DISCUSSION
GROUP
Official Name: Arab Republic of Egypt
Capital: Cairo (Current local time)
Government Type:Republic
Population: 80.3 million
Area: 386,000 square miles; approximately equal to Texas and New Mexico combined
Languages: Arabic (official), English and French widely understood by educated classes
Literacy: Total Population: [71%] Male: [83%]; Female: [59%]
Year of Independence:1922
Web site: Egypt.gov.eg (in Arabic and English)
Fri
20
Jan
2012
China's riot town: 'No one else is listening'
China's riot town: 'No one else is listening'
June 17, 2011 9:35 p.m. EDT
Xintang, China (CNN) -- The authorities here are obviously nervous. My crew and I are sitting in a local government building being questioned by six propaganda
officials.
Wed
28
Dec
2011
Egypt News — Revolution and Aftermath
General Information on Egypt
Fri
04
Nov
2011
Oman - Oman sets an example
If there is one factor that stands out which makes Oman and its people different and special, it is that tolerance is a way of life. We could learn a lot from Oman as a nation and individuals. Oman sets an example
Boston Herald.com
By Joseph McDonough
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Mon
24
Oct
2011
Turkey Earthquake 2011
Frantic search for survivors continues as 272 killed and more than 1,300 injured after buildings collapse in Turkish earthquake
- Hundreds more missing after 7.2-magnitude quake
- Rescue efforts continue to free 'many people' still trapped
-
Injured have to be treated outdoors as hospital buildings are damaged
- Foreign Secretary William Hague offers UK help
By Craig MacKinsey The DailyMail Co, UK
Last updated at 4:44 PM on 24th October 2011
Mon
17
Oct
2011
Occupy Detroit! A report from my home area
This is a story about how some areas in this country were able to keep the peace, but I put it here because it is very close to my home - in more than one way. It might helpful for those of you who know me to remember my last name and for those of you who don't know me that well to learn that Cuneo is my family name.
Sun
16
Oct
2011
Buoyed by Wall St. Protests, Rallies Sweep the Globe
Mon
10
Oct
2011
Occupywallstreet
Ambiguous UpSparkles From the Heart of the Park and other articles as well as videos all related to and reporting on the Protests on WallStreet.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/ambiguous-upsparkles-from_b_1003908.html
Sat
08
Oct
2011
Ongoing Occupation of Wall Street: 99% Uprising in Full Effect
September 22nd, 2011
As day five comes to an end and we move into day six, #OccupyWallStreet has been a tremendous success. Despite the corporate mainstream media blackout, the movement is growing in significance and getting support from a very diverse range of people and organizations. Much respect to all the people who have set up camp in Liberty Park. Your leadership just sparked a legit movement in the USA. It’s About time!
The 99% Movement has begun!
Here's the latest roundup: http://ampedstatus.org/ongoing-occupation-of-wall-street-99-uprising-in-full-effect-day-5-roundup-videos-photos/
Sat
08
Oct
2011
"We Are the 99 Percent" Creators Revealed
"We Are the 99 Percent" Creators Revealed
Mother Jones Fri Oct. 7, 2011 3:00 AM PDT
It began as a simple little idea, just another blog among millions. The Occupy Wall Street protest was scheduled to begin on September 17, and launching We Are the 99 Percent on Tumblr seemed like a good way to promote it. Its creator had no clue that it would go viral and become a touchstone for a protest movement soon tospread nationwide.
Sat
08
Oct
2011
Ahvaz, Iran
The city of Ahvaz (Persian: اهواز; Arabic: الأهواز / ALA-LC: al-Ahwāz), is the capital of the Iranian province of Khūzestān.
It is built on the banks of the Karun River and is situated in the middle of Khūzestān Province.
The city has an average elevation of 20 meters above sea level. The city had a population of 1,338,126 in 2006.
For additional information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahvaz
Thu
23
Jun
2011
English - A Series of Thoughts
A few days ago we received a package of 4 DVDs each with 6, 1/2 hour lectures on it just as we had requested from The Great Courses a group which has amongst its courses this one by Professor Brooks Landon entitled "Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writers Craft.
Tue
14
Jun
2011
Three Gorges, and a myriad of doubts
Three Gorges, and a Myriad of Doubts
By ROD MICKLEBURGH
VANCOUVER— From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Jun. 10, 2011 9:00PM EDT
Last updated Saturday, Jun. 11, 2011 3:11PM EDT
Sun Jialing, a chain-smoking official, sat in his bare-walled office and contemplated the future.
It was 1996, and the colossal Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydro-electric project in the world, was under construction across the Yangtze River. It was downstream from his hometown, Fengdu, historically known as the City of Ghosts.
Fri
20
May
2011
delanceyplace.com 5/18/11 - chess grandmasters have average intelligence
In today's excerpt - chess grandmasters have average cognitive skills and average memories for matters outside of chess, and only show their extraordinary skills within the discipline of chess. This suggests that expertise in chess (and most other areas) has less to do with analytical skills - the ability to project and weigh the relative merits of hundreds of options - and more to do with long-term immersion and pattern recognition - having experienced and "stored" thousands of game situations and thus having the ability to pluck an optimal answer from among those stored memories. It also suggests that expertise may be less a result of analytical prowess and more a result of passion, love or obsession for a given subject area - enough passion to have spent the hours necessary to accumulate a robust set of experiences and memories in that area:
Sun
10
Apr
2011
Idioms
Addresses of English Idioms
and Idiomatic Expressions
Speak English like a native speaker by learning English idiomatic expressions and proverbs.
An idiomatic expression is one that is natural for a normal Englishman to say or write." (H.W.Fowler - Dictionary of Modern English
Usage.)
Lists of idioms used in Everyday conversational English with their meaning
Idioms & Axioms currently used in America (Meanings and Origins)
Sun
27
Mar
2011
In Oman, a young female editor exemplifies new boldness
THE CHRISTAIN SCIENCE MONITOR
Kawkab al-Balushi, a bold student newspaper editor, wants to challenge authority – but disagrees with the divergent approach of some of her more rebellious peers who just 'want a Blackberry,' she says.
Sat
26
Mar
2011
Universal Healthcare Bill Passes VT House: Vermont Takes Step Towards Making Healthcare a Human Right
NEWS ALERT FROM THE HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT CAMPAIGN
Montpelier, VT -- Statehouse -- On Wednesday, March 23, members of the grassroots Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign cheered on as the Vermont House of Representatives
voted 92 - 49 to pass the universal healthcare bill, H.202. The House bill passed as a result of thousands of Vermonters speaking out and demanding that healthcare be treated as a human
right and provided as a public good.
