rut

Police Brutality in the Time of Coronavirus

Covid-19 is shining yet another spotlight on American systemic racism as African Americans face higher rates of death from coronavirus, as well as policing in the form of social distancing patrols, which are often racially disparate, inequitable, and aggressive. A majority of businesses have reduced operations or closed, but the NYPD has not slowed operations at all during the pandemic. Even in the midst of a historic crisis, the police oppression of Black and Brown communities perseveres. Earlier this week in New York City’s East Village, the violent arrest of a Black man allegedly defying social distancing orders was captured on camera by a witness. This was one of three arrests in the area that day by unmasked officers breaking the very social distancing rules they were ostensibly enforcing. All of these arrests have been condemned by the Legal Aid Society which is asking the NYPD to reconsider their selective social distancing enforcement. The NYPD is currently investigating the incident. In Philadelphia last month, mask requirements on public transportation led to the accosting of a Black bus rider by eight or nine police officers who then forced him off the bus instead of handing him a mask as they have […]




rut

Post Truth

Embed from Getty Images It has been declared, rather dramatically, that this is a post-truth era. In making a case for this, people point to Trump lifting himself into the presidency on an unrelenting spew of untruths as well as …




rut

Fruto Do Conde

Last year I traveled to Brazil to give a talk for a creative Facebook Conference. Before traveling I connected with Denise Faertes who offered to be my unofficial tour guide in Rio. Her family showed me the best time, driving around and listening to soul music, lunching at vegan spots around town, and playing dress up with items from her wonderful collection Fruto do Conde....

Read More

The post Fruto Do Conde appeared first on Advanced Style.




rut

Seminal rocker Little Richard, singer of classic “Tutti Frutti” and “Lucille,” dead at 87

The wildly influential singer and pianist established rock ’n’ roll as a genre with just one rule — there are no rules.




rut

Donald Trump’s legacy is truth decay

Our country is reeling under the dual onslaught of COVID-19 and runaway unemployment, but there’s one person who’s willing to give President Trump high marks for handing the situation: Donald Trump. “I think in a certain way, maybe our best work has been on what we’ve done with COVID-19,” he mused in an interview this week.




rut

GREENE: Same profiling, same brutality, same disrespect — social distancing enforcement shows NYC ‘not as far as we think we are’

As much as Mayor de Blasio wants to pretend these arrests are just a drop in the bucket, from the point of view of those being constantly dropped in the bucket, the city’s heavy-handed coronavirus crackdown is just more of the same.Same profiling. Same brutality. Same disrespect.




rut

Brutal ‘Bushwick Crew’ member pleads guilty to murdering thieves who tried to rob drug stash

The last suspect in the grisly gang-related Brooklyn murders of two men whose bodies were burned after they were tortured and killed pleaded guilty Friday.




rut

‘Just brutal’: NYC Ed Department reveals 50 - from administrators and teachers to facilities and food workers - have died from COVID-19

The COVID-19 deaths included 22 paraprofessionals, 21 teachers, two administrators, two central office staffers, a facilities employee, a guidance counselor and a school food worker.




rut

Editorial: Dr. Anthony Fauci is the coronavirus truth teller we need. Let him do his work

One Trump's smartest moves was to make Dr. Anthony Fauci a part of his coronavirus task force. Let's keep him there.




rut

Editorial: Who do we save from coronavirus and who do we let die? Take wealth, race and disability out of that brutal equation

In America, the healthiest are by no coincidence also the wealthiest. The poor, the disabled and people of color get the short end of the stick.




rut

GREENE: Same profiling, same brutality, same disrespect — social distancing enforcement shows NYC ‘not as far as we think we are’

As much as Mayor de Blasio wants to pretend these arrests are just a drop in the bucket, from the point of view of those being constantly dropped in the bucket, the city’s heavy-handed coronavirus crackdown is just more of the same.Same profiling. Same brutality. Same disrespect.




