Posts Tagged ‘poverty’
“The thought of two thousand people crunching celery at the same time horrified me”*…
Eliminating meat from our diets would bring a bounty of benefits to the planet’s health and to our own – but, a quick transition would not be without its costs: it could harm millions of people…
People become vegetarians for a variety of reasons. Some do it to alleviate animal suffering, others because they want to pursue a healthier lifestyle. Still others are fans of sustainability or wish to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
No matter how much their carnivorous friends might deny it, vegetarians have a point: cutting out meat delivers multiple benefits. And the more who make the switch, the more those perks would manifest on a global scale.
But if everyone became a committed vegetarian, there would be serious drawbacks for millions, if not billions, of people.
“It’s a tale of two worlds, really,” says Andrew Jarvis of Colombia’s International Centre for Tropical Agriculture. “In developed countries, vegetarianism would bring all sorts of environmental and health benefits. But in developing countries there would be negative effects in terms of poverty.”…
More at “What would happen if the world suddenly went vegetarian?”
* George Bernard Shaw (vegetarian)
###
As we opt for the vegiburger, we might recall that, for all our sins, to day is National Sausage Pizza Day. While pizza dates back (at least) to the ancient Greek custom of covering bread with oils, herbs and cheese (in Byzantine Greek, the dish was spelled πίτα (pita), meaning “pie”), pizza-as-we-know-it seems to have been born in modern Italy as Neapolitan flatbread. An estimated 3 billion pizzas are sold in the U.S. every year, an average of 350 per second; 17% of all restaurants in the U.S. are pizzerias, more than 10% of which are in New York City. [source]
“Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term… to the general prey of the rich on the poor”*…
If all U.S. household income totaled $100, this is how it is divided
Something massive and important has happened in the United States over the past 50 years: Economic wealth has become increasingly concentrated among a small group of ultra-wealthy Americans.
You can read lengthy books on this subject, like economist Thomas Piketty’s recent best-seller, Capital in the Twenty-First Century (the book runs 696 pages and weighs in at 2.5 pounds). You can see references to this in the campaigns of major political candidates this cycle, who talk repeatedly about how something has gone very wrong in America.
Donald Trump’s motto is to make America great again, while Bernie Sanders’s campaign has focused on reducing income inequality. And there’s a reason this message is resonating with voters:It’s grounded in 50 years of reality…
Take the tour at “This cartoon explains how the rich got rich and the poor got poor.”
* Thomas Jefferson
###
As we take stock of ourselves, we might send yellowish birthday greetings to William Randolph Hearst; he was born on this date in 1863. Hearst built the nation’s largest newspaper chain, and (in competition with Joesph Pulitzer) pioneered the sensational tabloid style– crime! corruption! sex!– that we’ve come to know as “yellow journalism.” The possibly apocryphal, but indicative anecdote that became Hearst’s signature dates to the period just before the Spanish-American War: famed illustrator Frederic Remington, sent by Hearst to Cuba to cover the Cuban War of Independence, telegrammed Hearst to tell him all was quiet in Cuba. Supposedly Hearst responded, “Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”
Hearst parlayed his power as a publisher into a career in politics, serving two terms in Congress, then losing a series of elections (for Mayor of New York City, twice, and for Governor of New York State). An early supporter of Franklin Roosevelt, Hearst became one of his staunchest– and loudest– opponents.
Hearst’s life was the inspiration for Orson Welles’s classic film Citizen Kane.
Walking the line…
3.28 Renminbi (about 49 cents)-- the per capita poverty line in China-- in peanuts
Beijing-based photographer Stefen Chow has produced an arresting series of photos illustrating the tangible reality of poverty:
This body of work explores a simple question. What is the poverty line in a country?
We decided to generally calculate a per-person, per-day rate of a national poverty line, and to create a visual portrayal of items found in that country that could be bought by a person living at the poverty line.
This is not an emotional analysis of what it means to be poor. It is an examination of the choices one would face being poor. This is an ongoing project, with the first series understanding China, Japan, Nepal and Thailand. We have since expanded this project and have gone to five continents. We are not trying to compare different countries’ poverty, but rather to have a starting point to understand poverty within a country’s context.Everything else is left up to interpretation.
… though the viewer notes that the local newspapers that provide the background for each shot (and their enticing advertisements) offer an ironic counterpoint to the sparse reality of life on the poverty line.
See samples of the collection here. And then check out Jonathan Blaustein’s similar project, Value of a Dollar.
[TotH to GOOD]
As we count our pennies blessings, we might recall that it was on this date in 1972 that Richard M. Nixon arrived in China to begin the historic 8-day visit that ended 25 years of separation between the two countries; it was the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC.
Mao Zedong and Nixon (source)
Poor, poor pitiful me…
Long-time readers will recall Jessica Hagy, and her wonderful site Indexed, from pre-blog days. Your correspondent, who’s checked in regularly in the meantime, is happy to report that her index card diagrams are as sharp as ever:
As we count our blessings, we might recall that it was on this date in 1934 that the MC at Amateur Night at Harlem’s Apollo Theater drew the name of an aspiring 15-year-old dancer from his hat. Shocked to be called on stage, Ella Fitzgerald chose to sing– and won… The rest is blissfully harmonious history.
You must be logged in to post a comment.