Nicholas Kristof, How I Love Thee

It's no secret that I love Nicholas Kristof! I've posted many of his columns and today found another gem via the New York Times that has me smiling from ear to ear.

It's a Special Issue called, "Saving the World's Women: The Women's Crusade."

I was a little daunted when I saw that the article was 7 pages long, but when I finished I was disappointed. I wanted more and luckily there will be more next month. The essay featured is actually adapted from Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's (a former NYT correspondent and Kristof's wife's) new book, "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide."

“'Women hold up half the sky,' in the words of a Chinese saying, yet that’s mostly an aspiration: in a large slice of the world, girls are uneducated and women marginalized, and it’s not an accident that those same countries are disproportionately mired in poverty and riven by fundamentalism and chaos."

It doesn't have to be this way. We can reach out and help the women and girls of the world and in doing so help us all. Kristof and WuDunn have the right idea in their essay which is sprinkled with inspiring tales of women and girls from the most remote and improverished regions of the world and innovative ideas to help better the lives of women and girls globally.

Check out a sneak peak to Half the Sky at the NYT now!

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Another Reason Why I love Nicholas Kristof

Nicholas Kristof does it again with a compelling op-ed that highlights a women's rights issue that is so often overlooked by the media - maternal mortality.

According to the World Health Organization, Sierra Leone has the highest maternal mortality in the world, and in several African countries, 1 woman in 10 ends up dying in childbirth.

It’s pretty clear that if men were dying at these rates, the United Nations Security Council would be holding urgent consultations, and a country such as this would appoint a minister of paternal mortality. Yet half-a-million women die annually from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth without attracting much interest because the victims are typically among the most voiceless people in the world: impoverished, rural, uneducated and female.

The types of pregnancy-related deaths the women Kristof writes about could be easily preventable at a very low costs but all around the world women are literally dying to become mothers. This is completely unjust and reprehensible. Women can be saved in childbirth but only if, as Kristof says, "...their lives become a priority."

Read Kristof's op-ed in full >

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