Author Archives | Jordan Bailey, Staff Writer

The Art of Presence

“What a liberation to realize that the “voice in my head” is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that.” Eckhart Tolle

There is not enough space to fully unravel the meaning of presence. It cannot be entirely described. I will attempt to illustrate such a thing, and its beauty. But by the end of this, I will lead you nowhere. You must go on alone, to the ends of yourself, to the entity that cannot be apprehended by thought. I am terrible at such an art. Most of us are. We define ourselves through the shallow perceptions of culture and its ideals; all the while losing a union of simplicity that is the embodiment of life. “A kind of non-elaborative, nonjudgmental, present-centered awareness in which each thought, feeling, or sensation that arises in the attentional field is acknowledged and accepted as it is.” Why do we lack such clarity? Why is this so difficult for us to achieve?

Mindfulness originates from ancient eastern Buddhist philosophy and has been practiced for over 2,500 years. The word mindfulness is a rough translation of the original term smrti. Smrti is a Sanskrit word from the root Smara, meaning “that which is remembered; the capacity to retain an object in the mind.” In other words, mindfulness is the ability to become aware of your own awareness and to acknowledge the presence of who you are. The technique was first used by the Buddha in his attempts to reach nirvana, a transcendent state representing salvation, liberation and the promised land. “We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think,” the Buddha said. “When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”

We can avoid our dichotomy by allowing the body to become aware of the mind. The Sattipatthana Sutta, a discourse of the Buddha, explains the power of such an awareness. “This is the only way, O bhikkhus, for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the destruction of suffering and grief, for reaching the right path, for the attainment of Nibbana, namely, the Four Arousings of Mindfulness.” Mindfulness disposes the mind to a notion of truth inducing peace, calmness and intuition. “The sensation is not what is to be experienced, but the experience itself,” Charles Genoud writes, a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism. “It is surprising that there is so much disagreement on the subject of consciousness, because its unveiling is the human experience that presents the highest degree of evidence. This evidence comes from the fact that it does not depend on anything—not on the environment, or an object, or a sensory organ. Consciousness is not something that I have or something that I can know—it is what I am, though in an impersonal way. In order to realize this, we need to free ourselves from the compulsion to know and consent to be.”

Research done at Harvard University has indicated that mindfulness benefits a range of physical and mental conditions, including depression, chronic pain and anxiety. Gaëlle Desbordes, a radiology instructor at Harvard Medical School, studied the effects that mindful practices had on the brains of patients who learned how to meditate. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI), Desbordes scanned participants throughout a two-month period. The results of the study showed changes in the amygdala, the emotional processing center of the brain. Desbordes found that the amygdala was less activated after each subject learned how to meditate. “My own interest comes from having practiced those meditation techniques and found them beneficial, personally,” Desbordes said. “Then, being a scientist, asking ‘How does this work? What is this doing to me?’ and wanting to understand the mechanisms to see if it can help others.” 

Mindfulness-based interventions have indicated benefits of pain tolerance and improved sense of self. Jon Kabat-Zinn, a medical professor, developed the first mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy in the late seventies. The eight-week evidence-based program incorporates meditation, bodily awareness and yoga to explore patterns of behavior, thinking, feeling and action. The approach has proven to alleviate psychological stress, increase self-compassion and treat substance-use disorders. “Mindfulness means moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness,” Kabat-Zinn writes. “It is cultivated by refining our capacity to pay attention, intentionally, in the present moment, and then sustaining that attention over time as best we can. In the process, we become more in touch with our life as it is unfolding.”

According to mindful.org, there are several mindful-based practices that can be incorporated into day-to-day life. One of the best ways to practice mindfulness is by establishing a daily purpose. Setting daily intentions helps create more awareness of how you’re using your time. Acknowledging the breath and movements of the body is also helpful for living more consciously. According to Jeena Cho, contributing writer at Forbes, one way to do this is by walking mindfully. “When you get up from your desk to go to the bathroom, talk to a colleague or get a cup of coffee, rather than mindlessly walking, trapped in your thoughts, bring your attention to the physical movement of walking,” Cho writes. “Notice your feet on the floor, the weight of your body shifting from one leg to the other. Feel your arms swing. Notice the temperature in the room. Pay attention to whatever your senses can notice.” Meditation and yoga are also effective practices for mindfulness. Acknowledging your feelings, conscious listening, and avoiding judgment have also proven to be successful.
The benefits of mindful living extend far beyond the psychological and therapeutic impacts. The power of presence is artfully inscribed into the simplicity of our lives. Our world has complicated such an art, and our minds forget the depth of perception, the depth of daily life and  the depth of ourselves. Even as I write this, my mind refuses to accept. I am inundated with distraction. “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have,” Eckhart Tolle writes. To live mindfully… To breathe in, to breathe out… To let go. This is the art of presence, the art of living.

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The Lack of Gun Control in Missouri and its Impacts

A quadruple shooting occurred in downtown St. Louis during a vigil. Two women and one man were severely injured; one man died. “Our city mourns last night’s attack on those who came together for a peaceful vigil,” Interim Public Safety Director Dan Isom said. “One homicide is one too many, and any efforts must take into account the needs of these communities and address root causes of crime – poverty, housing instability, and more – across St. Louis.”

