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POPSDouble Standards What do you call it when just over 3 thousand people were killed in the September 11 attack on the US? – An atrocity. What do you call it when nearly 5 million people were killed in the Vietnam war? – A mistake. What do you call it when very rich people exploit poor people? – Greed and selfishness. What do you call it when very rich countries exploit poor countries? – Globalization. What do you call it when someone carrying a gun enters your house and steals your valuable possessions? – An armed robbery. What do you call it when a multinational corporation supported by armed forces enters your country and steals your valuable possessions? – Free trade. What do you call someone who steals from the rich and gives to the poor? – Robin Hood. What do you call someone who steals from the poor and gives to the rich? – The US government.
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POPSUSA: Lies In, Truth Out in rush to more WAR
"States do not pursue weapons systems as ends in themselves; and states are hardwired to ensure their own survival. It is to that end that they acquire weapons systems, to protect, enhance or advance their own strategic position and even up the odds against more powerful rivals. As everything from the Cold War to the current deal with North Korea demonstrate, the only way to avoid nuclear conflict is to address the concerns and fears on both sides that might spark such a conflict. Weapons systems are dangerous, but not as dangerous as the conflicts that might result in them being used. And we should also get used to the idea that the globalization of technology on the current strategic landscape makes nuclear weapons likely to become the norm among states — after all, the existing eight nuclear weapons states have no intention of relinquishing theirs, so why would any states that anticipate being in conflict with any of them refrain from pursuing those weapons when the opportun
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POPSDrinking Beer Can Change the World Aren't we a tad overdue for a beer clip? Anyway! Everyone should have a beer and help save the world, I reckon. If we all stand (and sway) together, the results could be nothing less than *staggering*!! (This clip just has CBGC written ALL over it. Cheers, fellow followers of the faith! .:)) (PS) Thanks to {{BartendingBear}} for the tip off about this site. Taaa buddy!
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POPSWestern Standards Of Beauty: A Timeline Hard to believe as it seems, thin wasn't always in. There are centuries of documentation of female beauty, and except for ours, the trend is fairly consistant: beautiful women are shapely, soft, and rounded. What a contrast is that idea to our current ideal - the waif-like figure introduced by Twiggy and popularized by the likes of Kate Moss! This timeline is an illustrated journey through the last 600 years, from the portraits of the European Renaissance to red-carpet photos of modern celebrities. Take time to study each picture as you scroll. What would our society today say to these women about their bodies? And, perhaps more importantly, what would these women have to say to us?
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POPSConfessions of an Economic Hit Man Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.
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POPSIntercultural Understanding We must always try to make life better and learn from our errors. In education we must show that we have learned and through education we must avoid the evils of intolerance, stereotypes and racism, which, alas, still exists and terrorize the existence of so many people around the world. “Education for Intercultural Understanding and Dialogue” 21. October 2008.
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POPSA Fresh Look At Catholicism Some good news from the article and one reason I am a Catholic: "In one session, religious scholar Angel Galindo Garcia discussed the role of the church in an era of globalization. He referenced George Orwell's Big Brother and critiqued growing inequality between rich and poor nations. However, I had to laugh out loud at this quote: "Can one be a homosexual without ever having sexual relations with a person of the same sex?" she asked the crowd rhetorically and then answered: "Yes, of course." Save your questions for later kiddies! OMG, do you know how CRAZY I drove my nuns in catethism class with questions? I was almost held hostage by my fellow classmates once for questioning the dogma of purgatory as a place rather than a state of being. The teacher LOVED me though. It's the first time I saw him come alive in that class.
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POPSThe power of globalization I'm the furthest thing from an economist, but it's this type of news that makes me think that globalization will ward of a recession in the United States. India, China, etc. represent an enormous amount of additional cars, computers, etc. to sell while the U.S. economy cools.
