Apologize

It has been waaaaaaay too long since my last update, but I have reasons. Please forgive me and read on. Upon assessing my financial and future job situation, plus the headache that is Air_Bulgaria and talking to my supervisor, I decided my best option for returning to the States was keeping my ticket in mid-December. I will be flying into Philly, staying until the 19th, then flying to Colorado, then returning to DC sometime after the first of the year. This decision has been one of the most difficult decisions of my life. This experience in Macedonia has been exciting, challenging, exhilarating and just plain different!

My Thanksgiving was spent having girls night with Dominika, Asya and Mattia (Dominika's 1 year old son - he liked being with the ladies). It was perfect and relaxing. No turkey and traditional food, but the spirit of the holiday was there - being thankful for what we have.

Today, I wrote a speech to discuss the CEDAW (Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women) Concluding Comments for Macedonia 3 years later - where we have been and challenges ahead. I will give you a little background so if you don't want to click the link, you have an idea what CEDAW does; however, I encourage you to read the actual link to the Concluding Comments - it isn't very long, just so you can see what I am working with. Basically, the Committee evaluates where a country is and where it needs to improve when it comes to gender equality. It looks not just at mandates, i.e. legislation and legal codes, but also implementation of mandates. I like the Concluding Comments format, which is basically here's what you did well, here's where you need to improve. So the Comments do not just focus on the negative, which is easy, but also looks at accomplishments. Granted, I have only looked at Macedonia's Comments, but this is my impression. As I noted a couple months ago, you won't find Concluding Comments with regard to the US because the US does not feel it needs to participate. It signed the treaty, but failed to ratify it so, basically, you have the Angora reporting, but not the self-anointed leader of the free world. By not ratifying the treaty, the US is not bound by its obligations, hence no reporting. What's wrong with this picture? So I am channeling my inner Obama and trying to write an inspirational speech of where we've been and where we are going...how we, as citizens, civil society, government entities and the international community can build on the current mandates and projects to achieve the goal of gender equality. We'll see how destroyed my draft gets, but it was a fun exercise none the less. If the person I wrote the speech for can channel their inner Obama (which I am convinced this individual does not have), we could maybe inspire some leadership in this department. Some people have charisma; others do not. I am not sure my level of charisma, but I think I have a bit...I just need to keep practicing writing speeches. I give good speeches, in my humble opinion, but writing them for others is a different issue because you have to write it for their delivery style. In this case, the delivery style is reading verbatim off a page, much different from my own. My dream is to one day not even need my note cards, which I barely look at.

Woo-Ha (got you all in check)

This is Herceg Novi, Montenegro. When Dao and I looked out of our room, this is the view we saw. It was beautiful, but the lady we rented our room from was extremely odd, to say the least. What a view!

The feminization of the women's movement...I read an article a couple months ago about how feminized the women's movement and women's NGOs are by focusing mostly on domestic violence and women's health. I could not agree more and here is why. The majority of funding surrounding women deals with domestic violence and health, both private sphere issues, often focusing on women as victims. While these issues are very important, by spending most of our resources on the private sphere issues, we continue to keep women there - in private and, often times, as victims. Think about it. Why don't we spend more of our resources on bringing women into the public sphere through conducting research and advocating for women's economic rights, political participation and being part of decision making processes? Isn't one of the main points of the women's movement to say that women are equal to men and by equal meaning allowed equal access to the public sphere and public life? I know I am over simplifying the women's movement and it is important what the domestic rights advocates and women's heath proponents have done. I am by no means diminishing their dedication and work surrounding these key issues and the progress that has been made, by which I would not be writing this today. However, it is my personal belief that until we start advocating for women's equitable participation in the public sphere as vehemently as we do surrounding private sphere issues, we will not progress much further than where we are today. Just a thought. Let's take the women's movement public.

Roads

This is from a couple years ago and it doesn't even look like me! I miss my cowgirl hat. It waits for me in Philly or Denver. Who knows when I will be reunited with this hat.

