We can no longer afford indifference outside our borders.

The words of President Obama rocked the nation today. We have found ourselves at the point where our “collective failure” to make conscious decisions have led us to the current climate in our country. Not only has our economy collapsed, but the social system can no longer support the citizens of the most powerful and technologically advanced nation.

If there’s one thing today’s age of globalization has taught me is that we are all connected in our humanity.  Internet and social media platforms have allowed for global unity and despair. When the planes attacked the World Trade Center on 9/11, the world wept in sadness. When the NY stock market crashed, economies all over the globe felt the fall. And today as we inaugurated the first African American president, other nations felt the joy and pride in our hearts. Read More…

Posted under Everything Else

Someone might argue that a lot of the problems related to HIV/AIDS and rape in South Africa are related to cultural traditions and therefore can hardly be changed.

I gathered some cultural traditions that came to my mind. This is a totally random list:

• Grown up men in some cultures marry girls as young as twelve years old.
• La Tomatina – People in Spain throw tons of tomatoes at each other every year.
• Also in Spain people spend their Sundays watching bullfights.
• Carneval in Rio – People dance for 5 days until they pass out.
• Female Genital Cutting is being performed as rights of passage ritual – mainly in parts of Africa and the Middle East.
• Tattooing spilled over from Polynesia into the Western World.
• Ramadan and Lent are among some religious practices of self-restraint.
• Women being threatened for violating laws – even though they’ve been raped.
• Millions of Muslims take a pilgrimages to Mecca each year.
• Restrictions on what people are allowed to eat: Kosher food, Ramadan, Lent, No pork for some cultures etc…
• Thousands of Germans gather in tents each year for their Oktoberfest – drinking huge amounts of their beloved beer.

In order to make my point I could define three main buckets for these cultural traditions: Read More…

Posted under Gender equality