The World Is A Mess and i just need to rule it

hah. did anyone catch that reference?


I posted about this last year but I just watched the Half the Sky episode of Oprah (more cool linkage here and really amazing stories here) and feel the need to post it again, since most of you don't know about my old blog, and because it is really a cool video (and an even cooler reality).

source: www.girleffect.org
I'm reading Half the Sky right now and it is amazing--by which I mean, surprisingly hopeful. I'm inspired by the strong women highlighted in the chapters and where I used to believe human trafficking could not be stopped, I now have hope that it can be. It's immensely more complicated and widespread than the slavery of previous centuries (ie Transatlantic Slave Trade), but the British put an end to slavery in like 10 years and at significant economic loss. It was a grassroots effort largely won on an ethical argument.

I read Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy last month. It's written by Kevin Bales, the founder and director of Free the Slaves, (here is its supah-cool website).

Both books take an unflinching look at the horrifying realities of modern-day slavery. They recount, in what is often graphic detail, the experiences of former sex slaves. Half the Sky tells story upon story of rape and torture. Disposable People took me two months to read because I had to keep putting it down. It was too harsh to read all at once. Half the Sky, I think, tells much harsher tales, but they feature heroic women and hopeful endings. For that reason, I find it both harder and easier to read.

Ultimately, they are very inspiring, uplifting, hopeful books full of amazing stories and courageous people. I recommend both of them--but especially Half the Sky. (along with all of Nicholas D Kristof's NYT columns :D )

I shared one of Kristof's columns with Meggo earlier this summer. It's about a Pakistani girl who was gang-raped, reported it to the police, and was then gang-raped by four officers. Her story is similar to that of Mukhtar Mai who was sentenced to a gang-raping in 2002 because her brother was accused of a crime (one, might I add, that he didn't actually commit). Her story is one of those featured in Half the Sky and it is amazing. I found out today--by reading the appendices--that she wrote a book! It is called In the Name of Honor: A Memoir. I know. Who wants to read about gang-rape? (Me!) It's sickening and horrifying and depressing and really, what's the point?

I really don't care if you read it. I'm throwing it out there, though, because I have been so impressed and motivated by these other two books and I am sure that Mukthar Mai's memoir will not be as depressing as "gang-raped on behalf of her brother" makes it sound. If you read Kristof's column, you'll know exactly what I mean.

All this was sort of a discombobulated way of getting to this point: The Girl Effect is real. All it takes is some women's empowerment and BOOM! World changed. Isn't that cool?

I recently came across the organization Love146. The folks over at Cakewrecks featured over a dozen charities this month and Love146 was one of them. The organizations president responded with this post. I love the donor comments.

So, that's my plug for the night. Nicholas D Kristof, The Girl Effect, and ending sexual slavery.

I'm ready to clean up this up this mess. How 'bout you?

Merry Christmas :)

Love,

Anna

Six to Eight Black Men

I'm a big David Sedaris fan.

I am also a big fan of the Holidays.

And when these two intersect, I must blog about it.

The following is an excerpt from his piece, 6 to 8 Black Men. The full version is here. The last paragraph is my favorite, but it can't be fully appreciated until you've heard the rest. (Also, the last paragraph of the full version is brilliant, too, but you have to have read the first three paragraphs to understand it. And they're funny. In fact, it's all funny. Go see what I mean.)

I recommend reading it in its entirety.

I recommend even more listening to it in its entirety.

Really. I've even put the audio right here:



Don't miss it.


"When do you open your Christmas presents?" is another good conversation starter, as it explains a lot about national character. People who traditionally open gifts on Christmas Eve seem a bit more pious and family oriented than those who wait until Christmas morning. They go to mass, open presents, eat a late meal, return to church the following morning, and devote the rest of the day to eating another big meal. Gifts are generally reserved for children, and the parents tend not to go overboard. It's nothing I'd want for myself, but I suppose it's fine for those who prefer food and family to things of real value.

In France and Germany, gifts are exchanged on Christmas Eve, while in Holland the children receive presents on December 5, in celebration of Saint Nicholas Day. It sounded sort of quaint until I spoke to a man named Oscar, who filled me in on a few of the details as we walked from my hotel to the Amsterdam train station.

Unlike the jolly, obese American Santa, Saint Nicholas is painfully thin and dresses not unlike the pope, topping his robes with a tall hat resembling an embroidered tea cozy. The outfit, I was told, is a carryover from his former career, when he served as a bishop in Turkey.

