Book review: Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

Preface: I know this review is long, but this was an amazing and eye-opening book. I highly recommend it.

The authors of Half the Sky make the case that the oppression of women globally has been our era's worst human rights violation, and they make that case persuasively. They focus on three things: sex trafficking and prostitution, gender-based violence (mass rape), and maternal mortality. From the beginning, it is made clear that this is not just about discrimination, this is true oppression:

"In the wealthy countries of the West, discrimination is usually a matter of unequal pay or under funded sports teams or unwanted touching from a boss. In contrast, in much of the world discrimination is lethal. In India, for example, mothers are less likely to take their daughters to be vaccinated than their sons- that alone counts for one fifth of India's missing females... All told, girls in India from one to five years of age are 50% more likely to die than boys the same age."

I dog-eared so many pages. They did an amazing job of putting faces and names to the horror of rapes, forced prostitution and fistulas. That was exactly their point, because they say studies have proven that individual stories carry more impact than statistics in getting people to donate their time, money or effort. Here are some of the stories than impacted me.

A female medical tech in South Africa was told by a rape victim "If only I had teeth down there." Some time later, a man came in to the hospital in pain because his penis was stuck in his zipper. Because rape is such a huge problem there, the medical tech put two and two together and made a product she calls the Rapex. It's inserted like a tampon, but is a tube with barbs inside! In response to critics, she said "A medieval device for a medieval deed." I honestly wasn't sure what to think about this story, and I'm still unsure. But it has stuck with me since I read it.

The stories of maternal mortality got to me. I know I'm an advocate for natural birth, but there is still a place for the medical community in birth. The World Health Organization's statistics are that 536,000 women died in pregnancy or childbirth in 2005, and that number is hardly different then the number thirty years ago. That means that in thirty years with all the medical advances we have come up with, about the same amount of women are dying. It's because they aren't getting the care they need, especially in the developing world (although sadly, America's maternal mortality rate is high for developed countries). An Ethiopian girl named Mahabouba is a sad, but perfect example. She was sold into slavery and became a second wife. She was raped by her "husband" and beaten by the first wife. She got pregnant and was able to run away when she was seven months along. Her uncle let her stay in a little hut by her house. She went into labor by herself, because she couldn't afford a midwife. Her labor was obstructed because her pelvis hadn't grown enough to accommodate the passing of a baby (she was 13). After a week, she fell unconscious and some finally called a birth attendant. The baby was dead, and she had developed a fistula, or a hole. She became incontinent, as many fistula sufferers do. The nerve damage was so bad she couldn't walk for some time. She was lucky and eventually made it to a fistula hospital (yes, there are so many that they have hospitals just for their treatment). She was able to learn to walk again, but will have a colostomy the last of her life.

The last part of the book is spent discussing things that have made a difference. Things like iodizing salt. I had no idea. 31% of households in the developing world don't get enough iodine. This can lead to brain damage while still in the womb, and apparently female fetuses need iodine even more so. I liked this quote: "According to one estimate, just $19 million would pay for salt iodization in poor countries that need it, This would yield economic benefits that another study found were nine times the cost. The result is that while salt iodization is one of the least glamorous forms of assistance possible, development geeks rave about it."

Another thing that has helped is paying families to keep their girls in school. Girls getting educated not only boosts the GNP of countries, but it also puts off motherhood and reduces the number of children born to the girl. And studies have found that females work harder to help pay for the education of relatives or their children.

At the end, there is a section of what you can do to help in the broader sense, and then four easier steps you can make in the next ten minutes. Some of them simply have to do with awareness, but www.kiva.org is also mentioned, because microloans are another simple thing that is making a big difference.

Dr. Brayden

Here are just a few of the many "psychiatric tips" Brayden has taught me, some serious and some silly:

-Slow down and enjoy life. How has he taught me this? Well, for one, he is growing up too fast and I don't want to miss anything. Also, when he tries to be independent everything takes longer so I've learned to enjoy watching him learn over being annoyed that we are "wasting time."

-Nursing him taught me to have faith in myself that I was providing the best for him and enough as well.

-He's taught me to say no. I don't like saying no to people, but I've had to do it quite a bit now that he's around.

-Walk around like you own the situation and people will respond (of course, that could just be because of the cuteness of said baby).

-And lastly (for this post anyways), he's taught me to embrace my inner child. I love kicking the ball with him, or reading him a book, or even watching Sesame Street. He really does just live life to the fullest, and I'm glad I get to tag along.

