Springtime in DC

Here are a few photos I've taken recently:

Election Night

A taxi cab driver sat in his car parked on H St in Washington DC, just meters from the White House late one rainy Tuesday evening. Singles and five dollar bills littered the passenger seat of his car. These served as tokens of appreciation left by a gaggle of young adults huddled around his open window to hear the first words of our new President blaring from his car radio. Surrounding them, the revelry of the evening trumpeted on with the sounds of car horns and cheers of triumph. This was a day that will not soon be forgotten. A day that so many had been waiting for.

Shortly after the polls closed on the West Coast and Barack Obama was anointed the new President of the United States, throngs of people flooded Pennsylvania Avenue to rejoice in the victory for which they had so long hoped. Black and white, young and old all descended on the White House amid the beating of cow bells and the chants of “Yes We Can.” Surrounded by press from around the world, these supporters danced and yelled and called for the removal of President Bush, all while the American flag waved above the White House, signifying the presence of Mr. Bush within. Secret Service, stone-faced and professional, kept a watchful eye over the crowd, but did not interfere, simultaneously protecting both the Commander-in-Chief and our rights under the First Amendment.

No one would have guessed that such a scene of celebration and defiance would have come to pass. There were no signs nor chain emails calling for the congregation of the faithful once the ballots had been counted. Simply the excitement and enthusiasm for what lay ahead served as the necessary catalyst. Revelers were literally running down 16th street towards the White House as if to meet their destinies. As noted by news commentators the following morning, this was a scene more akin to faraway lands in Africa and the Middle East. It mirrored the excitement of a previously disenfranchised population, whose voices had been heard for the first time. But perhaps after eight long, divisive years, many of our own citizens felt similarly disenfranchised. The cathartic unfolding of a new path before us could only be fully experienced in the company of those who had felt similar frustrations. It was an evening of camaraderie, an evening of patriotism. Although none of us knew what the future would bring, for that one night, in that one instance, there was hope. A hope for a blurring of the lines separating the Blue States from the Red. A hope that government would again work for us, and not against us. And a hope that, finally, we could yet again be proud to call ourselves Americans.

Gabon: Perceptions vs Reality

Brian wore khakis and a button down shirt. His shirt sleeves were rolled up with the top two buttons remaining unbuttoned, revealing tufts of chest hair. A set of golf clubs sat in the corner and a filled swimming pool could be seen beyond the sliding glass doors. “Wildlife has to pay its own way,” he exclaimed while seated in the spacious house that served as both the residence and working space for the employees of his international mining concern. Brian is a miner by trade, but a conservationist at heart. His firm was in the exploration phase of operations in Gabon, a francophone country in equatorial Africa. While Gabon has a land mass comparable to that of Oregon, with only approximately 1.5 million inhabitants nationwide and a tropical climate, it enjoys the distinction of being one of the most heavily forested countries on the planet. As was the fate for many countries around the world, the discovery of oil in Gabon shortly before independence in 1960 served as both a blessing and a curse. Due to the political aptitude of its long-serving president, Omar Bongo, Gabon has managed to sidestep the violent struggles for control of oil revenues that have plagued so many other African states in its position. However, the economy’s focus on petroleum has crowded out most other domestic industries. The extraction of materials – such as timber, minerals and precious metals – by mostly foreign companies is all that remains. Fortunately, President Bongo, in concert with conservationist such as the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), had the insight in 2002 to set aside 11% of his country for a system of national parks. Lacking critical investment in infrastructure and development on the part of the national government, however, this impressive system of parks has yet to become self-sustaining. It has, in effect, failed to pay its own way.

Gabon is located in a rough neighborhood. With the Republic of Congo to the east and south, and Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon to the north, its western border with the Atlantic Ocean is the country’s only consistently peaceful frontier. In a region that is often enthralled in civil war, it comes as no surprise that comparatively stable Gabon has one of the most developed environmental codes in Central Africa. However, as the World Bank asserts, it is the enforcement of these laws that has proven to be Gabon’s biggest weakness. Nowhere is this weakness more apparent than with the country’s relationship with the Chinese. In the emerging superpower’s relentless pursuit to acquire the raw materials to feed its impressive growth, University of Pennsylvania professor John Ghazvinian notes that “the scale and ferocity of China’s entry into Africa has been breathtaking.”[1] With its large, albeit waning, petroleum reserves and high quality timber, the Chinese have taken special note of Gabon. So much so, in fact, that President Hu of China paid President Bongo a personal visit in 2004. The close relationship between the two men has recently resulted in two large and controversial extraction projects in the country: the Sinopec oil concession in Loango National Park and the more recent Belinga mine and accompanying hydroelectric dam currently underway in Ivindo National Park.

The Chinese presence in Gabon is sore subject for many here in the country. There is the impression that the Chinese operate here with impunity. They take what they want, when they want it, without regard to the needs and interests of the local population. These are views expressed by locals and expatriates alike. This subject was even highlighted in an editorial cartoon in a recent issue of the country’s only national daily newspaper, L’Union. Everyone from the World Bank to the private sector to the average Joe (or perhaps Jacques) on the street sees a neo-imperialist agenda on the horizon. Interestingly, however, the conservationists operating in the country seem to be singing a different tune.

