Consequences of Crossing Red Lines

Bashar al-Assad has crossed the red line not once but several times since the Syrian uprising began almost three years ago. Every time it happened, America threatened to take action but did nothing, emboldening Assad to continue his genocide.

Now the “ultimate” moment of truth has arrived for both the United States and Syria. There is unmistakable evidence that Assad's forces used nerve gas in August to kill more than 1,400 Syrians, including at least 426 children, in attacks on the outskirts of Damascus.

President Obama has no choice but to take action because American credibility is at stake. It came as a surprise to many last week when, at the last moment, he delayed the attack on Syria to gain Congressional approval for his order. It was a diplomatic and tactical move but perhaps not a strategic one.

Although he faces considerable opposition in Congress, Obama will get his authorization for the attack. In spite of the setbacks he has suffered as president, at critical moments Obama has proved to be extraordinarily lucky. There is no doubt that he will be "lucky" this time as well.

For Assad, buoyed by the false assurances of Russia, there is also no turning back. He knows it’s a do or die situation for him. Either call America’s bluff or prepare to take up residence in a Russian dacha, unless, of course, the rebels get to him first and he goes the way of Libya’s Gadhafi.

The critical question is: what happens after the tomahawks fall on selected targets in Syria and the playing field between Assad's forces and the rebels is leveled?

Since America will not put boots on the ground and certainly has no stomach for a drawn-out war as in Afghanistan and Iraq, a flurry of diplomatic moves will ensue. 

Russia, as always, will try to save face by “convincing” Assad that he must give up power and leave the country. Once that happens, America and Russia will use the United Nations to call for a truce between the rebels and Assad’s forces. Inevitably, power will flow to the rebels but since there is no unity among rebel factions, chaos, bordering on catastrophe, may follow. The nihilistic Al-Qaida faction will try to sabotage any peaceful negotiations. The Sunni-Alawite clash may degenerate into an all-out and unending civil war.

From any perspective, the possibility of a stable Syria, at least in the near future, is dim. Yet America must act because the price of inaction is incalculable. America alone has the power and the moral obligation to punish a regime that used Sarin nerve gas on its own people. Everyone in the Syrian government involved in the decision to use chemical weapons must face the music before the International Criminal Court in Hague.

“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,/The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere/The ceremony of innocence is drowned;/The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity.

Who would like to live in a world like that?

Yes, America has acted on its imperialistic impulses and brought untold sorrow to millions. It has committed atrocities at home and abroad. But in the case of Syria, America cannot afford to wallow in its mistakes and misbegotten wars. No dictator, tinhorn or otherwise, can be allowed to get away with crimes like the ones that Assad has committed. America alone can right this wrong.

Syria will eventually find its way. Syrians will learn to live with one another in spite of their differences. And one day perhaps they will break free of their tortured past when 'hope and history rhyme.'

It's the Teacher that Makes the Difference

(Every year, foundations, think tanks and various other organizations produce lengthy papers detailing what‘s wrong with the state of education in our public schools and colleges, and what can be done to improve it. Yet nothing happens. Billions of dollars are spent on technology but the scores don't budge, and the same (if not more) percentage of students continue to drop out of school or take forever to graduate. The tomes that the educators and the educational-industrial complex produce to rectify public education have one thing in common: they never reflect what the students themselves think! It is as if they are convinced that students aren’t capable of analyzing what’s wrong with education, yet the pundits are full of suggestions as to how to foster critical thinking among them. The paradox is obvious to all except to the tome producers!

This is the first of a series on what students think is wrong with our educational system and the meaningful and practical steps that can be taken to improve it.)

Kathy had been falling behind in her classes since elementary school and enrolled in special needs level for almost all subjects, after being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. These special programs consisted of about ten to fifteen students and were very hands-on. Teachers could give the needed attention and because of this, Kathy back to normal grade level. But as a full-time community college student, she is frustrated because it is so hard to enroll in core classes. They fill up quickly, yet halfway through the semester, half the class drops out! These students take up spots that could have gone to more serious students. As a result, these students are forced to delay their academic schedule and transfer to 4-year colleges much later. “I strongly believe there should be a policy to prevent this from happening, such as putting a limit on how many times a person can drop a class or even putting people on hold for a semester because they failed to pass classes, instead of letting them take them over a thousand times and taking up a spot that a some else desperately needs.”

For Kaz, the lack of qualified and inspiring teachers is the greatest hindrance to a good education. “Sometime we come across a teacher who influences us, pushes us, shows us how great we can be, and inspires us. But in the public school system, the sad truth is that such teachers are hard to find. For whatever reason, it may be money or housing or transportation, public school systems do not attract outstanding teachers. And due to the judgmental, critical outlook that students have for teachers, all it takes is the first day for a student to dislike a teacher. Yet I believe that the student-teacher relationship is one of the most important and overlooked factors in education.” In Kaz’s experience, teachers make all the difference. “I am motivated to try hard if he thinks assignments handed out by teachers deserve my time and effort. If I see that the teacher is lazy about lectures, assignments, grading, et cetera, then I see no reason not to be lazy myself when completing assignments. On the other hand, on the rare occasions when I come across a teacher who inspires me, I try harder not to disappoint someone who puts in so much time, effort, and emotion into his or her students. My freshman English teacher in high school was a man who greatly influenced me. Today I see him as a mentor, someone who I can go to with my problems or talk on a personal level. Good teachers are the key to a good education. Unfortunately, in a community college with less funding and less motivated students, they are harder to come by. The key is to encourage teachers to form a strong student-teacher relationship from day one, starting with addressing students by first name and speaking a little bit about his or her personal life, so that the students know that their teacher is a human being. If teachers can do a better job and form healthy mentoring relationships with their students, high schools and community colleges would be much improved.”

