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Hidatsa Earth Blanket. Created for the AICF by Pendleton Woolen Mills

It's that time of year again for the American Indian College Fund Gala!. If you cannot attend, send a donation, shop their online store, spread the message. And a big shout out to Pendleton Woolen Mills, a long time supporter of AICF. And, while the Ken Burns' documentary on the National Parks is a great reminder of our national treasures, Pendleton has been supporting and promoting the parks for a long time:L check out their fabulous National Parks Blankets series.


Rainier National Park blanket created by Pendleton Woolen Mills

Indigenous People suffer the failure of governmental will ....again

Nothing beats travel to expose oneself to the idiocies of other governments and their failures to fulfill promises to underserved and overexploited minority groups. While we had a fabulous time in our travels through Australia (we covered 5000 km, a mere speck in a continent of that size!), we did do our due diligence by reading the local papers and talking to many people. It is possible to travel in Australian cities and ignore the plight and problems of the Indigenous Peoples of Australia; visits to any museum- art, cultural, migration-bring these peoples and their rich cultures and suffering to light. An opinion piece in The Australian on 18 September does much to inform one of the promises made, but not kept, by the current government...be sure to click through and read it.

The Migration Museum in Adelaide is excellent.






We took these photographs outside The Migration Museum, Adelaide.

China spreading it's largesse in Africa and beyond

I have posted on several occasions about the investments China has been making in infrastructure and resource development across the African continent. Initially, people were thrilled with all the news and hoopla attendant with the investments. However, there has generally been grumbling and resentment simmering and surfacing by locals in most African countries. Usually when there is this type of aid and development, the ancillary businesses which crop up to support the building of roads, mines, water systems, etc are local, so the local economies grow. In China's case, though, Chinese businesses tend to move in, do not hire locally, look down their noses at "inferior" locals, so that only the ministers who cut these deals with the Chinese benefit. In today's New York Times, there is an excellent example of what has happened in Namibia, especially after locals woke up:

"Namibia charged that the state-controlled company selected by China to provide the scanners — a company until recently run by President Hu’s son — had facilitated the deal with millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks. And until China threw up barriers when Namibian investigators asked for help looking into the matter.
Now the scanners seem to illustrate something else: the aura of boosterism, secrecy and back-room deals that has clouded China’s use of billions of dollars in foreign aid to court the developing world."

Be sure to read the rest of the article.

Depressing news on the education front.....again....

But this time in South Africa. The New York Times had a front page article on Saturday detailing the failure of the ANC to adequately address education problems faced by students. The distressing examples reminded me of driving through KwaZulu/Natal in 2005 and being impressed by the number of new school buildings we saw in the rural communities and the hordes of school children in their smart uniforms in maroon, green, navy, black walking miles and miles in pursuit of improving their lot in life. We were so impressed, until we began to realise that we were seeing these children walking to and fro at all times of the day. We discussed this with an old anti-apartheid fighter in East London. She informed us that what we had been observing was called "schooling": when teachers don't show up, when attendance requirements are not upheld, when there are no books, then the children walk to and fro, in a fashion parade of uniforms, getting their "schooling". Their parents have had to buy these uniforms, pay tuition just so that these students can walk the highways. The teachers' union, the ANC, the community should feel ashamed and demand accountability and live up to the promises that have been made to the youth of South Africa.

The Booker Short List is Announced

The short list for this year's Man Booker Award has been announced and the list will make intereseting reading, regardless of who wins. JM Coetzee is going for his third and AS Byatt for her second. I am pulling for Hilary Mantel for her book Wolf Hall.

Update on the highjacked Russian ship

A story in the The Melbourne Age updates the story I drew attention to several days ago. The Russian reporter who first brought this story to light for the rest of the world has fled Russia in fear of his life after receiving a very creepy phone call. Let's hope this intrepid reporter will not suffer the fate of other Russian journalists who cross the Kremlin. Remember to support Reporters Without Borders. Please consider a contribution to their heroic work.

Initial & Abbreviated Observations from Australia

Sydney: the tunnel system is incredible...never seen so many tunnels for cars as well as trains. But traffic is also a nightmare partly because road signage is terrible. Everyone also uses navigational devices....so they are driving and reading their devices! But, the buildings are really interesting, beautiful hiking trails in the city along the many shorelines, and people are very friendly.
Country driving: terrible signage!...great roads but.....one comment by local is that since everyone is using GPS devices, the government saves money by limiting spending on road/street signs.
Driving in the Barossa Valley wine country: beautiful, fabulous wines, but....limited signs to towns and wineries, especially driving in from the south. Driving in the McClaren Vale wine country: great signs!
Australian roads are remotely monitored for speeding...and they are very serious about this. Lots of rules and taxes in Australia, making the cost of living here very high, for locals and tourists alike.
Adelaide and Canberra...great parks, very heavy looking public buildings. The houses in town and country are really pleasing to the eye and reflect the country's settler and colonial history.
Museums and art galleries: really excellent...The Migration Museum (an educational experience for all to understand the rich variety of in migrants, their experiences and influence in this country, as well as the effects of these in migrants on the Aboriginal Peoples already here), the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Museum of South Australia in Adelaide are well worth hours of browsing. The National Glass Museum in Wagga Wagga as well as the Contemporary Art Gallery there are fabulous, unexpected in a town of several thousand in the middle of nowhere.
Wineries: in general, the wineries have not succumbed to the ostentatious inclinations of many Oregon, California, and a few Washington wineries of building neo-Tuscan villas: the tasting rooms suit the landscape and reflect the history of the area, landscapes, and materials found locally.

