Women’s equal leadership imperative says frmr Chilean Pres now UN Women leader

Diverse
Women of the world

Sustainable development will come when essential public services … for education, health care, water, sanitation, energy and social protection are accessible to everyone says Michelle Bachelet

Editing, re-reporting by 

Carolyn Bennett

International Women’s Day

The United Nations has observed International Women’s Day on March 8 since 1975.

In that year's International Women’s Year, the United Nations began the March 8 celebration of International Women’s Day. In December of 1977, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.

Michelle Bachelet’s thoughts in a Kapuscinski Lecture two years ago ─ “The century of inclusion and women’s full participation” ─ seem apt for this year’s observance.

Dr. Michelle Bachelet 

“While women constitute over half of humanity,” the Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women said, “they are far from enjoying equal rights, equal opportunities and equal participation and leadership with men. Women’s contributions to peace and democratization, she said, “typically do not translate into leadership roles in decision-making institutions.”

Women of Congo
End Violence against women

End the status quo

Launch new, diverse, woman-quality leadership

“The 21st century must be the century of inclusion,” Bachelet said. That means women’s equal leadership and participation. 

 The nature of leadership can no longer be “by control and command,” she said. “It is about listening and leveraging a response.

Leadership has to strive for inclusion. The castles are burning down. The fortresses and moats are no longer tenable. Now is the time for openness and participation.

Leadership is not a singular or insular endeavor.

Leadership is about consultation and collaboration. Government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.

True leadership is about participation and engagement.

Leadership pursues equality. We can no longer pursue public policies that, in effect, save the best for the best; and the rest for the rest.

Leadership embraces diversity and integrative societies.

True leaders strive to value and understand people.

Women Strike for Peace

Quality leadership requires humility, respect for self and others, a strong belief in the possible.

“Democracy is rooted in solidarity, peace and justice; and democratic reform requires leadership with conviction. It requires equality and inclusion.

“We need to advance universal values with universal coverage. Education and healthcare, safe water and sanitation, housing and energy, decent work ─ these are not charitable contributions or government handouts; they are rights to which every human being is entitled.”

“‘Progress’ redefined” ─ UN Women

“I took the position of founding Executive Director of UN Women out of a deep conviction that the progress we need to see in inclusion will have to push vigorously ─ and with conviction ─ for  women’s empowerment and gender equality. …” Bachelet said.

Forgotten women
caught in
men's tyranny

“I hold the position that we need to redefine what is progress” ─ progress as the measure of “how well we promote inclusion and reduce inequalities.”

“We [at UN Women] are pushing for governments to agree on, then take measures so that women can access opportunities as leaders and as full participants in decision making related to policies, social and economic issues, and the environment.

“We are pushing for women’s equal opportunities in economies and this demands a series of measures which include

Providing childcare and work-life policies;

Ending violence and discrimination;

Removing barriers women face to owning land and accessing credit.

Hon. Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria

Attributed to Michelle Bachelet in separate contexts, she says: 

I am a woman, a socialist, separated and agnostic, all the sins together … 

Who could have thought twenty, ten, or five years ago ─ that Chile would elect a woman to be president!

Sources and notes

“The century of inclusion and women’s full participation” Kapuscinski Lecture: Michelle Bachelet, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, at Dublin, Ireland. February 21, 2013, http://www.unwomen.org/2013/02/the-century-of-inclusion-and-womens-full-participation/

UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet

Former Chilean Minister of Defense, Minister of Health and President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet is the first Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women.

UN Women was established on July 2, 2010, by the United Nations General Assembly. The organization leads, supports and coordinates work on gender equality and empowerment of women globally and at regional and country levels.

Before taking on the leadership of UN Women, Bachelet ─ a long-time champion of women’s rights advocating for gender equality and women’s empowerment throughout her career ─ had most recently served as President of Chile (2006-2010).

One of her major successes as Chile’s President was her decision to save billions of dollars in revenues to spend on issues such as pension reform, social protection programs for women and children, and research and development. Under her leadership, the number of free early child-care centers for low-income families tripled and some 3,500 child-care centers were completed around the country.

Michelle Bachelet’s ministerial portfolios in the Chilean Government include Minister of Defense in which position she introduced gender policies intended to improve the conditions of women in the military and police forces; and Minister of Health in which she implemented health care reform and improved attention to primary care facilities with the aim of ensuring better and faster health care response for families. http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/directorate/executive-director/

Multi-lingual in her native Spanish and with varying levels of fluency in English, German, Portuguese and French, Bachelet is a pediatrician and epidemiologist with studies in military strategy.

Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (b. September 29, 1951), politically a Social Democrat, was the first woman president of her country. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed her in 2010 to head UN Women [Wikipedia note].

See also Bachelet in:

Bennett, Carolyn LaDelle. Women’s Work and Words altering World Order

International Women’s Day

The United Nations has observed International Women’s Day on March 8 since 1975.

In 1975, during International Women’s Year, the United Nations began its March 8 celebration of International Women’s Day. In December of 1977, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.

UN System Observances for International Women’s Day 2013 ─ Official United Nations theme for International Women’s Day 2013: “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women.”

Events: International Women’s Day 2013: Official UN Observance

10:00-12:00, Eastern Standard Time, March 8, Conference Room 2, North Lawn Building, United Nations Headquarters, New York, webcast live at http://webtv.un.org/

Related UN-system IWD Events Worldwide

Monday, March 4: 57th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, United Nations Headquarters, New York: The 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women extends March 4 to March 15 at United Nations headquarters. The priority theme focuses on the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls.

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/iwd/

Ryszard Kapuściński

Censored

The American edition of Ryszard Kapuściński’s Shah of Shahs, issued in the United States in 1985 by the San Diego publishers, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, in the translation of William R. Brand (b. 1953) and Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand, was censored—by having references to CIA involvement in the 1953 overthrow of Iran’s prime minister Mossadegh (or about 15 pages) excised.

The censorship of the American edition, ironic in a book that deals in part with the terror of pervasive censorship unleashed on the people of Iran by the Shah’s security agency, the SAVAK, has never been satisfactorily explained…

Respected Polish journalist Monika Olejnik (b. 1956) attributes this instance of censorship to Kapuściński himself ─ who was allegedly motivated by his own scruples.

Some of Ryszard Kapuściński’s works available in English

Shah of Shahs (Szachinszach) (1982)

 Imperium (Imperium) (1993)

 The Shadow of the Sun (2001)

 Our Responsibilities in a Multicultural World (2002)

Encountering the Other: The Challenge for the Twenty-first Century—The Inaugural Lecture of the Thirty-six[th] Annual School of Polish Language and Culture (Jagiellonian University, July 5, 2005)

I Wrote Stone: The Selected Poetry of Ryszard Kapuściński (2007)

 The Cobra's Heart (extract from The Shadow of the Sun) (2007)

 The Other (Ten Inny) (2008) – A collection of the author's lectures

Briefly

Ryszard Kapuściński (b. into poverty in Pińsk—now in Belarus—in the Kresy Wschodnie or eastern borderlands of the second Polish Republic, March 4, 1932 - d. January 23, 2007) was a Polish journalist and writer whose dispatches in book form brought him global reputation. He was also a photographer and poet.

He is reported to have said that he “felt at home in Africa as ‘food was scarce there too and everyone was also barefoot.’”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryszard_Kapu%C5%9Bci%C5%84ski

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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Only through mediation ─ Women leaders of Congo to Women leaders in United States

Activist
Neema Namadamu

Women must join together now
Excerpting, editing, comment by Carolyn Bennett

Enriched ravaged land

Its people and future ruined by endless war

“We ask for the immediate appointment of a special presidential envoy to work with the African Union and United Nations to forge a peace process that addresses both the immediate crisis and the underlying longer-term economic and political interests of the parties involved,” Neema Namadamu pleads the case for her people, her country.

Only through mediation from this level can we hope to establish resolution among the numerous states, rebel armies and special interests that have long fueled this conflict and humanitarian crisis.

It is essential that any action ensures Congolese women—who are uniquely positioned to act on behalf of family and community—have a voice in the peace process and a seat at the table.

Neema Namadamu is one of a group of Congolese grassroots women leaders, the Maman Shujaa (in the Swahili language, ‘Hero Women’). In a overview to a petition letter to women leaders in the United States, Neema Namadamu writes: “I was born in a very remote village in South Kivu Province in eastern Congo. I belong to a marginalized tribe. I am crippled from Polio. But none of these things characterize me. I have a vision for my country: a new and peaceful Congo, which compels me. Its destiny drives me.” 

 After Brazil, “Congo is home to the second largest rain forest in the world and 60 percent of all of Africa’s forests.

It has enough hydropower potential to power all of Africa.

