Between 2002 and 2010, an estimated 17 616 patients presented to US EDs with trouser zip injuries to the genitals. The penis was almost always the only genital organ involved. Zip injuries represented nearly one-fifth of all penile injuries. Amongst adults, zips were the most frequent cause of penile injuries. Annual zip-related genital injury incidence remained stable over the study period.

via Zip-related genital injury. [BJU Int. 2013] – PubMed – NCBI.

Apparently I don’t know how to eat koshari properly because I added spoons full of cumin and salt, then way too much chili pepper and found myself completely disgusted with my meal that was supposed to be almost magical! I had been putting off this koshari occasion for months. Marie, the sweetheart that she is, gave me the rest of her koshari so I could enjoy what it’s REALLY supposed to taste like. It’s really not that bad, but very filling and I don’t think I’ll be eating it again for quite some time because…

Female Genital Mutilation within the United States has been illegal for many years. In January 2013, President Obama signed The Girls Protection Act into law, which makes “vacation cutting”, or returning girls to their native lands to undergo FGM, a federal crime. However, the increase in immigrants on American soil has caused a dramatic increase in girls at risk for Female Genital Mutilation.

Sanctuary for Families’ study revealed that the number of American girls at risk of the procedure has increased to 200,000 women, up 35% since 2000. Experts also estimate that the New York metropolitan area is home to more women and girls at risk than any other U.S. city.

The report also confirms that FGM is performed within the States by health care providers who either support FGM or do not wish to question families’ cultural practices. It is also reported that even when performed by health care providers in the United States, it is often done using crude implements such as razor blades.

Sanctuary for Families is proposing a more proactive, coordinated response to better protect girls from FGM within the United States. This will include community and survivor-led outreach and education to engage religious and community leaders, parents, survivors, and at-risk women and girls.

As major US cities continue to diversify, Americans must strive to remain current with international issues. I will return to New York with a newfound sensitivity towards FGM and a desire to create change within my community.

-Francesca Toscano, Intern at FORWARD

Page Link: Sexual Assault

Q. A colleague of mine immigrated to the United States from Nigeria. Although we have a friendly office and over the years most of us have gotten to know each other personally, she’s always been extremely quiet about her private life. Recently when some of us were discussing our sexual experiences in a fairly humorous and forthright manner, she discreetly indicated that sex has not ever been a source of happiness for her. To make a long story short, she finally confided to a few of us that her clitoris was removed without anesthetic when she was a child of nine, and her vagina sewn closed.

To add to this horror, she was married after her first menstruation because, as she put it, it would be an “embarrassment for a woman to be unmarried after her first cycle”. She was 10 years old, and given no choice in the matter.

It was made clear to her by her family and culture that she was not expected to enjoy sex, and that it would actually be immoral if she did. During her first sexual experience, her husbands’ penis could not access her sewn up vagina -no kidding!!- and she experienced incredible pain. Eventually he tore open her stitches enough to satisfy himself.

Sex has never been anything but painful to her, and she is continually terrified of becoming pregnant because apparently many women in her village who have had the same procedure die through various complications during pregnancy or childbirth. At the same time, she was taught that it is wrong to use birth control because it’s a woman’s duty to bare children.

We were all unutterably saddened, furious, and horrified by the circumstances of her life. We have all told her that she deserves to enjoy sex with the person of her choice and to control when she conceives, and there has been a gradual sea change in her. For us, it’s been an amazing lesson on how powerfully conditioning affects us because although she’s been surrounded for years by women who talk about enjoying sex, it never even occurred to her that that this could apply to her.

She tells us that castrating girl children is a common practice in her country. How can this outrage exist in this day and age? And is there anything that can be done medically to reverse or heal the carnage committed on her genitals so that she can feel sexual pleasure and orgasm?

A. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is an atrocity inflicted on approximately two million girls between the ages of four and 15 annually. Sometimes inaccurately called “female circumcision”, worldwide about 140 million women have survived this butchery, which rips from them a large part of their sexuality, identity, health, self-esteem, and independence. More than 80% of the women in Somalia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Sudan have been maimed by this horrific tradition. Something like 50% or more of the women in Mali, Chad, and Nigeria, where your colleague is from, are mutilated as well. FGM is practiced over the entire continent of Africa and has spread across the globe.

