Its really ironic that just a few days after the landslides and the typhoons Winnie and Yoyong had tussled the country with its rain and fury, Wangari Maathai had received her Nobel Peace Prize for planting trees and at the same time protect women's rights.
The concept is very simple. Her Green Belt Movement had given the opportunity for housewives to plant seedlings so that the people of their communities would plant them in and around the community. This movement had educated them that planting trees was vital since it kept the top soil from being eroded easily, thereby preserving acres of land that had not brought sustenance to their lives and, in nearby countrys, had influenced the tide of war.
It is empowerment, in its most capable level. In a country like Kenya, women can feed their families, the land had been preserved, and there is the practice of democracy when people put a stake in their own land and their own future. When water, land and food had been the causes for wars, then it should be dealt with on that basic level, and Maathai saw that.
I wonder what happens next after Ormoc and now Infanta and Dingalan now that the learning curve had gone up a notch. The people of Ormoc had done their part, telling off persons trucks who carry chain saws in their hands. Then again...
The concept is very simple. Her Green Belt Movement had given the opportunity for housewives to plant seedlings so that the people of their communities would plant them in and around the community. This movement had educated them that planting trees was vital since it kept the top soil from being eroded easily, thereby preserving acres of land that had not brought sustenance to their lives and, in nearby countrys, had influenced the tide of war.
It is empowerment, in its most capable level. In a country like Kenya, women can feed their families, the land had been preserved, and there is the practice of democracy when people put a stake in their own land and their own future. When water, land and food had been the causes for wars, then it should be dealt with on that basic level, and Maathai saw that.
I wonder what happens next after Ormoc and now Infanta and Dingalan now that the learning curve had gone up a notch. The people of Ormoc had done their part, telling off persons trucks who carry chain saws in their hands. Then again...
Comments