2010

I'm still in Virginia, enjoying the snow and 30 degree weather. It's windy here, and the winds chill my face and my bones, but I know that I'll miss the blustery winter weather when I get back to California.

There are less than two days remaining in 2009, and I've been thinking about New Year's resolutions. I don't really believe in them because I think every day is an opportunity to resolve to be a better person and improve ourselves. Next Monday is the start of the winter quarter, and I've been thinking about how it seems like I do believe in new quarter resolutions. It seems that every quarter, I tell myself that this is the quarter that I won't procrastinate and resolve to start my class papers early in the quarter or that this is the quarter where I don't let exercise fall by the wayside or that this is the quarter where I balance my time better so I don't get stressed out around the eighth week. And so on.

So when the winter quarter starts on Monday, I will resolve to stop putting exercise on the back burner. I've been keeping up with yoga, but not as much as I would like (or need to be). I don't have a New Year's resolution, but my new quarter resolution is to exercise on a regular basis and get myself to the ARC three or four times a week.

happy holidays

Here I am, blogging to you from Virginia. It's been nice here so far, not cold and lots of snow. On Monday, we went out to cut down a Christmas tree, trudging through about two feet of snow. But it was worth it- the tree is beautiful and all gussied up with tinsel and lights. I'll have pictures for you when I return to California.

Virginia is nice- we're in the rural southwestern part. It has been a bit of a culture shock- no Asian people, funny accents, outdated hairstyles, and lots of camouflage. And people here are nice and polite- they actually say 'I'm sorry' when they bump into you and 'Excuse me.' Sales clerks actually greet you and smile. I've already been to the Waffle House once, and I'm sure there will be more visits in the future.

So I noticed the following quote floating around on Facebook: "They may want to take Christ out of Christmas, but they can never take Christ out of me. If you are proud to be a Christian and are not ashamed of Christ then post this as your status for 1 day as a light to the world. Most people will be to ashamed or scared to do this. If you agree, copy and paste to your wall."

I know that there are people (ahem, Christian) who have themselves all in a tizzy because there is a contingent of people who for a variety of reasons- maybe to be politically correct, maybe because they oppose cultural imperialism, maybe because they don't believe in god, maybe because they don't celebrate Christmas, or maybe because they want to acknowledge the existence of other holidays like Hanukkah or Kwanzaa- don't say Merry Christmas. A dominant subgroup is all up in arms because other people realize that Christmas isn't the only holiday celebrated during the month of December. And those people are all pissed off because we say Happy Holidays these days and can't have mangers and crucifixes in public places. Now we acknowledge other holidays, and boy, these people are hoppin' mad because we are taking the Christ out of Christmas.

Here's a newsflash: Christ was taken out of Christmas with the advent of Santa Claus, Black Friday, Hallmark cards, the gift giving frenzy, and Rudolph. Apparently, Christmas is about the gifts. Even in this shitty economy, people are lining up to save money on gifts and go mad to find the 'perfect' gift. Apparently, the radical notion that forgoing gifts might be a good idea at a time like this hasn't crossed most people's minds.

Don't blame the atheists or those who, in the interest of promoting cultural diversity, acknowledge other holidays. Don't blame them for taking Christ out of Christmas. Santa Claus already did that, and so did Black Friday. So if you're pissed that Christmas isn't about Christ, forgo the gifts. Put your money where your mouth is, and stay out of the shopping malls.

Oh, and happy fucking holidays.

waiting for snow

I've been waiting nearly two years to see snow. That's how long it's been since I've been to Minnesota. I say this every year since I've lived in California, and I'll say it again: it's December, but it sure doesn't feel like Christmas. Not when it's in the mid 70s and sunny. Not when I can wear flip flops. Not when I can go outside without a jacket. The giant Christmas tree in the shopping mall, the decorations, and the Christmas music all seem misplaced. I know that people here are used to all of this, but I still can't get over it.

This Christmas, I'm headed to Virginia, the southwestern part, where large quantities of snow are rather infrequent. I've been hoping to see snow, and well, I got my wish. As of this morning, Virginia got 19 inches of snow, with another 3 or 4 on the way. Even by my Minnesota standards, that's a lot of snow.

And I can't wait. I know it will be cold, but I'm looking forward to donning my red wool peacoat, a scarf, hat, and mittens. I can't wait to trudge through the snow in search of a Christmas tree. I've been talking about seeing snow, playing in the snow, and making snow angels ever since Drew and I booked our plane tickets. In less than 24 hours, I will finally get a white Christmas.

diamonds aren't this girls best friend

In the last post, I talked about blood diamonds and the fact that we can't be certain that so-called conflict free diamonds are truly conflict free. Many people have pointed out that synthetic diamonds may be a way for us to have our cake and eat it too. Not so fast there, people. Diamonds are problematic not only for human rights reasons, but also for feminist reasons too.

