(Nearly) open-thread Friday July 22 2011

In the last several weeks two major political stories have been dominating the press in the English-speaking/writing world: the various debt-crises (in Europe and the United States) and the government/press corruption that is emerging from the phone-hacking scandal. At the same time the famine which in the Horn of Africa receives comparatively little press coverage and very little aid.

1. What do you think we could/should do to help the millions at risk in Africa (other than each of us donating what we can?)

2. What do you think could be done to improve the coverage of the various economic crises?

3. What can each of us do, given our own circumstances, to help others within our own community?

Resources and Things you can do

Links and information provided in comments will be added to the list below:


Donate to the World Food Programme

Donate to MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES (MSF) (Doctors without borders)

In Canada those who need to use, would like to donate to or volunteer at a food bank can find information food banks across the country at Food Banks Canada.

In the United States those who need to use, would like to donate to or volunteer at a food bank can find information food banks across the country at Mama's Health or Feeding America.

The the United Kingdom those who need to use, would like to donate to or volunteer at a food bank can find information food banks across the country at the Trussell Trust.

 

__________________________________________________________________________________

The Board Administration Team
(hapax, Kit Whitfield and mmy)



Comments

[DS]

I'm gonna try and answer number 1, because I think it's the question with the easiest answer.

The problem is structural. The challenges that face Ethiopia, Somalia, and Eritrea are not short-term, flash-in-the-pan problems; the simple fact is that the population of these regions far exceeds the region's capacity - in terms of infrastructure, in terms of technical and management expertise, and in terms of political and social systems - to maintain and feed them.

I'm not qualified to say anything about the local culture (though I did read Notes from the Hyena's Belly, for which I will TW absolutely everything), so I'm going to talk about the big factors. Donating food ceases to be effective once the food is eaten. Donating tractors ceases to be effective once they break down. Donating mechanics ceases to be effective once the mechanics go home again.

To my mind, the best solution is education. Bring the best Ethiopian and Somalian students to good American or European universities and give them scholarships to study agricultural science. Colonialism got Africa into this mess, but colonialism isn't going to get them out of it. The only way Ethiopia will be fixed is for Ethiopians to fix it, and the higher up the chain of empowerment we go, the more likely it is to stick. As much as Africans may want free food and tractors, what Africa needs is a new generation of extraordinary Africans. (The Russians gave Angola and Mozambique all the free food and free tractors they wanted; didn't help much).

Also, I think that Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanese telecom tycoon, is doing a great thing. For those not in the know - he pays Sub-Saharan African politicians to leave office quietly once their terms expire. Ham-handed though this may be, a tradition of stable government and peaceable power-changes has to come from somewhere.

Conversely, I think Laurent Nkunda needs to be freed, and he needs to get his army back. He's a modern-day Augustus Caesar. If you want to read more about his career, and you won't get T'd by a frank and indiscrete description of a modern war in Central Africa in all its gruesome glory, you can check it out here:

http://exiledonline.com/nkunda-is-nkool/all/1/

But no, seriously. To sum it up, Africa needs extraordinary, educated Africans. Everything else would just create further dependence on foreign aid, which is the exact thing that Africa doesn't need.

[Kit Whitfield]

@DS: I think the point of the question is to find out if there's anything we can do to help. As in, the people reading this. I don't think anyone's proposing colonialism.

[DS]

@Kit:

Aha. Well, then, in that case:

http://www.zawadiafrica.org/

Scholarships! Higher education! Empower them to improve their own countries; it's the only thing that'll stick.

[Karen]

I'm very interested in news of the attacks in Norway. Do any of our European readers have something to say on that point?

I have nothing intelligent to add on the African famine.

On the debt crisis, however, I wish there were more coverage of the reasons behind the desire to cut spending as opposed to borrowing. Right now, interest rates are almost nothing, so taking on extra debt is much cheaper than it would be normally. With respect to Europe, I'd like to know more about the differences between the Germany and Greek, Irish, Spanish, and Portuguese economies that makes Germany so nervous about the other countries' spending. We get virtually no coverage of the European issues over here beyond "Look!! Crazy almost-brown people from that country where all the gay guys in togas used to live breaking windows!!"

