Lingual Tremors

A Summary of the Zapatista Women's Gathering

A Summary of the Zapatista Women`s Gathering: Comandanta Ramona & the Zapatista Women

From: Erika Del Carmen Fuchs

PLEASE CIRCULATE ** Favor de Circular**

Hopefully you will find the following piece interesting. It is about the recent Zapatista women´s gathering, which was amazing!! Feel free to write back if you have any questions, as some of us headed down to the Gathering and were witness and participants in this amazing space with these compañeras that inspire us and give us so much energy to organize ourselves wherever we are to have a better and more just world!

Espero que se les haga interesante este resumen del reciente encuentro  de mujeres zapatistas con mujeres del mundo. Si tienen preguntas, por favor escriban ya que algunas estuvimos alla para compartir de las energias e inspiraciones de estas compañeras y guerreras tan valiosas y chingonas!!! Las que nos inspiran y animan para seguir adelante organizandonos para el mejor y mas justo mundo que queremos!!

The Class Privilege Meme

via feminist reprise and sinister girl

Bold all those that apply to you.

1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
9. Were read children’s books by a parent
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like you are portrayed positively.
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
23. You and your family lived in a single family house
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
25. You had your own room as a child
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
27. Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
28. Had your own TV in your room in High School
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
31. Went on a cruise with your family
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

iPhone Envy & Conscience

Don't Do It.  Just Don't Do It.

No Impact Man had a really great post yesterday on not getting an iPhone.  He focused on why in our consumer culture, upgrading to the next best thing is the worst thing for the environment.  Guilty as charged:  I have a Motorola Razor phone, which I bought 1 1/2 years ago primarily because it was cute.  There was nothing wrong with my old phone, it was just old.  And, I have to admit, I've been salivating over the iPhone since Apple first released information about it.  But who needs another phone?  Really. 

Loyal Tremor readers will remember that two years ago, for Lent, I gave up purchasing anything.  It was a fascinating experiment as I purchased only food, medication, and my MTA card.  I learned a lot from that time.  Let's face it:  we all consume too much.  All the time.  Privileged America means shopping;  this is evident in every former cornfield cum box store paradise.  From Pottery Barn to Pier One to Target to Walmart to Kohl's to Michael's to K-mart to grocery stores galore, America is a shopping mecca.  America is addicted to shopping and greed.  There's a store for every budget, a credit card for every desire, and endless cornfield mansions in which to put all of our new items.  Maybe it's time to give some of that up? 

So, no iPhone for me.  No iPhone for No Impact Man.  Who else is in?

Nailing Today's 95 Theses to the Hospital Door: Moore's Sicko!

Faithful readers of Lingual Tremors know that I was recently in PA visiting the parental units over the Fourth of July.  In deciding our plans for the 4th, my mom and I were debating patriotism.  In our conversation, she was discussing how she is proud of her American heritage and roots, but disgusted by the current government;  I was arguing that nationality by birth isn't enough for me.  And so she asked the question I always dread when we have this conversation:  "Where would you rather live?"  After seeing Sicko today, my answer is:  "France, the U.K. or Canada." 

I know I'm over a week late on this review--but Sicko wasn't playing in our part of Pennsylvania.  Much to my surprise upon returning to New York City, it isn't playing in many theaters here either.  I live in New York freakin' city, people!  How is it that Sicko is only playing in a handful of theaters?  How is it that only a week after its release, we saw the film in a theater not even 1/4 filled?

I think this has to do with American attitudes towards health care:  we all know the system is broken, but no one can see a clear way towards fixing it.  Current pinata-boy for the Democrats, Joe Biden, said in a town hall-style presentation in Iowa this weekend that you can't move the system from "this" to "this"  (Absent visual:  moving his fingers from the right to the left) immediately.  And so the "answer" is an apathetic, depressive, do nothing.  (Or, if you're a Democratic candidate, unveil a plan that isn't entirely clear or, if you're a Republican candidate, practice the phrase "health care?  What's the problem?").  So, Sicko isn't on top of people's agenda in quite the same way that Fahrenheit 9/11 was.  What a shame, because Sicko is a better film:  it's better researched, better argued, and better filmed.  All of the reliable Mooreisms are there--his wry and sardonic narrative, his outrageous stunts (taking 9/11 workers to Cuba for health care?), his real connection to the people he interviews, and his excellent researching of the stories we too often don't hear--but this film goes even farther by really delving into the problem.

In short, Moore has hit it on the head again.  Do whatever you need to do to see this film.  Convince others to see this film.  Early bad reviews have centered on Moore's one-sided presentation of HMOs and the for-profit insurance industry.  Early good reviews have focused on Moore's targeted critique of the problems in American health care.

Moore's film is, indeed, entirely one-sided.  In freshman composition, we call that an argument-driven thesis.  Moore's point?  The U.S. needs universal health care because the U.S. has become a country driven by greed where working hard and believing in the American dream is not enough to get by (my own argument-driven thesis would question whether this was ever truly the case).  Moore's point?  Health care is a right, not a privilege and other countries do it better;  so, why not do it better?

