Shaking the Tree - Feminisme and Diversite!

Seeing as it's Firework and Bonfire Night, I thought I'd set off a sparkler of mine own!

Forgive me for speaking to my women readers, and I don't mean to alienate any of the chaps who drop by here, but we women still have much to learn and even further to go and grow in so many countries -- ...I mean in terms of changing lives, celebrating who we are and what we have achieved... We need to look out for others, and continue to strive for ours and others' rightful equality of opportunities...

We must never forget how far we have come... and how far we are yet to go, mes bloggy dames and desmoiselles... Et les messieurs aussi.

It is only just over a decade ago that I was in a job interview at the factory my sweet and funny, much-missed, late father worked in for most of his adult life, and the chauvinistic Personnel Manager, on hearing that my son was only 3 years of age, admonished me that women really should be in the home, and not in the workplace.

He told my dad that he hoped to have something for me in the future as he had been very impressed by my performance at interview! The cheek of the chauvinist swinehund!

Did you shake the tree today, this week, this month, this year, lassies and lads?

7 Seconds...

Embedding of this particular video is disabled, so you might need to CLICKIE HERE if you'd like to see the very powerful version of 7 Seconds, performed by London's Primrose Hill's darling Neneh Cherry - A gorgeous mama and musician - She's the same age as me, but she's actually now been a grand-mama for 5 years - YIKES! - and this is her collaboration (one of her many over the years with so many musicians while she brought up her family), with the fabulous Youssou N'Dour, from Senegal...



°Yousou N'Dour singing in his mother tongue;

Boul ma sene, boul ma guiss madi re nga fokni mane
Khamouma li neka thi sama souf ak thi guinaw
Beugouma kouma khol oaldine yaw li neka si yaw
mo ne si man, li ne si mane moye dilene diapale

°Neneh Cherry taking over here;

Roughneck and rudeness,
We should be using, on the ones who practice wicked charms
For the sword and the stone
Bad to the bone
Battle is not over
Even when it's won
And when a child is born into this world
It has no concept
Of the tone the skin is living in
It's not a second
7 seconds away
Just as long as I stay
I'll be waiting
It's not a second
7 seconds away
Just as long as I stay
I'll be waiting X3

°Youssou N'Dour again, singing in french(translated in english by "The SenSeï");

-j'assume les raisons qui nous poussent de changer tous,
I assume the reasons that lead us to change everything,

-J'aimerais qu'on oublie leur couleur pour qu'ils esperent
I wish we could forget their color so they can hope

-Beaucoup de sentiments de races qui font qu'ils desesperent
lots of feelings for races which make them lose hope (despair)

-Je veux les deux mains ouvertes,
I want the two hands open,

-Des amis pour parler de leur peine, de leur joie
(and) friends to talk about their sorrow, about their joy

-Pour qu'ils leur filent des infos qui ne divisent pas
so they can give them information that does not divide them)

-Changer
change

°Neneh Cherry as lead vocals henceforth;

7 seconds away
Just as long as I stay
I'll be waiting
It's not a second
7 seconds away
Just as long as I stay
I'll be waiting X3
And when a child is born into this world
It has no concept
Of the tone the skin it´s living in
And there's a million voices
And there's a million voices
To tell you what you should be thinking
So you better sober up for just a second
We´re 7 seconds away
Just as long as I stay
I'll be waiting
It's not a second
We´re 7 seconds away
For just as long as I stay
I'll be waiting
It's not a second
7 seconds away
Just as long as I stay
I'll be waiting

A song about diversity and difference, and the richness in all of us who should not be divided by colour or faith, anger or war, greed or desperation...avarice ou desespoir...

I'm back on me soapbox again, so it seems... So sorry about that, mes bloggy adventurers!