Governing is Hard
| SEASONED NUTS: QUOTABLE |
|
“Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species — man — acquired significant power to alter the nature of the world. ” – Rachel Carson, Silent Spring “The generation that destroys the environment is not the generation that pays the price. That is the problem.” – Wangari Maathai |
| IN A NUTSHELL: MUST READ |
|
Can Humanity Curb its Consumption and Effectively Recycle?: Time for a brief trip in the Way-Back Machine to when couples had large numbers of children, say, to work on the family farm. People were pretty frugal, so the oldest child’s clothing got passed down to the next in line, and so forth. The clothes were called hand-me-downs, and the methodology was definitely a thing. Modern folk might call it “recycling,” although recycling started centuries ago. Japan began reusing waste paper in the 11th century; in 1690s America, a mill near Philadelphia introduced the process to manufacture paper from recycled cotton and linen rags. Today’s consumers can simply trash their unwanted items, but after decades of reciting the virtue of recycling, the trend has caught on just about everywhere in America. Generally people feel good about donating, for example, their used clothing to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. What those organizations can’t use is baled and sold by the container-load, mostly to sub-Saharan Africa. Because the second-hand clothing market has become a billion-dollar industry, it can also be pretty political, and some African governments have said that what many in the West think is a generous gesture actually prevents them from developing their own apparel industries. Thus in March 2016, four East African countries raised tariffs on used clothing, which caused the main US trade group for used clothing to complain to trade officials that tariff increases were hurting their industry. The Trump administration applied pressure on the East African governments, and all except Rwanda scrapped the tariff increase. Unfortunately that government’s efforts to foster its domestic apparel industry have yielded few results, and Rwandans who work in the used clothing business now complain they are suffering. America used to send the majority of its other exported recycling to China for processing, but in January, China banned the import of various types of plastic, paper, and scrap materials. Afterward, US scrap exports to China fell by about 35% in the first two months of 2018. Sadly, despite decades of American municipalities convincing consumers to recycle their waste, a whole lot of it is winding up in the local landfill anyway. A waste management executive notes: “There is a significant disruption occurring to US recycling programs. The concern is if this is the new normal.” Disposable plastics have created another huge problem in the form of marine pollution. The EU’s 28 member states are being urged to approve an ambitious set of proposals aimed at cleaning up Europe’s beaches and ridding its seas and waterways of ubiquitous plastic litter. According to a 2017 report from Seas at Risk, the EU tosses out 46 billion bottles, 36 billion straws, 16 billion coffee cups, and two billion plastic take-out containers annually. One proposal recommends that, where viable alternatives exist, single-use plastic products be banned from the European market. |
| MIXED NUTS: QUICK TAKES ON WORLD NEWS |
|
– The US-North Korean Summit is back on, as of this writing anyway. Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un’s right-hand diplomatic guy, Kim Yong Chol, is supposed to be on his way to New York and might be meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to possibly discuss getting the talks back on track. If this assessment sounds a little iffy, well, it could be. Maybe, maybe not. (NPR) – The second democratic transition in Pakistan’s history is scheduled to occur with a general election on July 25. The governing political party’s five-year term in office ends May 31, so a neutral, interim “caretaker prime minister” who will oversee the election has been appointed. He is the former chief justice of the Pakistani Supreme Court, Nasir ul-Mulk. The announcement was made at a joint news conference in Islamabad Monday by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and opposition leader, Syed Khurshid Shah. A political analyst at the Middle East Institute said the selection of ul-Mulk meant “Pakistan’s democracy is showing signs of a pulse, albeit a weak one.” (NYT) – What’s a good way to gain asylum in a foreign country? Become an athlete, wait for another country to host a competition, then leave and blend into a crowd. That’s what roughly 250 mostly African athletes and officials did after April’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games held in Australia. Not easy to do, since the Australian government prides itself on keeping people out. The country’s been condemned by the UN for its offshore detention camps and refusal to accept arrivals by boat, even when the refugees are escaping war zones. But as a sprinter from Sierra Leone, who disappeared from a competition 12 years ago and is now an Australian citizen, said of his defection: “This was my last option. I prefer they put me in jail here than go back to Africa.” (NYT) – President Trump railed against the existing trade agreements America had with foreign countries and vowed to revamp them with much better terms for America. Just one problem: if the demands are too one-sided, other countries probably won’t go along. Now the president is running out of time to deliver his promised, new, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico, and Washington is showing no signs of compromising on its excessive demands. (Reuters) – Governing is hard. That’s surely what Brazil’s President Michel Temer is thinking, after losing a week-long standoff with striking truckers. Temer had been trying to put a happy face on the foreign investment forum beginning Tuesday in Sao Paulo. But after hundreds of truckers had blocked roads across the country protesting against rising fuel costs and oil workers threatened to strike, Temer wearily announced Sunday that the government would subsidize the cost of diesel to drop the pump price 12%, and truckers would pay less in tolls and get more government contracts. (NYT) – Nobody knows better than Italians that governing is hard. Last week the winners of the latest election, the Five Star Movement and Lega, tried to form a new coalition government and get their choice for finance minister, Paolo Savona, appointed. ButSavona is a fierce critic of the euro, and current president Sergio Mattarella refused to appoint him, setting off a crisis and collapsing the incoming, populist government before it could take power. Mattarella’s newly appointed prime minister, Carlo Cottarelli, is expected to lose a vote of confidence in the Italian parliament, which could lead to a whole new election as early as July. (The Guardian) More News Reads:
|
| NUTS IN AMERICA |
|
Arizona has a key Senate seat in play this year, and a surging Latino activism is giving Democrats hope. Republicans are still the majority, but there is incredible backlash against President Trump and his immigration stance. Democrats believe they can entice enough new, unaffiliated, and third-party voters to join with them to turn the state blue this midterm. (The Guardian)
|
| LOOSE NUTS: FASCINATING NEWS |
|
