NewsRecord Weekly Publication

LESS THAN EQUAL:

A stand for One Billion Rising

By  Hernor De Asis

    Rights of equality give our women the power akin to men. But some women all over the world still serve as an extra baggage in the equation of parity.
    Does equality really exist between men and women? Or women can still feel being dominated and harassed by the superiority of men?
If it’s what they call equality, then maybe we should redefine equality on all dictionaries as less than equal. It is very ironic since I’m a young guy writing an article for women; it only proves that even a man like me felt the difference and witnessed the inflated rate of crimes against our women which is a sign of men’s dominion over women on a larger scale.
    One Billion Rising is a global campaign by women, for women and which calls for an end to violence against women, hostility and for achieving justice and gender equality. The most recent Valentine’s Day, a one-day affair was held, a call for one billion women all over the world to unite in a dance that showed collective force against cruelty for women. The word ‘billion’ refers to the statistic that one in three women will be raped or beaten in their lifetime, or about one billion.
    The reality is a big blow to the existing laws implemented to all countries for the protection of women. What kind of law can tolerate aggressions that tinted all the daughters of Eve with despair? Some women are treated like animals, more are killed due to sexual assaults, and many more are hidden in a little dim prison for future use, a matter of sexual slavery.
    Filipina Domestic Helpers are part of the puffed up percentage of all battered and abused women all over the world. Foreign masters take advantage of the fragility of these young Filipinas. Working in foreign countries means a Filipino takes double risks that sometimes result to role switching—the victims are being imprisoned, the oppressors enjoy a culture of impunity.
    Some tormenters are racists, power-hungry aristocrats, or simply illusionists who think themselves their own god. Most oppressors take power from the smoke of weeds and fumes of dangerous drugs to empower their drive for satisfaction.
    Humans, therefore, are to be acclaimed as the root of all evil, not the bills and coins jingling in pockets since we are all responsible of our actions. We are facing the wrath of our creations and we tend to plaster it with written laws to lessen the diffusion of rotting transgression.
    We are filling all the pages of the book of justice about the do’s and don’ts with respective punishments, but still we can’t curtail these repetitive crimes.
We are living witnesses that are blindfolded and continue to be senseless until our own daughters, sisters, moms and friends become the next prey of despicable predators.
    In this centuries old fight for equality and against oppression of women, it takes concerted action to tip the balance.