Let Them Eat Cake

[dreamer_easy]

"We like that you peer through the bars of your cage to all that we have. We like that you think you can have it yourself one day. Because that illusion keeps you on our side." J. Michael Straczynski outlines The Rules of the New Aristocracy. Bill Moyers similarly warns: "We are this close to losing our democracy.". Of white women who went to court

Comments

[reynardo]

One thing that tends to get forgotten, too, is that the 1 in 7 is often not just one single person out of a bunch, but a family. So you're talking about, in a group of 21 people, there is a family of mum and two kids where she's not eating so that the kids won't starve.

I'd like to see certain People in Power survive on what these people have to cope with. Even just for a week.

[dreamer_easy]

I'd like to see mum and the kids eat the certain People.

[purrdence]

With the illiteracy problem, there's more than one angle that needs to be attacked. Yes, throwing resources into literacy programs, particularly during the school years will help this - but to a point.

One of the reasons I am a very literate person is that my parents install a love of reading into me and that being able to read *well* was a GOOD thing. We couldn't afford to buy books, so we went to the local public library at *least* once a week. I also was expected to borrow books from my school library. In all the years I've been teaching in Australia, the kids I've seen with literacy issues are kids who aren't encouraged to read for the hell of it and whose parent/s place no value on being educated. Australia needs a cultural shift away from where not only having the bare minimum literacy, with both words and numbers, is seen as acceptable and men who kick around a ball are gods.

[dreamer_easy]

The article about Tassie talks about a need for a cultural shift too - I guess educating new parents about how they can instill their kids with language skills before they even get to school, and how that's not just for highbrows. There was an thing in the paper the other day about the effectiveness of basically just talking to kids constantly when they're tiny - I thought I did that instinctively, much as I talk to cats, but looks like it's something I learned.

[mrteufel]

Relevant link:

Oligarchy, not democracy: Americans have ‘near-zero’ input on policy - report

[dreamer_easy]

I am so adding that.

[hnpcc]

Catherine at Cate's cates is doing the $2/day food challenge at present and has a good article about it here: http://www.catescates.com.au/living-below-the-line-hidden-costs/

I have been watching with somewhat gobsmacked awe at how blatantly this government is trying to cut benefits for everyone except their cronies. I am really hoping that the electorate wakes up to itself and votes them out - and I think/hope Medicare may end up being Abbott's WorkChoices.

[dreamer_easy]

Good article. I'm reminded of a thing I saw on Tumblr decrying an diagram supposedly showing how cheap healthy food was - the "salad" ingredients were just lettuce and olive oil, so presumably you already had everything else you needed for the dressing etc, which is cheating!