Report From UN Millennium Development Goals Awards Ceremony
March 18, 2009
by Risa A. Levine
|Note: We are pleased to present this guest post by Risa A. Levine, an attorney in New York. It is cross-posted to Facebook.
Last night I attended the UN’s Millennium Development Goals Awards Ceremony. Although the member nations have identified the achievement of Gender Equality by 2015 as one the seven goals of world leaders, the Millennium Campaign failed to use this forum to demonstrate their own commitment to gender equality. Not one award recipient was female, only one in a long program of speakers was a woman, and of the numerous, talented international performers, only one wore a dress. A video accompanying a song with the refrain “she’s beautiful” flashed one oppressed woman after another, almost all mothers with children, rather than showing one female world leader, scientist, writer, physician, or other powerful image of a woman. Are only mothers “beautiful”? Are there so few worthy female speakers or performers? Not one woman who works to achieve any of the worthy goals of this organization (ending poverty and hunger, universal education, child health, maternal health – which is not the same as woman’s health, combat HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability, global partnership, and of course, the aforementioned gender equality)?
It is not noble to pay lip service to the pursuit of gender equality while at the same time ignoring the achievements and leadership roles played by women internationally. In fact, it is a little condescending to imply that only men work to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and deserve to be heard.
On the other hand, seeing Bishop Desmond Tutu from the second row, and hearing him proclaim that “[w]e will never win a war against terror as long as there are conditions in the world that make people desperate” was inspiring.
Thanks for the interesting report. That is very frustrating!
Can someone explain the Tutu quote to me? I don’t get it?
Thia, Bishop Tutu’s remarks meandered a bit, although he charmed the crowd with his little dances and impromptu singing of Sentimental Journey. His theme was “unity” and “we are all Africans”, but he also talked about poverty as a cause for terrorism and that’s where the quote fit it. One of the goals is the eradication of poverty.
Good article.
I get tired of not seeing powerful images of women. The media bombards us with atrocious things, stories of women as victims. When you go to discuss women’s issues it invariably leads to discussions of domestic violence, sexual assault, poverty, all valid and legitimate concerns, it’s just that we so rarely tell the stories of successful women, women succeeding against all the odds.
That’s what made hillary clinton and sarah palin so prominent in my mind. They’re rare, we don’t often get to see women in roles like that.
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