Missing women
Read this extensive report from the New York Times on the global state of women. No woman any where can be assured of her life and liberty while millions suffer simply because they are women.
Women’s time
One of the most exciting things happening right now for women globally is in Iran. See this story in the Washington Post on the role of women who are demanding change.The Muslim world is known for its repressive laws against women’s freedom from denial of education to stoning for accusations of adultery. The women of Iran are demonstrating that for many education, plus a communications revolution, is fueling the spread of liberalizing ideas. The question remains on how this will affect the Muslim religion itself. Will there be, as some have proposed, a Muslim reformation? The alternative is a long and violent struggle within the Muslim world.
The american devil
I just returned from a three week trip to Argentina, the land of my birth, I was both pleased and alarmed. Buenos Aires has all those things you hear about: The ever popular Evita, tango, Malbec wine, lots of grass fed beef, soccer fanatics, and wild traffic. I enjoyed it cafes, old architecture and watching its political process as elections were being held. The country suffers from chronic political and economic uncertainty while its people remain passionate about life. One of the things I love about the country is that BA’s neighborhoods are dotted with small family owned businesses that provide not only the day to day needs of the people but constitute the middle-class social network. Unlike the U.S., independent small scale manufacturing, grocers, bakers, fruit and vegetable vendors, and butchers still thrive. It was an opportunity to see once again something of what E. F. Schumacher wrote about in his 1973 book Small is Beautiful:Economics as if People Mattered.
Unfortunately what looms in the horizon and threatening the small business is Wallmart. As I said to one of my relatives, Wallmart is the devil dressed in American prosperity. Once the small businesses are out of business their former owners and employees will find themselves working for less not only economically but socially.Wallmart does not have a good track record when it comes to how it treats its employees. This state of affairs will only add to social and political unrest. The “American way of life” is not the answer for Argentina and other third world countries. Maintaining strong local networks must be a top priority on the road to prosperity and a working democracy. They don’t need our bulldozer.
Speaking of China
How about starting a re-education program about China? See this from Slate about two seventy year old women scheduled to go to work camps for requesting a protest permit too many times.
Boycotting the Olympics
Why the world has chosen to reward China with the international attention of the Olympics is one of the outrages of the year. This is the first time an authoritarian government has hosted the games. While the Chinese government is guilty of systematic human rights violations including religious oppression, mandatory abortions, economic rape of its most vulnerable citizen in the countryside, and gross disregard for the environment the international media is lavishing upbeat attention. Transnational corporations are seeing the Olympics as another opportunity to sell their products via glitzy ads while ignoring mass silencing of free speech. As this NPR report indicates global companies like Nike and Coca-Cola see human rights as the problem of governments not marketers. Even NBC News is seeing its journalism compromised by a too close relationship with the Olympic committee. Hear this report from NPR. With a heavy investment in the games, NBC is apparently reluctant to embarrass the Chinese. If those who have freedom of speech sell it for profit, who will be left to speak out? I think I will leave the television off.
The importance of girls
My friend Jennifer Goodson alerted me to this site. I think it’s a powerful illustration of the interdependence of all people and why 600 million girls matter.
Dangerous motherhood
Read this story in The New York Times by medical missionary Sue Makin. This is one story, among many, that highlights the sad fact that childbirth is still a dangerous process for many women in the world.
It’s about time!
I haven’t been blogging lately because frankly the media noise has been so loud that it’s hard to figure out what’s important and what’s just noise. Well, I think this is important. After years in office this is the strongest statement by US Secretary of State Rice regarding violence against women worldwide. Here is another article about how rape is used as a weapon of war. Maybe with only few months left Rice feels like she can afford to speak up in a significant way.
Multiplying bread
I’m in shock over the price of food. This week I paid over $7 for a gallon of organic milk. The increase in food prices is a global crisis, which I am afraid will outlast the mortgage crisis. See this article about a recent UN report. High food prices aren’t due to our inability to produce enough food. It’s because good land is being turned from growing wheat, barley, and hay to corn for the production of innocent sounding biofuel. We are burning our land in our cars! Global markets are addicted to fuel and the price is more hunger.This strikes me as a problem of food justice, and I consider it immoral to use good productive land for fuel.
When I was a child, my parents would pray before they went to the grocery store so God would stretch their food dollar to last all week. I was never hungry. Yet, I was left with an awareness when I go to the grocery store that not everybody can afford that $12 roast. Higher food prices mean that for the first time many of us will take the bread multiplication miracles of Jesus seriously. Where might we see the need for such a miracle and what is our part in it?
Bikini or hijab
The Turkish Parliament has lifted the ban on the headscarf on university campuses, but this has not resolved the issue for them or for us. See the buzz on Broadsheet. The hijab raises the question of where does social freedom end and oppression begin? The contrast between Western and devoted Muslim women could not be more stark. It’s become more common in American cities to see women wearing the hijab. Sometimes it’s more than a scarf. It can include long dresses, sleeves, and a rather plain appearance. My American feminist inspired sensibilities cringe a little by the sight of a woman feeling compelled by either religion, or culture to take on the hijab. While many of these women will assure me that this is a free choice, I find it difficult to believe.
On the other hand, recently I was at an upscale mall when a department store decided that parading bikini clad young women offering the latest in designer fragrances would be a good marketing move. I was offended. What makes retailers think that a middle aged woman would be inspired to spend money by the sight of bikini clad young bodies? If I had talked to the models they would assure me that they too had made a choice in how their bodies would be seen. In a liberal society, freedom of expression and religion demand that I accept both the hijab and the bikini as a legitimate choice.
What is going on? In both cases the female body carries a great deal of social meaning. We don’t have an equivalent issue regarding male bodies. Men feel neither compelled to cover, or display their bodies in public. Both cultural situations see female sexuality as potentially disruptive. One culture chooses to bring that disruption under control, whether it’s the woman’s, or the community’s choice, is debatable. The other chooses to tell women that they can control the meaning of their bodies for their own benefit. Neither tell the whole story that no individual can escape the larger social meanings in which they live. The question remains. What constitutes freedom when women’s bodies are continually viewed as disruptive? Regardless of whether we attribute the situation to the society, or the individual, the answer will fall short short if one is not willing to consider a more elemental spiritual source.