Sami Al-Arian’s story starts with a door knock. How it ends has thousands holding their breath.

Since 2003, the University of South Florida professor has been held at the government’s whim in jails all across Florida for allegedly spearheading a militant Palestinian “super-group.”

Super double-speak, yes?

This is a man Newsweek once called, “the premier civil rights activist in America for his efforts to repeal the use of secret evidence.” This is also a man that has personally met George W. Bush for his tireless civil rights advocacy.

With over 11 years of FBI wiretaps and searches, over $50 million spent on trial, 80 witnesses, 400 transcripts of intercepted phone conversations and faxes, and a result that failed to return a single guilty verdict on any of the 53 criminal counts, Arian is still being prosecuted by the American government.

Yesterday morning, prosecutors indicted Al-Arian for again declining to appear before a grand jury probing an Islamic charity in Northern Virginia. He has already spent an additional eighteen months in prison for refusing to testify.

As his lawyer, George Washington law professor Jonathan Turley said, “Dr. Al-Arian was held for a year on civil contempt for refusing to cooperate in a grand jury investigation. Under federal rules, the government is not allowed to use civil contempt confinement against a witness who clearly will not cooperate.”

Despite Al-Arian’s refusals and a global campaign supporting his non-compliance with the Justice Department, prosecutors insisted that Dr. Al-Arian would crack under pressure as a way to keep him incarcerated.

As of January 22, 2007, Al-Arian began a hunger strike that caused him to lose 55 pounds, endure kidney problems and other physical ailments until acquiesed to his family’s pleas after two months without food. In May 2007, Dr. Al-Arian was told by doctors that he was diagnosed with a hernia and that surgery was mandatory.

Al-Arian has now survived two grand juries. After the court granted a motion to lift the last contempt order, he began serving the remainder of his time from the plea agreement. This time was suspended during his civil contempt period – a fabulous way of extending his punishment.

As Turley said, “I wanted to express our great disappointment in the decision of the Justice Department to continue this effort to mete out punishment that it could not secure from a jury. Having lost the case in Florida, the Justice Department has openly sought to extend his confinement by daisy-chaining grand juries…”

“As in other cases, the government has given Dr. Al-Arian the choice of an obvious perjury trap or a contempt sanction. It is a choice that is obnoxious to our legal system and contrary to any standard of decency. The mistreatment of Dr. Al-Arian remains an international symbol of how the Bush Administration has discarded fundamental principles of fairness in a blind pursuit of retribution against this political activist.”

Read Sami Al-Arian’s 2007 plea to the Nobel Peace Center:

Clearly the old Arabic proverb personifies our Justice Dept.,

“A foolish man may be known by six things: Anger without cause, speech without profit, change without progress, inquiry without object, putting trust in a stranger, and mistaking foes for friends.”

So I did what every person who has ever crouched in bed late at night, spilling your inky guts on to the page, fears most:  I went back and read some old journal entries.  I came upon the below and was startled by how different a place I could be in just four short years ago.

It’s a testament to the angst of the early 20’s.  The first dawning of the harsh realization that contrary to what you were told all throughout childhood, you really can’t grow up and be anything you want unless luck, smarts, and perseverance all create the perfect storm of life magic.

The poem was on the opposite page to the entry - a final rewrite of something I had been working on prior to the entry.  The prose came out as a companion piece.  I feel like they say almost the same things.   The paragraph breaks represent page turns.  I’m not quite sure why I’m sharing it other than the fact that I think everyone my age in my position in life goes through similar struggles.

Despite my apparent determination and conviction that I had everything figured out, it took me another three years from that point to leave the spirit-sucking corporate job I was trapped in at the time.   I came out thinking I was going to be a famous screenwriter and ended up working six years between two films studios, only at a desk, staring at spreadsheets with DVD warehouse inventories.  Kudos to people who get juiced from an office environment.  I almost envy you.

For me, the screen part left, but the writing remained, as I’m now one year down in a journalism program at USC.  Everyone puts on this air of panic as the big 3-0 approaches, but I think it’s mostly an act.  I’m glad to see the 20’s go.  Not that I don’t think a decent amount of what I thought then doesn’t hold true now, but it’s the anguish of uncertainty that gave that period the harsh edge.  It’s a lot easier of a pill to swallow in hindsight.

So to that, I say bring on the 30’s.  Time to start living life with my head screwed on.

*****

5/15/04 - 12:19 a.m.

A butterfly is born without first living
as a caterpillar.
An unassuming immaculate conception,
yet deprived of the wisdom of the world
(taught before the cocoon in scattered
doses of blunder and mounting
cynicism) Nevertheless…
Flying was effortless at first:
no one told the wings that they
had to stop flying at some point.

No one can ever prepare you for the spider web of decision making that defines existing in the midst of a first-world, developed civilization.  School means grades: the objective is clear.  Grades are for college:  once again, clear.  All of the posturing and all of the guidance does not account for the deaf ears of American children who are being forced to listen, though.  We are so obsessed with standardizing and quantifying as a culture that we lose sight of the human element as it becomes buried beneath a mountain of grades, stats, and acronyms.  There is a dichotomy at play here, a self-defeating process by which many young and privileged children are set up for disappointment in life.  parents become obsessed with the ultimate measuring stick of performance: the report card.  At the same time, though if these parents are like mine and found their drive and passion for work in the desire to provide a better, more comfortable life than what they knew growing up, they will be compelled

to bestow the rich fruits of their labor upon their children.  This cycle will eventually remove the initial motivation of desire from the equation because the children who have a comfortable life from day one will not be driven to obtain something they have always known.   The parents push their children to do well while unknowingly depriving their good intentions of a major catalyst.  Good grades and performance become necessities to appease the parents and in turn maintain the freedom and comfort.  The recognition of knowledge as power gets slighted because in most instances, achieving good grades not always require the acquisition and/or possession of knowledge.  Some people are likely born with an innate understanding of the need for knowledge.  If that thirst cannot be quenched with other, superficially alluring material or social vices, that person is truly lucky because they do not need to derive

