Arthur, do you really believe this? Arthur, I make no advocacy in the following. Indian people, generally, don't have a good relationship with the Native Spanish. That prejudice raised its ugly head in Oklahoma not long ago when the EA and AI populations made English the state language. It was a very thinly veiled slam at Spanish speakers who had flooded the state. The Hispanic population immediately left the state as a result. Another older example was on the Quapaw Reservation when a group of us in grade school (1950s) tried to start a language class in Spanish since our teacher was bi-lingual. The school administration shut it down immediately. The native Spanish were to them what the Germans were to the Jews. I would also point out that classes in Quapaw language were forbidden as well, to be taught to Quapaw or Cherokee children in the government schools as were any other form of Native language (like dance).
Attitudes toward the "English" are not far behind when it comes to English genocide policies as well as the English cultural arrogance, but strangely the English arrogance is less offensive than the Spanish cultural arrogance that I've experienced in New York talking with Spaniards who didn't realize that I was "Mestizo." Their comments resembled the quotes I've heard from the Right Wing about Obama and his family. Of course these are all stereotypes and discriminatory and when taken literally are as despicable and arrogant as the Spaniard's attitude towards Indians. You will note that no Hispanics were killed or lost property in Moore, Oklahoma when the Thunder Beings wreaked havoc last week. They had all left the state. Garcia-Lorca and maybe Goya is the only approved Spanish hero to these folks. Neruda's big as well as are the Mexican writers but they are not considered "Spanish" although they wrote in Spanish for today's audiences. Today the recent immigrants in Sweden are rioting and "Oklahomans" would point out such things as vindication of their language policies. No riots in Oklahoma since the 1960s. Oklahoma is racially and culturally quiet except: (The non-Indian racial mix of Oklahoman doesn't consider Tornadoes to have consciousness. We call them "Thunder-Beings.") As for peaceful people? The Hopi have been "warless" for hundreds of generations as have the Pueblo peoples generally. Of course modern economics would consider those "stagnant" societies. Does modern economics consider the black path of war preferable to this white path of peace walked by the Pueblo peoples? REH PS: I think I'll go take a bath now. These discussions always make me feel dirty. At the Foundation of everything we are more alike than different and although I believe we should value the truths of our different cultures I don't believe that cultural pride requires exclusivity and murder. Nor do I believe that conflict and war constitutes a sound economic success. A genuine economic Domain is not murderous, ultimately killing the society within which it works. Sustainability requires balance between the Social Domains and Public Health requires morality and compassion without paternalistic huckapuck. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Arthur Cordell Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 9:46 AM To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION'; 'Steve Kurtz' Subject: Re: [Futurework] Tell Me How This Ends - NYTimes Santayana is known for famous sayings, such as "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it",[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Santayana#cite_note-2> and "[O]nly the dead have seen the end of war." From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ray Harrell Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 9:39 AM To: 'Steve Kurtz'; RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION Subject: Re: [Futurework] Tell Me How This Ends - NYTimes Minus the slam against religions, we talked about this automation, robotics thing fifteen years ago on Futurework. The only answer anyone came up with was a guaranteed annual income but I don't see how that differs from welfare and inflation problems. It also speaks reams about the lack of imagination on the part of a society when it comes to considering citizens as potential for making the society better through creative labor. What no one seemed to be willing to say fifteen years ago was that there was a social contract between the private sector and government that spoke of the creation of jobs in return for government stimulus of the economy first of all through infrastructure, education, police, transportation, healthcare, etc. and then through direct tax stimulus. That has all been replaced with the ME generation that Brooks spoke about in yesterday's NYTimes. Native Peoples gave up our government and our clan laws and accepted that Social Contract. That is also the reason that immigrant groups like the Italians, allowed the old Roman law embodied in the Mafia, to become criminal rather than "neighborhood watch." Now everyone in the lower classes are arming themselves for the time when they will have to renew the vendetta laws as the only way that they can protect their families against economic predators. The "Ma Barker" approach that has happened before. I'm stunned at how blatantly immoral, venal and un American the current crop of Billionaires and their groups are. They have neutered their only competition, the Unions, and now act as if Aristocracy was never a government with responsibilities. If anything they resemble nothing more than Mongal Tribes in the old Genghis Khan empire. At least Genghis was truthful about the Black Banner of death and did not bother the rest of world with a hopeless cant of "Peace and Love" while stealing us blind. REH From: Steve Kurtz [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 9:19 AM Subject: Tell Me How This Ends - NYTimes This is not limited to the M/E. This is becoming global, although at varying rates of speed. Steve ===================================================== "These aspiring democrats are having to compete with Islamist, sectarian and tribal opposition groups, which also have deep roots in these societies. But no matter which trend triumphs, the real issue here is whether 50 years of population explosion, environmental mismanagement and educational stagnation have made some of these countries ungovernable by any group or ideology. In Egypt, Yemen or Syria, it is common to see primary-school classes of 60 to 70 kids with one undertrained teacher, no computers and no science instruction. How are the 36 kids whose three fathers I met going to have a chance in a world where not only