Monday, November 30, 2015
Sunday, November 29, 2015
This New Coca Cola Ad Shows Mexico’s White Savior Problem
Telesurtv.net - 27 November 2015
A new Coca-Cola ad released earlier this week aims to send an important message to its white and Mestizo consumers in Mexico this Christmas: break with your comfort zone and bring civilization to Indigenous people.This, at least, is what their most recent advertisement seems to convey. “81.6 percent of Mexican Indigenous have felt rejected for speaking another language,” the ad purports to inform while somber Indigenous faces fill the screen. Fortunately for Mexico’s Indigenous, white Mexican hipsters are here to save them this Christmas with a “special message,” the ad tells us. What follows next is a painful metaphor of ongoing colonialism in the country: white kids storm the Mixe Indigenous community, as if a crusade, distribute coke bottles and build a giant Coca-Cola Christmas tree for all to idolize.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3XIcEdIBVE
Like most white savior plots, the ad is all about having a huge emotional experience about Brown victimhood that urges European descendants to take up the moral duty to save the oppressed from their oppression. It is founded on a white egocentric myth that there is something that Brown people must need that only White people can give them. In this colonial fairy tale Brown people can only be conceived as passive objects in need of white care, not active agents that might outright just reject white rescue missions. In fact, for the Indigenous of Mexico, white people bringing Coca-Cola is not just a joyful Christmas ad, it is a reality of corporate and cultural domination and destruction. “The video is a clear demonstration of the presence of transnationals in the Indigenous territories of Oaxaca. In the last years, these companies have increasingly been taking over natural, economic and now cultural resources from the communities,” Laura Melchor, a human rights advocate in Oaxaca, told teleSUR English. Since 2000, Coca-Cola has worked with the Mexican government to privatize water resources, including aquifers and rivers that belong to Indigenous peoples. Coca-Cola even uses some of these simply to dump their industrial waste into public waters. The increasing privatization of water has left well over 15 million Mexicans without access to drinking water, turning Mexico into the second top consumer of bottled water in the world. Horrifyingly enough, these too are mostly sold by the very same Coca-Cola company.
READ MORE.....
A new Coca-Cola ad released earlier this week aims to send an important message to its white and Mestizo consumers in Mexico this Christmas: break with your comfort zone and bring civilization to Indigenous people.This, at least, is what their most recent advertisement seems to convey. “81.6 percent of Mexican Indigenous have felt rejected for speaking another language,” the ad purports to inform while somber Indigenous faces fill the screen. Fortunately for Mexico’s Indigenous, white Mexican hipsters are here to save them this Christmas with a “special message,” the ad tells us. What follows next is a painful metaphor of ongoing colonialism in the country: white kids storm the Mixe Indigenous community, as if a crusade, distribute coke bottles and build a giant Coca-Cola Christmas tree for all to idolize.
Like most white savior plots, the ad is all about having a huge emotional experience about Brown victimhood that urges European descendants to take up the moral duty to save the oppressed from their oppression. It is founded on a white egocentric myth that there is something that Brown people must need that only White people can give them. In this colonial fairy tale Brown people can only be conceived as passive objects in need of white care, not active agents that might outright just reject white rescue missions. In fact, for the Indigenous of Mexico, white people bringing Coca-Cola is not just a joyful Christmas ad, it is a reality of corporate and cultural domination and destruction. “The video is a clear demonstration of the presence of transnationals in the Indigenous territories of Oaxaca. In the last years, these companies have increasingly been taking over natural, economic and now cultural resources from the communities,” Laura Melchor, a human rights advocate in Oaxaca, told teleSUR English. Since 2000, Coca-Cola has worked with the Mexican government to privatize water resources, including aquifers and rivers that belong to Indigenous peoples. Coca-Cola even uses some of these simply to dump their industrial waste into public waters. The increasing privatization of water has left well over 15 million Mexicans without access to drinking water, turning Mexico into the second top consumer of bottled water in the world. Horrifyingly enough, these too are mostly sold by the very same Coca-Cola company.
READ MORE.....
What lies behind different reactions to Paris and Beirut attacks
The Conversation - November 16, 2015
Events of this past weekend shook the core of the world as ISIS struck not just in Beirut, but Paris as well. These attacks follow an equally brutal show of terror in January 2015 when Charlie Hebdo’s offices were targeted because of cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad. France is also a country with a strong anti-immigration political rhetoric that actively discriminates against those who are different. The most renowned case was the controversy surrounding the hijab. ISIS has claimed responsibility for these attacks. World leaders have pledged support, solidarity and condemnation of terrorism. In the next few weeks we may even see a resurgence of rhetoric calling for more resources to fight this War on Terror. There is also the inherent risk that Islamophobia may take deeper root – not just in France but in Europe as a whole. Yet as the world consumed the messages of support, sentiments of outrage and condemnation of violence, some also asked: why such a strong show of support for Paris and not Beirut? The answer, seemingly, was that it is because Arab lives matter less than those of Europeans.
READ MORE.......
