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Anon: A Talk About Women
Received: (from strider) by igc4.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.15 ) id SAA00557 for conf:reg.burma; Wed, 11 Oct 1995 18:38:50 -0700
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 18:38:50 -0700
[I've been asked to forward this to the net...Strider]
A page from my Scrapbook ... dedicated to The Lady
A TALK ABOUT WOMEN
Of all things, Suzan and I were asked to participate in a
Seminar on Women, sponsored jointly by the Internationl Women's
Association and Women in Travel Agencies. I guess we were invited
because everyone told them that between us we had been almost
everywhere in backwoods Asia and some rascal told them that we
had an interesting outlook on travel that was different from that
of the usual tourist. I began my talk with some comments on the
goddess Tara:
" And this is the earnest wish she made:
'Those who wish to attain supreme enlightenment in a man's
body are many, but those who wish to serve the aims
of beings in a woman's body are few indeed;
therefore may I, until this world is emptied out,
serve the aims of beings with nothing but the
body of a woman.'"
Princess Moon of Wisdom,
who became Tara, the Saviouress.
(Quoting from my speech) "The above quotation about the
goddess Tara should have a word of explanation. In Buddhist
belief, a woman cannot attain Nirvana. She must strive and be as
good as she can and then perhaps she might be born in another
life as a man, who, if he is worthy, might reach that ultimate
goal. One can imagine then, how revolutionary a statement Tara
makes when she vows to remain in a woman's body, forsaking her
chance for salvation until she has first helped every creature to
be saved. You can imagine the comfort it would give a tired young
wife or mother who certainly did not choose her hard lot in life,
to feel that Tara can understand her problems.
I found the following undated paragraph in my diary:
From the time that I realized I was a woman and, (slightly
later), what it meant in our world (a man's world?)to be female -
I determined to be real - to be all woman.
Instinctively, I knew that I was meant to be friend and
companion to men, - but more than that - to be first a
sister to other women,and then a mother to little children.
This set the tone to my life.
Pretty profound, huh? This was written before I knew
anything about 'women's lib', so, like many of us, I believe I
was BORN liberated. I know that my Mother was. She was way ahead
of her time - so I suppose that my sisters and I got it
naturally. We also got a love of travel from our Mother. Carmen
and I seem to be the ones with the worst case of wanderlust - but
I was the first one to pick up and go live on the other side of
the world - in the Orient.
When I was assigned the topic "Share the Pride of Women from
an International Viewpoint from the Orient," I didn't know if
the topic meant pride of American women or of all women. I
decided that it meant both.
There is much to be proud of in what women are accomplishing
all around the world. Education has raised the level of women
to an unbelieveable degree. Though we have the idea of Asian
women as being even more downtrodden than we are in western
countries, one of the surprises of travel is in seeing how, in
many ways, women from some Asian countries are ahead of us.
Thailand is known as a developing Third World nation, and
Burma, because of the disasterous economic policies of its
ruthless military dictatorship has been granted "Least Developed
Nation" status by the United Nations. Even so, the women of
these countries traditionally have been able to keep their own
name after marriage; have been able to get divorced (though it
happens rarely); and also to buy and keep their own property and
pass it down to their daughters.
All Asian women are not so fortunate, however; so for those
who are not, in addition to the blessing of education, the
availability of medical attention has increased the life-span
and productivity of women and has contributed to a better life-
style for all. For many women in the Orient, therefore, and
perhaps even for some Western women, the Tara's active
renunciation of a man's body in this vail of toil and trouble is
seen as the ultimate sacrifice a woman could make.
A man toils from sun to sun
A woman's work is never done.
Being a goddess, and thus having the privilege to choose to
remain a female with the aim of serving mankind, qualifies the
goddess Tara as a Saviouress.
For the rest of us, having no choice in the matter, we are
required to do the best we can in life's circumstances and make
the most of the talents and abilities that life has dealt us!
Hopefully, as we try to improve ourselves and lift up our
families, we will not be doing it at the expense of women less
fortunate, thus risking any blessing which we might seek from the
Tara.
My Personal Viewpoint
I first came to the Orient in l948. I discovered early on that
my Southern background and upbringing was a great advantage to
me. A newcomer, whether just passing through as a tourist, or
attempting to homestead as we were doing, is inadvertently going
to make mistakes and offend people. By practicing the traditional
Southern Hospitality and courtesy that we were taught in those
days, the people knew that when I did break some taboo that I did
not do it intentionally, but through ignorance.
For twenty years I lived with village people, first in China
and then in Burma and visited the cities only occasionally. Can
you imagine my life? Before living in the village,I had never
seen a person die; had never seen a baby born; had no knowledge
of medicine beyond applying a band-aid or taking an aspirin.
I had pioneering ancestors,however, and as a school girl had
loved to read of the lives of the early settlers in America.
Somehow, I believe that this interest helped me to accept the
raw, harsh side of village life and to adapt without too much
trauma.
