My photograph “Laundry Day in Santorini” has been accepted into the FOCUS New Jersey art show:
Art Center of Northern New Jersey
250 Center Street
New Milford, New Jersey 07646
201-599-2992
The exhibit runs from November 13 to December 15, 2009. Reception: Sunday, November 13, 2 - 4 p.m.
at the J. Lucas Gallery in Provincetown, MA!
Show dates: September 25 until October 25
Opening reception: Friday, September 25 from 6 to 8 p.m.
I am delighted to show my work and to have a reason to get to Cape Cod this year!
For those of you who haven’t heard: Sarah Palin resigned as governor of Alaska today, at the start of the holiday weekend. It seems strange that she made the announcement in Wasilla with very few people in attendance other than the lieutenant governor and his family. She spoke for about 15 minutes, without pausing for breath, rambling on about the accomplishments of her administration, the need for postive change, sports analogies, her son Trig and her desire to support those who are trying to do good …
What is going on with her now? What is the story behind this news?
Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Gov. Corzine of New Jersey held a press conference at the Bergen Family Center in Englewood.
From left to right: Englewood Mayor Michael J. Wildes, N.J. State Assemblywoman Valerie Huttle, N.J. State Senator Loretta Weinberg, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Gov. Jon S. Corzine and Bergen Family Center President Mitch Schonfeld
Sebelius announced that New Jersey, a state she called a leader in children’s health insurance coverage will receive an additional $286 million for NJ Family Care, targeted at low-income parents and children 18 and younger. She praised Corzine’s leadership on children’s health care issues and said that New Jersey’s expedited eligibility process for NJ Family Care would be used as a model by other states.
Sebelius stressed President Obama’s emphasis on health care insurance, especially for children, and said that Corzine, who is in the midst of challenging reelection campaign against Republican Christopher Christie, is aligned with the admistration’s goals on these issues.
Sebelius and Corzine listened to songs performed by children from the Bergen Family Center at the start of the conference and visited with some of the center’s seniors after it concluded.
“You’ve got a good governor here,” Sebelius told the seniors. “Make sure you keep him,” she said, as she departed.
Yesterday, the last group of New Jersey Army National Guard soldiers who were deployed late last summer returned to New Jersey. They landed at McGuire Air Force Base and will spend the next week at Fort Dix for demobilization briefings.
Two of the three soldiers whom I have been following came home yesterday — Eli Viera and David Pinero of the 250th Brigade Support Battalion. ( Jeff Mullins, who was detached from the battalion and reassigned in Iraq, returned home earlier last week.)
The soldiers flew to the United States from Kuwait via Germany on a contracted commercial airline, Northwest.
The families were not allowed to greet their returning soldiers at air field, but waited for them at Fort Dix. The first few soldiers off the plane — home at last.
Top brass from the New Jersey National Guard greeted and thanked all the soldiers when they stepped back onto American soil.
Most of the deplaning soldiers climbed down the steps soberly. They seemed tired and subdued at this point in their journey.
Not the fellow below, though, who lifted his arms and cheered, as he clambered down.
Eli Viera (in center), coming home
and shaking hands back on American soil.
And David Pinero (second from left) coming home
and making his way down the long line of greeters.
Buses and trucks transported the soldiers and their gear to Fort Dix, where they turned in their weapons and listened to a short briefing about base demobilization protocol.
Many families had shown up hours earlier, and they waited for the moment of reunion anxiously.
Clara and Ethan Viera arrived, accompanied by Eli’s mother and nephew.
The soldiers marched in formation to the meeting place.
Kiera waited with a sign, en route.
When the soldiers reached the meeting point, they stood, waiting to be dismissed, tilted toward their tense and expectant families.
When the command was given, the ranks broke and both lines rushed forward into embraces and kisses.
Kiera and David
Kiera and David with their friend
Eli and Clara
Clara reaches out to Major Stephen McKenzie, commander of the 250th Brigade Support Battalion. Both he and Eli received Bronze Stars in Iraq, just before they returned to the United States.
Eli and Ethan, getting ready to readjust to life together again at home
Today, Dwight and I attended the New Yorker’s daylong “geekathon” (David Remnick’s description of the summit) held at NYU.
