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May 29, 2002
Bill Christison
Disastrous US Foreign Policy:
Part 2, Globalization
May 28, 2002
Michael Leon
Lincoln
Brigades Memorial
Scott Lucas
Christopher Hitchens:
No Longer an Authentic
Voice of Dissent
Nelson P. Valdes
Castro,
Bioterrorism and
the State Department
Harvey Wasserman
What Does the White House Know
About Atomic Terror?
Norman Madarasz
France,
Brazil, the Politics
of the World Cup
May 27, 2002
Dave Marsh
Why I Voted for Nader:
Ticketmaster's Stranglehold
on Music and Politics
Robert Fisk
The Coming
Firestorm:
Bush's Crazed Remarks
May 26, 2002
Alexander Cockburn
Diary of a Northwest Trip:
Why Reds Live Longer
May 25, 2002
Chris Floyd
General
Principles:
Unmasking Colin Powell
Gavin Keeney
All Politics is Local? The Unbearable
Lightness of NGO's
Jeffrey St. Clair
A Hero
of Our Time:
Stephen Jay Gould
May 24, 2002
Edward Hammond
Documents Prove Pentagon Violated
Bioweapons Act
Mark Weisbrot
Bush
Administration Scandals:
Beginning of the End?
Feingold / Corzine
Halt Executions Nationwide
Bill Christison
Former
CIA Analyst:
Big Changes Needed in
US Intelligence Agencies
May 23, 2002
Dean Baker
Attack of the Clowns:
The Real Bush is Back
Susan Abulhawa
Israel
and South Africa:
Apartheid's Accidental Prophecy
Uri Avnery
Sharon the Great Reformer?
Behzad Yaghmaian
Travails
of a Middle Eastern Migrant: Accosted at the Border
May 22, 2002
Brian J. Foley
Dick Cheney's Obscenity
Gavin Keeney
Bete Noire
Enron & the Great Game
Fran Shor
Follow the Money
Bush, bin Laden & Carlyle
May 21, 2002
George Monbiot
Riddle
of the Spores:
The FBI and Anthrax
Yulie Khromchenko
Displaced Reality:
Impressions from Jenin
Bernard Weiner
Kenny
Boy to Bush:
"Welcome to the Club"
Ron Jacobs
Confusing the Face
of the Enemy
Gary Leupp
"War
on Terrorism" in Yemen
May 20, 2002
Rep. Ron Paul
Say No to Military Draft
Dave Marsh
Music Monopolies
Jordy Cummings
Israel, Jews and the Left
Francis Boyle
In Defense
of a Divestment
Campaign Against Israel
Christian Salmon
The Bulldozer War
Edward Said
Crisis for
American Jews
May 19, 2002
Philip Farruggio
Where's Twain's Protector Government
Now?
Norman Madarasz
Canada,
NAFTA and Kyoto
May 18, 2002
M.G. Piety
Economic Fiction:
From Here to Annuity?
Michael Colby
Bush Fiddled
While
New York Burned
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
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Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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Reviews of Gore:
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May
29, 2002
The Cleaning Lady
by Philip Farruggio
She works hard for her money, as the song relates.
She's the cleaning lady, the one who gets on her knees and scrubs
your toilet of all the things that none of us would ever wish
to look at, let alone touch. She mops and dusts and vacuums
your house for $40-$50 bucks, then hurries off to her next
job, if she's so lucky.
She does this 5 days a week, pulling
in anywhere from $400 -$500, minus her supplies and gas, and
sweat and aches. Then she has to factor in the nanny who watches
her boy so she can work at all. That's another $150 off the
top. Even still, her 2-year college degree could never get her
that much in some white collar job--not with today's economy.
So, she's the "cleaning lady", trading in respectability
for some green.
She's got a husband and a baby boy. The
husband works too; the baby laughs and cries a lot. Sometimes
her husband cries about not having health insurance. He's a
craftsman, skilled enough to pull in the same as his wife; not
skilled enough to get his boss to pay for health insurance for
the crew. Not too many craftsman jobs out there now, so his
bargaining power is reduced to a whimper. Like most Florida
businesses, its a non- union shop, so the benefits are one week
a year paid vacation, and a few sick days and holidays, and
that's it.
The cleaning lady joins her husband in
having no health insurance. Simply cannot afford $400 a month
for decent coverage. They did get some for the baby, thank goodness.
She, however, was not so lucky. Had a stomach attack a few
months back. Between the emergency room, the tests and the specialist,
cost her $1,500 bucks, money she did not have. She pays it off,
the bill, a little each month, and curses a system that does
not look out for the little people, the one's who clean our
toilets.
The other day, one of her clients told
her some startling information. She could not believe it, until
she saw it right there in the Business Week magazine. It said
that, on average, top executives in U.S. corporations earn over
500 times more than their lowest paid full-time employee! 500
times! She could not comprehend how someone could make that
much money, and not care that she and her husband could not
afford health coverage. She wondered if rich people could even
go to church and worship a Jesus who spoke of sharing one's
wealth, not hoarding it. "Easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than a rich man to go to heaven!"
It was getting late. She had to get to
the sitter and pick up the kid, go to Publix and grab something
for dinner. Mustn't forget the Pampers too. Then she began to
laugh, the laugh one creates to push aside the anger, and the
frustration. This was Tuesday, cleaning day. She never got
to do her house. It would simply have to wait, like everything
else it seemed.
Philip Farruggio,
son of a longshoreman, is "Blue Collar Brooklyn" born,
raised and educated (Brooklyn College, Class of '74). A former
progressive talk show host, he runs a mfg. rep. business and
writes for many publications. He lives in Port Orange, FL. You
can contact Mr. Farruggio at e-mail: brooklynphilly@aol.com.
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