mercedes sosa

I came to this song via Echidne of the Snakes. "Gracias a la vida," by Violeta Parra, sung by Mercedes Sosa. It gave me wave upon wave of goosebumps. I hope it gives the same to you.

some things to think about

Hunger precludes me from writing much of a post at the moment, but there are a few articles that I've read in the past couple of weeks that are fascinating, and to which I'd like to link here. The first is from the New York Review of Books: an article by David Bromwich called "Euphemism and American Violence". In a beautifully crafted way, it makes an extremely important about the centrality of language to our tolerance and even acceptance of violence as a country. The second is also from the NYR, and also deals with the importance of words in shaping the way we perceive and think about issues: "The 'Problem of Evil' in Postwar Europe". I might have posted a link to this a couple of weeks ago, but it's so interesting that I thought I'd go to it again.

The third and fourth are not print articles, but clips from Saturday Night Live: Tina Fey's defense of Hillary, from a few weeks ago, and Tracy Morgan's pro-Obama rebuttal from last weekend. Both are freaking great.

The fifth, is an article in the New Yorker by James Surowiecki about the shortcomings of microfinance. I'm not ashamed to say that I've jumped on the microfinance bandwagon a little bit; if one of them would hire me I'd go to work for a microlending firm next month. But Surowiecki's article points out something important and kind of lost on people like me and Natalie Portman, which is that while microloans are undoubtedly helpful to a lot of individuals, they don't do much about systemic poverty. A large proportion of people in developing countries already technically own their own business, but typically they have a staff of one or two or five. In order to solve chronic underemployment, medium-sized businesses, which have staffs beyond the owner and her family, must be encouraged to a greater extent. Not as sexy as personal loans; nothing like Kiva exists for medium-sized businesses yet. But just as if not more important.

The sixth article is from the New York Times: David Berreby's review of Dan Ariely's new book Predictably Irrational. Turning conventional microeconomics on its head, how fun! There are a couple of other articles that I've liked recently, but unfortunately they've been for class and from sources that aren't available for free (tuition covers them, as it damn well should), so I'll refrain. Plus, six is enough for the time being.

It's time for lunch now. I've been ruminating about some things, and plan to post on them in the next couple of days. Maybe if I say that it'll actually come true.

immigration cartoon

I really liked this one. Brings the point home pretty hard, doesn't it? (h/t Slate)

tournament cancelled

This could not have been more last minute, but Boogie Nights, at Miami of Ohio, got cancelled just now because they're going to get a foot of snow down there. I knew about the snow and thought it was a bit odd that the thing was still on; we've played and practiced in snow before but never more than 3 or 4 inches. Well, that opens up my weekend a lot but it sucks that we won't get to play. There'll be practice tomorrow and Sunday instead. And there's a tourney next weekend at Bowling Green.

So now, instead of rushing around trying to get my errands done (paying dues for Pi Sigma Alpha so I can get my special Poli Sci honors tassel at graduation, turning in my time sheet, buying a book that I need to finish reading by next week) before yet another 4-hour slog down to southern Ohio, I can relax a bit, and get some work done. Good news. Hope you all enjoyed Sharon Jones the other day; I'm really enjoying her stuff with the Dap-Kings. What a crazy story, too: She sang with James Brown and Lee Fields back in the day but never got signed to a record deal, so she worked as a corrections officer for years, only a few years ago did she start to come back. Now she's got three albums with the Dap-Kings and, at 51, is kicking it (literally--check her out on YouTube) all over the world. If they weren't in Australia and New Zealand for the foreseeable future, I'd be making plans to see them ASAP. Okay, time to go eat some lunch and then work a bit.

A final bonus for the tournament's cancellation: The girls across the street are having a "Whiskey and Whiskers" party tonight. I'm not a big whiskey fan, but I've got the whiskers part down; it would have been sad to miss it but now I can go! Maybe this tournament got cancelled at just the right time.

song of the week

I realize I'm a little behind the curve on this Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings business, but I finally got one of their albums, "Naturally," last night, and it absolutely kicks ass. This is my personal favorite, "How Long Do I Have to Wait for You?" So so so good. And now, the moment of truth on my Enviro exam.

a hopeful note

Spring Break was wonderful; I couldn't have imagined it going any better. I'm not going to get into any specifics now because that would take too long and I have to go get some lunch or my stomach is going to eat itself. However, I just read a piece in Salon about the candidates' brands. It's a bit fluffy at the beginning (okay, a lot fluffy), but it ends with a really good point: The president is our most important citizen when it comes to how we're seen abroad. His or her image is extremely important in the way we're perceived by people around the world, and really only one candidate in this election fits the bill as someone who can revive our image. I don't much like Obama or Hillary, but you gotta admit, Barack's got the kind of image that we badly, badly need to project and Hillary just doesn't. McCain, it goes without saying, doesn't either. Here's how the article concludes.

"In Germany, they're fascinated with him, they call him 'Der schwarze Kennedy,' the 'black Kennedy,'" says Dick Martin. "They feel he has the same aura about him." In fact, just a few weeks ago, Germany's leading newsmagazine Der Spiegel ran a cover feature on Obama, illustrated by a paired set of images -- Barack on the left, JFK on the right -- and asking whether America will "finally have the chance to be loved again." The issue's cover line raised the stakes to a new level: It read, simply, "The Messiah Factor."

That's because, in Europe, and in Asia, Latin America and Africa as well, the perception is that an Obama presidency represents the potential for catharsis after nearly a decade of frustration with the U.S. "Our brand has been hammered recently, but beneath the anger, there's this underlying hope among people around the world that we can do better," says Patricia Martin. "And we can. We reinvent ourselves. It's what we're known for: We've had more comebacks than Frank Sinatra. I think that's why you have people in every country eating up every little turn in this election's story. This election, the whole world is watching."

Boy do I want to believe that.