Help Famine Victims in East Africa [Karma Police]

Whether it’s tornado victims in the United States, tsunami victims in Japan, or Haitians recovering from a devastating Earthquake, every society experiences a disaster situation which requires assistance from all of us. “Karma Police” is a regular feature which highlights humanitarian crises that you can do something about.

On July 20, the United Nations declared a famine situation in the Horn of Africa, the first official famine declared by the UN since 1984. 3.7 million individuals are in danger of starving and over 12 million people are affected across regions that include Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Sources

Wikipedia: “2011 Horn of Africa Famine”
NPR Foreign Policy: “Murder by Starvation”

The East African food crisis was pushed into the famine category by the drought that has affected the region in the past year. Precipitation levels have been at 30% of the 1995-2010 yearly average, with the current dry spell predicted to last until September. The situation has been further complicated by the weak Somali government and the Islamic militant group al-Shabab which is blocking food aid. As the famine creates a refugee and humanitarian crisis, the risk of cholera and malaria epidemics also increases.

Make this your last slave-chocolate Valentine’s Day [Social Justice]

Cross-posted from Oxfam America at Virginia Tech.

Valentine’s Day is a major holiday for the chocolate industry. Sunday night, VT Oxfam members raised funds by selling fair-trade chocolate goods across campus. Unfortunately, most of the chocolate sold for the holiday will help sustain one of the most universally supported systems of human rights abuse in the modern age.

Approximately 40% of the world’s cocoa supply comes from farms in West Africa supported by child slavery with most in Cote d’Ivoirie (the Ivory Coast). The U.S. Department of State estimates that 109,000 children are working in an abusive labor environment with as many as 10,000 suffering as victims of human trafficking or enslavement. Tragically, these are conservative estimates. In 2005 the International Labor Organization estimated that as many as 200,000 children work in West Africa cocoa farms.

Brits on Parade [World News]

How would you, as a college student, feel if your new government was raising your tuition threefold for next semester?

Would you kick a building?

‘Cause this guy did.

FUCK YOU, TORY-SYMPATHIZING DOOR!

Eat that Burrito or the Terrorists Win [Rant of the Moment]

The following is the column I turned in for Editorial Writing class today. I completed it after standing in line for two hours in front of Blacksburg’s new Chipotle and enjoying the taste of sweet, near-sustainable burrito. So Chipotle was on my mind, which led to “one of the biggest leaps in logic ever” according to my friend and classmate, Brodie.

CHIPOTLE AKBAR!

 

After bottoming out at the end of 2008 during the recent financial crisis, the stock of Chipotle (stock quote CMG) has steadily increased. My blog, PhilthePill.net, also began operation in December of 2008, its existence correlating with Chipotle’s success.  At the time of this writing, the stock has reached an all-time high, coinciding with a new increase in blog postings on Phil the Pill and the grand opening of the Chipotle in Blacksburg, Virginia, near the campus of Virginia Tech.

I could claim that the existence of my blog has been solely responsible for the addition of more Chipotles since 2008. Clearly, if we want more Chipotles to open and drive the inferior Moe’s out of business, I need to keep updating my blog. And if Chipotle growth slows down, that just means I’m not updating my blog enough.

This logical fallacy is familiar to most of us as “correlation does not imply causation” or its Latin-phrase counterpart, cum hoc ergo propter hoc or “with this, therefore because of this.”

Iraq and a Hard Place: Obama’s Afghanistan Decision

Oh, no, I’ve gone and made a terrible Middle East geography pun.

Subject: The War in Afghanistan

Ongoing conflict officially begun in October 2001 following the September 11 attacks
On December 1, 2009, President Barack Obama makes a televised speech from West Point academy declaring a 30,000 troop surge to begin in 2010. He also announces plans to begin drawing down in “eighteen months.” He estimates the operation at $30 billion.

Obama is criticized by the Left for committing more soliders to a war liberals are beginning to liken to Vietnam.
Obama is criticzed by the Right for not making this decision earlier and for drawing a timetable that “sends mixed messages” to Afghanis.
Facts: Candidate Obama ran on a platform of decreasing troops in Iraq and increasing troops in Afghanistan.
Obama states in his speech that there has been no proposal by his generals to take this action before 2010, responding preemptively to former vice president Dick Cheney’s “dithering” criticism.
According to NBC news, since taking office, Obama had already approved a troop increase from 31,800 to 71,000. This next increase will result in Obama having approved approximately 60,000 additional troops since taking office.
Links:
Wikipedia – War in Afghanistan (2001-Present)
White House – Full text of December 1, 2009 Obama speech
AP – Gates: “Severe consequences” for Afghan failure

Vodpod videos no longer available.

