The woman is the centerpiece of any society or cultural community of people. The way a group of peoples or community regards their women is directly indicative and a direct reflection of how those people regard themselves, and how they collectively progress or regress as a people. This ideal is so prevalent and obvious, in fact, that I dare anybody to challenge it.
Conditions such as infidelity, young women being abandoned by the young men whose child they are carrying, lack of education for women, domestic violence and rape all lead to the swift and sure deterioration of any society as we have seen so clearly demonstrated time and time again. When I say this, I speak of various groups within the United States as well as in other nations around the world.
There is a natural string of events which is constantly taking place and will always take place, from which the seeds are being sown every second of every day, every day of every year and every year of every decade. This makes up what we call our human “history” and evolution. It unfolds as follows: The woman is the primary and earliest teacher of her children as well as a role model for what her daughters may become and a template from which her sons learn to treat other women. When a community of people, be it religious, racial, philosophical, national…holds their women in high regard they are creating a powerful network of wise and confident teachers for their future generation and in turn, a powerful and productive network of people as a whole. What results are not only an intact family, but a positive example of working together as a unit to build a stronger community of people.
If a father teaches his daughter that she can indeed grow up to become anything she wishes and encourages her towards the path of education and self respect, then that girl will be bestowed with a sense of self worth and she will be goal oriented. She will be less likely to fall prey to teen pregnancy, drug use, domestic violence and the like. If a son grows up in an environment where he bares witness to his father treating his mother with love, respect and dignity and sees his parents are true and equal partners, he will likely carry those ideas into manhood and will uphold his responsibilities as a father and husband. He and his wife will raise well adjusted, loving and responsible children who will grow up to be productive adults.
To take an opposite scenario, if a woman is raised to believe that she is worth very little, intellectually and spiritually, she will be likely to gravitate towards the wrong men who will not serve to benefit her or her children. She may wind up raising those children alone, unable to shoulder the obligation of raising them and providing for them financially. She may suffer physical or verbal abuse at the hands of her husband or boyfriend. These conditions lead to children who are ill supervised and disciplined, emotionally disturbed, malnourished, poorly educated and unaware of their personal potential. These children are the backbone of which our future society depends upon. More importantly they are a direct reflection of their ethnicity and the way their people are viewed by society at large. It is a vicious cycle of sowing poorly planted and poorly nourished seeds and reaping poorly grown and poorly developed crops.
If I were to get biblical, the bible clearly states that Eve was made of Adam’s rib. I don’t know that I believe the literal contents of the bible, but for those who subscribe to the bible’s words, it is easy to see how Eve was an extension of Adam’s body. So in essence, when a community of men continually put down and degrades their women, it is merely a reflection of how they feel about themselves.
I have studied this melting pot that we call America, in particular. I have observed a direct correlation between how different groups of people within American society regard their women and the overall progression of those groups. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a culture where the man and woman acted as equal partners in the home and represented themselves as such to their children. In fact, it wasn’t until I reached college where I heard the word “bitch” used as a direct synonym for “woman,” for the very first time. I remember that this filled me with anger so primal and so profound, that I could barely contain it. I was unsure of how to process it. I would come to learn that, that particular word was only the tip of the iceberg. My father had always been my role model for success and achievement and I saw no reason to veer away from that line of thinking, even though I am a female and my father is a male. I saw no difference in the level of respect we could command and what I could achieve in relation to him. I have a heart, mind and soul, and as far as I knew, they were in working order.
The content of this article would bring to mind the buzzword “feminist,” which emerged in the 1970s and grew legs with the revolutionary efforts of people like Gloria Steinem, who saw fit to lecture the world on the merits of feminine self-esteem and urging women to remain independent, otherwise known as “single.” Gloria Steinem was famously quoted as stating, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” I don’t subscribe to those views and think they are actually misguided, but I can understand how sometimes when trying to create revolution, we must first miss the mark before we can hit it. Even she got married, at the age of 66. I do not believe that feminism has a legitimate place in the 21st century. I think that the regiment for these new times should be that of embracing traditional roles with a healthy grain of salt, while granting equal respect, dignity and honor to all human beings.
Showing posts with label Multicultural Society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Multicultural Society. Show all posts
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Presenting - Ben Viccari - A Lifetime Dedicated to Multicultural Communications
Interesting people are everywhere. I met Ben Viccari a few weeks ago at the initial screening of a documentary called "Small Places - Small Homes". The documentary profiled the life of four immigrant families who had chosen to settle in small rural Canadian towns and spoke to their unique challenges and adjustment experiences. During the party afterwards I was introduced to Ben Viccari, a distinguished writer and journalist, and a pioneer of Canadian multiculturalism.
