{"id":65,"date":"2012-01-27T05:35:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-27T05:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordsonsoil.co.za\/?p=65"},"modified":"2012-01-27T05:35:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-27T05:35:00","slug":"arent-these-crystal-clear-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordsonsoil.co.za\/?p=65","title":{"rendered":"Aren’t these crystal clear priorities?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nThe world was dealt a massive blow in June 2011.  The departure of a heroic veteran is still spoken about in low tone voices as if there is a wish for her to wake up from her peaceful sleep. What a multi-tasker, a loving mother, a nurturer! The stalwart Albertinal Sisulu left an undeniable gap.  What a courageous woman she was! What a fearless individual! Was she afraid to provide leadership at a time when it was forbiddingly terrifying for a woman to publicly juggle leadership with motherhood?  What a champion. She had a powerfully elegant ability to challenge authority; to stand up for the vulnerable; to voice out the ills of a society; to advance issues with a positive attitude; to live life gently and respectfully calm – hence she slipped away so tenderly graceful.<\/span><\/div>\n
\nIndeed, what a thrashing loss!
And just as we were still unconvincingly lowering our heads; heavily dragging our hearts out of this intolerable period was another equally awful blow delivered. The death of an amazingly hard-working social activist was a slap on the face.  What a crusader!  She founded the Green Belt Movement. She is the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her excellent contribution for sustainable development, democracy and peace.  The death of Professor Wangari Maathai, whose life was claimed by ovarian cancer in September 2011, demanded us to open our eyes and realize that the women community is seriously getting robbed.
Her death left the global community of women around the world celebratory disheartened.  <\/a>However, as if to heal a gaping wound and reach a compromise, the universe conspired for the best by having the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize jointly awarded to three exceptional women for their unstoppable efforts and commitment to bringing to light the plight of women to the global spotlight. Not two but three women shared this remarkable Prize, wow!
On accepting the Award Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf proudly shared the limelight with Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman and urged women to keep on finding their voice.  Indeed it is becoming crystal clearer that the role of women within societies is becoming more and more significantly noteworthy therefore their voice must be applauded.
How can we ignore that in South Africa, the year ended with The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy boasting a perfect 100 pass rate for its first batch of graduates? Is this not a firmly positive signal that women are not sitting on their laurels expecting to be recognised just for their appealing beauty and splendour?  There is more on offer.
All over the world, the feminine species is continually pulling up its sleeves, getting its hands dirty by working extremely hard to secure leadership positions in all spheres of life. <\/span><\/div>\n
\nThe hard-work is paying off. And more is needed.  More and more women are continually making ground-making moves. They are continually occupying seats in high and powerful position making a well-needed socio-economic, political and developmental impact. How satisfyingly remarkable this stride is!  Just note how the renowned musician Yvonne Chaka Chaka sophisticatedly received the World Economic Forum\u2019s Crystal Award! Chaka Chaka, the first Africa woman to receive this Award is a Goodwill Ambassador for the global Roll Back Malaria Partnership. She is also UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Malaria in Africa, United Nations MDG Envoy for Africa, and was chosen by Nelson Mandela as the first ambassador for his children’s fund.  She is moving from strength to strength.  With this powerful credit she can now smartly continue to use her voice to gain attention and make a change.  As the year progresses, we continue to be reminded that socio-economic empowerment is the backbone of a sustainably thriving future – empowered women bring forth an empowered Nation.  Hopefully as President Zuma shakes hands in Davos today at the World Economic Forum, he will remember to keep African women on his mind; and women at large \u2026.or rather women\u2019s issues and challenges – aren’t these crystal clear priorities?<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world was dealt a massive blow in June 2011.  The departure of a heroic veteran is still spoken about in low tone voices as if there is a wish for her to wake up from her peaceful sleep. What a multi-tasker, a loving mother, a nurturer! The stalwart Albertinal Sisulu left an undeniable gap.  […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsonsoil.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsonsoil.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsonsoil.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsonsoil.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsonsoil.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordsonsoil.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsonsoil.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsonsoil.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsonsoil.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}