Another punch in the eye of ageism & budget choices

Jane Meadus, a lawyer with the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, said she fears there will be more case like this given that there are more and sicker seniors living in their own homes and in retirement homes.

Where ill seniors once stayed in hospital or in long-term care homes, they are now being sent home early “sometimes at all costs,” she said. (from "Toronto woman, 87, waits hours for ambulance, then dies," by Valerie Hauchand and Theresa Boyle, Toronto Star, February 13, 2013, excerpted below)
It does not matter whether this woman would have died even if the ambulance had arrived three hours earlier. It does matter that we live in a society characterized by both an aging demographic and rampant ageism. And those two factors are simply incompatible!
It also matters that, if we trippled the number of Advocacy Centres for the Elderly, we still would not begin to overcome the deep, profound, and permanent ageism that infects all segments of our society.
Budgets, revenues, expenses and the responsibility for their sacralizing can be spread around into every nook and cranny of the land. We have become a church-of-accountants, a parish of profiteers, a mission of millionaires, and a sanctuary of statisticians. And  we worship at its altar every day, every hour, and every minute.
And, for every federal politician spreading incense around the national "vault", there are at least a few dozen municipal politicians genuflecting at the smaller version of the same "altar-vault"....
And the people whose funds are collected and shoved into the national/provincial/municipal vaults have a "value" that can easily and correctly be described as "less than the digits on the computer screens"of those making decisions, namely the politicians.
The United States Pentagon scurried, just last week, to insert some $400 BILION into the budget, before sequestration clicks in, for the F35 fighter jet, a monster machine built to fight the twentieth century wars that are all behind us. And at the same time, Social Security budgets will be adjusted by raising the age of elegibility, to prevent their going bankrupt.
Similarly, in Canada, we have millions for both that same F35 Fighter Jet, and also for armed and unarmed ships for the Canadian navy while we are also hearing about raising the age of elegibility for Canada Pension benefits.
Not only that, there are literally millions of "elderly" who are  still in full possession of their faculties, still willing to work, still willing to take jobs they would never have considered in their prime, and  they encounter   employers who turn their backs,  and head-hunters turn their heads upwards and away, at the very thought of recruiting them. And this at a time when we are running a "skills shortage" and an employment deficit, in skilled jobs.
As the grey-generation grows in both numbers and energy, the conventional wisdom is locked into neutral about a new attitude and perception of the people who fill out that demographic, including the politicians, except at voting time, when they know the percentage of grey's who vote is higher than all other demographic groups.
Anyone of us, dear readers, if our mother were the subject of this appalling story, would be angered, even outraged, and depressed, at the kind of society we are leaving for our grandchildren.
And yet, to some extent, we are, once again, complicit in its creation...we have let the bastards away with murder...and by the bastards I mean the people who find no shame or guilt in permitting the wealth to rise to the "top" (along with all the slime in any natural body of water!) while ordinary human services are left without adequate staff, when the new technology makes accounting, bookkeeping and predicting need almost too easy...
There are legitimate reasons, for example, not to provide surgery on a tumour in an ageing man, because the trauma could be worse that living with the cancer. However, that kind of decision is made carefully, professionally and ethically, by doctors and families collaborating in "best practices"...so let it not be said, that pandering to the "elderly" is what this piece sanctions.
However, it is neither legitimate nor acceptable nor to provide the kind of dignity we all want, even from a nursing home whose call for this woman is shunted through seven ambulances.
A challenge to all you whippersnappers
From Letters, National Post, February 14, 2013
Re: Headline Wording, letter to the editor, Feb. 12; Elderly Couple Wins $30M Lottery in Nfld., Feb. 8.

Kudos to letter-writer Doreen Cowan. My thoughts, voiced to my husband on reading the earlier article, were: “The nerve of the National Post to call us elderly.” Glad to see I was not the only one. I’ll be 67 next May and I challenge anyone of you young whippersnappers to keep up with me on my two- to three- mile daily walks no matter the weather. Elderly not!
Hazel Oliver, Ancaster, Ont.
Go Hazel, Go! (and keep writing too!)


Toronto woman, 87, waits hours for ambulance, then dies

In the three-plus hours before she died, an 87-year-old woman waited for paramedics while seven ambulances were redirected to higher priority cases.
By Valerie Hauchand and Theresa Boyle, Toronto Star,  February 13, 2013

 In the three-plus hours before she died, an 87-year-old woman waited for paramedics while seven ambulances were redirected to cases considered higher priorities.
Staff from a Leaside retirement home had called 911 on Dec. 20 reporting that the woman was suffering from abdominal pains. When the call came in at 3:14 p.m., Toronto Emergency Medical Services deemed her condition low priority.
By early evening, she had taken a turn for the worse. An ambulance was there within minutes. But it was too late. By that time the woman had no vital signs.
Toronto paramedics are blaming a staff shortage for the delay.
City Councillor Janet Davis (Ward 31) said she knew staffing levels “were very low . . . but to have an 87-year-old woman die, while seven ambulances were redirected is completely unacceptable.”
In addressing its fiscal priorities, council has been “ignoring the service needs of the city for too long ... we cannot continue to pretend we can provide desperately needed services without funding them,” she said.
Jane Meadus, a lawyer with the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, said she fears there will be more case like this given that there are more and sicker seniors living in their own homes and in retirement homes.
Where ill seniors once stayed in hospital or in long-term care homes, they are now being sent home early “sometimes at all costs,” she said.
She said hospitals are “downloading seniors into the community” and there are not enough long-term care beds.
“It’s going to increase the number of people who need an ambulance,” she warned. “It’s going to be a problem.”

