...women

Crone, by Ellen Carnese

Isn’t this a beautiful face…? I love it. She talks to me and tells me woman stories. I love women. I happen to think we are amazing. I celebrate women in my art.......and I need to blog about this...

There is femicide taking place in the Congo.


I listen to Free Speech Radio. One of the programs I listen to is Living Room, a daily program about politics, society and culture. Eve Ensler, advocate to stop violence against women and the author of the Vagina Monologues, was a guest last week. She is touring, talking about her new monologue about teenage girls called, I Am An Emotional Creature... and about what is happening to women and girls in the Congo.



I've known about this horrific story for too long. I don't want to know about it....but I listened... you can too)......and I was brought to my knees. She has been there, talked to the victims, it is hard to listen...if you do I believe it's just a few minutes into the broadcast.



There is a war taking place over minerals and the mass rape of women and girls is now a common tactic of war....There is a new word in our vocabulary...'reraped'...these children and women are not just raped, but mass raped, tortured, their insides destroyed. There are over 1000 rapes reported each month...and many, many more that aren't reported....500 thousand or more rapes in an area only twice the size of New York state since the beginning of this war.




We know that women and children, the collateral damage in war torn countries suffer tremendous hardships and crimes against humanity....but by all accounts the Democratic Republic of the Congo is hell.


I know a lot of people don't want to get involved in other countries stuff, their politics...but this isn't about politic. This is about human rights and Unspeakable things are happening there...maybe that is why there is no world outcry...no coverage....no outrage...we don't want to speak of it, it's overwhelming.. Or is it that the world just doesn't care?
Is this racism, colonialism?
What is going on?


So I come to you dear readers...not to bum you out, but in the hopes that you will listen, watch, and read information about the Democratic Republic of Congo...our sisters around the world and our daughters here, need us to speak out...I believe we must bear witness...we must speak....what we allow to happen to one of us, can happen to any one of us. We know what happens when something becomes commonplace, the norm...we know it spreads...the world becomes immune, desensitized..are we already there?. And in our countries, where violence against women and children hasn't gone away, we can't afford not to speak out.



World Leaders and Our President, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, must take action...this femicide is spreading to other countries and will continue to spread if he does not make this an issue. Senator Clinton visited not too long ago and said changes are on the way. Many promises have been made, and much money spent......but the unspeakable goes on.


We can make a difference, we can help.

hug, hug