24 December 2012

Confess and Resolve, 2013

No. 1:  Less e-clutter

Confession:  I've inadvertently subscribed myself to so many listservs,  e-subscriptions and message board notifications that, despite the use of filters and other labs, I've had thousands of unread emails for most of 2012.

Remedy:  I've unsubscribed myself and used Facebook and Twitter to connect with these organizations instead.  In just a few minutes I'm already down to 8,000 or so.

2013 Resolution:  Emails from real people only.

No. 2:  Finish Everything I Start

Confession:  I am a serial starter.  I love to start new projects and pride myself in being "a planner".  Unfortunately I only finished a fraction of what I started in 2012.
 
Remedy & Resolution forthcoming.  [ i <3 br="br" irony="irony">

Soundtrack 2012

Daily  | Bob Marley Natural Mystic
Weekly  |  The Submarines 1940 Remix
Monthly | Aloe Blacc I need a dollar


Work  | Pink Martini  Sympathique 
Love  | Louis Armstrong  La Vie En Rose 
Life | Balkan Beat Box Part of the Glory

Feel Good  |  Nina Simone  Ain’t got no...
Look Good |  Trey Songs No Clothes On
Do Good | John Butler  Ocean

Soundtrack Retrospect


















Everyone is perfectly adjusted to the environment they come from.  Understanding that is culturally essential to the future and global civics. Check it out.   Something better - more inclusive, more transparent, more representative  - awaits us but we have to work together to get to it.

04 December 2012

Reclaiming jihad.

"Jihad...to the vast majority of practicing muslims, jihad is an internal struggle..it is a struggle within, a struggle against vice and sin, temptation, lust, greed... it is a struggle to try to live a life."

"He took this word, this beautiful idea...kidnapped it and debated it and currupted it and turned it into something that it was never supposed to be."

Bobby Ghosh at TEDx Georgetown on Why global jihad is losing
http://www.ted.com/talks/bobby_ghosh_why_global_jihad_is_losing.html

17 November 2012

Jaques Fresco on Israel&Palestine

By Jaques Fresco, November 16th 2012, here.

HYPOCRISY OF SLAUGHTER:  Israel's Orwellian account of Gaza campaign

Israel’s assault on Gaza raises doubts that it has any interest in finding the lasting peace settlement it proclaims to want. Does the campaign have an alternative objective as part of a strategy to engineer a strike on Iran?

It’s probably the world’s most tragic never-ending story.For almost 65 years now, Israel has been bombing, maiming and humiliating the Palestinians, bulldozing their homes and placing Gaza in lock-down mode turning it into the world’s largest concentration camp.
In the latest outbreak of violence this week both sides are accusing the other, “You started it!”Who knows? At this stage, does it really matter anymore who started the violence?

On Wednesday 14th, an Israeli helicopter attack killed Hamas military wing leader Ahmed Jabari, triggering a violent reaction from Hamas which rained little rockets over southern Israeli towns, which in turn brought in more Israeli air attacks killing 19, injuring 100 and leaving six children dead.

Dejá-vù: it’s January 2009’s “Operation Cast Lead” revisited; this time they’re dubbing it “Operation Pillar of Defense.”

Clearly, Israel’s right-wing leaders do not want a peaceful agreement with the Palestinians. That’s why they’ve systematically sabotaged all possibility of reaching a two-state solution.
The last honest Israeli who tried to bring peace was Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, until he was gunned down in the streets of Tel-Aviv in November 1995; not by an Islamic fanatic, not by some mad Neo-Nazi, but by one Ygal Amir: an ultra-right-wing Zionist fanatic linked to both the fundamentalist Settlers’ Movement and Israel’s security agency Shin-Beth.

Since then, Israel’s extreme right-wing Apartheidists have called the shots and will continue doing so even more now that Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has merged with Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu. Maybe this latest bout of Palestine-bashing is their way of celebrating their new Gross Partei…

‘Don’t worry about America…’

Former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon is infamously quoted as yelling to his colleagues during a heated debate in Israel’s Knesset in October 2001, that they need not worry about American reaction to Israel’s Palestine-bashing because “we the Jewish people control America!”
Watching how US politicians file through powerful Pro-Israel lobbies, think tanks and organizations like AIPAC – American Israeli Public Affairs Committee -, the ADL and others, competing to give their most impassioned and dramatic pro-Israel speeches, one is tempted to believe Mr. Sharon’s candid words.

