"Dude! Africa!"

I was recently reminded of this article by novelist Uzodinma Iweala. It ran in the WaPo last summer, and my mom actually mailed to me when I was at TASP. I thought of it after hearing that a group of students from my school had gone to lobby Congress for money for the education of children in "developing" countries.

While this may be a worthy cause (although I'm sure Gayatri Spivak would have something to say about the transmission of Anglo-American values through US-funded education systems), I'm absolutely infuriated by the idea that Congress would send ed money to other countries while schools just blocks away from the Capitol are understaffed, dilapidated, and lacking basic resources like clean drinking water and textbooks. But that's not really the point here.

"...There is no African, myself included, who does not appreciate the help of the wider world, but we do question whether aid is genuine or given in the spirit of affirming one's cultural superiority. My mood is dampened every time I attend a benefit whose host runs through a litany of African disasters before presenting a (usually) wealthy, white person, who often proceeds to list the things he or she has done for the poor, starving Africans. Every time a well-meaning college student speaks of villagers dancing because they were so grateful for her help, I cringe. Every time a Hollywood director shoots a film about Africa that features a Western protagonist, I shake my head -- because Africans, real people though we may be, are used as props in the West's fantasy of itself. And not only do such depictions tend to ignore the West's prominent role in creating many of the unfortunate situations on the continent, they also ignore the incredible work Africans have done and continue to do to fix those problems...

Two years ago I worked in a camp for internally displaced people in Nigeria, survivors of an uprising that killed about 1,000 people and displaced 200,000. True to form, the Western media reported on the violence but not on the humanitarian work the state and local governments -- without much international help -- did for the survivors. Social workers spent their time and in many cases their own salaries to care for their compatriots. These are the people saving Africa, and others like them across the continent get no credit for their work.

Last [June] the Group of Eight industrialized nations and a host of celebrities met in Germany to discuss, among other things, how to save Africa. Before the next such summit, I hope people will realize Africa doesn't want to be saved. Africa wants the world to acknowledge that through fair partnerships with other members of the global community, we ourselves are capable of unprecedented growth."

from "Stop Trying to 'Save' Africa" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/13/AR2007071301714.html)

I pose this question to you all: which is more important, giving aid (keeping in mind that financial assistance has produced valuable successes as well as miserable failures in many of these contries) or avoiding the development of quasi-colonial dependency in countries receiving it?

xkcd

A new comic strip I stumbled upon. I thought you would all appreciate it.

You guys, this is so apocalyptic!

Fermilab cited in suit to freeze Swiss accelerator

Switzerland has a long legacy of peaceful neutrality, but two men claim that Swiss scientists are building a device that could destroy the universe.

Walter Wagner, a former radiation safety officer for the Veterans Administration who studied physics at University of California–Berkeley, and Luis Sancho, a self-professed time-theory researcher, have filed suit to halt construction on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) until their safety concerns are satisfied. The U of C’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) is one of the defendants in the lawsuit.

The Geneva-based LHC will become the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator when unveiled this summer under the auspices of the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN). The $8-billion endeavor is an international collaborative effort involving scientists from dozens of countries and universities.

The collider will raise protons to energies approaching seven trillion electron volts before slamming them together in an attempt to produce the Higgs boson and other elementary particles that would help move scientists closer to a Grand Unified Theory of physics.

But Wagner and Sancho claim that these experiments will produce dangerous materials as well. One such possibility they suggest is the creation of strangelets, altered subatomic particles that would change the earth into a dense mass of exotic “strange matter.”

They also said that the creation of mini black holes inside the accelerator could grow to consume the earth or even our entire universe.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Hawaii, also charges CERN with failing to file an environmental impact statement as required by the U.S.’s National Environmental Policy Act.

Wagner and Sancho are seeking a restraining order to stop CERN from proceeding with the LHC until new environmental and safety studies can be completed. CERN would have to voluntarily submit to the court’s jurisdiction, but the suit also names Fermilab, the Department of Energy (DOE), and the National Science Foundation as defendants.

