the prescience of fall

It is an impressive feat to write a song or collection of songs that captures or expresses the emotions of a particular time. Bruce Springsteen's The Rising is a tremendous creation following in the wake of 11 September 2007. It is an entirely different accomplishment to write a song before an event occurs that comes to be inextricably connected to the subsequent event.

One that comes to mind is Green Day's Wake Me Up When September Ends. Spike Lee's documentary When the Levees Broke and Kanye West's declaration "George Bush doesn't care about black people" televised live on NBC captured in many and varied ways the frustration, horror, and tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. I associate Green Day's song very closely with Hurricane Katrina. Wake Me Up When September Ends was released in Summer 2005 with a video depicting the horror of war and was still on the radio when Katrina hit, and while Katrina made landfall on August 29 it was the month of September that seemed to last forever.

summer has come and passed
the innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends

like my fathers come to pass
seven years has gone so fast
wake me up when september ends

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are

as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when september ends

Wilco's album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was released for free on the band's website in November 2001 and all of the songs had been written before September 11. For me the song Ashes of American Flags epitomizes the emotions of that time.

I would like to salute
the ashes of american flags
and all the fallen leaves
filling up shopping bags

Mbuji-Mayi: the Chicago of the 21st century?

As I was reading Mike Davis's Planet of Slums this summer I was struck by one particular paragraph. In discussing the rapid urbanization in much of the so-called third world, Davis wrote about the stunning growth of a city named Mbuji-Mayi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - the central African country formerly known as Zaire. Davis writes of this rapid growth: "Most spectacular, perhaps, has been the transformation of the bleak Congolese diamond-trading center of Mbuji-Mayi from a small town of 25,000 in 1960 into a contemporary metropolis of 2 million, with growth occurring mostly in the last decade" (8).

This growth pattern made me think immediately of Chicago. When it was founded in 1833 Chicago had a population of just over 300 people. By the 1893 Columbian Exposition the 'second city' of the United States had grown to well over 1 million people. Although Chicago and Mbuji-Mayi share similar patterns of metropolitan growth and both serve as centers of industry the differences between the two cities could not be greater. I can safely say that the vast majority of people in the world have never heard of Mbuji-Mayi. It is stunning how a difference of 100 years can render such incredible urban growth to relative obscurity.

Searching around the internet for information on the DRC city yields little additional insight. The wikipedia page for Mbuji-Mayi, a source which typically contains a decent amount of information, is just a few sentences long. The primary reason for the city's tremendous growth is because of the mining industry and in particular the diamond mines. One site claimed that Mbuji-Mayi is responsible for 10% of the world's diamond production by weight but I'm not sure how accurate that statistic is. Wikipedia notes: "The city remains extremely remote for its huge population, with little connection to the outside world." The lack of information is underscored by the uncertainty over the city's population. Mike Davis states that the metropolis of Mbuji-Mayi contains 2 million people, wikipedia has the stunning figure of 3.8 million, and answers.com says there are just over 1 million inhabitants.

As a formerly Belgian colony, there seems to be some information on this mining site. I still am baffled that there is a city that multiplied its population 80 times since 1960 to well over 2 million today that I had never heard of - but perhaps that is just life in the urban millennium.

guatemala: the working poor

This summer I spent a little over three weeks in Guatemala. I was primarily there to study Spanish, but I was also interested in learning about a country that is geographically very close to the United States but has a lot of differences as well.

While reading up on Guatemala through the always informative CIA World Fact Book (an interesting source of information given the agency's intimate role in Guatemalan history) I came across these pretty stunning and seemingly contradictory facts. Guatemala is an economically poor country with a very uneven income distribution. Over half of the country's population, 56 percent, live in poverty. While at the same time the unemployment rate in Guatemala is lower than that of the United States - Guatemala has the miniscule unemployment rate of 3.2 percent.

Here in the United States there is a common conception (whether it is accurate or not) that if you work and work hard that you will be able to make a decent living. This is a belief argued forcefully against by people like Barbara Ehrenreich. In Guatemala, however, there is a completely different understanding of what it means to be working poor.

Antigua, where I spent the majority of my time, is one of the wealthier areas of Guatemala. There are a number of middle class inhabitants that includes doctors, people that work in the flourishing tourist industry, and the many spanish teachers. There are a lot of other jobs as well, but for the most part they don't pay very much. Walking down the streets of Antigua you pass innumerable people handing out fliers, shoe shine boys, people selling all kinds of stuff. In the markets there are stands with all sorts of goods ranging from bootlegged dvds to goldfish in plastic bags. Many other people are employed as household help, doing the laundry or sweeping the floors.

Despite the low level of unemployment vast amounts of poverty persist. There are multiple explanations for this, including a generally low level of education, widespread discrimination against the indigenous Mayan population, and a very uneven distribution of both income and land ownership. According to a 2005 United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report 2 percent of the population in Guatemala owns 76 percent of the agricultural land. The UNDP report also highlights some pretty interesting analysis from a 2003 World Bank study.

As Lenin would say: "what is to be done?" Well, if I knew that I'd be a lot more productive with my time. Certainly, the case of Guatemala reinforces the dangers of having a weak or non-existent middle class with huge chasms between the rich and poor. A strong middle class seems to me to be one of the primary prerequisites for maintaining a healthy democracy and improving economic conditions.

tomorrow is Pluto Day!

It's the day that you haven't been waiting for! But it's still pretty cool nonetheless. This Saturday August 25, 2007 is the first ever Pluto day. It is a day to commemerate the one year anniversary of Pluto being demoted from a planet to a dwarf planet. Talk about flip flopping! Anyways, at least here in Chapel Hill there are a variety of events occurring to celebrate Pluto. It's bound to be the social event of the season.

the port's back open for business!

hello everyone:

we here at the phg are excited t0 begin a brand new season. Keep it locked here at port halifax as there should be many updates featuring the always pithy phg commentary as well as some new features - I really hope to be doing some interviews this year with some big time people so keep an eye out for that as well. Okay - I don't want to give too much away but keep on coming back here for the scoop. Thanks!

travellin´ songs: transcendental blues

here´s a classic steve earle song

if I had it my way
everything would change
out here on the highway
the rules are still the same
back roads never carry you
where you want ´em to
leave you standing there
with them ol´transcendental blues

marc's guide to international eating

well, it's the fourth of July and I'm in Guatemala feeling pretty awful so I figure I might as well celebrate by sharing my guide to eating in foreign countries. It's not for the Atkin's Diet lovers out there, and if you have any suggestions please feel free to add them.

Essentials
coca-cola
beer
rice
potatos
chicken kebob
falafel
orange juice / orange drink
mineral water
pastries

Pretty safe bets
bread
pineapple
chicken breast
grilled chicken

Give a wide berth
seafood of all types
ice
pork
salad
prosciutto
milk
goat cheese