Maddi has gone to public schools her entire life, from kindergarten to senior year of high school. The downside she found in her high school was the unhealthy competition among students, with little or no care for each other. Everyone seems determined to go to Harvard or Stanford at any cost. While she found the teachers genuinely caring and passionate about their subjects, the students acted as if the GPA was the only yardstick by which to measure a life. They were ruthless about teachers they didn’t like. In fact, in her school, a math teacher committed suicide because of the ridiculed he faced from his students. For Maddi, what is lacking in public schools is compassion among students. That is why she feels strongly that, along with algebra and history and literature, a subject on ethics and compassion and kindness, combined with community service, must become a part of the core curriculum. “What is the point of being smart by the book if you fail as a human being? Education is not just about GPA but also about learning how to lead meaningful lives.”

For Christy, current educational reforms focus on the wrong elements. Instead of investing in expensive, state-of-the-art technology, which she thinks actually distances a teacher from students, teachers should focus more on motivating their students through challenges tempered by kindness. Teachers should design their curriculum so that learning becomes a joyful experience, instead of being a chore or a mechanical process. Trying to craft a perfect educational system is a waste of time. If teachers use simple tools, such as using card games to master the periodic table, for instance, education can improve by leaps and bounds.

Educational think tanks and foundations may believe they are helping students but they are only hurting them by making them angry and frustrated to the point that students don’t feel education is important anymore. This is Roshmita’s strongly-felt opinion. She feels that educational foundations are making a fool of themselves by offering pie-in-the-sky suggestions for improving our educational standards, whether it is more technology or investor-funded online classes. Educational software is no solution. What Roshmita finds lacking from her own experience is that students who need extra help must have someone to show them how to master concepts and solve problems, instead of asking them to fend for themselves with web-assigned homework.

Stephanie is concerned about the poor pay of teachers in America. No matter what high-sounding suggestions may come from educators, unless teachers are paid at the same level as engineers and lawyers and doctors, as they are in Finland and Singapore, educational progress will be hard to come by. Also, in America, teachers are hardly respected. Additionally, tuition increase and shortening of the school year in which students are expected to learn the same extensive material in less time are two reasons why they are dropping out in large numbers. Students cannot be at their best when the pressure on them keeps increasing daily. Online classes take the pressure off a bit but their quality must improve significantly for more students to sign up for online classes. Finally, teachers must step up to the plate as well. If students are convinced that a teacher is genuinely interested in their success, they will perform better. Teachers should constantly seek feedback from students to adjust and improve their method of teaching and make it more relevant and interesting.

As Oscar sees it, times have changed but our educational system hasn’t, other than some cosmetic changes here and there. We are still applying the same 19^th-century model in the 21^st-century. “We not only seek different skill sets in the professional world, our nation’s population has also changed drastically. Many of the jobs that used to be well-paying and in abundance have now been made obsolete by modern technologies. Our colleges still offer many courses that have no benefit for career. We really need to change our whole system of education because the current one was simply not designed for today's world. The suggestions for change can come from teachers and educators but the most important ones can come only from students themselves. That’s what we should do: Create a national project lasting 6 months to a year and get opinions from students all over the country to improve our educational system. Only real data from the field, that is, from students, can show us the way.”

For Brandon, as for Kaz, it’s not technology or different forms of classes that makes the difference but the teacher. “Even the most boring material can be fun and engaging with a good teacher.  I pick teachers, not classes, when I sign up for classes. What frustrates me most is that there are a lot of bad teachers in our schools and colleges. That really has a devastating effect on students. The damage can last for years, if not a lifetime. So the first step to improving our educational system and student success is for schools to find the best teachers possible.”

Making Summer Hang Around Longer

Just the other day in June we marked Summer Solstice and the First Day of Summer but already, with August having made its insidious appearance, we are preparing to bid summer goodbye. “Back-To-School” ads are all over the place, touting everything from crayon packs and pourable glue to 2-hole manual pencil sharpener and 2-ply facial tissue pocket pack. Most of the products have “scholastic” added in front of their labels, although it is anybody’s guess how a glue, other than being sticky, can also be scholastic.

How can this be? How can summer come and go so blindingly fast? It’s not fair. So here’s a list of things we can do to make summer stay longer, or at least linger, until we have repaired our body and soul from too much work, worry, stress and the unbearable irony of, well, life.

1. It all depends on the kids, really. Refuse to go to school until the second week of September. Easier said than done, you say? Maybe but it’s not as difficult as you think. Contrary to what they may say in public, teachers (the tenured ones anyway) will be delirious with joy if they don’t have to see their unruly, screaming wards until two or three weeks later than usual. The real problem is with the parents who had been praying for schools to reopen right after Independence Day celebrations. How to convince the parents? Simple. Start doing chores around the house with a single-mindedness that borders on the creepy. Do the dishes and then do the same dishes again. Do the laundry. Clean the kitchen and the bathrooms and the garage until they glow like fireflies. Haul out the garbage and if there is no more garbage to haul out, create some. In short, astound your parents with your conscience. They will hold you tight and not let you go until they must because it is September 15.

2. Fill up the hummingbird feeders with nectar. In a magical, mystical way, if hummingbirds linger, so will summer.

3. Drag the parents and the family cat to the local park and make them feed the ducks or the squirrels. If there are no ducks or squirrels, do some jumping jacks with the cat and wow everyone around with feline and human dexterity, even if a few scolds threaten to call the police for something about being a public nuisance. What’s summer if it isn’t also a little subversive?

4. Improve your vocabulary by memorizing a long word (at least ten letters) for each of the 26 alphabets in the English language. Use them at family meal times (all 11 meals per day must be with at least one member of the family) until mom and dad are convinced that sending a budding Brown (Dan) or Bellow (Saul) to school (that nips any talent in the bud anyway) too early will be criminal.

