Oganizasyon Fanm Pwogresiv Fondwa

I visited with the Women's Progressive Organization of Fondwa last week in rural Haiti. The group has been around since 2001 supporting each other in various ways, surviving and resisting oppression in Haiti. Unfortunately, they lost their building in the earthquake where they had been making peanut butter from peanuts grown in Fondwa. They want to get back to work but can't because they have no place to do it! Here they are singing a song to open their meeting. If you happen to have any ideas or resources toward this end, please let me know.

Women's situation in Haiti

There is a lot to be disturbed about when one is immersed in life in Haiti. I guess the situation that bothers me the most is that of women. They get up at the crack of dawn and cook and clean and wash and try to sell some shit until it's dark and they're too exhausted to do anything else. It's sweaty and it's dirty work. And then do the same thing the next day. And the next day. Now that the conditions have worsened, with so many families still basically living outside, things are even tougher. Domestic violence and sexual assault have increased significantly since the earthquake. With many people sleeping on the streets right after the event, women were particularly vulnerable to sexual assault.

Women do resist when they can - they sing, they form groups devoted to micro-enterprise and domestic violence reduction, they laugh, they talk, they support each other. But, the men here have a huge investment in maintaining the very little power that they have in this world. And so, change is not exactly on the horizon. Just talking about these issues and making some small gestures towards women's equality, which is partially what we are doing here, is significant.

I've only been here 10 days and I'm just sick and tired of the sexist attitudes toward women - including me, yes I am one - some subtle and some not so subtle. I have been doing an exercise from the Theater of the Oppressed with some of the various groups I am working with which allows people to experience and reflect on being both oppressed and oppressor. Some of the insights have been profound, from people who descended from slaves who staged the only successful revolution in world history.

I don't know how social change really happens; I used to think that conscientization was the be all and end all. But, now I realize that small changes in material conditions are really, really important. Having just slept my first night with a fan in 9 nights, I understand what a huge difference something like that can make.

Trust Women

Today Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed at his church in Wichita, Kansas. Tiller had been performing abortions for many years and was one of the few in the country who would perform late-term abortions when a woman or girl had but no other choice. In many cases, we're talking about 9 year old girls who get pregnant by their father or step-father or a married woman who learns at 6 months that here baby has not developed a brain. Over the years, he has been threatened and shot; he walked through countless picket-lines to do his life's work. It was not uncommon for him to have body guards to protect him. He was the number one target of the so-called "pro-life" movement (Orwellian discourse, indeed) which had its roots in Wichita.

As a Kansan who came up in the feminist movement in the belly of that conservative beast, this event strikes a deep chord with me. He was an ally, and he believed in the inherent dignity of this 50% of humanity we call women. I read that he had been seen wearing a pin that said, "Trust Women." He believed that women know their life situation, their bodies, their limits. What a radical and important sentiment; and yet he also went beyond bumpersticker politics and lived it; he walked the walk. And, he walked through fire to do the right thing. Of course, the people who have protested him and, likely, the man that used a gun to take Tiller's life, believed that they, too, were doing the right thing. This is a human riddle that I've yet to solve.

I never knew George Tiller, or his family, or his friends. Amidst their grief, they must be so proud of the courageous path he has paved. I honor his life today, along with all my sisters and brothers who work for the transformation of not just women's lives, but for all those human and non-human creatures that our culture views as dominat-able. May Tiller's life inspire us to continue the work. May we do the right thing, facing dangers in a way that begets love and dignity. In solidarity.