[Mmy]

@Karen: I'm very interested in news of the attacks in Norway. Do any of our European readers have something to say on that point?

Listening to the members of the Norwegian government this morning I got a sense that they think it important NOT to respond to this horror by abandoning their democratic values.

For Americans, I don't know if you get to see long clips of Norwegian officials speaking -- one of the things that might strike you is that God is not invoked and no one is saying that they are praying for/with the families.

Re: the European debt crises -- the coverage in the US has been dreadful but to be fair Americans have in the process of having their own massive economic crisis and that is, quite reasonably, the most salient piece of news for them.

For what you can do locally -- it doesn't matter where you live there is a food bank or a shelter that can use volunteer help, cleaning, serving meals, that type of thing.

[Literata]

Mmy, thank you for pointing that out. I don't watch much TV, so it's a good observation.

The suspect in custody is being described by Norwegian authorities as having "right-wing" leanings. This is especially concerning to me as an American because some progressive groups have argued that right-wing groups in America are actually much more of a threat than Islamicist terrorists. They point out that incidents of "domestic terrorism" by right-wing individuals or groups are given comparatively little coverage. It's tragic that this incident is too big to ignore. My heart goes out to the victims and everyone affected in Norway; I don't mean to minimize their situation, I'm just speaking about my own point of view, experiences, and concerns going forward. (Sources: NY Times current coverage, Crooks & Liars map of domestic terrorism against "liberal" and "government" targets with 24 incidents since July 2008.)

Second, with respect to both this and the current debt ceiling issues, I think Fred's post today has a lot to say about how (American?) journalism has devolved in the last few decades. I can't imagine something like Frost's interview with Nixon taking place today, for example, and that's a shame, because we really need it. Some serious questions about whether far-right conservatives really know what their policies will do, and whether they care, and want to defend them, would do a lot to move the Overton Window in this country to a more reasonable place.

[Karen]

Literate, there were five or six right-wing terror attacks In the first few months of 2009: the Pennsylvania cop shooter, the Holocaust Museum shootings, the guy who flew a small plane into the IRS building in Austin are three, but I think there were a couple more that I can't recall at the moment. Only the Ft. Hood incident had a Muslim perp, and he had no links to anything organized. All of the attacks involved only a single perp, all of whom were disgruntled men. The easiest explanation, and the one applied to the white guys, was that they were lone crazies. Dr. Nadal, however, got a lot of coverage of "Sudden Jihad Syndrome," which is when an up-to-that-minute law abiding Muslim slaughters a crowd because he's been persuaded to hate Western values. Or something. Mostly it's "Scary Brown Dude" syndrome, in which anyone with more skin melanin than Bjorn Borg does something bad.

My own take on this is: 1. Men, both through some genetic component* and a lot of socialization, are more hierarchical than women, and feel their lack of status a lot more keenly. 2. Modern communications technology, especially advertising, makes all of us aware of our lacks a faults in a way that no one before 1910 ever had to consider; 3. nobody knows enough about how our minds work or how modern life affects us, so that we face Problem #2 without a lot of help; and 3. Add 1 + 2 and make Lone Crazies. Utopia is impossible, and outside of Utopia we are just going to have Lone Crazies. We can make it harder to get automatic weapons, and maybe find ways of replacing the simplest common-garden products that can be used to make bombs with less-volatile stuff, but gasoline and fertilizer aren't going away any time soon. Better mental health care would help a lot, as would more things that seem silly like local clubs or fraternal organizations that give the unattached something to do and someone to see. (Seriously, things from the Masons and Elks to garden clubs are so important and so neglected in our current culture, especially in North America. That's one reason I will never be an atheist -- religious organizations are our only easily-accessible free communities anymore.) At the end, though, the price of eliminating Lone Crazies is right now too high.

*Males mammals are the most expendable in the wild. Only dominant males breed. It's my completely-unscientific opinion that all humans have some vestigial awareness of this. My idiosyncratic doctrine of Original Sin is that it's the vestiges of our instincts adapted for the savannah and entirely unsuited for civilization.

[Literata]

Karen, whoa. "Only dominant males breed," wha huh? No. Not true. Not true of animals, and while your idea about our instincts not catching up with cultural developments is interesting and one I partially share, presenting it while saying things like this is problematic. This is the kind of thing that so-called Men's Rights Activists and Pick-Up Artists (MRAs and PUAs) go around saying all the time. It's a distorted, inaccurate meme that contributes to people getting hurt and it needs to stop. Please.

[MaryKaye]

Just a quickie biologist note: whenever genetic paternity testing has been tried, it has been found that non-dominant male mammals and birds *do* reproduce. There seems to be an equilibrium between the dominant-male strategy and the sneaky-male strategy, with sneaky males fathering a significant proportion of the offspring.

There is a wonderful photo in, I think, de Waal's _Chimpanzee Politics_ of a not-so-dominant male chimpanzee who has been caught in the act by the dominant male. He is up a tree, and he is covering his erection with his hands, apparently feeling that it might be incriminating....

As far as is currently known, male mammals never face "dominate or your genes will be lost" as their only choices. Sneaky mating is always an option, and in social mammals "help your kin" is another way to get more copies of your genes into the next generation.

[Izzy, Who Had an Interesting Night, Yes.]

I agree about the need for more community. It's one of the things where geek culture, though enormously flawed in many ways, is helpful: most of the time, you can find a game or a con or a fanfic challenge to be part of.

What other people said about paternity and dominance. Also, a lot more primates sleep around than we'd previously thought, particularly bonobos, who are pretty close to us genetically.

[Karen]

Sorry Literata. I did phrase that very badly, and I didn't mean at all to imply that I support or endorse the "only dominant males breed" idea. Also, thanks for the information about the "sneaky male" mating strategy. I still think, though, that a lot of our worst traits are instincts left over from before civilization.

[Literata]

I do agree with that, Karen, and that lack of strong social networks can be a contributing factor for situations where someone becomes massively destructive.

[MercuryBlue]

There is precisely one food bank organization in my state, and the hours it wants volunteers are 9 to 2 on weekdays. I work 9 to 5 on weekdays. If I do not work, I do not get paid. ARGH.

[Mmy]

@MercuryBlue: Doesn't it seem wrong that it is so hard for members of the community to give to / share with / support other members of the community? It seems to me that there is a well of pent-up good will that just spoils for lack of appropriate outlet.

[Izzy, Who Had an Interesting Night, Yes.]

Been having a similar dilemma, actually. Compounded by the fact that, while I would love to help out with painting/nailing/packaging stuff/folding blankets/cutting vegetables, my job uses up all my talking-to-people energy, and a lot of volunteer work available seems to involve talking to people. Would love to find something behind the scenes, for well-meaning introverts like myself.

[Mmy]

@Pthalo: Wow, that is a cool idea. Not only good for those who are having trouble feeding themselves but also good in the sense that it prevents massive amounts of food wastage.

BTW, for us personally, one of the side-effects of "going vegan" is that we use far less space in our refrigerator and we throw away far less food. With no meat/fish/dairy we have far less that will spoil easily and, as you say, things that look a little wilty are still okay to eat and so one throws them into the general meal one is cooking.

[Dash]

MaryKaye: thank you for clarifying that. You're a biologist, if memory serves, right? I do wish that the term "sneaky male" could be retired, though. It sees the relationship between the two males from the dominant male's perspective: that is, the dominant male presumably gets what he has by rights, and the "sneaky male" sneaks in and takes what is someone else's. I know I've heard some biologists talk about how the non-dominant males could as well be called "altruistic males," since one of the ways they gain access and become the female's mating choice is via altruistic behaviors towards the female.

(Disclaimer: not a biologist and could be wrong about the primate behavior. Definitely not wrong about the analysis of the term "sneaky male," though.)

[Mmy]

@Dash: I do wish that the term "sneaky male" could be retired, though. It sees the relationship between the two males from the dominant male's perspective: that is, the dominant male presumably gets what he has by rights, and the "sneaky male" sneaks in and takes what is someone else's.

