The Flowers by Alice Walker

 

 

Read The Flowers here

Read about Alice Walker here

International Women's Day

While extreme poverty has declined dramatically across regions, poverty remains gendered. Globally, women aged 25-34  are 25 per cent more likely than men to live in extreme poverty.

The coronavirus pandemic will widen the poverty gap between women and men, pushing 47 million more women and girls into impoverished lives by next year, and undoing progress made in recent decades, the United Nations said.

Worldwide more women than men will be made poor by the economic fallout and massive job losses caused by COVID-19, with informal workers worst hit in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, according to new U.N. estimates.

During the pandemic, women have lost their jobs at a faster rate than men have, as they are more likely to be employed in the sectors hardest hit by long lockdowns such as retail, restaurants and hotels, it said.Women are also more likely to work in the informal economy, typically in jobs as domestic workers and cleaners that often come with little or no health care, unemployment benefits or other protections.

 

Power and decision-making

G-20 leaders 2019 summit

Power and decision-making remain overwhelmingly dominated by men. Women’s representation in parliaments has more than doubled from 11 per cent in 1995, but men still hold three quarters of seats. Men also hold 73 per cent of management positions and are 70 per cent of climate negotiators. In peace negotiations, the numbers are even more dismal. In spite of conclusive evidence that where women are engaged in formal peace processes, agreements are more inclusive and durable, women make up just 13 per cent of peace negotiators and 4 per cent of signatories.

 

Gender Gap in Employment

 

 

 

 One in three women worldwide experience physical or sexual violence, mostly by an intimate partner. Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation, and the immediate and long-term physical, sexual, and mental consequences for women and girls can be devastating, including death.

 

•  Globally, 35 per cent of women have ever experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, or sexual violence by a non-partner.
• 137 women are killed by a member of their family every day.  
• Less than 40 per cent of the women who experience violence seek help of any sort.
• 15 million adolescent girls worldwide, aged 15–19 years, have experienced forced sex-
• One in 10 women in the European Union report having experienced cyber-harassment since the age of 15.  
  

 Sources: UNWomen  / World Economic Forum

Amanda Gorman Youth Poet Laureate

Amanda Gorman at the Presidential Inauguration

Mister President

Dr. Biden

Madam Vice President

Mister Emhoff

Americans and the world

One day comes we ask ourselves "where can we find light in this neverending shade?"

The loss we carry, a sea we must wade

We braved the belly of the beast

We've learned that quiet isn't always peace

And the norms and notions of "what just is" isn't always "just is."

And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it

Somehow we do it

Somehow we weathered and witnessed

A nation that isn't broken, but simply unfinished.

We the successors of a country in a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president

Only to find herself reciting for one.

And yes we are far from polished, far from pristine

But that doesn't mean we aren't striving to form a union that is perfect.

We are striving to forge a union with purpose

To compose a country committed

To all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.

And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us

But what stands before us.

We close the divide because we know to put our future first

We must first put our differences aside

We lay down our arms

So we can reach our arms to one another

We seek harm to none and harmony for all

Let the glow if nothing else say, "this is true."

That even as we grieved we grew

That even as we hurt we hoped,

That even as we tired we tried

That we'll be forever tied together victorious

Not because we will never again know defeat,

But because we will never again sow division.

Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree,

And no one should make them afraid.

If we're to live up to our own time,

Then victory won't lighten the blade but in all the bridges we made,

That is the promise to glade,

The hill we climb.

If only we dare it because being American is more than a pride we inherit

It's the past we step into and how we repair it.

We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it,

Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.

And this effort very nearly succeeded.

But while democracy can be periodically delayed,

It can never be permanently defeated.

In this truth, in this faith we trust.

For while we have our eyes on the future,

History has its eyes on us.

This is the era of just redemption we feared it at its inception

We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour

But within it we found the power to author a new chapter

To offer hope and laugh or to ourselves,

So while once we ask "how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe"

Now we assert,

"How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?"

We will not march back to what was

But move to what shall be a country that is bruised but whole,

Benevolent but bold,

Fierce and free.

We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation

Because know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation.

Our blenders because their burdens

But one thing is certain.

If we merge mercy with might,

And might with right,

Then love becomes our legacy in change

Our children's birthright.

So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left

With every breath from our bronze-pounded chest

We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one

We will rise from the gold-limb hills of the west

We will rise from the wind-swept northeast

Where our forefathers first realized revolution

We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states

We will rise from the sun-baked South

We will rebuild, reconcile and recover

And every known nook of our nation

And every corner called our country

Our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful

When day comes we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid

The new dawn balloons as we free it.

For there is always light if only we are brave enough to see it.

If only we are brave enough to be it.

 

Macbeth

When shall we meet again? 
In Thunder, lightning or in rain?


When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost and won 




...and thus the play begins.






  Assignments

Exam (with book) 

4B Tuesday 12th/ Wednesday 13th

4D  Wednesday 13th/Thursday 14th 

Scenes (acting out): Week starting 18th January

Here are some videos you may find interesting

The NY Times Film Club

Go to the NY Times Film Club , watch at least four videos and then choose one to write about. Take some time choosing. Remember to scroll down. There are pages and pages of different videos to choose from. 

Once you've chosen and watched your video, answer the following questions:

1. why did you choose it?
   
2. what is it  about? (in about 50 words)
   
3. what messages, emotions or ideas stood out for you?
4. Don't forget to include the title of the video!
   

 Deadline 4D: Friday 11th (4D)

 Deadline 4B: Monday 14th (4D)

 

Kamala Harris Speech

 

The Flannan Isles Mystery

 Have you ever heard of the Flannan Isles mystery? No? Well, you are about to.

  Search the web to find out where the Flannan Isles are and who the missing men of Eilean were.

Your first task (deadline Monday 5th/Tuesday 6th)

• Locate the Flannan Islands  (draw a simple map)
• Briefly explain the facts and the possible theories behind the mysterious events.

Your second task (at home-in pairs) 

There are many more mysteries which have captured people's imagination for years. 
Your second task will be to find another unsolved mystery and present it to the class. You may use a PowerPoint or any visual aids of your choice.

 
 
And remember, only sites in English!!!!