Too much rain

Rain

This piece today is going to hit on two topics.

First off the Global Peace Index for 2011 has just been released.  A few weeks ago i wrote about the peace rankings of the 50 states.  Today it is the world index being released and 153 nations are ranked, unfortunately the news is not so good.  For the third year running the world is less peaceful.

Beautiful clouds

We have all been watching the events in the Middle East and realize there is much unrest all over.  Ordinary citizens in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and even Spain and Greece have clogged the streets of their main cities to clamor for change through peaceful demonstrations that have led their governments to use violence to combat the threat.  Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan have experienced continued unrest as have large parts of Africa.  These hot spots have contributed to a less peaceful world.

The index is the worlds leading measure of peacefulness and measures twenty three separate indicators that reflect the existence or absence of peace. Iceland bumped out New Zealand and now occupies the top spot while Iraq has moved up one and let Somalia lay claim to last place.  The US is 82 rising three slots upwards but still two spots behind China at 80. Canada has moved into the top ten residing at number eight while Western Europe remains the most peaceful region in the world.  In Mexico, at 121, organized crime and the drug trade contribute to low scores.

Buck Island in the rain

“The US rank reflects much higher levels of militarization and involvement in external conflicts than its northern neighbor.  Several measures of societal safety and security also receive higher scores, including access to light weapons and the proportion of the population in jail(the largest of the 153 countries surveyed).” Institute for Global Economics and Peace

According to the report if the US reduced its violence to the same levels as Canada it could save approximately $360 billion and create a stimulus that could generate 2.7 million jobs.

Some of the findings found that societies that had lower discrimination, more informed citizens, high levels of trust within society, and gender equality tended to be more peaceful. For a more in depth look at the index visit http://www.visionofhumanity.org/

The other topic i wanted to visit briefly has to do with privacy. i’ve been thinking a lot about this topic as more and more of us use social media instead of one on one to connect with our “friends.”

Flooding

Privacy has to do with selective information.  We choose or think we choose what we want to broadcast to our “friends” and the world at large which includes government.  The boundaries of this information vary for each individual with some maintaining total blackouts while others spill their guts voluntarily. 

The right to privacy can be found in each countries laws with some claiming no privacy rights while others like our own lay out the parameters.  Privacy is not a universal concept, but we in the west have used privacy laws to protect ourselves from an intrusive government.

My only point here it that when anyone collects information about you it is harmless until that time that the collector decides to use it against you. In his essay The Value of Privacy, security expert Bruce Schneier says, "Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance."

community and racism

And so it is.

Last night a meeting was called so that a developer could present his plan to the local community.  His project would impact a local beach by diverting a road through his property, taking it away from its place next to the ocean.  The issue is thorny and i'm not getting into the nitty gritty details of all the whole sordid mess.

What i wanted to write about is two people, one a white woman and the other a black man, both of whom attended the same meeting last night, but came away with vastly different outcomes.  This story is about community and racism in that community.

Although it was a full moon, the sky was obliterated by thundershowers.  Most people arriving late had to make do with standing room only. The facility was overflowing, the rain was coming down in buckets and the attendees were antsy.  Keep in mind this is one of the few communities on the island where the out turn was a melting pot of young, old, black, white and in-between.

i’m the white woman and my impression of the evening was one of glee. So many had turned out on such a wet soggy night to listen to and discuss an issue that could impact beach usage permanently.  i was proud of our community, proud of the cohesiveness when the final vote was taken, and proud of all the people who took the time to voice their concerns.

As i was walking out a local West Indian friend stopped me to chat.  She told me she was worried that the Caucasians would vote in favor of the change but that she was so happy with the vote against it that her fears had been dissipated.  The final tally of the evening was all in attendance against and no one raising their hands to vote in favor of the road change.

Even after the meeting finished and i was able to talk with people of all shades of white and black the glow remained.  i was so thrilled that so many people were of one mind and were willing to fight this to the end. The community i have always loved came through.

This morning i got an e-mail with this story about the same meeting.

