Ariel

Bio-energetically Reterritorializing Psychosomatic Terrain for Optimum Operationality

An astute observer of human interaction will note the small number of authentically creative choices that people make in a typical day. Numerous scientific studies have recently been popularized in books such as The Power of Habit and relate the potentially problematic effects of our behaviorally coasting on automatic.

Habit loops not only inhibit our ability to deal with novel problem-solving needs in the workplace, but can also be deleterious to our inter- and intra- personal relationships as well. Emotional-reaction routines often direct us along well-trod terrain to a destination that, while comfortable due to its familiarity, is potentially not what we actually desire. Repetition compulsion and it’s obverse can lead to what Freud called endopsychic conflict. The reason for this is that formulating a novel response to a new and distinct set of circumstances that would likely better serve us requires reflection and commitment that, in the heat of the moment, can be difficult to consider and hold to. However, failure to adapt and relying instead upon the smoothness of habit can lead to feelings of fear, depression, isolation, anger, generalized anxiety or social discord.

One of the problems in addressing these disempowering habits on a personal level and in relation to other people is resistance to logical interrogation. Intra-personally our inchoate “others” advocating for a different path are often weak and quickly silenced. Inter-personally people often take offense when someone claims that the presuppositions under-girding our response-patterns may be faulty in some manner. Talk therapy seeks to surpass these limits through the transference of aspects of the therapist’s consciousness to the patient, but relying solely upon this dynamic to help engender change significantly limits the possibilities for positive affective adaptation. Another manner for creating the conditions for reterritorializing unwanted and undesired thoughts and behaviors involves something that you already know but have just not considered in the right light – your body.

Studies on the components of human interaction have definitively proven that the body’s placement and gestures compose the majority of any given communication. No wonder than that when you or someone else is literally embodying upset, anger, or depression that it can be difficult to get them to alter their emotional state. And yet to rid oneself of this feeling requires your to simply shift your attention, change your body’s position and engage in energetic cleansing.

To accomplish this, first take a deep breath and bring your attention to the sensation of your lungs filling with air and your feet pressing against the floor. As you continue to breath in and out slowly move your focus upward to your knees, your hips, your heart, your throat, the space just above the center of your eyeballs and then a few feet above your head. Doing this will give you increased control of your energetic state and thus make it more difficult for habit to control you. Chances are after doing this you will feel yourself standing taller and immediately feeling more at peace. The energy you felt before will still be present, but it will no longer have a specific label associated with it and you can thus direct it in a manner more appropriate to maintaining peace. This shift in breath and scanning of your body’s meridians, to use a clichéd phrase, breaks the mold. A fitting turn of phrase considering in many ways that’s precisely what the labels are, affective tropes which limit freedom. Engaging in this practice that shifts your body’s state will allow you to regain it.

Review of "The Kingdom of this World"

The pacing of Alejo Carpentier’s novel The Kingdom of This World
means that the life of Ti Noel, the main character, goes by in a swift 180 pages. The novel also includes the perspectives of Pauline Bonaparte and Lenormand de Mezy, a French planter, that flee Haiti to Cuba following the outbreak of the revolution. This lack of focus on the main actors of the slave revolt, such as Toussaint Louverture, as well as it’s change of setting to Cuba helps contextualize these events as not being cordoned off within what came to be Haiti but as an event of Caribbean and indeed World History and additionally seeks to hint at the means in which other “ordinary” people played in it. This subaltern perspective additionally hints at some of the later conflicts that would develop in Carpentier’s home country, Cuba, and also gives him the capacity to allude to similar developments that would happen far after the events of the revolution. Most specifically, the French planters violent enforcement of productive relations unperturbed by the moral and legal rights emanating from the “mother country” has clear overtones to the American/Cuban financial interests that perpetuated terrible conditions for agricultural laborers.

Though one of the main ur-texts of magical realism, a style Carpentier called “lo real maravilloso”, the book is also the product of deep historical research. Carpentier extensively read up on the Haitian revolution. One such example of this is the novel’s early narrative of Macandal, a mentor to Ti-Noel, a historical figure that was a charismatic leader of Maroon bands that lead raid and killed slave-owners through armed violence and poison. As it relates to this particular historical figure, the magical aspects of the novel describe his ability to transform into various animals and insects in order to escape detection by the slave-owners. This is especially significant as it explains how he was able to travel to foment rebellion amongst the slaves in an area that as a black person would have meant capture, imprisonment or, as was to later happen, death. Additionally the attribution of such potential for magical transformation allows Carpentier to highlight the oppression felt by the Haitian slaves. Non-human creatures, lacking owners, are potential sources for the spread of insurrectionary sentiment. A bird, a fly, a horse – all are Macandal because all are free. This is not, however the only way that news of Macandal’s

One of the dominant themes of the book is the conflict which exists between the Christian and Voodoo religions as well as the practices of African and European soveirgnty. As Ti-Noel relates it to the latter, the Europeans are an effeminate, weak people and are only powerful because of their increased capacity to use weapons that are in comparison to their own much technologically advanced. From Macandal’s teaching, Ti-Noel comes to remember the wisdom of his homeland and view it as superior to that of Europe. A good example that directly tackles this conflict is found in the narrator’s description of Ti-Noel’s thoughts: “In Africa the king was warrior, judge and prier; his precious seed distended hundreds of bellies with a mighty strain of heroes. In France, in Spain, the king sent his generals to fight in his stead; he was incompetent to decide legal problems; he allowed himself to be scolded by an trumpery friar.” The scorn shown by him towards the French is serious, but also a point of mockery due to the naming of the French king as Dauphin, or dolphin. On the issue of religions, the slaves see the Christian God as the God that is impelling the French to make the slaves suffer while their gods demand vengeance and the destruction of the white God that is attempting to kill them. The slave-owners come to understand this, recognize and thus attempt to regulate some of their use of fetishes. Their ability to do so is shown as being weak, understandably so given the difficulty in truly deracinating such beliefs, and they fear drums. Drums are no longer just a means for the slaves to occupy themselves following their labor in the field but are also a socializing point where songs can be sung about those fighting the slave-owners and also for communicating with distant farms so that military actions can be accomplished on a co-ordinated basis.

Judicial execution, murder and a scene presaging rape are all part of the text but Carpentier’s focus is not so much on the actual battles but the changes to Ti-Noel’s daily life following the transition to a new order. The new regime in power, one made primarily of mulattos, has certain conditions that it must require in order to sustain itself and so replicates some of the same or worse practices of the previous labor regime. Ti-Noel’s forced ejection from the ruins of his master’s house and the “rebirth of shackles” is setting for how the novel ends. Ti-Noel reflects upon these circumstances, leading him to come to believe that “Man’s greatness consists in the very fact of wanting to be better than he is. In laying duties upon himself.” From this gains the power to change into animals that Macandal once had, declares war upon the class of rulers, shifts out of human form and is never seen again.

Review of "The Supreme Court"

As an introductory text to the institution, The Supreme Court by Lawrence Baum does an excellent job of covering every major aspect of how the court operates. Baum delineates the decision making processes that play into the setting of the court’s agenda, periodizes the trends in rulings and charts the various developments of court norms and practices in an almost conversational, politically neutral manner. This last quality ought not to be taken to mean that Baum does not point out some of the potential problems of the court, but that they are left to the reader to research further into those subjects on their own.

One example of this is in his charting of evolving court norms. Baum points out that new standards of professionalism has meant that those lawyers not adhering to them are looked upon with disdain by the court and interrupted by the judges more frequently. By itself it could be seen as a logical adaptation of an institution, however it’s pointed out by the author that this has had the effect of making it more difficult for various interest groups to be able to argue at the Supreme Court level. The reason for this is because large amounts of money must be spent on lawyers who specialize in arguing in front of the court. Another issue linked to the increasing divergence of SCOTUS rulings from populist pressures is the large growth in the submission of Amicus Curiae briefs to court. As I said earlier though, Baum is not interested in arguing so much as he is expositing in a functionalist manner that does not isolate the court from it’s place within society and acknowledges that the special interest groups will attempt to sway the court or mobilize their base for donations.

