Showing posts with label intolerance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label intolerance. Show all posts

8 Mar 2014

Día Internacional de la Mujer. In Memoriam

Este año, al planear mí ya usual reflexión sobre el Día Internacional de la Mujer, me encontré con la reflexión del año pasado, revisé puntos y comparé. No lo hubiera hecho...
Hoy las mujeres nos encontramos peor que hace 12 meses. Triste realidad. La condición de la mujer no solo no ha mejorado, ha empeorado en muchos aspectos.

El año pasado yo me cuestionaba:
"¿Qué celebran? ¿140 mujeres quemadas por falta de medidas de seguridad en el trabajo. Mujeres que se vieron en la necesidad de hacer huelga de hambre para tener derecho a votar. Mujeres encarceladas por protestar en contra de la desigualdad de condición. Mujeres que reciben 60% del sueldo que el mismo trabajo le merece a un hombre. Mujeres que son golpeadas, humilladas, violadas, abusadas, traficadas, explotadas, prostituidas todos los días. Mujeres que trabajan sin derecho a seguro social. Mujeres que desaparecen en el anonimato más absoluto sin que nadie piense más en ellas. Mujeres que trabajan fuera y dentro de su casa sin reconocimiento alguno. Mujeres que aguantan la carga que los demás no quieren. Mujeres que están al pie del cañón cuando su familia está en crisis. Mujeres que siguen esperando que alguien encuentre el cadáver de sus hijas. Mujeres que no tienen permitido hablar en público. Mujeres que deben guardar silencio ante la injusticia o son convertidas en "ejemplo" para otras que quieran "salirse del huacal" con tortura y amenazas?"

A esto podemos agregarle que ahora, a manera de "justicia", en algunos países, la mujer violada debe casarse con su violador; México, Afganistán y Turquía son los países en donde se violentan más los derechos de la mujer; en Arabia Saudita se les prohíbe manejar porque sufrirían daño ovárico; en algunos estados de E.E.U.U. se busca la re-penalización del aborto; aquí en México, sigue siendo penado en el interior de la República e incluso cuando es aborto involuntario, las mujeres acaban teniendo que defenderse por homicidio; las mujeres que son violadas y logran defenderse, son acusadas por sus violadores; mujeres en todo el mundo a las que la justicia misogina les arranca a los hijos dandole preferencia al macho sobre la hembra que los parió; mujeres obligadas a tener hijos cuando no los quieren, vendidas en matrimonio; mujeres a las que, escudados en las medidas de "control poblacional" les matan a los hijos en el vientre y las esterilizan; niñas tiradas a la basura porque los hijos son los que cuentan.

Los problemas no sólo continúan sino que se multiplican. Seguimos luchando por algo que no debería ser una lucha; seguimos muriendo en una guerra que no debería serlo. Entre 2013 y lo que llevamos de 2014, cientos de mujeres han sido víctimas de ataques de ácido y pareciera que es solo en Asia y África, pero en Europa sucede también. Mujeres periodistas han sido silenciadas o se han visto obligadas al exilio.

El año pasado mencioné logros también. En efecto, podemos votar, trabajar, salir a la calle. Pareciera que hemos ganado mucho terreno, pero en realidad es muy poco. Nuestros derechos humanos se respetan en lo más básico como si fueran dádivas y no por considerarnos iguales.

El día de hoy, no se puede “celebrar” a la mujer si el resto del año no se la respeta. Hoy felicitan a la que mañana discriminan. El momento de celebrar será cuando no tengamos la necesidad de tener un día dedicado a la memoria de las valientes, las víctimas, las mártires; ese día, tal vez ninguno de los que están leyendo esto lo vean, pero tal vez, sus hijas sí.

8 de marzo, 2014, Conmemoración del Día Internacional de la Mujer.


11 Dec 2013

Mandela's Tribute Speech

The following text was written for my son Joseph to read in front of his school community next week.

When asked to talk about Nelson Mandela, I find myself having to choose bits and pieces of an infinite subject. We can Google all the information we want about him, read all of his quotes, read all of the books written about him, watch movies based on his life; but what really matters is the way we will take him as an example to follow. What are we going to do with what we know about him?

