Welcome to the Sick

If you got a sick feeling and a bit of a headache because you were upset over NFL players taking a knee, welcome to the world of millions of other Americans. Most of the time that our president opens his mouth, this sick feeling washes over us.

Here’s why:

• He brags about grabbing pussy.
• He said Hilary Clinton doesn’t look presidential but couldn’t define what that means. (She wears pantsuits every day, just like he does, so what’s not presidential in that look?)
• He commented on Megyn Kelly having her period during a presidential debate when he didn’t like the questions she asked.
• He rates women, calls them pigs, and comments on their physical attractiveness as if it makes any difference to their professional accomplishments.
• He felt a judge with a Hispanic name could not give him a fair ruling.
• He calls Senator Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas.”
• He likened private school to being as hard as, or harder than, being in the military.
• He called out the Khan family, who’s son was in the military and killed, when he didn’t like what Mr. Khan said about him.
• Rather than comment on policy, he has personally insulted senators and representatives John McCain (as I was putting the finishing touches on this post, something new came out about McCain; I haven't had a chance to find out details yet), Mitch McConnell, Jeff Flake, Lisa Murchowski, Paul Ryan, and Charles Schumer, among others. He has also called out Jeff Sessions, James Comey, and other federal employees who work for him. 

Is this enough disrespect to enrage you yet? Remember, he also mocked a disabled journalist.

How many free passes are you going to give him? One Sunday afternoon of black men making a statement against a history of racism in the United States makes you more uncomfortable than at least two years’ worth of racist, misogynistic, and anti-veteran statements from a rich white man who deferred his military service.

Of course you’re not enraged over those things because you’ve been supporting racist mascots and athletes who abuse women for years. But I guess you think keeping a racist mascot can be brushed off as staying with tradition. I don’t know how you can accept beating women; that one is beyond me. (Unless that is tradition as well.) But now, having some of those racist traditions in the United States being brought to your attention front and center when all you want to do is drink beer and watch a football game makes you uncomfortable. Makes you angry. How dare they use their First Amendment rights when I just want to have a lazy afternoon.

You say the players should protest on their own time. The First Amendment doesn’t work that way. If people only protested when it was convenient and comfortable, not much would have changed in this country vis-a-vis civil rights. Plus, the president is racist and disrespectful on the taxpayers’ time regularly, rather than on his own time.

You say the players are being disrespectful to millions of veterans. Some of those veterans support players taking the knee. Does that make those veterans any less patriotic? Also, why is it more outrageous to you that athletes disrespect veterans (so you perceive) yet the president is disrespectful to millions of women, persons of color, and Muslims, many of whom are also veterans. Where's your outrage over that?

Don’t bring Obama or Clinton into this. Clinton lost the election so you can’t use her as an example anymore. Obama put up with tons of racist crap during his administration and he did not resort to hurling insults. Say what you want about his policies, he was a class act. Oh, I almost forgot the birther movement, which was encouraged by none other than our current president.

Welcome. Welcome to the sick feeling that our current president invokes on a regular basis. There is not going to be a turning point that makes this president see the error of his ways and makes him be a nicer person. He is an asshole and will remain one. It’s up to us to stop putting up with his garbage because we don't want to feel sick anymore. And if it makes you uncomfortable that’s too bad. 

Cutting back on Social Media

Several weeks ago Muffin was home sick from school with a bad cold. As she snuggled on top of me on the couch, warm and sniffly and sleepy, I was pretty much immobilized so, like many parents in my situation these days, I picked up my phone to scroll through Facebook to pass the time. By the second day of that routine, I was done. I realized how bad Facebook was making me feel. I was a member of several groups where it is apparently no longer enough to simply be a nice, polite, person, you have to wear the badge of exactly what kind of feminist, gluten-free, stay/work-at-home mother you are. It's not enough that I support women breastfeeding in public. If I let slip that I didn't enjoy the few times I did it with Muffin, I've become a horrible mother who doesn't support women. In a discussion about childcare options, someone made a comment that having family watch your child "never works out." I called her out on it, saying it's a very good option for many families, even if it doesn't work out for some, and suddenly I'm perceived as a privileged bitch with free childcare. (I don't have free childcare. I have a good public school and the generosity of family members when they happen to be here visiting us or we happen to be other places visiting them. But I've learned that Facebook groups are not the place for details and nuance.) Even friends I agree with on many issues were so vehement about their opinions that it became tiresome. It was no longer enjoyable to be bombarded from all sides.

