Environmental Justice and Decision-making

The pdf of a talk I've given a couple of times, based on discussions, readings and work at the Cooperative Ministries in McMinnville and at Linfield College. You don't get the lecture (good for you), but you can get the general ideas I discuss in the presentation: Environmental Decision-making

Photo-op over substance

For the past 30 years, since the Reagan administration, style and the photo-op have ruled over substance. Senator Ensign's (R. Nevada) criticism of President Obama's picture with Hugo Chávez is a case in point. Republicans and Democrats alike have, over the past 3 decades, focused more on the idea that a picture is worth a thousand words than on actual policy and diplomacy. Reagan's use of the photo-op was masterful, as was Bill Clinton's. The idea of "spin," now so common it just passes for politics, elevates the momentary illusion over the complex understanding of reality. Presidents and presidential candidacies have been made and unmade based on spin and photo-ops (Dukakis in the military tank is one great example), and even during presidencies, it seems that great care is taken not to appear with the wrong person.

During the Bush II administration this was very much the case, with carefully orchestrated attempts at making sure that the president was not placed in a situation where he had to do anything more but be in the same room with someone like Chávez. This has also been one of our chief exports; several years ago, during a IMF summit in Mexico, then Mexican President Vicente Fox did everything he could to avoid even being in the same part of the country as Fidel Castro. This begs the question; "If the picture is the thing, how do our politicians resolve our differences?" The issue isn't the picture or the presence in the same room, but rather, shouldn't we be encouraged when our presidents take a nuanced, complex view of the world and the politics it takes to run it. Instead, we have become captive to the idea that a picture substitutes for policy.

This also is a means to increase the partisan divisiveness. We now need not wait for, listen to, or even differ on our opinions regarding policy. All we need is a picture, which in turn becomes proof a policy shift, proof of betrayal of a principle, and of course, proof of betrayal of the American people. Such continues to be the case with this particular instance; one that has been perpetuated by Democrats and Republicans and democrats and republicans alike for over thirty years; pictures simplify and words overly complicate.

The upside of this is, of course, convenience. Being able to rely on a picture upon which to base our opinions means not having to take the time to understand the world in a more complex way. It also makes the job easier for people like Sen. Ensign, since he doesn't have to think very hard either...

Yes. No. What?

+YES+
+Closing CIA "black sites" where U.S. agents and contractors tortured our opponents. Hard to have any moral high ground on torture, when you also do it. Kudos to CIA Director Leon Panetta for closing them. Plus, we still have many other lovely and covert ways to screw up the world without torture.

+Getting in touch via FaceBook with Alison McManus, who went with me to Nicaragua in 1996. She literally went with me on a whim, boarding the plane on the same day in which I asked her jokingly if she wanted to fill a space and go to Nicaragua. She went on to grad school in sociology and did work on women in social movements in Nicaragua. Now teaches sociology in Great Britain. For a kid about whom I once said, "I hope you don't turn to a life of crime," it is amazing that she now teaches sociology. It either speaks to the life-changing nature of travel, OR to how closely related crime and sociology are!

-NO-
-The unending election battle between Coleman and Franken. Wow, let the people speak, indeed. It doesn't matter which side you are on, it needs to end.

-I first saw this on FaceBook, posted by a Linfield sociology alumna (and professor of sociology at UC-Santa Clara now) about Texas legislator Betty Brown calling for Asian-Americans to simplify their names on Matthew Yglesias Blog. No, it's her brain that has been oversimplified already. Wow.

?What?
?The head of Great Britain's top anti-terrorism unit, Bob Quick, having to resign after arriving at 10 Downing Street with top secret document in full view. Probably only slightly more embarrassing than former CIA Director Stansfield Turner's appearance on Da Ali G. show, where he seemed to not know that the show was a put-on, given that they had to run out and then arrest people before the picture got out for this blooper.

?Did Levi move in with the Palins? Did the practice safe sex "most of the time?" Is Levi trying to make money off of poor Bristol and Sarah? Who cares?!?!?!?!? Can they just go away?

guatemala3

Yesterday we worked for half the day, and both sites are nearly half completed with foundations and up to the windows of the houses. We then had lunch with our families, with many tears over how quickly people can become attached and mean something to one another. We then had an official "despedida" or goodbye party, with both families, again more speaches and a lot of emotion.

After that, we went to a house dedication for another family. It was great to see a house that was completed, especially for the students. The National Board for Habitat was there, as well as Luis, the Director of HG. I met several of the board members, including the current president and the founder of HG, which was terrific. Linfield College was mentioned several times, and the President of the Board mentioned how impressive it was to have these students working on their spring break. They also saw how our students immediately started playing with the kids, including a pick up game of soccer on a dusty field nearby, before things got going. Linfield students are amazing, as they generally are very positive and willing to go with the flow of things--very little happens on schedule here, but they deal with it well.

