Showing posts with label Equality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Equality. Show all posts

June 2, 2015

In Every World, The Haves And Have Nots

So no matter the time nor the society and their particular philosophical, economical, and social creed, there are ALWAYS the haves and the have nots. 

You have your upper caste and lower caste, your rich and poor, your religious elites and laypersons, your Harvard-educated and community college grads, your executive suite and your day laborers, you masters and your slaves, your ruling elite and your plebeians, your hunter and hunted, your VIPs and your Joe Shmoes.

In India, you still have an extensive caste system even today.  In Russia, you have the KGB, the Politburo, and the Oligarchs. In China, you have the Communist Party, the Military elite, and the venture capitalists/billionaires. In Europe, you still have The Queen and vestiges of the old guard monarchies, although gone are the Feudal lords and serfs, instead replaced by the Church and successful business and political elite. In America, ah...money and political power make the country go round. 

Last evening, I watched the movie, Elysium, taking place in a dsytopian future where the Earth has become overpopulated, polluted, and sick, but the elite are riding high on a large circling space habitat called Elysium, where everyone lives in a mansion with pool and lush grounds, eats exquisitely, and has the finest healthcare in machines that can cure everything from lymphoma to do full facial reconstruction in a matter of seconds. 

Whether in the future or the past, the only difference between the haves and have nots is how much the haves have, and how little have nots have not.

Is this societal makeup preordained or is their a way that we can raise the standard of living for everyone AND make it more equitable (unless you consider it necessary for Bill Gates to have $80,000,0000,000 and the homeless person on the street not a dime in his pocket)?

Over and over again, I read how the disparity between rich and poor, powerful and powerless, becomes ever more pronounced:  
- Now for example, CEOs generally earn 331 times (yeah last year it was 354) the amount average workers do and 774 times as much as minimum wage earners!
- Studies that show that Presidential and executive powers continue to expand with eleven reasons why.
- And the richest 1% will soon own more than the rest of the world.

In Elysium, after a lot of sci-fi thriller action and fighting, the protagonist manages to make EVERYONE a citizen of Elysium, so they can all partake of the largess, and at the end the med ships arrive to cure all the sick. 

That's the movies, but in real life, maybe we will see this only when the Messiah comes or there is a complete shift in the way we think and treat each other. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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March 23, 2015

Respect The Legs

I took this photo of this statue of a lady perched up high on a column.

It's an interesting (yet in my estimation a somewhat demeaning) view of femininity as demonstrated by the relatively small body, but oversized crossed-over legs. 

Perhaps the artist thinks this is sexy or provocative...

Or maybe it's just a relaxing pose with head high and back and arm behind her head.

Either way, you've got to respect those legs, and of course, the woman. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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March 10, 2015

Teats or Not

So I heard a new phrase from one of my colleagues recently...

He goes on about somebody (or something) being like "2 teats on a bull!"

I've always wanted to spend some serious time on a farm...but never really have had the opportunity to learn about that whole rural world, and I'm like what????

But I got it, and didn't really like it. 

Sort of a harsh way to call someone out as a useless piece of [you know what]!

I've heard kids joke about "man boobs" and I sure you can guess what those unflattering things are on a male.

Too often, we write people off without giving them a real chance!

While perhaps, there can be useless appendages through genetics or illness, there are no fundamentally useless people (although maybe some can be troubled, dejected, in a bad fit, etc.).

More often, there are unflattering comments from others who don't appreciate differences or see clearly what each person can "bring to the table."

Let's just say, if G-d created someone, there is reason and purpose to their lives, and we need to understand and appreciate them for their value. 

It may take (some) exploration, but everyone has strengths (as well as weaknesses--we're all human) and we can find what each person is good at, cultivate it, and leverage it for the good. ;-)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Carol Von Canon)
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March 8, 2015

Celebrating International Women's Day

Just want to recognize all the wonderful women who have touched my life:

My beautiful wife and daughters.

Also my beloved mother and grandmothers A'H.

As well as friends and colleagues. 

I still remember the saying I used to hear growing up that girls are "sugar and spice and everything nice!"

In the bible, women are men's "ezer kenegdo" literally translated as helpmates, and figuratively as companions. 

There is a nice Jewish teaching that the word "kenegdo" has a double meaning that if a man is good then the women stands as his aide, but if he is bad that she stands against him--so men have to merit the love and kindness of their wives, and not just expect it, dutifully. 

An interesting article written by Melvin Konner in the Wall Street Journal says that with women taking over more and more leadership roles in the workplace and in politics, the world will be a better place!

What served men well in a hunter-gather society--the male testosterone-driven biology--prepares men well for physical aggression, reproduction, and dominance, but also leads to overreaction to small threats, exaggerated violence, and recklessness that has brought "war, corruption, and scandal."

However, in the current information technology society that we now live in, men's physical strength and prowess is largely obsolete replaced by machines, robots, and drones. And women's emancipation and rise to positions of power has led to situations where saner heads and compromise prevail, and as Senator Susan Collins (Maine) said:

"While male colleagues cross their arms and sulked, women crossed the aisles with phone calls, emails, and social media."

