Listening to Dr. Lena Kreck (PhD, jur, DIE LINKE), Senator for Justice, Diversity and Antidiscrimination, it appears timely to take action against rightwing groups in Germany: according to news these days, Berlin`s Senate plans for disciplinary steps against judge Birgit Mahlmann-Winkelmann, in custody now according to RBB Info radio – Berliners trust their local Government!

NOV 30, 2022, Topography of Terror Documentation Centre in Berlin Niederkirchnerstr.8:
Bill Niven, UK, University Nottingham/former senior Fellow at D-Munich Institute for Contemporary Historical Centre for Holocaust Studies, about Veit Harlan’s propaganda film of 1940:

the venue was packed with an audience of all ages and cultures, listening to Bill`s splendid presentation on whether or not to allow public viewing of JUD SUESS, NS propaganda film of 1940, viewed by 20 million Germans at the time!

My 99-year old friend Dr Inge Keller confirms that this was compulsory for all, being obliged to join large arenas and venues at schools, Universities and industrial premises. With Austrian – German actor Werner Krauss as the main character, audiences adored his charismatic self of being a dedicated Nazi, personally called upon by Hitler for his self-image of why he became an actor with a sadistic touch: … `ein Nazi und ein Schweinehund`.

City walks in and around Berlin will always surprise our visitors from far who wonder how close we are at our nearby forests and parks. No cars needed, all is in reach by public transport, the BVG or any regional means of getting into motion!

Walking with my friend Ayshe whom I had met via NGOs in the field of migration and refuge at Freiwilligen-Agency Berlin Kreuzberg, the story of Berlin’s 1st ‘Ampel’, installed in 1924, refers to the traffic light system of former times. This is as new to her as the entire build-up around cinematic events along Berlinale: https://www.berlinstadtservice.de/xinh/Verkehrsampel_Potsdamer_Platz.html.
We both agreed that the ‘Walk of Stars’ in the middle path crossing Potsdamerstr. looks lousily abandoned – unlike the exhibition these days around “Die Deutschen des 21. Jahrhunderts” :-) = worth walking along and enjoying Potsdamer Platz this way!

https://staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/en/ The entire buildiung is being refurbished, sooner or later, at present all is in a status of being praperd for renovation, in German it sounds serious: “Grundinstandsetzung” will only start in 2023, let alone when works will end, deifinitely not before 2025!
https://www.bbr.bund.de/BBR/DE/Bauprojekte/Berlin/Kultur/Staatsbibliothek/Potsdamerstr/GIS/Grundinstandsetzung.html

Cecile Rossant’s one-woman performance tells the story of a male butcher in French, German and English, in a beautifully lightened art theatre movement of intense care achieved by contemporary theatre director Daniela Marcozzi – well done and worth attending tonight, March 25, 2022, 20:00 Ohlauerstr. 41, in D-10999 Berlin By the way, ‘DESI’ stands for the former premises for ‘Desinfection’ built around 1840 as one of three such sites in Berlin for cleaning not only medical equipment but also butchery utensils and more, see https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desinfektionsanstalt

https://taz.de/!t5478515/
Wenn wir die aktuelle taz-Kolumne lesen, unsere Gastfreundschaft zu ukrainischen Geflüchteten im Haus – hier am Beginenhof vorwiegend Frauen & Kinder – , oder der evangelischen Gemeinde und unter Freund*innen sehen, dann ahnen wir, damals war es doch irgendwie anders. Als so viele syrische Menschen in Deutschland Hilfe suchten, war es weit weniger persönlich, man/frau kam sich nicht so nahe wie uns jetzt die Menschen aus der Ukraine kommen dürfen. Sprache egal! Schon irgendwie befremdlich, finde ich als arabophile Islamwissenschaftlerin, die ihre arabischen Freund*innen nicht mehr missen möchte. Es bleibt spannend, wie wir uns als Berliner*innen weiter verhalten, über den Gang zur Friedens-Demo hinaus.

