Message on the occasion of International Human Rights Day 2012

(Forimmediaterelease.net) Seychelles Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Jean-Paul Adam, delivered the following message on the occasion of International Human Rights Day:

?On December 10, Seychelles joins the rest of the world to celebrate ?International Human Rights Day,? marking 64 years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

?The promotion and protection of human rights has always been at the heart of our government?s policy, which recognizes that such rights are vested in each and every person. And as citizens of Seychelles, we also recognize that our rights under the Constitution are intertwined inextricably with our responsibilities.

?Adherence to the principles of liberty, democracy, and the rule of law are at the core of our national human rights strategies, which constitute the prerequisites for peace, development, and security in our society.

?This year?s theme for International Human Rights Day is ?inclusion and the right to participate in public life.? Every Seychellois has the right to have their voices heard, and to have a say in the decision making process which shapes their lives and their communities.

?It is in this spirit that wherever possible, the government engages in consultation at all levels to facilitate the participation of all segments of our society. However, I must admit that we can do a lot more.

?From our macro-economic reforms to the Indian Ocean Games, it is clear that Seychelles? success is always linked to maximum inclusion and participation by all.

?Creating the conditions for full participation in public life in our society implies that we must create the space for different ideas to be shared. This space starts in the relations between two people in whatever discipline in life (and so we must actively foster the principles of good neighborliness and respect for one another in our communities). This space must thrive within our schools and public institutions. This space must grow and widen its scope within our media. This space must also exist at the international level, and this has also inspired our own bid for the Security Council in 2017, as we believe strongly that every voice counts.

Full participation in public life also means that we, as a nation, categorically reject and condemn discrimination in all its forms and the barriers it can create in our society. The government is fully engaged to achieve this through the various mechanisms already in place and more to be set up as will be identified by the National Human Right Action Plan which is currently being developed.

The creation of the Human Rights Treaty Committee is part of the government?s wider strategy to create more awareness of human rights conventions and their relevance in our national context. Seychelles? commitment to human rights is reflected in the progress made in achieving the recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review, which Seychelles undertook last year. This includes issuing an open invitation to the Special Procedures of the United Nations last month.

?Our progress and achievements should never make us complacent, however. There are a number of areas in which we must redouble our efforts - not just to meet the requirements of reports or treaties - but to ensure that we are truly creating the space for inclusion and participation at a national level.

?The pursuit of guaranteeing every Seychellois the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of human rights, and in our own Constitution, can only be achieved through the collective action of our people.

?Let us mark this year?s Human Rights Day by embarking on a journey to foster to a culture of tolerance, acceptance, and non-discrimination for all.

?It starts with each and every one of us.?

MEDIA CONTACT: seychellesupdatednews@googlemail.com

Source: http://www.forimmediaterelease.net/pm/8017.html

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A Little More Re: Writing For Free ? Whatever

To address a few things asked to me in e-mail, comments here and out on the Internets, about my previous entry on writing for free (and why I don?t):

1. I was asked if I?ve ever worked for free, and the answer is: No, not really. I started getting paid for writing while I was in college, took a job at newspaper, then went to AOL, and then went freelance for corporations and non-profits, then started writing books. Pretty much through all that time I got paid because I didn?t see the point in writing for other folks if they weren?t going to pay me, because this is what I did to make money. Not taking on work that didn?t pay me left me time to look for work that did pay me.

Now, you could probably argue that I was fortunate in that I never had to take on work that didn?t make me money, and I wouldn?t argue the point; I?ve always acknowledged that I?ve been very lucky in my career. However, luck has a lot to do with the particular choices we make and the circumstances that arise from those choices. I made the particular choice to get paid for my work, and not to do work for people who won?t pay me. One result of that is that in my career I?ve moved through circles of people in which it is understood that when people work, they get paid for it.

2. But what about charity and/or friends and/or [insert what you think is a good reason not to take money here]? Well, what about them? I?ll note that when I approach friends about doing work for me, I typically pay them for their time. I mean, you don?t think Paul & Storm or Jonathan Coulton wrote those songs for me for free, did you? No, I paid them. Do you think Jeff Zugale did that awesome Unicorn Pegasus Kitten painting out of the kindness of his own heart, or the writers of Clash of the Geeks did it for nothing? No, everyone was paid. Why do I pay them? Because when I do work, I like to get paid, so I assume my friends who are creative people like to get paid too.

As for charity, well, if it?s the actual charity group, the organization probably has a budget, and my work falls under that. If I do the work pro bono, then I get a nifty tax deduction, which counts as compensation for my time, but a charity would be foolish to assume that I should expect that to be the entirety of my compensation. Alternately there are times when I?ll decide to do something for a charitable reason without getting paid for it, but that?s me deciding to do it, not the organization asking me to; typically the organization is surprised when I show up with money for them because they didn?t know it was coming.

As for any other reason you might think of, look: When I want to write for fun, then I do it. But when people come to me ? especially people I don?t know ? looking for writing, they?re asking for work. The work might have the potential to be fun, or interesting, or morally edifying or whatever, but it?s still work, and the bright line for work is this: You want work? You have to pay. Because it?s my skill and talent and expertise and time you are asking for, and they are all worth something.

3. Over at Metafilter, where there?s a thread open on this topic, someone asks: ?I dunno, couldn?t he just write a form letter and send it to people?? The response: What do you think that entry was? I wrote it to point people at. It serves other purposes too (as people on that thread have also noted), but one very big reason to write it is to point free-seekers at later, so I don?t have write all this crap again, or at least, not for a few more years.

But of course the other reason to do it this way is that I have a voice and an audience, a non-trivial portion of whom are writers and other creative people, and I think it?s useful for someone who?s had a reasonable amount of success in his chosen creative field to say this sort of stuff out loud. The sort of person who expects work for free, and/or preys on creative people by trying to convince them that working for free ?is how it?s done? benefits when creative people are publicly silent about this sort of crap. So this is me saying to creators: Guys, in fact this is not how it?s done, and you deserve to be paid for your work. It?s also me saying to people who prey on creators: Fuck you. Pay me. Pay us.

4. Also, of course, some people think that way I said it wasn?t nice. Bah. It?s as nice as it should be. You want me to do work but you don?t want to pay me? What sort of response should you expect? A hug? Fuck you! Pay me!

5. That ?Fuck you. Pay me.? icon above? Feel free to take it; right click on it and save it to your own computer. Use it, love it, send it to people who want you to work for free. No, I don?t expect you to pay me for it. But that?s because I did it for myself, for fun, and now I want to share it with you. That makes a difference, it does.

Source: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/12/10/a-little-more-re-writing-for-free/

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Part-time workers dream of full-time jobs

2 hrs.

Allison Linn , NBC News

Bonnie Gray knows there are people out there who are worse off than she is. After all, at least she has a job.

?It?s just not a full-time gig.

Like many other Americans, she works part time and it?s barely enough to pay for food, fuel and shelter.

Millions of?Americans were working part?time in November but they?would like to have been working full time. These so-called ?involuntary part-time workers? are an example of some of the stubborn pockets of weakness that remain in the labor market even as the jobs picture improves very slowly.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that nearly 8.2 million people classified themselves as involuntary part-time workers in November, meaning that they settled for less work because they couldn?t get more. That?s around double the number of involuntary part-timers in 2006, before the nation went into recession and entered a prolonged period of weak recovery.

A separate group of more than 18?million people were working part-time in November?for noneconomic reasons, either because they are in school or they?want to spend more time with their children, for example.

The number of people who are involuntarily underemployed has gone down since it hit 9 million in?the depths of the recession, but progress has been slow and rocky.

'A demand problem'
For people like Gray, 63,?improvement can?t come soon enough.

Gray, who lives in Cary, Ill., for years worked two jobs: a full-time administrative job and, for extra money, a part-time cashier job at a major home retailer. She was laid off from her full-time position, which paid close to $16 an hour, in January of 2012.

She was left with a part-time job that?pays $12.40 an hour. That plus some unemployment compensation she receives is barely enough to cover her mortgage and other expenses. She sometimes relies on her church for food, and worries about what will happen when the unemployment runs out at the end of the year.

She?s spent nearly a year looking for another receptionist or administrative position.

?I?m on the computer, it seems, 24/7. I am networking. I?ve walked out my resume to 83 companies,? she said. She?s also?taken classes on how to interview and on invoicing, and she?plans to take another one on PowerPoint.

She?s had many job interviews in the past 12 months, but no full-time job offer.

Gray said she can?t work any more hours as a cashier because a tumor on her foot makes it difficult to stand for a long time.

According to her doctor, the mass isn?t cancerous, she said, but she can?t afford to have it removed. Her insurance as a part-time worker wouldn?t be enough to cover the procedure and rehabilitation.

Gray will turn 64 in February, which means she won?t qualify for Medicare for another year. Until then, she said, she needs a job that offers health insurance.

She?s hoping to avoid dipping into Social Security for as long as possible because the longer she waits, the more she stands to collect.