So I stopped. For several days I stayed off Twitter entirely and I took only very quick peeks once or twice a day to check in on specific friends and family members on Facebook. I asked Mike to stop telling me whatever the latest Facebook news was. I left a bunch of Facebook groups. I turned off my notifications for Facebook and all my news apps. I chatted with friends. I read the news ad-free and comment-free on my Kindle. I listened to podcasts. I was still connected. I just took out all the tiresome social commentary.

And I was fine. I had more free time to read things that I find more enjoyable to read. I didn't miss any major news. After a few days I expanded my time and my group of friends I wanted to check on and stay in touch with. On Twitter, I created a list of about twenty people who I want to interact with regularly. I don't plan on turning my alerts back on. I control when I check on Facebook and Twitter. I won't forget they exist just because my phone isn't chirping at me every few minutes.

I'm choosing to control how I use social media in order to avoid some of the negativity. I'm not ignorant of what's going on in the world.

And I fully realize the irony of sharing this post on Facebook and Twitter. 

Who actually represents women in this administration?

Interacting with members of the opposite sex is a part of life.  Dining alone with a woman other than your own wife or being at a function where alcohol is served without your wife is only a threat to your marriage if there are trust issues and insecurities to begin with. If you don’t want to cheat on your spouse, don’t cheat on your spouse. That’s it. It’s so basic it shouldn’t even have to be a religious mandate.

How many women have worked for or with Mike Pence? He’s never had so much as a coffee meeting alone with any of them? Sometimes you have to work late and get dinner. What does it say that he’s willing to do this with his male staffers but not his female employees or coworkers? It says that he fears women as sexual objects and does not value them as equals in the workplace.

Attitudes like this strengthen the belief among religious conservatives that sex is a woman’s fault and men are helpless beings. She was raped because she wore attractive clothing. She was raped even though she wore a burka because a man found her to be tempting. She was raped because a man was threatened by her making more money than he does. Women can’t be in the military because the strongest, most disciplined manliest of men will lose all control of themselves if a female body is anywhere near them and it will be the woman’s fault for simply being present.

Some conservative op-ed writers are saying liberals are blowing this out of proportion. That liberals defend this kind of practice among Muslims because we care more about Muslims than Christians. Um, no. The fact that in several Muslim societies women are not allowed to be out of the house unless they are accompanied by their husband or a male family member is pretty frickin’ abhorrent to this liberal. Before I read that sort of criticism of liberals I was thinking about how much fundamental Christians and Muslims have in common with that view of not being alone with women or allowing women to be in the company of other men.

I’ve also read that he should be commended for making this decision to protect his marriage. It’s true that this could be a private decision between Mr. and Mrs. Pence. But Mike Pence also made a decision to be a politician, and politicians have to attend social functions, where alcohol might be served, and, see my example above about working with women. If protecting his marriage is that important maybe he’s chosen the wrong line of work.

The Billy Graham rule that Pence’s personal decision is based on also only acknowledges heterosexual intercourse, as if male members of the church and male politicians have never been caught sexually assaulting boys or having affairs with men.

I also wonder, if Mike Pence has made this decision for himself, does the same hold true for Karen Pence? If she feels that she can safely have a meal with a man without sleeping with him is she allowed to do so? Is she sheltered from furthering any of her own goals, or simply having male friends, without bringing a chaperone along?

I have a problem with the vice president being afraid to be in the same room as half of his constituents, especially when so many of those constituents are terrified to be in a room alone with the president. Who actually represents women in this administration?

For further reading:
The Religious Reasons Mike Pence Won't Eat Alone with Other Women Don't Add Up

Ah, Nostalgia for the Days of Coal

Billy Joel sang about the depressing steel manufacturing economy in the 1980s. “Allentown” became a blue-collar anthem, especially for miners and manufacturers who were losing their jobs in the Rust Belt.

If that song wasn’t warning enough, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the coal industry has been in decline for the last 30 years, long before the regulations of President Obama’s era were put into place. Miners have had a long time to think of a back-up plan in case coal mining didn’t work out. Instead of welcoming new research, innovations, inventions, or opportunities, however; instead of thinking outside the box or pulling themselves up by the bootstraps they claim to celebrate as part of the American spirit, coal miners decided to wait for the day that time would turn backward. That day came earlier this week with the rollback of the Clean Power Plan.

The Clean Power Plan was never fully put into effect because it’s been held up in legal battles, which means it can’t fully be held responsible for a decline in the coal industry. Also, eliminating the plan is going to take several more years so it’s unlikely to bring many new jobs in during the current administration reign. And, true to character for any of this administration's policies, it is light on details and likely to face legal challenges.

The plan was rolled back for the sake of nostalgia more than anything else. Innovations have reduced the number of actual workers needed for coal. It’s also ironic that a population of people who claim to loathe government interference sat around waiting for more government interference to get their jobs back.

The current administration is full of macho men with frail egos, or at least they’d like to think they are macho and they would like to appeal to that demographic of voters. In their minds, white men still rule this world and the idea of anyone else earning more money or having more economic power is threatening.

One excuse people use for wanting these jobs back is that they or their families are tied to the land. But America was built on people moving to where new opportunities are. It was built by people who found new land, a new place to start or settle their families. If it’s that important to be manly and support a family, figure it out. Move. People in the military do it. People in law enforcement do it. Even the representatives sent to Washington on our behalf make that sacrifice to either move their families or live away from them to get a job done.

With a party in power that’s happy to deregulate industry and seemingly indifferent to adequate health care, what’s going to happen when cases of chronic bronchitis and other coal dust-related illnesses begin rising? If it’s anything like what happened to oil-industry workers in Louisiana, the coal industry will hire lawyers to prove that it’s just a coincidence that there’s an abundance of these diseases among coal miners.

America was built on change, ingenuity, and exploration. It was built by people who moved forward to forge new paths rather than go backwards to outdated technologies. I have very little sympathy for a group of white men who feel sad that their health-risk and pollution-causing industry is no longer relevant because most Americans want progressive change, not regressive policies.

For further reading:
Trump Takes Aim At A Centerpiece Of Obama's Environmental Legacy (NPR)
What Trump Misses About Energy Jobs In America (NPR)
Coal Mine Dust Exposures and Associated Health Outcomes (Report by HHS, CDC, and NIOSH)
The entire coal industry employs fewer people than Arby’s (Washington Post)

I'm Not Giving Up My New Balance Shoes

Thanks to some idiot fringe of the alt-right, I know find myself in the awkward position of saying, "I'm not a racist, but..."

I'm keeping my New Balance running shoes.

A vice president at New Balance praised Trump's rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders came out against TPP as well. Some white supremacist group took one sentence from a New Balance executive about supporting one sentence of Trump's platform, in an interview for the Wall Street Journal where it should be obvious it's a business discussion, and turned it into a symbol of their white-power group.

And without understanding the facts, people started burning their New Balance shoes in protest because they assume New Balance supports white supremacy.

New Balance still makes its shoes in the United States when other major shoe manufacturers have moved their business overseas. I fail to see how, by supporting American workers, I'm now a racist because some other white people, who are racist, have stated they will start wearing New Balance shoes. Either they don't understand the statement was made about trade policy or they don't care. They wanted to say something ridiculous so they could watch liberals overreact and laugh at us. So they could distract us from actual issues of civil rights and equality.

New Balance as denounced this hate group more vigorously than President-elect Trump has, by the way.

New Balance executives supported one part of Trump's economic plan, which many people believe makes sense for American workers. Whether I agree with the trade policy or not, or whether it's going to actually benefit workers or not, isn't important right now. I can't blame someone for voting for what they think will offer better job opportunities and business opportunities for Americans. And if Trump's plan doesn't work out, I'll be there to listen and to be a good friend to those who are disappointed.

We need to not let some of the worst idiots on the right take over the conversation and lead us away from facts and reason. New Balance shoes are the only ones that fit me properly. I've been running for over half my life, I've put in a lot of miles, and I've tried a lot of shoes. I can honestly say that ethically I have no problem continuing to buy them. Go ahead and protest and boycott, but do your homework first.

