Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
How a single-gender environment can lead girls to choose a STEM career
I believe I read an article in 2015 that co-ed education does not help either genders. Boys & girls learn in different ways because their brains are structured differently. But, in co-education system, & since most teachers end up being females, boys are treated the same as girls. This adversely affects the learning abilities of boys, so much so, that post-secondary education institutes in North America are reporting more female enrollment than males.
Now, here's an article highlighting the research how an all-girls education system provides positive role models & peers, which help more girls in learning & accepting that they can also achieve a successful career in STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) fields.
So, all this new research in 21st century is saying that co-education has worse outcomes for both genders. Didn't old religions also practice that thousands of years ago? I don't know about other religions whether they ever dealt with co-education issue, but Islam specifically said to keep the genders separate. Now, Islam's gender separation has a much bigger scope in society than only mixed gender schooling but schooling is a huge part of a student's life.
Western countries ridiculed the separate gender schooling system of the Islamic countries for hundreds of years. They systematically broke that system down in the guise of gender equality in education, even when, gender equality can still be achieved with separate education system. Islamic countries instituted co-education system in the name of modern & Western education system. Now, the research from Western education institutes is coming out to affirm the benefits of single-gender education system.
Western countries, & their public, are like those stubborn & rebellious children that when they are told by their parents not to do something, they will still do it, & when they suffer because of their actions, then they learn the benefits what their parents said, based on their knowledge & wisdom. Except, the difference in a child doing something wrong & then learning from it, & countries changing their social, educational, & political systems to follow certain other countries, & then learning that they might've made a mistake is not the same. Turning around such social, educational, & political systems take decades & decades, & affect generations after generations.
So the hard lesson here is, & especially for Muslims, that blindly following the West will only lead you to disaster. Critically analyse what & why something is positive & negative in the light of modern science of the time & religion, & then implement it if it seems beneficial.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's a call heard from academia to business: More women are needed in the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering & math. But how best to encourage girls to consider careers in STEM?
It turns out simply encouraging them to take risks & be the best they can in any subject leads many to consider STEM fields.
This is the strategy of many all-girls' schools.
For St. Clement’s School principal Martha Perry, simply ensuring that her pupils receive a well-rounded education is the focus of the school.
“Our emphasis is girls learning, and if girls are interested and keen on a STEM subject then we’re going to make sure we support them and we are going to make sure that they have access to the best possible instruction, the best possible facilities and the best possible experience to be learning,” she says.
Not that she has to be overly concerned. Of the Toronto all-girls school’s most recent graduating class, roughly one third of the 64 students were going on to study STEM subjects at the post-secondary level.
Studying at a single-sex school may have a bearing on that. According to a study by Goodman Research Group, which evaluates programs, graduates of girls’ schools are six times more likely to consider majoring in math, science & technology at the postsecondary level compared with their peers at co-ed schools.
A similar study undertaken by the University of California, Los Angeles, commissioned by the U.S.-based National Coalition of Girls’ Schools, suggests that girls’ school graduates are three times more likely than their co-ed independent-school peers to consider engineering careers.
From Ms. Perry’s perspective, the nurturing surroundings of an all-girls school play an important part in their development. St. Clement’s doesn’t put an overarching emphasis on STEM subjects, believing instead that the school’s best role is to give its students the opportunity to believe that they have the capacity to make a difference in anything they do.
“I think a girls-only environment actually allows girls to explore their own passions and their own interests and affords us the opportunity to provide them with a wealth of different options to explore,” she says.
The reasons for this vary. According to Megan Murphy, the executive director of the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (NCGS) in Virginia, two of the biggest are peer role models & overcoming a media message that too often portrays women as being less capable than their male counterparts in STEM subjects. In addition, she says, historically the majority of science teachers at girls’ schools were women, too.
“Whether it’s from a faculty perspective, a graduate perspective, or a peer perspective, girls at girls schools have a wealth of role models and I think that’s probably the key factor as to why we see so many more girls at girls’ schools pursuing STEM subjects as undergraduates,” she says.
In addition, she explains, being around peer role models who love science & math helps deflect some of the media or popular culture messages that portray women as less capable of successfully studying STEM subjects than men.
Being among peers doing the same thing, whether in a physics club or a science Olympiad, helps build girls’ confidence that they can thrive in STEM subjects. That confidence is key to a long-term commitment to a field of study. For instance, the UCLA study suggests that 47.7% of women entering postsecondary education from single-sex schools felt well prepared in math, compared to 36.6% entering college from co-ed schools.
“When you check out of Algebra 1, even in a little way, that’s a critical building block for every single science or technology class that comes after that,” Ms. Murphy says. “So if you lose them in the pipeline as middle schoolers, it’s really hard to get them back.”
...
Much like St. Clement’s, Elmwood School in Ottawa doesn’t put a direct emphasis on teaching STEM subjects, but helps its students build what headmistress Cheryl Boughton refers to as “balanced brains,” based on a concept explored by American educator & psychologist Dr. JoAnn Deak.
Consequently, the responsibility charged to Ms. Boughton & the rest of the faculty is to ensure that by the time the girls graduate from Elmwood, they are well versed in all areas of academia & not just the subjects in which they are particularly strong.
...
Now, here's an article highlighting the research how an all-girls education system provides positive role models & peers, which help more girls in learning & accepting that they can also achieve a successful career in STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) fields.
