5.30.2008

What is Peace?

The Better World Campaign has put out a good video primarily focusing on the role of U.N. peacekeepers in keeping the peace, but could be easily adapted to reflect much of the hard work many do in building peace after war.

Most importantly, it relays the message that peace is not a negative (i.e. the absence of war). It comes about when necessary resources are invested in the tools to build peace.



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5.29.2008

When Blogs (and the New York Times) Go Bad

Hello all. This post is a little late, but here it is. This weekend I was reading the New York Times Magazine, and discovered that the cover article was on blogging, specifically how gossip-blogging can negatively effect those who engage in it (sometimes professionally). Here is the article. I don't know if I suggest you read it -- maybe just skim. I found the piece to be whiny, and was surprised that the New York Times decided to publish it.

Why then am I bothering to write about it? Because it reminded me that blogging has a (sometimes deserved) gotten a bad name and that with our little blog here we are attempting to use the medium for good: to discuss ideas, interrogate the issues that FCNL works on, how it does so, and above all, though we sometimes talk about ourselves, not to use this space to drone on and on about our own selfish dilemmas. I am most in danger of doing this I think, and reading about the woes of a whiny blogger has again reminded me to keep my own life a springboard from which to examine the issues of the day.

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5.27.2008

Revolt at the U.N.

Ever wonder what happens at the U.N.? Well, check out this Youtube clip of an impressive non-violent protest that erupted on the last day of the United Nations' recent 7th annual Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Objecting to a draft report endorsing a World Bank plan, South and Central American indigenous leaders began to clap in unison and call for the right to speak. Watch as the guards rush in and then (thankfully) are made to leave.

The World Bank carbon trading plan, called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, allows global fossil fuel corporations to pollute in one part of the world (predictably, the so-called developing world) in exchange for preventing greenhouse emissions elsewhere on the globe. Yet another bad "climate control" policy, developed by those who continue to refuse to be disabused of their abusive power. Here's to hoping we can develop real, sustainable and holistic solutions. Read more about the protest from Indian Country Today.


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5.25.2008

How Not to Deal with the Energy Crisis

Gas prices are soaring. And both Congress and the auto manufacturers are proposing solutions. The only problem is that none of them are any good.

This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee hauled CEO's from top oil companies up to the hill to testify as crude oil hit a new high: $133 per barrel. To deal with record-setting gas prices, John McCain and Hillary Clinton have called for a "gas tax holiday," a proposal so ludicrous I wont even rebut the idea.

And how are American auto-manufacturers responding you ask? Not by increasing fuel efficiency standards, but by subsidizing your gasoline purchases for the next three years if you buy a dodge today. That's right, Dodge-Chrysler's "Lets Refuel America!" sale guarantees you will never pay more than $2.99 per gallon for three years after buying a new Chrysler-Dodge or Jeep.

First, if you actually take a look at the text, there are so many loopholes that its just a bad-deal altogether. Secondly, anybody with any brains ought to realize that the age of cheap oil is over. While you may pay $3 a gallon for three years, gas will not be any cheaper by then. It will likely stay the same price or increase. If you plan on buying a new car, you would be better off just buying a hybrid or one of those electric cars that you can plug in overnight.

While we can all debate about untapped oil reserves, clearly global demand is increasing and will increase as more people are lifted out of poverty in emerging global powers like India and China.

The U.S. has got to make hard choices to reduce demand. The obvious solutions are imposing high fuel efficiency standards on auto manufacturers and investing more in energy efficient mass transit and in R & D for alternative sources of energy. The problem is that in an election year, many politicians appeal to "pocketbook politics" rather than hard truths and long-term solutions.

5.22.2008

Federal Budget Fun!

I know, I know, how can the federal budget be fun?


Thanks to Rich for forwarding this fun interactive game- Budget Hero. Play and see how your ideal budget stacks up.


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5.20.2008

So This is the Real World? Sorry, Try Again.

Working at FCNL straight out of college is not just a lesson in American government, peace activism, and navigating Congress (or setting up a website, dealing with constituents, and interacting with the press), it's also about learning how the workplace, and indeed the work world, well, works.

I didn't realize how profoundly my environment had changed (beyond the superficial: I work in an office now instead of going to class, I live in DC instead of Philadelphia, I spend my days updating the website instead of analyzing how history is constructed) until an evening a couple of weeks ago. It was then, while babysitting for my cousins (I read while they did their homework) that I had an "ah ha!" moment. It resulted from the culmination of a series of articles, circumstances, and reactions that I have experienced in the past few months.

