Universities and the Perils of Philanthropy
Can philanthropy be a social ill?
The British university system, like most European universities, has been financed since the Second World War largely through public sources. That is now changing. Of late, public support has been pared down, with the Labour government cutting $1.4 billion last year and the new government cutting $300 million this year. (A report released in May by the European University Association on the “Impact of the Economic Crisis on Europe... More
War Is Over
Over seven years ago, former President George W. Bush announced that an assault on Iraq had begun. In his March 19, 2003 speech, he told a tale of the glorious future to come: “My fellow citizens, the dangers to our country and the world will be overcome....We will bring freedom to others. And we will prevail.” President Obama’s speech last night, declaring that the war initiated that day was at an end, tacitly addressed the accuracy of those predictions.
To the first—that dangers would be overcome—Obama responded with a prediction of his own.
World Philosophy Day in Tehran?
Earlier this year, our friends at Reset-DoC appealed UNESCO’s decision to hold its World Philosophy Day event, coming in November, in Tehran. Giuliano Amato, Giancarlo Bosetti, and Ramin Jahanbegloo wrote, “It is certain that under current conditions a World Philosophy Day could not be held in ‘normal’ conditions in Iran and that many philosophers would not be able to attend freely.” In a recent update to that appeal, they write:
Most Iraqis Want U.S. Troops To Leave...But Not Right Away
Today marks the official end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq. Barack Obama will be giving a nationally televised address about it tonight; Iraq’s Prime Minister Maliki celebrated the occasion with a speech declaring that U.S.-Iraqi relations “have entered a new stage between two equal, sovereign countries.”
Obviously, that formulation about “the end of the U.S... More
Do the Republicans Have a Serious Economic Program?
And, in particular, do the Republicans’ economic proposals offer any serious, realistic prospect of reducing the long-term federal deficit—a problem about which they pretend to be terribly concerned, despite their conspicuous record of fiscal profligacy whenever they have been in control since 1980?
I think the answer is obviously no. But there’s no need to take my word for it—or, more to to point, to rely on Paul Krugman or the kinds of analysts who write for Dissent. A piece earlier this month by the right-of-center columnist Clive Crook, who really ... More
The Beck Who Would Be King
On Saturday, Glenn Beck held a Christian revival meeting on the Mall for a few hundred thousand of his disciples. As such events go, the “Restoring Honor” event was remarkably subdued. The average age of the participants was somewhere in the fifties or older: white and gray hair and spreading midriffs predominated in the nearly all-white crowd. This may have been the first Washington rally in history at which a majority of the participants rested on portable folding chairs.
And the message delivered over and over again from the podium on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial would have ... More
From the Archives: New Orleans, Five Years after Katrina
Five years have passed since Hurricane Katrina reached New Orleans and the surrounding coastline on the Gulf of Mexico, causing one of the greatest disasters in recent American history. In 2006, Darryl Lorenzo Wellington traveled to the city, describing scenes of frustration and enumerating challenges that remain to this day.
Read the article here.
Presidents Don't Like To Be Pressured
During the first year of the Obama administration, there was a historical anecdote that was exceedingly popular on the Left. It went something like this: amid the Great Depression, a prominent labor leader goes into the White House for a meeting with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The activist lays out an agenda of urgent changes that need to be enacted. Roosevelt responds, “You’ve convinced me. I would like to push forward these changes. Now go out and make me do it.”
Those who take the time to... More
Who Speaks for the UN on Darfur: The Role of Nigeria’s Ibrahim Gambari
Darfur has never been so vulnerable to a collapse of humanitarian operations, never so insecure, and never so unprotected by the peacekeeping force that the UN has deployed. As the recent events at Kalma camp in South Darfur demonstrate, now is perhaps the last moment for decisive leadership on the part of the peacekeeping force in Darfur, known as UNAMID. Kalma camp—one of the largest and most politicized of Darfur’s Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps—has been the focus of a three-week standoff that has seen a complete shutdown of humanitarian access and a brutal dispersal of much o... More
The Corporate “Race to the Bottom” and the Blindspots of Power Elite Liberalism
In upstate New York, a bitter strike between Mott’s Apple Juice and its production workers has become the latest battle against the “race to the bottom,” the process of undercutting labor market standards that has plagued American labor for the last three decades. As Steve Greenhouse tells the story of the months-long strike in the New York Times, the Dr. Pepper Snapple conglomerate that owns Mott’s Apple Juice is seeking a $1.50 cut in the hourly wage rate (which would slash annual income by approximately $3000), ... More