"This bill puts Vermont on a path to a system in which every Vermonter can get the healthcare they need when they need it, and the financing of that system is shared equitably by all. This
is a huge step forward," says Peg Franzen, President of the Vermont Workers' Center.
Sat
26
Mar
2011
Breaking News:Geraldine Ferraro, first woman Vice Presidential candidate, is dead at age 75
|
---------------------------------------- Breaking News Alert: Breaking News:Geraldine Ferraro, first woman Vice Presidential candidate, is dead at age 75 March 26, 2011 12:15:14 PM ---------------------------------------- Geraldine Anne Ferraro Zaccaro, 75, passed away Saturday morning at Massachusetts General Hospital, surrounded by her family. The cause of death was complications from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that she had battled for 12 years. Ms. Ferraro earned a place in history as the first woman and first Italian-American to run on a major party national ticket, serving as Walter Mondale’s Vice Presidential running mate in 1984 on the Democratic Party ticket. |
Sat
26
Mar
2011
Supermoon Pictures
Photograph by Emanuel Lopes, My Shot
On Saturday the moon (pictured over Lisbon, Portugal's Tagus River) made its closest approach to Earth in 18 years—making the so-called supermoon the biggest full moon in years. (Get the full story of the supermoon.)
The monthly full moon always looks like a big disk, but because its orbit is egg-shaped, there are times when the moon is at perigee—its shortest distance from Earth in the roughly monthlong lunar cycle—or at apogee, its farthest distance from Earth.
Likewise, because the size of the moon's orbit varies slightly, each perigee is not always the same distance away from Earth.
Saturday's supermoon was just 221,566 miles (356,577 kilometers) away from Earth—making the supermoon about 20 percent brighter and 15 percent bigger than a regular full moon, said Anthony Cook, astronomical observer for theGriffith Observatory in Los Angeles.
Before the supermoon, astronomer Geza Gyuk said, "Look for the full moon as it rises above the eastern horizon as the sun sets below the western horizon—it will be a beautiful and inspiring sight."
That's advice a lot of photographers, including National Geographic fans, one of whom contributed this picture, apparently took to heart.
Sat
26
Mar
2011
New Tsunami Pictures: Head-on View of Approaching Wave
Photograph by Sadatsugu Tomisawa, AP
In the first of a series of newly released pictures showing a Japanese shoreline before and during the recent tsunami, a beach in Fukushima Prefecture appears calm.
The tsunami, captured here by a researcher working on the coast, struck northeastern Japan after a magnitude 9 earthquake, nearly wiping away entire towns.
A tsunami isn't a tidal wave but a series of waves—or wave train—in which the first isn't necessarily the most dangerous. Seen from on shore, a tsunami may be more like a rapidly rising tide than a series of giant breaking waves.
Tue
22
Mar
2011
Power restored at Fukushima plant
|
23-03-2011 |
|
Engineers racing to cool a stricken nuclear plant in Japan have partially restored power to one of the control rooms, as radioactivity in the sea fuelled anxiety over food safety.
An external electricity supply has now been linked up to all six reactors at the Fukushima power station, 11 days after a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled the ageing facility.
In another small step towards regaining control of the plant, the lights came back on in the control centre of the number three reactor, making it easier for workers toiling to get the vital cooling systems working again. The number three reactor is a particular concern because it contains a potentially volatile mixture of uranium and plutonium.
The progress on the electrical lines at the plant was a welcome and significant advance after days of setbacks. With the power lines connected, officials hope to start up the overheated plant's crucial cooling system that was knocked out during the March 11th tsunami and earthquake that devastated Japan's northeast coast.
However, the operator, Tokyo Electric Power, warned that workers still need to check all equipment for damage first before switching the cooling system on to all the reactor units - a process that could take days or even weeks. |
Mon
21
Mar
2011
Discussion of Origins of English Language March, 21, 2011
Earlier today I was privy to a discussion about the origins of the English language - a subject about which I am relatively ignorant. Of course I had to voice an opinion, one based on no research or knowledge.
On argument was that English rose from Latin, and the other opinion wat that it is a Germanic language.
So I thought it would be fun to look around a little and see what information is on the net about this subject.
Sat
19
Mar
2011
Yemeni Protesters Under Heavy Fire
The New York TImes
By LAURA KASINOF and J. DAVID GOODMAN
Published: March 18, 201
SANA, Yemen — Security forces and government supporters opened fire on demonstrators on Friday, killing at least 30, as the largest protest so far in Yemen came under violent and sustained attack in the center of the capital, Sana.
Fri
18
Mar
2011
Timeline: How Japan's nuclear crisis unfolded
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Tsunami resulting from magnitude 9.0 earthquake damages nuclear power plant in north-east Japan
- The plants has suffered three explosions and two fires since the crisis began Friday March 11
- IAEA says two workers are missing at the site and at least 20 have fallen ill due to possible radiation contamination
A timeline through March 17, 2011: Click Here to see the article
Tue
15
Mar
2011
THE TRUTH WEARS OFF
The New Yorker
Is there something wrong with the scientific method?
by Jonah Lehrer
December 13, 2010
On September 18, 2007, a few dozen neuroscientists, psychiatrists, and drug-company executives gathered in a hotel conference room in Brussels to hear some startling news. It had to do with a class of drugs known as atypical or second-generation antipsychotics, which came on the market in the early nineties. The drugs, sold under brand names such as Abilify, Seroquel, and Zyprexa, had been tested on schizophrenics in several large clinical trials, all of which had demonstrated a dramatic decrease in the subjects psychiatric symptoms. As a result, second-generation antipsychotics had become one of the fastest-growing and most profitable pharmaceutical classes. By 2001, Eli Lilly’s Zyprexa was generating more revenue than Prozac. It remains the company’s top-selling drug.
Tue
15
Mar
2011
Unrest in the Middle East and North Africa -- country by country March 11 2011
0 CommentsMon
14
Mar
2011
Arab feminism In light of the revolutions across the Arab world
What challenges are women facing in this new political era?
Riz Khan Last Modified: 02 Mar 2011 15:18 GMT
Mon
14
Mar
2011
The Middle East feminist revolution
![Women supporting women inevitably leads to women supporting revolution. In Tunisia and Tahrir Square, women were at the front and centre of organising and leading protests, demanding social change [GALLO/GETTY]](https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/none/path/s7ebc55022d951a36/image/i8323c1b3b0e8c0f9/version/1300131475/image.jpg)
Al Jarezza
Women are not merely joining protests to topple dictators,
they are at the centre of demanding social change.
Among the most prevalent Western stereotypes about Muslim countries are those concerning Muslim women: doe-eyed, veiled, and submissive, exotically silent, gauzy inhabitants of imagined harems, closeted behind rigid gender roles. So where were these women in Tunisia and Egypt?