During the recent US presidential campaign both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney each tried to give their most convincing Joe Biden-like “I-am-a-Zionist” speeches, to win over not just the Jewish vote and money in America, but also the Zionist vote which is represented by many non-Jewish born-again Christians.

So, when earlier this week US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice openly supported Israel and condemned Hamas’ retaliatory attacks describing them as “violence that Hamas and other terrorist organizations are employing against the people of Israel“, one can hardly be surprised.

It doesn’t really matter who sits in the Oval office; whether Democrat or Republican, the US will always unthinkingly and unreservedly support Israel every time it decides to play a new round of Palestine-bashing.


Naturally, US and global mainstream media willingly oblige, having succeeded in drilling deep into the collective psyche the conclusion that “Terrorism” is always linked to “Islamic Fundamentalists”.
So, Hamas is made illegitimate before we even start discussions about a two-state solution. No matter that Hamas won the democratically held 2006 elections in Palestine; no matter that Israel itself was founded by violent terrorist groups like Irgun Zvai Leumi, Stern and Hagganah which later merged to become Israel’s – oh, so democratic! – Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Those Zionist terror groups were led by Israeli founding fathers later to become prime ministers (and even a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate!) like Menahem Beguin and Isaac Shamir, who in their “freedom-fighter” days blew up hotels with dozens of people inside them, assassinated UN envoys, carried out hundreds of targeted assassinations, and imposed policies of genocide by killing and maiming hundreds of thousands, and then driving off millions of Palestinian men, women and children from their homes and land using the most barbarous terror tactics.

Israel’s logic in Palestine seems to run like this: if Israel steals lands and homes and livelihoods from the Palestinians, they have no right whatsoever to complain; and if they dare fight back, then they automatically become “terrorists”. America, the UK and most of the EU seem to agree…

Good if I do it; bad if you do…
That’s why those countries have branded Hamas and Hezbollah “terrorist organizations”.
Basic political common sense, however, tells us that a nation’s armed forces – whether in the US, Russia, China, Brazil or Israel – must report to the civilian leaders of its Nation-State. But what happens if, like the Palestinians, you are not allowed to have a Nation-State? How can Palestinians defend themselves against Israel’s systematic terrorist tactics if they can’t have their own Nation-State and therefore no armed forces? That’s why Hamas and Hezbollah came into the picture to offer the prospect of some self-defense.

Sure, it’s easy to disqualify them as “terrorist organizations” but – using that same criteria – would the Western Powers today reclassify the French Resistance during world war two, for example, as a “terror organization”, simply because they refused to passively accept the German military invasion of their country? Should the Resistance have given up so as to avoid the Oberkommando in Berlin branding them as “terrorists”?

And what about the terror groups that assassinated Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi last year or the ones wreaking havoc in Syria right now?“Freedom fighters”, I presume, because they violently oppose non-US friendly regimes?

The West must understand that you can’t have it both ways: either the French Resistance, and Irgun and Stern, and Hamas and Hezbollah, the Syrian and Libyan uprisings are all “freedom fighters” or, they should all be branded “terrorist organizations”. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
All options on the table…
Going into full Baby-Bush-warmonger-mode, recently an IDF spokesman threatened not just the Palestinians but the entire world saying that for Israel, “all options are on the table…”

Powerful words coming from the only nation in the Middle East that has an arsenal of nuclear weapons, and the behavioral track record that gives credibility to their willingness to use them.
So, Palestinians must brace themselves for ever increasing levels of violence in the days and weeks to come. Will this latest flare-up be used by Israel as an excuse to attack southern Lebanon where Hezbollah has its strong hold (and where Israel was routed when they last invaded Lebanon for the nth time in mid-2006)?

Are we seeing a crescendo of violence leading to armed attack on Syria in conjunction with Turkey/NATO and with the “Syrian Free Army” (aka, Al-Qaeda, CIA, Mossad, MI6)?
Is this all part of an Israeli strategy to “Secure the Realm” that has a unilateral military attack against Iran as Israel’s real and final goal?