TGIF! Do you like my new layout? Let me know your thoughts. I needed to spice things up so I thought I would fool around with the template. Additionally, I added links to websites in my post that are relevant to what I blog about so enjoy!

We had quite a week in the office and I have not left before 6:30 for the past couple evenings. Today I start my research on Roma and Albanian women and social exclusion. I am so excited to be researching again :) I like to go from international to national to local in my research and presentation. So first, a quick review of CEDAW Concluding Comments which are available for your review here.* After that, on the the EU/Council of Europe websites on the Roma, the European Roma Rights Center, then to the, you guessed it, National Action Plan on the Decade of the Roma, to a study commissioned by UNDP to figure out what Roma NGOs are working on here in Macedonia (still waiting for the email). There are considerably more documents that I have not listed plus interviews that I need to do and then draft a concept note. After drafting the concept note, I'll meet with some Romany and Albanian women then develop a project proposal. The key here is I am focusing on the most vulnerable women and simply being a woman of a certain ethnic community does not make you automatically vulnerable. We want to find and hold up the most isolated, ignored women regardless of ethnicity, age or municipality. What is exciting about all of this is it is going to be grassroots level. We are going to see if there is a way we can make a difference on the ground, not just in legislation. If things go well here in Macedonia, we might be able to start to bring similar programing to other countries in the region. But let's not put the cart before the horse. First, research.

In addition to my new research project, we are also contemplating holding a series of workshops surrounding parental leave and EU Accession in Macedonia. There is a general framework that all EU countries follow when it comes to parental leave laws, but their parental leave laws/policies are not all the same. Macedonia is going to have to review their parental leave laws. It sounds mundane, but look at how parental leave can positively or negatively impact the balance of work and family life. For example, women in Macedonia are entitled to up to 9 months paid leave surrounding the birth of a child. I am not sure how much time the father is entitled to, but he can transfer his paternal leave to the mother. And does transfer his leave. So, what ends up happening is you have women leaving their job for 9, 10, 11 months while men don't take anytime, thus reinforcing traditional gender roles, making hiring young women a disincentive, etc. One option for Macedonia is to do what the Nordic countries have done and that is give father's 3 months paternal leave (or so) and make that leave non-transferable so they take it or lose it. What this does is allow fathers to develop relationships with their children and balance the effect of women being out of the workforce during the time surrounding childbirth. Firehouses in Sweden now experience what schools have always experienced: staff being out for long periods of time surrounding the birth of a child. What a concept!! There are other practices surrounding this issue throughout EU countries and so what we want to do is start that discussion for Macedonia. What option would work well for Macedonia? This is what we seek to distill, assuming we have our workshops!

I leave you with this thought: Why is it that my brother, in the States, gets 2 weeks paternity leave for the birth of his child and his wife gets 2 months? Is he not equally entitled to spending time with his child? I know my sister-in-law needs to physically recover from giving birth, but are we not just encouraging traditional gender roles and unpaid care-work being the responsibility of the women of our families by having parental leave set up this way? My brother is an excellent father. He wants to spend time with his child. Why is he not entitled to that just because he has a Y-chromosome?

*Do not try to find CEDAW concluding comments on the US because the do not exist. The US has failed to ratify CEDAW. I believe I do not have to comment on this since it speaks for itself: shame.

Are You Gonna Go My Way

Thai food in Sarajevo! Yum-bo! It was delicious, albeit not so authentic. This dish seemed to resemble tandoori chicken with Thai seasonings. Regardless, you can see how happy I am to have this deliciously ethnic cuisine.

I am sitting in the office this Monday wondering why it went from Summer to Winter in a matter of a day or two. It all started last week and now, it is pretty darn chilly. It is in the 10s here, which is around 45 Fahrenheit. I am sure you don't want to read about the Skopje weather so I will move on.