Sources:
Forbes: New Balance Gets Political
Washington Post: We live in crazy times: Neo-Nazis have declared New Balance the ‘Official Shoes of White People’
The Post Game: New Balances Support of Trump Win Triggers Sneaker Burnings

Turning a Blind Eye to Steve Bannon -- Now Who Lives in the Bubble?

There's been a lot of talk of the liberal elite bubble in the last week. But what about the rural, white bubble? People are genuinely concerned about the economy, I get that. But does that mean there's no room to be concerned about racism and sexism as well? Just because these things don't happen in one small town doesn't discredit them as being national problems.

Steve Bannon is going to be toxic as the strategist who is crafting the message for our next president. Calls from the left for his removal from President-elect Donald Trump's administration will not be taken seriously unless we have support from the right as well.

Mitch McConnell literally said nothing when asked about Bannon in a press conference earlier this week. He just started ahead awkwardly until the reporter gave up. This is unacceptable. Conservative leaders have to say something, otherwise they are condoning this placement of Bannon in the administration. He's not an appointee who's going to be approved by Congress so the only course of action against his being hired is to put pressure on Conservative leaders to put pressure on President-elect Trump.

Even if you believe the alt-right is a fringe group, putting its megaphone to the ear of the president like this surely must signal to you that something bigger is going on. From National Review:

The problem is not whether Bannon himself subscribes to a noxious strain of political nuttery; it’s that his de facto endorsement of it enables it to spread and to claim legitimacy, and that what is now a vicious fringe could, over time, become mainstream....

Principled conservatives, especially those in leadership positions, have a political and moral duty to condemn, and to work to eradicate, the animus that is the alt-right’s raison d’être.

You don't have to leave a comment here, or on Facebook, or anywhere else. But if this bothers you, call Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and any Republican senators and congresspersons who represent your state and your district, and tell them you are not okay with Steve Bannon being so close to the president.

If this does not bother you, then you are the one who is living in a bubble, not me.

To Anger or Not to Anger. To Unite or Not Unite.

We get one day to mope and then we have to get to work.

That's the comment I left in many places around the internet Wednesday and also in person, over the phone, in texts, anyone I was talking to.

But as the day wore on and I listened to more analysis and I read more reactions, I became angry. I'm trying not to be, and I'm going back and forth on whether or not it's okay for me to be. Which I hate, that I can't feel comfortable having this emotion, let alone expressing it. I think my anger is going in a different direction than many people assume, however.

Trump supporters voted for him because they are angry. Those of us who didn't vote for him are now expected to remain calm and work together and find unity. But we have a right to our anger as well. Trump supporters felt things weren't going their way so they got angry and they did what they thought would change things. We have the same right to be angry and work to change things as well. And we will change things, for the most part legally and peacefully, because the Constitution gives us the right to do so. There will be some fiery bursts of anger that may lead to violence from some, but unlike the Trump side of things, we will condemn violence rather than condone it.

I expect that if I'm taking one day to mope and then get to work, that Trump supporters will take their one day to revel in victory, and then work to keep their candidate in check. You voted for him but your job isn't over. Your world isn't going to magically change now.

One thing that bothers me among all these calls for unity is that I feel like we are expected to be good losers while Trump supporters are allowed to be bad winners. In order to make this country work they have to be gracious winners.

Many of them are not being gracious winners. Many of them have taken the win by Trump as a free pass to be even more racist. For being publicly racist if they were privately being so before. President-elect Trump, this really is your problem now. You have to reign in your supporters and call for them to knock this shit off. You wanted to be the law and order president. You have to instill that over your own supporters now who are assaulting blacks, gays, Muslims, and Mexicans since you won this election.

