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Category Archives: history
Fighting Famines with Markets: In Ethiopia, an Exchange Empowers Rural Farmers – Business – GOOD
Fighting Famines with Markets: In Ethiopia, an Exchange Empowers Rural Farmers – Business – GOOD.
Before the ECX, if the price of coffee shot up on New York markets, the price of coffee in Ethiopia would rise—unbeknownst to farmers isolated in rural markets. Traders aware of the price spike could buy low from farmers and sell high on national markets.
“If everybody gets that information at the same time,” says Gabre-Madhin, “then the local market follows exactly what happens in the national market, and even the international market, so that means those margins start to get squeezed.”
Pre-ECX studies estimated that a farmer’s share of the final export price of coffee was 35-38 percent.
“Now, we’ve been measuring it and tracking it between 65 and 70 percent,” she says, “so that basically means that there’s a tremendous shrinking of the margins between the rural and the national price.”
Most farm plots in Ethiopia are so small that a farmer may have only three or four sacks of produce to bring to market, so he might organize within his village’s co-op to fill one of the trucks that transports commodities to ECX warehouses throughout the country. Each truck holds 50 hundred-kilo bags, or five metric tons, which has become the standard contracting unit.
“We sort of took the same logic,” says Gabre-Madhin, “as when Chicago started in the 1840s. The size of what went into a railroad car in the Midwest is what became the contract size because that was a logical unit.”
With its warehouses, the Exchange has increased quality. Farmers used to haul harvests to market without knowing how their crops stacked up compared to others, and traders could often swindle them into selling high quality for a middling price. In the ECX system, commodities that enter a warehouse are immediately graded at a laboratory. Prices for each grade are available through the data system, and criteria to differentiate, for example, Grade 1 coffee from Grade 2 coffee are published and available to sellers and buyers. This third-party grading system circumvents buyers’ incentives to under-value farmers’ output.
At first, farmers at one co-op were angry because they perpetually received the lowest coffee price posted on the Exchange. A manager then pulled out the standards document and explained why their crop was graded poorly—shriveled beans weren’t removed, the coffee hadn’t been dried properly, dirt was mixed in with the beans. The farmers took notice and decided to control for quality. Over the first year-and-a-half it was traded, Ethiopia’s volume of highest-grade coffee tripled.
“That’s because these farmers,” says Gabre-Madhin, “who for probably 20 years have been told to do the very same thing but saw no reason to, now had an incentive to actually invest time and effort into getting better quality to market.”
“I think a lot of countries are excited about what we’ve done here in Ethiopia,” she says, and it seems that other African countries are eager to build exchanges of their own. Ghana plans to open a commodity exchange based on the ECX by the end of 2012, with hopes of improving internal food distribution as well as bolstering agricultural exports.
Gabre-Madhin also sees eventual opportunities for countries to cooperate across borders, citing the example of a regional coffee index that could give East African countries more leverage on international markets, and provide more benefits for small-scale farmers in places Ethiopia.
“Many countries are interested [in cooperating], but’s going to happen organically,” she says. “It’s going to happen because there’s a business logic to it.”
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Using Dairy to Build a Prison Reform Moo-vement – News – GOOD
Using Dairy to Build a Prison Reform Moovement – News – GOOD.
The organization will market and distribute milk, yogurt, butter and half & half from two Hudson Valley farms to CSAs, institutional housing (like senior centers and halfway houses), and daycare centers throughout New York City. The first farm to join is Ronnybrook out of Ancramdale, which will maintain its traditional packaging but show its support for Milk Not Jails by hanging a branded “necklace” around the necks of its glass bottles. Proceeds from selling the dairy line will pay a former prisoner to drive a truck, the purchase of which was made possible with Kickstarter funding.
The ultimate goal of the project is to secure enough allies from across the state to affect legislative change. Milk Not Jail’s eight-point policy plan includes goals like “Legalize the sale of raw milk products” and “End racist marijuana arrests.” Of course, the project has a long way to go before it gets to that point, but it represents a useful pivot in local food activism: using food to build awareness for causes outside the environment, too.
H2O Conserve – 75 water saving tips
Water-Saving Tips Here you’ll find over 75 tips to help you reduce your water footprint. The recommendations on this list will not only help you save water, they will also save you money, even if some tips cost a little money up-front. Remember, these tips are just the beginning. Keep challenging yourself to find other ways to save water every day!
