[ Reader Comments: Climate Crisis; Morality Police - Iran AND USA;
War on Drugs; Cuba; Socialist Values; Amanda Gorman; Cartoons;
Resources; Announcements; more; ....]
[[link removed]]

TIDBITS – SEPT. 29, 2022 – READER COMMENTS: CLIMATE CRISIS;
MORALITY POLICE – IRAN AND USA; WAR ON DRUGS; CUBA; SOCIALIST
VALUES; AMANDA GORMAN; CARTOONS; RESOURCES; ANNOUNCEMENTS; MORE; …
 
[[link removed]]


 

September 29, 2022
xxxxxx
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Reader Comments: Climate Crisis; Morality Police - Iran AND USA;
War on Drugs; Cuba; Socialist Values; Amanda Gorman; Cartoons;
Resources; Announcements; more; .... _

Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements, AND cartoons -
Sept. 29, 2022, xxxxxx

 

Which Way the Wind is Blowing  --  cartoon by Jack Ohman
Re: ‘Africa Is on the Frontlines but Not the Front Pages’: Vanessa
Nakate on Her Climate Fight (Linda Gillison)
USA's Morality Police  --  cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz
Re: John Roberts’s Long Game (Eleanor Roosevelt; Lorraine Suzuki)
Re: Most US Professors Are Trained at Same Few Elite Universities
(Mike Mauer)
Re: Colombian President Gustavo Petro Calls for an End to the War on
Drugs in Historic UN Address (Dan Morgan)
Re: Cuba's Gay Rights Vote Is a Victory for Socialist Values (Karen
Lee Wald)
Good News, Bad News  --  cartoon by Pat Bagley
Re: ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Is the Antidote to TikTokers’
Obsession With Being a Tradwife (Eleanor Roosevelt)

RESOURCES:

An Ode We Owe  -- Amanda Gorman
Capitalism and extreme poverty: A global analysis of real wages, human
height, and mortality since the long 16th century  (ScienceDirect)

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION  -  SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22 - NEW YORK
(CENTER FOR CUBAN STUDIES)

 

WHICH WAY THE WIND IS BLOWING  --  CARTOON BY JACK OHMAN

Jack Ohman
September 28, 2022
Sacramento Bee
[[link removed]]

 

RE: ‘AFRICA IS ON THE FRONTLINES BUT NOT THE FRONT PAGES’: VANESSA
NAKATE ON HER CLIMATE FIGHT
 

This is intriguing. I noticed also, a couple of years ago, SOMEONE
(thank you!!) at least briefly covered the important work of several
young people of color when all eyes were on Greta. Maybe it was at the
time of the first Friday strike? That single article is where I
learned about Autumn Peltier, also--another brave activist (First
Nation/Anishinaabe, working in Canada) for the environment. Since
then, I always notice Autumn Peltier; now I'll be watching for Nakate,
also. THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORK! Thanks, xxxxxx, for sharing this.

Linda Gillison
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

USA'S MORALITY POLICE  --  CARTOON BY LALO ALCARAZ

 

Not to be outdone by Iran, we have our own US Morality Police right
here, ready to control our lives, especially if you’re a woman

Lalo Alcaraz
[[link removed]]
September 27, 2022

 

RE: JOHN ROBERTS’S LONG GAME
 

If the reason for every new layer of BS laid down by the Supreme Court
is "the Constitution," then we need a new constitution.

Eleanor Roosevelt
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

"Alabama is saying, essentially, that any effort to eradicate racial
discrimination is itself racial discrimination."

Lorraine Suzuki
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: MOST US PROFESSORS ARE TRAINED AT SAME FEW ELITE UNIVERSITIES
 

This is an important issue, but the headline is a bit misleading. At
present, only some 37% of faculty in the U.S. are either tenured or
tenure track. The majority of faculty are now hired on a contingent
basis, with little if any job security. So it's 80% of that 37% who
are tenured or tenure track who are from the elite institutions
mentioned. (And that doesn't nearly constitute "most.")

