Friday Reads
Posted: April 5, 2013 Filed under: morning reads | Tags: antiquities robbers, Conscious Capitalism, RIP Roger Ebert, Segregation, women's equality 40 Comments
Good Morning!
Movie critic Roger Ebert passed away yesterday at the age of 70. His cancer had recurred and spread. I actually met Ebert on a plane to London 30 years ago. He was working on the movie “Syd and Nancy” and I was celebrating finishing my first masters. I used to love to watch his show with Siskel.
Ebert, 70, who reviewed movies for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years and on TV for 31 years, and who was without question the nation’s most prominent and influential film critic, died Thursday in Chicago.
“We were getting ready to go home today for hospice care, when he looked at us, smiled, and passed away,” said his wife, Chaz Ebert. “No struggle, no pain, just a quiet, dignified transition.”
He had been in poor health over the past decade, battling cancers of the thyroid and salivary gland.
He lost part of his lower jaw in 2006, and with it the ability to speak or eat, a calamity that would have driven other men from the public eye. But Ebert refused to hide, instead forging what became a new chapter in his career, an extraordinary chronicle of his devastating illness that won him a new generation of admirers. “No point in denying it,” he wrote, analyzing his medical struggles with characteristic courage, candor and wit, a view that was never tinged with bitterness or self-pity.
On Tuesday, Ebert blogged that he had suffered a recurrence of cancer following a hip fracture suffered in December, and would be taking “a leave of presence.” In the blog essay, marking his 46th anniversary of becoming the Sun-Times film critic, Ebert wrote “I am not going away. My intent is to continue to write selected reviews but to leave the rest to a talented team of writers hand-picked and greatly admired by me.”
Some times a story shocks me, then I stop to wonder why I should really be shocked. A high school in Georgia is still holding segregated prom.
WSAV in Georgia reports that Wilcox County High School holds two proms for its students: a whites-only prom, and an integrated prom. WSAV notes that the school has never had a fully inclusive prom in its history.
Best friends Stephanie Sinnot, Mareshia Rucker, Quanesha Wallace and Keela Bloodworth are trying to change that. “We are all friends,” said Sinnot. “That’s just kind of not right that we can’t go to prom together.”
If any non-white person tried to attend the whites-only prom, “They would probably have the police come out there and escort them off the premises,” said Bloodworth. According to WSAV, this was the case in 2012 when a biracial student who tried to attend the dance was “turned away by police.”
I’m not one to go round quoting the Harvard Business Review but this particular study is a good one. “Companies that Practice “Conscious Capitalism” Perform 10x Better”.
Blake Mycoskie, who founded Tom’s Shoes at age 26, talked about the profitable business he’s built on a model of giving a pair of shoes to a child in need for each pair of shoes the company sells. Shubhro Sen, who leads people development for Tata, the huge, privately-owned Indian conglomerate, described the founding tenet of the company that endures to this day: “We earn our profits from society and they should go back into society.” Most of the company today is owned by philanthropic trusts.
I took away from these three days a very clear and inspiring message. It’s not necessary to choose up sides between consciousness and capitalism, self-interest and the broader interest, or personal development and service to others. Rather, they’re each inextricably connected, and they all serve one another.
Raj Sisodia looked at 28 companies he identified as the most conscious — “firms of endearment” as he terms them — based on characteristics such as their stated purpose, generosity of compensation, quality of customer service, investment in their communities, and impact on the environment.
The 18 publicly traded companies out of the 28 outperformed the S&P 500 index by a factor of 10.5 over the years 1996-2011. And why, in the end, should that be a surprise? Conscious companies treat their stakeholders better. As a consequence, their suppliers are happier to do business with them. Employees are more engaged, productive, and likely to stay. These companies are more welcome in their communities and their customers are more satisfied and loyal. The most conscious companies give more, and they get more in return. The inescapable conclusion: it pays to care, widely and deeply.
Chelsea Clinton told MSNBC viewers that ‘We can’t leave a gender behind’ on Alex Wagner yesterday.
