First book of 2011: Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick

image of the Koreas from space

UPDATE:

An what a great conversation we had! The author's style of writing, based on the detailed research and clear prose of a newspaper reporter, combined with really engaging personal stories about everyday people in North Korea. To learn so many details about everyday lives in a country that is one of the most closed societies in the world was really fascinating. Most of us had no idea how bad the famine was, how advanced the North Koreans had been at the end of the Korean War, or how expansive government control really was.

One interesting question that came up in discussion was the question of how to understand this strange country, and the people who live in it. Were they all brainwashed? Based on the stories in the book, North Koreans are born and raised into a political system that is based on a cult of leader worship, and extensive monitoring. Every home is supposed to have framed photos of the leader and his father displayed. They have a special cloth to dust the photos with. Television, radio and film is all tightly controlled and censored, and listening to forbidden media would probably mean torture and the death penalty. The accepted position is that the leader of the nation is the provider of all that is good, that the North Koreans want for nothing and are better off than the rest of the world, and that they are a special people, the last communist society in a hostile world. However bad it is in North Korea, the rest of the world is to be pitied, since they are worse off and do not have such a great leader to protect and guide them. Even asking questions or expressing a small amount of skepticism about the government position can lead to a lengthy sentence in a labor camp.  Neighborhood monitors or unannounced police checks serve to enforce the rules.

How much personal choice and autonomy can you attribute to people who have been born and educated into such an all encompassing ideology? It is a very tricky question. We struggled to find comparisons in the rest of the world that would help us understand what was going on in North Korea. The fear of being spied on by a family member or neighbor, the danger of dissent, and the methods of social control were familiar to the strategies of other communist countries, for example in East Germany. The strategy of authoritarian leader worship is familiar not only in communist figures like Stalin (curiously enough, it is rising again), but also for example in countries like Syria, where people were subject to state propaganda that insisted that the President was infallible and all knowing. But scholars like Lisa Wedeen argue that people in Syria understand the strategies of the government, and have ways of expressing dissent. In North Korea, society is so closed that we simply have no idea whether there are spaces for such strategies to survive. Perhaps most of the people who have tried are in the massive labor camps, where the guilt of one (very small) transgression condemns an entire family to punishment. In a society where dissent can mean that your entire family, including children, are imprisoned and tortured, it is hard to imagine the coexistence of personal autonomy or dissent. But still, there are glimmers of it in Nothing Left to Envy.

There was much more to the conversation, but should be a good taste!
************

There really is very little information on North Korea, but this reporter conducted many interviews with people who left. The result is an amazing look inside this very secretive and closed society, with some historical reach and good factual information while also bringing us some detailed personal stories of people who left North Korea. They are stories of people who defected from their country, where they grew up believing that they had 'Nothing to Envy' in this world, but discovered the world had left their country behind.

North Korea has certainly been on the news recently, because of the recent South Korean military drill off Yonphyong Island and the North Korean military response of threats and return fire. Read the North Korean statements at this Wall Street Journal blog.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer recently went to North Korea with the Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson. They spent six days there. Their experiences are the official version of North Korea, and they saw the people in North Korea who are the counterweight to the people we will read about in Demick's book: the people Wolf Blitzer saw are the chosen, the well fed and clothed, the educated, the employed. Watch the video or read the short description of the trip here.

North Korea has also made the news recently because of signs that Kim Jong-il’s youngest son Kim Jong-un is his most likely successor. There are significant doubts, however, that the hand-over of power will go as planned. Of course, North Korea has proven experts wrong many times in the past. Regardless of the outcome, there are some serious human rights issues in this country, and the ramifications of the policies of the DPRK will haunt the region for a long time.

November/December: Even Silence Has An End

Weds, December 8th at 7pm, we will discuss Ingrid Betancourt's book, "Even Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle"

If you did not get to read this book, and are till considering adding it to your shelf, take a look at some of this....

Ingrid Betancourt's book was really very interesting for our group for a lot of reasons:

It is a story of a female politician, and in her story there are hints as to what it is like to exist as a woman in this highly masculine world. Some of the judgments about her character, her attitude, and her decisions really clarify some of the complexities inherent in such a position. Many people believed the idea that she was naive about the dangers of the area where she was kidnapped- perhaps it was easier to believe because she is a woman (and also because of her wealth and protected background) but her book really challenges such a simplistic explanation- she is a really smart woman, after all, who was running a serious campaign to be president of the country. Some of the publicly expressed anger at her 'arrogance' and 'difficult' nature can also perhaps be seen in terms of the double binds that women often face as they begin to compete in traditionally masculine arenas, such as political or business leadership.

