Austen Reader Is Proud, Prejudiced

While I think of it: I did get around to reading Pride & Prejudice. Finished it about a month ago and meant to blog on the subject but just didn’t remember. A few comments, then:

  • Yes, I enjoyed it plenty this time out.
  • Elizabeth, the reader identification character, is hugely entertaining to realise. She’s a total creature of wish-fulfillment; sprightly, unflappable, equal to every situation, and with her only real flaw her dislike of a guy who basically insulted her to her face the first time they met. I’ve heard it said that Mr Darcy is a fantasy type, and perhaps he is, but Elizabeth stretched my credulity further.
  • Man, those Regency girls basically didn’t do anything with their time. They would have a sew, then go out for a walk, and then write a letter, and then retire, and that was about it apparently. I remember now one of my teenage responses: incredulity at the fact that no-one did anything the whole way through.
  • The pompous Mr Collins is much funnier at 31 than he was at 17.

A lovely light read. I’m glad I went back to it.
Extra: over on LJ I gathered some information about that habit of the era’s writers to refer to “_____shire” and “Mr _____”.

[mediawatch] Ahmadinejad

I don’t pretend to be anything remotely like an expert on Iran, but I know that I have more knowledge than your average joker, because I used to be that average joker and then deliberately read a bunch of books to learn more about the place. (I was writing something with some action set there and wanted it to be authentic.)
Let me reassure you that through my marginally-better-informed eyes, the craziness going down in the US over the visit to New York of President Ahmadinejad seems even more crazy.
Conventional wisdom is that this is the start of the path to war in Iran. That Bush – well, Cheney, actually – wants to make military action against Iran either a done deal or actually underway by the time the election rolls around. There are a bunch of threads all converging at present, and the war drums are sounding all over the place. To which I have to ask, are they completely insane?
There is no way that the U.S. is remotely capable of any kind of sustained military action against Iran! It’s bogged down in Iraq and barely able to keep up its troop numbers there, let alone halt the violence or support Iraqi state-building!
All the U.S. military machine is capable of is bombing the crap out of a bunch of targets in Iran. It cannot follow that up with any kind of ground war. There just ain’t the warpower available. Is that the whole plan, then? “Bomb Iran until we win”? Look, here’s what would happen – it’s dirt simple. If the U.S. launches a serious air campaign against Iran, then Iran will mobilise its armies, move into Iraq, and make that country unliveable for the U.S. Then it will pull back to Iran and leave its Shi’a proxies to try and build something out of the even greater mess that will remain. End of story.
If the Iran war plan is real – and right now it sure seems that way, because there’s precious little to be gained posturing without intent – well, we’re in whole new areas of Emperor madness here.
Anyway. Ahmadinejad. The President of Iran is in New York to address the UN, as he does every year, only this year the entire U.S. machine is intent on calling him out. The media hate-on for Ahmadinejad is intense. Glenn Greenwald wrote about it superbly in Salon:

What this really illustrates more than anything else is the true danger to our national character and basic liberties from being in a permanent state of war fighting. When we become a society that just leaps from one New Ultimate Hitler Enemy Who Must Be Destroyed to the next, we ensure that all of our political values and institutions become infected by this bloodthirsty mentality.

Greenwald, who has become my favourite writer on US politics in recent weeks, also quotes the always-insightful Juan Cole, whose words also turned up in Salon:

The real reason his visit is controversial is that the American right has decided the United States needs to go to war against Iran. Ahmadinejad is therefore being configured as an enemy head of state.

