Global Ethics

The week the world stood still (by Noam Chomsky)

November 5, 2012
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In his article “The week the world stood still,” published originally on TomDispatch, Noam Chomsky reminds us how close the world came to thermonuclear apocalypse in 1962 and also provides some insight into what really happened behind closed doors during the standoff between the US and the Soviet Union. It is of great importance to get the facts right about this dark moment in human history right, especially since the majority of people on earth were not alive in 1962 and can only learn about it through historical scholarship. Noam Chomsky therefore does us a great service in this article; his…

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Canada shames itself once again in support of Israel

October 30, 2012
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First a few background points on the legality of the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian territories (from Wikipedia):  1. The international community considers the settlements in occupied territory to be illegal. Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and communities in the Golan Heights, areas which have been annexed by Israel, are also considered settlements by the international community, which does not recognise Israel’s annexations of these territories. 2. The United Nations has repeatedly upheld the view that Israel’s construction of settlements constitutes violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. International humanitarian law prohibits [an] occupying power [from transferring] citizens from its own territory to the occupied territory (Fourth Geneva Convention, article 49). 3. The International Court…

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Earthship Biotechture 101

October 13, 2012
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Here are a few helpful links for those who are interested in learning more about earthships and perhaps building one of their own. In the first place, there are existing earthships that can be rented as hotel rooms on a weekly or nightly basis. There is this earthship in France which one can rent or buy and these rentals in New Mexico.  For those who want to learn, there are internships opportunities as well as an Biotecture Academy offering training and degrees.  Here’s a website keep track of progress on an earthship being constructed in Manitoba of all places. And the following…

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Sustainability and freedom

October 13, 2012
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Although it does snow in New Mexico, most people who watch the Garbage Warrior or witness the biotecture communities sprouting up in places like Taos probably think that earthships are fine for hot dry climates but wouldn’t really work in places like Canada. This short video clip nicely debunks that idea. The Potter’s earthship is in Bancroft Ontario which gets extremely cold in the winter, going as low as -35 Celsius. But as the Potters attest, they are perfectly comfortable in their home. And after building it, for very little money, they discovered that it not only sheltered them and…

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Garbage Warrior (documentary)

October 12, 2012
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Michael Reynolds is a true maverick; he sees humanity marching toward the edge of a cliff and he’s not willing to go along with the crowd. Instead he uses his skills as a trained architect to show people that there is another, better way of living, one which is sustainable, ecologically beneficial, and 100 percent self-supporting. He builds homes–even entire communities–that are completely off the energy grid, collect water from rainfall, recycle waste, and are made from mostly garbage and recycled materials. It’s called “Earthship Biotecture” and it may very well be the most profound and practical solution to the pressing environmental challenges…

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American Radical: the trials of Norman Finkelstein (documentary)

October 9, 2012
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The official description of this 2009 documentary reads as follows: A devoted son of Holocaust survivors and ardent critic of Israeli foreign policy, the polarizing American political scientist and author Norman Finkelstein has been called a lunatic and self-hating Jew by some, and an inspirational revolutionary by others. Uncompromising even in the face of his denial of tenure at DePaul University, Finkelstein is revealed as a complex, politically isolated figure who puts the pursuit of justice above the security of his academic career. Exploring the difficult and deeply-felt issues at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, American Radical is the…

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On most metrics, the US is a dog

October 8, 2012
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The provocative title of this post is not an opinion but a quote from a recent book by Howard Steven Friedman, a statistician and health economist for the United Nations and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. The book, entitled “The Measure of a Nation,” compares the US’ standings on a variety of metrics concerning health, safety, education, democracy and income equality to those of 13 carefully chosen competitor OECD nations: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Portugal, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain and the UK, all of whom have populations of at least ten…

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Upward mobility in the U.S. is a myth

October 8, 2012
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Robert S. Strauss used to say that every politician wants you to believe he was born in a log cabin he built himself. Republicans in particular never tire of emphasizing the unparalleled opportunities that exist in US, where hard work and determination can propel anyone out of humble beginnings into the White House, or at least a mansion on a hill. But is this really the case? A recent international study examined the relationship between wealth, heritage and inequality across generations. Here’s the abstract: We study the role of parental wealth for children’s educational and occupational outcomes across three types of…

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The US presidential beauty contest

October 6, 2012
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The good news in the 2012 US presidential election is that there are some decent candidates running on platforms that address serious issues, people like Jill Stein of the Green Party and Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party. The bad news is that most of the American electorate will not even be aware of these people, much less know what they stand for. And that, it seems, is the primary function of the nationally televised  presidential debates–to focus attention, not on, but away from the real alternatives to the status quo in US politics. How else to explain the absence…

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Criticism of The Spirit Level

September 29, 2012
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Earlier this year the RSA hosted a debate on The Spirit Level, the highly influential book by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson. That book and the subsequent TED lecture by Wilkinson provided what seemed to many like an extraordinarily strong case for the idea that income inequality is the driving force in social dysfunction and that reducing income inequality will benefit virtually everyone in wealthy societies, even those at the top of the economic pyramid. The sobering RSA debate presents evidence and arguments to the contrary, from Christopher Snowdon and Peter Saunders. The main critique that Snowdon and Saunders advance, a…