Events of this past weekend shook the core of the world as ISIS struck not just in Beirut, but Paris as well. These attacks follow an equally brutal show of terror in January 2015 when Charlie Hebdo’s offices were targeted because of cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad. France is also a country with a strong anti-immigration political rhetoric that actively discriminates against those who are different. The most renowned case was the controversy surrounding the hijab. ISIS has claimed responsibility for these attacks. World leaders have pledged support, solidarity and condemnation of terrorism. In the next few weeks we may even see a resurgence of rhetoric calling for more resources to fight this War on Terror. There is also the inherent risk that Islamophobia may take deeper root – not just in France but in Europe as a whole. Yet as the world consumed the messages of support, sentiments of outrage and condemnation of violence, some also asked: why such a strong show of support for Paris and not Beirut? The answer, seemingly, was that it is because Arab lives matter less than those of Europeans.
READ MORE.......
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Sociology of Islam Mailing List Subscriber Statistic
* Country Subscribers * ------- ----------- * Algeria 1 * Armenia 2 * Australia 32 * Austria 3 * Bangladesh 3 * Belgium 11 * Bosnia and Herzegovina 1 * Botswana 1 * Brazil 3 * Brunei Darussalam 1 * Bulgaria 1 * Canada 75 * Chile 2 * China 1 * Czech Republic 1 * Denmark 17 * ??? (EU) 9 * Egypt 1 * Finland 6 * France 26 * Germany 90 * Greece 1 * Hong Kong 1 * Hungary 3 * India 3 * Indonesia 3 * Ireland 3 * Islamic Republic of Iran 13 * Israel 20 * Italy 23 * Japan 9 * Kenya 2 * Kyrgyzstan 1 * Lebanon 5 * Luxembourg 1 * Malaysia 3 * Mexico 2 * Morocco 4 * Netherlands 28 * New Zealand 1 * Nigeria 3 * Norway 9 * Pakistan 8 * Palestinian Territory 1 * Poland 3 * Qatar 20 * Republic of Korea 3 * Russian Federation 6 * Saudi Arabia 1 * Singapore 5 * South Africa 6 * Spain 30 * Sweden 20 * Switzerland 9 * Thailand 1 * Turkey 97 * Uganda 1 * United Republic of Tanzania 1 * United arab emirates 7 * United kingdom 113 * United states 1,562 * * Total number of users subscribed to the list: 2319 * Total number of countries represented: 61 * Total number of local host users on the list: 0
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
What the world thinks about climate change in 7 charts
By Richard Wike
PEW RESEARCH - November 5, 2015
As world leaders prepare to negotiate a major climate change agreement later this month at the United Nations’ Paris 2015 conference, a new Pew Research Center survey finds that people around the world see the issue as a significant challenge and want their governments to take action. Here are seven key findings from the poll:
1) Majorities in all 40 nations polled say climate change is a serious problem, and a global median of 54% believe it is a very serious problem. Still, the intensity of concern varies substantially across regions and nations. Latin Americans and sub-Saharan Africans are particularly worried about climate change. Americans and Chinese, whose countries have the highest overall carbon dioxide emissions, are less concerned.
READ MORE.....
PEW RESEARCH - November 5, 2015
As world leaders prepare to negotiate a major climate change agreement later this month at the United Nations’ Paris 2015 conference, a new Pew Research Center survey finds that people around the world see the issue as a significant challenge and want their governments to take action. Here are seven key findings from the poll:
1) Majorities in all 40 nations polled say climate change is a serious problem, and a global median of 54% believe it is a very serious problem. Still, the intensity of concern varies substantially across regions and nations. Latin Americans and sub-Saharan Africans are particularly worried about climate change. Americans and Chinese, whose countries have the highest overall carbon dioxide emissions, are less concerned.
READ MORE.....
Yale’s most popular course is a Harvard class
By Steve Annear
THE BOSTON GLOBE - November 17, 2015
On the gridiron this weekend, Harvard and Yale will clash as their long-running rivalry reaches its annual climax. But in the classroom, students from both Ivy League institutions have found computer compatibility. Harvard University professor David Malan’s computer programming course, CS50, now has the highest enrollment numbers at both colleges. Malan helped Yale implement a pilot program modeled on his wildly popular Cambridge lectures at the New Haven school this fall. “For the first time in history,” Malan said, “students have classmates at Yale, or classmates at Harvard, respectively.” After Malan brainstormed in the summer of 2014 with Joan Feigenbaum, the chairwoman of Yale’s computer science department, the course was finally approved at the Connecticut school that December.
READ MORE....
THE BOSTON GLOBE - November 17, 2015
On the gridiron this weekend, Harvard and Yale will clash as their long-running rivalry reaches its annual climax. But in the classroom, students from both Ivy League institutions have found computer compatibility. Harvard University professor David Malan’s computer programming course, CS50, now has the highest enrollment numbers at both colleges. Malan helped Yale implement a pilot program modeled on his wildly popular Cambridge lectures at the New Haven school this fall. “For the first time in history,” Malan said, “students have classmates at Yale, or classmates at Harvard, respectively.” After Malan brainstormed in the summer of 2014 with Joan Feigenbaum, the chairwoman of Yale’s computer science department, the course was finally approved at the Connecticut school that December.
READ MORE....
University Group Pushes 'Technology Transfer' in Tenure, Promotion
Inside Higher Ed - November 17, 2015
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities is calling for public research universities to formally consider technology transfer issues in tenure and promotion decisions where applicable. In a report out today, APLU defines technology transfer loosely as “entrepreneurship, innovation and technology-based economic development activities,” and says that faculty members who participate in it should be credited in personnel decisions.