Usually performed without anesthetic or sterile surgical instruments, the extent of mutilation varies from the partial removal of the clitoris to the removal of the entire genital region. Once the genitalia are cut out the whole vulva is sewn tightly shut. This frequently results in blood loss, infection, extreme pain, and death. For those that survive and “heal”, the common result is painful intercourse, urinary blockages and infections, and difficulty and /or death in childbirth.

The cultural rationale for this barbaric rite revolves around the idea that women’s sexuality must be controlled and suppressed, and that it is a woman’s destiny is to be a man’s possession, without free will. FMG is intended to preserve a woman’s virginity until she is married to / owned by a man, and to deprive a woman of natural sexual pleasure so that she will not be tempted to be unfaithful to her husband or to enjoy her sexuality.

It constitutes a kind of savage war on women’s’ freedom, health and happiness that partners with the use of rape as an instrument of war in contemporary society. Incredibly, while men from China may receive political asylum in the United States to protect them from forced vasectomy, women from any country are not given political asylum to avoid having their sex organs cut out. To me, this expresses undercurrents in our own Western culture that reflect the same demeaning root values about women.

The world community has failed women profoundly by not stopping this mass torture. Generation after generation of women endure this procedure which mutilates them body and soul, and like so many issues concerning women, its grave impact on women’s health and well-being is disregarded.

Sadly, not all of the individuals in cultures who commit this atrocity actually understand how adversely it affects its recipients. It is an ingrained tradition that they have not had the opportunity to understand and consider. Because most parents do love their children, it is vital to reach out to these communities with sex education information about how this procedure damages women, and to offer positive female role models. Parents in female-repressive societies desperately need the opportunity to understand that their female children have an equal capacity for sexual joy, independence of thought, and self-direction as their male children, and that both their children and cultures will flower and thrive when their daughters have these fundamental rights.

Surgically there has been mixed success in clitoral and genital reconstruction. Some surgery has been quite successful, and some not, depending on the initial degree of mutilation, and how much tissue and nerve damage occurred. But even when disabled by severe castration women can develop a great deal of sensate pleasure in their bodies and often the potential for orgasm. In some cases, women may learn to experience orgasm in areas of the body other than the traditional sex organs. It is absolutely a worthwhile course to pursue and can make an irreplaceable quality of life difference.

Meanwhile, surgical reconstructive techniques are improving all the time, and a growing number of doctors around the world are performing them. See the Female Genital Mutilation section of Sexual Assault  for some good resources.

Shain

I thought I had seen it all. I knew of several ways that societies all around the world have attacked women and their sexuality, but I had not heard of this: Breast Ironing.

Breast Ironing (or breast flattening) is the systematic physical compression of the female breasts, at the time of puberty, using hard and/or heated tools such as a wooden pestle, which is the most common, large stones, ladles, hammers, coconut shells, spatulas etc…

This results in permanently scarred breasts that are meant to detract men from sexually abusing the woman and to also prevent her from having premarital sex thereby forgoing higher education.

Besides the scarring there are other problems associated with this such as depression, infection and tissue damage that could prevent future breastfeeding. This act of breast disfigurement is primarily conducted in Cameroon but is also carried out in other African countries as well.

But unfortunately this isn’t the only way that women are systematically traumatized in early childhood.

Another widely known practice is Female Genital Mutilation (female “circumcision”) which is done not only in Africa, but in the Middle East, Asia and in immigrant communities in Europe and North America.

This is the practice of cutting off parts or all of the external female genitalia using knives, razors, glass, scissors, sharpened rocks and even fingernails. The process is done anytime between infancy to early teenage years.

The practice varies widely in it’s application, but there are four main types.

1. Clitoridectomy- partial or total removal of the clitoris (small sensitive nub at the top of vagina).
2. Excision- partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora (the small inner lips of the vagina), with or without the excision of the labia majora (the large external lips of the vagina).
3. Infibulation- narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal.
4. Other- all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for nonmedical purposes.

Deleterious effects range from infection from unclean razors and scalpels, urinary retention, urinary tract infection, urinary incontinence, hemorrhage and septicemia (blood poisoning). As the wound heals strictures (an abnormal narrowing or tightening of a body passage) are formed that cause urine and  menstruation blood to pool in the vagina and in some cases in the uterus which increases vaginal and pelvic infections.

