It's "learning and labor" not "learning and thievery"

We are taking a break from our usually scheduled non-stop-studying-of-the-mitochondria to bring you this newsflash:

On Saturday night, someone broke into our car. They didn't seem to have taken anything, just browsed through (and rejected) our CDs and tossed our stash of Dunkin' Donuts napkins and Splenda around the car. "Weird," I thought. "Must have just been some drunk moron."

So, fast forward to today, when the glass people are coming to replace the window (side note: how awesome is it that my insurance not only is covering this, but also that the service includes THEM coming to ME?). The window that they broke was the little "vent" window in the back, not the actual roll-down window, just the little triangle next to it. It happened to be the window where I had my Oberlin Alumni window cling. I hadn't cleaned up the glass yet (we thought an insurance adjuster was coming out to look at it) and I was looking forward to seeing if the cling was salvageable, or if it was too shardy for future use. So, imagine my surprise as I cleaned up the glass both IN and OUT of the car and found...

NO WINDOW CLING.

And before you ask: no, John has not removed anything from the car; it was punched inward, and virtually all the glass was inside the car, on the seat; and no, I am confident it did not blow away...there was a Dorito's bag lying next to the car on Sunday when we first found the damage and it is still there.

Now, I am confident there are many explanations for what happened, but there's really only two that seem likely:

a) Someone smashed my window so they could steal my window cling all because they love Oberlin with the fire of a thousand suns (and didn't get the memo about being a hippie pacifist); or,

b) Someone smashed my window so they could steal my window cling all because they were rejected from Oberlin and had to go to [insert-name-of-crappy-and-less-awesome-school-with-fewer-co-ops-and-no-tater-tots] and hate Obies with the fire of a thousand suns.

What do you think? Crime of passion, or hate crime?

Also: Sarah Palin is scary.

One Year

Can you believe it has already been one year since Paul and I got married? Neither can I. And 11 years now since we first met each other. Geez. Anyway, even though I'm far away from him and you guys (I'm assuming the only people who read this blog are people who were at the wedding) I am filled with so so many happy memories from that day. I really couldn't ask for better friends and family!

Things Slovaks say

(Warning: this post makes my English sound outstanding).

"There are too many teepos in this article."

"Roman and Miro love tennis. They play as a duet."

"You see all the rivers and the lakes? Well, there is also undercover water."

"The castle [of Bratislava] was burnt by Napoleon, the bastard! In the fifties, under Communist times, they reconstructed it, but it's ugly, all conquered."

"M: So we go to this goose restaurant. They have all the delicious gooses.
C: Geese. When you have more than one goose, you call them geese.
M: What? No. That's too... No, no, no. Okay, how about this: So we go to this goose restaurant. They have all the delicious goose and her friends.
L: That's right. Geese is only for family."

Karadzic, Mladic and the EU

You probably heard of Bosnia on the news today. They finally "arrested" Karadzic in Serbia.
Hopefully, you have read the news and you are aware of who he is (roughly). And now, we can decipher all this. Bear with me...

First, it seems that Karadzic was "arrested" on a public bus in Belgrade. Now, all that talk about him being on the run for 13 years are nonsense. He wasn't on the run, the Serbian authorities let him be. Until recently.

The government formed a few weeks ago, a coalition of Democratic Party and pro-European parties who just barely won the elections in May, with the Socialists, Milosevic's former party (how ironic). In a nutshell, it seems that the Socialists finally realized that they couldn't have their cake and eat it too, or in this case, have Europe and their Bosnian Serb leaders too. So they let go of Karadzic, probably under some EU pressure, maybe with help of the Democratic Party.

Which is good, don't get me wrong. It's just late--about 10 years too late. And also not enough. Mladic is also "on the run", and a much bigger fish than Karadzic. Now that Milosevic is dead, Mladic is the one person who, in front of the ITCY, can prove that there was a direct link between Belgrade and the Bosnian Serbs, almost on a day-to-day basis, on military decisions. Karadzic apparently was a bit more independent from Belgrade, even daring to disagree from time to time. Given that Karadzic was riding a bus in Belgrade when he was arrested, there is reason to believe that Mladic is also protected by the Serb authorities, maybe even more so than Karadzic was.

The question is, what will happen now? Will the European Union loose its backbone and be satisfied with Karadzic, or will it continue to put pressure on Belgrade to deliver Mladic also? Personally, I'm hoping for the latter. Mladic has to be brought to justice, the victims and families of victims deserve it. Bosnia deserves it! And Serbia can then truly earn its European candidacy status.

PS. I went out last night at midnight to see the 'partying' in Sarajevo. I don't know how it looks on your tv screens, but I can tell you that it consisted of about 20 to 30 guys and as many carshonking their horns while driving in circles around the same block, waving Bosnian, Bosnian military and one Turkish flags. They were almost as many new photographers as Bosniaks celebrating, and maybe 20 people watching, including me. Then the rain came and I went to bed.

