Pandemic, Shmandemic--What about THE Epidemic?

It's very interesting how the H1N1 virus has received so much media attention over the past several weeks. Heads of states and our most prominent global health watchdog, the World Health Organization, have done countless interviews and released statements recognizing this virus as a pandemic. Among numerous epidemics--i.e. hunger, poverty, corruption, AIDS, etc.--the media seems to capitalize on what seems to be a convenient story at the present time.

Well, I'd like to take a moment to highlight an epidemic that has been a part of the human race since the very existence of war, power, and control--sexual violence. In a recent article in the UK's The Guardian, a survey recently conducted by the Medical Research Council in South Africa found that a quarter of men have admitted to committing rape. An overwhelming majority of those who admitted to committing this sexual offense have also claimed that they carried out these assaults before the age of 20. Think that's pretty frightening? Well let's not forget the many women who have fallen victim to "corrective rape" in the country because of their sexual orientation.

But that's just in one part of the world. In Tokyo, women commuting by train are demanding for women-only carriages to avoid unwanted groping. Approximately 2000 arrests were made in 2007 for cases of groping.

Then of course in the U.S., the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Wednesday, June 10th to discuss the continued importance of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Among the panelists, Actress, Gabrielle Union, and Acting Director of Office on Violence Against Women in the DOJ and others gave testimonies that highlighted issues of police response, funding for preventive programming, and shared victim/survival stories. Union offered her personal experience as a rape survivor, and strongly advocated for more funding for better preventive measures.

We know the alarming stat's and we've heard too many stories, so what can we do to make a global impact on this epidemic? Well for starters, call your local representative and urge them to get the U.S. on board by ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). In doing so, the U.S. will be legally bound to practice the provisions of the treaty. Because our country is still supposedly and arguably a super powerhouse of the global community, we can offer some legitimacy to the Convention by which the entire world would may seek to take on this issue more vigorously.

Let's demand more aggressive attention toward one of our gravest wars yet unmet--violence against women!