in which i propose to take a short break

it's very frustrating, i have much i want to blog about but no time in which to do it. a few things coming up:

• strategic planning for community radio hamilton tomorrow, in which we face up to an environment where funding may become increasingly hard to come by. how will that impact on our ability to provide radio access for a wide range of groups that usually don't get too much access? how do we continue to keep up with technological changes, when our main concern is to keep afloat through a recession? it'll certainly be a challenge, and i'm looking forward to some serious planning around these issues.
• international women's day symposium on friday afternoon, organised by hamilton city council and featuring rosslyn noonan (chief human rights commissioner) and hon pansy wong. i'll be doing a speech as part of a workshop being organised by shama (the hamilton ethnic women's centre) during the event. i'll be focussing on the experience of migrant women of colour, and issues that should be taken into account when developing social policy & programmes
• muslim girls camp being held in the waikato from friday night. i get to be a camp leader (hmm, i think i'll have to ingest large doses of patience before friday) to a bunch of girls in their late teens & early 20's. as part of the camp, i'll be taking a workshop on leadership. i'm hoping to avoid the abseiling, obstacle course, flying fox & other more physical activities on account of the fact that i'm hopelessly unfit and afraid of heights.
• relay for life is being held this weekend in hamilton. if i have the energy, i'll pop in on saturday night to support the labour party team & maybe even walk a few laps...
• flying to wellington for the day on sunday for another international women's day event. don't have to speak at this one (yay!), but active participation will be required.

since i have a bit of preparation to get done for these things (although i will recycle old material where i can! thank goodness i'm a thing-keeper), i won't have time to post. so, instead, here are some things to keep you busy:

• the 10th down under feminist carnival is up at queen of thorns' blog. looks to be a great carnival, and here is a list of blogs she's compiled of contributors to previous carnivals.
• if you haven't been across to the hand mirror lately, you may have missed the pay equity faxathon. please take time to spread the word about this, and encourage as many as you can to take part.
• it turns out that the dispute of the invercagill cafe owner with the 2 israeli women he refused to serve has now been resolved. joris de bres, the race relations commissioner, has put out a media release stating "The parties have met and reached a mutually satisfactory agreement. An apology has been offered and accepted in the spirit in which it was intended. In arriving at the agreement the parties have come to a greater understanding of the discrimination provisions of the Human Rights Act. The parties recognise that this has been a matter of public interest and they want it known that they both value and support harmonious race relations." i'm glad that there has been a successful mediation - it shows the power of the peace-making process when you have a strong independent external party ready to help the two opposing groups work through their issues.
• i've been really impressed by these two pieces of writing at kiwipolitico regarding the controversy over the adding of an "h" to wanganui. poneke also does a nice piece here. i just can't believe that this issue can cause so much angst. i mean really, nothing of import will be lost through the adding of an "h", so why all the shrieking hysteria? i think it's time to start my campaign to have hamilton's name changed to kirikiriroa, on the grounds that it sound so much nicer, predates the current name, is unique (i believe there's 5 cities in the world called hamilton?) and distinctly kiwi.

so that's it from me for a bit. hope you have a great week.