feminine-genius

A different kind of vigil

Zimbabwe has suffered under a brutal dictator for years. He wields power through violence and intimidation, and nothing seems to be able to dislodge him. He holds rallies around the country, fueled by alcohol and drugs, which all locals are forced to attend. The upcoming election has ramped everything up still more:

As the country heads for a second round of a presidential election on 27 June ... MDC Information Director Luke Tambironyoka says more than 500 women and girls have been sexually abused and raped in the political violence gripping the country.

"We are still yet to establish the exact figure as some cases are still yet to be reported officially," he says. "Furthermore, the majority of the victims are in the outlying remote rural areas, where they are in hiding fearing for their lives."

[T]he abuse tends to happen at night-time vigils, called "pungwes." These are gatherings held in the open where people are forced to sing revolutionary songs to prove their loyalty to the ruling party. Many residents in the area are made to attend, including girls as young as 16 where, if they catch a commander's eye, they are kept at the base until the militia leave the area.

Some are held for weeks or longer, such as Maidei -- a young widow on whom this story centers. Those supporting Mugabe don't even deny it.

Asked about the allegations that men were raping women and girls forcibly at the meetings, he replied matter-of-factly: "We have to share in comradeship as we have the same aim to get rid of the opposition here." He confirmed that the young and beautiful women were often identified at the meetings and made to stay on with the group leaders.

Just this weekend, the only man running against the brutal dictator pulled out of the race, since he couldn't guarantee the safety of his supporters at the polls and much of his staff has been arrested. Supporter of his opposition party have had their homes burned and many international observers sent to the country have been killed. He's in hiding in the Dutch embassy.

The older members of the ruling party are all dying of HIV/AIDS, which the members spread even further with the rape campaigns. Life expectancy in Zimbabwe is 37 years. So far, the international has no leverage over this country, and sanctions prove useless. Half the country desperately needs aid from abroad, which the government already refuses to distribute. Oremus.

Wrong and bad

In Nigeria, there is the ongoing trend of kidnapping Christian girls who are then forcibly "converted" to Islam, and then married off to Muslim men. Then there is the reprisal for the release of two in particular, whom police found and returned to their families.

Police recovered the two Christian girls, Mary Chikwodi Okoye, 15, and Uche Edward, 14, on May 12 after Muslims in Ningi kidnapped them three weeks ago in an attempt to expand Islam by marrying them to Muslim men. Police took the two girls, who had been under foster care, to safety in southeastern Nigeria where their biological parents live.

Following the rescue of the girls, Muslims under the auspices of the Hisbah Command, a paramilitary arm of Kano state’s Sharia Commission, responsible for enforcing Islamic law, went on a rampage on Tuesday (May 13), attacking Christians and setting fire to the churches.

The destroyed churches were the Deeper Life Bible Church, St. Mary’s Catholic Church, All Souls Anglican Church, Church of Christ in Nigeria, Redeemed Christian Church of God, and the Redeemed Peoples Mission.

It's interesting on an ontological level how the Bride of Christ is ravaged through these events: through the violence done to the kidnapped girls themselves, through the physical attack on the the Churches that were burned, and through the travesty of forced marriages in which the brides are given unwillingly to the bridegrooms. What is also remarkable is the shared communion in the destruction of a Catholic parish, an Anglican parish, and four lesser-known denominations. What divisions were in place while the buildings stood are erased by their shared suffering. There are no denominations In the rubble -- only the wounds of a Bride in communion with Her Beloved. Prayers for all.

Taking sorcery seriously

Fifteen women burned alive on suspicion of witchcraft by villagers in Kenya. (Haunting photo from Breibart on site). Vigilantes take matters into their own hands despite pleas from government officials to stand down. One killed was wife of Christian pastor. Horrid, brutal, irresponsible. May they rest in peace. 

