Congress Introduces Bill Improving Access to the Earned Income Tax Credit.

It’s an issue I previously blogged about here, but this article you can find over at The Debate Link the website of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Expanding my online empire, one website at a time.

The Iraqi refugee crisis–and it is a crisis–continues to draw my interest, and, the refugees, my compassion.

Perhaps it is because of my personal involvement in another refugee crisis in the seventies; perhaps it is because, in my opinion, the tragedy is a direct, albeit unintended result of our disastrous decision to invade Iraq and our equally disastrous mismanagement of the subsequent, nearly six-year-long occupation.

While, according to some sources, the situation in Iraq seems to be improving, there is no near-term end in sight to the sheer misery that over four million displaced Iraqis are experiencing–in squalid camps in their own country and in equally sordid conditions, mostly in Syria and Jordan.

Regardless of my passion for this issue, it is always great when I come across other voices that are equally or more passionate, and especially much more eloquent and authoritative.

A few days ago, I related the expert opinion on this issue by Morton Abramowitz, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and a board member of the International Rescue Committee.

Today’s New York Times had an opinion piece on the Iraqi refugees issue by none other than two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Nicholas D. Kristof.

I honestly can not think of another journalist–or for that matter, a politician or government official–who has focused more of the world’s attention on genocide, famine, global health, poverty and refugee issues in the developing world and elsewhere. Since 2004 Kristof has written dozens of columns about Darfur and visited the area eight times.

Thus, it should be no surprise that Mr. Kristof won his second Pulitzer in 2006, for commentary for what the judges called “his graphic, deeply reported columns that, at personal risk, focused attention on genocide in Darfur and that gave voice to the voiceless in other parts of the world.”

In his column, “Books not Bombs,” Kristof calls attention to what he calls the “dirty little secret” of the Iraq war:

The dirty little secret of the Iraq war isn’t in Baghdad or Basra. Rather, it’s found in the squalid brothels of Damascus and the poorest neighborhoods of East Amman.

Some two million Iraqis have fled their homeland and are now sheltering in run-down neighborhoods in surrounding countries. These are the new Palestinians, the 21st-century Arab diaspora that threatens the region’s stability.

Many youngsters are getting no education, and some girls are pushed into prostitution, particularly in Damascus. Impoverished, angry, disenfranchised, unwanted, these Iraqis are a combustible new Middle Eastern element that no one wants to address or even think about.

Kristof also writes:

We broke Iraq, and we have a moral responsibility to those whose lives have been shattered by our actions. Helping them is also in our national interest, for we’ll regret our myopia if we allow young Iraqi refugees to grow up uneducated and unemployable, festering in their societies.

In one of my pieces on this subject I quoted one of the members of our compassionate Conservative administration expressing just the opposite opinion: “…our obligation was to give [Iraqis] new institutions and provide security…” and , we don’t “have an obligation to compensate [Iraqis] for the hardships of war.” You guessed it, this was our former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton

Kristof also bemoans how little the U.S. has done towards accepting more Iraqi refugees into our country. But he also has a suggestion that would help the refugees and at the same time would address the region’s security challenges instead of “devoting billions of dollars to permanent American military bases,” as American hawks would prefer doing:

A simpler way to fight extremism would be to pay school fees for refugee children to ensure that they at least get an education and don’t become forever marginalized and underemployed.

[…]

We have already seen, in the case of Palestinians, how a refugee diaspora can destabilize a region for decades. If Jordan were to collapse in part from such pressures, that would be a catastrophe — and the best way to prevent that isn’t to give it Blackhawk helicopters, but help with school fees and school construction.

If we let the Iraqi refugee crisis drag on — and especially if we allow young refugees to miss an education so that they will never have a future — then we are sentencing ourselves to endure their wrath for decades to come. Educating Iraqis may not be as glamorous as bombing them, but it will do far more good.

Amen, Mr. Kristof, and thank you for continuing to give “voice to the voiceless in other parts of the world.”

John Kenneth Galbraith, a distinguished economist and the popular American ambassador to India in the 1960s, once described the country as a “functioning anarchy”. Please judge for yourself if Galbraith was right or wrong… The drawing (on the left) shows the 27-storey house of Mukesh Ambani, world’s fifth-richest man, being built in Mumbai, home to Asia’s biggest slum. Mukesh’s $ I billion home would be ready in six months. Here is The Independent story… And to read how his brother, Anil Ambani, a business rival, is arranging a marriage between Bollywood and Hollywood, please click here… Now read this: “Wealth distribution in India is fairly uneven, with the top 10% of income groups earning 33% of the income. Despite significant economic progress, 1/4 of the nation’s population earns less than the government-specified poverty threshold of $0.40/day…” More here…

Let me add a bit of nostalgia. As children we used to play in the picturesque Lodi Gardens, New Delhi, where we often saw a tall American (almost 6 feet 9 inches) taking a stroll. At times Ambassador John Galbraith, mentioned above, would stop, watch us play and even talk and laugh with us. I still remember his wonderful and friendly face. The other American whom I met later in life in New Delhi was also an unforgettable personality/human being — Norman Cousins.

