If You Like Osama
February 11, 2010 by Jolly Roger · 3 Comments
His son says you are just going to love the ones who will rise up to replace him.
I don’t doubt this. In that part of the world there are huge pools of unemployed young men with no future, no prospects to speak of, and nothing better to do than listen to the hate speech of radicals who claim that they are getting their orders from Divinity.
The followers of bin Laden are not notable for anything except their tallies; the conditions that spawned them also spawned people like Bonnie and Clyde, and the Jesse James Gang, and Irish Republican Army, and countless other murderous groups of all sizes. All it takes is idle hands, poverty, and a lack of proper education to create a pool of violent people. Not all of them will use religion as their justification, as groups like the Sendero Luiminoso showed us. All it really takes is a feeling that there is no hope for a better future.
In much of the Arab World, Governments have kept their hold on the populace by allowing the anger present in their societies to be focused on issues like the Israel/Palestine conflict. It’s a useful tool for rotten, corrupt Governments all over the Muslim world to divert attention from themselves. Sadly, a lot of angry young men allow their anger to be channeled thus, and they strike out at innocents.
Osama’s son seems to have figured it out. But many others won’t. And sooner or later, the ideological sons of McVeigh will rise up right here and give us another taste of our domestically-cultivated version of terrorism.
Osama bin Laden’s son has a chilling warning for those who are hunting his father with drones, secret agents and missile strikes.
From Omar bin Laden’s up-close look at the next generation of mujahideen and al Qaeda training camps he says the worst may lie ahead, that if his father is killed America may face a broader and more violent enemy, with nothing to keep them in check.
“From what I knew of my father and the people around him I believe he is the most kind among them, because some are much, much worse,” Omar bin Laden, who was raised in the midst of his father’s fighters, told ABC News in an exclusive interview. “Their mentality wants to make more violence, to create more problems.”
And the fuel for their hatreds is ever-present, and on the rise. I figure the next few decades are going to see the rise of violent extremists of a lot of different flavors, and I figure they’ll be just as bad as Osama’s boys ever thought about being.
I’d like to be wrong, but the world doesn’t seem to be interested in addressing the causes of extremism. The Governments of the world only seem to be interested in using the iron-fisted approach, which amounts to trying to suppress a hornet’s nest with a flyswatter.
Crossposted at Reconstitution 2.0
Hunger in the Heartland: Reflections from Our Food Pantry
September 2, 2009 by Border Explorer · 5 Comments
The US Department of Ag’s figures in May broke a record: 34.4 million people used the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program of aid to low-income people. Now one out of every nine Americans qualifies for “food stamps.” That’s an increase of over 2 percent from the previous month. And it’s a staggering increase of 6 million new qualifiers over the past year.
Our central city neighborhood runs a small food pantry that provides a food supplement to anyone who lives nearby. Once every 60 days a household can receive a box of food, whether or not they receive food stamps. One simply shows a photo ID to receive the free supplement of food. I volunteer at the pantry six hours a week; I see the face of hunger close to home.
From my “ringside seat” on the need in the heart of this nation, I know that the USDA figures are right. But they don’t go far enough. They don’t reveal the human degradation of being down so far that you must ask for food.
When I started working here a few years ago, I suspected that I’d be scammed or taken advantage of by people who were “working the system.” There’s some of that from time to time, but I am far more often impressed by the opposite phenomenon. Viewing the records as I check people in, I might comment to them: “We haven’t seen you here since last year.” And they respond: “I try not to come here unless I’m really in need.” or “I don’t like to come here too often. But I got laid off…”
Our numbers more than tripled last month, compared to last year. In August 2008 we served 23 households; August 2009 we served 81. We don’t have a sponsoring organization, relying on free-will donations to provide funding for food that we can purchase for less than $.20 a pound at the River Bend Food Bank. Everyone who works at the pantry is a volunteer, as are the few women who head it up. We’re just people helping other people.
Our patrons often share their stories with us, explaining their family’s situation. We try to listen as best we can. When it’s possible, we stretch the rules to provide for exceptional needs. Occasionally we encounter people who live in a tent or a car. We help families with kids, lots of single parents, the elderly and people who are challenged–mentally and physically. Sometimes I choke back tears. Sometimes I let them show.