Joining the "Day of Prayer"

The tyrant Robert Mugabe has been voted out of office by the courageous citizens of Zimbabwe, and he's not taking it well. Letting loose multitudes or armed thugs to attack those who voted for the opposition, they are burning, killing, and terrorising the country. The most vile example is against the most innocent, of course:

Scores of children and babies have been locked up in filthy prison cells in Harare as Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president, sinks to new depths in his campaign to force the opposition into exile before an expected run-off in presidential elections.

Twenty-four babies and 40 children under the age of six were among the 250 people rounded up in a raid on Friday, according to Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Yesterday they were crammed into cells in Southerton police station in central Harare.

“This is ruthlessness of the worst kind. How can you incarcerate children whose mothers have fled their homes hoping to give their children refuge?” asked an emotional Chamisa yesterday. “In Mugabe’s Zimbabwe even children are not spared the terror that befalls their parents.”

No doubt this is simply the tip of an iceburg -- a wealth of vengeance flowing from a sick mind. The Church in Zimbabwe has asked that today be a day of prayer. We'll join our prayers to theirs, so that "Rachel" can recover her children -- every one (Matthew 2: 18).

Impacting society -- the UN way

One United Nations agency posts a story that looks quite good at the surface, and yet has me wondering what is left unsaid.

GALKAYO, Somalia, October 15 (UNHCR) – A dozen female students wearing brightly coloured head scarves listen attentively to their teacher in a whitewashed classroom daubed with slogans such as: "Learn today, teach tomorrow" and "War is the father of evil."

The women, who have come to this town from all corners of northern Somalia's Puntland region, are taking part in a three-month course aimed at giving them the skills to effectively and efficiently run a non-governmental organization (NGO). It also has another purpose.

"This workshop empowers women so that they can have an impact on their own lives as well as on society," explained 45-year-old course participant Asha, who runs a small NGO dedicated to peace-building. "Men have had the power forever and all we got is a country devastated by conflict and poverty. Women would provide much better governance than men because our society is based on family, in which women have the main experience," she added to approval from her classmates.

The course is being organized by the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development (GECPD) with the support of the UN refugee agency. It aims, specifically, to teach the women how to define an NGO's mandate, request funding and ensure accountability.

The participants approach the course with enthusiasm. Most of them already serve their communities by working for NGOs. They clearly want to make a difference and improve life for women in a deprived and volatile area of the world.

"Listen to them, these women are the real voice of Somalia, they know the needs of their communities perfectly and they have a real commitment to bring change," Hawa Aden, chairwoman of GECPD, said with pride in her voice.

As Aden visited the classroom with a UNHCR guest, the students took turns repeating the lesson of the day – an exercise aimed at developing public-speaking skills. This will help them in their particular areas of NGO work, including peace-building, women's rights, female genital mutilation and education for girls. Asha told the class how she had helped bring together rival sub-clans for peace talks.

"Women are the foundation of Somalia, the ones who make the building stand, but they need to be taught how to lead. What we learn today will benefit Somali women and their country tomorrow," said 19-year-old Ayan, who recently completed her secondary education and joined a women's NGO. She now works as a counsellor for female victims of sexual abuse.

Having studied the UN and its policies for a long time, I see tell-tale signs that there is more to the agenda than simple education. The harms are noted as:

• HIV/AIDS
• Genital mutilation
• Rape
• Abandonment
• Lack of access to development $$
• No voice/rights for women

What the UN standard response has been:

• Condoms and birth control devices
• Change in legislation to give women leverage over men
• Education in bureacracies so that the UN can manage things
• Restructuring of cultural settings to empower women
• Business opportunities for women only, upsetting the men
• Accountability defined as targeting birth rates for reduction
• Abortion on demand as basic service, foundation for "equality"

The fundamental inequalities that have harmed women in the past are indefensible, but the UN response in the last 40 years has been to undermine marriage and the family -- calling them the problem. Note the "lesson" that links fatherhood with war. Unnecessary. Note the emphasis of women being the strength of Somalia--and better leaders. Unnecessary. Society works best when men and women work together for the good of each other and their children. It's called collaboration. This is glossy spin that masks a feminist agenda. Guaranteed. Just make a call and find out what the NGO's "goods and services" consist of and ask yourself why they're better managed by women...

Pitched battle:forces of life and death

The violent situation in eastern Congo is beyond all ability to comprehend, and women and children are the primary targets.

Grace was born just two weeks ago; and she was orphaned on the very same day. The women at Mugunga camp, home to 80,000 displaced Congolese, are very protective of the infant.

A member of the camp's leadership council, Banza Mazamba, tells VOA of the horror that befell Grace's parents when they fled their village September 23. "Her mother and father were fleeing the village of Karuba when Nkunda's soldiers caught them," said Mazamba. "They killed the father immediately. The mother was very pregnant with this baby. They killed her and cut the baby from her stomach. An old woman, a Good Samaritan, found the baby on the ground and brought her here."

No articles mention drugs as an agent, but something dark is fueling the rampant pillaging. Some point to the Hutu militia-men who escaped into the Congolese hills after the Rwandan genocide and are psychologically destroyed by all the killing they did. That makes a lot of sense, providing a poignant reminder to us that the "culture of death" marks the very "source of life" [women] as targets to be destroyed in order to assuage the tormented conscience. Whatever the cause, it has resulted in 18,000 rapes last year--in just three provinces. And that is the reported number; most women don't report them because of the shame involved.

Patrick Lavand'homme is the head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Goma. "When you have an increase of insecurity, an increase of displacement, women are put at risk and more vulnerable to sexual harassment," said Lavand'homme. The little rule of law that exists completely disappears. It is rape with violence and physical degradation. Very young girls and even young boys [are] being raped."

The NYT's has a story as well, with more dark anecdotes:

Malteser International, a European aid organization that runs health clinics in eastern Congo, estimates that it will treat 8,000 sexual violence cases this year, compared with 6,338 last year. The organization said that in one town, Shabunda, 70 percent of the women reported being sexually brutalized.

At Panzi Hospital, where Dr. Mukwege performs as many as six rape-related surgeries a day, bed after bed is filled with women lying on their backs, staring at the ceiling, with colostomy bags hanging next to them because of all the internal damage.

“We don’t know why these rapes are happening, but one thing is clear,” said Dr. Mukwege, who works in South Kivu Province, the epicenter of Congo’s rape epidemic. “They are done to destroy women.” [my emphasis]

I would apologise for the awful news except that it should encourage you to pray. Remember the millions in harm's way; the evil on rampage; the tremendous need for God's grace.

The almighty image

Who knew that I'd be praising Mia Farrow and Steven Spielberg on one of their activist missions? But this time, they're using their clout for something entirely admirable. Consider two things:

1. Beijing, China will host the 2008 Olympics despite an atrocious humna rights record.

2. China has blocked action against Sudan's genocide, because of enormously important oil ties and China's impenetrable vote on the UN's security council.

And yet, wonder of wonders, visible people are connecting the dots for the good:

Ms. Farrow, a good-will ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund, has played a crucial role, starting a campaign last month to label the Games in Beijing the “Genocide Olympics” and calling on corporate sponsors and even Mr. Spielberg, who is an artistic adviser to China for the Games, to publicly exhort China to do something about Darfur. In a March 28 op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal, she warned Mr. Spielberg that he could “go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games,” a reference to a German filmmaker who made Nazi propaganda films.

Four days later, Mr. Spielberg sent a letter to President Hu Jintao of China, condemning the killings in Darfur and asking the Chinese government to use its influence in the region “to bring an end to the human suffering there,” according to Mr. Spielberg’s spokesman, Marvin Levy.

