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Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Best & Worst Managers Of The Year (Saturday, 1/1/05)
BusinessWeek discusses the paradoxical year of 2004 and examines the people it considers to be the year's best and worst managers.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Foreign Aid: Realities vs. Perceptions (Sunday, 1/2/05)
The tsunami of about a week ago that devastated coastline regions of many countries and resulted in the deaths of a vast multitude of people has brought a variety of questions about foreign aid to the surface again.
Since perception often IS reality in politics, it may have been particularly unfortunate that the American Administration seemed to be caught flat-footed at the beginning, allowing itself to be perceived as "stingy," particularly given widespread Islamic perceptions of the United States at the moment and the fact that Indonesia contains the world's largest Muslim population.
Despite the President's apparent willingness to provide considerable American governmental help that currently totals $350 million--and may not stop at that level, according to the Secretary of State, and, of course, does not include the contributions made by individuals--the original $15 million announced by the Administration may have constituted an important missed opportunity. Many Americans have little doubt about the genuineness of the President's compassion for the afflicted in this instance, but the Administration's lack of sure-footedness at the beginning can help explain why the United States has been losing the public relations war in Iraq to Medieval-minded fanatics who still think it's a good idea to cut people's heads off.
Not all of the arguments about whether or to what extent the United States should provide funds for foreign disaster relief or development are carried on by ignorant people who have spent too many hours drinking beer in local taverns, and the United States certainly isn't the exclusive world center of ignorance or glandular as opposed to neural responses to things. There are real issues on which intelligent, well-informed, and well-meaning people can disagree.
However, Americans have a way believing goofy things about themselves and the world around them, and one must expect that it's difficult to respond effectively to realities that are routinely misunderstood or misinterpreted. Public opinion polls over the years have not been encouraging, and may cause professionals who have dedicated their lives to higher education and the honest pursuit of knowledge either to be galvanized or to throw up their hands in total despair.
For instance, national polls in recent years have found that relatively few American adults possess what experts regard as an elementary-school level understanding of basic economic principles. Approximately 450 years after Copernicus, another poll found that about half of American adults said that they believed that the Sun revolves around the Earth, or that they didn't know. Another poll found that about 1 of 8 American adults couldn't locate the United States on a world map, meaning that they really don't even know where on earth they are.
How about American perceptions of foreign aid? Polls over the past decade routinely have found that Americans tend to wildly overestimate the generosity of their country. In one, for instance, 63 percent said they believe the U.S. spends more on foreign aid than on Medicare. Here's another tough one: Is it the distance greater across your living from or from the Earth to the Moon?
When asked, many Americans indicate that they believe that the U.S. spends approximately 20 percent of its Federal budget on foreign aid. In fact, it is a fraction of one percent. Americans also seem to believe that the U.S. gives more per capita than any other country, even though America isn't even ranked in the top ten on a per capita basis. Some seem to believe that all of the assistance to the victims of last week's tsunami is coming from the United States. Well, as this is written, the U.S. has pledged a fairly generous $350 million, but Japan, with less than half the American population, has pledged $500 million.
