new multiply site

You will have to send me your email if you want an invite to the new closed site. I have sent out several invites already but have only received a few responses, I know it's a busy time. It is possible that the email went into a spam folder, if so, let me know and I will re-invite you.

I watched a BBC Iraq year in review program last night. Quite interesting. The Brits are looking to get out soon. Pessimism was the forecast for the new year. George Packer's book made the point that the Brits were so much more experienced with occupation, and did the job so much better, but the South where they are stationed is becoming less and less stable, and the population at home wants out, plus Blair is on his way out. None of that bodes well for the US if it plans on hanging around for multiple years. The coalition of the willing is less than willing now.

George Packer and "The Assassin's Gate"

As it happens, I have just finished a book called "The Assassin's Gate" by the very same author of the New Yorker article sent to me by Jamison. Read the link to that article in Jamison's comments to the previous post to understand more. George Packer is a truly moderate Democrat (I am using the word "moderate" to mean in the middle of right skewed range of American political thought). He was in Manhatten when the World Trade Center was brought down and fled down the street covered in ash. He supported the invasion of Iraq on the hope that it would improve the life of Iraqis. He believes in the right of all persons to live under a just system of law. He appears to give the benefit of the doubt to every person with whom he speaks, and that may reveal a certain naivete on his part of a particular form of Western liberalism. Like many others he believes that the trouble with Iraq has everything to do with an inadequate post war plan (or any plan) and he details how this came to be in stirring, well written, and intelligent reporting. He has spoke with many, many of the archetects of the war and does a fantastic job of explaining their thinking. He spent a great deal of time in Iraq speaking with Iraqis and American soldiers and it is clear that much of his belief in the general goodness of the cause seems to be linked to the hope that lives of these people will someday be improved, or at least, not lost in vain. He also poses some very difficult questions to the antiwar movement, and is equally critical of the total cultural ignorance of American conservatives and, indeed, the war planners themselves.

Still, as in Jamison noted regarding the New Yorker article, he wears blinders that shut out certain complexities and or de-emphasize the warts of American foreign policy as it has been executed in the world. His book mentions WMDs and Democracy as part of the administrations shifting rationale for the invasion, but never oil. Never does he discuss the strategic interest that was to be gained from the US successfully executing their war plan. This is particularly interesting given his comments on the history of the American right and left concerning using the military in far off places.

Packer argues that the Right had traditionally been isolationist and held that position that We ought only to enter into wars when it a "vital interest" was at stake--in other words, Only War for Oil. The Left, on the other hand, spoke of humanitarian ideals that the US must uphold (when they ever acted on these with consistency and without there also being a "vital interest" is beyond me but let's grant the thesis for a moment as it has some merit insofar as the base of both wings did believe this about themselves to some degree). The Neo-Cons, former liberals who believed in the virtue of the Vietnam War, went Right with their disgust with the Left's fringe and the anti-war movement. They found a hero in Reagan who spoke of America in the Puritanical language of a "shining city on a hill" --the beacon of hope to the tired and weary world (oh come let us adore it). They were disappointed by George Bush The Competent's pragmatism, and frustrated when he refused to take out Saddam in '91. With Clinton, they saw a man who was willing to use US power in far off places for somewhat humanitarian reasons (though not pure of heart, to be sure) though only Wolfowitz was able to support these efforts while others simply could not support anything that Clinton pursued. The majority of the Right returned to their isolationist roots and argued against Bosnia and Somalia saying that the US had "no dog" in those fights (this is arguably untrue). The neo-cons held out and were somehow put in the most key positions in the administation of the George Bush The Hapless in spite of his campaigning in 2000 against an aggressive, far reaching foreign policy (he said that under him the US would be "humble"). Then came 9/11 and the neo-cons took over from there.

The Left has had to deal with the difficult question as to the nature of America's foreign policy and they haven't yet come up with an answer. What do we want the role of the US to be? Should we intervene often? To what degree? Can we do this effectively? I have thought that removing Saddam was a possibly fantastic goal, but never trusted the Right to do it well, nor the country to do it without expecting a loyal client in return--that has been the practice of history. I've read too much about colonialism to believe that a nation would spend so much without expecting a lot in return. Does that mean that the lives of Iraqis cannot be improved as well? No, but it does mean that our intentions are not what we say they are, and that is something that those who do not benefit from the quid pro quo arrangement understand full well--and there we lose credibility because we are not credible. Does that mean I want a tyrant to remain in charge? Of course not. There are no easy answers. Still, I maintain that one cannot claim to be a beacon of righteousness unless one is truly righteous, and we are not truly righteous, and we very seldom, if ever, try to be.