their motivation from their environment.  In most cases, including myself, the human spirit has an abundance of inertia and the natural tendency is towards the path of least resistance.  When the focus is set on gaining standardized prowess, the thirst is easily quenched because the brain and body were not intrinsically parched.  This mentality can persist almost throughout college without causing any severe problems.  But if you coast through university and are not pursuing a career in finance, a law degree, a medical degree, or a career in engineering or computers, you are in no way a necessity when you set sail into the ocean of the “real world” with a flimsy diploma for a sail.  It’s somewhat ironic that the individuals who strive to gain the most well-rounded educations are the least prepared and a lesser commodity.  Even with a thirst for knowledge, a liberal arts degree is merely a small

stepping stone towards greatness.  So this is the dilemma I am faced with.  Twenty four years old and just now becoming familiar with the angst, the questioning, the unrest, and the desire to fight my own inertia.  To strive beyond my means.  Yes, being a doctor or a lawyer or a banker appear to be the more challenging paths at first, but once one summit is reached, the climb levels and the terrain becomes much easier.  And you will always know which direction you need to move.  To want to leave my mark in this world through something creative that originated in my own thoughts, musings, and observations requires a level of will and dedication I ahve not found within myself for a long while.  Everything else just pales in comparison.  Film is universal and I want my place in its history.  To touch so many people on so many levels all at once would be the

most fulfilling personal and intellectual accomplishment I could achieve.  I came out to LA with an English degree and a ton of confidence, hopes, and dreams.  The confidence took some hits as the world rapidly expanded before me.  The hopes and the dreams remain, though, and I am starting to see what must be done to make them a reality.  I’ve come close to laying down and giving in to becoming a desk jockey, but that would be the ultimate acceptance of defeat and a waste of what I am told is an amazing education.  But enough bullshit.  As long as I continue to write, themes will develop and ideas will coagulate.  The lifestyle will always be comfortable; I am lucky enough to be put in that position early in my life.  Now to do something that will satiate a thirst that is finally being provoked into prominence by a life that simply will not remain.

As a television series backed by elder US diplomats attempts to change Arabs’ perception of the US, casual conversation with a few Egyptian friends reveals that even those intimately familiar with this country still harbor skepticism of America and its relationship with Israel.

The Sunday edition of the New York Times reported that “On the Road in America,” a 12 part series chronicling an RV tour of the US by four Arab twenty-somethings (three guys, one girl) during the summer of 2006 is set to air on the Sundance Channel.

The series was conceived “with the hope of showing Arab viewers in the Middle East a broader and more nuanced view of America than that seen in Hollywood exports.” It drew about 4.5 million viewers per episode when it was broadcast across the Middle East last year.

The show was produced by Layalina Productions, a non-profit that claims George Bush Sr., James Baker, and Henry Kissinger among the many dignitaries on its advisory board. The Sundance Channel is hoping to put the shoe on the other foot by showing American audiences four Westernized Arab youths doing their best Alexis de Tocqueville impersonation, offering candid interpretations of America filtered through their own culture and experiences.

But while such efforts are necessary and should be applauded, a few email exchanges with several friends of mine from high school in Cairo, Egypt indicate that much of the cynicism toward the US, in their minds, is the result of foreign policy and not wayward cultural exports.

It began as a form letter sent to people I knew were US-educated, had lived (or in some cases were born) here, and were now living in various parts of the Middle East. I asked two questions: 1) what are your thoughts on the current state of the Arab-Israeli conflict and 2) what do you think, or what are you hearing from other people, about the US elections?

I got responses from three Egyptians, each living in different areas of the Middle East, and was put in touch with a fourth woman who is not Arab, but attended the same high-school and is now doing graduate work on the conflict.

Below is what I assembled based on all four conversations.

The skepticism stems from the unassailable influence of the Jewish lobby over Washington and casts doubts among everyone I spoke with that Obama could successfully defy the likes of a pro-Israel powerhouse lobby such as the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.

“The biggest problem Arabs have is the United States’ blind support for Israel,” said Tammer Azzouz, 28, a University of Maryland graduate living in Kuwait City.

“No matter what happens, this is always the root of the problem.”

Wael Omar saw Obama’s appearance at today’s AIPAC policy forum (along with McCain, Clinton, and most of the House and Senate) as a referendum on his attitude towards the entire Arab world.

“It could be a defining moment for him as far as which way the Arab news media will take him,” said Omar, 29, a filmmaker who attended Emerson College and currently resides in Cairo.

“They know he will be a friend of Israel, but to what extent is mainly their concern,” said Omar. “Common to attitudes in Europe, they think his being black is somehow an indication of his progressive politics, but it’s not clear whether they think that Obama is actually going to introduce the kinds of foreign policy changes that will make them change their views drastically,” he said.

Their lack of faith is tied to the US government’s silence as Israeli settlements expand into the West Bank and East Jerusalem beyond internationally sanctioned borders. The push for democratic elections in Palestine by the US and the withdrawal of aid after a Hamas victory compound the mistrust.

“You have generations that don’t remember a functional society,” said Magdalen Hess, a European-American who spent time growing up in East Jerusalem, where she saw her elementary school shut down for two years as Israeli tanks rumbled through the streets. She was able to enroll elsewhere because of her nationality, but her Palestinian classmates were not so lucky, she said.

Hess is now in Ramallah, where her parents lived until three months ago, continuing her graduate work on the role of international aid on the Arab-Israeli conflict. She speaks of how Israeli settlements and walls “cut deep within internationally recognized Palestinian territory” and cripple the commerce of those regions.

When the US turns a blind eye to the social and economic woes of the Palestinians and suspends aid to the democratically elected Hamas, “fissures develop between the Palestinian militant and the more moderate minded,” Hess said.

Typically, this creates a vacuum easily filled by radical organizations and their anti-American doctrines. In the case of Hamas, however, they also offer what Hess describes as “excellent health care” that could theoretically be attached to US aid instead.

“Aid can either reinforce or alleviate divisions,” she said. “In the case of withholding aid from Hamas, you’re clearly exacerbating divisions and further compounding Palestinians real and perceived sense of inequality with Israelis.”

The sense of betrayal runs thick among Palestinians who did “exactly what the US wanted” by holding elections and were “soundly punished as a result,” Hess said.

