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Candidates in the upcoming elections for President of the United States of America say things have to change.
Town Square, Cuenca, Ecuador
And no wonder. Take a look at these numbers.
Figures recently released by the Social Security Administration show that 51 percent of all U.S. workers made less than $30,000 last year. (For a frame of reference, the Federal poverty level for a family of five in the U.S. is $28,410.)
Think about that.
It means that more than half the workers in the U.S. are trying to get by on $2,500 per month — and that’s before taxes.
How do these figures translate in real life? A recent survey by the Federal Reserve puts it into perspective.
In this survey, 46 percent of U.S. adults who responded said they couldn’t cover an emergency expense of $400 without selling something or borrowing money.
Landscape of Loja, Ecuador
It also showed that 27 percent went without at least one type of needed medical or dental care during the previous year because their insurance didn’t cover it and they couldn’t afford to pay for it out of pocket.
This survey also revealed that nearly a third of non-retired adults in the U.S. have no retirement savings or pension. None.
No wonder the current candidates for president are touting the need for change.
Half the country they want to govern is now just one medical emergency, just one lost job, just one broken furnace, or cracked foundation, or unrepairable car away from official poverty.
But as far as we can tell, none of the candidates in the upcoming U.S. presidential election has said anything about these numbers. And no one we’ve talked to in the U.S. has heard any candidate clearly state a serious, detailed plan for doing anything about them.
Parque Central, Loja, Ecuador
Which leaves fully half of all U.S. workers in the lurch, hovering on the brink of poverty, without any clear plan of action from the country’s potential new leadership.
It’s not surprising, then, that we hear of so many people giving up on the idea of a decent retirement. They feel that, no matter who gets elected, they won’t be able to afford to live a happy, healthy, high-quality life when they retire. They can’t even afford to live one now.
To which we say, “You’re half right.”
You may not be able to afford a happy, healthy, high-quality life in the U.S.–but the U.S. isn’t the only place in the world to live.
We know. We’ve lived all over the world. Right now we live in a place with the most perfect weather, the freshest air and water, and the nicest people we’ve ever known.
And we do it on about $2,000 per month, all in…and that includes health insurance, utilities, and taxes.
We own our home, so rent isn’t included in this monthly total. And we don’t own a vehicle…we don’t need one where we live thanks to abundantly inexpensive public transportation. So vehicle maintenance and insurance isn’t included, either. And thanks to the perfect climate, we need neither heating nor air conditioning…ever. So that comes off the top of our budget as well. And our health insurance isn’t the least expensive we could find…we travel a lot, so we need a global policy, and this pushes our monthly expenses up a bit.
But all told, we’re living a happy, healthy, high-quality life on a budget that, in the U.S., would make us nearly poverty stricken. But where we live, in Ecuador, that budget affords us a very nice lifestyle.
And there are dozens of places around the world where thousands of other U.S. citizens are finding the same.
And they’re doing it without having to worry about who might be elected president back home. Or how healthcare in the U.S. will change over the next few years. Or how high taxes will go–or how many public services will be eliminated– for what remains of the middle class during the next administration.
We know many retirees who are living well on nothing but their Social Security checks… and as the numbers we talked about above indicate, a large percentage of U.S. retirees are facing the hard fact that Social Security may be all they have when they retire.
For folks in that situation, the option of living in a place where an average Social Security check can cover everything needed to be happy and healthy can be a literal life saver.
Calle Bolivar, Loja, Ecuador
Are these retirees living in mansions and eating caviar and driving Porsches and wearing Gucci and Prada?
Nope.
Are they living in comfortable homes and eating fresh food and getting where they need to go for a couple bucks and wearing whatever they please because the weather is so good?
Absolutely.
And they’re doing it no matter what their political beliefs happen to be…Republicans, Democrats, Independents–makes no difference out here in the world.
We’re all just trying to do the best we can and get the best quality life out of what we have.
Living and retiring abroad isn’t for everybody. It’s not even for most people. Most people will settle for the devil they know, no matter how expensive it is or what affect it has on their quality of life. And that’s fine… staying in your comfort zone can be important to a happy life, too.
But for those who can imagine living in another country, experiencing another culture, leading a different, more affordable, more relaxed lifestyle, and even purposely getting a little bit outside their usual comfort zone…the options are many and varied.
And those options don’t depend on the outcome of the next U.S. presidential election.