Additionally Baum devotes a significant amount of attention to the current court’s occupants. Prior to biographical insights that may affect the current court’s jurisprudence, Baum charts the social background of the judges over time, showing how it is that once the children of elite were the only occupants of the robes and how it is now more, ostensibly, of a more meritocratic nature. Baum sagely points out, however, that the conservative nature of the institution, the social interaction with elites concomitant with such a career path is likely to make any sympathies with the “lower-class” to be negligible.

Throughout Baum is keen to downplay the role of the court as a policy making institution, especially as it relates to modern times, and focuses more on the aforementioned procedural issues. In this emphasis on the court’s “indirect impacts” I think we come to one of the books few weaknesses. Their lack of their capacity to enforce certain actions, their reactive nature and the manner in which laws alter social relations amongst actors in manners that are often difficult to quantify are just some of the issues that, while alighted upon, seem to me to be emphasized unduly. This is not to say that he completely ignores counterfactuals, touching briefly as he does on NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Television Company and Marquette National Bank v. First of Omaha Service Corp. Recent SCOTUS rulings have drastically altered the economic, social and political landscape and if not wholly emanating from the court are at least legitimized by their pronouncements. As I said in the beginning though, these are issues to which Baum is not actively seeking to analyze. I’d purchased this books in hopes of finding something that I’d be able to assign as supplementary reading for my American Government class for those interested in law and for that end find the book to be ideal.

Review of "The Mandarins"

After writing and publishing The Mandarins, Simone de Beauvoir won the Prix de Goncourt for her work. It is a not so subtle look at many of the people within Parisian intellectual society following the Second World War. Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Arthur Koestler are just some of the luminaries whose names have been changed for the sake of fiction. Through their conversations amongst each other and the dalliances they have we obtain an interesting insight into some of the more brilliant minds of the time as they try to sustain a certain level of authenticity and integrity as they wrestle with the circumstances in which they find themselves.

That said I was, however, generally disappointed with the book. The fault is not, however, with the writing itself but the story. The problem with the story, however, is not the fault of the author but of the historical situation in which the book is set. Following the Second World War, an exhausted France is trying to come to terms with it’s now apparent global insignificance, recover from the destruction wrought by the German army as well as those that had collaborated with them during the occupation. The streets of Paris are anything but gay and several of scenes of reverie which de Beauvoir writes about has an air of escapism to them. Understandably so, the only people with enough money for such distractions are either foreigners or those that are quite well to do.

While lacking the historical distance to be able to foretell where the then current trends in international geo-politics would go, many of the significant divergences between the socialist and communist parties and a more general humanitarian movement are brought to the light through the interpersonal conflict and conversations. While not always going into great depth, it does hint at the different values operant with the groups. As a reader familiar with the ideologies as well as the historical situations I didn’t find myself swimming in confusion, but I think that someone without this base would find this to be alienating. Perhaps, however, this is de Beauvoir’s point, however. That rather than being able to come together in a meaningful manner small variations keep these people together from uniting to become a significant political force. This infighting amongst strong egos for leadership of “the people” thus becomes one of the reasons that the right is able to come to power.

Besides these overtly political considerations, de Beauvoir also reflects on the nature of the intellectual, writing life, the nature and form of reconciliation following a war that had many collaborators, friendship, death and to a lesser extent sex. While filled with many pithy, quotable statements, I also think that at times she can overly swarm the reader with non-essential information. Sometimes it is of the sort outlined above, which I enjoy reading for it’s edifying nature, but sometimes I knew in advance that it had little to do with much else. Simone de Beauvoir’s side story of her dalliance with American writer Nelson Algren, for instance, while highlighting Sartre’s lack of possessiveness and her alienation and desire for excitement also seems to drag on at times. The little mind games that they play with each other appear spurious. While highlighting the desire for love even in a country turned upside down by war, it is perhaps longer than necessary.

Chapter Excerpt: Jesse and the Boar

The following is an excerpt from the novel I’m now working on. Jesse, one of the three protagonists, has been sent to spend the summer in the Everglades on an Outward Bound style program following his mom’s discovery of drugs in his room.

Jesse and the Boar

By the fourth day of chopping down the Australian pines, we’d stacked up forty trees. Miranda agreed with me that rather than splitting them into smaller pieces it’d be better to pull them along the shore and burn them there. After she gave us another speech on responsibility and endurance under pressure she sent us out to work. After half an hour I was already tired. Today no wind stirred the trees of the Glades and my back muscles were sore as fuck. Still, I knew if I pushed myself I could down three more. I rested for a moment and through the long, dark brown roots veining down from the branches of the Cypress I saw some saw grass move. A four foot long black boar first stuck its head out then came all the way out followed by four black and white speckled piglets. I touched my alert whistle with my left hand but feeling the weight of the axe in the right slowly put it back down. I put the axe in between my belt and pants and climbed up the tree branches, making sure that the wood didn’t hit the wood and scare the animal off. On the first level of branches, I took the axe from my pants and held it in my right hand. I could see someone chopping maybe a hundred feet away, but didn’t care who it was. Ants crawled over my hands as I made my way closer to the boar. No response. Dragonflies flew across my face and a bluebottles twice landed on my arm. They do not exist, I told myself. Right then I was a panther, moving so quietly and breathing slow so as to not give away my position. I was a predator getting ready to take my prey. As I slowly breathed in for a count of eight, I imagined myself dropping down from the branch and swinging the axe. I visualized how I would land, the best angle from which to swing, the feel of the impact, what to do in case it moved and I missed. On my second inhalation I pushed myself off the branch and landed on the ground with my knees slightly bent. The axe was already raised, I held my core in strong and mobilized every muscle from foot to hand to make the axe swing down with full force. It broke through the epidermis, scraping some of spinal column between skull and body before separating the dorsal column, the pyramidal and extrapyrimidal tracts and the tracts of the anterolateral and spinocerebellar system. It lay on its side, twitching.

I placed my foot on the pig’s fat, hairy stomach to pull the axe out. As I did this the piglets fled into the nearby grasses. After the axe was out, it’s legs continued to shake while blood and a white spume slowly spurted and bubbled out of the spinal wound. I stepped over the pig, lifted up the axe again and this time swung came down on its throat. It stopped moving after that. When I pulled out the axe a spurt of blood shot up onto my face, shorts and shirt. Looking down at the mess all over me, I smiled. There was a powerful energy running through me. I wished I had a knife to cut off a piece now and eat it before anyone came. Instead I reached down to the cut, cupped my hand and let it’s blood fill it. This is what natives would have done. Not divided up this beautiful animal that was wholly edible into some… thing that was only partly acceptable. It tasted bad. It’s just not a taste to which you are accustomed. Yes, yes, that’s it, I said to myself drank some more then flicked the blood off my hand, wiped my face then took the whistle from around my neck and blew as loud as I could and yelled out “Boar! Boar!”

I heard another whistle, then Gregg called out from the west “I just saw the little babies too!”

I yelled back, “I’m not whistling over the babies, but their Momma. Get Miranda over here!” I blew my whistle again.

“Help me get this on my back so we can take it back to camp.” I said.

“But you’re going to get bloodier.”

“So what. Get the back legs and help me heave it onto my shoulder.”

“We can both just carry it.”

“It’s not that heavy, it’s just big. Besides, I killed it, I want to bring it to camp.”

“We should just wait for Miranda.” Greg said in a fey voice.

“Dude, stop being a little bitch and just help me with this already.”

“It smells.”

“Jesus fucking Christ! How difficult are you going to make this?”

“Fine.”

