Change.org's Blog Network

Facebook: Sociopath Networking?

Stephanie Feldstein — 2010-02-09T19:30:00-08:00

On Facebook, you can find your high school exes, fan pages for your favorite TV shows, and groups where you can share your favorite ways to skin animals.

Despite the site's terms that prohibit users from posting "content that is hateful, threatening, pornographic, or that contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence," content slips through the cracks. It's one of the risks of the internet and free speech in general: When you allow people to post whatever they want, you're going to get more than sunshine and kittens. You may get dead kittens.

I'm all for free speech, and I know that not everyone loves animals, but there's a difference between saying you hate cats, for instance, and sharing photos and videos of tortured and mutilated animals like the Dead Cats Anyone?? Facebook group.

Animal abuse online isn't new. Some instances are real, some are hoaxes (like Bonsaikitten.com, which offered kittens in glass jars, or puppyprofits.com, a satire on dog fighting as an easy and fun way to make money). The former is evidence of a crime, the latter is guilty of criminally bad taste. To the website visitor, there's very little difference. If you're sane, you find these sites extremely disturbing. If you relate to these sites, you may be a sociopath on your way to a life of violence toward animals and people. It's a lose-lose situation.

The ASPCA has a list of resources on how to identify and report online cruelty. On Facebook, where animal abuse groups are violating the terms of the site, they should be immediately reported so the administrators know they exist and can remove them. Thanks to self-appointed watchdog groups like Cat's Cause: Speak for Those Who Can't Speak for Themselves, at least one online hangout for cat abusers doesn't exist anymore.

Unfortunately, new ones are cropping up all the time — groups and websites that glorify the myriad of sick and twisted ways that people can be cruel to animals. Be a good netizen and report them.

Photo credit: *yasuhiro

School Secretary Fired for Translating for Concerned Parents

Alex DiBranco — 2010-02-09T18:42:00-08:00

When a hysterical parent comes into a school crying that her seven-year-old son has been sodomized, what should a principal's first reaction be? Making sure nobody who works for the schools acts as a translator for the Spanish-speaking parent, of course.

Ana Ligia Mateo, a former secretary at a Devonshire Elementary in North Carolina, was hired as a bilingual secretary -- which makes sense, since nearly half of the school's student population is Hispanic, and many come from homes where English is not their first language. But in 2008, a new principal instituted a policy barring faculty or staff from speaking Spanish to parents. The policy seems to be motivated solely by anti-immigrant sentiment and racism. Yet Mateo was a constant rule-breaker. When distraught or concerned parents with a language barrier came to the school, she couldn't always bring herself to refuse to answer questions or translate so that they could understand. So she was fired.

I fail to see how this policy is in the best interests of parents or their kids. If someone is able and willing to interpret, what on earth is the benefit of attacking them for it?

Moreover, if I were a school principal, and a mother came in saying that someone at the school had sexually abused her child, I would be doing everything possible to make sure I understood the story, acted to help the student, and held whoever assaulted him responsible. I would be glad to have a staff member who could help facilitate this with her language skills. Instead, the principal insisted Mateo stand idly by, saying that the seven-year-old who had potentially been sexually violated could try to translate for his mother. In the end, the crying parent had to leave unsatisfied, because she couldn't understand the school officials -- reports in the media don't say if anything was ever done for the child victim by the school that was so opposed to establishing communication with his concerned mother.

After being fired, Mateo sued the school district for violating her civil rights. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission referred the lawsuit to a federal court, where it remains currently, after finding "reasonable cause" to support her allegations. The EEOC reports that witnesses have backed up Mateo's allegations regarding the ridiculous series of events and racist, anti-immigrant harassment she was subjected to.

Mateo, a U.S. citizen of Hispanic/Nicaraguan origin, also alleges in her lawsuit that she was screamed at for trying to translate for a hysterical parent, and falsely accused by the assistant principal of empathizing with the parents because she "crossed the border just like them." The assistant principal also told Mateo that she would lose her job if she complained, and further said that she knew she had children, and couldn't afford to be out of work. Attempting to take advantage of her by threatening the welfare of her family: classy.

In addition to violating Mateo's rights, the principal and assistant principal seem to have decided to sacrifice the well-being of their students to rabid xenophobia and racism. Their actions are at odds with the mission of an educator, and their utter lack of concern for the plight of a child who might have been sexually abused on their watch is horrifying. Parents need to be able to communicate with their children's schools, and a policy barring willing staff from helping them with this -- instead telling a traumatized seven-year-old to act as a translator -- is unbelievably counter-productive. Tell the school district to put an immediate end to this intolerant, senseless English-only policy, which disrespects parents and hurts students.

Photo credit: Conspirator

We Need Winter To Have Winter Games

Mike Gaworecki — 2010-02-09T18:22:00-08:00

The newest Olympic sport you've never heard of is fast-paced and exciting. It’s called bobwheeling, and it’s poised to take the world by storm — because, unlike other Winter Olympic games, bobwheeling doesn’t require ice or snow. And that’s a good thing, because snow and ice are in short supply in Vancouver this week as the Winter Olympics get under way. (Too bad D.C. wasn't a contender!)

