ugh - when will the madness end

Are we ever going to get to a point where things like this don't happen any more?

Sunny

why make an informed decision?

Well, I got too caught up in PowerPoint and chili cheese fries to mark the anniversary of two major court decisions in North America this week: Roe v. Wade and R v. Morgentaler. Whatever your feelings might be on abortion (and this post is not meant to express an opinion either way), I think it's safe to say that those two decisions were monumental in the social life of North Americans.

And so, one would think that in the case of unwanted pregnancy these days, since there are options, discussion of the merits of those options would be a given. When one of my high school friends got pregnant at 17, let me tell you, there was much discussion. I would actually say much agonizing. When you're young, broke, sick, and/or alone, and facing the prospect of bringing another life into the world, the decision either way can't be easy. I feel lucky that I've never had to face it for myself.

And yet I've seen two (really popular) movies over the last few months that would lead one to believe that weighing of the available options doesn't really happen anymore. First there was Knocked Up, an amusing film, but unfortunately based on the premise that no girl in the position of the main character should even consider a shmashmortion. I think abortion was debated (if one can call it that) for about two seconds in the film. (I don't even want to get into the incredibly insulting premise that a girl should feel grateful if some guy with no job and no prospects actually steps up and tries to contribute when he gets her pregnant--when women just have to step up all the time, and nobody thinks that's a miracle.) Then there was Juno, another amusing film, this time about a teenager who considers abortion only incredibly briefly, then decides to have the baby, with her parents' full support. I don't know about you, but I don't know any parents like Juno's. The parents I know would be incredibly upset, and would make their kid think through the consequences of all possible courses of action.

Again, I'm not saying that abortion's for everyone, and this isn't meant to be a veiled pro-life rant. But Roe v. Wade happened 35 years ago now and it's like we're still pretending we live in a society where there are no options, or at least not ones that need to be considered. Given how high the stakes are, that seems very wrong to me.

RainyBow

damn those books that make you think

This week I've been listening to the audio version of this book in my car to and from work. It's made me want to vomit in my mouth several times.

How did it get this bad? I've been resisting going completely vegan for some time now because it's so darn hard (in my family and in North America generally). When I finish this book I'm not sure I'll have a choice.

Dammit.

Weekend update: As the book continues, I've progressed from vomiting in my mouth to having difficulty reading from the tears in my eyes. Argh.

the power of 60 minutes

Last night Anderson Cooper and 60 Minutes did a story on the current conditions for women in the Congo. This morning six people either emailed me or came by my desk to talk about the story and what they could do about it.

Women being raped and tortured in the Eastern Congo certainly isn't a new story. Sadly, it's an old and tragic one. The government in the Congo has done nothing. The international community, for the most part, hasn't done much either.

And yet today all I could think was that one news story has suddenly turned so many heads. I wondered what would happen if stories like this were covered with more frequency. If more people were given the facts, if more people were forced to watch the truth about violence like this--and I don't mean the stupid, gratuitous violence of North American films--would some people take action?

I've been thinking about this all day. Is it the media's fault, for not covering the story and informing the public? Or is it the public's fault for just not caring? On good days (like today) I like to believe it's the former; I like to believe that if only people knew, they'd want to help.

There are, after all, people doing amazing things. For example, there are these people, who are organizing runs to raise awareness and funds for Congolese women; there are these people, who are equipping the women in the Congo with education, job skills training, and a support system; and then there are the people at Human Rights Watch, who do so much great work.

On bad days though, I think it's the latter, that people just suck. And as much as I'm on a bit of a people-really-care-and-the-world-isn't-so-bad high today, it's quite likely that I'll have one of those bad days tomorrow. And I'll wish I were ignorant. Kind of.

the important and the not-so-important

In important news, the trial of former Liberian strongman and supreme asshole Charles Taylor is finally moving forward. Last year he was the first former African leader to stand trial in front of an international tribunal, but then the trial was adjourned, until this week. I can't contain my excitement at the thought that Taylor could actually be found guilty and sentenced. I know I'm getting ahead of myself, but this is such a great precedent in a part of the world that's seen many elusive strongmen who've done their country and their people so much damage.

