Christa B.

A new book from science journalist John Hogan takes a look at some of the scientific approaches to ending the human drive to go to war. 

The above is an excerpt published at The Atlantic. In that excerpt, he also touches on theories of female inclusion in war and other gender based approaches.

Oh yeah, you know I’mma get this one.

The old part of town. Nicely tired after walking around. The weather is chilly. A cup of tea would be so good now. We spot a teahouse on one street and decide to walk in. As I sit down I can hear a couple of men nearby speaking in my mother language – Azerbaijani.

It turns out this teahouse belongs to an ethnic Azeri. Now and then, though, the language of conversation over the table smoothly flows into another language. It is not Russian, or Georgian…

Seeing my puzzled face, one of the men greets me in Azerbaijani, and as it always feels somehow warm to run into your fellow compatriots in a foreign country, I move my chair closer to his table without hesitation.

He has been living in Tbilisi for over 10 years and just two minutes later takes me on a journey I rarely get to travel. The South Caucasus, a region more defined on the map with its funny abrupt borders, appears to be sitting at the little square table.

In fact, he is not my fellow compatriot, even though his Azerbaijani is better than my own. His name is Albert and he is an ethnic Armenian.

He also sings folk songs in Azerbaijani by the legendary Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova, and quotes poems from the great Azerbaijani poet Samad Vurgun. Albert also has a large family with his wife, an Azerbaijani, and a dream – to cross the Azerbaijani border.

He introduces me to his best friend sitting next to him at the table.

His name is Ramiz, a 74-year old ethnic Azeri singer who sings Armenian songs. I ask him to sing a little for me, but he politely refuses, saying that there has been a loss in the family. His beloved wife recently passed away. She was Armenian.

The musical friends wax lyrically about each other’s beautiful cultures, fascinating us with the similarities connecting them, and ponder the futility of the game that is the conflict between the two countries…

I love Global Voices, and this entire article is worth reading- it explores the context around the cancellation (due to threats by opponents) of a festival of Azeri films in Armenia.  It’s a vicious cycle, as they say, in which the physical separation caused by the travel ban and the emotional separation caused by years of conflict are echoed in cultural separation.  But this anecdote shows that the “vicious cycle” can work in positive ways, too—in Tbilisi, Azeris and Armenians live side by side outside of their conflicting countries.  Instead of conflict sparating them, they are joined together and separated from the conflict.  This allows them to explore and enjoy cultural similarities (song in this case, but the full blog entry, also worth reading, mentions cuisine as well) and form emotional bonds of friendship and love. 

As Frost said, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”. 

I’m not entirely convinced about everything she says, but since Victoria Pynchon’s Forbes article links Shakespeare and conflict resolution, I’m pretty much obligated to repost it. Christa, the founder of this very blog, and yours truly were in a Shakespeare acting troupe together in college, so my inner lit nerd compels me. 

The basic concept of this piece is that Romeo and Juliet takes place in what Malcolm Gladwell called an “honor society”- a culture where the law is weak, so your safety depends on your reputation for exacting revenge. Romeo and Juliet’s love is a transcendence of the conflict; they are able to reject their identities as members of the groups in conflict (Juliet’s “What’s in a name?” soliloquy) and approach each other as individuals. In their case, the inspiration for the transcendence was teenage hormones, which of course can’t be counted upon to act up in every violent conflict. 

This is the trailer for the documentary film “5 Broken Cameras,” created by Emad Burnat, a Palestinian, and Guy Davidi, and Israeli, about life in Bil’in, a town famed for its strong culture of nonviolent resistance. The film is based on years of footage shot by Burnat of the protests and of the experience of conflict in the town, but also of his family life: taking his sons to the sea, celebrating birthdays, and going to dances. The film shows each of Burnat’s cameras being broken, often intentionally to prevent documentation of the conflict. Racialicious has an excellent review here. 

I took this photo at the Martin King Memorial on Saturday, August 27, 2011. Its dedication had been planned for the following day, the 48th anniversary of his “I Have a Dream” speech, but was later delayed due to Hurricane Irene’s approach. Nevertheless, when we visited the memorial we were surrounded by families, groups of schoolchildren, and community groups who’d chosen to come despite the weather. Looking around at our fellow visitors, I was struck by how powerful it was to finally have a memorial on the Mall to an African American man.* Reading the quotes around the memorial, I was struck by the power of having a memorial to someone who fought for peace rather than in war. It’s invaluable to have this natural stopping point among the many memorials to wartime presidents and soldiers; tourists will see a counterpoint previously unrepresented in the memorials that reflect our nation’s values. I was and am filled with gratitude to Martin Luther King, Jr., his colleagues in the struggle for civil rights, and the people who persisted in the effort to get this memorial the space it deserves on the Mall. 


