gagablog 48: Women of Syria - the Solomon Solution

     I've been concerned about the people of Syria for years and wringing my hands and mind for a solution. It hit me last night when I was hand-washing some dishes that did not fit in the dishwasher and it seems so obvious I am ashamed I had not thought of it before.
    The international community keeps giving the same reason for not fully supporting the Syrian people trying to overthrow the murderous Assad regime. We keep saying the opposition is too fragmented or violent, basically that we can't trust them if they did take power. Many times I have heard the assessment that the Assad government and the Free Syrian Army are tearing the country apart, destroying it section by section until there is nothing left in their struggle and fighting "for" the country. This is what reminded me of Solomon and the problem of the two women fighting over a baby. Solomon's solution was to say cut the baby in half and give half to each woman and the one woman said "ok" but the other said "no, just give her the baby." Solomon gave that woman the baby, whole, having determined that she was the one who must be the mother since she cared for the baby's needs the most and did not want him killed, even if that meant giving him up.
     By comparison, the Assad regime and the rebels are both acting like they would say "fine, cut up the baby and we will each go eat the remains" or something - destroy the country and kill everyone in it (and maybe many more people) as long as "he" can't have it. Neither of them is acting like the true mother, neither of them seems worthy of the responsibility to run the country. And they have something else in common, they are both being run by men. In the case before Solomon, the one woman was not acting like a typical woman, and I guess she was crazy to be trying to steal a baby in the first place. But no woman would actually say "yeah, cut up the baby" - of course most men would not either but it is kind of a sick idea in the first place from the genius male mind of Solomon and the truth is this is one important difference between men and women.
     Let's be real about this and change the world with it. This is one of the main reasons for feminism and to elect women to power  - they won't be as likely to go to war or to make decisions that end up killing people or destroying the country. I'm not trying to be sexist here or overly stereotypical but this is one of the superior things about femininity. I'm male but somewhat androgynous and I am super pacifist and I see a connection there and an obvious contrast between myself and some "macho" males who profess joy in killing. There are just way more of them than there are women of that mentality. We can trust women more to not be violent or make decisions that will result in the deaths of other people, especially children. Women, and an increasing number of men, are more sensitive to the value of life, in general, and we can all learn,  and find better ways, by following the leadership of women. Some people, mostly conservatives who are finally being proven wrong about everything, think this superior quality of women to be more peaceful and caring is a drawback in a leader. I think we are all discovering and showing that this is what the world wants, though. Clinton did not lose the primary to Obama because of campaign mismanagement or underestimating him or a difference between the excitement of the first black or female president, whomever that favors. She lost because she was for the Iraq war and Obama was against it. You can't try to out-male the men to be the change we need in a leader, as the bitterness and conflict in memorials to Margret Thatcher show. Hopefully Hillary will learn that before she becomes our first woman president and not try to overcome her feminine nature or overcompensate for it but rely on it for the best good for the country and the world.
     In the case of Syria, they need a woman president now. I am not learned enough to know how contrary this may be to some elements of their culture, yada yada yada, but frankly with the whole thing going up in flames what difference does it make? It is long past time for all cultures to get over bias against women and having the country saved by a woman as leader would do a lot to change attitudes. And it could happen, and in my magical imagination it can happen easily. As it is we have two factions, made up of collections of smaller factions, each representing a small percentage of the country - but all men. 50% of the country, the men, are split into these warring factions. Yes, the women may also be associated with these groups but are mostly staying out of the fighting, trying to survive and protect the children. Women make up a faction, 50% of the population, who are most likely strongly opposed to the fighting, if only they had the power for their intentions to hold sway. But they can. Even if a percentage of these women are associated with the Assad regime, culturally, many of these might join the rest of the women of the country and I'm guessing that with or without them you could have about 40% of the country being women associated with some part of the opposition - by far the largest faction possible if they could come together as a group.
     And I think that is all that is needed and why it is so important to have, to seek, a woman as a leader. Just putting the idea out there can get women to come together. If the women of Syria could form a group, even online via Facebook or something, and come together to elect a leader, I think the process and the leader who emerged would show enough values and trust to gain the full support of the international community and inherit the government, in as swift and peaceful way as possible. We just need to support this idea and go ahead and freely and proudly admit that one reason we want women to lead is to help us avoid war and with Syria we need to just choose that path and see how it works, because I'm sure it is the kind of radical change that will turn things around. A woman president could save Syria and be an example to the rest of the world that helps save us all faster.
     If this starts as a social media campaign we can all help out and I believe we could really ensure that this happens if it is something the Syrian women want and respond to. I just heard on NPR that the current leader of the Syrian opposition, and American, man, just resigned because of lack of cohesion amongst the opposition forces. I say we bypass the opposition forces, trump/overwhelm the oppressive Assad regime, and hand power to the women. The women started the revolution in Syria, but their efforts were non-violent and they suffered increasing murders by Assad until men started fighting back. We should have stepped in then, when Assad was first killing the defenseless non-violent protestors, and we had many months to do so, but we did not. Now all the deaths since then are a bloody lesson to the world but this struggle should not be won by violence. No struggle from now on in human existence should be won by violence. It is only the evil elements of societies and governments that wanted to let it grow to war in order to sell weapons instead of intervening when it was non-violent opposition being killed. But this revolution was begun non-violently, by women, and it should be women who win the non-violent solution.
     We can all help them out by expressing our support. Who knows what form it might take but I know we can make this happen. I'm going to start by creating a facebook page or group for it called "Women of Syria - the Solomon Solution" to get the idea out there and hopefully spawn, directly or magically, the group that takes over Syria and preserves it and makes peace. I think there is something we can all do, big or small, to help out, and just finding ways to profess why we need more women to lead, or any cause we care about, can make a big difference in the world. In this case, I know that if more and more people get involved with the specific goal to find a woman to lead Syria we can all help save that country and save the whole world by the lessons we will learn from the example.
     One influence I had in coming up with this idea was the story I heard on the radio about the women of Uganda, I think, who ended 25 years of civil war there by saying enough is enough, we aren't sleeping with any of you until you stop fighting  - and they ended the war. They did not officially take power, but they took control and used their natural, superior power to make needed change. It took 25 years of war to make them realize to do it, and probably some brilliant, organizing heroes, but we can learn from their example and do better. The war in Syria has gone on far too long already. All we say we need to end it and start over again with a peaceful and just regime is someone we can trust. All I'm saying is let's express how much we, the people of the world, want a woman to take over and see if the women there want the same, give them that support and make it happen. We just need to open the door to that path and I think we will rush down it to peace and harmony.


*****monsters and witches, read on  - I left the Gaga/magic part out of this edition since I intend to submit it to members of the more mainstream media to try and spread this idea around, since I really feel that if it gets the right exposure and awareness it can take off and be the path of salvation for Syria. I will include the stuff about The Queen, washing dishes, spells, and how I realize magic can be more direct, and even not a real secret, and I may sum it up to postpone the gagablog in favor of a book on gagamagic I have been mulling over for a year or so now and am about ready to write - it all has to do with meeting in the middle of possibilities, postponing the gagablog does, but I will discuss the magical aspects of this soon and introduce the book. I think this magic, of this blog, is going to take off so I want to do some things to secure the changes in the world. I will write more about the magic "side" of this soon, but as the book explores it is all about uniting the "magical" and "real" world into the real, magical world.