Moore debunks the most common myths about socialized or national health care by visiting France, the U.K. and Canada to see the facilities and interview patients and doctors.  Among the small audience we saw Sicko with, the cheers and groans were evident as Moore moved through what seemed like the luxuries of the health care systems in those countries.  Nannies that do laundry (state funded in France?), birthing clinics that are the size of my apartment in New York (England), inhalers that cost .5 cents (Cuba)...  [Full disclosure:  fully insured in the U.S., I am currently waiting over a month to see a breast surgeon for a biopsy... so I'm not particularly interested in critiques of the Canadian or British system where people wait (gasp!) over a month to see a specialist.]. 

Moore also includes his signature vignettes.  As always, I love how he gets people to open up to him about difficult, embarrassing, and heart-breaking stuff.  However, in Sicko, in some ways, this was both the most interesting and most disappointing part of the film.  Moore doesn't focus on Americans without health care;  he focuses on those with health care that is sub-standard because the insurance industry is profit-driven.  The stories are heart-breaking and awful.  Each one is more horrific than the next.  The one that was most affective to me:  hospitals dumping patients without insurance in front of a free clinic in L.A. 

Part of Moore's iconic approach to film-making relies on making abstract ideas like "health care" real.  I'm sure that I wasn't alone in wanting to send money to the people Moore highlighted in his film.  But, just like giving money to the homeless on the NYC subway won't end homelessness or hunger, giving money to people facing medical debt won't solve the medical crisis in this country.  Moreover, these stories don't address the true iniquities in the U.S. system.  How typical are they of medical-insurance nightmares faced in the U.S.?  What about those without any health care?  In some ways, I think Moore's comparison on national health care systems versus private industry insurance would have been even more effective if it had focused on how those without health care would receive health care in other countries.  Moreover, I think it would have made a better argument to show how "typical" the stories he presented were.  It's too easy for Moore-critics to say that the stories he presented were "atypical."  So, his argument could have been strengthened by showing how typical these stories are.

Moore also begins his campaign for the 2008 Presidential election.  Hillary Clinton takes it on the chin for taking money from the health care industry.  Moore does an excellent job of identifying the ways in which governmental intervention in health care has been compromised.  See a complete list of candidates and contributions from the health care industry/Big Pharma here.

Another great part of the film is his interview with Tony Benn, a former member of Britain's Parliament.  Benn provides insight after insight about both the kind of responsibility the government should have to its people--"if we have the money to kill, we've got the money to help people"--and his ideas about how democracy should work.  Benn believes that in the U.K. (and in Europe), "the politicians are afraid of the people" and so the people get what they want.  He suggests that the dismantling of the National Health System in the U.K. would cause a revolution.

Which brings me back to the point I began with.  Sicko should be enough to start a revolution in the U.S.  People should be outraged;  this isn't about political affiliation:  this isn't about political rhetoric;  this is about human lives.  This is about social justice.  This is about living in a country that truly believes all of its citizens are equal and showing that by the way it treats its people.  Don't we all have the right to expect good health care?  Why should insurance companies profit from your illness or death?  Where do you want to live?  What dream do you want to fight for?  A system where people are treated equally or a system where the least and last are dumped on a dirty L.A. street in hospital gowns without a hope in the world? 

As always, Moore goes beyond the critique.  Here's his plan for fixing health care in the U.S.:

I couldn't agree more.  Let's start a revolution.

Read On:

• Moore's site
• Margaret's Wanderings
• Thomas Paine's Corner
• Fire Dog Lake
• The Mahablog
• The Health Care Blog
• Green LA Girl
• Philadelphia Health Care Blog
• New York Times review
• News Item on Lauren Turner, Google employee & capitalist jerk

Action Steps:

• Sign the petition for Congress to pass H.R. 676
• Physicians for National Health Care

China & Carbon Emissions: Economic Exploitation

The Guardian has done a very interesting series of articles on the recent news that China has outpaced the United States in carbon emissions.  I think the U.S. media has jumped on this because they are so happy that it's finally not the United States.  In essence, the prevailing sentiment is "yay!  We can blame someone else!" From the articles (and the images I posted last week of the polluted water in China), the environmental situation seems pretty dire.  Here's a description from one of the Guardian's articles:

On a bad day - which can be hundreds in a year - the ancient city of Linfen in the northern province of Shanxi is environmental hell. Named by the World Bank last year as having the worst air quality on Earth, its 3.5 million people more often than not choke on coal dust; its soil and its rivers are covered with soot, and its Buddhas are blackened and shrouded in a toxic mist.

China's entry onto the world stage has been literally fueled by coal.  Much of the carbon emissions are related to an over-reliance on coal as a source of energy.  From afar, it sounds horrifying and reminds me (and probably everyone!) of the early history of industrialization.  This seems not so far removed from Dickens' soot-covered London or the sooty tenements of New York City.  The article goes on to discuss how the Himalayans are melting and rivers are drying up.  Among the consequences on China are health, environmental degredation, and inaccessibility of clean water.  A different article explores China's rising cancer rates:

Chen Zhizhou, of a cancer research institute affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said the situation was getting worse. "Many chemical and industrial enterprises are built along rivers so that they can dump the waste into water easily," he told the China Daily. "Excessive use of fertilisers and pesticides also pollute underground water. The contaminated water has directly affected soil, crops and food."

While China's carbon output has caught the attention of the global community, I was interested in two items buried in that news. 