Yes, interesting is it not that the female is functionally erased from the discussion. The idea never seems to occur that the female might have some involvement in all of this--that perhaps the female is expressing a preference for one male over another.

TRIGGER WARNING: Rape culture

By limiting the possibility of sexual activity to that of the dominant male OR the sneaky male it removes the concept/necessity of consent on the part of the female. Which, of course, was exactly the legal understanding of rape until recently -- rape was a crime that one man committed by using/taking the property of another man.

[Gyrofrog]

The famine, as I understand it, for what that's worth:

One thing I have seen not mentioned in famine coverage, is the situation in Ethiopia's Ogaden region. This area is mostly ethnic Somali, as well as the setting for the aforementioned Notes from the Hyena's Belly. There is an ongoing insurgency in that area and both aid workers and journalists have been blocked from entering the area (and those who manage to enter have faced abduction).

What has been mentioned is al-Shabaab's similar blockade within the area of Somalia that they control.

Other parts of Ethiopia are extremely verdant; I have photos from an area called Wondo Genet that look like they might have been taken in Kauai. Having visited the country, it is mind-boggling that a famine could occur in such a green place. Drought can hit the verdant areas (e.g. the Highlands), though, and the area I mentioned was within a "warning" area on a map I saw a few days ago. Sometimes the drought is not entirely to blame; the 1984-85 famine took place during a civil war which complicated aid delivery. On the other hand I recall reading about a famine 200 or 300 years ago that killed something like half the population (though that was presumably Abyssinia which is not the same as modern Ethiopia).

Ogaden is a drier area - to say nothing of the Afar Triangle, which is one of the most inhospitably hot places on Earth. These are mainly pastoralist areas, as opposed to trying to grow crops. But even camels need some water sometimes and the rains haven't delivered in Ogaden or Southern Somalia; this is compounded by the blockades in both areas.

[Laiima]

Lots of stuff I've read about biology w/r/t mating talks about everything from the viewpoint of males only. "Harems", anyone? A stallion (or whatever) defending "his" females? Seems to me a bunch of females might be pretty happy to have (just) one male to deal with. Because if a society is mostly female, then the females are creating the culture. (See article below for a fascinating look at bonobos and other primates.)

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/primate-diaries/2011/07/20/science-of-sexism/

[MaryKaye]

I am a geneticist and have not studied animal behavior specifically, except for its genetic implications.

I do like to read about apes, though, and would recommend _Chimpanzee Politics_ and _Chimpanzees of the Tai Forest_, as well as--more on the cognitive end--_Folk Physics for Apes_. I would love to add some good bonobo books to my library--anyone have recommendations?

[Literata]

Laiima - or how about lion prides? Maybe that should be lioness prides!

Diane Duane wrote the very wonderful The Book of Night with Moon and its sequel To Visit the Queen, in which there are housecats who are also wizards; it takes place in the same universe as her Young Wizards series. She does a lot of great worldbuilding, and we find out that females are the default among cats (and their deities), that queens (in the sense of mother cats) run the prides, and that males are slightly marginalized, although valued in their own way. It's fascinating and enjoyable if you like that kind of thing. Also reminded me of some feminist-separatist types of attitudes occasionally found within Paganism, come to think of it.

I'm sorry I don't have anything useful to say about the famine. It's not that I don't care, just that I don't know much.

[Glendanowakowsk]

This is more of a global than a personal plan to deal with famine.

I'm reading a book called "World on the Edge" by Lester Brown. It sums up the problems facing the world that could cause the collapse of many societies. The main problems are intertwined and tend to exacerbate each other.

These are: 1) climate change related to carbon emissions, 2) lack of water for agriculture and personal use, 3) loss of topsoil due to wind and water erosion, 4) overpopulation and 5) poverty.

All of those have to be addressed in order to bring the earth to a sustainable state. One thing he makes very clear is that this is a global problem, and not just limited to impoverished developing countries. Almost all countries have some of these issues to some extent, and when states fail, such as Somalia, they become havens for terrorists and pirates, with worldwide consequences.

He also gives numerous examples of countries and organizations that have had success in tackling these problems.