Back in 2004, the Chinese state-owned oil exploration company, Sinopec, was granted a license to drill for oil in Loango National Park. This license was the direct result of meeting between Presidents Hu and Bongo, and was therefore fast-tracked to approval without many of the environmental safeguards laid forth in Gabonese law. The firm was essentially given free reign to explore for oil in whatever fashion they chose. Unlike the large, western energy companies that operate in the region, as a state-owned entity, Sinopec was not constrained by notions of shareholder interests and corporate social responsibility. And without the enforcement of restraints encoded in Gabonese law, it was in Sinopec’s best interests to explore for oil in the fastest and cheapest way it knew how. I spoke with a researcher with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in downtown Libreville. Choosing a surprisingly dispassionate tone, he maintained that the Sinopec episode was not the fault of the Chinese, for they “simply weren’t informed by the government.”Given this failure of communication, the firm unsurprisingly employed dynamite and other methods that, while effective, have proven to have deleterious effects on the surrounding environment. These practices resulted in an outcry from the media and the international community. When the government’s promises to shield the firm from international pressure proved ineffectual, it was the management of Sinopec itself that initiated meetings with the Ministry of the Environment and conservationists to develop a course of action that would be in keeping with the established environmental standards of the country. The Chinese made such an abrupt about-face in terms of environmental controls that, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, “within a couple of months, Sinopec was outperforming even [the multinational oil companies] Total and Shell.”

The question of enforcement is the common theme that links all discussion of the environment in Gabon. The foundation has been laid. A sound body of laws is already on the books. In theory, Gabon may have one of the most protected environments in all of Africa. In practice, however, its regulations are only adhered to when convenient. Even if there existed the will to carry out all aspects of the law, Gabon may still fall short. Decades of graft and mismanagement at all levels of government have resulted in a lack of investment in education, infrastructure and technology that permeates every aspect of the society. It’s not surprising that a country that is flush with petrodollars but yet still has inadequate roads in much of its capital city has also failed to develop the human capital necessary to regulate the increasingly technical operations of multi-national corporations doing business within its borders. But even in that regard, Gabon may still be performing better than its neighbors. Gabon’s chief concern as it relates to enforcement is a culture of awarding valuable concessions for the good of the few at the expense of the many. President Bongo was seen as a visionary when he first established the system of national parks, but has subsequently been charged with shortsightedness by allowing the sustainability of that system to be undermined by short-term economic and political interests. It appears that Gabon is on track to relive the Sinopec experience, but this time in a park of a different name.

A Chinese company is on the verge of opening a large iron ore mine in Ivindo National Park in northeastern Gabon. In order to provide the mine with power, the firm also intends to build a hydroelectric dam on Kongou Falls, which are touted as Central Africa’s “most beautiful waterfall.” Like Sinopec, Belinga is a personal project of President Bongo, who promised his Chinese counterpart that the mine would be operational before Bongo faces re-election in 2012, a timeline that he announced during his recent trip to Beijing. Much like the Sinopec project, Belinga has resulted in condemnation from the Gabonese citizenry and the international community directed toward the Chinese. There are claims that the Chinese have not performed an environmental impact study that meets the standards for operation in a national park. Furthermore, there are serious misgivings surrounding the proposed location of the hydroelectric dam. The Ministry of the Environment and conservationists have made it clear that they are not necessarily opposed to the building of the mine and the hydroelectric project, but are pushing for a more detailed environmental impact study and a potentially less-destructive site for the dam. At this point it is still unclear how the situation will unfold.

While the Belinga episodes slowly plays out, contempt for the Chinese here in Gabon continues to grow. The conservationists, however, argue that while the Chinese are not without fault, the ultimate responsibility for what has taken place here lies with the government’s failure to uphold its own standards and turning a blind eye to their destructive practices. Nevertheless, perception often becomes reality. The general perception that the Chinese are disregarding the law for their own economic benefit has tainted the relationship between the Gabonese and the Chinese who reside here, fueling tensions that are mirrored in other aspects of society and threaten to disrupt the delicate balance of power artfully maintained over the last four decades since independence.

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[1] John Ghazvinian. Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil. 2007.

Postcard from Gabon

Here are a few shots from my recent trip to Gabon:



Children at Cap Isterias










Lopé Savanna












Sunset in Libreville










Setté Cama Beach









Lopé Roadway

Obama-mania Spreads to Africa

Over the last few months, it has become apparent that among certain groups and constituencies, Obama’s run has inspired many to reengage themselves in the electoral and governing process. As for us Americans swept away in the movement, I feel that it has become much larger than support for a single man for a single post in government. It has much larger implications for the future of America and the evolution of our society. On the one hand, Obama has certainly benefited from being at the right place at the right time. In a nation fed up with current Administration, we longed for the return to the Oval Office of someone that can chart a new course for this country, re-integrate us into the global community and use the might and power of the US to actually make this a world a better place to live, or at least not make it any worse than it already is. We needed a fresh face. We longed for a symbol. An embodiment of the American image and values. In many ways and for many of us, Obama has become that symbol. And for his African-American supporters, he also became for us a symbol of a different sort. He represents an America that is finally beginning to take significant strides in overcoming its racial inequities, and, in my opinion more importantly, he shows us that yes we too can attain the American dream. It is time that we finally let go of the vestiges of slavery and segregation that we ourselves hold onto and pass onto generation after generation. In a country in which a black man can be President, it is certainly possible that the rest of us can achieve success, in whatever way we choose to define it. There are clearly still external obstacles faced by Blacks everyday that we alone are powerless to fully remove from society, but there are also many obstacles that we place before ourselves and for me, he represents what is possible once those self-imposed barriers are removed.