We are currently in Antigua for a bit of an afternoon off. We have been to markets and bought coffee, and relaxed a bit. We will have our last dinner together tonight, and then we fly out at noon tomorrow.

guatemala habitat 2 posting

We have literally had about ten minutes per day for down time, so it has been hard to get here, much less possible to get any pictures up.

So far, things have gone well. The group is working hard, and we are now laying a lot of cement block. I have moved back and forth according to the need at the site, so that I could mix cement and also be able to move mountains of cement block. good times. The families are great, and very appreciative. We had a birthday and they brought donuts, something to drink and sang happy birthday for Sam.

Last night we had a guy who fought for 13 years in the Guatemala war, as a guerrilla, talk to the group. It was very powerful, as he joined at the age of 12, after his father was kidnapped and subsequently killed by the Guatemalan military. He talked about the physical and psychological scars, and despite this, managed to introduce some humor into it. He was also was very frank about the U.S. involvment in the wars and spoke specifically of the U.S. green berets and other special forces that he would regularly see directing the massacres at villages, and also responsible for the training of their counter-insurgency groups. Hard to hear at times.

Tonight I am talking with Luis (head of Habitat Guatemala) about possibly helping with a research project that they need done. Might involve HAVING to fly back here a couple of times--what a bummer that would be...

Tomorrow we head to Momostenango to see Thelma and Luis, the weavers, and that will be fun. We will work half a day, which I think will be a welcome respite after two full 8 hour days.

Habitat Guatemala

We made it to Quetzaltenango after missing the flight out of Houston. We were booked on a very tight layover, and then the plane was late out of Houston to Portland, which meant there was no way to make it back to Houston for the Guatemala flight. We arrived here on Friday then, and drove directly up to Quetzaltenango, or Xela, as it is known here. We made it in time for an orientation and to meet the two young families for whom we are building in Colonia Esperanza.

Saturday we have had a very full day. We were up early for breakfast, and went out and worked half a day at our sites. We dropped one group off, their foundation is poured and building is beginning. Our other site was dug out and set up, but we poured the foundation this morning which meant a lot of cement mixing, cement hauling, and then we moved about 400 concrete blocks down the hill.

We returned for lunch, and then went to the hotsprings near Zunil to soak our wimpy American muscles and bones. Tonight we have found out that there is a soccer match, so we are going to that. Tomorrow we head to the Chichicastenango market, before a long week of work.

One note-you may have heard of the kidnapping of 11 students in Guatemala City. Habitat folks are quite upset, as they felt that the group should not have gone to that region, and then on top of that were traveling well after dark. We have been fine, no problems traveling, and no security issues that we feel at the moment. There are also some conflicting stories on how the events took place. One issue that is a frustration of how anything outside of the U.S. and Europe seems to be "barbarous" and somehow too wild for members of civil countries to travel. While there are never any guarantees, it is important to remember that taking all of the possible precautions one can is key. We hope those kids are fine, of course but also feel that the story and the parental reaction seems to be a bit over the top.

It was the economy, stupid...

Once again, the idea that the Republican "strategery" is to criticize the new president for not understanding economic principles demonstrates the perils of "faith-based" economic ideology, as opposed to having any semblance of understanding how the system works. In part, I would argue, the problem is not so much the issue of economic theory, but a fundamental disconnect from having to deal with the consequences of their policies in any substantive way. It is possible to be faithful to this economic ideology (rather than understanding economic principles) because people like JIm Boehner and Newt Gingrich do not suffer at the hands of their failure.

Among the two greatest failures of the RNC over the last twenty years are George W. Bush and Newt Gingrich. The former now seems like a distant memory, exiting to Dallas with barely an afterthought from his own party. One would not have known that the RNC worked in tandem with GWB over the past eight years helping pass the finishing touches on an economy that is now devastating the U.S. and creating tent cities. Gingrich fell out of power long enough ago that he can apparently rise out of the ashes to reaffirm conservative economic ideas, such as small government and a faux free-market ideology that is actually no such thing in their application. Thus, we hear arguments that certain businesses cannot fail, while "greedy" individuals who have too large of a mortgage are treated as if they have sinned mightily.

Among other things, there is a major concern about the plans for us to re-start the economy. The first is that there seems to be no accountability for those who occupy the upper echelon of the system, be they the de-regulators in congress or the corporate hierarchy that took advantage. It is not economic policy, but a political spin of moralization that creates low-level economic sinners and leaving the policy saints in the clear to benefit. In the case of the RNC, they are arguing that somehow they deserve to be architects of future policies to combat the very disaster they constructed. In the case of the corporate elites, they seem prepared to buckle down and do the work of creating jobs for the rest of us, after having been greedy at a rate one thousand times over that of the average home buyer. The same people who convinced the average person to buy a home beyond their means, because they "qualified" for it, are doing another sales job on us.

