Earth Hour 2009

Do not forget to turn off your lights this Saturday night, March 28th, 2009 at 8:30 local time. No matter what time zone you live in, 8:30 PM.


If you want more information on Earth Hour, visit the World Wildlife Fund's website.

By turn off the lights for one hour to show your support for action on climate change. Other actions you may want to consider include: installing compact fluorescent light bulbs, which are more efficient and last much longer than traditional incandescent bulbs, choosing energy efficient appliances, making sure their car tires are properly inflated and unplugging electronics when they are not in use.






No olvides apagar la luz la noche del sábado 28 de marzo, 2009 a las 8:30. No importa en qué zona horaria vivas, ocho y media de la noche.

Día Internacional de la Mujer/ Women's Day

Día Internacional de la Mujer/ International Women's day

Un abrazo a todas mis lectoras en su día. Les dejo este bello ramo de flores y una serenata con Ricado Arjona.

A big hug for all my women-readers on their day. Here are some flowers for you and a Ricardo Arjona brings a song for you.

I was really surprised not to find any articles on the cover of the NYT or CNN about today. I had to do a specific search on Google News to find articles in English. On the other hand, I easily found several stories in Mexican newspapers. El Universal has a slide show on women around the world and a video interview with the head of the anti-crime unit, a woman. Reforma has a story and interviews (unfortunately Reforma does not have public access to its stories). Even smaller Mexican newspapers had stories related to women.

From the United Nations website:

History

International Women's Day first emerged from the activities of labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe.

1909: The first National Woman's Day was observed in the United States on 28 February. The Socialist Party of America designated this day in honour of the 1908 garment workers' strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions.

1910: The Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women's Day, international in character, to honour the movement for women's rights and to build support for achieving universal suffrage for women. The proposal was greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, which included the first three women elected to the Finnish Parliament. No fixed date was selected for the observance.

1911: As a result of the Copenhagen initiative, International Women's Day was marked for the first time (19 March) in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded women's rights to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.

1913-1914: International Women's Day also became a mechanism for protesting World War I. As part of the peace movement, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around 8 March of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with other activists.

1917: Against the backdrop of the war, women in Russia again chose to protest and strike for "Bread and Peace" on the last Sunday in February (which fell on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar). Four days later, the Czar abdicated and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote.