LA PAZ, Bolivia – After reinventing Bolivia's government to reflect the country's multi-ethnic, Indian majority, President Evo Morales is championing gender parity at the highest levels of government.
Women now account for half of Bolivia's Cabinet ministers — 10 out of 20 — as Morales embarks on his second term following his Jan. 22 swearing-in ceremony.
The <span>president of the Senate</span> is a woman. Another heads up Customs, the public institution that is most vulnerable to corruption. The chief of <span>ruling party representatives</span> in congress is a woman. In all, women occupy 28 percent of congressional seats and 47 percent in the senate.
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How backward of them!
They look more qualified to be called "A light onto the nations" than the little fascist state of Israel..
ReplyDeleteWonderful for Bolivia!
ReplyDeleteSorry I haven't been around. I'm beginning to work on something that I have postponed for too long (not to speak of the work they are piling onto me at the uni.). However, while doing just that, I came across a quote that - while dated in the forties - is somewhat relevant to this entry you posted:
ReplyDeleteA people such as ours, which is becoming increasingly more conscious of its own cultural heritage, assumes a wary attitude toward outside influences, of course without going so far as to adopt such extreme conservatism as leads to an absurd rejection of all external contributions. In order that the discrimination which educators should exercise have a scientific foundation, it is not only advisable to have a satisfactory command of the modern cultural trends to be introduced, but also an increasingly clear knowledge of our own authentic social heritage, of the ways of life of our people throughout the country, of the functioning of political, juridical, economic, religious and other institutions, of the ways in which our people produce things of beauty together with those of utilitarian value, of how external factors influence the community and how the latter reacts, of the process of change in customs and the extent to which new methods and procedures are adopted, and of what is, in sum total, the cultural content analyzed in terms of its elements and seen from the point of view of its structure.
Luis Eduardo Valcárcel Vizcarra, Peru's Minister of Public Education 1945 - 47