Preteen and teen years on 96th street, black kids my age were either
a. known to me, in school, as friends or aquaintances or
b. were in school uniforms, or
c. were with their parents, or
. . . they became an immediate object suspicious fear, since the possibility remained that they were going to f* with me . . .
I got threatened, lost my wallet to a knifepoint, chased, a lot. Never by a white kid, although one stayed away from Horace Mann. Some black hispanics, and then, from the age of 8 or 9 on, increasingly commonly, Puerto Rican youths one had to watch out for, too . . . two of my friends tied up and beaten by PRs, me pushed against a wall on B'way and 96th wit a "lookout" and a PR teen with a pony tail punching me in the gut as hard as he could. (Age 13?) And I haven't mentioned the Zulu Nation.
My own identity was uncertain: My father was taunted in Astoria for being a Jew, and Irish boys threatened to beat the crap out of him, knocked him down and said, "Hitler is doing a good job killing the Jews." (Hard to remember that Father Coughlin was tied to the "Christian Front" which had weapons and said very similar things . . .)
Children can learn what it is like to be mortal, to fear for their lives. By the time I started paying attention to books in college, there either was or was not an abstract right in the world, a good that could be accomplished, and South Africa seemed to offer that clarity inside and out.
I wanted to undertand the hostility. I knew enough to suspect there was a reason for it.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Mugabe Sworn In
At the moment that the sanctity of the state is most in question --
the commencement of patently unjustified rule
(only imagine if the internet and digital photos had been around in 1986 in Matabeleland!) --
at that precise moment, the "judge" re-installing Mugabe is wearing an 18th-c. British judicial white wig, sacralized by the British Empire --
an attempt to legitimate Mugabe so obvious that the sign flashes "off" for a moment, becoming only itself, a Caucasian haircut
the commencement of patently unjustified rule
(only imagine if the internet and digital photos had been around in 1986 in Matabeleland!) --
at that precise moment, the "judge" re-installing Mugabe is wearing an 18th-c. British judicial white wig, sacralized by the British Empire --
an attempt to legitimate Mugabe so obvious that the sign flashes "off" for a moment, becoming only itself, a Caucasian haircut
Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Send Message
Do not kill cop. Do not run down cop with vehicle. We will kill you if you do, motherf*er. Not, "my lawyer will get me a deal." We'll kill you.
Message received.
Message received.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Dyson Handheld Vacuums: C+
Okay, it is still better than any other handheld vacuum. But:
1. Gryroscopic force twists your hand clockwise slowly, and the lightweight nozzle turns too; then, one corrects for this, and the lightweight nozzle does not twist back with a turn of the wrist: the sensation is like trying to pick up an olive with a toothpick attached to an andiron.
2. The trigger pinches the trigger finger. Until one learns to adjust, and hold the trigger in a funny way, one has a sharp red line and discomfort each and every time one uses the thing.
3. The Dyson Handheld can run with the latch open: watch out, dust and debris gets accelerated all over the room.
4. Originally the Dyson Car Vac, now, it is not. Where's the lighter-plug gone to? Did it short out someone's Mercedes?
Mr. Dyson, did you actually design this thing? What does "design" mean? Or, as I suspect, did you make the innards and farm out the handheld to others to "design"?
1. Gryroscopic force twists your hand clockwise slowly, and the lightweight nozzle turns too; then, one corrects for this, and the lightweight nozzle does not twist back with a turn of the wrist: the sensation is like trying to pick up an olive with a toothpick attached to an andiron.
2. The trigger pinches the trigger finger. Until one learns to adjust, and hold the trigger in a funny way, one has a sharp red line and discomfort each and every time one uses the thing.
3. The Dyson Handheld can run with the latch open: watch out, dust and debris gets accelerated all over the room.
4. Originally the Dyson Car Vac, now, it is not. Where's the lighter-plug gone to? Did it short out someone's Mercedes?
Mr. Dyson, did you actually design this thing? What does "design" mean? Or, as I suspect, did you make the innards and farm out the handheld to others to "design"?
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Fox an' the Fliies
An Afrikaner University which staffs a South African history journal made the mistake of asking me to review C. v. O.'s Fox an' the Fliies (I want to avoid searches), in a review essay. ("Or, a group review --" Me: "No, I'll do it.")
Anyway here is the last comment from the referee, who looked at my revisions:
> But more importantly,
> the author must still discuss the substantive,
> wide-ranging historiographical issues raised by the
> book: these, as my initial response indicated, would
> include the Atlantic World, late 19th century
> globalisation, gender and race, criminality, and
> identity, amongst others.
This is supposed to be in the conclusion of the essay.
[Addendum: I hear now it is going forward as is . . .]
Anyway here is the last comment from the referee, who looked at my revisions:
> But more importantly,
> the author must still discuss the substantive,
> wide-ranging historiographical issues raised by the
> book: these, as my initial response indicated, would
> include the Atlantic World, late 19th century
> globalisation, gender and race, criminality, and
> identity, amongst others.
This is supposed to be in the conclusion of the essay.
[Addendum: I hear now it is going forward as is . . .]
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Mukoma Ngugi
Said something very smart in an interview. That Africa got democracy as an abstraction, without the material in it. They didn't get the civic institutions and cross-regional alliances that underpin it. It's like a map of roads and towns which do not yet exist.
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