Article Alert

January / Feburary 2009

ALERT, a monthly publication of the Information Resource Center at the American Center for Educational Exchange, offers abstracts of current articles in major areas of U.S. domestic or international affairs. Full-text articles are available to you upon request. To request articles, please contact the Information Resource Center by telephone , fax, e-mail ircacee@state.gov, or by mail. To request by mail, please circle the articles you wish to receive, include your name, address, and telephone number and return this list to us.  DISCLAIMER: articles and links to non-U.S. government Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein.

The Rule of Law

1. AGENCIES STRUGGLING TO MAKE CONNECTIONS ONLINE
Herbert, David
National Journal, February 2, 2009

President Obama wants government agencies to be more transparent and communicate more with their audiences online. Many agencies have been using social-networking media long before Obama's directives, but with little success, the author says. Bureaucratic inefficiency and outdated and inflexible laws are partially to blame, Herbert writes, but "the biggest problem facing most agencies isn't the trap of outdated regulations but the failure to attract an audience." The article examines how web managers need to think about how to use Web 2.0 tools, not just to use them for the sake of using them. It also examines how the successful government social networking sites are the ones that allow an open discussion. Currently available online at http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/no_20090126_4207.php

2. INSIDE THE PRESIDENCY
Bumiller, Elisabeth
National Geographic, January 2009

Although the occupant of the White House changes, most of the routines for the staff that assist the president stay the same. Bumiller gives an inside look at life in the White House or on the road with the president; she interviews Gary Walters, former chief usher of the Executive Mansion, who served as a manager of the White House for 31 years, spanning six presidencies. A staff of 90, including butlers, maids, chefs, elevator operators, florists, carpenters and electricians, runs the White House residence, which has been known to welcome up to 30,000 guests in a single week. The White House staff knows how the first family wants their bedrooms set up, what snacks they like, what toothpaste they use. But these perks come at a price -- first families foot the bill for personal items such as food and dry cleaning. In the article Joe Hagin, former deputy chief of staff in charge of operations, describes what it is like traveling on the road or on the plane with the president. He describes Air Force One as equipped with beds, exercise equipment and a fully functioning kitchen. He explains that the president travels with a contingent of hundreds overseas, but typically is in a "bubble" surrounded by close staffers and Secret Service agents. Available online at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2009/01/president/bumiller-text

3. JUSTIFYING THE USE OF FORCE IN A POST-9/11 WORLD: STRIVING FOR HIERARCHY IN INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY
Kerton-Johnson, Nicholas
International Affairs, Vol. 84, no. 5, September 2008, pp. 991-1007

The author, lecturer at the University of Bristol (UK), argues that, following 9/11, the United States has sought to unilaterally replace the international community as the guarantor and definer of global values. Although President Bush could have sought justification for the war in Afghanistan by using international law arguments, his administration largely used what Kerton-Jones calls an "egoist morality" such as promoting the spread of American freedom and democracy verses the evils of terrorism in the run-up to war. In Iraq, "egoist morality" again was prominent, with statements portraying the United States as standing up to global security threats and assisting those aspiring to greater freedom in contrast to perceived inaction by the United Nations. In both cases, the Bush administration's arguments for war were targeting the American public, rather than seeking international legitimacy. References to human rights abuses by the Taliban and Saddam Hussein were more for the purpose of demonization than justification, Kerton-Johnson argues.