*There are memorials for African American soldiers, but never before to one specific person. 

January 14 marked the one year anniversary of the Tunisian Revolution’s victory- the day Ben Ali fled the country after 23 years of dictatorship. The link above is a pretty cool analysis of what has and hasn’t changed in Tunisia in the past twelve months: they have pluralistic politics; the economy and employment rate haven’t improved, and have even gotten worse; there has been a strong culture of protest, but police have continued assaulting them; freedom of the press now exists in theory, but is still pretty weak in practice due threats and assaults against journalists and bloggers; and they signed some human rights documents but the pace of real human rights reform has been slow. 

 

What has raised the world’s suspicions is that Iran continues to produce 20 percent enriched uranium despite the fact that this exceeds its civilian needs and, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad acknowledged in September, does not make economic sense.

Come on, Iran. This does not help your “civilian use” defense.

I don’t see how we could even consider military intervention for a second. Remember the two other wars we’ve been fighting for the last ten years? Remember the deficit and the slashing of the defense budget? And if we were to take military action, what will be the consequences? The US may not bear the burden of Iran’s retaliation, but Israel very well could. I doubt that Iran will weigh the lives of all their fellow Muslims who would die in a revenge attack, as the state sponsored rhetoric is so vehemently anti-Israel. 

At least five scientists with connections to Iran’s nuclear program have been killed since 2007.

Comic is darkly cute, but seriously, what gives? Killing scientists isn’t going to halt progress on the nuclear program, but it will cause trouble for “enemies” of Iran—namely Israel. The conspiracy theorist in me feels this has something to do with evil criminal masterminds trying to make money off the next World War. 

(I just saw Sherlock Holmes…everything seems like a conspiracy now)

Now Iran is all like, “down with Israel,” and Israel hasn’t made an official peep confirming or denying their involvement. Meanwhile, the US is like “it was other kids.”

Ok so this happened.

In an awesome, spontaneous nonviolent protest, Indonesians are flooding their local police stations with used sandals and flip flops. The action is an expression of outrage at police brutality, corruption, and overly harsh sentences. A fifteen-year-old boy accused of stealing a pair of old sandals from a police officer was allegedly beaten by three cops, and now faces a five year sentence for his crime. The sandals cost $3. 

A year ago, Malcolm Gladwell (of the New Yorker) and Clay Shirkey (an NYU professor) engaged in an epic debate about whether twitter, facebook, and other social media live up to the hype of their role in protests and activism.

Gladwell was all like “No way, close personal ties are what make people committed activists, and you’re not besties with your tweeps! Those revolutions would probs have gone down just the same even if social media didn’t exist.”

But then Shirky was like, “Look, Malcolm, the armchair slacktivists were never gonna really protest regardless, but social media have totes allowed the real protesters to develop new, crucial strategies.”

And then this dude Bill Wasik wrote an article about it a year later judging them. He was like “I’m taking Gladwell’s side. Though they communicated electronically, their friendships, not the media by which they developed them, are what’s important. Check out this baller study of the civil rights movement: activists who listed other activists as personal contacts were more likely to persevere.”

And then I linked to it and paraphrased them with Valley Girl accents. Good times.  

But what he forgot to account for is that, obvi, national and international attention/accountability does (sometimes) make dictators more hesitant to turn violent against dissidents. Youtube videos taken by camera phones and shared on facebook, twitter, and tumblr revealed police brutality that otherwise probs would have gone down with impunity. There was even that incident with the Egyptians catching the eye-shooting officer because of a video and screen grabs shared on social media. Not to mention that in a protest like Occupy (or the Keystone XL protests in which your truly was arrested), one of the major goals is to change public opinion and raise awareness. Maybe you’re not gonna get people willing to be arrested with you from a facebook post, but you will start a discussion with people you’d never see in person or mention it to on the phone. And that totes makes a diff.  

What will this mean for North Korea? What can we expect from Kim Jong Un? It will be interesting to see…

CNN’s obituary does more justice to Vaclav Havel than I could hope to, but I’d like to add a few of my own thoughts on the man.

