Clipmarks | dmegivern's 'poverty' clips

Being Poor

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:36:43 GMT

clipped by: morgainelefaye
clipper's remarks: Don't miss all the additions in the comments either.

Clip Source: www.scalzi.com

Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.

Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.

Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends' houses but never has friends over to yours.

Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.

Being poor is hoping your kids don't have a growth spurt.

Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal.

Being poor is relying on people who don't give a damn about you.

Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support.

Being poor is not taking the job because you can't find someone you trust to watch your kids.

Being poor is hoping you'll be invited for dinner.

Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise.

Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.

Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere.

Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that's two extra packages for every dollar.

Being poor is knowing you're being judged.

Tags: collection, society, food for thought, poverty, mlf

Designs For The Poor

Thu, 31 May 2007 14:03:01 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Solutions The exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt has many items to show a grasp of the depths of world poverty and ingenious ways to attack it. They include a 20-gallon rolling drum for transporting water, above.

A pot-in-pot cooler that relies on the evaporation of water from wet sand to cool the inner pot.

The Lifestraw drinking filter, which kills bacteria as water is sucked through it.

To that end, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, which is housed in Andrew Carnegie’s 64-room mansion on Fifth Avenue and offers a $250 red chrome piggy bank in its gift shop, is honoring inventors dedicated to “the other 90 percent,” particularly the billions of people living on less than $2 a day.

Their creations, on display in the museum garden until Sept. 23, have a sort of forehead-thumping “Why didn’t someone think of that before?” quality.

Tags: inventions, poor, better, life, quality

Why George Orwell wrote 1984

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:39:43 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Orwell served in Burma as a member of The Indian Imperial police, saw poverty and failure, but the Spanish Civil War and the rise of Hitler, and the NAZIs, gave him a political direction, and his work after 1936, was to warn against the establishment of a totalitarian state. There is more at the site, with more background. Orwell died Seven months after 1984 was published, due to the effects of tuberculosis, and an allergic reaction to a new medication.
While he was in Hospital, writing 1984 they took away his typewriter, but he continued to write longhand with a ballpoint pen, despite his failing health

Clip Source: www.orwelltoday.com

WHY ORWELL WROTE "1984"

Eric Blair, pseudonym George Orwell,

(born in 1903 - died in 1950) he wrote nine major books and 700 essays and articles.

In the essay WHY I WRITE, published in 1947, Orwell says:

First I spent five years in an unsuitable profession (The Indian Imperial Police, in Burma), and then I underwent poverty and the sense of failure. This increased my natural hatred of authority and made me for the first time fully aware of the existence of the working classes, and the job in Burma had given me some understanding of the nature of imperialism

Every line of serious work that I have

has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it

Orwell wrote "1984" for us, the future, in the hope we would recognize the signs and symptoms of tyrannical world government and prevent its establishment in our world. Let's make sure he did not write in vain. ~ Jackie Jura

ALL ABOUT ORWELL and HOMAGE TO ORWELL and PILGRIMAGE TO ORWELL

Tags: george orwell, burma, 1984, animal farm, totalitarianism, authority

Aussies, Brits, Canadians and Americans Compared

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 22:44:21 GMT

clipped by: lauriecorona

Clip Source: www.jumbojoke.com

Aussies: Dislike being mistaken for Brits when abroad.
Canadians: Are rather indignant about being mistaken for Americans when abroad.
Americans: Encourage being mistaken for Canadians when abroad.
Brits: Can't possibly be mistaken for anyone else when abroad.

Aussies: Believe you should look out for your mates.
Brits: Believe that you should look out for those people who belong to your club.
Americans: Believe that people should look out for and take care of themselves.
Canadians: Believe that that's the government's job.

Americans: Spend most of their lives glued to the idiot box.
Canadians: Don't watch much TV, but only because they can't get more American channels.
Brits: Pay a tax just so they can watch four channels.
Aussies: Export all their crappy programs, which no one there watches, to Britain, where everybody loves them.

Americans: Will jabber on incessantly about football, baseball and basketball.
Brits: Will jabber on incessantly about cricket, soccer and rugby.
Canadians: Will jabber on incessantly about hockey, hockey, hockey, hockey, and how they beat the Americans twice at baseball.
Aussies: Will jabber on incessantly about how they beat the Poms (Brits) in every sport they play them in.

