10 Worst Places in the World to Live If You’re a Woman
August 11, 2010
by The New Agenda
|38 Comments
The following article is cross-posted from MSNDegree.com. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.
Photo from www.americansforunfpa.org
Violence, rape and little or no education is a fact of life for many women all over the globe. While the feminist movement took off in parts of the Western world, many women are still treated as second class citizens. Many endure violent daily events and manage to persevere and take care of their children in hopes of a better tomorrow.
- Haiti. 75% of women in Haiti give birth at home. If that weren’t enough to deal with, AIDS is rampant and women are threatened by gangs of men whose only purpose is to hunt victims to rape. Many women have taken to the hills above Port au Prince just to stay safe as they try to work as street vendors. To make this trek, female street vendors usually end up spending a large portion of their profits to travel to safe territory to work. Girls as young as 11 and 12 years old turn to prostitution to help support their families since education for females in Haiti is non-existent in some areas. Nearly 50% of Haitian will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.
- Papau New Guinea. Here women only receive an education until the fifth grade and then enter the work force. Women are four times as likely to have HIV as men. It is nearly impossible for women in Papau New Guinea to achieve financial independence due to lack of education. While the legal age for a female to be married in the country is 16, in most rural villages menstruation will suffice for making a young girl fit for marriage. In 2004, the UN released a report that said 21% of girls between the ages of 15-19 are widowed, divorced or married. According to Amnesty International about 150 women per year are executed for accusation of practicing witchcraft.
- Domestic Republic of Congo. Deemed one of the most dangerous places in the world for women to live, the Congo has years of civil unrest under its belt, making it a haven for violence and rape against women. Women were on the front lines of warfare for decades. Torture and rape were common tactics used on women. Even after the war, rape has reached dramatic proportions and puts women at high risk for HIV. Health centers provided by non-profit agencies are usually days away and the only way to get there is on foot. If traveling at night, women are at risk of being kidnaped and forced to serve as sex and domestic slaves Ages range from 4 to 80, resulting in 19% of the female population being infected with HIV.
- Juarez. Juarez recently made headlines after the distress of the city inspired designers Laura and Kate Mulleavy of Rodarte. The sisters and designers traveled through Texas for inspiration and stumbled upon Juarez. While other cities and countries on this list are well-known for their violence against women, the happenings in Juarez seem to slip from the headlines. Since the early ‘90s, thousands of women have been murdered with dead bodies turning up on road sides or in vacant lots. Research done by authors, film makers and journalists have turned up links between local establishments, organized crime and local law enforcement. Within the first four days of January 2010, 37 women were murdered.
- Darfur. While women in other areas of the Sudan have made great strides, Darfur has fallen by the wayside. Women walk miles each day to gather food and water for their children, regularly risking being kidnaped and enslaved. Husbands seldom protect all of their wives (which is common in Darfur) and usually stick to the elder wife, leaving the others to fend for themselves. At night, women in Darfur stick to safe huts that are hidden among the jungle. Areas like sanitation are improving, but there’s still a mass need for medical and legal services to give women help to create their own livelihoods.
- Niger. Women are abused by their husbands in Niger and never prosecuted. This can cause some women to leave their homes and due to lack of education, these women usually turn to prostitution to make a living. Abuse is also common by fathers and brothers, as are rape and humiliation. When reaching out to the authorities, women are often blamed for the actions of men. Hospitals do treat injured women, but never record the reasons for the injury. Arranged marriages are common, so if a woman tells her parents of abuse in her own marriage, it is often seen as an insult towards the parents.
- Mali Genital mutilation is the norm in Mali. In the eyes of the lawn, women in Mali are seen as equals, but in reality they take a backseat as citizens. Girls receive schooling until the age of 12, but in the school year of 2005-06, only 49% of girls attended primary school. Girls can legally marry at the age of 18, but marriage with the consent of a parent is legal at 15. These laws are not enforced and arranged marriages happen for girls as young as 9 years old. Many are forced to give birth at a young age, resulting in mass complications and often, death for the girl. While there are laws against rape, men are seldom convicted of the crime. Spousal rape is still legal.
