Elizabeth Blackwell
(1821 - 1910)

Elizabeth Blackwell, born in Britain, was the first woman awarded the M.D. degree. Many nineteeth-century physicians, including a few women, practiced without a degree, but Elizabeth Blackwell wished to attain full professional status. She was rejected by all the major medical schools in the nation because of her sex. Her application to Geneva Medical School (now Hobart & William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York) was referred to the student body. They accepted with great hilarity in the belief that it was a spoof perpetrated by a rival school.

Working with quiet determination, she turned aside the hostility of the professors, students, and townspeople. She earned her medical degree in 1849. Blackwell completed her medical education in Europe, but faced additional difficulties in setting up her practice when she returned to New York. Barred from city hospitals, she founded her own infirmary. Eventually she founded a Women's Medical College to train other women physicians.

Blackwell's educational standards were higher than the all-male medical schools. Her courses emphasized the importance of proper sanitation and hygiene to prevent diseases. She later returned to Britain and spent the rest of her life there, working to expand medical opportunities for women as she had in America.

Additional Resources:
Kline, Nancy. Elizabeth Blackwell: a doctor's triumph. Berkeley, California: Conari Press, c1997. NOTES: Part of "The Barnard Biography" series.

Sahli, Nancy Ann. Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D. (1821-1910): a biography. New York: Arno Press, 1982, c1974. NOTES: Part of "Dissertations in American biography" series.

Latham, Jean Lee. Elizabeth Blackwell, pioneer women doctor. Champaign, Illinois: Garrard Pub. Co., 1975. NOTES: Part of "A Discovery Book" series.

The Laws of Life: (with special reference to the Physical Education of Girls).New York: G.P.Putnam, 1852.

The Religion of Health. Edinburgh:John Menzies, 1878.

Counsel to Parents on the Moral Education of Their Children. London: H. Smyth and Son, 1878.

Rescue Work in Relation to Prostitution and Disease. [London?]: Leonard and Lingle, 1887.

Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women. London and New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895. NOTES: Autobiography.

Letters 1850-1884, 152 items. Columbia University, University Libraries, Butler Library. New York, New York.

Papers 1830-1950, 40 ft. (ca. 29,000 items). Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Washington, D.C.

Blackwell Family papers, 1784-1944, and Addition 1832-1942, ca. 100 items/ 2 boxes. Radcliffe College, The Arthur & Elizabeth Schlesinger Library of women in America. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Joyner-Kersee, Jackie (1962- ), American track and field athlete, two-time Olympic gold medalist and world champion. She was born Jacqueline Joyner in East St. Louis, Illinois, and educated at the University of California, Los Angeles. She won her first of four consecutive National Pentathlon Championships at the age of 14.

After graduating from high school she accepted a basketball scholarship to the University of California, where her coach and future husband, Bob Kersee, encouraged her to train for multiple-event contests.

In 1983 she and her brother, Al Joyner, represented the United States at the world championships in Helsinki, Finland. They also competed in the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where she won the silver medal in the heptathlon-a two-day event in which athletes compete in the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, and 200-meter race on the first day and in the long jump, javelin, and 800-meter race on the second day. (Al Joyner won the gold medal in the triple jump.)

She married Kersee in 1986, and that same year she gave up basketball for the heptathlon, setting two world records within one month.

Joyner-Kersee continued her success in 1987 at the indoor and outdoor track and field championships in the United States, at the Pan-American Games in Indianapolis, Indiana, and at the world championships in Rome, where she won gold medals in the long jump and heptathlon. In 1988 she broke her own record, scoring 7291 points in the heptathlon at the Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, to win the gold medal and set the world, Olympic, and American records in the event.

Joyner-Kersee also won the gold medal and set the Olympic record in the long jump at Seoul, with a leap of 24 ft 3½ in (7.3 m). At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, she again won the heptathlon and came in third in the long jump. Joyner-Kersee overcame illness to capture the 1993 heptathlon gold medal at the world championships in Stuttgart, Germany. The recipient of numerous athletic honors and awards in the late 1980s, including the Jesse Owens Award (1986, 1987) and the Sullivan Award (1986), Joyner-Kersee earned a reputation as the world's best all-around female athlete and the greatest heptathlete of all time.

Frida Kahlo, Mexican, 1907-1954

From 1926 until her death, the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo created striking, often shocking, images that reflected her turbulent life. Kahlo was one of four daughters born to a Hungarian-Jewish father and a mother of Spanish and Mexican Indian descent, in the Mexico City suburb of Coyoacán.

She did not originally plan to become an artist. A polio survivor, at 15 Kahlo entered the premedical program at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City. However, this training ended three years later when Kahlo was gravely hurt in a bus accident. She spent over a year in bed, recovering from fractures of her back, collarbone, and ribs, as well as a shattered pelvis and shoulder and foot injuries. Despite more than 30 subsequent operations, Kahlo spent the rest of her life in constant pain, finally succumbing to related complications at age 47.

During her convalescence Kahlo had begun to paint with oils. Her pictures, mostly self-portraits and still lifes, were deliberately naive, filled with the bright colors and flattened forms of the Mexican folk art she loved. At 21, Kahlo fell in love with the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, whose approach to art and politics suited her own. Although he was 20 years her senior, they were married in 1929; this stormy, passionate relationship survived infidelities, the pressures of Rivera's career, a divorce and remarriage, and Kahlo's poor health. The couple traveled to the United States and France, where Kahlo met luminaries from the worlds of art and politics; she had her first solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City in 1938. Kahlo enjoyed considerable success during the 1940s, but her reputation soared posthumously, beginning in the 1980s with the publication of numerous books about her work by feminist art historians and others. In the last two decades an explosion of Kahlo-inspired films, plays, calendars, and jewelry has transformed the artist into a veritable cult figure.

Maya Ying Lin (Chinese: 林瓔; pinyin: Lín Yīng; born October 5, 1959)

She is a Chinese American artist who has become known for her work in architecture. However, although she has become a successful designer in this field, she is not yet registered, and is therefore unable to legally use "architect" as an official title. She is the niece of Lin Huiyin. Her best known work is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

She was born in Athens, Ohio and studied at Yale (B.A. 1981, M.A. 1986). In 1987 Yale conferred upon her an honorary Doctorate Degree in Fine Arts.

Lín, who now owns and operates Maya Lin Studios in New York City, went on to design other structures, including the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama (1989) and the Wave Field at the University of Michigan (1995).

In 1994 she was the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision. The title comes from an address she gave at Yale where she speaks of the monument design process.

In 2000, Lin re-emerged in public life with a book Boundaries. Also in 2000, she agreed to act as the artist and architect for the Confluence Project, a series of outdoor installations at historical points along the Columbia River and Snake River in the state of Washington. This is the largest and longest project that she has undertaken so far.

In 2002, Lin was elected Alumni Fellow of the Yale Corporation, the governing body of Yale University, in an unusually public contest. Her opponent was W. David Lee, a local New Haven minister and graduate of the Yale Divinity School who was running on a platform to build ties to the community with the support of Yale's unionized employees. Lin was supported by Yale's President Richard Levin, other members of the Yale Corporation, and was the officially endorsed candidate of the Association of Yale Alumni.

In 2003, Lin served on the selection jury of the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition. Some have attributed the trend toward minimalism and abstraction among the entrants, finalists, and current World Trade Center Memorial to Lin's presence on the Jury.

In 2005, Lin was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.

She is married to Daniel Wolf, and they have two children.

Quotes
"In all my work I have tried to create works that present you with information allowing you the chance to come to your own conclusions; they ask you to think."

"The process I go through in art and architecture, I actually want it to be almost childlike."

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Blanche Lincoln

Blanche Lambert Lincoln (born September 30, 1960) is the Democratic senior United States Senator from the State of Arkansas. She was the youngest woman ever to be elected to the Senate when she was elected in 1998 at the age of 38.

Lincoln was born in Helena, Phillips County, Arkansas. She attended Arkansas public schools and graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1982. She studied law at the University of Arkansas. Lincoln's sister, Mary Lambert, went on to be a movie director.

Immediately after graduating she took a job as staff assistant to Congressman Bill Alexander and served in his office until 1984. Lincoln defeated Alexander in the Democratic primary of 1992 and took his seat in the House. Lincoln won reelection to a second term and served in the House of Representatives until 1997. Lincoln did not stand for reelection in 1996 because she was pregnant.

In 1998, Lincoln returned to politics and ran for the US Senate seat being vacated by incumbent Democrat Dale Bumpers. She defeated her Republican opponent, Fay Boozman, by a margin of 55%-42%.

Lincoln serves on the Senate Finance Committee; Special Committee on Aging; Select Committee on Ethics; Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee; Senate Social Security Task Force; Rural Health Caucus; Senate New Democrat Coalition.

Lincoln has concentrated primarily on issues involving farmers, and rural issues. She is one of the primary advocates of the Delta Regional Authority (DRA), which is designed to spur development in the lower Mississippi Delta region. She is also the Chair of Rural Outreach for the Senate Democratic Caucus.

Sen. Lincoln calls herself a moderate or Centrist Democrat, in attempts to appeal to the center-right (though historically blue) southern state of Arkansas. Lincoln was among the minority of Democrats to support CAFTA and she is opposed to some protectionist measures. She has voted in favor restricting class action lawsuits and tightening rules on personal bankruptcy. Though initially she was one of the few Democrats in Congress to vote in favor of the tax cut passed in 2001, she now advocates scaling back or eliminating the portions of that tax cut, has opposed making tax cuts permanent, and was nearly a fatal vote against the 2003 tax cuts. She laments that the tax cuts were unfairly biased toward the rich, and advocates scaling back on tax cuts that benefit those tax payers with incomes over $300,000. She supports the permanent elimination of the estate tax. Lincoln cast a vote to pass the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, though she previously supported the Feinstein Amendment (Senate Amendment 261) to the bill, which would strike out the act itself and replace it with "Post Viability Abortion Restriction Act." Pro-life advocates argued a health exception in the amendment would render the ban ineffectual
She also supported the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act to ban lawsuits against gun manufacturers and distributors.

As of 2003, after fellow Democrat Mark Pryor defeated Senator Tim Hutchinson, Lincoln has been Arkansas' senior senator.

