Tag: poverty

+THE HUMAN RACE IS GROWING UP – WE CAN’T IGNORE OUR GROWING PAINS

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This series is a “for educational purposes only” presentation of information from the book, America’s Sacred Calling: Building a New Spiritual Reality (2010) by John Fitzgerald Medina.  Medina writes:

Moving Toward a Holistic View of Reality

“When one considers the egregious [conspicuous, flagrant] level of abuse, corruption, and exploitation prevalent in the world today, it becomes quite clear that it is impossible to build a well-functioning world order on the defective foundation of global capitalism.  As stated in the Baha’i publication, Century of Light, Western civilization has erected a capitalist-based global system that is “morally and intellectually bankrupt.” [page 135]  Fortunately, the Baha’i Faith is not alone in recognizing this.  Indeed, as detailed in my first book, Faith, Physics, and Psychology:  Rethinking Society and the Human Spirit, a diversity of movements from various fields of study (including economics, psychology, physics, religious studies, history, medicine, education, sociology, political science, and others) have started to challenge the underlying ideologies, theories, and philosophies of Western civilization.  Within this context, capitalism itself, the golden idol of many modern people, has come under intense scrutiny and criticism.

“The various movements that are challenging the Western paradigm are based on worldviews that are radically different from the Cartesian-Newtonian worldview.  Like the Baha’i perspective, these movements maintain that, before we can resolve the major social, economic, political, and environmental problems facing us, we must leave behind the false, materialistic, Cartesian-Newtonian view of reality.  Also, like the Baha’i Faith, such movements assert that we need to adopt a holistic view of reality that is capable of recognizing the oneness of humanity and the oneness of the cosmos and of integrating science and religion, as well as acknowledging the unity of mind, body, and spirit.  Along these lines, Theodore Roszak, a well-known advocate of the holistic paradigm, asserts,

“It is as [Ernst Friedrich] Schumacher [a Rhodes Scholar in economics, and a highly respected holistic advocate] tells us:  “When the available ‘spiritual space’ is not filled by some higher motivations, then it will necessarily be filled by something lower – by the small, mean, calculating attitude to life which is rationalized in the economic calculus.”  If that is so, then we need a nobler economics that is not afraid to discuss spirit and conscience, moral purpose and the meaning of life, an economics that aims to educate and elevate people, not merely to measure their low-grade behavior.”  [see:  Small is Beautiful:  Economics as if People Mattered, page 9.]

“In short, any global order that aspires to honor the exalted nature of the human soul must be able to integrate the spiritual and the sacred with the material and the secular.  This is something that the capitalist paradigm, almost by definition, cannot achieve.  Thus, it has planted the seeds of its own ultimate destruction because it is virtually incapable of truly edifying and inspiring the human soul – the real source of power for any sustainable economic system.  [bold type is mine]

“Since spiritual transformation and material transformation must go together, it is essential for individuals to remain cognizant of the economic, political, social, and environmental state of the world.  People of faith must also be directly engaged in helping to transform the world rather than retreating into comfortable “spiritual enclaves.”  Baha’u’llah states, “Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements.”  [see:  Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, (2005) no 106.1]

“In essence, a faith without physical deeds is dead.  According to the Baha’i Faith, some of the noblest of all human beings are those who have been educated, trained, and spiritually inspired for a life of service to humanity.  Along these lines, ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s following statement regarding the importance of service is highly pertinent to the discussion in this chapter regarding the plight of many who are currently being held in the claws of tyranny and oppression:

“Without action nothing in the material world can be accomplished….  It is not through lip-service only that the elect of God have attained to holiness, but by patient lives of active service they have brought light into the world….  Therefore strive that your actions day by day may be beautiful prayers.  Turn towards God, and seek always to do that which is right and noble.  Enrich the poor, raise the fallen, comfort the sorrowful, bring healing to the sick, reassure the fearful, rescue the oppressed, bring hope to the hopeless, shelter the destitute!…  If we strive to do all this, then are we true Baha’is, but if we neglect it, we are not followers of the Light, and we have no right to the name.”  [see:  Paris Talks, (2006) no. 26.5]

“Related to the discussion above, the Baha’i teachings assert that humanity is involved in an evolutionary process that is inevitably moving humankind toward maturity and away from destructive ways of thinking and acting.  This, however, does not mean that individuals should sit idly by and just wait for the process to take its natural evolutionary course.  Indeed, this process seems to be an interactive, mutually reinforcing, synergistic progression – the more that individuals strive for spiritual transformation and the more that individuals strive to implement spiritual virtues and deeds in the material world, the grater the evolutionary shifts for the overall society.  Conversely, any positive shifts in the overall society help people to make further internal changes as individuals.

“Many holistic advocates believe that we are already beginning to experience a paradigm shift toward holism and away from the Cartesian-Newtonian worldview (and its capitalistic system).  Similar to the Baha’i perspective, such holistic advocates believe that humanity is presently undergoing an evolutionary jump toward holism as a result of major leaps in human spiritual consciousness.  Indeed, Baha’is and holistic advocates both believe that the paradigm shift toward a holistic view of reality is not coerced, but rather, it is a natural process of spiritual transformation that is moving humanity from its adolescent stage of development to its stage of maturity (the coming of age of humanity).  Along these lines, The Baha’i publication Century of Light states:

“And for a Baha’i the ultimate issues are spiritual.  The Cause [Baha’i Faith]is not a political party nor an ideology, much less an engine for political agitation against this or that social wrong.  The process of transformation it has set in motion advances by inducing a fundamental change of consciousness, and the challenge it poses to everyone who would serve it is to free oneself from attachment to inherited assumptions and preferences that are irreconcilable with the Will of God for humanity’s coming of age.  Paradoxically, even the distress caused by prevailing conditions that violate one’s conscience aids in this process of spiritual liberation.  In the final analysis, such disillusionment drives a Baha’i to confront a truth emphasized over and over again in the Writings of the Faith:  “He hath chosen out of the whole world the hearts of His servants and made them each a seat for the revelation of His glory.  Wherefore, sanctify them from every defilement, that the things for which they were created may be engraven upon them.”  [see:  Century of Light, page 136]

“Thus as agents of spiritual and material transformation we all have the responsibility to purify ourselves from “every defilement” and “to free” ourselves “from attachment to inherited assumptions and preferences that are irreconcilable with the Will of God for humanity’s coming of age.”  The sentiments expressed in the quote above bring us full circle to the concept of responsibility that we discussed at the beginning of this chapter – according to the Baha’i writings, the American Baha’is in particular have a “staggering responsibility” to cleanse themselves from the “faults, habits, and tendencies which they have inherited from their own nation” and then to help eradicate “such evil tendencies” from the lives of their fellow American citizens.  Indeed, the Baha’i writings emphasize that America will not manifest its exalted destiny until this “staggering responsibility” is fulfilled.  It is my hope that this chapter has made it plainly evident that, capitalism, a manifestation of the materialistic Cartesian-Newtonian worldview, is an “evil tendency” that must be acknowledged and properly redressed so that America can assume its exalted destiny as the nation that “will lead all nations spiritually” as prophesied by ‘Abdu’l-Baha.”  [see:  in Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, (1965) page 35] (all of the above from pages 202-205 of Medina’s book)

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Recent related posts:

+HERE’S A TAKE ON THE RICH RICH RICH RICH AND THE POOR POOR POOR POOR

+FINDING MY COURAGE TO TAKE A LOOK AT ‘WHAT’S WRONG WITH AMERICA’

+ONGOING TRAUMAS: AMERICA’S BIG MONEY PERPETRATORS

+WHERE THE BAD PEOPLE HIDE: ‘AMERICA FAR WORSE THAN A BULLY’

+CRITICISM NOT ALLOWED IN A BLACK-AND-WHITE WORLD

+MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS — ECONOMIC VAMPIRES WORLDWIDE

+CONTINUED HUMAN EVOLUTION: WE MUST LOSE THE BAD AND IMPROVE ON THE GOOD

+WHEN LITTLE MATTERS MOST — WE NEED A BETTER WORLD FOR OUR GLOBE’S CHILDREN

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+WHEN LITTLE MATTERS MOST — WE NEED A BETTER WORLD FOR OUR GLOBE’S CHILDREN

alchemynowLeave a comment

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In my ongoing mental travels to try to gain a workable perspective about why so many of our nation’s offspring are suffering such a lack of well-being – as are their families – I am gaining at least a little bit of clarity.  The ‘problem’ IS tied to the reality that poverty exists in our nation – and severe extremes of it exist around our globe with nearly one billion members of our human family starving to death.  Poverty hurts.  Yet also knowing that such vast amounts of our nation’s and our globe’s wealth is concentrated in the possession of so few (as my work on recent posts is describing) seems to make the whole global picture worse.

As I work to untangle my own thinking and feelings related to these topics, I wanted to mention a book that sadly I have yet to read!  Ernst Friedrich Schumacher, a Rhodes Scholar in economics and a highly respected holistic advocate, stated,

Simplicity and non-violence are obviously closely related. The optimal pattern of consumption, producing a high degree of human satisfaction by means of a relatively low rate of consumption, allows people to live without great pressure and strain and to fulfill the primary injunction of Buddhist teaching: ‘Cease to do evil; try to do good.‘

In his book, Small Is Beautiful:  Economics As If People Mattered, Schumacher directly approaches the reality that Western economics are causing damage and that within the Western capitalistic-materialist worldview no workable solution can ever be found to solve the globe’s major problems.  It will be necessary for our species to adapt on all levels to a sustainable holistic worldview and practice if we are going to survive.

