Areas of Unrest

14 April 2000 - News and Chews

QOTD: "You must have crossed the river before you can tell the crocodile he has bad breath." - Chinese proverb

Reading: Jonathan Gash, The Rich and the Profane

Listening to: nothing since I'm in the office, not home

I was planning to write last night, but I was too tired and had too much other stuff to catch up on when I got home, so this is a quick entry before I go away for the weekend.

It's been a while since I wrote about news stories and there have been several interesting ones recently. Robert sent me an article about a Hutu refugee who stowed away on the R.M.S. St. Helena but had not yet decided whether or not to file an application for asylum because he was afraid he might be too lonely on Saint Helena. That concern highlighted one of the big differences between African culture and western culture. If you understand the cultural emphasis on community versus the individual, a lot of news about Africa makes more sense.

Which brings me to the mess in Zimbabwe. There were similar attempts at land grabs not long before I was there, but the stakes are higher now with the election approaching. My take on it is that Mugabe is basically stirring up racial tension to cover his own ineptitude at running the economy. It's not quite that simple, of course. The white farmers are descended from British settlers who did exploit tribal tensions (between the Shona and the Ndebele) to grab land. A hundred years later most of them have never lived anywhere else and consider themselves truly African. The solution is land reform that includes financial compensation. And it's that last part that Mugabe is just playing games with. His personal fortune is something like the 6th largest in the world and he cries to the British about what a poor country he was left with after independence. I'm afraid that I don't see this getting resolved without lots of violence.

While I am still on Africa, I've also been fascinated by the Uganda cult massacre story. What interests me is whether the leaders of the group really planned a massacre all along, after encouraging followers to turn over their wealth to the cult, or whether it's a matter of power corrupting.

Which brings me to the historical story of the week. Namely, the report that the high death rate of the early settlers in Jamestown may have been due to arsenic poisoning. And that the culprit was very likely Captain John Smith himself. Apparently, this had something to do with the English vs. the Dutch. I just read a brief story about this the other day, but what a difference it makes in the image of colonial America.

And then there's the situation in Peru. It looks like there will be a runoff between Alberto Fujimori and Alejandro Toledo, despite all of the dirty tricks Fujimori played. The part that I found most interesting was Toledo playing the race card by characterizing the contest as "El Cholo vs. El Chino" (the Indian vs. the Chinaman, though I thought "cholo" really meant "peasant" and, of course, Fujimori is of Japanese descent, not Chinese). The common perception of racial issues in Latin America is of European colonialists versus indigenous populations and this reminded me that the picture is bigger than that. It's similar to the situations of (Asian) Indians in South Africa, I suppose, Everybody talks about black and white, while they share problems with each.

I also read that the International Red Cross may finally reach a compromise that would let them accept the Magen David Adam (Red Star of David, Israel's equivalent organization). They've balked for years, using the claim that allowing additional symbols would create too much confusion - although they accepted the Red Crescent used by Islamic nations. The current plan allows for a red diamond as a symbol. It seems to me that this misses the point. Unless they make the countries that currently use a cross or crescent also change to the diamond, they're still being discriminatory. (And they still won't get any of my charity dollars. There are other relief agencies out there that I can give to instead.)

In lighter news, I was amused by reading that Unilever is buying both Ben and Jerry's (an ice cream company) and Slimfast. It doesn't surprise me, though. It's just like all those women's magazines that have front covers advertising articles on "how to lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks" right next to "gooiest chocolate cake ever".

Another amusing tidbit was a reference to a flight between San Jose (the airport for Silicon Valley) and Boston as "the nerd bird." The context was industrial espionage, by the way, and the article discussed spies booking this flight in hopes of overhearing useful information. Once again I feel vindicated in my indulgence in mysteries during my own business travel.

Finally, I can't leave out the Boulder restaurant report. Monday night, Mary Joan and I went to Ras Kassa's Ethiopian restaurant. We ordered combination plates so we could sample several different things. There was a rather bland yellow split pea dish, a spicy and delicious red lentil dish, and moderately spicy (but very tasty) sweet potatoes, along with fitfit (sort of like tabbouli, but made with crumbled injera - very lemony), some sort of farmer's cheese, steamed greens, and a sort of beet salad. And, of course, you use more injera (a spongy millet-based bread) to scoop it up with your fingers. It was very nice, though not necessarily something I'd want to have often.

Tuesday night, several of us went to Zolo Grill. It's still one of my favorite places in Boulder. I had seared ahi, with a sauce that had a healthy dose of wasabi, along with some sort of sweet potato side dish and stir-fried greens. Followed by a sort of mocha creme brulee, it was a decidedly decadent meal. Wednesday I was on my own and tried a newish place in Longmont (where I was staying). Bistro 119 isn't as creative, but they did a competent job with standard European fare and I'd be willing to go there again. I was disappointed, though, in the Frangelico tart I had for dessert. It was more of a cheesecake than anything else and, while the strawberries and blueberries that covered it were nice, it was too sweet and could have used more Frangelico.