The recent shooting generated criticism of Missouri’s gun control policies. 2020 marked the deadliest year for gun violence in Missouri, with approximately 700 Missourians shot and killed by a firearm. According to Kaitlin Washburn and Humera Lodhi, reporters at The Kansas City Star, more than 250 of those homicides happened in St. Louis. By the end of 2020, Missouri had the third-highest per-capita rate of gun deaths in the United States.

According to Michael Sean Spence, community safety initiatives director at Everytown for Gun Safety, part of the reason for the increase in firearm homicides is the lack of state-wide gun laws.  In 2007, Missouri removed its permit-to-purchase requirement. Since then, the state has seen a 25% increase in firearm homicides.“Missouri has among the weakest gun laws, no background checks, permitless concealed carry, domestic abusers can have and keep guns and there’s no prevention to keep children from accessing guns,” Spence said.

According to The Trace,, more than 77,000 guns were sold in Missouri in the month of June alone. Subsequently, gun violence has occurred daily in St. Louis. According to a SLMPD Homicide Analysis, more than 78% of homicide victims are African American men. This illustrates not only the significant racial disparities in crime, but also insight into the implications of institutional racism. “Black families have systematically lower household wealth than white families, including lower home values,” Dylan Small said, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “In addition, there tends to be less public and private investment in majority-Black neighborhoods. That can translate into fewer resources in the neighborhood, especially relative to need. For example, a lack of resources for programs for adolescents and young adults that might help them to stay away from gangs and street conflicts.”

St. Louis City filed a lawsuit in June that sought to block a new state legislature that bans local police officials from imposing federal gun laws. This bill, introduced by Representative Jered Taylor, a politician who has served in the Missouri House of Representatives since 2015. “I think anything on the federal level as it relates to the second amendment is an infringement,” said Representative Taylor. “If anyone were to pass gun legislation, it should be on the state level…We’re just telling the federal government we’re not going to help you enforce your federal gun laws.” Under the bill, law enforcement officials who enforce any federal gun law can be fined up to $50,000.

However, the United States Constitution’s Supremacy Clause states that federal law is superior to state law. “Valid federal law will always displace a state law, even a state constitutional provision that is inconsistent with that federal law,” Laura Wamsley reports, a journalist for NPR’s News Desk. As a result, the lack of gun legislation has contributed to gun trafficking, changes in poverty and unemployment rates and racial disparities in life expectancy for men. “Homicide accounts for 5% of the Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) in the United States and is the second leading cause of the racial disparity in life expectancy between black and white males,” Daniel Webster writes, a researcher at the John Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. According to research from Everytown for Gun Safety, African Americans in Missouri are 14 times more likely to die from gun violence than their white counterparts.

Many Missourians advocate for strict gun regulation, while others argue that regulating firearm sales will do nothing to help solve mass shootings. Nevertheless, a lack of policy and strategy on a regional level continues to affect communities state-wide. Even at SLU, students have been impacted by the lack of gun safety, with two people robbed at gunpoint on campus less than two weeks ago.

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Is the Forever War… Forever Over?

Following the gut-wrenching terrorist attacks initiated by the militant Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda, former U.S. President George W. Bush launched a War on Terror.“The United States of America will use all our resources to conquer this enemy,” Bush said in his national address. “We will rally the world. We will be patient. We’ll be focused, and we will be steadfast in our determination. This battle will take time and resolve, but make no mistake about it, we will win.”

Twenty years later, President Biden declared the official withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan—signifying the end of the “forever war.” However, the consequences to Afghan governance and security, international terrorism, cultural dynamics, power relations, economic livelihood and humanitarian rights remains inauspicious. The Taliban and its influence is far more powerful than it was in 2001— according to the BBC, they have more than 60,000 fighters, and took full control of Afghanistan within days of the United States’ withdrawal. It remains uncertain whether Afghanistan will become a haven for international terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Nevertheless, the consequences of the United States’ departure from the nation are apparent.

The War in Afghanistan has lasted through three full presidential administrations, with each failing to establish peaceful relations and a successful military exit. According to Brown University, the conflict has cost more than $2 trillion, and has caused the death of over 2,000 troops. More than 170,000 Afghans have died, as well. Despite this, the United States has little to show for its decades-long War on Terror. The Biden administration’s miscalculation of the Taliban’s political power has resulted in the miscalculation of political strategy. “We underestimate the difficulty of bringing order to societies where order has broken down—or where it never really existed,” wrote David Von Drehle, an American author and journalist for The Washington Post. “And we overestimate the durability of whatever order we manage to provide.” 

The Taliban has been patiently advancing their relevance and influence for the past two decades. Last spring, Taliban forces controlled the Afghan countryside and its road networks. Fighters were deliberately positioned to capture the remaining parts of Afghanistan after U.S. troops began evacuating, and that is exactly what they have done.

The United States and the Taliban signed an agreement last year in an effort to end the “forever war,” without the involvement of the Afghan government. The agreement concentrated on counterterrorism, decreasing violence and withdrawing U.S. soldiers. According to the agreement, the Taliban will “not allow any of its members, other individuals or groups, including al-Qaeda to use the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies.” However, according to a United Nations 2021 report, the Taliban has not stopped its correspondence with al-Qaeda. The United States’ rapid withdrawal from the country—even though the Taliban has failed to meet the initial conditions of the U.S.-Taliban agreement—has caused the United States to lose all political leverage. What’s more, the United States’ disinterest in the war has led to the failure to protect our Afghan allies and their families. 

Many experts have pointed out how the fall of Kabul can be compared to the fall of Saigon after the US withdrawal from Vietnam. “The US population didn’t object to the troop withdrawal from Vietnam because it was weary of the televised nightly bloodbath,” The Washington Post editorial board writes. “The moral failure was that the United States refused to keep its solemn promises to the Vietnamese. Now, former ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker and others worry about the consequences of a hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan and warn of a new Vietnam tragedy.”

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 18 million Afghans need humanitarian assistance. Approximately one-third of Afghanistan’s population is suffering from severe malnourishment, including more than 50% of children. Moreover, conflict between Taliban and resistance forces are worsening humanitarian issues. 

“It has been quite heartbreaking, especially in the past week, receiving a vast amount of calls to our ASPRN crisis helpline, where people have been reporting executions and beatings, and clampdown on media and radio stations,” said Najeeba Wazedafost, CEO of the Asia Pacific Refugee Network. “They have been reporting to us about Taliban door-to-door searches, targeted killings and looting in the capital. And again, we have been hearing about schools, and hospitals, and thousands of homes being attacked.” 

Major concerns have been raised for women’s rights. During the 1990s, Afghan women’s access to healthcare, education, and employment was seriously restricted under Taliban rule. Women could not attend school or leave their house without a male chaperone. Such laws were enforced by the “religious police” through public beatings, arrests and executions. The Taliban have indicated their dedication to “upholding and guaranteeing all rights of women afforded to them by Islamic law.” Afghan women have been protesting against the Taliban government for the past month, holding signs that say “we want equal rights, we want women in government.” The Taliban have responded with devastating force: releasing tear gas, beating protestors with batons and firing weapons into the air.

With all U.S. troops officially evacuated, it is uncertain whether the Taliban will successfully establish peace and stability within Afghanistan. The humanitarian, cultural, political and economic implications of U.S. withdrawal has created a very discouraging reality. The U.S. government cannot just simply wipe the dust off their feet, flee Afghanistan, and never look back. Although President Biden has said that the United States government will remain engaged with Afghanistan via security, the descriptions of those efforts still remain largely unseen. Our eagerness to finally end the “forever war” does not mean that it is “forever over.” As Afghans face a stark new reality, it is evident that the war has only ended for some, not all.

There are a number of ways to help Afghanistan and Afghan refugees. Below is a list of organizations accepting aid and donations in the St. Louis area and beyond:

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“We Must Show Solidarity”—The Humanitarian and Economic Implications of Haiti’s Earthquake

Last month, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake battered the southern peninsula of Haiti. This is the most recent devastating blow to the country that is still dealing with a presidential assassination and another catastrophic earthquake that happened more than ten years ago. As the quake continues to overwhelm hospitals, the answer to how a nation so prone to natural catastrophes will withstand the humanitarian and economic consequences of this tragedy remains uncertain.

The earthquake occurred on August 14, followed by Tropical Depression Grace two days later. According to the Civil Protection Agency, the quake destroyed buildings and pinned residents under debris, killing approximately 2,200 people and injuring more than 10,000. Many were missing for several days. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) found that the quake’s epicenter was approximately 80 miles west of Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital. However, the depth and magnitude of the quake was felt throughout the country, as well as several other nations, including Jamaica, an island more than 200 miles from Haiti.

Haiti sits between two major fault zones, and lies within the Caribbean’s hurricane belt. The major recorded earthquakes in Haiti can be linked to its geographical position. According to the United States Geological Survey, the southern plate, known as the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault, caused the most recent quake. It also precipitated the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people. According to William Bakun and Claudia Flores, researchers at the USGS, these quakes “may mark the beginning of a new cycle of large earthquakes on the Enriquillo fault system after 240 years of seismic quiescence.” 

Other research suggests that climate change is accelerating the pace and aggression of seismic activity. Many specialists have pointed out how hurricanes in Haiti are historically “man-made disasters.” This is evident in the amount of erosion that Haiti experiences after a storm. In the 17th century, French colonizers cleared forests and trees to build plantations in Haiti. As a result, the soil became unstable, making storms and earthquakes much more deadly. Moreover, the lack of earthquake-resistant buildings and healthcare technologies provides a huge infrastructure challenge for the country. Haiti’s political and economic precariousness, geographic conditions and lack of strategy have caused environmental disasters to feel much more exigent.

The complex geological history of Haiti goes back hundreds of years. According to NPR reporter Jaclyn Diaz, the earliest major earthquakes in Haiti took place in the 1700s. These quakes left hundreds of thousands dead and had serious economic consequences. On November 21, 1751 Seismic activity destroyed Port-au-Prince, and was soon followed by a tsunami. Just two decades later, seismic activity on the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault destroyed Port-au-Prince again. Haiti was devastated again in May 1842 when a magnitude 8.1 earthquake destroyed the northern coast of Haiti, triggering a deadly tsunami and killing more than five thousand people. The most recent quake has left over 7,000 homes destroyed and nearly 5,000 homes and businesses damaged. Currently, more than 30,000 Haitians are homeless. Les Cayes and Jeremie, two cities on Haiti’s southern peninsula, experienced the most severe devastation. Existing damage was worsened with the arrival of Tropical Depression Grace—where winds reached up to 35 miles per hour, flash floods and mudslides were triggered and more than 10 inches of rain fell.
Before the 2010 earthquake, poverty levels in Haiti were at an all-time high, with more than 50% of the population living in extreme poverty. Haiti’s conditions prior to the 2010 earthquake—such as unequal wealth distribution, food insecurity and weak governance—were all contributing elements to fatalities and wide-scale infrastructure loss. The recent quake has illustrated the ongoing economic problems facing the nation and the influence that Haiti’s environment has on its cultural, political and monetary vulnerabilities. It has also exacerbated Haitie’s already dire economic situation, one that is a product of colonial exploitation and foreign interference.  Since winning its independence from France, Haiti’s political and economic development has suffered from foreign power interference, domestic corruption and onerous foreign debt, including money paid to the French government as compensation for the French loss of its former colony.
As the crisis across Haiti continues to worsen, many efforts are being made to support the nation with humanitarian relief. The following is a list of organizations that are accepting donations: 

