As many infant girls die unnecessarily every week in China as protesters died in the one incident at Tiananmen.
In India, a "bride burning"--to punish a woman for an inadequate dowry or to eliminate her so a man can remarry--takes place approximately every two hours.
All told, girls in India from one to five years of age are 50% more likely to die than boys the same age. The best estimate is that a little Indian girl dies from discrimination every four minutes.But, to repeat, the book in not just a repetition of mind-numbing statistics. It is a fascinating series of vignettes about women and girls around the world that the authors have encountered in their travels in Africa and Asia. Aside from the topics hinted at above, the authors look at sex slavery, genital mutilation, maternal health, economic deprivation and other topics. Most of the stories are about successes, but not all.
One reason the authors have structured the book as they have is because there is evidence that it works. In an experiment, people were asked to donate to a fund to fight cancer.
One group was told that the money would be used to save the life of one child, while another group was told it would save the lives of eight children. People contributed almost twice as much to save the life of one child as to save eight. Social psychologists argue that....this reflects the way our consciences and ethical systems are based on individual stories and are distinct from the parts of our brains concerned with logic and rationality. Indeed, when subjects in experiments are first asked to solve math problems, thus putting in play the parts of the brain that govern logic, afterward they are less generous to the needy.I almost dare you to read this book and not decide to get involved in some small way. Kristof and WuDunn may be bleeding heart liberals, but they are not naive. They talk in the book about the kinds of aid that achieve results and those which don't; they approach the question with the open minds of scientists. And they end the book with a list of organizations that they feel comfortable recommending. And there are not many people whom I've never met that I trust as implicitly as I do Nicholas Kristof.
2 comments:
Thanks for the follow up. The thorough examination of what works and what doesn't is fascinating.
Worth reading, and then, as you say, worth doing something positive on a personal level.
Good stuff.
Not long ago, PBS also aired a show that related to this book. I wept for some of the women. Unbelievable what physical and emotional pain some human beings can inflict on young girls and women. Awareness remains key to reversing the negative things that go on in the world. Thanks for sharing about this book. I'll read it, and decide what my part should be.
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