Tribute to the Late Prof. Wangari Muta Maathai: I will be a Humming Bird.

"In degrading the environment, we degrade ourselves" - Prof. Wangari Maathai


This morning I woke up to find the news of the passing of the First African Woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize being aired on Network Africa, the BBC World Service Breakfast show.  I was stunned, and at the same time, I was filled with a sense of gratitude that I lived in the lifetime of such a great woman.  One day I shall tell Nicole that the main difference between Prof. Maathai and other mortal women was one, she dared to break barriers.

She dared to earn a PhD.  She dared to stand up to her husband, who divorced her for being "unable to control her", but she fought him for the right to keep his surname setting a precedent in use till today!  She dared to stand for Presidency.  She dared to ignore the dangers and perils of defying the Moi Regime, and therefore managed to save Karura Forest & Uhuru Park, among many other projects some of which I'm sure I shall never hear off.  She was a Member of Parliament, an Assistant Minister, but she received news of her Nobel Prize win whilst in wearing gumboots working in a garden.  She was an extraordinary woman, and she definitely left her mark not just in Kenya, but around the world.

I have spent the day looking at her pictures with Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey and other world leaders.  I listened to the radio as Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf gave her tribute to her friend and colleague.  I listened as Gladwell Otieno, reminisced on the Late Maathai comparing her with her own late mother, the legendary Wambui Otieno-Mbugua.  All these have helped me understand, what a resource and a treasure the Professor was, and also made me alive to the fact, that one never knows what he has until he has lost it.

She wanted to be our President.  What if we gave her that chance?  Let her steal that First Democratically Elected Female President in Africa from her friend.  She was in government, but was made an Assistant Minister.  If she was our Commander in Chief, would we have had the Maize Scandal?  The arguments about GMO?  The Free Primary School Education Scandal?  Would it have been business as usual for Kenya Pipeline, Kenya Power and others who endanger people's lives everyday, just as long as the bottom line remains healthy.  What if the people of Tetu had elected her, what would have been the legacy she would have left on the Constituency?  Even without ever being elected, she has done so much for the whole Nation, what if we gave her mandate and backing?

We have taken so much of our time in politics barking up the wrong tree, and wondering why the country is in the quagmire it is.  It is because the same old names keep being recycled in the August House and in State House.  At the end of the day, we are doing the same thing and wondering why the results are not different.  I keep telling guys, I have exorcised the spirit of politician past from my psyche, and no one in this current or former parliament is getting my vote, no matter who he or she is.  None of them have earned that privilege from me.  Time has come for us to look at the alternatives.  Those who have proved themselves in their little corner, those are the ones who deserve our vote.  And if  you are out there, and you know you have integrity and purpose and God has given you ability to lead incorruptibly, please stand up, we need GOOD men and women to challenge those who have so spitefully used us through the years.

I leave you with a clip from Prof. Wangari Maathai, and I too like her, choose to be a Humming Bird.  What about you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw&feature=share

Joy B. Mdivo

Abortion: Women's Rights or Big Business - Part II

This Post started out as a reply to a comment left on http://joymdivo.blogspot.com/2011/09/abortion-womens-rights-or-big-business.html.  After numerous attempts to try and post it as a comment, I decided to just make it a new post, a part II rather than fight with the mouse clicking furiously for an hour to no avail.  The comment was left by "Lugalia" and it read as follows:

Reproductive decisions, options, health access are a women's/ families' right and an opportunity for business. 

Which part of of our healthcare and lifestyles is not an opportunity for anyone to make money?
Are an overwhelming amount of infertility cases linked to abortions?
Does planned parenthood and company make people choose abortion?
Is there a conspiracy between fertility experts, "abortionists", black market embryo traders?
Like I asked before: what are the root causes? What, who...creates an environment where abortion is consistently chosen?
Fertility experts? Embryo traders? Abortionists?
Is the solution to take away the choice the best option?

