Women on the other side of the world

A couple of week ago, I thought of Eva Peron – the Spiritual Chief of A Nation (that is Argentina) as she was called by her people. It is close to 6 decades after her demise but her spirit of emancipation lives on in Latin America. Two historical events prove this.

Yesterday, Madam Dilma Roussef was elected as Brazil’s first female president after the ever famous Lula, her mentor, was barred by the court from running his third presidency term. Madam Rousseff is seen as Lula’s ‘puppet’, having lived a colourful life (a former Marxist rebel) and holding various powerful positions in Lula’s cabinet (primarily of Brazil’s energy and finance ministries).

Under Lula, Brazil joined Mighty, Hungry BRIC, catapulting half of his people into middle income class, thus strengthening its domestic consumption on top of rising commodity prices, to bolster Brazil’s economy. Call her whatever you want (politics can be so nasty most of the times) but I think Lula has picked the best person to continue with his successful economic reforms to greater heights. Madam Rousseff becomes a grandmother in September and in her first speech to the people, she said that “[she] will pay attention and take care of the country as a kind mother”. That reminds me of “Don Juan”, in which Lord Byron wrote, “Man's love is of man's life a thing apart, 'Tis woman's whole existence”.

In December 2007, Argentineans elected their First Female President, the beautiful Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. She took the office from her husband, Nestor Kirchner, who passed away recently from sudden heart attack. Dubbed as The Clintons of The South, this First Couple fought evil capitalists – their own elitists and international foreign banks, defied IMF during 2001 financial crisis, introduced interventionist economic policies and looked after the poors of their nations, making them the third largest economy in the American’s South Hemisphere, rebounding faster than any of its neighbours. They have always been bestest political partners but with her power-broker husband rest in peace, would Cristina’s Peronic spirit fizzles out? I hope she’s be stronger in her true self – just like how Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “A woman is like a teabag, you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water”.

“Women wish to be loved without a why or a wherefore; not because they are pretty, or good, or well-bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves” ~ Hendri Frederic Amiel

While women on the other side of the world have emancipated and showed their mettle (that they can change the course of their nation and they can rule - how ironic when at home, moms have always been the ruler!), we on this side of the world could only manage a snigger when our budget next year will give us cheaper lingeries, handbags and toiletries. How pathetic they think we are!

God did not create women for nothing. Women nurture, never torture. Women’s real strength, despite their fragile physique, is not just their ability to provide. It is their ability to provide endlessly, wholeheartedly, even if they received so little or nothing in return.

God Bless All Women.