One doesn't want to be too much of a cultural chauvinist, but this seemed completely wrong to me. For starters, Santa didn't use to do anything. He's not retired, and, more important, he has nothing to do with Turkey. The climate's all wrong, and people wouldn't appreciate him. When asked how he got from Turkey to the North Pole, Oscar told me with complete conviction that Saint Nicholas currently resides in Spain, which again is simply not true. While he could probably live wherever he wanted, Santa chose the North Pole specifically because it is harsh and isolated. No one can spy on him, and he doesn't have to worry about people coming to the door. Anyone can come to the door in Spain, and in that outfit, he'd most certainly be recognized. On top of that, aside from a few pleasantries, Santa doesn't speak Spanish. He knows enough to get by, but he's not fluent, and he certainly doesn't eat tapas.

While our Santa flies on a sled, Saint Nicholas arrives by boat and then transfers to a white horse. The event is televised, and great crowds gather at the waterfront to greet him. I'm not sure if there's a set date, but he generally docks in late November and spends a few weeks hanging out and asking people what they want.
[...]
The words silly and unrealistic were redefined when I learned that Saint Nicholas travels with what was consistently described as "six to eight black men." I asked several Dutch people to narrow it down, but none of them could give me an exact number. It was always "six to eight," which seems strange, seeing as they've had hundreds of years to get a decent count.

The six to eight black men were characterized as personal slaves until the mid-fifties, when the political climate changed and it was decided that instead of being slaves they were just good friends. I think history has proven that something usually comes between slavery and friendship, a period of time marked not by cookies and quiet times beside the fire but by bloodshed and mutual hostility. They have such violence in Holland, but rather than duking it out among themselves, Santa and his former slaves decided to take it out on the public. In the early years, if a child was naughty, Saint Nicholas and the six to eight black men would beat him with what Oscar described as "the small branch of a tree."

"A switch?"

"Yes," he said. "That's it. They'd kick him and beat him with a switch. Then, if the youngster was really bad, they'd put him in a sack and take him back to Spain."

"Saint Nicholas would kick you?"

"Well, not anymore," Oscar said. "Now he just pretends to kick you."

"And the six to eight black men?"

"Them, too."
[...]
While eight flying reindeer are a hard pill to swallow, our Christmas story remains relatively simple. Santa lives with his wife in a remote polar village and spends one night a year traveling around the world. If you're bad, he leaves you coal. If you're good and live in America, he'll give you just about anything you want. We tell our children to be good and send them off to bed, where they lie awake, anticipating their great bounty. A Dutch parent has a decidedly hairier story to relate, telling his children, "Listen, you might want to pack a few of your things together before you go to bed. The former bishop from Turkey will be coming along with six to eight black men. They might put some candy in your shoes, they might stuff you in a sack and take you to Spain, or they might just pretend to kick you. We don't know for sure, but we want you to be prepared."

Last Week

I quilted.

A lot.

Because I am jobless AND Mormon.

These are the first three blocks I finished:




It rained:


^That's the view from my window. I've never seen such a forlorn dumpster.

This is the river that formed in front of our house:



And this is our carport (and our neighbor's):



I love when it rains.

And the sky when it's done:



The other night I went to bed and, after turning out the light, noticed blue and red spots flashing across my walls. A UFO?

Nope. Just this:



It's been there for days. I'd rescue it, but I haven't a clue how, except to hop out my window and risk falling through the...what is that wood thing called? Anyway, if you have any ideas...

Two weeks ago, we put up our Christmas tree. And by "put up" I mean unveil last year's Christmas tree that never really got taken down:






And last night, I went to a Christmas party and gorged myself on pheasant, duck and pork sausage. Mmmmmmm. I love the holidays.
Photos here.

This week, I will be quilting, figuring out what gifts to get which people and how, getting out some cards, finishing the transcribing job for my prof (YAY), and baking and frosting 4 dozen gingerbread cookies. And getting paid for it. :D

I'm looking forward to this week. Lots of fun things to do. And I won't ever have to leave my pajamas :D
Next week have a high school reunion! It's only been 4 1/2 years, but what the hey. I'm excited.

And, I will be topping off the year with a trip to EGYPT. I'm not all that thrilled, what with the men and the harassment. You may recall that I did not do so well in Jordan--and the harassment there is nothing compared to Cairo. ACK!
Still, I've been jobless for MONTHS and I need to 1 get the freak out of my house already and 2 find a job. With any luck--or maybe with lots--I will accomplish both.

