“Got a tip for a post?: - AlterNet” plus 4 more |
- Got a tip for a post?: - AlterNet
- Southern's Gockel Synposium focuses on Canada - Joplin Globe
- Hotel Owner to Workers: No Spanish! - AOL
- Feature: - Joy Online
- Freshwater species making comeback in Great Lakes region - Toledo Blade
| Got a tip for a post?: - AlterNet Posted: 26 Oct 2009 07:48 PM PDT "Freakonomics" Authors Tell You How to be a Good Prostitute Good news, ladies. You, too, can make millions by charging for sex! And you'll just have a slam-bang, gee-golly splendiferous time doing it, too -- at least if you absolutely adore the sort of men who pay for it. Be warned, however: Disliking those men will consign you to the minimum-wage ranks of sex professionals, forever longing for the big bucks you could be earning, had you only an appropriately chipper attitude. Such is the advice of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, of Freakonomics fame. They are back with a new book, Superfreakonomics, and recently they unveiled a bit of it in the form of an excerpt about how to succeed as a prostitute. Freakonomics, of course, is the science of choosing an appropriately wacky or controversial subject (sumo wrestlers, abortion), applying a little economic analysis to it and coming up with a shocking conclusion that will make people blog about you. In that respect, the how-to-charge-for-sex piece was a no-brainer. Expressing any opinion about prostitution will bring on outrage (and attention) from one corner or another, no matter what your opinion turns out to be. Of course, if you are aiming for maximum impact, it helps to be -- as Levitt and Dubner are -- really, stunningly, remarkably wrong. Levitt and Dubner build their piece around a comparison of two prostitutes: Allie, who works from her bedroom and makes between $350 and $500 an hour, depending on the client, and LaSheena, who works on the streets and probably makes about $350 a week, based on statistics (some information -- any information -- as to LaSheena's specific circumstances and earnings probably would have helped the comparison, but Levitt and Dubner seem, in this instance as in many others, not to have bothered learning about their subject). LaSheena and Allie are the Goofus and Gallant of sex work, at least in the warped little scenario laid forth in the Superfreakonomics excerpt. Arising, as Levitt and Dubner seem to assume they do, from absolutely no context whatsoever (the fact that Allie is probably white, and that LaSheena is probably not, is never once addressed, for example; neither is the personal history of LaSheena explored in any detail, though we hear about Allie at excruciating length) they are not actual women so much as they are flattened-out, hollow caricatures of Success and Failure. Allie is a good prostitute; she has succeeded. LaSheena is a bad prostitute; she has failed. What has LaSheena done wrong, you ask? Simple: She doesn't like being a prostitute. "I don't really like men," she is quoted as saying. This is an interesting statement, which the authors fail to follow up. Why doesn't LaSheena like men? Has she been beaten? Has she been raped? Is there a man taking a cut of her money? Was she forced into this job as a child by a man, by a boyfriend she loved, by sheer poverty? And has she seen the ugly side of men too often in this job to trust any? Hey, here's an interesting thought: Maybe LaSheena doesn't like men because she's trapped in a cycle of poverty, and one of the only ways for her to stay alive is to have sex with men, whether or not she really wants to. Maybe that's enough to make LaSheena dislike men. We'll never know, however, because Dubner and Levitt don't ask. They don't care to humanise her. She's the Goofus in the scenario. Her poverty -- which is assumed to be entirely her fault -- is only there to provide a counterpoint to Allie's shining example. Boy, oh, boy, does Allie ever love being a prostitute! Why, do you know that she just went ahead and did it on a whim, as a sexy adventure, and not because of any nasty old compelling factors like poverty or addiction or a man literally arranging for her to be raped over and over again and taking money from her rapists or anything like that? Well, it's true. The Freakonomics gentlemen said so! They make a point of letting us know that Allie "liked men, and she liked sex." And do you know what men she especially likes? Why, her clients, of course. Allie "is the kind of person who sees something good in everyone". Isn't that nice? She credits this for the fact that she is so successful -- and so do Levitt and Dubner. Say, here's another nicety that Levitt and Dubner genuinely thought was a sane and intelligent thing to write down and publish: Allie's clients "treat her, in many ways, as men are expected to treat their wives but often don't". And Allie, in return, is like the "ideal wife", who "is happy to see you every time you show up at her door. Your favorite music is already playing, and your favourite drink is on ice. She will never ask you to take out the rubbish." How this qualifies as wifely behavior, outside of reruns of "Father Knows Best," is unclear. But Levitt and Dubner seem genuinely convinced that this one-sided scenario of happy subjugation and infantile, pampered narcissism is good for everyone involved. Allie gets a MacBook! Doesn't that prove that it's working? Levitt and Dubner seem, at some point along the line, to have missed out on the fact that women have inner lives, lives which do not revolve entirely around servicing men and which may in fact require some servicing by men along the way. It's evident in the way they extol Allie for getting such unmitigated joy out of subjugating herself to her clients. Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
