Dear Ecofem,
Many thanks to Judith for her comments on population ... she is raising a
key issue in ecofeminism, world socio-politics and of course biodiversity.
We of Weave Sakina are in the process of compiling a position piece on
population for the Sakina Biodiversity Requital to put this issue to (male)
world religious leaders (esp the Pope and Islamic leaders), who have let
the world down very badly in this area, because they have confused the
divine with the male reproductive imperative and espouse a morality
principally aimed at protecting the reproductive rights of men over women.
Dominion over nature and dominion over female fertility and reproduction go
hand in hand.
The ideal of virginity, condemnation of the sacred scarlet woman (despite
Magdalen), the idea that sex is only for procreation and is inherently
evil, the banning of contraception and the position behind the apparently
'pro-life' but clearly 'anti-choice' position of the church are all
manifestations of patriarchal dominion hidden behind divine authority.
On the other hand 'scientific' population 'control' has resulted in
devastating gender-cide in India, China and Korea, with up to 17% of female
offspring being aborted or frankly killed at birth.
The fallout from this divide is genocide of biodiversity. No one in their
right mind can say that an exploding world population has no relation to
habitat destruction, resource exploitation and genetic holocaust.
We need a new sysnthesis ASAP.
My approach to this is to work together with all of you and to come up with
a consensus synthesis which is the expression of what we can feel
comfortable with together as ethical beings - an evolving living collective
inspiration, rather than a fixed, imposed 'divine authority'.
Abortion is often perceived as the 'cutting edge' of this debate, but is a
distraction, because it is really a reproductive/gene-tech issue which is
treated as black and white infanticide on the one hand and innocent rights
or constructive eugenics on the other, when the medical advances have
provided an ethical continuum to confound the binary division.
Please, lets start on the long hard road of working out this new synthesis
together.
love and regards, Chris King
for Weave Sakina
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 20:32:33 -0500
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Judith Seaman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: STUDIES IN WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Population
Friends:
Availability of safe effective birth control is an important first step
in a woman's being able to take control of her life. Constant
pregnancy, fear of pregnancy, child birth is wearing to the health and
welfare of both the woman and her existing children.
It seems to me that the question of birth control or genocide is not an
either or question, but one where women's needs and desires are
paramount. If she wants birth control, can she get it? If she doens't
want it, is someone going to ram it down her throat, so to speak?
Neither is acceptable. And with structural readjustment developing
countries may find it hard to provide the kind of health care needed to
make modern contraception work, so do we have a responsibility to help?
I feel that we do, if we do it in a way that respects the women and
their needs.
Judy Seaman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
_____________________________________________________________________________
Chaos is the Mother of Invention - Necessity the Offspring
_____________________________________________________________________________
Chris KING, Phone: 0064-9-3737599 # 8818
Senior Lecturer Mathematics Fax: 0064-9-3737457
University of Auckland E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Private Bag 92019 http://matu1.math.auckland.ac.nz/~king/
AUCKLAND, New Zealand. "Genesis of Eden" - Alta Vista Search
