Orgiva! La Vida BUENA!!

So, I'm in a small village about 40 kilometers from the Mediterranean right now called Orgiva. I'm here with a lady named Angela. She's been living here for 3 years and was in another part of Spain for several years. She English and lives here off her pension that she earned from working as a social worker for over 30
years.
This period before Easter is when Spain goes off. Yesterday, the day I arrived in Orgvia, was the day to celebrate the town's saint -- I don't know who it is and I didn't get the impression that many people in the town did either. The celebration was with fireworks and a huge procession of people carrying a big display of Jesus and one of Mary (dude's mom, not the hooker). Everyone in the town was there. As soon as Jesus came out of the cathedral this giant chain of firecrackers went off outside this little pub we were in. The windows were taped because they've learned that the noise is so intense that it even blows out the windows in the back of the place unless they're taped.


The procession went on until 2 in the morning as did the fireworks. Every time the procession stopped there were fireworks to greet it. It would stop at every crossroads and the fireworks went off to keep the evil spirits away. Plus each little neighborhood had their own display. Some were poppers some were Disneyland style fireworks.
















The it sounded like a war zone and it didn't look much different, minus the dead people...well, Jesus and Mary were there.











One of the coolest things was seeing all of the people there. I guess it's kind of like Santa Cruz on Halloween or New Years but fewer stabbings and less belligerent people (although they certainly had their share of "communion cervesa"). Plus the party wasn't contained to streets, anyone with a balcony, including the dentist office, had people up to celebrate.




Jesus at night was pretty impressive, but it really seemed like the main event was the firework -- no offense to the right hand man of course.




















Here's a view from Angela's house. Well, two. The second one at night is way rad. Click on the second one to see a big version. You can see the smoke...all of that is smoke, no clouds. Plus you can see the silhouette of the hill in the background. Now, past that hill on the right is how to get to the sea. Hopefully I'll get a chance to go there.

On the Road

Well, tomorrow I'm off to Spain for nearly two weeks. I'll be working on a farm for a bit just south of Granada. Depending how long I stay I'll make my way to the coast for a few days then up to Seville. Lola and the boys are visiting her family there so if I end up there I'll probably swing by and see them.

I've been lagging on updating my blog with pictures and stuff. At some point I'll put up some pictures of Ireland and Milan.

I'm bringing my running shoes and can't wait to run in some nice warm weather.

I didn't think that I was endowed with the emotion of excitement until I realized the other day that I get to be in the sun. If you experienced the weather here you'd understand how that can be exciting.

A night with the Gypos

So, I relay to whoever is paying attention to this a report that is out of chronological order. I should be telling about my weekend in Dublin but something else way funner (excuse the lack of proper english) that happened tonight. I've made this group of friends who I love here in Bath. We always have talks are of history and philosophy and it's always a good time.

Tonight, though, a few gypsies (watch the movie SNATCH to know what I'm talking about) were hanging out at the pub tonight. They were perfectly fine until they stole my hat. My hat is my "kick ass red knit cat" that I wear most of the year. It's become a trademark here in Bath just as it is in the US.

As we were hanging outside these gypsie guys took my hat off my head and continued to walk on. They wouldn't give it back. After walking a few blocks trying to get it from them I punched the bigger one with the dog in the face to stun him, ran up to the other and took my hat off his head -- it was an opportunity that made itself available so I took it...the timing couldn't have been better. This entire time the police were riding along side because they saw the commotion going on but didn't do anything about it. So, while the one guy was stunned I took my hat off the other guy's head and ran so they wouldn't beat me up for stealing MY hat from them.

Fortunately I run fast so they couldn't keep up with me. Now I have my hat. The cop who was watching the whole thing simply turned around and headed back into town. I actually had a conversation with the cop but he was unwilling to do anything for some reason that is unknown to me.

On my way back to the pub a few friends were walking towards the mess to help me out but since it was already taken care of we headed back. Basically, I fought a gypsie, stole from him, and managed to have a good rest of the night.

That was pretty amazing.

and so the story goes...

I should be studying for a midterm right now but I've had enough of the damn British empire for a little bit.

So, I finally have my plans for spring break figured out -- I'll be spending two weeks on an organic farm in souther Spain. I'm heading off to Dublin next weekend and the weekend before spring break I'll be heading to Milan.

A few weeks ago we visited London, I may have already put something up about that. This is a picture of Big Ben. It's really not all that exciting. We got a tour of Westminster Palace, that was neat. Last Thursday we went to Oxford. We took a tour of Christ Church College. It's where they guy who wrote Alice in Wonderland taught and where the stuff in the book was inspired from. It's also where the first few Harry Potter films were made...some of the people in my class were way too excited about that part. I knew there is a reason that I think San Jose State is a mediocre pile of crap for a school and that set it in stone. Then again, there's people back home who I really like who might be just as excited so maybe I shouldn't be too hard on 'em.

As for school, it's going pretty well but I have a lot of reading that I can't really get done. So I'm just picking the stuff that actually interests me and going with that. I don't recall if I've posted the courses I'm taking: the history of Empire, a self-guided study/history of anarchist thought, anthropology (we go around to neat stuff in England on Thursdays), and a class on novels. After spring break the dude expects us to read a 600 page novel along with bits of a critique of it within two and a half weeks. This wouldn't be too bad if I didn't have all of the other reading and research papers. With that, I'm a little frustrated with school part but everything else is good.