Malcolm Gladwell kicked it off with a speech about the financial crisis. Said most people were ascribing the problems to 1) incompetence or 2) lack of adequate regulation. He blames it on overconfidence, a characteristic, he said, of experts, or smart people. He compared the current economic slump to the crushing military defeat that the British suffered at Gallipoli during WWI, which he also attributed to overconfidence.
Great, entertaining talk, but not convincing. He described his own remarks as the amuse-bouche of the day, which was apt.
More financial types commented on the mess for most of the morning. My resident expert (Dwight) wasn’t impressed with their analyses. I was interested for a while, but then eager to move on to other matters.
Hooray! Geoffrey Canada talked about the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ). Fantastic!
[Aside: I wanted to do my Columbia's master's project on the Baby College at the HCZ, but couldn't get access. Buttonholed Canada today and tried again (even with no guaranteed outlet for a freelance piece). Made some progress.]
Canada is charismatic, persuasive, intelligent. He is anti teachers unions, pro merit pay for teachers, pro longer school day and pro longer school year, especially for his HCZ kids.
Very interesting panel composed of Jeffrey Sachs, director of Earth Institute at Columbia University, and Esther Duflo, a professor of poverty and alleviation and development economics at MIT. I’ve never heard Sachs speak in person before. He seemed discouraged, maybe even bitter, — 40 years of fighting poverty and trying to protect the environment haven’t produced the commitment to these problems that he expected from the American public. Duflo — loved her and wished my girls could have heard her this morning! She spoke (with a French accent) very factually, very unemotionally, about her economic research on poverty in India. She didn’t try to jazz up her compelling work at all. She gave economics, the dismal science, a good name today.
Another panel on the environment (bleak outlook, as always) after lunch, then a health care panel followed.
Howard Dean, Elizabeth Edwards and Neera Tanden (advisor to Obama). All three foresee progress toward a public healthcare insurance option during the Obama administration — movement toward universal healthcare coverage, although they differed on details. Edwards said that currently her cancer is stable, but she looked (understandably) tired, I thought. Lots of media showed up to film her; she will be on Oprah tomorrow promoting her new book, Resilience.
The late afternoon was devoted to foreign policy: defense and diplomacy.
Thomas Pickering, former ambassador to the UN and many countries: Worried about Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq. Working on a “second track” solution to the Israel/Palestine morass. (Speaks many languages, including Swahili*)
David Kilcullen, served in the Australian army and was a military advisor to General David Petraeus. Blunt. Analytical. I thought his overall theme boiled down to that the U.S. should figure out how to keep the local population safe in the dangerous countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Pakistan — work with the police, not the army. In Afghanistan, stay out of the remote regions and help restore order and security to settled areas. He said that most Afghanis (65%) still like Americans, and we want to keep them feeling good about us. Talked about increasing violence in Iraq.
Vali R. Nasr, professor of international politics at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts. Spoke about the upcoming election in Iran and how its outcome will affect Iran and the region for years to come. Informative, persuasive.
Last, but not least, Seymour Hersh was interviewed by David Remnick. Highly ineresting and entertaining. To my surprise, Remnick abruptly brought this interview to an end, 20 minutes earlier than the endtime listed in the program. Remnick said he did not want Hersh, who was was rambling on and jumping from one tantalizing topic to another, to reveal any of the stories he is working on for the magazine. Hersh, like Pickering and Kilcullen, is very concerned about Pakistan. Said Pakistan is building more weapons than any other country in the world and that we don’t trust Pakistan and that Pakistan doesn’t trust the U.S. …
All-in-all, a good, meaty day (although I chose the vegetarian option for lunch, naturally)!
*Lala salama! (Sleep well, in Swahili)
Back to sightseeing — On the morning of January 1, 2009, we took a small van from our resort back to Stone Town, not far from the airport.
Stone Town, designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 2000, was once the center of Zanzibar’s trade in slaves and spices. We met our guide Mbwana near the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral.
In 1860 alone, 25,000 slaves were transported to Zanzibar out of Africa’s interior. About 8,000 slaves were exported, 4,000 put to work in Stone Town and 12,000 sent to work on Zanzibar’s plantations. By 1873, however, Zanzibar’s sultan had put an end to the island’s slave trade, in response to the efforts of British missionaries, including Dr. Livingstone.
