The Ice Bucket Challenge and Moral Licensing

I am sure everyone has seen  numerous videos of friends, relatives and celebrities being doused with ice-cold water in the name of challenging others to do the same or make a donation to fight ALS-amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease). The cause is noble, of course and while some critics have denounced the act as narcissistic "slacktivism" there are others who have offered a critical and reasonable concern about the latest cyberfad.

Don't worry, I don't have ice coursing through my veins, but perhaps I am a bit of a cynic. How many people who pour cold water on themselves actually make a donation? The premise of the fundraiser is to either make a contribution of $100 or have water poured on you. Amidst the jocularity and e-camaraderie that we have seen with these Facebook exhibitions, a sense of perspective and in a way empathy is lost. People seem to have forgotten about those who lack water. How would residents of Detroit, battling a water shortage respond to the ALS fundraiser? I am sure in countries suffering through droughts could not care less about the Facebook antics of Internet denizens.

William MacAskill, research fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, has written an excellent article highlighting unexamined consequences of the ice bucket challenge. He notes that money contributed to the ALS through this challenge is funding denied to other charities. I am ambivalent about this, but his next observation is spot on. He describes another trend, "It's called moral licensing; the idea that doing one good action leads one to compensate by doing fewer good actions in the future." Many people seem to think that by making a contribution they have cleaned their soul and they do not have to do anything cause-worthy for a while. Does moral licensing permeate all the ice cubes that shower down on willing participants? Perhaps.

 

I think MacAskill says it best when he makes the case for more active and regular involvement in ONE or TWO causes; to become more knowledgeable and familiar with the issues and challenges. How many of the ice bucket participants know the details and challenges of ALS? Are any of them even aware that many people in our country are without water as they (the ALS fund raiser participants) undergo an ice shower? 

While it is extremely impressive that so much money has been raised for ALS research, it would be better if this were more than a one-time fad that will make the VH-1 highlight reel when the program visits the year 2014. 

Concrete Poetry of the World by Rakuli

Do you know what concrete poetry is? I am just getting into it myself, but here is a fine example by Rakuli (www.rakuli.com) that I like since I work in international education!

Enjoy!

Meet Isabel Leonard

Last summer I read about a young Argentine-American opera singer who performed at an outdoor concert in New York. Reviews were great and I checked her out on the Internet. I found her website and listened to a few of her concerts. Wow! What a voice! I am no opera expert, but I was moved by her performance and her multi-cultural outlook on life and how she puts her bilingual talents to good use. But don't listen to me....
check her out yourself. Her website is: http://isabelleonard.com/.

Here is a video of her in concert. Enjoy! Gracias, Isabel!

The Police Perspective

It is easy to issue a blanket condemnation of the police in light of the events of Ferguson, Missouri, but in the name of perspective we really need to see the police side of things. They are after all, human. I think if someone attacked me and I had a gun, I probably would shoot; it is a natural reflex. I think ultimately, the blame rests with both Michael Brown and the police officer who shot him in self-defense, Darren Wilson. They both took actions without considering the consequences and now one person is dead and the life/career of the other is being scrutinized in such a fashion that he will never be the same again.

Here is a nice infographic that illustrates how police feel about how justice is meted out in the US. What do you think? I have used the image from the website Policy.Mic which features an excellent take on how the police mindset has changed in recent times.

Dusklands and Ferguson, Missouri

The conflagration in Ferguson, Missouri that has engulfed the nation in inflammatory rhetoric and condemnation brings to attention many details and perspectives that many are unaware of or refuse to consider. The police have received harsh criticism for not only the death of Michael Brown, but for how they reacted afterwards, especially dealing with protesters (interestingly enough the looting that took place during the riots received nowhere near the condemnation it should have).

Many authors, historians, sociologists, political scientists and community activists have decried the police state, but I do not think anyone has put it into words as well as J.M. Coetzee. Writing about the Vietnam War in his excellent novel Duskland, one of Coetzee's characters describes a couple of lines of thinking that certainly apply to the police approach to the Ferguson protesters. He writes, "We brought with us weapons, the gun and its metaphors, the only copulas we knew of between ourselves and our objects. From this tragic ignorance we sought deliverance. Our nightmare was that since whatever we reached for slipped like smoke through our fingers, we did not exist; that since whatever we embraced wilted, we were all that existed."

Referring to the U.S. military's approach to demoralizing the Vientamese, Coetzee's character,almost proudly, claims, "We must work on the assumption that the military believe in their own explanations when they assign a solely military value to terror operations." This is what we are seeing in Ferguson. Somehow a military mindset has set-in in police approaches to protests. I cannot say if this is an inheritance from the Kent State University shootings years ago or a reality that was borne out of the wreckage of the Twin Towers and the Pengaton in 2001. It does not bode well for us.