4. POWER AND INTERESTS AT THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
Hawkins, Darren
SAIS Review, Vol. 28, No. 2, Summer-Fall 2008, pp. 107-119

According to Hawkins, associate professor of political science at Brigham Young University, the ICC should probably best turn its attention to training judges in developing countries with a weak institution of the rule of law. More effective and less costly ways exist to pursue justice in any single country than those used by the ICC, which lacks the money and force to arrest suspects and try them. The U.S. experience with the ICC has focused on punishing the mostly small countries that cooperated with the court; the United States would do better to press this listless organization into the service of countries struggling with or transitioning to democracy. Currently available online at http://www.muse.uq.edu.au/journals/sais_review/v028/28.2.hawkins.pdf

5. A SEE-THROUGH SOCIETY
Sifry, Micah
Columbia Journalism Review, vol. 47, no. 5, January-February 2009, pp. 43-48

The public reaction to the Congressional emergency bailout legislation in September 2008 was overwhelming; an unprecedented number of e-mails crashed the House of Representatives web site, and several independent web sites that track Congressional activity were swamped. That explosion of public engagement online, Sifry says, signals "the beginning of a new age of political transparency. As more people go online to find, create, and share vital political information with one another ... and as the tools for analyzing data and connecting people become more powerful and easier to use, politics and governance alike are inexorably becoming more open. Citizens will have more opportunity at all levels of government to take an active part in understanding and participating in the democratic decisions that affect their lives." City governments are leading the way; the District of Columbia, for example, since 2006 has put online all the raw data it has collected on government operations, education, health care, crime, and other topics on the CapStat online service. The new Obama administration has expressed a commitment to expanding government transparency with online databases. Currently available online at http://www.cjr.org/transparency/a_see-through_society.php

Economics and Trade

6. THE BIG FIX
Leonhardt, David
New York Times Magazine, February 1, 2009, pp. 22-29, 48//51

The author discusses the biggest challenge for the Obama administration in bringing the economy back to life. The economy will recover, but it is likely to get significantly worse over the course of 2009, no matter what President Obama and the Congress do. Washington will not merely be given the task of pulling the economy out of the crisis, but in putting in on a more sustainable path. Leonhardt notes that private-sector investment in research and infrastructure hasn't changed much since the 1950s, and investment by government has even dropped. Effective stimulus, the center of the present debate in Congress now, means simply spending money quickly. The author notes that "pork", favored projects by legislators for their home districts, will not transform the economy; what will accomplish that is education, which helps a society multiply every other investment it makes, be it in medicine, transportation or alternative energy. Leonhardt notes that
the U.S. has significant capacity to expand and sell Treasury debt; without that, the economy would be in even more dire straits. He notes that the norms of the last two decades -- consume before investing, worry about the short term more than the long term -- have been detrimental to our economic standing. Currently available online at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/magazine/01Economy-t.html

7. THE GREAT COLLEGE HOAX
Kristof, Kathy
Forbes, February 2, 2009

Misguided easy-money policies have encouraged the masses to go into debt to get a higher education, Kristof says. "While the premium that college grads earn over high-schoolers has remained relatively constant over the past five years, the cost of acquiring a degree has risen at twice the rate of inflation, dramatically undermining any value a sheepskin adds," she writes. Many college grads will work for more than a decade to pay off their student loans and many students have fallen victim to fraudulent lending practices. For those young people (and there are many) who don't finish college, the situation is worse: they are stuck with the burden of student loans without benefit of the wages a college degree can provide. Currently available online at
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0202/060.html

8. THE REAL PRICE OF GOLD
Larmer, Brook
National Geographic, January 2009, pp. 34-61

Humanity's attachment to gold is experiencing a frenetic resurgence, as global economic uncertainty fuels demand for gold, its price having having driven to unprecedented levels. The author writes that demand for gold in 2007 outstripped mine production by almost 60 percent. Although investors are flocking to gold-backed funds or buying gold for investment, two-thirds of the demand for gold is for jewelry, with India far and away the biggest consumer of gold. Only 161,000 tons of gold have ever been mined, but half of that has been in the last fifty years; all the richest deposits are being rapidly depleted, and most of the remaining deposits are traces in remote and ecologically fragile regions. Larmer writes that modern gold mining is highly environmentally destructive, resulting in huge swaths of rainforest being cleared, mountains of tailings and widespread mercury contamination; the rush for gold is fueling conflicts in many
developing nations. Currently available online at
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/01/gold/larmer-text