So, all this new research in 21st century is saying that co-education has worse outcomes for both genders. Didn't old religions also practice that thousands of years ago? I don't know about other religions whether they ever dealt with co-education issue, but Islam specifically said to keep the genders separate. Now, Islam's gender separation has a much bigger scope in society than only mixed gender schooling but schooling is a huge part of a student's life.
Western countries ridiculed the separate gender schooling system of the Islamic countries for hundreds of years. They systematically broke that system down in the guise of gender equality in education, even when, gender equality can still be achieved with separate education system. Islamic countries instituted co-education system in the name of modern & Western education system. Now, the research from Western education institutes is coming out to affirm the benefits of single-gender education system.
Western countries, & their public, are like those stubborn & rebellious children that when they are told by their parents not to do something, they will still do it, & when they suffer because of their actions, then they learn the benefits what their parents said, based on their knowledge & wisdom. Except, the difference in a child doing something wrong & then learning from it, & countries changing their social, educational, & political systems to follow certain other countries, & then learning that they might've made a mistake is not the same. Turning around such social, educational, & political systems take decades & decades, & affect generations after generations.
So the hard lesson here is, & especially for Muslims, that blindly following the West will only lead you to disaster. Critically analyse what & why something is positive & negative in the light of modern science of the time & religion, & then implement it if it seems beneficial.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's a call heard from academia to business: More women are needed in the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering & math. But how best to encourage girls to consider careers in STEM?
It turns out simply encouraging them to take risks & be the best they can in any subject leads many to consider STEM fields.
This is the strategy of many all-girls' schools.
For St. Clement’s School principal Martha Perry, simply ensuring that her pupils receive a well-rounded education is the focus of the school.
“Our emphasis is girls learning, and if girls are interested and keen on a STEM subject then we’re going to make sure we support them and we are going to make sure that they have access to the best possible instruction, the best possible facilities and the best possible experience to be learning,” she says.
Not that she has to be overly concerned. Of the Toronto all-girls school’s most recent graduating class, roughly one third of the 64 students were going on to study STEM subjects at the post-secondary level.
Studying at a single-sex school may have a bearing on that. According to a study by Goodman Research Group, which evaluates programs, graduates of girls’ schools are six times more likely to consider majoring in math, science & technology at the postsecondary level compared with their peers at co-ed schools.
A similar study undertaken by the University of California, Los Angeles, commissioned by the U.S.-based National Coalition of Girls’ Schools, suggests that girls’ school graduates are three times more likely than their co-ed independent-school peers to consider engineering careers.
From Ms. Perry’s perspective, the nurturing surroundings of an all-girls school play an important part in their development. St. Clement’s doesn’t put an overarching emphasis on STEM subjects, believing instead that the school’s best role is to give its students the opportunity to believe that they have the capacity to make a difference in anything they do.
“I think a girls-only environment actually allows girls to explore their own passions and their own interests and affords us the opportunity to provide them with a wealth of different options to explore,” she says.
The reasons for this vary. According to Megan Murphy, the executive director of the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (NCGS) in Virginia, two of the biggest are peer role models & overcoming a media message that too often portrays women as being less capable than their male counterparts in STEM subjects. In addition, she says, historically the majority of science teachers at girls’ schools were women, too.
“Whether it’s from a faculty perspective, a graduate perspective, or a peer perspective, girls at girls schools have a wealth of role models and I think that’s probably the key factor as to why we see so many more girls at girls’ schools pursuing STEM subjects as undergraduates,” she says.
In addition, she explains, being around peer role models who love science & math helps deflect some of the media or popular culture messages that portray women as less capable of successfully studying STEM subjects than men.
Being among peers doing the same thing, whether in a physics club or a science Olympiad, helps build girls’ confidence that they can thrive in STEM subjects. That confidence is key to a long-term commitment to a field of study. For instance, the UCLA study suggests that 47.7% of women entering postsecondary education from single-sex schools felt well prepared in math, compared to 36.6% entering college from co-ed schools.
“When you check out of Algebra 1, even in a little way, that’s a critical building block for every single science or technology class that comes after that,” Ms. Murphy says. “So if you lose them in the pipeline as middle schoolers, it’s really hard to get them back.”
...
Much like St. Clement’s, Elmwood School in Ottawa doesn’t put a direct emphasis on teaching STEM subjects, but helps its students build what headmistress Cheryl Boughton refers to as “balanced brains,” based on a concept explored by American educator & psychologist Dr. JoAnn Deak.
Consequently, the responsibility charged to Ms. Boughton & the rest of the faculty is to ensure that by the time the girls graduate from Elmwood, they are well versed in all areas of academia & not just the subjects in which they are particularly strong.
...
A real nation would not let this happen
A great opinion piece from last year when election campaign in Canada was all the noise (& news) in the media.
We Canadians like to think that we are all one nation & we care for each other. Non-Canadians come to visit Canada & see the urban, down-town real estate developments & enjoy the urban amenities, & consider Canada a great place to be. Canadian cities are regularly rated to be great place to live & work by international organizations.
But all that happens because nobody takes a peek behind the curtain to see how Canadian Aboriginals are faring on the forgotten reserves & even in the urban areas. Nobody, including politicians, wants to hear / see their plight. That's the same case everywhere around the world. Be it Aboriginals of US or Australia, or even poorest of the poor people, forgotten in the back country, of countries on African, Asian, & European continents.
Although, blaming the developing countries for forgetting the poorest of the poor might not be justifiable, since their urban (so-called, "middle-class") populations also struggle to make ends meet, but it is inexcusable when developed countries put millions, if not billions, in the outstretched hands of the rich suburbanites because they are a few dollars short for their new home renovations, new electronics, vacation trips, night life shenanigans etc.