One week left before Christmas. Enjoy the heck out of it!

My friend said "I got so bored without edward there. I just wanted that other guy to put his freakin shirt on!" Needless to say, we are no longer friends. If there was one thing that could've improved the movie, its more shirtless Jacob time.

Writing is Wonderful

I'm doing work for my former writing professor. I met her fall 2005 in the very first writing class of my college career and worked as a writing tutor for her in subsequent semesters. Her daughter is the 8 yr old I often write about and currently I am working for her as a transcriptionist while She does research on how English-Arabic bilinguals and negotiate the writing process. Tonight I was listening to a girl talk about something she had written in a previous class, and I was like, Hey. I had that same assignment. Where'd it go? And instead of finishing the transcript and freaking going to bed already, I decided to answer that question. I found some pretty funny stuff and because I still don't feel like finishing the transcript, I am going to blog about it.

When I was hired as a writing center tutor, I was asked to write a little blurb about myself for the Tutors section of the website. I did, and somehow it never got put up. Today, I am remedying the oversight by posting that bio here (but editing out the university's name):

Anna is in her second and final year at [this university], majoring in International Relations. Next year she will return to the States to complete her education, though she has not yet figured out where. Her interests include her iPod, House MD, and finding creative ways of avoiding schoolwork. Her disinterests include math, economics and washing dishes. Once she's finally done with school, she plans to travel the world. She will have many extraordinary adventures including scuba diving in Jeddah, sky-diving over Sydney, and ice-fishing in Antarctica. When she's done roaming the world, perhaps she will return to the greatest place of all--Northern California--to contemplate life's great mysteries while jumping on a ridiculously-huge trampoline.


Hahaha. Oh, Sophomore Anna. You were a riot.

Then I found this Eid letter (Eid letter, since we didn't get a letter out in time for Christmas. I wrote it in January 2006. It's funny and informative. Check it out:

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope you'll forgive our lack of correspondence, we've been quite busy. Summer of 2004 we decided to pick up and move to the sandy dunes of the United Arab Emirates. We weren't planning to move for another year (at least!) and definitely not outside the country, but such is life, eh? So [Mom], [Dad] and Anna have all been making the most of this sweatfest while [Sister] works hard back in California and [Brother] stoically refuses to buy a coat at Fort Drum, New York.

Mom and Dad are kept sufficiently overworked. Mom helps run the library which is twice as much work when there is a second library being built. It's draining, trying to convince the planners that the stairs don't need a gold-plated banister. ("Well this red velvet carpet is going to look really out of place"). Dad works to keep the academic side of the IT coin nice and shiny so the students won't have an excuse for missing an assignment.
[...]

I graduated from high school in Dubai last year. Instead of going back to the the States for college, I decided to stay another year at the American University of Sharjah. [<--Free education! WIN!]* Life has been treating us quite well over here. Vacations are strategically interspersed throughout the course of the year to keep the working class from melting down. This has given us the chances to do some long-awaited traveling. We've seen the beautiful sand dunes of the Empty Quarter, the gorgeous sea life of the Arabian Gulf, and have even made it to Europe. Last January we spent a long weekend in Istanbul. It was beautiful! At the end of March we spend spring break touring Italy. Walked the streets of Pompeii (and Herculaneum), got plenty of exercise seeing all the sites in Rome, and Dad and I got to spend a pleasant day in Florence (Mom had a conference to go to so she had to leave early.) This year we've only managed a quick trip to Egypt. Definitely not what I expected. More traumatic than I would have liked. But Alexandria has a beautiful view of the Mediterranean and if you're interested in getting to know the locals, well, the only trouble you'll have is getting away from them (and recovering from the trauma they inflict upon you. ACK.*). Mom and dad also went to Beirut in June. That's right, they left me behind. I did, however, manage to squeeze in a weekend in Kuwait as part of a school activity. I won't pretend that it was anywhere near as neat as I'm sure Beirut was, but the Hard Rock Cafe was pretty sweet.

*Not part of original letter.

So, DANG. We traveled a lot. I did finally make it to Beirut. In 2006! in fact. It was cool. And I passed a Hard Rock Cafe and my Dad was like, Hey, we should totally get a t-shirt.
Me: Eh, what do I need that for? Let's just go back to the hotel. [WHAT WAS WRONG WITH ME??]