Pictures!
This is the River Avon that goes through Bath.








This is what it looked like in my back garden when it snowed.















this is their version of living on a boat













this is the intersection I live near...i just thought it was a nice picture.












apparently they even have graffiti in quaint little Bath. I think it's supposed to be George W.







My hat's a hit everywhere. I even met a girl at the Royal Oak one night who was a friend of a friend and she says she always see 'the hat guy' all over town. It's nice.

Separated by a Common Language

this is Bath from a distance...i actually thought the photo would be much bigger. Oops.

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One of my professors likes the joke that UK and America are two nations separated by a common language. The funny thing about that is that it's a little bit true. The classic difference is that they call french fries 'chips'. So, what then do they call chips...as in potato chips? Crisps. Then they have fries which, as far as I know, are just really thin crisps (chips). Maybe fried?

The most confusing one is 'alright.' It's a greeting - 'Alright mate.' Sometimes it's a statement sometimes it's a question - 'Alright mate?' In either case the appropriate answer is 'Hi' or hey or something along those lines. The real way to answer would be to say 'alright' back. That seems easy enough and once you catch on it is. At first I wasn't sure whether or not to give an answer to let them know whether or not I'm alright. Then when someone asks 'are you alright?' it throws you off because you're not sure if they just added a few words to their greeting or if they really want to know your current state of alrightness. There is also 'Hi ya.' I'm used to that one though because I have an English friend in the States who says that...plus it doesn't require any interpretation.

Here's another one. The English love to 'queue' (pronounced like the letter 'Q'). I had a ridiculously long conversation tonight about queuing with some locals. One girl's explanation was that they try to take out the unnecessary words. So, instead of saying 'wait in line' they say queue. There's that.

Now, there's the normal ones: bloke=dude, lad=boy, mate=friend, quid=bucks($).

Chips (or crisps) aren't the only one that takes some getting used to. The one I haven't figured out is what to call crackers or cookies. The names range from crackers, cookies, biscuits, digestives, and there are a few I can't remember at the moment. Sometimes I go into the store to get some cheese crackers or something and ask one of the workers after my search through the aisles proves unsuccessful. I ask where the cheese crackers might be and the aisle he points me to has nothing but cookies -- well, what I would call cookies. Then i finally find something that is close to a cheese cracker. It looks basically like a Ritz cracker but apparently it's called a biscuit. And the messed up thing is that none of them are consistent. Among the cookies are biscuits that look just like the crackers, which look exactly like the digestives.

I'm sure more will pop up, but the only other ones I can think of at this point are sledging, which is sledding...that's easy enough. Then there's winging (sounds like win-j-ing)...it means whining.

Oh. The locals in the area I'm in call supper 'Tea' and they call lunch 'Dinner.'

My guess is that a lot of these things are local (maybe Southwest) things. So, I guess they don't apply to the whole of England. Nonetheless, it's still messed up.

Done and done.

English Coffee

There is no such thing as English Coffee. There is English pisswater in a cup... there is English instant crystals that turn into a coffee-like substance... there is English tea... there is English cafe's... There is no such thing as English coffee.

When I was in London last weekend I went until about 3PM (15:00) without having a cup of coffee. Half way through the morning I realized that I didn't have a headache. I usually have a headache by 11AM if I haven't had a coffee yet. My body is dependent on it and I'm perfectly fine with that.

When I got home on Sunday, Lola told me that they bought a mini French press so I could make real coffee instead of instant. This morning I went to do that. All I found was 'real' decaf coffee in the pantry. Then I looked at the instant coffee that I've been drinking since I got here. IT IS DECAF!!!!

Now, I understand that I have been weened off of caffeine, and more so, the plecebo effect works...since I didn't even realize I was drinking decaf. Well. My life has changed. I don't mind. I suppose it's better for me. They asked me if there's anything I want and I've been considering cutting back on the caffeinated that I drink since I drink more than the average human, so I've decided not to request regular instant coffee, or even the good stuff. I figure if I want it I can pay for it...that's a disincentive for myself.

It was a real surprise this morning, when I discovered all of this, but now I've come to terms with it.

Alright!

A post without pictures

So, I keep thinking about hooking up my camera to upload the few pictures I have, then think of the 10 minutes that will take and put the camera away again. It doesn't really matter that much because I don't have many new pictures anyways. I was in London all weekend, then in Cardiff to watch a Rugby match among the Welsh (who were playing against the English that night). And, despite all of that I never found a time when taking a picture was worth while. So, I'll just tell you about it breifly.

But, mainly this is just for the sake of an update to any of my friends and family who are keeping up on this.

This last weekend we went to London. We saw a few museums, but the most interesting thing to me was seeing Westminster Palace (or Hall -- I'm not too sure which one to call it). This place is where Parliament sits. Apart from the historical points, the thing that stuck out the most was that nothing, not even the seat of government, was guarded as heavily as things are in the US. I'm not sure whether that is rhetoric/image or tactic (although those two choices could be the same things really). They don't have as many visible, physical guards, but they have a ton of cameras so I guess that does the trick.

After we visited London I took a train to Cardiff. A few friends who I met here in Bath were going up there to watch an England vs. Wales rugby match, mainly to experience the Welsh pub atmosphere during such an intense game. It was at least as good as what I thought it was going to be.