- Iraq. Iraq once held a high literacy rate for women. After the U.S. invasion, parents are afraid to send their young girls resulting in little education throughout the country. Kidnap and rape is common even for young girls, as well as adult women. Women who worked before the war now stay home for the same reason. Hunger is at an all-time high in this Arab country and overall, women’s rights have drastically decreased since 2003. Worst of all, Iraq’s backwards laws have caused oppression throughout the country, creating a population of women who are unaware of their rights. In Afghanistan, a woman dies every half hour due to complications during child birth.
- Sierra Leone. In the Sierra Leone only 24% of women are literate. On average, women live to be 43 in this country and one in eight women die during childbirth. Just a few years after the end of civil warfare, women in the Sierra Leone struggle with violence and rape more than any other women in the world.. Women deal with rape in a major way, so much so that after becoming victims of rape, men in the villages will mock them. This often leads to the woman becoming undesired and left by her husband. The same goes for women who have children from rape. Some are even rejected by their family members. While legislation for women’s rights in Sierra Leone has been passed, it is seldom enforced and persecuting perpetrators is practically non-existent .
- Nepal. In Nepal, women are married off and have children as early as 14 and 15 years old. This contributes to a large number of women dying in childbirth due to lack of proper medical care. Sex traffickers are rampant in Nepal and are often the answer for a girl who is not married by the time she’s 18 or so. Like other countries on our list of worst places in the world to live if you’re a woman, allegedly practicing witchcraft is enough to have women tormented in the streets. Women are labeled “boskis” for no concrete reason which means witch and face severe discrimination. Guerilla groups force women to participate due to civil war between Maoist and government rebels.
While the United Nations and non-profit agencies continue to battle women’s rights around the world, there are some areas where battling violence and looking over your shoulder as you attempt to gather food and drinkable water is a way of life.
It seems like instead of the typical USA/United Nations procedure of arming and training one political group of the men in these backward countries maybe we should try arming the women. Really what worse could happen? Clearly the current strategy isn’t working.
This is a weird, weird post. Smacks totally of ‘look at all these stupid black/brown people with their backwards laws and regressive attitudes to women’. There’s no mentione of solutions, of reasons, no analysis of patterns of abuse or bigotry – just scare statistics one after the other. Almost like those people who keep telling women ‘look you have it so much better here than there (wherever ‘here’ may be – you can bet women in Haiti are told they’re better off than women in Afghanistan), so put up and shut up.
And Why on EARTH is Afghanistan mentioned in the Iraq section? Has the author seen a map, like, ever? Or did George Bush or Dick Cheney write this article?
I don’t see what the article has to do with skin color. I guess it is not politically correct to notice misogyny and neglect toward girls in societies of people of color (which would explain the lack of “feminist” outrage regarding popular rap music)? It did mention that some of these countries have laws that say women are equal but that that is not the reality of women’s lives.
If the places mentioned here do not like being called backward because of their behavior towards women then they need to stop their backward behaviors not accuse people who observe the problem of being racist.
Bes,
Were the tables turned and women were treating men like this in these “backward” countries, would racism even come into play here? I seriously doubt it.
Have you noticed that whenever anyone points out the rampant sexism/mysogyny still be perpetrated against women across the globe and even here in the U.S., someone always screams “racist”? It’s a distraction used to keep sexism from ever being acknowledged and dealt with in the same way racism has been.
Of course, when it comes to racist issues, they have more validity because “men” and not just women, are involved.
And I wonder how many of the people who live in these countries are convinced that all their problems would be solved if only they could crap on women even more …
But Kathleen, it’s racist to care about black and brown women! Their suffering doesn’t count as black or brown suffering — they’re less brown than their men. Jeez, get with the faux-gressive program, girl!
Seriously guys, get a grip. I’m as strong an ally to feminism as they come, and a vociferous Hill supporter and PUMA to boot. The article is just ignorantly written b.s. to make women (and men) in the US feel oh so proud of themselves for being enlightened unlike those other pathetic people. Yeah, right, I see how enlightened people are here every day. It was not six months ago that someone at work asked me to make coffee – before he realized I was his new project manager & de facto boss.
And seriously, what do Iraq and Afghanistan have to do with each other anyway? Except for Dubya – and Obama now – bombing both countries?
“The article is just ignorantly written b.s. to make women (and men) in the US feel oh so proud of themselves for being enlightened unlike those other pathetic people.”
It’s written to make us feel superior to some chick in Niger who ripped her vagina open giving birth because of scar tissue? Really? Fascinating outlook.
And how precisely would YOU word it so that awareness and outrage over this horseshit were acceptably phrased without appearing raycist?
Good Q. I’d probably have written an analysis, solutions-driven article. However, if the author is only laying out scare statistics, even then we can reframe the debate to something that doesn’t ‘other’ violence towards women. If I had to write a ‘skimming’ article, I’d write an article about “10 horrible ways women are treated around the world”, and gone on like this:
* Gross physical abuse – e.g. FGM in parts of Africa, canings and beatings in Afghanistan for non-burqa clad women, some recent examples of horrendous domestic violence in Canada
* Sex trafficking and sexual slavery – Russian & East European girls trafficked to Western Europe and to the Middle East, women from South-East Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, etc.) trafficked to Australia,
* Incest and rape on religious grounds – including examples from the horror stories from Japan, Austria and California, Utah, Colarado and Texas.
* Emotional abuse and humiliation of female public figures – Hillary Clinton, of course. Sarah Palin. Martha Stewart. Numerous stories of French and Australian female politicians, German & Dutch business leaders & artists.
* Honor Killings & ‘crimes of passion’ – around the world. Including right here in the US, and even in enlightened Nordic nations.
…. etc.
…etc.
…. more:
Infanticide and Sex-selective abortion – India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia
Forced ‘marriages’ & kidnappings – Eastern Europe & Western Asia, incl Kazakhistan, Estonia, etc.
The problem is that the article could just go on for ever. If I was writing this, I’d pick a specific focus – religion-excused-violence, culture-recognized-rape, etc. and then elaborate on it.
“The article is just ignorantly written b.s. to make women (and men) in the US feel oh so proud of themselves for being enlightened unlike those other pathetic people”
Wow. I don’t even know you and you’re already throwing around insults and accusations. Sheesh, project much? I also find it ironic that you would accuse people of being ignorant, racist, and using scare tactics, when you yourself go on and try to compare being asked to make coffee to what some of these women experience.
” … we can reframe the debate to something that doesn’t ‘other’ violence towards women.”
I’m just not seeing this as othering, and I admit that I’ve lost patience with the word “other” used as a verb. There has become no way at all for Western frminists to give a damn for what’s happening to women in other countries anymore.
And how is your list solutions-oriented? And how is it NOT a “scare list?” How can anyone talk about such outrageous things in a manner that’s dry, clinical, and unemotional enough to not be accused of talking about scary things? These ARE scary things.
I’ve just gotten tired of this “if only you’d TALKED ABOUT IT in the correct manner, then I’d care,” nonsense. You read this list and the first thing you thought of to do was to lash out that it wasn’t messaged properly. Why not instead ask, “Okay, these are awful things — what can be done?” It’s demoralizing and aggravating to talk about problems and get back nothing constructive but only nitpicks on one’s tone of voice, body language, phrasing or other excuses to invalidate what was said.
If you’re so focused on constructive solutions, then start pursuing them. Ask, start the conversation, start talking about it.
I’ll do it if no one else will: In response to this article, what can a typical woman working for a living in the West do that will help alleviate these problems?
There. That wasn’t so hard, was it?
And I’m seriously interested in answers to that question.
I like Bes’ idea of arming the women in the areas where they are preyed upon while they are doing chores outside of their village. And not just arming them, night vision equipment is key for many of them. They would need to be taught strategies to work as a pack of women (or women and men) from their villages so that there are lookouts and those working patrol to identify threats. To just hand these women a stun-gun or a knife may not be as productive as teaching them different ways to map out an area and eliminate a threat. Give them weapons that work over larger distances so the threat cannot even come into contact with them. Be on the offensive, not so much defensive. If word gets out that a village is not easy pickings, then maybe the threat will move away.
