a lament for the bamiyan buddhas

This week marked a very sad ten-year-anniversary. In 2001, two beautiful 6th-century standing buddhas carved into a cliff-side in the Bamiyan valley (a lovely region of central Afghanistan) were destroyed by the Taliban, who were seeking to eliminate all pre-Islamic and "idolatrous" artifacts from the country.

When it happened, I don't think the magnitude of this loss, in cultural, religious, and historical terms, registered with me. (I was thirteen at the time.) Now it makes me want to cry every time I think about it. The buddhas, which once overlooked an ancient monastery, survived over 1,500 years of natural wear & tear, war, and several invasions, only to be destroyed by some assholes with dynamite out of of sheer cruel small-mindedness.

There has been a movement, both within Afghanistan and around the globe, to reconstruct these statues. UNESCO is meeting in Paris this week to discuss the future of the site, i.e. whether to rebuild or simply preserve what is left. Here's the story.

I can't decide whether or not I think rebuilding them is a good idea. At first, I'm all for it. But then I think that maybe leaving these empty spaces in the cliffs, like scars, would serve as a reminder to us all of the absolute finality of the losses suffered in religious conflicts. These beautiful statues were casualties in an wide, tragic, and still-raging war on religious tolerance. Maybe they could be rebuilt, but it wouldn't be the same. And, lest we forget, human lives certainly cannot be reconstructed.

Okay, it is a Saturday night - Enough sad realities. Time to relax and have some fun. Hope you have a good one, too.

hot "feminists" round 2

FEMEN strikes again! Remember that topless protest held for Putin I blogged about back in October? Well, they're still around, and making news again. This time, over a New Zealand radio station's "Win a Wife" contest, in which they promised to send a listener to Ukraine to find a mail-order bride.

Signs read "Ukraine is not a brothel." And they were topless....again. As I've said before, I find this a very bizarre way to handle a feminist agenda. I do definitely get, however, how insulting it would be to hear that you and your countrywomen are the "prizes" in a radio give-away in another country. (Ouch.) So I'll keep saying what I said before: Do what you do, ladies.

Picketing in front of a marriage registration office in Kiev. Photo: AP

love it: berlin

I think that Berlin might just be one of my favorite places on earth. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. I knew that it's a hotbed of counter-culture weirdness, and it's got a not-always-pleasant history. It doesn't have the fairy-tale prettiness of Munich or the grand beauty of Hamburg. But during my time in Germany, it was probably my favorite city we visited. From visiting the Brandenburg Gate & "Checkpoint Charlie" to enjoying brunch on a sidewalk in the surprisingly-lovely east Berlin to dancing to crazy Euro-pop at a freaky night club to touring the Reichstag to sipping lychee-flavored champagne in a shopping mall of all places, I loved it. The city is chock-full of important, meaningful monuments and a painful past (the Holocaust memorial and the remnants of the Berlin wall come immediately to mind). Berlin bears its scars gracefully. It's gritty & complex & honest, and I like that. A lot.

news photos of the year

National Geographic's "Best News Photos of the Year," an annual feature on World Press Winners, is something I look forward to. Not that it's always pleasant, because it rarely is. But it's a valuable conglomeration of some weird, sad, and all-too-rare wonderful things that happened in 2010. I've posted a few below. Here's the full story. (I should warn you, the ones I've included are some of the less-disturbing of the bunch. If you're easily upset you might not want to look at some of the others.)

Bolivian "Flying Cholitas" (women wrestlers)

Anti-government protester in Bangkok

 

 

Bibi Aisha, the Afghan girl whose nose and ears were cut off by her Taliban husband. (She's since undergone reconstructive surgery here in the U.S.)

happy happy diwali

I was first introduced to the Hindu festival of Diwali by a particularly hilarious episode of The Office. The holiday has also been in the news lately because of President Obama's controversial trip to India. But what is it, exactly? Since I'm going to the Diwali celebration in downtown San Antonio this weekend, I decided I better find out. 

Diwali is called the "Festival of Lights" because the celebration involves lighting candles and lanterns. The multitude of lights are supposed to signify the banishment of ignorance (darkness), and the welcoming of knowledge (light). The religious significance of Diwali varies according to region and may be associated with the gods Rama, Kali, or Lakshmi, but the overarching theme is the victory of good over evil. (I think everyone, Hindu or not, should be cool with that.) Diwali celebrations also include the three things that all fabulous holidays have: fireworks, gifts, and feasting. Yesss.

