EDITOR – As the old (and wildly incorrect) saying goes, women are ‘the weaker sex.’ Really? Let me ask you this; without women, would you even exist? The very first miracle starts with a woman: life itself. Man’s first home was a woman’s body. His first protector was her immune system. His first meal was her blood and bone. And yet, beyond giving life, women have built the very systems, tools, and technologies that keep this world running.
If you think women just belong in kitchens, think again, because the internet you scroll, the medicines you take, and even the safety gear soldiers wear, is all because of women. If these inventions didn’t exist, you wouldn’t survive a single day in this modern world.
You love your wifi, don’t you? You binge-watch Netflix, play games, and work online, all thanks to Hedy Lamarr, a woman who wasn’t just a glamorous actress but a genius inventor. She co-created the frequency-hopping technology, forming the mechanistic heart of what we now know as wifi, Bluetooth, and GPS. Now imagine this: no Hedy Lamarr, no wifi, no Bluetooth, no GPS. You’d be lost on the road, sitting in silence with no Instagram, no TikTok, and no YouTube. Your entire digital world exists because a woman dared to invent when men didn’t even believe she could think beyond makeup.
You think Mark Zuckerberg gave you Facebook? Sure, but without Radia Perlman, the entire internet would just freeze, crash, and never recover. She invented the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), which lets networks ‘heal themselves’ by switching to a backup line if the main one fails. If she hadn’t? The web would burn out. Every. Single. Time. You. Tried. To. Use. It. No streaming. No banking. No online shopping. So, when you post your ‘alpha male’ nonsense on social media, thank a woman for giving the internet a working circulatory system.
Ever heard of Kevlar? It’s the super-strong fibre used in bulletproof vests and helmets. Who invented it? Stephanie Kwolek, a woman. Without her, soldiers, police officers, and thousands of innocent people would die in gunfire every single day. Men fight wars, but a woman invented the armour that stops death.
Break your bone? Get an X-ray. Beat cancer? Use radiation therapy. None of that exists without Marie Curie, the scientist who discovered radioactivity and new elements. She gave the world the knowledge that led to X-rays and cancer treatment. Without her? Millions would die without diagnosis or cure. You’d have no medical imaging, no treatment for tumours, no progress in modern healthcare.
No wifi. No internet. No GPS. No modern medicine. No safe soldiers. No coding. No education for girls. No progress. Civilization would be crawling at the pace of a dripping faucet, and men would still be dipping and re-dipping a dry quill under candlelight.
Yumna Zahid Ali,
Karachi, Pakistan.
Radia Pearlman, who you can thank if you’re reading this online with no problems!
Do what we can to end support for the IDF
EDITOR – The situation in Gaza is truly appalling, and it’s easy to feel helpless as politicians just stand by and let the genocide continue. There are very meaningful actions that we can take together that will have a real impact.
Palestinians have long been calling for the world to boycott Israeli products, and if governments won’t enact sanctions, then it’s up to us to do it instead. In order for boycotts to work they need to be targeted.
We can therefore focus on Teva, an Israeli pharmaceutical company. Teva Pharmaceuticals is the largest company in Israel. One out of every eight medicines sold in Ireland is made by Teva, so together, we can have a real impact on their bottom line.
Their tax money allows the Israeli government to pay for bombs, tanks, and bullets to be used against innocent people in Gaza. Many Teva employees, including their CEO of logistics, have fought in Gaza for the IDF. Please, talk to your pharmacist about switching to an alternative medicine brand if it is safe for you to do so.
If you are taking a particular medicine and your pharmacist advises you that no safe alternative exists then do not stop taking your medicine. But boycotting Teva couldn’t be easier. They mostly make generic medicines so here in Ireland you can simply ask your pharmacist to mark your file as ‘No-Teva’ and any future medicines you buy will be swapped for an identical product under a different brand.
This way, by having one conversation, we can make sure that thousands of euro in future payments for our medicines are diverted away from Teva, and the Israeli terror regime.
Daniel Teegan,
Listarkin, Union Hall.
Is this an erosion of the Independents?
EDITOR – The reticence of some county councils to exercise their constitutional right, under Article 12.4.2, to assess and if appropriate nominate a candidate for the presidential election, is baffling. Are these not the same councillors who urge all the electorate to be sure and exercise their franchise on voting day?
Are they happy to sideline the rights and responsibilities of local government in an effort to ingratiate themselves with party leaders?
It will be a travesty if those same party leaders who so arrogantly put last year’s two overwhelmingly defeated referendums before the people, can in effect veto the nomination hopes of candidates who are not beholden to.
Perhaps this could be seen as a ‘triple-lock’ on democratic participation by Independents: party leaders, Oireachtas members, and now county councillors, all saying ‘no’.
Gearoid Duffy,
Lee Road, Cork.
