Postwar America was a middle-class society. The great boom in wages that
\nbegan with World War II had lifted tens of millions of Americans from urban
\nslums and rural poverty to a life of home ownership and unprecedented
\ncomfort. The rich, on the other hand, had lost ground. They were few in
\nnumber and, relative to the prosperous middle, not all that rich. The poor
\nwere more numerous than the rich, but they were still a relatively small
\nminority. As a result, there was a striking sense of economic commonality.
\nMost people in America lived recognizably similar and remarkably decent
\nmaterial lives.<\/p>\n
Analysts have called on the government to cut the tax slapped on alcoholic
\ndrinks and change the system, saying it has neither discouraged consumption
\nnor maximized revenue, but instead fostered a thriving black market.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of homes in the Porgera valley of Papua New Guinea are being set
\naflame. Local human rights organizations in Porgera claim that these fires
\nare part of a strategy to clear people out of the way for the expansion of
\nBarrick Gold’s Porgera mine.<\/p>\n
The Endless Zombie Rampage is yet another simple premise that pits you
\nagainst a seemingly never ending swarm of zombies. You begin by your
\nlonesome with only a lowly pistol at your side and a home base nestled
\nsafely behind you. The zombie barrage begins slowly with the first level
\nbut steadily ramps up. For every zombie you kill, you’ll earn experience
\nand that can then be used to upgrade your weapon or buy new guns like
\nshotguns or machine guns.<\/p>\n
A separatist attempt to form a breakaway nation of indigenous people on
\nNicaragua’s jungle shores has the legendary Mosquito Coast buzzing once
\nagain \u2014 and posing a dilemma for leftist President Daniel Ortega.
\nFrustrated by broken promises of autonomy and generations of exploitation
\nby outsiders, traditional leaders on the rural Atlantic coast are calling
\nfor a clean break from Nicaragua and the creation of the Communitarian
\nNation of the Moskitia (named after the region’s indigenous people). The
\nindigenous council of elders officially declared the secession of the
\nAtlantic coast from the rest of Nicaragua, warning that if push comes to
\nshove, their independence claims will be backed by a new Indigenous Army of
\nthe Moskitia.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been 13 years since the first height census was done in Belize,
\nmeasuring a total of 22,426 children across 262 primary schools. The target
\nfor the census was Standard 1 students, ages 6 to 9. The report claims that
\n15.4% of the children showed growth retardation or were too short for their
\nage.<\/p>\n
At first glance, it would seem that we should have gone back to what Marx
\npredicted — a classic crisis of overproduction. With wages held down, who
\nwas going to buy the ever-increasing number of goods being produced? We did
\nget a nasty twenty-month recession when the Fed Chief, tightened the money
\nsupply. But this was a deliberate policy move, designed to “slay the dragon
\nof inflation.” The economy began growing again, and, apart from some fairly
\nminor interruptions, it kept on growing — until a year ago.<\/p>\n
The current alcohol tax of 500 percent, which was far higher than the
\nglobal standard, had failed to bring about the optimal outcome of
\ngenerating revenue and protecting public health.<\/p>\n
Without prior warning, the indigenous land owners of the villages
\nsurrounding Barrick Gold\u2019s Porgera open pit mine were violently evicted by
\na police and military operation with 200 troops. \u201cOperation Ipili\u201d was
\nlaunched during the middle of the day to allegedly make way for the
\nexpansion of a Barrick gold mine. This effective State of Emergency in
\nPorgera was motivated by situation reports presented by Barrick (PNG)
\nLimited.<\/p>\n
What is really liked about Endless Zombie Rampage is the blood. There’s a
\nton of it and it all stays on the screen until you complete the level. As
\nyou rattle off shots into the zombies’ bodies you’ll get a fantastic
\nsquishing sound and an even more satisfying crunch as their body parts fly
\nevery which way to signify their death. There are three wonderfully
\naddictive modes to play, the favorite of which is the Experiment Mode that
\nlets you set the amount of zombies that will spawn and how quickly. Before
\nyou know it you’ll have spent hours fighting off waves of undead with
\nnothing to show for it except your own enjoyment. But isn’t that enough?<\/p>\n
“We are not puppets. We are men. And now we have the weight of a nation on
\nour shoulders,” said separatist leader Rev. Hector Williams, known as the
\nWihta Tara, or Great Judge of the Nation of Moskitia. The separatist
\nleaders this week declared a state of emergency to protect their lands from
\nthe “colonialist” outsiders and sent a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban
\nKi-moon asking for support and protection.<\/p>\n
The most affected district was Toledo, where 39% of children were growth
\nretarded, followed by Cayo with 17.8 %, and Orange Walk with 16.8%, Corozal
\nwith 15.8 %, and Stann Creek with 13.5 %. The Belize district showed the
\nlowest growth retardation with 4.1 % of children affected.<\/p>\n
With wages flat, who was buying the products? Well, the rich got very much
\nricher in those days, creating a separate country (designated “Richistan”),
\nchock-full of McMansions, multimillion-dollar yachts, private jets, etc.