It has an estimated 24 trillion dollars of mineral wealth ─ far greater un-monetized wealth than any other nation in the world.

Yet “the mothers of [Congo’s] children live in poverty, in fear of being raped, daily women fear losing their sons and husbands to endless wars.

“We are brutalized in unconscionable ways by monsters wearing military uniforms. … Several months ago, soldiers indiscriminately beat my own daughter.…” For sixteen years, Neema Namadamu says, “War has ravaged my homeland.”

 

Women together

“We as women must join together now because WE CAN,” she writes. “Even in remote Congo, we have become connected to our global sisterhood.

“We who are ONE with the 35 million+ women of the DRC who are ONE with the 3.5 billion+ women of the world stand for an end to all violence and aggression in Eastern DRC. We will not be quiet until real peace is upon us. 

World flags
UN Geneva

“We the grassroots women leaders of eastern DRC call upon our female counterparts in the White House—our sisters Secretary Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Susan Rice, Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett, and First Lady Michelle Obama—to speak with your President in our behalf and ensure the start of a true peace process in our homeland.

We have had enough. 

We call upon our global sisterhood to take action. 

We will not be quiet until REAL Peace is upon us.

My comment when signing this petition

I sign this petition because with Neema Namadamu I believe we are one. 

We are all wounded when any are wounded ─ denied life and liberty, basic universal human rights ─ in the world; and we must help one another -- nonviolently. 

Only by changing the mode of response − from violence to nonviolence ─ only by working with each other cooperatively and respectfully, seeking to understand one another, our traditions and histories, cultural variations and underlying issues, can we ever, EVER hope to attain peace and justice, insure realization of human aspirations and human rights for all. 

We must want, earnestly desire, commit to peace and justice, rule of law and human rights for all ─ this has not been the aim, attitude or action of the world’s dominant and domineering, arrogantly belligerent (largely but not exclusively male) leaders of the north, south, east or west. Women together must change the paradigm in violence.

Sources and notes

Dissected by the Equator, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), formerly called Zaire, is the third largest country on the African continent. [WorldAtlas search, http://www.worldatlas.com/header_final/search.html?q=DRC%2C%20Congo)

Neema Namadamu, http://www.namadamu.com/

Petitioning Secretary Hillary Clinton 2

From the grassroots women leaders of Congo to the women leaders of the White House

Petition by Neema Namadamu, Bukavu, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the

http://www.change.org/petitions/from-the-grassroots-women-leaders-of-congo-to-the-women-leaders-of-the-white-house

Text of Petition letter

To:

Secretary Hillary Clinton, The White House

Ambassador Susan Rice, The White House

Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett, The White House

First Lady Michelle Obama, The White House

With the M23 Rebels taking cities in North Kivu and threatening instability in an already unstable region, now is our time to act!

After 16 years of war, after 16 years of the systematic rape and torture against women, after 16 years of the world turning our eyes from the complex conflict that rages in the Eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo—it’s time to take a stand and support a comprehensive peace process. It’s time to support our sisters in Congo and say “NO!” to the persisting violence.

In solidarity with the ‘Hero Women’ of eastern Congo I urge you to act swiftly for our sisters in the Congo and call upon President Obama to appoint a high-level Special Envoy to work with an A.U./U.N. appointed mediator and begin a real peace process that addresses both the immediate crisis and the underlying longer-term economic and political interests of the parties. And, it is essential that any action ensures that women—who are uniquely positioned to act on behalf of family and community—have a voice in the peace process and a seat at the table.

Sincerely,

[Signer’s name]

Link: http://www.change.org/petitions/from-the-grassroots-women-leaders-of-congo-to-the-women-leaders-of-the-white-house

  

Change dot org note: On November 20, 2012, M23 rebels seized Goma, a major city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, reigniting a war that has ravaged the region for 16 years. Neema Namadamu and a group of grassroots women leaders who call themselves the Maman Shujaa (in Swahili ‘Hero Women’) are calling on you and U.S. woman leaders Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Valerie Jarrett, and Michelle Obama to take immediate action in solidarity with the women of the Congo.

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Mairead Corrigan Maguire shows, gives us rare courage in cause of peace

“Nobel Peace Laureate says no!”

Today excerpted with commentary by Carolyn Bennett

From Pressenza International Press Agency

“Dear Friends, I write to let you know that I have decided not to attend the 12th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates on 23rd-25th April, 2012, in Chicago [Illinois] USA,” writes Mairead Maguire of Peace People (Northern Ireland) — thus rejecting the United States Department of State, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Chicago Agenda.