  • UNICEF is working with the government of Haiti to help aid vulnerable children and families.
  • Project HOPE is sending out an emergency response team to help in relief efforts.
  • Humanity and Inclusion is responding to the recent earthquake by providing rehabilitation, mental health care and physiological aid.
  • Hope for Haiti is distributing emergency aid kits to individuals and families.

Save the Children is continuing to distribute aid to children and families.

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When Can Things Just Go Back to Normal?! An Anthropological Analysis of COVID-19

Imagine a place that is cataclysmic. A place filled with vacancy and lack, a place rundown with yesterday’s leftovers. Imagine a place in which every mobile structure you know is suddenly immobile, a place full of abandoned streets and deserted parking lots, wild grocery store customers and paranoid civilians, a place that is free from cultural normalcy but suddenly enslaved to the unknown. Imagine a place that is moving fast, yet slower than ever before, a place in which the things you once took for granted are suddenly the things that bring you the most joy, a place that is not a place at all, but rather the space between you and what you consider home.

Unfortunately, this place is universal, a non-exclusive adaptation that has systematically changed the lives of billions overnight. Within just a few weeks, the life I once knew became a distant memory, and behaviors I once considered normal suddenly became unconventional and aberrant. I started to fear strangers and public spaces, questioning the familiar and wondering over and over againwhen will everything go back to normal? The more I asked this simple yet seemingly complex question, the more my responses became simple yet seemingly complex. What defines normalcy? What defines a culture? Can cultural normativity be changed overnight? Have we already experienced this change? 

According to American anthropologist-linguist Edward Sapir in his book, “Culture, Genuine and Spurious,” culture is “not of necessity either high or low; it is inherently harmonious, balanced, self-satisfactory. It is the expression of a richly varied and yet unified and consistent attitude toward life, an attitude which sees the significance of any one element of civilization in its relation to all others.” 

In other words, culture is defined by a collective frame of mind, a unified perspective that inherently propagates a stable attitude towards life. This stable attitude gives a sense of normalcy and commonality, and allows each element of civilization to influence the next. In turn, this makes every profound cultural change even more significant, because of how deeply persuasive it is on each civilizational element. 

For example, Sapir points out how every profound cultural change, especially on an economic-scale, brings about an unsettling readjustment to cultural values. Habitual reactions toward new civilizational environments suddenly become spiritually strifing, forcing individuals and societies to modify their morals in order to preserve the normalcy of their culture and their world. As I look at the current state of the globe, it seems to me that we are all forcing some sort of modification upon ourselves, with the hopes that by readjusting our values now, our world can remain as “normal” as possible later. Changes such as wearing masks and gloves when going out, staying away from public spaces like local parks and beaches and only grabbing essential needs at grocery stores and pharmacies are only a few of the many modifications that we have individually made in order to help the collective.

Scattered heads staying six feet or more away from nervous lip-biters, clammy hands rummaging through scrappy CVS aisles and the occasional “psst, could you keep more of a distance?” are all things that have left me wondering whether or not we will have the same cultural values as we did before this pandemic shocked the globe. Has our continued vitality suddenly come to an end? Or has this planetary shift given us an even deeper understanding of what our cultural values truly signify? This new era of adaptation has questioned the concept of normalcy, and has forced us to decide whether or not we are living in a “genuine” or “spurious” culture.

 

The “Interpretation Transformation”

Like Sapir, Clifford Geertz, an American anthropologist, believed that culture was a system instilled to broaden our understanding of the world around us. 

According to Geertz, culture is “a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life.” 

In other words, culture is a set of inherited traits used to deepen our connection with each other and with the world. These traits are interpretive, having both a thick and thin description attached to them, giving them cultural significance and truth. For example, in Geertz’s book “Interpretation of Cultures,” Geertz used Gilbert Ryle’s case, arguing that if someone were to wink at you with no context, you wouldn’t know what it meant. But with context, the wink is distinguishable and it means something. Through cultural interpretation, that wink becomes interconnected to emotional and social systems, making it signify something more than just a weird one-eyed twitch. 

As I look at the current state of my hometown, it has become apparent to me that we as a culture are interpreting things vastly different than we were before. Things as simple as seeing more cars than usual on the road has led people like my mother to be skeptical of other people’s actions. Walmart Supercenters that are filled with masked customers suddenly feel unsafe when a few extra pairs of feet show up with their faces exposed and their hands nude. Why aren’t they covered? Why aren’t those open-toed, light-haired teens at home, social distancing themselves? Don’t they care about their health? Don’t they care about the health of others? 