So what was the catalyst? An article running in the April 13th New York magazine about a Post-Hillary wave of feminism. I'm so sick of the whole presidential election already, it was much more likely that I'd have flipped to the movie reviews instead, but I didn't. It is on that 'didn't' that my post-Hillary feminist awakening hinged. Why didn't I read the movie reviews instead? Not because the title of the feminism piece was particularly good and not because I've ever been particularly interested in feminism. I was responding to a need in myself, a need I hadn't had at all before or at least in a number of years, a need to engage in a dialogue about my womanhood and the privileges and challenges that identity brings me.

From where did this need spring? As I think I've mentioned approximately 15 times on this blog, I spent four years immersed in a dialogue about my womanhood. Me and 1300 other women, with no one to talk to except each other, and every class somehow finding its way to a discussion of gender identity, the "gendering" of language, the inequality of the genders, etc. (Even in my computer science class!) Come last May I was pretty much done. (Come my sophomore year I had pretty much had enough, but alas, class discussion was a large part of most class grades). Why, I wondered, should we talk about gender and sexism? I certainly hadn't experienced any. It seemed to me that we were trying to emulate our mothers, who had broken down career and educational barriers, fighting nostalgic for battles that had already been won for us.

This, of course, was before the bitter fight over the Democratic party nomination had truly begun, and before voters, the media, pundits, and others felt it was ok to paint Hillary Clinton as a witch, that word that rhymes with witch, a cackler, a weeper, and an overall scary female. Reading the New York magazine article made me hyper-sensitive to these realities, and to my own vulnerabilities as a strong young woman living in a world where such perceptions are considered acceptable.

I'm not a huge fan of Clinton for policy reasons (of course we should talk to Iran! Of course a gas tax holiday won't work! And I long ago decided that I would put my lot in with economists.), but darn it, the reactions by some people to Clinton's candidacy really made my blood boil. I had awoken from my blissful 4 year nap in equality land. I was in the real world now.

The shameful behavior that I noticed in the presidential election began popping up in my work life and personal life as well. (Had it been there all the time? Had I been oblivious before?) The most thuggish behavior became obvious to me - how dare men honk at me as I walk home from the metro (and I mean really old, ugly men--although it wouldn't matter if they were my own age, sporting beards and waving law degrees around) - who did they think they were? I got to practice my most withering stare. Even in this office, which bends over backwards to be fair and equal, I felt a difference in how my male counterparts are treated - what you ask? I'm afraid I will have to disappoint. It's just a feeling, a feeling of being just out of the old boys club, a feeling that can pervade even most PC of offices, and one that you'll just have to trust is there. (Maybe I'm like a blind person who has a more acute sense of smell - I'm more sensitive to sexism in the workplace because my exposure to it was non-existent before).

None of the above examples are abhorrent offenses - I haven't been the victim of horrible sexual harassment (though I would argue that the honking is a form), or out and out discrimination at work. But it is shocking to me that my gender is even an issue. At any level. It just shouldn't be an issue. I realize that this maybe isn't a realistic idea, but heck, I don't know any better than to call for it. After all, I haven't been judged by anything except my intellect and abilities for four years… why should my gender start being a factor now? I'm a pretty defiant person who can blissfully ignore what is considered reality in favor of what I prefer to be my reality. Not in an unrealistic way, but in a manner somewhat similar to what Clinton is doing as I write this - I refuse to be told what she should do, what the status quo calls for me to do. Clinton is pushing to define her campaign herself - not having it defined for her by the media, by the sexism propagated by society, and, dare I say it…. the gendering of electoral politics.

I hope my fellow young women follow my lead. I'm not going to accept sexism as a fact of life, and I'm not going to let anyone force it upon me. What glass ceiling? Forget it. I've decided it doesn't exist. I've grown accustomed to life without it and I plan to continue living that life.

This willful stubbornness won't come as a surprise to my boyfriend, but it might come as a surprise to some of my fellow Americans who have just accepted the status quo. No longer. The sexist rhetoric that has been highlighted by Clinton's candidacy is ugly and unacceptable. I don't care if you think the senator is a good candidate or a bad one - that assessment should have nothing to do with whether she was wrapped in a pink or blue blanket when she was born.

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5.16.2008

Disaster in Burma

Caroline's distinction that the disaster in Burma now is not a force of nature but a force of politics is important.

By limiting foreign aid, the military junta has exacerbated the crisis. UN officials now estimate that 100,000 people have died since the cyclone swept through Burma two weeks ago. Some say the R2P doctrine would legitimate an intervention in Burma to sidestep the likely veto by China or Russia in the UN Security Council. There are good reasons for and against this idea.

