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Humankind must combat gender inequality united

Humankind must combat gender inequality united

 

 

Editorial Cartoon

United Nations agencies commonly cite the wide range of initiatives they have made towards realising gender equality and women’s empowerment both as human rights and as a pathway to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and sustainable development.

The most salient include coordinating global and national efforts to integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment into poverty reduction, democratic governance, crisis prevention and recovery, and environment and sustainable development.

As UNDP would put it, the aim is “to ensure that women have a real voice in all governance institutions, from the judiciary to the civil service, as well as in the private sector and civil society, so they can participate equally with men in public dialogue and decision-making and influence the decisions that will determine the future of their families and countries”.

What role or goal would nobler and therefore worth engaging resources at the disposal of humankind? Who would question or doubt the relevance of helping a group of poor rural women determined to establish a centre offering training in the production of goods – as was once done in Ghana and the products have since been exported around the world?

The efforts have also seen some 1,000 villages in a second African country access enough energy to generate electricity for lighting, pump water from wells, de-husk crops and charge phone batteries, substantially improving the lot of women, children and the larger population.

President Jakaya Kikwete shed instructive light on the challenges the need for the realisation of women’s empowerment poses when he addressed a just-ended meeting in New York discussing ways to ensure women participate more effectively in efforts to develop agriculture and enhance food safety.

The president explained that women in developing countries deserve a much bigger say in agriculture than they now have because it is a sector in which they play an especially noticeable and effective role.

More precisely, he underscored the need for the respective countries to make comprehensive amendments to their laws and policies, with a view to attaching greater recognition of the involvement of women in agriculture.

Among other things, the changes would seek to enable women legally own land, qualify for loans from banks and other financial institutions and be more eligible for education and training opportunities meant to transform them into more productive players in the sector.

That is as it should it should be because, as former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan once argued: “When women thrive, all of society benefits, and succeeding generations are given a better start in life.”

Investing in innovative development projects focusing the plight of women at the grassroots level is without doubt putting expertise, funds, time and other resources to a worthy cause and merits unqualified support.

The World Bank’s Gender and Development Group says in a report revolving around the MDGs that gender inequality tends to lower the productivity of labour and the efficiency of labour allocation in households and the economy, intensifying the unequal distribution of resources.

We concur because, indeed, gender inequality ultimately translates into lack of security, opportunity and empowerment, effectively frustrating development and poverty reduction efforts. It is thus an enemy of the entire society, and not only women.

 

’’ System isn’t the best for finding the right partner’’

`Come we stay` is a system that many partners like using it thinking that they can get the right partner to marry, but at this time they try to observe each other’s behavior if they could be a perfect couple in life, many of them succeed and end up getting married.

But after some time hell breaks loose and the house is on fire, no peace at home any more the honeymoon is over, and no-one is calling the other sweet names any more.

At the time of ‘come we stay’, the lovers don’t think that each of them will try to hide his or her bad behavior so that they may be able to marry. After that everyone starts showing his or her true colors; this is the mistake that many of them make and end up regretting why he or she got married.

This is a system that the new generation likes applying, but not thinking that its not the best way to get a partner as they assume as the man will either start dating other women or the lady could also start dating other men too and yet they are staying together.

Hear the story of Miriam and Polo. Polo observed that monogamy didn’t seem to work very well. He grew up in a dysfunctional family and saw a lot of harmful dynamics. He tried dating serially, but while he wanted to establish a strong bond with someone, he found he was still attracted to other women and wanted to be able to interact with them as well.

He saw friends who got divorced, single parents raising kids, old people who were dying alone. These seemed to be signs of a society that wasn’t functioning very well. He also thought that more than two people could be more secure financially.

When he was in his late twenties, Polo started exploring polyandry. By the time he met Miriam, he’d been married for 13 years and then divorced his first wife who had initially agreed to polyandry, but then she became fairly reclusive, and he found himself mostly engaging in his social life alone.

This wasn’t what he wanted at all, so he finally recognized the marriage wasn’t working and got divorced. He says he interviewed Rose very carefully as they were getting together he’d been hit by the bait and switch routine.

Some women were polyandrous, but as soon as they got closer they wanted monogamy. He wanted to avoid going through that again. One of the hazards of going against the dominant paradigm is that some potential partners don’t realize how deeply engrained monogamy is in them.

Theoretically they think they can handle polyandry, but they haven’t updated their assumptions about relationships enough to make it work. Other people may not take the stated intention to be polyandrous seriously.

Polo is clear that monogamy is not his preferred state, and let prospective partners know that. It’s not easy for him to find women to date, because 90 per cent of those I talk to about it ran screaming in the other direction, and it never goes any further than that.

Many people he talks with have a hard time understanding that he’s not cheating on his wife, but in fact wants them to meet her.

Miriam came into polyandry through a very different path. When she was young, she didn’t have a lot of self-esteem. She really wanted to be liked, and was afraid that if someone asked her to have sex, and she refused, they wouldn’t like her. So she started by having sex in order to be liked, and then it became a manipulative tool.

She’d have sex if someone would give her something or do something for her. That led to becoming a prostitute, though she prefers to call herself a former sex worker. It was a way to make money, though she did get a rush from the fact that it was illegal. During that time she did a lot of drugs as well, including IV (intravenous) drugs. She recognizes that she was cut off from her heart and her spirituality, though she did take pride in doing her job well.

At some point, Miriam realized that what she was doing, or at least the way she was doing it, wasn’t healthy for her. She went into a four year period of celibacy so that she could examine what she wanted sexually, to see what that looked like. Once she got clear that she was okay with who she is, regardless of her sexual expression, she was ready to be sexual again.

