Ordinary folk battle gender barriers

BANGKOK, Oct 11: Consider what happened to "Kusuma", a 21-year-old woman living in rural Sri Lanka. She was assaulted and gang-raped by five men on October one morning as she was on her way to work.

But Kusuma refused to be a victim. She felt compelled to take on her attackers, one of whom she knew, and this consequently led to their arrest by the police.

Likewise, take note of the defiant spirit displayed by Rani Padamsee, the first woman in Bangladesh to hold a black belt in Karate. She has helped carve a new image of femininity in her country - a Bangladeshi woman who is confident, strong and prepared to defend herself.

Such women, writes Ruth Finney Hayward, the former Deputy Regional Director of the UNICEF in South Asia, convey a powerful message - the commitment to fight for their rights.

In her recently-published book, ‘Breaking the earthenware jar’, Hayward takes up the stories of others, both women and men in South Asia, who have displayed similar acts of courage. They range from academics to playwrights, activists to lawyers, doctors to policemen, journalists to social workers and farmers to slum dwellers.

Each of them, Hayward writes, is doing something significant to stall the spread of violence directed at women and girls. As a result, they have collectively emerged as "an unstoppable movement that has started to flow and gather force in South Asia".

What is more, argues Hayward, this emerging drive needs to be fostered if the women and girls of South Asia are to live a life of freedom and equality. She encourages this drive in her book, assessing such activism and making it the central thesis of her narrative.

Yet the cast of characters who make up her heroes and heroines has quite a struggle on their hands, given how pervasive violence against women and girls are in the region.

The challenge for them is more daunting since much of the abuse prevails within homes and within families - in private realms where men dominate, where patriarchy is supreme. The evidence Hayward has unearthed drives home this point.

One comes across stories of women who have been victims of assault and battery, torture, acid attacks, rape and stove-burnings. In addition, one also learns of dowry-related deaths, of honour killings and ‘Sati’.

The leading perpetrators in many of these painful stories are either husbands or male relatives. Girls, for their part, suffer violence ranging from incest and rape by family members, foeticide and infanticide, recruitment by family members into prostitution to neglect by family members, even to the point of death.

Such accounts are amplified by the studies Hayward quotes, revealing the frequency and extent of abuse in homes and communities. In Bangladesh, for instance, a survey conducted in two sub-districts of Dhaka, the capital, showed that nearly two-thirds of the 845 women questioned admitted to "physical violence at some point in their lives."

In India, some 730 of the 1,840 women surveyed between 15 to 39 years in two states admitted to having been beaten by their husbands. In Nepal, a study among males and females in five districts revealed that 82 per cent knew "of at least one incident in which a woman had been beaten by her husband."

Why has the family in South Asia become "a particularly dangerous place for women and girls"? a Pakistani researcher cited by Hayward offers one answer. "The vital thing missing is the recognition of women as individuals," he says.

"Women are always seen in the perspective of their relationship with men. This is the fundamental violence against women. Women’s entity as an individual human being is simply not accepted."

Others featured in the book echo this sentiment, referring to the lowly state women are reduced to during the cycle of life. "It is a peculiarity of South Asia that the female sex is denied the right to be born, to survive after birth, and to live a healthy life," asserts writer Leela Dube, author of the book ‘Women and kinship: Comparative perspectives on gender in South and South-East Asia’.

A culture of silence also obscures much of the grim realities. As a result, it is common for the police to "look the other way" or not to take "domestic cases" seriously, despite severe violence being involved. Often, laments hayward, such abuses are ‘justified" in the name of culture or religion.

Nevertheless, ‘breaking the earthenware jar’ sheds light on the room for hope and those responsible for it — the emerging number of women and men determined to bring the walls of silence down, to expose this darker side of South Asia, and to help chart a new course for its women and girls.

Thus, the book tells the story of "Lalita", a Nepali woman who Hayward describes as "the woman who would not be beaten." After enduring years of abuse by her husband, she walked out on him to pursue a life of her own. In her new role as an independent woman, she has been helping other women to combat and triumph over domestic violence.

There is also the Bangladeshi policeman affectionately dubbed "Bhai Sab" (big brother). He has no sympathy for male behaviour that leads to abuse of women and girls, and he admits that his outrage against such violence once overcame his professional ethics. On that occasion, he had witnessed a "Moulavi" (religious teacher) raping a child who had come to learn the Koran.

Hayward offers other profiles, too, like those of the women and men who have turned to the law, who are trying to gather strength from international statues on the rights of girls and women, to challenge the prevailing order.

But the hurdles they are up against will not be easy to surmount. Any lift, no doubt, will be welcome and Hayward’s book urges such activism on.

Nevertheless, there are aspects of ‘breaking the earthenware jar’ that are wanting. Its absence of new insight and fresh information, for instance. Those who go seeking such features will be disappointed to learn that after 393 pages, this book has recycled old stories and familiar arguments.

What is more, Hayward’s account also suffers in its tone. It is very clinical, at times, and lacks a sense of warmth. What a pity, given the painful issues the author touches - the violated girls and women of South Asia. (IPS)

US grants permanent MFN status to China

WASHINGTON, Oct 11: The United States has granted permanent Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to China, ending 20 years of the annual ritual of reviewing Beijing’s trade ties with Washington.

