Tag Archives: african

Italian Magazine Giant Steals My Pope Idea

by LKCWilliams Posted on March 5, 2014

Mother Jones

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The New York Times reports today on a new magazine about Pope Francis:

The 68-page Il Mio Papa (My Pope) will hit Italian newsstands on Ash Wednesday, offering a glossy medley of papal pronouncements and photographs, along with peeks into his personal life. Each weekly issue will also include a pullout centerfold of the pope, accompanied by a quote.

“It’s a sort of fanzine, but of course it can’t be like something you’d do for One Direction,” the popular boy band, said the magazine’s editor, Aldo Vitali. “We aim to be more respectful, more noble.”

Uh huh. Look, can I call it, or can I call it? Below left is my cover mockup cover from a year ago. On the right is the real thing. I demand royalties.

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Why Ben Affleck Is Qualified to Testify Before the Senate on Atrocities in Congo

by Sheeritwern Posted on February 20, 2014

Mother Jones

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On Thursday, John Hudson at Foreign Policy reported that actor Ben Affleck is set to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next Wednesday to testify on the mass killings in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Affleck’s inclusion among the experts scheduled to testify invited some predictable skepticism and ridicule. In response to the news, Washington Post digital foreign editor Anup Kaphle tweeted, “zzzzzz…” National Review correspondent Jim Geraghty joked, “If a Congressman asks about his qualifications as a Congo expert, Ben Affleck should simply answer, ‘I’m Batman.'”

“People serious about resolving problems—especially problems related to life and death—want to have serious conversations with experts and leaders in the field; not celebrities,” a Republican aide at the House Foreign Affairs Committee told Foreign Policy‘s “The Cable.” (House Republicans reportedly declined to hold a similar, Affleck-inclusive event.)

It’s pretty easy to laugh at the idea of the one-time Gigli and Pearl Harbor star now lecturing senators on atrocities in Central Africa. But the Oscar-winning future Batman knows his stuff. He isn’t some celebrity who just happened to open his mouth about a humanitarian cause (think: Paris Hilton and Rwanda). The acclaimed Argo director has repeatedly traveled to Congo and has even met with warlords accused of atrocities. Here’s his 2008 report from the country for ABC’s Nightline, in which he discusses mass rape, war, and survival:

ABC Entertainment News|ABC Business News

Affleck previously testified before the House Armed Services Committee on the humanitarian crisis in the African nation. That same year, he made the media rounds with Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) to discuss renewed violence in Congo. In 2011, he testified before the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee. In 2010, Affleck founded the Eastern Congo Initiative, an advocacy and grant-making 501(c)(3) organization. On top of all that, he made this video this month (in which he and Matt Damon humorously trade insults) to help raise money for the Initiative.

So, are there experts who know more about the Democratic Republic of the Congo than Ben Affleck? Of course—and some of them will also testify before the Senate committee next week. But celebrities testifying before Congress, or heading to the Hill to make their case, isn’t exactly new. Harrison Ford has swung by the House and Senate to talk about planes, and Val Kilmer visited Capitol Hill last year to push for the expansion of Americans’ ability to claim religious exemptions to Obamacare’s health insurance mandate.

With Affleck, you get testimony from a famous person who has really done his homework.

Click here to check out our interactive map of celebrity humanitarian efforts in (and the “celebrity recolonization” of) Africa.

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Why Ben Affleck Is Qualified to Testify Before the Senate on Atrocities in Congo

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In Los Angeles Mall, Santas of All Types and Colors

by Delores Crane Posted on December 14, 2013

Mother Jones

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The LA Times reports today about Langston Patterson, a black man who’s played Santa at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza since 2004:

Patterson’s place in the Christmas traditions of black families seems only to have increased as the African American population of Los Angeles continues to decline amid waves of Latino immigration. The Crenshaw mall now has both a black Santa and a Spanish-speaking Latino Santa, a nod to the demographic shift. “We make a point to stay in tune with our community,” said Rachel Erickson, the mall’s marketing director.

The Times reports that Patterson is very popular with the local community, which is thrilled that their kids grow up knowing that Santa can be black as well as white. But Patterson is a rarity. A local Santa trainer says he’s had three black pupils out of 2,200 in the past decade.

And the best part of the whole story? It’s just a story. It doesn’t mention Megyn Kelly even in passing.

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In Los Angeles Mall, Santas of All Types and Colors

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Remembering Nelson Mandela and His Fight for Climate Justice

by SeleneTierney Posted on December 10, 2013

Mother Jones

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This story first appeared on the Grist website and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Nelson Mandela, who died last week, is best known for his fight against South African apartheid. But his long walk to freedom also included steps toward solving this mammoth problem called climate change. He envisioned a world where all people are able to live a fully dignified life, with clean air to breathe and clean water to drink—and where poor countries are not left with the repercussions of rich nation’s dirty ways.