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POPSWhat Are You Optimistic About? - The Edge Annual Question 2007 The Edge asks a very interesting question to a whole bunch of leading thinkers, scientists, philosophers, etc. each year. This is this years question. Last years question was: "What is your Dangerous Idea"? Question of 2005 was " What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it ? I only clipped a tiny selection of the candidates & links to their answers of this years question. It's a great resource. Really worth checking out. Just click one of the links I clipped & feed yourselves with some optimism. ( ;-) to invictus)
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POPSIs India really developing? This raises an important question: is India developing or just getting richer? Foreign Affairs called it "a roaring capitalist success story" but I wonder if that's accurate. As I understand it, capitalism is about free and open competition in a fair marketplace. How can there be true competition when half the population (or more) lives in abject poverty. I would call this "mercantilism" not capitalism. If you ask me, the gap between rich and poor is anti-competitive, it insulates and entrenches the extremely wealthy, and thus erodes the dynamic elements of competition that are necessary for capitalism to function properly. Just because someone operates for profit doesn't make them a capitalist. Just because a country is making money right now doesn't make them a success. (We should also be asking these same questions about China. The long-term Growth potential we dream of in these countries may be limited by their failure to develop a middle class.)
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POPSWhat Ideas Will Shape our Future? The 10 Ideas of the 21st Century "More than money, more than politics, ideas are the secret power that this planet runs on." "The 21st century will overturn many of our basic assumptions about economic life. The 20th century saw the end of European dominance of global politics and economics. The 21st century will see the end of American dominance too, as new powers make their voices heard on the world stage." "The challenges of sustainable development—protecting the environment, stabilizing the world's population, narrowing the gaps of rich and poor and ending extreme poverty—will render passé the very idea of competing nation-states that scramble for markets, power and resources." "The defining challenge of the 21st century will be to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet." "6.6 billion people living in an interconnected global economy producing an astounding $60 trillion of output each year."
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POPSAmericanism: The good, the bad and the ugly The famous go-to-war-for “American way of life,” underlines America’s persistent claims of a monopoly on morality. What is it, this American morality? This righteousness? Is it our religious roots in the fable of the Puritan settlers, those super religious people who in their hardships were bigots, perhaps also practitioners of incest and racists soon morphing into dogmatic chauvinists who early-on labeled their dissidents and different-thinkers witches and demons. The same Americanism initiated then which today fosters the rights of the rich to become richer, the strong to trample the weak . Meanwhile, out in the empire, as long as it is distant, the Puritan legacy instills blindness to the use of cluster bombs from the stratosphere and hidden torture in places with foreign names like Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib . . . and while our neighbors in Haiti eat dirt, literally.
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POPSThe Man Who Exposed China More: The toothpaste scare helped galvanize global concerns about the quality of China’s exports in general, prompting the government there to promise to reform how food, medicine and consumer products are regulated. And other countries are re-examining how well they monitor imported products. Lost in this swirl of activity was the identity of the person who started it all — Mr. Arias.
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POPSMusic for the Brain Some people say that art and music are an impractical luxury for schools, given the hyper competitive demands of "globalization" that require a strong background in science and math. Laying aside the wrong-headed workforce-training assumptions behind such an instrumentalist educational philosophy, another way of looking at it is: given the "new economic" reality -- where workers won't have long-term jobs or careers but multiple jobs and careers -- the advantage goes to those with nimble minds and creative intelligence; not the proficient test-takers our education factories are producing. Improving the achievement gap? Raising test scores? Preventing kids from dropping out? We need more music education, not less. The math is simple.
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POPSModern Sushi: The Taste of Globalization Great review of two new books on the rise of the global sushi industry. “Sushi had started as a form of preservation,” Issenberg says, “but it was becoming precisely the opposite: a way of using the infrastructure of modernity to chaperone a delicate dish around the world.” Over the course of two decades, he writes, “the average price for bluefin tuna paid to Atlantic fisherman rose by 10,000 percent.”
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POPSFOOD NOT BOMBS- COOK FOR PEACE Food Not Bombs is one of the fastest growing revolutionary movements and is gaining momentum throughout the world. There are hundreds of autonomous chapters sharing free vegetarian food with hungry people and protesting war and poverty. Food Not Bombs is not a charity. This energetic grassroots movement is active throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Food Not Bombs is organizing for peace and an end to the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. For over 25 years the movement has worked to end hunger and has supported actions to stop the globalization of the economy, restrictions to the movements of people, end exploitation and the destruction of the earth.
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