Obama has, however, become more than just a symbol or representation. He actually has a very good chance of becoming our next President. While it may have been a fair amount of chance and fortunate timing that catapulted him onto the world’s stage, it was he who saw to it that he remained there. A year ago, not even I would have expected the nominating process to have played out the way that it did. I didn’t think that either Obama or McCain would win their party’s nomination. While many Americans have been swept away by the idea of Obama, one can no longer argue that he lacks substance, and at the end of the day, I believe that is what ultimately guides our votes. There are a great many problems facing Americans today and it will take much more than polished oratory skills and a fresh haircut to address the issues of the coming decade.

Abroad, however, it has become my impression that it is the theory of Obama that is of most importance, especially among black abroad. As reported in the New York Times, there has been a resurgence of the idea of négritude, which was championed by African leaders in France in the run up to the independence of African states in the 1960s, and mirrored by “Black is Beautiful” movements in the US in the decade that followed. Blacks in France, who have been battling with racial divisions in French society that have been bubbling to the surface in recent years, look to Obama to open the debate on the streets of Paris of what it means to be Black AND French. Unlike us Americans, they seem less concerned with Obama the man, as they are with Obama the image, which is understandable, considering that he would be our president and not theirs.

I’ve noticed a similar phenomenon here in central Africa, but on a much broader scale. During my few weeks here in Libreville, Gabon, I’ve spoken to several people about what they think of Obama and the race for president, and I feel that they see much wider implications for an Obama presidency than ever conceived by anyone I’ve talked to in the West. Whereas I see in him a stark departure from the Bush Administration and a catalyst for progress on many social issues that have plagued American society throughout our history, the central Africans that I’ve talked to see in him the potential to uplift the black race globally. Obama, to them, is Black first and American second. A win for Obama, is a win for black people everywhere. He is often the topic of conversation around lunch tables and in bars. When radio broadcasts a story on his campaign, the volume is always turned a little louder. Just this morning I was handed a flyer to attend a meeting of “Le Comité pour le soutien de Barack Obama”. I’m not exactly sure how they proposed to support him all the way from Libreville, but it simply goes to show the popularity that Obama has garnered in Africa. It’s a popularity that is not based on foreign policy or economic issues, but rather a struggle for equality felt by Blacks everywhere. A man told me that if a black man in America can be president, than Blacks around the world will finally start to get the respect they have so long been denied.

I don’t know if I subscribed to the grand ideals of Black transcendence through the Obama campaign that are espoused by many here in Gabon, but as a Black American in Africa, I do find it interesting that the people here feel that our destinies are in some ways inextricably linked and a victory for Obama is not just ours alone, but, at least in part, belongs to black people everywhere.

India!

I returned from India a few weeks ago. I had a great time! Since we were in the neighborhood, my friend and I decided to spend a week in Nepal as well. All in all, I was in South Asia for 4 whole weeks. Taking a month-long vacation is something that I will need to do more often.

Below is just a few of the 1200 (!) photos I took with my brand new camera that I haven't quite figured out how to completely use yet.





Sunset -- Goa













Shopping with the Locals -- Pushkar







Dusk -- Bombay









Temples -- Outside Kathmandu










Red Fort -- Delhi

Adventure Afoot

Just received word that I'm going to be spending most if not all of next summer in Central Africa! I'll be in Libreville, Gabon for about 2 and a half months...chillin'. Depending on timing and cash flow after I'm done in Libreville, I may head over to Kigali, Rwanda to visit a friend... by airplane of course. Trying to make my way through the Congo (especially eastern Congo) to get to Kigali by land may be a bad idea. Regardless of whether I go to Kigali, I'm sure Gabon will be a great adventure. No one seems to know anything about Gabon. I've been taking classes and attending lectures on Africa all semester, and I think Gabon has only come up once, and that was only in passing. So this will be totally uncharted territory, which means that it will just be teeming with opportunities for adventure. Beyond the fact that I've never been to Central Africa (only West Africa), one of the reasons that I chose Libreville was because the city is right on the Atlantic coast and equator runs right through the country. This will give me great chances to do some kayaking and jungle trekking while I'm there. The downside is that it's right on the equator and it'll be summer time, which means that it's literally going to be hot as hell!

So this is shaping up to be a pretty action-packed 8 months or so. In addition to Gabon next summer, I'm leaving for a month in India in about 3 weeks. Leaving just as soon as I'm finish with finals.

