NAFTA and Drug War Violence in Mexico

An excellent video from the RealNews Network on the background of the Drug War violence that has recently been spinning out of control in Mexico as framed through an interview with journalist Bruce Livesey. Livesey reveals the role of the NAFTA trade agreements in the rise of the drug trade in Mexico, then leading to the violence that has been making international news over the last few years. According to Livesey, NAFTA policies had the effect of stoping the flow of drugs through Florida from Colombia. This forced cartels to shift to Mexico, which resulted in a large increase in truck flow through the US border - and included shipments of a much more diverse product line in cocaine, marijuana, heroin and crystal meth. This resulted in making the drug cartels wealthier than ever before, allowing them to confront Mexican law enforcement and military.

Another interesting result of NAFTA is that it allowed US produce into Mexican market, which effectively wiped out much of Mexican agricultural sector, and pushed workers off of their land and to factories near the US border. With rise of China and India in production, poor displaced workers were in Mexico were suddenly out of work, turning to the cartels and the drug trade as their only option. Livesey provides an interesting argument, and brings to light why neoliberal policies like NAFTA have not been kind to the workers and the poor. Check out the video here:

Click here for part 2 of the interview>>>

Inequality in the US

Questioning one's critique of the US is probably more common than we realize. While critique is often viewed as criticism, that is less the point here then who actually raises such objections. I may expect to run into blind faith in the US at my local watering holes, but I am often surprised when my students object, or more commonly are indifferent to such critiques. A series on Slate by Timothy Noah (titled the United States of Inequality) offers a number of excellent reasons why more people need to critique the current state of affairs here in the States, and while there are numerous and varied reasons to offer such critique, Noah is focussing on the growing gap between the rich and the poor in a country that has historically held a propensity for the myth of equality.

What current analyses show is that the richest 1% of the US - and especially the ultra-richest 0.1% - are making more then ever, and represent the largest percentage of wealth since the era of the Robber Barons and the Industrial Revolution. Thus forms the basis of the Slate series:

"This was the era in which the accumulated wealth of America's richest families—the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, the Carnegies—helped prompt creation of the modern income tax, lest disparities in wealth turn the United States into a European-style aristocracy. The socialist movement was at its historic peak, a wave of anarchist bombings was terrorizing the nation's industrialists, and President Woodrow Wilson's attorney general, Alexander Palmer, would soon stage brutal raids on radicals of every stripe. In American history, there has never been a time when class warfare seemed more imminent. That was when the richest 1 percent accounted for 18 percent of the nation's income. Today, the richest 1 percent account for 24 percent of the nation's income."

Noah shares that the top 1% (those who make about $368,000 or more) saw their income share more than double since 1973, while the ultra-rich top 0.1% (those who make $1 million or more) saw their share more than quadruple in the same time period. There are a number of such fascinating statistics and graphics that delve into how this has happens, and explanations about what it means. Noah brings attention to the fact that the US is more unequal than most countries in Latin America - a region usually thought of as being dominated by the descendants of the European aristocracy that ruled for hundreds of years. He offers an analysis of the role that race and gender are playing (or more accurately, not playing) in these changes, along with what some may see as surprising insight into the immigration debate:

"When economists look at actual labor markets, most find little evidencethat immigration harms the economic interests of native-born Americans, and much evidence that it stimulates the economy."

Stay alert to forthcoming pieces in the series, as the first few have been insightful and interesting. This is the type of information that helps to justify critique, and may aid in furthering the realization that all is not well in the world of the US.

Graphic Source: Catherine Mulbrandon of VisualizingEconomics.com

Some of the Ways 'Work' Works

Worker exploitation and mistreatment or barbecues and farewells to summer? The history of Labor Day and the way it is celebrated captures an interesting dynamic in the way "work" works in the U.S. A few recent articles reflects these different issues, and what better time to reflect on them than on the holiday that has a unique way of simultaneously commercializing and challenging the structures that prop up the country's approach to working and, by extension, to living.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, along with other grassroots labor organizations, continues to take Trader Joe's to task for the corporation's refusal to sign onto the Fair Food Campaign, which would provide better working conditions for Florida tomato pickers. As reported by Leslie Hatfield and Karen Kanan Corea on Ecocentric, the CIW, Jewish Labor Committee, Just Harvest USA and the Farmworker Solidarity Alliance, protested at a Trader Joe's store in New York City two weeks ago in an effort to pressure the company to join the leagues of Whole Foods, Taco Bell/Yum Brands, McDonald’s, Subway, and Compass in the Fair Food Campaign.

In Dissent Magazine, Mark Engler writes about a new report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco called "The Effect of Immigrants on U.S. Employment and Productivity." The report's findings clash with the twisted-lingo of current anti-immigrant campaigns. The report concluded that “there is no evidence that immigrants crowd out U.S.-born workers in either the short or long run.” While this report does little to address the real problems affecting immigrant workers in the U.S., it does, in Engler's words, set the record straight.

And, on the other end of the way "work" works spectrum, the author of Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, John de Graaf, compares the Dutch approach to the U.S. approach to work in an article titled "Wake Up Americans: It's Time to Get off the Work Treadmill." Citing a number of recent books and articles arguing just this, de Graaf is putting out a call to "Take Back Your Time," a U.S. and Canadian-based initiative "to challenge the epidemic of overwork, over-scheduling and time famine" that threatens health, relationships, communities and environment.

Happy Labor Day, and enjoy the day off, if you're fortunate enough to have it.

Consuming Selves: The Craft Beer Movement

by Lana Lynne on 8.26.2011

In a country raised on a Protestant/Puritan work ethic, where hard work and diligence is mashed together with an unhealthy dose of individualism and aesthetic abstention, it is ironic that consuming alcohol is considered by some to be the nation's first national pastime, and unsurprising that this pastime has had such a storied history. The era that perhaps stands out the most is Prohibition and the simultaneous explosion of illegal alcohol sales, when alcohol's social meaning was imbued with iconic images of moonshine and mobsters. (Literary side note: At the same time, alcohol and Prohibition informed the work of a generation of writers. Take, just as one example, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. In criticizing the moral decline of a society consumed by artifice and excess, the book offers numerous instances of alcohol consumption to contrast the moralizing efforts of its Prohibition setting.)

One could argue that the United States is entering another important moment in alcohol history with today's craft beer movement, as we witness a shift, or at least a shake-up, in the symbolic meaning and cultural role of beer in particular (as opposed to alcohol in general). According to the Brewers Association, the highest number of breweries operated in 2009 in the U.S. since before Prohibition. And while beer sales overall were down 2%, craft beer sales were up 10% over 2008. Aside from flavor and quality, what craft beer drinkers are buying into, at least on some level, is the definition of craft beer itself, "small, independent, and traditional." Yes, in the hops of United States' favorite national pastime lie seeds of challenge to a capitalist-consumerist view of alcohol championed by big breweries like Anheuser-Busch/Inbev and Miller/Coors.

Recently, CraftBeer.com posted an article by Julia Herz about how the craft beer movement has shaken up the gender stereotypes surrounding beer as well. While giving shout outs to the industry's female brewers, Herz's title "Women, Craft Beers and Centerfolds" mocks beer's traditional association with equally traditional views of masculinity and virility. The Social Issues Research Centre's brief look at gender and alcohol shows why this is a significant change:

While differences in age, class, status, aspirations and affiliations are frequently expressed through beverage choice, the most consistent and widespread use of alcohol as a social ‘differentiator’ is in the gender-based classification of drinks. Almost all societies make some distinction between ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ beverages: even where no other differentiation is found, this primary division is likely to be evident, and, often, to be rigidly observed.

Even in societies where only one alcoholic beverage is available, such as palm wine among the Lele of Zaire, a weaker, sweeter version, Mana ma piya, is considered suitable for women, while Mana ma kobo, described as ‘strong’ and ‘fierce’, is a man’s drink (Ngokwey, 1987). This literal association of the qualities of men’s and women’s beverages with ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ attributes is also a near-universal phenomenon. ‘Feminine’ drinks are often weaker, sweeter, softer or less ‘pure’ than their ‘masculine’ counterparts (Freund, 1986;Gefou-Madianou’s, 1992; Papagaroufali,1992; Purcell, 1994; Macdonald, 1994; Nahoum-Grappe, 1995).

Where female drinking is particularly deplored but nonetheless occurs, alcoholic beverages consumed by women are often conveniently granted a sort of honorary ‘non-alcoholic’ status, such that their consumption does not count as ‘drinking’ (McDonald, 1994; Purcell, 1994). Among Scottish Highlanders, the classification of ‘ladies’ drinks’ as ‘not really alcohol’ may occasionally be taken too literally: Macdonald (1994) recalls an incident in which a drunken man who drove his car off the road one night, miraculously escaping serious injury, "insisted that he had not been ‘drinking’ – he had only had Bacardi and Coke!"

Even in societies where there is less disapprobation attached to female drinking per se, we find that certain drinks are considered unfeminine, while others are regarded as too feminine for male consumption (Engs et al, 1991). The symbolic potency of alcohol is such that the appropriation of ‘male’ drinks by women may act as a more effective feminist statement than conventional political approaches such as demonstrations or pamphlets (Papagaroufali,1992; Fox, 1994).

The gender lines of the craft beer movement is just one part of a very interesting conversation that's waiting to be had. For instance (and to return briefly to the distant place where this post started), does the situation of craft beer in the big picture indicate a shift away from a work ethic that has skewed and stunted the U.S.'s perception of work and happiness (See the Center for Economic and Policy Research's report, "No-Vacation Nation")?

Follow the Lifecycle of the Majestic Plastic Bag

At once amusing and disturbing, this mockumentary follows the plastic bag from the cement jungle to the "wild" urban river and all the way to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. We've posted on the floating island twice the size of Texas before, as well as the reported plastic island that is now growing in the Atlantic.

If you're in California, check out healthebay.org, where they're working to get legislation passed to ban the use of plastic bags. If you're elsewhere, consider urging your local businesses to start replacing the oil-based plastic bags that are so common with bags that can be composted or reused - like biobags or some of the products from reuseit. With hundreds of billions of one-use oil-based plastic bags used by people each year, this remains an important issue on which we may want to consider taking action.

Enjoy the short film...

New Approach to HIV in South Africa

From Al Jazeera:

The UN estimates more than 33 million people live with HIV and Aids around the globe. There are hundreds of theories on how to limit infection rates, with most focusing on treatment of those already infected. However, a medical project in Elandsdoorn in South Africa works to encourage healthy lifestyles, focusing on motivation as much as prevention and treatment. Al Jazeera's Rosie Garthwaite reports on a scheme that is beginning to show positive results.

Recycled Minds is Back in Action!

We're back! After a two week break, your favorite bloggers will be up and running with some inspired posting and fresh ideas on where to take the Recycle Minds site. And what were we doing the last two weeks? We had a meeting in Philadelphia for a Beercation (check out my report on that over at Brews of Our Lives) and some catching up with friends and family before embarking on another fall of busy-ness. We drank voluminous amounts of good beer, ate a ton of delicious food, had great conversations late into the nights, all while generating our fair share of fun and mischief in and around the city.

One spot that we stumbled upon was Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, an amazing wonderland of mosaic art and architecture created by Philly's own Isaiah Zagar. We were there for Family Day, which made it that much more fun, with live music, capoeira performances, and kids running around in joy. We caught a slice of our visit on film - check it out:



Stay tuned for articles, links, and more here at Recycled Minds - thanks for reading (and watching)!!