CONGRATS TO EMMY WHO'S GOING TO TANZINIA/UGANDA
I now have something else to concentrate on and will research it for you. It's so exciting and I hope you will request a laptop to take with you so you can keep a journal and allow us to vicariously share in your experience,
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
BLACKTACTIX
Why is it that incidents such as the Jena 6 affair don't warrant a slew of psychologists and grief counselors flooding into schools to administer to black children. Time after time, the media reports on such tactics immediately occurring after incidents that occur in other schools. In fact, there was the closing of an old catholic school up here which had been announced a year ahead of the actual closing. However, when it occurred there was around-the-clock coverage of grieving parents and students pulling their hair out (on camera) and bordering on hysteria. A cadre of grief counselors descended on the school to counsel them..."don't despair, there's a brand new modern public school down the street..." "this school is old and unsafe...it's crumbling around you and there's no money to fix it..."
Recently a troubled kid named Asa Coon (probably the original source of his troubles) shot up his school and killed himself. I saw black students crying and visibly upset after the shooting and the media concentrated on the fact that the one security guard was there exclusively to protect the administration. The aftermath of the story was that the school installed metal detectors thru which everyone would have to pass to gain entry into the school. No grief counselors. I can't imagine that the black students at the Louisiana school weren't upset seeing nooses swinging from the trees on school grounds. Possibly if professional counselors had been brought in immediately, the subsequent escalations would not have occurred.
Is it a testament to the resiliance of black people that they can witness any horror and just 'keep on keeping on' or will they, in time, become the serial killers, child predators, mercenaries, mass murderers, etc. like the pampered, dominant society in this country?
I hope you guys won't think I'm becoming obsessed with the negative aspects of things. It's just that I'm exposed to more of it since I'm more exposed to the media. Think I'll go take photos before all the autumn colors disappear.
Why is it that incidents such as the Jena 6 affair don't warrant a slew of psychologists and grief counselors flooding into schools to administer to black children. Time after time, the media reports on such tactics immediately occurring after incidents that occur in other schools. In fact, there was the closing of an old catholic school up here which had been announced a year ahead of the actual closing. However, when it occurred there was around-the-clock coverage of grieving parents and students pulling their hair out (on camera) and bordering on hysteria. A cadre of grief counselors descended on the school to counsel them..."don't despair, there's a brand new modern public school down the street..." "this school is old and unsafe...it's crumbling around you and there's no money to fix it..."
Recently a troubled kid named Asa Coon (probably the original source of his troubles) shot up his school and killed himself. I saw black students crying and visibly upset after the shooting and the media concentrated on the fact that the one security guard was there exclusively to protect the administration. The aftermath of the story was that the school installed metal detectors thru which everyone would have to pass to gain entry into the school. No grief counselors. I can't imagine that the black students at the Louisiana school weren't upset seeing nooses swinging from the trees on school grounds. Possibly if professional counselors had been brought in immediately, the subsequent escalations would not have occurred.
Is it a testament to the resiliance of black people that they can witness any horror and just 'keep on keeping on' or will they, in time, become the serial killers, child predators, mercenaries, mass murderers, etc. like the pampered, dominant society in this country?
I hope you guys won't think I'm becoming obsessed with the negative aspects of things. It's just that I'm exposed to more of it since I'm more exposed to the media. Think I'll go take photos before all the autumn colors disappear.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
LET'S TALK TURKEY
Recently your House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution (toothless but irksome) to classify the massacres of Armenians in 1915 Turkey (which occurred under cover of WWI during the Ottomon Empire) as genocide. The Turkish have always been skittish over this dark period of its history and predictably are outraged by this resolution which has been bantered about by congress for nearly the last hundred years. So the question has to be asked: Why Now??
Considering the gamesmanship of our politicians, in my opinion, it's a back-handed swipe at the administration. Despite the overwhelming objection of the Turkish people, Bush was successful in getting air rights to fly from and/or over Turkey (which borders Iraq, Iran and Syria) get the strategic picture? Turkey refused to send troops into Iraq to participate in the coalition of the willing but has its own beef with the kurds in northern Iraq. So far it has been restraining itself against the kurds who seemingly have been emboldened by the American occupation and taking swipes at the Turks. If you remember K&A went to Turkey maybe two years ago. Shortly thereafter there were a series of random bombings about which I have never heard anything further. Also last week, several Turkish civilians were pulled from a bus (killed?) allegedly by marauding kurds. Turkey's dilemma has been that it's been trying desperately to be accepted into the European Union and therefore on its best behavior. All of that may be going out the window with the introduction of this resolution. Bush needs Turkey and has been trying to smooth over the slap in the face to Turkey and to let the American people know that antagonizing Turkey equates to not supporting our troops.