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| Southern's Gockel Synposium focuses on Canada - Joplin Globe Posted: 26 Oct 2009 08:38 PM PDT Published October 26, 2009 11:28 pm - Relations with Canada will be theme of this week's Gockel International Symposium at Missouri Southern State University. The annual symposium, which features speakers on topics in international affairs, governments and politics, begins today and continues Wednesday.
By Derek Spellman dspellman@joplinglobe.com Relations with Canada will be theme of this week's Gockel International Symposium at Missouri Southern State University. The annual symposium, which features speakers on topics in international affairs, governments and politics, begins today and continues Wednesday. The symposium is part of a larger series of presentations that center around Canada, and that started earlier this year and will continue into next month. "Every fall, we choose a different country to emphasize," said Chad Stebbins, director of the Institute of International Studies at Missouri Southern. This year's "themed semester" focuses on Canada. According to a university Web site for this year's program, this semester highlights the United States' northern neighbor because of limited awareness about the country despite issues of "economic interdependence, security concerns, and cultural affinities." Stebbins said Canada is a country that "most Americans take for granted," unaware of the relationship as major trading partners, for example. The Gockel Symposium is named for former longtime Southern educator Harry Gockel. Today will be marked by several talks from scholars. Canadian Consul General Georges Rioux at 9:30 a.m. today will deliver a presentation, "Canada and the U.S.: Partners in Security and Prosperity," in Taylor Performing Arts Center. Mark Kasoff, professor emeritus of Canadian studies and economics at Bowling Green State University, will present "O Canada-Au Canada: Understanding and Appreciating Our Northern Neighbor" at 10:15 a.m. in the Taylor Center. At 7 p.m., Kasoff will deliver a talk, "Like a Mouse Sleeping with an Elephant: Canada-U.S. Relations," in Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall. That talk will be followed at 7:45 p.m. in Corley Auditorium by another presentation, "The Obama Effect: Canada-U.S. Relations," by Rioux. Wednesday's presentations will entail a 9 a.m. talk, "NAFTA and the North American Economy," by Kasoff in Corley Auditorium. Rioux will follow at 11 a.m. in Corley Auditorium with "Canada in Afghanistan: Development, Defense and Diplomacy." All the presentations are free and open to the public. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Hotel Owner to Workers: No Spanish! - AOL Posted: 26 Oct 2009 08:24 PM PDT ThreeFromIL 11:56 PMOct 27 2009 New Mexico was Mexican land until 1848, the Mexican American war. 42% of population is white and not hispanic. 44% are hispanic, and of those 83% were born in America, many of their families here for generations. 9% are native american. Obviously the guy "just did what he always did" and didn't pay attention to the culture there. How good business is it to tick off your new city in a business dependent on customers and word of mouth too? Also, he's majorly paranoid. I just went to a hotel, the people had middle eastern names. They spoke english perfectly, but used their own language when not speaking with customers. I spoke with the shuttle driver, he was very interesting. He worked for years in the Embassy of a south american country. The people I know enjoy learning about other cultures. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2009 06:51 PM PDT
In the wake of Ghana's oil find in commercial quantities, the President has stated that "our oil find must be appreciated as a national asset whose management must be above sectional interests." This is well said and we have to commit to this statement in all sincerity. In addition, Mr. Erik Solheim, the Norwegian Minister of Environment and International Development who recently visited the country also said, "It is important to accept that the revenue from oil belonged to the people and not the politicians or businesses." In this regard, every Ghanaian must feel the positive blessings of our new found fortune (oil wealth). Even the new born must feel that it has been born into a living environment, where children do not die before their fifth birthday. Nigeria, a leading producer of oil, is