"When I was pregnant with my children I was fortunate to live in a community that had strong traditions to support motherhood. One of those traditions was to have a party for the expectant mother on the 140th day after conception to remind her that she is the Grace of God and offer support in a material sense as well. What was most beautiful to me though, was the acknowledgement that it is the prayers and vibration of the mother that invite the soul of the child in. I can remember during the pregnancy of each my children what prayers I said for them, what my weaknesses and strengths were at that time and how it influenced their personalities. Maybe because of this focus I was able to tell the gender, the personality and the appearance of my four children before their birth. Now, in their 30's as they raise their own children, they continue to be a blessing in my life ".
Athena
Athena
Some of my heroes
Here's a video of the warrior and medicine woman, Lozen. http://youtu.be/7tLSkgzXKzw Lozen had no concern for her appearance and, even though she is in several famous photos of Geronimo with his warriors, there is nothing to indicate that she is a woman. She was manly in her appearance, dressed like a man, lived and fought like a man. She devoted her life to the service of her people.
Victorio is quoted as saying, "Lozen is my right hand . . . strong as a man , braver than most, and cunning in strategy, Lozen is a shield to her people."
Legend has it that Lozen was able to use her supernatural powers in battle to learn the movements of the enemy and that she helped each band that she accompanied to successfully avoid capture. She also had the ability to use song and herbs to help heal people and was considered a Shaman.
After Victorio's death, Lozen continued to ride with Chief Nana, and eventually joined forces with Geronimo's band, eluding capture until she finally surrendered with this last group of free Apaches in 1886. She died of tuberculosis at the Mount Vernon Barracks in Mobile, Alabama at the approximate age of 50.http://youtu.be/7tLSkgzXKzw
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/432243/january-16-2014/naquasia-legrand
Courageous Whistleblowers
as describedby Anat Maytal in the Harvard Crimson
..."the documentary “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” was released in movie theaters. A detailed account of one of the biggest business scandals, the documentary has its share of entertaining villains, including Enron chairman Kenneth Lay, former CEO Jeffrey Skilling and CFO Andrew Fastow. Yet, what caught my attention was its sole hero—whistleblower Sherron Watkins—who wrote the memo heard around the world, warning Lay that the company’s accounting practices were looking very shady.Seeing Watkins’s movie character brought to mind the 2002 cover of Time Magazine, where Watkins was one of three whistleblowers featured on the front cover of the magazine’s “Persons of the Year.” The other two whistleblowers included Cynthia Cooper, an internal auditor at WorldCom and FBI agent Coleen Rowley. While Cooper mounted an investigation that revealed the largest known bookkeeping scam in corporate history, misstating earnings by at least $3.8 million, Rowley was the one who disclosed incompetence in counterterrorism efforts before the Sept. 11 attacks.
It could not just be a coincidence that these whistle-blowers, in the most significant examples of government incompetence and corporate wrongdoing in our time, were women.
It takes a particular type of courage—the courage to be unpopular—to become a whistle-blower. Initially, Watkins, Cooper, and Rowley were warned to keep quiet but they kept talking, like generations of female truth-tellers before them. Look at Rosa Parks, who refused to move to the back of the bus, galvanizing the country’s civil rights movement. Retired Army Lt. General Claudia J. Kennedy, the highest-ranking female officer, was the one to expose sexual harassment in the armed forces. And it was Erin Brockovich, a minor legal clerk who helped a town triumph over a multimillion-dollar corporate polluter.
The decision for these women to do what’s right over what’s convenient comes at a very high price. Whistle-blowers get fired, blacklisted, and branded as troublemakers, making it harder to find new employment. The cost can be sometimes even higher—women in the armed forces and police corps often dread filing sexual harassment claims in fear of backlash by their male colleagues for turning against one of their own.
In fact, the three whistle-blowers—Watkins, Cooper, and Rowley—each served as the chief breadwinners in their families, with husbands who were full-time, stay-at-home fathers. For each one of them, the decision to blow the whistle meant jeopardizing a paycheck their families depended on. While Rowley was granted whistle-blower protection, she still expressed concern for reprisals in her letters to FBI chief Robert Mueller. There are no guarantees whistleblowers do not receive some sort of professional punishment, however subtle.
Perhaps it’s because women simply act more ethically than men. A 2002 study by two business professors, James Davis at Notre Dame and Jack Ruhe at St. Mary’s College in Indiana, found that female business students value honesty and independence far more than do their male colleagues. What’s more, the Conference Board of Canada, an independent research group found that 94 percent of corporate boards with three or more women ensured that their companies had conflict-of-interest guidelines, compared with 68 percent of all-male boards. As for verifying audit information, the figures were 91 percent versus 74 percent." http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2005/5/3/hail-women-whistleblowers-last-week-the/
America's Top Young Scientist describes her invention to solve the crisis of diminishing clean water that we are all facing.
http://www.upworthy.com/if-children-are-our-future-i-think-this-girl-just-solved-it?c=ufb1
It could not just be a coincidence that these whistle-blowers, in the most significant examples of government incompetence and corporate wrongdoing in our time, were women.
