Why we must change!
WHY WE MUST CHANGE!
In July 2011, a group of predominantly women living in Marbella, Southern Spain, came together to do more than think, feel and talk about the issue of changing our lives for the better by doing something about it. We set up Mi Casita.
Living in Spain where the Indignadas, the Indignants, launched the 15M movement earlier this year, we are very much aware of the debate about the system and the unfair demands it places on ordinary, often powerless, people who have ended up as cogs in the global economic machine. People like the forty five percent of unemployed young people who, if we are to believe the news, survive from day to day with little hope for the future. Ordinary women in particular are getting a very poor deal. We have been for as long as we can remember and things are getting worse. The impact of our frustrations and deep unhappiness with our lives must explain the high rates of divorce, even here in Spain where the family is known to be a powerful institution, let alone in other parts of the world where it is not. The result is that our children are suffering from emotional neglect and a general lack of wellbeing and insecurity.
Marbella?
Just in case you’re wondering, what? Women in Marbella think? Yes we do. Like most things in life, Marbella is not a one dimensional place – of bling and glitter, air heads, botox and boob jobs, parties and yachts. Real people live here, real women who work and bring up their children and struggle with balancing their lives with those of their families; just like many women do around the world.
There is no doubt that Marbella does have something special about it including the wonderful people of Andalucía. It is a beautiful and fairly relaxed place to live perhaps because people tend to come here in search of a better quality of life; not forgetting of course that it plays host to a fascinating melee of people from all over the world. Our membership alone is a blend of nations from Europe, America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. Whilst most of us live out here, some do not and what’s more, most of us work in fairly ordinary jobs. What unites us, however, is the feeling that enough is enough; something must change, something must give; and that as women, we cannot continue to work and live the way we do.
The Venus myth
The fact is that as women, and especially as mothers, we have little time to reflect, contemplate, meditate and take an active role in shaping or changing the way we feel about our lives and our world. The impact of this can be felt in playgrounds across the world; exposing one more myth of us, women, as the fair sex; naturally emotional and therefore loving. Gradually, as we realise that the price we are paying trying to live up to such ideals is too high, and that the status quo has to change, groups of women are coming together in pockets of the world to think through the issues about what we must and can do to change our lives.
Feminism as we know is not the answer, not if it seeks to alienate us from our partners and our sons. Division has not served us. Some may argue that despite the benefits feminists have brought us, we are even more vulnerable in an even more fragile world. All we can now do is learn from the good intentions of these women who dealt the cards they had, the best they could have done, appreciate our role as mothers in the education and conditioning of our sons and daughters and wake up to the opportunities we have to create a better more satisfying future for all our children.
Our Remit
We understand that the system that controls our world is far too big and far too corrupted for us to even think about changing it. We are pragmatic about this as we are optimistic about the choices that we can make in creating our own alternative reality, our world as we would like it to be. It will not be easy; change never is. But, we do know that in spite of the struggle, we have come so much farther than we were just one hundred years ago. We need to go further and find the courage to do so. It is why as we rally around Feel the Change, we understand that it is a small but important step in shaping our future.
We would like to use this opportunity to thank BC for allowing us to adopt her book series as a tool for thinking in this project. We hope you enjoy feeling the change. As she puts it, women are conditioned to feel but not to think and men to think but not to feel. We all need to do both; to feel and to think – it is the only way each person can reconcile their lives and make sense of who they are, why they are here, what they will do and what they will give to the changes that we all must make for the future that is in creation.
We hope that you do get to read and enjoy the excerpts, share your thoughts and feelings, perhaps follow the campaign on Facebook and Twitter and even become Change Makers. Let’s shape the future together.
Lots of love
From all us
@ Mi Casita