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Why the US and Israel are the greatest threats to peace

September 29, 2012
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One of the most remarkable things about Noam Chomsky is his ability to distance himself from conventional assumptions and biases. Throughout his career, not only in his political writings but also his work in linguistics and the philosophy of language, he engages in thought-experiments which ask what conclusions an objective observer, a Martian, for instance, would draw were he to examine the problem at hand without the usual biases and presuppositions. This strategy is on display once again in a characteristically insightful piece by Chomsky recently posted on Alternet entitled “Why the US and Israel are the greatest threats to…

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The Israeli lobby and how it operates

September 27, 2012
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In his blog post entitled “The Israel lobby and how it operates,”  Lawrence Davidson provides a simple, step-by-step account of how the Israel Lobby works its magic on the US Congress. This account provides a clear and compelling answer to a question that perplexes many observers of US foreign policy, the question of exactly why the American political establishment doggedly supports the state of Israel even though Israel is pursuing objectives that run contrary to US national interests. Davidson ends with an apt quote from Cicero: “Nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit,” translated as: “No fortification is such that…

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CO2 emissions drop, but natural gas won’t save us

September 18, 2012
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Last month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a drop in U.S. carbon emissions to a 20 year low, basically matching the carbon emissions of 1992. The media’s coverage of this report was brief and rather one-sided. Here are a few representative samples: Kevin Begos from the Associated Press: Many of the world’s leading climate scientists didn’t see the drop coming, in large part because it happened as a result of market forces rather than direct government action against carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. While conservation efforts, the lagging economy and greater use of renewable…

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The culture wars come to Korea

September 7, 2012
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The Unites States has had a heavy influence on Korea ever since the end of the Japanese colonial period following WWII. Along with a temporary US military government and a large contingent of US troops has come a heavy dose of American ideology and religion. Not surprisingly, South Korea now finds itself mired in an American style battle between science and religion. Gallup surveys have found that around 40 percent of Americans do not believe in evolution. A 2009 South Korean survey found that about one-third of Koreans don’t believe in evolution and, more shockingly, that  40 percent of biology teachers believe…

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Highs and lows in debates on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

July 28, 2012
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Two recent debates on Democracy Now (here and here) regarding the BDS movement really stand out as remarkable in the history of debates on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In both of these debates, opposition to the BDS movement comes from Rabbi Arthur Waskow.  While he is opposed to a BDS movement against Israel, he clearly acknowledges Israel’s flagrant violations of international law and insists that the brutal occupation of Palestinian territory must be brought to an end. For him the only question is how best to do it. Because of this common ground, there is a level of civility and mutual respect…

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New ideas for addressing climate change

July 27, 2012
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Bill McKibben, one of the leading environmentalists of our time. has a real talent for taking the latest developments in climate science and explaining their significance in terms that the average person can easily understand. His latest piece in Rolling Stone magazineis no exception. In it, he gives compelling, fact-based reasons for why the prospects for containing global warming are very dim. But he also presents a new idea that just might provide a glimmering of hope. McKibben suggests that the divestment campaign that helped to end the South African apartheid may provide the model for a public campaign to…

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Taxing the wealthy (TED lecture by Chuck Collins)

June 30, 2012
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The Program on Inequality and the Common Good, run by Chuck Collins at The Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC, focuses on the dangers that growing inequality pose for U.S. democracy, economic health and civic life. In this TEDx lecture Collins gives a moving and illuminating talk on the moral justification for reducing income inequality by increasing taxes on the rich. Collins’s privileged background lends to his credibility on this subject, but what really impresses in this talk are the stories of the wealthy people across the US who are actually willing to dramatically increase their tax rates. This talk…

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Stiglitz on economic inequality

June 30, 2012
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The issue of economic inequality has been receiving quite a lot of attention in the past few months–at least in the progressive media. This is no doubt due in part to the Occupy movement and to the anti-austerity protests in Europe, which have really thrust the issues of inequality and economic justice into the spotlight. More so than at any point in the last several decades, there is a real public thirst for understanding the causes and consequences of economic inequality and what can be done to reverse it. The Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is one of several academics who have…

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The sad state of affairs in Texas

June 29, 2012
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The 2012 political platform of the Republican Party of Texas is available online here. The views expressed  in this document are both disturbing and depressing. Below are a few highlights.  1. On Education Controversial Theories – We support objective teaching and equal treatment of all sides of scientific theories. We believe theories such as life origins and environmental change should be taught as challengeable scientific theories subject to change as new data is produced. Teachers and students should be able to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these theories openly and without fear of retribution or discrimination of any kind.    Knowledge-Based Education –…

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Singer on religious freedom

June 28, 2012
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Peter Singer has penned an excellent article for Project Syndicate entitled “The Use and Abuse of Religious Freedom.” The background for the article is a recent proposal of the Party for the Animals, the only animal-rights party to be represented in a national parliament. The party has proposed a law requiring that all animals in the Netherlands be stunned before slaughter. In response to this proposal Islamic and Jewish leaders have united and spoken out in defense of their religious freedom, because their religious doctrines prohibit eating meat from animals that are not conscious when killed. But would the proposed law,…

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