9. WARNING: MORE DOOM AHEAD
Roubini, Nouriel
Foreign Policy, January/February 2009

The author writes that "last year's worst-case scenarios came true," and that the global financial pandemic that he and others had warned about has arrived. This year portends the credit crunch getting worse, as the deleveraging continues and asset prices continue to fall. The U.S. will experience its worst recession in decades, and some developing economies will experience a full-blown financial crisis, and may need external financing to avoid a meltdown. Roubini notes that this crisis is not only the result of the collapse of the U.S. housing market or of abuses in subprime mortgage lending -- the credit excesses were global, amounting to "the biggest asset and credit bubble in human history." He notes that drastic actions in the last year by the G-7 and others averted a total systemic meltdown, but that "the worst is not behind us ... only very aggressive, coordinated, and effective action by policymakers will ensure that 2010 will not be even worse than 2009 is likely to be." This is the first of a five-article series in this issue of FP magazine, called THE WORST IS YET TO COME, and can be found online at http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4590

10. WHERE WILL THE GROWTH COME FROM?
Mauldin, John
Investors Insight, posted February 9, 2009

In a guest posting, financial-services executive Louis-Vincent Gave notes that multinational companies following a new business model should emerge with great success from the current economic turmoil. These companies have retained knowledge-intensive design and distribution tasks in-house while outsourcing low value-added manufacturing tasks to developing countries, have worked to create new products and new markets, and have piled up cash. This preparation should allow them to take advent age of the current dislocations in the global economy to increase their efficiencies even further. "Globalization is far from dead," Gave says, "and the companies that are positioning themselves today to reap its rewards will be the winners of tomorrow."Currently available online at http://www.investorsinsight.com/blogs/john_mauldins_outside_the_box/archive/2009/02/09/where-will-the-growth-come-from.aspx

Global Issues / Environment

11. BACK TO THE FUTURE
Poole, Gary Andrew
Columbia Journalism Review, vol. 47, no. 5, January/February 2009, pp. 19-21

Sports, both professional and amateur, have a prominent place in American life. The author, a free-lance sportswriter, writes that the craft of sports writing has declined, but believes that it can recapture its relevance. In the 1920s, the New Yorker published a piece that declared sports a "trivial enterprise" involving "second-rate people and their second-rate dreams and emotions." The magazine went on to concede, however, that the quality of writing in the sports pages was superior to that in the news columns. Since the mid-1990s, two forces have diminished classic sports writing. First, television coverage has expanded, making hype and the sensational aspects of sports dominant. ESPN became a cultural and media juggernaut, rendering game recaps and box scores in the next day's newspapers obsolete. The web, meanwhile, did to sports writing what it has done to journalism more broadly: carved up the audience and exacerbated the "more-faster-
better" mindset that cable TV began. Currently available online at http://www.cjr.org/essay/back_to_the_future_1.php

12. 'FATHER OF THE INTERNET' SEEKS EXPANSIVE ROLE FOR CTO
Poulson, Theresa
National Journal, December 22, 2008

Poulson interviews Google Vice President Vinton Cerf about what he envisions a chief technology officer (CTO) could do in the Obama administration. Obama has said he would create this position, the first for a presidential administration, but little specifics are available about what this person would do. Cerf said that while "it's not an easy job to define" he thinks there are a lot of ways a CTO could not only improve American technology but contribute to improving the American economy by creating jobs through investments in infrastructure. Cerf said a CTO could reinvigorate broadband infrastructure, improve cyber security and explore how information technology can improve energy efficiency. Currently available online at http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/ii_20081222_1389.php

13. "FRIGHTSIZING" NEWSPAPERS: WHAT DERAILED THE AMERICAN
NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY?
Doctor, Ken
Global Journalist, Vol. 14, no. 3, Fall 2008, pp. 22-27