Women's Rights are Human Rights...Clinton vs. Brzezinski

Recently, I listened as Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski spoke on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" hosted by former Congressman Joe Scarborough and Brezezinski's daughter, Mika, reviewing the appointment of John Kerry as Secretary of State, in comparison to the four-year term of Hillary Rodham Clinton. He pointed out that Kerry (and likely Defense Secretary Hagel) will be more "strategic" and more focussed on regional issues, particularly in the Far East, whereas Ms Clinton was more focussed on the issue of human rights, especially as it pertained to women's rights.
It did not strike me at the moment I heard that comparison, but in light of what appears to be happening to women around the world, (see stories below from Canada, Syria, Pakistan) there is a case to be made that human rights, and particularly women's rights, need to be positioned much higher on the totem pole of issues included in the foreign policy files of all countries and especially of the United States adn Canada.
"Strategic issues," is code for relations between countries, and potentially armies, navies, airforces and diplomats, as in traditional "power relationships" of the kind that either warns of potential wars, or of potential peace agreements, treaties, for example, on the deployment of nuclear weapons. Once again, this time from the former Head of the National Security Council, under President Jimmy Carter, the issue of human rights, including women's rights, is downgraded as if it were the purview, however, legitimate, of a woman Secretary of State, and not a "real" (read male) Secretary of State.
The Roman Catholic church has a centuries-long dogma refusing to permit women to become priests, and of course, any and all ranks in the church hierarchy above that of simple cleric.
Much of the deep divide between Islam and the "West" is directed toward what is perceived by most in the west as the equality of women. We accept it; we honour our women, to a much greater degree than in many countries where Islam is the dominate faith, regardless of the specific sect. Clearly, the radicals in Islam, and among the Taliban, want women to be  as we used to say of some families in the west, "barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen" and certainly not engaged in a full and rewarding education or profession. Not all segments of Islam, it is true, abuse their women, at least from a western perspective.
From,The Position of Women in Islam,  by Hamdun Dagher, Chapter Two, The Status of Women, from Light of Life website, February 13, 2013
There is no Qur´anic distinction between the Muslim and the non-Muslim woman in terms of her status as a biological social being since men are, on principle, in charge of women, and the male is not like the female (Sura Al Imran 3:36). One can understand the prevailing mentality at the time with the aid of the Qur´anic criticisms of the habits of the Meccan idolaters: "Have you considered al-Lat and al-Uzza, and Manat the third, the other? What, have you males, and He females? That were then an unjust division!" (Sura al-Najm 53:19-22). The Qur´an, which condemns the Arab's live burial of girls, conveys to us, at the same time, the prevailing conception of the woman at that time: "And when any of them is given the good tidings of a girl, his face is darkened and he chokes inwardly, as he hides him from the people because of the evil of the good tidings that have been given unto him, whether he shall preserve it in humiliation, or trample it into the dust" (Sura al-Nahl 16:48,59).