This article comes to us courtesy of InternationalLiving.com, the world’s leading authority on how to live, work, invest, travel, and retire better overseas.
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Earlier on Huff/Post50:
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I’m tired of doctors. I’m fed up with driving there, sitting there and filling out forms that take longer to do, than the duration of any of my illnesses. Once upon a time a visit to the doctor meant answering only a handful of questions. “How long have you felt this way? Are you allergic to Latex? Are you allergic to Penicillin? Who’s paying for this visit?”
The other day the receptionist handed me five sheets to fill out, plus two I only had to sign. One gave me the option of allowing others to know my medical background. On the other I listed people to contact in case of my death — not a way for a doctor to instill confidence in his patients, and, besides, I was only there because of a toe fungus.
Because there wasn’t room to list all of my surgeries, medications and allergies I asked the receptionist for a blank piece of paper, opened my wallet, withdrew a laundry list that included all of the required information, and copied onto the clean sheet.
Forty-five minutes later the doctor, who obviously believed his time was far more valuable than mine, was ready to see me. But I wasn’t ready for him. I still faced two sheets of questions.
My husband, Mighty Marc, is able to fill out medical forms in under five minutes. At the dermatologist’s office the nurse asked him if he had any allergies.
“No.”
Then she asked what medications he was on.
“None.”
She looked up from her desk. “You’re in your seventies and you’re not on any medications? Do you have any idea how unusual that is? You’re so fortunate.”
“It’s not really luck,” he said. “When we got married my wife and I agreed that she’d do medications, if I’d do yard work. We’ve both upheld our ends of the bargain.”
I’m not a hypochondriac. Every sickness, ache, pain and disease I have is real — at least to me. I’m concerned that when I write on my income tax return that I’ve traveled 2,800 miles to doctors this year, a red flag will be raised and I’ll be audited.
My last problem started with pressure and pain in my lower left abdomen. I tried ignoring it but when I no longer could, I visited my doctor.
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” I instructed him.
“Why?”
“Because I’m fed up with doctors.”
“Truthfully? I’m tired of patients,” he quipped.
He pressed and palpated and decided I probably had diverticuliosis, an irritated colon, a common condition in older people, but not to be ignored. He sent me for a CT Scan, which wasn’t conclusive, so he put me on an antibiotic for five days. When that didn’t help he suggested I see my gynecologist.
Uh oh!
Once home I did some research. By the time I arrived at my gynecologist’s office I was in a state of panic. I even took a Valium, from a bottle I’d had since 1960. I’m not sure the pill did anything for me, but it didn’t kill me, either, which confirmed why I’ve never been a stickler for expiration dates.
The gynecologist walked in and found me sitting on the edge of the examining table, hyperventilating. “Sit down,” I said to her. “I have some bad news.”
Her brows knotted. “What kind of bad news?”
“I don’t want to upset you, but I have ovarian cancer.”
“WHAT? And, how do you know that?”
“I read it on the internet.”
“And…everything on the internet is true, and accurate, right? Lie down and assume the position,” she ordered.
I wasn’t thrilled with her holier-than-thou attitude… and without a scintilla of compassion.
Within seconds of her physical assault she began laughing out loud.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“Honey, your ovaries have dried, died and gone to Ovary Heaven.”
“Honest? And that’s a good thing?”
“Unless you want more children. I suggest you see your gastroenterologist. Have him confirm what I believe. I feel certain it’s diverticulosis.”
I hugged her and cried tears of relief.
I left her office with prescriptions for an ultrasound, an MRI, a bone density test and a mammogram. It was then it occurred to me I’m not going to die from a common disease. I’m going to die from radiation poisoning.
Earlier on Huff/Post50:
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We woke up last Sunday morning to news of the senseless slaughter of 49 innocents at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Because many of the victims were gay, it appeared that this had been a hate crime.
It wasn’t long before the killer was identified as Omar Mateen, the American-born son of an Afghan immigrant to the United States. Law enforcement officials cautioned against any rush to judgment insisting that they were still investigating “troubling aspects” of the crime. Nevertheless, as soon as politicians, pundits, and the mainstream media heard the news of the faith of the perpetrator, they were off to the races.