“A faculty member’s accomplishments in technology transfer, innovation and entrepreneurship are worthy of consideration in the review process for tenure and advancement,” the report says. “As with other forms of faculty work, it is essential that the evaluation of technology transfer activities weigh the likely impact of the work, its quality and its foreseeable societal benefit. When it is successful, technology transfer can invigorate the university and establish relationships with other private and public sectors that affirm the value of a research university.”
READ MORE....
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities is calling for public research universities to formally consider technology transfer issues in tenure and promotion decisions where applicable. In a report out today, APLU defines technology transfer loosely as “entrepreneurship, innovation and technology-based economic development activities,” and says that faculty members who participate in it should be credited in personnel decisions.
“A faculty member’s accomplishments in technology transfer, innovation and entrepreneurship are worthy of consideration in the review process for tenure and advancement,” the report says. “As with other forms of faculty work, it is essential that the evaluation of technology transfer activities weigh the likely impact of the work, its quality and its foreseeable societal benefit. When it is successful, technology transfer can invigorate the university and establish relationships with other private and public sectors that affirm the value of a research university.”
READ MORE....
A New Report: "Anxiety, Nostalgia, and Mistrust”
Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey ‒
"Anxiety, Nostalgia, and Mistrust”
http://publicreligion.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/PRRI-AVS-2015-Web.pdf
PRRI’s sixth annual American Values Survey explores attitudes toward the 2016 election, economic inequality, racial tensions, immigration, and more.
"Anxiety, Nostalgia, and Mistrust”
http://publicreligion.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/PRRI-AVS-2015-Web.pdf
PRRI’s sixth annual American Values Survey explores attitudes toward the 2016 election, economic inequality, racial tensions, immigration, and more.
A New Chinese Movie: Goodbye Mr Loser 《夏洛特烦恼 Opens October 9th in the US & Canada!
If he’d had the time after meeting American captains of industry in Seattle and Barack Obama at the White House, Chinese President Xi Jinping might have ducked out at the close of his United Nations appearance and into a New York movie theater to check on how China’s other soft power ambassadors—its movies, not its pandas—are playing to American audiences.
Struggling to get off the ground, as it turns out.
Though Hollywood studio films are making greater returns than ever at China’s box office—despite imports being limited to 34 each year—market forces pigeonhole screenings of Chinese-language films from the People’s Republic into a small but growing group of U.S. theaters that dedicate a few screens to serving an audience made up almost exclusively of diaspora Chinese and Chinese students studying abroad.
READ MORE......
Monday, November 16, 2015
From Beirut, This Is Paris: In A World That Doesn't Care About Arab Lives
Elie Fares
HUFFINGTON POST - 11/15/201
When a friend told me past midnight to check the news about Paris, I had no idea that I would be looking at a map of a city I love, delineating locations undergoing terrorist attacks simultaneously. I zoomed in on that map closer; one of the locations was right to where I had stayed when I was there in 2013, down that same boulevard.
The more I read, the higher the number of fatalities went. It was horrible; it was dehumanizing; it was utterly and irrevocably hopeless. 2015 was ending the way it started -- with terrorists attacks occurring in Lebanon and France almost at the same time, in the same context of demented creatures spreading hate and fear and death wherever they went.
I woke up this morning to two broken cities. My friends in Paris who only yesterday were asking what was happening in Beirut were now on the opposite side of the line. Both our capitals were broken and scarred, old news to us perhaps but foreign territory to them.
READ MORE....
HUFFINGTON POST - 11/15/201
When a friend told me past midnight to check the news about Paris, I had no idea that I would be looking at a map of a city I love, delineating locations undergoing terrorist attacks simultaneously. I zoomed in on that map closer; one of the locations was right to where I had stayed when I was there in 2013, down that same boulevard.
The more I read, the higher the number of fatalities went. It was horrible; it was dehumanizing; it was utterly and irrevocably hopeless. 2015 was ending the way it started -- with terrorists attacks occurring in Lebanon and France almost at the same time, in the same context of demented creatures spreading hate and fear and death wherever they went.
I woke up this morning to two broken cities. My friends in Paris who only yesterday were asking what was happening in Beirut were now on the opposite side of the line. Both our capitals were broken and scarred, old news to us perhaps but foreign territory to them.
READ MORE....
The Islamic State’s trap for Europe
By Harleen Gambhir
THE WASHINGTON POST - November 15, 2015
The writer is a counterterrorism analyst at the Institute for the Study of War. Last week, President Obama said that the Islamic State is “ contained ” in Iraq and Syria, but the group’s attacks in Paris soon afterward showed that it poses a greater threat to the West than ever. The Islamic State is executing a global strategy to defend its territory in Iraq and Syria, foster affiliates in other Muslim-majority areas, and encourage and direct terrorist attacks in the wider world. It has exported its brutality and military methods to groups in Libya, Egypt, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Now it is using tactical skills acquired on Middle Eastern battlefields to provoke an anti-Muslim backlash that will generate even more recruits within Western societies. The United States and its allies must respond quickly to this threat. The Islamic State’s strategy is to polarize Western society — to “destroy the grayzone,” as it says in its publications. The group hopes frequent, devastating attacks in its name will provoke overreactions by European governments against innocent Muslims, thereby alienating and radicalizing Muslim communities throughout the continent. The atrocities in Paris are only the most recent instances of this accelerating campaign. Since January, European citizens fighting with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have provided online and material support to lethal operations in Paris, Copenhagen and near Lyon, France, as well as attempted attacks in London, Barcelona and near Brussels. Islamic State fighters are likely responsible for destroying the Russian airliner over the Sinai. These attacks are not random, nor are they aimed primarily at affecting Western policy in the Middle East. They are, rather, part of a militarily capable organization’s campaign to mobilize extremist actors already in Europe and to recruit new ones.
