Poverty- Where do we draw the line?

Today is Blog Action Day 2008 and the blogging world has united to take on poverty.  Click here for a compilation of Heartbreaking statistics on poverty.  As a mother of two kids under 5, seeing the statistics of the +10 million children under age five that are dying each year due to poverty is incomprehensible.

Here are three comments I’d like to add to the global discussion of Poverty;

1. The number of people existing on $10 or even $1 per day are always shocking.  Equally shocking is the number of people living beyond their means (especially in North America) that can’t seem to get by on $1,000+ per week.

2. In the context of the ongoing financial crisis, many people are feeling poor or poorer lately that don’t meet the standard definition.  Sadly, with job cuts and bank closures rates running neck and neck, many who were previously living comfortably face a dismal financial future.

3. Poverty exists in your own backyard.  Even here in the Netherlands, the government sets targets for the financial independence of women and recently announced great news that more than 40% women are financially independent.  Where did they draw the line?  10.030 euros!

I was determined to participate in this discussion, yet feel extremely guilty, as I rush through this post to jet off in a few hours to a Holiday in Crete…How do you reconcile your own role in the poverty gap?  Do you know people that thrive while living below the line?  What if we could all learn to not only survive but thrive with less?

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Why Sarah Palin Makes Women Cringe

John McCain may have thought he would win over women voters with his choice of Sarah Palin, but he was so wrong.  Especially since all the housewives women who vote for whoever their husbands (or clergymen) tell them to, were already going to vote for McCain anyway. Free-thinking women wouldn’t dream of voting for a candidate like Palin, man or women, that stands strongly opposed to issues that improve the lives of women.  Sarah Palin is no hero for modern women of any age!

I hesitate to get into politics on this blog, but I work every day to empower women and strive for them to succeed professionally and personally.  Seeing every cliche about women play out with Sarah Palin’s nomination is beyond disappointing.  The Sarah Palin choice was a giant step backward for women.  When an unqualified and unsuitable woman candidate is put forward in any organization, the repercussions of her failure endure.

Sarah Palin was obviously a mistake, and since the shock value of the announcement wore off, she has only become a liability.  I was convinced she would withdraw from the campaign before November for “Personal Reasons”, but the more that comes out against her, the more McCain digs in.

Here is a shortlist of the absurdities:

• The only thing Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have in common are their XX chromosomes.  She doesn’t stand a chance of picking up HIllary supporters.
• The Republicans underestimate women, assuming any skirt woman will do.
• Women cope with a lot of guilt in their lives, but women will not feel guilty voting against this particular woman.  Yes, we’ve waited a long time, but she is not “The One”.
• Sarah Palin is completely unqualified for this job or to be President, she would never have been considered if she was a man!
• The top quality of Sarah Palin’s that people recognize and agree on is that she is photogenic.
• Sarah Palin using her newborn with down syndrome as a badge of honor demonstrating her opposition to abortion in all circumstances, even incest and rape, is repulsive.
• Spinning the teenage pregnancy of her daughter into another anti-abortion story is really too much.  I do not judge her daughter for getting pregnant, it only reinforces the fact that it should be a private choice without interference from a government of morality police.
• She does not represent Modern Women in her strong stance against birth control and her preaching of abstinence.
• Sarah Palin must have seemed like a safe pick because she married her sweetheart and is a mother of five.  No chance of affairs or scandals?  Not exactly.  Investigation already pending…
• The biggest cringe factor is to see her standing on stage talking about shattering the glass ceiling, while if elected, she would single-handedly put the struggle for women’s rights back 40 years!

Finally, please throw her to the wolves!  Why is everyone being so polite, nice and gentle with her?    If she were a man, her lack of experience and incompetence would have been ripped to shreds.  She is being presented as tough and rugged and as a gun enthusiast, she is even armed after all, so throw off the gloves andlet her take it like a real woman!

Filed under Blogging, Politics, Social Issues, The Mommy Wars, Women | Comments (6)

75 Years Ago Today

A tiny article in the International Herald Tribune (In Our Pages:100, 75 & 50 years ago today) caught my (French) husband’s attention on a flight back from Prague this evening.  He couldn’t wait to show me this gem from 1933.

1933:Girls Happy in America Continue reading »

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If you’re really a magician, please make these strippers disappear!

Our office is closed this week, so my colleague and I took our children to Duinrell attraction park yesterday.  Our babysitter came along, specifically to see Sittah’s magic show that has been heavily advertised.  As we stood in line outside the theater in the heat with all the other parents and little kids surrounded by Sittah posters, I couldn’t help but remark how great it was to see this glamorous strong woman as the Headliner.  She was the Illusionist,  not just the stereotypical sidekick, pretty assistant.  We’ve come a long way baby! Continue reading »

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