Monday, August 17, 2009
Little Bee, two
So I finished the story and I was gratified by the discovery that the tale was well told. Little Bee and Charlie and Sarah and Lawrence and all the bit players from soldier/killers to killers/antiimmigrantracists rang true. We do live in a world where harm blends with happiness and where courage is used to face every new day. We live in a world where a fellow like President Obama, who professes to want to end war, can continue the war in Afghanistan. We live in a world where neocons can disrupt town halls but protesters can't parade any where near a political convention. We live in a world where the banks have the money, get the money, make the money and the people don't. We live in a world where despite all of that a story like Little Bee can end with hope for a new tomorrow and Rambo can finally go home.
Little Bee
I am a firm believer in the serendipitous. So I find it no coincidence that last night while perusing the tv menu, T and I came across a Sylvester Stallone flick and began to watch it. We are North Americans after all and violence on film attracts us. We love to watch the Die Hard series, and this one, was a Rambo though we were sure we had never seen it before. For one thing Rambo looked old and for another, Julie Benz from Dexter was playing the love interest. But it wasn't til after the destruction of the village scene that I felt compelled to find out when and for that matter what this movie was called. 2008 and Rambo. So it was the comeback film we had heard about but weren't able to see in the theater.
But back to the scene. One moment, it's Doctors without Borders doing their thing in a sleepy jungle village and the next it is a war zone filled with flying bodies, burning huts, raped women and total wanton destruction. Too real, too realistic. T and I looked at each other and asked why would any human being do that to another? What reason could they have? Religious belief, a village built on top of valuable oil, political disagreement, or just destruction because they could?
Which brings me to Little Bee, Chris Cleave's 2008 novel about two women who meet through the happenstance of war, one from Nigeria and the other from England. I am half way through the story but still, here come the same questions, why and how can this be happening in the same world where T and I sit and watch Sly retaliate with more than equal violence?
Is it because we sit and watch? The Rambo film is simplistic in its answer. "You can't change anything.", he says. Cleave on the other hand maybe going for something different. A subject for my next post.
But back to the scene. One moment, it's Doctors without Borders doing their thing in a sleepy jungle village and the next it is a war zone filled with flying bodies, burning huts, raped women and total wanton destruction. Too real, too realistic. T and I looked at each other and asked why would any human being do that to another? What reason could they have? Religious belief, a village built on top of valuable oil, political disagreement, or just destruction because they could?
Which brings me to Little Bee, Chris Cleave's 2008 novel about two women who meet through the happenstance of war, one from Nigeria and the other from England. I am half way through the story but still, here come the same questions, why and how can this be happening in the same world where T and I sit and watch Sly retaliate with more than equal violence?
Is it because we sit and watch? The Rambo film is simplistic in its answer. "You can't change anything.", he says. Cleave on the other hand maybe going for something different. A subject for my next post.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
This from the grass is always greener file
People who can't get married, people who want to get pregnant, people who want Hummers, people who want to own their own home, people who have to see the newest movie, people who use credit cards, people who . . .
Friday, June 19, 2009
And the war goes on . . .
Which war you ask? And I answer. The war that gives those in power the excuse to keep on making war while civilian men, women, and children take the brunt. The war that takes the resources we could use to actually save lives and build a better world and uses them to destroy that world. The war that keeps on creating victims who become soldiers with a reason to hate the world that took away their ordinary life and replaced it with death. The war that the politicos justify by explaining over and over again the amount of fear we need to have of the terrorist tendancies of our enemies. The war that gives all those people who support it jobs and a reason to keep on making war not peace.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Votes don't matter nor voters neither
That is really the only conclusion one can come to after last Friday's election in Iran and then today's approval by the House of a War Spending Bill that includes the following:
Politics again rears its ugly head. Trade off the IMF aid for friendly grades from Europe, trade the aid to car manufacturers for seeming to help the auto industry and the consumer, trade the limits on the Admin of Guantanomo for getting the Republicans to pass the IMF part, and trade the Democrats their anti-war feelings for some down the road support from President O.
This isn't what I voted for, hoped for, wanted. But what the hell, I am just one voter.
"The war spending legislation (just passed by the house) carried a hodgepodge of other provisions, including $5 billion to expand the role of the International Monetary Fund in shoring up the world economy, $1 billion to encourage U.S. consumers to trade in gas-guzzlers for more fuel-efficient new cars, and limits on the administration's ability to bring terrorist suspects from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba to the United States."