READ MORE.....
THE WASHINGTON POST - November 15, 2015
The writer is a counterterrorism analyst at the Institute for the Study of War. Last week, President Obama said that the Islamic State is “ contained ” in Iraq and Syria, but the group’s attacks in Paris soon afterward showed that it poses a greater threat to the West than ever. The Islamic State is executing a global strategy to defend its territory in Iraq and Syria, foster affiliates in other Muslim-majority areas, and encourage and direct terrorist attacks in the wider world. It has exported its brutality and military methods to groups in Libya, Egypt, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Now it is using tactical skills acquired on Middle Eastern battlefields to provoke an anti-Muslim backlash that will generate even more recruits within Western societies. The United States and its allies must respond quickly to this threat. The Islamic State’s strategy is to polarize Western society — to “destroy the grayzone,” as it says in its publications. The group hopes frequent, devastating attacks in its name will provoke overreactions by European governments against innocent Muslims, thereby alienating and radicalizing Muslim communities throughout the continent. The atrocities in Paris are only the most recent instances of this accelerating campaign. Since January, European citizens fighting with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have provided online and material support to lethal operations in Paris, Copenhagen and near Lyon, France, as well as attempted attacks in London, Barcelona and near Brussels. Islamic State fighters are likely responsible for destroying the Russian airliner over the Sinai. These attacks are not random, nor are they aimed primarily at affecting Western policy in the Middle East. They are, rather, part of a militarily capable organization’s campaign to mobilize extremist actors already in Europe and to recruit new ones.
READ MORE.....
Sunday, November 15, 2015
World leaders gather in Antalya for G20 summit
CCTV.com 11-15-2015
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has held a welcoming ceremony for the leaders attending the G20 summit in Antalya on the Mediterranean coast.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is joining other world leaders in seeking ways to find new impetus for global economic development. The two-day summit will also focus on security issues and the Syrian conflict after the terrorist attacks in Paris. The summit will also consider the refugee crisis, climate change and tax avoidance.
The gathering offers the first possibility of a meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin since Russia launched its air campaign in Syria.
READ MORE....
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has held a welcoming ceremony for the leaders attending the G20 summit in Antalya on the Mediterranean coast.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is joining other world leaders in seeking ways to find new impetus for global economic development. The two-day summit will also focus on security issues and the Syrian conflict after the terrorist attacks in Paris. The summit will also consider the refugee crisis, climate change and tax avoidance.
The gathering offers the first possibility of a meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin since Russia launched its air campaign in Syria.
READ MORE....
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Sunday, November 8, 2015
These countries speak English as a second language best
by Bethan McKernan in discover
THE INDEPENDENT - NOV. 5, 2015
Nearly two billion people - that's almost one in three people - study English as a non-native language. In the developing world, English is less of a foreign language skill and more a tool synonymous with development, expanding a country's economy and increasing its connectedness to the rest of the world. And for small countries with few native-language speakers, it also makes sense to learn a little of the world's lingua franca for business and policy making. The English Proficiency Index has just released statistics on where English is learned around the world and quality of teaching to find the countries with the highest proficiency of English as a second language:
All five Nordic countries come top of the rankings, with at least 65 per cent of the population fluent in English.
Eastern and German-speaking Europe fill out the rest of the list.
The only non-European countries to feature are highly-developed city state Singapore, and its neighbour Malaysia, as well as Argentina.
You can read the full report here.
READ MORE.....
THE INDEPENDENT - NOV. 5, 2015
Nearly two billion people - that's almost one in three people - study English as a non-native language. In the developing world, English is less of a foreign language skill and more a tool synonymous with development, expanding a country's economy and increasing its connectedness to the rest of the world. And for small countries with few native-language speakers, it also makes sense to learn a little of the world's lingua franca for business and policy making. The English Proficiency Index has just released statistics on where English is learned around the world and quality of teaching to find the countries with the highest proficiency of English as a second language:
All five Nordic countries come top of the rankings, with at least 65 per cent of the population fluent in English.
Eastern and German-speaking Europe fill out the rest of the list.
The only non-European countries to feature are highly-developed city state Singapore, and its neighbour Malaysia, as well as Argentina.
You can read the full report here.
READ MORE.....
Tuition and Fees, 1998-99 Through 2015-16
This table shows the "sticker prices"—published tuition and required fees—at more than 3,100 colleges and universities for the 2015-16 academic year. Click the institutions' names to see historical data back to 1998.
THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION - November 4, 2015
If an institution charges in-state and out-of-state residents the same rate, the amount is repeated in the "Out-of-state" columns so that readers can sort institutions accordingly. Many institutions, including most community colleges, do not offer room and board. In those cases, the "Total" columns repeat the tuition and fees figure.
