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Pulitzer-Prize Winning Columnist: Transforming Women
from Victims to Engaged Participants Key to Abating Global Poverty

Roxana Popescu | November 2, 2009

Photo of Nicholas Kristof
Nicholas Kristof, center, spoke with Thurgood Marshall College Provost Allan Havis and Earl Warren College Provost Steven Adler at a reception before his lecture.

Calling gender inequity the “central moral challenge” of this day, comparable with totalitarianism in the twentieth century and slavery in the nineteenth, Nicholas Kristof, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for The New York Times, painted a picture of ferocious persecution and fantastic promise for the world’s more than 3 billion women.

Eliminating blights like sex trafficking, gender selection, maternal mortality, poor healthcare access, and other abuses is not critical simply from a human rights standpoint. Those improvements are proven to lead to better economic outcomes for their communities and nations, Kristof told an audience of around 800 people in a packed Price Center ballroom at a lecture Wednesday night. The free talk was part of the Helen Edison Lecture Series and co-sponsored by Thurgood Marshall College.

“As a purely pragmatic matter, putting aside all issues of what is right and wrong, if you want to address global poverty, if you want to build more stability, then the most cost-efficient way to do that is to educate women, empower girls, bring them into the economy and watch a virtuous cycle follow,” Kristof said.

Photo of Nicholas Kristof
During his talk Wednesday, Kristof illustrated his arguments with vivid anecdotes and photographs, occasionally eliciting gasps from the audience.

Kristof was on campus to promote his new book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, which he co-authored with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn.

Introducing the columnist, Allan Havis, provost of Thurgood Marshall College, cited Kristof’s “political fervor and clarity of mind.” Later, he offered this perspective: “His intuitive, moral reportage and splendid, risk-taking, globe-trotting probes frequently turn my safe world upside down.”

Kristof reiterated the thesis of his book and wove in material from his columns, including several gasp-worthy anecdotes about women he has met around the globe. One suffered an acid attack that left her permanently disfigured; another was traumatized by a fistula after attempting to deliver a baby as a young teenager. And two young prostitutes in Cambodia were sold to an American man for $350 – together. The buyer was Kristof, who told the audience he felt he had to do something after seeing the conditions in which they lived and how utterly dispensable they were considered.

Photo of Nicholas Kristof
Mohamud Qadi, a junior at UCSD, was one of the first people to get his copy of Half the Sky signed. Originally from Somalia, Qadi said Kristof’s talk shed light on important but often overlooked issues.

Rather than dwell on problems, Kristof urged the listeners to look at the bright side –  how small changes can have huge impacts. One donation can lead to a better education for a handful of girls, which leads to empowered grown women, which leads to better opportunities for them and their families, which brings wealth to the entire region over time.

In a question and answer session after the talk, it seemed audience members were heeding his call to action. Several people asked questions about how they could make a difference – even from the sunny, stable and sane paradise they inhabit.

“Find something that speaks to you and get involved,” Kristof said.

He also made a personal appeal to UCSD students regarding one of his sons, a high school senior. “So I have to ask you: What do you think of UCSD?” he inquired.

Whoops and hollers erupted around the room, to which Kristof deadpanned, “I’ll relay that to him.”

Photo of Nicholas Kristof
At the Faculty Club Thursday morning, Kristof met with members of local nonprofits working in Africa. Alka Subramanian, who exchanged a few ideas with Kristof after breakfast, works to combat AIDS and support local women through her nonprofit, Power of Love Foundation.

After the talk, audience members lined up to buy books and get Kristof’s signature. The line snaked throughout the Price Center’s hallways and spilled outside. Mahamud Qadi, a junior biochemistry major, was one of the first to get an autograph.

“I was born in Somalia. I have seven sisters,” he said afterward, adding that the lecture shed light on rarely discussed but critical issues. “This stuff goes unrecognized on campus.”

Before and after the lecture, Kristof met with administrators, students and members of NGOs focusing on women in Africa. Thursday morning, he had coffee and croissants with non-profit workers, fielding questions from people working directly with the kinds of causes and individuals he writes about. That event was sponsored by Project Concern International, a San Diego based nonprofit, and held at the UCSD Faculty Club.

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