—-

Who do you trust more? The guy who knows why he’s right or the guy who knows how he may be wrong?

My answer is unequivocally the latter.

Too much of our modern political discourse is dominated by people who know they’re right. They know every decision made by the President they personally hate is wrong. They know what the mistake is in our foreign policy. They know what the right answer is.

Everyone can’t be right. And when the two dominating opinions are at extreme polls, most people are probably wrong.

Obama could be called out on many things, but changing course on Afghanistan isn’t one of them. Those of us who were paying attention knew this would happen. So anyone who decries this is as a betrayal to those who voted for him is in ignorant denial and probably shouldn’t be trusted to provide legitimate suggestions, given their disregard for the facts.

Do you really want to be the new “war president”? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do — destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they’ve always heard is true — that all politicians are alike. I simply can’t believe you’re about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn’t so. — Michael Moore

All Obama is teaching Doves who voted for him thinking that our military interests would magically turn a 180 is that they need to clean the wax out from their ears and pay attention.

The decision to invade Iraq diverted resources from the war in Afghanistan, making it harder for us to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden and others involved in the 9/11 attacks. Nearly seven years later, the Taliban has reemerged in southern Afghanistan while Al Qaeda has used the space provided by the Iraq war to regroup, train and plan for another attack on the United States. 2007 was the most violent year in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001. The scale of our deployments in Iraq continues to set back our ability to finish the fight in Afghanistan, producing unacceptable strategic risks. — Organizing for America, Barack Obama’s campaign homepage

Sounds like your war president was also your war candidate.

Obama, conveniently, was not in the Senate to have a voting record on Iraq in 2003. Given the national attitude and his party’s need to distinguish themselves from Dubya, he was able to rail against Iraq as a “distraction” from something most of the population was, at one time, supporting: the War on “Terror.”

Obama was against Iraq. He was never against Afghanistan. And, while the drawdown was already being worked on at the end of Bush’s term, it was Obama who announced a final timetable for withdrawal of most troops from Iraq — August 2010, a little less than a year before the planned end to the Afghanistan surge.

So, if all goes according to plan, and that’s a very big If, we’ll have effectively ended the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by 2012, right when you have to decide whether to vote for Barack again.

What were Doves expecting? For the U.S. to just drop the casserole and let it smash to 1,000 pieces? We’re setting the casserole down. It takes some time. And in the case of Afghanistan, it takes some more cooking.

Terrible military metaphors, ho!

I don’t understand how a grown man like Michael Moore can believe that the President has the only say in military operations. What was one of his chief complaints against George W. Bush again? Stop me if this sounds familiar, but wasn’t the Fahrenheit 9/11 crowd decrying Bush for not listening? Not listening to the U.N., not listening to proper intelligence, not listening to diplomats and military strategist, not listening to the people? But when Barack Obama makes a decision weighing the inputs of people who probably know a smidge more about the realities of Afghanistan than Michael Moore, he’s obviously the second coming of Dubya.

It’s also willful ignorance of the apparent true threat to U.S. secruity in the area: Pakistan. More specfically, instability in Pakistan, a nuclear power. And this is nothing new.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan made Pakistan a country of paramount geostrategic importance. In a matter of days, the United States declared Pakistan a “frontline state” against Soviet aggression and offered to reopen aid and military assistance deliveries. When the Reagan administration took office in January 1981, the level of assistance increased substantially. Presidential waivers for several of the amendments were required. The initial package from the United States was for US$3.2 billion over six years, equally divided between economic and military assistance. A separate arrangement was made for the purchase of forty F-16 fighter aircraft….

….

President Bush formally lifted sanctions against India and Pakistan 22 September 2001 in a special memorandum to Secretary of State Colin Powell. The sanctions were imposed in response to the Indian and Pakistani nuclear weapons programs and testing. Powell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” September 23 that lifting these sanctions, which had been under consideration for some time, sends an important signal that “we will stand by our friends who stand by us.”