Americans: Spell words differently, but still call it "English."
Brits: Pronounce their words differently, but still call it "English."
Canadians: Spell like Brits, pronounce like Americans.
Aussies: Add "G'day," "mate" and a heavy accent to everything they say in an attempt to get laid.

Americans: Drink weak, urine-tasting beer.
Canadians: Drink strong, urine-tasting beer.
Brits: Drink warm, beery-tasting urine.
Aussies: Drink anything with alcohol in it.

Americans: Seem to think that poverty and failure are morally suspect.
Canadians: Seem to believe that wealth and success are morally suspect.
Brits: Seem to believe that wealth, poverty, success, and failure are inherited things.
Aussies: Seem to think that none of this matters after several beers.

Tags: aussies, brits, canadians, americans, fun, i.r., humor, humour

Genuine Jesus or Counterfeit Christ?

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 02:28:38 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: Simple...

Clip Source: watkins.gospelcom.net

If you're turned off by Jesus, you're probably confusing him with some ultra-conservative characterization of a TV evangelist.

First, Jesus was Jewish--not white Anglo-Saxon.

The counterfeit Christ emphasizes law; the genuine Jesus, love.

The counterfeit Christ and his followers have long lists of "do's and don't's" that are preached as "Gospel."

But the genuine Jesus has just two laws: love God and love people.

2. The counterfeit Christ emphasizes jealousy; the genuine Jesus, joy.

Jesus also had withering words for the wealthy who oppressed--or simply ignored --the poor.

3. The counterfeit Christ emphasizes politics; the genuine Jesus, peace.

if the TV preacher spends more time attacking those who don't follow his particular brand of theology, then he's probably not preaching the genuine Jesus, either.

He also spoke of unity--not pew politics or doctrinal debates.

The genuine Jesus requires us to follow him.

Perhaps the world is yet to know the genuine Jesus

Tags: jesus, religion, christ, god, charity, poverty, love, compassion, tolerance,

How we confuse symbols and things

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 21:48:06 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad
clipper's remarks: most "educated" people cannot tell the difference between a fact and an idea, the most common confusion of symbol and thing.

Clip Source: www.arachnoid.com

How we confuse symbols and things

In my opinion, the greatest single failure of American education is that students come away unable to distinguish between a symbol and the thing the symbol stands for.

It is no accident that modern education doesn't teach the distinction between symbol and thing — if it did, education as we know it would fall apart. After that, after education reshaped itself to provide actual knowledge instead of the symbolic representation of knowledge, the society around us would be transformed.

But in the meantime, most "educated" people cannot tell the difference between a fact and an idea, the most common confusion of symbol and thing. Most believe if they collect enough facts, this will compensate for their inability to grasp the ideas behind those facts. And, because of this "poverty of ideas," most cannot work out the simplest conceptual questions, such as "why is the sky dark at night?" (unless you are in a small minority, the actual reason is not what you think — see more here ).

As a result of this educational deficit, our individually inspired sense of well-being, our direct participation in those actions that assure our continued survival, our sense that we must create our own reasons for living, have been replaced by a kind of conceptual totalitarianism, which has as its cornerstone a deliberate blurring of symbol and thing . This totalitarianism has several parts:

Originally a convenient way to trade what you have for what you don't have, commerce has been elevated to the status of a moral principle. People who could be grappling with more fundamental issues are instead imitating Willy Loman, Arthur Miller's character from Death of a Salesman , who personified the replacement of substance with symbol.

Tags: philosophy, economics, psychology

the top 10 least religious countries

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:02:47 GMT

clipped by: syncopath
clipper's remarks: The survey concluded that "high levels of organic atheism are strongly correlated with high levels of societal health, such as low homicide rates, low poverty rates, low infant mortality rates, and low illiteracy rates, as well as high levels of educational attainment, per capita income, and gender equality.

In some societies, particularly Europe, atheism is growing. However, throughout much of the world -- particularly nations with high birth rates -- atheism is barely discernable."

