So, I’m guessing parenting and early education are now all about “preparing” children for the credentialist rat race:
The Power Elite: Number One Sign Your Parents Were Not in the Gifted Program: via kwout
Except that, of course, tests prepare for nothing other than taking other tests whose values is based only on the fact that people believe in their value. They are not good predictors of anything.
The Power Elite: Number One Sign Your Parents Were Not in the Gifted Prog... Read Full Story
An unusual combination of global trade, organized crime, and a “good” extracted from the periphery to be sold into the core areas as it is in high demand:
Peruvian gang ‘killed peasant farmers for their fat’ – Americas, World – The Independent via kwout
There are reasons for skepticism though (and I confess thinking that of one was looking to extract human fact, the United States would be the place to do it):
Peruvian gang ‘killed peasant farmers f... Read Full Story
So says a report from the United Nations Population Fund:
UNFPA – State of World Population 2009 via kwout
Gender and Climate Change: Poor Women Bear Brunt of Global Warming – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International via kwout
This is a point well-illustrated by this graph from the report:
One can see that women represent a high percentage of agricultural work in these African countries, whose production is already being destabilized by climate change. Indeed, it is ... Read Full Story
So, first, Afghanistan is declared the most corrupt country after Somalia (which barely qualifies as a country anyway), then, this:
Unicef’s state of the world’s children report 2009: Where is the worst place in the world to grow up? Afghanistan | News | guardian.co.uk via kwout
What a shocking surprise that eight years of war have not improved the standard of living of the population, especially women and children.
Oh, and on a related topic, this was interesting:
Unicef’... Read Full Story
Any fan of football (soccer for Americans) has heard of it – the infamy:
The hand that gave France its qualification for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. For non-soccer fan, especially on this side of the Atlantic, that move is not allowed. It’s cheating. And this started a storm. Remember Howard Becker, deviance only matters if it is seen and noticed by the audience. In the age of widespread media and the Internet, this particular act of deviance did not go unnoticed even if ... Read Full Story
In light of yesterday’s post on the publication of the latest Corruption Perception Index, and the sorry state of affairs in Afghanistan (which earned the next to last spot with only Somalia faring worse) as described in the BBC today. One notes three traits in corrupt practices in Afghanistan:
BBC News : Afghan corruption a political obstacle via kwout
And the second one
BBC News : Afghan corruption a political obstacle via kwout
And the third one
BBC News : Afghan corruption a po... Read Full Story
Via Sean Carroll on Twitter,
The 1960s make it all really visually cool but those were brutal years for the Global South.
And yes, where are the non-Western Empires? Read Full Story
Hungry America: food insecurity, state by state | News | guardian.co.uk via kwout
And here are some more specific data about this appalling state of affairs and what should be the shame of the nation considering how much money have been funneled to financial institutions and will be funneled to the health insurance sector:
Record numbers go hungry in households in the US | World news | guardian.co.uk via kwout
Maybe it is time for the UN to send some food aid to the United States? Because... Read Full Story
Transparency International has just published its 2009 Corruption Perception Index and as usual, it is a valuable source of information.
First, the usual animated map:
What´s new in CPI 2009/2009/cpi/surveys_indices/policy_research via kwout
The Top 10 (least corrupt countries):
CPI 2009 Table/2009/cpi/surveys_indices/policy_research via kwout
No real surprise here.
And the bottom ten (most corrupt countries):
CPI 2009 Table/2009/cpi/surveys_indices/policy_research via kwout
No surprise... Read Full Story
That’s what Dean Baker suggests:
An Unemployment Solution: Pay People to Work Shorter Hours – CEPR via kwout
The social benefits of this seem obvious, from greater family time to time for other pursuits which might lead to healthier results (mentally and physically) but this goes against the puritan ideology that non-work time is equivalent to sitting on one’s hands. Read Full Story