?I was actually hoping to hang on until 70,? she said.

She may still be in for a tough slog. Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist with the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the basic issue plaguing involuntary part-time workers like Gray is the same one plaguing the overall labor market: There?s just not enough demand to compel employers to add to their labor costs?substantially.

Shierholz said she expects involuntary part-time workers to gradually see improvements?but ?it is a going to take a long time.?

?I think by far the dominant reason that we aren?t seeing employment in both dimensions ? full (time)? people or ramping up hours for workers that already are there -- is just a demand problem,? she said.

Once employers have more work that needs to be done, they?ll add more hours for people to do it.

'Now I have to watch everything'
Debbie Fiore doesn?t see that happening any time soon at the small company where she works.

Fiore, who lives in Nottingham, Md., lost her full-time job with a long-term care company nearly two years ago, and has?struggled for more than a year to find another job.

A friend connected her with a small company that hired and trained her for an accounts payable and receivable job. She works about 25 hours a week and makes about half what she used to.

Fiore, who turns 57 this week, and her husband struggle to pay their bills. It?s not the situation she envisioned they would be in heading into their golden years.

?We?re basically living paycheck to paycheck. We?re not able to save anything for the future at this point. There?s hardly any emergency money if an emergency comes up,? she said.

She?s immensely grateful for the job she has, and said she loves the work. But financial worries weigh heavily on her.

?I think my attitude, my demeanor has changed,? she said. ?I used to be a very carefree, fun person, and now I have to watch everything.?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/workers-part-time-purgatory-dream-full-time-paradise-1C7490085

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Woman Gives Birth At Rosamond Gifford Zoo Near Bear Exhibit

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- An upstate New York zoo got a surprise visit from the stork.

A woman gave birth on a wildlife path at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse on Friday, delivering her baby girl with the help of zookeepers not far from the bear exhibit.

Other zoo workers arrived with blankets to keep mom and baby warm.

The zoo's elephant expert herded away curious zoo patrons.

An ambulance soon arrived to take the newborn to a hospital. Zoo Director Ted Fox says the zoo plans to send a gift to the family.

___

Related on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/woman-gives-birth-at-zoo_n_2271528.html

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Home Based Business University - Internet Radio

Your15Minutes Radio welcomes ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper discussing this past presidential election and about his latest book, The Outpost-An Untold Story of American Valor.

Bettina Viviano has had a successful career for 25 years as a producer and literary manager. She began her career at William Morris as an agent trainee, before moving on to Steven Spielberg?s Amblin Entertainment, where she attained the position of Vice President of Production.

HBO's Treme actress Edwina Findley joins us as she discusses her newest and most challenging role yet, the role of a wife. One week before she walks down the aisle, Edwina tells us her hopes, anxieties, and reservations about blending two lives into one.

Derek Beres has devoted his life to exposing people to international music, yoga and mythology as a means of creating better individuals and a more understanding global culture. He has published five books, and has contributed to dozens of magazines and websites.

Victor Wooten has won the "Bass Player of the Year" award from Bass Player magazine three times in a row, and was the first person to win the award more than once. In addition to a solo career, Wooten has also been the bassist for B?la Fleck and the Flecktones.

Join host Richard Diaz for Straight Talk on Running during Pregnancy with guest, ALIX Shutello of Endurance Racing Magazine. Alix ran the San Diego marathon while 2 months pregnant. This news went viral as women reached out to her from all over the world.

Karen Rands, the Compassionate Capitalist, welcomes Chris Majer, author of The Power to Transform and the Founder of The Human Potential Project. Chris has been featured on the Today Show and his work has been written about in Time and Esquire magazines.

Best practices and ?back to basics? were forged during a different economic time-and have no place in the New Normal. Sean Stormes is helping companies around the world double and triple their profitable revenue grow just months after they begin his program.

Helen Macmillan is the founder and CEO of Btrue2me Coaching, a company dedicated to helping women in creative and service professions uncover and resolve their obstacles to creating a life that matters to them.

SFP-NOW welcomes writer Barry Nugent who is launching a new graphic novel at the annual Leeds Thought Bubble Comic Convention in England. Barry's will discuss his Fallen Heroes novel and the subsequent spin-offs and how over time he has developed the Fallen Heroes Universe.

Melinda Emerson author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months will stop by The Core Business Show with Tim Jacquet. Melinda is known as ?SmallBizLady,? and is one of America?s leading small business experts. Tune in to hear tips that can help your business.