If we accept what the Qur´an said about the woman in the pre-Islamic era and what the Muslim historians recorded (trying their best to prove that Islam improved the position of the woman and promoted her from the bottom of the pit to an honourable life), we must admit that Islam was unable to realise a reformation in this arena, for the simple reason that the same conceptions of women still persist in most Islamic countries today. One of the most important reasons for this phenomenon was the pragmatic approach that Muhammad followed, which adopted even the pre-Islamic (Jahili) traditions(1) to uphold his own cause. His ultimate goal was not to establish a new moral code, but to achieve a final triumph for the Shahada, which states, "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah," and to force the Bedouins to recognise Allah's sovereignty over all the gods.
As mentioned above, the most important Qur´anic verse the jurists cite as proof of the claim that women are inferior to men is: "Men are the managers of women for that God has preferred in bounty one of them over another, and for that they have expended of their property" (Sura al-Nisa´ 4:34). Al-Tabari says, "By this God (may He be highly praised) means that men are in charge of their women in chastising and restraining them regarding their obligations for God and themselves."(2) He makes further comments, which we will cite: "Ibn Abbas narrated that he said, [Men] are commanders and [the woman] has to obey him in all that God commands her to obey him. Obedience to man is being good to his family." Al-Dhahhak narrated: "Man is in charge of the woman commanding her to obey God. If she refuses, he has [the right] to give her a mild beating, and he had the advantage over her on account of what he provides for her and what he earns." Al-Suddi said, "They should restrain and discipline them."(3)
As to the reason why this verse was given, it is said that a man struck a woman, and she came to the Prophet seeking punishment. The prophet passed his judgment between them, and this verse was revealed, "And hasten not with the Qur´an ere its revelation is accomplished unto you" (Sura Ta Ha 20:114). The verse "Men are the managers of women" (Sura al-Nisa´ 4:34) was also revealed.(4) Ibn Abbas says in a tradition that by "for that God has preferred in bounty one of them over another," (Sura al-Nisa´ 4:34) the Qur´an meant that "God preferred men to women by the former's [sound] mind, dividing of the portions in the booty and inheritance."(5)
Muhammad `Abduh "the Reformer" (1905-1949), who was known for his hostile attitude toward blind tradition, has discovered new aspects of man's superiority over women in this verse: "This superiority is based on two factors; the one has to do with nature, while the other has to do with earning. The natural one consists in the fact that man's disposition is stronger, more accomplished, complete, and beautiful. Perhaps it strikes you as odd that man is more beautiful than woman. Beauty has to do with the completeness and perfection of natural disposition. As far as his living body, man is nothing more than an animal, for the physical nature of both is the same. We see the males of all animals more accomplished and more beautiful than the females, such as you see in the rooster and the hen, the ram and the ewe, and the lion and the lioness. The hair of the beard and the moustache is of the characteristics of the perfection and beauty of man's nature, therefore the hairless man is considered imperfect in nature and wishes he could find a medicine that would cause his hair to grow, even if he were used to shaving his beard. In consequence of this, men are strong in character [disposition], perfect in nature, sound in mind, and of sound judgement in the foundation and end of everything. Doctors and scientists say, 'Sound in body, sound in mind.' It follows then that men are perfect in tasks having to do with earning, for they are more capable of earning a living, inventing, and tackling affairs of everyday life. For this reason they have been commanded to stand above women, protect them, and to carry the onus of general presidency in the milieu of the domestic life of the family. For it is vital that every society should have a president to whom people ought to refer in the standardisation of public welfare."(6)
Abbas Mahmud al-Aqqad (1889-1964), one of the most renowned Arab men of letters in the twentieth century, sets an enviable record in his attacks on women. He says, "Woman has been engaged in preparing food since mankind started cooking in pre-historic times. She has learned it since childhood in the dwelling-places of the family or the tribe. She likes food and craves for it. Yet after she inherited this occupation for thousands of years, she is still not as good at it as the man who dedicates a few years to it. She keeps up with him neither in the high quality of well-known dishes nor in innovating new varieties of improved ones. She is unable to manage a kitchen in which several females and males work together. The same goes for the craft of embroidery and tailoring, which are among the old-time crafts women practised at home. Women rely on men to make their clothing rather than on themselves." Women, as al-Aqqad claims, have no part in knowledge or scientific thinking, even the well-known women in the field of science could not attain any success but for the support and guidance of the men, "The name of Madame Curie is the first name that is mentioned by those who maintain full equality of the two sexes. Even if it is true that this lady matches first class male scientists, this will always remain an undeniably rare exception. The truth about this specific lady keeps her from being reckoned among the exceptional cases in scientific researches, since she did not work apart from her husband and since her work was neither concerned with invention nor with innovation."(7) As to hypocrisy and double-dealing, these are two inherent characteristics of women: "Female hypocrisy, which can be attributed to women especially, is due to a certain weakness in womanhood that she abides by in every society, and is not imposed on her by manners or laws. She does not part company with it by choice or by force- she may even refuse to do so if the choice was hers... There is a major difference between man and women in sexual intercourse- in most days of her period the sexual desire is separated from the reproduction instinct, whereas the sexual desire for man is never an amusement."(8)
This al-Aqqad who is viewed by many people in the east and the west as a genius, believes that woman is a necessary evil, and that she does not possess any talent or virtue at all. "There are none among the estimable ethics of women that are more characteristic of and natural to her femininity than these three qualities: bashfulness, compassion, and cleanliness. She depends on these in her nature or in man's nature. This should have been rather her practice in all the other qualities that men mastered from old... The inborn compassion is not fit for evaluating woman's mercy, since it has to do with what the psychic forces and the power of conscience enjoin on her. It is the comparison between women's and man's compassion for the children of others that is fit as a standard of evaluation. Man could be seen showing compassion for his step-children as much as he does his own, treating them equally even if it were out of courtesy and consideration. Woman, however, behaves differently in her treatment of her step-children; the children sometimes do not escape torture, malevolence, deliberate humiliation, and harm."(9) "The primary point of reference regarding morals with women is sexual restraint, which is an instinct that the female animals have in common, and is not a willful act that distinguishes mankind in particular. There are worlds of difference between this sort of sexual restraint and the virtue of bashfulness, which is regarded as a human moral virtue."(10)
Regarding the advantages man has over women, Ahmad Shalabi says, "He is taller than she, his bones are bigger, and she weighs less than he does. His muscles are stronger, his brain is bigger than hers, and likewise his heart."(11) The sayings of Muhammad concerning women that could be culled from the Hadith do not speak in her favour. There are traditions indicating that Muhammad describes women as though they were deficient in intelligence and understanding. Abu Sa`id al-Jundi narrated: Once the Messenger of God went out to a prayer place to offer the prayer of Greater Bairam or a Lesser Bairam. Then he passed by the women and said, "O women! Give alms, as I have seen that the majority of the dwellers of Hell-fire were you [women]." They asked, "Why is it so, Messenger of God?" He replied, "You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you." The women asked, "What is deficient in our intelligence and religion, Messenger of God?" He answered, "Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?" They replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in your intelligence. Isn't it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?" The women replied in the affirmative. "This is the deficiency in your religion," he said.(12)
In Islamic theological sources, it is put forward as an evidence of the women's deficient intelligence that there is none among them who was known for being knowledgeable or a genius. "As to the deficiency of intelligence, it is known that women have rarely minds as good as men. Perfection and excellence are rarely and exceptionally found among them. Women of reasoning and good discretion are very few in number. Men of this quality, however, are countless."(13) The scholastic expert of fiqh, who showed this magnificent proof of the deficiency of women's minds, could have found the main reason for this in the Hadith of Muhammad: "Do not let [women] into all of the rooms, and do not teach them how to write. Teach them to spin and recite Sura al-Nur."(14) Or "Do not let your women live in rooms, do not teach them how to write, and seek assistance against them. Constantly tell them 'No', because 'Yes' tempts them to ask a lot."(15)
One who studies the sayings of Muhammad pertaining to women cannot help but question why women were created. "One woman, of 99 women, is in heaven, and the rest of them are in Fire."(16) "Fire has been created for the senseless, the women, except for the one who obeyed her husband."(17) "Men perish when they obey women."(18) "Men are in a good state as long as they do not obey women."(19)
Muhammad gives us another reason why men should fear and beware of women: "Beware of women; the first temptation among the Children of Israel was caused by them;"(20) "I fear no temptation that would befall my people but for the temptation of women and wine;"(21) and "But for the woman, man could have entered paradise."(22)
The woman has no right to behave as though she possesses any authority or influence over her husband, for Muhammad "forbade women to talk except by leave of their husbands."(23) Also "Women are not allowed to go out except out of necessity, but for the occasion of the two feasts: The Greater Bairam and the Lesser Bairam. They are also not allowed to walk down the roads, but keep to the edges of the street."(24) "Women are not allowed to use the middle of the road."(25) "Women are not to be greeted nor to greet."(26) "A believing woman is the same among women as a white-footed raven among the ravens. Fire has been created for the senseless, and women are the most senseless of all."(27) If the woman wanted to clear herself of this charge, she had to serve her husband.(28)
In another tradition Muhammad described women as "unclean" creatures. In a Hadith, Muhammad says, "Three things corrupt prayer: Women, dogs, and donkeys."(29) "The Messenger of God said, 'A man's prayer is interrupted if a donkey, black dogs, and women pass by him nearby.' So I said, 'What difference is there between the red one, the yellow one, and the white one?' He said, 'My brother, I asked the Messenger of God just as you asked me. He said, "The black dog is a devil." ' "(30) In a another tradition given by Ibn Abbas, the fire-worshipper, the Jew, and the pig are listed alongside the woman as things that corrupt prayer. The prayer of a Muslim is corrupted if "they pass by him as far as a rock could be thrown."(31)
The rise in consciousness of the religion of Islam, among western nations and people, must not be a wedge that brings all the achievements of the last half-century in women's equality, to naught, or even to a decline or atrophy of those achievements.
It would appear to this observer, that Dr. Brzezinski spoke as a voice from the past, insofar as his down-grading of Secretary Clinton's courageous and visionary work in all world capitals, on behalf of women everywhere, and that "strategic" interests and issues must no longer, (as they would in a man's world) take precedence over human rights issues, especially women's rights, if we are to provide a world for our daughters and granddaughters where they can be confident they will be respected, honoured, valued and permitted, indeed encouraged to take their rightful place at all levels of  government, academia, health care and corporate boardrooms.
Women's rights are human rights, and the "establishment" has not paid enough attention to their importance in shaping societies, including the lives of women and children in poor, undeveloped and underdeveloped countries. And that is a significant and increasingly potent factor in destabilizing both the families and the countries where such virulent discrimination is rampant, too often with impunity,
The current spate of rape charges, trials and investigations in too many countries, including especially Canada, are a cancer on the inevitable and worthwhile march to equality and freedom of women everywhere.
And, if Secretary Kerry mistakes the counsel from Dr. Brzezinski as road-map for his term in Foggy Bottom, he will do a great injustice to the cause of the liberation of young  men and women, through formal education and access to opportunity around the globe. Secretary Clinton's forging a path through the jungle of dogmatic, even religious, sexism must not be left to grow over with the underbrush of either religious or secular patriarchy.
Naturally, we also agree with Liberal leader Bob Rae that Prime Minister Harper must call a national commission of inquiry to determine the facts in the Human Rights Watch report on the fate of aboriginal girls and women. That is the least that must be done. And where there is culpability, it must be removed and sanctioned.
Mounties raped, abused B.C. aboriginal girls, rights watchdog alleges in report
By Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press in National Post, February 13, 2013
A new report by a respected international human rights watchdog has accused RCMP officers of abusing aboriginal women and girls in northern British Columbia.