Among people I know who voted for Trump I'm seeing a lot more calls for Hillary supporters to calm down and unite than I'm seeing comments condemning these violent, racist actions. Sitting quietly and waiting for it to blow over isn't an option anymore. We saw this in the aftermath to Brexit and it's what many people feared would happen here as well. I've said this a few times over the last couple weeks, that it's not the policies of a Trump president that bother me per se, because we have checks and balances. But all the policies in the world mean nothing to the people who were beat up yesterday by celebrating Trump supporters. It's happening just as many of us feared it would. And Trump himself, alongside all of his supporters who are not racists or sexist, have to speak out against this. Ellie Wiesel said, "Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

I am tired of calling for calm and unity. Calls for unity from one candidate gave us the other candidate as our president. The people calling for unity from the Trump side now certainly didn't unify under President Obama. They unified against him in order to try and block a good deal of his legislation.

Be angry if you want to be. But understand that anger and Facebook posts don't amount to real change. Find a way to support your community. Keep active in local elections. Call out racism and sexism when you see it. Send actual letters to your senators and representatives, not just tweets. Donate to the ACLU and NPR because we need watchdogs more than ever. Subscribe to newspapers to keep good journalists in business.

And scrutinize this president. For all the scrutiny the Obama administration and the Clinton campaign came under these last eight years, let it be known that a Trump presidency will be under just as intense a microscope.

Book Review: Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

After you've read something, please consider leaving a line or two on Goodreads and Amazon. The authors appreciate it!

Here's my review as it appears on Goodreads.

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the first Sarah Vowell book I ever read and while I've read all her others, I've come back to this one several times to reread. We move in and out of the Washington, D.C., area every few years and I usually read it when we're heading back there in anticipation of seeing some of my favorite monuments and hearing some of my favorite stories. I of course had to read it again this summer since I'll be starting a job as a tour guide with our next move there this fall. I wanted to refresh my memory of the funny and interesting observations Ms. Vowell shares.

Assassination Vacation gives us a look at the assassinations of three presidents -- Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. Students don't learn much about he presidencies of Garfield and McKinley these days but they are definitely worth a look. At the time she was writing, Ms. Vowell makes comparisons to the McKinley and Bush administrations. I'd make similar comparisons to a possible Trump administration this year.

Ms. Vowell makes American history accessible and points out how American history and politics have always been mired in scandal and downright silliness. I love how she goes into the lives of the assassins as well. Everyone knows John Wilkes Booth, but Guiteau and Czolgosz rarely get much mention. Ms. Vowell points out that many people were relieved to hear that Czolgosz had a foreign name because it made them assume a foreigner had shot the president. But Czolgosz was an American citizen, born in the Midwest to immigrant parents. Sound familiar to the fears one of our presidential candidates is helping to fester this year?

I do not want a presidential assassination. But I think it's worth learning about what drove others to do it in the past and take a look at the atmosphere of politics and the entire country surrounding those events. I recommend this book to anyone who has even a passing interest in American history, politics, or current events.

View all my reviews

• And, yes, I'm really going to be a tour guide in Washington! I'll be with City Running Tours. I'm so excited. I'll share more details once I'm down there getting started.

Mad World

Yesterday "Mad World" by Tears for Fears came up on my shuffle and I nearly cried. Had it been the version of the song from Donnie Darko, I probably would have cried. Events of the world have been weighing heavily on me lately. Mostly in India, but the United States, Central Africa, and Afghanistan/Pakistan have not been to far from the front of my mind either. Hearing the song made something "click" and I suddenly felt like I knew better how to express some of what I've been feeling lately.

By now the world has heard about the young woman in Delhi who was gang raped and subsequently died from the assault injuries. But she is just one small piece of the women's issues here in India. Here is a sampling from today's newspaper:

A spiritual leader said that if the Delhi woman had prayed and asked for mercy from her rapists, they would not have raped her and perhaps divine intervention would have prevented her from getting on the bus in the first place. He later said that he didn't say those things and offered to apologize if he offended anyone. 

A politician was arrested for crimes including hate speech, which is a capital offense, but law scholars are arguing that the death penalty should not be considered for rapists. 

Under the headline "21-point resolution for women's protection passed" the first line of the article is "A 21-point resolution for protection of the fairer sex was passed at a seminar on sexual violence against women conducted by the Andhra Pradesh Judicial Academy [emphasis mine]." 

A 16-year-old girl was gang raped but it wasn't reported until she tried to commit suicide by setting herself on fire. She's in critical condition at a hospital. 