On the website WorldInc is this description of Small Is Beautiful:  Economics As If People Mattered:

“One of the most fateful errors of our age is the belief that ‘the problem of production’ has been solved.” So begins this classic of commonsense economics, a book that The New Republic called “Enormously broad in scope, pithily weaving together threads from Galbraith and Gandhi, capitalism and Buddhism, science and psychology.”

E.F. Schumacher (1911-1977) was a Rhodes Scholar and respected economist who throughout his long career worked with the likes of J.M. Keynes and J.K. Galbraith. From 1950 to 1970 he served as Chief Economic Advisor to the British Coal Board — with over 800,000 employees, one of the largest organizations in the world.

An early proponent of the idea of “sustainable development,” he opposed neo-classical economics by declaring that single-minded concentration on output and technology was dehumanizing. Furthermore, he asserted that one’s workplace should be dignified and meaningful first, efficient second.

In 1955, while traveling in Burma, he first developed the principles of what he called “Buddhist economics,” based on the notion that good work was essential for proper human development and that “production from local resources for local needs is the most rational way of economic life.”

First published in 1973, Small Is Beautiful is a collection of essays that brought Schumacher’s ideas to a wider audience at a time when an energy crisis was shaking the world and people had begun to realize that petroleum and other natural resources are finite (that is, such resources should be treated as nonrenewable capital rather than as expendable income, to be exploited and used up without thought for the future). Widely translated into many languages, Small Is Beautiful was named among the 100 most influential books published since World War II by The Times Literary Supplement.

His work also dealt with various other emerging trends, such as the environmental movement and economic globalization. In his view, for a large organization to function properly, it must behave like a group of related smaller organizations. Schumacher’s attitude toward nature reflects his theories on business and the workplace:

Ever bigger machines, entailing ever bigger concentrations of economic power and exerting ever greater violence against the environment, do not represent progress: they are a denial of wisdom. Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful.”

To learn more about this forward-looking and prophetic thinker, visit:

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+CONTINUED HUMAN EVOLUTION: WE MUST LOSE THE BAD AND IMPROVE ON THE GOOD

alchemynow2 Comments

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This series is a “for educational purposes only” presentation of information from the book, America’s Sacred Calling: Building a New Spiritual Reality (2010) by John Fitzgerald Medina.  Medina writes:

Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic

“A few words should be said regarding the Baha’i idea of civilization.  Baha’u’llah wrote, “All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization.  [Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, no. 104.2]”  Obviously, the civilization that is intended here is not the kind of civilization that was first conceived by Rene Descartes, Isaac Newton, John Locke, Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, and other Western intellectuals who promulgated an anti-spiritual mentality.  Indeed, in the following passage, Baha’u’llah uses the words “infernal engine” in reference to Western civilization:

“In all matters moderation is desirable.  If a thing is carried to excess, it will prove a source of evil.  Consider the civilization of the West, how it hath agitated and alarmed the peoples of the world.  An infernal engine hath been devised, and hath proved so cruel a weapon of destruction that its like none hath ever witnessed or heard.  The purging of such deeply rooted and overwhelming corruptions cannot be effected unless the peoples of the world unite in pursuit of one common aim and embrace one universal faith.”  [Tablets of Baha’u’llah, page 69]

“In relation to the quote above, it is significant to note that capitalism, if anything, actually encourages immoderation.  For instance, it encourages the ideas of unbridled competition, insatiable desires, unrestricted individualism, boundless accumulation of wealth, and absolute freedom (laissez-faire).  It also promotes the cynical assumption that self-interest and profit motivation are the primary forces between individuals in society.  This ultimately leads to self-indulgence and greed.

“Fortunately, some Christians have begun to recognize that, in order to maintain a biblical perspective, they must challenge and transcend, in thoughts and actions, the existing socioeconomic materialistic paradigm.  For instance, Ron Sider, a professor of theology, holistic ministry, and public policy at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, states,

“We need to ask, “Are we really biblical?”…  Cheap grace results when we reduce the gospel to forgiveness of sins only…when we embrace the individualism and materialism and relativism of our current culture….  [E]mbracing Jesus…means embracing [Him] as Lord as well as Savior….  [I]t means beginning to live as a part of his new community where everything is being transformed….  [T]he mission of the church is both to do evangelism and to do social ministry….  That means…a concern for justice for the poor.  It will mean concern for creation care [care for the environment], for human rights, and for peacemaking.”  [Ron Sider as cited by Stan Guthrie in “The Evangelical Scandal,” Christianity Today, April 13, 2005]

“In his recent book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience:  Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World?, Sider maintains that many Christians have conformed their thinking and actions to the prevailing un-biblical materialistic paradigm.  This, he asserts, has seriously compromised their worldview and has crippled their ability to transform the society around them based on the Word of Christ.  Indeed, Sider cites a plethora [excess, abundance] of studies, polls, and statistics showing that many Christians live very much like the general American population in terms of materialism, hedonism, racism, sexual immorality, and other traits.  For instance, he shows that, even though today’s American Christians are the wealthiest generation of Christians in world history, their charitable giving, as a percentage of income, has gone down.  Sider also asserts that, as a group, they do not take care of the poor.  He points out that, in particular, the tithing of Christian Evangelicals (the group most likely to attend church regularly) has gone down every year for several decades.  He argues that these negative conditions will persist so long as mammon (money) remains on the throne as the idol of worship.  [See:  Ron Sider, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience:  Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World?]

“It is also troubling to note that considerable numbers of Christians now subscribe to a point of view that merges their religious beliefs with a staunchly nationalistic, capitalistic ideology that often promotes and defends the American-dominated global economic order even at the expense of other nations and peoples.  Regarding this, S.R. Shearer, an Evangelical Christian who runs his own ministry, points out that it is truly disturbing and ironic that capitalist ideology enjoys a significant amount of support from Christian Americans.  He maintains that it is virtually impossible for Christians to justify the immorality of the American-dominated capitalist global order [he calls it the “American New World Order System”], especially in light of the following passages from the Bible:

Lay not up for yourselves measures upon the earth….  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven….  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also…  Matthew 6:19-21

[I]f thou wilt be perfect, go sell (all) that thou hast, and give it to the poor,…and come and follow me [Christ]. Matthew 19:21

No servant can serve two masters:  for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.  Ye cannot serve God and mammon [material wealth or possessions]. Luke 16:13

“Many Americans, including many religious believers, may believe that our cultural paradigm is fundamentally sound and that we can resolve our global problems simply by implementing an assortment of reforms, adjustments, and tweeks to the system here and there.  Such attempts to reform the system, however, without confronting the underlying destructive materialistic worldview are tantamount to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  Solutions to our global problems cannot be found within the same despiritualized system that created these problems.

“Based on information provided in this chapter [see links below to previous posts], it should be evident that some of the people who have been most negatively impacted by the immoderation of Western civilization have been the indigenous peoples of the Americas.  Indeed, countless indigenous cultures have been decimated by the relentless wayward march of the West.  This destructive process has continued even into modern times.  For instance, the genocide against the Guatemalan Mayan Indians and the “water wars” against the Indian people of Bolivia (both of these situations were described earlier) are good examples of this destructive process.

“It is important to note that man Latin American nations have very large populations of American Indians, and in fact, in some countries, Indians make up the majority of the population.  Unfortunately, Indians throughout Latin America continue to face deeply ingrained racism on the part of Whites (people of European descent) who still wield disproportionate levels of economic, political, and social power.

“In light of the information above, it is truly fascinating that, as noted earlier, ‘Abdu’l-Baha prophesied that if the Indians become “educated and guided” in the teachings of Baha’u’llah, “there can be no doubt that they will become so illumined as to enlighten the whole world.”  [see:  ‘Abdu’l-Baha, quoted in Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, (1965) page 16]  Considering the fact that the indigenous people of the Americas are now some of the most impoverished and marginalized peoples in the world, this prophetic passage seems truly remarkable.  This may be a case of God using the downtrodden and dispossessed to show the true power of spirituality to positively transform the material world.

“In 1977, a group of Indian people presented three papers to some of the nongovernmental organizations of the United Nations located in Geneva, Switzerland.  In these documents, the American Indian authors raised “a call for a consciousness of the Sacred Web of Life in the Universe.”  The passage below is an excerpt from one of these documents.  Please note the similarity between the sentiments expressed by Baha’u’llah in the quote above and the sentiments expressed by the indigenous authors of the statement below:

“Today the species of Man is facing a question of the very survival of the species.  The way of life known as Western Civilization is on a death path on which their own culture has no viable answers.  When faced with the reality of their own destructiveness, they can only go forward into areas of more efficient destruction.  The appearance of Plutonium [nuclear technology] on this planet is the clearest of signals that our species is in trouble.  It is a signal which most Westerners have chosen to ignore….  The air is foul, the waters poisoned, the trees are dying, the animals are disappearing.  We think even the systems of weather are changing.  Our ancient teachings warned us that if Man interfered with the Natural Laws, these things would come to be.  When the last of the Natural Way of Life [traditional Native way of life] is gone, all hope for human survival will be gone with it.  And our Way of Life is fast disappearing, a victim of the destructive processes….  Our essential message to the world is a basic call to consciousness.  The destruction of the Native cultures and people is the same process which has destroyed and is destroying life on this planet.  The technologies and social systems which have destroyed the animal and the plant life are also destroying the Native people.  And that process is Western Civilization which old the promise of unimaginable future suffering and destruction.  Spiritualism is the highest form of…consciousness.  And we, the Native peoples of the Western Hemisphere, are among the world’s surviving proprietors of that kind of consciousness.  We are here to impart that message.”  [see:  Akwesasne Notes, ed., Basic Call to Consciousness (1978), pages 77-78]

“True solutions will have to be based upon perspectives, ideas, values, and assumptions that lie outside the confines of the prevailing Western view of reality.  In this regard, Baha’is believe that the teachings of Baha’u’llah are intended to create an entirely new peaceful, just, and unified global order that will wipe away, at their very root, the maladies of the current age.  The following passage from the Baha’i writings eloquently enunciates this concept of renewal:

“The call of Baha’u’llah is primarily directed against all forms of provincialism, all insularities and prejudices.  If long-cherished ideals and time-honored institutions, if certain social assumptions and religious formulae have ceased to promote the welfare of the generality of mankind, if they no longer minister to the needs of a continually evolving humanity, let them be swept away and relegated to the limbo of obsolescent and forgotten doctrines.  Why should these, in a world subject to the immutable law of change and decay, be exempt from the deterioration that must needs overtake every human institution?  For legal standards, political and economic theories are solely designed to safeguard the interests of humanity as a whole, and not humanity to be crucified for the preservation of the integrity of any particular law or doctrine.”  [see:  Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha’u’llah, (1991) page 42]  (above from Medina’s book, pages 196-202)

Next post:  Moving Toward a Holistic View of Reality

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Recent related posts:

+HERE’S A TAKE ON THE RICH RICH RICH RICH AND THE POOR POOR POOR POOR

+FINDING MY COURAGE TO TAKE A LOOK AT ‘WHAT’S WRONG WITH AMERICA’

+ONGOING TRAUMAS: AMERICA’S BIG MONEY PERPETRATORS

+WHERE THE BAD PEOPLE HIDE: ‘AMERICA FAR WORSE THAN A BULLY’

+CRITICISM NOT ALLOWED IN A BLACK-AND-WHITE WORLD

+MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS — ECONOMIC VAMPIRES WORLDWIDE

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+MALEVOLENT INTENT AND THE ABUSES OF THE POWER OF WEALTH

alchemynow3 Comments

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It is becoming increasingly clear to me as I read the book, America’s Sacred Calling: Building a New Spiritual Reality (2010) by John Fitzgerald Medina., that the growing disparity in economic well-being along with all other well-being measures – especially for growing numbers of our nation’s infant-children that is happening within the boundaries of our American nation  — is directly tied to the economic conditions of all members of our species the world over.

We are increasingly experiencing within America’s boundaries what appears to be a backwash of the same economic conditions that are approaching global plague proportions worldwide, and that will soon not be able to be ignored by anyone.  At the same time, the consumption patterns within the Globe’s richest First World nations continues to contribute to the major global problems Medina’s book is highlighting.

Medina next presents

Taking Water Away From the Bolivian Indians

“In January 2000, the city of Cochabamba, the third largest city in the country of Bolivia with a population of 500,000, became the scene of a crisis that attracted worldwide attention and that, to this day, serves as a quintessential example of the destructive policies of “survival of the fittest” Darwinian capitalism.  The crisis in Cochabamba was first sparked when the IMF [the International Monetary Fund ] approved a loan for Bolivia and then proceeded to pressure Bolivian government officials to privatize (to sell off) all state owned enterprises including public oil refineries and Cochabamba’s municipal water system.  In September, 1999, in closed door negotiations that involved only one bidder, Bolivia signed a forty-year contract that handed over Cochabamba’s water system to Aguas del Tunari (a company managed by International Water Limited, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Bechtel corporation).  Within a few months of taking over, without having made any appreciable investments in the system, Aguas del Tunari dramatically hiked up water rates.  As a result of these rate hikes, the water bills of the residents doubled and tripled.  This sparked almost immediate protests from the residents who united together in peaceful demonstrations and marches beginning in January of 2000.  A grassroots organization of concerned Bolivians (mostly Indians), The Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life (La Coordinadora), began to coordinate some of the rallies.  [see:  Timeline: Cochabamba Water Revolt” by Sheraz Sadiq]

“To understand the true dimensions of this crisis it is necessary to recognize that Bolivia is the most impoverished nation in Latin America (based on per capita GNP) and the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, after Haiti.  American Indians make up between sixty and seventy percent of Bolivia’s population….  For these impoverished indigenous people, access to affordable water is a top priority.  Water and food are absolute necessities.  Steep increases in the price of either of these represent a mortal threat.  More money spent on water means that less money is available for other necessities, including food.

“Eventually, demonstrations spread from Cochabamba to La Paz and to other cities and outlying rural villages.  In April 2000, the Bolivian government declared a “state of siege.”  The “state of siege” (like martial law) allowed police to arrest and detain many people and to impose curfews and travel restrictions.  Unfortunately, the April demonstrations became violent, leaving six people dead and many injured.  On April 10, 2000, the government signed an agreement with the leader of The Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life.  This agreement revoked the contract with the Bechtel corporation subsidiary and granted control of the Cochabamba municipal water system to the grassroots coalition.  It also repealed water privatization legislation as well as provisions that would have charged people for drawing water from local wells.

“It is amazing to note that, after losing its contract, Bechtel Corporation sued the nation of Bolivia for $25 million in damages and an additional $25 million in lost potential profits (money the corporation argues that it could have earned if it had been able to keep the water system).  It must be recognized here that, in 2000, Bechtel’s revenues were more than $14 billion while the entire national budget of Bolivia was merely $2.7 billion.  Oscar Olivera, the leader of The Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life stated, “With the $25 million [in damages] they are seeking, 125,000 people could have access to water.”

“Fortunately, in January 2006, Bechtel finally decided to drop its suit after being subjected to four years of sustained international pressure.  Organizations and citizens groups from throughout the world coordinated their efforts to apply pressure on Bechtel to drop its case.  The company was bombarded with emails, and concerned groups used the international media to bring attention to Bechtel’s attempts to profiteer at the expense of the poor people in Bolivia.  Oscar Olivera declared, “Multinational corporations want to turn everything into a market….  For indigenous people water is not a commodity, it is a common good.  For Bolivia this retreat by Bechtel means that the rights of the people are undeniable.””  (pages 190-192)

Shipping Toxic Waste to the Third World

“The issue of Third World toxic waste lays bare a picture of callous inhumanity and blatant cruelty that is truly shocking in its scope.  It has now been widely reported that the First World is exporting its toxic waste to impoverished developing nations.  Not only is such waste being shipped to the Third World, some corporations have actually found a way to profit from this deadly transaction.

“The “ship breaking business” is a case in point of corporate behavior that can be characterized as nothing short of criminal.  Ten shipping corporations dominate the global merchant cargo trade.  When these corporations want to dispose of an old vessel, they send it to a ship breaking yard where it is dismantled from scrap metal.  Probably the largest ship breaking yard in the world is in Bangladesh (a hunger-ravaged nation) where massive tanker ships, some as long as three football fields and as tall as twenty stories high, have been run agound in the Bay of Bengal.  Workers (cutters) use blow torches to cut ships to pieces.  From high above, gigantic plates of metal, some weighing several tons, are cut from ships and then fall dangerously to the ground.  Crews of workers then carry the plates on their shoulders as they step in unison to the rhythm of a leader’s chant.  The National Labor Committee (NLC), a U.S.-based worker rights organization, investigated the industrial atrocities at the Bengal shipyard.  An NLC article titled “Where Ships and Workers Go to Die ,” states,

“The kids usually help the cutters or remove asbestos [a known carcinogen].  They smash the asbestos with a hammer, shovel it into a plastic bag and remove it from the ship….  Dismantled ships are toxic to workers and the environment.  Each ship contains an average of 15,000 pounds of asbestos and ten to 100 tons of lead paint.  Besides asbestos and lead [which can cause kidney damage and brain impairment in children], workers are exposed to mercury, arsenic, dioxins, solvents, toxic oil residues and carcinogenic fumes from melting metal and paint.  Environmental damage to beaches, ocean and fishing villages is extensive.”

“Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee, calls the Bengal ship breaking yard “hell on earth.”  Thirty thousand workers, some as young as ten years old, dismantle ships at a nonstop pace for twelve hours a day, seven days a week, for the equivalent of twenty-two to thirty-six cents an hour with no sick days or holidays.  Workers live in utter squalor in stifling hot rooms without windows and without refrigerators.  Each tiny room is packed with four people who sleep on the floor with only old sheets and rags for bedding.  While doing their incredibly dangerous tasks, the workers are not given any safety gear by the ship-owners.  Baseball caps serve as hard hats, and in the absence of steel-toed shoes, young workers are seen handling heavy sheets of metal wearing only flip-flops.  Filthy bandanas serve as respiratory masks, and when using dangerous blow torches, sunglasses are used in place of safety visors.  Kernaghan states, “Last year, a 13-year old child his very first day on the job was hit in the head with a heavy piece of metal and he just died immediately.”  Kernaghan eerily adds, “the ship-owners don’t document anything, they don’t investigate the killings and the injuries, they just throw the people back into their villages and in some cases, we’ve heard that they throw the dead bodies into the water.”