I think we're going to have a great time this weekend! This is only the second city-wide celebration (it got started when San Antonio signed a sister-city agreement with Chennai, an Indian city on the Bay of Bengal, in 2008). Here's some info. and the website:

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Hemisfair Park by the Tower of the Americas
San Antonio, Texas

6:00 - 10:00 PM

*Live Entertainment

*Temporary Henna Tattoos

*1000 Diya Candle Floats

*Authentic Indian cuisine

*Spectacular Fireworks Display

http://www.diwalisa.com/

releasing diya candles into the S.A. river

If you want to know more about Diwali, here's a good site.

follow-ups: kanye goes zen, 50 cent finds a kindred spirit, more u.n. haterade, and taylor hunts me down

There have been some interesting, occasionally bizarre, developments regarding some of the things I've blogged about over the past few weeks. Here are a few that have come to my attention: 

In a tale of dubya, I mentioned that Bush feels that being accused of racism after Hurricane Katrina was one of the very lowest points of his presidency. One of the central figures behind those accusations was Kanye West, who extended an olive branch to Bush during a radio interview on Wednesday. West said he regrets pulling the race card and can connect with Bush on a human level. I've gotta say, I'm impressed.

phila is one tough cookie

In farewell, herbie, I climbed on my rhino poaching soapbox. So I was pretty beside myself to hear about Phila the black rhinoceros, who was shot nine times during the course of two poaching attempts and lived to tell the tale. She's since been moved to a zoo in Johannesburg. A movement to make 50 Cent Phila's honorary godfather has been gaining momentum in South Africa, including petitioning Nelson Mandela to contact the rapper on Phila's behalf.

chishugi, another tough cookie

In a few things to be angrier about than the ground zero mosque, I shared some information about the mass rapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo and gave a little piece of my mind on the United Nations. Last night on BBC World Service radio I heard an interview with Leah Chishugi, a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide who is now working with rape victims in the eastern Congo. She also has a bone to pick with the U.N. because she's seen this type of inaction before. She cited a specific incident last month, when U.N. forces sat idly by while Congolese women were being raped and murdered less than an hour away from their camp. Her words on the U.N.'s current role in the DRC: "It makes me angry, it takes me back to 1994 because they left us to die...I don't know what they're doing, what they're protecting. They should be protecting people." Here's the radio interview.

no one is safe

And some of you may remember haterade: taylor swift, in which I mentioned that hearing Swiftie's songs over and over and over again is one of the reasons that I rarely change my tuner from NPR anymore. Well, it finally happened. NPR was playing Taylor Swift this afternoon. Granted, they were just reviewing her album, but they must've played a full minute of one of her new songs, and it happened: my ear drums started bleeding. She's found me.

dead drops (the hoes of the digital world)

Aram Bartholl, a German artist, has launched a new project called Dead Drops. Basically he's stuck five USB flash drives into walls around NYC and seeing what happens. People are invited to go to these sites to download and upload files. (Here's the story in his blog.) And, as Forrest would say, "You never know what you're gonna get."

Doesn't this whole thing seem kind of, well, dirty? Walking around New York inserting your computer into these projections on city walls and seeing what kind of cool/scary things pop up? Shouldn't loving computer owners be worried about digital STDs? No? I don't know.

I guess my speculation is pretty useless, since this "interactive art installation" is only in NYC. BUT he says he intends to expand Dead Drops into other cities. Could this project turn into a national digital orgy? Will it turn into a fabulous and inspiring sharing of ideas, or become a nightmarish Russian roulette of perversity? Are copyright infringements and lawsuits over pirated material about to ensue? With all of the controversy in the past decade over file-sharing, where does this fit in?  I'll be interested to see where this all goes. It might fizzle out or become huge - Keep your ears open!

And, in case you missed it, here's what else I've been writing about lately:

- Bizarre species of monkey discovered: how do you say "michael jackson nose" in burmese?

- I've forgiven Hermione for getting with my man Ron Weasley: love her: emma watson 

- Brown bears in Russia feasting upon the dead: zombie bears

how do you say "michael jackson nose" in burmese?