5. Talking about eating, be sure to include in your menu blueberries, green bananas, yogurt sprinkled with tiny heirloom tomato slices, carrots dipped in hummus, and the occasional partially-cooked eel. No parent will have the heart to replace this super-healthy food habit with what passes for food in the school cafeteria, until they must, starting September 15.

6. Swimming. Ah yes, swimming. What’s summer without swimming? Whether it’s in the ocean or the neighborhood creek, don’t begin your swimming adventure before the third week of August. Dangle the prospect of an Olympic medal before mom and dad. Although you come close to drowning more than once, you convince them that you are the next Missy Franklin or Michael Phelps. Even if your ability in water isn’t persuasive, your contagious enthusiasm is. Surely it is out of question, particularly since you are not drowning anymore, to return to school before September 15, yes?

7. The starry nights of summer are enlivened by the thrilling sight of shooting stars. With mom and dad, you marvel at the celestial objects streaking across the sky one warm and late August night. As you start naming the various meteor showers and the constellation they spring from, your dad tells you that unless you shut up, he is going indoors. You become silent and hug him and tell him astronomy is in your blood and if only you can hone your expertise for just three more weeks, unencumbered by homework and tests, you can become another Tycho Brahe. Tyke who? he asks, alarmed. You sigh. Dad is embarrassed. Alright, he says, alright, but if your grades don’t move north by Novemmber, all bets are off.

8. For the rest of us, start reading the Collected Works of William Shakespeare and the Collected Prose of Woody Allen, alternating between the two. Othello followed by Without Feathers. Midsummer Night’s Dream followed by Play It Again, Sam. Once you are done, pick up “Remembrance of Things Past” by Marcel Proust but stop when you come to the part about madeline and memory. Thereafter, simply indulge in madelines until your memory turns upside down and you begin to see dead people. Even if time doesn’t stand still, you will find that it has started to crawl. And that will be enough to add a few more weeks to summer.

Summer was always meant to stay longer than it does, at least in these frenetic times. Unlike the weather, however, we can do something about it. The list is limited only by the imagination. And isn’t summer the season of imagination?

Narrowing the Education Gap

While soaring income inequality in America receives intense media attention, the widening achievement gap among students does not. But that is changing. Several recent reports focus on the educational inequality between rich and poor kids in America. One recent report paints a grim picture of this disparity and the threat it poses to America’s democratic ideals.

What do college students think? After all, they are the ones experiencing this unsettling trend. They are the ones being forced to brace for a future that appears bleaker by the semester.

Amy is keenly aware of the widening educational inequality in America. She grew up in a low-income home with parents who worked full-time. She chose community college because that was her only realistic option. Applying to Stanford or Harvard was never an option. Currently she works as a nanny for a wealthy family. “Their seven-year-old son attends a local private school with a yearly tuition of twenty thousand dollars. He attends math camps, science fairs, music classes and many other educational programs that foster learning and curiosity. Harvard and Stanford are within his easy reach.” Amy wants the government to create programs for underprivileged children. When the economy is bad, it is education and the children who suffer the most. In Philadelphia alone, for instance, 3,000 teachers recently lost their jobs. Private donors can do just so much. Unless the government focuses on improving the education of children from under-served areas, the gap will continue to widen.

Yvonne sees the educational gap widening at an alarming rate between rich and poor kids. Students aren’t graduating from high schools and colleges compared to baby boomers. “One radical way I would solve the educational inequality would be to eliminate private and independent magnet and charter schools and make one main type of schooling with just two other options: homeschooling and parochial schools. Currently, the rich have access to the top schools because they know how the system works and how to control it. I started out at the bottom but I learned to be mentally strong at school. I also learned how important it was to work hard and get a good education to move ahead in life. It is what they say: knowledge is indeed power.”

Krithika sees the growing educational inequality as a crippling problem for America. “It’s a vicious cycle: people without college degrees cannot get jobs so they fall behind even more. The middle class is disappearing. Without a solid middle class, no nation can progress. One way education inequality can be eliminated is if the distribution of tax funds for public education is done by the state or federal government instead of individual counties, so that these funds can be equally distributed to all public schools and community colleges. Another solution would be for state or federal government to allocate more money for public education instead of forcing budget cuts. This money could be obtained if the United States would restrict its overseas involvement in other nations, by avoiding expensive foreign wars and using that money to enrich the lives of Americans.”

Cabot has always been aware of the two very different educational stories in America. The wealthiest families can provide top quality education for their children, while the majority of the lower class cannot. Students in high-poverty areas do not have access to quality curricula, technology and qualified teachers. What makes the situation worse is that minority students with the same test scores as Whites or Asian students are less likely to be placed in accelerated courses and more likely to be placed in lower or remedial academic courses. Cabot feels that America should study and evaluate educational systems in countries like Finland and Singapore that consistently rank high in international evaluations. “America’s educational system has drifted away from teaching students how to reason and think, replacing it with rote learning. This must change.”

While Andrea agrees that education is becoming increasingly unequal in America, she doesn’t think it is because the government doesn’t spend enough money. The problem is that the money is not spent wisely. “There needs to be a better system for low-income schools. They need to spend money on tutors for the kids who struggle in class. There should also be more after-school activities for poor kids, something wealthy kids have. The wealthy are already set up for success. As a country, we need to provide these resources to the middle class and the poor as well.”

