EFTA01202731.pdf

From: Gregory Brown To: undisclosed-recipients:; Bce: [email protected] Subject: Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.... 03/30/2014 Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 09:43:45 +0000 Attachments: Dick_Gregory_bio.docx; 7_Healthy_Foods_that_Tumed_Out_to_Be_Unhealthy_My_Healthy_Diet_March_10„2014 .docx; ,_2014.docx; Amencan_Schools_Are_STILL_Racist„Govemment_Report_Fmds_Joy_Resmovits_Huff _Post_March_21„2014.docx; Vladimir_Putin,Russian_Neocon_PETER_BEINART_The_Atlantic_March_24,_2014.doc x; Confronting_Putin's_Russia_Michael_McFaul_NYT_March_23„2014.docx; Exercising_for_Healthier_Eyes_GRETCHEN_REYNOLDS_NYT_March_26„2014.docx; SLAVERY_-_Wikipedian March_30„2014.docx; Obama's_not-another-cold- war_vision„don't hate_the_players_- _play_the_gamefifichael_Cohen_The_Guardian_Mar_27„2014.docx; WAR_bio.docx Inline-Images: image.png; image(1).png; image(2).png; image(3).png; image(4).png; image(5).png; image(6).png; image(7).png; image(8).png; image(9).png; image(10).png; image(11).png; image(12).png DEAR FRIEND DICK GREGORY... ACTIVIST, SOCIAL CRITIC, SOCIAL SATIRIST, PHILOSOPHER, ANTI-DRUG CRUSADER, COMEDIAN, AUTHOR, ACTOR RECORDING ARTIST, NUTRITIONIST and ENTREPRENEUR. One of my favorite series on cable television is UNSUNG on Channel TVi and last week's show profiled the iconic, Richard Claxton "Dick" Gregory (Born, October 12, 1932, St. Louis, Mo.), African American comedian and civil rights activist whose social satire changed the way that both black and white Americans perceived African American comedians since he first performed in public. When I was growing up there was a saying "if you can't walk the walk, don't talk to talk." Not only has and still is talking the talk, Dick Gregory is walking the walk and his life is the one of the best examples of someone who has made a difference in tens if not hundreds of millions of people lives, many of whom have never met or even heard of him. With this said, I introduce (and for those who are already fans) re-introduce you to Mr. Dick Gregory. EFTA01202731  Dick Gregory: Race, Comedy, and Justice - Web Link: http://youtu.be/aD9wJoEfHvE Dick Gregory entered the national comedy scene in 1961 when Chicago's Playboy Club (as a direct request from publisher Hugh Hefner) booked him as a replacement for white comedian, "Professor" Irwin Corey . Until then Gregory had worked mostly at small clubs with predominantly black audiences (he met his wife, Lillian Smith, at one such club). Such clubs paid comedians an average of five dollars per night; thus Gregory also held a day job as a postal employee. His tenure as a replacement for Corey was so successful — at one performance he won over an audience that included southern white convention goers — that the Playboy Club offered him a contract extension from several weeks to three years. By 1962 Gregory had become a nationally known headline performer, selling out nightclubs, making numerous national television appearances, and recording popular comedy albums. It's important to note that no biography of Gregory would be complete without mentioning that he and his beloved wife of 54 years, Lil, had ten kids who have become highly respected members of the national community in a variety of fields. They are: Michele, Lynne, Pamela, Paula, Stephanie (aka Xenobia), Gregory, Christian, Miss, Ayanna, Yohance and the Gregory's had one child who died at birth. Gregory began performing comedy in the mid-195os while serving in the army. Drafted in 1954 while attending Southern Illinois University at Carbondale on a track scholarship, Gregory briefly returned to the university after his discharge in 1956, but left without a degree because he felt that the university "didn't want me to study, they wanted me to run." In the hopes of performing comedy professionally, he moved to Chicago, where he became part of a new generation of black comedians that included Nipsey Russell, Bill Cosby, and Godfrey Cambridge. These comedians broke with the minstrel tradition, which presented stereotypical black characters. Gregory, whose style was detached, ironic, and satirical, came to be called the "Black Mort Sahl" after the popular white social satirist. Friends of Gregory have always referred to Mort Sahl as the "White Dick Gregory." Gregory drew on current events, especially the racial issues, for much of his material: "Segregation is not all bad. Have you ever heard of a collision where the people in the back of the bus got hurt?" From an early age, Gregory demonstrated a strong sense of social justice. While a student at Sumner High School in St. Louis he led a March protesting segregated schools. Later, inspired by the work of leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Gregory took part in the Civil Rights Movement and used his celebrity status to draw attention to such issues as segregation and disfranchisement. When local Mississippi governments stopped distributing Federal food surpluses to poor blacks in areas where SNCC was encouraging voter registration, Gregory chartered a plane to bring in several tons of food. He participated in SNCC's voter registration drives and in sit-ins to protest segregation, most notably at a restaurant franchise in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Only later did Gregory disclose that he held stock in the chain. Gregory's autobiography, Nigger, was published in 1963 prior to The assassination of President Kennedy, and became the number one best-selling book in America. Over the decades it has sold in excess of seven million copies. His choice for the title was explained in the forward, where Dick Gregory wrote a note to his mother. "Whenever you hear the word 'Nigger'," he said, "you'll know their advertising my book." Through the 1960s, Gregory spent more time on social issues and less time on performing. He participated in marches and parades to support a range of causes, including opposition to the Vietnam War, world hunger, and drug abuse. In addition, Gregory fasted in protest more than EFTA01202732 60 times, once in Iran, where he fasted and prayed in an effort to urge the Ayatollah Khomeini to release American embassy staff who had been taken hostage. The Iranian refusal to release the hostages did not decrease the depth of Gregory's commitment; he weighed only 97 lbs when he left Iran. Gregory demonstrated his commitment to confronting the entrenched political powers by opposing Richard J. Daley in Chicago's 1966 mayoral election. He ran for president in 1968 as a write-in candidate for the Freedom and Peace Party, a splinter group of the Peace and Freedom Party and received 1.5 million votes. Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey lost the election to Republican Richard Nixon by 510,000 votes, and many believe Humphrey would have won had Gregory not run. After the assassinations of King, President John F. Kennedy, and Robert Kennedy, Gregory became increasingly convinced of the existence of political conspiracies. Gregory wrote books such as Code Name Zorro: The Murder of Martin Luther King Jr. (1971) with Mark Lane, world famous author, attorney and documentary filmmaker, whose findings published in the best-selling 1966 book Rush To Judgment Gregory credited with reversing the nation's opinion on who assassinated the president and the facts which contradicted the official government version contained in the Warren Report. Lane's book contained answers and facts, which Gregory has espoused in Numerous lectures from then until now. Lane and Gregory have been best friends, co-authors and have lectured together for over 4o years and both live in Washington Gregory and Lane's book on the assassination of Dr. King was recently released under another title, Murder In Memphis, as a trade paperback. Gregory's activism continued into the 199os. In response to published allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had supplied cocaine to predominantly African American areas in Los Angeles, thus spurring the crack epidemic, Gregory protested at CIA headquarters and was arrested. In 1992 he began a program called ?Campaignfor Human Dignity? to fight crime in St. Louis neighborhoods. In 1973, the year he released his comedy album Caught in the Act, Gregory moved with his family to Plymouth, Massachusetts, where he developed an interest in vegetarianism and became a nutritional consultant. In 1984 he founded Health Enterprises, Inc., a company that distributed weight loss products. In 1987 Gregory introduced the Slim-Safe Bahamian Diet, a powdered diet mix, which was immensely profitable. Economic losses caused in part by conflicts with his business partners led to his eviction from his home in 1992. Gregory remained active, however, and in 1996 returned to the stage in his critically acclaimed one-man show, Dick Gregory Live! The reviews of Gregory's show compared him to the greatest stand-ups in the history of Broadway. In 1998 Gregory spoke at the celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Clinton were in attendance. Not long after that, the President told Gregory's long-time friend and PR. Consultant, Steve Jaffe, "I love Dick Gregory, he is one of the funniest people on the planet." They spoke of how Gregory had made a comment on Dr. King's birthday that broke everyone into laughter, when he noted that the President made Speaker Newt Gingrich ride "in the back of the plane," on an Air Force One trip overseas. In 2001, Gregory announced to the world that he had been diagnosed with a rare form of Cancer. He refused traditional medical treatment — chemotherapy —and with the assistance of some of the finest minds in alternative medicine, put together a regimen of a variety of diet, vitamins, exercise, and modern devices not even known to the public, which ultimately resulted in his reversing the trend of the Cancer to the point where today he is r00% Cancer free. EFTA01202733 Gregory's going public with his diagnosis has helped millions of his fans around the world to understand what Cancer specialists have been trying to explain for decades, which is that "Cancer is curable." Gregory was honored recently at the Kennedy Center in Washington by a sold out house and a tribute hosted by Bill Cosby, with special tributes by Mrs. Martin Luther King Jr., Stevie Wonder, Isaac Hayes, Cicely Tyson, Mark Lane, Marion Barry and many more. His most recent book, Callus On My Soul, (Longstreet Press, Atlanta, Ga.) which became a best-seller within weeks of publication, is an autobiography that updates his earlier autobiography (Nigger), because as Dick says, "I've lived long enough to need two autobiographies which is fine with me. I'm looking forward to writing the third and fourth volumes as well." In 2001, Gre:co r escaped death once again when a massive tree fell on his car in a storm in Washington M. crushing it completely, causing him to have to be extricated from the car by emergency crews. One witness said, "I knew the driver and his passengers had died when I saw the treefall." Gregory said, "I knew that God had more workfor me to do when I saw the treefalling." He saved his own life by driving into the oncoming lanes of traffic. The word of the accident circulated the globe immediately in the media, underscoring the power, influence, and support that Gregory has earned from people of all nations. Doctor's at George Washington Hospital refused to release Gregory for a few days causing his first-ever "State of the Union Address" to African Americans to be delayed by a month. Gregory gave the first "State of The Union" address live on the Internet from Los Angeles on April 