baseball, gadaffi, occupy wall street

i don't have much to write at the moment, but wanted to share a few things that are trending through this blogger's mind!

• Baseball : for the last couple of weeks, i've been infatuated with baseball. actually ive been infactuated for the last couple of (10 or so) years. but ive been watching american baseball at the oddest of hours (start time 2AM in joburg) for the last couple of weeks. many people have remarked at the amount of dedication that takes. i think its mostly stupidity, but i dont know any other way! the reason i'm paying special attention this year is that my team, the st. louis cardinals, are in the playoffs (now world series). they won the world series last in 2006. and i still remember every moment of that memorable time. this year's playoffs/world series has the potential to match or eclipse that storied 2006 season. see, this season the cards were hit with so many injuries to key players. sometime in august, after a string of heartbreaking losses, i stopped intently following them (a bad fan i know). many that i knew (as well as other teams and media) left them for dead as they continued to pile on loss after loss. but sometime in late august or early september, something clicked. they started winning a whole bunch of games. mathematically, however, they were only a couple losses to being completely eliminated from playoff contention. but something strange and magical happened. as they continued to win games, the team they were chasing for the extra wild card spot, the atlanta braves, started losing a massive number of their games. these two teams, moving in opposite direction when once they were far apart in the standing, finally closed the gap and were tied on the 2nd to last regular season game. it would take a win by the cardinals and a loss by the braves, several hours later, to clinch a playoff spot in magical fashion. after they (barely) made it to the playoffs, they went ahead a beat the best team in baseball (philadelphia) with their imposing pitching staff, then they beat the team that beat them in their division (milwaukee) with their imposing lineup or batters. now they face a very difficult team (texas), tied 1-1 in a best of 7 series. a win would be just way to magical, way too special, for a team who everyone once gave up on.

• Gadaffi : someone asked me what i feel about his death. after not a lot of thought, i responded: relieved, its about time. it seems that after the prolonged fight and the many friends and networks that gadaffi has across the world, the only resolution that remained was to kill him. interestingly, the misguided south african government put out a statement by the president saying that it wouldve prefered that he be put to trial by the ICC instead of killed. hmm, SA foreign policy never seizes to amaze me sometimes. wrong on cote d'ivoire, wrong on egypt, wrong on libya. again. first SA votes with europeans on the air attacks. then says, no they were fooled and the air strikes have gone beyond the agreement (this of course, after they were scolded by the BRIC countries, most importantly China). then they refuse to side with the so-called "rebels" or recognise them. then the bad man is killed and they say he should have been tried by the ICC. this is the same international criminal court that they complain of being too one-sided in its witch hunt of bad african leaders. this is the same court that they could partner with to bring the sudanese tyrant of a president, omar al-bashir, to justice after being accused and wanted for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, embezzlement, etc. but they refuse to. right. anyway, back to gadaffi, while i am relieved that the man is dead, i refuse to celebrate his death like others do. i'm not saying they are wrong to do so. perhaps they have very good reasons to rejoice. however, just like the death of bin laden earlier in the year, this to me is a solemn moment, a moment to reflect, and more importantly, a moment to consider the future and what it means, a golden opportunity to re-build.

