~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE WASH RAG published by Women Against Sexual Harassment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Available on-line ASAP at http://www.washrag.org/ along with earlier issues ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ P. O. Box 164 Canton, SD 57013 Phone: (605) 987-5070 Fax: (605) 987-5070 -- call ahead, this is a one-liner Email: washragezine(bleep)yahoo.com ISSN: 1068-2449 Sign up for Free Newsletter: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WomenAgainstSexualHarassmentNational Want a print copy of the current W.A.S.H. Rag? Go to http://www.washrag.org/WASH/page27.html and follow the instructions. If you want to chat, e-mail swiss4_150000years(bleep)yahoo.com and ask for an invitation to chat. Hint: to find a specific item, if you are using Microsoft Notepad to view this, highlight and copy the title and then paste it in edit/find. Use View/word wrap to shorten line length ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Issue 16, Number 4 December, 2008 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Contents Sexual Harassment And The Self-Employed Women Taken For A Ride, A Chick Flick at the Car Lot -- A Review Young Woman Victim of Stalking Single Mother’s a Sexual Harassment Victim What Would You Do? CSI Includes Sexual Harassment in Story Line No Rest For the Weary — More Internet Woes Sexual Harassment of Women in the Navy Wailing at Dawn — The Abuse of Widows in Nigeria Brenda Roberts Update ART EXHIBIT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sexual Harassment And The Self-Employed Women ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By M. Garvin, author of TAKEN FOR A RIDE, The Screenplay--A Chick Flick at the Car Lot When I became self-employed, the furthest thing from my mind was sexual harassment. For more then a decade, I was in the auto cosmetic repair services industry and my customers were car dealers. After experiencing sexual harassment by the used car manager in charge of authorizing my work at my best account, I learned first hand that it was a take it or leave it situation. When I couldn't take it anymore, I walked away from that account. In short, my business was never the same. Later on, I decided to come forward thinking that it might somehow help me to heal and I strongly felt that the words "and you wouldn't tell, would you" should never be a part of any business transaction. Also, I stupidly thought the owner of the dealership would want to know that he had a loose cannon just as I stupidly thought the big auto maker who sponsored all those speaking engagements paying tribute to working women would actually care about a working woman. Instead, it was one big brush off. The auto maker refused to give me a copy of my sexual harassment claim in writing for more then a year stating it was an "in-house document" until I contacted the ACLU, the GM at the dealership included all of the women working at the dealership in his blatant lie in writing about an investigation that never even took place and no attorney would take my case because I was not an employee. When I finally did receive my claim in writing from the big auto maker, the letter read: It is through correspondence such as yours that we are better able to continue to improve our services and we sincerely appreciate the time you have taken to bring the matter to our attention. I honestly could not believe that any company would make a statement like that to any woman who was brave enough to come forward. I remember thinking but aren't you the company who really cares about working women? Not so. In fact, I personally don't think any company really cares about sexual harassment. All this hoopla about zero tolerance is for lawsuits and monetary loss. This company knew I could not get an attorney so no need to care about the sexual harassment part. At that point, I seriously thought I would have felt a lot better if I had just kicked that used car manager in the balls as hard as I could the day he tried to physically grab me in the key room. Later on, when a similar situation happened at yet another dealership, I knew better then to say anything. I needed the account and I knew they would get rid of me before any action would be taken with the salesman. So now I know why women don't tell and what happens when we do. The woman always looks bad unless you have proof. The brush off felt like another round of abuse and I knew I needed to deal with my emotions of feeling extremely violated and the internal anger brought on by the entire experience. I could not afford therapy so one day when a car dealer said to me, "That's what you get workin' for a bunch of car dealers", I decided to write a story about sexual harassment and car dealers from a woman's perspective. I published the book on Amazon in a screenplay format because the original idea was for a film. I may never get to watch the movie but at least the story is out there for anyone who wants to read it. For me, I can honestly say that writing was an excellent form of therapy and I recommend it. In fact, there is such a taboo and fear in talking about sexual harassment that I wish more women would write about it. I also struggled with the fear but then I thought of my nieces and of women everywhere and knew I wanted to make a stand. Sexual harassment is the most rampant, under the radar form of abuse out there, yet, the world so seldom hears these stories because no one wants to talk about it in public. I believe that writing and talking about sexual harassment is the only way to make a positive change. So on a final note- thank you to Janet Leih and Anita Hill. To my mind you are beyond brave. The world needs more women to stand up against sexual harassment. [Being compared to Anita Hill is more of a compliment than I deserve, but I appreciate it anyway. Janet Leih] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Taken For A Ride, A Chick Flick at the Car Lot -- A Review ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fired from a job as a waitress for having insulted the wife and friend of the restaurant's owner, Jill takes training for repairing damage to car seats and panaling, optimistically expecting to earn a living wage as an entrepreneur in automobile cosmetic repair. But she is disappointed as the managers of car lots cheat her out of her expected income, sexually harass her while she is trying to work and get paid, and finally, one of them, Jack, pursues her sexually and with a great deal of effort, finally gets her into an intimate relationship by lying about a failing marriage. When he gets caught by his wife in a relationship with another woman, Jill and her friends finally see a way to get revenge and even the playing field. TAKEN FOR A RIDE by Mary Garvin is a screenplay that might have been written by almost any victim of sexual harassment about almost any workplace. It includes a dozen or more situations that almost every victim of sexual harassment has experienced, coincidentally set in used car lots. The ending is the dream of every woman who is a victim of sexual harassment, proving the harassers modus operandi and taking revenge against them. Mary Garvin says that she wrote the play in frustration after having experiencing sexual harassment in a similar venue. She found the experience of having expressed it in this screen play very satisfying and therapeutic. She recommends that others who have experienced similar sexual harassment write about it so others will know what it is like to be treated in such a demeaning way. The reason this is so important is because nobody but a victim of sexual harassment understands the dynamics of how the perpetrator goes about misinforming and manipulating the victim. We commend Mary Garvin for having taken the step of letting others know how the system goes about violating women who work hard and need to earn a fair paycheck without having to prostitute themselves to do so. Contact Robertson Publishing at http://www.Robertson-Publishing.com or go to http://www.amazon.com for information about how to buy the script. Review by Janet Leih ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Young Woman Victim of Stalking ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have been getting harassed/street theatered/group stalked for over a decade now. I can not tell when it began, but I can go back to the first few signs I can remember, which is finding a necklace I had that was snapped in half in my parents bathroom cabinet while I was living on their couch ( I don’t have a good relationship with them, but they are not the perps of this vandalism) Other items had been disappearing and reappearing from my parents house, causing many fights about "who" was doing this, of course blaming each other, when it was a gang of stalkers, who do this "gas-lighting" as a mean of entertainment, picking their victims out of convenience (in other words, me being a young single woman in my 20's, with no family support and not a lot of money) I hadn’t put all the pieces of my stalking/harassment together until a few years ago, thinking I was being followed by individuals or individual landlords from whom I had rented a room, not realizing it was a group working together, or that I had mini wireless cameras hidden in some of my apartments as well (I’m told I need to purchase all types of devices, such as debugging devices, the types of items famous people or politicians would need) Of course when a "regular" person is targeted by these types of people, you usually can not afford to fight back because you can’t afford the security devices, alarms, etc. that you would need to fend them off. You also can not get help: this crime thrives on the defense mechanism of denial, everyone including the victim "denies" this is going on, because it sounds too bizarre to be real: a group of people, misfits, mostly older men who are psychotic and do nothing all day except stalk people while dressed as detectives, or any other "costume" need be it to stalk their victims. This includes switching cars, hiding in crawl spaces, all sorts of other bizarre things. I have moved several times over the years, but the stalkers seem to follow, its seems nothing is too much effort to feed their "harassment addiction" Even worse is a lot of police officers take part in the harassment, viewing it as "silly fun" They will do this by ringing sirens as you sit on the toilet, leave the house, get up out of a chair ect. Again, whatever cams they do have hidden in my place are not visible to the naked eye, and I have searched for them but can’t find them. All of my belongings have been destroyed as well, my jewelry box smashed, cat killed and run over, (on a small side street) food tampered with, clothing urinated on, ripped, dragged, etc.-- I currently have no sheets, pajamas, pillows ripped open, nothing is left. My lamp is smashed, and when I try to get help for this the only thing I hear over and over is: call the police, who are perps of this crime, and yell "whore" at me, while following me with their cars. Every week I am at the store purchasing everyday items, which is hopeless due to the fact they are going to get ruined. I also wear full clothes to bed, and shower with the lights off.. .... I wake up every night to people IN MY APT.... after the first time it happened, I slept on the beach for a few nights. I realized I had no other place to go, as no one wants to help so now I am back to sleeping in my place, which is awful because (with the neighbors help) these people continued to squat in nearby houses, and break in on a daily basis. I have changed the locks, pushed furniture, cement blocks, added special locks to the outside of the door, etc..... but nothing seems to deter them, they seem to like the "challenge" of getting past whatever barrier I put up. They also blatantly park and drive by my place, sometimes while wearing disguises. I decided to sign up for some college classes, but when I am in class, the whole class "street theaters" me, most of the students don’t even know the term "street theater" they think it is a "fun" favor for someone. The professors will walk into the room and mutter "whore" under their breath, while smirking and laughing. Then throughout the whole class, they will do this, with other things like "kike Jew" (I’m not actually Jewish, just 1/4 but not raised Jewish) and other insults, when class is over, they go up to the teacher and collect their "pay" which is usually something silly like a few dollars, drugs, or a slice of pizza, etc. I was also told by one of the stalkers they are trying to "neutralize the population" and "its a thrill" to harass people in this way. Whatever that means. I just hope there is some end to this, because there doesn’t seem to be one as of now. Some days I wonder how I manage to live this way, as my apt is a virtual torture chamber as of now, with smashed, scratched, and broken items abound. Even more bizarre, the people who participate seem to think they are being "funny and attractive" not only to me, but especially to each other. I find it immature and disgusting, I personally would be embarrassed to walk around yelling things, picking my nose, crotch etc. for money but they seem to think they are adorable. I don’t know what the world is coming to at this point. Some have blamed it on drug use from the 60's-70's----people are losing their minds after decades of heavy drugs use--most of my stalkers are older men. I just don’t know, but I do hope that a solution is found for the victims, because this is a crime which is sweeping the country, and innocent people are being targeted.- gang-stalking/sexual harassment victim Name Withheld It appears from the contacts we have with victims of sexual harassment, over half of those who file sexual harassment complaints end up being the victim of severe stalking as described by this victim. Janet Leih ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Single Mother’s a Sexual Harassment Victim ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Robert LaRose" robert_larose(bleep)comcast.net I am the coworker of a woman in Richmond, California who is a victim of sexual harassment. For a long time her supervisor made constant blatant sexual advances toward her and even told her he would get her fired if she did not have sex with him. She remained silent for a while, but when she could not take it any more she told the company management of what was happening. That was a few months ago. To this date all that was done was to move her to a different shift. When I talk to her I get a feeling as if she was mentally raped. She feels like a helpless victim and cries all the time. She is a single mother who does not have any health insurance and does not know where to turn for help. She wants to quit her job but can not afford to. I told her I would try to find some help for her but I have never dealt with this sort of thing either. Do you know of any resources for her, or who she could talk to for help? Thank you very much. Robert ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What Would You Do? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I was a Junior Executive at Macy's California working as a computer programmer for the northern California division on Union Square in San Francisco. I had helped converting the Sales Audit project to a new system, then I did a Burt Reynolds Calendar, then I did some cross word puzzles. One day I walked into the office manager's office and sat down to talk to him. I told him I didn't seem to have anything to do, and did he have something he wanted done. He pulled out a report listing for what was called the "Ranking Report" and said the buyers had been anxious to get it, and they would be eternally grateful if I provided it for him. In the process of the conversion, I had worked on converting all of the files needed for the program to the new system, and I even still had all of the file descriptions, so I got busy and wrote the program, which I would call a tedious but not particularly challenging program. I had a program which would run in 3 hours to provide the buyers with information on what items were being sold, but I needed to get the time down as this was too long, so I was working on that when I went in to have lunch in the cafeteria. One of the senior executives, in charge of data entry, came up to the table I was sitting at and asked if he could join me. Since the tables sat 8 or 10 people, I said yes, and he sat down. After we had exchanged a few amenities, he said to me that he was on the salary review board. I told him I had heard that he was. They made recommendations on who should get pay raises. He then said that if I would have sex with him, he would make sure I got a good raise. I was so shocked that I hardly was able to reply, but I think I said that I had two teenaged daughters at home who were eating me out of house and home and who constantly were nagging me for the newest clothing fads so I could use a pay raise, but I didn't intend to sleep with anyone to get it, got up and left. Later, the system analyst came in and asked me what I was doing, and I told him I was working on the Ranking Report. I heard him in arguing with the Office Manager about it, and he had apparently said they would have to buy a bigger computer