Man=Woman - by Z

Yesterday, the members of the new government in Morocco were announced after a long suspense. The late elections of November 25, 2011 were followed by the news of the Justice and Development Party, a moderate Islamist party that could be compared to the Turkish AKP, winning most seats
(about 30%). One should keep in mind that this political change happened during an arguably ongoing Arab Spring that affected Morocco too.  

Naturally, a new government would not satisfy each taste. One main criticism about this new government was the fact that there is only one woman, which leads to the issue of the misrepresentation of women in the government. Well, were women ever well represented in governments? If statistically women are about half of the population, and this applies to the world, then I have never seen in Morocco a government with half women ministers and I don’t think it ever happened in any other country (I didn’t find any data about it). How to tackle this? Impose quotas? Gender and racial quotas have been criticized for their lack of efficiency and I tend to agree with it. For me, true gender equality would be considering a government of 29 men ministers and 1 woman minister as normal as a government of 29 women ministers and one man minister. Would it be possible to have such a scenario in the next elections? As I see the official picture of the new government with a plethora of man suits in dark colors and only one small point of femininity at the back on the right I just want to imagine a picture of 29 women in their colorful suits and caftans and only one man at the back in his dark suit. That would be such a more colorful picture.

For me, true gender equality is when sex is not even seen as a categorization of people.

Happy New Year 2012 with all the best wishes!

One Truth - by Pedro

If we think about anything that happened in the past and we want to explain it, there should be only real truth. We could formulate any single question about past events and they have an answer, however the humanity does not have all of them. In fact we know too little, almost nothing. For example, think about the Universe, the Earth , evolution, ancient cultures, wars, crimes, politics, accidents, your friends, your life, and so on. Researchers from different fields of study propose hypothesis based on some evidence to get close to the real truth, although most of them are not completely correct. Even with our current technology, this search for the truth is extremely difficult. Some questions have many answers and with some priority between them, but all of them are the one truth. For example, reasons for war (in any order): get resources, prevent attacks from enemies, show weapons power, corruption, leaders get power to be reelected, etc.

Within all these questions, if we focus on the transcendental questions for our society, those related to the human history, we do not have any clear answer. Scientific theories change based on new data. Also, some people find answers in religion; and we know religions also change in time. On the other hand, there are many irrelevant questions to the humanity except you, such as the number of times you were late to class or how many boyfriends or girlfriends you had, and probably you are the only one who could have that answers.

News that we watch on TV are not completely true. The source of information usually does not give the whole truth. This is very common on political issues. Moreover, for any trial both parts propose a different versions of the issue, and justice is taken based on procedures, evidence and court decision, generally with part of the truth.

It is our mission in life to get closer to the truth, based on an objective point of view, an open mind and experience. If we all have the same spirit, even when we have different backgrounds, beliefs, and ideas, we can talk and have more coincidences in the future than we have today. We could solve this large number of current social problems based on lies, selfishness, corruption, and injustice. It is simple, we should develop an objective critical point of view.