Tag Archives: Cesar Chavez

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Liberia and Ebola

09/19/2014 Nativegrl77

Introducing Liberia

After almost two decades of war, Liberia – a lush, rainforested country draped across West Africa’s southern flank – seems at last to have found some breathing room. With Africa’s first woman president at the helm, the peace, while still fragile, is holding and Liberians have thrown themselves with gusto into the work of rebuilding their shattered land.

If Liberia does stabilise and open up for travel, it will offer intrepid adventurers a fascinating glimpse into what was previously a wonderfully hospitable and fascinatingly enigmatic society. Liberia’s artistic traditions – especially carved masks, dance and storytelling – rivalled those of anywhere on the continent, and traditional culture was strong. This was especially true in the country’s interior, where secret initiation societies played a central role in growing up, and today still serve as important repositories of traditional knowledge and life skills. For now though, most of this cultural wealth remains inaccessible to visitors, and independent travel outside of the country’s capital Monrovia is not considered safe.

Liberia’s dense, humid rainforests – some of the most extensive in West Africa – are alive with the screeching and twittering of hundreds of birds, who are kept company by forest elephants, pygmy hippos and other wildlife padding around the forest floor. Along the coast, deserted white-sand beaches alternate with humid river deltas and tranquil tidal lagoons, while inland plateaus rise to verdant hill country on the borders of Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea.

Though the situation is definitely looking up, it’s advisable to get an update on local security conditions before setting your plans.

Resource: Lonely Planet

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Inequality In Focus

09/18/2014 Nativegrl77

By CAP Action War Room

America’s Disturbing And Pervasive Inequality, In Three Charts

The Census Bureau’s latest estimates of income and poverty released Tuesday reveal that, despite the economic recovery, inequality remains a massive problem in the United States. We’ve assembled three charts that demonstrate the how deeply the problem runs in our society:

1. Income inequality. Five years of economic recovery hasn’t resulted in any income growth for the vast majority of Americans. In 2013, the median income nationwide was $51,900, essentially unchanged from a year before and 8 percent lower than the median income in 2007, the year before the recession hit. The top five percent of earners made more than $196,000, while the bottom 10 percent made less than $12,400.

2. Racial inequality. Black and Hispanic Americans continue to lag far behind non-Hispanic white and Asian households in the amount that they ear. The median household headed by a black person earned $34,600 in 2013 and the median household headed by a Hispanic person earned $41,000. That’s compared to $58,300 for the median white, non-Hispanic household and $67,100 for the median Asian household.

3. Gender inequality. We wrote yesterday about how the gender wage gap hasn’t budged from last year: women earn just 78 cents for every dollar a man earns. But the poverty rate is higher for women than it is for men as well. The Census found that 15.8 percent of women live in poverty, compared to 13.1 percent of men. And as the chart below demonstrates, the poverty gap between men and women grows as the population ages.

CREDIT: U.S. Census Bureau

BOTTOM LINE: Five years into the economic recovery, middle class Americans are still struggling to make ends meet. But there is no reason to expect the economy to really hum again and inequality to decrease unless we take action to address the problems. That means supporting policies like these that help working families, not the rich, and that grow the economy from the middle-out, not the top-down.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

110 million Americans

09/18/2014 Nativegrl77

The EPA is asking the public for input on ways to improve its Risk Management Program.

Join me and tell the EPA we need safety to be a requirement for chemical facilities today.

110 million. That’s how many Americans live in high-risk zones near chemical facilities.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

The most important petition we’ve ever done — on fire!

09/14/2014 Nativegrl77

In days, when the UN holds an emergency summit on climate change, we need to deliver the largest petition ever for a world powered by 100% clean energy. The petition number will be read out to every world leader at the summit! Click now to sign the petition!