"It's the Poverty, the Food and our Education, Stupid." Don't Let them Convince You It's 'The Economy'

Photo of wind turbines -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/andjohan/1022097482/

By Andreas Johannsen. This photo was taken on August 5, 2007 in Refshalevej, Copenhagen, Hovedstaden, DK, using a Nikon D70.

One of these decades, students and parents and just old baby boomers will stand up and demand education become the center of the universe. How many shortages are we going to face in the coming decades, from social workers, psychologists, earth scientists, architects (not software architects, engineers, teachers, doctors? Because of the lazy, mean, greedy men (and women) who put wealth and class divide over everything else? We need public schools to function elegantly, greatly.

You have to hand it to the Space Shuttle program and now another Mars surface joke of a program to launch an SUV (figuratively, compared to the dune buggy Mars rover) on the red planet. Hmmm, cute but expensive and wasted technology, human lives, at the expense of earth scientists. [more on these stories in future blogs]

THINK farming, water, energy on earth. Political and corporate dictatorship. We need to launch great Apollo programs to fight poverty, disease, and ignorance. Here's an interesting galvanizing article coming from Brazil, a hot country on many levels. First the engineering shortage:

A new report, titled ‘Engineering: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities for Development’, is the first international study of the field, with contributions from some 120 experts around the world. It highlights "the critical roles" of engineering in both international and local development.

http://www.truth-out.org/running-out-engineers66481

"One of the reasons for the decline in engineering’s popularity among students is the perception that the subject is boring and hard work, jobs are badly paid considering the responsibilities involved, and engineering has a negative environmental impact, and may be seen as part of the problem rather than the solution," he said.

Educational programmes could instead focus on the uses of engineering in sustainable development, environmental protection and poverty reduction. Such a focus might attract more women and minorities, Marjoram said. There are few female students in engineering programmes at universities across the world. In the West, engineering classes are often more that 80 percent male, according to professionals in the field.

Ahh, now the good news from Brazil, with a new president, a true revolutionary:


Published on Sunday, January 2, 2011 by the McClatchy Newspapers
Dilma Roussef, Brazil's First Female President, Vows War on Poverty
by Diana Renee

BRASILIA, Brazil - Left-wing economist Dilma Rousseff, 63, was inaugurated Saturday as the first female president of Brazil, succeeding her popular mentor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Brazil's new President Dilma Rousseff and her only daughter Paula Rousseff Araujo wave to supporters as they make their way to the Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Saturday Jan. 1, 2011. Rousseff, a former rebel who was imprisoned and tortured during the nation's 21-year military dictatorship, was sworn in as Brazil's first female president Saturday. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) In her inaugural address in the building that houses the lower house of the Brazilian Congress in the capital, Brasilia, Rousseff vowed that overcoming extreme poverty will be her top priority.

"My government's most obstinate fight will be to eradicate extreme poverty and to create opportunities for all," she said.

Her oath met with applause from 800 invited guests, including more than 20 foreign heads of state and government.

Lula left office with record popularity but could not stay on due to constitutional limits on consecutive presidential terms.

"A significant social mobility happened in President Lula's two mandates. But there is still poverty that shames our country and prevents our full affirmation as a developed people," she said.

In a 45-minute speech that was interrupted by applause on numerous occasions, Rousseff wept when she remembered her past as a member of a leftist guerrilla group and her dead comrades in the fight against the 1964-85 dictatorship in Brazil, during which she was herself imprisoned and suffered torture.

"I devoted all my life to Brazil's cause. I gave up my youth for the dream of a country that was fair and democratic. I withstood the most extreme adversities that were inflicted to all those of us who dared fight arbitrariness," she said.

Read more:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/01/02-0