Monday, September 27, 2004
Just as change is uncertain...
I think the honeymoon period is over. I've about three-quarters of the way settled in to my 30 person flat in Notting Hill. My school schedule is pretty much set ( all dance all the time!) and I've been hanging out with a comfortable group of girls--to go groccery shopping, out to a pub with. I think I've finally realized what my days are going to be like--during the week at least. I pretty much leave my house at 7:15am, commute for an hour, and don't return till 6-7:30 every night. Except for fridays, when i get to come home right after my morning contemporary class. I was hoping to audition for a repertory class that would meet on fridays, but all these long days have made me realize that I need a bit of a break--some time to get to know the area i'm living in. There's a huge park right nearby --jess, you're going to have to help me explore it when you get here-- and a big, beautiful market on weekends just a couple minutes walk away on Portabello Road. We're talking antiques, jewelry, antique jewelry, fresh fruits and veggies, all kinds of food shops and cafes, clothes, scarves, handbags, British souveniers (?), and a lovely man who sells carmelized almonds and cashews out of a little cart. And that's only my little, teeny section of London---the entirety is HUGE! That's why i need to find a balance between alone time, socializing time, and exploring time. Once I settle more into my routine, I think i'll make better use of my free time. ARghgh....I am a creature resistant to change. Not so much so anymore---college was really great for me in that respect. It was almost a warm-up for coming here, new people, new home, new classes, new school.... It's amazing, as much as you prepare and plan, change comes upon you all of a sudden. In one minute your life is completely different from the previous minute. So it seems that just as change is uncertain, we're certain to change.
Optimistically yours....
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Optimistically yours....
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Rebut
While the American effort to democratize the world appears to be altruistic and in the name of some higher value, we all know that it is a cover for a geo-political neocon strategy. And as Damian said, we lost this war when we invaded in March of 2003. But once we committed to the task, the various tentacles of the US military (as well as the British) have proven to be ruthless and even abusive (I would say torturous). A huge majority - 90% of the Iraqi public - believes that American troops are NOT there for their own freedom. The invasion having decimated the country's infrastructure and now ,failing to restore it, over 12,000 civilian deaths, and how many military deaths (?) - we don't even keep track.
Although Pete may claim that we lost Vietnam because of a lack of support from home, it's clear that military operations 7,000 miles away are probably less dependent on what the American public thinks than on having a clear and achievable long-term objective. Do we have one with Iraq? Is it our place to have one? So we removed a terrible dictator. Yea for us! Yea for Iraqis! Now, whether we like it or not, the country is spiraling into further chaos. Assassinations of officials occur weekly; police stations are the prime targets of insurgent attacks. Beheadings and captive killings are on the rise. There is no end in site; in fact, its getting worse.
How can we think that 125K troops can contain a nation that really is not a nation, but a conglomeration of 3 large ethnic factions, each with their own agendas and hunger for power, in the middle of a centuries old tug-of-war for the birthplace of modern civilization? Even the Pentagon is now saying that we are spreading our forces too thin for the tasks we've given ourselves. Give me any odds, I'll bet that money we don't have will be diverted towards the miltary.
No, we can't continue to stay amongst a people who don't won't us there. We also Do need to protect ourselves, so this needs to be changed. There are calls from all over the world for greater UN involvement in the continual process of democratization. Since the US is the backbone of the UN, we could transfer forces under the UN umbrella. We could maintain our present position, but at tremendous costs, most of which we have yet to see.
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Although Pete may claim that we lost Vietnam because of a lack of support from home, it's clear that military operations 7,000 miles away are probably less dependent on what the American public thinks than on having a clear and achievable long-term objective. Do we have one with Iraq? Is it our place to have one? So we removed a terrible dictator. Yea for us! Yea for Iraqis! Now, whether we like it or not, the country is spiraling into further chaos. Assassinations of officials occur weekly; police stations are the prime targets of insurgent attacks. Beheadings and captive killings are on the rise. There is no end in site; in fact, its getting worse.
