New Colonialism Emerging WHITHER BEIJING? by Mark and Louise Zwick [page 1 of 2]
Maybe the concerns of poor women of the world would really be addressed.
Perhaps the dignity of women of the poorer countries and economic development
for those who suffer so much from the effects of poverty would be taken
seriously on a global level. Could it be that the conference would speak
to a "hedonistic and commercial culture that encourages the systematic
exploitation of sexuality and corrupts even very young girls into letting
their bodies be used for profit" (Pope John Paul II) and call our world
to treat even poor women with respect and dignity? Would it be possible
that our world could go beyond the self-interest of post-modern capitalism
to consider the needs of poor women? It would be too good to be true. The preliminary document and the pre-conference meetings indicated exactly
that. It might be too good to be true. What do Third World Women Want?
The women of Latin America, Asia and Africa are in trouble. Their national
economies deteriorate each day for the vast majority, the poor, while economic
theories are debated and promoted in universities and congresses and structures
like the World Bank. Life is at risk at basic survival levels for too many
Third World families. Women try to hold their families together, but pressures
on them are enormous. There is some growing similarity, on a lesser level, here in the United
States, where it becomes more difficult each day to find a decent paying
job which can provide basic needs and health care for the poor. When the
measure of all is the profit motive, it makes sense to companies to move
to Latin America to take advantage of slave wages. It is logical in this
scheme of things to want to pay $14.00 a week in Honduras instead of $14.00
an hour in the United States. When women come to Casa Juan Diego from other countries, they speak about
the children they have left behind and how they must come to try to find
work here so that their children might have something to eat, go to school
and have some kind of a future. And when we visit Latin America we talk there with women and hear of
their hopes, their pain, their struggles and sometimes their desperation. We hear about their concern to give their children better nutrition and
to have health care for their children. We hear about the tremendous desire
for education for their children and for job skills. But the desire for
education is often blocked by the lack of money even for shoes, entrance
fees for public schools and school supplies. We hear about women's great desire for a stable family life with the
basics for decent survival--for a job for the husband where he can make
enough to keep his respect and, if needed and desired, a job for the woman
also. Usually, desperate couples both seek work, but there is not enough
work. We hear about the daily struggle to meet expenses for a tiny house
(often made of packing boxes) and food, with prices always increasing beyond
what wages will buy. We hear of families in Mexico since the recent economic
crisis where the woman must go into prostitution because her husband has
lost his low-paying job and there no other jobs for wife or husband. There
is no alternative. What a commentary on the new global economy. Women want economic development that is not dependent on huge multinational
companies from the first world controlling the markets. They want to be
able to sell items at low prices so people can buy them and the small business
person can make a living. (This is now being prohibited with any small imported
items because of the NAFTA agreements. Prices must be at transnational standards). Women want to be able to pursue small businesses, so many of which have
been broken because of NAFTA competition from the big companies. Young women
who work in the maquiladoras of these companies want the right to organize
unions and the right not be blackballed when they do so. Latin American women tell us they want economic development that is not
tied to sterilization, contraception and abortion. Recently a Mexican woman
told us they want to be able to go into the hospital without being secretly
sterilized. This woman found out a year later that her uterus had been removed. In July of this year the Mexican newspapers carried announcements that
the World Bank would lend money to the state of Chiapas, the source of a
challenge from the poor to the Mexican government. The same day's newspapers
carried an announcement by the governor of a massive campaign to sterilize
the women of Chiapas. These programs are tied to any assistance from the
World Bank. The poor women of Latin America with whom we speak value children and
family next to God. It is one of the most important values in their culture.
Take away their children and you take away everything. By contrast, people
of Anglo cultures sometimes prize efficiency and progress over all else. The women of Latin America want a better economic system in which their
men will not be forced to migrate to another country in search of work while
they are left alone with the children. And it may be chic to address the Third World as if men and children
do not exist, but this does not address the Latin American reality. What is being Emphasized at Beijing?
However, it appears that some women of the First World (richer nations
like the U.S., Japan, South Korea, England, France, Germany and Italy),
have a different view of what is good for Third World women. The emphasis
in the preparatory document for this conference is centered on population
control, abortion and sterilization, even though the conference is ostensibly
on women, not on population control. Even the part of the document on economic
development is tied to population control for women participants. No population
control--no aid! While the Beijing preparatory document mentions the feminization of poverty,
it does not recognize that this problem in the Third World is not necessarily
a question of undervaluing women's work by their own countries (which also
may be the case), but is highly influenced by the practice and requirements
of the new global economy. First, there are no jobs for many men in this economy. The men travel
to one country after another within continents such as Africa or Latin America
to find work and their wives and children are left at home in poverty. The
common practice of the maquiladoras of hiring only women (particularly very
young women or minors) or very young men, has left many fathers of families
with the necessity to migrate. The crushing debts owed to the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund for unwise loans made by these institutions are the source of much
of the poverty which hurts women and families throughout the Third World.
At the preconference meeting powerful nations opposed any debt relief to
help poor nations, and thus especially, poor women. There was also opposition
to emphasizing arms reductions and the transfer of military budgets to social
programs and economic developments. Some groups have insisted on presenting religion or even values in a
negative light in the document. Religious groups are the very one who could
provide the vision to do something about the exploitation of poor women. And for us, worst of all, was the opposition of the First World to even
mentioning the suffering, the concerns and rights of migrant women in this
world conference on women. The Beijing conference will have an impact on national and international
policies. The language of documents published at such a United Nations meeting
are cited for years to come as the norm for countries and the world. There
are many groups who are non-governmental organizations who were present
at the pre-conference and who will be present in Beijing. These groups lobby
for their particular point of view, sometimes very aggressively, with the
government representatives who attend the conference. Some of the strongest
lobbying groups are from the First World and represent secular Western points
of view. Will the First World concern to maintain our consumer life styles
and our powerful position dominate the conference or will the real concerns
of Third World women be addressed? Or will there be a new colonialism to
dominate those who once were colonies, but hoped they were independent and
free? Save Environment
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Hopes welled up in many of us when we first read about
the United Nations fourth world conference on women in Beijing this September--even
though the irony of its location was not lost on us.