“I do not agree with many of the policies of the U.S. State Department…

… I have now decided, with some sadness, not to be associated in this Partnership as I do not agree with many of the Policies of the U.S. State Department.

… I have, as a Nobel Peace Laureate, (and in the spirit of Alfred Nobel) often called for disbandment of NATO, end of militarism and war, and for Disarmament and demilitarization.

I cannot therefore, in good conscience, be part of a Partnership with the U.S. State Government (NATO).

I also believe that my participation in such a partnership would compromise my position and put in jeopardy my work in the Middle East and other countries.

I am very disappointed that what is a great opportunity for young people, for the Nobel Laureates and organizations to listen, learn, and exchange friendships and experiences, has been, I believe, seriously compromised in such a Partnership.

However, I hope it will be an enjoyable and educational summit particularly for all the young people, and I am deeply saddened not to be with you all.”

UNCOMMON COURAGE

I have tremendous admiration and respect for this woman. I am honored and grateful to live in this historical period in which she lives and works. To be given this gift of her courage, to be inspired by it.

Uncommon courage is required to do what she does: to act on her courage, to speak out in the face of superpower and its coalition in brute force, its abusive might, its violent aggression, its incessant violation of human rights all wrapped in a constant stream of widely broadcasted lies. It takes uncommon courage to speak boldly on your own convictions, from a “cherished position” (of man) against these forces — in the cause of peace and nonviolence, in the cause of the young, their education, and the future of the entire world.

Mairead Corrigan Maguire is a rare and true person of peace and I am indeed grateful to her.  

Sources and notes

MAIREAD CORRIGAN MAGUIRE (1944- ): Northern Irish peace activist and co-founder of the Peace People, a grassroots movement of Roman Catholic and Protestant citizens dedicated to ending the sectarian strife in Northern Ireland. Nobel Peace laureate (1976 with Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown), joint founder  (2006 with fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureates Shirin Ebadi, Jody Williams, Wangari Maathai, and Rigoberta Menchú) of the Nobel Women’s Initiative.

http://www.pressenza.com/npermalink/nobel-peace-laureate-says-nox

 “Pressenza Belfast, Northern Ireland, 4/16/12— On 10th April, Sec. of State H. Clinton appeared on video in U.S. State Department Web announcing plans for the forthcoming Nobel Peace Laureates Summit and said, .The U.S. Department of State is proud to be an active partner in this event.’

“Sec. Clinton gave details of how the US. State Dept. is working with U.S. embassies around the world to bring twenty students and 4 teachers from 4 countries to Chicago and explained that video conferences and portals for live streaming of events will be managed by U.S. State department.” Mairead Maguire, Co-founder Community of Peace People, was jointly awarded 1976 Nobel Peace Prize and several other awards. Peace, Peace People, Northern Ireland http://www.peacepeople.com 13.4.2012

Images

Mairead Corrigan Maguire Image by: Peace People

 ... Maguire entitled The Vision of Peace: Faith and Hope in Northern Ireland ...

peacemuseum.org.uk

Warrior for peace: Mairead Corrigan Maguire. Saturday, 5 June 2010

belfasttelegraph.co.uk

peacepeople.com

2362 × 559 - Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire speaks to MEMO (Middle East ...

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Environmental responsibility is social responsibility—Wangari Maathai

Britannica Wangari Maathai © Adrian Arbib/Corbis

Inseparable — how we treat the environment, how we treat each other

By Carolyn Bennett

Hers was a holistic approach embracing democracy, human rights, and particularly women’s rights. She combined science, social commitment, and active politics. More than simply protecting the existing environment, her strategy was to secure and strengthen the foundation of ecological sustainability.

Wangari Maathai won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and the press sneered. They sneered because Wangari Maathai was a woman and fit none of the Western male supremacist stereotypes of woman. The press sneered because Wangari Maathai was an independent woman’s rights feminist woman. They sneered because she was a black African Ph.D., Professor, Member of Parliament, Minister-for-Environment woman. The press sneered because Wangari Maathai was an environmentalist, biologist, scientist, and a peace, justice, democracy, human rights worker— not unlike [the United States of America’s] own Fannie Lou Hamer — who had endured great suffering while working in the causes of peace and justice and democracy and human rights. She endured for the great and global cause of life on planet Earth.  

