Walk All Day

...if you can.  Or at least walk some.  Ok, be active.

Your Purchases Change Lives

True statement, for good or ill, even if you don't purchase things at Goodwill. 
Wowie, I am so rhyme-y. 
Picked up some great kicks yesterday, basically new.
I am pretty happy with them aestheically, now we'll see how they stand the Test of Time.

Namibia and Language Musings

Recently someone i came into contact with at the university had a very interesting personal history and background and on top of that they mentioned the country of Namibia, which i only recently learned had been a German colony.  I knew that the Germans had colonized, just as every other major European power, but I wasn't sure exactly where, and though i now know that Nambia was one place they did, my understanding is still far less than well-rounded.  The Germans were late in the game and were not as prolific in spreading their realm of influence and oppression as say the Spanish or Portuguese, the French or the Dutch. 

My interlocutor described how German was very fascinating in Namibia because the language spoken there is essentially a cultural and linguistic artifact of what German once was, from a bygone era and which can't be found anywhere else in the world.

I was able to get ahold of a few VHS tapes about Namibia, one entitled "Whose Land?" made perhaps in the late 80s for The Land Reform Conference of 1991 and at least partially funded by the Swedish government.  Many of the themes are strikingly similar to the plight of Native Americans in this country or native peoples in Spanish colonies in Latin America or Francophone countries in Africa.  Colonizer comes in, kills or exploits people; oppresses people with physical violence, emotional abuse, and linguistic trauma; colonizer remains in power due to skin color and embedded legal structure and other reasons; colonizer views land as ownable, private property; grievances continue; and whether or not people today are treated justly is arbitrarily dependent on the will and actions of land, farm, or business owners and whether or not the government gets involved.  Other similarities between other places and Namibia that arise are that before colonization there was much greater access to land and water and now many native peoples are relegated (or protected, or somewhere between the two depending on whom you talk with or how you look at it) to reservations.  Meanwhile the range of many kinds of plants and animals are drastically reduced as Western Thought fueled by Modern Machinery and Chemical Advances, etc. guides destruction on a scale not seen before in the history of the planet as we know it.

The video begins and ends with scenes of the Namibian countryside depicting desert, plant life, a few people, and farms.  The video interviewees are farmers, farm workers, farm owners, and 1 social justice worker.  Many if not most of them are black, though several whites are interviewed and given more screen time and attention in the film.  (The internet says Namibia is 93% black and 7% white).  All of the farm workers, as far I observed, were black.  Many of them had (nice?) German-sounding names like Gottfried Kieb, Hans Karon, or Johannes Links.  Some of these were paired with African, presumably Namibian surnames.  One guy was even named Adam Niemand (if you look at the meanings of those names [my philosophy teacher may cringe here] you might call him "Man Nobody").

Some of the key words i picked out were:
-more than 2/3 of the population live on the land
-"before colonization"
-redistribution of wealth
-social responsibility - "we are only borrowing the land from our children"
-"since independence"
-miele farming
-raising goats and cattle
-drought
-die Risiko
-job security non-existent
-die EG (= Europäische Gemeinschaft = EC, European Community)
-Rand (a / the currency in Namibia)
-pay in rand vs. pay including housing, wood, & water
-Germans killing, "grabbed the land", should return it freely
-that was in the past, the reverse process would be unjust
-formerly wide land range --> reservations determined by the Germans
-Lebenskoste
-beatings, dependence on owners' and/or owners' benevolence, lawlessness
-peaceful negotiation
-2% of farmers own 1/2 of the useable land

The video contained various languages: South African English, Afrikaans, German, and probably at least a few of the Namibian languages which i couldn't identify, though i'm pretty sure Herero and Oshiwamba were two that were spoken.  The narrator spoke South African English and there were English subtitles throughout.  The farm owners spoke either German or Afrikaans, and the workers either spoke solely in a native language or solely in Afrikaans or German.  There was one worker who was clearly speaking in German and others who i thought might have been, but were probably speaking in Afrikaans or perhaps a mixture of that with some influence of a Namibian language.  At any rate, i don't think anyone was actually shown speaking one language, then another, but the workers were the only ones shown speaking what was presumably a non-native language for them, i.e. they grew up speaking an African language, but spoke in German or Afrikaans or their native language for the camera.  In other words, many of the colonized had learned the language of the colonizers, but i'm not sure whether any of the colonizers learned a language of the colonized or not.

All this is making me think about my language learning goals and the value of language learning in general.  I feel like i learned Spanish because it seemed to be a logical language to learn because of so much historical and contemporary influence in CA and the West Coast/SW and the US in general and chose it over French, Italian, Latin, or Chinese.  In retrospect perhaps Chinese would have been a better investment.  But would i learn Chinook or Chinook Wa-Wa or Clickatat?  Or one of the languages of the Ohlone where i grew up, perhaps Tamien or Ramaytush?  On the other hand, it sort of was learning the language of the colonized, because of the eventual US take over of that land after, respectively, the natives, Mexico, New Spain.

