Of Love and Tereré

Quote of the Day

2007-09-25T14:08:00.000-07:00

No matter how dark the clouds become, they can never stain the sky.

Arrived in Asuncion

2007-08-21T12:43:00.000-07:00

After a 38 hour trip, I arrived in Asuncion again with a bad cold, but it didn't matter! I'm so happy to be here and wondering how things have changed. Am going to get a massage from Arnaldo's favorite masseur and work out some of the soreness from the trip and flu. We just had hamburgers and mashed potatoes last night and relaxed with some TV. I'm excited to see my friends and destress completely.

4 degrees C in Buenos Aires

2007-08-20T07:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I made it to Buenos Aires with no problem and just bought my ticket to Asunción--our landing was delayed by 30 minutes do to fog and cold weather conditions. It's easy to forget what winter means seeing people bundled up tightly. The airport is crazy, there was a line of about 400 people waiting to check in to Gol airlines. There are also monks walking around the airport, young men walking around in deep brown robes with hoods.

I have about four hours before my flight so I really should get a quick bite to eat and go back and stand in line. No idea all these things would take so much time, I had thought about hopping into downtown before my flight but that's not how it works.

commercial

2007-06-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

This is a cute commercial from Vietnam:

http://www.adrianvandevelde.com/popup.asp?ID=54

Thursday

2007-06-14T06:11:00.000-07:00

It's noon and I've wandered into sweetland after an indulgent law and order episode! way to avoid the dissertation! it's so beautiful today, if we didn't have the workshop this afternoon, I'd play hooky!

sunflower

2007-06-13T14:08:00.001-07:00

sunflowered opening towards warmth
of itself moving towards brightness
although in one day the petals open
they don't know the burning hastens their seed

My slut score

2007-06-04T13:01:00.000-07:00

So, thanks 'Ness for this test....I see we're equal on the slutometer. At 38 that seems about right. Hmmm, no stories for this blog though ;-)

Writer's Block

2007-05-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

I'm surprised someone hasn't made a little wooden block to give to writers, or maybe they have. I'm perfectly capable of writing (hence this blogpost) and what kills me is that I'm actually interested in the topic! But there's lots to slog through, and it's hard to remember that writing is actually part of the thinking process, not sitting around staring at the computer screen. Although taking judicious walks or long showers can help. So can that interesting time of reverie between sleep and waking up. OK, back to the chapter.

On Falwell

2007-05-21T11:03:00.000-07:00

Last week, I became annoyed that defenders of Falwell on Craigslist would claim that his detractors were simply "intolerant of intolerance" as if that were a kind of character flaw. Apparently tolerance means that one should just keep one's mouth shut at religious, racial and sexual bigotry, as if disagreement with bigots were a denial of -their- right to free speech or that just because he was a 'religious' man, one should respect his position. If those people are somehow not bigots, they forget that many of us have suffered because of this man's views and influence in politics. By the way, if you want an example of a religious woman whose conservative views did not hinder her from making human connections and being compassionate, see "The Eyes of Tammy Faye." So I posted back, and here it is. You get the point although I might write it differently now.

about intolerance of intolerance

it's not like that man was my racist freaky great uncle who I have to listen to at Christmas. Falwell made it his profession to be intolerant. He made money off of it. He wanted to make policy out of his views--policy that limits other people's freedom in the name of his view of righteousness. If people take their view of righteousness and live it out themselves, what can I do about it? But when they want to make laws and policies that affect my life, of course I'm 'intolerant' of the intolerant--because people are the target of -their- intolerance. People like and unlike me, but people who would otherwise be able to live their own damned lives in more freedom without interference from a government that wants us all to be a certain kind of 'good'. Jesus, save me from your so-called followers!

simple happiness

2007-05-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

Princesa, Arnaldo's and my Yorkie in Asuncio'n, is having puppies tonight. She's had two and is tired but apparently there are more on the way. I hope they and she are all OK. She has brought so much happiness to us, she's a good girl! I know in her doggie heart that when she sees me she knows I love her.

Ann Arbor, Inclusive Community?

2007-05-11T15:16:00.000-07:00

Ann Arbor should be an inclusive community. If Kalamazoo, why not Ann Arbor? The "inclusive communities" program is an initiative of the National League of Cities which urges cities to declare themselves inclusive as a positive value. There was a news item about the city of Bluffton, IN, which declared itself an inclusive city--the mayor had received an anonymous note against a local Sikh businessman and college professor who had opened a restaurant. "In Bluffton, we don't wear turbans and we speak English." The mayor was shocked and invited the Sikh man to stand with him at an official city event, at which they received a standing ovation. The city joined the initiative and has posted signs to that effect at all entrances to the town. Ann Arbor is the kind of town that has that heart. I urge Ann Arbor to join this coalition of cities that have decided that they will stand for the values of openness and inclusiveness for all citizens.

