a little while …

just as ortega secures presidency in nicaragua, ousting the decades long somoza regime, in comes the nomination of robert gates for secretary of defense (iran/contra maybe?).
meanwhile, palestinians keep getting killed and africa is still getting fucked.

sometimes i think about adding information to the pictures i include in this blog … but so few people read it that i figure i’ll use it as an opportunity to have conversations with people on an “ask me and i’ll tell you” basis. plus, i also like to hear what guesses people have as to where those pictures are from; as they’re usually wrong.

i’ve grown up with a loosely knit collection of influences from the west and the east, and although i don’t identify with my roots the way most males my age do, my ancestry and history demands that i do identify with it somehow. i have zero national pride, for any country i am ‘of’. as much as i used to love lambasting my own culture and its peoples for many of their ills – that i very wrongly interpret as being their own fault – i’d never dream of trading it away for anything else.

the fact is, there is a stigma – a very pretentiously universalist western stigma, and i know because i sometimes share it – that casts a huge shadow over ‘where i come from’ so that it hinders any kind of understanding of the people and their respective lands. sometimes it’s patronizing: “ooooh, you’re from there eh? i hear it’s quite a trouble spot!” ya, that’s much appreciated, monotonous vagueries about places you know fuck all about. but most of the time it’s subtle, and i don’t feel like going into it now. it’s obvious in the attitudes too; i have never ever ever heard anyone mention any desire to want to visit any one of those countries. most of it has to do with a huge misconception that these countries (or ‘trouble spots’) are hostile to outsiders (and please don’t point to iraq as an example) or lack any cultural significance (as so much of our determination of ‘high culture’ is based only on the western canon).

only recently has a city like dubai, with extreme superfluity, managed to excise itself from its surroundings and is slowly becoming one of those strewn about names of cities people want to go to … you know, “oooh, i really want to visit paris/london/new york/hong kong/tokyo.” dubai can kiss my ass, all it’s doing is erecting a western outpost in the east with all the same ideals and a billion times the resources and 25% of the world’s cranes … cause what we really need is another mall with ski slopes.

hmm, i started this post wanting to discuss how beautiful a place like lebanon is. one of those places that packs everything you could imagine, bustling metropolis, ancient ruins, beaches and resorts, etc.. into such a tiny area. but i’ve gone way off track, so here’s a link to one of my favourite songs on sade’s love deluxe album:

Sade – Feel No Pain