system to run the program, but it was running then on the IBM 370-145, I think they had, very easily. This was because I put most of the data out in disk files rather than trying to keep them all in memory. When the pay raises came out, every one else got $100.00 a month while I just got a $50.00 a month pay raise. By that time, I knew that the buyers had been begging the programmers for the report, which had been running at Bloomingdales in New Jersey on a different system, for some time. I was shocked that a casting couch executive could make such a demand in such a public way and get away with it. After I got the run time for the program down to 30 minutes, which was acceptable, and put it into production, I got phone calls from the buyers thanking me for having given them a powerful tool in knowing what was selling and what was not. That was the only time in six years of working in DP in San Francisco that anyone told me they appreciated what I had done, one normally did not hear from the users unless something went wrong. We were getting paid more than most of them, so I suppose that they figured we didn't need for them to blow up our egos. This program was supposed to be run weekly, monthly and annually. I was able to test it weekly and monthly, and with the right flags in place, both of them ran perfectly. I was not able to test the annual run as I left Macy's in the fall for a job as a consultant for the State of California Justice Information Project at San Francisco for a raise of over $100.00 a month more than I had been getting at Macy's. But I always regretted leaving Macy's, it was a fun place to work, one could go out in Union Square and watch the mimes from the mime school in the area working the traffic in the square, and it was right on the end of the cable car line, just 20 minutes by trolley from where I lived, and I got a discount on anything available at Macy's. I did do an exit interview with Macy's at personnel's request, and they were anxious to know why they could not keep capable female programmers in that position which they wanted to do as the largest part of Macy's clientele were women. They were shocked when I told them that the Senior Executive had told me I would have to have sex with him to get a pay raise, which sure will explain it. I wonder how people would respond if there had been others at the same table. This was in around 1973, and there was not even a name for sexual harassment at that time. I had been told repeatedly that women in California had to provide sex to employers to get ahead, but I did not really believe this was true until then. After watching several episodes of What Would You Do with John Quiniones on ABC, I went to their website at http://abcnews.go.com/whatwouldyoudo (a maximum of 2000 words) and submitted it. I challenge everyone to do the same, if they get enough positive feedback, they may do a segment on sexual harassment. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CSI Includes Sexual Harassment in Story Line ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On February 12, 2009,. CSI on CBS had a sexual harassment situation entering into the story. The sexual harassment led to the murder of the man who tried to stop it (retaliation of this kind is common) and the accidental death of the perpetrator. Isn’t that heart-rending? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No Rest For the Weary — More Internet Woes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have finally been able to recognize when someone has hijacked the update stream from a software provider. Let me give you an example. I had installed AOL and was using it, but I was having problems so when I called their support number, a recording suggested that I install AOL 9.1, so I did. When I clicked to download, the window that came up said that it would take 7 minutes to download. It took nearly 6 hours. Immediately after I finished, I logged off and powered my computer down. The next time I brought my computer up, I ran Adaware and it found a Trojan. The same thing happened twice when I, frustrated with AOL, tried to download from MSN, but this time, it said something like 52 minutes. An hour and fifteen minutes later, it was only about a quarter through the progress bar so I cancelled. The next time I logged on, something similar happened, it said it had something to download but gave a specific time and then was only partly through when the time expired so I once again cancelled. Since then, I have had few problems with my system, and the last couple of times I have logged on, it has not tried to download anything. This is in part a matter of paying attention to what is going on, and in addition, to using common sense. In truth, I would rather just start the process and go get a cup of coffee, but this plays into the hands of the hijackers who depend on the user being ignorant and not paying attention to what is going on. It is obvious that if the software vendor says it will take 7 minutes, there is no way it should take more than 10 or 15, no matter how busy their system is. I just wanted my system to work better and decided to let AOL download what I needed. The fact is, although the extra download may or may not have come from AOL, it made my system operate worse and I only logged on one or two more times before I just deleted everything AOL off my computer and system registry and installed a different ISP. I have noticed that the number of "Hide Icon" items in the registry has decreased phenomenally and the number of "Hidden as requested by user" and just plain "Hidden" entries has increased phenomenally. Looking for something else, I found a "hideserv" associated with some key words. As long as anyone has remote access to your computer, they can in real