La vie de chien!

2007-04-29T07:24:00.000-07:00

Ann Arbor citizens deserve an off-leash dog park. In the large emerald necklace park system that graces Ann Arbor, it is a CRIME to play frisbee with your off-leash dog. Has anyone tried to play frisbee with a leashed dog? While leash laws serve an important function in society, protecting children and adults from dog attacks (having suffered a vicious Rottweiler attack I understand the danger), it is also important to allow dogs space to run free, play, and get their needed exercise apart from the walk. This keeps them happy and healthy. For intelligent commentary on the issue, see arbordog.blogspot.com

Back to blogging?

2007-04-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

Well, since V has started up again (willfulness.blogspot.com) I decided to follow her to blogland. At least it's a way to make sure I write at least a sentence every few days and contribute something to the blogosphere. So why not? Right now I'm in KY at my parents' house listening to Shania Twain (wtf?) and planning to start the journey north tomorrow afternoon, perhaps to stop in on Jonathan and Deborah. It's almost 10 and I have much to do (finish Michicagoan! check J's acknowledgements!) before I get on the road. It's good to be home, I'm always struck by Kentucky's natural beauty--the verdant hills, the forests and streams--from the Ohio border all the way down here, it's lovely!

Mugabe

2006-08-15T19:54:00.000-07:00

Today the BBC reports that a man was arrested for insulting Mugabe. Luckily such a "crime" is a misdemeanor in Zimbabwe still but for the record: FUCK ROBERT MUGABE. FUCK HIM. He can go to Hell. Pretty safe for me to write as my personal itinerary doesn't head to Zimbabwe but I think it is a message many of us can agree with.

Asuncion memory moment....

2006-06-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

A picture of me in Asuncion, Paraguay (where are the accent marks here?). Looking a little professorial, I hope. You can see the amazing blue of the sky and the red clay roofs here. I was standing on the balcony of our little pied-a-terre (pied-au-ciel?), two tiny rooms where we were paying all of 30 dollars a month to live in April 2005.

A simple pleasure

2006-06-08T22:37:00.000-07:00

Serendipity in the drugstore. I just picked up a pair of Okabashi sandals at Walgreens yesterday. I decided that the Germanic look to their Milan sandal would be appropriate with dark socks at the English language institute that I am teaching at for my summer job, at least for one day while I contemplated buying new shoes (my old ones broke through at the sole). Ahh, the power of marketing--a cheap price and a promise that I would be able to join a 200,000 strong group of enthusiasts. As I drove home, I felt sheepish--yet once again, an impulse buy driven by marketing and the promise of commodified "community". Would there be any material reality behind the cute but still utilitarian Okabashi copy? Did I ever care about reflexology? The reflexological foot massages I had were actually painful...

As I walked to work, wondering how the sandaled look would fly (they would have been severely verboten at my ESL job in Boston), small tickles of pleasure swirled around in my feet. They were happy to have a supportive but not rock-hard arch and then, I noticed, as my feet rutched slightly back and forth with each step, that the "massage beads" design to these sandals were massaging muscles I had forgotten were there. As my feet relaxed, I noticed that it was as if they were relieved of stress that had become so commonplace I hadn't noticed it anymore. The material experience of wearing the shoe exceeded and transformed the modest expectations set up. I hadn't heard of these shoes before, I had no knowledge of the kinds of people who wear them--I wasn't sure if they would fit my minimal style imprint or if they would make me look middle-aged, or desperately cheap. But as I walked into town, the experience of unexpectable contact with the sole of my foot dissolved such worries into forgetting.

My work shoes were quite comfortable, clearance Hush Puppy loafers, but they didn't give me pleasure. I had found them so "comfortable" that I wore them down over the past year and a half. Or, perhaps, had I become numb to the discomfort my feet were feeling? As I asked myself this question, I had little fantasies about buying Okas for everyone I know, but maybe they wouldn't have my experience. The more enthusiastic I wax, the more skeptical my best friends tend to be.

So, gentle reader, should you happen upon this blog, check some Okabashi out, either at your local drugstore, or online. The basic ones can be had for 10-15 dollars and in one day, believe me, what you might get out of them far exceeds what you pay for them. I've been a loyal Brazilian Havaiana wearer for about three years now--indoors and out, on occasion, but I haven't experienced this kind of pleasure outside of a foot massage. We forget about our feet until they hurt, we put up with slightly uncomfortable shoes or at the very least, expect our shoes to feel neutral--not to make you feel good. The Okabashi (also known in their wilder, hip citygirl style as "Shoes that love you: Oka b.") are about little moments of pleasure in your day that might make a big difference.

