Τι τραγικη ειρωνια να ειναι η Ελλαδα το λικνο της Δημοκρατιας
Γαμησε τα…
ακριβως τραγικη ειρωνια… το μεν αγλαμα της Ελευθεριας στηθηκε σε μια εποχη οπου η αμερικανικη κοινωνια ηταν το προτυπο της (αστικης) δημοκρατιας. Φιλελευθερη κ προοδευτικη. Αναλογως η Ελλαδα ειναι το λικνο της Δημοκρατιας. Το παρον δεν αλλαζει και δεν στιγματιζει το παρελθον…
Τα παρδείγματα που αναφέρεις έγιναν σε άλλες εποχές όταν και το να ήταν μαύρος πρόεδρος της Αμερικής θα ήταν δυστυχώς αδιανόητο.
Αν με το “ανεπίσημη υποστήριξη” εννοείς κάποιους παράγοντες Αμερικάνικων υπηρεσιών που δραστηριοποιούνται στην περιοχή και ακριβώς ήταν μαθημένοι σε άλλες εποχές, όταν εκαπίδευαν τους Κόντρας στην Ονδούρα, αυτό μπορεί να παίζει. Αν εννοείς το ίδιο τον Ομπάμα, δεν το αγοράζω.
Για την ακρίβεια πιστέυω πως η ξεκάθαρη καταδίκη του για το πραξικόπημα και η πίεση προς την Ονδούρα έγιναν για να στέιλει μήνυμα και προς κάποιους συμπατριώτες του πως “τα πράματα άλλαξαν”. Δεν είναι τυχαίο αν διαβάσεις αμερικάνικη αρθρογραφία των ημερών πως κάποιοι ακραίοι (Pat Buchanan) ήδη του την πέφτουν για αυτή του τη στάση και πάνε να τον βγάλουν “ενδοτικό προς τον Τσάβεζ” κλπ.
Παλιό τεύχος (αρχές Ιουνίου), αλλά τώρα έπεσε στα χέρια μου. Ανάλυση για την επίδραση που είχε η εκλογή Ομπάμα στις προκαταλήψεις που υπάρχουν στις ΗΠΑ.
AS ERIN WHITE watched the election results head towards victory for Barack Obama, she felt a burden lifting from her shoulders. “In that one second, it was a validation for my whole race,” she recalls.
“I’ve always been an achiever,” says White, who is studying for an MBA at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. “But there had always been these things in the back of my mind questioning whether I really can be who I want. It was like a shadow, following me around saying you can only go so far. Now it’s like a barrier has been let down.”
White’s experience is what many psychologists had expected - that Obama would prove to be a powerful role model for African Americans. Some hoped his rise to prominence would have a big impact on white Americans, too, challenging those who still harbour racist sentiments. “The traits that characterise him are very contradictory to the racial stereotypes that black people are aggressive and uneducated,” says Ashby Plant of Florida State University. “He’s very intelligent and eloquent.”
Sting in the tail
Plant is one of a number of prescient psychologists who seized on Obama’s candidacy to test hypotheses about the power of role models. Their work is already starting to reveal how the “Obama effect” is changing people’s views and behaviour. Perhaps surprisingly, it is not all good news: there is a sting in the tail of the Obama effect.
But first the good news. Barack Obama really is a positive role model for African Americans, and he was making an impact even before he got to the White House. Indeed, the Obama effect can be surprisingly immediate and powerful, as Ray Friedman of Vanderbilt University and his colleagues discovered.
They tested four separate groups at four key stages of Obama’s presidential campaign. Each group consisted of around 120 adults of similar age and education, and the test assessed their language skills. At two of these stages, when Obama’s success was less than certain, the tests showed a clear difference between the scores of the white and black participants - an average of 12.1 out of 20, compared to 8.8, for example. When Obama fever was at its height, however, the black participants performed much better. Those who had watched Obama’s acceptance speech as the Democrats’ presidential candidate performed just as well, on average, as the white subjects. After his election victory, this was true of all the black participants (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.03.012).
Dramatic shift
What can explain this dramatic shift? At the start of the test, the participants had to declare their race and were told their results would be used to assess their strengths and weaknesses. This should have primed the subjects with “stereotype threat” - an anxiety that their results will confirm negative stereotypes, which has been shown to damage the performance of African Americans.