Ben is a fascinating individual - at almost 90 years of age he is in the process of creating his second television documentary and involved in multiple projects at the same time. Ben has decades of public relations experience and during the last quarter century also became involved in ethnic publications. At present Ben is the President of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association which speaks to issues of immigrant settlement, heritage preservation and the ethnic communities' role in nation building.
He is also a regular commentator on Omni Television and runs an online publication
called "Canscene" which introduces the reader to multicultural issues in Canada. In this article Ben shares with us his life experience throughout his early years, the Second World War, and his almost 60 years in Canada. He also gives us insight into his unique views on Canada's role as a potential model nation in terms of how we deal with immigration and immigrant settlement, notions that are very dear to my own heart.
I was amazed by Ben's energy and creativity and enjoyed the time we spent in a little restaurant along Bloor Street, learning from a man whose life experience spans almost a century, a man whose energy, creativity and broad-mindedness captivate.
1. Please tell us about yourself and your background.
I am a Canadian well qualified, I believe, to speak for multiculturalism and diversity through my mixed parentage, early education at a London school with an international student body, travel abroad, followed in Canada since the late 1940s by a diverse career in communications much of which has placed me in contact with Canadians from a wide variety of origins and backgrounds
Ben at the provincial archive, Winnipeg with the complete issues of
the Icelandic Framfari, first ethnic newspaper published in Manitoba,
in a scene from The Third Element
2. You grew up in England as the child of Italian immigrants. Please tell us more about that.
My father, an Italian immigrant to Britain, met and married my mother, an Englishwoman. They had two children, my younger brother John and me, seven years his senior. Our delight was to grow up in a home in which husband and wife enjoyed mutual respect for each other’s national traits. We lived in an ambiance of being loved and in turn, loving.
In those days, marriage to a foreign citizen who was not naturalized meant wife and children were Italian nationals and a sense of duality became natural to us. We ate chicken cacciatore and olives, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and rejoiced when Dad came home with sticks ot torrone, Italian nougat bought at Barale and Crippa an Italian grocery in the heart of Soho. Also their tangy salami. And while my Italian grandparents were still alive, they mailed boxes of home made salami, soppressata and goat cheese to us.
3. Your working life originally started out in the barber shop of your father. Please tell us more about th
Ben is a fascinating individual - at almost 90 years of age he is in the process of creating his second television documentary and involved in multiple projects at the same time. Ben has decades of public relations experience and during the last quarter century also became involved in ethnic publications. At present Ben is the President of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association which speaks to issues of immigrant settlement, heritage preservation and the ethnic communities' role in nation building.
He is also a regular commentator on Omni Television and runs an online publication
called "Canscene" which introduces the reader to multicultural issues in Canada. In this article Ben shares with us his life experience throughout his early years, the Second World War, and his almost 60 years in Canada. He also gives us insight into his unique views on Canada's role as a potential model nation in terms of how we deal with immigration and immigrant settlement, notions that are very dear to my own heart.
I was amazed by Ben's energy and creativity and enjoyed the time we spent in a little restaurant along Bloor Street, learning from a man whose life experience spans almost a century, a man whose energy, creativity and broad-mindedness captivate.
1. Please tell us about yourself and your background.
I am a Canadian well qualified, I believe, to speak for multiculturalism and diversity through my mixed parentage, early education at a London school with an international student body, travel abroad, followed in Canada since the late 1940s by a diverse career in communications much of which has placed me in contact with Canadians from a wide variety of origins and backgrounds
Ben at the provincial archive, Winnipeg with the complete issues of
the Icelandic Framfari, first ethnic newspaper published in Manitoba,
in a scene from The Third Element
2. You grew up in England as the child of Italian immigrants. Please tell us more about that.
My father, an Italian immigrant to Britain, met and married my mother, an Englishwoman. They had two children, my younger brother John and me, seven years his senior. Our delight was to grow up in a home in which husband and wife enjoyed mutual respect for each other’s national traits. We lived in an ambiance of being loved and in turn, loving.
In those days, marriage to a foreign citizen who was not naturalized meant wife and children were Italian nationals and a sense of duality became natural to us. We ate chicken cacciatore and olives, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and rejoiced when Dad came home with sticks ot torrone, Italian nougat bought at Barale and Crippa an Italian grocery in the heart of Soho. Also their tangy salami. And while my Italian grandparents were still alive, they mailed boxes of home made salami, soppressata and goat cheese to us.
3. Your working life originally started out in the barber shop of your father. Please tell us more about th
Presenting - Ben Viccari - A Lifetime Dedicated to Multicultural Communications
Interesting people are everywhere. I met Ben Viccari a few weeks ago at the initial screening of a documentary called "Small Places - Small Homes". The documentary profiled the life of four immigrant families who had chosen to settle in small rural Canadian towns and spoke to their unique challenges and adjustment experiences. During the party afterwards I was introduced to Ben Viccari, a distinguished writer and journalist, and a pioneer of Canadian multiculturalism.