While affluent American women debate the merits of “leaning in” or “having it all,” U.S. women still earn 77-cents for every dollar earned by men, and the U.S. ranks 77th in the world for participation of women in government. And the economic stress is far greater for women worldwide. Today, 70% of the world’s poor and two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women.
On Thursday, Chelsea Clinton, Jada Pinkett Smith and Zainab Salbi joined the NOW with Alex Wagner panel to discuss both the plight and the progress of women in America and across the globe.
One of most glaring gender disparities in the U.S. is the lack of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Women currently hold fewer than 25% of STEM jobs.
The U.S. Department of Commerce predicts the number of STEM jobs will grow 17% between 2008 and 2018–three times the growth rate for non-STEM jobs. “If we’re really going to own our own future,” Clinton said, “we can’t leave a gender behind. We all need to be a part of that.”
When it comes to investing in women, Zainab Salbi says, “it’s the one investment that will help everyone.”
I’ve got a few quick links on antiquities smugglers that you might find intriguing. First, a Utah couple has been indicted for smuggling Peruvian antiquities to the US.
A federal grand jury indicted two West Valley City residents Wednesday on allegations they helped smuggled Peruvian artifacts, including pre-Columbian vessels, to the United States.
Cesar Guarderas, 70, and his wife, Rosa Isabel Guarderas, 45, were arrested March 25 following an investigation that began in October. They will make their first court appearance Friday.
Two other men also are named in the indictment: Javier Abanto-Sarmiento, 39, and Alfredo Abanto-Sarmiento, 36, of Trujillo, Peru. Javier Abanto-Sarmiento and Rosa Isabel Guarderas are siblings.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents arrested Javier Abanto-Sarmiento on March 4 when he arrived in Miami from Peru. He is currently being brought to Salt Lake City by U.S. Marshals. Alfredo Abanto-Sarmiento has not yet been arrested.
HSI used an undercover agent to buy two Peruvian artifacts from Cesar Guarderas in November for $3,000. The agent then paid $20,000 that same month for 10 additional artifacts.
Professors at Utah Valley University and Tulane University who are Peruvian experts authenticated the artifacts; the items also were tested at a laboratory in Washington. Since 1997, the U.S. and Peru have had an agreement barring specific artifacts and ethnological religious objects from being brought to the U.S.
The artifact trafficking scheme also was corroborated by undercover telephone, email and in-person discussions with Javier Abanto-Sarmiento and Cesar Guarderas. At some point, Cesar Guarderas said Javier Abanto-Sarmiento had access to more than 100 pieces of pottery in Peru, some he had found buried in the ground, and was willing to ship them to the U.S.
Then, there’s a gang in India that’s been arrested for taking ancient idols from Temples.
The police on Wednesday arrested a four-member gang involved in idol thefts at various places in and around Kumbakonam and recovered 26 ancient and exquisite stone and copper idols besides four thiruvasis (arch around an idol), all dating back to the Chola and Pallava era.
Following frequent incidents of idol theft from ancient temples in Kumbakonam, Swamimalai and Pasupathikoil recently, the police formed a special team under the direct supervision of DSP Silambarasan to investigate the issue.
This reminds me of a ring of thieves in New Orleans that were stealing some of the angels, vases, and grave ornaments from our historic 
cemeteries. Here’s a link to a really terrific description of that crime in the NYT. I think it would make a great movie, frankly.
On a moody February day, with rain dripping off the muscadine vines and a concerto by Respighi wafting through the living room, Peter Patout, an antiques dealer, was cosseted in the splendor of his Bourbon Street home. There amid Paris porcelain and ancestral oils in gilt frames, he gave his version of the insidious crime that has made him one of the most talked-about men in the city: conspiring to steal cemetery ornaments from hallowed tombs.
”The thieves are in jail,” said Mr. Patout, a descendant of sugar planters, who is out on bail. ”I’ve been arrested four times. Would you like some Patout sugar in your coffee?”
