Where Did All Our Jobs Go?

When I was a student, family farms were prosperous. Younger children moved away to get other types of jobs. Now the family farm is a remnant of history -- replaced by agribusiness:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agribusiness

We used to produce 95% of our clothing in the U.S. Now the figure is 5%:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34106.pdf

Manufacturing in general used to be done here. Now things for us are produced mainly in China where workers are paid minimum wages with no benefits. Now China is beginning to move in on our specialized product areas (e.g. chips and other electronic stuff, cars, etc.):

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&resnum=0&q=Manufacturing+in+China&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=I7fpSoK1G83hlAeFmej_BA&sa=X&oi=news_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCwQsQQwAw

If one wants to know where our jobs are, one need only look overseas where competitors produce stuff cheaper than we can because we pay our workers decently and they do not.

We tentatively tried an import tax on tires from China recently. The result was a none too subtle threat from China which holds billions in loans to the U.S.:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-09/16/content_8695853.htm

A recall of these loans would be disastrous for our economy.

The bottom line here is that it is not our economy, itself, that has produced our unemployment figures. Rather it is the export of jobs overseas.

Our economy may begin to recover, but we will need a considerable shift to such things as government funded infrastructure repairs and whatever else we can figure to give our own jobs. Practical training in some areas could help.

But I see no easy answers here and my heart goes out to the older ones who are too often last to be hired in competition with younger (cheaper) workers.

Help!

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

No Win in Afghanistan -- But Now Iran?

There is no way we can 'win' a war in Afghanistan. The Taliban has far too many ways to elude our troops; there is no plausible government likely there. Some military have suggested that it would take hundreds of thousands of troops to subdue the Taliban and they are neither available nor would be tolerated by nations supposed to provide them.

The only reason for us remaining in Afghanistan for a time is to support Pakistan and keep it from bearing the full burden of Taliban attacks. I am not sure that even that can work. And I can't imagine what Obama can possibly do now to make anything work there. Bush & Co. lost it when they diverted to Iraq -- which is having its own troubles now as a nation divided three ways.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, revenge is the name of the game that is being played over there. Each attack generates a counter-attack and women and children are not spared in the process. We have stirred up the hostilities and I see no way for us to calm them down. Our colonizing predecessors learned this lesson the hard way. Each of them eventually gave it up and turned to more subtle means to extract resources from these nations. Eisenhower permitted himself to be conned by our oil interests along with British ones to destroy the first signs of a democracy in Iran.

Rarely is this grim fact of life and our restoration of the cruel Shah ever mentioned by our media which dates the beginning of Iranian history with the Revolution in 1979 that drove out the Shah:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution

Needless to say Iranian suspicions of us have a solid basis and now with the report that the C.I.A. is again at work in Afghanistan, running Karzai's brother . . .

Help. I don't envy Obama trying to sort our these messes.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Murders Unleashed by 'Wars'

The news today is grim -- mass killings, here, there, and elsewhere. The saddest thing is that most of these look to be retaliatory and, thus, a vicious circle of violence with no end in sight. Hillary Clinton is tying to reach out to the Pakistanis today, but is faced with suspicion and distrust that we are trying to use them to do our dirty work:

Clinton, in Pakistan, Confronts Rising Hostility
By MARK LANDLER
The visit comes at a tense moment in Pakistani-American relations, in the wake of a furor over a U.S. aid package.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28diplo.html?th&emc=th

The catch here is a sharp cultural clash with us in the West where we have learned that peace is the best way of life to be pursued. Obama's Nobel Peace Prize is symbolic of this hope. In contrast those in Pakistan and Afghanistan have lived with the notion that honor demands punishing those whose attacks have harmed one's own. This retaliatory ideal has many names and often causes extraordinary abuses of innocents. Apparently people are not valued as individuals, but rather as members of competing groups -- a religion, tribal group, nation or whatever.

We in the West have in the past committed horrendous abuses of innocent people, too, while engaged in 'wars'. I well remember our hatreds of our enemies in W.W.II. I was disappointed that it had ended before I could join up. As kids we learned and practiced a variety of tactics by which we could kill people with our bare hands -- I still remember them vividly. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were greeted with great glee despite the fact that these were not prime military targets and that the vast majority of victims were innocent civilians. We had in fact killed more than that with our fire bombing raids on Tokyo.

It is for this reason that I think we have made a vast error in labeling our battles in Iraq and Afghanistan 'wars'. This escalation in terminology has allowed us to use military techniques that have put at risk, injured, and killed thousands. And these killings have ensnared us in the Middle Eastern culture of retaliation. The Taliban are punishing us for what they consider to be our crimes in Afghanistan and the Pakistanis are fearful that they will be trapped in the same brutal 'war' games.

And so it goes.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

The Aggravations of Growing Older

I retired from teaching philosophy a few years ago when I was 74. College teaching was a fortunate profession in that one could space out classes and meetings. I finally decided to stop because I realized I was too tired to do justice to my last class of a day. Having worked in tough blue collar jobs summers as a student and from cases among my students, I am all too aware that people doing strenuous physical work may be knocked out quite early and driven to small scale disability incomes that most often will neither support families or mortgages. Not all unemployment is the consequence of absence of jobs.

I was lucky, but getting used to aging (I am going on 77 as of next year) has a wide variety of irritations and moments of great sadness.

I am probably pretty typical in that I am consuming daily pills, pills and more pills for a variety of ailments -- pain controlled by a heavy pain killer is my most aggravating.

But it is the sad things that really get to one. As one grows older one loses loved ones and dear friends from the past. I almost don't dare check on Google to see if someone is still alive. As often as not there has been a death that passed me by.

What can one do to counteract the depression that almost inevitably strikes with such things. I try to keep busy with things that I have to do and also greatly enjoy blogging which keeps my mind working. Years ago on a dare a friend and I exchanged summer courses in each other's fields -- philosophy and psychology. I was teaching from a pre ordered text so that I just needed to keep a step ahead of my students. One of the things that I learned about geriatric psychology is that one's recall processes get slowed down. One tries to remember some name or detail which is elusive and then it will ordinarily pop up in time. The image that sticks in mind is someone skiing down a hill with a rise midway over which one must push to get on to the bottom.

Blogging keeps my mind active and I have many excellent sources of information that one does not find on TV. Also it has put me in touch with many people with similar interests around the world -- in both Israel and Palestine, for example. I have noticed other older ones who have taken up concerns which they promote until quite late in life.

Another course I taught at that community college about which I knew little was comparative religion (at least non-Western religions). Hinduism I discovered, sketches 4 stages of life: student, householder, retired, ascetic. I did spend a summer sharing a third floor porch with a man still considered to be the world's leading Yogi. He was most impressive and taught me student yoga, useful for staying awake while doing late night term papers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._K._S._Iyengar

However, I don't think I buy the last of the Hindu stages of life which seems to consist of doing nothing much other than being a holy man. That is too Eastern for me:

http://hinduism.about.com/od/basics/p/fourstages.htm

Also I am bothered by the reports of the extremes of poverty and wealth in India today -- an echo perhaps of the caste system?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India

Despite the efforts of reformers, things are not too great for women in India either:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_India

And so it goes.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Between the Devil and the Deep . . .

Keeping the peace is not simply a matter of making right decisions and sticking with them. In area after area one faces inherent conflicts between right things to do.

To give one of the most fundamental examples, we want to support human rights wherever we can. Two countries that are manifestly violating human rights in gross ways are Russia and China. Somewhere today I saw a report that Putin may be thinking of imitating Chinese control tactics in Russia where at least 30 advocates of human rights have been murdered of late without one case being solved. And China executes thousands (including dissenters) each year:

"With at least 1,718, China was responsible for 72 percent of all executions in 2008, the report stated. After China were Iran (346), Saudi Arabia (102), the United States (37) and Pakistan (36), according to the group."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/world/25amnesty.html

And yet the U.S. is doing its apparent best to nurture peace with Russia and China -- the world's most powerful nations after the U.S. Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in anticipation of his efforts towards global peace:

"President Barack Obama made time for a brief statement about his Nobel Peace Prize award on Friday, before heading in to a more pressing engagement -- a high-powered White House strategy session on the next phase of his war in Afghanistan. That was just one indication that this year's peace prize was, as Obama himself put it, honoring aspiration rather than achievement."

http://time.dev.qa.mlogic.be/wo_ne/275703/full/

He postponed a meeting with the Dalai Lama presumably because he did not want to offend the Chinese with whom he is making peace efforts:

"The Dalai Lama arrived Monday in Washington and will be received by prominent lawmakers and the U.S. coordinator for Tibet. But the focus for many in China, Tibet and the United States is the president's decision not to meet with the Dalai Lama until after Obama visits Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing in November."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091006/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_us_china_dalai_lama

Obama has weathered much criticism for this and other comparable choices.

How are we to read such conflicts? Speaking as a retired philosopher (recovering from flu), I am repeatedly irritated by the misuse of language and particularly concepts originally stemming from my field. For example one could say (as some have) that Obama is acting "pragmatically" rather than on "principle." This is a simplistic and distorting false distinction. With any decent reading of this man one can see that he is doing his best, using his extensive training in foreign affairs, law, community service, care for persons, to achieve peace and avoid wars which -- with WMD available -- would be disastrous. The little wars have been a bloodbath for all involved. We have mad ones running around who are willing to blow themselves up -- and presumable as much of the rest of humanity as they can. Weird that this 'end of the world' (apocalyptic) vision emerged from early Jewish, Christian, and other religious speculations and has perverted much of world's thinking ever since:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse

Imagine such types gaining control of nuclear Pakistan which has already fought 3 little wars with India! Help!

Presumably Obama's thinking through the situation in Afghanistan is much, if not more, focused on Pakistan where such killing games are running hard now.

All this does not mean that Obama and we are not facing horrendous choices. I guess that the best we can do is to follow our Commander-in-Chief's efforts with the major powers while speaking loudly through our media to human rights violations. I think the rest of the world probably gets the point that Obama and we want peace entire, but have to work towards it gradually and hope for the best over the long run. Hopefully the nations mentioned above will gradually improve their human rights practices in time. Brutal governments or religious cult groups are not loved and are generally their own worst suicidal enemies. Rebellion against them is always lurking near. Let's hope.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Punishment Does Not Solve All Problems!

Apart from some of the tyrannies, the U.S. -- a democracy -- is the quickest to punish and in vastly larger numbers than the rest of the world. Per the citation below:

"The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/us/23prison.html

Needless to say there is some discrimination built into our punitive system -- more than half those imprisoned are minority group members in part as a result of the targeting of minority communities for arrest and punishment. Our monies -- quite expensive for imprisonment -- could be far better spent on education and jobs. Even Obama seems reluctant to break with this pattern to start some sort of WPA program targeting unemployed as did Roosevelt during our last big economic crisis. And our NY governor is announcing massive cuts in our education budgets as one of his goals for solving NY's budget crisis. No one is speaking loudly about closing down some of our NY prisons not needed to house our prisoners with the decrease in crime of late -- local pols fear a strong prison guards union.

