Images and Artifacts #2

A folk art pin. The message seems particularly relevant today. Why is there so much anger and hate out there?

Blogging in the 中国 (Center Country)

Since we've been ask to jump into the "blogosphere" this semester, I have been wondering what this new arena is like in other, more censored parts of the world. Blogging in our democracy is the latest place where people can voice and vent their opinion-- no matter who they are or where their beliefs fall, whether you have "followers" or write to no one at all. Blogging in the United States is simply and obviously for us protected by the first amendment-- freedom of speech. I wonder how it is for bloggers in China. China is the emerging nation that is said to be the next global superpower. Chinese production and energy is said to be leaving Americans in the dust. Since 1949 China has been ruled by a communistic style of government where one council is controlling and screening the information and messages that their public sees.
As their government as opened up economically and jumped into the global economy they have to manage opening up technologically too. This week I read an article from the New York Times called Power to the (Blogging) People(click here to view article) by Thomas Friedman. The Chinese generation like my own has the ability to blog just like us. However, it seems that generation of Chinese people grew up thinking that they were being oppressed by the west, being considered the backward, rural economy that Mao built. Their government sold that idea in their controlled message to their people to motivate and stir nationalism. Apparently, the message got beat into them loud and clear. The article says that this generation through blogging is showing nationalistic views and is angry with the government for compromising or trying to be too diplomatic with the US/Western world. The odd thing is that the Chinese government is now the one trying to be a moderate player in the world community while the Chinese people are saying to forget about accommodating the US! The Chinese blogs claim they can do it on their own, that they are the superpower and they are the ones who should be directing the international community.
It is interesting to me that the Chinese character for China is 中国. Because the second character is pronounced "guo" meaning country and the the first character "zhong" means center. Which shows us the historic view the Chinese have had of their global position. They believe China is the center of everything. The blogoshpere in China is their only place for democratic expression. As the bloggers express different opinions from the state it should be interesting to see how the Chinese government controls the blogosphere.
Will the Chinese government move toward moderating their communistic ideals and controls? Fidel Castro recently kind of renege on communism in the economic system (see last week's blog), will technology push the Chinese communists to loosen or at least change the state messages they feed their people? It seems like lots of walls are crumbling down- power to the blogging people.

Images and Artifacts #1

Right after I called mccandellis a wanderer and quoted tolkien this bumper sticker came in to my view at a farmers market in Wilmette, IL.





I'm going to use the convenience of the phone camera to track the artifacts and images that come in to my awareness over the year.

Fidel's End-of-life Confessions

(there is no advertising anywhere just graffiti honoring the dead leaders of the revolution)

"After I've seen what I've seen, and knowing what I know now, it wasn't worth it all," recently responded Fidel Castro to a question about his own action during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. At the time he urged the Soviet Union to launch nuclear weapons against the US during the Bay of Pigs incident. Apparently the 84 year old retired dictator has had a number of opinion changes in his old age and recently sat down with Jeffrey Goldberg who writes a blog for Atlantic magazine.


(Revolution Museum in Havana has pieces of different US spies planes they shot down during the Bay of Pigs & Cuban Missile Crisis as evidence/trophies of US aggression against them)

This interview jumped out at me because I had the opportunity to go to Havana over last winter break---legally. I got a humanitarian license from the US State Department and travelled to Cuba with a group called Global Exchange from San Francisco. From my viewpoint, there were three things that were working in Cuba:
1) Health care- everybody got really good coverage of everything
2) Free, really good education for all through university!
3) Gender equality- they need all hands on deck to make a living and get things done so there is not much gender discrimination.

What clearly wasn't working was:
1) the economy- the stores were practically empty (below)




2) the economy- our taxi driver was a trained veterinarian, but he could make more money in the tourist industry driving a cab (above)

3) the economy- everybody has a house to live in, but it was kind of based on what your family grabbed at the time of the revolution in 1959 (or if you had a connection to the government office that allocated housing)

Back to the interview, when commenting on the Cuban economic system Castro actually confessed, " The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore." That was pretty amazing to me. My question back would be that I have to believe the US embargo for 50+ years hasn't made it easy. Right now they are mainly sucking in foreign exchange from European tourist to buy and build what they need. Everybody in the rest of the world can travel there freely. Just think how much they would make if Americans could go there. It is only 90 miles off the coast of Florida!

You really get to see how well capitalism distributes goods and services when you go to Cuba-except for maybe health care, education and equal rights--this might be where we need government intervention in our system (and we have it). It was a really interesting trip. I really recommend going before the old system disappears. It was a really great living history lesson.

Anyway, if you want to hear Castro's comments on SNL and Fidel scolding Ahmadinejad over anti-semitism, check it out:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/fidel-castros-doubts-about-cuban-communism-and-iranian-anti-semitism/

Labor Day?

As I bask in the accumulated homework I have over this past long weekend I wonder, how did this day called Labor Day come about?

Labor day represents for me the ending of summer, and the beginning of the new work year. It use to be when I was little the day we would pack up at our summer cottage in the Northwood’s of Wisconsin. We would have to clean the boathouse, clean up the fridge, the beds, bring the buoy in, turn off the water, lock everything up, take the raft in, put up the “caution: thin ice” sign, and many more tiny tasks. I remember I would sit on the dock at the end of the day and watch the sunset fall. As I watched the sun fall I kept thinking how much I couldn’t wait for the next summer’s sun to rise. Now as I have grown up it has been more of an extra day off school, a day off from my sports team, and a day to finish up all of my extra homework. As I get older and change so does what happens on Labor Day.

So to commemorate this Labor Day I wanted to discover the true meaning of this holiday. I went onto Google and typed in “Meaning of Labor Day.” The first Labor Day was September 5, 1882. It became a federal holiday in 1894. It was originally could have been on May Day (May 1st) but president Grover Cleveland didn’t think that was appropriate because he did not want it to have it associated with the Haymarket riot here in Chicago. All the workers were protesting for better working conditions. And when one protest got out of hand and number of workers were killed by the US military the president Grover Cleveland decided to devote a day to celebrate the workers.

What was even more interesting is that we usually expect to get weekends free but actually the concept of a “weekend” did not come around until 1926 when Henry Ford would shut down his factories for Saturdays and Sundays. It did not become widely accepted nationwide until 1940.

As this Labor Day concludes I reminisce on what this day means. It means a day off for those who work hard every day of the year. I see how society has changed from having no weekends to expecting to have at a minimum two days off per week. This day is dedicated to those who have built this country from the ground up. I just want to extend my thanks on this day to all those who work hard today so they can help create a better tomorrow.