time track everything that you are doing, and when they realize you have identified something like that, they can just do a global change to rename it. The fact is, they could call it 9bQr62F8 as far as the computer is concerned, if there is a 9bQr62F8 Manager which has the same code as the “Hide Icon Manager,” someplace on the computer, it will work the same. Anyway, if you find some key name you don’t recognize in the system registry, you might search for it on the internet. If it is a legitimate function of some software, it should be documented someplace. If it isn't, then some hacker probably is using a faux name to confuse anyone trying to troubleshoot the system registry. Should you remove it? It is always dangerous to change the system registry. If you do and it is a critical operation, you might end up having to do a system recovery. There are worse things that might happen. If you do nothing, you are doomed in any case. If you remove it and it solves your problem, you can go on with your life. At least you have learned something, how to do a system recovery. As a matter of fact, I once got so enraged at what I was finding in my system registry, I just sat there and deleted everything I found that even slightly annoyed me, and of course then having to do a system recovery because the screen was blank when I tried to restart it. It was a therapeutic action, I felt exhilarated after I had done it, and for a few days, until I got on the internet again, I did not have any problems I could attribute to a remote access device. If you do find yourself in a situation where, when bringing your computer up, you only get a blank screen, there are two possible actions on your part. First, you can again restart your computer, and the minute you do so, keep hitting on the F8 button. If you are lucky, you can sign in as the administrator, bring the system up in the safe mode, and you can restore from some restore point previous to when you made your changes. If not, you can once more restart the computer and keep hitting the F10 button until you get a screen where you can do a system recovery, which wipes out everything that was on your hard disk and restores it from the D drive, which is a CD ROM with the original operating system on it. You can tell if something is hidden in Windows if you do a search on something, and when you see it in the found items, the icon for an individual item will be fuzzy. It is possible to “unhide” items hidden in the registry, but this takes some sneaky underhanded manipulation. If you can find the hidden folder in any way, for example if you know the name of the folder and it is no longer visible, you can search on the folder name and be sure to check the option to “search all hidden files and folders” before you do.. If the search function finds the folder, right click on it, select properties, then take the check mark out of the “hide” box. Then you will be able to see it in Windows. When I changed from AOL to MSN because I knew that AOL was supporting the remote access device, large numbers of folders on my computer vanished. I went to the control panel and clicked on appearance and folders, but there was no longer any option to display hidden folders. Thanks, MSN. After a week or two, it occurred to me that my search function had an option to "search all hidden files and folders" so I did so on the critical folder name, which was "Application Data". When I got a dozen or so listed that were all hidden (you can tell they are hidden because they are muted in color) I right clicked on one, clicked on properties and then removed the check mark in the box to hide it and selected OK. Then it was no longer hidden. I did that to all of the Application Data folders, then I was able to go in and delete anything that did not appear to be legitimate, including an incidence of Windows in the Owner Application Data folder. This is what had been downloaded and hidden when I downloaded MSN. The truth is, every ISP I have had since I started to get on-line has supported the RASMAN. That includes DTGNET, Earthlink, Netscape, 1Access.net, AOL and MSN. This has led me to the conclusion that the problem may not be with the ISPs but with the telephone company, Qwest, as all of them used the same local telephone number. I suppose someone at the telephone company has access to the data stream between my computer and the ISPs, in fact I am 100% sure that this is true, and they are hijacking my internet access no matter who the ISP is. This bothers me less than that none of the ISPs will address this problem or do anything about it. I have spent hours on-line with Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, even the ISPs, and they have first of all refused to acknowledge that I have a RASMAN on my computer, and of course, if it is not there, then of course, the problem does not exist. However, I recently started to keep better tabs on the services allowed on the msconfig services tab, and uncheck any that looked like they were related to a remote access device. Then, when I tried to log on to the internet, I got a warning from MSN that “There is a problem with a Windows service (RasMan). To resolve the problem, click “Fix..” There is no option to continue without fixing the problem, if I click on “Cancel.” the only other option, it goes back in to the window to initiate logging on to the internet. Conversations with MSN led to me spending many hours talking to them and trying to correct the problem on a website they had me go to. In the end, they were still insisting that RASMAN was a legitimate Microsoft program in spite of the fact that when I first became aware of it, I went to the internet and most of the sites there were trying to figure out what it was, and one was downloading it, and I searched on