Who knew the explorer Dr. Livingstone (of I presume fame) played a huge role in stopping Zanzibar’s slave trade?
We followed Mbwana into the church, appalled by the low ceilings of the two slave chambers and narrow window slits that barely allowed in any light or fresh air.
Outside the church, we could see a mosque nearby. Mbwana pointed out the juxtaposition as an example of modern day Zanzibar’s religious tolerance.
Regardless, almost everyone in Zanzibar today is Muslim. The U.S. Department of State says that 99 percent of the island’s one million residents are Muslims. Mbwana and others that we asked while we were there gave answers ranging from 85 to 95 percent. Almost all women and girls in Zanzibar wear long dresses and head scarves–no shorts or short skirts. Cara and I had to be much more sensitive about taking people’s pictures in Zanzibar than we had been previously on this trip.
We walked from the church to Stone Town’s marketplace. Hard to stop shooting photos of everything and everyone.
This woman pushed a wheelbarrow full of bloody horns,
and this man shoved a huge swordfish, bent into a u-shape, in his cart along the street.
Once we got inside the fish and meat market, the stench was overwhelming. I gave Lynne a hand wipe to hold over her nose to prevent her from gagging.
Outside, where the fruits, vegetables and spices were sold, the air was much fresher.
In the past, Zanzibar was the world’s largest grower and seller of many spices, but after its government began experimenting with socialism in the 1970s, other regions overtook Zanzibar in the spice trade. Now, tourism is Zanzibar’s largest source of revenue, but few natives of Zanzibar find jobs in the tourist industry. Most people in Zanzibar still earn only about one dollar a day.
I have too many photos of colorful, exotic Stone Town to post on my blog! Not only did our group tour continue all morning, but Cara and I remained behind in the afternoon to take more pictures.
Look for a Zanzibar photo essay on my Web site by April 1.
In the late afternoon, we set out with Jimmy again to explore the Serengeti:
Hyenas, lying about near their den.
Watching animals in Africa, sometimes I had the odd feeling that life was imitating art, because the human puppet animals in Disney’s Lion King so accurately mimic the habits and gaits of hyenas, giraffes, lions, wildebeest and elephants.
Cape buffaloes mysteriously on the move, as we returned to camp:
and a gorgeous Serengeti nightfall:
Before I turn to the the following day, a note about laundry, especially for my female readers. At this camp, we had been told (and it was written in the camp info package) that the staff might not launder ladies’ underwear. Well, sometimes they did and sometimes they didn’t. Even if I separated the laundry and kept underwear out of the basket, the staff sometimes picked it up, took it away and washed it. Other times, they didn’t. However, you pay a price for getting your underwear washed – your bras. They disappear in Africa. Both socks in a pair come back, but bras do not — be forewarned.
Ladies’ lingerie became an even bigger issue at our next destination — Zanzibar, a mostly Muslim country.
On December 29, our last day on safari, we drove out onto the Serengeti to locate the great migratory herds. Zebra and wildebeest below, wending their way across the vast plains — a curving river of animals, flowing across the grass.
Drinking at a waterhole, nervous and alert, keeping an eye out for predators:
Continuing the Lion King theme, we drove on to what looked like Pride Rock. Two big male lions, probably brothers, rested on top. Up until now, we hadn’t been too wowed by lions — they are so lazy during the day in real life! But these magnificent beasts were impressive.
Look at this big male that turned to look gaze directly at us, sleepily curious, but wholly unperturbed.
A hyena prowled along next to a family of zebra, sized up the foal’s vulnerability, gave up and slouched on.
We had now reached the central area of the Serengeti, where there is more varied geography, but more safari traffic, too. A beautiful leopard, but jeeps in the background, unfortunately.
An amazing African panorama — acacia in the foreground, a herd of elephants in the background.
Hippos.
The sun was beating down on the Serengeti, and the day grew even hotter, drier, dustier, as we turned back toward camp. We found a pair of lions, right next to the road, hanging around to drink out of its drainage ditch — a thin trickle of muddy water. Jimmy said they were a mating pair. The female wore a radio collar.
The male was keeping a close eye on the female’s every move.
He followed her across the road and tried to approach her.
