介绍:
Lincoln: Yesterday was International Women’s Day, and it’s still going on in some parts of the world, and actually, what it was a lot of – on March 8th – a lot of women all over the world, and not just women, actually, honoring the role of women in society, and looking back on how far women have come, and how far [they] still need to go. One of the interesting things I saw was there was a lot of interesting messages from a lot of state leaders and important people from around the world. Tu Yun, maybe you can kick us off with some.
TY: From Vladimir Putin, he said: “Dear women, you possess a mysterious power, you keep up with everything, juggle a myriad of tasks, and yet remain tender, unforgettable and full of charm.” How nice!
Lincoln: That’s a lovely thing to say. “Tender, unforgettable”.
Michael: “A mysterious power”(!)
Lincoln: A mysterious power! Very interesting.
TY: But can you two feel that?
Lincoln: I feel I can feel that. I think there’s a mysterious power about certain women.
Michael: Yeah. I think, as a major world leader, that’s a strange choice of words, but, you know, each to their own.
Lincoln: The think it, also, presumably, it was also translated, so we’re not necessarily sure if it was lost in translation, but yes – mysterious, yet tender. Unforgettable and full of charm.
TY: Anyway, it’s a compliment.
Lincoln: Yeah. Go on, what about some other leaders, Tu Yun?
TY: Well, the UN head Ban Ki-Moon, he said: “For more than nine years, I have put this philosophy into practice at the United Nations. We have shattered so many glass ceilings we created a carpet of shards. Now we are sweeping away the assumptions and bias of the past so women can advance across new frontiers”.
Lincoln: Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, there, of the UN. That’s very interesting, that one, and also quite a positive statement there, Michael.
Michael: Yeah, I liked the imagery with the glass ceiling being shattered, as well. I think that’s a good message.
TY: I doubt [it]! There’s a lot of it still existing.
Lincoln: Absolutely, and maybe we haven’t shattered it, maybe we’ve just chipped away at it. That may be a fuller metaphor, as it were. Maybe you can kick us off with some other ones, Michael.
Michael: Yeah, so we’ve talked about some potentially positive messages, there. One that I would argue is a little more negative, maybe a bit backward-looking, is from the Turkish President Erdogan, who says: “I know there will be some who will be annoyed, but for me a woman is above all a mother”. Now, I would argue that President Erdogan has somewhat spectacularly missed the point of International Women’s Day there. You know, it’s supposed to be a day honouring the achievements and the empowerment of women over the years, but you know, there is, as Tu Yun mentioned just now, there a certain… I mean, there’s a journey still to go and still to be made there, isn’t there, in terms of equality in the workplace and wherever else, and I think maybe President Erdogan’s comments maybe make that a little clearer than it ought to be.
TY: Probably I wouldn’t blame him that much, because he’s internationally recognized as some IBM – International Big Mouth(!) He would say whatever pops up into his mind.
Lincoln: That’s interesting. I mean, again, we must stress that we don’t know all the context around the entire speech, as it were, entirely, but it does seem a little bit strange to say that on International Women’s Day, when we know that womanhood, as it were – not being a woman myself, I’m going to be very careful in all of my statements, but there’s so much more to it. If you’re not a mother, you’re still a woman – it doesn’t go that way, so I think he might have missed the point a little bit, there.
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