Resources, women and industry

Reserving and protecting resources is extremely important, and especially for people who live in highly industrialized enriched countries. Often people who live in such countries have a feeling that even if they don’t have resources within their borders, they can get them from wherever those resources are. But even if you can buy those resources, even in that anonymous place, there is a limit to what extent you can get those resources and not create a conflict. Because remember, in the resources that are left behind, people have to fight over them. And because the world is now so interconnected, conflict anywhere in the world will come right into your living room, either through television or peacekeeping forces from areas where there is peace.

As a party to the finance and media world, I tell myself we are in a completely new era when we are learning to find resources not in a place, but rather in ourselves. I often see how quickly women, often very competent women, are sacrificed on an altar of political convenience.

The truth of the matter is we are all resources. We are a human resource. And one of the greatest problems that I have witnessed, especially from a women’s perspective, is trying to convince some other half that we are an important resource and we do make great contributions, and therefore we should be respected, we should be appreciated, our work should be quantified, we should be compensated, and that we should not be taken for granted.

~ by Natalie on 2 May.