Some of the most heroic figures of 2014 showed that in an utterly depressing world one can tell the truth and still live, albeit with constant persecution. I would point out the three awesome people below:
1. Yassin Bey aka Mos Def....when commercial artists with less talent were making millions for their ludicrous lifestyles rapping about nothing this man correctly drew attention of the otherwise distracted to what went on in Guantanamo bay.
2. Arnold Abbot. You go Zadie! No, he is not my literal grandfather; but I think everyone hopes their days of old age will be as important as his. He could have been napping all day at the old folks center but instead he was actively defying the police to expose the inhumanity of policies against the homeless.
3. Chelsea Manning, who has continued to hold up with dignity under what is probably untold stress with a certain amount of dignity her nasty critics lack.
I think at this point in history many of us identify with being an individual having their soul crushed by an overpowering machinery that is the larger society. And nobody cares.
I'll be trying to write some open letters to prisoners of conscience as apparently in some cases their governments monitor how they look in the court of global public opinion. Fortunately for me they do it through some really imprecise methods, such that this blog may tick off a counter in some global public opinion surveillance algorithm. I hope my first letter "hits" home to make a bit of a nerdish pun- as in my home by birth- the USA.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Chelsea Manning,
Thank you for showing the world about what modern war can feel and look like. I'm convinced many people passively support wars only because they have no personal experience in them so it can become about abstractions and slogans.
The first time I was in a bombing was September 11th 2001. I lived in Brooklyn but worked in Manhattan in the laboratory of a medical school. My train stopped, so I got out and walked. Someone had left an abandoned car open and the radio was playing. They urged everyone who worked in a hospital to report to the hospital. I figured I should go into my lab. I walked through the chaos for many blocks until at some point I think I caught a bus. There is a blank in my memories from seeing all this stuff swirling in the air until I was sitting in my laboratory talking to my boss on the phone. My boss had smartly run to a bomb shelter when the first plane hit. Apparently lab members mocked him as paranoid, right until the second plane hit, at which point they all started freaking out. I can't tell you how saddened I am that what I and many others went through turned into an excuse for what is apparently an endless war against people who for the most part had nothing to do with this.
I share your belief that life is precious. In fact shortly after 2001 I left my lab job and went to medical school. In the beginning was not particularly a natural talent at learning medicine to put it mildly. At one point I tried to drop out of medical school, and took a job as a dishwasher. Then I realized I hated washing dishes as a profession much more than I ever imagined. Long story short in spite of a pretty bizarre path, I became a doctor. Once I taught myself how to memorize large quantities of material, I was fine. I was able to pass my licensing exams pretty easily. I want to tell you that my experiences taught me the value of never giving up. I am not at all comparing studying to prison; I'm just saying don't give up and don't despair even if you are facing of 35 years in prison. Sometimes things turn out in ways we never ever expected.
I read some things you wrote. You seem to be holding up very well mentally considering the circumstances. I thought your commentary on how to combat ISIS was interesting. I hope you can continue to use the publicity around yourself to get publicity towards the mess we Americans are creating in the middle east. I hope you continue to hold up in spite of the many small miseries of prison I can only imagine. I hope you know that many people do not see you as criminal. I think a lot of people know, secretly, that the biggest criminals in our country are not in jail but rather in our government.
I wrote the white house several times about you because I think you are a patriot who deserves freedom. I know no one there really cares about what I think, but many people are writing these types of letters for you. Our hope is that at some point there will be so many letters they can no longer ignore us. Please continue to write. I'm sorry you have to suffer so much. As they say "freedom isn't free."
I and many other people are very grateful to you.
Love,
Makeda
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Leftist Leaders Explaining My Situation to Me
Rebbeca Solnit's now famous "Men Explain Things to Me" struck a distant chord when I first read bits of it. Stuck in the world of science where discovery is key, and my own knowledge was limited, I did not experience condescension as often as appropriate teaching. Then after some time angry at the capitalist distortion of American health care, I decided to become involved in leftist politics. I'm not sure I could have met such a group of arrogant classist condescending sexists had I joined the fascist right wing. Obviously, I'm not the color of person who could find out...But I have come to believe the academic left is actually often an impediment to progress. I sat down to write a blog about this topic only to discover Solnit beat me to some of my conclusions...
Fortunately for her she probably hadn't had the same number of leftists explaining her political situation to her, or at least she didn't let on if she had. Solnit criticizes the radical left's extreme rhetoric as pointless. She quotes Micahel Eric Dyson who astutely notices that "What is not good are ideals and rhetorics that don’t have the possibility of changing the condition that you analyze. Otherwise, you’re engaging in a form of rhetorical narcissism and ideological self-preoccupation that has no consequence on the material conditions of actually existing poor people.”
I would add that what is also not good is condescendingly explaining people's condition to them. People who have never experienced certain levels of oppressive political conditions bizarrely seem entitled to sacrifice those that do in the name of their own political self aggrandizing. A large part of the problem is straight up ignorance about how the real world works. People from entitled backgrounds are so used to the world bending to their will they forget that other powerful people also have strong wills, and often armies to back them up. Hence the university educated professor can call for methods of class revolution without any consciousness of all the consequences of his methods: many of which might be negative for the very people he purports to lead a revolution for. Because they have never personally confronted people with real power- often their own relatives- they are unaware of the extent to which powerful people will abuse their power. Sustainable victories against the ruling classes will most often be incremental if they ever come. Those of us who live in the lower half of the power equation are often concerned with scrapping by: making our own existence survivable in a world utterly indifferent to us at best. We aren't all interested in sacrificing ourselves to prove a political point.
On the other hand, talking back to our self appointed leaders results in rigid thought policing that could only be described as ironically humorous if it were not tragic. A perfect example of this nonsense is my the rhetoric ex-husband. I don't use his name, or tell identifying story after story of his laughable "feminism" in order to avoid the legal ramifications of doing so, not because it isn't hysterically funny. A feminist academic type, he used to lecture me about my lack of feminism. I spent lots spent my spare time volunteering with female war refugees. In my experience as a volunteer doctor with female war refugees this population is the frontline of every kind of violence against women and all it's ramifications even after they move away from conflict zones. In spite of my dedication to these women, my ex-husband constantly chastized me . My utter lack of concern over upper middle class white women was alarming to him. He once chastised me for looking down on women who take advantage of the global classed/gendered labor divide to elevate themselves. Apparently I should have been looking up at women who abuse migrant laborers taking care of their children, because they were "career" women. According to him I also should have been looking up to women who had no children at all...because they were more successful, according to him. I had to politely and patiently explain to him over and over that not everyone in the world measures success in dollars. "Marx said the primary thing is the job, the work" He would say as if Marx were the source of all truth in the universe. Just for the sake of historical irony, I will point out that Karl Marx had seven children.
If you don't notice the sad trend of "successful"women living empty lives you are either in a coma or a leftist committed to some imaginary world of leftist ideas. In reality men and women have not achieved anything close to equality. We aren't even held to the same standards. Try imagining a woman even as creepy as womanizing oversexed heroes like Martin Luther King or Ghandi, and you will immediately see my point. No such nonsense exists. That may actually be a good thing, but it proves how far apart we are. The real breaking point is no longer sex though, it's children. Yes, some women are allergic to children; but by and large due to the psychotic demands of the American style workplace, women who want what men have: the chance at rewarding work and family are tremendously disadvantaged. Many women therefore make some compromises in terms of achieving what they want. Only men and wealthy women are arrogant enough to assume that they know which compromises would have been better for most women take. Not so coincidentally, these privileged classes (men and women with money) are often interested women making in the compromises that benefit men and the wealthy classes the most. In the leftist male fantasy world first wives should preoccupy themselves with supporting these men financially, then step aside when men are successful, as they can now be traded in for younger prettier versions that produce children. It sounds like the anti-feminist fantasy; but every man I know trying to achieve this female nightmare tells me he is a feminist. If he is really feminist he won't have a first wife, because "marriage is patriarchy" or some vapid slogan like that...marriage of course implies shared responsibility between a man and a woman over their actions together, and what feminist wouldn't want women to be given with ALL the responsibility for everything? I know such men must be feminists because they explain feminism to me.
Of course by explaining, I only mean attempting to dictate. I thought of typing out a tirade on my latest run in with the leftists thought police; but I have decided it is counterproductive. What I have come to realize is that many organizations of leftists aren't as problematic as I imagine them to be. They are in fact nearly irrelevant; even if they don't realize it.
Fortunately for her she probably hadn't had the same number of leftists explaining her political situation to her, or at least she didn't let on if she had. Solnit criticizes the radical left's extreme rhetoric as pointless. She quotes Micahel Eric Dyson who astutely notices that "What is not good are ideals and rhetorics that don’t have the possibility of changing the condition that you analyze. Otherwise, you’re engaging in a form of rhetorical narcissism and ideological self-preoccupation that has no consequence on the material conditions of actually existing poor people.”
I would add that what is also not good is condescendingly explaining people's condition to them. People who have never experienced certain levels of oppressive political conditions bizarrely seem entitled to sacrifice those that do in the name of their own political self aggrandizing. A large part of the problem is straight up ignorance about how the real world works. People from entitled backgrounds are so used to the world bending to their will they forget that other powerful people also have strong wills, and often armies to back them up. Hence the university educated professor can call for methods of class revolution without any consciousness of all the consequences of his methods: many of which might be negative for the very people he purports to lead a revolution for. Because they have never personally confronted people with real power- often their own relatives- they are unaware of the extent to which powerful people will abuse their power. Sustainable victories against the ruling classes will most often be incremental if they ever come. Those of us who live in the lower half of the power equation are often concerned with scrapping by: making our own existence survivable in a world utterly indifferent to us at best. We aren't all interested in sacrificing ourselves to prove a political point.
On the other hand, talking back to our self appointed leaders results in rigid thought policing that could only be described as ironically humorous if it were not tragic. A perfect example of this nonsense is my the rhetoric ex-husband. I don't use his name, or tell identifying story after story of his laughable "feminism" in order to avoid the legal ramifications of doing so, not because it isn't hysterically funny. A feminist academic type, he used to lecture me about my lack of feminism. I spent lots spent my spare time volunteering with female war refugees. In my experience as a volunteer doctor with female war refugees this population is the frontline of every kind of violence against women and all it's ramifications even after they move away from conflict zones. In spite of my dedication to these women, my ex-husband constantly chastized me . My utter lack of concern over upper middle class white women was alarming to him. He once chastised me for looking down on women who take advantage of the global classed/gendered labor divide to elevate themselves. Apparently I should have been looking up at women who abuse migrant laborers taking care of their children, because they were "career" women. According to him I also should have been looking up to women who had no children at all...because they were more successful, according to him. I had to politely and patiently explain to him over and over that not everyone in the world measures success in dollars. "Marx said the primary thing is the job, the work" He would say as if Marx were the source of all truth in the universe. Just for the sake of historical irony, I will point out that Karl Marx had seven children.
If you don't notice the sad trend of "successful"women living empty lives you are either in a coma or a leftist committed to some imaginary world of leftist ideas. In reality men and women have not achieved anything close to equality. We aren't even held to the same standards. Try imagining a woman even as creepy as womanizing oversexed heroes like Martin Luther King or Ghandi, and you will immediately see my point. No such nonsense exists. That may actually be a good thing, but it proves how far apart we are. The real breaking point is no longer sex though, it's children. Yes, some women are allergic to children; but by and large due to the psychotic demands of the American style workplace, women who want what men have: the chance at rewarding work and family are tremendously disadvantaged. Many women therefore make some compromises in terms of achieving what they want. Only men and wealthy women are arrogant enough to assume that they know which compromises would have been better for most women take. Not so coincidentally, these privileged classes (men and women with money) are often interested women making in the compromises that benefit men and the wealthy classes the most. In the leftist male fantasy world first wives should preoccupy themselves with supporting these men financially, then step aside when men are successful, as they can now be traded in for younger prettier versions that produce children. It sounds like the anti-feminist fantasy; but every man I know trying to achieve this female nightmare tells me he is a feminist. If he is really feminist he won't have a first wife, because "marriage is patriarchy" or some vapid slogan like that...marriage of course implies shared responsibility between a man and a woman over their actions together, and what feminist wouldn't want women to be given with ALL the responsibility for everything? I know such men must be feminists because they explain feminism to me.
Of course by explaining, I only mean attempting to dictate. I thought of typing out a tirade on my latest run in with the leftists thought police; but I have decided it is counterproductive. What I have come to realize is that many organizations of leftists aren't as problematic as I imagine them to be. They are in fact nearly irrelevant; even if they don't realize it.
Monday, December 29, 2014
Top 10 Stupidest Comments on Israel 2014
I'm often the recipient of stupid comments on Israel and Judaism. As there are only a few days left to this year, so I'm hoping I'm safe in revealing the stupidest things I've heard this calender year from angry anti-Israel protesters. I won't even bother with run of the mill idiots like the Italian backpacker who told me "I hate Jews" before he realized I was Jewish. I'm specifically writing a note to irritating uninformed protesters. These protestors need a cause. Maybe they could become pro-Palestinian for a start. I would coincidentally label myself as both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli, because I actually want peace and prosperity for all but as we will see in the comments this confuses people.
I've decided to help these anti-Israel protesters stop annoying me by publishing some of the stupidest things on Levantine politics I have heard from them all year. For so long as angry yet uninformed leftists continue to repeat stupid nonsense, intelligent people like myself will be less and less motivated to engage you, inform you, debate with you or at some point even acknowledge you.
Dear misinformed angry anti-Israel anglos- please don't come at me with this nonsense in 2015. If you care so much, you may want to stop screaming slogans, shut up and learn something.
Dear misinformed angry anti-Israel anglos- please don't come at me with this nonsense in 2015. If you care so much, you may want to stop screaming slogans, shut up and learn something.
10. "You don't look Jewish!" yelled at me by an anti-Israel protester in London when I revealed I was Jewish... Yes, I had some surgeries to remove my horns and cloven hooves. Amazing what I can buy with my mountains and mountains of gold and money, eh? No seriously. Israel lies at the crossroads of Asia, Europe and Africa. If you had spent any time there you would realize there is a broad diversity to the way people from there look whether they are Jewish, Muslim, Christian or Druze. Additionally Judaism had a diaspora over 2000 years in which converts were added to her people. All I really have to say to the multiple people who have said this to me is that luckily for them, they don't look as stupid as they are.
9. "You speak Arabic?" usually uttered in disbelief. I'm Jewish, enough of a reason right there. Additionally I lived in Haifa for some years. Arabs all know why I speak some Arabic even if they sometimes make fun of my accent. Why the hell is this so confusing for Westerners? Just FYI the two official languages of Israel are Hebrew and Arabic. An argument against Arabic as a national language I have actually heard from an Israeli is that Jews speak too many different dialects of Arabic to standardize a national language from them...however there is a somewhat standard Arabic in which local Muslims, Druze, Christians and even some Jews receive education and other services.
8. "There are Arabs in Israel?" This leads to some serious confusion for some people....Christian and Muslim Arabs make up a significant percentage of the (inside the green line) Israeli population. Additionally, many Jews in Israel are descendants of Jews from countries around the middle east (Mizrachim). Added together Mizrachim and Arab/Palestinian citizens of Israel would constitute a majority of the people there. For people who spend so much time hating a country, you know remarkably little about it...
7. "Which side are you on?" Is this a sports rivalry gone bad? Be real. Either we can all win by coming to some kind of just peace or we can all lose by spiraling down into the hell of continued war and conflict together. Or something else...but more or less we are all going to go through this conflict together due to geography. Have you looked at any maps recently?
6. "Imagine how awful it is for the Palestinians to be bombed!" This was yelled at me by protesters when I identified myself as having lived in Israel. I've survived two bombings in my life. I don't have to imagine, I only have to remember. Where the fuck do you, comfortable Westerner assuaging your guilt by projecting your own cultural psychosis onto the state of Israel, get off yelling at me as if I liked bombings? I could tell you a thing or two about bombings...
5. "The state of Israel is racist" also yelled at me by New York protesters when I identified myself as having lived in Israel. OK, and the state you live in is a post-racial utopia right? No racial issues here at all...I wonder what all those "Black lives matter" protesters are protesting? Turns out there is no utopia on earth. Except possibly Canada, but even in that case only for the non-native population. The first peoples of Canada have been getting the shaft for hundreds of years...
4. "ISIS- The New Israel" title of an article by Chris Hedges. I don't think this sincere although delusional Christian simpleton could be employing a complex rhetorical device like sarcasm. He thinks this is real. He is really comparing a country that literally enslaves captured women to rape them, kills non-Muslims and is shamelessly running an attempt at genocide to the middle east's only democracy. With intellectuals like this, who needs the stupidity of the masses to laugh at...
3. "I'm against bombing poor children!" Yeah, me too. Whaddya know. We have something in common crazy stupid anglo protester. Do you seriously think anyone is for bombing poor children? Oh whoops...guess I momentarily forgot about the US and UK governments and their permanent war against the various parts of the middle east. Wait a second, why aren't you protesting them? Could it be that it is harder to look yourself in the mirror than point out problems in other peoples? 2014 has seen a spike in violent deaths of Iraqui civilians, and that isn't even counting the number of people whose lives have been cut short by bombed out infrastructure, food shortages or any of the other "collateral" damage from the United States. Research in 2014 suggests that U.S. drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan have had an unknown person to target casualty ratio of 28:1 with one attack in the study having a ratio of 128:1 with 13 children being killed. If you are against bombing children, please begin with the bombing of children done in your name...you have a functioning democracy, right? So basically your democratic will seems to kill these poor kids...
2. "Arabs have 22 countries..." OK, I think some Jews got jealous of all the stupid statements being made, and had to get in on the action. Pro-Israel activists often resort to some twisted arguments. I personally don't care if Arabs have 49 countries and all the shellfish products in the world. I'm not trying to live in Syria these days anyways, and I don't eat shellfish. There is a completely separate question of how Arabs will run their countries...and unfortunately recent history has shown a trend towards running them in a way extremely inhospitable to religious minorities. I think this unfortunate reality of religious persecution is where the counting countries argument really comes from. Since the 1940s Jews have been persecuted, targeted for murder and in some cases like Egypt outright expelled in mass as their property was looted from Arab countries.
1. "Academic Freedom Encompasses the Right to Boycott [Israeli academics]" well just any old person can make stupid statements, but it usually takes an academic to get downright moronic in word and deed. Rima Kapitan is the author of an article with the above name...but there are about a hundred variations of this roaming around the hallowed halls of academia. Academics boycotting Israel claim they are all about academic freedom, with the glaring exception of Israelis. Academia claims to embrace the free exchange of ideas, apparently unless they are somehow related to one particular unpopular state. Why can't these people just be honest and admit they are against academic freedom?
And now, because I understand Murphy's law, I'm just waiting for someone to hit me with an even stupider comment in the next 48 hours...but here's hoping the uninformed take up a new object of protest in 2015. Believe it or not, the world is an incredibly large place. The one argument about Israel I never hear, but wish I would, is that it has occupied too much of the global geopolitical discussion. That would be the intelligent criticism.
3. "I'm against bombing poor children!" Yeah, me too. Whaddya know. We have something in common crazy stupid anglo protester. Do you seriously think anyone is for bombing poor children? Oh whoops...guess I momentarily forgot about the US and UK governments and their permanent war against the various parts of the middle east. Wait a second, why aren't you protesting them? Could it be that it is harder to look yourself in the mirror than point out problems in other peoples? 2014 has seen a spike in violent deaths of Iraqui civilians, and that isn't even counting the number of people whose lives have been cut short by bombed out infrastructure, food shortages or any of the other "collateral" damage from the United States. Research in 2014 suggests that U.S. drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan have had an unknown person to target casualty ratio of 28:1 with one attack in the study having a ratio of 128:1 with 13 children being killed. If you are against bombing children, please begin with the bombing of children done in your name...you have a functioning democracy, right? So basically your democratic will seems to kill these poor kids...
2. "Arabs have 22 countries..." OK, I think some Jews got jealous of all the stupid statements being made, and had to get in on the action. Pro-Israel activists often resort to some twisted arguments. I personally don't care if Arabs have 49 countries and all the shellfish products in the world. I'm not trying to live in Syria these days anyways, and I don't eat shellfish. There is a completely separate question of how Arabs will run their countries...and unfortunately recent history has shown a trend towards running them in a way extremely inhospitable to religious minorities. I think this unfortunate reality of religious persecution is where the counting countries argument really comes from. Since the 1940s Jews have been persecuted, targeted for murder and in some cases like Egypt outright expelled in mass as their property was looted from Arab countries.
1. "Academic Freedom Encompasses the Right to Boycott [Israeli academics]" well just any old person can make stupid statements, but it usually takes an academic to get downright moronic in word and deed. Rima Kapitan is the author of an article with the above name...but there are about a hundred variations of this roaming around the hallowed halls of academia. Academics boycotting Israel claim they are all about academic freedom, with the glaring exception of Israelis. Academia claims to embrace the free exchange of ideas, apparently unless they are somehow related to one particular unpopular state. Why can't these people just be honest and admit they are against academic freedom?
And now, because I understand Murphy's law, I'm just waiting for someone to hit me with an even stupider comment in the next 48 hours...but here's hoping the uninformed take up a new object of protest in 2015. Believe it or not, the world is an incredibly large place. The one argument about Israel I never hear, but wish I would, is that it has occupied too much of the global geopolitical discussion. That would be the intelligent criticism.
Sunday, December 28, 2014
A New Business from Poverty: Voluntourism
Apparently poverty is a business like any other. It might not be very profitable for those who have to suffer through it; but there is still money to be made. For decades many people have known about those who skim off of money meant for charity. But now as the number of poor people around seems to expand since the financial crisis of 2007, business leaders have found more and more ways to make a buck off of those without one. These practices are all along the food chain from mom-and-pop businesses right up to the financial titans that run the world.
At the top you can consider the big bank JPMorgan. Since the crisis they have made billions of the financial service of food stamps for Americans. Literally billions each year were made off of American people who couldn't afford to feed themselves. As to this windfall improving things for American workers...well not so much. A lot of the jobs from these types of project are done by low wage workers in India.
If one carefully considers every step and product involved in the process of this service, it is apparent that it is not only poverty servicing but poverty creating. Yet from the crude oil that made the plastic that food stamp recipients have in their cards, down to the cash registers ringing them up at the grocery store there is production and profit. In most steps globalism has worked like a curtain to separate the two...and many sides involved are ignorant of the full picture. Food stamps are just a particularly interesting case study, and perhaps even a positive on one balance.
Ignorance of how globalization works for most involved is psychologically easier. As long as each person involved in production is isolated from a larger picture, they can feel that what they are doing is morally neutral. The business class claims workers are not in fact ignorant, and they could work at something else if they ever had objections: they assume democracy and freedom. But the appearance of democracy is maintained by a dictatorship of ignorance. With enough manipulation people can even become ignorant of what is right in front of their faces every day. In this world of easy ignorance I am impressed by the number of relatively privileged young people I meet who want to do something to make the world a better place or at least understand what the heck really goes on. Unfortunately, their impulses are often hijacked by an ever expanding industry that profits off misery in quite a different way than JPMorgan.
Thousands of young privileged folk fan out from the first world all over the globe to volunteer. A few commit to doing substantial work with reputable organizations like Peace Corps. Others, perhaps guilty about their ability to take lavish vacations look for shorter projects. An entire industry has sprung up around these sometimes naive younger folks. Not every young person is naive. Many pay to volunteer as a way to pad their resumes or education applications. In the case of such self aggrandizing volunteers, they are fully aware they are paying for a service. But what of the volunteer who actually sought to make the world a better place? They will likely experience anger and frustration. They may in fact be scared away from ever reaching out again.
More and more voluntourist organizations seem to be operating with less and less concern for any actual poor people. Over my time in Africa I met many young Westerners who had been sucked into the schemes of such organizations only to realize that they themselves were one of the mechanisms through which such organizations profit. Not only are poor children used for profit as they become living advertising jingles to milk donations from wealthy donors, but middle class Western kids are used for profit as well. One woman I spoke to volunteered in a Township in South Africa. She paid an embarrassing amount supposedly for her own accommodation, and improvement of the local school. When she got there her accommodations were so poor she privately paid upgrade her situation by joining a backpackers hostel nearby. The children at the local school didn't even get soap in the bathrooms and neither did she. When she made some off the cuff calculations on how much money the organization made per volunteer she was astounded. She furiously decided to trail the money, but hit a wall of silence. She was informed that the organization did not have to disclose any financial information to the public including it's volunteers. In spite of misleading information she had received, the organization was in fact for profit, and therefore supposedly had every right to make as much profit as possible...even if it meant keeping a local African school as decrepit as possible presumably to inspire even more donations.
Another volunteer I met stayed at the accommodations his organization provided him. he described it as a four bedroom house holding 25 volunteers who all paid to be there. There was no security, and given the presumable demographics of the group it isn't surprising that the place was the target of frequent break-ins. The man mentioned that no one who worked for the organization actually stayed there. The resident volunteers were really being robbed twice over: by the local thieves, and also by the organization they worked for. He was like many young volunteers naive. He found out about the opportunity over the internet. Without having set foot in Africa he had set up an experience for himself there. But if he had simply set foot in Africa he might have saved himself a lot of trouble. There is a genuine need in Africa, just as in the USA for volunteers. It's impossible not to find people who could use some help. It's heartbreaking. I considered putting a picture of myself sharing my birthday party with some orphans in here, but then I realized I didn't want to publish up a picture of these kids being served food by me. No one needs to know they were hungry orphans for ever and ever verifiable by internet search engine. But voluntourist organizations have no such consideration for kids. Some even grab kids unknown to volunteers for photo-ops.
Not every voluntourist is convinced of their own benevolence...but few seem to understand all the ways that they are feeding a for-profit machine. Charity gives the facade of redemption to the cruelest forms of globalized capitalism. Westerners are encouraged to see themselves as saviors of the world's poor as opposed to the ones who perpetrate a system that impoverishes them. It's an easy sell. In looking at situations of conflict almost all humans see themselves as victims or bystanders. Few understand themselves as the perpetrators of any problem. Oddly though, many people see a good deed done by anything less than pure altruism as so tainted by bad intentions as to be negative. I submit this blog to the world in the hopes of exposing the less than altruistic reasons behind many voluntourist organizations...I hope young people find other ways to volunteer.
At the top you can consider the big bank JPMorgan. Since the crisis they have made billions of the financial service of food stamps for Americans. Literally billions each year were made off of American people who couldn't afford to feed themselves. As to this windfall improving things for American workers...well not so much. A lot of the jobs from these types of project are done by low wage workers in India.
If one carefully considers every step and product involved in the process of this service, it is apparent that it is not only poverty servicing but poverty creating. Yet from the crude oil that made the plastic that food stamp recipients have in their cards, down to the cash registers ringing them up at the grocery store there is production and profit. In most steps globalism has worked like a curtain to separate the two...and many sides involved are ignorant of the full picture. Food stamps are just a particularly interesting case study, and perhaps even a positive on one balance.
Ignorance of how globalization works for most involved is psychologically easier. As long as each person involved in production is isolated from a larger picture, they can feel that what they are doing is morally neutral. The business class claims workers are not in fact ignorant, and they could work at something else if they ever had objections: they assume democracy and freedom. But the appearance of democracy is maintained by a dictatorship of ignorance. With enough manipulation people can even become ignorant of what is right in front of their faces every day. In this world of easy ignorance I am impressed by the number of relatively privileged young people I meet who want to do something to make the world a better place or at least understand what the heck really goes on. Unfortunately, their impulses are often hijacked by an ever expanding industry that profits off misery in quite a different way than JPMorgan.
Thousands of young privileged folk fan out from the first world all over the globe to volunteer. A few commit to doing substantial work with reputable organizations like Peace Corps. Others, perhaps guilty about their ability to take lavish vacations look for shorter projects. An entire industry has sprung up around these sometimes naive younger folks. Not every young person is naive. Many pay to volunteer as a way to pad their resumes or education applications. In the case of such self aggrandizing volunteers, they are fully aware they are paying for a service. But what of the volunteer who actually sought to make the world a better place? They will likely experience anger and frustration. They may in fact be scared away from ever reaching out again.
More and more voluntourist organizations seem to be operating with less and less concern for any actual poor people. Over my time in Africa I met many young Westerners who had been sucked into the schemes of such organizations only to realize that they themselves were one of the mechanisms through which such organizations profit. Not only are poor children used for profit as they become living advertising jingles to milk donations from wealthy donors, but middle class Western kids are used for profit as well. One woman I spoke to volunteered in a Township in South Africa. She paid an embarrassing amount supposedly for her own accommodation, and improvement of the local school. When she got there her accommodations were so poor she privately paid upgrade her situation by joining a backpackers hostel nearby. The children at the local school didn't even get soap in the bathrooms and neither did she. When she made some off the cuff calculations on how much money the organization made per volunteer she was astounded. She furiously decided to trail the money, but hit a wall of silence. She was informed that the organization did not have to disclose any financial information to the public including it's volunteers. In spite of misleading information she had received, the organization was in fact for profit, and therefore supposedly had every right to make as much profit as possible...even if it meant keeping a local African school as decrepit as possible presumably to inspire even more donations.
Another volunteer I met stayed at the accommodations his organization provided him. he described it as a four bedroom house holding 25 volunteers who all paid to be there. There was no security, and given the presumable demographics of the group it isn't surprising that the place was the target of frequent break-ins. The man mentioned that no one who worked for the organization actually stayed there. The resident volunteers were really being robbed twice over: by the local thieves, and also by the organization they worked for. He was like many young volunteers naive. He found out about the opportunity over the internet. Without having set foot in Africa he had set up an experience for himself there. But if he had simply set foot in Africa he might have saved himself a lot of trouble. There is a genuine need in Africa, just as in the USA for volunteers. It's impossible not to find people who could use some help. It's heartbreaking. I considered putting a picture of myself sharing my birthday party with some orphans in here, but then I realized I didn't want to publish up a picture of these kids being served food by me. No one needs to know they were hungry orphans for ever and ever verifiable by internet search engine. But voluntourist organizations have no such consideration for kids. Some even grab kids unknown to volunteers for photo-ops.
Not every voluntourist is convinced of their own benevolence...but few seem to understand all the ways that they are feeding a for-profit machine. Charity gives the facade of redemption to the cruelest forms of globalized capitalism. Westerners are encouraged to see themselves as saviors of the world's poor as opposed to the ones who perpetrate a system that impoverishes them. It's an easy sell. In looking at situations of conflict almost all humans see themselves as victims or bystanders. Few understand themselves as the perpetrators of any problem. Oddly though, many people see a good deed done by anything less than pure altruism as so tainted by bad intentions as to be negative. I submit this blog to the world in the hopes of exposing the less than altruistic reasons behind many voluntourist organizations...I hope young people find other ways to volunteer.
Friday, December 26, 2014
Bachelor Bubble: Humans of the Future?
Last night I hit the town with a pair of European bachelors. I was extremely curious, in an armchair anthropologist sort of way, about this curious species I have often poked fun of...in perhaps an ethnocentric and uncalled for kind of way. Now, I know two subjects are not exactly the makings of a rigorous study...but I was very curious nonetheless. I figured it could only serve to cut down on my snide remarks about Western Europeans men and their lifestyle...but I was wrong.
Unfortuntely, these men confirmed most of the stereotypes I had cooked up in my mind. At one point a woman about 25 years younger than them brushed by, and they tried to pick her up. I was so amazed at their confidence. I want to see their psychologists. Good for them...but unfortunately, BAAAD for them...the rest of the room was laughing at them. The woman was laughing at them. The woman's friend was laughing at them. I was laughing at them. I think even stray dogs were laughing at them. They were too busy trying to look cool to notice why everyone was so suddenly jolly. People who try to look cool even in their thirties often end up looking like sad losers who can't let go of adolescence. People who try to look cool after fourty are usually just downright pathetic. The people who are in fact very cool at any age are those who are actually comfortable in their skin, even if it is wrinkled. The more the pair I watched tried to assert that they were young, hip and vivacious; the more they seemed old, boring and tired. Likewise the more they asserted they really understood women, the more it became apparent they knew too little to even keep long term relationships.
I began to feel badly for these chaps. But I wondered if this was based on false assumptions. I assume they must be miserable deep down inside; but probably they are happier than I know. For them life is a big bachelor party, and they are living each day to the fullest. I do wonder how they will deal when they wake up with a health problem, and no one is there to care for them...but anyone could find themselves in this situation.
This situation seems extremely relevant in light of recent promising advances in fertility treatment. We are probably 10 years away from being able to make eggs and sperm from anyone's stem cells. So the famous female biological clock will be not just altered, but shattered to pieces if everything goes well in some sort of femenist fantasy sort of way...though it probably will not. But the thought experiment is engaging. What if everyone wanted to push parenthood off until retirement? What of the poor children...and what of us if we can't catch them as they run away from our hairy wrinkled selves? Just because we can work towards this change- should we? Or will we all become like those two delusional bachelors, keeping hope of capturing one young half for a pair in spite of the improbability of this reality plainly in sight of even their ever decreasing vision?
Unfortuntely, these men confirmed most of the stereotypes I had cooked up in my mind. At one point a woman about 25 years younger than them brushed by, and they tried to pick her up. I was so amazed at their confidence. I want to see their psychologists. Good for them...but unfortunately, BAAAD for them...the rest of the room was laughing at them. The woman was laughing at them. The woman's friend was laughing at them. I was laughing at them. I think even stray dogs were laughing at them. They were too busy trying to look cool to notice why everyone was so suddenly jolly. People who try to look cool even in their thirties often end up looking like sad losers who can't let go of adolescence. People who try to look cool after fourty are usually just downright pathetic. The people who are in fact very cool at any age are those who are actually comfortable in their skin, even if it is wrinkled. The more the pair I watched tried to assert that they were young, hip and vivacious; the more they seemed old, boring and tired. Likewise the more they asserted they really understood women, the more it became apparent they knew too little to even keep long term relationships.
I began to feel badly for these chaps. But I wondered if this was based on false assumptions. I assume they must be miserable deep down inside; but probably they are happier than I know. For them life is a big bachelor party, and they are living each day to the fullest. I do wonder how they will deal when they wake up with a health problem, and no one is there to care for them...but anyone could find themselves in this situation.
