Children have been farming US tobacco fields for generations. But a new report from Human Rights Watch says the practice is dangerous and in need of reform.
It may be later than usual because of the harsh winter, but just as they have done for generations, people are planting tobacco across the vast coastal plains of North Carolina.
The crop put this state on the economic map, but methods used to farm tobacco here have now drawn the gaze of an international human rights group.
“Usually we would wake up around four or five in the morning and get to the farm around six,” says Fernando Rodriguez.
“I would spend the whole day going up and down the rows of tobacco, topping the plants, cutting the flowers, collecting the leaf and all.”
Phi Beta Iota: When — not if — marijuana replaces tobacco as the priimary cash crop of the South, this will bode well for children as well as human health.
A full interview with Ricardo Semler by the Dutch TV-show Backlight. In our episode ‘The capital power of hapiness' we made a portrait of this Brasilian business man. Here you can watch the full interview of one hour and a half. Mostly unedited, but divided in chapters.
This man is Semco's business guru, and known for his development of leadership by omission.
Offers major insights into education as well as business — structures that focus on “managing” large groups of people, especially children, are not focusing on their core mission — creating value or teaching. A society's “constraints” and blinders begin embedding at the age of two — that is the starting point for creating a Smart Nation of free spirits instead of sheep.
American Vets May Become American Guerrillas When the SHTF in the USA
Despite what seems like an endless parade of stories about federal government stupidity and malfeasance repetitively emerging over years and decades, there are a few in government who have brains, who think and connect the dots, at least in connection to the ever enlarging presence of American veterans who know tactics and strategy and how to make and use weapons. Such thinkers have, as part of their responsibility to look after the interests of their elite 1% masters, surely recognized, in light of the developments mentioned in this article, the threat American veterans trained in warfare may represent to their elite master's interests as the economy implodes due to their master's machinations:
“In an interview with Fox 59, a Morgan County, Indiana Police Sergeant admits that the increasing militarization of domestic police departments is partly to deal with returning veterans who are now seen as a homegrown terror threat. Sgt. Dan Downing of the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department states, “When I first started we really didn’t have the violence that we see today,” adding, “The weaponry is totally different now that it was in the beginning of my career, plus, you have a lot of people who are coming out of the military that have the ability and knowledge to build IEDs and to defeat law enforcement techniques…Indiana seems to be a major trial balloon for the militarization of law enforcement given that the Indiana National Guard has also just purchased two military UH-72 Lakota helicopters which will also be used by local police and the DHS for “homeland security missions”. Downing’s claim that armored tanks are necessary to deal with violent crime doesn’t jive with actual statistics which suggest that violent crime is in fact on the decrease.
There is lots of confirming evidence, with or without the Wayback Machine’s indirect proof–that if there was no internet activity on specific days, probably there was none during the interval within which they fall–that confirms it had been closed.
In addition to not being compliant with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), video footage shows that it was being used as a storage facility, where even The Newtown Bee reported that it was laden with asbestos and other bio-hazards. No student should have been there.
Despite missing data from one of the largest natural gas-producing states in the nation, an EnergyWire analysis released Monday found that the U.S. oil and gas industry was responsible for at least 7,662 spills, blowouts, and leaks in 2013 – an average of about 20 spills per day.
The figure represents an 18 percent increase in the number of spills EnergyWire counted in 2012, when 6,546 accidents were tallied. Though most of the spills were small, their combined volume added up to more than 26 million gallons of oil, gas, hydraulic fracturing fluid, and other substances, the report said.
I found this article rather intriguing, as the student looked at both traditional and alternative methods of learning, and found that in some cases, alternative methods yielded the same or better results than traditional methods. As a former online grad student, I can tell you that it was a little difficult, even as recently as two years ago, to convince people that my MSPTC from a brick-and-mortar school taken entirely online was as stringent and comprehensive as if I went to classes in person. I still see alternative education as a viable method, but as this student points out, since many alternative methods don't issue a “degree”, some sort of standard needs to be agreed upon by those supplying the alternative methods of learning to be able to provide a credential or “legitimize” the coursework taken.
“Part of why people get an education is to learn,” he said. “But part of it is to improve their lives by earning a meaningful and valuable credential that can hopefully earn them a job.”
In his thesis, “Diplomas of the Future? The Role and Value of Innovative Academic Credentials,” Francis examined two forms of alternative educational credentials: MOOCs and occupational “bootcamps,” which are nine-week-long intensive programs that cost more than $10,000 and help software engineers develop necessary technical and programming skills.
. . . . . . .
“Studies show that people learn similar amounts in an online class as they do in a lecture class, and my research found that people who graduate from developer bootcamps earn as much or more than the typical computer science graduate,” he said. “We know these alternative methods of education work.”
In addition to his research on the effectiveness of the programs, Francis interviewed recruiters and hiring managers from 20 high-tech Internet and software companies and learned what they value in a traditional college degree: selectivity, as someone else had already screened the candidate during the college admissions process; the on-campus experience that teaches interpersonal skills; and the broad intellectual foundation that teaches candidates how to think.