Mon
14
Mar
2011
P.J. Crowley Resigns As State Department Spokesman
The Huffington Post
P.J. Crowley resigned as spokesman for the State Department Sunday. According to CNN, Crowleycame under pressure from the Obama administration to step down in the wake of makingcontroversial comments about the Pentagon's treatment of Army private Bradley Manning, who is currently detained over suspicion he was complicit in leaking classified government documents to WikiLeaks.
"It is with regret that I have accepted the resignation of Philip J. Crowley as assistant secretary of state for public affairs," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a statement Sunday. "P.J. has served our nation with distinction for more than three decades, in uniform and as a civilian. His service to country is motivated by a deep devotion to public policy and public diplomacy, and I wish him the very best."
Sun
13
Mar
2011
Death Toll Estimate in Japan Soars as Relief Efforts Intensify
The New York Times
By MARTIN FACKLER and MARK McDONALD
Published: March 13, 2011
SENDAI, Japan — Japan faced mounting humanitarian and nuclear emergencies Sunday as the death toll from Friday’s earthquake and tsunami climbed astronomically, partial meltdowns occurred at two crippled plants and cooling problems struck four more reactors.
Sun
13
Mar
2011
Japan Earthquake Shifted Coastline Maximum Of 8 Feet, Scientists Say
The Huffington Post
NEW YORK -- The massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake that shook Japan and triggered a powerful tsunami on Friday has had a profound effect on both the surrounding terrain and the planet as a whole.
Dr. Daniel McNamara, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, told The Huffington Post that the disaster left a gigantic rupture in the sea floor, 217-miles long and 50 miles wide. It also shifted Japan's coast by eight feet in some parts, though McNamara was quick to explain much of the coast likely didn't move as far.
Fri
11
Mar
2011
The Birds and the Foxes
ONCE UPON A TIME there was a bird sanctuary in which hundreds of Baltimore orioles lived together happily.
Fri
11
Mar
2011
China’s Money and Migrants Pour Into Tibet
NEW YORK TIMES
By EDWARD WONG
Published: July 24, 2010
LHASA, Tibet — They come by new high-altitude trains, four a day, cruising 1,200 miles past snow-capped mountains. And they come by military truck convoy, lumbering across the roof of the world.
Fri
11
Mar
2011
Tibet Riots Due To Failed Chinese Government Policies: Report First Posted: 05-26-09 09:43 AM | Updated: 06-26-09 05:12 AM
Time:
A new report from a group of Chinese scholars has for the first time challenged China's official explanation that the deadly riots that broke out across Tibet in March, 2008, were inspired by "overseas forces" -- namely the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile. (Read "One Year After Protests, an Enforced Silence on Tibet.")
Wed
02
Mar
2011
Yemen President Says U.S., Israel Behind Unrest
The Huffington Post
SANAA, Yemen — Yemen's embattled president on Tuesday accused the U.S., his closest ally, of instigating the mounting protests against him, but the gambit failed to slow the momentum for his ouster. Hundreds of thousands rallied in cities across Yemen against the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in the largest of the protests of the past month, including one addressed by an influential firebrand cleric, a former ally of Saleh, whom the U.S. has linked to al-Qaida.
Mon
28
Feb
2011
English Language Crossword Puzzles (ESL) Set 4
1 Comments
Sun
27
Feb
2011
English Language Crossword Puzzles (ESL) Set 3
Puzzles To Help Learn English.
Sun
27
Feb
2011
English Language Crossword Puzzles (ESL) SET 2
1 Comments
Sat
26
Feb
2011
English Language CrossWord Puzzles (ESL) SET 1
Puzzles To Help Learn English.
Fri
25
Feb
2011
Fourth baby dolphin found dead on Horn Island
By KAREN NELSON - klnelson@sunherald.com
HORN ISLAND -- The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies has confirmed that a fourth baby dolphin has washed ashore on Horn Island,
To read more click
here
Thu
24
Feb
2011
Unrest in the Middle East and Africa -- country by country
By the CNN Wire Staff
February 23, 2011 9:33 p.m. EST
For a very good interactive map of the region, click here
Demonstrations have spread across a swath of the Middle East and Africa. Here are the latest developments, including the roots of the unrest:
Wednesday's developments:
Wed
23
Feb
2011
Greece general strike: Clashes erupt
BBC
23 February 2011 Last updated at 08:01 ET
More than 30,000 protesters marched to the Greek parliament
Police in Athens have fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators hurling petrol bombs and stones as a 24-hour general strike grips Greece.
The violence erupted during a rally by more than 30,000 angry workers near the Greek parliament. They object to the government's far-reaching budget cuts.
Wed
23
Feb
2011
New Zealand Earthquake 2011: Magnitude 6.3 Quake Shakes Christchurch, South Island (VIDEO)
A strong earthquake shook New Zealand on Tuesday afternoon, according to reports. The 6.3-magnitude quake, per the USGS, shook New Zealand's South Island and its largest city of Christchurch at 12:50
p.m. local time. ... The New Zealand Herald reported that the quake's epicenter was Lyttelton with a depth of 5 kilometers, though it was felt as far away as Wellington and Dunedin per Twitter
reports. It shook the Canterbury region, which has a population of approximately 500,000. Radio New Zealand reports "that some people have been killed." Radio New Zealand also noted some of the
damage from the quake in Christchurch: a church collapsed, a bridge is impassible, the airport has been shut down and the mayor is urging people not to drive due to road damage. HuffPost reader Laura
Campbell submitted these photos of the damage in Christchurch. A local New Zealand media outlet posted this photo of damage to Chirstchurch's historic Christchurch Cathedral. Videos of the quake are
beginning to surface on YouTube. One video (watch below) shows shaking, presumably an aftershock, and fallen rocks among the damage outside Christchurch
Tue
22
Feb
2011
Algeria Approves Order to End State of Emergency
VOA News February 22, 2011
Algeria's Cabinet formally approved an order Tuesday to lift the country's 19-year-old state of emergency.
The Cabinet said the order will take effect after its "imminent" publication in the official gazette. It is unclear exactly when this will take place.
Earlier this month, Algeria's Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said the government planned to lift the emergency rules soon. It was one of the changes promised by President Abdelaziz
Bouteflika in the aftermath of weeks of anti-government protests.
Algerians have been demonstrating over high unemployment and food prices in protests similar to those that led to the recent ouster of the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt.
Algeria's military-backed government first imposed the state of emergency on February 9, 1992, the date marked as the start of the country's civil war.
