Congo is in the news again this week as rebels advanced to the outskirts of Goma, the eastern regional capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (the "Congo"), before unilaterally declaring a ceasefire and halting their advance.

Like most people I don’t think of girls as brides, unless they are wearing a costume for Halloween or a school play. However an article in the New York Times this week, “Tiny Voices Defy Child Marriage in Yemen”http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/world/middleeast/29marriage.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=yemen&st=cse&oref=slogin made me aware that girl brides are part of the reality of several countries in the world, and that for these girl brides life is not a game but a painful reality.

In my Introduction to Anthropology textbook, “Culture asGiven, Culture as Choice” by van der Elst, there was a comment that got me thinking, All that is needed for women to fall into poverty is just to have one more child than they can afford. This comment impacted me and got me thinking and it made a lot of sense. One child represents not only the additional cost to support that new human being, but also the opportunity costs of not pursuing other economic activities because of caring for the newcomer.

It is easy to take the statistics, even one of an epidemic,
and never fully understand them as anything else other than numbers. No emotion
goes into reading numbers, no humanity is necessary to analyze graphs, charts,
or percentages. But there is some emotional baggage that comes with hearing the
stories of those individual people who are affected by something like HIV AIDS.
There is something deafening, something biting, something ultimately
frustrating and scary that comes with choosing to take a walk on the human side
of a figure like: "Some 15 million children under age 18 have lost one or
both parents to AIDS," or "...new projections that expanded access to

Greetings!

   I've had the chance to meet with wonderful people at this conference. Thank you for the opportunity. Those that I haven't met with, I am interested in historical and cultural development. I am collaborating with The Sankofa Saturday School porgram which is held in Queens, New York at The African Poetry Theater for children ages 5-17.

    I hope to start an Afro-centric library at the school. At the Sankofa Saturday School, we also hope to expand the current curriculum. Also, I am in the midst of planning several cultural events that involve the children and the community. This is the first program at the Queens site, there is one is Brooklyn, New York that has been a three year success. We hope for the same in Queens.

I hope you all are familiar with The Onion - that biting and often close-to-home paper that relishes in sarcasm and wit. If not, get to it immediately. The Onion is an incredible place to turn when the drudgery of real news gets too much (and Stewart or Colbert aren't on).

The Onion today featured a video article about Gap unveiling a new line of clothing "For Kids By Kids".

In Washington state, March 1st will be a particularly sad day for a lot of families struggling to get by.

It will be the day that "full family sanctions" will be implemented, effectively cutting off all financial support for families (including children) on welfare who are on sanction from the WorkFirst program.  

The problem?  Research by the state's Department of Social and Health Services has proven that 50% of all of these sanctions are illegal, meaning that there was a justifiable cause for the welfare recipients to not meet the terms of their contracts.  Such causes include lack of child care and transportation to attend meetings.