Running the Poor Out of Philly’s Parks

Posted on October 29, 2007
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We have only an Associated Press story to go on here, and it may well be incomplete. But the version in the Lebanon Daily News (of Lebanon, Pa.) reports that Philadelphia counted 621 people sleeping overnight on its streets downtown recently. (The Pocono Record has a fuller version.) This, AP reports, is the highest street homeless number in in 10 years, and more than double the number three years ago.

What is the City of Brotherly Love doing about the growing number of homeless people on its streets? Well, AP advises, it’s acknowledging the “pressure from downtown interests” and looking for ways legally to forbid people from sleeping on the streets or in city parks.

“A provision in the charter of the city’s parks commission bans camping from 1 to 6 a.m. Lawyers are reviewing whether Philadelphia could apply such a rule to the homeless population in parks,” AP reports.

The longer (Pocono Record) version of the story quotes Dainette Mintz, Philadelphia’s deputy managing director in charge of homeless services, as saying, “We want to look at all possible options before we come to that.” One would hope so.

People who “camp,” one would think, have that choice. People who sleep on the streets or in parks likely have no other choice. Instead of viewing the homeless of Philadelphia and other cities as possibly the leading edging of an economic downtown, or worse, Philadelphia seems to be seeking to legislate them out of existence. Again, we have only a short AP story on this, but that’s the impression it leaves.

Perhaps not coincidentally, a story on Harrisburg, Pa., television this evening reported that an area food bank has been having a run on its shelves because, a spokeswoman said, growing numbers of people can’t afford their rent and utility bills and enough food as well. Are there portents in these two situations?

That’s something Philadelphia, Harrisburg and the nation should be concerned about.

‘Tacos’ According to Taco Bell

Posted on October 16, 2007
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You no doubt know the old saw about “selling ice to Eskimos.” Well, selling tacos to Mexicans is another illustration of the difficulty that American culture, personified in this instance by Taco Bell, has in relating to other cultures.

Taco Bell is part of Yum Foods, based in Louisville, Ky. It’s trying again (after a 15-year lapse) to sell tacos in Mexico. Only there it’s not calling them tacos, but “tacostadas,” a concocted word that’s necessary because, to Mexicans, Taco Bell’s tacos aren’t really tacos.

“Taco Bell,” says an Associated Press story on this engrossing subject, “has taken pains to say that it’s not trying to masquerade as a Mexican tradition. One look alone is enough to tell that Taco Bell is not a ‘taqueria’,” the company said in a half-page newspaper ad. “It is a new-fast-food alternative that does not pretend to be Mexican food.”

Apparently, that’s just what Taco Bell has been doing in the U.S. all these years – pretending to be Mexican food. Yet it has been perfectly happy to have Americans think they’ve been getting the genuine Mexican article. After all, they’ve been sold under those mission bells.

What’s more likely the case is that anything an American company says is representing a foreign culture may be only a U.S. version of the item – which doesn’t matter, does it, as long as it sells?

There’s more than a little effrontery here, which doesn’t serve U.S. interests well on either side of a border.

Inner Awareness of Others

Posted on October 11, 2007
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Consciousness is a “deep“ phenomenon, expressed at multiple points throughout the brain. People diagnosed as vegetative have more consciousness, interior awareness, than thought, an article in The New Yorker, ”Silent Minds,“ by Jerome Groopman, discloses. Some parts of the brain can be functioning while others are not. The article suggests that we can affect awareness at levels we may not be mindful of, or aware of, that simply don’t occur to us.

That means that as managers approach workplaces, they (he or she) need to do so intentionally, with an ”other-focus,“ clear aims, empathy and a willingness to listen.

You never know what impression you will be making on people at levels that will ”type“ you later on. Give people every chance to get an open, relational impression of you. Involve them in a joint enterprise.

401(k) Plans Shortchanging Retirements

Posted on October 8, 2007
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A time bomb is threatening American households, and perhaps the American polity itself: Many of today’s workers aren’t likely to have comfortable retirements because 401(k) plans aren’t going to provide them.

Half of employees contributing to a 401(k) plan are not setting aside enough money for a comfortable retirement, according to a survey of the plans released recently. The survey was conducted by Cowden Associates Inc., a Pittsburgh-based actuarial and employee-benefit consulting firm.

Employers who participated in the Tri-State 401(k) Plan Sponsor Survey reported that 50 percent of their employees defer an average of 5 percent to 6 percent of their pay; experts recommend a 10 percent savings rate. Other highlights of the survey:

• Fewer than 25 percent of employers automatically enroll employees in their 401(k) plans;

• 35 percent change investment options every two to five years; and

• 97 percent feel they are meeting their fiduciary responsibilities.

More than 100 employers from Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia participated in the survey.

401(k) plans are eclipsing employer-provided pension plans as the prime source of retirement savings beyond Social Security. But they put more weight on employees to insure the adequacy of their retirement incomes, a responsibility that many people aren’t equipped or inclined to carry out. Without pensions, there will be a startling level of awareness as retirement arrives for an increasing number of Americans – one that could be highly disruptive.

Anthropologists Helping U.S. Forces Listen

Posted on October 5, 2007
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So much that is wrong with America’s presence in Iraq and Afghanistan involves our intability to relate well to the people and the cultural settings we are trying to “liberate”. That makes it good news that the U.S. Army is embedding anthropoligists with its combat forces to help troops understand local situations and connect with local leaders.

The New York Times quotes an 82 Airborne Division commander in Afghanistan’s Shabak Valley as saying that his unit’s combat operations have been reduced by 60 percent since the scientists arrived in February, “and that the soldiers were now able to focus more on improving security, health care and education for the population.”

How can that be counted as anything but a helpful development? The U.S. military is showing concern for what people are actually feeling and trying to understand their perceptions and needs. Right on!

Yet some stateside anthropoligists fear that the program is making scientists tools of the military. The Times reports that Hugh Gusterson, an anthropology professor at George Mason University, and 10 colleagues “are circulating an online pledge calling for anthropolgists to boycott the field teams, especially in Iraq.

The campus critics see the embedded scientists as contributing “to a brutal war of occupation which has entailed massive casualties.”

Likely, though, the invasion of Iraq – wrongheaded as it has been – wouldn’t have been so appalling in its consequences if far more attention had been paid to understanding Iraqi sensibilities from the beginning, including why Iraq’s National Musuem should have been protected from looters at the start.

A president who scorned “nation building” in campaigning for office championed building an Iraqi nation without understanding the great importance of encountering respectfully and successfully the culture of the people the U.S. was supposedly trying to help. That was arrogance, not aptitude.

Now Defense Secretary Gates and the military appear to understand that Iraq and Afghanistan aren’t campaigns so much as confrontations with cultural outlooks and priorities that are different from ours. Communication has been attempted with an appalling amount of intervening “noise”. If we’re truly starting to listen with the help of hardy anthropologists who are connecting with people rather than confronting them, that should be applauded. Greater understanding of everyone’s aims and needs is likely to be gained. And that’s the most important kind of factor that can be imagined on a cultural battlefield.

We’re finally trying to experience what it’s like to be invaded by an alien Army – ours.

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