Triangle Revisited

On March 25, 1911, a fire at the Triangle shirtwaist factory in New York's Greenwich Village left 146 people dead - 123 of them women.  The aftermath brought together the unlikely bedfellows Tammany Hall and labour reformers, leading to changes in workplace safety requirements.  On Sunday, a blaze at a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh - operated by Tazreen Fashions Ltd. - left at least 112 dead, most of them women.  So much for progress.  It's getting harder to cheer for capitalism when its rapacious exploitation of workers continues unabated.   The most recent disaster, within days of the Black Friday shopping frenzy, is sobering.  We should all take a hard look at our consumption habits.

Triangle shirtwaist fire, March 25, 1911

Tazreen Fashions Ltd. fire, November 25, 2012

 

Black Friday bargain hunters, November 23, 2012

There'll Always Be A Greece

After reading this article on Patrick Leigh Fermor in Greece, I was reminded of my thought during the height of the European financial crisis that, despite disruptions to so many lives, there will always be a Greece; and an England (there's even a song about that) and a Spain and a...  Men will always go down to the sea at Balaklava, at Tyre, at Cape Town, in New England, on Haida Gwaii and on Tahiti.  There are rhythms of life that economic cycles will threaten but will never expunge.

Mani, Greece

Homage to Daniel Shays

Upon reading of Gore Vidal's death I searched the web for one of his aphorisms or witticisms to share on facebook and Twitter.  But I found that either I thought this or that quote might offend a friend/follower or that I didn't really agree with his statement - as pithy or funny as it might be.  I've enjoyed his historical fiction and essays, where he fleshed out his ideas more fully.  I think that I've come to not care so much for cleverness, generally; and for the limits of things like Twitter, specifically.  Lately, I'm seeking more depth of thought and fewer sound bites.

Gore Vidal

BlackOutSpeakOut

Hopping On The Merry-Go-Round

I haven't posted recently, not because I haven't had thoughts and impressions to share but because I've had too many.  Like a child on the playground, I just couldn't decide where to jump on the merry-go-round:  The European debt crisis, the inability of the U.S. Congress to get anything done, the Occupy movement, the Cain Train, Newt, Hillary in Burma, Egypt & Syria, China insinuating itself everywhere.  I thought I had a way in with a quote from Jürgen Habermas, "Our politicians have long been incapable of aspiring to anything whatsoever other than being re-elected. They have no political substance whatsoever, no convictions."  Well, we've suspected that for a while.  But I think I may have found it in a quote from Catherine Mann of Brandeis International Business School on the PBS NewsHour this week.  She said, "Nobody is making investments in the stock market thinking they're getting a long term investment in the company that they're buying a stock for."  I've wanted to believe that the stock market is where companies go to raise capital to be used in productive activity which also advances the common good.  Maybe it never was.  But even Andrew Carnegie, ruthless cutter of operating costs and financial manipulator, left us beautiful libraries all over North America.  I can't imagine J. P. Morgan Chase doing anything comparable.  Now that I'm finally on the carousel, maybe it's time for me too to put my body "upon the gears and upon the wheels" and make Mario Savio proud.  It's just that, these days, it's so hard to know which part of the apparatus to start with.

My New Chair

But it has no arms!?  That's the genius of it.

Chai Teas All Around

Today I saw four ministers (of God, not the Crown; three men and a woman) sitting together outside Starbucks.  Although it shouldn't have, the sight surprised me.  I usually picture ministers alone, tending their flock.  To my thought, expressed in the comment thread of the previous post, about who mentors the mentor I could add who ministers to the minister?  Looks like it may be through peer dialogue.  For some reason the sight of them cheered me immensely.