\n(Over the past thirty years the average annual salary in America has
\nincreased only 10 percent, whereas the real annual compensation of the top
\n100 CEOs has increased 3,000 percent.) But those expenditures weren’t
\nnearly enough to keep the economy on track. Ordinary people had to keep
\nbuying also, more and more. Credit card debt has increased sevenfold
\n(adjusted for inflation) since 1975, home equity loans have mushroomed,
\nstudents have gone deeper into debt, and automobile loans have rocketed
\nupward. All in all, outstanding household debt mushroomed from 47 percent
\nof GDP in 1975 to 100 percent of GDP thirty years later.<\/p>\n
“We recommend the government reduce the alcohol tax and apply the
\nvolumetric system that bases its standard on the alcoholic content rather
\nthan on its value.”<\/p>\n
Households of third generation landowners were purposefully razed to the
\nground, causing residents to flee for fear of their lives. Eighty houses in
\nUngima, two houses in Yokolama and four houses in Kulapi had been torched
\nwithin the first 2 days of the operation.<\/p>\n
In the year 1918, as World War I was winding down and just when it seemed
\nthat peace was on the horizon, a new, more deadly enemy emerged undetected
\nuntil it was already too late. The Spanish flu or “La Grippe” was a global
\ndisaster, far worse than the “Great War” itself.<\/p>\n
The separatists claim to be thousands strong with a standing army of 400
\nsoldiers, mostly aging ex-combatants from the YATAMA uprising against the
\nSandinista government in the 1980s. Today, the North and South Atlantic
\nAutonomous Regions (RAAN and RAAS) remain geographically and culturally
\nisolated from the rest of Nicaragua. The northern Atlantic-coastal region
\nis mostly inhabited by Miskito and Mayangna indigenous populations, while
\nits southern neighbor is home to most of the country’s black Creole
\npopulation. Although both groups have suffered historic discrimination, it
\nis the indigenous population in the north that’s leading the charge on
\nindependence \u2014 a call that hasn’t yet found much resonance in the RAAS. The
\nself-proclaimed Communitarian Nation of the Moskitia says all land titles,
\nconcessions and contracts issued by the Nicaraguan government are now
\ninvalid, and that taxes must now be paid to the new self-proclaimed
\nindigenous authorities. A new flag, national anthem and currency are in the
\nworks as the aspiring country appeals for official recognition.<\/p>\n
A high prevalence of growth retardation was observed in rural areas,
\n\u201c…those enrolled in grade levels Infant I and II, and Standard I, Maya
\nand Hispanic children, school boys, and children attending schools under
\nAssemblies of God management. Growth retardation differences were observed
\nfor the same ethnic groups across districts, reflecting different
\nenvironmental-cultural conditions. 48 communities were identified with high
\nlevel growth retardation, and were said to require intervention; 81% were
\nlocated in the Toledo and Stann Creek Districts.<\/p>\n
Instead of keeping up spending by raising wages, the capitalists decided to
\nloan the money to the working class instead. Much better, since they can
\ncollect interest on those loans. But, of course, when it becomes clear that
\nthese debts are never going to be repaid, lending will stop. Lots of money
\nwas made during the credit boom — more than could be loaned out again to
\nthe “real” economy — so it flowed into the stock market, setting off a
\nbubble there, and then, later, into real estate. (The Dow Jones doubled
\nduring the Golden Age from 500 in 1956 to 1,000 in 1972, during which time
\nwages doubled also. It increased fourteenfold during the ensuing flat-wage
\nperiod, hitting 14,000 in 2007.) People felt richer, so they spent more and
\nwere able to borrow more against ever-rising asset values. But what can’t
\ngo on, doesn’t. Credit lines max out, especially when compound interest and
\nfalling asset values kick in.<\/p>\n
“The current tax model is levied on the proportion of the price of the
\nproduct that causes the valuation to be nontransparent and complicates
\nadministration.”<\/p>\n
None of the residents were given time to gather any of their possessions.
