Society's ChildS


Hourglass

Saudi Arabia: Rebranding an absolute monarchy


Sputnik
Tue, 05 Apr 2016 14:37 UTC
road and sheik
© www.newstatesman.comBridging two worlds, the slow evolutionary road.
The recent developments in the political and social life of Saudi Arabia show that the absolute monarchy is now on the long way of evolution to a modern secular state, Moscow-based professor and specialist in modern Eastern studies Grigory Kosach wrote.

Saudi Arabia is the key player in the Middle East, pretending to be the leader in the Sunni Arab world. Riyadh is also of the world's leader in oil production and exports. On the other hand, to the Western mentality the kingdom looks anachronous.

Saudi Arabia appeared on the world map thanks to the efforts of its "founding monarch" Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud. In the first quarter of the 20th century, he seized several areas in the Arabian Peninsula, including Riyadh and Mecca. But the kingdom was established not only with power. It was also based on principles of the ultra-conservative doctrine of Wahhabism, a religious movement within Sunni Islam. Having used Wahhabism as one of the pillars of his kingdom, Abdel Aziz could make its expansion efforts religiously legitimate.

Comment: Pattern: Force the topple of the house of Saud and something more insidious will take its place. East does not meet West evenly, nor is the transition from one dynamic to the other entirely feasible or ever complete. In the Mid East, there will always be the dynamic of religion in politics and war - even the West has strong elements of this behind its secular facade. Couple this with the residuals of colonialism, geopolitical rivalries and add a big gob of zealotry for good measure...sparks fly and conflicts inflate. Western reform and secularism will likely undermine, but not replace, the historic marriage of a ruling dynasty with its regime state. Perhaps the slow change stands the better chance.

Even Western nations are mutating to illiberal (partial or empty) democracies based on blind faith sans accountability: a governing system in which citizens are cut off from knowledge about the activities of those who exercise real power due to the erosion of civil liberties. Moral and functional disintegration is the projected end result. Sound familiar?

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People

Get rid of homework: Why adult expectations stress children and affect their development

Scott Timberg
Salon
Mon, 04 Apr 2016 16:19 UTC
kid in library
© wavebreakmedia via Shutterstock
If you are hoping to raise a child who always shares, who follows all the rules, and doesn't act angry once in a while, you will want to skip the books by Heather Shumaker. A speaker and authority on early childhood and parenting, Shumaker has attracted attention for her argument that we should "ban homework in elementary school." That's just one part of her new book, "It's OK to Go Up The Slide: Renegade Rules For Raising Confident and Creative Kids." It's a sequel of sorts to her first book, "It's OK Not To Share and Other Renegade Rules For Raising Competent and Compassionate Kids."

Shumaker generally argues that parents should rarely force and pressure children, and we should respect each kid's individual speed and style instead of imposing the same set of expectations on all of them. This doesn't come simply from a free-to-be-you-and-me worldview: She draws on solid research to make many of her points.

Salon spoke to the Michigan-based Shumaker from Ohio, where she was visiting a pre-school. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
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Arrow Down

Vicious verbiage: The new "gig economy" is another heartless attack on the ordinary working class by the minions of oligarchy

Mike Whitney
Counterpunch
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
Gig jobs
"Contrary to the rising-tide hypothesis, the rising tide has only lifted the large yachts, while many of the smaller boats have been dashed on the rocks." Joseph Stiglitz, economist
American plutocrats and their political lackeys in congress have implemented a plan that's putting pressure on wages and further decimating the already-battered middle class. By sustaining high levels of unemployment over a long period of time, US elites have "restructured the labor force", which is a pretentious-sounding expression that means they've created a permanent underclass that's willing to slave-away at demeaning, part-time jobs for mere peanuts without uttering a peep of protest. This metamorphosis of the workforce has taken place mostly in the shadows, concealed behind a thick fog of state propaganda touting the fictitious "recovery", a recovery in which long-term jobless workers have abandoned all hope of finding gainful full-time employment and resigned themselves to a lifetime of scrambling from one odious task to the next just keep a roof over their heads and the wolves away from the door.

After eight years of applying this coercive 'starvation strategy', the plutocrat's 'grand plan' is finally coming into focus. According to economists Lawrence F. Katz and Alan B. Krueger's new paper titled "The Rise and Nature of Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States, 1995-2015″:

Comment: Western elites are slave masters: They have, over the course of many years, slowly chipped away at and destroyed every sphere of quality of life for the 99% - merely to accrue more wealth, power and status for themselves. We're now seeing the final stages of this crime that will only be concluded by a day of reckoning when the whole house of cards will, by force of its own weight, come tumbling down. Watch it happen, and see how an empire falls to the detriment of all who are touched by it.

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Heart - Black

Bipolar woman gunned down by police after parents called 911 for help


RT
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 15:13 UTC
Melinda Boarts
© Melinda BoartsMelissa Boarts
A bipolar Alabama woman was gunned down by Auburn police after her parents had called 911 to seek help in getting her to a mental hospital. Melissa Boarts was driving on an interstate when cops pulled her over and shot her for her "threatening manner."

The Auburn Police Department said Boarts, 36, exited her vehicle on Interstate 85 on Sunday and was "armed with a weapon and charged the officers in a threatening manner," the Associated Press reported. Auburn police officers then fatally shot her.

The family attorney, Julian McPhillips, said Boarts was armed with only a pocket knife at the time of the shooting, AP reported. Police said they did not know what type of weapon she had when she exited her vehicle.


Comment: Do they not train police officers how to incapacitate a person without killing them anymore? Apparently not, they shoot to kill and ask questions later. It should be clear to anyone paying attention that you should avoid calling the police for anything unless you absolutely have to, as police now are primed to attack and kill before doing any actual police work.


Michael and Terry Boarts, Melissa's father and mother, had called 911 for assistance, as Boarts, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (often known as manic depression), was threatening suicide. Boarts then drove from home toward Auburn along the interstate. Her parents were asking police for help in getting her to a hospital.
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Arrow Down

Canada's food insecurity becoming epidemic; majority of food insecure households are working families


Science Daily
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 14:52 UTC
food insecurity canada
Despite anti-poverty efforts, hunger in Canada has not decreased -- and it has now reached epidemic levels in Nunavut, where almost half of households suffer from food insecurity, according to a new study by University of Toronto researchers.

One in six children under the age of 18 in Canada lives in food insecure households, according to Household Food Insecurity in Canada, 2014, a report published by PROOF, a U of T research group.

Household food insecurity is the inadequate or insecure access to food because of financial constraints.

In Canada, rates of food insecurity are monitored by Statistics Canada through the Canadian Community Health Survey. In 2013-14, the food security survey was optional, and Yukon, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador opted out.

High rates of food insecurity have persisted across the provinces and territories that participated in the survey. Food insecurity is a serious public health problem that takes a measurable toll on individual health and well-being, and costs our health care system.
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Candle

Dark days ahead: Porter Ranch gas leak will lead to summer blackouts


Sputnik
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 14:57 UTC
porter ranch gas leak
© youtube
The immense six-month Porter Ranch gas leak in Southern California has left local power plants without enough fuel and will eventually result in blackouts this summer.

After the leak began in October 2015, the Southern California Gas Company stopped using the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility. The fuel storage location provides 11 million people across the region with gas.

According to California officials, the leak led to a drastic decline in gas supplies for the state's power plants and will lead to electricity shortages during the summer.
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Attention

PayPal withdraws North Carolina investment project over anti-LGBT legislation


Phys.org
Tue, 05 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
paypal drops NC invesment
© AFP PHOTO ERIC PIERMONT PayPal had planned to invest $3.6 million in a global operations center in Charlotte, North Carolina that would have employed more than 400 people
US online payment giant PayPal dropped plans Tuesday to invest millions of dollars in North Carolina, joining a growing chorus of protests by major companies against recently passed state legislation targeting transgender people.