Politics again rears its ugly head. Trade off the IMF aid for friendly grades from Europe, trade the aid to car manufacturers for seeming to help the auto industry and the consumer, trade the limits on the Admin of Guantanomo for getting the Republicans to pass the IMF part, and trade the Democrats their anti-war feelings for some down the road support from President O.
This isn't what I voted for, hoped for, wanted. But what the hell, I am just one voter.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Public Parks
Here in California this morning the sun is shining and the parks, and the playgrounds, and the beaches are calling and the public is crawling on its new "funemployment" way, only to find that the Non-Girly Man has decided to close them all on this oh so sunny California day.
We are a state in crisis and we've got to crack down or cut back or something else to deal with this crisis or else, he says. So close down the parks, shut down health services, summer schools, even social services for the elderly and the poor. "Cause "God, in his infinite wisdom, knows that these are the things that are dragging us down and holding this great state hostage.
But, you know what? I have a different idea. Lets shut down the whole state. No highway patrol, no colleges, no street repair, no fire fighting, no politicians in their fat little offices deciding the fate of the rest of us. Shut it all down and let's just go to anarchy. It can't be any worse than this living under the constant threat.
But, you know what else? I am still open to other answers. Just drop them in my mailbox. Yes, that's it over there, laying on its side and looking crushed.
We are a state in crisis and we've got to crack down or cut back or something else to deal with this crisis or else, he says. So close down the parks, shut down health services, summer schools, even social services for the elderly and the poor. "Cause "God, in his infinite wisdom, knows that these are the things that are dragging us down and holding this great state hostage.
But, you know what? I have a different idea. Lets shut down the whole state. No highway patrol, no colleges, no street repair, no fire fighting, no politicians in their fat little offices deciding the fate of the rest of us. Shut it all down and let's just go to anarchy. It can't be any worse than this living under the constant threat.
But, you know what else? I am still open to other answers. Just drop them in my mailbox. Yes, that's it over there, laying on its side and looking crushed.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
If your credit is bad
According to an article in the June 7, LA Times Business section, "The credit report is becoming the latest hurdle for unemployed workers in a dismal U.S. job market. Up to half of employers use credit screening to weed out potentially troublesome hires, though estimates vary, and the practice is on the rise." So a person applying for a job, a person that has been hit by the foreclosure market and the job loss market that has reached 9% and rising has developed a case of a loss in credit status, is that what I'm understanding? Is this supposed to be news?
The article goes on, as though point A leads to point 2, "Money woes could signal disorder in an individual's personal life that could translate into slipshod work habits, some staffing experts said. Companies lose billions annually to employee theft. A sterling credit history, they said, points to a worker who is more likely to be disciplined, trustworthy and reliable." So the workers having lost the home they bought because they thought they were secure in their job which they lost because the company they worked for laid off workers because the company itself had to apply for bankruptcy protection are now suspected thieves?
The fact that the credit industry is in full pull-in-your-head turtle mode apparently doesn't play a part in this analysis either. American Express has recently joined a number of other credit card companies in the following. First, they notify you that your available credit balance has been lowered to just above whatever the current balance is. Then they notify you that because they can, they are raising the interest rate on your current balance by 10 or 15 or, in some cases, 20%. This happens whether you are current and have a great payment history or not. Another company, Advanta, just closed its doors. Toodledoo ducks. And oh by the way, before we go away, you available credit has been lowered because you've had too many inquiries in the last 12 months and (since we lowered your available balance) your accounts are now too close to their limits.
Anyone else sense the circle here. The companies, and not just the ones you give permission to, are checking your credit history. Because you are applying everywhere and anywhere in hopes of landing something, that means a lot of credit checks which means your credit gets lowered and your credit report shows this. Yuck, or that other word that sounds like it but starts with F.
The article goes on, as though point A leads to point 2, "Money woes could signal disorder in an individual's personal life that could translate into slipshod work habits, some staffing experts said. Companies lose billions annually to employee theft. A sterling credit history, they said, points to a worker who is more likely to be disciplined, trustworthy and reliable." So the workers having lost the home they bought because they thought they were secure in their job which they lost because the company they worked for laid off workers because the company itself had to apply for bankruptcy protection are now suspected thieves?