It gave the military broad police powers to crack down on Islamist militants who gained support after an Islamic political party was prevented from winning elections a few months earlier.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Tue
22
Feb
2011
Indiana lawmakers boycott hearing on union-rights bill
The vast majority of Democrats in the Indiana House have not showed up at a House hearing Tuesday which, in effect, blocks a Republican-supported bill that would reduce private-sector union rights.
Republicans - who make up 60 of 100 House seats - lacked the two-thirds majority needed for a quorum. Sixty-three lawmakers attended Tuesday's hearing.
Democratic state senators in Wisconsin similarly boycotted their legislature last week to prevent a quorum from passing a budget bill that would increase the costs of benefits to public employees and curb their collective bargaining rights.
Tue
22
Feb
2011
Chaos Grows in Libya as Strife in Tripoli Intensifies
TUNIS — Libya appeared to slip further into chaos on Tuesday, as Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi vowed “to fight to the last drop of blood” and clashes intensified between rebels and his loyalists in the capital, Tripoli.
Witnesses described the streets of Tripoli as a war zone. Several residents said they believed that massacres had taken place overnight......
Tue
22
Feb
2011
Wisconsin Power Play
New York Times
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: February 20, 2011
Last week, in the face of protest demonstrations against Wisconsin’s new union-busting governor, Scott Walker — demonstrations that continued through the weekend, with huge crowds on Saturday — Representative Paul Ryan made an unintentionally apt comparison: “It’s like Cairo has moved to Madison.”...
Some background: Wisconsin is indeed facing a budget crunch, although its difficulties are less severe than those facing many other states. Revenue has fallen in the face of a weak economy, while stimulus funds, which helped close the gap in 2009 and 2010, have faded away.
In this situation, it makes sense to call for shared sacrifice, including monetary concessions from state workers. And union leaders have signaled that they are, in fact, willing to make such concessions.
But Mr. Walker isn’t interested in making a deal. Partly that’s because he doesn’t want to share the sacrifice: even as he proclaims that Wisconsin faces a terrible fiscal crisis, he has been pushing through tax cuts that make the deficit worse. Mainly, however, he has made it clear that rather than bargaining with workers, he wants to end workers’ ability to bargain.
Tue
22
Feb
2011
Ohio Unions Protest Collective Bargaining Bill
10TVNews
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 12:21 PM
Updated: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 1:55 PM
WBNS-10TV
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A hearing on a bill that could strip public employees of collective bargaining rights drew thousands of protesters to the Statehouse on Tuesday
afternoon.
Union leaders said their members and supporters will rally at the state capitol, as lawmakers continue hearings on Senate Bill 5, 10TV's Danielle Elias reported.
The Republican-backed measure would end collective bargaining rights for state workers and restrict teachers, firefighters, police, and university employees.
The bill was proposed by Sen. Shannon Jones, and is supported by Gov. John Kasich.
If the bill passes, it would end collective bargaining rights for state workers, and set up a merit-based pay system.
For the rest of the story click here
Mon
21
Feb
2011
China protests: China police show up en masse at hint of protest - latimes.com
By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times. February 21, 2011
Pre-announced demonstrations in 13 Chinese cities bring plenty of paramilitary, uniformed and undercover police, but not many protesters. Six people are reportedly detained overall
Mon
21
Feb
2011
Morocco reforms: Tens of thousands march in Morocco for political reform - latimes.com
Mon
21
Feb
2011
Tunisian Refugees in Lampedusa
02/16/2011
Tunisian Refugees in Lampedusa
'I Felt Very Near to Death'
By Katharina Peters in Lampedusa
They have come in the hopes of finding a better life: In recent days, thousands of Tunisians have landed on the shores of the Italian island of Lampedusa. Many are young men who feel let down by their homeland. They may soon be let down by Europe.
Sun
20
Feb
2011
Chinese police rescue nearly 10,000 kidnapped children
CNTV
02-11-2011 10:12 BJT
BEIJING, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- More than 9,300 kidnapped children in China have been rescued since April 2009 since a nationwide campaign was launched to crack down on human trafficking, according to the Ministry of Public Security Thursday.
Sun
20
Feb
2011
Time to panic about water - expert
News 24
2011-02-19 14:10
Johannesburg - South African metropolitans are heading for a major water crisis in 2020, a former director general of the department of water affairs has warned.
Mike Muller, who now serves as an adjunct professor at the University of the Witwatersrand and sits on the national planning commission, said at a Water and Energy Forum in Sandton this week that it was time for metropolitans to start "panicking" about their water supplies.
Sun
20
Feb
2011
The Arab Revolution Saudi Update
SaudiWoman's Weblog
FEBRUARY 18, 2011 · 3:06 AM
Remember, in a former post, when I said that Saudis were captivated and shocked by what happened in Tunis and Egypt but hadn’t collectively made up their mind about it? Well it appears that they have. Everywhere I go and everything I read points to a revolution in our own country in the foreseeable future. However we are still on the ledge and haven’t jumped yet.
Sun
20
Feb
2011
Libya unrest death toll 'tops 200'
Dozens of Muslim leaders call for end to civilian deaths
after security crackdown on funeral procession of protesters.
Last Modified: 20 Feb 2011 11:25 GMT
Hundreds have been killed in Libya since protests broke out across the North African nation six days ago, according to rights watchdogs and eyewitnesses across the country.
Residents told Al Jazeera that at least 200 people had died in the eastern city of Benghazi alone, while the New York-based Human Rights Watch on Sunday put the countrywide death toll at 104. The rights group said the figure was "conservative".
Protests have also reportedly broken out in other cities, including Bayda, Derna, Tobruk and Misrata.
In the capital, Tripoli, supporters of the government took to the streets in large numbers, and security forces prevented large demonstrations against Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year reign.
Sun
20
Feb
2011
Libya protests: More than 100 killed as army fires on unarmed demonstrators
World leaders condemn
Muammar Gaddafi
after army launches violent
crackdown on pro-democracy
protesters in Benghazi
Jo Adetunji, Peter Beaumont and Martin Chulov in Bahrain guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 February 2011 11.39 GMT
More than 100 people have died over four days of anti-government protests in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi as Colonel Muammar Gaddafi confronts the most serious challenge to his 42-year rule as leader.
Fri
18
Feb
2011
History's Lost Black Towns
Black Americans have played a vital role in building this nation. Eager to live and prosper as free people, we have established our own towns since Colonial times. Many of these communities were destroyed by racial violence or injustice, while some just died out. The Root looks at the history of these lost towns.
There are 15 pictures in total. Six of them are presented here.
Press here to go to the article to see all the pictures.
