Category Archives: first year seminar

Robert Moses and Majora Carter – Terrible Infrastructure and Environmental Justice

I had an interesting discussion with my architecture professor, James Butler, who introduced me to the source of New York’s horrible infrastructure in low income areas. Robert Moses, who is seen as a savior to residents of Westchester County, Rockland County and Long Island, pushed for the construction of major freeways throughout NYC. One of his projects, the Cross-Bronx Expressway, abruptly cut through the South Bronx, demolishing countless apartments and displacing over 600,000 working class people on a month’s notice. Since Moses was well-connected with the upper-class and was also backed up by Master’s from Oxford and a fancy PH.D from Columbia, he neglected the voice of the neighborhoods he destroyed and just let business dominate. My professor states “Moses was so politically powerful, that all he needed was to find the most talented architectures, and manipulate them to fullfil his projects.”

Another point about Moses is that his environmental projects, i.e Riverside Park, East River Park and Central Park were reserved for areas where mostly the upper-class lived. Although willing to destroy and increase car pollution in countless neighborhoods for highways, he never decided to place a pool or a park in Hunts Point or Bed-Stuy.

Also,

I also found an interesting interview with Majora Carter. Addressing the same tensions, Carter states the reasons why environmental concerns in low income areas are inevitable. Her point express how corps can still profit by engaging in projects that equalize environmental sustainability in all neighborhoods.

Check it out. It was intriguing to listen to, and they typed-up the interview if you just want to read through the ideas.

Edit 11/16/10 : Her interview basically reiterates the points in Cooper’s essay which we read today. Thanks Cooper for introducing us to Majora Carter’s ideas.

For those of you driving back home for Thanksgiving, think about the cities/towns you pass by. Is it evident that infrastructure has cut through low income areas near you? Please share.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/22/neither_the_destruction_of_the_9th – link to  Carter interview.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moses

http://gothamist.com/2007/01/25/caro_gets_snubb.php

Pic of the Cross Manhattan Expressway Moses designed.

“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”  – Johann Wolfgang

Best,

Frederic

A Man Like Christopher Hitchens Doesn’t Come Around Too Often

A Man Like Christopher Hitchens Doesn’t Come Around Too Often

Christopher Hitchens is an exceptional and highly controversial writer. He has authorized many books including god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Why Orwell Matters, and The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice. He contributes regularly to Vanity Fair and Slate. After being recently diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus Charlie Rose arranged an interview with him to look back on his life. Hitchens led a bohemian existence as a writer. It is only relatively recently that he has not been living pay-check to pay-check. Friendship, writing, alcohol, cigarettes, sex and books defined his lifestyle. Despite this outward appearance as an indulgent intellectual he is a brave and humble man. Rose pointed out his courage, loyalty and consistency displayed over the years. Hitchens has put himself in numerous potentially career-ending and life-ending situations. Rose asked if he could summate his life as a fight for freedom, to which Hitchens modestly dismissed as a grandiose claim. But Rose is right. His life really has been a fight for freedom.

Htichens’ father was a navy commander. Like George Orwell – whom he wrote a book about – Hitchens did not like the empire or the armed service, but was brought up under its ethics. As a boy he emulated the flinty virtues of duty and courage, and continues to today. He said he felt honored to have been a friend of Salman Rushdie. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling on all Muslims to kill Rusdie because of his blasphemous book The Satanic Verses.  Hitchens passionately fought for his friend and continues to fight for free expression. Since then has appeared on numerous news and talk shows defending the Danish cartoonist. Hitchens admires Tony Blair despite his unpopularity when he takes risks for points of principle. Blair saved Sierra-Lionne and smashed the RUF, which effectually prevented another Rwanda. He respects Blair when he said ‘we cannot coexist with totalitarian ideologies’. As a result of this openness Blair was pursued with defamation and slander.

Hitchens is a man of principle. Critics have attacked Hitchens for his apparently sudden shift in politics to supporting the Iraq war. He explained that his support of the Iran-Iraq invasion should have been expected; “the one thing I have been is consistently anti-totalitarian”. He was maintaining his loyalty to the Iraqi-Kurdish opposition to Hussein when they were being massacred. In fact, in many of his public appearances the Kurdish flag can be seen on his lapel.  The theocratic dictatorship in the Middle East is an amalgam of everything Hitchens opposes: fascism, genocide, totalitarianism and theocracy. According to Hitchens, the one-party state is a fantasy. The utopian idea that humans can be hammered into another compulsory state cannot be brought about. Only misery is caused by the attempt.

Hitchens still defends the Iran-Iraq invasion. Saddam Hussein was measurable distance from nuclear weaponry and “if a fight was picked I’d rather it be on our terms than theirs”. Hussein’s goal was to complete the national outline of Iraq and Kuwait was the missing province. To say the very least he was not pleased when Saddam Hussein was in power. The war allowed an attempt at a federal constitution. Disputes between Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish would have been solved at the electoral level. The hope was for Iraq to control its own resources, have free press, and create Kurdish autonomy.

Hitchens is an extraordinary man in many ways; he once said his daily intake of alcohol was enough to kill or stun the average mule. Joking aside, the virtues shown by Christopher Hitchens are truly worth emulating. His courage, enthusiasm and dedication are inspiring. Vanity Fair still sees articles written by him despite all his time spent in recovery and chemotherapy.  “I’m leaving the party earlier than I’d like”. This is the side of ‘The Hitch’ we love. We know that he wants to be out there right now.

Here is the interview: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11168

Communicating Health Lisa Russell:”A Filmmaker’s Perspective: Utilizing Media and the Arts for Global Health Advocacy”

Before Lisa Russell became an Emmy-award winning filmmaker she was interested in medicine. She describes hearing Jonathan Mann, former head of the World Health Organization’s global AIDS program, speaking about AIDS as a social issue, from a gender, race, and economic perspective, as the day she changed her views. With a masters in Public Health, she set off on a career as a documentary filmmaker showcasing health issues in countries like the Congo, Niger, Ethiopia, Lebanon and many more.

During the talk she spoke about Not Yet Rain, a film she made in 2008 with Ipas about unsafe abortions in Ethiopia. Although Ethiopia decriminalized abortions in 2006, which the government believed would allow women access to safe abortions, many women still resort to unsafe abortions. The documentary follows two young women who are denied abortions because they are too far along in their terms. Russell describes her film as “putting a human face” to a human rights issue. She got a lot of feedback from people, even on Face Book, where a 19 year old girl from Dubai, sought help from Russell to get her to Ethiopia for an abortion. This shows the magnitude of power of media, that people from all over the world were made aware of this issue.

Another project Lisa Russell works with is Urban Word NYC. The program works with teenagers on areas such as creative writing, journalism, etc. It is based on the principle that “teenagers can and must speak for themselves.” This I thought was especially powerful because it gives young people an outlet to express themselves, and to raise awareness about certain issues.

This leads into her Emmy-award winning piece. Her close ties to NYC and the overall flexibility in her film topics are displayed in the next video she presents. She informs us of her close work with young students in the Bronx, New York on issues regarding race, gender and economics. She brings to life in her film, the inspiring poem of a young 13-year-old girl from New York, which she calls ”Biracial Hair”. The poem commences with light and humorous approach of a young girl fussing over her hair, but then both the poem beautifully creates a parallel between the pride holds for both her hair type and how she views herself in society.

Russell is heavily involved in promoting UN MDG Summit #5, one of the few goals the United Nations have prepared, in which the nations engaged plan to decrease and hopefully eliminate maternal mortality. She administers a site, www.MDGfive.com that provides a network and trafficking of situations, ideas, and news that will stimulate awareness and engagement on the said issue. Although the site is relatively new, we found it very well organized and took light into one very cool feature, which would be the clip remixer. In which there are tons of powerful quotes, photos and clips, which you can assemble together for your own custom slide show.

We decided to make one for Class and the Environment: (Please comment) (Fred picked the song)

http://mdgfive.realitydigital.net/Media.aspx?key=DDAC5AFF450B7832

Lisa Russell described her projects as more spontaneous than pre-decided, and we think this illustrates her unique and well-organized way in developing them more than anything. She is meticulous in almost every step of her project and makes sure that she is not offending the people that she films. She also analyzes every position of the issue; by making sure even the “bad guys” that are performing the abortions get their voice. At times she stated she feels in a paradox in terms of films being documented about Africa due to the overall negativity a the films, and she explained that she makes sure her films shed light to the positives, so that there is no inferiority.

Overall her presentation was insightful, informative, and an endearing pleasure to be a part of.

Fred and Sonam

Panel: Finding Meaning

The main idea of the panel was to discuss the complicated issue of global health. The first speaker was Katherine Ott, a curator at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.  She argued how culture relates to the issue of public health. Ott says, “We live in a world surrounded by stuff,” referring to the material objects that control and manipulate our society. She discusses the fact that medicine has extended its purpose into mainstream society. It is no longer just a remedial drug, something used to help people recover, but it is now a part of everyday life. With this progression, society has also developed a fear of medicine such as date rape drugs and workout pills.  This transformation from a drug used strictly to help people to something that assists and enhances many facets of someone’s life shows how society has become just as concerned if not more concerned with profit and material wealth as the well being of humans.

The other speaker was Richard Keller, a professor of medical history and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.  He suggested that medicine was essential in building strong empires which is a concept taken directly from Dr. Paul Chatinieres.  Throughout history, powerful nations such as the United States and France have offered medicine to people in underdeveloped countries.  Keller questions why these institutions would provide such help. To most it may seem as if these powerful nations are providing help to be moral and helpful but in reality, some countries are simply trying to gain more resources and expand their nation. There seems to be a linked distrust in two areas you might not necessarily expect- warfare and medicine. In both cases, less fortunate countries are concerned about the help that “wealthier” or more advanced countries are providing. For example, in Morocco, a French based country, Hubert Lyautey stresses the necessity and power of physicians due to their ability to assist and save the lives of those who are suffering. In addition, in recent time, Colin Powell talks about the importance of NGOs  and how they are an important part of our combat team. Obviously the military is the most significant facet, but Powell considers the NGOs almost as important due to their daily interaction with the people in these struggling nations. Due to the language barrier and the dissimilarities of their culture, citizens of impoverished countries do not believe the intentions of countries such as America to be honorable. For instance, David Brooks talks about how many countries such as Haiti resist assistance of different cultures which is often the cause of their problems. There is an existence of a voodoo religion which some believe causes Haitian people to reject and resist outside help. As a result, they are are unable to deal with problems such as the earthquake.

-AJ and Joey

A Recovery’s Long Odds

In A Recovery’s Long Odds, Bob Herbert, of the New York Times, discusses how “Americans are not being honest with themselves about the structural changes in the economy that have bestowed fabulous wealth on a tiny sliver at the top, while undermining the living standards of the middle class and absolutely crushing the poor.”

Herbert is pointing us in two directions: first, that Americans appear to be delusional — or that somehow we’ve been complacent with the direction leaders — and the media — say we’re heading.  The notion that American citizens are dormant is beginning to get some notice.  Arianna Huffington, in her new book, Third World America, evolves this notion, but gives us some solutions — how to turn this around.  You can hear a good interview with here in On Point: “All countries have rich and poor. What Third World countries don’t have is a strong middle class. Neither, right now, does the United States,” says Huffington.  The second notion is that of course, following on Huffington’s notion of a declining middle class, is that we have a huge gap in wealth acquisition — the disparities are now too great not to be noticed.

The middle class is finally on its knees. Jobs are scarce and good jobs even scarcer. Government and corporate policies have been whacking working Americans every which way for the past three or four decades. While globalization and technological wizardry were wreaking employment havoc, the movers and shakers in government and in the board rooms of the great corporations were embracing privatization and deregulation with the fervor of fanatics. The safety net was shredded, unions were brutally attacked and demonized, employment training and jobs programs were eliminated, higher education costs skyrocketed, and the nation’s infrastructure, a key to long-term industrial and economic health, deteriorated.

Of course, this has everything to do with sustainability – can we sustain the America we have or, perhaps better put: can we sustain the America we’ve had?

Since we’re heading towards Bill McKibben’s End of Nature, it’s appropriate to wonder how deeply the human alterations of nature have gone; that is, it may be that our processes and procedures, our ways of living — socially, economically, intellectually and spiritually — have genuinely altered our ways of being, socioeconomically, and now we find ourselves, like nature, on the ropes.

After reading End of Nature, Herbert and Huffington, I wonder what you think about where we stand in America — and where we may be heading?  To put it another way, as first years, what do you see down the line for you in 3 or so years?  Or, what do you have to do now to prepare to what seems to be an alternate state of being, one quite different than you’re perhaps accustomed to?

Welcome!

Welcome to Class and the Environment  First Year Seminar, Fall 2010. This is the first course of this nature at Middlebury.  I’m teaching it because I’m interested in investigating how issues pertaining to capitalism, the environment and class intersect.  I have no agenda, other than inquiry; that is, my only goal is to collaborate with you in developing the relevant questions that get at this complex intersection.

It is true, however, that if you’re an African American, it’s more likely that you’ll live next to a sanitation dump, a power station and have to deal with problems of poor air and water; it is more likely that you’ll also suffer from health problems — asthma, for instance.  Therefore it is not surprising or even illogical to surmise that placing poor and helpless people that may lack wealth and therefore political power next to environmentally dangerous is systematic.  For instance, one of the largest and most compelling wind turbine projects is proposed for the ocean off the coast of Cape Cod.  This project has met resistance in courts, lead by the Kennedys and the Duponts.  The primary argument the Kennedys and the Duponts have put forth is that the turbines will ruin the natural beauty of the view.  There is something, then, to how we develop our infrastructure and class.

The course could have been longer, of course; however, I tried to select material that is theoretical and contemporary. It’s a difficult subject because it’s evolving faster than we can think about it.  Nevertheless, I’ve tried to provide you with enough materials to ensure you get a wide sense of the ideas and tensions that exist when we speak about class and the environment.

Given the nature of the material, its ongoing change, I’ve made the call to have you write one piece, that you will revise weekly, but that gives you ample creative room to tell your story and simultaneously engage the materials in the course.

This section of the course, the Blog, is just that, a blog.  This page is open to each of you.  What I expect, as part of my assessment of you, is that you use this space to place ideas, materials, anything at all you consider or run into after class; it is a place to continue talking about ideas we’ve raised in class, and it’s a place for you to give us resources you find in materials that haven’t been included in the course.  For instance, in A Glimpse of the Future, columnist Bob Herbert, of the New York Times, tells us that, “President Obama made an appearance in Florida last week that should have gotten more attention. At a time when many Americans are apprehensive about the state of the economy and uncertain about the nation’s long-term prospects, Mr. Obama delivered an upbeat speech that offered a glimpse of a broader overall vision and a practical way forward on the crucial issues of energy and jobs.” Unfortunately, this positive vision received little to no coverage; there was no excitement, leaving Herbert — and his readers — wondering where the American public may be in terms of new development along green lines.

Notice that I provide a resource, a quote, properly cited on the web or for web use, and a statement.  I’ll end it with a question: what, indeed, do you think is going on with the American public? Apathy? The issues to complex?  Is the public overwhelmed by wars, the economy and simply survival to consider such future-looking and complex ideas?

This is the use of this section.  Hopefully, then, others in the class would discuss this one idea and see where it takes us.

Please feel free to add your “welcome”!