Back to basics

I will create a new alternative site soon, the other had to be deleted as it became slightly insecure. That is all I will say in a public forum. No need to worry, but these things happen and anyway I can explain it all to you privately. In the new site, there will be no publicly broadcast material and so this site will likely wither away as well. All this means that you will need to send me your email addresses so that I can send you invitations to the new site. We will then repost photos, songs, and blogs so that all will be back to what once was.

Time away from the USA has made me wish for a few shallow things, like a decent movie theater. Singapore would seemingly promise such things, and while the theater is fine, the choice of films is severely lacking. We went out to see anything and decided that "Happy Feet" must be the lesser of all evils--if we were correct in this assessment, the world is a darker place than I'd ever feared. Such a confused little story that combined elements of a musical using pop songs of the worst kind and with a seemingly tacked on environmental message that made little to no sense. Anyway, it was nothing less than terrible. If I were in the States, the chances of my viewing "Happy Feet" would have been nil, save for an unexpected blow to the head, or under the persuasion of abductor with a weakness for animated film. In Singapore, I not only went willingly, but it was my idea.

I will tell you the story as best I can. A penguin couple hatch a penguin son. Penguin couples mate for life and they meet each other through the performance of a unique song that attracts their mate. The newly hatched penguin can't sing, but he can dance. However, dancing is simply not appreciated by the other penguins, so he becomes an outcast. (The songs the penguins sung in the film were all tired pop songs and many suggested adult content--apparently to appeal to adults?). The outcast penguin learns of the existence of humans, whom he calls aliens, and eventually seeks out human contact to convince them to stop stealing the penguin's fish. He swims to San Diego, I'm guessing, is placed in a zoo wherein it is implied he slowly goes mad. But wait, he sees a little girl through the glass and starts his crazy dancing. The whole zoo crowd roars approval. The next thing we know he is back in antarctica telling the others that humans like it when penguins dance. The humans show up, the penguins dance, a montage reveals the human political debate that follows (about what? I don't know) and then the humans decide to stop interfering in the fish supply of penguins. The film ends, not nearly soon enough, and I wonder what the hell I was thinking. I still don't know. I mean, penguins don't dance, so what is the actual message: save the entertaining animals? Okay, look for your new invites.

Time to catch you up

I do not quite recall where I left off, but I believe it was just before parent-teacher conferences. Those went off without incident. Most of the parents spoke to me through a translator, anyway.
The following day was the dress rehearsal for the Christmas concert. This took place, as did the actual concert, in the ball room atop the Capital Building (just a tall building, no other significance to the name). The Chinese Restaurant on the ground floor is owned by our School's director. For the dress rehearsal we were allotted neithor overhead lights nor air conditioning which made a tedious affair even moreso. They were unable to provide working microphones and so it was difficult to tell at that point how I was going to be heard with my acoustic guitar beyond the first row of seating. They promised to deliver another guitar which could be plugged into the sound board and broadcast over speakers. I was not holding my breath.

That evening I picked my father up at the airport. He looked a little tired and shook. We rode in the taxi home where J. had cooked chicken and rice, ate and shortly thereafter went to bed. In the morning I took him on a walk around the neighborhood and later to a Japanese restaurant. He was able to take a becak but I don't think he much cared for the experience or traffic insanity that is Medan's signature. He opted to attend the entire Christmas concert which meant he watched the primary concert, waited through the two hour plus interim, and then finally sat through the upper primary and secondary show in which my class "performed."

They provided me with a cheap and frequently out of tune electric guitar. I soldiered on with it though neither I nor my class could really hear the guitar which exacerbated their poor singing and rendered it often out of time. We closed the set with a song I had written. I started the opening chords, stopped thinking that I really needed to tune, and then just decided to go for it. That song went much better.

The next morning we flew out of Medan to Yogyakarta via Jakarta--which is where we are now. On the first night, we went to one of the many local markets. These offer clothing and other souvenirs at outrageously cheap prices. Yogyakarta is home to a great many artists whose style is labeled Batik and suffice it to say it is quite intricate. We all purchased local art. The next day we went to Borobudur--an enormous Buddhist temple constructed in the late 8th century. Photos will be posted in the next few days on the multiply site. If you don't have a multiply account, send me your email so that I can invite you. Some pictures can be seen without an account. Leaving Borobudur we were swarmed and harrassed by vendors whose only means of making a living is to give new meaning to the phrase "hard sell." They followed us in droves shoving their wares in our faces and offering us the "special morning price." We did buy a few things but the requests never stopped. That evening we went to a hindu ballet that I will describe later. We later visited a Hindu temple, also built in the 8th century, called Pramanbanan. Tomorrow we are off to Singapore. All this, I will elaborate upon in the next few days. Sorry to be overly concise. There is much to tell, but I need a little more time to do it all justice. The island of Java, and Yogyakarta (pronounced Jog-ja-karta; with a long 'o') in particular is rather more culturally preserved than Medan. Solo, a town about two hours away which is home to another school in our system, is similar. It's more relaxed with less traffic and pollution and more artists. We are, in both places, not far from the Indian Ocean not to mention the infamous Mt. Merapi.

