Pakistan's Population

I didn't understand how there could be 3 million displaced people from one little area (Swat, Pakistan), yet see reports that the actions of the people who displaced them (the military offensive against armed Taliban-aligned people in the area) were "widely popular."

So I looked up the population of Pakistan.

There are 189 million people.

I guess I can see how those numbers work out now.

Healthcare Costs - Lucky Me

Lucky me! A healthcare provider I went to for a while isn't going to charge me anything to send all the info they have on me to my new general practitioner. Coulda cost me almost $1 per page.

I Get To See All My Relatives - I Want Her To Be Able To, Too

I found out a few minutes ago that I might have to help pass bad news onto a young (probably undocumented) immigrant.

Maybe she loves lots of members of her family, too.

I hope she gets to see them all.

I won't ask this question to Grandpa because he might be in his last days and I love him a lot and just want to spend happy time with him. The law, however, lets me see him (and would let me see his mother if she were still alive) all I can afford.

I want this young woman to be able to travel and roam and see and hug and come back and go again and hug again and cherish moments again and come back again all she wants.

My Great-Grandmother Could Have Been An Undocumented Immigrant

My grandpa and his nuclear family fled Europe during the Holocaust.

Everyone but his mother got immigrant visas--the consulate claimed to be out of them by the time she was ready.

His mother sweet-talking her way past an administrative assistant to see the consul in person and ask him for a different type of visa, and walking out w/ an immigrant visa, is a family legend.



My grandpa condemns immigration "the wrong way." But I'll bet he's never really asked himself if his mother would've seriously left her family and gone back to Europe upon the expiration of her visa had the consul given her the non-immigrant visa she claimed to seek rather than an immigrant visa.

My bet is that she wouldn't have shared his strong condemnation of immigration "the wrong way" if she'd had to decide whether or not to do it herself. And that he might not feel that way today, either.



Grandpa's too old to pick that fight with, and I love him a lot, so it's nice to get it off my chest here.

Detainee Rape Photos

I got caught up in my anger about the kind of country I live in when I posted this and forgot to mention that although I don't want any "Detainee Photos Protection Act of 2009" passed, I also don't want the photos themselves released w/o consulting the victims...and...I'm willing to have them not released if the victims can't be found.

I know that enables the government to lie about why they're not releasing them...

...but if they lie on a premise of what I truly consider decent (protecting victims) rather than lying on a premise of what I don't consider a good enough reason to withhold the photos (protecting perpetrators and those who've been put in a position by the government to continue to perpetrate if they so choose)...I'd settle for that world.

Thanks for reminding me, BA, Joan, & Cara.

Flowers For BA

These flowers are for BA!
(Important post here.)

Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act of 2009

By Chris Floyd today, from "Death of the Republic, Part CLXVIII," Empire Burlesque:

Glenn Greenwald, among others, is enraged at Barack Obama's eager embrace of the latest disgorgement of third-rate juntaism to belch forth from the hallowed halls of the U.S. Congress: the "Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act of 2009," sponsored by those ever-stalwart champions of liberty, Senators Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman. As Greenwald describes it:

[The bill] literally has no purpose other than to allow the government to suppress any "photograph taken between September 11, 2001 and January 22, 2009 relating to the treatment of individuals engaged, captured, or detained after September 11, 2001, by the Armed Forces of the United States in operations outside of the United States." As long as the Defense Secretary certifies -- with no review possible -- that disclosure would "endanger" American citizens or our troops, then the photographs can be suppressed even if [the Freedom of Information Act] requires disclosure...What kind of a country passes a law that has no purpose other than to empower its leader to suppress evidence of the torture it inflicted on people? Read the language of the bill; it doesn't even hide the fact that its only objective is to empower the President to conceal evidence of war crimes.

What kind of country passes such a law? Why, a cheap, corrupt, third-rate junta state, which has elevated war and militarism into its supreme value, its "ultimate concern," its divinity -- that's what kind of country. What other kind of country did you think was skulking there between Mexico and Canada these days?