More generalized violence in the Middle East will help to convince Obama (and the US military) to stop dragging their feet on Iran and to come on strong again in the region.
Israel is calling this latest shock and awe attack “Operation Pillar of Defense.” A Good Orwellian euphemism for Palestine-Bashing.

If Israel has decided to let all hell lose in the Middle East to set the stage for an attack against Iran, then it becomes clear that the violence should start (yet again!!) in martyred Palestine.

OK, so Israel starts a new Middle Eastern war in Palestine but… where does it end?
Palestine





08 November 2012

Putting Family Planning into a REAL Context

I am a Jane of many trades, but these days for a lot of the day most days, I work in public health logistics and reproductive health commodity security.

I believe that every person's reality is shaped by their experiences.
I think almost everything in life is a response to the conditions that preceded it.
I realize that empathy is very powerful.  

Family planning is an unfortunately contraversial topic in the country I live in.  In my country, people generally don't misunderstand the concept of family planning and often associate it with one of two simplistic ideas about birth control.

Despite working in a forward-thinking organization, the idiosyncrasies of ordering and delivering health supplies and life-saving commodities and the steadfastness need to broaden access to high quality and affordable contraceptives often push deeper more metaphorical, spiritual or philosophical  thoughts on working in family planning aside.

Below are a few videos that put family planning into a REAL context.
While my use of the word 'real' is accurate, it is also an acronym:
R - Radical    E - Extremist   A - Alternative   L - Loving
"The Taliban have perfected the way they recruit and train children... Step one, the Taliban prey on families that are large, that are poor, that live in rural areas..."  Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy invites you to look at children who are training to become suicide bombers in a completely different way, in her TED talk, "Inside a Taliban school" [8:09].  "We live in a modern, global world.  Terrorists have actually adapted to it."  Jason McCue frames terrorism as a failed brand and shares his insight into promising alternatives. [19:03]

Now, if you've watched those videos - hopefully you've learned something new.  
Regardless, you probably have some understanding of family planning in your head already. 
If so, how does it compare to this promotional video for a Family Planning clinic?  [4:37]

If you're still wondering what this post is about...
It's about YOU joining the empathetic civilization [10:40].

We must accept that every person's life is different and that we are each equally human.  That is a pretty radical idea, which - to my disappointment - is actually contrary to many people's opinion and unsupported by their life experiences.  Some believe that the poor among us are lazy, that the ill among us are useless, and that the rich among us are corrupt and the smart among us corrupting.  We should not battle ourselves to change minds and sway norms -- especially not in politics or governance.  Instead, we ought plant our hopes for the future in the hearts and minds of our children, and demonstrate how we wish our communities embraced them in our embrace of neighbors and strangers.

If we consider ‘family planning’ within a context of radical inclusion, despite extremist views, and allow ourselves to seek alternative, loving solutions, we can applaud ourselves for contributing to the planning of a global family and that's not just about birth control. 

07 November 2012

An Important Perspective

"Parents: please, please help our younger generation grow up understanding of both the good and bad side of each political party. Please.

Today I was talking to a newly-turned-14-year old girl that I love and adore, and she asked me who I voted for and upon telling her, I was told that I was voting against God. Wait -- what? My heart was pounding and I was so
, so sad.

She asked me why I would vote that way, and I tried to explain that both parties have their positives and negatives, but I am basing much of my vote on wanting college to be more affordable, wanting my mom to be able to get healthcare in her aging years, believing in women's rights in both wage and health, and if nothing else, as a Christian wanting to use my money for others who have been less fortunate than myself. I daily appreciate what the government can do for individual lives and the common good, and I am fine knowing not everyone agrees with that. I feel that sometimes adequately "caring for the least of these" requires some government support.

Again, this is how I feel right now, and I really am not trying to put down anyone who begs to differ, but I am trying to show there is not the "Christian party" and then "the ones who vote against God."

Both of our candidates are Christians. Both of them love America. I think both of them are probably really great guys who really want to do the best they can. Both parties do things that are against Christian beliefs, and both parties have policies that align with Biblical values.