rut

Seminal rocker Little Richard, singer of classic “Tutti Frutti” and “Lucille,” dead at 87

The wildly influential singer and pianist established rock ’n’ roll as a genre with just one rule — there are no rules.




rut

Review: In 'True History of the Kelly Gang,' a brutal, sexy, spellbinding take on outlaw legend

In "The True History of the Kelly Gang," director Justin Kurzel's fourth and best feature, George MacKay stars as 19th-century Australian bushranger Ned Kelly.




rut

Mervyn King's brutal analysis of banking sector exposed in blow to coronavirus recovery



MERVYN KING, the former governor of the Bank of England, once issued a brutal analysis of the global banking system and argued for its reinvention, it can be revealed as the Government fine-tunes its economic response to the coronavirus pandemic.




rut

Give us truth but let’s have good cheer too, says NICK FERRARI



ON COUNTLESS occasions on this page I've argued forcefully for, and supported journalists in, pursuing the truth with a rigorous and forensic determination. That's what we're put on Earth to do: to sit at the back of the room staring quizzically and sometimes snorting derisively as those in power tell us the truth as they see fit to present it. Our role is straightforward: holding to account those in power, however uncomfortable or ugly the consequences might be.




rut

Tully: The truth is, we need more politicians like Joe Donnelly

Bipartisanship doesn't score you many points in politics these days. But it should, and Sen. Joe Donnelly is a perfect example of why.

       




rut

Which politician actually said that Ruth Bader Ginsburg would be dead soon?

The 86-year-old Supreme Court Justice repeated a regular clap back she's reserved for those who've counted her out. She isn't going anywhere.




rut

Ruth Bader Ginsburg met Kate McKinnon, her SNL doppelganger, at a musical

The "notorious" Supreme Court justice posed for pictures with the actress, who was attending a performance of "Fiddler on the Roof" in New York.




rut

Cardi B and Bernie Sanders talk police brutality and health care — while in a nail salon

The senator from Vermont and the rapper bantered and got into the issues in a new campaign video.




rut

A Republican finally reveals the truth about the GOP tax cuts

No, they aren’t going to pay for themselves.




rut

A number cruncher told the truth. He became his country’s public enemy No. 1.

Andreas Georgiou offered an honest accounting of Greece’s financial situation. He’s still paying for it.




rut

This could be a long fight. People should be told the truth.

We won’t get better outcomes with a government that repeatedly overpromises and underdelivers.




rut

AT#253 - Hurtigruten Cruise to the Coast of Norway

The Amateur Traveler talks to Jeremy from Palm Beach Gardens Florida who talks to use about cruising up the Norwegian coastline into the Arctic Circle on a Hurtigruten cruise. Jeremy lives someplace warm so when he and his wife travel they often travel someplace cold so cruising into the small fjords of Norway during the Winter appealed to them. Hurtigruten started as the boat that delivered the mail to the isolated villages on the coast of Norway (which it still does) but added passenger and ferry service also.




rut

Video: Merlin's Time & Attention Talk (Improvised Rutgers Edition)

Video: Merlin Mann - "Time & Attention Talk (improvised)"

Audio (mp3): "Merlin Mann - 'Rutgers Time & Attention Talk'"

This is a talk I did at Rutgers earlier this month. I kinda like it, but for a weird reason. Something something, perfect storm of technology Ragnarok, and yadda yadda, I had to start the talk 20 minutes late with no slides. Nothing.

So, I riffed.

And, I ended up talking about a lot of the new stuff you can expect to see in the Inbox Zero book—work culture, managing expectations, the 3 deadly qualities of email, and one surprising reason email's not as much fun as Project Runway.

Some people liked it. I think. I liked it. I hope you do, too.

Here's the slides I would have shown. ;-)

Many thanks, again, to my great pal, Dr. Donald Schaffner, for bringing me in for this visit. I had a great time and met some fantastic, passionate people. Much appreciated.

 

Hey—know anybody who should hear this talk? Hmmm?