There was Pivo Land in Skopje this weekend, the first ever beer festival in the City. Pivo Land is not to be confused with Pivo Fest, which is in the city of Prilep. I went on Friday and Saturday evenings and froze. The reason I went both nights is because I went with 2 different groups of friends. Nora was here on Friday and so I went with her Habitat for Humanity group to experience Pivo Land. Saturday night, I went with Dominika and her husband, after we went to the basketball game. Macedonia qualified for the European Championships in basketball on Saturday night and it was a fun game, all and all. Dominika laughed at my cheering for Macedonia and I was, once again, one of the more fervent supporters in our section. It is fun to react to whatever is going on down on the court. I am not particularly into basketball, but I enjoy the entertainment. Both nights, I met up with the guy I am seeing here and my friends seemed to like him so this is good.

In other news, I cooked delicious lentils with sausage so I can finally have my friends over for dinner since I know what to prepare for them. More excitement.

Finally, we finished our brainstorming session on women's economic rights and the next steps we would like to take. My colleagues and I remain despondent about the new government program for stimulating the birthrate but we know if we sponsor research surrounding this issue, in connection with women's economic rights, the chance of the government remaining one of our implementing partners and maintaining a positive relationship with them is slim. Oh the dilemmas...I have more information on the birthrate stimulation program. Basically, as a woman, if you have 4 children, you qualify for a full pension of the average wage from the government at retirement age. You get a certain percentage of pension for 3 kids, 2 kids, etc. It is targeted to municipalities with low birthrates, which also happen to Macedonian ethnicity majority. I am not sure if the woman's marital status or the paternity of the father matters in terms of receiving said pension benefits. Regardless, this seems to fly in the face of gender equality legislation and to be somewhat xenophobic. The only thing that gives me hope is the study in conducted in the US finding that welfare benefits/cash assistance does not influence reproductive decisions. However, there are serious attitude differences between the countries in terms of what the government is expected to provide its citizens. Maybe Big Nikki's birthrate enhancement program will flop. I think my secret crush on Big Nikki is waning. I can tolerate differences in opinion, but there is a limit and a line must be drawn. Maybe I'll move on to Lenny Kravitz for secret crush material. The only problem with that is it is highly unlikely that I will be 6 feet away from Lenny in a cafe.

And The Beat Goes On...

This is my friend's husband, Kyle, holding a deodorant with the brand name Str8. I've seen this brand throughout the Balkans (this photo was taken in Sofia). I asked Kyle to look as straight as possible so I could take his picture and who knows, maybe start our own ad campaign. It's a little blurry due to the setting on my camera, but I think you get the picture. I tease my gay friends that if they ever need to pretend to be straight to let me know, I have the product for them. So let me know, I can pick some up for you.

Last night, I ran for 35 minutes, for a total of 8 songs. The cooler weather is ideal for running and I think my pace is getting faster. It also seemed like I was breathing a lot more exhaust and pollution than my prior two times. I would have to say the highlight was getting cut off by a garbage truck. Not only did I have to come to a dead stop, but then I was running behind it for a bit until I could cross the street safely. While it smelled pretty rank, I am grateful that it wasn't mid summer rot.

Having internet on my Mac in my apartment has changed my life. I chatted with my Gramma, my Jones, a Macedonian friend, a college friend and Manuel. Oh my! Oh and Cata and Jennie, last but certainly not least.

Yesterday was fairly stressful, watching the markets throughout Europe drop, then seeing the American stock exchange plummet in the first 10 minutes of opening. I am not going to lie - I am freaked out. I have to find a job that pays well enough to repay my student loans. I haven't heard back from many places I've applied. I am being extorted (well, it feels like that) from my student health insurance. Add to that the dollar is dropping against the Euro and I am feeling a bit nervous about my financial situation. So far, the dollar and the MKD (Macedonian Denar) are exchanging at much better rates than earlier this summer. Here's to hoping. Needless to say, I have not been sleeping well and my nerves are fairly fragile.

