The Value of Family Values des Mujeres vs. Señoras: Observations of a CSO Rep at IMF/WB Spring Mtgs – Part 26

In my last blogs, The Value of Family Values in Women vs. Ladies – Part 24 and The Value of Family Values parmi des Vipères vs. Bonnes Femmes – Part 25, the pervasiveness of bullying amongst Expat Wives Clubs, along with the inability of many board members to conduct themselves like ladies (and increasingly gentlemen) with a minimum of decorum and honor, is seriously hampering the effectiveness of these organizations. However, to high-light again how pervasive these problems are within Expat Wives Clubs, as well as within the public and private organizations which are financially supporting these clubs, I call attention to yet another case-study. This time the Spanish Expat Wives Club, Asociacion Laetitia in Bogota, Colombia.

I wish to point out that my blogs on bullying and anecdotal histoires des bonnes femmes, which men can find so tiresome at times (and rightfully so) are not benign and unimportant. While men are responsible for 90% of violence in societies, women are primarily responsible for sustaining that violence (UN report In-depth Study on VAW)—and they do this primarily through their various forms of bullying. And, as I demonstrate in my blog Men, Women & Sex Ed for the Feminists, and Expat Wives Clubs, Smoke-screens for Expansionism & Corporate Greed, as well as my explanation in FfD: A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the sections below; in order to combat abuses of power in all their forms in a society (because that is what physical and psychological violence is about), it is absolutely essential to examine the dynamics of women-on-women bullying—of which Nancy Reagan is the Queen amongst Queen’s.

 “Nancy Reagan’s Crucial Role in the Establishing the Reagan Era”

...In order to understand how to effectively combat present day social conservatism, it is important to examine its roots in the USA in the early ‘80s. While Reagan is commonly recognized as the founder of the social conservatism, the role his wife, Nancy Reagan, played is underestimated by everyone. Nancy Reagan and the influence she exercised over her husband was immense, as highlighted in Judy Woodruff’s PBS article Remembering Nancy Reagan’s Crucial Role as Husband’s Centennial Nears below. However, Nancy Reagan’s influence went far beyond staff and policy decisions, she also assured that a culture of conservatism in Washington was fundamentally ingrained into ideologies which guided Washington, and the entire nation during her husband’s tenure as well as a very, longtime after. 

 “The Market Value of Family Values”

Furthering complicating the matter, is the failure of the left to have counter-attacked the public‑policy dialogues and propaganda campaigns of social conservative think tanks and lobbyist (Schultze, et. al., 2003). What the left must do at present is develop and promote a new model, based on a new paradigm; a model which stimulates a “rights and liberties” approach to the individuals within the family unit, but within a co-operational, rather than adversarial context. An added advantage to a co-operation model, and approach, is that it transmits positive ethics and values from one generation to another. And, the disadvantage to the adversarial model is that it transmits negative values as demonstrated in The Market Value of Family Values below. It is the difference between the economic, if not social, value (or cost) of transmitting positive vs. negative values to future workforces from which a society derives its legal and moral right to “interfere” within the private sphere of the family—if a humanitarian argumentation does not suffice in, and of, itself. Economist Ralph Chami and Connel Fullenkamp show the importance of family in transmitting positive family values and work ethic from one generation to another in optimizing productivity in the work-force The Market Value of Family Values,

As seen in the text above, “The Market Value of Family Values,” I explain the importance of family traditions in transmitting morals, ethics, and values from one generation to another. For this reason, it is extremely important for policy-makers, governments, and even employers in the case of workplace bullying, to understand, and effectively combat bullying, rather than sweep it under the carpet. The traditions and customs which transmit bullying tactics, as well as support bullying, are passed down from generation to generation, and must be dismantled through social forces in societies—and where the obligation of society and governments to action is derived.

As anyone who knows me can attest; I have always said I prefer to be in a fight against a man than a woman. Granted, men are much more dangerous in terms of physical and sexual violence, and any woman in Western society who under-estimates men’s ability to torture, rape and murder us with total impunity from the law is making a serious, serious mistake. Western courts and societies are so misogynistic at present, that they encourage misogyny, torture and even murder, with the human rights community sanctioning the entire process by their inaction.

To further complicate the matter, women moving into the work-force in the West has not given her any financial security through which she may free herself and her children from domestic violence. Because if women or children protest to any physical, sexual, or psychological abuse (and/or drugs designed to opiate and silence victims as well as make exorbitant profits for pharmaceutical companies), then lawyers and malicious litigation by death will silence and destroy her with as much malice and any Gestapo agent or military forces illegally detaining Muslims prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.

Unfortunately, the human rights community is simply refusing to take cases to the international courts, denouncing the systemic violation of economic and civil rights of women and children by governments and their courts. It is completely and totally discriminatory of the international human rights community to denounce, and strenuously denounce, the detainees in Guantanamo Bay—as they well should. However, to not accord the same concern for crimes that in atrocities and numbers (90 detainees at present vs. ~20 million children plus their mothers), simply because the victims are women and children, is discriminatory.  Therefore, women must be on constant guard against physical and sexual violence of men (within the home as well as community).

However, having said that. It should be stated that abusive and violent women are much more vicious and conniving than men. In a “cat-fight” most men are scratching their heads trying to figure out who the players are, much less what they are fighting about, and even less the underlying moral issues at play. And, why the “moral authority” has been lost in society. Before women, along with the clergy, would “discuss the issues” and on Sundays men would dutifully have that morality drummed into their heads, with hen-pecking wives to assure that some of it stuck during the week. While in a utopian world, all of these women are Cinderellas to husbands and fairy Godmothers to children. (This is the World According to David Lipton and other Ostriches). The reality, however, is that too many women are “witches to be burned” to husbands (and colleagues) and Evil-Step Mothers to children, with most women falling in between the spectrum. The majority of women then become ostriches to the Evil-Step Mothers and Evil-Step Sisters, in order to avoid incurring their wrath. However, in the process they allow the Evil-Step Mothers to rule—and rule with an iron fist, she does, along with the violent and controlling men in the community, creating havoc and chaos. Until an oppressed minority men get tired of the havoc and chaos and revolt with violent uprisings, over-throwing their oppressor, as the cycle starts again.

In zones of war and violent conflict, it is men who have total control. However, in “peaceful” countries (which is a misnomer) women do, and always have had a strong influence—which came from her position and status within the home and family. While women do need financial security, and a financial security separate from her husbands, she also needs to be empowered to defend her rights within the home and family—which can only be achieve through the courts in secular countries, due to the removal of jurisdiction of the marriage from the “Church” to the state. This is another reason the American government’s contention that they are not “responsible” for courts or law enforcement at the state level is ridiculous. When a country implements a secular form of government, they by definition take over “jurisdiction” of the family and marriage, which is transformed into legislation and implementation in the courts—who have a legal obligation to be effective, transparent, and accountable.

Wives, along with clergy, used to “inject” (forcibly at times) a morality into men’s business dealings, berating and bullying men, with shame and guilt their primary weapon. These women are no longer in the home and community injecting their “moral compass” (as “fractured” as it might have been) into their children, husbands and society. They are now, out in the workplace and have “bought into” the alpha-linear thinking of the men. So not only is no one “minding the store” on the home front. Those who have “gone out to the work-force” have become Ostriches, Toads, and even adding a new category— Bellowing-cows, into the work-force equation. What is needed is to “clean-house” in every bureaucratic agency in existence. The case-study I prepared for the IMF Ethics Committee, and Mark Plant, Director of HR at the IMF is a perfect example of not only how and why bullying develops in a department, but how programs designed to promote “respectful workplace practices” are in fact promoting and encouraging bullying in the workplace. I had originally planned to remove pertinent names from the study, using pseudonyms in their place, and publish the study online. However, due to the fact that Mr. Plant has never responded to my communications, I am obviously black-listed at the IMF as I have 3 pending applications for administrative positions with them for which I am highly qualified; I have been compelled to publically denounce the continuing inaction of the IMF and Mr. Plant in my personal case. The fact that the IMF (and World Bank) encourage civil society to speak out, yet harass and wrongfully terminate them is hypocritical and demonstrates their inherent oppressive nature.      