The scary thing is the time frame which Brown proposes. The book was written in 2010, and he claims that the world will need to see significant progress in these areas by 2020. That will take some serious leadership on an international scale, and I'm not sure where that will come from. I'm pretty sure, though, that the US is not up to it at the present.

[cjmr]

Literata said: "Diane Duane wrote the very wonderful The Book of Night with Moon and its sequel To Visit the Queen, in which there are housecats who are also wizards; it takes place in the same universe as her Young Wizards series. She does a lot of great worldbuilding, and we find out that females are the default among cats (and their deities), that queens (in the sense of mother cats) run the prides, and that males are slightly marginalized, although valued in their own way. It's fascinating and enjoyable if you like that kind of thing. Also reminded me of some feminist-separatist types of attitudes occasionally found within Paganism, come to think of it."

I don't think that bit in bold is at all coincidental.

[Literata]

Probably not. Still ticks me off; amusing in fiction, problematic, to say the least, in real life.

[storiteller]

For local food sharing, you could start/join a local Food not Bombs: http://www.foodnotbombs.net

The Food Not Bombs in D.C. used to bake bread with a solar oven in front of the White House every morning. I'm not sure if they still do - they told my local food/sustainability group about it about a year ago and I've never seen them there when I've walked by.

In terms of helping others in our community, Ecolocity DC, the group I volunteer with works to build the local, sustainable food system. We want healthy, local, fresh, sustainable food to be available to everyone, no matter their income level. We've established a community garden and a farmers'/community market that accepts food stamps in one of the less prosperous areas of D.C. We've also done quite a number of gardening workshops to help people learn how to grow food on their own with minimal chemical inputs, money, and energy. My personal project right now is creating the DC Foodshed Map, which maps all of the different sustainable food producers, distributors and resources within 100 miles of the city. People can find resources near them, and we can use it to identify places that need better, affordable resources nearby. If anyone is interested in creating a similar resource, please feel free to email me and I can walk you through the process.

I don''t know if other food banks do this, but the Capital Area Food Bank has a project called "Grow a Row" for gardeners that may be good if your schedule prevents working during the time they are open. Basically, they hook gardeners up with soup kitchens/ emergency food suppliers to provide them with fresh produce, which is often very hard to come by. Other food banks near you may have similar programs, or perhaps you can just ask them if they'd like excess.

[storiteller]

Ergh. Sorry about the comment above - when I went to post it, Typepad basically told me to go shove it. Then, I cut and pasted it in and lost all of the links.

Ecolocity DC: www.ecolocity.org
Grow a Row: http://www.capitalareafoodbank.org/grow-a-row/

[Dash]

cjmr:

She does a lot of great worldbuilding, and we find out that females are the default among cats (and their deities), that queens (in the sense of mother cats) run the prides, and that males are slightly marginalized, although valued in their own way. It's fascinating and enjoyable if you like that kind of thing. Also reminded me of some feminist-separatist types of attitudes occasionally found within Paganism, come to think of it."

I don't think that bit in bold is at all coincidental.

Literata:

Probably not. Still ticks me off; amusing in fiction, problematic, to say the least, in real life.

Well, but if you consider that the norm now is that "females males are the default among cats humans (and their deities), that queens men (in the sense of mother cats bosses, religious and political leaders and fathers/husbands) run the prides most organizational units, and that males females are [rather more than] slightly marginalized, although valued in their own way," then ... I'm trying to figure out why Duane's cat society is problematic.

(Actually, I do find it problematic to make assumptions about who is suited for leadership based primarily on gender. But the description of Duane's society makes it seem rather more egalitarian than the one most of us are living in.)

[P J Evans]

Duane has a third novel in that universe, but it's only available electronically: The Big Meow (at http://www.the-big-meow.com/ ).

[cjmr]

Eventually Big Meow is *supposed* to be available in print, at least in a limited run for those who subscribed to it way back when she started writing it. I'm not sure what the technical difficulties are with that.

[Literata]

storiteller, thank you so much for the links!