The famous editor/writer Cousins’s philosophy toward his work was exemplified by his instructions to his staff “not just to appraise literature, but to try to serve it, nurture it, safeguard it.” Cousins believed that “there is a need for writers who can restore to writing its powerful tradition of leadership in crisis.”
More here…

The blame game has already been going on, and is likely to become ugly and fierce as to who is causing maximum pollution and contributing towards visible changes in environment.

On the one side we have “developed” countries refusing to have a critical look at their reckless consumerism. While on the other are the “developing” countries wanting to mindlessly ape the Western lifestyle and thus putting an unbearable burden on the scarce resources on our planet earth.

All this has been been convincingly discussed in detail in the latest must-read article in The Economist. However, it does more finger-pointing towards China and India rather than suggesting ways how and what the “developed” nations should do towards sustainable living.

“Now that the American presidential race is down to two candidates who are both committed to cutting emissions, China and India, the world’s most populous nations, are seen by many as the world’s biggest climate-change problems. Russia’s economy is more profligate with energy, but China is widely believed to be the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, and India is rapidly moving up.

“Their exploding emissions are America’s main excuse for failing to take action itself; and their intransigence exasperates those trying to negotiate a global agreement on climate-change mitigation to replace the Kyoto protocol. Meanwhile, both countries are awakening to the problems that climate change will cause them.”

More here…

It goes without saying that without equitable distribution of resources the world would be witnessing increasing migrations, poverty and terrorism in the coming years. One option has been shown by the Bush administration — survival of the fittest. The other revolves round urgent evolving of a consensus on such critical issues through serious deliberations by world leaders. The latter option may provide effective long and short term strategy so essential for world peace and harmony.

Meanwhile a study centre, described as the world’s first legal research centre into climate change, will be opened in Canberra at the Australian National University today by environment minister Peter Garrett. The centre would focus on issues such as the international legal regime for tackling climate change, after the Kyoto agreement runs out, climate litigation, and issues involving renewable energy, transport and forestry. More here…

We bloggers/journalists love to chase political stories, while our response to the critical economic issues is generally similar to those related to climate change. I wonder when our fraternity would realise that environmental and economic issues are as much “political” and important as the ones perceived as the “real political” ones.

I was again reminded of this when I read a report in a recent issue of The Economist that “double-digit price rises are about to afflict two-thirds of the world’s population”. At times I wonder what right the media/blogs have to criticise the political leadership when the former itself triviliazes (or fails to understand) the real and important issues.

“Ronald Reagan once described inflation as being ‘as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit-man’. Until recently, central bankers thought that this thug had been locked up for life. Thanks to sound monetary policies, inflation worldwide had stayed low in recent years. But the mugger is back on the prowl.

“Even though America is close to recession and growth in other developed economies has slowed, inflation is rising. Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, this week gave warning about the mistakes of the 1970s, when inflation was let loose at huge cost to growth. His words were aimed at rich-country central banks, but policymakers in emerging economies are the ones who should most take heed.

“In countries such as China, India, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia even the often dodgy official statistics show prices have risen by 8-10% over the past year; in Russia the rate is over 14%; in Argentina the true figure is 23% and in Venezuela it is 29%. If you measure the numbers correctly, two-thirds of the world’s population will probably suffer double-digit rates of inflation this summer (see article).

“Taken as a whole (and using official figures), the average world inflation rate has risen to 5.5%, its highest since 1999. The main cause has been the surge in the prices of food and oil, which briefly soared above $135 a barrel this week. But Mr Trichet’s concern is that higher headline rates could push up inflation expectations, leading to bigger pay demands, and so trigger a wage-price spiral, as in the 1970s.” More here…

Than Shwe, as four (4), count them, four huge ships are anchored off Burma, ships filled with relief medical supplies, a helicopter, food, tents, clothing for the poor suffering people of Burma, and YOU Than Shwe, whose names literally mean “million gold’ …refuse to allow the ships into port to land.

