The Guardian// 10/30/2011

The debacle over veteran Scott Olsen's treatment (he was in critical condition on Thursday) by the police during the raid on Occupy Oakland rages on.  The mayor, Jean Quan, has now publicly apologized and has said that she hopes the movement and the city can work together.  Not to be overly cynical, but tear gas and rubber bullets aren't usually a good catalyst for "working together."  The photos from the raid are pretty brutal, which were circulated on the internet almost immediately.  As usual, The Guardian is providing much better coverage of the event than most US news sources.  Read the article here.

More people die every year due to the transmission of diseases through reused syringes than malaria.  From a design standpoint, this should be an easy enough problem to solve.  Marc Koska is leading the way with his auto-disable syringe.  The Guardian article includes a video about how the syringe works.  Essentially, from what I can tell, if someone were to try to reset the syringe by pulling back the "trigger," it simply breaks off.

The World is Flat: Ch. 1: While I Was Sleeping

Chapter One of Thomas Friedman's massive The World is Flat details the world of outsourcing as he himself discovers it.  This included plenty of things I didn't know and had never thought about.  Friedman focused mainly on Bangalore, India.  He claims that the majority of those performing the outsourced jobs are highly motivated and educated.  While the pay they receive would seem insubstantial in the United States, in India it provides them with a better living than many other jobs could provide.  Most people know from personal experience that many customer service lines are staffed by  Indians, but Friedman brings up several other jobs that are now outsourced.  One surprising example was fast food order-takers.  It's now possible for someone in an entirely different location to take your order, and incredibly, this seems to be more efficient than the traditional approach.  Also in Chapter One, Friedman introduces his theory of Globalizations 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0, respectively.  Globalization 1.0 was the globalization of nations, 2.0 that of corporations, and 3.0, our current era, that of individuals.  This latest stage is largely due to the personal computer.  At this point, the author remains fairly neutral.  He does not establish whether he believes Globalization 3.0 to be "good" or "bad," but rather maintains that is is "inevitable and unavoidable."

In terms of the writing, The World is Flat is readable without pretending to be something it's not.  It is very clearly about delivering information, not entertainment, but it does so in an engaging manner.

Der Spiegel// 10/19/11

Gilad Shalit's return to Israel after being held by Hamas for five and a half years is huge news for Israelis and Jews across the world.  As a member of the Jewish community, I always found the fixation on Shalit a bit odd.  He was prayed for often, almost dutifully, as regularly as "peace in the world" and "souls in purgatory" are prayed for at my family's Catholic dinner table.  I suppose it sounds cold to suggest that one Israeli soldier might not be a fair trade for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.  Some of these prisoners undoubtedly deserve to be freed, but others have committed serious crimes, including murder and terrorist attacks.  Read Der Spiegel's account here.

DP2// Research

Temple University has an intergenerational center with programs and resources aimed at "connecting generations to strengthen communities." Here's the site.

I found an article here about an art program for both seniors and a kids' club.

A poster for an intergenerational learning project at DCU.  A group blog written by the participants of the program can be found here.

Turns out we just missed Intergenerational Day/Week but the site still has some helpful information.

Generations United 's mission is "to improve the lives of children youth and older people through intergenerational collaboration, public policies, and programs for the enduring benefit for all." 

Last week at Occupy DC I encountered an awesome group called the Raging Grannies.  Upon doing more research, I've discovered that the Raging Grannies are a well-organized group with chapters across the world.  They even have a tumblr! Here's a video of a South Florida group singing a song they wrote about CBS:

I don't know how this relates to our project exactly, but I know that these ladies are awesome and inspiring!

greed is a bottomless pit

I posted this photo from Do Good Design on my tumblr and it promptly got 117 notes.  I think the message is particularly culturally relevant right now given the Occupy protests.  And of course, it did come from Conor Oberst's mouth...

Urban Outfitters and Cultural Appropriation

I keep meaning to make a Top Ten Reasons To Take Your Business Elsewhere about Urban Outfitters, but unfortunately my full class load/three jobs/desire to sleep occasionally has kept me from doing so.  In the meantime, here's a letter to UO's CEO about cultural appropriation:

Dear Glen T. Senk, CEO Urban Outfitters Inc.:

This past weekend, I had the unfortunate experience of visiting a local Urban Outfitters store in Minneapolis. It appeared as though the recording “artist” Ke$ha had violently exploded in the store, leaving behind a cheap, vulgar and culturally offensive retail collection. Plastic dreamcatchers wrapped in pleather hung next to an indistinguishable mass of artificial feather jewelry and hyper sexualized clothing featuring an abundance of suede, fringe and inauthentic tribal patterns.

In all seriousness, as a Native American woman, I am deeply distressed by your company’s mass marketed collection of distasteful and racially demeaning apparel and décor. I take personal offense to the blatant racism and perverted cultural appropriation your store features this season as “fashion.”