Before the meeting started, but in an area where it was standing room only, one white man who was agitating in favor of the project addressed a black man as “You People” while he was describing 20 years of business at Cane Bay.  He went on to accuse “You People” of leaving garbage on the beach that he and his workers that he hired cleaned up daily.  When asked who he meant by “You People” he went off and used the F word.

My friend was offended and rightly so.  He was there at a community meeting hoping to learn something and possibly contribute constructively to the conversation. “You People” most positively meant that black people and only black people were responsible for trash on the beach. 

Now as an aside we all know that is not so.  In fact the area of the beach that sees a lot of trash accumulating in front of the restaurant and especially on weekends is probably frequented more by whites than blacks.

To accuse one man and every other black person by association, just because he is black of wholesale littering is the epitome of racism.  Having grown up in the 50’s and 60’s on the continent my friend had been here before, but hadn’t expected it last night.  The altercation ruined his evening and he left with a bad taste in his mouth and a belief that this man was one small example of the attitude that would come as more developers tried to implement their idea of change on a small West Indian island.

So... here you have two completely different experiences at the same community meeting, one filled with joy and a feeling of connectedness with everyone and the other experiencing a racist, not for the first time and probably not the last either. Luckily i was informed of this on the day my blog comes out because it needs an airing.

It shouldn't be ignored and it should be discussed. Racism is a problem on St. Croix and it exists.

Being a strong man my friend is following up with a letter to the local newspaper exposing who and what this man is and rightly so.

power surge and planets

Sunset clouds

Last night we had a power surge, not anything new, happens all the time.  Most of our appliances and computers etc. have surge protectors that kick in when the power goes out. Booting back up is usually no problem and we get back to normal.

My main computer is old and last nights surge did it in. i'd been thinking it wasn't long for this world but i wasn't actually ready to move it out. Fortunately the only thing i hadn't backed up was yesterdays work and eerily enough i had second thoughts when i decided not to print anything out or back up.

 i should have listened.

Cool clouds

We have been having cloudy weather here with much needed rain. So this morning it was touch and go as to whether we would get rained upon during the morning walk. Fortunately the clouds had broken up and the sky was visible. i commented to my friend that as i was walking to meet her i saw really bright planets or stars in the eastern sky. As it turns out it was one of those rare optimal viewing times to see Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Mercury. i guess i got really lucky and was one of the few to see it.

After a bit of research i found out that Jupiter and Venus were so close together this morning that they almost looked like a supernova. That must be why i thought it looked so unusual. If you are out tomorrow morning you should be able to see them again but looking more like a triangle with Mars in there too. NASA has a piece up about the configuration through out the rest of the month.  Between 5:00 and 5:30am is a great time to see them if its not too cloudy.  Do go its definitely a lovely sight.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Sticking with the stars and planets, there is a new theory out that suggests some black holes predate the big bang and could be part of the Big Crunch. All very interesting stuff if you have ever wondered about the Big Bang theory.  Way back when i was in college and taking Astronomy i found myself having a difficult time believing in the Big Bang. Why, thought i did the universe have to have a beginning? Was it because we all are born and then we die, so everything else has to too?

i had always thought back then that we thought ourselves too significant in the whole universal scheme. Who were we to come up with a Big Bang theory when we couldn't see any edge to the universe? Expansion did not mean explosion and what exactly was it we were exploding from?

Now scientists are  theorizing(that again) that we collapse over and over again, which creates new questions like if we are only a mere dot in the universe maybe our view is limited and these expansions and collapses are always happening.  Maybe there is no edge(which has always been my theory) and if we are exploding over and over could it be normal and natural?  If black holes are surviving the blast, leaving their signatures and sending out gamma rays that we examine could it be there never was a Big Bang that started it all? Could it be we can't see enough of the universe to develop a Big Bang or Big Crunch Theory?

i'd like to think so.

Public schools and vouchers

Pond reflection

Public schooling has been taking up a lot of my time lately. During an e-mail back and forth with my brother-in-law in California i asked him if there was anything positive he could say about Democrats.  He responded back that he was supporting what Jerry Brown was doing there for public education. Although surprised, i was thrilled to read his response.

