nevermind the bricolage

Reluctant Billionaires

Apparently, the Zimbabwean government will release a $100 billion note on Monday, yeah, ONE HUNDRED BILLION. This will buy about two loaves of bread at current prices. In a country where conservative estimates put the rate of inflation at 2.2 million% it won't be long before they will have to come up with an even larger bill to cover needs. I remember seeing pictures in school of Germans with wheelbarrows full of cash going to buy staples, at the end of the Weimar Republic just before the rise of Hitler. I spent some time in Zimbabwe a few years back, it was beautiful, and full of beautiful people whose faces still come to me from time to time. I wonder where those people are now? How do they live/survive? They reckon that 80% of the entire population exists below the poverty line and this in a country that was once rich and prosperous.
   I have been wanting to write about all of this for a while, it's been deeply troubling to me, I have no answers, only consternation really, this is one of those times when you wish there was a way to change the situation in a moment and relieve suffering that somehow cannot be anything but the result of corruptoin and madness

The Times Are A'Changin..?

Barack Obama is now the presumptive Democratic nominee for President after a long campaign. There is so much stuff in the press about the symbolic nature of his nomination--first African-American nominee etc. that I won't say too much other than I really hope he wins. If nothing else, it will be a wake-up call to bits of America that still think we are living in another age. This country needs to be dragged, kicking and screaming if necessary, into the new world that is emerging around us. As far as I can make out any other choice but Obama is a choice for the status quo, and perhaps even a move backwards, if such a thing is possible in light of the past eight years. I find Obama to be a compelling speaker--I am well aware of the nature of politics and political rhetoric, I am also aware that bandying words like 'change' around, it easier than effecting change, particularly in the current U.S. political climate, but Obama is apparently not going to take money from Washington lobbyists--the Republicans are in for about $40 million already apparently, the Democrats about $4 mil., but regardless of the amount, it is what it represents that needs to be addressed and changed. On a note closer to home here in Los Angeles, an attempt to get a judge to halt the resumption of gay marriages in California was shot down yesterday by the courts,

Tiananamen

It seems a lifetime ago, but it has only been 19 years. But how the world has changed in those 19 years! I remember when the events of Tiananmen Square unfolded--the images of students and other protesters facing off against the military, hoping for freedom. Since then China has become something I don't think anybody expected, a dynamic, growing and increasingly globally influential nation. That certainly doesn't mean that everything is rosy, but things are changing, things have changed, to quote Mr. Zimmerman. The recent earthquake and the forthcoming Olympic Games have put China squarely in the public eye again--who knows what it will all look like 19 years ago. And I wonder what ever happened to that guy? Probably wasn't good.

Von Schafen Und Wolfen

Religion seems to be playing a significant, although decentralized, role in the current pre-election campaigns. Obama has had his share of struggles over his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and his inflammatory and supposedly anti-American rhetoric. John McCain has even more problems I think because he has aligned himslef with the wacky end of the religious right. John Hagee, a staple on Christian television, is a pastor from Texas with a big church, a big ego, and a dispensationalist and apocalyptic view of all things. Hagee publicly endorsed McCain and McCain embraced that support--probably seeing hordes of evangelicals of a particular ilk lining up at the poll booths come November. But a couple of statements, the first an anti-Catholic diatribe, the second, a sermon about Israel in which he declared that Hitler was essentially used by God to get the European Jews to Israel so that the state could be formed, fulfil biblical prophecy, and initiate the final details to set the stage for the triumphant retun of Christ and the rapture of the Church (Hagee was featured in a realy dumb movie called, Left Behind, he briefly appeared as a passenger on a plane from which the pilot had been raputured?!!!). McCain also received and embraced an endorsement from another TV preacher, Rod Parsley, from Columbus, Ohio--another big church, big pastor, big message guy--ranting all the time about morality, repentance, and how America is this and that--essentially the apple of God's eye, if she can only get her shit together etc. It is easy to see why people like Christopher Hitchens are so vehemently anti-religion--the public face of it--particularly Christianity, is all too often pretty nutty to say the least. Deborah Sengl is an artist whose latest work explores the darker side of religion--von schafen und wolfen--of sheep and wolves-- offers a blunt picture of what she thinks about religion. There are lots of factors that make this current election one of immesense interest and importance--I think I make no overstatement when I say that there is a lot riding on this one! The role that religion plays in society may well be redefined by the events that unfold over the coming weeks- of course, the Church has to be willing to re-examine its role and purpose, whether it will or not remains to be seen--they should probably all read Shane Claiborne's new book, Jesus For President. (P.S. I haven't totally got the hang of the new Typepad format yet, I'm a bit slow on the uptake, so forgive length, errors, etc.)