Four Ways to Help Our Trees This Spring
Four Ways to Help Our Trees This Spring – http://pulse.me/s/81vRG
Men Are Becoming the Undereducated Gender
Men Are Becoming the Undereducated Gender – http://pulse.me/s/80YvP
Men Are Becoming the Undereducated Gender By Peter Coy April 11, 2012 3:11 PM EDT
Craig Torres of Bloomberg News has an alarming story today about how men are lagging in the job market because of under-education.
“It is terrific that women are getting higher levels of education,” Harvard University economist David Autor told Torres. “The problem is that males are not.”
This chart, based on data I downloaded today from the National Center for Education Statistics, shows the education gap between men and women is long-standing—and getting worse. By 2019, the center projects, there will be nearly three women in college classrooms for every two men.
The marketplace is shouting loud and clear that going to college pays off. The unemployment rate in March for people with a bachelor’s degree or higher was just 4.2 percent (PDF), the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last Friday. The rate for people with a high school education was 8 percent, while the rate for people with no high school diploma was 12.6 percent.
West Africa: UN Attacks ‘Global Indifference’ to Food Crisis
West Africa: UN Attacks ‘Global Indifference’ to Food Crisis – http://pulse.me/s/84tmD
“We are appealing, all of us, for an end to global indifference that we have found so far,” said Anthony Lake, the Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), at a joint news conference in Geneva with his counterparts from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
“I know that there is a certain fatigue. I have read comments in blogs and elsewhere that ‘here we go again; once more a famine; once more African children are dying; once more there is an appeal for help.’
“By acting vigorously and properly now, we can head off future crises… by building now in this crisis, health systems, community nutrition centres, more water bore holes… we can build capacity for the future,” he said.
Mr. Lake, who had just returned from a visit to Chad, noted that of the estimated 15 million people affected by the drought and conflict-related crisis in the region, about 1.5 million are children who face the prospect of severe acute malnutrition.
“I was in a town called Mao in central Chad a few days ago and visited a nutrition centre and they reported that admission rates at the nutritional centre for children suffering from severe acute malnutrition are already higher than at any point in last year’s lean season.
“This could be very bad and we are now across the region entering the so-called lean season, when families are drawing down the grains that they were able to harvest last year, but these families are in particular peril because in the drought of 2010 they had already sold off livestock, taking their kids out of school… therefore they are in a weakened position for this year’s crisis,” said Mr. Lake.
He said UNICEF and partners have been ramping up their response, but needed to accelerate the relief effort further.
UN agencies and partners last December appealed for $724 million to fund the humanitarian response to the crisis in the Sahel, but only 50 per cent of that funding requirement has so far been received, Mr. Lake said.
“To those who are fatigued, we would say that people and children, of course, are not simply statistics. All these are families fighting courageously in circumstances that few of us can imagine,” he said.
He spoke of meeting Fatuma, a young girl in a tent in Chad, who the previous week was among other children who were on the verge of death. “As I spoke to her mother I kept thinking about this not only being a life saved, but this is a whole future that was saved.”
“Let’s not look at them as objects of pity and charity, let’s look at them as people we need to support in their brave struggle for survival,” he said. He stressed that taking action immediately will be more cost-effective than waiting for the situation to deteriorate further.
“In the earthquake in Haiti, and even in the floods of Pakistan, the international community had very little warning. So we had to react as quickly as we could, but almost by definition we were always going to be too late.
“Here we’ve warnings for the last few months. Here we are working to try to stop it from getting worse. Some day there will be no excuse for looking back and saying why did we not do more, more quickly,” said Mr. Lake.
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Africa: U.S. Congress Bill Calls On Obama to Engage African Markets
Africa: U.S. Congress Bill Calls On Obama to Engage African Markets – http://pulse.me/s/83hKH
GOA was intended to contribute to poverty reduction in Africa by promoting light manufacturing and trade with the U.S.
President George W. Bush strengthened the legislation three times during his time in office. Under the legislation, 40 African countries are eligible to export up to 6,500 products to the U.S. duty and quota free, based on their commitment to economic and political reforms.
With the
legislation’s enactment, some Americans began for the first time to look at African nations more for their commercial and partnership potential than as charity projects.