Tonight is coffee with one of my new Macedonian friends, assuming I can get everything together. The last thing I want to do is complain about my financial situation to anyone living in this country. I am blessed - I will most likely become employed at a position that reflects my educational and experiential background and I have a family that is financially stable...on a scale of 1 - 100 with 100 being total gender equity, Macedonia scores 55.5 regarding economic activity of men and women. I know women in this region are more likely to remain unemployed after pursuing a degree in higher education than their male counterparts. My friend, Tony, has a friend here who is trained to be an architect, but she is selling cosmetics. She graduated 4 years ago. Many of the servers at the cafes are college graduates. Stumbling markets in Europe, the US and Asia mean that economic situation here is not going to improve anytime soon.

Cynical

This is a picture of the Tarator, the cucumber yogurt salad I made with my landlady a couple months ago. It is deliciously refreshing in the hot summer months

Happy Monday! This is the day that I find out if I still have my health insurance. Boo-yah! If it turns out my health insurance company does not accept my father's power of attorney privileges, please pray that I am not seriously injured while walking down the sidewalks of Skopje. Recently, I have become more annoyed with the fact that cars park on the sidewalk and/or feel that they have the right of way on the sidewalks. It has been raining for 2 days. Why should I risk bodily harm in walking in the street or getting dirty walking in the mud so you can be 5 feet closer to the bodega? It's raining on me too.

But, I digress. I am actually writing to see if you think I am too cynical. Here's what prompted this entry. I had a recent exchange with a young, Macedonian man who said that he thinks women should be equal with men and that, as it stands now, women's position, in society, is lower and needs to be elevated to where men are. This is after I told him what I am doing here in Macedonia (studying women's economic rights). I am in disbelief. I am so used to people giving me a blank stare (men and women alike) when I tell them what I do because there are either much more important problems facing Macedonia or Macedonia has already achieved gender equality. I happen to disagree with both of those premises. So you can imagine my shock when this young man supported what I said by making his statement about gender equality. But then, there is this part in my brain that says, "he is just saying that because he wants you to like him". We did meet in a bar while I was waiting in line for the restroom, after all. So am I too cynical? Is it possible that he was speaking his genuine opinion? I am so used to justifying what I do that this exchange just threw me off. Also, I think I am leery because my last encounter with a man who told me he was a feminist of sorts ended with him propositioning me. I realize this is anecdote. I know we just recently hired a man in our office in Bosnia-Herzegovina as a gender advisor so it is not impossible for men to be on the gender equality wagon. I guess I should do what I always advise my Mother and what my Mother always advises me: listen to your tummy.

Shock and Awe

To the left is a picture of Nikolai Gruevski, the PM of Macedonia. More on him later.

I am reading the Macedonian Government's National Action Plan for Employment 2006-2008 and am absolutely appalled. There is a section called "Promote a lifecycle approach to work" followed by five goals. Here are two of the goals:

1. resolute action to increase female participation and reduce gender gaps in employment, unemployment and pay,
2. better reconciliation of work and private life and the provision of accessible and affordable childcare facilities and care for other dependents.

Sounds promising, right? Ha ha ha ha, how naive I was. My eyes lit up reading this only to be utterly crushed when I read the planned programs and measures. It is estimated that in 2005, the female employment rate was 30.1% (male: 45.5%). Upon stating this information, the paper goes on to recognize that in the Albanian, Roma and Turkish communities, female employment rate is even lower. The remedy: the Roma, Albanians and Turkish communities assumed embracing of the educational system eventually downsizing the problem. Um, what?! This is not a program or action. Let's not even get into how this "solution" is worded. The policy then goes on to categorically deny the existence of a wage gap. "There is no wage difference between men and women for the same jobs." How did Macedonia achieve this feat? What are we in the US and the EU doing wrong? I am reminded of Nixon's declaration of victory in regards to the Vietnam War. Just declare victory and go home! Or maybe it is simply job segmentation: no women mangers, no wage gap. By the way, there is no mention of the the job segmentation in society in the piece of policy. So, now, let's get into the proposed activities to increase women's employment, shall we?