I’ll bet. Lucky you, you can hire me to deliver this or any of my other talks to the time- and attention-addled people you work with as well.

Current topics include email, meetings, social media, and future-proofing your passion.

Drop a note if you have an upcoming event where you think we two might be a good fit.


update 2010-04-27_13-50-00

Apologies—my friends at Rutgers (inexplicably) have placed this video under lock and key. Fortunately, I have a lock-picker called Firefox. Samizdat video available soon...

update 2010-04-27_14-42-24

Yay, fixed! Many thanks to my hero, Jesse Schibilia.

Video: Merlin's Time & Attention Talk (Improvised Rutgers Edition)” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on April 27, 2010. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"



  • Time and Attention
  • Videos
  • world of work

rut

Noncatalytic Bruton's tyrosine kinase activates PLC{gamma}2 variants mediating ibrutinib resistance in human chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells [Membrane Biology]

Treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with inhibitors of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), such as ibrutinib, is limited by primary or secondary resistance to this drug. Examinations of CLL patients with late relapses while on ibrutinib, which inhibits BTK's catalytic activity, revealed several mutations in BTK, most frequently resulting in the C481S substitution, and disclosed many mutations in PLCG2, encoding phospholipase C-γ2 (PLCγ2). The PLCγ2 variants typically do not exhibit constitutive activity in cell-free systems, leading to the suggestion that in intact cells they are hypersensitive to Rac family small GTPases or to the upstream kinases spleen-associated tyrosine kinase (SYK) and Lck/Yes-related novel tyrosine kinase (LYN). The sensitivity of the PLCγ2 variants to BTK itself has remained unknown. Here, using genetically-modified DT40 B lymphocytes, along with various biochemical assays, including analysis of PLCγ2-mediated inositol phosphate formation, inositol phospholipid assessments, fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) static laser microscopy, and determination of intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i), we show that various CLL-specific PLCγ2 variants such as PLCγ2S707Y are hyper-responsive to activated BTK, even in the absence of BTK's catalytic activity and independently of enhanced PLCγ2 phospholipid substrate supply. At high levels of B-cell receptor (BCR) activation, which may occur in individual CLL patients, catalytically-inactive BTK restored the ability of the BCR to mediate increases in [Ca2+]i. Because catalytically-inactive BTK is insensitive to active-site BTK inhibitors, the mechanism involving the noncatalytic BTK uncovered here may contribute to preexisting reduced sensitivity or even primary resistance of CLL to these drugs.




rut

'The Truth is, Chile is Unequal': What's Behind Chile's Protests

18 December 2019

Dr Christopher Sabatini

Senior Research Fellow for Latin America, US and the Americas Programme

Lyndsey Jefferson

Digital Editor, Communications and Publishing Department
As part of a series on global protests, Dr Christopher Sabatini tells Lyndsey Jefferson why Chileans are taking to the streets.

GettyImages-1177498531.jpg

A demonstrator waves a Chilean flag during a protest in Santiago on 21 October 2019. Photo: Getty Images.

Why are these protests happening now?

The truth is, Chile is unequal, even though it actually reduced poverty from 1989, the time of the democratic transition, until today, from 40% to 16%.

There are a number of reasons for the protests. One is the most proximate cause, which is the increase in the subway fares, but that really doesn’t explain the underlying tensions.

One of those tensions is despite reductions in poverty, social mobility remains a large problem in Chile. It remains a very elitist country with limited social mobility. So, poverty may be reduced, but the likelihood that someone in the working middle class would reach the upper middle class has always been a stretch.

The second issue is a lack of political change. The last four presidents were the same two people.

Chile’s been governed, with the exception of Piñera, basically by the same political coalition, La Concertación, which is a combination of the Christian Democratic and Socialist parties. Piñera came from the right, an outside party, but even he has remained. There has been no renewal of the political leadership which again reinforces that lack of social mobility. 

Do the protesters have any other demands or grievances? 

