Archive for August 13th, 2010

August 13th, 2010

Pakistan flood challenges compassion fatigue and local politics by Marjorie Arons-Barron

by Tony

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

ABC news calls the Pakistani flooding “the worst floods in memory.” Fourteen million homeless. Six million children affected. Sixteen percent of the country under water due to two weeks of monsoon rains, which have created literally hundreds of lakes, some the size of the state of Delaware.

It’s hard to get one’s mind around the scope of the disaster, and some may not even be inclined to try. After all, the Pakistani government has been duplicitous with us, taking our aid but providing cover to our enemies.

There’s not enough food, medicine, drinkable water, shelter, relief workers. The United States has pledged $71 million, and the United Nations has pledged to round up $459 million in emergency aid. Meanwhile, the militant Islamists damn foreign aid as a tool of subjugation. And the corrupt Pakistani government, which has failed to move proactively to build dams to combat previous monsoons, is failing again to meet the current challenge, in effect ceding the game to terrorist groups who will use the opportunity to win the hearts and minds of struggling disaster victims in the water-logged nation. If the government doesn’t serve the people and extremist charities use, asAsia Pacific News put it, “soft power” to win over disaster victims, it will ratchet up the attraction of extremist groups in this nuclear nation, and we will all be the worse for it.

The Christian Science Monitor raises the specter that the failure of local government to help in the tragedy will wreck the possibility of meaningful democratic government in Pakistan.
Providing aid to Pakistan is far more complicated than providing aid to Haiti, where at least the sometimes disjointed NGO’s were not fighting each other militarily or even Indonesia after the tsunami where the Aceh Islamic separatists worked cooperatively with international aid groups.

Recent stories by National Public Radio have highlighted this complexity in Pakistan. Take for example the Swat Valley, “where residents were still trying to recover from a major battle between Taliban militants and the army last spring that caused widespread destruction and drove nearly 2 million people from their homes.” The floods are piling misery upon misery in an unspeakable way.
Family friend Daniel Holmberg, is originally from Newton. A relief worker for some 20 years, he now heads the Pakistan mission for NGOAction Against Hunger (ACF). He worries that the international reaction may be nowhere what is needed because individual donors just move from one disaster to another. This, though the Pakistan disaster is said to eclipse the 2004 Tsunami and the Haiti earthquake put together, in terms of the number of people made homeless.

In an interview in France24 , Dan said, “Certain disasters such as the Haiti earthquake captured world attention. It is difficult to gauge the media coverage of the flooding, and I hope that Pakistan’s global image right now will not prejudice its people’s desperate needs.”
PIC
Dan sent the photos shown in this posting, which appeared in the Guardian. This young man has run relief operations in the worst hell-holes in the world, in wartime Iraq, in the Sudan. There is an air of frustration and urgency in his tone that should spur others to action.

It is very clear that if well-intentioned governments and institutions don’t respond, militant Islamists used to relying on terror to cow populations will step in to fill the void and use the opportunity to sow dissension for generations to come.

- Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below

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August 13th, 2010

Ed LeLacheur’s first election

by DickH

Long-time Lowell State Rep Ed LeLacheur passed away this week. He was first elected in a special election held in 1975 to fill the vacancy created when Ray Rourke resigned from the House to become the Deputy Secretary of Transportation. The House district at the time included Lowell Wards 10 and 11; Ward 2, Precinct 1; and Ward 4, Precincts 1, 2 and 4. The Democratic Primary was held on November 18, 1975. Here are the results (unless otherwise indicated, all candidates are from Lowell):

  1. Ed LeLacheur – 1525
  2. Tom Machado – 921
  3. John McNulty (Chelmsford) – 712
  4. Francis Gendreau – 406
  5. Thomas Dougherty – 366
  6. Gerald Mahoney – 231
  7. Stephen Hartigan – 181
  8. Tony Medeiros (Chelmsford) – 125
  9. Mary Gath Murphy – 120
  10. George Pilato – 89
  11. Daniel Reynolds – 51

The Republicans had no candidate, but there was an Independent named John Burgoyne whom LeLacheur defeated in the December 16, 1975 special general election, 1983 votes to 303.

CategoryHistory | CommentNo Comments »

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August 13th, 2010

Restaurant Showcase Week

by DickH

The second annual Merrimack Valley Restaurant Showcase Week presented by the Greater Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau continues through this Sunday. Information about the great deals available and a list of participating restaurants are available on the CVB website.

Nancye Tuttle took advantage of Restaurant Showcase Week to dine at Cobblestones earlier this week. Here’s what she wrote about that experience on her blog, Nancye’s World:

Had lunch yesterday at Cobblestone’s and indulged in a luscious fisherman’s stew, a generous bowl filled with shrimp, mussels, salmon, haddock and more in a rich, carrot and tomato-infused broth.It reminded me of some of the best bouillabaisse I’ve ever enjoyed. The dish usually goes for $18.99 on the regular menu, but through Sunday you can enjoy it, along with an appetizer and dessert (yummy creme brule) for $12.10. What a deal! It’s all part of Restaurant Showcase Week, sponsored by the Greater Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau. Nearly 20 restaurants are participating, the food is great and you can’t beat the price. Enjoy!

