Take it easy baby, make it last all night
oh yes, and what a night. the best since arriving, for sure. not the bit before sleeping, you understand - that was mostly spent at work - but the bit with the eyes closed: i dreamt i met tony blair at a fundraiser run by the parliamentary labour party, and everything wrong with him and his government and our parliamentary system just tripped off my tongue, smoothly and without pause to the agreement of the assembled - The Betrayed - who were fingering pieces of handcrafted cutlery and so on...
and as if that weren't enough, i had another intense, information filled dream at a conference in sweden about domestic violence, and it seems my work has started to get properly into my head. the point is not the dreams per se, but the sleep that must have accompanied them - having endured snoring cyclists, hard corridors, 25 celsius at midnight, people walk through my bedroom and the latest scourge of bloodsucking (i am bitten all over), i finally got a night's good sleep.
me and tom petty celebrated with a brisk stroll to work (via hell) and breakfast. and life is good.
so yes, i was at a conference on domestic violence - perhaps this gives an insight into what i'm working on? well, you kind of had to be there: the significant thing was not the conference but the presence of a large youth caucus. among the other things i am doing, and the most interesting part of my work here, is the pre-background study work i am doing on gender and youth policy in eastern europe and the cis.
in short: there is a european problem, acute in many parts of eastern europe, of below-replacement birth rates and aging population. governments want to increase their populations and birth rates; without commenting on whether this is a good thing, we want to make sure policies aimed at raising the birth rate don't impact negatively on gender equality or on women's human rights in the region. by -we- i mean me and my colleague - this isn't exactly a unifem project, but it's so nascent that's it's not an anyone project yet. the goal is, as far as i can tell (you), to create a credible proposal for very progressive youth policy in the countries concerned* which will, as a by-product, create conditions in which young couple decide to have children. so in a sense we are trying to jump the gun on potentially very negative policies and push for something very positive. suggestions on a postcard please. if anyone is more interested, leave a comment. i have to go and do some of this now. (and what do i do? read a lot and gather together potentially useful data, at this stage... it's not a million miles from university, except that it manages to be "eight" hours a day.)
* Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Bosnia, Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Armenia
and as if that weren't enough, i had another intense, information filled dream at a conference in sweden about domestic violence, and it seems my work has started to get properly into my head. the point is not the dreams per se, but the sleep that must have accompanied them - having endured snoring cyclists, hard corridors, 25 celsius at midnight, people walk through my bedroom and the latest scourge of bloodsucking (i am bitten all over), i finally got a night's good sleep.
me and tom petty celebrated with a brisk stroll to work (via hell) and breakfast. and life is good.
so yes, i was at a conference on domestic violence - perhaps this gives an insight into what i'm working on? well, you kind of had to be there: the significant thing was not the conference but the presence of a large youth caucus. among the other things i am doing, and the most interesting part of my work here, is the pre-background study work i am doing on gender and youth policy in eastern europe and the cis.
in short: there is a european problem, acute in many parts of eastern europe, of below-replacement birth rates and aging population. governments want to increase their populations and birth rates; without commenting on whether this is a good thing, we want to make sure policies aimed at raising the birth rate don't impact negatively on gender equality or on women's human rights in the region. by -we- i mean me and my colleague - this isn't exactly a unifem project, but it's so nascent that's it's not an anyone project yet. the goal is, as far as i can tell (you), to create a credible proposal for very progressive youth policy in the countries concerned* which will, as a by-product, create conditions in which young couple decide to have children. so in a sense we are trying to jump the gun on potentially very negative policies and push for something very positive. suggestions on a postcard please. if anyone is more interested, leave a comment. i have to go and do some of this now. (and what do i do? read a lot and gather together potentially useful data, at this stage... it's not a million miles from university, except that it manages to be "eight" hours a day.)
* Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Bosnia, Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Armenia
posted by chris at 11:41 PM
1 Comments:
That's all stuff along the lines possibly taken by governments. Our work is a bit different, being primarily focused toward youth policy (and for me toward gender implications of youth policy, positive and negative). For example, the suggestion of governemnt love for mothers with three children is exactly the kind of thing i fear - Women, go and have babies! The nation will pay you! - and even if it were p[aying parents for more than two children (as happens in France and Sweden, the W. European countries with the highest birth rates), this would have to be in a context that encouraged equal parenting responsibilities. Ideally through encouraging men to take advantage of being a parent around a young child, something most men even (especially!) in Britain certainly miss out on and something which at the same time would encourage more parenting-friendly attitudes in general (this is all very sketchy, sorry! I have a hundred things to do in the next four hours...) which in my thesis would bring us progress on closing the gender pay gap, decreasing feminised poverty and making everyone happier.
This overlaps with my other project, which I have yet to write a proposal for. I should get on that. To get back to the previous: you're reading the topic pretty accurately, though from a different angle to that which concerns me. I also didn't emphasise enough before the importance of youth policy in general for Europe (and where Europe goes...), especially in the East. It's not just related to childbearing (why are couples not forming unions and why deferring and reducing childbearing ?) - there are many aspects, primary among which I consider reproductive and sexual health and stable, productive employment. Sexual and reproductive health is actually one of my pet interests, incredibly important for reasons i'll link to another time. But employment, health and the conditions for childbearing are matters best addressed among youth (15-24 yo).
I like the international adoption idea, although it's politically very sensitive. I'll talk to some of my colleagues to see if it's ever been tried at high-profile.
But i have to cook and things. Thank you for giving me a chance to say this out loud - it gets a bit clearer every time. (I hope at least some of that came across! tell me if not, I'll try harder.)
No interesting articles this week, i haven't really been reading anything. Except Sarah's dissertation, and I wouldn't dream of putting that up ; )
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