Certainly languages are learned to access power, culture, and financial stability.  But how often do we learn them to discover underlying or ancient wisdom or knowledge?  To tap into a sense of place or spirituality?  To discover the truths about the past or ourselves or others?  To be able to advocate for justice?  Do we learn the language of the homeless, those in prison, the oppressed, and the downtrodden?  Hopefully i and others can and will do at least some of these things.  I know some who are, and are doing a much better job than i currently am.

On another note, i recently saw some photographs online of a couchsurfer from the US sandboarding in Namibia.  It looked fun and also quintessentially oblivious to the situation in the country, kind of like canopy tours in the jungle of Costa Rica or some incarnations of eco-tourism.

Does anyone else know anything else about Nambia or have some thoughts to share on the matter?

Lunchsnack

Apricot - CA, Earth
Apple - WA, Earth
Blue Corn Tortilla Chips - CO? NY? - USA, Earth
Not pictured: filtered tap water - OR, Republic of Cascadia, Earth

Questions answered!

Sometimes i wish in life we could just turn a page or walk around the corner and see such a message and the accompanying results.  I also think that this does, in fact, happen from time to time, though we don't always recognize it.

Are You Being Served?

“Ground Floor, Perfumery…”

AYBS?'s unique theme song, which featured a lift girl (voice of Stephanie Gathercole, Mr. Rumbold's first secretary) announcing each floor over a "cash-register" rhythm track à la Pink Floyd's "Money", was written by series co-creator David Croft, who was trying to eliminate the need for expensive union musicians when deciding on a signature tune. The sparse musical accompaniment was arranged by Ronnie Hazlehurst.
 
Ground floor perfumery,
stationery and leather goods,
wigs and haberdashery
kitchenware and food...going up

First floor telephones,
gents ready-made suits,
shirts, socks, ties, hats,
underwear and shoes...going up

Second floor carpets,
travel goods and bedding,
material, soft furnishings,
restaurant and teas. Going down!

Geschichte

Auf die Frage von einem Studenten, ob ich Geschichte mag und wichtig für das heutige Leben finde:

Ich mag Geschichte, aber ich bin kein ausgebildeter Historiker.  Ich glaube, es ist gut, etwas Geschichte zu verstehen, um die Irrtümer der Vergangenheit zu vermeiden und auch von dem Beispiel unserer Vorfahren zu lernen und (ur)alte Weisheit entdecken zu können.  Wenn man aber zu viel an die Vergangenheit denkt, dann kann es dazu hinführen, nicht mehr richtig in der Gegenwart zu sein oder im Hier und Jetzt leben zu können.  Also ja, ich finde Geschichte wichtig, aber man sollte nicht davon besessen sein.

Liebe Leserinnen, lieber Leser:  Was meint ihr?  Würdest du etwas dazu hinfügen oder wegnehmen?  Was ist eure Geschichtsphilosophie?

Earlier..

...and you'll have to wait a few months for later...

Another bathroom post - or: Lonely Wookie

Spotted @ PSU NH 2nd floor restrooms, Fall 2011

"Live and Die in Portland"

One Sour Kraut

 Clearly i am the sour kraut in this situation for more reasons than one.

Fax to the Future

So in a very retro fashion the apartment we sent a request to for notification in case of openings only accepts applications in two forms: post and facsimile. 

Naturally the post is too slow and it seemed somewhat ridiculous to pay the extra money, however small/subsidized, also the latter's perhaps greener (actually on second thought probably not), but anyway: we decided to fax it. 

There is a fax machine in one of the offices which i have access to and i tried to fax the forms one day but it didn't work.  I got the slow beeps of death.  The next day i got someone to help me and the fax finally went through. 

Here is the Transmission Verification Report, which not only transmitted the fax, but also transported us "A Day and a Decade" into the future, as one office assistant put it:  May 3rd, 2022.  Or maybe that's 5 March, 2022 if the fax creators were European or they were using the international standard, in which case it would be: "Darn! Dastardly Deficient of a Decade" into the future.  The time does appear to be given in the world clock or 24 hour format, and i think the time posted was the actual time that i faxed the forms, or pretty close to it.

At any rate (as Doug said) it got me thinking about technologies and how quickly they change and how the fax will soon become obsolete.  It is amazing that the fax machine is even still around, actually, but i find a surprising number of businesses and organizations that still accept and use facsimiles.  But as they say, any technology that has ever existed is still around or can be made.  Also the scene from Office Space was mentioned where they wail on the fax machine with stomps and a baseball bat.  I imitated Peter's heel slam from that scene in gleeful enjoyment of the mental image that flashed across the screen of my brain when the scene was mentioned. 

I want to get rid of this electronic typewriter i have and get a regular typewriter for composing letters.  Whether i do that or not, i think i'd like to more frequently write and receive handwritten letters or letters/postcards in general.  But if i don't do that, or maybe even just for kicks, I know what i'll do:

FAX TO THE FUTURE