Mike Mauer
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT GUSTAVO PETRO CALLS FOR AN END TO THE WAR ON
DRUGS IN HISTORIC UN ADDRESS
 

A powerful and poetic speech. Deserves to be widely read.

Dan Morgan
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: CUBA'S GAY RIGHTS VOTE IS A VICTORY FOR SOCIALIST VALUES
 

I wish progressive media would stop reporting the new families code in
Cuba as though it were JUST about gay rights. That is one very
important aspect of the new code but not the only one. Please READ it
before you WRITE about it.

Karen Lee Wald

 

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS  --  CARTOON BY PAT BAGLEY

 

Pat Bagley
September 26, 2022
Salt Lake City Tribune
[[link removed]]

 

RE: ‘DON’T WORRY DARLING’ IS THE ANTIDOTE TO TIKTOKERS’
OBSESSION WITH BEING A TRADWIFE

(posting on xxxxxx Culture
[[link removed]])
 

Gawdawmighty. Maybe talk about the vast numbers of working class
married women who did factory/industrial work thruout the twentieth
century. "Tradwifery" in the way these knobheads imagine it never
really existed.

Eleanor Roosevelt
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

AN ODE WE OWE  -- AMANDA GORMAN

 

Amanda Gorman recites her poem, “An Ode We Owe,” to the U.N.
General Assembly September 19, 2022  (photo credit: Seth Wenig
/Associated Press)
An Ode We Owe
[[link removed]]
 

    How can I ask you to do good,

    When we’ve barely withstood

    Our greatest threats yet:

    The depths of death, despair and disparity,

    Atrocities across cities, towns & countries,

    Lives lost, climactic costs.

    Exhausted, angered, we are endangered,

    Not because of our numbers,

    But because of our numbness. We’re strangers

    To one another’s perils and pain,

    Unaware that the welfare of the public

    And the planet share a name–

    –Equality

    Doesn’t mean being the exact same,

    But enacting a vast aim:

    The good of the world to its highest capability.

    The wise believe that our people without power

    Leaves our planet without possibility.

    Therefore, though poverty is a poor existence,

    Complicity is a poorer excuse.

    We must go the distance,

    Though this battle is hard and huge,

    Though this fight we did not choose,

    For preserving the earth isn’t a battle too large

    To win, but a blessing too large to lose.

    This is the most pressing truth:

    That Our people have only one planet to call home

    And our planet has only one people to call its own.

    We can either divide and be conquered by the few,

    Or we can decide to conquer the future,

    And say that today a new dawn we wrote,

    Say that as long as we have humanity,

    We will forever have hope.

    Together, we won’t just be the generation

    That tries but the generation that triumphs;

    Let us see a legacy

    Where tomorrow is not driven

    By the human condition,

    But by our human conviction.

    And while hope alone can’t save us now,

    With it we can brave the now,

    Because our hardest change hinges

    On our darkest challenges.

    Thus may our crisis be our cry, our crossroad,

    The oldest ode we owe each other.

    We chime it, for the climate,

    For our communities.

    We shall respect and protect

    Every part of this planet,

    Hand it to every heart on this earth,

    Until no one’s worth is rendered

    By the race, gender, class, or identity

    They were born. This morn let it be sworn

    That we are one one human kin,

    Grounded not just by the griefs

    We bear, but by the good we begin.

    To anyone out there:

    I only ask that you care before it’s too late,

    That you live aware and awake,

    That you lead with love in hours of hate.

    I challenge you to heed this call,

    I dare you to shape our fate.

    Above all, I dare you to do good

    So that the world might be great

 

CAPITALISM AND EXTREME POVERTY: A GLOBAL ANALYSIS OF REAL WAGES, HUMAN
HEIGHT, AND MORTALITY SINCE THE LONG 16TH CENTURY  (SCIENCEDIRECT)

HIGHLIGHTS

* The common notion that extreme poverty is the “natural”
condition of humanity and only declined with the rise of capitalism
rests on income data that do not adequately capture access to
essential goods.
* Data on real wages suggests that, historically, extreme poverty
was uncommon and arose primarily during periods of severe social and
economic dislocation, particularly under colonialism.
* The rise of capitalism from the long 16th century onward is
associated with a decline in wages to below subsistence, a
deterioration in human stature, and an upturn in premature mortality.
* In parts of South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America,
wages and/or height have still not recovered.
* Where progress has occurred, significant improvements in human
welfare began only around the 20th century. These gains coincide with
the rise of anti-colonial and socialist political movements.

