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bmoran

Politics of global warming - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

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    On the political side of global warming, nearly all Democrats realize that global warming is, in fact, a real problem while their counterpart Republicans deny this reality. According to the article, "In the United States, a February 2007 survey found that 95% of the 41 Congressional Democrats surveyed agreed 'it's been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the Earth is warming because of man-made problems' while only 13% of the 31 Republicans surveyed agreed." And, although the U.S. has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, 195 U.S. cities have pledged to reduce carbon emissions.
Brandon Fox

The Political Hoopla Between Intel and OLPC - 0 views

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    a look at some of the political issues with OLPC
Mike Wesch

JSTOR: American Anthropologist: New Series, Vol. 92, No. 3, p. 589 - 0 views

shared by Mike Wesch on 15 May 07 - Cached
    • Mike Wesch
       
      Political Economy = neo-Marxian approaches to development and underdevelopment often associated with Andre Gunder Frank and Immanuel Wallerstein.
jcoop11

Wallerstein on World Systems - 0 views

  • makes possible analytically sound comparisons between different parts of the world.
    • Mike Wesch
       
      This is why Wallerstein's theory gained acceptance in the anthropological community. We are interested in making sound cross-cultural comparisons.
    • jcoop11
       
      I may be reading to much into the wording, but do we really want to "compare" cultures. When we talk about comparing cultures, it seems as if we are holding them to a certain standard.
    • Mike Wesch
       
      We are not comparing them to a standard - just trying to see the range of human possibilities - and how humans are interrelated.
  • feudalism
    • Mike Wesch
       
      Three primary elements characterized feudalism: lords, vassals and fiefs; the structure of feudalism can be seen in how these three elements fit together. A lord was a noble who owned land, a vassal was a person who was granted possession of the land by the lord, and the land was known as a fief. In exchange for the fief, the vassal would provide military service to the lord. The obligations and relations between lord, vassal and fief form the basis of feudalism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudal_system
  • switch from feudal obligations to money rents
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • These impoverished peasants often moved to the cities, providing cheap labor essential for the growth in urban manufacturing
  • Eastern Europe (especially Poland) and Latin America, exhibited characteristics of peripheral regions.
  • In Latin America, the Spanish and Portuguese conquests destroyed indigenous authority structures and replaced them with weak bureaucracies under the control of these European states.
    • Mike Wesch
       
      This is the most common pattern found in the world simulation, though other forms emerge as well.
  • served as buffers between the core and the peripheries
  • According to Wallerstein, the semi-peripheries were exploited by the core but, as in the case of the American empires of Spain and Portugal, often were exploiters of peripheries themselves. Spain, for example, imported silver and gold from its American colonies, obtained largely through coercive labor practices, but most of this specie went to paying for manufactured goods from core countries such as England and France rather than encouraging the formation of a domestic manufacturing sector.
    • Mike Wesch
       
      nice summary here of the relationship of core, semi-periphery, and periphery
  • Similarly, Protestants, who were often the merchants in Catholic countries, found they were targets of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church, a trans-national institution, found the development of capitalism and the strengthening of the state threatening.
  • During this period, workers in Europe experienced a dramatic fall in wages.
    • Mike Wesch
       
      This is interesting. We often think of this transition as benefitting the people of the Core - but it did not necessarily benefit everybody.
  • This powerful merchant class provided the capital necessary for the industrialization of European core states.
    • elligant35
       
      Is the merchant class the first indication of a middle class? If so, then why the fall in wages becasue it seems to me that all they created was a middle man to continously take the wages from the working class that supported the goods that were traded?
  • European states participated in active exploration for the exploitation of new markets.
  • With the independence of the Latin American countries, these areas as well as previously isolated zones in the interior of the American continent entered as peripheral zones in the world economy. Asia and Africa entered the system in the nineteenth century as peripheral zones.
    • Mike Wesch
       
      Expansion of the periphery - this typically represents Round 2 of the World Simulation.
  • the core enriched itself at the expense of the peripheral economies. This, of course, did not mean either that everybody in the periphery became poorer or that all citizens of the core regions became wealthier as a result.
  • Wallerstein asserts that an analysis of the history of the capitalist world system shows that it has brought about a skewed development in which economic and social disparities between sections of the world economy have increased rather than provided prosperity for all.
  • This was the first time that an economic system encompassed much of the world with links that superseded national or other political boundaries
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    Read all of this page & make notes so we can share ideas!
Amanda Stueve

