Africa

Another continent most of us not from the continent (or hemisphere) probably know little about.  I've made some effort, inspired by an African Studies Class, but still emphatically feel as if I understand almost nothing about African complexities -- some that seem to shift and some that seem to endure. I do know how "the West" tends to cover Africa in movies, shows and via the news: as a nightmare of epic proportions. Or as an area of endangered wildlife and starving, fighting people.  Jungles and deserts, mountains and Veld.  What is the human population of Africa in reality? More than one billion as of 2010.

Given the weird skew on things and even if you already live somewhere on the continent, where (else) might you want to visit, explore or live in Africa?   I've got some ideas for myself, but am more curious about ideas from anyone reading this.

Today's Rune: Signals.

How Does South American Register in North America?

Oliver Stone's South of the Border may not be everyone's cup of coffee, but it does beg the question: why does South America make so little impact in the minds of so many citizens of the USA? And what impact there is, why is it mostly negative? Language barrier? Cultural divide? Accepted bias?  Need to villify "the Other" to justify "the Familiar"?

In teaching Latin American Studies in Metro Detroit, I did a pre-test to see what the typical seventeen or eighteen year old knew about Latin America (a broader construct than South America). It came down to drugs, food, music, dance and dictators -- a good snapshot of what they'd soaked up by osmosis from parents and TV.  I'd like to think learning anything from this class was enriching, but who knows?

I look forward to seeing South of the Border with an open mind. How about you?  In the last year -- even if you live in the region -- what has been your "take" on South America or Latin America?  Where would you like to visit or live there?

Today's Rune: Partnership.

Life. Space. Boundary. Zone.

It's been a decade since the release of Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, thirty-two years since Hubert Selby, Jr.'s original novel version came out. Powerfully bleak, bleakly powerful. One way to look at them both is through the lens of Kurt Lewin's (1890-1947) force field concept. In motion, a person projects life space toward a goal (in pursuit of happiness, stability, power, peace or whatever) and arcs across helping or hindering forces at the boundary zone. The four unfortunate main characters in Requiem drive toward a fantastic (or mundane) goal, only to spiral downward due to "hindering forces." 













But what exactly are hindering forces? A person can be "his own worst enemy" in a lot of ways.  There are also enemies and rivals, real or imagined; there is bad luck and accident or illness or addiction; laziness; situational constraint; indifference; lack of imagination; "vegetable torpor" (a Woody Allen quip); timidity, temerity; reality disconnect -- "living in a dream world."  Hence the need for a requiem.  And let's not forget epic catastrophe and in the "we all get there in the end" department -- mortality. After losing the dream, a requiem for the corpus. Our corpus, our dream.

Today's Rune: Fertility.

The Air-Conditioned Bunker

Kulchur 5 (Spring 1962). By way of William S. Burroughs, an attention-grabbing cover quicker to meet the eyes than the images below, of air-conditioned bunkers along the Maginot Line and so on. 

In Iraq and Afghanistan during the hot months, troops hang out in air-conditioned positions, drinking bottled water and surfing the net, listening to iTunes. 

The history of air-conditioned bunkers, tunnels and underground passages goes back nearly a century.  Once huddled down there, who'd want to come out into the open? 

Air-conditioned underground tunnels connected various elements of the system -- they still do. Beneath shopping malls, universities and whole chunks of cities, and of course beneath government facilities.   Then again, the typical shopping mall is a sort of air-conditioned delusion!

"Mr. President, I would not rule out the chance to preserve a nucleus of human specimens. It would be quite easy at the bottom of some of our deeper mineshafts. The radioactivity would never penetrate a mine some thousands of feet deep. And in a matter of weeks, sufficient improvements in dwelling space could easily be provided." -- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).

Let's not forget to check out Victor Bockris' With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker (1996).  Hard to beat the voice of Burroughs.  My maternal grandmother Catherine and her brother Curt spoke in similar cadences -- always enthralling.

Today's Rune: Wholeness.   

The Air-Conditioned Nightmare

As of 2010, it's probably safe to say that a lot of people in "highly developed countries" take AC for granted -- when it's working. We kinda forget that modern air conditioning is only a little more than a century old. Sort of like the aeroplane and the automobile.  A North Carolinian coined the term air conditioning -- Stuart W. Cramer (1868-1940) of Thomasville.  Even though the concept goes way back to "ancient times," I'm talking electrical AC.  Requires electricity.  Makes hot, humid places more bearable -- and more thickly populated. Makes movie theatres cool, and cars.  [A truly interesting book: Gail Cooper's Air-Conditioning America: Engineers and the Controlled Environment, 1900-1960 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002)].













Need we go into the downside of AC and its cultural outgrowths? One probably doesn't have to move beyond Henry Miller's blistering nonfiction work, The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, (New Directions, 1945, 1970), to catch a glimpse. Still, while Miller scores any number of direct hits on American consumerism and general shortsighted tomfool greediness, I'm most definitely a "fan" of AC on hot, humid days. How about you?

Today's Rune: Signals.

Greensboro: Buildings and Food

Greensboro's downtown S. H. Kress & Co. Building, not far from the F. W. Woolworth.  These were anchor retailers in many cities large and small throughout the United States -- back when free standing surburban shopping malls and airport terminal malls were matters for science fiction.  The Kress buildings were and are impressive, and have been mostly reutilized.  Kress five and dime stores had lunch counters and were also, like the Woolworth counters, part of the sit-in movement.   











Have you noted any Kress or Woolworth buildings in your nearby cities? If so, what are they being used for now? One Woolworth building I know of has a smoky jazz club in its basement.

Today's Rune: Defense.  

Samsø, Denmark: Truly Beyond Petroleum

A model for the world: Samsø, Denmark, population 4,300. Energy self-sufficient thanks to a cooperative alternative energy system developed since 1997. Something to be proud of, take hope in, be a part of, spread around the world. Community initiatives, leadership, follow-through. Let's get going! The Danes have been at the task since the 1970s. The USA dropped the ball when Ronald Reagan ousted Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election. But: thirty years late is better than never . . .













My Dad and I caught an update on Samsø thanks to an episode (5) of PBS' Need to Know aired on Friday, June 4, 2010 (with John Larson).  Seeing that and a re-broadcast of an interview with Neil Young by Charlie Rose were both synergistically inspiring.

Photos courtesy of the Samsø Energy Academy:
   http://www.energiakademiet.dk/default_uk.asp

To mix metaphors wildly in the wind mill: crying over spilt oil won't amount to a hill of beans if we don't take off in another direction -- and "right quick."

Today's Rune: Movement.