Lord of the Flies

This week I have been filling in again as a substitute teacher, this time for 6th grade Math and Science. The kids are working on their science projects that are going to be displayed at the school's science fair. So although there is a unifying theme to the classroom, they are all at various stages of completion and all require different levels of attention and support. I know any teacher reading this is laughing at this basic reality that comes with being a teacher but I have not yet acquired the skill set necessary to manage this chaos. So of course with in the first 20 minutes of class I witnessed nice young children with burgeoning minds turn into out-of-control monsters. It was Lord of the Flies and I was that pig's head on the stake. I was defenseless against the madness. I have always held teachers in high regard (well, since graduating high school I have). The work they do is invaluable to our society and its progress. But my respect for teachers as managers grows each time I step into a classroom. I applaud you!

A Plan For Unity

George McGovern lays out what he would like to see during the remaining 3 weeks before primary voting ends. Unfortunately, like the hundreds of other plans I have heard for building unity or settling MI and FL, etc., this one probably wont happen but it I like the idea.

As I stated before, I don't think Hillary should drop out if she can remain civil. This would provide a nice platform for her to make her case as it would be sure to get lots of news coverage, so its a plus for her. It would also harness the fundraising capabilities of these two oversized personalities and strengthen local parties - something both the nominee as well as senate and house goers will desperately need to win in November.

Another Malian Music/NYT connection

Another article in the New York Times features Malian music. I almost went to the festival this article refers to but for several reasons I ultimately did not. Sad, but I guess you cannot do it all. Great pic though, huh?

(Dime dropped by Micah)

Coldplay: What Happened?

I just listened to Coldplay's new single Viva la Vida from their soon to be released album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (don't ask me, I didn't come up with it). Overall, it was quite a disappointing experience. I don't know why really. X&Y was not that good of an album but for some reason, as Chris Martin sang, "You go backwards again you go forwards" at the end of the closing track of their last album I had hope that this was some not too subtle message that the next album would be better. Maybe it will be, but based upon what I just heard, I'm not getting my hopes up.

From Pitchfork Media,

"The sights, sounds and flavours of Latin America and Spain have definitely been infused into this album...No maracas or castanets, but a vibrancy and colourfulness that owes much to the atmospheres of Buenos Aires and Barcelona. The effect is subtle but important."

I have never been to either Beunos Aires or Barcelona but if their spirit is manifested in this song, I am not sure I want to go. If Viva la Vida is all I had to go off of, I would say these cities offer a veneer being of initially pleasant but are ultimately unimportant. The song sounds like they are trying to carry on the spirit of U2 but when U2 made cheesy songs at least they had a worthwhile message. Plus, U2 is currently the band fulfilling the role of carrying on spirit of U2. Anyway, by the end of the first listening to Viva la Vida you already are acutely aware that you have been subjected to a repetitive auditory experience ad nauseum.

Maybe I am being too harsh. A single is, after all, supposed to be catchy and get stuck in your head. But I hope the album has something to offer besides what I just heard.

Happy Mother's Day!

To my magnificent and fabulous mom. The one who is always right. Who dragged me kicking and screaming through high school, who supported me through college, and who inspires my actions every day. She is more than the reason I was born - she is the reason I made it out of my teenage years alive! And the only thing I can do in return is try to make her proud. Thank you for everything mom!

Is Clinton Saving the Democratic Party?

I know this may not be what you are reading in the news or on blogs and it may not be what you personally think, but I am seeing a new side to Hillary since Tuesday. I don't know exactly how I would label her recent approach but if I was forced to call it something I might call it brave. Sure this is easy coming from someone who feels certain 'his guy' is going to win. Its always easier to be magnanimous when you get what you want. But still I think Hillary is not deserving of some of the criticism I have seen lately. Granted I think at many times throughout the campaign she acted in ways that made me want to strangle her, but I am seeing a new side to her. Its a side that has most likely come about because she knows she has no real shot at becoming the Democratic nominee, this time around at least.

What I have seen is her courage to persist, but in a new direction. This is what I think she is thinking. She knows she cant win. But she has incredibly passionate supporters who have poured their hearts into her campaign and she wants to honor their effort. She can do that in a couple of ways. One, see this thing through to the end. June 3rd. This will make her supports feel she did everything she could and that her not winning had nothing to do with a truncated primary season or her being forced out. If her supporters feel that she lost legitimately they are far less likely to resent Obama and therefore more like to vote for him this fall. Second, she can use this time - and the platform that comes with it - to be constructive to the Democratic party. Granted, there was that stupid comment about 'hard-working white voters' that, even if not intentionally, did have the effect of implying that other voters are not as hard working. But I don't think that is what she meant and she has apologized for that comment. I think what she has been trying to do in general, however, is to continue to make the case for why she is a qualified candidate and by doing so from the position of someone still in the race she is going to ensure that all the benefits associated with primaries (voter registration, organization, etc.) are brought to every last state.