How can we think that 125K troops can contain a nation that really is not a nation, but a conglomeration of 3 large ethnic factions, each with their own agendas and hunger for power, in the middle of a centuries old tug-of-war for the birthplace of modern civilization? Even the Pentagon is now saying that we are spreading our forces too thin for the tasks we've given ourselves. Give me any odds, I'll bet that money we don't have will be diverted towards the miltary.
No, we can't continue to stay amongst a people who don't won't us there. We also Do need to protect ourselves, so this needs to be changed. There are calls from all over the world for greater UN involvement in the continual process of democratization. Since the US is the backbone of the UN, we could transfer forces under the UN umbrella. We could maintain our present position, but at tremendous costs, most of which we have yet to see.
Monday, September 20, 2004
My International Packaging
My sweatpants, my immortal waterbottle, my flipflops, my incessant fumblings when trying to pay in british coinage -- oh yeah, and that obnoxiously grating sound that blasts out of my throat whenever i speak: apparently, all these things identify me as an american in a country that is not america. It's pretty close in many ways, though. After all, they do have Simpsons and Friends over here. I can't tell you how many references to Buffy the VAmpire Slayer have been directed my way--in casual conversation! Like, 'hey, do you know anyone named Willow or Xander?' Staggeringly enough, i do not have any acquaintences by any such names. Went to a play my first week of orientation. The dry, british humour (in my limited experience, that isn't a stereotype--it can be like chewing on sandpaper) was a bit hard to follow------but I did catch on to all the jokes directed at Americans, everyone else in the audience (our group of thiry 20yr olds and about one hundred senior citizens) seemed to 'get it' as well. This post has come off sounding a bit cynical--on the contrary, though slightly bewildering, its a refreshing experience to learn, absorb, adapt---all from a new perspective. This is only one of hopefully many London editions.
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Sunday, September 19, 2004
Weekends in the city
Lazy, lazy days they are. Wonderful mornings that run into afternoons and 2 or 3 cups of coffee with a bagel and sports on the TV. Oh yes, how sweet life can be. Of course, I do have a ton of preparation to do for the up-coming week of little horrors that are my students. I just picked up a few furniture items very cheaply off of CL. Totally in heaven with my new computer chair that has adjustable seat height and tilt, back height, AND arm width and height. I am sitting in it now, ooooing and ahhhhing with each rock, for I can even rock in it, o yes. At the moment, my life is bliss in the pre-autumn sunshine of a Brooklyn Sunday.
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Thursday, September 16, 2004
Pulling Out
Alright, both men agree that there is no exit strategy for Iraq, and in fact Kerry has said that if elected, he would increase the American presence there. But if we have no exit strategy, no plan for what to do there, what are we doing there? Are we defending our country by being there?
I don't believe we can accurately call their system of government a 'Democracy' just yet. Though we may have taken that process as our charge, hand-picking and appointing a politically and religiously diverse group of wealthy Iraqis to governmental posts is not my idea of a free and equal election. Does anyone really expect these January elections to actually take place?
And wouldn't you agree that getting out of 'Nam was the right thing to do, and that we should have done it far earlier?
If we leave now, the country will deteriorate even further, but what's going on now is surely already civil war. Much of the time, 'enemy combatants' aren't looking to destroy Americans, but Iraqi police stations. We are not halting this guerilla war; the security in Iraq now is at its worst moment since the invasion. Our presence is most definitely making a difference, but at what cost? We are up to $135 billion spent, over 1000 Americans dead, and a world image in drastic decline.
We need to develop an exit strategy that includes replacing our forces with an Iraqi military, and agree to let Iraqis decide how to govern Iraqis.
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I don't believe we can accurately call their system of government a 'Democracy' just yet. Though we may have taken that process as our charge, hand-picking and appointing a politically and religiously diverse group of wealthy Iraqis to governmental posts is not my idea of a free and equal election. Does anyone really expect these January elections to actually take place?
And wouldn't you agree that getting out of 'Nam was the right thing to do, and that we should have done it far earlier?
If we leave now, the country will deteriorate even further, but what's going on now is surely already civil war. Much of the time, 'enemy combatants' aren't looking to destroy Americans, but Iraqi police stations. We are not halting this guerilla war; the security in Iraq now is at its worst moment since the invasion. Our presence is most definitely making a difference, but at what cost? We are up to $135 billion spent, over 1000 Americans dead, and a world image in drastic decline.
