Wednesday, October 15, 2003

Urugayan perspective Posted here Wednesday, October 15, 2003 at 4:26:50 PM     The view from the US does not incorporate views from other places.. By Eduardo Galeano. Writer, Uruguay Translation. coorditrad@attac.org The economy makes assassinations that don't appear in the newspapers:12 children die of hunger every minute. In the terrorist organisation of the world, protected by military power, a thousand million people suffer from chronic hunger and six hundred million people are overweight. Strong economy, low standard of living: Ecuador and El Salvador have adopted the dollar as their national currency, but their populations are fleeing. Never has so much poverty and emigration been seen in these countries. The sale of human meat abroad creates disturbance, sadness and divides. In 2001, the people of Ecuador obliged to seek work elsewhere sent more money back home than the amount of exports in bananas, shrimp, tuna, coffee and cacao.Uruguay and Argentina are excluding their young men. Emigrants, grandchildren of immigrants, turn their backs on destroyed families and memories that hurt "Doctor, my soul hurts": which hospital has the cure please? En Argentina, a television show allows watchers to win a top prize: a job. The waiting lists are eternal. The program chooses candidates and the public votes. The candidate spilling enough tears to make the public cry wins. Sony Pictures is selling the successful program throughout the world. ********

Note on individualism. Posted here Wednesday, October 15, 2003 at 2:26:01 PM     Given that human beings are characteristically projectors of deeper human qualities either on to gods or heros, we can  see that idividualism is not a nutural stance: it tends to empower individuals with god pojected powers, and to de-divinize the surrounding natural envirnment and its forces. Thus theories of projection tend to support the indivdualist view (projections come from the psyche, rather than being intuitive perceptions of nature). Individualism is not objective: it is a belief system with consequences.   ********

Posted here Wednesday, October 15, 2003 at 10:32:45 AM     observation Parents are afraid that, if teachers were paid more (as much as the parents make) the teachers would more easily take over the whole role of the parents. Social distance protects the parents' connection with the children. The parents envy of the teachers is supported by their contempt for the incomes. ********