\nAnyone who spoke up was reportedly physically attacked by the security
\nforces and some were arrested.<\/p>\n
The pandemic, which occurred between March 1918 and June 1919, claimed more
\nlives compared to WWI \u2013\u2013 more than 20 million (some estimates put the
\nfigure at 80 million) people succumbed tragically and suddenly to the
\ninfection. In Spain alone, 8 million people were reportedly killed by the
\ninfection in a single month. The “Spanish” flu got its name from the
\nintense media coverage of the disease when it moved to Spain in November
\n1918. However, the disease was first discovered in March 1918 in a military
\ncamp in Kansas, United States. Very few people noticed the epidemic in the
\nmidst of the War and the infection passed virtually unnoticed. These first
\nepidemics were signs of what was coming in the following winter. The
\nSpanish flu is widely regarded as the worst flu pandemic in recorded
\nhistory.<\/p>\n
“People have been waiting and waiting for this for 115 years. But
\neverything has its moment,” said Great Judge Williams, referring to 1894,
\nwhen the Mosquito Coast first lost its nationhood status. President Daniel
\nOrtega, a revolutionary who claims “indigenous blood” and pledges
\nsolidarity with underdog struggles for independence around the globe, was
\nthe first and only president in the world to recognize the breakaway
\nRussian-backed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia during last year’s
\nhostilities in Georgia. At The Summit of the Americas, Ortega advocated for
\nPuerto Rico’s independence from “the colonialist policies” of the United
\nStates \u2014 a “show of solidarity” that irritated the Puerto Rican government.
\nNow, faced with a popular secession in his own backyard, Ortega has
\nremained tightlipped, and his government has not yet made any substantial
\nresponse to the claims of the Nation of Moskitia.<\/p>\n
There wasn’t any indication of whether the numbers have changed or whether
\nanyone had done anything to address the issue of stunted growth among
\nchildren across Belize. The community needs to do much more to prevent
\ngrowth retardation, to work towards optimal educational development, and to
\nprotect minds and bodies of children.<\/p>\n
Let’s imagine a world in which most large enterprises are run
\ndemocratically. They are communities — not properties to be bought or sold
\nor “relocated” to lower-wage parts of the country or globe. When you join a
\nfirm, you get to vote for representatives who will serve on a Workers
\nCouncil that serves the same function that a Board of Directors
\n(representing shareholders) serves in a modern corporation: selecting top
\nmanagement, setting the terms of employment, and approving major business
\ndecisions. You have a vested interest in voting for competent
\nrepresentatives, who will appoint competent management, since your income
\nis tied directly to the fate of the company. You don’t receive a fixed
\nsalary. Your income is a share of the company’s profits. (Shares aren’t
\nequal. They will vary according to whatever criteria the enterprise
\nchooses, e.g., seniority, levels of responsibility, special skills, etc.)