Fermilab and the DOE are building key components for the LHC, so restraining orders against them could slow or halt the project.

CERN physicists said that they have made efforts to ensure the LHC is not dangerous.

“There is nothing new to suggest that the LHC is unsafe,” said James Gillies, CERN’s head of communications, in an interview with The New York Times last week. “Scientifically, we’re not hiding away.”

A 2003 CERN internal review determined that the likelihood of apocalyptic results from the LHC is negligible.

But Wagner remains unconvinced.

“They’ve got a lot of propaganda saying it’s safe, but basically it’s propaganda,” he told the Times. He said that CERN’s safety reviews were “fundamentally flawed” and weren’t conducted by disinterested parties.

Fermilab scientists and spokespeople would not comment on the pending lawsuit, deferring all questions to public affairs at the Department of Justice (DOJ). DOJ staff members, however, have also declined to comment.

But Edward Kolb, chair of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University, who spent a year working at CERN, said the suit is without scientific merit.

“I am much more concerned about Godzilla arising from Lake Michigan and cavorting about in Hyde Park than about collisions at CERN causing the end of the world,” Kolb said in an e-mail interview with the Maroon.

Kolb explained that cosmic rays strike the Earth’s atmosphere thousands of times per day with energies equal to or greater than those that will be produced in the LHC.

“If doomsday from energetic particle collisions was a possibility, it would have happened a long time ago,” he said.

However, the collisions of cosmic rays produce particles that fly away from the earth at near–light speed, while those in the LHC will stick around much longer. Some of these particles might form mini black holes. Physicist Stephen Hawking postulated in 1974 that such mini black holes were harmless and would quickly evaporate, but whether these black holes would be stable enough to consume the earth remains an open question.

Kolb added that if Wagner and Sancho are so worried about CERN, they should consider lobbying Congress to “ban cosmic radiation altogether.”

“Preliminary results point to the cosmic rays originating from gigantic black holes in distant galaxies. If Mr. Wagner’s concerns have any merit, then according to the [Bush] Administration’s policy of preemptive action, those galaxies must be immediately destroyed,” Kolb said.

Wagner unsuccessfully filed a similar lawsuit in 1999 to stop operation of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Since 2000, the RHIC has operated without incident.

-The Maroon

Limited-Time Offer!

I've been in ballet since I was five. I used to pretend (at around age 8) that I was an amazing dancer, but as a grew older, I had to come to terms with reality.

And today, I realized that story ballets (like "The Wizard of Oz") help ballet teachers deal with dancers like me. The character roles hide the bad dancers in comic costumes, and those who can actually dance are given solos like "Emerald" and "Glinda the Good Witch" (which I don't believe she is, because she sends Dorothy all through Oz just to tell her that the whole journey could have ended at the beginning and we've just wasted three hours with a pointless story).

But, who wants to walk around in a constricting tutu when you can walk around in a bad ass Cowardly Lion suit? I'm telling you, this thing is AMAZING! The crotch is down to my knees, and I've got the most uncomfortable mane, which covers half my face. If it was a cold winter night, I'd be the last to freeze in all the layers this suit has. Its even got a tail that I can hold on to when the Wicked Witch creeps up on me in the forest. I've got the most amazing lines in the whole show, I get to pass out, I get to dance with a cape like a bullfighter... (You get the idea that it's amazing?)

So,
"What puts the 'hot' in hot-n-tot, what puts the 'ape' in apricot, what have they got that I ain't got?"
Well, I'll tell you. They've got tickets to my show on May 9-11.

Order now and you'll get a free ticket along with a suite and gourmet food at the Miller-ter Kuile Hotel and Resort! The first 31 callers get a farm tour free of charge. Offer ends soon, and supplies are limited, so hurry in for yours today!
Some restrictions apply. Visit Ana for details. Must be a qualified TASPer to enter. Offer ends 05/11/08.

