Marian's Blog

Understatement by Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Reps

"... I don't think we've invested well... in the last few years..." - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (daughter of late mayor of Baltimore, Maryland; multimillionaire; Democratic congresswoman, 8th Congressional district, California - San Francisco) on the current state of U.S. society, government and economy, in a Capitol Hill news conference, Thursday, 2 Oct 2008.

Hurricane Gustav: Evacuation Priority

We're tracking Hurricane Gustav which many say could be worse than Hurricane Katrina almost exactly three years ago. New Orleans is now under a mandatory evacuation order, this time around providing bus transport for its residents without cars. Gustav has left Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, etc. into the Gulf of Mexico, headed for the U.S. coast, in particular New Orleans.

Katrina: 29 ways you can help @ katrinaaction.org

Katrina Information Network has a list of 29 things you can do right now to assist the displaced and victimised citizens of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. They have some beautiful New Orleans local music on their site. More soon.

To Mr. Zogby: Cynthia McKinney's a candidate, too

By email, James Zogby's polling firm sent me their latest survey asking about my 2008 election intentions. The survey asked whether I plan to vote, for whom I've voted in the past, and for whom I may vote in the U.S. presidential election. Problem was, the poll even included a list of names with their political affiliations, but Cynthia McKinney, the U.S. Green Party's candidate (nominated at their Chicago convention in July), was excluded. Which four names and political affiliations did Zogby let poll-takers "choose" from? John McCain - Republican, Barack Obama - Democrat, Bob Barr - Libertarian, and even Ralph Nader, this year running as "Independent" since the Green Party chose someone else. (You could wonder whether the foremost Arab American pollster would leave the perennial Arab American presidential candidate off his poll, even to the exclusion of the candidate actually nominated by Mr. Nader's former party.) This poll didn't even offer "other" as a category, nor a blank space in which to write-in a name. Interesting. All men and no Cynthia McKinney. Where are women's - and men's - voices on this? Ms. McKinney's exclusion from the Zogby poll is simply the latest reminder of the social and political times we're in. Then I came across a quote by veteran journalist Bill Moyers, from In These Times and re-published by truthout.org in a piece titled, Fourth Estate a Fifth Column? "Democracy without honest information creates the illusion of popular consent

Global warming and our collective meat-eating ways

Have you heard about Gidon Eschel and Pamela Martin's report on meat-eating and global warming? It's online here as a PDF file. Happy reading!

Habitat for fishies?

More than 40 NYC subway cars have been retired, submerged and 're-purposed' as a unique refuge for aquatic life off Virginia's coast:

PlanetGreen needs clues on race & gender

I applauded when Discovery Channel's "Discovery Home" recently evolved into Planet Green TV - planetgreen.com - specialising in sustainable, ecological living. But the line's been crossed with Planet Green repeatedly airing promos that insidiously stereotype Black people and disappear and objectify Black and other women. Who else has seen these two ads?

$200/barrel Oil? Choosing sustainability

My cab driver, transplanted from Ethiopia, told me first. That was weeks ago. But I couldn't believe it till I read the headline of today's Independent (London): "Price of oil will double." Folks, we have now reached 'put up or shut up' time. Time to re-tool our out-of-whack, hyper-industrialised U.S./western lifestyle - much of which is so wastefully over-indulgent. Let's take the news as a wake up call, not doom-and-gloom. I prefer something akin to Lucile Alder's poetic view (Dancing toward the future, published in the same journal with Meadows, Meadows and Randers' 1992 follow-up to their 1972 The Limits of Growth). Make good use of age and even perhaps of wisdom. In short, finally learning, as human society, to wise-up while we have time.

"-- To become a dancer so late
To be determined so late to become
A dancer is to become part
Of the dream of the humble heart
Determined to dance to the beat
Of this one dawn becoming day
Caught by a great blush and throb
Of laughter at such a becoming
Such a desire to become a dancer
In the sense of one moving, clumsy
With effort, yet effortlessly becoming..."

Lucile Alder, Dancing toward the Future

Shop Green: Earth Day 365 days/year

If you're in the U.S. or nearby, when you need to shop start using this site - Co-op America's National Green Pages.

Genuine Progress Indicator? Measuring economies as if society mattered

As so many consumer and exchange economies teeter on the brink, here's a fascinating index that could prove more useful to more people. Many of us are in the same time familiar with, yet put off by, words and terms like "GNP", "GDP", and "economic indicator." For over a decade a group called Redefining Progress has been working on what they call the "GPI" - the genuine progress indicator.

"... The GPI starts with the same personal consumption data that the GDP is based on, but then makes some crucial distinctions. It adjusts for factors such as income distribution, adds factors such as the value of household and volunteer work, and subtracts factors such as the costs of crime and pollution. Because the GDP and the GPI are both measured in monetary terms, they can be compared on the same scale. ..." - Redefining Progress