The R2P doctrine should be applied strictly to ensure it is not rendered meaningless by world leaders seeking to justify less than benign military interventions. Clearly, the devastating situation has resulted in "mass atrocities" as a result of the military junta's inaction in responding to the needs of the people. Yet, even a purely humanitarian intervention (air drops, increased foreign aid workers...etc) has the potential to backfire and escalate the crisis, putting the Burmese population and foreign aid workers further at risk. The military junta could completely cut off relations and militarize the borders. As my colleague Danny points out the regime is paranoid. It is unclear what a truly paranoid regime would do.

Caroline is right. It is a thorny issue. The longer the world waits to take action, the more people could die. Yet, the international community's actions need to be sensitive so as not to exacerbate the crisis. In the end, the crisis has already and could further undermine the military junta's grip on power. This isn't a reason against any type of intervention, but a fact to consider as the U.S. and European leaders consider the options for action.

5.14.2008

Natural Disasters: The Personal and The Policy

Our global community is a bit like a high school: governments are adjusting to the raging hormones of globalization, economic and social situations we’re not quite comfortable with yet, but with which we must grapple.

This condition, the world as Mrs. Friedman’s 5th period Social Studies class, has been put under the spotlight in the past couple of weeks, first by the cyclone in Burma on May 2 and then the Earthquake in China just two days ago. I have to admit that until the Chinese earthquake hit I wasn’t as roiled by the Burmese cyclone as I am now. Why? Because I feel some personal connection to the earthquake and its victims. As I wrote last week I spent some time in the Guizhou province, which borders the Sichuan province where the epicenter of the quake was. I also have a close friend who works in Beijing, but who often travels around the country. I could imagine that people I care about and places I visited were trapped, crumbled, or destroyed.

It embarrasses me that I didn’t pay closer attention to the Burmese disaster, which is graver than that in China, until I felt affected. The two events, though Burma and China are neighbors, are not connected, but the disaster in China made me think personally about the people trapped in Burma, with nothing to eat, no water, and no way out. What if I had family caught in that situation and was powerless to do anything?

It is this feeling of powerlessness that angers me the most. If we give up a certain amount of personal power to be part of a broader world, then the governing bodies of that world must protect individual rights and vulnerabilities.

The Canadian government (It’s never the States is it?) initiated some work on this responsibility in 2001, dubbing their report “The Responsibility to Protect.” FCNL talked about this notion at Annual Meeting last year (where do Quakers stand on supporting peace-keeping military missions?), but I hadn’t thought about it much before this week. I went to FCNL’s little library in Hadley conference room and took down the report to read. I’ve only gotten through about 20 pages of it so far, but I seem to agree with it. The question is, even though we agree that we have a responsibility to protect – will we? The answer for the Burmese cyclone seems to be no, not if it threatens a sovereign nation, even if we disagree with the government controlling the country. This makes sense in a politically and diplomatically. But I wonder…. what happens to the people? 100,000 people could die if aid doesn’t reach the country soon. How much is that sacrifice worth? Of course, this argument could be used to explain why the U.S. went into Iraq in 2003. Where can we draw the line?

We can draw the line, I think, when it is an emergency situation. It is painfully obvious that time is of the essence for the Burmese population. In Iraq, citizens were not being deprived of food and water – in fact, for many Iraqi civilians, the creature comforts of calm, food, and home may be harder to get now than before we invaded. Will it always be this easy to see when international forces should go into a country and when they shouldn’t? No. But I think we have to try to find a standard for when the international community is required to take a stand. And I believe the Burma situation would meet such a standard. It is time for the world to grow up, go to college, and take charge of their responsibility to value human life.

Wait a minute. Am I arguing against relativism? I think my liberal arts degree just shriveled up and died. Is this what growing up feels like?

This argument of mine isn’t that well thought out and I haven’t read through the enter Responsibility to Protect report yet, but I would be interested in hearing what others this about this. When is it ok to go around a sovereign government? When is it not?

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5.13.2008

Thru the Plexiglass

As someone who's been to both INS and CIS offices many times, I can say this is a fairly accurate depiction of what it's like to deal with U.S. immigration services-- except it's never quite this fun.



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5.09.2008

Aren't you glad you paid your taxes?

I'm not.


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5.08.2008

Caroline's Wild Ride (In China)

As most of you may know, Joe V. has just returned from a trip to China. Joe shared some stories about his trip with FCNL staff last week, and it got me thinking about the month that I spent in China a few summers ago.

