Month: March 2010

by RAJ PATEL

A top ten list of things that aren’t as cheap as you think.

#10 Bottled Water – Bottled water sounds like it should be cheaper – it’s 200 to 10,000 times more expensive than tap water. But in the US, the annual energy wasted on bottled water adds the equivalent to 100,000 cars on roads and 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. And the price we pay for water doesn’t begin to address the longer term issues of global shortage for something that everyone needs to survive. Make a start: stop your local government from wasting your money on bottled water, as we did in San Francisco.

#9 Cellphones – We’ve all got them. The trouble is that one of the minerals inside our high tech toys – coltan – is bought very dear indeed. With around three quarters of the world’s reserves of coltan in the Democratic Republic of Congo, our demand for gadgets fuels bloody conflict and vast human suffering. The No Blood on My Cellphone campaign shows how we can stop it.

#8 Double cheeseburger – A value meal is a great way to eat if you’ve neither time nor money but this cheap food turns out to be ‘cheat food’. What if we had to pay the full environmental, labour and health costs of a burger? Some researchers think we’d end up paying over $200, and that doesn’t include the modern day slavery in our North American sandwiches.

#7 Fish fingers – The world’s oceans are being emptied. When I was a kid, our fish fingers were made of cod. Now the species is commercially extinct, and we’re within a generation of killing everything in the seas. Yet the price of fish is still just a few dollars a kilo.

#6 A Free Lunch – Rudyard Kipling came across the free lunch in the nineteenth century in San Francisco, where he “paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt.” But the freebie ends up being a way to reel you in to consume more. And, yes, my own book is being sold this way too, with a free chapter and video . There’s no moral high-ground for me – I’m a moral low-ground sort of person. But that doesn’t stop me from encouraging folk to get the book from a library.

#5 Googling – Would it shock you to know that two Google searches produces the equivalent greenhouse gases of making a cup of tea. The London Telegraph reported this last year , and while Google denies it, it’s certainly true that global information technology is responsible for 2% of all greenhouse gases.

#4 Toxic waste – Larry Summers, President Obama’s chief economic adviser, was once a senior economist at the World Bank. When he was there, he wrote in a confidential but since widely cited memo that “Just between you and me, shouldn’t the World Bank be encouraging MORE migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs [Less Developed Countries]?” He argued that poor people valued a clean environment less than the rich, and so pollution should flow to them. And it has, with rich countries dumping their pollution on poor ones, undervaluing their lives and the damage it causes.

#3 Low income jobs. Part of the reason that food and energy are cheap is so that working peoples’ wage demands are kept in check. In Canada, average real wages have increased by just 1% in two decades – and in the US similar long term trends for working class people (and severe declines in the value of minimum wages.)
But around the world, minimum wages fall far below what families need to survive.

#2 Gas – The way we live to day depends on our not paying the full costs of fossil fuel – with thousands already dying and many billions being lost right now. While figures of $65 trillion a year for the real cost of fossil fuel are almost certainly wrong, with 300 million people affected, it’s already a disaster. We need to bring our governments to heel if we’re to leave a world worth living in to our children.

#1 Women’s work – The world wouldn’t turn without the work of raising children, and caring for family and community. But it’s the work that is most often and quite literally taken for granted. If the work that women did were to be paid, how much would it cost? Researchers put it at $11 trillion in 1995, or half the world’s total output. Movements demanding a basic income grant are laying the foundations for this new way of working and living. Valuing women’s work would, more than any other single thing, transform the way we think about our economy and society.

Raj Patel

THE ECONOMIST

Killed, aborted or neglected, at least 100m girls have disappeared—and the number is rising

IMAGINE you are one half of a young couple expecting your first child in a fast-growing, poor country. You are part of the new middle class; your income is rising; you want a small family. But traditional mores hold sway around you, most important in the preference for sons over daughters. Perhaps hard physical labour is still needed for the family to make its living. Perhaps only sons may inherit land. Perhaps a daughter is deemed to join another family on marriage and you want someone to care for you when you are old. Perhaps she needs a dowry.

Now imagine that you have had an ultrasound scan; it costs $12, but you can afford that. The scan says the unborn child is a girl. You yourself would prefer a boy; the rest of your family clamours for one. You would never dream of killing a baby daughter, as they do out in the villages. But an abortion seems different. What do you do?