Fri
18
Feb
2011
“It is the women who have the guts in Pakistan”
The men in Pakistan need to step it up
greatly when it comes to supporting
women in social activism.
Fri
18
Feb
2011
Wisconsin Crowds Swell to 30,000; Key GOP Legislators Waver
"I have never been prouder of our movement than I am at this moment," shouted Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt, as he surveyed the crowds of union members and their supporters that surged around the state Capitol and into the streets of Madison Wednesday, literally closing the downtown as tens of thousands of Wisconsinites protested their Republican governor’s attempt to strip public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights.
Fri
18
Feb
2011
Wisconsin Union Vote On Hold After Democrats Leave State
Associated Press By SCOTT BAUER
MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Senate adjourned for the day after minority Democrats blocked an attempt by Republicans to vote on an anti-union bill by leaving the state.
As some 25,000 protesters filled the Capitol for a third day, the 14 Democrats disappeared around midday, just as the Senate was about to begin debating
the measure, which would eliminate collective bargaining for most public employees.
Thu
17
Feb
2011
Libyans in US allege coercion
![The Libyan government allegedy paid citizens to attend rallies when Gaddafi visited the UN in 2009 [EPA]](https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/none/path/s7ebc55022d951a36/image/ibfcc8c6f1db22694/version/1297980883/image.jpg)
In an apparent effort to control the public narrative in the wake of rare protests that have spread throughout Libya, the country's government is threatening to withdraw scholarship funding from citizens studying in the US unless they attend pro-government rallies in Washington this weekend, Al Jazeera has learned.
Thu
17
Feb
2011
Clashes rock Bahraini capital
Thu
17
Feb
2011
Shy U.S. Intellectual Created Playbook Used in a Revolution
New York Times: By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG Published: February 16, 2011
BOSTON — Halfway around the world from Tahrir Square in Cairo, an aging American intellectual shuffles about his cluttered brick row house in a working-class neighborhood here. His name is Gene Sharp. Stoop-shouldered and white-haired at 83, he grows orchids, has yet to master the Internet and hardly seems like a dangerous man.
Wed
16
Feb
2011
Libya: Protests 'rock city of Benghazi
Hundreds of people have clashed with police and pro-government supporters in the Libyan city of Benghazi, reports say.
Eyewitnesses told the BBC the overnight unrest followed the arrest of an outspoken critic of the government.
The lawyer was later said to have been released but the protests continued.
Pro-democracy protests have swept through several Arab countries in recent weeks, forcing the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt from power.
A call has been put out on the internet for protests across Libya on Thursday.
Wed
16
Feb
2011
US military interests at stake in Bahraini unrest
Bahraini demonstrators run from tear gas Monday, Feb. 14, 2011, as riot police disperse a protest in the village of Duraz, Bahrain, outside the capital of Manama. Demonstrations broke out nationwide in response to calls on social media sites for major anti-government protests and were dispersed by riot police firing tear gas and chasing demonstrators. – AP Photo
WASHINGTON: Unrest surging through the Arab world has so far taken no toll on the American military. But that could change if revolt washes over the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain — long-time home to the US Navy’s mighty 5th Fleet and arguably the Middle East anchor of US defense strategy.
Tue
15
Feb
2011
Unrest in the Middle East and North Africa -- country by country Feb 16 2011
For a more detailed map, press here
(CNN) -- Unrest has spread across the Middle East and North Africa. Here's a look at what has happened -- and what is happening -- in various countries
Tue
15
Feb
2011
Breaking News: Obama says governments in the Middle East must recognize 'hunger for freedom'
|
---------------------------------------- Breaking News Alert: Obama says governments in the Middle East must recognize 'hunger for freedom' February 15, 2011 11:58:24 AM ---------------------------------------- In the wake of the uprising that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, President Obama on Tuesday sharply criticized Iran for using force against protesters and said that governments in the region "can't maintain power through coercion" and must recognize their populations' "hunger for freedoms." "The world is changing," Obama said at White House news conference, in a message directed at autocratic rulers across the region. "You have a young, vibrant generation within the Middle East that is looking for greater opportunity. ... You've got to get out ahead of change; you can't be behind the curve." |
Tue
15
Feb
2011
Bahrain Roiled After Second Protester Is Killed by Police
Mon
14
Feb
2011
Clashes reported in Iran protests
![Tear gas was used to scatter protesters at various points during Monday's banned protests in Tehran [AFP]](https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=650x1024:format=jpg/path/s7ebc55022d951a36/image/iedbac4338d94c114/version/1297719493/image.jpg)
Pro-reformist marches under way in Tehran
despite a heavy security presence
and police crackdown.
Aljazeera Last Modified: 14 Feb 2011 19:36 GMT
A day of protest in the Iranian capital of Tehran have been marked by clashes between demonstrators and security forces.
Thousands of demonstrators marched on Monday on Enghelab and Azadi streets [which connect and create a straight path through the city centre], with a heavy presence in Enghelab Square and Vali-Asr Street.
Mon
14
Feb
2011
Gabrielle Giffords Brain Injury: Doctors Work To Help Giffords' Brain Rewire Itself
AP/The Huffington Post
First Posted: 02/14/11 02:26 AM Updated: 02/14/11 04:05 PM
NEW YORK -- Compared to a sleek new laptop, that three-pound mass of fatty tissue called the brain may not look like much. But when it's injured, it adapts and rewires its circuits in new ways.
That's the kind of flexibility that doctors and rehabilitation specialists hope to encourage in Gabrielle Giffords, the brain-injured Arizona congresswoman.
Details about her recovery have been thin. But members of her staff say she recently began speaking for the first time since the Jan. 8 attack by a gunman in Tucson. Brain injury patients who regain speech typically begin to do that about four to six weeks after the injury, experts say.
Mon
14
Feb
2011
Military rulers dissolve Egypt’s parliament
Excerpt from The Jordon Times
Monday, February 14th, 2011, 3:05 pm Amman Time
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's new military rulers said on Sunday they had dissolved parliament and suspended the constitution and would govern only for six months or until elections took place, following the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.
Mon
14
Feb
2011
Clashes between supporters and opponents of the President of Yemen during demonstrations in Sana'a and Taiz
Article from 3rbnews.com and written in Arabic. The Google transalation is edited by Roger.
The sources said that eight of the demonstrators were injured when the police tried to disperse the demonstration by youth in the city. Witnesses said police used batons to disperse demonstrators.
In Sana police were seen attacking civilians, demonstrators who were university students at the entrance to the University of Sana. Sticks and stones were thrown. Thousands of supporters of the ruling party took control of the Tahrir Square in the capital for several days.
