Commentary

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

Western support for the slave trade

February 24, 2013
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Western support for the slave trade

The historical Arab slave trade, which began in the 7th century and lasted for than a millennium, brought millions of East Africans to the Persian Gulf to work as laborers, servants, and sex slaves. While it ended officially in the 19th century, something strikingly similar continues to the present day. Each year a global network of recruiters carries thousands of men and women from developing countries in East Asia and Africa to work as housemaids, waitresses, and construction workers. Paid a pittance for their work, often abused by their employers, denied basic rights, and housed in squalid compounds, these laborers…

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Electric cars just can’t get a break

February 24, 2013
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Who Killed the Electric Car? (shown below) is an excellent documentary detailing the rise and fall of one of the first electric automobiles in North America, GM’s EV1. Although it was produced, marketed, and leased to customers for a brief time in the 1990s, GM eventually decided to cancel the leases, reclaim the cars, and destroy them against the wishes of many enthusiastic customers. The film offers a complex explanation of why this popular car line was terminated, one that implicates the car manufacturers and the oil industry in a conspiracy of sorts to halt the production of these vehicles that…

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Lives well lived: Amy Goodman

February 21, 2013
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Democracy Now is perhaps the best daily news programs anywhere in the world and a shining example of the power and importance of independent media. The success of Democracy Now is due to a large number of dedicated individuals who do the hard work of putting together a show each day as well as a larger group of listeners and viewers who voluntarily donate to the program to keep it going. But at the heart of this success story is Amy Goodman, a remarkable individual who has spent her life informing, enlightening, and ultimately empowering others. She’s a role model…

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Life in a cage

February 10, 2013
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Life in a cage

At one extreme end of the spectrum of enlightened architecture, there are the Earthships and other forms of biotecture that are the subject of several earlier posts. These amazing houses, built mostly of recycled material, are eco-friendly, affordable, and aesthetically pleasing. Most importantly, they maximize human potential and freedom in the sense that they enable their inhabitants to live self-sufficient lives, free from the chains of mortgages, commuting costs, and utility bills. Here is a photo of the interior of one Earthship. At the other extreme end of the spectrum of enlightened architecture, there are cages, slightly larger than coffins,…

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Mondragon Corporation

January 31, 2013
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While technically a corporation, Mondragon is actually federation of worker cooperatives operating mainly in the Basque country. Quite different from the typical capitalist corporation, it is one of the most promising developments in area of business management. It was founded in 1956 by a progressive Catholic priest named José María Arizmendiarrieta, who had a mission to spread a form of humanist teaching emphasizing solidarity and participation. From the outset, the purpose of Mondragon was not simply to earn profits, but to provide employment and other social benefits to the local community. It is now the largest business group in the Basque…

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Rise of the machines (documentary)

January 23, 2013
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Drones can be used to do much more than kill innocent civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Drones are being developed right now, not only for the US military, but also for border control agencies, police and fire departments, for government surveillance, and for a host of commercial purposes. As this short documentary Rise of the Machines (shown below) makes clear, aviation is about to undergo a radical change,  and there are important ethical and political questions that need to be addressed immediately. In the very near future, our skies will be littered with cop drones, paparazzi drones, robotic kamikaze drones, and…

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The Doomsday Clock and the best sex toy ever invented

January 21, 2013
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The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a non-technical magazine dedicated to informing scientists about the real world implications of scientific research and educating non-scientists about the dangers that human civilization currently faces. It began in 1945 in response to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two events which vividly demonstrate the catastrophic potential of scientific research and the need for policies to direct that research away from disastrous ends. In 1947, the Bulletin launched its  Doomsday Clock, a metaphorical clock that represents the best guess among concerned scientists as to how close humanity is to annihilation. While…

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Will the Internet bring an end to religion?

January 17, 2013
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Not any time soon, but organized religion is on the decline in many places around the world,  and in this interesting article Valerie Tarico argues that the Internet is one of the principal causes of this phenomenon.  Here are the six kinds of web content that she thinks are leading the faithful astray:  1. Radically cool science articles and videos;  2. Curated collections of ridiculous beliefs. 3. The kinky, exploitative, and violent side of religion 4. Supportive communities for people coming out of religion. 5. Lifestyles of the fine and faithless. 6. Interspiritual okayness. Could it be that the internet…

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The true costs of cell phones

January 16, 2013
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A recent study by James Roberts, professor of marketing at Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business, claims that “cell phone and instant messaging addictions are driven by materialism and impulsiveness and can be compared to consumption pathologies like compulsive buying and credit card misuse.” The study, which was published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions, suggests that cell phones are also eroding our personal relationships. The published article can be found here (with paid subscription).  In addition to these interpersonal effects of cell phone use, there are other social costs to consider, such as the effects it is having on education and classroom instruction, a…

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Google translate and the Tower of Babel

January 16, 2013
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How well is meaning preserved when moving from one language to another in Google translate? The folks at cdza provide a rather convincing demonstration of the limitations of Google translate. To be fair to Google, even the best possible translation could not succeed in preserving exact meaning when filtering a pop song through 64 languages. Still, it’s hilarious to see how quickly the translations become ridiculous.