This, Than Shwe, is now three weeks after the entire planetary community has rushed to give aid to the people of Burma. You have said and continue to say, No. You have grabbed what shipments of goods you’ve allowed into the country, for yourself and your friends, with only pale distribution far from the center of the Irrawaddy devastation.

A lot of people worldwide see no great leader in you, but think there’s a infantile mewling tyrant inside the great dictator of Burma. It may be so, for when a person carries a profound sense of inferiority, they also give great effort to compensate by overdoing status symbols. I hear you have festooned your military jacket with unearned gold medals, Than Shwe.

There’s an old saying in the military, the real and honorable military, not your colonized kind, Than Shwe: the more gold hanging on the outside, the smaller the man feels himself to be on the inside.

Even our five-star generals and admirals, Than Shwe, do not wear their ceremonial military uniforms at every turn as you do. They know the difference between daily hard work and the garb to do it in, and the occasional all-out ceremonial dress-up.

Most importantly, they got their medals, bars and epaulets the hard way: they earned them– often by spilling their own blood. Not like you, who spill the blood of your own people, and then award yourself a grand medal for doing so.

There’s another story Than Shwe, one from my own heritage:

The greed-sotted Conquistadores who staged a vicious coup, plundering the Aztec nations, setting themselves up as a dictatorship and junta… they had exactly the same problem as you Than Shwe.

Their lust to festoon themselves with gold they had not earned, but killed innocent Aztecs for, made the braggart Conquistadores’ bodies very heavy. The Conquistadores literally clanked from all the gold they hung on all over themselves.

Gold, so heavy in fact, that when the native people turned on them in rebellions that took hundreds of years to come to resolution– in the favor of the people– that when the phony dictators ran from the Aztecs to bunker themselves in their stolen palaces, the gold-laden soldiers often fell into the many waterways and aqueducts Read the rest of this entry »

Why can it be said that America is the world’s greatest social experiment? This article By Thomas Klau from Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland outlines the transformation that is bound to take place in and out of the United States the moment Barack Obama takes the oath and enters the Oval office.

Klau writes:

“In the United States where the relationship between Black and White remains burdened by old guilt and fresh resentment, this marks a turning point in civilization. But the election battle now playing out in the United States will not only alter America.

Focusing a bit more on the ramifications for Europeans of Obama’s candidacy, Klau Writes:

“At the moment, it’s virtually inconceivable that a major party in any European country would elect a politician of Black-African origins to be their leading candidate. We Europeans - and particularly us Germans - live with this reality quite unconsciously and totally at ease; it seems normal and is taken for granted that the leading representatives of our country have the same skin color as the majority.”

As to what will happen the moment Obama wind the Democratic nomination, Klau writes:

“The day that Obama has the Democratic nomination in the bag, cracks will begin to appear in our collective innocence. It will shatter completely when a Black family moves into the White House in January 2009. And this shift in awareness which would go hand-in-hand with our shattered innocence, would not bypass the rest of Europe. Suddenly we would have to ask ourselves questions we have never asked before. Indeed - what would it mean to us if the child or grandchild of an African became a candidate for the chancellorship? The answer is a recognition that unless we want a society in which skin color predetermines the awarding of offices and influence, much of Europe will have to change its mindset.”

Klau concludes on the ramifications of an Obama victory this way:

“It would be the strongest signal yet that the frenzied, paranoid jingoism - and with it torture, arbitrary detention and negligent wars of aggression - imposed by elements of the political right after September 11th 2001 - has finally lost its dominance. After eight years of George W. Bush, the rest of the world deserves such a signal just as much as the United States.

By Thomas Klau

Translated By Ulf Behncke

May 16, 2008

Germany - Financial Times Deutschland - Original Article (German)

If no giant scandal, assassination attempt or other misfortune occurs against all expectations and throws things into disarray, Barack Obama’s nomination as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate for the November 4th elections is secure. That in itself is an epochal step: Never before in the history of American democracy - or any democracy - has a Black candidate stood such a good chance of being elected to a country’s top position by a White majority.

In the U.S.A., where the relationship between Black and White remains burdened by old guilt and fresh resentment, this marks a turning point in civilization. But the election battle now playing out in the United States will not only alter America.

At the moment, it’s virtually inconceivable that a major party in any European country would elect a politician of Black-African origins to be their leading candidate. We Europeans - and particularly us Germans - live with this reality quite unconsciously and totally at ease; it seems normal and is taken for granted that the leading representatives of our country have the same skin color as the majority. But this normalcy also means that German citizens with a certain skin color must remain excluded - regardless of whether they have a German passport, were born in Germany, speak German, Swabian or Saxonian.