I think I may need to buy a new camera.

J'aime New York Encore

It's Saturday night and I'm on my way to Brooklyn to visit my friend. I enter the station for the D-train on 125th St in Harlem. I descend the stairs and as I make my way through the station, I see a young man with a split-level high-top fade with multiple parts cut in. I was kind of surprised because you don't see that everyday, well at least not since 1994. I make my way through the turnstile and I watch the young man as he joins his friends: 3 guys and 2 women. To my delight, I see that not only is the first young man proudly reclaiming the early 90s, but so are all of his friends, and it seems that his "crew" is much further along the devolution than he. Not only are they rocking the fresh old-school haircuts, but they also have the phat rope chains, the large-frame glass with no lenses, door-knocker earrings and a boom box blasting old-school tunes.

Ain't no half-steppin'

As I follow them to the platform, all I can do is hope that they are getting on my train.

They do.

I slowly make my way to their side to assure that I get a space in the same train as them. Upon entering the car, I position myself in seat directly facing them: close enough that I can clearly see them, but far enough away that I'm not imposing on their personal space. Certainly I wanted to keep watching them, but I was more interested in observing the reactions of the other passengers as they got on the train.

Chiggity-check yo' self before you wreck yo' self

They're in a world all their own: dancing and jamming to D-Nice in total disregard of the presence of others. At each stop, I watch the faces of the arriving passengers to gauge their reactions. But other than a few double-takes and smiles of admiration and recollection, no one seems to pay them much attention.

That's why I love New York: people are free to do and be whatever they want. There are so many odd and unique people in this city that the "normal" people can't be bothered to care, well as long as your weirdness isn't negatively impacting them.

The hip-hop troupe exited the train at West 4th. I was tempted to eschew my plans in Brooklyn and accompany my new-found friends on their journey. Not only was I dying to know where it was that they were going, but I was intrigued by the thought that at their destination, there would be probably many more people just like them.

Farrakhan vs Mike Wallace

Ok, so I still haven't gotten around to posting my second installment on the Ahmadinejad speech from like a month ago, but my friend just showed me this and I felt that I had to share.

This is the best thing I've seen all week, and generally speaking, I've never even been particularly impressed with Farrakhan. I think I've watched this about five times today. The video quality isn't that great, but the sound is good.

Ahmadinejad, Part I

Quote of the day:

"In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country. We don't have this phenomenon. I don't know who told you that we have them" --President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when asked about the human rights abuses levied against homosexuals in Iran


Yesterday, I attended the lecture by President Ahmadinejad at Columbia University. You probably have seen or read clips from it by now because it was all over the domestic and international news yesterday and this morning. Campus was in controlled chaos all day long. There were camera crews set up outside the main gates, and throngs of protesters were there as well. Only those with Columbia ID were allowed in the gates, but once you stepped foot on the main campus, the scene wasn't much different. Rallies and protests took place throughout the day: some in support of free speech, some chastising the university for extending the invitation in the first place, some reviewing the litany of grievances against Ahmadinejad, and some managing to do all three. Although the speech wasn't scheduled until 1:30, there were students with tickets lined up as early as 10am to get in. I didn't bother to arrive until 1:00. Once I saw the mob scene outside of the auditorium, I became worried that I wasn't going to get in, but once I did get in, I saw that there was still plenty of room.

The major disappoint for the day came at the very beginning with the opening remarks of University President Lee Bollinger. His version of opening the discussion with a challenge to Ahmadinejad was simply a 25-minute tirade in which he caved to the pressure of special interest and politicians. The following insults that Bollinger lobbed at Ahmadinejad do a good job at characterizing the overall tone of his remarks:

“You exhibit all of the signs of a petty and cruel dictator”

“You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated”

“I doubt that you’ll have the intellectual courage to answer these questions”


The major disappoint of his remarks were not just the words themselves, but rather the embarrassingly un-academic nature of them, and Ahmadinejad did a very good job at calling him on it. Beyond his assertion that Bollinger’s remarks were no way to treat an invited guest, Ahmadinejd remarked that a man who purports to champion free speech cannot reasonably expect to have an open and free dialogue when he just spent nearly a half an hour spewing bias and closemindedness. Anything that Ahmadinejad said from that point on would be colored by Bollinger’s obviously biased comments.

I am very disappointed in President Bollinger. I think it’s shameful that the head of a major university would so obviously bend to the pressures of outside actors. Academia is about the search for truth. He simply can’t allow special interest, politicians, and other outsiders to divert him from this goal.

Ahmadinejad’s prepared remarks opened with a quote from the Koran, and he then went on to espouse the virtue of science and research and speak on its edifying effects on mankind for 15 minutes. It was clearly a set up for his argument for further research on the Holocaust, but the audience was not impressed. 10 minutes into it people were clearly losing interest. I saw people chatting, checking their Blackberries, and the guy next to me even started to read a newspaper.

Once we got past that point, however, things started to get more interesting.

Chocolate Slaves

Much like the African diamond trade that has received a great deal of attention in recent years, there is yet another natural resource trade in parts of Africa that is chiefly consumed in the West, but is having devastating effects on the lives of normal Africans: chocolate cultivation in parts of West Africa.

By some estimates, 50% of the world's cocoa beans come from Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. This cocoa is shipped abroad to a central location, mixed together with cocoa beans from around the world and then sold and turned into chocolate. This is common knowledge and should not come as a surprise to anyone. However, what is not commonly known, but is very well documented by the cocoa industry is that given the very low world prices for cocoa, many plantations in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire find it necessary to use child slave labor to plant and harvest their crops. Which is often the case with forced child labor, the children are either sold to the plantation owners by poor families or simply kidnapped. These children work very long hours and receive little or no education or training outside of cocoa cultivation. Given the fact that cocoa beans are aggregated and then sent out for processing, there is no way to know whether the conventional chocolate bar you're eating came at least in part from beans harvested by workers in Latin America or child slavery in West Africa.

There have been some notable efforts on the part of the US Government to fight this problem, but progress has been painfully slow and, of course, the cocoa industry has been dragging its feet. US Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and US Rep Eliot Engel (D-NY) sponsored the Harkin-Engel Protocol of 2001, which calls for voluntary industry-side standards with respect to child labor by July 2005, was signed by both the Chocolate Manufacturers Association (CMA) and the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), but over two years after the deadline, the standards still have yet to be implemented. Furthermore, Tulane University's Payson Center for International Development was tapped by US Secretary of Labor Elaine Choa to spearhead a project to oversee efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in the West African cocoa industry.

Fortunately, despite widespread knowledge of this issue among your ordinary chocolate consumers, some progress is being made. However, there is still a lot more that needs to be done. I think that the most important and practical thing that we all can do would be to raise awareness of the issue. Most people just don't know. I personally only found out recently when I was having lunch with a group of high school students over the summer as part of my internship and one of the students brought it up. The more people that know about this, the more it becomes a public relations issue for the chocolate industry and the more likely they are to take steps to fix the problem.

Another practical step that we all can take is to only buy Fair Trade chocolate. It's the only way that you can be reasonably sure that the chocolate was harvested on farms and plantations that do not utilize slave labor. It's a little more expensive and often not as good, but it gets the job done and it gives you that wonderful feeling of moral superiority over all those consuming traditionally manufactured chocolates.

For more information:
Tulane University Public Health
Harkin-Engel Protocol
World Cocoa Foundation
Chocolate Manufacturers Association

The Axis of Evil Right in Our Own Backyard

Several heads of state will be in town for the UN General Assembly meeting this week and next. As is the custom every year, my university invites world leaders to come speak on campus while they're passing through New York. This year, among others, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the current president of Iran, has confirmed that he will speak and remain for a Q&A session. And guess who just scored a ticket?!

That's right, I'll be there soaking in all of the magic. This guy's a f-ing lunatic. It's going to be awesome!

I wonder whether he'll report on the event in his blog.

War: What is it Good For?

As I lay in bed last night in my stuffy Harlem apartment with the screenless bedroom window set ajar, I began to hear the unmistakable buzzing of a mosquito in my ear. Once the mosquito met a violent and undoubtedly premature death, I returned to bed and began to consider the role of the Mosquito writ large in the grand scheme of things. You know: circle of life, food chain type stuff. While I’m sure that they serve some positive purpose on the planet, I couldn’t think of one. All of I could think of was the spread of malaria, disease and general annoyance around the world. Then I began to think that perhaps the spread of disease was its positive contribution to the planet after all. Given that man has no natural predator, maybe the general spread of disease was designed to thin our numbers and keep nature in balance. Maybe disease does play a significant role in that regard, but it has to be more than that. Lots of people die from mosquito-born diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, but I can’t imagine that enough people die from such diseases to make a significant dent in our booming population.

That’s were man comes in.

There are over 6 billion humans on earth, and I read just yesterday that demographers project a human population of 12 billion by 2050. I think that 6 billion is probably already too many. I can’t imagine the stress that a population twice that size will place on the Earth. As we have seen time and time again in nature, a species in an environment with no natural predator tends to reproduce without impediment. But perhaps we do in fact have a natural predator that no one really considers.

Ourselves.

From the beginning, human history has been riddled with violence. So much so, that the study of history is often tracked by the occurrences of war. War is the primary focus and everything else simply goes to explain what happened after the last war and what lead up to the next one. It is not uncommon for hundreds of thousands of people to be killed over the course of a single war. I can’t think of anything else that even comes close to claiming as many lives over a comparably short period of time. Small fish eat plankton, big fish eat smaller fish, bears eat big fish, and then humans make coats and rugs out of bears. We’re at the top of the food chain. Aside from the occasional shark attack, dog mauling or unfortunate encounter with a cannibal, humans don’t get eaten by anything else, but that doesn’t mean that we ourselves aren’t preyed upon. We’re the product of our own ambition, greed and pride. We wage war for the accumulation of wealth and power, and one could argue that as a result, we provide a valuable service to nature. By taking on the responsibility of reducing our numbers, we have managed to maintain a rough balance with other populations on earth.