The scarring can be so thick and hard that it is common for females on their wedding night to have the vagina cut open by their new husband. As the wound heals again, new scars are created and the process is repeated.

Obstetric complications occur where it is impossible to push a baby through the scar tissue without an incision. The excessive pushing causes fistula formation (holes that allow urine and feces to seep through the vagina) which further increases infection and adds isolation and humiliation due to the constant smell. Many of these women are left to live outside of the village, cast out by their husbands.

Both breast ironing and female genital mutilation have been sold to women of these cultures as necessary and in some cases even as a badge of honor.

Why do women have to be mutilated in order to stay pure? Which insecure man came up with this as a tool to keep his woman in line?

In actuality, that is a simplistic view. These heinous crimes against women are not just to keep women in their place. No, they are meant for a more sinister purpose.

Satan has a hate for all humans, but a particular hate for women. The main reason he hates women is their ability to bear children and continue to populate the earth. That means more people are able to choose Christ and share in salvation. Satan would like nothing more if he could get everyone to share in the same fate as him.

He is the think tank that is behind all atrocities, but he has a perverse pleasure in destroying female sexuality and reproduction. He is the mastermind not only of breast ironing and female genital mutilation, but of pornography, rape, incest, honor killings, acid throwing, bride burning, human sex trafficking, abortion, female infanticide etc…

He cannot take away the privilege God gave women to have life come through them so he encourages the torture, maiming, disfigurement, mutilation and murder of women to make them feel terror at the very thought of their sexuality instead of the joy and marvelousness of God’s gift. ”And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:25 KJV)

Women are suffering all over the world and it happens more when it is done in secret. Let us be aware of what is happening in the world and speak out against abuse and Satan’s agenda to terrorize women.

The Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) is an innovative measure of underlying discrimination against women for over 100 developing countries, developed by the OECD’s Development Centre. While other indices measure gender inequalities in outcomes such as education and employment, the SIGI helps policy-makers and researchers understand what drives these outcomes. The SIGI captures and quantifies discriminatory social institutions – these include among others, early marriage, discriminatory inheritance practices, violence against women, son bias, restrictions on access to public space and restricted access to productive resources. As a composite index made up of 14 variables, SIGI and its sub-indices provide tools to compare the level of underlying discrimination against women.

The 2012 Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) shows that countries have made promising progress in tackling discriminatory social institutions in some areas. For countries scored in the 2012 SIGI:

• The average prevalence of early marriage across countries has decreased to 17% in 2012 from 21% in 2009.
• The number of countries with specific legislation to combat domestic violence has more than doubled from 21 in 2009 to 53 in 2012.
• 23 out of the 35 countries where missing women was identified as a concern in 2009 have shown improvement in 2012.
• 29 countries have quotas to promote women’s political participation at both national and sub-national levels.

Despite positive steps, pervasive and persistent social institutions continue to limit women and girls’ horizons in all regions ranked in the 2012 SIGI.

• 86 out of 121 countries scored in the 2012 SIGI have discriminatory inheritance laws or practices.
• Women’s reproductive autonomy is restricted: on average, 1 in 5 women has an unmet need for family planning.
• Despite the introduction of laws, attitudes that normalise violence against women persist. On average, for the countries scored in the SIGI, around 1 in 2 women believe domestic violence is justified in certain circumstances.
• On average, women hold only 15% of land titles for countries where data is available.

Latin America and the Caribbean shows the lowest level of overall discrimination against women in the 2012 SIGI rankings. South Asia has improved its position from the lowest ranked region in 2009 to the fourth ranked region in 2012.This is largely due to the introduction of laws to combat violence against women, decline in early marriage, introduction of quotas to promote women’s political participation and improvement in son bias for some countries in the region. Sub-Saharan Africa shows the highest level of discrimination. Europe and Central Asia has moved from the top ranking region in the 2009 SIGI to the third ranked region in the 2012 edition. This is largely due to a growing problem of son bias in some parts of the region and the absence of quotas to promote women’s equal political participation.

