A Blot on Our Conscience

Some issues are taxing, they demand a lot from us, what to do with and about migrants and refugees is such an issue. Closing of borders, deportations are common and easy. But the reality may require more from us. In several parts of the world notably at the present in Europe and in the US/South American borders the problem is unavoidable and poignant. A recently published report by both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund foresees the problem as continuing and in larger proportions if demographic trends and national policies do not take it into account. It states that the growth of the problem is not inevitable, but given that policy makers Continue reading “A Blot on Our Conscience”

Transgenerational Trauma

We are becoming familiar with PTSD, and we have no difficulty understanding the trauma of those who went through the holocaust. Now some are raising questions about what is termed secondary traumatization or transgenerational trauma, the trauma experienced by people who weren’t there, who didn’t undergo it themselves. Dan Glass, a 29-year old whose grandfather was a holocaust victim and whose father did nothing but relate his own father’s stories, has formed “Never Again Ever” a group addressing Continue reading “Transgenerational Trauma”

Fighting Human Trafficking

Trafficking is a $150 billion business and involves some 36 million people. Fighting it is therefore obviously difficult and complex. A reader may have heard of Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), an endeavor began and in the main maintained by Mormons. The organization now has a film called The Abolitionists because it sees its mission not only with the zeal of faith but also with the same kind of commitment the abolitionists saw slavery—for to OUR trafficking is slavery. They are also filming what they hope will be a TV series documenting Continue reading “Fighting Human Trafficking”

Worth More Than Others

The SEC passed a law not long ago so that by 2017 publicly traded companies will need to disclose not only the pay of their CEOs and 4 other top officials but also the ratio of their salaries to that of the average workers in their companies. The law is meant to help implement part of what is called the “Say on Pay” clause passed in 2011 as part of the Dodd Frank act, a clause which requires corporations to give shareholders a right to approve the pay packages for executives. The CEO/worker ratio is not new, and has been Continue reading “Worth More Than Others”