Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Over the past fifteen years or so I have almost certainly spent more Independence Days abroad than in the United States. This year is no exception, as I arrived in East London late this morning. I spent the night in Mthatha in a B&B whose second B gave me killer food poisoning this morning. I decided not to head on to Alice after driving some 200km on a very delicate stomach to get here. So I'll move on to Fort Hare for research tomorrow instead.

By the way, for bizarre reasons the blog was down for at least a while today/last night. I have no idea why. Hopefully there are no further issues.

Now go eat something grilled and drink something fermented.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, What Have You

Merry Christmas from dcat. Over at Ephblog I have my annotated list of the best and worst holiday stuff.

A taste:

#1 from my "Best" list:

1. White Christmases, the Smell of Evergreens, and the Idea of Tradition: I grew up in New Hampshire. So for me Christmas is supposed to be white, the house is supposed to smell of a real evergreen tree, needles are supposed to be everywhere, and someone is supposed to say something horrible to someone else at one of the family Christmas events, causing a death spiral of recrimination. I am in San Antonio as I write this. It’s 71 degrees — down from 84 earlier in the week in Odessa. A real Christmas tree would cost more than my car and so we have a fake tree (as does everyone whose house I’ve been in this month), which my 18-year-old self would recoil from in disgust (I’m with ya, you dorky little shit.) The only smell of evergreen comes from candles Mrs. dcat found at some overpriced shop. And it’s highly unlikely that anyone in my Mexican American wife’s family will say something horribly racist tomorrow. Sigh.

#1 from my "Worst" list:

1. The “Controversy” over “The War on Christmas”: Ok, let’s get it straight: Christians, this is not just your time of year. Hell, you appropriated it from the pagans, moving your holiday (Christ was born in March or April or something) in order to co-opt theirs. For ages the end of the year has been a time of celebration and commemoration. Kwanzaa is “made up”? Well so is every goddamned holiday that ever existed. Hannukah isn’t actually that important a holiday on the Jewish calendar? Why do you care? I say “Happy Holidays” rather than Merry Christmas? Where to begin with this one. For one thing, the root words of “Holidays” are, guess what you ignorant troglodyte, “holy days”. And I don’t know the religious or cultural background of everyone I run into. Maybe they are Jewish. Or Muslim. Or Wiccan. Or British (they say “Happy Christmas” — why is Fox News declaring war on happiness?) . Or maybe they worship the trees. Or maybe they know that even in the 1950s people said “happy holidays” because it’s not some liberal neologism. Or maybe I also want you to have a Happy New Year and a glorious Boxing Day. Or maybe there are a million different reasons why I say “happy holidays” and none of them have anything to do with waging war on Christmas. Now give me my damned presents, hand me that eggnog (hey, is that brandy?), turn up “Christmastime is Here,” and give me a minute, because I want to call my Mom to wish her, yes, a Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas, and a happy holiday season. If it's your thing, I hope that Santa Claus brings you everything that you asked for and a few things that you did not.

Marfa, Texas (And Thanksgiving Greetings)

If you are ever in my neck of the woods, look me up. We'll visit Marfa, down in Big Bend country.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

Goodness

I loathe the fact that one holiday segues directly into another. Christmas sales begin before Thanksgiving, sometimes weeks before. Soon after New Years the Valentine's Day candy and profligate pink festoons all available store space. Halloween costumes and their pumpkin and witch, ghost and ghoulie brethren hit the shelves before Columbus Day. Enough is too much, and was long ago.

But let me tell you one thing -- seeing (and, of course, buying, in bulk) my first Cadbury Eggs the day after Valentine's Day? Hell. And. Yes.

Freedom's Main Line: Self Indulgence Alert

Freedom's Main Line is apparently available now on Amazon. I have not even seen my copy yet, but you can buy yours as a gift to yourself (or others) to welcome 2009! And, by the way, Happy New Year. But mostly buy the book.

Happy Christmas

I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Happy 4th of July (And the Meaning of America)

To my readers in the United States: Happy 4th of July!

