Vegan: For the People, Planet and Animals!, part 1

First review of the blog!

"It's like one stop shopping for things of Importance." -amandadestroy

I love ms. agogo!

Learning Geography

Geography is not my strong point. But I do love maps- I was so excited when the MAPS exhibit was at the Field Museum! I stayed in the exhibit for about 2 hours, much to the annoyance of my younger brother, who wanted to check out the dinosaur exhibit.

My geography education was really bad. Hell, I barely remember ever getting past the Reconstruction in any of my history classes. I've been consciously trying to make myself learn more about the world outside the United States in order to be, you know, a better person. It's really sad that I can figure out a Middle Eastern map because of how many wars we've had there in my lifetime, but can't figure out the rest of Asia and Africa.

Here's what I've been using to learn:

Click and drag maps.
Name 53 countries in Africa in 10 Minutes (Thanks to oriecat!)
Click and drag map of the Middle East (Thanks happycarrot!)

...and since we're already having fun learning, why don't you give people free rice while working on your vocabulary, and learn a bit more about history?

Price of Admission: Along the border, sexual assault has become routine

Part 1 of 2, from the Tucson Weekly.

The darkness lifts, and daybreak nudges into the desert. For northbound migrants, this sunrise may signal a time to find shade and dodge the Border Patrol. Or it could mark the start of a white-knuckle dash to catch rides bound for the interior. From there, god willing, the migrants may disappear into a world offering more hope than the one they left behind.

But for other border-crossers, daybreak brings only the flat hardness of reality--a time for noting what's already been lost in the desperate trek north. For women in particular, that loss can be brutal, because even if they reach some safe house in Tucson or Phoenix or points afar, some of them certainly don't arrive whole. According to experts, rape is now considered "the price of admission" for women crossing the border illegally.

But this scourge goes largely ignored, and is suspected to be vastly underreported. Not surprisingly, few women care to describe their ordeals to authorities in stark government detention facilities. And if they do, it's often as they're already being deported back across the border--sometimes back into the very situations where the assaults occurred.

This grim scenario played out in early May, when three women--ages 16, 17 and 20--reported having been raped by masked men. A few days later, two more women were found alive but badly beaten near Arivaca, south of Tucson. That same week, yet two more women reported having been raped. The reports didn't slow deportation proceedings against them.

Further complicating matters, it's often difficult to determine whether the assaults occurred on U.S. soil or in Mexico. But such details probably matter little to the victims. Civilian border-watchers tell of hearing these women's cries.

"I thought the wailings we heard at night were the coyotes barking at the moon," one volunteer told The Washington Times. "I didn't know until later that those sounds were the cries of women being raped in the Mexican desert, some less than 100 yards away from the border. There was absolutely nothing anyone could do about it."

The rapists are known to hang women's bras and panties from tree limbs as trophies.

Beyond such haunting anecdotes, hard numbers are tough to come by. According to the United Nations, up to 70 percent of women crossing the border without husbands or families are abused in some way. But the flood of stories leads humanitarian aid workers such as Michelle Brané to consider these crimes even more pervasive. Brané directs detention and asylum programs with the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, based in Washington, D.C.

"Nonprofit groups and even the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement--which has custody of unaccompanied children--estimate that the vast majority of women and female children encounter some sort of sexual assault en route to the United States," she says. "It's become the norm, and in many cases with female children, they just assume that there's been some sort of incident."

In this situation, survival often requires extreme steps, she says. "A lot of times, women, because they know what's coming, will align themselves with one man in the group" of smugglers or coyotes. "Whether you consider that assault or not, I guess it's a blurry line."

This speaks to the fact that women are routinely assaulted by the very smugglers they've paid to bring them across. Immigrants have told of preparing for the inevitable by taking birth-control pills before attempting to cross the border, says Dr. Sylvanna Falcón, an assistant professor of sociology at Connecticut College, in New London, Conn. Falcón has conducted extensive research into rapes and other human-rights abuses along the U.S.-Mexico border.