Watching the news and volunteering in our neighborhood, I know that all is not well in our nation. You can read statistics. Or you can observe the reality at a local food pantry. I bet you’ll benefit more from the latter. I know I do.
Sphere: Related Content“Sliding Scale Bake Sale” Reveals Plight of World’s Women
March 29, 2009 by Border Explorer · 4 Comments
I attended a local event at the Women’s Intercultural Center for Women’s History Month/International Women’s Day that paired a special movie screening with a “sliding scale bake sale.” Cupcakes and drinks cost a dollar each. But women got a special deal: those without children paid $.90, married moms paid $.73, and single moms paid $.60 for those same $1.00 items.
A sign explained what was happening:
——————————————————
“WHY THE DIFFERENT PRICES?
We don’t mean to discriminate. But this is a
SLIDING SCALE BAKE SALE
The prices reflect the REAL WAGE GAP
between men, women, and women with children.
Even today, for each dollar that a man earns, a woman can expect to earn $.90, a married mom can expect to earn $.73, and a single mom can expect to earn $.60.
If this seems unfair at a bake sale, imagine how it feels in the real world, WHERE RENT AND FOOD ARE NOT SOLD ON A SLIDING SCALE.
Info source: www.momsrising.org”
—————————————————–
cross posted on The Peace Tree
greed bothers me terribly
August 28, 2008 by Betmo · Leave a Comment
the only way i can feel guilt free is to take myself completely as possible out of the equation. if europe is taking food out of the mouths of the world’s poorest- you can bet we are too. it disgusts and revolts me.
Sphere: Related Contentblog action day 2008
August 15, 2008 by Betmo · Leave a Comment
blog action day is october 15 this year and the theme is poverty- sign up over at the blog
A chicken in every worthy pot…
August 1, 2008 by Angry Black Bitch · 4 Comments
Let’s jump right on in, shall we?
A year ago most folks would have thought that the outcome of the presidential election was going to hinge on the war and that economic concerns would be left to state and local campaigns…but a lot can change in a very short time. Now that everyone and their dawg is waking up to the economic trauma that has been in the works for years (wince), campaigns are scrambling to develop messaging around the economy that they won’t turn into policies they’ll have to eat should they get elected.
This bitch is always concerned about the economy. I don’t know a lot of folks with a safety net and months of
savings…my circle is made up of working, hard working Americans (wink). When prices go up and income remains flat we all feel that shit and struggle to adjust. The same is true of the organizations that I volunteer with – money gets tight and folks are no longer able to make donations.
A recent news report on the increased use of gleaning by food pantries got a bitch thinking about those people who are feeling the squeeze for the first time. Many people now face hunger who never thought they’d be in that situation. The number of Americans receiving food stamps is at a record high as folks struggle to pay for housing, utilities and fuel only to find themselves unable to put a meal on the table. I would hope that this new economic reality would at least help bridge the gap of understanding that exists between the haves and have nots, but too often news reports center on the notion that hunger isn’t supposed to happen to “these people.”
You know who I’m talking about…educated, working, clean, articulate, solid people aren’t supposed to be on food stamps. Right? Those working, hard working Americans have kept their side of the bargain and they deserve better…they’ve earned a full stomach and a roof over their head…misery is the wages of sloth!
And who is hunger for…who deserves poverty? Oh yeah, those other people…those lazy people…those willfully ignorant people who aren’t happy unless they are asking for a hand out or getting a free ride.
Right?
Wrong.
Most of us could be at risk in a matter of weeks if not days. A job gets cut…a child gets sick…a car breaks down…a bill comes due…and suddenly you’re short the money for groceries with no available credit and no one to turn to. With so many of us are living paycheck to paycheck, slight shifts can have a huge impact on our lives and our ability to survive without some manner of assistance.
Yet even now…even with more Americans applying for food stamps or visiting food banks they use to donate to, losing their homes or having to adjust where they live to fit their new economic reality and cutting back on everything but the basics…even now the idea persists that hunger is what you get when you don’t do the right things and that poverty happens to those lazy people who deserve it.
Sigh.
I used to think that the trick to spinning economic policy was to make the masses believe in the possibility of there being a chicken in every pot.
