Barack beyond US borders

Yesterday, I was invited to talk at the English club for a local high school here in Abengourou. No, I wasn't lecturing or anything that fancy. I was merely there to talk and have the kids asks questions in order to practice their English. There is another American girl in town from Michigan who is working on English teaching and goes to the club every week.

It's always interesting to see the perception of your country from the eyes of others who see it from an extremely distant vantage. Despite all the problems the US has, it is still, to many in the world, a mythical land of opportunity. Anyone living through the economic crisis and part of the unofficial 20% without work would probably question that at the moment, but time and again, to many people the United States is the greener grass.

Naturally, a lot of the questions revolved around visiting the US and the differences in life there vs. Côte d'Ivoire. Not easy questions to answer obviously as the US is enormous and so we tried to mainly focus on that aspect and how life in Michigan differs from life in California, which is a large topic unto itself. But eventually, the question of politics and elections came up. For those who don't know, Côte d'Ivoire has been without official national elections for 15 years, having dealt with a number of coup d'etats and other unfortunate, power hungry lunacy. So, these kids have not actually seen an election in their life and given that Obama has been in power for only a year and is African, they're fascinated by him.

It goes without saying that in America, the fascination exists as well. But, while we're now starting to look at Obama's policies and wonder what the hell he's actually doing, the man still is an icon outside of the country. Even though he's half white, it doesn't matter and I doubt that it will ever matter. He could be a complete failure and serve one term, but to these kids and to a great many people, he still represents the achievement of a dream that seems impossible.

This is all incredibly on the nose and may seem obvious, but you really don't see what mythic quality a person has until you see him/her through the eyes of others.

04 02 2010      0 comments

Tags: obama, politics, us america

Suck on that San Francisco

Time and again, San Francisco comes up as the go-to example of a public wi-fi failure. It's not a surprise as the Mayor is an incompetent ego-maniac and the City Council all want his job bu have forgotten that they need to theirs first. Essentially, there is never any consensus in city government and so little gets done except to stare in the gaping maw of a half a billion dollar deficit for 2010 because everyone keeps pushing their special interest programs. By the way, that deficit (we're not talking budget here) is more money than the annual GDP of 20 countries in the world.

Barcelona may have twice the population of San Francisco, but somehow they're able to run things a great deal better. The Metro flies along very nicely, the city is cleaner, and events thrive without shootings. It's also the case that Barcelona has deployed a public, city-wide WiFi network. Now, I haven't used it yet and will have to check it out on Tuesday when I'm there again, but the fact that a city which is not in the heart of all that is web, where internet is vastly more expensive is able to do this just goes to show what a dysfunctional heap San Francisco is these days.

Who knows, maybe San Francisco will get better soon, but in reality, I'm betting it will get a lot worse in the next six months or so. Honestly, it needs to and I'm planning accordingly...

27 11 2009      0 comments

Tags: barcelona, politics, san francisco, wifi

Remember John Boehner

Someday, as we work to pass legislation around the world that will hopefully save the world, there will be an exhibit (preferably in the George W. Bush Presidential Library) to all the asses of history that tried to stop this legislation. It would be hard to discern one from the other as these (generally) Republicans all say pretty much the same things:

"But Rep. John Boehner, the House Republican leader, used an extraordinary one-hour speech shortly before the final vote to warn of unintended consequences in what he said was a "defining bill." He called it a "bureaucratic nightmare" that would cost jobs, depress real estate prices and put the government into parts of the economy where it now has no role."

From this article in The Chronicle. Dear lord I hope that some day US Americans understand that energy and general existence on this planet actually costs something.

27 06 2009      0 comments

Tags: energy, politics, us america

US Protesters Loves their Not Gettin' Its

I am quite a fan of this article which is an op-ed piece on that moron tree sitter from Berkeley who got shot in the face with a tear gas canister while in Palestine. That article talks about how you can protest in the US and get a light slap on the wrist for getting out of hand, while there are actual dangers when you attempt to transpose this cavalier attitude outside our national borders.

Let's face it, the US is awesome. This country kicks ass. Life here is really easy even in times when we have a down economy. If you ever doubt this, then read this article and remember that drinkable tap water is pretty good stuff.