Okay, okay, there is no such thing as bobwheeling. It’s actually a promotional stunt created by the “official offsetter” of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. But it’s also a really clever way of pointing out that unchecked global warming jeopardizes the future of all winter sports.

Frenzied reports have been coming in for weeks about the snow situation in Vancouver, which by all accounts is not good. Snow is being saved under tarps, according to some of those reports. More snow is being trucked in from surrounding areas. And even these efforts are expected to fall short, so the snow will likely have to be “enhanced” by sand and hay underneath.

Winter sports in general are taking a hit. World Cup ski races, for instance, have been having a tough time. In 2006, five events were canceled because of the poor snow conditions. So far this year, at least six events have been canceled. Some events have been saved only by trucking in several hundred thousand cubic feet of snow, and it’s not uncommon for these events to be held on thin strips of snow laid down amidst green pastures or mounds of dirt.

Of course, snow is weather, and weather is not climate. It’s impossible to draw a direct correlation between the snow situation in Vancouver right now and global warming, just as the record snowfalls on the East Coast this week don’t disprove global warming.

But climate scientists have long predicted that rising global temperatures would result, in general, in less snow due to shorter and warmer winters. And if the perilous state of winter sports are any indication, those predictions are, sadly, being borne out.

Gang-Rape, HIV/AIDS, Fistulas, Death

Alex DiBranco — 2010-02-09T18:00:00-08:00

Nicholas Kristof writes about a 14-year-old girl tied up spread-eagle, gang-raped, raped with sticks. Over the course of the abuse, her insides were literally torn up, causing her to constantly leak waste. The girl became pregnant, but couldn't deliver the baby through her child's pelvis. A doctor sliced her open, without anesthesia or sterilizing the old knife, to remove the stillborn baby and to save her life.

Of course, this isn't in the United States, or most of the country would be horrified and up in arms. It's in to the Congo, where there is a massive surplus of gang-rape, HIV/AIDS, fistulas, and death. Years of war have killed millions, while many more women and girls have suffered extreme sexual violence and mutilation, contracting HIV/AIDS and other health problems.

In another column last month, following the earthquake in Haiti, Kristof wrote: "Sometimes I wish eastern Congo could suffer an earthquake or a tsunami." Why hope for natural disaster to strike an already war-torn country? Seem like a conversational wish. Kristof continues, "so that it might finally get the attention it needs." After all, war that just goes on and on, with the same killings and torture, the same rapes and abuse, the same spread of disease, blah blah, ho hum. But a major earthquake or tsunami doesn't come every day, and the extent of humanitarian aid matches the novelty of the event. After all, Haiti itself had long been struggling with desperate poverty and other problems before it was physically shaken down, yet it couldn't get much international attention for those every day troubles.

Unfortunately, even if a giant wave washed over Congo, the international aid probably still wouldn't be enough to solve its severe problems. And, Kristof points out, it isn't just aid that they need. For one thing, Congo needs us to stop buying conflict minerals that fuels warlords' campaign, as the Enough Project points out. Are we willing to not spend money on their behalf, or at least make sure what we're buying is rape, violence, and death-free?

Photo credit: Julien Harneis

Did Rep. John Murtha Die from Medical Malpractice?

Josie Raymond — 2010-02-09T17:42:00-08:00

John Murtha, an influential member of the U.S. House who represented Pennsylvania for 36 years, died Monday at the age of 77. The cause: complications from gallbladder surgery.

As his friends and allies, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, begin to prepare eulogies, others are wondering if Murtha would be alive today if it weren't for a doctor's mistake.

On Jan. 28, Murtha had elective laparoscopic gallbladder surgery at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland -- the same facility tasked with treating the president -- and went home. On Jan. 31, he was admitted to the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington with complications. On Feb. 8, he died. It has since been reported that his large intestine was inadvertently damaged during surgery, and that's what led to his death.

Was he one of the 50,000 to 100,000 people who die in the U.S. each year because of medical errors?

Neither Murtha's family nor the hospital has spoken publicly, but speculation is rampant. After all, gallbladder extraction is routine surgery. Writing in Politico, Dr. Davis Liu points to a 2009 study from the University of Maryland Medical Center that found that elective gallbladder surgery is relatively safe: "the mortality rates are very low. (Even in the elderly, mortality rates are only 0.7 to two percent.)" According the the American College of Surgeons, the Washington Post reports, there are just zero to one patient deaths for every 1,000 gallbladder surgeries.

Photo credit: Speaker Pelosi

How Ag Policy Affects Health Care

Cameron Scott — 2010-02-09T17:27:00-08:00

What's frustrating about the stalled effort at reforming health care is that our health care system desperately needs reform, and has for more than 50 years. But the most pressing issue isn't bureaucracy or health outcomes: It's cost.

Costs are so high that that health care is on course to eat every penny the government has. And it costs you and me 20 cents on the dollar. Think for a moment about what you could do with that much money.

