The world that Dr Da Vinci lives in a very, very strange world.
A world that is willing to pay her more to model for a day, than to work as a doctor for a month.
Dr Da Vinci knows therefore that none of the women that give her the most inspiration will feature on any of the 'Most Inspirational Women's' list's online.
Admittedly, at this very moment; Dr Da Vinci is in the lab, wearing Kate Moss jeans and there are several magazines with Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks, Jennifer Anistion, Angelina Jolie, Beyonce, Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian splashed across thier covers outside her clinic. She appreciates the value of music, fashion and celebrity, afterall Andy Warhol is one of her favourite people of all time, so perhaps she too,contributes to this ridiculous celebrity-obsessed culture.
The definition of the term 'female role model' has changed so much over the past few decades that the women who metaphorically burnt their bra's to liberate us, I expect, would be aghast if they could travel through time and experience the so-called post-feminist era that many of them fought tirelessly to create.
That said some see this hollywood-tainted army of walking, talking plastic figurines as the future. The future of art, the future of music, the future elite......the world of science fiction, has taken it even further than that, you'll know what I mean if you've seen the movie Surrogates.
And of course I acknowledge the fact that we have now female surgeons, prominent female politicians, females on the boards of fortune 500 companies, female presidents/prime minister's and that women are allowed to be creative and appreciated for thier work. We only have to compare the experiences of George Eliot and JK Rowling to appreciate that we as females have come along way, even though it's a world that our bra-burning suffragettes may still find objectionable.
However, today I would like to talk about one of the many women that inspire me. She does not have her own line of lingerie or her own talk show, she has not, to my knowledge realeased any sexually explicit music videos, she has never made the GQ magazines list of sexiest women, she has not posed semi-nude for FHM and does not get paid millions of dollars to perform for terrorsist's.
Without further ado or pseudo-feminist commentary, allow me to introduce you to:
Dr Dora Nkem Akunyili
Dr Dora Akunyili is the current (since December 17, 2008) Nigerian Minister of Information and Communications. She is a pharmacist and governmental administrator who has gained international recognition and won hundreds of awards for her work in pharmacology, public health and human rights.
She entered the public eye in 2001 when she took over the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) of Nigeria after a World Health Organisation survey revealed that more than half the drugs on sale in Nigeria were counterfeit or sub-standard. Nigerian hospitals were using fake and contaminated drips, surgeons were using fake adrenalin to re-start the heart, anaesthetists were
giving sub-strength muscle relaxant to patients in their operating theatres; many
of her countrymen and women were fighting killer diseases like malaria and tuberculosis with fake drugs cynically packaged to look like the real thing. As a pharmacist she had always been aware of the problem, indeed, her own diabetic sister died from what Dora is convinced were fake insulin and fake antibiotics.
Her responsiblity was to root out these fakes, to defeat counterfeiters, to close down the importers and end bribery, in an effort to eliminate the large scale corruption that was ruining the health and taking the lives and the hopes of so many.
Within a mere six months of her appointment this remarkable lady had closed down the vast open-air medicines market in Kano for three months while her officers confiscated £140,000 worth of fake drugs. She built a new team of female inspectors and pharmacists. She began to prosecute importers of fake drugs. She upgraded premises and she upgraded laboratories. The public applauded, but the counterfeiters fought back. They fire bombed NAFDAC offices, trashed the NAFDAC laboratories and sent death threats to her and her family. They even shot at her and her family in their car – a bullet grazed her skull, but she survived.
But since her appointment there has been a drop of at least 50% in the quantity of fake drugs on the market and many now owe their lives to her fearless campaign.
Dora Akunyili is revolutionary, she is fearless, she has intergrity, she is loyal, she is diplomatic, but is also ruthless operating with an almost messianic zeal.
Dr Da Vinci has been waiting and watching the results of Mr Jonathan's cabinet re-shuffle very carefully and is extremely, pleased to hear that Dr Dora is back in the new cabinet to continue our fight against the con-artists, fraudsters and swindlders that threaten Nigeria's stability daily.
Death to con-artists, fraudsters and swindlers. Long live Lady Dora!