The ugly underbelly of Europe, East and West

Tourists cavort on the beaches of Italy, sip wines in the vineyards of France, explore the fabulous coastline of Dalmatia. And remain oblivious (along with those who remain at home, wherever home is) to the nastiness in the underbellies of the the beautiful places. Of course, the same can be problems can be discussed in USA, but the focus here is on the Roma and the Baltics because of their vulnerability to the forces of evil in the form of nationalists and the Russian Bear.

This week four people were detained in Hungary in "connection with a series of killings of Roma". We're not just talking about good old-fashioned murder: this violence includes firebombings and other assorted sordid acts of aggression and degradation. The above link to the NYT article is a small report.
Then we have the situation with the highjacked Russian vessel, the Arctic Sea. The Russians report this in the same vein as the highjackings by Somali pirates or pirates in Indonesian-Malaysian-Indian waters. Not quite. What cargo was on that vessel? Why were communications so effectively blocked? Why did they turn off the GPS tracking device? Who is "they"? The whole story sounds weird from the outset, but the fact that Russia was very quick to point out that the "pirates" were Latvian, Estonian, and Russian (in that order) makes the hairs on the backs of necks of all Balts rise and antennas tuned to the vibes emanating from the east. Russia is still smarting from the loss of what it considers its territories (ask the Balts how they feel about that) and any chance it gets, will rattle sabers and make Estonians, Lithuanians, and Latvians feel very vulnerable.

A loving memory and tribute

A beautiful young woman, bright, full of life and love. We hold this image, these thoughts, her love, close to the bone. In the tradition of the Jews, as long as we remember a person, they live on. Ariel lives on in the hearts of her father, brother, aunt, uncle, and cousins. Let us be silent a while and treasure all moments she shared with us. Let us remember her laughter, her Mona Lisa smile. Her concerns for the earth we all share, the air we all breathe are an inspiration. Take a walk, pick a flower, hug a loved one. It is all so fleeting.

Gertrude Bell

Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What a woman! What she accomplished in her lifetime as a Person (a reference to an inside joke in her family), was just remarkable. For all her joie de vivre, she experienced so much personal sadness and the lack of a life partner was something she never got over. Anyone interested in the complicated and nuanced history of the Middle East will find this book useful. Another book to read as an accompanying text would be Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan, which sets the background the resolution of the end of WWI, the stage for WWII, the problems in the Middle East with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

More "Here we go again"

Another horrifying incident in Europe was reported today in the New York Times. Rabid nationalists are again showing the terrible nature of humans. This happened a month ago....where was the outrage, the reporting? When atrocities take place on an individual scale, they must be noticed as much as large scale horrors. The murder of this woman in a courtroom, no less, in front of her child and husband is appalling.

Instead, we get reports on the weird French who wish to restrict Muslim women who wear "burquinis" from swimming in public pools. Their concerns of safety are credible, but they could have just allowed Muslim or Orthodox Jewish women to have access to the pool on their own at different designated times with female lifeguards in attendance (as they do here in Seattle), when they would not feel the need to cover up.

Fruit Is Food

Fruit Is Food & We’ve Got Hungry Neighbors: Please Map Your Trees!

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Here we go again....

Lithuanian Roma teen. Photo by Andrew Miksys.


What is it with nationalists everywhere and the rabid right that they cannot leave others alone, especially when those others are Roma. Slovakia is the latest location where skin-heads attack Roma. Italy, Hungary, Lithuania, Czech Republic all have Roma populations that have been threatened. According to the European Roma Rights Centre, Serbia and Bulgaria have also been in violation of human rights accords regarding treatment of Roma.

Where is the Outrage?!

Another day, another year, another story..check out these links at The New York Times, the BBC, Mail & Guardian. These links take you, not to an article on this topic, but to years of articles! And the horror of these stories is not only in the suffering of the rape victims, females and males alike, but the sometime cover-up/collaboration/turning-a-blind-eye by peacekeepers.....and us. Rape as a weapon of war (this link takes you to pages and pages of stories) knows not boundaries or continent: Sudan, Congo, Bosnia, Colombia, and more.

Hospitals and Elders: not always a happy outcome

An NPR story this morning caught my ear and my heart, as it told of a situation I had experienced with my mother in 2005, which really was the beginning of her end.
These were my comments:

My mother had been inappropriately given a morphine patch for arthritis pain at the University of Chicago Hospitals, which landed her in the hospital with hallucinations and balance issues. While there, delirium ensued & she was tied down, etc. She also kept thinking she was under a railway bridge hearing trains go by. This did not help her evaluation! After hearing about 'sundowners', I spent several nights with her in order to orient her when she woke up. And then I heard the "trains": turns out the helipad for the medical helicopters was right near her room & that is what she was hearing! But I must tell you, the general hospital noise was enough to drive a sane, well person nuts: bells, lights, announcements, visits to get vitals...how anyone was supposed to get well there, was unimaginable. This visit was the beginning of her end. I was totally unimpressed with care for elderly patients: from waiting for hours in the emergency rooms, moved around, beds & chairs not good for stiff, aging bodies, food just left at the bedside for patients who could not lift their hands to their mouth. Don't get me started on my father's (lack of) care. May I never die as an old person in a hospital. Geriatric care has a long way to go.

On a related note:
Several years ago, several researchers completed studies on noise reduction in hospitals: not only did the patients benefit, but the work environment for doctors, nurses, staff improved dramatically and stress levels came down. The cost of implementing these positive changes was negligible.

Ugh!

Yesterday, our house was broken into. Broad daylight. Through a small awning window facing a major street. Small electronics, in and of themselves old and not worth much, but...my daughter's university laptop with her thesis, her data collection from lakes in the middle of nowhere in Alaska, 1000 photos in her camera of the middle of nowhere in Alaska, my husband's work laptop and camera; dvd player; jewelry that my mother had given my daughter before she died that had been her's and her mother's, a little glass box of mine containing broken watches, one of which was a birthday gift from my father to my mother on the first birthday together; a new tv, in it's box still (how convenient). But the sense of violation, people prowling in our drawers, going through the house, watching the house to see when we left..it feels so dirty......