A top state-level official Chhattisgarh (if not the governor, then someone nearly as high-ranking) blamed "planetary positions" on the current increase of assault on women. According to him, "Only astrologers can explain this."

It's like this every day. It's exhausting.

In in my own Indian microcosm, this wasn't in the paper but I heard that a five-year-old girl in our neighborhood was lured to a construction site with candy. Whether there was a rape or attempted rape is unclear and doesn't really matter. It's horrible either way. It might have been one of the little girls that Muffin sometimes plays with in the neighborhood park and that hits too close to home.

And what feels like the last straw for me, our housekeeper's husband has been beating her and her daughter and she refuses to go to the police about it. I can't report it for her due to the wonderful intricacies of the Indian legal system; they hardly care when a (poor, lower-class) woman reports abuse herself, let alone when an expat does it on her behalf. There's even a Women Police Office not far from her home, full of female police officers whose job it is specifically to protect female and child victims and investigate women-specific crimes. She has her reasons for not going and all I can do is ask her every day if she's reported it or not. I'm getting tired of hearing the same answer though. I urged her to make sure her daughter has the phone numbers and knows where the WPO is in case she's ever in trouble on her own. I'm hoping her daughter, a 19-year-old university student, can grasp the situation a little differently than her mother and will seek help. I know this is not a problem specific to women in India; I know women in the United States are abused and do not go to the police for a variety of reasons. I can't help but think though that in the United States a woman has a better chance of being protected and supported once she does seek help.

I'm not sure what my purpose is in sharing all this. I think I needed to let people in on what's been on my mind lately; share some of the headlines you won't see on CNN. I also needed to purge some of these thoughts from my head. I feel a little guilty making myself feel better, though, when that's not going to help any of the women and girls in these stories. I can extend a little influence on my housekeeper and I can protect Muffin and myself. That's about it. I feel better, writing it out, but not good.

One More Big Day

So, as far as I can tell, the Telenganu people have decided that the best way to show they deserve independent statehood from the rest of Andra Pradesh is to hold rallies and strikes every now and then. They get a bunch of students together, they make shopkeepers close down, they get the police all riled up, they cause traffic jams. But they're very nice about announcing these actions several days ahead of time so you can run out to get groceries before the bandh (strike) and plan your day around avoiding the traffic jam areas. It was exciting and felt so revolutionary when we first got here. Now it's more ho-hum, making arrangements for our housekeeper to take an auto to work because the bus isn't running through her neighborhood, but otherwise business as usual for me. There are always some unfortunate protesters who have run-ins with the police, but it's always foggy as to who was in the wrong in those situations.

For a couple of weeks rumors have been floating around about a Million Telenganu March, inspired by the protests in Egypt. Tomorrow is supposed to be the big day and it's supposed to be the final protest before the statehood decision is made (I think). I don't think they have a million people, but what they apparently don't have is permission to hold a march or rally. The police seem to think they need permission. The protesters seem to think that they don't if they promise to remain peaceful. And student exams are tomorrow so a parents' group has pressured the march organizers to hold the rally in the afternoon, after exams are finished.

I'm curious to see what happens. Either it will fizzle out and be just another day on the protest lines here, or it will be a day of massive protester vs. police clashes and we'll make CNN as the latest regional hot spot.

To all parents and other concerned readers who panic at the phrase "Egypt-inspired": We live no where near the march site and we are staying home all day watching events unfold online. (And hoping the electricity doesn't go out while we run our air conditioner, because afternoon temps are already reaching 100 degrees and it's barely the start of the hot season.)

The Results Are In

In the election for local councillors on Monday, the ruling party has won by a landslide and eight  opposition parties, including the most popular one, are calling for a re-vote because they hate those results. They are threatening to boycott the rest of the elections this year, including the presidential election in June.

Opposition Demands Re-run Over Fraud Claims

Ruling Party Takes Big Lead

Mike's been gone the last couple days, observing the election and the ballot counting in one of the districts a couple hours away from the city. He returned yesterday. He said that there were some kids hassling people and it was one of the hottest afternoons he'd experienced here, but overall the voting process was smooth, if a bit messy. The ink pots that people dipped their thumbs in to prove they voted proved to be the biggest disaster of the day. The ink was thick and sticky, and people were caught outside trying to wash the ink off, but in reality they were just trying to wipe off enough inky gloop so that they didn't leave sticky, inky fingerprints on everything they touched for the rest of the day. Mike didn't even vote and he got ink all over his hands just from hanging around polling stations.

