Mary Stachyra

Few authors have as tumultuous a relationship with modern India as Rudyard Kipling. His political views, expressed in poems such as The White Man’s
Burden led many to deride him as racist. Yet Kipling’s lush depictions of 19th-century India in works such as The Jungle Book also made him one of the best-selling authors in the country.

That’s proved one thing: despite his politics, there is always a market for new editions of Kipling. The latest offerings come from Ladybird, a division of Penguin books in India, which recently released four new adaptations of Kipling’s Just-So-Stories, and may consider publishing more in the future, said Heather Adams, an editor with the imprint.

Read the rest in the Times of India

On a warm night in Fort Greene, people often sit at tables outside a bustling restaurant on DeKalb Avenue, just down the street from the park. Inside, patrons sit at tables or the bar, sometimes just chatting, other times listening to music or a reading from an author.

For a decade, Madiba restaurant has been a cultural center for South Africans in the city. Mark and Jenny Henegan, co-owners and spouses, modeled Madiba after a South African shebeen, where locals gather to drink, socialize and talk about politics. As a native of South Africa, Mark Henegan wanted to bring a taste of his homeland’s culture to his adopted hometown.

Read the rest here.

Pedicabs aren’t just for tourists anymore: Beginning next month, people in Harlem can come on and take a free ride. 

Amir Chizic, owner of BicyTaxi NYC, is sending 10 pedicabs uptown to offer free trips within 20 blocks of 125th St. 

Click to read the rest in the New York Daily News. 

Last night the Progressive Association for Political Action (PAPA) held a forum at South Oxford Space for four Democratic candidates for office of Public Advocate. Councilmembers Eric N. Gioia and Bill de Blasio, former public advocate Mark Green, and civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel each touted their backgrounds and ideas to say why they should get the job.

Read the rest in “The Local.”

Ambassador of The Gambia to the United Nations

Shortly before this year’s session of the Commission on the Status of Women, Susan Waffa-Ogoo, Gambia’s Ambassador to the United Nations, sat down with a reporter to discuss women’s issues in her country, which is the smallest in Africa.

Waffa-Ogoo’s answers were edited for length.

Q: What opportunities do women have for employment?

A: Agriculture really is the backbone of the economy. Seventy percent of the workforce in Gambia is engaged in the agricultural sector. Within that figure, I can safely say the majority of those engaging are women. Because that’s where they get their livelihood.

Women in The Gambia tend to work year-round, fulltime. After the farming season, they also engage in gardening activities. They have to do that together with the other responsibilities of caregiving, taking care of the entire family, children, all the people.

The most hard-working, to my mind, is the rural women. Unfortunately, because they engage in farming—which is mainly subsistence farming—they don’t earn enough. You know, they put in a lot of hard work, but they don’t earn enough to be able to support themselves and their families.

That’s as far as employment goes. Let me also explain…a lot of emphasis has been placed on the education of the girl child. The government has taken several intiatives in this regard, mainly to offer scholarships to girls at the primary level. Primary education is free in The Gambia. However, once the kids graduate the secondary level, the school fees and other school materiels tend to put a lot of pressure on the parents, especially those who are coming from very poor families and from the rural areas.

Q: Is this more in recent years that the government has taken these steps?
Well, yes. As far back as ten years now.

About fifteen years ago, the government felt there were a lot of primary schools, but there were not enough secondary schools. Seventy percent were in the rural areas, but the high schools were mainly in the urban areas…Most students were losing out on continuing education.

This is why, now, the policy is that every district needs to have a secondary school.

And of course, we also had the situation where, in the event that the family could not afford to send all the children to school, in the rural areas, they usually made the choice of sending the boys. Because they felt, in the culture, girls are married off, and boys can go on, complete school, higher education, and all that.

In this area as well, the government has taken very firm steps. It is illegal to remove the girl child from school early in order to get married.

Q: And what happens for girls who feel pressured into a marriage at a young age?

A: If that happens, and it comes to the attention of the authorities, they will take firm steps. Because it’s illegal now in the Gambia to marry young girls off, especially when they are still attending school.

Q: What age is it legal?