EUROPE TOO, MUST CHANGE

This is, if we follow this line of reasoning through to the end - racism. We tend to live with it rather uncaringly and unconsciously - unless of course we are of German-African origin. And it is precisely at this point that Obama’s success changes us as well. The day that Obama has the Democratic nomination in the bag, cracks will begin to appear in our collective innocence. It will shatter completely when a Black family moves into the White House in January 2009. And this shift in awareness which would go hand-in-hand with our shattered innocence, would not bypass the rest of Europe. Suddenly we would have to ask ourselves questions we have never asked before. Indeed - what would it mean to us if the child or grandchild of an African became a candidate for the chancellorship? The answer is a recognition that unless we want a society in which skin color predetermines the awarding of offices and influence, much of Europe will have to change its mindset.

READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of the U.S. election.

Bill Cosby has famously accused blacks of spend money unwisely, buying expensive sneakers rather than investing in their kids’ education and thereby reinforcing harmful stereotypes.

Research by Wharton’s Nikolai Roussanov, and Erik Hurst and Kerwin Charles of the University of Chicago has shown that what they’re doing is we all do — black, white, and hispanic — it’s called status signaling.

Knowledge@Wharton:

What really matters, Roussanov, Charles and Hurst found, is not one’s race but one’s economic situation relative to the “reference group” — people in the immediate community. “This is not really about race in the end. It is simply about what we observe about you and what peer group you belong to,” Roussanov says.

Poor blacks and poor whites both spend more on visible goods if they live in poor communities, because such spending gives them more status relative to others in the community. But poor blacks and poor whites living among wealthier people do not devote extra portions of income to visible expenditures, since they are too far behind to get more status from the extra spending they can afford. Moreover, the very fact of belonging to a particular group provides observers with information about one’s likely income (e.g. blacks are on average poorer than whites).

A low-income white person in Alabama, for example, is likely to spend more on visible goods than a low-income white person in Massachusetts. That’s because white people are generally poorer in Alabama; in wealthy Massachusetts, spending more on visible goods is a waste of money, since it does not boost one’s status.

Blacks and whites appear to have different spending habits only because blacks tend to be concentrated in poor communities more than whites, Roussanov says. Nationally, the poor white is likely to be surrounded by many whites who are not as poor, so he or she cannot afford to use conspicuous consumption to compete for status. But a black person of the same income is more likely to be surrounded by others of similar income, making this competition feasible.

So Cosby’s wrong on blame. But not on consequences:

Roussanov and his colleagues find that blacks and Hispanics spend 16% and 30% less, respectively, on education than whites of similar income. They spend 50% less on health care. Spending on health and education is not as visible to as many people as spending on cars and clothes, so it does not contribute as much to one’s status.

The article says that research suggests no simple fix. But as I read it (and that emphasis above is mine) one fix is to stop the concentration of blacks in poor communities! 

Note: I’m not among those picking on Cosby. He’s hit a wrong note from time to time and I don’t agree with all he says but on balance he’s a force for good. Like him or hate him the profile of him in the May Atlantic is well worth reading.

The outrage in India over President Bush’s recent comments, which appeared to blame that country’s growing middle class for rising food prices, shows no sign of subsiding.

Reacting to President Bush’s comments and those from European Union officials, Sitaram Yechury writes for India’s Hindustan Times:

“Apart from being as ridiculous Read the rest of this entry »

Various news reports say there are over 200,000 dead in the cyclone and tsunami that hit Burma… now five days ago.

Other reports say over 500,000 will be dead if the thousands of bodies floating in water and lying in mud are not burnt or buried, and the injured given help, and the vulnerable given clean water.

This is after the government originally said there might be a total of 10,000 dead. Maybe not even that many, they said.

This from The Sun, U.K., by Nick Parker, Chief Foreign Correspondent at Mae Sot on the Burmese border
and James Clench

The UK has so far pledged more aid than anyone, announcing a £5million package to be channelled through the UN.

Charities Save the Children, Oxfam and the British Red Cross have also swung into action.

But most of the aid is yet to be distributed because of the secretive Burmese junta, led by ruthless General Than Shwe.

His isolationist regime is paranoid an influx of foreigners might have a political impact on a national referendum due tomorrow, set to strengthen the army’s grip still further.

Three days ago, the dictatorship’s Health Minister went on TV, in what was called a rare appearance, and he said aid was on its way to the Burmese people. Right away.

It’s not. Aid is not on its way. Five days later, world aid is not present in Burma.