The author is correct to say that although we think we are one nation; be it Canadians in Canada, Americans in America, Australians in Australia, Pakistanis in Pakistan, Indians in India, South Africans in South Africa & so on & so forth, when it comes down to our selfish interests, it is me against everyone else. We always want more. We always have less. Why?
Because we forget to look at people who are below us in our society. Perhaps, then, we can satisfy our constant hunger for more. We forget that, as a democratic nation, it is the responsibility of the general populace to reject the latest handout in the elections & annual budgets, & compel our politicians to take care of the least unfortunate & needy among us. After taking care of the humanity on the national level, all of us, as humans, are obligated to tell our politicians & international organizations to take care of the least unfortunate among us on an international level. Heck, a lot of animals (wolves & lots of grazing animals, for instance) take care of the whole herd, instead of taking care of their own little family. Are we humans worse than animals?
Michael Moore, the documentary film maker, said in one of his documentaries (if I may recall correctly, it was on the American healthcare system) that a nation is judged by how it takes care of the sick, old & needy.
Perhaps, we are eligible to call ourselves humans, only when, we take care of the whole humanity; be it in our own backyards, on our streets, in our cities, in our provinces / states, in our countries, on our continents, & in the world.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If it’s a typical eight weeks in Canada, then 1,425 Aboriginal kids dropped out of school, a rate three times the national average. Since the campaign began, 45 Aboriginal children died in infancy; they would have lived longer if they’d been born in Sri Lanka. As Canadian politicians bickered on the evening news, 1,074 Aboriginal children & 6,265 Aboriginal women were sexually assaulted. Since the writ dropped, 33,534 Aboriginals were violently victimized. Another 182 committed suicide, roughly eight times the national rate. And, if the last two months were anything like the last decade, 11 were murdered, at a rate almost seven times higher than the national average.
...
Politicians are pushing each other out of the way as they scramble to give the hard-pressed suburban middle class the help they need. Meanwhile, other Canadians living on reserves & in the inner city are disappearing, assaulting & killing each other & themselves, at a rate typically only seen in countries that have been torn apart by war.
...
The party leaders build their campaigns on ... isolated, focused announcements. Small promises for small men & women, them & us—because this strategy only works if we respond. And we do.
We respond because we are nothing more than a collection of special interest groups. We are dairy farmers or oil workers, urban or rural, francophone or anglophone, Manitobans or Nova Scotians. But we are not a people, not a nation, not really. If we were, we would not be able to ignore each other, ignore other Canadians, the way we ignore the Aboriginal community. We would not allow our politicians to reduce us to Pavlovian demographics, salivating at the sight of a specially crafted handout. We would be unleashing a full-throated cry of anger & dismay, that so many fellow Canadians are growing up alone & lost, that so many of us are living in abject poverty & then dying miserably.
We would shout down every stump speech about the “struggling” middle class & demand more for the least fortunate among us. We would scream in frustration as yet another young Aboriginal is found hanging, unnamed & unmourned.
But we don’t. We just stand there, heads down, hands out.
I don’t know who to be more ashamed of, our politicians or us.
We Canadians like to think that we are all one nation & we care for each other. Non-Canadians come to visit Canada & see the urban, down-town real estate developments & enjoy the urban amenities, & consider Canada a great place to be. Canadian cities are regularly rated to be great place to live & work by international organizations.
But all that happens because nobody takes a peek behind the curtain to see how Canadian Aboriginals are faring on the forgotten reserves & even in the urban areas. Nobody, including politicians, wants to hear / see their plight. That's the same case everywhere around the world. Be it Aboriginals of US or Australia, or even poorest of the poor people, forgotten in the back country, of countries on African, Asian, & European continents.
Although, blaming the developing countries for forgetting the poorest of the poor might not be justifiable, since their urban (so-called, "middle-class") populations also struggle to make ends meet, but it is inexcusable when developed countries put millions, if not billions, in the outstretched hands of the rich suburbanites because they are a few dollars short for their new home renovations, new electronics, vacation trips, night life shenanigans etc.
The author is correct to say that although we think we are one nation; be it Canadians in Canada, Americans in America, Australians in Australia, Pakistanis in Pakistan, Indians in India, South Africans in South Africa & so on & so forth, when it comes down to our selfish interests, it is me against everyone else. We always want more. We always have less. Why?
Because we forget to look at people who are below us in our society. Perhaps, then, we can satisfy our constant hunger for more. We forget that, as a democratic nation, it is the responsibility of the general populace to reject the latest handout in the elections & annual budgets, & compel our politicians to take care of the least unfortunate & needy among us. After taking care of the humanity on the national level, all of us, as humans, are obligated to tell our politicians & international organizations to take care of the least unfortunate among us on an international level. Heck, a lot of animals (wolves & lots of grazing animals, for instance) take care of the whole herd, instead of taking care of their own little family. Are we humans worse than animals?
Michael Moore, the documentary film maker, said in one of his documentaries (if I may recall correctly, it was on the American healthcare system) that a nation is judged by how it takes care of the sick, old & needy.