Can/Will Zuma Rise to the Challenge with Integrity or Impunity

Photo by Jennifer Griffiths, Duncan Village near East London, South Africa.

The people are finally speaking and they are not happy: campaign promises, years of waiting for basic shelter, utilities, jobs, while watching the cronies of politicians make millions, buy fancy cars (the number of BMWs and Mercedes on the roads of South Africa is truly astounding), build second homes, etc. In today's Mail&Guardian there are several stories about protests in townships, strikes that are threatening to create chaos for the upcoming World Cup events, threatened strikes in the mines. And, here is a comment from one reader:" Welcome to the South African version of the chaos in Zimbabwe.At least we do not kill foreigners thinking that this is the solution to ending poverty and the incompetence of our leadership. Those who were killed were by ZANU PF goons because the populace knows clearly that villifying foreigners is a red herring. I am sure now there will be crow eating. After all there has been this perception that SA is better. Well the mask is off. Corrupt and inefficient leadership just like any other place. Most South Africans have yet to develop the political maturity to place blame where it should go. Local councillors only to blame, my foot! It is the whole chain of command from the top. Are councillors the ones who have gone on to buy luxury vehicles in the midst of a gripping recession? The problem with our politics is that it has always been regarded as a profession, a way to make money, rather than service to the people. When we can have honest dialogue on this issue, that is when we will start voting with our heads and not from sentiment.
Mukai Sithole on July 24, 2009, 7:55 pm" For more press go the FT of London.
And, it looks as though one of Madiba's grandsons is entering business rather than politics. Perhaps he has realised, at a very young age, what heroes Cyril Ramaphosa and Tokyo Sexwale concluded: stay out of politics until the ANC has dug itself into a hole so deep it cannot get out....this seems not very far off.

The Messianic Impulse

Two groups in Seattle with messianic impulses have recently been making their squeaks more noisome of late. They are the Unhappy-with-Kiva subgroup of the Kiva Seattle Team and the Northwest Animal Rights Activists group who are exposing all those who serve foie gras. Now, I am quite content to let any and all of these people believe what they want and express their concerns, just stop trying to convert the rest of us and stop telling us what to do! Rant 1: the U-w-K subgroup, aka the Pissed-off-with-Kiva's-recent-decision group. Kiva Management recently decided to test the waters for making domestic loans to needy entrepreneurs, not just those in developing countries. It is not a requirement that any Kiva members direct their loans domestically, just another option. Well, you would have thought that Kiva was now making loans to Bernie Madoff. According to the U-w-K leader, Tom, there is no poverty in the US like Third World poverty; all Americans are wealthy enough to get along without assistance because there are banks and lending institutions here (anybody been reading about the credit crunch lately?). Now, Tom and this group are not merely content with just continuing to make loans to entrepreneurs in developing world, no, they want us all to send messages to Kiva, have ranting conference calls with Kiva. We, on the Seattle Team, went through two rounds of this. Several of us decided that when Tom would not cease & desist, we would leave the Seattle Team (so we would not have to deal with these rants) and just continue our giving to whomever we choose to through Kiva.
Rant 2: Local NPR affiliate, KUOW, hosted a discussion on a recent edition of Weekday with Steve Sher, regarding foie gras: eating, producing, serving in restaurants. The guests on the show were journalist Mark Caro who has written a book "The Foie Gras Wars"; Jonathan Sundstrom, restaurateur/chef of Lark; and Jenn Kaplan, attorney for Northwest Animal Rights Activists (NARA). Members of the latter group stage demonstrations outside restaurants that serve foie gras. They have arrived every Friday night since January on the sidewalk in front of Lark: consumption of foie gras during this time period has increased 20%,consumption nationally has decreased 20%, largely due to the recession. NARA is also focusing on the plight of chickens in industrial complexes and is planning demonstrations at KFC and McDonald's. Their ultimate goal is to stop the consumption of all animals. I am all for the ethical raising and slaughtering of animals: proper care, clean environments, a decent life for all farm animals. Those who do not wish to eat animals are welcome to eat what they want. What I object to is the self-righteousness of those who tell me what I can and cannot eat. When restaurateurs visit the farmers from whom they purchase their food products and see how the animals are treated, when they care enough about their clients and the earth to strive to only serve organic food, they should not be made to feel like criminals.

Artists...without them our lives would be so dull.....

Preston Singletary. A glass artist, living in Seattle, brings such incredible joy and delight to all those who see his work. The Museum of Glass (MOG) in Tacoma just opened a new exhibit of Singletary's work and it is overwhemingly, achingly beautiful. Singletary has used glass to explore the stories, myths, art, and life of his people. The people of the Northwest tribes have historically been accomplished artists and this foray into a different medium showcases not only Singletary's gifts as an artist but brings to light (literally) the arts of hundreds of years of gifted people. The piece pictured here is on exhibit and to see it is to see the Raven and the Moon in all their mythical glory.

City Fruit has launched!

With a lot of hard work and enthusiasm, a group of us in Seattle has launched City Fruit:
City Fruit is a coalition that promotes the cultivation of fruit in urban landscapes in order to nourish people, build community and protect the climate. City Fruit and our partners help tree owners grow healthy fruit, provide assistance in harvesting and preserving fruit, promote the sharing of extra fruit, and work to protect urban fruit trees.
On our website, we have a link to a fabulous tree mapping project that allows everyone to add fruit trees to our googlemap, creating a virtual City Orchard! Check us out!

