Documentary: Life and Debt
posted by geoff on 11/25/2005 05:15:00 PM
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Salon.com Life | Love under lock and key: "You cite a half-dozen programs that have proven to be viable alternatives to incarceration -- but even D.A. Joe Hines, who runs the very successful Drug Treatment Alternatives to Prison program in Brooklyn, N.Y., is adamant about not being thought of as a 'finky liberal.' Do you think that need to be seen as 'tough on crime' is part of the problem?
Definitely, and what's really interesting is that every state in the nation does have several model programs that work -- they lower crime, they lower recidivism, they help people get over drug problems. And states are rightly always very proud of these programs -- but they are still always the exception. And I haven't figured out why we create special funding streams that last three years for the programs that actually work, while the pot is bottomless for the system we know doesn't work. You know the recidivism rate in California is something like 80 percent, but prisons are still the untouchable item in the budget."
... and this too.
posted by geoff on 11/25/2005 11:45:00 AM
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Salon.com Life | Love under lock and key: "You know, when I do interviews and talk about these things on the radio, there are a few questions I always hear. The first is, isn't this all really the parents' fault? The second is, wouldn't these kids be better off without these kinds of parents? Now, of those questions, the least relevant to me is 'Isn't it the parents' fault?' Because, you know, if I were to turn my back and my son were to wander off a cliff, I'd want someone to catch him, whether or not it was irresponsible of me to let him play so near the edge. But the second question -- 'aren't they better off?' -- I think that really is what people think, but it desperately needs to be addressed. I think there are a few things that allow people to think like that, for one, not understanding that when you take a child's parent away there's not some sort of perfect other adoptive home out there waiting for him. There's 20 or 30 foster homes or an impoverished grandmother or being passed from hand to hand. It's not as if we're actually offering them something that will make them better off. But the main thing that I've learned from talking to so many kids, which should be so obvious, is that these are the parents they've got. These are the parents they love. And their connections to those parents are exactly as real and as deep as my connection to my kids. And I know that should go without saying, but it never does."
This article had been haunting me, so I re-read it and found this statement that is so furious and beautiful
posted by geoff on 11/25/2005 11:42:14 AM
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> assist seniors one-on-one in navigating the new Medicare D Prescription
> Drug Benefit "Tool Finder" Web site. *Low income seniors are required to
> enroll before December 31, 2005 or pay late enrollment penalty for life.*
> Brief training will be provided. Flexi hours, 8-4, M-F at 630 W. Edgewood
> Drive, Ellettsville, IN 47429. Contact Jason Carnes: 812-876-3383 or
> jcarnes@area10.bloomington.in.us <mailto:jcarnes@area10.bloomington.in.us>
posted by geoff on 11/23/2005 08:40:00 AM
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WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: One Laptop Per Child -- Updated: "Kofi Annan and Nicholas Negroponte were scheduled to unveil the prototype design of the '$100 Laptop' (also known as the One Laptop Per Child project) today at the World Summit on the Information Society meeting in Tunis. (WorldChanging has previously discussed this project here -- Ethan gets a preview, here -- I get an update, and here -- my original post on the subject.) I haven't seen any reports yet from the scene, but while we wait, here are some updated links:"
This project brings up an interesting dilema with dumping technology on developing parts of the world. Of course there is the fundamental point that Ryan brought up when we argued about this while driving on tour - whether or not some small village benefits from having Internet access at all. If the answer is yes, that traditional cultures have to decide between equiping themselves with modernity and being transformed, but surviving somewhat, there is still the question of the appropriateness of the technological implementation in terms of culture.
The idea of one laptop-per-child seems to follow a very western, first-world model of property. Perhaps in other parts of the world, technology resources that are shared community resources might fill the need of the community, save costs, and be less culturally invasive than the personal technology model. Would keeping technological resources as community resources rather than personal resources also aid in the sharing of knowledge, both in the use of the technology and in applications for the technology?
posted by geoff on 11/21/2005 03:10:30 PM
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A few nights ago, I had a conversation with a friend where she was describing a conflict that happened in a radical youth-led summer program that she helps coordinate. They were having an end of program celebration and the older program coordinators wanted to have the program be free and open to anyone in the community. The youth wanted to charge a $5 cover and turn anyone away who couldn't pay. This anectdote was in the context of a larger conversation about how middle class radicals often want to perceive a solidarity between people affected by poverty or people of color which, in reality, just doesn't exist.
I had a similar experience last night when a queer friend was talking about "wolf dykes"*. This terminology made me uncomfortable. Part of it might have been the fact that poking fun at someone's difference in age or fashion seems a little middle school. We all do it, of course, but I can't help feel like there's a line somewhere though I have no idea where it would lie. Really though, I think the majority of my discomfort was the fact that my friend's statements shattered the misconception that I had of queer women as some kind of unified sisterhood. Any group of people, however marginalized by the mainstream, isn't above poking fun at each other. Now I wonder what the wolf dykes call the queer punks.
* A wolf dyke, apparently, is an older lesbian who wears sweatshirts with pictures of wolves on them.
posted by geoff on 11/21/2005 02:47:00 PM
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