December 2011
46 posts
"We Do Not Live in a Democracy; We Live in a... →
The benchmark for democracy is and will always be found in Pericles’ Funeral Oration, the First Statesman of Ancient Athens:
“Our polity does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. It is called a democracy, because not the few but the many govern. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private...
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“[…] the next time someone calls you too sensitive, remember that the root...”
– Dehypnotize
"You Cannot Destroy Me: A Letter Written By a... →
Dear Wage-Slave:
You cannot destroy me because I am not really a human being, I am a system of control and accumulation. I am not like you, I am not an individual, I am not a needy creature, I am a powerful system of thought and emotional control.
You cannot destroy me because deep down inside of your rotten self, you love your oppressors and you identify with your masters. You cannot touch...
Europe's Year of Austerity →
It has been a good year for unelected technocrats and a bad one for democracy in Europe. The vision of a generous welfare state mixed with competitive capitalism all but fell apart under its weight in 2011; as debt-laden states sacrificed sovereignty at the international bond market’s financial altar.
Scenes of burning tyres, tear gas and striking workers became common place across the...
Bradley Manning vs the US military →
It has been more than 17 months since Private Bradley Manning was arrested for allegedly leaking classified US military documents to Julian Assange and his whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. Since his detention, there has been news of torture, solitary confinement and mistreatment by prison guards. The information leaked by Manning to WikiLeaks made front page news around the world. But...
Case for Securities Market Regulation →
After losing 20,000 pounds of his fortune during the “South Sea bubble” 300 years ago, Isaac Newton reportedly said, “I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.” This bubble refers to the overheated market speculation of the shares of a company known as the South Sea Company, which started operations in 1711.
[…] We have...
WatchTanya Rosenblit, currently referred to as Israel’s Rosa Parks, a woman who refused to sit in the back of the bus after an extremist religious man told her she couldn’t sit in the front because of her gender.
'Existential challenge': Israeli girl's plight... →
Critics say authorities turn blind eye on harassment, attacks by ultra-Orthodox; thousands protest.
[…] Beit Shemesh’s growing ultra-Orthodox population has erected street signs calling for the separation of sexes on the sidewalks, dispatched “modesty patrols” to enforce a chaste female appearance and hurled stones at offenders and outsiders. Walls of the neighborhood...
“You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns...”
– Quotable Quotes
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Ethiopia: A Perfect Storm for an Emerging Adoption... →
[…] Ethiopia must learn from other countries that have seen sharp rises in adoption. In Guatemala, adoption corruption eventually came to have “hidden structures of organized crime,” with critics facing so much intimidation that many hired bodyguards. In one case, a scholar researching adoption there disappeared completely and is presumed dead.
When people see birth families...
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WatchGandhi’s Children — A Documentary
… The India that you would probably not see in Bollywood movies! An excellent documentary that tells stories that most people around the world can identify with.
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Dismantling Dissent →
Intensified crackdown on free speech in Ethiopia — Amnesty.org, 2011 report.
WatchThe Power of Art: Women’s Voices in Africa
(from: Claudine Pommier)
I find it such an empowering documentary!
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"Ignorance is truly an affliction." →
In the novel “Children of Gabalawi”, Arafa, who symbolizes modern science, fails to control the course of events after Gabalawi kills “religion”. He finds himself in need of religion in order to keep things on the right path. The novel’s clear message is that “religion is indispensable in this life.” In the novel “Ibn Fatouma’s Journey”, the main character comes to the...
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Ethiopia and 2011 Global Financial Integrity... →
By David Shinn – (former US Ambassador to Ethiopia, currently an Adjunct Professor at Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University)
The Washington, D.C.-based organization, Global Financial Integrity (GFI), released on 15 December 2011 its report on Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries over the Decade Ending 2009. The co-authors of this carefully designed...
WatchInside Job, Narrated by Matt Damon
“Inside Job” provides a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research and extensive interviews with key...
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Top Ten Words Difficult To Translate Into English →
After going through this list of relationship words that are not translatable into English, I couldn’t help but suggest the Amharic word Tizta to the mix! :) Here is what I commented on the re-blogged post:
Add Tizta to the list, it’s an Amharic word, Ethiopia’s official language, which conveys the subtle feelings of Melancholy, Memory, or Nostalgia, all combined together, but has no...
WatchTry something new for 30 days! :D Awesome idea!
How's your tap water?
If you live anywhere in New York State, chances are, it’s pretty good. Crisp, refreshing. And not poisoned. “Not poisoned” shouldn’t be a particularly high bar for tap water to meet. But it might not be a given soon if giant oil companies get their way. Oil and gas barons want to start “fracking” in New York — shooting mysterious chemicals into the ground at high pressure...