According to the BBC, conservationists have discovered a new species of monkey in Burma: Rhinopithecus strykeri.

Locals call this creature mey nwoah, meaning monkey with an upturned face, and say that they're easy to find: When it rains, water gets up the poor babies' noses and they can't stop sneezing. So - get this - when it rains, these monkeys sit with their head between their legs to keep the water out of their schnozes. Friggin adorable.

There's only about 300 of these funny little guys left in the wild. As is the case with many rare and wonderful creatures, their habitat is being destroyed. This time the culprits are Chinese loggers. Here's hoping the mey nwoah sticks around a little while.

getting naked for putin

why do i feel like they're just going 'woooooo!' ?

Vladimir Putin visited Kiev yesterday and was met by topless activists from the group FEMEN. According to leader Anna Gustol, "We are protesting against the interference of the Russian leaders in the internal affairs of our country. After their visits, in Ukraine we see restrictions on media freedom and on the right to demonstrate, as is the case in Russia," she said. (Here's the full story.) I think this is a really important message - I don't know what it's like to have Putin trying to play evil puppet master with my country, but it can't be fun. My response: You go girl! But, um, why are you naked?

they don't know it's alllll part of his evil plan

I seeee said the blind man. Their protest is so outrageous that it's garnered huge international attention. (Another benefit: He can't have these girls whacked in the middle of night, as I hear ole Putin is wont to do.) It's getting people thinking about Russia's continued relationship with post-Soviet eastern Europe, which isn't a very healthy one. FEMEN's signs included WE WON'T SLEEP WITH KREMLIN DWARFS and WE WON'T BEND OVER THAT EASY: Fabulous.

I think this whole Putin protest thing is great. It also raises some interesting questions about FEMEN. Their main year-round purpose is to raise awareness and combat the sexual tourism trade in Ukraine (including protesting at the Turkish embassy, because Turks are apparently the largest group of pervy tourists). FEMEN's highly sexualized protests are pretty regular occurrences. I'm not sure what to make of it. They're objectifying themselves to advance a feminist agenda. It's either very counterproductive and misguided...or genius. Do what you do, ladies! I'm rooting for y'all.

another femen event (many happy faces in this crowd)

no more pants! no more pants!

sorry, boys. if you want hot feminists you gotta go to ukraine

the wonderful world of albert kahn

I'm in a history nerd tizzy over the photo collection of Albert Kahn, a Frenchman who amassed examples of the earliest type of color photography (autochromes) from all over the world in the early 1900s: Morocco, Germany, Cambodia, Iraq, Brazil, China, Benin, Syria, and more. The pictures are fascinating - sometimes beautiful, sometimes disturbing (like one from Mongolia; there's a woman with her head sticking out of a big wooden box, sentenced to death by starvation). I've included a few examples, but you've got to check out the whole thing (from Musée Albert-Kahn). BBC Books has recently published the collection in ridiculously-expensive-hardback form, and it's definitely going on my wish list!

a french cutie hanging out next to some rifles, circa WWI

chinese dude not looking stereotypical at all

my dutch kin (where i get my good looks)

hotties

swiss guard - as always, snazzy dressers

zombie bears

you know that feeling when you eat too many dead Russians and you just wanna take a nap?

Russian bears are eating dead people. Seriously, they are breaking into coffins and eating their contents. The dry summer diminished their normal food supply, so they've made the switch from berries and mushrooms to decomposing flesh and the occasional Komi villager. (When the going gets tough, the tough get going.) I am sympathetic to their plight, and therefore would like it to be known that, when I die, I wish to be dumped in the Taiga woodlands as bear food. I know they'll put me to good use.

farewell, herbie

they want to know why it had to be herbie

R.I.P. Herbie the black rhino. If you've been to the San Antonio Zoo anytime in the past 11 years, you probably know him. I don't know why God couldn't have taken one of the less-cool creatures (the giant hissing cockroaches come to mind), but life isn't fair is it? Herbie died at 18, although black rhinos are supposed to live past 40 in captivity. His death was sudden and seemingly inexplicable - I smell foul play.

