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During the 1990s the politicians and media pundits argued that we experienced the most dramatic financial upturn in the history of the United States. Yet, today in the year 2001 forty-five million people lack health insurance; thirty-five million experience hunger, millions are functionally illiterate, and anyone living in Philadelphia who earns the minimum wage, needs to work eighty-four hours per week to avoid homelessness. When we look at the facts, the so-called financial upturn of the 1990s was a myth for eighty percent of the population. Today, when we adjust for inflation, the least affluent eighty percent of the population earns no more than they did in the early 1970s, yet they routinely work more hours. As harsh as all these conditions are, an all out collapse of the economy is possible in our lifetimes. While these conditions exist an enormous amount of waste is generated in the world. Whether we purchase a tooth pick or a town house, we pay for services which add nothing to those commodities. When we need medical care we would never go to an insurance agent, yet insurance companies profit off of our need for health care. When we purchase a house we dont rely on bankers to build the house, yet banks collect enormous sums in interest payments for the purchase of homes. When we turn on the television we see advertising which adds nothing to the quality of the programming, yet we pay more for commodities because of advertising. These few examples show how there are enormous resources which could be used to make dramatic improvements in the standard of living throughout the world. Looking Back From 2101 is a novel which imagines what the world might look like if human needs were the top priority, and the primary motivating force of society was human solidarity. This book has a similar theme as Looking Backwards by Edward Bellemy which was written in 1887 and sold millions of copies throughout the world. Harry Goldberg is a factory worker in the year 2001. One night he goes to sleep and doesnt awaken until the year 2101. In this world of the future Harry discovers that poverty has been eliminated, yet people are only asked to work for twenty hours per week. The government strives to eliminate alienation from the workplace, and to organize industrial production in a way that is harmonious with the environment. Everyone who is born into this world has many rights which they can use throughout their lifetimes. These include the right to food, clothing, housing, health care, education, communication, transportation, and exposure to the arts or recreational activities. Everyone is also encouraged to offer their opinions concerning any and all topics. From the perspective of this future world Harry proceeds to have a series of conversations with African Americans, women, a Puerto Rican, a Native American, a farmer, a garment worker, a doctor, and a student where they explore how and why the world was transformed. Harry begins to realize that all the advances which he is witnessing in this new world were indeed possible in the twentieth century. These changes didnt occur because of scientific achievements or brilliant political leaders. The transformation of society came about because of the determination of the masses of people to construct a world where human needs are more important than profits, and human solidarity is the best way of motivating working people. Looking Back From 2101 is an attempt to contrast the world as it exists from the world as it might be. While politicians and media pundits tell us what we cant achieve, this book makes an attempt to look at what is possible.
Offering an assessment of the theory and practice of conflict resolution in post-Cold War conflicts, this book addresses a number of questions. It explores the nature of contemporary conflict and the development of conflict resolution.
Today, millions of people from around the world are questioning the basic values we were raised with. This is a book of 48 poems that attempt to connect our past with contemporary reality. Looking at the world as we know it today, these poems question the definitions of words we routinely use. Some of these words are freedom, what it means to be normal, a success, legal, legitimate, or what the words status quo, value, or civilization mean. Some of these poems look at history from the viewpoint of historical biographies. Those biographies are about the lives of Spartacus, Toussaint Louverture, Tecumseh, Geronimo, Frederick Douglass, Antonio Maceo, Eugene Debs, Mother Jones, Celia Sanchez, Ernesto Che Guevara, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Celia Sanchez, Malcolm X, Ida Wells, and Frantz Fanon. There are also poems about how women are central to the liberation of humanity, as well as a few sports stories. By looking at our reality from this perspective, these poems imagine how the future might be profoundly better than the reality we are living with today.
“A real scientist writing science-fiction with real science – what more could one ask? John Gribbin is a visionary, and one heck of a good storyteller.” Robert J. Sawyer Hugo Award-winning author of QUANTUM NIGHT John Gribbin, widely regarded as one of the best science writers of the 20th century, has also, unsurprisingly, been writing science fiction for many years. While his novels are well-known, his short stories are perhaps less so. He has also written under pseudonyms. Here, for the first time, is the definitive collection of John’s short stories. Many were originally published in Analog and other magazines. Some were the seeds of subsequent novels. As well as 23 Science Fiction short stories, three of which John wrote with his son Ben, this collection includes two Science fact essays on subjects beloved of science fiction authors and readers. In one essay, John provides scientifically accurate DIY instructions for creating a time machine; and in the other, he argues that the Moon is, in fact, a Babel Fish! The stories, many written at a time when issues such as climate change were taken less seriously, now seem very relevant again in an age of dubious politicians. What underpins all of them, of course, is a grounding in solid science. But they are also laced with a dry and subtle wit, which will not come as a surprise to anyone who has ever met John at a science fiction convention or elsewhere. He is, however, not averse to a good pun, as evidenced by a song he co-wrote for the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band: The Holey Cheeses of Nazareth. Despite the exhortation of this collection's title, this is a perfect opportunity to look back at John’s short stories. If you’ve never read any of his fiction before, now you have the chance to acquaint yourself with a body of work that, while being very much of its time, is certainly not in any way out of date.
In the last several decades, the number of films featuring female protagonists has increased significantly. Many of these films reflect the vast cultural and sociological changes that have taken place since the early 1960s, highlighting not only a wide spectrum of female characters depicted onscreen, but the creative work of women behind the camera as well. In Reel Women: An International Directory of Contemporary Feature Films about Women, media librarian Jane Sloan has assembled an impressive list of more than 2400 films—from nearly 100 countries—that feature female protagonists. Each entry includes a brief description of the film and cites key artistic personnel, particularly female directors, producers, and screenwriters involved in its production. Reel Women also contains a critical survey in which Sloan charts the changes women have undergone both on screen and off, as moviemaking and audience sensibilities have evolved in the last forty-plus years. Listing many more films on the subject of women than can be found in any other source, this reference brings together important titles from area studies and genre markets along with titles associated with women's cinema and feminist film. In addition to title and actor indexes, the book contains a subject index that provides detailed access to place names, historical characters, time periods, and storylines, as well as the backgrounds—religious, racial, and ethnic—of the main characters. This directory is an ideal reference tool for researchers studying the evolution of female characters in films around the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. It is also a resource for casual viewers who are looking for films that reflect the diversity of women's roles that can be found in independent and national cinemas as well as commercial blockbusters.
The future of an orbiting space colony is threatened by a fugitive and the assassin on her trail in this science fiction adventure from three-time Hugo Award winner Allen Steele Skycorp has always expected the near-Earth space colony Clarke County to serve as a cash cow, bringing the corporate behemoth a substantial return on its investment through food production and tourism. Now that the Church of Elvis is planning a major revival meeting on the colony, the execs anticipate that the devout and the curious alike will be rocketing to Clarke County in droves. Its residents, however, would prefer to be left alone, and there has even been some dangerous talk of freedom and independence from Earth. It’s Sheriff John Bigthorn’s job to keep the peace on the colony, but his work may prove more difficult than usual in the upcoming days—especially following the unexpected arrival of a frightened young woman carrying money and important data she’s stolen from her gangster ex-boyfriend. With an ice-cold assassin called the Golem on the runaway’s tail, the holy “Living Elvis” stirring up the faithful, and revolution in the wind, Bigthorn will have to lay off the peyote and stay particularly sharp if he hopes to prevent total chaos and bloodshed . . . and perhaps even save his floating artificial world.