After grabbing the legs, we swung the pig onto my back on the count of three. The pig did stink, bad, and my shirt was getting even more soaked through with blood. But I didn’t care about that or that my shoulder felt like it might buckle from the animal’s weight. This was my victory. Gregg picked up my axe as we walked to camp. Brian came to where they a few moments later, then blew his whistle calling out “boar!” Miranda was there a few moments later, gun in hand, and was taken aback by the sight of me with a shit-eating grin, covered in blood, carrying the hundred twenty pound animal on my right shoulder. She looked stunned. For a second I felt that I was about to get chewed out for having risked getting hurt but instead Miranda grinned ear to ear and said with a clear pride.

“Way to go, buccaneer, congratulations on a Clean Living first!”

“Buccaneer?” I asked.

“Well, depending on who you ask, buccaneers got their name either from the buccan, the type of wood grill the Arawak used to cook animals on or they got their name from the pigs, bacon, that they’d hunt on the islands then cure in salt before going out and attacking Spanish merchant vessels. Either way we’re going to cook up that bacon on a buccan and you, Bucco, got yourself got a new nickname!”

“What’s going to happen to the piglets?” Gregg asked.

“They’re pretty resilient, but in the end they’ll live or die according to their ability to survive.” Miranda responded.

After everyone had returned to camp, Miranda called Philip on the walkie-talkie. As she relayed where they were, everyone stood around the dead pig listening to me recount how I had killed it. When I was done, she tasked everyone. Gregg was to gather ingredients wild garlic. David and Mike were to cut up extra firewood and split planks to hold the pig a few feet above the fire. Brian was to clear some area around the campsite so that it could accommodate more tents. Miranda gave Aaron her Bowie knife and told me how to clean the pig. After we’d finished instructing him, she said to me:

“Alright, now you need to wash that blood off you. I’ll grab a change of clothes and a towel from your tent then go with you to the water, gun in hand, in case any alligators in the water scent the blood on you.”

I was somewhat reluctant to wash off the once steaming hot blood that had now cooled, dried and was cracking on my skin from each minor muscle movement I made. I wanted those in the other group now on their way to see it. Nevertheless I followed her orders. Flies were already starting to make me their favorite. She grabbed some clothes from my bag in my tent and my towel. We walked three minutes to where the kayaks were tied up. I went in and stripped nude under the water. As I twisted my clothes the blood left the absorbent cotton and swirled in the surrounding water. Looking askance at the reflective surface of water, I could see Miranda eyeing the surrounding waters. But not me. Lacking chemicals to leech it all out, the clothes remained slightly discolored every time I’d pull them out of the water to check if they were clean. I didn’t mind. If the blood stains came out too quickly then perhaps the memories of this experience might suddenly leave as well. Though each of my movements twisting the clothes was efficient and steady, I felt almost drunk in the motions. Pride at a task accomplished? Yes, that was it. I looked out into the water, then back to Miranda. Her eyes were still on alert. She informed me that though no alligators were on the horizon of the water I should still hurry up. No need to tempt fate.

“OK, I’m done.” Jesse said.

Miranda, who hadn’t looked at me up until this moment, faced me as I emerged from the water with small beads dripping down my body. My wet clothing in one hand covered my nudity. I caught the towel Miranda threw and wrapped it around myself. I noticed, however, that Miranda eyes betrayed something more than concern for gators at the moment. There was attraction in them. Now if I could just be seduction like I was a predator before, I might be able to bag two different types of prey in under an hour. While walking towards her I purposefully overstepped my gait. The fold holding the towel around my waist came undone and fell to the floor. Miranda looked at me, blushed and then turned her eyes away.

“Put your towel back on.”

“Don’t you like me?”

“You’re too young for me.”

“You’re twenty-three, I’m almost seventeen. It’s legal.” I said as I lifted the towel with my right foot, grabbed it with my hand and placed it over my left shoulder.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s right.” Miranda, eyes still away from my body, responded.

“You’ve been telling us to always answer the questions you ask not the questions we want to hear. Abide by your own rules and answer me – Do you like me?”

She said nothing for a few moments before affirming that it was true and then continuing quickly, “Yes but it doesn’t matter. Just because my body tells me something doesn’t mean my behavior has to agree. Remember our discussions on character? Now put the towel back on and go change behind that tree.”

“Yes… I remember what you said about character.” I said slowly as I slowly approached her, savoring the reversed role of power and in no hurry to let it pass away. “But I also remember that it is in the nature of character to change when faced with new circumstances. People must adapt to their circumstance. Right?”

At this she looked me in the eyes, utterly defiant. “I may have a bit of a crush on you, but if you think I’m going to fuck you right now then you’re not as smart as I thought.”

To avoid shifting my gaze from her face to the two projections now visible on her shirt, I stared directly back at her then responded, “I didn’t think you would. Nor do I want you to fuck me. Right now. The first time we’d fuck would be wild, but I wouldn’t want it to be in this wilderness, where we have to worry about prying eyes or ears.”

“Then what is all this for?”

“I just want a kiss for a job well done. After I have that, I’ll put my towel on and then go put my clothes on.”

“I kiss you, you tell someone, I get fired.”

“It’s bad etiquette to go around telling people our private business unless we both agreed to do so. Besides, I’m troubled, all you’d have to do is deny it and no one would believe me.”

She was silent for a moment then pulled in close enough for me to give her a kiss. As our lips were locked, I cupped her ass and pulled her pelvis to my naked body. It was so nice, firm and yet tender. Unlike the cold and hard something on my ribcage. I broke away and looked down. The revolver.

“Whoa there, Bucco. That’s enough. Keep you word and get dressed.”

I turned my back to her and while putting the dry clothes licked my lips, tasting the faint remainder of her saliva, and imagining that the faint pulse of her heart I’d felt though her lips echoed in mine. I couldn’t hold back a smile on the corner of my mouth. If nothing happens now, the seeds of desire have been planted. Her resistance may be as hard as concrete, but over time it’d crack and the water and tendrils that emerge from the seed itself would help make its way into the small imperfections that define everything that is human made and it would root into it. The root would slowly work its way through the concrete and bitumen, expanding the cracks it as it tapped down and shot up with a strong trunk that would it split apart. When we came back to camp, everyone was still buzzing with activity. I sat on a log and watched everyone work. Brian, who’d just finished clearing the area, sat down next to me. Still within earshot of Miranda, he whispered to me.

“Way to kill that boar, now we can meet those two girls from the other group!”

“Yeah. So?”

“So?!” Brian said with eyebrows raised.

“Yeah, so? It’s not like we have a chance to fuck them out here. Hey, girl I just met, step into my tent and let’s get dirtier than we already are!”

“That’s not “positive thinking,” now is it?

“Hah. No, I guess not.”

“And did you think you were going to kill a boar a few minutes before you did?”

“No, but that’s different.”

“Brian, Bucco, stop slacking. Come over here and I’ll show you how to make a buccan.” The two of us watched and helped when we could. Half an hour after the fire was started Philip and his group showed up. The kids set up their tents while Philip checked in with Miranda. He asked who killed it.

“I did.” I said.

“Good job, Jesse.” Philip said with a clearly forced smile and fake enthusiasm.

The groups shook hands and introduced themselves for the first time. Philip stated that the same rules that each group had still applied. Brian, Gregg and Mike tried talking to the girls every chance they could get. I was embarrassed for them. I was even a little bit shy when they congratulated me for killing the boar. My aloofness allowed me to keep Miranda in the periphery of my vision. The fire pit sizzled as drops of fat fell down. The aroma of it and the other foodstuffs the two girls from the other camp were attending to was simply divine. Before everyone ate Miranda said a prayer of thanks to the boar for giving it’s life to feed them, adding at the end “and thanks to Jesse for bringing us all together for this delicious meal”. I blushed.

