Thoughts for a Wednesday

Grrr...I am so mad at my computer.  I was in the middle of composing my post when inevitably some error occurred that wiped out some of my thoughts!! The nerve....so apologies if this isn't a very good post - blame it on my pc...

But life must go on I suppose, so without further ado, here are some thoughts for this week's edition of Thoughts for a Wednesday.

1 - April 13th!  That's the date that Deadliest Catch premieres!  I am so excited, though very sad because one of the main captains, Captain Phil Harris, passed away during the filming of this season.  It is one of those rare times that a reality show becomes actually real.  Maybe that is why I love this show so much - its authenticity versus the stories that other "reality" shows can create through careful editing.

2 - While I am talking about TV shows, I have to mention Lost and how I can't believe that there are only 6 episodes left.  That seems so unreal to me.  Will we ever figure out who is good and who is evil?  Will there be any concrete answers given to us, the ones loyal enough to stay with this show through all the mysteries and questions because we knew that an ending would come?  Or are we being set up for a non-ending, something along the lines of Sayid "I don't feel anything...", no more pain or joy or anger at the mysteries of the show, but just numbed to oblivion by all the ones left unanswered?

3 - And also I just want to give a shout out to "Kell on Earth", the reality TV show that just concluded on Bravo based upon Kelly Cutrone and her business, People's Revolution.  I think you either love or hate Kelly.  I happen to be in the camp that really likes her (to be honest, I have to admit that I have loved her ever since her appearance on "The Hills" - she was one of the best things about that show with her no bs attitude).  She really is a remarkable businesswoman, with an amazing combination of both vision and implementation, which has made her very successful.

4 - Speaking of women and business, I just recently finished reading this book called Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Love, Kids, and Life in a Half-Changed World.  I read it on recommendation from my two best friends, and it really was a mind-bender.  I'll save my review for another post, but suffice to say that it made me think a lot about the life decisions that I face as a woman in my late twenties, approaching thirties.

5 - So in other news, I have started another blog, this one dedicated to all things style and fashion and my thoughts and outfits that I choose to post.   I've just been reading too many of these fashion blogs for my own good, because obviously they have inspired me to start my own.  So come stop by Small Time Style when you get a chance and leave a comment or two or become a follower if you'd like!  Any and all suggestions for posts are more than welcome!

6 - I am Number 4 in my office NCAA tourney pool and the ONLY one to have picked Duke to win the championship.  SO I potentially have a shot at emerging as the winner of the office pool.  It is an admittedly loooonggg shot, but it's as close as I've ever gotten in my office pool (with the exception of winning the first round of picks one year) and would mark the second time in my life that I would win in my pool!  If you hear a loud shout of "WAHOO" come next Monday, my apologies in advance.

7 - It seemed as if I blinked and Easter is already this weekend!  Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, and one of the traditions of the Catholic Church is that every Palm Sunday we read the Passion of Christ.  The congregation participates in the actual reading, which is always poignant for me, for it reminds me that I too was one of the crowd yelling "Crucify him!" to Pilate when he wanted to release Jesus.  It happened that I was just finishing the book of Mark at the same time and so read the Passion again the next morning.  This time in reading it, I was struck at how easily Pilate gives in to the crowd.  I know that Jesus's purpose for taking on human form was to bring us salvation, but it struck me that Pilate could have not given in to the demands of the Pharisees and others who wanted to kill Jesus.  Pilate could have stepped in and saved an innocent man - he KNEW that Jesus was innocent - and yet he washes his hands, saying that Jesus's blood is on the Jews.  His indifference to an innocent man's fate and willingness to give in to a crowd just makes me wonder about myself and the world that I live in.  Would I be willing to save an innocent man even if it went against everyone's wishes?

8 - Lots of thoughts this Wednesday!  One more for today - if you've been reading this blog for any length of time at all, you know that from time to time I like to give my thoughts on foreign affairs and various international relations.  The recent wave of suicide bombings in Russia have me concerned and wondering how Russia's reaction to these latest bombings is going to affect the greater world balance and what actions they are going to take to stop "the terrorists".  But this is a case of journalists choosing words - are these suicide bombers terrorists or are they Chechen freedom fighters?  Separatists longing for their own freedom and territory or people bent on inflicting destruction on others for no good reason?  Check out Kevin Sites' video on Chechnya that he filmed while on his "In the Hot Zone" documentary and then form your thoughts.

