A Walk To Beautiful

And so last night I was watching A Walk to Beautiful about women in rural Ethiopia who had developed fistulas due to inadequate health case during chld birth. Some of these women had been in labour for a week. A Week! For those who do not know what a fistula is, it is a hole from the vagina to either the bladder or Rectum (in some cases both). This causes incontinence among other things.

One of the things that bothered me about the situation, as a Pan-Africanist, which was alluded to in the film where there was a 3-4 year old standing on a rusted out tank, was how the government of Ethiopia (and elsewhere) were/are far more concerned with it's next door neighbor's government and being area stooges for the US, than with the welfare of it's population. It is a continuous pattern that I see across Africa, where the elites live in relative if not outright comfort, while leaving millions of their countrymen in relative squalor.

Even more appalling in this case was that the vast majority of the fistulas were entirely preventable. How? First why are women in 2008, anywhere, carrying 200 pound loads over long distances? Seriously. I won't carry a Mac Pro more than 100 yards. This is important because this back breaking work along with inadequate nutrition, leads to stunted growth among many of the women. As a result childbirth (usually early) is more difficult.

The second thing that bothered me was the attitudes towards the women suffering from fistulas. Looked down upon by the rest of the family treated as outcasts and such. Not OK at all.

Anyway you can see the movie here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/beautiful/program.html

Technorati Tags: Africa, Pan-Africanism