Tuesday January 22, 2013, 6:08 pm
Thanks Cal for the link to the article Sara Benincasa. I fully agree with the article. read and noted.

Tuesday January 22, 2013, 6:40 pm
Thnx so much for posting, Cal!! It's about time somebody recognizes that women can do much more than delivering babis while picking cotton out the burning, relentless, no-shade-anywhere-to-rest-your-weary-bones fields.

Tuesday January 22, 2013, 6:45 pm
agree :) Women and men are equal, men don't deserve more rights or different rights than women

Tuesday January 22, 2013, 6:59 pm
amen!!! thanks Cal, noted

Tuesday January 22, 2013, 7:10 pm
Thanks.

Tuesday January 22, 2013, 7:44 pm
It's certainly not a matter of men "giving" women equal status; women have to demand equal rights, equal standing, throughout the world. Empowering women scares the crap out of a lot of men. That's why equal rights haven't advanced that much in 2000 years.

Tuesday January 22, 2013, 9:26 pm
we must have the same status and rights because we are all the same

Tuesday January 22, 2013, 9:49 pm
No question about it!

Unfortunately, religious fundies don't WANT us to have equality.....because we might try to manage our own careers and our own bodies!

PERISH THE THOUGHT!

Tuesday January 22, 2013, 10:36 pm
Hear, here, Pam!!

Wednesday January 23, 2013, 12:12 am
Thank you Cal.

Wednesday January 23, 2013, 12:29 am
I agree with every word! We are the compassionate ones, we give birth to the next generation, we are the ones who have to feel our children's needs and have a sixth intuitive sense which men unfortunately lack...

Wednesday January 23, 2013, 2:33 am
I say bring on the women.ASAP!!!!

Wednesday January 23, 2013, 2:36 am
men give equal rights to women?- i don't think so.. some parts of the world are still stuck in the dark ages!

Wednesday January 23, 2013, 4:14 am
amen !

Wednesday January 23, 2013, 4:32 am
noted

Wednesday January 23, 2013, 6:43 am
Thank You! Thank you for pledGing to empower women around the world!
Signed, shared, and posted to FB, thanks Cal. Too much yang is killing the planet---MORE YIN can save it.

Wednesday January 23, 2013, 6:55 am
Thanks

Wednesday January 23, 2013, 7:06 am
They were created equal and should have always been treated so.

Wednesday January 23, 2013, 8:16 am
It all comes to nothing so long as the elites care more about profit than survival.

Wednesday January 23, 2013, 12:21 pm
YEA! couldn't be more true--and it is revolutionary in many parts of the world.

Wednesday January 23, 2013, 2:41 pm
noted

Thursday January 24, 2013, 3:03 am
Thank you very much Cal for posting this important petition, which I have, like the rest, signed with great pleasure.

Women are indeed not equal to men. They are subordinate, particularly in areas of economic and political equality, while they fare a bit better in educational and health equality. However, in no country on Earth are women equal to men. All over our globe are men receiving a privileged treatment, which has been institutionalized in various ways. I call it Patriarchy.

Patriarchy is an institutionalized political, economic, and knowledge system where all that is masculine is prioritized over, and thus is permitted to dominate and exploit, all that is feminine. It is not a biologically derived system as most may find; it nevertheless ends up with a global situation where the elite (most of whom are men, but not all) are dominating society and nature for own profit. This ends in the global crises of poverty and inequality, war and violence, environmental destruction, and human rights abuses. The worst harmed by these crises are women, children, poor people, traditional people, colored people, nature, and all its precious life.

As my friend Olivia mentions above, Patriarchy embraces and has institutionalized an excess of masculine, yang energy. Oppositely, it marginalizes the feminine, yin energy. Subordinating feminine energies prevents the yin from regulating yang and thus creating a dynamic tension between yin and yang, leading to balance and harmony. If we do not get the yin/yang balance right, and add lots and lots of yin energy, including quality, ethics, cooperation, care and concern for society and nature, etc. then our world will indeed collapse. We need to end the excessive focus on yang and create a holistic yin/yang world were all masculine and feminine are in dynamic tension, manifesting in balance and harmony.