In March 2003 President Bush lifted sanctions against Pakistan that were imposed following the 1999 bloodless coup that brought President Pervez Musharraf to power. A White House statement said President Bush decided to lift the sanctions because it will “facilitate the transition to democratic rule in Pakistan” and help in efforts to fight international terrorism. Pakistani cooperation was key to US military action against the Taleban government in neighboring Afghanistan and al-Qaida terrorists thought responsible for the September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

By December 2003 Pakistani government had launched an investigation into whether figures in Pakistan’s nuclear program may have provided nuclear-weapons technology to Iran or other countries. The US State Department said Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf assured the United States more than a year earlier that any such activity had ceased. Officials were reluctant to speak about what nuclear-export activity the United States believes Pakistan was engaged in before the Bush administration took office. But officials at both the State Department and White House said the United States continued to accept at face value an assurance made in 2003 by President Musharraf that Pakistan was no longer involved in such proliferation. — Globalsecurity.org

So the Bush administration extended a courtesy to Pakistan that it wouldn’t extend to Iran or Iraq: it lifted sanctions. Now, gee, why would Mr. No Compromise ease up on a nation with a patchy history of abetting terrorism when he took such a hard line on Saddam and Ahmadenijad? Could it be because we didn’t want to piss off a nuclear power right when were committing troops into two countries?

Why it's not called the War in Pakistan.

Rachel Maddow, the Left’s less pathologically partisan Sean Hannity, clearly agrees with me that Pakistan is the real motivation behind a troop surge in Afghanistan. She said this on her show following Obama’s speech:

To the extent, though, that this war is not about some potential future threat but a real current one, like the president described tonight, a current one that—he didn‘t say it bluntly, but he meant it—one that exists in Pakistan.  To the extent that our 100,000 troops in Afghanistan are there simply to backstop and contain the real war against the real threat next door in Pakistan, then tell me this—how are we fighting our war in Pakistan?

We‘re fighting it using the CIA, which effectively functions as a fifth secret branch of the U.S. military now.  They even have their own Air Force.  They‘re a fifth secret branch of the military now which our civilian leaders as a matter of policy do not answer for.  They don‘t even bother explaining what they‘re doing….

If the real war is Pakistan and we‘re fighting this war not to prevent some threat to us in the future, not as an extension of the Bush doctrine, but rather than to respond to a real threat now, why are we fighting it with our secret military that we don‘t admit to?  Why are we fighting it with our CIA?

BECAUSE YOU CAN’T INVADE A NUCLEAR POWER WITH YOUR MILITARY AND EXPECT A FAVORABLE CONSEQUENCE!

I understand the question was semi-rhetorical, but you can use some logic. The CIA exists primarily for this very reason. We can’t officially intervene in every threat to U.S. security without setting off Armageddon. And yet, without the CIA, that is also very well what we could be facing.  Honestly, I don’t understand the point that Maddow was making besides saying, “Man, we’re a bunch of warmonering assholes.”

And that may be true, but completely turning a blind eye to an unstable region harboring anti-U.S. hostility doesn’t produce a protective bubble against attack.

Listen, I agree that a lot of what we’ve done with our military and with the CIA, particularly when it comes to Predator Drone attacks is despicable and inhumane. It’s not how we should be handling the situation. But I’m not going to be so presumptuous to assume that any operation in that area has to be scrapped as a result. There’s a middle ground between indiscriminately killing civilians / destabilizing nations and completely abandoning all presence in a hostile area.

Obama clearly understands the threat we’re trying to contain in this godforsaken operation.

The people and governments of both Afghanistan and Pakistan are endangered.  And the stakes are even higher within a nuclear-armed Pakistan, because we know that al Qaeda and other extremists seek nuclear weapons, and we have every reason to believe that they would use them….

In the past, we too often defined our relationship with Pakistan narrowly.  Those days are over.  Moving forward, we are committed to a partnership with Pakistan that is built on a foundation of mutual interest, mutual respect, and mutual trust. We will strengthen Pakistan’s capacity to target those groups that threaten our countries, and have made it clear that we cannot tolerate a safe haven for terrorists whose location is known and whose intentions are clear.  America is also providing substantial resources to support Pakistan’s democracy and development.  We are the largest international supporter for those Pakistanis displaced by the fighting.  And going forward, the Pakistan people must know America will remain a strong supporter of Pakistan’s security and prosperity long after the guns have fallen silent, so that the great potential of its people can be unleashed.