The more spine-tingling this pandemic gets, the more I catch myself interpreting the actions of those around me as negative, naive actions. Friendly strangers become not-so-friendly, local hotspots in town become unsafe, unclean and eerie, and the most contemptuous jobs suddenly become the most respected. Our world is experiencing an “interpretation transformation,” one that has dramatically affected the way in which we view ourselves and those around us. The coronavirus pandemic has given me the chance to admire those who are still out there working amidst the crisis, and question my own cultural interpretations of others.

 

What Even Is “Normal?”

The current state of our world has given us the chance to question the so-called “normalcy” that we’ve all confined ourselves to. Sapir’s theory of culture has proven that the collective frame of mind is one that is driven towards the same attitude, no matter how “richly varied” the idea of that attitude may be. His theory of culture is deeply embedded within ours, proving that we all desire to be happy and at peace. As I examine the condition of our globe, it has become evident that being at peace is in fact the cultural normalcy that we all are hoping to get back to. Unlike Geertz, Sapir questions intense cultural change, and how this type of change transforms the values and morals that a culture has accustomed themselves to. I believe that is why Sapir’s theory of culture is a better one to use when examining the coronavirus pandemic.

Our globe is evolving. And this pandemic has proven that we can no longer sit back and patiently wait until “things go back to normal.” Things will never “go back to normal.” And so long as we sit and hope that it will, the current state of our reality will only continue to look worse and worse to us, all the while “normalizing” before our own eyes.

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How the Coronavirus is Leading Us Into a Global Recession

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to massively impact our world, it has become apparent just how much the global economy has been affected. With more and more businesses and nations shutting down, the question of how different our political and economic systems will be after the virus is contained remains unanswered, and for some people, is one of the biggest fears for the future.

A New World

So will the coronavirus cause a global recession? If you examine the current state of the international economy, and the gradual collapse in both domestic and global economic activity, the answer is likely yes. This gradual collapse in economic activity was first felt in China, where COVID-19 originated. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, retail sales in China plunged 20.5 percent during January and February, industrial output was down by 13.5 percent, and fixed assets fell nearly 25 percent. This decrease in Chinese economic activity that was seen only a few weeks ago is just now being felt in Europe and the United States.  According to CNN, “The investment bank thinks America’s economy will now shrink 5 percent between April and June, after 0 percent growth between January and March. Growth for the year is forecast to come in at just 0.4 percent, down from 1.2 percent.” JPMorgan estimates that the United States economy will shrink by 14 percent in the second quarter, making this economic collapse worse than the 2008 financial crisis. Goldman Sachs estimates a 24 percent decline, according to their recent online analysis.

Economic reaction to the pandemic within the United States has been severely criticized by economists, who state that the “ineffective response” from the U.S. federal government will only cause things to get worse and will only make the shock last longer. According to Matt Egan from CNN, “The economy is on pace to suffer a historic collapse this quarter. Millions of jobs have been lost. Unemployment could temporarily spike to ‘depression’ levels.” With coronavirus cases only getting higher and higher everyday, many economists and analysts believe that the best response is a strict lockdown response. If you examine the lockdown policies that were implemented in China and South Korea, you will see that these policies were very effective in terms of halting the economic collapse. But even if the United States were to adopt China’s strict lockdown policies, the domestic economic effects of the coronavirus would still be far worse than that of China’s. “A broad outbreak of the disease (within the US) could be even worse for their economy than China’s,” Economist Austan Goolsbee wrote in The New York Times. “That is because face-to-face service industries—the kind of businesses that go into a tailspin when fearful people withdraw from one another—tend to dominate economies in high-income countries more than they do in China. If people stay home from school, stop traveling and don’t go to sporting events, the gym or the dentist, the economic consequence would be worse.” 

This economic worsening is already ringing true for much of the developed world, with nations such as Germany and Italy heading towards a steep economic recession. The United Kingdom is experiencing somewhat of a unique economic collapse, mainly due to the fact that COVID-19 is causing post-Brexit regulatory and coordination challenges. It’s also showering a bit of irony on Great Britain, since parliament has decided to extend it’s transition period and remain within the EU, which has seemingly brought many economic benefits to the nation than if the U.K. government decided to continue with the transition.

Re-Defining Our Systems

Although people’s health is far more important than the economic impact that COVID-19 has had on our world, it has become obvious that this pandemic will drastically transform economic structures on a universal-scale, which will in turn have a huge effect on political and health care systems. According to Kenneth S. Rogoff from the New York Times, “This is already shaping up as the deepest dive on record for the global economy for over 100 years. Everything depends on how long it lasts, but if this goes on for a long time, it’s certainly going to be the mother of all financial crises.” Things are moving fast, and yet seemingly much slower than ever before. The longer our local restaurants and barber shops remain closed, the more significant the impact will be on our regional and state-wide economic structures. If the coronavirus pandemic has shown us anything, it’s that our economy is intrinsically connected to our political, social, cultural and health care systems. And the longer our economy remains shut down, the more notable the changes within those systems will be, potentially altering the world as we know it.

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How the Coronavirus Is Affecting the Global Market

Whether or not the coronavirus escalates into a global pandemic, there is no doubt that the virus is already affecting the politics, economics and social constructs internationally. As governments continue to work on the best solutions towards handling the outbreak, economic costs are only continuing to grow rapidly, ultimately creating even more losses for nations and their domestic economic sectors.