“So much for the utopia of American democracy,” said Azzouz, calling it an oxymoron that the US pushes for democracy in the region but would rather deal with a Saudi monarchy than a democratically elected Hamas.

On that front, Obama raised Arab and Israeli eyebrows alike with his commitment earlier in the primary season to meet with leaders of Hamas and Iran. He has since backed off the “unconditional” part of his diplomatic intentions and embarked on a PR campaign among Jewish voters to allay concerns over his willingness to talk with two entities that have openly called for the destruction of Israel.

By changing his tune, Obama is focusing squarely on securing the traditionally Democratic Jewish voting bloc, much to the dismay of those hoping he would be the linchpin for a renewed era of American-led peace brokerage.

And that hope is not exclusive to distraught Arabs following the US election.

A new lobbyist group called J-Street was formed to counteract AIPAC and other organizations that a significant amount of American Jews and Israelis view as counter-productive to achieving peace. J-Street bills themselves as “the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement,” on their website.

“Helping the Palestinians achieve a viable, prosperous state is one of the most pro-Israel things an American politician can do,” said J-Street Exec. Director Jeremy Ben-Ami in a recent article in the Washington Post.

Ben-Ami asserts that “when the United States abandons the role of effective broker and acts only as Israel’s amen choir, as it has throughout Bush’s tenure, the United States dims Israel’s prospects of winning security through diplomacy.”

Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera features almost daily indictments of McCain, quoting him in one recent article as singing “Bomb, bomb Iran” to the tune of a Beach Boys song.  Al Jazeera also insists that a McCain presidency will equal four more years of Bush in their report on the White House blocking efforts supported by Israeli Jews to engage Hamas and Iran diplomatically.

Such stories receive far less coverage in the US media, according to Hashim Omran, 31, a Georgetown alum and businessman living in Dubai.

“If the American media had some balls, and if they showed the real opinion of progressive Israelis who want real peace (trust me they exist), the American people would overwhelmingly get behind an equal, two state solution,” Omran said.

“As long as the status quo remains, one state prospers in defiance of global public opinion, while a tortured people fall deeper into a vicious cycle of violence, chaos, and despair,” he said.

To them, Barack Obama, with his African decent, Arab-sounding middle name, and international life-experience growing up in Indonesia, represents the best hope of shattering the status quo in the 21st century. But it’s a long way to November, and a road paved with daily reminders of what the past eight years of American foreign policy has bestowed on the region.

“The majority of people here are cynical enough after eight years of Bush, a war in Iraq, a war in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and Abu Gharib, and all else that while they hope for a Democrat, they would bet that McCain will be the winner come November,” Wael Omar said.

“While the conversation is mainly dominated by Obama-ism, the Arabs feel it smarter that always, in the end, they should expect the worst.”

A glimpse of America through the eyes of their own countrymen, delivered straight to 4.5 million TV sets, may or may not alleviate some of the angst Middle Easterners feel toward the US.

It is where that show fails in reach, but succeeds in concept, that Barack Obama or John McCain needs to begin his mission: with peace, tolerance and understanding as the ultimate goals.

Photo: The Do Lab @ Coachella 2008

Environmental activism is all the rage these days.  Al Gore did more for himself and the environment with one 30 minute presentation than he did with eight years as Bill Clinton’s VP and another year on the presidential campaign trail.  We are slowly being corralled into a European mindset regarding oil consumption, with hybrid cars becoming en vogue at even General Motors.

It’s a new era in policy and perception, but are Americans hitting the pavement in truly impactful ways, or is this more fad than trend?  Recycling has become commonplace, and more people are thinking about how to reduce their gas usage, but this only scratches the surface.  And while An Inconvenient Truth is compelling, watching a slide show in a movie theater isn’t a hands-on method of teaching people significant lifestyle change.

Enter Southern California music and art collective The Do Lab.  They have been making a name for themselves in the Southwest with performance installations at Coachella, Burning Man, and The Electric Daisy Carnival that feature quality underground electronic music from their own artist network  and extensive visual & performing arts elements.

Anyone who has stumbled into their area at Coachella knows that The Do Lab puts on a stellar party without a single name-brand musical act.  Their unique, organic, earthy-inspired aesthetic has also made appearances in Japan and Ireland.

Their crown jewel, however, is Lightning in a Bottle.  It’s a three day music and arts festival which also focuses on sustainable living, with panels and workshops geared towards making green lifestyle changes.  The third annual LIB (as it’s called by all involved) takes place this weekend (May 23 - 26) just north of Santa Barbara, tucked into the foliage of the Live Oak campground.

“It’s no longer just enough to recycle,” said Shena Turlington, the festival’s Eco-Sustainability Director.  “There’s always something more that can be done.”

Turlington, who did her graduate work in sustainable development, has been a part of The Do Lab family since she was a dancer for the Lucent Dossier Vaudeville Cirque, one of this year’s headliners from The Do Lab artist network.  She took time out of the insanity leading up to the festival to chat with me for a bit, and spoke of how many in The Do Lab family were there nine years ago when LIB was just a party in the woods with 100 people.  Nine years later, founders Jesse and John Flemming have created a tight-knit clan of people, all with a singular purpose: to offer an amazing music and arts experience that doesn’t leave a giant black footprint.

“John and Jesse always cringed at how much waste there is at other festivals,” Turlington said.  Their passion for throwing parties led them to rethink where other events were failing miserably.

Among the eco-friendly touts of Lightning in a Bottle this year are:

• an onsite 20 kW solar panel installation that will provide power for much of the event’s energy needs along with two battery backup solar arrays and biodiesel generators.
• remaining energy needs, such as staff transportation, will be offset by purchasing renewable energy credits
• a recycling and composting program, solar and energy efficient lighting
• an eco-fashion show
• 100% biodegradable kitchenware for food vending
• printing on recycled paper using soy inks
• a large-scale campsite greening initiative
• free workshops on green building, renewable energy, and other facets of a sustainable lifestyle

But the biggest difference from most any other festival or musical event you’ve been to though, is perhaps the most obvious as well:  free water.  Anyone who brings their own container can use it, and for those who came empty handed, you can buy one there for use all weekend and beyond.  This not only saves on recycling costs, but the energy to make and fill the bottles, as well as transportation costs and energy consumption for delivery.