Back to Blogging

2006-03-14T22:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been back at Michigan and have been back for a couple of months. It has been alternatively good and frustrating to be back. Part of the frustration is simply coming back to a more stable existence after two-and-a-half years--in Paraguay and in Paris. I like this title so I'm keeping my previous posts up but continuing here.

Tonight I watched Cache' with Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche. While it is richly filmed and well acted, I found it frustrating and absurd which apparently makes me something of a Pharisee amongst my peers. I do prefer the simple resolutions of classic film noir, even as those subverted the typical "happy ending". To be subjected to a thinly veiled allegory of bourgeois France's repression of its colonial violence (vis-a-vis the Algerians, et al) makes me ill, frankly. Why am I disappointed that it takes a German (Haneke) to place France's colonial history on the Freudian couch of personality and why did I find the ending of the film so distressing, when it clearly indicts the modern French bourgeois of deceiving (himself), repressing the truth and sleeping at the end, asking his son not to be so hard on him, suspending the resolution for an exposure of his unconsciousness?

It isn't that I suffer from some Francophobie, not at all. Just that I expect more from them--not only does this film deal brilliantly with the return of the repressed (violence against Algerians), but the movie itself is a symptom of the repressed topic of France's colonial history, recently re-enacted with France's intervention (or attempt at regime change) in Cote d'Ivoire and (returned) in part with the youth riots last year in France (darned American blogger software, I can't find my accents). This film (among few others) is too little, too late.

Flashback to an Agence France Presse exhibition of French photojournalism in the Bibliotheque Nationale, winter 2005. French photojournalism of the highest quality. And unconsciously hypernationalist with NO consideration of France's difficult relationship with its present and future colonies, internal and external populations. Had the exhibit been produced in the US, it would have been as right-wing enough for the Republican Party. Note the vicious struggles over historical presentations in the Smithsonian. The photos on display were uniformly of violence, shock and poverty abroad, in the US as elsewhere. France, however, was simply portrayed in terms of male political kinship and stability (Sarkozy, Mitterand, de Gaulle) and the reduxed narrative of the French liberation of Paris after WWII (which, one should remember, the US allowed in order to grant a measure of dignity to French politics). In an exhibition filling two halls, there was ONE small photo in a corner recalling the end of the war with Algeria. What made this exhibit so frustrating was the lack of a critical self-consciousness of France's position and actions in the world. When France invaded Cote d'Ivoire (not defending Gbagbo here, btw), there was NO criticism of France in the press, no anti-invasion demonstrations, no critical discourse or note of such discourse in mainstream media. Certainly Gbagbo is easy to hate, a racist dictator who foments xenophobic violence among the disaffected sectors of his country. However, should France so easily invade former colonies without any public debate? While in certain spheres (the Middle East, for example), France has maintained a pacific stance, in other, more hidden areas, France is also a power with neo-colonialist and deeply embedded capitalist relations in the modern world. Was it too much to ask their bourgeoisie to at least debate this more openly if they take the US to task?

So where my discomfort? If common European visions indict the US (correctly) for being such a strong power in the world, for engaging in a murderous and neo-colonialist war with Iraq and being a bully (I'm not defending US policy), then a modicum of self-reflexivity is in order, and this is only slowly coming to France. As Latour has recently pointed out, French universalism has given way to French exceptionalism of a kind that was unthinkable only 10 years ago (check out his pamphlet on www.prickly-paradigm.com, free to download pdf). One might wish that a reflexive universalism would inspire debate and the reinvigoration of democracy in France and abroad. Unfortunately, Sarkozian style politics and anti-Muslim hard-handedness belies the commonalities between right-wing US politics and those in Europe.

During the movie the 1961 massacre of Algerians calling for an end to colonialism was referenced. While the police chief Papon who was behind that massacre was sent to jail in 1998, it was only for the deportation of French Jews over 15 years earlier the murder of Algerians. Pas de justice pour les Algeriens massacres? It is precisely these skeletons in the closet that Haneke's movie points to and yet in proposing no path towards resolution, the movie encourages a certain apocalypticism, born of the jouissance that believes that we are seeing the "desert of the real." The danger of this jouissance is not its lack of control, the jouir of the jouissance, but in its own impersonal vision that constantly re-inscribes the very violence it decries. There must be a place, even imperfect, for empathy. Empathy may well be the weak and therefore failing messianic power Benjamin describes. Revenge and infinite hate was not.