All joking aside, this sucks for number of reasons, but the main one is that the black rhinoceros is a critically endangered species. Over the years their numbers have declined about 96%, mostly due to poachers and the demand for rhino horn from the Far East (particularly Vietnam). They think it's some kind of miracle aphrodisiac, when really it's just the rhino equivalent of human fingernails...no medicinal benefits at all. Way to go, Asia. There are only about 4,000 black rhinos left. (The white rhinoceros numbers aren't as bad, but they are also endangered.) And the situation is getting worse, not better.

Some good news is, although poaching is on the rise, so are efforts to stop it. In South Africa game reserve wardens have begun embedding GPS systems directly into the horns of the rhinos under their watch. This measure will monitor their movements, alert them to suspicious activity, and (hopefully) deter poaching. And, FYI, former supermodel Elle McPherson has endorsed eating rhino horns for wrinkles or some crap. So be sure to send a little haterade her way if you are so inclined.

but daddy, i want a tasmanian tiger now!

tasmanian tigers are long gone

A frightening new study has been published by Science journal. It would appear that, despite strong efforts on a lot of fronts, 1 in 5 animal species are threatened with extinction. Amphibians are the worst off because no one seems to care much about them. They're not as much fun to get outraged over as rhinos and panda bears, but who doesn't love frogs?

In an NPR story this morning, Duke ecology professor Stuart Pimm said, "Species extinction is rather like death and taxes. They are an inevitable part of life, but you just don't want them to happen at too great a rate." He goes on to reveal that animals are dying off at approximately 1000 times the historical rate. In other words, some extinction is normal and natural - This ain't.

You don't have to quit driving your car or never turn your a/c on to think that cutting down rainforests in order to build palm oil plantations, for example, is not such a good deal. Can't everyone agree that we want to have cool creatures running around the planet? Diplomats, conservation biologists, and Han Solo are meeting in Japan to discuss whether everyone's pulling their weight in slowing down the rate of extinction and trying to figure out what else can be done. Hope it works out for them...and us.

Costa Rica's golden toad =  no mas

baiji - Chinese river dolphin, declared extinct in 2006

this my neighbor, nursultan tuleiakbay

Khoja Ahmed Yasavi Mausoleum, built by Tamerlane in 1390



Navruz (an ancient holiday marking the spring equinox) celebrated in Almaty







When researching places that the Peace Corps could send me, I read something to the effect of: "You are just as likely to be sent to an urban center in Kazakhstan as a rural area of East Africa!" Well, I kinda freaked. My mind jumped to exactly the same place as I'm sure yours is now: BORAT, that incredibly over-the-top movie that I suppose most PC-minded people find very repulsive. I love it. There are only a handful of movies that have ever made me laugh harder than this one. And, of course, it made Kazakhstan look absolutely wretched. So, my first thought: "But I don't WANNA go to to Kazakhstan!"

My initial impression of Kazakhstan, of course, is a perfect example of I shouldn't get my information from movies. I've done a little background check on the land of Borat. It's the country that gave us the domesticated horse, the location of several UNESCO world heritage sites, and is helping lead the way in the nuclear nonproliferation movement. It is actually a very beautiful, diverse, and culturally rich country. I wanted to share with you some of the things I've found.

development project in Aktau, a city on the Mangyshlak Peninsula

Kazakhstan Mountains

Kazakh falconers

Altai Mountains: thought to be the site of the mystical Buddhist kingdom of Shambhala

Arasan Banya (bath house)

All of this, of course, got me thinking: How many other places do I just write off because one goofy movie/book/comedian makes it look silly? None, now.

If you're interested in learning more about Kazakhstan, here's one of the best articles I found on it.

cool not-so-conventional art

"The Creatrix"

I've just discovered Mark Ryden's Wondertoonel collection, which has an awesome creepy Tim Burton thing going on. His work is too unsettling to hang all over the walls (for me at least), but it's definitely very interesting. He describes his artwork as "the visual debris from contemporary pop culture," which I think is a pretty good way to put it. He currently has work on display in Los Angeles, but I'm hoping he makes his way to Texas soon. His website, http://www.markryden.com, is definitely worth a visit.





British artist Jason de Caires Taylor and MUSA (Museo Subacuatico de Arte) are doing their best to save the coral reefs near Cancun. Taylor created these statues (made from a unique cement that encourage coral growth) based on casts from local Mexican people. As you can see, the ocean is pretty barren in this spot - Here's hoping it works!

