On the Line

On the Line Stop Climate Change On November 4, people around the world protested to mark the International Day of Climate Action. In London, 25,000 people marched from the U.S. embassy to...

...Kenya's Environment Minister Kivutha Kibwana said, "Climate change is rapidly emerging as one of the most serious threats that humanity may ever face...
...For more information, go to www.globalclimatecampaign.org...
...They express their feelings of shame after an Armani-suited customer treats them like dirt...
...We've been called maids...
...It's not them and us...
...But we're workers...
...There are still people who look askance at a minister dressed in indigenous skirts," she says...
...Contributors received a small stipend and will receive all proceeds from sales of the 2,000 copies...
...But things are changing...
...So we call ourselves household workers...
...They call it being "pennied to death...
...This is the advantage: that after living through injustice, one is able to really advocate for others," says Casimira Rodr?guez...
...My strength is the practical side of things," Rodr?guez says...
...She then became head of the Confederation of Household Workers of Latin America and the Caribbean...
...Beginning in 1992, Rodr?guez lobbied for a law to protect the rights of household workers in Bolivia...
...Some readers of the book have begun leaving larger tips in hotel rooms and restaurants, says Holly Lachowicz, a member of the center's board...
...Published by the Southwest Center for Economic Integrity in Tucson, People Around Us was designed as a way to "amplify the voices of low wage earners in an undiluted, unmediated form," says Karin Uhlich, executive director...
...Like many in the Morales government, including the president himself, who is a former coca farmer, Rodr?guez belongs to the poor, indigenous, and previously unrepresented Bolivian majority...
...She eventually became a national and international advocate for the rights of household workers, returned to school, and began studying for a degree in anthropology...
...The total cost of the project was underwritten by individuals and the Wallace Foundation, which funds social change projects...
...The United Nations Climate Change Conference met in Kenya in November for a new round of talks...
...I met her on a Sunday afternoon at the headquarters of the Federation of Household Workers in La Paz, which she led from 1996 to 2001...
...Rodr?guez imitated the stiff expression and posture of past leaders and laughed...
...This includes a knee-length pollera skirt, a lace blouse, and an embroidered shawl...
...Most importantly, perhaps, it guarantees those wages be paid, and provides procedures for women to recuperate lost sums...
...The old elite wonders where the president's tie is...
...She is Bolivia's first female minister of justice under the administration of President Evo Morales...
...Staff members gave photography lessons and cameras to Tucson day laborers and issued calls for personal essays and poems from low income workers in the Southwest...
...Casimira Rodr?guez "When I speak with people face to face about their problems, I understand them...
...embassy to Trafalgar Square...
...Before she became minister, she was known for carrying her laptop in an aguayo, the woven shoulder blanket generally used for corn, potatoes, or young children...
...Raised in an indigenous community, she began working at thirteen as a maid in Cochabamba, a modest agricultural center to the east of La Paz...
...Sometimes I just catch my breath...
...Courageous and heartbreakingly honest, they describe trying to survive on $1.25 per hotel room cleaned...
...we work in the home so that other women can take other jobs...
...It's us...
...They Are Us The writers and photographers of a tiny book titled People Around Us are Arizona and New Mexico low wage earners: Wal-Mart cashiers, day laborers, servers at the posh Canyon Ranch resort...
...But now that indigenous people are in power, we must ask, 'How do we construct a truly just system, rather than doing to the elite what they did to us?'" "This is a lovely moment to be a part of," she says...
...Barbara Stahura For more information, visit the center's website, www.economicintegrity.org...
...Annie Murphy Annie Murphy is currently working as an independent consultant for the new Bolivian ambassador in Washington, D.C...
...They tell how they reserve a park picnic table to sleep on for $42 a week, even though the roaming coyotes are worrisome...
...The law was passed in 2003...
...It created standards for the hours and wages of household workers...
...For some women, it shows their status to speak of hiring a girl' to do their cooking and cleaning...
...we've been called domestic servants," she says...
...They realize that low income workers are part of our life every day...
...She wears Quechua attire to work and to state events...
...She was mistreated, forced to work long hours, and denied pay for two years...

Vol. 71 • January 2007 • No. 1


 
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