(Pssst. Call/write/e-mail everyone--your policymakers and your public arenas--to stop this. Maybe it can be done.)

Wedding Ring Alternatives

Can anyone think of alternatives to a wedding ring that make sense for a white American woman?

If I commit for life to someone, I do want to have it visible, but I don't like rings (wearing them AND what goes into getting the materials to us).

I could do ring on a chain, but eh. It still means dealing w/ jewelry and consuming ring materials.

I'm a little afraid of getting a tattoo around my ring finger, even though it seems to be the most logical option.

I can't imagine a hennaed ring would last more than 4 days at a time on something I work with and scrub regularly.

A dot on the forehead doesn't seem right, since they're just...something from someone else's culture, laden w/ meaning I don't even understand.

Ideas?

Ukranians, Americans

Wow.
Ukranians look so much like so many white Americans.
I've felt that way about other "other" parts of Europe, too.

How many of us white Americans are mostly Southern/Eastern European, genetically, but don't come from families that acknowledged it?

(Okay, back to trying to find healthy, vitamin-filled Ukranian foods that I can actually make. No way am I gonna try my hand at borscht for the first time on a quick cooking night, and I'm not sure a woman in the hospital is really going to feel like chewing meat-and-rice-filled cabbages. Any other ideas? What else do Ukranians do w/ all their produce? To give nutrition to the sick? (Okay, okay, duh...the Ukranians can make borscht on a moment's notice because they've practiced. Dammit.) Hmmm. I think my neighbor's gonna get ordinary Midwest-cookbook chicken noodle soup.)

I Didn't Do An Organize For Health Care Meeting

I did not do an 'organize for health care' meeting. Just spent my Saturday like a Saturday. (Well, one w/ a sore throat.) Oh well.

I do, however, plan to kick myself in the butt to organize a block party for National Night Out. Seriously. Any day now. Really.

Healthy meals yesterday

Healthy meals yesterday. Biked to the nearest farmer's market, and man, I don't know what I was doing in past years, trekking to local-only farmer's markets. I guess I figured they'd be cheaper, what w/ all the competition for the same veggies, but the price savings are less than $1-$2 per trip, and being able to get that piece of ginger and a lime to finish off a recipe in the same trip is SO worth whatever extra cost there might be.

There's way too much produce in the house now, so we've got to eat it fast.

For lunch, I quick-boiled up some jasmine rice, set some dried mushrooms to soak (how water), picked through my mustard greens, then got out my new wok (exciting!) and "stir-fried" sauce while parboiling the mustard greens and drained the greens and threw them in.

Boring flavors, but healthy.

For dinner, my boyfriend had me pick through a different kind of mustard green (the kind you think of as going w/ southern U.S. cooking) and tear it up; he chopped tomatoes & cucumbers and threw on salad dressing. Then he seasoned ground turkey, chopped & fried sweet onions, and mixed salsa+avocado and foreman-grilled the burgers. He saved a few slices from the cucumber & put them in our drinking water. The meal was strong flavorful!

Today I think I'm going to set some jasmine rice to soak ahead of time and cook it like I would basmati for pilaf and see what kind of texture it comes out w/.

Healthcare Organizing Meeting

I'm thinking about hosting one of those "organize for health care" meetings that Barackobama.com keeps sending me e-mail about.

I dunno--it's probably watered-down crap that won't do anything that their packet materials will be about...

...but maybe I could do something w/ it for a Medicare-like public option or single-payer?

I'm reading a book about European female immigrants to the United States.

So far it's really good.

Sly Civilian once wrote:

Where do we recognize our own Whitenesses...as a source of idenity?

I hope to find some ways to tie my own childhood experiences and the people in my childhood to my current beliefs. Since my childhood was happy, ideally, I should be able to be the best person I can be in this world if I do that, right?

I guess I'm hoping that if I read about all the same things I see on promigrant.org and vivirlatino.com and such, only lived by people who looked like me (and bore at least some of my family), I'll somehow be able to be a better person than if I just read about immigrant experiences with little cultural connection to the people who were around me in my childhood.

ADD

My poor relative.