I've also just become familiar with Brooklyn graffiti artist Dain, who after a couple of New York shows displayed his work at a museum in Paris over the summer. The snobby French didn't run him out of town, yay! He's apparently quite an enigmatic man. He's elderly (that surprised me) and therefore really inspired by old Hollywood glam he remembers from the 50's and 60's.

And, for good measure, a little bit from E.H. Shephard, Pooh's illustrator. Aw.

a few things to be angrier about than the ground zero mosque

First let me go on the record by saying that I am personally opposed to the building of the mosque/Islamic center/whatever anywhere near Ground Zero. It's polarizing, hurtful, and just generally in very bad taste. However, Imam Rauf is an American citizen and perfectly within his rights to build a religious establishment on privately owned property. I hope that he folds under pressure from the private sector, but there's absolutely no way that any freedom-loving person could hope that the city, state, or federal government would infringe upon Imam Rauf's rights. The whole situation has become pretty poisonous. But whatever happens, it's okay. Muslim-Americans will get over it if it's not built, and those opposed to the mosque will get over it if it is built. Americans have thick skin, and there are worse things. Here are a few.

Femicide in Juarez. Mexican President Calderon's war against drug cartels and the resulting violence have been getting a lot of media attention this year, and rightfully so. But people seem to have forgotten that a war on women has been endemic to one area of Mexico for nearly 20 years. Over 1,000 women have been murdered by rapists, robbers, domestic abusers, and narco death squad executioners in Juarez. There are hundreds more who are missing. Mass graves including both women and men have been unearthed in and around Juarez. And it's not slowing down. If you're heartless and don't really care, you should probably know that Juarez is directly across the border from the United States. A lot of this violence is motivated by the drug trade, so if you live in Texas and do a lot of cocaine, you should probably have a real moment of introspection. The fact that this type of carnage is happening in our own back yard is horrifying. Just this week yet another dead woman was found. Decapitated.


Iran's Nuclear Program. This is a very complicated ongoing political issue, but here's my take on it: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust-denying nut who hates the West and wants to destroy Israel. So nobody's buying his whole "we need a nuclear program for clean energy" thing - not Dubya then, and not Obama now. And, despite intense political pressure, Iran has not, and will not, stop enriching uranium. The United Nations has thrown a few sanctions their way which have done absolutely nothing. (Surprise!) Ahmadinejad is not going to blow us up next week or anything, but Israel is a different story. And, regardless of your personal political beliefs about Israel, there is no way that any sound-minded person would condone the eradication of a people. I'm not being melodramatic; he really does want to wipe them out. I know because he has repeatedly said it himself. Do you want this guy enriching uranium? Didn't think so.

Mass rapes in the Congo. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the rape capital of the world (over 15,000 last year), with as many as 303 reported over a span of only 4 days. Most victims are adolescent girls, but reported cases span from ages 3 to 75. And these are just the ones the authorities know about. In the Congo, rape is used as a weapon of war to "punish" villages and break the spirit of normal civilians. This violence is fueled by the struggle for control over conflict minerals that are used in a lot of our cell phones. Although the international community has been aware of this situation for years (even the clueless CBS News did a big story on this crisis in 2008), very little has changed. The United Nations had the gall earlier this week to release a report "shedding light" on the situation. This to me just affirms once again how impotent the U.N. is. All of this has been going on right under the noses of peacekeeping forces, and paperwork is the best they can do. I'm sure the women of the Congo are very grateful for their help. Maybe next year, after 15,000 more rapes, they'll get a new and improved report.

I basically picked these issues off the top of my head and kept it to 3 for the sake of brevity. The real list is a whollleee lot longer. To make a massive understatement, people are not being very kind to one another. Whether its the grieving widow of a fireman in New York, a motherless child in Juarez, Israelis fearing for their lives, or girls living in the Congo with the fear and shame of rape...People are having a hard time out there. So, although what Imam Rauf is doing kinda boils my blood, I do my best to look at the situation with a little perspective. I wanna save my righteous fury for things that REALLY count, and I'm just not sure that the Ground Zero mosque is one of them. As always, I could be wrong.