Madiba was born in 1918 on the banks of the Mbashe River and from a small humble beginning; the tiny village of Mzevo, gave the world a great man. Great, not only because of what he accomplished, but because of the way in which he set the bar for all of us.

Mandela believed that to be able to make change happen, we have to start from within. With this in mind, he supported education as a tool of change. He knew that through education, we can change the future of a country. He once said “No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated.”

Mandela wanted a united South Africa, but did not expect it to happen by force. He wanted to be the President of all the peoples that make the country he lovingly dubbed “Rainbow Nation”, and that is why he learned the ten Languages that are spoken there. To know somebody, you need to speak the way they speak, he used to say. We have to take this to heart and see Language learning the same way he did, as an opportunity to get to know others.

Before becoming President, Mandela fought for the changing of unjust laws. Tireless crusader for Human Rights and Equality, he spent twenty years fighting peacefully for the abolition of Apartheid before realizing that armed rebellion was the only way the racist South African government would yield. International pressure and economic sanctions had to do the trick.

During his twenty-seven years’ incarceration, Mandela became a symbol; a beacon for many seeking freedom from oppression; a terrorist for those wanting to keep the status quo all around the world.

What is most true about this man’s life is that he made a difference. His legacy will live beyond all of us. His shoes will be left vacant until someone, maybe one of us sitting here, decides to try and fill them up.

Nkosi sikelel' Rolihlahla, Ons gaan mis jou!

God Bless you “troublemaker”, we will miss you!

29 Sept 2010

Issues with ...

I've been having issues with a couple of things in the sphere of beliefs. 
It has never been easy, but lately it's been hard to accomplish the goals set for me.
Since I decided to dedicate myself body and soul to one system of beliefs, it became clear to me that I was following the path less travelled since I chose a historically misunderstood way of thinking and believing in supreme beings. I am still convinced that I chose well, but I'm having problems being respectful of others and harming none. I find it hard to avoid temptation and turn away from teaching annoying people a lesson.
Is truly exasperating to deal with those that are unwilling to see things from points of view that are new to them and so makes me want to hurt them. I try to excercise patience and I have created a mantra that I repeat to myself when in the presence of those people: do not engage, do not engage.
I live in a community that is very reluctant to acceptance of what they consider odd. And in this case, I am the odd. 
I have never eaten pork since it's a very heavy meat and upsets my stomach; therefore I must be Jewish.
I made the personal choice of not eating slaughtered animals and so I must be a radical environmentalist.
I choose not to salute the flagg or sing the national antom and so I must be a Jahova's Witness
I believe that nobody should belong to another person and monogamy is no longer a viable way of living since we live a lot longer and change a lot more, expecting others to do the same; so I must be a polygamist.
I came out of the broom closet while I lived in the U.S. and it was fairly easy to be openly wiccan, but then I moved to Mexico, where 'm the odd one, that belongs to a cult that worships the devil and hurts people. Comments like those are the ones that make me want to hurt people!
I have probably explained my views on life and spirituality a million times in a million ways and have come to the conclusion that is not me, but the inability of the others to see that which  is not part of the norm.
The norm in this country is to have a judeochristian system of beliefs or at least a cultural baggage that has been permeated by Chistianity. When trying to explain that I have never believed in the Hebrew God, people think I'm not a spiritual person and that I must be an atheist. When I deffend my spiritual beliefs, people have asked me why would a person with the amount of information and wisdom that I posses, believe in a supreme being that controlls our lives? and so I answer: I don't; and have to again explain what Wicca is.
I used to believe that Wicca, like any other religion should come out in the open and we should be allowed to have rituals out of doors without fear of being discriminated against. I used to believe that anybody that felt the calling should teach others about the basics of our beliefs. I used to feel comfortable being openly wiccan, enjoying tha freedom of belief that is a right granted in the Constitution of most countries in the Westen Hemisphere. I no longer feel like that.
I'm being forced into the broom closet again by ignorance, intolerance and xenophobia.