The decline of the U.S. newspaper industry has been so dramatic that rather than using terms like "downsizing" or ""rightsizing," Doctor coins the term "frightsizing." The news remains glum for those inside the industry, with shrinking advertising revenue and share prices and increased job losses. The transition online has been difficult and newspapers are finding that despite their declining audience, it takes an average of 20 online readers to generate the ad revenue of one print reader. Yet, online news sources are easily stepping in to take their place and newsreaders today spend the same amount of time taking in news as they did a decade ago from print sources. In the current confusing phase of transition, questions of journalistic trustworthiness and credibility have arisen, but so has a newfound energy. "We can't see this new world in great clarity," Doctor concludes, "but we can see its contours." Currently available online at http://www.globaljournalist.org/content/emprint/2008_fall.pdf

14. POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE
Gurwitt, Rob
Governing, January, 2009

Gurwitt discusses the decline of statehouse journalism. As media outlets struggle to stay afloat in a weak economy, coverage of state legislatures faces severe cuts. For example, Gurwitt notes that the Hartford Courant (Connecticut) used to have a dozen reporters covering state agencies, but today they have only one; with such limited staff, coverage of important legislative and budget issues has disappeared. The author talks with current and former statehouse reporters who discuss
the current state of statehouse journalism. Currently available online at http://www.governing.com/articles/0901pressc.htm

15. SILENT SERVANTS
--
Asia-Pacific Defense Forum, vol. 33, no. 3, Third Quarter 2008, pp. 44-51

Trafficking in people is the modern-day form of slavery, the world's third most profitable organized crime which principally targets women and children, and one of the fastest-growing criminal activities. Trafficking victims are typically defrauded or coerced into the sex services industries or into situations where their labor is exploited. Traffickers often rely on the confiscation of travel documents to exercise control over a victim. Between 600,000-800,000 people annually are transported across borders worldwide, including 14,500-17,500 persons into the United States alone. The U.S. is committed to putting an end to human trafficking; the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP) provides the tools to combat trafficking in persons and assists in the coordination of anti-trafficking efforts, and its annual Trafficking in Persons Report serves as the primary diplomatic tool through which the U.S. Government encourages partnership and increased determination in the fight against human trafficking. Another effort is the U.N. Convention against Transnational Crime. Currently available online at http://forum.apan-info.net/2008-3rd_quarter/APDF-Threat-Final.pdf

16. THINK AGAIN: CLIMATE CHANGE
Mckibben, Bill
Foreign Policy, January/February 2009

Noted author Bill McKibben writes that it may be too late to avert climate change, but that it is imperative that the international political order stop delaying and adopt the few options humanity has left. He notes that there is no doubt left among the scientific community that global warming is a reality; many scientists feel that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest report is too conservative. The claims that agriculture will improve in some regions as frost recedes may hold true for a while, but eventually the threat of heat stress and drought will be global. Solving the climate crisis is no longer an option, as human activities have already raised the global temperature by a degree; all we can do is mitigate its worst aspects. Coordinating this effort with every country on earth will be "far and away the biggest foreign-policy challenge we face." Available online at http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4585&page=0

17. WHY I BLOG
Sullivan, Andrew
Atlantic Monthly, November, 2008

Sullivan describes the evolution of his blogging, which he began in 2000. He describes not knowing what to write about at first, but eventually discovering that writing a blog was similar to writing an e-mail. "You end up writing about yourself, since you are a relatively fixed point in this constant interaction with the ideas and facts of the exterior world. And in this sense, the historic form closest to blogs is the diary. But with this difference: a diary is almost always a private matter," Sullivan writes. He describes blogs as a publication with a deadline at all times. "There is a vividness to this immediacy that cannot be rivaled by print," he says. Sullivan says he was quickly hooked on blogging because its unfiltered process was "liberating," but it also came with more direct criticism from readers. But the readers also become news sources, changing the way reporting works. Sullivan's article outlines the many challenges he has faced and lessons he
has learned from this new medium. Currently available online at http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/andrew-sullivan-why-i-blog