As a woman, her experience of being a long-term hostage leads us to insights that we may not have gained from a male hostage (and there are those accounts, by two American hostages who were held captive with Betancourt and they clearly did not get along with her all the time, or see things the same way). Because of her perspective, we do get a more complete understanding not only of what it is like to be held captive in these circumstances, but also what the social dynamics are among the rebels. For example, Betancourt noticed how the sexual politics of the FARC guerrillas conflict with their ideology of solidarity in struggle: young women were expected to prove their commitment to the cause in part by accepting the sexual advances of their commanders, they weren't treated as equals. She also pulls us into her own personal experience as a daughter whose father dies when she is hostage, and as a mother whose children grow from teenagers into adults while she is suspended in a kind of limbo, only able to hear the deepening of her son's voice on radio broadcasts. You can hear more from Betancourt about this part of the experience in an interview she did with Amy Goodman, in two parts:
Part One


Part Two


A really insightful element of the book is found in the many sections where Betancourt describes what it is like to be threatened with the loss of ones humanity, how her captors use language and deprivation of basic resources to do that, and what she did to combat these dehumanizing forces. The really thoughtful and detailed descriptions of her experiences in the jungle bring to life how overwhelming captivity can be. Particularly interesting to consider are the similarities in experiences of kids incarcerated for life without the chance of parole, people in refugee camps, kids abducted to serve in the military, or foreign domestic servants who are held captive by their employers. In these situations, there are also these issues of isolation from society, inability to choose your work/do productive work, uncertainty about the future, the loss of privacy, loss of control over basic personal decisions, and high threat of violence. Consider HRW's work on some of these issues:
Juvenile live without parole

Forced removal of refugees in Sudan


Child solders in Uganda
Migrant domestic workers

The main challenge for several members of the book club was a lack of contextual knowledge about Colombia and FARC. Here are some links to learn more.

This Washington Post article outlines the current challenges regarding the rural poor in Colombia. Consider also the link between poverty and recruitment practices of rebel groups and government military, especially for children and young people.

HRW has three reports, outlining the guerrilla's use of landmines (2007), the mafia-like structure of the paramilitaries (2008), and the violent successor groups to the paramilitaries (2010), as well as news of the recent abduction and killing of a Governor.

Another really interesting perspective comes from the facebook movement, One Million Voices against FARC, started by a young professional and his friends, outraged the news about a boy who was born to a woman in captivity and abandoned by the FARC in terrible conditions. There is a great synopsis and a video of Oscar, the founder, here. People went into the streets in cities across the globe to protest, although there were still arguments over the tactic of street protests.

Finally, the NYTimes has a great section on FARC, with a lot of information in articles, book reviews, videos and photos. Particularly useful is the timeline, which starts with the founding of FARC in 1975, the start of peace talks in 1999, their failure, Betancourt's kidnapping, and more.

Happy reading!

October 2010: It's Not Over

For October, we are reading War is Not Over When It's Over, based on the work of the author with the IRC (International Rescue Committee) in which the volunteered a year with them and set up a project to give digital cameras to women affected by war. For those of you who have been following the book club, this may remind you of Mia Kirshner's book, I Live Here. Kirshner also gave a camera to kids who had survived conflict.

This topic is of course incredibly important and current. Just in mid-July, HRW reported on the ongoing "Taliban War on Women" in Afghanistan. Even more recently, HRW Researcher Tanya Lokshina published a story, "Choked by Headscarves" on the growing violence against women in Chechnya, another place that has seen ongoing war and conflict.

The author, Ann Jones, was interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now.

Ben Travers also interviewed Ann Jones for a PBS Wideangle episode on "Women, War & Peace"

Ann Jones Q&A | Wide Angle

If you would like more of a preview, you can read the entire Introduction online.

UPDATE:

What a great conversation we had on this book!

The group raised some major questions, really big important questions. What do you do when you have to do something, but nothing will be enough? What happens to local people once the cameras go away and the funded projects run out? How do you start to change conceptions of justice when there is a constant threat of violence?

One major concern was about the design of the project headed by Ann Jones. Basically, Ann came into a community (some urban, some rural) and got permission to do a photography project with some local women. Then, she came in and taught a group of local women how to use a digital camera. They were assigned the task of documenting their everyday lives, including "their problems, their consolations, and their joys". The women then met regularly to review their photographs and talk about what the photographs were about. In a kind of 'consciousness raising' format, Ann Jones and other IRC staff facilitated discussions about the problems and needs of local women. At the end of the project, the women presented their work in the form of a photography exhibit for the entire community. Each woman stood in front of those assembled and described her photograph and its meaning. In some communities, this resulted in greater empathy and understanding of how women's problems mattered to everyone. In others, the messages of women's importance and rights were less obviously grasped by community leaders and husbands. After the community participated in the photography exhibition, Ann Jones left, to conduct the same project somewhere else.

Some of us wondered what happened to the tenuous claims to authority, voice, and rights that were gained by the women who participated in the photography exhibit after Ann Jones left. To her credit, Ann clearly had thought about this question, and she reminded the women that even if the cameras broke, and they could not continue to take pictures documenting abuse and other problems, the real camera was their own eyes. She even suggested that the women continue to pretend to take photos with a broken camera, just to keep the men in line. The men didn't have to know that the cameras were broken, and just the possibility that their behavior was being documented could be enough to keep some men in line!

In a refugee camp, she left a more lasting system in place, as the women photographers gained essential training to use their cameras as forensic tools to document evidence in spousal abuse cases. In most communities, however, the project seemed to just pick up and leave- and while the women had made good progress in building confidence, rights awareness, and self-advocacy skills, it was not clear how much of a lasting change this project would or could make. It seemed to us that what most of the women were asking for was economic independence and education, not photography projects. The women felt that they would be able to deal with violence and insecurity far better if they had the ability to sustain themselves and their children, without being so dependent on men for financial and physical security. On the other hand, the women really did seem to find some benefit in the photography project, in terms of personal growth as well as female solidarity.

In light of this brief discussion, two tensions we confronted were: the necessity of community involvement and men's support in resolving women's issues, but the tenuousness of those things without the rule of law and basic economic and political security at the macro level. Some communities were still so much in the throes of war and its aftermath, that men as well as women were living in a society that was ruled by violence and impunity. The ability of women to improve their own lots in life based on solidarity and advocacy skills seems to be pretty dependent on the existence of some level of security. Men and women needed a basic level of security guaranteed by the state, and the state was failing. So how could women pursue justice in the absence of basic security? This is the old justice v order debate, very clearly illustrated.

Second, and related to the first tension, is the question of defining security with women in mind. There is a tension between what women said they wanted and needed (security in the form of economic independence) and the fact that security and independence are currently defined based on a model of men's lives, and not with women's lives in mind. Security does not just mean that the roads are patrolled by armed military men, who will discourage looters and kidnappers from attacking people going to markets and business centers. Security also means that police and others in authority cannot harass or accost women who travel alone on the road, and that police will protect women against an abusive family member. These are just two examples. Women's experiences in the economic, social and political realms will be less than equal, less than satisfactory unless their specific security concerns are taken into account. So, just pushing for any old security is clearly not the answer. Even though women really need security, it is not security that sacrifices women's rights and women's humanity that will, in the end, be helpful. Ann's photography project seemed to touch on one way for women to start defining and re-defining security and justice in a way that included the interests of the entire community- including men and women. But the magnitude of the issues are so great that readers in our group still felt dissatisfied and overwhelmed.

One thing that can be done at a micro-level is to go to Lisa Shannon's website, A Thousand Sisters, and sponsor a woman through Women for Women International, or take part in any of the other events listed there. Keeping track of what is going on in Africa, continuing to educate ourselves and passing that information on to people we know is also really important. Human Rights Watch is a great resource for that. Also, send emails on important women's issues such as the rape kit backlog and the international violence against women act to your representatives- check out HRW's action resources.

Powder: Update

On topic:

Just this morning (Sept. 8th), I heard an NPR story about a woman who started flying a combat helicopter as soon as the U.S. started allowing women to do so (way back in 1995!) it's an interesting story.

