Month: May 2010
Arizona Bans Ethnic Studies in Public Schools
Source: LA Times
A bill that aims to ban ethnic studies in Arizona schools was signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Jan Brewer, cheering critics who called such classes divisive and alarming others who said it’s yet another law targeting Latinos in the state.
The move comes less than 20 days after Brewer signed a controversial immigration bill that has caused widespread protests against the state. The governor’s press office did not return requests for comment Tuesday evening.
HB 2281 bans schools from teaching classes that are designed for students of a particular ethnic group, promote resentment or advocate ethnic solidarity over treating pupils as individuals. The bill also bans classes that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government.
Nepal’s Trailblazing Dalit Feminist
Durga Sob was just 10 when she realized she was from the Dalit, or 'untouchable', class of Nepal: 'I drank from a water pot that other people used, and by sharing this water, I'd made it 'unclean'. I was screamed at and chased away. I told my mother and she said: "God made us Dalit, that's just the way it is." It was then I knew the pain of being a Dalit, and had to do something to change things.' Durga Sob
Obama Approves 26 New Offshore Drilling Projects Without Environmental Review
Source: Mother Jones
In the weeks following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, regulators at the federal Minerals Management Service granted approval for 27 new drilling plans in the region-and exempted 26 projects from environmental review. While the Obama administration has put the brakes on new drilling, a number of exploration plans already in the works appear to have been green-lighted.
MMS, the division of the Department of Interior responsible for overseeing oil and gas development, has been criticized in recent weeks for its many regulatory failures that may have contributed to the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon spill. Last week, documents emerged that revealed that the agency waived environmental review for BP’s Deepwater exploration plan, a finding that has alarmed environmental advocates.
Drug Policy Disconnect
Source: Foreign Policy in Focus
The rhetoric has changed. According to new U.S. "drug czar" Gil Kerlikowske, who heads the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the Obama administration doesn’t use the term "drug war" because the government shouldn’t be waging war against its own citizens. In March 2009, U.S. Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke described the opium poppy eradication effort in Afghanistan as "the most wasteful and ineffective program that I have seen in 40 years." He bluntly stated that the U.S. government had wasted millions of dollars on a counterproductive program that generates political support for the Taliban and undermines nation-building efforts. And in his trip to Peru this past April, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela noted that the fundamental problem is not coca cultivation itself, but poverty and inequality.
The Oil Spill: Accident or Cyber Attack?
Before the massive oil drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, experts and politicians confidently said that it couldn't happen. Or, if something did go wrong, the impacts would be swiftly contained with minimal leaking. Now that those assurances have been proven wrong, they claim that it was an accident that couldn't have been predicted, and meanwhile avoid the elephant in the room - how and why.The Oil Rig Explosion