by John Nichols
It began outside the University of Wisconsin Memorial Union. A few dozen members of the Teaching Assistants Association, the oldest graduate employee union in the world, rallied to object to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s plan to strip public employee unions of collective bargaining rights. The message from the TAA was blunt: “All public sector workers are under attack. Faculty and staff are under attack. The UW as a whole is under attack. With these extreme acts, Scott Walker is seeking to undermine the labor peace of 50 years…. You need to get active now!”
It worked...[continued]
Archive for February 2011
By CAROL VOGEL
A STARTLING sight will soon be hanging in midair in the Madison Avenue window of the Whitney Museum of American Art, just a few blocks from Ralph Lauren, Prada and Gucci: a 22-foot-long neon sign spelling out the words “negro sunshine.” It’s the work of the New York Conceptual artist Glenn Ligon, whose midcareer retrospective, “Glenn Ligon: America,” opens at the Whitney on March 10. Taken from “Melanctha,” a 1909 novella by Gertrude Stein about a mixed-race woman, “negro sunshine” is the kind of ambiguous phrase that Mr. Ligon, who is black, uses to speak of the history of African-Americans. “I find her language fascinating,” he said of Stein. “It’s a phrase that stuck in my head.” Are those two words, installed in such a prominent manner, meant to shock? “Shock,” repeated Mr. Ligon, a bit surprised at the question. “It’s not provocative, it’s Gertrude Stein."
“Even my Richard Pryor paintings,” he went on, referring to a series of work based on jokes told by that black comedian, use a common racial epithet. “Turn on the radio,” he said. “A word like that is so archaic, it’s not of this time. It’s about language.”...[continued]
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| The inquiry was ordered by International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell |
Britain freezes millions in aid to 16 countries after inquiry discovers they are actually no longer in poverty
27th February 2011
By Daniel Martin
Britain is to stop giving aid to 16 countries after a major review found they were no longer in poverty.
Countries such as Russia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Moldova and Serbia will be stripped of millions of pounds a year, following the inquiry ordered by International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell.
Aid to India - which can afford its own space programme - will also be frozen.
But vast amounts of extra money - 30 per cent of the entire aid budget - will be pumped into unstable terrorist hotspots such as Yemen and Somalia, in a bid to help them to crack down on citizens exporting violence.
Critics will ask whether that is a wise plan, seeing there will be no way for Britain to check whether the money being poured in is spent wisely, rather than being embezzled by corrupt officials.
Britain's aid budget is one of the few areas, that is protected from cuts, unlike defence, education and the police which are having to make deep savings.
The total amount being spent on aid will soar from £7billion to £11billion in 2015 - at the same time as front-line public services here at home are being slashed.
In an interview at the weekend, Mr Mitchell admitted that many of his constituents 'go ballistic' about the amount of British cash spent on overseas aid at a time of belt-tightening at home.
His aid review into Britain's aid spending will report later that week. Mr Mitchell said the plan was to 'buy results' rather than 'lob money at problems' - that is setting targets and stopping aid if they are not met.
And he is also likely to order the removal of funding from international organisations which have not delivered. For example, the £12million given to UN cultural body Unesco is likely to be axed.
'From now on we will only give aid where we can follow the money and ensure that the British taxpayer is getting value for money,' he said.
'Most international organisations are doing a decent job but some need to be shown the yellow card; others will frankly get the bullet. It's the mission of my department to focus ruthlessly on results, on delivering 100 pence of development value for every hard-earned pound of taxpayers' money.
'If one of my constituents is watching television and hears these [aid] announcements, particularly now, they go ballistic because they think about how the money could be spent here.
'But if you determine it by results, about how you're going to get 200,000 more children cleaner water, people are up for that.'
Mr Mitchell will also announce the first 'cash-on delivery' aid scheme in the world, with a scheme to get more Ethiopian girls into school.
'We will only release funds once firm evidence of results has been seen,' he said.
The International Development Secretary defended the huge amount spent on international aid at a time of stringency at home.
'The reason why at this time of a dreadful economic inheritance, we made it clear that we won't balance the books at the expense of the poorest people in the world is because it is morally right to do so,' he said.
'It's part of the British DNA to be there for those in desperate straits. But it's also very much in our national interest to tackle these effects of dysfunctionality and poverty, such as piracy, migration, terrorism and disease in Somalia. Tackling the causes of poverty upstream is much less expensive than sending in the troops.'
Other countries which will lose their aid money are Bosnia, Iraq and Kosovo.
Resources will be concentrated on the 27 countries that account for three-quarters of the world's maternal mortality and malaria deaths, such as Ghana and Afghanistan.
By 2014, 30 per cent of UK aid is expected to go to war-torn and unstable countries such as Somalia and Yemen. And the UN children's charity Unicef will also see its UK funding double to £40million.
But the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the UN Industrial Development Organisation and Unesco will all lose out.
A source at the Department for International Development said: 'It's been very hard to find out what they spend our money on.'
by Pico Iyer
...I'd heard for years that Istanbul, which was one of the European Capitals of Culture for 2010, calls itself "Europe's coolest city". It's certainly one of the most complex – the centre of a country that is 98% Islamic yet increasingly famous for its watermelon martinis. Here is a place whose Blue Mosque has an LCD screen flashing the time in Paris and Tokyo. Turkey's most cosmopolitan metropolis has more billionaires than any city other than New York, Moscow and London, and when I went to its Istinye Park mall, it was to see Aston Martin DB9s and Bentleys jammed outside a gilded avenue of fortresses labelled "Armani", "Gucci", "Vuitton" and "Dior". To my friends in business, and to many proud Istanbulians, this city is where the Islamic world meets the global order, serving as a bridge – literal and metaphorical – between Europe and the outer edges of Asia. But still nothing had prepared me for the flash and glitter of it all... [continued]
Rachel Cooke, The Observer, Sunday 27 February 2011 [see the list]
M Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender has blown away all competition at the Razzies - Hollywood's Oscar spoof mocking the year's worst performances.
The film won five Golden Raspberry Awards - including worst director for Shyamalan - in a light-hearted ceremony on the eve of Sunday's Oscars.
Ashton Kutcher snatched worst actor for Valentine's Day; his co-star Jessica Alba won worst supporting actress...[continued]
The Razzies.com
By Jessica Dickler, staff writer
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- You could be sitting on a pile of cash.
The old sofa in your living room, the pile of sports equipment in the garage, the outgrown baby gear, the used electronics are all worth cash -- lots of it.
The average household has more than $7,000 worth of unused stuff stuff sitting around, according to research firm NPD Group. And that doesn't include big ticket items like TVs and furniture...[continued]
By Emma Lacey-Bordeaux and Wayne Drash, CNN
...Victor H. Green was a mail carrier in New York City's predominantly black neighborhood of Harlem. He was tall, handsome and personable. In 1932, he came up with the idea for a travel book to prevent African- Americans from being humiliated, especially in front of their families.
"The Green Book," as it was known, was first published in 1936. Initially, it pointed out friendly restaurants and hotels in New York. It eventually expanded to include everything from lodging and gas stations to tailor shops and doctor's offices across the nation, as well as in Bermuda, Mexico and Canada...[continued]
I was was excited when I heard of the possibility, even though I've never stepped foot into San Fran, so I was glad to see that it happened...