Of course this would all require countries that have the expertise to train these women and have access to the technology to liberate them to give a damn.
I like Bes’ idea of arming the women in the areas where they are preyed upon while they are doing chores outside of their village.
I am totally behind this idea. Maybe the newly integrated UN organisation for women’s rights should take on this mission and get funded for this. The UN arms men for alleged peace-keeping. It’s high time they started arming women for peace-keeping.
One of the organizations I heard about was RAWA — the revolutionary association of the women of Afghanistan. I’ve donated to them before, but I haven’t kept up with what they are doing lately. They run schools and shelters for little girls and women in the area. Another organization that I’ve heard of is called Room to Read, which promotes literacy among all kids, but concentrates on girls.
Seriously — I’m not asking “what would you do if you were supreme ruler of the universe,” and I’m not asking for fantasy solutions like “give every woman in Africa an uzi.” I’m really asking what can be done now, by us. How much connection to women in these places do we have? What do THEY advise?
One thing I think some people need to keep in mind on this blog and especially in the comments section is, not everyone has an English or Journalism degree who posts articles or comments here. That is OK. People do not need to have those degrees to make their thoughts worthwhile. It does not mean they have zero thoughts that are worth sharing but it means that readers will have to read past typos and clumsy sentences. I assume the Afghanistan comment in the Iraq paragraph is a typo (not a plot), that is all.
Another thing is women often are writing with a child on their lap or while getting “Mommaed” every five seconds. The fact that someone makes a typo or doesn’t have a polished finished product doesn’t mean they are ignorant or their perspective isn’t worthwhile. Look at much of the polished loads of crap that are put out by Corporate Media daily. Polishing final product isn’t the most valuable part of writing. Original thought, clear observations, creating a true picture are some things that I consider more important than polishing the final product. I also think the sorts of problems discussed here will be solved by people who break the rules.
There’s this too but again I have no experience with AI:
AI Violence Against Women with a downloadable toolkit
Chevalier,
I see your point, honestly. I just can’t think of the last time this kind of criticism came down about an article that Wasn’t focused on women’s rights. The requirement that an article must be “solution-focused” or be disregarded as scare tactics is kind of horrific. Suddenly women have to have the ANSWERS to global misogyny and violence before we can even open the conversation. Is any other issue held to this standard? Same thing with us having to mix in domestic violence in Canada and trafficking in Australia. Not to say that those aren’t issues, but that wasn’t the focus of the article. Why should it have been, except to avoid the appearance of racism, which women are accused of when we speak frankly about the problems with other cultures? Perhaps the time has come to say SCREW CULTURAL RELATIVISM: Human rights are human rights and we’ll worry about cultural quirks and differences after nobody is being RAPED TO DEATH.
Janis,
I agree the solutions can be many tiered where individuals can donate time or money to a literacy project and then others can figure out ways to implement the big fantasy ideas. I don’t believe it is unrealistic to arm women in Darfur or in the Congo; or to give at risk villages or townships the ability to fortify themselves. It would be easier to implement if a government or global organization actually cared to eliminate the wartime violence in many of these countries. As long as women are vulnerable to an army of men, then there will never be safety for them.
The war in Iraq or Afghanistan were never about saving the women. I feel that if the women are truly empowered both mentally and technologically then things can change. All the books and literacy projects don’t protect the women from being attacked by male zealots who hate them; an infantry made up of their female peers may.
How do you yourself propose to help arm women in these areas, then? What is the path from here to there?
It just occurred to me that that possibly some research and development needs to be done on what weapons would be most effective for women to use and possibly new weapons should be designed specifically for women to use to defend themselves. That would be a contribution western women engineers could contribute. I remember watching my kids target shoot. My daughter who was 8 or so and had never shot a rifle could put the boys to shame target shooting, so slow, determined target hitting is probably a skill women are good at. Perhaps weapons would need to be lighter weight, or maybe have some way of cushioning the kickback. I think I will go to the lady NRA site and see what I can learn about weapons of choice for women.