Now consider that the average American spends just 10 cents on the dollar on food.

One thing you could certainly do with those two dimes — and you might just do, if you read this blog — is to buy only organic food. Which could, in turn, quite possibly improve your health. Organic produce most likely has richer nutrient content, but it's also free of most (though not all, as Greg Plotkin points out) chemicals. And most chemicals haven't even been tested for safety, so steering clear is the prudent choice.

But now let's take a moment and consider, as Robyn O'Brien did recently, why organic food costs more: Organic farmers don't get the same subsidies farmers who use chemicals do. (Taxpayers essentially subsidize those chemicals in the name of getting more food, when more isn't what's needed.)

Organic farmers also have to pay to have their food certified as organic, when no other USDA inspection program charges farmers to participate. Nor are they eligible for the same marketing assistance or crop insurance programs as conventional farmers.

Even the playing field, says O'Brien, and you lower the cost of organic food, putting it on more tables.

Even though the difference between organic and conventional produce wouldn't likely have a significant effect on health outcomes, leveling the costs of real food and the junk food that's made from subsidized corn certainly seems like a central tenet of improving Americans' eating habits.

Photo credit: Karindalziel

The Case For Settling For Mr. Good Enough: Marriage Myths Galore

Sarah Menkedick — 2010-02-09T16:05:00-08:00

There's something tragic about Lori Gottlieb. Not the fact that she wrote an Atlantic article and later a book based on the assumption that any single woman who hits thirty is desperate to get married and start a family; not the fact that her abhorrent Atlantic piece exhorted women to settle now and start a family with "Mr. Good Enough"; not the fact that she sees herself as the only voice of reason in a sea of backwards feminist theory that harms women's innate desires for a husband and children; and not the fact that she has been justifiably vilified by feminists the world over. No.

It's the fact that her book, "Marry Him: The Case For Settling For Mr. Good Enough," and her whole resigned, martyred persona represent the ongoing and very much alive misconception that marriage, motherhood, and feminism are always at odds with each other.

Sure, you can see the ancient wisdom in her arguments. Of course it might be counter-intuitive to disregard a loving, passionate partner because he's named "Sheldon." Of course the search for perfection, for the (loathe saying it) "fairy tale" romantic comedy dream we're fed so often by Hollywood might not be healthy in the long term. And in the context of what the media wants to tell us about relationships -- that they are fairy tales, full of bubbly sweet passion and pseudo-disputes resolved with wine and flowers -- her argument sort of makes sense. Relationships are hard. They might not be perfect. Marriage, in particular, is a long and tricky road to navigate. As it happens, Elizabeth Gilbert manages to make this same point without pointing the finger at single women everywhere and calling them liars if they don't fess up to craving a husband and a baby.

But Gottlieb can't simply stop with exploring the intricacies of marriage and the pressure women feel related to it. She has to take on feminism as an institution, setting up the same bored false paradox between the feminist/raging/self-destructively demanding single woman and the resigned/tricked by feminism/"traditional" married mother who has seen the light.

The Guardian has gotten on board with this by reinforcing the feminism vs. Gottlieb and feminism vs. marriage dichotomy, setting up feminists as reactive raging crusaders attacking the poor Gottlieb -- who was only acknowledging the truth after all. So has the New York Times, by painting successful single women as agents of their own destruction, making themselves unmarriagable in their success. There is nothing new here, really. It's just that Gottlieb has managed to rather artlessly exacerbate the same old debates.

How long will it have to fight before it's accepted that feminists can get married and have babies and work and perhaps also look for a husband who isn't simply a prop in the "infrastructure" of a family? This isn't even "having it all," Lori Gottlieb. It's just what men have gotten for thousands of years -- the expectation of finding a loving partner, and perhaps starting a family and a life together, and getting to work and be successful and feel fulfilled as well. And it isn't inherently opposed to feminism. But damn, it does serve your book sales well to court the mainstream media and the public's anti-feminist tendencies by staking it out that way.

That's what makes this book tragic: it forces feminists to make spot-on critiques of it because it's so erroneous and ridiculous, yet Gottlieb becomes the media darling standing up to those mean feminists in denial. And the same old false are dichotomies perpetuated over and over.

Photo credit: WTL Photos

Homeless in Haiti, As the Rain Nears

Te-Ping Chen — 2010-02-09T15:47:00-08:00

You could add it as a caption to any tent-city photo like this one: To make this situation worse, just add water.

Across the Caribbean, hurricane season usually doesn't start until June or July. But the onset of Haiti's rainy season is earlier than that, and the threat of heavy landslides and thickened mud in unstable camps has people anxiously watching the skies. Already, it's started to rain in parts of the city, and a steady pattern of rain is expected to sweep Port-au-Prince as early as the month's end.

It's not just the inevitable muck, either, that has survivors and aid workers worried -- though when you have 500,000 survivors crowding makeshift shelters built out of bed sheets and rubble, that's no small force to contend with. More frightening, though, are the deadly water-borne diseases -- from diarrhea to typhoid fever -- that make inroads with accelerated speed in the aftermath of rain.