The George W. Bush Sewage Plant

This is too funny. And to quote my classmate Richard: "There are perhaps many reasons to oppose this proposal, foremost among them is that it is disrespectful to sewage."
Less funny though: a synchronized flushing of hundred of thousands of toilets? How un-ecological and wasteful. How un-San Francisco.

Food thoughts

Lately I've been worried and puzzled about the hike in food prices. This issue became troubling when the predictions of a rise in food prices and inflation were made last year in October-November for Haiti, a country where people can't afford to have the price of eggs rise by 18%, because it literally means starving. And as we saw, starving Haitians took the streets and were one of the forces that pushed the government out. So the price of food has implications. I may be studying international relations (with a hefty dollop of economics), but I'm still a bit puzzled. I've tried reading reports and keeping an eye on the news, I still am scratching my head on this one.

Here are my questions:

• what causes this phenomenon?
  

-Why are the prices of food going further up than regular inflation? Is it because of a food shortage? (don't think so) So the problem is distribution? That would make sense with the increase in fuel prices, which manifests itself in the prices of the food transported. So the solution seems to be: consume local! Not that easy, especially in a place like Haiti, where so little is produced. (more on this later)
-Is it true that we are producing too much ethanol and that the land and other resources allocated to corn and cane should be used for edible crops? I'm not sure. I just have to do more research on this, but my guts tell me: the causal relationship is not that simple.
-Could it be that this is all related to the way that we are producing food (yes, I'm pointing fingers at the agro-industrial business)? My guts here are on the positive. But the thing is, only some of the developed countries have a highly industrialized food producing system, what about the least industrialized countries? Where does it get stuck?
-Is there some other stone I've forgotten to turn? Farm subsidies? Genetically modified foods? Subprime crisis? Wars? Global warming? Globalisation? China's gobbling up of resources? India's gobbling up of resources? Both? Is it the Russians? The CIA? The aliens?
-Does anyone know?

• what are the implications?

-In other words, what can we do about it? Send food aid to places like Haiti? (I'm focusing on this case because it's the only one I know, it's not an obsession or anything) Listen to Monsanto when they say 'we can invent plants and animals that will produce more food'? (my guts are tightening in horror at that thought, I have to admit)
-At what level can change be implemented in a sustainable manner? (individual, community, national, or regional)
-Should we continue development as we just were or adapt it to the increased food insecurity?

Food for thought...


***Why am I writing about this now? I just saw an article in the NYT about the increasing number of people growing vegetables in their backyards, in the dining section of the newspaper. There are a few things about this article: 1) the author mentions that seed stores didn't see the rise in demand coming. Really? I have difficulty believing it. It just seems like a lack of forward-looking business instinct. 2) there seems to be a general surprise at the change in attitude of people. People are strapped for cash, because food is siphoning more and more of it, and there's surprise that people are adapting--and not just any people, but Americans, who, from my personal observation, are some of the more adaptable people on the planet!

This has got me thinking too. I mean, producing in your own backyard (or balcony) a few tomatoes, peas and cucumbers isn't too strenuous. It requires commitment, as mentioned in the article, but it's not exactly an 8 hour-day job. There are initial costs, to be sure, but within a year (if not sooner) you make savings on your groceries. And, except maybe for the winter, there are no shortages, which is really good for one household. Now, my imagination is racing, and I wonder about bringing this up a level: what about a garden with your friends? In Germany, one of my cousins who lives in an apartment rents a garden with a little shed, in an entire area with 50 other little gardens. People have flowers, grow some food, hang out in the week ends. (it's a great outing for taking photos, too!). Imagine you and three other friends, and you work on that project... Okay, you'll tell me, we're back at farming. Full circle. Fair enough, but I'm just thinking! Of course, I'm really eager to try out, once I'm back in DC, the local harvest. Because as a graduate student, I probably won't have the time to work with four classmates on a garden. And I realize that's the main excuse for anyone to not switch to their own vegetable gardening (and definitely legitimate): lack of time.

Oberlin in Gawker

It's been awhile since I caught up reading Gawker (one of their sister websites Jezebel has been taking up my procrastination time). However, apparently Oberlin and their grads have become one of the things Gawker loves to "hate."

A sampling:

In the running for one of America's Most Annoying Liberal Arts colleges. Spoiler: Wesleyan won.

Poking fun at an Oberlin Grad. As Andy once said, I don't know this guy [he graduated after us] but I know who he used to be.

A post about pooping at the environmental studies center. They act like is news! We were encouraged to poop there back in '01.

Something called the Oberlin Confessional. The actual website is here. Break out your @world.oberlin.edu addresses to check it out!