\nThis gives all workers in the enterprise a major incentive to work hard and
\neffectively, and to monitor co-workers to see that they do the same.<\/p>\n
PT Sarinah, the country’s sole importer of alcoholic beverages, reported
\nonly Rp 62 billion (US$5.8 million) in collected tax revenue from the
\nliquor. “This suggests a large volume of either smuggled or illegal alcohol
\nproducts.”<\/p>\n
Increasing numbers of people are reporting injuries, as are those who are
\nbeing detained. Although the landowners received no formal warning that
\nthey were to see their houses destroyed, Barrick Gold had demanded that the
\nland be cleared of local villagers, some of whom are small scale artisanal
\nminers eking out a living beside the mine.<\/p>\n
Outbreaks swept through North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Brazil and the
\nSouth Pacific. Closer to home, the disease spread \u2013\u2013 from New Zealand \u2013\u2013 to
\nTonga (killing 8 per cent of the population), Niue (16 per cent of the
\npopulation) and Fiji (5 per cent of the population). Western Samoa was
\nworst hit as 90 per cent of the population got infected with nearly 20 per
\ncent killed).<\/p>\n
Local authorities in the RAAN insist they have no intention of turning over
\nthe state machinery to the separatist leaders, but are trying to downplay
\nthe matter, apparently hoping it will go away on its own. “How are they
\ngoing to take control of the police and military? Please!” said the RAAN
\nGovernor.<\/p>\n
The Assessment of the Food Nutrition and Health Situation of Belize showed
\nthat 6% of children younger than 5 were underweight; whereas Toledo
\nrecorded 39% of its children with stunted growth in the same age group.<\/p>\n
Enterprises compete for customers in a free market constrained only by
\nfamiliar regulations that compensate for market externalities and protect
\nconsumers from deception and avoidable harm. These enterprises will exist
\nalongside a public sector providing certain services, including health care
\nand investment banks in addition to infrastructure, education, and security
\nservices.<\/p>\n
The government has reported recently that up to 60 percent of alcohol
\nconsumption in Indonesia is supplied by the black market, causing it to
\nlose about Rp 1.5 trillion in liquor tax revenue each year.<\/p>\n
Barrick Gold\u2019s personnel claim the land owners are \u2018illegal,’ issuing a
\nmemorandum calling on them to stop their subsistence activities and leave
\ntheir homelands. The chief landowner, Nixon Mangape, recently alerted their
\nlocal Member of Parliament as well as media outlets about the impending
\nthreats from the mining company. To date, there has been no acknowledgement
\nthat villagers have been demanding compensation from Barrick if the
\nconfiscation of their land was to move forward, given their resulting loss
\nof livelihood, possessions and ancestral territory. Now, these communities
\nare suffering from brutal attacks by security agents and faced with the
\nsituation that their homes \u2013 with all their possessions \u2013 have been burned
\nto the ground, in clear violation of national and international legal
\nprecedents.<\/p>\n
Influenza is not unusual nor uncommon, in fact, flu is a seasonal disease
\n\u2013\u2013 affecting people in the colder months of the year, every year. There are
\na number of different types and subtypes of flu virus. The most common
\ntypes are flu virus A (found in birds), flu virus B (found in humans) and
\nflu virus C (found in pigs and humans). Typically, influenza viruses infect
\nonly one species so the human influenza virus is different from the bird
\ninfluenza virus which is different from the pig influenza virus. However,
\ninfluenza viruses evolve continually, forming new subtypes (strains)
\nthrough a natural process known as antigenic drift.<\/p>\n
The true scale of the movement remains unclear and Miskito leaders are
\nwarning the Nicaraguan government it would be a mistake to take the
\nsituation lightly. Even those opposed to the independence movement warn the
\nconditions are ripe for a separatist fever to spread, or even turn to
\nviolence. “Autonomy has been a failure,” said Osorno “Comandante Blas”
\nColeman, who had been a Miskito military leader during the YATAMA uprising
\nagainst the Sandinista government in the 1980s. “The separatists are
\nlooking for an alternative, for a light at the end of the tunnel. Their
\nmovement could gain force because people are frustrated with autonomy.”<\/p>\n
Environmental factors are more at play than genetic factors and ethnicity.
