Category: Freedom

Software for Starving Students

Software for Starving Students is a collection of open source software one can download for free. It includes an office suite, firefox, and its own user-friendly interface.
Good software
From the site:

We created the SSS CD because we love open source software and want to help make it more accessible to students all around the world. Although all students need good software to be successful, many have a hard time getting it on student budgets. We empathize with them because we’ve felt that pinch ourselves. This software enables students to achieve more for less, and that inspires us. People all over the world are using free software to make their lives better.

Women Gain Independence in Pakistan

Necessity is proclaimed to be the mother of invention, and in quake-hit Pakistan, necessity also seems to advance human rights. Women in Pakistan have traditionally been granted few freedoms, but the recent surge of NGOs and the need for money have both provided women with chances to work – something unimaginable a few years ago.

It’s comforting to see that even if disaster good things can happen.

From the article:

Rights workers say there has been a big change in attitudes towards women and work.

“It is a sudden and vast change,” said Raja Nawaz, project coordinator with the International Human Rights Observer organisation.

“Before this disaster, it was very difficult to get females to work in the private sector or in the NGO sector. It’s astonishing that women have started working outside their homes.”

UN Gets New Bigger & Better Body

The UN has created a new peace-building commission to help countries not renew the violence from previous conflicts. A lot of conflicts around the world tend to re-ignite after the peace-keeping mission departs, the new commission aims to ensure that this doesn’t happen.

Now, the UN would not only train security forces, but also ensure that the infrastructure is in place so the security force can be effective. It would also look into other ways to ensure that violence will not start through, what can be considered, traditional ways. A proactive approach rather than a continually reactive one.

Americans Get Freedoms Back

Last Friday, the Senate of the United States rejected a motion to prolong the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act infringed on the rights of many Americans by removing limitations on what law enforcement can and can’t do.

“Much of the controversy involved powers granted to law enforcement agencies to gain access to a wealth of personal data, including library and medical records, in secret, as part of investigations into suspected terrorist activity”