Shannon grew up in the Evergreen area of San Jose where families are generally upper-middle-class or higher. At Evergreen Valley High School, one of the top schools in the area, the test scores are ranked very high compared to other schools in San Jose, suggesting that students from richer families have higher-quality education. As Shannon sees it, a big part of the reason why low-income students do not acquire higher education is because their home environment detracts their focus from school. “These students have to worry about the dangers in their neighborhood. Often, their parents aren’t good role models. The parents may not even know how to properly communicate with their kids. Rich kids have more money because some of it comes from local property taxes. To generate money to support poor communities, the government should raise state and federal taxes on rich peoples’ incomes and allocate that to poorer communities. Such funds can be used to create mandatory parenting sessions for low-income parents. Any parent with at least one child in school must attend these sessions that will teach them how to provide a good home environment so that their children can perform to the best of their abilities.” The second solution Shannon proposes relates to moving teachers around. “Wealthier schools often have more effective teachers. Moving good and proven teachers around, even if for a semester or two, can motivate poor and under-performing students to excel.”

According to Keenan, it is not just money that explains the growing educational gap in America. Drive and passion are as important. Students who do well in school are those who take an active interest in what they are learning. This doesn’t come from money. It comes from how fascinated they are with what they are learning. A good teacher can make a big difference, of course, but ultimately it is up to the student. Although some schools do not have the latest technology and the best teachers, a student from such a school can use the Internet in libraries to acquire knowledge. Many of the great discoveries in almost all branches of knowledge came from students whose families were dirt poor but whose hunger to know and discover knew no bounds.

Rachel was surprised to learn that the “United States has the highest college dropout rate in the developed world.” However, she finds the comparison between today’s students and the baby boomers misleading. In the 50’s and 60’s a college education was not a requirement for landing a decent and well-paid job. Students who had no aptitude for higher studies could pursue full-time work right after high school. Not anymore. Students who don’t want to go to college or who aren’t ready for a college education are forced into something they are ill prepared for. It is this factor that explains the dismal state of education in America today. The solution is to create varieties of jobs that can absorb people with varying interests and skills. “That way, people who are more interested in blue collar work are able to get a good job without competing for positions requiring a college degree. “

Andrew is convinced that if the government stops offering financial favors to the wealthy and pursues a more ethical and equitable policy, the educational gap will shrink considerably.

The most practical solution to narrow the educational gap in America is to change the way schools are funded. As Michael sees it, school funding should be controlled at the federal and state level, and it should be based on the parents’ income. This will allow poorer schools to acquire the resources they need to give their students quality education. Michael has seen firsthand the disparity in education in different neighborhoods in San Jose, where he lives. In the well-funded elementary school in his neighborhood, the teachers are among the best, with access to the latest technologies. The school benefits from property tax measures that the wealthier parents can afford. In contrast, in East San Jose, where poor neighborhoods abound, the schools barely function. If the government creates a more humane funding program, there will be less educational gap between students.

Brandon feels that the rich are used as scapegoats in too many debates in America. Sure, part of the gap in education can be attributed to the unequal distribution of wealth, but anyone focused and willing to work hard can get a great education. His parents came from low-income families but both were determined to advance their careers through education and they both did, graduating from a California State University. The real issue is whether or not parents are interested in the education of their children. If they are, their children will find a way. The contrast can be seen with rich but unmotivated kids who go nowhere with their lives.

For Krish, eliminating educational inequalities can, to a large extent, be achieved by providing free preschool education to low-income children. Countries that provide early education for children have been more successful than other countries in raising achievement levels. A barrier to achieving equality is that American colleges are becoming prohibitively expensive. Many students have an extremely difficult time paying for college tuition. Even public colleges and universities such as the University of California, California State, and California community colleges have had one fee increase after another. “The cost of higher education is increasing at a far higher rate than the cost of other goods and services. If we agree that the community benefits from well-educated youth, then the government must prove so through increased funding. I have relatives in France who went to college there at a very low cost. Many universities in countries such as France are either free or have lower costs and are heavily subsidized by the government. To ensure equal access to all students, public colleges and universities should waive tuition for low income students, while the wealthy students could pay more. If tax payers are expected to support secondary schools because of the benefit to society, the same argument can be made for subsidized college education.”

Brett sees investing in teachers as a powerful way toward ensuring equal educational opportunity for all students. Schools and colleges need to hire qualified and inspirational teachers who can make subjects come alive for students. If the class is interesting, more students will be motivated to go to schools and appreciate the education they are receiving. Students must also recognize the value of a good education. “My mom made it clear to me at an early age that working hard in school will only benefit me in the future. She made sure I did my homework. She laid the foundation for the student I am today. I know that not every student in the country has the same support that I have. For this reason schools should implement various educational and recreational programs for those who don’t receive enough support at home. This will create a drive within the students to succeed in school and allow them to strive for a successful future.”

Egypt's Unfinished Revolution

That seems to be the verdict of the majority of Egyptians at the fall of Mohamed Morsi, the first democratically-elected president of Egypt a year ago.

Although the country is in a state of flux and the future remains uncertain, two lessons stand out from the fall of Morsi.

First, democracy in name only cannot be a substitute for the rule of law and the welfare of the people. Morsi rode the wave of support ordinary Egyptians extended to the long-repressed Muslim Brotherhood after the tyranny of Hosni Mubarak. But he turned out to be another Mubarak in disguise, authoritarian, intolerant, incompetent, given to blatant cronyism and oblivious to the sufferings of Egyptians. As the opposition, Muslim Brotherhood did well in providing public services where the state failed. (We must acknowledge that the Brotherhood is the most successful Non-Governmental Organization in Arab history). As the party in power, however, it focused exclusively in solidifying its control through paranoia (ratcheting up blasphemy prosecutions, for example), while failing miserably to address soaring unemployment, economic stasis, chronic food and gas shortages, collapse of tourism and other industries and most significantly, in sustaining the hope that the Arab Spring had awakened in the hearts of Egyptians three years ago.