                       

Source: Policy.Mic
                   

An Angry Millenial Strikes (at Your) Back

Katie Kieffer

Looking trim and elegant on the cover of her new book, Let Me Be Clear, Katie Kieffer, asserts her generation's list of grievances against President Barack Obama, declaring his perceived lack of effort "a war on Millenials." Browsing through some books at a Barnes and Noble store I came across this and the title caught my attention. Flipping through the pages, however, I quickly noticed Ms Kieffer's belligeraet tone. As a young woman who has clearly achieved success (she has made frequent appearances on Fox New channel (although I would consider this more bad taste than success!) it is interesting to see the ire and spite that this young woman has. The more I read the pages of her book it soon dawned on me that we have someone who wants to be the next Ann Coulter. Of course, this means attacks on President Obama and any manifestation of left-leaning policy. I can see her being prepared to be the next line of conservative right-wing screamers who will say anything to get attention. She is so committed to the right-wing cause that she doesn't take time to get her facts straigtht (an Ann Coulter trait she has perfected). She regurgitates hard-line venom without even considering what she has written. Take for example, her criticism of Jay-Z and Beyoncés trip to Cuba. She writes: "Mr. and Mrs. Jay-Z Carter vacationed in Cuba for their anniversary in the spring of 2013--you know, that communist country run by a dictator whose people love him so much that they risk their lives paddling on makeshift rafts, to get here?" Who is she referring to? Fidel Castro or his brother Raúl, who took over for him several years ago? I don't think Ms Kieffer has followed the news lately. If she had, she would have known to use the term "balseros" for the people who traversed the dangerous waters to make it to the US.

There were some other misrepresentations as well, but these days, who needs to be factual? My side bias ensures that an author of any political bent will have an audience. Young Ms. Kieffer will "write" more books I am sure; there is certainly a market for her (fiction, experimental, politics, etc.). As for me, I thought seriously about buying it, after all, in Cuba we often have a shortage of toilet paper.

When Reason Goes Up in Flames

"These are the times that try men's souls," proclaimed Thomas Paine in his masterful The American Crisis.  Although written on the eve of the American Revolution, Paine's ominous observation resonates loudly today. Reason has left the building it seems, replaced by a histrionic "I-am-right-because-I-am-right" mentality that extends into the ridiculous.

Just yesterday someone posted on my Facebook wall a picture of New York City's Twin Towers aflame after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.  My friend (since defriended) had Tea Party sympathies which alarmed me. He had taken the post from an Israeli website (I couldn't read the Hebrew), but the message below the horrific images read "We are fighting the same terrorists who did this."

It makes you think, doesn't it? There are many things to say about that posting:

1. Has there ever been a direct connection between Mohammed Atta and his men and Hamas or Palestinians? No. Ultimately, the staged scenario backfires: people will empathize with the thousands killed in the Gaza strip because they have been suffering constant, daily attacks from an enemy that has abused the notion of self-defense to masquerade genocide.

2. Using violence to end violence hasn't really worked very well, has it?

3. I have always been curious about the use of the pronoun 'we.' It somehow exudes a feeling of vicarious inclusiveness that allows armchair patriots to condemn an action, philosophy or a race of people without having to take a bullet or worry about being killed by gunfire, bombs, etc.  Perhaps the person who posted the image and message actually is an Israel soldier. Then I could sort of understand where he/she is coming from. After all, actual combat is a respectable pedigree. But it is most likely that the person is sitting comfortably at home and wanted to express him/herself in a way that would align him/her with the solders on the front lines.

What that person has done is not justify the mass killings in Gaza; he/she has instead shown a spotlight on his/her own cowardice.

This is merely symptomatic of the era we live in. Reason has exited and its space is now occupied by hypocrisy masquerading as righteousness. I will end with another Thomas Paine quote (I have researched him for a class I am teaching in Cuba): "To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture."

Misty Makes a Statement

On my Facebook feed today I noticed an advertisement for Under Armour that has been attracting a lot of media and pop cultural attention. The ad features a ballet dancer named Misty Copeland performing some incredible moves. Copeland is a dancer with the American Ballet Theater in New York City and her beauty, grace and power have rightly attracted the attention of many people.

In 2012 I saw a performance by the American Ballet Theater(In the Upper Room), although I was unaware of Ms Copeland at the time. It was astounding and although I never disrespected ballet, I gained a new appreciation for it.

Perhaps this is the sensation that Under Armour is going for; inviting a new audience to experience ballet beyond the performances displayed on the stage, in public, under the discerning eyes of the public and the spotlights. There is beauty in it even when it is just a solo "practice" session.

Earlier in July I saw the incredible Viengsay Valdés perform Swan Lake (I am happy to say that my students became instant fans) and seeing Misty Copeland perform gave me the same sensation: the sense of power, pride, autonomy and strength distilled through fluid movement....simply amazing.

Sometimes a person comes along who makes you use up all your adjectives to describe them. This is what Misty Copeland has done. I know now I, and many others, are going to have to improve our vocabulary.

                          Misty Copeland rocks. But you already knew that.