Thank God for libraries ....

Nearly a week ago, as the $50 fill up and $4 eggs tighten the beltstrap on my already meager savings account, to say nothing of my addiction to Starbucks non-fat lattes and the general penury that most grad students enjoy, I came to the conclusion that I am going to have to be more thrifty this summer. As the spirit of responsibility struck me one afternoon as I sat reading in my apartment, I brought up the transaction history on my debit card. Both the problem and the solution to my finance situation were evident immediately. My bank statement read something like this:
6/1 - CHK CARD PURCH. - GENAURDIS (a grocery store)
6/3 - CHK CARD PURCH. - BORDERSBOOKS&G
6/6 - ATM WITHDRWL
6/12 - CHK CARD PURCH. - BORDERSBOOKS&G
6/13 - CHK CARD PURCH. - BARNES&NOBLE.COM
6/13 - CHK CARD PURCH. - AMAZON.COM
Well, you get the idea ...


Now, that pesky little webpage forced me to acknowledge that I have a serious weakness for the buying of books. It could be worse, I suppose. I could buy the books and never read them. Or buy ones only with certain color spines so as to match my apartment decor perfectly. Or - my personal favourite - I could be buying only cds, trashy magazines and yoga mats at these alleged "book stores". But no, I fear that I have merely been buying and reading large numbers of books (and, I will admit, quite a few pieces of awesome Papyrus stationary).

Nevertheless, this poses a serious strain on my finances. The situation has worsened the past couple of weeks, too, because I actually have a break from classes. Months' accumulated guilt has now forced me out into the world to buy all the books I have been meaning to make time for since the semester began. I could borrow these books, it is true, and give either my school or local library a purpose of existence. But there is something so utterly satisfying about buying a book you know you will enjoy, that it makes up a hefty percentage of the actual enjoyment. Also, I very much like having the ability to lend beloved books to friends, despite the danger of never seeing the darlings again. In fact, sometimes lending a book to a disorganized and forgetful friend is an excellent way to pare down one's own collection. Recommending a book, growing excited as you remember and tell of your favourite lines or scenes or characters, realizing that there's a chance your friend will relish those parts as much as you did, and then actually being able to hand over that book is part of the reason I read (and have friends) in the first place. Glancing over to see the book sit on my bookshelf day in and day out, like an omnipresent kind of friend who's always there when I need him is very comforting as well. And when you borrow a book, the sad reality is that you are eventually going to have to give it back, leaving a depressing gap in the symmetry of the bookcase.

Necessity, however, has propelled me back to borrowing. I've calculated that I will spend 1/3 as much money in the month of July simply by curtailing my book-buying-habit. And so I trudged back into my local library yesterday, a place I have not seen for a couple months at least. I really don't know why, either. I mean, I should really visit the place sporadically anyway, just to visit with the local characters, who are easily as entertaining as those in nutty nearby coffee shops.

Nestled in a quiet Jewish neighborhood, my library seems to attract the oddest and dissimilar people into its musty walls. Tiny, frail older couples, the Yarmulke-ed husband leaning on his cane, move slowly to the philosophy section while a sullen teenager, his hip hop blaring out of his iPod headphones, stands by the new dvd releases. A boisterous woman with enormous plastic-framed glasses, jingling under the weight of her many necklaces, loudly asks the woman in circulation about a recent mystery novel. Nearby, another librarian talks hurriedly into an ancient rotary phone to the person on the other end, who one can assume to either be a veterinarian or a cat-sitter, based on the content of the conversation. My favourite, though, is the older gentleman who comes in daily, I believe, and sits on one of the sofas, his panama hat balanced on one knee and a neat necktie under his vest, the picture of refinement as he quietly reads his book. In amongst the chaos and general disorder of this decidedly un-silent library, he creates for himself a cozy little haven of peace and good books. He seems very erudite, a retired professor or amateur academic perhaps, and I have see him there often over the past year. I secretly believe that he enjoys the chaos, sitting there just letting it wash over him.

Not nearly as disappointed as I thought I would be, I walked out of the library that day with three new novels, a book on intuition, and a big book on foreign policy that I am going to study for my exam. The latter, at least, was quite the find , since it is now out-of-print, and all the copies on Amazon or the used bookstores, when I could find them, looked very shabby indeed. So it seems that libraries do have some very pointed and redeeming qualities. And I know my bank account is pleased ...

The Problem with Iraq

We have come to view our victory or defeat in Iraq as just that – a win or loss on our own part. We have forgotten about the great vested interest had by the people in their own country. It has become personal. What started as an offensive to protect ourselves from Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and liberate the people of Iraq from tyranny has morphed into a desire to draw the war on terrorism away from our own shores. We seek now to fight our war in already conflict-drenched Middle Eastern lands.

But Saddam is gone now, and he certainly does not have any WMDs with which to hurt us. The people on Iraq no longer bear the yoke of his oppression. And yet we are still there, losing brave men and women in small but seemingly unlimited installments. What had begun as an ostensibly objective and prudent plan has disintegrated into a reactionary and zealous desire to get the terrorists in Iraq before they can get us here. Never mind that as a direct result of our actions, Iraq undoubtedly contains more bona fide terrorists now than it did before the invasion. Never mind that we have now stuck our oar into an already resentful Middle East, ensuring that even more moderate Muslims see our goals as imperialistic and patronizing. Never mind that we have sacrificed what could have grown into an important ally after a timely and natural death of Saddam Hussein. He had never had an ironclad grip over the country; too many of the citizens remembered the freedom and prosperity that were theirs before his dictatorship. No – despite all this our official policy is still to demand an unconditional victory from our war.

