Madeleine (Maddy) still missing

On behalf of Kate and Gerry McCann and all the family, please help us find Madeleine.
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Madeleine, age 3, was abducted from her bed in the family holiday
apartment, Praia De Luz, Algarve, Portugal on Thursday, 3rd May.
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Police and all of Portugal are trying to find her. The Portuguese people, holiday makers and ex pats have been a great support to the family and continue their efforts.
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You, too can help. Please circulate this plea to publicise Madeleine's
photo and ask for information, no matter how small to be passed on to
the authorities.
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Whether you are in the UK, Portugal, Europe or beyond, please forward
to all your family, friends,colleagues and business associates.
Someone out there will have some information that will lead to Maddy's return.
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The internet can be a powerful tool in finding Maddy, who is so loved
and missed by us all.
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Let's use it positively.
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Please pray for Madeleine and all the family at this devastating time.
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We need your help. We know you won't let Maddy down.
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God bless,
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Pat Perkins
(Family friend)
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Pat Perkins
Pre Employment Lead
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NHS Academy (Northwest)
Pat.Perkins@skillsforhealth.org.uk
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Mob: 07901 541 062
Tel: 0151 482 5614
Fax: 0151 482 5513

On a lighter (but still mournful) note - I was rooting for Melinda

CNN: If you're a female singer, you'd better be sexy

Melinda is out, so perhaps Jordin Sparks (my daughter's favourite) will be the next American Idol? According to this CNN article, major female singers of the last few years have needed sex appeal. Once talent came first, with beauty a bonus; now it's the reverse.

Read the Wikipedia entry on Melinda Doolittle here

Dis-honour killing in Iraq

CNN: Female pilots reached for the stars

Female pilots successfully completed same tests as Mercury men in early 1960s

Although they were as good as the men, if not better, they never got a chance to go to space, despite arguing their case before Congress.

BBC: 'Inequality rife' for young girls

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6655497.stm

Girls are more likely than boys to be malnourished, suffer poverty, face violence and be refused an education, according to a new report.

DISADVANTAGED

• Some 121m children do not attend primary school - 54% of those are girls
• 82m girls in developing countries who are now aged 10-17 will be married before their 18th birthday
• In some countries, most girls marry before their 18th birthday: India (50%), Nepal (60%) and Niger (76%)
• Worldwide, some 14m 15-to-19-year-olds give birth each year
• Girls aged 15-19 are twice as likely to die in childbirth as those in their 20s

Source: Plan report

Plan International: girls disadvantaged

Download PDF file: Because I am a Girl http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/14_05_07_girlsreport3.pdf

"I never ever understand why boys and girls are not equal to each other. In rural areas elders think that girls are born to give birth and to marry and for cleaning the house. Girls who live in rural areas… are not sent to schools. Their parents are not aware of the changing world yet."
Girl, 15. Turkey

"As ‘Because I am a Girl’ will show, discrimination
against girls and young women remains deeply
entrenched and widely tolerated throughout the
world. Many of the challenges girls will face start
from the moment they are born; in fact in some
parts of the world, girls are the target of a social
preference for boys even before birth.
The ‘Real Choices, Real Lives’ cohort study
was set up to follow 135 girls from birth until
their ninth birthday, in 2015. Every year,
researchers will visit the girls and their families
to talk to them about what they eat, how
healthy they are, their education, and over time
will build up a picture of how the fact that they
are girls impacts on their lives. Findings from
the study will be published in each of Plan’s
‘State of the World’s Girls’ annual reports."

Happy Mother's Day?

What's a Mother's Worth?

By Riane Eisler, AlterNet. Posted May 11, 2007.

This Mother's Day let's give mothers what they really need: a more secure old age.

"The devaluation of women and the 'women's work' of caregiving is a pathology we must leave behind - not only for the sake of the female half of humanity but for us all. Indeed, only as we give real value and visibility to the work of caring and caregiving can we move forward to economic systems that truly care for the real wealth of nations: people and our natural environment."

http://www.alternet.org/story/51680/

Another sign of the insidious holocaust

Though officially outlawed in India, female foeticide and infanticide is still rampant...

Man 'buried twin daughters alive'

POSTED: 1256 GMT (2056 HKT), May 11, 2007

AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) -- Indian police in the western state of Gujarat have arrested a man accused of killing his six-day-old twin daughters by burying them alive, a police officer said on Friday.

"The father considered the infants as a sign of misfortune," G.S. Malik, superintendent of police, said. "He murdered the six-day-old babies by burying them in a ditch."

Abortion debate in Brazil

International / Europe

As Pope Heads to Brazil, Abortion Debate Heats Up

By LARRY ROHTER

Published: May 9, 2007

A dispute broke out today between the Roman Catholic Church and the Brazilian government about abortion.