She notes that this saga of exploitation isn't limited to the desert, and points to well-documented incidents of U.S. Border Patrol agents or other officials pressuring migrants into having sex in exchange for their freedom. Other times, the women are raped by those with the power to deport them.

"We know this kind of thing is happening, and it gets reported every once in awhile," she says. "The degree to which it happens is not well-known, but women are particularly vulnerable when they come into contact with agents." That vulnerability is compounded by the remoteness of border areas where agents and immigrants often come in contact.

Attempts to obtain comment from Border Patrol officials were not successful as of the Weekly's press time. But some cases have been sensational, such as the Border Patrol agent in Texas who was convicted of detaining a 23-year-old woman and driving her to a motel, where he sexually assaulted her. Or the ongoing investigation of a sprawling detention center in South Texas, operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where a culture of rape, sexual coercion and cover-ups has reportedly existed for years.

"Congress did an investigation, and found thousands of cases of misconduct, and that getting green cards for sex was a very common form of bribery," Falcón says. "You have women who are very vulnerable in every sense of the word. They may have young children with them; maybe they're trying to reunite with family members on this side of the border. (Officials) doing this bribery know that they're in a complete position of power."

Women face risks on all sides, she says. "Anyone from coyotes to U.S. officials, they all have the upper hand here."

Meanwhile, the rest of America simply ignores this horrific violence on its doorstep, she says.

"Our society takes rape seriously, but it doesn't take this type of rape seriously. In all of our national discourse around securing our borders, rarely, if ever, do you hear about any kind of protection for people who might be crossing. Largely, that's because the discussion has been framed around protecting us--protecting the U.S.--and once you get into that framework, what happens to the other person is not even on the radar."

But the cost of our denial may include flaunting international legal standards. "When we look at human-rights laws," Falcón says, "and at the different international human-rights treaties and conventions, clearly, any systemic violation of women in this way is a human-rights violation."

Andy Stepanian of the SHAC7's Birthday is soon- write!

Andy Stepanian's birthday is on August 8th. He is feeling a little down being in the new prison. He does not have access to his property that was left behind in Butner, NC. Andy does not have phone access and very minimal time allowed for visitation.


Andy has requested for his birthday that people send him pictures. He can receive standard and 4x6 inch photos and anything printed off a computer. He has requested pictures of his friends and partner. He would also like pictures from anyone who has written him that he hasn't met before, he wants to see the faces of all those nice people. He would like pictures from AR conferences or gatherings, concerts and shows (specifically Strike Anywhere), or the beach.


Please continue to write and support Andy, the letters, cards and pictures that he will receive will mean everything to him.


Andrew Stepanian #26399-050
USP Marion
US Penitentiary
PO Box 1000
Marion, IL 62959

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Who is Andy Stepanian?

Andy Stepanian is an activist from Long Island, NY. He is currently serving a 36 month sentence in the Federal Correctional Institution at Butner, North Carolina. On March 2, 2006, Andy and his co-defendants were found guilty of multiple federal felonies for their alleged role in campaigning to close down the notorious animal testing facility, Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). They were not accused of actually smashing windows, liberating animals or even attending demonstrations, but rather for reporting on and encouraging others to engage in legal protest against HLS. The convictions involved the controversial Federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. This act is supposed to punish anyone who "physically disrupts" an animal enterprise. These activists were never charged with committing any sort of physical criminal acts. However, under the guise of fighting "domestic terrorism", the government has seen fit to criminalize such activities as operating a web site, maintaining a newsletter and holding legal demonstrations. Andy was convicted on only one charge, conspiracy to violate the AETA. A conspiracy charge is typically very vague, difficult to prove, and yet it's very easy to imply guilt of such a thing. These sorts of charges have a long history of use for political purposes during periods when the administration in power wishes to curtail protest activity. For more information on this case, and Andy's co-defendants, Jake Conroy, Darius Fulmer, Lauren Gazzola, Josh Harper, & Kevin Kjonaas, please visit www.shac7.com. Andy and his co-defendants are beginning the appeals process and need your support!