Diamonds symbolize love and commitment to many people, but to me, they are patriarchal. Diamonds symbolize ownership and male dominance. Engagement rings show the world that a woman is "taken," spoken for, betrothed. They show that a woman belongs to someone else. Engagement rings, and diamonds in particular, are a way for men to symbolize their possession of a woman.

Diamond engagement rings may not have this meaning today, but the practice originated in patriarchal traditions (as did marriage, of course, but that's another blog post). And the vestiges of ownership and dominance remain: ever notice how men rarely wear engagement rings? I know many married men, and only one wore an engagement ring (soon to be two). Arguably, diamond rings are so expensive (2 months salary, right?) that it's probable that there isn't much money left to purchase an engagement ring for a man.

Diamonds are also a proxy for wealth, and the size of the rock is associated with the man's capacity to provide for his future wife. Women's bodies have been used to symbolize men's wealth and value, and diamonds are one way of doing so.

People may no longer associate diamonds with ownership, wealth, or male dominance, but I supposed that tradition dictates that we continue sealing the deal with diamond engagement rings. I only wish that more people would understand the ramifications of their actions and reject the lure of pretty shiny baubles, both for human rights reasons and because it is demeaning towards women.

blood diamonds

The other day, I was reading the paper and came across an op-ed imploring holiday shoppers to forgo diamonds mined in Zimbabwe. The author says that we should reject diamonds from Zimbabwe because they could have been mined in areas under the control of rebel groups who engage in torture and use child labor to control diamond production. So the author thinks that prior to purchasing diamonds, we should ask jewelers of the diamond's origin and refuse to buy it if it's from Zimbabwe. Sure. Like that's going to happen. Society cares more about diamonds and symbolizing wealth more than African people a continent away.

I'm against diamonds for a host of reasons. I recently finished reading Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World's Most Precious Stones by Greg Campbell. The production of diamonds is horrifying and disgusting, and the United States is the largest diamond consumer in the world. This is what our consumption supports: civil war, death, torture.

The book traces diamond mining in the 1990s in Sierra Leone and how diamond profits fuels a bloody civil war. To control the diamond mines, production, and profits, rebel groups such as the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) kill, rape, and torture the people in Sierra Leone. The most common way the RUF induces terror and asserts control over the civilians is amputation- usually the arms, but also lips, ears, breasts, and tongues.

Capturing a diamond mine is easy: the RUF show up at a mine with rifles and forces the workers to hand over the diamonds. Powerless workers comply because the only other option is death. The RUF then uses its diamond profits to buy more guns and for retirement funds. Oh, and diamond profits have also been linked to the funding of terrorist attacks, most notably the September 11th attacks on the US.

Efforts to combat illegitimate diamond mining have induced peacekeeping missions by the United Nations and the Sierra Leone government, as well as export controls like the Clean Diamond Act and the Kimberley Process. However, diamond smuggling is so rampant and quite simple that one can never be sure that so-called conflict free diamonds are truly conflict free. You will never know if your diamond is legitimately mined or a result of brutality, death, and mutiliation.

Diamond mining is literally back breaking work, and even diamonds that are legitimately produced are mined under harsh labor conditions. Workers work from sunrise to sunset, and there are no lunch breaks or days off. They earn 2 cups of rice and the equivalent of 50 cents per day. Our society bemoans sweat shops and Wal Mart, but there is a lack of comparable anger over the horrifying conditions of diamond mining. Apparently, cheaply made clothes violate human rights, but diamonds do not.

Diamonds have come to symbolize love and commitment, and whenever I see them, I always wonder how many Africans died for them. I am truly ashamed that our consumerist society supports terror, death, and mutilation. Either we don't know it, or we choose to ignore this fact.

a quick update

I guess I've been kind of busy the last couple weeks. Doing what? Not really sure. You'd think it was the end of the quarter or something. I don't really have an excuse, after all, I'm not taking classes so I'm not frantically working on class papers.

I've been reading (as usual), baking (peanut butter crunch fudge, hazelnut bark, pumpkin bread), answering student emails (their final was this morning), eating (Mexican food the other day at Super Antojitos), and thinking about how 2009 is almost over and 2010 is nipping at my heels. What this really means is that I've been contemplating how I'm going to be 30 next July. But not to worry, age is just a number, right? After all, yesterday my eyebrow waxer told me that I look 15.

There was a snowstorm here in Southern California a few days ago, but I think this is a fabrication since snow is nowhere to be found. I see it on the mountain tops, taunting me. It can't be real. Drew and I are heading to VA in a week, and damn it, there had better be snow.