanks (and not balls or skeins) is because the hanks untwist in a large circle that fits just right around the swift, and this spins around to feed into either a manually made ball or the ball winder. But it's not a big deal to feed a skein or a ball of yarn directly into the ball winder to make a lovely ball of yarn that is not too tight and allows one to grab yarn either from the center or from the outside (e.g. when doubling the yarn to make it a thicker gauge).

The Ball winder looks a bit like this, where yarn is fed through the little metal extension to the left onto the spindle. Then you manually crank it. It was declared by some that this would be a wondrous lifetime career while others noted the boredom that would quickly ensue...

And voilà!

cà phê sữa

This one is for my Mum.



How To Make Vietnamese Coffee from High Beam Media on Vimeo.

by Eric Slatkin

via Life: The Atlantic

Reclaiming the F Word

The New Feminist Movement
by Catherine Redfern and Kristin Aune

Sometimes I argue with a few people whether feminism is the right word to use anymore. By continuing to call myself a feminist, does this only further the confusion around what that really means? For me, it used to elicit images of the mother in Mary Poppins, while Mary Poppins cared for her children Mrs. Banks (Glynis Johns) rallied for the vote for women.

But that's certainly not entirely what it means, is it?

From the book's website here

I picked up this book for the shelf of the Northern District Toronto Public library (my current favourite for content) a bit by happenstance. It had a curious cover and the titled rubbed me the right way, right away.

"I'm not a feminist, but..."
Redfern and Aune start by pointing out that despite claims that either feminism is dead or the other extreme that feminism has gone way over-the-top, most people do align with feminist values, it's just that they don't call it like it is. They consider that "rather than thinking that feminism has failed because 'only' 25% of women are feminists, we need to keep in mind that being an active feminist was never a popular choice, even in the 1970s. And 25% is a very good support base for a social movement."Furthermore, the methods might be a bit different now to show one's feminist stripes.

So why do people shy away from the word feminism? Redfern and Aune speculated that some may not consider themselves "active" enough to take on the label, while others are men who avoid it on the basis of their sex.  Some may also associate it with a particular feminist that they did not like or thought that it predominated with white, middle-class women's issues. Really, it seems obvious that the problem is in the definition of feminism.

Is feminism no longer needed?
No. Certainly things have come a long way in terms of women's rights, precisely as a result of earlier feminist movements, but there remains a lot to do! As Redfern and Aune say, "women's visibility  in popular culture doesn't mean women are valued, safe from violence or equal."And later in the book, "Women are still being raped, paid less than men, and access to abortion is restricted."

Defining Feminism
Through this book, Redfern and Aune sought just that, to identify what feminism is up to today. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges in feminism today is the "how"and "what" of equality, and debates certainly rage even among feminists over issues like pornography, the sex industry and men's role in feminism. As a disclaimer, Redfern and Aune note, "Not everyone will agree on the issues we've highlighted, and everyone will prioritise them in different ways. Even if you are a feminist, you certainly won't agree with everything you read here." But is that not part of feminism? Challenging the norm and embodying different beliefs in an open debate. In seeking to be liberated from oppression, it would be quite silly for feminists to then oppress others.

Feminism is...
... an individual survival mechanism: "It assures that you have the right to live your life the way you want and imagine a brighter future for the world. It prompts you to question the status quo, rather than assuming that the way things are is the best they can be."

... collective action: "Feminism assures you that you're not alone, that the problems you experience are shared by others, and that, as a woman or a gender non-conforming person, your concerns are important." and  "Feminism provides you with a support network for your interests and campaigns. It enables us to band together on issues we agree on."

... collective impact: "Feminism encourages us to consider the wider impact of our actions. In other words, it's not just about us, but is about ending sexism and liberating everyone from centuries of oppression based on gender."

Chapters
1. Liberated bodies
2. Sexual freedom and choice
3. An end to violence against women
4. Equality at work and home
5. Politics and religion transformed
6. Popular culture free from sexism
7. Feminism

French Toast!

Sunday brunch French toast!

My mother had given me some lovely bread which I had somewhat forgotten about and had become a bit hard in the fridge. One was a walnut loaf and the other hazelnut and raisin. I sliced each into thick slices and, for the first time, made French toast! The recipe is from Allrecipes.com (see it here), thanks Jan Bittner. The house smells delicious.

Ingredients
 6 thick slices bread
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
salt to taste

Strawberry topping: 1 cup of frozen strawberries (pre-sliced), big spoonful of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of water; bring to a boil and simmer to thicken for the duration of the cook time of the French toast.

Icing sugar topping (optional)

Directions
 Beat together egg, milk, salt, desired spices and vanilla. Heat a lightly oiled griddle of skillet over medium-high flame (as if, my elements took a little longer to heat, and I'd say my pan was medium-ly oiled). Dunk each slice of bread in egg mixture, soaking both sides (if I were to do this again I would probably soak them a bit longer, especially for thick and dense bread). Place in pan, and cook on both sides until golden. Serve hot.

FAM Step 1: The Menstrual Cycle

FAM: Fertility Awareness Method

This is a follow-up to the post on myths about contraceptives.

As recommended by the instructor of that talk, I picked up the book "Taking Charge of Your Fertility: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health" by Toni Weschler (book cover from their website, see it here). I tried with all my feminist might not to feel awkward finding it and buying it from the bookstore, but alas, it was awkward.

The first couple chapters were essentially about the myths about contraceptives and widespread misunderstandings that were further perpetuated by ignorant health professionals (like me). The third chapter was about the reproductive anatomy of both men and women, parts of which I'll touch on in this post.

The chapter I wanted to discuss, however, is this one.



Chapter 4: Finally Making Sense of Your Menstrual Cycle

You'll be perhaps a bit shocked to know that I have been reading this book aloud in the evenings and that both P and I have been enjoying it. It's well written, comprehensive, and even pretty funny at times.

FELOP
Most of us have seen this diagram before. Lots of lines, very little concrete meaning.

The menstrual cycle has two phases -- Follicular and Luteal -- with ovulation as the dividing line. FELOP is an acronym to help with the order of the hormones.

Folicular phase
This phase starts at the first day of menstruation (menses) and lasts a different amount of time for different people, averaging (but not set on) about 14 days. F is for FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone), as it surges at the far left of our chart, 15 to 20 lucky eggs start to mature in each ovary. Each embedded in their individual follicles, they race to grow the biggest to be the one egg that is released that month.

This process is fairly sensitive to lifestyle or physiological factors (e.g. stress or hormone insufficiencies), that cause a delay in the release of the winning egg. It takes whatever time the body needs to reach the threshold of (E is for) estrogen to cause ovulation (it make take 14 but it may also take 30 or any other number, prolonging or shortening the length of that person's cycle that month). At the threshold, estrogen opens the floodgates of LH (L is for Luteinizing Hormone) which cause the egg to burst through the ovarian wall (O is for Ovulation) within a day or so.

The unlucky remaining eggs disintegrate (atresia). The winning egg, ironically the size of a period at the end of a sentence, "tumbles out into the pelvic cavity, where it is quickly swept up by the fingerlike projections of the fallopian tubes, called fimbria... the fimbria reach over and draw it into the adjoining tube. Occasionally, the fimbria do not retrieve the egg, and therefore pregnancy would not be possible that cycle."

Left behind, the follicle that the winning egg was sitting in becomes the corpeus luteum, hence the name of the cycle from this point on.

Luteal phase
Unlike the follicular phase, the luteal phase is more defined in length, because the corpeus luteum has a finite lifespan of about 12 to 16 days (averaging just over 12 days). In blue on our chart, it's role is to release (P is for) Progesterone which
- prevents the release of another egg (thank goodness that twins is not the norm, but on occasion two or more eggs are released and if fertilized by sperm will be fraternal twins)
- cause the lining of the uterus (called endometrium) to thicken and get ready for a potential pregnancy
- cause the 3 primary fertility signs to change: waking temperature, cervical fluid and cervical position

The egg only lives for 24 hours.

Conception
If one of the very numerous handsome sperm travels up meet and fertilize the egg in the fallopian tube, the two are bonded, preventing other sperm from coming in. They travel for a week down into the uterus and plant themselves into the endometrium.

If conception does not occur and send feedback to the the corpeus luteum to hang in there, it lives out it's life span and menstruation finally occurs starting a new cycle.

A nice animation by Felix Meyer, Pascal Monaco, and Torsten Strer via The Atlantic.


Hitch from Pascal Monaco on Vimeo.

