Muslims Aren't A Race, So I Can't Be Racist, Right? Wrong. “Nonsense.” That is what people say when I accuse them of being racist. Their argument goes something like this: “Muslims are not even a race, so how the hell could I even be racist? You’re an idiot.” Because Muslims are not a race, people believe that any type of violence or oppression directed towards them cannot be racially motivated; that this form of hatred — known as Islamophobia — cannot be racism. First, let me be clear. Since I am focusing on the subject of identity and race, let me extend this discussion to other social groupings. If Muslims are not a race, than which group is? Okay, now you might wonder about Jewish people? And what about Asians? Nope. The Indigenous People of America, a race? You see, there is no such thing as race or races, traditionally understood. According to Hall, there is a new type of racism — “cultural racism,” which is my focus here. Bobby Sayyid, another favorite thinker of mine, argues that Islamophobia is undoubtedly a form of racism.
The Misconceptions of Holocracy Since last summer, Zappos has been operating as a full-blown “Holacracy,” an experimental way of running a company that gets rid of traditional manager roles and job titles. It’s intended to eliminate bureaucracy and fuel innovation. Entrepreneur and software engineer Brian Robertson created the “self-management” system in 2007 and his company HolacracyOne says more than 300 businesses worldwide use it. Zappos, with 1,600 employees and billions in revenue, is by far the largest company to have adopted it. Its implementation has also been the most tumultuous and controversial. Zappos had been gradually transitioning to Holacracy, but in early 2015 CEO Tony Hsieh decided to “rip the Band-Aid off” and go from 85% implementation to a full transition. Business Insider recently interviewed Hsieh (pronounced “shay”) at Zappos’ Las Vegas headquarters, and he said the biggest misconception about the company’s new management structure “is that it’s just total chaos and there’s no structure.”
How video 'pranksters' are cashing in on the abuse and harassment of women When 22-year-old student and writer Paulina Drėgvaitė headed to Trafalgar Square last week, she was simply planning to meet a friend in central London and enjoy the good weather. As she sat on the steps of St Martin-in-the-Fields, a young man approached her, told her it was “national kiss day” and asked her to kiss him. She smiled and said, “No, sorry, no.” Instead of accepting her answer, he demanded to know why. She answered: “Because I have no desire to kiss you.” It wasn’t until the following day when a friend sent her a link to a Facebook video that she realised the man who had approached her was Jack Jones, a self-styled online “prankster” with a Facebook following of almost 3.5 million people. The video, which ends with Drėgvaitė saying “fuck off”, has since been viewed over 700,000 times, and has 12,000 likes, 850 shares and more than 600 comments. “I was physically shaking,” says Drėgvaitė. Soraya Chemaly, director of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project, says:
Need For Trade Choices Beyond Just Nationalism & Globalisation Tuesday, Aug 2, 2016, 3:56 pm BY Leon Fink In an age of transportation and communication revolutions, geography proved less and less a haven for higher-cost home producers against distant competitors. (Zixi Wu/ Flickr) Few issues are receiving a more insipid—and thus more harmful—treatment in our public discourse than world trade. “Globalists” generally hail the liberal marketplace as the engine of economic prosperity and assail its critics as uneducated and irrational isolationists, while “nationalists” instinctively identify trade with economic decline (or at least the loss of good working-class jobs), rising inequality and a general loss of control over the future. As CNN host Fareed Zakaria put it after Britain voted to leave the EU, “the new politics of our age will be not be left versus right, but open versus closed.” This framework risks closing off our best possibilities for building a progressive economic future. Some historical perspective is first in order.
The Hidden History of Muhammad Ali Film footage of Muhammad Ali is used to sell everything from soft drinks to cars. The image we are spoon-fed is the improbably charismatic boxer, dancing in the ring and shouting “I am the greatest.” The present Muhammad Ali is also a very public figure, despite his near total inability to move or speak. His voice has been silenced by both his years of boxing and Parkinson’s disease. This Ali has been embraced by the establishment as a walking saint. In 1996, Ali was sent with his trembling hands to light the Olympic Torch in Atlanta. Ali has been absorbed by the establishment as a legend — a harmless icon. The mere thought of athletes using their insanely exalted and hyper-commercialized platform to take stands against injustice is now almost unthinkable. That is why, when Toni Smith, the basketball captain at little Division III Manhattanville College, turned her back on the flag in 2003, the attack was rabid. Fighting for Justice The first boxers in the United States were slaves.
Crowd Funding Taps Into Australian Real Estate Australians have a love affair with property. According to CoreLogic data, Australian house prices have already increased by 6.3 percent this year. On its own, this number is relatively impressive, however it’s the post GFC growth data that tells a rather more sobering or encouraging story – depending on which side of the home ownership fence you sit. Since January 2009 to today, the cumulative change in dwelling values for all major Australian capitals have risen by a combined 56.1 percent. In Sydney, that number now stands at 90.2 percent. Home ownership – what was once a rite of passage for young adults – is now shaping up as a stand-off between asset rich baby-boomers and millennials. Investment in real estate crowd funding was estimated to have reached $2.5 billion in 2015. Down under, here are some worth taking note of: CrowdfundUP This site seems to follow the basic premise of real estate crowdfunding. Estate Baron DomaCom Coassets Like this: Like Loading...
