Hillary takes the lead on ending the rape crisis in the Congo
July 31, 2009
by The New Agenda
|We need more women in politics to help fight the crisis of violence against women and our teenage daughters both at home and abroad. Read on…
This week The Washington Post is reporting that Secretary Hillary Clinton is visiting the Congo to denounce the alarming rate of rape in the region.
Speaking on this topic, The New Agenda’s Amy Siskind had this to say to the U.S. News & World Report about Secretary Clinton’s trip to the Congo to help women there:
This is what leadership looks like.
Hillary had told us in the Senate Confirmation Hearings for her current position that she would be an outspoken advocate for women – and she truly is living up to her word.
For those of you that are not familiar with the rape crisis in Congo, watch Amy Siskind participate in a recent PBS panel on To the Contrary (brace yourself for the disturbing content):
The topic of violence against women is frequently discussed on this blog; and our viewers know that keeping women and our teenage daughters safe is a primary goal of The New Agenda. But how do we get there?
Again and again, the answer seems to lie in getting women in leadership positions. As Amy said in her PBS interview, she hoped that Secretary Clinton or Senator Boxer would take a lead role in the Congo. And we need our women politicians back home to do the same. As Amy points out on PBS (7:28):
It’s not only on an international basis. We have problems at home where 1 in 5 of our young women between the ages of 16 and 24 are victims of sexual assault, and as a mother, I don’t like those odds, nor do the mothers and fathers of this country.
In April, The New Agenda interviewed New York State Senator Liz Krueger on our radio show Chewing the Fat with Ophelia. Ophelia asked the Senator how we could reduce violence against women in her home state of New York. Senator Krueger’s answer was to get more women into government.
Study after study shows the same. In countries where women have higher representation in government, women’s issues are dealt with. Unfortunately, the United States ranked number 71 in a recent poll by the IPU which measured each country’s representation of women in government.
Again, it is crucial that we find qualified women to run on all party tickets. Having 17% representation at home is just not acceptable. We’ve come a long way baby? Or have we?
[...] This post was Twitted by thenewagenda [...]
It sounds good and powerful and great but without at least a battalion of US Marines to back up the words, they remain words only, unfortunately. This political terror and control has been going on a long, long time – I wonder how many UN Resolutions of condemnation have been passed with no action? In some refugee camps in places, women get raped when they go out to gather wood for cooking. How simple it would be to distribute solar cookers and prevent this and I recall reading that somewhere, someplace this was being done. It is disgusting, the rape of women can’t be at least partly prevented by some damn simple boxes lined with a reflective surface designed for cooking.
Amy,
You stated: “Again, it is crucial that we find qualified women to run on all party tickets. Having 17% representation at home is just not acceptable. We’ve come a long way baby? Or have we?”
Hillary proved that it was not about being “qualified”, it was about keeping men exclusively in the high power positions.
As I have stated on several occasions here and on other blogs in hopes that someone will listen…our elections are corrupt. They are systematically gamed by the party leaders who have corrupt election officials in place to do their bidding. I’ve seen it up close and personal. I’m certain many here read the numerous reports on the way the obama camp not only gamed the caucus process, but committed criminal acts, in order to ensure his nomination and literally stole it from Hillary.
If we keep marginalizing this reality that how the only real power the people have has been corrupted totally by the election process itself via the caucuses (which are totally undemocratic and easily corrupted), the voting machines (which can easily be programmed to change the votes however you want) and election officials who, if not corrupt, are held under rigid legal constraints by the vendors by being forced to sign contracts that prohibit them from “independently” testing the voting software to see if it is functioning correctly and to never be allowed to even look inside the machines, then no matter how much we want qualified women to be voted into power, that just is not possible.
Election reform is ignored by the vast majority of Americans, primarily because it is an intimidating issue and deliberately so, much like the incomprehensible bills that are being passed, without anyone reading them because no one can understand them.
This is the core problem. Our democracy has been deliberatly complicated so that the government can asser to the people that we must have “experts” to explain our democracy to us.
The only experts in a democracy should be the people themselves. As long as we are willing to give away our power — our elections — to the experts, then we are going to be subjugated to the will of the party leaders and the power elite who rule them.