As a Christian, I firmly believe I did not "vote against God" and it hurts my heart to the absolute core to have someone I love so much, and someone so young, tell me so. Today as a Christian, I voted for charity. As a daughter, I voted for health. As a wife, I voted for love. As a learner, I voted for opportunity. As a woman, I voted for freedom. As a citizen, I voted for peace. As a friend, I voted for equality. Next election, I will continue to vote for whichever candidate supports these values, no matter their political affiliation.

No one knows what the next four years will bring, but I do know how important it is for the next generation of voters to understand what this all means. Please don't pass on judgements or ignorance, but rather pass on knowledge and even some suggestions. I want them to be our presidents someday, and imagine the war this could turn into if we made it a battle of religions...."

GO BLUE and LET FREEDOM RING

06 November 2012

A note to the UNDECIDED VOTER

Do you remember reading in high school history class about the beginning of our country?  When the Republicans were the Liberal ones and then the Democrats came along amidst a few new parties and eventually we settled into a two party system in which the Republicans are conservative.  Now we are involved in a similar phenomena:  Democracy has been sold and imported globally as the best game around and two-party cold war left Democrats on top, and now that democracy is arriving to the proxy parties elsewhere, our fine Democrats world over sometimes turn out to become dictators. The future of politics is global and who we elect this year sets our tone, represents us, and determines our position globally.

Does that mean we should support the solid manager who will run our country like a fine-tuned business and keep us afloat as a nation in a rising global sea?

Does that mean we should support the demonstrated leader who will run our country like a family and represent us honorably in a global arena?

Think of all the people on this planet and vote accordingly.

Don't be discouraged about how I showcase Democracy, though - and terrorism is a failed brand, too.
Something better - more inclusive, more transparent, more representative  - awaits us but we have to work together to get to it.


31 October 2012

Manuel Castells on Networked Life



Listen         Read       Learn More

30 October 2012

ethnographer @coursera

In August I decided to indulge my fantasy anthropologist within. I have since joined an online learning community (Coursera.org) and taken first steps in the process of applying for a Fulbright Grant.  Content with my life as it is and in no rush to leave my job, I moonlight as a virtual student.

At present, I am preparing for a fitness instructor certification and taking a four week introduction to obesity economics.

I've designed a rigorous courseload for the upcoming year,
 

To acquire a basic understanding of neuroscience.



To develop just enough business skills.


  
To put what I know into an academic context.
  


To put what I do into an academic context.

 

To learn more about what interests me most.



I am hoping to use Coursera to establish a global network to conduct doctoral research in the future.
 



23 October 2012

Professor Frick.

I am loving the low-tech nature of Principles of Obesity Economics...but only when it's accessible!  Some glitches the first night of Professor Frick @Coursera.  Having just finished Professor Tompkin's Introduction to Sustainabiliy, I now feel spoiled by his professionally-produced lectures!! 

22 October 2012

A style of yoga inspired by the 99 Names of Allah

bismillah irrahman irraheem.  This is the idea that came to me upon return home from a long bus trip. While passing thru NYC, I met up with a friend I hadn't seen in years and some of his friends.  I found myself feeling, as I often do, deeply happy to be muslim, inspired and comforted by my presence in a global family, ummah.  And yet, arriving home, I felt confronted by some elements of my life out-of-sync and unharmonized with the principles I value so deeply.  Lately feel that I am working against myself in some ways.  I am learning and identifying ways to make my life more sustainable and more enriching, however the transition - as in all our endeavors - is not immediate and sometimes trying.  Long story short, I opted not to dwell in guilt or contemplation and instead took to my yoga mat and stretched eastward.

And so became a mental exercise to recall all 99 Names of Allah... I was solving this problem not mentally by recitation or rote memory but by physical movement guided by intentional mediation.  Amidst this meditative state, I realized that I was acting out a technique I had seen on TED recently by choreographer Wayne McGregor and also applied by the Dance Your PhD contest.  

Ideas worth sharing.

17 October 2012

Snollygoster


It's a bit tragic lately, isn't it?