Rumour control: It is worth pointing out at this point that Ahmadinejad is not a dictator, for two reasons. (1) He was democratically elected. (2) He isn’t the boss.
Ahmadinejad takes his orders from the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Political power in Iran has been vested in the clergy since the revolution, and that hasn’t changed any. Previous President Khatami was gently moving things in a secular direction, and was unpopular with the mullahs for his efforts; when the US rained down its condemnation and scorn on Iran despite its signs of rapprochement, the mullahs and the electorate both ran out of patient and the populist holocaust-denying Ahmadinejad was the result. Ahmadinejad has been gently moving things back towards social conservatism, which the mullahs support, and also building his own power base, which the mullahs don’t support.
The nadir of this stupid affair was Ahmadinejad’s appearance as a guest speaker at Columbia University in New York. Hugely controversial – how could the new Hitler enemy be given a platform to speak! – the end result was farcical, as Columbia’s Dean Bollinger introduced Ahmadinejad with a welter of aggressive questions and accusations. Many of these were right on the money, but a lot of them just read like Bush talking points. They certainly followed the media script that the Fox-White House axis has been anxiously putting about.
Distant Ocean writes about how this same Bollinger gave a fawning welcome in 2005 to an *actual* Dictator, President Musharraf of Pakistan.
But the extremity of idiocy is the gay issue. The most surprising thing about this whole affair has been the revelation of just how deep is the concern for the gays of Iran among the right-wing commentariat. They are so very, very worried about the gays! The gays are treated savagely! Truly Ahmadinejad is like Hitler!
(For any google drop-ins with low sarcasm detection abilities: yes, the above is sarcasm. These displays of hand-wringing are purely an act of convenience, just as the worries about the fate of women under the Taliban were a convenient humane rationale under which to set up tents supporting the invasion of Afghanistan. It’s completely cynical theatre.)
Which brings me, finally, to the lowest point of all. If the Columbia visit was the nadir, then this moment in it was the reverse-pinnacle:
“In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country,” he told the audience (see video below). “In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who’s told you that we have it.”
This moment of absurdity has been repeated ad nauseum. He says there are no Iranian homosexuals! (He’s not just Hitler – he’s crazy, reality-doubting Hitler!) But that isn’t what he meant. Here’s Hooman Majd, who served as Ahmadinejad’s translator for his last two UN speeches:

…declaring Iran devoid of homosexual culture (rather than his declaring Iran as literally devoid of homosexuals, as was erroneously translated in much of the U.S. media)

Think about it. Considering gays in Iran can be executed for being gay, this makes complete sense. “Hiding at all costs” is the only acceptable gay culture in Iran.
So there you have it. The soundbite that will be remembered above all others from this ridiculous two-minute hate, and it’s a mistranslation. That’s so stupid it’s just sad.
(Do I have to say more? Yes, I guess I do, or some wingnut will spam my comments with how I’m a crazy pro-Islamofascist or whatever. For the record, I fully acknowledge that gays are treated appallingly in Iran. The word “savage” is appropriate. It is widely acknowledged that men are executed for homosexual behaviour. But there is, at least, more complexity than is often recognised. For example, it is often forgotten that Iran conducts more sex-change operations than just about anywhere. Also, I am in no way a fan of Ahmadinejad, was hugely disappointed when he won the election, and eagerly anticipate his departure from office. There, am I covered?)

Hui In Rotorua

So last Friday I went to my first proper hui. (For the non-Kiwis in the audience: a hui is a meeting conducted in accordance with Maori protocol. There’s more to it than that, but it’s enough to go on.)
It was held in a small marae in Rotorua, where people had gathered to discuss the possibility of a national body for traditional Maori healing practitioners. I was there as an observer and note-taker.
It was the first time I’ve ever been formally welcomed on to a marae. I’ve always considered this a significant gap in my experience, so it was nice to be part of this at last. And it was important to my understanding of New Zealand’s tangata whenua, its native people. As two different people told me during the day, the marae is the heart of Maori culture; everything comes out from the marae.
A formal welcome ceremony, or powhiri, took us visitors from outside the marae, through the gates and up to the meeting house. The women went first, with men at the back. All the women took off their shoes as they entered the meeting house, and I was surprised when the men didn’t follow suit. It turns out that this tribe is the only one in the country where men are allowed to wear shoes within the meeting house.
The two elders of the hosts and the visitors then spoke, and there were some songs, and then the welcome was complete and we headed over to the dining room for cups of tea. It was quite an intense experience for me. I didn’t understand much at all of what was said and sung – my understanding of the Maori language (te reo) is close to nil, with a small vocabulary and not much else. Nevertheless, I was engaged fully by the feeling accompanying the words. Several speakers emphasised this aspect in a different way, telling me that in te reo you can understand the full feeling of what was said, much more than can be translated into English.
Traditionally, everyone should introduce themselves formally, naming their mountain, their river and the canoe on which their ancestors came to Aotearoa. A less-formal introduction was used for this hui, which suited me just fine!
The hui went on and I took notes and listened. Much of it was in te reo, so I couldn’t follow that too closely, but there was enough English spoken that I picked up the flow of the day as the issue was discussed. Following Maori protocol, speakers often followed their words with a song, and the strum of the guitar was a big part of the day’s events.
I met a lot of interesting people, and had some neat conversations in the dining hall for lunch. It was important and a lot of fun. Though I am not Maori, Maori culture is a part of my identity as a New Zealander; in some sense, it’s mine too. I don’t own it or possess it, but I have a stake in its vibrancy and well-being.
Overall, a very memorable day.