I mention all this because aside from the many current issues our politicians could be spending their time on, they dredge up what to most Americans is an obscure issue that does not involve America. Would it not be more understandable if they stood on principle by officially acknowledging the decimation of Native Americans and the occupation of their lands for the last four hundred or so years, as well as the slave trade? There is a new book which calculates the number of Africans caught up in the slave trade, based on the manifests of slaveship captains, at twelve million twice the number in the holacaust of WWII. The documented number of Armenians slaughtered was 1.5 million.
The Slave Ship: A Human History (Hardcover)by Marcus Rediker (Author)
(1 customer review)
I realize you folks don't have time to involve yourselves in such issues, but it can't hurt for you to have some knowledge of current events.
Recently your House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution (toothless but irksome) to classify the massacres of Armenians in 1915 Turkey (which occurred under cover of WWI during the Ottomon Empire) as genocide. The Turkish have always been skittish over this dark period of its history and predictably are outraged by this resolution which has been bantered about by congress for nearly the last hundred years. So the question has to be asked: Why Now??
Considering the gamesmanship of our politicians, in my opinion, it's a back-handed swipe at the administration. Despite the overwhelming objection of the Turkish people, Bush was successful in getting air rights to fly from and/or over Turkey (which borders Iraq, Iran and Syria) get the strategic picture? Turkey refused to send troops into Iraq to participate in the coalition of the willing but has its own beef with the kurds in northern Iraq. So far it has been restraining itself against the kurds who seemingly have been emboldened by the American occupation and taking swipes at the Turks. If you remember K&A went to Turkey maybe two years ago. Shortly thereafter there were a series of random bombings about which I have never heard anything further. Also last week, several Turkish civilians were pulled from a bus (killed?) allegedly by marauding kurds. Turkey's dilemma has been that it's been trying desperately to be accepted into the European Union and therefore on its best behavior. All of that may be going out the window with the introduction of this resolution. Bush needs Turkey and has been trying to smooth over the slap in the face to Turkey and to let the American people know that antagonizing Turkey equates to not supporting our troops.
I mention all this because aside from the many current issues our politicians could be spending their time on, they dredge up what to most Americans is an obscure issue that does not involve America. Would it not be more understandable if they stood on principle by officially acknowledging the decimation of Native Americans and the occupation of their lands for the last four hundred or so years, as well as the slave trade? There is a new book which calculates the number of Africans caught up in the slave trade, based on the manifests of slaveship captains, at twelve million twice the number in the holacaust of WWII. The documented number of Armenians slaughtered was 1.5 million.
The Slave Ship: A Human History (Hardcover)by Marcus Rediker (Author)
(1 customer review)
I realize you folks don't have time to involve yourselves in such issues, but it can't hurt for you to have some knowledge of current events.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
small batch baking: angel food cake
the standard angel food cake, cooked in a tube pan, is placed upside down over a bottle to cool so it will maintain it's height while it cools. we do the same thing here with the muffin pan, so you'll need to position two or three soft drink or water bottles on the counter to hold the inverted pan as the cakes cool.
makes 2 cakes; serves 2
3 tbs sifted caked flour
4 tbs superfine sugar (see note)
dash of ground nutmeg
whites of 2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
pan required: 1 jumbo muffin pan (3/4 cup capacity; don't use a nonstick pan)
1. place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. set aside an ungreased jumbo muffin pan.
2. place flour, 2 tbs superfine sugar and the nutmeg in a small bowl and whisk to blend well.