So, the Chinese Government is at it, again, squashing ethnic minorities

They just cannot keep their hands off anyone not like them...first Tibetans, then Uighurs (they have a very interesting history. As an aside, one of the tribes they are related to is the Khazars who played a prominent role in Michael Chabon's book Gentlemen of the Road; they are the subject of Milorad Pavic's book Dictionary of the Khazars: a fabulous book with a male and a female version!). The Uighurs who were at Guantanamo preferred staying there to going back to China! The four who were recently taken in my Bermuda were just thrilled with their new home, even if it meant not seeing their families. The current crackdown in Urumqi, Western China (although Uighurs prefer to think of the area as East Turkestan) is just another step to containing dissent. The local Han in Urumqi feel threatened by the Uighurs...and well they might...they were "bussed" in by the Beijing government to out-populate the locals. Same thing was done in the former Soviet Union..and now those Russians stuck in all those places feel very threatened (the 'stans', Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia). Read about the very brave Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled Uighur businesswoman and political leader as she speaks in support of her people.
Just look at these lovely Uighur girls!

Science, Religion, Fundamentalists

An interesting confluence of news stories were available in print and audio this past week. First, heard on BBC on Monday (by the way, searching for stories on the BBC website in order to document a post like this, is one of the most frustrating endeavours...rarely do search words, checking story times,etc. yield useful results)was a story about a surgeon in Turkey who is one of the leading lights in the Muslim world advocating against Darwin and the theory of evolution. He joins his fundamentalist Christian and fundamentalist Jewish brethren in frothing at the mouth on the subject. He presents a Creationist Science point of view on the biblical/Quranic view of the origin of life and, in the Abrahamic tradition, explains the creation of the earth in six days by doing a Bill Clinton....it all depends on how you define the length of a day.......Fortunately, there are plenty of sane scientists and philosophers in Turkey who are able to debate him on this.

At the other end of the spectrum, was a story in the New York Times about a group of Tibetan monks and nuns who are taking a course to learn the basics of mathematics and science in order to broaden their understanding of the outer world. This is a one month course at Emory University in Atlanta . While many of the participants found some of the material slow going, their life-long habit of focus and meditation allowed them to gain insights very quickly. In advocating for this type of learning, the Dalai Lama said views science and Buddhism as complementary “investigative approaches with the same greater goal, of seeking the truth,” he wrote in “The Universe in a Single Atom,” his book on “how science and spirituality can serve our world.” He stresses that science is especially important for monastics who study the nature of the mind and the relationship between mind and brain." (NYT cited above)

Migration, Displacement, & Climate Change

As the House debates the climate change bill today and the whiners from the rabid-right make fatuous quips about 'cap & tax' and how this bill will result in job losses and the government controlling our lives, let's put this in perspective: real life changes, disruptions, devastation, and human tragedies. An article in the Weekend FT of 20/21 June, the feature article is titled 'The Human Tsunami' by Sam Knight. The sub headline reads:"By 2050, hundreds of millions of people could be forced from their lands by climate change. Where will they go, how will the host communities cope and can we learn from other migrations, past and present?" With immigrants in various potential host countries already under fire, with nationalism on the rise in many parts of the world, this issue has huge implications for world peace, budgets, and immigration policies. The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) has been doing excellent work in this area and holds very good workshops for those who live in the D.C area. The MPI website is an invaluable information resource and worth visiting, and supporting, on a regular bases.

Difficult reading and thinking

Homecoming by Bernhard Schlink


Like his earlier book, The Reader, the story takes place through several time periods with several subtexts...this book being more complex in that there is also a thorough review of The Odyssey and Odysseus' homecoming. The story is a vehicle for looking at good and evil, choice-making, deconstruction and the law & literature. It is not enjoyable reading because the material is difficult, thought-provoking, and uncomfortable to read/contemplate, bu the story is compelling and tension inducing enough to be a page turner.

More info on reactionary forces in Lithuania

Another article in the Baltic Review about the history of and discrimination against the Roma (did you know that one who studies the Roma is a romologist! and that there are such things as ethnonyms! who knew?) in the Baltic region. Also, an article in IPS on anti-gay legislation in Lithuania (thanks Andrew for these).


Three more photographs from Andrew Miksys' collection called BAXT.

We Should Be Scared, Very, Very Scared

The rumblings from the right are getting bombastic. Since I don't watch rabid-right TV or listen to rabid-right radio, I feel as though I have lulled into a false sense of security since Obama's election. Somehow, reading about it in Europe, as awful as that is, it seemed, well, over there. But the 'over there' is 'over here' and together they make for one living nightmare for many people. So, here is what we have to be very afraid of: Italian nationalists have been rooting out Roma and denying them benefits, education access, jobs. Italian nationalists and French nationalists have been scare-mongering around African immigrants and economic refugees. British nationalists (this is their actual website) won seats in EU elections and want to keep "Britain for the British and those who accept our values". Hungarian nationalists support British nationalists in wanting to keep closed borders and gave them campaign support in the EU elections. Northern Irish young thugs, with nothing better to do now that there is 'peace' in Northern Ireland, attacked Roma in their homes and threatened their lives. Intolerance seems to be rising all over Europe: to quote photographer Andrew Miksys (currently in Lithuania and whose photograph is posted here, with permission) "well, things are just getting worse and worse here too. don't know what it is. seems like lithuanians went from being very open after independence to increasing intolerance. i've kinda lost my patience. people here seem to have no empathy for anyone outside there immediate circle or clan. stupid and quite boring culturally too. been having a lot of conversations about this recently. my friend, dovid katz, at the vilnius yiddish institute wrote this recent editorial for the irish times. And now we come home to Frank Rich's op-ed piece in Sunday's NYT about the "Obama haters".
This photograph, by Andrew Miksys, is titled Reda and Alexander, Lithuania, 2004. It is part of a series on Lithuanian Roma.

