BOWLING ALONE: THE COLLAPSE AND
REVIVAL OF AMERICAN COMMUNITY

by Robert D. Putnam

(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000).

In a groundbreaking book based on vast new data, Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and our democratic structures-- and how we may reconnect.

Putnam warns that our stock of social capital - the very fabric of our connections with each other, has plummeted, impoverishing our lives and communities.

Putnam draws on evidence including nearly 500,000 interviews over the last quarter century to show that we sign fewer petitions, belong to fewer organizations that meet, know our neighbors less, meet with friends less frequently, and even socialize with our families less often. We're even bowling alone. More Americans are bowling than ever before, but they are not bowling in leagues. Putnam shows how changes in work, family structure, age, suburban life, television, computers, women's roles and other factors have contributed to this decline.

Netherlands: working together to fight radicalization

Europe lags behind the United States in its ability to craft a multiethnic society, to turn newcomers into citizens. European countries, by this reckoning, are prisoners of their old racial or nationalistic identities. And the Netherlands has of late been a particular example of this; its right-wing, anti-immigrant standard-bearer, the golden-maned Geert Wilders, has steadily gained support since he formed his Freedom Party for the 2006 parliamentary elections. Earlier this year, Wilders’s party was leading in the polls. In municipal elections in early March, his party, riding on his virulent anti-Muslim rhetoric, won the city of Almere and came in second in The Hague itself — the seat of the Dutch government and home of the International Criminal Court. On a protest-filled visit to London afterward, Wilders — who is facing trial in a Dutch court for inciting hatred — boasted of becoming the next prime minister.

When, in 2007, Wilders called for the Koran to be banned in the country, it caused outrage, but at the same time his underlying message — that, as he has declared, “we are heading for the end of European and Dutch civilization as we know it” — reflected a widespread feeling that the country’s way of handling immigration was a disaster.

That way, in a word, was multiculturalism, the reigning dogma of the Dutch left in the 1980s and 1990s. By its logic, the government, far from insisting that newcomers integrate, actually provided money so that immigrant communities could keep up the traditions and language of their homelands, maintaining little Moroccos and Turkeys within the Dutch borders, largely disconnected from the wider society. If multiculturalism had failed, did Wilders represent the only alternative?

Louise Bourgeois, the French-born, American-based artist best known for her sculptures of vast metal spiders, died in a New York hospital at the age of 98.

Noam Chomsky: "The Center Cannot Hold: Rekindling the Radical Imagination"

Colombia Set to Elect the World's First Green Leader

British Polluters

Obama and Attention Deficit Democracy

Ethnic Studies

“Until the lion tells his own story of being hunted, history will always glorify the hunter.”

Chantal Mouffe

Direitos Humanos e Pluralismo

Ernesto Laclau

”Populismo y Hegemonía” - conferencia en Casa de América - Madrid

Hegemony and socialist strategy: towards a radical

democratic politics

by Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe

Ernesto Laclau

Populismo. What is in the name?

Political roots of discourse.

An interview with Ernesto Laclau

The defender of contingency.

Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe deconstruct Marxist theory and liberal democratic thought.

A $95,000 question: why are whites five times richer than blacks in the US?

ADHD in Kids Tied to Produce Pesticides

Organophosphates were originally developed for chemical warfare, and they are known to be toxic to the nervous system. There are about 40 organophosphate pesticides such as malathion registered in the U.S.

Hegemony and Socialism: An Interview with Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau

Los Angeles Approves Arizona BOYCOTT

La mundialización capitalista

El capital utiliza la crisis que él mismo ha provocado y maneja para reducir ulteriormente los derechos y las conquistas históricas de los trabajadores, aumentar el número gigantesco de desocupados para pesar sobre los ocupados y sus salarios, y reducir al máximo sus ingresos reales. La mundialización capitalista ha permitido así, acabar con la jornada de ocho horas, con la prohibición del trabajo infantil y con la protección ambiental; ha reintroducido en masa la esclavitud, ha privatizado todo en beneficio de las grandes empresas y las trasnacionales, expropiando a los ciudadanos, y ha transformado todo –personas, ideas, valores– en mercancía; ha destruido las bases de la civilización y puesto en peligro de desaparición las bases materiales de la vida en el planeta. Decenas de miles de especies han desaparecido y otras decenas de miles las seguirán hacia la extinción durante la actual era del Antropoceno, provocada por la acelerada devastación capitalista.