It should be interesting to see what new products they will now produce for us, so that we can later be blamed for our greediness... We can best help them out by asking for less government oversight, socializing banks but not healthcare or home loans, cutting education, ending pork-barrel spending (because they obviously did so during the past 8 years), and btw, the president needs to be more positive. It is not polite to be negative about receiving a gift from someone, even if you've been re-gifted a Depression economy.

The List. Yes. No. What?

+YES+
+The closing of Guantanamo Bay by President Barack Obama. You can't lead the free world by undercutting the very laws, philosophies, treaties and ideals which make you free.

+Dick Cheney showing up in a Spy vs. Spy hat and in a wheelchair for the inauguration. Where was Peter Sellers when we needed him?!?!? "Dr. Strangelove, or: "How I learned to stop worrying and love torture"

+I spent Wednesday helping friends at Wednesday Wines get a group up on Facebook. Very cool way to spend part of an afternoon.


-NO-
-Rush Limbaugh, "I hope Obama fails. Somebody's gotta say it." No. You don't. Amazing that anything but unquestioning support for conservatives is unpatriotic, but somehow this is not. I remember being told by Eliot Abrams in the Reagan administration that we were not patriotic for the failure to support arms to the Contras. True patriotism is fighting for a better country, and clearly Limbaugh would hate to see that.

-Again, the economy may not support environmental policy change because they are "expensive." In the same week that they suggest trees in the Northwest are dying at twice their usual rate; at what point is it just too expensive not to make changes? Is this still really about economics?

-Bush suggesting that while we might not agree with the decisions he made, we would at least agree that he made the tough decisions. I also agree that gravity exists, and seem to have had about the same amount of input on that.


?What?
?Collagen in my Black Forest Ham. My ham says "wrapped in edible black collagen." the mind reels--where does black collagen come from, and are there other colors? Why does it have collagen and yet the outside of it is still wrinkled? If we are 25% collagen, and it is our connective tissue, will I take longer to decompose? Who thought of wrapping my ham in edible black collagen in the first place? Not happy about my edible black collagen...

?The complete frustration in watching Portland Mayor Sam Adams spiral into oblivion with the intern scandal. It is frustrating to watch the bedroom politics, but equally frustrating to know that his own staff was trying to warn him about the appearance of what he was doing. How does such an astute politician get into this mess?

?Sarah Palin sparring with the press for going after her kids, and then for Couric and Tina Fey "exploiting" her. If I care less, would you please go away.

?Palin redux...A book deal? Well, that's just great...

America's Sense of Self

While many would like to attribute Bush's perspective on being right on all things to him only, this tendency is one that we should examine in America in general. As we end the Bush administration and enter in to the Obama administration, it is interesting to listen to the way in which the outgoing president portrays his decisions. Hearing Bush deny that the U.S. has an image problem or is seen in negative ways, that he has worked with strong allies beside the U.S., and that we have helped lead the world as a beacon of liberty, is truly an amazing thing. What is interesting to me about it, however, is how much of a sense of self we have as a nation, and how hard it seems to view things from the point of view of the other.

There are several reasons, I believe, for this orientation. Among them is the idea of rugged individualism that seems to have caught on as a founding principle of our nation. While this may be true, when one reads documents by those founding members of our country, they are also living, wrestling with, and most importantly, dedicated to the notion of what we do for one another. The idea of service and duty are laid out frequently as part and parcel of citizenship, whereas it is now the case (as the Bush administration once suggested) that we best demonstrate our citizenship by buying and consuming goods to fight terrorism. Perversely, we consciously are encouraged to work and spend as individuals, while the notion of community has taken a holiday.

When I travel abroad, I see another aspect of how we see ourselves as central to the world, through the media. It is fascinating to my students to travel in Latin America, for example, and notice that the news is not Gringo-centric, i.e. stories that involve two actors may actually be written which do not include the U.S.A. as one of them. It is natural for citizens in most societies to have an element of ethnocentrism, it is why virtually all cultures have a creation stories of which they are the focus. However, I would argue that with few possible exceptions, no country has become so practiced at its self importance as we have. This is exemplified in our outgoing president, who literally cannot conceive of the idea of acting in concert with others, at least not in the sense of actually taking their views into active consideration.

As I listen to Bush defend his eight years in office, I must admit that while I am angry about the loss of life (which he still believes was justified in our ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) I am also deeply saddened. It is tragic to me that we had a president who consciously or unconsciously, believed that being a leader was merely "making tough decisions." Even as he justifies policies, decisions, and entire wars, the framework is one which centers around himself, his life, his views, and his personal narrative. He is literally incapable of even understanding that there ARE alternative narratives, much less that he could be wrong.

And so we need to accept to, that he is not so different from many of us in this country. We are a people who need to get out more, listen more, acknowledge other viewpoints as legitimate far more often, and accept that others can come up with good ideas that don't have to be ours, necessarily. We have become a divided nation, not necessarily through arrogance, but certainly through a lack of practice at being humble.