Half the Sky, an eye-opening book from Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, about the marginalization of women in many parts of the world, was the Fab Five Book Club title for the night. These two journalists, who are also married to each other, have traveled the world looking into some of the ways that people have attempted to raise the standard of living for women and their families.
There are a lot of problems to tackle. Human trafficking is widespread in certain countries, and the lowest form of it is found in "recruitment" of young girls for brothels. Many maternal medical needs are neglected, and girls' medical and educational needs are often ignored in favor of making sure their brothers' needs are met. Female genital cutting has also proven difficult to combat.
The authors tell the stories of many different girls and women. They cite studies that show that if you give people a lot of data or statistics, listeners lose interest quickly. So the authors give us stories. We had different reactions to this. Some felt it was repetitious, too many stories, too many people. Others felt that it did a good job of showing how one person is part of a community, and that community presents both complicating factors and opportunities for support.
We weren't sure that the book is completely fair to non-government agencies. One of us felt like the authors have a bit of an attitude about the way NGOs work, and there isn't much space given to anything they've done right.
I, personally, found the book inspiring. There are many ways that we can be involved in making positive changes. We can educate ourselves on the political aspects of foreign aid and legislation. We can volunteer our time and energy. We can donate. We can work at a grassroots level to bring change. We can be careful that our theological or philosophical differences don't hold us back us from working with others. And, though the book doesn't suggest it, we can pray.
Books like this tend to make me want to pack my suitcase and head overseas. And that's another thing the book warns against. The Western world tends to think we have it all under control, that we can step in and coerce change. Real change comes only when the community is understood, and when it can get on board. They suggest that we be ready to write a check and then carry bags backstage, letting the people have the power in making their own change.
While we spent some time talking about the movie, I have to admit that we spent more time rearranging our host's living room. We carried cabinets, bookshelves and chairs, and completely redesigned the layout of the room. Then our resident interior designer went to work, putting certain books on certain shelves, adding accessories here and there, and turning the room into a work of art. If you need your room redecorated, we have just the person for you.
We also enjoyed the pleasure of clotted cream. Ostensibly we were eating gingerbread scones, but they were really just conduits for the cream. Seriously. So good.
And we heard the tentative itinerary for our first trip together--a pilgrimage to Cincinnati. While the schedule includes pizza from La Rosa's, lunch at Skyline Chili, ice cream from Graeters, and dinner at Grand Finale, there will be non-food excursions as well. In fact, the plan is jam-packed and may require a vacation afterward to recover. But we'll have our purchases from Half-Price Books and Trader Joe's to help us recover.
And so you can see that we get caught up in our daily joys, decisions, lifestyles and worries, all of which conspire to distract us from the rest of the world and the suffering others endure. It's a challenge to us to keep a balance between enjoying the blessings that come our way and being advocates who are in very different positions.
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