1. Change the law on employment and unemployment insurance to make sure women are included. Focus on women in mediation services provided by the Employment Insurance Agency.
2. Women's employment rate will positively influence child care and single parents' programs.

Am I missing something? What about training programs for women? Encouraging women entrepreneurship? How is #2 an action?

Let's move on to affordable and accessible childcare and dependent care. There is absolutely NO mention of dependent care that is not related to children. The policy goes on to note that there are a low number of children enrolled in kindergartens (childcare for children age 3 and up before they are school aged, not kindergarten the way we think about it in the US). The author(s) then go on to note this low enrollment in kindergartens is directly related to the low rate of women's employment. Brilliant. Unemployed women = no financial means to enroll children in kindergarten and lack of need to enroll the children. The conclusion: "Thus, it could be concluded that access to childcare facilities is not the key factor for better reconciliation between work and private life." The outrage! Who wrote this? I almost cried in despair, suddenly realizing what I am up against to develop the women's economic rights program here at UNIFEM. I knew there were strong gender stereotypes in this country, but until I read this, it seemed more of an idea, not a reality. Here's my slap in the face.

Oh, and one more thing. There is a (proposed?) new government incentive program to get Macedonians to have more than 2 children. Everyone that I know that is of the Macedonian ethnic community has 2 children. No more, no less. So, in all of his wisdom, Big Nikki Gruevski, the PM, has devised an incentive for Macedonians to have 4 children: more money in retirement. Maybe this is also part of a new women's employment program. Have babies, drop out of the work force. Then, we don't have to even count you as unemployed. The thing is, if Macedonia is anything like the US, financial incentives or penalties doled out by the government rarely influence reproductive decisions in a statistically significant way. That being said, I am still angry angry angry.

PS I am not sure if this 4 child policy includes other ethnic communities or simply the ethnic Macedonian community. I am also not sure if the incentive program has passed. Given that PM Gruevski's party has a majority, I would be surprised if it somehow failed in the parliament. If I hear more, I will update.

An update on the Security Council Resolution 1820

Below is additional information as to what the Security Council Resolution 1820 (recognizing sexual violence as a war tactic) actually implies. This information is courtesy of UNIFEM and a direct quotation from an email I received.

This is a historic resolution [1820] that now stands as an essential support for the full implementation of SCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. Among other provisions, the resolution:

• recognizes that efforts to prevent and respond to sexual violence as a tactic of war may be linked to the maintenance of international peace and security – ending once and for all debate over whether sexual violence belongs on the Council’s agenda as a security issue;
• affirms the recognition of sexual violence in conflict as a war crime, crime against humanity and constituent act of genocide;
• strengthens the prohibition on amnesty for such crimes;
• calls for stronger and clearer guidelines to UN peacekeepers to prevent sexual violence against civilians;
• calls for more systematic and regular reporting on the issue; and
• asserts the importance of women’s participation in all processes related to stopping sexual violence in conflict, including their participation in peace talks.
  

It is about freaking time

Finally, UN Security Council recognized rape/sexual violence as an instrument of war and a threat to international security. While I am happy to see this issue is being recognized for what it is, why did this take so long? How many centuries has raping women and girls (and sometimes men and boys) been part of showing control and domination of one group over another? Let's look at the past 20 years (and I am not even being complete in this list): the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early 1990s, Rwanda, eastern Congo, Darfur, Kosovo...well, let's see if the crisis of implementation is true for this UN Security Council Resolution. Actions speak louder than words.

The following jobs are considered exceptionally difficult...