The World Health Organization has seen cases of measles, tetanus and diarrhea jump in recent weeks, and with contaminated water conditions, cautions that such cases could easily become epidemics.

The rain comes in devastating sheets in Haiti: according to the National Climatic Data Center, average monthly rainfall in Port-au-Prince gets as high as 6 inches in April, and 8.5 inches in May. By contrast, monthly average precipitation in Baltimore is about 3.5 inches year-round.

So far, the UN has distributed at least 10,000 family-size tents. But the shelf life of a tent is maybe six months to a year, with no guarantees that the shelter will continue to hold up against rain or strong gales (or, for that matter, the overhead force of helicopters ferrying supplies in). Meanwhile, the UN reports that its emergency flash appeal for funding to support shelter is only 47% funded (donations can be made here). To date, the over 600 relief agencies working in Haiti have provided only one-quarter of those in need with emergency shelter materials -- and we're using the word "shelter" loosely here, applying it to mean anything from a sheets to tarps.

In just three days, the time elapsed since Haiti's quake will have hit the one-month mark. Yet as the rain clouds build, with half a million Haitians still living precariously on the street, small wonder that survivors' feelings of disappointment in international aid efforts are quickly massing into anger.

Photo Credit: United Nations Development Programme

Ugly and Endangered: The Palouse Earthworm

Cameron Scott — 2010-02-09T15:37:00-08:00

The Palouse earthworm is a lumpy albino worm that grows up to a meter long. It smells like lilies and can purportedly spit to protect itself.

Which is to say, except for the lilies, it merits a joke or two about male anatomy.

The worm is a mysterious bugger that burrows up to 15 feet into the ground and lives exclusively in the Palouse region of eastern Washington state. It was discovered, at least as far as the white man is concerned, in 1897.

Since the 1980s, only a handfull have been spotted: It was thought to be extinct before a these sightings — one in 2005 — proved otherwise.

In a perverse twist on the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has refused to list the worm as endangered for lack of information about it. The IUCN lists the worm as vulnerable.

Yes, indeed it's ugly and even comical, but, you may be wondering: Who cares if a worm goes extinct? Well, worms are the guardians of our soil, and the Palouse is adapted to live in bunch grass prairies and to survive summer droughts by burrowing deep into the soil and conserving water.

The American prairies once featured almost miraculously fertile soil. The Palouse's prairie has been 99.9 percent destroyed, partly for modern agriculture — which shuns the importance earthworms and topsoil at its own peril — and partly for development.

A professor at the University of Idaho is the leading — or really the only — expert on the Palouse earthworm. Find an interview with her here.

Photo credit: Yaniria Sanchez de Leon via Wikimedia Commons

Awww Alert: Homeless Man Reunited with Cat

Josie Raymond — 2010-02-09T15:24:00-08:00

It's enough to make even a dog-lover tear up. This morning the San Francisco Chronicle published a story about Daniel Harlan, a 58-year-old homeless man, and Samantha, his missing pug-nosed Himalayan cat. He says he bought her in Oklahoma for more than $2,000 four years ago, "back when I had money."

Three days ago, Daniel returned from the store to his tent under the freeway to find Samantha gone from her leash. The police and the local animal shelter told him they couldn't help find his cat. So he went to the newspaper that had once snapped a family portrait of sorts of him and Samantha, seen here. The article that ran today printed Daniel's cell phone number. Oh no, I thought, he'll be barraged with hateful calls.

Quite the opposite, he told me when I reached him on the phone. He got about 80 supportive calls today, from as far away as Australia and Mississippi. About an hour ago, Daniel happily told me, he and Samantha were reunited. Earlier in the day, after seeing the article in the Chronicle, a man called Daniel and told him that he had his cat and had found her tied to a fence. ("Which I don't believe," Daniel said.)

Whatever happened, now Daniel and Samantha are back together and not likely to be apart any time soon. "I just went and got her a brand new leash, a brand new collar and a brand new buggy to push her in," Daniel said.

Photo credit: Mike Kepka/San Francisco Chronicle

Will Congress Recognize the Armenian Genocide?

Michael A. Jones — 2010-02-09T14:56:00-08:00

Experts consider the Armenian genocide to be one of the first in modern times, setting in place the template for today's understanding of the word. At least 20 countries around the world have recognized the atrocities committed against the Armenian population by the Turkish government -- which took place during and immediately following World War I -- as genocide. Even 43 states within the U.S. have passed resolutions recognizing the massacres as genocide.

But so far, the U.S. government has not. It may get a chance to do so this year, as a Congressional panel prepares to take a vote as early as next month on a resolution that will label the atrocities as genocide.

That has Turkey, which has consistently denied that a genocide took place, up in arms. Their foreign minister said that if the U.S. moves forward with a genocide recognition bill in Congress, it could seriously jeopardize U.S.-Turkish relations.

Threats like that are par for the course with Turkey. In recent years the country has pulled Ambassadors out of countries that move to recognize the Armenian genocide, and threatened to cut off military support to countries that recognize the genocide. Yikes. If there was ever a case of Shakespeare's "Thou doth protest too much," Turkey is it.