“Let’s simplify and get back to the basics and use the tap water,” Turlington said.  “We just need to make sure it’s clean.  Sometimes the best solutions are also the easiest,” she said.

As easy as some solutions are, many end up costing The Do Lab.  Turlington did her undergraduate work in economics, so she is no stranger to the practical pitfalls of bearing lofty green standards.

“You gotta look really hard for suppliers, everything is ten times harder than it should be,” she said, estimating that their stringent standards add about 30% to what they would normally pay.  Something as simple as stickers, which cost $0.08 each to print, jump to $0.60 each when they are done with eco-friendly adhesive and printed with soy or water-based ink.

An economics background also keys Turlington in to the need to quantify their success.  People can have a personal revelation during the show and use their own drink container for a weekend, but actually publishing statistics not only shows the individual impact on a macro level, it gives concrete information to anyone else wanting to try their hand at a green festival.

Turlington calls it The Green Report.  Check out last year’s here.

“It takes so much effort to put it together and track everything, but for me, it’s the most important aspect of a green festival,” she said.  ”People need to see numbers.  It’s really important to not only set the bar as high as we can, but to also track everything so we can share it and educate the population to give people insight into what’s really going on.”

It’s all a cycle, she says.  “Businesses out there see that there’s demand and opportunity here.  That will inspire them to provide products to promoters that can help them make their events more green in the future.”

Just as easily as the report can be used to show the collective power of sustainable living over the course of just three days to an individual participant, it can also be used to determine the areas the festival failed to meet benchmarks and needs to work on for next year.

Beyond setting the example for all future concert promoters, LIB also takes aim at how people live their lives.  As with many progressive causes in California, there is a legion of people who will arrive at the show consummately educated on all of the talking points, and there are those just coming for the music.  How do you strike a balance that resonates with both groups?

For the newbies, Turlington tries to “make it as participatory as possible so it doesn’t feel like you’re in a lecture.”  Among the many workshops, they offer one on edible foods in the wild that features a hike where participants can see and taste what they learn about.  They offer a solar cooking workshop where they show you how to build your own solar cooker for about ten bucks.  You can find out about little details, such as purchasing locally grown food to cut back on production and transportation energy usage.

“And for people who know a lot already, we have the extremely advanced workshops, like how to make biodiesel, and the Paddle Power workshop that goes through each piece you need to turn your bike into a paddle power machine,” Turlington said, clearly getting excited over the phone the more she talked about the opportunity to catalyze long-term behavioral modification.

They also have panels lead by prominent speakers, such as one on sustainable transportation led by Chris Payne, the director of the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car. And this is without mention of any of the music that will be available over a three day period, with talents ranging from big international DJ’s like the Stanton Warriors and Adam Freeland to US superstar Bassnectar and up and coming SoCal based electro-crunk outfit The Glitch Mob. With dance workshops to compliment the eco-conscious ones and three stages, this is clearly not the cracked out SoCal desert rave of the 90’s.

It’s easy to get caught up in the zeal with which Turlington describes the entire affair, especially as one who ascribes to her way of thinking, but the green movement is not without its critics.  While talking about sustainable transportation, I ask her what she would say to those who claim that biofuel consumes more energy to produce than it actually conserves through usage.

“I think it definitely depends on your source of biofuel,” she explains.  “Unfortunately America is very behind the times in this respect, using corn,” a source for which the criticisms hold true.  One of the focuses in the sustainable transportation panel will be the use of algae as a more efficient means of creating biofuel.

“As the economist, I always look at the cost and benefits,” she said.  “I’m not saying it’s not wasteful to make biofuel right now, but I am saying that it’s the beginning stages and it’s going to cost more now in resources to make things.  But when you open the door of thought in some way, there’s always going to be encouragement to make it better.  What we spend now is going to be way outweighed by the benefits in the future.”

And that is probably the best description of the entire LIB experiment.  Someone has to step up and do it first.

“Our goal is to just keep raising the bar and inspiring people,” Turlington said.  “The more people that come to our festival, the more are going to look to it as the standard.

“We don’t want to do it any other way.  It’s just the way it has to be done.”

*****

Look for more upcoming LIB content, including an interview with rising electro/hip-hop/glitch/crunk/chill-out stars The Glitch Mob and a full review of the festival next week.

Lead photo by Chris Nelson

Sex is strange.

In America, governors lose their job and honor over a hired escort, and the next day, the said escort is being offered a million dollars to take her shirt off.  Meanwhile in Germany, one of the most religious countries of the world, prostitutes donning parkas and fanny packs hang out by Burger King, swapping hellos and small talk with neighbors on their way home for dinner.

Japan, despite some of the strictest regulations, is one of the biggest sex-toy manufacturers of the world, getting around the law by naming vibrators “personal massagers” and “novelty items”. They also make some of the best condoms in the world, because any other form of contraceptives are banned (and have been for a while).

In Kenya, many youths born with HIV find themselves without the right resources and education; in the cities, they grow up in catholic schools, constantly being bombarded with agendas of faith and abstinence, while in many villages, condoms often are completely unavailable to most youths. No wonder that the HIV/prevalence rate is more than six percent (that’s one out of 20).

Me? I grew up in a traditional Korean-Christian family, taught Sunday school, and now work as a sex educator and salesperson at Good Vibrations, “a diverse, woman-focused retailer providing access to sex-positive products and accurate sex information.”

These anecdotes are not unconnected. They all reveal the ironic taboo and culture of shame that is inextricable from one of the most common and obvious human acts: sex. They illustrate the fact that despite enormous propaganda and regulations working against sex, it still not only happens, it shapes and changes politics, economics, and the people entangled in it all.

We build a system of debasement and disgrace around sex. Ambiguous terms like “promiscuous,” “kinky,” and “perverted” create boundaries on how and how much sex one should have. It seems everyone who is not having monogamous, heterosexual, racially-homogeneous sex in the missionary position is not “normal.” Furthermore, many value this debasement, promoting shame as some key to reform and morality.

