Bella Abzug, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, said in her speech to the plenery of the Fourth UN Conference on Women in September, 1995
"Change is not about simply mainstreaming women. It's not about women joining the polluted stream. It's about cleaning the stream, changing stagnant pools into fresh, flowing waters.
" Our struggle is about resisting the slide into a morass of anarchy, violence, intolerance, inequality and injustice. Our struggle is about reversing the trends of social, economic and ecological crisis. Our struggle is about creating violence-free families, and violence-free streets and violence-free borders.
" For us to realize our dreams, we must keep our heads in the clouds and our feet on the ground."
We still face the same challenge of changing stagnant pools of institutions and policies into fresh, flowing waters. There is a need for more cooperation among those already active, and a need to bring new people into the effort - both women and men. Today's world is more complex than we thought in 1995, and it is more difficult to present a coherent program of action.
However, I believe that progress will come from outside the structures of governments. In culture, philosophy, communications, and ecology there are quiet currents advancing humanity toward world unity, to personal enrichment through a synthesis of cultures, to reverence for life. It will still take time before such currents embody themselves in government policies at the national level or in new programs in the United Nations system. These currents will have to grow stronger before we see new significant governmental forms. An enlarged UN Security Council will not produce better policies, but a hightened awareness of fresh flowing waters can produce better policies within old structures.
René Wadlow, Association of World Citizens
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