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From:TheBahamasWeekly.com Bahamas Information Services Updates “Today we sat in open session: we invited representatives from competing political parties, former Parliamentarians, members of NGOs, senior high school girls from public and private schools, hundreds of women today sat and shared space and listened and dialogued,” Minister Hanna Martin at the official opening on the meeting. She also serves as the regional chair. “While we emerge from different territories, and may come from different cultural backgrounds and personal experiences we share a common place as women, as mothers, as females in this human race. That common place is here and now.” As Minister Hanna Martin gave a challenge to the attendees at the meeting, she said: “We share a place of understanding on issues of reproduction, on the rearing and nurturing of children, an understanding that more women live in poverty conditions, that many women are struggling to raise their children --- fighting to provide the fundamentals of life to their babies – coexisting with the psychological stresses which come along with this struggle. “We are every day in some shape or form in one forum or the next confronting and resisting cultural bias and confused perpetrated signals of who and what the role of a woman is in our evolving realities.”
Minister Hanna Martin told attendees that they all feel deep in their hearts the pain of accruing violence and diminishing social indicators. “Is there a women’s agenda? Yes, there is, because there is a human agenda in politics,” she said. “We are a unique group because, we, by and large represent a minority in the political spectrum: the few who have emerged upon the political scene.” “Yet, we represent at least half of the world’s population and at least half of electorates worldwide,” Minister Hanna Martin added. Minister Hanna Martin told the delegates they must stretch their hands across the seas and create links of solid steel: unbreakable. “This is the task of invincible womanhood,” Minister Hanna Martin stated. “In our own countries we must find a mutual ground despite our political differences,” she added. “We must work to remove the vitriol that oftentimes mars our parliamentary proceedings and push forward a more constructive, principled dialogue. We must create cultural shifts and an inspired ethos.” Minister Hanna Martin told the delegates that while their small numbers in their various Parliaments may be said to place them in an elite category. “We must speak for women everywhere, women of all classes and especially the most vulnerable,” she said. “When we speak to issues that affect women we speak to education, we speak of access to healthcare and the overcoming of disease, we speak to the dilemma of poverty, we speak to issues of violence, we speak of the healthy growth and development of our precious sons and daughters who will inherit this planet.” Minister Hanna Martin said they must never be ashamed of the abundance of love God has planted in their hearts. “We must sow and reap that love and ensure its manifestation in public policy,” she added. “But let it not be mistaken that we are also creatures of intellect and we understand that true democracy means that one half of the population must be more proportionately reflected in the halls of political power. “We also understand that this can only be truly achieved through a sterling partnership with our male counterparts in the political realm.” Minister Hanna Martin thanked the delegates for coming and sharing their “wonderful voices”. “Thank you to your respective governments who in austere and difficult times sent you here and in each case government and opposition members. I thank my own Government for hosting this event,” she added. “This is a strong signal of commitment to our efforts.”
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