Simple Living

Apparently Louis Vuitton is none too happy with Nadia Plesner's Simple Living T-shirt, created in order to raise awareness about the plight of children in Darfur. 100% the profits from the sale goes to the cause, but LV doesn't like it when someone uses their logo/design without their approval. But I'm sure they really care about the crisis in Darfur as much as they care about protecting their 'image.'--yeah for conscious consumerism!! You can buy a poster here.

Liberacion!

Fernando Lugo, an ex-Bishop in the Catholic Church, and a Liberation theologian, has just won the election in Paraguay, ending the 61-year reign of the ruling Colorado Party. That party was the longest ruling party in the world--longer than the Chinese Communists, the North Koreans, Castro...He has campaigned with promises to help the poor--the 'preferential option' of the poor that characterizes much of Latin American Liberation theology has found a  decidedly political advocate in Lugo. Unlike other liberationists who practice their theology within the boundaries of the church, Lugo, has taken a different path, essentially taking his theology out of the church and into the public and political spheres. Maybe there is a model here, for another way of doing theology--completely in the marketplace-where the people are?

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe was the first country I visited in Africa. I loved every moment of my time there. I spent much of it in Bulawayo, the second city, much more provincial--closer to the land--than Harare. I fell in love with Africa on that trip--the landscape, the people, the music.
It was prosperous and proud--a liberated former colony with a strong economy and an even stronger belief in its national capabilites. And now? Well, we all know--80% unemployment, most of the nation existing on food aid--corruption, repression and a collapsed economic system--inflation is completely out of control, I forget the percentage exactly, but its ridiculous. I have lost contact with most of the people I spent time with there, but the past few years they have been frequently in my mind. Now it seems that finally perhaps the back of Mugabe has been broken, if not broken, then hopefully mortally wounded, to the surprise of many, the threat of trouble wasn't enough to stop people voting for change in this recent election. Even though there seems to be an awful of nefarious activity in the wake of the election results it might just be that there is finally light at the end of Zimbabwe's dark tunnel, I hope so.

World Water Day

World Water Day.

War, What Is It Good For...Still!

The war, five years, cinq ans, funf jahren, and it is still a waste of human life as far as I am concerned--President Bush declares that it was worth the costs, both human and economic, and that it is a war "America can and must win"--this statement coming while new polls demonstrate his lowest ever approval rating, 66% disapproval of the war, and another that states that 71% of Americans think that Iraq is hurting the economy.
This past weekend there were huge anti-war demonstrations across the US, but there is still little debate on the war in the current Presidential campaign apart from finger-pointing about who said what etc. However, Obama did wade into the mire a little bit today and lay out a strategy for taking the debate to newer and deeper levels--would be great to see it.

Money, it's a Hit

Money, money, money, it's rich man's world, money it's a gas, money can't buy me love...money, well economics and the economy seems to be on everyone's mind at the moment. The current banking crisis, hard on the heels of the real estate collapse, seems to be the capper for many people. The US government is putting on a brave face and doing the economic wordplay game--the dreaded 'R' word, is being avoided at all costs--we are in difficult times, not recessive apparently, the federal government is doing a 'good job,' the US economy is still 'strong' blah blah blah...In spite of all the rhetoric many people seem to be running a bit scared at the moment, and why not? It's hard out there for the common people (thank you Jarvis!), everything is rising in price--(we buy bread from a local artisan market at the weekly farmer's market in Santa Monica a loaf of his bread is going from $2.50 up to $4.00 because of a surge in flour prices--petrol is getting nuts, I seem to be filling my car all the time, something I don't want to be doing for a number of reasons), and it doesn't look particularly bright on the horizon at the moment. The government involvement in facilitating the Bear Stearns Bank purchase at rock bottom value, which was intended as a supportive measure to the economy, seems to have had a reverse effect.