But 10 years later, AGOA is still a work in progress. Total two-way trade with Africa has more than doubled to U.S. $73 billion and Africa’s non-energy exports to the U.S. under AGOA, largely apparel but also machinery and automobiles, have tripled to $3.8 billion. AGOA has created an estimated 300,000 new jobs which are largely filled by women, a genuine and cost-effective contribution to poverty reduction.
That’s the good news.
The disconcerting reality is that the U.S. seems to have turned its attention away from Africa’s commercial potential at a time when many other countries have undertaken significant efforts to capture a share of that market. This lack of interest comes at a time when sub-Saharan Africa, next to East Asia, is the fastest-growing region in the global economy, the number of democracies has increased from three in 1998 to 23 in 2008 and a consumer class the size of India’s has emerged on the continent.
Other countries are paying attention to these positive changes and, not surprisingly, China is at the forefront. Its two-way trade with Africa increased from $10 billion in 2000 to $160 billion in 2011. China is not alone in these endeavors. Brazil’s trade with Africa has quadrupled between 2002 and 2010, and earlier this year, India increased its trade target to $90 billion by 2015. Turkey, Russia and Iran are increasing their commercial activity on the continent as well.
Report On UC Davis Pepper Spray Incident Finds Police Conduct ‘Objectively Unreasonable’
Report On UC Davis Pepper Spray Incident Finds Police Conduct ‘Objectively Unreasonable’ – http://pulse.me/s/7PuzB
Two reports commissioned by the University of California-Davis to investigate the infamous pepper spray incident from last fall have been released to the public, and they appear to verify most of the facts put forth by Occupy protesters and fly in the face of the allegations made by the university and its police department.
The Reynoso Task Force Report takes a close look at the events of November 18, 2011, when UC-Davis campus police moved to evict occupiers from campus. In an incident made instantly famous on YouTube,Lieutenant John Pike stepped over a line of peaceful students seated on the ground and calmly proceeded to douse them with military-grade pepper spray. The shocking video quickly went viral, and outrage over the conduct of the police department and UC-Davis’ failure to properly reprimand the officer spread nationwide.
Throughout more than 100 pages of the two reports —one conducted by the task force itself, the other by an outside company at the behest of the university —virtually all of the claims initially made by the police department and its defenders in the UC-Davis administration were debunked.
The task force found that the use of MK-9, the pepper spray discharged by Lt. Pike (and called a food product by Fox News’ Megyn Kelly), was not an authorized weapon for the department and its use “was objectively unreasonable.”
When asked why they felt the need to use the spray, officers initially told the task force that they felt the mob was hostile and needed to create a pathway for the officers to leave the quad. The task force concluded that “a detailed review of the evidence undermines this conclusion.”
Decoding ALEC PR – Alec Exposed
Decoding ALEC PR – Alec Exposed. How does the American Legislative Exchange Council work? See Below
Source: Zimmerman to be charged in Trayvon Martin case – This Just In – CNN.com Blogs
Source: Zimmerman to be charged in Trayvon Martin case – This Just In – CNN.com Blogs.
Source: Zimmerman to be charged in Trayvon Martin case
[Updated at 3:02 p.m. ET] The office of special prosecutor Angela Corey has confirmed that a news conference updating the media on the Trayvon Martin case will begin at the State Attorney’s Office in Jacksonville, Florida at 6 p.m. ET.
[Updated at 2:51 p.m. ET] Corey’s office, which is investigating the Trayvon Martin shooting case, said that charges against George Zimmerman have not been filed. The office would not confirm whether the office planned to charge him, according to HLN’s Josey Crews.
Earlier, CNN reported that Corey is expected to announce a decision Wednesday regarding whether she will file charges against Zimmerman, and a senior law enforcement source familiar with the Martin death investigation said that Zimmerman would be charged.
[Updated at 2:39 p.m. ET] George Zimmerman “will be (criminally) charged if (he) hasn’t been charged already,” according to a senior law enforcement source familiar with the Trayvon Martin death investigation.
It’s not clear what the charges would be.
iReport.com: What’s your reaction?
[Initial post, 2:29 p.m. ET] A special prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin shooting case is expected to announce a decision within the next four hours regarding whether she will file charges against George Zimmerman, CNN reports.
The news comes a day after attorneys for Zimmerman told reporters they had lost contact with Zimmerman and no longer represent him.