New York-based Human Rights Watch uncovered one allegation of rape and others of assault by Mounties against aboriginals in rural B.C. communities.
The alleged incidents were uncovered as part of a broader investigation into charges of systemic neglect of missing and murdered aboriginal women along B.C.’s Highway 16, nicknamed the “Highway of Tears.”
Other reports and studies have documented the broader problem, but the new report details specific allegations of abuse by RCMP officers.
None of the allegations has been proven in court. The RCMP did not immediately reply to a request for comment Tuesday.
Human Rights Watch undertook the investigation last year after a Vancouver-based agency approached it in 2011 complaining that authorities in Canada were not doing enough to address the problem.

“After years of hearing stories and doing our best to try and get some accountability, we felt we owed it to the girls to take the next steps, to try and get some kind of investigation and bring these allegations and abuses to light,” said Annabel Webb, the founder of the Vancouver group Justice for Girls, which works with poor, troubled teens.
Human Rights Watch is calling on the federal and B.C. governments to participate in a national commission of inquiry into the matter.
“At the end of the day, what we want to see is accountability. Accountability for police mistreatment of aboriginal women and girls,” said Meghan Rhoad, the report’s lead researcher.
“Policing is failing in terms of protection of indigenous women and girls in northern B.C., certainly based on our research.”
Researchers spent five weeks in 10 northern B.C. towns last summer and conducted 87 interviews with 42 indigenous women and eight indigenous girls from age 15 to 60.
The most serious allegation involved a woman who told researchers that she was raped and threatened with death by four RCMP officers after she was abused in a remote location.
Other allegations include: young girls being pepper sprayed and shocked with a Taser; a 12-year-old girl being attacked by a police dog; a 17-year-old girl being repeatedly punched by an officer; women strip-searched by male officers; and women injured by excessive force during their arrests.
“In 5 of the 10 towns Human Rights Watch visited in the north, we heard allegations of rape or sexual assault by police officers,” the report states.
“Human Rights Watch was struck by the level of fear on the part of women we met to talk about sexual abuse inflicted by police officers.”
Rhoad said about a dozen young women cancelled interviews with researchers because they were too scared of repercussions from police officers working in their small communities.
Samer Muscati, a Canadian co-researcher, said the level of fear among the women interviewed was on par with what he’s encountered while researching abuses by security forces throughout the Middle East, Iraq, Libya and Sudan.
“You expect that level of fear when you’re in a place like Iraq, in a post-conflict country where security forces are implicated in horrible abuses,” said Muscati.
“But in Canada, where police are known to protect citizens, it is quite alarming to hear the stories of women and girls, particularly.”
The report contains a number of testimonials from women whose identities have all been protected.
The most serious is from a homeless woman identified as Gabriella P., who described being raped by four Mounties. She told researchers she knew the names of the officers, but refused to provide them.
“I feel so dirty,” a tearful Gabriella is quoted as saying in the report. “They threatened that if I to anybody they would take me out to the mountains and kill me and make it look like an accident.”
Webb said it has been difficult to bring the allegations to light because the girls themselves don’t believe in the justice system.
Webb said she hopes that upstanding members of the RCMP are outraged enough by the report to drive out their more abusive colleagues.
“First and foremost, I’d like to see a stop to the abuse,” she said. “If we could just stop the abuse, that would be kind of a banner day.”
On Tuesday, Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to call a royal commission or parliamentary inquiry in the broader issue.
“We know that along the highway that has unfortunately now been called the Highway of Tears, there are hundreds of women who have gone missing,” said Rae.
A stern-faced Harper responded by defending the Conservative record on confronting the issue of violence against women.
“This is a very strong concern for this government. That is why we have invested additional resources in police enforcement, in investigation and prevention, and we continue to look to ways that we can act,” Harper said.
“The murder and abduction of women in this country is completely unacceptable. We will continue to move forward with a vigorous criminal justice agenda to address these problems.”
And this:
New Delhi gang-rape case resulting in death of 23-year-old student to start Thursday in fast-track court

By Nirmala George, Associatd Press, in National Post, January 21, 2013
NEW DELHI — The trial of five men accused of the rape and murder of a student aboard a bus in New Delhi will begin Thursday and should have none of the long delays commonly associated with India’s justice system, a defense lawyer said after a brief hearing Monday.

Judge Yogesh Khanna denied a defense motion to make the proceedings public, ruling that the courtroom must remain closed because of the sensitive nature of the crime, said V.K. Anand, the lawyer for one of the defendants, Ram Singh.
The extreme brutality of the attack has sparked weeks of protests and focused national and international attention on India’s rarely discussed crisis of violence against women. Monday’s hearing was the first since the case was moved to a new fast-track court set up to deal specifically with crimes against women.
And this:
Syrian rape victims getting help from foreign police and health workers

British government is sending a team of 70 professionals to Syria’s borders to help treat rape victims and gather evidence for future prosecutions.

By Hamida Ghafour, Toronto Star, February 1, 2013 The British government has sent two police investigators to Syria's borders to help train a local charity in gathering evidence from Syrian rape victims, as a growing number of experts say women and girls assaulted in the war need urgent medical help and justice.