Other than that I'm doing well. It's a little warmer now -- 7 degrees celcius. I've learned that I don't like examining novels in a big class setting. As far as I can tell it's a waste of my time on earth...when I'm sitting in class all I can do is think of starting to shoot people, starting with myself. I enjoy my other classes. Now, let me clarify. I don't dislike the novels I'm reading. I dislike the discussion. People are stupid, they try to impress the teacher and/or make and original point, and I'm just not sure what it is that I'm supposed to be learning from that. But, the other three classes I have are stimulating enough for me to enjoy.

The main reason I wanted to write this post was because of two events that happened with the kid I live with. First, when I was gone this weekend he put a broken hanger on his lip and said "hey daddy, look, I'm Rob." That's pretty good for a four year old. Then, tonight, he was fighting eating his dinner. He always does this, which is probably just a phase he's going through because his mom's cooking is amazing (there's no rational reason to refuse it). So, we thought it was just his 2nd or 3rd excuse to get out of eating. Then, he started to spit his food out...Well, he wasn't spitting his food out, he was starting to vomit. Apparently he's sick. He ended up doing two or three huge heaves of puke onto the table and floor. It was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. I can't explain the volume of vomit other than simply calling it amazing.

So, maybe I'll put those pictures up.

Tomorrow, I skate!

On America

I've been asked numerous times since I've been here what I think of the new president. My answer is always something along the lines of "at least it's not the other guy." I've been trying to follow the newspapers back home as much as I can and it seems that Obama is creating quite a stir -- which is good. Someone needs to break the American public out of their complacency, whether it is for good or bad, as long as people are feeling passion for something. (well, I don't totally agree with what I just said because I think the Republican side of things is way more full of shit and it would be and aweful world if they ruled everything.)

To the point: I've been reading about the upcoming stimulus plan. I think the original version was just fine. In fact, it may have been too moderate. But, as I'm reading all of this I see the Senate deciding one thing, the House deciding the other and nothing much getting done.

At home I constantly talk to people about politics so talk of 'House this'/'Senate that' just seems normal. I don't question the idea that these two houses have the ability to check each other. We take pride in our 'checks and balance' and that is essentially what is going on between the House and Senate...right? Wrong!

It's all political bullshit. These bankers and aristocrats are just gambling with the lives of normal people for nothing more than a few years of job security in their government office.

But, what struck me is not how this stimulus plan is turning out. What struck me is that none of this stuff is relevant. I'm sitting on this "side of the pond" (that's for heather) looking at the incredible complacency of these people, whose economic crisis might be worse than ours, and seeing that they trust their government just as much as we do...and theirs is just as worthless. In short, I guess it's becoming even more odd to me that one nation can see themselves as better than another when really they are all completely worthless.

Update and pictures tomorrow!

Weekend Number One

I had my first full weekend here in England and decided to spend the better part of it away from Bath. I was kinda missing the ocean and i wanted to take a ride through the countryside to see the rural side of England so I took a train down to Plymouth. This is the place that the Pilgrims took off from. Well, they really took off from Southampton but broke down in Plymouth and went on to America from there. They spent their last night in this Gin Distillery (which was some sort of Christian gather place at the time) that I visited.

The first thing I did when I got there was check out a few historic type things. That only took about an hour or so. I don't really care all that much to relish in the historicness of stuff -- i'm perfectly fine with looking at it, reading a little about it then moving on. This is also a reason that i will probably do most trips while I'm here on my own.

I was waiting to be in a coastal town before I marked fish and chips off the list of English cliches. I was walking from the food place to go take a tour of the gin distillery when two drunk guys got out of a cab right near me. This is at about noon. As they're stumbling into the pub they tell me that i'm going with them and they're buying me a drink -- can't refuse that. A bunch of their friends showed up at the same place and it turns out they are all army guys. There's a base in Plymouth and apparently these guys had the weekend off. Another fun thing i found out was that when they first got out of the cab, the guy in the picture on the right didn't want to buy me a drink, he wanted to beat me up for no reason. The other dude's solution to that was to invite me for a drink. 2 points for me. You can see that one of them is wearing a t-shirt. well, it's literally freezing outside and apparently he left his jacket with the prostitute he bought the night before. With that, when the army guys offered to sneak me on to the base for a free place to stay i figured i'd rather get a hostel.

I ended up at this pub near the university for some dinner. As I'm sitting there a group of college students keeps running over to the jukebox to put on the worst American music -- Pantera, Blink 182, bad 80s stuff, and Michael Jackson. I made a comment to them about it and next thing I know we are all hanging out for the rest of the night. We bounced around from place to place all night so I met a ton of people. I got comments about my accent everywhere from "they're right, you guys do sound stupid" to "say something else, that is so hot."

Even though hanging out with those folks on Saturday was fun, Sunday was pretty great too. I took a ferry over to a Mt. Edgcumbe, which is across the river from Plymouth. I walked around there for a while and on beginning to dread the walk from the ferry dock to the train station a bus pulled up that would take me directly to the station. What I didn't realize was that it was going to be almost a two hour bus ride. It would through the mountains, went through three tiny little villages, along the coast, on a ferry, then finally to my stop. It turned out to be pretty rad. I was in the very front of the top level of the bus so I got a killer view and some decent pictures.