All too often industries, sports teams and ignorant individuals legitimize racism under the guise of cultural “appreciation”. There is nothing honorable or historically appreciative in selling items such as the Navajo Print Fabric Wrapped Flask, Peace Treaty Feather Necklace, Staring at Stars Skull Native Headdress T-shirt or the Navajo Hipster Panty. These and the dozens of other tacky products you are currently selling referencing Native America make a mockery of our identity and unique cultures.

Your corporate website claims to “offer a lifestyle-specific shopping experience for the educated, urban-minded individual”. If this is the case, then clearly you have missed the mark on your target demographic. There is simply nothing educated about your collection, which on the contrary professes extreme ignorance and bigotry.

My primary concern with your company is the level on which you are engaging in cultural and religious appropriation. None of your products are actually made by Indigenous nations, nor were any Native peoples involved in the production or design process. On the contrary, you have created cheap knock-off trinkets made in factories overseas. Selling imported plastic and nylon dreamcatchers disrespects our history and undermines our sovereignty as Tribal Nations.

Did I mention that marketing inauthentic products using Native American tribal names is also illegal? The company’s actions violate the Federal Indian Arts and Crafts act of 1990 and the Federal Trade Commission Act. According to the Department of the Interior:

“The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-644) is a truth-in-advertising law that prohibits misrepresentation in marketing of Indian arts and crafts products within the United States. It is illegal to offer or display for sale, or sell any art or craft product in a manner that falsely suggests it is Indian produced, an Indian product, or the product of a particular Indian or Indian Tribe or Indian arts and crafts organization, resident within the United States. If a business violates the Act, it can face civil penalties or can be prosecuted and fined up to $1,000,000”.

I doubt that you consulted the Navajo Nation about using their tribal name on sophisticated items such as the “Navajo Hipster Panty”. In fact, I recently became aware that the Navajo Nation Attorney General sent your company a cease and desist letter regarding this very issue. I stand in solidarity with the Navajo Nation and ask that you not only cease and desist selling products falsely using the Navajo name, but that you also stop selling faux Indian apparel that cheapens our culture and heritage.

Urban Outfitters Inc. has taken Indigenous life ways and artistic expressions and trivialized and sexualized them for the sake of corporate profit. Your company also perpetuates the worst stereotype of Indians. This is theft of our very cultural identity, no less so than the theft of our traditional homelands that began with Columbus’ “discovery” of the Americas. On this day that America still celebrates as Columbus Day, I ask that do what is morally right and apologize to Indigenous peoples of North America and withdraw this offensive line from retail stores.

Sincerely.

Sasha Houston Brown, Dakota
Santee Sioux Nation

source

Well, I think she pretty much covered it! I'd like to add that a quick search for the word 'navajo' on the UO website reveals 22 items.  

The Guardian// 10/8/2011

This article explores how Amanda Knox's facial expressions and general demeanor influenced the public's perception her.  More important than this individual case are the ways we generalize people different from ourselves.  As the article says, "An inclination to oversimplify the minds and motivations of others lies at the root of sexism and racism, and all forms of inter-group conflict, violent and benign."

Interestingly, it's the Tea Party that's embarrassed to be compared to the Occupy Wall Street protests, when really it should be the other way around.  Since when is being like the Tea Party a claim to legitimacy?  OWS protesters should be insulted by the comparison.  Read The Guardian's article on the subject here.  

DP2// The Beginning

I have a couple ideas for my second design project, but the idea I'm currently most excited about is making my Stitch 'n Bitch group an intergenerational club.  I've been planning on trying to have at least one knitting meeting at an assisted living or nursing home for a while now, so I went ahead and e-mailed The Maples, an assisted living community in Towson.

Hello!

My name's Sarah Forst and I'm a student at Towson University.  I am part of a knitting and crochet club made up largely of Towson students that meets on a weekly basis.  We would love to host a meeting at The Maples of Towson sometime.  We would love to meet some knitters of a different generation, and we think that we could learn a lot from them, and hopefully vice versa! If this is a possibility and something you think the residents would enjoy, please let me know how I might go about setting up such a meeting.  If I don't hear back in a few days I will give The Maples a call.  Thanks for your time!

Sincerely,

Sarah Forst
sarahbforst@gmail.com

Hopefully I'll hear back soon and I can get the ball rolling!

The Guardian// 10/4/2011

This article in the The Guardian examines the anti-intellectualism championed by Michele Bachmann and other Republican candidates, and the roots from whence it came.  I think some people may brush off Bachmann and the like based purely on individual issues, or else dismiss her as "crazy" and be done with it.  I won't argue with calling the woman crazy, but a closer look proves there's a sort of method to the madness, one which many Americans undoubtedly identify with.

Reading about Obama's incompetence and impotence over the last four years leaves me feeling extremely frustrated.  It's not that I'm that attached to the guy, but with the top Republican candidates being so extremist, I don't really have a choice of who to vote for.  I mean, I voted for Ralph Nader last election, and given my state's tendency to go Democrat every year regardless of my own vote, I'll probably be writing in Nader if he doesn't make it on the ballot.  Still, I'd like to be able to fully support a candidate that actually has a chance of making it to the White House.