The police are part of a 70-member, permanent unit set up this week by the British Foreign Office focused on sexual violence in Syria and other conflicts.
Their mandate includes treating victims and preserving evidence for any future prosecutions.
Various rights groups say most of the attackers are from pro-government militias, but rebels are also raping women and girls, and the majority of the assaults happen at checkpoints or in home raids.
But it will be difficult for victims to come forward in a country that lacks an adequate justice system, said Neville Blackwood, a retired police officer who recently returned from an unspecified region on the borders of Syria where he helped train staff from a health charity.
The location of the training was not made public for security reasons.
“If you are going to have someone come forward in those circumstances, they have got to have confidence that the process will be conducted in a fair and transparent way,” he said in an interview posted on YouTube Friday.
The unit, believed to be the first of its kind set up by a government, also includes doctors, lawyers, psychologists and forensic scientists, all of whom are standing by to deploy.
The unit includes at least two Canadians. Brock Chisholm, 43, a clinical psychologist who was born in Nova Scotia, may be sent to Syria borders within a month to assess the needs of victims.
“There is going to be an enormous need,” he said. Chisholm works with Syrian refugees who have escaped to London, and he describes reports of sexual violence from patients as “horrendous.”
“The work I can do here is a drop in the ocean,” he said. “I hope the work I do in Syria will lead to prosecution, convictions, and that will reduce sexual violence in the future.”
Lara Quarterman agreed. The 32-year-old grew up in Calgary and specializes in sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
“The people involved in this (British-led team) are such skilled practitioners and taking risks and believe in what this unit is trying to achieve, and I believe in it, too,” Quarterman said in an interview from London.
More health services would give victims an incentive to come forward, others said.
Victims' needs “vastly outpace” what is available, said Mike Young, regional director of the International Relief Committee, which reported last month that rape was a main reason why families were fleeing Syria.
“Our case workers see firsthand the traumatic and tragic results of sexual assaults on Syrian women and girls,” he said.
“The international community must provide more prioritized funding for these most vulnerable Syrians.”
A donors' conference in Kuwait on Wednesday raised $1.5 billion to help civilians as part of a relief effort that the UN said has been severely underfunded.
If sexual assault survivors do not speak out, there is little hope of bringing attackers to justice, partly because Syria has not been referred to the International Criminal Court, said Renu Mandhane, director of the international human rights program at the University of Toronto, which is hosting a conference on sexual violence in Syria on Feb. 8.
“The other question is, who will be in a position to prosecute after the conflict is over?” Mandhane asked.
And this:
‘Never fearful’: Young Pakistani activist shot in the head by Taliban, Malala Yousufzai, had defied militant threats for years

By Saud Mehsud, Reuters, in National Post, October 10, 2012
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — A 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl campaigner shot by the Taliban had defied threats for years, believing the good work she was doing for her community was her best protection, her father said on Wednesday.

Malala Yousufzai was shot and seriously wounded on Tuesday as she was leaving her school in her hometown in the Swat valley, northwest of the capital, Islamabad.
The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying her promotion of education for girls was pro-Western and she had opposed them.
The shooting has outraged people in a country seemingly inured to extreme violence since a surge in Islamist militancy began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
“She is candle of peace that they have tried to blow out,” said one Pakistani man, Abdul Majid Mehsud, 45, from the violence plagued South Waziristan region

McQuaig: Hymn to Labour, in the war against Unions

Unions in Canada under siege from government, business and media: McQuaig


Unions are really the only organized line of defence against the broad right-wing assault on social programs and government regulations.

By Linda McQuaig, Toronto Star, February 12, 2013
Although much denigrated by the right these days, union activists are, as the old saying notes, “the people who brought you the weekend.”

The right apparently wants you to believe that the weekend is now out of date.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, along with influential members of the corporate and media world, are hostile to unions, rarely missing an opportunity to portray union leaders as autocratic “bosses.”
Yet, if you’re middle class, a union probably helped you or your ancestors get there. In the 19th century, workers typically toiled 10 to 16 hours a day, six or seven days a week. Unions fought to change that. In the decades that followed the Great Depression, unions won higher wages and better working conditions for their members, setting a standard with ripple effects that led to a better deal for all workers.
But in recent decades, many of the precious, hard-fought union gains — job security, workplace pensions, as well as broader social goals like public pensions and unemployment insurance — have been under fierce attack by the corporate world (where workers really are under the thumb of unelected “bosses”).
Part of the strategy has been to pit worker against worker. So, as private sector workers have lost ground, they’ve been encouraged to resent public sector workers, whose unions have generally been stronger and better able to protect them.
With workers increasingly baited into a dogfight against each other, it’s been easier to make the case that unions are no longer relevant.
But, given the intensity of the attack, unions are likely more necessary than ever. If you’ve grown attached to the weekend, not to mention the eight-hour day, this probably isn’t the time to throw unions under the bus.
In fact, they’re really the only organized line of defence against the broad right-wing assault on a wide range of social programs and government regulations important to most Canadians.
We’re told that many of these benefits and protections have to be cut back to make our economy more flexible in an era of globalization.
In fact, what is referred to as “globalization” is simply the set of laws governing the global economy. There’s nothing natural or inevitable about these laws, which have been crafted by corporate interests and their think-tanks. They just reflect the growing political muscle of the corporate elite, which has reshaped international and domestic laws in recent decades to their own advantage.
One of the most outrageous attacks on hard-won benefits was Harper’s decision last year to raise public pension eligibility by two years. Most commentators supported the move, noting that people are living longer.
But this misses the point. The real question is: as the country has grown richer, who should benefit? Under the more egalitarian system that prevailed during the early postwar decades, the economic benefits would have been more widely shared and could have been used to actually lower the retirement age (or extend holiday time, such as in Scandinavia, where the norm is six weeks paid vacation).
A few decades ago, North Americans often whimsically posed the question: in the future, what will we do with all our leisure time?
As it turned out, our leisure time shrunk (with two years of it now snatched away by the Harper government).
Indeed, instead of being widely shared, almost all the benefits of economic growth in recent decades have been siphoned off by a small corporate elite.
It’s that same corporate elite, and its political and media supporters, who now assure us that unions are no longer relevant.
This is curious, since corporations still see the wisdom in collective action for themselves; they band together to form business lobby groups. But, when it comes to working people, collective action is apparently out of date.
Lined up against today’s worker is the corporate world — the most powerful set of interests in history.
But, hey, why would a worker want to act collectively when she could take on this corporate Goliath all on her own?