After we ate Philip started to tell a story similar to the ones Miranda had been telling around their campfire for the past three weeks. This time it was about the rituals of the Tequesta that had once lived near the area they were now sleeping. They had hunted white tail deer there for hundreds of years. Part of their customary rites were an annual feast known as the Green Corn feast. At this time the young Indians that had hunted and killed their first animals on their own would be initiated into adulthood. Following this, all of the adult customs would now apply to them. Philip said that even though I was the only one that had killed an animal, the same held true for everyone there. Everyone had been doing something special by merit of our completing the Clean Living program and that their ceremony in a week would be that time for everyone to accept being an adult. Hearing my specialness be diminished, I couldn’t help but interrupted Philip as he started to list skills we’d learned here that could be used once outside of the wild.

“But I’m the only one that killed an animal…”

“We know that, but you weren’t able to enjoy it as much without everyone here, whether they were helping or just being present to recognize your accomplishment.”

He was right, but that wasn’t the point, and I was still pissed and decided to test what I felt to be Philip’s weakness, “Have you ever killed an animal out here?”

“No, I haven’t.” With a tone and face that implied he was somehow better for not having done it.

“So what you’re saying is that out of this group here, I’m the only one the natives would consider an adult?” I shot back.

“No, Jesse. I’ve hunted out here too.” Miranda said with a glare demanding I drop it. I could almost hear her voice inside my head saying, I can put up with some of your shit but don’t be a dick to my boss.

Enjoying what I’d gotten so far from pushing boundaries, I couldn’t help but respond “True, but you’re a woman so you wouldn’t be sitting with the chiefs as they talk business.”

“Ran.” Philip said, putting his hand up to stop what was coming out of Miranda’s teeth-bared mouth. “I got this.”

“Ha! I was just talking shit to make a point but look at you, doing with your actions the thing I was just ridiculing!”

Philip said “I don’t believe that women should be subservient to men, Jesse. However you did interrupt me, and are starting conflict with me. Rather than someone else coming into our conflict, I’m limiting its spread in the hope the two of us can come to a peaceful understanding and we can continue to have a pleasant night after having enjoyed eating the boar you bagged. Towards that end allow me to ask you to clarify something, what was your point in interrupting me?”

“Just pointing out that no one here passed any tests to be considered an adult. After this “training” we can’t legally buy beer or vote. We get caught with drugs, we still go to juvie, not jail. We may have new skills, but we’ll still considered minors until the earth circles the sun a certain number of times. I get this metaphoric reality where our time out here and ceremonies mean we’re adults now. OOoOoOooOhhhh. But AT THE SAME TIME we’re still not. Shit, I think about it now and even after we’re adults we’re still children in the eyes of the law. And really, you can talk about making some “peaceful understanding” all you want, but I haven’t forgotten that the only reason I’m here is because, one, you had two huge dudes with you that were going to tackle and hogtie my ass if I tried to escape and, two, when I did escape your “understanding” you got a pig to zap me with a tazer so you can get me out in the middle of nowhere.”

“You are here, we’re all here” he said breaking eye contact with me, “because you or your parents recognized that your behavior wasn’t productive to your being the best possible you you could be. You’re here because learning some self-awareness, communication, and leadership skills that will strengthen your self-image.”

“I get that what I’m learning out here is good, but stop talking like you know me. You’re a stranger to me. My parents may have sent me here and given you some written down information, but they don’t know me either. They’re so busy with their own lives they’re practically fucking strangers too.”

“You know, that’s the fourth time you’ve cursed.”

“So fucking what? You going to write me up for my potty mouth> Please, do. It’d be nice to have something besides leaves for toilet paper.”

Philip’s eyes scanned those around the circle to gauge their reactions to the others. I’d been checking them in my periphery the whole time so mine didn’t move off Philip.

“You’re right, bad words only have bad meaning if we allow agree that they should and you’re just expressing strong feelings. You’re also right about my not having met you until three weeks ago. But I do know you. I know from having seen your school records. Last year, your first year of high school, you were sent to internal suspension for forty-six days for things such as insubordination and classroom disruption and that you skipped going to school nine times. Jesse for almost a third of the school year you were deemed to be such a problem that they had to segregate you from your classmates…”

“Really?!”

“Let me continue…”

“No. Because this is the thing that you and my teacher and my parents don’t get. I’m not the problem, the school is. Did you ever think that I purposefully act that way so I can get sent there because I can do the classwork on my own in less time than it takes for my teachers to go through every little thing the dumb kids don’t get? Does it say in those records that with all my free time I read things that actually interest me rather than just stare at the walls like the real problem kids in there? Does it say that despite all the time I am in IS or absent my grades are near the top of the class?”

“I knew about your grades, but not your intentions behind your actions. And honestly, I’m glad you feel secure enough out here to open yourself up about this. Have you already shared this with Miranda?” He looked over and saw Ran shaking her head to affirm he did. “If you told your parents or people at the school about this before and weren’t listened to, I’m sorry. Just know that we’re here to help you and that though it may be difficult to sometimes accept rules, we still need to follow them.”

“Or we get kidnapped, tazed and sent for a month to a re-education camp.”

“Actions have consequences that we don’t always expect, but we must accept them.”

“Let me then now ask you to clarify something. According to what you said, if, after I get back to Miami I searched for where you live and waited for you with a couple of my friends and forced you into a car and left you in the middle of nowhere, you’d just accept that.”

“That’s a threat!” Philip said.

Pussies get pounded, I thought, and smiled slyly and started tapping him out with my tongue. “I’m not threatening you, Phil. I’m using a rhetorical device called an “analogy” to make a point. I’m pointing out, again, the absurdity of your generalizations about accepting things the way they are. You want me to accept consequences, but what you’re really saying is you want me to be this person that’s not me that you want to be. It’s just like when you say that “We’re all adults now” when a whole other set of rules apply to us. God, were you always such a dick or did you just decide to become one when you realized it wasn’t normal to have one the size of a thumb.”

At this last line all the guys chuckled and the two girls smirked. Miranda gave me an angry stare. Maybe if I managed to push his buttons enough she’ll take me aside for a one on one and I can press my luck for a fuck. She’s pissed but just like every other chick likes bad boys.

“A small dick joke, does that really helps anything Jesse?”

“If that’s the one thing you heard from everything I just said, you’re the one who needs to develop better attention and communication skills.”

Philip was in the middle of spitting out a response when a crack of lightning branched out countless white fingers across the purplish haze of the evening sky. The illumination of the sky revealed that the approaching clouds were not just dark from the setting sun but were instead heavy with the lifeblood of earth. I, like everyone, internally counted the moments before the thunder roared. Three seconds passed before the tremor of air was audible. I unhitched my tweaked eyes from Philip’s face and for the first time noticed everyone staring at me. For the first time, I noticed Joann was smiling. I understood then why she normally didn’t, she looked, well, sinister.

“We’ll finish this later,” Philip said. “Let’s do a quick clean up just in case the storm passes by here.”

Two minutes later, sure enough, the previously comforting wind became more vigorous. It flowed through the nearby plants. Another crackle crossed the sky and a dense veil of rain started to fall. Philip yelled out not to worry about the fire and that since it was already dark to consider it bed time. The rainfall on the tents and plants around them made a diverse array of sounds. Feeling jacked up from the confrontation, I lay back and listened to the sounds of the storm and tried to find some kind of rhythm to calm me. Nothing. Instead, I thought about Miranda. If she’d pulled me aside to yell at me back there something probably would have happened. Pressing my lips together and licking them I recalled our brief kiss. My hand on her ass. The gun to my stomach. The risk of getting caught. Fuc-king-hot. I was starting to convince myself to break my vow not to pleasure myself while out in the Glades when I faintly heard the sound of the tent’s zipper opening up. Miranda! Is it really this easy to make awesome things like this happen? I smiled. Miranda, already at the front of my thoughts, was about to leave the back of my throat when I recognized by the hair length it wasn’t her. It was Joann.