Six years ago, Mandela founded The Elders, a cross-cultural group of leaders from across the globe, including former President Jimmy Carter and former United Nations Chief Kofi Annan, to forge human rights-based solutions to worldwide problems. One of the group’s top priorities is climate justice, which is not only about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also about ensuring the protection of those people and regions most vulnerable to the worst of climate change’s impacts.

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Remembering Nelson Mandela and His Fight for Climate Justice

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Conservative newspaper declares love for Obama’s fracker-friendly ways

by Aaron Darek Posted on May 8, 2013

Conservative newspaper declares love for Obama’s fracker-friendly ways

By John Upton

Twitter user Maimonides,

via The Washington Post

A

Washington Examiner

front page in 2010, after Obama called on blacks, Hispanics, women, and young people to vote.

Uber-conservative Beltway newspaper The Washington Examiner has revealed its secret crush on Barack Obama and his administration’s fracker-friendly ways.

It’s not often that the newspaper says anything nice about the president. The Examiner is owned by Philip Anschutz, an oil-drilling magnate, and the newspaper sometimes seems to exist only to beam its owner’s conservative views into the brains of D.C. insiders.

In March, for example, the paper’s editorial writers likened the president to “a desperate gambler who doubles down on a losing bet” after he called for more green energy spending. In January, the editorial writers charged that “Obamacare threatens states’ fiscal autonomy.” And, famously, back in 2009, Examiner political correspondent Byron York argued that Obama’s “sky-high ratings among African-Americans make some of his positions appear a bit more popular overall than they actually are” — as if the opinions of blacks shouldn’t count.

But when it comes to the Obama administration’s complicity in the nationwide fracking spree, the Examiner has nothing but love. Here are some excerpts from “Two cheers for Obama on fracking,” the newspaper’s May 5 editorial:

Two significant pieces of good news last week deserved more attention than they received. First, the U.S. Geological Survey reported that recoverable natural gas resources in the northern Plains states are three times greater than previously thought. Second, President Obama’s newest secretary of the interior, Sally Jewell, said “we must develop our domestic energy resources armed with the best available science, and this unbiased, objective information will help private, nonprofit and government decision makers at all levels make informed decisions about the responsible development of these resources.”

Jewell was referring to hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” the process by which a pressurized mixture of (mostly) water and chemicals is injected into shale rock formations deep underground. …

More recently, Obama’s pick for Secretary of Energy, MIT scientist Ernest Moniz, has described water and air pollution risks associated with fracking “challenging but manageable” with proper regulation and oversight. …

For all of its claims regarding fracking’s dangers, Big Green’s real concern is that natural gas is becoming so plentiful and cheap that it will undermine the case for more expensive renewable energy. The fact that a succession of federally subsidized green-energy companies has been going bust doesn’t help the critics’ cause.

With Moniz’s nomination, Obama appears willing to at least minimize regulatory obstacles to fracking and thereby reap the rewards of clean, cheap, abundant domestic energy. Good for him. With American economic growth dependent on energy, it’s time to get fracking.

The president appears to have reached so far across the aisle on this one that he has tumbled fully to the other side.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

tweets

, posts articles to

Facebook

, and

blogs about ecology

. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants:

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Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story

by Myrna Posted on April 26, 2013

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Faux meats get a boost from horsemeat scandal

by olikellopas Posted on March 6, 2013

Faux meats get a boost from horsemeat scandal

By Susie Cagle

Thanks, horsemeat! Faux meats in the U.K. are seeing a big uptick in popularity after the recent spate of Euro meat contamination.

The Guardian reports:

Quorn, the UK’s biggest vegetarian ready meal brand, said it had seen sales growth more than double in the second half of February as shoppers snapped up its burgers, mince and sausages made from a form of fungus. The company is having to increase the number of shifts at its fermenting plant to cope with demand.

Other specialist brands have also enjoyed a surge in sales since January when regulators found horsemeat in ready-made burgers sold in supermarkets. [British supermarket chain] Asda said sales of meat-free foods had been booming in recent weeks as the scandal has widened to include well known brands including Findus and Birds Eye.

Fry’s, a South African brand which sells frozen vegetarian sausages and pies mainly to health foods shops such as Holland & Barrett, said sales had risen 30% since the beginning of February, three times the pace of its growth over the last few years.

cizuskas

The ingredients of Quorn burgers don’t include horse.

At the same time, sales of frozen meat burgers tumbled. From The Huffington Post:

From Jan. 17 to Feb. 17, sales of frozen hamburgers fell by a full 43 percent in the United Kingdom, according to the London-based group Kantar Worldpanel, which gathers consumer data from about 30,000 households throughout the U.K.

Bad news for burgers, great news for the planet, which would really prefer you eat more plants than animals. And hey, why not make that choice permanently? After all, those animals are only getting more expensive. The Guardian again:

Kevin Brennan, the chief executive of Quorn, said the horsemeat scandal had served to highlight the rising cost of meat protein, particularly beef, and those cost pressures would mean more and more people would seek out alternatives in future. High beef prices are thought to have been a key factor behind the contamination of ready meals with cheaper horsemeat.

Beef prices are expected to continue to rise in future. Raising a cow requires the use of a relatively large amount of feed-crops such as wheat or soybeans and, as the world’s population grows, competition for those crops will increase. At the same time, demand for meat is on the rise, particularly in parts of Asia.

“Over time beef is going to become more of a luxury,” Brennan said.

Over the long term, will people respond by choosing more plant-based proteins or tucking into some sustainable ponies?

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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‘Soul Food Junkies’ digs into African American food history and habits

by RubinkJoseph Posted on January 14, 2013

‘Soul Food Junkies’ digs into African American food history and habits

By Susie Cagle

Is soul food “the bane of African American health,” or is it a cuisine with a long and complex cultural history?

What if it’s both?

Filmmaker Byron Hurt’s documentary Soul Food Junkies premiering tonight on PBS aims to tell the history of soul food and contextualize collards, peas, and cornbread in the contemporary fight for food justice in communities of color, communities we often call “food deserts.”

Food deserts are by definition low-income communities without supermarkets or grocery stores, where fresh food is a rarity and people suffer from obesity, diabetes, and other health problems. We often blame food deserts themselves for those health problems, but that label can obscure culinary history, not to mention some basic facts. Many poor urban neighborhoods aren’t actually food deserts at all — they’re closer to food swamps full of ready-made and relatively cheap processed items. The “nutritional timberline,” as Karla Cornejo Villavicencio coins it at The New Inquiry, is a real thing.

In Hurt’s film, he interviews a woman who is upset that her local grocery only carries vegetables “that look like they’re having a nervous breakdown.” From PBS:

The idea is that if healthy choices are available, people will buy them. And that works to an extent. But old habits die hard. A 15-year longitudinal study found that upping the number of grocery stores in low-income areas didn’t result in people automatically buying healthier food.

“Just because you build it, doesn’t mean you will change people’s behavior,” study author Barry Popkin, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in a Time magazine article. “Price, quality, accessibility, incentives, they matter too. Every community is different, but new efforts or supplementing existing infrastructure works if they’re accompanied with affordable prices, education, promotion or community collaboration.”

Efforts that only increase the availability of nice organic lettuce don’t do anything to address the personal food culture that drives mealtime choices in these communities. And let’s face it: A lot of food justice work in these communities is done by well-meaning but kind of patronizing white people.

Hurt hopes his film “will be used widely as a discussion starter in communities of color around food consumption, health, wellness, and fitness.” In an interview with the Smithsonian’s Food & Think blog, Hurt said, “I think the film is really resonating with people, especially among African American people because this is the first film that I know of that speaks directly to an African American audience in ways that Food, Inc., Supersize Me, King Corn, The Future of Food, Forks over Knives and other films don’t necessarily speak to people of color. So this is really making people talk.”

Soul Food Junkies airs tonight at 10 p.m. on PBS.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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EPA administrator Lisa Jackson has left the building

by RubinkJoseph Posted on December 27, 2012

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson has left the building

By Scott Rosenberg

We knew this one was coming, but now it’s official: Lisa Jackson, President Obama’s long-embattled administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is leaving her post.

Jackson served for four years as lead environmental regulator for the Obama administration, taking innumerable volleys of criticism from all directions. Serious environmentalists felt she caved too regularly to White House-driven compromises, allowing the climate to become a footnote and essential initiatives to be watered down. Meanwhile, the Tea Party right set her up as a job-killing bogeyperson and marshal of a “war on coal.” (Green types only wished that war was real.)

As the first African American EPA administrator, Jackson brought a more inclusive approach to her environmental work — moving both her agency and the national public far beyond old green stereotypes. The achievements of Jackson’s tenure were real: major improvements in automobile emissions standards, important new controls on mercury in power-plant fumes, and the first-ever federal ruling that greenhouse gases should be classed as pollutants.

And yet no one who is conscious of the climate crisis can fail to see the last four years as, fundamentally, a failure where it most counts — a critical, fleeting, now-missed chance to jam open a closing window of opportunity and alter our global-warming course. Early in Obama’s first term, the White House and a then-Democratic Congress took one futile run at a watered-down cap-and-trade measure, then played dead on the issue. Obama barely mentioned the climate during his reelection campaign. Prospects for stronger action remain dim.

When Grist interviewed Jackson last summer, we asked her what headline she’d write over her administration’s record on climate issues. She joked about not being good at keeping her language short and sweet, then came out with:

“In accordance with the law, we moved forward with sensible, cost effective steps at the federal level on climate, using the Clean Air Act.” And I would have a second sentence — see, I can’t write headlines! But it would be something like, “The progress at state and local levels, combined with the federal level, does not obviate the need” — you can’t use obviate, it’s above fifth-grade level! — “does not obviate the need for federal legislation to address this incredibly important challenge for this and future generations.”

And here’s Jackson’s July 2012, appearance on The Colbert Report:

Source

E.P.A. Chief to Step Down, With Climate Still Low Priority, New York Times

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