Pell grants to cover lowest amount in history: think progress
Pell Grants Next Year Will Cover Smallest Percentage Of College Costs In Their History
http://thinkprogress.org/education/2012/04/09/461078/pell-grants-smallest-percentage-cost/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews&mobile=nc
By Pat Garofalo on Apr 9, 2012 at 6:50 pm
Since 1985, the combined cost of college tuition and fees has gone up by about 559 percent,leading to outstanding student loan debt that, by some estimates, has cleared $1 trillion. As colleges have kept on increasing their costs, financial aid has failed to keep up.
Case in point, according to the Institute for College Access and Success, a non-profit organization aiming to expand higher education accessibility, Pell Grants next year will cover the smallest percentage of overall college costs since the creation of the program:
The program has not been able to keep up with ever-escalating college prices: Since 2008, annual spending on the Pell Grant program has more than doubled, to nearly $40 billion, and thanks to the Obama administration and Congress, the maximum grant has jumped from $4,731 to $5,550 (and is scheduled to rise again to $5,635 in fiscal year 2013). Despite these increases, the maximum Pell Grant is expected to cover less than one-third of the average cost of attendance at public four-year colleges next year –a level that would be, according to the Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS), “the lowest in history.”
Just 30 years ago, Pell Grants covered nearly 70 percent of the cost of college:
Over those 30 years, the U.S. has made exactly zero progress in terms of increasing its college graduation rate. Instead of doing anything to address this, House Republicans approved a budget that eliminates Pell Grants for up to one million students.
A New Kind of Toilet Paper
A New Kind of Toilet Paper – http://pulse.me/s/7Z1mT
“The Power of Poop” explored a variety of uses of human waste, including fecal bacteriotherapy (or a “transpoosion”), a poop-powered car, and homes heated with human waste.
Now there’s another use. From Israel’s Ynetnews:
Dr. Refael Aharon of Applied CleanTech has developed a system capable of turning stinking sewage into a renewable and profitable source of energy. How?
About 99.9% of the drainage which comes out of our homes and flows through pipes is water. The remaining 10% are comprised of solid substances which can be used for the production of cellulose, which is used to produce paper.
These substances include food leftovers, used toilet paper and fiber from clothes which flow into the sewage with the laundry water. So far, these solid substances have been a difficult and expensive nuisance. The process of cleaning the large amounts of processed waste remaining after the wastewater filtration require a lot of money, which pushes up our water tariffs.
Aharon says the process he developed reduces half of the solid substances in the sewage. As a result, the factory needs less electricity and chemicals to purify water – and the money saved may eventually reduce our water bills. So how does one turn drain water into paper? After the solid substances are filtered and separated from the wastewater, they undergo a drying and purification process to remove bacteria.
The remaining substance, which includes large amounts of cellulose, can be sold to paper manufacturers. Thanks to the system, which has already been installed in one of the sewage purification facilities in southern Israel, paper has already been produced at much lower costs than regular recycled paper.
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Waka Flocka Defends Rejecting Diddy & Rick Ross’ Fur Pleas, “I Never Been A Mink Person Period. I Hate Minks. That Sh*t Is Wack To Me”
Waka Flocka Defends Rejecting Diddy & Rick Ross’ Fur Pleas, “I Never Been A Mink Person Period. I Hate Minks. That Sh*t Is Wack To Me” – http://pulse.me/s/81o9d
Atlanta rapper Waka Flocka Flame recently delved into his issues with furs and minks, admitting he was pro-animal rights way before PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) approached him last year for a campaign.
According to Flockaveli, rap stars Diddy and Rick Ross even tried to get him to mink up for their “Oh Let’s Do It” remix music video back in 2010 but he vehemently declined the offer.
“The campaign I did with PETA was “Ink Over Mink.” I never been a mink person period. I hate minks. I hate furs. That sh*t is wack to me. I ain’t gon’ lie, as a kid I stand by that. You can tell that by my “Oh Let’s Do It (Remix)” video. [Puff and Rick Ross] had minks on, [they even] had a mink for me, but I wouldn’t put that sh*t on and that was way before PETA. So, it’s no publicity stunt. N*ggas ain’t give me no money. I ain’t get no cash for it. It’s just somethin’ I stood by. Plus, I like dogs — my my new PETA ad is for dogs. That’s just what I stand for as a man. I’m not thinkin’ about if I go back to the ‘hood and somebody is gonna be like “Yo that sh*t is wack.” F*ck you at the end of the day, ’cause when I’m broke, you’re not gonna feed me a bread crumb. If this how I feel, why not express how the f*ck I feel? That’s just how it is. And I’m all for it man.” (XXL Mag)
Malawi Swears In Its First Female President, When Will America Follow Suit?