To my readers in South Africa and anywhere else on the globe: Happy Friday!

In the last dozen years I believe I have spent more American Independence Day holidays outside of the United States than within it, with most of those spent here in South Africa. Being abroad usually provides an interesting perspective on one's own country. I consider myself to be patriotic in the most important and perhaps least jingoistic sense in that I love my country but I see its flaws. I honestly have no idea what people mean when they say that the United States is the "best country in the world." I guess I do not dispute the assertion at its essence, but I have no idea what "best" means, and why those who make the assertion do as much with such totality. The best at what? The best by what measurement? Is patriotism simply the willingness to rank arbitrarily one's country by some sort of flow chart or Olympic medal chart? I will grant that the United States is the most powerful nation on earth militarily, politically, economically, and culturally. And as a result I think it can be argued, and I would, that the United States is the most important nation on earth. But nation-states not being reducable to one's favorite sports team or top-five pop bands, I see neither utility nor meaning in the "best country in the world" mania that strikes my most jingoistic countrymen and women.

At the same time, it is always telling to see what others think of one's own country. I have found the supposed anti-Americanism that is supposedly pervading the world to be vastky overstated. I am certain there are places where that sentiment is strong, such as in much of the Middle East and in certain quarters in Europe, say. But on the whole what I find, especially once I convince the listener that I am not an agent of my state and that I do not represent American policy (even if I may defend elements of it or the larger framework within which that policy operates) I will have engaging, if occasionally lively, conversations.

The fiasco in Iraq has not done the US any favors abroad, nor has the arrogance our current administration has put forth in presenting the American face to the world. But at the same time most people in South Africa and elsewhere understand that our administrations are temporal where the American state is not. And so what I hear most often are questions about the current campaign for the presidency, and whether Obama can win, and if McCain is a Bush clone.

It is my experience that the rest of the world is very much interested in the United States and its role in world affairs and looks at America with a combination of awe and fear and respect and admiration and concern and envy. This may be impossible to quantify, but it is a lot more interesting, and telling, than simple assertions that America is "hated" or loved.

[Crossposted at the FPA Africa Blog and the FPA South Africa Blog.]

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo probably reonates more with those of us who live in border states such as Texas than elsewhere. But even here the holiday seems to represent an excuse to drink than it does an homage to cultural heritage. Like many other holidays, Cinco de Mayo has largely become comodified, or, as The New York Times explained in an op-ed today, "For this north-of-the-border success, we have to thank the persuasive powers of beer. Cinco de Mayo is probably Corona’s biggest day." As Homer Simpson might say: "Beer. Is there anything it can't do?"

An Easter Gift You Should Buy Yourself

I hope you are all having a happy Easter. Why not buy yourself a holiday gift? I'd recommend my friend Matt Guenette's book of poetry, Sudden Anthem. The man is about to have a baby. The least you can do is buy a copy of his book to make sure the kid gets diapers and clothes!

New Year Wishes

8 things that I hope to see happen in 2008 (tagged by koplobpobajob via Iain Dale) not necessarily in any particular order:

1) The addition of a little dcat progeny (and no, this is not a subtle attempt to make an announcement).
2) The publication of my Freedom Ride book. This should happen in the fall. I hope.
3) 19-0, Celtic Pride in June, a Sox repeat.
4) Tenure.
5) A Democratic victory in November (preferably Obama, but I have not 100% committed).
6) Resolution to crises in Darfur, Zimbabwe, Somalia.
7) An alternative to Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki in the South African succession struggle. (Cyril Ramaphosa, are you listening?)
8) The chance to return to South Africa.

And as an added bonus: A happy, prosperous New Year to all of my readers.

Ho Ho Ho!!

Merry Christmas everybody! I hope Santa was as good to those of you who celebrate this holiday as he was to me. Here is one of several gifts that brightened my morning (not surprisingtly, perhaps, there was a strong Sox-Pats theme to many of my presents):

Merry Christmas!