 

Effect on Economic Markets

 

   So how are stock markets experiencing a global crash from the coronavirus? What is the connection? According to Eswar Prasad, a senior professor of trade policy at Cornell University, the global supply chain is being disrupted due to labor shortages, the inability to get raw materials reliably, and the difficulty in exporting products internationally within East Asia. “Countries such as China, South Korea and Japan are critical to the supply chains for products ranging from plastic toys to iPhones to high-tech machinery,” Prasad said. Multinational corporations such as Apple and Microsoft have huge manufacturing plants within these regions, specifically China. And with over 500 million people affected by policies put in place to restrict movement in China alone, many civilians do not have jobs to return to. This in turn affects the economic progression of international companies, like Apple and Microsoft, that depend on those areas of the world to assemble certain technological parts for their business. “Another quandary that governments face, especially in China and other countries hit hardest by the coronavirus, is how to balance containing the spread of the epidemic with keeping their economies humming,” Prasad continued. “Every day that factories stay closed and restaurants have no customers makes it harder to get things back up.”

   These aren’t the only reasons for the stock market crash, thoughone of the biggest causes for this global economic decline is the fact that investors are pulling out and selling their stock to get their money out of the market. According to Rodrigo Campos, a journalist for the news company Reuters, over $5 trillion was wiped from the global financial system last week, with nearly $1.6 billion of that coming from fearful investors. “The uncertainty hovering over the markets will only be alleviated when there is a sense that the worst is almost over,” said Quincy Krosby, Chief Market Strategist at Prudential Financial Incorporated. “Until then it is risk off.” With stockholders transitioning to “safer” investments, many economic sectors are suffering from the effects that the coronavirus has had on the global economy, and all sectors are questioning if they will be able to bounce back from this financial halt.

 

Economic Sectors at High Risk

 

   All stocks are being affected in one way or another, but some are currently hurting a lot more than others. According to Jeanna Smialek and Jack Ewing, two journalists from The New York Times, the outbreaks in China, Japan, Iran, Italy and South Korea have significantly slowed tourism down for each nation, halting the travel sector tremendously. Airlines and aviation stock is already down by 21 percent since the start of this year, as well, signifying a serious economic loss for companies such as American Airlines and Air China. The thing is, the aviation industry isn’t the only one experiencing the impacts of the economic crashthe hospitality industry, another huge sector within the international travel stock, is also feeling the effects of the stock market decline. “Marriott has been hard hit on the expectation travel restrictions in Asia and consumer wariness around travel would hurt overall revenue,” Keris Lahiff said, a Markets Producer for the news outlet CNBC. “It has declined nearly 20 percent so far this year.” These industries have experienced a serious economic downfall due to the virus that has shocked the world. Since domestic markets are intrinsically connected to the international economy, much of the globe is feeling the overall decline in stock. This indicates that not only the weaknesses in foreign markets, but also the interwovenness of our economic world, and how affixed our politics, economics and culture is to that of other nations.

 

How the Economic Crash Affects Us

 

   So how does this stock market crash affect you, especially if you aren’t investing in stock? One of the biggest ways that you could be affected by this crash is through price deflation. For example, if you own a car, you might have noticed a decline in gas prices. According to Jay Young, CEO and Founder of the King Operating Corporation, the average price of regular gasoline has dropped more than 12 cents within the last month due to the virus. The reason for this economic drop is due to the fact that China is the world’s biggest importer and largest consumer of oil, and since most factories and companies are currently shut down within the region, there is a huge decline in oil and gas prices that are being felt across the globe. 

   Another way you could be affected by the crash is through your retirement account. Retirement accounts such as the 401K or the IRA are invested within the American stock market. And with over 55 percent of Americans owning one of these two kinds of accounts, the chances of your 401K or IRA experiencing a negative impact from the crash is quite likely. The good news? These kinds of stocks are built to weather the drops over many years, which means there is plenty of time to make up for any losses that could possibly be experienced from this downfall.

 

Global Issues and Global Effects

   As the global economic system seeks to regain itself, it also seeks to emphasize the vitality of international issues such as the coronavirus. The decline and stagnation of stock due to a global crisis is nothing newduring the SARS outbreak in 2003, the S&P 500 dropped 8.3 percent. These international problems put everything at risk, and are interconnected to the politics, economics and culture of our world. The good news is each time a global issue has affected the international economic market, the international economic market has bounced right back up to where it was before. But the notion that this outbreak is just creating a short-term economic shock now seems unrealistic. So will this stock market crash have long-term effects on economic growth, even if the coronavirus is proven short-lived? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

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Should We Put a Price on Nature? Evaluating America’s Economic System

How much is the world worth? As you look at the current state of America’s economic system, it becomes very clear that the U.S. market structure has failed to create an economy that is centered around what is best for the advancement and evolution of society rather than what is best for the advancement and evolution of capital. With things such as natural resources being used to the point of exhaustion, or the creation of goods and services that have huge negative effects on nature, the question of whether or not we should put a price tag or tax on the consequences that human actions have on the natural world remains imperative in determining how to put an end to the depletion of the environment.

