Happy Saturday, dear friends! Ah, the joy of a quiet Saturday morning to you all, but not here in this house, as we are getting ready to go to a wedding. Sometimes you have to get busy, in order to get busy having fun!
I hope all of you have more time to relax and unwind over a lazy cup of coffee or tea, and spend some time with the news.
Today we have a hodge-podge of news, and we refer back to some topics we have previously covered, so please get comfy and let’s begin.
Occupy Central protest leadership begin talks with Hong Kong government.
At the beginning of the week, the Hong Kong government met with protest leaders, and the discussions were broadcast live for all of the protestors to see, in the center of Hong Kong. While China is not pleased with the protests, saying they may be motivated by outside influence, many in the local area support the protestors. The Hong Kong government is debating whether to submit a report to China, detailing the protestors’ concerns and demands.
A trip to Cambodia, for one young Australian woman, spurs her into the gender equality forefront.
Madeline Price started the One Woman Project in Queensland, Australia, after she went on an alternative holiday to Cambodia. When she visited one of the schools and saw not one girl among the pupils, even though the village was 50% female, she was struck hard by the disparity. She then attended a global leadership program in Prague, and came home to found One Woman in 2013. The program is based on the idea that educating one woman, in Cambodia, or anywhere in the world, can create lasting change. The program is offered to high school and university students in Brisbane, and her work to create sustainable change, has earned her the Queensland Young Australian of the Year Award. Congratulations Madeline, and may you empower others to seek gender equality internationally!
Fox News under fire, along with female program anchor, for disparaging comments about young women voters.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, a news host for Fox News, has drawn significant fire for comments she made about young women voters in the US. She said young women should not bother voting in the US mid-term elections, and get back to their Tinder or Match.com profiles instead. She also said young women on legal juries was a bad idea, because they just didn’t get the system. I think Ms. Guilfoyle strongly underestimates the intelligence of young women in this nation, and even if her ideas are drawn from stereotypes, these are highly inappropriate comments. Had she replaced “young women” with any other social demographic or group, she surely would have been branded a bigot. I believe that young people will become interested and excited about any country, when leaders begin to speak about a world that works for everyone. Until then, is it any wonder they are bored with the same old dog and pony show? Instead of denigrating them, why not teach them, mentor them and get them excited about the future.
Fox News Thinks Young Women Are Too Busy With Tinder to “Get” Voting by Inae Oh for Mother Jones
One of those read-between-the-lines articles.
It’s amazing what you can learn from a main-stream media piece, if you know what you are looking for. Before 9/11, it was almost impossible to get funding to develop vaccines for deadly diseases, but after the event, Dick Cheney was afraid of bio-terrorism. He advocated for increased spending within the Bush administration, and the funds started to pour in, to the tune of $1.6 Billion for the National Institutes of Health, which had a previous budget of $53 Million. I leave it up to you, enlightened readers, to do the math.
Imagine a world without student loan debt.
This link was sent in by a dear reader. Many countries around the world provide free, or reasonably priced education for their population. This is not the case in the US, where some private institutions charge students over $52,000 a year. In a country where high schools tell students that they must go to college, if they wish to do well financially in later life, few families can afford to send a child to school, for a basic degree, at a cost of $200,000. This is why many families and individuals, go into serious debt. Many debts are deferred until graduation, but interest is, of course, still adding up. Even if a person declares bankruptcy, government-subsidized student loans must be re-paid. Recently, a group called Debt Jubilee, an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street protest, began buying up delinquent debt from student loans, and simply writing them off. The Jubilee has purchased over $3.8 Million in debt for under $100,000, from a group of students who had received loans from a company, with extremely poor lending tactics. While the efforts are small at this point, it shows the world that student debt in the US is out of control, and must be restructured in the near future.
Debt campaigners tear up student loans by Pippa Stephens for BBC News
And finally, if you want a good laugh, because its too crazy to cry…
Senator Coburn publishes his 5th Annual Wastebook.
We have all heard the stories of outrageous government spending in many countries, but few get to see the inside details behind the spending. Senator Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, wants to share them with the world, and that is why he publishes Wastebook. This document, lists 100 ways that the US government is spending tax-payer money to support projects that seem to have little bearing on reality. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they spent money on a world that works for everyone?
If you have any free time, take a gander at the whole list. I found it quite enthralling!
Wastebook by Senator Tom Coburn (R) US Senate
That’s the news for today! I hope you have a day filled with joy, and come back to join me for Feel Good News on Sunday!
Be Well. Be Joy. Be Love!
Alex