In 2004, Lincoln was re-elected 56%-44% over State Senator Jim Holt (R-Springdale).

In May 2006 Lincoln voted in favor of S. 2611, a controversial immigration bill which would almost double the number of H1-B visas (see H1B visa). Lincoln, like almost all other senate Democrats and a few of her Republican colleagues (most notably Arizona's John McCain), argued that it was a compromise between those activists who would seek the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, and those activists who believe in some form of amnesty.

Some observers initially considered Lincoln to have been a possible running mate for presidential candidate John Kerry in the 2004 election.

Lincoln co-authored the book Nine and Counting with eight other female Senators relating their experiences in public service. Lincoln is married to Dr. Steve Lincoln and is the mother of twin boys, Reece and Bennett.

Looking ahead to 2008, a Democratic party movement has already begun to draft Lincoln as the Presidential nominee for 2008. Despite her attractiveness as a Southerner and a woman, if a female candidate were to be nominated it seems overwhelmingly likely it would be Lincoln's congressional colleague, New York Senator Hillary Clinton. It does not appear that Lincoln is considering a bid at this time. She is up for re-election to the Senate in 2010.

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Angelita Lind

Angelita Lind (born January 13, 1959 in Patillas, Puerto Rico), is considered by many people in Puerto Rico to be their greatest track and field athlete.

Known as "The Angel of Puerto Rico", Angelita was born into a poor family and received her primary and secondary education in her hometown. She first participated in track and field events in the 7th grade and later she continued participating for her high school. However, it wasn't until she became a student at the Inter-American University that she was asked by the Puerto Rican Olympic Committee to represent Puerto Rico in international sports events.

Angelita has represented the island and participated in three Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC) and won two gold medals, three silver medals and one bronze medal. She also participated in three Pan American Games and in the 1984 Olympics celebrated in Los Angeles, California.

In the CAC of 1982, celebrated in Havana, Cuba, Angelita was the standard carrier of the Puerto Rican flag. In those games, she won a gold medal in the 1,500 meter dash with a record time of 4.25.88 and a silver in the 800 meters dash in a controversial race in 2.04.24. In that race, she crossed the finish line with two Cuban runners next to her. Right at the finish line the two Cuban girls ran into each other and they both knocked Angelita down. Angelita's feet were crossing the finish line, but because the Cuban fell into Angelita from behind, it was the Cuban who actually crossed the finish line first; after a prolonged discussion which reached the central offices of the International Athletic Federation, it was decided that Angelita arrived second. They based their decision on a rule of track and field which states that the first torso across the finish line wins.

By this time there had been a lot of trouble between the Government of Puerto Rico, headed by then governor Carlos Romero Barcelo, (who withheld economic support from the athletic delegation headed to Cuba), and The Puerto Rican Olympic Committee, presided by German Rieckehoff, which had to appeal directly to the people for donations. Angelita's "fall" united the people of Puerto Rico and for the first time, they forgot about the fight between the Olympic Committee and the government and concentrated on the sport - these events also served to inspire future runners.

Angelita Lind officially retired in 1992, however on July, 2003 at age 44, she returned to paricipate in the 1,500 dash in the World Masters Athletics championships, which were celebrated in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She continues to hold the national record for the 800 meters dash and the 1,500 meters dash.

She earned her Masters Degree and is currently a professor of physical education. Angelita also serves as assistant athletic director in the department of physical education at the Inter-American University in San German, Puerto Rico. In 2004, she was inducted into the "Puerto Rican Sports Hall of Fame".

The Angel of Puerto Rico

Graciela Rivera

Dr. Graciela Rivera (born April 17, 1921 in Ponce, Puerto Rico), is the first Puerto Rican to sing a lead role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Dr. Graciela Rivera enjoyed singing as a child, she was considered very talented by her family and teachers alike. She received her primary and secondary education in Ponce, however her family moved to Cataño and later to Santurce, a section of San Juan, when she was a teenager, there she attended Santurce Central High School. While in high school, she auditioned and participated in school productions of The Magic Flute, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, Lucia di Lammermoor and Aida (Ms. Rivera believes these were the only operas ever produced by a high school anywhere in the world). She delighted audiences in Puerto Rico with her soprano voice in concerts which she organized. She planned to use the money obtained from these concerts to pay for her studies at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City.

Rivera moved to New York after she graduated from high school. She enrolled at Juilliard's and took voice classes, piano lessons, music theory, harmony and composition, graduating in 1943. Upon the outbreak of World War II, she sang for the American troops overseas as a member of the Red Cross.

In 1945, she was given the role of Adele in the musical "Rosalinda", a Broadway version of Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus. Rivera traveled to France and Germany with the production. That very same year she made her operatic debut as Rosina in "The Barber of Seville" by Rossini at the New Orleans Opera.

In December of 1951, she became the first Puerto Rican to sing a lead role at the Metropolitan Opera as Lucia in the production of Lucia di Lammermoor. She earned accolades for her performance from critics around the world. In 1953, Rivera was proclaimed "Citizen of the Year" by the City of New York.

In 1954 Rivera was featured as a guest singer in Name That Tune.

In 1956, she performed at the Theater of the University of Puerto Rico and one of her back-up singers was a young fellow Puerto Rican by the name of Justino Diaz, who would someday also become a renowned opera singer. That same year Rivera was presented with a special recognition by the Government of Puerto Rico.

In 1959, Rivera returned to New York where she had a weekly radio show at WHOM. She traveled regularly between New York and Puerto Rico, in Puerto Rico she participated in the IV Pablo Casals Festival.

In 1992, she was appointed Assistant Professor at the Hostos Community College. She taught Puerto Rican music, Italian and Spanish. She also held conferences at Hunter College, Rutgers College and Lehman College.

In 1993, Rivera earned her Doctorate Degree in Humanities from the Catholic University of Ponce and in 1996 she was bestowed with a Honoris Causa from Lehman College.

Puerto Rico's Opera Singer

Isabel la Negra

Isabel Luberza Oppenheimer (born approx. 1910, murdered in 1974) was the legendary owner of the most famous brothel in Puerto Rico. Her name became part of Puerto Rico's lore during and after her life. She was born in Ponce. She is much better known as Isabel la Negra.

Although she has been mistakenly branded as a "criminal", her only "crime" was to own and operate a very notorious house of prostitution in Ponce, in the late 1930's to the mid 1960's, when she was murdered. At the time, like in many other places, prostitution was tolerated. Urban legends and rumors state that her house was visited by many distinguished politicians and businessmen, and even by members of the clergy. Of course, there is no documentation about these claims.

Apart from her business as a madam, well documented in many Puerto Rican newspapers such as El Dia and El Vocero, not much is known about her. Most information is based on urban legends and rumors.

The most widely accepted legend is that Isabel left her house as a young teenager to live with a wealthy man, only to find out that he was married. She then started to date another wealthy man, a much older, American man. While Isabel was happy with him for some time, he grew disrespectful of Isabel's Puerto Rican traditions. On Saints Day, a typical Latin American holiday, he blew out the candles she had lit to honor the saints.

After this episode, she left him and returned home, only to find out that her home was now being used as a brothel. Isabel, maybe being naive, at first did not know the women occupying her house were selling their bodies to men, as she thought they were giving out sex only because they liked it. However, soon she discovered they were selling themselves, and she began to do business in prostitution.

Isabel la Negra then declared herself Madame of her brothel, "Elizabeth's Dancing Club". According to legend also, Ponce's mayor was one of her prostitution clients, and the Puerto Ricans serving in the U.S. Armed Forces and the National Guard would use her brothel's services almost exclusively when they were in Ponce or in training in nearby Salinas and Fort Allen.

Before she was murdered, her nickname had become a household name all over Puerto Rico and she had become a legend, as many men lost their virginities at her brothel, tv and radio. Even after she died, her legend continued on growing. Some even consider her an example of the feminist movement in Puerto Rico.

In 1979, a movie named A Life of Sin was released, starring Miriam Colon as Isabel la Negra with Jose Ferrer, Raul Julia and Henry Darrow. The movie was directed by the famous actor and director Efraín López Neris.

Writer Mayra Santos Febres has announced that she is writing a novel based on Luberza Oppenheimer's life.

Isabel the Black

Nitza Margarita Cintron

Dr. Nitza Margarita Cintron (born 1950 in San Juan, Puerto Rico) is a scientist who is currently the Chief of Space Medicine and Health Care Systems Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

As a child, Cintron traveled throughout Europe because her father was a member of the U.S. Army. When her father retired from the armed forces, they returned to Puerto Rico and settled down in Santurce, a section of San Juan. There she attended elementary and high school, where she excelled in science and mathematics. She dedicated many hours to reading and studying about biology, chemistry, astronomy and space.

Cintron enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico where she earned a Bachelors Degree in Biology. In 1972 she was accepted into the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology training program offered by The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where in 1978 she earned a Ph.D. degree. In 1978, Cintron read a recruitment announcement for the first Mission Specialist positions in the Astronaut Corps while at Johns Hopkins still completing her PhD research work. She answered the advertisement and passed to the finals. However, she was not selected because of her poor eyesight. Her academic qualifications impressed the people at NASA to the extent that she was offered the position of NASA Scientist.

In 1979, Cintron was the originator of the Biochemistry Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center. Cintron also served from (1979-85) as the project scientist for the Space Lab 2 mission which was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1985.

After many years of service at NASA, she was sponsored by NASA after she was accepted as a student by the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She graduated in 1995 with a M.D. degree, and is currently a board-certified specialist in internal medicine.

Among the positions held by Cintron in NASA are "Chief of the Biomedical Operations and Research Branch in the Medical Science Division" and "Director for managing the Life Sciences Research Laboratories" in support of medical operations. In 2004 she was named "Chief of NASA's (JSC) Space Medicine and Health Care Systems Office", position which she currently holds.

Cintron has received many awards and honors. Among them the "JSC Director's Commendation and Innovation Award", the centers highest award for a civil servant, the "NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement", the highest science honor given by the agency. On October 7, 2004, she was inducted into the Hispanic Engineer's National Achievement Awards Conference (HENAAC) Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame, located in Los Angeles, California, was established in 1998 and recognizes the contributions of Hispanics in the fields of science, engineering and technology.