Sure some people think that she should drop out. But I think as long as her tone remains what it has been for the last couple of days, I think she is actually doing Democrats a favor. She continues to make her case - she has to if she is still a candidate - but she is focusing the majority of her criticism on John McCain. This does a very interesting thing that is probably even more important that all the voter registration and organization building. If she is no longer attacking Obama so forcefully but is rather going after McCain, now what we have in the news is what appears to voters as a united front. Even though they are still competing, they are saying many of the same things and this helps remind voters that in the end Democrats are Democrats and people should not vote for McCain if their first choice is not the eventual nominee. So while pundits and strategists are decrying Clinton for 'destroying' the party, I think that if she maintains a respectful tone, she is actually helping in the healing process.

In Justice: Equity or Efficiency?

Science Daily is featuring an article today on a study that sought to answer how people approach the question, "Which is better, giving more food to a few hungry people or letting some food go to waste so that everyone gets a share?" The question was designed to determine whether equity or efficiency plays a bigger role in satisfying our brain's sense of justice. Very cool stuff!

Bambara Bible Translation

One of my earliest blog posts was on the LOLCat Bible Translation Project, which is currently translating the entire bible into LOL speak. I live next door to missionaries and through an unusual series of events I got my hands on John 20.19-26 translated into Bambara. It looks like this...

Yesu y’I jira a ka kalandenw la
(Matiyu 28.16-20; Marka 16.14-18; Luka 24.36-49)

19 O don yεrε, dogokun don folo wula da fε, kalandenw lajεlen tun bε so do kono ka so daw sogo Yahutuw ņεsiran koson. Yesu nana k’i jo u cεma k’a fo u ye ko’ “Hεrε ka kε aw ye.” 20 O folen ko, a y’a tεgεw ni a kεrε jira u la. Kalandenw ya Yesu ye minkε, u ņagalila kosεbε. 21 Yesu y’a fo u ye ko kura ko: “Hεrε ka kε aw ye! Ne Fa ye ne ci cogo min na, ne fana bε aw ci ten dε.” 22 O kumaw folen ko, a y’a da fiņε kε u kan k’a fo u ye ko: “A’ ye Ni Senu minε! 23 Aw mana mogo o mogo ka jurumuw yafa a m, o na yafali soro. Ni aw ma son ka minnu ka jurumuw yafa u ma, olu tεna yafali soro.”

Yesu ni Toma ko

24 O y’a soro Toma min bε wele Filanin, ni Yesu ka kalanden tan ni fila la kelen tun don, o tun tε u fε yen Yesu na tuma la. 25 Kalanden tow y’a fo Toma ye ko: “An ye Matigi ye!”
Nka Toma y’u jaabi ko: “Ni ne ma gengen nεgεw no ye a tεgεw la, ka ne bolonkoni don da a kεrε la, ne tεna dannaya kε fewu.”
26 O don kunņogon, Yesu ka kalandenw lajεlen tun bε so kono ko kura, Toma tun bε u fε yen. So daw sogolen tun don nka Yesu nana k’i jo u cεma k’a fo ko: “Hεrε ka kε aw ye!”

Obviously the reasons behind the bible being translated into Bambara are probably different than the reasons behind the LOLCat Bible Translation Project. But it is interesting to see nonetheless.

Alphabet Photo Essay

I decided that it might be nice if people could see all my Alphabet Photo Essay pictures all together. I added a link under my recommended sites that allows you to do this now. As I add more pictures on this blog, I will also add them to this link.

Today's Letter is "H"

Metal fencing protecting a tree from goats and sheep. I found this close to my work on my way to get a taxi.

Even better!

The latest painting by Mariel Superartist.

Clinton's Case to Undecideds

Yesterday, I said that I couldnt imagine by what means Hillary thought she had proven herself to be the better candidate. Today she enlightens us all. TPM's Greg Sargent got his hands on this Power-Point presentation which she distributed to every Democrat in the House of Representitives today. In this presentation she lays out exactly why she thinks undecided superdelegates should support her despite having lost the popular vote, the pledged delegate count, and having won fewer states than Obama. I see the logic, but is this really all that her campaign as to go on? Is this and the 'hard-working white voters' really her final and most convincing arguments?

Obama Wrong on the Gas Tax Holiday?

Turns out there is some historic evidence that suggests that Obama may be wrong about the gas tax holiday, and that he of all people should know better. Expert economists have been pretty harsh in their criticism of this Clinton and McCain-backed proposal but it wouldn't be the firs time "experts" got it wrong. OK, so the man is not perfect. And I still think Clinton was pandering.

In Markets We Trust

This election cycle the only thing that has been more worthless in predicting the outcome of primaries than me are the polls. The polls have been way off and all over the place. However, what has been more or less consistantly correct are the markets.