Perhaps in the grand scheme of things, war is actually good for something.

China is the most populated nation on Earth with over 1.3 billion people. In addition to that, the young adult Chinese population is disproportionately male, as an unfortunate result of a generation of its One Child policy. Given the abundance of young Chinese men and the dearth of young Chinese women for them to marry, some predict that a grand war instigated by China is inevitable. They point to examples and history and argue that the only way to either acquire enough marriage-aged women or significantly reduce the number of sexually frustrated Chinese men would be for the Chinese to wage a war of expansion. If they win, they’ll kill the men and take the women of the territory that they have occupied. If they lose, however, a significant number of young Chinese men will have been killed in the process. Either way: problem solved. I don’t know about the likelihood of any of that, but this does provide an example of how through the use of war, mankind provides a check on its own growth, despite the fact that population control wasn’t the goal.

This trend may be changing, however. As mankind becomes more advanced and integrated across borders, it appears that the need of war as a check on population growth diminishes and other tools are employed. The best example of this is the European Union, a major component of the Security Zone touted by international security analysts. Together with the US and Japan, the EU represents a zone in which war is not only unlikely, but almost unthinkable. The inextricably integrated economies and politics of these countries make war among them virtually impossible. This is especially remarkable when one considers that fact that both Europe and Japan would have very little history to speak of if the discussion of war were taken off the table. Along with the generation of unprecedented peace and prosperity that has swept across Western Europe, the EU has also witnessed declines in population. I believe that all Western European nations, with the possible exception of Ireland and Spain, have seen dwindling birth rates, with Germany and Italy leading the pack. As European families have become more prosperous and men and women alike have careers on which to focus, the emphasis on bearing children has diminished. Couples that would have had 2 or 3 children a generation ago may now decide to only have one child or none at all. The inverse correlation between prosperity and birth rate has global implications. Women in economically depressed parts of Africa and Latin America tend to bear more children then comparably aged women in Western Europe or Japan, both of which are struggling with the short run economic effects of a dwindling population. As the birth rates in Europe and Japan continue to fall, I suspect to see increased migration to these areas from economically depressed regions of the world. Hopefully, this increased global mobility and integration and the resulting increased investment in human capital in the developing world will allow prosperity to spread throughout the world.

Once we’ve truly achieved global prosperity, instead of creating new people and figuring out a way to kill them off later, maybe we can just start creating fewer people in the first place.

Where Are We Headed?

“The question is whether France should stay in Algeria. If the answer is yes, then we must accept the necessary consequences”

I just finished watching the film The Battle of Algiers, which tells the story of one of the most influential years in the Algerian battle of independence from the French in the late 1950s, early 1960s. It was a very well done film, which, unfortunately, still in many ways parallels the state of the world today.

The above quote from the film comes from Colonel Mathieu, who was charged with leading the French military effort in squashing the Algerian resistance movement in the capital city of Algiers. A reporter asks the colonel whether it is true that French soldiers under his command use torture and whether torture was an acceptable means of accomplishing his mission. In his response the colonel implies that the French people themselves are complicit in the course of action that he deems necessary in Algiers. Given the overwhelming sentiment among the French populous that the French should remain in Algeria, French society had given its tacit approval to use every means necessary to maintain the French occupying presence, even if that extended to torture.

Could the same be said of us Americans?

I personally am appalled at the use of torture by the Bush Administration in its “War on Terror”, and I’ve become even more so incensed after reading the Washington Post series on the Cheney Vice Presidency, in which they lay out how this doctrine of torture became a part of the Administration. Now, however, I’m beginning to wonder whether the use of torture in Guantanamo, Baghdad and elsewhere is merely the fault of the US citizenry. It’s easy to place the blame on those at the top of the pyramid, but perhaps those of us making up the much larger base at the bottom have also played role.

John Locke taught us of the Social Contract, in which each of us relinquishes a bit of our independence and self-determination to the State for the purposes of promoting the common good. Following September 11th, we all renegotiated our contract and handed over a little bit more of our self-determination in an effort to “secure our borders” and keep America free from future terrorist attacks. While some may argue that we are less safe now than we were prior to September 11th, the fact remains that there have been no additional attacks on US soil in the last six years, but my question is, was it worth it? Are we willing to accept the possibility of less effective intelligence – and, by extension, increased vulnerability – in exchange for the maintenance of our shared values? While I’m sure that the Administration has gained valuable information by employing torture – information that may have saved American lives – I’m not certain that it was worth the price we pay in terms of the massive blow it has delivered to American ideals and values.

We torture people.

Robert Mugabe tortures people. Kim Jong Il tortures people. Saddam Hussein tortured people. We’re Americans. We don’t do that. We’re the good guys. Aren't we supposed to be better than that? We’ve lost the moral high ground on this issue and, in essence, every other issue as well. How can we act as the champions of freedom and human rights around the world when we unabashedly sanction inhumane treatment of foreigners?

We torture people.