Don't get me wrong, there are huge problems in this country and it could definitely be even awesomer, but when it comes to fools like Canister Face, while I would never wish harm on guys like this, they do have these things coming to them. It's complete vanity to go and protest Israeli aggression in Palestine areas. I'm completely against the land theft and outright military onslaught of the Israeli government, but there is no way I'm going to go over there and protest this fact. I think a much better start would be to try and stop the billions of dollars in aid that the US government sends to Israel each year. Stop the money and you stop the armaments which lead to the military incursions.

However you want to look it, it never ceases to amaze me how US citizens think that it's the US wherever they are. This article on the most worthless of travels sites, Matador Travel, talks about how to smoke pot around the world. An interesting article for people who swear that pot isn't addictive. You'd think they could go without it for a couple of week trip, but apparently that would translate in a totally bummer trip. The one rather large point that the author is rather daft to is the fact that while pot may be legal in some of the countries on that list, it's usually only legal for the citizens of that country. If you're a foreigner you will most likely spend some time in the pokey if you're attempting to do your drug thing there. Let's also not forget that bringing your own pot in with you is just about the dumbest thing you can ever do because no country in the world is at all kind with those who are appearing to traffic drugs in to their nation. I did happen to learn that Croatia's rather hard line, piss off stance on marijuana makes me love the country just that much more.

In closing, a word to all the protesters wanting to change the world by "being" wherever the changing needs to happen: work on the US first and get a gas canister to the face later. Your one voice amongst the six billion+ of us will be much more useful if you do things in that order.

22 03 2009      0 comments

Tags: politics, us america

History Made. Palin Stays in Alaska. That's a Win-Win, Nation.

Well, we did it. We elected the first black president, although to be fair, he's half white and half black, which goes to show how much emphasis we put only on appearance in this country. Whatever the case, he ain't some spoiled white brat from Texas. This is good news and I'm going to be curious to see how this plays out culturally in the US, because really, we just picked a damned fine orator, not a damned fine leader. The purely leader option wasn't on the ticket this year, but I'm quite happy with what we got.

The best news of course if that "You betcha" is going to stay the hell up in Alaska. Four years with her hockey mom shtick would probably make me more crazy than any of McCain's policies. I mean, I didn't really dislike Alaska until this year. They did their thing up there with the freezing their asses off and all. But, sending Palin our way was really not cool. And now, as I write this at 23:10 the night of the election, it appears that convicted felon, Ted Stevens is actually going to be elected to another senate term up there. Let me reiterate that they are electing a convicted felon. Does the news get blocked up there or does the Aurora Borealis scramble the mind? If he really gets elected, that soooo makes them dumber than California for electing the Terminator. Like, I totally hope I wake up to different news tomorrow.

03 11 2008      0 comments

Tags: elections, obama, politics, us america

Remember the Paper Ballot

Well folks, the day is here. Get out and vote. Vote in droves. Knock peoples' socks off and show that we can actually be active participants in our democratic state. Oh yeah, on the note, if you live in any state that is currently polling less with less than a 10% margin between McCain and Obama, make sure to ask for a paper ballot or at least get a receipt if it's possible. We really, really don't need a repeat of 00 again.

Ah, and don't vote for Ammiano either. That is all. Happy voting.

03 11 2008      0 comments

Tags: elections, politics, us america

On November 4th, Vote NO on Tom Ammiano

My dislike of Tom Ammiano is rabid. It has nothing to do with him personally though and most certainly has nothing to do with his being gay. The problem lies in the fact that his political actions are the absolute worst of Democratic big spending packages. He is the type of Democrat that gives Republicans fodder to point their fingers and say, "See! See! All the Democrats wanna do is take money from ya and spend it on Socialism things!"

While social spending really isn't a bad thing, the policies that Ammiano enacts to supposedly help the public are really just big name items to help him further in his political career. For instance, the latest project he's been spearheading is to build a $60 million suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge. W? T? F? Supposedly this helps San Francisco in some way that I don't quite understand other than "relieving" a city strapped for cash of the burden of carrying around too much cash. This barrier is a joke. It looks to me that anyone who really wants to end it all, is just going to jump over the edge, land on the barrier and then jump off that. The only way this could work is that if some large mechanical hand reaches down and grapples them once they do the first jump, which I could only see to be more harmful than letting them jump in the first place. Let people die if they want to. Don't waste our money on this huge political ad for yourself.

Then of course there is the illegal immigrant ID system that Tom is at the front of. This does nothing to help anyone. It allows people to be documented who don't want to be documented. Why on earth would someone who slipped in to country illegally want any mention of their name on an ID. Even if they did do it, the ID is worthless outside the city and county of San Francisco. And really, what is the purpose of this ID in the end? Does it serve San Francisco? Is it better than investing money in a year-long municipal transit ID system like they have in most sane cities in the world? That would be worthwhile, but it doesn't make Tom look like a defender of minority rights, since he understand what that's like being a white, affluent gay man and all. You know, it's so much like taking your family across the border in the middle of the night, risking vigilantes shooting you so that you can work low-paying jobs to try and make a better life for your kids.

Lastly on this short list of a much bigger list was his successful effort to make police take a "lowest priority" attitude towards arresting people growing marijuana in their homes. Now, I don't care if people want to get stoned as long as I don't have to work with them. It's fine if they want to grow a plant or two for their own use. That's their business. But when you make it so that I have no legal recourse to get the cops to bust a former downstairs neighbor of mine who was not only growing, but dealing out of my building, who does this help? Tom Ammiano, that's who. Once again, he gets name recognition and San Francisco residents gets screwed.

I bring all of this up because he's running for the California Assembly seat for this district. We don't want this. We need to stop Tom now. I am going to do something that I hope to never do again, which is to vote Republican. Unfortunately, his only opposition in the race is Harmeet K. Dhillon, but I'm voting for her proudly and loudly because Ammiano is bad for San Francisco, bad for California, and bad for the Democratic party. We can do better.

01 11 2008      0 comments

Tags: politics, san francisco

If you Call me, you Lost my Vote

I don't watch TV because I'm cool and I'm telling you this because I want you to know it. But in all seriousness, I can't stand the commercials as well as most of the programming. So, I can't even imagine how it must be on the air currently with all the political ads running. If it's anything like my mailbox or my phone, it's miserable.

And really, that's the reason why I can't wait for this damned election to be over. If it was just the mailbox full of crap that I have to recycle everyday, I could stand it. But, it's the constant phone calls. So many of them disguise themselves as a poll or something else, when in reality they're pitching some candidate or measure to me. It's specifically because of an annoying call from some goomba guy telling me, "Hey, on Novemba foorth, vote for my pal, Joseph Alioto Jr." that I absolutely will not vote for Alioto. That and I'm tired of that family being the San Francisco political scene of course.

Larry David and his, I can eat, but mostly standing up article about the election pretty much sums it up. Never before have I wanted an election to pass so that I can answer the phone without a robocall waking me up in the morning. And actually get mail again from someone I know seems like a dream too good to be true. I guess I should be thankful I didn't give out my email.

27 10 2008      2 comments

Tags: elections, politics, privacy, waste

Berkeley Suceeds How Only Berkeley Can

For those who are unaware, I attended UC Berkeley and graduated with a fine, fine degree in English Literature that I now never use. I lived in Berkeley up on the North Side of Campus and liked being there a good deal at first. It was a welcome change from my small, ignorant hometown. Of course, after a few years, I got pretty burned out on the whole "Berkeley Thing", which is to say that while people consider themselves extreme left and fighting for the good causes, they're actually just as ignorant as people in my hometown. Berkeley is to Liberals and Socialists of the US what Oklahoma is to the Conservatives. It is a blight that doesn't represent those of us from the left who actually think about the issues at hand. Needless to say, I moved out the day after I handed in my final paper and a month before I even got my diploma. I just couldn't take it anymore.

Well, it appears that there is a gleaming beacon to Berkeley ignorance in the form of a statue they've set up alongside the major, major freeway of 80 North. The statue depicts the biggest protest elements that define Berkeley, which are:

- Mario Savio: A guy who headed up the Free Speech Movement in order to impress his girlfriend that he later married and then divorced.

