Hello World:
I'm writing you with tear drop in one eye and a speck of promising hope in the other. My sadness springs from the untimely passing of President Hugo Chavez. I can't believe he's gone. Venezuela and the world over will forever feel this gap. We have all lost a great leader who stood up from global justice, not just in his country but for all of us in the so-called developing world who are smart enough to see the careful orchestration of Western dominance, capitalism, imperialism and neoliberal usurpation upon the globe. My deepest sympathy goes out to Chavez's family and the people of Venezuela. Power to freedom, equality and justice for the underprivileged.
Speaking of power to the underprivileged, today is 8 March! It is International Women's Day. My utmost appreciation goes out to my mother, who raised me in a gender-neutral home where my brothers and I shared cooking, cleaning and laundry chores. In my mother's house, there was no differential preference for boys and girls. In her world, girls were not cooks and cleaners. Neither were boys breadwinners or machos. In her view, both sexes are very capable of conducting all human activities and what it boiled down to in those days on raising us, was - raising morally upright children who will treat everyone with respect and love. If anything at all, she supported my incessant drive for education way more than she did for my brothers. She ensured that I had everything I needed, despite our poor beginnings, in order to have the highest quality of education. Today, I can safely say, my mother made me who I am. Whatever I am today, is purely due to her constant support and the examples she led raising 8 children on her own. THANK YOU MAMA.
To all mothers, sisters, women, grandmas, aunties, and girls who bear the brunt of making the world a safer place for females, I say HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY! To all the men who have relentlessly stood by women to ensure that gender equality is achieved - I say HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY to you too!
Paix.
