Marx rolls over in grave

A Reuters release notes that bank cards with a likeness of Karl Marx have proven to be popular among those living in the former East Germany. A subsequent NPR story has generated some interesting twitter hashtags for suggested logos (e.g., Revolution of the Proletariat: Priceless. #marxcard).

current issue of Context

The Spring, 2012 issue of Contexts includes several articles that should be of interest to students of stratification. Much of the content of the journal is accessible only through purchase or subscription, but two pieces are both relevant and available at no cost. Understanding "occupy" is a collection of different takes on the meaning and significance of the OWS movement written by several sociologists, including Ruth Milkman and William Julius Wilson. Also informative is Sharmila Rudrappa's India's reproductive assembly line. Women who served as surrogates largely appear to be positive about surrogacy, particularly when compared to alternative employment in garment factories. A piece discussing the "world changing" effect of Michael Harrington's The Other America is available for purchase.

inequality speech banned by TED

Jim Tankersley in a recent NationalJournal article reported that TED has refused to air a speech given about income inequality, claiming it to be too controversial. Delivered on March 1, 2012 by venture capitalist, Nick Hanauer, the speech argued that the middle class is the true engine of job creation and economic growth, not rich people, and therefore, the rich should not be given special tax breaks by government. While TED has not released the talk on its home website nor its YouTube channel, the video is available elsewhere on YouTube.

what if the Honduras Air Force detained U.S. citizen children?

This story was written by Dottie Laster and originally posted at Anti Trafficking News by Dottie Laster 

According to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) there is a need for emergency shelters due to an increase in the number of unaccompanied minors crossing into the United States. One of the solutions that ORR is using is to detain children at Lackland Air Force Base. According to ORR they have just over 200 children housed at the Air Force base (see the New York Times story). According to the story, border apprehensions overall have declined; there were 340,252 nationwide last fiscal year, down from 1.2 million in 2005. The small increase of children to cause such extreme measures as housing on an Air Force base seems suspicious.

These children are all in the United States without adults to accompany them. They have been detained by Immigration or Customs and Border Patrol, some as young as 8. Many have been victims of sexual abuse, human trafficking and other crimes. According to the Flores vs Reno Settlement "all minors are to be held in the least restrictive environment, be provided at least 6 hours of education daily, and access to legal services and mental health care. Any minor who is a victim of a violent felony, abused abandoned or neglected or a victim of human trafficking may qualify for immigration relief." According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act trafficking victims are not to be detained or deported.

According to one of the detained children, after the press tour was over the 2 hours of education they were receiving was taken away, the teachers replaced by guards, the board games taken away, the outdoor time evaporated and the children were denied even arts and craft supplies. All this changed after the the single tour of outside observers left. Many non- profit legal service providers have volunteered free legal services to these children only to be rebuffed and denied access.

When remembering the Stanford Prison Experiment, by Dr. Philip Zimbardo, one recalls how college students treated their “captives” in the short time they had power and control over them. It was a lesson for psychologists and sociologists to understand how people behave in the absence of oversight and in the position of detaining others. It could be assumed that groups of people detaining others are susceptible to the actions portrayed in the Stanford Prison Experiment.

When the inequity of immigrant children, being held with no outside representation and advocates, are wards of large bureaucracies who benefit financially from their incarceration then I wonder why anyone would think it is ok to allow these children to be denied legal and psychological services. Why is a detaining organization able to operate unlicensed and in a location where no one can check on the children?

Also, how can 200 immigrants be allowed on an Air Force base? Just to visit a family member who is in the Air Force is a long process which involves many levels if identification. What decision maker combined the U.S. Air Force with detained immigrant children? Does not this suggest an image of the least-in-voice crushed by the most powerful organization in the world? If US citizen-abandoned children were held on a Honduran Air Force base behind guards with no access to legal services, education, or mental health services, would we cry foul? Would we demand their rights be protected? Should we treat all children as carefully as we treat our own? 


Related articles
Lackland AFB a temporary shelter for immigrant children (mySanAntonio.com)
UK Border Agency 'detaining children in degrading conditions' at Heathrow (guardian.co.uk)
DEA admits to role in deadly Honduras helicopter shooting (cbsnews.com)
US DEA Agents Kill Up to Six Civilians in Honduras (news.antiwar.com)
Reverberations from drug raid felt in US, Honduras (kansascity.com)
Hondurans attack Government buildings, demand U.S. leave (redantliberationarmy.wordpress.com)

May Day

May 1 is commonly celebrated as a workers' day around the world. In many nations, in fact, it is an official holiday. Compare the findings in this video with the common disregard given workers in our society (see a video interview on the origins of May Day with historian, David Green).

recent multimedia on modern slavery

In addition to KONY 2012, other multimedia pieces on abduction and modern slavery have recently come online. In the top video, photographer Lisa Kristine gives a TED-talk on modern-day slavery around the world and the abolitionist efforts of Free The Slaves. The bottom clip is from CNNs Slavery's Last Stronghold, examining conditions in Mauritania where a sizable minority of the population remains enslaved.