Cool! I didn't know she'd finished TBM. Dash, I'm right there with you. It's hard to tell, since we only get to see a small slice of the culture/society, but the bigger problem doesn't seem to be misandry (mis-male-felinity?) as much as that cats are more gender essentialist, which, in fiction, the world-builder gets to specify. There's also the interesting bit that there are (sort of) four genders, once you throw in spayed and neutered cats. Anyway, sorry to derail with feminist analysis of an imaginary non-human culture...

[Semi-anonymous lurker (Sal)]

Hey, nearly-open thread; can I make a general plea for advice? I've been with very minimal (1-3 minutes) of hot water for five weeks now. (Also: possible problems with the outlets, and a ceiling fan that's dangerously unbalanced, among more minor concerns). I live in the US; I pay $750/month in rent. The maintenance men came by a week and half ago (a month after I reported the problem) to "flush out the water heater". It tacked on maybe 40 seconds to the time it runs.

Couple questions:
1. Is this . . . normal? How not normal is it? I don't have a good feel for how unacceptable this is; should I be mildly peeved? Outraged? Calling my lawyer?
2. Is it appropriate to ask for rent back? How much?

All I want is a hot shower that lasts more than 3 minutes, but this is being treated like a fairly trivial concern. Am I out of line in expecting hot water to be a major repair? Maybe it's not such a big thing for most Americans?

I don't want to be unfair, but I don't understand what's happening and can't get answers. With some reluctance, I'm taking formal steps to get it fixed, but I'd like to approach my management with a proposal for rent reduction next month, and have no idea where to start.

[Mmy]

@Sal: I can tell you that the hot water situation is not normal. Where I used to live in the United States the city code would have issues with the water, the outlets and the ceiling fan.

I don't know about the legal situation in your community -- the place I lived actually passed a set of local laws to deal with what was viewed as predatory behaviour of landlords (college town) but I would guess that code and code enforcement vary from city to city and state to state.

We can put a request for information/feedback on the next board business post if you like.

[Semi-anonymous lurker (Sal)]

I've had the building inspectors come visit; apparently there's a code for how *hot* the water has to get but not how long it lasts. They were very nice, but much more animated about the lack of CO2 detector. They said there was pretty much nothing they could do about the water. Their report should go out today, and hopefully that will solve the issue because I don't really have the money to move or go to court. But yeah, a request for feedback would be great.

[cjmr]

Depending on where you are in the US there may be some sort of agency whose purpose is specifically to deal with tenant/landlord complaints. Some places (like Seattle) have strong tenant-protection laws, other places really favor the landlords.

-----
(puts on amateur plumber hat)

If you are getting less than three minutes of hot water, it could be the heater has a defective thermostat component. There's a fail safe (on electric water heaters) that keeps a defective thermostat from overheating the water by tripping when that component gets too hot. If that has gone bad, it can trip at too low of temperatures, which means the water will never get properly hot. In the 10 years we lived in our condo, we replaced our thermostat unit twice because of that issue. It is such a simple thing to check and so inexpensive to fix, that I'm surprised the maintenance guy didn't check it. (If you have a gas hot water heater, I have no advice.)

[MaryKaye]

I would suggest quietly contacting your neighbors in the building. The hot water problem is likely to be building-wide or at least floor-wide, and ten annoyed tenants have a lot more voice than one annoyed tenant. If legal action is necessary maybe you can share the costs out among everyone affected.

[Semi-anonymous lurker (Sal)]

Sadly, it is gas. I think it's a heating element or something, but that's just based on the internet, so I could be way off base. Even a new one isn't *that* expensive. I mean, it's not the cheapest thing ever, but it's not like new windows or cabinets. (This is one thing I fundamentally don't get; there's a tear in the screen. Cost to repair now: $2, plus 5 minutes. Cost to repair once that sucker rips open: Lots more. Same with gaps in the linoleum in the bathroom that *are* going to mildew if they aren't fixed. I'm a total procrastinator, but even I know getting the jump on these things is the better part of valor.)

[Semi-anonymous lurker (Sal)]

Thanks, MaryKaye. I'm not entirely clear on how many others are served by the hot water heater, but that's good advice.