I only wish I could get better updates than the sporadic and sketchy articles I can find here and there. Everyone knows how the media doesn't bother covering Africa. I need to find a good west African blog. Suggestions, anyone?

In not-so-important news, I almost lost my mind at work today. I have complained before about the behaviour of others in our open office grid. Well, today, the woman who recently moved beside me had a loud 20-minute conversation about one of her direct reports. She made a phone call (presumably to Human Resources) to talk about her review of a member of her team. Apparently this fellow (who she actually named, several times) was giving her a hard time because of the rating she gave him, since he believed he had outperformed everyone else. She actually used phrases like, "I just think he's completely delusional and I worry that when I tell him he has no grasp on reality, he may just lose it on me."

I sat at my desk, paralyzed by disbelief in what I was hearing. I don't know the person to whom she was referring to, but someone else in the vicinity may very well have. Shouldn't it be common courtesy to take a conversation like that behind closed doors?

I thought about making a fake phone call of the same kind to she how--or even if--she would react, but I think the effort would be wasted. She's just clueless. So upsetting.

free vermont?!

I just discovered the Vermont Commons people, who want to "peaceably secede from the United States Empire and govern themselves as a more sustainable independent republic once again."

Here's some stuff I know about Vermont:
1. It's one of the smallest U.S. states in total land area.
2. It's one of the least populous states. I don't think their largest city even has a population of 50,000.
3. A high percentage of its population claims to have no religious beliefs.
4. Howard Dean, skiing and gay marriage.
5. Lots of maple syrup.
6. Nobody who lives there has ever visited complainaway. (Btw, visitors from the midwest have been pitiful too. What's with that?!)

Admittedly, I would probably discover much more than this if I actually did my research. And maybe I'd even find a real reason why they need to secede and go at it on their own. But it's more fun to do it my way.

i spit out my juice when i found this one

Why spend millions on an advertising agency, TV commercials and print ads, a PR campaign, a website, and heck, why even create packaging for your product?

Now there's Christvertising. Their website is a bit light on details, but here's an excerpt, so you can see how amazing it really is:

Christvertising is a network of communication specialists and advertising professionals which help you navigate through the maze that is the world of competitive brands. If you like your product, so do we, but more importantly, so does God. We believe that nothing is possible without the Lord's blessing and consent. Your product is no exception. May God bless your Brand.

Now, call me crazy, but I'd just like to remind you that our world is currently plagued with ethnic violence in Kenya, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a horrible situation in Darfur, guerrilla war in northern Uganda, a crisis in Zimbabwe, violence and instability in Pakistan, a war brewing in Congo, ongoing Arab-Israeli conflicts, currency crises in all kinds of countries and natural disasters occurring daily all over the world, global warming and the ozone crisis, millions of people (some estimates as high as 30 million) who starve to death every year and millions of other people (some estimates as high as 2 1/2 million) still within the bondages of slavery. I could go on and on but I'm getting a bit depressed.

Given all of this, if there happens to be a God, I'd like to suggest that perhaps he or she may be just a teensy weensy bit too busy to worry about the success of Johnny Boy's crummy widget company.

Just throwing it out there.

on closed-mindedness

I spent a chunk of this evening in a heated discussion with a friend over the recent Bureau of Justice stats about incarceration in the U.S. Thankfully, drinks were involved.

It started when he proclaimed his belief that the U.S. was "far ahead" of other countries because it incarcerates more criminals than any other. This apparently proves the the efficacy of the American justice system. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I said he couldn't possibly believe the U.S. was superior to its northern neighbour because it incarcerates people at almost seven times Canada's rate. His response? Of course; Canada is soft on crime.

Then I tried the dictator comparison card. I said, but the U.S. is imprisoning people at a rate over six times that of countries that jail people for political reasons, countries whose prison system terrifies me, such as Iran and China. His answer? Well, they're just killing all the bad people over there so no wonder the rate is so much lower.

