Social Justice Blog

"Contrary to what most people assume, one's politics as a novelist have nothing to do with the societies, parties and groups to which one might belong, or even dedication to any political cause. A novelist's politics arise from his imagination -- his ability to imagine himself as someone else. [This] makes him a spokesman for those who cannot speak for themselves, whose anger is never heard and whose words are suppressed."
-Orhan Pamuk-

Turkish novelist and 2006 Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk spoke yesterday at Georgetown University, where he received an honorary degree on what happened to be the 84th birthday of the Turkish Republic. Pamuk spoke of the "literary globalization of the world", describing how a novelist's imagination -- "when employed to evoke 'the other, the stranger, the enemy that resonates inside each of our heads' -- can be a powerful, liberating force."

Read more here.
posted by Alexandra at 10/30/2007 09:41:00 AM

"On the eve of Myanmar's violent crackdown on demonstrators last month, friends implored Maung Thura to flee his home in the capital city, Yangon, and go into hiding. Instead, he cracked jokes."
-Christopher Rhoads-

Read Rhoads' "The Dissident as Comedian" for a profile on Burma's Maung Thura, one of the country's most prominent dissidents, popularly known as Zarganar ("tweezers" in Burmese).
posted by Alexandra at 10/18/2007 10:18:00 AM

"I think the American government does give Egypt leeway to deal with the domestic opposition so long as Egypt supports the American foreign policy in the region."
-Mustapha Kamel el-Sayyid, a political science professor at the American University in Cairo-

Read more of Michael Slackman's "On Human Rights, U.S. Seems to Give Egypt a Pass."
posted by Alexandra at 10/16/2007 09:43:00 AM

"Unless you work in suburban Philadelphia, where Johnson Matthey has a factory, you may not have heard of this company, but I guarantee you are breathing easier because of it: The company makes catalytic converters and other pollution control devices. Carson recalled that tough Clean Air Act and California emission standards were 'instrumental for creating the global market' for these products. By contrast, he noted that a voluntary approach alone 'weakens the investment case for new technologies and slows down technical progress.'"
-Frank O'Donnell-

There's that oft-used phrase that the economy drives innovation. Nowhere is that perhaps more true than in today's green marketplace, wherein corporations and organizations are investing in green technology to enhance their economic well-being. Read more of O'Donnell's "Green Yields Green" to find out more about the intersection between economics and environmentalism.

Today's post is part of Blog Action Day. To find out more about this, and read more stories on the environment, check out this page.
posted by Alexandra at 10/15/2007 08:27:00 AM

"Extensive climate changes may alter and threaten the living conditions of much of mankind. They may induce large-scale migration and lead to greater competition for the earth's resources. Such changes will place particularly heavy burdens on the world's most vulnerable countries. There may be increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states."
-The Norwegian Nobel Committee-

Al Gore and the IPCC have won the Nobel Peace Prize!

As Alex Steffen at Worldchanging.com writes, the win "symbolizes more than just a head-nod towards some eco-fad -- it shows that sustainability has finally moved from the outskirts of activism to the most central halls of authority." But, as he also writes, the win also symbolizes an end to the beginning of the "struggle to save ourselves from ecological catastrophe" and now "we can begin to see the outlines of the next stage of the struggle."

Read more of Steffen's "Al Gore, the Nobel Prize and the End of the Beginning." You can also read the Nobel committee's press release for the details on Al's big win.
posted by Alexandra at 10/12/2007 08:39:00 AM

"You have farmers who are very willing adopters of new technologies and want to raise yield...but are not getting access to seed, fertilizer and small-scale irrigation... [Finding a sustainable way to supply them with seed] is emerging as the holy grail for agricultural development."
-Joseph Devries, head of seed development for a joint effort by the Rockefeller and Bill and Melinda Gates foundations-

Read about the continuing challenges to sustainable development in Africa in Celia Dugger's "In Africa, Prosperity From Seeds Falls Short." I was surprised to discover that only 200,000 African farmers are sowing seeds for new rices and doing so on only 5 percent of the land where such rice could thrive (this according to the Africa Rice Center).

For a story about investing in communities here in the States, check out David Cay Johnston's "Study Says Wal-Mart Often Fights Local Taxes."

I think these two facts here encapsulate the story: "The group sampled 10 percent of the 2,833 Wal-Mart retail stores open at the start of 2005 and found that the company had challenged property taxes at 35 percent of them. The report also looked closely at Texas, where Wal-Mart challenged assessments at 83 percent of 400 stores."
posted by Alexandra at 10/10/2007 09:09:00 AM

"The president's focus on Article 25 was remarkable for at least two reasons. First, although the United States played an important role in crafting the Universal Declaration almost 60 years ago, our government has, since the time of the Cold War, distanced itself from the economic and social rights embodied in Article 25, at times denying that they are rights at all. And second, less than two weeks after delivering the speech, Bush vetoed legislation that would have expanded the popular State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover more of America's 9 million uninsured kids."
-Alan Jenkins-

Read more of "A Human Right to Health" here.
posted by Alexandra at 10/09/2007 09:48:00 AM

"No one should be surprised that the regime cracked down; after all, that's what regimes do when faced with dissent. The effects of the protests may be much deeper and longer-lasting than the effects of the most recent round of terror against Burmese citizens."
-Cynthia Boaz and Shaazka Beyerle-

Read "Burma's Saffron Revolution: Goodbye, Generals." Also, to glean some of the back story on the current crisis in the country, read Aung San Suu Kyi's "Letters from Burma," a collection of fifty-two essays by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Burmese human rights and democracy leader.
posted by Alexandra at 10/08/2007 08:25:00 AM

"You may not have noticed, but 50,000 U.S. coal miners were on strike for four months this spring and summer 1989. The 10-state strike featured the unprecedented mass application of nonviolent civil disobedience to a labor struggle: Thousands of miners and family members have been arrested for peacefully blocking mine entrances. Troops have been called in; they have, in some instances, fired on the strikers."-Barbara Ehrenreich-

Read Ehrenreich's "The Silenced Majority" for more.
posted by Alexandra at 10/05/2007 08:11:00 AM

"...Getting off is not something the state of Texas wants to encourage in and of itself, unless you do so with your hand."
-Rachel Kramer Bussell-

Bussell's article "Sex Toys and the Technology of Orgasm" may, at first glance, seem like the kind of piece fated for the pages of Cosmopolitan, but, as she successfully shows, sex toys are as political as they are pleasureable. In particular, Bussell focuses on a new documentary, Passion and Power: The Technology of Orgasm (Wabi Sabi Productions), co-produced and co-directed by Wendy Slick and Emiko Omori.

The film draws inspiration from Rachel Maines's book The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction (Johns Hopkins University Press), offering viewers a history of the first vibrators as well as a glimpse into the real-life consequences of laws still on the books in four states that ban the sale of them.

Bussell's article gives a political context to these works -- quite interesting!
posted by Alexandra at 10/04/2007 09:21:00 AM

"We see a real momentum now with big companies and institutions switching to fair trade."
-Paul Rice, president and chief executive of TransFair USA-

Fair trade awareness is growing. That's what Andrew Downie reports in "Fair Trade in Bloom." According to the article (and to the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International), consumers spent approximately $2.2 billion on certified products in 2006. That's a 42 percent increase from 2005, a percentage increase that benefits more than seven million people in developing countries.

If you're reading this with your morning cup of joe, check out Kenneth David's "The Controversy and the Cup," an article exploring fair trade coffee.
posted by Alexandra at 10/02/2007 09:25:00 AM