The speech itself is even titled “Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation on the Way Forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” Anyone who believes that we’re staying in Afghanistan simply to pick off the “less than 100” remaining al-Qaeda members is a fool (I’m looking at you, Michael).

That’s why Obama mentions his stance on nuclear disarmament. That’s the real threat. And it’s something even Doves should take into account when considering what to do with our military.

So you’ve got the Bleeding Hearts screaming at the President from the Left, but of course, you can always count on good old Uncle Dick to somehow find Obama too weak on terrorism.

Honestly, I can’t find a single substantial criticism of Obama’s troop surge plan in Dick Cheney’s response.

It amounts to “they’re calling us names and saying we did things badly, it’s not fair!”

The truth often isn’t fair to malicious incompetents, asshole.

From what I can ascertain, the Right claims that Obama should have A) accepted whatever General McChrystal said without demanding an exit strategy a-la his predecessor and B) not made the Afghani government feel “abandoned” by announcing the fact that we plan to leave in 2011.

Except we know that they’re full of shit.

Obama could have sent every single soldier he had, drafted all the liberals and minorities, and bombed the crap out of the Axis of Evil and the Right Wing would suddenly jump up and down and claim that they’re anti-War. There was never a chance of Obama making a move that wouldn’t be criticized by the Coalition for Insane TeaBagging. No matter what Obama does to try to “win” the war or save American soldiers, he’s still a black Democrat. And that’s all these people care about.

In light of this, practically none of their criticisms are worth responding to. I will, however, say this about Obama announcing the timetable:

An end date to this mess has been long overdue.

Fox News likes to pretend that the supervillain terrorists will take this as an opportunity to throw on their invisibility cloaks for 18 months while the 30,000 additional troops wander the Afghanistan-Pakistan border with their thumbs up their asses.

Man, I hope this won't start smelling bad after 18 months.

Whenever the end is in sight, your military is hopefully going to know. And here’s a news flash: If the troops know, the media will know. What the Right Wing is really saying is that Obama shouldn’t have an exit plan. Hell, remember John McCain, the candidate Doves now like to claim is exactly the same as Obama?

Sen. John McCain said he supports the build up but thinks it’s wrong to signal in advance when a troop withdrawal might start. “We don’t want to sound an uncertain trumpet to our friends in the region,” the Arizona Republican said. – The Associated Press

Nah, we don’t want to sound an uncertain trumpet. Let’s make them feel better by basically committing to decades of funneling American soldiers into this conflict, without a goal in sight. This was the difference between John McCain and Barack Obama. It wasn’t whether the President would wage war. It was whether the President would set up a policy to end it. McCain was perfectly content fighting in Afghanistan beyond his term. Obama is sending this message: “We can’t and won’t do this forever. We’re going to commit to securing our interests and then you’d best have your shit together, because we’re out.”

Pretty certain trumpet, if you ask me.

Now, if you’ve read all that and if you know anything about my past commentary on war, you’re thinking one of two things:

1) Phil is an Obama loyalist hypocrite who renounces his values to support the Party
2) Phil has been brainwashed into supporting war feeding off his own hatred of TeaBaggers

Not quite.

I hate this damn war. I hate all of them. I hate how we handled everything the past 8 years, including Obama’s decisions. I don’t believe you can kill every terrorist who wants to do this country harm. Not without five more popping up per martyr. I don’t believe that the ultimate answer to our security and the world’s lies in men with guns.

She Who Shall Not Be Nicknamed remarked after Obama’s speech that she didn’t think nation-building was a bad idea. Now, the connotation Obama was speaking out against implied that we’d be there to hold Afghanistan’s hand indefinitely. That would be fruitless. But she’s right that the best way to deal with terrorism is to provide people with stability of their own. Can we win the War in Afghanistan? Sure.

Just not with bombs.

As it currently stands, neither you nor I can stand up to the military industrial complex. It’s real and it’s hard at work. The United States has never known a more efficient way of dealing with a threat than intimidation through force. So, given the realities of our world and our nation, conventional war will continue. I don’t know a soul that actually believes we’ll make this 18-month timeline. It’s not realistic, to be honest. Somehow, War will find a way to perservere.

But we can put an end to it.

