Rios Montt on trial

Just in case you get this in time! Efrain Rios Montt, the genocidal dictator of Guatemala in the 1980s, goes on trial tomorrow. From a human rights perspective, this is terribly exciting. Less than 10 years ago, this man tried to run for president. Yet now he is being called to account for his acts of terror, oppression, and genocide.

A friend just gave me this link to a live stream of the trial, which begins tomorrow at 9 am Guatemala time (7 am PST, 10 am EST). The site is in Spanish, and I don’t think there will be any translation services, but if you are an early-rising Spanish speaker I urge you to check it out.

EJ Class

This whole semester, I’ve been taking an Environmental Justice Class at the law school. I ended up forgetting to turn in my paperwork on time – because that’s just how I am, sometimes – so I went from being a cross-enrolled student to being an auditor. Which suits me just fine, frankly, because I don’t need the credits. I still want to take the final, though, as a way to review and consolidate everything, though since I’m not actually enrolled I won’t have access to the final exam website. So earlier today, after the review session, this conversation occurred.

Me: Professor Anderson, um, maybe there’s something wrong with me, but could you maybe send me a copy of the final after everyone’s turned it in so I can do it… for practice?

Professor Anderson: There’s nothing wrong with you, you’re just… very eager. Sure, just remind me.

Me: Also, I’m still going to do the final paper, but I probably won’t start on it until after the break because there’s another paper I want to finish first, and since the due date isn’t a problem, that would be better for me.

Professor Anderson: Okay, that’s where there’s something wrong with you. No – wait – that’s why you’re in academia.

OMG! You can buy this on a t-shirt!

Wednesday video: White Knuckles by OkGo

It’s possible that I’ve posted this video before, and I am the first to admit I do not care if that is the case.
Choreographed. Dogs. Never. Get. Old.

Who do we want to be reaching out to, and why?

Some of the grad students in my department are having a discussion over email of the various Occupy Wall Street/Oakland/San Francisco/the Tundra/everywhere protests. One of the other students wrote:

One suggestion I’ll make (which of course is just a suggestion) is to focus on government corruption and the corrosive power of private money in politics, as opposed to corporate greed or growing economic inequalities.  I’ve been debating the protests with some of my conservative friends over the last week (and reading a lot of related articles) and it seems that any perceived demonization of the rich is an immediate turn-off to conservatives.  In contrast, government corruption is widely despised and is something that many conservative-leaning people will support.  Personally, I think that if this movement is going to cause any real change, the primary message has to be something that will appeal to conservatives also.

I know that this person is coming from a position of genuine commitment to social change. And I respect their willingness to say unpopular things (e.g. let’s reach out to conservatives). But at the same time? I thought about it. Then I had rage. Then I had a response which involved a lot of swearing, and that reflected badly on my commitment to nonviolent communication. It’s important to note that this initial rage-spasm was not directed at this other student, but at the conservatives who are so “turned off” by the idea of raising taxes on the rich. Anyway. I thought some more. I mustered less rage and a more respectful communication style. This was my response:

Photo by newmexico51 on Flickr.

WHY are we supposed to be pandering to conservatives and their fetishization of the rich? They don’t pander to us.

I don’t assume that everyone on this list has the exact same opinions on economic inequality that I do (although wouldn’t that be nice?) but surely we can all agree that one of the major problems in the country right now is the way that decision-makers safeguard the interests of the massively wealthy against the interests of the massively un-wealthy? There is so much good literature on how economic inequality not only deepens and strengthens economic recessions, but also leaves entire generations of people at economic disadvantage.

monday links

The Climate Canary -
Tuvalu, a low-lying Pacific atoll, has declared a state of emergency due to water shortage. Not only had it not rained properly there for six months, but rising saltwater is intruding into their limited underground water storage. The New Zealand Red Cross is flying in water and supplies.

Jobs: Dirty vs. Clean -
David Roberts points out that sure, EPA regulations may cost us jobs. But does the US actually want dangerous , dirty, pollluting jobs which give our children asthma and are heavily subsidized by the federal government? Coal fired power plants do 21 cents of unpaid economic, social, and environmental damage for every kilowatt hour they produce – and these costs are borne by the government, individuals, and future generations, not executives getting rich off of bonus pay. Do we want to make sacrifices to protect these jobs of the past, or would we like to put some of our millions of unemployed people to work in secure, profitable clean tech jobs that help out country move into the future (and compete with China)?

