The Nahmias Cipher Report

The story of how my life has been impacted directly by AIDS, and why it is important that we remember all of the children who are and have been orphaned by this terrible scourge.

After the release of information by the American government which claims that pornography was discovered on Osama Bin Laden’s computer, the idea of pornography in Islamic nations shouldn’t be strange. In fact, I wrote a post titled “Sex for Sale from Moldova to Dubai,” which deals with the topic of human trafficking and sex slaves from former Eastern Bloc countries who end up working across Europe and the Middle East.

But even researching these abuses I had never heard of “Granny Porn.” The term evoked an image of an elderly frail grandmother with white hair engaged in non-consensual sex. In fact, because of the lead-in I thought that Dr. Drew was going to focus on the issue of the rape of elderly women in nursing homes.

Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief Last Modified: 00:52 AM EDT, 27 September 2010 UNITED STATES – My son is 10 years old, and from the time that he was able to comprehend the nuances of life as a person of color, albeit biracial; we have discussed the issue of race.  Specifically, we have had several discussions about [...]

Yesterday we posted a piece which lauded a potential life saving break-through in the development of a HIV vaccination which could save millions of lives. Today, this news is tempered by a recent announcement by PlusNews a Global HIV/AIDS news and analysis publication which reports that HIV infection rates are on the increase among the intravenous drug user (IDU) populations of many African countries.

Health officials in Tanzania are worried about rising HIV-prevalence levels among IDUs, who often use a dangerous cash-saving technique known as “flash blood”, in which a user injects heroin or another illegal drug, and then draws a syringe full of blood for a second user to inject.

My Dirty Little Heaven is an ambitious exhibit by Kenyan-born, New York based artist Wangechi Mutu. Chosen as the 2010 Artist of the Year, Mutu’s installation is the first show in the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin Museum selected on the recommendation of the Deutsche Bank Global Art Advisory Council.

Mutu’s portfolio of work explores the objectification of women in the entertainment and advertisement industries. In a recent interview, Mutu recounted how the impetus for creating My Dirty Little Heaven resulted from as a dearth of realistic portrayals of women in the media. This was particularly evidenced by the images that adorned the covers of magazines, movies, commercials, etc. in which rarely if ever could she find herself or any other women. Within the African-American spectrum the issue was even more skewed and pervasively misogynistic. Women are portrayed as prostitutes, mannequins or props to make male entertainers appear more virile, thus diminishing them both.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague presented judges with a list of 20 suspects who he believed were most responsible for financing or organizing the violence after the 2007 elections in Kenya when more than 1,000 people were killed and 600,000 forced from their homes after Kenya’s electoral commission declared that President Mwai Kibaki had won a second term in the December 2007 poll. Suspects included political and business leaders from both parties who were identified by the ICC after numerous requests by other nations including America, for Kenya to initiate an investigation to identify and prosecute the ringleaders.

The more burdened we become by the cares of the world, the easier it is for us to forget the dreams of our youth. I like this song because it is an anthem, a reminder to me and I hope to others to never forget our dreams that can yet be realized and definitely achieved if we believe.