Posted on 09/25/2009 3:59:06 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Midtown Manhattan this week has been turned into an extra-specially intense maze of flashing lights, motorcades and those dudes selling noxious candied peanuts -- the former heralding the advent of the U.N. General Assembly and the latter simply a New York Thing That Will Not Go Away, Ever. This year's festivities will probably best be remembered for Muammar Qaddafi's theatrical hijinks (the tent, the rant, the shredding) and for the triumphant return of the United States to the world forum -- but on the sidelines of these conventions, there's been some significant (and long overdue) attention paid to the role of women in creating a better, more peaceful world.
A depot for foreign policy grand wizards, this year's Clinton Global Initiative (held in New York City and timed in conjunction with the General Assembly) focused on the theme of investing in girls and women -- a lynchpin in cutting "across the global challenge areas of education, energy and climate change, global health, and poverty alleviation. Each year of schooling increases a woman's income by 10 to 20 percent, and closing the gender gap in education adds .5 percent to a country's per capita GNP."
In the same vein, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof led discussions all over town this week with his wife and co-author Sheryl WuDunn about the issues they address in their new book, "Half the Sky." In it, the authors contend that the key to global stability and economic prosperity lies in unleashing the potential of women and girls.
Kristof and WuDunn have received a boatload of attention for their book, which chronicles the stories of women in conflict areas (Congo, Cambodia, Pakistan, and others) who rise above outrageous hardship to create a better life -- not just for themselves, but for the communities in which they live. It's heart-swelling, triumph-of-the-human-spirit stuff, but it's also a ringing endorsement for making women's education and economic empowerment a centerpiece of our foreign policy.
There's also some terrifying, heart-sinking material to contend with. Kristof and WuDunn point to the shocking statistic that 60 million to 100 million women are missing in the world today. What's more, "It appears that more girls and women are now missing from the planet, precisely because they are female, than men were killed on the battlefield in all the wars of the 20th century.
The number of victims of this routine 'gendercide' far exceeds the number of people who were slaughtered in all the genocides of the 20th century."
But one of the most succinct arguments on behalf of women's empowerment is a video advocacy piece that's part of a new campaign called the Girl Effect. The argument goes something like this: "Girl + Poverty + No Education = Husband, Babies, Hunger, HIV." But, "Girl + Education = Loan, Business, Community Development, Gender Equality."
And with 600 million girls in the developing world, it might be a prescription for changing the world.
“Empowerment” is a tricky and often sleazy concept. I’d like to see the details.
I attended a “senior empowerment” convention in North Idaho only to find it manned by those selling old-age home residences, end-of-life legal counseling, cremation services, and other grim stuff. You’d think they’d have experts on looking good, applying makeup, learning new dance steps, partying, getting jobs, investing, travel, and the fun stuff that makes people happy to be alive. And this was in rock-solid Repub territory too.
So who knows what the libs consider “empowering.”
Ms. Veto
Some women strive to break other families in order to keep the potential competition down. Many of those women are married to or descended from corporate men (who sponsor the propaganda in the media).
We need new leadership in business, politics and academia. Don’t buy. Welcome the defaults to come.
And BTW, there were two big reasons for Obama getting elected. We peasants were tired of the officious family-breaking of the ‘90s.
Islam is a major player in gendercide. Why not start there?
Wow. Last time he helped women he got sued for sexual harassment with the same laws he helped manufactured.
He still has not learned.
But, then again, it does not matter that Hillary who hates women blames their career boredom on men while at the same time abusing their freedom.
I’m pretty sure they’re referring to the fact that some ‘enlightened cultures’ abort their female babies because it’s more lucrative to have male children.
Or their daughters die by stoning for any old thing that p*sses Father off.
Or they die of HIV/AIDS when they are very young and their ‘virtue’ is sold by their Fathers to the highest bidder. (I hear the going rate is a goat.)
Or they die from some botched sexual mutilation because we don’t want girls understanding their ‘special purpose; in life and ENJOYING it. *GASP*
Or Father straps a bomb to us and sends us into a crowded marketplace to kill our perceived enemies because, well, it ensures HIS place in Heaven.
In oh-so-many parts of the world we (girls/women) are less than cattle to our Fathers. We are bothersome, burdensome but at best useful, monetarily or politically.
And I am NOT defending a single thing Bill Clinton does about it; I loathe that cretin, but some facts truly ARE facts, even if they come from the Lefties.
It really is a shame how women are treated around the world. There but for the GRACE of God, go I.
I’m going to go hug my American Dad now...
See my Post #8.
Bill was a product of a man-hater and her Henry-Beecher-like friends (see Beecher’s adultery and preaching in favor of the same). Donna Shalala spent most of her life helping to put someone like Hillary into position through someone like him. Our Nation has been and is being ruined by a lazy class of vain, thieving, spoiled, bipartisan, corporate-socialist, pathological, lifelong boys and their family-hating hens.
We’re living in the country of people that our politicians, business leaders and academics should be concerned about and faithful to, but they should abandon their own unhealthy social practices first.
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