\nRetarded growth in children is \u201cmainly the result of environmental factors
\nthat can be influenced\u201d by individual and collective action and will
\nprovide representative information at the national, district and village
\nlevels, to make timely decisions to implement nutritional activities, and
\nother interventions aimed at improving the health of all Belizean children.<\/p>\n
There are two parts to the reform. The first involves the source of funds,
\nbreaking the connection between saving and investment. We won’t rely
\nanymore on private savings, which, apart from pension funds, come
\noverwhelmingly from the wealthy. Relying on this segment of society makes
\nthe whole economy hostage to their “animal spirits” — to use Keynes’s
\nterm. How much societal investment we need, where and in what enterprises
\nthese funds should be invested — these decisions are vital to the
\nlong-term future of everyone. They are too important to be left to the
\nhunches and intuitions of a small segment of the population that is largely
\ninvisible and wholly unaccountable to the general public. People can still
\nsave. We’ll have Savings and Loan Associations in our economy, where modest
\ninterest is paid on deposits, which are insured by the federal government.
\nThese regulated S&Ls will serve as source for home mortgages and other
\nconsumer loans-as they once did, in pre-deregulation days.<\/p>\n
Media reports, reflected the ineffectiveness of the tax model in securing
\ngood public health, with eight people dying after consuming poor-quality
\nalcohol in Padang, West Sumatra. The Australian government warned its
\ncitizens visiting Indonesia against consuming local alcohol or illegally
\nmixed alcohol.<\/p>\n
A year after the massive Sichuan earthquake leveled hundreds of schools,
\nsparking allegations of corruption and shoddy construction, China finally
\ngave its first official tally of the numbers of students dead or missing:
\n5,335.<\/p>\n
Pigs sometimes can be infected not only with pig influenza viruses, but
\nalso with human and bird influenza viruses. This change (or evolution)
\ntakes many years. Sometimes, through mutation, influenza viruses swap
\ngenes; no one knows what triggers these mutations, but the changes are
\nusually quite drastic and occur in a relatively short period of time. A new
\ninfluenza virus strain has been discovered, which has reportedly claimed
\nnearly 100 lives in Mexico. The “Swine flu” has also sprung up in the
\nUnited States, Canada and the UK. Suspected cases have been reported in
\nAustralia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Though the Atlantic coast was given autonomy in 1987, indigenous and Creole
\nleaders say discrimination and economic concerns have prevented the law
\nfrom being implemented true to its spirit. Their frustrations have been
\namplified by the aftermath of Hurricane Felix, a devastating category 5
\nstorm that ripped through the area destroying much of the local
\ncommunities’ infrastructure, livelihood and natural resources.<\/p>\n
Through this census, population growth retardation can be measured,
\nallowing us to know its magnitude, severity and geographic distribution.
\nInformation generated from height censuses, can be used to assist in
\nlobbying for resources. Growth rate depends on one\u2019s diet, health,
\nenvironment, and socioeconomic factors. Belize\u2019s first census showed that
\nout of every 100 children measured, 15 were found with growth retardation
\nor stunting. The information can be useful in decision making, the design
\nand evaluation of policies, the redistribution of resources, intervention,
\nand indicating whether responsible agencies have been successful in
\nreducing growth retardation.<\/p>\n
All the funds for business investment will be raised publicly from taxes.
\nLet’s abolish the corporate income tax (which few corporations pay anymore
\nanyway), and substitute a capital assets tax — a flat-rate tax on the
\nvalue of an enterprise’s tangible property. As it is now, we tax labor, via
\nthe payroll tax, but not capital. This distorts the efficient allocation of
\nresources, making labor more expensive than it need be, giving incentives
\nfor automation and making production more capital-intensive than it ought
\nto be. This tax redresses the balance. Under the new system, the revenues
\nfrom this tax are kept separate from general tax revenues. All go into the
\n“investment fund.” All are plowed back into the economy, as loans to
\nexisting businesses wanting to expand production or upgrade their
\ntechnologies, or to individuals wanting to start up new businesses.<\/p>\n
Last year alone, the consumption of illegal and unsafe low-quality liquor
\nclaimed more than 60 lives and caused hundreds of others to be hospitalized
\nin Jambi, Manado (North Sulawesi), Kediri (East Java), Papua, Indramayu
\n(West Java) and Medan (North Sumatra). The unsupervised producers of the
\nlow-quality alcoholic drinks have been proven to have avoided high taxes.<\/p>\n
The government began its count hours after the magnitude-7.9 temblor razed
\nhuge portions of the southwestern province, but has refused until now to
\nsay how many students were among the nearly 90,000 people killed or
\nmissing. Another 5 million people were made homeless. Thousands of
\nclassrooms collapsed while buildings around them remained intact. It has
\nbecome a politically charged issue and an enduring source of bitterness for
\nparents trying to find answers and closure.<\/p>\n
Barrick Gold and the Government of Papua New Guinea must immediately start
\nto address the catastrophic problem in Porgera pro-actively rather than
\nover reacting with high level security installations and branding it as a
\nlaw and order problem. Calling a State of Emergency is not the right method
\nto fix these extensive and irreversible damages, the ordinary people are
\nalready victims of what as gone wrong.<\/p>\n
As the number of people getting infected and dying of the disease continues
\nto rise, the World Health Organization has declared “that the current
\nsituation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern”.