 

The Pigovian Tax Theory

 

   The idea to impose a price tag on market goods that create externalities was first proposed by British economist Arthur C. Pigou. Essentially, Pigou advocated for a tax to be instituted within economic systems that would help exhibit the costs that are associated with producing a certain good or service. For example, the production of plastic has serious negative effects on the environment. From pollution that harms not only animals but our own health, to carbon dioxide and methane gas being pumped into the atmosphere, plastic manufacturing has had a huge impact on nations, communities and the natural world. According to Pigou’s theoretical approach, the solution to this negative externality would be to put a price tag on the impacts that plastic production has on both society and nature. “In theory, the tax would correct the market distortion created by collective goods, since every consumer would be required to bear the full social cost of their behavior,” Lisa Heinzerling said, a professor of administrative and environmental law at Georgetown University. “By equating the private cost of an activity to its social cost, the tax would enable the pricing system to achieve the optimal allocation of collective goods.”

   So is the imposition of taxes and price tags the only way to solve issues such as climate change? At this point in time, I would say it is. According to Richard Gray, a journalist for BBC News, the main reason why plastic is still the primary source of packaging in production is due to how inexpensive it is to make. “One reason plastic is so dominant is its ability to do more, for less,” Gray said. Most plastic products use less material than environmentally friendly ones do as well, which is another huge economic benefit for companies. Unless we can find a better option than plastic to produce—one that is both ecologically safe and less expensive—plastic will continue to be the number one source for packaging goods and services within business. The problem is we haven’t found a cheaper option—hemp plastic, for example, is 60 to 70 cents per pound to make, about 30 to 40 cents more than regular plastic. Even though switching from plastic to something like hemp or biodegradable plastic is definitely a step in the right direction, most companies and businesses would never make that move because, unfortunately, everything truly is about money within America’s economic system.

 

Should Human Actions Be Taxed?

 

   It’s hard to determine whether or not nature as a whole can truly have a price tag on it, considering how invaluable and precious the natural world is to our survival as a species. The conclusion that I have come to is that the environment cannot be price-tagged, but human actions and the negative effects that they have on the environment can. As stated above, the best solution toward solving the global plastic production crisis is finding an alternative that is both eco-friendly and cheaper. But does that mean we should just wait until that alternative option has been created to finally solve the current pollution problem at hand? Taxing these negative externalities, such as pollution, that have a significant impact on nature will create an economic system that evaluates not only how goods and services are produced, distributed and consumed, but also how these goods and services impact the social and cultural constructions of our daily lives and the level of influence that the American economic market has had on these constructions.

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The Cessation of Democratic Order: How Capitalism is Killing Democracy

It was supposed to be a match made in heaven. Capitalism and democracy, as we’ve been told since we were little, are the only two ideological pillars capable of creating a utopian society that brings about political liberation and economic prosperity to its citizens. Yet today, the belief that if capitalism succeeds so does democracy remains questionable, and in some cases, completely deceiving.

The issue with concluding that capitalism and democracy are intrinsically inseparable from one another is due to the underlying motives between the two. When you analyze the purpose of capitalism and the purpose of democracy, you start to wonder why the United States has pushed the notion that we can’t have one without the other. Capitalisms main goal is to generate profit-orientated trade and an unbalanced distribution of it, whereas democracy strives to diminish hierarchy and develop a government and economy that is beneficial to the people of the nation. According to Wolfgang Merkel, a professor of comparative political science and policy research at Humboldt University, Berlin, the tensions between both capitalism and democracy began during the first postwar decades, due to the “socio-political embedding of capitalism by an interventionist tax and welfare state.” Since then, capitalism has been completely financialized within the U.S.forcing socio-economic inequality to rise and transform into political injustice. This deregulation of markets has left it extremely hard for the United States to govern, and has questioned what the overall objective of the US government actually is: Is the objective to create market freedom that influences and represents the political aims of the United States, or is the objective to create a democracy that’s goal is to institute political freedoms, which, in turn, represents the aim of the U.S. market? As the gap between economic classes continues to widen, it becomes harder and harder to disagree that capitalism and mass consumerism within the United States hasn’t become oligarchic.

Kill or Be Killed

So why has capitalism strengthened within the U.S. while democracy has continued to weaken? According to Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor and professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, “Democracy has become enfeebled largely because companies, in intensifying competition for global consumers and investors, have invested ever greater sums in lobbying, public relations, and even bribes and kickbacks, seeking laws that give them a competitive advantage over their rivals,” This, in turn, results in a race for political influence and power between competing organizations, ultimately oppressing the voice of the average American citizen within the political sphere. And as many corporations continue to write their own rules and regulations, the issue of morality and what’s okay and not okay comes into play.

The problem with allowing these corporations to have any sort of influence on politics or the U.S. economy is the fact that their primary focus is not on what is good for American citizens, but rather what is good for accelerating their company’s profits. “The purpose of democracy is to accomplish ends we cannot achieve as individuals,” Reich said. “But democracy cannot fulfill this role when companies use politics to advance or maintain their competitive standing, or when they appear to take on social responsibilities that they have no real capacity or authority to fulfill.” According to Reich, these corporations who significantly impact U.S. politics leave many communities “unable to address the tradeoffs between economic growth and social problems such as job insecurity, widening inequality and climate change.” As a result, the real issues that are affecting both our nation and our globe inevitably get neglected, while mass consumption and economic disparity continues to manipulate and define our country.