Ernesto Laclau (Argentina). Teoría del populismo

MARXISMO, POSTESTRUCTURALISMO Y PRAGMATISMO EN ERNESTO LACLAU

CNN -Ethnic Studies ban racist?

Arizona Students Protest New Law Banning Ethnic Studies Classes

Fundamentalismo

Totalitarismo

Populismo

Ernesto Laclau - El populismo

Ernesto Laclau - Hegemonia y Estrategia socialista

Jaime Sabines -Me Encanta Dios

Me encanta Dios. Es un viejo magnífico que no se toma en serio. A él le gusta jugar y juega, y a veces se le pasa la mano y nos rompe una pierna o nos aplasta definitivamente. Pero esto sucede porque es un poco cegatón y bastante torpe con las manos.

Nos ha enviado a algunos tipos excepcionales como Buda, o Cristo, o Mahoma, o mi tía Chofi, para que nos digan que nos portemos bien. Pero esto a él no le preocupa mucho: nos conoce. Sabe que el pez grande se traga al chico, que la lagartija grande se traga a la pequeña, que el hombre se traga al hombre. Y por eso inventó la muerte: para que la vida, no tú ni yo, la vida, sea para siempre.

Ahora los científicos salen con su teoría del Big Bang... Pero ¿qué importa si el universo se expande interminablemente o se contrae? Esto es asunto sólo para agencias de viajes.

A mí me encanta Dios. Ha puesto orden en las galaxias y distribuye bien el tránsito en el camino de las hormigas. Y es tan juguetón y travieso que el otro día descubrí que ha hecho frente al ataque de los antibióticos? ¡bacterias mutantes!

Viejo sabio o niño explorador, cuando deja de jugar con sus soldaditos de plomo y de carne y hueso, hace campos de flores o pinta el cielo de manera increíble.

Mueve una mano y hace el mar, y mueve la otra y hace el bosque. Y cuando pasa por encima de nosotros, quedan las nubes, pedazos de su aliento.

Dicen que a veces se enfurece y hace terremotos, y manda tormentas, caudales de fuego, vientos desatados, aguas alevosas, castigos y desastres. Pero esto es mentira. Es la tierra que cambia, y se agita y crece, cuando Dios se aleja.

Dios siempre está de buen humor. Por eso es el preferido de mis padres, el escogido de mis hijos, el más cercano de mis hermanos, la mujer más amada, el perrito y la pulga, la piedra más antigua, el pétalo más tierno, el aroma más dulce, la noche insondable, el borboteo de luz, el manantial que soy.

A mí me gusta, a mí me encanta Dios. Que Dios bendiga a Dios.

Jaime Sabines - Me Doy Cuenta de Que Me Faltas

Me doy cuenta de que me faltas

y de que te busco entre las gentes, en el ruido,
pero todo es inútil.
Cuando me quedo solo
me quedo más solo
solo por todas partes y por ti y por mí.
No hago sino esperar.
Esperar todo el día hasta que no llegas.
Hasta que me duermo
y no estás y no has llegado
y me quedo dormido
y terriblemente cansado
preguntando.
Amor, todos los días.
Aquí a mi lado, junto a mí, haces falta.
Puedes empezar a leer esto
y cuando llegues aquí empezar de nuevo.
Cierra estas palabras como un círculo,
como un aro, échalo a rodar, enciéndelo.
Estas cosas giran en torno a mí igual que moscas,
en mi garganta como moscas en un frasco.
Yo estoy arruinado.
Estoy arruinado de mis huesos,
todo es pesadumbre.

Jaime Sabines - Los Amorosos

Los amorosos callan.
El amor es el silencio más fino,
el más tembloroso, el más insoportable.
Los amorosos buscan,
los amorosos son los que abandonan,
son los que cambian, los que olvidan.

Su corazón les dice que nunca han de encontrar,
no encuentran, buscan.
Los amorosos andan como locos
porque están solos, solos, solos,
entregándose, dándose a cada rato,
llorando porque no salvan al amor.

Les preocupa el amor. Los amorosos
viven al día, no pueden hacer más, no saben.
Siempre se están yendo,
siempre, hacia alguna parte.
Esperan,
no esperan nada, pero esperan.

Saben que nunca han de encontrar.
El amor es la prórroga perpetua,
siempre el paso siguiente, el otro, el otro.
Los amorosos son los insaciables,
los que siempre -¡que bueno!- han de estar solos.
Los amorosos son la hidra del cuento.