The figures represent charges to first-time, full-time undergraduates based, typically, on a nine-month academic year of 30 semester hours or 45 quarter hours. The data do not reflect the cost of attendance at an institution after grants and other student aid are considered. That net cost is lower than the published fees shown. Room-and-board fees charged by colleges may represent differing numbers of meals per week and so may not be comparable among institutions.
Historical data are in real dollars by default, but can be adjusted for inflation, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics national figures, using the toggle button in the expanded historical view.
READ MORE.....
THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION - November 4, 2015
If an institution charges in-state and out-of-state residents the same rate, the amount is repeated in the "Out-of-state" columns so that readers can sort institutions accordingly. Many institutions, including most community colleges, do not offer room and board. In those cases, the "Total" columns repeat the tuition and fees figure.
The figures represent charges to first-time, full-time undergraduates based, typically, on a nine-month academic year of 30 semester hours or 45 quarter hours. The data do not reflect the cost of attendance at an institution after grants and other student aid are considered. That net cost is lower than the published fees shown. Room-and-board fees charged by colleges may represent differing numbers of meals per week and so may not be comparable among institutions.
Historical data are in real dollars by default, but can be adjusted for inflation, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics national figures, using the toggle button in the expanded historical view.
READ MORE.....
US Navy operations send muddled message to China
Demetri Sevastopulo and Geoff Dyer
FINANCIAL TIMES - November 7, 2015
When a US warship recently sailed near a Chinese-controlled artificial island in the South China Sea, it signalled the White House was finally taking a tougher stance on Chinese behaviour in the waters.
Beijing described the move as an illegal incursion into the waters around Subi Reef, which is also claimed by Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam. Washington labelled it a freedom of navigation exercise that was aimed at demonstrating that the US does not recognise Chinese claims in the area.
According to five people familiar with the operation, the USS Lassen conducted what is known under international law as innocent passage when it sailed within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef, which could leave the legal significance of the US manoeuvre open to different interpretations.
READ MORE......
FINANCIAL TIMES - November 7, 2015
When a US warship recently sailed near a Chinese-controlled artificial island in the South China Sea, it signalled the White House was finally taking a tougher stance on Chinese behaviour in the waters.
Beijing described the move as an illegal incursion into the waters around Subi Reef, which is also claimed by Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam. Washington labelled it a freedom of navigation exercise that was aimed at demonstrating that the US does not recognise Chinese claims in the area.
According to five people familiar with the operation, the USS Lassen conducted what is known under international law as innocent passage when it sailed within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef, which could leave the legal significance of the US manoeuvre open to different interpretations.
READ MORE......
Has the World Lost Faith in Capitalism?
A new survey suggests that restoring confidence in free enterprise will mean ensuring that the same rules apply to everyone
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - Nov. 6, 2015
If you want to find people who still believe in “the American dream”—the magnetic idea that anyone can build a better life for themselves and their families, regardless of circumstance—you might be best advised to travel to Mumbai. Half of the Indians in a recent poll agreed that “the next generation will probably be richer, safer and healthier than the last.”
The Indians are the most sanguine of the more than 1,000 adults in each of seven nations surveyed in early September by the market-research firm YouGov for the London-based Legatum Institute (with which I am affiliated). The percentage of optimists drops to 42 in Thailand, 39 in Indonesia, 29 in Brazil, 19 in the U.K. and 15 in Germany. But it isn’t old-world Britain or Germany that is gloomiest about the future. It is new-world America, where only 14% of those surveyed think that life will be better for their children, and 52% disagree.
The trajectory of the world doesn’t justify this pessimism. People are living longer on every continent. They’re doing less arduous, backbreaking work. Natural disasters are killing fewer people. Fewer crops are failing. Some 100,000 people are being lifted out of poverty every day, according to World Bank data.
Life is also getting better in the U.S., on multiple measures, but the survey found that 55% of Americans think the “rich get richer” and the “poor get poorer” under capitalism. Sixty-five percent agree that most big businesses have “dodged taxes, damaged the environment or bought special favors from politicians,” and 58% want restrictions on the import of manufactured goods.
These findings don’t mean that Americans are necessarily ready to give up on free enterprise. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, they think that capitalism is absolutely the worst economic system—except for all of the others that have been tried from time to time. Forty-nine percent still agree that free enterprise is the best system for lifting people out of poverty; only 18% disagree. And by 61% to 12%, Americans agree that unemployment is a bigger social problem than the existence of a “superrich” elite.
Friends of capitalism cannot be complacent, however. The findings of the survey underline the extent to which people think that wealth creation is a dirty business. When big majorities in so many major nations think that big corporations behave unethically and even illegally, it is a system that is always vulnerable to attack from populist politicians.
John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, has long worried about the sustainability of the free enterprise system if large numbers of voters come to think of businesses as “basically a bunch of psychopaths running around trying to line their own pockets.” If the public doesn’t think business is fundamentally good, he has argued, then business is inviting destructive regulation. If, by contrast, business shows responsibility to all its stakeholders—customers, employees, investors, suppliers and the wider community—“the impulse to regulate and control would be lessened.”
Mr. Mackey wants businesses to focus on maximizing purpose as much as profit. He highlights how, for Southwest Airlines, the mission is to give more Americans the ability to see the world. That aim is communicated from the top to the bottom of the company. Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information so that it is universally accessible. For his Whole Foods chain, it is about helping people lead longer, healthier lives through better food choices.
