The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday that Congress will need to muster the resolve to change the “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” — a change that the military may be ready for.
“I think it has to be done in the right way, which is to get a buy-in from the military, which I think is now possible,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.
Obama’s political energies have been focused on two wars, the economic crisis and health care reform, though he pledged “unwavering” commitment even as he wrestled with those problems.
March organizer Cleve Jones, creator of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and a protege of gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, said he had initially discouraged a rally earlier in the year. But he and others began to worry Obama was backing away from his campaign promises.
“If somebody doesn’t have equal rights, then none of us are free,” he said.
“For all I know, she’s gay or he’s gay,” he added, pointing to his children.
Keynote speaker Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, firmly linked the gay rights struggle to the Civil Rights movement, saying gays and lesbians should be free from discrimination.
“Black people of all people should not oppose equality, and that is what marriage is all about,” he said. “We have a lot of real and serious problems in this country, and same-sex marriage is not one of them. Good things don’t come to those who wait, but they come to those who agitate.”
Some participants in the National Equality March woke up energized by Obama’s blunt pledge to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military during a speech to the nation’s largest gay rights group Saturday night.
Tens of thousands of gay rights supporters marched Sunday from the White House to the Capitol, demanding that US President Barack Obama keep his promises to allow gays to serve openly in the military and work to end discrimination against gays.
Rainbow flags and homemade signs dotted the crowds filling Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House as people chanted “Hey, Obama, let mama marry mama” and “We’re out, we’re proud, we won’t back down.” Many children were also among the protesters. A few counter-protesters had also joined the crowd, which stretched several blocks by the afternoon.
Jason Yanowitz, a 37-year-old computer programmer from Chicago, held his daughter, 5-year-old Amira, on his shoulders. His partner, Annie, had their 2-year-old son, Isiah, in a stroller. Yanowitz said more straight people were turning out to show their support for gay rights.
Watts’ paychecks are relatively small (by Hollywood standards), which helps her return on investment number, especially when she stars in a movie that turns into a major hit, like 2005’s King Kong, which earned $550 million at the box office worldwide. For every dollar Watts was paid on her last three major films, the movies earned an average of $44.
In order to create our list, we looked at the 100 biggest stars in Hollywood. To qualify, each actress had to have starred in at least three movies in the past five years that opened in more than 500 theaters. (In Watts’ case we didn’t count her 2008 film Funny Games because it only played on 288 screens.)
We didn’t include animated films because the actresses aren’t really the draw, and they tend to take pay cuts for voice work.
In the old Hollywood, it was all about the quote: what an actress could demand as an upfront paycheck. Nowadays, strapped studios are just as interested in what kind of return on investment they can get for their money when hiring a leading lady. Sure, Angelina Jolie brings instant press attention to a project, but is she worth upward of $10 million?
Based on our latest estimations of the actresses in Hollywood who offer studios the best return on investment, there are plenty who offer more bang for the buck than Jolie. The women who came out on the top of our list tend to be lower-profile stars who are happy earning paychecks of around $5 million and under.
Top-ranked Naomi Watts is a perfect example. The actress has yet to be involved in any kind of high-profile scandal and she usually shares equal screen time with a male lead, like in last year’s The International, which also featured Clive Owen.
Like Ms. Jawad, there were some other international fellows also participated the IWF world leadership conference. For these young women leaders, the forum is a good platform on which they could come up their concerns with prominent leaders for further development.
“I believe we should be always looking at how we can improve the standard of living at every level, whatever the reality is. … We should always be asking what is the next to take the women to the next level of excellence,” said Silver-Parker.
“We believe that our leadership development program is the best initiative we can share with the world. Because if you teach women to be leaders, and teach women the importance of being part of the process, or the financial markets, or the political arena, if women are there and pushing and educating others, then we can make a tremendous difference for all,” she said.
“About 5.6 million children went back to schools, 40 percent of them are girls. That is a big achievement, because girls were not permitted to go to school during the Taliban period,” said Ms. Jawad, Founder and President of Ayenda (means “Future”) Foundation, a non-profit Afghan Children Initiative based in Washington, the United States.
But there are “still a lot of challenges facing the Afghanistan women, to name, the main challenges are security and poverty” in the war-torn country, said Ms Jawad, whose Ayenda foundation has been committed to help Afghanistan’s children to “gain the confidence and the skills necessary to begin writing a new chapter of Afghan history.”
Like Ms. Jawad, there were some other international fellows also participated the IWF world leadership conference. For these young women leaders, the forum is a good platform on which they could come up their concerns with prominent leaders for further development
Founded in 1982 in the United States, IWF has grown across five continents into 25 nations with some 4,500 prominent women members. The leadership association provides access, information, leadership exchange and development for women on issues of international concern.
According to Silver-Parker, one of the major programs IWF has been pushing is called as International Women’s Fellowship, which would help young emerging women leaders to develop their leadership skills, so that “these young women can go back to their countries and play significant role in creating change.”
Shamim Jawad, one of the IWF intentional fellows, from Afghanistan, told Xinhua that under the help of the international community and the Afghanistan government, Afghan women came a long way in the past eight years and “have achieved many milestones.”
Choong is one of the many who failed to obtain a citizenship despite being born in the country.
According to local media, Choong was born in 1910 in Serdang located in the state of Selangor and married three times.
However, he said all his wives and a child had died while two other children were believed to be living in Thailand.
On September 16, Malaysian Home Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Hussein handed official letters to 92 successful applicants of Malaysian citizenship.
He told a press conference that the Malaysian government would hasten the process of dealing with the remaining applications.
Hishammuddin said 70 percent or about 33,000 applications received prior to 2008 had been processed while the other 30 percent applications were targeted to be processed by this year.
The 99-year-old Choong Yik Sheng would be granted Malaysian citizenship by the end of the year, local media reported here on Wednesday.
Local media quoted Alwi Ibrahim, director-general of Malaysia’s National Registration Department, as saying that staff from the department were instructed to meet Choong as soon as possible.
Choong would be classified as late registration of birth to have him enabled to get his MyKad, the identity card of a Malaysian citizen, said Alwi after attending a festive celebration at his department.
He also said that while Choong might not have any personal documents, forms would be provided for him to fill in his details.