\nThis declaration sparked a rapid response in most countries with
\nauthorities across Asia \u2013\u2013 who have grappled with deadly viruses like bird
\nflu and SARS in recent years \u2013\u2013 tightening their border control, screening
\nand monitoring travellers at border checkpoints in Hong Kong, Malaysia,
\nSouth Korea and Japan. Public health messages advising people who may be
\ninfected with flu \u2013\u2013 of any type \u2013\u2013 to avoid social gatherings and other
\nforms of inter-personal interaction are already in newspapers and perhaps
\neven over the radio and TV.<\/p>\n
In the aftermath of the hurricane, west-coast Nicaraguans have moved into
\nthe area to profit from the storm-felled timber, and to set up ranching and
\nfarming in indigenous territories. “They operate like the mafia,” said the
\nlegal advisor to the aspiring nation. The new indigenous army is being
\ndeployed into the forests to stop all logging activity in their territory.
\n“We are going to put a stop to this, which is something the Nicaraguan
\nauthorities couldn’t do.” The separatists, led by former indigenous rebel
\nleader Comandante Yul Wild (Wild Dog) \u2014 already staged an unarmed takeover
\nof the headquarters of the indigenous YATAMA party. But it’s still unclear
\nwhether the group presents a substantial threat.<\/p>\n
Environmental factors, such as the type of floor one has \u2013 an earthen floor
\nversus a wooden floor \u2013 impacts a child\u2019s growth. Environmental factors are
\nwhat primarily determine one\u2019s height, and something as basic as a clean
\nfloor can contribute to healthy growth. Principals and teachers will be
\nresponsible for collecting, classifying and reporting the growth
\nretardation results for their expected schools. The wider use of the census
\nis that it can help to identify communities that could benefit from
\ntargeted nutritional interventions; it can detect growth retardation and
\nscreen high-risk groups, such as families, communities and geographical
\nregions; and it can help in constructing poverty maps and developing
\nbaselines for food and nutrition surveillance systems. Tapes are calibrated
\nin centimeters and charts are provided which indicate what height a child
\nshould theoretically have for his or her age. A boy who just turned six,
\nfor example, should be 106.5 cm or roughly 3 feet 6 inches tall. If the
\nchild is two inches shorter, he is categorized as suffering from \u201csevere
\ngrowth retardation.\u201d A girl 9 years and 11 months old should not be shorter
\nthan 4 feet and 1 inch. If so, the teacher will log that child as
\nmoderately or severely retarded in growth.<\/p>\n
Collected investment funds are allocated to a network of regional and local
\nbanks, each region getting its per capita share. Every year, each region of
\nthe country gets its fair share of the national investment fund. Regions
\ndon’t compete for capital. They don’t have to offer tax breaks and other
\nincentives to attract investors. Citizens don’t have to pick up and move
\nfrom capital-starved regions to those into which the capital is flowing.
\nCapital flows automatically to where the people are. Community stability is
\nthus greatly enhanced. Enterprises within regions do compete for capital.
\nThe investment banks are public institutions. Loan officers are public
\nofficials charged with allocating society’s resources efficiently.
