PRESS RELEASE ASSETS DECLARATION: WARDC HAILS FAYEMI, TASKS AREGBESOLA AND FAYEMI ON GENDER PARITY IN APPOINTING POLITICAL OFFICE HOLDERS Women Advocates Research and Documentation Center (WARDC), a feminist, Non-Governmental Organization based in Nigeria, hails the declaration of assets by the recently sworn in Governor of Ekiti State Dr. Kayode Fayemi and his deputy Mrs. Funmilayo Olayinka, this WARDC believes will go a long way in promoting openness, transparency and accountability in the state. While we welcome the assets declaration, WARDC tasks the Governors of Ekiti and Osun States, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and Engineer Rauf Aregbesola over gender parity in appointing political office holders in their respective states. We believe that their twin successes are critical and fundamental because they reflect the total support of the masses, particularly the women. In a letter, recently sent to the two Governors WARDC urges them to engender development and growth in their states. We advise the Governors who are considered as gender friendly personalities to address issues of gender parity in state policies and ensure that gender is mainstreamed in governance particularly in appointing members of their cabinet, Special Advisers, Senior Special Assistants, and Directors of government Agencies etc. Ekiti and Osun States are richly blessed with great women of impeccable intellect that can add to the beauty and quality of governance. We are further convinced that the states have qualified women and that if these latent female intellectuals are sought and incorporated in governance of the states, with the genuine passion that women exhibit in public office, they will enrich the states with their acquired and God's given talent which can better the face of the present administrations. WARDC further urged them to deliver on their campaign promises and particularly to ensure adequate Maternal Health Care, engender state policies and also putting legal framework in place for gender mainstreaming in governance in their states. In addition, WARDC reiterates her commitment to 35% Affirmative Action in line with the National Gender Policy (2007) and call on the two Governors to domesticate this in the legal frameworks in their noble administrations as well. On a final note, we congratulate them once again and wish them wonderful sojourns in office as we will be glad if full consideration is given to this clarion call. SIGNED: Barrister Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi Executive Director, WARDC.
--- On Tue, 12/14/10, Lavonda Staples <lrstaples@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Lavonda Staples <lrstaples@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Date: Tuesday, December 14, 2010, 11:02 AM
Dr. Gloria, I am not arguing against anything. I'm trying to point out that the writing/opinions offered by Ms. Adichie are nearly the exact same verbiage espoused during the period leading up to failed attempts at an Equal Rights Amendment in the late 1960's and early 1970's. The rights and privileges, fulfillment of the United States Constitution, sought by those women were not aligned with the needs of common women. The forerunners of that movement, the most vocal and the most seen (i.e. Gloria Steinem) were White, privileged, and very far removed from the daily lives of women of color. There was no component which dealt with rights for Latina women who were at that time heavily involved in hand labour in sweat shops, agricultural labor in the Armerican west and southwest, or their access to medical and educational facilities. Concurrently, there was little attention paid to childcare for the increasing numbers of Black women who would go through the experience of motherhood either alone or with the help of an urban matriarchal system. Additionally, Black Americans faced the freedoms given by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with agricultural and industrial skills. This was truly unfortunate as the advance into the techonological age had already been noted by the American president, Dwight D. Eisenhower (in his "Military Industrial Complex" speech) nearly 10 years prior. Added to that the chaos which marked the transition from the Civil Rights Era to the Black Power Movement and the rising action of the economic crisis which would soon engulf all Americans without regard to race or gender. The rhetoric of the women's movement was exceedingly injurious to Black families as the needs of White women really had nothing in common with the needs of Black and Hispanic women or families. Even up to 1974, Black women were waging fights for simple school houses in their communities (see, "Silver Rights" by Betty Curry - re: education in Sunflower County, Drew, MS). Black women bought into a debate which was not to their advantage. As late as 1974 Black men were still fighting for recognition within the AFL-CIO, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the UAW (see, "Race, Reform and Rebellion..." by Manning Marable - re: A. Phillip Randolp and Bayard Rustin as paid voices against the causes of Black men in the UAW). The problem with asking for gender equality between Black Americans at that time is that there was no racial or economic parity. So the tenets of feminism could not be applied and acted as a wedge between Black men and Black women. Until circa 1964, Blacks married and stayed married at higher rates or equal with Whites. The raison d'etre was survival as a community and, in the microcosm, as a family. The White feminist argument, at best, is a selfish individualistic argument (it's my turn, it's all about me, I need to be fulfilled, etc. and on and on). The arguments and debates from Hispanic and Black women was ALWAYS family centered, education as a route for improvement for family, medical access to improve pre-natal, neo-natal, and maternal care, safe and affordable childcare so that the FAMILY could prosper through working more hours or simply working outside of the home. Contemporarily, the authorship of White feminists STILL shows a clear line of demarcation with the very history of minority women. In the last ten years there have been titles such as, "The Second Shift," "The Sandwich Generation." Minority women have ALWAYS worked outside the home or had to pursue labor at home to gain extra funds. Minority women have ALWAYS taken care of parents out of respect and duty to the family system. So how in the world does White feminist rhetoric have any real world utilty to African, African American, and Latinas? It doesn't! Ms. Adichie, in that short article, was talking very "white." She was speaking as if she had no knowledge of the situation in which her sisters live within. I stand on what I said just like John Henry - like a man who will not be moved: her statements as a celebrated, educated, woman of privilege reflect very little, if any real-world knowledge. They are dangerous to the point of sedition. And she does not demonstrate, not even in the modicum, a working knowledge of the immediate fight of every day needs of women. An immediate need of women in Lagos or Los Angeles, is not to become governor or even mayor. In my opinion, just one voice in six billion, she might listen to the proverb regarding putting out the fire on herself before she puts out the fire on the child. "Herself" might be a collection of needs which include healthcare and education and "the child" in this case, is her associates' political desires. It ain't what you want it to be - sometimes it is what it is. La Vonda R. Staples
-- La Vonda R. Staples Adjunct Professor, Department of Social Sciences Community College of the District of Columbia 314-570-6483 "It is the duty of all who have been fortunate to receive an education to assist others in the same pursuit." -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin. For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogueFor previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.htmlTo post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue- unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
|
No comments:
Post a Comment