Elections Postponed, Again

Word came out late on Friday that elections would definitely be postponed again, from Sunday to Monday. The nonpartisan electoral commission was confident they would have all the id cards and ballots distributed in time for a Sunday election, but the president, along with about ninety percent of the population that goes to church on Sunday, said there's no way elections can happen on a Sunday. We must have another holiday on Monday in order to have the elections! But word came out late last night that the small percentage of Muslims who live here are crying fowl for a Monday elections, because Monday is a Muslim holiday. Traditionally, the government calls two Muslim holidays a year as national holidays, but the one coming up tomorrow isn't one of them. Also, the Muslim community is tiny compared to the rest of the population and many Muslims aren't even Burundian citizens. But it could still be perceived that the president is favoring his own religion rather than treating everyone as equals. It's a sticky situation and so far we haven't heard which way it's definitely going to go.

We had dinner last night with some Burundian friends. The general consensus is that the electoral commission made the right decision in postponing until they were sure they could get it right. But if the government keeps delaying and doesn't announce those postponements until late the night before (announcements have a tendency to come out around 10 pm, once the local tv stations have stopped broadcasting), people are going to be too fed up to bother voting. Every time the government calls a new holiday for voting, the business community gets annoyed by the business they're losing. Employers don't want to close down again, and employees are stuck between enjoying a vacation day but having another day's pay disappear. In a country of 8 million people, less than half are eligible to vote, which makes these holidays even more of a nuisance to the non-voting residents (although, a good deal of the non-voting majority is school children, who probably don't care why they're not in school).

Most people think that at this point the elections will go ahead on Monday. Some of the press I've been reading is sort of unfair, calling the id cards and ballot distribution "embarrassing" mishaps, but people here think they were just business as usual.

Vote Credibility Hangs by a Thread

Elections Postponed

It's somewhat funny that in this low-tech country, I get my local news from email and RSS reader subscriptions. But, believe it or not, we don't own a radio so can't listen to the local news, and the television stations don't show a lot of news. They don't even run any programing for several hours a day. So when I woke up this morning and saw that there's no CNN-style election coverage on tv, I turned to the internet.

The news online this morning is that today's election has been postponed until Sunday. There's been a delay in distributing the ballots to all the polling places, apparently. Big surprise. But this begs the question,  Is today still a holiday? It was only declared a holiday so that people could vote. Should I be getting ready for work right now? Mike's already left for the day (he's an observer) and I'm dying for him to call me with an update. But since he hasn't called, that means he's too busy so I shouldn't call him. Everyone I know is too busy working for the elections, and my official assignment is to stay home and not get stressed out. (I know that's better for me than running around observing elections, but it's so boring, especially for someone who loves elections as much as I do.)

AFP: Burundi postpones election, citing paper ballot delay

Nearly real-time updates, if you read French: Voice of Burundi

It's Election Eve Eve!

Yes, it's the night before the day before the elections. A few hours ago the president announced that not only would Friday be a national holiday, election day, but Thursday as well. The reason: The government didn't give people enough time to pick up their voter ID cards, so they need the time to do it on Thursday before they can vote on Friday. Rumor has it the ID cards were ready a while ago, but when people started showing up to get them, they were just in piles rather than organized alphabetically or some other logical way. So it took hours for each person to pick up his or her card, having to sort through the piles. After a short time, it was decided they would shut down the operation, organize the cards, and try distributing them again. The day before the election.

Friday is the first of five elections this summer, and the first national elections since 2005 (which were the first elections after about 10 years of civil war). It's an exciting time to be here, watching. There are so many parties (nearly 50 for some of the local campaigns), and party flags and party symbols and party handshakes. I like driving around trying to identify the flags. The eagle holding a machete. Two different chicken flags (two splinters of what used to be one party). A flag with a rooster. And is that one a French flag with the party acronym magic-markered onto it?