Second, religion as a tool of statecraft not only does not work, it demeans religion. The clergy has shown time and again in every country where it ascended to power that it does not understand how a modern society functions and what it takes to unleash the creativity of its people. The self-styled custodians of religion think God is exclusively on their side and if hunger and unemployment afflict the masses, it’s a small price to pay so long as their souls are saved. What arrogance! By forcing the Brotherhood from office, Egyptians have rejected the party’s false premise and made clear they will not be manipulated in the name of religion.

Egyptians are calling the fall of Morsi and his party a coup by popular demand. The army, long the national villain, is being praised for its intervention and for its promise to hand over the reins of power to a more enlightened democratically-elected government of checks and balances soon.

There are misgivings, and rightly so, about the intention of the generals but two words should inspire confidence about Egypt’s future: Tahrir Square. Egyptians have crossed the Rubicon. The army, the power broker until now, knows that if it veers from its promise, the Nile will turn red with the blood of protesters who will again mass in millions in the historic Square. There is no going back to square one.

Adly Mansour, a judge and the interim president, called upon all parties, including the Brotherhood which still enjoys about 25 percent of the voting public, to unite for the common good of the country. As Morsi was being deposed, General Abdul Fatah al-Sisi, chief of the armed forces, gathered prominent opposition and Coptic Christian and Muslim leaders to announce a new roadmap for Egypt’s future that include the rewriting of the constitution for a more tolerant and inclusive government than what the Brotherhood had dictatorially orchestrated.

It now appears (although denied by several sources) that Mohamed ElBaradei, 71, the Nobel Prize-winning diplomat, has become the interim prime minister. Whoever gets to hold the reins of power, however, must turn lofty declarations  into deeds. Otherwise, the Tahrir revolution will continue, even if radicals try to subvert it through violence.

The Arab Spring began on December 17, 2010, with the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia. There are many in the West who bemoan the glacial rate of progress in Egypt and other Arab nations since the Arab Spring. We will do well to look into our own history.

The Declaration of Independence signed on July 4, 1776, for instance, contain this oft-quoted and stirring line: “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Unfortunately, the new republic began by keeping most of its African-American population enslaved, for whom “inalienable rights” became a bitter and deathly irony. It took almost a hundred years and a terrifying Civil War before Abraham Lincoln could issue his Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing the slaves. (That’s why some scholars contend that the Civil War was the unfinished business of the American Revolution). It took another hundred years and the Civil Rights movement before Lyndon Johnson was able to pass the Voting Rights Act through Congress on August 6, 1965, outlawing discriminatory voting practices that effectively kept African Americans disenfranchised.

And if anyone thinks that progress cannot be rolled back in the West, consider this: On June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. The Act made illegal the use of poll taxes, literacy tests, moral tests and economic intimidation to deny the ballot to African Americans. By a 5-4 decision, however, the Court ruled last month that this particular provision, enacted almost half-a-century ago and considered the crown jewel of the Civil Rights movement, cannot be enforced any longer!

If this isn’t regress, what is?

Back to Egypt, the world’s oldest nation state. That dictators and generals in that region have seen, or are beginning to see, the handwriting on the wall is already a milestone by any historical criterion. Progress maybe glacial, and sometimes may even regress, but the inexorable tide of history, aided by the instant reach of social media and the Internet, is slowly but surely moving Egypt forward. Is it too far-fetched to imagine that Egypt may even have its own Nelson Mandela soon?

Brad Pitt and the Soaring Cost of Education in America

Sometimes we gain perspective from unexpected sources, from a stray remark or a casual observation by, say, a celebrity.

Such was the case with superstar Brad Pitt. In a recent interview, Pitt was asked about the reportedly $7 million he made for waxing (inscrutably) eloquent (launching numerous YouTube and late-night parodies that the actor himself defended as “fair play’) about the wonder of Chanel No. 5 perfume for men.

“It’s the right moment and it’s a classic brand and I have six kids to put through college.”

Notice the second half of the response: “I have six kids to put through college.”

Even a millionaire-many-times-over like Brad Pitt (not to mention his mega-rich superstar partner Angelina Jolie) needs to put away money for the education of his children.

Has anyone ever made clearer the soaring cost of education in America now?

For those short on celebrity details, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have six children so far: Maddox, 11, Pax, 9, Zahara, 8, Shiloh, 7, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 4.

The yearly tuition fee at exclusive private schools, colleges and universities in America is conservatively estimated at sixty thousand dollars. By the time the Pitt kids are all in college, the cost will most likely have gone up significantly, but let’s run with that $60K per year number. That’s $360K per year for all of them. Let’s also say that, on the average, they will each have 16 years of schooling. That takes the total to $5.76 million. Throw in the inevitable “additional expenses” and the figure of $7 million seems just about enough.

In other words, a superstar like Brad Pitt (and more power to him) can take care of the cost of his children’s education by making an ad. As a devoted dad, he can always rely on his earnings from movies and miscellaneous sources if $7 million were to prove “inadequate.” (Again, to keep the calculation simple, this does not take into account any “contribution” from the equally devoted mom, Angelina Jolie.)

So how does this analysis shed light on the reality for millions of students in America now?

More than 38 million Americans currently have outstanding student loans, to the tune of $1.1 trillion. Americans now owe more on student loans than on credit cards and autos! And while mortgage and credit card loans can be shed in bankruptcy, student loans can’t. As parents have discovered to their horror, student loans cannot be discharged even in the death of their children! (The website www.change.org is filled with petitions from such parents. The very least you and I can do is to sign these petitions.)

It is not unusual for students to take out, say, $40,000 loans to finance their education in for-profit and vocational nursing or culinary or automotive or similar schools. While the federal government loans have interest rates of about 6%, interest on private loans can be anywhere between 12% to 24%. (A fresh nightmare is brewing: federal student loan interest rates are set to double in 30 days from now under current laws. Go figure!)