Obama’s successes seemed to act as a shield against this. “We suspect they felt inspired and energised by his victory, so the stereotype threat wouldn’t prove a distraction,” says Friedman.
That chimes with White’s personal account of how her mental baggage was lifted on election night. “I feel like I can go outside my scope more,” she says, and has demonstrated this by volunteering for a local charity - something she had never done before.
Lingering racism
If the Obama effect is positive for African Americans, how is it affecting their white compatriots? Is the experience of having a charismatic black president modifying lingering racist attitudes? There is no easy way to measure racism directly; instead psychologists assess what is known as “implicit bias”, using a computer-based test that measures how quickly people associate positive and negative words - such as “love” or “evil” - with photos of black or white faces. A similar test can also measure how quickly subjects associate stereotypical traits - such as athletic prowess or mental ability - with a particular group.
In a study that will appear in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Plant’s team tested 229 students during the height of Obama-mania. They found that implicit bias had fallen by as much as 90 per cent compared with the level found in a similar study in 2006 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.04.018). “That’s an unusually large drop,” Plant says.
While the team can’t be sure their results are due solely to Obama, they also showed that those with the lowest bias were likely to subconsciously associate black skin colour with political words such as “government” or “president”. This suggests that Obama was strongly on their mind, says Plant.
Drop in bias
Brian Nosek of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, who runs a website that measures implicit bias using similar tests, has also observed a small drop in bias in the 700,000 visitors to the site since January 2007, which might be explained by Obama’s rise to popularity. However, his preliminary results suggest that change will be much slower coming than Plant’s results suggest.
Other studies have shown that the Obama effect has a downside, as some had feared. Daniel Effron at Stanford University in California asked a group of 99 students of mixed ethnicity to decide whether a white or a black person would be more suitable for a job in a police force characterised by racial tension. The participants also had to express their support for either Obama or John McCain as president by circling a picture of the candidate. Some performed this before the hiring task, some performed it afterwards.
The team found that those who had expressed support for Obama before the task were more likely to prefer a white candidate for the police job than the people who expressed their support for Obama after the task. Effron suggests that expressing support for Obama gave the subjects the “moral credentials” to air a potentially racist view. They may have felt that having proven themselves to be unprejudiced they could let their guard down in the subsequent task. The people who expressed their support for Obama after the task didn’t have these credentials during the activity, so they kept their guard up (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol 45, p 590).
Talking honestly
“People now have the opportunity of expressing support for Obama every day,” says Effron. “Our work raises the concern that people may now be more likely to raise negative views of African Americans.” On the other hand, he says, it may just encourage people to talk more honestly about their feelings regarding race issues, which may not be such a bad thing.
Another part of the study suggests far more is at stake than the mere expression of views. The team asked 100 students to allocate $100,000 between two charities that serve either white or black communities. They were also told that the black charity had already received some money from another fund - giving those with racist motives for denying it money a plausible explanation for their actions. Once again, the subjects had to endorse Obama or McCain either before or after the task. After the exercise, the team asked them to complete a questionnaire designed to reveal their prejudices.
Strongest prejudices
On average, those who endorsed Obama first went on to give more money to the white charity, compared with those who endorsed Obama later. The effect was most marked among those with the strongest prejudices; the people who were least prejudiced according to the questionnaire gave more money to the black charity if they had endorsed Obama first.
As the team points out, these simple tests reflect real-world situations. Immediately after voting for the presidential candidate, for instance, millions of Americans went on to vote for candidates for other offices and for various propositions. Those who voted for Obama despite having lingering racist views may well have gone on to favour whites in their subsequent decisions.
Those who voted for Obama feel freer to behave in a racist manner
Yet more evidence (see graph) that the Obama effect may have a negative side emerged with a study showing that just one week after Obama was elected president, participants were less ready to support policies designed to address racial inequality than they had been two weeks before the election (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol 45, p 556). That too might be down to the moral kudos acquired by supporting Obama, says team member Cheryl Kaiser of the University of Washington in Seattle.
Huge obstacles
It could, of course, also be that Obama’s success helps people to forget that a disproportionate number of black Americans still live in poverty and face huge obstacles when trying to overcome these circumstances. “Barack Obama’s family is such a salient image, we generalise it and fail to see the larger picture - that there’s injustice in every aspect of American life,” Kaiser says. “For a lot of people, his tale reinforces the protestant work ethic,” she adds. “But they fail to see that society might stop others from having their talent recognised.” Those trying to address issues of racial inequality need to constantly remind people of the inequalities that still exist to counteract the Obama effect, she says.
