Greater West & Accidental Day Care

Featured Articles

Histories of the Greater West

Atlas of Wonders and Monsters • 10 Oct 2024 • ~4900 words

This essay explores the concept of "the West" as a cultural category, arguing that traditional definitions are overly simplistic and fail to capture the intricate interconnectedness of human civilizations. Using phylogenetic trees as a model, this piece demonstrates how writing systems, languages, and religions have spread and evolved across history, creating complex relationships between cultures.

It felt silly, didn’t it, to lump the cultures of the United States and France together with those of Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Russia and Thailand, just because they use somewhat related writing symbols. When you take into account the whole spectrum of culture, Huntington’s model of “the West” seems to make far more intuitive sense . . . But when we probe the boundaries of that categorization, things get murky. Why is Latin America distinct? It’s Catholic, and descended from cultures — Spain and Portugal — that are decidedly Western. Sure, Mexico and Peru, once the seats of the Aztec and Inca empires, absorbed a lot of indigenous culture. But Argentina didn’t, for instance. Most people in Latin America are of European descent, biologically and culturally.

My Accidental Day Care

The Cut • 9 Oct 2024 • ~6250 words • Archive Link

When a sudden closure leaves parents scrambling for childcare, one Brooklyn family finds themselves with an unexpected house full of kids. The piece highlights the struggles of navigating the complex childcare licensing system and underscores the challenges faced by smaller day cares, struggling with the cost of running a business, and adhering to regulations. The author’s account of the day-to-day realities of running an ad hoc day care, navigating the bureaucratic maze, and the frustrations experienced by the parents exposes the flaws in the system that can inadvertently harm both providers and families.

If this all sounds civilized enough, it was, in practice, a circus: constant noise, the kinetic energy of seven small, restless bodies. Cracker dust formed a layer of sediment between couch cushions. The cabinets and doorknobs were always sticky. There were yogurt smears on the wall, crayons and toys on every surface. The basement had once been my office; now, it was colonized by a sea of portable cribs, blankets and stuffies, as well as diaper pads, rash cream, and packet upon packet of baby wipes. Initially, I put the cribs away at the end of the day. Then I stopped bothering.

Recommended Articles

Slash and burn: is private equity out of control?

The Guardian • 10 Oct 2024 • ~5600 words

Private equity has woven itself into the fabric of everyday life, impacting everything from sports teams to essential services. This piece explores concerns about private equity's impact on companies, workers, and consumers, as well as questions about the industry's financial returns and its relationship with public pension funds. The article provides a critical look at the private equity model and its potential downsides, inviting us to consider whether the industry has become too powerful and uncontrolled.

Private equity firms have learned that if they want to charge more for less, it’s smart business to target poor and vulnerable people, who can’t afford to just up sticks and move. Residents of trailer parks and nursing homes fit the bill nicely. So do people in jail, where private equity firms like HIG Capital own the companies that provide mouldy meals and deliver substandard healthcare. Best of all, these vulnerable people are the least likely to be able to fight back. And if that doesn’t sound fair? As Khajuria, the former Apollo partner, has written: “Success, defined as making money on deals, always comes first.”

On Burnout: ‘Can’ is the New ‘Should’

3 Quarks Daily • 9 Oct 2024 • ~2900 words

This piece explores the concept of burnout, examining how it has shifted from an external "should" to an internal "can" that leads to self-exploitation. It raises questions about the role of systems, organizations, and societal pressures in contributing to burnout and the need to find ways to reclaim our humanity and limits.

It’s a brilliant system to keep people striving to work faster and for longer hours and to struggle to produce continuously without needing to lock them up. Convince people their potential is limitless, and they’ll unceasingly strive to fulfill it, working as fast as humanly possible to beat a standard, or clocking 100 hours each week in salaried positions, all the while smirking at the efforts of old labour activists to ensure a more reasonable working life as if they’re now somehow beating the system.

How Texas’ environmental agency weakened a once-rigorous air pollution monitoring team

The Texas Tribune • 7 Oct 2024 • ~4950 words • Archive Link

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) claims its air pollution monitoring efforts are stronger than ever, but an in-depth investigation reveals a different story. Once a robust team that actively documented emissions violations across the state, the mobile monitoring unit has seen significant changes over the years. Former employees share insights into how the agency shifted its focus, raising questions about transparency and accountability in environmental oversight. Explore how these shifts affect air quality monitoring in Texas and the implications for public health.

When the internal audit was leaked to the media later in 2010, a Republican congressman from North Texas, Dr. Michael Burgess, called for an investigation. WFAA, a Dallas television station, reported at the time that “Benzene detected near drilling sites wasn’t divulged.” . . . By January 2011, the TCEQ responded by enacting a sweeping set of new regulations that applied only to the Barnett Shale, tightening emissions limits and permitting requirements while expanding the regional network of stationary air monitors . . . But unbeknownst to the public, TCEQ officials also slowly killed the mobile monitoring team responsible for those findings.

The Bard of Turkish Alienation

The New Yorker • 8 Oct 2024 • ~2350 words • Archive Link

This piece explores the life and work of the acclaimed Turkish writer Oğuz Atay, whose fiction grapples with themes of alienation, self-estrangement, the limitations of language, and the frustration that comes with those limitations. The article examines how Atay's background as an engineer and member of the Kemalist elite informed his darkly humorous and postmodern literary style. It also dives into the intricacies of Atay's storytelling, showcasing how his works reflect a broader critique of Turkish society.