• Occupy Wall Street :  this movement is fascinating, to say the least! I couldn't get enough of reading about this, especially because every news article, every person interviewed, has a different view on what is actually being protested and the merits of it. ive always thought of myself fully business-oriented. at the same time i would also like to think of myself as people-oriented. ive argued many times that it shouldnt be mutually exclusive that what's best for business is best for people. i still believe that. which is why on the one hand i can sympathise with those who feel that wall street has screwed them over with bad (to put it mildly) investments of their money, shady dealings, and bailouts that at times simply went to  the pockets of the perpetrators through bonuses. on the other hand, i can sympathise with those on wall street or in 'the corporation'. many are simply trying to make the most money for their clients (as they have been charged to do). yes, without wall street or big business, we wouldnt have the massive collapse in world economies that we've experienced over the last few years, but without wall street, many would also not have jobs to lose in the first place. big business has created a lot of job. yes, even manually-created bubbles such as the housing bubble or the internet bubble created millions of jobs and many are grateful for it. bill clinton would not have won a 2nd term if not for it. what is disturbing about the occupy wall street movement, however, is in its very nature. it was conceived at the grassroots- a movement largely leader-less, addressing the concerns of the masses and not of the few. i love it. i really do. but at some point you need a leader. you need a clear message. in search of that message, many have turned to a single word: anger. we're angry so we protest. ok, that'll get you noticed, but then what? look at the COPE party in south africa. the leaders were angry that their voices werent heard so they formed another party. that party was doomed from the start, as it could not decide on a platform or key positions on key issues and is now largely in the background. and now occupy wall street faces the same hurdles. many across the US and across the world have taken advantage of this movement and now have made it their own. ive got no clue what SA is protesting (one account says its protesting against capitalism. borring. another says it seeks a different approach. what approach then? and approach to what? gimme an effing break.). but this is inevitable. when a movement is ill-defined, it risks the real possibility of being hijacked by other movements, or other individuals, in hopes of self-gain. i look forward to seeing what comes of this movement. my opinion: i think people in the US should be thinking seriously of how to break this constitutional "barrier" against a third party. i would love to see a third party in the US that addresses real issues and does not cater to the norm and the tired arguments of the 19th century! i do not want the tea party; i don't want the green party or the reform party. i want a party serious about thinking intellectually and outside the linear line of american politics. a party not afraid to side with another party if ideologically-sound. a party that address the real issues in real and practical ways and not one so far fetched that only crazy people would follow. i'm tired of stalemates. time to check!

never forget

Maybe because its the 10yr anniversary. maybe because Osama bin laden was brought to justice this year. maybe because death, and near-death experiences, had been on my mind particularly much this past week. I'm not sure but for some reason, this 9/11 felt a bit different from the rest. 


10 years ago, benjamin netanyahu, former and future prime minister of Israel, after what had been the most shocking, surprising and devastating attack on the US on US soil (at least of my lifetime), declared: "Today, we are all americans - in grief, as in defiance" Many around the world would go on to echo that sentiment, including the influential french (yes, french!) newspaper, le monde. but what does this seemingly hyperbolic sentiment really mean? Was it simply europe standing by its long lost brother in a sign of profound solidarity, the same way the US had stood by it in 1962 when JFK declared himself a Berliner? maybe. i'm not sure. but i can remember at the time, in the fall of 2001, it felt good to know that america was not alone. others would rally behind it in a time of mourning, of grief, of loss, and of pain. 


10 years ago, i remember being shocked and horrified, more so speechless, at the sight of the towers collapsing live on television. in tears of God-knows-what as friends and classmates tried desperately, and mostly unsuccessfully, to reach loved ones in and around new york. i remember the following day, trying desperately to think of what good could come out of this. would the country rally together like we've never seen before, the way schools *almost* rallied together after columbine? would the country use this as a way to reach out to foreigners and those of other faiths and embrace them in the way the country was built to do? or would it bar down its doors, live in fear and isolation, reach new levels of intolerance?


10 years ago, i remember discussing this with my friends, lecturers and family. no one had the answer, but everyone wondered the same thing. there were so many directions to take, and we only hoped the country would take the right one. not content to wait for someone to tell us what to do, we began to conjure up ideas of how we would remember this moment. as someone too-conservative-for-my-liberal-friends and too-liberal-for-my-conservative-friends, i decided an appropriate response would be one of tolerance and love, giving back in any way we can. i campaigned for and advocated teach for america, peace corps, missions work...anything to show that while some may despise the way america does business, the genuineness and philanthropy of americans cannot be denied.


10 years ago, i, and many of my friends, felt what the new york times described as a "heartfelt desire to be changed", to change things. we wanted to be called on to do more for our country, to make this "senseless horror count for something....there was courage and unity on the streets of the city and all across the country". truly, on september 12, this feeling of unity was felt around the world. 

so maybe, that was what netanyahu and many others meant by "we are all americans"? that the world was unified with americans. not simply that, but perhaps, also, the world was at a turning point, ready to be changed. ready to embrace the change that was apparent on september 12. the bombings of 9/11 affected more than just americans. 372 is the number of those that lost their lives in the trade towers who were not americans. the wars that followed 9/11, the bombings, the attacks, the fighting made this a global fight on all corners of the world. it wasn't long before my family would feel the effects of 9/11. because we are all americans, my uncle, my nigerian uncle, chose to join the US army. he was sent to afghanistan shortly after. leaving behind a daughter and pregnant wife, he went to serve a strange country, yet one he believed in, this time in iraq. now, he's in north korea, still serving this country, because we are all americans.

uncle serves as an example of how we wanted to remember and commemorate 9/11. ready to leave his family behind to serve a cause greater than himself. to show others in his unit and across the globe that americans can be a force for good. he didnt go to war to kill. he went to serve. one of the most humble people i know, he went to counsel, to teach, to work, to defend and to learn. politics aside, there are lessons to be learned from this attack, just like there are lessons to be learned in any act of violence or terrorism. i just hope its not too late.

"may God bless the memories of those we lost"

post-post: i was overwhelmed to the point of numbness with the coverage of the 10th anniversary. I sat glued to the cnn and al jazeera, with my laptop on my lap shifting from the new york times to cnn.com to pretty much anything else i could find. so i share some with you:

My Unfinished Business: Keller, a news writer, turned opinion editor, turned executive editor recounts his and other journalists' defense of the defenseless war in Iraq and questions what he would/could have done differently.

Loss and Hope: Remebering life on September 12.

The 9/11 Decade: The most complete, indepth and surprisingly fairly balanced coverage of the 10th anniversay. Al Jazeera is on a league of its own! 

Portraits of a Changed America: Perhaps this should be portraits of a changed world. One could argue it needs to include photos of atrocities caused by american troops in the world after 9/11. Also a good story:  http://us.cnn.com/2011/US/09/10/911.changed.america/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

osama dies. so what?

 by now, i'm sure you've all heard "the news". i was awakened this morning by a friend who simply texted: "they finally got the man"! in a frantic panic, not knowing which "the man" he was referring to, I quickly checked my sources while texting back for further clarification. anyway, needless to say, it was no cause for real alarm. nonetheless it was big news. really big. but how big really? and whats the significance? obviously the significance to US politicians - obama's struggling image particularly - as well as the victims of 9/11 and those they left behind is huge. but is there any significance of this to me?

although no longer living in the states, i was around during 9/11 and the aftermath(s). with that i fully expected to feel something - anything - with this news. but to my surprise, i felt very little if anything at first. no big relief. no celebratory mood. no urgency to call family and friends. almost nothing. i think i was a little relieved that one of the more dangerous terrorists, one who cared little for human life, had been removed from the face of the earth. but it was an uneasy relief. knowing full well, this is was and is not a one man show. he leaves behind a whole army of young and old that follow his philosophy and values. he leaves behind a legacy followed, explicitly or implicitly, by countless political and religious leaders and millions of youth. i would love for his death to mean that that philosophy had received a serious blow to the nuts which would disable it from any thoughts of reproduction. but i would also like to believe that i will wake up tomorrow a multi-billionaire.

as i drove around today, i wondered why i hadnt felt the way i thought i should have. and i think it finally clicked. as with many emotional points of my life, i had somehow found a place to shove the memories of 9/11 and refused to let them out to surface. as i began to allow these thoughts to resurface, my mind went straight to the morning of 9/11. as i was leaving my dorm room for class that morning, i caught a glimpse, in the common room, of the same picture above of the twin towers being brought down. these images were played nonstop throughout the day. i remember my class that morning was one called "Present moral problems"- a modern philosophy course where we debated current and pressing issues that seldom had a right and wrong. that morning, no one knew what was going on, so the lecturer tried having a normal class, but quickly sent us out as people became more frantic. i remember speaking to friends from new york who couldn't reach their families on the phone to find out if they were alright. i remember comforting friends and classmates (i'm actually not sure what i said or couldve said in that situation). I remember the entire school gathering on the quad and holding candles and praying for those who lost their lives and whose families had been affected. forever. in a moment like no other -  a moment of solidarity and togetherness - i had never felt more american (with or without papers!). you sensed a feeling that we were in this together. we had a common enemy and that day, as the french president proclaimed, "we are all americans".