Of course, many big businesses see close connections with government as part of their purpose and as a blessing rather than a curse. In his recent book, “The Great Divide,” the economist Joseph Stiglitz identifies those capitalists who have found innovative ways of persuading the government to protect their market status. He calls this phenomenon “socialism for the rich.”
Michael Gove, a minister in Britain’s Tory government who represents a different brand of politics from Prof. Stiglitz’s, has reached similar conclusions. He makes a distinction between the “deserving rich” who work hard and creatively, adding value to society, and an “undeserving rich” who feast on government interventions, rig rules and sit on each other’s remuneration committees.
Banks are uppermost in the minds of most people when we think of crony capitalism. We remember how some banks quickly punished small-business people or private households when they fell into financial distress. But when those same banks and financial institutions got into trouble seven years ago, they were bailed out by the taxpayer, and a different set of rules seemed to apply.
For today’s pessimism about capitalism to be overturned, people must think that the same rules apply to everyone. For capitalism to enjoy the public’s confidence, we need a system where the rich can get poorer as well as the poor richer. There must be snakes as well as ladders in the boardroom board game.
Which capitalists are still popular? Another global survey conducted by YouGov seeks to identify the world’s most popular person each year. The winner for the past two years hasn’t been a celebrity or sports star. It hasn’t been Barack Obama or even the pope. It has been Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and a transformational philanthropist.
Those who are determined to restore faith in capitalism won’t just champion figures like Bill Gates and John Mackey. They will be tough on the crony capitalists who cheat emissions regulators or fix financial markets. When capitalism is seen to be both fair and effective, it can be popular again.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - Nov. 6, 2015
If you want to find people who still believe in “the American dream”—the magnetic idea that anyone can build a better life for themselves and their families, regardless of circumstance—you might be best advised to travel to Mumbai. Half of the Indians in a recent poll agreed that “the next generation will probably be richer, safer and healthier than the last.”
The Indians are the most sanguine of the more than 1,000 adults in each of seven nations surveyed in early September by the market-research firm YouGov for the London-based Legatum Institute (with which I am affiliated). The percentage of optimists drops to 42 in Thailand, 39 in Indonesia, 29 in Brazil, 19 in the U.K. and 15 in Germany. But it isn’t old-world Britain or Germany that is gloomiest about the future. It is new-world America, where only 14% of those surveyed think that life will be better for their children, and 52% disagree.
The trajectory of the world doesn’t justify this pessimism. People are living longer on every continent. They’re doing less arduous, backbreaking work. Natural disasters are killing fewer people. Fewer crops are failing. Some 100,000 people are being lifted out of poverty every day, according to World Bank data.
Life is also getting better in the U.S., on multiple measures, but the survey found that 55% of Americans think the “rich get richer” and the “poor get poorer” under capitalism. Sixty-five percent agree that most big businesses have “dodged taxes, damaged the environment or bought special favors from politicians,” and 58% want restrictions on the import of manufactured goods.
These findings don’t mean that Americans are necessarily ready to give up on free enterprise. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, they think that capitalism is absolutely the worst economic system—except for all of the others that have been tried from time to time. Forty-nine percent still agree that free enterprise is the best system for lifting people out of poverty; only 18% disagree. And by 61% to 12%, Americans agree that unemployment is a bigger social problem than the existence of a “superrich” elite.
Friends of capitalism cannot be complacent, however. The findings of the survey underline the extent to which people think that wealth creation is a dirty business. When big majorities in so many major nations think that big corporations behave unethically and even illegally, it is a system that is always vulnerable to attack from populist politicians.
John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, has long worried about the sustainability of the free enterprise system if large numbers of voters come to think of businesses as “basically a bunch of psychopaths running around trying to line their own pockets.” If the public doesn’t think business is fundamentally good, he has argued, then business is inviting destructive regulation. If, by contrast, business shows responsibility to all its stakeholders—customers, employees, investors, suppliers and the wider community—“the impulse to regulate and control would be lessened.”
Mr. Mackey wants businesses to focus on maximizing purpose as much as profit. He highlights how, for Southwest Airlines, the mission is to give more Americans the ability to see the world. That aim is communicated from the top to the bottom of the company. Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information so that it is universally accessible. For his Whole Foods chain, it is about helping people lead longer, healthier lives through better food choices.
Of course, many big businesses see close connections with government as part of their purpose and as a blessing rather than a curse. In his recent book, “The Great Divide,” the economist Joseph Stiglitz identifies those capitalists who have found innovative ways of persuading the government to protect their market status. He calls this phenomenon “socialism for the rich.”
Michael Gove, a minister in Britain’s Tory government who represents a different brand of politics from Prof. Stiglitz’s, has reached similar conclusions. He makes a distinction between the “deserving rich” who work hard and creatively, adding value to society, and an “undeserving rich” who feast on government interventions, rig rules and sit on each other’s remuneration committees.
Banks are uppermost in the minds of most people when we think of crony capitalism. We remember how some banks quickly punished small-business people or private households when they fell into financial distress. But when those same banks and financial institutions got into trouble seven years ago, they were bailed out by the taxpayer, and a different set of rules seemed to apply.
For today’s pessimism about capitalism to be overturned, people must think that the same rules apply to everyone. For capitalism to enjoy the public’s confidence, we need a system where the rich can get poorer as well as the poor richer. There must be snakes as well as ladders in the boardroom board game.
