Monthly Archive for April, 2011

Diversity Conference Dinner Announcment

Published on April 30, 2011 in Conference and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Conference Dinner – Pigalle Restaurant – Tuesday, 21 June – 7:00 PM

Pigalle was named after the area in Paris renowned for its exuberant surroundings. Pigalle restaurant masterfully captures the same sense of joie de vivre and was created to offer a completely stunning sensory experience. The resulting attention to detail is impressive – from the music, the acoustics, the aromas to the interior where deep ruby walls provide the backdrop for the large over sized paintings, while others are painted on simple white, chairs are upholstered in a dramatic red or black – resting on thick carpeting. Custom made art noveau chandeliers light the vast dining area which together with the décor exudes character, richness and movement.

Transportation will be provided to and from the conference hotels.

Dinner will include salad, main course, dessert, coffee, tea and a red or white wine.

Conference Dinner – Pigalle Restaurant – Tuesday, 21 June – 7:00 PM
$80.00USD

For more information visit the conference website here.

Hidden in Plain Sight

Published on April 30, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

By Christine Stansell, The New Republic – The Book – All Book Reviews Feed

A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America (by Leila Ahmed)

AROUND THE WORLD past and present, women cover their heads before God and man. That is, they veil. A dispassionate list of veils would include nuns’ cowls, saris, lace mantillas for Mass, peasant babushkas, brides’ veils, church ladies’ Sunday hats, the wigs and headscarves of Orthodox Jews, and the headscarf my mother (middle class, Midwestern, Protestant) threw on in the 1950s when she ran across the street to the corner store. All these forms of veiling refer, religiously or secularly, to the old idea that women have something that should be hidden. Call it modesty, or propriety; but at heart it is about the sexual shame that women incur if they reveal themselves in public. In this regard, culture and tradition may be more decisive than religious belief: my mother wore a scarf because “ladies” didn’t go bareheaded in public, not because the Apostle Paul told women in the early Church to cover.

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Trying to pull together Africans are asking whether China is making their lunch or eating it

Published on April 29, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From The Economist

ZHU LIANGXIU gulps down Kenyan lager in a bar in Nairobi and recites a Chinese aphorism: “One cannot step into the same river twice.” Mr Zhu, a shoemaker from Foshan, near Hong Kong, is on his second trip to Africa. Though he says he has come to love the place, you can hear disappointment in his voice.

On his first trip three years ago Mr Zhu filled a whole notebook with orders and was surprised that Africans not only wanted to trade with him but also enjoyed his company. “I have been to many continents and nowhere was the welcome as warm,” he says. Strangers congratulated him on his homeland’s high-octane engagement with developing countries. China is Africa’s biggest trading partner and buys more than one-third of its oil from the continent. Its money has paid for countless new schools and hospitals. Locals proudly told Mr Zhu that China had done more to end poverty than any other country.

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Photo courtesy of “africa”

State of diversity in corporate world questioned

Published on April 25, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

By Tyeshia Pinckney, Roosevelt Torch

Diversity is a factor many companies across the nation pride themselves on, but several are not as diverse as they claim and are rewarded for, according to research by professor David Embrick.

In a presentation on Wednesday at Roosevelt University, titled “Diversity In Post-Civil Rights Corporate America: Race, Gender and Diversity Ideology,” the Loyola University sociology professor explored the state of diversity in some of the countries’ most prominent companies.

The event, hosted by the sociology department and the Mansfield Institute of Social Justice and Transformation, highlighted the diversity of women and minorities in the workplace through research and interviews conducted by Embrick.

“I’m not debating if there are inequalities in corporate America.

It is a fact that there are sheer amounts of inequalities in corporate America,” he stated. “I’m focusing on a visual interpretation and understanding of what the numbers mean.”

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France uncovered, it hopes

Published on April 20, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From The Economist

WHEN the French voted last year to ban the niqab, or face-covering Islamic veil, the hard part was always going to be applying the law. Sure enough, the scenes captured by television cameras yesterday, as the law came into effect, of two veiled women being arrested by the police outside Notre Dame cathedral were dramatic.

Yet the women were detained not for wearing the niqab, but for carrying out an unauthorised demonstration; they were later released without being fined the €150 ($217) that the new law imposes. With such intense media scrutiny on the day the law came into effect, French police may have wanted to tread carefully. But the incident underlines the sensitivities in France surrounding any new rules that appear to target Muslims.

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