The demands are amorphous and that’s part of the issue – they’re going to be difficult to meet. People are expressing a genuine desire for change but what would that change mean?

Chileans don’t necessarily want to change the economic model; they simply want more mobility. That’s difficult to do and these are untested demands. 

Chileans also want political reform. What Piñera offered is to rewrite the constitution, which was created under military government in 1980. Other than some changes here and there in terms of the electoral system and reduction of military power, it has pretty much remained intact.

Will constitutional change really address these demands? It’s simply a document that may create the rules for how power is allocated and conducted, but it’s not going to dramatically remake Chilean society.

You mentioned inequality as a key driver of the protests. Can you expand a bit more on the current economic situation of ordinary Chileans?

Chile is going to grow at only around 2-3%, but it was growing at around 4-5% earlier. A lot of those funds were ploughed into social programmes that have since been reduced. 

Chile’s economy really boomed in the early 2000s because of Chinese demands of Chilean imports. But as with any sort of commodities-based economy, the jobs it provides tend to be lower wage.

As a result, despite the fact that Chile tried to diversify its economy by investing in entrepreneurship and innovation, it hasn’t grown in a way that provides jobs that many associate with upward mobility. As Chile's economy cooled, its ability to lift people out of poverty lagged as well.

Demonstrators hold placards depicting eyes – in reference to police pellets hitting demonstrators' eyes – during a protest in Santiago on 10 December 2019. Photo: Getty Images.

Two major issues for the protesters are education and pensions – can you explain why this is?

These are two issues of the economic and social model that was held up at one time as being a model for the region, the neoliberal models that are really coming under question and are in some ways at the heart of this.

One is the privatized pension system which is failing to produce the returns that retirees need to survive. The second is the education system. Chile created a voucher system where parents can shop around and send their kids to the best schools. The idea was to create competition among schools to improve.

The problem was like any market, it created a certain amount of inequality among schools. There was a problem of some schools underperforming and being relegated poorer performing students, or students being forced to go to those schools because the more successful schools were already spoken for. 

At the end of October, the government announced a series of social reforms. Will this be enough to satisfy the protesters’ demands?

Social reforms may address some of the issues of insufficient pensions or lack of quality education, but it will take a while for them to have an effect.

The second thing is, social reforms don’t address the issues of power. At the heart of this is this idea of closed economic, political and social power. That comes about through economic growth and how you break up concentrations of wealth. Social reforms aren’t going to do that, although they’ll help on the margins. 

We’re seeing horrific scenes of police violence against protesters and dozens of people have died. Has this deterred the protesters in any way? 

No, in many ways it has sort of inspired them. It has, I think, sustained the protests.

We’re not talking massive repression and tanks rolling in like Tiananmen Square. We’re talking about tear gas, rubber bullets, some injuries and deaths, and even credible reports of torture.

It’s funny you should mention this – a class I’m teaching today is about social media and protests. One of the central arguments is that successful social protests need a martyr; they need a rallying cry.

The deaths and the repression sort of help sustain that, but moreover, social media helps communicate what’s happening through videos and pictures. It really helps maintain this sense of righteousness, disdain for the government, and this idea of the need to demand change.

Where do you see this going next?

I don’t think we know. In the 60s and 70s, the political scientist Samuel Huntington argued in Political Order in Changing Societies that as economies grow, political institutions often strain to contain and channel demands. I think we’re seeing this now.

This social ferment over political, economic and social demands is uncharted water. I don’t know where this will go, but I think we’ll see a change in the constitution. We’ve already seen a fragmenting of the party system, which I think will continue. Hopefully, that will lead to new leadership that can help reflect a change in Chile itself. 




rut

Virtual Roundtable: The Shock of Coronavirus – Hard Truths

Research Event

15 April 2020 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm

Event participants

Professor Adam Tooze, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History, Columbia University
Discussant: Megan Greene, Dame DeAnne Julius Senior Academy Fellow in International Economics, Chatham House; Senior Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School
Chair: Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, Director, US and the Americas Programme; Dean, Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership in International Affairs, Chatham House

This event is part of the Inaugural Virtual Roundtable Series on the US, Americas and the State of the World and will take place virtually only.