But mayhap the actual trick is to make them believe that those with empty pots don’t deserve chicken…
Crossposted from The Angry Black Bitch.
childhood poverty
May 9, 2008 by Betmo · 2 Comments
making good mondays- carol gee- has a post up on childhood poverty. i find it interesting- but not surprising- that the south dominates the childhood poverty rates. it is appalling to me with my tax rate that new york is also in that category.
Revolutionary Consciousness
April 1, 2008 by Jet · 2 Comments
We like to demonize revolutionary consciousness as some sort of Marxist nation building concept. The idea of conscious choice to revolution, framed by communist concepts, must be bad, since everybody learned at the knee that commies were unsavory.
Of course, the epitome of revolutionary consciousness was Jesus Christ. Now, there’s a guy who stirred a nation (actually nation after nation) to action. He woke up minds, got people asking questions, shook up the status quo. He did this not by force, but by personality. Very, very scary concept to those who despise inspection and crave hierarchy.
Probably why there was such a concerted effort to build a religious hierarchal structure of biblical proportions. These damned revolutionaries, messing up a good thing.
Same wool, different eyes.
This country is coming up on something huge, and I don’t think we’re talking about it in any meaningful fashion. I’m talking about food, being hungry, and desperation. We’re far enough removed from the Great Depression that we can somehow romanticize men leaving families they can’t support to ride on trains and watch their dignity roll away from them like so much track. There is some level of lewd satisfaction in women trading sex for food, for other women to be held up as worthy for feeding hobo’s from their farm kitchens. We create pictures to sum up an era we didn’t experience.
We have no personal benchmark for the pinch of an underfed belly.
Sphere: Related Contentthe power of- one
January 18, 2008 by Betmo · 2 Comments
[youtube]f9trcgiULW4[/youtube]
another reason to think before you buy
December 19, 2007 by Betmo · Leave a Comment
“June is the wet season in Ghana, but here in Accra, the capital, the morning rain has ceased. As the sun heats the humid air, pillars of black smoke begin to rise above the vast Agbogbloshie Market. I follow one plume toward its source, past lettuce and plantain vendors, past stalls of used tires, and through a clanging scrap market where hunched men bash on old alternators and engine blocks. Soon the muddy track is flanked by piles of old TVs, gutted computer cases, and smashed monitors heaped ten feet (three meters) high. Beyond lies a field of fine ash speckled with glints of amber and green-the sharp broken bits of circuit boards. I can see now that the smoke issues not from one fire, but from many small blazes. Dozens of indistinct figures move among the acrid haze, some stirring flames with sticks, others carrying armfuls of brightly colored computer wire. Most are children.
Choking, I pull my shirt over my nose and approach a boy of about 15, his thin frame wreathed in smoke. Karim says he has been tending such fires for two years. He pokes at one meditatively, and then his top half disappears as he bends into the billowing soot. He hoists a tangle of copper wire off the old tire he’s using for fuel and douses the hissing mass in a puddle. With the flame retardant insulation burned away-a process that has released a bouquet of carcinogens and other toxics-the wire may fetch a dollar from a scrap-metal buyer.
Another day in the market, on a similar ash heap above an inlet that flushes to the Atlantic after a downpour, …”
cross posted at life’s journey
Sphere: Related ContentRep. Julia Carson..
December 16, 2007 by Angry Black Bitch · 2 Comments
Rep. Julia Carson has died at the age of 69.
Rep. Carson was the first woman and the first black person to represent Indianapolis inCongress.
She championed children’s rights, women’s rights…was an advocate for the homeless and worked for peace rather than war.
As Senator Bayh (D-Indiana) said…“She was elected to important public offices, but never forgot who she was, where she came from or who she was there to serve.”
May we all be inspired to do the same…
Sphere: Related ContentPander first…govern never…
December 14, 2007 by Angry Black Bitch · 3 Comments
The Angry Black Bitch rips Governor Matt Blunt a new one, and Buddha knows this fuckwit deserves it! Please visit Shark Fu at her blog here-Dusty
Missouri’s nightmare, Governor Matt Blunt, has shown his natural ass…again.
Baby Blunt formed a…well, he’s calling it a task force on the impact of abortion on women.
My people call it bullshit.
The so-called task force is stacked with anti-choice activists. Basically, this anti-abortion gathering is setting out to prove themselves right…and, if Baby Blunt had a fucking clue, he’d know that nothing shat out from this beyond partisan gathering of agreeables is going to be taken seriously.