Mon
14
Feb
2011
Egyptian PM says security is priority
Egyptian army soldiers surround remaining protesters on Tahrir Square as the military tries to help people return to normal life in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday morning, Feb.13, 2011. Protesters were debating whether to lift their 24-hour-a-day demonstration camp in Tahrir. (AP Photo/Manoocher Deghati)
Mon
14
Feb
2011
Protesters press for voice in Egyptian democracy
An anti-government protester waves an Egyptian flag on top of a tank during celebrations in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, Egypt , Saturday, Feb. 12, 2011. Cries of "Egypt is free" rang out and fireworks lit up the sky as hundreds of thousands danced, wept and prayed in joyful pandemonium after 18 days of peaceful pro-democracy protests forced President Hosni Mubarak to surrender power to the military, ending three decades of authoritarian rule. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Mon
14
Feb
2011
Egypt's US envoy says Mubarak may be unwell
An Egyptian woman walks with her baby in front of a burnt out vehicle that was being taken away near Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, Egypt , Saturday, Feb.
12, 2011. Cries of "Egypt is free" rang out and fireworks lit up the sky as hundreds of thousands danced, wept and prayed in joyful pandemonium after 18 days of peaceful pro-democracy protests
forced President Hosni Mubarak to surrender power to the military, ending three decades of authoritarian rule.
Mon
14
Feb
2011
After Mubarak
from Dawn.com
2/13/11
WAS Friday the day the people of the Middle East began to reclaim their region for themselves? Amid emotional scenes that will live long in the memory of Egyptians and people across the world, the largest country in the Middle East celebrated the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year-old rule.
Sun
13
Feb
2011
Yemen protesters: "First Mubarak, now Ali"
From Mohammed Jamjoom, CNN
Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Hundreds of anti-government protesters marched toward a presidential palace in Yemen on Sunday, calling for regime change in the Middle Eastern country.
Some of them chanted, "First Mubarak, now Ali," referring to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Hosni Mubarak, who recently resigned as president of Egypt after nearly 30 years in power.
Sun
13
Feb
2011
Pro-democracy rally begins in Algeria, defying ban
BBC
12 February 2011 Last updated at 08:36 ET
Thousands of people are holding a pro-democracy rally in Algeria's capital Algiers, defying a government ban.
Sat
12
Feb
2011
An Active Pacifist by Carl's friend Martha Cuneo
Carl Haessler was from Milwaukee. He lived a long life in a time of volatility in the United States.
He was a Rhodes Scholar whose entrance requirement in sports was met by his participation in a successful rowing team. His tutor while there was Arnold Toynbee.
Sat
12
Feb
2011
Introduction to Citizen Actions > Uprising > Egypt
Topic: Uprisings
For a thought piece about Egypt and this uprising see A completely unpredictable revolution
For a short version of what has happen, let's start with a look at Tunisia's uprising.
Sat
12
Feb
2011
Introduction To Citizens Actions Uprisings
Topic: Uprisings
For an Excellent Video on the Role of the Internet Press Here
Let me start this with a little but true story from my life. Martha just recalled it a couple of days ago and we talked about it in relation to what is happening in Egypt and other countries.
Early in our marriage when we were living in Detroit, the guy who was best man at our wedding (Donald Gibson - later to become an English Professor in an important University in eastern USA), was visiting us. We were all in the family room, and Don was sitting back by a big window in a recliner playing his guitar. Don is an African American who had been an activist while we were in college. Martha asked him what he thought that people who were african american - who had been involved in the civil rights revolution - wanted. He said he did not think they wanted any one thing or group of things - what they wanted was just their share of the pie.
It seems to Martha and me that at least in Egypt a big factor in these uprisings is that people do not have their share of the pie.
These articles seem worthwhile to read as a preface to the other material in this topic:
Who's Afraid of the Muslim Brothers;
The Arab Reform Dodge Cosmetic Concessions Aren't Enough
Map Of Uprisings To February 15, 2011
This topic is subdivided into several countries currently involved or just having gone through uprisings (this is February 2011) and with an additional subdivision of Timelines.
Also see maps, or other interesting articles, or look at various news sources
Fri
11
Feb
2011
Why Ghonim's passion reignited revolt
By Peter Bouckaert, Special to CNN
February 11, 2011 12:32 p.m. EST
Peter Bouckaert is the emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.
Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Few things to date have energized popular Egyptian protests against President Hosni Mubarak as much as the emotional interview given by Wael Ghonim, a 30-year-old Egyptian internet activist, almost immediately after his release from 12 days of detention by the feared state security police.
Fri
11
Feb
2011
Murbarak resigns. A Peaceful Rebellion
EXCERPT FROM AN ARTICLE:
Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, has resigned from his post, handing over power to the armed forces. Omar Suleiman, the vice-president, announced in a televised address that the president was "waiving" his office, and had handed over authority to the Supreme Council of the armed forces. Suleiman's short statement was received with a roar of approval and by celebratory chanting and flag-waving from a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Cairo's Tahrir Square, as well by pro-democracy campaigners who attended protests across the country on Friday. The crowd in Tahrir chanted "We have brought down the regime", while many were seen crying, cheering and embracing one another. Mohamed ElBaradei, an opposition leader, hailed the moment as being the "greatest day of my life", in comments to the Associated Press news agency. "The country has been liberated after decades of repression,'' he said. "Tonight, after all of these weeks of frustration, of violence, of intimidation ... today the people of Egypt undoubtedly [feel they] have been heard, not only by the president, but by people all around the world," our correspondent at Tahrir Square reported, following the announcement. "The sense of euphoria is simply indescribable," our correspondent at Mubarak's Heliopolis presidential palace, where at least ten thousand pro-democracy activists had gathered, said. Pro-democracy activists in the Egyptian capital had marched on the presidential palace and state television buildings on Friday, the 18th consecutive day of protests.
Fri
11
Feb
2011
Egyptians hold 'Farewell Friday'
![Pro-democracy protesters in Tahrir Square have vowed to take the protests to a 'last and final stage' [AFP]](https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/none/path/s7ebc55022d951a36/image/i181af020d70234a1/version/1297435053/image.jpg)
Aljazeera: Protesters' new push to force president Mubarak to step down may test the military's loyalties.
Massive crowds have gathered in Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square on Friday, chanting "the army and the people are one, hand in hand". Pro-democracy protesters had called for "millions" of Egyptians to take to the streets across the country, a day after Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's president, repeated his refusal to step down. In a statement read out on state television at midday, the military announced that it would lift a 30-year-old emergency law but only "as soon as the current circumstances end".
