Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Gospel Music?

I was watching this video on youtube the other day and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what denomination these guys were. Their message was pretty generic, hell I could even sing the song without feeling like I was in church. I think what probably throws me off the most is that they are wearing toubs/kanzus with gunias (potato sacks) over them. Thats really strange. I know I have seen this denomination before in Kenya and I know they have an official name, its just I can't remember!

So if anyone knows drop me a line please :-) Much obliged.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

International Women Day

Ok I know it was yesterday but I wanted to discuss a report that came out today that has to do with marking this day. This report is the Global Gender Gap report and is released annually by the World Economic Forum (WEF). This report measures the gap between men and women in terms of education, health, political representation and economic activity. Iceland topped the list followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden then New Zealand. Canada came in at #25 and US at #31. What surprised me was South Africa being ranked #6. This is not because South Africa is not particularly egalitarian but rather that women in South Africa cannot be termed as equal, certainly not in economic activity and one of the reason why South Africa inched up in ranking is because of the influx of women appointed by the new government.

So my question remains, are women really gaining any foothold when it comes to equality in society? Yes, there are more women in school than before, certainly there are more women in the workplace but the sad fact remains that majority of women do not command the same pay as men do. We have acquiesced on maternity leave and childcare services for the long hours of work with shoddy pay. Scandinavian countries seems to have the right recipe for women with paid parental leave and childcare system in place to support women especially single mothers. How about adhering to quotas of women representation in politics like Rwanda does? US for all its wealth and power has a long way to go in terms of a egalitarian society.