- People's Park: The university had the land ready to build student housing that (when I attended Berkeley) was vastly needed. Some nitwit actually died trying to defend this park, which even the Wikipedia article mentions is a haven for the homeless. Crime in the four block radius around the park is also the highest in Berkeley now. Why? Because all the hippies that fought for the park have since forgotten about it except to mention it as my mom does in stating what it symbolized.

- Berkeley Tree Protesters I love this group more than the others. They decided to protest the university cutting down old growth oak trees to make way for a new athletic stadium. Now, I'm against this as much as anyone else, but at the smae time, it's the university's land and they can do what they want. It doesn't warrant sitting up in a tree and literally throwing your shit at those who try to remove you. They stayed up there for over a year. Their intent was to force the university to make it in to a park. Huh, seems like we've heard that one before and they were only about a 15 minute walk from the other park that a previous generation decided needed to be created and forgot about. Thankfully, this time around the protesters lost.

So, to salute all of this, Berkeley decided that a sculpture that costs about $200,000 would be a good way to do it. I think to any sane person, this seems ludicrous. Readers on the Chronicle's website felt that way and a couple of my favorite comments on the article I link to at the beginning are:

They should have commissioned a giant statue of 'the Naked Guy' smoking a joint while collecting unemployment.

It's ironic how Berkeley and its ilk can go on about poverty, inequality and social injustice, then turn around and erect a big expensive monument to themselves. Seems a bit self-absorbed.

So, all I ask if you do as I do and flip off this testament to Berkeley's arrogance each and every time you drive by. Oh, by the way, the statue itself is a piece of junk, made out of fiberglass, so if you have any more nefarious thoughts in what you can do towards it...

16 10 2008      0 comments

Tags: berkeley, hubris, politics, protests, stupidity

The Nobel Peace Prize: A Century of Half-Assing It

For those not in the know, the Nobel Peace Price was announced today. In reality, it's about the only one of the Nobel Prizes that I can personally understand. All the science and economics ones go to people I've never heard of doing things I don't understand and the literature one goes to someone I'll most likely never read. But with the Peace Prize, the people who win this are often names I've heard of and they do things that I understand. On some level, I wish this wasn't the case as in looking at the history of the prize, I've found the list of recipients to be a general load of crap.

Al Gore's winning last year was a bit ridiculous as he has been working for the environment and not peace, but this year's winner, Martti Ahtisaari was someone working in a peace capacity, albeit an extremely unfinished peace capacity. His more famous work has been in the Kosovo status process. To date, Kosovo has only been recognized as a country by 48 other countries, which is pretty bad considering that it declared independence 10 months ago. So, Ahtisaari is getting a prize for unfinished work that is still subject to massive questions of legality. But, okay, fine, let's just roll with it. When you look at the entire list, his winning doesn't seem so bad.

For instance, how in the hell can any American president be eligible for the peace prize? Even Jimmy Carter (2002 winner), who I think has done great work after his presidency should automatically be disqualified due to all the non-peace that the US promotes around the world. In fact, let's just not allow anyone to win who appears in a suit in 90% of the photos taken of them.

But the thing that really, really rankles me is the United Nations winning. How the hell is the UN even qualified? It's an organization of the countries of the world. It's basically a non-entity. Giving any part of it a Nobel Prize is like saying, "Huh, well, we just couldn't find anyone great this year, so we're gonna give it to the world." It's a lot like Time Magazine's 2006 You - Person of the Year. I mean, the UNHCR has won the award twice. Their first win in 1954 included such events as: the First Indochina War, the Viet Minh taking control of North Vietnam, the Algerian War of Independence, and Gamal Abdel Nasser deposing Mohammed Naguib. The agency's second win in 1981 included such "wondrous" events as: Israel bombing Beirut, the El Mozote massacre, Wojciech Jaruzelski declaring martial law in Poland, and a Coup d'état in Ghana. Brilliant.

What I'm basically getting at is that I wish I had never looked at this list. There are few justifiable recipients such as: Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama. Otherwise, it's a reflection of how lazy Western organizations are when it comes to recognizing those of merit. If they are without a proper PR person or an agent, they're most likely to get skipped.

09 10 2008      0 comments

Tags: awards, politics