THE GUY THING

He went on to further define "the guy thing." He said that Bush patted the firemen and cops on the back and talked sports and was just such a nice guy that everybody liked him.

Somehow that is not reassuring to hear. No one seems to be claiming that Bush has intelligence or governing ability. In fact, most stress that his greatest talents are running on his treadmill, doing what Karen tells him and pressing weights.

Phil Donahue, the returning liberal talk show host, incredulously remarked that three quarters of Americans polled were perfectly happy to go to war with Iraq anytime George said to no questions asked.

Is this more of the guy thing? Do men and women really want to put their daughters and sons in peril while guy-George wages all-out war? Are they prepared to inflict the horror of burning oil wells on the environment again? Did we learn nothing about Saddam from daddy Bush's Gulf war?

Meanwhile, as George and the other 70% or so American guy-guyz strut their stuff and saber rattle, we learn about how a group of women solved their problem without recourse to violence or war.

Recently 600 Nigerian women, ranging in age from 30 to 90, were holding 700 ChevronTexaco workers inside the Escravos terminal. The women had shut down the production of more than a half-million barrels a day and taken over the facility.

The women kept the workers from leaving by threatening to remove their own clothing, a traditional and power shaming gesture of the Nigerian culture. "Our weapon is our nakedness," said Helen Odeworitse. The women wanted the oil company to hire their sons in the plant and to use some of their huge profits to develop the Escravos villages, most of which lack electricity.

Although oil site takeovers are common in Nigeria, this time was different. Formerly, armed young men used kidnapping and sabotage to pressure the oil multinationals into giving them jobs and compensation for environmental damages.

This time the women, under the leadership of Anino Olowu, prevailed without a shot being fired or a body exposed -- the threat was enough.

If you have a really strong stomach, imagine guy Dubya Bush, guy The Dick Cheney, guy Rummy Rumsfeld, guy Karlie Rove and the rest of the bushie merryguyz walking down the streets of Baghdad buck naked.

Awful to contemplate, isn't it?

Fearful and sickening too.

Naturally, Saddam and his boyz would be overcome and capitulate.

Resistance would be futile.

Then there's the little custom of GUY justice in Meerwala, Pakistan.

The punishment for a crime committed by an 11-year-old boy was to shame his family by gang-raping the boy's sister.

Four members of the tribal council took turns raping the 18-year-old sister in a mud hut as hundreds of people stood outside laughing and cheering.

What a horrible custom! They are so unlike us. . .

If the polls are correct, some 75% of us will laugh and cheer and probably wave flags while birds and animals suffocate in the smoke from burning oil fields in Iraq, and children, women and men are bombed and shot by our guyz led by THE GUY, guy-George, from the safety of the White House.

twanda@twanda.org       

2002-029

Copyright 2002 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@twanda.org.