Britannica Wangari Maathai AFP/Getty Images

Wangari Maathai’s great contribution was to make the connection between the life of forests and  the life of humankind — to see justice and injustice, war and peace in the connection  —  and to devote her life to the struggle for life.  She planted trees. Millions of them and led a reforesting movement.

If deforestation (cutting down trees, commercial logging, clear cutting, burning and damaging forests) continues at the rate it’s going, the world’s rain forests will vanish within 100 years, said a NASA report.  The majority of the planet’s plant and animal species will die.  ‘When a forest is cut and burned to establish crop land and pastures,’ the Earth Observatory report said, ‘the carbon that was stored in the tree trunks ... joins with oxygen and is released into the atmosphere. .... From 1850 to 1990, deforestation worldwide (including the United States) released 122 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, with the current rate being approximately 1.6 billion metric tons per year.’  Fossil fuel burning (coal, oil and gas) releases  6 billion metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere ‘enhances greenhouse effect and could contribute to an increase in global temperatures.’

All life needs trees. ‘Trees protect the soil against erosion and reduce the risks of landslides and avalanches,’ Stephen Hui reminds us in a 1997 article ‘Deforestation: Humankind and the global ecological crisis.’  Trees help to sustain freshwater supplies, he says, and therefore are an important factor in the availability of one of life’s basic needs. Forests affect the climate and are an important source of oxygen. ‘Humankind is the cause of deforestation,’ he says, and humankind can cure it.

Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize because she put her back to the wheel of reforestation by planting and leading communities in planting millions of trees in Africa.  She won it because she used her mind to make the connection between forests and peace, justice and life; between deforestation and war, poverty and death — taking particular toll on women and children of Kenya, of Africa, of the world.

Interviewed on Democracy Now shortly after the announcement of the peace prize, Environmental author Terry Tempest Williams said, ‘Wangari Maathai was the first of the global leaders to say the health of our communities is the health of the planet. She said that environmental responsibility is social responsibility. She was one of the first global leaders decades ago to say that there is no separation between how we treat the environment and how we treat each other.’

A butterfly flutters its wings on an East African coast, and winds, great storms touch down in North America. Great forests fall to rubber plantations, corporate cattle farms, massive Agri-businesses and logging capitalists; flood waters rise, mud slides rush down slopes, waters run  through streets wiping out cities and towns, clapboard houses, trailers of poorer people, mansions of the rich, carbon coughing SUVs of the careless.  

In richer countries taxpayers pay for cities and states declared states of emergency. Taxes fund shelters — for people made homeless by storms, for merchants who lose their places of business, for businesses whose payouts exceed projected loss. 

In poorer countries (and in sectors of rich countries), there is no such luck. As people suffer one after another storm, the effects worsened by deforestation, their debt to developed countries such as the United States rises. To pay down the debt, they sell off their forests and other resources sustaining double, deepening loss — often poverty in perpetuity. More hurricanes come. This is a simplified case of Haiti and corporate rubber (or robber) barons. Poor Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. With corporate greed, rising debt, great storms, foreigners (government, nongovernmental individuals and groups, profit and nonprofit coalitions and corporations) constantly meddling in domestic sovereignty, creating and perpetuating civil chaos (as in Afghanistan and Iraq), Haiti has broken down completely.

A BBC report in late September [2004] said the storm called Jeanne caused a thousand deaths and left tens of thousands of Haitians without food and water. Behind Haiti’s stream of natural disasters — ‘Environmental destruction and lack of economic development,’ the report said. Not only is Haiti one of the poorest, it is one of the most densely populated and most deforested countries on Earth. Lacking peaceful, unconditional human assistance, Haiti is destroyed over and over again.

Iraq and Afghanistan suffer a similar fate of plunder, devastation and debt. An article published [in 2003] by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting said since the start of the war in Afghanistan, forests have been depleted by a third because people had to have firewood for cooking and heating. ‘War, illegal hunting, deforestation and drought combined with grinding poverty,’ Rahimullah Samander wrote, ‘have had a disastrous effect on Afghanistan’s wildlife, pushing some species to the verge of extinction.’

A sneering press asks no questions about environmental, including wildlife destruction and devastated human lives. Where is the peace and justice in this? No peace. No justice. No future for families and children. Only war and death.

