When will Violence Against Women end?

When will Violence Against Women end?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN4sMISyYgk

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The Power of Women

         In history, as in the last years, we have seen women all over the world protesting in the street either for religious or political reasons, but most of the time we see them protesting and asking for equality and freedom. Two very powerful words, words that no one should take for granted.

        Many times I thank my parents and my family for bringing me up with the knowledge that I was as free and as equal as anyone. Growing up in South America from Lebanese ancestors and educated in the US was not easy. A mix of backgrounds and religions was confusing enough.

       The thought of the power of women came to me yesterday, as I saw the women of my birth country Venezuela go to the streets to ask for respect for life, freedom, and democracy. People may think that it was not that important but I believe that when a woman goes and takes the street is when the society has to listen. This happens when the anger and disgrace of the mother and the daughter reach its highest point and then comes the urge and the will to fight for what is right.

      During the Roman Republic, women had no political rights at all. They had no right to vote nor address the senate. Respectable women of the time were disproved in public places. Nevertheless, there were times when women used the power of public protest to get what they wanted.

So take note, we do not give up, and when we go to the streets and ask, SOONER OR LATER, we get what we want.

SVS

LOVE

          I went to search for the meaning of the word "Love" today. And found out that a lot of the definitions involved a person of the opposite sex or the act of making love. I went on Webster dictionary to find several meanings;

          “Especially, devoted attachment to, or tender or passionate affection for, one of the opposite sex" 

Nowadays it could be from the same sex!

          “Courtship; chiefly in the phrase to make love i.e., to court, to woo, to solicit in marriage" 

Now a day it could be just couples leaving together, who is getting married now?

          But then one of my favorite ones:

          “A feeling of strong attachment induced by that which delights or commands admirations; preeminent kindness or devotion to another; affection; tenderness; as of the love of brothers and sisters." 

Although I have to say that not all brothers and sisters love each other!

          We need to find a new universal definition, one that will include everyone. But just by expressing the word in actions in everything we do, in every word we say, we would have accomplished a lot.

          It has to be beyond religion, beyond sex, beyond marriage. It has to be part of us and our lives.

          So have a happy day of LOVE. And enjoy it with all the people you encounter today and every day.

SVS

Domestic violence in Spain

          

           It has been long since I wrote something about us on this blog. I have to say due to a lot of work and new projects, which require my full attention.

           I wanted to start this year by sharing with you an important problem that has been on my mind all the time.

           I live in Spain, a country where women have accomplished so much and fight every day for their rights and their survival. Even though they have come a long way, there is still a lot of work to be done.

           The number of death of women in this country, caused by domestic violence, seem to increase and it needs our attention here and in other countries. Talking about it is very important in order to create a strong bond between people, governments, and groups so they can help fight this disease.

          I pray for all those women that lost their lives last year and their children, I pray that we find a solution or at least a stronger way to finalize this terrible crime. And I pray that women, no matter where they are from, stand together and help each other, only then we can say we are on the right track.

SVS

What can mothers do to bring up better men and women?

We have been reading a lot about rapes and domestic violence in the international news spectrum. Before, woman used to fight for personal injustices against them, but now we are in much need to speak out about a most important threat to society, which is violence against women.

Throughout history we read of punishments, hanging, beheadings and killing by stoning women for supposedly being unfaithful to their husbands, whereas we have rarely heard in the past of punishments or killing of men for being unfaithful to their wives.

So we need to ask ourselves: what is the root of violence against women? Does it start inside our homes or out there in the social environment where the child grows up? May be we should study and analyze how we bring up our boys and girls in this world and see if there are any ways to prevent the development of violent behavior against women and mankind in general.

Is equality among husband and wife a reality at home? If we look really close inside our homes we usually find that women still have the larger responsibility of bringing up their children more than men do. Women are often expected to do more than men and are criticized if they don’t. Does these expectations give in some societies the right for men to abuse verbally or physically their wives?

The high number of woman murdered by husbands and boyfriends even in western countries makes us wonder what are we doing wrong, why we are failing and not able to correct this trend. Western countries have been fighting for many years to give women their full equal rights and protection.  It is quite disturbing to know that with all past and current women movements in different countries we are still where we are today. What is that special education  that mothers-to-be would need to receive in order to successfully promote equality between men and women and raise children with a clear attitude for rejecting violence.

In Spain there was an article written by a man who stated that society should be careful not to protect women’s right by decreasing the rights given to men. Is that a serious concern or the perception of some men that feel that their comfort zone is coming under threat? To be more realistic, what society saw as the norm in the past has now been considered inequality in today’s society and the change may appear threatening to some.

Let us stop being scared of what our culture and history have in the past dictated to us and let us do what we know is best for the future: To teach boys and girls that they have the same equal rights, not to expect nor accept any type of abuse. And by doing so we should not fear of breaking our family or cultural values, it is just an evolution that is taking humanity to a better and more stable future.

Do MOST parents have a favorite child?

        Believe it or not,  MOST seems they do. And there has been a study that found out the consequences of what they call “differential parenting”.

       The new study is from the Journal of Child Development, where Jenny Jenkins, the lead author of the study and professor in the department of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the University of Toronto said, "We expected differential parenting to operate stronger within the parent-child dynamic. However, differential parenting had a stronger effect on the entire family."

      The differential parenting is something I have fought all my life. I have childhood memories of my grandmother having favoritism between her children and doing the same with her grandchildren. 

       As it says in the study, it does not only affect the parent-child relationship but that of the whole family. And how it can not if one child is given more love than the other, that other child will feel left out and will hurt the child's overall emotional evaluation of his or her own worth as well as their relation with that other “ favorite” child.

Please read more of the consequences of giving one of your children more love in http://www.srcd.org.

Please do give love to all in your home!!

SVS

Curious news!

          Now it is going to seem to you that I read a lot of articles about women in politics, but come to think of it could not be far from the truth.

            It just happens to be that the articles in the media have been so interesting lately that you can’t but read them.

          For example, to read in the news that some people are asking themselves if the USA is ready for a white male Secretary of State is just too hilarious. If you look at my last article and you are now reading this one you would think that women are everywhere in the leadership arena. Definitely, we are in many places today, and God do we want to be in more! But let's take it to step by step and hope the increase of our presence in positions of leadership is done gradually and correctly and that our women leaders show their best capacity to be in those jobs.

           There is no question in my mind that I want them all to be &Mother, but being sisters, daughters, and/or wives is just as good.  And I know that &Mother group is rising up and increasing in all top positions worldwide, so it is ok if we leave some jobs for the rest.

         By the way, let me take some time to congratulate our new &Mother Shakira. May you always be able to balance your life as a mother and your life as a hard-working singer as well as keeping the work to the most needed.

Until next curious news!!

SVS