I am a part of a traditional, faith-based Christian family. My mom rarely brought up sex, and if she did, it was buried among flashing red lights and the repeated imperative of “Don’t.” I am now old enough to need insurance of my own, to share my life with a loving partner for years, and to come to terms with the belief that I can still live a faith-based life while maintaining a sex-positive attitude.

And yet, I pretend like I never even so much as thought of sex while around my mom. I’m not trying to lie or hide things, as much as I am just avoiding the inevitable dead-end conversations, relentless arguments and the incredible sense of disapproval and disappointment she will devote to me. My mother wanted to “protect” me from sex, but failed to create an open and nonjudgmental atmosphere in which I could have discussed with her my relationships, both sexual and nonsexual.

Maybe then, I could have avoided making some of the mistakes I’ve made.  No such luck.

No one, no society, no culture can really be “protected” from sex. In fact, most are already quite obsessed with it. Films, books, websites, music and conversations are filled with references to f*cking, making love, bjs and one-night stands. But the problem is that they are merely sexual innuendos, ways of talking circles and circles around sex without actually discussing it, because there is a certain amount of societal reservation that makes sex still a little too gross, a little too taboo, and way too awkward.

It’s this inability to talk frankly and openly about sex, without prejudices and without the wayward ideologies of normality, that prevents any discourse on intercourse.  It hinders any forthright discussion of gender politics, sexuality, disease and poverty, about all things related to sex, without a sense of shame and censure. Instead sex and sexual desires are too often scapegoats for the depraved and criminal. They are to be blamed for disease, scandal, and the devaluation of society and culture. In doing so, we shift the responsibility away from real problems in our education, health systems, cultural prejudice and stereotypes. We fail to acknowledge sex as an ordinary and healthy part of society, and instead use it as an excuse for ignorance.

Making prostitution illegal doesn’t make disease vanish.  Banning sodomy doesn’t make the world straight. And sex  doesn’t translate into love, nor can it sustain love on its own. However, fair and realistic regulations of the sex trade will drastically reduce the violence and crime it breeds while relegated to seedy back alleys.  Education can cultivate tolerance (actually, it’s the only way).  And responsible, healthy sexual relationships can lay the foundation for strong, life-lasting emotional bonds.

So mom, can we please drop the act now?

In recognition of World Malaria Day this past Friday, P+P has a related offering from contributing author Laurie Lathem.

St. Louis University medical students Andrew Sherman and Jesse Matthews refer to the summer of 2005 as their “last summer” because it fell between their first and second years of med school. Facing three more years of medical school and three grueling years of residencies after that, they might have been expected to take it a little easy as most of their colleagues were doing. Instead they formed a non-profit organization called NetLife Africa, and spent several weeks bicycling over dirt roads in rural Senegal distributing anti-malarial bed nets to villagers.

Malaria is the number one killer in Senegal, as well as in other parts of Africa, with children the most vulnerable. It is estimated that malaria kills one child under the age of five every 30 seconds in sub-Saharan Africa which amounts to 3,000 children every day. Picture four 747 jumbo jets loaded with children crashing every day, or a 9/11 every single day of every year. While there is treatment, many malaria sufferers have no access to medical care, particularly in rural areas. The prospect of a vaccine remains poor. Spraying DDT is unpopular and safe only under certain circumstances. As the parasite carrying mosquitoes are nocturnal, the best prevention is the simplest: long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets (LLIN’s) that provide protection while children and their mothers are sleeping.

Concentrating on an area of Senegal called Kedougou that is largely without roads or health care facilities, Sherman and Matthews distributed 600 nets in 2005 and 1,110 more on a subsequent trip in 2007 (their next trip is planned for 2009). They have protected approximately 3,400 people from malaria carrying mosquitoes and have saved an estimated 85 lives (on average, two or three family members sleep under one net, and for every 20 nets delivered, one life is saved). Adamant that NetLife Africa remain a zero overhead organization and that every dollar raised go to the cost of bed nets, Sherman and Matthews pay for their travel with their student loans and raise money from their friends and families to pay for the nets. The cost of one LLIN is $5; the average donation to NetLife Africa is $20.

Asked where they got the crazy idea of going around Senegal on bikes loaded with bed nets, Sherman says, “When I was in the Peace Corps in Kedougou, I saw that the main problems were diarrheal diseases and malaria.” But water problems, as Matthews puts it, are “harder to get your arms around” than malaria. As a Peace Corps volunteer, Sherman recruited a troupe of non-performers from his village to perform a theatrical presentation on the cause and effect of malaria and take it around to neighboring villages. Everyone, Sherman said, had the same question. “How do we prevent this?” After educating the villagers on how to best prevent malaria, he had no way of helping them obtain the nets which at that time in 2002 were about $10 each, roughly double their current cost. Sherman “was stuck with one hand tied behind my back.” It was this feeling he says, and the fact that the price of LLIN’s was dropping, that made him want to go back to Senegal during his “last summer.” “I wanted to do something,” he says. “I didn’t want to go back as a tourist.” So he teamed up with fellow medical student Jesse Matthews and NetLife Africa was born.

Their method is simple and efficient. Sherman and Matthews (who incidentally look so much alike they could easily be mistaken for twins) fly to Dakar where they pick up the LLIN’s, rent a minibus and drive the sixteen hours to Kedougou where the nets are stored in rented rooms under lock and key. There they work with a local health official to identify which villages are at most risk, a determination made on the basis of access to health care, amount of stagnant water and high incidences of positive malaria testing in the past. In each village, they work with a community health agent to make up a list of recipients, prioritizing married women and children first. Sherman, who is fluent in Pulaar, the local language, and Matthews who is becoming proficient, greet the villagers, and give an educational talk on the nets and how they should be used.