Jeffrey Sachs, who is Director of the Centre for International Development and Galen Stone Professor of Economics at Harvard University, obviously believes that the United States should provide more help to poor countries on a routine basis, and others disagree. However, his article in The Economist does contain contain a number of statistics that you may find interesting. If the realities are different from your beliefs, it's time to get up to speed, and your beliefs about the facts of American foreign aid may be just the beginning.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Online Databases (Monday, 1/3/05)
The World Bank offers a variety of databases online. Some require subscriptions, while others are free.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: New Zealand Centre for Ecological Economics (Tuesday, 1/4/05)
The New Zealand Centre for Ecological Economics is a research group that examines relationships among the environment, economics, and people.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: USA Freedom Corps (Wednesday, 1/5/05)
If you would like to make a contribution to tsunami relief, USA Freedom Corps is the site suggested by President Bush, as well as former Presidents Bush and Clinton. It contains instructions as well as a long list of charitable organizations said to have been vetted by the government. Presumably, this means that you will be able to contribute with confidence and that your money will actually go to help those whom you intend to help.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Index of Economic Freedom (Thursday, 1/6/05)
Here's how 155 countries rank on the Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal's 2005 edition of the Index of Economic Freedom. For instance, South Korea ranks 45th, while Israel ranks 33rd. The United States failed to rank in the top 10 this time. Who's number 1? Well, here's a hint: It's a former British Colony in Asia. Never mind that Hong Kong really isn't a country, but, instead, is part of the world's most populous nation which has not been generally known for a high degree of liberty, although economic freedom is likely to exceed political freedom in China for sometime to come.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: National Rural Health Association (Friday, 1/7/05)
The National Rural Health Association advocates for persons living in rural regions of American who have little or no access to adequate health care. Some information on the site is available only to members, but considerable content is freely available to the public.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Houses of the Future (Saturday, 1/8/05)
Australia's Houses of the Future exhibition is located directly along side the famous Sydney Opera House. If you live in Australia, or plan to, their web site can help you explore new housing technologies and designs.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Worldview: Perspectives on Architecture and Urbanism from Around the Globe (Sunday, 1/9/05)
The Architectural League of New York presents Worldview: Perspectives on Architecture and Urbanism from Around the Globe. So far, they focus on Caracas, Venezuela and Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Day Care: Choosing a Good Center (Monday, 1/10/05)
The American Academy of Family Physicians offers some tips on finding a good day-care facility on its familydoctor.org site.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: 100 Best Companies to Work For 2005 (Tuesday, 1/11/05)
In this case, it's not the Fortune 500, but the Fortune 100. It's the latest list of 100 Best Companies to Work For according to Fortune magazine.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Social Security Reform Center (Wednesday, 1/12/05)
The Social Security Reform Center offers information and analysis relating to the debate on the reform of the American Social Security system. However, the site doesn't make entirely clear who is behind it, although it appears that it may be The Concord Coalition, a bipartisan watchdog organization with which major Republicans such as former Senator Warren Rudman and major Democrats such as former Senator Bob Kerrey have been affiliated.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Gross Domestic Product (Thursday, 1/13/05)
Here's information about American Gross Domestic Product data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the United States Department of Commerce.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (Friday, 1/14/05)
The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies was founded 35 years ago and focuses on public policy issues of special importance to African Americans and other minorities.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Federal Emergency Management Agency (Saturday, 1/15/05)
If you're a victim of a disaster in the United States, you may hear from the people at the Federal Emergency Management Agency before nearly anybody else. FEMA long has had a reputation as one of the more efficient and effective federal government agencies. Now part of the Department of Homeland Security, the agency was created during the Carter presidency, but has roots going back to 1803.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Towards a New Metropolis (Sunday, 1/16/05)
Towards a New Metropolis: The Opportunity to Rebuild America is a report from the Metropolitan Policy research group at the Brookings Institution and deals with the question of how urban environments in the United States can be refreshed during the next twenty-five years.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The State of the World's Children 2005 (Monday, 1/17/05)
Here's UNICEF's latest report on the world's young: The State of the World's Children 2005. Among the findings: more than a billion children still are not enjoying the support and protections promised in the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Three Trends for 2005 (Tuesday, 1/18/05)
Rich Karlgaard of Forbes magazine has identified three trends for 2005, one of which has to do with the explosive presence of the Internet in American life. The Web has transformed much of the world in about a decade. Incidentally, that's about how long our pioneering BraveNewWorkWorld & NewWork News site has been available to you in the same place, no matter where you are. In recent years, because of the growing presence of laptops and Wi-Fi "hot spots," many of you are reading BNWW each day in a greater variety of settings.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Secret History of the Credit Card (Wednesday, 1/19/05)
Can credit card debt change your life? Absolutely, and, if you're wondering how and why, you might want to watch the PBS Frontline program on the subject, or simply examine the companion web site: Secret History of the Credit Card.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Alaska's Digital Archive (Thursday, 1/20/05)
Alaska is one of many states that is making historical items available on the Internet through its digital archive.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: America in the 1930s (Friday, 1/21/05)
It appears that no one who experienced the decade of the 1930s has been able to forget it. In fact, even though youthful experiences for most people seem to be among the most compelling and memorable, this seems to be particularly true for Americans who were young during the 1930s. It was the decade of the Great Depression, which was also known as the "dirty thirties" for people in parts of the country that also experienced the great "dust bowl" drought. In addition, it was the decade during which totalitarianism arose and ran rampant in Europe as well as Asia and led to the defining event of the 20th century, the Second World War. But, there was a great deal more as well, and not all of it is painful to remember. Here's American in the 1930s from the American Studies group at the University of Virginia.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (Saturday, 1/22/05)
Until fairly recently, most people learned most of whatever they learned by doing. However, modern history also has demonstrated the power of ideas, and the formal education movement--first by insisting that most people attend high school, then college--has arisen out of the idea that more than a tiny, highly specialized elite in society should benefit from "high culture" and its attributes if society as a whole is to benefit. As a consequence, more and more Americans have spent more and more years in school, with mixed results.