Department/project

US and Americas Programme




rut

Getting at the Truth - Part 2

Mathematics has helped investigators in several major cases of human rights abuses and election fraud. Among them: The 2009 election in Iran. A mathematical result known as Benford's Law states that the leading digits of truly random numbers aren't distributed uniformly, as might be expected. Instead, smaller digits, such as 1's, appear much more frequently than larger digits, such as 9's. Benford's Law and other statistical tests have been applied to the 2009 election and suggest strongly that the final totals are suspicious. Ethnic cleansing. When Slobodan Milosevic went on trial, it was his contention that the mass exodus of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo was due to NATO bombings and the activities of the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army rather than anything he had ordered. A team collected data on the flow of refugees to test those hypotheses and was able to refute Milosevic's claim in its entirety. Guatemalan disappearances. Here, statistics is being used to extract information from over 80 million National Police archive pages related to about 200,000 deaths and disappearances. Sampling techniques give investigators an accurate representation of the records without them having to read every page. Families are getting long-sought after proof of what happened to their relatives, and investigators are uncovering patterns and motives behind the abductions and murders. Tragically, the people have disappeared. But because of this analysis, the facts won't. For More Information: Killings and Refugee Flow in Kosovo, March-June 1999, Ball et al., 2002.




rut

Getting at the Truth - Part 1

Mathematics has helped investigators in several major cases of human rights abuses and election fraud. Among them: The 2009 election in Iran. A mathematical result known as Benford's Law states that the leading digits of truly random numbers aren't distributed uniformly, as might be expected. Instead, smaller digits, such as 1's, appear much more frequently than larger digits, such as 9's. Benford's Law and other statistical tests have been applied to the 2009 election and suggest strongly that the final totals are suspicious. Ethnic cleansing. When Slobodan Milosevic went on trial, it was his contention that the mass exodus of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo was due to NATO bombings and the activities of the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army rather than anything he had ordered. A team collected data on the flow of refugees to test those hypotheses and was able to refute Milosevic's claim in its entirety. Guatemalan disappearances. Here, statistics is being used to extract information from over 80 million National Police archive pages related to about 200,000 deaths and disappearances. Sampling techniques give investigators an accurate representation of the records without them having to read every page. Families are getting long-sought after proof of what happened to their relatives, and investigators are uncovering patterns and motives behind the abductions and murders. Tragically, the people have disappeared. But because of this analysis, the facts won't. For More Information: Killings and Refugee Flow in Kosovo, March-June 1999, Ball et al., 2002.




rut

Noncatalytic Bruton's tyrosine kinase activates PLC{gamma}2 variants mediating ibrutinib resistance in human chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells [Membrane Biology]

Treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with inhibitors of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), such as ibrutinib, is limited by primary or secondary resistance to this drug. Examinations of CLL patients with late relapses while on ibrutinib, which inhibits BTK's catalytic activity, revealed several mutations in BTK, most frequently resulting in the C481S substitution, and disclosed many mutations in PLCG2, encoding phospholipase C-γ2 (PLCγ2). The PLCγ2 variants typically do not exhibit constitutive activity in cell-free systems, leading to the suggestion that in intact cells they are hypersensitive to Rac family small GTPases or to the upstream kinases spleen-associated tyrosine kinase (SYK) and Lck/Yes-related novel tyrosine kinase (LYN). The sensitivity of the PLCγ2 variants to BTK itself has remained unknown. Here, using genetically-modified DT40 B lymphocytes, along with various biochemical assays, including analysis of PLCγ2-mediated inositol phosphate formation, inositol phospholipid assessments, fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) static laser microscopy, and determination of intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i), we show that various CLL-specific PLCγ2 variants such as PLCγ2S707Y are hyper-responsive to activated BTK, even in the absence of BTK's catalytic activity and independently of enhanced PLCγ2 phospholipid substrate supply. At high levels of B-cell receptor (BCR) activation, which may occur in individual CLL patients, catalytically-inactive BTK restored the ability of the BCR to mediate increases in [Ca2+]i. Because catalytically-inactive BTK is insensitive to active-site BTK inhibitors, the mechanism involving the noncatalytic BTK uncovered here may contribute to preexisting reduced sensitivity or even primary resistance of CLL to these drugs.