Clip Source: www.jacksonvilleconfidential.com

there are actually huge masses of people who do not believe in "God". Here a list of the Top Ten

1. Sweden (up to 85% non-believer, atheist, agnostic)
2. Vietnam
3. Denmark
4. Norway
5. Japan
6. Czech Republic
7. Finland
8. France
9. South Korea
10. Estonia (up to 49% non-believer, atheist, agnostic)

Clip Source: www.gadling.com

When you travel to Europe, don't be surprised to find that many Europeans don't believe in God. I have even witnessed some alcohol-infused conversations between Americans and Europeans that almost ended in fistfights over His/Her existence. When you travel to the following countries, you might want to pick a less controversial topic of conversation ... umm, maybe George W?

The one that surprised me was Israel, ranking 19th, with up to 37% claiming to be non-believer, atheist, agnostic. Compare that with the United States, ranking 44th, with 3-9% non-believers, atheists, agnostics. (I think I have met them all on the streets of New York City, too.)

USA poverty map

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:54:21 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Useful graphic from censusscope.org

Clip Source: www.censusscope.org

Nationally, 12.4 percent of residents are considered to be in poverty. �In Poverty� means that a given person falls below the poverty threshold assigned by the U.S. Census Bureau. Please see our chart topic on Poverty for a discussion of poverty thresholds.

Examination of the map shows, however, that this 12.4 percent is a misleading representation of poverty status across the United States. Poverty is considerably more prevalent in the southern states. In a clear majority of counties in the South, the proportion of persons in poverty is higher than the national rate.

Tags: poverty

How To Win EVERY Argument

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 06:05:30 GMT

clipped by: Jdfodio
clipper's remarks: Brilliant! I think my boyfriend has already memorized all of these tactics and then some.

Clip Source: www.ece.ust.hk

MAKE THINGS UP

Suppose, in the Peruvian economy argument, you are trying to prove that Peruvians are underpaid, a position you base solely on the fact that YOU are underpaid, and you'll be damned if you're going to let a bunch of Peruvians be better off. DON'T say: "I think Peruvians are underpaid." Say instead:

"The average Peruvian's salary in 1981 dollars adjusted for the revised tax base is $1,452.81 per annum, which is $836.07 before the mean gross poverty level."

NOTE: Always make up exact figures.

USE MEANINGLESS BUT WEIGHTY-SOUNDING WORDS AND PHRASES

Memorize this list:

Let me put it this way
In terms of
Vis-à-vis
Per se
As it were
Qua
So to speak

USE SNAPPY AND IRRELEVANT COMEBACKS

You need an arsenal of all-purpose irrelevant phrases to fire back at your opponents when they make valid points. The best are:

You're begging the question.
You're being defensive.
Don't compare apples to oranges.
What are your parameters?

Don't forget the classic: YOU'RE SO LINEAR.

Tags: humor

12 year-old Kills Herself Over Pair of Shoes

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 08:38:01 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: More sad human truth behind the world's 'booming economy'.

Clip Source: news.independent.co.uk

All she wanted was a bicycle, a pair of new shoes and to be able to finish her schooling. But her family was dirt poor, and eventually the 12-year-old Filipina girl grew so demoralised that she hanged herself.

Mariannet Amper left a letter under her pillow describing her failed hopes and aspirations. Her family also found a diary in which she described the privations of a life with no money in Davao City, on southern Mindanao island.

The night before she killed herself with a nylon rope in their modest hut, which has no electricity or running water, Mariannet had asked her father, Isabelo, for 100 pesos (about £1) for a school project. But he had no money.

In the Philippines, nearly 14 per cent of the 87 million population lives on less than a dollar a day, despite government claims that the economy is booming.

Tags: phillipines, poverty, economic lies

Bush to Poor Kids: "Here's 20 Bucks!"

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:54:32 GMT

clipped by: dulios

Clip Source: www.gregpalast.com

In his State of the Union, the President asked Congress for $300 million for poor kids in the inner city. As there are, officially, 15 million children in America living in poverty, how much is that per child? Correct! $20.

Here’s your second question. The President also demanded that Congress extend his tax cuts. The cost: $4.3 trillion over ten years. The big recipients are millionaires. And the number of millionaires happens, not coincidentally, to equal the number of poor kids, roughly 15 million of them. OK class: what is the cost of the tax cut per millionaire? That’s right, Richie, $287,000 apiece.