It takes a particular type of courage—the courage to be unpopular—to become a whistle-blower. Initially, Watkins, Cooper, and Rowley were warned to keep quiet but they kept talking, like generations of female truth-tellers before them. Look at Rosa Parks, who refused to move to the back of the bus, galvanizing the country’s civil rights movement. Retired Army Lt. General Claudia J. Kennedy, the highest-ranking female officer, was the one to expose sexual harassment in the armed forces. And it was Erin Brockovich, a minor legal clerk who helped a town triumph over a multimillion-dollar corporate polluter.
The decision for these women to do what’s right over what’s convenient comes at a very high price. Whistle-blowers get fired, blacklisted, and branded as troublemakers, making it harder to find new employment. The cost can be sometimes even higher—women in the armed forces and police corps often dread filing sexual harassment claims in fear of backlash by their male colleagues for turning against one of their own.
In fact, the three whistle-blowers—Watkins, Cooper, and Rowley—each served as the chief breadwinners in their families, with husbands who were full-time, stay-at-home fathers. For each one of them, the decision to blow the whistle meant jeopardizing a paycheck their families depended on. While Rowley was granted whistle-blower protection, she still expressed concern for reprisals in her letters to FBI chief Robert Mueller. There are no guarantees whistleblowers do not receive some sort of professional punishment, however subtle.
Perhaps it’s because women simply act more ethically than men. A 2002 study by two business professors, James Davis at Notre Dame and Jack Ruhe at St. Mary’s College in Indiana, found that female business students value honesty and independence far more than do their male colleagues. What’s more, the Conference Board of Canada, an independent research group found that 94 percent of corporate boards with three or more women ensured that their companies had conflict-of-interest guidelines, compared with 68 percent of all-male boards. As for verifying audit information, the figures were 91 percent versus 74 percent." http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2005/5/3/hail-women-whistleblowers-last-week-the/
America's Top Young Scientist describes her invention to solve the crisis of diminishing clean water that we are all facing.
http://www.upworthy.com/if-children-are-our-future-i-think-this-girl-just-solved-it?c=ufb1
Another Woman Speaking the Truth
If you are one of the 100 million Americans who has a 401(k) through your company, or an IRA retirement account, or a private mutual fund, this story is about you.
Mutual funds are those bundles of stocks, which so many of us own without knowing exactly what we own. But they've always been thought of as just about the safest investment out there.
Therefore, it came as a shock when it was revealed that many of these funds were allowing illegal trades that took money right out of our pockets.
What's more, the schemes were so subtle, so insidious, that they went on right under the noses of regulators for years -- that is, until an anonymous whistleblower made a phone call to New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who's made a name for himself going after crooked brokers on Wall Street. Correspondent Bob Simon reports."We were all cheated in a way that was criminal. It was wrong. And it was outrageous," says Spitzer. "The brazenness of some of these schemes is absolutely remarkable."
It was so brazen that Spitzer and his staff were skeptical when they got a call from an anonymous Wall Street insider who said people she worked with were trading mutual fund shares in a way that was illegal -- which was skimming profits from everyone else.
"We said, 'That can't be true,'" recalls Spitzer. "But every single fact that she alleged has been proven out."
The whistleblower, it turns out, was a respected 20-year Wall Street veteran named Noreen Harrington, who'd recently left her job as a manager of a private investment fund.
"I knew I needed to tell somebody, just so I could sleep with what I knew," she says.
Harrington says she didn't tell anyone about her first call to Spitzer's office: "I told nobody. These are powerful people. And some people are gonna go to jail. It is scary.
"This Australian site http://www.whistleblowingwomen.com/ thanks women who have stopped violence with the police force and helped stop neglect and patient death .
If you are one of the 100 million Americans who has a 401(k) through your company, or an IRA retirement account, or a private mutual fund, this story is about you.
Mutual funds are those bundles of stocks, which so many of us own without knowing exactly what we own. But they've always been thought of as just about the safest investment out there.
Therefore, it came as a shock when it was revealed that many of these funds were allowing illegal trades that took money right out of our pockets.
What's more, the schemes were so subtle, so insidious, that they went on right under the noses of regulators for years -- that is, until an anonymous whistleblower made a phone call to New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who's made a name for himself going after crooked brokers on Wall Street. Correspondent Bob Simon reports."We were all cheated in a way that was criminal. It was wrong. And it was outrageous," says Spitzer. "The brazenness of some of these schemes is absolutely remarkable."