Also regarding training women to “hunt” in a pack, Good idea and also planting the idea that women need to step up and protect themselves from what ever threatens them because no one else is going to do it is needed. So western women who can write could write fables that could be printed or passed on orally about brave women protectors and their methods. These could even be passed off as long forgotten or suppressed knowledge from the great grandmothers that is just now resurfacing. Look at the literature that is in our faces daily, women as victims is a big genre and I don’t see a lot of regular gals who uphold justice and fairness with occasional violence ever. That needs to change to plant the seeds in girls minds.
Again, please be aware that sitting here talking about guns IS NOT HELPING.
Unless we bullet-point this and start to develop what is effectively a business model, THIS WILL GO NOWHERE.
Start asking yourselves where we will get funding, what the international laws are regarding this, who we can find that will act as recipient in that country …
I have just had it up to here with talk-talk-talk that makes us feel good and achieves nothing.
Well what is our military doing in Iraq to get the Iraqi military and police prepared for the ultimate withdrawl of US Troops? We could put a bug in the ears of our Military Committees in the House & Senate to recruit women to the police forces and military forces if they are not doing that already. It is already known that when US platoons that were dominated with women entered many towns they were accepted more readily and the women in the villages trusted them. Sorry, I don’t have a link, just a recollection. I don’t see that it would be difficult to create all female infantries to start protecting and serving their localities and have them trained by our female soldiers.
Heck, our SOS could work with our SOD and mandate it with the military. That would be something different for Iraq. We could use a similar model in Afghanistan. If the US Military consciously creates Iraqi female militia to protect their country there has to be some type of positive trickle down effect.
Countries like Darfur and the Congo, etc. would take some time for me to get out of fantasy land. We don’t do shit militarily in those places anyway, so that is starting from scratch.
So Janis the “just do something” instigator, I can contact our SOS (Clinton) and our SOD (Gates) and hammer home what an opportunity it would be to include Iraqi women in their readiness plan in Iraq. How’s that? Tangible enough?
It’s a step to seeing how well the idea can be implemented, definitely. I’m still skeptical on how well it will work or what it’s chances are in reality, though.
I have faith in women’s ability to protect and serve. Someone just has to have an idea that can be implemented. Getting women in security roles in the military may help to reduce some of their religious oppression. Trying is half the battle to succeeding. If we don’t try different strategies we may not be able to move forward.
Talking about guns however is a big step for women. Because up until now women have been expected to never use violence even to defend themselves. Violence is clearly a fact of life around the world and yet women apparently are supposed to act cowed by the violence around them and cower in the corner while hoping for a perfect non violent solution that won’t offend any religious or political men. If you have ever noticed much sports equipment is made for men and so the proportions are off or it weighs to much or depends on a center of gravity that is too high for women making it unusable. Engineering weapons to womens specs would likely mean more women would use them. It is like anything else men engineer, it fits their needs but not ours. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel but there needs to be women in top political positions to set the plan in motion, there needs to be teaching of the women victims, which fables could accomplish so someone needs to develop the narrative behind the fables and teach them and appropriate weapons need to be available. I would expect a huge Democrat outcry around distributing weapons to women of different cultures although giving them to men of different cultures is common and acceptable to The Powers That BE. In fact talking about this plan is very important because people at large need to get used to the idea. As long as more is happening than just talking. Money could be raised through sponsorship programs.
I would expect a huge Democrat outcry around distributing weapons to women of different cultures although giving them to men of different cultures is common and acceptable to The Powers That BE.
That is why (or at least, it is one of the reasons) why I want to elect more women to positions of power. There is this thinking among some feminists, especially liberal feminists, that feminism should only help the most downtrodden women and should not care about putting women in power. I don’t think they understand how the two are related. We need power to help the most downtrodden women. Putting men in power and relying on them is not going to get anything done. I sincerely believe that having Hillary, and even Condi Rice in power has helped international women in some ways. Hillary has made women’s rights a priority in her agenda, Condi Rice worked against trafficking of women and children.
So, I think we should be contacting the women in power (in US government & in UN organisations) with our ideas (even better if we do it in an organized way, in large numbers, instead of individually) and lobbying for funding in a big way.