Of course, there’s an effective alternative to Mr. Bush’s plan – which won’t cost a penny more. Simply turn it upside down. Let’s give each millionaire in America a $20 bill, and every poor child $287,000.

Tags: poverty, tax cuts

Hunger in the U.S.A.

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:36:45 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.thehungersite.com

Hunger in the U.S.

Families in Crisis

It is a tragic reality that the United States, one of the richest nations in the world, is also plagued with a poverty-driven hunger crisis. The statistics tell the troubling story. In 2005:

Every day, millions of children in America go to bed hungry.

12.9 million (17.8%) children under the age of 18 were in poverty

20.5 million (11.3%) of people aged 18-64 were in poverty

Poverty is forcing millions of Americans into a hunger crisis. Their hunger emergency is defined by food insecurity, which is the lack of access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs for an active and healthy life.² Families find themselves buying cheaper and less nutritious food, or cutting entire meals out of their diet, just to make ends meet. Increasing over time, this pattern leads to chronic malnutrition, affecting children and families in profoundly destructive ways.

The Hidden Poor

Working Poor

Children

Rural Poor

Solving Hunger

Things that Needed to be Said

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 15:36:11 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead

Clip Source: www.c4vct.com

Things that Needed to be Said

"I got kicked out of Riverdance for using my arms."

"And God said: 'Let there be Satan, so people don't blame everything on me. And let there be lawyers. So people don't blame everything on Satan.'"

"Honesty is the key to a relationship. If you can fake that, you're in."

"I read somewhere that 77 per cent of all the mentally ill live in poverty. Actually, I'm more intrigued by the 23 per cent who are apparently doing quite well for themselves."

"Capital punishment turns the state into a murderer. But imprisonment turns the state into a gay dungeon-master."

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch."

Tags: humor, humour

After being gang raped by her village elders, Mukhtar fought back...

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 02:47:53 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

After being gang raped by her village elders, Mukhtar fought back...

Isambard Wilkinson in Multan, Pakistan, hears the extraordinary story of an illiterate peasant woman who took on her village as well as the state

Mukhtar Mai's story is as horrific as it is simple, and it is quickly told. On June 22, 2002, the council of her tiny village, on the southern fringes of the Punjab in Pakistan, ordered that she be gang raped as a punishment for an offence supposedly committed by her 12-year-old brother.

At gunpoint she was taken into a stable. Her clothes were ripped off and she was violated by four village elders. The ordeal lasted about half an hour and, when it was over, she was dragged out, semi-naked, in front of all the village men. Her father covered her with a shawl and carried her home.

Mukhtar, who is also known as Mukhtaran Bibi, should then have killed herself. That was the custom. But such was her sense of outrage and injustice that she refused to commit suicide; and that act of defiance started a sequence of events that turned her into an international cause célèbre, who was first praised and then condemned by Pakistan's president, Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Mukhtar, an illiterate peasant, is an unlikely heroine. The crime committed against her is not uncommon in an area benighted by poverty, acts of brutality against women and the rule of thuggish overlords.

But she has refused to be cowed by the pressure put upon her, by local officials right up to the president, to end her campaign against the men who raped her. She wants them to be hanged. "I will never forgive them," she said yesterday. "They must be punished according to the law."

Tags: mukhtar mai, pakistan

Depression can be Good for You

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:01:57 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: There is serious depression that needs help. There are poverty, abuse, bad circumstance that need addressing. But for most of us, a bit of depression, the article suggests, is a catalyst for refelction, change and growth

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A leading psychiatrist says that depression is not a human defect at all, but a defence mechanism that in its mild and moderate forms can force a healthy reassessment of personal circumstances.

Dr Paul Keedwell, an expert on mood disorders at the Institute of Psychiatry, argues all people are vulnerable to depression in the face of stress to varying degrees, and always have been.

The fact it has survived so long - and not been eradicated by evolution - indicates it has helped the human race become stronger.

"Psychological unease can generate creative work and the rebirth after depression brings a new love affair with life."

Aristotle believed depression to be of great value because of the insights it could bring. There is also an increased empathy in people who have or have had depression, he says, because they become more attuned to other people's suffering.

Tags: depression