Book Review: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race

Some of you might have the idea that I like Jon Stewart. That's more than true. I LOVE him. I'm reminded of a quote from Stuff White People Like by Christian Lander (hilarious book by the way): "White women all consider Jon Stewart to be the most perfect man on the planet. This is not a debate, it is law." What is there not to like? Anyways, now that you all know how I feel about him, I'll get to the book review. The book is written by all the writers of the show, not just Jon Stewart but to simplify things I'll just use "he."

Earth is written for the aliens that will come to our planet in the future after we have been destroyed. It turns out to be a biting and funny commentary on our beginnings, our history and especially our current society. The first page (a note to alien readers) has the perfect example: "Nothing would have united us as a species like the perceived existential threat posed by you. Not that we had reason to assume your intentions in coming here were anything but honorable. It's just that in general, our own first-time interactions had a certain "killing each other" feeling-out period." So true, such a serious subject, and both sad and funny because it is true. He goes on to mention how some people believed aliens had come many times before, usually kidnapping rural residents and that "these humans also believed our governments, known mostly for bureaucratic incompetence, had somehow made your alien presence the one thing they could keep masterfully secret." Here are some other gems:

North America
Nickname: "The Landmass That Kicks Landass!"
North America was Earth's newest continent, formed c. 1492. Blessed with abundant freshwater and fertile soil, it was settled remarkably quickly thanks to the extermination of one race, the enslavement of a second and the can-do attitude of a third.

There is a page on incarceration in the Society chapter, and the intro reads: "One of our core beliefs was that criminals could be rehabilitated by locking them up with other criminals in dehumanizing conditions. In retrospect, we believed a lot of crazy s***." He really makes me think about things deeper, both in the book and on his show. Things that I've always just accepted as normal. Not that I'm against incarceration for criminals, but that it's ridiculous to believe it rehabilitates the criminal.

I loved reading this book. It made me laugh, it made me think, it made me cry (kidding on that last one). Now anyone want to sponsor me so I can attend his Rally to Restore Sanity? I so wish I could go.

15 months

I really love this age. Not to say this is an easy age, because he's very demanding... but in a good way. He is pointing and gesturing a lot to communicate what he wants a lot more than he used to.

He is OBSESSED with reading! I love it so much that he brings us books. We both try really hard to stop what we are doing to read to him when he brings us a book. His favorites are: Peek-A-Who?, Goodnight Moon, I Howl, I Growl, and Have You Ever Tickled A Tiger?. Any other board book recommendations? One funny thing he did is have me read a page of Peek-A-Who?, then Adam, then me, and back and forth until it was over. He's usually very specific about which one of us he wants to read to him right then, and we try to respect that and not just brush him off. The last few mornings he has woken up and walked right into the front room to pick a book. He wants me to read a book to him before breakfast, before nursing, before anything else.

He still loves being outside though too. He learned how to kick this week, and I think he would have learned sooner. All it took was me showing him once or twice. We didn't really have any balls until this week (a downside to condo living) and so I know he could have learned sooner since he's been walking for just about 5 months now. I just never thought a 14-15 month old could figure out the coordination needed. He's clumsy at it, don't get me wrong, but he can do it. He is so funny when he runs! Instead of moving both arms back and forth for balance, he only really moves his left arm. I hope that doesn't mean anything bad, but it sure is cute to watch.

We've taken him to storytime at the library and he just hangs in the back playing with the activity tower, but once they all get up and leave to do the craft in the back room, he follows. He loves being around bigger kids at the library or the park.

He is finally feeding himself! I don't know if I wrote much about it, but he never ate much baby food. He was pretty much exclusively nursed his entire first year, not to say that we didn't try. But I have finally found a use for all the baby food (the fruit anyways) we got from WIC that he never ate- I mix it with plain yogurt and he loves it! It is a mess and half of it ends up on him rather than in him, but it's a start. He also likes cheerios and milk, bananas, peaches, and apples.

Time is going by so fast, and I know I'll forget all these little things that mean so much to me right now if I don't document them. We love our little guy so much and we cannot believe we are the lucky ones who get to be his parents (most of the time anyways, he has his moments like all kids of course).

Dystopian Literature

I got sent a link to this article about dystopian literature.
Not that I needed any more books to add to my to-read list or anything...

I will admit I have mostly only read dystopian works that are written for the young adult audience. I've only read a few on this list, but they all sound interesting, especially the older ones. I have to wonder what similarities can be found between the author's imagined future world and our current world, especially in Jules Verne's Paris in the Twentieth Century. Thanks for the link, Emma. You wrote a great article and I'm hoping to read some of these books soon.