September 2010: Powder

Welcome!

to start off after summer travels, we are reading:

Powder: Writing by Women in the Ranks, from Vietnam to Iraq
Personal poems and essays by women who served in the U.S. military from Vietnam to Desert Shield.

You can get it at a variety of online stores.

The book was turned into a one-woman play, called "Coming in Hot", adapted by Jeanmarie Simpson and Shannon Cain.

If you want to check out the topic before you buy the book, you can read the preface, check out an NPR Weekend Edition interview with the editor, or read this introduction to the book, on the publishers blog.

Summer 2010

We had a great second discussion of Half the Sky. The book was a great way to start thought-provoking discussions, and everyone who attended our two book club meetings on this book has had something thought-provoking to contribute. One of our attendees this time around was so inspired by the book, she will be going to intern for one of the groups mentioned by Kristoff and WuDunn- Women for Women International ! Hopefully, we will get an email update on her experience soon!

For some highlights of the discussion:
How to Help
A major theme was the complex relationship between the privileged (those of us reading the book) and those about whom/for whom the book was written. For example, a few readers commented on how 'real' and 'intense' the lives of women in the book seemed, particularly when compared to the safe 'cocoon' of comfort that defines life for many of us here in the U.S. Similarly, it struck a number of readers that the stories in Half the Sky - personal, moving, real, brutal, hopeful, shocking stories - jolted them out of a resignation to the way things are, illustrated how small choices can lead to big changes in peoples' lives, provided hope for seemingly hopeless situations. In other words, the stories were effectively presented so that the readers could move beyond despair and hopelessness by taking small, concrete actions to help women struggling across the world. On the other side, this approach can de-contextualize and depoliticize the struggles of women across the globe by removing the roles of feminism(s)/womens movements and related political and legal struggles from the discussion.
For more on this, please read this wonderful blog review of Half the Sky by one of our book club participants. You can also check out HRWs website: whatever the issue you are interested in, their reports provide specific political and legal steps that need to be taken.

Hope
One story particularly caught our interest: the illiterate woman who learned to be a surgeon specializing in fistula repairs. This story was seen as an illustration of how an individual can make a huge difference and evidence for hopeful engagement. But the story is also a beautiful illustration of the complexities surrounding international humanitarianism: the ability of this woman to take on such advanced and complex responsibilities without the (traditionally) requisite years of medical school, her ability to take on this training and move beyond it (she began to pursue her education, learning to read) upend assumptions that the humanitarians are the ones with the power to dispense help and leadership, while the locals are the weak and needy. Such dichotomies are questionable when we see the strength and aptitude of a local woman who becomes a surgeon, and then takes it on herself to learn to read.
To read more about the global issues surrounding access to reproductive health care, start with this HRW document. Also, here is a link to the HRW 2009 report on rape in the DRC (rape and fistulas are addressed).

Intent
We also found that it was important to recognize that the humanitarian impulse is more complex than the image of well-positioned kindly benefactors selflessly reaching out to needy and helpless others. Connecting with the lessons of Emmas War and other books we have read, it was important to recognize that the humanitarian impulse is variously inspired by the intrigue, the adventure, the sense of purpose, and even a need to connect with that 'real' and 'intense' version of life, and to therefore learn something about ourselves through the experiences of the people we set out to help.

Surprise
The story also inspired a citation of Cynthia Enloe's call to embrace surprise, to look for it and learn from it, instead of trying to appear infinitely knowledgeable. The educational timeline of this story -- training as a surgeon, surgical practice, then literacy education -- is not what most outsiders would be likely to prescribe for local illiterate women. It is our surprise at the fact that this woman (an illiterate woman) was able to achieve this type of success (specialized surgical practice) that provides a valuable window into how important it is to learn what is most needed, what is possible, and what is valuable in different environments. It is a reminder that our (instinctual, unconsidered) assumptions (for example: learn to read first, then pick a profession or skill) will not be the most fruitful guide for every occasion.

Religion
We also had an interesting discussion about Islam and traditional religions, and whether they were bad for women, a question that comes up in the book. We explored the connections between the status and role of women in a group or society and the tensions between power distribution, social control, modernity, identity, westernization, fear of change, the desire for authenticity. We discussed the power of tradition in multiple religions and societies, and the variability across time and region that is found the practice of most religions. Certainly, while it is a powerful tool for those who would restrict women's rights, religion is not the only cause of serious violations of women's rights across the globe.
For more reading, there are HRW reports and articles on violence between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, political crackdowns on religious minorities in Pakistan and Indonesia, the politics of the veil, and specifically the politics of the veil in Belgium, and the reactionary situation in Somalia.
The report on Somalia provides HRW's stance clearly: "Human Rights Watch does not advocate for or against Sharia or any other system of religious law. Rather, we are concerned about preventing and ending human rights abuses in any country, whatever their basis or legal justification."

