China Learns English

China, as you know, is getting set to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. What you perhaps didn’t know is that the Chinese have been mounting a historic campaign to teach English to millions of their citizens in time for the Games (guess how that’s going…)

Courtesy of the New Yorker here’s an engrossing story about China’s efforts to master English, told through the prism of one of its foremost English instructors and motivational speakers.

To summarize the article, China only recently turned to English to help them develop. After Mao Ze Dong ascended to power they turned to Russian over English. Only about ten years ago did serious English language learning come to the fore once again. Now there’s a huge push to learn Shakespeare’s tongue; many people see speaking English as offering life changing possibilities (I agree wholeheartedly).

I know very well how hard it is to learn a foreign language. Moreover, as a former English language teacher, I have a lot of respect for Li Yang, the guy profiled. Teaching English effectively is really hard work. Not only do you have to be able to explain grammar concepts effectively, you have to inspire the students to want to learn, and you have to foster an atmosphere in class where students feel comfortable making mistakes.

Al Qaeda Complains

Don’t you just hate it when someone else gets credit for something you did? All that time, all that hard work you put in, only to see others bask in the glory. Anybody can understand the frustration.

Well, that’s how Ayman Zawahiri and the rest of Al Qaeda feel when people blame 9/11 on “the Jews.” -----See the BBC article here

Zawahiri, on a recently released audio recording on some Islamist website, claims it as an idea propagated by (shia) Iran to discredit the Sunnis.

Please, don’t forget to rub this in the face of any conspiracy theorist/anti-Semite you might meet in the future.

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As an addendum, the Onion beat me to it:

Me and my Brother

“Me against my brother, me and my brother against my cousins; me, my brother and my cousins against our nonrelatives; me, my brother, my cousins and friends against our enemies in the village; all of these and the whole village against the next village.”

-Arab Proverb

What I'm Reading

The history of the twentieth century was a clash of ideologies: Communism, Fascism, and Capitalism. Will the 21st century be an ideological/civilizational clash as well? Capitalism? Secularism? Zionism? Whabbism? Salafism? And God knows what else?

Over the past year I’ve been trying to read up on the Middle East. History, literature, journalism, you name it. I really want to know every detail of how the U.S. got itself into Iraq, how the Middle East came into it’s present state, and what the future holds.

I just finished The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright of The New Yorker. Published in 2006, the book traces the rise of Islamic fundamentalism from the mid-century writings of the intellectual Sayyid Qutb to 1970s Egyptian jails to Soviet occupied Afghanistan to Al Qaeda and 9/11 with a lot of stops in between. It’s a very informative read, it illuminates a lot of issues, and brings even more questions to the fore. Wright is a great story teller and really moves you through the book, no easy task given the subject matter.

Next up is Shah of Shahs by Ryszard Kapuscinski on the 1970s overthrow of the last Shah of Iran. In addition I’m planning to read Once Upon a Country by Sari Nuseibeh.

I am also itching to read War and Decision, Douglass Feith’s recently published memoir of his time in the Bush administration. Feith is the former Undersecretary of Defense -he worked for Rumsfeld- and has (in)famously been called “the stupidest fucking guy on the planet” by General Tommy Franks (ret). He was one of the driving forces behind the decision to invade Iraq. It’ll be interesting to read his side of events, and his self-criticism – I’m assuming it’ll be there anyway. (But I’ll wait until the book comes out in paperback).

Of Popes and Pedophiles

Way to stake out a position on a tough issue, Pope.

Pope says pedophiles not welcome in Catholic church.
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Thoughts

It still rankles me that Al Gore got a Nobel Peace Prize. He made a documentary, that’s it. Perhaps he could’ve been awarded something by a documentary association, but a Nobel Peace Prize?

And no, he wasn’t the figure to put Global Warming on the map. Growing up my generation watched countless environmental and global warming documentaries in school. Anytime we had a sub in science class that was what we watched. All those films (whose producers didn’t win Nobel Prizes, mind you) must’ve sunk in because it’s a big issue for my generation.