For millions of couples, the answer is: abort the daughter, try for a son. In China and northern India more than 120 boys are being born for every 100 girls. Nature dictates that slightly more males are born than females to offset boys’ greater susceptibility to infant disease. But nothing on this scale.

The Economist for more

(Submitted by reader)

by JAILEEN F. JIMENO

TA. CRUZ, ZAMBALES – Nickel is not doing too well in the world market these days, but residents here do not seem to mind, even though nickel has become one of this town’s major revenue earners.

That’s because whenever nickel commands top dollar, red dust smothers the town’s main highway and the pier, and red mud cakes the roads. Residents also have to share their small barangay roads with huge, lumbering trucks, and when rains come, floodwaters the color of blood fill their ricefields. Meanwhile, up in the mountains, armed guards hired by mining firms menace real and imagined foes and sometimes engage each other in deadly shootouts.

No wonder Zambales Governor Amor Deloso has taken to describing Sta. Cruz – some 170 kilometers north of Manila — as “parang Iraq (like Iraq).”

Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism for more

by SAM BAHOUR

We are told that President Obama has taken a leap of political faith in trying to bridge a final peace settlement between Palestinians and Israelis. The United States’ new weapon is “proximity talks”: if either side fails to meet American expectations, the US will squarely and publicly lay blame. If this was a sitcom it would be the opportune time to crack up laughing; regretfully this is not the case. Real people – whole generations – of Palestinians are on the verge of being locked into another decade of protracted and violent military occupation. Many Israelis’ lives and hopes are at stake as well.

It has been reported in Ha’aretz that President Obama submitted a letter of commitment to the Palestinian side to get these indirect “proximity talks” off the ground. The letter notes, “Our core remains a viable, independent and sovereign Palestinian State with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967.” This is not the first time a US administration has used its creativity in creating new terminology to deal with the conflict instead of relying on the time-tested body of international law that provides the keys to real progress. In the past, in place of “independent state” the US has attached such adjectives to the word “state” as “contiguous,” “viable,” “economically viable,” “territorial continuity,” and the like. In his use of words, President Obama has just picked up where the failures of past administrations left off.

International law clearly defines what an independent state is and any attempt to redefine it is an act of bad faith.

Israeli Failed State

The Palestine Chronicle for more

(Submitted by Ingrid B. Mork)

by THALIF DEEN

Women wearing the traditional Hijab attend the Commission on the Status of Women conference at U.N. headquarters. PHOTO/Bomoon Lee/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 4, 2010 (IPS) – The status of women in a predominantly male-chauvinistic Arab world continues to fluctuate from one extreme to another.

The political and cultural life in the region, by and large, has been characterised by the good, the bad and the ugly.

On the one hand are child marriages and honour killings (deemed barbaric) in the rigidly conservative countries, and on the other, are the appointment and/or election of women to high office (hailed as impressive success stories) in the relatively liberal countries.

“Women can already been seen in greater numbers in our parliament, ministries, judiciary, armed forces and police, and they have also assumed very senior positions in both public office and the private sector,” says Hala Latouf, head of the Jordanian delegation to the Commission on the Status of Women.

She also proudly notes that Jordan now has women governors, mayors, judges and ambassadors, in addition to women chief executive officers (CEOs) in key industries and businesses, consultative bodies and chambers of commerce and industry.

“The new draft law on elections is expected to allocate even greater number of (parliamentary) seats for women,” she declared.

On an equally positive note, Dr. Jouhaina Sultan Seif El-Issa, vice chairperson of Qatar’s supreme council for family affairs, points out that Qatari business women account for more than 50 percent of the total equity investors and dealers in the Doha Stock Market.

At the same time, the number of women-owned companies in Qatar now amount to nearly 1,500.

She said Qatar has established two Foundations: one, for child and women protection, and the other, to combat human trafficking.

Still, says Nadya Khalife of Human Rights Watch, most governments in the region discriminate against women in personal status laws which govern their everyday lives, including issues of marriage, divorce, custody and guardianship, and inheritance.

Inter Press Service for more

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Imphal, Mar 14 (PTI) Manipuri dance that embodies delicate and graceful movements is the forte of Tamanna Rahman, an internationally-acclaimed dancer from Bangladesh, who is training youngsters in her country in the dance form.

Director of Nrityam Nrityasheelon Kendro in Dhaka, 44-year-old Rahman said 50 young Bangladeshi students were learning classical Manipuri dance and other art forms of the northeastern state.