World Vision Report - Week of June 13, 2009 - The Good Health Train

World Vision Report - Week of June 13, 2009 - The Good Health Train

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The Duwamish Tribe Just Keeps Getting Screwed

The Duwamish Tribe, the First People of Seattle, have been screwed out of their inheritance as well as subsequent atonements by the Federal Government, through broken treaties, broken promises, and being stabbed in back by other tribes who feel threatened/jealous of their leadership role. Chief Seattle, after whom Seattle is proudly named, had negotiated in faith for the future of his people. At the end of the Clinton Administration, the Duwamish were finally granted Federal recognition, which would allow them to be eligible for benefits from Indian Health Service and other resources allocated to recognised tribes. One of the first acts of the Bush Administration was revoke this decision. The Duwamish legal fund is still in need of help to fight for Federal recognition. If you can help, go to their website, do what you can.

The Ottomans, Eva Zeisel, Chihuly, oh my!

This last weekend's Weekend FT featured three of my favourite topics...each with a new twist. Jancis Robinson, the FT's wine guru, featured the wines and grapes of Turkey. The old Ottoman winemaking traditions suffered (disappeared?) when the Greeks and Armenians fled in the 1920's. Read the article for new information, insights, and maybe travel ideas. Complementing this, is an article by Nicholas Lander on the dining delights of Istanbul.....definitely worth adding to a travel itinerary! Next, in the FT House and Home section, is a feature on antique and modern textiles. Eva Zeisel, of porcelain fame, has a rug featured that is intriguing..this artist is 102 and still creating! And finally, in the section on Collecting, is an article about the emergence of glass as an art, "worthy" of auctions, and not just a craft. Given the prices that Dale Chihuly, chandelier below
and William Morris, reliquary vessel below, fetch in the US, it was shocking the provincial attitude taken by the British collectors...wish I had been there to snap up some real bargains!

Summer Reading

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, getting sucked right in from the beginning. Gaiman has successfully created a great alternative, parallel world. While plot driven, it is also character driven. This book is the first selection of Open Salon. Those wishing to read the book and join the discussion, should read chapters 1-4 and be ready to converse on 10 June. http://open.salon.com/blog/os_book_club....


Readers should consider also reading Summerland by Michael Chabon.

Same old, same old or is this different enough?

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book was interesting, but it is not clear to me why it was a Booker winner. The device of the white tiger was insightful and the experience of the protagonist possibly believable, probably more allegorical.

For those with stong opinions about Ian McEwan....and other book notes

The 30 April issues of the London Review of Books has several articles of interest. "James Woods writes about The Manipulations of Ian McEwan".
Colin Burrow has a review of Hilary Mantel's new book Wolf Hall, about Thomas Cromwell. If you have not yet read any of her work, get thee to a bookshop! In the 23/24 May 2009 Life & Arts section of the Financial Times of London (FT),there is also a review of Mantel's book by Julie Myerson. Both reviews are glowing....the reviews are themselves well worth a read.

Alice Munro Wins the Man Booker International Prize

The announcement today, by the Man Booker Committee, of the recognition of Alice Munro's lifetime achievement of consistently outstanding work is just fabulous! All of her short story collections contain gems of observations of relationships, difficult situations people find themselves in, and how they manage their emotions. Each story unfolds in ways unexpected. Each peeling of another layer of the onion leads to tears. One of her most poignant stories, one of the first pieces of fiction to deal with this topic, was about how a couple dealt with the onslaught of Alzheimer's and even the best and most planning can not only go awry, but close and open very unexpected doors.

The Russians' Mask Is Slipping Further & Further....

The Baltic nations and all other Eastern European countries which are trying to keep Russia at bay have been put on notice by Medvedev/Putin: if they deny that Russia "liberated" them from the Nazis, travelers from those nations will be barred from entering the Soviet Union, er Russia (oops, Freudian/Orwellian slip). An article in the Telegraph is a chilling reminder that teeth of the Russian bear are being bared. When this legislation in enacted, perhaps a group vacation should be planned by those of us who believe that there is no substantial difference between Fascists and Communists...both groups maintain power through brainwashing, fear, and social control.

Horsey Does It Again

David Horsey is a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist at seattlepi.com....he did great series on the Bush years as well as the Clinton years. Check out his portfolio for great political humour and browse the comments of his readers....you will be amused and amazed.

Cross Cultural Musical Innovation & Exploration

Musicians are a wonderful breed of humans: they enjoy learning from each other, sharing their knowledge, and defying purist snobs and nationalists. Two groups recently discussed on PRI's The World are Chinagrass and Stockholm Lisboa Project. And hooray to the Garfield High School Jazz Band for taking first place at Essentially Ellington! The music program in Seattle Public Schools continues to produce fabulous musicians despite continuous cuts.
Garfield High School Jazz Band performing at Lincoln Center, New York. Go Bulldogs!

Women Step Up

Aung San Suu Kyi. Roxana Saberi. Women's Funding Alliance and Women Moving Millions. Women taking a stand. Women speaking up about the need for change. Women raising money to help women take a stand, speak up, change their lives. Check out these stories; look at the faces and the lives of these people of courage and integrity. Take action.

Two Philosophy Giants

Isaiah Berlin and Elie Kedourie are lauded by Martin Sieff in an essay he wrote in Covenant magazine. Their politics were considered to be on the opposite ends of the spectrum, yet Sieff sees many similarities. It is well worth reading Michael Ignatieff's excellent biography of Berlin, Isaiah Berlin: A Life. On a different topic, Ignatieff's book, Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism, is also excellent.
Martin Kramer has written an informative article on Elie Kedourie in the Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writings.

