People

At the end of the three-day conference for CEOs of NGOS that give loans to self help groups there was this cultural presentation thing. Despite the persistent demands by MC and me for the performance of TIN ADMI (which actually translates into “three man” in my grammatically incorrect chipmunky hindi) all the men refused to dance. The next morning, one of the older NGO employees explained that the reason why the men weren’t dancing was because they believed dancing and singing are activities for the women. He recognized that this was stupid, but argued that change takes time. How can people go around to villages preaching the gospel of female empowerment and gender equity but be completely unwilling to change their own conceptions of gender even when they KNOW they’re outdated. “Change takes time” is an excuse for the people you’re trying to change… not for the change agents.