Thu
10
Feb
2011
Reports: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak may transfer power
Washington Post
By Craig Whitlock, Leila Fadel and Ernesto Londono
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 10, 2011; 10:58 am
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/09/AR2011020905656_pf.html
CAIRO -- President Hosni Mubarak will meet the demands of protesters, military and ruling party officials, the Associated Press reported Thursday, in the strongest indication yet that Egypt's longtime president may be about to give up power.
Wed
09
Feb
2011
Who's afraid of the Muslim Brothers
![There are offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood in countries across the region [EPA]](https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=590x1024:format=jpg/path/s7ebc55022d951a36/image/iace27d3fbef639d2/version/1297269915/image.jpg)
ALJAZEERA
Western fears of 'Islamism' have been aided by Arab autocrats seeking to prolong their iron-fisted rule.
By Mohammed Khan, a political analyst based in the UAE.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own
and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
Last Modified: 09 Feb 2011 08:10 GMT
"Islamism" has been sending jitters through Western political corridors over recent years readily aided and abetted by Arab autocrats who have exaggerated and
harnessed the "Islamist" threat to prolong their iron-fisted rule.
In the case of Egypt, the biggest bogeyman in this long-running battle over political supremacy with the state is the Muslim Brotherhood (the Ikhwan al-Muslimun) whose influence extends across
the Arab and Islamic world.
Wed
09
Feb
2011
Labour unions boost Egypt protests
![Pro-democracy protesters have gathered outside the parliament, near Cairo's Tahrir Square [AFP]](https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/none/path/s7ebc55022d951a36/image/i61d077beff7b7b29/version/1297268449/image.jpg)
From Aljazeera
Last Modified: 09 Feb 2011 14:38 GMT
Thousands of factory workers stay away from work as pro-democracy protesters continue to rally seeking Mubarak's ouster.
Tue
08
Feb
2011
English Houses in the Middle Ages
From delanceyplace 2/7/11 - private rooms
In today's excerpt - in the middle ages, English houses owned by the wealthy consisted primarily of a single great room called the "hall." The fourteenth century brought improvements to fireplace construction which allowed for second floors, which in turn brought an explosion in the construction of private, separate rooms - including the boudoir, literally "a room to sulk in." Even with this new privacy, residents still often copulated and defecated in full view of children, servants and friends:
Mon
07
Feb
2011
Egypt protesters unmoved by talks
BBC NEWS
7 February 2011 Last updated at 03:16 ET
Talks between the Egyptian government and opposition groups on tackling the country's political crisis have failed to end protests in central Cairo.
Crowds of protesters, who have occupied the city's Tahrir Square for two weeks, say they will only leave when President Hosni Mubarak stands down.
The government offered a series of concessions at Sunday's talks, but the opposition said they were not enough.
Sun
06
Feb
2011
The Arab reform dodge: Cosmetic concessions aren't enough
The Washington Post editorial Friday, February 4, 2011
LIKE EGYPTIAN President Hosni Mubarak, Arab rulers around the Middle East are trying to head off the swelling popular discontent in their countries while retaining political control. In the past few days, Jordan's King Abdullah fired his prime minister and cabinet and ordered a new appointee to undertake reforms, while Yemen's President Abdullah Salehpromised not to run for another term or promote his son. The Palestinian Authority announced it would hold overdue local elections, Algeria's president promised an end to 19 years of emergency rule, and even Syria's Bashar al-Assad assured the Wall Street Journal that he would initiate muncipal elections and loosen controls on the media.
Fri
13
Nov
2015
Are Languages Products of their Environment?
DISCOVER MAGAZINE published this very interesting article:
Languages Are Products of Their Environments
The characteristics that make each language unique may actually be adaptations to the acoustics of different
environments.
Tue
03
Jun
2014
The Case for Reparations
The Case for Reparations
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
By Ta-Nehisi Coates
May 21, 2014
Chapters
- I. “So That’s Just One Of My Losses”
- II. “A Difference of Kind, Not Degree”
- III. “We Inherit Our Ample Patrimony”
- IV. “The Ills That Slavery Frees Us From”
- V. The Quiet Plunder
- VI. Making The Second Ghetto
- VII. “A Lot Of People Fell By The Way”
- VIII. “Negro Poverty is not White Poverty”
- IX. Toward A New Country
- X. “There Will Be No ‘Reparations’ From Germany”
Mon
02
Jun
2014
A Look At 19th Century Children In The USA
PHILADELPHIA — DINNER with your children in 19th-century America often required some self-control. Berry stains in your daughter’s hair? Good for her. Raccoon bites running up your boy’s arms? Bet he had an interesting day.
As this year’s summer vacation begins, many parents contemplate how to rein in their kids. But there was a time when Americans pushed in the opposite direction, preserved in Mark Twain’s cat-swinging scamps. Parents back then encouraged kids to get some wildness out of their system, to express the republic’s revolutionary values.
The New York Times
Sunday Review
By JON GRINSPAN MAY 31, 2014
American children of the 19th century had a reputation. Returning British visitors reported on American kids who showed no respect, who swore and fought, who appeared — at age 10 — “calling for liquor at the bar, or puffing a cigar in the streets,” as one wrote. There were really no children in 19th-century America, travelers often claimed, only “small stuck-up caricatures of men and women.”
This was not a “carefree” nation, too rough-hewed to teach proper manners; adults deliberately chose to express new values by raising “go-ahead” boys and girls. The result mixed democracy and mob rule, assertiveness and cruelty, sudden freedom and strict boundaries. Visitors noted how American fathers would brag that their disobedient children were actually “young republicans,” liberated from old hierarchies. Children were still expected to be deferential to elders, but many were trained to embody their nation’s revolutionary virtues. “The theory of the equality” was present at the ballot box, according to one sympathetic Englishman, but “rampant in the nursery.”
Boys, in particular, spent their childhoods in a rowdy outdoor subculture. After age 5 or so they needed little attention from their mothers, but were not big enough to help their fathers work. So until age 10 or 12 they spent much of their time playing or fighting.
The writer William Dean Howells recalled his ordinary, violent Ohio childhood, immersed in his loose gang of pals, rarely catching a “glimpse of life much higher than the middle of a man.” Howells’s peers were “always stoning something,” whether friends, rivals or stray dogs. They left a trail of maimed animals behind them, often hurt in sloppy attempts to domesticate wild pets.
And though we envision innocents playing with a hoop and a stick, many preferred “mumbletypeg” — a game where two players competed to see who could throw a knife closer to his own foot. Stabbing yourself meant a win by default.
Left to their own devices, boys learned an assertive style that shaped their futures. The story of every 19th-century empire builder — Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt — seems to begin with a striving 10-year-old. “Boy culture” offered training for the challenges of American manhood and a reprieve before a life of labor.