Malawi Swears In Its First Female President, When Will America Follow Suit? – http://pulse.me/s/82aRy
Malawi Swears In Its First Female President, When Will America Follow Suit?
TUESDAY APR 10, 2012 – BY BRITNI DANIELLE
Joyce Banda was sworn in as Malawi’s first female president, assuming control after the death of former President Bingu wa Mutharika.
Banda becomes the first female president in southern Africa, and has promised to ”defend and preserve the constitution” as well as the people of Malawi.
Banda was the country’s vice-president (elected in 2009), but was very critical of former President Mutharika and had joined the opposition party. After his death on Thursday, many wondered if President Banda would assume control of the nation or if her rule would be usurped by his brother, Malawi’s Foreign Minister, Peter Mutharika. Foreign Minister Mutharika initially said that Banda could not be Malawi’s president because she joined the opposition party, but the UK, US, and EU urged Malawi to respect its constitution and inaugurate Mrs. Banda as president.
During her swearing-in ceremony, President Banda told her countrymen, ”It is with a great sense of humility and honour that I accept the huge responsibility of that the people of Malawi have entrusted me with,” and told her constituents that they must now focus their efforts on burying their deceased former president.
With President Banda now at the helm in Malawi, she becomes the 18th woman to head a nation across the would. From Jamaica and Germany, to India and Brazil, women are making political headways and are leading some of our world’s most influential nations.
But is America Next?
Do you think we will have a female president of the United States soon?
The Science of Fox News: Why Its Viewers are the Most Misinformed: via Alternet
In other words Fox News is both deceiver and enabler simultaneously. First, its existence creates the opportunity for conservatives to exercise their biases, by selecting into the Fox information stream, and also by imbibing Fox-style arguments and claims that can then fuel biased reasoning about politics, science, and whatever else comes up.
But at the same time, it’s also likely that conservatives, tending to be more closed-minded and more authoritarian, have a stronger emotional need for an outlet like Fox, where they can find affirmation and escape from the belief challenges constantly presented by the “liberal media.” Their psychological need for something affirmative is probably stronger than what’s encountered on the opposite side of the aisle—as is their revulsion towards allegedly liberal (but really centrist) media outlets.
And thus we find, at the root of our political dysfunction, a classic nurture-nature mélange. The penchant for selective exposure is rooted in our psychology and our brains. Closed-mindedness and authoritarianism—running stronger in some of us than in others—likely are as well.
But nevertheless, it took the emergence of a station like Fox News before these tendencies could be fully activated—polarizing America not only over politics, but over reality itself.
Chris Mooney is the author of four books, including “The Republican War on Science” (2005). His new book is “The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science—and Reality”.
© 2012 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/154875/
via AlterNet: The Science of Fox News: Why Its Viewers are the Most Misinformed.
5 Ways to Avoid Getting Busted for Pot | | AlterNet
5 Ways to Avoid Getting Busted for Pot | | AlterNet.
5 Ways to Avoid Getting Busted for Pot
By Scott Morgan, AlterNet
Posted on April 9, 2012, Printed on April 10, 2012
http://www.alternet.org/story/154845/5_ways_to_avoid_getting_busted_for_pot
Each year, close to a million Americans are arrested for possessing marijuana, and many millions more are targeted and searched by police on suspicion of being a marijuana user. It’s an incredible waste of limited law enforcement resources, and the experience of being harassed, arrested, and slapped with a criminal record isn’t exactly getting rave reviews from anyone either. Heck, even cops are getting sick of this idiocy.
I’ve spent several years teaching the public how to deal with police. I’ve heard more than my share of horror stories from people who froze up when confronted by the cops and soon found themselves in the back of a squad car. When that happens, chances are it wasn’t because they hurt someone, but rather, because they possessed a small amount of marijuana.
Now that half the nation is in favor of legalizing marijuana, there is hope that we’ll soon see a day when none of us are placed in handcuffs for having a little pot in our pockets. But until then, those who use marijuana –- whether to treat an illness, or simply as part of a healthy lifestyle –- should have a plan prepared just in case they find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The following tips are designed to help responsible adults avoid becoming statistics in our nation’s enormous, expensive and embarrassing war on marijuana.