General Than Shwe, dictator of Burma, has 400,000 soldiers at his behest.

And as I wrote at TMV earlier, hopefully Than Shwe would stand out of the way and allow the experienced international teams of aid workers to bring equipment and supplies, and the means to both unload it and distribute it.

It didn’t happen.

Ships from many nations are still fully loaded all over the world waiting orders to turn the wheel and steam toward Burma. Cargo planes are loaded and waiting. They are filled with medical supplies At various airports outside Burma, aid workers are sitting on their packed duffels and backpacks ready to go: parameds, post trauma specialists, doctors, engineers, health care workers, and heavy equipment, such as back hoes, trailers. All waiting.

And waiting

And waiting

Than Shwe, hugely well fed dictator of the ancient Burmese people, he who has suffered no personal loss from this disaster for he is ensconced more than 200 miles away from where the tsunami/ cyclone hit… and it is Than Shwe, who wanted to be king of everything and who wanted to control everything, it is he who has publicly failed the world soul, failed the world heart that cries out for a humane response…

Than Shwe has failed publicly and utterly by keeping aid workers out of Burma, by putting no real teeth behind his health minister’s claim that help was coming, big help was coming, right away, huge help was coming.

Than Shwe is merely keeping all aid workers on strings… without cutting the red tape.

The dictatorship’s excuse? Than Shwe and his merelings continues to parrot that they “cannot let aid workers into the country out of concern for the workers own safety.”

Than Shwe, NEWS ALERT: to aid workers, a disaster site wouldn’t be a disaster site if it weren’t unsafe.

Than Shwe’s huge lie will not hold water, not even a drop left behind by the tsunami.

China, meaning those men and women at the top of all things, has sent out a country-wide alert to try to get Chinese citizens to wash their hands more often and to spray disinfectant

– all in order to deal with a disease called Entero-virus 71, described as a hand, mouth and foot virus. (not the same as hoof and mouth disease in cattle)

In one city alone, Entero-virus 71 has killed 22 children in the last week. Tens of thousands are said to be hospitalized across China, and in one city , over 3000 cases are reported. The disease is passed by effluvia: spittle, feces, blister fluids, nasal and throat discharges.

The Chinese nationwide order about this epidemic remarks:

–EV-17 shows signs of spreading further.

–”Health bureaus at all levels must recognize the importance and urgency of preventing the spread of infectious diseases.”

–Preventing the spread of infectious diseases was necessary “to guarantee the smooth staging of the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics and to practically preserve social stability.”

–The order said any person or agency who tried to cover-up or delay disclosure of outbreaks, would be punished.
(During a SARS pneumonia outbreak in 2003, the government at Beijing tried to cover it up, delaying intervention, causing the deaths of many more people, and finally under pressure from world voices, took severe measures.)

–In the same order, China acknowledged that they have many more cases this year of EV-71, and that also the people need to take steps to prevent epidemics of hepatitis A, measles and other infectious diseases commonly spread in warm weather.

–And peak for infectious disease transmission would come in June and July, the government said.

Hillary Clinton and John McCain, each of whom has a hundred times the family money of Barack Obama, are out there claiming he is out of touch with the poor.

After drinking boilermakers with the boys a while back, Sen. Clinton is now telling Indiana’s blue-collar voters that “politics has become too abstract, too generalized” in Obama’s elitist world.

“Most people get a lot of meaning in their life from the work that they do,” Clinton says. “People want to be seen, they want to be appreciated, they want to be acknowledged.” And she is out there acknowledging the hell out of them with girlhood tales of helping out in her father’s fabric-printing plant and, according to the New York Times, “sounding less like a Wellesley alumna than Roseanne Barr’s old sitcom character, the den mother of her factory floor.”

Meanwhile, McCain is calling Obama insensitive to poor people by not endorsing his proposal to suspend the federal tax on gasoline this summer, a refusal “to giving low-income Americans a tax break, a little bit of relief so they can travel a little further and a little longer, and maybe have a little bit of money left over to enjoy some other things in their lives.”

McCain, who is still fielding questions about using his wife’s company jet during the primary season, and Clinton, who lent her campaign $5 million from her pin money, seem determined to educate Obama on what he failed to learn as an organizer in poverty-stricken communities.

Cross-posted from my blog. More about a common source of Clinton’s and Obama’s ideas about poverty here.

