Especially as a (former?) historian...

...this is very concerning to me. A prime example of why Wikipedia is not a great source. And why Sarah Palin scares the crap out of me--this reaches a Dan Quayle level of worrying. At least The New Yorker is having some snarky fun with it. At least we can still laugh. Because sometimes I think it's too deadly serious.

And then, sometimes, I remember that home isn't much better.

It looks like the The New York Times went out of its way to have the most depressing articles ever over the weekend--first, the one on the mob killing of a Zimbabwean man, which I posted about on Friday, and now there's this piece of investigatory journalism on New York state institutions for the developmentally disabled and the horrible abuse by staff that go on at some of them. The opening is heartbreaking, as it details the death of Jonathan Carey, a 13-year-old boy with autism, at the hands of one of his caretakers, as another staff member watched, and then it just gets worse. It's depressing and infuriating to read and difficult to accept that any institution, and especially one that offers care to the developmentally disabled, could allow abuse like this to occur. And especially so in the US, where we theoretically have the resources to provide expert care to all people. A reminder that while things might be easier for me back in the US, it's a far from perfect society, and there are so many things that Americans should be aware of, as citizens and strive to change. I'm not a voter in New York State, but I'm wondering how other states are faring. I'm tired of seeing the most vulnerable in our society continually kicked to the ground.

And so you don't think it's all doom and gloom, here's a great little video by Jessi Arrington at TED talking about how all she packed for the TED conference was 7 days' worth of underwear and then bought everything at thrift stores. Eco-friendly, charitable, and fun. Just a little ray of sunshine from a very happy person.

Adultery Fridays

The new post is up on Global Health. Enjoy!

Things I Won't Miss

Despite the charmed life that I live here, South Africa is a difficult place. Although the media panic (mostly from UK rags) leading up to the World Cup was ridiculously over-exaggerated--the whole stab-proof vest debacle comes to mind--safety and crime are real and pervasive issues here. And mostly, the victims are poor and, given the strong racial-economic divide in this country, black.

This is too complex to lay out fully in a blog post, but xenophobia is also a huge issue. Other Africans, particularly Zimbabweans, pursuing the idea of a better life in South Africa are discriminated against, blamed for crimes, and sometimes attacked or killed (more on the state's terrible and potentially unlawful treatment of Zimbabwean asylum-seekers here). The New York Times put up a video today about an innocent Zimbabwean man who was beaten to death by a mob in an informal settlement outside of Johannesburg. Warning: it shows actual footage of him being beaten.






Barry Bearak's accompanying article (for the NYT Magazine), lays out the issues. Millions of people live in poverty in townships and informal settlements, often without running water, electricity, adequate food, or the glimmer of hope for a job. The huge wealth disparity here is deplorable: there's nothing like driving past the townships from the airport and seeing a Maserati dealership on the way into town. The police are often ineffective or just non-existent, especially in townships where they don't have back up. Two policemen were killed the other week in Cape Town, and it's a somewhat regular occurrence. Violence and crime and anger are widespread, but there are no easy answers for any of this. Mr. Bearak writes:

South Africa, a nation of 50 million, is the richest country on the continent but has one of the world’s lowest levels of employment. Most of the jobless have never worked, and a third of the employed earn less than $150 a month. Whites, who make up 9 percent of the population, have an average income seven times that of blacks. But poverty is not necessarily a predictor of crime, and while apartheid was horrific, other nations have suffered long histories of oppression, writes the South African criminologist Antony Altbeker, whose book “A Country at War With Itself” examines the common explanations for the nation’s violent bent and finds most of them pertinent but none entirely adequate. However you weigh the impact of apartheid, he asserts, violent behavior has somehow become a “cultural phenomenon” for a significant minority of young men, “an expression of their selfhood.” Violence now feeds off its own energy.

To protect themselves, wealthy South Africans compete in an arms race with their neighbors, the elevated walls of one leading to even higher walls next door. One in 14 newly created jobs is for a security guard.