“The heinous disregard for human life and the environment that is described above is the end result of an insidiously reckless capitalist order that has thrown away all moral restraint.  In a Law Review article titled, “Beyond Eco-Imperialism:  An Environmental Justice Critique of Free Trade,” Carmen Gonzalez, a law professor, provides a highly detailed and well-researched view of the environmental justice issues that have emerged as a result of globalization.  Her article states,

“[I]nternational trade promotes environmental degradation in developing countries and threatens the physical health, cultural integrity and economic well being of the Southern [Third World] poor….  [T]he North [First World] reaps the benefits of liberalized trade while exporting the environmental costs to the South….  [This] article…identifies the North’s resource-intensive, consumption-oriented lifestyle as the primary cause of global environmental degradation….  This lifestyle can only be maintained through the ongoing appropriation of the natural resources of the South.”

“Earlier in this chapter a section titled “Widespread Rising Poverty Amidst Incredible Concentrations of Wealth,” provided statistics that show that the people living in the wealthy developed nations (only about twenty percent of the world’s population) consume a disproportionate share of the globe’s food, resources, and goods.  Indeed, the United States has the highest consumption levels per capita in the globe with Japan and Western Europe not being far behind.  Gonzalez uses similar statistics in her article to support her thesis (as expressed in the quote above).  A group of researchers in the Center for Sustainability Studies in Xalapa, Mexico, created a concept known as the “ecological footprint” in order to study the amount of resources, “natural capital,” that a country must have (or must appropriate from others) in order to maintain its level of consumption.  The researchers discovered that “the Netherlands, United States, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Japan, and Israel were among the highest per capita importers of natural capital.”  This means that these countries, in particular, are using many more resources than they actually possess, and that the First World “is living far beyond its ecological means,” and the developing nations cannot catch up “without exceeding the limits of the global ecosystem.”  Indeed, if everyone in the world adopted and tried to maintain a Western level of consumption, then, instead of just one world, it would actually be necessary to have ten worlds to satisfy everyone’s needs.  Gonzalez contends that there is a great need for legal scholarship in the area of researching and creating international laws that address the problem of over-consumption.  [see:  Beyond Eco-Imperialism:  An Environmental Justice Critique of Free Trade,” Carmen Gonzalez]

“Gonzalez further asserts that, for many years, the U.S. environmental movement has been perceived to be a middle class, White, suburban phenomenon that has been primarily interested in the protection of endangered species, wilderness areas, and parks, but it has not shown sufficient interesting environmental justice issues related to racism, poverty, and societal antidemocratic processes and policies.  She cites a variety of studies that show that “poor people and racial and ethnic minorities suffer disproportionately high levels of exposure to toxic substances while whites residing in more pristine suburban neighborhoods reap the benefits of environmental protection.”  This unjust dynamic within the United States shows up in the choice of location for hazardous waste facilities and also in the selective enforcement of laws and standards pertaining to water and air pollution, as well as waste disposal.

“Similar to the dynamic described above, Gonzalez maintains that, when it comes to the international arena, environmentalists from the Northern wealthy nations have been mainly concerned with protecting global natural areas.  As such, they have been slow to recognize that socioeconomic justice issues are a direct cause of global pollution and resource depletion.  In contrast, environmentalists from the poor Southern nations are increasingly asserting that international environmental degradation is directly linked to justice issues related to international inequality and to the struggle for democracy, self-determination, economic sufficiency, and cultural rights.  Along these lines, the Southern environmentalists contend that the primary causes of international pollution and resource depletion are the excessive consumption patterns of wealthy nations as well as “the world economic order” that “has institutionalized Southern poverty, which places additional stress on the environment. [see source link above, page 988]”  Along these lines, Gonzalez states,

“Indeed, one prominent Southern environmentalist has argued that the South is bearing a disproportionate share of the environmental consequences of globalization, and has described this phenomenon as environmental apartheid….  The allegations of Southern environmentalists have been supported by studies commissioned by the United Nations Development Program, [specifically related to] the export of hazardous wastes and deforestation.  [see source link above, page 989]”

“Gonzalez points out that there is a need for the development of international human rights laws that “link the environmental struggle with the struggle for social justice.”

“Unfortunately, the hazardous waste trade is flourishing.  Illegal shipments destined from the United States to other nations (Mexico, Ecuador, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and others) have continued to be intercepted.  Even recycling efforts that seem innocent on the surface can actually be deadly in Third World environments where there are not appropriate safeguards.  A prime example of this is the shipment of used car batteries to poor countries in order to recover and recycle the lead.  Lead is extremely hazardous and typically causes all forms of problems for the poor.  Along similar lines, the Bangladesh ship breaking yard described above is extremely toxic to the people and to the environment, and yet the ship-owners would likely try to defend it as a good venture that recovers and recycles scrap metal.  Gonzalez sates, “Environmentalists have rightfully denounced: such practices “as ‘toxic colonialism’.  [see source link above, page 993]”  (Medina’s book pages 192-196)

Next post:  Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic

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See recent posts:

+HERE’S A TAKE ON THE RICH RICH RICH RICH AND THE POOR POOR POOR POOR

+FINDING MY COURAGE TO TAKE A LOOK AT ‘WHAT’S WRONG WITH AMERICA’

+ONGOING TRAUMAS: AMERICA’S BIG MONEY PERPETRATORS

+WHERE THE BAD PEOPLE HIDE: ‘AMERICA FAR WORSE THAN A BULLY’

+CRITICISM NOT ALLOWED IN A BLACK-AND-WHITE WORLD

+MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS — ECONOMIC VAMPIRES WORLDWIDE

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+MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS — ECONOMIC VAMPIRES WORLDWIDE

alchemynow1 Comment

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Why does abuse continue?  Because it can.  Well, here I go – forward HO!  What is THIS about the United States of America that I am frightened to know?  More from the book, America’s Sacred Calling: Building a New Spiritual Reality (2010) by John Fitzgerald Medina., who states the following about:

Multinational Corporations

“A cursory review of the literature pertaining to global capitalism quickly reveals that multinational corporations are at the epicenter of many of the problems that we are currently experiencing both in the United States and throughout the world.  Possibly because of this, the Baha’I writings envisage that corporations (trusts) will no longer exist in the future:  “No more trusts will remain in the future.  The question of the trusts will be wiped away entirely.”  [The Secret of Divine Civilization, page 24]  Many multinational corporations, as they currently exist, are manifestations of a Cartesian-Newtonian value system that places the maximization of profits ahead of all other goals – often to the exclusion of even ethical and moral considerations.  Along these lines, history professor Howard Zinn, author of the highly acclaimed A People’s History of the United States, notes that the prevailing unscrupulous activities of multinational corporations are built upon a long history of corporate abuse in the Third World:

“The relationship of these global corporations with the poorer count4ries had long been an exploiting one….  Whereas U.S. corporations in Europe between 1950 and 1965 invested $8.1 billion and made $5.5 billion in profits, In Latin America they invested $3.8 billion and made $11.2 billion in profits, and in Africa they invested $5.2 billion and made $14.3 billion in profits.”  [page 29]

“Corporations wield incredible power, and indeed, are beyond the control of any one government.  Of the world’s 100 largest economies, fifty-one are not multinational corporations while only forty-nine are nations [bold type is mine].  Currently, there is no body of national or international law to deal effectively with such corporate “states.”  Corporations are not democratic institutions, and they often make it clear that their only obligation is to deliver profits to shareholders.  In the United States, corporate lawyers have used the courts to carve out an entire body of case law including language that declares that corporations (also known as trusts) are legal persons entitled to First Amendment free speech rights and also to the protection of life, liberty, and property.  Moreover, case law grants corporations legal immunity, which means that corporate executives cannot be held fully accountable for their activities.  As such, corporations enjoy the rights of individuals without having to assume the responsibilities of individuals.  Along these lines, Noreena Herz, a Cambridge University economist and author of The Silent Takeover:  Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy, contends that multinational corporations pose a grave threat to democracy itself because of their ever growing capacity to manipulate governments with legal and illegal methods.  She maintains that corporations, almost by design, do not currently serve the world’s political and social needs, but rather, mostly serve the interests of profit-motivating investors.

