Women in Japan seem to agree that they do the brunt of the domestic work, are solely responsible for family commitments, and are overwhelmingly unappreciated by Japanese men. Thus, this campy break from the routine seems to provide a harmless respite -- and jobs for western men.
Folks who know me know my pet peeve about "random acts of kindness" which are not the Christian way. Love demands a constant generous presence, with which we all struggle. Tell a newborn about random feedings. Tell a dialysis patient about random hours of operation. Or consider what these Sisters outside Hanoi [Vietnam] have done consistently for over 45 years.
Children who have at least one leper in the family, and for this reason are the object of discrimination and marginalisation: for them, studying would be unheard of if it were not for a community of sisters of Saint-Paul de Chartres, who welcome them in Pleiku, in the region of the Vietnamese highlands.
In addition to studying, in fact, the 160 children welcomed by the sisters practice sport and music, as well as having the opportunity to deepen their understanding of religion. There is also a daytime centre that cares for another 200 young people.
In addition to providing educational opportunities and a haven of love for so many on-site, they also go out and tend to over 700 lepers -- consistently. God be praised!
The discrimination in India leading to sex-selection abortions is nothing less than a national disgrace, says its prime minister.
Manmohan Singh vowed his country could no longer ignore the problem if it wanted to be a modern nation. Experts believe up to 500,000 female fetuses are being aborted every year due to rampant discrimination against women and deep rooted cultural preference in India for male children. "This is a national shame and we must face this challenge squarely here and now," Mr Singh said while opening a conference on ways to "Save the girl child."
"No nation, no society, no community can hold its head high and claim to be part of the civilized world if it condones the practice of discriminating against one half of humanity represented by women," he said. Aborting female foetuses was the worst manifestation of this discrimination, he said.
According to UNICEF, about 7,000 fewer girls than expected are born every day in India - leading to a widening gap in the ratio between men and women.
Ultrasound scans to distinguish sex for the purpose of sex-selection abortions have been illegal since 1991 but are widely available. I remember seeing pictures in Catholic World Report years ago in which ultrasound machines were on street corners, hooked up to generators. That availability linked to ubiquitous billboards reminding Indian citizens to plan their families "responsibly" made this war on the girl-child inevitable. (A not a peep from western feminists, natch.)
Just a reminder that child-loving Chinese are particular about just which children they love:
A survivor of China's forced-abortion policy is warning Americans they share the responsibility for that nation's holocaust of government-mandated death through their consumerism.
She spoke to WND today in light of the 2008 Olympics which are scheduled in Beijing and to counter statements being released by the Chinese government that the human rights situation, long deplored as one of the worst on record, is improving.
There have been no significant changes in China's human rights, she said, since that day in 1993 when her neighbor reported to police that she appeared to be pregnant without authorization, and police officers broke down the door of her family's home to take her in shackles to a hospital where she was given a "pill" and locked up.
After all, she was 18, in a "marriage" arranged by her grandmother, and pregnant even though the law said that couldn't happen until she was 23, she told WND.
Before a physician could come to make sure the baby was dead, she said, her father bribed a nurse to look the other way and she jumped from a second-story window, then fled with some family members to escape China on a fishing boat with dozens of other women in similar condition. There were men, too, since those whose wives were found guilty in such cases often lost their jobs and homes as penalty.
Legitimate questions might arise over the history of Tibet, borders, autonomy and dominion. There can be no disputes about the forced-abortions in China and the draconian punishments for families who try to skirt them. Tibet, Sudan, and abortion: three reasons why "good wishes from China" [Olympic theme] ought to be thrown back with a request for "human rights for Chinese" instead.
[H]ow are U.S. residents a part? Because, she told WND, the exploding consumer goods market for Chinese-made products puts pressure on Chinese manufacturers to increase production; they put pressure on workers to put in long hours at the plants, and there's no room in the equation for child-bearing. The result? Forced abortions.
"[Our] prayers [are] that with the world focused on China prior to the Olympics, these horrific human rights abuses will be exposed and American free traders put to shame for how they have turned a blind eye to the human suffering for the almighty dollar," said Leslie Hanks, vice president of Colorado Right to Life.
