Although I have done this (and prob will continue to do so, sadly), I wish to argue AGAINST the usual arguments against systemic problems in our society. Instead of the usual retort to say spousal abuse (what about abuse of men we scream) or rape/racism/sexism/gay bashing being a issue and then a fight between people expressing their fears of the culture that surrounds it and the others express their fear of being labelled something they are not and strive against, lets go beyond this , shall we?

I listened to CBC this morning, as I am wont to do on my trek to work and was listening to a piece by Avril Benoit on Burundi and rape.

And I heard about this child (and she WAS still a child) who had been raped but the local custom there is that rape victims must be cared for by the rapists. Their families toss them out and no one will help them and the rapist must take her in and treat her as his de facto wife (or his family is supposed to). She gets NO say in this and in this piece, this particular victim was reduced to asking the authorities to release him from prison so she could live with him because SHE HAD NO OTHER PLACE TO GO!! No home, no help and a daughter as a result of the rape.

Here in Canada, and in the U.S. and the EU, racism, sexism, rape, violence, gay bashing, etc are illegal and frowned upon. While gay bashers or wife beaters may not get harsher punishment than other offenders, they at least get the SAME punishment and stigmatism in general. While we may fall down on institutional racism, or sexism, or gender orientation, it is at least made officially illegal, with recourse to victims and a society that looks down upon it, though not everywhere (virginia hello?).

Instead of fighting among each others, my point of this rant is, with this Burundi piece in mind (and the Massey lectures of Stephen Lewis, god that man can speak!) shouldnt we be striving towards making the rest of the world have our level of freedoms, then worry about the next step? Shouldnt our duty towards the world and society be to make everyone have our current level of freedom, comfort level and equality before we finish off the remaining inequalities?

I don't think it's an either/or thing. I don't think we need to stop focusing on our issues here at home in order to support our sisters in other countries who are in much worse straits than we are.

The other point I want to make is that we have to be careful about feeling like we should be white knights (knightesses? heh) and solve women's problems for them in other countries. I think there are strong feminist movements in most countries in the world. I'm betting that Burundi is no exception to the rule. I'd be more interested, if I were to hear a story about Burundi, in doing a search to see if I can find feminist groups WITHIN Burundi that I could support, either financially or through other types of support if I were so moved, and let the women THERE take the lead in fighting their fight (with my support). They know the culture much better than I do, and they know what men there - and women too! - will respond to and what they won't.

Yeah more emotion than thought from my writing.

My feeling is I dont think we should run out then and tell them what to do but support in whatever way they need, the groups working on fixing these issues.

edited to add: The other thought I had, Bacchus, is that in so many ways, we need to get our own shit together before we start giving instructions to others on how it's done. The bickering and backbiting is disturbing, I agree. But it's a symptom of the fact that we're still trying to figure a lot of things out, here. There are still gaps between theory, practice and life as it shakes out. IMO, anyway.

[ 14 November 2005: Message edited by: Zoot ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Zoot:
The other thought I had, Bacchus, is that in so many ways, we need to get our own shit together before we start giving instructions to others on how it's done. The bickering and backbiting is disturbing, I agree. But it's a symptom of the fact that we're still trying to figure a lot of things out, here. There are still gaps between theory, practice and life as it shakes out. IMO, anyway.

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In my personal experience, the centuries of systemic oppression of women in European and Greco-Roman culture don't even register with most men I know. They're all thinking, and saying - 'Hey, don't look at ME. *I* don't oppress women!' Well of course you don't, but there's a pretty big chance your father, your grandfather, or your great-grandfather did, not because they were bad men, but just because they weren't any better than their culture allowed them to be. Think about how all of that changed, and how quickly! There has to be more girls and women learning and repeating this; we need to know more about real history, not dates and events with very little context.

http://www.criaw-icref.ca/factSheets/Women%20&%20Poverty%202005.pdf