The following is how I wanted to respond, and do hereby, to Lugalia's very legitimate questions: -

You keep making reference to abortion as a family's right, and yet it has been built on the suggestion that it is purely a woman's right and no one else's.  

Abortion is directly linked to infertility, cancer, mental health instabiltiy (80% of women who have had an abortion report mental health issues, with 10% of these becoming chronic conditions i.e lifelong)

Documentation shows that only 1% of those who walk through planned parenthood's doors actually get referred to offer their unborn child for adoption.  If the emphasis was women's health, ALL options would be availed for a woman in crisis in a PP clinic.

Is there a conspiracy?  Your guess is as good as mine.  From the facts I can see how one feeds off another, but if they made a conscious plan for this to happen, I cannot say.

The root cause is unwanted pregnancies. (the PC term is unplanned for) When a woman is in crisis and is pregnant, she has a time crunch to make a decision.  However, due to hormonal changes resulting from pregnancy, she is also very susceptible and suggestible.  Lack of support from lover, family and friend is also a factor.  My take is that by offering abortion you do get rid of the pregnancy, but at the same time, you create many more problems for the woman that last much longer and will affect her entire life.  

Abortion is not consistently chosen.  Studies have also shown that many women who have abortions regret it and do not repeat the same in another instance of an unplanned for pregnancy.  Many pro-life activists have had an abortion and do not want others to go through what they have gone through (ie the aftermath)  Notably one of these is Dr. Aldeva King, Martin Luther King's niece, who has had two abortions.  What it is, is that it is marketed and trumpeted as a triumph, so much so that when a 15yr old is in crisis pregnancy, she does not think of asking her mom for advise on how to deal with it, she will just look for her nearest abortuary and "get rid of it".

Abortion is not the best option, it is the worst option for the woman as well as for the child who will most certainly end up dead, and sometimes in very gruesome fashion.  The price one has to pay if they chose abortion will affect every facet of their life, it is a ground zero.  Women commemorate their abortion like we celebrate our children's birthdays.  Some walk around seeing other children who would have been the age of their aborted child and feel the pain. Those who do get infertile wish they could turn back the hands of time.  Those who die early from cancer of the breast or uterus or ovaries, sometimes don't even know where it came from, totally blindsided.  Those whose mental health becomes dependent on drugs for some normalcy suffer untold anguish.  It is a silent epidemic, because it is not politically correct to admit, that what has been touted for years to be one of women's greatest gains is actually their biggest pitfalls.

I reiterate, I AM PRO-CHOICE, BUT THE CHOICE HERE IS TO NOT GET PREGNANT IN THE FIRST PLACE. If one is in crisis pregnancy, then she should have a choice on whether to keep the child or give him up.  If she cannot raise him, then she should not be forced to keep him, the society should take over. Women should be empowered to prevent pregnancy when not needed/desired.  Since abortion was allowed in the USA in Roe v Wade, the instances of unplanned for pregnancies have actually risen since there is the perceived get out of jail free card.  Instead as of 2009, 50million Americans never saw the light of day, as a result of having been aborted.  That is 10million more people than Kenya's current population.  If they had lived, they would now (Roe v Wade was a 1974 decision) be aged 38years and less, one of the most productive age bracket in a person's life.  They would be paying taxes, that would help the American GDP especially during this recession.  But alas, they do not exist, and migrants have taken up their space.

Think about it.  Is abortion really the best option for women, society, the GDP?

What do you think?  Please leave a comment and let me know your honest opinion.

Abortion: Women's Rights or Big Business?

Today started really early for me, I am not an early morning person, so when I get to see the sunrise, I marvel at how lovely the world is.  Creation is a thing of beauty I tell you!  Big bang theory ain't got nothing on God's wonderful creation!!  Today was a gray morning so I saw no sunrise, but I did get to listen to the first edition of "Network Africa" the BBC World Service for Africa Breakfast Show at 0330hrs GMT.  Getting up early takes a toll on me by around 11am, my batteries run down before they recharge again in the afternoon.  I tried to recharge my batteries by reading articles I found interesting but had no time to finish reading.  One of them is a post from a link sent to me via twitter,  http://www.lifenews.com/2010/10/23/nat-6787/.  It was a commentary by a surgeon discussing the link between Breast Cancer and abortion.  I have talked about this so many times, but I must admit, the science still eluded me, and I wanted to learn more on the issue.  When I read this article, it had the desired effect, I started thinking, the slow clogs coming unstuck.  This too as we hurtle towards the month of October, recognised world wide as being the month to highlight the issues surrounding Breast Cancer.  (This month September is dedicated to Prostrate and Ovarian Cancer, just as a by the way.)

Most of you will recall my last post was an angry, indignant one, caused by Kenya moving closer to legalising abortion on demand.  I was to write a follow up blog once the tears stopped clouding my eyes, but after praying about it, the Spirit of God within me indicated that I had said quite enough and should shut up already, so I did.  What Life News' article did is to bring back to my mind the reason why I do what I do.  Why I say what I say.  I was convicted of just peddling rhetoric and put a human face to the issue.  Abortion is never about saving life.  Not even the mother's life. It is all about Big Business.  Let me qualify this statement.

Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion services provider in the USA has an annual budget in excess of $1B.  Their core business is abortion services.  In Capitalism, once a market is saturated, one looks for fresh markets.  Latest research instruments show abortions are on a slow but steady decline in the States, with the use of emergency contraception increasing therefore reducing the need for abortion on demand.  Planned Parenthood is also the provider of these emergency contraception kits.  Planned Parenthood recently lost up to $363M in federal funding.  This gap must be filled somehow, whether it is from the Federal government, or from new frontiers.  Each pregnancy carried to term offers more protection against the risk of developing Breast Cancer.  Every abortion interrupts the physiological developments that take place during pregnancy, childbirth and nursing.  This in turn increases the risk of development of Breast Cancer in women who have had one or more abortions.

During the whole month of October, the activities that aim to help women more about Breast Cancer include screening, testing, promotion of preventive regimen and showcasing the latest treatments available even on experimental stages to show the progress towards getting a cure.  The season is also filled with a lot of merchandising to help raise awareness, and also funds for more research and treatment.  This is big business each year for the pharmaceutical companies, research institutes, and producers of anything pink.  Other businesses join in the cash bandwagon too, with specially branded products to sell during the whole month.  Hospital's well woman clinics also keep busy during the whole month, with many who walk in getting follow up appointments.  The initial clinic may be free, the subsequent follow up tests and visits certainly are not.  All this is a multibillion dollar venture, a tried and tested module of making October a very successful financial month for all with the acumen to take advantage of the opportunity that comes wrapped up in this terrible disease.

It is unfortunate therefore to think that Kenya is headed down the same rail road.  Our health care systems cannot cope with pre and post natal care, and post birth complications still claim an inordinate number of lives, of both mothers and babies.  Our health care services cannot provide adequate pallative care to Cancer patients currently, never mind an increase in the number of cancer cases.  I have a close female relative who recently went to India for cancer treatment simply because she could find no hope of treatment in Kenya, save for an you've-got-8-months-to-live prognosis.  It was a combination of obsolete screening and treatment options, as well as the limited health care expertise on her type of Cancer.  Her two month treatment in India was successful and the cancer is now in remission.  She had money to go for treatment, how many Kenyans can afford this?

Capitalism gives us all an opportunity to be all we want to be, be all we can be, because we can make as much money as is there to be made.  The unfortunate bit with Capitalism, is that some of us get ideas on how to make money in the most unscrupulous way, and when it works out, it only hardens the resolve.  But as the adage goes, Evil prospers when good men do nothing, and my personal favorite, Those who don't learn from history, are duty bound to repeat it.  Its not too late for Kenya, the writing though, is clearly on the wall.