What's next for North Korea? →
The death of Kim Jong Il likely puts the leadership of North Korea into the hands of an even more mysterious man, his son, Kim Jong Un, fueling speculation about a struggle for power in the reclusive nation, and with that control of a nuclear arsenal and the world’s fourth-largest military.
Former US Ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg says he is more optimistic about the future of...
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WatchAbraham Verghese: A doctor’s touch — TED
… Amazing talk, amazing person and writer!
Am currently reading his “Cutting for Stone” … I recommend both watching this video and reading the book to anyone interested.
“…You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can...”
– Dr. Seuss
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Kenya and Charles Dickens: Great Expectations →
Some parts of Kenya can justly be called Dickensian. AFRICAN cities have no Victorian poor laws or workhouses, yet their mix of cruelty and vibrancy smacks of Charles Dickens, 200 years after his birth. By some counts, Africa has 75m orphans, many of them exploited in ways described by Dickens. A Kenyan comic, called Shujaaz, is soon to tell the tale of a modern-day Oliver Twist. To be known as...
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Death-Defying Comet Lovejoy →
A newfound comet defied long odds on Thursday (Dec. 15), surviving a suicidal dive through the sun’s hellishly hot atmosphere, according to NASA scientists.
Comet Lovejoy plunged through the sun’s corona at about 7 p.m. EST (midnight GMT on Dec. 16), coming within 87,000 miles (140,000 kilometers) of our star’s surface. Temperatures in the corona can reach 2 million degrees...
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"I Am A Woman" -- A Poem
(By A.J Whitehead)
Rappers on TV surrounded by hoes.
Faceless women that nobody knows.
Degraded, to naked from head to their toes.
And these are the images society chose.
Transmitted to girls to believe in their head.
That it’s not what you think but whose in your bed.
Don’t seek dignity, seek attention instead.
No countering voice to prove they’re mislead.
Love is lost, and demeanor...
“So how did so much of Christianity come to reject socialism? That is not hard to...”
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Gregory Paul, an independent researcher in sociology and evolution [who] wrote this article for washingtonpost.com/onfaith.
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From Jesus' Socialism to Capitalistic Christianity... →
A truly strange thing has happened to American Christianity. A set of profound contradictions have developed within modern conservative Christianity, big and telling inconsistencies that have long slipped under the radar of public knowledge, and are only now beginning to be explicitly noted by critics of the religious and economic right.
Here is what is peculiar. Many conservative Christians,...
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Interview: Ethiopian Filmmaker Salem Mekuria →
Salem Mekuria is an independent filmmaker and professor at Wellesley College. Her films have received international recognition and explore African American and Ethiopian subjects and topics. —more @Genet blog
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The Protester: Person of the Year 2011 - TIME →
“My son set himself on fire for dignity,” Mannoubia Bouazizi told me when I visited her.
“In Tunisia,” added her 16-year-old daughter Basma, “dignity is more important than bread.”
In Egypt the incitements were a preposterously fraudulent 2010 national election and, as in Tunisia, a not uncommon act of unforgivable brutality by security agents. In the...
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Condoleezza Rice Looks Back →
With “No Higher Honor,” Condoleezza Rice has written an exhaustive brief to acquit herself before the bar of history, which she hopes will be more forgiving than the caustic judgments of the present. Her power stemmed from the bond that runs through her book: the close, even adulatory relationship with George W. Bush, which prompted jealousy and derision from Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.
...
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Not A Starving Artist: 50 Reasons not to Date a... →
notastarvinartist:
Was inspired to write one of these hehe.
They rather hold their bulky camera, than hold hands with you.
On a romantic date, you’ll watch the sun go down and think “Wow this is gorgeous” and they’ll go “mirror lock, tripod, and stop down f/8 at 1/125.”
You’ll never be able to enjoy tv,…
Anonymous asked: do you like answering questions or asking them? why?
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ABC's Barbara Walters in Syria →
Exclusive interview with the country’s tyrant.
One thing common among all dictators: they are so disconnected from reality, all swim in self-denial! They all talk about “distortion of reality” by so and so, they blame others, until they are eventually brought down.
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Ethiopia's PM lauds Korea's ex-President →
Q: You have shown keen interest in former Korean President Park Chung-hee. Evaluations of Park are mixed here in Korea. Is there a specific reason you like him?
Meles: I like him for the same reason Koreans like him. He successfully led economic development. I`m not interested in Korean politics. What interests me is how Korea rose from poverty to a rich country and its experience. Many African...
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