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quote:

Originally posted by Gtman1:

quote:

Originally posted by raymond:
I stand corrected...and my hearfelt apologies to all you good women...

btw...ah was jus joking wid yalll

You my friend may need to send each woman on the forum a box of godiva chocolates.

Plus a free computer and printer!!!!

We women are very practical creatures!!!

World's women gain political ground

More women than ever hold seats in parliaments around the world, but governments need to make a greater effort to achieve gender equality, says a group that tracks women in politics.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union said Thursday in New York at UN headquarters that women now comprise nearly 17 per cent of parliamentarians now female, up from 11.3 per cent 12 years ago.

Anders Johnsson, secretary general of the IPU, said that women are not only standing for election in greater numbers than before, they are getting elected, thanks in part to quota systems.

In countries with gender quotas, women took 21.7 per cent of seats compared with 11.8 per cent in countries without.

However, Johnsson said, the rate at which women have been making gains has slowed.

"The good news is that the number of seats held by women in parliament continues to go up and now has reached an all time high of nearly 17 per cent in 2006," he said.

"The bad news is the increase in the number of women is slower than it was in the preceding year. If we are aiming for equality in parliament "” in other words, roughly 50 per cent men and 50 per cent women "” we will wait until the year 2077 to celebrate that event."

Of the women who won seats in 2006, 1,459 were directly elected, 63 were indirectly elected, and 35 were appointed. A total of 9,335 seats were up for grabs in 2006, with women capturing 16.7 per cent of seats. A total of 23 countries used quota systems last year.

Johnsson said there are more female presiding officers of parliament than ever before: a total of 35 out of 262 worldwide, with a record number of women elected speakers.

Remarkable gains
Women speakers were elected for the first time in Gambia, Israel, Swaziland, Turkmenistan and the U.S., with the election of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Of heads of government, he said, the numbers of women more than doubled last year, with six elected in 2006 alone, including Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.

In some countries and regions, the increases in the numbers of women were remarkable, he said. The regions where gains were made include the Gulf States, the Middle East and Latin America.

For example, the United Arab Emirates allowed men and women to vote and to stand for election for the first time ever in 2006. The number of women in the UAE parliament went from zero to 22.5 per cent, with nine women elected.

"That reflects a growing trend in that part of the world where more and more women not only get the right to vote and stand for election, but also they are actually getting elected to parliament," he said.

Rwanda leads list
And in Costa Rica, after an election in 2006, women now make up 38.6 per cent of parliamentarians, with 22 women elected. There were 20 elections in all in Latin America last year.

According to a table compiled by the IPU, which classifies 189 countries by descending order of the percentage of women in their respective parliaments, including lower or upper houses, Rwanda, Sweden and Costa Rica are the top three.

In Rwanda, women occupy 48.8 per cent of seats in its Lower House, while in Sweden, women make up 47.3 per cent of its parliamentarians.

Canada ranks 47 on the list, given that only 20.8 per cent of its MPs are female. Of 308 federal seats, 64 were won by women in the last federal election in January 2006. And only 35 out of its 100 senators are women.

There were elections in 51 countries in all last year. The IPU, established in 1889, is an international organization of parliaments of sovereign states , with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/03/01/women-politics.html#skip300x250

Dame Nita Barrow

With the appointment in September, 1986, of Dame Nita Barrow as its Permanent Representative the government of Barbados chose one of the most distinguished women of the Caribbean to oversee the country's interests at the United Nations.

Dame Nita, an outspoken and articulate foe of social injustice, had but recently returned from South Africa as the lone female on a seven-member team of Commonwealth dignitaries assigned to take a first-hand look at the system of apartheid. The team, known as the Commonwealth Group of Eminent Persons, had as its mandate the reduction of the rapidly rising levels of tension in the strife-ridden country and the initiation of fruitful dialogue between the Botha government and leaders of the African majority. Dame Nita's membership of the Group was proposed by the Prime Minister of the Bahamas in recognition of the Barbadian's outstanding leadership in the International Council for Adult Education, the World Council of Churches and the World YWCA.

Her extensive interviews with leaders on both sides of the South African confrontation left an inspired impression upon Dame Nita, who singled out Nelson Mandela as "a man whose vision would transform South Africa from the pariah which it is to a state which could be a paragon of multi-racial harmony." Committed to the elimination of apartheid, she spent much of her spare time lecturing and raising public awareness of the bizarre intricacies of Pretoria's racial formula.

Ambassador Barrow was born into a family of civic activists. Her father, an Anglican priest, was removed from his pulpit in the Caribbean island of St. Croix after his ministry was considered too socially progressive for the island's local leaders. Despite warnings from the establishment and less courageous colleagues, he refused to temper the tone of the blistering sermons he delivered against the island's racially delineated social system.

Her maternal uncle, Dr. Charles Duncan O'Neal, sacrificed a successful medical practice to take up the cause of the underprivileged masses of Barbados. In 1924 he founded the Democratic League of Barbados and set in motion the social forces which would wrest political control of the island from the planter class and transform Barbados into a modern democracy.

Her younger brother, Errol, donned the mantle of his uncle, and in 1966 led Barbados to full political independence. As Barbados' first Prime Minister, Errol Barrow introduced a program of reforms which gave Barbados one of the most stable economic systems in the developing world.

Dame Nita was a practicing adult educator throughout a long professional career that spanned half a century. She worked or resided in almost every territory of the Caribbean. Her family had its roots in three Caribbean territories: St. Vincent-and-the-Grenadines, Tobago, and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Motivated in her early years by the humanitarian values of her father and uncle, Dame Nita chose nursing as a profession from among the limited number of careers then available to women. She completed her basic training at the Barbados General Hospital and immediately after undertook training in midwifery at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital in neighboring Trinidad. A graduate in nursing from Columbia University, New York, Dame Nita was also a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, holding graduate degrees from the University of Toronto, Canada and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

In 1964 her career took a significant turn when she became Nursing Adviser for the Caribbean Area with the Pan American Health Organization. In this capacity she served as principal adviser to sixteen Caribbean governments. She initiated and coordinated an extensive research program on nursing education which culminated in a comprehensive revision of nursing education in the region.

In 1975, Dame Nita became Director of the Christian Medical Commission of the World Council of Churches. She was considered one of the world's leading authorities on public health and health education, and published numerous papers on subjects related to those fields. Dame Nita regarded health care as more than a medical concern. She considered it a political force intended to free individuals from the liabilities of nature and direct their energies toward social and economic development. She recognized that all development depends, finally, on the efforts of those persons whose physical well-being is crucial to any concern for material improvements or any vision of the future.

Dame Nita was a strong advocate of the coordinating function of the United Nations and the part to be played by that organization in awakening an interest in improving the human condition. She believed, however, that unless the principles and priorities of the United Nations were reflected at every level of society, the Organization would be nothing more than a united governments organization whose focus and performance would, inevitably, be irrelevant to the needs and aspirations of humankind.

Ambassador Barrow believed that if the United Nations were to succeed in the preservation of peace it must always be a people-oriented organization, working to eradicate those conditions which give rise to the frustrations and anxieties from which armed conflict is spawned. Thus, she consistently promoted the active engagement of non-governmental organizations--"grass-roots," people's organizations--in the work of the United Nations and in all spheres of international relations.

From the Canadian Arctic to the South Seas; from Tashkent to Harare, Dame Nita visited more than 80 destinations in Africa, Asia, Europe and North, South and Central America. She traveled by river and other means to the interior of every continent, working and studying the social organization and customs of indigenous communities. She was equally familiar with the Inuit of the Canadian North and Amazon villagers of the Brazilian forests.

Dame Nita was president of the International Council of Adult Education (ICAE) from 1982 until 1990. In 1983, she traveled to six provinces of the People's Republic of China, with a team from the ICAE, seeking to evaluate Chinese approaches to workers' education. During this visit she co-chaired, with Chinese officials, a series of seminars on adult education.

As with most people of international stature, Dame Nita was a study in superlatives and contradictions. A woman, whose career though rooted in compassion, is described by associates as "a powerful manager who has the combative spirit of a freedom fighter."

With the presidencies of three major international bodies to her credit she recalled with special satisfaction, her challenging appointment in 1983 as Convenor of the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Forum for the Decade of Women in Nairobi, Kenya. Her management of 17,500 delegates from 177 organizations and almost every known culture earned her international acclaim.

After an international career poised equally between ideas and action, Dame Nita--the adult educator/diplomat--remained convinced that neither ideas nor action can be beneficial if disjoined from the other.

It is not sufficient for us to be able to speak each other's language or visit each other's capitals. It is far more crucial to understand how we think and why. A clear understanding of every culture's pressures, its history and the way its people view themselves and the world is essential to the maintenance of peace. Every conflict has its deepest roots in a people's view of themselves and their neighbors.

Dame Nita was recipient of many honors and awards. In 1980 she was invested with the Order of Dame of St. Andrew in recognition of outstanding service to the people of the Caribbean and the Commonwealth. In 1987 she was awarded the CARICOM Women's Award for her personal accomplishments and the stature she brought to women of the Caribbean.

In her honor, the ICAE created the prestigious Dame Nita Barrow Award which recognizes and supports regional or national adult education organizations that have made a significant contribution towards the empowerment of women. Dame Nita Barrow brought great wisdom and experience to the field of adult education, her legacy informed by a lifelong commitment to people's struggle for learning, justice, and democracy.

Dame Nita Barrow died in Barbados on December 18, 1995.

http://www.nl.edu/academics/cas/ace/resources/nitabarrow.cfm

Dame Eugenia Charles

Mary Eugenia Charles led an extraordinary life as a pioneer among women and a leader of men. In 1949 she began the first female lawyer in the Caribbean. In 1980 Mary Eugenia Charles became the first woman to come to power in the Caribbean. As prime minister of Dominica (pronounced "Dom-i-NEE-ka"), she was the first woman to lead an independent nation. Her longevity and determination to do right for her people earned her the nickname "The Iron Lady of the Caribbean." Charles served three terms in office before retiring in 1995.