It was so brazen that Spitzer and his staff were skeptical when they got a call from an anonymous Wall Street insider who said people she worked with were trading mutual fund shares in a way that was illegal -- which was skimming profits from everyone else.
"We said, 'That can't be true,'" recalls Spitzer. "But every single fact that she alleged has been proven out."
The whistleblower, it turns out, was a respected 20-year Wall Street veteran named Noreen Harrington, who'd recently left her job as a manager of a private investment fund.
"I knew I needed to tell somebody, just so I could sleep with what I knew," she says.
Harrington says she didn't tell anyone about her first call to Spitzer's office: "I told nobody. These are powerful people. And some people are gonna go to jail. It is scary.
"This Australian site http://www.whistleblowingwomen.com/ thanks women who have stopped violence with the police force and helped stop neglect and patient death .
Mother Nature
THREE lions rescued a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by men who wanted to force her into marriage, chasing off her abductors and guarding her until police and relatives tracked her down in a remote corner of Ethiopia, police said yesterday.
The men had held the girl for seven days, repeatedly beating her, before the lions scared them off and protected her for half a day before her family and police found her, police sergeant Wondimu Wedajo said.
"They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest," Sgt Wondimu said.
"If the lions had not come to her rescue then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage," he said. "Everyone thinks this is some kind of miracle, because normally the lions would attack people."
Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert with the country's rural development ministry, said that it was likely that the young girl was saved because she was crying from the trauma of her attack. "A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they [the lions] didn't eat her," Mr. Williams said. "Otherwise they probably would have done."
The girl, the youngest of four brothers and sisters, was "shocked and terrified" and had to be treated for the cuts from her beatings, Sgt Wondimu said. He said that police had caught four of the men, but were still looking for three others. ANTHONY MITCHELL
IN ADDIS ABABA, Associated Press
Cows. Janice Wolf was in the back pasture of the refuge she operates in Arkansas when her 11 month old Watusi Calf suddenly turned and blocked her path, she couldn’t understand why it was doing this, so she took hold of its horns and tried pushing it, but it tossed its head and knocked her off balance, that’s when she spotted a copper-head snake on the ground exactly were her foot would have been had the Watusi calf not intervened.
She said Copper-head venom usually isn’t fatal to adults; however it could well have been fatal to her because she had been extra sensitive to insect bites in the past and had just come out of hospital for a lung operation.
Gorillas. On August 16 1996 in the Brookfield Zoo, a 3 year old boy fell into a Gorilla enclosure and lost consciousness. Binti Jua, a female Lowland Gorilla, guarded the young boy from the other Gorillas in the enclosure, she then cradled him in her arm (while her own 17 month old baby was on her back) and carried him 60 feet to an entrance where zoo-keepers could retrieve him.This isn’t an isolated case, on August 31 1986 at Jersey Zoo a 5 year old boy fell into a Gorilla enclosure and lost consciousness, a large male Gorilla named Jambo stood guard over the boy not allowing any of the others to come near, when the boy woke up and started crying all of the Gorillas backed off and zoo-keepers (along with an ambulance) were able to retrieve him safely.
Dolphins. Rob Howes, a British-born lifeguard, had gone swimming with his daughter, Niccy, and two of her friends off Ocean beach near Whangarei on the North Island of New Zealand, when a group of dolphins suddenly appeared. The dolphins started to herd the humans; they pushed all four of them together by circling around them. Howes tried to drift away from the group, but two of the bigger dolphins herded him back – just as he spotted a 10ft great white shark heading towards him. “I just recoiled,” he said. “It was only about two metres away from me, the water was crystal clear and it was as clear as the nose on my face. They had corralled us up to protect us.”The dolphins kept this up for 40 minutes until the shark lost interest, and the group could swim the 100m back to shore. Another lifeguard, Matt Fleet, on patrol in a lifeboat, saw the dolphins circling the swimmers and slapping their tails on the water to keep them in place. He told the Northern Advocate newspaper that he also had a clear sighting of the shark. “Some of the people later on the beach tried to tell me it was just another dolphin; but I knew what I saw,” he said. Ingrid Visser, of Orca Research, an environmental group, said the dolphins’ behavior was understandable, as they attack sharks to protect themselves and their young. Similar incidents have been reported round the world.
Davide Ceci was 14 years old and couldn’t swim when he fell out of his fathers boat in south-east Italy; he was within minutes of death when dolphin Filippo came to his rescue. Filippo had been a popular tourist attraction off Manfredonia in south-east Italy for two years. While Emanuele Ceci was still unaware his son had fallen into the waves, Filippo was pushing him up out of the water to safety. The dolphin bore down on the boat and got close enough for Davide’s father to grab him.