Friday's elections are communal, then the presidential election is in June, and parliament and other groups will have their elections through September. And each election day is a holiday. I almost wish I were sticking around longer, so I could have more holidays. That, and I love politics so I'm curious to see how this all works out.

A quick look at the headlines this election eve eve:

President hopes God, development win him votes
He has built a lot of schools and hospitals, but the doctors and teachers are constantly on strike because they don't get paid. He's going to need God's help.

Set to vote
Interesting summary.

HRW researcher expelled
Whoops. Maybe not the best way for the ruling party to prove they are in favor of free and open elections. She's the only Human Rights Watch representative in the country.

Since I won't be at work over the next few days, due to the holidays and the weekend, I'll have plenty of time to blog and check in with election results. Everyone's as excited as I am, aren't they?

You know what really grinds my gears? G-8 Edition

You know what really grinds my gears? Conferences held by world leaders to discuss the bad economy and saving the environment that are expensive and have ridiculous carbon footprints just in the amount of jet fuel used to get everyone there.

A few months ago, what was it, 20 leaders who gathered together in London? And this week the G-8 was held in Italy.

They should be leading by example. If they're going to talk about the greatness of renewable energy and reducing carbon footprints, why not have a contest to see which biotech company can develop the greatest solar-powered video conferencing system, and put it to the ultimate test by actually using it. What better way to stimulate innovation in a field they all say they promote and save everyone a lot of money at the same time?

 

Really, what is coming out of these conferences? What is being accomplished? Everyone talks about the good things they want to do, but where are the actions? If they're going to sit around talking about pledges, the least they could do is sit around at home so that they don't look quite so showy.

Every world leader should be forced to take one of those "stay-cations" I've heard so much about. They could promote tourism and service industries in their own capital cities. I think it's lovely that the Obama daughters got to make real gelatto in Italy, but there are plenty of ice cream crafters in the D.C. area who I'm sure would give them the same opportunity. And it would help a small, local business. If only the Secret Service would let them use the Metro, for the real D.C. experience.

Yay for Yulia!

My love of politics, satire, and fashion comes together in the awesome Princess Sparkle Pony blog. I've been reading for a couple years now. I've followed the rise and fall of the glamour girls of international politics Condoleeza Rice and Ursula Plassnik.

When I recently saw Ukranian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on TV during the Ukraine-Russia gas thing, I wondered if she was going to become the next Pony All-Star. And yes she is! I know I shouldn't be watching gas crises just for the hairdos, but the fashion certainly helps. I'm learning so much about international affairs by starting with the fashion and picking up on the politics as I go along.

"Help me Obi Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."

The McCain Girls

I started watching, and realized right away where they were going with this. It's a little painful.



Courtesy of Wonkette.

He runs on Dunkin

And since everyone makes their voting decisions based on 30-second photo ops and soundbites, I'm surprised this wasn't enough to bump him those extra 3 or 4 points. Hillary's small trip to Emotionsville won out.

Actually what I think really happened is that New Hampshirites can't be stupid enough to be fooled by a few seconds of almost crying, or change their votes just to spite the polls and the media. I think New Hampshire happened exactly as it was supposed to, unfazed by Iowa.

And the media is still crazy. A three-point lead isn't exactly a stunning victory.

Just Checking In

You really don't want to know the boring details of my move. I'm still doing a lot of hurry up and waiting for people to return phone calls. And I don't want to jinx things by discussing them before they happen.

I can talk about how excited I am that Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses and how I can't wait to tune in to New Hampshire primary coverage tonight. Oh, and if you hear on the news about how independent voters are leaning in California, I'm one of those independent voters! I was called last night by a pollster and asked about my political views concerning the presidential primary and some state ballot initiatives. It was actually kind of fun.

Ron Paul

I'm testing the theory that mentioning Ron Paul in a blog greatly increases traffic. See Cats and Beer. I'm not the only person with this idea. (Thanks Wonkette for the great idea!) The Ron Paul-ites are going to be busy today.

Ron Paul folks, I hope you have some other interests that make you want to stick around and keep reading. Thank for your click. Also, I'm a bona fide undecided at this point. Maybe you can convince me.