Canucki Taxpayers Fund a 'Mapping the Mashers' Project in Cairo

Chicks in Cairo are tired of being prodded, groped, flashed, accosted and generally disrespected by the generally loutish. The Toronto Star reports that they are taking pro-active steps to remedy the situation, a move that's being funding by Canadian taxpayers via the International Development Research Centre, a "tikkun olam" crown corporation:

...Led by American-born Rebecca Chiao, it is following up on Egypt’s popular uprising with a quiet sexual revolution conducted through new media and old-fashioned community action.

Its project, HarassMap — assisted by Canada’s International Development Research Centre — lets women report incidents that might otherwise be concealed, by using text messages on cellphones. It gives them instant counselling on how to file a police report and find psychological help and self-defence courses.

And it puts sexual harassment on the map, by pinpointing the “hot spots” where the incidents occur. Then volunteers make house calls to local shopkeepers, police and neighbours, explaining why and how they should make their communities safer for women...

Yeah, that should work like a charm. One good thing, though: their HarassMap identifies "no-go" zones for women, who can try to avoid them.

BTW, I have no idea how much money we fork out each year for the plethora of IRDC efforts, but no doubt all the moolah that's helping out in places as far flung as Cairo and Sierra Leone is money well wasted, er, spent.