I was sitting in my study the other day minding my own business and my friend Papet, after watching a documentary about how women need to be empowered, mosied on to my corner and chided; Haruna, we need to empower our women. Before he said that, I tried to stop him in his tracks by saying "Papet, whatever it is, I don't wanna hear it, I'm in a Trans right now". As usual, Papet didn't wanna hear that either. So I had to yield and really think about what he was saying. What ensued was a more exhaustive treatment of that subject than I had ever engaged in prior. When we talk of empowering women, what we are really talking about are our sisters, wives, mothers, grand mothers, and all female humans. Of course we wouldn't talk about other species because we do not understand the communications among them and the imbalance of power among those other species is not readily apparent to us humans were it to have been present and disdainful to them. Then it dawned upon me; Maybe the question ought to be "How can women all of us make women equal partners in nation-building"? The reason is because when we started talking about how to empower women, we quickly recognized we are inferring that the men are empowered somehow and that the women are not - putting aside genetic pre-dispositions. Wouldn't it be nice if we can figure out what powers men have that women don't and whether those powers inordinately favor men than women in matters of life. Before we knew it, our conversation centered around physical strength and its innurements. Advantages or disadvantages of Mental strength, ambidexterity, desire(choice), traditional proclivities, etcetera, were not readily discernible. Papet used to be a tiny baby and he recounts to me how he used to be bullied and picked on for not taking part in sports that required enormous physical strength and he grew up being afraid of the larger boys. Why his sister used to bully him too. I on the other hand used to be a big baby, but I didn't bully smaller babies but I used my physical strength then to lift heavy things around the house that my sisters and cousins or the smaller boys could not lift. When it came to farm work, I would complete twice the amount of work or more according to the imbalances of endowments. My father, a devout muslim, also encouraged that innate sense of discernment and when I would refuse sometimes, I would get a whipping. I hardly ever used my strength to settle disputes and hardly ever fought. Papet reminds me that that was because I was never threatening to anybody by virtue of my nasal voice, always in measured tone, and that I gravitated more toward mental gymnastics to persuade rather than brute force, and I used my spare strength to yield value for other rather than store it for when I may need it in a friggin fight. Needless to say, I was humbled. Papet is used to filling my head with such humbling commendations, and frankly I've just about had it. So I asked Papet, if I were so genteel and generous, how come smaller people always picked a fight with me? even my smaller sisters. He shared that in this competitive world of limited resources, everyone is constantly engaged in either psychological warfare or exchanging blows and bullets to get a leg up on everyone else when it came to hoarding those limited resources. So those who enjoin their larger comrades in fights are in the constant quest for proving ground. Yeah, but why me? There are other big people around. Why not pick on them? You know Papet; he shared that it was because I had more to offer for proving than other bigger people and that I was so welcoming and permissive, it was easy to take advantage of. It is the net gain of the proving he shared that made me the target of choice. So I started to train myself to be mean but I couldn't get rid of the trademark smile and the sagitarian demeanor. And besides, challengers usually didn't get far with me in their quest. It always ended in total humiliation and further diminution for them. The only thing I could do was try to shed some weight and stay lean and then avoid idiots who think the only value for physical strength is that it gives them a leg up in competing for limited resources. I trained myself therefore on appreciation for the limited resources "Not to want more than I really needed". I still couldn't escape the erstwhile conman, the thief, and the Munaafiq. Then I shared with Papet that all of what we have talked about so far did not distinguish men from women much. A group of women on a deserted island, would be as much idiotic as a group of equal number of men on a deserted island with the same amount of albeit limited resources. It then dawned on us that the problem therefore is the comparative appreciation of physical power across the genders that is culprit. In other words, those men who use their physical or mental strengths (where they are overwhelming) to subdue women, and those women who use their physical or mental strength (where overwhelming) to subdue men. The former more prevalent than the latter. It is this imbalance in event frequency that we perceive when we say women must be empowered. For what???? I would frequently ask? The honourable Ajaratou Isatou Njie Saidy, V.P., is more powerful than most women in Gambia by virtue of her physical strength and stature in Authority. On top of that she has a Phdee. I asked Papet wouldn't be extraordinary if Ajaratou were to assist in women empowerment in Gambia and bear (respectfully) on Yahya to refrain from arresting, or detaining, women like Mariam Denton, Duta Kamaso, FJManneh or to release them without prejudice for the mere reason that Yahya is enormously stronger than most Gambians, men or women, and for reasons of this empirical imbalance of event frequency? Is there anything to be afraid of by bearing reasonably on Yahya and to yield women empowerment a good turn? I understand Ajaratou, V.P., speaks at many a conference around the globe on women empowerment, but consider the gravity of peer recognition and an unchastened soul. And I would like her to make it possible for Gambian women political prisoners to receive phdees at mile two. Alternatively of course, Yahya could, without waiting for Ajaratou V.P. to bear reasonably on him, begin to make ammends to these and all other women of Gambia and the world that he has ever maligned or tried to subdue for the mere reason that he is more powerful. In effect, cross-gender stages are a poor endroit for proving. If Yahya were still bent on proving himself, he could do better by staying with his own gender. Although I do not think Yahya needs to prove anything to anyone. There is a consolational rail or paradigm in this question of women empowerment that I will share next month. By that time I would hope that Yahya will have compensated Mariam Denton, Duta Kamaso, and will have released FJManneh without prejudice and compensated her for the affects of unnecessary subjugation. When next I have an opportunity, I will share with Yahya and my coleagues here how funny FJManneh's situation is. Yahya should not however wait for that discussion. I would like him to release FJManneh today, latest Monday. Waras Bouk. Haroun Masoud. MQDT. Al Khairawan. Darbo. ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com いいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいい To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] いいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいい