"cat e. benson"
political science nerd, coffee drinker, spanish speaker, nature lover, ultimate player, avid reader
GILA HOT SPRINGS, N.M. — Micah True went off alone on a Tuesday morning to run through the rugged trails of the Gila Wilderness, and now it was already Saturday and he had not been seen again.
When we think of a “desert,” we don’t picture southwest Philadelphia or a small town in upstate New York. But that’s the description given to areas of the United States that lack ready access to healthy food — like fresh fruits and vegetables. These grocery-store deprived zones have come to be known as “food deserts” and the federal government estimates that they are home to millions of Americans (pdf), including more than 23 million people who live in low-income neighborhoods that are more than a mile from a supermarket.
SPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.
It would be great to get rid of Kony. He and his forces have left a path of abductions and mass murder in their wake for over 20 years. But let’s get two things straight: 1) Joseph Kony is not in Uganda and hasn’t been for 6 years; 2) the LRA now numbers at most in the hundreds, and while it is still causing immense suffering, it is unclear how millions of well-meaning but misinformed people are going to help deal with the more complicated reality.
To this day, Paraguay remains the only country in the Americas where a majority of the population speaks one indigenous language: Guaraní. It is enshrined in the Constitution, officially giving it equal footing with the language of European conquest, Spanish. And in the streets, it is a source of national pride.
