Read my other blog on International Relations cataloging my graduate work.
Today, I attended a rather excellent talk by Noam Chomsky and Amy Goodman on the Obama Administration & The U.S. Foreign Policy hosted by the HEIRC. The event was recorded by PBS, and the video is supposed to be made available to the public. As Chomsky’s talks go, it was dry but good — albeit a little short.
Of course, my little take-aways were a couple of signed copies by perhaps the greatest living intellectual our time.
ABC News has a rather interesting study on the impact of race on politics, particularly given the candidacy of Barack Obama.
One of the interesting measures is “racial sensitivity” of white voters between Obama and McCain.
A similar graph amongst Blacks would have been useful; however, blacks have traditionally been a pro-democratic group, with 90% supporting Obama. What’s more interesting is that this has little to do with a black candidate – John Kerry had 88% black support in 2004, and 90% voted for Al Gore in 2000.
Similarly, the racial impact graph shows how blacks and whites perceive Obama’s candidacy’s impact on race relations.
I am also curious to see correlations between this, and traditional right-wing/conservative voters, and see how that scores. This would be unique because according to the study, Obama’s standing amongst whites is about the same as any Democratic candidate, but with a much wider range than usual.
Either way, interesting nuances to watch out for.
Yesterday, out of the blue, I popped a CD that had a collection of songs by Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.
Simply listening to their voices and their lyrics drove a shiver down my spine. I could literally feel myself standing there and it was beautiful, and quite moving.
In a way, they defined an era when artists actually cared for the world around them, and a culture where they stood for what they believed in. Baez’s voice is gorgeous, deep and her lyrics are from a time when people like her were willing to drive home their point at whatever cost. Dylan was no different, and he was a poet first, a poet who sang for the soul of the world.
When the CD got done, I turned on radio, where songs ranged from some meaningless rap (on women, booze and assorted nonsense) to unadulterated junk. I turned to some news channel that talked about the importance of Christians to be aggressive, while another one was saying how poor Britney Spears needed help for her idiocy.
In a way, it is an unfortunate turn of events. We’ve moved away from artists who cared about the world, such as Baez, Dylan and Lennon, to people like Spears who don’t give a damn about anything other than their own tantrums and fame.
I cannot see Britney Spears protesting against the War in Iraq, or joining the Olympic protests against China. Instead, I see her doing unbelievably immature things for the sake of attention. I see the death of an era of responsible global citizens and the emergence of immature, childish fame-hogs who care for nothing other than themselves, and sometimes, not even that.
But for the moment, listen to the song that beautifully captured a time that I’d have been proud to have been a part of.
Here are some interesting links from this week. Expect more Friday/weekend link-fests in the days to come.
Someone at work today gave me a copy of John Bogle’s article on the need for Democracy in Corporate America.
While I don’t necessarily agree with everything that Mr. Bogle postulates, it most certainly is a rather interesting article. Worth a read.
Chaplains from various faiths and religions are sometimes invited to provide the opening prayer for the US Senate. While traditionally this has been done by a Christian Chaplain, this Thursday was unique in that it was the first time a Hindu Chaplain was invited to say the opening prayer in front of the US Senate. Unfortunately, this was marked by protests by some religious Christian folks who shouted down the prayer and kept interrupting it periodically. A video of the incident can also be viewed.
And as a side note, it is interesting how the right seems to want more religion, but only if it were their own. It is rather unfortunate that for a religion that is supposed to teach tolerance, its most fervent followers seem to be showing very little of it.
The President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, had posted a question on Yahoo! Answers — What should we do to free our planet from terrorism?
Human society, from origin until now, has always been at war within and between groups and has led to two World Wars. Presently, terrorism and low intensity warfare are affecting many parts if the world.
As the current global population of 6 billion increases to 8 billion by 2025, national and international conflicts will continue to be a source of concern for humanity. When evil minds combine, good minds have to work together and combat. In this context, what are the out-of-the-box solutions to free the planet earth from terrorism?
Your answers when processed and implemented can lead to a peaceful, happy and safe planet earth.
And of course, like over 6,000 15,000 other people, I just felt that I had to pitch in too.
The latest airplane terror threat has everybody up in arms. Unfortunately, this affects some sections of the population more than others — for instance, I just noticed an article on the BBC which talked about how musicians are facing hell because of cabin baggage being banned.
Now, we all know how well the baggage handlers treat our luggage. Having flown to several continents on several occasions, I can assure you of one thing — baggage handlers destroy the strongest of baggages, and it’s pretty much the same all over the world. It’s nothing personal, you understand? They have nothing against you, they just hate your luggage.
I do not know what it is with them and my bags, but almost always, the strongest of bags has something or the other that gets separated/dismembered/broken/lost. It is particularly bad inside the US — just last month, I was returning from Denver when the handle of my brand new Samsonite suitcase was broken (I had purchased the bag while at Denver and it was the first time it was ever out). How? No one knows — baggage handlers just seem to treat all baggage like shit. Just like me, they also seem to be equal opportunity offenders.
Now, imagine these folks and a 300 year old Cello or Violin worth $20,000. Or your latest $2,000 laptop with all that data. Can the airports assure me of the safety and security of any equipment that is checked in? And what about Duty Free? Would you really buy anything at any Duty Free if you could not take it with you in your carry-on?
Questions, questions, questions!
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