rut

Rutgers' Greg Moore elected to National Academy of Sciences

(Rutgers University) Rutgers Professor Gregory W. Moore, a renowned physicist who seeks a unified understanding of the basic forces and fundamental particles in the universe, has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.




rut

Noncatalytic Bruton's tyrosine kinase activates PLC{gamma}2 variants mediating ibrutinib resistance in human chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells [Membrane Biology]

Treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with inhibitors of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), such as ibrutinib, is limited by primary or secondary resistance to this drug. Examinations of CLL patients with late relapses while on ibrutinib, which inhibits BTK's catalytic activity, revealed several mutations in BTK, most frequently resulting in the C481S substitution, and disclosed many mutations in PLCG2, encoding phospholipase C-γ2 (PLCγ2). The PLCγ2 variants typically do not exhibit constitutive activity in cell-free systems, leading to the suggestion that in intact cells they are hypersensitive to Rac family small GTPases or to the upstream kinases spleen-associated tyrosine kinase (SYK) and Lck/Yes-related novel tyrosine kinase (LYN). The sensitivity of the PLCγ2 variants to BTK itself has remained unknown. Here, using genetically-modified DT40 B lymphocytes, along with various biochemical assays, including analysis of PLCγ2-mediated inositol phosphate formation, inositol phospholipid assessments, fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) static laser microscopy, and determination of intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i), we show that various CLL-specific PLCγ2 variants such as PLCγ2S707Y are hyper-responsive to activated BTK, even in the absence of BTK's catalytic activity and independently of enhanced PLCγ2 phospholipid substrate supply. At high levels of B-cell receptor (BCR) activation, which may occur in individual CLL patients, catalytically-inactive BTK restored the ability of the BCR to mediate increases in [Ca2+]i. Because catalytically-inactive BTK is insensitive to active-site BTK inhibitors, the mechanism involving the noncatalytic BTK uncovered here may contribute to preexisting reduced sensitivity or even primary resistance of CLL to these drugs.




rut

'The Truth is, Chile is Unequal': What's Behind Chile's Protests

18 December 2019

Dr Christopher Sabatini

Senior Research Fellow for Latin America, US and the Americas Programme

Lyndsey Jefferson

Digital Editor, Communications and Publishing Department
As part of a series on global protests, Dr Christopher Sabatini tells Lyndsey Jefferson why Chileans are taking to the streets.

GettyImages-1177498531.jpg

A demonstrator waves a Chilean flag during a protest in Santiago on 21 October 2019. Photo: Getty Images.

Why are these protests happening now?

The truth is, Chile is unequal, even though it actually reduced poverty from 1989, the time of the democratic transition, until today, from 40% to 16%.

There are a number of reasons for the protests. One is the most proximate cause, which is the increase in the subway fares, but that really doesn’t explain the underlying tensions.

One of those tensions is despite reductions in poverty, social mobility remains a large problem in Chile. It remains a very elitist country with limited social mobility. So, poverty may be reduced, but the likelihood that someone in the working middle class would reach the upper middle class has always been a stretch.

The second issue is a lack of political change. The last four presidents were the same two people.

Chile’s been governed, with the exception of Piñera, basically by the same political coalition, La Concertación, which is a combination of the Christian Democratic and Socialist parties. Piñera came from the right, an outside party, but even he has remained. There has been no renewal of the political leadership which again reinforces that lack of social mobility. 