“In contrast to the prevailing laissez-faire [describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies] global capitalism model, the Baha’I teachings stipulate that all business enterprises should be well regulated by international codes of law that set effective, fair, and just guidelines pertaining to global wages, working conditions, environmental protections, property issues, capital-labor relationships, restrictions on the concentration of wealth, and the sharing of natural resources.  Furthermore, according to the Baha’I teachings, businesses should be democratically run with workers and owners mutually participating in the decision-making process at all levels and workers also enjoying a percentage of the profits.  All people, including the disabled, should be employed in some capacity.  Moreover, in order to avoid the harmful speculation in currencies that currently exists, Baha’is believe that there should be one uniform worldwide monetary currency.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha wrote, “When the law3s He [Baha’u’llah] has instituted are carried out there will be no millionaires possible in the community and likewise no extremely poor.”  [The Promulgation of Universal Peace (2007), page 217]

“In their perpetual efforts to find, control, and exploit natural resources, corporations have caused much damage to the environment and have also cased much harm to indigenous communities with close ties with the land.  The Baha’i Faith recognizes that the constant struggle to seize and dominate natural resources has often resulted in major wars and conflicts between nations, groups, and enterprises.  In light of this, the Baha’i writings envisage that, in the future, all of the earth’s natural resources will be placed under public control, under the auspices of a world super-state (a world federation of nations).  According to the Baha’i writings, the world super-state will exercise full authority over the planet’s resources including oceans, forests, oil deposits, copper, silver, gold and other metals, diamonds, minerals, natural gas, coal, and so forth.  It is believed that the super-state will protect, coordinate, and organize the planet’s resources so that all peoples and countries may benefit equitably from these natural riches.”  [The World Order of Baha’u’llah (1991), page 204]  (pages 186-188)

Western-Style Development in the Third World

“An overwhelming body of evidence now shows that Western-style economic development, the kind that is promoted by multinational corporations, has led to highly destructive outcomes in the Third World.  Indeed, a common theme among critics of globalization is that the multinational corporations and the wealthy First World nations (especially the United States) have been using international financial and trade institutions – such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) – to their advantage and to the detriment of poor Third World nations.  For instance, Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics and author of Globalization and Its Discontents, contends that the IMF has consistently placed the interests of the United States and the rich industrialized countries above the interests of the impoverished developing countries.  Similarly, economist Biplab DasGupta, author of Structural Adjustment, Global Trade, and the New Political Economic Development, asserts that the global economic policies of the IMF and the WTO are harmful to poor countries and primarily reflect the interests of the wealthy countries of the Northern Hemisphere.

“Third World debt has become a major driving force in international relations.  During the 1970s and 1980s, First World banks found that it was profitable to lend money to Third World governments.  Indeed, such banks have managed to collect exorbitant interest on the longterm debt.  As it has become evident that some countries might default on their loans, the IMF (ultimately funded by public taxpayers) has stepped in to save the private banks by assuming some of the Third World debt.  The IMF and the World Bank, however, have increasingly pressured impoverished nations to enact economic austerity measures or face penalties.  These measures are formally known as structural adjustment programs, and they typically require countries to:  devalue their currency, which results in a dramatic reduction in the purchasing power of the poor; sell state-run enterprises to private parties (usually corporations); sell state-owned communally held lands to private parties (usually wealthy landowners or agribusiness corporations); severely cut state spending on social programs such as education, health care, and food subsidies for the poor; radically reduce the employment of civil servants in the government sector, which results in massive government layoffs; remove subsidies and price supports for small farmers who consequently can no longer compete with agribusiness corporations; stop producing food crops (such as corn and beans) for the hungry local population and start producing cash crops (like coffee, cotton, and tobacco) for export and sale to wealthy countries; deregulate economic activity (repeal minimum wage laws, gut environmental protection laws, etc.); and other changes.  The measures described above have had the overall effect of transferring wealth and power from the public sphere (governments and the people) to private entities (rich elites and multinational corporations).  [see:  “Michel Chossudovsky:  The Globalization of Poverty:  Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms,”]

“Loans have done almost nothing to alleviate the distress of Third World populations.  To the contrary, they have done much to increase this distress while at the same time augmenting the coffers of multinational corporations and First World banks.  Amazingly, poor countries now spend over twenty-five dollars on debt repayment for every one dollar in aid that they receive from wealthy nations.  Dennis Brutus, a professor of Africana Studies and the University of Pittsburgh, states,

“One of the central mechanisms by which this recolonization [of Africa]…is carried out is the loan system through structural adjustment programs….  [M]any of the countries that received loans…have not seen their economies improve.  Quite the opposite.  Some are in a far worse economic position and more indebted than they were prior to taking the loans…more bankrupt…more impoverished….  It is hardly imaginable that anyone could knowingly devise such a ruthless, heartless system that is entirely devoted to increasing profit and largely indifferent to its human cost.  This, however, is the system that is shaping life in Africa today, and it is the system that we must challenge.”  [see source HERE]

Next post:

Taking Water Away From the Bolivian Indians

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See recent posts::

+HERE’S A TAKE ON THE RICH RICH RICH RICH AND THE POOR POOR POOR POOR

+FINDING MY COURAGE TO TAKE A LOOK AT ‘WHAT’S WRONG WITH AMERICA’

+ONGOING TRAUMAS: AMERICA’S BIG MONEY PERPETRATORS

+WHERE THE BAD PEOPLE HIDE: ‘AMERICA FAR WORSE THAN A BULLY’

+CRITICISM NOT ALLOWED IN A BLACK-AND-WHITE WORLD

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+ONGOING TRAUMAS: AMERICA’S BIG MONEY PERPETRATORS

alchemynowLeave a comment

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As difficult as it is for me to challenge my own ‘betrayal bond’ with the United States of America, I am posting here further excerpts from the book I introduced in last evening’s post, America’s Sacred Calling: Building a New Spiritual Reality (2010) by John Fitzgerald Medina.

Medina writes:

The Extremes of Wealth and Poverty as an Impediment to Peace and Spiritual Growth

“Ironically, as mentioned above [see last evening’s post] in the face of widespread rising poverty in the United States and throughout the globe, astonishing levels of wealth are nonetheless being amassed and increasingly concentrated in the hands of a very small cadre [a nucleus or core group] of super-rich, powerful individuals.  In the United States, the gap in wealth distribution is currently greater than at any other time since 1929, the year of the Great Depression.  Similarly, practically every Third World country has a small cadre of rich elites (obligarchs) [a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of people] who live lavish lifestyles amidst the abject debilitating poverty of their fellow citizens.  Related to this, the Universal House of Justice warns that the widening gap between the rich and the poor throughout the world is a major impediment to peace:  “The inordinate disparity between rich and poor, a source of acute suffering, keeps the world in a state of instability, virtually on the brink of war. (The Promise of World Peace, pages 10-11)” Along similar lines, ‘Abdu’l-Baha states the following regarding wealth:

“If a judicious and resourceful individual should initiate measures which would universally enrich the masses of the people, there could be no undertaking greater than this….  Wealth is most commendable, provided the entire population is wealthy.  If, however, a few have inordinate riches while the rest are impoverished, and no fruit or benefit accrues from that wealth, then it is only a liability to its possessor.  If, on the other hand, it is expended for the promotion of knowledge, the founding of elementary and other schools, the encouragement of art and industry, the training of orphans and the poor – in brief, if it is dedicated to the welfare of society – its possessor will stand out before God and man as the most excellent of all who live on earth and will be accounted as one of the people of paradise.  (The Secret of Divine Civilization, page 24)”

“It would be accurate to say that one of the defining features of capitalism is that it encourages individuals to concentrate wealth.  Capitalism also lacks any moral constraints that admonish and encourage individuals to expend such wealth for the benefit of others.  This alone practically guarantees that ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s above admonition will remain unheeded within the current economic paradigm.  He asserts that wealth that is not utilized for the benefit of the overall society is actually “a liability to its possessor.”  I believe that this is a reference to the spiritual deficits (deficits in the virtues of generosity, compassion, justice, humility, and love) that likely multiply in the souls of any individuals who devote their time and energy to selfishly amassing physical treasures while, at the same time, showing little concern for the general welfare of the community.  It is probably the case that such individuals may outwardly appear prosperous, and yet, they may actually be experiencing spiritual starvation and a poverty of the soul.  (pages 179-181)”

Keeping the World Safe for Capitalism

“Such poverty of the soul is clearly evident in the corrupt social, political, and economic arrangements of the global order.  These prevailing arrangements are based on blatant physical power and control and are not mediated in any sense by moral or spiritual constraints.  Indeed, physical wealth is the chief mediating force in global politics and economics.  Wealthy elites are able to exercise tremendous power not only within their own nations, but also beyond their respective nations’ borders.  Elites may live in different countries, but they often collaborate with one another to exert extreme control over the resources and governmental institutions of the planet in order to maintain the prevailing unjust global order.  Within the United States, big business interests (American multinational corporations, huge investment banks, and rich owners/investors) hold a powerful sway over the government.  Through the instrumentality of the U.S. government as well as through American-dominated international bodies such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization, big business entities project their power onto the global stage where they consistently promote economic, political, and military policies and actions that make the world safe for capitalism (actually, safe for the easy exploitation of the masses).  Such U.S.-led policies and actions effectively preserve the privileged position of American big business interests throughout the planet as well as protect the positions of elites within impoverished countries where ruthless oppression is often used to maintain the gap between the rich and the poor.

“The control of agitated hungry populations typically requires the use of military force.  Not surprisingly, in order to maintain the global arrangements described above, the Unites States has been, and continues to be, the leading supplier of weap0ns on the planet.  [bold type is mine]  By the end of the 1990s, the United States accounted for seventy percent of the commerce in weapons to the Third World.  Significantly, even after the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in 1989, the United States continued to flood the world with weapons.  For instance, it provided arms or military technology to belligerent parties in ninety percent of the fifty most significant conflicts that occurred between 1993 and 1994.  [See HERE]  In November 13, 2006, The Boston Globe reported the following:

“…it is the United States that by far remains the top purveyor of high-tech arms to areas where…the likelihood of armed conflict remains highest.  A study last year by the progressive World Policy Institute found that the United States transferred weaponry to 18 of the 25 countries involved in an ongoing war….  [M]ore than half of the countries buying U.S. arms…were defined as undemocratic….  “The U.S. would be significantly affected if there was an arms treaty that took into account human rights abuses and conflict areas,” added William Hartung [World Policy Institute]….  “The U.S. government still wants to be able to do convert and semi-covert arms transfers.”  [rest HERE]”

“The findings above are very significant considering the fact that many contemporary outbreaks of famine are related to armed struggles and devil wars such as the recent conflict in Somalia.  Thus, arms transfers and U.S. military aid to the Third World contributes considerably to world hunger because they help keep famine-inducing armed conflicts alive.

“It is ironic that the United States has often touted itself as the prime promoter of worldwide democracy when, as noted above, a myriad of undemocratic governments have received military aid and weapons from the United States.  Some of these governments have essentially acted as American-influenced puppets that have served to maintain political and economic conditions that are favorable to the Untied States and to American-based multinational corporations.  During the 1800s and 1900s, the United States established such governmental arrangements throughout the world in a variety of countries in Central and South America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific region.  Indeed, these arrangements were cultivated especially in Third World countries where profits could be made through exploitation of cheap labor and/or the exploitation of minerals, and so forth.  Along these lines, sociologist James Loewen states, “From 1815 on, instead of spreading democracy…we [Americans] sought hegemony [domination] over Mexico, the Philippines, much of the Caribbean basin, and other nations.”  In many instances, the U.S. government blatantly worked hand in hand with wealthy Third World oligarchs to actually create puppet regimes.  (pages 181-183)”

The author’s next section:

Overthrowing Democracy in the Name of Capitalism

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SEE:

— US is top purveyor on weapons sales list — Shipments grow to unstable areas

By Bryan Bender – The Boston Globe Staff / November 13, 2006

— SOURCEWATCH – Arms Control – June 4, 2008

— Interesting collection of current foreign aid statistics by nation HERE

Also see:  Third World Traveler –

THIRD WORLD TRAVELER  is an archive of articles and book excerpts
that seek to tell the truth about American democracy, media, and foreign policy,  and about the impact of the actions of the United States government, transnational corporations, global trade and financial institutions, and the corporate media,  on democracy, social and economic justice, human rights, and war and peace,  in the Third World, and in the developed world.

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+HERE’S A TAKE ON THE RICH RICH RICH RICH AND THE POOR POOR POOR POOR

alchemynowLeave a comment

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To help myself gain a more balanced and informed perspective on the topic of the imbalance of resources within America and the world, I am reading America’s Sacred Calling: Building a New Spiritual Reality (2010) by John Fitzgerald Medina.  In his writing about materialism and capitalism, Medina states:

Widespread Rising Poverty Amidst Incredible Concentrations of Wealth

“As we take a closer look at the world’s current socioeconomic situation, especially as it pertains to hunger and poverty, we get a clear view of the workings of a cruel economic machine.  For any person of moral conscience, it is hard to come to grips with the fact that we live on a planet in which staggering numbers of people are literally dying of hunger.  About one billion people on the globe are at or near starvation.  Almost half of the world’s children live in a state of debilitating poverty and malnutrition.  If our real world could be reduced to a hypothetical village containing only one hundred people, then the following would be true:  sixty people in the village would always be hungry (twenty-six of these being severely undernourished); sixteen people would go to bed hungry at least some of the time [my note:  currently among American children 22.5 of a ‘100 children’ would fit this category] while only twenty-four people within the village would always have enough to eat.  This reveals the true callous nature of the prevailing global order in which only twenty-four percent of the Earth’s people have enough to eat.  It must be emphasized here, that if food was properly distributed and shared, there would be plenty for everyone on the planet.  Food is readily available; however, many of the world’s poor cannot pay the market price, and thus, sometimes even huge surpluses of food are allowed to rot away.

“Additionally, about one billion people worldwide have no access to clean water and half of the world’s people have no access to sanitation (sewage, flushing toilets, etc.).  This lack of clean water and sanitation leads to health problems and to the easy spread of disease.  It also results in a waste of time and energy because the poor spend several hours each day collecting water from distant areas.  (pages 174-175)”

“The apparent cruelty of the existing global order is especially demonstrated by the fact that the people living in the wealthy developed nations (only about twenty percent of the Earth’s population) consume a disproportionate share of the world’s resources and goods each year, including about seventy percent of the world’s energy, about seventy-five percent of its metals, about eighty-five percent of its timber, and about eighty-six percent of its goods.  The United States has the highest consumption levels per capita in the globe.  Along these lines, on August 28, 2000, an article in the San Diego Union Tribune reported that Americans alone spend “$1.9 billion more a day on imported clothes and cars and gadgets than the entire rest of the world spends on its goods and services.” [bold type is mine]  Similarly, eighty-five percent of the Earth’s water is used by a mere twelve percent of the world’s people who live in the wealthy developed nations.

“In addition to consuming a disproportionate share of the Earth’s food, resources, and goods, the rich countries of the globe are claiming an ever-increasing ratio of the world’s wealth.  In 1950, the income gap between the people living in the wealthy developed nations and the people living in the poorest nations was thirty-five to one.  By 1997, in less than fifty years during the worldwide expansion of capitalism, this income gap increased to seventy-four to one.   In contrast to this situation, Baha’u’llah exhorts all peoples to “Be generous in prosperity….Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer to the cry of the needy.”

“The gap between the rich countries and the poor countries of the world is rapidly increasing as noted above; however, equally disconcerting is the fact that the gap between the rich and poor is also increasing within the United States itself.  It may surprise some to know that the United States now has the most unequal income distribution of any industrialized country.  [bold type is mine]  Alarmingly, super-rich Americans who represent the top one percent of the U.S. population control forty percent of America’s total wealth.  Meanwhile, the top twenty percent of Americans, as a group, control eighty-three percent of America’s total wealth.  This means that the overwhelming majority of Americans are competing for only the remaining seventeen percent of the wealth after the super-rich and the rich take their lion’s share.

“Over the past four decades, in the face of major government deregulation, corporate downsizing, and the dissolution of trade unions, American workers have experienced a significant erosion of protections, benefits, income, and freedoms.  Additionally, over this period of time, American multinational corporations have made a massive transfer of capital, factories, and labs to Third World countries with the weakest workplace safety and environmental laws, the toughest anti-union laws, and the lowest wages and taxes.  Not surprisingly, as shown by the statistics above, wealth has been upwardly distributed – indeed, approximately ninety percent of the increase in U.S. income over about the past twenty-five years has gone to the rich people at the top of the socioeconomic pyramid (the top twenty percent of Americans).

“As a result of all of this, rising numbers of Americans are joining the ranks of what has been termed the “working poor.”  This is a reference to the millions of Americans who are working year-round, full-time, for poverty-level wages (based on government guidelines).  Some have to live in their cars or have to work two full-time jobs just to pay the rent and to buy enough food for their children.  Some experience constant pain because they cannot afford medical treatment and are unable to miss any work because they lack sick leave.  The reality is that the U.S. economy is not producing enough living-wage jobs to accommodate all Americans.  Sadly, in the United States, about one in three children under the age of twelve are hungry or at risk of hunger.  All of this once again demonstrates the grim dehumanized nature of this system.”  (pages 176-178)”

Survival of the Fittest Class Consciousness

“Interestingly, in spite of the gross maldistribution of wealth in the United States, many Americans do not protest because they still feel fortunate in comparison to the vast numbers of people in the Third World who live on the brink of real starvation.  As such, the maldistribution of wealth (a salient feature of capitalism) results in a pyramid-shaped hierarchy that stratifies people into socioeconomic classes ranging from the American super-rich elites at the top of the pyramid down to the lowliest peasant classes in the Third World.  The rich upper classes use their wealth strategically to promote and to protect their economic and political interests often at the expense of the middle and lower classes.  Through the use of gifts, grants, and contributions to government officials, churches, universities, foundations, think tanks, and a variety of other organizations, the elites exert tremendous influence on all aspects of society including governmental, business, religious, legal, educational, media, law enforcement, and military institutions.  Indeed, the scandalous amount of money that the American upper classes spend on political campaigns to maintain their power is truly an affront to democracy.  The corrupting influence of money, however, is not the only thing that maintains the unjust status quo.  The system is also kept in order because capitalist ideology itself fosters a “survival of the fittest” mentality in which individuals perceive each other as competitors in a struggle for survival (Social Darwinism).  This promulgates the faulty belief that the best people rise to the top and that the lower classes are inferior and possibly even morally and/or intellectually deficient.  Thus class prejudices play a major role in maintaining the system.

“Interestingly, many lower and middle class Americans often willingly support such an iniquitous [characterized by iniquity] economic model because they subscribe to the capitalist inspired notion that someday they too can climb to the top of the socioeconomic hierarchy.  However, the current deep economic recession involving major job losses, the collapse of the housing market, and the massive loss of personal investments and savings has caused some Americans to realize that they are indeed vulnerable to the iniquities of the free market system.  Moreover, with banks and credit card companies being increasingly tight on loans and credit, the recession has stoked serious concerns among average Americans who have become accustomed to living counterfeit “middle class” lifestyles based on staggering levels of debt.  Meanwhile, due to the high surplus of desperate unemployed Americans, companies now have the capability to fire well-paid employees and to easily replace them with “cheaper” workers.  The current job market situation in the United States is radically different in comparison to the job marked of the mid-1940s through the mid-1960s when U.S. industrial firms were manufacturing about half of all the world’s products.  As noted above, over the past few decades, the U.S. economy has lost huge numbers of well-paid manufacturing jobs due to capitalist “free trade” policies that have allowed American multinational corporations to simply close entire factories and ship them off to the Third World where they can easily exploit entire populations.

