Starting on April 1, South Africa’s public TV channel SABC3 has been running a weekly series called “I am Woman.” Every week, the show tries to follow the arc of a woman’s journey, the ways in which she comes to understand herself and the world by creating herself as the world and the world as herself. Imagine doing that without over-weaning ego or impossible humility, and you get the picture. The leap of faith is ultimately each woman’s discovery and invention of her own amazing and ordinary kind of humanity. Her discovery, and ours. If you don’t live in South Africa, you can also view the series online.
New public TV series from South Africa: “I am Woman”
May 19, 2012 By 2 Comments
Patricia Asero Ochieng’s argument
May 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Remember “Silence = Death”? There’s more. Withholding = Death. Withholding necessary funds. Withholding lifesaving medications. Withholding life. In Nairobi last week, Patricia Asero Ochieng, Lucy Ghati, and Rose Kaberia joined Maureen and Anyango and many others to raise a ruckus about the trickle of Pepfar funding for people in Kenya living with AIDS. In particular, they were raising their voices, placards and fists over $500 million dollars allocated but not yet spent for antiretroviral medications. That’s a lot of money, drugs, and lost lives. And of course all the major agencies blame all the other major agencies. US officials argue it’s Kenyan ministerial inefficiencies. Kenyan officials take one of two lines: it’s US processes, or, it’s all fine and you’re overreacting. [Read more...]
Uganda, now you have touched the women
April 23, 2012 By 8 Comments
In October 2011, the Ugandan government sent Ingrid Turinawe to the infamous Luzira Prison–Uganda’s Guantánamo–for the treasonable act of walking to work. This week, the State, again, attacked Turinawe and other women activists for the “crime” of standing, speaking out, driving, and generally being. Big mistake.
Joyce Banda is President of Malawi
April 9, 2012 By 11 Comments
In her first order of business since being inaugurated as Malawi’s new president on Saturday, Joyce Banda fired the country’s top policeman. No reason was given for the firing, but the BBC reports that the police chief, Peter Mukhito, was in charge last year during anti-government protests over the worsening economy. Mukhito had personally questioned a University of Malawi lecturer over comparisons the latter had made between the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and the fuel crisis in Malawi. The university was later closed. Then last July, police shot dead 19 protesters. Banda’s decisiveness does not surprise long term observers of Malawian politics and her appointment carries wider significance beyond the Southern African country.
Malawians are fed up with Madonna
March 15, 2012 By 2 Comments
Malawi is fed up with Madonna and her school daze, with the singer’s refusal to consult and her autocratic ways. Given the autocratic politics of the Mutharika regime, that’s both quite a statement and none at all. Madonna’s foundation, Raising Malawi (a telling name), has reportedly spent $3.8 million on a state-of-the-art school for girls outside of the Lilongwe. What’s there to show for that? Nothing. [Read more...]
How to celebrate International Women’s Day
March 8, 2012 By 2 Comments
March 8, 2012. It’s International Women’s Day, and so how to celebrate? Over the weekend, The Independent on Sunday ran a piece entitled, “Revealed: The best and worst places to be a woman.” 20 categories of “surprising results”. Here’s one you might find interesting: Best place to read and write: Lesotho. [Read more...]
London calling … to the faraway towns of Somalia
February 28, 2012 By 3 Comments
Talk about efficiency, how’s this for a developmental scheme. First, encourage, both directly and by ‘principled non-engagement,’ a civil war in a mineral rich area. Make sure thousands are displaced, especially the rural populations. Help to build so-called refugee camps which are located a great distance from everyone’s homes and which are places in and around which women and girls become ever more vulnerable, ever more intensely vulnerable … in every way. Let that simmer for a while. Then convene a conference of experts and saviors, not to be confused with Ngugi’s feast of thieves and robbers. No, this will be a serious conference of ‘people who care’. Be sure to invite everyone who’s anyone which means exclude anyone who’s nobody which means be very selective in whom you invite. Meet for a couple days, not in the country under discussion, of course. That would cloud your objectivity. You can care from faraway. Announce that this is an opportunity, that the natives must buck up and reform. Announce that the time has come to talk of cabbages and kings — but definitely not queens or princesses of any sort. Then close the conference and declare that, this time, they got it right. [Read more...]
Pay young women in Malawi to prevent HIV infection?
February 16, 2012 By 2 Comments
The Guardian reports: “Cash payments help cut HIV infection rate in young women, study finds: Research in Malawi finds girls who receive regular payments are able to resist attentions of older men and avoid infection.” The headline pretty much says it all … or does it?
What’s wrong with abortion?
February 9, 2012 By 7 Comments
Oprah Winfrey’s expensive South African education
January 28, 2012 By 16 Comments
The ‘world’ cares about South African education! OK, that’s not really true. But it did pay attention recently to one school … sort of. Earlier this month the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, or OWLAG, held its first graduation. 72 of the original 75 girls walked down the aisle, to much applause and with good reason. The young women worked hard, and now they’re off to University and hopefully to all that a very high-priced education can offer. One can hope.