Do the protesters have any other demands or grievances? 

The demands are amorphous and that’s part of the issue – they’re going to be difficult to meet. People are expressing a genuine desire for change but what would that change mean?

Chileans don’t necessarily want to change the economic model; they simply want more mobility. That’s difficult to do and these are untested demands. 

Chileans also want political reform. What Piñera offered is to rewrite the constitution, which was created under military government in 1980. Other than some changes here and there in terms of the electoral system and reduction of military power, it has pretty much remained intact.

Will constitutional change really address these demands? It’s simply a document that may create the rules for how power is allocated and conducted, but it’s not going to dramatically remake Chilean society.

You mentioned inequality as a key driver of the protests. Can you expand a bit more on the current economic situation of ordinary Chileans?

Chile is going to grow at only around 2-3%, but it was growing at around 4-5% earlier. A lot of those funds were ploughed into social programmes that have since been reduced. 

Chile’s economy really boomed in the early 2000s because of Chinese demands of Chilean imports. But as with any sort of commodities-based economy, the jobs it provides tend to be lower wage.

As a result, despite the fact that Chile tried to diversify its economy by investing in entrepreneurship and innovation, it hasn’t grown in a way that provides jobs that many associate with upward mobility. As Chile's economy cooled, its ability to lift people out of poverty lagged as well.

Demonstrators hold placards depicting eyes – in reference to police pellets hitting demonstrators' eyes – during a protest in Santiago on 10 December 2019. Photo: Getty Images.

Two major issues for the protesters are education and pensions – can you explain why this is?

These are two issues of the economic and social model that was held up at one time as being a model for the region, the neoliberal models that are really coming under question and are in some ways at the heart of this.

One is the privatized pension system which is failing to produce the returns that retirees need to survive. The second is the education system. Chile created a voucher system where parents can shop around and send their kids to the best schools. The idea was to create competition among schools to improve.

The problem was like any market, it created a certain amount of inequality among schools. There was a problem of some schools underperforming and being relegated poorer performing students, or students being forced to go to those schools because the more successful schools were already spoken for. 

At the end of October, the government announced a series of social reforms. Will this be enough to satisfy the protesters’ demands?

Social reforms may address some of the issues of insufficient pensions or lack of quality education, but it will take a while for them to have an effect.

The second thing is, social reforms don’t address the issues of power. At the heart of this is this idea of closed economic, political and social power. That comes about through economic growth and how you break up concentrations of wealth. Social reforms aren’t going to do that, although they’ll help on the margins. 

We’re seeing horrific scenes of police violence against protesters and dozens of people have died. Has this deterred the protesters in any way? 

No, in many ways it has sort of inspired them. It has, I think, sustained the protests.

We’re not talking massive repression and tanks rolling in like Tiananmen Square. We’re talking about tear gas, rubber bullets, some injuries and deaths, and even credible reports of torture.

It’s funny you should mention this – a class I’m teaching today is about social media and protests. One of the central arguments is that successful social protests need a martyr; they need a rallying cry.

The deaths and the repression sort of help sustain that, but moreover, social media helps communicate what’s happening through videos and pictures. It really helps maintain this sense of righteousness, disdain for the government, and this idea of the need to demand change.

Where do you see this going next?

I don’t think we know. In the 60s and 70s, the political scientist Samuel Huntington argued in Political Order in Changing Societies that as economies grow, political institutions often strain to contain and channel demands. I think we’re seeing this now.

This social ferment over political, economic and social demands is uncharted water. I don’t know where this will go, but I think we’ll see a change in the constitution. We’ve already seen a fragmenting of the party system, which I think will continue. Hopefully, that will lead to new leadership that can help reflect a change in Chile itself. 




rut

Virtual Roundtable: The Shock of Coronavirus – Hard Truths

Research Event

15 April 2020 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm

Event participants

Professor Adam Tooze, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History, Columbia University
Discussant: Megan Greene, Dame DeAnne Julius Senior Academy Fellow in International Economics, Chatham House; Senior Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School
Chair: Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, Director, US and the Americas Programme; Dean, Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership in International Affairs, Chatham House

This event is part of the Inaugural Virtual Roundtable Series on the US, Americas and the State of the World and will take place virtually only.