This is why it is imperative that the alpha mentality that reigns in public (and private) sector bureaucratic organizations cease and desist, and be replaced with a beta mentality; a beta mentality that not only understands the conniving of the alpha woman, but is two steps ahead of her and her accomplices, be they women or men—as is explained in my complaint to the IMF for Workplace Bullying in ICD, as well as IMFFA in 2010. Not only is it important for Management at the IMF to pull their heads out of the sand about the realities in terms of economic concerns in the world, but also about the inner functioning of its organization, and how the lack of good governance of the HR function within the IMF is impeding the effectiveness of the organization in its mandates.

Unethical and slothful practices within large bureaucratic organizations are in large part responsible for the failure of governments to implement democratic principles and international human rights standards into their own organizations. This is why it is so important that the global mobility industry and HR functions in organizations effectively dismantle the “bullying mafias” that reign in bureaucracies everywhere.

In 2006 when I came up with the idea for Global Expats, I naively thought, if managers could just be paid, then they would become effective. However, as my experience in ICD, after the IMFFA, has shown me, this is not the case. While the dynamics seen in the Expat Wives Club are more overt and dramatic than what occurs in the workplace, these “cat-fights” provide very important insight into the dynamics of bullying from a sociological and human resource perspective. The association under scrutiny today is the Spanish Expat Wives club, and Asociacion Laetitia  in Bogota in the ‘90s. The problem within that association went far beyond, petty back-stabbing amongst board members as seen with Bogota Accueil and the IMF Family Association. It was as hierarchical and monarchist as former Rey Juan Carlos I who recently abdicated because the world has seen enough of the mentality many women in the Expat Wives Clubs wish to maintain; and why they are contributing to world problems, as opposed to challenging the authority which is creating all of the problems in the first place. As Julian Assange explains in the video below, the world needs a new “religion” or rather “moral authority,” and desperately at present precisely for the kind of ostrich-playing and toadyism amongst the IMF, WB, IFC and GWU, or what might be called the Penn Ave. Quadrant Mafia, a mafia which needs breaking up as I discuss in my blog Ostriches May Hide Their Heads, But Toads Profit from It All.

The “mismanagement” of funds in the Asociacion Laetitia at the turn of the century was so bad, that when I questioned the board, and asked for an explanation of their administrative costs of ~$10,000 (for an association that did nothing more than host a coffee morning once a month at the Ambassador’s residence) I was silenced, by simply telling me that I was no longer a member of their group. I was later told by other Spaniards, that I was terribly naïve, and that everyone in the Spanish expat community knew these women spent the foundations funds on lunches and dinners for the board and a few select members. Years before when I suggested to someone that the Asociacion Laetitia should do something besides a monthly coffee hosted by the Spanish Ambassador’s wife, I was told they did, but you had to get on the “invite” list to be included. The interlocutor and I both laughed, because we knew I had been black-listed from day one—a gringa-froggy married to a Spanish-froggy had never been welcome amongst these Spanish Bellowing Cows, who quite frankly were boring and tedious.

(It should be noted that Bogota Accueil yearly admin costs at the turn of the century were around $3000, while the American Women’s Club was around $7000. Both of these associations were completely transparent in their accounting records and expenditures, and while the Americans do much more charity and community work than Bogota Accueil, their expenditures were reasonable and appropriate. It is my understanding that under the direction of present Spanish Ambassador’s wife, the financial management at least has improved.)

The women on the board of Leatitia, in the last century, were the wives’ of the president of Banco Ganadero/BBVA, Jose Maria Ayala Vargas and the other BBVA expats. The conduct of these women (and their husbands) in Bogota in the ‘90s was reprehensible—perpetuating the very negative image Colombians already have of Spaniards after centuries of oppression by the Conquistadors. One of my biggest criticisms of multicorp executive expats (and diplomats) and their families, who are the elite amongst the expats, is their superiority attitude towards local communities, and even “self-made” expats, international students and the like. This is extremely unfortunate as it perpetuates a negative image, and even inhibits cultural integration. The Queen-for-a-day w/ Ladies-in-waiting mentality that runs through these organizations is not only counter-productive to the entire process, but also extremely frustrating for the women who get involved in Expat Wives Clubs because they actually enjoy the work, and do not care if anyone pays them, or with whom they get their photo taken.  

But, now-a-days those who get involved in Expat Wives Club management, need (as my story is testimony) a salaried income. Contrary to popular belief, and the propaganda propagated in the American press, only 10% of wives get alimony, (down from 14% before women’s “Revolution”) and when they do, it is below poverty and subsistence level. To further complicate matters if women have been out of the work-force for a long period, the reinsertion rate is around 30%. The other 70% end up on the streets homeless, or living off of friends and family for the rest of their lives, while husbands enjoy all the fruits of their former wives’ labor in building his career, for the rest of their lives, often in opulence and luxury. This is the “equality” of western courts. Young women are valuable for their highly sought after wombs and reproductive functions, while older women are thrown into the trash, when they have out-lived their usefulness.

My problem for the past 8 years in efforts to become “reinserted” is that I am qualified for upper-management positions, but eligible for entry level positions. No one will hire me, because as the first head-hunter told me in 2009 “they’ll be afraid that in 6 months you’ll have their job.” And, she was right. This is exactly the scenario I have experienced time, and time again. Long-time displaced ex-trophy-wives who have been defrauded of billions, if not trillions by misogynistic courts, are also faced with serious housing problems, and rampant violation of rights, with too many living out of cars or on the streets.

The biggest problem, are not the violent men abusing wives and children, the biggest problem are the courts and governments abusing women and children. This is why bullying in the USA is rampant and out-of-control. And, yet another area where the USA is showing it inability to govern itself. For years Winston Churchill warned of the rising dangers of Nazism and Hitler in Europe before WWII, with his words falling on deaf ears until it was almost too late. This is why after WWII the Americans were seen as “heroes” who had literally saved the world from eternal damnation.

The same atrocities are occurring today, and in the same, if not greater proportions, and numbers. However, victims are not being herded into concentration camps, rather the concentration camps are brought into the homes of these children by the courts, with the Nazi torturers and jail-keepers their own fathers (or mothers on a few occasions). Mothers are more likely to bully, and resort to physical discipline (which I vehemently denounce), but are less likely to be physically dangerous, or sexually abusive, to children. The failure of courts to properly examine allegations of abuse, as well as respect the economic, civil, and human rights of women is not only putting almost 20 million children in severe physical danger, and imminent death in many cases, but is also effecting untold millions of other children who are being damaged psychologically by courts more interested in milking citizenry of their hard-earned money than upholding the law.

So today’s award goes to Queen of Spain Letizia who lives in opulence and wealth while Spanish courts, using the same tactics as Franco (and Hitler), are promoting and encourage the rape, torture and murder of millions of women and children in Spain (see quote from AI’s report below.) Queen Letizia herself gave up a career to become a full-time homemaker and mom. How would she feel if after she is no longer of reproductive interest to her husband and the royal family, Spanish courts misappropriated all of her assets, took her children allowing her no contact with them, and forced her to flee Spain and her children under threat of her life. Queen Letizia of Spain should follow the example of the Queen of Jordan, think about others and the plight the poor and down-trodden in the world, particularly the most marginalized and unprotected—displaced women and children due to the violence and conflict of men.

See my blogs in my coverage of the IMF/WB Spring Meetings The IMF in Denial, The American Dream & Other Fractured Fairytales, Men, Women & Violence in all Its Forms, and Christine Lagarde Bernard Tapie & Arbitration.     

Amnesty International, What Specialized Justices?

According to officials, since the Law for Protection Orders for Victims of Gender Violence was passed (and later the Integrated law) from January 2005 to November 8, 2012, 503 women have lost their lives at the hands of their partner or ex-partner in Spain… It is estimated that in all of the Spanish territory more than two million women have suffered abuse at the hands of their partner or ex partner at one time in their lives. Close to 600,000 in the last 12 months. While in the first years of the development and application of the integrated law, specifically between 2006 and 2007, there was a high level of complaints filed for domestic violence (a 150,000 increase over the previous year), in the last four years (2008-2011), the number of complaints have declined.

Of course it has declined the victims see the courts are destroying anyone who dares to denounce the abuse, so victims are not filing complaints. This is not rocket-science, but common sense!