"Christmas Eve, and Africa is singing in Monrovia. They are Krus and Fanti—men, women and children, and all the night they march and sing. The music was once the music of mission revival hymns. But it is that music now transformed and the silly words hidden in an unknown tongue—liquid and sonorous. It is tricked out and expounded with cadence and turn. And this is that same rhythm I heard first in Tennessee forty years ago: the air is raised and carried by men's strong voices, while floating above in obbligato, come the high mellow voices of women—it is the ancient African art of part singing, so curiously and insistently different."--William Edward Burghardt Du Bois
Aug 31, 2009
Aug 26, 2009
Periodization of an entire regional history is always a controversial affair. It inherently requires a level of generalization that can disfigure national and local idiosyncrasies in the procrustean name of creating neat intellectual compartments. Nevertheless, conceptually demarcating history creates a common framework for academic exchange. It also helps keep scholars from getting lost in the chaotic sprawl of events. At best, periodization provides meaningful reference schema, at the meso-level between eventism and the longue durée, with which to debate concepts and to build theory; at worst, it reifies history in a stylized way in which guiding temporal premises predicate subsequent concept formation and empirical findings. Scholars must be conscious of the fact that milestones are social constructs so that post hoc periodization does not irreversibly ossify certain interpretations of history. They must not equate the historical with the historic.
The chronological contours of any given periodization depend on the subject matter at hand. For post-war Latin America, the parameters of periodization should vary in accordance with whether the focus is on shifts in class structures (Portes 1985; Portes & Hoffman 2003), economic productivity and standards of living (Astorga et al. 2005), political regimes (Schneider 2006), relations with the US (Grandin 2006), gender construction (Dore & Molyneux 2000), or any other area of significance. Obviously, there is great interdependence between these types of phenomena: extant economic and social conditions bring about certain regime types which, facing imperial pressure, choose particular development policies that engender economic and social structural outcomes—which, in turn, feedback into new political projects. Taking account of interconnected subject areas fleshes out the causal chains that produce social change.
A useful periodization of Latin America would delimit historical eras in a way that best captures the fullness of these multidimensional processes and truncates as little as possible. The main assumption would be that the preponderance of change occurs between, not within, periods. Such a necessary evil of the art of periodization exaggerates the existence of stability and the static duration of the status quo. The decisive fabrication of certain moments of change as historical boundaries also suggests that social scientists are more interested in explaining change; however, investigating the determinants of equilibrium maintenance—why things don’t change—is an equally interesting part of sociology’s mission (Pierson 2004, 141-142).
This essay does not propose a novel matrix for classifying and investigating the history of Latin America in the second half of the 20th century. Rather it attempts to sketch the orthodox (if uncodified) version as transmitted by the mainstream of Latin American Studies. As such, this periodization is influenced, not only by what happened in Latin America, but also by how scholars treated those occurrences. The focus is on political changes and regime types, United States interference, as well as political economy and development styles, with the unit of analysis being the nation-state more so than classes, strata, or supranational systems. The first period extends from World War Two to the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. The second period covers the authoritarianism and rebellion of the 1960s and 1970s. The third period runs from the explosion of the debt crisis in 1982, through the third wave of democratic transitions in the 1980s. The neoliberal era of the late 1980s and 1990s, which consists of structural adjustments, popular protests and government failures, is the fourth period. The fifth and final period entails the electoral victories of left currents and the constitutional refounding of republics that has occurred in the beginning of the 21st century.
The distraction of US and European productive forces in the Second World War incidentally served to remove temporarily Latin America from its position of disadvantage in the capitalist world system. This breathing room and forced self-reliance resulted in economic growth for much of the region (Hoogvelt 2001, 242). Dependency theorists later cited this as proof that intimate integration with the advanced industrial economies inhibited peripheral development. In the immediate post-war years, policy makers institutionalized economic isolation in a set of protectionist industrial policies known as Import Substitution Industrialization (Prebish 1950). Such measures meant both to mitigate the uneven terms of trade that Latin American nations received as exporters of raw materials and primary products and importers of manufactured goods and capital tools, and to incubate indigenous industry until it could become competitive in the domestic market and beyond (Prebisch 1959). Of course, such policies were not as feasible for smaller agricultural countries that lacked infant industries, let alone a sizeable domestic market to exploit.