Vision, ambition and courage obstructed by narcissistic hubris

We are now three hours before the State of the Union address by President Obama, as he sets the table for the second term of his administration.
So much promise, and so little expectation at the same time.
A president, while nominally considered the most powerful person/man/woman in the world, is nevertheless circumscribed by a Congress empowered to draft, debate and pass legislation. The Chief Executive is empowered to sign into law those laws that make it through both Senate and House of Representatives. He is also empowered, and expected, to "lead" through the extensive deployment of his bully pulpit, by advocating for legislation that he believes would render the United States a "more perfect" union.
We know where his presidential "heart" is at, to recount the words of one of his former speechwriters, from NSNBC, because he has been saying the same "themes" since he burst onto the world stage when he delivered the key-note address in the 2004 Democratic Convention:

• a stronger, more healthy middle class
• a more universal health care program
• a restoration to the American economy's full productivity
• a generation of a new technology for green energy
• jobs for the 24,000,000 un-under-employed or those who have stopped looking for work
• a reduction in the number and an increase in the security of nuclear weapons
• a restoration of the American international reputation around the world
• a decapitation of the AlQaeda leadership, and all of its affiliates
• gun control legislation that enhances background checks, removes large magazines and assault weapons, while eliminating trade and traffic in weapons
• a comprehensive immigration bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented persons
• an infrastructure rebuild on a scale of the Tennessee Valley Authority, or the Hoover Dam, soaking up millions of workers in full-time, well-paid work
• a rebuilt manufacturing sector, absorbing the millions of displaced workers, as jobs return to the U.S.
• the foundation for a new, clean energy industry, in which the U.S. leads, also generating millions of American jobs and billions in American profits
• significant curtailment of the American dependence on fossil fuels, and on foreign supplies from unfriendly sources of crude
• a balanced budget that consistently reduces the national debt and deficit, based on both increased revenue from wealthy Americans and budget cuts to some programs operated by the federal government
• a new culture and political climate in the United States, and particularly in Washington

....all of these items, taken separately and together promise nothing short of a revolution in American life, led by a president whose vision, ambition, courage, commitment and integrity are somehow "above average" even in the eyes of his most virulent opponents,  whose mind is 'one of the best' to have studied law at Harvard, according to his professors...
and yet, in the face of a racist, obstructionist and tone-deaf political party, deaf to the breadth and depth of the American body politics's endorsement of most of these national goals, few, if any, of the goals will ever become reality.
There is simply no political will on the part of the Republicans, especially those in the House of Representatives (there will even be two different Republican responses to the State of the Union address), to collaborate with the president and the Democrats and the long-term reputation of the United States of America in the corridors of the world capitals, especially in the economic forecasts of the next few years, is likely to become quite tarnished, if not toxic and completely dysfunctional.
It does seem that the greater the promise of "potential" the greater the force of the opposition to the promise of that potential.
Is the opposition determined to block the first black president?
Is the opposition determined to sabotage the country, as an integral part of their own self-sabotage?
Is the distance between the president's vision and the comfort level of the American culture so big that his vision tends to produce a regression in the nation?
Is the world being held hostage to the small minds, small hopes and small ambitions of the too-many Republican obstructionists, as is the president's legislative agenda?
While the United States has many indicators of strength, leadership and hope for its people and for the world generally, so little is likely to become reality, in this political climate.

Drug-resistant tubercolosis warning!

‘Totally drug-resistant’ tuberculosis spreads in South Africa as researchers warn global outbreak would be ‘untreatable’

By National Post Staff, February 12, 2013
The world is facing outbreaks of “totally drug-resistant” tuberculosis if explosions of the bacteria in South Africa and other poorer nations are not addressed, according to a new papers published in Emerging Infectious Diseases. At this point, researchers are working to determine how the bacteria gains its invincibility, and how to isolate it.

Fears are mounting in medical communities worldwide that conventional treatments would be useless against the new disease, The Daily Mail‘s health site reports. They say doctors are warning “the world is on the brink of an outbreak of a deadly and ‘virtually untreatable’ strain of drug resistant tuberculosis unless immediate action is taken.” Fears of a repeat of the 1980s outbreak in New York City that killed 90% of the people who contracted the TB strain are being cited by those urging action in poorer countries where the disease is spiralling out of control.
Researchers writing in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control journal warned in two new studies that the further outbreaks of drug resistant tuberculosis could devastate populations and economies of developing nations, particularly in the drug-resistant strain’s ground zero regions, such as in South Africa. Recent reports from 2012, however, drive home the importance of isolating drug-resistant TB, since the disease has also been popping up increasingly in wealthier Western cities such as London, where, of course, it can attack rich and poor indiscriminately.
One study, which is monitoring the high death rates among South African patients infected with the resistant TB and HIV, noted that: “Drug-resistant tuberculosis is a critical threat to TB control and global public health.”
Another study, examining the rise of the drug-resistant strains of TB as they move through populations in South Africa found that “factors driving the increase in drug-resistant tuberculosis are not understood.” Researchers caution that, at this point, with mortality rates among some groups at more than 50%, containment is the goal, and they advocate the use of more specific screening tests so as to more easily isolate patients suffering from the virtually untreatable strain of TB. The authors of a 2008 study on HIV and TB had demonstrated that the spread of these strains was facilitated by HIV co-infection, raising particular concern for the spread of drug-resistant strains in vulnerable populations.

The current research being done in South Africa is “in order to determine whether the epidemic” of drug-resistant TB is “driven by acquisition or transmission of resistance and to describe the extent of resistance within these strains.” In other words, researchers are trying to determine the extent to which vulnerability of patients’ immune systems is contributing to the spread of the TB strains, and in what ways the transmission of drug-resistant genetic material is contributing to the strengthening of the totally drug-resistant bacteria.
Discerning between multiple drug-resistant TB and totally drug-resistant TB is key, researchers say. They noted that, “DNA data showed a significant association between the atypical Beijing genotype and mutations conferring second-line resistance” to TB treatment drugs, and that since the multiple drug-resistant TB and totally drug-resistant TB were significantly different on a genetic level, that “how to rapidly identify case-patients at risk of harboring the atypical Beijing genotype to prioritize drug susceptibility testings, ensure patient isolation and administer appropriate treatment” would be the key to preventing further spread.
They also found that it was “counterintuitive” that multiple drug-resistant TB is genetically distinct when compared to the totally resistant TB strains “because we would expect all MDR TB strains to have had an equal chance of acquiring resistance to second-line anti-TB drugs.” That, ultimately, could be good news, since they go on to note that, in addition for this development making it easier to tell the two apart among infected patients, and thereby easier to treat properly, the bacteria themselves may not be exchanging genetic information as easily as was thought, making it harder for the totally resistant TB strains to grow stronger and more virulent and likely to spread.

