Eve Ensler on Democracy Now!

Eve Ensler was Amy Goodman’s guest August 26th on Democracy Now! It was a powerful interview about a subject most Americans know little which is the violence against the women of the Congo. Ensler has started a project and movement to help women raped and savaged in the congo and to bring awareness worldwide to violence against women.

Goodman’s intro for Eve Ensler: “Earlier this year, award-winning playwright and bestselling author Eve Ensler was diagnosed with uterine cancer. In a widely read article in The Guardian newspaper of London titled “Congo Cancer,” Ensler writes about her illness and relates it to the widespread violence against women in Congo.’The atrocities committed against the people of Congo are not arbitrary, like my cancer. They are systematic, strategic and intentional,’ she writes.” Read more.

World Pulse.com is a super resource of good things happening around the world in places of great need …here’s a good example. Two million Haitians remain homeless, who have now been given a voice in how and the form reconstruction will take in their country.

The Society for Social Mobilization and Communication has been formed to give voice, and power, to displaced Haitians about their needs and future. Haitian community radio stations will broadcast these forums and voices from the camps where the Haitians still live many months after the horrendous earthquake which devastated Haiti. Read the whole article at World Pulse and take the time to explore the rest of the site too.

Thousands of garment workers are protesting and rioting in Bangladesh demanding a fair wage. 40% of the workforce in Bangladesh are garment workers, predominately women. The government just recently raised their pay by 80%….that may sound terrific, but alas this raise falls way below the country’s minimum living wage, which is $73. The garment workers “raise” brings the workers monthly wage to $45.

Meanwhile, business is booming for the garment industry in Bangladesh — a $12 billion a year industry, which generates 80% of the country’s export income. By the way, if you are shopping for your clothes at the Gap, Walmart, JC Penney, Kohl’s or buy Levi’s, you are helping the Bangladesh garment industry, but what about the workers?

Read more about the garment workers at Ms Blog or The Guardian, UK. The NY Times has a piece too with a rather misleading headline “Bangladesh Garment Workers Awarded Higher Pay”.

The SAQA Journal, Spring 2010, featured an article,”Weaving Women Together,” written about weavers in Thailand by the founders of TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles, Ellen Agger and Alleson Kase. TAMMACHAT supports the weavers and artisans in a fair trade, social enterprise, promoting the beautiful and traditional fiber work of Thailand and Laos’ indigenous weavers. “We founded TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles to bring together our interests and expertise in SE Asia travel, weaving, fair trade, photography and supporting women weavers in rural Thailand and Laos, ” says Ellen Agger.

I have written here before about Ellen and Alleson’s important work and urge you to read the article, “Weaving Women Together.” This piece tells of the Prae Pan Weaving Coop in Khon Kaen, Thailand where women produce beautiful silk and cotton handwovens, combining tradition and creativity, and with ecological sounds methods.

As I read the article, I had some questions about the origins of the Coop in Prae Pan and how cultural heritage is blended with economics. Ellen Agger answers below:

Bonnie: As I read the article, Ellen, I wondered how long ago the coop in PraePan, Thailand was organized and by who?

Ellen: PraePan Group was started to address issues of women’s health, education and empowerment. From PraePan’s website (http://praepangroup.wordpress.com), created with the help of a volunteer in 2009:

Encouragement to form the group came originally from the Handicraft Center for Northeast Women’s Development (NWD) that proposed the following objectives:

• To preserve and teach to others the techniques and traditional patterns of hand weaving to the Northeast.
• To provide a lasting career and steady income for the women.
• To encourage the women’s participation in all aspects of community affairs while they cooperate with one another in the weaving project.

The NWD program continued for 10 years. Beginning in 1997, NWD turned the management of the program over to a committee consisting of representatives of NWD and of each of the villages. The parent organization has gradually withdrawn as the village group has learned to take over its functions, until NWD now has only an advisory role.

Bonnie: Was this coop formed with the idea of sustainability or creating a market or both in mind?

Ellen: Self-sufficiency has always been a core value of PraePan. They bought their own shop building in the province’s capital city of Khon Kaen, where the co-op sells handwoven products made by (and purchased) from members in 7 surrounding villages. They are extremely proud of managing their own shop and community business, as well they should be.

Access to a market is a huge challenge for rural artisans, so belonging to a group like PraePan gives individuals access to markets they can’t otherwise reach. TAMMACHAT’s role is to link these artisans – and others like them – to markets in North America and online to the world. This access to international markets is critical with the drop in international tourism in Thailand over the last 2 years.

Bonnie: You mentioned in the article that there are similar groups of village weavers throughout Thailand and Laos – does this seem to be networked or growing?

Ellen: This artisanal work is very much at risk. Women who have been involved with weaving groups in Thailand for decades have predicted that home-based silk weaving may disappear in a decade because of increased competition from factory-produced “silks” from Vietnam and China.

These weavers learned their craft from their mothers and grandmothers, often starting by age 10. Their daughters and granddaughters are not continuing these traditions, they tell us. Unless the younger generation sees income potential from these crafts, we suspect they will die. The good news is that the internet can potentially make a real difference by opening markets, providing income and showing that there are people all over the world who appreciate these handcrafted textiles and will buy them.

Bonnie:  Are most of what is produced ethnic or traditional in design and the importance of this in preserving cultural heritage of women’s handwork.

Ellen: Each group with whom we work is made up of women in different villages and even provinces, both in Thailand and Laos. Some villages have specific traditions that the artisans prefer to follow. For example, one village where PraePan members live and work specializes in cotton traditional “khit” weaving (supplementary weft for you weavers).

Some weavers have worked with designers from Europe and Japan to create specific products and designs that suit those markets. When we asked weavers on our last trip what they preferred to weave, most told us they want to weave whatever will sell.

We try to choose designs that will have appeal in our market and also respect their traditions. It’s a process of collaboration for us. Also, we have sought out groups that work with women who make the silk yarns (sericulturists), natural dyers and weavers – all of whom work using traditional methods they have honed over generations, even if the designs are not traditional designs. It’s important to us that not only do we help them generate income, but also sustain these traditions of handwork. It’s really part of their cultures.