these thoughts remained with me for quite some time. i wanted revenge as much as i wanted justice; i wanted consolation for those who were left behind as much as i wanted those taken to rest in peace. i wanted a rebuilding of american values and identity as much as a tearing down of the hate and institutions that had propelled the terrorists.

those perhaps europhic feelings didn't last long as people went back to their normal lives, heeding the foolhearted advice of the foolhearted president who told us to simply "go shopping". columbine was supposed to unite schools against violence and teach students the values of acceptance and tolerance. it was supposed to open the eyes of teacher, student and administrator. it was supposed to entrench the words of mandela: never again! it fell far short of that. 9/11 was supposed to unite americans against violence and terrorism and teach to all the values of religious tolerance and the true meaning of being an american. it was supposed to be a moment when we all starred fear, injustice, hatred, intolerance, religious slavery with bold eyes and proclaim: never again! it again fell far short of that.

so as i thought more of the events today. i did eventually start to feel something. as the memories resurfaced, i couldn't help the chocking up that ultimately materialised. the memories of friends concerned for loved ones. of mates from new york recalling stories of near misses. of images of everyday heroes and heroines joining in the rubble of the twin towers to assist any way they could. i couldn't help but think: is this another opportunity to learn our lessons? if so, what lessons this time? i argue that we should strive to learn the same forgotten lessons of 10 years back. that we strive to shun violence and fundamentalism at its core. that we seek tolerance - in politics, in religion, in 'race', in thought, and otherwise. that we seek to find what unites us rather than scrape at what divides us. [i can start by replacing the "we" with an "I", i guess...] is that too much too hope for? i'm re-learning how to hope these days, but even I think it might be...


post-post: for more info about how 'the news' might impact the US, middle east, war on terror, etc...read Mr. Kristoff.

(slightly) more b-obama

to water your pallets: just wanna give a heads-up that this blog will be experiencing some dramatic and some not-so-dramatic changes in the future...think next year and beyond. so watch this space!

on other news, actually old news. more about what i discussed in the last post. read about how most americans seem to be misinformed and how i firmly believe that obama needs a new spin doctor. or better yet, just communicate to americans with the passion and clarity you once had.

"Frightened by joblessness, the American people rewarded the party that not only opposed the stimulus but also blocked the extension of unemployment benefits. Alarmed by a ballooning national debt, they rewarded the party that not only transformed budget surpluses into budget deficits but also proposes to inflate the debt by hundreds of billions with a permanent tax cut for the least needy two per cent. Frustrated by what they see as inaction, they rewarded the party that not only fought every effort to mitigate the crisis but also forced the watering down of whatever it couldn't block."

read more: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/11/15/101115taco_talk_hertzberg

~won't the real obama please stand up~

i realise that obama (lovingly called b-obama in this space, if you recall) has been painfully absent in my blog entries of late. so, to keep from forgetting the forgotten, this entry appears. tho, i guess you can't really call obama the forgotten. he is very well on the hearts and minds of most americans and many many foreigners (e.g. south africans who do not fail to ask me what the next step is for obama or which republican candidate will inevitably unseat him in a couple years). i really feel sorry for the guy, well kind of. obama gets back from his longest overseas trip this week - a trip which saw some successes (india, indonesia) and some dismal failures (no south korea trade agreement and no love at the G20). even more exciting, he goes home to face more questions about the "shellacking" (in his own words) he and his party experienced during the elections a week or so ago.