PayPal's move came as another state, Mississippi, signed into law a measure that allows government officials and businesses to deny gay people service if it conflicts with their religious beliefs.

The legislation is part of a series of measures that have been labeled ant-gay that are sweeping southern states.

The North Carolina law, known as HB2, prohibits local governments within the state from enacting policies protecting the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community from discrimination at public facilities and restrooms.

Comment:

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Info

Russia bringing peace, humanitarian aid and forging international bridges while Western media keeps silent

Deena Stryker
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 14:19 UTC
moscow russia
American foreign policy pundits and their echo chamber in the press scoffed at Russia's intervention in Syria: it would be a quagmire. When Russia brought home most of its planes after a successful campaign against ISIS, Americans pretended to be 'surprised'. 'Putin is bad' was replaced by 'You never know what this guy is going to do next'.

These comments follow logically from the virtual news blackout on the uninterrupted flow of academics, businessmen and politicians to Russia during the last few years. St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin's home town, vies with Moscow as a major international conference and event hub, but you have to watch Russia's international channel RT, to learn about these goings-on. France's international channel, France 24, which usually reports on the same events as its Russian counterpart, is silent on Russia's international confabs.


Comment: Russia continues to regain foreign investor interest


Most recently, Germany's Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was in Moscow signing all sorts of deals. He and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov announced the resumption of the Petersburg Dialogue, a forum that gathers representatives of Russian and German civil societies first launched more than 15 years ago. The two ministers also signed a joint commitment to back a cross-cultural youth exchange year spanning 2016-2017. At the same times, the German diplomat agreed to reactivate the Interagency High Level Working Group on Strategic Cooperation in the field of economics and finance.

Comment: Russia's remarkable renaissance (and why the West is seeking to crush it)

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Bulb

NY Governor and NYC mayor ban nonessential travel to North Carolina as protest over anti-LGBT law

Margaret Hartmann
NY Mag
Tue, 29 Mar 2016 19:45 UTC
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory
© Chip Somodevilla/2015 Getty ImagesNorth Carolina Governor Pat McCrory
Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio have found something they both can agree on. There's been some bad blood between New York's governor and New York City's mayor in recent months, but on Monday, they both issued bans on nonessential government travel to North Carolina to protest the anti-LGBT measure rushed into law last week.

"In New York, we believe that all people — regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation — deserve the same rights and protections under the eyes of the law," Cuomo said in a statement. "From Stonewall to marriage equality, our state has been a beacon of hope and equality for the LGBT community, and we will not stand idly by as misguided legislation replicates the discrimination of the past. As long as there is a law in North Carolina that creates the grounds for discrimination against LGBT people, I am barring non-essential state travel to that state."

The governor and mayor issued similar travel bans last year when Indiana passed a law allowing businesses to refuse service to the LGBT community on religious grounds. Those bans were lifted when Indiana modified the law.
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Bulb

Minnesota Governor bans all nonessential state business travel to North Carolina over anti-LGBT laws


RT
Mon, 04 Apr 2016 18:53 UTC
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton
© Eric Miller / ReutersMinnesota Gov. Mark Dayton
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has introduced a ban on "all nonessential state business travel" to North Carolina after the state introduced anti-LGBT laws.

In a letter distributed to all Minnesota state employees on Saturday, Dayton took aim at North Carolina's introduction of laws in March whereby local governments were blocked from making their own rules against gender and sexual discrimination, as well as dictating that if using a public bathroom, transgender people would have to use the one according to their gender at birth.

The Democratic governor said such legislation was "appalling" and "violates the values and the laws" of Minnesota as well as being "destructive to the progress we have made to provide equal rights and protections to our LGBT community."

"I direct that all state employees cease all nonessential state business travel to North Carolina until further notice," wrote Dayton.
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