We need to develop an exit strategy that includes replacing our forces with an Iraqi military, and agree to let Iraqis decide how to govern Iraqis.
Thursday, September 02, 2004
Disassembling some of the 15 boxes of books, selling on Amazon and had my first sell! However, a week after I shipped the package out, the guy who bought it is harassing me about not receiving it and I don't know what to do. It was a textbook, cost $75, and I lost the tracking number from the post office. Ah well, probably shouldn't worry too much about a guy from Arizona who will probably get the book in a few days.
My last week of summer. I have thoroughly enjoyed these mornings of 2 cups of coffee, browsing the web, reading the NYTimes, puttering around the house. I suppose I'll still have weekends to do such, but there's something so wonderful about summer weekdays when everyone else is bustling about and I can lay in bed till 10 if I choose. Summers will be glorious months in years to come I imagine. I imagine I'm going to need those months off to recuperate from the little monsters I'll be trying to teach. Honestly, I can't wait to begin.
I got notice from my principal a few days ago that instead of teaching junior high he's putting me in an elementary classroom, which will be SO much more enjoyable. The junior high classroom culture is an entirely different world from one with 8 and 9 year olds. Inner city special education junior high school boys by themselves can be wonderful; in a group they can be terrors, literally. Last year, 6 out of 12 students, in this one 7th grade classroom, did not make it to the end of the year either because they dropped out or because they were arrested.
Elementary students, grades 1-4, will also have their moments of hysteria and tantrums. However, it will be a lot easier to break up a fight between kids 3 feet tall and 90 pounds than kids 6 feet and 250. Also, as a student moves up grades but continues to lag behind in his reading and math skills, it becomes that much harder to motivative him to catch up. If a student in the 3rd grade reads at a 1st grade level, there is a greater likelihood that a good teacher can make a significant impact upon specific skills such as comprehension and decoding. Because the gap is smaller to close, the student does not yet recognize the descrepency and benchmark achievements will (hopefully) be easier to hit.
Still, there is so much to learn. I always took for granted that teaching is an easy profession, a cop-out for individuals who didn't go the techie route. To become a skilled teacher will take years to learn. The complexity of managing a classroom, a special education classroom with students who have "emotional disturbances" and "behavioral disabilities", along with actual instruction has at times seemed overwhelming. I'm nervous and excited about it.
My last week of summer. I have thoroughly enjoyed these mornings of 2 cups of coffee, browsing the web, reading the NYTimes, puttering around the house. I suppose I'll still have weekends to do such, but there's something so wonderful about summer weekdays when everyone else is bustling about and I can lay in bed till 10 if I choose. Summers will be glorious months in years to come I imagine. I imagine I'm going to need those months off to recuperate from the little monsters I'll be trying to teach. Honestly, I can't wait to begin.
I got notice from my principal a few days ago that instead of teaching junior high he's putting me in an elementary classroom, which will be SO much more enjoyable. The junior high classroom culture is an entirely different world from one with 8 and 9 year olds. Inner city special education junior high school boys by themselves can be wonderful; in a group they can be terrors, literally. Last year, 6 out of 12 students, in this one 7th grade classroom, did not make it to the end of the year either because they dropped out or because they were arrested.
Elementary students, grades 1-4, will also have their moments of hysteria and tantrums. However, it will be a lot easier to break up a fight between kids 3 feet tall and 90 pounds than kids 6 feet and 250. Also, as a student moves up grades but continues to lag behind in his reading and math skills, it becomes that much harder to motivative him to catch up. If a student in the 3rd grade reads at a 1st grade level, there is a greater likelihood that a good teacher can make a significant impact upon specific skills such as comprehension and decoding. Because the gap is smaller to close, the student does not yet recognize the descrepency and benchmark achievements will (hopefully) be easier to hit.
Still, there is so much to learn. I always took for granted that teaching is an easy profession, a cop-out for individuals who didn't go the techie route. To become a skilled teacher will take years to learn. The complexity of managing a classroom, a special education classroom with students who have "emotional disturbances" and "behavioral disabilities", along with actual instruction has at times seemed overwhelming. I'm nervous and excited about it.