I’m all for arming women and teaching them self defense. Unfortunately it’s not a magic solution because so much violence towards women comes from the culture and the men they care about. You’re not likely to shoot the grandmothers who support FGM, for example. Or the husband who abuses you, but is also the breadwinner who keeps the kids fed.
There are numerous organizations trying to help women in these countries. You can donate money or volunteer for these organizations. The SOS is another good resource. Ultimately the way we will end violence against women is to get them into political office, to help them gain more power.
There is actually a whole lot of progress being made on thousands of different fronts. It’s really frustrating because change is so slow and women are still suffering, but incredible work is already being done.
“There are numerous organizations trying to help women in these countries. You can donate money or volunteer for these organizations.”
In addition, there are organizations on the ground IN those countries, run by women in those countries, who would know a lot better how to deal with the garbage they have to put up with than a bunch of us sitting in front of computers eight times zones away. That’s a big reason why I like RAWA — they are right there, in the trenches, and they know the immediate needs well. That’s a lot more useful to them than us sitting here having Xena and Lara Croft fantasies, no matter how satisfying they are.
I’ve heard and rolled my eyes a million times at insinuations — often made by clueless men — that an abused woman with three kids and no good job in this country could solve her problems by just “blowing the bastard away.” The problem is actually infinitely more complicated than that, and the women in that situation understand the complexity better than people who have never had to confront it. We’re doing the same thing here. Let’s not do that.
Chevalier,
Women in the United States have a catch-22 to deal with. On the one hand, if we call attention to sexism in this country we are criticized for complaining because things are just so worse for women in other countries. When we call attention to sexism in other countries we are called racists and xenophobes who should deal with our own record of sexism in our country and culture.
I really do not think this is a fruitful discussion and I see no problem in outlining abuses by country.
The section on Iraq, however, is indeed confusing….
“Another thing is women often are writing with a child on their lap or while getting “Mommaed” every five seconds. The fact that someone makes a typo or doesn’t have a polished finished product doesn’t mean they are ignorant or their perspective isn’t worthwhile.”
Thanks for bringing this up, Bes! Too true! This is exactly how I write and I am SURE that I’ve made a few typos. Sue me
“I really do not think this is a fruitful discussion and I see no problem in outlining abuses by country.”
Not unless there is also a list of organizations on the ground in each country, created and maintained by the women there, that can be supported by us from a distance.
Long lists of outrages don’t do much unless they say “here’s how you can help,” and I have to admit that I find “write a letter!” to be less than useful. (And I know I linked to that AI thing that did precisely that.)
What I would like to see done by country is a list of organizations in each that we can donate to. From N time zones off, that’s about as much as we can do, but it is something. “Organization XYZ was founded by Whatever-her-name-is to end genital mutilation in her native country. Donations can be sent to the following address.” “So-and-so runs a women’s hospital that treats women recuperating from rape and other forms of abuse. Donations can be sent to wherever.” That sort of thing.
Again, I’ll mention RAWA and the Fistula Foundation. They’re on the ground, right there in the countries. Shove some dosh at them.
Of course I agree that women are not likely to shoot a relative who is abusive. But there are things that arming women can accomplish which would be short of solving all problems. For one it gives women protection from unknown attackers who women are vulnerable to in lawless societies. It starts to change the universal idea that women are victims just waiting for exploitation to the idea that you might want to stop and think before you attack because you might get killed.
Arming women makes subtle changes much like making sure all women and children who live in the gutter begging because they have no man are rounded up and moved someplace safe with shelter and food, stops these women from being used as public examples to women to shut up and put up and or risk losing their man and ending up in the gutter. It makes it so people say “look at Jane, her husband abjured her and now she lives in a women’s co-op with her children where they are out of the elements and eat three meals a day, I hear she is learning a work skill (I think her life may be better than mine!)” And that is better than them thinking “Jane is living in the gutter with her female children because her husband hates her for speaking up…I don’t want that to happen to me.”