South Shore

Here on St. Croix i volunteer three days a week in a public elementary school helping kids to read. i’m working in a second grade classroom with twenty nine students, a few of whom English is a second language.  With that many children the slower ones stand out like a sore thumb and need an incredible amount of individual attention that they aren’t getting.  i can see how children, even in the first few years, get left behind.

But to get to my point, all good politicians need a wedge issue to drive a stake through the status quo. In order to achieve the end goal of total privatization of education baby steps must occur.  Inflaming those who hate paying anything for anyone else through taxes is easy when you use vouchers as the wedge.

Hibiscus Show

First you start by claiming that public education is a socialistic regime and needs to be dismantled.  Claim that private education does a better job and you can get your children into a private school through the simple process of vouchers.  Don’t tell anyone that vouchers won’t pay the whole private school bill nor will the schools accept you if you are not an A or B student. Do tell them that this is a bipartisan issue and it will make education better for everyone.

In order to achieve the goal of total privatization and the evisceration of public education vouchers are the gold standard.

Historically public education was created so that schooling could be under the control of the government, free from religious biases, and available to all people irrespective of their status in society.  Jefferson saw that education was highly localized and only available to the wealthy; i'm going to say that again, education was localized and only available to the wealthy.  Jefferson wanted to change that scenario and make it available to all children regardless of wealth.

Pretty Chicken

As the state and federal government’s got more and more involved in financing public education the percentage of educated Americans increased. By 1996 the number of teenagers that had graduated from high school increased from a low of 6% in 1900 to 85% today. That is one heck of a statistic that is not ever talked about.

The reason it’s not talked about is because the voucher folks don’t want you thinking about the positive aspects of public education. All those educated folks came to be because of public schools. If Jefferson and his supporters hadn't supported public education those numbers might be significantly different. If you think about that statistic from 6% to 85% it makes public schools look pretty successful. 

i'll bet many of you reading this were public school students.

According to government data only one tenth of the total student population (55,203,000 in 2010) attends private schools. Where are all these private schools that you will use vouchers to attend coming from? Who is building them?

Well you already built them with your taxes but the voucher folks want you now to flip them into private institutions so they can start making money off of educating your child. Remember, making money is the only goal in life.

A voucher is a government issued certificate which allows parents to apply the amount given toward tuition in a private school.  Now keep this in mind, a voucher does not pay for the complete bill involved in private education.  It only pays for a part of the bill.  The main argument in favor of vouchers is that it allows choice and will create competition that will increase savings and educational outcomes. Makes you wonder who is going to save and get better educated?

The argument against vouchers is that they will decimate public schools.  Those same public schools that are graduating 85% of the nations children. That there will be a lack of accountability to the taxpayer, and that the real risk is not everyone will be able to afford school if all of them eventually become privatized; meaning a larger population of uneducated citizens.

Jonathan Kozol, a former public school teacher and prominent public school reform thinker has called vouchers the "single worst, most dangerous idea to have entered education discourse in my adult life.”

Please also keep in mind that private schools select their students; they are not mandated like public schools to accept everyone.

Working in the public school system this is abundantly clear. These kids are all across the board in ability levels, some of the kids i work with in second grade could be in fourth grade they are so skilled while others would be barely starting kindergarten their skills are so lacking, but they are all in one classroom and learning regardless.

In private schools this kind of broad ability in one classroom is an oddity.  Most of the kids there are working at the same approximate level.

Sunset

Remember vouchers are a wedge issue to get to the final point of no public education.

“Whether or not the public generally supports vouchers is debatable. Majorities seem to favor improving existing schools over providing vouchers, yet as many as 40% of those surveyed admit that they don't know enough to form an opinion or don't understand the system of school vouchers.” Wikipedia

Although this was very brief if you are at all concerned about educating the nation and not just your own child, do more digging. An educated nation means less poverty, more skilled workers, longer life spans etc. But if your pining away for tax cuts then by all means support the dumbing down of America.