Framing

Reading the newspaper on Friday, an article, Judge gets tough with convict who spit at officer produced a perverse chuckle. It seems that a man of whom the court-ordered medical opinion stated is "narcissistic beyond the point of rehabilitation" set out to represent himself in court over a matter of spitting on his probation officer. The judge exceeded sentencing guidelines and sentenced him to four to 10 years.

A friend sent me that photograph of me and I wanted to share it. I'm not an awfully good judge of character, especially my own. The picture captures a certain je ne sais quoi; no wait, it's pretty easy to say: I'm a goof. Partly wanting to run a picture has to do with having signed up this blog to Afrigator on the Ugandan channel. The problem is, you see, I'm not Ugandan. I've never been to Uganda, much less been to Africa. Oh and there's the unfortunate choice of "Kaunda" as a handle, and the even more ridiculous decision to post for a while a photo of me in an afro wig in my profile. Geez! What was I thinking?

The name was chosen because I was sure I'd make a fool of myself blogging and thought that some anonymity might be in order. All the good handles I'd dreamt up were already taken. Kenneth Kaunda came to mind. At the time I was hoping against hope that President Musevini would step down as Kaunda eventually did. Not surprisingly, because of Kaunda's authoritarian presidency, no other blogger had snapped up the name Kaunda. I bet I can change the name, but have figured out how to. In any case, I soon discovered doing searches from my blog quickly yielded results displaying my real name and other aliases. I was quite naive about online anonymity, or at least how to go about creating it.

Part of my mirth about the case of the irredeemable narcissist in the courtroom stems from my, decidedly unqualified, perceptions of the judge in question gleaned over time. You know, he strikes me as a wee bit egotistical; well, and maybe a tad on the narcissistic side of the scale. The Assistant District Attorney on the case said during the sentencing hearing:

Anyone who cannot control himself with the judge on the bench deserves the maximum sentence.

Note to self: Should you ever be compelled to defend yourself in court; get representation!

I'm not at all sure how clinicians make their diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. One clue that I might not raise to the level is that while the report of about the defendant did raise a chuckle, I'm well aware of my own ability to make a fool of myself publicly, so felt embarrassed for the defendant. Schadenfreund was offset by: "There but by the grace of God go I."

Living in this world seems a little crazy most of the time. And as a very ordinary American the notion of being of service to African people is something to deserving of some skepticism and inward reflection.

I was delighted to discover that Keguro has been blogging at new quarters. The man never ceases to amaze me with his capacity to peal back the layers revealing what's inside and under. In the post I read today he looked at a recent New York Times poll which asked readers: "whether 'rich countries' should help 'poor countries' with problems stemming from climate change."

Keguro notes that most people in "rich" countries are hardly rich, but then directs his attention to the rhetorical framing of the question:

Responsibility, what I would term culpability, is re-translated, through a very clever sleigh of hand, into altruism. Rich countries help Poor countries.

Recoded as altruism, culpability becomes yet another way to bolster one’s ego. Pushed to a certain illogic, the potential for recoding injury or criminality or responsibility as a form of altruism guarantees ongoing inequality and oppression.

Reading the whole post is very much recommended as is reading his blog Gukira frequently. The precision of the word, culpability, over responsibility is worthwhile. The connotation of trustworthiness in "responsible" tends to paper over the "blameworhiness" implicit in the word culpable.

Acting responsibly is of course no mean feat. How should one, privileged as I am, respond in a mad and unjust world? The strategy of narrowing ones boundaries contains a logic and even an inevitability. Broadening ones boundaries to include in sight people in the world far away is fraught with pitfalls, but also exposes one to a richness of life unavailable from a closed, provincial perspective. Without much wealth the advantages to the broader perspective would seem to easily outweigh the pitfalls. Nevertheless negotiating the unfamiliar terrain requires tact and self-awareness. Neither quality, it appears, have I in abundance.

Keguro's illuminating the rhetoric of "rich" countries and "poor" countries reminds that the problem isn't just me, but a pervasive framing, even propaganda, that shapes our worldviews, especially as Americans. Narcissism isn't only a personal disorder, but a persistent cultural expression; surely it's annoying.

Hash points to new developments at Kabissa and online social network for civil society organizations working in or for Africa. In the member spotlight at the Web site is Thembathi an organization dedicated to the support of orphans and other vulnerable children in the KwaZulu-Natal region of South Africa. Thembathi means hope with us in Zulu.

