Text – Page 47 – Citizen Reporter

National Self Esteem

There is no shortage of blog posts and online commentary about the US elections right now.? Despite being dedicated to under reported news, today I’m going to add just a little more to this excessively covered, global concern.

There is this long tradition in the United States that during presidential elections, candidates constantly play the patriotic card and use variations of these slogans:

The US has the greatest workforce in the world.

The US is the greatest force for good in the world.

The US is the greatest country in the world.

Yet anyone who studies history or labor statistics will find plenty of evidence contrary to these statements. Actually you don’t even have to study anything, regardless of country, when you read those statements you should recognize they aren’t true.? Yet election after election, the two mainstream ruling parties say these three over and over.

Watching speeches and debates between Obama and McCain or Biden and Palin, all of them make sure to spew these empty lines as if they’re trying to appease some segment of the audience that despite all logic and facts to the contrary, want to believe this is true.

Thankfully there are countries in the world were candidates don’t do this. Smaller countries, older countries that have weathered mass destruction and extreme poverty, they don’t bother repeating mantras about being the best and the greatest in the world.? Even the Finnish national anthem is about being one nation among many great nations of the world.

I wonder if I will live to see a major candidate in the US that finally stops pandering to jingoism and a mass superiority complex.? Besides being inaccurate, these types of statements help validate and continue destructive and failed policies and practices. I also hope this tradition doesn’t spread further in the world. Of course nationalism is not simply an American phenomenon and it isn’t going to disappear. But this rhetoric of we are the best, we are always right, everything we do is good; if a country is ever going to get better and a candidate make a real change, this practice will have to end.

Zizek on ROS

My recommendation for you on this friday is a very inspiring podcast conversation that came out on Radio Open Source recently.? Chris’s guest was Slavoj Zizek, a fantastically crazy human who mixes history with philisophy with 80’s movies… and uses it all to help us understand what is going on around us and what can be learned from it.

Among my favorite of his statements is when he is speaking about the US political culture and the current presidential race, he mentions the tendancy for some candidates to say “We’ve had enough talk, we need action” to which Zizek? something like NO. Now more than EVER, WE NEED TALK. TALKING is essential before we take significant action.

As you run around this weekend, turn on this episode of Radio Open Source, Zizek is a fantastic blend of your favorite teacher, your favorite movie critic, and you crazy next door neighbor.

Eye on Amtrak

When I was a kid in New Jersey there were always abandoned railroad tracks somewhere. You could be playing baseball or soccer and the ball would roll away from the field and toward some tree line or old factory and there would inevitably be tracks that were out of service, usually with bits of garbage strewn around them for good measure. It was the 80’s and 90’s, the era in the US where people just assumed rail had no future and it was more important to widen the highways and sell more cars.

Almost 20 years later more and more people in the US realize this outlook is what has no future, and railroads are needed now more than ever.? The problem is when they look to those old lines, they find they’re unusable or, in many cases, they’ve been removed and replaced with condo’s and parking lots. Occasionally they’ve managed to salvage an old line.

Meanwhile on the existing rail lines still in use, national rail service is a pitiful shell of what it could have been compared to Europe or Japan. Years of under funding and mis-management have left AMTRAK with an outdated fleet of trains that can’t travel more than an average of 80mph/128kph, and that is when they’re not being delayed by freight trains. Recent studies have revealed that indeed freight trains are the leading cause of the national rail carrier’s infamous delays.? Crazily enough, the freight companies actually own much of the track that AMTRAK uses.. again making it expensive and irratic in terms of costs and service as they illegally take priority.

The US congress has now approved a bill that must face the ignorant pen of the president, which provides funds and invesment to keep AMTRAK going and make a few strides towards mordernizing national passenger rail in America.

I suppose to many in the US, this is not interesting, as the belief that “rail isn’t practical” still somehow dominates.? Few have experienced High Speed Rail in other countries and even fewer could ever afford to ride the few ACELA – high speed trains that exist in the US.? Whereas regular people with modest incomes can afford to take a TGV in France or the Alfa Pendular in Portugal, most of the people you find on high speed American trains are executives who’s companies cover the high cost.

