January 30, 2012

Desmond Tutu: It's time for a revolution led by women

Time for women to rise up, urges Tutu


(AFP) – 4 days ago

DAVOS, Switzerland — After the uprisings in the Arab world, South Africa's veteran Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu said Wednesday it was now time for women to have their revolution and banish men to the margins.

Speaking at a gathering of the world's political and financial elite in Davos, the vast majority of them men, Tutu said women had long been locked out of policy-making -- and the world had paid the price.

"Let us realign forces, let us ensure that women have a significant part in the decision-making process... we have been excluding women," said the former archbishop of Cape Town.

.....(snip).....

"What we need is a revolution led by women. I think women ought to be saying to us men: 'You have made a mess, just get out and let us in'," he added. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jK34hGMRBL4SqOE8aRbs50mScq5A?docId=CNG.84bbac5e7752374be11d2c4ab994076e.301

January 30, 2012

Chris Hedges: Corporations Have No Use for Borders

from truthdig:



Corporations Have No Use for Borders

Posted on Jan 30, 2012
By Chris Hedges


What happened to Canada? It used to be the country we would flee to if life in the United States became unpalatable. No nuclear weapons. No huge military-industrial complex. Universal health care. Funding for the arts. A good record on the environment.

But that was the old Canada. I was in Montreal on Friday and Saturday and saw the familiar and disturbing tentacles of the security and surveillance state. Canada has withdrawn from the Kyoto Accords so it can dig up the Alberta tar sands in an orgy of environmental degradation. It carried out the largest mass arrests of demonstrators in Canadian history at 2010’s G-8 and G-20 meetings, rounding up more than 1,000 people. It sends undercover police into indigenous communities and activist groups and is handing out stiff prison terms to dissenters. And Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a diminished version of George W. Bush. He champions the rabid right wing in Israel, bows to the whims of global financiers and is a Christian fundamentalist.

The voices of dissent sound like our own. And the forms of persecution are familiar. This is not an accident. We are fighting the same corporate leviathan.

“I want to tell you that I was arrested because I am seen as a threat,” Canadian activist Leah Henderson wrote to fellow dissidents before being sent to Vanier prison in Milton, Ontario, to serve a 10-month sentence. “I want to tell you that you might be too. I want to tell you that this is something we need to prepare for. I want to tell you that the risk of incarceration alone should not determine our organizing.” ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/corporations_have_no_use_for_borders_20120130/

January 30, 2012

The ‘Buffett Rule’ in History’s Grand Sweep

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:



The ‘Buffett Rule’ in History’s Grand Sweep
January 29, 2012

President Obama has proposed a specific new minimum tax rate for millionaires. Should America’s rich feel angry or relieved? We check the IRS tax data archives for an answer.

By Sam Pizzigati


The most famous secretary in America works “just as hard” as her billionaire boss — according to her boss, billionaire Warren Buffett — but pays federal taxes at twice the rate her boss does.

Debbie Bosanek, America learned last week, has been working for investor Warren Buffett since 1993. In 2010 she paid 35.8 percent of her income in federal income and payroll taxes. Buffett paid his federal taxes at a 17.4 percent rate.

GOP White House hopeful Mitt Romney sits with Buffett in America’s richest 0.006 percent of taxpayers. Romney, America also learned last week, paid his federal income taxes for 2010 at a mere 13.9 percent rate.

At what rate should wealthy Americans like Warren and Mitt pay their taxes? President Obama last week suggested — for the first time — a specific minimum percentage for what he has been calling, since last fall, the “Buffett rule.” ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/the-buffett-rule-in-historys-grand-sweep/

January 30, 2012

Chris Hedges: Corporations Have No Use for Borders

from truthdig:



Corporations Have No Use for Borders

Posted on Jan 30, 2012
By Chris Hedges


What happened to Canada? It used to be the country we would flee to if life in the United States became unpalatable. No nuclear weapons. No huge military-industrial complex. Universal health care. Funding for the arts. A good record on the environment.

But that was the old Canada. I was in Montreal on Friday and Saturday and saw the familiar and disturbing tentacles of the security and surveillance state. Canada has withdrawn from the Kyoto Accords so it can dig up the Alberta tar sands in an orgy of environmental degradation. It carried out the largest mass arrests of demonstrators in Canadian history at 2010’s G-8 and G-20 meetings, rounding up more than 1,000 people. It sends undercover police into indigenous communities and activist groups and is handing out stiff prison terms to dissenters. And Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a diminished version of George W. Bush. He champions the rabid right wing in Israel, bows to the whims of global financiers and is a Christian fundamentalist.

