Womens Work

Today is International Women's Day. A day for us to consider how different our lives are to those women in the developing world.

Women carry the bulk of the burden when it comes to poverty - literally.

In countries throughout Africa and Asia, women carry, on average, 20kg at a time in water and firewood - the weight of the standard airport luggage allowance.

Walking for miles to collect basic necessities is a responsibility which usually falls upon women and girls. Tasks which take seconds in the UK can mean backbreaking work in poor communities, preventing girls from attending school and women from paid work.

This comes at a high cost. In some countries, a girl is more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than finish primary education.

All across our global community there are women struggling in a harsh and unforgiving climate of hostility, fear, mistrust and insecurity.

 Women and girls across the world are denied choices and opportunity on a daily basis due to poverty and discrimation.

They are treated like second class citizens and denied the freedom that we take for granted.

This is not acceptable in 2012. We must act to stop this betrayal of humanity. We must ensure that Human Rights prevail and that Justice, Fairness, Freedom and Truth are not denied.

We must not allow anyone or any being to suffer cruel and inhumane treatment at the hands of regimes or individuals who seek to control, stifle protest and target dissenters.

We must strive for social change that resists the establishment when it exploits and promotes harm to Any individual or sentient being and betrays their trust.

As any readers to this blog will know by now, my passion lies in promoting a change in attitude and beliefs towards the way we treat our fellow creatures with whom we share this planet. I believe that we cannot stand back and witness cruelty to animals anymore than our forebears who worked for the abolition of slavery and other blatant injustices such as aparthied and torture, and those who work to combat the appalling suffering endured by women, children, and indeed men, all over the world.

So,  although I invest my energy and concentrate my focus on campaigning for a revolutionary approach to overthrow the systems that enforce a lifetime of agony and frustration for animals, my compassion is not limited and myself and my family sponser, through PLAN UK, a young girl from Senegal. Her name is Awa and she is 12 and lives with her mother and father and 2 siblings. Her mother was 16 when she married her father. Awa does not go to school because her parents do not think that it is important for her to do so.

We support Plan's "Because I am a girl" campaign which aims to support four million girls in developing countries to have more choices about what they can do with their lives and to move from a life of poverty to a future of opportunity.

"Currently, 75 million girls around the world are being denied the right to an education, every year, 10 million girls in developing countries are coerced or forced into marriage under the age of 18, with thousands of girls each year giving birth when they are still children themselves"

From Plan's Wesite: http://www.plan-uk.org/

Free Speach is a basic Human Right and those of us who are blessed and have the right to Freedom of Expression need to exercise this right and stand up for those who are Oppressed.

So, today on International Woman's Day, March 8th 2012, do something to raise awareness for those women, for whom survival is an uphill struggle.

£100 can help build a water pump close to a poor community, saving a girl's gruelling daily walk and giving her a fighting chance to fulfil her potential.

This is Annie Lennox, a woman who I believe is one of the greatest campaigners of Woman's rights of our time. Her focus, energy and commitment is palpable and she is definately a most Inspiring Individiual. Annie Lennox deserves nothing less than the utmost respect for her pioneering and passionate work.

She is an Artist and an Activist, two qualities that I admire and strive to be. She is dedicated and dignified in her campaigning and that's why she is the UN Aids International Ambassador, Global Ambassador on Women's issues for Oxfam and Leader of the EQUALS coalition which is a partnership of charities lobbying to end gender inequality.

Annie Lennox saw the huge discrepency in woman's rights in Africa and knew she had to do something.  Her achievements are many and she has drawn public attention to the plight of women and children who endure chronic and endemic poverty. She campaigns against the disempowerment of women and for their right to access basic healthcare in a world where HIV and Aids are the biggest killer of women.

After reading this post, please watch this interview with Annie Lennox on BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17305262
and feel her passion, anger, frustration and above all desire to keep working for change.

She is ONE TRULY AMAZING WOMAN!

(oh, and one more fact before I finish which I feel I have to add.........................at the end of the above interview, Annie Lennox gives us the following fact: 
In the western world, we spend 3 times MORE on BOTTLED WATER than we do on Development Aid....
Now that's something none of us should be proud of)

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMAN'S DAY TO ALL YOU WONDERFUL WOMAN OUT THERE, MY FRIENDS HERE IN PERSON, AND THOSE OF YOU IN  BLOGASPHERE LAND! YOU ARE ALL AMAZING, ARTISTIC AND PASSIONATE AND TOGETHER WE CAN BE THAT COLLECTIVE VOICE FOR CHANGE!