Abstract for Presentation at 12th Annual South Florida Latin American and Caribbean Studies Conference

Socialismo Maduro o Socialismo Inmaduro: Venezuela en la Encrucijada

Recent disturbances in Venezuela are attempting to undermine the legitimacy of the democratically elected Maduro government through domestic civil unrest magnified internationally through a global online awareness campaign: #sosvenezuela. Activism directed against the government has pulled from the traditional playbook of the populist left and invited repression whilst airing grievances and uniting around a prospective new government figurehead, Leopoldo Lopez. The response by the police and military as well as para-governmental Chavista forces, such as the community militias, has thus far been swift and spectacular but has not reached a tipping point that would serve as a pretext for foreign military intervention.

The manner in which this crisis is managed will likely come to be seen as equally significant as that of the coup attempts and oil strikes of 2002 and 2003 and, to a degree, indicates the level of mobilization and commitment of the lower-classes to the Bolivarian revolutionary process. Such commitment to “el processo” is especially timely now as thus far the Maduro government has struggled to manifest the vision propounded by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela in the most recent elections. The state media thus far has explained food shortages and infrastructural problems as symptoms of foreign attempts to destabilize the regime, as was done to Chile in 1973, while the international media has framed it as an issue of a juvenile leader’s incompetency or the result of a malignant, antiquated ideology. My presentation will analyze these currently on-going events and coverage of the domestic unrest in Venezuela in an international and historical context.

Notes from the World Leader Conference

So this past weekend I was lucky enough to be able to attend the World Leaders Conference as my mother was a volunteer. The speakers there included Martin Sheen, Ken Blanchard, Marcus Buckingham, Henry Cloud, Martin Luther King III, Susan Cain, Erwin McManus, Patrick Lencioni,Craig Groeschel, Katty Kay, H. Wayne Huizenga, Jr., Mark Floyd, Jon Gordon, Charles Duhigg, James Blanchard, Adam Grant and Ray Titus. Most of the speakers were excellent and demonstrated clear mastery of their specializations though some of them, such as Jim Blanchard and Henry Cloud lacked the personality, polish and poise one would expect to be on the lecture circuit. Though purchasing their books is likely the best way to obtain the wealth of information the presented on leadership, group dynamics, habits and culture, I wanted to catalog and share what I felt to be some of the best material.

Marcus Buckingham, author of Now, Discover Your Strengths: How to Develop Your Talents and Those of the People You Manage and StandOut: The Groundbreaking New Strengths Assessment from the Leader of the Strengths Revolution, first pointed out the rather simple but oft forgotten fact that within a particular enterprise there is often no one corporate culture but many of them. To give an example of how they differed from place to place he pointed out the Starbucks example and how their approach has helped out many of their employees that typically lacked the educations and family support structure to gain the inter-personal skills that would best serve them for upward mobility. As a former partner myself I was able to relate to what he meant though I am somewhat cynical to his claim that this is strictly for altruistic purposes. He continued by exploring the results of his quantitative work in determining what the cause was for variations in performance and concluded that there were three basic issues that explain it. If someone does not have the chance to do what they do best everyday, if someone doesn’t know what’s expected of them and don’t feel that their colleagues are committed to quality work than their on the job performance will decline. Lacking this key factor removes the sense of serious purposefulness to best work.

After pointing out how the regional executives and managers need to be in contact with their individual branches, he then emphasized the importance of what was basically the Catholic doctrine of subsidiarity. Local managers should have a certain amount of freedom to adjust the general operating framework in a way that they see as best as it will allow them to adapt to the actually existing circumstances. He stated that the best team leaders were those that checked in once a week with their workers only two questions: “What are you doing?” and “How can I help?”. The purpose of such actions is to make sure that expectations are expressed in real time and are able to be adjusted to aforementioned conditions.After this he went into an extended discussion on what he calls his nine strength roles – advisor, Connector, Creator, Influencer, Pioneer, Provider, Stimulator and Teacher. He spoke extensively on the individual qualities of each and those interested in learning more about this material should check out his website to learn more and take one of the self-tests. Buckingham repeatedly emphasized through examples that there is no one perfect leadership profile, only one that is able to fit a person’s individual personality strengths. By taking what is unique, refining it and making it useful one becomes a great leader. Buckingham’s examples of such different approaches to embodied company values included the Apple’s “Quality is beauty” motto in comparison to Facebook’s “Done is better than perfect.”

Though not in direct conversation with Buckingham, Patrick Lencioni’s presentation similarly detailed the cultural aspects of businesses. He was more interested in and spoke on the complicated means by which the success of a group can turn into dysfunction. Seemingly a distillation of his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, he illustrated the dysfunctions that can occur within a team: absence of trust, unproductive conflict, lack of full commitment, insecure accountability and actions that don’t produce results. While presenting his case analysis of SouthWest Airlines, he pointed out that this was a successful enterprise because they were able to focus on every small aspect of their customers experience as they didn’t think that any detail was beneath them. He connected success to how it is that people behave that claimed that being healthy in a group was usually preferable to being smart. This was because, according to him, when a leader humbles himself and is able to view the operations from a subsidiary level they will engage with employees that are more willing to follow advice and orders and better able to view the holistic operation of the company.

Lencioni emphasized how it is that employees are the most important asset of a company and that creating networks of behavioral accountability will precede positive results. He stated that while quantitative indication of whether or not a businesses’ purpose is successful is of course important, long term continuation will best be maintained by qualitative means. For Lencioni, the behavioral accountability must be unwavering and apply to all levels, even junior executives, and should enforcement be particularistic then it will deplete morale by demonstrating that leaders are exempt from the rules. If such people are perceived to be invulnerable in the organization, all sorts dysfunction begins to manifest. Leaders, as should be apparent by the term itself, are to set the example that others are to follow and must be open to productive conflict with those inferior in the command structure. Such openness to criticism, such humbleness, is what it is that defines the form of servant-leadership which he propounds as the best form of leadership.

One of the four presenters whose work I was familiar with prior to the conference was Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking and someone who’d become somewhat of a social media phenomenon following the wide circulation of this TED talk. She built up on the theme that there’s no such thing as an optimal one size fits all environment. Her focus, however, was in relation to introverts and extroverts. After pointing out that these two two types are evident throughout the animal kingdom, ie in fish who swi towards a disturbance and those that will avoid it, she says that accommodating introverts is the new most important diversity issue. She based this finding upon research which shows that individuals often do better when brainstorming than in groups. Pointing to the Asch Conformity Experiments as a leveler of creative thinking, she states that when people bring what they’ve produced to a meeting it will be better than a single, group brainstorming meeting. Part of the accommodating for those that are introverts include businesses allowing introvert employees to take breaks when they feel it’s necessary to go on solo walks, meditate or even nap. These types of behaviors are encouraged by multiple teach leaders and despite expectations otherwise this has the effect of increasing productivity. This is because those that are in a state of equilibrium will always be the most effective, productive and passionate about their work – and successful work is always related to an expression of passion.

Another wonderful speaker, one that I was fortunate enough tolunch with, was Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit. He continued to speak on business culture issues, though focusing more on how habits are the true form of culture – a statement already familiar to Aristotelians and Hegelians. He gave multiple examples of how when people get into the grip of a habit the brain literally slows down. It stops functioning in as creative and innovative a manner and merely “get’s into the grooves”. The most important types of habits are what he called keystone habits, ie those habits which communicate a specific self-image until to do otherwise feels alien. Proclaiming that will-power is the single greatest correlate for future success, he said that it’s important to connect the successful completion of actions to a system of emotionally-significant rewards. These rewards are part of the habit loop of cue -> routine -> reward and that lacking them it is difficult for individual or social will to continue. As Dr. Martin Luther King III was there, he used the example of the daily meetings held in the churches of Montgomery during the boycott as an express of dedication to will and reward – social recognition for continued, collective determination.