Cough.
A bitch can’t help but think that mayhap Mr. Blunt Trauma isn’t certain what to do with his time or perhaps he doesn’t realize that there is plenty of other shit he really might want to look into.
Like the shit that has resulted from his inability to govern the state.
Blink.
How about I offer up some suggestions?
Sphere: Related ContentIntroducing This Election’s Swing Vote
December 6, 2007 by Guest Author · 1 Comment
This post is reprinted with permission from MovementVisionLab.org. It’s a vitally important topic for the coming election year. You can watch the Heartland Presidential Forum in it’s entirety here. They also have portions of this forum on their YouTube channel here. The Forum was held in Iowa on December 1st and five of the Democratic candidates(Edwards, Obama, Kucinich, Dodd,Clinton) attended. -Dusty
This past weekend more than 3,600 people braved an ice storm to attend the Heartland Presidential Forum at the HyVee Hall in Des Moines, Iowa. The event, launched by the national Campaign for Community Values, hosted five Democratic presidential candidates’ and featured an unprecedented format that gave everyday people the opportunity to speak directly to the candidates about issues that matter to all Americans.-Martin Matishak
Introducing This Election’s Swing Vote
Posted by: Sally Kohn , December 05, 2007
Real people and real issues will be front and center at the next presidential election.
It’s rare that everyday Americans take center stage in the presidential election. News pundits and political consultants are more concerned with the sex lives of
the candidates than the real stories and real issues of voters. But this election, everything will change. Real people and real issues will be front and center. And if the candidates listen closely, they’ll hear a new story of hope and possibility for the future of America.
The American people are tired of the politics of division and isolation. For too many years, politicians on both sides of the aisle have told us we’re on our own, that we have to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, that it’s an us-against-them world and selfishness and greed are our best defense. But the politics of isolation have only led to a broken economy and a broken social safety net, division between nations and division between communities. We, the people, have had enough. It’s time for a new politics in America.
This past Saturday December 1, in Des Moines, Iowa, more than 3,600 people packed a crowded hall in Des Moines, Iowa, to hear everyday Americans tell their stories to five of the top presidential candidates. At the Heartland Presidential Forum, Senators John Edwards, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and Hillary Clinton and Representative Dennis Kucinich did more listening than talking as real people finally took center stage in this election.
Sphere: Related Contentgreen job corps
“Green-Collar Jobs Campaign
The “green wave” is coming. A new, multi-billion dollar economic sector is emerging, bringing new opportunities in green construction, clean technology, urban agriculture and energy.
Our goal: ensure that this green economy is strong enough to lift people out of poverty.
Green-Collar Jobs Campaign creates opportunities in the green economy for poor people and people of color through policy advocacy, public outreach, and an employment pipeline - the Green Jobs Corps.”
i thought that this idea is fantastic! what if each community started working on a branch? it may not save the world instantly, but each step we take now invests in future generations. we can’t rely on the government- the corporations don’t care about saving our posterity. this is cutting edge and we should promote programs like this as an alternative to the status quo that isn’t working in the 21st century.
tags: environmental programs, fighting poverty, self sufficiency, employment opportunities disadvantaged youth
Sphere: Related Contentpeople who think
November 13, 2007 by Betmo · Leave a Comment
there are many things that puzzle me but one that has continuously perplexed me is the complexities of the american ghetto. i still wonder how one of the richest countries on the planet can have such places- and how we can continue to live happily and wilfully ignorant that there are indeed folks in this country who are desperately poor and starving. yes, we do have a homeless problem. rather than get into that can of worms in this post, i want to highlight someone who i think should get a nobel prize or something- because he has a really, really good idea. how good an idea? a reallllllly good one. i doubt like hell it will catch on- but it is still something worth promoting and jumping on the bandwagon about. here it is- i won’t even paraphrase:
“Mr. Jones, who heads the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, which helps kids avoid jail and secure jobs, has an idea how to change that — a “green-collar” jobs program that focuses on underprivileged youth. I would not underestimate him. Mr. Jones, age 39, and a Yale Law School grad, exudes enough energy to light a few buildings on his own.”
read the article here at alternet
tags:environment, innovative thinkers, progressive movements, ella baker center for human rights, human rights
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