Tienen serpientes en lugar de brazos.
Las venas del cuello se les hinchan
también como serpientes para asfixiarlos.
Los amorosos no pueden dormir
porque si se duermen se los comen los gusanos.
En la oscuridad abren los ojos
y les cae en ellos el espanto.
Encuentran alacranes bajo la sábana
y su cama flota como sobre un lago.

Los amorosos son locos, sólo locos,
sin Dios y sin diablo.
Los amorosos salen de sus cuevas
temblorosos, hambrientos,
a cazar fantasmas.
Se ríen de las gentes que lo saben todo,
de las que aman a perpetuidad, verídicamente,
de las que creen en el amor
como una lámpara de inagotable aceite.

Los amorosos juegan a coger el agua,
a tatuar el humo, a no irse.
Juegan el largo, el triste juego del amor.
Nadie ha de resignarse.
Dicen que nadie ha de resignarse.
Los amorosos se avergüenzan de toda conformación.
Vacíos, pero vacíos de una a otra costilla,
la muerte les fermenta detrás de los ojos,
y ellos caminan, lloran hasta la madrugada
en que trenes y gallos se despiden dolorosamente.

Les llega a veces un olor a tierra recién nacida,
a mujeres que duermen con la mano en el sexo,
complacidas,
a arroyos de agua tierna y a cocinas.
Los amorosos se ponen a cantar entre labios
una canción no aprendida,
y se van llorando, llorando,
la hermosa vida.

Jaime Sabines - La Luna

La luna se puede tomar a cucharadas

o como una cápsula cada dos horas.

Es buena como hipnótico y sedante

y también alivia

a los que se han intoxicado de filosofía.

Un pedazo de luna en el bolsillo

es mejor amuleto que la pata de conejo:

sirve para encontrar a quien se ama,

para ser rico sin que lo sepa nadie

y para alejar a los médicos y las clínicas.

Se puede dar de postre a los niños

cuando no se han dormido,

y unas gotas de luna en los ojos de los ancianos

ayudan a bien morir.

Pon una hoja tierna de la luna

debajo de tu almohada

y mirarás lo que quieras ver.

Lleva siempre un frasquito del aire de la luna

para cuando te ahogues,

y dale la llave de la luna

a los presos y a los desencantados.

Para los condenados a muerte

y para los condenados a vida

no hay mejor estimulante que la luna

en dosis precisas y controladas.

Ismael Serrano

Todos nos olvidamos de vivir de vez en cuando. Vivimos sin cuestionarnos el papel que se nos asigna, sin pensar si el camino que recorremos es el que soñamos para nosotros. Llenamos nuestro tiempo de actividades que poco tienen que ver con la vida que quisiéramos. Crecemos renunciando a los sueños, aplazando el futuro. El ritmo frenético apenas nos deja tiempo para reparar en los detalles, para reflexionar sobre la vida que llevamos. La realidad parece incuestionable. Y yo no permanezco ajeno. Trato de recordar qué debiera ser vivir a través de mi música.

Quantum Theory. String Theory. Dark Theory. The Big Bang

Debate between Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Tariq Ramadan

La Mission -- Film Review

Michael Eric Dyson

Author, commentator and Georgetown University sociologist shares his candid and complex views of Obama, racial amnesia, the poetry of hip hop, Bill Cosby, and Oprah Winfrey. He also describes his own life of growing up poor in Detroit.

Naomi Klein’s Critical Art

Writer Naomi Klein talks about corporate marketing 10 years after “No Logo,” and politics in the age of “brand” Obama.

Arizona’s Anti-Immigrant Law

Attorney General Eric Holder voiced concern Sunday that Arizona’s new immigration law could lead to racial profiling. The law allows police officers to stop and interrogate anyone they suspect is an undocumented immigrant. During an appearance on ABC This Week, Holder was asked if he thought the law was racist.

Eric Holder: “I don’t think it’s racist in its motivation. But I think the concern I have is how it will be perceived and how it perhaps could be enacted, how it could be carried out. I think we potentially get on a slippery slope where people will be picked on because of how they look as opposed to what they have done, and that is, I think, something that we have to try to avoid at all costs.”

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, said Friday that the US government is working to defeat Arizona’s controversial anti-immigration law.

Carlos Pascual: "What we’re going to continue doing is looking, analyzing every legal means to continue fighting the law. It’s a commitment from the highest levels of the United States, and we’re going to continue working in that direction.”

Last week a coalition of civil rights and labor groups announced a nationwide boycott of Arizona over the state’s anti-immigrant law. The boycott could impact several Arizona-based businesses, including Cold Stone Creamery, Circle K and U-Haul. Meanwhile, the manufacturers of Arizona Iced Tea has launched a campaign to inform customers that despite the name the company is not from Arizona. The company is headquartered in Long Island, New York.