\nProfitability is a major criterion of success, although a community might
\nwant to add some others — employment creation, for example, or the
\nfostering of green technologies. The allocation process is open and
\ntransparent because these banks are public institutions loaning out public
\nmoney. Loan officers whose portfolios perform well will be rewarded; those
\nwhose portfolios do not may lose their jobs. Thus incentive structures are
\nin place appropriate to the efficient allocation of capital in accordance
\nwith democratically decided priorities. These are the basic institutions of
\neconomic democracy: a competitive market for goods and services, widespread
\nworkplace democracy, and a “social control of investment.” There are a few
\nsupplementary policies that an economic democracy should also adopt; full
\nemployment, “capitalism within socialism,” and socialist protectionism.<\/p>\n
The current system was also ineffective because of the lack of
\ntransparency, which created an noncompetitive and unfair playing field in
\nthe alcoholic beverage business. Therefore, firms engaging in illegal
\nbusiness will get a greater advantage than those staying in the legitimate
\nbusiness.<\/p>\n
Parents say the schools crumbled so easily because corruption and
\nmismanagement led to slipshod construction and weak buildings that were not
\nup to code. Some say materials meant for school construction projects were
\nsold on the side by contractors for personal gain. So far no one has been
\nheld responsible or punished.<\/p>\n
The Norwegian Pension Fund divested $230 million CAD from Barrick Gold for
\nethical concerns related to the Porgera Mine.<\/p>\n
In 1918, during the height of the Spanish flu, children would skip rope to
\nthe following rhyme:<\/p>\n
I had a little bird<\/p>\n
its name was Enza<\/p>\n
I opened the window<\/p>\n
And in-flew-Enza!<\/p>\n
The prospects of the separatist movement “will depend on how the
\n(Nicaraguan) government reacts.” If the government takes the situation
\nseriously and address the demands of the people, the situation could be
\ncontrolled. But if it’s ignored, it could fester and grow. “There are lots
\nof (indigenous) ex-combatants who are very unsatisfied with the government,
\nthey’ve been waiting for over two years for the government to comply with
\nits promises,” he said. The worst case scenario, he said, would be if the
\ngovernment responded with force. If they did, there would be a situation
\nlike there was in the 1980s.”<\/p>\n
The Belizean prevalence of stunting is considered to be low according to
\nWHO international classification. The results of the census should be ready
\nwithin 4 months. Changes in migration patterns in Belize since the last
\ncensus might have affected the height-age profile of children ages 6 to 9
\nin Belize, as it was clear that the communities that showed most stunting
\nhad high immigrant populations. This index is mainly used to identify
\nchronic malnutrition and is also a reflection of socioeconomic and
\nenvironmental factors that influenced their growth. Over 9,000 standard 1
\nchildren are being targeted by the new census.<\/p>\n
A circular issued by the Cabinet was ordering that safety controls over the
\nconstruction and rebuilding of schools be strengthened. The circular said
\nthere would be severe punishment for those who engage in illegal practices.<\/p>\n
We need the government to serve as the employer of last resort. Every
\nperson wanting to work should have a job. No market economy, capitalist or
\nsocialist, can guarantee full employment. The government has to do that.
\nEvery citizen should enjoy a genuine “right to work.” These jobs may not be
\nhigh paying, but they should involve decent, socially useful work.
\nInvoluntary unemployment is a scourge, a deepening, terrifying global trend
\nthat must be addressed head on. (To be unable to find work is a terrible
\nthing. It’s as if society is saying, “There is nothing you can do that we
\nneed. We may deign to keep you alive, but make no mistake: you are a
\nparasite, living off the labor of others.” Is it any wonder that
\nunemployment breeds social pathologies?)<\/p>\n
When the entrepreneur wants to retire or move on, and the business exceeds
\na certain size, she or he must sell the business to the state, which will
\nthen turn it over to its workers to be run democratically. The
\nentrepreneurial capitalist sector thus serves as an important source of
\ndemocratic firms. Such capitalists play a valuable role in our socialist
\neconomy and are duly honored therein.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Postwar America was a middle-class society. The great boom in wages that began with World War II had lifted tens of millions of Americans from urban slums and rural poverty to a life of home ownership and unprecedented comfort. The rich, on the other hand, had lost ground. They were few in number and, relative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[200,201,185,202,203,186,187,188,189,190,191,192,193,194,195,197,198],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}