The carbon footprint of the average Chinese last year was only a quarter of an American, or half that of a Briton.

and

John Sauven, director of Greenpeace, said: "Responsibility for China's soaring emissions lies not just in Beijing but also in Washington, London and Tokyo. The west has moved its manufacturing base to China knowing it was vastly more polluting than Japan, Europe or the US."

Although China has outpaced the U.S. and other industrialized nations, in many ways, the west is still to blame for this.  By moving our manufacturing base to China and India, we avoid taking responsibility for our own production and consumption.  It's a form of extended economic colonialism reliant on the exploitation of others.  What if the U.S. and other industrialized nations worked to support green business practices in China (and at home!)?  What if we actually paid for what things cost instead of always trying to get more for less?  There are, of course, no easy answers here, but it feels like China is in the midst of a horrific environmental disaster and it's hard to watch that from afar and know that the U.S. is integrally linked to that destruction.

China's Carbon Footprint:

Guardian Articles:

• China Overtakes U.S.
• Beijing Blames Pollutants for Rise in Cancer
• China's Climate Change Plan
• As Glaciers Melt and Rivers Dry Up
• Isabel Hilton, We Must Take the Lead

Read This Book: Strapped

Hey 20- and 30- Something readers (and their parents):  you need to read this book!  Tamara Draut is the Director of the Economic Opportunity Program at Demos.  Her book, Strapped:  Why America's 20 and 30 Somethings Can't Get Ahead (just released in paperback) is an excellent analysis of the ways in which the privatization of American life has led to increasing debt for younger Americans.  I was very struck by her analysis of how the increasing privatization of formerly public services, and the defunding of formerly good public services, has a direct link to our current economic crisis. 

Among other subjects, Draut focuses on the "debt for diploma" syndrome in which many younger Americans are struggling under huge student loan debts.  Draut's analysis is very cogent, and unlike other books out there.  I really haven't read something that spoke so specifically to my own situation, and the situation of many others I know.  More than just telling us "how we got here," however, Draut also has an excellent final chapter on action steps to take to reverse the situation.  Draut also provides good information on how education has been defunded--think of this like a "talking points" book for the next election.  We know services have been cut; we know life is getting more & more difficult for the lower and middle classes--but do you really know why?  Read this book and you will!

Here's a good blurb from Richard Drezen at the Washington Post:

"Draut offers a chronology and carefully documents the causes of these circumstances. While she is cautiously hopeful in outlining various remedies - e.g. college education affordable for anyone who wants one - Draut is also realistic in assessing the lack of political courage required by Washington politicians to provide them. Thus, the outcome is doubtful. Although too many data at times overload her point, the author's thesis that "it is harder and more costly to become an adult" in America today is both inescapable and eloquent. This vital work should be read by anyone who cares about the future of this country."

I think Draut is more than cautiously optimistic.  I think she really believes in the possibility of reclaiming "the American Dream." And, after reading this book, I want to believe her.  Draut thinks the current moment provides an excellent start for reforming the American system.  I know that some of my readers are feeling despondent about American politics, but economics is one crucial issue we can use to organize voters.  So, time to belly up to the bar of hard facts.  Start memorizing so that you can use them!  Here are some of Draut's "quick facts":

• The maximum Pell Grant award, the nation's premier program for helping poor kids pay for college, covers about one-third of the costs of a four-year college today. It covered three-quarters in the 1970s.
• In 1948, veterans received a grant of $500 a year, enough to pay for all but $25 of tuition at Harvard. In 2003, the average federal grant to students was $2,421, which falls $24,000 short of tuition and fees at Harvard.
• In 1977, college students borrowed about $6 billion (2002 dollars) to help pay for college. College students borrowed $56 billion in 2003. The number of students enrolled in college grew by 44 percent between 1977 and 2003, but student loan volume rose by 833 percent.
• Three-quarters of full-time college students are holding down jobs.
• Only 53 percent of all students who enroll in four-year colleges end up getting their bachelors degree within 5 years.

Seriously.  Buy this book (in paperback!) and read it. Instead of whining about your lack money, you'll be able to DO something about it and speak intelligently about the financial and educational crisis in the United States!  More importantly, maybe we can begin reforming our educational system to make college available and affordable to students again.   

Good Resources:

Project on Student Debt

Center for American Progress

National Partnership for Women & Families

See also Robert Reich's blog (!) and his recent entry on the scandal over student loans

Novartis Targets Indian Patent Law

Doctors Without Borders is reporting that pharmaceutical giant Novartis is taking the Indian government to court over the World Trade Organization's rules about patents.  This could seriously endanger cheaper medicines that developing countries rely on:

India is a major source of affordable medicines, such as antiretrovirals to treat HIV/AIDS. Until 2005, the country did not grant patents on medicines, allowing Indian companies to freely produce inexpensive generic versions of medicines patented in other countries. These were used both domestically and in other developing countries. Over half the medicines currently used for AIDS treatment in developing countries come from India and such medicines are used to treat over 80 percent of the 80,000 people living with HIV/AIDS who are enrolled in Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières projects.

Read more at MSF.

Q & A on patent law in India.

Sign the petition.

