Archive - Nov 2007

In July, Kimmi, Eric, Chanda, Isaac, and I went to Red Wing with Michelle - her first outdoor climbing experience. The short climbing gallery is up now.

The Sept/Oct 2007 issue of Foreign Policy features an article by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich called "How Capitalism is Killing Democracy." He starts by noting that many commentators have long asserted that capitalism and democracy are supposed to work together - isn't that what we were taught during the Cold War?

A sidebar from me...

Naturally, some (especially on the right wing in the U.S.) have problems confusing capitalism for democracy. For those confused, let's go over what they are. Democracy is a political system which supposedly empowers citizens to control their political destinies - make laws, regulate some aspects of the market, decide when to go to war (ha!), etc.

Capitalism is an economic system premises upon markets. Markets are the idea that businesses compete on even footing to get customers. Customers are knowledgeable about products and the companies that produce them and make informed choices. In capitalism, the government does not set the price of goods or how many should be produced - this is all determined by individual actors.

back to Reich...

He writes intelligently about the conflicts between the two and the problems with expecting/rewarding corporations who do "good" whether by donation or deed:

By pretending that the economic success corporations enjoy saddles them with particular social duties only serves to distract the public from democracy’s responsibility to set the rules of the game and thereby protect the common good. The only way for the citizens in us to trump the consumers in us is through laws and rules that make our purchases and investments social choices as well as personal ones. A change in labor laws making it easier for employees to organize and negotiate better terms, for example, might increase the price of products and services. My inner consumer won’t like that very much, but the citizen in me might think it a fair price to pay.

I really like Reich's argument but I disagree with it ... or I'm at least withholding judgment on it. I think he is too concerned with China's decision to go with capitalism but not with democracy.

However, the same issue of Foreign Policy featured a short article on how TV has empowered women in remote Indian villages:

Researchers analyzed three years’ worth of data collected in 180 rural Indian villages, 21 of which gained access to satellite television. In villages that acquired the new medium, school enrollment among girls increased and women had fewer children. The newly wired women also became less accepting of spousal abuse, a bias in favor of having boys declined, and they were more likely to be able to spend money without a husband’s permission. It is well known that women acquire more liberal attitudes with each additional year of education, and the changes in attitudes and behaviors the researchers observed were as great as if the women had received six years of schooling.

I saw the same thing in Palestine - Western TV has changed culture toward a greater respect for individual rights (especially for women). Now, TV has not been sufficient and these societies still treat women as second class citizens frequently, but the seeds are planted. This is the result of capitalism. I fervently believe China's repression is not long for this world. As people become accustomed to freedom in the market, they will demand it in the polls. Capitalist-driven technology advances regularly allow citizens to bypass gov filters - we'll see where that goes.

All that being said, I question whether people would trade a functional market for a democracy if they had to make that choice. Democracy is not easy and I'm concerned by the number of people that care not for political rights or who runs the government so long as they have TV and alcohol.

In the meantime, I hope readers of this blog can at least appreciate the different spheres of democracy and capitalism - both of which I reluctantly embrace because we have yet to do better.

You may remember that I unfairly posted a photo of Kimmi feasting during the Twin Cities Marathon. Well, since she did such a great job, I finally posted a gallery of her running photos. Good job kiddo!

NFL games on TV have this great yellow line that tells the audience where the ball must go to earn the offense a first down. I have long wondered about the technology that paints the line because it goes over hash marks and grass, but does not go over the players or referees standing on top of it. It is usually the perfect illusion, people unfamiliar with the sport might actually believe the line is there for people in the stadium to see it. How Stuff Works explains how the line is painted.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone - especially Russ and Lisa who have finished their stint in the Peace Corps and are taking some time to travel before returning to Hawaii for Christmas.

After months of focusing on sports photography, I have finally posted more photos from my trip to visit Russ and Lisa in Africa. These photos are from Russ and Lisa's village in Tanzania - Mpwapwa. I posted this photo of Lisa months ago, but I loved it so much I wanted to bring it out again.

I was recently talking to another photographer about the danger of losing an entire flash card of photos. She had accidentally formatted a card that had important shots on it and was not sure how to recover it so she just lost the photos.

I heard of a great program on the TWIT netcast network called PC Inspector. The software is free and it does a great job of recovering lost files.

Michelle and I had a good weekend. On Friday night, we saw 3:10 to Yuma at the fantastic Riverview Theatre. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

On Saturday, we went to the Science Museum in St. Paul and checked out the Pompeii exhibit. Andrea and her boyfriend Greg invited us and we invited Gina and Perry. Followed up with a dinner of Turkish food from the Black Sea on Snelling.

For evening festivities, we headed back to Gina and Perry's house in Chaska for some Wii action. Wii tennis, bowling, and golf were awesome. I think Michelle now understands why the Wii is sold out everywhere all the time. Fun stuff!

At any rate, while there, I finally edited some photos from hanging out with them last spring. I put the photos online - they mostly feature their dog Murphy.

I have to wonder just how long they practiced this and whether they figured out some tricks to remember the sequences. Pretty amazing performance art. Daft Punk's Homework remains one of my favorite albums to road trip with.

I have long been conflicted by my desires to be photojournalist - covering important events like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or wild fires in California. I think I would be extremely good under high pressure situations. On the other hand, I would be pissed if I died covering a spectacularly mismanaged war by the present Administration. In the end, it is easier to stick close to home and cover sports. Possibly more rewarding.

After reading War is a Force that Gives us Meaning by Chris Hedges (read the damn thing if you haven't, it is incredible), I have been fascinated by the damage done to those who survive wars. Damage that is nearly always ignored by the chickenhawks that declare war. The kind of disruption to a life that makes one wonder if it is better just to be killed and honored during the fighting.

The United States has long ignored the long term effects of combat on the survivors. To be fair, it is insanely expensive to treat everyone who needs it - and that would make war prohibitively expensive. So we cannot honestly deal with the human costs after the explosions are stopped. Perhaps we should admit we can only afford to honor the dead - not the survivors. The survivors need too much care and rehab and we quickly remember the other priorities when the Saddam's are executed.

All of this is just a lead-in to an L.A. Times article I just read. Possibly the best newspaper article I have ever read. I'm curious if others have the same reaction - others who have not thought long and deeply about the ethics of photography and contract is signed when the shutter clicks.

Read it. An excerpt, from the end:

I felt torn. I didn't want to get involved. I desperately wanted to close the book on Iraq. But if I hadn't taken Miller's picture, this very personal drama wouldn't be front-page news. I felt responsible.

Sometimes, when things get hard to witness, I use my camera as a shield. It creates a space for me to work -- and distance to keep my eyes open and my feelings in check. But Miller had no use for a photojournalist. He needed a helping hand.

No surprises that the Bush Administration is horribly hypocritical. A new book apparently reveals the how deep this goes in relation to the Office of Legal Council - which occasionally justified things like ... TORTURE.

At any rate, Neal Katyal reviews Jack Goldsmith's The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administration in the Nov 5, issue of The New Republic. It details the many ways in which the Bush Administration punished those who disagreed with it. So Cheney would block the promotion in the Justice Department of a lawyer who questioned whether the eavesdropping program was legal.

The White House repeatedly justifies its claims of executive privilege with the notion that if Congress is privy to private deliberations, less-candid discussions will result- so it is particularly ironic that the administration has resorted to career reprisals that have an even more chilling effect, inhibiting candor far more effectively than the rare possibility that executive secrecy will be violated down the road.

Lincoln is quoted as saying of alcohol, "It has many defenders, but no defense." Seems appropriate for the Bush-Cheney Administration.