But she turned around and snarled. They both settled down and panted in the heat, under the brilliant blue sky.
“Maybe she’s not ready,” Jimmy suggested.
Or maybe she just didn’t like him! He did not have the dignified, royal look one expects of lions — he was a little dopey looking, I think… Here’ s a closeup …
We spent the rest of the day back in camp, enjoying its shade and preparing to depart the next morning.
Here’s part of the camp’s energy supply:
All the wonderful meals we ate in this camp were cooked by Chef Paul, shown standing in front of his tent, below. For lunch and dinner every day, he baked delicious fresh bread in the oven visible on the left side of the photo.
Tomorrow – on to Zanzibar, the beach and the Internet again — hallelujah!
We had a heated debate over dinner on the topic of Obama’s cap of $500,000 on executive pay for companies that receive federal bailout money. I was FOR, another household member was strongly AGAINST.
Here’s a Reuters story on the subject: Obama to Set Executive Pay Limits
ANY VOTES OR COMMENTS FROM MY READERS?
Devoted readers of my blog know that Clare and I drove down to Washington, DC on Sunday afternoon to be there for the inauguration. We were lucky that we could stay with a family friend who lives in Chevy Chase.
Clare slept for about half the drive, so I amused myself while she rested by singing along with my favorite tunes on my iPod and guessing if the cars that passed me were heading for the inauguration. If I saw a car full of twenty somethings, I waited for the telltale bumper sticker to come into view. I was also fairly confident that any car from Massachusetts, Illinois, Colorado or Vermont was going my way. My favorite handmade rear window sign:
We couldn’t leave home until midday, so we arrived in DC just as the inaugural concert ended. Sadly, we missed our chance to hear Bruce, John, Pete, Beyonce and Bono. Yet, thousands of people were still milling about on the mall, even though the performances were over. Twilight descended quickly and the sky to the west went streaky with pink.
On Monday morning, we took the metro to RFK stadium to participate in the Day of National Service. We helped assemble care packages to send to soldiers.
I have often heard politicians and older journalists (Tom Brokaw, for example) expound on the unified commitment and dedication that Americans showed during WWII. Lots of windy rhetoric about Americans pulling together … moving mountains … sweeping away injustice … accomplishing the impossible.
On Monday and Tuesday, I stopped being so skeptical about all those words.
Unexpectedly and unintentionally, I discovered my faith in the power of the American people. I believe.
Clare and I joined a long line of people on the sloping entrance to the stadium. Cheerful, upbeat volunteers handed out clipboards, pens and forms that asked us to fill in our contact info, including e-mail addresses.
And there was a question at the bottom of the form with a box to check: Would you be interested in volunteering at this kind of event in the future?
We were let inside with a group of about 100 other volunteers and directed to sit down in a section of seats. A young man named Spencer, who told us that he had volunteered in the Obama campaign, welcomed us, thanked us for participating in the national day of service called for by President elect Obama and explained how we were to assemble the care packages inside the heated (hallelujah!) tent that had been erected inside the stadium.
Inside the tent, there were volunteers like Spencer everywhere, and they weren’t all young. They cheerfully directed us, thanked us (the assembly line workers) over and over again and dropped the stuff for the troops (pens, papers, toothpaste, toothbrushes, gum, etc. — all donated by Target) into our bags.
The upbeat spirit in the tent was amazing. Americans of all ages, races and ethnicities were there. People pushed wheelchair-bound volunteers along the assembly line. Music blasted. Everyone smiled and chatted. People exchanged stories about why there were there — many were first-time visitors to DC who had come for the inauguration, of course.
Here’s Clare on one of the assembly lines:
Members of Obama’s incoming administration showed up to work on the assembly lines. We saw Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano and Susan Rice while we there. They were greeted with wild applause and enthusiasm. Here’s Holder coming in.
Other politicians also made appearances, including Senator Christopher Dodd and the governor of Massachusetts, Patrick Deval. Here’s Clare with Senator Dodd:
Clare and I worked for about two hours. When we exited, we were directed to another short assembly line for our gifts (!) — a bottle of water, a brownie and a beautiful card commemorating our participation, all to be stuffed in a red Target bag. Here’s what the card read:
On this day, the eve of the inauguration of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden, we honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with this Day of National Service.