But it is the impoverished who are most vulnerable to crime, poor people living in the midst of poor criminals. Under apartheid, the police were enforcers of state repression, and they are yet to be fully trusted as protectors. Mob justice is most likely to occur in the nation’s informal settlements. In Diepsloot, where a sea of shanties covers much of the expanse, police officers are often derided as bunglers at best and crooks at worst. Courthouses are a journey away, and the due process of law seems an impractical ideal. Many of the poor, living without electricity and using communal taps and toilets, feel the necessity — the burden — to police themselves. I was commonly told: The more horrible the death of a criminal, the better it deters the rest.

I don't know to write about this. I don't feel right doing it, as a foreigner who's been here a measly two years and hasn't integrated well into South African society, as a white person, as someone with a job and some money. I've stopped and started and deleted and re-written a version of this post many times. And never hit the "publish" button. It never feels comprehensive enough, or clear enough, or correct enough. I don't know what to think. It's easy to say it's one thing, or it's another. It's easy to say all of this is overblown, or, you know what, maybe we should all have guns. That violence has become a national identity, or that this is all about Apartheid, or that this is the fault of the state to provide support and housing and good police. That media coverage of this nature perpetuates South Africa's reputation in the world as a crime-filled, scary place, or perpetuates the idea of Africa as a violent, fly-and-disease-ridden continent. It's all true. It's all false. I don't know. There's no answer.

All I can say is, I'm not going to miss this aspect of South Africa. I know that the US is far from perfect, and has wealth disparity and violence and other problems of its own, but I'm not going to miss this. I love so much of South Africa, the warm and wonderful people I have met, South Africans and expats alike; the breathtaking natural beauty of this country; the life I have made for myself here, but I'm still not going to miss this. As my friends and I were leaving Bulungula, a paradise on earth in many ways (and home to many, many people living in abject poverty), the driver turned to me, as we discussed the upcoming local elections, and told me that without the lodge, he would have no job. That there were no jobs. That he would never again support the ANC, the majority party, the party of Nelson Mandela and of the anti-Apartheid struggle for freedom. South Africa, the land of broken promise, he said.

Things I'll Miss About Cape Town

It's still cold out, but this is what I woke up to this morning.

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks.

It's freezing outside and inside, since Capetonians don't appear able (or willing) to accept that winter actually happens here--Los Angeles, you ain't--and most of us are spending time huddled around a fire, a space heater, or an oven (or are resorting to taking long baths at night). It's grey out, the wind has been ripping off the mountain, and the rain alternates between spitting and pouring. There's no other way to describe it--it's just raw out. Last year, we had the World Cup to distract us. This year, there's little respite. But here's a brief one: Sam Rockwell dancing.






H/T Pajiba. You guys really are the best.


Virtual cookies for the nerds who know from when the title originates. Googling is grounds for disqualification.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Dylan!

So, Robert Zimmerman turns 70 today. Everyone's writing about it. I'm sure he doesn't like that very much (or maybe he does; one can never tell with Bob Dylan). I could (and tried and then deleted my efforts) to go on and on about why his music is important to me, but it's just too complicated to explain. It's been a very long love affair--from the first time at Monica Ros (pre-K-3rd grade) that Seabury Gould, our wonderful music teacher, had us sing "Blowin' in the Wind."

So, instead, two videos. The first, from D.A. Pennebaker's 1967 documentary Don't Look Back, a young Bob Dylan (with Allen Ginsberg and Bob Neuwirth lurking in the background) with placards on a New York street for "Subterranean Homesick Blues." The second, his Oscar-winning "Things Have Changed," with a fun set of celeb cameos--the cast from "Wonder Boys." Fun fact: both times I saw Dylan live (and presumably, ever since March 2001), he's had his Oscar on stage with him. Fun fact #2: according to Rolling Stone, the last year in which he didn't appear in public was 1977--that's someone who's kept working hard. And if you want a really good, recent live appearance, check out his suite with Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers at the Grammys here.