Ben is a fascinating individual - at almost 90 years of age he is in the process of creating his second television documentary and involved in multiple projects at the same time. Ben has decades of public relations experience and during the last quarter century also became involved in ethnic publications. At present Ben is the President of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association which speaks to issues of immigrant settlement, heritage preservation and the ethnic communities' role in nation building.
He is also a regular commentator on Omni Television and runs an online publication
called "Canscene" which introduces the reader to multicultural issues in Canada. In this article Ben shares with us his life experience throughout his early years, the Second World War, and his almost 60 years in Canada. He also gives us insight into his unique views on Canada's role as a potential model nation in terms of how we deal with immigration and immigrant settlement, notions that are very dear to my own heart.
I was amazed by Ben's energy and creativity and enjoyed the time we spent in a little restaurant along Bloor Street, learning from a man whose life experience spans almost a century, a man whose energy, creativity and broad-mindedness captivate.
1. Please tell us about yourself and your background.
I am a Canadian well qualified, I believe, to speak for multiculturalism and diversity through my mixed parentage, early education at a London school with an international student body, travel abroad, followed in Canada since the late 1940s by a diverse career in communications much of which has placed me in contact with Canadians from a wide variety of origins and backgrounds
Ben at the provincial archive, Winnipeg with the complete issues of
the Icelandic Framfari, first ethnic newspaper published in Manitoba,
in a scene from The Third Element
2. You grew up in England as the child of Italian immigrants. Please tell us more about that.
My father, an Italian immigrant to Britain, met and married my mother, an Englishwoman. They had two children, my younger brother John and me, seven years his senior. Our delight was to grow up in a home in which husband and wife enjoyed mutual respect for each other’s national traits. We lived in an ambiance of being loved and in turn, loving.
In those days, marriage to a foreign citizen who was not naturalized meant wife and children were Italian nationals and a sense of duality became natural to us. We ate chicken cacciatore and olives, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and rejoiced when Dad came home with sticks ot torrone, Italian nougat bought at Barale and Crippa an Italian grocery in the heart of Soho. Also their tangy salami. And while my Italian grandparents were still alive, they mailed boxes of home made salami, soppressata and goat cheese to us.
3. Your working life originally started out in the barber shop of your father. Please tell us more about th
Ben is a fascinating individual - at almost 90 years of age he is in the process of creating his second television documentary and involved in multiple projects at the same time. Ben has decades of public relations experience and during the last quarter century also became involved in ethnic publications. At present Ben is the President of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association which speaks to issues of immigrant settlement, heritage preservation and the ethnic communities' role in nation building.
He is also a regular commentator on Omni Television and runs an online publication
called "Canscene" which introduces the reader to multicultural issues in Canada. In this article Ben shares with us his life experience throughout his early years, the Second World War, and his almost 60 years in Canada. He also gives us insight into his unique views on Canada's role as a potential model nation in terms of how we deal with immigration and immigrant settlement, notions that are very dear to my own heart.
I was amazed by Ben's energy and creativity and enjoyed the time we spent in a little restaurant along Bloor Street, learning from a man whose life experience spans almost a century, a man whose energy, creativity and broad-mindedness captivate.
1. Please tell us about yourself and your background.
I am a Canadian well qualified, I believe, to speak for multiculturalism and diversity through my mixed parentage, early education at a London school with an international student body, travel abroad, followed in Canada since the late 1940s by a diverse career in communications much of which has placed me in contact with Canadians from a wide variety of origins and backgrounds
Ben at the provincial archive, Winnipeg with the complete issues of
the Icelandic Framfari, first ethnic newspaper published in Manitoba,
in a scene from The Third Element
2. You grew up in England as the child of Italian immigrants. Please tell us more about that.
My father, an Italian immigrant to Britain, met and married my mother, an Englishwoman. They had two children, my younger brother John and me, seven years his senior. Our delight was to grow up in a home in which husband and wife enjoyed mutual respect for each other’s national traits. We lived in an ambiance of being loved and in turn, loving.
In those days, marriage to a foreign citizen who was not naturalized meant wife and children were Italian nationals and a sense of duality became natural to us. We ate chicken cacciatore and olives, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and rejoiced when Dad came home with sticks ot torrone, Italian nougat bought at Barale and Crippa an Italian grocery in the heart of Soho. Also their tangy salami. And while my Italian grandparents were still alive, they mailed boxes of home made salami, soppressata and goat cheese to us.
3. Your working life originally started out in the barber shop of your father. Please tell us more about th
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