Donald Trump immediately congratulated himself for “being right on “radical Islamic terrorism” and reiterated his call for a ban on Muslims coming to the US. He went further suggesting that “something was going on” with President Obama, implying that the President either knew more about the murders than he was admitting or had been derelict in his duty to stop this terrorist threat. While many Republicans expressed outrage at Trump’s “hints” of presidential culpability, it was almost universally accepted that this had been an act of “Muslim terror”. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, for example, struck out against “radical Muslims” saying “these people hate us because of who we are, and they’re going to try and kill us, and that’s what this is all about…we’ve got to hit back.”
For their part, the networks also accepted this as “fact”, devoting endless hours to nonsense chatter from “terrorism experts” who despite knowing very little about the crime in question were not going to pass up an opportunity to appear on TV. And then there were columns and commentaries galore about ISIS, violence and homophobia in Islam, what should be done to stop the “radicalization” of Muslim youth, and praise for or criticism of what the Obama Administration was or was not doing to stop the next “terrorist attack” from, as Trump and his GOP colleagues would have it, “radical Islam”.
The problem with this narrative version of the Orlando massacre is that it doesn’t hold up when we look at it more closely. Another explanation is possible.
Consider the following: Omar Mateen was a deeply disturbed man with a long record of violent and disruptive behavior and spousal abuse. He also seems to have had conflicted feelings about his sexual orientation. Mateen had frequented gay nightclubs and internet gay dating sites. The report that he recently became enraged expressing disgust when he saw two men kissing in public puts the finishing touches on what appears to be the classic portrait of a very sick individual living a lie and tormented by his own confused sexuality. Unable to resolve his inner conflict, he exploded striking out at gays because he feared that he, himself, was gay. He was destroying them because he wanted to destroy that part of himself.
Seen in this light, the despicable senseless mass murder in Orlando would have little or nothing to do with Islam or “radicalization”. ISIS, it appears, was only used by the murderer in an effort to “cover his tracks”–that is to say, to mask his true motivation. ISIS didn’t lead him to this act of mass homicide. They didn’t train him or inspire him. In some of his communications, Mateen conflated ISIS with Hizbollah demonstrating that he either didn’t understand or didn’t care to understand that group’s demented ideology. His final message, pledging loyalty to ISIS, would be his final act of denial. He was lying to himself and the world about who he was and why he did what he did. Being the despicable group that they are, ISIS proudly embraced the sick murderer’s claim of allegiance.
A conversation about a man driven to an insane act of mass murder because he was unable to reconcile himself to his sexual inclination might not have served the perverse purposes of Donald Trump or our political/media culture. Such a discussion might not have been good for ratings and wouldn’t have played on the public’s fear of Muslims or create rage against President Obama.
It should be noted that there were many stories that needed to be told after Orlando–all of which were ignored or given short shrift. In the first place, despite the outpouring of support for the victims of the massacre, gays remain vulnerable to hate crimes and the disgraceful intolerance demonstrated by traditionalists of all stripes (MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, for example, played videotapes of two Baptist preachers expressing the delight that 49 were killed!). It is likely that it was this fear of being rejected and stigmatized that may have festered inside of Mateen finally exploding in his deranged act.
And then there is the issue of assault weapons. It should be clear that it is the very availability of these instruments of death that is responsible for the epidemic of devastating mass killings in the US. These weapons are not for hunters; they are for murderers. They should be banned.
And finally, we need to carefully examine our terminology. If Mateen had been a Christian, like the Charleston slayer, would we have termed the killings “terrorism”? Would the media have indulged itself in an examination about “what’s wrong with Christianity”? Would we have called for surveillance of everyone with a Confederate flag license plate? The assumption that a murder by a Muslim is fundamentally different is not only wrong-headed, it keeps us from more closely examining the deeper problem of mass killings and their causes.
Follow @AAIUSA for more.
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Tibetan nomads who once eked out a living as farmers or yak-herders have found a lucrative new business in recent years — caterpillar fungus.
Also known as cordyceps, the fungus grows on caterpillars, killing and mummifying them underground before growing a stalk that can be picked like a mushroom in spring. The fungus is relatively rare, but flourishes in the high altitudes and low temperatures of the Tibetan Plateau.
The fungus has been popular for centuries as a traditional cure for ailments ranging from asthma to impotence. But demand has skyrocketed as China’s middle class expands, says Getty photojournalist Kevin Frayer.
“The insatiable demand in the last decade for use in Chinese medicine has driven the prices to a point where good quality fungus can be worth more than their weight in gold,” Frayer told The WorldPost in an email.
Frayer, who is documenting the lives of nomadic Tibetan communities for an ongoing project, said everyone he met kept talking about the annual harvest, so he went along last month.
“The mountains of Tibet are vast and many of the places the cordyceps fungus are harvested from are quite remote … so you need to trek in and climb to access the areas,” he said. “The landscape is incredible and exceptionally beautiful but the terrain is also hard and unforgiving.”
The harvest usually lasts one month in May and June, and has become a major part of the region’s economy.
Many Tibetan nomads have given up on traditional trades in favor of the annual caterpillar fungus “gold rush,” Frayer explained.
“For millennia they have been yak and livestock herders living off the land, but now more and more people are relying on the fungus to pay their bills,” he said. “The harvest gives these communities [a] chance to make in weeks what normally might take a year or more.”
The trouble is, it’s getting harder and harder to hunt down the caterpillar fungus, which can’t grow fast enough to keep up with Chinese appetites. Tibetan nomads told Frayer that the yield from this year’s harvest was the lowest they’d ever seen. Environmentalists have also warned about the long-term impact of the harvest on the sensitive environment of the Tibetan Plateau.
Meanwhile, prices for the fungus are falling, and harvesters fear China’s crackdown on corruption could hurt demand for the product as a high-value gift for officials. A recent health warning about arsenic levels in caterpillar fungus products is a further headache for cordyceps hunters.
“The locals know it’s a false economy, or at least temporary in many ways — one Tibetan man referred to the fungus as “fool’s gold” and he worried that one day they will be worthless,” Frayer said.
One day when he was documenting the harvest, Frayer said, the altitude started to get to him and he laid down for a nap. “As I dozed off, I felt a nudge from a man picking cordyceps fungus nearby. He told me it is bad luck to fall asleep in the mountains,” he recalled. “‘It might anger the mountain gods,’ he told me, ‘and that would be bad for all of us.’”
See more of Kevin Frayer’s photos from the cordyceps harvest below.
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By Adèle Charbonneau
Cities around the world have been experimenting participatory processes – in peace building, mapping, and ensuring women’s safety, for example. Such approaches have the advantages of involving the very people concerned with the issues at stake. Yet, it does require important training, pedagogy and follow up as the communities are not always familiar with the tools or the methods used. Learn from four cities in Latin America and India where community-based approaches have been implemented on a diverse range of topics.
According to Jorge Bela, preparing for the post-conflict period is perhaps the most significant challenge that Colombia currently faces. Cali, a city highly vulnerable to problems due to its geographical proximity to large areas still under guerrilla control, has paid particular attention to this issue. One municipal initiative in Cali is the “peace awards.” These awards include both individual (Vecinos Calidosos award) and community-led initiatives (Iniciativas Comunitarias award). Participation in the program is open to victims of the armed conflicts and to other individuals or collectives at social risk. The Red Cross also runs the Un Camino Hacia la Paz program which is designed to support the Potrero Grande neighborhood (a planned community built to house some of the people displaced by the conflict). Another interesting initiative led by the Asesoría de Paz was the painting of 29 facades and one bus station by demobilized former combatants.
In Bangalore, community-based approaches have been used by the Participatory Aquifer Mapping (PAQM) project to understand aquifers at a micro-level, include citizens in the process, and develop “actionable knowledge” that encourages practices for sustainable groundwater management. PAQM is a collaborative project, gathering various organizations Biome Environmental Trust (Biome), a Bengaluru-based organization working in the space of sustainable water and sanitation; hydrogeologists from Pune; Mapunity, a software team from Bengaluru; and financial assistance from Wipro technologies private limited as part of the company’s sustainability initiatives. The team has achieved a preliminary understanding of the aquifers in the region. However, Aditi Hastak highlights the challenge of communicating these results to the community in an intelligible way, so that the community benefits and this knowledge doesn’t become a mere academic exercise but rather an actionable resource.
In Mumbai, Ashali Bhandari talks about initiatives like Society for Nutrition, Education & Health Action’s (SNEHA) Little Sister Project and Safe City, which crowd source data on gender-based violence to reduce crimes against women. The Little Sister Project provides women in Dharavi with technology, enabling them to record and map reported cases of violence in the hope of circumventing under reporting. Since June 2014, over 1,000 cases of violence have been reported, averaging at 60 cases every month. On a larger scale, Safecity emerged as a platform for women to report incidents of sexual violence in public spaces in urban India. Along with details about specific incidents, women now have the ability to geotag crimes, creating a map of “hotspots” to identify zones of harassment. Over the last three years, more than 7,500 experiences have been documented on the platform.
In another field, Felipe Villela presents the first Social Participative Research of Street People, made by the homeless themselves in Sao Paulo. It took almost 170 interviews and more than 500 informal chats to know what homelessness is really like in the city. The research was requested by the StreetPop Committee, a participatory forum with civil society and public agencies delegates linked to the Municipal Secretariat for Human Rights and Citizenship. The Committee helped in selecting the homeless researchers. Every day for eight months, 10 researchers took part in psychoanalyses groups, field work planning advising, and interview techniques workshops with professional journalists. Afterwards, they went back rambling about the streets to research. Among the 13 homeless researchers initially selected only seven managed to finish the job. Now, the ones that stayed were invited to join the municipality’s Work Opportunities Program. They will earn a year grant to develop solidarity economy projects.
These articles presented initiatives from around the world to help foster innovative bottom-up solutions successfully. Check out more of the discussion on urban poverty and bottom-up approaches on URB.im and contribute to the debate.
Photo credits: Biome Environmental Trust and Caio Palazzo for Ponte
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On Father’s Day, dad deserves a classic meat-and-potatoes meal he can sink his teeth into. From Steakhouse Burgers with Grilled Baby Potatoes to Italian Meatloaf with Parmesan Smashed Potatoes, these hearty recipes are sure to win dad’s heart.
1. Grilled Spice-Rubbed Beef Tenderloin with Chimichurri
A specialty of Argentina, chimichurri is a tangy, zesty condiment made from fresh herbs, olive oil, vinegar and garlic — almost like a cross between vinaigrette and pesto. Here, it pairs beautifully with spice-rubbed beef tenderloin filets. GET THE RECIPE
These foolproof burgers are tender, juicy and full of flavor — just like the ones served at dad’s favorite steakhouse. GET THE RECIPE
3. Grilled Baby Potatoes with Dijon Mustard & Herbs
These baby potatoes are boldly flavored with a thick Dijon mustard marinade, and then grilled until crispy and charred. GET THE RECIPE
4. Grilled Flank Steak with Garlic and Rosemary
Marinated in garlic, rosemary and olive oil, this flank steak is perfect for entertaining. You can make the marinade in the morning and let the meat soak up its flavor all day — come dinnertime, all that’s left to do is fire up the grill. GET THE RECIPE
In this decadent side dish, thinly sliced potatoes are layered with heavy cream and grated cheese, and then baked until the cream reduces and blankets the potatoes in a rich, creamy sauce. Definitely special occasion-worthy! GET THE RECIPE
5. Easy Slow-Baked Boneless BBQ Short Ribs
Dad will love these meltingly tender short ribs slow-cooked in a sweet and tangy barbecue sauce. And here’s the best part: only 15 minutes of prep work and the oven does the rest. GET THE RECIPE
6. Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Maple & Thyme
In this easy recipe, sweet potatoes are mashed with butter, maple syrup and thyme to bring out their sweet, earthy flavor. GET THE RECIPE
This meatloaf is basically one big giant meatball, only it has a lot more flavor and is a lot less work. Always a man-pleaser! GET THE RECIPE
This rustic version of mashed potatoes is easy to make: simply boil a few pounds of baby red potatoes, smash them with a fork, and then mix them with butter, Parmesan cheese and seasonings. GET THE RECIPE
9. Broiled Asian-Style Flat Iron Steak
Flat iron steak is similar to flank or skirt steak, only much more tender — in fact, after the tenderloin, it’s the second most tender cut. Here, it’s broiled and topped with a rich Asian-style brown sauce. GET THE RECIPE
Dad will love these turkey burgers. They’re made with Italian turkey sausage — a trick often used with meatballs — which amps up the flavor and makes them incredibly juicy. GET THE RECIPE
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Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign will maintain staff in all 50 states during the general election with an eye toward overwhelming Republicans in the fall and rebuilding the Democratic Party’s infrastructure thereafter.
The strategy, described to The Huffington Post by Clinton campaign aides, is a continuation of the Ramp Up Grassroots Organizing program that the campaign applied to the Democratic primary. But unlike that approach — which had the immediate objective of competing with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in each state contest — the current one carries risk.
Many states in which Clinton will be employing staff and spending resources will almost assuredly vote against her anyway. She could end up wasting money that is needed to win swing states. But her staffers say the investment is well worth it.