I've had strong ADD symptoms all my life; she got them after scalpels poked around her brain.

She finally tried ADD medications, and *bam*--she was acing tests and classes again.

But *bam*--she had anxiety symptoms so bad she had to go into a clinic to see why she was having trouble breathing all the time.

Although I wouldn't wish upon her all the extra ADD symptoms I have, in one way, I sure do wish my relative were a "classic" case like me who responded to the first medicine she tried w/o negative side effects.

But since that isn't the case for her...I sit here and wonder what I can do for her.

Against Escalation of Military Action in Pakistan

I just can't get that conversation (and what I wish I'd said) off my brain.

Is it class that makes people think they'd be safe from nationally sponsored armed forces?

I know that works in some situations, but geez. If people are on a mission to "eliminate" / "kill all" of a sub-population of a region...it just seems to me that the violence is going to be so extremely high that not only are some civilians going to get unnecessarily killed right off the bat because of the armed forces' cowardice about getting close to those they're "supposed" to be shooting...

...but it seems to me that the natural response of fleeing the hell out of there is going to turn even the upper-class and upper-middle-class into looking poor. Which will take away their #1 class-based protection: the armed forces being "able to" tell them apart, on sight, from those they're "supposed" to kill.



Is my college acquaintance's family going to have quite an about-face in their opinion about whether the Pakistani government should militarily "eliminate" all the Taliban members in Swat once they're on the run and look the exact same and are getting shot at all the time?

Is it going to be too late for their opinions to matter to the Pakistani government once this happens?

:-(

I don't want them to die.

Against Escalation of Military Action in Pakistan

I talked with an old college acquaintance from Pakistan via chat yesterday.
He's all, "Kill ALL Taliban!"
I was all, "Ummmmmmm...how about not?"
He was all, "They're all terrorists who understand nothing but violence--they should all be eliminated!"
I brought up that nationally sanctioned armies often kill more civilians than those they're allegedly fighting against and asked if any of his relatives in Swat had been shot at by nationally sanctioned armies.
He said no, so I said I understood and respected how his relatives & he could come to feel the way he felt.

But later that morning, when I was gardening, I thought of something I wish I'd thought of while in conversation.

I wish I'd thought to say:

Be careful what you wish for.

If the Pakistani government listens to your wishes, and sanctions all people who associate themselves w/ the Taliban being killed, who is going to do the shooting? Whoever does that shooting--my friend--why do you believe that they would not kill all of your relatives who live in the same area because they're too cowardly to get close to armed Taliban members and choose to kill everyone within 10 kilometers of a cluster of armed Taliban members instead?

Do you believe very strongly that if your government listened to you and decided to go "kill all the Taliban," they would refrain from killing almost every young adult male in Swat--including your relatives--as the easiest way to do it?

Why do you believe they would be so careful, when recent history of "anti-terrorist" military action has pretty much always gone the way I've just described?

Oh well.

Class & race privilege

Yesterday, in addition to gardening in my "comfy clothes," I threw on my boyfriend's paint-stained jacket because it was comfortable and a ridiculous hat my boyfriend ordered off a cereal box to keep myself from sunburning.

Then, we ran errands and I wore these clothes out w/o brushing my bedhead.

I looked ready to WORK, and there was no part of my class showing through my clothes or grooming.



And people treated me like they had done in the suburbs when I was growing up.

People did the dance of, "Who was first?" when a cashier asked us who was first in line rather than nodding a, "Go ahead," to me.



I'd thought maybe it was local culture of my new state's city versus my childhood state's suburbs, all this deference.

But maybe it's been race+class all along.

Maybe it's been me, raised upper-middle-class in the suburbs, looking like it, while shopping in working-class parts of the city instead.



(Also, I have a bad tendency to sort of kind of stare when I am around other people, but it didn't throw people's body language off this time. Now I kind of want to dress like I'm ready to tear up a garden all the time to compensate for my bad habits, rather than fix my bad habits!)

Letters To Policymakers About Afghanistan & Pakistan

You should write, too!

