Another milestone for Bachelet

[rabs]

(What this will do is keep Bachelet away from internal Chilean politics under Pinera and possibly set her up for re-election when Pinera's term is up. The new U.N. position will be sort of a UNICEF for women and girls around the world.)




(Ruters) - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on Tuesday to head a new U.N. body that will seek to improve the lives of women and girls around the world.

The body will be known officially as the U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, but officials say it will be referred to as U.N. Women (www.unwomen.org).

The General Assembly voted in July, after years of difficult negotiations, to set up the entity, which will merge four separate U.N. divisions now dealing with women's and gender issues.

"Ms. Bachelet brings to this critical position a history of dynamic global leadership, highly honed political skills and uncommon ability to create consensus," Ban said in a statement to media. "I am confident that under her strong leadership we can improves the lives of millions of women and girls throughout the world."

Bachelet, who attended two years of high school in the United States, was arrested in Chile in 1975 along with her mother by the rightist military junta that took over the country in a 1973 coup. Exiled to Australia, she later moved to former East Germany before returning in 1979 to Chile where she studied medicine, specializing in pediatrics.

Ban told reporters that 26 candidates had been considered to head the women's entity, but diplomats said Bachelet had been a front-runner from the start.

U.N. Women will focus on supporting inter-government bodies like the Commission on the Status of Women and ensuring that all U.N. agencies and organizations live up to their commitments to gender equality, the United Nations says.

U.N. Women will become fully operational on January 1, 2011.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68D3XG20100914

[Judi Lynn]

1. Isn't it great? She has tremendous presence, intelligence, warmth.

A new job created for this need, and she's the only one they had in mind, basically! From the article:

Ban told reporters that 26 candidates had been considered to head the women's entity, but diplomats said Bachelet had been a front-runner from the start.

Keeping engaged, working on the world stage would only enhance her credentials next time she runs for office: that is, if Pinera hasn't locked down the country, and reinstated a Pinochet Chile, taking them all back to the 1970's
(Rightists keep trying to replay the past, only with them winning, instead.)

This should be her time well spent.

Hope she will do well: what a privilege, being the one to initiate a whole new U.N. body.

[Judi Lynn]

2. What kind of clown gave this post a -1 before anyone could recommend it? n/t

[EFerrari]

3. I recently watched a long interview with her on UCTV.

She's tremendous. :)

[Judi Lynn]

5. If she ever writes an autobiography, it's going to be a biggie.

Her entire family imprisoned by Pinochet, her father, a prominent Chilean general, tortured, too, for NOT turning sagainst his President, died in prison....

How much suffering she has endured, yet she is so kind, so gracious.

Her story needs to be told to a HUGE audience.

Just got her Wikipedia:

~snip~
Bachelet was born in Santiago, and spent many of her childhood years traveling around her native Chile, moving with her family from one military base to another. She lived and attended primary school in Quintero, Cerro Moreno, Antofagasta and San Bernardo. In 1962 she moved with her family to the United States, where her father was assigned to the military mission at the Chilean Embassy in Washington, DC, USA. Her family lived for almost two years in Bethesda, Maryland, where she attended Western Junior High School (now Westland Middle School) and learned to speak English fluently.<9> Returning to Chile in 1964, she graduated from high school in 1969 at Liceo Nº 1 Javiera Carrera, a prestigious girls' public school, finishing near the top of her class.<10><11> There she was president of her class, a member of the school's choir and volleyball teams, and part of a theater group and a music band called Las Clap Clap which she helped found, that toured around several school festivals. She entered medical school at the University of Chile in 1970, after obtaining one of the highest national scores in the university admission test.<10><11> She originally wanted to study sociology or economics, but was prevailed upon by her father to study medicine instead.<12> She has said she opted for medicine because it was "a concrete way of helping people cope with pain" and "a way to contribute to improve health in Chile."<2>

Torture and exile
Facing growing food shortages, the government of Salvador Allende placed Bachelet's father in charge of the Food Distribution Office. When General Augusto Pinochet came to power in the September 11, 1973 coup, General Bachelet, refusing exile, was detained at the Air War Academy under charges of treason. Following months of daily torture at Santiago's Public Prison, on March 12, 1974, he suffered a cardiac arrest that resulted in his death. On January 10, 1975, Bachelet and her mother were detained at their apartment by two DINA agents, who blindfolded them and drove them to Villa Grimaldi, a notorious secret detention center in Santiago, where they were separated and submitted to interrogation and torture.<13> Some days later they were transferred to Cuatro Álamos ("Four Poplars") detention center, where they were held until the end of January. Later in 1975, thanks to sympathetic connections in the military, both were exiled to Australia, where Bachelet's older brother Alberto had moved in 1969.<10>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Bachelet

http://nimg.sulekha.com.nyud.net:8090/entertainment/original700/michelle-bachelet-2009-9-17-15-12-46.jpg

Chile's President Michelle Bachelet, left, dances a Cueca, Chile's national dance, outside La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago.

http://ecolocalizer.com.nyud.net:8090/files/2008/10/president-michelle-bachelet.jpg http://www.soberania.org.nyud.net:8090/Images/michelle_bachelet_y_fidel_castro_2.jpg

http://www.theage.com.au.nyud.net:8090/ffximage/2005/11/26/pt_bachelet_2711_narrowweb__300x424.jpg

[EFerrari]

6. I found the link to the video.

Progressive Change in Latin America: The Chilean Path with Michelle Bachelet

http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=19245

[Judi Lynn]

7. My laptop wasn't picking it up right, so I went to the YouTube link they have posted:

Progressive Change in Latin America: The Chilean Path
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIPSdNX_Byk

Works great. Going to continue listening to it after some sleep. I'm about 24 minutes into it, want to hear the rest.

Thanks, EFerrari.

Still can't believe that fascist pig Pinochet felt it appropriate to torture her father, her mother, Michelle, etc. Unforgiveable.

(To EFerrari, while listening to the speech, I took some time to do a superficial search to see if I could find anything on the Colombian paras the Honduran oligarchs hired after the coup. Nothing published in any English language source after last October, that I could see.

There's no doubt they are still there. One article said there are also groups of other paramilitaries from other countries there, as well. I will be keeping my eyes out for anything on the subject.)

[EFerrari]

8. Juan Garces, President Allende's attorney, was on Amy's show today.

They are in Bonn at the Right Living Awards. He's a fascinating man.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/15/another_9_11_anniversary_september_11

Re the Colombian paras, if it weren't for you I'd think I made up the whole thing because there has been silence on Honduras. I, too, remember the article that mention other groups from other countries. The media is very quiet on Honduras and Haiti.

[Wilms]

4. k&r n/t