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Saturday, November 15, 2008

by Nanette

I’ve always loved this picture - in part because I have a noted fondness for mist and fog, but also because it speaks to me of pasts and futures, entrances, exits and beginnings.

It was taken by my friend Kai Chang while on a visit to China, a place I have never been and will likely never be, but which I can enjoy vicariously through Kai’s visits and observations.

The site and organization are undergoing some changes but in the meantime, please join the ongoing conversation and commentary on our group blog, Stalking Sunlight.

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Saturday, July 05, 2008

Report: Biofuel Caused Food Crisis. Big Surprise?

by Nanette

I think not. At least, not to those who have been paying attention (which group, admittedly, does not always include me).

Here’s what The Guardian says:

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government’s claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.

"It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday.

(As an aside… I was at first thinking that the impulse to protect Bush and his disastrous administration at the expense of the world’s poor was due to Paul Wolfowitz being the president of the World Bank. I’d forgotten that he was such a complete disaster that he was basically forced out in 2007. No, the current president is the, I’m sure, completely autonomous and independent former Bush admin official, Robert Zoellick. Ahem.)

More from The Guardian:

"Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises," said Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam. "It is imperative that we have the full picture. While politicians concentrate on keeping industry lobbies happy, people in poor countries cannot afford enough to eat."

Rising food prices have pushed 100m people worldwide below the poverty line, estimates the World Bank, and have sparked riots from Bangladesh to Egypt. Government ministers here have described higher food and fuel prices as "the first real economic crisis of globalisation".

President Bush has linked higher food prices to higher demand from India and China, but the leaked World Bank study disputes that: "Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases."

I got this via Chris at AmericaBlog, where commenter greatdogs also points out...

How much of this report is the IMF and World Bank going into the CYA mode? Many small countries at one time produced a lot of their own food, But if they wanted a loan from the IMF or WB, they had to eliminate tariffs on imports. Then subsidized crops were imported, many by the US, to these countries and sold at less than the cost of production. Small farmers in these places then went out of business and the local supplies dried up. Then the prices go up and the local populace cannot afford to feed themselves. Two good examples are Haiti that used to produce enough rice to sustain itself and Mexico where many small farmers fell victim to US grown corn, which has also contributed to the number of Mexican immigrants who have come north looking for work. The current biofuel policy is best described as the ethanol boondoggle. But unfortunately, we are lacking the national leadership necessary to solve our energy problems.

This is at least one massive problem that seems to have a relatively simple fix… perhaps after a few more years (or decades) of study and a few more thousands dying of hunger and food riots worldwide, someone will actually do something about it.

(photo of corn at the top found here... where there is also an interesting article.)

)

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Thursday, July 03, 2008

Morning (or so) Papers - Toe In The Water

by Nanette

I’m testing a new blog writer thing - Post2Blog - a desktop blogging client for Windows. I’m still learning how it works and if I like it. It added the "a desktop blogging client for Windows" and the link all by itself, which was a ’lil irritating, but I was able to disable it. Anyway, I was using Windows LiveWriter, which I really like, but with my computer having so many issues with, apparently, SP2 (I’ve had to reinstall the operating system 4 or 5 times in the past week or so) - which is needed, along with .NET in order to run LiveWriter, I think I’ll just go ahead and go with something more low-tech.

So that this is not a completely navel gazing post I’ll add some links to some stuff in the news and/or on blogs.

China’s been having a rough (and often tragic) time this year… and now this:

BEIJING—First there was the freak snowstorm in February. Then the Tibetan riots in March. Then in rapid succession the controversial torch relay, Sichuan earthquake, widespread flooding and an algae bloom that’s tarnishing the Olympic sailing venue. Just when it seemed that nothing else could go wrong this year in China, the locusts arrived.

Locusts? What is going on here? The litany of near-biblical woes would seem to lack only a famine, frogs and smiting of the first born.

I sometimes joke(?) about the plagues of disasters that seem to hit us in California whenever we have a Republican governor… as if the very earth is trying to tell us something, but I think we’ve yet to have this one. via.

The Internets are still wacky with primary fallout - I just thought I’d mention that. I won’t put any links mainly because I am too rushed (and lazy) to look them up right now, but I do plan on doing some sort of piece about all this, soonish.

Apparently someone has decided that contractors in Iraq should not be able to operate outside the law after all… (yeah, right - where’s the loophole?)