Here are mine:

Dear President Obama:

Please order an end to air strikes (piloted and drone) in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The whole countryside population is not out to get you and me. The number of civilians that shooting "Talibanis" from the air kills is unacceptable.

Actually, the number of "Talibanis" that we (and the armies we fund) shoot at in Afghanistan and Pakistan is unacceptable, too. (And, to put it in your words, Mr. President, "dumb war." They aren't out to get you and me, either. They're no less likely to work with us in the event that they find themselves in charge of nukes than new leaders in the former U.S.S.R. were. They're human and know that nukes need to be kept under control, too.)

So please order an end to air strikes (piloted and drone) and please order U.S. forces to influence Afghanistan's and Pakistan's forces to respect peace deals (both signed and still under negotiation), rather than scuttling them with attacks. (Like the Pakistani forces just did in Swat.) Peace deals save lives. Important lives. Blessed lives. Lives of people who flat-out shouldn't die.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Sincerely...

Dear Vice President Biden:

Please work with President Obama to end air strikes (piloted and drone) in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The whole countryside population is not out to get you and me. The number of civilians that shooting "Talibanis" from the air kills is unacceptable.

Actually, the number of "Talibanis" that we (and the armies we fund) shoot at in Afghanistan and Pakistan is unacceptable, too. (And, to put it in the words of the President, Mr. Vice President, "dumb war." They aren't out to get you and me, either. They're no less likely to work with us in the event that they find themselves in charge of nukes than new leaders in the former U.S.S.R. were. They're human and know that nukes need to be kept under control, too.)

So please work with the President to end air strikes (piloted and drone) and to order U.S. forces to influence Afghanistan's and Pakistan's forces to respect peace deals (both signed and still under negotiation), rather than scuttling them with attacks. (Like the Pakistani forces just did in Swat.) Peace deals save lives. Important lives. Blessed lives. Lives of people who flat-out shouldn't die.

Thank you, Mr. Vice President.

Sincerely...

Dear Secretary Gates:

Please order an end to air strikes (piloted and drone) in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The whole countryside population is not out to get you and me. The number of civilians that shooting "Talibanis" from the air kills is unacceptable.

Actually, the number of "Talibanis" that we (and the armies we fund) shoot at in Afghanistan and Pakistan is unacceptable, too. (They aren't out to get you and me, either. They're no less likely to work with us in the event that they find themselves in charge of nukes than new leaders in the former U.S.S.R. were. They're human and know that nukes need to be kept under control, too.)

So please order an end to air strikes (piloted and drone), Mr. Secretary, and please order U.S. forces to influence Afghanistan's and Pakistan's forces to respect peace deals (both signed and still under negotiation), rather than scuttling them with attacks. (Like the Pakistani forces just did in Swat.) Peace deals save lives. Important lives. Blessed lives. Lives of people who flat-out shouldn't die.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary.

Sincerely...

Dear Secretary Clinton:

Please work with President Obama to end air strikes (piloted and drone) in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The whole countryside population is not out to get you and me. The number of civilians that shooting "Talibanis" from the air kills is unacceptable.

Actually, the number of "Talibanis" that we (and the armies we fund) shoot at in Afghanistan and Pakistan is unacceptable, too. (And, to put it in the words of the President, Madam Secretary, "dumb war." They aren't out to get you and me, either. They're no less likely to work with us in the event that they find themselves in charge of nukes than new leaders in the former U.S.S.R. were. They're human and know that nukes need to be kept under control, too.)

So please work with the President to end air strikes (piloted and drone) and to order U.S. forces to influence Afghanistan's and Pakistan's forces to respect peace deals (both signed and still under negotiation), rather than scuttling them with attacks. (Like the Pakistani forces just did in Swat.) Peace deals save lives. Important lives. Blessed lives. Lives of people who flat-out shouldn't die.

Thank you, Madam Secretary.

Sincerely...

Dear Senator ...:

Please do not support any supplemental funding for military action in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

The whole countryside population is not out to get you and me. The number of civilians that shooting "Talibanis" the way we're going after them is unacceptable.

