Each week we post links to news about humane education & humane living, and items connected to humane issues, from human rights to environmental preservation, to animal protection, to media, consumerism and culture.Would you like a little oppression with that Fiji water? – Mother Jones (9-10/09)
“Nowhere in Fiji Water's glossy marketing materials will you find reference to the typhoid outbreaks that plague Fijians because of the island's faulty water supplies; the corporate entities that Fiji Water has—despite the owners' talk of financial transparency—set up in tax havens like the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg; or the fact that its signature bottle is made from Chinese plastic in a diesel-fueled plant and hauled thousands of miles to its ecoconscious consumers. And, of course, you won't find mention of the military junta for which Fiji Water is a major source of global recognition and legitimacy.”
“Do teachers need education degrees?” (room for debate segment) – New York Times (8/16/09)
“Should the public schools reduce the weight they give to education school credentials in pay and promotion decisions? Is this happening already, and, if so, what is replacing the traditional system for compensating teachers?”
Indigenous peoples at higher risk for swine flu – New York Times (8/15/09)
“But aboriginal people have much higher rates of complications. In Australia, Aborigines, who are only 2.5 percent of the population, are hospitalized and die from swine flue at five times the overall national rate. In the Canadian province of Manitoba, so many Indian and Inuit victims were hospitalized when swine flu first struck that provincial hospitals ran short of ventilators, which had to be flown in.”
New study indicates world population of 7 billion by 2011 – Treehugger.com (8/14/09)
“…a new study by the Population Reference Bureau shows that by 2011 world population will hit 7 billion people. That's just twelve years after it hit 6 billion, and 24 since it hit 5 billion….In particular, African population is growing most rapidly. The entire continent now has a human population of one billion, with the PRB predicting that in will double by 2050.”
Desire for diamonds, other metals & minerals, fuels violence in the Congo – The Daily Green (8/13/09)
"Since 1998, fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has killed an estimated 5.4 million people and resulted in some of the most horrific sexual violence the world has ever seen. Almost a million internally displaced people are still unable to return safely to their areas of origin. Despite the nine-year presence of the world’s largest United Nations peacekeeping operation, the Mission de l’Organisation des Nations-Unies au Congo — 18,422 personnel in 2008 at an annual cost of $1.2 billion — rebel forces continue to terrorize innocent citizens in this large central African nation, creating a dire humanitarian crisis that rivals the tragedies in Darfur and Myanmar."
New report says students with disabilities experience higher percentage of “corporal punishment” in schools (press release) – ACLU (8/10/09)
“Students with disabilities face corporal punishment in public schools at disproportionately high rates, says a report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch. The physical discipline, which often includes beatings, can worsen these students' medical conditions and undermine their education, says the report, which calls for an immediate moratorium on corporal punishment in U.S. public schools.”
Environmental groups leery about invoking Endangered Species Act to save mountains in Appalachia – New York Times (8/10/09)
“According to the sources, the groups expressed fear that ongoing discussions about endangered species could hurt their cause by helping coal companies frame opponents of mountaintop removal mining as outsiders willing to sacrifice jobs in one of the country's poorest regions in order to protect mayflies and crayfish. The alleged trade-off between economic well-being and environmentalism is already a talking point in the mountaintop removal debate. A bumper sticker currently making rounds in the region reads: ‘Save a Coal Miner, Kill a Tree Hugger.’"
Thanks, Common Dreams, for the heads up.
U.S. upholds culture of misogyny (opinion) - New York Times (8/8/09)
“We have become so accustomed to living in a society saturated with misogyny that the barbaric treatment of women and girls has come to be more or less expected. We profess to being shocked at one or another of these outlandish crimes, but the shock wears off quickly in an environment in which the rape, murder and humiliation of females is not only a staple of the news, but an important cornerstone of the nation’s entertainment.”
Digital resources replacing textbooks? - New York Times (8/8/09)
“Textbooks have not gone the way of the scroll yet, but many educators say that it will not be long before they are replaced by digital versions — or supplanted altogether by lessons assembled from the wealth of free courseware, educational games, videos and projects on the Web.”
“Schools need teachers like me. I just can’t stay” (opinion) - Washington Post (8/7/09)
"Do my lawyer and consultant friends find themselves having to explain why they chose their professions? I doubt it. Everyone seems to know why they do what they do. When people ask me about teaching, however, what they really seem to mean is that it's unfathomable that anyone with real talent would want to stay in the classroom for long. Teaching is an admirable and, well, necessary profession, they say, but it's not for the ambitious. 'It's just so nice,' was the most recent version I heard, from a businesswoman sitting next to me on a plane."
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