Last night , as I was browsing the website of ANC in South Africa, I came across of the following. Reflecting on February being black history month in US, I thought of sharing the following with you. It is interesting to notice that many articles of what women wanted in 1955 South Africa is still on the agenda for African- American women in US 61 years later.
With all my respect and love for the women who participated in the struggle for freedom and justice in South Africa.
Elahe Amani
'What Women Demand'
Compiled in Preparation for the Congress of the People, 1955. FSAW II A(1)
We Demand
Four months maternity leave on full pay for working mothers.
Properly staffed and equipped maternity homes, ante-natal clinics, and child welfare centres in all towns and villages, and in the reserves and rural areas.
Day nurseries for the children of working mothers.
Nursery schools for the pre-school children.
Birth control clinics.
We demand these for all mothers of all races.
We Demand
Compulsory, free and universal education from the primary school to the University.
Adequate school feeding and free milk for all children in day nurseries, nursery schools, and primary and secondary schools.
Special schools for handicapped children.
Play centres and cultural centres for school children.
Properly equipped playgrounds and sportsfields.
Vocational training and apprenticeship facilities.
We demand these for all children of all races.
We Demand
Proper houses at rents not more than 10 per cent of the earnings of the head of the household.
Indoor sanitation, water supply and proper lighting in our homes.
The right to own our own homes and the land on which we build them.
The right to live where we choose.
Housing loan schemes at low rates of interest.
Lighting in our streets.
Properly made roads and storm water drainage.
Adequate public transport facilities.
Parks and recreation centres.
Sportsfields and swimming pools.
Public conveniences.
We demand these for all people of all races.
We Demand
Better shopping facilities, particularly in the non-European townships.
More dairies, and full supplies of pasteurised whole milk.
Mobile vegetable markets.
Subsidisation of all protective foods: Bread, Meal, Meat, Milk, Vegetables and Fruit.
Controlled prices for all essential commodities: Food, Basic Clothing, Fuel.
Fair rationing of essential foods and fuel when in short supply.
We demand these for all people in all places.
We Demand
The right of all people to own and work their own farms.
The development of all uncultivated land.
The fair distribution of land amongst all people.
The mechanisation of methods of food production.
The scientific improvement of land by:
Irrigation and intensive farming.
Control of soil erosion and improvement of the soil.
Supply of seed to all people producing from the land. Efficient organisation of the distribution and marketing of food.
We demand sufficient food for all people.
We Demand
More and better land for the reserves.
Schools for children living in the reserves.
Maternity, medical and social services in the reserves.
Shops and controlled prices in the reserves.
Planned agricultural development of the reserves.
The abolition of migratory labour which destroys our family life by removing our husbands and which destroys their health through the conditions of their labour and the compound system.
We demand that the reserves become food producing areas and not reservoirs of cheap labour.
We Demand
The transfer of trust farms to the ownership of the African people.
The abolition of convict farm labour.
The payment of minimum cash wages for all men and women on farms.
The abolition of child labour on the farms.
The abolition of the 'tot' system.
Free compulsory universal education for all children in rural areas.
Paid holidays for all farm workers.
The inclusion of farm workers in all industrial legislation.
We demand these rights for all people in the rural areas.
We Demand
That equal invalidity and old age pensions be paid for people of all races.
Homes and proper care for all aged and sick people.
National medical services for all sick people.
Adequate and equal hospital services for all people.
Increased cost of living allowances adequate to meet the rising cost of living.
That all African workers in all spheres of employment be covered by unemployment insurance and illness allowances.
The consolidation of part of the cost of living allowance into basic wages.
That no person be required to carry a pass or reference book.
Equal rights for all people.
We demand these fundamental rights for all people.
We Demand for all women in South Africa
The right to vote.
The right to be elected to all State, Provincial or Municipal bodies.
Full opportunities for employment in all spheres of work.
Equal pay for equal work.
Equal rights with men in property, in marriage, and in the guardianship of our children.
And together with other women all over the world.
We Demand
The banning of atomic and hydrogen bombs.
The use of the atom for peaceful purposes and the betterment of the world.
That there shall be no more war.
That there shall be peace and freedom for our children.
1. This list of demands was drawn up by the Transvaal FSAW for submission to the convenors of the Congress of the People for incorporation in the Freedom Charter. It was first presented on 29 May 1955 and went through various revisions.