Good lord.

Since when is "highest incarceration rate in the world" a title to which a country should aspire? The U.S. numbers are shocking. One in every 31 adults in the U.S. was in one of the nation's prisons or jails or was on probation or parole at the end of 2006. How can anyone think this is OK? All right, I guess I figured that a lot of people think that's OK, but maybe not that those people were friends of mine.

Why aren't people asking why non-violent offenders, minor drug offenders and parole violators are stuck in the prison system? Most people agree that needless imprisonment not only costs big money, but also has serious societal impacts (e.g. inability to vote, get a driver's license, or find a job, not to mention the tearing apart of families and reduction in family income). Of course, my friend had an answer for all of this too: in his mind, "those people" wouldn't have been successful at any of those things anyway.

No wonder the American educational and health care systems are so crummy. No wonder Americans think it's OK to live in fear rather than in hope. And don't even get me started on the ethnicity issues related to incarceration (and capital punishment too). Honestly, it's hard for me to be remotely optimistic about the U.S.'s future when I hear stuff like this.

As I said, thankfully, drinks were involved.

RainyBow

how are you?

I lived in Eastern Europe for a while a few years back. I was fortunate enough to get a great job there, despite my lack of knowledge of any local language and/or culture. Although in time I managed to learn some of the language, breaking into the culture was much more difficult.

At first, my team (all locals) viewed me with some suspicion. I found out later that this wasn't because of my habit of falling asleep during meetings (it was a bit of a party time in my life) or my obsession with finding absolutely any television programming in English (even though I never watched tv at home). It was because I was a crazy English speaker who smiled way too much and asked everyone, "How are you?"

In a short time, I figured out that the smiling thing was kinda bad, but it took one of my team members to explain to me that the "How are you?" thing was actually offensive. As she explained, one should never ask that question unless one is prepared to hear the answer... in full. In her mind, people like Americans were too quick to pretend they cared when they really didn't. I thought about it and realized that she was right: I actually didn't care how most people were. After a while, once my mindset had shifted, it was hard for me to come home to things that had seemed normal to me before. Walking into any store like Gap or Pottery Barn was an assault on the senses. All of these people I didn't know were pretending to care how I was. Fakes and phonies.

Well, last week I seem to have forgotten this valuable lesson. A colleague who I barely know (I'm racking my brain trying to think of her last name right now and I can't) came by my desk to ask my opinion on one of her projects. I turned around and said, without thinking, "Hey, how are you?"

Big mistake. Over 40 minutes later I had heard the full story of her mother's health problems, which South American region she was in, what the insurance company had tried to get away with, what her sister was doing to try to get her mom home, and how her dad was holding up.

I don't want you to think I'm heartless. Hey, if your mother's sick I'm all about the sympathy. My parents aren't young and my dad hasn't been in the best of health. Lots of people in my life have died, especially recently, and I know that's tough. But I'm not sure you should be telling someone you barely know the long version of your story.

But it's still my fault for asking. I need to get back in touch with the Eastern European in me. No more random "How are you?"s.

RainyBow

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SunnyShine note: Ugh.

lest we forget

Today is Remembrance Day. This is a day to remember people who fought, and people who fought and died in the name of war. Unfortunately, wars are still being waged all over the world and needless deaths continue.

Here are some stats about Iraq:

US costs: approx 800B (including 200B budgeted for 2008)
daily spend: approx 270B
troops in Iraq: 183000
troop casualties: 4152
troop injuries (US): 28451 (not including psychological injuries; they estimate that 30% of all troops return home with psychological problems)

Iraqi civilian deaths: upwards of 600K (Bush would have you believe it is less than 100K but some people even estimate that it is over 1M)
Iraqis displaced by war: 2.2M
Iraqis without access to adequate water supplies: 70%

Now these numbers are probably not 100% spot on and different orgs have different stats, but a little higher or a little lower doesn't make much difference in the grand scheme of things.

