One in Seven.

Two things I wanted to share with you:

First, the recent TED talk from the director of the organisation I currently work for. And second, Foreign Policy magazine has just put out a whole issue on Food: "Inside the Geopolitics of a Hungry Planet", which I found quite good. Hunger is obviously in the media spotlight of late, with the Horn of Africa battling famine, complicated by prolonged aid-blockages in Somalia. But this crisis should live with us each and every day until it is no longer that - a crisis. One billion people wake up hungry every day. One in seven people on this planet. Hunger kills more people than AIDS, Malaria and TB combined.  And, as JS says in the TED talk, most of us have a not-too-distant-connection with hunger. My own ancestors endured the famines of Ireland. It really was not that long ago. It brings it home for me. 

To a hungry man, a piece of bread is the face of God. 

 - Gandhi. 

Kavita Ramdas TED

I found Kavita Ramdas's talk really interesting and inspiring.  She talks of radical women, embracing change. I like that she does not talk about empowering women, she sees that women are already incredibly powerful. It is not so easy to see radical women embracing change here in Sudan, but I know it is there, existing quietly, under the rigid surface of an ancient society and its ancient rules. I hope I am afforded the chance to witness it one day. Because that will be a day of the most incredible light shining from this country. 

Kavita Ramdas is the president of The Global Fund for Women.

p.s. Let me know what you think of her talk.. I would love to know your thoughts.

I Love, Love, LOVE being a girl!

Eve Ensler's TED talk. Well worth the 20 minutes. Her monologue at the end is wonderful. I got so much out of this talk. This is not just feminism and this is not just the empowering of marginalised women in poor countries. This is a global, cross-gender issue. This is a human issue. 

As a tom-boy child I used to wish I was a boy. That changed as I grew older, stronger, protected by my lucky country. But I have ashamedly found those desires returning these past 4 years living in South Asia and North Africa, while witnessing the acceptance and respect my male colleagues receive, the freedom they are afforded and the judgement I receive when locals learn I am unmarried. And so I regularly give in to vulnerable moments, but usually only in the privacy of my own head. And yet this is crazy and unjust of me, as I enjoy a freedom and a level of safety that most women in these parts of the world will never know in their lifetimes. Just last week a public bus outside town was attacked by rebels and the women on-board were raped. Many will consequently now be rejected by their husbands and families. This is just an hour up the road from where I sit in my office right now. I cannot do anything about it, I risk getting thrown out of the country for even writing these words here. And yet, this was only one incident. Out of hundreds.. thousands perhaps.. The good people of this part of the world condemn it but until society in all countries, including the rich countries, change their interpretation of 'being a girl', it will always be accepted as something that just happens. 

The shame of our century...

You may follow Nick Kristof's blog of NYT OpEd Pieces. And you may have read his book co-written with Sheryl WuDunn,  Half the Sky. It took me a little while to finally get my hands on a copy out here in this desert, but I finally read it recently and cannot recommend this book more highly. You can watch Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Sheryl WuDunn's TED talk below if you have a spare 18 minutes in your day. (FYI, during that 18 minutes, 12 women somewhere in the world will die unnecessarily during in childbirth).