The More Things Seem to Change, the More They Stay the Same...

Redux.

I know there are millions of people, in the USA and in Europe (which presents itself as more sophisticated and urbane than us "cowboys" in the wild wild West), who think that women have achieved absolute equality with men.  Unfortunately, the title of the following article gives a bad name to the absolutely blameless Neanderthal humans.

Ukrainian women berate 'Neanderthal' PM for sexist remarks
Mykola Azarov enrages feminist groups by suggesting women are unsuitable for high political office
Luke Harding in Moscow
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 March 2010 19.50 GMT

Ukraine's new pro-Russia prime minister, Mykola Azarov, has enraged feminist groups by suggesting that women are unsuitable for high political office and incapable of carrying out reforms.

Women's groups in Ukraine have angrily reported Azarov – who presides over an all-male cabinet – to the country's ombudsman following his remarks last week. They accuse him of gender discrimination and holding Neanderthal views.

Speaking on Friday, Azarov said Ukraine's economic problems were too difficult for any woman to handle.

"Some say our government is too large; others that there are no women," he said. "There's no one to look at during cabinet sessions: they're all boring faces. With all respect to women, conducting reforms is not women's business."

Ukraine's new woman-free government was capable of working 16 hours a day with "no breaks and weekends", Azarov boasted.

The prime minister's gaffe echoes comments made recently by the man who appointed him – Ukraine's new president, Viktor Yanukovych. During February's election campaign, Yanukovych declared that his female opponent, Yulia Tymoshenko, should "go to the kitchen".

Today, Azarov's political enemies denounced him as an unreconstructed dinosaur. They said his derisory remark, snubbing half of the country's 46 million population, underlined just how out of touch he is with ordinary Ukrainians.

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Against this current backdrop, I put forth for your consideration:

March 22, 2010, 6:09 pm
Using Quotas to Raise the Glass Ceiling
By THE EDITORS (The New York Times)
In 2002, Norway enacted a law requiring that 40 percent of all board members at state-owned and publicly listed companies be women by 2008.

Since then, Spain and the Netherlands have passed similar laws. Now Belgium, Britain, Germany, France and Sweden are considering legislative measures involving female quotas. And although Germany is also debating such a law, Deutsche Telekom, which is based in Bonn, announced last week that it would voluntarily introduce a quota aiming to fill 30 percent of upper and middle management jobs with women by the end of 2015.

Do quotas work? Would they work in the U.S.? Does the U.S. need them?  Viewpoints by:

Marit Hoel, Center for Corporate Diversity, Oslo
Amy Dittmar, University of Michigan
Peter Baldwin, author, “The Narcissism of Minor Differences”
Sharon Meers, former managing director at Goldman Sachs
Linda Hirshman, author, “Get to Work”

Buddha was a Scythian!

Hmmm.... Buddha was a Scythian Arian of Budins in Ancient Ukraine: scholar Moscow, Mar 15 : Valery Bebik, a prominent scholar of political science in the former Soviet Republic of Ukraine, has claimed that Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, belonged to the Scythian nation of Budins that lived on the territory of Ancient Ukraine during the first or second millennium B C. Bebik has published the sensational article in the official newspaper of the Ukrainian Parliament, 'The Voice of Ukraine.' Bebik is Doctor of Political Sciences, a professor, deputy principal of Ukraine University, the chairman of the board of the All-Ukrainian Association of Political Sciences. ''It is quite possible that Buddha belonged to the Scythian nation of Budins that lived on the territory of Ancient Ukraine during the first or the second millennium BC. The name of the nation is still preserved in the names of Ukraine’s contemporary settlements - Seredina-Buda, Buda, and some others,'' he said. ''Everything is clear from the ethnic point of view. Buddha was a Scythian Arian, a member of the Budin tribe. The descendants of the tribe still live in the Sumsky and the Chernigov region of Ukraine, as well as on the neighbouring lands of Belarus and Russia,'' he said. Bebik earlier also published a number of his articles in the official newspaper of the Ukrainian Parliament. He wrote his previous articles for the paper to 'prove' the remarkable role of the Ukrainian civilization, which endowed the world with spiritual enlightenment, outstanding prophets, philosophers and leaders. In 2008-2009, the Ukrainian professor shared his amazing observations of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and the ethnic origin of Jesus Christ. ''The name of Egypt's major temple, Het-ka-Ptah, sounds very much like Ukrainian words 'hata' and 'ptaha' ('house' and 'bird'). The pictures on the Egyptian pyramids show that Egyptian queens were blonde women with blue eyes, just like many Ukrainian women. One should also pay attention to the fact that the trident, which is currently the minor national emblem of Ukraine, can often be seen there too,'' he wrote. ''We have already outlined the facts that placed in question the official, the church version of the ethnic origin and the Biblical dates of the life of Jesus Christ and the historical epoch, in which the basis of Christianity was formed. It looks like Christ actually lived 3,000 years before his canonical birth and spoke the Coptic language, which is a close language to the ancestors of contemporary Ukrainians,'' the scholar wrote. --- UNI