Arctic Ice Cap Shrinkage


(Picture and hosting stolen from NRT)
I saw this on No Right Turn a few days ago and thought it would be all over the place shortly after. It hasn’t been. So I’m doing my tiny bit to further distribute this little visual shock around the globe.
Here’s idiot on that NRT post:

In 2005, the arctic ice-cap shrank to its smallest extent in recorded history. This year, it’s smashed that record, shrinking to a mere 4.13 million square kilometres, compared with the previous low of 5.32 million square kilometres. Previously, climate scientists had been estimating that if climate change continued the arctic would be ice-free around 2080. Now they’re talking 2030. This isn’t about our children anymore – it will happen in our lifetime.

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In related news, I’ve been watching student presentations for the last two days. Each small group describes how they tried to change their behaviour towards greater environmental sustainability, and whether they were successful. It’s been great, and inspiring, and exhausting. The students are demonstrating incredible insight into their behaviour, and along the way they’ve built an awareness of environmental sustainability in action (and sometimes a repertoire of successful environmental behaviours). That’s a win in my book. A big theme coming through is that initial motivation is really hard, but having a group microculture to sustain you once you’re underway is an enormous help. This fits nicely with what I’ve been thinking for a while, so it’s pleasing to hear in anecdotal form.
Soon it’ll be the hard data-crunching and theory-wrangling stuff. I love it.

NZ Organic Meat from an Eco-Villain

JAFW recently pointed at a story that has slipped under the media net: the latest misdeeds of the Wallace Corporation. It has been found guilty of dumping carcinogenic toxic waste, after charges were brought by Environment Waikato.
JAFW points out that this is just the latest in a string of environmentally irresponsible offences that can be laid at James Wallace’s door. He considers a consumer-boycott reaction (which is to my mind a good response if and only if it is accompanied by a letter of explanation to the companies boycotted).
Digging into the company website reveals that Wallace Corp is mostly in the meat business, with sidelines in leather, dairying and rendering.
The most interesting fact: Wallace has close ties with several organic meat producers, such as the Harmony farm’s “Natural Choice” brand, certified organic meat. Here’s the website (it isn’t accessible from the Harmony frontpage but google has easily busted down that wall of security).
It is also linked with Outlands NZ, which supplies organic meats to the Californian branch of U.S. eco-chain Whole Foods.
It concerns me that NZ organic meat is being delivered to market by a serial toxic-waste dumper.
(Note: I’m not entirely sure of the nature of the links between the organic meat farms and Wallace Corp. Wallace’s website says that it processes the beef, so I’m not sure if it is purely a service provider or if there is some ownership as well. Wallace’s Website calls its Paeroa operation “Wallace Harmony Foods” (purchased in 2004), and the Natural Choice brand is marketed by Harmony, so that points to an ownership link of some kind.)
(Also, JAFW also mentions that the Wallace Arts Award, an important NZ art award, is funded directly by the James Wallace of Wallace Corporation. Worth noting.)

World Car-Free Day, eDay

Saturday was world car-free day, so to honour the occasion Cal and I drove all over the place. We racked up a heck of a lot of kms, exhaled a great deal of carbon, and consumed much precious oil.
I feel no guilt. We’re both pretty good with the minimal car-usage thing by and large, and it just happened that car-free day lined up with a day when we were able to do a whole bunch of important missions. So we roamed from Wellytown to Porirua to the glorious Hutt valley and back again, fitting in some dog-at-beach along the way. It was pretty good, actually. Also fulfilled some duties and ate some salted liquorice. Yums.
You can survive quite happily in Dubtown without a car, but there’s so much you can only do with a car, even in a dense and well-connected environment like this. No regrets, as far as I’m concerned.
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Still on the enviro-tip, this coming Saturday is eDay 2007 – the annual day when computer waste of all types can be dropped off, free of charge, at recycling spots in ten NZ cities. It’s the only day of the year when you can offload your old computer stuff to a place that will recycle the heck out of it. Computer waste is a particular nuisance, it’s extremely hard to dispose of it in an environmentally friendly way, so this is a great opportunity to audit your shelves and cupboards and sheds for old computer bits and pieces to take and drop off. Don’t just chuck that stuff in the rubbish pile – get it to eDay, where everything that can be re-used, will be re-used.

