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发表于 2011-10-13 12:53:33
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VOX POPULI: Longing for a world where peace prizes are unnecessary
"Onna Dake no Seiji" (Politics by women only) is the title of an essay by Yasuji Hanamori (1911-1978), a legendary editor who started the magazine Kurashi no Techo. It argues that since politics in the hands of men does not work particularly well, the job should be left to women. The essay was penned soon after World War II, but its words still ring true today.
Here's a passage: "(Since ancient times) it has been a given that politics is a man's job. Thus, men have been trying this and that but no matter what they do, war has been repeated and irrationality of society has not been rectified at all." If Hanamori were alive, he would have been content with this year's Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to three women.
One of them, Ellen Sirleaf, 72, is president of Liberia in western Africa. She has been rebuilding the nation, which had been bled dry through dictatorial rule and corruption by "men."
Sirleaf took over the administration six years ago when the death toll in civil war stood at about 270,000, the unemployment rate was 85 percent and only 40 percent of the population could read and write.
To eradicate corruption, she dismissed all 300 employees of the finance ministry and appointed women to head the ministries of finance, justice and commerce as well as the police. She must be a real go-getter.
She had also been imprisoned. Her philosophy is rooted in nonviolence. Its best-known practitioner, Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948), said that nonviolence is the greatest power given to humans. Since Sirleaf is an active politician, she must be a target of both praise and censure. But I wish to place faith in the power of nonviolence as a means to change reality.
While the Nobel Peace Prize is a prestigious award, it is paradoxical. The greater the adversity and absurdity, the more the prize attracts attention. I wish the "struggle without guns" of the three female laureates will eventually lead to a peaceful world in which peace prizes are unnecessary.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 12 |
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