Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Of Britain Elections and lady voters as "filler material"

Britain goes to the polls on the 6th of May 2010. And as usual, the ladies and gentlemen of British citizenry will have equal suffrage rights (to vote as well as run for office).

The million Pound question is: supposing I was in a position to, and I go right ahead and revoke the woman’s suffrage rights right now, would it make any difference to the eventual outcome of the elections? I’ll hazard a guess and say NO. At least, not in any fundamental way!

Men would still win the elective positions, albeit with fewer votes. For the life of me, I still can’t figure out the significant difference between a man winning a seat with one million votes, or winning the seat with a half of a vote provided it’s proven beyond an iota of doubt that the individual won fair and square.

In other words, British ladies are “Filler materials” - adding bulk devoid of any quality- in the political process. Maybe they should go back to the kitchen. And they can sue me!

All I am intimating here is that British Ladies constitute one hell of a disappointing role model for the rest of the developing world as far as gender and politics issues are concerned. This is especially so given that they know from practical experience that ladies can and do make good, if not perfect, leaders. I am talking of the “Iron Lady”, Margaret Thatcher!

Ladies in the rest of the world expect -and deserve- better from the British ladies. Unless, of course, they have joined the rest of their less enlightened ladies who:

A) Have a “weakness mentality” I.e. They know (then again, may be not!) that they are as strong as their male counterparts but they believe that “leaders” is the Greek word for “men”.
b) take reject votes (after men have already taken the better votes) in which case try as they may, their votes cannot elect a lady as the reject votes will not count anyway, being rejects and all…

Sunday, April 4, 2010

"Out of shape" female voter rights

Ever wondered how on God’s good earth it gets so hard to pass a female- friendly bill in parliament despite the fact that ladies are the majority voters. It is simply because their voting rights are so unhealthy and out of shape.

Instead of the ladies “exercising” their voting rights, they allow these rights to be “taken for a ride”. The voting rights develop no “muscle” to even shift a comma in a bill or legislation.

There are a few bills from FIDA pending in parliament. These bills, if and when debated by the male dominated parliament, will result in watered down versions. they will suffer the same fate suffered by the sex-offenders bill proposed by one Njoki Ndung’u.

Julius Malema on president Zuma's rape case

Julius Malema , ANC’s youth leader commented that Zuma’s rape victim had actually enjoyed the experience. And for that piece of B.S. the courts, on the 15th march 2010, let him off lightly, with a small fine.

The million dollar question is :do some people have mothers sisters and daughters? How would he have felt if it had happened to one of them?

The courts should also have been a lot harsher. The comments amounted to raping the victim a second time, if you ask me. Then again, that case touches on the high and mighty, and the rest of the miserable lot can take a ride into the Indian Ocean and take a dive!

Friday, April 2, 2010

Gender India

On the 9th day of march 2010, India passed a bill that would guarantee 1/3 of all elective positions for the ladies..

This is all fair to women assuming that:
a) Ladies in India are outnumbered by men at the ratio of 1:3
b) Ladies in India do not have the right to vote
c) A lady’s vote in India is 1/3 of the length of an ordinary man’s vote
d) The ladies in India are equal to men numerically; that the ladies’ votes are equal in length to their male counterparts’; and that they actually vote. However, they have a “weakness mentality” and believe that politics is only for “strong people” (read men), and they, therefore, vote for men.

Terrorism vs female representation in elective positions

Matters war and defence have traditionally been a preserve for the male members of the society.Any threat to a community's survival is invariably met by calls for men of valour to take up arms and defend the society. This is one atavism that has remained, and been brought to bear in the modern political environment.

Indeed, there exists a causative relationship between a) the level of threat- real or perceived- during the electioneering period and b) the percentage of women representation in elective positions in a society..

The US of A leads the pack of those societies ruled through terror, followed closely by India. These two countries happen to have the lowest percentages as far as women representation in elective positions is concerned.

In Kenya there are two contrasting case studies that exemplify the same. First case study involves the Kikuyu community, also fondly referred to as “the Mount Kenya Mafia” in order to encompass the neighboring communities who invariably vote as a block. In 2007 general elections they were perceived to be PNU members in the 2007 general election, and were pitted against almost all the other communities who were rooting for ODM. The politicians harped on this perceived external threat urging the voters to vote ‘wisely’. Faced with this “external threat”, voters gravitated towards male candidates, pretty much like “calling on the men of valor to defend the society”. This contributed to the paucity of female MPs from this region..

The second case study involves the kalenjin of the rift valley. They were the driving engine behind the ODM party in terms of numbers. They were not under any external threat perceived or otherwise. It would not take rocket science to figure out that this kind of environment produced the surprising number of female MPs from a region not known for having female Mps.

Incidentally, terror or perceived threats of violence tends to have a more profound impact on the mind of the victim than violence itself. A society where threat of violence hangs over like cloud lives more scared lives compared to a society where extensive violence has been meted out on it. This might explain the case of Rwanda, which has a 56% percentage representation of women in parliament. After going through the genocide of the 90’s, threats of violence or terror would basically look like a walk in the park.

However, after 15 years of relative peace, threats to violence or terror tactics might just work. The coordinated bombing incidences in the capital Kigali in recent weeks, just a few months from an election slated for later in the year, doesn’t bode well for lady MPs and those aspiring for the same. The bombing incidences might be directed towards some other agenda but they coming hot on the heels of a certain lady declaring her presidential candidature in the coming polls, they are qute suspect.