Actually it might accomplish more to bring up the idea of arming women to the military industrial complex who would stand to profit from it. They should like the idea as it doubles their potential customers, they have zero morals to be offended by it, and they can push the idea within the government which they own.
Bes, do you honestly think that a giant packing crate of guns is going to be just delivered by a smiling UPS man to one of these women in the streets? Even if it did, do you think they wouldn’t sell the ammo to get milk for their babies? If you can talk about how getting mommied with a squirming baby in your lap can’t even make you type straight, how the hell are these women going to go all Xena Warrior Princess with six starving ones with giardia and guinea worm clinging to them?!
Jesus fucking Christ, women IN these countries who know their problems more intimately are doing what they can with organizations they’ve founded, and we’re all sitting here living out Lara Croft vengeance movie fantasies using them as stand-ins.
Can we please actually concentrate on GETTING SOMETHING DONE here? I cannot believe that we read this litany of horror, and what is our reaction? Sit around and talk macha about guns. Digging up places where we can finance change from the ground up? Investigating what can actually get done to help? Collecting links to people doing stuff now? Naah, that’s WORK. And it’s boring. We don’t want to help, we just want to cluck our tongues, talk like Xena, and get dinner. Is that all these women are worth to us — sitting around and getting the chance to let off a little steam by talking big?
I never want to have this fucking conversation again. This is sickening. You want to know why women get nowhere in the world and never will? This horseshit is why. Because there are opportunities to really constructively do stuff, but it’s WAY more fun to sip Starbucks, roll back in an office chair, and talk big about guns than buckle down and do the must less box-office work to get it done.
BTW, I’m a firearms owner. A proud one, who will defend the second amendment to my last day. And even I think that this gun talk bullshit will do no good whatsoever except make everyone who takes part in it feel all righteous and empowerfulated.
TNA, PLEASE get a collection of organizations like RAWA and the Fistula Foundation and others together next time you link to something like this roll call of horror, just a canned list that can be boilerplated onto stories like this, including organizations in the US like RAINN and its ilk. If I have to watch a bunch of Feminists™ spin their wheels again when confronted with problems instead of looking for constructive avenues of aid driven by the women in these areas, I’m going to lose what little patience I have left.
https://www.americansforunfpa.org/NetCommunity/SSLPage.aspx?&pid=258&srcid=226
This is where the photo in the blog came from.
Then there is the Heifer Project which helps poor communities by supplying them with animals that can be used for food either by milking, egg laying, etc. When communities can liberate themselves from poverty, everybody wins.
http://www.heifer.org
The only criticism I would take as valid is the fact that men use the tactic of “how good women have got it” without focusing on how much better women have it in, you know, Sweden. And I do recall a “best places to live” if you’re a woman, article. Well, I love discussing solutions. Recently I figured out that the structure of society and the welfare the people, economy depends on women. Men almost instinctively, and even to say this can pass as an excuse for them, or a futility argument toward solution, but it must be said..there’s no right way to say it, that men instinctively gear towards total lack of responsibility, fighting, killing, and raping, rape instinct, gang warfare. It’s the way women are treated. It’s not there’s a bad economy, fix the economy, there’s a resource problem, fix the resource problem, or there’s a bad gang in charge, arm some other men. That’s not the problem. The problem is the way women are treated. They seem to think the problem of women is solved last, after society gets put together, well that’s not the case. When women are treated better all of a sudden tehre is innovation, technology, society, and what we call “modern” warfare which is just order and rules applied to the age old gang, rape, fight mentality of males. When women are alright, there is abundance of resources.
Well, do we even have a vested interest in fixing these places, in telling them the secret to a superior society wherein people have rights, freedoms, resources, and there is innovation and technology?
NO. We don’t. I don’t think so, but I do think the solution will be projected to the masses as Global Domination; Global Domination of the western mindset is the solution, and people will eat that up.
We don’t want these places to be built up because these men over here don’t want competition from areas of the world that would, if they treated women like human beings, if they did not violently engage in their lesser instincts, have the most resources of any place on Earth.
White men are the same as black men, or any men, over the world, they are all the same. The men over here simply have the privilege of a society that started when some men decided to shut the f(ck up.
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