dontgetsnarky asked: On your post about Pocahontas: You should look up the Powhatan Tribe's explanation of the true Pocahontas story. Her life was actually really miserable after the English arrived, contrary to Disney and cultural appropriation like to have us believe.
The romanticized view of Pocahontas is the most common, but there is also a view of Pocahontas as victim which this leans towards.
Pocahontas was held captive and it was during that captivity that she converted to Christianity and married John Rolfe. The settlers’ records say that Powhatan didn’t meet the ransom, which upset Pocahontas and might explain her decision to stay.
She lived with John Rolfe on his farm for two years after their marriage. I doubt the colonists would have found her if she had decided to leave. So I can’t see her life as miserable and choice less. I think she either loved John Rolfe or (more likely in my opinion) she made a strategic political decision she could live with.
A few weeks ago I linked to a NPR discussion of Pocahontas which I think is worth listening to.
December 19, 1898
I, Liliuokalani of Hawaii, named heir apparent on the 10th day of April, 1877, and proclaimed Queen of the Hawaiian Islands on the 29th day of January, 1891, do hereby earnestly and respectfully protest against the assertion of ownership by the United States of America of the so-called Hawaiian Crown Islands amounting to about one million acres and which are my property, and I especially protest against such assertion of ownership as a taking of property without due process of law and without just or other compensation.
Memorial of Queen Liliuokalani in relation to the Crown lands of Hawaii, 12/19/1898
my-lisa asked: If you could have a conversation with any woman in history or fiction, who would you talk to? (:
Pocahontas.
There are very few definitive facts about her and people project a lot on to her. Some of her decisions such as her conversion to Christianity and her marriage to John Rolfe could have been due to deep feelings or simply strategic. I wonder what her relationship with her father was like- people like to call her a princess but that isn’t accurate. Her trip to England must have been incredible.
Four little girls decorate their austerity Christmas tree at a suburban Melbourne school. The tree branches are constructed of sticks hung with fringed paper and foil stars are used as decorations.
Secret Santas
If you haven’t heard yet, there is a nice little trend going on where people are going to Kmart and other retailers to pay off other people’s Christmas layaway. (Layaway is a program where people put aside items and pay for them a little bit at a time through the store).
In Grand Rapids, MI 20 Kmart layaways have been paid off in the last three days.
More than a dozen people have visited Bismark, ND Walmarts to anonymously pay off someone’s layaway.
An anonymous donor in Davenport, IA paid off four Kmart layaways.
Secret Santas have paid off layaways in Indiana, Nebraska, Michigan, Iowa, and Montana.
The phenomena seems to have started in Michigan and most of the incidents so far have happened in the Midwest. Donors have mostly asked to see lists that include Christmas toys and left a small balance, asking that the person who put the items on layaway be told that the bulk of their balance has been paid off.
Kmart, Walmart, Target, Toys R Us, and Babies R Us all have layaway programs if you are inspired to play Secret Santa yourself.
Nearly ten million East Pakistanis fled west across the border to India in the early months of the 1971 war, fleeing famine and the ravages of the Pakistani army.
Photo: Raymond Deparddon/Magnum Photos via Time
Bangladesh gained its independence from Pakistan on December 16, 1971 after a bloody fight.
It Only Takes a Girl.
Thanks to my friends for sharing this video on facebook.
Number 56 of things that made me cry today.
This is why on Kiva I make loans to women hoping to send their children (especially if a girl is mentioned) to school and donate to Hekima Place and orphanage and school for girls who have lost their parents to AIDs.
Every Christmas, I send a holiday e-mail out and instead of spending money on postage, I donate it to a good cause. These are two of the causes I am choosing this year.
This is similar in concept to the Girl Effect video, but this one makes the important point that families with limited means often chose to educate their sons rather than their daughters, which contributes to this cycle. The Girl Effect video left that fact out, leading to lots of “What about boys?”
For your holiday giving:
Kiva sells gift cards that the recipient can use to give a microloan to someone in the developing world.
Heifer International’s Gift Catalog allows you to give a symbolic gift like a cow.
Mercy Corps also does symbolic gifts, but there are more options like “teach a woman to read” and “give a child a soccer ball.”
Carmen Aguinaldo, circa 1918-1920
The daughter of Emilio Aguinaldo, the first president of the Philippines, Carmen studied at the University of Illinois. In the US, she met Jose Melencio, one time director of the Philippine Press Bureau in Washiington, DC. Together they had a daughter named Ameurfina who grew up to be the second woman appointed to the Philippine Supreme Court.
Serious question (though it might not seem like it)?
Does anyone know where I could find a list of the team members for the Yugoslavian national water polo team in the 1940s?
Told you it wouldn’t seem like a serious question…..
Edited for more background: I was recently told that someone I personally knew (he has passed away) was supposed to be on the 1944 Olympic water polo team for Yugoslavia, but those Olympics were cancelled because of the war. Google tells me that the man in question was some kind of water polo player (played for Rijeka), but that is all I can find. The People’s Liberation Army had water polo teams (?!?!) during the war and frankly, I don’t even know what to do with that information.
And then there was some talk about “Oh he played, but it was his sister who made it into the Olympics.” However, women’s water polo wasn’t an Olympic sport until 2000.
And seriously, what is up with the “Google it” answers. Do I seem like I don’t know how to google?
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