I'm SOOO Happy To Have Some Good News... Melissa Roxas Has Been Returned To Her Family.

Whew. Giving much thanks for real. Still waiting for her comrades to come home as well, but this is amazing, faith renewing news.

Details at the Bulatlat site.

Surface Filipino-American Activist Melissa Roxas And Comrades Now!

Bloggers, activists, people of conscience (and influence) please repost far and wide! My friend Kiwi has posted on his blog about his missing friend, Melissa Roxas. May the doors open to her safe return, as well as the other FilAm activists.

BAYAN-USA, an alliance of 14 Filipino American organizations and chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan Philippines), is calling on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Department of National Defense, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to immediately surface Melissa Roxas, an American citizen of Filipino descent who was abducted in the Philippines on May 19. BAYAN-USA also urgently calls on our representatives in the U.S. Congress to act quickly to ensure the safe return of Roxas.

Roxas is a well-known Filipino American activist, who served as the first Regional Coordinator of BAYAN-USA in Los Angeles and co-founded the cultural organization Habi Arts. Roxas is an active human rights advocate and was instrumental in organizing a BAYAN-USA contingent that participated in the International Solidarity Mission in 2005, an international fact finding mission that called attention to the escalating human rights violations in the Philippines. Roxas went to the Philippines in 2007 to pursue human rights work, where she became a full time volunteer health worker. She was abducted on May 19, 2009 at approximately 1:30 PM in Sitio Bagong Sikat, Barangay kapanikian, La Paz, Tarlac. She was with two other volunteers, Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Handoc.

Based on reports filed by the human rights group KARAPATAN and the La Paz police, Roxas and her companions were taken by at least 8 armed, hooded men riding two motorcycles and a Besta van without any license plate numbers. There has been no word on the whereabouts and condition of Roxas and her companions since the abduction. The circumstances of Roxas’ abduction typify the abductions and enforced disappearances of over 200 innocent civilians, allegedly last seen in the hands of suspected state security forces.

To report leads, or to connect for action contact:

Kuusela Hilo
BAYAN-USA Vice Chair
vicechair@bayanusa.org

Rhonda Ramiro
BAYAN-USA Secretary General
secgen@bayanusa.org

Also please take a moment to sign this petiton.

and Kiwi, if you need a dj for a consciousness raising / action / event, holla.

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YES MEANS YES! Readings on Female Sexual Power & A World Without Rape, This Saturday 7:30pm @ Pegasus Books Berkeley

Please support your local indie bookstore, and a revolutionary new anthology that is being read this Saturday at Pegasus in Berkeley! The book is called Yes Means Yes! Visions Of Female Sexual Power & A World Without Rape. A group of feminist writers came together to update the 1970's anti-rape slogan "No Means No" into a new paradigm that affirms female sexuality and power, while creating space for new visions of ending a rape culture. The Pegasus site has a great synopsis:

In this groundbreaking new look at rape edited by writers and activists Jaclyn Freidman and Jessica Valenti, the way we view rape in our culture is finally dismantled and replaced with a genuine understanding and respect for female sexual pleasure. Feminist, political, and activist writers alike present their ideas for a paradigm shift from the “No Means No” model—an approach that while necessary for where we were in 1974, needs an overhaul today. Yes Means Yes brings to the table a dazzling variety of perspectives and experiences focused on the theory that educating all people to value female sexuality and pleasure leads to viewing women differently, and ending rape. Yes Means Yes aims to have radical and far-reaching effects: from teaching men to treat women as collaborators and not conquests, encouraging men and women that women can enjoy sex instead of being shamed for it, and ultimately, that our children can inherit a world where rape is rare and swiftly punished. With commentary on public sex education, pornography, and mass media, Yes Means Yes is a powerful and revolutionary anthology.

I just bought this book yesterday, I am looking forward to getting schooled. For a peek into some of the writing, click to "The Not Rape Epidemic" written by blogger Latoya Peterson and shared on Racialiscious. They have trigger warnings there, and i would repeat them. This really is probably not something to read at work. It goes through some really graphic experiences before mapping out some of the visions for ending rape. Whew. I got work to do with my mens!!

Also coming soon is my reportback on the SFWAR Walk Against Rape, i'm still writing that one. And i love that people are still donating even though the walk is done for this year. I set my donations page so that people can keep donating until September sometime.

I won't be able to go to the reading because of work, but if you go, let us know what you thought! And you can buy the book through the Pegasus link, and here is a Powell's link. Forget Amazon, they are officially wack.

Laters

Time: Saturday, May 9, 2009 7:30 p.m.
Location: Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Avenue
Title of Event: Feminist writers read from Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape

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