The overall issue with capitalism is that it creates a level of economic inequality and political disparity between American citizens and large corporations. A perfect example of this is the pharmaceutical industry within the United States. Because the U.S. doesn’t regulate drug and supply prices, pharmaceutical companies have the advantage of negotiating contracts directly with hospitals and insurance providers, which in turn determine healthcare costs in the US. Because of this, many Americans are unable to financially support their medical bills and expenses. According to Shawn Carter, a journalist for CNBC’s Make It, 54 percent of Americans delayed medicinal care for themselves in 2018 due to price. Is the amount of economic power that the United States healthcare industry has in part because of the capitalist economic system? The answer remains uncertain.

Enslaved to a “Free” Market?

Free markets were supposed to lead to freer societies. But as you look at the repercussions that America’s capitalist oligarchy has had on its democratic government, it becomes clearer and clearer that the basic fundamentals of capitalism only leads to the corruption and fall of democracy. So is there really a way that the two can coincide peacefully with one another, without one having greater impact on the political sphere? Only history can be the judge of that.

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The Untold Stories of Xinjiang

In George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, he illustrates a society that has fallen victim to infinite warfare, ubiquitous government surveillance and propaganda. Although this fictitious story is merely an insight into the dangerous implications of totalitarianism, the question of whether or not Orwell’s anti-utopian world has become a reality for some seems unfortunately to be the case on both a universal and regional scale, especially for Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, China.

The Uyghur Muslim population in Xinjiang have been detained and sent to concentration camps since the beginning of 2014, when Chinese authorities announced a “People’s War on Terror” campaign in the region. Local government in Xinjiang began to restrict and ban things like long beards, the wearing of veils in public places and naming children after religious entities. Names like Muhammed and Fatima were no longer allowed in the region, with the Chinese government claiming that these regulations were put in place to help fight against terrorism and extremism within the country. Things only got worse when Communist Party leader Chen Quanguo took charge in 2016. Following his arrival, local authorities recruited over 90,000 police officers and laid out approximately 7,300 heavily guarded checkpoints in Xinjiang. This forced the Uyghur Muslim population to go through extensive search and seizuresaccelerating the detainment of Uyghurs to local camps even more than before. Some Uyghurs have even claimed that local Xinjiang officials have put up video surveillance cameras in their homes as a way to watch and observe them on a day-to-day basis. According to a United Nations report, there are at least 1 million ethnic Uyghurs in China currently being held in these “re-education” camps—about 10 percent of their overall population.

Life Inside the Camps

According to Chinese officials, there are three types of students in these re-education facilities: those who have committed minor offenses, such as wearing a burqa or watching an illegal religious video, those who have committed more serious crimes and were given the choice to either attend or go to jail and others who were sent for rehabilitation purposes after a prison sentence. Although there are Uyghurs who are in fact attending these camps for those reasons, many have reported being detained without any charges brought against them. Uyghur politician Rebiya Kadeer, who has been in exile since 2005, has had as many as 30 relatives detained and put into camps, with some of them completely disappearing altogether. There is no clear reason as to why they were taken away, besides their ethnicity.

So what goes on inside the camps? According to facility director Abulizi, detainees are given lessons in Chinese law and Mandarin, and are taught vocational skills, as well. But the underlying motives are quite clear when you take a closer look into what is going on in these centers: China is trying to demolish Muslim and Uyghur culture and force Xinjiang citizens to conform to communist ideologies. “They’re really about crushing, to some degree, the Muslim culture, and getting people to feel much more bonded to the Communist Party than to their own religious beliefs,” said Dennis Wilder, a former National Security Council director for China and former CIA deputy assistant director for East Asia and the Pacific. Uyghur woman Mihrigul Tursun described details of torture and beatings after she escaped one of the camps in Xinjiang. “The authorities put a helmet-like thing on my head, and each time I was electrocuted, my whole body would shake violently and I would feel the pain in my veins,” Tursun said in a statement read by a translator. “I don’t remember the rest. White foam came out of my mouth, and I began to lose consciousness. The last word I heard them saying is that you being an Uyghur is a crime.”

Tursun isn’t the only one who recalls excruciation within these centers. Most detainees who are able to escape the camps claim that they experienced both physical and mental torture whenever they expressed disagreement of communist ideologies. Former inmates said they were “forced to study communist propaganda for hours and give thanks to the general secretary by chanting ‘Long live Xi Jinping.’” Anyone who failed to follow these obligations would receive punishments such as being placed in handcuffs for hours, waterboarding or being strapped to a “tiger chair”a metal contraptionfor long periods of time.

Why This Matters and How to Help

The consequences associated with China detaining Uyghurs goes far beyond the humanitarian implications—it also questions whether or not the rise of authoritarianism will become an increasingly more imperative issue internationally. The apprehension of ethnic Uyghur Muslims is not decreasing anytime soon, especially since there is barely any media coverage or education about the current relationship between them and the People’s Republic of China. The only way that this issue can be solved is if we allow the voices of Xinjiang to be heard by educating the masses about the ongoing problems within the region. Because the longer we allow these concentration camps to go on without their cries being heard, the longer we allow autocracy to shape and create the everyday lives of millions. And just as George Orwell said in his book 1984, “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” We must wake up the masses and allow the voices of Xinjiang to be heard across the globe. Because if not, the oppression and injustice that Uyghur Muslims are facing in China will only get worse, and the rise of totalitarianism will only continue unimpeded.

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