The real tragedy occurs when students graduate from these schools and realize that the lucrative jobs dangled before them don’t exist. Many end up doing menial jobs that earn, if they are lucky, about $10 an hour. The dreams disappear but not the staggering loans that burden them for the rest of their lives. They become wage slaves, disillusioned and in deep despair, moving from one temporary job to another, without health insurance and without any of the basic necessities required for a life of dignity. Buy a home and start a business? A cruel joke, indeed.

Sounds familiar? It should. The recent housing crisis that devastated families across America seems to have been a prelude to what has befallen students in America. The cascading effect of trillion-dollar student debt is dragging us down on every front, from education and commerce to the economy and the stability of the nation.

Brad Pitt has inadvertently shed light on the exponentially increasing student debt and the cost of education in America. Unless the cost of education comes significantly down (the impact of free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) will not be clear anytime soon) and a way is found to forgive, at least partially, the astronomical student debt, we will continue to lurch as a nation from one Band-Aid fix to another.

A Timely Thriller: "The East"

Timing can transform a good movie into a memorable one. Such is the case with the thriller “The East,” released just as we were waking up to the revelation, thanks to The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald, that the National Security Agency (N.S.A) has been spying on us, collecting data for seven years on every phone call, domestic and international, that Americans make. The reason given is that same tired trope: To keep us secure from terrorists. (Naturally, the recent Boston Bombing was an exception, as is every other undetected act of terror!)

In the movie, Sarah (Brit Marling) is an undercover agent hired by a private intelligence firm to infiltrate an eco-terrorism cell called “The East.” East consists of a band of furious idealists (Sarah and her employer see them as anarchists) who target pharmaceutical companies that unleash poisonous medicines on vulnerable people and conglomerates that pollute our air, water and soil. (Remember the deadly antibiotic called Fluoroquinolones, or the 2010 BP oil spill, or the arsenic poisoning of water in Small Town, U.S.A, from coal slurry and other industrial wastes?) The group’s manifesto: “We are the East.  Lie to us and we’ll lie to you.  Spy on us and we’ll spy on you.  Poison us and we’ll poison you.” (In this, they are the heir to the late Edward Abbey, author of Desert Solitaire and The Monkey-Wrench Gang.)

It is that “spy on us and we’ll spy on you” motif that has made “The East” such a compelling draw in the wake of the N.S.A spying revelations. Of course, citizens cannot snoop on the government but if a movie can offer a willing suspension of disbelief in these troubled times, we eagerly lap it up.

Other members are suspicious of Sarah but the infiltrator wins over the East’s enigmatic leader Benji (Alexander Skarsgård) and proceeds to destroy the group from within. Yet, imperceptibly, she is also drawn to the justice inherent in the retaliation against the one-percenters who are callously indifferent to the death and destruction they inflict on the marginalized and the powerless through poisonous pills and polluted water.

It is one thing to remain silent when facts are unknown but another when facts are known and we cannot quiet that “still small voice” any longer. It is a moral dilemma we all face in one form or another and which defines us, based on what we end up doing or not doing.

The Internet has undoubtedly facilitated the growth of the surveillance state. Some have gone so far as to suggest that the Internet is the de facto surveillance state, that with every click and blog and email and likes and tweets, we leave behind digital traces that can be used against us at the whim of people in power.

About the intrusion of Big Brother, the increasingly relevant George Orwell wrote in “1984”: “How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to.” 

About one thing, however, Orwell was wrong, when he wrote in “1984”: “There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment.” We do not have the luxury of such ignorance anymore: We now know that we are being watched and tracked at any given moment.

Greenwald and The Washington Post revealed another secret program under George Bush, code-named Prism, that allows the N.S.A. and the F.B.I. to tap Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple, copying audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails and documents to track foreign targets.

“Nobody is listening to your telephone calls,” President Obama assured Americans after the snooping report broke. He also defended the “program” by shrugging it off as a “modest encroachments on privacy,” justified because, as always, it will “help us prevent terrorist attacks.”

America will not turn into a totalitarian police state along the lines of, say, East Germany or Stalin’s Soviet Union. At the same time, we must also remember that we cannot remain secure by undermining those values that make us Americans.

Ultimately for Sarah, the end cannot justify the means, and so there is a falling out between the protagonists in “The East.” But it is by no means an unsatisfactory falling out. There is pathos and surprise and moral ambiguity aplenty in the thriller. Particularly in matters of morality, we learn that it does not have to be an either-or proposition, that there is almost always a middle path in which justice can flower when we make an effort to engage our better angels.

The Ghost and the Darkness

The movie is set in Tsavo, Kenya, during the building of the African Uganda-Mombasa Railway in 1898. Two lions roam in pairs, drawing strength from each other. Locals have named them The Ghost and The Darkness for the savagery with which they kill workers. When the hunters John Henry Patterson (Val Kilmer) and Charles Remington (Michael Douglas) enter their den, they find human skulls arranged like trophies. That’s when they realize these are no ordinary lions.These are lions that kill for fun and sport.

As the horrific scenes of the Boston marathon massacre unfolded, I kept thinking of the Ghost and the Darkness. The Tsarnaev brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar, are no lions. They are, in fact, cowards but they converted their cowardice into savagery by working in pairs. It is possible that the 26-year old Tamerlan was a master manipulator and the mastermind of the attacks but even if that is the case, 19-year old Dzhokhar was a willing accomplice. That makes both equally guilty of the terror they created on a glorious spring day when Bostonians were out in droves to celebrate the city’s iconic event.

Much is being made about Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s six-month long visit to Russia’s troubled province of Dagestan in March 2012 and the time he spent in the capital, the Caspian Sea city of Makhachkala. Was he radicalized during his visit? Was he in contact with terrorists who filled him with ideas about creating mayhem in America? Was he planted as a cell in Boston, to strike when the city was at its most vulnerable, to maximize death and destruction?

Although we may never know Tamerlan’s motive, given that he perished in a shootout with the police, it is becoming increasingly clear that the brothers acted alone. They did what they did because these “nobodies” and "losers" (as their uncle called them and he was right on the mark) wanted to “redeem” themselves through acts of brutality.

The wounded Dzhokhar has indicated from his hospital bed that he and his brother acted to “defend the honor of Islam” and to avenge the U.S. war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Please, give us a break! Two alienated losers want to give meaning to their empty lives by committing heinous crimes and then the surviving criminal immediately tries to tie the motivation to a higher cause! This is utter nonsense. I know that America will move heaven and earth to find a connection  between the brothers and one or more foreign terror groups but I hope the people in charge of the investigation will not clutch at straws.

For American Muslims, the actions of the Tsarnaev brothers came as a double blow. They created terror and killed innocent Americans, first, and second, they gave Islam a bad name and shamed Muslims. I promised myself after the 9/11 attacks that I will not suffer any guilt if a fanatic commits crimes in the name of my faith. Yet, as soon as the Boston marathon story broke, I fervently prayed, “Please God, don’t let it be a Muslim!” 

Within forty-eight hours, my hopes were dashed. 

But as I come to grips with the Boston massacre, I also sense that my resolve not to feel any guilt, though shaken yet again, is slowly strengthening. No one can carry the burden of another. If I had any contact with “the Ghost and the Darkness,” or if I were privy to their inner thoughts, I would certainly have contacted the authorities. It would have been both my right and my responsibility. But since I did not know the diabolical brothers and what they were planning to do, there is no reason why I should feel guilty for their action, even if they claimed to be Muslims or acting in the name of Islam. 

I will, however, protest the insidious suggestion of some pundits that becoming more religious (particularly when it comes to Islam when someone becomes more observant with respect to, say, prayers or visiting mosques) is somehow akin to becoming radicalized. Sure, if the so-called believer begins to act in a hostile manner and indulges in hate-mongering, authorities must be informed, but "becoming religious" is not synonymous with "becoming radicalized." Consider this: Just this week, an Imam in Toronto, Canada, recently found one of his congregants behaving strangely. He reported him to the police, thus foiling an attack organized apparently by Al-Qaida. "But for the Muslim community's intervention," said an official of Canada's counter-terrorism unit, "we may not have had the success." 

As it is, the only thing I feel is heartfelt sympathy for the victims and the only thing I know about the Tsarnaev brothers is that they made a Faustian bargain. And the bargain they made was with themselves.

Are College Students Learning Too Little?

“Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” a book by two educators, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, has caused a stir in educational circles. The authors tracked several thousand students as they moved through and graduated from several American colleges and universities. Their chilling conclusion: students don’t learn nearly enough to thrive in a knowledge-based economy. As the authors write, “In a typical semester, 50% of students did not take a single course requiring more than 20 pages of writing, 32% did not have any classes that required reading more than 40 pages per week, and 36% reported studying alone five or fewer hours per week.” America’s educational institutions rarely challenge students intellectually who end up with degrees that have little value. Both the schools and the students are academically adrift in that both have lost the focus on education and on developing such skills as critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing.

What do college students themselves think? Are they just going through the motion in colleges and graduating due to lax standards, or are they, in fact, getting a rigorous education that will serve them well in their professional careers?

Mary feels that “Academically Adrift” may be the most important book on higher education to come out in her lifetime. She has been at a community college for six years now and found that schools have become more like businesses where not education but profit is paramount. She has been misled by counselors and taken courses that did nothing for her. “A generalized list of courses does not work for every student. Community colleges are more concerned with transfer rates and so take the focus off students and their educational needs.” She is not surprised that the authors found that 48% of graduating college students had not improved their critical thinking skills. Mary is rethinking her educational goals after reading the book.

Julio believes that the dismal record of college graduates reflect a sobering fact: colleges have become too boring academically. A large percentage of teachers compound the problem by being “pathetic” at teaching and so turn off students completely.

Joelle concurs. “Most classes have been very easy and do not require much studying to pass. I have even had classes that I barely went to, never had homework, and yet passed!  Teachers don’t know how to teach complex reasoning and rigorous thinking. Even if they do, they do a super job of hiding it from us! The schools are in the money-making business, not education.”

James feels that it’s the teachers who are mostly failing their students. In an English class, for instance, a teacher assigns an essay and grades it without going over any mistake or flaws in reasoning. “They just hand out grades, often inflated, so they can look good. There are exceptions, no doubt. Students have a right to demand exceptional teachers in all subjects.”

Yvonne disagrees with Arum and Roksa. It is true that some students graduate without learning much but the majority of students she knows work really hard because “we know our success in life depend on it.”

Ray agrees with the main points of the authors. Too many colleges are focused on nurturing their athletes at the expense of education. “Colleges will do anything for their star football players but hardly anything for their bright students other than maybe a pat on the back.”

Kevin also agrees with the authors that students are learning very little in colleges today. “I have taken a few classes at a community college and found them to be a complete waste of time. Some classes do not require attendance to pass. They chose the courses because they were transferable. Many of the topics covered are those that I covered during my teenage years. If students do not feel involved or cannot relate to the topics, then they do not bother listening. It is easy for me to use my laptop to browse the internet without having to pay attention during class if all the professor does is stand in front of the class and lectures.” Many of Kevin’s friends remain jobless after four years of college. Most have a huge debt that they are unable to pay off. “I just don’t want to be stuck with a big tuition debt in my ‘20s and having to work years just to pay it off. I am currently reconsidering my educational goals.”

Kimberley is not surprised by the conclusions of Arum and Roksa. During her years at a community college, she has come across more unmotivated students than determined ones. A lot of the conversations in class starts with “I barely did my homework before class” or “I partied with…” instead of “I spent the whole day reading and doing homework.” She knows dozens of students who put in very little effort into their assignments but still slide by with a C. “The results from not trying will bite the students later, which is why the two authors have written about how out of focus education has become.” Kimberley is hopeful that discussions centered on the book will bring about changes in the way colleges educate students.

Kendal is convinced that students are learning very little in college because the incentive to try is just not there. Teachers are passing students who do not deserve to pass and so they enter the workforce unprepared. But the problem does not lie only with instructors. It lies with students as well. Many students today have a sense of entitlement and think they are too good to take a bottom-rung position at a company. They want to be CEO’s and make $100,000 a year right out of college.  By allowing mediocre work and giving it an A, teachers reinforce the delusion that you do not have to put in the work to be successful.

Jennifer takes issue with the narrow and limited scope of the authors. They do not take into account, for instance, the teaching methods used by instructors and funding for colleges. The authors are guilty of generalization and in claiming that all colleges are affected by the various factors in the same way. Some colleges lack qualified staff while other colleges are filled with inspiring instructors and motivated students. How can you apply the same rules to both types?

Adam also disagrees with Arum and Roksa. Times have changed. Students these days must absorb and work with more difficult concepts and subjects than students in the past. With so many more students attending colleges, the battle for jobs has also gotten fiercer. Besides, “who cares if students don’t take a class requiring more than 20 pages of writing? If it doesn’t support your major, why do it? As an Art Major, I may not have the best grammar, or the highest level of vocabulary, but if it doesn’t apply to my field of interest, then I really don’t want to become an expert in writing. Sure, general education is important but an entire population should not have to excel in categories such as writing, unless they want to become professional writers. In time, we all lose information and knowledge we don’t use in everyday life. If a student fails at writing, he shouldn’t be a writer!”

Kim also takes issue with the authors. The criterion for learning “a lot” or a “little” is subjective. Students have different goals and should not be measured by the same general standard. But Kim also agrees with the authors in that there are many students who make entertainment their primary goal in college and so end up learning very little. She has seen a quarter of her classmates dropping out when the subject became challenging. For Kim, a lot of it comes down to how motivated students are. If they are, they will succeed. If not, no matter what other factors may work in their favor, they will fail.

For Lauren too, it comes down to the students themselves. “A good student will take a lot from college and a bad student will find a way through it without learning much. There are a million and half ways to pass your classes without doing much of anything, but if students are in college because they really want to be there, then they will want to read their books, do their homework, and show up for classes. The sad part is that because students find an overwhelming number of ways to skate through college, the students who are actually motivated and doing their homework are getting the same grades as the other students. Students cheat in more ways than just copying a friend’s’ paper. It really comes down to a simple fact: College is what you make of it.”

David agrees with the authors. Students may be learning the mechanics and formulas behind things but they don't get enough hands-on experience or understand why they learn the things they do and how these apply to real life. “To me, that is real knowledge, not just going through the motions but actually understanding why a formula is the way it is and how it can be applied to real life applications. A student can be a straight A student and know by memorization everything that has to do with their major. But that doesn't necessarily mean that students will succeed at the job of their choice. Learning about something in a textbook is vastly different from actually experiencing it in real life. I think schools should lessen the tedious busy work and try to engage students. Have them see what it is like to work in the major that they are in or make sure they understand how the information they learn in class applies to the real world.”

Smith disagrees with the authors. He has learned a lot in colleges by avoiding busywork and focusing on what is truly important. The authors talk about writing and rigorous thinking but in reality these activities are nothing more than busy work, just going through the motions. Smith favors quality over quantity. A student may write 20 pages of solid, relevant and well thought-out passages, or 100 pages of drivel. Surely the latter is bad but sometimes that’s what’s lauded. Smith, however, thinks that increasing the cost of education will keep many students out of colleges and that will badly hurt the economy.

As Katia sees it, most students take particular classes to fulfill some sort of graduation requirement. “This is sad because the idea of college is that you take classes that interest you and that stimulate your desire to learn. Most teachers are reacting to this and it is evident in the way they teach. Many teachers teach classes without passion and then hand out the test. Most tests only require students to memorize to pass.  This is not how college courses should be. Students are failing and not doing well because they are not interested in the material.  The burden is on the college to create curriculum that students find relevant and interesting.”

Jessica disagrees with the authors. “Most of the courses I have taken have absolutely no need to require over 20 pages of writing. She also feels that a country’s financial system plays a huge role in the quality of education provided to students these days, something the authors did not take into consideration. “Being a part of the student government, I have witnessed first-hand the effects of budget cuts and decreased state funding for education. With colleges being forced to cut faculty, decreasing the number of classes while increasing class sizes, quality education becomes almost impossible quality education.”

Tomas agrees partially with authors. There is an overall decline in learning in colleges. Students are not motivated and seem distracted by outside influences. The use of technology allows students to gain a quick fix and distracts them critical thinking skills. “The stats show that there is a declining four-year college attendance, due to higher expenses and lower academic requirements. From my experience of attending a community college, I have noticed that when the semester starts, the classes are full, with no room to spare.  By the end of the semester, about half the class has dropped out. This is not due to the professors but to students’ laziness and lack of motivation to stick it out and do the material. Students are being challenged but they flee from the challenges. What students don’t realize is that the future is going to only get tougher in competing for jobs, which will go to the ones who have persisted and did the necessary work to succeed.”