Maunderings about daily life here (and a mini-rant about Lebanon)
I'm alive. And I suck at updating on things that have happened, I know. Especially since every day is pretty full, and I'm learning so much every day. I keep a little summary for myself in my old Scripps datebook, but for my official journal that I'm keeping, I'm over a week behind, hehe.
So. It's hot and sticky, and I really keep doing the stupid thing of being moving outside during the hot parts of the day, which yeah, not so smart. So yay for air conditioning.
I make a lot of phone calls for PHRF, doing logistical work. It amuses me that for a grassroots organization fighting The Man, we're trying to get a lot of corporate help, like getting water and fruit donated. Malcolm (one of the leadership) calls it a form of getting reparations out of them without them knowing, haha. Also I've been doing a fair amount of flyering.
Why? Because of my bike, the community bike. (see my photobucket album, linked in the previous post) It's also apparently a flood bike, with rusted spokes, messed up tires, the works. So I ended up walking to Plan B, a cool bike collective where volunteers teach you how to fix up your own bike, and tool usage is free and most replacement bits are very inexpensive, about...oh...five times in two weeks. ^_^;; Mostly because the front tire kept going flat, often *right after* I fixed it and Tasia or I rode it back. But in the process I learned how to replace and adjust brakes, true a tire by twisting the spokes, and that there's a ribbon on the inside rim that keeps the spokes from puncturing the tire. Also I got bit by a lot of mosquitos.
Anyhow, as I walked my bike with its flat tire back and forth between the office and Plan B, I (and Tasia) handed out quite a few flyers and met some very nice people. I had a conversation with a man in construction about labor law, and whether Arnold Schwarzenegger had married Theresa Heinz or Maria Schreiber. Once a man in a minivan saw me with my flat and offered me a ride back to the office. This one group of men sat around looking all tough and with their beers and what enjoying the cool shade, and when we talked to them about the commemoration of Katrina, one man broke down, telling us about how his father was one of the elderly people who had been killed by the nurses and doctor that are currently on trial for euthanizing patients during the flooding. He said he was not ashamed to cry, because there is no shame in it, and it meant that God gave him a warm heart, and that his father's spirit was with him.
The interesting thing? All the nice folk were basically all the poor and working class black folks I encountered and was reaching out to with the flyering. Most of the white folks I passed were in the more affluent French Quarter and other areas, and they wouldn't even look me in the eye when I walked near them, but walked faster past me. Not too many Asians out, so Tasia and I go "Look, there's an Asian person!" when we do see one (mostly Vietnamese here). Lot of Latino day laborers being hired to do construction work, so there's a great deal of resentment as black and brown are being played against each other by the corporations and the powers that be. I could ramble on that for a while, but I'll leave it for another post.
Okay, the sun's going down, and I was going to write more about today's and the past couple week's adventures, but I'll leave that for another post.
But I want to add a mini-rant about Lebanon, just to get it off my chest, and I meant to write one in this post before it did the page-kablooey (thank goodness for autosave). First things first: The irony of the situation is killing me. Really, it is. Because what Israel's doing to the lands surrounding it, is basically like the domestic violence cycle of like, a father beating a kid and that kid beating their kid when they grow up. Remember the whole thing with world war II and Germany pulling all this occupation shit and Israel being created out of the treaties and whatnot? (which, hello, Palestine, but that's another rant, maybe). And now Israel is doing the occupation thing, and bombing the shit out of Lebanon (which it's been doing on and off since Israel was fucking *created*) which is such a repeating of history with what Germany did. And yeah, the irony is killing me.
Also, that drafted thingy that the US and France cooked up? Bullshit. I like Rice's statement that "whether the UN security council votes on it will show if you're for peace or against it." Mmhm. So Hizbullah has to cease all hostilities, but Israel only has to cease offensive attacks? Anything could count as a defensive attack if they decide it to be so. Yeah, that's a ceasefire that will last ten minutes.
Is this the time to be saying I'm heavily biased in Lebanon and Palestine's favor? If it wasn't obvious already? Ahahaha. If only because the U.S. government and media (don't even get me started on the "liberal" US media) is so clearly biased in Israel's favor, so I think of this as balance. Okay, that's it for now. Reasoned analysis? Not in me right at the moment, when one of my best friends has family that fled to the mountains in northern Lebanon, in hopes that Israel doesn't *decide* that Hizbullah is hiding there and decides to bomb the hell out of it.
done. if y'all wannna debate me in the comments, feel free but keep it civil, kay?