If you liked Reagan, the odds are you don’t think McCain is too old to be president. And if you liked Reagan, the reason he gave for opposing a bill that would ensure women equal pay for equal work might even make sense to you. Here’s McCain, ‘reasoning’:

“I am all in favor of pay equity for women, but this kind of legislation, as is typical of what’s being proposed by my friends on the other side of the aisle, opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems,” the expected GOP presidential nominee told reporters. “This is government playing a much, much greater role in the business of a private enterprise system.” (AP)

You know what, I don’t even know where to start with this. For one thing, I can’t believe this is even an issue in the 21st Century. For another, it’s hard to type when your hands are shaking with fury.

Read the rest of this entry »

The growing world food crisis looks like a montage in a disaster movie–crowd scenes of hungry rioters in Haiti, Egypt and Africa’s Ivory Coast; close-ups of emaciated mothers holding out starving children to anyone who will feed them; well-fed gray men in paneled rooms clucking impotently.

Before the World Bank meeting last weekend, president Robert Zoellick talked about the growing emergency caused by doubling wheat and rice prices in the past year. “While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs and it’s getting more and more difficult everyday,” he said.

But at the meeting, nothing was done. An official of the International Monetary Fund observed that “the best sort of response is to allow market forces to operate, to allow prices to rise so that there can be a supply response.”

Read the rest of this entry.

Programming others to do one’s will, or else…
When I first trained in my field, veterans from Korea and those coming back from Nam who’d been POWs, had often suffered extensive efforts by the enemy… to rearrange their impulses, instincts and attitudes. At that time too, deprogramming had become a watchword, and thus we studied deeply the psychological effects of vulnerable human beings being ‘programmed’ by others

…Actual brain changes appeared to take place, deleterious ones that undercut the victim’s confidence and certainty about selfhood… and psychological changes, such as, feelings of helplessness, inability to think for oneself clearly and quickly. These and more, appeared to issue from experiencing untoward pressures and torments meant to destroy the core person.

Thus, whether crude or sophisticated the enemy attempted to cover over and subvert the soldiers’ true selves, by:
–using punishments erratically,
–withholding of food and other subsistances,
–restricting movement, and access to the outer world, to like-kind colleagues who shared a desire to be free
–and to also, reward via pathetic means, erratically also… as one soldier I worked with had been given a rat’s leg, raw, as a reward for agreeing to be beaten by the enemy in order to save a badly battered fellow soldier from being beaten to death.

That kind of ‘reward’ of ‘poisonous love’ can seem a moment of light… but only to those entirely degraded, those whose core self has been stolen away.

The good news is that the core self can, with care and time, be restored. And the work to do so is noble and worthy.

Yet… though we can notice that some aspects of a deleterious cult are also held by highly disciplined groups and service groups….

we can also note the difference between a group that is straight arrow, and one that is destructive … in the latter, the creative spirit is not free, and the person is
–not free to leave,
–not free to learn beyond the leader’s knowings,
–not free to change,
–not free to question or to create,
–not free to be compensated,
–not free to create sub-groups,
and that the ‘contact’ or agreement to become part of the cult was made without fair reasoning
–by virtue of being born into the cult as a baby,
–or being seduced into it during a time of travail,
–or being drawn in by insecurity, ill health, lostness, a seeking of intense meaning and dense ‘unusual’ experiences,
–or wanting very deeply to belong and be loved but without adequate fore-discernment,
–and other kinds of tender vulnerabilities that are found particularly in the young, the naïve, the unworldly,
the hopeful, the weary, the good hearted, those who feel called to serve…

…including some who
–hope for a free ride, who are themselves exploitative,
–those who have been in some hurtful way disenfranchised by their parents or a great love,
–those who have been already denuded of the core self by some previous person or association,
– those who want to attain importance/protection by being attached to someone or something their see as very shiny,
– those who are passive-dependent as personalities (want to be taken care of and told what to do and not have to think/feel anxiety),
– those in the manic swing of bi-polar disorder who will be thrilled, fawning and radiant acolytes …for as long as their mania lasts
–those caught in an over-idealizing complex as either part of a garden variety neurosis, or as a feature of borderline personality disorder….

Vulnerability to joining up and defending a destructive cult is not a matter of intelligence. IQ is not a factor for pledging. Vulnerability to ‘hyper-belong’ is often caused by absence of experience, lack of discernment, and a good deal of disappointment and/or distrust of/with the world ‘out there.’

Here is a shortlist of how to go about it, were one to try to ‘build’ a negative cult… keeping in mind that the destructiveness of such comes from de-personalizing human beings, by stripping them of freedom to choose to follow one’s own pathway without being exiled, to force, to threaten shunning and exile, to keep a soul from learning deeply and broadly in the world as well as within the community, to shame and humiliate, and to even strike or deprive of necessities, in order to garner ‘perfect’ obedience. In a phrase: Absolute CONTROL over others’ thoughts, feelings, bodies, development, social, spiritual, and economic functions.