I’m interested in seeing the US response when one of our diplomats abroad is captured and subjected to torture. What could we possibly say? “It’s ok for Americans to engage in torture, but you terrorists groups and other non-state actors, you’re not allowed to follow suit. We only use torture for noble purposes, whereas you all torture with nefarious intent.”

The question for us is whether the use of torture is truly in the long term interests of the US. Does the preservation of our security today warrant the use of torture and its deleterious effects on the American system of values for years to come? If the answer is yes, then we too must accept the necessary consequences. If not, then perhaps it is time for us to withdraw the tacit support we’ve extended to the Administration over recent years.

But how one goes about doing that, I haven’t quite figured out.

What the Hell is Wrong with Americans?!

In today’s Guardian, there was a story about a 20-year-old man in Florida that was sentenced to an additional 60 days in jail for masturbating in his jail cell. There was a court case, lawyers, jury and everything. The jury found that because it’s funded by the government, a jail cell is a “limited-access public space”, and since it’s illegal to masturbate in public, it’s, by extension, illegal to masturbate in one’s jail cell.

First of all, who cares? The guy was in jail. Where else is he going to masturbate? It’s not like he go home and masturbate like everyone else. He’s kinda stuck there for a while. I don’t care if guys in jail masturbate all day long. What else do they have to do?

Secondly, why are we wasting our money on prosecuting guys that masturbate in jail? If he had been out on a park bench, I could understand the consternation, but this guy was alone in a jail cell. If society is so concerned with the fragile sensibilities of jail guards, a) maybe we should find jail guards that aren’t quite so sensitive, or b) maybe they should put doors on the jail cells instead of enclosing them in glass. Regardless of the course of action they choose, I don’t think they should be wasting tax payer money prosecuting crimes that weren’t really crimes in the first place. Maybe I’m mistaken, but I could’ve sworn that there were still real crimes being committed that we haven’t quite stopped yet. This is just an idea, but maybe we should start using resources to fight real crime instead of worrying about a guy just trying to get to know himself a little better.

South Africa to the Rescue

The Guardian reported this morning that faced with worsening hyperinflation, Zimbabwe may be turning to big brother South Africa yet again for support. The central bank of South Africa may include Zimbabwe in the Rand monetary union, which already includes South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland. By pegging the Zimbabwe Dollar to the South African Rand and thus relinquishing Zimbabwe’s monetary authority to the central bank of South Africa, there are hopes of bringing some stability to the country’s ever-weakening currency. In return for this, President Mugabe would have to agree to certain “political concessions” at the behest of South African President Mbeki. There was no word of what these concessions would be.

On the one hand, this sounds like good news for the citizens of Zimbabwe. With currency controls in place, ordinary citizens could save money without fear of it becoming essentially worthless the moment after they cash their paychecks. On the other hand, maybe the spiraling inflation would have proven to be the catalyst needed to incite the people to overthrow the oppressive Mugabe regime. Many African scholars were predicting a significant political shake-up in Zimbabwe in the near term as a result of the worsening hyper-inflation. If South Africa bails Mugabe out, yet again, there may be no real change in the country for some time to come. Mugabe’s already in his early 80s, but from what I understand, he’s in excellent health. Despite his age, he isn’t expected to be going anywhere anytime soon.

However, I can see where Mbeki is coming from. Stability along South Africa’s borders may be his most strategically important goal in this regard. An abrupt breakdown of the Mugabe administration could lead to great civil unrest in the country that could cause violence and refugees to spill over the border into South Africa. South Africa’s got enough problems to deal with. They don’t need to import new ones from Zimbabwe. In this world of global institutionalism, Realism is far from dead. The integrity and security of the state is still of paramount importance. It’s easy to advocate revolution remotely from the secure position of the US, but it’s quite a different story when that revolution may be taking place right next door.

The Demise of Doha?

It was just reported about an hour ago that the Group of 4 meetings in Germany, which were tasked with trying to save the Doha Round of WTO negotiations, have just collapsed. While this is not surprising, it is nonetheless disappointing. After the suspension of talks a year ago, this was seen as a last-ditch effort to revive this round of WTO negotiations, which was touted as the round intended to bring the benefits of liberalized trade to the developing world. As has been the case all along, agricultural protectionism was the hurdle that the participating nations – US, EU, Brazil and India – were not able to overcome. Now one can only expect the blame game to ensue, in which each nation points its finger at the others’ perceived lack of willingness to cut agricultural subsidies.

So all of you who were holding on to the hope that Doha talks would finally get back on track, it’s not looking too good.

In a very well-timed piece in the Washington Post, it was reported yesterday that US farm subsidies, unsurprisingly, tend to only benefit large, white-owned farms, while small farms (many of which are black-owned) receive none of the largess. The idea behind farm subsides is to help farmers who need assistance in coping with detrimental shifts in the agricultural economy, such as changes in weather and world food prices, but in reality they are going to large commercial farms that can probably deal with such factors on their own and those who are most vulnerable receive no support.

Although I don’t know this first-hand, I suspect that small farmers in Mississippi don’t have well-paid lobbyists in Washington, but I’m sure that the large commercial farmers do.

