When Someone Says "Women Have Too Many Rights"

Last month I arrived at JFK and took a ride to Connecticut. The driver of the vehicle was an avuncular man in his late-50s to early 60s from Jamaica. He had come to the US many years before. We enjoyed a great conversation during the trip when suddenly he said something that startled me. He said "The problem here (the US) is that women have too many rights. In Jamaica the men take the lead and women should follow."  Clearly he comes from another generation and another culture whose views on gender equality are not the same as the ones we value today. I talked to him about this and he was polite and listened, even nodding a few times. Do I think I convinced him to change his view on this matter? Of course not. You cannot change such a deeply held belief in one conversation.  I don't know if he could ever be made to change his antiquated views.  I don't know if people are able to change after they reach a certain age or a certain point in their life. 

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that the misogyny so prevalent in the "rich, white boy" caricatures that we see revolve around Brett Kavanaugh, only captures a small portion of the people who feel this way. This body of disbelievers in gender equality is much more diverse than we would like to think.

Remembering Victor Jara

Forty-five years ago the Chilean musician and activist Victor Jara was executed by Chilean solders on the orders of Augusto Pinochet, the dictator who led a US-backed military coup that overthrew the government of Salvador Allende (September 11, 1973). Many Americans are unaware of Jara and the legacy of his music.  We are all either too preoccupied with our work, studies, relationships, sports and indifference to know about what happened to him.

In many ways Jara was the Bob Dylan of Chile and his music powerfully transcends the barrier of the years to inspire us now in these dark days of political self-indulgence and reality television shows.

I recently rediscovered Jara's music and was really touched by it. Even if you do not know Spanish, it is worth listening to.

Being Distracted by the Brett Kavanaugh Circus

Given the press coverage that the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh for a seat in the US Supreme Court and the 24/7 media circus that has followed him since Christine Blasey Ford announced she had been assaulted by him years ago at a party, it is almost a challenge to read about anything else in the world. In fact, the September 28th earthquake that registered 7.5 on the Richter Scale unleashing a powerful tsunami against Palu, Indonesia resulting  in the deaths of at least 800 people, has barely registered a blip on the US news media cycle. This is disconcerting, especially for those of us who consider ourselves "global citizens" but it is not alone in being shunned for more "newsworthy" items.

For some time now, the Swedish Academy, that awards the annual Nobel Peace Prize, has been embroiled in a controversy that it would much rather go away. On October 1, a court in Sweden sentenced the renowned French photographer and cultural icon Jean-Claude Arnault to two years in prison for rape. Last November 18 women had come forward to charge him with assault. Naturally, Mr. Arnault proclaimed his innocence, but that is not the controversial story here. His wife, the poet Katarina Frostenson, is a member of the Academy, but was not asked to leave. Inexplicably, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, Sara Danius, was. Ms Danius was the first woman to ever lead the Academy.

Two former secretaries, Sture Allen and Horace Engdahl, have not only been very critical of Ms. Danius, but they have decried the reaction to the allegations against Arnault. They just cannot seem to accept that a woman held a leadership role in an organization that is essentially an all men's club. Shame on them. It appears that they suffer the same malady that has afflicted many of the who have attacked Dr. Blasey Ford. It is ironic that this mentality retains its global vitality; no borders check this sad condition.

It remains to be seen what will happen with the Brett Kavanaugh-Christine Blasey Ford saga, but one thing that we should keep in mind is this: we should not be distracted by the circus, the media frenzy, the numerous memes travelling the Internet and the screeds and tirades on the blogosphere. We must also look at what is going on with the  Swedish Academy and put the matter in perspective. The issue is much more than that of a Democrat vs Republican or whether Kavanaugh is fit for the Supreme Court (I don't believe he is); it is about the issue of balance of male-female power  and how it is often balanced in favor of males around the world. Let us not get too caught up in the Kavanaugh-Blasey Ford situation; let us look at other similar situations and bring them to the fore. They also need media attention.

Much like the US Senate Judiciary Committee, the Swedish Academy is a venerable and historic institution that needs to join the 21st century. Only by directing massive media attention at it, can we hope to spur change.

This Was No Meerkat Romance

Romance is never an easy thing, but it certainly becomes complicated when the participants all work in a zoo. I love this article because of the zany and hilarious opening sentence. How often do you get to use "meerkat?

Watching Seinfeld in Cuba

Last week I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they show Seinfeld reruns on television at 10:00pm every evening. The episode I watched was the infamous/classic ¨Soup Nazi¨ saga. What was interesting about this was that the word ¨Nazi¨ was bleeped everytime one of the Seinfeld characters mentioned it. In the Spanish subtitiles they used the word ¨engruñon¨ instead of ¨Nazi.¨ Very interesting. I wonder why they did that?

Why Steinbeck Still Matters

 

The first book I read by John Steinbeck was Once There Was a War, which featured the author’s war time writing as he followed American troops during World War II. For me it remains one of the best pieces of war time writing that is free of any political bias but portrays the realities and human stories (some of them with humor) that surrounded American soldiers. 

I decided to read Grapes of Wrath and I have been blown away by the power of the writing. He captures the spirit of desolation, isolation, frustration and avarice that really brings home the experience of so many Americans in the 1930 moving from Oklahoma and Kansas to California.

A lot of what Steinbeck wrote about remains very relevant today. Take for example this text from The Grapes of Wrath, “It ain’t that big. The whole United States ain’t that big. It ain’t that big. It ain’t big enough. There ain’t room enough for you an’ me, for your kind an’ my kind, for rich and poor together all in one country, for thieves and honest men. For hunger and fat Whyn’t you go back where you come from?” In the text the character is speaking to Americans from Oklahoma and Kansas migrating to California. We see that issues of class pervade the sentiment. There is no indication of race in the disquisition, but that does not mean it wasn’t there. Fast forward to 2015 and this same character would direct the same message to a different audience: to immigrants and to the lower class. Steinbeck mocks the lack of education of those who abused the migrants in the 1930 by imbuing their language with vocabulary that speaks to their incivility. Little did he know that he was ridiculing those who many years later would become more prominent in American public life: the Tea Party. Economies change, technologies change, even societal experiences change, Steinbeck seems to say, but stupidity never changes.  What would Steinbeck say if he were alive today? What would he make of Wall Street financiers and the Occupy movement? Or the Black Lives Matter movement?

There are moments in The Grapes of Wrath where Steinbeck is optimistic about mankind’s future. He writes, “For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.” But then, he writes a more harrowing view of humanity: “Having stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never the full step back. This you may say and know it. This you may know when the bombs plummet out of the black planes on the market place, when prisoners are stuck like pigs, when the rushed bodies drain filthily in the dust.” Ultimately, I think Steinbeck believed in humanity as long as it did not give up on concepts and belief. He writes in The Grapes of Wrath, “And fear the time when the strikes stop while the great owners live—for every little beaten strike is proof that the step is being taken. And this you can know—fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.”

Much of what Steinbeck wrote about is relevant today. The audience may have changed, but the message is still the same. If only we would be smart enough to listen.