Thank you, Karleen.
I think that to a certain extent, shock is necessary to cause any incentive
whatsoever for change.
As long as we all consider worrisome situations as an unchangeable given,
then that is what they will remain: unchangeable or at least unchanged.
Drastic changes of long-practiced habits only come when alert and criticial
people dare asking 'uncomfortable' questions about them.
Ethnocentrism is certainly not the best solution, but then again... some
things have found their way into documents of human rights.
That is why, for example, genital mutilation of young girls (and boys,
though not by all...) is considered appaling as well and not merely a
cross-cultural difference to be respected.
If people had not been shocked by certain pratices, Amnesty International
would not have been funded, nor LLL or the United Nations.
Shock in the one person may be very confronting to the other, but hey...
isn't that how we make progress, by self reflection and willingness to
question (age-old) habits...?

Respectfully,

Marianne Vanderveen IBCLC, Netherlands

----- Original Message -----
From: "Karleen Gribble" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2010 11:58 AM
Subject: Re: [LACTNET] US military


> Hi Michelle,
> I don't believe that any harsh words were used in relation to women in the
> US military but in relation to the justification of systems that require
> involuntary separation of mothers and babies in ways that would be deemed
> a
> breach of human rights in much of the world (as pointed out so helpfully
> by
> Morgan Gallagher). Sorry that my shock was so distressing to you- though I
> am sure that the mother involved might find it helpful to know that there
> are some who find her predicament appalling.
> Karleen Gribble
> Australia

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