“This is something that needs to happen every presidential cycle. It needs to be sustained. And I think if we continue to do that, we will help build the party long-term,” said Marlon Marshall, the Clinton team’s director of state campaigns and political engagement. “I truly believe we have a historic candidacy with Secretary Clinton, and we can use this opportunity to bring more people into the party.”
Democrats have long been divided over the efficacy of a 50-state strategy. When he took over the Democratic National Committee following the 2004 election, Howard Dean implemented an across-the-map approach to rebuilding the party, arguing that Democrats could only regain a foothold in lost territory if they put people there. Congressional leadership bristled, arguing that resources were better spent on toss-up races and not unwinnable contests in Mississippi or Alaska.
Amid the celebratory mood following the party’s gains in the 2006 election, those tensions spilled out in public. Dean was accused of “Rumsfeldian” incompetence for not capturing even more congressional seats. He and his defenders noted that the party had just taken back the Senate and the House.
Dean stayed on at the DNC. Two years later, he found the ideal vessel for his vision. The presidential candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) brought voter excitement, greater turnout and tangible investments in states that aren’t traditionally Democratic strongholds. Obama not only won big over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), but Democrats expanded their control of both chambers of Congress.
But that proved to be a high-water mark. Since then, the party has lost control of the House and Senate, 12 governorships and more than 900 state legislative seats. Privately, Democratic officials have grumbled that the only elections Obama concerned himself with were his own. Obama’s allies have countered that his grassroots organizing efforts helped produce legislative wins.
Clinton has a different mindset on these matters than the man she’s hoping to succeed. It is, in some respects, an extension of her lengthy history in the party, from her time in state government (as first lady of Arkansas) to her role at the White House and her tenure in the Senate. Aides say she recognizes how much thinner the Democratic bench has become over the last seven years — having seen longtime allies lose their seats — and wants the trend reversed.
“I think it is important to lay a foundation for the future,” said Marshall, who has worked in the Obama administration and pushed Dean’s 50-state strategy as an organizing staff member in Kansas in 2005. “State House members are going to be your next folks running for Congress or running for governor, and one of them may be your next president of the United States.”
Clinton’s approach is also born from a belief that institutions, more than personalities, form the basis for political progress — that even the most moving rhetoric runs up against the procedural rules of the House and Senate.
“The 50-state strategy worked. It gave us the majorities in the House and the Senate, and then it was abandoned because Obama chose to go with OFA [Organizing For Action], which did not work, and the DNC scaled way back on it,” Dean, a supporter of and consultant to Clinton’s campaign, told HuffPost. “But I’m very pleased it is going to be rebuilt. I think they totally get that her legacy depends on having a Democratic Congress and that she has to start now.”
The Clinton campaign isn’t Pollyannaish about how a 50-state strategy will work. No one expects Oklahoma to be overrun with Democrats by November. But as her team and others see it, the benefits to having an expansive staff network are more immediate than flipping control of local chambers.
“From a tactical perspective, this is going to be enormous for the Clinton campaign,” said Mitch Stewart, founding partner of 270 Strategies and the battleground states director for the 2012 Obama campaign. He noted that an organizer in a traditionally Republican state could generate a network of volunteers who could be used to get out the vote in critical swing states.
“You are generating capacity,” Stewart said. “Even if you have one person in Mississippi, voter contact ramps up the closer you get to the election, like a hockey stick. Let’s say that one person has organized 10 phone banks. They will be generating phone calls all day. It won’t turn that state blue because one person is there. But that volume will have an impact elsewhere.”
Already, Clinton has made moves to put her plan into action. Her campaign has begun overhauling the DNC, with a lingering question of whether she will keep its current chair, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), in place.
Her approach has the notable side effect of placating Sanders, who argued this past week that the party “had turned its back on dozens of states in this country,” allowing “right-wing politicians to win elections in some states with virtually no opposition.”
Clinton enjoys the benefit of having to add relatively few personnel for the general election. Many in-state staffers simply remained in place after their primary or caucus concluded. Their focus will now shift slightly toward organizing general election volunteers, hosting events, mobilizing turnout and registering voters. In time, the hope is, that work will provide the foundation for a President Clinton’s governing agenda.