Back Home...
I finally found a nice comfortable coffee joint with free wifi. I went into one place to ask if they had it and they charged so i asked where else might be comfortable and have free wifi. McDonalds was the best she could do.

I'm heading off to Milan this weekend. Hopefully I can have a good time and keep up on my reading too.

The other day it snowed. Then it melted. Then, last night it got about 4-6 inches. That was fun.

A long but fruitful introduction

After about 5 days being in Bath I've finally figured out how to get around the place without getting completely lost. It's not on a grid system and there are tons of little alleyways and side streets that you wouldn't expect to offer anything but that's usually where the cheaper food places and thrift stores are. I've been enjoying myself at this local pub called the Royal Oak. It's a friendly place. I can usually just sit down to a table of people and just start talking and we have a nice conversation.

The other night me and some classmates went to a higher end pub that had 'Robert Burns Night.' Basically, at 8:30 a piper (bagpipes) came marching around all fancy like then they read an ode to haggis and then they served free haggis with scotch. If you can get past the thought that you're eating goo out of a sheep's stomach it actually tastes pretty good.

One of the best things here is the ale. They serve it from a pump and it's served more or less at room temperature. One of the worst things is the coffee. Most places either serve instant coffee or real coffee that somehow tastes just like instant coffee. The trick is to find a place that serves 'italian coffee,' but not a chain -- chains that claim italian still taste like ass. I've found a little cart only a few blocks down from where my classes are so I go there every morning and have a nice conversation with the person working then go to class. It's a nice little routine.

one of the weirdest things is the toilets. When they flush, it's not a gentle swirl that sucks your poo to the netherworlds. It's more like a gurgling waterfall splashing everything violently and somehow managing to keep it in the toilet. The other thing about the toilets is that there is no possible way to take a quiet poo. The water is about a foot away from your butt so it really works up its speed then splash!, and you're always pretty certain that even though the nearest person is three floors down, they just heard your bowel movement.

The first picture above is the front of the house I'm living in. Our side is actually just the left side. On the roof you can see three skylights. the left two are over my room and the one on the right is my bathroom.

This picture to the left is my bedroom. As you can see there is a skylight right by my head so when I wake up in the morning i look straight out over the city without having to even move. This other picture doesn't do the view justice, but you get the point.


One last thing, because this post is getting pretty long: Lola, the mom here, is Spanish so, unlike the British, she won't settle for bad food. And, yes, if you don't already know, most British food lacks in flavor. It's not aweful but it's not good. I guess that's why the eat a lot of curry.

a 2000 year old city (+/-)

Well, here I am in Bath, England. We arrived in London this morning at 10 am (2 am CA time), jumped on a coach to Bath and met up with out families. I could not be more excited about the family I'm staying with. It's an couple in or near their forties (Ian and Lola), a five year old boy (Joseph), and a baby boy (Hugo). I thought that a five year old with a British accent might be pretty cute but I had no idea. And it makes it all the better that he talks and talks and talks and talks.... The baby is only 7 weeks old so it's really not all that exciting.

My house is about a 5-10 minute walk to the town center, 1 minute to a pub, and 5 minutes to the skate park. It's pretty perfect.

I only got about an hour of sleep on the coach ride from the airport so I'd imagine I'm going to crash at some point. Maybe after a pint at the pub. Cheers!

New Orleans update 2

Here are some more pictures of the building and the property. I've also included a video at the bottom. It's Turner explaining the school.


This picture is from the back of the garden. As of the the garden is more of a mud hole but it's one of the projects of the projects of the school. The main strip of land on the left is the current garden project. The land on the right is a future garden. And of course there is the building in all its glory.







On the left is the main room. Right now we're trying to take the sag in the joists that run across. We have to get it straightened out so it can look good with drywall on it. We've been going around the neighborhood looking for straps and angle iron to hold the joists straight once we've jacked them up. It's kinda hard to get much done when you don't have money for new materials...but we're getting closer.

This is the upstairs room. Before we started jacking up the joists this floor had a huge arc to it. We also have to patch the leaks in the roof before we can hang drywall downstairs. That's the main thing I want to get done before I leave.

When we doing the last bit of demolition the other day we came across this bottle in the wall. Since it has been tucked away in the wall the water in it didn't evaporate. We're assuming it is flood water. It would be rad to get it tested for chemicals and heavy metals.

As soon as the water was pumped out a few weeks after the flooding rescue crews went from house to house searching for survivors and the dead. On each house there's a marking that indicates what they found inside. Most of them "TFW" - Toxic Flood Water. Because of the oil refinery and other chemical warehouses around, there was a shitload of chemicals that polluted the soil and poisoned animals and people here.


The stove on the left is our heat source. My friend John who is here was a squatter in NYC for years. He built a stove like this when he was living in the Manhattan Bridge. It puts out a ton of heat and we've got plenty of wood to burn. It's supposed to be in the 40s for the next few days so I'll be sleeping by that.


The tub here is the beginning of the garden. Most of this stuff we found growing around here so we just transplanted it. Oh...and the dog in the middle is Buddy. A crack head dropped him off to Turner because he heard that Turner took good care of the dog he already had.





Hopefully this link attaches the video. If not, just google 'school at blair grocery' and look for video results.