21st. Now the Internet address is the latest offering on a 3 CD set. Dick Gregory list Century "State Of The Union." The Crime of 2010 Paul Krugman: March 23, 2014 The most important paper at the Brookings Panel was probably Krueger et al on the long-term unemployed, which basically confirmed what we're learning from a number of sources: it's really hard to get employers to look at people who have been out of work for an extended period, so any sustained increase in long-term unemployment tends to become permanent. The best way to avoid this outcome, then, is to avoid prolonged periods of high unemployment. So let me make the obvious point, just in case anyone missed it: the "pivot" of 2010 - when all the Very Serious People decided that the danger from debt trumped any and all concern for job creation — was an utter disaster, economic and human. It was even a disaster in fiscal terms, because a permanently depressed economy will cost far more in revenue than was saved by slashing the deficit by a few percent of GDP in the short term. Now, you might think that this post should be titled The Mistake of 2010 - but that would only be appropriate if it were truly an honest error. It wasn't. Some of the austerians were self-consciously exploiting deficit panic to promote a conservative agenda; some were slipping into deficit-scolding rather than dealing with our actual problems because it felt comfortable; some were just going along for the ride, saying what everyone else was saying. Hardly anyone in the deficit-scold camp engaged in hard thinking and careful assessment of the evidence. And millions of people will still be paying the price for that casual irresponsibility for many years to come. EFTA01202734 The public has a short memory and the 24/7 continuous news cycle assault continues to make it shorter. People forget that when Barrack Obama defeated Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Primary and John McCain in the general Presidential election in 2008, the central issue of the time was the disastrous ill-conceived Iraq War. Clinton and McCain were on the hawkish side and Obama was on the dovish side. And recent remarks by both Clinton and McCain shows that little has changed, as both are talking tough on Putin, skeptical on attaining a peace deal with Iran with both advocating ratcheting up a hawkish agenda with the country's foreign policy, especially in the Middle East and recently in Ukraine and Crimea. But the fact remains that what American people want from our future leaders is not a drift back to the old battle stations of toughness and weariness and skepticism. What they want is hope that the new political leadership can steer us from the old standoffs. Find ways to solve serious issues, even with countries who can be "difficult"(as if we are not), like Russia. The facts of the future remain obvious and compelling. We need to avoid military confrontation with Russia should be our most important priority. Number One: Avoiding a military conflict with the Russian people from 1947 to 1991 was the key to keeping us from catastrophe during the long tricky years of the Cold War, especially when hawks on both sides believed that a war was winnable. We need people at least as brainy to get us through the years ahead with Russia. Number Two: We need to avoid stirring up a new generational fight with Iran. Talking about everything being on the table is code for bullying "I will kill you" and a thinly disguised threat. (Reminiscent of Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe on a table at the UN on October 13, 1960.) Especially when "leaving all things on the table" is used in regard to the failed negotiations to put off a nuclear weapons program there, is not necessarily as dangerous of a threat, but it is definitely not as good as leaning IN, to find a better way to make negotiations work. Remember the stick always works better when there is also a carrot. We don't need more war talk. We need smarter peace talk and that's what the American people want, as they are telling every politician who will listen, "we had enough of wars." I don't see this today in what Hillary Clinton is saying and definitely not with any Republicans with the exception of Rand Paul who comes with his one other set of problems. But Americans have to wake up that every conflict is not our problem, especially when there is no genocide involved. The Ukrainian government was corrupt long before Viktor Yanhovych took over as President and now that he is gone, most likely little will change. We only have back. Since Hamid Karazi was elected President of Afghanistan a decade ago, sinking hundreds of billions of U.S. taxpayer's dollars in support of his corrupt regime, the truth is that the moment we stop giving him money, he and the little click around him will immediately turn on us and make amends with the Taliban. Our latest bogyman, (although well-deserved), is Vladimir Putin. But let's remember it was America and the EU who used the carrot of money and the possible entry into the EU and NATO that ignited the current situation in Ukraine and Crimea. Imagine if Russia had made similar overtures to Alaska and they voted to secede. We would definitely be sending American troops to Alaska. EFTA01202735 Gunboat diplomacy hasn't work. And a nuclear Iran is no more dangerous than a nuclear Pakistan, whose people hate us and government is as shaky as Mexico's tap water is safe. The old methods of diplomacy based on U.S. dominance are over. We need leadership with new ideas. We need leadership that is measured. We need leadership that isn't insecure. Most of all, what we don't need is the knee-jerk diplomacy of John McCain, Dick Cheney, Lindsey Graham, Rudy Giuliani, Ted Cruz and lately Hillary Clinton — people who are willing to move without understanding