Perhaps, we are eligible to call ourselves humans, only when, we take care of the whole humanity; be it in our own backyards, on our streets, in our cities, in our provinces / states, in our countries, on our continents, & in the world.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If it’s a typical eight weeks in Canada, then 1,425 Aboriginal kids dropped out of school, a rate three times the national average. Since the campaign began, 45 Aboriginal children died in infancy; they would have lived longer if they’d been born in Sri Lanka. As Canadian politicians bickered on the evening news, 1,074 Aboriginal children & 6,265 Aboriginal women were sexually assaulted. Since the writ dropped, 33,534 Aboriginals were violently victimized. Another 182 committed suicide, roughly eight times the national rate. And, if the last two months were anything like the last decade, 11 were murdered, at a rate almost seven times higher than the national average.
...
Politicians are pushing each other out of the way as they scramble to give the hard-pressed suburban middle class the help they need. Meanwhile, other Canadians living on reserves & in the inner city are disappearing, assaulting & killing each other & themselves, at a rate typically only seen in countries that have been torn apart by war.
...
The party leaders build their campaigns on ... isolated, focused announcements. Small promises for small men & women, them & us—because this strategy only works if we respond. And we do.
We respond because we are nothing more than a collection of special interest groups. We are dairy farmers or oil workers, urban or rural, francophone or anglophone, Manitobans or Nova Scotians. But we are not a people, not a nation, not really. If we were, we would not be able to ignore each other, ignore other Canadians, the way we ignore the Aboriginal community. We would not allow our politicians to reduce us to Pavlovian demographics, salivating at the sight of a specially crafted handout. We would be unleashing a full-throated cry of anger & dismay, that so many fellow Canadians are growing up alone & lost, that so many of us are living in abject poverty & then dying miserably.
We would shout down every stump speech about the “struggling” middle class & demand more for the least fortunate among us. We would scream in frustration as yet another young Aboriginal is found hanging, unnamed & unmourned.
But we don’t. We just stand there, heads down, hands out.
I don’t know who to be more ashamed of, our politicians or us.
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
"Abandoning Religion" by Mike Luckovich
"Abandoning Religion" - Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Atlanta, GA, US
State of the World: In Search of Leadership
A good opinion piece on ineffectiveness of world leaders on leadership. Although, this piece is from last year's UN General Assembly, I have no doubt that this year's gathering will once again yield no concrete solutions but a lot of empty promises to improve the world.
A little search on Google or Amazon will get you millions of titles on the topic of leadership. Corporate world can't get enough of "leadership". But the one place the world needs leadership the most, it has the least leadership there.
Today's world leaders have big mouths but short on actually doing something about resolving several problems the world is suffering from. Today's leaders are more of "yes-people" / "butt-kissers" of the general population. Their words & actions are there to appease the general populations, just so they can be elected & money can be rolling in their bank accounts. Only difference between these so-called leaders is that some force their way in such a leadership role (dictators, for instance) & some hold so-called "elections" in so-called "democratic" countries.
Perhaps, then, we should blame the general populations of countries & even the whole regions. Today's leaders are essentially elected on the results of lofty campaign promises, not on the actual substance of their past achievements. General populations around the world have resorted to choosing their leaders based on physical attributes (Justin Trudeau of Canada, for instance) or how many lies a candidate can spew, as long as, those lies confirm the general population's own biases (Donald Trump, for instance, has been proven to state outlandish lies in his campaign speeches but millions of Americans still love him & ready to elect him their leader).
On top of that, leadership, nowadays, can be bought. Money has become the defining factor for a person to be leader, instead of, ethics, morals, empathy, conscientiousness, social responsibility, a strong sense of accountability for its own actions etc. These traits are sorely missing for today's world leaders. Instead today's leaders are the ideal definition of hypocrites. As the writer in his opinion piece says that they "preach that which they don’t practise, cause tensions, & create more problems than they solve." Furthermore, the secretary-general for Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, correctly accused the world leaders of hypocrisy "as they lecture about peace while being the world's largest manufacturers of arms, & how they rail against corruption while allowing corporations to use financial & tax loopholes."
The world indeed needs strong leadership to resolve its many problems, but, perhaps, it needs an educated & informed citizenry which chooses that kind of leadership in the first place.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here they go again. And here I am: once again in New York as world leaders pose for photographers & deliver lofty speeches at the UN's "new year" party gathering.
Judging from the attendance, the opening of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly promises to be no less of a tedious ritual than previous years.
...
The problem as I see it as I look around: There are many world leaders, but no leadership.
Spiteful and pathetic
Instead of leading by example among the "Family of Nations", world leaders are acting like toxic in-laws. They come into town to preach that which they don’t practise, cause tensions, & create more problems than they solve.
...
Obama and Putin will talk about Syria and Ukraine, but I doubt they will listen.
Such is the poor state of affairs among the UN in-laws. Political & diplomatic expediency dictate their communication, just as narrow interests hamper their cooperation.
When they do meet, as in last week's US-China summit, much of the preparation is centred on protocol, which apparently prompts other important or meaningful issues. Greetings, toasting, & playing national anthems are as - or perhaps more - important than dealing with dying Syrians or persecuted Rohingya.
What does the G-2 stand for?
Presidents Obama and Xi seemed to have decided, out of domestic concerns, that they can't or won't do much for each other, &, therefore, ensured that their summit included all the trappings of success but without any concrete achievements.
The Washington Post reported that ... there was little or no progress to report on currency manipulation & cyber espionage, etc, let alone Asian security & world poverty. ...
All of which dampens the hopes (wrongly) pinned on the new dynamics between G-2 powers - US & China - to responsibly manage the global economy, especially following the last international financial crisis.
Alas, they proved that they couldn't even act responsibly in Southeast Asia, where they're further complicating the security & economic landscape instead of improving it.