Knowledge is Power -
10 links to resources for Open Learning/OpenCourseWare. These sites are part of a larger movement to get information and education online, and free, to anyone who needs or wants it. These sites all offer not just information, but the opportunity to engage with the material interactively.

Video: The San Francisco Bay Area Regional Climate Change Plan

While researching a project, I came across a video of a presentation on the SF Bay Area Regional Climate Plan. I would very much like to share it with all of you, but unfortunately WordPress won’t let me do that… oh well.

Here’s the link, anyway. In particular, check out section 4, “Vulnerable Communities” – not just because vulnerable communities are what I study, but because of the “conservatively high” sea level rise estimates: 16 inches within the next 50 years and 55 inches within the next 100 years. That’s almost five feet, and these can still be considered conservative estimates. 16 inches of sea level rise will flood 281 square miles of SF Bay shoreline. Scary stuff.

it’s good to go for a walk

I’m on a mini-vacation, to check my head after the frenzy of the beginning of the semester. As every good vacation, mini or otherwise, includes some quality time in green space, my aunt and I spent the day walking to the top of the ridge in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.

Head: checked.

New friend: made.

my friend, the lizard

Ridgeline: conquered.

newslinks 7/19/2011

• NY Times: Does school discipline actually work?
• National Geography Report Card: 2010 report and accompanying statement released. Surprise! Children in the US don’t know much about it. Kate Sheppard pointed out on Twitter that her high school geography class was combined with world history and was taught by a gym coach.
• Aaron Swartz, a hacktivist, has been indicted for downloading millions of articles from JSTOR. Methodological concerns aside (JSTOR? Really? At least go after an evil academic publisher like Elsevier), this is particularly interesting because JSTOR never asked the feds to prosecute and the only alleged criminal activity is a breach of ToS – which may not have actually happened if, as Wired implies, he may have been intending to use the material for academic research.
• Greenpeace has been issued an effective gag order after a protest at the headquarters of Cairn Energy in Scotland. Cairn is engaged in deepwater drilling off the coast of Greenland. Greenpeace is talking about the company’s “secret oil spill plan” but surely the secret is that there is no plan and they just don’t give a crap?

explaining college financial aid to a Belgian

The other night at dinner, I tried to explain to a Belgian housemate of mine how the United States higher education system works. “But isn’t it very very expensive?” she asked, “how can anyone afford to pay for it?”

“Well, there are lots of ways to get funding,” I replied. “Sometimes, if you don’t have enough money they give you money, and sometimes if you have won some sort of academic achievement you get money too.”

“And how much it costs, and how much money you get, depends on which school you attend,” interjected another housemate.

“But how do you get the money?” asked the Belgian. “Where does it come from? Does the government give it to you?”

The interjecting housemate and I exchanged winces. How on earth could we explain the chaos of getting college funding to a European? “It’s …um, it’s… very complicated. Some money comes from the government, and some money comes from your school, and some money comes from private donors, and, um…”

“You know how our health care system is really bizarre and chaotic? Like, there are all of these different ways to get health insurance, and everyone pays a different amount, and it’s hard to really tell what you’re doing, and there are lots of forms to fill out? And the care isn’t really all that great, but rich people always seem to get really good care, and regular people get good enough care, for the most part, and a bunch of poor people don’t really get any care at all, and they have to make the choice between going to the doctor and going bankrupt?”

The Belgian nodded.

“Well, applying for money to go to college is a lot like that.”

“But with less death.”

“Yes, with less death.”

This was really the best way we could think of to describe it. I don’t think the Belgian was very impressed.

wow this koolaid tastes great, why do I feel so funny?

If working against your own interest was an Olympic sport, the American middle class would be a formidable medal contender, right behind all the North Koreans who voluntarily participate in the mass games.

Let’s start with the popularity of the tax benefit that allows people to deduct mortgage interest from their tax bill.

Only 40% of people in the 50k - 75k income bracket claimed the tax break.

Only 20% of tax filers report an income of $75,000 or more – clearly not the middle class. If you’re in the top quintile, you’re officially wealthy. Fortunately for you, you are not only more likely to claim the mortgage interest deduction, your economic group will receive 60% of the money from it.