1. Don’t Consent to Searches
This is a pretty straightforward concept, but a lot of people get hung up on worrying how the officer will react. Don’t. Just be cool and keep in mind that agreeing to a search will automatically lead to your arrest if you’re in possession of marijuana. Refusing will often prevent the search, but even it doesn’t, you’ll have a better chance of winning the case once you get to court.
2. Don’t Let Them Into Your House
If you enjoy marijuana, then you probably don’t want police officers coming inside your house. Unfortunately, cops are quite good at convincing you to let them in. They might make it sound like you don’t have a choice, or simply try to convince you they’re not looking to get anyone in trouble. Whatever they say, your answer should stay the same: No. Unless they have a search warrant, they can’t come in without your permission. Your best move is to politely explain that you’re not letting anyone in without a warrant.
3. Ask if You’re Free to Go
The longer your police encounter lasts, the greater the risk of something going wrong. If you refuse a search, officers will often say, “okay, wait here,” or they might even threaten to “call in the dogs.” What they won’t tell you is that they may not actually have any legal authority to make you stay. Police need evidence (reasonable suspicion) to justify detaining you, and refusing a search doesn’t count.
If you don’t feel like hanging out with the cops, ask if you’re free to go. If they say “yes,” leave immediately. If they say “no,” then you’re being detained and they will need to prove in court that they had a legal reason to detain you. Even if they search you and find marijuana, the fact that you asked to leave before the search will improve your chances in court, because any evidence found during an illegal detention is not admissible. The legal concepts here get a bit complicated, but just remember that after you refuse a search you should also ask if you can leave.
4. Don’t Do Dumb Stuff in Public
When the temptation to put fun before common sense takes over, the consequences can be quick and vicious. Knowing your rights can increase your odds of avoiding trouble, but if officers actually observe you committing a crime, the only tip I can give you is to call a good lawyer. If police see, smell, or hear evidence of criminal activity, that’s all the grounds they need to search and arrest you.
Remember that good herb reeks, literally spilling a cloud of probable cause in every direction. Lighting up in cars, parks, dorms and other exposed areas is just asking for trouble. Some regions are more lenient than others, but don’t push your luck, and don’t assume it’s okay just because you see others doing it. I’ve seen people get popped for pot in Berkeley of all places, so remember there are no drug-war-free zones in America yet. Be cool, and watch your back.
5. Don’t Snitch on Yourself
It’s tempting to think that honesty will win you some points with police. Heck, they’ll even promise to cut you a break in exchange for a straight answer. But coming clean is a mistake you’ll regret seconds later when they order you to put your hands behind your back. Most people don’t think pot is a big deal, so it’s easy for the cops to convince you they don’t care about it either. But it’s their job to bust you for pot, and they’re allowed to lie if necessary to trick you into cooperating. If they didn’t care, they wouldn’t ask.
If police are asking you incriminating questions, just politely tell them you choose to remain silent until you’ve spoken with a lawyer.
This is the most helpful advice I can give for protecting yourself from the tricks police use to bust millions of Americans for marijuana. But remember that knowing your rights and watching your back will only get you so far. Escaping unscathed from a scary police encounter also requires controlling your emotions and remaining calm and cool.
Maintaining a relaxed attitude is the key to pulling off tactics such as refusing searches, asking if you’re free to go, and declining to answer incriminating questions. Even if you do everything right, there’s still a chance you’ll end up in court fighting for your freedom, but your odds of winning will be far greater if you’ve calmly asserted your rights throughout the encounter.
I’d like to hear any strategies I might have missed. What’s your favorite tip for preventing a pot bust?
Scott Morgan is associate director of FlexYourRights.org and co-creator of the film 10 Rules for Dealing with Police.
© 2012 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/154845/
References
http://blog.norml.org/2011/09/19/marijuana-arrests-driving-americas-so-called-drug-war-latest-fbi-data-shows/
http://www.leap.cc/
Don’t White People Kill Each Other, Too?