Bisphenol A

Bisphenol A (BPA) is found in epoxy resins and polycarbonate plastic. Translation: it's found in virtually everything and everyone.

What do I use that has BPA?
You might be aware of the campaigns against plastic bottles, as see in the comprehensive videos of the Story of Stuff (source of the line-drawing images, see the comprehensive video here).

We are largely exposed to BPA by ingestion of food from cans (inner lining), plastic-packaged food and bottled drinks. It especially leaches into food/drinks when they are warm or acidic.It is also found in other products that we touch all the time, such as thermal paper (e.g. receipts, event and cinema tickets, labels, and airline tickets) or carbonless copy paper, where it may be later ingested when hands come into contact with food.

The sad unethical reality of it is that for those who cannot afford to buy fresh food as a primary source of nutrition, packaged goods and canned goods may be the only way to eat enough. Better to eat something rather than nothing? But the health consequences are doubly felt by those who depend on food banks and are living in poverty. Green consumerism is a privilege in our society.

What health consequences?
BPA is one of many compounds that are known to have endocrine disrupting effects. Endocrine is just a fancy word for messenger molecules, among the most commonly known are hormones. In the case of BPA, it mimics estrogen and interferes with estrogen receptors, which are found all over the body, in men and women, and not just in the reproductive organs. This causes widespread problems, especially when exposed during periods of accelerated growth (e.g. fetal, early years, puberty, pregnancy). The concern was great enough that our government has banned the use of BPA in baby bottles. But what about everything else? As it stands, it would be a HUGE overhaul to remove BPA from all the products its found in and the government has declared that the quantities are negligible. Though really, these molecules are very effective at low doses, that's precisely how they work!

There is a long list of health problems that are suspected to be related to BPA exposure, here are some: neurological deficits, disrupts thyroid function, sexual organ anomalies, and certain types of cancer (particularly breast, prostate and brain). There is also a growing concern in the potential relation between BPA exposure and the increasing rates of obesity.

Myths about Contraceptives

Last Thursday I had some time to spare before this talk about contraceptives so I was trying on a dress in the changeroom. I looked up and noticed that my glasses were crooked. This always drives me nuts, so I went to try to adjust them and SNAP. Fuck. I think I might have said that out loud. The glasses, which are the rimless kind, had snapped right through the lens, hanging on by a plastic thread. I didn't buy the dress.

The point is, that this lecture was so well presented and interesting that I forgot all about this momentous event that had happened only moments before and even stayed around for a few minutes afterward to talk to the speaker.

Wikipedia

Amy Sedgwick will tell you that it is from her own bad experience with popular birth control that lead her to where she is today, as one of the sisters of the Red Tent Sisters (see them here). Named after the book the Red Tent by Anita Diamant (an excellent read, I recommend it), this is one of the few, if not only, places that offer non-religious affiliated support in Fertility Awareness in Toronto as an alternative to hormonal birth control, more on that later.

In a small, warm room in the Women's Healthy Environments Network's floor of the Centre for Social Innovation, about two dozen women filed in, sneaking through the café as the doors had been locked out front by mistake.

Myth #1: There are no serious health risks
Birth control places you at higher risk for migraines and, likely related, stroke. Add to that if you are a smoker or have a family history of stroke and the risks are quite significant. For cancer risk, it varies in protecting or contributing depending on the study and the combination of hormones. Sedgwick recommended to consider your family risk and then look up one that is most suited to that risk. Birth control is also known to cause an increase in mood disorders, particularly depression and hindered libido.

(a) Normal, (b) With birth control
Green (LH), Yellow (LH),
Blue (Estrogen), Red (progesterone)

Myth #2: It helps regulate cycles
Technically, a birth control cycle is not really a cycle at all. It keeps your body stagnating at one level of hormone for 3 weeks and then allows for a withdrawal bleed for the 4th week (more on how contraceptives work here). The withdrawal bleed is hardly even necessary, but when marketing the product, it was found that women responded better to this false bleed as confirmation that they were not pregnant and also mistook this for a sign of their continued fertility.

Sedgwick also cautions on the use to regulate cycle because it is often the rationale for putting very young women on birth control before their bodies have even begun to regulate their own cycle. It also, of course, ignores the underlying problem and it is likely that, when taken off the birth control, the problem will persist, causing undue distress.