“Additionally, many American families in the past could make an adequate living on only one income.  This is no longer the case.  In today’s families, both parents typically have to work to make ends meet [my note:  author makes no mention of single parenthood]  In light of all of this, many Americans are starting to realize that they are potentially only a few paychecks away from poverty and potentially even homelessness.  Thus, increasing numbers of Americans are coming to the painful recognition that the so-called American dream of never-ending upward mobility is coming to an abrupt end.  Of course, for some Americans, the thought of upward mobility has always been nothing more than a fleeting fantasy, especially for inner-city minorities living in blighted urban centers with high unemployment rates, eroded tax bases, and a lack of social infrastructure (poor medical care, substandard housing, and indeed, even a lack of grocery stores).  (pages 178-179)”

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The author’s next section:

The Extremes of Wealth and Poverty as an Impediment to Peace and Spiritual Growth

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+PLEASE CHECK OUT THIS REPORT ON AMERICA’S CHILDREN IN RECESSION TIMES

alchemynowLeave a comment

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This report appears with a link included in my previous post, down near the bottom.  It is TOO IMPORTANT to overlook.  The information included at this link is critical to ALL OF OUR WELL-BEING!

Effect of State Budget Cuts:  America’s Kids Pay the Price
This is a report NACCRRA released In January 2010 with Every Child Matters and Voices for America’s Children. To read a copy of the report, click on the title above.

“At least 42 states have cut public health, programs for children with disabilities, K-12 and early education, and higher education.”

Children During the Recession

“American children will be required to pay a substantial price in lost opportunities to address a problem they did nothing to create.”

—About one in four children under

18 is living in poverty; 21.3

percent of children under 6 live

in poverty

—Over half (53.3 percent) of

children growing up alone with

their mother are living in poverty

—More than one in five children

(22.5 percent) live in families

who are food insecure – meaning

they struggle against hunger and

report not having enough to eat

—Nearly 10 percent of children

lack health insurance—over

7 million children

—Only one out of every seven

eligible children receives child

care assistance and the care

that children have access to is of

dubious quality

Read what this report recommends to help improve conditions within our nation that are so negatively impacting our children.

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+SOME NIFTY GENERAL INFO

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Help Make Children Count Too!

A friendly reminder from Prevent Child Abuse New York to fill out your 2010 census form and, if applicable, include all of your children.

According to The Annie E. Casey Foundation, children have been undercounted in every census since the first one in 1790. Since local communities rely on census information in planning for schools, child care, health, and other critical services, accurate data is essential for the proper availability and provision of community services. This Casey report explains why young children are so often missed in the census.

The U.S. Census Bureau has developed a Parents and Child Care Providers toolkit, designed to help organizations that reach children communicate the benefits of census participation.

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SOMEONE  SENT ME THIS THE OTHER DAY:

The CDC analysis shows that deaths during pregnancy and childbirth have doubled for all U.S. women in the past 20 years.

In 1987, there were 6.6 deaths for every 100,000 pregnancies. The number of deaths had climbed to 13.3 per 100,000 in 2006, the last year for which figures were available.

A report called “Healthy People 2010” by the Department of Health and Human Services says that number should be around four deaths for each 100,000 pregnancies.

Statistics for other highly industrialized countries show that the U.S. goal of four deaths for every 100,000 pregnancies is attainable.   Great Britain, for example, has fewer than four deaths for each 100,000 pregnancies, Main said.

“Women’s health is at risk,” said Strauss.   “We spend the most, and yet women are more likely to die than in 40 other countries.   And that disconnect is what makes it such a problem.”

Note that this is tucked way, way down on the CNN front page – way below the news about a few Prius owners and their problems, way, way, way below the Death of Peter Graves or the induction of Abba into some hall of fame. Decline and fall stuff always is.

As the States struggle with their budgets, the easiest places to cut are with those who have no power – the disabled, the poor, children.  The usual first victims.   Here’s a good example, in Virginia (I’m not singling them out, they just happened to settle their budget the other day):

Funding for schools will drop $646 million over the next two years; the state will also cut more than $1 billion from health programs.  Class sizes will rise.   A prison will close, judges who die or retire won’t be replaced and funding for local sheriff’s offices will drop 6 percent.

Only 250 more mentally disabled adults will receive money to get community-based services, in a state where the waiting list for such services numbers 6,000 and is growing. Employees will take a furlough day this year, the state will borrow $620 million in cash from its retirement plan for employees and future employees will be asked to retire later and contribute more to their pensions.

Medical care providers will see Medicaid payments from the state trimmed, and fewer poor children will be enrolled in state health care, although those health cuts could be tempered by anticipated federal funds

States are between a rock and hard place, but refusing to raise taxes on the middle class and upper classes while stripping the most vulnerable of the basics is particularly charming – and fairly typical.   I expect New York to do the same, if it can ever pass a budget.   Meanwhile, in North Carolina, there’s some proof that there’s more fat to cut in state budgets – they don’t have to wholly screw the poor.

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Check out this webpage on decision making and the brain:

Exploring status quo bias in the human brain

This study, published March 15, 2010 in (PNAS), looked at the decision-making of participants taking part in a tennis ‘line judgement’ game while their brains were scanned using functional MRI (fMRI).

First author Stephen Fleming, Wellcome Trust Centre for at UCL, said: “When faced with a complex decision people tend to accept the status quo, hence the old saying ‘When in doubt, do nothing.’

“Whether it’s moving house or changing TV channel, there is a considerable tendency to stick with the current situation and choose not to act, and we wanted to explore this bias towards inaction in our study and examine the regions of the brain involved.”  READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

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+OUR STRESS RESPONSE IS WHAT WE PASS DOWN TO OUR KIDS

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It is not so much the nature of any particular trauma or stress that we experience in life that matters most; it is how well equipped we are with both the inner and outer resources to respond to them.  It is our response patterns that most affect our children.  It is our response patterns that we pass down to them.

The vagal nerve is directly tied both to our stress response system and to our ability to act with compassionate caregiving.  I believe that it is our response to trauma and stress in relation to how compassionately we can take care of our children that matters most to them during their early growth and developmental stages.

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How can this fact (as presented in my last post) not be of central concern to everyone living in America?

“44 percent of American children — that’s nearly half of all children in the U.S. — live in families that face serious struggles to make ends meet.”

Poverty is a stressor that affects not just the adults caring for this 44% of our nation’s children, but also impacts each and every one of the children in some way.  How do we care for ourselves and others when our stress response system is itself overly and chronically stressed?

Poverty is not a single problem that can be dissociated from the ever expanding circles of society that create both the poverty conditions and the solutions for these conditions.  My concern with the vagal nerve system and its connection to the capacity to care-give compassionately or not lead me to finding the information I am presenting today.  Parents still have to take care of their children no matter what lack they may be experiencing in their external resources.  Yet it is the actual condition of a parent’s body and brain that influences how all of their caregiving actions take place in every situation – stressful or not.

If parents experienced severe stress and trauma during their own early developmental stages, their stress response system has most likely changed in response.  This altered stress response system is the only one they have available in their body-brain to use for the rest of their lifetime.  Because how the stress response system operates is directly connected to the vagal nerve system, and because parental interactions with their children directly influence the development of their little one’s stress response-vagal nerve system, these stress responses can easily be automatically passed on down the generations – often along with poverty.

Even though the current economy is creating an ever widening circle of financial stress on families in our nation, it is the response TO THE STRESSORS that are perhaps more significant in the long run than are the actual experiences of lack of financial well-being themselves.  The more we can all understand how our body-brain handles stress, anxiety and trauma the more empowered we can be to intercept automatic responses to children in our lives that will harm their body-brain development in ways that will create physiological lack of well-being for their lifespan – no matter what their financial conditions end up to be.

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Two important words that emerged for me today as I read this information presented below are ‘inspiration’ and ‘expiration’.  True, this article is talking about our breathing and our heart rate.  But it is more than that.  The more flexible we can be in every single way the more ‘inspiration’ we can experience in our lives that will counteract the hardships we encounter.  Stress responses in our body, through the operation of our vagal nerve system, happen in response to threats to our actual life as well as to threats against our self esteem (and to our actual ‘self’).

Mindful consciousness over our stress response actions empowers us.  Becoming mindfully conscious of how we are in-the-moment allowing our own stress responses to affect our children MATTERS to their physiological development.  Once we begin to more fully understand that our stress response system IS THE SAME SYSTEM that operates in connection to our breathing and heart rate, through our vagal nerve, that is ALSO  OUR COMPASSIONATE CAREGIVING SYSTEM we can learn to take every possible precaution not to pass the stress onto our children through the way we directly offer caregiving to them.

Yes, children need the most basic physical necessities of life, but it is most likely to be the way caregivers respond to children on the personal level of interactions with them that is most likely to cause our children permanent growth and development harm if we aren’t care-full – not poverty or other external factors.