Regional Security

18. BUSH'S STEALTH UNITED NATIONS POLICY
Schlesinger, Stephen
World Policy Journal, vol. 25, no. 2, Summer 2008, pp. 1-9

Schlesinger, adjunct fellow at the Century Foundation, reviews relations between the United States and the United Nations during the Bush administration. Bush established an official and ongoing relationship with the U.N. and delivered a speech at the opening session of each U.N. General Assembly. As the most important organ of the U.N., the Security Council determines what the U.N. will do on all peace and war issues. During the Bush era, the U.S. has been an active player on almost every Security Council proceeding and it has become a much-utilized tool in America's diplomatic kit during the Bush administration. In the future, U.S. participation in the U.N. is likely to continue on the course that has been set by the Bush administration: American participation in the Security Council, continued U.S. funding of the U.N. and its agencies, and a strong American presence in the U.N. system. Currently available online at http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/wopj.2008.25.2.1

19. COOLING DOWN THE NEW COLD WAR: HOW PRESIDENT OBAMA SHOULD MANAGE RUSSIA
Idov, Michael
New Republic, online, December 9, 2009

The author offers advice to the incoming Obama administration on likely flashpoints in relations with Moscow, which since the November elections has been stepping up provocative acts, such as an uptick in Anti-American propaganda, threats to deploy new short-range missiles, naval tours in Latin America and overtures to regimes hostile to Washington. The author welcomes NATO's decision to defer membership consideration for Ukraine and Georgia. He recommends that the Obama administration take a go-slow approach to this initiative and allow Russia to take a stronger role in nuclear negotiations with Iran, but that Washington join with Norway and Canada to strongly resist Moscow's attempted claims in the Arctic. Obama's charisma could also serve as a force multiplier for soft power, and the author urges him to consider a tour in Russia, which could go a long way toward repairing America's image and repudiate the Kremlin's hostile rhetoric. Currently available online at http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=a6ddceef-c50d-4b27-bbd1-1b2b65b53aa6

20. THE GENERAL'S NEXT WAR
Glasser, Susan
Foreign Policy, no. 170, January-February 2009, pp. 48-50

Foreign Policy executive editor Susan Glasser interviewed General David Petraeus shortly after he assumed control of the U.S. Central Command. He told her that the challenges of Afghanistan cannot be addressed adequately without also addressing Pakistan's requirements. Nations that want to help Afghanistan, the general said, should look well beyond the region to include India, Iran, China and Russia. Speaking as a military strategist, Petraeus said the tactics and procedures that were used in Iraq successfully cannot be imported wholesale to Afghanistan. For one thing, Afghans are not able to watch television like the Iraqis and Afghanistan doesn't have the literacy rate of Iraq. He advocates communicating with the Afghans via local radio broadcasts, tribal elders and shura councils. He also emphasized the importance of creating a climate to promote reconciliation in Afghanistan, although it will likely be a different process than that which was employed in Iraq. Currently available online at http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4587&page=3

21. IRREGULAR WARFARE: NEW CHALLENGES FOR CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS
Cronin, Patrick
Strategic Forum (National Defense University), No. 234, October 2008, pp. 1-12

Cronin, Director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, notes that success in the highly political and ambiguous conflicts likely to dominate the global security environment in the coming decades will require a framework that balances the relationships between civilian and military leaders and makes the most effective use of their different strengths. These challenges are expected to require better integrated, whole-of-government approaches, the cooperation of host governments and allies, and strategic patience. A third significant challenge is how to forge integrated strategies and approaches. Professional relationships, not organizational fixes, are vital to succeeding in irregular war. In this sense, the push for new doctrine for the military and civilian leadership is a step in the right direction to clarifying the conflated lanes of authority. Currently available online at http://www.ndu.edu/inss/Strforum/SF234/SF234.pdf

22. THE MAKING OF GEORGE W. OBAMA
Brose, Christian
Foreign Policy, January/February 2009, pp. 53-55

The author, speechwriter for former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, says there will be less foreign policy deviation in the Bush-Obama political transition than one might otherwise expect. Brose says there won't be radical departures but there will be differences in energy and climate change policy. He also says the Iraq war will likely wind down while the Afghan war will gear up and the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will be closed. The author goes on to suggest that there may be considerable continuity between the two administrations in their fight against al-Qaeda. The new president will also continue his predecessor's policy of Middle East
engagement. Currently available online at http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4588

23. NETS OF TERROR: TERRORIST ACTIVITY ON THE INTERNET
Piper, Paul
Searcher, vol. 16, no. 10, November/December 2008, pp. 28-38

The author provides a detailed overview of the presence and activity of terrorist groups on the Internet. He notes that rogue groups are drawn to the Internet because it is easy and inexpensive to communicate and disseminate information instantaneously and in an uncensored fashion worldwide. Terrorist groups use the Internet for a variety of purposes, chiefly for public announcements, data mining, recruitment, fundraising, information sharing, logistics and training. Terrorist websites, chat rooms, bulletin boards and forums are very unstable, with continually changing URLs, due to the cat-and-mouse game with authorities and private watchdog groups. The author describes and gives the website URLs of the many organizations keeping track of terrorist groups, as well as a complete listing of terrorist groups by country, with the most recently known web URLs. He believes that the terrorist presence on the Internet is still in a beginning phase, aimed mostly at staking out territory, but may eventually lead to cyberterrorism. Currently available online at http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/nov08/Piper.shtml

24. THE REPUBLIC AND THE RAHBAR
Sick, Gary
National Interest, no. 99, January/February 2009, pp. 10-20

The author writes that Iran is not the most dangerous or pressing problem the Obama administration faces in the Persian Gulf region. Iran's ascendancy in recent years was largely an "unearned gift" from the U.S. dispersal of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. He notes that the Tehran regime is a "largely unpopular and dysfunctional government headed by a firebrand populist president with limited power," and is riven with competing factions. The Iranian economy is in a shambles, with inflation running at an annual rate of 25 percent and widespread unemployment, and a government committed to massive domestic subsidies. After two decades, Iran still has only one non-functional nuclear reactor and a slow-motion enrichment program. Sick argues that Iran's ability to project military power outside its borders is overrated, although its internal defenses are impressive. He believes that the new administration's softening of the U.S. stance toward Iran would be recognized by the Tehran regime as an offer to move away from the current antagonism. Currently available online at http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=20482

U.S. Society and Values

25. CHINA ENTICES ITS SCHOLARS TO COME HOME
Hvistendahl, Mara
Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 55, No. 17, December 19, 2008, pp. A20-21

Between 1978 and 2005, more than 770,000 Chinese students went abroad but less than one quarter returned to China after completing their studies. Today, Chinese government and private efforts to improve the country's academic environment and reverse this brain drain appear to be succeeding. As part of its effort to create internationally-recognized universities, the government has provided money to top universities specifically for hiring from overseas. University administrators have also been busy recruiting top Chinese-American academics like Yusheng Zheng, who was lured away from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School to return to his native Shanghai and become associate dean of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, where 27 of 35 faculty members are Chinese academics educated in the United States. Chinese universities now offer competitive benefits and salaries to those academics interested in returning from abroad, says Hvistendahl, who terms the about-face from earlier Chinese policies on study abroad "remarkable." In 2005, about 35,000 returned, often to positions of leadership and with real power to effect educational reforms. "In the U.S., you're one of thousands of people who end up there," says Dean Zheng. "In China, every one of us chooses to be here." While there are problems -- the resentment of locals against returnees who may earn many times more in salary depending on their credentials and professional profile -- the "sea turtles," as they are called, are returning home, bringing the American model of education with them. Currently available online at http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i17/17a02001.htm