It's been a weird day, I'm sorry.
Love you all!
Ana

This Modern Economy

Like, whoa.

NYTimes.com: Treasury Dept. Plan Would Give Fed Wide New Power
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/business/29regulate.html?ex=1364529600&en=da56dc4e51747775&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
(Sorry, you may have to watch this bloody advertisement before you can read the article. It won't let you skip it. Just cope.)

Does this sound like an extension of federal regulatory power to anyone else? Dude, I thought the guys at the Treasury Department were supposed to be Republicans.
Okay, so Paulson says he's "not suggesting that more regulation is the answer," but that "we should and can have a [regulatory] structure that is designed for the world we live in, one that is more flexible.” Huh? Once we have a wider window onto all the crazy shit the banks and other corporate-financial institutions perpetrate to make money-- or to make bank, and thus be money, as some of us would say-- and assuming the press actually does some investigative reporting on the issue (it's a special occasion), public outrage over any semi-criminal activity would likely (eventually) lead to an expansion of powers of regulation commensurate with the proposed enlargement of powers of oversight.
This pronouncement isn't so remarkable in terms of content as it is for what it shows about the degree to which companies and financial institutions are allowed to occlude their internal activity. Not that economic structure ----> culture (I'm not a Marxist), but it does play a large role in the complex interactions that produce contemporary culture and society. Generally (owing to both corporate obfuscation and old-fashioned nonchalant ignorance), we don't know enough about the way our economy works. The function of the economy is a political issue-- maybe the political issue-- and we need to get educated.
At least, I do.
In the vain of political stuff, I highly recommend Said's essay "Opponents, Audiences, Constituencies and Community."

The Fame of my Hometown

I was born (but don't live) in a town that's known for sunshine and clean water-according to the mayor of Alamosa in her interview on NPR the other day.
If you looked up Alamosa on search engines before last week, you might have discovered that we celebrate being the coldest place in the nation. Not much to celbrate about, but when it's that cold, you'll basically celebrate anything to stay warm and alive.
Now we can proudly say that all the water is undrinkable because of a Salmonella outbreak. The intelligent water resource guys were very clever because they accidentally sliced a sewer line that somehow managed to contaminate one of the storage tanks.
So now, Alamosa will have chlorinated water forever.
I'm happy to say: number one, I don't live in Alamosa; and two, my house has its own well.
Then again, I live 1/4 mile from a contaminated river, so I could go crazy because of the amount of aluminum in the water. But at least I won't be throwing up and other stuff...

Montreal!

So I am currently in Montreal visiting Aurelie, and this will be a joint-post from the both of us. Several anecdotes from our adventures in la belle province:

You know you're from Montreal when...
- it's safer to walk in the middle of the street than on the icy sidewalks.
- random people walk down the streets smoking joints in plain sight.
- the bubble tea slushies are so cold that they give you brain freezes.
- some restaurants have menus only in English, some only in French.
- people play the 3rd movement of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto so fast that the accompanist can't keep up.
- the subways and Chinatown are both clean.
- they make you pay to walk into churches.
- they have rock concerts in churches.

And other random anecdotes:
- we called Dominick on Sunday and talked to him over the speakerphone. We got to hear him urinate. It was memorable.
- Aurelie is the baby (not over 18) so we couldn't get into a bar - and ended up drinking tea with 6 other people at midnight.
- Aurelie's family initiated a debate over artwork that nobody (besides me) had ever seen.
- conversation between us- me: Where did you get your bracelet from? Aurelie: Martinique. me: is that a shop around here? Aurelie: it's an island in the Caribbean...
- Phone call with Valentin- us: Hey Valentin! Are you on break? Valentin: no, I'm in class...
- We try to contact David P. We call his cellphone. It is off. We call his home phone (but we misdial the number): Aurelie: hi, this is Aurelie from the summer program TASP. Is David home? Some random woman: We don't have any David working here... Then we try to redial the number, and we get the message that this phone number does not accept solicitations. Epic fail.

We love you guys.