Hillary Clinton: Live Webcast 2

Here we are back again on day two of live Hillary Clinton blogging.  As with last night's web cast, tonight's web cast will be archived later, so you can watch it at your leisure. Clinton will be doing this again tomorrow (1/24) both at 7 p.m.  You can e-mail your questions in 2 hours before the webcast begins.  I'm going to go through her question/responses again tonight:

1.  Aesthetic:  still wearing pink, only this time covered up by a blueish gray suit coat.  Lose the pink.  Seriously.

2.  Clinton is hitting on a lot of the same themes she did last night:  health care, middle-class lifestyle, and benefits for reserve troops returning home from Iraq.  I'll skip some of the repeat questions.

Not surprisingly, people are asking questions about the struggles of people to make ends meet.  Interestingly, Clinton talks about expecting help from your government.  She compares expectations for the relationship between a people and its government to the kind of post-WWII society that sought to offer social programs to people to make their lives better economically.  Clinton invoked "renewing the promise of America" meaning health care costs, saving for education, making a commitment to retirement plans, the environment, a strong union movement, and "sharing the wealth" between employers and employees-- in short, "where are the wage increases?"

3.  Interestingly:  what is Clinton's position on the FDA?  Clinton said that she is continuing to fight for the independence and scientific standing of the FDA.  WOO HOO!  CLINTON IS TALKING ABOUT THE POLITICS OF PLAN B AND THE FDA.  She is retelling the history of the FDA struggle over Plan B.  EXCELLENT HILLARY!  I didn't think she'd take this on so early in the campaign. Congratulations, Hillary, you just signed on most of the feminists in the blogosphere.  She's now widening her discussion to testing for comparative effectiveness of drugs.  Finally, she's moving away from drugs altogether and discussing food safety.  She wants to have a separate agency responsible for food safety.  But, until that's possible, she wants to increase funding for FDA.  All in all, an excellent plan to return the FDA to a more scientific basis.

4.  On integrity in the voting system:  Clinton is discussing the "Count Every Vote" act and the importance of ensuring that people's votes count.  She is aggressively critiquing electronic voting machines.  She's also singling out the intimidation of voters.  She's addressing lots of the concerns that we heard out of the last several elections to protect the right to franchise:  phone calls and flyers suggesting that people can't vote.  "We're supposed to be the model of democracy.  We cannot afford to have a voting system that's a laughingstock.  That would be the beginning of the end."  One of the things I noticed last night is that Clinton is not pulling her punches.  She is really hitting certain issues head on.  Good, solid answers.  Good response to the question.

5.  On Iraq and an exit strategy:  "I'm against the President's escalation...for more than a year and a half I've advocated for something quite different."  She's addressing the on-going need to address the political struggles in Iraq.  Sorry, Hillary, but this isn't going to be enough to win over those voters who are angry that you voted for the war in the first place.

6.  On gay and lesbian issues:  looking straight at the camera, head on, eyes focused she said:  yes, I would feel comfortable supporting lgbtq legislation.  She pointed to discrimination saying "Americans should be against discrimination."  She couldn't have been more clear about how supportive she is.  This was a very strong set of answers about the need for discrimination to end.  Give that woman a GLAAD award already.  No mainstream candidate other than Dean has addressed LGBTQ issues so clearly and definitively so early one.  I've followed the issue   She listed major issues for the LGBTQ issue like inheritance, visitation in hospitals, etc., and, very importantly:  "I support civil unions."

7.  Clinton takes on a great question about blogging and talked about the role she hopes it will play in helping to connect to potential voters.  This is the Clinton strategy in a nutshell:  make it real.

Okay, like last night, another strong standing.  Clinton is hitting some issues harder than I thought she would this early on.  She isn't afraid to show her real, strong opinions on issues.  High marks tonight on women's and lgbtq issues.  I'm even more pleased than I was last night.  Excellent work!

FEMA Extends Housing Benefits

The AP reports today that FEMA will extend emergency housing to Gulf Coast residents for an additional six months.  So many people along the Gulf Coast from Mississippi to Louisiana still have nowhere to go.  Katrina has morphed into the next news story and those of us not living through it forget day-to-day that these disasters don't fade as fast as our memories.  To rebuild the social & economic infrastructure in two different states is going to take years.  So, six more months?  A good thing for now.  As I've blogged about earlier, houses are being built (at the largesse of private and religious groups, not at the behest of the federal government), but they're happening a few at a time.  Of course given the fact that it took FEMA forever to get things organized, you'd think that they could offer a little more than six months (given that people's "aid" is largely composed of living in tiny trailers or about $750.00 a month.  Wanna try living that way?). 

You're not going to believe this...

The Quixotic Tremor sent me this article last night, following up on yesterday's global warming post:

From Diane E. Dees at Mother Jones:

The Union of Concerned Scientists has announced that ExxonMobil Corp. paid $16 million to forty-three oganizations over a seven-year period in order to mislead the public about global warming. "ExxonMobil has manufactured uncertainty about the human causes of global warming just as tobacco companies denied their product caused lung cancer," said Alden Meyer, the Union of Concerned Scientists' Director of Strategy & Policy. "A modest but effective investment has allowed the oil giant to fuel doubt about global warming to delay government action just as Big Tobacco did for over 40 years.

