By Dr. Kathie Malley-Morrison   

One Billion Rising (Short Film)

You probably know what V-E Day and V-J Day are--they commemorate victory in Europe and victory in Japan at the end of World War II. But it is simply V-Day that may prove to be more important in the long run.

V-Day represents a global movement to end violence against women and girls. It works on a grassroots level to raise consciousness, change laws, fund rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters, and educate people in more than 140 countries from A (America) to Z (Zambia).

4,520 Palestinian political prisoners

Photo by Peter used under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

 

By guest author Dr. Dahlia Wasfi 

In the early morning hours of December 12, 2012, Israeli forces raided the offices of three Palestinian civil society organizations in Ramallah in the West Bank, including the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.

By Dr. Kathie Malley-Morrison 

There are some war profiteers in the world who will celebrate when their nation or group goes to war with whomever they have declared to be an enemy.

By contrast, the vast majority of people everywhere celebrate armistice days, the signing of peace treaties, the end of wars.

Minesweeper shoes. Photo by Matthias Kabel, used under CC A-S Alike 3.0 Unported license

Land mines are dangerous bombs. In Egypt there are millions of landmines.  

Some people plant them in the ground in a war. There are so many in so many areas that even when a war is over, people can be killed. Farmers might try to plant their plants, and then step on a land mine, and they can be injured or killed.

I read a story about a 15-year-old boy who lived in an area that used to be a battlefield. He was going to get scrap metal, and he stepped on a land mine. He was injured on his right side. He yelled to his friend. His friend responded, but then he didn't respond back. His friend was aware that he was dead.

Mice can be trained to track down land mines. So can dogs, but it is better to use mice because the mice are lighter so they don't set off the land mine. If the dogs stepped on the land mine, they would probably die because they are too heavy.