New Orleans - 2009

Well, I've been in New Orleans for about 5 days now. There is a group of students in from New York City who are working on various projects throughout the neighborhood of the Lower Ninth ward. Mostly they are working in the few blocks close to the School at Blair Grocery.

The School at Blair Grocery is a school that my friend Nat has started for kids who either have been kicked out of the regular school system or kids who simply would not be going to school if it were not for an alternative like this. The curriculum is everything from urban farming projects to regular school-like material.

Right now we are trying to turn the main room of the school into a more functional room. For the last few months the main room has been a bike shop, and workshop, a storage place for lumber, and a bedroom. The goal is to get it so the room can be finished off with drywall and electricity and can be a little better of an environment.

Nat's students painted the walls of the room and now my friend Jon and I are straightening the sagging joists on either side of the beam that runs down the middle.

If you want to see more pictures and learn some more about what's going on here with the school go to his blog.

Last night was pretty uneventful for a New Years night. We pretty much sat in the building all night. I had a few beers and listened to the gun shots going off around the neighborhood at midnight. There were fireworks and guns going off all over the place. I learned that there's a distinct difference between the sound of a gun and a firework. It was a fun game I was playing to pass the time.

More later.

The Parable of Dinner

If you give me a fish, you have fed me for a day.

If you teach me to fish you have fed me until the river is contaminated or the shoreline seized for development.

But, if you teach me to organize, then whatever the challenge, I can join together with my peers and we will fashion a solution of our own!

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Despite hating most people, I really like people. I often will drop by a friends house just to chat or hang out with no desire to do anything in particular. The majority of my friends are young families. I've figured out that if I show up after 5 they will be home from work, but much later than that they'll be busy putting their kids to bed. Although it's not my intent, this works out that it's dinner time.

Tonight I went over to some friends' house to show them pictures of my recent trip to New Orleans. Two things stood out...

Considering I always show up at dinner time I'm always a little concerned that people think I just come over for dinner. This whole thing of showing up sometime after 5 and before 8 made me realize that often there is only a three hour period in any given weekday that a family gets to hang out with each other. The reason for 5:00 is that is usually when the parent(s) get home from work. The reason for 8:00 is that they kids (young kids) need to wake up for school in the morning. The reason for waking up for school in the morning is that school starts at 8 am (ish). This is because there must be a certain amount of time spent in school per day on particular subjects. So, the focus goes to the kid needing to get an proper education at the risk of valuable family/socializing time. All of this so they can wake up one day with their own kids , go to work and repeat the same cycle they lived as a child and subject their own children to it.

Americans, especially christians, talk about the erosion of family values. Based on this completely non-scientific observation it seems that the biggest threat to the 'family' is the oppressive conditions that the American workforce must operate under in order to survive - the mortgage, medical bills, student loans, need to get a high paying job, etc. That all seems pretty god damn ridiculous to me.

The second thing about this visit with my friends tonight was that the dinner they had was not made by them. There are four families who take turns making dinner for each other. When it is your night to cook, you cook enough for the other three families and take it to them. You don't necessarily eat together, but it's this nice little community that's being built. Plus, there are rules to what has to be provided, like protein, carbs, and so on. I think that is neat.

I don't know where the quote I started with originated, but I like it and I think applies to my experience tonight. If you bring me a dinner I can eat tonight. Since I know how to make dinner but I'm spending all day at the office and will have to spend at least an hour preparing a healthy meal I will only have two hours of quality time with my family. If my friends and I organize to allow one another to eat healthy and provide opportunities to develop relationships between friends and family then I can survive in a system that isn't structured for my happiness and ultimately I can operate without it.

19 Men

I should be writing term papers but this is on my mind...

On September 11, 2001 nineteen men hijacked three planes two of which hit the world trade center buildings, one crash-landed in Pennsylvania, and one crashed into the Pentagon. Thousands were killed. It was (as far as I know) the largest fatality rate in any modern terrorist act and set the stage for the situation the US is in today -- not so much the financial part but the two wars part.

Khalid Almihdhar, Majed Moqed, Nawaf Alhazmi, Salem Alhazmi, Hani Hanjour (AA flight #77); Satam M.A. Al Suqami, Waleed M. Alshehri, Wail M. Alshehri, Mohammed Atta, Abdulaziz Alomari (AA flight #11); and Marwan Al-Shehhi, Ahmed Alghamdi, Hamza Alghamdi, Mohand Alshehri (AA flight #175); and Saeed Alghamdi, Ahmed Ibrahim A. Al Haznawi, Ahmed Alnami, and Ziad Samir Jarrah (UA flight #93) participated in the attacks that occurred on US soil over seven years ago.

These are 19 men. They are murderers by the standards of some and martyrs by the standards of others.

Professor Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado made a statement at one point referring to the people who worked in the World Trade Center buildings at the time of the attack as equivalent to Adolf Eichmann who was a train engineer who delivered Jews to concentration camps in NAZI Germany and refused to admit that he had done anything wrong -- he turned a blind eye from the evils of his labor.

From every angle the 9/11 attacks have been analyzed: from Muslim fanatics, from Christian fanatics, from liberal scholars, conservative scholars, and everyone within and between those. We wage two wars based on the idea that we have to keep the world safe from more men like those. We are in billion dollars of debt because of those wars. The political climate of our nation has been deeply divided because of those wars. These things are just the beginning of how America has suffered from the terrorist attacks.

