A very special Sundog in Hunter’s Point, Queens!
Brazilian Logos
Most of the four million slaves shipped from Africa to Brazil were sold in Salvador, the first residence of Portugal’s colonial rulers. It’s still Brazil’s blackest city. In Ribeiro’s neighborhood, children play football or do capoeira, pray in Pentecostal Churches or worship African gods. Many are involved with drugs; “every year we lose students to crack,” she tells me. And they study philosophy two hours each week because of a 2008 law that mandates philosophy instruction in all Brazilian high schools. Nine million teenagers now take philosophy classes for three years.
“But seeing things as they really are isn’t enough,” Ribeiro insists. As in Plato’s parable inThe Republic, the students must go back to the cave and apply what they’ve learned. Their lives give them rich opportunities for such application. The contrast between the new luxury hotels along the beach and Itapuã’s overcrowded streets gives rise to questions about equality and justice. Children kicking around a can introduce a discussion about democracy: football is one of the few truly democratic practices here; success depends on merit, not class privilege. Moving between philosophy and practice, the students can revise their views in light of what Plato, Hobbes, or Locke had to say about equality, justice, and democracy and discuss their own roles as political agents.
This is a different war. I personally feel safer here than where I was in Iraq as my post has a very safe track record (knock on wood), someone said you can tell the people who were at XYZ because they jump at every little bump. True as I hit the floor this afternoon when I heard a door slam but had headphones on so I couldn’t tell what it was. Where we were, if you heard the jackals yelping in the fields, you knew you were in for a long night as people were planting rockets in the fields, now its just something to add to the beauty of this stunningly magnificent terrain.
The sad truth is, however, that this is a bloddy, bloody place. You can see it on people’s faces, you can feel it in the air, you can touch it in the vehicle graveyard on the way to work, you hear it in the stories. In Iraq, an insurgent would place an IED or attack American forces because someone more powerful than he would give his family money just for doing so. They often did has assed jobs just to get their paycheck. Here, an insurgent will kill you because he fundamentally hates you. They don’t go after vehicles, aircraft, or bases, they go after people.
Looking out from our post high above the world, the scale of this conflict is also evident. Air traffic constantly skimming by, cargo, bombers, helos. Tethered to the ground are almost countless aero-stat ballons, or surveillance blimps at coalition bases. Seeing them high in the windswept peaks makes you hod true respect, almost pity those who are stationed in little 30 man forward operating bases.
Took the photo above today on my way to pick up a pallet of water for the office.
If you’re not following this, you should be.
I cannot emphasize how much fun OhRohin and Aatombomb are. I also cannot emphasize how painful it is when your brain insists on squeezing out your ears. The headhole is not big enough.
Also Tyler Coates looks like the super cute gay dude from Modern Family. And I couldn’t stop expecting Sofia Vergara to pop around the corner. (didn’t happen. Sad.)
I always go the other way with that and think “Tyler Coates!” when I’m watching Modern Family. I guess I should expect Krucoff to walk on set during an episode.
Ammo rules, I’m very lucky to have finally met her, even though she, ahem, left a bit early.
Slavery by Another Name is a 90 minute documentary based on the book of the same name, that challenges one of America’s most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery in this country ended with Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. airs
They didn’t teach me this in school, but it didn’t take long growing up to find out how many African American men and women fill our ( now privately owned jails) today for petty crimes or for being innocent while white collar crime gets away with murder in our screwy U.S.courtrooms where those who can afford the most connected attorney win … not nearly enough has changed even NOW. Looking forward to seeing this to learn about our recent past and primarily to get the filmmakers take on modern day slavery of 2012 in our U.S. prison system - lady Miss Kier
Lady Miss Kier gets it.