–Set oneself up as inspired by God or the equivalent
–Claim Revelation
–Take on one’s own version of being the wise old man (omniscient father,) or the great mother (endless maternalism)
–Remove all finances from devotees or require huge amounts of money from them in order to remain part of the group
–Isolate the group on a parcel of land, set far away or difficult to access by car or on foot.
–Change the diet to an eccentric one, healthy or not
–Regiment living quarters, reduce decoration, games and toys and material goods to bare bones or nothing
–Deprive sleep, despite the fact that different people have different Read the rest of this entry »

Why is the media, and the blogs, overlooking the “real” issues? The recent Clinton/Obama debate once again brought under spotlight a serious lack of professionalism among journalists and their growing penchant to trivialize serious issues. To give another example, few seem interested at the looming food crisis that is likely to have worldwide political and economic ramifications.

Would the media wake up only when the wolf reaches their doors or the dinner table (when it is too late)? Even if the media is looking for “sensational” news there is plenty to be found in the “real” issues. How about this….?

“Food riots have erupted in countries all along the equator. In Haiti, protesters chanting ‘We’re hungry’ forced the prime minister to resign; 24 people were killed in riots in Cameroon; Egypt’s president ordered the army to start baking bread; the Philippines made hoarding rice punishable by life imprisonment. ‘It’s an explosive situation and threatens political stability,’ worries Jean-Louis Billon, president of Côte d’Ivoire’s chamber of commerce,” reports The Economist.
Read the rest of this entry »

In this TMV blog I keep writing occasionally on subjects that have an important role to play in increasing positivity in discussion and debate on matters related to politics. After all what is politics?…Surely, not just the circus where politicians are the key players. Politics percolates down to, and influences, health, education, art and culture…In fact all spheres of life.

As India dreams of (and works towards) joining the big league of powerful/”developed” nations, there are many individuals/institutions that have raised pertinent points as to whether we are headed towards the “right” direction. The big questions relate to the need to retain the vitality of the social fabric and ensuring social equity in this mad race to reach the high GDP targets.

Recently, I came across two write-ups on these concerns, as also about the role of media, by those who have earned a name for their contribution in the field of education and social welfare in India. The first is by Madhav Chavan of “Pratham”, an NGO that was recently given The Hewlett and Gates Foundations Award $9 Million towards its “Read India Campaign”. To read Chavan’s article please click here…

(The grant supports Pratham’s “Read India” initiative, which is working in conjunction with Indian state governments to help ensure that children between the ages of 6 and 14 achieve basic mastery in these skills by the end of 2009. The grant to Pratham will improve basic learning skills in 100 districts of India, touching 10 million children spread over 10 states for three years.)

The second article is by a sensitive young lady concerned at the questionable priorities of the mainstream media. Writes Snigdha Jain:

— Rush-hour murder on Kalkaji street, April 8, 2008
— Tibetan protests burn bright, Olympics torch put out in Paris, April 8, 2008
—Gurgaon pub brawl injured two pilots and their friends, April 7, 2008
— Rape and murder of British teenager, April 6, 2008

“This is all that I get to read in the newspaper and see on the news channels everyday. The news that creates vibes or sells has to be related to crime or political gimmicks. All my mornings begin with reading about incidences of rape, murder, bomb blast, riot, suicide and so on. On the one hand, it instills a certain degree of fear in me but, on the other gives me a sense of comfort that I am not one of the victims. But, is it really so? Don’t we all get affected by things happening around us? Read the rest of this entry »

Overlooked So Far, The Nation’s Unmarried Women in 2008 was released two days ago. You can read the summary here and the full report here.

From the summary:

So far unmarried women are mostly overlooked, but they are a key to this year’s campaign. A fast-growing demographic that is increasingly focused on politics, these single, divorced, and widowed women compose 26 percent of the electorate—in other words, unmarried women are more than one in four of all voters.

And appalling, unacceptable statistics:

A few facts make clear the challenges unmarried women are facing, and why their agenda is somewhat different from what the nation has heard from the campaigns so far.