The voices of dissent sound like our own. And the forms of persecution are familiar. This is not an accident. We are fighting the same corporate leviathan.

“I want to tell you that I was arrested because I am seen as a threat,” Canadian activist Leah Henderson wrote to fellow dissidents before being sent to Vanier prison in Milton, Ontario, to serve a 10-month sentence. “I want to tell you that you might be too. I want to tell you that this is something we need to prepare for. I want to tell you that the risk of incarceration alone should not determine our organizing.” ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/corporations_have_no_use_for_borders_20120130/

January 29, 2012

Roots of the Local Food Movement

from YES! Magazine:



Roots of the Local Food Movement
Photo essay: The locavore movement may seem like a fad to some, but these wartime posters show that equating local food and security has deep roots in U.S. history.

posted Sep 15, 2010


The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that 20 million Americans rose to the call for patriotism and planted a victory garden during World War II.



Canning, home gardening, and vegetarianism have once again become political actions. Just as Eleanor Roosevelt encouraged victory gardens by planting one at the White House, the Obamas have helped to restart the home gardening trend by planting the first White House vegetable garden since the Roosevelts'.



Of course, the locavore movement emphasizes local food security for different reasons than wartime propaganda campaigns did: a changing climate, an end to cheap oil, and a difficult economy, rather than the need to feed and maintain armies. ..........(more)

The complete piece and photo essay is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/roots-of-the-local-food-movement-1

January 29, 2012

Vandana Shiva: Teachers for a Living World

from YES! Magazine:



Vandana Shiva: Teachers for a Living World
While Ivy League schools marvel at India’s economic growth, Vandana Shiva’s University of the Seed looks to the earth—and Gandhi—for guidance.

by Madhu Suri Prakash
posted Jan 27, 2012





Gandhi once burned British cloth imported from the mills of Manchester to reveal the power of the indigenous spinning wheel; and led the famous Salt March to underscore the capacities of all Indians (in fact, all human beings) to live autonomously, depending on the support of themselves and each other while throwing off the shackles of global empire.

Renowned food and anti-globalization activist Vandana Shiva’s Bija Vidyapeeth (University of the Seed), co-founded with Satish Kumar in 2001, is grounded on the four Gandhian principles of non-violence: swaraj (self-rule), swadeshi (home-spun), satyagraha (truth force), and savodaya (the uplifting of all).

Inspired by these principles, this university grown on a farm preserves a wild diversity of indigenous seeds in cooperation with thousands of farmers across India and the world, committed to the organic principles of working with Mother Earth—rather than waging war on her with chemicals.

“Gandhi and Globalization” is a course co-taught annually at Bija Vidyapeeth for ten short, intense days in November and December. Vandana Shiva, Satish Kumar (founder of Schumacher College in England), and Samdhong Rimpoche (the first Prime Minister of Independent Tibet) designed this course for students coming from all continents, speaking in multiple tongues, and joined by a shared passion for both Gandhi and the end of the era of globalization or neo-colonialism. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/vandana-shiva-teachers-for-a-living-world

January 29, 2012

Sundering the Social Contract

from Consortium News:



Sundering the Social Contract
January 28, 2012

In political philosophy, the idea of a social contract is that the individual surrenders some rights for the benefits of living in a civilized society that has reasonable rules for all. However, in recent decades, the greedy rich have torn up that contract, as Danny Schechter explains.

By Danny Schechter


The conflict between property rights and human rights has entered a new chapter. It is a debate that goes back to the challenge by landowners and merchants behind the American Revolution’s war on British control over the colonial economy.

Only today, as those speaking in the name of the 99 percent challenge the super wealthy of the 1 percent (actually the .001 percent), there is a new battleground in what’s known as the housing market with as many as 14 million Americans in or facing foreclosure.

The defense of property rights is the holy of the holies for the propertied classes with a whole industry set up to enforce their claims of ownership.

We have seen how this plays out with the courts, run by often bought-off and complicit judges rubber-stamping claims by banks and realty interests even when laws are disregarded amidst fraudulent filings, biased contracts, and phony robot signings. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/01/28/sundering-the-social-contract/

January 29, 2012

Seeds For Young Farmers

from Civil Eats:



Seeds For Young Farmers

January 27th, 2012
By Brie Mazurek


When Jesse Kuhn started Marin Roots Farm at age 28, he already had dirt under his fingernails. He’d studied ag in college, managed a student farm, and worked as a landscaper. But when it came to succeeding financially in the farming business, he had a long way to go. “I was charging up my credit cards like crazy and bouncing balances back and forth,” he says. “I almost had to declare bankruptcy during the first year.”