Myth #3: It has no environmental impact
In order to reach the peak amounts of birth control in the blood stream to prevent ovulation, more than normal amounts of the medication must be taken, particularly because the oral route is not entirely efficient at absorbing the medication. So where does the excess go? You either excrete it through your feces or pee it all out. As one of the most widely prescribed medications, it flows in tremendous quantities back out into our water supply, into our ecosystems. The feminization of fish populations is only the beginning of this slippery slope of environmental pollution.

Sedgwick also points us toward thinking about the ethics of pharmaceutical companies, at their abuses of the environment but also in the ways they tailor their ads to feed misconceptions to the public about the positive aspects of pharmaceuticals and birth control.

Myth #4 and #5: Only form of reversible birth control and has no effect on future fertility

Sedgwick reminds us that it takes on average 9 months to regain fertility after cessation of the birth control pill, heavily based on length of time of use and time of initiation (e.g. how young). The intrauterine device (IUD) is one method, which can be found both with or without hormones. She does warn though, that it places the uterus in a permanent state of inflammation and has the risk of puncturing the uterus wall, and considers that this may cause some issues. Her personal favourite, and a big reason she got into this business, is Fertility Awareness. This is basically getting to know your own body's day to day signs of fertility (mucous consistency, body temperature). Essentially, an egg is only fertile for 15 to 24 hours and add to that, the lifespan of a sperm, 3 to 5 days, you're only able to get pregnant in a period less than a week. It starts to seem absurd then, to be taking hormones daily for something that is so contained to a certain time. And let's not forget that birth control does not protect against everything.

I think that birth control has transformed the lives of women but, and this seems to be what Sedgwick was getting at as well, we need to move on to better things now. Young girls need to be encouraged to get to know their own bodies, whether or not they are having sex. The information that they get out of Fertility Awareness also serves as an indicator of general health, such as nutrition or pinning down food allergies and intolerances.

Global Enviro. Change & Human Security

An Introduction

by Jon Barnett, Richard A. Matthew and Karen L. O'Brien


I read the intro to this book as a pleasure read after some questions arose from my work assignment on summarizing gender and climate change. The words used in dialogues of climate change and action were ambiguous and I wanted to shed some light on social justice in this area.

Oddly enough, I've already returned this book to the Toronto Public Library but a good portion of this chapter is available on google books.

Firstly, the authors define what is meant by "global."

These environmental changes are "global" because they are ubiquitous and because some pollutants such as greenhouse gases and radioactive wastes have global consequences. They are also "global" inasmuch as their origins lie in the consumption of resources in markets that are often very distant from the sites of resource extraction [...] "Global" in this sense does not mean that responsibility for environmental change is shared equally among all people, or that the impacts of these changes are uniformly distributed among all places. Instead, global refers to the linkages between environmental changes and social consequences across distant places, groups and time horizons.

Security, though it seems to hint at the more traditional view of military security, in this book is defined much more broadly to represent energy security, economic security, environmental security, food security and so on. Unfortunately, it is along the military and strict immigration policy fronts that governments have been securitizing their boarders in the face of global environmental change. Though perhaps, what books like this one are trying to point out is that global environmental change knows no boarders, and those who are already marginalized suffer more from shifting funds into military/securitizing actions and away from sustainable development, including development to promote social justice.

From their website (see it here), they define human security as such:

a state that is achieved when and where individuals and communities have the options necessary to end, mitigate or adapt to threats to their human, environmental and social rights; have the capacity and freedom to exercise these options; and actively participate in pursuing these options. As with most definitions of human security, the focus is on security for individuals and communities, rather than on states.

It is about needs and rights. It is about how current violations of needs and rights can only get worse for many communities and individuals. Perhaps it is important to consider, for a moment, that feelings of security, certainly at a personal level are merely perceptions. I perceive that I live in a safe neighbourhood with good access to food, etc. , but compared to what? Without digging myself too deeply into relativism, I am trying to say that perceptions are important, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of communities and individuals to environmental change is important in shaping their needs and wants. If led to feel too secure, some feel that their input is not needed and what will be will be, without further regard for the needs and wants of their neighbours and neighbouring communities. It is in shaping human security as global that we must take responsibility and culpability for the lack of human security and the threats we pose on others' human security in the world we share.