The way parents experience and handle stress is directly passed down to their offspring.  These patterns are built right into the developing body-brain of infant-children and will have profound affect on how these children will handle stress and regulate their emotions and social interactions themselves for the rest of their lives.  It is from this perspective that I present the following information today on the vagal nerve system and the stress response.

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What is Vagal Tone?

“The parasympathetic nervous system influences the tonic or resting heart beat by means of signals from the tenth cranial nerve, the Vagus nerve.  In the resting or baseline state the heart rate will fluctuate with the breathing cycle; inspiration is accompanied by heart rate elevation and expiration is accompanied by heart rate depression….  [in the example given at this LINK page 69] you will see an example of this phenomenon.  The top tracing is the heart beat, the middle tracing is the respiratory cycle (up for inspiration, down for expiration), and the bottom tracing is the heart rate from the ratemeter.  Notice the coincident rise and fall of heart rate with each respiratory cycle.  This event is termed the respiratory sinus arrhythmia or RSA.  The extent of the RSA is a rough measure of Vagal control over the resting heart beat, referred to as Vagal tone.  The size of the RSA (degree of variability of the heart rate for each respiratory cycle) is what is determined by the Vagus nerve.  When the heart rate varies considerably for each respiratory cycle, then we say there is good or high Vagal tone.  When the heart rate is relatively steady with low variability for the respiratory cycle, we say there is poor or low Vagal tone.  In general Vagal control over the heart rate lessens during stressful experiences when sympathetic activity is heightened, thus allowing the heart rate to rise to meet the challenge.” (page 68)

Personality and Vagal Tone

“Vagal tone has been related to temperament (the innate building blocks of personality) and stress vulnerability in children.  Children who show behavioral inhibition in novel situations (somewhat comparable to shyness) have low Vagal tone as evidenced by higher and less variable resting heart rates.  Preschoolers who fail to show emotional expression also have low Vagal tone and are vulnerable to later depression and anxiety. [my note:  These children may well be exhibiting early manifestations of insecure attachment disorders.]  There is also evidence that adults who are extremely shy or behaviorally inhibited have higher and less variable resting heart rates.  Also adults with high Vagal tone may have lower blood pressure responses to stress, making them less vulnerable to hypertension and coronary heart disease.  Interestingly, adults with high Vagal tone are more susceptible to hypnosis.  [my note:  And high Vagal tone ‘superstars’, as Keltner notes, show more compassionate, caring response to others.]  The exact relationship between the autonomic nervous system’s regulation of physiological responses and personality is unknown, but many hypothesize that the innate sensitivity and reactivity of the nervous system may be the fundamental mechanism for biasing personality development and expression.”  (page 69) [my note:  bolding is mine — and this sensitivity and reactivity of the nervous system and brain are directly influenced in development by the nature of early infant-child interactions.]

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Because a person’s resting and responsive Vagal nerve system is tied to overall degrees of well-being in the world, it is helpful to understand how this system operates on both the physiological and ‘psychological’ level.

Heart Rate

“Heart rate is the number of beats per minute of the heart (BPM) and it is determined by factors intrinsic to the heart as well as regulatory pathways from the brain and hormonal signals for the adrenal glands.  Once again, when the brain is involved, psychological states may show themselves in the peripheral response [my note:  in the body.]

“The obvious purpose of the heart beat is to move blood around the body.  The rate of the heart beat is one factor which influences cardiac output and the volume and speed of delivery of the blood to body cells.  Clearly, there are times when the blood needs to reach those cells more or less quickly.  Exercise, responding to stressors, and even just standing up may create greater cellular needs for oxygen and blood nutrients (mainly glucose).  Relaxation, sleeping and other vegetative states generally create a reduced cellular need.  Sensors in the brain stem and hypothalamus provide feedback regulation of the heart rate to meet the demands of body cells.  Responding to stressors involves the activation of higher limbic system structures [my note:  Remember, this region of the brain forms early and is hypersensitive in its formation to the conditions of the earliest environment, especially ‘good’ and ‘bad’ signals sent to the infant from its earliest caregiver interactions.] such as the amygdala and hypothalamus, which then send signals via the autonomic nervous system to increase (or decrease) the heart rate.  Neurotransmitter signals from the sympathetic branch [“GO” branch] (norepinephrine) increase the heart rate (by binding to beta 1-adrenergic receptors), while neurotransmitter signals from the parasympathetic branch [“STOP” branch] decrease the heart rate (by binding to muscarinic cholinergic receptors).

“There are individual differences in the resting heart rate which are related to genetics [my note:  Which includes environmental influences over the mechanisms that tell our genetic code what to do, and epigenetics], gender (females generally have faster heart rates than males), and to physical condition (state of health as well as fitness).  Also, there are individual differences in the size (and sometimes the direction) of the adaptive changes which take place to environmental events.  Some of these differences are related to personality, psychological state, and perhaps fitness as well.”  (pages 65-66)

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All of the factors that affect our well-being are influenced in early development of the body-brain by the condition of an infant-child’s environment, particularly by early caregiver interactions.  This includes the operation of our nervous systems – including our autonomic nervous system.

Please read the following keep in mind how a very young developing body-brain can be altered in response to stress and trauma so that the adult operation of the stress response system is altered for a life time.  Also keep in mind that it is the mother’s ability to reflectively and appropriately modulate her own emotions as she interacts with her young infant that builds (or does not build) emotional regulational abilities into her infant’s early forming right limbic brain and autonomic nervous system.  (Here again, too much over stimulation, even too much ‘happiness’ stimulation can overtax and overload an infant’s developing body-brain regulatory abilities.)

Also note in the writings below the introduction of dissociation – which is a body-brain reaction that involves both the body and the brain equally on occasions where it occurs in connection to stress triggers including anxiety.

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Psychological States and Cardiovascular Responses

“Cardiovascular responses have been studied most often in the context of arousal and emotional states.  The stress response (fight or flight) is a physiologically adaptive set of bodily changes in the presence of a life threat or a threat to one’s self worth.  In general, activity of the sympathetic nervous system is enhanced, bringing about elevations in heart rate and blood pressure necessary to deal with the perceived threat.  These responses are adaptive in the short and generally improve human performances which require speed, strength, and endurance.  Human performance which requires fine motor skills or complex cognitive processes is generally affected in a curvilinear fashion;  performance is enhanced with moderate or optimal levels of the stress response, but hindered with high levels of the stress response (as anyone who plays the piano knows).

“Studies have shown that anxiety, frustration, anger, fear, anticipation of pain and other negative emotional states can bring about elevations in heart rate and/or blood pressure.  Positive emotional states of excitement, joy, and interest can also bring about elevated cardiovascular responses.  There are, however, individual differences in the nature and the extent of cardiovascular responses in emotional states.  [my note:  Think about early developmental changes along with what this author writes about next.]  Some of these differences stem from the nature of the individual personality (for example cynicism and hostility…) and some stem from the nature of the environmental demands.  Complicating the picture is the fact that heart rate and blood pressure may disassociate in response to environmental events.  [my note:  bolding is mine.]  Research has supported the idea that tasks which require environmental intake or monitoring, cause heart rate lowering (blood pressure may rise or remain unchanged), while tasks which require environmental rejection (events which are aversive or bring about escape motivations) result in heart rate and blood pressure elevations.  [my note:  As can be seen in the research on Borderline Personality Disorder and their vagal nerve response.]  Similarly, it has been shown that tasks which tend to produce anxiety and self-focus (for example giving a speech if you have presentation anxiety) tend to elevate heart rate and blood pressure, while tasks which tend to produce anxiety and environmental-focus (for example listening to a lecture that you will be tested on later) tend to reduce heart rate while blood pressure may elevate or remain unchanged.”  (pages 67-68)

From:  Chapter 5,  Experiment HP-5:  Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, and Vagal Tone

READ WHOLE ARTICLE INCLUDING THE EXPERIMENT AT THIS LINK:

Human Pyschophysiology HP-5-1 (through page 14) – no author or further reference information given —

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References on Personality and Vagal Tone (even though older research, still presents excellent background information)

Cole, P.M., Zahn-Waxler, C., Fox, N.A., Usher, B.A., & Welsh, J. D. (1996).  Individual Differences in Emotion Regulation and Behavior Problems in Preschool children.  Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 105(4), 518-529.

Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R.A., Karbon, M., Murphy, B.C., Carlo, G., & Wosinski, M. (1996).  Relations of School Children and Comforting Behavior to Empathy-related Reactions and Shyness.  Social Development, 5(3), 300-351,

Jemerin, J.M. & Boyce, W.T. (a990).  Psychobiological Differences in Childhood Stress Response.  II.  Cardiovascular Markers of Vulnerability.  Journal of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics, 11(3), 140-150.

Jemerin, J.M. & Boyce, W.T. (a990).  Psychobiological Differences in Childhood Stress Response.  II.  Cardiovascular Markers of Vulnerability.  Journal of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics, 11(3), 140-150.

Porges, S.W. (1992).  Vagal tone:  A Physiological Marker of Stress Vulnerability.  Pediatrics, 90(3), 498-504.

Thayer, J.F., Friedman, B.H. & Borkovec, T.D. (1996).  Autonomic Characteristics of Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Worry.  Biological Psychiatry, 39(4), 255-266.

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