In Prague, I once stayed in an establishment called the “Art Prison Hostel.” Its management tried to hide the fact that its rooms were former prison cells by painting the hallways sky blue with orange trim. The titular “art” was a series of paintings of cartoon animals decking the walls. As I made my way through the winding cement children’s-book halls, just across from a silly smiling giraffe, I noticed a gold plaque next to one room’s orange doorway. It was a placard honoring Vaclav Havel, who had been imprisoned and tortured in that cell by the Soviets.

That strange mixture of the goofy and the totally badass embodies for me the personality of the former Czech president. He was so many things: playwright, revolutionary hero, president, peace activist. He withstood four years in Soviet prisons. He presided over Czechoslovakia’s first years of independence, resigned in sorrow at the Velvet Divorce, and presided again over the Czech Republic. He was the subject of a wonderful documentary, “Citizen Havel.” He wrote plays, philandered, sent philosophical letters to his wife, and sometimes signed his name with a heart. Amazing.

This editorial inspired me and brought me to tears. It’s so easy to think of Mohamed Bouazizi as a man who could never have imagined the scope of the change his actions would inspire, but though I do think that’s true, it’s important to remember and honor the agency and conscious intent of his protest as well. A year after his self-immolation, our entire world is a profoundly different and better place. May we all be grateful.

Bouazizi had the kind of energy that was just awaiting a detonator. When it came, he protested by staging a public suicidal act. It was an act of violence (involving only self-harm) and non-violence which he deliberately displayed opposite the town’s seat of power, in a public street and in broad daylight.

Bouazizi intended his act of lunacy and courage to be a public signal of resistance and disobedience. It was live political theatre in which he tragically played out his own death with a message: for Tunisians to free themselves from their oppressive predicament was to resist or face his fate…

On this day, December 17, 2011, the Syrian National Council is deliberating in Tunis, a totally transformed capital where free speech and free and fair elections have demolished long-held stereotypes about Arab inhospitality to good government. In the elected Tunisian Constituent Assembly and the various independent commissions sit former political inmates and exiles. That is a subversion of the Arab power paradigm that only the word ‘revolution’ captures. That was unimaginable a mere 12 months ago…

All Arabs are breathing in the air of freedom which is expanding the appetite for equal citizenship. They are out of the tunnel. They are more comfortable with their ‘Arabhood’ than they were 12 months ago. For they have discovered that fellow human beings from Barzil to Sydney champion their struggles and applaud their courage and sacrifices, and some even stage their own protests inspired by the fervour and hope they have generated.

I’m happy to share this honor with so many amazing badasses around the world! Y’all inspire me. Let’s keep it up.  

History often emerges only in retrospect. Events become significant only when looked back on. No one could have known that when a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire in a public square in a town barely on a map, he would spark protests that would bring down dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and rattle regimes in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. Or that that spirit of dissent would spur Mexicans to rise up against the terror of drug cartels, Greeks to march against unaccountable leaders, Americans to occupy public spaces to protest income inequality, and Russians to marshal themselves against a corrupt autocracy.Protests have now occurred in countries whose populations total at least 3 billion people, and the word protest has appeared in newspapers and online exponentially more this past year than at any other time in history.

Is there a global tipping point for frustration? Everywhere, it seems, people said they’d had enough. They dissented; they demanded; they did not despair, even when the answers came back in a cloud of tear gas or a hail of bullets. They literally embodied the idea that individual action can bring collective, colossal change. And although it was understood differently in different places, the idea of democracy was present in every gathering. The root of the word democracy is demos, “the people,” and the meaning of democracy is “the people rule.” And they did, if not at the ballot box, then in the streets. America is a nation conceived in protest, and protest is in some ways the source code for democracy — and evidence of the lack of it.

The protests have marked the rise of a new generation. In Egypt 60% of the population is under the age of 25. Technology mattered, but this was not a technological revolution. Social networks did not cause these movements, but they kept them alive and connected. Technology allowed us to watch, and it spread the virus of protest, but this was not a wired revolution; it was a human one, of hearts and minds, the oldest technology of all.

Everywhere this year, people have complained about the failure of traditional leadership and the fecklessness of institutions. Politicians cannot look beyond the next election, and they refuse to make hard choices. That’s one reason we did not select an individual this year. But leadership has come from the bottom of the pyramid, not the top. For capturing and highlighting a global sense of restless promise, for upending governments and conventional wisdom, for combining the oldest of techniques with the newest of technologies to shine a light on human dignity and, finally, for steering the planet on a more democratic though sometimes more dangerous path for the 21st century, the Protester is TIME’s 2011 Person of the Year.

