NFF installment - important!

This will be a particularly long entry because the Empress has a LOT to say about the movies she Friday and Saturday. One was really good. The other was just ok, but both of them show us how sorry… how sad… how pathetic contemporary feminism is. And Empress Kitty is going to let them have it because she can’t take it anymore! AAARRRRGGGHHH!!!!!!

First, the movies. Last night was Born into Brothels. It will be airing on HBO later this year so all of you will have the opportunity to view it. I highly recommend it. It is the story of a photographer who has gone to India to chronicle the lives of the women living and working in Calcutta’s red light district. While there, Zana began to work with the children and taught them photography. We see the harsh reality these children face day in and day out – the violence, the abuse, the squalor and abject poverty of life in the brothels. We see it through the video and the photographs the children take.

Avijit was 12 when the documentary was filmed. He is immensely creative – a born artist with a real talent for telling a story in a picture. Avijit’s mom was murdered in an “accidental kitchen fire” by her pimp. This sent the young man into a tailspin, making him more depressed and apathetic. He said “When I was little, I wanted to be a doctor. Then I wanted to be an artist. Now.. well.. I don’t know. There’s no hope or a future to be found here.” (Empress’ horrible paraphrase but very close) My heart broke for that young man. As Christians, we are called to bring hope to those who have none – whether though meeting a physical need, prayer, or sharing the gospel as examples. Avijit was selected by the World Press Photo Foundation as one of 9 children to go to their conference and learn about photography. While there, I believe, he could see there was life beyond the streets of Calcutta and that he was being given an opportunity to get out. Zana stated that he’s now in one of the best schools in Calcutta and wants to be a photographer. You may view some of the children’s work at http://kids-with-cameras.org/flash.php.

This afternoon, I viewed “Witches in Exile.” It is a documentary about women in Ghana who have been run out of their home villages because they were accused of witchcraft. They live in camps in northern Ghana and scrape out a living. Some hope to go home. Some have long given up ever seeing their family again. When the filmmakers asked one of the ex-husband’s why he didn’t go get his wife after she drank the de-witching potion, he said that she was of no use to him anymore. She was past child-bearing age. (Empress’ hope: maybe we can send Gloria Steinhem there)

Government bureaucrats, in their infinite wisdom, were going to close the camps down without even visiting. Eventually, a few of the parliamentarians made their way out to the sticks and found that the women didn’t want to leave. Where would they go? “They could become tourist attractions” stated one brilliant official. They could be killed if they went home. What the women wanted were blankets, clothes, beds, and clean water.

So, why am I so upset about this? Here’s an opportunity for women in affluent Western countries to make a real difference (through organizations like Compassion, World Vision, or Kids with Cameras) in the lives of other women. But no! We have to go to Washington and chant “Keep Bush out of my bush!” because that’s really important.

Women dying in Calcutta at the hands of pimps isn’t important….

Women dying in honor killings in the Middle East isn’t important….

Women dying in remote villages in Africa, having been accused of witchcraft isn’t important…

Domestic violence on both genders around the globe

Female genital mutilation

The sale of young boys and girls into slavery in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe are not important either…

You know why the self-righteous feminists that were marching last week won’t give a flip about the above causes? Because they are not glamorous photo opportunities on CNN. Because fixing them is hard work. It requires sacrifice.

But we don’t have to leave their homes to make a difference.

Before you say the Empress is calling the kettle black when she’s a little teapot, the Empress puts her money where her mouth is. She bought 2.. yes 2 prints at the festival to help fund the children’s education with her tax refund money. She has also sponsored 2 children through World Vision in the past and wants to again in the future. And the Empress some day wants to take a mission trip to Russia to work with orphans. She has also signed up to partner with one of our church members who will be standing next to President Bush outlining the US position on human trafficking. Rhoda, while a drug addict, was sold into sex slavery by the Japanese mafia. Praise God that He has redeemed her and is using her past experience to bring light to an issue no one wants to confront.

After all slavery is so 19th century.

Praise God that Rhoda wound up at a church that does not judge people’s past and use it as a bar to say ‘ohhh.. well.. when you clean up your act, you can visit here.’

Let me ask the celebrities who took time out of their lounge chair lifestyles this question: do you only participate when the cameras are on? Or do you go to Planned Parenthood and help stuff envelopes? I thought so. You don’t. “But I help raise money…”

Well, bully for you. I seriously doubt Ashley Judd’s appearance at the protest last weekend made one stinkin’ bit of difference in NARAL’s bottom line. It did get Ashley some publicity though. Does she have a movie coming out in the next month?

And to the insanely radical, bad dye job college kids who’ve had one too many classes on feminist theory: why don’t you talk to some of the women who’ve had abortions? Murder doesn’t occur in a vacuum.