Around New Orleans, there is the smell of a rat amid the scent of sweet olive. It was in Mr. Patout’s secluded courtyard, lush with banana trees of deep Louisiana lineage, that detectives seized two funerary statues, including a $50,000 marble Madonna. The New Orleans police say these were part of a cache of more than 200 romantically patinated urns, angels and Blessed Mothers plundered by thieves last year from the above-ground marble tombs and granite sarcophagi that populate New Orleans’s legendary ”cities of the dead.”
If we had google “nose”, I would try to waft some night blooming jasmine your way.
You just knew I’d fit something in here about grave goods didn’t you? I love antiques as much as the next person. I want folks stealing from graves, temples, and poor countries to support my passion. However, I’m sure these items are way out of my league but evidently some people don’t care how they come by a collectible.
So, I tried to concentrate on some newsy things today and give us a break from the politics. It’s up to you to fill in the blanks. What’s on your reading and blogging list this morning?
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Holy shit, of course that whites only prom is in my state of Georgia. WTF?
Look what happened in supposedly liberal Massachusetts. At Robert Coelho Middle School in Attleboro, kids whose lunch accounts were a little overdue were told to throw away their lunches and go hungry. A Boston radio station found out about it, and then there was a rush to “apologize,” bla bla bla. This was done at the behest of the food vendor!
Now there is an “unconscious” company. Certainly no Firm of Endearment.
How have they gotten away with it for all these years? That boggles the mind.
I think I can recall hearing about this in previous years. You’d think the school would just get over it and join the 21st century.
It is sad to me the kids aren’t boycotting the whites-only version. I’m from Georgia, too. 😦
I think quite a few kids are boycotting it. They have organized an integrated prom.
I read this wonderful remembrance of Roger Ebert last night. It’s about a boy Ebert befriended and then stayed in touch with for years.
I really enjoyed reading that!
Me too! I’m glad you liked it.
As expected, the March jobs report was pathetic.
But according to Joe Weisenthal, this wasn’t because of the sequester. It likely had more to do with the removal of the payroll tax holiday, because the job losses were in retail. People just didn’t have as much money to spend.
Does that mean the sequester damage is yet to show up?
And yet the austerity train rushes onward.
You can’t really tell where retail job losses come from. Payroll tax holiday and sequester will both mean people have less spending money. It’s just probably too early for sequestration to have hit yet in any meaningful way.
OK, thanks. I wasn’t sure what to think.
Before the March unemployment report came out, NPR had “experts” on discussing the possible report. They (or he — I was just waking up) were chirpy happy optimistic types — they figured there would be about only 10,000 public employee job losses (turns out the Post Office had 12,000 all by itself), and a good number for new private jobs.
Well, welladay. I don’t know how they figured that, but, they sure were wrong.
Methinks the tax man commeth in just a matter of days.
OMG, Charles Pierce is super… Out Of Its Mind Is Going Carolina
Republican-run legislatures are good examples of why that party is on the fast path to extinction. Dodos were more useful.
And dodos harmed no one.
Republicans are desperate to turn back time!
I must dissent. I think cursive handwriting is a good thing to learn. Pierce is so hilariously outraged that I thought they were making kids memorize the creation story from the Book of Genesis or something like that.
Peace to Roger Ebert. He’s one of the few people with thyroid cancer who made it a point to talk about his illness.
Thyroid cancer patients with the more common types of the cancer are usually told they have “a good cancer”; however, when thyroid cancer of any type returns, as it almost always does, somewhere in the body but still as thyroid cancer, it is difficult to treat. Thyroid cancer usually only is knocked down by radioactive iodine treatments (RAI 131), as the thyroid takes up iodine to function and thus RAI can be directed to the thyroid tissues and cells all over the body to kill them.
Often, about 20 or so years after the initial cancer detection, the thyroidectomy, followed by ablation with RAI, the cancer returns…somewhere. Then the treatments are much more difficult.
I believe Ebert had an aggressive form of thyroid cancer, which can be devastating. As it was for him.
So, peace. And what courage! He went through a type of hell on earth, but continued to do what he deeply loved.