One of the general themes that I found rewarding intellectually was the constant referent to servant leadership by the speakers. I first came across the notion in Bethany Moreton’s book To serve God and Wal-Mart: the Making of Christian Free Enterprise and have since read other academic articles on it. Most of the speakers referred to it directly or to certain aspects of it. Katty Kay, author of Womenomics, for instance encouraged women to push for workplace flexibility as a means of achieving personal fulfillment – albeit fulfillment strictly in relation to being a mother. She saw flexibility qua itself as something that’s good for business, an interesting claim considering the various attempts by trans-national European workers unions to fight against the imposed “flexicurity” programs. While I am able to see the benefits of such leadership as it incorporates multiple perspective and thus allows for better management of business enterprises I don’t believe it’s wholly beneficial for most people. Considering the eight-hundred ticket of cost to get into such a conference, however, this wasn’t meant for most people but the local West Palm Beach elite and those international oriented that were able to make it (For example, I met ands spoke with the man who represented the executive of ToTo’s American and Brazilian enterprise). Continuing with my example from Kay, for instance, most women do not have the bargaining position in the workplace to obtain favorable changes in scheduling to give you more “family time”. It’s fantasy, unless there is collective action across various work sectors, to presume that businesses will take these considerations seriously. The servant leader is still in the organizational structure of the enterprise, the boss just as the partner, the associate or any other name you want to give the person is the employee that must alienate his spirit to fitful the will of the boss. This, per se, isn’t something bad but I find it disingenuous when someone such as Ken Blanchard states that “Today’s leaders much be partners with their people…” during an epoch that has seen wealth increasingly divide. To qualify this line of criticism, this is not to say that the material presented is in any way bad, not effective, or anything but good leadership craft – merely to emphasize the flip side of such an ideology in a broader degree of abstraction such that is applies to more people. Put in more poetic terms, if the leadership is considered a servant in such an ideology, what then are the workers considered?

Without directly confronting this issues and to a limited extent I felt that Martin Sheen’s closing speech addressed what I saw was this gap in the discussions presented. His speech also alighted upon culture, but more so upon the role that people have in the continuation and maintenance of a culture that can be considered vibrant and virtuous rather than one that is degenerate, focused solely upon the sensual gratification and distraction from the realities of daily life. While staying aligned with his personal life narrative, he deftly transitioned from personal to social truths and while not quite as electrifying as <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzgVdX7FtS8>this speech was still quite powerful in that while it was directed to this privileged crowd it was also applicable to all. The universality of the message was a great way to end the Leadership conference as it pointed out that they could not be so without those that are led.

Review of "And Every Day Was Overcast: An Illustrated Novel "

Uncanny is the first word that comes to mind after reading the self-described novel And Every Day Was Overcast: An Illustrated Novel by Paul Kwiatkowski. Reading perhaps isn’t an appropriate term given the abundant number of images in it. And calling it a novel is perhaps inappropriate too, as it’s length is more that of a novella or short story collection. Uncanny is spot on, however, as having grown up a few miles and three years behind Kwiatkowski many of the situations and people that he describes are those that I too experienced and met while growing up.

Upon viewing photos in the book I was immediately reminded of the cardboard box full of photos I have that were taken from cheap disposable cameras that my friends and I used to document our lives prior to the digital revolution. I was taken aback by them as his friends at the time look so similar to people I was friends with at the time. Furthermore, when I examine the photos of bedrooms I am taken aback as I see so many of the same band posters that used to adorn my own room. Marilyn Manson, Genitorturers, Jack Off Jill, Dead Kennedys, Rollins Band. While the latter two are nationally recognized acts the first three were – until Manson’s success – local acts with a strong local following by those growing up in South Florida at the time that did not identify with the pop, grunge and alt rock trends. Seeing this makes me wonder if Brian and I ever attended any of the same Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids concerts at the Button South or other shows.

Some details were different – the Miami exurbs have much more people than Jupiter – yet reading his book I learned that many of our experiences overlapped. We both lived on the underdeveloped edges of the urban core. South Florida’s organization around the automobile means that cultural paucity due to dispersion and segregation, the high rate of immigration into the state and within the state, the variety of social mores that could be confusing to navigate, especially when one is “coming of age” was the same there as it was further north.

These are just some of the factors leading many within the area to a general anomie that many within South Florida feel. It is a home in the sense that people live here, but their connection to it is almost inevitably very weak.

I recall at 16 the kids that would have their parents drive them 45 minutes to the nearest movie theatre to drop them off. I, who walked 45 minutes to get there but knew the area, would meet all of these kids that too felt so strange and out of place in what was presumably our “home town”. Strange, temporary friendships would form out of what could be called a strange desperation and we, like the people in Paul’s book, would try to score alcohol and go to secluded church or an underground parking lot that was partially flooded with water in once corner and the other with graffiti, broken beer bottles and junk food rappers and two mattresses that used to make me wonder how messed up someone had to be in order to sleep on it.

Back to the book – I decided to pick it up after coming across a wonderful review written by by Ira Glass. When I discovered that the author grew up relatively close to me and, after reading an except published online that made me feel that Paul Kwiatkowski was writing about something similar to what I am working on in Unraveling (a conclusion that upon reading it I’ve since revised) I decided to purchase it.

I checked Black Balloon Publishing’s and Paul Kwiatkowski’s website every few weeks to see when it would be available. When it was finally available for pre-sale, I ordered it immediately. When I first got in in the mail my excitement was short lived. After opening the package and flipping through the book I noticed that the book was primarily photographs. This disappointment, however, was short lived. It quickly transformed into disappointment that the book wasn’t longer as the writing was just so damn good. There is a visceral nature to the writing that brings a saccharine feel to the somewhat tragic accounts of teenage life in the morass that is South Florida. As a writer, reading this I found many instance where I found myself getting jealous. The turns of phrase and the descriptions are sticky and ought to be highly resonant with someone even if they didn’t grow up in the region. The photos, as I alluded to in the above, are not only compelling snapshots of what growing up in the alt-Miami scene in the 1990s was like but upon reading I found fits almost perfectly with the storytelling. Even if not directly related to the anecdotes or ex-post facto reflections they provide an accent that made me more drawn into the world that Paul formed via the book.

In my other reviews of books I find myself discussing plot points and character’s dilemmas and what not. While I could do that here as well I think I’m less interested in trying to categorize this as something within a school of literature or trying to unpack the themes than I am in just appreciating it as art. Though the thrust of the book is bored kids searching for fun in the places that adults don’t want them to look in and growing up via unexpected/undesired events isn’t particularly new, the format is. The interspersed pictures of notes, the short text-message length texts, the photos make it almost a collage/yearbook of times best not forgotten. Through prose that is intensely lyrical, the squalor, the perversity, and generally disassociating atmosphere for adolescents in South Florida is put on display. The frame, however, is not moralistic but, for the most part, descriptive. The abundance of aberration depicted takes on an almost irresistible quality.

As lately I’ve been surveying a number of books that could be described as “poetics of childhood trauma” – a strange turn of phrase as what childhood is not traumatic in some way – I found this a worthy addition to that cannon as well as a number of others (i.e. photojournalism, memoir, etc.). Thankfully here the troubling forays that can lead to some sort of immutable truth, depending on whether or not they repress or incorporate it into their consciousness, end for the most part ambiguously but in a manner that is also aesthetically satisfying. In this way, and because I so appreciate the photos and writing, I find this quasi-bildungsroman to be highly compelling literature and hope this is not the last I’ll read or see of Paul Kwiatkowski’s work.

I highly recommend those reading this to pick up his book and check out his other projects Eat-Pray-Drug and SummerChills as well.

Review of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

My first year of graduate school at NYU I saw a number of people in Washington Square Park and the coffee shops around campus reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. Reading an average of four books a week for class and research related to my thesis, I didn’t even consider picking it up. When my friend Mary, a literature professor at FAU, suggested it to me following a meeting of our writing group as I’d been complaining that I’m disconnected from modern trends in literature as I focus a lot on older and niche works, I decided to purchase it.