As as nation we have been angry, vengeful, sad, and scared.

Here's what's been on my mind: Those 19 men who terrorized our nation used to be somebody's boys. They used to run and play with their brothers and sisters. They used to have religious ceremonies and holidays with their families. Their mothers used to rock them to sleep at night when they were scared. Their grandmothers and great-grandmothers were so excited to live to see the day they were born. They rejoiced at their high school graduations and their college graduations. Many of them may even have had kids of their own. They were loved.

There are direct, intermediary, and precipitating causes for most things that happen in this world. A direct cause for these men bombing the WTCs was more than likely religious fanaticism. I want to remind us that this can happen to Christian Americans too -- think abortion clinics and Oklahoma City. This is inexcusable. An intermediary cause might be a book they read or a group of people they associated with while in high school or college. A precipitating cause may have been poverty, oppression, Arab-Israeli conflict, or some other kind of violence.

The fact is, they were not born this way. This side of them was created. If the average US citizen understood this, they might think twice about the fact that we're killing innocent people daily in Afghanistan. Maybe it is good that we rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein but it is certainly a cluster-fuck now.

The two wars that we are fighting might have been started under the guise of national security but I think we can all admit that lying below that was a sense of vengeance. We believed Bush that Iraq was involved in 9/11 because we were irate. We wanted blood. And whose blood did we get? Mostly civilians. Friends I knew since childhood have been changed forever because of those wars. They used to be great guys.

When we are killing kids, women, old folks, and innocent men, what is it that we're proving?

I guess my point is this: what if, instead of hoping for success in either of these wars we were to admit that the problem lies somewhere within the Western construct of society. If we were to admit that our way of conducting civilization is not 100% right we might still have to fight these two wars in order to save people from tyranny, but we might also be able to bring down the tyranny that is taking over our society and leading use to agree that killing children is necessary.

Killing children is what "the enemy" does. We're better than that.

I don't really have answers, just questions for this one

A Letter to the President Elect

Mr. Obama,
I'm not going to type 'President Eelect Obama' because that's too much typing and it really doesn't have a good ring to it. Well, I guess I ended up typing it anyway. I guess I've started our relationship with a lie.

I'll be honest. I didn't vote for you. But I didn't vote for anyone so don't feel bad.

There are conflicting emotions going on with me right now. First, I am excited that a black man has been elected president. I am also excited that this fucking election is finally over. I am also excited that you were elected and not John McCain. On the other hand, I'm afraid that because of you as President, young black men all over the nation will look to you as their role model: the type of black guy who makes himself as white as possible in order to appear as a normal white guy, in order to be acceptable. I look at a black kid on the street and feel sad for him that even in today's world white people still look at him and immediately think that he is a criminal; they're afraid -- as irrational as it may be -- that he poses a threat to their beautiful white daughter. Then, I look at the black guys in my college courses and feel sad for them that they have to be extra smart, act slightly effeminate, and suppress the truth that they know about racism in America in order to fit into the white world. They can't afford to stand out in their classrooms and admit that this nation isn't built for them to succeed.

I say that because I am skeptical about your sincerity about change. You may have made that fancy speech about racism in response to the Rev. Wright situation and "opened up the race conversation" in the US, but that only means that you successfully evaded a huge political liability and distracted the American citizens...lets face it, they aren't that smart...it was an easy task.

I'm not convinced that you are an agent of real change.

With everything in me I hope (i use that word reluctantly) that you have just been "playing it safe" to win this election and that as soon as you take office in January you will begin a drastic restructuring of American culture. I know that isn't going to really happen but at least I can hope for change.

The fact is, you will continue supporting wall street. You will follow through with your fucked up plan of supporting the "healthcare" industry by forcing employers and employees to bear the burden of paying jacked up prices for doctors and insurance companies instead of telling those expensive assholes, "NO! You cannot charge that much! It's just not right make people PAY TO LIVE!!" You will mutter a few words next time Exxon reports record profits and leave it at that, then blame Congress for not doing their oversight responsibilities if anything illegal turns up. You might make it easier on college students to prepare for helping our world (like those preparing to be teachers), but it's still going to be hard for us because you won't fix the industries that drive up tuition costs year after year after year... why? because you're such a sucker for liberal economics.

I read about a boy in Kenya who is recovering after being attacked by an American funded group in the Congo. I have a hard time believing you will put an end to that funding and do something about the suffering that is happening in nations that we like to ignore. No...instead, you will divert the attention, as all other politicians do, to something that the American people can identify with - "let's see, what's more appealing to the American people, Muslims killing 300,000 or so blacks, or blacks killing 5 MILLION or so blacks?" I'll give you your answer. BOTH ARE FUCKED UP!! But, at least we can stop funding those who kill people. Well, blacks kill blacks all the time, in NYC, in New Orleans, in Chicago...that's old news. Oh, plus we have huge economic ties to the DRC region because some of our country's corporations rape their natural resources without regard for life...that's important for the world economy, right?

My basic point is this. I'm glad you won, rather than McCain, but FUCK YOU!! You might bring change to America as we know it, but we both know that America as we know it is wrong. The only difference between us is that I'm willing to admit what the problem is. I don't need hope for change because I can admit what the real problem is and try to do something about it. You, on the other hand, are so wrapped up in the ideology of racist America that you must submit to the idea that humans can be valued by a dollar amount.

