According to Wikipedia a blog is usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries, in reverse-chronological order, of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material (graphics, video etc). Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.

Just for fun I did some statistics on our blog department; as of Dec 26, 2008 it looks like this:

The day before Finland’s independence day a small group of profeminist men and women ran this year’s White Ribbon Campaign (WRC) in central Helsinki and central Turku. We distributed some 1000 folders with the white ribbons pinned to them. Our primary targets were men, most of whom just took the folder and hastened away. We had a feeling that many actually already knew what the campaign was about.
Realizing that this actually was the tenth time the WRC campaign was run in Finland, I thought that a brief history of WRC Finland would be in order.

Opetushallitus raportoi koululaisten kirjallisia taitoja mitanneesta selvityksestä, jonka mukaan sukupuolten välillä on selviä eroja, tyttöjen taitojen ollessa parempia.

One of the guys from my Singaporean men's group, Dan, a young Peranakan (of Chinese-Malay descent) man who had agreed to take over the leadership of the group – or the coordinatorship, the group was self-governing – committed suicide in late September. Since about a week after I got the news, I’ve been trying to write this text, but have always made up excuses, something more urgent, more important, anything. Probably my mental – or emotional – reluctancy is an indication of the mourning process I’m still involved in.

It so happened that the tenant of my small one-room flat left and I had to find a new one. The situation turned out to be a real landlord’s dream – five minutes after I had put up an ad on a renting website my phone started to ring.

After a couple of days I had two candidates to be reckoned with; a female professional of 35 and a male student of 20. I showed the flat to both of them, separately, and in so doing exchanged a few words with them. When talking to the young man, he mentioned that he had had to find an apartment because of a separation. Me:

Yle uutiset raportoi Sata-komitean luonnoksesta ensisynnyttäjien synnytysiän alentamiseksi tarvittavista toimista. Uutista lukiessa voisi helposti kuvitella ihmislajin lisääntyvän partenogeneettisesti, kun isiä ei mainita mietinnössä lainkaan. Valtiovallan mielestä väestön uusintaminen näyttää edelleen olevan yksin naisten velvollisuus.

Viime eduskuntavaalien yhteydessä käsittelin sukupuolten tasa-arvon toteutumista vaaleissa (kysely puolueille tasa-arvo-ohjelmista, ehdokaslistojen sukupuolijakaumat, kommentteja vaalituloksesta). Kuntavaaleissa tilanne näyttää hyvin samanlaiselta: naisehdokkaiden osuus suurilla puolueilla pyörii 40%:n tuntumassa, poikkeuksena vihreät 56,8%:n naisedustuksella.

Ruandan naiset ovat ensimmäisenä maailmassa saavuttaneet parlamentaarisen edustuksen. Väestöstä 55% on naisia ja uudessa parlamentissa on naisia 45 80:sta, eli 56,25%. Ruandan parlamentti on ennestäänkin pitänyt kärkisijaa hallussaan 48,8 prosentin naisedustuksella. Mukava nähdä, että edes jossain edustuksellinen demokratia toimii.

Just repatriated - sorry divorced - from Singapore I notice that the book on divorce to which I was asked to and did contribute a very personal text, has been launched - it was presented in today's Hbl by Pia Ingström.

About to leave a Singapore that I have called my home for two years and learnt to admire in many respects and criticise in some, returning to a much colder corner of the world, I take this opportunity to envision where Singapore could be in the future, a future that might occur in a century or a decennary. An incurable optimist by nature, I will call it tomorrow. And I’ll wear my gender equality glasses.

The singer-songwriter Katy Perry is running number one in the US and likely soon in the UK as well with a song that has strirred the Gay community — for the the second time. This time it's her song "I Kissed a Girl." The line "You're my experimental game" and the coy references to the boyfriend should sum up well enough what it's about.

It has long been common knowledge that boys are more talented in mathematics, while girls' talents are more often expressed in verbal skills and communication. By processes still unknown to science some abstract mathematical thinking takes place in the testicles, whereas development of the mammary glands has beneficial effect on the coordination of the larynx. This phenomenon has been used to explain how fields such as technology and business, where arithmetic skills are needed, are dominated by men, while poets, writers and especially literary Nobelists have mostly been... er, lets look at an empirical study on the subject instead:

There's no real difference between the scores of U.S. boys and girls on common math tests, according to a massive new study. Educators hope the finding will finally dispel lingering perceptions that girls don't measure up to boys when it comes to crunching numbers.

On jo pitkään tiedetty, että pojat ovat lahjakkaampia matematiikassa, kun taas tyttöjen lahjakkuus ilmenee useammin verbaalisissa kyvyissä ja kommunikaatiossa. Luonnontieteelle vielä toistaiseksi tuntemattomalla tavalla kiveksissä tapahtuu abstraktia matemaattista ajattelua ja maitorauhasten kehittymisellä puolestaan on äänihuulten ja kurkunpään hallintaa edistävä vaikutus. Tämä ilmiöllä on selitetty mm. se, että miehet ovat yliedustettuina sellaisilla aloilla, joilla matemaattista päättelykykyä tarvitaan, kuten tekniikka ja liiketalous, kun taasen runoilijat, kirjailijat ja etenkin kirjallisuuden Nobelistit ovat olleet etupäässä... öh, tarkastellaanpa mieluummin aiheeseen liittyvää empiiristä tutkimusta:

There's no real difference between the scores of U.S. boys and girls on common math tests, according to a massive new study. Educators hope the finding will finally dispel lingering perceptions that girls don't measure up to boys when it comes to crunching numbers.

Spending a moment in a bookshop in Bangkok’s airport Suvarnabhumi waiting for my connecting flight to Singapore, I spotted this book that immediately caught my attention, The Third Sex, by Richard Totman.

The book is a study of the kathoeys of Thailand, boys that from an early age know that they want to grow up to be women, not men. Not the first sex they were biologically equipped to be, not the second sex they socially identify with, but a third. Totman lived with the family of one of these kathoey boys for some time so the study is even empirical.

It's the kind of loophole the sex industry must have been dreaming of: in 2003, when the Licensing Act came into force, lapdancing clubs could suddenly be opened as easily as a karaoke bar or a Starbucks. Previously they needed a special nudity licence. The results are striking - the number of clubs in Britain has doubled, to 300, in just four years.

Arto Kotron ja Hannu T. Sepposen toimittama antologia Mies vailla tasa-arvoa on saanut tilaa julkisuudessa. "Alan miehenä" minunkin oli tietenkin tutustuttava tähän "tärkeään keskustelunavaukseen."

Asked whether I could write down a few reflections on how it is to be married to a strong and independent woman I thoughtlessly agreed. But when I sat down to start the writing I realized I have noting to compare to – I never was married to a dependent woman – never wanted to be either, could probably have found one though if I’d really wanted to.

A group of women among the poorest in India have gotten into direct action against men's violence and corruption. The Guardian reports:

Eduskunnan pääsihteeri Seppo Tiitinen julistaa miehisellä auktoriteetillaan, että seksuaalinen häirintä ei ole erityinen ongelma eduskunnassa. Tiitinen spekuloi syntyneen kohun liittyvän jotenkin eduskunnan avustajakuntaan:

Ehkä tämä vähän uudenlainen henkilöstöryhmä on omalta osaltaan vaikuttanut tilanteeseen ja lisännyt tilanteita, joissa häirintää on voitu kokea, Tiitinen pohti.

Singapore's feminist organization AWARE has become increasingly aware of the need for but lack of male support for gender equality efforts - in this society 'proudly calling itself patriarchal' as the government puts it (there isn't a single female minister in the cabinet either). So when I came up with this idea of starting a men's group for gender awareness & development, it was like trying to break an open door - I got a lot of support from the beginning.

A few excerpts from my email correspondence during the preparation process: