Thu Feb 09 2012
There are many people who are working to make the world a better place.
One is Lisa J. Shannon, who has written “A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman.” In 2005, Shannon saw an “Oprah” show about what was happening to women in the Congo. The trouble began with the 1994 Rwandan genocide, during which Hutu extremists slaughtered 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in four months. “The international community did not intervene,” Shannon explains. When a Tutsi-led rebel army later secured Rwanda, two million refugees fled into Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), including “countless thousands” of the Hutu killers, “who found safe harbor by melting into refugee camps.” Nobody bothered to identify the killers or bring them to justice. The killing, torturing and raping continue in the Congo. “As of January 2008, more than 5.4 million people had died due to the conflict, making it the deadliest war since World War II. Forty-five thousand continue to die every month. Sexual violence is rampant.” She writes that still, 1,500 people die every day in the Congo — most from illness — and almost half are children under 5.
Shannon vowed to do something. But what could she offer? Well, she could send money to sponsor a Congolese woman through Women for Women International, and she could run. She began to organize running fund-raisers and founded Run for Congo Women. When she finally went to the Congo to meet the women she sponsors — her “sisters” — she interviewed many of them on videotape. Some of their stories are so horrific they made me wince. One girl was gang-raped when she was 5 years old. An entire hospital treats fistula patients, women and girls who were raped and tortured so badly that they have no means of controlling the elimination of their bodily wastes. Yet, through all the ugliness, the author manages to find hope: “The war stories are endless. But so are the success stories.”
A Chinese proverb (often attributed to Mao Tse-Tung) says that “Women hold up half the sky,” so of course they are equal to men. That’s the idea behind the well written “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide” by award-winning writers Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The authors note that “More girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the battles of the twentieth century. More girls are killed in this routine ‘gendercide’ in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the twentieth century.” The authors examined the plight of women around the world and came up with an interesting discovery: “Countries that nurture terrorists are disproportionally those whose women are marginalized”; the best way to fight poverty and extremism is to educate and empower women and girls, to “fight global poverty by unlocking women’s power as economic catalysts.” The authors profile a whole range of people, including Greg Mortenson, author of “Three Cups of Tea” and other books about building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
This is a particularly powerful book, because it covers so much territory. And because it isn’t just negative. It features success stories, suggests ways readers can help the women of the world, and provides a list of organizations that support women.
“The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope” is William Kamkwamba’s own story, told with the help of Bryan Mealer. As a boy growing up on a farm in Malawi, William explains, “Before I discovered the miracles of science, magic ruled the world. Magic and its many mysteries were a presence that hovered about constantly.” He tells many stories from his boyhood (I loved these), about growing up amid superstition, “magic lions,” “ghost trucks,” “snakes the size of tractors” and witchcraft. A clever boy, William learned to hunt, made his own knives and devised his own bird trap. He was curious about everything, and he and his friend took radios apart to see how they operated. “I’d become very interested in how things worked,” he writes. His parents couldn’t afford to send him to school, so he taught himself through books, with the help of a librarian.
When the village was stricken with famine, and villagers were dying from illness and starvation, William determined that “No magic could save us now.” When he read about how electricity is generated by windmills, he thought, “a windmill could also rotate a pump for water and irrigation, … allow us to harvest twice a year, … provide my family with a year-round garden. … With a windmill, we’d finally release ourselves from the troubles of darkness and hunger. … A windmill meant more than just power, it was freedom.” He and his friend put together a small windmill and, when he saw that it worked, he “started planning for an even bigger windmill.” He searched for the parts he needed — an old shoe here, bits of wire there, some PVC pipe. The townspeople called him “crazy” and “madman” and “lazy boy who plays with toys,” but he worked on. When another famine struck, the people blamed the “evil” windmill for chasing away the rain clouds. But soon the outside world discovered what William had done and found a place for him to shine.
It’s an inspirational story, suitable for all ages, and it’s now out in paperback.
“Spirit of Service: Your Daily Stimulus for Making a Difference” edited by Nancy Hancock provides a year’s worth of ideas for making the world a better place. A page a day is devoted to one topic, and each day of the week has a theme: for example, on Mondays, the theme is money; Fridays, it is compassion. Each day/page starts with an inspirational quote. Most provide action steps or a way to get started. Topics range from feeding the hungry, reading to kids and planting a community food garden to joining the Peace Corps. Readers don’t have to wait until January; they can start on any Monday. The book was put together by renowned experts in fields such as charity, volunteering and activism.
Copyright © 2010 by Mary Louise Ruehr.
------
BOOK NOTES, One for the Books Extra Online
-----
For best-seller lists and more book news, go to:
http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4765563
------
Follow me on Twitter @One4TheBooks.
------
Check out my blog on books, inspiration, fun and thought-provoking goodies! It’s called “Shine A Light!”
http://blogs.dixcdn.com/shine_a_light/
If you lose that link, go to www.recordpub.com. Click “Blogs” in the blue bar at the top of the page, and find “Shine A Light.”
------
For all you loyal online readers, here's an extra book review on this theme:
“The Big Book of Self-Reliant Living: Advice and Information on Just About Everything You Need to Know to Live on Planet Earth,” second edition, edited and compiled by Walter Szykitka, offers advice and instructions within the general topics of first aid, survival, health, food and nutrition, farm and home, and tools. The book tells the reader what to do in case of many types of emergencies, including injury, illness, radiation and natural disaster; hunting and fishing; making life better; improving fuel economy, wind power, hydro power; growing plants, caring for pets and staying healthy. It really is a big book, about 8.5 by 11 inches and 628 pages.
------
Here are links to other recent One for the Books columns. More links are available on my blog at http://blogs.dixcdn.com/shine_a_light/one-for-the-books/
Graphic Novels--Not just comic books for grownups -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4868765
Prize-Winning Fiction -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4803780
Authors’ Lives, Real or Imagined -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4856578
Memorable Characters -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4822150
------
Thanks for reading One for the Books. Please let us know what kind of book news you’d like to see on this page. Send e-mail to Books@recordpub.com. Send other mail to Mary Louise Ruehr, Books Editor, Record-Courier, 126 N. Chestnut St. (P.O. Box 1201), Ravenna, OH 44266.
“One for the Books” now appears on Saturdays (approximately the second and fourth of each month) on the Books page in the Arts & Entertainment section of the Record-Courier.
Comments
By Posting to this site, you agree to our Terms of Service Be polite.
Inappropriate posts may be removed.
Recordpub.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post.
Login above or Register to comment.
0 Total Comments Home | Back
Copyright Record Publishing Co, LLC. 1995-2011. All Rights Reserved.
Content may not be republished without the expressed written consent of the publisher.
Content may not be republished without the expressed written consent of the publisher.
Dix Communications