I feel bad for you, and at the same time I'm happy that a black man will finally have to face the problems that white, affluent American presidents have ignored for centuries. I have no doubt that it will eat at you that you are supporting a system that hurts people of every color. Not only will you be supporting it, but you will have to support it for at least four years at the cost of thousands, if not millions of lives.

With that said, I congratulate you on your victory, I wish you the best of luck, and I pray to whatever fucked up god may be out there that I'm wrong about everything above.

-Rob Huffman

Financial awesomeness / a prediction (at the end)

I haven't posted in a while for two reasons: (1) because no body actually reads my blog, and (2) because I haven't had any thing to say -- yes, even in the midst of this economic crisis that is happening.

The fact is, I am enjoying the shit out of this economic "meltdown". Partially because it is not a meltdown -- it is simply what happens when the worth of a society is put into one place. In the late 1800s there was the Great Panic in the US. This was a period of time when the national unemployment rate skyrocketed. The reason was we had put so much labor and so much money behind the railroad and primitive infrastructure systems to cross the continent that when it was all finished we had nothing to do. Also there was the overrated Great Depression. It started in October of 1929 when due to reasons -- mostly stemming from overconfidence in the stock market and a lack of oversight -- that were not the fault of average Americans. Then, in 1933 or so the runs on the banks began. We had people starving thoughout the nation and a new president came in and did something. (I say he did something because that's all he promised to do, as opposed to Hoover who thought we should just leave shit alone.) Roosevelt wasn't willing to let people starve and be unhappy in order to let capitalists work out the kinks. I'll return to that point later.

There were several other breakdowns along the way all having to do with the idea of "too many eggs in one basket."

Now...here we are! Over a year ago I predicted that between July and September of 2008 the economy would crumble and the government would pump in astronomical amounts of money to try to fix it. HOLY SHIT I WAS RIGHT!!! Why? Because it's elementary capitalist theory.

TODAY's SITUATION
I'm not going to get into why this is happening. All of the things your are hearing on the radio have some element of truth. Last night I was able to see Naomi Klein speak about her book The Shock Doctrine. I was very impressed by her premise: basically, those in power use traumatizing events that put whole populations in a state of shock to advance their own prosperity whether that be money, power, or whatever else is thinkable. I do not disagree with her thesis, however, I do disagree with her limit. In the book she is speaking specifically of capitalists. The way I stated her thesis would include everyone in a position of power. In fact, I have recently been throwing around the idea of staring a socialist club on my campus because I know it would attract a lot of people at this period in time -- this would be using "the shock doctrine" to my advantage.

SO...
I've watched several interviews from Naomi Klein's website www.shockdoctrine.org and found that her primary problem, and this is true of all pundits, is that she is trying to place the blame on people. She certainly isn't shy about the fact that she is anti-capitalist, which is against a system, but she keeps trying to find someone to blame. If you look at the website a great example of this is her interview with Bill Maher.

What you will see in that interview/debate is that she ends up defending her theory against a man who is proposing that the American people, those who fucked up on their mortgages, are to blame. She steps into the position of blaming it ALL on the corporations and politicians, corruption and whatnot. I don't necessarily disagree with her, but my problem is that she is submitting to arguments that force her into that defensives posture when she needs to be attacking the very notion of capitalism. She finds herself in these interviews where sound bites are the key to success. She cannot present a coherent anti-capitalist agenda in thirty seconds -- nor can anyone else -- that breaks down people's deeply held, irrational beliefs. Of course if they were to read her book they might find themselves agreeing with her, but in reality more people are able to watch a small bit of TV than pick up a good book. And that is part of the problem!!

Who is to blame is not the question. Rather, it needs to be, what is to blame.

Capitalism does not value human life. As far as Naomi Klein goes, this is an unspoken theme that runs throughout her writing. What if she were to be so bold as to say that on the Colbert Report? Well, no one would understand her.

That was a digression.

Capitalism does not value anything other than profit. It is NOT sustainable. There cannot be infinite growth in a finite world. But, that is the narrative that we live by. Wealth can always be made. Everyone can get a "slice of the pie."

We are not only dealing with human life, but that of plants, of animals, of natural resources, of OUR ENTIRE PLANET -- the thing we rely on for our existence. Capitalism does nothing other than exploit the available resources. The only time it refrains is when it is stopped by either governments, individuals, or the total elimination of the needed resources. Primarily, capitalism does not value human life. People die every day because our society has been conditioned to think that profits are a necessity. We are using all of the world's resources to supply unnecessary goods to the masses, from which the profits benefit only a small elite. The animals that we need for nutrition, not to mention the fact that they provide fertilizer for the plants we need, are being killed off species by species.

On a purely human level, it does not make sense that people should have to work their ass off at a shitty job in order to PAY TO SURVIVE!!! We are not born into this world to suffer. We are born to exist. When the value of our existence is based on how many things we have, how big our house is, how much our net worth is, and how many chics we got to give us a blow job last weekend, we have something wrong. The worth of each and every one of us has been recreated to mean all of these things. IT'S NOT RIGHT!!

It's a manufactured existence! We need to reinvent how the market works. It needs to be run by those who it serves. It needs to be run for the benefit of those it serves. It does NOT need to be run by a select few who own the majority of the resources. We need to stop being giant fuckin' pussies and dancing around this "fine line" between capitalism and whatever-the-fuck-else. CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT IS NOT SUSTAINABLE!!!!!