the consequences. And no better example of this is the current situation in the Ukraine and Crimea. ****** This week Michael Mcfaul the former US ambassador to Russia from December 2011 to February this year wrote an insightful op-ed in the New York Times - Confronting Putin's Russia. In the article he suggests that Western powers not truly understanding that they didn't win the Cold War and that Russia would benignly and gradually join the international order on their terms. And yes, many people in the former Soviet Republics and Russia embraced the new found freedoms, but once the honeymoon was over the enormous ideological and free market challenges that led to widespread insecurity and inequity both ideologically and economically, as well as the economic depression and imperial loss generated a counterrevolutionary backlash — a yearning for the old order and a resentment of the terms of the Cold War's end. Proponents of this perspective were not always in the majority. And the coming to power of an advocate of this ideology — Mr. Putin — was not inevitable. Even Mr. Putin's own thinking changed over time, waffling between nostalgia for the old rule and realistic acceptance of Russia's need to move forward. And when he selected the liberal, Western- leaning Dmitri A. Medvedev as his successor in 2008, Russia's internal transformation picked up the pace. Though Russia's invasion of Georgia in 2008 isolated Russia for a time, its integration into the existing international order eventually regained momentum. In 2009 President Medvedev began cooperating with President Obama on issues of mutual benefit — a new Start treaty, new sanctions against Iran, new supply routes through Russia to our soldiers in Afghanistan and Russian membership in the World Trade Organization. These results of the "reset" advanced several American vital national interests. The American post-Cold War policy of engagement and integration, practiced by Democratic and Republican administrations alike, appeared to be working again. When Mr. Putin became president again in 2012, this momentum slowed, and then stopped. He returned at a time when tens of thousands of Russians were protesting against falsified elections and more generally against unaccountable government. If most Russians praised Mr. Putin in his first two terms, from 2000Y0 2008, for restoring the state and growing the economy, some (not all) wanted more from him in his third term, and he did not have a clear response. McFaul says that Mr. Putin was also especially angry at the young, educated and wealthy protesters in Moscow who did not appreciate that he (in his view) had made them rich. So he pivoted backward, instituting restrictions on independent behavior reminiscent of Soviet days. He attacked independent media, arrested demonstrators and demanded that the wealthy bring their riches home. In addition to more autocracy, Mr. Putin needed an enemy — the United States — to strengthen his legitimacy. His propagandists rolled out clips on American imperialism, immoral practices and alleged plans to overthrow the Putin government. Anti-Americanism uttered by Russian leaders and echoed on state- controlled television has reached a fanatical pitch with Mr. Putin's annexation of Crimea. He has made dear that he embraces confrontation with the West, no longer feels constrained by international laws and norms, and is unafraid to wield Russian power to revise the international order. EFTA01202736 McFaul again: Mr. Putin has made a strategic pivot. Guided by the right lessons from our past conflict with Moscow, the United States must, too, through a policy of selective containment and engagement. The parallels with the ideologically rooted conflicts of the last century are striking. A revisionist autocratic leader instigated this new confrontation. We did not. Nor did "Russia"start this new era. Mr. Putin did. It is no coincidence that he vastly weakened Russia's democratic institutions over the last two years before invading Crimea, and has subsequently moved to close down independent media outlets during his Ukrainian land grab. Also, similar to the last century, the ideological struggle between autocracy and democracy has returned to Europe. Because democratic institutions never fully took root in Russia, this battle never fully disappeared. But now, democratic societies need to recognize Mr. Putin's rule for what it is — autocracy — and embrace the intellectual and normative struggle against this system with the same vigor we summoned during previous struggles in Europe against anti-democratic governments. And, as before, the Kremlin has both the intention and capacity to undermine governments and states, using instruments like the military, money, media, the secret police and energy. McFaul's advice: These similarities recommend certain policy steps. Most important, Ukraine must succeed as a democracy, a market economy and a state. High on its reform list must be energy efficiency and diversification, as well as military and corruption reforms. Other exposed states in the region, like Moldova and Georgia, also need urgent bolstering. Also, as during the 2Oth century, those states firmly on our side must be assured and protected. NATO has moved quickly already, but these efforts must be sustained through greater placement of military hardware in the front-line states, more training and integration of forces, and new efforts to reduce NATO countries' dependence on Russian energy. And, as before, the current regime must be isolated. The strategy of seeking to change Kremlin behavior through engagement, integration and rhetoric is over for now. No more membership in the Group of 8, accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development or missile defense talks. Instead there must be sanctions, including