3. place the egg whites, slat and vanilla in a medium-size bowl mixing bowl and beat with a hand-held electric mixer on medium speed until the whites are frothy, about 5 seconds. sprinkle cream of tartar over the whites and beat until soft peaks fold over when the mixer is turned off and the beaters are lifted, 20 - 30 seconds. with the mixer running, gradually sprinkle the remaining 2 tbs superfine sugar over hte whites and beat on high speed until the egg whites are glossy about 45 seconds; they should form stiff peaks when the mixer is turned off and the beaters are lifted.
4. sift half of the flour mixture over the egg whites and fold it in gently with a rubber spatula. fold in the remaining flour mixture. spoon the better into 2 of the ungreased muffin cups, dividing it evenly between them. the cups will completely filled. fill the empty muffin cups halfway with water to prevent them from scorching.
5. bake the cakes for 15 minutes. then drape a piece of aluminum foil over the cakes to prevent them from browning too much, and continue baking until the tops are golden and spring back when lightly touched in the center, another 5 to 10 minutes.
6. remove the muffin pan from the oven. carefully pour the water out of the muffin cups and then turn the pan upside down and place it on bottles to cool completely (place the tops of a couple liter bottles into empty muffin cups so that the pan is greased, the cakes won't fall out).
7. to remove the cakes from the muffin pan, loosen the edges with a small rubber spatula or a table knife, pulling the edges away from the sides of the muffin cups. place the cakess on serving plates.
note: if you can't find superfine sugar you can make it: simply process 1/3 cup granulated sugar in a blender until it is ground superfine -- pulsing it about 6 times. then measure out 1/4 cup.
p.s. see earlier recipe with quinoa (it has tart cherries -- yum!).
PICK YOUR PROSE INSTEAD OF YOUR NOSE
I saw a brief interview with Charlie Rose and Doris Lessing who just was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. She is 88 and I found her alert, intelligent and delightful. It occurred to me that I've never read anything by her and so went to amazon. Interestingly, I got mixed feelings on the reviews of her works,specifically THE CLEFTS, a mythic novel of a society that got its beginnings under a matriachy. Has anyone read any of her books?
The most engaging book that I'm currently reading is by Chaim Potok, THE CHOSEN, a coming of age story about two 15-year old boys, one the son of a Hasidim rabbi who is expected to succeed his father but who wants to be a psychologist and the other, the product of a reformed rabbi who wants to be a rabbi but whose father wants him to be a mathematician. Both boys are scholars, who meet while competing against one another in a neighborhood baseball game where the Hasidim hits the ball directly at the other's head almost knocking out his eye. They ultimately become the best of friends when the Hasidim visits the other in the hospital and find they have more in common than not. There is an enmity between the two groups akin to the light-skin/black-skin dichotomy or the sunni/shia schism.
It takes place in Brooklyn and depicts alot of Jewish culture. One thing that particularly struck me was the vehemance of the Hasidic, who is a sixth generation leader of his people, regarding the establishment of Israel. He is positively against it and zionism. I remember as a child my father railing against the same thing. He was not anti-Jewish but anti-zionist. It was surprising to me to read a book by a jew writing about jews who depicts that same thought. The book is not new, but reading it today in the light of dispensation, Christian Zionisim and the state of Israel is interesting.
Anybody reading anything interesting these days?
The most engaging book that I'm currently reading is by Chaim Potok, THE CHOSEN, a coming of age story about two 15-year old boys, one the son of a Hasidim rabbi who is expected to succeed his father but who wants to be a psychologist and the other, the product of a reformed rabbi who wants to be a rabbi but whose father wants him to be a mathematician. Both boys are scholars, who meet while competing against one another in a neighborhood baseball game where the Hasidim hits the ball directly at the other's head almost knocking out his eye. They ultimately become the best of friends when the Hasidim visits the other in the hospital and find they have more in common than not. There is an enmity between the two groups akin to the light-skin/black-skin dichotomy or the sunni/shia schism.
It takes place in Brooklyn and depicts alot of Jewish culture. One thing that particularly struck me was the vehemance of the Hasidic, who is a sixth generation leader of his people, regarding the establishment of Israel. He is positively against it and zionism. I remember as a child my father railing against the same thing. He was not anti-Jewish but anti-zionist. It was surprising to me to read a book by a jew writing about jews who depicts that same thought. The book is not new, but reading it today in the light of dispensation, Christian Zionisim and the state of Israel is interesting.
Anybody reading anything interesting these days?
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