Posts of the Week
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The usefulness of humanitarian programs John Deming - 04:20pm Dec 30, 1996 PST (#31 of 55)
When Stanford students ask me how they can help the poor, help end world hunger, I have a simple answer. Go to work for Safeway, Continental Grain, Grand Metropolitan, McDonald's, Whole Foods, etc. The last thing you should do is spend any effort on "non-profit humanitarian" orgs. When their free grain hits the dock in Somalia, it puts the Somali farmer or local Somali importer of grain right out of business. Ditto local businesspersons in US. How can they compete against freebies. The guy in business for a profit will be around year after year serving the local community. The "humanitarians" will be here today and gone tomorrow with funding sources that are unstable. The local bizperson is a part of the fabric of the community, doesn't expect to be praised or accorded elevated status for his service, doesn't receive or accord to himself any phony baloney "selfless" motives. He/she is just honestly, quietly, serving the community in a way that has worked for thousands of years. Charitable programs is for the most part so phony, so ineffective, so short term. Personal charity is another thing. It's wonderful as long as there's no quid pro quo. Personally, the only charitable giving that I have any respect for at all is that which is anonymous. And even that is ineffective. Punk Rock and the angry youth danielle mondschean - 02:36am Jan 4, 1997 PST (#5 of 6) Mo me, punk isn't really a type of music. It started as an art school movement, and a media project for selling music, I guess...but now it's something different. It's an entirely different community based on free thinking/crotical thinking...that doesn't mean only cynacism or activism, either. The local shows are the heart of punk music, as is anti-corporate/major lable bands. It's supposedly the music without all the hype, with a sincere message. Even if the songs don't say much, the way it's presented does. Punk fans tend to seperate concerts fro shows. Shows are DIY (Do It Yourself) and inexpensive. They are usually local bands, sometimes a band on tour. Snobbery and Literature Peter Molin - 05:52pm Jan 4, 1997 PST (#10 of 22) My two cents worth: In spite of the snide comments of some non-readers about the pretensions of book lovers, I think that most non-readers think that we book lovers are a naive, slightly misguided lot. I also believe that many readers hide their literary enthusiasm from the general public for just these reasons. On the other hand, I've met quite a few non-readers who envy my ability to actually read literature. Subsequently, they often over-endow me with intelligence, discipline, and other flattering attributes. As far as snobbery within the merry band of reading brothers and sisters, I don't see much of it. I believe that most of us are overjoyed at making the acquaintance of a fellow reader. Further, many of us feel sort of inadequate in the face of the great books we read and love (I know that I do, and I have a Masters in Eng Lit). This recognition of the inadequacy of our own talents in comparison with those of our beloved authors may even humanize us (so I like to believe!). Finally, I have encountered very few heavy-hitting intellectuals who ignore pop culture. Much more common is the one who pretends to be above it, even while being an avid observor of pop music, TV, celebrities, movies, media, etc. Perhaps that is the real snobbery. |
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