Let me try to say this as gently as possible...
The fundamental question of Madalyn Wasilczuk's column I understand. She asks the reader to consider at what point is accepting something as a mere acknowledgment of some cultural difference or a tacit agreement to some sort of injustice. This inquiry is worthy of discussion, but I do not believe that Ms. Wasilczuk proceeds in a manner fit for a mature discussion.
She approaches the issues with the nuance and subtlety of a four-year-old. To pose the question in such stark terms masks the very complexities of the issue she is attempting to discuss. It's a complex issues, I am sure she can admit to that much, but her conclusion is overly simplistic. I wish her luck in her effort to end, once and for all, misogyny in Kenya.
I am glad that Ms. Wasilczuk has decided to experience a world very different from the one she may know in America. For that I applaud her.
My main beef with her article is that she paints with such broad strokes. Are there not places in America where people are who are clearly different made plainly aware of their deviation? I ask Ms. Wasilczuk. And instead of being able to appreciate the fact that she will be going back to a place where beating women is not generally glorified, she approaches the subject with the judgment of a French post-modern philosopher. To call the Kenyan people backward and intolerant is the same as French intellectuals designating Americans as lazy and ignorant.
I would hope that Ms. Wasilczuk does not hold the opinion that all Kenyan men are catcalling wife-beaters. I would hope that if this experience has taught her anything, it is simply that one should see all the world's people as individuals and not as agents of culture.
Voltaire Cortez Junior, School of Public Affairs