against those people and entities — propagandists, state-owned enterprises, Kremlin-tied bankers — that act as instruments of Mr. Putin's coercive power. Conversely, individuals and companies not connected to the government must be supported, including those seeking to take assets out of Russia or emigrate. Finally, as during World War II and the Cold War, the United States and our allies can cooperate with Mr. Putin when our vital interests overlap. But this engagement must be understood as strictly transactional, and not as a means to pull Russia back into accepting international norms and values. That's how he will see this engagement. So should we. I take issue with McFaul's advice. The West and especially America's neocons keep reminding the world that They Won The Cold War. Imagine how that plays to Putin's fragile ego and his need to control guys who are possibly more hawkish than he. A man who takes pictures of himself riding horses in the winter. More importantly, I am sure that the hawks in his country are nostalgically urging Putin to take a hardline with the West, America and liberals in Russia and elsewhere in the former Soviet Republics. Westerners should realize that there is actually a perception among the old hardliners in Russia, that it has been the victim of the breakup of the Soviet Union and that they have suffered enormous humiliation at the hands of the West and that they have not been allowed to maintain its sphere of influence. The have seen the EU and NATO expansion into Lithuania and Poland. They have seen US military bases opening in Kyrgyzstan. So you can see that with Ukraine they might feel that this is somehow crossing the line and it had to be stopped. Remember Putin described "Kiev as the mother of Russian cities."And many Russians view Ukraine as an extension of Russia. Hence, I am sure that Putin sees Ukraine as one of Russia's vital interest, in spite of isolation EFTA01202737 and economic costs. This isn't just a simple case of Putin making a land grab. Remember in the days before the Tsars, Kiev was the capital of Russia. We have to understand that part of Putin's intentions is to restore some of Russia's pride, and I am not suggesting that he wants to go back to the old Soviet Empire, but he believes that Russia should be an equal to the United States, EU and China, and if he is helping the West in Syria and Iran, they should not poach former Soviet satellite countries, especially those who have a historical significance in the motherland such as Ukraine and Crimea. And as such, he is not as sensitive to sanctions, especially when his approval ratings in Russia have soared as a result of the stand that he has taken in the Ukraine and Crimea. As former Speaker of the U.S. House Tip O'Neill famously said, "all politics are local." There is a lot of nostalgia for the Soviet Union. Obviously many of these people are looking at this past with rose tinted glasses. But we have to realize that when Russians read neocon comments (as information is everywhere) disparaging their country, they are tired of the humiliation. As such many Russians are quite grateful to Putin for reinstating some national pride. If we don't want to ignite a new Cold War, we have to stop disparaging Russia and treating it as a second-class international citizen. I know that some of you will see this as ridiculous. But we have to make our foreign policies as win-win, and not just "my way or the highway," as the days of gunboat diplomacy are over, because international cooperation requires consensus and cannot be instituted top-down. ****** As you have probably experienced or observed, around the world people are experiencing extreme weather events. Hurricanes, tornados, super storms and prolong droughts are not only becoming increasingly commonplace but tragically increasingly destructive. However probably the biggest threat that humanity faces today as the earth continues to warm is sea level rise. In the last three years Greenland has experienced its highest temperatures in recorded history causing a full surface melt of EFTA01202738 its ice sheets in our modern era. And these two events has so much potential impact on the world's oceans that many scientists have become seriously concerned. Greenland is the world's largest island, extending more than 1,200 miles from its southern to northernmost points. Greenland is melting and its glaciers are in freefall. Every year Greenland is losing 140 billion tons of ice. This net ice loss is now responsible for a significant amount of our current global see level rise with some of the fastest and most alarming amounts are occurring on the country's western coast where many glaciers meet the warmer ocean waters causing massive icebergs to break off in a process known as caving. In the past ten years five miles in from the coastline, ice sheets of several hundred feet are gone. The glacier retreat is a loss of ice equivalent to supplying the city of Los Angeles with enough fresh water for 2000 years. The largest glacial calving ever recorded 2013 - Web Link: v=zA6KCs O73_ The ice sheet which in many places miles and miles thick covers 8o% of Greenland which is three times the size of the state of Texas in the US, to give you an idea how much water is contained. In some places the ice sheet in Greenland is melting at a rate of 30 feet a year. Contrary to what many people think, much of the ice sheets is not pristine white, but instead sort of a dirty gray, due to pollution and airborne soot and this dirty or dark ice accelerates melt as its color absorbs the heat rather than reflects it, at a rate of three times compared to white ice. As Greenland has warmed by an average of about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1980s, the average ice-sheet-wide mass loss increased from about 