My Advocacy

All of us want a better future, for ourselves, for our children, for our world. We urgently need to fix the most-pressing global issues - including gender inequality, climate change, hunger and poverty, war and terrorism, and human rights abuses. The list is very long. We must take real action before it is too late.

Closest to my heart is the need to advance the status of women and children worldwide. This is not because I am a woman. It is because I have seen the way that women as home-makers and women in organizations (business, government, non-government organizations - NGOs, etc) can really make a difference. In addition, we all know that children are our future.

Critical issues that we need to fix include: equality in access to education, work, government, etc; and ending discrimination, domestic abuse, human rights abuses and human trafficking & slavery. This coincides broadly with the advocacies of groups in which I’ve been active, including Zonta International and Soroptimist International.

Another thing that we can all easily promote is cross-cultural understanding, interfaith understanding and religious tolerance. As mentioned, my work involving Christians and Muslims earned me a prestigious award from a leader who excels in this (see My Recognition). As an aside, I am also a member of the All Nations Women’s Group which, among other things, aims to promote cultural exchange and understanding.

This is where it starts to get tricky. Many issues are too big for one woman to make a real difference. We really need to work together to improve our planet.

One of the biggest issues facing us is climate change. Typoon Haiyan/Ondoy is just a small example of what we can expect in the future. We need to stop burning carbon–based fuel before we destroy the planet. Which will be the first country in Asia to show responsibility? Among other things, I urge the Philippine government to stop building coal fired power stations and instead use the country’s abundant renewable sources of energy.

Next on my list is fighting sickness, hunger and poverty. One person in eight will go to bed hungry tonight. The 85 richest people in the world have as much wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest (ie, as much money as the bottom half of the world’s population). I don’t mind people being rich. But the imbalances in our world are just totally unacceptable. Something has to change.

The same goes for many other thing which are so wrong with our world - including other human rights abuses, war and terrorism. These problems are almost exclusively in the male preserve, and usually involve territory and/or corruption. We women have to be really strong and proactive to pressurise our leaders to forget egos, act with humility, and strive for peace and harmony.

As I keep saying, we have to dream of a better world, and then we must take action every day to make our dreams come true.