I support the President’s plan, within the context of the way our country works. If this is the only way we know how to protect ourselves, then it’s something we have to adapt to. But we all know that when the populace finally pressures the Complex to bring our soldiers home that the real enemy won’t have disappeared. And that’s where we have to step in.

If the free market is as beneficial to society as capitalists claim, it should acknowledge that there is an opportunity in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and the entire Middle East. People need help. People need jobs. They need education. And in the areas where we’ve destroyed everything they have, they need infrastructure. This will put a stop to terrorism, this will make American safer.

And if Obama’s half as smart as he makes himself out to be, this is what we will commit to after drawing the troops down.

Think of this Afghan child as the embodiment of "hope" and "change" that we were harping on last year.

“As your Commander-in-Chief, I owe you a mission that is clearly defined, and worthy of your service.”

The mission of rebuilding what we helped to destroy rather than continuing our rampage out of fear?

I can’t think of anything more worthy.

Taro Aso’s Bowout + Girls with Bellies

Happy Sunday, everybody.

How do you like the new redesign? (And by redesign, I mean I went to the Themes page and picked a thumbnail). I didn’t realize just how drab and hard to read the old theme was. This feels…nice. Bright. Expansive. I can definitely learn to live with this.

Today we’ve got:
Political news from Japan that has nothing to do with anime
Good news for perfectly normal women tired of feeling fat
A solar power infographic that will make you angry at our lack of initative

Don’t Cry for Me, Nippon

The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, essentially in control of the country for 54 years, has lost its hold on the government after this weekend’s elections.

The left-of-center Democratic Party of Japan was set to win 300 or more of the 480 seats in the lower house of parliament, ousting the Liberal Democrats, who have governed Japan for all but 11 months since 1955, according to exit polls by all major Japanese TV networks…

…[Japanese Prime Minister Taro] Aso said he would have to accept responsibility for the results, suggesting that he would resign as party president. Other LDP leaders also said they would step down, though official results were not to be released until early Monday morning.

The loss by the Liberal Democrats — traditionally a pro-business, conservative party — would open the way for the Democratic Party, headed by Yukio Hatoyama, to replace Aso and establish a new Cabinet, possibly within the next few weeks.

The vote was seen as a barometer of frustrations over Japan’s worst economic slump since World War II and a loss of confidence in the ruling Liberal Democrats’ ability to tackle tough problems such as the rising national debt and rapidly aging population.

The Democrats have embraced a more populist platform, promising handouts for families with children and farmers, a higher minimum wage, and to rebuild the economy.

Apparently, Aso's sumo wrestler outreach program wasn't as popular as he hoped it would be.

Americans might question what the big deal is, since we switch parties in power all the time (or so you think), but given the LDP’s dominance in politics, this would be like us voting in a Third Party candidate for President. The Japanese have apparently looked at their system and decided it sucks and then they used the democratic tools at their disposal to do something about it.

Huh. Imagine that.

I’m also unsympathetic to the LDP which appears to have more in common with the Republican Party than any other serious party in Japan.

But the lesson to take away from this is: just because something has been a certain way for a long period of time doesn’t mean it has to be that way forever. I’ll remember that next election cycle.

Also, I was lying about the lack of anime part.

Glamour to women: Belly is beautiful

To the ladies, how many times have you picked up a fashion magazine and leafed through only to find yourself feeling inadequate or frustrated at the unrealistic portrayal of the flat-stomached, Photoshopped models?

As a dude, I get my fair share of pressure to work out and look like a rippling mass of muscle or at least become less round. But I have to say, it seems like it sucks more to be a girl. I have plenty of fat-man role models to make me feel like I’ve got some sort of romantic and career-related future ahead. Who do women have? Roseanne? So the lesson is, be fat, land a John Goodman sized husband and be generally disgusting.

Beyond that, there’s really no woman in the media who is somewhere between impossibly thin and balloon-shaped. No girls on MTV with a pouch belly or heavier thighs. You’re either Paris Hilton or Behemoth, Destroyer of Boners.

Well, a picture nestled in the pages of the September issue of Glamour is causing a small commotion:

Okay, guys, legitimate opinions here. Do you agree that this woman is actually really hot? She’s gorgeous. So why do women feel like they have to punish themselves to look like anything other than what they are? Sure, I’ll support your desire to work out to be healthier, fitter and minimize as much fat as is healthy, but as the above model, Lizzi Miller, points out: some people just aren’t meant to be supermodel skinny.

“When I was young I really struggled with my body and how it looked because I didn’t understand why my friends were so effortlessly skinny,” Lizzi told [Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Levie]. “As I got older I realized that everyone’s body is different and not everyone is skinny naturally–me included. I learned to love my body for how it is, every curve of it. I used to be so self-conscious in a bikini because my stomach wasn’t perfectly defined. But everyone has different body shapes. And it’s not all about the physical. If you walk on the beach in your bikini with confidence and you feel sexy, people will see you that way too.”

Note: I removed several exclamation points, because they made her sound dumb.

My gender-roles worldview tells me that if women were less focused on making themselves into one of the Girls Next Door, then they could spend more time challenging institutional misogyny, learning things that make them legitimately interesting, and finding ways to not be bitches (it’s okay, I’m a feminist).

But a healthy dose of Pill skepticism here, does this mean that Glamour is going to revolutionize the image of the perfect-looking woman and start dominating their pages with realistic-proportioned models? Well, let’s check out the cover.

Uh...maybe they usually have 25 fat belly secrets?

Yeah, I’m going to go out on a limb and say no.

So, ladies, you can lose this huge burden of trying to achieve an anorexic figure without the stigma of an eating disorder. The first thing you can do in your new life of self-appreciation?

Stop picking up Glamour. (Cosmo should go without saying).

Humanity is Dumb, Example 340,000,000

Bigger size.

Yeah, but if we did that, then what would happen to our precious coal and nuclear plants? We don’t like change. You keep your extremely efficient and non-toxic form of alternative energy.

That’s all I have today. The week will be busy, but I’ll update as often as I can.

The Big Mac Index

There is no good time to do laundry. I’m not awake enough to do it in the morning. There are better things to do in the afternoon. And once I start it in the evening, I manage to forget it’s there long enough for me to be doing it until 3 in the morning.

New blog mission: Find out how to clean clothes more efficiently.

Source.

So Christopher Johnson has to work twice as long as Barack Obama once would have had to if he wanted to eat a Big Mac.

Good thing he eats cat food.

School tomorrow. And perhaps the return of regular blogging with the first Magnanimous Monday of the school year.

The Story of Mortweet, VT Oxfam Founder

First of all, it’s Invisijet’s birthday. So happy birthday, iJet!

Second of all, in light of that, today’s Magnanimous Monday will be presented in the form of an article I had to write for school. But this is about a legit cause that every Virginia Tech student should pay attention to.

Tweety Bird is trying to save the world.
——

This generation of college students may be the most socially conscious in history.

At Virginia Tech, 5,300 students participated in the Relay for Life campaign to raise over half a million dollars for cancer research. But are Tech students ready to tackle one of the oldest and most persistent problems in the world? One of the students who worked with the Relay for Life committee believes so.

Christopher Mortweet, 20, looks like an average college junior. Majoring in biochemistry, chemistry, and political science with a minor in mathematics, he certainly isn’t taking the average class load.  But beyond that, the Honors student and member of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, is committing himself to an uncommon extracurricular.

Mortweet is trying to end injustice, hunger, and poverty in the world.

“It’s not a hard sell, because most people do care about the world and their fellow human beings.,” he says. “The idea is there, the goal is there, I just need to share it with people.”

In the spring of 2009, Mortweet was on the logistics committee that moved Virginia Tech’s Relay for Life event from an athletic track to the central Drillfield. ““That was a pretty intensive job. A bit of an overwhelming job, honestly,” he admits.

This year, Mortweet will start an Oxfam for America program at Virginia Tech. Oxfam is an international relief and development organization that combats poverty, hunger, and injustice. It has various centers of operation in its home nation of the United Kingdom and is spreading to colleges across the United States.

“What it is is a social movement. It’s an outlet for students who care about the social injustices of the world,” said Mortweet. “It’s a group that knows where they’re headed. They set out major campaigns. They focus on a problem, say hunger. They don’t just throw money at a problem. They come up with a solution.”

Whereas Mortweet had an entire committee already assigned for Relay for Life, he will be building Oxfam at Virginia Tech from the ground up. “With this I could structure it however I liked,” he said. “I could bring in people who I’ve worked with my first two previous years at Tech. When you’re trying to launch something off the ground, it’s better to people you know how to work with.”

