Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Why should we care?

I just read an article from the News & Observer.  "Red Carpet effect to save the girls."  I found the article online to share [note: the title of the online articles are actually "red-carpet bombing to save..."]

Read here.

It discusses the gathering of celebrities for a good cause.  I was glad that I read the article because it introduced to me some new people, films, and conferences that I want to look into:

- Tina Brown
- the "Women in the World" conference that was just recently held
- a documentary, "Sold," by Jody Hassett Sanchez about human trafficking
- documentary filmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy

The idea behind the summit..."it's about letting girls go to school without risking a bullet to the head.  It's about letting women leave their homes to go to market.  It's about changing cultures that treat women like animals (or worse) and saving them from honor killings and abuse."  Ideas I absolutely support.

The articles also continuously raised thought-provoking questions:

- Why should Americans care?  and

- Why don't more Americans care about honor killings, systematic rape and human trafficking of women, girls and even little boys?

Some suggested answers to the second question:  tragedy fatigue, emotional exhaustion, we have our own challenges, the mentality that "we can't save everybody"

Here's an answer for the FIRST question....But WHY should we care?  ....because "women's security elsewhere corresponds directly to our own security" and (what I loved best) because "fighting for women and girls isn't 'a nice thing to do.  It isnt' some luxury that we get to when we have time out our hands...This is a core imperative for every human being and every society."

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