Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Amazing the stories but who's the audience?

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was actually debating between 3 and 4 stars - I really did enjoy the book and thought it was powerful and many of the stories are so well described, but towards to the end I started to feel uncomfortable in the ways to resolve these issues. For example, he talks about the importance of using a bottom-up approach and then he gives the example of Heifer International and how it was a foreign woman who changed the life of a Zimbabwean who went to the US to get her education and that was a success story.... Also supporting the Mexico program Oportunidades as an exemplary model where I have observed in person that it's not the case in the state of Chiapas, makes me start questioning the credibility of some of his case studies.

Nevertheless, I was very engaged with the book and my heart went out to so many of those stories. Just when I thought I could sit down and read some pages before going to sleep I read a page of a horrific gang-rape case... I also cried on the MUNI multiple times reading this book...

Great book to discuss about, for sure!

View all my reviews >>

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Many thanks how I can thank you?