Body image ladies

Oprah is banging on about body image,    her stats say:

Do You Like Your Appearance?
60s: 64%
Teens 69.3%

Do You Look Good for Your Age?

60s: 88.3%
Teens 80.2%

There are more on the site - go visit - mostly it's healthy stuff to hear, and may help anyone on a day of crisis.

And there's also an ace  article from Amy Bloom also on Oprah - thank you Amy,

"... Stop criticizing other women's bodies for sport or to soothe yourself. 

And start. Start admiring aloud the things you really do admire. Show what you love and value. If you think Marta of Brazil is fantastic, put up her poster and get a group together to watch women's soccer. If Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Hillary Clinton or Aung San Suu Kyi is your hero, say so. "

Sustainability, environmentalism and the developing world

Today I read an obituary of Dr Wangari Maathai by Richard Black (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15060167)

On her 2004 Nobel peace prize he wrote:

"for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace".

In other words, it's not just planting trees - it's the reasons why trees are planted, it's the social side of how the tree-planting works, it's the political work that goes alongside tree-planting, and it's the vision that sees loss of forest as translating into loss of prospects for people down the track.

There is, in some parts of the world, a backlash now against these ideas.

Every couple of days an email comes into my inbox asserting that the way to help poorer countries develop is to get them to exploit their natural resources as quickly and deeply as possible with no regard for problems that may cause.

Organisations promoting this viewpoint are not, to my knowledge, based in the developing world but in the Western capitals that might make use of the fruits of such exploitation - cheaper wood, cheaper oil, cheaper metals.

It is the opposite of sustainable."

I think this pretty much sums up why our thoughts need to be conscious, why no action is too small, and why we need to be intelligent in out use of critical thinking.