172.4 gigatons per year from April 2003 through 2006, to 359.8 gigatons per year from April 2009 through 2012. One of the consequences of rising global temperatures is that not only are the natural fire seasons much longer but also much dryer, creating more soot that is being deposited on top of the ice making it grayer and accelerating its melt. Another contributor is the massive amount of industrial pollution that is carried to Greenland by air currents. And when these toxic particles land they in essence drill down into the ice further accelerating its melt. One study, by an international group of researchers from Denmark, the Netherlands, the U.S. and China, found that regional warming has likely caused three outlet glaciers bordering Fram Strait and the Nordic Sea in far northeast Greenland has receded 12.4 miles in just the past to years. Just to be clear how serious this current phenomena of Greenland's accelerated ice melt, if all of the ice currently covering Greenland were to melt, the world's oceans would rise on average 21 feet and this is not being speculated by scientists as a distinct possibility and if this were to happen 8o of the world's too biggest cities would be under water — including Boston, New York, Washington, •., Miami, New Orleans , Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as Shanghai, Calcutta, London, Osaka and Sidney. It is difficult to understand the scale of the melt, as ice cliffs which are hundreds and hundreds feet high are continually caving into the sea. Mountains of ice are falling into the sea on a daily basis, and a recent study says that we are 6o years ahead of the worst case scenario and should this rate hold true fifty years from now mankind would be in a catastrophic situation. Scientists are saying that the trajectory that we are currently on is toward climate catastrophe, as there does reach a point where the melt becomes unmanageable. EFTA01202739 Now understand we have just talked about Greenland. In addition to the sea lever rise cause by melt on Greenland, we have sea level rise from glaciers around the world as well as from our polar ice caps. To slow down the current rate of sea level rise we need to stabilize glaciers and Greenland and stop adding so much heat. Scientists say that we need to cut our emissions of carbon dioxide by more than 8o%. And if we don't scientists are saying that sea level rise will accelerate to more than five to seven feet by the end of the century. And today, our emissions are going up and not down. Scientist are saying that this accelerated global warming, glacier melt and sea level rise is manmade and even if we were able to totally cut all carbon emissions, sea level rise would still continue but at a much slower pace. And that would be the hope. : - • ,4 t u t u 4r frik • _ 44‘16 4. We think of slavery as a practice of the past, an image from Roman colonies or 18th-century American plantations, but the practice of enslaving human beings as property still exists. There are 29.8 million people living as slaves right now, according to a comprehensive new report issued by the Australia- based Walk Free Foundation. This is not some softened, by-modern-standards definition of slavery. These 3o million people are living as forced laborers, forced prostitutes, child soldiers, child brides in forced marriages and, in all ways that matter, as pieces of property, chattel in the servitude of absolute ownership. Walk Free investigated 162 countries and found slaves in every single one. But the practice is far worse in some countries than others. The country where you are most likely to be enslaved is Mauritania. Although this vast West African nation has tried three times to outlaw slavery within its borders, it remains so common that it is nearly normal. The report estimates that four percent of Mauritania is enslaved — one out of every 25 people. (The aid group SOS Slavery, using a broader definition of slavery, estimated several years ago that as many as 20 percent of Mauritanians might be enslaved.) And in Pakistan, it is said that there are millions and millions of people living in slavery or some sort of economic bondage in 2014, and this is after the Pakistani government formally band slavery in 1992, as many Pakistanis see nothing wrong with keeping slaves. Wikipedia describes slavery as a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation. EFTA01202740  Historically, slavery was institutionally recognized by most societies; in more recent times, slavery has been outlawed in all countries, but it continues through the practices of debt bondage, indentured servitude, serfdom, domestic servants kept in captivity, certain adoptions in which children are forced to work as slaves, child soldiers, and forced marriage. Slavery is officially illegal in all countries, but there are still an estimated 20 million to 3o million slaves worldwide. Mauritania was the last jurisdiction to officially outlaw slavery (in 1981/2007), but about io% to 2o% of its population is estimated to live in slavery. 