Islamophobia: it’s a feminist issue, too – Honi Soit Sahra Magan thinks intersectionality is key to any discussion of Islamophobia Islamophobia. The knee-jerk reaction is to visualise the public spectacles of hate and hostility vividly reported in the media, the theatrics of anti-Islam rallies, the grotesque comedy of the anti-Halal movement and the bigotry of political policies that denigrate mosques. The primary victims of everyday islamophobia are those most “visibly” Muslim – women who wear the headscarf or hijab. A Muslim woman posted asking for men not to not hug or offer her, or other women wearing hijabs, a handshake. “Women need not be untouchable or unseeable objects,” the commenter concludes. There’s no inconsistency in the minds of Islamophobes who rationalise their vitriol towards Muslim women on the grounds of empowering us, yet in the same breath abuse us. These perceptions of scarved Muslim women as oppressed and docile relics are not new. Art: Steph Barahona
See Ya Capitalism, the Collaborative Economy Is Taking Over The old model of unwieldy behemoths is giving way to a new one of collaboration. Welcome to the world of Peers. Compare the phone you had as a kid to the one in your pocket now. The first was a telephone owned by a monopoly that you used at most only minutes a day. The difference? This cycle of opening up excess capacity, INCs building platforms for participation, and connecting billions of diverse Peers to create and collaborate together, is the path to abundance. Peers Inc partnerships are everywhere. The French startup BlaBlaCar shares long distance car trips, connecting drivers with extra seats and travelers going in the same direction. Throughout the last century companies have made money by hoarding stuff: assets, intellectual property, people. In the new collaborative economy, sharing and networking assets, like platforms, car seats and bedrooms, will always deliver more value faster. Capitalists will tell you that we are driven by self-interest and thus incapable of sharing.
Mapped: where is Ukip's support strongest? Where there are no immigrants We have two maps which allow us to do just that. The first map, created by my colleague Raziye Akkoc, shows the percentage of foreign-born residents in each parliamentary constituency according to census data from 2011, compiled by the Oxford Migration Observatory. While that might sound out of date, it gives us the best available picture of how immigrant populations compare across all of England and Wales. Immigrants are most concentrated in big urban centres such as Nottingham, Bradford, Peterborough, Birmingham, and London - where some seats have foreign-born populations of over 55 per cent. The darker red the area, the greater its percentage. The second map is based on work by the political scientists Rob Ford and Matthew Goodwin, who literally wrote the book on the rise of Ukip. Through extensive polling, they identified characteristics which they say predict Ukip support. The map simply shows the top 300 target seats based on the presence of these voters. Party stance... More immigrants
The End of Power? Mark Zuckerberg’s first selection for his book club, Moises Naím’s The End of Power , was an apt one. The book, as the Facebook CEO put it, “explores how the world is shifting to give individual people more power that was traditionally only held by large governments, militaries and other organizations.” That would also be a pretty good description of Facebook. But, the title is a misnomer. The Seeds Of The Shift Naím’s argument is both comprehensive and complex. Now, however, Naím sees three trends that are uprooting the influence that institutions wield: The More Revolution: Today, we are in the midst of a historic reduction of poverty and, as Naím points out, “When people are more numerous and living fuller lives, they become more difficult to control.” The Mobility Revolution: People are not only richer, they are also moving around more. The Mentality Revolution: The rise of living standards and expanded mobility results in an increasing propensity to question the status quo. – Greg
'I felt humiliated': Gym tells Ottawa woman breasts 'too large' for tank top An Ottawa woman says she was humiliated and “body shamed” when staff at an Orleans gym told her that her chest was “too large” for her tank top. Jenna Vecchio, who moved to Ottawa in April from Halifax, said she was working out with her husband on Saturday morning at Movati when a female supervisor confronted her about her attire. She was told other clients at the gym had complained her top made them feel uncomfortable. Vecchio says she was confused and seriously embarrassed, especially since other women wore similar tank tops. “I said I can’t help it that my chest may appear larger than some other women’s here because of my small frame, but I can’t do anything about it,” Vecchio told Metro. “I felt humiliated. Facebook Jenna Vecchio also posted this screen shot of the Movati website showing other women wearing tank tops at the gym. She said she was told she could finish her workout – in a t-shirt. She took to Facebook to explain the ordeal and to post photos of the disputed outfit.
Sharing Economy Could End Capitalism, But That's Not All The sharing economy could bring about the end of capitalism: that’s the provocative claim made by economic journalist Paul Mason, among others. But my ongoing research indicates that there are many possible futures for the sharing economy: it could transform the world of work as we know it – or it could gradually fade from the public eye. The exact nature and impacts of the sharing economy are still disputed. The organisers of social movements, entrepreneurs, established businesses and politicians all have very different ideas of what the sharing economy is, and what it should become. For example, Share the World’s Resource (a not-for-profit civil organisation) talks about building a sharing economy based on “shared” public services, which are funded by taxation. Meanwhile, the UK government speaks of building a sharing economy based on online peer-to-peer platforms, which enable citizens to become micro-entrepreneurs by renting out assets such as homes, driveways and pets. Fading away
Fact check: was Peter Dutton right about 'illiterate' refugees 'taking jobs'? | Australia news Putting aside for a moment that Australia takes refugees not because it needs their skills but because they need its protection, Peter Dutton was wrong in his statements to Sky News. The immigration minister’s own department, other branches of government, the parliamentary library and the bureaucrats who work for him say so. Dutton said on Sky on Tuesday night: For many people, they won’t be, you know, numerate or literate in their own language, let alone English. What does the immigration department say? Here’s what Dutton’s own department says about the social and economic contribution made by refugees to Australia: In 2011 the department of immigration and citizenship (as the Department of Immigration and Border Protection was then called) commissioned a report by the University of Adelaide academic Prof Graeme Hugo. The department’s own summation of Hugo’s findings (still available on the department website) reads: Are refugees uneducated? Are refugees illiterate?