I don't know precisely what the sources are of our vengeful attitudes that make punishment the solution for social problems. One suspects that each new wave of immigrants to this country has been resented by its predecessors and accused of crime -- the Lou Dobbs syndrome. And brutality was the way slaves were controlled.

How to change attitudes I do not know. Perhaps economic necessity will help? Some states are considering large releases of prisoners -- by judicial order for overcrowding in California.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/102256/early_release_for_prison_inmates_in.html

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Are You Suffering from Seasonal Depression?

Many years ago I was in a hospital room with a man with ulcers. He told me that there were two bad times of the year when they were likely to hit -- early winter and late winter -- with the shift to and from bright summer/spring days.

The news of late has been extremely depressing and I recalled this incident and checked with Google to see whether there is any evidence of this.

Lo and behold, apparently some people are affected by the decline in sunlight which is associated with winter's onset -- it is darker now out the window from my computer.

Happily there seem to be a number of things that one can do to cope - light counseling, anti-depressants, and activities that get one out and about.

There several articles available per Google, but this one looked particularly useful and it is short and to the point, if you happen to be SAD (seasonable affective disorder) -- apparently a technical term used for such depression cases:


http://www.webmd.com/depression/tc/seasonal-affective-disorder-sad-topic-overview

Ulcers by the way used to be thought to be caused by as stress, drinking, foods, etc. But now are more likely to be the result of a curable bacterial infection:

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=43451

There are some painkillers such as Ibuprofen that can be villains as well, especially when combined with alcohol.

I would certainly be particularly concerned with depression connecting with a number of the scary things facing many Americans these days such fear about job loss or unemployment, itself, family involved in military combat over there, medical costs, etc.

Obama has quite a challenge as our national leader to cope with the many things out of joint here and abroad. Happily he does not seem to be showing signs of depression to slow him down. Maybe this is the problem with some of his attackers?

I am a doctor of philosophy, not medicine! Get real medical advice if you need it.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Continued Ghettoization of NYC?

The article by Craig Gurian -- website below -- on the continuing ghettoization of NYC is both accurate and depressing. He is a long time civil rights advocate who teaches courses in this area at Fordham Law and knows whereof he speaks.

For many years my wife and I worked on problems in one such 'ghetto' -- lower West Harlem. While were grad students we moved into a housing project on West 125th St. as part of a desegregation program. Except for one elderly woman, we became the only non minority people then living in a huge 21 story building, one of several with the same situation. Unfortunately that desegregation program was discontinued on the basis that we were being favored versus long waiting lists -- it was much to be preferred to the alternative run down and dangerous old tenements where crime was rampant and maintenance was virtually nil.

Unhappily now a half century later our good city is still ghettoized and those living in the poor areas suffer a broad range of injustices -- poorer schooling with massive dropouts prior to high school graduation. One in ten of such dropouts ends up in prison. Some of the borderline areas are now experiencing some integration -- but with exploitation that drives out people living in affordable housing by a variety of legal and illegal tactics. Such is the case with some of the west side of Harlem where my wife and her friends were particularly active in housing preservation and protecting people from being abused by such expulsion. There is a huge complex at W. 135th St. built with the help of city funds which has now reverted to private ownership per the legal arrangements set up 25 years ago. The new private owners are now apparently pushing lower income people out per regular protests against such -- which are not covered by our NYC media.

Public housing, itself, is under attack with all sorts of indignities being inflicted on residents, e.g. mandatory unpaid work per month. When we lived in 430 W. 125th St., Apt. 14G, no such was the case. We did have some problems which my wife and I were able to resolve such as adding locks on the entrance doors to keep addicts out, getting elevator repairs when ours would frequently fail late Friday when the staff offices were shut down for the weekend (we got hold of an emergency number that spared people climbing 21 floors all weekend). Activists are very much needed in ghetto communities. But they cannot stop many of the horrors there such as stop and frisk abuses, focus on arresting drug suspects which does not occur elsewhere, minimal maintenance of residential buildings, little security in same.

The U.S. has made considerable progress with improving the situations of our minorities. When I began teaching at Brooklyn College in 1970, the doors were suddenly opened to them. I had been drawn to teaching in the City University of NY precisely because I had earlier not been able to get students into City College whom Yale would accept. Still the numbers break badly along gender lines even in CUNY with far more African American women than men among our students. Presumably something is wrong with the education process to produce this discrepancy. Perhaps young men get depressed or angry more with their treatment in our ghettos? There was a sad story recently of a bright honors student who did not want to join a gang getting killed when he tried to break up a gang fight. Kids join gangs for company and protection in our ghettos. They apparently do not find either in our schools.

Our current candidates for Mayor attack each other for having run failing education programs. The article cited below cites Bloomberg's failures in maintaining civil rights. I don't know who or what to blame. Pols and punitive law enforcement cannot solve all our problems. Possibly we are up against deep and long-standing flaws in our culture? We are one of the later nations to abolish slavery. And our Latino immigrants are under heavy fire now -- ironic in that we stole a huge chunk of Mexico in 1848. Obama has not gotten to this problem yet. I favor amnesty for the millions here who are working, contributing, and do not have criminal records. We tend to look the other way when we admit talented people from other backgrounds to do things for which we have not trained enough people. Our jobs are being lost to China and India -- not undocumented immigrants.