squatting

Establishing residence without owner permission is not only common in circumstances of mass poverty (view top video), but as well in affluent societies experiencing housing crisis. As discussed in this recent In These Times article by Rebecca Burns, squatter organizations, such as Chicago's Liberate the Southside, have developed in the U.S., the U.K., and various European nations to both facilitate the redistribution of unoccupied housing to the poor, while dealing with the problem of abandoned and neglected property in the city (view bottom video). In light of preventing urban blight and thereby maintaining property values, Herbert Gan's discussion on the economic functionality of the poor should be amended in his classic piece, The Uses of Poverty.

rich don't work less as taxes go up

Conservative thinking holds that work effort among the rich will decline if they are required to pay higher taxes. However, a recent study by Jeffrey Thompson outlined in this article by Robert Frank in WSJ's Wealth Report suggests that taxes have no such effect on work motivation among the wealthy. 

Citizens United v. FEC: point and counterpoint

Although neither video meets the focus of this blog as "emerging multimedia" given their distribution last year, Annie Leonard's critique of the Supreme Court case that radically altered the financing of political campaigns, and perhaps the very nature of democracy, continues to resonate in this election year (top video). To provide a semblance of balance, her video is followed by a critique of the critique which supports the court decision. You be the judge: determine which argument, if either, makes the most sense.

(possible) future of social activism

According to Visual News, a recent survey conducted by TBWA/Worldwide found that most American young adults (20-28 yrs old) define themselves as "social activists." Specifically, the study found that: 

7 in 10 American young adults are social activists.

1 in 2 donate time to support the causes he or she cares about.

1 in 3 boycotts or supports a business based on the causes he or she cares about.

1 in 5 participates in a rally or meeting, or contacts their local representative.

3 in 5 are female, and 3 of 5 of all activists are educated and working.

Unfortunately, the TBWA/Worldwide provided no details about the survey in terms of such basic facts as who was surveyed, how the sample was selected, nor size of sample. 
To launch the full infographic shown above, click here.

TBWA/Worldwide is a major advertising firm presumably dedicated to activism that has created numerous ad campaigns. One of their most popular ads had various celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, Justin Timberlake, and Usher, declaring themselves dead (at least in a digital sense, and at that, temporarily). 

all things "Occupy" video playlist

The REAL news network has provided a large aggregate of videos relevant to the OWS movement and related activity, ranging from Occupy the Primaries to a collection from Occupy the Media.

Mike Daisey's Foxconn story retracted

The popular NPR series, This American Life, has retracted the Mike Daisey episode aired in early January. The March 16, 2012 episode of TAL was devoted to examining the misinformation and inaccuracies reported by Daisey about Apple's major fabricator, Foxconn. Daisey's major defense for wrongdoing is that he is a showman, rather than a journalist. (Needless to say, all stories posted on this blog about Daisey's work should likewise be reassessed.)

For reportage on what went on in terms of TAL's retraction, see the bottom segment of CNN's Reliable Sources in which commentators take to task the uncritical ease by which many members of big media, including CNN itself, accepted Daisey's stories at face value without fact-checking efforts.

affluence trumps academic ability in completing college

Elise Gould in a recent Working Economics piece dismantles Charles Murray's assertion that college facilitation programs, such as that afforded by "socioeconomic affirmative action," should not be instituted since the most capable of  poor and working-class youths are already getting into and doing well at top universities under current policies. Her argument, based on a secondary analysis of data from a study conducted by Fox, Connolly, and Snyder (2005), indicates that this is not the case as the proportion of low-income children with the greatest academic potential (as measured by 8th grade test scores) were only about as likely to graduate from college as students from affluent families with low academic potential.

doc seeks to change attitudes about rape

Palestinian Abeer Hadad made her first film with the intent to change attitudes about sexual assault. Hadad seeks to remove the stigma from being raped, as women and girls who are raped are too often further victimized by family and society. Dum'a was recently screened in Qalanswa, a Palestinian city near Tel Aviv, and this Real News report interviews Hadad and the girls who watched it.

why take government largesse? because I can!

Question: What do Amanda Clayton, a Michigan lottery winner, and Texas Governor Rick Perry have in common? Answer: They both receive financial support from the state, although they would not seem to be eligible for it. Michigan law does not stop Amanda from receiving foods stamps, just as Texas law does not prevent the governor from receiving state pension checks in the amount of $90,000 per year as he continues to draw his governor's salary of $150,000, plus assorted taxpayer-provided perqs. One might dismiss Amanda as just another welfare cheat, while some might argue Perry's windfall is justified on the basis of previous service. However, what is clear is that neither Clayton nor Perry admit to anything problematical about their behavior. Indeed, as Perry was recently quoted, "I would suggest to you that it's rather inappropriate if you've earned something if you don't take it and take care of your family." Recall also that before public disclosure about his double-dipping, Perry had been campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination as one who would set back the retirement age for Social Security.