This year I think they should give the Peace Prize posthumously (I don’t even know if they do that) to Aristides de Sousa Mendes. Follow the link; he’s a guy that deserved it, fuck Al Gore.
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All the petty sniping between Hillary and Obama really rubs me the wrong way. Can the Democrats please pick a candidate already so we can move on? Hillary claims Obama is an elitist? Look, honestly, if you don’t think you’re better than most people, you probably shouldn’t be RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT.

Labyrinth of Borges Quotes

Jorges Luis Borges was an iconic figure in 20th century Latin American literature. He never published any novels, only collections of esoteric short stories, but the stories could blow your mind (as long as you could understand them). Here are some interesting things he said:

"Democracy is an abuse of statistics."

"The Falklands thing was a fight between two bald men over a comb." –referring to the 1982 Falklands War between England and Argentina

"Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone."

"Reality is not always probable, or likely."

"To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely."

"Censorship is the mother of metaphor."

Check out this (kinda rambling) essay about Borges from Slate.

White People

Check out this crazy funny website: Stuff White People Like. Although they say white people, they are really referring to upper-middleclass suburban progressives.

Some gems:
-Most white people choose a favorite soccer team based on either a study abroad experience or a particularly long vacation to Europe or South America.

-The best thing you can do is to act impressed when a white person talks about critical theorists. This helps them reaffirm that what they learned in graduate school was important and that they are smarter than you. This makes white people easier to deal with when you get promoted ahead of them.

-When engaging in a conversation about corporate evils it is important to NEVER, EVER mention Apple Computers, Target or Ikea or anyother store white people actually frequent.

Black Hole to Destroy the World

This is for my little brother: Crazy mad scientists attempting to create a black hole to destroy the world.

Another clip of Obama's pastor

Now, up until now I've been ambivalently pro-Obama. I was just as moved as the next democrat by Obama's speech addressing racism earlier this week and would vote for him over Billary (little did we know that they were co-Presidents after all these years!!), and most likely take him over McCain as well.

But what to make of this clip?


This is Reverend Wright, Barak's "spiritual adviser" of twenty-some-odd years, clearly an influential guy in the candidate's life. Up until last week he was very much a part of Obama's campaign. What else has this guy said that we don't know about yet?

It gives me pause. It makes me "scurred."

Graham Greene Quote

How I should have concluded my prior entry on Iraq:

"God save us always...from the innocent and the good."
Graham Greene, The Quiet American

How Soccer explains Economic Globalization

Click here for a (shallow) take on the Globalization/Soccer theme.

Firstly- intellectuals, pundits, and Franklin Foer: STAY AWAY FROM SOCCER. Just because the sport is known as “the beautiful game” doesn’t mean you can use it to explain everything. Take the preceding op-ed. Yes, on the whole the Bosman Ruling (which the author doesn’t mention, but really is what he is talking about) has been good for players. But it has not been good for small clubs who use to survive by churning out young quality players and then selling them off for a tidy profit.

He also says that Egypt has positioned itself to take advantage of soccer globalization; his evidence is that they have won five African Nations Cups. What he doesn’t point out is that nobody gives a shit about that particular tournament. How many World Cups -the true barometer for national team progression- have Egypt qualified for? One, in 1990, where they were knocked out in the first round. Neither have they produced any world-class players.

He then contends that Egypt has a strong domestic league. I have no idea where he got this notion because the Egyptian league is not strong at all. How exactly has Egyptian soccer used globalizing forces to “enhance their domestic capacities”? If they have done this I would be very interested to find out how, but I just don't see any reason to argue that they have.

I have no problem with someone arguing that countries should prepare themselves to take advantage of globalization. But please do not use forced and illogical soccer analogies. It doesn’t make the argument more accessible. It only makes you look like a idiot.

Five Years in Iraq. Now what?

This week marked the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It’s really hard to believe it’s been that long.

Why did we invade? There was circumstantial evidence Saddam Hussein possessed WMD (we later found out the evidence was purely circumstantial), they were financing terrorism (indeed they were, but no more than any other Arab regime and certainly less so than our ally Saudi Arabia), and we thought we could turn Iraq into a flowering democracy (I’m speechless).

So, where are we now? Well, we didn’t have a thought out post invasion plan (again I am speechless) and the country basically fell apart. Tribal identities came to the fore, Iraqi Shiites (with links to Iran- how strongly is disputed) and Iraqi Sunnis began fighting each other. The Kurds up north look half a step away from declaring sovereignty (which would begin Iraq's official disintegration and potentially spark a fight with Turkey). And most people hate us.

Violence levels are certainly down with the surge (but to 2005 levels). The thing is, the surge was designed to keep violence levels down so that the Iraqis could gain breathing space to make political progress. Scant political progress has been made and not much looks likely in the future.

Militias formerly fighting against us are now our allies, but only because we pay them, not because they have any allegiance to the central Iraqi government. Sure, they are fighting Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, but many analysts contend they are really just consolidating as much ground as possible for a future civil war once US Forces leave.

So what do we do now? I have absolutely no idea.

Nevertheless, I do not think we should withdraw. By toppling Saddam Hussein we knocked the cover off of Pandora’s Box (I like Greek mythology). We’re now in charge of the situation, we broke it so we bought it. Withdrawing from Iraq would open another Pandora’s Box, potentially more devastating than the first one opened five years ago. There’s a very strong likelihood Iraq could turn into 1970’s/80’s Lebanon. There could be a regional war, there could even be a genocide, and God knows what else. I’m not arguing these things will happen, just that we have to entertain the possibility. Whatever does happen will be on us.

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The best book I have read about the war is George Packer’s The Assassin’s Gate. Packer, a staff writer at the New Yorker, traces the Neoconservative movement from its intellectual conception, the pre-war debate over whether it was the right thing to do, and the actual war and insurgency through 2005. He’s a very gifted storyteller and presents a nuanced picture, something hard to come by.

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I have one request for people who were against the 2003 invasion. Can you please stop saying, “we never should have invaded in the first place,” when discussing what we should do NOW? It’s hardly relevant. The fact is that we did invade.

This Land Belongs to Who?

The Imperial History of the Middle East


What will this map look like in 20 years time? Will the Islamists have their caliphate? (I doubt it) How many countries will there be between the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates river? Four? Five? Six? Or will the map be exactly the same?

It's anybody's guess.

here's a (long) article published in the Atlantic about the Middle East's future by Jeffrey Goldberg- one of my favorite journalists.

Quote from Lula (Prez of Brazil)

"No Brasil tem uma coisa que eu queria que vocês compreendessem bem: tudo que a gente faz para pobre é gasto; tudo o que a gente faz para os setores mais ricos é investimento."

TRANSLATION: “There’s something in Brazil that I want you to understand: everything we do for the poor is ‘spending’ and everything we do for the rich is ‘investment’.”

-Lula, President of Brazil (quote taken from today’s Jornal do Brasil – see link here)

Arab Literary Prize

While the Muslims were erecting streetlights in Córdoba bathing was a once in a lifetime experience for the barbarians living in present day England. Yes, it’s true. The Arabs were once renowned for their culture and sophistication.

Although this might sound politically incorrect, nowadays when one sees the word “Arab,” literature isn’t the first thing that springs to mind. Sure, they produced The Arabian Nights (which is at the top of my list of books to read), but that was well over a millennia ago. Since then roughly 10,000 books have been translated into Arabic- the amount of books Spain translates in a year.

But this wayward story might soon change course with this year’s inaugural International Prize for Arabic Fiction. The prize is managed from Abu Dhabi (in the Untited Arab Emirates) with some sort of link to the Booker Prize Foundation, a prestigious British literary award.


This year’s prize- the very first- was won by Egyptian author Baha Taher for his book Sunset Oasis. Taher was awarded $10,000 (along with the five other finalists), and Sunset Oasis, along with every other book to win the prize, will be translated into English.

This bodes well for the future. I am a big fan of literature, not because I like to over-analyze everything, but because I think literature can (potentially) shed light on the human predicament and questions we ask- both individually and as a society. By reading another society’s literature we can begin to grasp who they are.

I’m looking forward to reading Taher, along with other authors to win the prize, in order to expand my knowledge of the Middle East- something I (probably we) know next to nothing about.