Actually, the number of "Talibanis" that we (and the armies we fund) shoot at in Afghanistan and Pakistan is unacceptable, too. (And, to put it in the words of the President, Senator ..., "dumb war." They aren't out to get you and me, either. They're no less likely to work with us in the event that they find themselves in charge of nukes than new leaders in the former U.S.S.R. were. They're human and know that nukes need to be kept under control, too. Please feel free to crib this argument for the Senate floor or a meeting.)

We need to halt all this military action against the "Taliban" and only fund things that make all the branches of the U.S. government influence Afghanistan's and Pakistan's forces to respect peace deals (both signed and still under negotiation), rather than scuttling them with attacks. (Like the Pakistani forces just did in Swat.) Peace deals save lives. Important lives. Blessed lives. Lives of people who flat-out shouldn't die.

Thank you, Senator ... .

Sincerely...

Dear Representative...:

Please do not support any supplemental funding for military action in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

The whole countryside population is not out to get you and me. The number of civilians that shooting "Talibanis" the way we're going after them is unacceptable.

Actually, the number of "Talibanis" that we (and the armies we fund) shoot at in Afghanistan and Pakistan is unacceptable, too. (And, to put it in the words of the President, Representative ..., "dumb war." They aren't out to get you and me, either. They're no less likely to work with us in the event that they find themselves in charge of nukes than new leaders in the former U.S.S.R. were. They're human and know that nukes need to be kept under control, too.)

We need to halt all this military action against the "Taliban" and only fund things that make all the branches of the U.S. government influence Afghanistan's and Pakistan's forces to respect peace deals (both signed and still under negotiation), rather than scuttling them with attacks. (Like the Pakistani forces just did in Swat.) Peace deals save lives. Important lives. Blessed lives. Lives of people who flat-out shouldn't die.

Thank you, Representative ... .

Sincerely...

Thanks to Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque and to other bloggers for giving me the ideas I needed to put together a letter.

U.S. Senate Trying To Dump Big Agribusiness Products On Cuba

News tip--things look bad for Cuba. The US Senate is trying to dump agribusiness produce on them, I believe, looking at this article. (And of course, the article chooses the word "farmers" to describe those who spend their time thinking about how Cuba's "market" is "lucrative." Yeah right.)

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/05/04/Cuba-farm-export-bill-being-readied/UPI-10321241453909/

To see an example of how bad this could be for Cuba, read what has happened to tortilla flour in Mexico here. Note the part towards the end of the article where they talk about trade "agreements" making things worse.

I know this is a senate action, not a trade agreement, but it's still a horrible action either way, and it should be stopped.

The Soil And Health And Racism / Ethnocentrism

I got to thinking about The Soil and Health today, when I considered hyperlinking it in another journal.

It's frustrating, because that book does a great job telling fascinating anecdote after fascinating anecdote about studies of soil flourishing--full of rot bugs and microorganisms, and producing incredibly healthy plants and herbivores--but it does a horrible job crediting the toiling labor of thousands of brown people making the farming behind those anecdotes happen!

I got SO sick of hearing, "I did this, and it produced this result," and "Lady Winchesterly did that, and she reported that result." He did not. And she did not. Their hired hands did it. And I can tell, from the few sentences he writes where he does mention his hired hands, that it's just got to be too darned coincidental that all the author's friends who "are doing" such-and-such farming idea have wild successes mostly in places that have only had serious exposure to the powers that be in the West for a short amount of time. That is--that the hired hands of the West itself don't seem to produce the same results as the hired hands of the colonized world.

You know what I think? I think those brown hired hands had a lot of knowledge about how to farm with compost and/or other sustainable methods--despite some of the brown people in their country claiming to marvel at what Albert Howard was having done on his farms.

But the hired hands are rendered so damned insignificant to the successes of Howard and his friends when Howard writes about those stories.

I wish I could find a book with as thoroughly full of compost-heavy farming anecdotes as The Soil and Health but with full credit given to everybody who contributed knowledge (whether it was conscious or unconscious knowledge).