"Women, Education and Development" by Arvonne Fraser

Hello everyone,

I listened yesterday Arvonne Fraser at the University of Minnesota.
She talked about the topic “Woman, Education and Development”.
This was all new for me, which is why I found the talk so interesting.
Fraser is a Senior Fellow at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. She has been active in politics, government and women rights. By the way, I like the title of her memoirs: “She´s no lady”. She gave us an overview about the international woman movement especially between 1975 - 1995 and spoke about her membership of the U.N.world conferences on women in Mexico and Beijing. Her presentation was full of lively examples which I enjoyed. She mentioned the problem of illiteracy. The rate of illiteracy for women is higher than for men. She emphasized that in Afghanistan a high rate of woman can neigher write nor read. What I found most interesting were her facts about the CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination). Fraser is very proud of the CEDAW because of 185 countries are a part of the convention. The convention provides the basis for realizing equality between women and men. That means for instance: equal opportunities in political and public life and the right of education and employment. Fraser is mother of 6 children and was beside her motherhood political active. That impressed me very much. She is a distinguished personality.
The topic is very important. Fraser helped women to organize and fight for their rights. I admire people who are engaged in the improvement of women´s rights.

Carina

Lecture by Arvonne Frazer

Hello, This is Ryo.
Yesterday, I listened a lecture given by Arvonne Frazer. As an (former/ex-?) agent and a representative of U.S., She attended to United Nations and had contributed to solve the problems on the legal rights, education and development of women. According to Mrs. Frazer, the movement of feminism, which claims the improvement of women's social status, rised around 1960-70s. Since then, the equality between man and woman have been regarded as a big political issue in the U.S., and a lot of people including scholars, politicians, and citizens have participated in the grassroot movements. She took up three important concepts to achieve the equality between man and woman: education, employment, and participation in public life. She underscored that although women in developed countries have gradually participated to the society to some extent, women in developing countries are still struggling with discriminations against them. To truly realize the equality, she said, people have to improve the literacy rate, find powerful woman leaders in nation and organization, and urge women to participate to public life. In addition, she showed us a concern about a new problem which has appeared since 1990s. That is violence against women--well-known as DV (domestic violence). Following her career and the history of feminism movements, she taught us a significant insights.

Listening her lecture, I wondered one thing: She mentioned that the problem of DV appeared around 1990s. If it is true, then can we think it is an evidence of the fact that women have strong power enough to rise their voices? Or, did the problem of DV appear in 1990s as a unique and inherent problem at the time and the problem did not exist before 1990s?
She explained that there was a political distinction between public sphere and private sphere, and that it was the reason why the police could not intervene into the problem in home.

One more thing. As a result of that women have advanced to society, women are recquired to hold heavier burdens. They have to go work outside and take care of children. Does it mean the situatio regarding women is getting worse, or better? If it is getting better, what is the problem of this reality?

I cannot imagine how serious the problem on women's status in society was and is. Especially, I cannot imagine how hard Mrs. Frazer have worked for the problem. It must have been so hard for her to lead women's voice and establish the equality of the social status that women have today. I would like to show my respect for Mrs. Frazer.

Best way to donate? Do your research

Hi, this is Ryo. Today, I listened a story broadcasted in American Public Radio. It was an interview of Holden Karnofsky, co-founder of GiveWell.net. about how we can spend our money to make philanthropic activities work more efficiently.

As the co-founder of GiveWell.net, a non-profit charity organization, Karnofsky discusses that in the recent severe economic crisis in the United States, it is the best timing for people to think about offering donations instead of volunteers. He claims that although people are facing economic crisis and getting less money than they usually had, making donation will provide people their self-confidence that they are doing good and right. He theorefore encourages us to do more research about where we should spend our money, and he recommends us to use it for donation. It is because while donations provide poor people real and actual benefits, when people encourage volunteer activities, it actually works only for recruiting new donors and stimulating people's excitement and sense of involvement.

As I listened this story, I realized that American people are the people who can take care of others even though they have serious problem in economy. If I were in the same situation, I cannot take care of others. I also realized that they are practical rather than idealistic. To solve the problem of poverty, Karnofsky is offering the most actual and practical method. I agree with his approach to the problem of poverty because I also think that donation is real benefit for poor people rather than voluntering.
What do you think about his approach? It is all about stuff versus volunteer. Which approach do you think we should choose to solve the problem of poverty? Or, do you know any alternative approach to this problem?

The story I listended today can be obtain in the following link:
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/10/pm_volunteering/

2008 Big buzzword in giving: Micro

Today I listened an audio clip on the 09. December 2008 where Lucy Bernholz the president of Blue Print and Design talked about Micro and trends to keep donations alive.

According to Bernholz is small really big 2008. She explained that the word Micro can be used for a lot of good ideas to make them small, for instance microconsignment, micro giving, micro philantropy...
I found one point really interesting, mobile giving.
Bernholz spoke about this quite new way of giving to charity. You can send a little donation of 5 Dollar easy and quick on the way you want.

I can only supporting this concept because in times of financial crisis is it not easy to donate and "Micro" is a wonderful opportunity to keep giving without adding to your own financial burden. Everyone can do mobile giving and the really big advantage is that it takes your time only for one SMS.

Here is a link to the audio clip:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/popup.php?name=marketplace/pm/2008/12/09/marketplace_cast2_20081209_64&starttime=00:22:45.0&endtime=00:27:04.0

Hi guys, I have listened to a broadcast from NPR about U.S soldiers in Iraq. the soldiers are in charge of a prison that contains about 26 000 prisoners incarcerated. As they are winding down every day they release 50 prisoners. It's hard to think about that many people pile up in a prison where their health is exposed to any kind of disease. And there is a question that needs to be asked. Are they all well fed? there is marching in Iraq against the soldiers asking them to leave. they say that some people have been arrested for being suspected, such as a 23 years boy. What do you guys think should be done in Iraq? they try decrease the number of prisoners, but because of the unemployment people can't control themselves from having trouble, a saying says: An idle brain is the devil's workshop. The world is too unfair, we need peace!
Go on this link if you guys want to listen to the broadcast.

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=2&islist=true&id=1001