The economic autonomy enjoyed in the early stages of ISI was coupled with a semblance of geopolitical independence, as the US had not yet entirely abandoned the Good Neighbor Policy that advocated noninterference and instead sought influence through trade and cultural ties. Such a hands off attitude would not last, as the Cold War dictated renewal of the Monroe Doctrine.
The political regimes found in Latin America in this period tended toward populist administrations backed by cross class alliances that sought nationalist development in the form of equitable economic growth. Peronism in Argentina, the second coming of Vargas in Brazil, and the MNR in Bolivia embody this type of regime.
Another nationalist development project occurred in Guatemala under the presidencies of Arevalo and Arbenz, who advanced education and land reform. However, such leveling of society encroached on US corporate interests that controlled Guatemalan plantations, so the CIA organized overthrow (Gleijeses 1992). This signal event in Latin American history showed aspiring revolutionaries across the hemisphere that peaceful reform was not viable; in the face of US dominance, people would have to turn to armed revolution.
Heeding this lesson were the Cuban revolutionaries who developed revolutionary theory through action. Instead of urban revolution, they started in a rural foco, empowered peasants and rural proletarians with arms, land, and literacy, and overthrew the Batista regime in 1959. This milestone event would inspire revolutionaries across the hemisphere and inform a change in US foreign policy.
The second period in this periodization scheme begins with the fallout from the Cuban Revolution and Cuba’s forced turn toward the Soviet Union. As the US began to worry about further revolution and the specter of communist infestation in Latin America, Kennedy rolled out the Alliance for Progress. This aid program meant to preempt revolution by encouraging modest land reform and other social policies.
In the 1960s, some form of rebellion erupted in almost all Latin American countries (Wickham-Crowley 1991, Table 1). This unrest, combined with a renewed US willingness to meddle in domestic affairs, and the end of the easy stage of ISI led to a wave of takeovers by authoritarian regimes.
Early ISI measures had produced consumer goods, but the limited domestic markets were soon saturated. Furthermore, the poor terms of trade for agricultural products did not bring in enough foreign currency to pay for the capital goods and production machinery necessary to continue the industrial policy. To continue industrialization, worker demands would have to be repressed to make the environment attractive to multinational corporations. Thus was born the bureaucratic-authoritarian state in places like Brazil and Argentina (O’Donnell 1978), where a “triple alliance” was made between state technocrats and the military, foreign capital, and select local bourgeois junior partners (Evans 1979). Cardoso called this associated-dependent development—proof that under the right circumstances semi-peripheral nations could develop in a dependent position in the world capitalist system (So 1990, 137-143). The path was paved for such regimes by the violent toppling of democratically initiated socialist reformers like Allende in 1973 Chile.
Another kind of authoritarianism of this period was found in Central America. “Reactionary despotism” existed in enclave export economies, where small oligarchies maintained de facto power, wielding veritable vetoes over government administrations, be they civilian or military (Baloyra-Herp 1983). Only after the traditional social control mechanism of the hacienda gave way to the agribusiness plantation attuned to the demands of globalization did a rural proletariat develop more prone to revolutionary organizing (Paige 1983). In our third period of the 1980s, such revolutionary movements in Central America met with violent reactionary resistance from military regimes (El Salvador, Guatemala) and counterrevolutionaries (Nicaragua) supported by the United States.
The budgetary policies of the regimes of our second period (1960s & 1970s) led to the debt crisis that marks the start of third period (1980s). Cash imbalances produced by (i) having to import capital goods, (ii) corporate remittances back to the core, and (iii) capital flight from nervous local bourgeoisie resulted in developmental states having to borrow from abroad in order to fund their legitimating projects and services (Walton 1989). The massive debt accrued in Latin America debilitated governments—first and notably bankrupting Mexico in 1982. It left governments with little option but to borrow more to make their payments and to continue meager social services. Soon international loan agencies such as the IMF were instituting austerity requirements for additional borrowing. The mandated spending cuts, wage retrenchments, privatization, and lowering of trade barriers reflected the neoliberal ideology ascendant in the Reagan and Thatcher administrations (Harvey 2005).
The resulting hard times for the underclass and former state employees weakened the foundations of dictatorships across the region. Their delegitimation prompted elites to make pacts in controlled transitions to democracy (O’Donnell & Schmitter 1986; Karl 1990) facilitated by ripening public spheres (Avritzer 2002). This third wave of democracy concludes the third epoch of our periodization.