                                  www.genderindex.org

Composition of 2012 SIGI:

• Discriminatory Family Code: legal age of marriage, early marriage, prenatal authority, inheritance
• Restricted Physical Integrity: Violence against women (laws, attitudes and prevalence), female genital mutilation, reproductive integrity
• Son Bias: missing women, fertility preferences
• Restricted Resources and Entitlements: access to land, property, credit
• Restricted Civil Liberties: Access to public space, political voice

Policies can change discriminatory social institutions:

Top-ranking countries have addressed discriminatory social institutions by ensuring  gender equality in the family, land and property rights, introducing measures to improve women’s access to credit, introducing and implementing strong laws and  programmes to combat violence against women, ensuring women’s access to reproductive health services, removing restrictions on women’s access to public space and introducing laws to promote women’s political participation at a national or sub-national level. A three-pronged approach to tackling discriminatory social institutions is required.

1. Legal reform

• Harmonisation, full implementation and enforcement of laws to guarantee equality and protection from harmful practices and violence
• Provision of judicial training, legal services, awareness-raising and legal literacy programmes

2. Community mobilisation and empowerment

• Public awareness and community mobilisation activities to tackle attitudes and shift norms
• Support networks and skills development to address knowledge gaps and attitudes

3. Economic support and incentives

• Cash transfers and stipends to change practices
• Income-generating support and opportunities to remove economic constraint

Source: www.genderindex.org

Further reading: A. Luci Greulich, J. Jütting, C. Morrisson (2012): “Why do so many women end up in bad jobs? A cross country assessment for developing countries.” The European Journal of Development Research Vol 24 N°4, September 2012.

Do the Right thing!
Bloggers Unite

Bloggers Unite is an attempt to harness the power of the blogosphere to make the world a better place. By asking bloggers to write about a particular subject, a single voice can be joined with thousands to help make a difference. March 15, 2013 is the first bloggers unite event where the organizers and sponsors of bloggers unite are joining together with bloggers to “do the right thing.”

What is right varies from culture to culture and is often coloured by more pressing issues of survival, tradition, desires, ambition etc. So how do we define what is right in today’s society? A suicide bomber believes that killing innocent lives, for what he or she thinks is the greater good, is right. Politicians always circumvent the truth and introduce policies that suit their purposes; they believe it is their right. Parents in rural regions of undeveloped countries value male children over females, they believe it is right to do so. For a monogamous individual, polygamy is wrong and vice versa.

The most illuminating example that I can think of is the hotly debated FGM (Female genital mutilation) practice versus Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery (FGCS). While one is banned the other is an expensive aesthetic procedure. The proponents of FGM call it a sacred cultural ritual and in light of their global condemnation question the legality of FGCS.

So how do we agree on a global right or wrong? The truth is we can’t, our cultures, our social norms and our viewpoints will never merge to a straight line. The only global right think to do is to follow God’s commandment, love one another. The religious should love the atheist, whilst acknowledging that their viewpoints will always remain poles apart. Love and tolerance is not and should not be dependent on a common ground. We are human and we all have to live on planet earth, that’s just about as communal as it gets.

It pleased me greatly to hear a Christian minister’s reply when asked about his opinion on gays, “I take a stand firmly based on love. While I regard it unnatural I do not do so out of hatred but merely as I consider the sanctity of gender ordained by God.”

We are all entitled to our opinions, views and based on that free to make our choices in life. As long as we do not harm another individual by practising our beliefs, no one has the right to judge us or condemn us. Let’s love one another and respect each other’s view; that is the right thing to do.

Earth (Photo credit: tonynetone)

But before the ceremony, she approached her father, and agreed to undergo the circumcision – as long as he allowed her to attend high school. Her TED x talk about this story and what happened next is incredibly moving, inspiring, and a true testament to the what girls and women through education.

Enjoy.

Islam the death cult and Muhammad are depicted where they properly belong, Islam dead and Muhammad’s head on a woman’s spear.

Female genital mutilation on the rise in the United States-report

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:19 GMT

Source: trustlaw // Lisa Anderson

By Lisa Anderson

NEW YORK (TrustLaw) – The ancient, brutal practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), once considered primarily a problem of the developing world, is a growing threat to girls and women in the United States, according to a new report.

The United States has longstanding laws against the practice of FGM on U.S. soil and in January, passed a federal law against sending young women outside the country for so-called “vacation cutting”. However, girls living in America increasingly are at risk of the procedure both at home and abroad, according to research by Sanctuary for Families.