Which capitalists are still popular? Another global survey conducted by YouGov seeks to identify the world’s most popular person each year. The winner for the past two years hasn’t been a celebrity or sports star. It hasn’t been Barack Obama or even the pope. It has been Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and a transformational philanthropist.
Those who are determined to restore faith in capitalism won’t just champion figures like Bill Gates and John Mackey. They will be tough on the crony capitalists who cheat emissions regulators or fix financial markets. When capitalism is seen to be both fair and effective, it can be popular again.
Don't misinterpret Quran to have more than one wife, says HC
Ahmedabad, Nov 5, 2015
In a strongly-worded order, the Gujarat High Court on Thursday said the Quran was being misinterpreted by Muslim men to have more than one wife and the provision of polygamy was being misused by them for "selfish reasons". The high court also stated that time has come for the country to embrace the uniform civil code as such provisions are in violation of the Constitution. Justice J B Pardiwala made these observations while pronouncing the order related to section 494 of IPC, which deals with punishment for having more than one wife. The petitioner, Jafar Abbas Merchant, had approached the high court to quash an FIR against him filed by his wife who alleged that he got married to another woman without her consent. In the FIR, she invoked section 494 of IPC (marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife) against Jafar. In his plea, Jafar, however, claimed that the Muslim Personal Law allows Muslim men to marry four times and hence the FIR against him does not stand legal scrutiny. In the order, Pardiwala noted "the Quran is being misinterpreted by Muslim men to have more than one wife." "When the Quran allowed polygamy, it was for a fair reason. When men use that provision today, they do it for a selfish reason. Polygamy finds mention in the Quran only once, and it is about conditional polygamy," the order said.
READ MORE.....
In a strongly-worded order, the Gujarat High Court on Thursday said the Quran was being misinterpreted by Muslim men to have more than one wife and the provision of polygamy was being misused by them for "selfish reasons". The high court also stated that time has come for the country to embrace the uniform civil code as such provisions are in violation of the Constitution. Justice J B Pardiwala made these observations while pronouncing the order related to section 494 of IPC, which deals with punishment for having more than one wife. The petitioner, Jafar Abbas Merchant, had approached the high court to quash an FIR against him filed by his wife who alleged that he got married to another woman without her consent. In the FIR, she invoked section 494 of IPC (marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife) against Jafar. In his plea, Jafar, however, claimed that the Muslim Personal Law allows Muslim men to marry four times and hence the FIR against him does not stand legal scrutiny. In the order, Pardiwala noted "the Quran is being misinterpreted by Muslim men to have more than one wife." "When the Quran allowed polygamy, it was for a fair reason. When men use that provision today, they do it for a selfish reason. Polygamy finds mention in the Quran only once, and it is about conditional polygamy," the order said.
READ MORE.....
University Returns $1 Million Grant to Coca-Cola
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
THE NEW YORK TIMES - November 6, 2015
The University of Colorado School of Medicine announced Friday that it was returning a $1 million gift from Coca-Cola after it was revealed that the money had been used to establish an advocacy group that played down the link between soft drinks and obesity.
THE NEW YORK TIMES - November 6, 2015
The University of Colorado School of Medicine announced Friday that it was returning a $1 million gift from Coca-Cola after it was revealed that the money had been used to establish an advocacy group that played down the link between soft drinks and obesity.
Coca-Cola
donated the money in 2014 to help establish the Global Energy Balance
Network, a nonprofit group of scientists that urged people to focus more
on exercise and worry less about what they eat and drink. Coke’s
financial ties to the group prompted criticism that the soft drink giant
was supporting scientists as a way to shape obesity research, an issue reported by The New York Times in August.
In
response to the article, Coke’s chief executive, Muhtar Kent, disclosed
that the company had spent almost $120 million since 2010 to pay for
academic health research and for partnerships with major medical and
community groups involved in curbing the obesity epidemic. Recipients
included the American Academy of Pediatrics, which accepted $3 million
from Coke to launch its healthychildren.org website, and the Academy of
Nutrition and Dietetics, the country’s largest group of dietitians,
which had received $1.7 million from Coke. After the disclosure, both
groups said they were ending their relationships with Coca-Cola.
What most people get wrong about political Islam
Shadi Hamid
BROOKINGS | October 1, 2015
Political scientists, myself included, have tended to see religion, ideology, and identity as “epiphenomenal”—products of a given set of material factors. These factors are the things we can touch, grasp, and measure. For example, when explaining why suicide bombers do what they do, we assume that these young men are depressed about their own accumulated failures, frustrated with a dire economic situation, or humiliated by political repression and foreign occupation. While these are all undoubtedly factors, they are not—and cannot be—the whole story.
But the role, and power, of religion in the modern Middle East is more mundane than that (after all, the overwhelming majority of Muslims do not think about becoming suicide bombers). “Islamism” has become a bad word, because the Islamists we hear about most often are those of ISIS and al-Qaeda. Most Islamists, however, are not jihadists or extremists; they are members of mainstream Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood whose distinguishing feature is their gradualism (historically eschewing revolution), acceptance of parliamentary politics, and willingness to work within existing state structures, even secular ones. Contrary to popular imagination, Islamists do not necessarily harken back to seventh century Arabia.
READ MORE....