HEALTH-AFRICA: Beef up Budget Allocations to Achieve MDGs - 0 views

  • the Africa Health Strategy 2007-2015.
  • 15 percent of national budgets to health care,
  • It also urged governments to engage civil society and line ministries in mobilising resources for tuberculosis (TB).
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  • ‘‘Eight million Africans are dying from HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria every year. We want to stop this,'' Regis Mtutu of the Treatment Action Campaign
  • Regarding the commitment to put aside 15 percent of national budgets for health services, ‘‘only Botswana and The Gambia have met this promise'', Mtutu said.
  • included a plan to set up pharmaceutical plants for producing life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). Mtutu pointed out that ‘‘the ministers for finance and industry were not part of the discussion. To succeed, the health ministers need mandates from their finance and industry counterparts.
  • policy officer at Oxfam Kenya office, told IPS that ‘‘‘MDGs' is just a label. It is a brand. ‘‘HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and other diseases are really the issue. It is about systems to deliver health care. This should be the starting point to meeting the MDGs,'' said Edete.
  • lthough governments have committed themselves to the MDGs and the Abuja target, some prefer to move at their own pace. Kenya's government, for example, says it will commit 12 percent of its national budget to health by 2008
  • ‘‘It should be a step-by-step approach. Each country has its own strategy. If you set a time frame it might not work. For example, you cannot expect (strife-torn) countries like Somalia, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo to reach the 15 percent target. It is not practical,'' she told IPS.
  • the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe deserves special mention as it is also a health crisis for Africa. People living with HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe cannot obtain the care they need and the climate of violence is perpetuating the epidemics of HIV and TB. ‘‘The shockwaves from the crisis in Zimbabwe are reverberating throughout the continent as refugees seek health care and other services in neighbouring countries. Our health ministers must speak out on Zimbabwe on health and humanitarian grounds,'' the coalition argued.
  • a new report, ‘‘Paying for People'', published this month (April), Oxfam estimates that 13.7 billion US dollars must be invested every year to appoint an additional 1 million teachers and 2.1 million health care workers urgently needed to break the cycle of poverty in Africa.
  • ‘‘Today in too many of the world's poorest countries health and education services are dependent on a handful of workers struggling heroically to do their jobs on pitiful wages and in appalling conditions. Becoming a doctor, nurse or teacher is like signing a contract with poverty,'' Oxfam's Elizabeth Stuart wrote in the report.
  • Africa has 13 percent of the global population and 25 percent of the global burden of disease but only 1.3 percent of the global workforce.''
    • Amanda Stueve
       
      good stat
  • The report cites Tanzania as an example. This southern African country produces 640 doctors, nurses and midwives each year. But to reach the World Health Organisation's recommended staffing levels within 10 years it would need to produce 3,500 such health workers each year. Another example is Malawi where only nine percent of health facilities have adequate staff to provide basic health care. The country loses around 100 nurses each year ‘‘who emigrate in search of a better wage'', according to the Oxfam report. Charo told IPS that Kenyan health workers are not only moving overseas but are also seeking opportunities in the private sector for better pay. ‘‘If you work for government, you get 12,000 Kenya shillings (about 172 US dollars) but in the NGO or private sector you earn 40,000 shillings (nearly 572 US dollars) a month. People are tempted to move on.'' (END/2007)
    • Amanda Stueve
       
      good stats
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    Has some good statistics. Lists lots of problems in African heatlhcare. Has some info on Africa Health Strategy, and proposes more money will solve more problems.
Ryan Felber

Obama calls for universal health care - USATODAY.com - 0 views

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    Healthcare, especially, universal health care , has become a political hot spot.
Amanda Stueve

DEVELOPMENT-ZIMBABWE: As Long as Crisis Continues, Border Jumping Will - 0 views

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    The same reason that these people are leaving Zimbabwe--the political and economic situation--is probably the reason, or at least related to the reason that African healthcare professionals are leaving their countries.
bmoran

Global Warming and Population - Global Issues - 0 views

  • Population and Climate ChangeA “Malthusian” theory about the relationship between population growth and the environment suggests that as populations grow, they will strip their resources leading to famine, hunger and environmental degradation.As detailed further in this site’s section on population, that is an oversimplification and has largely shown not to be true. Instead, it has been factors such as politics and economics (i.e. how we use our resources and for what purpose) that has determined environmental degradation or sustainability.For example, the world’s wealthiest 20% (i.e. the rich countries) consume approximately 80% of the world’s resources, while the rest of humanity shares the other 20% of resource consumed, as noted in the consumption section of this web site.In regards to climate change, countries with large populations such as China and India have not been the countries contributing greenhouse gases for the decades that has been required to trigger climate change, as noted further above.While in total amounts their emissions might be high (China is second largest emitter after the United States, for example), per person, their emissions are significantly smaller as noted earlier.
  • as countries such as China, India and Brazil grow in prosperity, there will be large populations with purchasing power, consuming more goods and services, thus making more demands on the planet.Indeed, many environmentalists have constantly noted that if such countries were to follow the style of development that the rich countries used and emulate them, then our planet may not be able to cope much longer.
  • researchers have found that depending on what variables you factor in, the planet can support an extremely large population, or an extremely small one. These ranges are ridiculously wide: from 2 billion to 147 billion people! Why such variance? It depends on how efficiently resources are used and for what purpose (i.e. economics).
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    This article shows that overpopulation isn't really a problem IF we learn to use our resources effectively.
Amanda Stueve

Africa --COUNTDOWN TO 2015 / IPS Inter Press Service - 0 views

  • This process has to begin with an attitude change in the people.
  • The international system cannot determine for the people the needs, however obvious the needs may be.
  • MDGs are derived from the international system rather than the domestic environment. They are thus perceived to be foreign, however good the intentions may be.
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  • Institutions in many African countries are derived from developed countries’ institutions. This makes the whole idea of independence derisory.
  • elimination of proxy wars that were constantly blamed for the underdevelopment of the third world, third world leaders would re-channel their resources in worthy directions, such as health care, education and poverty eradication.
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    An opinion is put forth here that solutions for Africa must come from Africans so that they have legitimacy. Parochialism is a hindrance to solving political and healthcare issues in Africa (because people are not aware of their rights and privileges?).
naytanda

American Peace Network Name Change - 0 views

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    this page discussed the promotion of human progress and survival by correcting the worldwide condition of political mismanagement and downsizing the excessive military institutions.
elligant35

World Simulation Ideas - 14 views

I think another important factor to introduce to the game is the philosophy or the way people believe is an authentic quality that will add realism to the game. After watching some of the video cl...

philosophy politics religion

started by elligant35 on 20 May 07 no follow-up yet
kgarland

World Simulation Ideas - 95 views

I think it would be great to add more natural disasters, along with trying to bring out the slave trade, I think we could make the slave trade more part of the game. Also I think it would be great ...

worldsim

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