A visit to Botswana (even vicariously) is always a treat

Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
As with all the other books in this series, this is a gentle read, evocative of time and place, and a good story with insights into the small dramas in all of our lives.

The Okavango Delta in Botswana has a history rich in art and culture as well as glorious animals and scenery. Only once have I heard of a dire tourist event: a Seattlite was calmly canoeing in the Delta, minding his own business, when a croc snatched him off the boat for a quick lunch.

Local Kids Being Fabulous and the Adults Who Mentor Them

Yesterday, I learned that some local high school students have been raising money to free 120 people (so far) from slavery in India. The article and how you can support their efforts can be found in the Seattle Times. Hurrays to teacher Eric Ensey and International Justice Mission (IJM), a Washington, D.C., charity that seeks justice for the poor in developing countries.
Then, today I learned about school guidance counselor Jamshid Khajavi, and his fabulous frisbee team at Gatzert Elementary School. These students, from immigrant, often homeless situations, have transformed themselves into winners at the national level, focused on working and achieving.

Politics, Religion, Personal Choice, & Literature

By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book was interesting and the first of Bolano's that I have read. It is an edited stream-of-consciousness story about an individual who who was young in the 1940's/50's and his experience of change in Chile and the role of the literati through Allende's Chile and his subsequent assassination. Politics, expediency, morality, religion all are characters in this book.

The Torture Memos are Killing Me

Last week, NPR ran a series on the Torture Memos. There was an Op-Ed piece by Ali Sufan in the NYT. See Frank Rich's opinion piece in Sunday's NYT. At the time the Bush administration first began justifying it's horrific and horrifying behaviour, revulsion, anger, dis-ease was an automatic response. And the horror continues, as well as shame and embarrassment. Two cultural pieces that make one think long and hard about the question of what each of us would do in compromised situations are 1) a review in Saturday's NYT of an exhibit at New York Public Library "Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life Under the Nazis". and 2) Nancy Pearl's review of Janice Y. K. Lee's new novel "The Piano Teacher." And finally, listen to Jacki Lyden's interview with reporter Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, who finished her assignment reporting from Baghdad for NPR. The connections between all these news items are both obvious and nuanced: but they remind each of us to be wary of smugness, propaganda, and how easy it may be to be sucked into a swamp.

Oh Madiba, Madiba

Madiba, how Zuma and the ANC have co-opted you inorder to win the election on Wednesday, and the people have fallen for it. Surely Graca Machel tried to stop them from using you. Read the excellent piece in the Weekend FT by Alec Russell on Jacob Zuma. The BBC has been interviewing voters these last couple of weeks and the disappointment with the ANC and its short-comings is palpable. Many women interviewed in Alexandria said that they would not vote...all those empty houses just sitting there. All those empty promises of opportunities. All those noises about transparency, no corruption. The Mail & Guardian has up-to-the-minute information and analysis on the election. But, there is little doubt about the outcome.

Another Enduring Legacy of Apartheid

Young men: uneducated, unemployed, underemployed. In 1976, black students in South Africa began a boycott against the Apartheid government's edict that they be educated in Afrikaans, rather than English and their home language, and that their curriculum continued to be dumbed down inorder to make it impossible for them to compete with whites, and even Coloureds, for better paying jobs. This led to years of intellectual stagnation which consequently led to the rise of a culture of anti-authority, anti-discipline, and unemployability, especially among males. At about the same time, sanctions against the Apartheid government led to many manufacturing plants to close up shop and take their business to other countries. Of course, the immediate consequence of this was the loss of highly skilled, relatively well-paying jobs, as well as the loss of union power in these sectors.


When the first free election was held in 1994 and Mandela began to lead the nation out of bondage, hopes rose high for a better future for all: jobs, housing, education, electricity, running water. This was a huge burden for the new government to undertake, and to date, the results are mixed. The tragedy that cannot be easily rectified is the lasting effects of little or no education and a skilled workforce. Many of the new jobs being created by returning factories require a skill level that (in the early years after 1994) the South African work force no longer had. These skilled factory jobs were gobbled up by Soviet trained workers from Mozambique and Angola, and as the years went on form other African countries as well as immigrants from other former Soviet satellites. Bringing the education system back up to standard for all students has been a major undertaking, but that does not solve the problems of those who lacked even basic employment development skills and training and education between 1976 and 1994.

One of the negative consequences of all of the above is the rising crime rate and continued lack of sufficient employment opportunities for all, especially young males. This has led to a rise in the proliferation of gangs. There was a very interesting BBC report on 15 April 2009 about gang members, current and former, in the Cape Flats area of Cape Town...unfortunately, I cannot find the reference! These young men felt they had no choice but to "stab and steal". They lost count of the number of people they stabbed or shot, had no idea as to whether or not their victims were dead, got high out of boredom, and most felt it was pointless to respond to any of the several outreach programs aimed at skill development..both life skills and employment skills. The young men interviewed were 24!

A Valiant Effort

On 17 March 2009, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Washington State's oldest paper, delivered its last print edition, becoming yet another big-city newspaper statistic. The paper was the first to migrate to an all-web format. In the meantime, a number of former P-I staff members set about creating a brand new online presence and today debuted the Seattle PostGlobe. Two other regional media sources have joined forces with Seattle PostGlobe: NPR affiliate KPLU and Seattle Weekly, a former news powerhouse that succumbed to dating and sex-services advertising in order to stay afloat. Seattle PostGlobe is hoping to develop a subscription/membership base. It will be interesting to see how this works out.

Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie, author, poet, member of the Spokane tribe in Eastern Washington, has a great sense of humour, is a good writer of adult and children's fiction, and is an excellent conversationalist. Listen to him on today's Weekday on KUOW. Alexie is refreshing to listen to because he will talk about anything, is not afraid of being "non-PC", and allows open and honest querying in search of truth, which means we all have to take our limps, be honest in our own assessments, and not hide behind euphemisms and jargon.

Of Rites, Rituals, and Memories

Read Nathan Englander's op-ed piece in today's New York Times, The Passover Song. His book, The Ministry of Special Cases is a damning look at Argentina's dark days. His previous collection of stories, For The Relief of Unbearable Urges, is a warm, loving look at people and their foibles. For more information about him, click here.

Books about War

Last weekend's FT included an article by Stefan Wagstyl reviewing five books about the war in/on Bosnia. About a different war, read Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels.

Making a Transition Gracefully

There was an article in today's Seattle Times about the wonderful Angela Sterling, photographer extraordinaire of dancers. I have mentioned her before in this blog, but her talents are worth lauding again. She was a dancer with Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) until she injured her back. In transitioning into photography, she wanted to be able to show dancers, their bodies, and dancing in a way that rewards them for all the hard work they put into craft and instrument. She succeeds magnificently! The photo to the right, of Lucien Postlewaite of PNB, is a fine example of her art. To see more of her work, check out both the article referenced above in the Seattle Times and her website.

The Reader

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I will be interested to see the film version of this book. The book is very thought-provoking; there are no easy answers. What shapes a life? This book explores how is it we do not see/are unable to anticipate these things as they are happening and what consequences they will have. The author did a very good job concealing his hand and the allowing the outcomes to unfold and blindside me: I only anticipated one of the key mysteries.

Grupo Corpo

See Grupo Corpo! Saturday night at Meany Hall, University of Washington, Seattle. Check Grupo Corpo's website for further engagements. In this time of economic stress, do what you can to support the arts and artists: they make life more interesting and teach us so much about ourselves and each other. See the review in the Seattle Times.

Moving? Buyer Beware

Never, and I repeat, NEVER, use Able Moving Company in Chicago or Nationwide Moving & Relocation Services. My brother just experienced days of nightmares over what these companies did to his furniture and other household goods. First, communication was negligible. Second, the packers/movers arrived unprepared: no packing paper to wrap dishes and other breakables, even though my brother paid extra for cartons for this purpose and discussed this with his Nationwide representative, Ms. Roper. Third, the breakables were packed with negligence and minimal packing material. Most egregious of all: two legs were broken off a sideboard BEFORE it even left the house: bound too tightly. Three legs were broken off a small side table upon arrival at the destination. Dishes were broken upon arrival; my brother has been unable to open the boxes with the china, not wishing to see what is inside. He has no recourse. He barely got a cursory apology from Able Movers. Nationwide was essentially AWOL after they got his money. If you need to use a moving company, find, and interview, a local agent for one of the larger van lines and you will not be sorry. Read the fine print, take out extra insurance, get references.

Books Reviewed in the FT and NYT

The Weekend FT gave a rave review to Lark and Termite by Jayne Ann Phillips (see my review in March). Phillips was praised for the beauty of her prose, her exquisite sense of time and place, and the ability to provide words to the wordless. Also reviewed was Who Will Write Our History: Rediscovering a Hidden Archive from the Warsaw Ghetto by Samuel Kassow. Eva Hoffman is the reviewer and her books are themselves worth discovering and reading. Kassow diligently worked to record life in the Ghetto for all those who would and would not survive. He organised reporters and archivists to save items of daily life, words, quarrels, activities, stories. This is the first translation into English of this amazing labour of life and love. Barry Unsworth reviewed 'Laish' by Aharon Appelfeld. Unsworth is another favourite author of mine (his most recent book is Land of Marvels). 'Laish' is the story of a journey where no one is interested in the journey/process, just the destiny. The narrator is a 15 year old boy, Laish, and someone worth spending a journey with.

The Other Side of the Coin

Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Interesting take on slavery: what if Europeans had been enslaved by Africans. The main character was interesting and, while ultimately, slavery is horrific regardless of the origin of the enslavers, perhaps whites who are marginally sympathetic to the horrors suffered by blacks can become more apologetic and sorrowful for atrocious deeds done by one human being to another. I fear, however, that these marginally sympathetic types will only have greater antipathy toward blacks by seeing them in this role.

Shame, Shame on the South African Government, again

So, the ruling ANC denies the Dalai Lama a visa to attend a Peace Conference on the grounds that it will disrupt the soccer tournament planning??! Please. Methinks this is an appeasement tactic to keep Chinese infrastructure investment projects coming. Desmond Tutu is appalled and throws his hands up in disgust (see photo). De Klerk is appalled. Madiba himself must be frothing in disgust. The economic investment role of China in Africa is tremendous; along with money comes political influence. South Africa's moral authority continues to be eroded by behaviour such as this.

Art. Fashion.

Last June, there was an article in Pacific NW, a Sunday publication of the Seattle Times/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, about the reinvigoration of life and art in the village of Tieton, Washington. It is the story of one man's vision art (he publishes art books that are works of art), an artists' community, and bringing life and work back to a community whose economic base had departed and was home to new immigrants. Be sure to read the article and look at the photos. Eastern Washington is home to many things, but particularly to beautiful vistas. Susan Bennerstrom has painted remarkable landscapes of the Palouse. Her work can be seen at Davidson Galleries.
And now for the latest fashion commentary from FT Weekend. The article is all about some of the most interesting new fashion ideas showcase "grown-up" clothes. The catch is, that these look best on younger women and make older women appear dowdy.