And while the US, Russia, & China fail the test of leadership, those in their shadows are incapable of coordinating among themselves or making the leap towards more meaningful roles.
Even Europe, which is presumably more capable than the rest to act globally, has been either terribly divided or playing catch-up with the US & Russia.
When was the last time you heard of Japan, India or the UK taking an international initiative of any sort? How effective is the group of G-20 when the leading G-2 fail to lead?
Brazil, India, & Germany might seek a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, but how will that lead to better world governance?
Ever since the world moved away from bipolarity of the Cold War, it's been torn between the unipolarity of US leadership, the new bipolarity of the US & China, & multipolarity of various world powers & groupings.
In other words: The old world order is no more, but there's no new world order either.
The confusion allows all to blame all, & in the process, everyone escapes accountability for their lack of international responsibility.
Lessons in leadership
For all practical purposes, world leaders have set themselves up to be lectured like amateurs on the rights & wrongs of leadership by an unlikely mentor.
Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, lectured his audience at the UN with clarity, boldness, & conviction that is lacking in great power politics.
Among other reprimands, the pope rebuked world leaders for failing to put an end to the many conflicts in the world, particularly in the Middle East, & for putting partisan interests above real human beings ...
The pontiff even scolded the global financial institutions that subject countries to oppressive lending systems & subject people to mechanisms, which generate "greater poverty, exclusion, and dependence".
The secretary-general for Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, also accused the powerful leaders of hypocrisy as they lecture about peace while being the world's largest manufacturers of arms, & how they rail against corruption while allowing corporations to use financial & tax loopholes.
...
Yes, the world is better off when leaders act in their nations' best interests. But civilisation is best served when leaders also act in the best interest of their region & that of the community of nations.
That requires leadership.
Marwan Bishara is the senior political analyst at Al Jazeera.
A little search on Google or Amazon will get you millions of titles on the topic of leadership. Corporate world can't get enough of "leadership". But the one place the world needs leadership the most, it has the least leadership there.
Today's world leaders have big mouths but short on actually doing something about resolving several problems the world is suffering from. Today's leaders are more of "yes-people" / "butt-kissers" of the general population. Their words & actions are there to appease the general populations, just so they can be elected & money can be rolling in their bank accounts. Only difference between these so-called leaders is that some force their way in such a leadership role (dictators, for instance) & some hold so-called "elections" in so-called "democratic" countries.
Perhaps, then, we should blame the general populations of countries & even the whole regions. Today's leaders are essentially elected on the results of lofty campaign promises, not on the actual substance of their past achievements. General populations around the world have resorted to choosing their leaders based on physical attributes (Justin Trudeau of Canada, for instance) or how many lies a candidate can spew, as long as, those lies confirm the general population's own biases (Donald Trump, for instance, has been proven to state outlandish lies in his campaign speeches but millions of Americans still love him & ready to elect him their leader).
On top of that, leadership, nowadays, can be bought. Money has become the defining factor for a person to be leader, instead of, ethics, morals, empathy, conscientiousness, social responsibility, a strong sense of accountability for its own actions etc. These traits are sorely missing for today's world leaders. Instead today's leaders are the ideal definition of hypocrites. As the writer in his opinion piece says that they "preach that which they don’t practise, cause tensions, & create more problems than they solve." Furthermore, the secretary-general for Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, correctly accused the world leaders of hypocrisy "as they lecture about peace while being the world's largest manufacturers of arms, & how they rail against corruption while allowing corporations to use financial & tax loopholes."
The world indeed needs strong leadership to resolve its many problems, but, perhaps, it needs an educated & informed citizenry which chooses that kind of leadership in the first place.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here they go again. And here I am: once again in New York as world leaders pose for photographers & deliver lofty speeches at the UN's "new year" party gathering.
Judging from the attendance, the opening of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly promises to be no less of a tedious ritual than previous years.
...
The problem as I see it as I look around: There are many world leaders, but no leadership.
Spiteful and pathetic
Instead of leading by example among the "Family of Nations", world leaders are acting like toxic in-laws. They come into town to preach that which they don’t practise, cause tensions, & create more problems than they solve.
...
Obama and Putin will talk about Syria and Ukraine, but I doubt they will listen.
Such is the poor state of affairs among the UN in-laws. Political & diplomatic expediency dictate their communication, just as narrow interests hamper their cooperation.
When they do meet, as in last week's US-China summit, much of the preparation is centred on protocol, which apparently prompts other important or meaningful issues. Greetings, toasting, & playing national anthems are as - or perhaps more - important than dealing with dying Syrians or persecuted Rohingya.
What does the G-2 stand for?
Presidents Obama and Xi seemed to have decided, out of domestic concerns, that they can't or won't do much for each other, &, therefore, ensured that their summit included all the trappings of success but without any concrete achievements.
The Washington Post reported that ... there was little or no progress to report on currency manipulation & cyber espionage, etc, let alone Asian security & world poverty. ...
All of which dampens the hopes (wrongly) pinned on the new dynamics between G-2 powers - US & China - to responsibly manage the global economy, especially following the last international financial crisis.
Alas, they proved that they couldn't even act responsibly in Southeast Asia, where they're further complicating the security & economic landscape instead of improving it.
And while the US, Russia, & China fail the test of leadership, those in their shadows are incapable of coordinating among themselves or making the leap towards more meaningful roles.
Even Europe, which is presumably more capable than the rest to act globally, has been either terribly divided or playing catch-up with the US & Russia.