Meanwhile, the Coalition to Recognize the Armenian Genocide is stepping up its game to work with Congress. Here on Change.org they've launched a petition that has gathered more than 3,000 signatures -- emails sent directly to U.S. Congress members -- urging the U.S. government to recognize the Armenian genocide. It's something Barack Obama pledged to do while a candidate, and something that activists are holding him to as President.

The move would also have significance because of its timing. This year marks the 95th anniversary of the genocide; that's timing that is not lost on organizers. As the group says in their petition, no country that values human rights should hide from recognizing genocide.

"America’s refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide is an untenable policy for a nation that professes its commitment to human rights," the organization's letter to Congress states. "As we confront the specter of genocide and its denial in the 21st century, [the U.S.] government has a duty to ensure that the lessons of the past are not forgotten."

Agree? You can sign their petition to Congress here.

Photo credit: karaian

The Top 5 Ideas From TED Fellows

Nathaniel Whittemore — 2010-02-09T14:49:00-08:00

I spent this morning watching the TED Fellows talk about their work -- a group that included clean tech entrepreneurs, scientists, musicians, artists and more. All are, as TED Fellow founder and TED Community Manager Tom Rielly put it, polymaths who excel in far more than just their particular area of expertise.

Although I loved all of their presentations, five ideas stood out to me in particular as game-changing, mind-bending or generally vital.

1. The power of local value chains: Kickstarter founder Perry Chen talked about his company's model of giving artists and creators the power to harness their audiences for financial support. While I've been a fan of the company for awhile, I was incredibly impressed by the clarity with which Perry explained Kickstarter's fundraising principles -- particularly Kickstarter's efforts to create local value economies that care about things that larger exchanges and markets would easily bypass. As Perry explained, supporters of most Kickstarter projects derive their "return" from the act of co-creating whatever the project is. It's a reminder about the importance of rethinking "rules," especially when the conditions that create those rules have changed.

2. For the green economy, consumer desires are key. Just ask 20-year-old inventor Ben Pass Gulak. We all know our society needs electric vehicles, but as he says, the designs offered so far are -- "there's just no other way to say this...fuckin' ugly!" He's trying to change that with "Uno," a one-wheeled self-balancing, all-electric vehicle that looks like Batman invented it. Green entrepreneurs have to understand the power of design, sexiness, attraction and status if they ever hope to capture enough consumer demand to reach a tipping point.

3. Reimagining goals: Kellee Santiago designs video games that don't play by others' rules. Instead of creating environments focused on calculated amounts of destruction or killing, thatgamecompany has put out titles like "Flower," which actually turn gaming into a relaxing experience. Meanwhile, surrealist documentarian Anita Doron requested that her audience relinquish their fixed ideas of the world in order to re-experience it. Overall, the underlying message of both talks helped conference-goers recall the need to re-imagine the goals that define and constrain us.

4. Creativity inspired by constraint: Israeli artist Raffael Lomas focuses on discovering creativity within specific constraints. For years, he has sculpted using only the wheel as his base. He neither adds nor subtracts material, but only reshapes and remakes what he has. His discovery of infinite possibilities in spite of those constraints led him to begin leading artistic workshops for the blind. I think Twitter is another example of the creativity that's inspired when you introduce constraints. It's a lesson for all social entrepreneurs: any barrier can become a piece of the puzzle.

5. Rethinking everything from the ground up: One of the closing presentations was from the incredibly big-thinking Mitchell Joaquim. As an architect and city planner, Mitchell reimagines entire landscapes, with the goal of designing from entirely different starting points. For example, one of his company's early projects involves putting the entire apparatus of a vehicle into the wheel itself, making it so that you can create a vehicle out of anything that you can add a wheel to. This has allowed for a wholesale rethinking of the car, and his company is now beginning to test a city-focused vehicle that could fold for easy use -- like a shopping cart -- saving space and energy in the process. The implication is right out of Lawrence of Arabia -- if "Nothing is Written," then we get to write the future.

Photo Credit: TEDConferences

Michelle Obama: "Let's Move" on Childhood Obesity

Katherine Gustafson — 2010-02-09T14:30:00-08:00

The First Lady today announced her long-awaited initiative aimed at fighting childhood obesity, a program called Let's Move. The effort's goal is "to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation." That's a tall order, considering almost 20 percent of our children are now obese.

But if anyone can tackle a challenge of that magnitude, it's Michelle Obama, who has already made a name for herself as a champion of healthy eating and whole foods. She has been vocal in promoting children's nutrition and discussing her efforts to get kids involved in the White House garden.

The new initiative focuses on providing easier-to-understand nutritional information, promoting increased physical activity, ensuring access to healthy food and encouraging personal responsibility around eating and health, according to the Washington Post.

Mrs. Obama has handled preparations for the launch of Let's Move with the same assertive optimism she seems to bring to all she does. She met with lawmakers, such as our own Changemaker Congressman George Millier, over the last week to set the stage for successful collaboration on this issue.

