From DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.orgTue Sep 12 07:25:31 1995 Date: Sat, 09 Sep 1995 08:22:00 +0100 From: Debra Guzman Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org To: beijing95-l@netcom.com, beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org Subject: WCW: Diplomat offers traditional viewpoint [The following text is in the "ISO-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] ## Original in: /HRNET/WOMEN ## author : theearthtime@igc.apc.org ## date : 05.09.95 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Diplomat offers traditional viewpoint By Hille Linders Earth Times News Service BEIJING--During the week-long train ride from Warsaw, says Arthur Cozma, first secretary of the Moldovian ministry of foreign affairs, he only survived by "not taking the discussions on board to seriously." Really, why? Because he was only one of two male delegates on board. The train was sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme. "Most women were NGOs," Cozma said. "They expressed so much anger against men. Also they insisted on a division of employment between men and women on a basis of fifty-fifty. That I think is impossible." "By nature women are not made for politics or other hard jobs, but for children, family, love and so on," he went on. "Frankly, I think women involved in politics stray from their role in the family." Even though Cozma disagreed with many other passengers on the UNDP Peace Train, he found his trip interesting. "The atmosphere was very good and friendly," Cozma said. "There were no angry faces or misunderstandings, just jokes and laughs." The biggest problem for women in his country, Cozma said, is that women often have two jobs: a paid one, and one at home. "But my country has a European tradition. We don't discriminate against women."