I was supposed to go downtown to meet a friend this morning but it's just as well that was cancelled because now I can watch the Netherlands vs. Slovakia match! Before I disappear down the rabbit hole for revisions on My Beating Teenage Heart and then a visit to Dublin there are a few things I'm excited about and want to mention.
1) Winter YA Books I Can't Wait to Read (and have recently pre-ordered):
1) Winter YA Books I Can't Wait to Read (and have recently pre-ordered):
Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers. I'm a huge fan of her first two books, Cracked Up to Be and Some Girls Are, and her upcoming novel (out December 21st but available for pre-order now) sounds like it's really going to hurt.
The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson of the ever cool Finding Wonderland (Writing YA) blog. The book's out January 1st, 2011 but is available for pre-order.
2) Author/artist Stephanie Ruble has created two gorgeous whimsical illustrations of whales and is donating digital prints via The Ripple Project to anyone who donates $10 to The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies or The International Bird Rescue Research Center.
* Head over to Ripple Sketches for details on how to obtain your print.
3) Sign UNIFEM's petition: Say NO to sexual violence against women in conflict and ask your government to make the United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 a reality.
2) Author/artist Stephanie Ruble has created two gorgeous whimsical illustrations of whales and is donating digital prints via The Ripple Project to anyone who donates $10 to The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies or The International Bird Rescue Research Center.
* Head over to Ripple Sketches for details on how to obtain your print.
3) Sign UNIFEM's petition: Say NO to sexual violence against women in conflict and ask your government to make the United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 a reality.
Women and girls hardly ever fight the world's wars, but they often suffer the most. Increasingly, they are the direct targets of fighting, when sexual violence is deliberately used as a tactic of warfare.
And yet fewer than 10 percent of the people who negotiate peace deals are women, and only about three dozen individuals have been convicted and jailed by international war crimes tribunals for committing or commanding widespread sexual violence.
Add your name to this petition and ask your government to support three steps to implement Security Council resolution 1325:
• Prosecute those who command and/or commit sexual violence and exclude them from armies and police forces after conflict.
• Ensure that women participate in peace negotiations and all post-conflict decision-making institutions.
• Increase the number of women in troops, police forces and civilians within international peacekeeping efforts.
Finally, like alot of people in and around Toronto I'm gravely disappointed, in the wake of the weekend G20 summit held in downtown T.O., at not only the destruction enacted in the streets by Black Bloc protesters but with the police's over zealous response to peaceful protesters and even bystanders. Toronto police detained and arrested hundreds of people (including a CTV producer and one young woman who was snatched from a GO train simply for carrying a gas mask for her own protection) who would later be released without having any charges brought against them. For the arrests without cause we can thank Premier Dalton McGuinty for passing sweeping powers on to the police and with that a mentality that suggests protesters are looking for trouble rather than exercising their democratic rights. Toronto this past weekend was a temporary police state and we should all be very worried about the ease with which this was accomplished.
In the wake of the summit Amnesty International is calling "on the Canadian government and the government of the province of Ontario to cooperate in launching an independent review of the security measures that were put in place for the G8 and G20 Summits."
Anyone who has a problem with the way they were treated by authorities can file a formal complaint at The Office Of the Independent Police Review Director.
Anyone who has a problem with the way they were treated by authorities can file a formal complaint at The Office Of the Independent Police Review Director.
