How lucky are you, readers? Here are bonus questions and answers that didn’t fit into this week’s SFR Talk with Alice Kahn Ladas, author of The G Spot.

SFR: Do you counsel women about sex, or was that just for the book?

AKL: I am a body psychotherapist, which means that instead of just working with words I work with breathing and muscle tension and with touch if it’s agreed upon and relevant and needed. Mostly I see either individuals or couples. I used to do groups, but I don’t do them anymore. Recently I had a woman come to me who was brutally abused, and has not been able to reach a climax and would like to. So I’m working with her. But I don’t usually just see people for sexual problems.

What kind of sex ed should we have in the public schools?

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Last night, in a spacious room at the Santa Fe Public Schools Admin Center, a bow-tied and dapper Steven Bingler expounded on the virtues of holistic urban planning, walkability, sustainability, the future—and how it all comes back to Santa Fe.

For the uninitiated, Bingler is something of an urban planning bigwig: He’s the founder of Concordia, a self-described “community-based planning and design team,” and has had a big role in the post-Katrina redevelopment of New Orleans, where he lives.

Throughout an exhaustive Powerpoint presentation and a lengthy Q&A with the audience (around 40 people, all well-versed in education issues), Bingler stuck to a couple of recurring themes: “nexus,” his six-legged concept for urban redevelopment (it incorporates educational, social, economic, cultural, physical and organizational factors into the planning process) and the hurricane. Continue reading »

By Tiana Finney, SFR intern

Compassion Beyond Borders open house
plus “Transforming the Lives of Girls,” a presentation by Lawrence Tharp

2-4 pm
Sunday, Nov. 8

Free

Santa Fe Women’s Club
1616 Old Pecos Trail
466-4222

For girls and women in developing countries, getting an education can seem like a herculean task. Poverty, family situations, and societal discrimination are daily obstacles. Fortunately, Compassion Beyond Borders—a Santa Fe-based organization that funds education projects in East Africa, Latin America and South Asia—provides a helping hand. By spreading knowledge and fostering learning, Compassion Beyond Borders helps those that are most in need, such as orphans, refugees, minority populations, the handicapped, those deemed “untouchable,” and abused women and girls.

On Sunday, Lawrence Tharp, the Executive Director of Compassion Beyond Borders, presents photographs and stories from the organization’s projects in Afghanistan, Mexico and Kenya. Tharp visits the projects to ensure they are running properly. Each country has a specific challenge to overcome. “What stands out in Afghanistan is only 30 percent of the girls are in school,” Tharp says. “They understand that simply learning to read and write is an incredible privilege.”

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This just in:

LT. GOVERNOR DIANE DENISH CHALLENGES SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO SAVE MONEY

Santa Fe, NM – Lt. Governor Diane Denish will be meeting with New Mexico school superintendents tomorrow to discuss energy cost saving measures. Our school districts spend more than $60 million on energy costs per year.

“I’m challenging each school district to cut its energy use by 10 percent because during these tough economic times we all need to think outside the box to save money and be more energy efficient. Making our schools more energy efficient will save millions of dollars per year and will send our students an important message about protecting our environment and energy resources. This measure alone won’t fix our state’s budget shortfall but it’s an example of one creative measure we can take to be more fiscally responsible. We must find more like it,” said Lt. Governor Diane Denish.

This must be some kind of first: A gubernatorial candidate trying to spin the fact that the state wants to turn down the thermostats on schoolkids—all because the current governor and party leaders want to keep tax breaks for the rich in effect—as an energy-saving measure. The message comes, of course, on the season’s first day of snow in Santa Fe.

Here’s a creative measure: Put on a sweater, kids. If it was good enough for your great-grandparents, its good enough for you.

Come to think of it, why does every student need his or her own textbook? Thirty should be able to share one just fine, if they take turns. Also, why bother with desks, when the students could just as well sit on the floor? The redundant books and desks can be used to fuel the fires the schoolchildren will have to learn to build in order to stay warm. How’s that for out of the box?

Note: The Lt. Gov.’s “Quick Start to Energy Star Resources for School Districts” page has a bunch of broken links. Hope that site didn’t cost $15,000.

Update 4:30 pm-ish: Denish spokeswoman Sam Thompson called to say that the links had been fixed. Also, that the nationwide Energy Star challenge “doesn’t have anything to do with kids putting on a sweater.” Rather, solar panels and the like.

“We are trying to get the school districts thinking about ways they can save energy,” Thompson says. “It’s one of those things that’s almost low-hanging fruit…[and] it’s quite a bit of money.”

Fair enough.

Laureate is already raising its flag over the College of Santa Fe

Laureate Education Inc. swears up and down that should its lease of the College of Santa Fe property go through, pending the City of Santa Fe’s purchase of the property, the college’s name will stay the same. Probably. Sort of. Maybe.

Vice President of Development for Laureate, Larry Hinz, said no promises could be made regarding the best way to handle the “brand” at a Tuesday, July 21 open house on the CSF campus.

City of Santa Fe Finance Director David Millican acknowledged today that the primary concern with the CSF moniker, as he understands it, is the string of bad news that arrives upon performing a Google search. Ain’t the internet a bitch? Continue reading »