He remarked: “I had a need to figure out how to accept myself, as not being wrong or broken or defective when I would be loving and in love with one person, and then I would fall in love with someone else at the same time. And in the old monogamous parade, that was a sin, and that was a bad thing, and it was just not done, and evil, evil, and it didn’t feel evil, wrong, or sinful, but it sure didn’t feel comfortable, because I didn’t have a container for it. So I started reading.”

She had to be brave and talk with people she might not normally have talked with, people who were on the fringe of society. Once she found the right groups on the internet, she found that there were lots of people like her, who could love more than one person at once, and not just platonically. They just didn’t live in her state in the Midwest.

KILIMANJARO: The natural amphitheatre at Ngorongoro Crater

KILIMANJARO: The natural amphitheatre at Ngorongoro Crater

AMPHITHEATRE

Ephesus is among the most famous cities of the ancient eras

The ancient city of Ephesus (Turkish: Efes), located near the Aegean Sea in modern day Turkey, was one of the great cities of the Greeks in Asia Minor. Ephesus, located 600km (373 miles) southwest of Istanbul, is one of the grandest and best-preserved ruins of the ancient world. According to evidence dating from around 1400 BC, the Hittites were the first to settle the site, which they named Apasas.
From the entrance at the Eastern gate of the city, there is the Eastern Agora, Odeon, the Temple of Domitianus, Polio Fountain, Trajan Fountain, Scolastica Bath, hillside houses, the Temple of Hadrianus, Celsus Library, Lower Agora, Marbled Street, Grand Theater, Arcadianus Avenue and the Church of the Virgin Mary. Near Ephesus is the house of the Virgin Mary.

Bullring in the world – the heritage of the past

A bullring is an arena where bullfighting is performed. Bullrings are often associated with Spain, but they can also be found in neighboring countries and the New World. Bullrings are often historic and culturally significant centers that bear many structural similarities to the Roman amphitheater. The most famous bullrings in the world are Plaza de toros de Mexico in Mexico and Plaza de toros Monumental de Valencia in Valencia, Venezuela. The main bullrings are usually found in Spain, southern France and Portugal, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru.

Colosseum of Rome is One of the Most Dramatic Historic Monuments on Earth

The Colosseum – the greatest amphitheatre of the antiquity – was built in Rome, Italy, about 1920 years ago. It is considered an architectural and engineering wonder, and remains as a standing proof of both the grandeur and the cruelty of the Roman world.

The Colosseum or Coliseum, originally known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, is a giant amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome. Originally capable of seating 50,000 spectators, it was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles. It was built on a site just east of the Roman Forum, with construction starting between 70 and 72 AD under the emperor Vespasian. The amphitheatre, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire, was completed in 80 AD under Titus, with further modifications being made during Domitian’s reign.

The Colosseum remained in use for nearly 500 years with the last recorded games being held there as late as the 6th century — well after the traditional date of the fall of Rome in 476. As well as the traditional gladiatorial games, many other public spectacles were held there, such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions and dramas based on Classical mythology.

The natural amphitheatre at Ngorongoro Crater

The natural amphitheatre at Ngorongoro Crater

Published by Alawi

The Ngorongoro Crater is a natural amphitheatre created about 2 million years ago when the cone of a volcano collapsed into itself, leaving a 100 square mile caldron-like cavity. This caldera, protected by a circular unbroken 2,000-foot high rim (610-metres), contains everything necessary for Africa’s wildlife to exist and thrive.

Ngorongoro is on Tanzania’s northern safari circuit, and receives a good number of visitors who stay in lodges around the crater. Game viewing vehicles descend the steep crater wall every morning and spend the day on grass plains that are teeming with animals. However, the dark of night belongs to the animals, and all vehicles must leave the crater floor by sunset.

The lost world of Ngorongoro was home to pigs the size of a hippopotamus, sheep-like beasts with 6-foot (3 metre) horns and three-toed horses. Nowadays is inhabited by about 30,000 animals, of which half are zebra and wildebeest. This is the perfect situation for predators and spotted hyenas and lions lord over this domain. There are also some leopards, cheetahs and three species of jackals. Tanzania’s few remaining black rhino are regularly sighted in the crater, as are large herds of buffalo.

In summer enormous numbers of Serengeti migrants pass through the plains of the reserve, including 1.7 million wildebeest, 260,000 zebra and 470,000 gazelles. Waterbuck mainly occur mainly near Lerai Forest; servals occur widely in the crater and on the plains to the west. Common in the reserve are lion, hartebeest, spotted hyena and jackal. Cheetah, though common in the reserve, are scarce in the crater itself. Wild dog has recently disappeared from the crater and may have declined elsewhere in the Conservation Area as well.

Aside from herds of zebra, gazelle and wildebeest, the crater is home to the “big five” of rhinoceros, lion, leopard, elephant and buffalo. The crater plays host to almost every individual specicies of wildlife in East Africa, and there are an estimated 25,000 animals within the crater. Lake Magadi in the centre of the crater is, like many in the rift valley, a soda lake supporting flocks of flamingo.

Archeologists will be interested in Olduvai Gorge which is in the Conservation Area and where it is possible to see the famous discoveries of remains of early Man by Mary and Louis Leakey. However most of the activity is within the crater which is popular for bird watching, photography, walking safaris, and game viewing from a vehicle (4 wheel drive).

There are a number of lodges and camps to stay at on the rim of the Crater. Lodges: Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge, Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge and Ngorongoro Serena. Camps: Most campers stay atSimba site.

Ngorongoro Crater