Commentary

This section contains posts that comment on issues, events, and ideas of interest to the authors of this blog.

Video: Speech by Chomsky on academic freedom and the corporatization of universities

October 31, 2011
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On April 6, 2011 Chomsky gave a speech at the University of Toronto mainly focusing on the decline of academic freedom going and the coporatization of universities. In his speech he connects the issue with the larger picture of corporate reality. The recorded Q&A session after his speech is especially worth watching. Quote: There’s, furthermore, no way to measure the human and social costs of converting schools and universities into facilities that produce commodities for the job market, abandoning the traditional ideal of the universities: fostering creative and independent thought and inquiry, challenging perceived beliefs, exploring new horizons and forgetting…

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50% debt cut for Greece?

October 31, 2011
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Reading German newspapers theses days, one of the most prominent headline reads “50% debt cut for Greece settled.” The headline refers to the latest meeting of the EU member head of states, who supposedly settled for a 50% debt relief for Greece and most notably with “substantial participation” of the private banking sector holding Greek government bonds. Why then did stock prices of these institutions surge upwards shortly after the 50% cut publication?  Here’s why: What was settled for is by no means a real 50% debt cut and was even less settled with the “substantial participation of the private banking sector.”…

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Protect Life Act passed by House of Representatives

October 31, 2011
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“Protect Life Act H.R. 358” was passed on October the  13th by the House of Representatives by a majority of 248 to 173. Despite its nice and positive name, it should actually be called the “Let Women Die Act” (as most women rights organizations call it), because one of its most prominent features is that it allows doctors and hospitals to “exercise their conscience” by letting pregnant women if they face an emergency medical condition in which it is necessary to perform an abortion to save the life of the mother. The implications are breathtaking: It actually overrides previous bills protecting women,…

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Hedge funds buying African farmland

October 31, 2011
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Starving? Not able to live off your land? Well here’s the solution: just sell it to a hedge fund! No time to worry about your family’s future when there are much more urgent problems to deal with! Economically this makes perfect sense–buy cheap farming land now and sell it when farming land becomes the next scarce resource:  Over 148 million acres of farmland in Africa have been purchased by Western hedge funds in the last three years. Western hedge funds have begun buying up vast parcels of land all over Africa. According to a series of new reports by the Oakland…

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Dylan Ratigan’s rant

October 21, 2011
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No further introduction needed, just watch this: Similarly entertaining: How did this guy ever pass under my radar? Here we go with Ratigan vs. Glenn Beck:

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Executive earnings higher than paid taxes

September 22, 2011
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The data presented in a recent New York Times article entitled “Where Pay for Chiefs Outstrips U.S. Taxes” is incredible (and yet somehow not very surprising): At least 25 top United States companies paid more to their chief executives in 2010 than they did to the federal government in taxes, according to a study released on Wednesday.  How can the corporate sector maintain any credibility in the face of these data. How disillusioned must the public be not to see or do something about this problem? Even if someone did actually believe the trickle-down claim that keeping the corporations wealthy will eventually raise…

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Video: A Farm for the Future

August 9, 2011
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The BBC describes the documentary A Farm for the Future as follows: Wildlife film maker Rebecca Hosking investigates how to transform her family’s farm in Devon into a low energy farm for the future, and discovers that nature holds the key. With her father close to retirement, Rebecca returns to her family’s wildlife-friendly farm in Devon, to become the next generation to farm the land. But last year’s high fuel prices were a wake-up call for Rebecca. Realising that all food production in the UK is completely dependent on abundant cheap fossil fuel, particularly oil, she sets out to discover just…

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