And already this morning substantive progress was underway, when President Obama signed a formal memorandum establishing a first-ever national task force on the issue, which will include representatives from the departments of the Interior, Health and Human Services, Agriculture and Education. Its mission? As the Post put it, to turn "the first lady's ambitious list of proposals into action."

Action seems to be the order of the day. "Instead of just talking about this problem, instead of just worrying and wringing our hands about it, let’s do something about it," Mrs. Obama said today in announcing the program in the White House's State Dining Room. "Let’s act … let’s move."

Photo: The U.S. Army

Urge the Senate to Extend Unemployment Benefits

Josie Raymond — 2010-02-09T14:22:00-08:00

The unemployment insurance and COBRA health care subsidies that have proven critical to families struggling through the recession are set to expire this month unless the Senate acts now.

Congress previously extended both programs when the economy didn't bounce back as quickly as some had hoped, but those extensions expire on February 28. The House has already passed new legislation, but unless the Senate acts, millions of people will lose out on unemployment benefits and be forced to give up their health insurance.

Tell your Senators to pass unemployment insurance and COBRA subsidy extensions for out of work Americans NOW.

The benefits at stake can make all the difference for someone who's unemployed. Under the Recovery Act, people who have lost their jobs in this recession can get up to 73 weeks of emergency unemployment benefits versus the usual state allotment of 26, plus an extra $25 per week in both state and federal benefits. It's needed -- 40 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for more than six months. According to the National Employment Law Project, 5.6 million people are currently receiving some form of emergency unemployment insurance.

COBRA helps laid off workers maintain their health coverage with 15-month, 65 percent subsidies. If an extension is passed, people laid off through the end of 2010 will also be eligible for 12 months. If the Senate doesn't authorize an extension, many of these people will join the ranks of the uninsured.

Demand assistance for those who can't find work.

Photo credit: aflcio2008

Sex Trafficking High Around U.S. Military Bases Abroad

Amanda Kloer — 2010-02-09T14:00:00-08:00

Serving in the United States military is about honor, dignity, and strength. So it makes sense that the U.S. military would make visiting brothels and having sex with women and kids forced into a prostitution a big no-no for American soldiers, right? On paper, establishments that sell sex are off-limits for men (and women) in uniform. But in practice, sex trafficking flourishes near U.S. military bases. Should U.S. soldiers be abusing people in another country while protecting people in this one?

Of all the countries where an American military presence attracts prostitution, both voluntary and forced, South Korea may feel the effects most acutely. U.S. troops have been stationed in South Korea since 1945, and the brothels around the U.S. military bases have been there just as long. In 2004, the Pentagon drafted a policy to reduce the sex trafficking growing wherever American soldiers, sailors, and airmen were stationed, with specific attention to South Korea. Under that policy, military personnel caught visiting a brothel or "massage parlour" could be subject to court martial. However, there is very little information available about how often that sanction is enforced.

There is evidence, however, that the policy has not worked in reducing demand for prostitution, evidenced by the continuing high levels of prostitution and human trafficking near U.S. military bases. The U.S. military has finally begun to make some clubs and bars known to traffic women or sell children off-limits to service members, but one report indicates that only 4 out of 25 such places in the area have been listed as off-limits. The South Korean government, too, has been cracking down on sex trafficking in the past few years. However, the areas surrounding the U.S. military base have been exempted from the crackdown by the Korean government. So brothels around U.S. military bases are falling through the cracks of both U.S. government and Korean government policy.

If government policy is in place and sex trafficking is still going on, then what can be done to prevent it? The Pentagon took a good first step in putting a policy in place to prevent American military uniforms from showing up at brothels where women and children are forced into prostitution. However, they need to do more. Specifically, they need to enforce that policy, including against officers, whose indiscretions are sometimes ignored. They also need to work to change the culture in the military that views women as sexual objects. Addressing the latter will not only make a difference in the amount of sex trafficking around bases, but also the sexual harassment, rape, and assault of women serving in the military.

Men Can Stop Rape has a great campaign called "Our Strength is Not for Hurting," which focuses on equating masculinity and strength with respect for women. They have a similar campaign aimed specifically at military personnel. This would be a great starting point for the U.S. military to truly tackle the demand for sex trafficking which exists around their bases.

Photo credit: Aaron Escobar

The Last Year of the Tiger?

Stephanie Feldstein — 2010-02-09T14:00:00-08:00

The Chinese Year of the Tiger starts on Valentine's Day, but there may not be enough love in the world to save tigers from exploitation and extinction.

According to the Wildlife Conservation Society, it may already be too late for the South China tiger. In the rest of the country, there are fewer than 50 tigers left; globally, the population is the lowest it has ever been.

Despite the critical state of wild tigers, and the recognition that wildlife trade is a form of organized crime, the UN General Assembly simply doesn't prioritize the poorly enforced international laws and porous borders that support the illegal trade.