In short, we have grown too close and heated when it comes to Iraq. We are blinding ourselves to the value that concession and accommodation could bring to the situation. In a scene disturbingly reminiscent of the missteps taken in Vietnam a generation ago, we are determined to press forward with force, believing that we need to witness an ultimate defeat of an opponent that was never really ours to begin with. We have committed ourselves to a protracted battle with no end in sight, refusing to negotiate until we see terrorism driven totally from Iraqi boundaries. Our continued presence, however, seems to inspire little beyond escalating violence and a renewed determination of quasi-terrorists from around the Middle East to fight us to the death. A Baghdad once full of palm trees and sidewalk cafes may be Saddam-free, but it is also riddled with bullets and an aura of death and violence. And to top it off, we have a presidential candidate who has vowed to continue the fight for 100 years if need be. We have lost sight of the reality that concession does not always spell defeat.

In many ways we have achieved what we set out to do in Iraq. Saddam is gone and there are no weapons of mass destruction. But because those goals were flawed from the beginning, we have also created a great mess in the meanwhile. As much as we can ultimately benefit from analyzing those mistakes so as to avoid them in the future, we need also to look to the requirements of the future. What we need to do now, our professed objectives achieved, is to begin the process of pulling out to let the Iraqis determine the course of their own country. If they decide that course is one that ends in democracy, so much the better. But with centuries of a history, customs and a philosophy so different from our own, if they decide they prefer another course, we must be ready to accept that. Our role cannot be that of a sculptor taking a damaged bit of clay and smashing and kneading it until it miserably forms the shape we like. The bottom line is that peace in Iraq is best for everyone – better for us and better for the whole Middle East.

Let the Iraqis quibble over their differences against a backdrop of relative peace, as we had the luxury to do for nearly two decades before September 11^th. More true and lasting solutions come out of equable peacetime negotiations than under the duress of conflict. If we desire democracy in that part of the world, let us instead offer up our best and most appealing version of what we preach, and allow a committed people choose to follow in our footsteps. We will find more genuine allies and partners that way that flexing our muscles as global cops or bullies.

In any case, the bellicosity of the bin Ladens of the world is losing favor across the Islamic world. Research shows that devout Muslims throughout the Middle East support tactics like suicide bombings and kidnappings less and less than in years past, preferring to deal with disagreements through political channels. The militant Hezbollah and Palestinian groups have seen support from Syrian and Saudi Arabian neighbors fizzle. Even the most conservative of the Muslim ruling clerics are prepared to make concessions; Saudi Arabia plans to send its first women’s Olympic team to London in 2012. If we can show ourselves of the world as a wise and magnanimous nation, giving the Iraqis our assistance but letting them decide their future as befits their traditions and values, we can seize upon this shifting allegiance and form important bonds with a host of Arab countries. This in turn would allow us not only to contain the threats posed by Iran, but to involve the Middle East in the rebuilding of a country to which it has a significant stake it. This will of course be complicated, but if our true objectives are a stable, productive and allied Iraq and an end to the threat of terrorism, this path affords us at least the chance of success.

My grass is greener than yours

Awww ... now is that not cute?!

I've taken on an independent study at school, basically immersing myself in all of the virtual worlds or techie applications that exist now promoting environmentalism. So I have spent the last couple days scouring the internet for all the environmental causes on the web that I can find. They really run the gamut from cutsie to militant, earnest to chastising showing how many motivations people find to "go green." One thing's certain, though. The time has come when it's finally cool to be a green girl or boy. These aren't your parent's treehuggers.

I'm quite excited about this project really. I believe I have finally discovered a way to put all the business acumen that I have been studying for the past year to work in the real world and still retain my sense of decency and idealism. Because I have finally discovered that good businesses, that is non-profits, agencies and even profitable businesses who are working to bring necessary goods or services to people who need them, need marketers just as much as all of the profit-hungry, materialistic corporations we all love to bash. The omnipresent "catch" is that all those jolly non-profits probably do not realize that they could benefit from marketing, and can seldom afford to hire many of us even if they do.

All the same, it is enormously comforting to know that I could actually bring myself to work in the field in which I have been studying for the past 12 months. I had my worries there for a while. I just have a fundamental ethical dilemma in selling people shit they don't need. And most marketers make their living doing (or trying to do) just that. The trick, I've found, is to find a business that is selling things people actually need.

In other news ...
- still have not reflected about my awesome trip to China and Japan. or put up photos. utterly shameful.
- actually have at my disposal two and a half weeks with no school. two weeks to catch up on all the nonsense I have put off now for a whole semester. what more could a girl want?
- have become attached to writing entire sentences in lowercase script. except, of course, for the "proper nouns" like 'I' because to not give them their due capitals would just be improper.

How Obama Can Win

Hurrah! After an excruciating run of the primary season, Obama has finally locked it up, and in all honesty, I think he's a stronger, more sophisticated candidate for it. The constant spotlight and the locking of horns with Clinton has given him a deal of experience, and helped demonstrate that he does have what it takes to be on the national stage day in and day out, a major flaw his retractors had pounced on.

Now, according to Robert Creamer, he's got to do the following to win in November. Either way, I am glad to finally have a reason to care about national politics again.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-creamer/ten-key-steps-to-put-obam_b_105126.html