Truism Time

Too many initiatives exist to satisfy needs that don't.

Consumerism's Chief Commentary

Eventually you'll own a thousand things, each of which you'll hate for a different reason.

In Touch with the Transcendant

There seems to be a deep incompatibility between those who believe that you can have a personal relationship with God, and those who think you can't. But ask either side to explain it, and the perceived gap lessens dramatically.

In the Bible, those directly confronted with the supernatural are first instructed, quite appropriately it would seem, "Fear not!". Nice gesture, but rather absurd given the situation(s). You know, throngs of operatic angels. You're going to give birth to God. Your dead kid isn't. The appearance of Jesus with flaming eyes and a sword for a tongue. I gotta say, a little "Fear not" just wouldn't do it for me! How many in the world expect a God like that, and live every day like they mean it? Not enough.

Nations Rise and Fall

In recent informal conversations, there is some perception that China has already become the world's new economic superpower. I personally don't think it has dethroned the States just yet, purely on the basis that the majority of its production is geared for the American market. How can you be all-powerful if you're entirely dependent on one particular market? However, if the US wants to continue to enjoy its level of world influence, it had better watch its back. And the mighty States is falling all over itself to get the largest number of the cheapest products it can, unwisely throwing all of its wealth away. And China's doing a great job of catching.

Some have argued that the continued (and now escalated) Iraq presence is bankrupting the US (though really, it's only billions and billions, not real money yet...). Others point out that country's debt load, if spread out over each household, has crested the $90,000 mark. I've played enough Starcraft to know that military might trumps economic weakness. But when you run out of crystals on the map, things get tense.

I think the issue that's going to sink the US is the same one that build it: materialism. That's fascinating. As the US has systematically commodified its own population, carefully and scientifically scrutinised and dissected it into tasty bite-sized morsel for industrial consumption, that population has become inured to its own harsh realities. Well, judging by how much activism there is suddenly, perhaps it's not case-closed yet. But even many of the thinkers and protagonists are admitting that they've succumbed to the 'inevitable' sellout. And anyway, all activism seems much too little, far too late.

It's the phenomenon of the "rich kid" nation. Think about what a spoiled brat looks like. What do they want? Everything! When do they want it? Now! They don't know the value of money, or really how to fend for themselves. They never mature, because the hard truth is that maturity takes hardship. Right, so now map that mentality over an entire nation, culture, whatever, and you get a scary picture. Only now there's not slavery to provide it, so it always costs somebody something. Actually, quite a lot as the stakes keep getting higher. This was unsustainable decades ago. Now it's just toxic.

When you have a competing system that is going to value human life in a whole new (though not necessarily better) way, and that system has the capacity for far greater critical mass, it's going to cause a change. I hope that China holds on to some form of socialism as it ascends. I hope that it thinks slower and more strategically about the fixed resources the planet has. And I hope that it forms imaginative new solutions that live far outside of entrenched, closed-minded, arrogant economic structures (oil companies, that means you!). But from everything that history has demonstrated, I don't really hold all that much hope...

Poem: I Can't Remember and I Can't Forget

Vestigial questions echo in swimming high-school hallways.
Vague in their now periphery-nature,
Haunting in their imperative:
Of life's intent. Of broader hope. Of being right, almost always, and knowing it.
But swimming out and down, now breathless, filled with languid panic--
I can't share the air they need to exist, 'cause I need it just to live.

I stare at myself with red eyeballs. Is fatigue the drug I'm addicted to?
A young man half my age should be here staring back, cocky and cool. Where did he go?
I have those vestigial questions to ask him...

In fragment moments of clarity I almost-proudly remember
I scratched the white-washed concrete constructs of the institution.
I left my fingernails, and fingertips and bits of teeth there,
Though of course I left no mark.
That was not my destiny.
But the bruised and bleeding scars
Have left no mark on me
I've spent the years-intervening,
Healing to the point we're even.

Another New Year

The calendar tells me that we have begun a new year. I've been wondering recently what would happen if I intentionally forgot what year I was born, and how my life would change if I actively ignored the clocks and calendars that surround me. But for one more year, I'm going to put aside such radical notions, and actively conform to our societal structures (y'know, more or less). Next year, we'll see...

Anyway, to take convention to its natural destination, here are this year's resolutions. I am going to try to feel more. Why I don't feel as much as I should is a mystery to me, and I don't really know if I want to feel more (ah yes, the paradox of actively wanting and passively not wanting), so that might be the trickiest. The other ones are easier.