Learned Values from Family
Mary Eugenia Charles was born in Pointe Michel, Dominica, not far from the capital of Roseau. Dominica"”not to be confused with the larger, Spanish-speaking country of the Dominican Republic"”was a colony of Great Britain at the time of Charles's birth and remained so until achieving independence in 1978. She grew up with three brothers who all became doctors and one sister who became a nun. Charles's father, John Baptiste was a renowned businessman who speculated in land and founded the island's Penny Bank. He lived until the age of 107, seeing his daughter serve as prime minister for three years before his death in 1983.

Charles referred to her father in Ebony magazine as "a very, very great man. He taught me much about being tough when it counts, and about always being open and honest with people." In People she spoke of her mother as the primary influence in her life however. "In Dominica we really live women's lib," she said, "we don't have to expound it."

Charles, who never married and bore no children, began her education in Dominica. She completed her higher studies at a Roman Catholic convent in St. George's, Grenada"”a neighboring island country. She became interested in law while attending trials to practice her shorthand for a required secretarial course. She then went to the University of Toronto in Canada to study law, earning her bachelor's degree there. She continued her legal education in England at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Charles was called to the bar in England in 1947 as a member of the Inner Temple. She hoped to stay in London to further her studies of law in the field of juvenile delinquency. Her parents however convinced her to return to Dominica where she would be the only female lawyer. Charles returned to her home, and was soon practicing law in Dominica. Over the years, she became involved in legal cases in several of the West Indies islands.

Jumped into Politics
Charles first became involved in politics in the 1950s. She told Americas magazine that she "was a concerned citizen involved in what was happening in my country, and quite often I would write letters of criticism of whatever government was in power at the time." During the 1950s and 1960s Dominica moved slowly toward independence. By 1968 Dominica was an internally self-governed colony. Edward Oliver Le Blanc was the prime minister and a member of the ruling Labour party. Le Blanc passed a sedition law that prohibited the formation of opposition parties and attempted to muzzle the media.

Charles quickly reacted by joining with trade unionists, upper class professionals, and the religious leaders to form an organization called the Freedom Fighters. She made numerous speeches traveling the island to protest the law. "At that point," said Charles in Americas, "I made up my mind I would do everything to prevent that government from continuing to rule, because I felt democracy would die." Many of the Freedom Fighters formed the new Dominica Freedom party, a right-of-center party that represented the "traditional merchant and professional class in Roseau and non-agricultural areas in the south of the island," according to Patrick Baker in the book Centering the Periphery.

In the 1970 elections several members of the Freedom party were winners for seats in the House of Assembly, Dominica's legislative body. Although not one of the people elected, Charles was appointed to a seat in the Assembly as the Dominican constitution allows; she was elected to the House of Assembly on her own right in 1975 after Le Blanc had resigned and Patrick John had succeeded him. She was one of three Freedom party members elected that year. She was also chosen as the leader of the opposition party.

After Dominican independence in 1978, John, who began calling himself Colonel, attempted to make many changes to the country. He tried to sell 45 square miles, nearly one-sixth of the island, to a Texas-based business for development of a free port. He canceled the agreement after protests became very vocal. His government came under attack for business dealings with the apartheid government in South Africa. Government officials were accused of trying to set up a drug-trading zone in the country. John's government was often mentioned as being connected to the marijuana trade controlled by Jamaican-based Rastafarians.

Elected to Lead
In May of 1979, in response to a curtailing of press freedom and changes in the right-to-strike laws, 15,000 people"”of a total population of 80,000"”gathered to protest the government. Government security officers began shooting into the crowd. One person died in the attack and several others were injured. John's government fell soon after. An interim government was formed to last until elections. Hurricane David struck Dominica during this period, further angering the people due to lack of government response. In elections of July 1980, Eugenia Charles and her opposition Freedom party swept to victory in 17 of the 21 assembly seats.

Immediately Charles set about trying to reconstruct a government and an island, after the devastating hurricane. She ran into trouble immediately. The Dominican Defense Force was inventoried for weapons. Stories of officers selling their weapons to the Rastafarian marijuana growers were widespread. Eventually Charles disbanded the defense force. Several members were arrested as they tried to reach Charles's office. The marijuana growers, known as Dreads in Dominica, were under watch and attack. After two of their members were killed in a clash with police, a local well-known farmer was kidnapped and killed. Former Prime Minister Patrick John was arrested for trying to overthrow the government in separate charges. And finally, in April of 1981, a plot to overthrow the Charles government was uncovered by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in New Orleans and the Ontario Provincial Police in Canada. Eight Americans and two Canadians, six with ties to the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, were arrested shortly before they were to take boats to Dominica. They were going to overthrow Charles, restore the John government, and receive preferential treatment in setting up businesses, including the development of a free port where gambling and drug trade would occur.

At a Glance

Born May 15, 1919, in Pointe Michel, Dominica; died on September 6, 2005, on the island of Martinique; daughter of Jean Baptiste (businessman) and Josephine Delauney (homemaker); never married; no children. Education: University of Toronto, BA in law; further studies in law at the London School of Economics and Political Science; admitted to the bar in 1947.

Career: Lawyer in private practice, 1949–68; Lecturer, opposition political figure, 1968–70; appointed member, Dominica House of Assembly, 1970–75; elected member and opposition political leader, House of Assembly, 1975–80; prime minister of Dominica, and also Minister of Finance, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Economic Affairs, 1980–95.

Awards: Chair, Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), 1983; Knighted by Queen Elizabeth of England, 1991.

The Dominicans arrested in the coup attempt were eventually convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. In December of 1981, an attempt to free John and others from their prison by a group of Dreads, or former Dominican soldiers, and American mercenaries was also thwarted. "I'm convinced one of the reasons certain people want to take over Dominica," Charles told Ebony, "is so they can turn it into a center for trafficking in marijuana and other drugs. I have said as firmly as I can that I do not intend for that to happen. I am not going to legalize marijuana and permit it to be sold openly on this island, and I'm not going to permit it to be grown wholesale for export. Dominica will not become a lawless place. We will not become the laughing stock of the world."

Formed Tough Government Policies
Eugenia Charles quickly began changing the way business was conducted in Dominica. She no longer accepted deals with people who wanted to avoid taxes. "I pay mine," she was quoted in as saying in Ebony, "so you must pay yours." She stopped granting waivers to businesses and immediately canceled all trips overseas for government employees. She instructed them to "stay home and do their work," Ebony stated. During her first term in office, Charles benefited from U.S. President Ronald Reagan's Caribbean Basin initiative. Money granted to the government by this plan allowed Charles to reconstruct Dominica's road system as well as rebuild the banana, lime, and coconut crops that were devastated by Hurricane David. By 1983 Charles had succeeded in lowering the inflation rate from 30 percent to less than five percent. Charles also created a budget surplus where only deficit had existed before her tenure. She followed recommendations of the World Monetary Fund and kept spending at a minimum. As she was quoted as saying in Women Prime Ministers and Presidents, "We should give the people not luxury but a little comfort. Dominica will never be rich, but it can be self-reliant." "People realize there is not much money," she told the New York Times, "but what there is, is spent on assisting them. We have given the government credibility."

Dominica joined with other island nations in July of 1981 to form the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). Eugenia Charles was elected the chair of this organization in 1983. It was in this role that Charles would leave her most lasting impression on the world. In October of 1983 Prime Minister Maurice Bishop of Grenada, three of his cabinet ministers, and a number of civilians were killed in a coup carried out by a group calling itself the New Jewel Movement. Charles convened a meeting of the OECS. She spoke about information she had which implicated Cuba and the Soviet Union in the coup. She said the coup had taken place because Bishop had scheduled elections. Charles received permission from the OECS to request help.

Stood Strong Against Criticism
On October 25, 1983 Charles joined Reagan as he announced that nearly 2,000 American Marines and Army Rangers, joined by forces from Jamaica, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, and Dominica, had intervened in Grenada to safeguard the lives of American citizens and help in restoring democracy to Grenada. Charles told Essence, "I believe we had to do it for our sake too, because I think we would have fallen like dominoes [to communism] if we hadn't taken those steps then."

Charles's request and U.S. reaction was roundly criticized by the Soviet Union, as well as many of the Organization of American States members, France, and Germany. Charles took the criticism in stride and told Essence that "nobody is satisfied with anything you do, because everyone has a different notion of what should have priority." She stated in Essence that she would do the same thing again if the circumstances were the same. Charles has often faced charges that she is kowtowing to the United States. She has always responded that she is simply attempting to do what is best for Dominica. Recently she ignored her own objections to Cuba's government to begin trading with her large neighbor. "I have always said I'll do business with the devil if it will buy products and put money in the hands of my people," she told Essence. "I'll trade anywhere in the world where I can get money for my farmers."

Charles handily won re-election in 1985 over a reformulated Labour party and again in 1990. She led her country through the completion of many important projects: the construction of a protective seawall and a promenade that overlooks the Roseau waterfront; the repair of all the roadways; and the electrification of even the most rural areas. Charles oversaw the dramatic rise in the number of tourists to Dominica each year. Because of its relatively pristine jungle and mountains, Dominica has been featured in many ecology-based tours. Charles told Audubon, "We are not interested in mass tourism." Charles also set aside much of the rain forest on Dominica as national park land or reserves and won the praise of environmentalists for her work in preserving the habitat of the rare Sisserou, a parrot that is found only on Dominica. She also experienced criticism in this arena when she favored a resumption of whaling in her waters.

Honored for Efforts
Charles, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth of England in 1991, has been described in Ebony as a "brilliant lawyer [and a] savvy politician [who is] razor-sharp in debate.... When it is appropriate to her purpose, [she can] turn cold-faced and wither strong men with a stare." She also has displayed a sense of humor in her work. As an Assembly member she was upset over a formal dress code rule introduced for Assembly business. She protested this by wearing her judicial robe to the Assembly, and removed it once inside the chamber to reveal a green floral print bathing suit. This stunt angered the current prime minister but brought laughter to the public gallery. During her last term in office, Dame Eugenia"”the title a knighted woman goes by"”looked forward to retirement. She told Essence that she intended to travel to Alaska and read when she left office. In 1995, Charles retired and began her travels. She died on September 6, 2005 on the island of Martinique from complications of a broken hip. She was 86 years old. Charles will be remembered for her "firsts" as a female lawyer and as a leader in the Caribbean. Her nickname "Iron Lady of the Caribbean" remains a uniquely suitable descriptor for her and the way she lived her life.

http://www.briefbio.com/pages/2901/Charles-Mary-Eugenia.html

The Hon. Louise Bennett-Coverley aka 'Miss Lou'

Louise Bennett was born on September 7, 1919. She was a Jamaican poet and activist. From Kingston, Jamaica Louise Bennett remains a household name in Jamaica, a "Living Legend" and a cultural icon. She received her education from Ebenezer and Calabar Elementary Schools, St. Simon's College, Excelsior College, Friends College (Highgate).