The US has agreed to scrap immunity for foreign security guards in Iraq, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari says.

The US embassy in Baghdad has not confirmed the announcement, which comes as the US and Iraq are negotiating a controversial security pact.

Foreign firms employing thousands of guards won huge contracts in Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion, but were not subject to Iraqi or US military law.

Iraqi frustration became fury last year when guards killed 17 people in a day.

[...]

The firm involved in the 2007 killings - Blackwater, one of the biggest security contractors in Iraq and which protects US diplomats - says its guards were acting in self-defence.

These are the same people (Blackwater) who are doing something or other on the US border, no? Comforting.

And now for something completely different…

I can just imagine multiples of this guy adorning the table at a party at Doc Logan’s house.

Here’s a couple more:

No matter how much time I might have on my hands I couldn’t create this stuff. Very cool.

Anyone been up to anything? Y’all have a great day.

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Monday, June 23, 2008

This And That: How’s Your Handbasket? Comfy? edition

by Nanette

I can’t seem to get my act together enough to write anything substantive but, luckily, others are not having that problem! So, to dip my toes back into the blogging water, I’ll just point out a few things that have caught my eye over the past few days. Besides the great things my co-bloggers have been writing, of course!

So, in no particular order and not really all there yet, I’ll keep updating as I find interesting things, (cuz if I wait til the post is "finished" it’ll be next week before it’s posted… yes, my unblogginess is that bad), here’s some stuff:

painting by Tim Leura Japaljarri via

I was shocked when I found out that Aborigines were officially considered part of the "flora and fauna" in Australia until the late 60s… 1960s -

MARK COLVIN: If you weren’t around for the 1967 referendum on Aborigines, or you can’t remember why it mattered, think about this.
Before that vote, Aboriginal people weren’t counted as people, they came under the Flora and Fauna Act.

- but after learning about that, I don’t find this at all surprising, considering:

Recently, the new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued an apology to the Aboriginal Australians for the Stolen Generations, which puts Australia ahead of America for sure, but many people thought, "That’s nice but what will be done on a concrete level to fix the disaster caused by this?"
The answer seems to be, not much really:

Meanwhile, a retired federal court judge said the legislation [The Northern Territory Aboriginal Intervention] was constitutionally valid but "extremely discriminatory".
"Well I think it’s constitutionally valid but it’s extremely discriminatory legislation," Murray Wilcox said on radio today. "That is actually acknowledged by the legislation because it specifically excludes the operation of the Racial Discrimination Act and the Anti-discrimination Act in the NT. "In other words the Government is saying this is racially discriminatory legislation but nonetheless it is to be regarded as valid."

Part of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Intervention is to quarantine 50% of the income of Aboriginal Australians to "ensure that it is being properly spent" regardless of whether or not it is actually being spent appropriately. This does not apply to white Australians in any way. There is some talk of rolling out that policy on a national basis despite it being an unqualified disaster in terms of health and delivery of appropriate services as well as on human rights.

The latest in this utterly mind-bogglingly racist legislation is to determine the "viability" of various Aboriginal communities and, for those who do not meet this vague viability, to deny them services. That isn’t referring to services like parks. It is referring to basic human rights like health clinics, schools, adequate housing, stores and a police station.

[....]

You get a choice: either send your child away to a school that may be hundreds of miles from your home voluntarily or have your income reduced by half, therefore making it impossible to feed said child and the government takes your child and sends him/her to a school hundreds of miles from your home.

Shaker Christina and Shaker Trinity at Shakesville

Lots more there, on this and other issues facing Aborigines in Australia in 2008.

Joan Kelly is troubled by Tim Wise’s recent article and asks a few questions: (via ilyka)

But - this much-linked-to article by Tim Wise left me uncomfortable. First, because I don’t agree that not-voting for Obama is the same as voting for McCain (I have heard actually several people talk about discomfort with Obama for reasons that have nothing to do with Clinton or spite - and, as several of them are radical men and women of color, not exactly in line with racist white feminists - and everything to do with discomfort with Obama.) (I personally am rather excited about voting for him, and about him winning.)

Second, because at one point he writes “Sister please,” which left me feeling like he was assuming what he thought was a “black woman’s” voice scolding white women, which felt stereotyping to me and rather inexplicably out of place in an article that so vociferously claims to confront racism.