Here are a few resources if you want to know more about these issues:

• Fact Sheet: Femicide in Juarez - National Organization for Women 
• Amnesty International USA: Juarez and Chihuahua 
• Council on Foreign Relations: Iran's Nuclear Program 
• BBC Q&A: Iran and the Nuclear Issue 
• Enough Project: Conflict Minerals
• The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo - A Documentary 
• Amnesty International USA: DRC 

samhain: for pagans who like to party

guy in bow tie: creepiest person in picture

I don't know about you, but my parents knew that letting me go around the neighborhood in a Tinkerbell costume on Oct. 31 collecting Almond Joys and M&Ms wouldn't lay open my soul for demonic possession. Believe it or not, this is a legitimate concern for some people. Some parents actually refuse to let their children trick-or-treat because they think the holiday is evil. Despite my disdain for the Halloween paranoia that reigns in some Christian churches and schools (which I rank on the weirdo-meter right up there with their crusade against Harry Potter, but that's for another day), I must admit that they are not just epic party-poopers: The holiday really IS a bizarre pagan tradition. And, yeah, it all got started because of the belief that evil spirits roam the earth on this one night. Ever heard of Samhain? Weeeelllll.

Samhain is the basis for Halloween. The ancient Celts, who lived about 2,000 years ago in Ireland, the U.K., and northern France (where they were, and still are, a lot less poncy and obnoxious than their countrymen - just so you know where I stand on the French), believed that on Samhain night the line between the world of the living and the dead became blurred. The dead spirits would show up to steal babies, kill animals, destroy crops, and wreak havoc for fun. The Celts got ready for this by throwing a big party for their gods: They'd put on their best animals heads and skins, light a bonfire, sacrifice some sheep (and maybe a virgin or two), dance a bit, and tell each others fortunes. They celebrated this festival in the beginning of November, when they knew that a hard cold winter (which always equaled starvation, sickness, and death back in the day) was right around the corner. So Samhain wasn't exactly a big happy brouhaha; It was all about the Celts anticipating evil spirits making their lives miserable and maybe not making it through the winter. Modern-day Christians can't logically begrudge them for trying to appease their deities this way instead of turning to Jesus or going to the "Fall Festival" at the local Baptist church, because, um...Christianity didn't exist yet.

this pumpkin is having the time of his life

When the Romans showed up and conquered the Celts they brought their own brand of paganism, including Feralla, a festival marking the passing of the dead in late October. But it was the Catholic church who, in the 800s, introduced All Saints, All Hallows, and All Souls Days. This string of fall festivals was dedicated to martyrs and saints (aka the dead) and was specifically meant to replace the older Celtic and Roman traditions (which, as it happens, were also all about...the dead). These festivals were collectively referred to as - ta da! - Hallowmas. And yes, beginning around 1000 AD, the celebrations included bonfires and costumes. Loreena McKennitt, a Canadian folk artist, wrote a really beautiful song about it.

So basically the Catholics just slapped a new name on Samhain and kept the tradition alive. They tend to be more down to party than their Protestant brethren, who are usually the ones getting all up-in-arms over Halloween. Most of our holidays actually have roots in pagan traditions, but Halloween is the one that gets picked on (understandably, I guess) because of its ancient association with death and the supernatural. And there are some odd people out there who really take its roots very seriously. I don't spend my Halloweens with pagans, but they don't freak me out nearly as badly as the gaggles of women who asphyxiate one another while Christmas shopping on Black Friday...speaking of evil traditions.

they've definitely been dipping into the trashcan punch

Most of our Halloween customs have very colorful stories behind them:

• Jack O' Lanterns: What happens when you go boozin' with the Devil
• Trick-or-treating: When beggars knocked on your door instead of hanging out at traffic lights
• Costumes: Because demons are big scaredy-cats

I think it's cool (and harmless) that this millennia-old festival has survived and evolved into what it is today. I think of Halloween in purely secular terms, but I guess it's what you make it. Want to wear some fox pelts and dance around a fire? Want to dress as a slutty cop and drink trashcan punch? Want to keep your kids inside because you're uncomfortable with the whole thing? Do what you do, y'all. I myself will be carousing in a sock monkey costume this Samhain. Cheers!