the 10th largest producer of crude oil in the world and the fifth largest supplier of oil to the US since its oil discovery in 1956. As of January 2007 Nigeria had 36.2 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. To date Nigeria has made about $650 billion in profits but has very little to show for it. Despite the oil profits, 70% of the 130 million Nigerians live on less than $1 a day with life expectancy barely topping 50 years (www.zmag.com). In the Niger Delta where most of the oil reserves are found, "the rivers have been polluted. The fish in the local rivers used to be one of the main sources of food for the poor. Now, that is gone. Agricultural land has also been heavily polluted and can no longer grow food." (www.marxist.com). Research information has it that Shell has shipped oil from Nigeria for over 50 years, leaving the Niger Delta undeveloped and in worst condition than it had found it in. According to Ken Wiwa, the son of the late Ken Saro Wiwa, Nigeria earns about $30Billion a year from oil (from 1990 to 2000), but the country has somehow managed to amass an external debt of $40 billion without much to show for it in terms of capital investment or infrastructure. Sadly, despite being a heavy weight in the oil production, Nigeria's refining capacity is currently insufficient to meet local demand with queues forming everyday in a country awash with oil reserves. Ironically, Nigeria now imports petroleum products The above is an indication that Ghana needs to be very circumspect with how it handles the emerging oil boom. Most importantly, the government must make sure that the oil companies take business and social responsibility seriously in order to avoid any social costs, such as pollution and land degradation, accruing to the people of Ghana. A little of the social costs has already taken place in Ghana where cyanide spills have occurred in local rivers as a result of the activities of mining companies. In addition to avoiding social costs, the oil companies must address the provision of social benefits such as the provision of roads, water, clinics, hospitals, schools, scholarships, computer, jobs, etc to improve the lot of the local communities. From a moral standpoint, in order to safeguard our oil revenue, churches have to preach against the squander of public funds to stem such behavior. The public should also stop adulating those who misappropriate public funds for themselves, their families and their friends. Heavy punishment laws must be enacted to fight corruption. Our justice system must be emboldened enough to bring such crooks and recalcitrants to book irrespective of the person's social, economic, or political standing. In addition, our national security apparatus must be streamlined and strengthened for the economy to develop within a peaceful atmosphere and ensure maximum stability required for a harmonious socio-economic development, translating into sustained, concrete, incremental, and equitable development. The expected oil windfall is an opportunity for the government to take pragmatic and concrete steps to reverse the brain drain permanently. The country will need the entire Ghanaian technocrats in all fields in the diasporas to come home and offer their specialized knowledge and services to support the local ones in the harnessing of our capabilities towards the quantum take off of the Ghanaian economy: technocrats in the oil industry, the banking sector, the technology and communications sectors, the medical sector, the management sector, the transportation (roads, ports and harbors), the civil engineering sector, the health sector, academia, environmental specialists, must all be enticed to come home and lend a helping hand as has happened with India and Singapore. This is the opportune time to set bold, challenging, but doable benchmarks, barring The recent energy crises that have befallen Ghana smacks of governments that are only reactive instead of being proactive as well. It smacks of governments that fail to be forward thinking and governments without a sound and shared vision. How can we declare Golden Age of Business without making sure, at least, that there will be adequate energy to power the various businesses, let alone entice Direct Foreign Investments? In an age of industrialization, and computerization, we cannot afford power outages. Should this happen, the whole country grinds to a virtual standstill. The author was in Ghana in 2006, September to be precise, when Kotoka International Airport experienced a blackout for more than two hours, leading some foreigners at the departure hall to vow not to visit Ghana again…a dent to tourism. The current power outages have also caused many businesses to lose their equipment and machinery. The mining industry has been hit very hard and there are reports that cat-scan machinery at our hospitals have also been damaged resulting in many untimely deaths. The negative ripple effects of these power outages are nothing to toy with and must be taken very seriously. OIL AND GHAN'S FUTURE – State of the Nation (Disjointed development) Developmentally, how well