Everyone wants a net. They are hard to come by. When a local police officer attempts to bribe Sherman and Matthews on the roads, for example, he wants a net, not money. As they hand out each LLIN, Sherman and Matthews write down each recipient’s ID card number in order to keep the distribution organized and to track their coverage for future visits. Even though Netlife Africa works with the larger organization Against Malaria to buy LLIN’s for the low price of five dollars each, this is still beyond the reach of most rural Senegalese. But the .20 cents that Sherman and Matthews charge is a minimal, symbolic amount that they say helps give a sense of ownership. NetLife Africa then donates the proceeds to a group called Senegad that works to educate adolescent girls in Senegal. Once the distribution is complete, there is singing and dancing, Sherman and Matthews are fed and, once they have slept, they pack up, get on their bikes and do it all over again. The process is physically punishing (Matthews lost 25 pounds in one month in 2007), but the reward keeps them going. The people receiving the LLIN’s are extremely thankful, and the impact is obvious and immediate. Matthews likens the trip to backpacking. “It’s satisfying because it’s hard,” he says.

While the response to NetLife Africa both in Senegal and here in the United States has been almost entirely positive, resistance has come from the most unlikely corners. Some Peace Corps volunteers in Senegal have been unwilling to work with Matthews and Sherman, subscribing as they do to a more free-market enterprise approach to humanitarian work. They believe that LLIN’s should not be given away for free ($0.20 is negligible) and that money is better spent paying for ads that encourage people to buy them. The opposing view is that the urgency of malaria is akin to that of a famine or a natural disaster, both instances in which other outreach organizations such as the World Health Organization routinely give handouts. “There is a fence within the Peace Corps,” explains Sherman, “and Peace Corps volunteers fall on either side of that fence.” Sherman explains his position this way: “These are people who are below the first rung on the ladder of poverty. They need a little help.” Health problems as persistent and devastating as malaria help keep poverty’s oppressive grip on the population he works with. “They need a boost in health to reach the first rung.” Nevertheless, Sherman says he was asked by a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal not to distribute the LLIN’s in her village, an encounter that left him in tears.

However, recent developments in relations between NetLife Africa and the Peace Corps have changed for the better. The new Peace Corps country director in Senegal, Christopher Hedrick, has announced that volunteers in Senegal should also be “anti-malaria volunteers” and has agreed to work with NetLife Africa to distribute LLIN’s over a wider area and with a larger workforce. With these new promising collaborations underway they hope to distribute 4,000 nets in Senegal this summer and eventually to partner with other organizations in neighboring countries such as Guinea

Now that Sherman and Matthews are about to enter highly pressurized medical residencies, and with the Peace Corps wiling to take over the responsibilities of distribution, how much involvement can they realistically expect to have in the future of NetLife Africa? Says Matthews, “malaria is not going anywhere.” And with a new study showing that widespread distribution of LLIN’s and medical therapies in Zanzibar reduced mortality in children under five by half, they have every reason to continue what they started. They only considered residencies whose directors were receptive to their efforts in Senegal. Matthews will be specializing in infectious diseases and Sherman in pediatrics, all the better to serve the population in Kedougou with such things as staph infections and water borne illnesses. Mr. Sherman’s fiancée, Chrystal Jenkins, also a doctor, will travel with them in 2009 to work on programs that empower women. Having scoped out this remote 30 by 40 mile rectangle of the globe where each corn stalk growing between the huts holds enough water to breed mosquitoes, Sherman and Matthews plan on going back to Kedougou every two years. They will even buy a hut there to use as a home base for the price of $500. However grueling their methods seem, they say they have the process streamlined.

“The better we can do it, the more we can do it,” says Sherman. “Besides, we like to get on the bikes.”

In the future, I hope that we can all look back on Obama’s long, meandering path to the nomination (and, hopefully, the presidency) with fondness. I hope we can reminisce about how Clinton’s relentless attacks just toughened him up for November, how she preempted the Republican attack machine by doing their work for them, and how all our fretting was for naught. However, though I’m loath to admit it, my hopes are fading fast.

Or - as Clinton would put it - “the tide is turning” against them.

As it stands right now, it’s impossible for Clinton to win with pledged delegates. She’s too far behind Obama, and she has plum run out of time. It’s not going to happen. This matters a lot, of course, least of all because no Democratic candidate has ever won the nomination without leading in pledged delegates.

Unfortunately, Clinton’s campaign – who I will hereafter refer to as the Hillary truthers – is having none of this. On Tuesday night of last week, campaign chairman and head truther Terry McAuliffe instead trumpeted the popular vote as a new measure of victory. However, even if the popular vote decided the nomination – and it doesn’t – the math isn’t looking too favorable here, either.

Unless McAuliffee is counting the outlawed Michigan and Florida primaries, Clinton’s likely too far behind on this metric to win as well. She is still 600,000 votes behind Obama in the popular vote, and he is looking to make up a good chunk of the 200,000 or so votes he lost in Pennsylvania in the upcoming North Carolina and Indiana primaries.

That is the stark math of defeat. And with that laid out in front of them, Clinton and the Hillary truthers may want to take a long, hard look at the three options they have left. Of the three, only one leaves her with a modicum of dignity at the end. She would do well to choose wisely.

In the first scenario, she trudges on to Indiana and North Carolina, running a tame, respectful campaign. Then – after losing in North Carolina and, likely, Indiana – she drops out of the race, licks her wounds, and makes up for her scorched earth strategy by campaigning relentlessly for Obama in the general.

This is obviously the best scenario for her, Obama, and the party. As for her, it leaves open the option of running again in the future (whether for president or another higher office), and she can finally get to patching together some of the relationships she and Bill have spent the past few months laying waste to. Obama benefits too – he can start campaigning against the Republican he’s supposed to be campaigning against. And the party can begin the long, arduous task of mending itself.

In the second option, Clinton hangs in the race and ratchets up the attacks, continuing to thwack Obama with the heavy, well-used pages she has wrenched so readily out of the Republican playbook. The race lurches towards the finish line, with Clinton eventually losing because, well, that’s what happens to candidates who don’t win more pledged delegates than the other candidate. Hillary truthers, take note.

This scenario offers little in the way of merriment or viability, though. Clinton effectively ends her career, and she and Bill are left on the sidelines of a Democratic party that they once, for all intensive purposes, ran. Obama, on the other hand, slumps into the general election against McCain, who will pick up right where Hillary left off with the slander and innuendo and race-baiting and prevaricating. Then, if Obama loses, America stumbles through another four years of tragedy, this time with Calamity John at the reins.

