One of President Bioteau’s dreams for Salt Lake Community College students and faculty is to be able to talk about important social views. This dream was sustained by Monday nights lecture by Nicholas Kristof, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. The lecture was held at the South City Campus and was based on Kristof’s call to action titled, “Turning Oppression into Opportunity.”
Having a variety of social media access at Kristof’s fingertips enables him to be more proactive in the plight of social issues he feels passionate about. One such issue is the oppression of women throughout the world.
The lecture was full of inspiring stories all centered on the idea that when you invest in women it benefits everyone. The variety of investments can range from health to education and all have a simple answer.
The first benefit Kristof touched upon is the investment in women’s education. Women are not given the same opportunities as men to gain the educational benefits they need. Kristof believes in that giving women more legal or monetary opportunities, they’ll show more responsibility than their male counterparts.
The oppression of women in developing countries was brought up in relation to becoming more financially sound. Kristof talked about the differences of 1900th century slavery as opposed to the present day slavery. In the 1900s about 8,000 African’s were transported annually to the America’s and were considered valuable property so they had one defense against some of the tyranny. Now the sex and slave trade across international borders is about 800,000 people a year. These slaves are not valued and are considered to be worth only a few hundred dollars.
Kristof reported of his own purchases of some of the slave girls and returning them to their home. He received a receipt for human lives, putting an emphasis on how little these lives mean to their captors.
The health issue of women was also a grave topic. The mortality rate of women in developing countries is rising with males taking the lead of the majority of the population. Kristof attributed a lot of this to male children still getting the benefits that should be given to all children.
Another idea that was presented was to help women create capitalistic tendencies by starting their own businesses and getting careers. However, Kristof pointed out that in order to gain a sizeable income, education normally has to take part in these women’s lives, and as he said earlier, educating women is not deemed as high a priority as it should be.
Kristof ended the lecture with his own call to promote student action.
“Get engaged in an area of social justice that speaks to you,” Kristof said before he talked about the different kinds of issues that can benefit many.
Some of the interventions he suggested were small things like a .25 cent de-worming pill for children in developing countries, feminine hygiene products so girls will stop missing school, even the well known Heifer International program that give livestock to families in need.
For more information about Nicholas Kristof and ways to get involved in helping the female half of the population, visit halftheskymovement.com.