Enough said even though I have not mentioned some of the other major problems that are getting worse with our recession, e.g. high unemployment rates among our African American men -- 27 percent for NY state.

Where do we go from here? What do you think?

******************************************

http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/fea/20091013/202/3049

Bloomberg's Calmer -- But Still Divided -- City

by Craig Gurian
October 13, 2009
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Challenges to Peace Efforts

The news is not good for those hoping for peace around the world in the various sources that I have been reading today. The Goldstone report has apparently alienated Israel from Turkey as well as stirring troubles both between Israelis and Palestinians -- and among the Palestinians as well. Bringing peace within the Israeli-Palestinian framework as well as between Israel and other Middle Eastern nations looks even more difficult now. Mitchell's efforts both with the Israeli and Egyptian leaders look to have left him discouraged and more problems are arising daily.

The new natural gas pipeline that the Russians are building through the Baltic will leave them more latitude to pressure the Eastern European countries which are less likely to be offered support by Western European nations when cutoffs of gas don't effect them directly with the new alternative gas line in place.

Pakistan is apparently none too happy about our trying to be helpful with funding which is being interpreted as American interference in their affairs and the weakness of their government versus military which may have mixed goals -- some antagonistic to us -- and makes that game a most tricky one. We probably can't be of much help in their dispute over the Kashmir with India.

And Afghanistan? Apparently Obama has authorized sending some more troops -- not the 40,000 demanded by generals:

Obama approves 13,000 more troops to Afghanistan - October 14, 2009

"President Barack Obama has approved the deployment of an additional 13,000 US troops to Afghanistan beyond the 21,000 he announced publicly in March, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

"The additional troops are primarily support forces -- such as engineers, medical specialists, intelligence experts and military police -- the paper said, bringing the total build-up approved by Obama to 34,000."

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/obama-approves-13000-more-troops-to-afghanistan-20091013-gvtk.html

What they are to do there is not really all that clear and many a critical source suggests that this interim move will not help pacify any one. A number of these sources are quite persuasive and draw the Vietnam parallel. Will we be assisted by the other nations with troops there -- a number of which are being pressured by their citizens -- as is Obama -- to pull out.

And then there are the economic disasters apparently bought on by climate changes -- droughts that are starving people in such as Kenya and floods in India and elsewhere with many a low lying nation at risk from relative small rises in sea levels. When people are coping with disasters they can be dangerous -- particularly when there are competing ethnic or tribal groups such as in Kenya.

Northern Iraq apparently also has a drought problem, too. Will it mess up peace there?

Not much that Obama can do about the hostilities in Sri Lanka.

And what of the mad tyrannies of such as Mugabe in Zimbabwe and Burma/Myanmar who are starving their peoples? We may be having some success with the latter. They showed up at the UN for the first time in 14 years, possibly as a result of our efforts to get through to their military leadership:

http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/2009/09/24/us-to-engage-burma-myanmar-clinton/
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Gay Man Hospitalized After Brutal Attack

"An openly gay man is clinging to life in a medically-induced coma after two men brutally attacked him for being gay in Queens, the New York Daily News reported.

"Jack Price was attacked coming out of a corner deli by two men Friday around 3AM in the middle-class neighborhood of College Point in Queens, New York. Police allege the two men taunted Price and yelled anti-gay slurs.

"Price, 49, told family members that the two men followed him to the store and called him a “faggot,” before losing consciousness. He is currently in the intensive care unit at Booth Memorial Hospital."

http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=4685&MediaType=1&Category=26

***************************************

I can't help resenting the brutalities that are induced by our religions. Here is but one more example of the hatreds encouraged by our three Western religions -- in writings composed many centuries ago that are repeatedly thrust at us in place of the peace-making elements of each.

Some people apparently like to hate more than anything else and so such hate texts are promoted -- just as our TV is employing sex and violence to sell products which in many instances are themselves dangerous.

I support free speech as protected by the First Amendment -- it holds in check authoritarians and such. But there are limits. The archetypal example is that one cannot cry fire in a theater when there is none and which can cause deaths and injuries as people rush to exits. But I am glad that our hate crimes legislation is being updated and I hope it will be used to educate people, not just to punish them with many years in jail. The fault here lies with those religionists who are preaching the hatred that oozes out into the public consciousness. These characters are as much at fault for inducing brutalities as those who committed the one in Queens this morning.

There are other religion induced crimes that I will not detail here. It is weird that people take so seriously stuff that was devised centuries ago by now mainly anonymous individuals who were claiming that they were speaking for a divinity.

It is time to move into the current century where we should condemn such dangerous insanity. Killing people is wrong! And can only be justified in extreme situations where many lives are at stake. Our current wars are probably in this category -- Livy had it right in his citation in my signature below. And he was a Roman historian not implicated in any of our Western religious traditions.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Can We Put Humpty Dumpty Together Again?

My hope had been that we might shift our approach in Afghanistan from chasing the Taliban to development of people resources. The NY Times article below, however, makes that option look like pie in the sky. Presumably the Taliban will keep shooting at us and those who try to travel out to help people and will keep on destroying whatever we try to build there. Maybe such will lead to resistance to the Taliban -- if Afghans can really be persuaded that we are trying to help them better their lives. But it may be too late to do that now. No reasonable number of troops can stop the Taliban. We have no sure way to distinguish the good from bad guys. What sort of military force or government can we construct that will not be as corrupt as the present one? And who will we choose to run things from among the Afghans? And if we do try to choose someone other than Karzai, it will be OUR choice and not that of the Afghans.