Abstract

This paper assesses claims that, prior to the 19th century, around 90%
of the human population lived in extreme poverty (defined as the
inability to access essential goods), and that global human welfare
only began to improve with the rise of capitalism. These claims rely
on national accounts and PPP exchange rates that do not adequately
capture changes in people’s access to essential goods. We assess
this narrative against extant data on three empirical indicators of
human welfare: real wages (with respect to a subsistence basket),
human height, and mortality. We ask whether these indicators improved
or deteriorated with the rise of capitalism in five world regions -
Europe, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and China –
using the chronology put forward by world-systems theorists. The
evidence we review here points to three conclusions. (1) It is
unlikely that 90% of the human population lived in extreme poverty
prior to the 19th century. Historically, unskilled urban labourers in
all regions tended to have wages high enough to support a family of
four above the poverty line by working 250 days or 12 months a year,
except during periods of severe social dislocation, such as famines,
wars, and institutionalized dispossession – particularly under
colonialism. (2) The rise of capitalism caused a dramatic
deterioration of human welfare. In all regions studied here,
incorporation into the capitalist world-system was associated with a
decline in wages to below subsistence, a deterioration in human
stature, and an upturn in premature mortality. In parts of South Asia,
sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, key welfare metrics have still
not recovered. (3) Where progress has occurred, significant
improvements in human welfare began several centuries after the rise
of capitalism. In the core regions of Northwest Europe, progress began
in the 1880s, while in the periphery and semi-periphery it began in
the mid-20th century, a period characterized by the rise of
anti-colonial and socialist political movements that redistributed
incomes and established public provisioning systems.

Full paper here (PDF)
[[link removed]]

 

50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION  -  SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22 - NEW YORK
(CENTER FOR CUBAN STUDIES)

 

When we opened the Center for Cuban Studies 50 years ago, we opened as
a library, because almost NO DIRECT INFORMATION FROM CUBA was coming
into the U.S. Few were traveling, the blockade was not only economic
but informational and cultural.

We decided to use every means possible to change that situation.
Within a year we had organized our first professional trip to Cuba via
Mexico— of lawyers. 

We started educational exchanges during the Carter administration in
the 1980s and opened a Spanish language school in Havana until the
Reagan administration forced its closure. We fought to help pass the
Berman amendment of 1987 to allow the import of informational
materials from Cuba.

By 1992 we insured the legality of the importation of Cuban art. And
once Cuba opened its doors to tourism in the 1990s, we started
organizing dozens of educational and humanitarian trips to Cuba each
year.

There’s much to be proud of—but the blockade continues. We have a
lot of work to do. 

50 years of helping thousands of North Americans know Cuba — its
people, daily life, its art & music, its politics & problems. Help us
celebrate CCS’s 50 years and pledge to redouble our effort to end
the US blockade of Cuba.

Center for Cuban Studies
[[link removed]]
20 Jay Street, 301
Brooklyn, NY 11201
 

* Reader Comments
[[link removed]]
* Climate Crisis
[[link removed]]
* Climate Change
[[link removed]]
* Hurricane Ian
[[link removed]]
* Florida
[[link removed]]
* Morality Police
[[link removed]]
* Iran
[[link removed]]
* GOP
[[link removed]]
* MAGA
[[link removed]]
* Republican Party
[[link removed]]
* Cuba
[[link removed]]
* socialism
[[link removed]]
* socialist values
[[link removed]]
* war on drugs
[[link removed]]
* Columbia
[[link removed]]
* Amanda Gorman
[[link removed]]
* capitalism
[[link removed]]
* extreme poverty
[[link removed]]
* wages
[[link removed]]
* mortality
[[link removed]]
* Solidarity
[[link removed]]
* Cartoons
[[link removed]]
* resources
[[link removed]]
* Announcements
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]