Fwd: phwaw, man!

[Harry Edwards]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Harry Edwards <laughingwolf at ev1.net>
> Date: January 20, 2005 6:57:26 PM CST
> To: ghetto 2 <ghetto2 at lists.whathelps.com>
> Subject: phwaw, man!
>
> I'm not a Michael Ventura fan, but once in awhile I can't ignore one 
> of his columns in the Austin Chronicle. Below is the current one. Read 
> it and puke!         twisty
>
>
>
>
> Letters at 3AM
>
> No. 1?
>
> BY MICHAEL VENTURA
>
>  No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than 
> the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast 
> media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name 
> "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be 
> committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be 
> labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An 
> empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 
> billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the 
> delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well ... this is the country 
> you really live in:
>
>  • The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (The New York 
> Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
>
>  • The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical 
> literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
>
>  • One-third of our science teachers and one-half of our math teachers 
> did not major in those subjects. (Quoted on The West Wing, but you can 
> trust it – their researchers are legendary.)
>
>  • Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the Earth. 
> Seventeen percent believe the Earth revolves around the sun once a day 
> (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).
>
>  • "The International Adult Literacy Survey ... found that Americans 
> with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all 
> of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The 
> European Dream
> : How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American 
> Dream, p.78).
>
>  • Our workers are so ignorant, and lack so many basic skills, that 
> American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training 
> (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!
>
>  • "The European Union leads the U.S. in ... the number of science and 
> engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) 
> expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).
>
>  • "Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest 
> producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).
>
>  • Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science 
> Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this 
> year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).
>
>  • Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28% last year. 
> Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in 
> three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year 
> Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56%, Indians 51%, 
> South Koreans 28% (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not the place to be 
> anymore.
>
>  • The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in 
> terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was] ... 37th." In 
> the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United 
> States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in 
> the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots 
> less.
>
>  • "The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in 
> the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The 
> European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a 
> "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.
>
>  • Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary 
> American deaths a year. (That's six times the number of people killed 
> on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)
>
>  • "U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among 
> the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream, 
> p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look "developed" to you? Yet 
> it's the only "developed" country to score lower in childhood poverty.
>
>  • Twelve million American families – more than 10% of all U.S. 
> households – "continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to 
> feed themselves." Families that "had members who actually went hungry 
> at some point last year" numbered 3.9 million (NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).
>
>  • The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba 
> scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
>
>  • Women are 70% more likely to die in childbirth in America than in 
> Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
>
>  • The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is 
> murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).
>
>  • "Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead 
> last in the growth rate of total compensation to its work-force in the 
> 1980s. ... In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate 
> grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1%" (The European 
> Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other 
> industrialized country, and get less vacation time.
>
>  • "Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 
> rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies" (The European 
> Dream, p.66). "In a recent survey of the world's 50 best companies, 
> conducted by Global Finance, all but one was European" (The European 
> Dream, p.69).
>
>  • "Fourteen of the 20 largest commercial banks in the world today are 
> European. ... In the chemical industry, the European company BASF is 
> the world's leader, and three of the top six players are European. In 
> engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are 
> European. ... The two others are Japanese. Not a single American 
> engineering and construction company is included among the world's top 
> nine competitors. In food and consumer products, Nestlé and Unilever, 
> two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the 
> world. In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European companies 
> ... are first and second, and European companies make up five of the 
> top 10. Only four U.S. companies are on the list" (The European Dream, 
> p.68).
>
>  • The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last 
> decade (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).
>
>  • U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004 (The Week, Jan. 
> 14, 2005).
>
>  • Three million six hundred thousand Americans ran out of 
> unemployment insurance last year; 1.8 million – one in five – 
> unemployed workers are jobless for more than six months (NYT, Jan. 9, 
> 2005).
>
>  • Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40% of our government 
> debt. (That's why we talk nice to them.) "By helping keep mortgage 
> rates from rising, China has come to play an enormous and 
> little-noticed role in sustaining the American housing boom" (NYT, 
> Dec. 4, 2004). Read that twice. We owe our housing boom to China, 
> because they want us to keep buying all that stuff they manufacture.
>
>  • Sometime in the next 10 years Brazil will probably pass the U.S. as 
> the world's largest agricultural producer. Brazil is now the world's 
> largest exporter of chickens, orange juice, sugar, coffee, and 
> tobacco. Last year, Brazil passed the U.S. as the world's largest beef 
> producer. (Hear that, you poor deluded cowboys?) As a result, while we 
> bear record trade deficits, Brazil boasts a $30 billion trade surplus 
> (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
>
>  • As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported (NYT, 
> Dec. 12, 2004).
>
>  • Bush: 62,027,582 votes. Kerry: 59,026,003 votes. Number of eligible 
> voters who didn't show up: 79,279,000 (NYT, Dec. 26, 2004). That's 
> more than a third. Way more. If more than a third of Iraqis don't show 
> for their election, no country in the world will think that election 
> legitimate.
>
>  • One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of 
> all U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10, 
> 2004).
>
>  • "Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, 
> videos, DVDs, music, and books combined" (The European Dream, p.28).
>
>  • "Nearly one out of four Americans [believe] that using violence to 
> get what they want is acceptable" (The European Dream, p.32).
>
>  • Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes 
> justified, according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).
>
>  • "Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last 
> year for which such data are available" (USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004).
>
>  • "The International Association of Chiefs of Police said that cuts 
> by the [Bush] administration in federal aid to local police agencies 
> have left the nation more vulnerable than ever" (USA Today, Nov. 17, 
> 2004).
>
>  No. 1? In most important categories we're not even in the Top 10 
> anymore. Not even close.
>
>  The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, 
> and delusion.