2019
January
16
Wednesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

January 16, 2019
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

In the battle against toxic partisanship in the United States, the Supreme Court hasn’t always been a shining light. That’s what made Tuesday so interesting.

Yesterday, a justice known for pro-business leanings struck a blow for worker rights. In fact, the whole court did, ruling unanimously that workers designated “contractors” had the right to bring a class-action suit – essentially giving them a key right of full employees. What was most surprising, perhaps, was how Justice Neil Gorsuch ruled.

His judicial principles are built on understanding the original intent of laws when they were passed and upholding that original intent. In this case, using six dictionaries from 1925, he concluded that the law’s original wording ran counter to his traditional partisan framework. Then he ruled according to his principle. It wasn’t about making sure his side won.

By many measures, the United States Supreme Court has paralleled and even intensified partisan divisions, with justices increasingly ruling along predictable partisan lines in the most high-profile cases. This isn’t entirely their own doing, as presidents have looked for reliably partisan judges, and the Senate – and voters – have gone along.

The trend both inside and outside the court and by all sides in recent years has been to shape principles to fit partisan preconceptions. Tuesday’s ruling was a welcome reminder that it doesn’t have to be that way.

Our five stories today include a look at the world’s evolving moral compass in Africa, new thinking about what diversity is, and a unique attempt to change the outlook among Native American communities.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Jae C. Hong/AP
Sara Castro, whose two children attend Los Angeles United School District schools, makes her views known outside La Fayette Park Primary Center Jan. 15 in Los Angeles. Teachers in the LAUSD walked picket lines again as administrators urged them to return to classrooms and their union to return to the bargaining table.

At the heart of a teachers strike in Los Angeles is a clash over what public education is actually supposed to do: provide equal opportunity or aim for more-equal outcomes, too.

Analysts often stress the need for consistency in foreign policy. But why is that important? A view from Turkey gives a taste of what can happen when consistency is absent.

Sudan’s strongman has supported efforts to curb terrorism and migration. He now confronts widespread protests, and the West faces a familiar moral dilemma: Should it welcome an end to his regime?

Charles Krupa/AP/File
Rowers on the Charles River pass the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. In the wake of the Harvard admissions trial alleging bias against Asian-Americans, colleges are finding that there is no easy blueprint for establishing diversity. Like the country itself, they are working to find the best way to evolve.

Colleges have long defined diversity demographically. But lawsuits are leading some colleges to reconsider what diversity really is, including valuing a diversity of thought, too.

Story Hinckley/The Christian Science Monitor
Elementary school students from the Native American Community Academy in Albuquerque, N.M., play running games with Dustin Martin (center) as part of after-school activities. Wings of America is a New Mexico-based group that educates young Native Americans about their cultural and spiritual connection to running.

Too often, Native American youth are besieged by messages about their troubles and challenges. But one program is finding success in focusing on the community's pride and potential.


The Monitor's View

Reuters
Indonesian Navy blows up an illegal fishing vessel off West Java in 2016.

Soon after becoming president of Indonesia more than four years ago, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo asked people in the world’s fourth most populous nation to undergo a “mental revolution,” aimed mainly at curbing corruption. To make his point, he targeted one of the largest abuses of public resources: fish theft.

On many counts, Jokowi has landed his revolution.

Fish stocks in Indonesian waters have more than doubled since 2013. Recently, one of its tuna fisheries became the first in the country to win an internationally recognized award for sustainable fishing. Indonesia’s progress is a model for “long-lasting fisheries gains in many regions of the world,” according to the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

The giant archipelago nation, whose total sea area is far greater than its land area, is the world’s second largest seafood producer. When he took office, Jokowi estimated 90 percent of the fishing boats in Indonesia’s waters were illegal, most of them foreign interlopers. By comparison, an estimated 20 percent of the world’s fish are caught illegally.

The Southeast Asian nation, whose 263 million people are spread across more than 13,000 islands, was losing an estimated $4 billion in income. Meanwhile, corruption in fishing ports was rampant. One big result: Many of the country’s 2.6 million fishermen were poor.

If the government could bring transparency and accountability to this large and corrupt industry, it could spur prosperity and perhaps set an example for tackling corruption in other parts of Indonesian life.

The government sent a strong message to foreign poachers. It has sunk hundreds of illegal vessels after arresting their crews. It began to collect data on fish catches and put observers on boats. It struck agreements with many of its neighboring nations to prevent poaching.

It became the first country in the world to publicly share the positions of its fishing fleets online. It has beefed up patrols of its maritime space and upgraded ports with efficient management. “We pay serious attention to fish theft in our waters,” the president said last August.

If numbers could begin to track a mental revolution, it would be these: Foreign fishing in Indonesia has dropped by more than 90 percent since 2014; and total fishing has fallen by 25 percent, helping to rebuild stocks for domestic fishermen. Honesty has been a good catch.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

The question of what it means to have a diverse student body looms large in college and university admission offices, particularly in light of the ongoing affirmative action court case involving Harvard University. Today’s contributor shares an elementary school experience that helped her realize there’s a spiritual basis for unity in diversity.


A message of love

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
People line up Jan. 16 at Chef Jose Andres’s World Central Kitchen in Washington. D.C. It offers free meals to furloughed workers and their families amid the federal-government shutdown.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris and Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thank you for joining us today. Please come back tomorrow when we examine an issue currently caught in a swirl of misunderstanding and misperception: What does a state of emergency actually empower a US president to do?

More issues

2019
January
16
Wednesday
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