And what, pray tell, lies beyond door three? The candidates continue to beat each other up as the primaries lumber on, and we end up in a Denver deadlock. There, Clinton is able to sway enough superdelegates over to her side to usurp the public’s will, and she – and the truthers – manage to wrest the nomination away from the first legitimate African-American presidential candidate in history. The Democratic Party is likely torn asunder, with the millions of new or rejuvenated voters that Obama brought into the campaign disenfranchised by their own party.

The general election will proceed, and Clinton will likely lose for a couple of reasons. First is that she will have alienated the (more than) half of the voters that wanted Obama to win, and deserved to have their voices heard. The second is that she will have yanked the race so far to the right that McCain – being, after all, a Republican – will simply outflank her, especially on national security, sending her career to an ignominious conclusion. And if she wins, we get at least four more years of reinvigorated partisan bickering, and burrow deeper into a status quo that’s not working for anybody.

So there are three options right now, two of which could charitably be called disastrous. So what will it be? As we slouch towards Denver, will things fall apart, or can the party hold together? Will we be able to look back on this race with fondness, or regret?

It’s in Clinton’s hands now.

Image:  ABC

The Root is a four-month-old website brought to you by Washington Post.Newsweek Interactive publishing. It aims to take “an unprecedented departure from traditional American journalism [by] raising the profile of black voices in mainstream media…”

“Mainstream?” ”
What’s the point?”

Yes but merely the aspiration to make a black version of Slate, that most mainstream of Web news commentary sites (also owned by Washington Post.Newsweek Interactive), seems a tipping-point kind of sign.

In its slickness and its ideology, The Root manages mostly to point to the broad river of “upwardly mobile” consumer culture that gushes through the middle of our culture, where all of our dreams and aspirations aim to ride. The Root is a Cosby Show of a news site, everything about it evoking a well-adjusted, materially ambitious editorial family.

So far, The Root excels at the personal-political essay. Two favorites: “Black Immersion Therapy” and “Why I Don’t Like StuffWhitePeopleLike.” In the first, a professor tries to exclusively interact with black TV, books, film, music, etc, for half a year, with limited success. In the second, writer Gary Dauphin skewers Christian Lander’s popular race-ironic website, calling it a lazy and insulting con job.

These expressions of mainstream black American interaction with the larger mainstream American culture are informative and funny on a basic level that our culture has done without for far too long. And that’s not to say the writing is basic. It’s just to say the insights and ideology they contain are obviously part of an immensely familiar line of popular American commentary. In other words, the writers at The Root seem to be people in nice sweaters and suit coats, composing their pieces in cafes or on fairly plush living room sofas, typing into late-model laptops– people very much a part of and invested in the culture they are critiquing. Which of course is good and bad.

It’s good in that The Root on some level broadens mainstream perspectives. These are voices echoing from “within” and so, if not exploding, at least complicating the stereotypes about black Americans that our culture holds so dear. Black online magazine writers? Who knew?

It’s bad, maybe, in that we have come to expect and demand — always demand –more of our black folk. If our black folk aren’t our tortured artists and poets and radical espousers of liberation philosophy, who will do those things for us? Who will be our beautiful victims? Who will write our best most gritty music? Who will write our urban experimental poetry? Who will force our language to run ahead of its conventions? Who will demonstrate to the world the passion and strength that our intensely competitive and violent culture produces? We want our black folk to stay in that box. We don’t need black people to aspire to JCrew kind of lives. Mainstream America can afford to aspire to that level of boring because it has the rest of the culture doing the exciting stuff for it.

The video introduction to The Root by Editor-in-Chief and well-known Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates engenders the same ambivalent response as does the site– and so a brilliant opening. I for one have been trying to decide which column it falls into: Bad, as in clumsy and a little embarrassing and so mainstream bad? Or bad as in clumsy and a little embarrassing and so good for being revealing and human and not polished beyond life?

Prof. Gates as site introducer comes off a guy none too familiar with the web. He is reading not talking, for one, which is lame in a two-minute spot in which he’s supposedly discussing a passion project. Also, he keeps referring to the site the way parents refer to anything on the web, still unnecessarily putting the “dotcom” at the back of the title. The man is speaking to us from the website itself, but seemingly clueless to the fact that if we’re watching him we know the damned thing is a dotcom. Someone tell Gates: “Your website is called ‘The Root’ not ‘The Root DotCom!’”

I know it’s a silly thing to even mention. I justify it, though, by telling myself that if I weren’t looking at merely a black version of Slate, I would have never noticed anything like a bad introduction video!

A Place Called Home is a groundbreaking after-school program in South-Central L.A., blocks from the Pop + Politics offices at USC. There are computers, a basketball court, TVs, areas where you can just kick it. There’s also instruction in school subjects, a recording studio, general all around safety and people who know who you are and who are there to help. According to Founder and President Deborah Constance, A Place Called Home aims to provide the “basic rights” of childhood, which they define as at least all of the above.

A Place Called Home is fifteen years old this year and its success flies in the face of cynical societal critics and legislators who throw their hands up at the problems of the innercities and slash taxes while recruiting residents from these same neighborhoods to fight for our country in Iraq. In the language of the organization’s website: “APCH began working with twelve inner-city children in a basement of a church. In September 1996, with a growth in membership to 400, APCH moved to its present location — a 10,000 square foot award-winning facility.”

I spent a few weeks getting to know APCH and its music program in particular. I produced a video and wrote down some of my reflections on the experience:

It’s hard to miss the bright teal paint on the sides of the square building that serves as home base for A Place Called Home. A very high black iron fence (it has to be at least 10 feet tall) guards the entryway with extra sharp barbed wire at the top that serves as extra protection against unwanted intruders. I parked my car as close to the entrance as I could, admittedly because I thought it would be safer than further down the street where the littered asphalt leads to an alley marred with graffiti.

Now I’m no stranger to what many might consider “sketchy neighborhoods.” I grew up in El Paso, Texas and went to high school a mere 10 minutes away from the bridge to Mexico. Like my hometown, I don’t see South-Central Los Angeles necessarily as unsafe, but as neglected and underprivileged. But as I walked up to the security guard office to check in and set off the metal detector with my camera gear, I began to rethink things. I thought metal detectors were just TV show dramatization tools, not safety measures for the 8-year-olds running around me.