Violence in America

“Since her boys were teenagers, she [a mother who had just lost her son to gun violence] had been haunted by the fear that guns might take them. There is a connection, she believes, between the violence that blights America and the country's actions elsewhere. ‘When people see what we're doing in the rest of the world, they think, why not in my neighborhood? The government sets an example of violence and then it gets played out on the streets.’ "

The above quote is from the Guardian Newspaper’s recent article on gun violence in America. The article tells the story of nine young people who found themselves on the wrong end of a hand gun in different cities in America over a 24-hour period. The sentiments of the woman in the above quote, Martine Parraga, greatly mirror my own (see previous entry).America can’t possibly hope to quell violence at home when we export our violent tendencies abroad. While there has been a strong current of violence throughout the history of mankind, the United States has managed to institutionalize that violent sentiment over the last 60 or 70 years, since the end of World War II and the emergence of the US as the sole global superpower. In his farewell address, President Eisenhower warned us against the threat of the “military-industrial complex” (see previous entry), which has not only championed the loss of US life through military operations around the globe, but has successfully spread our bellicose tendencies to other governments and regimes. How many US and British soldiers have been killed by al Qaeda using weapons that we sold them in the first place? How are we expected to teach our youth to respect life when countless innocent Iraqi citizens have died at the hands of US and British soldiers? Perhaps Ms. Parrega is right: the violence in our neighborhoods is simply a microcosm for US actions in the global community.

If our government and society began showing some respect for human life abroad, maybe we as Americans could learn to respect each other at home.

Nuclear Fusion

I just attended a lecture on the potential of fusion to meet our global energy needs in the somewhat-distant future. According to applied physicists, at temperatures that exceed 100 million degrees, it may be possible to fuse together sub-atomic particles to produce vast amounts on energy. I don’t quite understand the science behind all of it, but theoretically, fusion technology promises nearly unlimited carbon-free energy. Furthermore, scientists are optimistic that they can produce “green” nuclear energy that produces no radioactive waste and is so safe that there is no need for emergency evacuation plans for areas surrounding the nuclear facilities. As an added bonus, with the type of nuclear fusion they are studying, there is no danger of proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The only problem is that they haven’t quite figured out how to do it yet.

The EU, US, China, Korea, Japan, Russia, and maybe others, have pledged $11 billion to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, an experimental plant which will be located in France to make the theory of nuclear fusion a reality. If I remember correctly, they hope to prove that nuclear fusion is viable within the next 10 years and then make it commercially available by 2050.

2050 is still a ways off, but if this thing works the way scientists hope it will and big polluters like the US, China, and the EU take concrete steps to curb global warming in the meantime, maybe mankind isn’t doomed after all.

I Guess Art Really Does Imitate Life

I got the chance to attend Russell Simmons's book release party last week. My roommate who's tied into that scene brought me along. It was at this lounge called Stereo in the West Village. It was a very cool place. I had never been there before. The party itself wasn't all that spectacular (it was a Tuesday night after all), but it was definitely interesting, especially for a poor grad student who generally doesn't find himself in such circles. Russell Simmons was there meeting and greeting people and chatting about his new book, "Do You". I met him and shook his hand. I didn't say much. I just congratulated him on his new book. He's different in person than I would have imagined. He's extremely low-key, almost demure. Some people (famous or not) have a such a large presence regardless of their actual physical stature. When they walk into a room, you know it. Russell Simmons was not one of these people. He was just making his way through the crowd pleasantly greeting his guests. He was probably the most casually dressed person in the room. He's at a point in his career where he doesn't need to impress people anymore. If he wants to throw a party and show up in whatever he happened to be wearing that day, he's Russel Simmons. He can do that.

What was most interesting, however, was the crowd that showed up. My roommate is a publicist, so she gets invited to such things, and there was no shortage of other industry folk present: publicists, entertainment writers, fashion designers, etc. There were also several minor celebrities, but since I haven't owned a television in about three years, I didn't recognize any of them. But I was able to glean that there were people from TV shows like the Apprentice, America's Next Top Model, and MTV, among others. The place was full of beautiful people draped in impossibly trendy attire. Although I thought I was looking pretty hip that night, it was clear that no one else was impressed: "Oh you can't introduce me to someone famous? Yeah, you're not worth my time". But that didn't at all concern me. I was able to drink for free and spend a little time on the dance floor, and that's all I really needed.

The best part of the evening was when you exited the lounge, you immediately found yourself on a red carpet, replete with waiting paparazzi. Of course, I was no one special, but my roommate's friend, however, was of interest. So after not saying more than two words to me the whole evening, when she caught sight of the cameras, she shoved her purse in my hand so that she could run over and attend to her adoring fans. After striking no fewer then four poses, she grabbed her purse and thanked me. Although I was beginning to feel uneasy due to her sudden acknowledgment of my existence, fortunately she immediately returned to ignoring me completely as we walked to fetch a cab.

New York is a great city. There are so many almost surreal experiences that happen here on a daily basis. The parties and circles and attitudes that you watch everyday on television actually happen in real life, and it's interesting to sometimes be a fly on the wall and observe these things unfold.