Whether the bill will be passed by GW Bush is still not clear.? Whether beyond some symbolic language, these funds will really make rail more accessible and efficient in the US, is also still not clear.? But the absolute need for such investment for both the present and future of the country – that part should be clear by now.

Labor Shortage Dutch Style

On line at the grocery store, I read the big sign in the window: Seeking new colleagues to join our team.? Around the block at the caf? there’s a small paper in the window that reads: seeking wait staff.? The restaurant next door is full to the brim with customers everyday and employs only 2 servers and 1 cook, the entire staff looks overwhelmed.

No matter where I look in the service industry, the Netherlands seems to be lacking workers. Yet at the same time, I can think of many university students who would never take such jobs.? I’m also reminded of my fellow university graduates who are seeking work in the field of their studies and would not take up work in a restaurant or a grocery store.

All this to make the un-scientific observation that there could be some type of labor shortage in this part of Europe. And it is getting worse.

Meanwhile I read about the situation of detained refugees in Belgium, who are currently on hunger strike.? Belgium’s politics and economic reality is certainly not identical to the Netherlands, but I still think it says something about where this entire region is within the discussion of the right to work and immigration policy. For the neverending obsession with keeping people out, I’m wondering who they’re going to turn to when no one in the country will take essential jobs.

Texas gets Smaller

Interesting piece from McClatchy newspapers included on the Guardian online today, all about the dramatic change to the Texas coastline that will follow this latest hurricane.

Texas is of course famous for being huge, but also for having a highly developed coastline and generally a very polluted environment. And one of the changes that is mentioned in the article is the rising sea level, they quote an article in the journal Science:

global sea level rise of 31.5 inches by the year 2100 should be the assumption. The highest conceivable rise, they estimate, is 6.5 feet.

6.5 feet..? 2 meters in less than 100 years, at the most.

More disturbing changes for Texas, many of the important barrier islands were washed away during Ike, and other natural barriers have also taken a huge hit. This means the next storms will do even greater damage to places further inland, possibly places that are not prepared to deal with flood waters and dangerous winds.

If you read the article for yourself it gets into oxygen levels in the gulf of mexico, which are also a major point of concern.? Yet somehow since hurricane ike passed you don’t see the mainstream examining these issues and investigating how the coast is going to be OR not be re-enforced and restored in an environmentally sound way.? Much like in Louisiana, once again we are left wondering if there will even be a coastline in 20 years, and why is the federal government not preparing for this reality.

Later this week I’ll be back on this topic, only this time with a focus on the very grim recovery process in Haiti.

The Super Rich vs The Super Poor in the US

Normally I prefer to NOT talk about the US elections. I’m not very impressed or excited by the actions and promises of either candidate of the 2 parties that share control of the country.? Sure Obama says things I like better than the things that McCain says. But that doesn’t automatically mean I’m satisfied or impressed.

One of the big issues for me is poverty.? Gone is the one candidate who at least spoke the words “the poor” in his speeches and proposed policies (John Edwards), the remaining 2 candidates call everyone working families or hard working Americans, little buzz phrases that are just vague enough to make everyone think this candidate is speaking for them.?? Meanwhile poverty in the US is on the increase, and also alarming, the wealthy class is more wealthy than ever in history and that gap between the two is wider then ever.? A fact that opens the door to many social, financial, and political problems.. yet there is little action or demand to put a stop to it.? (yes yes, both candidates mention their concern for CEO’s making so much money, I’m aware of that)

All this to bring me to my big recommendation of the day; the latest edition of Radio Open Source, where Chris interviews Chuck Collins.? While I’ve never heard of Chuck Collins, who is a specialist in the areas of US incomes, property, and economics, I found myself rewinding various segments to listen again.

You’ve heard it said before, though rarely do leaders or corporate media investigate it, the inequality boom in the United States is dangerous.? I highly recommend listening to this interview and soaking it in, it is the kind of critical thinking that we should be pummeling these candidates with.. obligating them to not just make the occasional lament, but to lay out a serious point by point plan for turning the tide and making it politically and hopefully cuturally a priority to preserve opportunity and keep the playing field of life and work from becoming an out of control thunderdome.