I'm going to be more assertive. I'm paid to be the loudest, clearest and best idea "seller". Everybody in communications is. It's time I figured out what that means for me, and took the implied authority in that role seriously. (Rather than just being concerned with my competition, for example.) And often I've prevented myself from saying things because they seemed so obvious to me. I figured that everyone had already considered and disregarded my idea out of hand. But as I've started to express myself, I've found that I really am unique. I'm going to explore that. I have a crazy number of ideas, and I'm going to start making it other people's responsibility to edit them. (Actually, as I think about it, a surprising number of my ideas are 'taking'. I'm not taking credit for, well, anything actually. It's just assuring that I'm not the only wacko out there.)

Finally, I'm going to take more risks. Not in a para-snowboarding-near-rusty-barbed-wire-fences kind of a way. (More like a motorcycle-rider-fascinated-with-watching-motorcycle-crash-victims-in-hospital-shows kind of a way. That raises the reality stakes like nothing else!) I'm talking about the way I treat life. I've been playing it too safe. I'm going to jump and trust more. I've been watching some people I know do that, and I'm tired of being the jealous bench-warmer. I started some of that in 2006, and, well, I think it's working for me.

In short, I think I want to be more human this year. That sounds like a resolution worth keeping!

Movie Review: Blood Diamond

This may be odd to say about a movie that shows corpses dragged behind 4x4s, depictions of children mowing people down with machine guns, and blood-spattered violence at every turn, but what I really appreciated about Blood Diamond, was its restraint. With the subject matter, it would have been entirely possible, some might even argue profitable (at least financially), to dwell on the spectacle. But it didn't. It treated the violence as the everyday common occurence that it is in this part of the world. It insinuated certain things (see previous post), but didn't feel the need to put them on the screen. Let's face it, Blood Diamond is overwhelming enough without a morbid fascination on the most gruesome potential of the human condition. And in amongst its shattered world, the other element I appreciated was its hope.

When surveying Africa from a distance, it is impossible to get a good picture. But when looking at people, at individuals, it is possible to catch a glimmer of what allows them to continue. That there is a dogged persistence that this is home, and that one day it will be better. It's just a glimmer. I don't quite understand it, because it looks pretty bleak to me, no matter how or where I look. But I sincerely appreciate it.

Leonardo di Caprio is a phenominal actor. Somehow he has managed to sidestep the fame-trap that has ensnared other men/actors into their own celebrity oblivion. Instead he continues to put forward one solid performance after another. In this case, as Danny Archer, he's almost someone I could have gone to school with in southern Africa. It's not just a convincing accent, either. It's the turn of phrase, the lingo, the swagger of power wrapped up in shifty-eyed mistrust. The more I think about what Blood Diamond has clarified in me, the more I wonder if it wasn't written specifically for me.

This whole thing is what I saw unfolding in Africa, only I never quite saw it this bad. I saw the foundations of power, layered with fear-called-respect. I saw weak, disorganised bureaucracy-called-leadership, and deep, stark lines drawn in arbitrary places. Perhaps in Vietnam movies, people could see their buddies in the characters onscreen, and that's why they've achieved their place in pop-culture prominence. In this movie, it was my turn. The systemic release from any restraint. The capability to succeed simply by being willing to do things far more ghastly than your enemies. The dazzling way a rocket leaves a weapon in the hands of a child, and blows a gaping hole in a building. It's a mesmerising video game where real people die. "TIA: this is Africa."

I think it's interesting that it ended in a rap song (violence warning: "Shine on 'Em" by Nas, a decent knock against our culture's conspicuous consumption, uses footage from the movie). Movies about the American ghetto always seem to crave escaping it, while Blood Diamond's Africa shows a more earnest desire to redeem it. (That's not just a Hollywood contrivance, either. It resonates with experience, and people I know.) The connection between African and African-American seems somewhat incongruous to me, and I think that this example of hip-hop is the first instance of pop culture I've experienced that actually scratched that itch. There is suddenly a recognition that the cultures are connected, and in a very real sense the latter has subjugated the former. Hopefully that will gain some traction and new relevance in macho-infused black culture on both sides of the ocean. ''In America, it's bling bling. Out here it's bling bang,''

I Jumped In!