It was frustrating to be called out for living in a racist order (the US) while living in a society where riding the Metro while Arab subjected riders of a wider class swath more often to daily police control. It was hard to see a country that prides itself on providing social services to the poor busting immigrants for selling vegetables to other immigrants for cheaper prices. It was frustrating to see a country with one of the most critical academic traditions be silent and inactive in the face of their own country's recent invasion without critical debate on any of the well-known academic discussion shows (also obliquely referenced in the movie). It is frustrating to see an allegory of France's colonial past only coming up now, when we have been dealing with Vietnam (L'Indochine) for decades with the painful implications of those processes.

I am far from the first to point out that it is often the very faults in ourselves that we find irritating in others. If the US is often rightly damned for its exceptionalisms, Europeans should also examine themselves for the implicit virtues they claim in comparison. If "Cache" really represents a beginning of coming to terms with France's difficult past, it has been a long time coming.

Humility to Humiliation

2005-09-06T14:58:00.000-07:00

So last Sunday, I was at a party in the street, since the Multimillionaire Bingo was cancelled due to rain (unfortunately in Guaraníes, not dollars, but still). Lots of people dancing and drinking heavily with music pumping out from pickup trucks outfitted with large stereos. I ended up standing around on the side next to some friends and was introduced as an American. One drunk Paraguayan asked me suddenly, "Why are we always humiliated?" I didn't know what he meant so he explained that Paraguayans were humble and poor. He used both words and talked about how poor all Paraguayans are. I told him that not all Paraguayans are poor, especially in Asunción, there are several extremely rich Paraguayans that have lots of money. But he said that all Paraguayans were humble and poor and they are always humiliated. I wish I could have recorded him, but it struck me how he was alternating between humilde and humillados, especially in reference to being here, where there are many, slightly more affluent Brazilians. His friend started a fight with some people he thought was Brazilian and one of my friends hinted that he might have a gun. In fact, a man with a gun rode by on a motorcycle and shot into the air, but I am more used to that now, so I wasn't worried. But humble and humiliated.

Paraguayans in the countryside are often proud of being "humble" or praise others for being humble people. "Ese señor es humilde" I have heard as a point of praise over and over about various people, and a Brazilian living here noted to me with a sense of shock perhaps that Paraguayans were proud of humility. Pride, humility and something akin to both privacy and shame seem to be highly prized qualities. But neither are they so innocent, as they have a political dimension that is rarely commented upon.

The CP (Colorado Party, in power a bit longer than the Chinese Communist Party) has effectively used "humility" and the peasant ideal as a powerful image that helped co-opt a large majority of Paraguayans into the party ideologically, while high-level Party operatives have effectively helped themselves to the riches of the State and society in classic kleptocratic fashion. And the constant monitoring of everyday bodily grooming under the Stroessner regime has created or at least heavily reinforced certain ideas about masculinity and the body that are only slowly changing (no long hair or beards for men--especially beards, since Castro had a beard--beards might also mean you are Jewish (oh my). If you were a young man with a beard or long hair, you could and would be picked up by the police and forcibly shaved and given a haircut.

But back to humility.

Welcome

2005-09-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

Hi all. Decided to put up a blog to do something during fieldwork, currently in the department of Canindeyú, Paraguay near the border of Brazil and downtown Asunción, the lovely and underappreciated capital of Paraguay. At the moment I'm in Canindeyú. I'll be here until December 8, 2005, thanks to the marvellous Wenner-Gren foundation (wennergren.org).

My current and overriding interests: Sertanejo and polka music (they are big down here), Peircean semiotics, language ideologies, dialogic emergence of culture, "ethnicity" and the ethnopoetics of everyday interaction, cultural contact, avoiding gunfire (just last Sunday...), trying my hand at basic French cooking, avoiding the large and small insects that live in the ocean of air in my little house (pictures to be uploaded soon), listening to community radio here in the subtropics, social theory, and...what I hope to be reading soon once I get back to the US, On the Problem of Empathy, by Edith Stein, one of the top students and assistants to Husserl who developed a phenomenology of the Other (apparently similar to Levinas but without the murderous desire) and who later became a Catholic saint after dying in Auschwitz (St. Teresia Benedicta ad Cruce). My hope in reading her is to see what connection there may be between her vision of embodied empathy and an socially informed theory of semiosis....hey, it's my blog. It won't all be like this. I also love listening to the BBC, which, alongside the Internet is a major distraction from going out and talking to people.