"A Place of lasting vision"

"A Place of Lasting vision"

These are days of challenge, struggle, and opportunity in every nation and among all people, women and men, youth, children, and elders. Before us, the challenges ask that we embark on what Black Elk called a vision quest, a life journey that will change us from who we are now to who we might become. Easy words to say; harder to make happen amidst the current chaos and insecurity in all nations. Black Elk refers to a power we can engage when we examine the power of the circle manifested in so many aspects of the natural world. There are lessons to learn for human brings in the circularity, harmony, and eternal power of nature.
This past Monday (December 10), I facilitated a Study Circle on 'Gender Equality: Why We Must Achieve It' in London, co-sponsored by Global Network 21 (a UK-based civil society group) and held at the National Baha'i Centre with great success. We hope that all who attended were enriched by these first discussions and thank you for your indispensable contributions and your generous joy. The 'welcoming partnership' has begun. Please take the concept of the Study Circle into your families, neighborhoods, and the workplace to create "a place of ritual, a place of prayer, a place of lasting vision" and report back from the new frontier!

Gender Equality: Why We Must Achieve It

"Men embracing children" (Athens 2010)

            “What is destined for the men themselves will not be realized, if men don’t get over their gender jitters.” 

             (Late Desmond Browne, Liberia)

On December 10, 2012 a Study Circle on gender equality will be held in London. As facilitator of this gathering, my hope is that a movement will be created to launch study circles on gender equality worldwide at the village and community level and in the corporate setting.

PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION LEADS TO SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

A Study Circle is self-directed collaborative learning about spiritual concepts and how they may be applied to everyday real life conditions. These participant-centered group gatherings are lead by a facilitator (not an expert) and are intended as sustainable and reproducible on any scale, large or small.

Our session on gender equality in London falls under the over-arching theme of 'promoting the well-being of humanity'.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS HERE and WHAT YOU RE DOING IN YOUR FAMILY, COMMUNITY, OR WORKPLACE.

So here we go again, unnecessary violence! I wear my hoodie in solidarity with Mr. and Mrs. Martin b/c were I them, I would be inconsolable as a parent. In these moments there is no 'hierarchy of oppression' whether in Baghdad or Florida. These are all our children and we are leaving them a dreadful legacy of discrimination-as-usual. We are in the midst of that "dangerous course", one marked by the cultures of violence of our age. And beyond race, the Trayvon murder is, to me, a horror story about a man and a boy and the war on our children in every nation in the world. We seem to give them up to violence much too easily. Either it's sending them off to war to kill other people's children, ensnare them in human trafficking, or watch them kill one another as if each human life were expendable. Where is our sense of shame?

From an unlikely source-Charlotte Bronte-these thoughts are offered: " “Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow firm there, firm as weeds among stones.” Many Americans who are aware of the extent of racism in U.S. culture know that 'Trayvon Martin cases' recur on a daily basis in almost every state and throughout the world, to both young men and women. I remember my father having a strong aversion to the police b/c his was the era of the 1930's when lynching and Emmett Till's murder (1955) were fresh realities, even in Cambridge(MA), the city of his birth and where I was raised. Douglas Blackmon's conscience-crushing Pulitzer text Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans From the Civil War to WWII(2009) described the illegal bondage of Black citizens about which my Dad knew from 'the grapevine'. Dad has passed away a few years before the Rodney King incident (1991) but it would have broken his peace-loving, boogie-woogie heart to have watched the infamous Holliday videotapes of excessive force by the LAPD.  And James Byrd's 'lynching-by-dragging' murder (Texas 1998) would have sent him over the edge. I am skipping over the bad parts-all of the other unknown, young men of color (and other ethnics) whose mortality arrived too soon for them to grow into men. The murders of Vincent Chin and Matthew Shepherd, however, would have equally tested his faith in American society. Indeed, I was more than lucky to be raised by such a lover of humanity, one who regularly brought home strangers of every race to our family table for a meal.

Our work to eliminate prejudice is oil-rigg deeper, requires that we're man and woman enough to go to darker places within ourselves to redeem our country's destiny and our children's futures. No joke. The 'mutual understanding, amity, and sustained cooperation' required to eradicate race hatred and the war on our children is a lifetime commitment, not a media frenzy that activates our momentary shame. 

What was absent from Zimmerman was this: freedom from fear...

SADC Gender Protocol 2011 Barometer

SADC Gender Protocol 2011 Barometer

How do we measure wealth and poverty?

Pushing forward the 'welcoming partnership'-the equality of men and women is not for 'the foolish or faint of heart'.In
many countries we take our rights for granted. One of the surest means for monitoring progress on equity and equality is 'bean-counting' because data forces citizens and elected officials alike to face the scope of inequality and its cause squarely. But numbers only tell part of the story-the quantitative. Different indicators used measure different results.
SADC scores second only to Nordic countries in the representation of women in Parliament-a critical achievement towards recognition of women's intelligence, nobility, and greater powers of leadership during times of crisis, compared
to men. Yet those of us committed to equality for all realize the hard road ahead. Improving the quality of life for everyone, with a special focus on the most vulnerable groups-women, children, elders, the disabled-is a 'no-brainer' if we believe in and work for global peace and security.
SADC (Southern African)countries are making headway despite competitive disadvantages that include age-old patriarchal systems (male-dominated regimes of power),customary laws, and despite comparatively lower poverty levels
and greater public health challenges. They score second only to So what do they have that described their progress?
SADC uses both the SGDI + the CSC (Citizen score card). Between the two tools for measuring progress toward gender equality the report offers a few insights:
" Across the board, citizens score their governments more harshly than the SGDI. For example Seychelles gets 79% in the SGDI but 61% in the citizen scoring exercise."
In this case, countries that have NAPS(National Action Plans) that include other indicators (e.g., GBV(gender-based violence) show up differently and, according to SADC, here is why:
" Nine SADC constitutions provide for the promotion of women and seven have other provisions that relate to gender equality. But contradictions between customary law and statutory law abound where these are outlawed by the Constitution."
In my work in Liberia, a West African country, I am proud to say their President and Parliament have pushed forward a National Action Plan. This plan directly addresses gender inequality and GBV through citizen education, law, and policy.




Weigh in on your thoughts and experiences with the worlds' most important goal-the equality of men and women.

Reducing men's "Gender Jitters" in Developing Nations!

Fiercely confronting men's "gender jitters" in a 3 hr marathon (1 of many).

If gender equality is to be achieved in Liberia, men at the grass roots level must be willing, informed, and 'welcoming partners' in advancing the principle and practice of the equality of men and women. By the time I finished talking, answering questions, dodging bullets from misanthropes, you better believe these men are taking this subject more seriously. There are a number of earnest supporters already, but this is traditional Africa and our work is cut out for us.