Saturday, March 10, 2007

India Is Better Than US

Steinem says a feminist is one who can be a woman or a man, who believes in the full social, economic, political equality of women and men.
Her association with India goes back to the 1950s when she came to the country on a two-year study tour. India's poverty and social conditions transformed her outlook completely.
At that time she had said, 'America is an enormous frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of starving people.' She became a firebrand journalist, keeping the ideals of social justice in her heart and went on to become a fearless spokesperson of women's plight. She exposed men's lack of concern for women's sensitivity, and became a political activist and institution builder.
I feel when the history of women of this planet will be written, Gloria Steinem's name will be written in bold letters. She contributed in changing how the world thinks about women. She knew why women fear change or equal treatment for themselves. Women fear that 'change' may bring punishment, and she told them: 'The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.'
In the 1970s, she launched Ms magazine; while editing it she resisted attempts by market forces to convert all women into consumers. She said about her struggle, 'We've taken one giant step forward by convincing the majority of the country that women can do what men can do.' Her messages were always clear and curt; her logic, piercing.
She asked of men: 'We know that we can do what men can do, but we still don't know that men can do what women can do. That's absolutely crucial. We can't go on doing two jobs.'
Steinem told me only 10 per cent success has been achieved in the women's movement's long battle to make men understand women.
How do you see the effect of globalisation on the women of the world?
There is nothing wrong in gloablisation as such but the question is, what values are being globalised. If environmental protection is globalised, globalisation will be a good thing but unfortunately what is being globalised is corporate values, which turns much of the world labour into a cheap labour force. It turns people into consumers to buy products which they could have produced in their own countries.
Globalisation is profit to a very small group of people. I feel globalisation is a new form of colonialism. It is imperialism.
How does it affect women directly?
It does. A majority of women in the world constitute cheap labour. The corporations are making their profit from cheap labour. Sex trafficking worldwide has also increased enormously. Bonded workers are a form of slavery and 80 per cent of them are children and women.Read FullText..
Posted by Ajay :: 5:48 PM :: 0 comments

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