And thirdly, because I am trying to find instances where Clinton supporters - feminist, women, white, or all or none of the above - threatened to vote for McCain if Clinton did not get the nomination. And so far I have found one article, that quoted two people - one man, one woman - and this article claimed they were speaking for “many” Clinton supporters, but having my own experience with journalists, I have to say I am always suspicious of how they phrase things.

I was offline for most of the primary season and so missed much of the madness (thank the goddes), but even surfing around since I’ve been back, I keep getting the feeling that we (many of us, no doubt not all) are asking the wrong questions and not quite having the conversations we should be. Mostly I find it all pretty depressing. Oh, and I like the idea of Tim Wise, but the few times I’ve heard him speak (maybe twice), it seemed to me that he was affecting a "Black" accent and that made me uncomfortable. Then again, maybe that’s just how he talks.

Still, though, I’ve come across more than a few former Clinton supporters (online) who either say that they are going to vote for McCain or that they at least think that 4 years of McCain won’t be so bad. And then Hillary can come riding in to the rescue in 2012 and so on. Which in itself is silly - if the Dems lose the White House this year, with all the increased enthusiasm and interest in the election, I’m pretty sure it’s lost for at least the next 12 years, if not beyond.

A note: when I got back online I was dreading having to go through the hundreds of emails that were no doubt awaiting me only… when I signed on to get them, I had not a one. Zero. Zippo. Nada. Apparently when I tried to switch the to go to gmail so that I could maybe access them somewhere on a borrowed computer I messed up something. Nothing in gmail, nothing on the server, nothing anywhere. All this to say… if you emailed me over the past month or so… :(

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Saturday, March 15, 2008

We Knew Them When: Three New Books Written By Bloggers

by Nanette

Walking With Zeke: a familiar story
by Chris Clarke of Creek Running North

"Zeke could wake me from a sound sleep by staring silently, his desire fully infiltrating my heart. A thousand times, in play, he would lunge for my face and snap, his bite strong enough that it would have disfigured me if he had not stopped short by a quarter inch. And I never flinched once, even when his whiskers grazed my face. I trusted him implicitly, and he me."

From the introduction of Chris Clarke's recently completed book, Walking With Zeke, "a moving naturalist’s journal about an aging dog, the people who loved him, and the wildlife-filled neighborhood in which he spent his last months."

In full disclosure I must say that, though I never actually met him, I knew Zeke - I was his friend. One of many who got to know him through the tales of love and adventure, pain, sickness and sorrow so wonderfully told by Chris over the years. From that familiarity I can assure you that this is a walk well worth taking.

Softcover, 218 pages, $17.95 US, ISBN 978-0-6151-9611-4.

You'll soon be able to order the book through online bookstores and local independent stores, but it's available now right here.

And two more...

It's a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments
by Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon

From the Editorial Review on Amazon:

For all of you humming “I Will Survive” while watching the political debacles gracing the evening news, when getting an earful from your Limbaugh-loving brother-in-law, or as you’re ducking into the bathroom to avoid the date espousing the wisdom of those Mars versus Venus books, this book is for you.

It’s a Jungle Out There gives all you smart, independent women out there the funny pranks, witty comebacks, and stalwart sources of strength you need in these trying times. With her tongue firmly in cheek and her middle finger stuck straight up in the air, Amanda Marcotte (of Pandagon.net) takes you on a tour through the perils that await any feminist who must navigate day-to-day life in the U.S., from the abstinence-only classrooms to the glass-ceiling of the office world.

Sure to be as snarky and ironic as the writing at Pandagon itself, the book is available (or will soon be) from Amazon here. Softcover, 200 pages, $11.16 US

Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats
by Matthew Yglesias of The Atlantic Magazine

From the inside flap (via Amazon):

In Heads in the Sand, fast-rising political observer and commentator Matthew Yglesias reveals the wrong-headed foreign policy stance of conservatives, neocons, and the Republican Party for what it is—aggressive nationalism, or, to be impolite, a new version of old-fashioned imperialism. He then examines how Democrats and progressives have responded to the conservative agenda, from mistakenly labeling it isolationism to repeated calls for big, bold, new ideas and the failure to actually produce any.

Writing with wit, passion, and keen insight, Yglesias reminds us of the rich tradition of liberal internationalism that, developed by Democrats, was used with great success by both Democratic and Republican administrations for more than fifty years. It was, in fact, the foreign policy strategy that revived Europe after World War II, established the United Nations, and won the Cold War.