But these unsupervised boys also formed gangs that harassed the mentally ill, the handicapped and racial and ethnic minorities. Boys played an outsize role in the anti-Irish pogroms in 1840s Philadelphia, the brutal New York City draft riots targeting African-Americans during the Civil War and attacks on Chinese laborers in Gilded Age California. These children did not invent the bigotry rampant in white America, but their unrestrained upbringing let them enact what their parents mostly muttered.
Their sisters followed a different path. Girls were usually assigned more of their mothers’ tasks. An 8-year-old girl would be expected to help with the wash or other physically demanding tasks, while her brother might simply be too small, too slow or too annoying to drive the plow with his father. But despite their drudgery, 19th-century American girls still found time for tree climbing, bonfire building and waterfall-jumping antics. There were few pretty pink princesses in 19th-century America: Girls were too rowdy and too republican for that.
So how did we get from “democratic sucklings” to helicopter parents? Though many point to a rise of parental worrying after the 1970s, this was an incremental change in a movement that began a hundred years earlier.
In the last quarter of the 19th century, middle-class parents launched a self-conscious project to protect children. Urban professionals began to focus on children’s vulnerabilities. Well-to-do worriers no longer needed to raise tough dairymaids or cunning newsboys; the changing economy demanded careful managers of businesses or households, and restrained company men, capable of navigating big institutions.
Demographics played a role as well: By 1900 American women had half as many children as they did in 1800, and those children were twice as likely to live through infancy as they were in 1850. Ironically, as their children faced fewer dangers, parents worried more about their protection.
Instead of seeing boys and girls as capable, clever, knockabout scamps, many reconceived children as vulnerable, weak and naïve. Reformers introduced child labor laws, divided kids by age in school and monitored their play. Jane Addams particularly worked to fit children into the new industrial order, condemning “this stupid experiment of organizing work and failing to organize play.”
There was good reason to tame the boys and girls of the 19th century, if only for stray cats’ sake. But somewhere between Jane Addams and Nancy Grace, Americans lost track of their larger goal. Earlier parents raised their kids to express values their society trumpeted.
“Precocious” 19th-century troublemakers asserted their parents’ democratic beliefs and fit into an economy that had little use for 8-year-olds but idealized striving, self-made men. Reformers designed their Boy Scouts to meet the demands of the 20th century, teaching organization and rebalancing the relationship between play and work. Both movements agreed, in their didactic ways, that playtime shaped future citizens.
Does the overprotected child articulate values we are proud of in 2014? Nothing is easier than judging other peoples’ parenting, but there is a side of contemporary American culture — fearful, litigious, controlling — that we do not brag about but that we reveal in our child rearing, and that runs contrary to our self-image as an open, optimistic nation. Maybe this is why sheltering parents come in for so much easy criticism: A visit to the playground exposes traits we would rather not recognize.
There is, however, a saving grace that parents will notice this summer. Kids are harder to guide and shape, as William Dean Howells put it, “than grown people are apt to think.” It is as true today as it was two centuries ago: “Everywhere and always the world of boys is outside of the laws that govern grown-up communities.” Somehow, they’ll manage to go their own way.
________________________________
A National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Massachusetts Historical Society who is writing a book on the role of young people in 19th-century American democracy.
Mon
21
Apr
2014
Investigating Family's Wealth, China's Leader Signals a Change
From The New York Times
By CHRISTOPHER DREW and JAD MOUAWAD
APRIL 19, 2014
HONG KONG — His son landed contracts to sell equipment to state oil fields and thousands of filling stations across China. His son’s mother-in-law held stakes in pipelines and natural gas pumps from Sichuan Province in the west to the southern isle of Hainan. And his sister-in-law, working from one of Beijing’s most prestigious office buildings, invested in mines, property and energy projects.
In thousands of pages of corporate documents describing these ventures, the name that never appears is his own: Zhou Yongkang, the formidable Chinese Communist Party leader who served as China’s top security official and the de facto boss of its oil industry.
But President Xi Jinping has targeted Mr. Zhou in an extraordinary corruption inquiry, a first for a Chinese party leader of Mr. Zhou’s rank, and put his family’s extensive business interests in the cross hairs.
Even by the cutthroat standards of Chinese politics, it is a bold maneuver. The finances of the families of senior leaders are among the deepest and most politically delicate secrets in China. The party has for years followed a tacit rule that relatives of the elite could prosper from the country’s economic opening, which rewarded loyalty and helped avert rifts in the leadership.
Zhou Family Ties
Fri
13
Nov
2015
Are Languages Products of their Environment?
DISCOVER MAGAZINE published this very interesting article:
Languages Are Products of Their Environments
The characteristics that make each language unique may actually be adaptations to the acoustics of different
environments.
Tue
03
Jun
2014
The Case for Reparations
The Case for Reparations
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
By Ta-Nehisi Coates
May 21, 2014
Chapters
- I. “So That’s Just One Of My Losses”
- II. “A Difference of Kind, Not Degree”
- III. “We Inherit Our Ample Patrimony”
- IV. “The Ills That Slavery Frees Us From”
- V. The Quiet Plunder
- VI. Making The Second Ghetto
- VII. “A Lot Of People Fell By The Way”
- VIII. “Negro Poverty is not White Poverty”
- IX. Toward A New Country
- X. “There Will Be No ‘Reparations’ From Germany”
Mon
02
Jun
2014
A Look At 19th Century Children In The USA
PHILADELPHIA — DINNER with your children in 19th-century America often required some self-control. Berry stains in your daughter’s hair? Good for her. Raccoon bites running up your boy’s arms? Bet he had an interesting day.
As this year’s summer vacation begins, many parents contemplate how to rein in their kids. But there was a time when Americans pushed in the opposite direction, preserved in Mark Twain’s cat-swinging scamps. Parents back then encouraged kids to get some wildness out of their system, to express the republic’s revolutionary values.
The New York Times
Sunday Review
By JON GRINSPAN MAY 31, 2014
Mon
21
Apr
2014
Investigating Family's Wealth, China's Leader Signals a Change
From The New York Times
By CHRISTOPHER DREW and JAD MOUAWAD
APRIL 19, 2014
HONG KONG — His son landed contracts to sell equipment to state oil fields and thousands of filling stations across China. His son’s mother-in-law held stakes in pipelines and natural gas pumps from Sichuan Province in the west to the southern isle of Hainan. And his sister-in-law, working from one of Beijing’s most prestigious office buildings, invested in mines, property and energy projects.
In thousands of pages of corporate documents describing these ventures, the name that never appears is his own: Zhou Yongkang, the formidable Chinese Communist Party leader who served as China’s top security official and the de facto boss of its oil industry.