WHY?

To the CHINESE WOMEN OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Greetings from the Philippines.


In 1995 I was there at Huairou, where all the NGO women's organizations were billeted to shut them out from communicating with the government women delegates who were placed in Beijing. Later on we were allowed in the latter city after the formal rites were through. We were supposed to celebrate:

"the Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace. (This is the) name given for (the) conference convened by the United Nations during 4–15 September 1995..."

I felt so elated attending that not only because of the Tee Shirt which had Chinese characters of the theme of the conference but because I saw the huge picture of Chairman Mao Ze Dong in the plaza. It was awesome for me to see because I had read his books in the seventies thinking his ideas would help our country overcome the dictatorial regime of Marcos.

I can still remember reading his views about women being liberated for the country's sake.

Well, I had thought that because your country had sponsored that huge conference (by the way my participationas overall coordinator of MAKAMASA, an urban poor women's organization in Tondo, Manila, the biggest slum area in Asia at the time,  was sponsored by the Japanese women in tandem with the Graduate Studies on Women by the City University of New York, headed then by bless her soul, Dr. Sue Rosenberg).), then your country would have a different method of having a communist regime, a more benevolent one.

By the way, I was able to travel a bit in your country and I noticed then that smoking was allowed inside buses which made me choke a bit. And my friend from Puerto Rico who was my companion, said that China had not heard yet about pollution then. I also bought a thing from the supermarket and it was broken when I had brought it home, But when I tried to exhange it, the supermarket had refused. And so I told the cashier, who always spoke Chinese, that they have to learn from the people from democratic countries because goods may be exchanged or returned when they are not in order upon purchase.

Now after 24 years, your country is up there high in the list of economic superpowers. However, militarily your officials are being extremely difficult to be dealt with. Despite UN declaration of our ownership of certain zones in the sea, your government continues to insist they are your own.

Lately, our country fisherfolks have been suffering greatly from the intrusions of your military ships in our high seas. The latest is one Chinese ship rammed down a Filipino fishing vessel and had left the local sailors almost drowning after it had sunk. Without the Vietnamese sailors help, their life could have been shortened.

Why is your government acting such a big bully now? What has happened to the theme of our Beijing International Women's Conference of Equality, Development and Peace?

I think it is time for you to discipline your men and make them practice tolerance.