AN INTIFADA IS THE WAY OUT OF POVERTY,NOT NAGGING

                     Women have demonstrated it. They have shown us that an intifada is possible even if you are weak. That  a successful intifada is hatched in the mind. Revolutions are first "seen" before they materialize.This is exactly what our grandmothers,mothers and sisters have shown us. Why am I so obsessed with women's' successes? Let me give you a story of a group of women I know. A successful lot. A people with vision. A section of humanity from whom we can learn new things. Vital lessons for that matter.

                       1995 was the year to be precise. I was just stepping into primary school. Being a curious creature I got the the wind of the going-ons in the locality. Women-talk was the dominant thing. Reactions were mixed to the uprising of these people. It was the year of "the Beijing declarations." This was when women were airlifted to China to be briefed of their roles and place in the society. Men were awash with this. They felt threatened. They rose up to "defend" their positions as the heads and who-is-who in the society. Any woman that attempted to rise up to challenge this was branded "a Beijing product" and "a traitor of ideals". Their successes were dismissed with reckless abandon. 

                      But you know what? Women didn't let it go. They retreated to "strategize". Thank God, they outsmarted men. God seemed to have read history and pulled Himself to the side of the women. Just like during prophet Elijah's time He used nature to speak. He chose to hit hard to pass the message. Famine struck. Families ran up and down. It was a moment of soul-searching. It was a moment for men to prove that they call the shots in the community. They were supposed to lead from the front and provide solutions. But alas! That wasn't the case. It seemed they were overwhelmed. 

                      Now you couldn't hear them talk of "defending ideals" when their wives fed them and sustained their families. They went underground. But women discovered this. They capitalized on it. To sustain their gains they organized themselves in welfare groups. Three here,four there.....and so on. Profits from these welfare groups catered for school fees for their kids, paying hospital bills for the sick, feeding their families......etc. Men were reduced to mere spectators. They were taught a lesson. They pulled a trigger not knowing they were aiming at themselves(men).

                     The moral? Revolutions are a result of humans' response to challenges befalling them. They come at a price. Painful ones. But the gains are far much greater. This is  what women of my village, Kainuk have done. They are a true answer to a nagging youth. That youth that thinks drinking and drug peddling is the way out of poverty. A well calculated intifada is the way out. Learn from our grandmas,mothers and sisters!