Indian Farmers Trapped and Desperate by Graham Peebles

by Graham Peebles
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
London
January 24, 2013

Image by coquetboy via Flickr

India has the largest number of smallholder farmers in the World, 600 million by some estimates. From this army of workers one impoverished desperate man, or indeed woman, with a noose of debt around their neck takes his or her own life on average every thirty minutes, A statistic barely comprehensible, representing the tidal wave of suicides that has swept through the farming community in the last 15 years.

Obama’s Record Belies Inaugural Words by Ralph Nader

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
Jan. 25, 2013

Image by SS&SS via Flickr

A friend asked me what I was thinking while listening to President Obama’s inaugural address. Here were my reactions:

Obama: “They [the Patriots of 1776] gave to us a republic, a government of and by and for the people.”

The flood of money-shaping elections and politics has given us a corporate government of the Exxons, by the General Motors, for the DuPonts.

The Corporatization of Public Higher Education by Shepherd Bliss

Image by Cold Cream Coffee via Flickr

by Shepherd Bliss
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
Jan. 24, 2013

The Case of Sonoma State University

The new Center for Ethics, Law, and Society at Sonoma State University in Northern California has caused quite a stir among our academic community during the first week of classes, as well as from those outside SSU. Its funding and the further corporatization of public higher education have been questioned.

The notorious insurance monolith AIG provided two-thirds of the Ethics Center’s $16,000 first year budget. What might AIG’s intentions have been for funding the Center?