Although she lived in Toronto, Canada for the last decade she still receives the homage of the expatriate West Indian community in the north as well as a large Canadian following.

She was described as Jamaica's leading comedienne, as the "only poet who has really hit the truth about her society through its own language", and as an important contributor to her country of "valid social documents reflecting the way Jamaicans think and feel and live" Through her poems in Jamaican patois, she raised the dialect of the Jamaican folk to an art level which is acceptable to and appreciated by all in Jamaica.

In her poems she was able to capture all the spontaneity of the expression of Jamaicans' joys and sorrows, their ready, poignant and even wicked wit, their religion and their philosophy of life. Her first dialect poem was written when she was fourteen years old. A British Council Scholarship took her to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where she studied in the late 1940's.

Bennett not only had a scholarship to attend the academy but she auditioned and won a scholarship. After graduation she worked with repertory companies in Coventry, Huddersfield and Amersham as well as in intimate revues all over England.
On her return to Jamaica she taught drama to youth and adult groups both in social welfare agencies and for the University of the West Indies Extra Mural Department.

She lectured extensively in the United States and the United Kingdom on Jamaican folklore and music and represented Jamaica all over the world. She married Eric Winston Coverley in 1954 (who died in 2002) and has one stepson and several adopted children. She enjoys Theatre, Movies and Auction sales.

Her contribution to Jamaican cultural life was such that she was honored with the M.B.E., the Norman Manley Award for Excellence (in the field of Arts), the Order of Jamaica (1974) the Institute of Jamaica's Musgrave Silver and Gold Medals for distinguished eminence in the field of Arts and Culture, and in 1983 the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of the West Indies. In September 1988 her composition "You're going home now", won a nomination from the Academy of Canadian Cinema ad Television, for the best original song in the movie "Milk and Honey."

In 1998 she received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from York University, Toronto, Canada. The Jamaica Government also appointed her Cultural Ambassador at Large for Jamaica. On Jamaica's independence day 2001, Bennett-Coverley was appointed as a Member of the Order of Merit for her distinguished contribution to the development of the Arts and Culture.

http://www.jis.gov.jm/special_sections/This%20Is%20Jamaica/MissLouProfile.html

Adriane Brown
Age: 48
President and CEO, Transportation Systems, Honeywell

Brown leads a $4.5 billion auto products division that makes turbochargers, oil filters, antifreeze, and more. Operating profits last year were $557 million.

Shona Brown
Age: 40
SVP, Business Operations, Google

Brown manages 25 strategic consultants in an effort to keep the company's creative juices flowing profitably.

Mary Seacole

Jamaican healer, entrepreneur, and contemporary of Florence Nightingale

By Margaret Ecker, MS, RN


Like Nightingale, Mary Seacole served on the front lines of the Crimean War in the 1850s, helping injured soldiers. But unlike Nightingale, she had little support for her endeavors and received scant recognition for her contributions.

In the spring of 1854, as England's weather warmed, the disagreeable news of war with Russia began to grip the nation and its colonies.

Mary Seacole, Jamaican healer and entrepreneur, heard a clear call to action in the war news. Having just returned from a business venture in Panama, she sought the next venue for her enterprise selling dry goods, food, and, most importantly, healing potions for the sickness and disease that plagued much of the colonial world. Soon, she determined, she would bring these services to the support of the British military.

Seacole tells her story with wit and wisdom in a long-forgotten autobiography, first published in 1857. Florence Nightingale and Seacole were contemporaries who shared a commitment to care and compassion. But they were born worlds apart socially, racially, and economically. The republication of Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Mary Seacole in Many Lands (Oxford University Press, 1988) sheds a 20th century light on a remarkable woman.

Seacole called herself a Creole. Her father was a Scottish soldier stationed in Jamaica, and from him she acquired her feistiness and energy. Her mother was a black Jamaican healer. She nurtured the generous and caring aspects of her daughter's personality. "It was very natural that I should inherit her tastes; and so I had from early youth a yearning for medical knowledge and practice which has never deserted me," Seacole writes.

Seacole grew up happy and educated, and she married for love. The death of her husband months after their wedding was followed closely by the death of her mother. The young woman was left to fend for herself. However, the thought of another marriage as a solution to her poverty barely crossed her mind. She picked up the pieces of her life, not faltering even when her business burned to the ground a few years later.

Many of her customers in Jamaica were British soldiers; some were military doctors. She charmed them into sharing their science with her even as she dispensed her Creole medicines. "I never failed to glean instruction, given, when they learned my love for their profession, with a readiness and kindness," Seacole writes.

And so, in 1854, when newspapers reported escalating disaster at the Crimean peninsula, site of the British-Russian skirmishes, Seacole knew she could help. The British public was responding to the war with a massive outpouring of aid for soldiers and a rising cry for nurses. Nightingale's response took shape in her financing and organizing of Britain's first corps of trained nurses, women recruited from among the wealthy and the working poor.

Seacole's response was no less impassioned: "I made up my mind that if the army wanted nurses, they would be glad of me, and with all the ardor of my nature, which ever carried me where inclination prompted, I decided that I would go to the Crimea." Her experience in the tropics with the management of cholera, diarrhea, and dysentery would surely render her an asset to the British cause.

Seacole spent months in London, however, trekking from one war office to another, failing to find acceptance. She began to lose heart. "Tears streamed down my foolish cheeks, as I stood in the fast thinning streets; tears of grief that any should doubt my motives ­that Heaven should deny me the opportunity that I sought." At her wits' end, she finally determined to go on her own. She cashed in what meager assets remained and set out to build her own "hotel for invalids" in the Crimea.

Upon her arrival, she tried one last time to join the Nightingale nurses. She found Nightingale in a hospital, safely located some distance behind the trenches. Seacole walked down the sad and dreary aisles of hospital cots, finding Nightingale in an office, busy with the work of organizing nurses. Nightingale received Seacole, after a short delay. "Willingly, had they accepted me," Seacole writes, "I would have worked for the wounded, in return for bread and water." But Nightingale had no room for this offer. Her secretary made clear the situation: "Miss Nightingale," she said to Seacole, "has the entire management of our hospital staff, but I do not think that any vacancy ..." Seacole did not need to hear the end of the sentence.

"One thought never left my mind as I walked through the fearful miles of suffering in that great hospital. If it is so here, what must it not be at the scene of war-on the spot where the poor fellows are stricken down by pestilence or Russian bullets, and days and nights of agony must be passed before a woman's hand can dress their wounds. And I felt happy in the conviction that I must be useful three or four days nearer to their pressing wants than this."

Seacole spent the next year in the heat of the battlefront. She dispensed medicine, meals, and even occasional entertainment. She made "home visits" to the campsites. She procured supplies otherwise unavailable. She used up her savings to obtain necessities, and when her money was gone, she began selling medicine and meals to soldiers directly to keep her efforts afloat. Her clients were no richer than she, however, and in the end, her enterprise was a financial disaster.

She returned to London deeply in debt. Part of the goal of her autobiography was to apply the proceeds to her debts. "Perhaps it would be right if I were to express more shame and annoyance than I really feel at the pecuniarily disastrous issue of my Crimean adventures, but I cannot, I really cannot. When I try and feel ashamed of myself for being poor and helpless, I only experience a glow of pride at the other and more pleasing events of my career," Seacole writes. She died in 1881prosperous enough, and happy.

http://www.reggaelovers.com/MSF/Mary_Seacole3.htm

Beth Comstock
Age: 46
President, NBC Universal Digital Media and Market Development, General Electric

Comstock has a strong backer in Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE, which owns NBC. In 2003 he asked her to become GE's first chief marketing officer in over 20 years. Now her task is to take the Peacock digital.

Padmasree Warrior
Age: 46
EVP, Chief Technology Officer, Motorola

Trained as a chemical engineer, Warrior oversees the Illinois-based tech giant's $3.7 billion research and development budget as well as 25,000 engineers in labs all over the world.

Elsa Goveia

Born in 1925, in what was then British Guiana, Elsa Vesta Goveia gained her PhD in history at the University College London. She joined the staff of the then University College of the West Indies in 1950 as Lecturer in the Department of History.

In 1961, she was appointed Professor of West Indian History. She was the first female Professor at the University of the West Indies.

A brilliant lecturer and outstanding scholar, she was the author of seminal works on West Indian history the major ones being: A study of the Historiography of the British West Indies. (American Institute of Geography and History), 1956 and Slave Society in the British Leeward Islands. (Yale University Press), 1965 She died in 1980.

http://www.mona.uwi.edu/library/Elsagoveia_reading_room.html

Grace Nichols

Grace Nichols was born in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1950 and grew up in a small country village on the Guyanese coast. She moved to the city with her family when she was eight, an experience central to her first novel, Whole of a Morning Sky (1986), set in 1960s Guyana in the middle of the country's struggle for independence.

She worked as a teacher and journalist and, as part of a Diploma in Communications at the University of Guyana, spent time in some of the most remote areas of Guyana, a period that influenced her writings and initiated a strong interest in Guyanese folk tales, Amerindian myths and the South American civilisations of the Aztec and Inca. She has lived in the UK since 1977.

Her first poetry collection, I is a Long-Memoried Woman, was published in 1983. The book won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and a subsequent film adaptation of the book was awarded a gold medal at the International Film and Television Festival of New York. The book was also dramatised for radio by the BBC. Subsequent poetry collections include The Fat Black Woman's Poems (1984), Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Woman (1989), and Sunris (1996). She also writes books for children, inspired predominantly by Guyanese folklore and Amerindian legends, including Come on into My Tropical Garden (1988) and Give Yourself a Hug (1994). Everybody Got A Gift (2005) which includes new and selected poems.

Her most recent collection is Startling the Flying Fish (2006), poems which tell the story of the Caribbean.