How much did I like it? Well, I ended up reading it in three or four sittings. Lest this seem a review of unadulterated praise let me open with the admission that
I have a certain amount of mixed feelings for the book. While I love the manner in which Diaz brings the historical into the narrative such that the reader gets a short history of the Dominican Republic and I find it stylistically compelling, I don’t particularly connect with Oscar in the manner in which the narrator seems to expect me to. Lest this seem a petty criticism, dear reader, let me develop it and then gush on what I do like just so that I can end on a positive note as I do like the book very much.

Oscar’s character, the quintessential overweigh, ugly science fiction reading, Dungeons & Dragons playing, comic-book reading nerd that repeatedly finds himself unable to catch or keep the attention of the women for whom he falls for is – well – kinda gross. Lest I be accused of being unfair, let me convey this small section so that it be understood that this is also the perspective of the eponymous character of the novel we are talking about. In the opening of the book the following exchange happens between him and his sister.

“Oscar, Lola warned repeatedly, you’re going to die a virgin unless you start changing.
Don’t you think I know that? Another five years of this and I’ll be you somebody tried to name a church after me.
Cut the hair, lose the glasses, exercise. And get rid of those porn magazines. They’re disgusting, they bother Mami, and they’ll never get you a date.
Sound counsel that in the end he did not adopt. He tried a couple of times to exercise, leg lifts, sit-ups, walks around the block in the early morning, that sort of thing, but he would notice how everybody else had a girl but him and would despair, plunging right back into eating, Penthouses, designing dungeons, and self-pity.”

Now, this may seem trite, but from this perspective I believe that Oscar Wao’s brief and wondrous life and his eventual death come to take on a different perspective from the one that Junior, the narrator, seems to give it. More specifically, during part of the plot referred to as The Final Voyage I found Wao’s behavior to be creepily reminiscent of the obsessive gamers that harass women. In the greater framework of the novel, i.e. the incidents the happen before it and the aesthetic organization of feeling that it imbues, this is supposed to be seen as romantic. Revolutionary even, for Wao stand’s up to a policeman of a nation that we are repeatedly reminded was once a predatory sex playground for the dictator Trujillo.

Lest I seem to be imposing my own values onto the narrative and denigrating it because of that let me clarify that I think stylistically it is wonderful, fabulous, magnifico, muy bueno. Unlike Diaz’s writings in Drown and This is How You Lose Her – the inclusion of Spanish and Spanglish works. I’ve read a few reviews that say that it doesn’t add much to it but I disagree. It’s not just this that I like, however, it’s the pacing of the lines. The jump cuts to different scenes. The crass street-talk with the same rhythmic patterns of boricuas that I’ve dated. The incredible number of pup culture, science fiction, and historical references – the last of which I will talk about later. All of this combines to form an incredibly compelling medium that even though I’m somewhat alienated from Oscar pulled me in and would not let me put it down. After reading this I understand why Diaz won a genius grant. It’s fucking brilliant. I don’t think this material would be as compelling by itself, which brings me to my next point.

One of the components of the book that I also admired is what I alluded to earlier – the inclusion of the Historical Real into the novel. I capitalize this as such as the historical events described in the book have a real effect on the characters in it and as it allows for the reader to get insight into another epoch and culture when they might not otherwise have the interest to. While I would say that the emphasis on this in Wao is not as central as In The Time of the Butterfly’s by Julia Alvarez or The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, I still appreciate it as it was these works along with One Hundred Years of Solitude that first garnered my interest in Latin American/Caribbean history and literature. In Oscar’s world the family, indeed the whole culture, is infected with the historical traumas of U.S. supported anti-communist strong men that, whether they recognize it or not, affects them all in a number of ways. Not to say that there is an excessive fixation about limning this, but that it is ever in the background is something that I appreciated. All that said, as you can tell, I greatly enjoyedThe Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and look forward to reading Diaz’s other works.

Plan Preliminar de Proyecto de la narración de cuentos para National Geographic

Mi proyecto de narrativa digital propuesto se centrará en Chile , Perú y México (CPM ) para investigar algunos de los cambios que podrían introducirse por la Alianza Trans -Pacífico para luego ser ratificado (TPP). Documentales de larga duración – reportaje sobre este tema es oportuno, ya que sólo algunos de los numerosos e importantes cambios de la TPP hará que incluya la capacidad nacional signatarios para controlar las áreas de política relacionadas con la biodiversidad, el cambio climático, la autosuficiencia alimentaria, culturas políticas y ciudades composición por aceleración de la urbanización. Que yo sepa no hay en la actualidad los principales medios noticiosos abordando este, que es inusual, ya que los que han comentado que por lo general lo describen como un TLCAN ampliado , un acuerdo comercial que ha tenido enormes efectos sobre múltiples registros en los Estados Unidos y México . He elegido estos tres países ya que son ellos son los únicos países de América Latina (AL) a participar en las negociaciones del TPP, que hablan español, tienen un fondo en LA la economía política y la literatura, he crecido entre modo de América Latina sería culturalmente competente , mientras que en esos países, y soy capaz de utilizar los recursos personales y profesionales para conectar con varias personas e instituciones que estén dispuestos a ayudar en el proyecto de narración de cuentos.

Mientras que en México y Chile, voy a ser capaz de obtener cartas de presentación para los académicos, funcionarios públicos y los trabajadores de las ONG a través de mi antiguo profesor de Estudios Latinoamericanos, que ha trabajado mucho en los dos países. En Perú, voy a ser capaz de conectarse a las redes de empresas a través de un amigo personal cuyo padre está involucrado en el equivalente de la Cámara Americana de Comercio. ¿Cuál será, además, que me ayude a conocer a gente para las entrevistas es mi amable forma, saliente afilado de haber viajado mucho. Mi experiencia como educador, politólogo e historiador me permitirá contextualizar temas generales (Ciudades, culturas ) de una manera que permite centrarse en los aspectos más relevantes en relación con el lector. Algunos ejemplos de mi enfoque incluiría abordar preguntas a los políticos, ONG y activistas de la comunidad , tales como: ¿El componente ambiental del TPP significa que las regiones que actualmente protegidas para su uso en el turismo ecológico se convertirán en los sitios de las industrias extractivas? ¿Cómo son las leyes nacionales de protección de la biodiversidad va a verse afectada por un nuevo régimen de las leyes internacionales de derechos de autor? ¿Cómo son los gobiernos municipales y nacionales planean respuestas a su crecimiento proyectado de la población a raíz de la mayor capacidad de los inversores internacionales para comprar, infracapitalizadas pequeñas explotaciones tradicionales ? ¿Cómo son las culturas nacionales, tradicionales adaptándose a las presiones del mercado internacional, ya sea la migración o las nuevas prácticas? ¿Cuáles son algunos de los métodos que los grupos de la sociedad civil, así como los burócratas del gobierno local y nacional son el fomento del uso de nuevas tecnologías para ayudarles a gestionar estos temas? ¿Cómo es el acceso a los recursos oceánicos asignado, supervisado y regulado? ¿Qué impacto, si lo hay, el nacimiento argentino Papa Francisco y el fondo de los jesuitas tienen en estas áreas antes mencionadas? Además de esto, mi informe también posarse sobre temas de interés general más, como la cultura y la comida. Como tengo una amplia experiencia de viaje, soy un chef y entusiasta usuario de los alimentos y de intercambio de experiencias sitios web de medios sociales que planeo en tratar de incluir la mayor cantidad de contenido de este tipo de lo posible los viajes. Prácticas de abastecimiento de alimentos, recetas y costumbres generales pueden no parecer tan importante en un tema a la luz de estas otras preocupaciones, pero también son importantes para proporcionar una imagen global de la chilena, el estilo de vida peruana y mexicana en relación con estos cambios.