This commemorative card is our personal thanks to you, one of the volunteers this day of January 19, 2009, at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium.
Your work today to assemble 100,000 care packages for our brave men and women of the United States Military is an example for all Americans of what we can do united as one nation and one people.
The amazing experience was not yet over. Volunteers invited us to sit down and write a letter to an American soldier before we left the stadium. Beautiful stationery and ballpoint pens were provided. Everyone, it seemed, sat down to compose a letter, even though it was very cold outside the tent.
The whole event was so well organized and thought out.
It seemed so simple to encourage people to participate, to care about our military personnel, to invite Americans to take part in volunteer activities that benefit their communities and their country, and to say thank you for helping out.
People responded with an air that felt like, “Well, all you had to do was ask.”
It was remarkable, uplifting, exciting. Exciting was the word I heard over and over again — people talking with each other or on their cell phones to friends and families who weren’t in DC.
We left RFK stadium and took the metro back to the mall to check out what was happening and feel the energy.
I have to note here that all kinds of Obama and inaugural souvenirs (posters, calendars, pins, hats, blankets, bracelets) were being sold everywhere, and they seemed to be selling briskly. Clare’s favorite — Obama air freshener.
People wanted to share their stories — why they were in Washington, what this inauguration meant to them.
On the metro, two women, sprawled across the plastic seats, told me that they were from North Carolina. They had driven up on Sunday. One of the women’s son was hawking disposable cameras on the mall. He had called his mother and told her that she needed to come to DC to be part of history. She and her friend had driven all the way up for one day because she had to work on Tuesday — they wouldn’t even be able to stay for the inauguration.
In a line at a ladies room, another woman told me that she was a DC resident. Her daughter was flying up from Texas for the inauguration. She told me that she had started working in the lunchroom of Washington’s five and dime many years ago. At the time, blacks could only work in the lunchroom, not on the selling floor. Eventually, she became the store’s first black salesperson. She said that Obama’s election meant so much.
African American families posed everywhere, proud and exuberant.
I talked with a Nigerian man who wore an “Africans for Obama” sash and told him that I had visited Kenya and Tanzania recently. I said that it had been wonderful to be an American there at this time — the Kenyans and Tanzanians were so happy about Obama’s election.
“The whole world is happy about Obama,” he responded calmly.
On Tuesday morning, Clare and I boarded the already crowded metro around 7 a.m. The air was achingly cold and seeped into every small joint between the many layers of clothing I wore.
One extended African American family had boarded the metro earlier, farther out along the line. They sat and stood. A little well-bundled girl, maybe 6 or 7 years old, cuddled up on her mother’s lap for warmth. Her mother said, “She’s cold,” to her grandfather, who stood, hanging onto a pole.
“Never mind,” he answered, not unkindly, “she’s old enough to remember being here.”
Clare and I had tickets to enter through the purple gate — the gate that has become infamous because it never opened and many purple ticketholders never made it into the inauguration.
Anyway, we did, despite the lack of police or security to direct the huge masses of people trying to cram into the inauguration from every direction.
We managed to get onto the Capital lawn, where we could see …. very little. Even the jumbotron screen on our side was blocked by a tree!
But it didn’t really matter. We were there, too, and we could hear Obama’s words and observe and feel the crowd’s reaction for ourselves.
The people who stood around us listened intently to every word President Obama said. People inclined their heads toward the loudspeakers. No one moved or pushed or shifted positions during his inaugural address, despite the aching cold.
When Obama said, “… but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things,” people around me nodded and a man in front of me said, “Amen.”
What amazed me most though was the reaction to these words of Obama’s:
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and ideals.
The crowd murmured and clapped its approval, more loudly than for any other statement that Obama made.
The crowd’s focused attention on Obama’s speech, and its response to the one phrase in particular, heartened and inspired me. My experiences in DC on both Monday and Tuesday made me believe in the amazing spirit of the American people that can be tapped, as it has been in the past, as I said at the start of this post.
To be there at President Obama’s inauguration and to feel the longing of Americans to re-commit themselves to the words and ideas on which this country was founded was to be present, I hope, at the start of a new era in American history.
An inspiring and exhilarating decisive moment, leading to a better future for my children, for the United States, and for the world, I hope and pray.