From my experience, women can actually be the fiercer gender (testosterone or not), and a wise man does not mess with them! ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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November 30, 2014

Colors Of Race

With the race riots in Ferguson again this week, the divide between black and white is once again evident in America.

Coming from big city life in America, like New York City and Washington D.C., I've grown up in divided neighborhoods and united organizations.

For example, just this morning, my daughter and I walking down Las Olas had to duck into an Illy's coffee shop when an impoverished (black) man in dirty clothes and talking loudly to himself turned around on the street and was coming up steadily behind us in a threatening way. Similarly, the day before, there was a (white) lady at the bus stop talking out loud, hallucinating, and thrashing...also scary in this otherwise posh neighborhood.  In other words, these issues are race-agnostic!

Simultaneously, I go to synagogue where blacks and whites (as well as "black hatters" and the modern religious) sit and pray and socialize together, and go to work where many of my esteemed coworkers are African-Americans, and watch as one of my daughter's best friend in school and who she blabs with on the phone is a nice young man who happens to be black

Also, I remember last year I think it was having to move a heavy piece of furniture and one of my black neighbors went out of his way to help me get it upstairs--he was incredibly generous and he and many others where I live are friendly, neighborly, and we live side-by-side together.

We need to move from racial inequality to racial harmony!

We don't have to wait for an alien invasion to realize we are all human beings here on Earth and that we share more than not.

In Fort Lauderdale, by Florida Atlantic University, Nova Southeastern University, and Broward College, the actual intersections of the street are pained in multi-color. 

I love it..not black and white, but the colors of the rainbow...mixed, flowing, getting along, and happy.

Let it be--black and white, yellow, brown, and red--a melting pot, together throughout the world in peace and prosperity. 

No more rioting in Ferguson or elsewhere, but celebration of humanity--nothing more, nothing less. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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September 5, 2014

Respect NOT Rape

BBC reports that already by age 20, 1 in 10 girls have been raped or secually assaulted. 

That equates to 120 MILLION girls globally. 

Many are then brutally murdered and shamed as we have been reading about, now with all too much frequency, in India for example, with young women being raped, killed, and then hung from trees etc. 

What is wrong with this world???

Women are our mothers, wives, and daughters--they are often amongst the most compassionate and caring of us.

This is how we treat them?

Unfortunately, rape and abuse is also a crime against many young boys. 

It is time to take a serious ethical pause and stop the violence against our children and against other adults. 

The screams and scars of those abused hang in the air as an indictment against those committing the crime as well as those that do nothing to speak out. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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May 9, 2014

# Bring Back Our Girls

A fundamentalist Muslim terrorist group, Boko Haram, kidnapped 276 schoolgirls this week in Nigeria. 

After torching their village market, killing more than 300 people, razing 100 houses, destroying 500 vehicles, and attacking their boarding school, Boko Haram is threatening to sell these innocent children. 

Please speak up for those who can't!

We need to defend human rights and support women's and children's rights.

No more abuse, no more discrimination, no more hurt. ;-)

(Source Comic: Andy Blumenthal)
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February 17, 2013

And All The World Will Be One


It's a fascinating idea--can the entire world be governed as one?

I remember as a kid watching all the space shows where Earth and its entire people were always shown as one united planet.

Not only was the Earth viewed as a single governed entity and the people as united against outside forces, but multiple planets were united together in alliances--Star Trek (with The United Federation Of Planets), Star Wars (with the Republic, The Empire, and The Galactic Council), and Battlestar Galactica (with the Twelve Colonies).

In all these shows, there was planetary unity as well as an interplanetary union.

Yet, the reality in this world, as we know it, there is plenty of divisiveness and distrust, often leading to conflict, skirmishes, and even all out war. 

Over time, we have formed some unity in parts of the world--in ancient times, we had the various empires (Persian, Greek, Roman, Ottoman, British, etc.) that spanned large swathes of Europe, Africa, and Asia--but since these empires were the result of conquest, I do not think this is what we mean by true world unity. 

In current times, we have unions that are geographically based and often founded on unity of ideas and beliefs--such as the United States and the European Union (with core beliefs in democracy, freedom, equality, and the rule of law), as well as the Russian Federation, and the African Union. 

So the question is can we as a world move from individual countries, nations, and states to a true world order?

The Wall Street Journal (8 October 2012) had a book review on "Governing The World" by Mark Mazower that explored whether global government was possible or even desirable given that a world government could be used not to unite disparate peoples and solve large and complex global problems, but rather for the strong to rule over, colonize, and subjugate the weak. 

So far efforts at establishing world-wide governing bodies such the League of Nations and United Nations, have been largely seen as being "mere sound and fury" and essentially ineffectual. Similarly, supportive world bodies, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have been accused by movements such as Zeitgeist of being agents of economic manipulation rather than true benefactors to help needy people.  