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I understand that Buddha was cremated so I guess it's out of the question to take some DNA and do a comparison with the "descendants of the Budins" mentioned in the article. If it was possible, that would probably put to rest any theories that Buddha was a Scythian. Is there really a relationship between ancient Coptic and ancient Ukrainian? According to an old "language map" I have of languages descended from Proto-Indo-European, Ukrainian is descended from East Slavic, from Slavic, from Balto-Slavic, and is most closely related today to Byelorussian and Russian. Coptic isn't even on this language "map" - I thought it was a Semitic or Hamitic language? I understand that Coptic developed after Alexander the Great's take-over of Egypt in the 4th century BCE, and while using Greek lettering was nevertheless based on the ancient Egyptian language, incorporating many hieroglyphic symbols into the "new" language and script, developed from the Demotic. Please correct me if this is wrong, help! According to my language "map," Greek descended from Hellenic, which is directly related to proto-Indo-European circa 5000 BCE without any intervening steps. In a sense, Ukrainian and Greek ARE related to each other, as both are descended from proto-Indo-European. But that does not mean that Ukrainian and Coptic are related to each other, despite Coptic's use of the Greek alphabet! According to Wikipedia, we don't actually know when Buddha was born: The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians date his lifetime from c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE; more recently, however, at a specialist symposium on this question,[2] the majority of those scholars who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death, with others supporting earlier or later dates. [Note: (2) The Dating of the Historical Buddha: A Review Article.] Further, according to Wikipedia: Siddhartha was born in Lumbini[7] and raised in the small kingdom or principality of Kapilvastu, both of which are in modern day Nepal. At the time of the Buddha's birth, the area was at or beyond the boundary of Vedic civilization; it is even possible that his mother tongue was not an Indo-Aryan language.[8] [Notes: (7) http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhistworld/lumbini.htm (8) Richard Gombrich, Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988, page 49.] Did Scythians make it into Nepal and settle there sometime between 563 BCE and 400 BCE???

The Remarkable Trypilian Culture (5400-2700 BC)

This sounds absolutely fascinating! I saw it tonight at Art Daily and searched out the exhibition information at the website for the Royal Ontario Museum: Mysteries of Ancient Ukraine: The Remarkable Trypilian Culture (5400-2700 BC) November 29, 2008 to March 22, 2009 Who were the Trypillians? How were they able to build the largest settlements in Europe, well over five thousand years ago? And why did they burn them down? These and other questions are explored in this fascinating exhibition that uncovers the secrets surrounding this mysterious people. Nestled in the forest steppes of modern-day Ukraine, the prehistoric Trypillian people lived and prospered between 5000 and 2750 BCE. Highly sophisticated, the Trypillians were both farmers and hunters. Their ability to adapt to different terrain led to their prosperity, and soon they had the largest population growth of any other Neolithic people. They built the largest settlements in Europe at that time, some with an estimated population of 10-15,000 people. Every 60 to 80 years, they burned some settlements to the ground and moved to settle another location. In 1896, Ukraininan archaeologist Vikenty Khvoika discovered one of these settlements near the village of Trypillia. The artifacts he uncovered were instrumental in reconstructing the daily lives of this prehistoric civilization. Ancient Ukraine presents household tools, evidence of clothing, spiritual artifacts and art, all of which help to build the story of how the Trypillians lived, flourished and then all but mysteriously disappeared. This exhibition was organized by the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada and the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, Kyiv in collaboration with the Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, The Archaeological Museum of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, The Odessa Archaeological Museum, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and The Vinnytsia Regional Museum, Ukraine. More information at Art Daily. Extracted: To place the Trypilian culture in context, The Neolithic Revolution examines the development of human societies in Europe from the end of the last Ice Age to the arrival of Copper Age cultures, including Trypilian. Other Neolithic cultures, such as the Halaf, from what is now known as northern Syria and south-eastern Turkey, and the Vinca from what is now known as modern Serbia, are juxtaposed, their artistic legacies having much in common. Here, visitors can study the earthenware portrait of a pensive male face, created by the Vinca approximately 7,500 years ago, and which bears striking similarity to the ‘realistic’ portraits of Trypilia. Spirituality and Artistic Expression highlights various puzzling pieces of ceramic art made by the Trypilians - specifically anthropomorphic figurines (ranging from stylized to quasi-realistic) and containers decorated in various ways (incised, monochromatic, polychromatic). Found in many Neolithic cultures, the female figurines on display, with exaggerated feminine features, are believed by some scholars to represent a ‘great mother goddess’. Other ceramic objects, such as footed platforms, and enigmatic, hollow “binocular” pieces, attest to the spiritual and ritual life of the Trypilians. A continuity/continguity of cultures and images of the great mother goddess - in this case, this is a "bird" goddess, a common iconic form throughout neolithic Europe and the Middle East. The photo is not specifically identified, it is from the ROM website with this under-tag: Photographs by Petro Hrycyk, from the exhibition "Ukraine -- Images from 5000 to 4000 BC: Treasures of the Trypillian Culture", The Ukrainian Museum, New York, 1993.