The fact that the credit industry is in full pull-in-your-head turtle mode apparently doesn't play a part in this analysis either. American Express has recently joined a number of other credit card companies in the following. First, they notify you that your available credit balance has been lowered to just above whatever the current balance is. Then they notify you that because they can, they are raising the interest rate on your current balance by 10 or 15 or, in some cases, 20%. This happens whether you are current and have a great payment history or not. Another company, Advanta, just closed its doors. Toodledoo ducks. And oh by the way, before we go away, you available credit has been lowered because you've had too many inquiries in the last 12 months and (since we lowered your available balance) your accounts are now too close to their limits.
Anyone else sense the circle here. The companies, and not just the ones you give permission to, are checking your credit history. Because you are applying everywhere and anywhere in hopes of landing something, that means a lot of credit checks which means your credit gets lowered and your credit report shows this. Yuck, or that other word that sounds like it but starts with F.
Friday, May 15, 2009
The Lake Show
I am wondering this morning about the reasons why we get connected to a sport team? Why we tie our spirit to their ups and downs? Why we push ourselves to shout at their ineffectiveness's and cheer so loud when they overcome them? Now I am sure that the psychologists have a term for this syndrome, ha! Just like the sport's writer who turns a phrase. But what I don't know yet is if they and I will agree.
Maybe it is tied to the immersion in school spirit we receive as school children. You know what I mean. The school colors, the sense of community gathered around the team that defends our school's honor. Using those terms, honor, the sense of community, school colors, I can see, or rather sense the common thread. But what makes us want to do those things in the first place?
When we move from our home as children, the school out of necessity becomes our second home. We appear to need the stability that comes from knowing our school provides it. There is in this process a shielding effect. Of course, this is on our side.
On the other side lies society as represented by the adults whose power to influence comes from our allegiance to this elevated, and in many senses, created team spirit. In the blogosphere, it has become a very big deal these days to accrue followers and in turn become a follower. Is this just a process?
No, I think it goes back to my earlier questions. It seems to me that at some core level, maybe through evolution even at a genetic level, our sense of fear of the world is what is at play here. Picture the cave man, woman, child. Go see Disney's new film, Earth, if you need a reminder. The world is a cruel and beautiful place, dangerous and unforgiving. We humans have spent, do spend, most of our creative time trying to move away from that fear. We call it civilization.
When we connect with a sport team, we are really combating our oldest fear. That the world is just waiting to eat us as we would eat it if we could.
So what happens to us when Kobe doesn't do his job and protect us by winning the game is really just elemental my dear Watson. The other team is the barbarian at our gate, the tyrannosaurus rex nuzzling our cave door, and the need to escape this threat is just driving us wild. And in this sense, what we lose when they lose, our team that is, is our sense of being safe in the world.
Maybe it is tied to the immersion in school spirit we receive as school children. You know what I mean. The school colors, the sense of community gathered around the team that defends our school's honor. Using those terms, honor, the sense of community, school colors, I can see, or rather sense the common thread. But what makes us want to do those things in the first place?
When we move from our home as children, the school out of necessity becomes our second home. We appear to need the stability that comes from knowing our school provides it. There is in this process a shielding effect. Of course, this is on our side.
On the other side lies society as represented by the adults whose power to influence comes from our allegiance to this elevated, and in many senses, created team spirit. In the blogosphere, it has become a very big deal these days to accrue followers and in turn become a follower. Is this just a process?
No, I think it goes back to my earlier questions. It seems to me that at some core level, maybe through evolution even at a genetic level, our sense of fear of the world is what is at play here. Picture the cave man, woman, child. Go see Disney's new film, Earth, if you need a reminder. The world is a cruel and beautiful place, dangerous and unforgiving. We humans have spent, do spend, most of our creative time trying to move away from that fear. We call it civilization.
When we connect with a sport team, we are really combating our oldest fear. That the world is just waiting to eat us as we would eat it if we could.
So what happens to us when Kobe doesn't do his job and protect us by winning the game is really just elemental my dear Watson. The other team is the barbarian at our gate, the tyrannosaurus rex nuzzling our cave door, and the need to escape this threat is just driving us wild. And in this sense, what we lose when they lose, our team that is, is our sense of being safe in the world.
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