CategoryCurrent Events | CommentNo Comments »

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August 13th, 2010

Flashback Friday: Paul Sullivan

by DickH

Paul Sullivan

Each Friday, I try to post a photo from Lowell politics past. Here’s a picture of the late Paul Sullivan inside the Lowell City Council chamber on Inauguration Day sometime in the late 1990s. During his life, Paul was a force in Lowell and Massachusetts politics, serving as the host of WLLH’s “Morning Magazine”, as a columnist and editor at the Lowell Sun, as a panelist on WCVB’s “Five on Five” program, and as the evening host on WBZ radio. Paul died on September 9, 2007.

CategoryHistory | Comment2 Comments »

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August 13th, 2010

Massachusetts Scores High in Top College Rankings

by Marie

Five of the twelve top colleges in the most recent rankings by Forbes Magazine – including the highest ranking – are located in Massachusetts. These institutions are: Williams College (1), Amherst College (3), Massachusetts  Institute of Technology (5), Harvard University (8) and Wellesley College (12). Here are the top twelve:

Rank Name State Cost Total Student Population
1 Williams College MA 49,530 2,072
2 Princeton University NJ 49,830 7,330
3 Amherst College MA 50,230 1,697
4 United States Military Academy NY 0 4,553
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology MA 50,100 10,299
6 Stanford University CA 51,760 17,833
7 Swarthmore College PA 50,381 1,490
8 Harvard University MA 50,250 26,496
9 Claremont McKenna College CA 50,990 1,212
10 Yale University CT 51,400 10,192
11 United States Air Force Academy CO 0 4,537
12 Wellesley College MA 50,026 2,498

Check out the methods used for ranking the colleges here and look at the full list of “America’s Best Colleges” here at Forbes.com.

CategoryCulture, Current Events, Education | CommentNo Comments »

August 13th, 2010

Net Neutrality in Danger

by Tony
Its time for the public to wake up and start fighting for the concept of Net Neutrality.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…

That’s how the country’s most sacred document, the “Declaration of Independence” reads.

Unfortunately, the time has come when we need a similar statement protecting the Internet…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all “information” is created equal and should be treated as such.
Call the document “The Declaration of Net Neutrality”.

I don’t mean to be melodramatic but I believe a monumental, intellectual challenge looms ahead concerning the flow of information on the Internet. At risk is the concept of Net Neutrality or “equality” of information.

Last week Google and Verizon struck a deal to create a system where “some information is more equal than other” (excuse the Orwellian reference). In other words the agreement between Verizon and Google would allow certain pieces of information to travel to an Internet user faster IF its creator “pays a higher fee”. This agreement threatens to destroy Net Neutrality.

Check out this quote from web guru Tim Berners-Lee:

Control of information is hugely powerful. In the US, the threat is that companies can control what I access for commercial reasons. In China, companies could control what users access for political reasons. Freedom of connection with any application to any party is the fundamental social basis of the Internet.

Bravo Tim! You’ve stated the dangers of eliminating Net Neutrality perfectly.

YES even without Net Neutrality you WILL still have access to all information, but premium providers (those are the ones that pay a fee) will send their information to you faster, hence influencing where you go to get information.

Look at it this way…lets say you are heading out to eat with your wife. You pull into a restaurant and the hostess tells you the wait is 45 minutes…you’re too hungry to wait 45 minutes so you get back in the car and drive across the street to another restaurant…the wait there is only 5 minutes. Where do you eat? Its a no brainer…you eat where the food is provided faster.

Think this is a stretch? Ask yourself…how many times have you “X” out of a site because it was taking too long to load…see, I’m right.

But there is still hope that the federal government will step in and void this dangerous agreement between Google and Verizon preserving the idea of equality…as it did back in 1776.

CategoryCurrent Events, Science, Uncategorized | Comment1 Comment »

August 13th, 2010

‘Lowell’s Irish Micky Ward’ by Tom Sexton

by PaulM

The recent posts about digging for Irish roots in the Acre and Hollywood gossip about the Ward movie “The Fighter” reminded me of Tom Sexton’s poem from his book “A Clock With No Hands.”—PM

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Lowell’s Irish Micky Ward

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Round 2. Ward’s left eye is already cut,

but he keeps moving toward Arturo Gatti.

My wife’s gone to bed and turned out the light.

Gatti’s left hook sounds like a thunderclap.

I haven’t watched a fight in many years,

not since I moved away from Lowell.

A Celtic Cross glistens on Ward’s shoulder.

I wince as he shakes off blow after blow.

He has my uncle Leo’s fighter’s face,

with features almost as flat as a stone.

Staggered by a right, he picks up the pace.

I want to see a hurt Gatti go down.

They fight to a draw. Closed eye for closed eye.

I go to bed shamefaced and stubbornly tribal.

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—Tom Sexton (c) 2007

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Web photo courtesy of espncdn.com

CategoryCulture, History, Lowell, Poetry | CommentNo Comments »

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