While Joe's trip was overseen by committees of the Chinese government, mine was organized by Danny Tang, a 17 year-old college classmate of mine, and her father, a college English professor. When I signed on to the trip in May 2004, I was told that my fellow travelers and I (about 12 of us) would be staying in Guiyang, the capital city of the Guizhou province and teaching middle-schoolers English at the university there.



I arrived in mid-July, flying from New York to Beijing by way of Tokyo, and then taking a 36-hour "hard sleeper" train (read, open bunks, 6 bunks to each open cubby) to Guiyang. The first morning in Guiyang, I realized that this trip was going to be very different from how it was described: more chaotic and at times unsettling.

Instead of teaching a class of students in a classroom, I was assigned as the head of a "family" of students, with whom I was to converse in English as we traveled around Guizhou and the neighboring Hunan province. When I first met them, each of my students told me their English moniker (and refused to give me their Chinese names). My little family was made up of Caroline (me), Peter, Martin, Anna, Jane, and Cherry. (One of my friends had two girls who had named themselves Car and Blue). The kids were great, and knew English pretty well for 12 to 13 year-olds. They were definitely the best part of the adventures I would experience in the coming weeks.

I could write for pages about what those adventures were, but the list includes: climbing up six hundred uneven steps to the top of Fan Jin mountain (view from the top pictured below) and staying there for two nights,



Visiting a traditional ethnic village that had clearly been optimized by the Miao people (majority ethnic Chinese are known as Han Chinese) who lived there for tourists - and they seemed to be making a profit (note the satellite dish),


And the best part: staying with Anna's family for four days in a small city called Liupanshui. After a rough couple of weeks traveling around with the kids, Anna's family was so welcoming, taking me out to dinner every night, giving me a traditional Chinese dress (They had me try it on at the store, and after commenting on my large American hips took my clothes away so I could wear it for the rest of the night - to teach English in!), and even taking me to Anna's school, where I got to answer questions from three different classes of about 50 students. The subjects ranged from whether I was allowed to have a boyfriend, to what my favorite food was, to my feelings about Taiwan. On this outing I also got to meet the local party secretary, who invited me to take up residence in Liupanshui and teach English full time.


Whew. Feel confused about where I went and what I did? At the end of the trip so did I. In fact, I took the few extra days we had before our plane left for home to fly to Beijing and see the Forbidden City, Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and eat at the famous Peking duck restaurant (just vegetables though, I was a vegetarian). This last part of the trip reminded me how special the first had been - the flight and sightseeing in the capital was overseen by a business colleague of one of friends father's and this pampered-business-tourist view was just the opposite of how I had perceived China in Guizhou.

And what was that perception exactly? Though I found the trip frustrating at times (for example when we took 5 "days of rest" because one of my fellow travelers came down with dysentery - didn't that end after the Oregon Trail?), I believe that it was a fairly genuine look at China in the early 21st century. I saw both devastating poverty and rapid development (check out the Louvre-inspired Walmart below). The most striking impression (probably given the kids I was working with) was of a burgeoning middle class, at once desperate to emulate the west, and also to maintain their distinct national identity. At the core, China didn't seem to me so different from the states - the upper-middle class Chinese kids I met with reminded me a lot of myself when I was an upper-middle class 12 year-old.


That's my small experience with China. My good friend Nina, who was on the trip and currently lives in Beijing (she has also studied in Shanghai and a northern city called Harbin), tells me our experience that summer was totally different than most of her subsequent time in the country. But I think her reaction underscores that China is a real, complex country just like our own - and it is important to understand it in all its complexities. And the time to do so is now.


Since I'm based out of D.C., some policy thoughts:


Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power is Transforming the World

China's Competing Nationalisms

Managing Sino-American Crises: Case Studies and Analysis


The Right Way to Pressure Beijing


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5.02.2008

New and Exciting

Hello everyone! Happy Friday and Happy May. Here in D.C. it is a beautiful sunny day, and we at the FCNL offices have had the pleasure of seeing some familiar faces for the past couple of days, as the Finance, Field, and Development Committees have been meeting. I love talking to people who I don't work with every day (and who really care about our issues), and it always makes me a little jealous that we don't have a Communications Committee.... (also, there is always yummy leftover food- perfect for hungry intern stomachs).

Ok. Now for the new and exciting on the blog, not just at 245 2nd Street NE. If you direct your attention to the sidebar you will see links to some interesting blogs. Kate had the great idea to link to some blogs that we read to find out about what's going in Iraq, foreign policy, and the peace movement. Hopefully this list with grow and diversify -- let us know if you have any ideas!

Also... as an extra Friday treat... you never now where the Religious Society of Friends will pop up.


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