I keep going around in circles as I try to figure ways that we can put things back together there since we blew our big opportunity after our initial invasion. So far as I can tell, the Afghans are not fans of our terrorist enemies. But that does not make them friends of us. We have the example of what happened to the Soviet efforts to make Afghanistan one of its own. And what we are engaged in begins to look more and more like the morass in Vietnam. One of my students who happened to have had the assignment to keep track of the number of our troops there at any given time told me years ago that we not infrequently had more than a million in the country -- although we reported far fewer. The only difference was that we were doing body counts of enemies killed in Vietnam whereas we only get strangulated reports from Afghanistan now of numbers killed -- all too often innocent civilians. And again, how do we tell the good guys from the bad? There was a report the other day of the irritation of a village leader at our having confiscated their weapons, leaving them no defense against the Taliban. Needless to say this meant that they had to do as ordered by the Taliban -- not by us. One hears that in desperation people are turning to shadow Taliban courts to solve their legal problems, as the official ones are completely corrupted.

Do our good generals have any clue as to what they are to do with even more troops? At least we seem ready to honor our dead on their arrivals home. Will this lead to the body count game that we had when we used to protest the Vietnam war by reading aloud names of our guys who had been killed? I cringe at the thought of our repeating this practice once again.

Obama, you are facing one hell of a challenge. I wonder how you will meet it?

What do you think?

******************************************

Civilian Goals Largely Unmet in Afghanistan
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and MARK LANDLER
Obama administration officials say the U.S. is falling far short of the president's goals to fight corruption, create a functioning government and train a police force.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/world/asia/12civil.html?th&emc=th
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Peace-Making in the Middle East?

Former Senator George Mitchell is one of our nation's proven peace negotiators -- he was central in the Northern Ireland efforts. But he is facing a very hard sell in his current attempts to bring peace between Jews and Palestinians in Israel/Palestine and may face more in his moves to win mutual recognition for Israel by its neighbors, Lebanon, Syria, and other Arab states. So far as internal peace is concerned, there is no indication that the Netanyahu government is eager for it or will make necessary concessions such as halting settlement expansion.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gmUEgTnliNa-qW6g6fM7DIKXa0hg

The recent UN finding that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza with its apparent attempt to destroy its infrastructure as well as cruel killing of people echo similar treatment of Lebanon not long ago. Its bombings of supposed nuclear construction sites in Syria and holding of some of its bordering territories blocks good will there.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/02/11/080211fa_fact_hersh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Lebanon_War

Some have suggested Obama could discontinue the several billion dollars a year to Israel which were initiated in 1979 as an aspect of the treaty that year between Egypt and Israel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_David_Accords

But to do so would only further Israel's current 'cornered rat' perspectives on its neighbors and end any check we might have on Israel's announced disposition to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities.

Obama is manifestly doing all that can be done to achieve Middle Eastern peace, but the tensions there have been developing since 1948 when Israel was established in Palestine. There are at the very least minimal chances for achieving peace after such extended hostilities. The Israel/Egypt peace treaty was in its way nothing short of a miracle and cost Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat his life at the hands of resentful assassins.

We can criticize Obama where peace in not achieved or where he fails to use the best strategies to work towards it. But Israel is a unique case with its militaristic solutions to problems and well known nuclear bomb capacities. It is reputed to have one of the strongest militaries in the world:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Defense_Forces

And it has shown its willingness to resort to it on numerous occasions.
The current government there scarcely looks peace oriented -- in words but not deeds. I see no ready solutions.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Gay Rights?

Many of our friends are gay -- some are couples. The last thing we think about is the fact that they are gay. This whole ugly prejudice against gays was launched by Saint Paul, a figure that IMHO distorted Christianity as a convert to it. His Letter to the Romans and others are filled with prejudices that are not those of Jesus -- anti-Semitic, anti-women, as well as anti-gay.

Note as well his call to kill gays:

"24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."

http://biblescripture.net/Romans.html

I studied theology for three years both in this country and Britain for which I was awarded a B.D. degree. By the time I had finished my studies I was appalled by such stuff as this which many of us feared would be implemented sometime along the way -- it has been now by the right wing extremists, including some murders of gays.

The trouble with contemporary Christianity is that it has shifted from the religion of Jesus -- the Beatitudes calling for care for people -- to the hateful stuff of Paul. One can trace the history of his perversions over the centuries which promoted pogroms and ultimately the Holocaust among other horrors.

Attitudes towards gay rights are in effect a litmus test as to whether one is a Christian or a Pauline.

In Europe the churches are dying out because of such perversions. There are good people in churches, but too many inclined to kill alleged sinners
-- and all those wars waged by the Christians against others and their fellow Christians! Christianity sadly became the most deadly of our major Western religions. Check the history of the past two millennia.

It looks like here we go again with biases being promoted against Muslims and Jews once again -- gay rights is only a small part of a larger attitudinal problem.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Obama Is not a Miracle Worker!

The Nobel prize was obviously awarded to Obama because he was viewed as the key figure working for world peace. The U.S. had been a military cop violating ethical and legal human rights standards for the past 8 years. He made it clear during his campaign and in what he has been tying to accomplish since entering office that he is a peace-maker. This does not mean that he can control events -- stop other nations resisting peace.

Israel is a prime example of a typical problem that he faces. No way are the Israelis going to stop expanding into Palestinian territories -- some of the key officers of Netanyahu's government have made it clear that they would be happy to expel the Palestinians, shuffle them around, whatever. Palestinian kids cannot even make it to school safely. With this much animosity on both sides there is no way that Obama can resolve this conflict and do more than try to limit harm, e.g. an Israeli attack on Iran which would be a disaster.

Obama has urged negotiations with the Iranians to persuade then NOT to produce nuclear weapons which would stimulate an Israeli attack. The leadership of Iran is mixed and no one can predict which way its decision makers will swing. But he is obviously going to make every effort to persuade them not to develop bombs which would produce disaster for both Israel and Iran -- and those living within range of nuclear fallout.

Pakistan/Afghanistan are a dangerous conundrum. Radicals among the Pashtuns (which span both countries) are archetypal killers and enemies of peace. Despite pressures simply to rush in more troops, he has been taking time and wide counsel to figure what is best to do.

Better prospects lie with negotiations with Russia and China -- the other big powers needing to be enlisted in peace-making. He has given every indication that he is trying to do so. NATO and its European members are no longer the world's dominating power center and its countries are apparently in worse financial shape than we are according to an article in today's NY Times.

African nations already are reaching out to Obama who Kenya considers to be its native son. He can do much to assist the Africans -- both financially and in controlling corrupt and/or brutal governments. He has given every indication that he intends to do so.

Asia at large is also a challenge, but one towards which Obama looks to be reaching out. G-d save us from a Pakistan/India nuclear confrontation! And may its neighbors persuade North Korea to cool it with bomb building and rocket threats.

Presumably the Nobel committee made its award to Obama as the single most important individual working towards global peace. The attacks on him by the radical rightists in this country look to be more of the nay saying that seems to be their only policy model.

Time will tell how much success he will have. At the moment he is primarily pondering what is the best we can accomplish with the Afghan mess. With all the things on his plate these days, he and his family deserve all the moral support we can give. Hurray for the Nobel committee!

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Obama and Nobel Peace Prize Madness?

Of course Obama has much to do to prove that he merits the Nobel prize, but I imagine that those who awarded it anticipate that he will (and is already) doing whatever he can to bring us greater peace in a world torn by conflict and suspicion.

On this latter point, I don't think I can remember a time when so much just plain madness prevailed in the thinking of so many people, nations, ethnic groups, and individuals. The actions of a few have been generalized into smears of the totality -- whether religions, nations, or ethnic groups.

The stats that I saw a few minutes ago indicated that attitudes towards Obama are splitting along racial lines -- approval by whites down and the reverse with minorities. This is not good news for a country with an horrendous history of racist divides. The genealogy of Michelle Obama recently reported is a reminder that most African Americans were ultimately the product of rape by the dominant ones. Obama, himself, is one of the much rarer real African/European Americans.

The other phenomenon is the madness put forth as reality. I saw a comment on Obama's prize award claiming that he was a proponent of Stalinist Communism which he is trying to introduce here. Were this an exceptional instance one could say that we all have a few nut cases around. But this is not so far off from the none too subtle equivalents being promoted by the Republican Party, so far as one can identify it as a single party these days. I cannot remember more vicious attacks on a president -- especially one who looks to be a model moral person with values to be emulated by good people -- family, peace at home and abroad, assistance to those in need, reform of corrupted institutions, etc., etc.

Where all this will end, I do not know. But I am worried that the bulk of the American public gets its information from sources that peddle such garbage in more and less subtle frames. A misinformed public can be led to shooting itself (and others) in the foot.

Help! What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize This Morning

This is great news. Apparently the Nobel people particularly praise Obama for his efforts to reshape global attitudes towards peaceful solutions of conflicts -- a radical shift from Bush's military approach to problem areas.

Obama has been criticized for being too much the community organizer and peace-maker which he certainly was in Chicago -- and excellent at it, too. Perhaps the Nobel will give pause to those who criticize Obama for not being tougher and more war oriented in approaching problems such as those raised in the Middle East where he is getting our military out of Iraq, rethinking what we should be doing in Afghanistan, trying whatever to help the Israelis and Palestinians out of their hostility box, and opening a negotiating stance with Iran.

Needless to say negotiations and persuasion do not always work. As as my signature quote of Livy indicates, sometimes war is the only way to go. But as we saw with the Iraq fiasco, it is not to be undertaken lightly -- it may cause vastly more harm than good.

I have been particularly appalled by those calling themselves Christians in our country who have so departed from the Beatitudes offered by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. We do not have really clear sources for the specifics of these, as they are variously scattered through the Gospels:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatitudes

But for sure they call for peaceful solutions to problems and concern for those in need. Michael Moore's new film is in a way very much a Christian appeal.

Obama is a Christian and by all indications a sincere one - not just promoting Christian attitudes cynically to appease constituents which I suspect is the case with too many of our pols -- particularly the radical right wing ones. Needless to say Islam is a religion that has Christian roots and Christianity, itself, has Hebrew ones. Gandhi was reported to have said one time that all three of these were his religions.

I think peace-making is the appeal that Obama has been trying to make to adherents of these three major Western faiths.