Friday Linky

Before I run out of Friday, here is some quick linky.
A Connecticut high-school teacher resigns after parents of a 13-year-old girl complain that he gave her a pornographic comic. “It’s not even like a gray area,” the father said. “It’s clearly over the line… I personally don’t ever want him teaching again.” The comic in question? Eightball #22 by Dan Clowes. Say what? Simon Jones gets sarcastic: “You know, for once I’d like to see a supposed controversy over porno comics to actually involve porno comics.” Much more info at Journalista (where I saw the Simon Jones quote) and This Modern World. (Eightball #22, later collected as “Ice Haven”, is fantastic by the way.)
Rules to live by: James McM gives outlines his principles of Jamesism (see the comments).
On Wednesday in Wellington I ran into Anita who gave me a postcard to send calling for the removal of disgraced police commissioner Clint Rickards; today she has guest-blogged in detail on the subject at No Right Turn.
Making Light’s sublime Jim MacDonald retraces the 1961 route of Betty and Barney Hill, fisking the account as he goes. (This was the journey in which the Hills were supposedly abducted by aliens, the first such claim ever recorded. The fictional events of Close Encounters of the Third Kind were directly influenced by the story of the Hills.)
Andrew Rilstone has the final word on Talk Like A Pirate Day.
And last but not least, Rumpus photos.

Blue Skies

Nothing much to say, just wanting to say that I’m happier now post-Pirating. I might not be able to make another entry for a few days and didn’t want to enter a gap talking about how miserable and emo I am. Today I am not miserable and emo, I am perky and successful and I love you all!
I have also learned that stress can be eased by friends scattered all around the world telling you ‘buck up’ in a supportive kind of fashion.
Tomorrow I’m attending a hui in Rotorua. A hui is, more or less, a meeting run according to Maori protocol. Should be fun – never been to one before. Will probably get a blog post out of it, I should think…

Yarr! It be International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

All you lubbers avast, for it be the 19th of September, and by the calendar that marks today as International Talk Like A Pirate Day, yarr!
Sure as my hand be a hook and my hat be skull crossbone’d, we’ll sing us some shanties and shake off the barnacles as we give free reign to the piratical heart that beats within our wicked pirate breasts. Set her sails, my likely lads, and pay yer respects to Davy Jones, for we be off to plunder the seven seas! Arrr!
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Tuesday ended fairly craply, but it’s hard to be glum in the face of pirate speak. Yarrr!

Paradise, Conchords

Prime TV’s big push continues with the launch in NZ of Flight of the Conchords, the HBO series showcase for Wellytown’s favourite sons Bret and Jemaine. Episode one screened earlier tonight. This episode had earlier been released into the wilds of the internets and I watched it on some YouTube clone ages back. Let me say this: watching it on a proper tellyvision with proper sound was much, much better. It made me laugh like a laughing man. Quality, quality stuff, and so Kiwi that it kinda shocks me. The full TV screen let me read the text on the promotional tourism posters in the NZ Consulate: “New Zealand – Like Lord of the Rings” was my favourite.
Nice one lads. UK readers will be pleased to hear it’s turning up on BBC Four on Sept 25.
Prime led into Conchords with its big new hope, Welcome To Paradise. We don’t do the trad sitcom well in this country, for whatever reason. Now and then something will click, but usually it has to break the format in some way to do it (stand up Lovebites and Seven Periods With Mr Gormsby). More often our sitcoms just clunk.
This one isn’t a Melody Rules-level stinker (the nadir of NZ TV comedy, a sitcom so bad that it actually destroyed comedy in this country for about five years, and if you think I’m exaggerating you clearly weren’t there), by any means. There were some nice bits of business and some promising moments, but it really had some problems, including – and this is the really unfortunate thing – the first five minutes. The opening minutes of a new comedy are crucial, but WTP really didn’t sell itself. Thankfully it settled down as it went along, which I think is the key to this sort of comedy in NZ – you need to undersell the gags or it just doesn’t work. Also, would it really have hurt to actually cast someone Irish to play the core character who’s Irish? Overall, I’m hesitant to say it’s going to be worth sticking with, but it’s early days and I’ll give it another look for sure. It has the best timeslot a Kiwi comedy could wish for, anyway.
Oh, the premise of WTP is “humour in a Kiwi backpackers hostel”. The Alligator knows that this is biting the turf of Kumara Junction, but we have to accept that, because Kumara Junction doesn’t exist. Yet.