So far the track record of the world for governing universally people around the world has been less than stellar with events like The Holocaust, and other recent genocides in Rwanda, Srebrenica, and Darfur.

Yet, while the WSJ book review says, "early enthusiasm about the emancipatory promise of world government now seems hopefully naive," I still believe it is possible when our similarities become more important than our differences. 

In all the science-fiction shows that show the people of Earth united, it is always a result of some external threat--whether an outside enemy like the Klingons or Cylons, or other apocryphal events such as a global pandemic, killer asteroids, or even thermonuclear war. 

We can come together--not in subjugation but in jubilation--only when we stop hating and discriminating based on differences--and instead band together to raise the standard of living, freedom, and human rights of all. 

Everyday, three times a day, towards the end of the Jewish prayers in the Aleinu, we ask for the day when "G-d will rule over the whole Earth"--this is a great hope for not only G-d to be one in all the Earth, but for all people to be governed and united as one--justly and beneficially. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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October 25, 2012

City Sunrise


This was a beautiful city sunrise in Washington D.C.
  
And it is accented by the lamppost shinning like the sun on the middle left.

You can also see the store lights and car headlights as some additional sparkle to this.

Anyway, it reminds me of a crude, funny story I heard at a seminar this week:

This guy drives to work in San Francisco early in the morning when it is still very foggy.

So he has to turn on his fog lights to see and navigate.

But by the time, he gets to work every day, the fog lifts and he is afraid that he is going to forget to turn the lights of the car off.

As a reminder, he leaves his fly open--what?

He figures, by at least noon every day, someone will tell him his fly is open and he'll remember then to turn off his fog lights.

What made this even funnier is the lady in the room next to me leans over and says, "so what are us ladies supposed to do to remember to turn off our fog lights?"

Great questions, ah...let's talk about that one after class. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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October 24, 2012

And She Was...


Seeing and hearing the candidates continuous jockeying for the women's vote in their speeches, debates, and commercials, it was sort of funny to see this sign hanging in a local store. 


Anyway, I don't know who the "she" is in this advertisement--but I think it refers to basically all women--and the description is supposed to be the many positive attributes they have--professionally and personally. 

Regardless of the adjectives, maybe the point is to respect, appreciate, and treat women properly in every way--and not just at election session. 

And to recognize that you can't charm their vote, you must earn it with truth, trust, and equality. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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March 24, 2012

What Are People Hungry For?

In the Hunger Games, the storyline is of the common people being punished for rebelling against "The Capital" generations ago, by having to put up male and female "Tributes" (kids age 12-18) from each of 12 districts to fight it out to the death, while the rich and powerful in The Capital watch, laugh, and enjoy the equivalent of the gladiators in the Coliseum. 

The Games offer a restricted hope to the people--as hope is seen as "the only thing stronger than fear." In this movie, the hope for winning the games is supposed to displace the fear of the central authorities over their subjects as well as any real hope of change, equality, and justice for the masses. 

What the kids and adult fans of this movie seem to be lining up and cheering wildly for with this box-office smash hit is the main character Katniss Everdeen who defies the corrupt politicians and affluent capitalists by fighting not for her life in The Hunger Games as much as for the dignity of the common people in the districts.

From the beginning, Katniss become the first ever to volunteer for the games to take the place of her less adept, younger sister, Primrose, who is selected from District 12; Katniss put her life on the line to save her sister's life.

And all along during the movie, Katniss refuses to be a pawn in the game and simply kill or be killed, but she rises above the fight and acts all the time with humanity, caring for other tributes and generally refusing to hurt others, unless her life is threatened and she literally has no choice. 

For example, she cares for a younger girl from District 11 who eventually is speared to death by another tribute hunting them. 
Also, she cares for her companion from District 12, Peeta, who is injured, and she risks her life to get medicine to save his. 

At climax, Katniss is ready to commit suicide, rather than continue playing to the evil dictates of the authorities. 

Katniss comes from the poverty and ordinariness of the district people. However, her fighting spirit, humanity, and ability to outwit not only the other tributes, but the evil leaders--who play the tributes (and districts) off each other for their own power, permanence, and punishment of the lower class--makes her a hero among the masses who are at the ready to revolt at her simple salute to the people. 

What I thought was going to be a kids movie that would put me to sleep, turned out to be an uplifting experience watching an old, familiar theme of Rocky the fighter win against all the odds, but in this case with the added twist of defying a corrupt government and elitist culture.

I think this movie is appealing to people at exactly a time now where the 99% are simmering and fed up with the shenanigans of the 1% and elements of both the Occupy movement and Tea Party are looking for principles of freedom, justice, and dignity to be restored.

The Hunger Games is not just about the dystopian future society that doesn't exist today, but rather about a historical perspective of people who are craving for the proverbial "dirty politicians" and "greedy capitalists" to put aside their games, agendas, excuses, and pots of power and gold for a more utopian society where all people are created equal and treated fairly with hope anchored in reality. 

(Source Photo: Adapted from here)


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