From here, you can take one of two paths:

- or -




10 October 2012

selective justice

"Due to the prevalence in the world today, of the false
belief that some forms of life are superior to others,
all such life - that has been deemed inferior, (and
merely perceived as existing to be exploited and
subjugated to human desires) - has been pushed to the
point of extinction in some cases, while in others the
lives of the oppressed have become as a virtual cog in
the machine that perpetuates such tyranny, generation
after generation. This underlying theme that supposed
inherent superiority of the powerful over those who
lack current means of resistance, is sowing societies
own downfall through ecological destruction,
patriarchy, slavery, animal exploitation, racism and
the list goes on. These problems can not be solved
through single issue causes which only address the
symptoms of the problem rather than its root
causation. Such principles of selective justice continuously fail to realize that oppression is oppression whether wrought upon a member of a different race, nationality, gender or species. 

So long as people continue to believe that they are above the Higher Law of Allah, that governs the entire Universe – so long as division is conceived of in the minds of men - then oppression and injustice will continue to exist on all levels.

We must stress that connection between the underlying root of injustice, and similarly propose a solution that is unified against oppression on all fronts.

While an individual for “animal rights” might oppose
injustice to other species, they most often will deny
those same basic rights of life and freedom to a
member of their own species within its mother’s womb.
Or vice versa, those who most often fight for the
liberties of the unborn will deny those same basic
rights to others they feel no affinity towards.
This sort of selective justice can not help but fail
to address the root of the problem with modern
society; that being mankind’s false notions of
alienation from the Unity of existence and their lack
of faith in Allah. It is this lack of faith that
causes them to wall themselves off from the rest of
the world, which they don’t understand in the least.
It is this lack of faith which leads them to create
such a vast spectrum of social injustices, each of
which are single issues symptoms of their alienated
sickness. Therefore it is imperative that we address
this, the root of the moral discord, which permeates
the modern world, or we will be destined to fail
miserably in any effort to bring about positive
change. Both internally and externally, this is the
War we must fight."

Read other mystic definitions of jihad here.

a PSA for peace-making

This is an important public service announcement:  Supporting Israel is not defeating Jihad.

An unknowing observer of the contentious ads, drawing from Ayn Rand while distinguishing the moral superiority of the civilized man from the savage, might stumble into an understanding of “Jihad” as being against “Israel”.  I put two words in quotes because - forgive me and please prove me wrong - I don’t believe more than one out of every ten Americans knows an informed and conventional meaning of both words.

Israel is a very special place.  Jihad is a very special concept.

The hostility and the insecurity of the world, across all its sects and sectors, towards these two words takes the fun out of offering any further definitions for public discourse.  

Like other muslims, I want to 'reclaim jihad' from the mainstream media and encourage nonmuslims to contemplate its mystic invitation.   Like other political scientists, I want to explore the implications of protecting ignorance and xenophobia under the first amendment.  Like other morning riders of the DC metro, I want to get from the train car to the exit swiftly and in good spirit, without drama or delay.   Most urgently, however, I want to share why this ad bothers me:

I am a friend of Israel - and proud to be.  As a taxpaying American, I have always considered myself to be at least a fake friend of Israel. As a student of Arabic in several Middle Eastern countries, I learned to be a sort of fake enemy of Israel, too.  This juxtaposition made me deeply curious about Israel, this complicated place that I had read and heard so much about but had never seen with my own eyes.  This inspired me to seek a David L. Boren Fellowship and as a result, I had the privilege of living in Israel for six months in 2010.  During that I time I taught myself basic Hebrew and made many, many friends.  It is only now - being connected via facebook while worlds apart - that I realize how special these friendships are.

In Israel I volunteered at the African Refugee Development Center.  Since 2006, Israel has hosted an increasing number of asylum-seekers.  Their presence and questionable legal status has created a controversial public discourse around migrants and refugees, in addition to public health and security concerns.  While working alongside Israelis, other visitors, and refugees in South Tel Aviv I lost track of who’s from where or where we are.

Pamela Geller’s ad bothers me because it socially and politically excludes people seeking a personal jihad of their own from supporting Israel.  There won’t be peace in the Middle East if you don’t include muslims, there will only be war.

08 October 2012

Savage versus Civilized

In trying to understand HOW THE HOLOCAUST HAPPEN, Gordon Willard Allport devised in 1954 a scale of prejudice.  It is to his 5-point scale that I point while responding to the recent ruling defining Defeat Jihad ads as free speech.

The Allport's scale shows how discriminatory behavior left unchecked may evolve into genocide.
In the first stage, antilocution, a majority group freely make jokes about a minority group and sometimes this behavior is labeled as "hate speech".  While antilocution itself may not be harmful, it is a gateway to xenophobic communication.
  
In the next stage, avoidance, members of the majority group actively avoid people in a minority group, creating "social exclusion".  While no direct harm is intended by avoidance, isolating a social group is harmful to the balance of power and freedom of expression in a society.

The third stage, discrimination, occurs when behaviors have the specific goal of harming a minority group by preventing them from achieving goals, getting education or jobs, etc.  We have seen cases of this in  the US, South Africa and Japan.

The fourth stage, physical attack, occurs when a majority group uses violence against a minority group (or their property) and sometimes we label this behavior as "hate crime". 

The final stage, extermination, occurs when a majority group seeks removal of a minority group. This has been evidenced in our global history through the American colonists' treatment of Native Americans, to American lynchings of former slaves and African Americans, to Nazi-led Jewish genocide, Rwandan Genocide, and countless incidences of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, Sudan and elsewhere. 

As evidenced by World War II and implied by nuclear proliferation and social inequality today, we are capable as a human family of destroying ourselves and attention must be heeded to small infringements upon human rights and safety, in order for peace to prevail on a global scale.

By ignoring the the definition of jihad as savage and anti-Israel, it passively supports the social exclusion of Muslims in peace-making with Israel. This ad socially excludes people seeking a personal jihad of their own from supporting Israel.  

Defeat Ignorance, not 'Jihad'


Despite some resistance from the Washington Metro Transit Authority, the Pro-Israel advertisements that raised emotions in NYC by misrepresenting jihad and minimizing the Arab-Israeli conflict to a ethnocentric sitcom of the civilized man versus the savage, will be coming to the District of Colombia, coincidentally while we are busy celebrating Columbus Day.

Issues of racism in the US are deeply complicated as a result of our history and shared heritage.  Public discourse around racism in the US - be it in schools, advertizing or medical practice - is often emotional, on the basis that our personal experience informs our perceptions of racial reality, so information is frequently misrepresented and dialogue often lacks complexity or context-specific evidence.

I begin with this thought because whether the ads promote solidarity with Israel or hate for Muslims or the power of PR to shape politics... it's an opportunity for us to explore race in American and learn from it.    The psychology and questionable legality of hate speech are two interesting topics that I hope get explored amidst the political discourse, and potential metro gridlock, that will likely unfold in the wake of this ad campaign.

My thoughts focus on institutions and tools at our disposal to respond to this ad and defeat ignorance, instead.  This Washington Post article suggests that the most fruitful response to the hate ads is to build relationships based pluralism, rather than xenophobia.   This is time-consuming but undoubtedly true.

This slow-motion approach to peace-building is codified at the international level via the The Durban Declaration.  Unfortunately, some discrepancy remains around the policy, particularly within the Israeli context.  While the Durban Declaration and it's Plan of Action is intended to protect people from racism and xenophobic practices worldwide but some people don't like it because they believe that while condemning racism, it also provides universal grounds to de-legitimize Israel's sovereignty.    

06 October 2012

    Aurora Borealis are on my bucket list.

05 October 2012

Tomorrow...

Everyday people talk to me about my hair.  Everyday.

If I leave the house,  I have at least one interaction about my hair with someone.  That is a given in my daily life and one that I never take for granted.

Seriously, it has been a pleasure to get random snippets of insight into total strangers' lives purely because something about my hair moves them to talk to me.

How many conversations do you have about your hair?
When you see a cool dress or nice shoes or a funky bag, do say something?
Someone with a military cut, a woman in hijab, or a person with a shaved head...
Would you ask what made them do their hair like that?
Can I touch it?
Do you wash it?
What did you use to do that?
It's pretty absurd, right?  I find it interesting, though. It's awesome that so many different people - from ambassadors to exotic dancers - have said to me, "I've always wanted dreadlocks" and yet haven't had dreadlocks for as many reasons as there are people.

Initially, talking about my hair with strangers was fun and flattering.  Then it was insightful but increasingly routine...  Now it's pretty much boring, but I have fun with it:

Tomorrow, to whatever kind soul inquires about my lovely locs, I'm going to respond with the following:  Jesus probably had dreadlocks. Most people on earth used to have dreadlocks.