[...]

The forces opposed to liberal internationalism, however, are large and growing. And, Yglesias reveals, they're not all on the far right. He presents a startling revelation of how many moderates, liberals, and even far-left progressives seem more than happy to use America's military might to accomplish their objectives.

Hardcover, 272 pages $17.13 US. Available from Amazon, here.

There we go. I have not read any of these books, although I have read all of these blogs from time to time. Three very different books by three very different writers... something for almost everyone! As I come across more bloggers who have completed books (I'm sure there are are quite a few of them) as well as book writers who blog, I'll let you know who has what ready to go.

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Monday, March 10, 2008

What’s With SNL’s Obama Blackface Minstrel Routine?

by Nanette

"[T]he simple fact is that blackface and minstrels and house Negroes are dangerously wild and crafty memes that have been laughing at intent and virtue for over 140 years. Anyone who has been paying the slightest attention to race in America knows that these are the sort of images that tend to slip out of a user's grasp almost immediately, so deliberately handling them constitutes a form of willful recklessness."

Ebogjonson, a year or so ago, after the spate of White liberal bloggers thinking it was oh, so cool and clever to dress up politicians and pundits in blackface, to make who knows what points. With predictable results.

I literally paused with my cup of coffee halfway to my mouth Sunday morning when they played the clip of the previous night's Saturday Night Live skit. All it was lacking was the rolling eyeballs, showing the whites of the eyes and a couple of "Oh Lawsy, wut we'z gon' do, Miz Hillary? Save us poor dumb black folks!" to make it complete. Well wait... they had that, just in updated language.

Maybe ebog should do another spreadsheet, this time for the media and (apparently melanin challenged) comedy shows.

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Saturday, January 26, 2008

We Will Do Anything To Win - But We Won’t Do THAT

by Nanette

(With apologies to Meatloaf. )

Oh how I wish that was the mantra of the Democratic Party. Unfortunately…

I think it’s time to finally erase the "Democrat" designation from any part of my identity. I’ve resisted doing this for years, long after friends of mine made the leap, with the excuse that well, maybe next time it’ll be different. It never is, though, sadly.

I sat down this morning to write about the primary in South Carolina (as I write this, the polls are still open so I know no results) and some of the language surrounding it, the tactics used there and leading up to it, and the Democratic primary and election in general. I had lots I wanted to say, indictments I wanted to make, predictions to entertain myself and others with and more ... but somehow I just don’t have the heart for it.

girlfence And you know what? I’ve decided that’s okay - because, while who is president of the US and which party controls the congress, which laws are made or, more importantly these days, upheld and followed by those in the highest office, and who appoints the Supreme Court members… while all of that does matter, it’s not the be all that ends all. And it’s not there that real changes get made. Not the deep, structural changes anyway. That takes more than laws and much more than politicians and more than doing the same old things in the same old ways.

Theriomorph wrote about politics online and online politics last week (very interesting and thought provoking, as usual, go read). Her post reminded me of thinking I’ve done, off and on over the years, of how to more effectively use this tool we have - the internet, with its access to brilliant minds, varying experiences and its capabilities for coalition building worldwide, to bring about real, lasting change. I believe the window for figuring that out is a fairly short one. I’ve had some ideas that I think could help, only the way my brain works, I tend to see the end result, the big goal and what it could do, but am rather iffy on the little steps to get there.

Still, that’s where the "wisdom of crowds" comes in. We don’t accomplish much by ourselves (especially me!) - even this site/magazine, which is not what it used to be and definitely not all it could be, would have probably just limped along as a thought had I not met Matthew, completely by chance, online. (And actually, I can’t remember how we met (it was about 10 years ago), as we didn’t hang out in the same places, or chat in the same rooms or anything.) And then all the others who have helped throughout the years, wonderful people all of them.

Anyway, I plan to start writing about these ideas and thoughts, in the hopes that they might strike a spark in someone who can see the little steps, or who can see the beginning or the middle, and together we can figure out how all this can work. I’m going to build off of Theriomorph’s post, as well as things bfp and others have written that have embedded themselves in my mind but which I have been too distracted by other things to follow up on.

I hope lots of people join the conversation here, at Theriomorph’s, at your own places (if you send me a link I will start a list of who is saying what), at bfp’s or wherever you want.

(This post, by the way, is part of the Year of the Manatee (or The Manatee Uprising), which I will explain at another time.)

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