For those who are interested to learn more, please be welcome to visit the free educational website: Forum for Holistic Transformation: Ending Patriarchy and Creating a Quality of Life for Society and Nature Worldwide. It is in short called Intsangano: http://www.intsangano.com/

Regarding the petition let me just add that I am not a big fan of the Royal Society. It was founded on strong masculine energies in 1662. It’s first Secretary Henry Oldenburg, warned against the weakness of affections to gain understanding, and the women in us which is deceitful referring to Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden. He oppositely promoted a masculine science, “Whereby the mind of Man may be ennobled with the knowledge of Solid Truths.”

A reality is that the project of science is reductionist and limited, including only elements that can be quantified; it therefore marginalizes the whole, interconnections, and all that relate to quality. This has developed the priority on quantity of economic growth (yang) while quality of life for society and nature (yin) is overlooked. Fortunately both Einstein and his group and the Santiago Theory have shown that the world is a whole interconnected and living system. Thus, if we exploit any singular part, it will create crises elsewhere. Hence, we need to give our reductionist and quantitative science a serious overhaul to become holistic and qualitative.

I am also not very enthusiastic about Paul R. Ehrlich. He wrote the book, “The Population Bomb,” which is a doomsday thesis focusing on overpopulation, rather than on decreasing the extreme over-consumption of the elite. He suggests various ways to de-populate the world, which I find unethical. It includes starving poor people, introduction of mandatory population control, and sex selection abortions. The latter activity has resulted in the removal of 300 million female fetuses. All of these suggestions are in my view a result of a purely masculine yang view.

In order to see if he may have developed other attitudes and values, I read the report referred to in the post. It is written by Paul R. Ehrlich and his wife Anne H. Ehrlich. In my opinion, it is listing all the well-known, mainly environmental, crises of our world, referring to evidence and details in various scientific studies – the majority of which one cannot access for free.

In the report, Ehrlich and Ehrlich do mention the problem with over-consumption and suggest that it is curbed. They also promote gender equality. Those issues are good and new to at least his authorship. I have, however, doubt about his references when it comes to food production’s ability to feed the world. There are various recent reports showing that we have enough food for all, that hunger is not due to lack of food but lack of democracy, that much hunger relates to economic exploitation, that we throw out huge amount of food, and that organic farming or agro-ecology (as promoted by UN special rapporteur for the right to food, professor Olivier de Schutter) actually can double yields without the use of chemicals or genetic engineered crops.

Regarding the latter issue, in the report Ehrlich and Ehrlich are unclear on their stand on genetic engineering. They mention engineering as a technology to be used for the benefit of society. As it is now genetic engineering is an extremely exploitative technology causing serious crises in our world while reaping huge profit to the elite. For more details of this, please go and read the material in the group: Global Alliance to Ban GMOs http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/BanGMOs

Well, just some points to ponder. Thanks again Cal for posting and Olivia for bringing it to my attention. Have a lovely day.

Thursday January 24, 2013, 4:17 am
noted

Thursday January 24, 2013, 4:34 am
Thanks

Thursday January 24, 2013, 6:45 am
Sorry I made a mistake: It is not 300 million female fetuses that are missing in the world today. I wanted to say 30 million female fetuses are missing in India. Globally the figure is somewhere between 60 and 100 million. In China, due to their one child policy and preference for boys, about a million female fetuses are aborted every year. It means that by 2020 there could be more than 35 million young "surplus males" in China, and 25 million in India.

Thursday January 24, 2013, 3:03 pm
Noted w/thanks, Cal. Now that women are equivalent to men in regards to "combat duty"....it's time for the BIG PUSH to pass the E.R.A. Many decades ago, my own mom was squeamish about the passage of the E.R.A. largely because of putting women in combat. She passed on 20 yrs. ago now, and times have changed--I believe this is the best chance we have to get this passed.

Sunday January 27, 2013, 4:00 pm
thanks Cal..