“An alternative explanation” for the increased resistance to drugs “would be that the atypical Beijing genotype [or totally resistant strain] acquires resistance by conferring mutations more readily than other genotypes,” researchers wrote. “The convergent evolution of seven different mutations within a single genotype is highly unlikely.”

Deny..Deny...but there is no denying U.S. bi-polarity, and emasculation

As the concluding item on "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, the on-air crew summarizes what "I learned today"....and today, the co-host, Joe Scarborough, a former Republican Congressmen from Florida, commented, "Republicans, do not deny science; Democrats, do not deny the math!"
A pithy, catchy moniker on the morning of the president's State of the Union address to set the frame for his second term.
There is considerable evidence, from the political rhetoric sludging out of Washington, (it can't flow like water lacking the clarity, consistency and nourishment inherent to water!) that Republicans too often deny the reality of science:

• on global warming and climate change, for example, or
• on a female body's capacity to shed a fetus when raped, or
• on the merits of universal health care, especially given the recently posed adver-science from the Heart and Stroke Foundation in Canada, that most people will live the last decade of their lives in sickness
• or on the basic empirical evidence that assault weapons do not protect individuals, families or communities, when held by individuals
• or on the basic empirical evidence that no one needs a 30-round magazine to go deer hunting
• or on the basic empirical evidence that an armed policeman/woman is the best defence for American schools
• or on the NRA's mantra "the only effective solution to a bad man with a guy is a good man with a gun"
• or on the empirical evidence that a Republican initiative "for small government" is merely ashes, when it comes to a woman's right to choose, in reproductive rights...

And because of the way Democrats "frame" their positions on the social safety net, "untouchable" for many, there is some evidence that Democrats do seem to deny the math of a crippling debt and deficit.
Examples:

• Nancy Pelosi, "We do not have a spending problem, we have a tax loophole problem" or
• The president, "Immigration reform is a top priority for the second term" when everyone knows that 24,000,000 Americans are still unemployed, underemployed or have simply stopped looking for work, because the search is simply futile, or
• We have already trimmed $1 trillion, now it is time for some more tax cuts, from some Democrats, or
• The sequestration, voted on and signed by the president, is not a serious problem, because it will do what legislators are either unwilling or unable to do, or
• Money is so cheap (under 3%) that we can borrow at least another trillion, put millions back to work and bring the economy back to health, or
• We have already built in substantial savings in the Obama care legislation, so we don't have to worry about Medicare and Medicaid, or Social Security going bankrupt, or
• Deep cuts in the Pentagon would be good for the U.S. given that we already spend more than all other western developed countries combined on defence....

However, with the bi-polarity in the rhetoric, it would seem, at least to this naive and "alien" observer, (from another country!) that both political parties have found a way, in their respective deafness, to shout past the other, presumably to reach the "people" and to bring pressure on their opponents, to force the hand of those opponents to vote the way the "majority" of the country would prefer. We thought, and believed that in November, with the election of the president, something like that did happen.
However, both parties are also guilty, (never mind for the moment which bears most of the responsibility) of denying the best interests of the country, in their narcissistic, interminable, melodramatic pandering to their political "base", rendering the country effectively emasculated, because the country is not represented by the base of either political party.
Emasculation, ironically, would be the last diagnosis that most male politicians would accept from the political doctors, given their deeply held conviction that they are simply not emasculated. As for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Lance Armstrong, Sammy Sosa and too many other publicly acclaimed figures in the American culture, denial is becoming, if it has not already become, a national disease.

• Republicans deny science;
• Democrats deny math; sports figures deny their dependence on banned performance enhancing substances,
• Evangelicals deny their contempt for women in their pursuit, with purists from the Roman Catholic faith, of the abolition of abortion;
• NRA denies the real and historic meaning of the Second Amendment (for a national militia, prior to the establishment of a national military, and not for the purpose of  growing a culture addicted to weapons);
• the 'right' denies the children of illegal immigrants "a path to citizenship" because that would be "amnesty" and unfair to those who played by the rules;
• the "left" denies that government is not the solution for all social and political problems;
• America, as a nation, denies their enemies the right to acquire or posses nuclear weapons, while turning a blind eye to the nuclear capacity of their ally, Israel;
• The Tea Party denies the president is a legal American citizen, with impunity;
• The right denies the right to existence to the Planned Parenthood association

And, unfortunately, there is an even longer list, if we were to stretch a little.
Representative of the kind of social and political culture in which we all live, the American political process is no longer about resolving problems, but merely shouting about the evils of the "other" whoever that other happens to be. North American culture has become one gimungus high school with political, technological, athletic, sexual and the occasional intellectual hormones running amok and with no parents at home, having dinner, pouring salt in the extremities, as leven, to render the normal and the ordinary, and the responsible and the mundane...ACCEPTABLE! NECESSARY! and AFFORDABLE!
America does not need the Budget-busting Pentagon Budget, anymore than it needs a gut-busting hamburger with four patties, fries and a sixteen ounce sugar drink. But there is no Michael Bloomberg with the "balls" to say so.
American does not need the bi-polar, melodramatic political rhetoric, to solve what would, in normal times, be relatively easy compromises to the national debt, the national deficit, the immigration conundrum, the risk of cyber-attack, the obvious risk of global warming and climate change.
And yet, there is no "political physician" prescribing lithium for the nation's bi-polarity, and for the denial of its current and prospective condition. And just as with the real condition, where life-style changes are needed to balance the impact of pharmaceuticals, so to the political lifestyle could do with some major changes in approach...like truth-telling, committing to avoiding denials, committing to move away from a military (war) mentality on every issue, and a collaborative agreement that politics is not another theatre for "killing games".
Denial, as the joke goes, is much more than a magnificent river in Egypt; it is a condition from which there is relief, and the relief is not in the form of an untested, unproven, pharmaceutical, with side effects that could kill the patient willing to risk consuming it; denial requires, in every kitchen, and every board room and every battleground, and also every classroom and operating room...its own unmasking, its own uncovering, and that requires the adult admission that we are all complicit in its current power over us....
And only if and when we come to our individual and collective senses, will these problems and their respective resolutions cease to obstruct the flow of both blood and oxygen to the national brain, the national heart and the nation's limbs...and provide a relatively complete recovery, while simultaneously, reducing the costs of health care dramatically, if ironically.