At any rate IMHO he very much deserves the Nobel and I hope the award will make some impact on his critics. All those things he is trying to reform are also within the framework of the values I have just outlined.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Ex-Con Achieves Reform Goal

"Today is a historic day for New York, the day that the Rockefeller Drug
Law reforms kicked in, setting in motion the release of 1,500 low-level
nonviolent drug offenders. The new law also gives judicial discretion
back to judges, who can now determine whether someone should get treatment for their addiction instead of a jail cell."

Tony Papa in the Huffington Post, 10/7/09

Tony Papa has been a first rate reformer and became a fine painter, too, while in prison, who has exhibited at the Whitney. He was the victim of a police sting delivering a package of drugs for $500 while under financial pressure -- his only offense. He is delighted to see rehab rather than years in prison at last becoming a possibility for non-violent drug offenders. If one checks such things, one discovers that ordinarily only people living in a few poor communities are drug arrests -- targeting is biased (five poor minority areas in NYC) while prosperous people living outside these ghettos are rarely arrested, let alone imprisoned. This website shows Tony, some of his pictures, his high moment with Patterson's decision to end the Rockefeller oppressive drug laws, and contact information:

http://www.15yearstolife.com/

The larger problem, however, is that these same low income/high unemployment ghettos produce all sorts of criminals who are not rescued by Tony's efforts. What we are not doing is creating viable lives for people who have been trapped by poverty and discrimination -- more than half our several millions now in prison and many millions more with criminal records blocking employment who are likely to commit more crimes to survive. Our nearly 10% national unemployment situation spells large problems ahead. Tony was an honest guy with money problems who let temptation lead him into a police trap which cost him 12 years of his life and us far more in prison expenses than would have a government job which pays back in services and taxes.

What we desperately need now is another WPA (Works Project Administration) job program such as that instituted by Roosevelt during the last great economic crash -- as well as a fair distribution of our nation's wealth and tax burdens. A CEO may pay less in taxes under our present system than his secretary. We cannot repeat often enough that 1% of our population has a total income than more than all 95% of the rest of us!

Tony has hit one serious problem. Who will cope with the really big ones of tax reform, medical profit-making reform (our doctors on average earn twice or more as much as European ones and our drug companies are our highest profit-making enterprise). Our corporations (or foreign buyers of same) are moving our jobs overseas (a family member checking a bank matter today found that the guy in India whom he had reached at City Bank and he had trouble understanding each other). China is borrowing from us -- and producing more and more of our stuff with underpaid workers. Our unions are able to enroll fewer and fewer of our workers because companies are blocking unionization -- so have less influence with many legislators than the corporations who fund such pols.

And so it goes in America (I am tempted to spell it Amerika).

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Protecting Afghan Women?

The only reason I can imagine for keeping our troops in Afghanistan is to protect the women there from the Taliban. Unlikely that we can root the Taliban out militarily or form a dependable Afghan army, but we might shift our direction now from killing Afghans to persuading them that getting the Taliban out of their lives is worth it to them. Apparently only about 6% are pro Taliban.

However, this is obviously not what our generals have in mind and our hawks (Republican or Democratic) either. What I hear both arguing for is the height of unreality. No way can we force the Afghans to do what WE want. We have to reach out to them and offer to assist them with what they see as THEIR best interests.

I am not sure that we can trust the present generals to move in the suggested direction of PERSUASION. This is not a military game. It is a diplomatic one. And we need there far more people who know what Afghanistan is all about. Whenever I do research on it, I find a far different world than that of Iraq in every way. I get corrected when I get things wrong by intelligent and well informed Afghans -- not the Karzai team of crooks.

While we are at it, we had better get rid of him ASAP -- challenge the phony election, deny protection for which he depends on us, whatever.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

The Real Problems -- Iran and Pakistan

If this article is correct, we are really irritating the Pakistanis with our actions in Afghanistan, spilling over into Pakistan -- those bombings from on high by drones. They are bugged also by our go it alone military approach without consultation with them. Simply pouring money their way raises suspicion as to our motives and resulting conflicts with their best interests. They do not want to be a vassal state to the U.S. Once again we are letting ourselves be distracted from the real problems -- Iran and Pakistan -- with our Afghan 'Iraq'. I wonder whether Obama can hold off our too willing warriors with the pressures building for us to play the tough guys? Check out the maps and see who is where in this scene. We just lost 8 good men on the boarder -- and probably will lose far more with the Taliban being free to roam and hit us where and whenever. Once again we cannot be the policeman of the world. Playing that game only wins us resentment and opens the doors wider to the terrorists. No way we can win such a 'war'.

What do you think?

****************************************

U.S. Push to Expand in Pakistan Meets Resistance
By JANE PERLEZ
American efforts to increase aid, as well as the footprint
of the U.S. Embassy and its security contractors, are
aggravating an already volatile mood among senior Pakistani
officials.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/world/asia/06islamabad.html?th&emc=th
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

General McChrystal Confused?

Apart from his protocol violation of publicly demanding more troops while Obama is considering what we should do in or with Afghanistan, the General's proposals do not hang together. We just lost 8 men in one of the outer lying bases from which McChrystal recommends that we withdraw our troops, while demanding more troops to police the country. Pretty obviously we can't do so while leaving such wide open spaces under control of the Taliban. By all reports the vast majority of the Afghans don't like these killers, but also don't like our killing Afghans either. As I have mentioned previously, there is no sure way for us to organize an Afghan army to run things over there. Whatever is to be done must be by the Afghans themselves. Our selected leader, Karzai, looks to be a crook. It is hard to see him as the Afghans' chosen leader -- another intimation that McCchrystal is winging it and doing what comes naturally to generals -- asking for yet more troops to do an impossible job. This proposal does not hang together with reality either. What evidence is there that the Afghans see Karzai as anything more than our puppet, despite his recent efforts to disassociate himself from us. Such a 'friend' we do not need there.

