Blog 11

As I was browsing the internet for something to blog about I decided to look for something about women in Asia. I haven't really written anything about the circumstances of women in Asia, other than about China's One Child Policy, but we have talked a lot about Asia in class.

I googled "women in asia" and came across http://pacificislandtours.com/ and http://www.sunshine-international.com/. Both of these sites have the purpose of connecting men who are not from Asia to to Asian women via an online or "pen-pal" dating service. Pacific Island Tours is a "full service" business that will arrange scuba diving lessons, dinner reservations, and hotel accomodations for the couple. However, they make it very clear that they do not sell women as brides, and that the client has to win over the heart of his female friend because they do not arrange marriages.

Conerning arranging marriages, Sunshine International says it even better:

"Due to the feminist endorsed International Marriage Broker Regulation Act, IMBRA, a law which intrudes upon the privacy and civil liberties of men seeking foreign women, we will be restructuring our services to comply with the law."

The creators of Sunshine International are clearly ticked off about IMBRA. On their page describing the act, they provide testimonials of happily married couples in order to refute the idea that international marriage broker services and the men who use them often exploit women. They also assert that there is no such thing as a mail-order bride system.

It really amazes me at how ignorant people are to the abuses and exploitation of women (and men for that matter). It's probably just because of money. The almighty dollar means so much to us. Sites like this really inflame me, and make me understand even more that we desparately need a change of priorities in our hearts.

The suffering of women and children in the sex-trade industry, the suffering of women who are forced to endure genital mutilation, the fact that many women have to go without food for days because their husbands get to eat whatever food they might have first--the key to solving these problems is not in educating people's minds. Education serves its purposes, which are good, but if people don't want to be educated, how can it help? The tribal men in the middle east whose wives bow to their every whim don't want to be educated. They are being taken care of, so what else matters?

The real solution to the exploitation of any people or group is a change of heart. The human condition is absolutely deplorable. We live to please ourselves, with little to no thought of anyone else. If people really cared for people, and just considered others for even a moment, things could change. But in my opinion, all the knowledge in the world without a genuine kindness in the hearts of people for others will only allow these abuses to continue.