And that's it folks!  Coming soon, a book review on Flux and maybe a couple other pictures that I snapped last week.  And who knows - maybe I'll have some thoughts on another day than just Wednesday!

An Outward Look...

I'm a person of many, many interests.  From art in all its various forms, to sports in all of its various forms, business, international relations, history, literature, movies, TV shows - basically anything that captures my attention and holds it for more than 10 seconds I count as an interest of mine.  One of my top interests though is international relations/foreign affairs (which is intimately tied to the subject of history - to me, you cannot know much or care about foreign affairs if you don't know the history behind the stories that appear in the newspapers).  In the past 24 hours I've come upon two great international relations related content that I think people should know about.

First is a link, courtesy of my favorite reporter, Kevin Sites.  Back in 2005, Kevin did a project for Yahoo!News called "The Hot Zone" - spend a year reporting solo on the human stories behind some of the world's "hottest" conflicts.  If you ever have an afternoon free and you want to learn about some of the more under-reported conflicts going on in the world, go to the Hot Zone archives and read a few of his stories and watch some of the videos that he shot. Kevin is also the author of the book, "The Hot Zone", which I also highly recommend. 

Anyway, any link that Kevin posts on his Facebook page is worth a read, and this one, courtesy of Foreign Policy magazine about the Top 10 under-reported stories of 2009, is no exception.  It highlights foreign policy issues that need to be watched carefully as they could have a great impact on the direction of foreign policy in 2010.

The second thing that I came across was a documentary on PBS, called "The Power of the Poor", which has brought to light a name in international relations that I had never heard of: Hernando de Soto.  And I am so grateful that I have learned who this man is, because his work brought down one of the most brutal terrorist regimes that has existed - The Shining Path in Peru.  I have briefly heard about the Shining Path before and was only vaguely aware of their importance in Peruvian history, but this documentary shed light on the entire situation.  What a story!  What a history!  The Shining Path, so brutal in its terrorist tactics that it was compared to the Khmer Rouge, was a Maoist organization that counted close to 80,000 members.  Fed up with their impoverished situation and frustrated with the government they turned to violence to bring about "revolution" in Peru.  And the sad thing was that the poor were just as much victims during their reign as they were before the Shining Path existed.  In comes Hernando de Soto - a man who "discovered" how to help the poor achieve prosperity through legal reform, making economic progress possible.  His legal reforms undermined the purpose of the Shining Path, and as such, Hernando and his Institute for Liberty and Democracy were targeted by the Shining Path with car bombing attacks and assassination attempts.  But in the end, de Soto and the IDL got their reforms through the corrupted government.  More than 50% of Peru's poor have been given economic opportunity to start their own businesses and enjoy the economic freedom and prosperity that owning their land and access to credit gives to all who are able to do the same.  

Basically, de Soto defeated the terrorism of the Shining Path through legal reform that allowed capitalism to flourish among the Peruvian poor and give them opportunity that they never had before in their entire history.  There are definitely still impoverished people in Peru - the documentary definitely addresses this - but the opportunity that never existed before to not be poor now exists for the Peruvian people.

This gave me hope, which is not something that I often have when it comes to world conflicts and systemic problems like poverty.  But perhaps if we approached the Middle East, Africa, and former Soviet republics with legal reform that made economic prosperity through capitalism possible, we would disable the power of Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and other "big-name" terrorist organizations.  It is a solution that is rife with hardships, difficulties, and complexities - but isn't that also true of trying to "solve" this problem militarily? 

Anyway, it is a topic that has piqued my interest and once I read de Soto's book, "The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else" I'll be sure to share my thoughts :).

What We Take For Granted...

After reading this story by one of my all-time favorite journalists, Kevin Sites, it just brings to light all the freedoms that we take for granted, that others in this world do not have.

http://www.parade.com/news/2009/02/they-can-kill-me-but-they-cant-kill-my-ideas.html

In the Hot Zone: One Man, One Year, Twenty-one Wars by Kevin Sites

My review

I cannot wait to read this book. This book is the result of Kevin Sites' journey over the course of a year to 20 different "Hot Zones" - areas in the world that are torn apart by conflict. I followed Sites and all of his stories on Yahoo and the stories that he brought to the world are so amazing. I love him, his writing, and the way he reminds us that the stories we read in the newspapers about "ethnic conflicts", or "Palestinian rebels", etc, etc, have real human faces and lives behind them.



*Update* I just started reading this book tonight and am already flying through it. This is a must read for anyone who cares about goes on in the world outside of the United States.


View all my reviews.