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Ronald Wright and progress traps

January 15, 2013
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The title of a recent op-ed by Chris Hedges is “Will we adjust to life on a finite planet or continue devouring our future.” The article features an interesting interview with Ronald Wright, author of A Short History of Progress, which was recently made into a documentary by Martin Scorsese called Surviving Progress (below). The article, the book, and the film are all worth reading/watching. At the core of each is the idea of a progress trap, which, according to Wright, humanity currently finds itself in.    

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Inequality and conservatism in Korea

January 15, 2013
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Individual income in relation to gross national income (GNI) is declining everywhere in the world but recent data from the Bank of Korea (reported in the Korea Herald) indicate that it is falling faster in Korea than in just about any other country. Since the 1990s it has declined at twice the average rate of OECD countries. Meanwhile, the profits of Korean corporations are exceeding all expectations. Samsung recently projected record profits of 8.3 billion for the quarter ending December 2012, which gives it a run of five consecutive record-breaking quarters.  So, as was recently pointed out in the Chosun Ilbo of all places,…

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Can we shop our way to a better economy?

January 15, 2013
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Below is an interesting TED lecture by Stacy Mitchell that deals with one of the most important moral and political issues of our time–the corporate control of our economies and societies. In most capitalist economies, the trend over the past several decades has been towards greater consolidation, where the goods in question–whether food, retail, banking, healthcare, or the media–are being produced or delivered by fewer and fewer larger corporations. There are of course major social and environmental costs associated with this trend and increasingly many people, it seems, are realizing that the corporate capitalist system they are living in is not…

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African National Congress endorses Israel boycott

January 15, 2013
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Here’s an interesting experiment: Google the sentence “African National Congress approves Israel boycott.” You’ll see from the results (at least as of January 115, 2013) that the only sources with any information on this story are those related to the BDS movement or a few Israeli news organizations. Here are related pieces from The Jerusalem Post, Jewish News online, and the Jewish Journal.  Remarkably, there is virtually no coverage of this story in the mainstream media in the West.  And yet it is highly significant that the ANC, South Africa’s ruling party, voted in December 2012 to make boycotts, divestment and sanctions…

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Birthright Israel

January 13, 2013
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Following the UN vote to grant Palestinians non-member observer state status at the UN General Assembly, Israel immediately announced plans to construct settlements in the E1 area, which would cut off East Jerusalem from the West Bank and effectively destroy all hope for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As this article from Philip Weiss makes clear, talk of a one-state solution is now becoming more common and more frank. The real questions that seem to be emerging from the rubble of this conflict concern the nature and boundaries of the only viable state that will remain in that area.…

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Sam Harris and the ethical argument for guns

January 11, 2013
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In a recent and lengthy blog post entitled “The Riddle of Guns” author Sam Harris takes issues with the “fanatacists and zealots” on both sides of the gun debate in America.  He claims to be searching for some rational middle ground between the two extremes of, on the one hand, the “liberals”who respond to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School with calls for much stronger gun control and, on the other, the right-wing NRA types who respond to the tragic mass shooting with calls for more guns in the form of armed guards at elementary schools and other public…

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The Israel lobby in the UK

December 14, 2012
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The US and Canada are not the only countries with influential lobby groups working to ensure that the majority of politicians support Israel no matter how illegal or immoral its policies may be. One of these groups in the UK is the Conservative Friends of Israel, which claims on its website to have 2,000 activists and 80% of Tory MPs as its members. It sponsors trips to Israel for these Conservative parliamentarians and candidates and campaigns hard to get them elected in their districts. In this article in the Telegraph, Peter Oborne describes how the CFI has helped to push the…

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The ten myths of Israel

December 11, 2012
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Ilan Pappe, the Jewish historian and professor at Exeter University in the UK has complied an insightful list of the ten dominant myths surrounding Israel, myths that  impede the understanding and resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The ten myths are as follows: Myth 1: Palestine was a land without people, waiting for the people without a land Myth 2: Palestinians resorted to acts of terror against Jewish settlers prior to the creation of Israel Myth 3: Myths around the creation of Israel Myth 4: Israel was a benign democratic state prior to 1967 Myth 5: The Palestinian struggle has no…

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Canada’s support for Israel

December 11, 2012
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First the bad news. At the recent vote for an upgrade to the status of the Palestinians (to non-member observer state) at the UN General Assembly, Canada went out of its way to demonstrate that it is as strong (if not stronger) a supporter of Israel and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories as is the United States. It also made it clear to the world that the Canadian government could not care less about the morality or legality of the occupation, world public opinion, or Canada’s reputation as a good global citizen. Following the lop-sided vote, in which Canada…

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South Korea’s support for Israel

November 27, 2012
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While diplomatic and trade relations between South Korea and Israel have a somewhat checkered past, the two countries have grown much closer during the current administration of Lee Myun-Bak, which is currently negotiating a free-trade agreement with Israel. And as Israel’s relationships with neighboring countries—especially Turkey—deteriorate, South Korea seems eager to step in and pick up the lost business opportunities, especially in arms sales. According to this article in the Jerusalem Post, South Korea is already conducting arms trades with Israel and Seoul is now planning “to make Israel one of its main arms suppliers alongside the United States.” In…

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