According to information from China Aid Association, during one day in 2007 officials at the Youjiang District People's Hospital of Baise City performed forced abortions on 41 women, with another 20 victimized the next day. China Aid, which has its U.S. offices in Midland, Texas, said eyewitnesses confirmed the actions by government "family planning" authorities.
"Within 30 minutes, about 10 of them were injected forcefully for an abortion. This means within [the] last 24 hours, at least 61 babies were killed by forced abortions," the sources within China told CAA. "At bed Number 37, Ms. He Caigan was nine months pregnant. Officials injected her baby's head and 20 minutes later, her baby stopped moving and died," the sources confirmed.
Many of those targeted in the killing rampage were Christians, CAA said. "About 6 a.m. on [Wednesday], Pastor James Liang's wife Ms. Wei Linrong gave birth to a boy, but he was dead because of the injection. She received three injections – one is to induce the birth and the other two to kill the baby in the womb," CAA's sources reported.
[W]hat has come to be known as "gendercide" in China – due to a cultural preference for boys – has resulted in the deaths of at least 50 million girls.
Kim Gandy, call your office. This is discrimination your group could really fight.
There is legislation in place mandating that Dalits get medical care, but folks' ways die hard.
Officious actions will follow, no doubt. But how alien is Matthew 25 to some corners of the world...
This is an interesting piece on the sweatshops that provide many of the clothes we buy. It also carries a nice commentary on the attitude that many (not all) western kids have about family and culture.
For four weeks, instead of buying clothes, Georgina would instead be making them. With six other British youngsters, she was taken to India as part of a new BBC series, to experience first-hand how her throwaway High Street outfits are made.
What she learned there shocked her deeply. "I thought it was going to be a holiday," says Georgina. "I thought we'd be eating some really nice chicken kormas and seeing some interesting things. I didn't think the conditions would be so bad."
Working up to 18-hour days in soaring temperatures, being shouted at by stressed supervisors and - in one workshop - having to sleep by their sewing machines, Georgina and her fashion-obsessed companions lived like lowly-paid garment workers for a month.
"I thought I was going to be good, but the work was so hard and so skilled that I just couldn't keep up. You see all the Indian people working so hard and being paid so little for it, and it makes you feel so ashamed."
For all their suffering, these Indian workers have a standard for behaviour and respect, which is interesting.
For the Indian workers lucky enough to land a job in one of the larger factories such as Shahi Enterprises, working hard is a matter of survival. [But] embarrassing temper tantrums on the factory floor, constant tears and endless moaning about how difficult everything was seemed to mark the experience of some of these young Brits, with one fashion photography student storming out of the factory after a few hours because the work was not "creative" enough.
It did not take long for the Indian people to make known their displeasure at these young people's lack of discipline and respect. At the home of Lalita, one of the workers some of the group stayed with, she spent the first night taking them to task.
"Nobody liked your behaviour," she told the group as they sat on her bare floor. "You were sitting on the tables and swivelling around on your chairs. If you want to understand our culture, you can't do this. Like when you were crying, you went outside. You have come to see the Indian culture so you must live like Indians."
The point of the experiment wasn't to change buying habits, necessarily, but to give a thought to the item found on the rack, and the conditions which bring it to you at such a low price.
"Not only does it make you think twice before you buy that £6 dress, but it makes you realise just how unbelievably lucky you are. I still love shopping, but my attitude has completely changed."
Since their return to England, both young women have been involved in fundraising for a child refuge centre they visited while in Mumbai, with Stacey raising more than £650 to pay for an English teacher to teach at the refuge for a year.
Just rubbing elbows with those of such a different culture and class made an impression:
Georgina says the four weeks spent in India have changed her life. "I'm much happier now," she says. "Before, I was worried about how I looked all the time, but I've got more perspective about things now. I still love shopping, but I don't spend as much. I'm careful with my money.
"Some of the people I talked to had so many dreams and aspirations and they were willing to work so hard, while I've thrown away so many opportunities.
At first glance, this looks like a clear-cut case of promoting the notion that women are equal.
Bangladesh's top judge and an Indian jurist have come out strongly in support of a move to formulate a law to ensure equal rights for women even as Islamist bodies termed it 'anti-Quran' and clashed on the streets, leaving 200 wounded.
'Women are about a half of the total population. Hence, their demand for equal rights is logical. Then why are various incidents taking place now on the issue?' Chief Justice M. Ruhul Amin remarked at a seminar Friday as protests entered the second day.
He said: 'The demand for equal rights for women in every aspect of life is logical.'
True that. The flash-point of the legislation that has most in a lather is the proposal to allow women the same inheritance rights as men. The Muslims fear that it's included and don't want it, the legislators say don't worry, it's not even included. Not promising. And yet another comment gives a clue that there may be more to this than meets the eye:
Ombudsman of West Bengal, Samaresh Banerjee, who addressed the event as the guest of honour, said judicial systems in South Asian countries are not well equipped to deal with crimes on gender issues.
'Gender justice is a new jurisprudence all over the world,' Banerjee said, underscoring the need for initiating judicial education on gender issues in the eight member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc).
This is where things get dicey. "Gender justice" is coded language for abortion rights, among other things that most major religious bodies oppose. It flies under the radar when inoculation legislation is passed, when schools are fostered, when health care is promoted. It's the unseen attachment with every effort to help third world countries "develop," since "overpopulation" and "forced pregnancies" must be eliminated if any country is to join its "thriving" contemporaries.
Thus, while I'd love to support this effort to help women, with the language offered, I'd have to withhold any endorsement, since there's no "middle ground." Simply oppressive mysogyny and oppressive gender models. What a quandry.
Malthus, call your office. Your biggest disciple, the People's Republic of China is rethinking your dogma, which may be erroneous.
China, worried about an ageing population, is studying scrapping its controversial one-child policy but will not do away with family-planning policies altogether, a senior official said on Thursday. With the world's biggest population straining scarce land, water and energy resources, China has enforced rules to restrict family size since the 1970s. Rules vary but usually limit families to one child, or two in the countryside.
Really? Death to children means more older people? I think our kindergarteners could have figured that out.
China says its policies have prevented several hundred million births and boosted prosperity, but experts have warned of a looming social time-bomb from an ageing population and widening gender disparity stemming from a traditional preference for boys.
"Prevented several hundred million births," remember, is a polite way of saying that that many children shed their blood in order for the state to finally figure out that manipulating family life is a "time bomb." Of course, there were far more little girls sacrificed on this altar of centralised bureaucracy, which means that even in the coming decades, the hope for China is dim when the existing boys won't be able to find wives. God will not be mocked, and yet His mercy will bring a greater beauty to light for the suffering. Let's never flag in our prayers for China.
UPDATE: Can you tell? I gave up cynicism for Lent, which may have led me to take this story too seriously.
I'm not Turkish. I cannot speak to this. But it's interesting.
In the distant past, I used to think that there was some genetic reason behind women's failure to handle the steering wheel. But I started change my mind as I spent time in the roads of America. Here, many females were — and I am sure still are — pretty skillful in driving their huge jeeps, trucks and SUVs. “It is not that women can't drive,” I said to mself. “It is the Turkish women which have a problem with that.”
Let me speculate a bit on the origins of that phenomenon. One thing about driving is that it is a very individualistic experience. While moving on four fast rotating wheels, you can't ask anybody whether to take or not to take the next exit. You have to decide it for yourself. You have to be independent.
Mmm. "Independent" can mean a variety of things. He admits Turkish men are horrible drivers as well, but for different reasons. The women are too cautious; the men are too reckless. Broad brushstrokes only, so just file it away for now.
Perhaps you should check your religious items to see where they were made:
Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee, held a news conference in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral to call attention to conditions at a factory in Dongguan City where the religious objects, sold in St. Patrick's gift shop, are made.
Kernaghan said the crosses were exhibited at an annual trade show organized by the Association for Christian Retail, a U.S.-based trade association that works with thousands of religious stores across the country.
"I don't think they have a clue where these crucifixes were made — in horrific work conditions," Kernaghan said. He said the mostly young, female employees work from 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. seven days a week and are paid 26 cents an hour, with no sick days or vacation. Workers live in filthy dormitories and are fed a watery "slop," he said.
Of course these religious items come with a one-way ticket. Don't dare try to return to China with them in your suitcase or carry-on. Contraband. It will be interesting to see what the Olympic committee will do about religious freedom for visitors and athletes during the Games.
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