RASMAN on Microsoft’s own knowledge base and came up empty. I searched on it twice to make sure. I think that I probably was right in the first place, in issue 15.2 page 7, where I was puzzling over ctfmon and index.dat (index.dat disappeared from my computer when RASMAN appeared) and I suggested that when Microsoft was being sued by the US Government, that they made a deal to have to suit dropped if Microsoft would put code into Windows to allow the government to spy on their customers. If there are others who are being victimized because they have a Remote Access Device on their computer, it seems like someone should start a class action suit against Microsoft. Janet Leih ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sexual Harassment of Women in the Navy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I believe I said this before, but I will now say it again: At the Navy base where I used to work, located at Point Mugu California, every single female (military and civilian) who ever filed any type of sexual harassment complaint was terminated, given a bad conduct discharge, or forced to resign or retire. Every single female who filed such a complaint, without exception, was retaliated against, in the manner described. That in itself is worth a story. "One female (Julie Butz), who filed a sexual harassment complaint against a malicious supervisor at the Point Mugu installation, had so much stress dumped on her by the same supervisor (in retaliation) that she died a few months later, in 1998. Did the evildoers in the EEO and Labor Relations office, as well as the supervisor, know that Julie had a severe heart problem??? They SHOULD HAVE KNOWN, due to the amount of sick leave Julie Butz was taking during her final year at Point Mugu. Did she receive any kind of protection from ANYONE at the base??? No way!! Absolutely not!!!. Was it NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE??? In my OPINION, it could have been called that. What happened to the malicious supervisor??? He was told to take sensitivity training, then put in charge of a large, prestigious project, and later on given a promotion. What was the name of the installation in question??? The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, aka NAWCWD." "My knowledge of all of this took place during the 1995 to 1999 time frame. I read federal court documents filed by some of the females, and heard first from some of the victims, and lots more second hand accounts from people who knew what was going on. I found out the details of what happened to Julie Butz a few months prior to her untimely demise, and from several of her female coworkers." "In 1999, I was forced to retire against my will, because I was blowing the whistle on some of these abusive managers, who were retaliating against EEO complainants and whistle blowers, and especially against any females who submitted a sexual harassment complaint. I reported the malicious, evil behavior to members of Congress, and the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), the DOD IG and the Navy IG. Then the evildoers "turned loose the hounds" on me, and out the gate I went, during the Reduction In Force (RIF) of 1999 in an involuntary retirement. I had 32 years of honorable service, including 6 years in the military (Navy) during the Vietnam War. My family and I have been living in a high cost area of California, since then, in conditions close to poverty. John Jay JJay943(bleep)aol.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Wailing at Dawn — The Abuse of Widows in Nigeria ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Wailing at dawn is reminiscent of what the writer of this letter and her mother as well as her brothers and sisters passed through under the guise of cultural/traditional practices known as widowhood rites. Widowhood rites or better still widowhood practices refers to a set of traditional regulation guiding the action of others towards the widow and rituals performed by the widow from the time of the death of a spouse until just after burial. Some of these mourning rituals are tedious and rigorous but the health implications associated with them are dangerous to the widow. They include seclusion and general isolation in which the widow is confined to a small room and all hairs of her body including her public hairs and the hairs of her children are shaved with one unsterilized razor. She is thereafter allowed a small dirty old cloth around her waist known as a sack cloth to cover her genital organ throughout the mourning period which lasts from three months to six months or sometimes a year. In the first one or two days of seclusion, the widow is forced to go without food, after that, she can only eat with unwashed hands, unwashed broken plates and sits on a bare floor with her legs stretched out in front and sleeps on an old worn-out mat on the floor throughout the mourning period. She is forbidden from taking a bath, going to market or farm and talking to anybody outside the kin family. Throughout the period between five o’clock to six o’clock in the morning the widow must wake up the family and the neighborhood with strenuous early morning wailing and crying for the departed spouse recounting to the neighbors and the entire village community what her husband used to do for her and how much she has missed him. In most traditional African societies it is the extended family that owns the body of the dead person and exercises complete control over the corpse. The widow is expected to submit to the dictates of her husband’s family. This offers an opportunity for any members of the husband’s family who has been aggrieved in the past by the widow to get even. Such persons are free to scold her on the pretence that she did not treat her husband well when