The group Mortweet puts together will have to register as a student organization, publicize the group to recruit more student volunteers, and fundraise to finance Oxfam efforts in the parts of the world that need aid.

But, though Tech is becoming known for its generosity, the addition of another major cause may stretch students to their charitable limits. Mortweet admits it can “go both ways” on a progressively active campus.

“If they want to donate their money for Relay for Life, I don’t have an issue with that. What I’m trying to do with Oxfam does’t necessarily need people’s money,” he said. “I ‘d be just as happy with their time. If they’re willing to donate either, I could find a use for it.”

As for the skeptical, Mortweet has a practical approach. “I can show them exactly what Oxfam is doing and how they’re making an interest in the world. That’s the biggest sell for everyone that I’ve talked to,” he said. “If you’re not moved by that, then there’s not really much I can do to convince you. Some people just aren’t interested and that’s fine, that’s their prerogative.”

Mortweet will be recruiting students in the fall of 2010. Anyone interested in joining Oxfam at Virginia Tech can e-mail oxfam@vt.edu.
—–

FAAAAALCON PUNCH!

Foto Friday: Checkin’ out the G8 Assets

Today’s Foto Friday is being updated from Suburbia, as I take a weekend up north to visit friends and family.

Some good news for a change: the G8 have pledged $20 billion to farmers in poor countries. Obama is also pushing for more countries to join the decision-making group like China, India, and Brazil.

Tackling global challenges “in the absence of major powers like China, India and Brazil seems to be wrongheaded,” Obama said, adding that he looked forward to “fewer summit meetings.”

Begun in 1975 with six members, the G8 now groups the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Russia and Canada. The Italians made it a “G14” with emerging powers on the second day, then added 15 more on the third.

That enabled Obama, traveling to Ghana on his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as president, to use the summit to push for a shift toward agricultural investment from food aid. Washington will make $3.5 billion available to the 3-year program.

“There is no reason Africa should not be self-sufficient when it comes to food,” said Obama, recalling that his relatives in Kenya live “in villages where hunger is real,” though they themselves are not going hungry.

Some would look at this rhetoric and balk at the specter of globalization. Personally, I’m all about a world community with common interests, so I’ve been impressed with Obama’s time abroad this month.

Beginning the photo spam with a G8 picture:

My favorite part is Sarkozy in both pictures, particularly him seemingly chuckling at Obama on the right.

Of course, Obama was actually turning to help someone down the steps, but if he were checking her out, can you blame the man?

Sarkozy, on the other hand, is totally a perv.

Want (click for info):

Serious moment, pictures from the ethnic riots in Urumqi, China in which both Uighur and Han Chinese suffered violent attacks. From The Big Picture.

Top 3 Pixadus pictures (I’m not sure if they’ll allow the linking this time, but let’s see):

Finally, being overrun by nuclear monsters would be worth it as long as they actually did this:

Happy Cow Appreciation Day!

Uyghurs & Walmart Supermercados

Things have happened and I had a good Jimmy John’s sandwich. Thus, while tomorrow’s edition of the newspaper is put together, let’s look at the news.

China

I’d never heard of an Uighur before, but apparently they are an ethnic minority in China. And this week, there have been clashes between them and the Han Chinese. From the AP:

Thousands of Chinese troops flooded into this city Wednesday to separate feuding ethnic groups after three days of communal violence left 156 people dead, and a senior Communist Party official vowed to execute those guilty of murder in the rioting in western China.

Long convoys of armored cars and green troop trucks with riot police rumbled through Urumqi, a city of 2.3 million people. Other security forces carrying automatic rifles with bayonets formed cordons to defend Muslim neighborhoods from marauding groups of vigilantes with sticks.

The heightened security came amid the worst spasm of ethnic violence in decades in Xinjiang — a sprawling, oil-rich territory that borders Pakistan, Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries. The region is home to the Uighur ethnic minority, who rioted Sunday and attacked the Han Chinese — the nation’s biggest ethnic group — after holding a protest that was ended by police.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Hmm, I need a very basic definition of the Uighur minority. Go, Wikipedia:

The Uyghur (Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر; Turkish: Uygur; simplified Chinese: 维吾尔; traditional Chinese: 維吾爾; pinyin: Wéiwú’ěr), also spelled Uighur, are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (also known by its controversial name Uyghurstan or East Turkistan) in the People’s Republic of China.