Davide’s mother Signora Ceci said: “It is a hero, it seems impossible an animal could have done something like that, to feel the instinct to save a human life.” Filippo has lived in the waters off Manfredonia since he became separated from a visiting school of dolphins. Maritime researcher Dr Giovanna Barbieri said: “Filippo seems not to have the slightest fear of humans. I’m not surprised he should have done such a wonderful thing as to save a human.
Links:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bioneers-Moonrise-Womens-Leadership/242460035801415
The men had held the girl for seven days, repeatedly beating her, before the lions scared them off and protected her for half a day before her family and police found her, police sergeant Wondimu Wedajo said.
"They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest," Sgt Wondimu said.
"If the lions had not come to her rescue then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage," he said. "Everyone thinks this is some kind of miracle, because normally the lions would attack people."
Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert with the country's rural development ministry, said that it was likely that the young girl was saved because she was crying from the trauma of her attack. "A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they [the lions] didn't eat her," Mr. Williams said. "Otherwise they probably would have done."
The girl, the youngest of four brothers and sisters, was "shocked and terrified" and had to be treated for the cuts from her beatings, Sgt Wondimu said. He said that police had caught four of the men, but were still looking for three others. ANTHONY MITCHELL
IN ADDIS ABABA, Associated Press
Cows. Janice Wolf was in the back pasture of the refuge she operates in Arkansas when her 11 month old Watusi Calf suddenly turned and blocked her path, she couldn’t understand why it was doing this, so she took hold of its horns and tried pushing it, but it tossed its head and knocked her off balance, that’s when she spotted a copper-head snake on the ground exactly were her foot would have been had the Watusi calf not intervened.
She said Copper-head venom usually isn’t fatal to adults; however it could well have been fatal to her because she had been extra sensitive to insect bites in the past and had just come out of hospital for a lung operation.
Gorillas. On August 16 1996 in the Brookfield Zoo, a 3 year old boy fell into a Gorilla enclosure and lost consciousness. Binti Jua, a female Lowland Gorilla, guarded the young boy from the other Gorillas in the enclosure, she then cradled him in her arm (while her own 17 month old baby was on her back) and carried him 60 feet to an entrance where zoo-keepers could retrieve him.This isn’t an isolated case, on August 31 1986 at Jersey Zoo a 5 year old boy fell into a Gorilla enclosure and lost consciousness, a large male Gorilla named Jambo stood guard over the boy not allowing any of the others to come near, when the boy woke up and started crying all of the Gorillas backed off and zoo-keepers (along with an ambulance) were able to retrieve him safely.
Dolphins. Rob Howes, a British-born lifeguard, had gone swimming with his daughter, Niccy, and two of her friends off Ocean beach near Whangarei on the North Island of New Zealand, when a group of dolphins suddenly appeared. The dolphins started to herd the humans; they pushed all four of them together by circling around them. Howes tried to drift away from the group, but two of the bigger dolphins herded him back – just as he spotted a 10ft great white shark heading towards him. “I just recoiled,” he said. “It was only about two metres away from me, the water was crystal clear and it was as clear as the nose on my face. They had corralled us up to protect us.”The dolphins kept this up for 40 minutes until the shark lost interest, and the group could swim the 100m back to shore. Another lifeguard, Matt Fleet, on patrol in a lifeboat, saw the dolphins circling the swimmers and slapping their tails on the water to keep them in place. He told the Northern Advocate newspaper that he also had a clear sighting of the shark. “Some of the people later on the beach tried to tell me it was just another dolphin; but I knew what I saw,” he said. Ingrid Visser, of Orca Research, an environmental group, said the dolphins’ behavior was understandable, as they attack sharks to protect themselves and their young. Similar incidents have been reported round the world.
Davide Ceci was 14 years old and couldn’t swim when he fell out of his fathers boat in south-east Italy; he was within minutes of death when dolphin Filippo came to his rescue. Filippo had been a popular tourist attraction off Manfredonia in south-east Italy for two years. While Emanuele Ceci was still unaware his son had fallen into the waves, Filippo was pushing him up out of the water to safety. The dolphin bore down on the boat and got close enough for Davide’s father to grab him.
Davide’s mother Signora Ceci said: “It is a hero, it seems impossible an animal could have done something like that, to feel the instinct to save a human life.” Filippo has lived in the waters off Manfredonia since he became separated from a visiting school of dolphins. Maritime researcher Dr Giovanna Barbieri said: “Filippo seems not to have the slightest fear of humans. I’m not surprised he should have done such a wonderful thing as to save a human.
Links:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bioneers-Moonrise-Womens-Leadership/242460035801415