The document provoked a lot of discussion as it contained several controversial matters. One was that it appeared to accept the notion of separate reserves for African people; the other was that it called for birth control clinics - an advanced demand for that time.
posted by admin on:
01/16/06
Marla Ruzicka on Big Screen
Marla Ruzicka will be portrayed by Kirsten Dunst who is currently shooting Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marla_Ruzicka
posted by admin on:
01/16/06
Stop the Massacre Colin ...
After portraying the Gay icon in Oliver Stone's Alexander, Colin Farrel takes on another Historical Epic as John Smith and impossible love story with Indian native Pocahontas in upcoming Terrence Malik remake of American myth.
Official website:
http://www.thenewworldmovie.com/
The New World directed by Terence Malik
In 1607, John Smith (Colin Farrell) was part of a small fleet of ships that set sail from England to find mysterious new worlds on the other side of the Atlantic. They landed in Virginia, immediately meeting up with "The Naturals," a Powhatan tribe of Native-Americans who apprehensively greeted the strangers, waiting for them to turn around and leave. Among the tribe is Pocahontas (Q'Orianka Kilcher), a teenage girl who takes an immediate liking to Smith, eventually saving him from execution. Amidst the turmoil of the two cultures bent on war, Smith and Pocahontas form an intimate bond, which is tested when Smith is forced to choose between sides, and Pocahontas is slowly Europeanized ...
posted by admin on:
12/28/05
Back in the wardrobe kids!
Strange and familiar persian names in the fourth volume of The Chronicals of Narnia:
Prince Caspian, the evil King Miraz and the Lion Aslan. I wonder if the author C.S. Lewis was influenced by the Persian Myths ? If anyone has an answer. DK
By BAZ BAMIGBOYE, Daily Mail The young stars of the eagerly awaited Christmas blockbuster The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe are already getting ready for further adventures in Narnia.
William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley - who play the siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy in C.S. Lewis's mammoth fantasy tale - are on stand-by to be in the film Prince Caspian, one of the seven books in Lewis's Chronicles Of Narnia series.
The first film - about four children who, to escape the Blitz in London, are sent to the country and enter a wardrobe to discover a barren land where it's always winter but never Christmas, full of mythical creatures and an evil White Witch - has its world premiere in London on December 7. It has been chosen as this year's Royal Film to aid the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund.
"We've got a script nearly ready, but The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe has to come out and do well first before we get the green light," Perry Moore, the film's executive producer, told me.
Moore, who has written the lavish illustrated companion book about the making of the picture, added that Prince Caspian was the next logical choice because it features all four of the children.
"We want the kids back before they get too old to do it again," he said of the young actors, who all live in Britain and were chosen during a two-year search in which 4,000 children were auditioned. "In Prince Caspian the story is set a year later and they're called back to Narnia in another crisis," said Moore, who works for Walden Media, studio behind the movie.
Prince Caspian would, like The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, shoot on location in New Zealand using the Weta Workshop special effects company where The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and the forthcoming King Kong were filmed. It was Moore who spent several years pursuing the rights to the collection of seven books.
At one point, when the rights were held by another film company, it was going to be re-located to present-day Los Angeles after an earthquake.
"They thought children wouldn't understand the original, so they changed Turkish Delight (a major plot point in the story) for hot dogs and hamburgers," he added.
Worse was to come. "The most ludicrous statement I heard was that they had Janet Jackson as the White Witch, so I made this very strange vow to rescue this childhood treasure," said Moore, who read the books from age seven and spent as much time as he could exploring the backs of wardrobes.
Andrew Adamson, the director of the Shrek films, is putting the finishing touches to The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, which stars Tilda Swinton as the White Witch and James McAvoy as Mr Tumnus, with Liam Neeson providing the voice of Aslan the lion.
Mahasti Afshar replied:
Narnia
C.S. Lewis knew R.C. Zaehner at Oxford. Zaehner was a historian of religions; among his writings are The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism (1961). One can assume that Lewis, who was a theologian, saw a relationship between Jesus and the Zoroastrian concept of the Savior (Soshyans, Mithra, and others), as well as the concept of a moral universe where Good and Evil are at war and where mankind has the choice of fighting on the side of one or the other. The title of his book, Narnia, is itself a variation on "Iran," as is Caspian and other proper names in the book.
The young stars of the eagerly awaited Christmas blockbuster The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe are already getting ready for further adventures in Narnia. 