The New York City-based non-profit organisation, which specialises in gender-based violence, said up to 200,000 girls and women in the United States are at risk of FGM and that the number is growing. Read more…

Follow us, donate and help us stay on-line.

“Our daughters will not be mutilated” | euronews, right on.

(click on link to view)

Alter The Press!: ATP Lists: 15 Females Who Rock (International Women’s Day 2013).

I thought the list was okay, being the music lover that I am I only know seven out of the 15 bands mentioned. But still… Taylor Momsen? She rocks! And also I really liked Cassadee Pope and all but, yeah, TAYLOR MOMSEN! ;p

Like whatever! So any thoughts? Or maybe you’re just like me who only knew a few of these bands–or at least have heard of them–or worse: NOT familiar with any.

Related articles

• Lunchtime – Music for International Women’s Day (bluesdoodles.wordpress.com)
• Happy International Women’s Day (marvaseaton.wordpress.com)
• Why have International Women’s Day (bluesdoodles.wordpress.com)
• Why Do We Need an International Women’s Day? (mombloggersforsocialgood.com)
• International Women’s Day Q&A (vagendamag.blogspot.com)
• What is International Women’s Day? (+video) (csmonitor.com)

Political and policy aspects of this commitment are examined, along with some suggestions about how the issue can be brought into focus in Britain, where top-level formal responses to FGM until now have been very slow.

There’s no easy or nice way to introduce the topic of female genital mutilation.

FGM is a truly hideous, cruel practice; and it’s happening now, in the UK, to possibly 50 babies and girls every day (yes, averaged over the year…. every day).

Cases of FGM in Europe, North America and Australia have increased as more people from the African and Middle East/ Southern Asian diasporas travel West.  About half a million women and girls in Europe have been subjected to FGM, and around 180,000 more girls are at risk annually, perhaps 24,000+ of them in the UK.

Just one little girl mutilated is infinitely too many.  People don’t like to think of such things.  Mass barbarism on this scale is more than most of us can credit.

But make no mistake.  Whilst there’s also legitimate cause to question non-medically required male circumcision, FGM is different.  Both are human rights issues, but FGM is rarely ‘just a nick’. It often entails removal of the external female genitalia – usually in grossly unhygienic conditions, without pain relief.

Mortality rates for FGM are uncertain.  Perhaps 10-30% of victims die from immediate or later (obstetric) impacts.  It also permanently damages health and well-being – everything from post-traumatic conditions to kidney failure and obstetric fistula. (This link provides further information about FGM.)

Small wonder that in practising countries charitable refuges now exist where girls old enough to anticipate the (often unannounced, secretive) ‘procedure’ flee to avoid the unspeakable pain, inflicted with their parents’ consent by force, and the horrors which follow FGM.

So why-ever does FGM occur?

The answer is patriarchy.  Whilst FGM has been connected at some level with religions and customs for hundreds of years, at base it is a way for men to control ‘their’ women.

FGM mythology around female sexual organs and sexuality involves beliefs variously that if a male sexual partner, or a baby during birth, touches the clitoris, s/he will die – and sometimes also that this organ will grow to become a ‘third leg’ if not removed.

Then there’s fear that teenage girls will become sexually rampant if their clitoris remains and/or, if not infibulated – a belief serving economic requirements for a good price for a ‘pure’ bride whose tightened anatomy will also, it’s said, enhance her husband’s pleasure.

Grand/mothers often arrange the mutilation, but daughters are property passed very young from father to husband. Unmarried – and / or without FGM – adult women in traditional communities are ‘unclean’, sometimes forbidden even to collect water or prepare food.  They may not survive.

This is a far cry from contemporary Western ideals of sexuality, marriage and individual rights; but residual customs may persist, especially in isolated diaspora communities.

FGM rates globally are slowly diminishing, especially amongst younger and more educated women.  Nonetheless,  despite the landmark UN Declaration of December condemning FGM, children continue to be tortured because of ‘tradition’, (misplaced) religious observance and economic patriarchy.

The UK can help stop this.

We have one of the largest European FGM-vulnerable diasporas, and legislation unequivocally forbidding female genital mutilation, whether in the UK or procured elsewhere by or for British residents and citizens.

