links for 2011-05-27

"Establishment media fueled the fire of racism against First Nations people, reinforcing the stereotypes of Native people as violent 'savages.' When some native and non-native aboriginal rights supporters decided to peacefully keep vigil to prevent further destruction to the Snake Mound, one of 57 ancient burial sites in or near High Park, mainstream news reporters falsely described the group as 'Mohawk warriors' that 'hijacked' a public park. Mainstream media is not the watchdog of democracy; it is the lapdog of the elite."

"Until just recently, I have never given much thought to the Indian mascot dispute as I have always found competitive sports in the United States to be somewhat uninteresting, especially baseball (aye!). However, I have very gradually come to believe that American sports institutions have maniacally embraced American Indian imagery because Indians are – in the collective consciousness of modern non-Indian America – something to be almost eternally feared."

"The Pima County Sheriff's Department initially claimed (PDF) Guerena fired his weapon at the SWAT team. They now acknowledge that not only did he not fire, the safety on his gun was still activated when he was killed. Guerena had no prior criminal record, and the police found nothing illegal in his home. After ushering out his wife and son, the police refused to allow paramedics to access Guerena for more than hour, leaving the young father to bleed to death, alone, in his own home."

"Dr. Prabhat Jha, a lead author of the study, noted that the use of sex-selection abortions has expanded throughout the country as the use of ultrasound equipment has become more widespread. Typically, women from wealthier, better-educated families are more likely to undergo an ultrasound, Mr. Jha said, and researchers found that these families are far more likely to abort a girl if the firstborn is a daughter. 'This is really a phenomenon of the educated and the wealthy that we are seeing in India,' said Mr. Jha, director of the Center for Global Health Research at the University of Toronto."

"Like many social businesses, KeBal exists to bring goods or services to people who otherwise can’t afford them. An influential book by the business professor C.K. Prahalad argues that there’s a fortune to be made at the bottom of the pyramid. And, in fact, some large companies, like Unilever, have had success selling things like single-use sachets of shampoo or detergent to very poor people who only have tiny amounts of disposable income at any point in time. But what KeBal is trying to do is harder: not just size-down its products to fit the poor, but build a market from scratch for a new food product that costs more to produce because it is healthier. KeBal has the double challenge of serving people who can’t pay very much while having to change their eating habits. If this were easy to do profitably, social businesses wouldn’t be necessary."