The Iraq war makes us forget about all the other wars, insurgencies, uprisings, conflicts etc going on all over the world. Educate yourselves. Learn about Kashmir, Ethiopia, Chechnya, Burma......and educate the people you know.

Don't forget how lucky you are.

SunnyShine
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RainyBow note: Shocking numbers. While you're on the Iraq thing, everyone should watch No End in Sight.

distractions

There are some serious things going on in the world these days - state of emergency in Pakistan, flooding in Mexico, the war in Iraq, numerous droughts, diseases, wars etc destroying Africa, child slavery, poverty, famine.... The list could on forever.

Interestingly enough, this is the story I heard over and over today. Supermodel news seems to be the most important thing to talk about today. Of course, this is only until britneylindsayparis does something newsworthy. That should be in a minute or two. Last week, it was that Dumbledore is gay and that Marie Osmond collapsed during Dancing With the Stars.

Is it any wonder why the world is in the state it is in?

SunnyShine
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RainyBow note: What's a Pakistan?

The big media conglomerates are partially to blame for this. It's a perpetual circle: when the media don't cover the important stories, then nobody knows anything about them, and then people don't want to hear about those important stories because they don't know anything about them and they feel stupid. Dumbledore and Marie Osmond are safe, easy stories and people will buy them, so why publish anything else?

The public is also partially to blame for this. We're so caught up in our bubble of celebrity-obsessed, cushy culture that we don't want anything to threaten our reality. Wars, starvation, and natural disasters are wreaking havoc on people who aren't that different from us? Maybe if we ignore all of this it will just go away.

Journalist Howard W. French has written extensively on West and Central Africa and writes of many people who risked their life to tell him their stories, in the hopes that a Western journalist writing in western papers would raise awareness of the region's issues and agitate for change. But does anyone actually read French's work? I'm skeptical.

black and white circa 2007

It's funny how a bunch of unrelated, but related things just appear from time to time. I am purposely going to keep this post as light as I can or I will descend into anger, followed by fury, and frighten you all away from reading again.

1. Yesterday, I was reading PostSecret (two days late for some reason, bad on me) and found this:



Aren't we past this yet? The seemingly perfect guy who treats you like a princess and yet, you can't date him because he's black and your grandparents would disown you? Here's a thought - grow a pair. It's 2007!!! Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King fought the fight over 40 years ago and we still need to worry about this? This brings me to the second thing....

2. Am I the only one disturbed by the noose incidents that are happening these days? This is just pure, unfiltered hate. It frightens me. It's not a joke. The word lynch makes me squirm every time I hear it. I'm not even going to utter a word about the Jena case. I can't.

3. This leads me to the subprime market problem in the US. I wasn't surprised to read that black and hispanic borrowers were more likely to be given subprime loans than anyone else. Racism is everywhere.

I stumbled upon all three of these things in the last 24 hours and I find it crushing.

How is a young black male supposed to feel these days? They're defeated before they start and are set up for failure. What hope does someone living in the projects or ghetto have? None. They are expected to be criminals and go to jail. They are assumed to be stupid. They have to pay more for homes and cars than white people. They have to ask to sit under a tree. They get stopped and taken away for walking down the street. (I actually watched this happen on my own street a few months ago.) They get shot and killed - solely based on the colour of their skin - by those meant to serve and protect. They are discriminated against at every turn.

I heard a radio documentary last spring about a high school in some southern state - Georgia? South Carolina? Tennessee? - that was having their FIRST unsegregated prom this year. Do I have to say it again? It's 2007. sigh.

Don't even bother commenting about how it probably seems to be worse than it is. It is worse than it seems. Trust.

I think it's Chris Rock who has a joke something to the effect that no white man would want to be him - and he's rich.

Are the shackles really gone? I have a dream....

SunnyShine

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RainyBow note: I can't start writing on this because I won't stop. All I'm going to say is that here, in an extremely multicultural and relatively tolerant city, I'll walk down the street with one of my best friends, who looks East Indian (and is only about 5'6" tall and a very slight man) and people will actually cross the street to avoid us. This happens a lot, and it never happens with my other guy friends.