Wild tigers in China are outnumbered by farmed tigers by as many as three to one. Tiger farms serve a number of purposes for the Chinese and Thai businessmen who own them. They breed and raise the animals for their body parts: skin, bones, blood, and other parts worth a lot of money on the black market. The farms are also tourist attractions, where the "safari park" experience can include paying to watch the tigers chase cows or chickens and shopping for tiger bone wine.

While tiger farm operators like to claim that their business helps reduce poaching, they're really just feeding the illegal trade. The tiger farms operate just like any other profit-driven factory farm with caged, overbred animals. Cubs are typically nursed by other species such as pigs or dogs so the tigresses can continually reproduce, giving birth at three times or more their natural rate. Despite China's ban on the commercial trade of tiger products, the farms have been allowed to expand and the wealthy owners continue to lobby the government to lift the trade restrictions.

The Chinese State Forestry Administration almost gave in to the pressure from tiger farmers, but instead they've promised to keep a closer eye on tiger breeders and to crack down on poaching and the illegal trade in tiger parts. While WWF applauded the move, the Environmental Investigation Agency is less impressed, saying that allowing the tiger farms to continue to exist implies that the trade in tiger parts will be legal again someday. And as long as the black market still has such a steady supply to feed the demand, the thirteen Asian nations (including China) with wild tiger populations who pledged to double the number of wild tigers by 2022 are going to have their hands full keeping the animals from extinction.

Photo credit: Pavel Sigarteu

Marriage as an Exclusive Country Club

Michael A. Jones — 2010-02-09T13:49:00-08:00

If you're straight and you support marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples, Sarah Silverman has a few words for you. Namely, avoid marriage like the plague.

Silverman dropped by The View this week to promote a new television show that she's got in the pike at LOGO. But when it came time to dishing on marriage, Silverman was less interested in promoting a TV show and more interested in getting straight folks to seriously question the institution of marriage -- at least while 45 states continue to ban it for gay and lesbian couples.

"I can not imagine wanting to get married right now at this time in America," Silverman said. "If you’re for equal rights, why would you get married right now? It’s like joining a country club that doesn’t allow blacks or Jews. There’s no difference. Why would I wanna join that club? It’s gross."

Is she right? Should straight allies be tempted to look at marriage like an exclusive country club -- something they might have access to because of immutable characteristics beyond their control, but something that is unnecessarily discriminatory toward at least 10 percent of the population?

Silverman's quip is kind of reminiscent of the argument behind the National Marriage Boycott, a student-driven network of folks who are working to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. Until they do, however, they're boycotting the institution of marriage. They call it a powerful way to support queer friends who don't have access to marriage.

"Now is the moment in American history when same-sex couples have the opportunity to achieve equal rights under the law. However, in order for a minority group to achieve equal rights, progressive members of the majority must stand in solidarity with them," the National Marriage Boycott says. "To demonstrate our desire for an immediate repeal of DOMA, we choose not to participate in marriage until everyone can marry."

Yup, definitely sounds like they have something in common with Silverman. And though it might be a tough sell for straight allies, it's certainly one way to extend a hand of solidarity for equal rights.

Photo credit: vmiramontes

This Week: Live from the TED Conference

Nathaniel Whittemore — 2010-02-09T13:35:00-08:00

Right now, I'm on my way to the TED conference, one of the most renowned events for global thought leaders in the world. For the next five days, I'll be surrounded by new ideas and, frankly, a lot of people who have the power to make those ideas happen.

While TED’s origins go back a long way, it’s only since TED started making its talks available for free to the public in 2006 that it has morphed from a must-attend insiders' event to a true leader in the fight to, as I wrote last year, “make the world safe for smart.”

Since the first videos were posted on TED.com, TED talks have been viewed more than 200 million times. This is no not-fly-by-night video fad. These are intensely intellectual and creative talks meant to prod and stretch the mind into new shapes and modes of thinking.

Over the last year, TED has launched a new program to expand the audience even further, the TEDx program. TEDx gives people around the world the ability to use TED talks as a platform for hosting their own local events. In the first year, 230 events were held in 80 countries. This year, some 350+ are planned.

Yet the main conference, held annually in Long Beach, CA, remains the intellectual mecca and heartbeat of the community. From now until Saturday, I’ll be blogging about the people, ideas and spaces I encounter there. Some of what I'm most excited about includes:

1. The Fellows Program – In its second year, the Fellows program gives 25 new fellows and 20 senior fellows (returning from last year’s fellowship classes) the chance to return to TED. The 25 members of the fellows class are incredibly diverse and wildly talented.

2. The Social Spaces – Believe it or not, I’m perhaps more excited about the series of almost 10 hang-out spots that members of the TED community are hosting. They range from places for the “global soul” to a hub for techies. They haven’t opened yet, but I think that conversations that happen in such meet-ups will be one of the highlights.

3. Unexpected Brilliance – One of the characteristics that seems to shape TED talks -– even online –- is that you can never tell which speakers will pound you in the guts or scream to your soul. I’m obviously looking forward to talks by folks like Bill Gates, and anti-trafficking leader Kevin Bates, but I have literally no idea which of the other talks will grab me.