The average USC student might feel a bit out of place walking up and down the hallways, if only because the average USC student is white. Every single other student at the after school program is black or Hispanic. For me, it was like being back home. I’m willing to bet these kids have no idea that in the grand scheme of things they are minorities, because that’s just not the case where they live. In these neck of the woods, they are the majority. All they know is that everyone they go to school with looks the same and talks the same as them.

There are no cheesy inspirational posters on the walls as one might expect there to be. In fact, the walls are pretty bare for the most part. Outside one of the classrooms is a rundown of the rules. But these rules are different. No weapons. No drugs. No graffiti. I never had to follow those set of regulations when I was growing up - those kinds of things were just sort of implied.

As I came back for more visits, however, I soon realized that these students’ entire lives are run by a different set of rules. There are racial rules they have to follow. APCH’s director, Scott Culberson, explained that one nearby high school has a courtyard in the middle where students can hang out during lunch and after school. But instead of the area being a free for all, each corner is “run” by a different gang. And you guessed it - these gangs fall along racial lines. Like a prison compound, it is probably in the student’s best interests to not bridge these gaps. I wonder where my half Cuban/half black friend would have ended up.

There are also social rules these kids have to follow. Several of the students I interviewed told me that coming to an after school program isn’t something all their friends are doing. Some of these friends prefer walking the neighborhood streets in search of trouble to taking advantage of APCH’s programs. By coming to APCH, these students are putting their “cool” factor at risk.

Still, hundreds of students who are taking part in the after school program. For them, APCH is a safe haven away from drug wars and youth violence and gang recruitment. APCH is the chance to be a part of something truly incredible. The programs at APCH are successful not just because they are well-funded by sponsors with deep pockets (although that certainly can’t hurt). These programs are special because there are activities that connect all of these students. It does not matter what color your skin is, music is something that unites everybody. It does not matter what language you speak because dancing is a universal language. For student at APCH, all that matters are the abundance of opportunities that abound inside these four teal walls.

And it is not just a one-way sense of accomplishment. Music instructor, Monk Turner, came to the program after being held up at gunpoint. That incident made him realize his unfulfilled career in advertising was not the route he wanted to take. He wanted to make a different kind of impact on the world. Now he serves as a full-time positive role model for all these children. And in turn, these kids give him a daily sense of triumph that he never would have experienced in corporate America.

Seeing the people inside this building embrace these sorts of relationships is nothing short of awe-inspiring. But don’t take my word for it - check out the video.

NEW ORLEANS, 2055
(after Republicans sweep the 2008 elections)

“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the official tour of historic New Orleans. This exact replica of an old-style trolley-car will begin its route through the famed, and infamous, French Quarter very soon. But first, some facts about this grand old Southern city. Can anyone tell me anything about the history of this city?”

“They held the Mardi Gras here.”

“Correct, and there is a still a Mardi Gras remembrance celebration right here on George W. Bush Boulevard— formerly called Bourbon Street— every year. Anything else.”

“Wasn’t there a controversy over renaming the street?”

“No controversy, really. Under President Jeb Bush, the State Church proclaimed in 2019 that street names celebrating decadence were not appropriate to one of our most historic places.”

“It was port where black slaves were sold to white people.”

“Now, young man, as you know, the 2028 Proclamation of Colorblindness signed by President Jenna Bush makes clear that slaves came in all colors, and that slavery means many things. A slave to the land is the same as a slave in chains. One more. Anything else?”

“The city was washed away in a flood early this century.”

“Correct. And the Father of New Orleans saved the citizens from great hardships during the flood. You’ll see a grand statue of Father George W. Bush on the tour, which stands as an eternal testament to his great leadership during that crisis.”

“Didn’t a lot of black people once live in this city?”

“We don’t separate people by color anymore. It is, in fact, against the law.”

“Right, but wasn’t there a major upheaval after the flood that led to the precursors of the Proclamation of Colorblindness?”

“(Sigh) It is well-documented historical fact that in the mid-late 20th century, the communists instigated what was Orwellianly called the ‘Civil Rights Movement’ to drive a wedge between different types of citizens by convincing some of the most gullible that they had been treated unfairly. We all know that America is founded on “justice for all,” so unfair treatment of any group is impossible. Impossible. After Great Leader Ronald Reagan defeated the communists, it was only a matter of time before the last vestiges of the unequal rights cabal was also defeated. But they had one last ‘hurrah’ after the great Hurricane Katrina, culminating in an attempt to inject the toxic topic of race, which we have now transcended, into the 2008 presidential election by nominating a self-described “black man” for president! Imagine! For crushing that cabal, the people showed their appreciation by making the Republicans the Official Party of the United States… Now, let’s begin the tour…”

“I’m sorry, I have one more question.”

“I’m afraid we have a schedule to keep. The French Quarter is one of the oldest parts of this city, and the one area that was completely recreated after the great flood. Look. On the right you’ll see the old-fashioned minstrel character that has brought joy and laughter to millions since the founding of our country… Look. The minstrel has his hand to his ear. What’s he trying to tell us? Wait. Listen. Can you hear that? It’s the sound of music they called jazz. Though rarely heard today, it’s one of the musical forms, along with blues, that has faded from American life.”

“But didn’t that happen after they consolidated the media into one single company?”

“Sir, please don’t interrupt. As we turn the corner, we’ll see a recreation of some of the areas that were not rebuilt after the floods. On the right, you’ll see one of the charming, long, narrow ‘shotgun houses.’ It was jokingly said that the name occurred because you could shoot a gun through the front door and hit everyone in the house. Ha ha ha. However, the residents loved the old world charm of the dwellings and foolishly chose to rent them instead of owning their own homes on higher ground. Thus, many were flooded out and lost everything.”

“Weren’t they poor?”

“Sir, as it says as the mother of the Bush Dynasty has said, ‘poverty is a lifestyle choice.’”

“Weren’t most of them black?”

“SECURITY!”

——
Leonce Gaiter’s work on social and cultural issues has appeared in numerous publications, from the Los Angeles Times to the New York Times magazine. His noir novel Bourbon Street was published by Carroll & Graf.

New Orleans Flickr: Toshio