RIP, The Wire

The Wire, 2002-2008
Rest In Peace
Thank you for the memories Omar, Avon Barksdale, D’Angelo, Gus, Marlo, Bunk, McNulty, Rawls, and everybody I missed. But most of all, Thank you BALTIMORE for the tale of an American city.


Full opening quote from the Wire’s last episode on Sunday night: " ...as I look back over a misspent life, I find myself more and more convinced that I had more fun doing news reporting than in any other enterprise. It is really the life of kings."
-H.L. Mencken, 1953

When Moshe Dayan became a Hairdresser and Indiana Jones

A lot's been going on in Hollywood lately. The writers' strike, the slow motion ten car pile up that is Britney Spears, I could go on. But the twos most important developments.... Below are two summer previews.
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Zohan was a decorated war hero. Zohan was a Mossad secret agent. Zohan wants to move to the States and become a hairdresser. (What type of name is Zohan? Doesn't really sound Hebrew to me)



What the Fuck? This new Adam Sandler movie’s coming to a theater near you this summer.
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Indiana Jones (no intro here, pretty self explanatory)

CUBA: Exit Fidel

Cuba is back in the news. Last weekend, after 48 years in office, Fidel Castro relinquished power, passing the reigns to his younger brother Raul (who’s 76). Although this official transfer of power is important, Raul has been de facto running the island since July 2006 when Fidel “temporarily” gave up control of the island because of some mysterious yet grave ailment (nobody really knows what he is suffering from- the CIA once again missed the mark when they predicted he would be dead by December 2006).

Despite the prognostications of some experts, nobody really knows what’s going to happen in Cuba. Raul has been called a pragmatist, but was also a hard line communist. Last weekend he called for unspecified degrees of reform, yet simultaneously put old guard hardliners in key positions. Life could continue the same. Or there could be some vague Chinese style democratic opening. Or there could be a true transition to democracy. It’s anybody’s guess. All the same, I would venture to say that nothing substantive will happen until after Fidel is officially dead.

I spent a month studying in Havana while I was in college. I could never say a month is sufficient time to really know a place, but I found Cubans to be very nice and friendly. I also found the Cuban regime to be very repressive (although I’ve met other Americans who studied on the island and found that “Cubans love it!”).

Case in point: in one of my first few days in Havana some friends and I met a local “fixer” named Mike. Fixers are fairly common in the third world. They are very enterprising street-smart people who, for a price, offer to show tourists and foreigners around. Good ones can get you some really nice deals and take you to some really cool places (alternatively, bad ones can get you kidnapped).

Mike was a rapper who styled himself the Cuban Tupac Shakur (he had “Thug Life” tattooed on his stomach) and was very disenchanted with life on the island. He spoke little English but had managed to learn “Fuck Fidel” and “Fuck Socialism.” He was constantly going on about how life was so much better before the collapse of the USSR (which more or less bank rolled Cuba) and how he wanted to move to the United States. At one point we were walking down the street and he was spouting forth some critique of the regime, people around us began to glance at him worriedly (or maybe fearfully), telling him to take it easy. His response was that he didn’t give a shit anymore.

At one point he asked us how life was in the States. We told him that life wasn’t as easy back home as many people thought, especially if you don’t have an education. “But if you work hard, there’s a chance you could succeed?" he then asked. "Here there’s no chance. Fidel decides.”

Ronaldo Done?

He was born to a poor family in a Rio de Janeiro favela in 1976 and discovered his true love as a young child: soccer.

In Spain they called him the Extraterrestrial, in Italy they called him the Phenomenon. The world knew him as the new Pelé. Despite his injuries he went on to be one of the best players of all time, winning three World Player of the Year awards. Two before his 21st birthday.

Now Ronaldo's career might be over. He was injured in September and finally made his latest long awaited comeback last weekend. But, only minutes after coming on as a substitute in AC Milan's win against Livorno his knee buckled again.

Here's hoping you do return to the pitch, oh bucktoothed one. But if you don't, well, thanks for all the memories. Your sublime goals have left millions around the world with their mouths agape in wonder.

Here's a highlight reel via YouTube.