Sallie Baliunas, an astro-physicist affiliated with at least nine of the forty-three advocacy groups, raised eyebrows in 2003 when she presented a paper arguing that there had been no significant climate change in the last millennia. Thirteen scientists came forward to say that Baliunas had misrepresented their work, but ExxonMobil continued to promote the paper as factual.

In its report, "Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco's Tactics to 'Manufacture Uncertainty' on Climate Change," UCS accuses ExxonMobil Corp. of the following:

• raised doubts about even the most indisputable scientific
  evidence
• funded an array of front organizations to create the appearance
  of a broad platform for a tight-knit group of vocal climate change
  contrarians who misrepresent peer-reviewed scientific findings
• attempted to portray its opposition to action as a positive quest for "sound science" rather than business self-interest
• used its access to the Bush administration to block federal policies and shape government communications on global warming.

The Gringo is Back

In May of 2005, I briefly mentioned indie director Gregory Berger, of "Gringothon" fame in a longer post on the war in Iraq ('cause aren't we always writing about Iraq?).

Good news!  Berger has a new teaser up on youtube for his film on Bolivia.  It looks GREAT!  Called The Gringomobile Diaries (click to view the video), the humorous proposition is that North Americans have to voluntarily become slaves of the Bolivian people because of the impact of transnational capitalism.  You have to watch the clip to fully appreciate the "Gringo's" attempts to solve the disparities between the Bolivian people and the United States.

On a more serious note, Berger's work is some of the most innovative stuff dealing with the effects of globalism in Latin America.  As I've said many times before, what I believe we need right now are fresh, innovative voices taking on the tought issues.  Berger is definitely one of those voices. 

He has done a series of award-winning documentaries on everything from abortion to cocaine use in Bolivia among miners to gay life in Morelos, Mexico to the water wars.

And his two newer projects, the Gringothon\Gringotón and Gringomobile Diaries are experimental narratives that play with the concepts of what it means to be a global citizen.  As you see in the Gringomobile Diaries, the "Gringo" takes on personal responsibility for U.S. policies that affect other countries.

Berger's work is definitely worth a look.  If you're a teacher, please consider ordering some (or all!) of his work for your media library.  If you're a film-buff, consider hosting a showing of Berger's work, or bug your local theater to do a showing. 

More Reading:

About Berger (filmography appears on the side)

You can view "Gringothon" and "Chew on This" here at Salón Chingón.

Capitalistic Cuppa Greed

(Original logo here)

If Santorum doesn't get your blood pressure elevated, how about Starbuck's?  It's the abecedarium of repulsive "S" words.

Oxfam reports that Starbucks needs more money:

Global coffee giant Starbucks has opposed a plan by Ethiopia to gain more control over its coffee trade and a larger share of the earnings for millions of coffee farmers living in poverty, international agency Oxfam revealed today.

Last year the Ethiopian government filed applications to trademark its most famous coffee names, Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe. Securing the rights to these names would enable Ethiopia to capture more value from the trade, by controlling their use in the market and thereby enabling farmers to receive a greater share of the retail price. Ethiopia’s coffee industry and farmers could earn an estimated $88 million (USD) extra per year.

$6 billion company Starbucks prompted protests against the applications to be filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The USPTO has denied Ethiopia’s applications for Sidamo and Harar, creating serious obstacles for its project.

'Cause Stbx needs more money.  Come on.  Really.  When is this corporate greed going to end?  Stbx protested Oxfam's campaign, saying the allegations were unfair.  Oxfam's response is here.  You can send a fax to the president of Stbx, Jim McDonald (seriously...) here.  And while you're at it, how about skipping that cup of Stbx in the morning for a cuppa local brew?

Refugee NYC: Heroes of the Week

MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières), or Doctors Without Borders, set up a refugee camp in New York City this weekend to model camp conditions.  It was a fantastic exhibit!  They took over a corner of Central Park with tents, potable water, and model clinics to show what their work is like abroad.

To give you a sense of their "reality medicine," they had visitors carry 5 gallon jugs of clean water.  (They were HEAVY).  In the best conditions, every person in the camp receives 5 gallons of water a day (per person).  This is for drinking, cooking, bathing, etc.  In comparison, the average American consumption of water is 100 gallons per day (or 20 of those jugs...).

Doctors & nurses who have served with MSF gave guided tours of the camp (mine lasted over 1 1/2 hours), showing refugee conditions, and explaining the amazing work MSF does.  In the tour, they really explained both the political and medical conditions they work under.  My tour guides worked in the Sudan and Darfur.  The extremes of the refugee camps were hard to recreate on a balmy Sunday afternoon in New York.  Nevertheless, our guides carefully explained MSF's efforts at sanitation, nutrition, and medicine.

This was the entryway to the exhibit.  You waited in line, in front of a gate, to enter the camp.

Throughout the camp, "no arms" signs like these were ubiquitous.

This is an example of a Sudanese shelter, made from plastic tarp.

Although MSF works primarily with medicine, they also have some nutritional programs for the malnourished.

This is a picture of the mobile lab where they triage patients.  In addition, they also run vaccination clinics, cholera clinics, and malnutrition clinics.  Quite literally, MSF goes where few others will. I've written about their work before because I admire their work greatly and I think their public outreach efforts are exceptional. 