are we maintaining/managing our hospitals? Our hospitals are badly resourced and maintained and have been few with no new major ones being built despite the quantum increases in the country's population. Take Accra for instance, its population has increased tremendously because of rural to urban migration, yet Accra can only boast of Korlebu, the Military and Police Hospitals. These hospitals were built when Accra's population was 50% less than what it is today. The same thing applies to Kumasi. The only major hospitals the city has known for years, despite galloping increase in its population, have been KATH and KNUST hospitals. Unfortunately, all these are being allowed to skew disadvantageously despite increases in the population of the youth and a sizeable increase in the population of the elderly and retired. Take any other sector of the economy, and you see much of the same. Our economic base has been mainly agrarian, limited to the production of raw materials with very little value added. Why can't we incorporate some vertical integration into our productivity and venture into adding value to what we produce? Why do we have to export raw gold and diamonds cheaply for them to be made into very expensive jewelry in the west to be sold back to us at very high prices? We need to reduce the percentage contribution of agriculture to GDP by increasing the percentage contribution of industry/manufacturing, thus creating more employment opportunities. If Ghana wants to be competitive in the Global village, we need to broaden the country's economic base. Let's take a look at conditions in the rural areas. The government's poverty reduction measures have not trickled down to these areas. It appears nobody cares about living conditions in these areas. Most places are not even fit for habitation by humans. Instead of gradual improvements in some of these areas, there has been massive retrogression instead. If we want the rural areas to be attractive to investments, living conditions in these areas must be quantitatively and qualitatively upgraded. For example, major hospitals must be planned and cited in these areas supported by clinics. Our farmers, as for now, play the most important role in Ghana's economy, yet, they are far removed from adequate health facilities with the majority of them relying on traditional and untested treatments and, in some cases, on quack doctors. Rural industries must be cited in these areas as well to encourage the youth to stay. Some form of economic activity (investment), apart from agriculture, need to be infused in these areas. This will call for the provision of good roads, electricity, water, etc. Turning our attention to our road and railway networks, we have a situation where we have failed to maintain the road and rail systems we inherited from our colonial masters, much less, construct new ones despite the fact that the number of cars in the country has increased tremendously. At present, there must be super-highways (by-passing minor towns and utilizing tributaries to access them.) linking all major towns and cities in the country. This will not only spur economic activity but also reduce the high incidence of automobile accidents (about 10,000 Ghanaians lose their lives on our roads annually). For example, if one is driving from Accra to Sunyani, with no business in Kumasi, the person does not need to drive through Kumasi. Why haven't we been able to extend our railway system to the North through Sunyani after 50 years of independence? Ghana's development efforts must be coherent and sustainable. Ghanaians need to develop the culture of maintenance for sustainability. New and first class highways must be constructed from the north to the south: one in the western corridor, another in the central corridor and a third in the eastern corridor each of which could be accessed from the other at various strategic points. In much the same way, there must be superhighways linking the east to the west at various points: one along the coastal belt, two in the mid-section of the country and one in uppermost section of the country. All the north-south highways must be accessible at strategically selected points by the east-west routes. Successive governments must maintain development projects started by the previous governments and not discard them, while at the same time being proactive, creative and forward thinking regardless. This is what the writer terms "concrete incremental development". Governments, upon leaving office, must be able to show to Ghanaians what they have added to our development instead of just being rhetorical and maintaining just the status quo. We need creativity and innovation in our political dispensation. We need new and bold ideas from our political leadership that will move the country forward. Just look at what is happening in The United Arab Emirates. Why can't we learn from the best and be competitive? What about sanitation? Why can't we rid Accra, Kumasi, and other major cities of filth? We have not been able to do this because policy makers and our political leadership have not made it a priority. In