Susan
notes: Buried at the bottom of an economist article about poverty in
Guatemala is this telling statement: “Guatemala lags behind in
educating girls in particular.” The piece goes on to say that mothers
lacking in education may improperly prepare and distribute food
supplements to their starving children, thus contributing to the
ongoing widespread malnutrition in a country “rich enough to prevent
it.”
It is hardly one of Latin America’s poorest countries, but according to
Unicef almost half of Guatemala’s children are chronically
malnourished—the sixth-worst performance in the world.
In parts of
rural Guatemala, where the population is overwhelmingly of Mayan
descent, the incidence of child malnutrition reaches 80%. A diet of
little more than tortillas does permanent damage.
This chronic problem has become acute. Higher world prices for food
have coincided with a recession-induced fall in money sent back from
Guatemalans working in the United States (remittances equal 12% of
Guatemala’s GDP).
Drought in eastern Guatemala has made things worse
still. Many families can scarcely afford beans, an important source of
protein, and must sell eggs from their hens rather than feed them to
their children.
The government and aid donors are providing emergency food supplies for
300,000 people scattered in some 700 villages. Up to 400,000 more may
need help. In Jocotán, in the east, rehabilitation centres have
admitted dozens of children who are so malnourished that their black
hair has turned blond, their faces are chubby from fluid build-up as
their organs fail, the veins in their legs become a visible black
spider-web and their face muscles are too weak to smile.
What makes this even more distressing is that Guatemala is rich enough to prevent it.
I was recently asked
if, as a female professional, I had ever come up against a 'glass
ceiling'. The question intrigued me as fortunately I had not, in both
my careers in the corporate and non-profit world. However, there are
many women out there who have.
Women's rights have
been a debatable topic since the days of Virginia Woolfe and Huda
Sha'rawi, the Egyptian feminist who broke new ground in the 1920s and
1930s. Back then, the emancipation of women was one of the most
controversial topics.
As Woolfe put it, "The history of men's
opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the
story of that emancipation itself". Although at the time the issue was
in its embryonic stage, it caused a great uproar and consequently
Woolfe went down in history as one of the most influential people of
her era.
Today, the debate
continues. The United Nations Development Fund for Women provides us
with an interesting quote: "Countries that do not fully take advantage
of one half of the talent in their population are misallocating their
human resources". This is certainly an issue that we in the UAE do not
face.
Taking a 13,000-foot plunge from an airplane
will earn most jumpers a certificate. Instructor Paul Peckham Jr. knew
that wouldn't be enough for 92-year-old Jane Bockstruck.
Peckham,
a former Air Force combat controller, cut the parachutist wings he had
sewn 30 years ago on his own helmet bag and gave them to Bockstruck —
who celebrated her birthday this month with a flawless, 120-mph free
fall in front of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
"These
silver wings represent courage, and you certainly displayed that
today," Peckham told her after the two landed safely Sept. 19 in
Orange, Mass., after a tandem dive.
For Bockstruck, it was just another in a string of adventures in her
full life. She has traveled around the world, been married seven times,
and loves to boast that she kidded with John Wayne while working as a
seamstress on the set of "True Grit."
Toward the end of her marriage, Rabia Iqbal said she feared for her life.
Iqbal was born in New York to parents who had immigrated to the United States from the tribal areas of Pakistan. She had a strict Muslim upbringing and when she was 16, her parents arranged her marriage to a 38-year-old man. She claims her husband turned violent during their 10 years of marriage.
When she finally left him, she did not know where to turn. Going home wasn't an option, she said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday urged
global action to curb conflict-related violence and sexual exploitation
against young women and girls. Clinton is to chair a special session of
the U.N. Security Council on the issue next Wednesday.
Clinton
says preventing the exploitation and marginalization of girls is no
longer an afterthought but a core foreign policy objective of the
United States, which is co-sponsoring a Security Council resolution on
the issue next week.
The secretary of state joined her
counterpart from the Netherlands, Maxime Verhagen, at a meeting at U.N.
headquarters Friday previewing next week's council meeting.
On
an Africa trip last month, Clinton met with women and girls raped and
otherwise abused by soldiers and irregular forces in the conflict in
the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the DRC.
It is hardly one of Latin America’s poorest countries, but according to
Unicef almost half of Guatemala’s children are chronically
malnourished—the sixth-worst performance in the world.
Taking a 13,000-foot plunge from an airplane
will earn most jumpers a certificate. Instructor Paul Peckham Jr. knew
that wouldn't be enough for 92-year-old Jane Bockstruck.