perusing the www, there is no shortage of articles stating what went wrong, how it can or cannot be fixed, and what obama did or did not do or should or should not do (did you know that democrats are mad at him cuz he doesnt call them or take pics with them and republicans are mad at him cuz he doesnt invite them to golf outings? true stuff!). and maybe its just me and maybe i have a bit of a socialist in me (but really who doesnt, come on...), but i cannot for the life of me understand people's aversion to being insured or having health insurance. yes, it costs the government money when it doesn't have much, but imagine a recession like the one we were just in where millions lost their jobs. what if those guys were not insured or their insurance didn't cover much. now we would have unemployment, a recession, and loads of peeps packing the ERs cuz they can't go for a normal procedure or worse off the elderly and poor dying, unable to treat simple injuries. during massive job losses, the worst thing you want to do is exacerbate that by not having enough social service nets to take care of people that cannot take care of themselves. if the government does not take care of the helpless, what is the role of the government. even more, obama did this w/o raising taxes which almost amounts to magic (aka chinese debt). and don't even get me started with the tea party (actually i know very little about this group as i refuse to even read up on them and their ridiculous tactics). anyway, i digress.

its a rather cool exercise to look at presidents' photos during their tenure to grasp just how much stress and burden the position is. and with 2 wars, a global recession, the fall of the investment banking sector as we know it, and rising unemployment, obama has his fair share of burden and stress i'm sure. so before i close with my 2 cents of what i think obama needs to do to regain his credibility in the eyes of voters, a bit of pictorial digression.

Once upon a time, obama burst unto the show with much fan-fare and promise - a savior almost - looking so fresh n so clean, talking a new kind of politics, a new america.

Then shortly after he won the hearts, minds, and imaginations of the american people, he realised what he had gotten himself into. and the grey hairs and sulken face began to appear.

shame. that's what a shellacking will do to you. look listen and learn, folks! and after all the mudslinging and attempts at "changing washington" (hah!) and more attempts at pleasing the never-happy liberals (i almost think ultra-liberals get off on finding something to complain about, otherwise their existence would be worthless) and the conniving conservatives, what is america's view of the so-called neo-messiah now?

and really i can't blame anyone but obama himself for that assessment...which leads me to my 2 cents.

when obama came unto the screen, he was viewed and appreciated by many, including myself, as the anti-bush, in many ways. here was a figure that was both inspirational and pragmatic. one who inspired others to think larger than themselves and expect more and better from their leaders. a smart and informed president - what a new and refreshing thought in these modern times! well, i think he may have taken that batton so far that he forgot that even as an intelligent and thoughtful, careful president, you still need a human touch (see president clinton). obama has lost that human touch. without which, all best-laid plans and inspirational speeches and attempts to cross party lines becomes moot. maybe, just maybe, the reps are unto something by being upset over no invites to golf outings. now when we see obama, we literally see a man that talks to the audience or often, above the audience, chin raised with a hint of condescendence in his speech - all too reminiscent of the upper-lipped, upper class of upper england. sorry, that just wont cut it in america. take academics for example (or just really bright people); we all love them and appreciate their contributions to society. but who wants to sit there and listen all day to an intelligent person reminding you of his/her intelligence all the time? people (esp. women :P) when they've had a tough day and they're spilling it all to their poor man aren't necessarily looking for answers and solutions, theyre looking for empathy and someone to listen. and though in a president we do want answers and solutions, we do not expect him to all of a sudden forget that there is a human perspective to leadership. and yes, it requires you doing some stupid things sometimes, like playing golf with people and taking time to take photos with others.

b-obama showed this human element many times during his 2008 campaign. he showed anger when he was outraged at the response to katrina for example, he was often calm and collected when speaking of important matters like the global recession, he was thoughtful and brilliant when speaking of matters of race, and he was filled with tears of compassion, grief and mixed emotions when speaking of his late grandmother.

we know the real obama is in there somewhere. let's see it again. many presidents have understood that your agenda means nothing if you dont carry the american people with you or make silly gestures to reach across the aisle. i don't care much for silly gestures (tho, they are a necessary evil), but i believe obama owes the american people a touch of emotion and feel of understanding as he drives his agenda and policy. i fully support what he is trying to achieve, but all of it will be undermined if he cannot take the public with him - whether that is by holding their hands, stooping down to help them or carry them along, lowering his flippin chin, or, yes, even having a beer with a local who's just lost his job.