Bonne chance, Haiti cherie
I used to live in Haiti as a child. I haven’t commented on the earthquake until now because I really have nothing worth your time to add to the conversation.
Edwidge Danticat, on the other hand, does. Her tale of a dead cousin is well worth reading.
Maxo was a hustler. He could get whatever he wanted, whether money or kind words, simply by saying, “You know I love you. I love you. I love you.” It always worked with our family members in New York, both when he occasionally showed up to visit and when he called from Haiti to ask them to fund his various projects.
The last time I heard from him was three days before the earthquake. He left a message on my voice mail. He was trying to raise money to rebuild a small school in the mountains of Léogâne, where our family originated. The time before that, someone in the neighborhood had died and money was needed for a coffin. With a voice that blended shouting and laughter, Maxo made each request sound as though it were an investment that the giver would be making in him or herself.
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/02/01/100201taco_talk_danticat#ixzz0djv9vWHp
Haitians, by and large, are not included in the technorati. Their lives do not leave large digital footprints behind, at least for the ones who remain trapped in Haiti by the policies of strangers. Haitian lives though are worth re-examining at this time, as are American immigration policies related to Haitians. Why do we have one standard for Cubans and a completely different one for Haitians? Haiti has been a breeding ground for dictators for hundreds of years, and the people living under them suffer greatly as a result. Even more though, Haitians suffer because their giant Northern neighbor fails to care enough.
Now that we have a humanitarian disaster of nearly unprecedented proportions on our hands, maybe some of our politicians and diplomats can find new solutions as they try to rebuild a country that has (as long as I’ve been alive at least) been given more than its share of misery and despair.
It is too late for Maxo but not for the millions of Haitians who remain.
The only constant in the universe is change
When I was about 14, I had an earth sciences teacher whose name, I believe, was Mr. Privett. I liked Mr. Privett because he took pains to keep the class engaged and because I am, in my heart, a complete nerd. Mr. Privett was a nerd too. He loved science and he cared about his students and their welfare. Near the end of our class year he put the class in a big chair circle and made us go around the room and talk like we were in an AA meeting. One of the things we were supposed to talk about was our positive qualities. I said “adaptability” and to this day, I still believe in the answer I gave more than two decades ago.
Aging is an unnecessary disease process and I will fight it as hard as I am able. For many people, at least from my perspective, part of giving up on life and accepting the inevitability of death is a slow process whereby one stops accepting and embracing new technologies. This rejection of the new and insistence on resisting the inevitable change that is part of being human is usually counterproductive. I have never felt inclined to say anything remotely approaching “that’s how we’ve always done it” when arguing for any given process, policy or procedure. In my experience such an argument almost always comes out of the mouth of a self-serving idiot who wants to force me to follow his or her way of doing things primarily due to intellectual laziness.
Technology is a stronger social force than “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” Those who refuse to see that become obsolescent despite their best efforts. They grow old and are ignored, marginalized and pushed further and further from the center of things.
And that is why I asked for a Nook for Christmas. I love books but I am also of the mind that they are a dying technology. Paper is on its way out, at least as far as the technorati are concerned. Knowledge will no longer live between hardbound covers. No, it now spins on hard drive platters and flits across radio waves to land on your NAND. I must embrace the idea that my beloved paper tomes with their lovely smell and their wonderful weight will no longer be the way I collect and organize information.
I’ve been absorbing data, knowledge and information from screens since about 1977 or so but I’ve never read a book on a screen until recently. I started with an author I knew would be easily digestible, Stephen King. His new novel, Under the Dome, served as a good introduction to the world of E Ink. Having now digested 828 pages of delicious and often chilling pulp, I can report that I found the experience of reading a novel using the Nook quite pleasurable. With a few caveats, of course. I’ve never had to recharge a book before. I’ve never accidentally turned a page before and become confused about how to go backwards or forwards to get back to where I used to be. Nook and Kindle are infant technologies but they are developed enough that I will be moving my library from paper to electrons and reporting on the pros and cons of doing so.
Meanwhile, go buy Under the Dome. It’s well worth a few lazy hours in your favorite recliner. Buy a Nook or Kindle while you’re at it because the only constant in the universe is change. E-books are here to stay, and they are Mr. Privett approved.
Pompous thugs in uniforms with guns and badges should be resisted and disobeyed
The TSA does a miserable job when it comes to the things it is supposed to be doing – providing security at airports and on airplanes. The TSA does seem to be good at bullying people without guns and badges though, in the name of its agents who do have guns and badges. Oh, and lists too.
“They’re saying it’s a security document but it was sent to every airport and airline,” says Steven Frischling, one of the bloggers. “It was sent to Islamabad, to Riyadh and to Nigeria. So they’re looking for information about a security document sent to 10,000-plus people internationally. You can’t have a right to expect privacy after that.”
Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Suzanne Trevino said in a statement that security directives “are not for public disclosure.”
“TSA’s Office of Inspections is currently investigating how the recent Security Directives were acquired and published by parties who should not have been privy to this information,” the statement said.
Frischling, a freelance travel writer and photographer in Connecticut who writes a blog for the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, said the two agents who visited him arrived around 7 p.m. Tuesday, were armed and threatened him with a criminal search warrant if he didn’t provide the name of his source. They also threatened to get him fired from his KLM job and indicated they could get him designated a security risk, which would make it difficult for him to travel and do his job.
This sort of behavior by governments, when pervasive enough for long enough, leads to revolutions. Governments should protect life and liberty. Governments should not bully citizens because they have internal leaks. Organizations with internal leaks should probably a) re-examine the logic and ethics of internal policies or b) implement better internal security policies or c) do both. The problem here is that the federal government doesn’t get it and probably never will. You cannot improve security by making living conditions worse for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you are destroying the economy or making people stand in herd lines and treating them like herd animals. You’re just pissing everyone off a little more each day and that is a recipe for long term fail.
Some of the idiotic directives make no sense at all. Someone explain the purpose of inflicting these foolish rules:
Passengers are also required to remain seated during the last hour of flights, and cannot access carry-on baggage or have blankets, pillows or other personal belongings on their lap during this time.
What the hell does this accomplish other than making everyone miserable? Generally speaking that is all the TSA has done during its existence. Western society is slowly but calmly ensuring its own demise by breeding and encouraging retarded memes to prevail. Once enough of us are miserable enough and have had enough of being mindlessly herded from point to point everything will burn and we’ll start over. I hope to God we find a way to keep the cretins from running things eventually.
Merry Christmas
This is the closest thing I’ve taken to a Christmas photo this year. Enjoy and may your holidays be full of love and tolerance.