4. CrossPollination – I love sector-specific events like the Skoll Forum, and I think places with a high density of people in a related field can be magical (hence my move to San Francisco to start a web company). But TED is about the interaction that happens when you get great folks from across sectors and disciplines together. I’ll be doing my best to capture that mood and mode while I’m there all this week, so stay tuned!

Photo Credit: TEDConferences

Chechnya's Security Brain Drain

Daniel J Gerstle — 2010-02-09T12:27:00-08:00

Chechnya, how long must this go on? In light of renewed advocacy for survivors of massacre in the Chechnya region of southern Russia from Amnesty, the Center for the Protection of Journalists, and other organizations, the institute for the study of everything should really do a follow-up study on the effects of brain drain on a region's security.

We've heard for a decade about the shift of the most educated and resourced people away from regions suffering economic or political collapse. But what about the self-selection process when progressive, peaceful, as well as cunning intelligent people, refuse careers in security, so that the third-tier candidates make up the ranks of security organizations?

Back in 2006 during my brief stint in Ingushetia, Chechnya, and North Ossetia, I had three talks with Russia's federal security bureau. Each time, young men who appeared to have been clawing their eyes out in their sleep (such were the red scratch marks above their cheeks), asked me some broad and some silly questions.

Their goal was to begin softly, then agitate with surprising questions to see if I slipped and contradicted myself. It's the usual welcome for all foreign aid workers to a region troubled by war and threat for two decades. Why did you come here? Why do you want to help Chechens? How did you meet your driver? Why do you give cows to farmers? Where do you get these "cows"?

No wonder they find it easier to lob mortars than to build partnerships for peace.

For newcomers to the topic, Russia's point of view is that they want to preserve their union and reduce an 18-year-old insurgency. However, their security forces, both Russian and local Chechen, Ingush, Dagestani, and Ossetian, have proven completely inept at winning the support of the population. To prevent insurgents from blowing up their police post, they tend to hunt the insurgents down by arresting neighbors, friends, and passersby, putting up blast walls around neighborhoods, blocking the flow of traffic and goods, and then, only after all of this, do they sit down and talk to the locals about how to improve their lot. Russians largely want peace and unity, but the government agents focused in the south seem to be obsessed with military counter-insurgency at the cost of democratic development.

For more on the opposition's critique of the Russian government in Chechnya, see this collaborative event led by PEN America. The event included a talk between Tanya Lokshina (Human Rights Watch) and Elena Milashina (Novaya Gazeta), and hosted by Ann Cooper (Committee to Protect Journalists), focusing on assassinated rights worker, Natalia Estimirova.

Props also to Almut Rochowanski for efforts of the Chechnya Advocacy Network. For a look at Dagestan, here's Robert A Horton's study backed by Timo Vogt's photography. And here are some photos from Ingushetia from yours truly.

Photo credit: Daniel J Gerstle (An Ingush women rides past destroyed buildings in Grozny, Chechnya)

A War on Conversion Therapy

Michael A. Jones — 2010-02-09T12:10:00-08:00

Last week, an undercover activist in England exposed some fairly shocking revelations about British mental health professionals gaming the health care system in order to get the government to pay for conversion therapy for LGBT people. Fed up with conversion therapy and therapists who practice it, the activist, Patrick Strudwick, is now on a mission to root out conversion therapy wherever it exists, and report therapists who practice it to their professional ethics boards.

Strudwick has launched a group on Facebook, the Stop Conversion Therapy Taskforce, where he's drumming up support for a campaign to find health professionals who try and cure gay people, and bring them down.

"We believe that the practice by therapists, psychiatrists and religious leaders of attempting to change a person's sexual orientation is damaging, offensive, immoral, unethical and ineffective," the Taskforce says.

Wonder if the Montgomery County Public School District is paying attention?

Strudwick revealed some rather disturbing practices and statements by psychotherapists in the United Kingdom in a piece that ran in last week's Independent. Among his discoveries included psychotherapists who blamed homosexuality on bad parenting, as well as therapists who tried to pray away the gay.

Strudwick also came upon a renowned ex-gay therapist, Mario Bergner, who will be headlining a conversion therapy conference in Ireland later this month. Among the claims made by Bergner? That he overcame his physical attraction to men, and that he was able to pray away his HIV.

The bottom line comes down to the principle that conversion therapy wrecks lives. That's the crux of Strudwick's organizing on the issue.

"[Conversion therapists] defend their techniques vehemently, claiming: 'We offer choice! We only treat those who come looking for it!'" Strudwick writes in today's Guardian. "It's like a Venus flytrap blaming the hungry insect that wanders into its gaping mouth. But we are determined to root them out however long it takes. This won't be a battle. It's war."

War is pretty tough language. But one thing that certainly is worth getting behind: lobbying psychological associations the world over to condemn ex-gay therapy practices. It's happened here in the states, with the American Psychological Association saying last year that these types of therapy are damaging, deadly and destructive. Three adjectives that sound just about right when describing the type of tactics used in most conversion therapies.

Photo credit: kynan-stewart-hughes