A new article in Spiegel takes a look at the trend of protesters worldwide, like Egyptian art student Alia Magda Elmahdy and Chinese supporters of dissident Ai Weiwei who decide to strip in the name of their cause.

But I’m not sure if the author really meant to compare these examples, who are clearly risking their own personal safety or liberty in their method of protest, to PETA’s numerous “I’d rather go naked…” campaigns as equals.

Indeed, nude protests have many advantages. They don’t cost anything, and they have enormous symbolic power. The protestor does nothing more than pose naked in bed, on a lawn or in a public place. The authorities, however, have to use force or bureaucratic power to stop them. It is never the naked protestor who appears ridiculous — no matter what shape their body is in — but the oppressive authorities. A system that has to mobilize men in uniform to stop someone from posing in their birthday suit has a problem. Nude protests allow those in a position of weakness to show strength. And who doesn’t root for the underdog?

From those humble origins, the nude protest has developed its own aesthetic, which in some cases operates according to the laws of the advertising business. The animal rights organization PETA has adopted the protest form for its high-profile campaign “Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur,” where models and other celebrities strip down. It’s a win-win situation: It’s a campaign for a good cause, with attractive high-earners posing for a clean conscience. And it’s all cleverly orchestrated down to the last glossy magazine page.

The effectiveness of one’s nude campaign really depends on the foresworn cause and the cultural responses to public nudity. And of course, how one goes about displaying one’s body is also very important to the achievement of one’s goal. Its one of those non-violent tactics that walks a very thin line between powerful symbolism and utter ridicule.

But please, let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that getting heavily made up in a professional studio with professional air brushers is some kind of rebellion against injustice. 

If your nude protest campaign looks like it could be on the cover of  Playboy magazine, its not a protest. Its a poor justification for personal sexual gratification. 

There’s a time and place for everything. Folks like PETA tend to be very confused by that.

So spot on. 

Although I am disappointed Google+ isn’t taking off as much as I would hope. Its a great tool, but unfortunately not enough of the people I know are on it rendering it useless.

Whenever M.I.A. is concerned, it is a serious challenge for me not to write in all caps.

But she and director Romain Gavras have done it again! 

Their latest collaboration is much less disturbing than their last (but “Born Free” was meant to make people uneasy). 

Every time I watch M.I.A. sitting lazily on top of that moving side ways car, I get goosebumps. 

Curious to know if the stunt drivers in the video were women.

A new book from science journalist John Hogan takes a look at some of the scientific approaches to ending the human drive to go to war. 

The above is an excerpt published at The Atlantic. In that excerpt, he also touches on theories of female inclusion in war and other gender based approaches.

Oh yeah, you know I’mma get this one.

(via firewithwater)

The Shit Miami People Say has a sequel!

AND YES OMG EVERYONE USED TO SAY “REFFIE” ALL THE TIME IN HIGH SCHOOL!

The new generation of Facebook profiles is coming on February 7th but, as you may have already noticed, lots of people are already displaying the new design.

Speaking purely from an aesthetic perspective, and not as a citizen of the internet concerned about privacy and data, I must say I am a fan. 

My profile now has more of a blog look and feel, which is perfect as I am a card carrying member of the blog-o-sphere. I also like the ability to quickly travel back in time to see what I was sharing back in the days of yore (and delete it if I ever feel like wasting an afternoon). 

The only criticism I can think of, which may not even be a criticism for some, is the sheer amount of stuff you can share. I mean, is it really that necessary? 

Janeane Garofalo, you must have the answer between the 1:00 and 2:00 minute mark.

Jokes.comJaneane Garofalo - Young Peoplecomedians.comedycentral.comJokesJoke of the DayFunny Jokes

And yes, she does.

I like it. 

I was over the “Shit ___ say…” craze, but I have to give it to this one because

SQUEE! HOME!

No one up here understands what I’m talking about when I try and describe the way Miami people talk, or when I try and tell them that it does not sound like Mexicans!

I still have yet to see a TV show that takes place in Miami capture these sounds. =(

- You Don’t Have To Be Pretty 

H/t to some of my Facebook friends for this.

I would hasten to add that one should always at the very least “feel” pretty, or whatever your chosen ideal descriptor is. 

So who is this chick Lana Del Rey and why are people so pissed off about her? GOOD magazine has a pretty insightful take on why she’s caused such a fuss:

The controversy over Del Rey isn’t about her music. It’s that she’s “inauthentic,” apparently the worst thing an indie music star can be. Hipster RunOff ran a feature titled “Lana Del Rey EXPOSED: B4 she was alt, she was a failed mnstrm artist without fake lips,” asking, “will she fool the Indiesphere?” The Los Angeles Times flipped Lana’s self-promotional press portrayal as the “gangster Nancy Sinatra” to “ersatz femme fetale.”

