This is how we cut the copra, cut the copra, cut the copra. This is how we cut the copra all day long.
The sun is back!! It's hot again- yay! I had a really good conversation with a guy about wind/ hydro power- yay! And I'm getting quotations for our market project and the fish pond guy is finally coming out next week! So wow! This week is a much better week, but yesterday was a sucky sucky day. The kind of day I just want to go out for a vodka tonic with Chris and Josie and Beth and the whole gang and rant and listen to indie rock music. Oi lei.
I'm trying to upload more videos, but it takes a hella long time. Wait for it, wait for it...
Early on in my stay in the village it was the end of the term at the school. I was the "Chief Guest" and didn't know anyone (seriously, it was my second week there!). But, I took this video of this kid who's maybe 14 or 15 from my village. His name is Vocea and you can't see him; he's behind the kid to the right in the black shirt. He has an awesome voice and actually plays guitar pretty well. (His dad was a really good, popular singer from my village and they made a CD)
So I started reading a Joan Didion book called "The White Album." It's a memoir about the late 1960's. She's at an interview with Huey Newton, who was the co-leader of the Black Panthers, after he was shot and then arrested. She quotes him who quoted James Baldwin: "To be black and conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage." And then I thought about it and thought, the same can be said anyway: "To be conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage." And then I thought, that's not entirely fair given the current leadership. Which led me to thinking about how Obama is our president... and wait, Obama's black. And wow! the country has really come a long, long way. But, Obama is not full of rage. Where's the disconnect? But still, it's like the adage, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." Because really, if you are paying attention, you'd be pretty pissed off at things in the US, such as social justice issues and climate change in-action. Especially at the policy level. You know, like how car companies have had the potential to get like 80 mpg in EVERY single car but they didn't do it because it would have been too expensive ten years ago? yeah, they're dumb because look who's laughing now, all the way to the back... Toyota and Honda. Sorry, GM. You suck. You made thousands of people lose their jobs because you chose to think in the short term profit gain rather than the long term... for financial and environmental reasons (and oh, I don't know, jobs for all those people you've been laying off). Anyway I'm enjoying Didion immensely.
As a side note, I'm outraged. Still. Because what happens in the US trickles down, to places like Fiji.
3 comments:
Taylar, sometimes you're very introspective. Americans are in a very precarious state of upheaval right now with the economy, world affairs, unemployment, et. al
A quiet, simple life in Fiji may be the place to be!
There's still a lot to be outraged about...Carrie Prejean gets more news coverage than the (rigged) "elections" in Iran, and the Palin/Letterman feud is talked about more than health care. Our priorities are all messed up, and the things that are affecting Americans' lives--education, health care, foreign policy, the economy, etc etc are being trumped by fake news. It would be amazing if the leading "news" channels like CNN, MSNBC, hell, even Fox, would quit talking about Sarah Palin, Carrie Prejean, or any other celebrity news and talk more about news. Hello, that's why we have US Weekly, Entertainment Tonight, The Insider, People, etc. to cover that news for us. And you're totally right about GM and even Chrysler, they were short-sighted and now hundreds are unemployed. People suddenly are like, Buy American! We have to support American companies! Why would I support an American company that is a)clearly not smart in business b)more interested in profits than the environment and c)not as well made as a Toyota or Honda? If I'm investing money in something as expensive as a car, I want it to be the best one out there. And that is not American.
It all comes down to education--people in America are uneducated. They listen to Keith Olbermann, Rush Limbaugh, whoever, and that's what they believe, instead of researching and investigating and processing the information themselves. People don't know HOW to find reliable information anymore, and that's why nutjobs out there are still convinced Obama's birth certificate is fake, or Saddam Hussein and Osama were working together, etc. Anyway. I will now step off of my soapbox.
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