I just bought a portable media player. It's capable of video playback, audio playback, and something that most aren't -- acting as a USB host. That means that theoretically I can take my camera's cards, and load them into the player on the fly -- great for storage with a 30GB hard-drive in it. It also has a crucial feature that is lacking in almost every other portable player: recording.

I don't know the level of quality that I can expect from the line-in recording, but I'm hoping that this will be the beginning of my ability to podcast. We'll see. With a built-in mic, it will certainly be sufficient to grab ambient sounds for certain projects. To me, a simple hard-drive recorder in itself is exciting! Lots of capacity, and quick transfer times.

I'm working to keep my blog entirely brand-name free (unless living martyrs counts, but it doesn't yet...), so I won't tell you either the name of the player (a discountinued clearance model anyway. Suffice it to say that it's not the ubiquitous white one that has become such an iCon), or the store where I bought it. Though I will say that if the player wasn't so cheap there, I never would have been tempted to darken the store's doors. So much for all this talk of 'experience' -- the sales associates were very keen to share their misinformed opinions, and offer all sorts of 'advice'. I'm glad I did research myself, and that I was able to examine the manual before I bought it. The player has a little card in it that says something along the lines of "if there are problems, let us know. Don't return it to the store." Needless to say I'm trusting the manufacturer significantly more than the retailer on this one. An interesting point for anyone who's keeping score in the branding game -- big box stores are getting in their own way, and the brand relationships could in fact be about ready to leapfrog them. Hmmm...

Anyway, I'm hoping for the best from this thing, and remaining cautiously optomistic. Its abilities are a dying breed in the marketplace (it's a jack-of-all-trades, which is perfect for someone in my shoes). I'm glad to have got it before they went entirely extinct. Silly unseens market forces seem to be forcing the creative flexibility out of such potentially handy devices. Now if it would only balance my checkbook, remind me of my next project's due date, and tie my infernal shoe-laces again. Well maybe its next model...

On the other hand, if I can only get this thing to play music and videos, and provide the odd bout of digital storage, then so be it. If it lives up to half of its potential, I'll be sufficiently happy.

Honey, I Pimped the Kids!

Maclean's just provided Canada with an article called "Why do we dress our daughters like skanks?" Um, good question. I hope some parents get a quick smack upside the head with it. I really do. Because it's about time!

We're living in a strange era. A (growing) number of things are given greater importance and less value. Freedom. Sex. In this case, childhood. I just went to Blood Diamond (worth a review -- I'll get to it), and there were kids in the theatre, as young as ten. A movie that in part depicts the African "child warlord" with the bloody awful things that accompany it (it spared the audience witnessing actual rape, but there were brutal threats and other references to it, and there's no illusions in any adult's mind about what's going on with the women in the war camps). What's that going to do to a Canadian kid? Any kid? I don't know. But it's not a social experiment I wish to engage in. I'm not saying we need to start enforcing prudishness or ingorance. But if kids get desensitised to violence at 10, then what? Blood Diamond claims to be fictional, but its reality is being acted out every day -- it's not even possible to pass it off as mere fantasy. But does the fantasy excuse work for 5-7-year-olds watching Pirates of the Carribean? Or the 2-and-4-year-olds exposed to the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy? Hello? What are those parents thinking? Let's go another way -- perhaps more of what you were expecting with the title of the post.

There has been much made of the eroticised (pre)teen for my entire lifetime. Realistically the argument probably started with Frank Sinatra's "bobby-soxers". Only recently, the balance of power has switched. Critical mass is now firmly on the skanky side. But I can't really put my finger on why. What switch goes off in a parent's mind that says it's a good idea to either actively or passively engage in the sexualisation of their children? Is this just the ultimate expression of youth-obsessed culture? (Or will SNL's diaper-thong skit prove prophetic?) Or does it perhaps go along with the commodification of the word "pimp": a hot kid is the ultimate fasion accessory for the suburban-SUV lifestyle? Whatever it is, it's pretty gross.

Children and childhood are not symbols to be wrapped up, commodified and sold in malls. Well, that's not entirely true. They are. But they shouldn't be. As adults, this is our responsibility. This means protecting kids when they need it. Preparing them for the stuff of life (e.g. they're unique and special, but aren't the centre of the universe). And when they're ready for it, pushing them out of the nest. I'm seeing parents everywhere neglecting their responsibilities in each area. It's time to stop and step up!

Hey, I'm part of this whole global-village-raising-a-child thing. And my stake is the condition of the world when I leave it, and my responsibility under God for people. Aren't those stakes high enough?