BROOKINGS | October 1, 2015
Political scientists, myself included, have tended to see religion, ideology, and identity as “epiphenomenal”—products of a given set of material factors. These factors are the things we can touch, grasp, and measure. For example, when explaining why suicide bombers do what they do, we assume that these young men are depressed about their own accumulated failures, frustrated with a dire economic situation, or humiliated by political repression and foreign occupation. While these are all undoubtedly factors, they are not—and cannot be—the whole story.
But the role, and power, of religion in the modern Middle East is more mundane than that (after all, the overwhelming majority of Muslims do not think about becoming suicide bombers). “Islamism” has become a bad word, because the Islamists we hear about most often are those of ISIS and al-Qaeda. Most Islamists, however, are not jihadists or extremists; they are members of mainstream Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood whose distinguishing feature is their gradualism (historically eschewing revolution), acceptance of parliamentary politics, and willingness to work within existing state structures, even secular ones. Contrary to popular imagination, Islamists do not necessarily harken back to seventh century Arabia.
READ MORE....
China has more than 200,000 journalists
English.news.cn - 2015-11-08
BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- China has about 208,000 registered journalists, including more than 1,100 reporters working for Internet news portals, press authorities said on Sunday, the country's 16th Journalists' Day.
Male reporters make up about 53 percent, and most of the country's journalists have university degrees, said a statement of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.
Among them, more than 82,000 journalists are employed by newspapers and about 5,400 by periodicals. About 2,600 reporters work for news agencies and there are nearly 117,000 TV reporters and 1,100 Internet reporters, the statement said.
The number of reporters younger than 30 makes up more than 12 percent; those aged between 30 and 40 about 40 percent. Nearly 33 percent are between 40 and 50, with only 14 percent over 50.
READ MORE....
BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- China has about 208,000 registered journalists, including more than 1,100 reporters working for Internet news portals, press authorities said on Sunday, the country's 16th Journalists' Day.
Male reporters make up about 53 percent, and most of the country's journalists have university degrees, said a statement of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.
Among them, more than 82,000 journalists are employed by newspapers and about 5,400 by periodicals. About 2,600 reporters work for news agencies and there are nearly 117,000 TV reporters and 1,100 Internet reporters, the statement said.
The number of reporters younger than 30 makes up more than 12 percent; those aged between 30 and 40 about 40 percent. Nearly 33 percent are between 40 and 50, with only 14 percent over 50.
READ MORE....
Dispatch from Italy: Ending Rural Hunger
Homi Kharas and John McArthur
BROOKINGS | October 21, 2015
Italy hosted two major events for global food and nutrition security last week. The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) convened its 42nd annual session in Rome. And leading figures then gathered to honor World Food Day at Expo 2015 in Milan, which has already been visited by over 20 million people.
The CFS was first launched in 1974. It forms an inclusive international and intergovernmental platform to promote coordination on norms and standards for food security and nutrition (FSN). This year, the committee agreed to place implementation of the sustainable development goals, especially Sustainable Development Goal 2 on ending hunger and malnutrition, at the center of its efforts through 2030. The multi-year work program is being developed with that in mind.
READ MORE....
BROOKINGS | October 21, 2015
Italy hosted two major events for global food and nutrition security last week. The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) convened its 42nd annual session in Rome. And leading figures then gathered to honor World Food Day at Expo 2015 in Milan, which has already been visited by over 20 million people.
The CFS was first launched in 1974. It forms an inclusive international and intergovernmental platform to promote coordination on norms and standards for food security and nutrition (FSN). This year, the committee agreed to place implementation of the sustainable development goals, especially Sustainable Development Goal 2 on ending hunger and malnutrition, at the center of its efforts through 2030. The multi-year work program is being developed with that in mind.
READ MORE....
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Gūney Amerika'da Kūltūr ve Siyaset, Erol Anar
Yazar Erol Anar'ın, İstanbul Maltepe Üniversitesi Siyaset Bilimi ve Uluslararasi Iliskiler bölūmū
öǧrencilerine verdiǧi tele konferanstır. Bu konferans, aynı
ūniversitenin Siyaset Bilimi ve Uluslararasi Iliskiler bölūmūnde ders veren Yrd. Doç. Dr. Tuǧrul
Keskin'in talebi ūzerine gerçekleşmiştir. Brezilya, 3 Kasım 2015.
Birinci Bolum
Ikinci Bolum
Ucuncu Bolum
Sunday, November 1, 2015
A Mass Migration Crisis, and It May Yet Get Worse
By ROD NORDLAND
THE NEW YORK TIMES - OCT. 31, 2015
READ MORE......
THE NEW YORK TIMES - OCT. 31, 2015
SID,
Serbia — They arrived in an unceasing stream, 10,000 a day at the
height, as many as a million migrants heading for Europe this year,
pushing infants in strollers and elderly parents in wheelchairs,
carrying children on their shoulders and life savings in their socks.
They came in search of a new life, but in many ways they were the
heralds of a new age.
There are more displaced people and refugees now than at any other time in recorded history — 60 million in all — and they are on the march in numbers not seen since World War II. They are coming not just from Syria, but from an array of countries and regions, including Afghanistan, Iraq,
Gaza, even Haiti, as well as any of a dozen or so nations in
sub-Saharan and North Africa. They are unofficial ambassadors of failed
states, unending wars, intractable conflicts.
The most striking thing about the current migration crisis, however, is how much bigger it could still get.
READ MORE......
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