”Mi lascia in pace, per favore”: la città di Roma

Uno dei posti dove mi è toccata vivere è Roma. Quella città vecchia e bellisima. A molti piace, a me invece... Di solito la chiamo una città per turisti e politici, e dico che per il resto della gente la cosa è più complicata.

ABBA mania?

Today we'll keep it light and listen to some music. We've previously covered Army of Lovers, and today the theme is ABBA.

The Patenting of Human Genome as an Issue of Women's Right to Health

In the 1990s the new science of gene technology was proving to give answers to many previously unanswered questions regarding hereditary diseases. One of these answers was the discovery of the genes BRCA1/2, mutations on which increase the likelihood for breast and ovarian cancer in women to up to 85%. There was a race among scientists to first identify the gene (originally it was thought to be just one) and sequence it, and in 1994 University of Utah filed a claim for the first patent in the name of Myriad Genetics, which has since held a practical monopoly on research into both genes and the testing for mutations on them. The patents cover not just specific mutations or methodologies of testing for these, but the entire genes, involving any use and research related to them. They were contested early on for a variety of reasons, relating both to the ethics of patenting human genome and to whether it is even reasonable to do so from a legal point of view. In 2009, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) with others filed a suit against the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and Myriad Genetics in order to have the patents declared invalid. They won the first case, which was since appealed by Myriad. The case was brought before the United States Supreme Court early in 2013. The gene patents were also contested in Europe for reasons related both to the effectiveness of the Myriad tests and to the ethics of patenting human genome. This text will focus on these ethics, specifically relating to treating parts of the human body as property, and how this in the BRCA case disproportionately affects women.

Making Sense of Human Rights

Some say we live in a global human rights regime. I'd accept this as a matter of contention, as there's a difference between ideal and practice, but ok. Also not everybody agrees on the ideal, or to whom it applies. But one thing I believe is certain: nobody would have thought those rights up if it did not make sense for those people to have them.

Society Against the State

In 1648 a bunch of guys sat down and decided that the best way to end wars of religion would be to create states. Sovereign states with sovereign rulers, and what happened inside those states was no one's business but the rulers'. People eventually stopped warring over religion, at least in Europe – they started warring “internationally” instead, as states became nations and saw in themselves something intrinsically unique to their respective nations that must be defended at all costs. Bloodshed ensued. Within the last 100 years the entire planet has been fitted into a neat pattern of nations, states, nation states, term it as you please, nice coloured spaces on the map, characterised by their internal affairs being nobody's business but their own. It is seen as a result of 'development', as something inevitable, as all societies must eventually progress towards having a State, and this is a Good Thing. While we're at last shedding some of the “my genocide is nobody's business but my own” thinking, and people are also beginning to get a grip of why “everybody must develop so as to be as civilised as us” may be deemed offensive, that a state should be inevitable is not so easily forgotten. Historians and other clever people sought out evidence in the sources of history to show why all peoples must eventually develop state structures in order to govern themselves, as not having a ruling power is equal to being Neanderthals, to paraphrase only slightly. Which brings me to what I want to present to you today. Is the State inevitable?

Gender equality. Right here, right now?

I originally wanted to post this on the 8th of March, being International Women's Day, but something known as 'real life' got in way. Anyway, I would like to grab the occasion to take a look at how all that feminism* and gender equality is working out. Right here, right now. I have talked about it before, in Spain, and I gave an overview of the situation on the streets of Denmark. But really, where are we?

”But my hairdresser's gay!”

When I was young and innocent and went to school, maybe around 10-12 years old, a 'riddle' that came up from time to time was the one of ”should a gay man go to the men's or ladies' room to pee?” Barely knowing what that meant we'd all ponder this so seemingly difficult question and never reach a satisfactory conclusion.* Youthful ignorance, excuse it as, you may. I grew up and learned the ways of the world (and common sense); this was not so for all. Some still say weird, vile or simply ignorant stuff to anybody not fitting into a heteronormative conception of how people are supposed to be.