Written statement submitted by Instituto Salto Quantico (Sociedade Filantrópica Maria de Nazaré, an organization with special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council) for the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women¹.
It is well known that there are practical and economically feasible ways, using digital technology, to guarantee a better-quality education for girls and women all over the world, enabling them, even those living in the poorest and most remote regions of the planet, to be included in the world of formal education and basic professional training, as well as in the primary elements of civics and political awareness.
Simplified digital applications that offer internet access, even if via satellite, and a minimally effective and trained organization of teachers recruited to make the necessary cultural and linguistic adaptations in this global movement of mass education, are perfectly achievable when there is – as has been known all along – political will on the part of the governments of the wealthier and more developed nations, in the sense of an appropriate orchestration of material and human resources, with the engagement of non-governmental organizations and volunteers not affiliated to specific political, religious or social advocacy groups.
It is lamentable to observe, year after year, the neglect of the greatest humanitarian cause of our time – in our opinion – because it encompasses, directly or indirectly, literally or metaphorically, all other minority causes: the rediscovery of the sacred value of femininity and, consequently, the empowerment of all women, since girlhood.
While an ocean of financial resources is continuously dedicated to space exploration and other investment fronts of more or less questionable value in pragmatic and also moral terms, such as the powerful arms industry, we note, with horror, the contempt, to a demeaning degree, suffered by half of the human species – that of the female gender -, especially in poor countries or in cultures where misogyny and patriarchy are more deeply rooted or even fiercely celebrated.
The time has come to put a stop to such a serious crisis of planetary conscience, tragically symbolized in the oppressive and genocidal feature of hypertrophied and degenerated masculinity in stereotyped and apocalyptic phalluses: the nuclear missiles, both those considered “merely” tactical and strategic, in a surreal threat of nuclear Armageddon, in the middle of the third decade of the 21st century!
Benjamin Teixeira de Aguiar
Founding President of Instituto Salto Quântico – Sociedade Filantrópica Maria de Nazaré
LaGrange, New York, United States
October 10, 2022
See the Portuguese version: Mulheres vs. mísseis – Documento de participação do ISQ na CSW67 da ONU