When was the last time you heard of Japan, India or the UK taking an international initiative of any sort? How effective is the group of G-20 when the leading G-2 fail to lead?
Brazil, India, & Germany might seek a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, but how will that lead to better world governance?
Ever since the world moved away from bipolarity of the Cold War, it's been torn between the unipolarity of US leadership, the new bipolarity of the US & China, & multipolarity of various world powers & groupings.
In other words: The old world order is no more, but there's no new world order either.
The confusion allows all to blame all, & in the process, everyone escapes accountability for their lack of international responsibility.
Lessons in leadership
For all practical purposes, world leaders have set themselves up to be lectured like amateurs on the rights & wrongs of leadership by an unlikely mentor.
Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, lectured his audience at the UN with clarity, boldness, & conviction that is lacking in great power politics.
Among other reprimands, the pope rebuked world leaders for failing to put an end to the many conflicts in the world, particularly in the Middle East, & for putting partisan interests above real human beings ...
The pontiff even scolded the global financial institutions that subject countries to oppressive lending systems & subject people to mechanisms, which generate "greater poverty, exclusion, and dependence".
The secretary-general for Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, also accused the powerful leaders of hypocrisy as they lecture about peace while being the world's largest manufacturers of arms, & how they rail against corruption while allowing corporations to use financial & tax loopholes.
...
Yes, the world is better off when leaders act in their nations' best interests. But civilisation is best served when leaders also act in the best interest of their region & that of the community of nations.
That requires leadership.
Marwan Bishara is the senior political analyst at Al Jazeera.
Friday, September 23, 2016
Refugees deserve help, but what about the EU poor?
A great opinion piece confirming my own thoughts, which I've been detailing here, on this blog. Ironically enough, the refugee crisis has not ended at all, or even getting close to an end, & the media has moved on; reporting on the refugee drownings in the back pages somewhere, if at all.
The refugee crisis didn't start with Aylan Kurdi's drowning & didn't end with the EU's refugee settlement agreement with Turkey in 2016 or with Canada & US taking a few thousand refugees. The Western media didn't bother to cover refugee crisis when refugees were making dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean & over European lands through 2011 to 2015. Of course, if the media doesn't cover these stories, the Western public is the kind that will keep sleeping, blissfully, in their ignorance. I've never seen such ignored public like the Western public; ignorance coupled with very short-term memory (most of the public has forgotten about the refugee crisis, & has moved on).
On top of the refugee crisis, which the Western countries created in the first place by supporting Assad regime & destroying Iraq, & dithering further in coming up with solutions to resolve the violence & the consequent refugee crisis, they try to absorb as many refugees as they can. Now, as I've said before, helping refugees should definitely be done. No questions about it.
BUT, as a Western government, it also needs to help its own citizens. Forcing your own people to suffer in a very austere economic climate, while doling out millions on refugees, will only going to fan the flames of hatred, animosity, & enmity. The Donald Trumps, Nigel Farages, & Marine Le Pens of the Western political arenas did, & are still doing, exactly that; spreading the hatred of refugees & Muslims (since, refugees are mostly from Islamic countries) by courting to those kinds of groups in their countries who are disenfranchised, marginalised, & left to fend for themselves in this latest economic crisis. Ironically enough, even Islam teaches that an individual has much bigger responsibility of taking care of its family, first & foremost, before it starts to dole out its fortune on all its neighbours.
The last two paragraphs succinctly summarize the whole opinion piece. This refugee crisis is indeed a global humanitarian crisis because refugees are not only Syrians & Iraqis but also in SouthEast Asia (Rohingyas, for example) & in Central Asia (Afghans, Hazaras, Kazakhs etc.) & in South Sudan, Nigeria, Libya, Zimbabwe, Uganda etc. They are all in refugee status because their livelihoods has been taken away from them, with the help of world's powerful countries of the Global North (US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, China, Russia etc.) who are selling arms & weapons, by the ship loads to these already-impoverished countries, implementing & enforcing trade rules which help their own trade balances, & are not willing to severely curtail their environmental footprints, which in turn leads to environmental disasters in Syria, Iraq, & the African continent. Did you know that drought & climate change were factors in this Syrian uprising?
It is true that justice cannot be enforced through armed interventions. Every refugee is indeed made because a) he/she is the victim of the "might is right" foreign policies of the Western world & b) that he/she is not getting any justice, whatsoever.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aylan Kurdi has achieved more in death than he ever could in life. The image of his three-year old body lying just beyond the waves on a Turkish beach, will forever taunt the West with the lie of its claim to being synonymous with civilization & justice.
Ignorance
It says much about the ignorance that permeates Western culture when the picture of one dead child can cause so many to emote over their lattes, compel others to embark on collections & aid missions to refugees in Calais, Hungary, Greece, & Turkey, without eliciting the slightest understanding of why Aylan & countless others like him have perished; & why so many human beings are all of a sudden desperate to come to Europe, despite the huge risk such a perilous journey involves.
The mass exodus of refugees from the Middle East did not begin with the death of this three-year old Syrian boy. He is not the first child to have drowned in the attempt & nor will he be the last. This exodus has been taking place for 3 or 4 years – years in which European governments have extended themselves in doing their utmost to deepen the conflict, societal collapse, & instability that now scars a large swathe of the Middle East & North Africa (MENA).
In this they have been aided by a complicit media, which has succeeded in reducing the world to a struggle between the West - that pillar of human rights, democracy, & civilization - & everyone else, by implication those who are against human rights, democracy, & civilization. This narrative could only succeed with the acquiescence of a populace that has willingly suspended disbelief when it comes to the chaos & conflict that in recent years has been the rule rather than the exception across much of the world.