2,Bricks-Nepaljpg A slave in Kathmandu, Nepal, stacks 18 bricks at a time, each weighing four pounds, carrying them to nearby trucks for 18 hours a day Slavery predates written records and has existed in many cultures. Most slaves today are debt slaves, largely in South Asia, who are under debt bondage incurred by lenders, sometimes even for generations. Human trafficking is primarily used for forcing women and children into sex industries. Chattel slavery Chattel slavery, also called traditional slavery, is so named because people are treated as the personal property (chattel) of an owner and are bought and sold as if they were commodities. It is the original form of slavery and the least prevalent form of slavery today. Bonded labor Debt bondage or bonded labor occurs when a person pledges himself or herself against a loan. The services required to repay the debt, and their duration, may be undefined. Debt bondage can be passed on from generation to generation, with children required to pay off their parents' debt. It is the most widespread form of slavery today. Debt bondage is most prevalent in South Asia. Forced labor Forced labor occurs when an individual is forced to work against his or her will, under threat of violence or other punishment, with restrictions on their freedom. Human trafficking is primarily for prostituting women and children and is the fastest growing form of forced labor, with Thailand, Cambodia, India, Brazil and Mexico have been identified as leading hotspots of commercial sexual exploitation of children. The term Yorced labor' is also used to describe all types of slavery and may also include institutions not commonly classified as slavery, such as serfdom, conscription and penal labor. Forced marriage A forced marriage is a marriage in which one or both of the parties is married against their will. In many places, the line between forced marriage and consensual marriage becomes blurred, because the social norms of many cultures dictate that one should never oppose the desire of ones parents/relatives in regard to the choice of a spouse; in such cultures it is not necessary for violence, threats, intimidation etc. to occur, the person simply "consents" to the marriage even if he/she does not want it, out of the implied social pressure and duty. The customs of bride price and dowry that exist in many parts of the world, can lead to buying and selling people into marriage. Forced marriage EFTA01202741 is still practiced in parts of the world such South Asia, East Asia and Africa. Forced marriages also occur in immigrant communities in Europe, United States, Canada and Australia. Marriage by abduction occurs in many place in the world today, with a national average of 69% of marriages in Ethiopia being through abduction. A sham marriage is a marriage of convenience entered into with the intent of obtaining various social or legal advantages (often tied to immigration status). While many of these marriages occur with the consent of both parties, in the European Union there exists a trafficking industry which supplies brides (often from former Communist countries which are EU members—especially the Baltic States) to foreign students or workers in EU countries (often from the Asian continent) so that these men can remain in the EU. Early and forced marriage are defined as forms of modern-day slavery by the International Labor Organization. The countries with the highest rates of child marriage are: Niger (75%), Central African Republic and Chad (68%), and Bangladesh (66%). Three trends have contributed most to the rise of modern-slavery. • The first, a recent population explosion has tripled the number of people in the world, with most growth taking place in the developing world. • The second, rapid social and economic change, have displaced many to urban centers and their outskirts, where people have no `safety net' and no job security. • The third, government corruption around the world, allows slavery to go unpunished, even though it is illegal everywhere. In this way millions have become vulnerable to slave holders and human traffickers looking to profit through the theft of people's lives. This new slavery has two prime characteristics: slaves today are cheap and they are disposable. An average slave in the American South in i85o cost the equivalent of $40,000 in today's money; today a slave costs an average of $90. In 1850 it was difficult to capture a slave and then transport them to the US. Today, millions of economically and socially vulnerable people around the world are potential slaves. This "supply" makes slaves today cheaper than they have ever been. Since they are so cheap, slaves are today are not considered a major investment worth maintaining. If slaves get sick, are injured, outlive their usefulness, or become troublesome to the slaveholder, they are dumped or killed. For most slave holders, actually legally 'owning' the slave is an inconvenience since they already exert total control over the individual's labor and profits. Who needs a legal document that could at some point be used against the slave holder? Today the slave holder cares more about these high profits than whether the holder and slave are of different ethnic backgrounds; in New Slavery, profit trumps skin color. Finally, new slavery is directly connected to the global economy. As in the past, most slaves are forced to work in agriculture, mining, and prostitution. From these sectors, their exploited labor flows into the global economy, and into our lives. EFTA01202742  P " "tear 1 2% Yfr Percentage of the population that is enslaved Max Franto/Wailincion Posl • 0.05 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.5 0.75 The map above shows almost every country in the world colored according to the share of its population that is enslaved. The rate of slavery is also alarmingly high in Haiti, in Pakistan and in India, the world's second-most populous country. In all three, more than 1 percent of the population is estimated to live in slavery. A few trends are immediately clear from the map up top. First, rich, developed countries tend to have by far the lowest rates of slavery. The report says that effective government policies, rule of law, political stability and development levels all make slavery less likely. The vulnerable are less vulnerable, those who would exploit them face higher penalties and greater risk of getting caught. A war, natural disaster or state collapse is less likely to force helpless children or adults into bondage. Another crucial factor in preventing slavery is