September | 2014 | ZETEO

“It’s On Us”: Carrying the Weight of Sexual Assault

September 20, 2014 by William Eaton

The Obama Administration has released another Public Service Announcement against sexual assault, this time with the slogan “It’s On Us.” “To stop sexual assault, to get in the way before it happens, to get a friend home safe, to not blame the victim, to look out for each other, to not look the other way, to stand up, to step in, to take responsibility…” Their previous star-packed PSA featured the slogan “One is Too Many.” It notably featured an all male […]

Categories: Caterina Gironda, ZiR • Tags: sexual assault

Leave a comment

Normal Relationships

September 19, 2014 by William Eaton

“Normal relationships are dynamic and unpredictable most of the time, while human beings are fickle.” This statement was made by South African judge Thokozile Masipa when she gave her reasons for acquitting star athlete Oscar Pistorius of the charge that he murdered his girlfriend. Her words seem to refer to the reports of conflict in Pistorius’s relationship with top model Reeva Steenkamp (pictured at right) and to text messages in which she said she was scared of Pistorius. Judge Masipa […]

Categories: Catherine Vigier, ZiR • Tags: murder, relationships, women

Leave a comment

It is an environment that wants you dead – II of III

September 18, 2014 by William Eaton

Part I – “Australia’s curious sense of disconnectedness” is about the Aussie people, a “beguiling fusion of America and Britain” – 11 Sept 2014 Part III – “Unaccountably overlooked and packed with unappreciated wonders” – is about Aborigines, earth’s oldest culture and stromatolites – earth’s oldest life form – 25 Sept 2014 In a Sunburned Country, Bill Bryson writes about the Australian continent’s vast emptiness. “You cannot say you have been to Australia until you have crossed the Outback,” declares Bryson. “It is […]

Categories: Tucker Cox, ZiR • Tags: travel

Opportunities for Stasis

September 16, 2014 by Ana Maria Caballero

Kay Ryan sits very near the top of contemporary poetry’s list of “must-read” writers. Sure, recommending a two-term former Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author should come as no surprise. But Ryan is also a poet to present to those who have no relationship with poetry. Her work has many layers, and perhaps only seasoned readers will reach the deepest ones. Yet, the first surfaces of her poems are touchable. By no means facile, her work is quick to convey a mood. This […]

Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: books, literature, poetry, reading, writing

Migration & the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

September 15, 2014 by Alexia Raynal

In the midst of the heated debate on U.S. immigration policy, Erika Eichelberger’s article for Mother Jones stands out for a new critique. Eichelberger observes that migrant children might be better treated if the United States would have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. One of the treaty’s largest provisions (Article 3) urges countries to act in the best interests of the child. Thus, ratifying would pressure the White House and Congress to prioritize reuniting kids with their family members in the […]

Categories: Alexia Raynal, ZiR • Tags: child immigrants, childhood, children, United Nations

Leave a comment

“Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me perfectly logical”

September 14, 2014 by William Eaton

“Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me perfectly logical,” Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., wrote in a famous Supreme Court dissent. “If you have no doubt of your premises or your power, and want a certain result with all your heart, you naturally express your wishes in law, and sweep away all opposition.” Holmes is getting to the heart of the problem of the persecution of people who speak out against prevailing opinion. But he seems to be underestimating […]

Categories: William Eaton, ZiR • Tags: freedom of speech, homophobia, law, racism, sexism, Supreme Court

Leave a comment

Robert M. Morgenthau on Immigration Injustice

September 13, 2014 by William Eaton

Without question, I considered Robert M. Morgenthau (District Attorney for New York, borough of Manhattan, from 1975 to 2009) the great political figure of New York City at the end of the twentieth century for his fearless battle against white-collar crime. He was a hero above the mundane vicissitudes of ordinary life. I was surprised then to find out that his wife, Lucinda Franks, had written the intimate story of their unusual marriage, Timeless: Love, Morgenthau, and Me. When he […]

Categories: Gayle Rodda Kurtz, ZiR • Tags: immigrants

Leave a comment

Land grabbing and conservationism

September 12, 2014 by William Eaton

A recent article in The Guardian by international security journalist and academic Dr. Nafeez Ahmed draws attention to the eviction of thousands of Kenyan rural-dwellers from their homes: In west Kenya, as the UK NGO Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) reported, over a thousand homes had been torched by the government’s Kenya Forest Service (KFS) to forcibly evict the 15,000 strong Sengwer indigenous people from their ancestral homes in the Embobut forest and the Cherangany Hills. Since 2007, successive Kenyan governments […]

Categories: Catherine Vigier, ZiR • Tags: Africa, corporations, environmentalism, indigenous people, The Guardian, World Bank

Australia’s curious sense of disconnectedness – Part I of III

September 11, 2014 by William Eaton

Part II – “It is an environment that wants your dead” – Bryson writes about his travels through the Australian Outback – 18 Sept 2014 Part III – “Unaccountably overlooked and packed with unappreciated wonders” – is about Aborigines, earth’s oldest culture and stromatolites – earth’s oldest life form – 25 Sept In a Sunburned Country, Bill Bryson gives robust insight into Australia’s irresistible appeal. We lose ourselves in Bryson’s sense of humor, stopping momentarily to smile, chuckle and […]

Categories: Tucker Cox, ZiR • Tags: Australia, Bill Bryson

ZETEO

Zeteo (ζητέω): to challenge, question, dispute, explore the forgotten and ignored

Monthly Archives: September 2014

“It’s On Us”: Carrying the Weight of Sexual Assault

Normal Relationships

It is an environment that wants you dead – II of III

Opportunities for Stasis

Migration & the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

“Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me perfectly logical”

Robert M. Morgenthau on Immigration Injustice

Land grabbing and conservationism

Australia’s curious sense of disconnectedness – Part I of III