The last day of school; semester one

Today are the parent-teacher conferences. Once finished, the semester is over, save the Christmas concert.

After a glance through the world news, I noticed some interesting developments. Chiefly, President Musharraf of Pakistan has stated that Pakistan will give up its claims to Kashmir if India will do the same. The proposal is that Kashmir would have a sort of self-autonomy that falls short of independence and that Pakistan and India would share governance officially. This is really quite something. Pakistan and India are nuclear powers and have warred three times since the late 1940s. Kashmir has been a bone of contention for some time. So far as I know, India has not repsonded to this proposal.

Hugo Chavez in Venezuela is going to allow his supporters to push for an end to term limits so that he can stay in power indefinately. I have respect for a lot that Chavez has accomplished in terms of health care and literacy. He may be a blowhard and egoist, but he does genuinely care about the poor. Speaking of the poor, a new study has found that the richest two percent of the global population own over 50 percent of the world's wealth. The disparity between the "super rich" and the rest of the world is greater than ever before. As one researcher put it, if the world had only 10 people and 100 dollars, the richest one person would have 99 dollars and the remaining nine would share the remaining 1 dollar. Wealth is also concentrated in very specific regions. The study reports that “wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe and high-income Asia-Pacific countries. People in these countries collectively hold almost 90 per cent of total world wealth,” the survey said. By Asia Pacific countries, they are referring to Japan, mainly--then South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore though S. Korea and Taiwan still have many, many desperately poor citizens. The reason for much of this disparity has everything to do witht the history of colonialism. As we currently stand, economists in the wealthiest countries talk about globalization as "the tide that lifts all boats" although that idea is not supported by any evidence in the real world at all and it uniformally suggests that developing nations should eschew all environmental and labor regulations in order to attract investment.

Of course there is poverty in the US and other wealthy nations, and we can see it in both rural and urban settings, but it is quite unlike what one finds in Indonesia. In America, there is still some safety net (though it's despised by conservatives). In Indonesia a worker can be dismissed for any reason at any time without any compensation. The weakest are left to their own devices, the richest can buy their way out of most any problem. My father, perhaps, will be able to give his perspective regarding this when he returns. He arrives tomorrow night.

Thanks to Jamison for the Onion headlines. Now, where is that god damned guest post? I hope people will comment on the multiply site. I have sent out more invitations. I'm not sure when the next post will be, hopefully sooner rather than later. Check out the pictures on multiply. Thanks to J. for posting them. God bless.

I'm still here

My work for the term is finished--save the Christmas concert which may well be beyond saving. We have been rehearsing and at best, we sound pretty awful much of the time. I have chosen to do musical numbers with a class that cannot, collectively or individually, carry a tune in a wheelbarrow. At times, though, they are charmingly off-key.

The work load was such the last couple of weeks that it has been difficult to blog and return emails. In addition to that, I will soon be gone on vacation for a week and so blogging will be infrequent then, as well. I will be in Singapore all of December and staying at a hostel as that is all I can afford. I believe I will have internet access there and a lot of time on my hands, so I should be able to write about goings on.

My new house is coming together nicely. For those of you who don't know I have moved out of the old place and things are looking sharp in the new abode thanks to some local workers that J. knows. They essentially turned the a box filled house into a home yesterday. The one man is an artist and we have two of his paintings on the wall. He is also making us a light fixture to hang from the ceiling above our dining room table. It is a good feeling to be living in a clean and stylish home--not to mention to be able to put work out of my mind for a couple of weeks.

I have not read the papers in some time. I don't know what's happening in the world. I will try to catch up so I can comment later--probably tomorrow.

Sorry, wrong link to multiply

Should have been. mcathens.multiply.com

Ok, I need email addresses so that I can you invites and then you can see pictures and that sort of thing.

Ok, that was too hasty

I am going to use the two sites together. This one will be four blogging in the traditional sense--that is, here is where I will type my thoughts and stories. At the mulitply site, I will show pictures and other media.

Things are very busy again. I have many tests to grade and grades to report and conferences are upcoming and, of course, the christmas concert at the end of next week. There will not likely be many posts for a while. Soon the term will end and I will be on vacation and then in Singapore where internet access is limited and censored. I will try to write whenever I can. Please send me email addresses so that I can invite you into to the multiply site.