China soon dispatched Mr. Zhai to Darfur, a turnaround that served as a classic study of how a pressure campaign, aimed to strike Beijing in a vulnerable spot at a vulnerable time, could accomplish what years of diplomacy could not.

God be praised! While Hollywood has been notoriously unhelpful on the question of how contraception, abortion, and promiscuity hurt women, their social consciousness has allowed them to embrace the fight against injustice both in Tibet and the Sudan. If these media elites understand one thing, it's the power of a visible campaign of shame against an entity who needs to save face. They've now hit the jackpot.

National pride in China has been surging over the coming Olympics, with a gigantic clock in Tiananmen Square counting down the minutes to the Games, and Olympic souvenir stores sprouting all over with the “One World, One Dream” Beijing Olympics motto.

In public, Bush administration officials have been relatively restrained in welcoming China’s new diplomatic zeal.

“We have indications at this point that the Chinese are now taking even a more aggressive role than they have in the past,” Andrew S. Natsios, the Bush administration’s special envoy to Sudan, told a Senate panel on Wednesday. “I think they may be the crucial actors.”

J. Stephen Morrison, a Sudan expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he had been warning Chinese officials that Darfur and the Olympics could collide, to no avail.

“I’ve been talking to them and telling them this is coming, this is coming,” Mr. Morrison said. “I told them, there’s an infrastructure out there, they need to feed the beast, and you’re in their sight.” Before, he said, “they kind of shrugged.”

But there is growing concern inside China that Darfur is hurting Beijing’s image.

Alas, "preserving their image" (or "feeding the beast" as Morrison calls it) is not necessarily as pure an intention as actually attempting to "protect innocent life," but it just may work to the same end. In this case, one nation's pride (saving face) could serve to lift the humble in another nation, but it's a start we can all applaud. Let's pray it escalates into something that will truly end horrific suffering in Africa.

[Just found this marvelous mapping tool here. Perhaps we can pass this along to others as a homeschool resource as well as informing ourselves.]

"We don't talk about it"

We cannot neglect to pray for the women in the war-torn areas of Africa who are subject to constant brutal attacks. This is from a recent report from a woman with the International Medical Corps:

But to get a painfully vivid snapshot of what’s happening here, you need look no further than the women and young girls – girls as young as two. The Kivu provinces have produced some of the highest numbers of sexual violence victims in the world. You can literally see the trauma on their faces, and in their medical charts.

Their stories are appalling, and there is a sinister, sickening uniformity to the details of these stories, i.e. who the perpetrators are and the acts [that] they’re committing.

Caution, there are brutal stories in the piece starting about half-way down, but they lead to a particular form of suffering, as a result.

Subsequent to the attack, she has suffered a condition that has become a pernicious marker of the violence and absence of adequate pre- and post-natal health care in DRC: a severe gynecologic injury called fistula. Thousands upon thousands of Congolese women suffer from its devastating physical and emotional effects. There’s no polite way to describe fistula, a vaginal rupture that causes urine and feces to seep down the woman’s legs and that causes her to smell. As painful as it is and difficult to treat, women with fistulas doubly suffer from the stigma associated with it. They are often referred to with the pejorative “baqua,” Swahili for “rape”. They are frequently ostracized by their families and communities, and many are forced to leave their homes. Even those who remain find it near impossible to perform the already back-breaking daily tasks of carrying 50- to 100-pound loads of water, food and supplies to their homes.

The writer, Margaret Aguirre, is beautifully dedicated to her work, seeing the people behind the numbers, the individual suffering in the midst of overwhelming crisis. Her hope is in proportion to her abilities:

It’s impossible not to be overwhelmed by the medical and psychological needs across this region. And yet without us, it would be so much worse; those most vulnerable to the violence and lack of health care would have almost nowhere to turn. So we keep building medical facilities one brick at a time; providing food to malnourished children one cc at a time; delivering clean water one liter at a time; and helping plant vegetable gardens, one seed at a time.

There is no other way.