My papillary thyroid cancer was operated on in 2006, so I should have another 13 years before any return. It took me about 4 years to find an endocrinologist who was willing to try natural thyroid replacement for me (my HMO endo refused, absolutely, and I couldn’t find an endo in the HMO who would use natural thyroid), so I had 4 years of very low energy. For whatever reason, being on Armour thyroid has led to much more normal energy, thank goodness. But megaga doses of Vit D also helped. Thanks goodness for my new endo!
Armour thyroid is dried pigs’ thyroid gland, and has variable amounts of T3, T4, and other thyroid-related components, more so than the variance in synthesized thyroid meds. So a lot of clinicians don’t want to prescribe something that varies that much from batch to batch. I think it’s that, rather than whether it’s “natural” or synthetic. But some patients do feel better on Armour thyroid. Medicine does not know everything involved in thyroid function yet.
Glad you’re doing well and hope that continues!
I have hypothyroidism, and I’ve been taking synthroid for decades, but I recently started taking an iodine supplement. I cannot believe how much better I feel!
Great to hear that! Sounds like you should keep taking it.
Top of the hour NPR news summary said something about the WH revealing that Obama will offer cuts to SocSec and Medicare because otherwise the R’s won’t do anything to raise revenue.
Uh, no, Barry. It’s WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.
I hate such boldfaced lying. But the MCM will let him get away with it.
Damn him.
You don’t negotiate by giving away half the bank beforehand.
Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit.
Obama should hurry up and change parties to make it official he’s a Republican.
He’s been offering those cuts since 2011, and NPR suddenly noticed?
The New Orleans cemeteries are the most beautiful historical monuments to the city, the churches, and the ancestors of those buried there. I remember walking by them when I was much younger, and wondering about all the building and statues, and burials. And I dearly loved the jazz funerals of the African American communities, I loved to run and dance with them in the streets.
It’s a whole other thing to maintain those cemeteries, and keep records of families. So many graves have been lost, and headstones, and caskets, and the art deco on those buildings. I know because I have done several census of cemeteries in several states. I’ve seen the damages, the thievery from my own families, and have had to appeal via the historical society for them to return items with no questions asked. And they did, I had a little old lady who had several pineapple style mounts in her garage for years, and she said it was her children who took them, and she wanted to return them to me. She did, and I took that bit of history, and put in a special container, and too it to historical society to log into their records, and of all freaking things, I went back several months later, and it was gone. Someone (volunteer) or a family member decided they would keep it. That’s the way people are, unbelieveable. The good news is that I took photos, and had her letter, and dates that I met up with her for the return of
of the items.
Also, heard from a friend that a friend had a headstone in their back yard, and I went directly to the home and inquired and returned that to the cemetery for repair and placement, as I could only put it where a granddaughter was buried. No records showed where he had been originally buried near family.
You know I always worry about hurricanes down south……..my family has lost many photo’s and records to them, as well as the damage done to our family cemeteries. I have volunteered many hours to help bring those descendants and those buried back into the communities, they do provide and tell you what life was like, and the history of schools, churches, and families.
It is tragic when our cemeteries are ripped off, and I am glad they are funding projects to track them and arrest them.
An evidence-based judicial decision!
Fantastic!
Pierce on Scott Brown’s effort to find a way to beat an accomplished woman and get back in the Senate. Not gonna happen, loser.
Heh. But it will be amusing to see him try.
I’m reminded of a few years back when a Univ of Wash staffer reported to campus security that she’d had to file a protection order against her ex-boyfriend who stalked and threatened her. A few weeks later she was shot dead in her office by the ex-boyfriend who then shot and killed himself. The UW did a lot of verbal cover-up and then, too late for that woman, made changes to take domestic violence more seriously.
She’d have so damn much work to do. The country’s far worse off than in 2008. OTOH, she could set many things right. I’d love to see the R candidates quail before her.
OK, I must get something done besides hang out at my favorite blog and monopolizing the link drops.
LOL! I know that feeling.
North Korea caught photoshopping to make their military look bigger.
The article about cemetery thefts is fascinating, Dak. I was thinking Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge would be a candidate for that, except I think they lock the gates at night. The place is huge and there are so many amazing grave decorations and there are so many famous people buried there. It was mentioned in the article.
Very kewl.
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