La presentación de este material tendrá un enfoque multi-media. Aunque me imagino que la mayoría de mis informes será una combinación de texto, fotos y varios cuadros y gráficos que pueden proporcionar una indicación visual de algunas de las áreas temáticas que estoy investigando También me gustaría obtener la mayor cantidad posible de metraje con los que soy capaz de conversar con en Inglés . Como soy experto en el uso de iMovie, creo que podría producir hábilmente segmentos cortos de vídeo para subir a donde se pide de mí.

Mi plan de viaje es pasar de la ubicación más al sur y luego hacia el norte, desde Chile a Perú para México. Este patrón se repite dentro de los propios países, ya que será el más eficiente para medir el tiempo y me permite evitar clima fuera de estación. En cada país que visito me gustaría pasar mi tiempo principalmente la investigación de los centros financieros, industriales, culturales y políticos, así el parque adyacente y regiones agrícolas, que también se ve afectada por el TPP. Lo que sigue es un itinerario general y una breve explicación de por qué se trata cada lugar que merece exploración relacionadas con los temas del proyecto en lo relativo a la conservación, el desarrollo y la innovación.

En Chile empezaría en Puerto Montt, una región, una vez independiente, que es ahora un centro de transporte clave conocida por su industria del salmón de tamaño considerable. En 2007 este sector tuvo que cambiar rápidamente sus prácticas cuando el hacinamiento y el virus ISA hecho perder gran parte de su población. Una característica adicional de Puerto Montt es su proximidad a la isla de Chiloé, el lugar de la comunidad indígena importante y una parte importante de la industria del mejillón de Chile. ¿Cómo los esfuerzos de conservación del medio ambiente de la vida marina y de la gente profundamente conectados con el mar se verán afectados por TPP serán sólo dos puntos de la investigación . A partir de ahí me gustaría tener un viaje a Concepción – la cultura juvenil y la música rock la capital del país. Una investigación de las diferencias entre la región, una vez independiente Puerto Montt y la segunda ciudad más grande se muestran las diferencias en cuanto a cómo se sintió el TPP en cada región. A partir de ahí me gustaría ir a Santiago, económicamente dividido el centro industrial del país. Yo creo que aquí iba a ser capaz de obtener una perspectiva más urbana en los puntos de vista contradictorios hacia el TPP. Una de esas historias, por ejemplo, podría incluir una investigación de Los Caimanes, justo al norte de Santiago. Este es el hogar de las minas que han sido un punto de controversia entre la comunidad indígena mapuche local y una empresa chilena sobre el uso de este último de agua. Desde aquí me gustaría ir a Valparaíso, que destaca por sus nuevas formas de transporte público, una fuerte herencia europea evidente en los estilos de vivienda de los diferentes barrios y un lugar para explorar cuestiones de la conservación frente a la innovación, tanto en la vivienda de la ciudad y el mercado de bienes raíces comerciales y también en lo que respecta a los parques protegidos a nivel nacional alrededor de él. Como los parques nacionales en la actualidad componen el 19% de la superficie del país y potencialmente podrían convertirse en sitios de la industria extractiva, me gustaría visitar la Reserva de la Biosfera de la Reserva Nacional Lago Peñuelas adyacente a Valparaíso. Además vale la pena mencionar es que ya que se considera la Tierra de poetas, me gustaría incorporar algunos elementos de la historia cultural en mi narración – ya sea de visita en la antigua casa de Pablo Neruda o una de las guaridas de Roberto Bolaño .

En Perú me gustaría comenzar mi proyecto de narración de cuentos en Arequipa mediante la investigación de cómo las nuevas capacidades de inversión fuera del centro industrial se acelerará la transición del campo de prácticas agrícolas artesanales hacia el aumento de la urbanización. Los problemas políticos y culturales creados por la propiedad de tierras altamente centralizado, en una cuestión política que se repite en América Latina, se ha dejado sentir con especial dureza en el Perú debido a las preocupaciones raciales y étnicos. ¿Cómo es que el gobierno y grupos de la sociedad civil están pensando en manejar este problema después de la exacerbación probable de la brecha económica con el paso del TPP será un tema importante me referiré. Un segundo es el uso cada vez más planificada de agua en la periferia a través de riego y tercera se refiere a la clara, la UNESCO reconoció la arquitectura Arequipeña y manera de hablar. Desde aquí me gustaría ir a Cusco, la antigua capital inca y ahora un destino turístico importante para resaltar los problemas alimenticios y de biodiversidad , tales como los efectos culturales provocadas por un aumento de seis veces en los ingresos mensuales producidos por la creciente demanda mundial de quinua. Cerca de Arequipa se encuentra el Parque Nacional del Manu, catalogado como el lugar de mayor diversidad biológica de la Tierra. También me gustaría visitar aquí, así como para que aparezca como el parque ha sido parcialmente privatizada para la explotación de gas natural a pesar de las protestas por parte de la ONU debido a su repercusión ambiental y la reubicación forzosa de numerosas comunidades indígenas. Una vez en Lima, la capital gastronómica y financiera , habría un mayor acceso a entrevistar a personas que trabajan en proyectos relacionados con el parque de Manu , así como el reciente aumento de los intentos de encontrar fuentes de petróleo, metales y explotación de minerales. De especial interés es cómo es que las operaciones mineras ilegales y los vertidos de petróleo están afectando a la Amazonía. Desde aquí voy a ir a Trujillo, la capital cultural del Perú y considerado por el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo para ser primera ciudad sustentable de la región. Exposición en qué es exactamente lo que esto significa y cómo se relaciona con la preocupación por el cambio climático será un foco importante de investigación. Es condición de un modelo de ciudad y cómo se ha tratado con un crecimiento de la población de casi el 100 % en 20 años sería de temas clave a tener académicos y planificadores urbanos discutir. Continuando contrastar las culturas de los pueblos indígenas y los descendientes de inmigrantes europeos se hizo muy visible a través de los templos del Sol y la Luna.

Desde aquí me gustaría ir a Mazaltan en México. El “capital de camarones del mundo” y una fuente importante de pescado procesado en el país, que estarían aquí sondear cómo sus industrias pesqueras se enfrentan a problemas similares a los de Chile . Mientras se enfrentan ccsme en vez de ISA , como el gobierno, el sector privado y los organismos reguladores internacionales frente a esta y al mismo tiempo que compiten por el acceso al mar con buques de crucero turístico recién re- autorizados ofrece numerosos espacios de una idea de cómo la población local navega intereses en conflicto. El ir a Puerto Vallarta, además, me permitirá poner de relieve cómo aquí , a diferencia de Chile y Perú , el rápido crecimiento de la población ha dado lugar a numerosos efectos negativos en los cursos de agua , un problema importante teniendo en cuenta el gran papel que el turismo desempeña en la zona, y el acceso a los servicios básicos. Desde aquí me gustaría ir a Chiapas para poner de relieve las divisiones a veces graves que existen entre las zonas rurales del sur de México y es la región norte más industrializado. Para ilustrar mejor las diferencias entre estas regiones me permitiría ir a la Ciudad de México. Me gustaría aprovechar este tema , sino también investigar cómo es que los grupos civiles , como el Grupo Eólico México , han solicitado con éxito al gobierno a establecer una meta de tener 35% de ellos de uso de la energía producida por el viento en 2024. Adicionalmente digno de atención es los efectos de la reciente apertura de la inversión en la historia estatal del sector petrolero del país.

Es importante visitar todos estos lugares para ilustrar la variedad de las condiciones políticas y ambientales que el TPP en breve se implementará pulg Como el desencadenamiento de nuevas fuerzas de mercado y las normas comerciales no tendrá impacto en cada región de la misma manera, los consumidores de la contenido produzco obtendrá una perspectiva más amplia de lo que las condiciones son que el TPP se afecta.