Tar Sands, Boreal Forest and the Battle for Canada's Oil

Is Diversity Enough?

If you are brown-skinned and leave home without a wallet, you are in trouble

The Arizona Legislature has just stepped off the deep end of the immigration debate, passing a harsh and mean-spirited bill that would do little to stop illegal immigration. What it would do is lead to more racial profiling, hobble local law enforcement, and open government agencies to frivolous, politically driven lawsuits.

It would make not having immigration documents a new state misdemeanor, and allow officers to arrest anyone who could not immediately prove they were here legally. That means if you are brown-skinned and leave home without a wallet, you are in trouble.

Walter Benn Michaels -The Trouble with Diversity

Class and wealth

The Trouble with Diversity argues that our enthusiastic celebration of “difference” masks our neglect of the difference that really matters—the one between rich and poor. A magnificent skewer of pieties, Walter Benn Michaels takes on the many manifestations of our devotion—from affirmative action, to the worship of multiculturalism, to the obsession with heritage and identity—demonstrating that diversity offers a false vision of social justice, one that conveniently costs us nothing. In a daring break with both the left and the right, he calls for less attention to the illusory distinction of culture and more attention to the real discrepancies of class and wealth.

What's the Matter with the US?

The political discourse of recent decades has shifted from class to "explosive" cultural issues, such as abortion and gay marriage.

Los Tigres del Norte: Somos más americanos

"Ya me gritaron mil veces que me regrese a mi tierra porque aquí no quepo yo. Quiero recordarle al gringo: yo no crucé la frontera, la frontera me cruzó. América nació libre. El hombre la dividió. Ellos pintaron la raya para que yo la brincara y me llaman invasor. Es un error bien marcado. Nos quitaron ocho Estados. ¿Quién es aquí el invasor? Soy extranjero en mi tierra. Y no vengo a darles guerra. Soy hombre trabajador. Nos compraron sin dinero las aguas del río Bravo y nos quitaron Tejas, Nuevo México, Arizona y Colorado... Yo soy la sangre del indio. Soy latino. Soy mestizo. Indios de dos continentes, mezclados con español. ¡Somos más americanos que el hijo de anglosajón!".

La verdadera enfermedad es la inactividad

"El horror a envejecer no nace del miedo a morirse, sino del miedo a la incapacidad, a la pérdida de independencia, a lo que no curan los fármacos".

"Los viejos se atrofian por una discapacidad progresiva, se atrofian porque no se mueven, porque hace un invierno frío y no salen de casa, porque viven en un cuarto sin ascensor y están recluidos, porque llegan al hospital andando con una neumonía y pasan 15 días en cama y salen con la neumonía curada pero en silla de ruedas, las piernas ya no les sujetan y ya no se levantan más. Y la solución que les ofrece la sociedad son fármacos, cuando el problema son los hábitos. Seguimos las directrices de la industria"

The African role in the slave trade

An opportunity to reshape the debate over one of the most contentious issues of America’s racial legacy: reparations, the idea that the descendants of American slaves should receive compensation for their ancestors’ unpaid labor and bondage.

It was Americans, not Africans, who created in the South the largest, most powerful slave system the modern world has known, a system whose profits accrued not only to slaveholders but also to factory owners and merchants in the North. Africans had nothing to do with the slave trade within the United States, in which an estimated two million men, women and children were sold between 1820 and 1860.