Join the SpeakEasy Cafe's "Sound of Ink" open mic Poetry show! You are invited to call in and Take the stage! The mic is hot and ready for the sound of your Ink! Call in and inspire, listen in and be inspired! All poetic voices welcome!

Brooke Lewis is a beautiful, bright and vivacious woman!As her alter ego, Ms.Vampy, she's created the webseries Ms. Vampy TV and also has another show called Ms. Vampy's Tween Tawk, Teen Tawk & In Between Tawk, which has received critical acclaim!

Looking for a change in your life? Tune in to the Feminine Soul Radio Show and listen to success coach Michelle Weimer as she guides you step-by-step on how to stop feeling stuck and finally get what you deserve out of life!

Freddie Smith (Sonny, Days of Our Lives) stops by the show and we talk about his current storyline on set with co-star Chandler Massey (Wil). We will chat about his career, daytime and chat with his fans!

Sharon Love founded The One Love Foundation in memory of her daughter, Yeardley, who died in 2010 at the hands of her ex-boyfriend. OLF is working to become a leading voice against relationship violence through their new intitiave - Be 1 For Change.

From Bodybuilding to Pro Wrestling then from Stand-up Comedy to Hollywood fame, our upcoming guest and Hollywood icon Hank Garrett joins us on the Power Hour for a LIVE show as he takes calls from his fans.

Love, Romance, Hardship. These are some of the few things that Madelaine Basulto also know as Maddy talks about in her new book Mariahs Memoirs stolen tears. Folow me as i get to exploer the life of a successful young author who puts hr tears on pages

Actress Tanna Frederick stops by Best Ever You to share her secrets to help others lead their best life. A fitness aficionado who runs daily, Frederick is also a second-degree Tae Kwon Do blackbelt and a passionate surfer.

Philly wordsmith Chill Moody will be in The War Room to join the fellas in the 4th installment in their "Hip-Hop & Sports" series.

It's a special edition of GenreTainment as Marx travels to Toronto to visit the sets of the SyFy Channel. We have interviews with the cast of Being Human and the upcoming epic sci-fi series Defiance.

Joanna Shari's modeling is somewhat of a side hustle for her. She is a full-time graphic designer and part-time model. Beauty and brains you might say. She will be on to talk about her world of modeling and technology.

Tune in to listen to Season 1 Episode 2 Spoken word by M'reld Green and Aaron Samuels One brought to you by Lexus.

Source: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/homebasedbusinessuniversity/2012/11/09/home-based-business-university

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Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/261705034?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Achilles Had Only 2 Heels

Recently, I came across the headline ?Scientists Find Achilles? Heel of Cancer Cells?, describing the discovery of a histone deactylase (HDAC11) as a novel target for cancer therapies. I was irritated by the metaphor of Achilles? heel, because it implied that this was the lone vulnerability of cancer. I was also embarrassed by the fact that I used the same metaphor for the press release describing our work earlier this year showing that mitochondrial network structure can be targeted in cancer.

I decided to google the expressions ?Achilles? heel? and ?cancer?. It turns out that every year, numerous press releases and news articles claim that researchers have finally identified the ?Achilles? heel? of cancer. In Greek mythology, Achilles only had two feet and thus two heels; only one of the two heels was vulnerable. So how can it be that hundreds of researchers have found the Achilles? heel of cancer? Apparently, I am not the only one who has used this metaphor inappropriately and it begs the question, whether we should even be using it at all.

When I was a child, Gustav Schwab?s??Sagen des klassischen Altertums? was one of my favorite books. His gripping narrative of the ancient Greek myths has also been translated from German into English and is available as ?Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece?. It was in this book that I first encountered the legend of Achilles and the story of the Trojan War, originally relayed by the Greek poet Homer in his great epic ?The Illiad?. Achilles was the son of the sea-goddess (nymph) Thetis and King Peleus and was known for his great strength and skills in battle, but I could find nothing heroic in this demigod Achilles.

Even though I loved Schwab?s narration, I despised Achilles. He vacillated between fits of rage and episodes of prolonged sulking. He was rude, arrogant and violent ? Anakin Skywalker on steroids. I was especially horrified by how Achilles tied the body of his enemy Hector to his chariot and dragged it around, in order to humiliate the deceased and inflicting great psychological pain on Hector?s family. Basically, Achilles was a jerk; but according to the diagnostic classification of the American Psychiatric Association, Achilles may just have had IED (intermittent explosive disorder).