The SHAC 7 are six individuals--Lauren Gazzola, Kevin Kjonaas, Jake Conroy, Josh Harper, Andrew Stepanian, and Darius Fullmer --and the organization Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (USA). They are all in prison for a number of years for simply speaking out!

The SHAC 7 case represents a frightening new frontier in the war on speech. Indicted for protest activity against a criminally abusive animal-testing lab, their alleged modern forms civil disobedience and traditional free expression is being heralded as terrorism by big business and their pocketed politicians.

The college graduates, law school student, EMT, and social justice volunteers draw a sharp contrast from the ‘Timothy McVeighs’ of the world, but are being pursued no differently. Charged under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act they face millions in fines and up to twenty-three years in jail for protected political speech and an unabashed support of controversial forms activism.

Their conviction is constitutionally flawed and imperils not only those who speak out on behalf of animals, but also anyone who has something controversial to say. The stand they now take is a stand for the civil liberties of us all.

Feminist Super Hero Power #1- Friendship!

Owning Women's Bodies, Owning Women's Cunts

I’ll admit it. I read anti-choice blogs. And listen to anti-choice podcasts. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t adding to their hits, but I figure they probably do the same to our stuff.

Anyway. I was listening to some old podcasts that I’ve been waiting for some time to get to listen to (we’ve been traveling a lot here at CAF). And while completely on another topic, one of the commentators mentioned when she was in college, “there was a rapist near our college.” Suddenly, I had a rising tide of outrage in myself.

This was coming from the woman on the show who had had an abortion and worked as a counselor for women suffering after an abortion (from an anti-choice perspective, unlike agencies such as Backline and Exhale and independent feminist clinic post-abortion counseling groups). Coming from a woman who was supposed to be anti-choice because she’s pro-woman, I expected more. She mentioned the campus cops escorting women to and from classes and parties, and went back to the topic at hand. The naivete of this woman who counsels other women made me pity her clients.


Let’s put rape into some perspective:

-Rape is sex you don’t agree to, including forcing a body part or object into your vagina, rectum (bottom), or mouth {or a certain sex act that you did not agree to, if you consented to sex- ed.}. Date rape {sometimes called/used interchangeably with acquittance rape, sometimes marital rape depending on the situation; often used interchangeably with “sexual violence”- ed.} is when you are raped by someone you know. Both are crimes. Rape is not about sex – it is an act of power by the rapist and it is always wrong. (from girls.gov)

-Incest is the type of sexual contact that occurs between persons who are so closely related that their marriage is illegal (e.g., parents and children, uncles/aunts and nieces/nephews, etc.). (from RAINN)

-One in three girls and one in six boys are sexually abused before the age of 18.
-14% of women are victims of rape committed by their husband.
-As many as 80% of all assaults involve acquaintances.
(from Rape Victim Advocates)


My activism is framed in a social justice framework, including knowledge from the anti-rape movement. The statement this woman obviously lacked any knowledge of- or perhaps even a dismissal of- the anti-rape movement’s advances. Possibly, there was a serial rapist on or near the campus. Mostly likely, however, there were many males on her campus that felt they had the right to the female’s bodies and to show their control over them (sound familiar?). Stranger Danger may be a good thing to have in the back of your head, but Date Rape, Marital Rape and Incest are unfortunately far, far more common. Stranger Danger serves misogynistic* males in control by keeping women afraid (to be alone, among other things), dependent on familiar males, in a state of constant victimization. And while the other prospects can seem even more terrifying, being in a Stranger Danger mindset stops us from keeping those males (and females) around us from being held accountable, informed, and active in engaging for an anti-sexist culture.

Enforcing a rape culture, even in a simple conversation- an especially in a podcast available for worldwide download-, is not pro-woman. And neither is making women feel bad for the choices they’ve made around pregnancies.