Sadness and Solace

I have just driven Matthew to work and passed the little lambs that I see daily on this journey. It seems with every day, there are additions to the fold. Today there were 2 tiny lambs sleeping next to their mother and my heart melted with joy, closely followed by despair, pain and sadness when I think of their fate.

March is Animal Aid's Vegge Month. A month to encourage people to turn Vegetarian (less scary than Vegan!). I urge anyone reading this, to please log onto the Animal Aid Website to see how you can start on the road to saving the lives of the billions of farmed animals around the world. You will be able to order a free copy of their "Guide to Going Veggie".
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/vegetarianism/ALL///

There has been alot of terrible, heartbreaking news this week...........
What is happeing in Syria and in particular the city of Homs; the sad news of the death of PC Rathband and the awful news of the death of 15 yr old  Magalie Bamu at the hands of the his sister and her boyfriend.
Just tragic and incomprehendable.

Add that to all the other awful atrocities that happen daily all over our globe, and it can be hard to find something to smile about especially  if we are going through our own personal darkness.

I know that if I didn't have my family to depend on I may well sink into a well of hopelessness and misery with the knowledge that there is so much pain and desturction in this world. I have done exactly this many times throughout my life but Rob keeps me balanced and he listens to my rantings and pain, he lets me cry and then he reasons with me and shows me the way forward.

Up until Joyfest last Summer, I religiously bought the Saturday Guardian and Independent on Sunday. This was the way I kept in touch with what was going on in the world. However, I often would find myself feeling distressed and disturbed by the tragic events that seem to happen daily and I found that this affected me profuoundly to such an extent that I would not be able to forget what I had read or seen. Not only that, but I often found little time to read the papers at the weekend, so they would pile up which ended up only causing more stress because I determined to read them, having bought them and feeling the need to inform myself of world events.  I would end up reading a paper 2 or more weeks after I had bought it and the cycle just continued!

Rob would ask why I caused myself the distress of reading news that upset me so much, and added pressure upon myself to read them even if it was a month or 2 later!

I always told him that I needed to keep myself informed because it is important that we all keep ourselves informed about the tragedy that besets so many so that we don't forget and we can make the little changes in our lives that could cause those ripples that may effect a brighter future for all our fellow relations.

I still absolutely and firmly believe this to be true. But I am no longer forcing myself to buy the paper in order to keep myself informed. I have decided to read books which is something I have never had the time to do (because any reading time was reading out of date newsprint!) and to read what interests me. And because what interests me is keeping myself informed of national and international issues that do not affect me directly, safe as I am in my own little corner of the globe, they affect me indirectly and by reading books on subjects such as Animal Welfare, Rainforest Destruction, Ethical Consumerism, Africa among others, I can both release the pressure that comes from piles of newspapers and give my full attention to 1 subject at a time.

I believe we need to watch footage and read eye witness articles to force into action even if it is painfully heartbreaking and causes us to feel hatred and anger amidst the pure incomprehension of how we exist on the same planet as this destruction by humans.

I struggle to watch the Videos by the Animal Aid, SPEAK, Uncaged, PETA among many others. But when I feel strong enough, that is what I do.

Rob wishes I wouldn't because it causes me terrible, indescribable distress, but it is by forcing myself to watch, that I am now making the ripples that I am. They are small ripples I know, but I hope they will build into bigger ripples within my immediate community which will support the workof Animal Aid and all the other charities fighting for change, compassion and a cruelty free world.

So.......with the newsevents this week, yes it could be hard to raise a smile this weekend and very easy to wallow in the awfulness of the world. ..............

However, where there is evil, there is far more good. Where there are negatives, there are far more positives.

Look for the positives in your life.
Live each day as if it were your last.
Enjoy every moment because in any given moment, that's all you have.
Embrace those little things that cause you to be grateful, there are so many.
Remember that for every mean and ignorant individual, there are far more of us that are good and striving for change.
Find your solace in all of the above

Last night, we had a knock at our door. It was the lovely local lollipop lady. She had bought a pile of dolphin momentos for Bleu. She knew that Bleu loves dolphins and when her daughter was throwing out a load of dolphin pictures and posters, she immediately thought of Bleu.

This lady is one of those people who you want to be around all the time. She is selfless and dedicates alot of her time to making the local school children feel special and valued.

Last night was just 1 of many acts of kindness that she plays out every day.

This is the true human nature. The atrocities that we hear about and that so many of our fellows have to bear witness to are committed by the minority.

Human nature is by default, kind, generous, compassionate, good, caring and respectful. That is really who we are and it is important not to loose sight of that.

So, all we can do is use our positive qualities to the advangage of our local communities and wider circles, and in that way, we can all contribute to a better world and find some solace.

Read my next post for some ideas on how to make yourself and others feel better!