  Nice and tidy, like noble locs ought be.



03 October 2012

Marley & Fresco

I'm really into New Year's Resolutions.

I'm creative while making them and often dedicated in keeping them.  At the end of 2009 I was drafting my anticipated pledges to the new year and my significant other mockingly wrote between the lines:  have great sex, travel a lot, listen to more bob marley.

While he and I broke up, I did keep his last suggested resolution:
Every morning in 2010, minus a few mornings in a rush or under the weather, I listened to Bob Marley.  I remember telling people last year that it has made me a happier person and taught me a lot. 

By listening to Bob Marley every morning, in just one year, I was able to hear almost his entire discography - some many versions of some songs and rare versions of others - and several full-length live concerts available on YouTube.       

At some point in during 2011 I replaced the morning Marley meditation with a ritualistic surf to AJE in the AM:  I started my day with headlines and special reports and breaking news.  I am not exaggerating when I say, I am a  much heavier person to be around than I used to be.  I believe this mild media worship that I've been involved in, like so many of peers, has rendered my spirit a bit out touch.

Eagerly awaiting a new year as someone who loves new year's resolutions might, I have decided I am in need of a new morning mantra or ritual.  Whatever it is, it might need to do with Mr. Jaques Fresco and all the wonderful projects he's dreamed up and designed for a better world.


26 September 2012

If you post it on Facebook, tag us so the Ministry of Interior will find it will be the subtitle of a short story I write one day about all the fantastic and quirky couples that I know in cross-nationality relationships.  It will end on some epic inquiry into how citizenship has been forever changed by the advent of the internet and one's virtual history.


At the moment:  I'm AFK for Inside Out in DC, among other exciting things. 

18 September 2012

On-going Bibliography


Neuroanthropology Resources
Foundation for Psychocultural Research http://www.thefpr.org/
First official PhD in Neuroanthropology?
http://neuroanthropology.net/conference/
"Social medicine"
Drug Use: Group Habits and Individual Learning
http://neuroanthropology.net/2008/11/14/katherine-mackinnon-capuchins-and-people/
http://www.macalester.edu/psychology/whathap/UBNRP/neuroanth10/Neuroanthropology.html
Discussants Quinn, Sapolski and Strauss...

People Teaching Neuroanthropology
USF  - Daniel Lende
Northwestern University -  Ryan Brown
Northwestern University - Rebecca Seligman
University of Chicago-  Rachel Brezis 
University of Tulsa - Peter Stromberg
Notre Dame -Agustin Fuentes
Saint Andrews - Christina Toren
Miami University in Ohio - Cameron Hay
Purdue - Hal Odden
Macquarie University - Greg Downey


Keywords:  ONLINE PEDAGOGY, THEORY OF CHANGE, EDUCATION REFORM, EDUCATION REVOLUTION, MOOC, COURSERA, ONLINE LEARNING

Daphne Koller & Andrew Ng's  "Log On and Learn: The Promise of Access in Online Education"
Pamela Fox's "Creating Our Coursera Starter Culture"
Claudia Ehrenstein's Does the Internet Make You Dumb?
Steven Smith's The World Wide U
Eliza Collin's Professors Rethink Teaching Methods
Keven Carey's The MOOC-Led Meritocracy
NYT Op-Ed The Trouble With Online Education
Eli Okun's Mixed Reactions



Scope of Inquiry / Can't it be free and valuable?

The moment is approaching when I need to decide if I'm interested in exploring Coursera "in and of itself" as my virtual guide, Tom Boellstorff, did in sl, or in relation to civil space and reality-making.  My desire, of course, is the latter but today's modest perusal of civil society sources presents more than my mind can adequately ponder in the hours not consumed by rl























Rather than elaborate, I offer a few thought provoking links and an interesting facebook conversation I came upon  around 'the value' of a 'Coursera certification':










30 August 2012

Coursera | More Initial Reactions

Course: Introduction to Sustainability, Week One
- Reviewed all of this week's course material
- Participated actively in a few forums and quizzes
- Researched the team at Coursera working behind the scenes
- Connected with Intro2Sustainability peers in multiple countries

1. I would like to determine what percentage of content my subscriptions exposes me to compared to total available content.  The average user? What information does Coursera track about user behavior? Any publicly available analytic?

2. Questions regarding quality standards, discusdion monitoring...groupthink and traditional critisisms of virtual forums.

3. Coursera facilitates hyperspeed merging of academic interests and the establishment of associations between people whom might otherwise not have met due to a variety of given barriers (institutional, linguistic, class, ethnic, situational, etc.) -- It is doing what study abroad, professional exchange, and international aid are doing, but a gazillion time faster, more equitably, and at a fraction of the cost!

4.  Coursera is a progressive company, not unlike Google, but comparatively, a very small and tech-y team

5.  24,000+ students enrolled in #Intro2sustainability !!

6.  Forums, feedback and frustrations! 

28 August 2012

Coursera | Day One - Inititial observations

Course: Introduction to Sustainability, Week One
- Logged on, and followed instructor's directions.  I created a profile earlier this week.
- Attended course orientation and took basic quiz.
- Previewed Week 1 material and engaged in discussion forums [project, getting to know your classmates]
- Downloaded and briefly explored course materials
- Used tags to connect with classmates (anthropology, empathy, health, DC, permaculture)

Initial observations/Topics for further reflection

- I began reviewing one of the course texts before joining the virtual community; some of the photos included in it are very interesting! Available to download for free online;  no ability to virtually highlight or mark up the text and burdensome file.

- Coursera is a community with amazing power:  By linking people with common interests, it can bring a comparative or multi-setting dynamic to any existing project or paper, very quickly and with remarkable ease.  By connecting longsince-students with recent graduates on topics of shared interest, it can reinvigorate any discipline.  By proving students separated from their studies - for a variety of rea$ons -  to their missing coursework (or unemployed folk with resources!), it has the potential to create futures.

- I have 24,000+ classmates.

- I have already connected with someone across the ocean with whom I share specific interests and relatively close proximity in social networks.

- I imagine some people will use this as a venue to engage in when in search of a compatible mate.  Any "We met at Coursera" wedding stories to date?

- Tompkins course is very well-designed and highly customizable.  Wonder how it compares to other Coursera courses and how it has changed over time?

- Connections to the twitterverse and links to Facebook; use of tags, formatting and hyperlinks in posts.

Coursera time logged:  Approx. 3 hours and wishing I could wrap my mind around all this but have to log off! #bummer.

07 July 2012

Tiger Woods Syndrome, Part One

Today I found myself wandering the aisles of Walmart in search of wooden skewers for my niece's upcoming birthday barbeque and in my suburban directionless I stumbled upon a bin of bargain books.  One caught my eye:

I found the title somewhat absurd, shared my sentiments with my significant other using the instant gratification of The Smart Phone and carried on my way.

Later I thought to myself, what exactly is the Tiger Woods Syndrome anyway?  Upon googleing, I found an article at Psychology Today entitled with those exact words,  which explains:

"Tiger Woods Syndrome is a five stage pattern  where the man subverts his needs, feelings and goals to accommodate his mate's to obtain the goal of a romantic relationship.  In the artificial intimacy stage, physical attraction and charm is emphasized over compatibility to begin the romance. In the second stage, approval seeking is used to meet his partner's many needs and desires at the expense of his own to keep the momentum of the relationship rolling. In the critical third stage, the man must choose between his old life (usually represented by his friends), and the new lover. In the fourth stage, both partners indulge themselves in idealized views of each other in the Honeymoon. Finally, in the fifth stage, both parthers  eventually make peace with the fact that the reasons they had come together were myths. The deceptive relationship often results in two disappointed partners."

(No offense to the authors, especially given I haven't read the book but) Wow, I thought, aren't those the same five stages most poorly-maintained relationships take? What makes this a 'syndrome' as opposed to a reality?  It's like saying someone has a 'condition' when they are fat because they don't exercise and eat crap food. That's lazy, not sick.  The Tiger Woods Syndrome is a catchy name for a book about why people who don't maintain relationships will find themselves cheated upon, disappointed and alone.  [more to come on this topic later, because I have a very colorful alternative explanation for the Tiger Woods Syndrome ;)]

09 June 2012

a brief update

No longer anchored, but staying around for a little while. 

http://atlasne.blogspot.com/