President Bill Clinton signed into law a bill for the purpose yesterday and vowed to step up negotiations with China on its planned membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The house of representatives approved the legislation normalizing trade relations in May; the senate passed it on September 19. The measure revises a law from the mid-1970s that subjected trade relations with communist states to annual reviews.

The legislation is an outgrowth of a US-Chinese agreement last fall under which China, as a condition for entering the WTO, agreed to open its markets and reduce tariffs.

"Today we take a major step toward China’s entry into the WTO and a major step toward answering some of the central challenges of this new century," Clinton said.

"I ought to point out that our work is not over when I signed the bill. China still must complete its WTO accession negotiations and live up to the agreement it has negotiated with US and our partners before it can join," he said. (PTI)

He is today a legend of hip-hop scene

NEW YORK, Oct 11: When deejay grandmaster Flash was asked recently if he had any idea in 1970 that he would help launch a new mass cultural movement just by experimenting with his record player, he answered bluntly: "No."

Nonetheless, Flash is today a legend of the hip-hop scene. And the music genre which he helped to popularise has gained so much respectability that its rise from a black, urban trend to a global commercial success is the subject of a new show at New York’s Brooklyn Museum of Art.

The multi-media exhibit features video clips of interviews with some of hip-hop’s most influential artistes, sample turntables on which visitors can spin albums, and some 400 artefacts spanning 25 years to illustrate how the genre has profoundly affected ideas of fashion, language, race and youth culture in the United States and abroad.

Born in New York city’s Ghettos in the early 1970s, hip-hop was a vehicle for inner city youth to express themselves through four related elements: Deejaying, emceeing, break-dancing and graffiti art.

The show largely steers clear of hip-hop’s most political and controversial aspects - like misogyny and glorification of violence - to focus on the innovative, but often materialistic, element of personal style.

The Brooklyn museum is most noted for its costume collection, and the curators longed to take a closer look at grassroots urban culture’s influence on mainstream fashion.

"We were looking to create a show that people who could not buy a couture gown could relate to and examine that exchange between the street and fashion," said Kevin Stayton, Director of Decorative Arts at the Museum.

"Hip-hop nation: Roots, rhymes, and rage" begins with the signature canary yellow zoot suit of jazz great cab calloway, whose music and theatrical style are credited as major influences on some of hip-hop’s more flamboyant artistes.

Having a distinctive look was critical from hip-hop’s inception. The curators have gathered some of the 1980s’ most memorable accessories, like one of the giant clock necklaces worn by flavor flav of the black power group "public enemy", and slick rick’s kangol hat and eyepatch.

Items featured from the 1990s include notorious BIG’s black jersey, designed by 5001 flavors and worn in the video for his breakthrough song "Juicy," and Tupac Shakur’s versace leather pants - further examples of the way in which hip-hop music is inextricably linked to designer labels.

The show also features artefacts like Grandmaster Flash’s turntables, Shakur’s lyrics book, and a poster from director Spike Lee’s controversial 1989 movie about tension in a mixed-race brooklyn neighbourhood, ‘Do the right thing.’

The hottest designers, such as Fubu (for us, by us), Mecca and Tommy Hilfiger, get their own section, where Mannequins clothed in hooded sweatshirts, baggy jeans and utility gear stand as reminders that hip-hop is now a billion-dollar industry.

"The Brooklyn museum of art is very much engaged in the issue of popular culture," said Arnold Lehman, Director of the Museum. "These local street-dressing fashions stretch from flatbush avenue (in Brooklyn) to gucci, and from Fubu to JC Penney."

Despite the emphasis on personal style, the curators acknowledged that the exhibit would not be complete without representation of other elements involved in hip-hop - like the music itself.

Video installations supplement the show, with legends such as Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Chuck D and Russell Simmons explaining the roots, rhyme and reason behind the songs.

After seeing the crowds Grandmaster Flash was drawing with his unique Deejay style at block parties in the Southwest Bronx, Afrika Bambaataa says he developed his own musical style by fusing electronic music with funk and soul.

A section titled ‘The golden era,’ covering the mid-1980s to 1990, explores hip-hop artistes’ crossover into the commercial market and the effort of some to celebrate their roots and unite African-Americans with their music.

This section includes album covers of popular artists such as the trio run-DMC, who climbed the pop charts with their cover of "walk this way" with the long-haired rock band aerosmith.

It also features an African print dashiki and pants worn by the feminist singer and rapper Queen Latifah.

The rock and roll hall of fame in cleveland originated the show, which was augmented by the Brooklyn museum with items from its costume collection and from Brooklyn-born artistes such as Jay Z and notorious BIG.

It runs through December 31 and will incorporate workshops on Graffiti and break-dancing. Documentary films such as ‘Breath control’ by Joey Garfield, which explores percussive "human beat-box" music made with the mouth, and ‘nobody knows my name’ by rachel raimist, which looks at women in hip-hop, will be shown as part of a weekly film series. (IPS)

Heckman, McFadden win 2000 nobel economics prize

STOCKHOLM, Oct 11: US economists James Heckman and Daniel McFadden won the 2000 nobel prize in economics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said today.

The two share the prize worth nearly one million dollars for developing theory and methods of statistical analysis of individual and household behaviour.

Their work makes it possible, for instance, to estimate how the length of unemployment affects someone’s chances of getting a job.

"The... Methods developed by Heckman and McFadden are now part of the standard tool kit, not only of economists, but also of other social scientists," it said. (REUTERS)

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