If you think Barak Obama is going to make a change, you're stupid as shit! When he starts talking his border-line socialist views and speaking the populist speak, that we need market regulation, then says "I've spoke with my financial advisers," (who just happen to be rich Wall St. fucks) he's just giving a little heads up to the financial community that they shouldn't believe what he's saying.

If you think John McCain is going to make a change, you're stupid as shit!

Oh, and fuck Ron Paul too!!

Your life has been run by a storyline that submits the results of your life to people who are looking out only for their pocket books. If you think that's ok, you're wrong.

Another Prediction
Let's assume Barak Obama wins the election. I, like many, would not be a bit surprised if someone tries to kill him. I would also not be surprised, if that were to happen, it would happen between election day and inauguration day. Also, having written that, I would not be surprised if the FBI or Secret Service puts me in jail.

Everywhere but here...

It seems that everywhere else in the world is involved in some kind of war, whether with a foreign power or and internal war. Iraq, Russia, Georgia, Columbia, Burma, Sri Lanka, India, China, Pakistan, Sudan, the Congo, Zimbabwe, Mexico, and the list can go on. All of these wars have to do with a conflict of powers. People are taking to the streets, blowing each other up. For what? Well, in the end that will be seen, but for now we can simply call it political leverage.

There are also other wars that are going on in place like Cambodia, Nepal, and even the United States. These are more silent wars -- wars against human trafficking -- no one is blowing things up. No one is shooting. In Louisiana, New Orleans to be specific, poor black folks who have owned their homes for generations after their ancestors worked as slaves for rich white folks. With Katrina they were damn near eliminated and are fighting to maintain what is theirs. It may not be in a desirable place, but it's home and it was attained litterally with blood, sweat, and tears. Their fight, as well as mine, is against racism that emanates from our social structure. In Cuba, the people suffer as a result of a nearly half-century long blockade against their government.

All of this is happening, but where we live we barely feel the effects. Why aren't there any bombs going off in the US? Why aren't people trying to forcefully eliminate those who are in power, maintaining the false legitimacy of government?

The problem is that our civilization as a whole does not value humanity. There are some who do, but the vast majority has been pacified by the perks of modern society -- a hot wife with nice new tits, the event of meeting celebrities and feeling like you too can be one someday, or simply the thought that if you don't live like everyone else you will be a complete outcast.

Maybe pacifism isn't a choice by those of us who may claim it, but a larger plot to encourage us to take peaceful, futile actions against those who wish to stay in control. Maybe we should be blowing shit up. Maybe someone should be out there blasting away at corrupt politicians. Everyone else is doing it. That's what happens in a revolution -- you kill those who are the opposing force. Maybe a revolution doesn't start with a huge violent movement, but rather with small, calculated actions.

Who knows.

But, it's sure fun to think about.

Pictures and Thoughts...I'll have more

You stand, for what seems like an eternity. If it's late it seems worse. Normally when you're underground it's cool, like in a basement. But not in the subways. It's hot, humid, and full of people you don't know. Aahhh! I love it!! The light comes around the bend like in a bad indi film. For some reason you doubted the train would come...but it did. ---the way the light appears in the dimness of the subway tunnels is and oddly comforting thing. It's nothing like I've experienced in other cities like DC, Boston, or Chicago where the ground blinks or an announcement happens when the train is arriving---I LOVE IT!



Here are some pictures of things. Some are of a view that I absolutely love in Central Park...others are of my neighborhood at night.



One side note that I'd like to add is about the buses. I've been riding the buses a lot lately. There are certain things you can do to get around without actually knowing what you're doing around here and that's what I've been doing. On the bus, a lady gets on with her kid. She can't quite get her shit together before the bus takes off. She hands her kid to some lady who is sitting in the seat right in front of her. She doesn't know the lady, nor does the kid, but the kid and the lady play until the mom gets settled. It could be a female thing, but it only seems to happen inthe "ghettoer" parts of town (among black/latino folk) so I am going to read more into that aspect. It's a weird sense of community on public transportation that I have never seen before in a big city. As with everything before, I LOVE IT!!

Harlem Journal

Below is a link to an article in today's New York Times about the neighborhood I'm living in. It's kind of funny to see first-hand the effects of the gentrification that's going on here. A few years ago I had a professor who is now the mayor of Santa Cruz. One day his classroom was covered in fliers calling him a "pro-gentrification" douche bag. I guess I just always assumed that most people like me are opponents of gentrification but a lot of white people that I've talked to here are very much for it. Considering this is the notorious Harlem I am on the side of making it a safer place and if that takes building expensive buildings, then go for it. But this guy, Ray, who works at the bakery down the road is having to find a new place in a cheaper part of town because he can no longer afford to stay here. He and his son have been living in a building in which many of the tenants are crack heads but he can't even afford to stay there. He loves the neighborhood because he grew up here and was here through the worst times of Harlem but can't stay anymore. He's going to have to move to a neighborhood that is less safe and will have to commute to his job which means he will be less available to his son or have to put in fewer hours so that he can maintain his close involvement in his son's life. It's interesting to see the bad side of this stuff being lived by people that I meet.

Anyway, here's the article.