...
Difficult dilemma
Across Western Europe, after the wave of pro-refugee sentiment we are witnessing inevitably dies down, wherein people previously welcomed with the fist of fury are for the first time being treated as human beings in desperate need of help, governments are going to be faced with a difficult dilemma.
Under the policy of austerity that has reigned across Europe over the past few years we have seen workers, the poor, disabled, & the most economically disadvantaged hit with cuts to their incomes, cuts to the public services upon which they depend, resulting in many cases in the imposition of poverty & despair. This has all been done in the name of tackling an economic recession brought to the world courtesy of a banking & financial system that has more in common with a casino on the Las Vegas Strip than institutions entrusted with the pensions & investments of millions of people.
The point is that austerity has been sold & implemented on the basis that there is no alternative, that the money required to fund public services, pay salaries & benefits is no longer available. Yet now, all of a sudden, people forced to suffer the worst under austerity are finding out that this is nonsense - that when it comes to absorbing thousands of refugees from the Middle East there actually is money available.
This contradiction is pregnant with danger inasmuch as the absorption of thousands of refugees from the Middle East & elsewhere, unless accompanied by immediate investment in infrastructure, services, housing, & so on, may only succeed in raising cultural & social tensions, providing ammunition for the far right & those for whom refugees, migrants, & foreigners are deserving of nothing but enmity.
Hypocrisy of mainstream politicians
As for those politicians now clambering to announce they would be willing to invite Syrian refugees into their homes, or into their second homes, how many homeless people do you think they walk or drive past in London, Berlin, or Paris on a daily basis without so much as a thought for the despair so many of their citizens are experiencing each & every day?
This is not to suggest these refugees are not deserving or worthy of help. They clearly are, especially from those countries whose hands are covered in the blood of millions across the Middle East with their role in devastating the region, leading directly to the birth of ISIS & the proliferation of terrorism & the resulting refugee crisis, one that is now biblical in scope.
But by the same token, we cannot allow hypocrisy to prosper. There is a direct & causal relationship between the West’s foreign policy & a world that has never been so polarized & divided between rich & poor, developed & undeveloped. Indeed the wealth of the northern hemisphere is predicated on the poverty & immiseration of the southern hemisphere. As such, it could be argued that those arriving in Europe in their thousands now are merely collecting a debt of obligation that has been long overdue.
Here we come to the most nauseating aspect of this crisis. For years now the West has extended itself in trying to isolate the Assad government, demonizing it as morally equivalent to ISIS & other terrorist groups that have written a new page in history when it comes to barbarity & evil. They have facilitated this evil and until we see a reorientation of Western policy towards Syria, this barbarity will go on & on.
EU now functions in name only
... As for the EU, it now functions in name only, with its disunity, division, & dysfunction incredible to watch. Unable to arrive at a coordinated, cohesive response to this crisis, we now have a situation that demands the involvement of the UN.
This refugee crisis is not a European crisis it is a global humanitarian crisis caused by those in position of power who view the world through a skewed lens, reducing it to one giant chessboard upon which governments can be moved around, removed, & replaced at will.
‘Might is right’ can never supplant justice as the basis of international affairs. Each & every refugee is the victim of the former & a consequence of the absence of the latter.
John Wight has written for newspapers and websites across the world, including the Independent, Morning Star, Huffington Post, Counterpunch, London Progressive Journal, and Foreign Policy Journal. He is also a regular commentator on RT and BBC Radio. John is currently working on a book exploring the role of the West in the Arab Spring. You can follow him on Twitter @JohnWight1
The refugee crisis didn't start with Aylan Kurdi's drowning & didn't end with the EU's refugee settlement agreement with Turkey in 2016 or with Canada & US taking a few thousand refugees. The Western media didn't bother to cover refugee crisis when refugees were making dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean & over European lands through 2011 to 2015. Of course, if the media doesn't cover these stories, the Western public is the kind that will keep sleeping, blissfully, in their ignorance. I've never seen such ignored public like the Western public; ignorance coupled with very short-term memory (most of the public has forgotten about the refugee crisis, & has moved on).
On top of the refugee crisis, which the Western countries created in the first place by supporting Assad regime & destroying Iraq, & dithering further in coming up with solutions to resolve the violence & the consequent refugee crisis, they try to absorb as many refugees as they can. Now, as I've said before, helping refugees should definitely be done. No questions about it.
BUT, as a Western government, it also needs to help its own citizens. Forcing your own people to suffer in a very austere economic climate, while doling out millions on refugees, will only going to fan the flames of hatred, animosity, & enmity. The Donald Trumps, Nigel Farages, & Marine Le Pens of the Western political arenas did, & are still doing, exactly that; spreading the hatred of refugees & Muslims (since, refugees are mostly from Islamic countries) by courting to those kinds of groups in their countries who are disenfranchised, marginalised, & left to fend for themselves in this latest economic crisis. Ironically enough, even Islam teaches that an individual has much bigger responsibility of taking care of its family, first & foremost, before it starts to dole out its fortune on all its neighbours.
The last two paragraphs succinctly summarize the whole opinion piece. This refugee crisis is indeed a global humanitarian crisis because refugees are not only Syrians & Iraqis but also in SouthEast Asia (Rohingyas, for example) & in Central Asia (Afghans, Hazaras, Kazakhs etc.) & in South Sudan, Nigeria, Libya, Zimbabwe, Uganda etc. They are all in refugee status because their livelihoods has been taken away from them, with the help of world's powerful countries of the Global North (US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, China, Russia etc.) who are selling arms & weapons, by the ship loads to these already-impoverished countries, implementing & enforcing trade rules which help their own trade balances, & are not willing to severely curtail their environmental footprints, which in turn leads to environmental disasters in Syria, Iraq, & the African continent. Did you know that drought & climate change were factors in this Syrian uprising?
It is true that justice cannot be enforced through armed interventions. Every refugee is indeed made because a) he/she is the victim of the "might is right" foreign policies of the Western world & b) that he/she is not getting any justice, whatsoever.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aylan Kurdi has achieved more in death than he ever could in life. The image of his three-year old body lying just beyond the waves on a Turkish beach, will forever taunt the West with the lie of its claim to being synonymous with civilization & justice.
Ignorance
It says much about the ignorance that permeates Western culture when the picture of one dead child can cause so many to emote over their lattes, compel others to embark on collections & aid missions to refugees in Calais, Hungary, Greece, & Turkey, without eliciting the slightest understanding of why Aylan & countless others like him have perished; & why so many human beings are all of a sudden desperate to come to Europe, despite the huge risk such a perilous journey involves.
The mass exodus of refugees from the Middle East did not begin with the death of this three-year old Syrian boy. He is not the first child to have drowned in the attempt & nor will he be the last. This exodus has been taking place for 3 or 4 years – years in which European governments have extended themselves in doing their utmost to deepen the conflict, societal collapse, & instability that now scars a large swathe of the Middle East & North Africa (MENA).
In this they have been aided by a complicit media, which has succeeded in reducing the world to a struggle between the West - that pillar of human rights, democracy, & civilization - & everyone else, by implication those who are against human rights, democracy, & civilization. This narrative could only succeed with the acquiescence of a populace that has willingly suspended disbelief when it comes to the chaos & conflict that in recent years has been the rule rather than the exception across much of the world.
...
Difficult dilemma
Across Western Europe, after the wave of pro-refugee sentiment we are witnessing inevitably dies down, wherein people previously welcomed with the fist of fury are for the first time being treated as human beings in desperate need of help, governments are going to be faced with a difficult dilemma.
Under the policy of austerity that has reigned across Europe over the past few years we have seen workers, the poor, disabled, & the most economically disadvantaged hit with cuts to their incomes, cuts to the public services upon which they depend, resulting in many cases in the imposition of poverty & despair. This has all been done in the name of tackling an economic recession brought to the world courtesy of a banking & financial system that has more in common with a casino on the Las Vegas Strip than institutions entrusted with the pensions & investments of millions of people.
The point is that austerity has been sold & implemented on the basis that there is no alternative, that the money required to fund public services, pay salaries & benefits is no longer available. Yet now, all of a sudden, people forced to suffer the worst under austerity are finding out that this is nonsense - that when it comes to absorbing thousands of refugees from the Middle East there actually is money available.
This contradiction is pregnant with danger inasmuch as the absorption of thousands of refugees from the Middle East & elsewhere, unless accompanied by immediate investment in infrastructure, services, housing, & so on, may only succeed in raising cultural & social tensions, providing ammunition for the far right & those for whom refugees, migrants, & foreigners are deserving of nothing but enmity.
Hypocrisy of mainstream politicians
As for those politicians now clambering to announce they would be willing to invite Syrian refugees into their homes, or into their second homes, how many homeless people do you think they walk or drive past in London, Berlin, or Paris on a daily basis without so much as a thought for the despair so many of their citizens are experiencing each & every day?
This is not to suggest these refugees are not deserving or worthy of help. They clearly are, especially from those countries whose hands are covered in the blood of millions across the Middle East with their role in devastating the region, leading directly to the birth of ISIS & the proliferation of terrorism & the resulting refugee crisis, one that is now biblical in scope.
But by the same token, we cannot allow hypocrisy to prosper. There is a direct & causal relationship between the West’s foreign policy & a world that has never been so polarized & divided between rich & poor, developed & undeveloped. Indeed the wealth of the northern hemisphere is predicated on the poverty & immiseration of the southern hemisphere. As such, it could be argued that those arriving in Europe in their thousands now are merely collecting a debt of obligation that has been long overdue.
Here we come to the most nauseating aspect of this crisis. For years now the West has extended itself in trying to isolate the Assad government, demonizing it as morally equivalent to ISIS & other terrorist groups that have written a new page in history when it comes to barbarity & evil. They have facilitated this evil and until we see a reorientation of Western policy towards Syria, this barbarity will go on & on.
EU now functions in name only
... As for the EU, it now functions in name only, with its disunity, division, & dysfunction incredible to watch. Unable to arrive at a coordinated, cohesive response to this crisis, we now have a situation that demands the involvement of the UN.
This refugee crisis is not a European crisis it is a global humanitarian crisis caused by those in position of power who view the world through a skewed lens, reducing it to one giant chessboard upon which governments can be moved around, removed, & replaced at will.
‘Might is right’ can never supplant justice as the basis of international affairs. Each & every refugee is the victim of the former & a consequence of the absence of the latter.
John Wight has written for newspapers and websites across the world, including the Independent, Morning Star, Huffington Post, Counterpunch, London Progressive Journal, and Foreign Policy Journal. He is also a regular commentator on RT and BBC Radio. John is currently working on a book exploring the role of the West in the Arab Spring. You can follow him on Twitter @JohnWight1
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