This situation seems extremely relevant in light of recent promising advances in fertility treatment. We are probably 10 years away from being able to make eggs and sperm from anyone's stem cells. So the famous female biological clock will be not just altered, but shattered to pieces if everything goes well in some sort of femenist fantasy sort of way...though it probably will not. But the thought experiment is engaging. What if everyone wanted to push parenthood off until retirement? What of the poor children...and what of us if we can't catch them as they run away from our hairy wrinkled selves? Just because we can work towards this change- should we? Or will we all become like those two delusional bachelors, keeping hope of capturing one young half for a pair in spite of the improbability of this reality plainly in sight of even their ever decreasing vision?
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
The Truth on America's Economy in Seven Sad Facts
I usually scan papers to try and figure out what is going on in the economy. Over the past few years I've started to suspect something is missing in the mainstream press coverage of the economy. Stuff just did not add up. Every time I have looked at employment numbers this past year, it was up, up ,up and away. You would think the economy is booming. Many foreign people do. I am always shocked at the number of otherwise realistic people all over the world who somehow got convinced that in the US the streets are paved in gold, and social mobility is the norm. There is of course plenty of social mobility: all of it downward.
Today I decided to dig up some facts to help the rest of the world understand what is really going on. Here are seven of the most important facts that summarize the issue:
1. Most Americans are not working full time
2. Half of Americans are poor
3. The USA is number ONE.. in imprisoning people- any way you count it- by a huge margin; while we are also number one in reported rapes, illegal drug use, car thefts and murders, our prison population exceeds even all that!!! We are number ONE!!!
4. Americans have and take fewer days off than anyone in the developed world
5. American women are not garunteed any maternity leave...placing them behing most nations on earth
6. Social mobility is lower in the US than many countries like France, Japan...or PAKISTAN
7. The majority of US children live in poverty or low income households
Compounding the issue is the fact that this is no scenic organic poverty under coconut trees. I'm talking about a brand of white bread eating, wife beating smack snorting insanity I've never seen anywhere else. And no, there are no gold paved streets either...
Today I decided to dig up some facts to help the rest of the world understand what is really going on. Here are seven of the most important facts that summarize the issue:
1. Most Americans are not working full time
2. Half of Americans are poor
3. The USA is number ONE.. in imprisoning people- any way you count it- by a huge margin; while we are also number one in reported rapes, illegal drug use, car thefts and murders, our prison population exceeds even all that!!! We are number ONE!!!
4. Americans have and take fewer days off than anyone in the developed world
5. American women are not garunteed any maternity leave...placing them behing most nations on earth
6. Social mobility is lower in the US than many countries like France, Japan...or PAKISTAN
7. The majority of US children live in poverty or low income households
Compounding the issue is the fact that this is no scenic organic poverty under coconut trees. I'm talking about a brand of white bread eating, wife beating smack snorting insanity I've never seen anywhere else. And no, there are no gold paved streets either...
Monday, December 22, 2014
The Bitter End: Kim Kardishian's Ass
Just when I thought American culture could get no more vulgar and vapid...Kim Kardishian has released a new book. Or actually it will happen sometime in 2015..but has already generated close to a million mentions on the internet. Selfish, that contains contains 2,000 selfies composed by a woman who got famous of a sex tape. Not to be topped the American media has weighed in with deep analysis. The following are headlines and qoutes actually copy pasted from "news" sources like FOX:
It's time for everyone to acknowledge that Kim Kardashian, 33, is a genius. [www.hollywoodlife.com]
Kim Kardashian's Author Description for 'Selfish' is a Must-Read. [www.washingtonexaminer.com/]
Kim Kardashian's book of selfies isn't about her [www.fox411.com]
It's time for everyone to acknowledge that Kim Kardashian, 33, is a genius. [www.hollywoodlife.com]
Kim Kardashian's Author Description for 'Selfish' is a Must-Read. [www.washingtonexaminer.com/]
Well, I'm just waiting for the return of orgies and vomitoriums to usher in a new dark age...except in terms of American public discourse, I guess we are already there. It's worth noting that at the height of the Roman empire most people were excluded from any political power. Much like early Greek democracies which had more non-voters than voters, the empire was for the few not the many.
Unfortunately, I fear that in the decline of the American empire, we the people will be the first people thrown under the wagon...by ourselves. People at the edge of the empire are much better equipped to cope with our fall. Most never had any illusions about our benevolence. Further they are perfectly capable of functioning in pretty dysfunctional environments. If you watch, for example, doctors who have trained in resource poor circumstances, many can take the tools around them and accomplish a lot whatever the tools may be.
We Americans, by contrast, seem to want to live in some kind of delusion that the real tools of our redemption are coming...so we will just wait here without changing the way we do anything. The medical system throws almost half of us into debt at some point...but no one will back off of total misallocation of resources. The university system is throwing millions of people into debt...but NYTimes editorials try to convince us it's for our own good. Half the country is poor, but we still want to cling to our system...we delude ourselves into believing ISIS is a major threat to American lives. To put it into perspective over the last decade the number of American civilians American police killed is higher than the number of our soldiers killed in the apparently endless Iraq wars. But somehow both mounting death tolls have been nearly erased from public debate to endlessly discuss issues like Renee Zelwegger's face or now Kim K's ass. Celebrity culture is the new opiate of the masses. And I, for one, am worried they are going to overdose themselves right into a coma...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)