Don’t White People Kill Each Other, Too? – http://pulse.me/s/80l06
And yet we keep hearing about black-on-black crime because it fits the false media narrative. By: Edward Wyckoff Williams | Posted: April 10, 2012 at 12:40 AM
Bill O’Reilly, the Fox News host and one-man propaganda machine, recently interviewed Columbia University professor Marc Lamont Hill to discuss similar claims from Wall Street Journal contributor Shelby Steele, who wrote in “The Exploitation of Trayvon Martin” that “black teenagers are afraid of other black teenagers, not whites.” O’Reilly vehemently defended Steele’s premise that the Trayvon Martin case is an anomaly.
“Blacks today are nine times more likely to be killed by other blacks than by whites,” Steele wrote. He went on to attack the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for “exploiting” Trayvon’s death in an effort to promote a “liberal” agenda — a point that O’Reilly was all too happy to expound.
Steele’s perspective, though myopic and misguided, remains pervasive and embedded in the broader social consciousness. This red-herring approach is not new, but in the face of Trayvon’s death — for which there remains no arrest, no charges and no arraignment — these obstructive tactics require an equal and opposite response.
What Will, Steele and O’Reilly failed to mention is the exacting truth that white Americans are just as likely to be killed by other whites. According to Justice Department statistics (pdf), 84 percent of white people killed every year are killed by other whites.
e system. Not only was he murdered in large part because of dangerous, persistent stereotypes, but the failure of police to judiciously respond to the crime underscores the inequities that characterize institutionalized racism.
Those who respond to the tragedy by retreating to narratives of black-on-black crime seek to promote it as a defense against an innocent child’s violent homicide. This reveals how entrenched the lies have become and how eager too many people are to absolve both Zimmerman’s guilt and their own tacit consent.
African-American media and policymakers have been equally complicit in promoting a “black-on-black crime” anecdote, thinking that it could help address some of the community’s problems; but what it has actually done is provide support for racial profiling and promote the disproportionate policing of black criminality as “legitimate” and “acceptable.” This over-policing has led to disproportionately higher rates of arrests in black communities, reinforcing the idea that blacks commit more crimes.
If we were to talk about “white-on-white crime,” then at least we’d be addressing issues like gun violence in a racially neutral way. That doesn’t happen because too many Americans remain convinced that black or brown people are the problem. Respected journalists like George Will further perpetuate lies as fact when they make blanket statements that support an ill-conceived narrative.
It seems that the media in general and white American society in particular prefer to focus on crime perpetrated by African Americans because it serves as a way to absolve them from the violence, prejudice and institutionalized discrimination engendered for generations against blacks. It offers a buffer against responsibility, a way to shift blame and deflect cause and effect. But the truth, and numbers, tell a different story.
The myth of black-on-black violence has become a stain on the sociopolitical consciousness and indelibly imbues mindsets as well as public policy. At the heart of an increasingly violent society is not a subculture among blacks but the violence and criminality of many Americans, and whites in particular. No one seems to speak about this. Why? Because the snake oil was duly purchased and consumed. It is time for race-based pseudo-facts to be challenged and dismantled.
Edward Wyckoff Williams is an author, columnist and political analyst for MSNBC and a former investment banker. Follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
Why This Year’s Tick Season May Be Worse Than Ever
Why This Year’s Tick Season May Be Worse Than Ever – http://pulse.me/s/7ZwwQ
Whether or not there are more ticks this year than usual, it’s important to protect yourself. “Prevention is the key,” says Dr. Wormser, who points out that it’s much easier to take a few precautions in advance than deal with Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses after the fact. Here are his top strategies for preventing tick bites:
1. Stay away from tall grass, bushy shrubs and areas where there’s a lot of leaf litter. “Manicured lawns that are well-mowed are less risky,” he says.
2. Use insect repellant on your exposed skin (other than your hands and face). Dr. Wormser recommends using repellant with DEET, because it’s proven to be effective. “You can easily see a tick that’s on your face or your hands,” he explains.
3. After you’ve been outside and potentially exposed to ticks, take a shower or a bath. “If you can bathe within a couple of hours of exposure, you will reduce your changes of getting a tick bite.”
4. Do a tick check! Dr. Wormser says one of the best strategies is to enlist someone’s help and check your body for ticks every 24 hours during the time you are potentially exposed to ticks. “Look at your entire body to see if there are any attached ticks, and remove them,” he says. “If you can remove the tick within 24 hours of it biting you, you usually don’t contract any of the related diseases.”
7 Black Global Designers to Watch
7 Black Global Designers to Watch – http://pulse.me/s/7Uaat