Care at work
Source: © GMB Akash / icddr,b

Greater investment in care could create almost 300 million jobs

Plugging existing, significant, gaps in care services could generate almost 300 million jobs and create a continuum of care that would help to alleviate poverty, encourage gender equality, and support care for children and the elderly, says new ILO report released ahead of International Women’s Day.
News | 07 March 2022
© GMB Akash / icddr,b
GENEVA (ILO News) – Persistent and significant gaps in care services and policies have left hundreds of millions of workers with family responsibilities without adequate protection and support, yet meeting these needs could create almost 300 million jobs by 2035, according to a new International Labour Organization (ILO) report.

The report, Care at work: Investing in care leave and services for a more gender equal world of work , finds that three in ten women of reproductive age, or 649 million women, have inadequate maternity protection that does not meet the key requirements of the ILO’s Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183) .

The Convention mandates 14 weeks minimum maternity leave on at least two-thirds of previous earnings, funded by social insurance or public funds. Eighty-two of the 185 countries surveyed for the report did not meet these standards, although “paid maternity leave or maternity protection is a universal human and labour right”, the study says. At the current pace of reform it will take at least 46 years to achieve minimum maternity leave rights in the countries analysed, which means the relevant target of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals will not be met.

More than 1.2 billion men of prime reproductive age live in countries with no entitlement to paternity leave, although it would help to balance the work and family responsibilities of both mothers and fathers, the report says. Where there is paternity leave it remains short – a global average of nine days – creating a large “gender leave gap”. The take-up of paternity leave entitlements is also low; a consequence, the report suggests, of low paternity pay, gender norms and policy design.

The Care at work report offers a global overview of national laws, policies and practices on care, including maternity, paternity, parental, child and long-term care. It highlights how some workers fall outside the scope of these legal protections. These include the self-employed, workers in the informal economy, migrants, and adoptive and LGBTQI+ parents. It also looks at the case for – and potential impact of – greater investment in care.

In only 40 of the countries surveyed did pregnant or nursing women have a right to be protected against dangerous or unhealthy work, in line with ILO standards. Only 53 countries offered a right to paid time off for prenatal medical examinations. Time off, income security and appropriate facilities for breastfeeding were also lacking in many countries.

“We need to re-think the way we provide care policies and services so that they form a continuum of care that provides children with a good start, supports women to stay in employment and prevents families or individuals falling into poverty.”
Manuela Tomei, Director, ILO Conditions of Work and Equality Department

The need for long-term care services for older persons and those with disabilities has been rising steeply because of increased life expectancy and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic . However, the study finds that access to services such as residential care, community day services and in-home care, remains inaccessible to the great majority of those who need them world-wide, although “long-term care services are essential to ensure the right to healthy ageing in dignity”.

The report finds “a strong investment case” for creating a transformative package of care policies, based on universal access, that would create a breakthrough pathway for building a better and more gender equal world of work. Investment in gender equal leave, universal childcare and long-term care services could generate up to 299 million jobs by 2035, it says. Closing these policy gaps would require an annual investment of US$5.4 trillion (equivalent to 4.2 per cent of total annual GDP) by 2035, some of which could be offset by an increase in tax revenue from the additional earnings and employment.

“We need to re-think the way we provide care policies and services so that they form a continuum of care that provides children with a good start, supports women to stay in employment and prevents families or individuals falling into poverty,” said Manuela Tomei, Director, ILO Conditions of Work and Equality Department. “Plugging these care gaps should be seen as an investment that not only supports health and livelihoods but fundamental rights, gender equity and greater representation too.”

Tags: employment creation, women workers, family leave, maternity protection, child care, family responsibilities, social protection, poverty alleviation, care economy, gender equality, womens rights, older persons, women, medical care
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Care at work: Investing in care leave and services for a more gender equal world of work

See also
Publication
Executive summary [pdf 587KB]
Web pages
ILO topic portal on Care Economy
ILO topic portal on Gender Equality
Normative instrument
C183 Maternity Protection Convention, 2000
Media contact

newsroom@ilo.org