She lives in England with her partner, the poet John Agard.

http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth79
http://www.encompassculture.com/results/?qs=Grace+Nichols

Beryl Agatha Gilroy

Beryl Agatha Gilroy (nee Alnwich) was born on 30 August, 1924 in Skeldon village, in Berbice County in British Guiana. She grew up in a large, extended family, largely under the influence of her maternal grandmother, Sally Louisa James (1868-1967), a herbalist, manager of the family small-holding, keen reader, imparter to the young Beryl of the stories of ˜Long Bubbies', Cabresses and Long Lady and a treasury of colloquial proverbs. Her grandmother also took the view that the child would learn more by being taken all over the county with her, and being given space for wonder and enquiry, than in the regimented system of primary schooling. As a result Beryl Gilroy did not enter full time schooling until she was twelve. It is clear that much of her grandmother's influence persisted in Beryl Gilroy's own philosophy of education (she educated her own children at home) that stressed freedom for discovery within a framework of basic skills. She recalls the importance of the gift her grandfather gave her of a dictionary after suffering the humiliation of laughter over some childish misuse of a word. Her grandmother also taught that people should avoid ˜spirit poorness' (victimhood) and this philosophy permeates all Beryl Gilroy's writing. The experiences of this Berbician childhood are told, above all, in Sunlight on Sweet Water (Peepal Tree, 1994).

More formal education followed and Beryl Gilroy, awarded a British Guiana Teacher's Certificate with first class honours, worked as a school teacher in Guyana until 1951 when at the age of 27 she was selected to attend university in the United Kingdom. Between 1951-53 she attended the University of London pursuing a Diploma in Child Development. Although a qualified teacher, racism prevented her getting a post for some time, and she had to work as a washer-up at Lyons, a factory clerk and lady's maid. She taught for a couple of years, married (one of the earliest inter-racial marriages in the postwar period) and spent the next twelve years at home bringing up/educating her children, furthering her own higher education, reviewing and reading for a publisher. In 1968 she returned to teaching and eventually became probably the first Black headteacher in the UK. Her experiences of those years are told in Black Teacher (1976). Later she worked as a researcher at the University of London and developed a pioneering practice in psychotherapy, working mainly with Black women and children.

Her own creative writing began in childhood, as a teacher for children and then in the 1960s when she began writing what was later published by Peepal Tree as In Praise of Love and Children, sent to numerous publishers at that time but not accepted as ˜too psychological'. However, between 1970-75 she wrote the pioneering children's series Nippers which contain probably the first reflection of the Black British presence in UK writing for children. But as a home-based person in North London suburbia, cut off from the networks of the male dominated London Caribbean writing fraternity and later from groups such as CAM (Caribbean Artists Movement), it was not until 1986 that her first novel, the award winning Frangipani House was published (Heinemann). (It won a GLC Creative Writing Prize in 1982). Set in an old person's home in Guyana, it reflects one of her professional concerns: the position of ethnic minority elders and her persistent emphasis on the drive for human freedom. Boy Sandwich (also Heinemann) was published in 1989, followed by Steadman and Joanna: A Love in Bondage (Vantage, 1991), and a collection of poems, Echoes and Voices (Vantage, 1991). Then came Sunlight and Sweet Water (Peepal Tree, 1994), Gather the Faces, In Praise of Love and Children and Inkle and Yarico (all Peepal Tree, 1994). Her last novel, The Green Grass Tango (Peepal Tree) was published in 2001, sadly after Beryl Gilroy's death in April of that year.

Beryl Gilroy was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of London and an Honorary Fellowship by the Institute of Education for her writing and pioneering work as a psychotherapist.

http://www.peepaltreepress.com/author_display.asp?au_id=24

Vesta Lowe (1907 -1992)

Vesta Lowe was a multidimensional woman-teacher, singer, musician, folk song collector, and rural development professional. She was a pioneer in so many aspects of life. She was among the first batch of teachers to graduate from the Teachers' Training College. She is considered to be the first Black woman to graduate from Tuskegee Institute with a B.Sc. (Honours) degree in Home Economics. Lynette Dolphin described Vesta Lowe as "the pioneer in the field of Folk Song preservation" in Guyana as she "collected the music from various rural districts and the hinterland and popularised it in choral form at concerts presented by the Dawson Music Lovers Club and the Vesta Lowe Choir." Her publication Guiana Sings and the accompanying LP record were published by the Cooperative Recreation Service, Inc., in Delaware, Ohio, in 1959. The publication and accompanying LP were used across the United States in music education programmes.

Vesta Lowe Vesta Lowe grew up in a home that was permeated with music. Music was a family tradition: "her mother and father were both staunch members of church choirs." Vesta also sang in Sunday school and church choirs. Her musical education continued at the Teachers' Training College where she studied under Rev. Hawley Bryant, who composed the music for "Song of Guiana's Children."

Like the late Dr. Ptolomey Reid, Vesta Lowe was a graduate of Tuskegee Institute. She attended the institution during the 1930s through a scholarship that was provided by British Guiana's Negro Progress Convention. While at Tuskegee Institute, she continued her music education and training. Among her tutors were Mr. William L. Dawson and Mrs. Portia Washington Pitman. Mr. Dawson was the Institute's choir conductor, and Mrs. Pitman, the daughter of Booker T. Washington, the founder of the Institute, was the assistant conductor and piano tutor. Vesta Lowe was a soprano in the Institute's first choir during her stay at Tuskegee. Among her most prized memories of her stay in the United States was being part of the Tuskegee choir that sang at the opening of Radio City in 1932.

On her return to British Guiana, she proceeded to "give back to her community" in the spirit of the Negro Progress Convention and the Tuskegee Institute. Among her indelible contributions was the founding of the Dawson Music Lovers' Society-named after her college professor-in 1939. She served as the conductor. The training she provided members of the Dawson Music Lovers' Society made them attractive to other choirs such as the Maranatha Male Voice Choir. Members such as James Pheonix and John "Bagpipe" Fredericks would go on to become leaders in the British Guiana Police Male Voice Choir. James Pheonix later formed the Skeldon Music Lovers Society. Because of this dynamic, Vesta Lowe influenced musical education and appreciation across Guyana. Her repertoire in the early period included "Negro spirituals and Irish songs."

By 1944, she created the Vesta Lowe Choir with the declared aim of making music accessible. John Fredericks remembers her as a demanding leader and a stickler for punctuality. He tells the story of a leading male singer who was sent home because he showed up in a grey suit when the required code was a dark suit. Among her efforts at making music accessible was organising concerts at the Town Hall and moonlight singing on the Sea Wall. According to "Women of Talent," "In 1947, Mrs. [Lowe]-Prescod broke new ground, and presented a programme of Guyanese Folk Songs, in which the Qweh-Qweh Dancing accompanied by African Tom-Toms was a novel feature." The rest is history. That concert contributed to the breaking down of the stigma associated with Guyana folk songs created by formerly enslaved Africans in British Guiana and gave Guyana a musical tradition of which all could be proud.

In addition to contributing to the development of music in Guyana, Vesta Lowe had a proud public service career in education, health, and nutrition. She served as Dietician at the Public Hospital in Georgetown and as Supervising Dietician of the Children's Breakfast Center. She taught at the Carnegie School of Home Economics. She was also a member of the B.G. Branch of the British Red Cross Society and served as a Vice President of the Teachers' Training College Old Students' Association. She was also a foundation member of the Kitty Women's Institute and served as its president. According to one of her relatives, Vesta Lowe "spent most of her time working with the Ministry of Agriculture. While there, she was very involved with 4-H clubs from New Amsterdam to Crabwood Creek and Black Bush Polder. She also organised a lot of community clubs and projects in the Manchester/Liverpool/Lancaster area, some of which met in her home at Manchester." Those who knew Vesta Lowe have commented on her unselfishness and her use of personal and other resources to enhance the lives of others.

As Lynette Dolphin confirmed, Vesta Lowe was a pioneer in the preservation of Guyanese folk songs. About 15 years ago, one of my colleagues at Ohio University gave me the LP Guiana Sings that was used by his mother when she taught school in rural Ohio. This is one of the most treasured items in my Guyana collection. On that album we have recorded for posterity the voice of Rev. Fred Talbot. The LP also features the voice of a young Rafiq Khan, then Programme Director of the British Guiana United Broadcasting Company, providing descriptions of the 13 folk songs on the LP -"Col' A-ready," "Cuma Fish," "Daddy Gone" "Gol Ring," "Goo'-night, Aye," "Itaname," "Marijanna," "O Gal, Ah Too love," "Rainy Wedder", "Sancha," "Sugi Mugi," "Sun Ah Go Down", "Supinam Water," "T'ing Na regula," "Train Song," "When Me Go," and "Yalla Gal." I was recently able to get a copy of the book that accompanied the LP from John Fredericks. The book contains the lyrics and music for 21 Guyanese folk songs. Vesta Lowe's work is very important and she must be accorded the respect that has been accorded to the world's great song catchers like Jesse Fewkes, Bella Bartok, Edvard Grieg, Percy Grainger, and Alice Fletcher whose collections of the songs of ordinary people have helped people around the world to appreciate their cultural heritage and have influenced other genres of music.

The aim of these features is to go beyond descriptions of individual contributions. These features call upon us to appreciate context and identify next steps in important tasks of preserving, propagating and promoting Guyana's cultural heritage. Vesta Lowe studied in the United States during the Jim Crow era and returned to British Guiana to continue experiencing discrimination. Despite her education, training, and qualifications, she was never able to obtain a tenured position in the British Guiana civil service. According to her relatives, she held a number of "open-vote" appointments. Despite these professional slights she continued to serve her country. She soared above the vulgarity of her times and left for us a body of work that makes us proud to be Guyanese. Vesta Lowe was a 2003 Wordsworth McAndrew Awardee.

http://www.guyfolkfest.org/celebrating10.htm

Rajkumari Singh (1923 - 1979)

Rajkumari Singh surmounted many challenges during her life. At the age of six, she contracted polio, but this did not confine her. She rose above this challenge and made significant contributions to Guyana's political and cultural life. Her children have expanded on her work, and today her legacy thrives through the Rajkumari Cultural Center in Richmond Hill, New York.

She grew up in an activist home in Georgetown. Her mother, Alice Bhagwandai Singh (nee Persad), was born in Suriname. Alice's grandfather was a Kshatriya from Bengal who came to the Caribbean region as a Christian interpreter. He served in Grenada, British Guiana, and finally in Nickerie, Suriname where he became Chief Interpreter of Indian Languages.

Rajkumari's father was Dr Jung Bahadur Singh who was born at Goed Fortuin, West Bank Demerara. Rajkumarie's parents had met on a ship that had transported indentured immigrants from India to the Caribbean. They were both dispensers and got married on February 23, 1912. There were three ceremonies: a civil ceremony, a Christian ceremony and a Hindu ceremony.

In 1929, after the successful production of Savitri, Rajkumari's mother founded the British Guiana Dramatic Society. For almost two decades, the British Guiana Dramatic Society was "a cradle of Indian culture" in British Guiana. In addition to her work with the performing arts, Alice Singh was actively engaged in social welfare projects. She was a member of the Red Cross, the YWCA and the Dharm Shala, and served as a prison visitor. In 1936 she founded the Balak Sahaita Mandalee - a child welfare organization that provided education and training for needy East Indian children. She was awarded the MBE.

After completing his medical education at Edinburgh University in 1919, Rajkumari's father started a career as a medical practitioner on the ships that transported indentured immigrants to the Caribbean and back to India at the end of their contacts of indentureship. In 1920, he was the medical superintendent on the SS Madian. In 1938 he was the surgeon superintendent on SS Ganges. This career permitted him to see the construction of the global Indian diaspora as he travelled to Fiji, Natal, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad, and to appreciate the challenges associated with settling in new spaces.

In between their professional careers, the Singhs were actively involved in political activities. Between 1920 and 1949, Dr Jung Bahadur Singh served as President of the British Guiana East Indian Association six times.

According to A J Seymour, "In 1929, he became a member of the Legislature for Demerara-Essequibo and in his long legislative service served on many committees and boards."

He founded the Maha Sabha and served as its president from 1935 to 1955. In 1944, he was awarded the CBE.

This environment influenced Rajkumari, who established a reputation as an innovative and multi-talented broadcaster, producer, director, playwright, poet, songwriter and cultural activist.

Rajkumari was an announcer and presenter of Indian cultural programmes on Radio Demerara. She was a member of the British Guiana Dramatic Society and is remembered for her play Gitangali. In 1960, she published six short stories in A Garland of Stories.

Rajkumari also participated in the political environment. In the 1960s, she was engaged by the People's Progressive Party and was appointed to serve on the Commission of Inquiry into the racial violence at Wismar.

In the 1970s, Rajkumari returned to the cultural sphere. She went back to broadcasting and literary activities and has been described as "one of the first Indo-Guyanese women writers to speak to both the ethnic and gender issues facing Indo-Caribbean women." (Peepal Tree release)

Rajkumari became the editor of Heritage, a literary booklet. She also became the leader of the Messenger Group and served as the mentor for some of Guyana's most talented personalities in the post-independence era - Gora Singh, Mahadai Das, Rooplal Monar, and Gushka Kissoon.

I remember visiting her home in Lamaha Street during the early 1970s, and finding it to be a cultural oasis. At that home, I would meet Martin Carter, Marc Matthews, Gordon Carreaga, Ivan Forrester, Doris Harper-Wills, Sheik Sadeek, Phillip Moore, Victor Forsythe and many others from all racial, religious and colour communities, and we would visualize a new Guyana now that the "Days of the Sahib were over."

Rajkumari was very passionate about the place of the arts in the creation of post-independence Guyana society. She clearly understood that one of the challenges facing the new nation was the mutual ignorance of our collective histories. She held the view that the arts provided a vehicle to find the similarities and the opportunities to explore new possibilities. So, it was not surprising when she joined the Guyana National Service at its start in 1972.

She was severely criticized for doing this. For some members of the Indo-Guyanese community, this was a betrayal of her race. Some argued that joining the GNS led to "the stagnation of her creativity." I wish to suggest that such positions were harsh.

Under Rajkumari's leadership, the GNS Culture Corps helped Guyanese of African ancestry to demystify the aesthetics of Guyanese of Indian ancestry. No longer were the dhantal, dolak, sitar and harmonium the instruments of the 'other.' They were instruments that could be incorporated in the nation's musical pantheon to make a glorious sound.

Through barrack-room conversations and other educational moments, pioneers, staff, and officers explored the similarities among Kali, Cumfa, and Novenas. Explorations of Guyanese history brought to our attention the solidarity that had existed between recently emancipated Africans and newly arrived indentured Indians on the Essequibo Coast during the 1840s.

Under Rajkumari's leadership, a wave of exciting creativity emerged from the Guyana National Service. Music spoke about aspiration and demonstrated fusion.

Rajkumari was a tireless defender of the members of the Culture Corps. She fought to make the GNS a better place and to have it live up to its founding ideals.

Rajkumari's creativity soared to new heights. She demonstrated the importance of participatory organization for social change. She demonstrated that internal criticism was a valid strategy for bringing about social change. Rajkumari was also aware that being an internal critic could bring tough sanctions. She understood this and faced the challenge.

Like so much of Guyana's history, there is need for much more work on Rajkumari's legacy.

As Marina Taitt is keeping the flame of Dorothy Taitt alive, so is Pritha Singh, the Executive and Artistic Director of the Rajkumari Cultural Center, located in Richmond Hill, New York, performing the same service for Rajkumari. The centre integrates the performing arts and service. Like the visions of her grandparents and her mother, the centre executes a wider vision catering for the Indo-Caribbean populations in New York. What Pritha and her siblings are doing in New York is clearly attributable to what their mother instilled in them.

Rajkumari Singh is a Guyanese cultural hero. She called to our attention the mutual ignorance we have of our collective histories. So, although it is necessary and important to understand and celebrate the histories of the individual racial and ethnic communities that comprise Guyana, it is necessary to begin to explore the history of solidarity and fusion.

For her contribution to Guyanese cultural life, Rajkumari Singh was one of the first Guyanese to receive the Wordsworth MacAndrew Award when it was introduced in 2002. She received Guyana's Arrow of Achievement in 1970.

http://www.sweetsoca.com/bmp/articles/rajkumari_singh.htm

Meg Whitman - President & CEO, eBay Technologies

eBay is one of the Internet's most popular sites. Beginning as an online auction house that describes itself as "the world's largest personal online trading company," it's acquired several related companies including PayPal, an online payment service, and Skype, an Internet phone service.

On paper she may have been the richest woman CEO in America, thanks to her eBay stock options and the company's amazing IPO in 1998. Ranked 22 on Fortune's Most Powerful Women of 2006 list, Whitman is steadily guiding one of the few dot-com companies making money.

During her high school years she planned a career in medicine and entered the program at Princeton University. She switched to business studies after her experiences at a summer job in which she sold advertising for a campus publication. She graduated with an economics degree in 1977 and earned her MBA at Harvard Business School two years later.

Whitman became president of Stride Rite, a division of the shoe maker that manufactures Keds, and a chief executive of Florists' Transworld Delivery (FTD). She joined Hasbro Inc.'s preschool division in 1997 where she was responsible for global marketing of Playskool and Mr. Potato Head brands. Since joining eBay (in March 1998) Whitman has helped navigate the Internet company through well-publicized computer and personnel problems. She also serves on the boards of DreamWorks Animation and Procter & Gamble.

Caribbean American Chamber

Of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (CACCI)

Helping to Launch Small Businesses and Creating Partnerships since 1985




Cordially invites you to attend

A Special Business Leadership Power Breakfast Meeting

To address the State of Minority and Women Business Enterprises (MWBE)



On



Thursday, March 15, 2007 – 8:30 AM SHARP
The Historic Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, NY










Convener



Dr. Roy A. Hastick, Sr, President/CEO, CACCI



Board Chairman, CACCI

Derek E. Broomes, CPA



Distinguished Honorary Chairpersons(Invited)

Hon David Paterson, NYS Lieutenant Governor

Hon. Marty Markowitz, President of the Borough of Brooklyn

Hon. Christine Quinn, Speaker, NYC Council

Kerri Jew, Deputy Commissioner, NYC DSBS, MWBE Programs

Lowell Hawthorne, President, Golden Krust Bakeries and Restaurant

Joy Crichlow, Director, Con Edison, MWBE Program

Heyward Davenport, Esq., Regional Admin, U. S. Dept. of Commerce (MBDA)



Sponsored by

Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (CACCI)



Co-Sponsored by

Con Edison Co. of New York

NYC Business Solutions - Certification & Access - www.nyc.gov/getcertified



This event is held in Special Recognition of National Women History Month



RSVP CACCI: (718) 834-4544 -- E-mail: rahastick@msn.com



CACCI's Mailing Address: Brooklyn Navy Yard, Bldg. #5, Unit 239, Brooklyn, NY 11205



I would like to register for this event: _______

The woman that is P.G. Lim
04 Mar 2007
WILSON HENRY


Every newspaper clipping and magazine article on Datuk P.G. Lim is never complete without her string of achievements. That is why she is one of Penang's most accomplished daughters, says WILSON HENRY



THE firecracker red lipstick is not out of place. Where many women in their 80s might struggle to get through the day, lipstick is the last thing on their mind.



But on Datuk P.G. Lim, it is simply part of her.


She still makes an impression dressed in a dowager brown blouse and pants. She has also taken the trouble to apply cherry red rouge as well and nothing is out of place.


Her hair is coiffured in a style suiting her. Ever the hostess, she carries it well.


"I do my own hair and make-up," says Lim. "I think it is important to take pride in the way we present ourselves."


Now 86 years in one tiny and slightly hunched frame, it is hard to imagine she has been UN representative, diplomat, noted lawyer, union champion, director of the KL Regional Centre for Arbitration, feminist, wife and mother.


She has lived a privileged life and it still shows in her Kuala Lumpur residence.


It is precisely the sort of place you would expect her to call home. Pricey real estate in the right side of town.


And inside her modern four-storey residence, the busy traffic of Kuala Lumpur is exchanged for vintage Batavia furnishings, Straits Chinese marble-topped tables, Chinese furniture, antiques, Persian rugs, paintings and a sculpture of herself.