this modern day and times, every house in Accra and all other cities and towns must be required to construct water closets employing the use of septic tanks until we develop an elaborate and efficient sewage system. However, we need water to flush the waste. This is something our government must be concerned with. The government, however, has to make sure there is provision of adequate and constant running water before it can enact such a law. Nonetheless, this can be implemented, though, if we encourage the development and use of boreholes in all parts of the country. The author recently read that well water around Suhum area might cause cancer because of fertilizers seeping into the underground water. However, until we are able to treat the underground water for human consumption, we can, at least, use it to flush our waste, thus improving sanitation across the country. In Accra for example, it will stop the Coastal people from using our beaches to ease themselves. That done, we can turn all our beaches into revenue generating enterprises. The government should use its eminent domain powers and buy the coastal lands and develop them into world-class tourist sites as is being done in Dubai and other upcoming tourist destinations around the world. The dust and flooding situation in Accra, Kumasi and other cities can be improved only if policy makers and the political leadership of the country make it a priority. What is the sense of having open gutters in Accra while the surrounding areas are not asphalted, cemented, or planted? We should do away with all open gutters. We need to stop building flat streets. Our streets should be gently/gradually convexed and asphalted with the edges raised to form curbs (replacing the unsightly gutters) resulting in a natural drainage system on both sides of the street, which empty into underground tunnels, and drainage system. This is what pertains in the western world. When it rains in the cities like New York City, the water running into the curbs and underground drainage systems are as clear as tap water or water that falls on the roofs with no sediments to block the drains. On the other hand, what happens when it rains in Accra? All the silt is washed into the gutters and refills the gutters causing them to overflow and block the drainage system resulting in severe flooding. The gutters are desilted and placed right on the edges of the gutters to be thrown back in again when the next rain comes. However, when it is not raining we experience dessert storms like Iraq, and the whole place gets dusty. As a matter of fact, the whole country is one big dust bowl. Simple solution…asphalt, cement or grow grass and other vegetation in all open areas. The government can enact a law and enforce it for every landlord to do this around his/her property including the space between the property all the way to the curb. We need to improve the look and sanitation of all our regional capitals, just like in the west. In America for example, there is not much of a difference between New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Columbus, Miami, and San Francisco, etc. The same pertains in Europe. Why can't it happen in Ghana if we use the oil money judiciously? Before we go globetrotting looking for investors, we must make sure our house is in order. If we do not, either the investors will not come or after they have invested, they will get frustrated, (with our constant power outages, and lack of constant flowing water), pack and leave the country to spread the bad news (word of mouth) around the world deterring other investors from coming to Ghana. The government, must ensure that the necessary infrastructure, constant flowing electricity and water, expanded and reliable communications system, conducive business environment, effective, efficient, and reliable court system, efficient transportation and ports systems, efficient health care delivery system, well equipped schools across the country, to mention, but a few, are in place if we want Ghana to progress towards a middle-income status. Successful economies depend on the above. The ordinary Ghanaian needs to see "concrete incremental development" and some form of improvement in his/her daily life.
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| Freshwater species making comeback in Great Lakes region - Toledo Blade Posted: 26 Oct 2009 07:48 PM PDT The mighty lake sturgeon - an odd-looking North American fish that has been on Earth no fewer than 150 million years and that coexisted with dinosaurs for at least 85 million years - is making a comeback in the Great Lakes region after nearly going extinct in the early 1900s. Earlier this month, federal officials touted a one-acre site of spawning habitat that a chemical giant, the BASF Corp., built in the Detroit River's Trenton Channel for lake sturgeon, as well as for walleye, largemouth bass, and smallmouth bass. 'Show-stopper' Exploitation The comeback Anti-poaching efforts thenry@theblade.com or 419-724-6079. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
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