I am reading the Macedonian Labor Relations Act of 1993 and in Section 32, it outlines what jobs are considered exceptionally difficult, strenuous and detrimental to human health. I want you to see some examples: exceptionally difficult physical labor, work in water or high humidity, surgical work in operating rooms, psychiatry work, work with harmful chemicals, ballet dancers, wind instrument musicians, folk dancers and opera singers. This section says, if I am understanding things correctly, that these employees can work reduced working hours (but not less than 30 hours a week) and cannot work more than the agreed upon working hours. Hmmmm. Interesting. Employees are entitled to a minimum of 18 working days of vacation per year. Sweet! Oh no, I just found out I was not reading the updated version of the law. It turns out, it was updated in 2005. Here's to hoping the folk dancers are still included in the 2005 version.

In other news, Bea is out of town until Sunday (which also happens to be her birthday). I finished knitting a scarf for her and I really hope she likes it and will actually wear it. I think it is cool, but I am not sure if our fashion sense match :) I hope to go to a yarn store with Damjanka (my host mom) tomorrow. The intern who was here prior to me is in town as well so we may meet up. My, how things change! Just a week ago, I was actually ironing my shirts. Now, I almost have a social life.

One more thing. I had my final training in security today, with the actual security department of the UN. I got to see where the dangerous parts of Macedonia are on a map and I asked the nice man what Kisela means. Kisela Voda is the name of my neighborhood. As it turns out, kisela literally means acid, but what you are really asking for is mineral water - that is how Macedonians say mineral water - kisela voda. Acid water, mineral water, it's all the same. I know we have funny names for things in English too, I just can't think of them right now. So, now I can order a beer (Skopsko, which is a pilsner made here in Skopje and delicious), Nescafe (coffee with milk) and kisela voda. Oh and Schweppes, which is a sour lemon carbonated refreshing deliciousness.

What does UNIFEM do, anyways?

I have often been asked what my internship entails. Now that I have been here almost two weeks, I can explain things better (not perfectly, but better). Here is what I sent to my Alumni person at Penn describing UNIFEM and me:

My MSSP internship is with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in their Skopje, Macedonia office. UNIFEM provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programs and strategies to foster women's empowerment and gender equality. UNIFEM focuses on reducing feminized poverty, ending violence against women, reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls and achieving gender equality in democratic governance in times of peace as well as war. Personally, I am working on a project surrounding women's economic rights in Macedonia. I am reviewing Macedonian legislation and policy to see where UNIFEM can support a project to further women's equality in the work place.

As you are aware, I turned in my first paper yesterday and I think Audrey (my supervisor) liked it. Now, I just have to hope Dean Gelles and Ms. Cassie do as well. Today, I am learning about the Human Rights Based Approach to development. It deals with Duty Bearers and Rights Holders...so within this framework and based on the paper I just wrote, I have to figure out an entry point for UNIFEM surrounding women's economic rights. I keep hearkening back to my Poverty, Welfare and Work class (Hi Dr. Iversen!) where we discussed many items, one of which is whether there are actually jobs available to people once they complete their training (this is in America, but applies here as well). As you may know, Macedonia has high unemployment, for both men and women. As you can imagine, there is also lots of underemployment because individuals need a job, period. So the government of Nikolai (that is the first name of the Prime Minister and, as you can see, we are on a first name basis) is trying to make Macedonia a Business Heaven so jobs and industry can grow (from foreign investors), thus helping alleviate some of the unemployment and raising the standards of living for all Macedonians. Which goes back to job training and job availability, oh and women. I want to make sure that women have equal access to the training and hiring processes, especially if the much desired foreign investment comes in. I want women to know that it is illegal for their contract for employment to be based on whether they are going to have children in the near future. Potential employers frequently ask if young women plan on having children and make it a condition of their contract that if they become pregnant, their contract is terminated. I know the same thing goes on behind closed doors in the States - let's hire the young man instead of the young woman because we don't have to worry about maternity leave. How am I going to do this? I am not sure, but this is what is swirling around in my head at the moment.