Yoani Sánchez, popular Cuban blogger from "Generación Y", was forced into a car and beaten by secret police in Havana along with Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo and Claudia Cadelo, who writes for OctavoCero and Global Voices.

For the past four years, the World Economic Forum has studied the gender gap - that is, the amount of resources dedicated to boys and girls and women's opportunities to fully participate in society - in over 100 countries, then ranked them. (In 2009, the Index included data from 134 nations. At least 12 of 14 indicators used for the Index must be available in order for a country to be included.) The goal, according to the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report, is:

The State Department has issued a travel advisory on Honduras -- no surprises there. But Honduras has long been on the Central American route for travelers and this advisory is unlikely to keep them away.

Honduras is in turmoil. A military coup there this morning deposed Pres. Manuel Zelaya, pre-empting a controversial referendum that would have allowed the leftist ruler to run for a second term. The Honduran Congress has stripped Zelaya of his office and appointed the president of the Congress, Robert Micheletti, to be head of state. The US and the Organization of the Americas criticized the move,  

Back in December we announced the BlogHer '09 International Activist BlogHer scholarship program and invited you to submit yourself or your favorite international activist BlogHer for consideration for this scholarship.

I watched a movie last night on TCM called Double Harness from 1933. It was the story of two sisters, one who could not control her spending and the other who believed that marriage was a business. She wanted to marry a playboy and help redeem him in order for him to achieve his potential.  There were no poor people to be seen, even the butler had it good.  It was a fantasy.

After more than four years of planning we are finally here. J came before us, driving from California and the length of Mexico, a trip that went without a hitch. M and I followed two weeks later, our flights uneventful but unnerving, we are leaving the country on a one way flight.

It all started almost five years ago. Newly pregnant and stuck on a deserted island, not trapped but by choice, on a vacation of sorts. We made friends in candlelight, the electricity on the island shut down at dark and the only place to go was the common room of the guesthouse. They were there with a deck of cards and we had a flashlight and we played games late into the night.

Here's the headline everyone agrees on: in Mexico, drug cartels are wreaking havoc on a grand scale. They have infiltrated the political parties, the police, and the military. They invade hospitals. They have murdered thousands of people who have tried to stand against them -- especially journalists who dared to report on their misdeeds.But try to understand why it's happening and what to do about it, and things get complicated.

On Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, we remember our loved one's who have gone before us and the saints who have inspired us. (Sometimes they are even one in the same.) This year I invited bloggers to take some time to remember dear souls. A number of you responded, sending me your links.

I was planning to write another post related to the election, and then this news crossed my inbox: The lead detective assigned to investigate journalist Chauncey Bailey's killing ignored evidence linking Yusuf Bey IV, former leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery, to a role in the killing and interfered in two other unrelated felony cases involving Bey IV, according to an investigation by the Chauncey Bailey Project.

Last week while I was on vacation, my Grandmother passed away. She was frail, and ill and ready to be released from this mortal coil. And so it is with both sorrow and contentment that we greet her passing and honor her memory. This means, that for the first time this year, her icon will join Grandpa's on our mantelpiece as we celebrate Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead.