Author Archives: Frederic Camara

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

Harlan Beckley – US Poverty “It’s Time to be Ashamed”

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I attended the Student Organized Symposium’s (Topic of US Poverty) opening lecture today. Dr. Harlan Beckley gave insightful presentation on the ethics of the US poverty rate, while focusing on how to aid the more disadvantaged communities. Working closely with Washington and Lee University and Middlebury Alumni, Nancy Shepherd, Beckley is the founding program director for the Shepherd Program, which is a program that promotes the academic study of poverty and human capability to undergraduate and law students. The program strives to combine this academic rigor with the personal experience of its students. The resulting goal is a cognitive approach and initiative to engage in various endeavors to counter this rising conflict. I found that Beckley himself exemplified this in his lecture by combining his mastery of economics with the behavioral struggles poverty causes.

Beckley commenced by explaining that the set poverty rate for a US household of four is under $22,000 and currently 14.3% of the US population lives under that statistic. What’s even more disappointing is the break-up of that percentage. Both Single Parents and 31% of people who have not acquired a high school diploma directly affect the high poverty rate. As a developed nation, it is essential that we have an organized method of countering this portion, but I feel there is a reluctance of the public to look for these statistics rather than maintaining an “Illusion of Happiness” that doesn’t confront this reality. Yet, the sad truth is still that one in every five children currently lives under impoverished conditions, and if you are Black/Latino your chances of living below the poverty line are also multiplied by three. Our infant mortality rate is also repulsively higher than most developed nations, confirming 21 countries with better rates. Yet, Beckley also pointed out however that the poverty rate for citizens above the age of 65 has been reduced as a result of social security. So if we can identify an importance in protecting our elderly in this system, than why not our infants and children? Why can’t we improve living conditions for our bottom wing? Is this the result of inequity of voice in our society?

I also found remarkable how Beckley compared the Poverty Rate to Per Capita GDP. His statistics exhibited that Per Capita GDP of a nation may rise, but the poverty rate does not have to fluctuate as a result. So a nation can undergo vast economic growth and while having half of its citizens still below the poverty line. I was shocked to see Beckley’s statistic, which illustrated a wage comparison between the poorest wings in the USA to that of Germany. The lowest economic branch of US Citizens, still having a Per Capita GDP that is 20% greater than Germany, collect less than half the wages of the lowest Germans. This is the income inequality that the forces society to have unequal environmental concern, and class struggle. If wages aren’t going to be properly distributed, how can we expect market forces to act accordingly? This also made me wonder, if GDP wasn’t even a recorded statistic, could the US possibly be considered a developing country?

A reason we study history is to learn not repeat the same political mistakes our species has made in the past. However, we still consistently make the same mistakes in other things, like how we value numbers. Would it be ranting to be connecting the “Illusion of Wealth” our GDP creates to the “Illusion of Wisdom” in our SAT scores? If not, that comparison should run parallel to a history lesson.

Here’s a link to the Shepherd Program: http://www.wlu.edu/x12034.xml

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

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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