Ostentatious. But of course.


And when she tells you without missing a beat that she had to cook when she was a diplomat because "I didn't have a wife", you know that underneath all that legend of a dragon lady is someone with a wry sense of humour.


There is mischief in her eyes when she confirms she is a romantic lady.


"I must have been otherwise how else would you explain why I was married twice."


Countless newspaper and magazine articles describe her as a woman of great achievements and accomplishments whose mere mention itself can overshadow most resumes.


Time may have slowed her down. But she is still occasionally spotted among the cocktail set.


And for those who know her well enough say she is busy when she writes articles and keeps to herself most of the time.


There are all this superlatives that run through your head when you read previous articles about her and it seems endless.


When we meet for the interview she sticks her hand out and it is a firm handshake.


It is a hand that has shook the hands of countless important personages both locally and internationally. And with it comes a precise well-enunciated greeting that's aristocratic.


It's been ages since she left Girton college in Cambridge University after reading history and law between 1935 and 1939 but decades later she still retains her precise enunciation.


That's the colonial link for you.


She talks about her international career, her family and her passion.


In the 70s, the newspapers carried stories of her and her work with the National Conference of Women, her involvement in the UN and as a diplomat.


She always photographed well and was quite the chic lady and even age has not been able to rob her entirely of that.


She is no longer as active these days.


"But I am not lonely. I have so much to do," says Lim, who lives by herself.


She has two children, lawyer Wee Han Kim and former newscaster Alexandra Caryn Turnbull, better known as Caryn Lim.


When she is not with her family she is busy with consultancy and writing for international journals.


"Writing articles for law journals can be time consuming. Most of my time is spent researching and writing."


When she isn't doing any writing, she plays the piano.


And she plays it well, once having had ambitions of becoming a concert pianist.


"My parents discouraged me. It made sense of course. Back then an Asian pianist may not have had the breaks they have now."


Lim's love for the piano was something her mother imparted.


"My mother insisted we all played the piano. And she would be delighted to hear all three pianos at home being played by us every afternoon."



"Of course now that I am in my 80s, it has affected my playing."


Occasionally she shows up at select social functions.


"Sometimes, to get around, Caryn comes and picks me up. I am not so mobile after injuring my hip," says Lim.


It has been a year since her injury and she still finds it difficult to climb stairs and so restricts her movements.


"I was privileged to have had the opportunities I had. Not many girls were then as fortunate to go to university, travel and do the things I did."


These were opportunities she had growing up in Penang's wealthy Northam Road in a beautiful colonial-styled mansion called Hardwick.


Then of course there was no one called P.G. Lim. She was Phaik Gan.


The eldest of eight siblings, her grandfather was a well-known rice merchant, Phuah Hin Leong, and as she tells her story, it is incredible to see how she remembers details.


Her life is as rich as a beautiful oriental silk organza, rich, textured and the memories she talks is as lavish and cinematic. But what's more impressive is the way her mind remembers details.


She tells the story of how her parents met and fell in love in England before the first World War.


"Father was a lawyer from Cambridge and mother was studying medicine in Edinburgh University. I was born in England and when the war broke out we came back to Malaya.


"Life in Malaya was typically English. We dressed for dinner, rode horses, had soirees and spoke English at home.


"Additionally we learnt Mandarin as well so as to be able to retain our Oriental identity."


Her father, Lim Cheng Ean, was a noted barrister from Penang and her mother, Rosalind Ho-Lim from British Guyana, used to work at the Po Leung Kok rehabilitation centre in Hong Kong for Chinese prostitutes.


"I think it was the way my parents lived their lives that subsequently determined the choices we made. I was always impressed with the way my parents stood up for people who didn't have ˜voices'."


For her it meant standing up for underdog.


The combination of her legal training and her ability to be articulate has always meant she made an impact.


Her courtroom battles are said to be legendary, whether it was the one where she tried to save 11 men sentenced to death for communist activities or the one where she tried to save a communist woman from a death sentence.


Equally she was respected in trade union circles since she always tried to get unions better deals, better working conditions and higher wages.


Presently working on her memoirs, she recently published her youngest brother's memoirs.


"We found Lim Kean Chong's papers after he went into a coma. I thought it would make interesting reading since much of what he wrote was unknown to the family as well."


Many who know her have also pressed her for own memoirs.


"There is so much to write. I started some time ago, but I have not completed it. I am now at the fifth chapter, which is about the Japanese occupation."


A considerable amount of the book will also relate the achievements of her family.

Unlike Kean Siew, who made his mark in politics in Penang as the Pengkalan Kota State Assemblyman, Lim lost in the 1964 elections in Kuala Lumpur contest under the Labour Party.

Lim, despite her age, is as sharp, her wit still intact whether discussing politics, race relations or arbitration.


"I don't think age should determine what we do or should do. I do whatever I want. And this is exactly how I want it to be."


She is of course glad to have had a career at a time she did.


" I would not have wanted it any other way."

Good work Dove...also to all the women on GNI..

The Global Curse


In a statement to the United Nations on October 9 last year, following an in-depth study conducted on all forms of violence against women, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Mr Josà Antonio Ocampo referred to violence against women as a global curse.

The study on which Mr Ocampo based his remarks affirmed, by way of global statistical evidence, what has always been known that violence against women occurs at all levels, among all races within all creeds. Mr Ocampo says in his statement: "Violence against women is not confined to a specific culture, region, or country, or to a particular group of women within a society. Quite the reverse. Violence against women is truly a global phenomenon. Complex, pervasive, persistent, pernicious. It occurs in different settings, takes many different manifestations, and evolves and emerges in new forms. The way that women the world over experience it is influenced by a range of factors, such as age, class, disability, ethnicity, and economic status. On average, at least one in three women is subject to violence at some point in her lifetime."

On Thursday, March 8, the world will celebrate International Women's Day (IWD) and the UN has chosen as the theme for this year: 'Ending Impunity for Violence against Women and Girls'.

This choice was very likely, largely influenced by the findings of last year's study. The continuation of violence against women and girls, and with impunity, goes against the grain of IWD, which was formally institutionalized in 1977 by a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace to be observed, though it was being celebrated for some years before.

Mr Ocampo noted that the toll taken by violence against women goes beyond the incalculable human costs. "Violence undercuts the enormous potential of women to contribute to peace and development-so powerfully recognized at the Fourth World Conference on Women-by restricting their choices and limiting their ability to act. Indeed, it undermines and constrains the achievement of all the internationally agreed development goals, including the objectives on gender equality and the advancement of women set at Beijing, the Millennium Development Goals on poverty, education, child health, maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS, and overall sustainable development." Echoing the voices of grassroots and other women's organizations, he issued a call for the prevention of violence against women to be incorporated in developmental programmes adding that unless this is done violence against women will continue to limit progress.

What is needed is the global political will to get this done. The complete elimination of violence against women will take time as it is linked to behaviour and it is well known that changing human behaviour is an uphill struggle. But moves must be made at the level of the state which would let the populace know in no uncertain terms that violence against women will not be tolerated. Perhaps some countries would get moving if it were known that developmental aid would be contingent upon them putting measures in place to stamp out domestic violence. Of course, this would mean that the country offering the aid would have to first put its own house in order.

It would mean that the global stereotypical attitude to domestic violence as a"private matter" which persists would need to be changed. Governments would have to go up against customs and traditions that perpetuate or condone violence against women and not just by passing legislation that remains on paper but by tackling this very sensitive issue head on. Violence against women needs just as much attention as HIV and AIDS gets today as it also contributes to the spread of that disease. And perhaps the best way to tackle the global curse is to stop viewing it as a taboo subject.

Jhumpa Lahiri 1967 -

Jhumpa Lahiri Vourvoulias (born Nilanjana Sudeshna in 1967) (Bengali: ঝুম্পা লাহিড়ী Jhumpa Lahiŗi) is a contemporary Indian American (Bengali) author based in New York City.

Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London, England in July 1967, and brought up in South Kingstown, Rhode Island where she would go on to graduate from South Kingstown High School. Her parents, a teacher and a librarian, taught her about her Bengali heritage from an early age. Lahiri received her B.A. in English literature from Barnard College in 1989. She then received multiple degrees from Boston University: an M.A. in English, an M.A. in Creative Writing, an M.A. in Comparative Literature and a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies. She took up a fellowship at Provincetown's Fine Arts Work Center, which lasted for the next two years (1997-1998).

In 2001, she married Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, a journalist who was then Deputy Editor of Time Latin America. Lahiri currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children. She has been a Vice President of the PEN American Center since 2005.

Lahiri taught creative writing at Boston University and Rhode Island School of Design. Much of her short fiction concerns the lives of Indian-Americans, particularly Bengalis.

Interpreter of Maladies

As a collection of nine distinct short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, Lahiri's debut, addresses sensitive dilemmas in the lives of Indians or Indian immigrants. The stories' themes include marital difficulties, miscarriages, and the disconnection between first and second generation immigrants in the United States. The stories are set in the northeastern United States, and in India, particularly Calcutta.

The Namesake

The Namesake, her second book and first novel, was published in 2003. An anecdote published in USA Today mentions a schoolteacher who found her given name too long and used her nickname Jhumpa instead. Lahiri adapted this incident in her book, which spans more than thirty years in the life of a fictional family, the Gangulis. The parents, each born in Calcutta, emigrated to the United States as young adults. Their children, Gogol and Sonali, grow up in the United States and much of the tension of the novel is dependent upon the generation and cultural gap between the parents and the children.

Furthermore, as the title suggests, one of the issues of the novel is the confusion caused by the a misunderstanding which occurred when Gogol is very young: his pet name (Gogol) becomes mistaken for his real name. Thus, Gogol's unusual name serves as a symbol of his own unclear cultural identity (further complicated by the fact that Gogol is the last name of a noted Russian author).

Film

The film, The Namesake will be released in March 2007 in the United States and the United Kingdom. It is directed by Mira Nair and a screenplay adapted from Lahiri's novel by Sooni Taraporevala. The film stars Kal Penn as the young Gogol. Lahiri, herself is an extra in the film.

The Namesake, the movie adapted from her book... as mentioned above

The Namesake now in theatres

In the screening room