• Economically Vulnerable. More than 40 percent of unmarried women have household incomes of less than $30,000 a year. That’s much worse than married women and married men, and worse than unmarried men.
• Work Pays Them Less. Unmarried women make less than others for the same work, and earn only 56 cents to every dollar a married man earns.
• Responsible for Children. The responsibility for taking care of children often falls on unmarried women: There are 12.2 million single-parent families in America, and more than 10 million are headed by single mothers.
• Missing Health Care. Unmarried women are more likely than other Americans to have no health insurance. They were twice as likely to be unable to afford medical care in the past year as women who were married.
• They Rely on Social Security. More than 25 percent of unmarried women rely on Social Security as their only source of income.

…

In this agenda, we outline the steps that leaders, particularly the next president, should take to address the needs of unmarried women. The policy agenda is divided into four categories: Expanding Opportunity by Rewarding Work; A New, Stronger Social Contract; Resolving the War in Iraq; and Improved Health Care for All.

I don’t imagine these numbers are going to reverse without consistent, intense attention, or without our elected lawmakers getting in there and doing something to create jobs, make health care affordable and demand that salaries and work conditions provide the stability and flexibility needed for not only the unmarried women, but especially those with children - since if the woman cannot provide for herself, how is she to provide for the child?

This is, of course, part of why we need more women in elected offices.

Cross-posted from Writes Like She Talks.

It will doubtless come as no surprise to readers of the Moderate Voice that people around the world have been outraged by the Bush Administration’s conduct of the Iraq War. But the passing of the fifth anniversary of the war has triggered a particularly strong upwelling of anger, which one can get a sense of by reading this article by Reinaldo Spitaletta of Colombia’s El Espectador.

Spitaletta writes, “Is it worth killing over 450,000 people, mostly civilians? Yes. And destroying a culture thousands of years old? Yes. And as if the matter was of little consequence, torturing prisoners in a jail? Yes, indeed. That’s how the president of the United States, George W. Bush, sees it, now five years after invasion of Iraq.”

As for the Iraqis, Spitaletta writes, “Perhaps it never occurred to the Gringos that their bombers, their infantry, their paraphernalia - yes- of mass destruction, would be unable to overcome an entire people … the Iraqi people, who today are suffering through the most unspeakable criminal invasion, know that never in their history has any foreign occupier triumphed. Neither the Romans nor the British. Today, without jobs, without social security, without tranquility but with the living hope of expelling the invader, they continue their resistance. And for those who have been displaced and mutilated - for the humiliated Iraqis of today - it will all be worth it to reverse the situation and defeat the troops of the superpower.”

By Reinaldo Spitaletta

Translated By Douglas Myles Rasmussen

March 25, 2008

Colombia - El Espectador - Original Article (Spanish)

Is it worth killing over 450,000 people, mostly civilians? Yes. And destroying a culture thousands of years old? Yes. And as if the matter was of little consequence, torturing prisoners in a jail? Yes, Read the rest of this entry »

Bill Richardson’s endorsement of Barack Obama last week raises the question of why the leader of the also-rans is being coy about making a choice

“John Edwards,” Politico reports, “is unlikely to endorse either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton before the nomination is decided, according to interviews with several members of the former candidate’s inner circle.”

Why not? At this stage, the Democrats need all the clarity they can get. Despite his long-standing ties to the Clintons, Richardson made his announcement last week–a hard choice, but he made it.

Edwards has been courted with visits from Obama and Clinton, and he knows how helpful his endorsement might be, particularly in the upcoming North Carolina primary.

Why would he hold back? None of the possible reasons do him credit or even make much sense. Surely he knows enough about the two candidates to make a choice, and holding out will not encourage them at this point to take up his war on poverty any more than they already have.

Is he angling to be a king-maker at the convention? Not likely, all but a handful of his pledged delegates are gone, and none would take direction from him in any case. Does he want to be sure to back the winner and end up in the cabinet, perhaps as Attorney General? Bad strategy. They don’t give medals for showing up after the battle. Or is he just planning to become the 21st century Harold Stassen, a perennial Presidential candidate?

Jonathan Prince, Edwards’ former deputy campaign manager, thinks his man has clout, asserting “that before Ohio and Texas, the campaigns told me that the most popular Democrat in Ohio was John Edwards. And he was tied for the most popular Democrat in Texas. I would imagine that what was true in Ohio is true in Pennsylvania, too.

“One candidate is trying to show he’s got it wrapped up. I think John Edwards would help to do that. The other candidate is trying to show that things are breaking her way. I think John Edwards would help to do that also.”

Most of all, by choosing now he would set an example for his party to encourage settling their squabbles sooner rather than later to unite against the possibility of another Republican in the White House. John Edwards has dedicated himself to bringing together the two Americas. Is it too much to ask him to do something for the two Democratic parties?

Cross-posted from my blog.