Vital Concerns for the World

I have become increasingly concerned about what is happening to our world. I don't know what to do about it but I believe it is crucial that information be disseminated. These are momentous times for which the necessity to stay informed is ever greater. I plan to post notes about recent publications on this site that help me think about what is going on. And I would welcome your comments.

Monday, November 15, 2004

My Concerns for the World

My Concerns for the World
Posted by Bob at 5:07 PM
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NEW PUBLICATION

Ethnicity, Authority, and Power in Central Asia: New Games Great and Small.
Edited by Robert L. Canfield and Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek. New York and London: Rutledge.

Contributors: Thomas Barfield, Ildikó Bellér-Hann, Robert L. Canfield, Habiba Fathi, Peter Finke, Anatoly Khazanov, Charles Lindholm, Alessandro Monsutti, Robert Nichols, Boris Petrić, Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek


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Dr. Robert Canfield

Dr. Robert Canfield
Professor of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis

Translations, Traducción, الترجمة, 翻译, Переводы, Traduction

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A major source of the American debt problem

In 2006 Christopher Buckley, son of Wm F. Buckley said, "President [George W] Bush has now borrowed more money than all other Presidents combined. The spending that he has enacted is amazing. It amazes me that he calls himself "conservative."” [On PBS NOW 3/3/06].
This borrowing was done with the consent and support of the Republican Party. This is why the United States has a major debt problem. [Do you remember that President Bush came into office with a budget surplus?]

Notable Concerns

  • "Not one has taken responsibility for the biggest foreign policy disaster in U.S. history." Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rica, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith.
  • The crash of September 2008 brought the largest bankruptcies in world history, pushing more than 30 million people into unemployment and bringing many countries to the edge of insolvency. AlJazeera 10/15/11
  • GE, America's largest corporation, paid no taxes last year even though it made 5.1 billion dollars profit in the country [and even more outside the country] [source: same as below]
  • In 2009 the richest 5% held 63.5% of American wealth; the bottom 80% controlled 12.8%. [source: same as below]
  • Between 2000 and 2007 the richest 10% in America benefited from all of the average growth in the period. In the post WW II period the top 10% benefited from only one third of the growth, the bottom 90% benefiting from the rest of the growth. [Economic Policy Institute, cited by Bob Herbert, NYT 3/26/11]
  • In 2010 a "premier" investment bank paid each of its 26,000 employees an average of $370,000. [Bill Gross Pimco Investment Outlook Feb, 2011.]
  • In 2005, one-quarter of the corporations in America making a trillion dolars in revenue paid no taxes.
  • The 833% Medical Insurance Ripoff: Medicare charges 3% for service; the health insurance companies in Missouri charge 25% for services
  • The richest 1 percent of Americans have more net worth than the bottom 90 percent.
  • The richest 1 percent of Americans receive more income than the bottom 50%. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/dec/10/bernie-s/bernie-sanders-viral-speech-says-top-1$ >

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Labels

Pakistan (225) Taliban (142) Afghanistan (111) Rhetorics of Power (104) al-Qaeda (75) Middle East (74) Government Corruption (53) How capital works (49) Torture (46) Central Asia (44) Iran (43) World trends? (42) lies (38) Geopolitical Issues (36) The power of the moral imagination (32) The exercise of power (31) Iraq (27) Popular movements (25) morality (23) Human rights abuses (18) The price of telling the truth (17) China (11) The appeal of democracy (9) the rhetorics of power (8) lies and the law in America (7) South Asia (6) Climate Change (5) Global warming (5) hypocracy (5) The American empire (4) moralism (4) "Right" and "Left" politics (3) American abuse of prisoners (3) Discontinuities of information (3) Fixing Congress (3) Islam (3) Power and the constraints of geography (3) Right and left politics (3) World trends? China (3) India (2) Media (2) The obligations of privilege (2) self-righteousness (2) An event on which history turned. (1) Arab spring (1) Hazaras (1) Russia (1) authenticity (1)

Notable Entries on this Blog

  • A Train Wreck in Slow Motion
  • A transfer of wealth of historic dimensions
  • Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite?
  • Carrie Hritz on the Sealing of the Iraqi Museum
  • Clue to the authentic sensibility of Pushtun Women
  • Destruction of... Honor Code
  • Hakim Taniwal Sept 11
  • Liza Baron on the Street in Damascus
  • On the Release of the Truth About the Deception of Our Country
  • How far have the insurgents fallen
  • Seventeen ways that Pakistan is conflicted
  • The Bear in the Room that We Forgot About
  • The Industry from Hell
  • The sentence against Mr. Kambakhsh: A fundamental issue of human rights
  • Two ways to treat your neighbor
  • Where's Mao? Chinese Revise History Books

Recommended Book List

  • A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya
  • Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. [Ahmed Rashid 2008]
  • Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy: 2nd Edition
  • Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq
  • Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Militant Islam
  • Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
  • Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror
  • Inside Hamas: The Untold Story of the Militant Islamic Movement
  • Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms
  • Leaderless Jihad
  • Military Inc: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy
  • Shadows of War: Violence, Power, and International Profiteering in the Twenty-First Century
  • Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia
  • The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
  • The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan
  • Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Renditions Flights
  • Understanding Terror Networks

Links

  • Department of Anthropology at WUSTL
  • Juan Cole
  • My Concerns for the World [A list for educational purposes of worrying trends in the contemporary world, with links to significant articles in their entirety]
  • Abu Aardvark
  • Afghan LORD
  • Afghanistanica
  • AlterNet
  • Counterterrorism Blog
  • Daily Times
  • Foreign Policy in Focus
  • Global Terrorism Analysis from The Jamestown Foundation
  • Hindustan Times
  • Information Clearing House
  • IranMania
  • Islam in South Asia - Online Articles from Columbia University
  • Japan Focus
  • Kabul Press
  • Link TV
  • LisaLing.com
  • Mansfield
  • Maps of War
  • Muslim World Journal of Human Rights
  • Nai
  • New America Foundation
  • New Eurasia
  • News from Turkmenistan
  • Pakistan Times
  • Pan India News
  • Registan
  • Safrang
  • Stratfor
  • The Central Eurasian Studies Society
  • The China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly
  • The Four Reasons
  • The Friday Times
  • The Frontier Post
  • The Hindu
  • The Interrogation Diaries
  • The Jang
  • The Times of India
  • Truthout
  • Women of Afghanistan

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