are robots replacing manual blue-collar workers but software is increasingly replacing routine white-collar jobs - and where some of them can't go back to the family farm because the water and topsoil have been depleted?" <http://www.nytimes.com/> The New York Times _____ May 21, 2013 Tell Me How This Ends By <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/tho maslfriedman/index.html> THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN SANLIURFA, Turkey - I've been traveling to Yemen, Syria and Turkey to film a documentary on how environmental stresses contributed to the Arab awakening. As I looked back on the trip, it occurred to me that three of our main characters - the leaders of the two Yemeni villages that have been fighting over a single water well and the leader of the Free Syrian Army in Raqqa Province, whose cotton farm was wiped out by drought - have 36 children among them: 10, 10 and 16. It is why you can't come away from a journey like this without wondering not just who will rule in these countries but how will anyone rule in these countries? Of course, we should hope for those with sincere democratic aspirations to prevail, but clearly theirs is not the only vision being put on the table. These aspiring democrats are having to compete with Islamist, sectarian and tribal opposition groups, which also have deep roots in these societies. But no matter which trend triumphs, the real issue here is whether 50 years of population explosion, environmental mismanagement and educational stagnation have made some of these countries ungovernable by any group or ideology. In Egypt, Yemen or Syria, it is common to see primary-school classes of 60 to 70 kids with one undertrained teacher, no computers and no science instruction. How are the 36 kids whose three fathers I met going to have a chance in a world where not only are robots replacing manual blue-collar workers but software is increasingly replacing routine white-collar jobs - and where some of them can't go back to the family farm because the water and topsoil have been depleted? And then I go across the Turkish border to Tel Abyad, in northeastern Syria, and I see broken buildings, electricity lines on the ground, half-finished homes and a gaping hole in a grain storage tower, and I think: Not only are they behind, but this war is still destroying what little they have left. They are in a hole and still digging. The only way for these countries to catch up is by people uniting to mobilize all their strength. It is for Sunnis, Christians and Alawites in Syria to work together; for the tribes in Yemen and Libya to work together; for the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists and liberals in Egypt to do so as well, particularly in implementing the proposed International Monetary Fund economic reforms. In today's globalized world, you fall behind faster than ever if you are not building the education, infrastructure and economic foundation to take advantage of this world - but you catch up faster if you do. But to pull together requires trust - that intangible thing that says you can rule over me even though you come from a different tribe, sect or political party - and that is what is missing here. In the absence of any Nelson Mandela-like leaders able and eager to build trust, I don't see how any of these awakenings succeed. I keep thinking about the Free Syrian Army commander, <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/opinion/sunday/friedman-without-water-rev olution.html> whom I quoted on Sunday, introducing me to his leadership team: "My nephew, my cousin, my brother, my cousin, my nephew, my son, my cousin ..." What does that tell you? We can only properly answer the question - should we be arming the Syrian rebels? - if we first answer what kind of Syria do we want to see emerge and what will it take, beyond arms, to get there? If we want Bashar al-Assad's regime to be toppled and pluralistic democracy to emerge in Syria, then we not only need to arm the rebels but we need to organize an international peacekeeping force to enter Syria as soon as the regime falls to help manage the transition. Otherwise, when Assad is toppled, there will be at least two more wars in Syria. First will be a war between Sunnis and Alawites, the sect that Assad represents. The Alawites will fight to defend their perks and turf. After that, there will be a war within the opposition - between the Islamists and more secular fighting forces that have very different visions of a future Syria. Only an outside peacekeeping force could make up for the lack of trust and shared vision and try to forge a new Syria. And it would be a very, very long haul. If our goal is to arm the rebels just to serve our strategic interests - which are to topple the Assad regime and end the influence of Iran and Hezbollah in Damascus and not care what comes next - then we need to be ready for the likely fragmentation of Syria into three zones: one Sunni, one Alawite and one Kurdish. That might eventually solve the trust and civil war problems, as everyone would be living "with their own," but I am not sure it would better enable Syrians to address their development challenges. A third option would be to arm the rebels just to ensure a stalemate - in the hope that the parties might eventually get exhausted enough to strike a deal on their own. But, again, I find it hard to see how any deal that might set Syria on the long, difficult path to a decent, inclusive political system could be implemented without outside help on the ground to referee. So let's do something new: think two steps ahead. Before we start sending guns to more people, let's ask ourselves for what exact ends we want those guns used and what else would be required of them and us to realize those ends? <div><img alt="DCSIMG" id="DCSIMG" width="1" height="1" src=" <http://wt.o.nytimes.com/dcsym57yw10000s1s8g0boozt_9t1x/njs.gif?dcsuri=/noja vascript&WT.js=No&WT.tv=1.0.7> http://wt.o.nytimes.com/dcsym57yw10000s1s8g0boozt_9t1x/njs.gif?dcsuri=/nojav ascript&WT.js=No&WT.tv=1.0.7"/></div> <http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/article/upNext/upnext_rest.png> MORE IN OPINION (3 OF 22 ARTICLES) <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/opinion/dowd-serving-up-schlock.html?src= un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fopinion%2Findex.jsonp> Op-Ed Columnist: Serving Up Schlock <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/opinion/dowd-serving-up-schlock.html?src= un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fopinion%2Findex.jsonp> Read More > Close
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