Britannica Wangari Maathai at a tree-planting ceremony
Nagakute-chō, Japan, AP

Wangari Maathai [was] an environmentalist/peacemaker, advocate for justice.  She was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctoral degree. She also earned honorary doctoral degrees, including one from Hobart & William Smith Colleges in Western New York. She was born in Nyeri, Kenya, and to celebrate winning the peace prize, she planted a tree on nearby Mount Kenya. She [led] the world in the struggle for environmental conservation, democracy and human rights.  From the 1970s, Wangari Maathai planted trees and led communities and movements in planting more than 20 million trees in Africa. 

Terry Tempest Williams concluded her interview with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez that year saying that Wangari Maathai is a woman ‘who risked everything for the environment’; that her whole life [was] ‘a gesture of deep bows to women and children in the earth.’ The Nobel committee’s recognition of Maathai as peacemaker, Williams said, gives new meaning to peace. 

In announcing the Nobel committee’s decision to award the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize to Wangari Maathai, some of what the head of the Norwegian Nobel committee said [reprinted at Democracy Now.org] was that Wangari Maathai ‘has taken a holistic approach to sustainable development that embraces democracy, human rights, and women’s rights in particular. She thinks globally and acts locally. ... Maathai combines science, social commitment, and active politics. More than simply protecting the existing environment, her strategy is to secure and strengthen the very basis for ecologically sustainable development.’

Wangari Maathai was important among world leaders because, unlike many contemporary leaders, she looked at what is happening today and saw continuing consequences way down the road, far into the future. She saw the interlocking nature and impact of scientific, human and natural variables on human life all over the world. She used her entire human powers to address and correct the problems.

This week, the world lost a truly great leader.  Professor Wangari Maathai died Sunday in Nairobi, Kenya. As reported at Al Africa referencing officials at her Greenbelt Movement organization, “The environmentalist and politician died at the Nairobi Hospital at around 10 p.m. on Sunday.”

We owe immeasurable gratitude to Wangari Muta Maathai for dedicating her life to saving ours.   

Sources and notes

This main entry is the edited text of an article I wrote and published at http://hometown.aol.com/cwriter85/index.html on October 13, 2004: “Wangari Maathai makes environment, peace connection”

“Kenya: Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai Dies in Nairobi —Prof Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace laureate and conservation heroine, has died in Nairobi after a long battle with cancer. She was 71. The environmentalist and politician died at the Nairobi Hospital at around 10 p.m. on Sunday, officials at her Greenbelt Movement organization told Nation.co.ke.,” September 26, 2011, Daily Nation on the Web, http://allafrica.com/stories/201109260014.html

BRITANNICA NOTE (edited)

Born April 1, 1940 in Nyeri, Kenya [d. September 25, 2011, Nairobi, Kenya], Wangari Muta Maathai was a Kenyan politician and environmental activist whose work her country often considered “unwelcome and subversive,” her outspokenness as “stepping far outside traditional gender roles.”

While working with the National Council of Women of Kenya, Wangari Maathai developed the idea that village women could improve the environment by planting trees to provide a fuel source and to slow the processes of deforestation and desertification.

She founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977. By the early 21st century, the organization had planted some 30 million trees. Leaders of the Green Belt Movement established the Pan African Green Belt Network in 1986 in order to educate world leaders about conservation and environmental improvement. Resulting from the movement’s activism, similar initiatives started in other African countries — among them Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe.

In addition to her conservation work, Maathai was also an advocate for human rights, AIDS prevention, and women’s issues. She frequently represented these concerns at meetings of the United Nations General Assembly. In 2002, she took 98 percent of the vote in her successful election to Kenya’s National Assembly. In 2003, she accepted an appointment as assistant minister of environment, natural resources, and wildlife.

Receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2004, Wangari Maathai became the first black African woman recipient of the award.

As author, her works include The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience (1988; rev. ed. 2003); her autobiography Unbowed (in 2007); The Challenge for Africa (2009) in which she criticizes Africa’s leadership and urges Africans to try to solve their problems without Western assistance.

Wangari Maathai took her Ph.D. at the University of Nairobi (1971), becoming the first woman in either East or Central Africa to earn a doctoral degree. After graduation, she began teaching in the Department of Veterinary Anatomy at the University of Nairobi. In 1977, she became chair of the department. Her earlier academic studies were in the United States: Mount St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College (B.S. in biology, 1964); the University of Pittsburgh (Master of Science, 1966).

Images in Britannica:

Wangari Maathai 1 © Adrian Arbib/Corbis

Wangari Maathai 2 AFP/Getty Images

Wangari Maathai 3 at a tree-planting ceremony in Nagakute-chō, Japan, AP

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