The bottom line looks to be here that we have no way to win a 'war' in Afghanistan. The best we can do is to ease ourselves out of there as gracefully as we can. The big chance was blown with the diversion to Iraq. There at least we are detaching ourselves from more trouble.

The real problem areas now are Iran and Pakistan where the big threats lie to our security (nuclear smuggling past our virtually wide open system for importing whatever). We don't need distraction yet again from a REAL problem area. Imagine the consequences of an Israeli attack on Iran! If we have economic problems now, they would be multiplied many times over with the closing down of oil supplies -- check the map to see how it gets to us through the narrow passage past Iran. One way to unify the Iranians against us is to allow such an attack. And don't think there are not a number of nations that would be ready to exploit our Iranian catastrophe! Let us not once again echo our Iraq error by letting ourselves be distracted from the realities that we face. Obama seems to be a leader (unlike Bush and most Republicans) who can keep in mind the full range of problems that we face. We sure have plenty without this general lobbying for his solely military game plan. I hope some of our Congressional leaders will have the guts to reprimand him.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Jobs -- Then and Now?

We Depression babies were in short supply, so that we had the best of things so far as finding and keeping jobs was concerned. As a scholarship/fellowship student, I always needed to earn some extra during our vacation breaks and both in the U.S. and Britain where I spent two separate years as a student -- public school and Oxford -- I was always able to find all sorts of jobs. I enjoyed doing different things ranging from construction to writing for Time Inc. My teaching career started pre-dissertation at a leading woman's college as an instructor. I continued teaching until I was 74, as I enjoyed greatly what I was doing and built up pension and Social Security payments with each extra year.

My heart goes out, then, to the 15 million currently job hunting with many more struggling with part-time things that barely pay the rent, let alone medical insurance and other necessities. The times have changed radically and it does not look as though many kinds of work will ever be restored, given our competition with such as China which exploits its own with far less pay and support for other things. India seems to have an over supply of well educated which get American jobs as well -- those phone in things, etc.

I, therefore, agree wholeheartedly with Robert Reich's proposal that, as did Roosevelt, we should use government employment to pick up the slack wherever we can -- the old WPA which built some marvelous things scattered around the country or bridge repair which is in disarray with our states hard pressed financially, teaching, and other areas in short supply:

"Let me say this as clearly and forcefully as I can: The federal government should be spending even more than it already is on roads and bridges and schools and parks and everything else we need. It should make up for cutbacks at the state level, and then some. This is the only way to put Americans back to work. We did it during the Depression. It was called the WPA."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/10/02/unemployment/

In response to the deficit problem, Reich also notes:

"My father was right about a lot of things, but he was wrong about this. America paid down FDR's debt in the 1950s, when Americans went back to work, when the economy was growing again, and when our incomes grew, too. We paid taxes, and in a few years that FDR debt had shrunk to almost nothing."

People who are employed are paying taxes and are not burdening us with expensive things such as medical care in hospital emergency rooms, crime -- the expenses of imprisoning criminals are greater per person annually than those of the most expensive educations! And we have more than 2 million in jail each year with many more millions blocked from decent employment by their prison records!

There are many other areas where we could switch our expenditures to things that would provide employment here in the U.S. such as cutting back on our international military cops role which benefits the nations where our troops are stationed -- with a large portion of OUR tax dollars.

I am going a bit beyond even Reich's WPA type proposal, but one of the things I hope Obama can achieve is a redirection of our monies to things that profit us rather than others and away from those that waste huge amounts such as our prisons! He may have some trouble with the legislators geared to the prison guard lobby as well as the other wasteful lobby supported things, as we have seen with his medical reform efforts. Remarkable that the vast majority of citizens and doctors both favor government provision of medicine -- and yet the lobbies have been spending billions fighting reform with great success!

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Cutting Personal Assistance to Kids Will Be Costly!

When I was at Union Theological Seminary I chose to work with teens several evenings a week rather than helping some clergyman do whatever.

I had been a camp counselor for many years and had worked with teens as a teen myself in the East End of London when a student over there. There was already a startling difference. The London staff came from the same community and understood the kids. Our U.S. workers at the Manhattanville Community Center in lower West Harlem were from far places and were aliens both to and with the kids. A foreign psychiatrist advising us claimed that 9/10 were borderline schizophrenics!

However, I took the kids as they came and we got along well. Rather than sports, they wanted to cook -- they were hungry -- so that's what we did -- I brought the food such as cake mixes. They were very polite to my fiancee and and friends who visited one night -- Sarah Lawrence students.

On one occasion I found a pair of twins holding down a little guy and threatening to burn him with a cigarette. I read the riot act to them and explained that big guys cared for little ones, not bullied them. The two became the center's protectors for any and all little kids.

The one thing I could not do was rescue them from the terrible poverty of those days -- kids always hungry. One of our guys did become a hero cop.

Some years later I ran into one of them. He took me to meet his parents and sibs. He explained that his bother was doing big time for armed robbery and that he was a male prostitute working the theater district. He kissed me good-bye when we split and said he hoped that had not bothered me. It had not.

SOOOOOOOOOOOO when I hear that such programs are being cut out of our NYC budgets this year, I cringe. I know too well what is being sacrificed -- kids!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]