New Yorker writer David Owen argues in his book The Green Metropolis that New York City, where people live smaller and closer and drive less than in other places, has lessons in sustainable development for the rest of the country. But how might those lessons be applied? Not easily, he admits. “New York’s example, admittedly, is difficult for others (or even itself) to imitate,” he writes. Why? Because the key to New York’s green profile is “the result not of conscientious planning but of a succession of serendipitous historical accidents.” Consider:

1. New York arose on a small island rather than on the mainland edge of a river or a bay, and the surrounding water served as a physical barrier to outward expansion.
2. Manhattan’s street plan was created by merchants who were more interested in economic efficiency than in boulevards, parks or empty spaces between buildings.
3. Residential and commercial development were more thoroughly mixed in New York than they would later become in most other parts of the United States.
4. Most of Manhattan’s lines had been filled in before the advent of the automobile and couldn’t be substantially redrawn to accommodate cars.

How did we go from being a country where the broad majority of American workers shared in the rewards of economic growth to one in which, starting in the late 1970s, the gains went overwhelmingly to the wealthiest and the average American worker’s income stagnated? According to Jonathan Tasini, author of The Audacity of Greed, part of the answer lies in the broad embrace by policy makers of “market fundamentalism,” which he defines, following the Longview Institute, as comprising seven key myths.

1. The market is the only source of innovation and it must be left alone if we want to accelerate technological change.
2. Government will always spend money less productively than private citizens; this is why tax cuts are almost always a good idea.
3. Regulation of business is wasteful, unproductive and usually unnecessary.
4. Financial markets thrive when regulation is kept to a minimum.
5. Private firms will always produce a good or a service more efficiently than the government.
6. It is wrong to regulate wages or executive compensation because markets always get prices right.
7. Government assistance always ends up hurting the people it is supposed to help.

Health Reform: Reid Backs the Public Option

“I believe that a public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system.”

- Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, said yesterday he would include a government-run insurance plan in health care bill that he plans to take to the Senate floor within a few weeks. (New York Times)

* Related Title: Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform by Howard Dean with Igor Volsky and Faiz Shakir

Eight U.S. Solders Killed in Afghanistan Bombings

“A loss like this is extremely difficult for the families as well as for those who served alongside these brave service members.”

- Captain Jane Campbell, a military spokeswoman. A series of large bombs killed eight American soldiers in southern Afghanistan Tuesday morning, making October the deadliest month for US troops in that country since the 2001 invasion. (Times of London)

* Related Title: The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism by Andrew J. Bacevich

Americans Downbeat on Economy

“Consumers remain quite pessimistic about their future earnings, a sentiment that will likely constrain spending during the holidays.”

- Lynn Franco, research director at the Conference Board. US consumer confidence fell sharply and unexpectedly in October amid fears about future job prospects. (BBC)

Related Title: The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for American Workers by Stephen Greenhouse

When Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman decided to write Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty, they had already been reporting on global agriculture and hunger issues for years for the Wall Street Journal. By bringing their combined expertise together in a book, they hoped to not just shed light on the issues, but spur people to action.

The situation could not be more severe. The U.N. estimates that about 25,000 people die daily from hunger and malnutrition in the developing world alone – the equivalent of 60 jumbo jets crashing each day. Of those who die each year, roughly six million are children.

As the authors acknowledge, world hunger is a daunting issue that calls for large-scale government action, but that doesn’t mean individuals can’t get involved in big ways. Thurow and Kilman dot their book with dozens of examples of people from outside the traditional food-aid circles who managed to make a major impact. Here are just a few:

Pat Pelham and Elaine VanCleave (Brimingham, Ala.): After finding inspiration from, of all things, a daytime cable sitcom, Pelham was struck by the absurdity of American women who complain about their weight while entire villages in Africa starved to death. She didn’t just lament it, though. The soccer mom joined with VanCleave, her neighbor, and started getting involved in the organization Bread for the World. Their fundraising work led to a chance meeting with soccer star and advocate David Beckham, which in turn led to an encounter with U.S. Congressman Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who they successfully convinced to champion an anti-hunger agenda in Washington. Within months, the two housewives were shuttling around Capitol Hill like Beltway vets. They had improbably become two of the most noted hunger policy lobbyists in Washington. Read More

Iran Nuclear Deal Looks Possible

“We look forward to Iran’s reply.”

- National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer. The White House has announced its support for an arrangement to send most of Iran’s uranium outside the country for enrichment, a decision supported by Russia and France. Obama administration officials say the ball is now in Iran’s court to respond to the plan. (Los Angeles Times)

* Related Title: The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power by David E. Sanger

Public Option Gains Momentum in Senate

“There is a growing sense that we need to lead on this issue and not wait for it to be offered on the Senate floor. The idea is that it’s better to show some fight.’’

- A senior Democratic aide commenting on signs the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is leaning toward including a government-run insurance plan in a health care bill he will soon take to the Senate floor. (New York Times)

* Related Title: Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform by Howard Dean with Igor Volsky and Faiz Shakir

Gates: U.S. Not Wavering on Afghanistan

“We’re not pulling out. I think that any reduction is very unlikely.”

- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that NATO allies are moving toward sending more troops and civilian aid to Afghanistan. Gates also sought to assure allies that the United States will remain in the fight. (Associated Press)

* Related Title: The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism by Andrew J. Bacevich

Housing Sales Surge But Problems Persist

“The work of stabilizing the housing market won’t be done. We still need to use every tool at our disposal to fix this problem.”

- Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, speaking during a panel hearing. Sales of existing U.S. homes climbed in September to the highest level in more than two years as homebuyers rushed to take advantage of a tax credit before it runs out. (Bloomberg)

* Related Title: Our Lot: How Real Estate Came to Own Us by Alyssa Katz

Bernanke Pressures Congress On Financial Reform

“Large, complex financial firms that do not own a bank, but that nonetheless pose risks to the overall financial system, must not be permitted to avoid…oversight.”

- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Friday stepped up pressure on Congress to pass legislation that would give regulators new power to contain a financial crisis. (Washington Post)

* Related Title: The Audacity of Greed: Free Markets, Corporate Thieves, and the Looting of America by Jonathan Tasini

[Posted by Elena Sytcheva]

In Strength in What Remains, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder tells the story of Deogratias Niyizonkiza’s inspiring and astonishing journey, which takes him from war torn Burundi to New York City, where with the help of strangers, he goes on to pursue a life devoted to public service and healing.

Deogratias, meaning “thanks be to God” in Latin, was born in 1970, and grew up in a tiny settlement of farms and pastures called Butanza with his family, in the mountains east of Ganza mountain in Burundi, East Africa.

In 1994 Deo was twenty-four and a medical student when violence broke out and he fled Burundi for New York City.  Arriving with no English and no friends, he worked delivering groceries while homeless and living in Central Park. With the help of Americans he met, he was able to graduate from Columbia University. He studied at The School of Public Health at Harvard University and Dartmouth Medical School. He has worked closely with Dr. Paul Farmer and his organization Partners in Health.

Deo is the founder of Village Health Works in Kigutu, Burnundi, which strives to improve the healthcare infrastructure of rural Burundi by bringing high quality healthcare to people, regardless of their ability to pay. In its first year in operation it treated 21,000 different patients. VHW also provides food and clean water along with other services.

Quotes:

Deo, quoted in Strength in What Remains, says:

Really, I trained my mind to be flexible. Some of the stuff I learned was to be willing to know that even when you think you know for sure, always leave room for uncertainty. And someone who always agrees with you is not necessarily your friend. You can always learn something good in a hard time, if you survive it. And there is no mathematical formula you can follow to achieve what you want. Just trial and error.

Kidder writes:

Deo’s face jumped out at me. It was a night sky full of lights, a picture of eager, trusting friendliness. He seemed younger than he turned out to be. This impression of innocence lingered, even after I knew that it was mostly inaccurate.

And:

I think this was Deo’s favorite part of the tour he led me on, the part that had to do with public health and medicine. These, I think, were the subjects around which time could reassemble for him, around which past and present and future could begin to seem coherent and purposeful.

A villager tells Kidder:

Many others went abroad, but most of them have not returned to show us how we can improve our situation. We have never seen before an educated man like him hiking around in the mountains, up and down, to talk with people in their households. When we are working, he does not cross his arms. He works with us, so that the work can be done quickly. We hope that other people will see how he behaves, and then imitate him.

Jonathan Tasini, who is challenging New York U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in the Democratic primary for the 2010 U.S. Senate special election in New York, is a union leader and organizer, a social activist, and a commentator and writer on work, labor and the economy.  In this interview he talks about his new book, The Audacity of Greed: Free Markets, Corporate Thieves, and the Looting of America.

In the introduction to your book you refer to a “vast robbery” that began in the late 1970s and has extended to the present day. What do you mean by that?

The great robbery that The Audacity of Greed addresses is a robbery of two kinds. One is the looting of corporate treasuries–mostly legal–pensions and pay, unbelievable riches that the main CEOs and top executives walked away with, billions and billions of dollars. There’s only so much money in a company, so that money that was taken by the few was then not available for the many–the workers.

The larger robbery was what happened to American workers in that they weren’t paid in relation to how hard they’d worked. Over the last 30 years productivity has skyrocketed, and yet wages have been flat. And so the robbery is of workers who were not paid for a fair share of their productivity. This is the notion of the American Dream–that you worked hard and kept your nose clean, you would get a fair day’s pay. And that just vanished from the American scene.

How different was the period before this?

I don’t want to romanticize the time before the 1970s, but it is true that after the Second World War, up until about the mid-1970s, there was a general thought that when workers did well, America did well. It wasn’t that companies loved workers and unions, but there was an understanding that they could live together. But then things shifted. Ronald Reagan was elected. You had a conservative assault on government. The free market became the dominant theory, one that was bought on a bipartisan basis. Conservatism won, though we had Democratic presidents in this period. The idea that the free market should decide how things were done in our country really became a philosophy that was shared by both political parties. And that affected workers’ ability to get decent pay.

Read More

50 Ways You Can Help Obama Change America by Michael Huttner and Jason Salzman is a handbook for American citizens who want to do their part to make sure the president’s promise of hope comes to fruition. Each chapter opens with a quote from Barack Obama. Here’s a sampling:

Continuing the Fight to Change America

This Victory alone is not the change we seek—it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.

—President-elect Barack Obama, election night victory speech, November 4, 2008, Grant Park, Chicago, IL

Climate Change and a New Green Revolution

At a time when our ice caps are melting and our oceans are rising, we need you to help lead a green revolution. We still have time to avoid the catastrophic consequences of climate change if we get serious about investing in renewable sources of energy, and if we get a generation of volunteers to work on renewable energy projects, and teach folks about conservation, and help clean up polluted areas; and if we send talented engineers and scientists abroad to help developing countries promote clean energy.

—Senator Barack Obama,  Wesleyan University Commencement,  May 25, 2008, Middletown, CT

Healthcare Reform

I want to wake up and know that every single American has health care when they need it, that every senior has prescription drugs they can afford, and that no parents are going to bed at night worrying about how they’ll afford medicine for a sick child. That’s the future we can build together.

—Senator Barack Obama,  Town Hall, June 5, 2008, Bristol, VA

Read More

The world can produce enough food to feed its entire population, yet it doesn’t come close to doing so. In Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty, reporters Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman explore how this can be.  What they find is that a maze of negligence, bad policies and misplaced interests has combined to keep millions of people without basic sustenance.

Below are some figures that illustrate the problem of world hunger and hint at why progress has been so slow:

• Estimated number of undernourished people in the world in 2008: 1 billion
• Number of people who die of hunger annually: 9.1 million
• Number of those who are children: 6 million
• Number of children younger than 5 years who will never achieve full physical maturity due to malnutrition: 150 million
• Amount of agricultural development aid the Gates Foundation says is needed to triple household incomes in impoverished sub-Saharan Africa: $20 billion
• Amount currently spent on such development from all sources: $9 billion
• Increase in development aid to Africa promised the world’s eight richest countries in 2005 to be delivered over five years: $25 billion
• Additional development aid delivered after the first three years: $3 billion
• Estimated percentage of the cost of delivering international food aid that is consumed by transportation, storage and handling: 50%
• Cost added by shipping to each ton of grain delivered to Ethiopia during the country’s 2003 famine: $200
• Amount of farm subsidies to American growers included in the 2002 Farm Bill: $104.2 billion

Here’s the latest installment in our Open Books video series. In this one, New York Times columnist Gail Collins, author of When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to the Present, explains the importance of Betty Friedan’s 1963 classic The Feminine Mystique.