Nobel Peace Prize

Oct 13 2011

Nonviolent struggle for the safety of women

Three women, including two from Africa, recently received the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize “for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s right to full participation in peace-building work.”

Fungai Maborke  |   OW Guest Contributor
Oct 6 2011

She chose cremation in order to save a tree

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Wangari Wanjiku Maathai was recently cremated and her ashes interred per her request at a Kenyan educational institution dedicated to peace and the environment.

She joins a small handful of Kenyans whose bodies are cremated, in a tradition that is fairly rare among Africans. It was her wish to avoid chopping down another tree for a casket.

Instead, more than 5,000 seedlings will be planted countrywide in a program sponsored by the Green Belt Movement and the government.

David L. Horne, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Jul 21 2011

Practical Politics

On July 18, Mr. Nelson Mandela-Madiba arrived at 93 years young. Such would not have been predicted, when he was sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa in June 1964.

As one of the 13 major national holidays, and the only one dedicated to a Black South African, the Republic of South Africa celebrated the continuing life and legacy of this great man all this week.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.