When Achilles was a baby, his mother Thetis stuck him in a special flame to make him invulnerable. She was interrupted by Achilles? father, who was shocked by what he perceived as poor parenting skills shown by Thetis. The interruption prevented Thetis from making her son completely invulnerable, which is why one of Achilles? heels remained vulnerable. Later on in the legend, this vulnerable heel is where the Greek god Apollo directs his arrow and this injury ultimately results in Achilles? demise.

I remember the relief I experienced when I first read about Achilles? death. It was karma ? he deserved to die, considering all the pain and suffering that he had caused. I also remember that I was confused by the whole invulnerability aspect of the story. In a different part of the legend, his mother Thetis helps him obtain a special armor to protect his body. If nearly all of his body was already invulnerable, why would he need such a special armor? Wouldn?t he just need a special kind of Band-Aid to cover his one vulnerable heel? But then again, these were Greek gods and goddesses and they may have had different ways of approaching problems. Perhaps the special armor was extra insurance, just like people whose personal auto insurance covers rental cars but they still get suckered into buying additional rental car insurance at the airport.

Later on, I found out the Schwab had combined multiple Achilles legends. The story of Achilles being invulnerable everywhere except for his heel and Achilles? death are not part of Homer?s Illiad. It was long after Homer that the heel story became an integral part of the Achilles legend. In one version, Thetis did not place Achilles in a flame but instead dipped him in the magical River Styx. She held him by the heel of his foot, which is why he remained vulnerable in that one area. I am not sure that I would have held my son by the heel of all places, while dipping him into a magical river. Then again, I am not a Greek god. It also begs the question why Thetis did not dip him in a second time to make sure that the previously dry heal now also became invulnerable. In one narration, it was not Apollo who shot the arrow, but the Trojan prince Paris and Apollo merely directed the arrow into Achilles? heel, possibly because Paris was not a very good shot.

Even though the heel story and Achilles? death or not part of the Illiad, it is difficult to envision the Achilles legend without it. The idea that even strong, arrogant entities remain vulnerable is very comforting. This may explain why this aspect of the legend is so popular and why it has given rise to the commonly used metaphor of the ?Achilles? heel? to describe lone vulnerable spots.

Especially when describing cancer, the metaphor seems very apt. One can easily envision a growing tumor as an Achilles ? aggressive and apparently invincible. When one identifies a gene or protein that can prevent tumor growth and or even kills the tumor, it is easy to succumb to using the ?Achilles? heel? metaphor. The problem with using this metaphor is that Achilles only had one single vulnerable heel. If a researcher claims to have found an Achilles? heel, it not only implies that it is ?one? area of vulnerability of the cancer, but that it is the ?only? area of vulnerability.

Most researchers who work with cancer cells know that there are many different mechanisms by which cancer growth can be slowed down. There is no single vulnerable pathway that can stop all cancer progression. Therefore, when researchers use this expression, they probably just like to convey the image of the powerful Achilles being brought to his knees by a single arrow. They do not want to claim that they have found the ultimate weapon to fight cancer. However, this metaphor inadvertently does imply that the described method is the only way to arrest the tumor. This is not only a gross over-simplification, but plain wrong. Someone who is not familiar with the complexities of cancer biology and reads a press release containing this metaphor may take this to mean that the sole vulnerability of cancer has been identified.

Mythology and literature can be very inspiring for scientists and it is tempting to use powerful literary or mythological metaphors when communicating science, but one also needs to think about what these metaphors truly represent. Especially metaphors that oversimplify scientific findings or convey a false sense of certainty should be used avoided. When I think about research, two other Greek legends come to mind: The legend of Sisyphus and the Odyssey. Every day, Sisyphus rolled a rock up a mountain and then had to watch how it would roll back down again. This was his punishment decreed by the Greek gods. It reminds me of a lot of experiments that we scientists perform. When we feel that we are getting close solving a scientific problem we sometimes realize that we have to start all over again. Similarly, Odysseus? long and exhausting journey is also a metaphor that appropriately characterizes a lot of real-life scientific research. Odysseus did not know if and when he would ever reach his destination, and this is how many of us conduct our research.

I googled ?Odyssey? and ?cancer? to see if I could find news articles that allude to the scientific Odyssey of cancer research. To my surprise, I did find a number of articles, but these were not descriptions of scientific ?Odysseys?. They were reports of cancer patients who described how they had undergone numerous different cancer treatments, often with little improvement. I realize that it is easier to market scientific ideas with a simplistic Achilles metaphor than to point out that science is long-winded and at times disorienting journey, similar to the Odyssey. But if we do want to use metaphors, we should probably use ones that appropriately convey the complexity and beauty of science.

?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=db119040756c9b8eb1cdfe9c344b3d05

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