exactly why is it women's day?

listenin to: U2
workin on: budgets... blah!

In 1956, approximately 20 000 women marched to the union buildings, in pretoria south africa. these women had come together to protest against a law which required all black women to carry their passes. on this day in 1956, women from all age and language groups, with different values and cultural histories and most certainly vastly different stories, stood together against something which was essentially trivial and very inadequate. i mean for such a law to actually exist would also give fruit to other such trivial laws, as the government of the time saw fit. however it is through these very silly laws and acts and decrees, that we now have a multitude of south african public holidays, workers day, day of reconciliation, youth day etc etc etc and the list goes on. not that i'm against public holidays or anything but very few people actually take even a second to consider the gem of a history we actually claim these holidays for.

for instance, last year the SABC sent out instruction to all its radio stations that women were to be placed in prime time slots, i.e. breakfast, drivetime etc, for this national women's day (04). thank you very much for the offer but seriously... no thanks. come the dawn of the 10 august, these same women would return to their lesser prime time hours and the people(men and women) who had made this rule would feel like they had made a difference. well the only difference that they have made is taking us one step back. so today, as presidents around the world(UN has declared this national women's day for past 99 years), ministers (and ministers without portfolios), opposition leaders and premiers, travel around their respective countries, all saying the same thing with the same punchlines, it would be nice if we could sift through the pre-paid, stale speeches and understand the real reason we have this national holiday.

so on ladies day(coined by james and ling!) my feeling towards it is rather like that super crusty valentines day. if you must make some kind of profound statement to a woman, do it on any normal, ordinary day of the week. it sure means a whole lot more when you aern't joining the masses and doing it because some line on a calendar marks the day for you.