Department/project

US and Americas Programme




rut

Rutherford Test 2020_0226




rut

State taxes : the current impact on rural and regional practice / presented by Bernie Walrut, Murray Chambers..




rut

Stamp duty foreign ownership surcharge / presented by Bernie Walrut, Murray Chambers.




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Land tax changes : the consultation proposals / presented by Bernie Walrut. Murray Chambers.




rut

Land Tax Changes - The consultation Proposals - Bernie Walrut SLIDES.




rut

Finding the heart of the nation : the journey of the Uluru Statement towards voice, treaty and truth / Thomas Mayor.

Mayor, Thomas -- Travel -- Australia.




rut

The case against reality : how evolution hid the truth from our eyes / Donald Hoffman.

Senses and sensation.




rut

Health education news / editor: Michael Jacob ; reporter: Ruth Garland.

London : Health Education Council, 1985.




rut

Top three Ruthy Hebard moments: NCAA record for consecutive FGs etched her place in history

Over four years in Eugene, Ruthy Hebard has made a name for herself with reliability and dynamic play. She's had many memorable moments in a Duck uniform. But her career day against Washington State (34 points), her moment reaching 2,000 career points and her NCAA record for consecutive made FGs (2018) tops the list. Against the Trojans, she set the record (30) and later extended it to 33.




rut

Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu, Ruthy Hebard, Satou Sabally share meaning of Naismith Starting 5 honor

Pac-12 Networks' Ashley Adamson speaks with Oregon stars Sabrina Ionescu, Ruthy Hebard and Satou Sabally to hear how special their recent Naismith Starting 5 honor was, as the Ducks comprise three of the nation's top five players. Ionescu (point guard), Sabally (small forward) and Hebard (power forward) led the Ducks to a 31-2 record in the 2019-20 season before it was cut short.




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Sabrina Ionescu, Ruthy Hebard, Satou Sabally on staying connected, WNBA Draft, Oregon's historic season

Pac-12 Networks' Ashley Adamson catches up with Oregon's "Big 3" of Sabrina Ionescu, Ruthy Hebard and Satou Sabally to hear how they're adjusting to the new world without sports while still preparing for the WNBA Draft on April 17. They also share how they're staying hungry for basketball during the hiatus.




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WNBA Draft Profile: Productive forward Ruthy Hebard has uncanny handling, scoring, rebounding ability

Ruthy Hebard, who ranks 2nd in Oregon history in points (2,368) and 3rd in rebounds (1,299), prepares to play in the WNBA following four years in Eugene. Hebard is the Oregon and Pac-12 all-time leader in career field-goal percentage (65.1) and averaged 17.3 points per game and a career-high 9.6 rebounds per game as a senior.




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Inside Sabrina Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard's lasting bond on quick look of 'Our Stories'

Learn how Oregon stars Sabrina Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard developed a lasting bond as college freshmen and carried that through storied four-year careers for the Ducks. Watch "Our Stories Unfinished Business: Sabrina Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard" debuting Wednesday, April 15 at 7 p.m. PT/ 8 p.m. MT on Pac-12 Network.




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Ruthy Hebard, Sabrina Ionescu 'represent everything that is great about basketball'

Ruthy Hebard and Sabrina Ionescu have had a remarkable four years together in Eugene, rewriting the history books and pushing the Ducks into the national spotlight. Catch the debut of "Our Stories Unfinished Business: Sabrina Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard" at Wednesday, April 15 at 7 p.m. PT/ 8 p.m. MT on Pac-12 Network.




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Chris Costa's Bust'em - :biotruths:




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Council to mull hospital lease: Scrutinizes Metlakatla power tie-in