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9 . 2 6 . 0 4 Went to the NMAI festival yesterday, got a chance to sample some Native foods and soak in some performances. My initial observation is that the whole evnent was very crowded, lots of people coming down to mall, tourist and resident alike to see the newest addition to the the Smithsonian row. While it was cool to see the performances and get a taste of the native cultures that once florished in the western hemisphere, I couldn't help but notice that it was a little lame, milling around the various exhibits and shops, looking at culture as if it were on display at a museum or anthropoligical-like zoo. It makes me think about what cultures of the Americas have become after hundreds of years of conquest, expansion, conversion, to a point where the new Americans need to go to a Smithsonian to learn about a specific aspect of American history. Native Hawaiians were represented in the ceremonies and festival, although I understand that Hawaii is not as incorporated into the actual museum. I think it may have something to do with the federally recognized status of Hawaiians as something different than Native American tribes. Its kind of strange to think that native people might take a federal definition over points in commonality or shared cultural or historical experiences. The mall itself is a pretty cool setup, but it is extremely dusty. I've noticed that a lot of the festivals that are held in the summer consist of crowds of sweaty people walking around in the heat, smelling pretty nasty and looking relatively uncomfortable. I've been wondering lately is this is the haole version of going to the beach. Made a switch away to Firefox from MSIE after it kept on crashing all the time. Have to say that it is a lot faster, and a lot more useful. I'm digging the tabbed browser option, it saves a lot of time trying to organize the windows and applications in my already crowded toobar at the bottom of the screen. All these problems with Microsoft programs has even made me hesitant on buying a new computer, being that Win 98 seems to be a lot more stable than XP. 9 . 2 2 . 0 4 Was watching Real Time with Bill Maher, was impressed with the panel of guests this week in particular. Cornell West was especially impressive, have to read up on him more when I get a chance. Between this show and the Daily show with Jon Stewart, I think I get a good dose of humor surrounding world events. I read something a while back about the rising popularity of satire as source of information. I guess its not an entirely bad thing, as in order to find this sort of humor amusing, you have to be somewhat informed about current events. Reading some more blogs about the internment book, now there are some mainstream magazine and print columnists who are toying with the idea of internment of Arab Americans. I can't help but think this is in part what I was alluding to earlier when the book first came out. That it could spark up some deep rooted racism and prejudice in people that would otherwise remained dormant. They were just waiting for a brown-skinned person to bring up the issue first. Then again based on some previous discussions I've had with people in the past, maybe its better that racism and prejudice just comes out in the open. It makes it easier to identify and address, although much more confrontational. Honestly I saw a lot of this coming way back in 2001. Oh well. On a happier note, the National Museum of the Native American opened this week, there is a feature festival going on all week right on the National Mall. I'm planning on checking it out sometime this week, or this weekend at least. I did attend a brief service at Calvary church downtown that was a joint production by a Hawaiian Christian church, and a local baptist chuch. The purpose was a blessing of sorts, creating a bridge between the islands and Washington so to speak. There was a brief mention of the fact that the US had unlawfully annexed the Hawaiian Kingdom, I'm glad that it was at least mentioned in the ceremony. However it still seemed strange, it always did sound strange to hear sermons delivered in Hawaiian, hymns translated and sung by ministers wearing Ti leaf lei. Growing up I always thought it was awkward how our chaplains would go out of their way to try and bring a Hawaiian-ness to the services, something didn't quite fit right then, neither does it now. It is as if 111 years is long enough to forget and forgive. I can understand how it may be more realistic to do so, but I can't see how. Of course, its not realy my place to say either way. I will say that singing Kanaka Wai wai in DC was a trip in itself. And it was comforting to see smiling faces and hear friendly voices. 9 . 1 8 . 0 4 Got a little sick this week, I think it was from spending too many late nights drinking coffee and catching up on some reading. Then again maybe its just because of the rain and living in a city with close proximity to a large number of people, and riding the metro. I think that being here in DC for the past couple months have given me some more perspective on career goals, hopefully it'll pay off down the road when I finish Re-working some of my statements for applications. Got a little distracted by some webworking stuff, I'm using a Mozilla Firefox browser, so far I'm much more impressed with it since MSIE kept crashing the other day. I was able to resolve some HTML issues on one of my pages using this new browser as well. I also was playing around with converting my old La Follette papers to pdf form, I have to admit that they look really cool in digital format. More on this internment book. I have to admit that the author's ramblings have gotten my attention, kind of like the way reality TV can grab my attention. The interest remains in my confusion to how anyone could actually act this way, do these things, actually believe what she is saying, or typing in her blog. Somebody who has some pretty ignorant, or misguided views of the world, and enjoys broadcasting it to a larger audience as a twisted form of self advertisement. Have to remind myself that shes really just trying to sell books. Irony, the legal battles fought for reparations following the internment, played a role in the overall status