La Lógica Mulder

Mauricio Mulder suele escuchar las preguntas de los periodistas con el talante de un pitbull frente a un gato techero, ensalivando, raspando el piso con los pies, listo para el ataque. Si la pregunta no le gusta, que es lo que normalmente ocurre con él y con los pitbull, el congresista muestra los dientes y más que hablar, resuella y gruñe. Lo interesante es lo que viene, y a eso se refería mi amigo láser. Mauricio Mulder jamás debate idea contra idea, planteamiento contra planteamiento, prueba contra prueba. Él va a la persona. Como un pitbull de chacra, exactamente, va al cuerpo. Pongamos por caso que un reportero le pregunte sobre la propuesta de Lourdes Flores para conformar un frente electoral articulado en la anticorrupción. Mulder jamás tratará de rebatir el planteamiento de la candidata del PPC sino que apuntará a descalificarla a ella como vocera de una idea semejante. Y entonces saldrá con que su papá dijo de Toledo era un auquénido, que ella se bañó en una piscina al día siguiente de perder las elecciones y por último, que la doña carece de toda autoridad moral para hablar de corrupción por el anticucho de Cataño. Ojo, todo lo que Mulder puede decir en ese momento seguramente es cierto, pero caray, ese no es el punto; lo que todos queríamos saber por boca de él era cuál es la respuesta del partido de gobierno a la idea de la oposición de construir un bloque contra algo que nos está corroyendo, como es la corrupción institucionalizada. El estilo Mulder es mucho más frecuente de lo que cualquiera pudiera imaginar por la sencilla razón que corresponde a una etapa del pensamiento bastante primaria, en la que resulta imposible para el sujeto separar al individuo de sus ideas, y como nos consta todos los días, nuestra sociedad es bastante primaria, casi agropecuaria en estas lides del pensamiento. La experiencia de vida del individuo que sustenta una idea, una experiencia que puede ser pública o privada, ante los cromagnones como Mulder, lo incapacita para dialogar y para hacer planteamientos que pudieran parecer contradictorios con aquella. Traigo a colación la lógica de Mulder porque creo que esta también domina el promedio de la comunicación en las famosas redes sociales que ha generado esta barbaridad incomprensible e inevitable que es el Internet.

Lettre à Michel Onfray, par Téri Feugeas

Cellular phone radiation

Recent research has raised concerns about the safety of exposure to cell phone radiation. Scientists around the world have associated prolonged cell phone use with health problems, including behavioral problems in young children and increased risk of brain and salivary gland tumors, migraines and vertigo in adults. Studies also show that children’s brains absorb twice as much cell phone radiation as adults. As a result, six countries, including the United Kingdom and Germany, have recommended reducing children’s exposures to cell phone radiation.

“A number of health agencies around the world advise people to reduce exposures to cell phone radiation, driven by recent studies raising questions about the safety of this radiation, particularly for children,” said Renee Sharp, director of EWG’s California office. “That’s why it’s essential for consumers to have radiation output information before they purchase phones for themselves and their families.”

Fault Lines - Arundhati Roy

Kim Longinotto: capturing women in critical transitions

The women, from South Africa, Japan or Iran, all have a very acute and universal idea of justice, which seems to contradict some ideas about cultural relativism.

Strawberries & cancer

Ever wondered exactly how powerful the biggest corporate lobbies are? In Washington, note that Republicans support suspected terrorists' "right" to purchase guns, even while maintaining that no other part of the U.S. Constitution or the Geneva Conventions apply to them. And in Sacramento, a pesticide so cancer-causing that it's often used specifically to create cancer in rats for medical experiments was just approvedfor use on the state's strawberry crop
.

Oakland approves Arizona boycott

Naomi Klein: Militarisation & Climate Change

Arizona's new get-tough immigration law has emboldened other state capitols to follow suit.

Legislators in at least 10 states -- Utah, Oklahoma, Colorado, Ohio, Missouri, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, and Maryland -- have called for laws that would mirror Arizona's Senate Bill 1070, according to the Progressive States Network and reporting by New America Media. (photo by Flickr user takomabibelot)

Legislators in at least 10 states -- Utah, Oklahoma, Colorado, Ohio, Missouri, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, and Maryland -- have called for laws that would mirror Arizona's Senate Bill 1070, according to the Progressive States Network and reporting by New America Media.

Rachel Maddow- Racist roots of Arizona law

San Francisco | Immigrant Rights

Breathing While Undocumented

I’m glad I’ve already seen the Grand Canyon.

Because I’m not going back to Arizona as long as it remains a police state, which is what the appalling anti-immigrant bill that Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law last week has turned it into.

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin?

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

People shouldn't be defined/identified by the color of their skin

Dignidad Rebelde

Thousands gather for immigrant rights march in downtown L.A.

No somos una/uno,

No somos cien,

Somos un chingo.

Cuentanos bien!

GLOBAMA

Arizona Burning

The law makes brown skin grounds for suspicion-.

The Arizona measure has enraged Latinos, documented and undocumented alike. Latino groups, together with members of the San Francisco city government and Tucson Democrat Raúl Grijalva, are calling for a boycott of the state, targeting its lucrative tourism and convention sector.

These immigrants work in essential industries and pay taxes, contributing to our economy and society--some analysts estimate that Arizona would lose more than $26 billion if all undocumented people were removed from the state. And yet they are at best officially neglected and at worst scapegoated, their families divided and their communities terrorized.