26. THE END OF SOLITUDE
Deresiewicz, William
Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 55, no. 21, January 30, 2009

The author notes that where "the camera has created a culture of celebrity, the computer is creating a culture of connectivity." As the two technologies merge, they are feeding a common urge to become recognized and visible. Deresiewicz writes that it is becoming increasingly difficult to be alone; in fact, the proliferation of social-networking web sites such as Facebook and Twitter are ways that modern humans stave off loneliness. He notes that solitude was not always stigmatized; in earlier times, the ability to be alone was recognized as a necessary part of the religious experience, or to be able to appreciate nature. The modern age has cast solitude in a harsher light, and the spread of suburbia, which has put more distance between people, coincided with the spread of telephone and television, technologies that enabled connectedness. Deresiewicz worries that we are losing the ability for introspection -- "no real excellence, personal or social, artistic, philosophical, scientific or moral, can arise without solitude." Currently available online at http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i21/21b00601.htm

27. A PRICELESS INHERITANCE
Holmes, Emory
American Legacy, Winter 2009, pp. 23-30

With her salary as a librarian at the University of Southern California and UCLA, and later her Social Security checks, Mayme A. Clayton purchased rare photos, films, books and memorabilia that became the largest collection of African-American artifacts ever amassed by one person. Her son Avery is currently creating the Mayme Agnew Clayton Library and Museum in Culver City, California. He says his mother's life mission for over 40 years had been to preserve endangered African-American artifacts "so that people will know that blacks did great things." The collection is now a resource "of incalculable national worth," according to author Emory Holmes: 3.5 million items, including 10,000 rare sound recordings, 1,700 films, 75,000 photos and 30,000 rare and out-of-print books. Among these are the first edition of Phillis Wheatley's 1773 volume, Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral, the first book by an African-American author ever published in the United States. It is likely the only signed copy in existence. The new library is tentatively due to open in early 2010. In the United States today there are three major collections that focus on African-American history and culture: one is in Harlem, one in Chicago, and the third is Mayme Clayton's, which is the largest such collection in the world held independently. Mayme Clayton died in 2006 at the age of 83.

28. STRATEGY RETOOLED AT GATES
Robelen, Erik
Education Week, Vol. 28, No. 13, November 19, 2008, pp. 1, 10-11

Over the past eight years, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has spent $4 billion on education, much of it on a school improvement strategy that has not delivered the academic gains the foundation hoped for. The Gates Foundation is focusing on "fewer, clearer, and higher" standards for college readiness, better quality teaching and aiding struggling students. Gates believes the U.S. has put too much emphasis on expanding access to higher education and not enough on college completion. Only about half of U.S. students who enroll in college manage to graduate within six years, and the completion rates for African-American and Hispanic students are only about 20 percent, according to the foundation. The foundation plans to promote common core standards across states, build the public and political will to achieve college readiness for all, work with school districts to retain and compensate effective teachers in the schools that most need them, and foster technological innovations that will help students who have fallen behind.
Currently available online at http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/11/19/13gates-2_ep.h28.html

29. TWIN PEAKS
Gopnik, Adam
Smithsonian, vol. 39, no. 11, February 2009, pp. 50-54

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day in February 1809, on opposite sides of the Atlantic and into very different circumstances; in the era in which they were born, people mostly believed that life on Earth as they knew it had been that way since the beginning of time, and that societies without existing order were inherently unstable. By the time Lincoln and Darwin had died, history had changed, and what they had done, written or said had contributed significantly to that change. In the early nineteenth century, democracy was a fringe idea in the minds of a small number of idealists, and the future of democracy in America was far from assured. At the same time, the sciences were changing our view of the earth and how life evolved. The author writes that Lincoln and Darwin not only represent the "two pillars of our society" -- liberal democracy and the human sciences -- but that they have come to represent that because they wrote so clearly, and that their writings are remarkably fresh even today.

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