Living With 50% Inflation
I moved to Argentina in October 2009, when the country’s inflation rate had just started to rise. Through the following decade, the inflation has usually hovered between 25% and 30%, rising to around 50% in the past couple of years. Just this September, the inflation rate was 3.5%. In one month.
Taru Anniina LiikanenPublished 22 days ago in The SwampThe Truth Behind U.S. and Canadian Indigenous Boarding Schools
Content warning: murder, colonialization, genocide, and physical, mental, and sexual abuse In May of 2021, it was announced that over 200 bodies were found in unmarked graves on the property of The Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, Canada or more accurately, on the traditional territory of the Secwepemc. Established in 1890, it was considered one of the largest residential schools in Canada, peaking at 500 students in the 1950s. It was first established as an acculturating Indigenous school. But the school finally closed in 1978.
Bella LeonPublished 6 months ago in The SwampWhy We Owe Pride Month to Transgender People of Color
Pride Month is something I’ve noticed for years when growing up. It was something I was so enamored with and in awe of. Watching my family members who were openly out, celebrating their true selves, made me appreciate the significance of the month even more. However, it wasn’t until years later that my appreciation grew.
Critical Race Theory: A Former Tennessee Teacher Responds to New State Legislation
Critical Race Theory. The latest newly politicized buzzword has become a polarizing topic in politics and education circles across the U.S. Touted by many academics, activists, and professional teachers as a valuable lens through which to analyze legal, political, and historical topics but widely derided by the conservative right as an inaccurate portrayal of history, today I will examine the basics of critical race theory, explain how this method comes into play in K-12 classrooms today, and argue against legislation currently awaiting the governor's signature in my home state of Tennessee.
Lindsey WardenPublished 7 months ago in The Swamp
Can Writers Be Apolitical?
Short answer: no. No, they cannot. Long answer: it's a little more complicated than that. I find discussions of politics to be incredibly fascinating. Maybe it's because I study in a program heavily based on politics and write about current affairs every day. Growing up, I was privy to a phrase that rings in my ears to this day. Three things you never talk about: money, politics and religion. I have to say, even as a child, I thought this was a weird turn of phrase. On the smörgåsbord of interesting conversational topics, why is politics off limit? What about politics triggers our delicate sensibilities and makes such topics untenable?
Laquesha BaileyPublished 8 months ago in The Swamp
''Blackfishing" Is The Modern Day Version Of Blackface
We are living in an age where non-black people are using a modern form of blackface that enables them to get opportunities because of this “Black Aesthetic.” However, black women struggle to get the same opportunities that people who blackfish do.
Petiri IraPublished 8 months ago in The SwampThe One Thing I Love The Most About Kamala Harris
Vice President Kamala Harris is a phenomenal woman. She is not only beautiful, inspirational, accomplished, bold and strong, she is also a mover and shaker in her fields of endeavour. Women and little girls from all over the world are in awe and are looking up to her.
15 Minutes
It all started with a tweet...or several. I have always had lots of things to say, even when I didn't have the right words or delivery. My mom saying "That may be true, Tiffany, but you can't just say it like that. The tact you need will come with age," still plays in my head as loudly as your favorite song on the radio. I have developed that tact, but it didn't quiet my voice.
Tiffany FCPublished 8 months ago in The Swamp
Dear Donald
Open letters to the President of the United States from the people of the world. Submit your own grievances, praises, and suggestions through Vocal today.
Political Humor
Where political gaffes become comedy fodder.
Dear Theresa
Open letters to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; do it like they do on Downing Street.
In a Supreme Court case, 65 million women's abortion rights could be revoked.
If the United States Supreme Court overturns the landmark case that established the right to seek abortion nearly half a century ago, more than 65 million American women would lose immediate access to the procedure in their home states.
xasanka xmadhurangaPublished a day ago in The Swamp
SARS-CoV-II: A New Hope
Author's preface: Full disclosure. The lead author of the vaccine efficacy paper described below is my current wife and she is a co-author on the manufacturing paper. I did not contribute in any way to either work except perhaps for occasionally acting as a sounding board for my wife's many brilliant ideas. I have said this before and I will say it again here. Not many people get a chance to even meet their heroes. I am so very lucky to have been able to marry mine. Way to go baby.
Everyday JunglistPublished a day ago in The Swamp
Black people CAN be racist — let’s get serious
Throughout the litany of social media sites and in the common dialogue, the claim that “black people can’t be racist” and its natural logical corollary, “that all white people must be”, gains much traction. I believe this claim is not only false but detrimental; here are some ideas I find worthy of consideration:
Judson VereenPublished a day ago in The Swamp
Race Narratives #1: How Narratives On Race Contradict One Another
With the explosion of social media platforms, streaming news services and comment sections full of opinions of varying degrees of informedness, we are bombarded daily with snarky comments, drive-by insults that make no attempt at a good-faith conversation, and writers who tell all of us to stop doing this, start doing this, don't say this, don't say that.
Judson VereenPublished a day ago in The Swamp
Do You Get The Feeling That The World Is Spinning Out Of Control?
The Omicron variant of the Coronavirus comes at a time when the world is especially vulnerable, battered as it is by the repeated disruption to economic and social life. Indeed, I would say that the Omicron variant can very well spell the death knell to the nascent economic recovery that most nations worldwide were beginning to experience. Moreover, with so much media hysteria about this variant, it is likely that panic responses would ensue like lockdowns and bans on air travel, being announced at short notice. This is already happening as can be seen in the multiple travel bans that most countries have imposed on the African countries, from where this variant is spreading worldwide.
Rammohan SusarlaPublished 2 days ago in The Swamp
Utopia For Realists: Compassionate Capitalism Can Save A World In Crisis
Neoliberalism has brought the world to crisis It is an understatement to say that the world is in crisis. Indeed, from climate change to gross inequality and wide inequities to conflicts and war creating desperate refugees and the present pandemic, there are no dearth of problems and crises befuddling the world. At the root of all these crises is the neoliberal capitalistic tendency to put profit before everything else and the rapacious greed and the sheer craziness of neoliberal market fundamentalism is such that naysayers and even those doubting the "system" are dismissed as cranks and worse, shunted out and persecuted as heretics. So, if we have to find solutions to our problems, we have to start with reforming the way our societies are ordered around the insatiable quest for money at the expense of everything else.
Rammohan SusarlaPublished 2 days ago in The Swamp
Why Do Indians Who Migrate To the US Excel, Whereas India Continues To Lag In Innovation
Every time we hear reports over how Indians are taking over Silicon Valley appear in the press, there is a paroxysm of celebratory and chest thumping coverage in the media. Right from laudatory messages to straight out fawning, we just cannot seem to shake off the highs and the kicks about our compatriots in the US scaling greater heights. Whether is Satya Nadella of Microsoft or Sundar Pitchai of Google, or the latest addition to the ranks of successful Indian immigrants, Parag Agrawal, who was named as CEO of Twitter, there are many instances of Indians who upon graduation (invariably they are from one of our IITs) migrate to the US and then lead lives of accomplishment and fulfillment.
Rammohan SusarlaPublished 2 days ago in The SwampDemocracy: Do we really need it?
The ancient Greeks are credited with creating the very first democracy, although there were almost certainly earlier examples of primitive democracy in other parts of the world. Democracy, in its pure form, is the rule of the strong over the weak, the majority over the minority. But is democracy overall just a political system based on the vote? A system controlled or manipulated? Does democracy have a deeper meaning?
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