Trashing "aphorisms" as guides to 'best practice' in education

When Ms. Mazzorato worked previously at a large Ontario school board, a Grade 10 boys literacy class was set up to figure out what the boys were struggling with and which approaches helped. Instead of creating more boys-only classes, the board showed teachers how to adopt those same approaches — such as using more graphics to organize ideas, setting clear expectations, more frequent checking in with students — for all students.

“What’s necessary for some is going to be beneficial for all,” said Ms. Mazzorotto.
However, educators cannot ignore gender differences altogether, says Leonard Sax, a U.S. advocate of single-sex schooling and the author of Boys Adrift and Girls on the Edge. (from
"Sex-selective programs and the belief that ‘boys will be boys’ stigmatize students: study"

By Moira MacDonald, National Post, February 11, 2013, below)
There is a disconnect here. On the one hand, Ms Mazzorotto is attempting to "blend" approaches that work for some, (example, boys,) with the need not to discriminate, and to focus on  the benefits of specific approaches that will accrue to all students. And there may be some value in her position. However, we must also be cognizant of the notion that boys are extremely heavily influenced by other boys. They get much of their "formation" from male models that, by their nature, differentiate from activities "appropriate for boys" and those "appropriate for girls"....and that is a signficant theme, or more contemporarily, meme, that impacts this discussion.
Politically correct integration of all differences, including those of race, ethnicity, language and gender in the Ontario classrooms is, and has been a hallmark of Ontario education for decades. However, in the course of that narrative, we have also seen inserted, from different sources, admission quotas in some university programs to attract female students. Some of the results of that kind of policy decision may also not have a long-term benefit for "all" students especially if males realize that by achieving an average graduation grade of 70, for example, they are not admitted, while female students with an average of 66 are admitted to the same program.
Feminism, too, has rasied the consciousness of women's performance, women's culture and women's need for equality, all of them worthy of the considerable energy that has been directed into that goal. In the process, there have been "side effects" that have had an impact on the culture of many institutions. And while executives and professional workers are able ready and willing to adopt new standards of attitudes, beliefs and behaviours in compliance with "workplace equality" young boys who have grown up in a culture which champions the fullest possible flowering of the talents of women may see the numbers of university students, for example, and certainly of graduate students in universities, outstrip the numbers of males, both undergrads and grads. And they also witness a demographic changed in the numbers of male and female teachers in their classrooms, from the very earliest grades.
(And this notwithstanding the most recent evidence that men prove to be extremely effective in nursery school classrooms! Who woulda thunk it?)
Isolating the classroom from the culture, as if it were a discreet laboratory, is neither possible nor advisable. Adopting creative and student-centred approaches, to all students, of course, will raise the motivation and the achievment levels of all students...who does not seek to be known, individually?
However, educators must acknowledge that boys learn, think, grow and develop differently from girls...not better, not worse...just differently.
And the school culture, as well as individual classrooms and teachers, have to acknowledge these differences. And the homogenization of methods to have a positive impact on all students must not be a rationalization for not paying attention to the gender differences in our learning environments.
And "aphorisms" like "boys will be boys" will have a negative impact not only on the young boys who hear such dismissives, but on the many young female students who will also integrate such pablum into their perceptions of their immediate culture and the world around them. Similarly, "girls will be girls" would have a negative impact on both gender groups.
Let's lower our sociological and demographic approches to learning and focus more on the individual of whatever demographic, and admit that to do so will be both more complicating and time consuming, and also potentially more rewarding for both teacher and student.

Sex-selective programs and the belief that ‘boys will be boys’ stigmatize students: study

By Moira MacDonald, National Post, February 11, 2013
The belief that “boys will be boys” could hurt their chances for academic success, new research says.
The study, published Tuesday in the journal Child Development, says experiments with predominantly white British schoolchildren revealed even young boys and girls believe girls are better students. When children were told this, boys’ academic performance dropped compared with those in a control group. Boys did better in a subsequent experiment when children were told both sexes were expected to perform equally well.
“Our findings emphasize the real importance of promoting positive gender expectations,” said Bonny Hartley, a PhD student at Britain’s University of Kent, who co-wrote the study with associate professor Robbie Sutton.
The study looked at children between ages four and 10, using groups of between 162 and 238 students.
But Ms. Hartley added the results should be a caution to teachers trying to address the “gender gap” — where boys underperform compared with girls on key academic indicators — by targeting boys with sex-specific programs. The study’s results suggest those attempts could backfire by further stigmatizing the students teachers are trying to help.

“We really appreciate that educators are trying their best … to help boys … but a lot of the strategies seem to really reinforce these [negative] expectations,” said Ms. Hartley.
“There are people who suggest there’s a lack of female teachers. We think that’s reinforcing the expectation that male teachers have certain special qualities that can make them better at teaching boys and that boys somehow need something different to girls, which is not what we would suggest at all.”
Marianne Mazzorato, chief assessment officer with Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), the province’s student testing agency, agrees, despite evidence of the gender gap in Ontario schools. Boys and girls are typically close to each other in EQAO math results, but girls commonly outpace boys in reading and writing.
“The gender differences, they exist,” said Ms. Mazzorato. “But when we draw attention in such a way that makes it sound like it’s all boys, or all girls, our kids hear that and the minute they start to struggle with something they attribute it to, ‘oh, it’s because I’m a boy.’”
When Ms. Mazzorato worked previously at a large Ontario school board, a Grade 10 boys literacy class was set up to figure out what the boys were struggling with and which approaches helped. Instead of creating more boys-only classes, the board showed teachers how to adopt those same approaches — such as using more graphics to organize ideas, setting clear expectations, more frequent checking in with students — for all students.
“What’s necessary for some is going to be beneficial for all,” said Ms. Mazzorotto.
However, educators cannot ignore gender differences altogether, says Leonard Sax, a U.S. advocate of single-sex schooling and the author of Boys Adrift and Girls on the Edge.
The idea that, “if we just pretend [gender] doesn’t matter maybe boys will start scrapbooking and writing about their feelings and girls will start taking apart computers in their spare time was a very nice idea 30 years ago, but we now know it was not effective,” said Dr. Sax, a physician and psychologist, pointing to statistics showing girls have outpaced boys in terms of university enrolment, but are dropping in enrolment in computer science programs.
Ms. Hartley acknowledged the “stereotype threat” her study identified with boys can affect other groups too, whether it’s girls, an ethnic group or the poor.