Our path back to reclaiming the powers guaranteed by our Constitution, is for citizens to get behind the push for a return to hand counts, at the precinct on election night. No machines and no counting in secret. This process totally undermines, no destroys, the principles of transparency and the public nature that every American election should have.
I have said many times on here, but get no response from anyone. What is keeping us from establishing a women’s party? Almost every single person I know is fed up with corrupt politics. I could count on one hand the people I know who supported either presidential candidate with excitement. Whichever way they voted it was by their definintion, “the lesser of the evils.”
I agree with Kathleen Wynne. If getting more women into political office will help to secure the status of women as equal members of a society – and I believe it will – then, ensuring they are allowed to claim the offices they win through the majority of votes, if not the vote count, is a prerequisite.
Carolyn,
While it is a terrific suggestion in concept, here’s the wrinkle – women are 51-52% of the population and 54% of the vote last go-round. Yet, even with a qualified women running on each ticket, women would not rally around them for gender reasons. Hence the concept of a third party where we could only expect a percentage of the 51-52% makes it hard for the math to work.
But who knows – the media seems to be spelling the end of the Republican Party – maybe the RNC will reinvent itself around women? Or a third party will spring up.
agree with kathleen.
a national women party had existed and was instrumental for getting us the vote. not by supplying the presidential candidate after all very few states let their women vote. but the national womens party stayed independent and worked with each party candidate who would support suffrage. how this s ocalled radical part of the suffrage movement was able to get us the vote, is an amazing story. you can read it in detail int the only biography of Alice Paul “from equal suffrage to equal rights” subtitle Alice Paul and the national womens party 1910 – 1928. by Christine Lunardini pulished by toExel press
As revolutionary as the original sentiments by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were, the movement degenerated over the decades (70 years) to an alliance with the democratic party asking the male politicians for support. most of them ignored them or kept the support low key. reminds me so much of NOW.
It took Alice Paul and Lucy Burns strategy, the methods they learned from the British suffragettes and the brilliant mind, savy and single mindedness of Alice Paul to create a national outrage what happened to women who were imprisoned for absolutely bogeous causes and horribly treated there. the hypocritical statement of bringing democracy to Europe in WWI and not allowing women to vote finally became obvious. the effort of getting enfranchised women to vote tactically to support their sisters and having the national womens party present in all states, playing the media and
the politicians was superb.
reading this book which is written as a thesis and should be rewritten for a wider audience and getting every schoolchild to visit the Belford house in DC, should be a must in citizen education.
Amy,
Thanks for the response. But if what I have read on here is true, the population DID rally around Hillary, but party leaders stone walled her. At least a women’s party would see a candidate on the ballot. Many women still wouldn’t rally, but then some men would as people become more and more disillusioned with all the er … dare I say it … OLD agenda.
Carolyn,
I would have to research to find the precise data – it’s been a year now so I’m a bit stale – but my recollection is that Hillary got roughly 65% of women’s votes in the Dem primary. That means 1/3 Dem women did not vote for her despite her qualifications. This to me is why I worry about women’s ability – where we are today – to support other women.
That is part of our work together at TNA.
The corporate media predict the end of the Republican party because they are behind Obama, Corporate Americas installed President. The end of the Democrat party or our country in it’s present incarnation are just as likely. The Corporate Media are completely out of touch with America and they foolishly believe Americans can be led by the nose. Remember Obama and his minions had to corrupt the process to win, there were not a sufficient number of sheepeople to legitimately vote him in.
…while back home, SoS Clinton, tireless crusader for women’s rights abroad, is spoofed on YouTube by these men, Dana Milbank ahd Chris Cillizza, both from the Washington Post , who posit the beer of choice were she at the BO get-together with OC and SG, is Mad Bitch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....p%3A%2F%2F
Yes jbjd – we are aware and will have something to say about it this morning. Despicable!
Amy, I am waiting the feedback from BO’s close friend, Valerie Jarrett, Chair of the WH Council on Women and Girls.
The WaPo removed the offensive video.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.c.....sponds.php
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