“Though I am a Muslim woman from Bangladesh, the rich culture and tradition of Manipur is in my heart and I feel that Manipur is close to my own country,” Rahman, who served as guest lecturer at the Theatre department of Dhaka University, said.

She was mesmerised by the performance of Manipuri dancer Shantibala Sinha in Dhaka in the early eighties. “Driven by the deep passion of this dance form, I began learning Manipuri dance from Guru Shantibala in 1982,” she said.

Press Trust of India

(Submitted by Pritam Rohila)

The Economist

The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University. By Louis Menand. Norton; 174 pages; $24.95 and £17.99. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk

THIS subtle and intelligent little book should be read by every student thinking of applying to take a doctorate. They may then decide to go elsewhere. For something curious has been happening in American universities, and Louis Menand, a professor of English at Harvard University, captures it deftly.

His concern is mainly with the humanities: literature, languages, philosophy and so on. These are disciplines that are going out of style: 22% of American college graduates now major in business compared with only 2% in history and 4% in English. However, many leading American universities want their undergraduates to have a grounding in the basic canon of ideas that every educated person should possess. But most find it difficult to agree on what a “general education” should look like. At Harvard, Mr Menand notes, “The great books are read because they have been read”—they form a sort of social glue.

One reason why it is hard to design and teach such courses is that they cut across the insistence by top American universities that liberal-arts education and professional education should be kept separate, taught in different schools. Many students experience both varieties. Although more than half of Harvard undergraduates end up in law, medicine or business, future doctors and lawyers must study a non-specialist liberal-arts degree before embarking on a professional qualification.

The Economist for more

(Submitted by reader)

by KELLY ZEN-YIE TSAI

for Sarah Gambito who said somethin’ like:

“in my 20’s, i was captivated by genius, but now, in my 30’s, i realize how rare authentic kindness is.”

i’ve got to agree with sarah.

in my 20’s, i thought genius
was the hot shit.

muthafucka’s who taught themselves
how to play 20 different instruments —

a combination lawyer / ER doctor /
and clinical social worker —

a novelist who writes for 10 hours a day,
goes to sleep for 2, gets up and writes for another 10 —

now, genius bores me.
the tedium of the workaholic,
the blistering erections of human achievement,

all while the genius’ life crumbles
around him or her.

the phone goes silent.
birthdays and holidays go missed.
vacations never get taken.

genius doesn’t believe
in such frivolous things.

i know, because i have been
a sufferer of genius.

i’m not saying that i am a genius,
but i’ve almost died in its pursuit.

sacrificed so many nights not sleeping,

exploded an atomic mushroom cloud
of emotional distance around me,

found my own ingenuity and energy
running over me foot by foot,

genius doesn’t have time
for social skills or feelings
or farmville on facebook

for bubble tea dates on rainy afternoons
or guitar hero marathons or knowing
what one’s loved one is crying about
when the crying eventually does come.

genius is so often absent —
swinging around in its own genius world,
gorilla knuckled with broad teeth and a thick skull,

blowing through the jungle,
not caring who he or she crushes.

to live like this is not extraordinary —

when placed next to the steady hand
that on monday, tuesday, wednesday,
thursday, friday, saturday, sunday stays here

no flinching, no quaking, no fists.

not extraordinary, when compared
to the open hand that stays here

through powdery blizzards, balmy springs,
scorching droughts.

the hand that stays here —

and isn’t worried about whatever “hand” things
it could be doing right now?

or what are all the other hands are up to?

or if it really is appreciated and recognized
by the entire world in its true value as a hand?

what is extraordinary is the hand
that stays here and extends,

fingers and wrist rooted in the whole person.
one who is right here, right in front of me,

not racing ahead to seek out the next solution,
the next innovation, the next trend.

the open hand that remains here, unafraid to be kind,
in the midst of so much genius.

Kelly Tsai’s website is Yellow Gurl

by EMEL BASTURK AKCA

Once one of Turkey’s biggest public producers of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, TEKEL has outlets and factories all over the country. But ever since the Turkish giant opted for privatization and terminated about 10,000 employment contracts, its former employees have been fighting for labor rights protection and equitable compensation. Left with nothing but a termination notice, the workers have converged in the Turkish capital of Ankara and launched what has become the greatest protest the country has seen for 30 years. Camped out in tents in front of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Union’s (TURK-IS) headquarters for more than two months now, the number of strikers continues to grow. Despite freezing cold temperatures and snow, the strike continues to gain momentum and support as more protesters join them daily.

Women’s International Perspective for more