October 8, 2009
Newsmakers
POLLUTION PONZI: David Barash, UW professor of psychology, frequently contributes to The Chronicle Review, the magazine of the Chronicle of Higher Education. A recent article of his spoke volumes with just its headline: “We are all Madoffs; Our relationship to the natural world is a Ponzi scheme.” The article was powerfully illustrated with a photo of two young people scavenging for plastic from a river in Jakarta jammed with pollution.
In the article, Barash wrote, “Make no mistake: Our current relationship to the world ecosystem is nothing less than a pyramid scheme, of a magnitude that dwarfs anything ever contemplated by Charles Ponzi, who, before Madoff, was the best-known practitioner of that dark art. Modern civilization’s exploitation of the natural environment is not unlike the way Madoff exploited his investors, predicated on the illusion that it will always be possible to make future payments owing to yet more exploitation down the road: more suckers, more growth, more GNP, based — as all Ponzi schemes are — on the fraud of “more and more,” with no foreseeable reckoning, and thus, the promise of no comeuppance, neither legal nor economic nor ecologic. At least in the short run. You can read the essay here.
OUTBURST NATION: Recent behavior by Rep. Joe Wilson, rapper Kanye West and tennis pro Serena Williams prompted The Los Angeles Times to ask, “What’s with all the public outbursts?” The article then added, “To some, it’s not a coincidence but rather the manifestation of a deepening social dysfunction.”
Pepper Schwartz, UW professor of sociology was quoted. “It’s extremely regrettable, but not shocking,” she said. “And there’s a viral element to it. It’s like Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point. You get to a critical mass of something and it spreads like wildfire.”
Theories abound as to why the trend toward what the article termed The New Boorishness. Schwartz offered that it took root in the anti-authority ’60s “for a very good reason: Authority was leading us into Vietnam.” Over time, she said, “we have shredded respect for every kind of institution, every kind of profession, and have indulged ourselves and our emotions at every level of society, from how kids treat their parents, how students treat their teachers and all the way up the line. So why wouldn’t it ultimately get onto the tennis courts and presidential speeches?”
You can read the article here.
WISE REQUEST?: An Associated Press article on the United Nations requesting $1.5 billion to battle the H1N1 flu virus quoted Christopher Murray, director of the UW Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation saying the total seems a lot to request considering swine flu is unlikely to be one of the world’s top killers. Murray asked, “Given that the world spends about $22 billion on all global health problems, is it really wise to spend $1.5 billion only on swine flu?”
BILLIONS UNSPENT: National Public Radio reported on the issue of school districts receiving federal stimulus money “much of which is still sitting in state accounts even though school districts need it.” They interviewed Marguerite Roza, research associate professor in the College of Education and a senior scholar at the Center on Reinventing Public Education.
“It’s very complicated,” Roza said. “When a district feels a new need like a roof, it might be tempting to say we should use the federal money, but which pot of money do I charge the new roof to?”
She said it’s also confusing that the stimulus money should be used to protect existing programs, but that the Department of Education also says it must be used to innovate. “There are definitely people who feel those two goals are at odds,” she said. Listen to the interview here; Roza comes in at about the 4:23 mark.