he was alive. If the widow dare show any indignant mien, she may be striped naked before the exclusive glare of the kin, whipped or forced to dance naked before them. In addition, the widow or widows as is always the case in polygamous marriages, are subjected to swearing to an oath and sometimes juju that they did nothing that could possibly lead to the death of the man such as poisoning him or committing adultery in his life time. In the process of the administration of this oath, the wife or wives are compelled to drink from the water already used in washing the corpse or water specifically used to wash his anus. Since the widow is seen in the eyes of this tradition as impure and contaminated and thus requires purification, she must perform ablution rites after the burial in which sacrifices are made in which goat, hens, yams, kola nuts, palm wine and hot drink are used and after which she can return to normal life. Since most African marriages are customary marriages and are therefore polygamous, the wife is the property of the kin family. When her husband dies, the widow is removed from her husband’s properties and she is given to her husband’s brother or sometimes the first son of the deceased of another woman in a polygamous union for inheritance. It is needless to say that men are not subjected to such indignities when their wives die. In some cultures like Bansara people of Cameron Republic and the Bayangkis in the republic of Equatorial Guinea of Central Africa there is the fear that when a wife dies, the spirit of the dead wife may return at night to share the marital bed with her living husband. To avoid this happening, another wife is found for him on the day the wife dies to keep the bereaved husband company. Clinical evidence indicates that these are very painful and damaging experiences for widows. Starvation, untidiness and usage of rags and worn out mats infested by disease carrying insects like bed bugs, body lice, ticks, etc., as well as brutality which characterizes the practice causes malnutrition, anemia, rashes, heart disease, mellitus, dysentery, hypertension, digestive disorders and death. The shaving of the widow and her children of their pubic hairs using the unsterilized razor is a good avenue for HIV/AIDS transmission. The insults, sarcasm, psychological trauma, hopelessness, humiliation, dispossession of the husband’s properties, frustration and the giving of the widow for inheritance may lead to suicide. Finally, the costs and expenses associated with fulfilling these traditional rites and obligations usually propel the widow into long lasting debt and poverty. It is for these reasons that we launch a massive educational and enlightenment campaign in the print and electronic media as well as enlightening the rural communities with public address systems against these dehumanized widowhood practices and their negative health implications and the need for them not to submit themselves into these degrading cultural practices. After all, many African cultures once practiced the killing of twins and their mothers but only a handful of white missionaries, one of whom was Mary Slessor, a Scottish woman, single-handedly stopped it in the eastern part of Nigeria and other African countries. We therefore solicit the support of all well-meaning people in our crusade to stop these practices and together we will win. For how to support his campaign, write to Hannah Edemikpong Women’s Collective Box 185, Eket Akwa Ibom State Nigeria ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brenda Roberts Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am writing to keep you up to date on my case. A jury trial is scheduled for January 27 & 28 in Richmond Virginia. All depositions are done, so now we wait it out until January unless Shaw decides to settle out of court before then. All those who witnessed anything and know things about the events that led to this have gotten great raises and/or sent out of the country. How convenient. Three years is way too long to wait but it is almost over. cherri1260(bleep)yahoo.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ART EXHIBIT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On the eve of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month The 30th Jubilee celebration of Woman and Earth Global Eco-Network is taking place at the Contemporary Art Network Gallery, New Art Center, 580 8th Avenue, 5th Floor at 38th Street, New York, NY, Saturday March 7, 2009 from 3:00pm to 6:00pm honoring Tatyana Mamonova, the first woman exhibitor in the Soviet non-conformist artists’ movement who is living in New York City as a Russian exile. She was also a news woman on Russian TV, and is credited with starting the feminist movement in Russia. Email: womearth(bleep)yahoo.com; Fax 914-219-1080; Telephone 212-866-8130 or 917-345-8130; Mail: Woman and Earth, Attn: Tatyana Mamonova, 467 Central Park West, Suite 7F, New York, NY 10025 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WE’RE ON THE WEB http://www.washrag.org/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This on-line version of THE WASHRAG is being sent to you free. A print version can be obtained by subscribing. In the US, send $20.00 to Women Against Sexual Harassment Treasurer Elisa M. Pedroza,8048 Meraz Ave., El Paso, TX 79907. Outside the US, send $40.00 to join. For a sample issue, send a #10 sized SASE. E-mail comments can be sent to washragezine(bleep)yahoo.com. To sign up for a free e-mail subscription to the W.A.S.H. Rag join the group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WomenAgainstSexualHarassmentNational Contact us by logging into the group and sending an e-mail to the moderator, this by-passes the hyjackers. 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