Two years ago, I posted this reflection on Columbus Day. I was prompted to the reflection in part by an ongoing tiff with the very idea of Columbus Day, the idea that we mark such a terrifying event in world history with a day of leisure. I was prompted just as much (or more) by a New York Times article on laying claim to the Columbus name…what it means to be a long descended relative, etc. On this Columbus Day, I wanted to revisit the holiday and a particular video that’s making the viral rounds. Read the rest of this entry »
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So, the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. And it goes to Barack Obama, which has now set off an avalanche of grousing and complaining and sarcasm from the right and left. At least we won’t have to talk about the Olympics not being in Chicago any longer. It is always noteworthy when the right and left pick up on the same talking points. Funny for teasing your friends on either side (hey, you and Fox agree!), but also instructive about larger cultural stuffs. Read the rest of this entry »
Updated thoughts on Columbus Day…HERE.
I’ve debated whether or not to blog on Columbus Day. Not “on” this particular day – though a case can be made for a day of silence today – but “about” this day, this figure, this holiday. I’d decided not. I didn’t want to be too trite or repetitive, just rehearsing now familiar stuff about Columbus as murderer and vanguard of what became a bloody, cruel rot in the heart of European “civilization.” Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday was the second anniversary of the disaster we call Katrina. I was surprised that there was no reading of names, no pause for a moment to remember each soul lost, as there is when we remember so many other tragedies. Read the rest of this entry »
It had to happen. The problem of outsourcing is very real for the United States, and puts us all in such a precarious political and social space. Politically, outsourcing is bad for us because it chooses cheaper labor at the expense of our national interest in reasonable (full?) employment for our fellow citizens. Socially, outsourcing is good for the consumer self, providing cheap goods and services for a lot of us. I’ll skip the familiar reflection on how this is capitalism’s endgame, etc., and just underscore the fact that all of it is just so precarious. We’re off-balance when balance might really help. Outsourcing. Sigh.
It has been a few days since Peru suffered this terrible earthquake. The suffering, of course, is ongoing and will be for some time. Usually, I reserve this space for fairly theoretical stuff, or at least comments with some distance from affected parties. But Peru is special to me. I’ve spent time there, I have friends there, I do research and write on the country, and so it is more than just a news story. An earthquake is really just sad. There is little more to say. No one causes this sort of thing and a place like Peru – one of the poorest countries in the Americas – means the most vulnerable will be affected. Still, I wanted to say a little personal thing or two about the Ica department, where nearly all of the devastation took place (and is ongoing).
This is for Quanita.
I like coincidences. A lot. Not really because they say something about how fate would have it (not my thing), but instead because coincidences so often instruct us just by chance. That’s why I found two stories – one so sad and serious, the other so sad and satirical – on Iraq compelling. And just today I came across two stories about changing neighborhoods. One is a musing on a lost sense of home in Washington, D.C., the other is about activist work against new residents.