So. It's hot and sticky, and I really keep doing the stupid thing of being moving outside during the hot parts of the day, which yeah, not so smart. So yay for air conditioning.
I make a lot of phone calls for PHRF, doing logistical work. It amuses me that for a grassroots organization fighting The Man, we're trying to get a lot of corporate help, like getting water and fruit donated. Malcolm (one of the leadership) calls it a form of getting reparations out of them without them knowing, haha. Also I've been doing a fair amount of flyering.
Why? Because of my bike, the community bike. (see my photobucket album, linked in the previous post) It's also apparently a flood bike, with rusted spokes, messed up tires, the works. So I ended up walking to Plan B, a cool bike collective where volunteers teach you how to fix up your own bike, and tool usage is free and most replacement bits are very inexpensive, about...oh...five times in two weeks. ^_^;; Mostly because the front tire kept going flat, often *right after* I fixed it and Tasia or I rode it back. But in the process I learned how to replace and adjust brakes, true a tire by twisting the spokes, and that there's a ribbon on the inside rim that keeps the spokes from puncturing the tire. Also I got bit by a lot of mosquitos.
Anyhow, as I walked my bike with its flat tire back and forth between the office and Plan B, I (and Tasia) handed out quite a few flyers and met some very nice people. I had a conversation with a man in construction about labor law, and whether Arnold Schwarzenegger had married Theresa Heinz or Maria Schreiber. Once a man in a minivan saw me with my flat and offered me a ride back to the office. This one group of men sat around looking all tough and with their beers and what enjoying the cool shade, and when we talked to them about the commemoration of Katrina, one man broke down, telling us about how his father was one of the elderly people who had been killed by the nurses and doctor that are currently on trial for euthanizing patients during the flooding. He said he was not ashamed to cry, because there is no shame in it, and it meant that God gave him a warm heart, and that his father's spirit was with him.
The interesting thing? All the nice folk were basically all the poor and working class black folks I encountered and was reaching out to with the flyering. Most of the white folks I passed were in the more affluent French Quarter and other areas, and they wouldn't even look me in the eye when I walked near them, but walked faster past me. Not too many Asians out, so Tasia and I go "Look, there's an Asian person!" when we do see one (mostly Vietnamese here). Lot of Latino day laborers being hired to do construction work, so there's a great deal of resentment as black and brown are being played against each other by the corporations and the powers that be. I could ramble on that for a while, but I'll leave it for another post.
Okay, the sun's going down, and I was going to write more about today's and the past couple week's adventures, but I'll leave that for another post.
But I want to add a mini-rant about Lebanon, just to get it off my chest, and I meant to write one in this post before it did the page-kablooey (thank goodness for autosave). First things first: The irony of the situation is killing me. Really, it is. Because what Israel's doing to the lands surrounding it, is basically like the domestic violence cycle of like, a father beating a kid and that kid beating their kid when they grow up. Remember the whole thing with world war II and Germany pulling all this occupation shit and Israel being created out of the treaties and whatnot? (which, hello, Palestine, but that's another rant, maybe). And now Israel is doing the occupation thing, and bombing the shit out of Lebanon (which it's been doing on and off since Israel was fucking *created*) which is such a repeating of history with what Germany did. And yeah, the irony is killing me.
Also, that drafted thingy that the US and France cooked up? Bullshit. I like Rice's statement that "whether the UN security council votes on it will show if you're for peace or against it." Mmhm. So Hizbullah has to cease all hostilities, but Israel only has to cease offensive attacks? Anything could count as a defensive attack if they decide it to be so. Yeah, that's a ceasefire that will last ten minutes.
Is this the time to be saying I'm heavily biased in Lebanon and Palestine's favor? If it wasn't obvious already? Ahahaha. If only because the U.S. government and media (don't even get me started on the "liberal" US media) is so clearly biased in Israel's favor, so I think of this as balance. Okay, that's it for now. Reasoned analysis? Not in me right at the moment, when one of my best friends has family that fled to the mountains in northern Lebanon, in hopes that Israel doesn't *decide* that Hizbullah is hiding there and decides to bomb the hell out of it.
done. if y'all wannna debate me in the comments, feel free but keep it civil, kay?