Almost 10 years and many lessons later, Marin Roots is a well-established organic specialty produce business. “It’s a lot of people’s dream to live off the land, but the reality of it is, you have to have a plan for how you’re going to pay the bills,” says Kuhn.

His journey is not unlike that of many beginners who are eager to try their hand at farming but don’t yet have all the necessary skills and resources. In a recent report titled Building a Future with Farmers, the National Young Farmers’ Coalition (NYFC) surveyed 1,000 young and beginning farmers across the US and found that access to land, capital, health care, credit, and business training posed huge challenges.

“What’s different for young and first-career farmers is that they don’t have a lot of equity,” says Severine von Tscharner Fleming, a young farmer in New York’s Hudson Valley who is also co-chair of NYFC and director of The Greenhorns, a film and nonprofit organization that advocates for young farmers. “You see a lot of student debt. Farming is a high-capital industry—an industry that really needs us, but we’re walking in without any cash.” .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://civileats.com/2012/01/27/seeds-for-young-farmers/

January 28, 2012

Der Spiegel: Antibiotics Prove Powerless as Super-Germs Spread

Antibiotics were once the wonder drug. Now, however, an increasing number of highly resistant -- and deadly -- bacteria are spreading around the world. The killer bugs often originate in factory farms, where animals are treated whether they are sick or not. By SPIEGEL Staff

The pathogens thrive in warm, moist environments. They feel comfortable in people's armpits, in the genital area and in the nasal mucous membranes. Their hunting grounds are in the locker rooms of schools and universities, as well as in the communal showers of prisons and health clubs.

The bacteria are transmitted via the skin, through towels, clothing or direct body contact. All it takes is a small abrasion to provide them with access to a victim's bloodstream. Festering pustules develop at the infection site, at which point the pathogens are also capable of corroding the lungs. If doctors wait too long, patients can die very quickly.

This is precisely what happened to Ashton Bonds, a 17-year-old student at Staunton River High School in Bedford County, in the US state of Virginia. Ashton spent a week fighting for his life -- and lost. This is probably what also happened to Omar Rivera, a 12-year-old in New York, who doctors sent home because they thought he was exhibiting allergy symptoms. He died that same night. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,811560,00.html

January 28, 2012

GOP race-baiting masks class warfare

from Salon.com:



GOP race-baiting masks class warfare
By demonizing some, the Republicans seek to discredit the safety net for the 99 percent

By Daniel Denvir


It’s commonplace to note that Newt Gingrich’s dog-whistle appellation that Barack Obama is the “food stamp president” is both racist and politically cynical. But the stereotyping of black government dependency also serves the strategic end of discrediting the entire social safety net, which most Americans of all races depend on. Black people are subtly demonized, but whites and blacks alike will suffer.

Gingrich persists because it’s a dependable applause line, and because his political fortunes keep rising. Compare that to September, when Mitt Romney attacked then-candidate Rick Perry for calling Social Security a “Ponzi scheme.” Perry backtracked, insisting that he only wanted to bolster the program and ensure its solvency. But in his 2010 book “Fed Up,” Perry made his opposition to Social Security clear, calling it “a crumbling monument to the failure of the New Deal.” Scrapping entitlements is a core tenet of contemporary fiscal conservatism, but most of the time politicians only get away with attacking the most vulnerable ones: Medicaid, food stamps and welfare cash assistance, which are means-tested and thus associated with the black (read: undeserving) poor, although whites make up a far greater share of food stamp recipients. Government welfare programs with Teflon political defenses — Medicare and Social Security — are nearly universal entitlements and thus associated with “regular” (read: white) Americans.

“Ending welfare as we know it,” as Bill Clinton and congressional Republicans did in 1996, is one thing. “Ending Medicare,” Republicans were last year reminded, is something else altogether. “Keep your government hands off my Medicare,” declared a 2009 Tea Party town hall attendee who today might very well be an ardent supporter of Gingrich’s assault on food stamps. It is a political lesson that free-market fundamentalists have to relearn with some frequency. It was only 2005, after all, when President George W. Bush launched his ill-fated proposal to privatize Social Security — a setback he later called his greatest failure.

Yet as more government programs of any sort are framed as pernicious, laissez-faire ideologues are again emboldened to get rid of everything. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.salon.com/2012/01/27/gop_race_baiting_masks_class_warfare/singleton/