Now, when I look back on the past many years in the Orient, I
can't believe that some of the things I saw and did could be
true! But before I tell you some of my adventure stories,
I'd like to speak for a moment about the responsibility of being
a foreign woman in Asia.
*
As I mentioned above, common courtesy will get you a long way.
You must be as appalled as I am. to see how some foreign women
dress while out on the streets. Hot pants are known in the large
cities, but as you know, no local woman would wear them outside
her house. All foreign women lose the respect of everyone here
when some women wear such outfits in public and even try to go to
the temples dressed so immodestly. I'm sure that this type of
advice is not needed by this audience.
But I wonder if you have ever thought about looking into the
types of governments the countries you visit have. In Asia,
several of the countries popular with tourists and featured by
some of the better travel agencies and guide-books allow tourists
to go only to pre-selected places. In the cases of Burma and
Bangladesh, most tourists have no idea why there are these
restrictions, and it doesn't even occur to them to ask. The
local people that they do get to meet and the places they get to
visit are so charming that their trip couldn't be fuller or more
satisfying, they think. What most tourists don't know is that
serious charges of genocide have been brought against both of
these governments by Amnesty International, the Anti-Slavery
Society, and several other Human Rights groups.
The atrocities committed against the minority groups of each
country are unspeakable. In Moslem Bangladesh, the Army goes on
operations against - and outside businessmen exploit - the
ancestral villages of Buddhist and Animist tribes. In Buddhist
Burma, the same oppression is true, but government soldiers fight
against Buddhist minorities as well as against Christian and
Animist groups. It has been documented that women and children
and the elderly suffer the most in these tragic civil wars.
Our first inclination is to think that there is nothing that
we can do about such a situation. And anyway, why would our
government let us go to such a place if there is any danger?
Well, there is little or no danger - you can't go to those places
within the country where there is fighting. The shocker is that
for diplomatic reasons that escape us, our government and most of
the western democracies SUPPORT these dictators.
But what could our going or not going accomplish? Plenty! By
going with awareness, we could ask questions and find out some
truth, We could be careful how we spend our money so that most of
it will go to the little people who need it so desperately. We
could ask the tour groups why they do not mention that they are
taking us to countries where there are the grossest of Human
Rights violations. By not going, we can deprive these dictators
of some of the foreign currency they need to buy armaments which
they use against their own people. A moral rejection in the form
of a boycott is a method many people have chosen against South
Africa.
By refusing to go, and telling the tour agencies why; and
also writing to both our own government and to the Embassy of
the country which we have decided not to visit because of their
treatment of their people, we could send a message to bureaucrats
of both countries that they should clean up their act."
And on and on.........
Well, at first all the beautifully coifed heads were nodding
in agreement but at one stage, women, especially the travel
agents, began to give embarrassed looks at each other. I told
them that under no circumstances had I come there to shame them;
but that somewhere, sometime, women had to become aware that our
attitudes and actions could not only make a difference, but might
even save the lives of women and children victims in these
unfortunate countries.
Suzan saved the day when her time came by telling some funny
stories about things we had done during our travels. She had
promised not to tell this one, but she couldn't resist.
Once when we were in a certain country which shall remain
without a name - in case we ever want to go there again,
Immigration was giving all the hangers-oners a hard time. We
decided on a strategy that we thought might keep us from having
to go in and out over and over again. Their new policy was not to
issue re-entry permits any more, which meant that we could no
longer just go out to the nearest town across the border, wait a
few days and come back. Now it meant that we would have to go all
the way to the capital where there was an Embassy where we would
have to apply to re- enter.
We were both against giving bribes, but this time, that
seemed the only way. We picked out a junior officer and proceeded
to wine and dine him. Finally he came one day with a visa
application that he said wasn't really legitimate, but since all
they needed it for was to put into our files - it wouldn't be
sent off anywhere - it would be all right for us to fill it out.
Well, all went fine until we got to the lines asking about
our jobs. Name of Company. Assets. Amount of salary...
Shocked, I blurted out, "We both work for the WORLD
TRAVELLER'S FOUNDATION." Suzan could have killed me, because she
had what she thought was a better answer on the tip of her
tongue. But she had to go along now, and said our Foundation was
underwritten by a famous author who couldn't be named but who had
travelled with his elderly Aunt and had observed the difficulties
of single women travelling alone. As for salary, I said that when
we were doing research in this field, that we were honor-bound to
live as simply as possible, but that we kept a diary that was a
complete report on each country and how it treated women and
especially women travellers. Suzan, with a straight face added
that when things got too bad, the famous author came himself and
took the staff members out first-class and wrote that country off
as recommended places for women to visit.
Well, everyone cracked up - and almost with one voice cried
out, "Did you get to stay?" Not only did we get to stay, but we
finally had to leave because we couldn't do anything but keep
appointments set up for us by the government to visit every
orphanage and women's shelter in the country and every tourist
convention that came to town! We were very careful to be seen
leaving by bus, so that they would not think we had written
anything bad about them!
Do you want to hear more?
Distribution:
To: Betty > [74750,1267]