Reasons for the long hiatus...
-Swamped at work with year-end ish
-Severe stability problems with my wireless connection. At times of extreme frustration I would think back to the days of dial-up and say, hey it could be worse, but really, living with broadband for the last 7 years or so has pretty much warped any meaningful historical perspective I could have. (It's kinda funny though, despite more than 10 years of being an essential part of my life, the Internet still seems new, like I'm still amazed by the limitless utility and entertainment it provides. I think that's because it was "invented" well past my first decade, so I can very vividly remember what life was like before it. I wonder if people who were at the same age when say, the TV was invented still feel the same newness about it. Will it always be that way? When I'm old will l sit around and wax nostalgic about the first time I "signed-on"? )
-The latest Harry Potter book. Though it's a really quick read, the last few books have all been like 1,000 pages long, and once you start it's impossible not to plow through as soon as you can. So for about a week, any spare time I had was taken up by Harry and his buddies at Hogwarts. More on this later.
-Summer movies! I've been on quite the binge the last couple of months, inhaling all the great and not so great offerings of the summer season. More on this later too.
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Two years ago on the pizzle, I wrote about President Bush's pledge to provide Africa with 15 billion dollars over 5 years to fight the AIDS epidemic. I praised the President then for doing the right thing, but worried he might let the gesture get derailed by a conservative agenda. As the following article from Rolling Stone points out, that's pretty much exactly what happened. I don't want to repeat the points that RS makes, but suffice to say the road the administration is going down is not only insufficient to fight the epidemic, but may end up making it worse. I can understand and maybe even forgive the fact that the administration tries to push a conservative agenda on America (they did win the election after all and Bush isn't just the President of those that voted for him, he has a right to govern). But in this case, pushing that agenda on other nations who didn't put him in offce is putting millions of additional lives at risk. As I said before, not cool Zeus, not cool.
I must admit though, even as I was initially incensed after reading the article, it made me wonder. Does it matter? Stripping away idealogy and politics, does the untimely death of a Ugandan truck driver really affect my life in any way? The unfortunate answer is, of course, no. It doesn't. I can still wake up, go to work, come home to my wife and watch TV and go to sleep and do it all over again without any real interruption. Sure we can make the "butterfly-flaps-it's-wings" argument and say the world is so small nowadays an unfettered epidemic on one continent will somehow find its way over to us and wreak havoc. But that's too abstract. How many Ugandans with AIDS come to America on any given day? Probably not too many. The people contracting and dying from AIDS are often not the ones most likely to migrate. They're laborers, farmers and others so desperately poor their only real worry is surviving for another day. I wish I had an eloquent and persuasive answer to this. But I don't. I wish I could create a logical, step-by-step alogirthm that would explain how my life will become better if we stop the spread of AIDS in Africa (I've made some economic arguments but those apply more to India and China whose connections to America are bit more tangible). But I can't. It really does just come down to compassion, some sort of appeal to our better natures. There's a West Wing episode that involves Josh negotiating an emergency bail-out of the Mexican economy. Donna poses a similar question to him, why are we using my tax dollars on helping them? Does it really matter? They go back and forth throughout the episode, but in the end Josh sums it up in a way that you can't really argue with, There's so much in this world we can't do. Why help Mexico? Because we can.
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"Gratias tibi ago, domine. Haec credam a deo pio? A deo iusto, a deo scito? Cruciatus in crucem. Tuus in terra servus, nuntius fui. Officium perfeci. Cruciatus in crucem. Eas in crucem!"
"I give thanks to you, O Lord. Am I really to believe that these are the acts of a loving God? A just God? A wise God? To hell with your punishments. I was your servant here on Earth. And I spread your word and I did your work. To hell with your punishments. To hell with you!"
--Martin Sheen as President Jed Bartlet from "Two Cathedrals", episdode 22, season 2 of The West Wing.