OK, folks: it's show time. You may remember we talked about having a Wafer Summit Meeting in Mexico City (the DF, Distrito Federal) during the weekend of April 13-16. Well, the time has come to put it on the table. I said that we would do it if we got 12 attendees. Turns out, one person has already written me that they will be coming, so we need 11 more to make it happen. If this is an absolutely definite go for you, I need to hear about it. Since I don't want to take up blog space working out the details of all this, please write me at mauricio@morrisberman.com, and we can make arrangements via email. Cut-off date is March 14, after which I'm taking off for my 2nd West Coast tour (Vancouver and San Francisco); about which, more later. As the saying goes, be there or be round. Arriba!
mb
February 14, 2012
February 13, 2012
Land of the Free
Data reported in Adam Gopnik's New Yorker essay of January 30, "The Caging of America":
1. There are more black men in the grip of the American criminal-justice system today than there were in slavery in 1850. (I have also read that both in absolute numbers and per capita, the US has more black people in its jails than South Africa did at the height of apartheid.)
2. There are more people under "correctional supervision" in America (more than 6 million) than there were in the Russian gulag under Stalin, at its height. (I have read elsewhere, in several academic sources, that 25% of the world's prisoners are in American jails--this in a country that has less than 5% of the world's population. I also read that 1 out of every 31 Americans is caught up in the criminal justice system in one form or another.)
3. More than 50,000 men are currently in solitary confinement in the US.
4. More than 70,000 American prisoners are raped every year.
5. In 1980, 220 people were incarcerated for every 100,000 Americans; in 2010, the figure had risen to 731 (more than tripled). "No other country even approaches that," writes Gopnik.
6. In the last 20 years, the money states spend on prisons in the US has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education.
7. A huge percentage of American prisoners are serving sentences much longer than those given for similar crimes anywhere else in the developed world (e.g., marijuana use).
Gopnik concludes: "Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today...incarceration...acts as a hidden foundation for the country."
1. There are more black men in the grip of the American criminal-justice system today than there were in slavery in 1850. (I have also read that both in absolute numbers and per capita, the US has more black people in its jails than South Africa did at the height of apartheid.)
2. There are more people under "correctional supervision" in America (more than 6 million) than there were in the Russian gulag under Stalin, at its height. (I have read elsewhere, in several academic sources, that 25% of the world's prisoners are in American jails--this in a country that has less than 5% of the world's population. I also read that 1 out of every 31 Americans is caught up in the criminal justice system in one form or another.)
3. More than 50,000 men are currently in solitary confinement in the US.
4. More than 70,000 American prisoners are raped every year.
5. In 1980, 220 people were incarcerated for every 100,000 Americans; in 2010, the figure had risen to 731 (more than tripled). "No other country even approaches that," writes Gopnik.
6. In the last 20 years, the money states spend on prisons in the US has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education.
7. A huge percentage of American prisoners are serving sentences much longer than those given for similar crimes anywhere else in the developed world (e.g., marijuana use).
Gopnik concludes: "Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today...incarceration...acts as a hidden foundation for the country."
January 19, 2012
The Vancouver Connection
So there's this great guy based in Vancouver, Justin Ritchie, who runs a website called Extraenvironmentalist, and these folks did an interview with me a few weeks ago that just got put into a podcast. It's kind of long, but I think they did an excellent job of editing it:
http://www.extraenvironmentalist.com/episode-34-america-failed/
For those of you in the Vancouver area, please note that I'm going to be up there March 18-19, doing some lectures. I think one is going to be at the People's Co-op Bookstore (1391 Commercial Dr.) the evening of March 18; then another (although I might wind up giving the same lecture, I'm not sure) at the U of British Columbia at around noon on March 19, Woodward Hall, Room 1.
From there I'm going to drop down to San Francisco, March 21-22, although I haven't yet worked out the bookstore scene there. In any case, I'll do another post ca. March 1st, giving my travel details, so those of you within striking distance can attend these events, if you want.
Enjoy...mb
http://www.extraenvironmentalist.com/episode-34-america-failed/
For those of you in the Vancouver area, please note that I'm going to be up there March 18-19, doing some lectures. I think one is going to be at the People's Co-op Bookstore (1391 Commercial Dr.) the evening of March 18; then another (although I might wind up giving the same lecture, I'm not sure) at the U of British Columbia at around noon on March 19, Woodward Hall, Room 1.
From there I'm going to drop down to San Francisco, March 21-22, although I haven't yet worked out the bookstore scene there. In any case, I'll do another post ca. March 1st, giving my travel details, so those of you within striking distance can attend these events, if you want.
Enjoy...mb
January 17, 2012
Entrevista con Gandhi
Relax, amigos; it wasn't an interview with the Mahatma, who died when I was a kid. No, Gandhi also refers to a major bookstore in Mexico, and they interviewed me at the Feria Internacional de Libros in Guadalajara on November 26 of last year. The video just got posted online a few days ago; it's fairly short. I was also relieved that they didn't show my shoes and socks, since that occasioned such a firestorm of criticism when I posted the link for the TV Azteca video (below). As for my T-shirt (also the subject of some discussion last time), it says: "Nadar Te Da Vida"--swimming gives you life. Clearly, good advice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_oTAS0OSR8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_oTAS0OSR8
January 05, 2012
Interview on TV Azteca
OK, amigos: for all you hispanohablantes out there, here is the interview I did with Sabina Berman (no relation) on TV Azteca. Azteca taped it in Guadalajara on November 27, and it aired on Mexican television last night. Disfrutala!
http://www.tvazteca.com/capitulos/shalala/88195/el-pensador-morris-berman
http://www.tvazteca.com/capitulos/shalala/88195/el-pensador-morris-berman
December 23, 2011
The Only Life There Is
As 2011 draws to a close, here's a little something to reflect on, in terms of a group purpose for all you NMIs and Wafers.
Remember that 1990 Kevin Costner film, "Dances With Wolves"? In it, the Sioux holy man, Kicking Bird, says to Costner (whose Sioux name is Dances With Wolves), "The path that matters most is the path of a true human being." I know everyone here, in their own way, is struggling to follow that path; and I'm hoping that collectively, we've created some sort of refuge here, to support each other in doing that. The context, as we all know, doesn't make it easy: not just having a president who has no problem signing into law a bill that makes it possible for him to snatch up anyone he doesn't like and throw him or her into a black hole forever; but having a populace who couldn't care less about that, or about anything, really, except the next dollar and the next electronic toy. Rejecting mainstream American values in favor of those of a true human being is not easy in these times; but as all of you know, What else is there? For those of us here, this is the only life there is.
May the Great Spirit bless you all.
mb
Remember that 1990 Kevin Costner film, "Dances With Wolves"? In it, the Sioux holy man, Kicking Bird, says to Costner (whose Sioux name is Dances With Wolves), "The path that matters most is the path of a true human being." I know everyone here, in their own way, is struggling to follow that path; and I'm hoping that collectively, we've created some sort of refuge here, to support each other in doing that. The context, as we all know, doesn't make it easy: not just having a president who has no problem signing into law a bill that makes it possible for him to snatch up anyone he doesn't like and throw him or her into a black hole forever; but having a populace who couldn't care less about that, or about anything, really, except the next dollar and the next electronic toy. Rejecting mainstream American values in favor of those of a true human being is not easy in these times; but as all of you know, What else is there? For those of us here, this is the only life there is.
May the Great Spirit bless you all.
mb
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