Yeah, so days later we returned to the UAE and that little war with Israel broke out. And then I spent the summer in Utah and all I could think about was, Why oh WHY did I not get a Hard Rock Cafe BEIRUT shirt?

Because then it would be like, Oo cool. You were in a war zone!

Even though...I wasn't. And that really isn't cool. And now I don't even care about bragging rights I just want the darn t-shirt!

Moral: When you are in Beirut and your dad offers you a t-shirt from the Hard Rock Cafe, SAY YES. (Also: buy me one, too.)

*ahem*

Also that year, the library was completed and many a dignitary made an appearance for the grand opening in May. BUT, Sharjah and Dubai have this little feud going on so while all sorts of important people came from all over to get a tour of the region's premiere book domain, including Jordan's own Prince Talal and Hamid Karzai(!) from Afghanistan(!!), no one from Dubai came. Aw crap! I totally just gave away the university. Ah well. Until one day, the head librarian received a call that the RULER OF DUBAI HIMSELF was going to be there in 20 minutes.

And twenty minutes later, this is my mom shaking (harhar) hands with Sheikh Mo!


I have a scanned copy of the next day's paper where this picture--this very picture!--was on the front page. I'll have to post it some other time, though, because it's buried somewhere in the depths of my old email and I do not have time to go digging around THAT box.

So, yeah. Pretty much the only thing cooler than shaking hands with Sheikh Mo on the front page of Gulf News is getting checked out by Barack Obama.

WIN.

In conclusion, I never did get around to finishing and sending that Eid letter--even after mom nagged me for MONTHS to write it and even after I went to all the trouble of writing it and sending it all the way to her inbox. But, I did get Barack Obama's autograph so whatever.

As for my bio, I have all the same interests and disinterests (and then some), and have yet to embark on any of those extraordinary adventures.

And Northern California remains pretty much the Greatest Place of All.

THE END.

Quote of the MONTH

Leela: Anna?
Me: Yeah?
Leela: Have you ever had an astonishing amount of earwax come out of your ear?

In Case You Needed A Reason To Join Team Jacob

You know, other than NEW MOON.

I'm watching Jimmy Kimmel now and the Twilight Love Triangle is on. I just have a few things to say before I get to Mah Point.

1. Edward and Robert Pattinson are very different. I think, firstly, that Edward should have an accent. And secondly, Robert Pattinson--surprisingly--has a personality. Why couldn't he have shared any of that with Edward?

2. Kristen Stewart was freaking made to play Bella. SO DULL.

3. But she's also very white. White! Like, her legs are way whiter than her body. I didn't know they allowed actresses to look like that. Alright, Kristen, I can cut you some slack.

4. They showed a clip of the movie (part of the Volturi scene, ♥ Aro ♥) and: Bella's hair. *want*

Finally, The Point.

Jimmy Kimmel whipped out these awesome magazine photos of Taylor Lautner busting some sweet breakdancing moves and they were so amazing that I decided to make a post of it and share them with you right here on my blog. But Google, instead of bringing me the pictures I asked for, brought me a video:



Google, how do you always know what I need?

And Taylor Lautner, dayy-yuhm.

Everywhere I Go, The More I See The Less I know

Today, this is my favorite song ever:



Just TRY not to feel good. I dare you.

Also, see if you can through it without shaking your shoulders or bobbing your head or tapping your feet. I submit that it is IMPOSSIBLE.(<---Just right there I had to stop typing because the beat compelled me to clap loudly.) Bonus: Rio de Janeiro! I actually don't know if that is a bonus because I don't know anything about Rio, but today I had an hour-long conversation with a friend about past travels and future destinations so any video that features an overseas destination is a BONUS to moi.

This is the band's website. Part of it. I actually directed you to the propaganda portion of the website. (hahahahahaaaaaa.)

But it's cool because the message is positive AND: does anyone else think it's cool that this band is socially-engaged? I mean, other than at like clubs and awards shows. Because I think that may possibly be an even bigger bonus than the one about Rio. (How many people just thought of burritos? [Because Cafe Rio duh])


In Other Feel-Goodness: No headache today :)

I love you.

I love you.

I love yooooooooou.

---This post dedicated to positive social change, peanut butter spoonfuls with chocolate chips, and traveling the world.---

(I love you. I love you. I love yooooou.)