Though Plant’s findings were more positive, she too warns against thinking that racism and racial inequalities are no longer a problem. “It’s not the time to be complacent - the last thing I want is for people to think everything’s solved.”
These findings do not only apply to Obama, or even just to race. They should hold for any role model in any country. “There’s no reason we wouldn’t have seen the same effect on our views of women if Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin had been elected,” says Effron. So the election of a female leader might have a downside for other women.
Beyond race
We also don’t yet know how long the Obama effect - both its good side and its bad - will last. Political sentiment is notoriously fickle: what if things begin to go wrong for Obama, and his popularity slumps?
And what if Americans become so familiar with having Obama as their president that they stop considering his race altogether. “Over time he might become his own entity,” says Plant. This might seem like the ultimate defeat for racism, but ignoring the race of certain select individuals - a phenomenon that psychologists call subtyping - also has an insidious side. “We think it happens to help people preserve their beliefs, so they can still hold on to the previous stereotypes.” That could turn out to be the cruellest of all the twists to the Obama effect.
Αναδημοσιεύω σήμερα μια είδηση που μου έκανε τεράστια εντύπωση, κατ’ εξαίρεση της συνήθειάς μου να μην κάνω αυτό το πράγμα εδώ μέσα (γιατί όσο να ναι κάτι που κάνεις ως επάγγελμα δύσκολο να το κάνεις και ως χόμπι!).
[SIZE=“3”]Stella D?Oro Workers End 11-Month Strike After NLRB Victory, But Owner Threatens to Close Factory[/SIZE]
More than than 130 workers at the Stella D?Oro Biscuit Company in the Bronx have ended an 11-month strike. The employees walked off the job last August after company officials tried to force them to accept a 20% pay cut, elimination of sick days and overtime and other cutbacks. The workers returned to their jobs a week after the National Labor Relations Board ordered the company to reinstate and pay back wages to the striking workers. The company?s owner ? the Connecticut-based private equity fund Brynwood Partners?is now threatening to close the factory within 90 days.
ΡΙΣΠΕΚΤ ΣΤΟΥΣ ΜΠΙΣΚΟΤΑΔΕΣ :!:
Πολύ ενδιαφέρουσα ομιλία Obama με αφορμή τα 100 χρόνια N.A.A.C.P.
η μαλακια ειναι οτι απειλουν οτι θα κλεισει η εταιρεια τελικα
EPIC! Από sportfm.gr
Εγκέφαλος πορνογραφίας μία γάτα!
Τις ευθύνες για το πορνογραφικό υλικό που βρέθηκε στον υπολογιστή του, επέρριψε ένας Αμερικανός άνδρας στην γάτα του! Σύμφωνα με τις αρχές της Φλόριντα των ΗΠΑ, περισσότερες από 1.000 εικόνες παιδικής πορνογραφίας ήταν αποθηκευμένες στον προσωπικό υπολογιστή του κατηγορούμενου, ωστόσο αυτός αποποιείται των ευθυνών του ρίχνοντας το βάρος στο κατοικίδιό του. Όπως υποστήριξε κατά τη διάρκεια της ακρόασής του «η γάτα ανέβηκε στο γραφείο του την ώρα που κατέβαζε μουσική από το διαδίκτυο και πριν προλάβει να επιστρέψει στο δωμάτιο “περίεργα πράγματα” είχαν συμβεί»!
Η εγγύηση που καλείται να καταβάλει τώρα ο άνδρας φτάνει τα 250.0000 δολάρια ,ενώ δεν είναι γνωστό αν θα υπάρχει συνήγορος υπεράσπισής του.
Το ειδα και εγω και παραλιγο να πνιγω με το σταφυλι που ετρωγα.
8O καλα μιλουσε σοβαρα ο τυπος;
Προφανως και δεν ειναι στα καλα του ο τυπος. Δεν ντραπηκε να προφασιστει κατι τετοιο?
Μου θυμίζει κάτι ευφυείς δικαιολογίες που χρησιμοποιούσαμε όταν κάναμε ζημιές ως πιτσιρικάδες.
“Τί έγινε Μάνο, πώς έγινε αυτή η ραγισματιά στο τραπεζάκι; Πάτησες πάνω;”
“Εεεεε όχι μαμά, να, μου έπεσε το τηλεκοντρόλ και έτσι όπως έπεσε πάνω στο τραπεζάκι, το’ σπασε”.