The fourth period of the late 1980s and 1990s featured mostly democratically elected governments implementing neoliberal political economic programs that did not serve the immediate interests of the majority of citizens. With tightened budgets, politicians tried to buy support from narrowly targeted groups with ad hoc partisan-branded social programs (eg. PRONASOL in Mexico). Citizens initially accepted the neoliberal turn because they felt it would protect them from further loses (Weyland 1998)—even when candidates had promised heavy state intervention before getting elected (Stokes 2001).
The consequences of neoliberal reforms included drastic increases in socioeconomic inequality and a sharp surge in the unprotected informal sector, which was filled by floating labor that the shrunken public and disappointing private sectors failed to reincorporate (Portes & Hoffman 2003). The fallout included mass disenchantment with political elites and traditional parties and institutions. The Zapatista movement in Chiapas was a most dramatic incarnation of this widespread sentiment. Over the course of the 1990s occurred a rash of presidential interruptions (Kim & Bahry 2008; Marsteintredet & Berntzen 2008), government failure, and a general “unraveling of representative democracy” (McCoy & Myers 2006).
The event signaling the dawn of our fifth period was the 1998 election of Hugo Chavez as president of Venezuela, whence ensued a string of new left-leaning presidents across the region (Medina Nuñez 2008). These were the political repercussions of forced structural adjustment, unbridled free trade, and the moral bankruptcy of previous institutions. Chavez and his followers refounded the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to create re-legitimated institutions more in line with the needs of the people. This model of presidential election followed by constitutional assembly has been followed in Bolivia and Ecuador, resulting in “the friendly liquidation of the past” by instituting more participatory, inclusive, and environmentally conscious magna cartas (Van Cott 2000).
The rise and survival of Chavez is also significant because he survived a coup attempt and a mass strike in the oil sector. Bolivia’s latest president, nationalist reforms, and new constitution have also survived internal revolt and US promotion of so-called “decentralization”. It seems as if, finally, democratically elected left governments can peacefully survive within the direct sphere of US hegemony. Even the current coup in Honduras shows signs of elite fracture and revitalized social movements.
Finally, the fifth period is marked by new integration initiatives aimed at achieving efficiency and cooperation in the fields of energy, communications, finance, health and education (Martinez 2008).
This essay has attempted to review the last six decades in Latin America by way of a periodization based around the most significant interconnected political and economic trends and their social scientific interpretations. To summarize the periodization essayed above: the nationalist developmentalist trends of the early post-war years gave way to US-supported authoritarianism during the Cold War. The debt crisis helped usher in democracy; but only after the negative effects of neoliberalism destabilized governance did left leaning forces take hold of power and refound the state.
Aug 25, 2009
The Obama plan is idiotic and costly. A single payer will save money in admin cost at first, but savings will erode over time with government inefficiency and bureaucracy. Without competition, you have no innovation. The liberal government claims there will be competition but when you can use public funds to undercut your competition its nearly impossible to find a perfect balance. Private options will better serve the public by offering wide selections of plans.
John Mackey used to be a liberal socialist, then he started an organic grocery business out of his garage. Now he's the CEO of Whole Foods and has learned a few things along the way. Here are his ideas.
• Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair.
• Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable.
• Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.
• Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. These costs are passed back to us through much higher prices for health care.
• Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. How many people know the total cost of their last doctor's visit and how that total breaks down? What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?
• Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility.
• Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs). The combination of high-deductible health insurance and HSAs is one solution that could solve many of our health-care problems. For example, Whole Foods Market pays 100% of the premiums for all our team members who work 30 hours or more per week (about 89% of all team members) for our high-deductible health-insurance plan. We also provide up to $1,800 per year in additional health-care dollars through deposits into employees' Personal Wellness Accounts to spend as they choose on their own health and wellness.
Money not spent in one year rolls over to the next and grows over time. Our team members therefore spend their own health-care dollars until the annual deductible is covered (about $2,500) and the insurance plan kicks in. This creates incentives to spend the first $2,500 more carefully. Our plan's costs are much lower than typical health insurance, while providing a very high degree of worker satisfaction.
• Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren't covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
Aug 23, 2009
Aug 22, 2009
I have just watched the same film back-to-back. A wrenching tale about suicide in the face of loss.