For June:
For the summer, we will take a break- but please stay tuned for related events, and keep interesting book titles in mind for our list of books to read! Coming up, a film screening that we originally thought would be a great viewing for the book club:
Burma VJ will be shown on June 14th. Email the HRW LA office for more info. Please join us!

as always, comments welcome!

May: We will finish Half the Sky

Please join us on May 19th for our next meeting.
As discussed, we will finish reading Half the Sky.
Remember, you do not have to have read the book to join the discussion.

Originally, we were going to meet in April, but HRW in LA is co-sponsoring a lecture from Roxana Saberi on Human Rights in Iran- please go check it out!

March 4th non-HRW event on Half the Sky

Thanks to Felice and Ellen, this March 4th event was brought to our attention- it may be of interest to some of you, since it is related to Half The Sky, the book that we have started to read!

Just type your zip code in to see where the movie will be shown near you:

http://www.ncm.com/Fathom/OriginalPrograms/event/Half_The_Sky.aspx

More information:
Movie Event on Bestseller Half the Sky
One-night only on Thursday, March 4, 2010

February 24 - In honor of International Women's Day, movie theaters across the United States will broadcast an event, on Thursday, March 4, inspired by stories from New York Times bestseller Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

The event includes musical performances and the premiere of "Woineshet," a short film by Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei and Lisa Leone. It also features celebrity commentary from India.Arie; Maria Bello; Diane Birch; Michael Franti; Dr. Helene Gayle; Angelique Kidjo; Nicholas Kristof; Marisa Tomei; Sarah, Duchess of York; and others. The Half the Sky event was captured live on February 11, 2010, in New York City and is being rebroadcast to select theaters nationwide on March 4.

Half the Sky,published in September 2009, profiles women and girls throughout Africa and Asia, examining the impact on their lives of "four appalling realities": maternal mortality, sexual violence, and lack of education and economic opportunities. It argues that empowering women and girls can fight global poverty by unlocking women's power as economic catalysts. Half the Sky illustrates how a little help can transform the lives of women and girls abroad, showcasing organizations working in developing countries to empower women.

The Half the Sky event is a partnership between NCM Fathom and CARE, with the support of Delta Air Lines and Meredith Corporation.

For March: Follow-up on CEDAW

We have an exciting opportunity to follow up on the issue of CEDAW, which is the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, by hearing from someone who has some great experience and insight. Please join us for this unusual book club meeting!

Wednesday March 10, 7 PM

Women's Rights Book Club invites you to an informal discussion with Felice Gaer, Regents Professor at UCLA, director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Human Rights of American Jewish Committee, and member of the US delegation to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women under the Obama administration, among other accomplishments. During the Clinton Administration, she was a member of 9 delegations to UN Human Rights bodies, the HR Commission and the Beijing World Conference on Women and the World Conference on Human Rights.)

Her topic will be:
"Why the Obama administration should ratify CEDAW: A Guide to action"

If you would like to learn more about CEDAW, start my taking a look at some of the country reports, which signatories to the Convention have to submit, or read more about the United States' record on ratification of International human rights treaties, in this 2009 HRW report. Here is a factual tidbit, from the intro to that report:

"the US is the only country other than Somalia that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely and rapidly ratified human rights treaty in history. It is one of only seven countries-together with Iran, Nauru, Palau, Somalia, Sudan and Tonga- that has failed to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)."

If you are interested in seeing how CEDAW helps the work of HRW, you can read these HRW reports, in which HRW is keeping signatory states accountable- including Ukraine, Dominican Republic, Germany, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia, among others.

Anyone looking for background reading on CEDAW might want to see The Circle of Empowerment: 25 Years of the UN Committee on the Elim, of Discrim,. against Women, ed. Hanna Beate Schopp-Schilling.Feminist Press. It contains articles, analysis, memoirs, by members and former members of the UN Committee-- thanks to Felice for this suggestion!