Prediction markets are different than polls in several ways but most of all they are more accurate because they do not calculate anyone's prefrences. Rather, according to Rasmussen Reports, a "'prediction market' or 'futures market' harnesses competitive passions in a way that becomes a reliable... indicator of upcoming events." In other words, because people have to actually put money down on the matter they are more likely to be less biased in their calculations as to who they think will win a particular state. Another reason they are more accurate though is that they dont normally consider the spread or the percentage by which a candidate will win. They only measure who will win.

Prediction markets are highly sensitive and change on a daily basis depending on what events have occured throughout the day or week. For example leading up to NC and IN (which the 4 markets I follow correctly predicted) Obama was given about a 75 percent chance of winning the democratic nomination. His numbers had been higher but in response to Obama's worst 2 week stretch in the media which involved Wright's incendiary remarks and bitter-gate his numbers had fallen. The day after NC and IN he is now given anywhere from 88-90 percent chance of winning the nomination.

I mention all this not because I am trying to convince you that Obama will be the democratic nominee. If you dont get that by now, well, ya... Anyway, I explain all this as a primer for some good news that many Dems may not know yet. Many Dems, including the party's elite, are growing increasingly concerned about the potential for long term divides with in the party that could cause democrats to lose the big one in November. While this is entirely possible, it should be comforting to know that right now, in the middle of the dems most devided moment, with the most critical eye following the party's every tiff and tussle, the markets are still predicting that a Democrat will take the White House back in November. Today, Rasmussen Markets, Intrade and Iowa Electronic are all giving who ever the eventual democratic nomineee is roughly a 60% chance of winning this November. If we are doing this well now, just imagine once we move beyond our differences and unite behind a single candidate.

As the Dust Settles

I wanted to take a couple of days to let the belligerent, post-primary spew calm before I weighed in on the state of the democratic primaries.

Although it was pretty obvious before last Tuesday that Hillary was done, and the whispering of not if but how she was going to lose began, most pundits were reluctant to come out and say unequivocally that this race was effectively over. Last Tuesday changed that dynamic and most people are calling it a wrap and doing so much more openly than before. This is because before NC and IN there was a chance that Hillary could catch Obama in the popular vote if she somehow was able to get the MI and FL votes to count towards the total. Now it is obvious that even if you did include those currently disqualified states, Obama still has her beat in this metric.

The fact that Hillary is continuing to pursue the nomination suggests to me the following. Like I mentioned before, she really doesn’t think that 'such numeric metrics' as popular vote and pledged delegates earned via the primaries should prevent her from being the nominee. Because she cannot secure either of those Hillary must believe that she has proven that she is the best candidate through other means (what those are, who knows...) and that the undecided superdelegates should select her over the "elected" nominee. She must think this even if she doesn’t say it publicly because that is the only option remaining for her.

One of the arguments she will use (and has been using) in trying to make her case is that she is more electable than Obama. The problem with this strategy is that it’s difficult to claim that you are more electable when you are essentially asking to be appointed over your opponent who was elected. That is, the greatest demonstration of one's electability is to be elected. But so far it’s been Obama who has seemed to posses a better understanding of how the game works. His whole campaign strategy was based upon the rules of the game and therefore the accumulation of delegates.

Conversely, Hillary's campaign strategy has been to find every possible way to rout the rules (MI and FL) and change the means by which we determine the winner (popular vote vs. delegate count). The problem with this strategy is that most know this is not how the game works. We know this because the sting of the 2000 presidential election remains. We all know that Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000, but that is not the means by which we determine our president. For better or for worse the electoral college is the means by which we select our president and by that metric George Bush won, and you can see (albeit painfully) that he indeed was our president.

So why should the remaining superdelegates take a chance with someone who is trying to change the rules when we all know that we won't be able to do that in November? The truth is, they won't. They know better. And so, for better or for worse (although I strongly believe it’s for the better), Obama will be our nominee.

Now, given the reality of this race being over for her, I see Hillary as having two distinct paths she can take if she remains obstinately 'in this.' She either attempts to do irreparable damage to Obama so he loses come November and she can have another go in 2012, or she begins calling for democrats to be united while staying in so as not to upset her supporters. I personally think she knows this is over and is going to ride this out just like Huckabee did - active but not forceful. Then once all the votes have been counted (mid June) she will bow out. We'll see.

Today's Letter is "G"

This is from part of the wrought iron gate leading to the shower at the swimming pool that Mariel and I visit on the weekends. Gate shown in full below.

Working Women of Mali

Here is a picture of one of the women who work as servers at the little hole-in-the-wall restaurant where I eat lunch on work days. Last Thursday she was a bubble about to burst. On Monday she came to work with a baby strapped to her back and ready to serve up some rice and sauce. I have no idea which day her baby was born or if she decided to perhaps take a day off the job (you know, to give birth and all), but given the dates I saw her working, there is no way she had more than three days off. What an amazing work ethic. Still, you cannot help but know that she is only there so soon because she probably really needs that day's work, especially now that there is one more mouth to feed in the family.

I have not worked a lot with pregnant women over my almost 3 years here in Mali, but I have heard from several of the health sector volunteers (some of whom have even delivered babies), that getting back to some form of work this quickly is actually quite normal. I even heard the story of a woman who gave birth in the morning and spent the evening pounding millet in preparation of that night’s dinner. I am deeply impressed by Malian women every day I am here.

My Continuing Education

Pictured above is Parrington Hall, the building on UWs campus that is home to the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs. I found out today that I have been admitted to the Evans school and thus will be spending the next two years studying public policy.

The whole process of getting into grad school was emotionally exhausting - researching schools, selecting ones that fit my interests, studying for the GRE, taking the GRE (twice, oops...), preparing the application, writing the essays, collecting references from inert supervisors, and then the worst part... waiting. And waiting and waiting. A rejection letter here, waitlisted there... but finally acceptance!

I am, to say the least, very excited. One, because the process of applying and waiting is over, and, more importantly two, because I am going to study something that I believe will make me very happy!

Scarlett! Say It Aint So!

Men across the country are mourning the news that Scarlett Johansson is now engaged and off the market. Then again, it is Hollywood so I wouldn't give it more than 2-3 years.

Keep hope alive, Micah!

"Cycling is Sexy"

According to Ezra Klein from the American Prospect

"In Hungary, the Ministry of Economics and Transport actually has a Deputy Minister for cycling by the name of Adam Bodor. Bodor's job, put simply, is to get people on their bikes. And so they've produced this ad campaign, meant to convey the idea that cycling is sexy..."

From the same post the following translation is provided

"First of all, on the biker lady’s bag it says: bike to work.

Then the lady asks the old man: would you like some tea?

He answers: thank you, that would be lovely.

As she is listening to the noises coming from the other room, she mutters under her breath: you should rather be biking, too, Rezso.

And then at the end, the tag line is almost the same: You should rather be biking, too or (ride your bike instead as well - which is a more literal translation)."

This is a great ad. One conclusion that I have come to while in the Peace Corps is that the most difficult thing to change is culture and the behaviors that are so deeply engrained in it. Sometimes change in behavior occurs as a bottom up push by the people and legislation follows in order to confirm the people's will. But sometimes it takes a large scale public service announcement campaign like this one (its like the recycling push during the early 90's but way cooler).

If I end up at the University of Washington I am looking forward to being able to get around to almost everywhere I need to be via bike!

Bad Ass in Chief

While Obama looking this cool is not a reason to vote for him, it does make it fun to cheer him on.

(Thievery reference - pic found on the CNN political ticker)

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to my brother Matt. He too is older than me thus keeping me young as well! Matt, 29 is awfully close to 30.

Bringing Malian Music to New York's Subway

This picture was on the front page of the New York Times Online today. The man shown here is named Balla Tounkara, and he is holding a Kora - "a 21-string instrument fashioned from a large gourd wrapped in cowhide, with a wooden neck and handles" as the NYT describes it. The one Balla is holding was most likely hand made to Balla's specific requirements making it an original piece of artwork and probably worth several hundred dollars.

Most koras in Mali are not as nice as the one pictured above though. The kora is one of Malian music's most common instruments much in the way the guitar is common to much of American music. In fact I have one. I never use it because I don't have a clue how to but I do have one. When I was living in Niono there was a vagabond musician who lived with me for 2 months or so. He played a killer Djembe (West African drum) but he was also a skilled kora player and he made one for me in exchange for having a place to crash. As you can tell from the picture below it is neither as beautiful as the Balla's nor is it worth as much in monetary terms. But the memories I have with it are priceless. I think most koras, because they are each hand-made, one of a kind pieces of art, carry very personal histories for their players.


Mali has a rich tradition which combines oral history and music. The fact that it is being shared with Americans in this traditional manner is only appropriate given its culture. I rag on Malian music a lot in this country (I just get too much of it), but I am sure that if I was in a New York subway I would spend a great deal of time blowing off my obligations in order to hear Balla share his country's rich history with all who are simply willing to stop and listen.

Today's Letter is "F"

Broken tile floor from the restaurant where I eat lunch on work days.

Gas Tax Holiday is a "Holiday from Reality"

When libertarians are saying that the Gas Tax Holiday, as proposed by Clinton and McCain, is a "holiday from reality," you know there is a problem with the whole concept. See here as Sam Stein from the Huffington Post cannot find any expert support for this shameless pandering.

Here are a couple of commercials from Hillary and Barack.





Update: Yet even more support for Obama on this issue by those pesky people called experts.