discrimination. When society treats women, ethnic groups or religious minorities as less valuable or less worthy of protection, they are more likely to become slaves. Then there are the worst-affected regions. Sub-Saharan Africa is a swath of red, with many countries having roughly 0.7 percent of the population enslaved -- or one in every 140 people. The legacies of the transatlantic slave trade and European colonialism are still playing out in the region; ethnic divisions and systems of economic exploitation engineered there during the colonial era are still, to some extent, in place. Slavery is also driven by extreme poverty, high levels of corruption and toleration of child "marriages" of young girls to adult men who pay their parents a "dowry." Two other bright red regions are Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. Both are blighted particularly by sex trafficking, a practice that bears little resemblance to popular Western conceptions of prostitution. Women and men are coerced into participating, often starting at a very young age, and are completely reliant on their traffickers for not just their daily survival but basic life choices; they have no say in where they go or what they do and are physically prevented from leaving. International sex traffickers have long targeted these two regions, whose women and men are prized for their skin tones and appearance by Western patrons. Here, to give you a different perspective of slavery's scope, is a map of the world showing the number of slaves living in each country: EFTA01202743  Thousands of people who are slaves Max I eshyr/WeeahMO° Poet 5 15 30 50 100 500 Yes, this map can be a little misleading. The United States, per capita, has a very low rate of slavery: just 0.02 percent, or one in every 5,000 people. But that adds up to a lot: an estimated 60,00o slaves, right here in America. Furthermore, many of the founding fathers of the United States and twelve of our presidents owned slaves and eight of them owned slaves while serving as president: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James Polk, Zachary Taylor, Andrew Jackson and Ulysses S. Grant. Former president Jimmy Carter says in a new interview that the United States is the one of the world's worst offenders when it comes to modem-day slavery, saying its slave trade is worse today than it was even in the moos. "The United States is one of the most culpable countries in ... modern slavery," Carter said in an interview on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports. "The slave trade now greatly exceeds anything that happened in the 19th and 113th centuries." The United States banned the importation of slaves starting in 18°8, but slavery itself persisted for another half-century. Carter said that, of the 29 million people living in bondage, 6o,000 of them are in the United States. The former president said 200 young girls are sold into slavery every month in the city of Atlanta alone. Carter interview Web Link: http://daily/sjwijp You don't have to go far to see slavery in America. In Washington, M., New York in and in other major cities you can sometimes spot them on certain streets, late at night. Not all sex workers or "prostitutes" are slaves, of course; plenty have chosen the work voluntarily and can leave it freely. But, as the 2007 documentary "Very Young Girls" demonstrated, many are coerced into participating at a young age and gradually shifted into a life that very much resembles slavery. A less visible but still prevalent form of slavery in America involves illegal migrant laborers who are lured with the promise of work and then manipulated into forced servitude, living without wages or freedom of movement, under constant threat of being turned over to the police should they let up in their work Walk Free cites "a highly developed criminal economy that preys on economic migrants, trafficking and enslaving them." That economy stretches from the migrants' home countries right to the United States. EFTA01202744 The country that is most marked by slavery, though, is clearly India. There are an estimated 14 million slaves in India — it would be as if the entire population of Pennsylvania were forced into slavery. The country suffers deeply from all major forms of slavery, according to the report. Forced labor is common, due in part to a system of hereditary debt bondage; many Indian children are born "owing" sums they could never possibly pay to masters who control them as chattel their entire lives. Others fall into forced labor when they move to a different region looking for work, and turn to an unlicensed "broker" who promises work but delivers them into servitude. The country's caste system and widespread discrimination abet social norms that make it easier to turn a blind eye to the problem. Women and girls from underprivileged classes are particularly vulnerable to sexual slavery, whether under the guise of "child marriages" or not, although men and boys often fall victim as well. One of the world's most vulnerable populations for enslavement is Haitian children. Haiti has the world's second-highest rate of slavery -- 2.1 percent, or about one in every 48 people, many of them underage. There's even a word for it: "restaveks," from the colonial French for "reste avec" or "stay with." Traditionally, the word refers to a poor family sending their child to live with and work for a wealthier family. Often it is innocuous. But it can also encompass parents who feel they have no choice, typically because they have no income other than what they derive from selling their children into forced labor conditions that strongly resemble slavery. About one in ro Haitian children are believed to participate. Those who run away, according to the report, are often "trafficked intoforced begging and c