Nonetheless, not a single person from the hundred-thousand or more in the UK who have probably been involved in delivering FGM to British children has been prosecuted. Dedicated policing is almost non-existent.

But in late 2012 Keir Starmer, UK Director of Public Prosecutions, announced he will spearhead legal action, and various Government bodies revisited their directives and guidelines on departmental websites.

And now the Prime Minister has appointed International Development Minister Lynne Featherstone to lead an international initiative, announced on International Women’s Day 2013, to make FGM history.

If Lynne Featherstone knows how to abolish FGM and has resources to achieve this, she must have full backing.

But inevitably there are concerns, not least because in 2011 the Coalition Government abolished the national FGM Co-ordinator role which the previous administration had just established.  Will they get it right this time?

We must watch and wait, but for now some thoughts:

• Let’s stop agonising over current UK FGM legislation and just use it.  Other child abuse, honour killings, rape, breast ironing and domestic violence are similar policing challenges.  Consider gross bodily harm (GBH) charges, on the statute book since 1861, if it helps.

• Focus absolutely on (potential and actual) child victims.  That means proper health care, education and realistic opportunities for future economic independence, as well as safeguarding.

• Remember, FGM’s root cause is patriarchy – thriving still in mainstream British society, too.

• Acknowledge that if we isolate diaspora communities they may adhere to traditional ways. To eradicate FGM globally we must validate the message that open societies, fostering good health, well-being and economic independence, don’t and won’t countenance (or ‘need’) such desperate measures

• Be vigilant against racialist ‘overspill’.   Avoid talk of FGM-linked deportation: deportation can apply to all non-national serious criminals.  Some FGM perpetrators are UK citizens.  And most UK Muslims, like followers of other religions and none, abhor it.

• Understand that FGM will stop only when professionals on the ground know what to do.  Teachers, medics, legal practitioners and the rest need proper training (not just website ‘Guidance’) and the assurance they will be supported in testing circumstances.  Currently, many are poorly informed and fear being hung out to dry if things get difficult.

This is a beginning, not an end.

Life doesn’t stop in the absence of proper policy.  Thousands more British girls have been harmed since the FGM Co-ordinator role, eventually established by the previous Government, was abolished.   The new Coalition initiative must make up rapidly for that awful loss of impetus.

And, finally, female genital mutilation is the ultimate in personal politics.

Let’s strengthen public pressure towards eradication.

Hilary Burrage is a sociologist currently researching for a book on eradicating FGM in the UK.

A version of this article, Deeply Personal, Fundamentally Political, was first published in the Morning Star on 9 March 2013.

~~~

Please sign HM Government e-petition, No. 35313, to STOP Female Genital Mutilation (FGM / ‘cutting’) in Britain  (for UK citizens and residents).

There is also an e-petition for everyone, everywhere to sign: UK Government: Enforce the UK law which forbids FGM (Female Genital so-called ‘Cutting’).

For more on this topic please see here.

The #NoFGM Daily News carries reports of all items shared on Twitter that day about FGM – brings many organisations and developments into focus.

On the eve of this important day, Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips suggested on BBC Question Time that we should close the government department for international aid. A disgraceful suggestion in my opinion. Yes, we have problems at home, but we lose all sense of humanity if we forget our international obligations. So, let’s consider what the Department for International Development does for women around the world.

• UK aid is working to eliminate and prevent all forms of violence against women and girls to transform their lives. It’s shocking and unacceptable that in the 21st century one in three women is beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime. Read more here.
• UK aid is working hard to end the vile practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) worldwide. Girls around the world have suffered a lifetime of damage, sometimes even death, as a result. Female genital cutting is one of the worst kinds of gender violence. Read more here.
• UK aid is stepping up its support for girls and women in the poorest countries to give them more choice, voice and control over their lives. Investing in girls and women is the smart thing to do. By unleashing their potential, there can be incredible returns for the girls and women themselves, for their families and communities, and for their economies and countries. Read more here.

This is but a snapshot of the positive development work that is being done by Britain in the world, work that I am proud of, and work Melanie Phillips so casually dismissed. Not in my name Melanie!

Note: This post links to the DFID website which is soon moving, more details here.