The first time I watched it, the title was The Wrestler. It is a realistic peek behind the scenes behind the scenes of the exhausting paegentry of professional wrestling--the very surface of which we arent even supposed to totally grasp, let alone the crude reality outside of the ring. The acting and art direction show the grimy underbelly of the US that has captivated us in the photographs of Detroit; the decaying quality of this country that will soon make the most interesting travel domestic. Our action figure is a joyful man who has the capacity to love many things; but only one thing in this world loves him back. So that is all he knows. And he surrenders his entire being to it.
The second time I watched this movie it was called Seven Pounds. This overly long movie should have been tightened with better editting. There was much redundancy and superfluousness. And the direction takes a concerted but pointless detour from strict chronology. The initial confusion gratuitously extends the film without any ultimate return to the audience. In the end, the profoundly sad leading man cannot cope with his self-inclicted loss any other way than charitably submitting himself up to the benefit of deserving others.
I suggest that if you watch this movie twice, that it be titled The Wrestler both times.
1. Crazy, hysterical, paranoid accusation by wild-eyed, partisan, left-wing loonies.
2. Old news
This promoted comment on GG's article (Sugarbush mystery man?).
But seriously; once they chose a color scheme wasnt it obvious what the true intent of the codes were?
Aug 20, 2009
This email is going around.
Random thoughts from Generation "Why?"...
-I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.
-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.
-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
-I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?
-Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.
-That's enough, Nickelback.
-I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
-Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know"
feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?
-Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in Americadid that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.
-There is a great need for sarcasm font.
-Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.
-I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.
-How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
-The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.
- A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.
- Was learning cursive really necessary?
- Lol has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".
- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.
- My brother's Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads.
Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, "Cuz we beat you, and you hate us."
Classy, bro.
- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".
- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?
- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!
- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in'
examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"
-What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?
- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.
- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.
-Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.
- I would like to officially coin the phrase 'catching the swine flu'
to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: "Dave caught the swine flu last night."
-I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
- Bad decisions make good stories
-Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!
- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?
-If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.
-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....
-You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.
-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.
-There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.
-I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.
-I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'
-I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?
Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?
- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
-When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.
-I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.
-Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...
- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.
-Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
-It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.
-I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
-Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.
-Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...
-My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?
-It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.
-I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.
-I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
-I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.
-The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.
This cartoon will not get in bed with this blog.
So watch it in its natural habitat.
Aug 19, 2009
In theory camping should be a very inexpensive activity since you are literally sleeping on the ground. But as with everything in white culture, the more simple it appears the more expensive it actually is.
Once in the camp area, white people will walk around for a while, set up a tent, have a horrible night of sleep, walk around some more. Then get in the car and go home. This, of course, is a best case scenario. Worst case scenarios include encountering an RV since it involves an encounter with the wrong kind of white people.
Ultimately the best way to escape a camping trip with white people is to say that you have allergies. Since white people and their children are allergic to almost everything, they will understand and ask no further questions. You should not say something like “looking at history, the instances of my people encountering white people in the woods have not worked out very well for us.”
This guy (thumbs this way) has an idea for you.
Vision:
a one-hundred-and-forty-square-mile agricultural community with four major league sports teams, two good universities, the fifth largest art museum in the country, a world-class hospital, and headquarters of a now-global industry...a perfect place to redefine urban economics, moving away from the totally paved, heavy-industrial factory-town model to a resilient, holistic, economically diverse, self-sufficient, intensely green, rural/urban community—and in doing so become the first modern American city where agriculture, while perhaps not the largest, is the most vital industry.
A proposed master plan that would move the few people residing in lonely, besotted neighborhoods ... and turn the rest of the city into open farmland... residents could fit comfortably in fifty square miles of land. Much of the remaining ninety square miles could be farmed. Were that to happen, and a substantial investment was made in greenhouses, vertical farms, and aquaponic systems, ... producing protein and fibre 365 days a year and soon become the first and only city in the world to produce close to 100 percent of its food supply within its city limits. No semis hauling groceries, no out-of-town truck farmers, no food dealers. And no chain stores need move back. Everything eaten in the city could be grown in the city and distributed to locally owned and operated stores and co-ops.
chard and tomatoes on vacant lots, orchards on former school grounds, mushrooms in open basements, fish in abandoned factories, hydroponics in bankrupt department stores, livestock grazing on former golf courses, high-rise farms in old hotels, vermiculture, permaculture, hydroponics, aquaponics, waving wheat where cars were once test-driven, and winter greens sprouting inside the frames of single-story bungalows stripped of their skin and re-sided with Plexiglas—a homemade greenhouse. Those are just a few of the agricultural technologies envisioned for the urban prairie
Reality:
Theres many amazing facts going on here for a city of nearly one million in a metro area of over 6 million:
--Diabetes, heart failure, hypertension, and obesity are chronic, and life expectancy is measurably lower than in any American city.