“Το τηλεκοντρόλ έπεσε πάνω στη ΜΑΡΜΑΡΙΝΗ επιφάνεια του τραπεζιού και την ΕΣΠΑΣΕ;”
“Εεεεεε… ναι”.
Για να μην παρεξηγηθώ, ο τύπος είναι απείρως τραγικότερος.
Ο Κένεθ Φόστερ το 1996 είχε εμπλακεί σε μια υπόθεση δολοφονίας. Συγκεκριμένα οδηγούσε το αυτοκίνητο, όπου χωρίς να έχει ο ίδιος προγραμματίσει κάτι τέτοιο, κατέβηκε ο δολοφόνος και σκότωσε τον Michael LaHood. Σε μια σκανδαλώδη για τον πολιτισμένο κόσμο δίκη, το δικαστήριο αποφάνθηκε πως ο Φόστερ ΔΕΝ σκότωσε και ΔΕΝ προγραμμάτισε τη δολοφονία του Michael LaHood, αλλά σύμφωνα με το “νόμο των συμμοριών” ήταν υπόλογος και έτσι καταδικάστηκε σε … θάνατο.
Χθες ήταν προγραμματισμένη η εκτέλεση του και 3 ώρες πριν την προκαθορισμένη ώρα και αφού είχε προκληθεί η κατακραυγή του κόσμου σε αυτή την απάνθρωπη “δικαιοσύνη”, ο κυβερνήτης του Τέξας Rick Perry του έδωσε χάρη και η ποινή του μετατράπηκε σε ισόβια.
Ακολουθεί το λινκ με τη σελίδα που έφτιαξαν για χάρη του. Δε βρήκα κάπου την είδηση γραμμένη, οπότε σας την έγραψα εγώ.
Ειδα σημερα στις ειδησεις οτι σε μια περιοχη που οι Αμερικανοι βομβαρδισαν με φωσφορο (ή οπως ακριβως λεγοταν
η βομβα) οι γυναικες σταματησαν να κανουν παιδια μιας και τα περισσοτερα γεννιουνται με τεραστια προβληματα.
Γενετικες ανωμαλιες,ογκους κτλ…
Διαβάστε το, έχει πολύ ενδιαφέρον για όσους νομίζουν ότι τα πάντα έιναι όπως τα μάθαμε και δεν αλλάζουν ποτέ.
http://www.nosweat.org.uk/story/2009/08/18/zanon-workers-win-major-legal-battle
ενα φαντασμα πλανιεται πανω απο την Αργεντινη…
εργοστασιο χωρις αφεντικο μπορει να υπαρξει, εργοστασιο χωρις εργατες??? αν οι δευτεροι μαθουν να απαντουν την ερωτηση σωστα, θα μπορουν να κερδισουν το “ακατορθωτο”…
Αυτα ειναι… λετε να γινοταν ποτε αυτο σε μας? :lol:
Woman, 107 Leaving Husband No. 22 to Marry Again?
A Malaysian woman who is 107 years old and has been married 22 times, is now looking to leave husband No. 22 and marry again with No. 23!
Wok Kundor is still married (to man in his 30s!) but apparently has that nagging feeling he’s been messing around town back in the big city of Kuala Lumpur. So she’s trying to stay one step ahead of the game, and speaking aloud of her plans to possibly marry husband no. 23 sooner than later. She already has the 50 year old replacement set to go, but hasn’t committed yet, waiting to see if her current man can still convince her he is for real.
At least that’s how I’m understanding it? Quite a peculiar story, she must be a pretty remarkable woman, that’s for sure. Here’s hoping she finds happiness however it works out!
Woman, 107, and Husband No. 22 Marry Again! CNN Afraid that her husband will leave her for a younger woman, a 107-year-old Malaysian woman is looking to marry again -- for the 23rd time. Wok Kundor has been happily married for four years to her husband, a man 70 years her junior. But since he left their village in northern Terengganu state for a drug rehabilitation program in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, Wok has had a gnawing feeling... Woman, 107, and Husband No. 22 Marry Again!
8O #-o :lol:
70 χρονια νεοτερος… ουατ δε φακ.
Μαλλον θα ειναι απο αυτους που λενε οτι η ελλειψη δοντιων/μασελας προσφερει πολυ καλο στοματικο sex :lol: