The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures I’ve compiled several “The Best…” lists that sites where you can learn about the geography, data, languages, and holidays of different countries around the world. Those resources are important, but I think it’s like learning the words, but not the music, of a song. So I thought I’d develop a separate list just focused on helping students learn about the cultures of different countries, and would love to hear additional suggestions. You might also be interested in The Best Travel Photographs Of The Year. Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures (and are accessible to English Language Learners): Culture Crossing is a unique resource for information about different countries. What The World Eats is a TIME Magazine slideshow with family photos from around the world and the food they eat. Food Photos is a similar slideshow from NPR. Learn about Celebrations Around The World. EL Civics has a nice lesson on Clothes Around The World. U.S. via Pimsleur
3 Great Films for Teaching About Globalization and Modernization Scene from the Iranian film "Children of Heaven." Photo Credit: Miramax Films With the advent of modern mass communication and world tourism, dramatic change has come to nations and cultures which had previously seen little change for centuries. Each technological or social innovation has brought unexpected and unintended consequences. One of the challenges of teaching global issues in middle or high school is helping students grasp abstract economic concepts like globalization and modernization. A well-chosen film, watched actively and with supporting curriculum, can make the difference in helping students understand how these abstract processes work out in human terms. Irrevocably Connected Globalization is used here to signify the worldwide integration of previously distinct cultures and economies and the consequent exchange of products, ideas and methods of operation. All these examples come from the United States. Journeys in Film Scene from "The Cup" Credit: Fine Line Features
Work stoppages involving 1,000 or more workers, 1947-2013 -- Table Table 1. Richard D. Wolff, "Capitalism Becomes Questionable" Capitalism Becomes Questionableby Richard D. Wolff The depth and length of the global crisis are now clear to millions. In the sixth year since it started in late 2007, no end is in sight. Unemployment rates are now less than halfway back from their recession peak to where they were in 2007. Between the crisis and today's austerity policies lie the bailouts -- a bought government's program to aid mega-finance and other large corporations with unlimited funds unmatched by anything comparable for the mass of working people and smaller businesses. First of all, this deep and long crisis undermines decades of confident assurances and predictions that another deep capitalist depression was no longer likely or even possible. Implicitly, at first, millions of people began to question whether capitalism does still "deliver the goods" as its defenders so long insisted. On the right, in the US and beyond, the questioning of capitalism has not yet found many strong voices. Richard D. | Print
Marxists Internet Archive Capitalism vs. Democracy Thomas Piketty’s new book, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” described by one French newspaper as a “a political and theoretical bulldozer,” defies left and right orthodoxy by arguing that worsening inequality is an inevitable outcome of free market capitalism. Piketty, a professor at the Paris School of Economics, does not stop there. He contends that capitalism’s inherent dynamic propels powerful forces that threaten democratic societies. Capitalism, according to Piketty, confronts both modern and modernizing countries with a dilemma: entrepreneurs become increasingly dominant over those who own only their own labor. In Piketty’s view, while emerging economies can defeat this logic in the near term, in the long run, “when pay setters set their own pay, there’s no limit,” unless “confiscatory tax rates” are imposed. Photo “I am hesitant to call Thomas Piketty’s new book Capital in the 21st Century one of the best books in economics written in the past several decades.
Search a database of the Power Elite Welcome to the Power Elite portal on WhoRulesAmerica.net. Included here is a database of the "Power Elite" in the U.S. as of 2011-2012, defined as the intersection of the boards of directors of the corporate community, the extremely wealthy and well-connected, and the boards and trustees of the policy-planning network. Note that this definition does not include politicans; you will not find any current or former presidents in the database. There are four different kinds of searches you can do, each of which yields slightly different results. If you search for a person's name and set the results type to People, you will receive information on each person whose name matches the pattern you entered. The search results also display rankings for some individuals and organizations. Click here for more information about the sources of the data in this portal.
The Feminization of Poverty "Poverty is the worst form of violence." –Mahatma Gandhi What is the "feminization" of poverty? The feminization of poverty is the phenomenon in which women experience poverty at rates that are disproportionately high in comparison to men. Though in industrialized nations a great emphasis is placed on women shattering the glass ceiling and climbing the corporate ladder (and rightly so), the most unquestionably pressing and widespread socioeconomic issue faced by women around the world is poverty--and often extreme poverty at that. Of all the people in the world living in poverty, 70% are women. The actual term “feminization of poverty” was conceived in the 1970s, yet has only truly gained recognition among scholars and activists in the past two decades. In this context, poverty is not defined as simply a lack of money, but rather also the denial of access to fundamental human rights, including health, education, nutritious food, property, representation, etc. Why is it important?
Power crime Introduction Despite making strides in scrutinizing crimes committed by economically and politically powerful actors, organizations, and even states, the field of criminology remains disproportionately preoccupied with socially vulnerable offenders involved in street crime. This observation is more than just a vague impression. Establishing a common theme for this issue How the Government Measures Unemployment How the Government Measures Unemployment (PDF) Why does the Government collect statistics on the unemployed? When workers are unemployed, they, their families, and the country as a whole lose. Workers and their families lose wages, and the country loses the goods or services that could have been produced. To know about unemployment—the extent and nature of the problem—requires information. Where do the statistics come from? Early each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Some people think that to get these figures on unemployment, the Government uses the number of persons filing claims for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits under State or Federal Government programs. Other people think that the Government counts every unemployed person each month. There are about 60,000 households in the sample for this survey. Every month, one-fourth of the households in the sample are changed, so that no household is interviewed more than 4 consecutive months.
IMF -- International Monetary Fund Home Page World Economic Outlook 2012 -- IMF Lately, the near-term outlook has noticeably deteriorated, as evidenced by worsening high-frequency indicators in the last quarter of 2011 (Figure 2: CSV|PDF). The main reason is the escalating euro area crisis, which is interacting with financial fragilities elsewhere (Figure 3: CSV|PDF). Specifically, concerns about banking sector losses and fiscal sustainability widened sovereign spreads for many euro area countries, which reached highs not seen since the launch of the Economic and Monetary Union. Bank funding all but dried up in the euro area, prompting the European Central Bank (ECB) to offer a three-year Long-Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO). Bank lending conditions moved sideways or deteriorated across a number of advanced economies. Capital flows to emerging economies fell sharply. The updated WEO projections see global activity decelerating but not collapsing. Overall, activity in the advanced economies is now projected to expand by 1½ percent on average during 2012–13.
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POVERTY, CORRUPTION AND THE CHANGING WORLD, 1950-2050 Robert H. Wade On May 29 2013 James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank from 1995 to 2005, gave the Amartya Sen lecture at the London School of Economics, on the subject, “Reflections on a changing world, 1950-2050”. His reflections on the changing world were mainly reflections on what he achieved as World Bank president. He emphasised five. Here I comment on the first two: poverty reduction as the central goal of development, and corruption as an explicitly stated problem. Poverty reduction and inequality Wolfensohn’s elevation of poverty reduction as the central goal echoes then World Bank president Robert McNamara in 1973, forty years ago, who solemnly proposed in a speech in Nairobi, Kenya, a “new strategy”. But McNamara showed awareness of a closely related issue that remained eclipsed in the Wolfensohn era: income and related inequalities. Why this asymmetry of attention? Corruption On corruption, I begin with my own engagement with the Bank. Fast forward to Wolfensohn on 29 May.