Clinton Global Initiative
At Monday afternoon’s plenary session of this year’s meeting of the in New York City, computer scientist and social entrepreneur Fereshteh Forough talks to moderator Neil deGrasse Tyson about the challenges she faces in trying to teach girls and young women in Afghanistan the skills they need to pursue careers in computing and engineering. Photo courtesy of the.
First meeting of the I attended was 2008’s. This is my fourth trip canada goose outlet in montreal back since then. Each time I’ve arrived full of curiosity and hope. From each of my past trips I returned impressed and excited by at least one thing I learned about at one of the sessions. No doubt I’ll leave here to catch the bus home impressed and excited again. And probably pleasantly but bemusedly surprised because, if things go as they’ve gone in the past, the thing canada goose outlet location that will impress and excite me will be a seemingly little thing and, on the face of it, canada goose outlet michigan a mundane thing.
It’s heartening to learn that great good is being done in the world and that the good is ongoing that it’s not always the headline capturing case of someone swooping in to save the day and swooping out, leaving the next day to be saved by someone else or to save itself. But it’s not been the large scale projects and programs that have most impressed me or, at any rate, most riveted my attention got me canada goose outlet in vancouver thinking. Obvious in canada goose outlet black friday hindsight. Things of the “Of course! Why didn’t somebody think of that before” sort. And I get the most kick out of hearing about inventions and the introductions of new technologies and the inspired application of old ones. One of my favorites is the self adjustable eyeglasses I learned about on my first trip down. You put on a pair, give yourself an eye examine, then adjust the malleable lenses to fit your prescription.
Imagine what that means to people living in remote villages a hundred miles along nearly impassable roads from the nearest optician, if there’s one even that close by.
And last year, a corporation announced it was donating 5000 of the solar powered lanterns it manufactures to field hospitals and clinics in rural areas in countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak. Patients who needed canada goose shop uk round the https://www.canadagoosejacketca.ca clock care would be cared for round the clock because nightfall wouldn’t mean being plunged into total darkness anymore. another program that grabbed me, one I also heard about my first time here, was a very simple exercise in ordinary capitalism that arranged loans for women looking to set up their own small businesses.
What was exciting about that, beside the individual opportunities it would provide, was the potentially liberating and democratizing effect it could have on tradition bound, patriarchal societies that would suddenly have to deal with women who weren’t dependent on men for their money and had developed the habit of making decisions about their own lives and livelihoods for themselves according to their own judgments of their needs and interests. People who are bosses themselves aren’t easily bossed around.
Canada Goose sale A connecting theme of all the annual meetings of the I’ve attended, because it’s an important part of the work the Clinton Foundations fosters and towards which it directs money, is the empowerment of women around the world but especially in the developing world where economic and educational opportunities for women and girls are severely limited not just by their nations’ general poverty and lack of resources but canada goose outlet ottawa also by war, natural disasters, disease, and, of course, cultures and traditions established and perpetuated by men protecting their power, status, privilege, dominance, and control. Canada Goose sale
So it struck me as fitting that on the cab ride over here this morning, the driver had the radio tuned to President Obama’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly.
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Canada Goose Outlet I recognize that democracy is going to take different forms in different parts of the world. The very idea of a people governing themselves depends upon government giving expression to their unique culture, their unique history, their unique experiences. But some universal truths are self evident. No person wants to be imprisoned for peaceful canada goose outlet us worship. No woman should ever be abused with impunity, or a girl barred from going to school. Canada Goose Outlet
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buy canada goose jacket I’m not here alone. My students are with me. Or they will be. Or they have been here already and will be back. buy canada goose jacket
They’re “attending” the meeting virtually.
buy canada goose jacket cheap Their assignment for the week is to explore the website, watch the webcasts, do some background research on the speakers and commitments that grab canada goose outlet washington dc their attention, and then write about it on their blogs. Should be interesting canada goose outlet 2015 to see what they found interesting. I did the same thing last fall and that worked out pretty well, giving me good posts to read about astronauts, elephants, efforts to contain the Ebola outbreaks in Africa there was an excellent post from a canada goose outlet uk fake biology major warning Americans about the outbreak of panic canada goose outlet seattle here. (She was one of the three best bloggers in the class. All three were science majors. No surprise there. Scientists are the best bloggers. That’s a fact.) But the post I’m thinking about now is one that was critical or, at any rate, skeptical about efforts to increase economic and educational opportunities for women and girls canada goose outlet store calgary in developing nations. buy canada goose jacket cheap
canadian goose jacket For one thing, my student doubted claims made by several speakers and Hillary Clinton herself that sending girls to school and setting women up in businesses improved the economies of the places that did that. canadian goose jacket
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Why, she went on, should we be able to make people do what they don’t want to do?
I dealt with her first questions by pointing out, amiably, that while there might be some mixing up of cause and effect in some cases, there was plenty of research that showed that it did happen and explained how and I suggested, kindly, she should have done a little Googling before writing her post. To her credit, she did the Googling right then and there and her reaction to what turned up on her laptop screen was, “Oh.”
But it was other students in the class, other young women, who responded, amiably, kindly, but a touch indignantly, to her second set of questions.
canada goose coats on sale How can we know what “people” want, they asked her, when half the canada goose outlet buffalo people have no say in deciding what the people want? canada goose coats on sale
We’re talking about places where men oppress women canada goose outlet store montreal as a matter of course, insisting that it’s their right. Places where women canada goose outlet store toronto and girls aren’t just treated like second class citizens but where they’re practically property. Places where they’re worth less than livestock and valued accordingly.
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Canada Goose Parka It’s true, as my student worried, that in many places, educating canada goose outlet uk girls beyond a certain level, even educating them at all, is an assault on local customs and traditions. It does go against what some people there want. It’s also, despite the larger benefits to a country, a threat to the economies of many villages within that country. Canada Goose Parka
canada goose clearance sale The American physicist Francis Slakey tells a story in his memoir of his quest to climb the tallest mountain on every continent, To The Last Breath. When he was in Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro, he visited a Masai village and while there he met and became friendly with a schoolteacher named Johnson who explained the “trouble” caused in some people’s by sending Canada Goose Outlet girls to school. canada goose clearance sale
canada goose store In Tanzania, primary school is free. The primary schools in this part of the country put sixty children into a classroom. The next four years of education make up secondary school roughly equivalent to our high school and it must be paid for by the family. The quality of education is much higher, the benefits seem clear, and yet very few Masai children attend secondary school. It’s the father’s decision and, for many, education comes at too high a cost. canada goose store
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