Let us support her in prayer, and appeal to the Divine Mercy of Our Lord to sweep the land with grace. Indeed, He came to make all things new.

[On the "Passion of the Present" site (right column) there are many places where donations can be sent.]

Malthus, call your office

Struggling to live after being nearly exterminated, Rwanda has learned that its "friends" offer the same kind of assistance as its enemies, insisting that fewer Rwandans are better than more.

Officials who are designing the new population control program said it would include a requirement that everyone who visits a hospital or health center for any reason be counseled on family planning. Women of child-bearing age will be offered free contraceptive devices including Norplant II, a small silicone pin that is inserted beneath the skin and is effective for up to five years. All schools will offer comprehensive sex education courses.

“The basis for this new campaign is already in place,” said Laura Hoemeke, director of the Twubakane Decentralization and Health Project, a community initiative that includes family planning. Though the Bush administration has often discouraged birth control, the United States government is financing this program.

God help us. Saying there are too many citizens for economic growth is a socialist lie, because economic growth stagnates without a rich and renewable labour market. Look at the difference between northern Europe (dwindling away except for immigration) and southeast Asia (booming in every measurable way). This is an insult to a long-suffering people and a medical travesty. Women ask for children and receive synthetic hormones; they want healthy families and get the sexual revolution in return.

In a sign of the changing climate, a government-sponsored newspaper, New Times, recently published a supplement with a front-page headline, “Rapid Population Growth: A Constraint on Resources.” Below was a photo of an idyllic landscape with the caption, “This beautiful scenery will diminish if population is not controlled.” An accompanying editorial said that Rwanda’s population “is already big enough” and that “drastic measures” were needed to keep it from growing.

Officials designing the population control campaign say they hope to produce a plan that could become a model for other African countries, and perhaps persuade a foreign philanthropy to pay its entire cost. They have already begun consulting specialists from the United States and other countries.

Hard to compete with Madison Avenue. If the airbrished photos and rigged statistics say sterile sex is better, who are real people to argue? Shame.

Who is my neighbour?

I was gratified to see that, in its small way, the Church did not fail this sister in Christ in her journey to safety:

Ms [Jane] Poni, a Christian, lived in the southern Sudanese village of Yei. Rebels, doing the bidding of Arabic Muslims in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, were forcing the largely Christian population in the south to convert. Ms Poni's husband refused. He was charged with joining an opposing rebel force and taken off to jail. Ms Poni never saw him again.

Ms Poni, with her then nine-year-old son Richard, made the awful decision to escape, first into Uganda, hardy a safe haven, and then into Zambia, another dangerous refuge.

Mother and young son set off, travelling only at night and sleeping in dense thickets during the day, hoping all of the time they would not blunder into a rebel encampment or encounter wild animals.

"You travel at night and you travel in the forest," she said.

After four weeks of living off their wits and in bad physical shape, they crossed the border into Uganda, but still had to hide to avoid the Ugandan rebels who were every bit as cut-throat as those in Sudan. Somewhere near the border Ms Poni was reunited with Grace.

They rested at a Catholic mission where a priest gave them a small amount of money and they set off for Zambia. It took them another 12 months to reach Zambia, sheltering in Catholic missions along the way for weeks and sometimes months on end as they regained their strength.

Life in Zambia was, for the most part, terrifying. Refugees were not welcome and at night Ms Poni lay in her grass hut as men thumped on the outside walls. She lived there for three years, all the time fearful of being killed or raped.

With help from the UN, they eventually made it to Australia, where they have found welcome and respite. Hearing how Richard is now loving basketball, school and his friends makes the whole journey sound surreal.

Could we defend our faith and endure this? Could we risk our lives to find a place to pray to the Triune God? Could we, upon enduring frightful hardships, praise God and live full lives of thanksgiving? Her lovely smile amazes me -- and humbles me. I'm afraid I'd respond much differently, but we never know until tested. God bless her!