Atay’s narrators are obsessives. They do not choose details; they fixate on them. Among their main fixations is modern Turkish, a language made up of flashy imports—French and English cognates, a new alphabet—and antique idioms. “My country and its people infuriated me,” the narrator of “Waiting for the Fear” complains. “I didn’t exist; I didn’t even occupy a place where I could say I didn’t exist.” Where he is livid, the narrator of “A Letter: Unsent” is apologetic, obsequious even, in his address to the cultivated man with whom he works: he doesn’t want “to burden you with my troubles using a dated vernacular and old-fashioned expressions, and so I’ve located a dictionary and am keeping it close at hand while I write these words.”

'We've used hallways, we've used bathrooms': How zoos protect animals when hurricanes hit

BBC • 9 Oct 2024 • ~2100 words • Archive Link

As hurricanes become more frequent and intense, zoos and aquariums are facing unique challenges in safeguarding their animal residents. This article explores the various contingency plans and emergency procedures these facilities have in place, such as relocating animals to hurricane-resistant enclosures, training animals to respond to emergency protocols, and even using unconventional spaces like bathrooms to shelter animals during storms.

Palm Beach zookeepers also school Fred and Wilma, the zoo's two 9ft (2.7m)-long American alligators, how to go into their hurricane-safe areas daily. And every day, they teach the howler monkeys how to lock themselves into their transport crates so they can be transported to safety. They tutor Sassy, the panther, to recognise the bell ring indicating she needs to retreat to her enclosure.

Can Social Democracy Win Again?

Boston Review • 30 Sep 2024 • ~4900 words

This book review examines the rise and fall of Swedish social democracy, once considered a shining example of the "Nordic model." It explores how Swedish social democracy was able to achieve remarkable egalitarian reforms, but ultimately faced severe headwinds that led to its decline. This piece also grapples with the broader question of whether social democracy can still win in the current political and economic climate.

“For a hundred years,” he writes, “Swedish Social Democracy linked its destiny to the development of capitalism—not as the result of any ideological degeneration or class betrayal, but as a strategic choice.” When Swedish capitalism entered a deep crisis beginning in the 1980s, the foundations of the movement crumbled beneath its feet. For the reader, a grim question lingers over his story. If the most significant movement for social democracy the world has ever known was ultimately defeated, where could it ever win?

A People’s History of Free Speech

Persuasion • 9 Oct 2024 • ~4300 words

This piece provides a historical perspective on the concept of free speech, tracing its origins and evolution. It examines how the modern American approach to free speech, often characterized as "free speech fundamentalism," differs from earlier liberal traditions and raises questions about the current state of free speech in society. The article explores where this American approach to free speech came from and how it has shaped the discourse around it.

This ancient understanding of free speech as parrhesia, or speaking freely whatever the risks, looks very different from the democratic emphasis on “equal speech” or the exercise of public reason we find in other, often European liberal traditions. Indeed, it looks rather more like the “free speech fundamentalism” characteristic of 20th century American jurisprudence. Still, in recognizing the latter as a commitment to parrhesia, we are still left with an important question: namely, how did this ancient Greek idea find its way to the United States, let alone become enshrined in the First Amendment to be rediscovered by modern American liberals?

Some of the Web’s Sketchiest Sites Share an Address in Iceland

New York Times • 9 Oct 2024 • ~1950 words • Archive Link

The article discusses how Iceland has become a virtual haven for perpetrators of online disinformation, identity theft, and other cyber-related crimes. It examines how proxy services that allow website owners to shield their identities have contributed to Iceland becoming a hub for these illicit activities. The article raises questions about the lack of regulation surrounding these proxy services and the challenges in holding bad actors accountable.

The modern office building near the harbor in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, is best known as the home of the Icelandic Phallological Museum, which displays 320 specimens of mammal penises . . . To those who track cyber mischief, however, the building also has a reputation as a virtual offshore haven for some of the world’s worst perpetrators of identity theft, ransomware, disinformation, fraud and other wrongdoing.

Anand Menon on racism: the UK has made progress, but this year’s riots show there’s a long way to go

Tortoise • 4 Oct 2024 • ~2550 words

Anand Menon reflects on the complexities of racism in the UK, discussing his personal experiences, from the overt racism he faced growing up to the more subtle forms of discrimination he encountered later in life. It explores how the UK has made progress in addressing racism, but the recent far-right riots show there is still a long way to go. The article also raises questions about the fragility of the norms that have emerged to make overt racism socially unacceptable and whether the author's own relative security has made him blind to the continued struggles of minorities in the UK.

The seriousness of the recent outbreak of racist violence should not be underplayed. Nor should the attempts by some politicians and associated cheerleaders to stoke anti-immigrant sentiment. If recent events have taught us anything, it is the fragility of the norms that have emerged over the last few decades and that, it seemed, made overt racism socially unacceptable . . . Yet the fact is things have changed beyond recognition since the years of my youth. The kinds of open, explicit racism that were a constant feature of my younger years have not troubled me for many decades. Fear is no longer a constant companion when I’m out and about.