And from today's NYT section on Health:
"

To the Editor:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls for antibiotics and condoms to halt the rise in sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers (Vital Statistics, March 17). I have another suggestion.

I am 17, and I commute to Fordham Prep daily through Penn Station in Manhattan. What do I see? Exploitation of young women on magazine covers and billboards; promiscuous behavior encouraged by media banter. We need to stop acting like animals and put human behavior back in humanity.

John Lyttle III
Oradell, N.J."

A Great Idea

Ballet dancers face a unique situation: because the dance discipline and field require that most dancers peak at an age that is relatively young for most people, they postpone their formal education until they retire from dancing. Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) started a great program ten years ago called Second Stage: setting up a fund for dancers to get a formal education when they retire from the stage. Seattle University is to be commended for their support of this great idea. One show each year, the PNB dancers donate their salary to the fund and hope that the audience also makes donations to support their efforts. The current PNB show at McCall Hall is just a great example of the versatility of the company. If you live in Seattle: support PNB; if you live elsewhere: support your local dance company: these people bring joy into our lives. Also, Angela Sterling's photos of PNB dancers are just stunning. See the photo of Jeffrey Stanton in "Take Five....More or Less"

The Getty Center & The Getty Villa

Visits to the Getty Center in Brentwood and the Getty Villa in Malibu are worth the time and effort. Both campuses of the Getty Museum are visitor- and the general public-friendly. Admission is free, you pay for parking, they are open late on Saturdays, they a have courses, lectures, concerts. We saw such a variety of people, seemingly all engaged and enjoying the experiences. The restaurants offered reasonably priced and interesting food. There were picnic spots, gardens to stroll in, places to just hang out. It is hard to imagine the wealth it took to build these two places, maintain them, create a conservation institute, run training programs,etc. The Getty Center focuses on Western art form the Middle Ages to the present. The Getty Villa focuses on Roman and Greek ancient art and life.

The Impostor

The Impostor by Damon Galgut

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Very interesting book....problems and quandaries in the "new" South Africa, interesting character growth and development. And lots of questions about who exactly is the impostor.

FedEx, the Baltic Dry Index, & Prognostication

Just in case you did not know, here are two sources of very important information used by those in the know. The Federal Reserve Bank keeps very close tabs on activity levels at FedEx as a way to measure what firms are doing, how much, and any changes in behaviour in various sectors of the economy. Similarly, by tracking activity on the Baltic Exchange Dry Index, known as Baltic Dry or BDI for short, analysts can get a sense of "when the world economies are starting to perk up and when trade conditions are really starting to ease.". Two other sources of economic and political analysis are (unfortunately, you have to subscribe to them) The Economist magazine's Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) and International Currency Review.

Political Risk and the Risk of Writing

An interesting confluence of topics today: an interview on KUOW with political risk analyst Ian Bremmer and a review in Weekend FT on the political risk of writing in Pakistan. Of particular interest was Bremmer's take on the future of globalisation: it has peaked and will flatten out (there was also an interesting reminder, on a different program, of the economist Paul Samuelson's view that anyone who says that globalisation will not reduce wages globally, is either an ignoramus or a liar). Back to political writing risk in Pakistan: according to William Dalrymple, "Until two or three years ago, Pakistan seemed to be a literary desert in both Urdu and English. Now, quite suddenly, it has produced a cluster of remarkable bright young novelists able to match anything coming out India: in fiction, Nadeem Aslam, Mohsin Hamid, Mohammed Hanif and Kamila Shamsie; and in non-fiction, Ahmed Rashid and Ayesha Siddiqa." Dalrymple's review of In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
By Daniyal Mueenuddin makes for a compelling reason to add another book to my stack of to-reads.

Post Rascist, Not Post Racial

The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI heard on KUOW Friday showcased excerpts from the
State of the Black Union. The theme this year was "Making America as good as its promise". This was the tenth anniversary and was held the last weekend in February in Los Angeles,hosted by Tavis Smiley, and featured President Obama addressing the event on 28th February. Speaker Michael Eric Dyson commented that the term "post racial" is very un-useful, as it assumes beyond race/no race/no differences. This observation speaks to the discomfort that Americans, in particular, have in discussing race, the assumption being that if you discuss race you are racist. It is always refreshing to discuss racial issues in South Africa with people of different races: the distinction there being described as between racism and racialism. Accept, honour, and enjoy difference. Do not tolerate discrimination and offense to human dignity.

News, Newspapers, Other Info Sources

Last Wednesday I traveled to Chicago to prepare for my mother's life celebration and to begin the lasts legs of closing up the home that she and my father created in 1963. During this last week, I did not read a newspaper, listen to NPR, or watch TV news (which I only do when away from home). I did go online to check email, read a few headlines, check a few blogs. Since this was not a vacation, not a hike in the middle-of-nowhere, this news-blackout became dislocating. It was the lack of newspapers that really disturbed me. Morning coffee facing the computer screen just did not have that languid sense of being lost in a different world; no serendipitous discovery of an item that quirkily caught my eye; no sharing with other people pouring over their section. No sitting back and flipping the page back to reread something for clarity or discussion. I know that all of the above can be done by two people each with their laptops, but I do not find it satisfying. I also know that I cannot read every newspaper in paper form and therefore appreciate being able to read and dip into foreign papers online. But I so enjoyed my cup of coffee while perusing the Seattle P-I and the New York Times today. My day began with a serenity not found clicking on my keypad.

Song Yet Sung

Song Yet Sung by James McBride

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Since I had lots of other books on my bookstand and this was not at the top, I reluctantly read it for one of my book groups. And what a thrill! I could not put it down. The tension, the characters, the scenes on the Chesapeake.....McBride nailed them all. And it made me want to look further into the sources that gave him inspiration.