If you follow mainstream American news media, chances are that you’ve heard about Bridgegate. Basically, 2 of the 3 lanes which connect Fort Lee, New Jersey to the George Washington Bridge were closed for 4 days in September. While the closure was explained as a “traffic study,” it has since been revealed that the lanes…
In a recent article that’s gotten a lot of social media buzz, Ta-Nehisi Coates critiques the way that Barack and Michelle Obama address black America. He did a great job so I’m not going to touch on his arguments. But what jumped out at me as I read Coates’ article, was the First Couple’s message…
Today is the last day of my 3-month internship with the Cheerful Hearts Foundation (CHF), a Ghanaian NGO based in Kasoa. Over the last 3 months, I have worked on CHF’s Child Labour (they use the British spelling here) and Trafficking project. Most of my time in the “field” has been in Senya Beraku, a…
“In Ghana, civilization started in Cape Coast.” – Cape Coast Slave Castle Tour Guide Ghana’s coastline is dotted with about 30 slave castles; old fortresses and fortified dungeons built by various European powers as the first wave of European colonists made their way down Africa’s west coast. As the name suggests, slave castles were used…
English is the national language in Ghana. But, like in many colonial states, local languages are usually learned first and Ghanaians don’t really start learning English until they are of schooling age. There are a lot of tribal languages spoken in Ghana and it is quite common for a Ghanaian to speak English, 3 or…
“Under corporate capitalism, the objectives of liberal educational reform are contradictory: It is precisely because of its role as producer of an alienated and stratified labor force that the educational system has developed its repressive and unequal structure. In the history of U.S. education, it is the integrative function which has dominated the purpose of…
A recent Associated Press analysis of government data revealed that about half of young college grads are unemployed or underemployed. According to AP, “about 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed.” As disheartening as these numbers are, they’re not that surprising. The recession…
On Thursday, the School District of Philadelphia’s School Reform Commission voted not to renew the charters of three schools. This is a new and, in many ways, encouraging move for the SRC to take. For years, the SRC has approved charter renewals even in the face of serious violations and mismanagement. Though this new SRC…
In my recent post about Trayvon Martin, I wrote that racism has evolved. I didn’t get any comments or questions about that post but I could tell that as millions of people across America were reading it they were thinking to themselves, “What do you mean, Anand? How has racism changed? PLEASE TELL ME MORE!”…
It’s March 31st, and all over the country, elected officials, lobbyists, corporate leaders, labor unions, students, and community members are in the early stages of an annual battle royal. It’s budget season; that special time of year when competing interests slug it out to see who will get a bigger slice (or sliver) of the…
