Hilary Clinton is No Match to Jenny Ligo

Hilary Clinton may or may not succeed with her new image as a tough, beer swilling heroine of the working classes. However, a politician in Vanuatu, makes Hillary’s efforts pale into insignificance.

Another woman, a world away in the South Pacific, also ran the gauntlet to successfully enter the fractious world of politics. When Viregagaru Ligo Jenny of Ambae island, in the South Pacific Vanuatu archipelago, was married last year she had her first experience of ceremonially clubbing pigs to death, as stipulated by custom law.

Dressed in a woven mat and custom grass skirt, Jenny is once again wielding the ceremonial club. In the midst of squealing pigs she becomes only the second woman to achieve a high ranking chiefly title.

It is rare for a woman to achieve a high ranking title, in an ancient society that has been dominated by the male fist of authority for centuries.

For most woman motherhood comes through the grueling task of childbirth. For Jenny, motherhood came through ceremonially clubbing to death 11 pigs, when Chief Paul Tahi declared her as the ‘Mother of the Nation.’

Most city dwellers would be unaware of the death defying, ear splitting noise one little pig can make, in the face of impending danger. Let alone 11, warning all other pigs for miles around. However, the ceremony is a necessity if Jenny is to stand for her electorate in the upcoming elections later this year.

While both Hillary and Jenny have huge issues to cope with in the political arena, Jenny has an added burden through custom magic.

Over 100 years ago a young priest was shot and killed on Jenny's home island, causing a curse to be cast on the northern part of the island. "The curse has stopped any forward development," claims the local inhabitants.

Late last year, Bishop James Ligo, reconciled the descendants of the murdered priest and the local people. "Now the island can finally begin to progress forward."

“I am not a woman who sits and waits to be served. I am a leader and I mean business when I say I am going to reach out to the people,” says Jenny Ligo.

Jenny is the niece of political and women’s rights’ activist, Grace Molisa. Jenny’s aunt became the first woman to hold the post of Private Secretary to the country’s first Prime Minister, Father Walter Lini, after the nation’s Independence.

In 2006, Vanuatu was nominated ‘The Happiest Country on Earth’. It is hoped that Jenny will take her chiefly role serious when it comes to the education of the children of Vanuatu. School attendance in Vanuatu is very poor, as education is not free.

These stats have changed little since 1998:

#Only 55.8% of kids will get to year 6

#Only 18.2 % will go to high school

#26% never go to school at all.

Your help is needed to educate the next generation of Jenny Ligos, through a Blue Moon Opportunity at winaresort.com

A new program is planned for providing non-repayable high school education grants to children from the outer islands of Vanuatu, beginning in January 2009.

Jenny Ligo will become involved in this scheme, so children will be given the opportunity to understand not only the ancient custom ways, but also embrace the modern beneficial ways of the 21st century.

The only lasting way to bring about real change is when that change is brought about internally, through education.