The global statistics on the abuse of girls are numbing. It appears that more girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century. More girls are killed in this routine "gendercide" in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the twentieth century.I've writen before of my admiration for Nicholas Kristof. I can only assume the fact that his name comes first on the list of authors is because he wrote more of the book. He is an eminently fair man.
Monday, April 22, 2013
A Book To Put On Your List
From the book Half the Sky, by the husband/wife team of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn:
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6 comments:
This is amazing. I just can't wrap my head around that. Does it include the abortion of female fetuses? I can't imagine the numbers if it doesn't.
We are talking tens of millions per decade! Wow.
The rights of girls and women have been violated throughout history, but a perspective that is useful to me is remembering that my mother was 9 years old before women could vote in this country.
I saw Kristof on a panel that included Salman Rushdie. When the moderator read this quote, Rushdie made the point that this number does not include aborted female fetuses, and Kristof did not correct him.
I have only read the introduction of the book because I want to finish something else first. I'm not even sure if it includes girls who die because parents only have their sons vaccinated for diseases and only get medical help for their sons.
In the introduction, I also read that in India girls up to the age of 50 times more likely to die than boys of the same age.
That is simply amazing, and after all these years, it is difficult for me to ignore the awful cruelty of people against others, particularly the weak or defenseless.
When you add up the genocides over the century, the German Holocaust is just one of the many, so "tens of millions" is conservative when you think of Nigeria, the Congo, and elsewhere, like Cambodia.
Then, when I start to contemplate the enormity of the populations of India and China, I just flat get lost--what, between them 10 times the size of the US population? Room to big, terrible things.
I posted this on my blog and have gotten more comments than on any other.
Even gave you credit...
My oldest daughter said that book was on her list, she has a Nook, I sent her the book.
She is really looking forward to reading it.
My cousin in St. Ed who is a regular correspondent said your comment really touched a nerve. She is evidently acquainted with a person who was somehow connected with Rwanda and had some harrowing times.
Bob, I saw your blog post. Glad it got some reactions.
One point Kristof made on the panel was that the solution to these horrors has everything to do with education. Uneducated women identify with the misogynistic patriarchal culture they´re familiar with every bit as much as men do. And that shouldn´t be surprising. It is their world as it is.
Where women are educated, the culture begins to change.
I´m looking forward to reading the book.
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