I bear culpability for injustices of many sorts, just by being born who and where I was. It doesn't seem fair, but there you go, injustice is a funny that way. So I have an obligation to try to help repair the world. But I'm a shirker and feeling guilty seems to motivate me towards inaction. Whereas, the invitation to hope with others moves me. My Ugandan friends inspire me to imagine Uganda's potential. Hoping with them enriches my life. Like so many of my ideas--have you seen Hats For Health?--Bazungu Bucks is a bit half-baked. Still the intention is to invite others to hope with us. I'm sure together we can create something good.

Blog Depression

I've already satisfied myself that blogging is not addictive. I reserve judgment about my Internet use in general. There are so many things that make me feel really good; especially when I see, read, listen to so many who create something good. But politics, in particular the politics of war can make me feel very bad.

I wasn't sure what image to accompany this post. I have a nice graphic that says: No War On Iran, after President Bush's speech this week that's surely been on my mind. But I chose a picture of General Smedley Butler's book. The reason is while obsessing over the implications of speech, looking high and low for opinions and commentary, I feel downright depressed.

Butler is one of the United States Marine Corps heroes. It seems strange from today's perspective that would be the case because General Butler articulated a severe critique of Eisenhower's famous Congressional-Military-Industrial Complex long before Eisenhower coined the term and the complex had consolidated its gains through the Cold War. Americans have long known there's something rotten at our core.

Gail Russel Chaddick of the Christian Science Monitor wrote a line that stopped me dead in my tracks in a report early in the week about Congressional hearings over Iraq:

That means a key aspect of the president's plan, expected to be unveiled this week, will run into a wall of words on Capitol Hill, but not much more.

Chaddick is a careful reporter. I've been reading her reports for years because while I was in school studying education she was the Monitor's education writer. "A wall of words and not much else" that's not spin, it's just the facts.

I've signed MoveOn's Petition urging Congress to block the president's plan to escalate the war in the Middle East. I've signed Care2's petition as well. I've written my senators and representative--you can find out how to contact Congress here. I haven't written my local paper as my letters no longer raise any response. I think all of those things are good to do and encourage you to do so too, if you're so inclined. But my depression persists because I know Chaddick is right: "A wall of words and not much else." She's right for reasons Butler laid out before World War II: "War Is a Racket."

I'm an avid gardener and one of my essential seed sources is J. L. Hudson Seedsman. Even if you don't buy many seeds the dollar for the catalog is well worth it because they sell only Public Domain seeds. So many plants, especially flowers to my mind are best as species, and there are many venerable old selections almost impossible to find elsewhere but very worth growing. D. Theodoropoulos, the owner of the business is also an anarchist and scatters pithy quotations throughout the catalog in order to make the page columns even. This year there are a couple new to me. The first from William Burroughs:

Migrants of ape in gasoline crack of history.

The second by R. Crumb:

Sooner of later you're gonna hafta face up to them...the fact is, you know too much already...you're no ignoramus...you know what they're doing all over the world is terribly, terribly wrong

Inconvenient truths I somehow ignore most of the time. The policies my country is perusing under my flag I oppose.

I certainly don't expect others to trust my views about American politics, I'm no expert. Digby at Hullabaloo is someone whose views about politics seem quite informed and Digby makes an observation about the political calculus and war in this piece that's really astute:

I thought long and hard about that since then, wondering how a politician can truly know the smart move in cases of war and I concluded that they probably can't. They simply have to do what they think is right. It's a different case than most legislation where you can horsetrade and think about positioning for the future and otherwise play politics. War is a wildcard --- you can't know in advance how things are going to go or what position taken today might benefit you tomorrow. The risks are so high and the moral questions so profound that you are better off just trying to make a reasoned decision and being open minded about changing your mind if things go differently than you expect

I believe strongly that my country's current policies in the Middle East are dangerously mistaken. My views aren't very significant, but ultimately what we all think is right is significant. Elected politicians have to wrestle with what is right as much as I do, and the outcome in their cases is far more important. I find Digby's observation somewhat encouraging, at least it's possible politicians could decide what's right. Of course, I'm not holding my breathe. It's sad to say most people are like me in not sufficiently valuing what we think is right. And maybe a wall of words isn't as insubstantial as we imagine. Alas, I'm still depressed.