-Zero produce-carrying grocery chains
-More than half of its residents must travel at least twice as far to reach the nearest grocery store as they do to a fast-food restaurant or convenience store
-Pheasants abundant in the city (I can attest to this first hand.)
-Raccoons occasionally harvested for dinner.
-over 103,000 vacant lots (check out a google maps aerial)
-forty square miles of unoccupied open land
The optimistic and downright shocking claims:
-A market exists "Five days a week, the Peaches & Greens truck winds its way through the streets as a loudspeaker plays R&B and puts out the call: ''Nutritious, delicious. Brought right to you. We have green and red tomatoes, white and sweet potatoes. We have greens, corn on the cob and cabbage, too.''"
-between 10 and 15 percent of its food supply inside city limits—more than most American cities
-the most agriculturally promising of the fourteen cities in five countries where Urban Farming now exists
-urban farming creates jobs. Even without local production, the food industry creates three dollars of job growth for every dollar spent on food
Vision Into Reality?
Changes to zoning and city law are a prerequisite. The community organization and will of the people is obvious. One great idea I heard is to double the value of food stamps when spent on local agriculture. Not only would you help the local economy via the multiplier mentioned above ($ stimulus! $) but you'd combat the health problems of poor citizens (though Lays would take a big hit.)
Aug 13, 2009
Gas cost is going up and as the evidence for peak oil rises it seems inevitable that it reaches "outrageous" levels like $20/gallon. Suburbanites and SUV drivers are screwed but what about you Mr. Bus/MAX/Bike/Walk? How will it impact the stuff that _ _ _ _ _ people like?
Read and react accordingly.
Aug 11, 2009
Lie #1: President Obama wants to euthanize your grandma!!!
The truth: These accusations—of "death panels" and forced euthanasia—are, of course, flatly untrue. Reform legislation includes a provision, supported by the AARP, to offer senior citizens access to a professional medical counselor who will provide them with information on preparing a living will and other issues facing older Americans.
Lie #2: Democrats are going to outlaw private insurance and force you into a government plan!!!
The truth: The public health insurance option—a nationwide plan with a broad network of providers—that will operate alongside private insurance companies, injecting competition into the market to drive quality up and costs down.
If you're happy with your coverage and doctors, you can keep them.But the new public plan will expand choices to millions of businesses or individuals who choose to opt into it, including many who simply can't afford health care now.
Lie #3: President Obama wants to implement Soviet-style rationing!!!
The truth: Health care reform will expand access to high-quality health insurance, and give individuals, families, and businesses more choices for coverage.
Health care reform will do away with some of the most nefarious aspects of (corporate health care) rationing: discrimination for pre-existing conditions, insurers that cancel coverage when you get sick, gender discrimination, and lifetime and yearly limits on coverage.
Lie #4: Obama is secretly plotting to cut senior citizens' Medicare benefits!!!
The truth: Reform includes savings from Medicare that are unrelated to patient care— savings comes from cutting billions of dollars in overpayments to insurance companies and eliminating waste.
Lie #5: Obama's health care plan will bankrupt America!!!
The truth: Right now, we spend more than $2 trillion dollars a year on health care. The average family premium is projected to rise to over $22,000 in the next decade —and each year, nearly a million people face bankruptcy because of medical expenses. Reform, with an affordable, high-quality public option that can spur competition, is necessary to bring down skyrocketing costs. Also, President Obama's reform plans would be fully paid for over 10 years and not add a penny to the deficit.
According to MOVEON.ORG (edited for brevity)
Aug 3, 2009
I don't know why I chose to use a dated meme in this post, but whatever.
I tagged this as MvsTV since I miss The Wire like an amputated limb.
Take that take that....
Here are a few "post-mortem portraits from the ultra-hype hbo series the wire"
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