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Oregon Daily Emerald Wednesday, February 2, 2005 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 |EN SUDICK EDITOR IN CHIEF STEVEN R. NEUMAN MANAGING EDITOR IARED PABF.N AY1SHA YAUYA NEWS EDITORS MEGHANN CUNIFF PARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTERS MORIAH BALINGIT AMANDA BOLSINGER ADAM CHERRY KARA HANSEN EVA SYI.WESTER SHELDON TRAVER NEWS REPORTERS CLAYTON (ONES SPORTS EDITOR (ON ROETMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER STEPHEN MILLER BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTERS RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR NATASHA CHILINGF.RIAN SENIOR PULSE REPORTER AMY L1CHTY PULSE REPORTER CAT BALDWIN PULSE CARTOONIST DAVID IAGERNAUTH COMMENTARY EDITOR GABE BRADLEY' JENNIFER MCBRIDE AILEE SLATER TRAVIS WILLSE COLUMNISTS ASHLEY GRIFFIN SUPPLEMENT FREELANCE EDITOR DANIELLE HICKEY PHOTO EDITOR LAUREN WIMER SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER TIM BOBOSKY PHOTOGRAPHER NICOLE BARKER ERIK BISHOFF PART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHERS BREI HJRTWANGLER GRAPHIC ARTIST KIRA PARK DESIGN EDITOR DUSTIN REESE SENIOR DESIGNER WENDY KIEFFER AMANDA LEE BR1ANNE SHOL1AN DESIGNERS SHADRA BEESLEY JEANNIE EVERS COPY CHIEFS KIMBERLY BLACKFIELD PAUL THOMPSON SPORTS COPY EDITORS AMBER LINDROS NEWS COPY EDITOR LINDSAY BURT PULSE COPY EDITOR ADRIENNE NELSON ONLINE EDITOR SLADE LEESON WEBMASTER BUSINESS (541)346-5511 IUDY RIEDL GENERAL MANAGER KATHY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER REBECCA CRITCHETT RECEPTIONIST NATHAN FOSTER AIBING GUO ANDREW LEAHY JOHN LONG HOLLY MISTELL HOLLY STEIN DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541)346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR TYLER MACK SALES MANAGER MATT BETZ HERON CAUSCH-DOLEN MEGAN HAMLIN KATE HIRONAKA MAEGAN KASER-I.EE MIA LEIDEI.MEYER EMILY PHILBIN SHANNON ROGERS SALES REPRESENTATIVES KELLEE KAUFTHEIL AD ASSISTANT CLASSIFIED (541) 3464343 TRINA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KATY GAGNON SABRINA GOWETTE LESLIE STRAIGHT KERI SPANGLER KAnE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541) 3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER TARA Cl HAM PRODUCTION COORDINATOR |EN CRAM LET KRISTEN DICHARRY CAMERON GAIT!’ IONAH SCHROGIN DESIGNERS The Oregon Daily Emerald Is pub lished daily Monday through Fri day dunng the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Ore gon, Eugene, Ore. The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private property. Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law. MOW WGf/T/< \X JOWA^ 1HANK* to* THE IAU6HS fOfU^ANOSR Bret Furtwangler | Graphic artist ■ In my opinion Equaling the ranks The Chinese government has decided to pursue an unusual policy in order to redress the imbalance between men and women in Chinese society: pay families for their decision to have daughters. After decades of the one child per family policy, China has been left with a large gender imbalance. There are 12.7 million more boys than girls younger than nine. This discrepancy seems to be accelerating. For every 100 girls, there are roughly 117 boys born annually, though in some regions, that figure varies up to 160 boys for 100 fe male counterparts. This disproportion has demographers predicting that by 2020 China will be left with 40 million eligible bachelors. The problem has already manifest ed — men unable to find brides sometimes resort to black markets, where the average price is $600 for a woman's freedom. The Chinese gov ernment, under the cover of pro nouncing universal gender equality, has largely ignored the problems of inequity and sex trafficking until re cently. Some promising steps have al ready been taken, such as cracking down on sex-selective abortions. Be cause families can only have one child, many parents abort female fe tuses. Though this practice is banned, it is also easily circumvented by doc tors accepting bribes. At most, a doc tor faced a fine of $30 for violating the law, until a few years ago, when the government increasingly cracked down on the illegal procedure. Another significant issue in Chinese gender inequity is education. Women are less likely to enroll in higher level schools. The result is that many unedu cated women are unemployed, and while looking for work are kidnapped and forced into prostitution. To help these women obtain both education and work, the government offers tuition-free JENNIFER MCBRIDE QUASHING DISSENT education programs; however, these plans are limited in scope, existing in only 24 cities. The budget is unlikely to be increased in the future. Less promising steps include the bill boards put up in a campaign suggesting boys should respect girls. Exhibits in tended to raise girls’ self-esteem adorn schools, though such presentations are probably calculated attempts to impress visitors. To me, posters touting women's usefulness seem to be ironic statements of a government that hopes throwing money at an issue will make it go away. If the Chinese government wants to change the discrepancy in birthrate, it has to change the culture. Girls are val ued less, especially in rural areas, be cause they are considered physically in ferior and unable to contribute as much labor to family farms. Additionally, so cial expectations are such that sons are assumed to be responsible for the care of their parents in their old age. In contrast, daughters are expected to help support their parents-in-law. In a country with al most no social safety net, it is no won der that some families see their children as pension funds. In response to this mindset, the government is testing pro grams giving 300,000 elderly people who have one child, or only daughters, monthly allowances of $180. However, financial incentives do not reduce societal stigma. Instead, they legitimize it — implying families who have daughters need more assis tance than their estrogen-challenged counterparts. Furthermore, profit-mo tives do nothing but encourage the il legal sale of daughters by farmers looking for a quick buck. Monetary in ducements do not make parents take their daughters to the hospital (boys are more likely to be taken to the doc tor when ill, but girls are expected to recover on their own). The message is clear: Women are dispensable, men are not. As long as women are seen as in ferior and less than human, there will be black market brides and sex slaves. Even educated women working in ur ban areas are unprotected by the legal system. In many cases, the government has failed to act to preserve basic human rights and human dignity when it comes to gender. Over 80 percent of women have been sexually harassed at their jobs, but very few bring actual cases to court and fewer still are able to obtain convictions because laws are vague to the point of unenforceability. It was only recently that the issue was raised at all. The first litigant brought suit against her supervisor in 2001. President Bush in his State of the Union address will probably point to the women of Afghanistan as an example of how the United States has aided interna tional women’s rights. However, it is un likely that gender inequity plays even a minimal role in U.S. discussions with China. Minor pressure and attention paid to this problem could influence the Chinese government to take stronger measures to enforce equality, rather than continue the slap on the wrist approach they have been practicing. The bottom line is this: No billboards declaring how important women are can change a mindset ingrained for cen turies. China should concentrate less on propaganda and more on propagating true reform. jennifermcbride@dailyememld.com OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to letters@dailyemeratd.com or submitted at the Oregon Daily Emerald office. EMU Suite 300. Electronic submissions are preferred, letters are limited to 250 words, and guest commentanes to 550 words Authors are limited to one submission per calendar month. Submissions should include phone number and address fof verification The Emerald reserves the right to edit for space, gammar and style. Guest submissions are published at the discretion of the Emerald ■ Editorial Companies fight back in the carb control war No wonder America is getting fatter. In a bid to take back the bread and grains industry, the Grain Foods Founda tion has kicked off an East Coast advertis ing campaign designed to woo carbo phobes back to the bread aisle. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the foundation, which represents companies such as General Mills and Sara Lee, has “had enough.” Bread is fighting to gain back its piece of the American waistline, and it’s fighting against companies that have grown adept at pushing the agendas of their low-carb diet products. Americans have traditionally allowed their diets to be held hostage by fads with empty promises, so much that under standing proper eating habits is in itself a hefty endeavor — the federal government can’t even make up its mind. On Jan. 12, a new “food pyramid” was issued that re flects, you guessed it, a need for more whole grains. Spokeswomen and spokesmen for the Atkins and South Beach diets, which pro mote the elimination of pasta and bread, among other things, have issued pro-carb statements in reaction to the new federal guidelines. Hasn’t America “had enough?” The real problem with America’s overeat ing is advertising. If the government is go ing to create new rules to guide healthy eat ing, it needs to start putting some serious funding behind getting the word out. If it doesn’t, its nutrition guidelines are nothing but empty recommendations. ■ By the numbers 8 million: Number of Iraqis who are thought to have voted in Sunday’s historic elections. Tens of thousands: Number of Iraqis of ficials say might have been denied the right to vote due to lack of ballots and polling stations, mostly in Sunni areas. 70,000: Number of people killed in Dar fur, which, according to a U.N. report, does not constitute genocide by the Su danese government and allied militias, even though the crimes are “no less heinous.” Parsing the legal definition of genocide while people are being raped and tortured will probably not help the United Nations’ image as an ineffective lumbering bureaucracy that cannot deal with serious world issues. Two million have also been displaced in the fighting. 13,000: Number of jobs SBC Communi cations anticipates eliminating after its $16 billion acquisition of AT&T. EDITORIAL BOARD Jennifer Sudick Steven R. Neuman Editor in Chief Managing Editor David Jagernauth Shadra Beesley Commentary Editor Copy Chief Adrienne Nelson Online Editor