It's a joke between us now, but kind of a sad one.

I haven't eaten rice in 25 days

No, I am not on some crazy diet. The title is the last sentence of an article that discusses the welfare system in Japan. (Warning, not easy reading.) To sum up, a man died of starvation after his welfare benefits had been cut off. He kept a diary of how hungry he was and how much weight he was losing. He wasn't the first to die of starvation, just the first to write it all down in black and white.

Japan prides itself on making it extremely difficult to get welfare and on how many people they can get off the welfare roll each year. This is shameful. Japan is one of the richest countries in the world. They hold the #1 spot in the list of best economies in the G7. How are their citizens dying of starvation?

There is so much money in the world and people die of starvation and cold and mosquito bites and diseases we have vaccinations for and and and.....

This story might appear to be worse because the man lived in a rich country but, in reality, men die of starvation in every country. There is no difference between a man dying of starvation in Japan or a man dying of starvation in Angola. It just shouldn't happen, period.

SunnyShine

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RainyBow note: I hate you for reminding me of this story since it will probably keep me up tonight. (Hey, if I'm developing sleep issues, I need to find someone else to blame!)

I've heard estimates that about 30 million people die of starvation in the world every year. The sad part of this is that so much of it can be attributed not to food shortages but to politics. I'm currently reading Surrender or Starve, in which the author puts forward the famines in Ethiopia as an illustration of this argument.

I highly recommend the book, if you can get past the fact that the author and editor believe that the plural of "bucketful" is "bucketfuls."

blog action day

Today is blog action day. I've just spent a good half hour reading earnest posts about the topic, the environment. (I get so many feeds, I could spend all of my life reading feeds.) I feel that I should be a good blogger and post in this vein but it's not that easy.

I'm a very optimistic person when it comes to my own life. I wake up every morning with the realization that I'm extremely lucky to have been born in this place and time. I'm in good health and lead a very active lifestyle in a great city. I have more than enough money for one person. I've travelled extensively and regularly attend the symphony, the opera and the theatre. I have an amazing circle of friends. And although complaining is one of my favourite pastimes, I'm willing to admit that my problems are ridiculous stacked up against those of others. Here are some things that made me crazy today:

- I couldn't give a doctor my family history because most of my family died in various wars. It would be nice to have more family (BUT if I did, I probably wouldn't like most of them anyway).

- I went to get an allergy I've had since May diagnosed. Itchy, watery eyes, sneezing and post-nasal drip be damned! The allergist found nothing (BUT I'll go to some naturopathic quack and he or she will make me injest something frightening and all will be well).

- My job is not exactly brain surgery and at times I feel I am slipping into a coma during business hours (BUT then I didn't sign up for brain surgery and someday I'll just quit and get it over with).

Hardly life or death matters, right? So it should be easy for me to post some drivel about how everyone should recycle, eat less meat, wear only organic bamboo and hold hands and sing a crappy Coke song about teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony. (I think I just dated myself.)

But, much as I'd like to be, I'm not so optimistic about the world. I made a conscious decision a long while ago to not have biological children. This is not only because I've seen too many kids in the world who have nobody, but also because I'm not sure the next generation is actually going to have an earth. I'm not trying to be super dramatic here, but there are so many factors that are contributing to Armageddon. Massive deforestation and shark-finning, among other horrible things, are happening because people in poor countries are just trying to keep their family alive. Corporations are causing massive environmental damage all over the world with nobody to police them. And we all know about global warming now and the role each of us has played in that. There's so much more but I won't go on; it's all just too depressing.

To me the future looks a lot like the frightening scenes of Children of Men (the movie, not the book, which is an excellent read, but is about something totally different).

So maybe now that it's blog action day, I won't try to post something hopeful and happy. I'll just post this and hope that someone will turn what I've just written on its side. I can dream, can't I?

RainyBow

burning up

Here's one for you global warming naysayers. It was 31C here on Oct 8 (that's about 90F for you yanks). The temperature here was higher than the temperature in Kingston, Jamaica. Hot. Crazy. Average temperature here in Oct is 9C (48F). Am I the only person who is worried?

SunnyShine

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RainyBow note: I can't help but refer back to a poll from earlier this year. Here's the oh-so-shocking news: only 13 percent of congressional Republicans say they believe that human activity is causing global warming, compared to 95 percent of congressional Democrats. Talk amongst yourselves.

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RainyBow again: I forgot to mention that the Chicago marathon was cancelled Sunday mid-run because of the heat wave that sent over 350 people to hospital. In October. Crappy for all those people who trained for so long, but maybe that's what you get for being all ambitious and stuff. I hope they went home and ate ridiculous amounts of junk food.

blogs rule, except maybe sometimes

Sunny started my current obsession with the "Next Blog" option. My personal productivity has taken a bit of a hit, since I can now spend hours glancing into the lives of others. It's been my observation that 60% of all blogs feature many photos of small children, not all of whom are cute or even cuteish. Amongst the other 40% I've found all kinds of nifty stuff with which to bore friends and family.

Occasionally, though, I find something that makes me scratch my head or makes me want to understand some random language just to have a clue. When this gets extreme, I'm terrified that people like this in the world exist. Like this blog. Seriously, wtf?! I want to get this person some help. So sad.

RainyBow

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SunnyShine note: What the hell is that?

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RainyBow note: I KNOW.

et tu, bbc?

Is there any place left to get real news? I visit the BBC News website (among others) daily so I can see what is going on in the world. I am seriously dismayed to see this story on the homepage right underneath the lead story.

Isn't there turmoil in Burma/Myanmar right now? How about that war? Last I checked there was still a crisis in Darfur.

Forget all of that. Britney losing her kids is much more important.

SunnyShine

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RainyBow note: The sad thing is that, to a huge chunk of North America, it actually IS more important. Another argument for forcing everybody to visit somewhere on the other side of the world when they hit adulthood.

we have it so easy

Let's revisit the last three evenings.

Thursday - I attended a book reading of The Shock Doctrine.
Friday - I saw a documentary called The Dictator Hunter which outlined the attempt to bring the former dictator of Chad to justice.
Saturday (tonight) - I watched the first two hours of When the Levees Broke.

In case you think your life is tough, any one of those three things would bring you back to reality. For the last three days, I have been constantly reminded of how much suffering there is in the world. Actually, I am always aware but it has been more acute this week. It's hard to believe what people go through and how they survive. I cannot even comprehend what the victims of vicious dictators or the tsunami or the levees breaking or war or famine or drought or torture or ....... go through. The list could go on forever.

Hard to believe that with all the wealth existing in the world, people still have to suffer the way they do. It's deplorable. We all have a responsibility to make things better.

SunnyShine

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RainyBow note: Word. As a woman, I'm particularly lucky to live where and when I do, because life sucks for so many, many women around the world. I'm just finishing up Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel, which is an incredibly sad account of what it's like to be a Muslim woman in sub-Saharan Africa. A choice quote: "... because I was born a woman, I could never become an adult. I would always be a minor, my decisions made for me.... I might have a decent life, but I would be dependent--always--on someone treating me well. " (Free Press, 2007, p.187) Bloody hell.

I agree; we all have a responsibility to make things better. However, we generally don't. Is that because we don't know where to start, or because most of us are ignorant and don't care to educate ourselves? I'd like to think it's the former, because at least then action is possible.

Btw, I also saw The Dictator Hunter and highly recommend it--if you can find it. Stories like that of the human rights lawyer it follows give me some kind of hope. If one guy who could have a really cushy life chooses instead to spend more than six years trying to bring a dictator who killed 40,000 people (to whom he has no real connection) to justice, then there must still be good people in the world.

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Another RainyBow note: I just finished reading Trailing Technology's post about acid attacks on women in India, which are not as uncommon as one would hope. The women are doused in or are forced to drink acid. Those who manage to survive often lose their mouth, nose and ears. How does anyone make sense of this?