Despite our identification with work and career, we've long emphasized that "education for living" and "education for citizenship" may be even more important in the long-run than "education for work and career." Nonetheless, people do need to learn how to deal effectively with modern, increasingly complex practical realities, and there has been growing evidence that some combination of classroom and "real world" learning will best prepare people for their work lives. This has given rise to the "service learning" movement, which has become increasingly important across American education. Here's more from the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Federal Bankruptcy Code (Sunday, 1/23/05)
Here's the Federal Bankruptcy Code from the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Alliance for Health and the Future (Monday, 1/24/05)
The Alliance for Health and the Future points out that, on average, people in the developed world have gained several additional decades of life. What should we do with these years, and what are the social and economic consequences of this major demographic shift? The Alliance works with governments, non-governmental organizations, and corporations on these issues.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: China Economy (Tuesday, 1/25/05)
Here's what the Chinese government has to say about the booming Chinese economy. The site contains news, statistics, information about government policies, and more. Keep in mind that there is no free press in China and no free exchange of information from free sources. However, you can be absolutely certain that China's government will tell you exactly what they would like you to be exposed to. Any Chinese person in China who tells you anything that the government does not want you to know risks arrest.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: World Fertility Report 2003 (Wednesday, 1/26/05)
Here's the new World Fertility Report 2003 from the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: EURES: The European Job Mobility Portal (Thursday, 1/27/05)
If you would like to live and work in any of the member countries of the European Union, their EURES web site can help you find opportunities.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: European Union: Regional Policy (Friday, 1/28/05)
From its beginning, there have been significant income and opportunity variations among member states in the European Union, a condition that has been exacerbated since the expansion of the Union with the addition to 10 new countries last May. The EU has established regional policies in an effort to cope with these disparities, and their web site provides information about many of these policies.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Islamic diaspora (Saturday, 1/29/05)
Muslims from many countries have been settling in North America as well as Western Europe, and policy-makers are saying that finding ways to integrate them into societies with very different cultures than those with which they are familiar will be a challenge for many years. For instance, here is a Pew Foundation-sponsored report from David Masci: An Uncertain Road: Muslims and the Future of Europe.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: International Trade Statistics (Sunday, 1/30/05)
Here are International Trade Statistics from the World Trade Organization.
Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Long-Term Care (Monday, 1/31/05)
An increasing number of Americans are likely to live long enough to require the assistance either of part-time or full-time caregivers during the late period of their lives. Others will require long-term care earlier in life for other reasons.
In fact, while there is evidence that the American Social Security system will experience significant problems sometime in the future, the Medicaid system is in a funding crisis NOW, and it isn't simply because of the health care needs of America's low income people. Many middle-class people are straining Medicaid's resources too, because most of Americans living in nursing homes have exhausted their own resources, even if they were considerable, with the huge long-term care costs paid by the government's Medicaid system.
Moreover, Medicare's eventual funding crisis will be several times greater than that of Social Security. So, why aren't American politicians talking more about Medicaid and Medicare right now instead of Social Security?
At any rate, Medicare offers information as well as access to resources on their Long-Term Care page.
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