More pictures on my flickr account (click on the flickr badge in the left hand column).

Action Steps:

Go to the display--
In New York
Prospect Park, Brooklyn
Wednesday, September 20 - Sunday, September 24
9:30 am to 6:30 pm daily

The Meadow, Piedmont Park, Atlanta
Wednesday, September 27 - Sunday, October 1
9:30 am to 6:30 pm daily

Centennial Park, Nashville
Wednesday, October 4 - Sunday, October 8
9:30 am to 6:30 pm daily

Can't visit one of those locations?

Visit MSF on the web.  Donate.  Lots.  They are funded primarily by private donors.  They do NOT accept money from the U.S. Government, in part so that they can function neutrally and without limitations on their services.  (They do accept money from the EU).

Melancholy Meltdown

Postscript to "How I Spent My Summer Vacation"

When I have returned from previous mission trips, I always feel elated, buoyed by the possibilities of change.  It always seemed to me that our trips made a very real difference in people's lives.  Today, however, I seem utterly weighed down by melancholy.  It's not that we didn't do good work in helping people to restore their homes.  But this:
is going to happen again and again.  It's not a matter of "if" another hurricane.  It's a matter of "when."  And it feels very much like the government just doesn't care.  They expect, almost demand, that someone else pick up the pieces.  So people are just haphazardly picking up the pieces the best they can--what kind of a beneficent model of democratic governing is that? 

Today, as I ran errands, I saw people in line at Citibank and Starbuck's and the Gap.  I just wasn't in the mood to participate in our New York City understanding of "cultural capital."  After 9/11, one of the things Guiliani told us all to do to help was to keep shopping so that the economy didn't nose dive. 

Today, I just wanted everyone to pick up and go to Louisiana and think about someone else for a change.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

If you haven't read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude, it's a good time to read his masterpiece of Latin American magical realism.  I've been thinking about the town of Macondo where it rains for years & year as the weather and the plot line intersect.  For me, fiction is often a good way to make sense of the events around me.  For the last three days, all of the news outlets have been bombarding the air waves, our television screens, and our computer screens with images and stories of last year's Hurricane Katrina disaster. 

So as the news simultaneously brings us word of Hurricanes Ernesto and John bearing down, where can I even start in talking about the ravages of a year of loss and devastation?   I am just back from Louisiana where I spent my summer vacation, along with the Divine Tremor, on a mission trip to rehab homes affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  We spent a grueling week in hot temperatures (and no ac!), gutting a home for a single mother with 2 toddlers.  We tarped the roof, removed mold, treated the wood for future damage, and prepared for new dry wall to go up.  In another home, we gutted and installed a new kitchen for another family.  Both families have been living in FEMA trailers since December (and FEMA trailers, for those who haven't seen them, are ridiculously tiny). 

On the one hand, it was immensely humbling to be with these families and to help them in their road to recovery.  As with previous trips I've been on, I learned a lot and found myself refocused on what's important in life.  It just feels good to disconnect from the world for a while.  We worked in a small town without any box stores or fast food chains.  The closest "shopping" district was over 1/2 hour away.

On the other hand, watching people suffer through this kind of devastation with almost no help infuriates me.  For the 2 families we helped, we met dozens and dozens more who still aren't in their homes.  One woman told me that she didn't know anyone who was back in his/her home.  Without insurance money or FEMA money, people have been putting their lives back together one piece at a time.  Out of one check they have enough to buy the razor blades to scrape up the flooring in their homes.  Out of another series of checks they have the money for the dry wall.  And from still another check, money for mold removal.  This doesn't begin to address the $12,000-$20,000 they need to raise their homes 10 feet off the ground.  Where's the help?  Where's the recovery assistance? 

And so the "Katrina retrospectives" this week have been getting on my nerves.  They are trying to spin the "recovery" too much;  Katrina and Rita aren't over--they're a constant part of people's lives.  They can't walk away from Katrina or shut off the television and go off to a movie or out to dinner.  From Biloxi to Gulfport to New Orleans to the bayous, there are thousands and thousands of people who are living as refugees of one of the most preventable disasters in American history.  New Orleans didn't need to happen;  more work could be done with building new levees in endangered areas;  more work could be done in helping people hurricane proof their homes.  Instead, too many of those who were affected by last year's storms have been left to the mercy of volunteer groups, private donations, and the whim of a federal government's disorganized recovery plan.

A year ago, many of us in the blogosphere spent time writing about how we couldn't believe the images we saw on our television screens.  Over and over again, we wrote about our disbelief that a disaster and a governmental paralysis of this magnitude could strike the United States.  Once again, just a few short years after 9/11, the United States again proved unable to meet the significant challenges   

At a town meeting in New Orleans today, President Bush said:

"We're addressing what went wrong," he told residents at a high school gymnasium in an uplifting speech that spoke to the heroic efforts of rescuers and the death and despair left behind when the floodwaters receded.

"Unfortunately, the hurricane also brought terrible scenes we never thought we'd see in America," Bush said. "Citizens drowned in their attics. Desperate mothers crying out on national TV for food and water. A breakdown of law and order and a government, at all levels, that fell short of its responsibilities. (via cnn.com)

Telling us what we saw isn't enough.  I'd like to see the government roll up its sleeves.  After Katrina hit New Orleans, Michael Moore took his entire staff (and paid them!) to the south to do recovery work.  What would happen if every member of Congress took his/her staff and went to the affected areas and spent 2 weeks working?  Imagine that kind of commitment instead of speeches analyzing what went wrong.

As we were working, we heard a lot of understandable grumbling about FEMA.  Here's a sampling of what people on the ground are saying:

Heard out and about in town:

• FEMA evacuation plan: Run, (expletive), run
• Femaitis
• FEMA fever
• FEMA frustration
• FEMA:  Federal Employees Missing (in) Action

Heard on the local radio:

"Today marks the anniversary of the explosion of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.  FEMA has processed 60% of the applications."

At the end of 100 Years of Solitude, Macondo slides into oblivion, almost drowning under the weight of the waters that have deluged it.  Some of Macondo's demise centers on the inability of the community to support one another.  I had an amazing time working on homes and meeting the families and working side-by-side with them.  However, I wonder about where we're headed as a society when we can allow so many people to have so little, and to allow them such little avenue for hope, when so many others have so much. 

Action Steps:

• Consider vacationing with Habitat for Humanity or another group in the near future to help gut and rehab homes.
• Keep making donations--even when you're "donor weary"
• Help to keep people living in non-hurricane areas informed about the situation in the south
• Find other creative ways to support recovery efforts
• Continue to call for a more organized disaster relief plan from the Federal Government
• Spread the word...

Understanding the National Budget with Oreos

Ben Cohen (of Ben and Jerry's) has lent his voice/image to this project on the federal budget which explains how the financial workings of the U.S. Government can be realigned, using oreo cookies.  For a good time, click here!

Hat tip to M. for the link!

Capitalism: Who Needs It?

Via Yeah Pope:  "I want to love capitalism, but I just cannot make it."

Protest, Protest, Protest: Arrest Me Now Because H.R. 4437 SUCKS

John Wesley Harding's "Protest, Protest, Protest" from Adam's Apple seems apropos this morning:

Back in the radical sixties,
it was hippies and tambourines
it was mud and nudity,
it was gigs in fields of green,
it was a changing society
and that was cool.
But these are different times.
Miracles happen by the hour.
Science can make a flower.
And the people 've got the power.
So cheer up and don't be dour my angry friend
'cause all you want to do is protest, protest, protest...

And another epigraph before I get started:

No human being -- whether citizen or non-citizen -- should be placed outside the protections of the law. No one who performs needed work should be denied fair wages and decent conditions. A society that exploits immigrants for their labor while declaring them illegal is caught in a tangle of contradictions.
~George Hunsinger, Princeton Theological Seminary

From this:

To this:

Yesterday's protests for justice for immigrants to the United States dotted the U.S. map in likely--and surprising--places:  New York, Philadelphia, Albuquerque, Columbus, Chicago, Cleveland, D.C., Atlanta, Monterey, Dallas, Milwaukee, Sacramento... and the list goes on. 

I didn't make the rally in New York City, but the current protests have my full support.  Coming home from a meeting last night, I found my subway car full of protesters on their way home from the rally.  Headed back into Queens, the most diverse county in the United States, the protesters had that tired energy after a day of protesting.  They felt like they had been heard.  I can only hope that they were.

The New York City Rally featured Clinton and Schumer, among others and closed down many streets south of Canal Street.  Across the country, people marched in solidarity against the draconian statutes of HR 4437.  It seems that immigration reform, like women's rights, now fall into the category of "Arrest Me Now, Big Brother.  Arrest Me Now" because we're in the midst of a huge culture war and I don't see either side backing down.  Civil disobedience?  You betcha. 

So, this morning, I'd like to talk about who gets to decide who's American and who gets rights.  It's a large and lengthy topic, so I'll just focus in on two aspects of the charming legislation our Congress is considering enacting (which has already passed the house) under the guise of "protecting" Americans.

Paycheck Reality

Like Knitting Momma, I also gave up shopping for Lent.  It's been an interesting few weeks of contining my compulsive shopping.  Instead of plunking down $8-$25 for a new book at Barnes and Noble, I've been catching up on the books I already own that I haven't yet read.  I've avoided buying clothes and knitting materials.  I've been on three business trips and I have avoided the "shopping oasis" of my vacationing mind.  In general, I've been living a simpler life, although I think for next Lent I may give up eating out in restaurants!  What I find useful about an exercise like this is how it helps me to live a better, more focused life by examining the unexamined parts of my life. 

So, today, via my mother, comes this challenge.  Visit the Global Rich List to see how "rich" you are in comparison to the rest of the world.  I, even with my modest U.S. salary, am in the top 0.881 richest people in the world.  According to the site, there are 5,947,119,435 people poorer than me. I'm not sure where they are drawing their statistics from, but the site is sponsored by a great organization, CARE International.  Check it out!

It's official. I'm the 52,880,565 richest person on earth! How rich are you? >>

Sending Secret Messages to Others: Hotel Lobby Morning

The sales reps sitting next to me, in town for the Orthopedic Surgeons' Conference, are talking about their booths.  They are discussing the cost of their booths for the exposition hall at the conference--in excess of $30,000 for a 3 day conference.  One representative is critiquing another representative's booth saying "You had that booth last year.  You should trash it and build something new.  It will only cost you $30,000.  That's a minimal expense."  And then, in the next few sentences, he moves on to complain that they had to use unionized electricians in Chicago and that it wasn't fair that they had to pay that expense. 

Ummm.... yes, please spend $30,000 annually on a booth so that it doesn't look "old," but don't pay the worker who has to set up the booth a fair wage.  Nice.

Mad Lib U Strikes Again: Testing for Everyone!

The Bush/McGraw Hill family ties are old news in K-12 education.  But, there's money to be made in higher education too, so, a new movement (surprise!) is afoot to push standardized testing in colleges and universities.  This move "would be greatly beneficial to the students, parents, taxpayers and employers" according to Mr. Charles Miller, president of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education. 

Karen Arenson of the New York Times reports today:

A higher education commission named by the Bush administration is examining whether standardized testing should be expanded into universities and colleges to prove that students are learning and to allow easier comparisons on quality.

 Charles Miller, president of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, advocates standardized tests to measure college learning.

Charles Miller, a business executive who is the commission's chairman, wrote in a memorandum recently to the 18 other members that he saw a developing consensus over the need for more accountability in higher education.

"What is clearly lacking is a nationwide system for comparative performance purposes, using standard formats," Mr. Miller wrote, adding that student learning was a main component that should be measured.

The good old days of Animal House on campus are over!  It's a Kaplan education for everyone (or, make that an Ignite Incorporated education brought to you by the Bush family). 

In addition to standardized tests, Ignite Incorporated is taking standardized curriculum to new levels.  You can also receive curriculum in a box (c.i.b. for teachers too dumb to know how to teach to the test).  Ignite Incorporated's take on c.i.b. is the "COW," or "curriculum on wheels."

It's purple!  It's white!  It has cute, adorable spots!  It looks like a...wait for it...COW!  Yes, I went to school for 12 years past high school so that I could push a button on the COW instead of making up my own lesson plans.  Can't wait to see the COW colors for college.  Maybe we'll be able to order them in our school colors.  Say, red and white cows for Florida State and orange and blue for Syracuse.  Color coded cows (do you think they can code the material by state too--say, a "red" state and a "blue" state cow version?).

And, I kid you not.  The website says: 

The SuperCOW is Easy, Aligned, and Moootivating!

Because nothing defines a good education like standardized tests and "moootivating" curriculum...

Hat tip to Bitch, Ph.D. for the Arenson article.

Social Welfare System/Recycling Clash

(Photo Via Report on Mexico Trip)

One more reason not to love housewives:  when the state of the kitchen (or rather the kitchen garbage) threatens social welfare.  Reuters reports:

When Mexico City housewives began separating kitchen leftovers from non-organic trash to protect the environment, Juan Santos was devastated.

"You used to find roast chickens, raw chicken, sausages, ham, butter, all kinds of fruit," said the crippled 68-year-old garbage-picker, hobbling through putrid hills of trash that fed him for 20 years. "They have ruined us."

Every day on the eastern edge of this city of 18 million, hundreds of poor families rake what they can sell to recyclers from household waste dumped at their feet by a legion of freelance dustmen in battered horse-drawn carts.

With little state welfare anywhere in Latin America, trash collection and garbage dumps are sometimes a form of social safety net for the very poor who seek food and household goods others have thrown away.

An ambitious plan to bring waste management into the 21st century is highlighting the human cost of going green.

Hundreds like Santos lost their lunch after Nezahualcoyotl, a trellis of working-class neighborhoods housing 2 million, began turning its organic waste into compost last year to ease the strain on its overflowing dumps.

Officials say the next step -- replacing ugly landfills with parkland and a conveyor-belt separation plant -- would reduce the amount of trash buried daily by hundreds of tons, but they also acknowledge it will force pickers off the dumps. They hope the separation plant will be built by the end of the year.

This is a really interesting (and devastating) report on the clash between the spread of values like environmentalism (which, if you have had occasion to visit Mexico City, the city could use) and its particularly privileged perspective on a "better world."  Of course, the best of all possible worlds would be one where every person lived above the poverty level.  However, the reality of garbage dumps in Latin America is that they often serve as a tattered social safety net. 

See also:
Hundreds Live off Mexico's Trash

Technorati Tags:  Mexico,Environmentalism, Poverty, Economics, Social Welfare

Live State of the Union Blogging 8

Daddy Bush says for your own good:

• you'll define democracy the way he defines democracy, and you'll like it,
• you'll submit to wire taps,
• you'll be surveilled and you'll like it,
• we'll deny funds to world organizations like UNAIDS, but call our work "progress",
• you can't have Social Security,
• "it's the economy, stupid"--spend more or China will overtake us,
• you can't have Medicare or Medicaide,
• you'll have to decide between "good" immigrants and "bad" immigrants,
• you're losing health care--but you get to pay more for the lousy coverage you will get,
• you are getting more nuclear power plants (because that's not a terrorist target),
• you can't have an abortion,
• you'll embrace any and all wars in the name of terrorism,
• you'll reject any science that isn't religiously based (no cloning, no stem cells),
• you'll submit to the Pa