Alex Kudera's Blog, page 126
January 24, 2014
food shortage in America?
According to a Slate article, New York City food banks are even turning people away due to shortages this winter. Here's an excerpt:
Well, the results are in: Turns out that people actually do need the food that they aren't getting and no, charity is not making up for the shortfall. Bryce Covert at ThinkProgress reports on how the cuts to SNAP have created a surge in demand on food banks, causing the food banks to run short on food and even turn people away. Food Bank NYC surveyed the food charities of New York City and found that 85 percent of food pantries and soup kitchens are reporting a surge in visitors asking for food. In fact, the number of people turning to food banks is higher now than it was in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Nearly half of food pantries and soup kitchens don't have enough food to assemble proper meals. More than a quarter have run so low on food that they've had to turn people away.
But on another side of the internet, Professor Barry Eichengreen of U.C. Berkeley, an economist interviewed at Davos, predicts 300,000 new American jobs per month in 2014 and 3% economic growth. He does express caution and note that the headline unemployment rate is deceptively low (the interviewer clarifies that this is due to the low worker-participation rate).
Well, the results are in: Turns out that people actually do need the food that they aren't getting and no, charity is not making up for the shortfall. Bryce Covert at ThinkProgress reports on how the cuts to SNAP have created a surge in demand on food banks, causing the food banks to run short on food and even turn people away. Food Bank NYC surveyed the food charities of New York City and found that 85 percent of food pantries and soup kitchens are reporting a surge in visitors asking for food. In fact, the number of people turning to food banks is higher now than it was in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Nearly half of food pantries and soup kitchens don't have enough food to assemble proper meals. More than a quarter have run so low on food that they've had to turn people away.
But on another side of the internet, Professor Barry Eichengreen of U.C. Berkeley, an economist interviewed at Davos, predicts 300,000 new American jobs per month in 2014 and 3% economic growth. He does express caution and note that the headline unemployment rate is deceptively low (the interviewer clarifies that this is due to the low worker-participation rate).
January 20, 2014
giving people homes
"Utah is Ending Homelessness by Giving People Homes" according to an aptly titled article which I found posted by a friend on facebook. It reminds me of "Million Dollar Murray," a longer piece from The New Yorker and one I'd occasionally assign while teaching freshman English in Philadelphia.
January 19, 2014
income-based repayment for student loans
At the SEIU conference in Washington D.C. last November, one student group reported that they are fighting to make income-based repayment the default setting for government student loans. That would certainly help millions of students, and potential students, who are probably unaware that such a program exists. For more information and to see if you are eligible, follow this link.
January 18, 2014
January 17, 2014
213 times, i said "um"
At the MLA subconference, my live reading from Fight for Your Long Day begins around minute 60 of the segment under Thursday that has a length of 72:50, but you can catch me awake but appearing asleep for almost all of the panel (middle pale mass, blue sweater, no corduroy).
In this sorry age of terse 140-characters-or-less snark-'n-click, in my only online recorded self, I appear tired, sick, fat, old, and unable to control my "um"s.
(For the life of me, when I returned to this entry, I found the transitions in my writing so bizarre to nonexistent that I couldn't figure out my original intentions. Anyway, have a good weekend, and don't forget to take your literature at least twice daily with ample drinking water.)
In this sorry age of terse 140-characters-or-less snark-'n-click, in my only online recorded self, I appear tired, sick, fat, old, and unable to control my "um"s.
(For the life of me, when I returned to this entry, I found the transitions in my writing so bizarre to nonexistent that I couldn't figure out my original intentions. Anyway, have a good weekend, and don't forget to take your literature at least twice daily with ample drinking water.)
January 15, 2014
a long way from cowboy chicken. . .
These two articles on elderly Asian-American experience in the newer world caught my eye. The first is on time limits for seats in a Queens Mickey Ds, and the second concerns the evolving cultural expectations for adult Asian Americans to care for their aging parents. (Yes, they're both from the paper of moderately capitalist record.)
January 11, 2014
glass half full?
The contrarian indicator of all contrarian indicators is out. More economists see a "glass half full," so I guess they didn't get the memo that less than 43 percent of working-age Americans report a true full-time job, continuing a downward trend of recent years. Only 63 percent of us have work of any kind, the lowest percentage ever recorded, and this number has shrunk rather steadily the past twelve years. So either a huge portion of working-age Americans have happily removed themselves from the world of employment, or these optimistic economists are looking at their own stock portfolios much more closely than the lives of their fellow Americans.
January 10, 2014
next year in Vancouver
In seven hours in Chicago on Thursday, January 9, I listened to intelligent, gentle educators who want to improve the world. I feel sick and tired, but so glad I came. Start planning now to attend the MLA subconference 2015 in Vancouver, Canada.
January 8, 2014
January 7, 2014
MLA subconference
Late Wednesday, I'm due to arrive in Chicago for the MLA subconference on "Resisting Vulnerable Times," where I'll be reading from
Fight for Your Long Day
as part of a panel on adjunct labor and pedagogy.
Our discussion is scheduled for Thursday, January 9, from 4 to 5:30 p.m., and you should be able to watch it live here. The entire two-day program looks fantastic, and the presenters' bios are impressive. I'm excited. Nervous, too.
Our discussion is scheduled for Thursday, January 9, from 4 to 5:30 p.m., and you should be able to watch it live here. The entire two-day program looks fantastic, and the presenters' bios are impressive. I'm excited. Nervous, too.