of APIs in America. The countless individuals who fought to set the record straight over all these years helped contribute to opening the door for generations of future immigrants to come to America. All in all I don't think she just "gets it", meaning she likes to state the obvious a lot when it comes to some points. In response to people calling her a sellout and self hater, she posts an article she wrote a while back on the Michigan Law school affirmative action ruling. The tone of it points out that APIs lose out overall in affirmative action, as if most APIs didn't know that already. For me I think this is a well established fact, and is more than obvious. what she fails to address though, is that people who support affirmative action have a general understanding that diversity on academic campuses is more than just a numbers game, each group edging to get more of their people into school. I would be just as alarmed if the school I went to was overwhelmingly Asian-American as if it was overwhelmingly white. The name of the game is NOT to screw everyone else over for the benefit of your own. This is America, last time I checked. There is a difference between the ideal of free market capitalism that our founding fathers stood for, and corporate capitalism. Free market capitalism does lead to democracy, being that in a true free market, you can't make yourself wealthy without enriching those around you. In a free market, you are pitted against others to produce quality goods and services at a reasonable price. If you act too selfishly, you'll lose customers, and won't make a profit. A free market capitalist makes a positive contribution to society. In a sense, the reason why capitalism is good is because the externalities of a free market system are on the whole, more good than bad. Corporatism on the other hand is something different, facism? Some of our greatest presidents say this as well. I think it was Thomas Jefferson said that America would never be taken over by a foreign power, but rather by wealthy individuals (or corporations) exerting their own interests over the government. Teddy Roosevelt said that he feared bankers most of all. Eisenhower warned us about the dangers of a military industrial complex. And then theres that old bootstraps arguement which makes no sense when you think about it. Individualism, I think is a good thing, but we can't deny reality that at some point in our sucessful little lives we all got some help in one way or another. 9 . 6 . 0 4 Labor day weekend, spent it mostly around the house, cleaning up and organizing some things for the year. Been looking into options for the next year or two, promotion schedules at work, rotating among different policy teams, field offices, etc. Have to keep reminding myself that 2 years can go by pretty quick, so I'll have to keep up on things to keep my options open. Work is going well so far, I've been working on developing an analysis on the interviews that we've pulled together so far from the various agencies. Its neat how the pieces are coming together, I think we'll have a clearer picture of the story as the job progresses along. Been reading up some more on that internment book, rather the commentary that some of the bloggers have had on it. I've come to the conclusion that the author seems to have trouble understanding people's criticism of her book. I mean literally. Someone will make a valid point, and then she'll respond by citing something that is either irrelevant, or actually proves the person's point. Lately as a rebuttal, she's been cut and pasting quotes from other people's work without bothering to explain what she is trying to say. I was thinking the other day that maybe the field of journalism could use some form of regulation, or board certification maybe. In the age of information technology everyone who has an opinion can broadcast it almost limitlessly. I'm not saying to limit people's freedom of speech (or press), but just maintain a certain standard of integrity, or training before you try to pass off a college-level essay as a piece of journalism that should be taken seriously. This might help the rest of us to take the amatuers and fame-whores with a grain of salt. Now that her book is up to 31 on the NY Times best seller list, I wonder if it is having any impact. It is human nature to warm to arguements that you want to hear. The latest polls on the election following the RNC show a bounce. This illustrates the previous point here in that there was a lot of tough-guy rhetoric self-victimization going on stage. Now that we have effectively gone to war and are now occupying a country in the middle of the world it is an effective time to lick our wounds and feel sorry about 9-11 again. The latest book I'm reading "Fortress America" cited that about 17% of patients admitted following 9-11 with PTSD were no where near NYC or DC. They were traumatized by watching Fox News and CNN. If Bush can effectively run on a platform of making Americans feel good about themselves, then I think he'll roll in November. Nevermind that the truth is probably a lot more complicated then what you see on TV. With Economic analysis like this, its hard to be optimistic. There is a tendency to go along kicking and screaming though. 9 . 1 . 0 4 More on the convention. I've been hooked on the news and commentary, regardless of the party. Or not. Didn't make it home early enough to watch it. I'm sure I'll read up on it tomorrow online. Haven't been very impressed so far as substance so far, overall I think they are coming off a little too slick, false advertising if anything. I will say that they are good spinners, they know how to play the game and the media. And thats all fair game in this day and age. Been on and off of a regular schedule at the gym, I'm rep at a solid 225 now, curious to what my max is, still not interested in pushing it. Too bad the center doesn't have a pool, of course what do you expect. So far this will suffice more than enough. Plan to start running again once the temps start to get cooler. That is, if I get the motivation for it. Sent in an absentee ballot registration, honestly I still haven't decided whole-hearted who to vote for. All of the pandering in the conventions hasn't help in clarity either. |