Although I may post in the next few days, you may well not read, so I want to wish all of my readers, regular, casual, and those who just stumble upon this site a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Bounteous New Year. I'll be in San Antonio for the next few days, then back here with some family visitors, and then back to San Antonio, and finally off to Washington, DC. Have a wonderful time with family and friends, and thank you so much for reading. Check back in when you can.

Dreams of Travel

Christmas is just over the horizon, and so most of us are looking inward, preparing to enjoy time with kith and kin, home and hearth. But before long most of the country will be deeply immersed in deep, whited-out winter and our inner armchair traveler will be itching to dream of getting away from it all. that might be the time to pull out "The 53 Places to Go in 2008" from last Sunday's New York Times Sunday travel section.

The Five Worst Airports in the World

We're back from our week in the greater Phoenix area, a period in which we never actually set foot in the city of Phoenix. We drove both ways, and so avoided some of the worst aspects of holidayb travel. Yes, it takes a long time to drive and traffic can be a hassle. But in the period from the days before Thanksgiving to the days after New Year's Day, we all know what a nightmare airports can be. Still, if you find yourself cheek-to-jowl in a terminal or stuck for an extra hour on the tarmac, feel thankful that you are not spending those hours in one of the five worst airports in the world. Unless, of course, your holiday travel takes you to Senegal, India, Russia, Iraq, or France (yes, France).

In the Valley of the Sun

We spent the day driving from Odessa to the greater Phoenix area in order to spend the week with this guy and his family. It took about ten hours driving across desert terrain that took us through El Paso, Las Cruces, Tucson, and into the epicenter of the Valley of the Sun. Thanksgiving Day activities will involve your faithful scribe participating in a fun run with Jaime's son while his parents run the real race, an enormous amount of food, and then tailgating before that night's Arizona State-USC game, for which we have tickets. Otherwise the week will consist of world class caliber hanging out, overeating, and buying ASU stuff. I'll post as I can, but in any case, have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Happy 4th of July!

I'm not much interested in chest-beating patriotism, but I love my country. I'm not much interested in foolish assertions that America represents the world's last great hope, though I believe that fundamentally we offer great hope. Conversations of which countries are the greatest or the best bore me. But America is a great and good nation.

I wish you and yours a wonderful Independence Day. And now that the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating championship is back in American hands, there is plenty of cause to celebrate, and maybe even wave a flag or two.

Diary Blog With Pics, News and Crime Sprees

Tom has a new diary post up in which he displays some wonderful pictures of the fam and his scofflaw wife and then closes with some great news. Congrats from dcat. But then he knows that already.

Chilembwe Day and King's Holiday

Today millions of people will recognize a leader who stood against white supremacy in the face of unremitting odds. They will remember a religious man, a reverend, who challenged white authorities and promoted justice and equality in the face of brutality. They will honor his past and reflect on his legacy.

I am referring, of course, to Reverend John Chilembwe. In 1915 Chilembwe led an uprising, against the white colonial powers and their racist regime in what was then known as Nyasaland and what we now call Malawi. In Malawi, January 15th is celebrated as Chilembwe Day.

In the United States, of course, we reflect similarly on Martin Luther King, Jr. King was clearly one of the great men of the 20th Century. He gave his life for racial justice. But on this day let's keep in mind that King is best celebrated as an embodiment of a struggle for justice in which millions shared a role. It is too easy to conflate King's role in the movement with a misconception of King as the Movement. King accomplished many great things in his too brief life. But he did not do so alone, and much happened in the Civil Rights Movement without King's imprimatur, without his active involvement, and under the guidance of common folks whose desire for equality was every bit as strong as Dr. King's. These words are not intended to deflate King's legacy, but rather to remind us all that the contours of history are not shaped merely by great men but rather by the work of thousands who too often fade into shadows cast by giant figures.

Happy New Year

I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year. I just got in from a weekend in Dallas with a buddy and am just trying to catch up. Your email campaign is working -- I will be writing about the Fiesta Bowl as soon as I can get caught up on life.