A Uyghur girl in Turpan, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the USA, China voiced its support for the United States of America in the war on terror. The Chinese government has often referred to Uyghur nationalists as “terrorists” and received more global support for their own “war on terror” since 9/11. Human rights organizations have become concerned that this “war on terror” is being used by the Chinese government as a pretext to repress ethnic Uyghurs.^[16] Uyghur exile groups also claim that the Chinese government is suppressing Uyghur culture and religion, and responding to demands for independence with human rights violations.^[17]

Three Uyghur girls at a Sunday market in the oasis city Khotan (Hotan / Hetian), in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.

In traditional Uyghur cities like Kashgar, a vibrant bazaar town on the border of Central Asia, the authorities tore down Uyghur stalls across the central square, where Muslim men once gathered for open-air shaves before heading to the central mosque. The local government replaced them with a bland plaza patrolled by Chinese troops. In another unpopular move, Beijing offered financial incentives for ethnic Chinese migrants to come to the province and set up businesses. Now, ethnic [Han] Chinese dominate nearly all big businesses in the region.^[18]

The Xinjiang territory of China, where Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are concentrated. A 2000 census showed 45% Ugyhurs and 40% Han Chinese.

My only real commentary on the situation is that I don’t see how violence helps one’s situation as an ethnic minority. Who thought that stabbing some Han Chinese would end up in the Chinese government simply letting it happen? I mean, I guess I’ll never understand being at the breaking point, willing to take someone else’s life for my dignity.

But come on, humanity, we’ve got to evolve.

Pakistan

Continued unmanned airstrikes, but less news about any civilian casulaties. Last strike killed 45 militants, apaprently.

ISLAMABAD – Suspected U.S. unmanned aircraft launched two attacks against militants loyal to the head of the Pakistani Taliban on Wednesday, killing at least 45 in the latest in a barrage of strikes against a group also being targeted by the Pakistani military, intelligence officials said.

The army denied signing off on the attacks and insisted they were hurting its campaign against Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud by alienating local tribes it is trying to enlist in the fight.

Suspected American drones have carried out more than 45 attacks in the region since last August. Although most have targeted foreign al-Qaida militants and those accused of violence in Afghanistan, increasingly they are aimed at the Mehsud network.

So when are we going to start calling the war in Afghanistan the Afghanistan-Pakistan war?

Hell, when are we just going to rename the whole effort the Middle East war?
—

In other news, Wal-Mart is attempting to appeal to more Hispanics by opening Supermercado de Walmart, also known as “Gringos Muscling in on a Latino Niche.”

Hola! Bienvenidos a el Gran Diablo de Capitalismo. Denos su dinero ($$$) y recibiras un producto calificado SHITTY por los gringos!

“I feel more comfortable shopping here,” said Elizabeth Hernandez, an admittedly shy 32-year-old Phoenix homemaker who is fluent in Spanish. “I don’t have to know the exact right words to get what I need. It makes me feel more at home.”…

But Wal-Mart is entering an intensely competitive marketplace. Hispanics, frequent grocery shoppers, carry with them an estimated $1 trillion in buying power, and Wal-Mart competitors have already noticed that spending power….

“It’s an evolution of what we’ve been doing,” Wal-Mart spokeswoman Amy Wyatt-Moore said, noting that Wal-Mart already operates about 500 stores in areas with large Hispanic populations.

Yeah, an evolution of what you’ve been doing…undercutting local businesses and whitewashing all individuality out of shopping choices. I’m angry at the Latinos interviewed in the story. “I feel comfortable here,” they say. Is that because you don’t know any fellow Latinos who were probably running Hispanic markets in the heavily Latino populations? Don’t tell me there aren’t any in Phoenix, because there are definitely some in Fairfax, Virginia.

At any rate, anywhere a Supermercado de Walmart goes, locally owned Hispanic stores will be threatened.

In case it isn’t obvious, I’m not fond of Walmart. No matter how they spin their insistence on ruining the small-business goods and services market.

What do you think?

Is it good for Latinos to have Walmart fill their grocery shopping needs?
—–

And I’m out of steam. But, hey, today was better than yesterday.

I feel like this some days.

Quote of the Day

“Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and, instead of bleeding, he sings.” – Ed Gardner