“It can definitely be difficult in a state like Oklahoma to engage in a general election,” Nicole McAfee, Clinton’s Oklahoma organizer, told HuffPost. “In the primary, it was a little different. But we have some really good volunteers. I want to see Oklahoma and Oklahoma Democrats feel stronger and more engaged in every election. It’s a long-term project, but it is an incredibly important one.”
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Cities have grown at such a rapid pace in the last few decades, it’s easy to forget that the world has been urbanizing for thousands of years.
New data from researchers at Yale University turns a piecemeal historical record into a comprehensive and accessible dataset of urban population figures since 3,700 B.C. Independently, Metrocosm blogger Max Galka used their data to map the rise of cities, showing a few thousand years of population changes in his three-minute video.
In Galka’s video, you can see how much urbanization has sped up, from cities slowly appearing in earlier years, primarily located in the Middle East, to the dizzying expansion around the world in the last hundred years. The map marks the date of the earliest recorded population figure for each city, and dot size reflects relative population size, according to Galka’s Metrocosm post.
The data Galka used comes from “Spatializing 6,000 Years of Global Urbanization from 3700 B.C. to A.D. 2000,” published by the journal Scientific Data earlier this month. The study was conducted by Meredith Reba, a research associate at Yale University’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, along with Karen Seto, a Yale professor, and Femke Reitsma, a senior lecturer at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.
They combed through two massive tomes of historical population figures, digitizing, combining and geotagging over 10,000 data entries for more than 1,700 cities.
Their data, however, has multiple limitations — for example, their sources differ on whether suburbs should be considered in cities’ population totals. Some regions aren’t well represented in the data, and some cities are missing population figures for long stretches of time. But even with some inconsistencies and gaps, the expansive dataset could be a valuable resource for further study of cities.
Reba told The Huffington Post she found it most fascinating to see the large declines in population resulting from natural disasters and human conflict like the Crusades.
“To better understand urbanization today it is helpful to know what urbanization looked like through history,” she said in a statement. “By understanding how cities have grown and changed over time, throughout history, it might tell us something useful about how they are changing today.”
This graphic shows the date of the first recorded population figures for each city in the data set the Yale University researchers used. Cities with the oldest data are in red. (The earliest population data figure could be later than when the city began, the researchers note.)
The impact of rapid urbanization on the planet is a crucial topic. Cities consume more energy and produce more emissions than non-urban areas, heavily contributing to climate change. Urban expansion is having a major impact on the natural world, paving over important wildlife biodiversity areas and farmland, according to Science Magazine. The new data may give researchers a fuller picture of the relationship between human settlements and the physical environment.
More than half the world’s population now lives in urban areas, according to the United Nations, though Seto recently challenged that figure. She told Undark Magazine last month that it includes small towns and suburbs that don’t match the typical image of an urban place.
Reba, Reitsma and Seto write in their paper that the definition of an urban area varies not only between their data sets, but by historical period and country — a 200-person settlement qualifies as urban in Norway, they note, while in Japan the threshold for an urban area is 50,000 people. But, they write, there is one thing that remains consistent in the definition of cities, that also helps explain their growth:
“Urban areas are often associated with a higher quality of life than non-urban places, manifested through more opportunities and more services.”
Kate Abbey-Lambertz covers sustainable cities, housing and inequality. Tips? Feedback? Send an email or follow her on Twitter.
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It took two whole years after President Abraham Lincoln declared the abolition of slavery on January 1, 1863, for the end of one of the darkest chapters in American history to take hold.
The Emancipation Proclamation marked the end of the legalized institution of slavery in America, but in the small town of Galveston Island, Texas, black slaves had been carrying on their lives of bondage and subjugation, oblivious to the fact that they were actually free.
On June 19th, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger and his band of Union soldiers (who had been traveling throughout the South for two years spreading the word) arrived at Galveston Island to tell the last remaining slaves in the United States that they were finally free.
The day became known as “Juneteenth,” a kind of Independence Day for African-Americans, a day of celebration and remembrance. Juneteenth is a state holiday in Texas, and is officially celebrated in 43 states in America, usually with parades, barbecues and memorial ceremonies.
But Juneteenth isn’t recognized as a federal holiday (though attempts have been made), and for that reason few people get to publicly celebrate it or are even aware of its existence and legacy. And that’s a shame, because Juneteenth is an opportunity for black people to truly celebrate all that they’ve overcome through the power of community.
Below are photos of Juneteenth celebrations across the country, over the years, that capture the beauty of the holiday:
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