A: In the Gambia, the age of maturity is eighteen, according to the constitution. So before they reach eighteen, really, it would be illegal to marry them off.

Q: The fifty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women is coming up soon…What would you like to see happen there?

A: I think one of the key things is caregiving, in the context of HIV/AIDS.  It’s mainly the women…where the burden of caregiving rests squarely. For the women, I mentioned that you have a full-time occupation—housework, caregiving, household chores, taking care of your family, farming activities, and also other activities so that they can supplement the income of their family.

Apart from all that, they also take care of sick members of their family.

I feel that it’s time we talked about these things, and raised awareness. I know you cannot change the status quo overnight. But let us raise awareness and bring it to the floor. Let us show that the international community is aware of the burdens that women have to bear. And find ways of alleviating some of these burdens.

Aside from politics and religion, few topics are more contentious than neighborhood development. Whether it’s residential or commercial, for better or worse, development spells change for New York City neighborhoods.

In Manhattan Beach and Sheepshead Bay, for years, most homes were small. Now, the area has seen an influx of expansion as many homeowners obtain permits to add onto their houses.

Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill have also experienced significant changes, both residential and commercial. Many businesses have shifted from mom-and-pop operations like laundromats, delis and newsstands to high-priced boutiques and chain stores. 

Additional reporting and filming by Amber Benham.

Police blocked off 40th St, between 7th and 8th Avenue, after a suitcase was found near a synagogue this morning. The bomb squad later determined that the suitcase was harmless.

Author’s note: this article was written in mid-November 2008. Readers may wish to check other news sites for updates. 

After five months, a battle between the Associated Press and bloggers over copyright issues remains in legal limbo.

The Associated Press (AP) ignited a firestorm of controversy last June, when the news organization proposed to charge bloggers for any use of articles over 5 words.

While the initial furor across the blogosphere has died down, an official fee chart remains posted on icopyright.net, a group that helps publishers protect their work against copyright violations. The AP licenses its materiel through the organization.

“There are no written guidelines,” said Jack Stokes, manager of Media Relations at the AP. “If you are looking to use content from the AP you would go through icopyright.”

Stokes declined to say if the AP planned to release guidelines in the future.

“If you are doing anything on intellectual property you should know that there are no yes or no answers,” said Stokes, when asked what the AP’s standards were for bloggers.

It remains unclear if the AP plans to pursue any further legal action against bloggers who post excerpts without payment. For now, however, there does not appear to be any current legal action. Stokes refused to say if the AP was involved in any legal disputes over copyright issues on the web. He did, however, confirm that if there were any such disputes, they would be listed on the website.

A careful review of the website did not turn up any current legal action.

The New York Times reported on June 16 that the AP planned to release guidelines for use of its materiel. However, nearly five months later, the AP has not posted any such guidelines.

Standard fees for licensing of AP articles, as listed on icopyright.net, start at $12.50 for 5-25 words, and $7.50 for educational purposes and nonprofit groups. The terms of the license also expressly prohibit the purchaser from using the article in any way that could damage the AP’s reputation.

The debate began back in June, when AP attorneys sent a letter to Rogers Cadenhead, owner of The Drudge Retort, with a request that he take down  six posts and a comment that contained excerpts from AP articles. The quotations ranged from 39 to 79 words.

The posts were not written by Cadenhead, but by a few of the approximately 8,500 members of the site. The site allows users to post blog entries, share web links, and comment on posts.

AP lawyers alleged that the six posts and comment violated provisions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

Many bloggers were outraged by the AP’s stance and said that fair-use law permitted use of attributed AP materiel.

After a ten-day standoff, Cadenhead and the AP came to a terse agreement, in which Cadenhead removed down the questionable posts and the AP dropped legal action.

“I’m glad that my personal legal dispute with the AP is resolved…but it does nothing to resolve the larger conflict between how AP interprets fair use and how thousands of people are sharing news on the web,” Cadenhead said in an interview with the Washington Post. 

Bay Ridge Affected by MTA Cutbacks

The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) has plans to make drastic cuts in subway service. Learn how one Brooklyn community will be affected by the changes.

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