But for indie music, “authentic” designates anything but genuineness—it’s just a fetishized form of cool. When artists are labeled authentic by indie tastemakers, it means they’ve internalized a standard image of indie success and have re-invented themselves accordingly.  We congratulate them for saying and doing on their own what they (or Pitchfork) wanted them to say and do all along. Is this so different than Del Rey saying and doing what she is “told” to do?

Yes, that was a pretty terrible performance on SNL. But at least we know she has a voice, (unlike some other SNL musical mishaps) even if it seemed she forgot how to use it. It could be said that SNL was a bit of a fluke, especially when compared to other live tv performances she’s done.

Like a good contrarian hipster though, the fact that she gets slammed by some hipster blogs and musicians is actually kind of a bonus for me.

I’m really digging her singing style. Its a little jazzy, a little trashy, and filled with melancholy. Its too bad that in some of her interviews she sounds like a total ditz.

I guess I’m just drawn to nostalgic singers who are on occasion, something of a hot mess. 

Still more than a little disappointed that our clunky 27” perfectly working SD television renders Skyrim completely unplayable, but having also played Bethesda’s Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas I can still see the hilarity of this video. 

*Note: Don’t tell me to just go out and buy an HD. Yes, they’re not wildly expensive and its an investment blah blah. Its just not one we can make right now and we’re trying to be very conscious about our new purchase/waste ratio.

So I was looking to log on to the American Task Force on Palestine’s website, and unthinkingly typed in “atfp.org” and came up with this. 

Words cannot describe the amusement/horror/confusion/delight I felt at such a fortuitous error.

Many of you have probably seen this already, but I think its worth sharing again. 

The “Shit White Girls Say To Black Girls” video is not only hilarious, but its real brilliance is in its ability to embarrass some of us white girls that have watched it and recognize some of our own interactions among the quotes. 

I definitely saw some of myself in the video, though I won’t say which parts. What it reveals is how ingrained some racist ideas are in our everyday lives to the point at which it becomes casual and flippant. By laughing at how ridiculous we sound, we can overcome our shame and hopefully work to be better in how we talk to one another. 

The video has also spawned some sequels for other ethnic identities, but I think the original is still much more potent as the divisions between “black” and “white” tend to be much more pronounced.

That said, bigotry and hatred come in all shapes and colors. You could easily make a video of the shit white girls say to other white girls, or black girls to other black girls. Part of being equal is recognizing no one gets a free pass from prejudice. 

On a side note, though, there’s a quote from what is clearly a Jewish girl who not so long ago would not have been considered “white”. 

- Fake George R.R. Martin (author of A Song of Ice and Fire) from The Onion on the final two installments of the series. 

Do I sense a jab against Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time?

I’ve never read Wheel of Time, and probably never will. But I LOVE the Song of Ice and Fire series. Dany is bad ass and Tyrion is too much fun. Plus, the Free Folk are pretty cool too.

“Rise Up With Fists”, Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins

Wow, Jenny Lewis is gorgeous. And I absolutely love this song. 

What are you changing? 

Who do you think you’re changing? 
You can’t change things, we’re all stuck in our ways 
It’s like trying to clean the ocean 
What do you think you can drain it? 
Well it was poison and dry long before you came 

After finding out the model in this image is a man, and not a woman, I feel strangely more drawn to it. 

There are just so many layers of meaning.

Love it. 

Oh hell yes.

awhimper:

Because I love all owls. Even the dumb ones. 

You know its albums like these coming out early in December that are eating away at my Christmas gift budget. So if anyone on my list wants to know why they shafted, its because I honestly could not wait to download the Amy Winehouse Hidden Treasures album.

Lioness is a collection of covers, B-sides, and original versions of some Back to Black songs. The result is proof that Amy was never a one-trick pony. 

Even more heartbreaking than her untimely passing, is listening to an Amy that had yet to be overtaken by addiction. 

The above video is a track by track look into the story behind the making of this album with interviews with some of her close colleagues, including producer Mark Ronson. Talking about Amy, Ronson can barely look at the camera, and you can’t help but feel his loss for the person he called his “musical soulmate”.

My personal favorites are the original version of Tears Dry and of course the album’s last and perhaps most personal song, A Song For You.

For me, its something near enough to closure.