Diversity in action

The theme for the school carnival was diversity, so they had the kids dressed up as different cultures.

Eg, there was a bunch of kids dressed up as Chinese yelling:

Manifestación!
Chinitos en acción!

Okay. I suppose it's an improvement over Moros y cristianos.

Baby snatching epidemic in the US

When we our kids were born in the US, I remember the elaborate security measures that they took to prevent any possibility of our baby being taken from us. Special bracelets were installed that would automatically set off alarms, close airlocks, release the hounds, SWAT teams, etc.

It's good to know that the zeal for protecting babies has reduced the chance of having your baby stolen from 1 in 400,000 (5 times less likely than being killed by lightning, which is the gold standard for unlikely events) to less than 1 in 1,000,000.

I'm sure that in Spain, the watchful eye of grandmother would prevent any harm from coming to the baby. (Except perhaps death from overheating by having too many blankets)

Now I remember why I left

Turning on the TV in my hotel room, I was graced with the reappearance of the wonderful Sarah Palin. Although I've found that right wing politicans are probably just as corrupt in Spain as they are in the US, at least they are not as painfully stupid. (I supposed to me everyone in Spain sounds so terribly smart with their excellent command of Spanish grammar... grrr... )

I remember doing this in highschool during little speech I had to do, but I didn't really expect it of a presidential candidate....

Written on her hand:

• "Energy"
  
• "Budget [crossed out] (Cuts)"
  
• "Tax"
  
• "Lift American spirits"
  

"Guard labor" and social inequality in the US

This is turning into a series of posts about the US.

A very interesting report about Samuel Bowles and his theories around the causes and consequences of the incredibly high levels of social inequality in the US.

Especially interesting I found the idea of "guard labor":

Inequality leads to an excess of what Bowles calls “guard labor.” In a 2007 paper on the subject, he and co-author Arjun Jayadev, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, make an astonishing claim: Roughly 1 in 4 Americans is employed to keep fellow citizens in line and protect private wealth from would-be Robin Hoods.

The job descriptions of guard labor range from “imposing work discipline”—think of the corporate IT spies who keep desk jockeys from slacking off online—to enforcing laws, like the officers in the Santa Fe Police Department paddy wagon parked outside of Walmart.

The greater the inequalities in a society, the more guard labor it requires, Bowles finds. This holds true among US states, with relatively unequal states like New Mexico employing a greater share of guard labor than relatively egalitarian states like Wisconsin.

In case you are wondering, the "Gini index", which measures social inequality (where 0 is totally equal and 100 is where one person has everything) for the US is are 46 (comparable to most 3rd world countries), whereas in Spain it is about 31 (average for EU). Sweden has the lowest in the world at 26.

Looking on the bright side of schools in Spain

At least they don't call the police to arrest twelve year old girls that doodle on their desks:

A 12-year-old Queens girl was hauled out of school in handcuffs for an artless offense - doodling her name on her desk in erasable marker, the Daily News has learned.

[...]

Alexa is the latest in a string of city students who have been cuffed for minor infractions. In 2007, 13-year-old Chelsea Fraser was placed under arrest for writing "okay" on her desk at Intermediate School 201. And in 2008, 5-year-old Dennis Rivera was cuffed and sent to a psych ward after throwing a fit in his kindergarten.

I didn't even know they made handcuffs for 5 year olds. Only in the US, I guess.