The Swallow's Nest

Guest Post: Bobby (Part II)

‘Beverage? Either of you?’ Marilee’s eyes lit up.

‘Coke? Water? Coffee?’

‘I’d love a Coca-Cola,’ Marilee said smiling.

Samuel leaned down to his mini-fridge to fish out a Coke. ‘Ben? Anything?’

‘No, no. Tryin’ to quit.’

Handing Marilee her drink, Samuel leaned back in the chair and folded his hands in his lap. He hated that he was the stereotypical psychiatrist but he also knew it was true. He just couldn’t shake it.

‘So.’ He smiled. ‘Why are you here?’ A good question he thought, that by the time people actually made it into a psychiatrist office, the answer to was often forgotten.

‘Well.’ It was Ben. He looked sideways at his wife who was busy carefully pulling at the tab of her Coke can. ‘Mary?’

‘Mmm,’ she said nodding, and having successfully unsnapped the tab, took a big swig. ‘You read our notes and all that? Our letters?’

‘Yes, I did. But it’s always helpful to have you tell me in person. Right?’ He cleaned his glasses with a soft cloth that was always folded inside his top pocket and set them gingerly on his rather beak-like nose.

‘Yes of course,’ she said.

‘Of course,’ Ben reiterated.

‘We’re just a bit concerned about Bobby and his… communication with us. Or really lack there of,’ she said, looking pleased with her proper usage of ‘lack there of.’

‘Yes, I got that much from your letters,’ said Samuel. ‘And this is something new? His not being interested in communicating with you?’

‘Something new, yeah.’ Ben said, leaning forward and resting his folded hands on Samuel’s desk. ‘He used to be much more demonstrative with us. And now… ‘ He lifted his hands a bit and shrugged. ‘Nothing.’

Marilee nodded. ‘I think you’ve got it right there, Sweetiekins.’

‘Bobby is how old now?’

‘Bobby is seven in April.’ Marilee answered promptly.

‘Seven in April,’ Ben nodded. His voice was low and melancholy.

‘Okay. Can you tell me perhaps, what led up to his withdrawal from you as parents? Any significant events?’

They looked at each other.

‘Well, we moved.’ Marilee said. ‘From a little cottage out in Westdale into the city.’ She had finished her Coke and had set it carefully on the edge of his desk. ‘This was nearly two years ago now. I think that could have been upsetting to him. Big change and all.’ She crossed her chubby legs as daintily as she was able.

‘Yeah, upsetting.’ Ben shifted his bulk in his chair and continued. ‘I got a job working with well. Not worth going into really,’ he chuckled with a glance at his wife. She avoided his eyes. He cleared his throat. ‘We tried to make the move as seamless as possible for Bobby, but you know how these things go. We had to find another school for him – more of a daycare I guess you’d say.’

‘That’s good to know. Helpful,’ Samuel said.

Marilee beamed surprisedly at her husband, as if to say ‘Well done! You’re smarter than I thought you were.’

Samuel felt something akin to bile in his throat. He suddenly didn’t want to be in this room. He could see the crane out the window, and fervently wished to be in its cab, having the power to tear the place limb from limb. Maybe it was time for a sabbatical. He gave his head a mental shake.

‘Let’s nail this thing in the first session,’ he thought but aloud said, ‘Anything else out of the ordinary for Bobby?’ He discreetly massaged his right temple.

They seemed more reluctant to talk about the next ‘out of the ordinary’ situation. A silent battle of wills took place between the couple until Ben leaned forward again, his hands on his knees. Marilee had taken to chewing on her lip.

‘It was our anniversary. Romantic day and all of that.’ He waved his hand, as if to waft a smell displeasing to him. A hurt look passed over his wife’s face, but disappeared so fast, Samuel thought he’d imagined it.

‘We were in the bedroom.’ He looked at Marilee. She nodded subtly. ‘And we… well.’ He cleared his throat, as the heat rose to his face. Samuel raised his eyebrows as if asking what came next, although he knew very well what came next.

Ben seemed to have stumbled permanently over what he was trying to say. Marilee was wringing her hands.

‘We were having intercourse!’ she stated vigourously, taking over. Then she went beet red

‘As in… you were talking? A romantic anniversary conversation?’ Samuel wanted them to say just what it was. They were all adults here. How ridiculous.

‘No,’ Marilee said. ‘Sexual. Intercourse.’

           Silence reigned.

           ‘So. You were having sex. Got it,’ Samuel said, knowing he sounded more snappish than he should but he was getting frustrated with these people. Ben seemed to regain his composure and decided to redeem his lack of ability to communicate.

           ‘As we were… as this was going on,’ he made motions so large with his hands that Marilee backed further into her chair, at risk of being accidentally slapped. ‘He came into the room.’

           ‘And what did Bobby do?’

‘Nothing. He just stood there, looking at us.’

Samuel looked at Marilee for confirmation of this. Her eyes were wide and staring, like she had fallen into some other dimension. She blinked.

Guest Post

Today, tomorrow, and Friday I'm in New York City (more about that in February) so I have invited my good friend Morganne to write a short story.  It's very well written and appears here the next three days.  Enjoy!  (Thanks, MJ!)

Bobby

Dr. Samuel Samson stood in front of his sixth-story window, looking through the dirtied glass at the crane, which over the past two months had muddied his existence. The city had assured him that the crane would not be there for long - just a couple of weeks. They were tearing apart an old apartment complex next door and only needed it for the clean up session. That had been exactly 9 weeks ago, and three ignored phone calls later, it was still hanging there, staring at him with its gaping, metallic grin. He swore it was inching closer by the day.

He moved to his little sink, with the miniature cactus perched on its edge, emptied his mug of the dregs, rinsed it, and set it aside. He turned it around so the words, ‘PSYCIATRIST & DAD OF THE YEAR!’ were not visible. It bothered him that his son had omitted the H in Psychiatrist – even though he was eight when he gave it to him, and it was most likely just too long of a word to fit on a mug in the first place. He flipped the WARM switch on the coffee maker and sat heavily in his large swivel chair (brown, not black, which he was very pleased about) and moved it around with his tennis shoed feet to look again out the window. He couldn’t concentrate with it sitting there, all big and in the way, taunting him with its damned craneness. He could barely see his favourite tree in the park across the street. Only if he leant forward in his chair, paralleled himself to the floor and closed one eye, then he could make out its gloriously orange leaves. Otherwise, well, it was just too much effort.

Glancing at the clock on the wall, he realized his three o’clock would be along momentarily. Unless they were late, which was possible. ‘You never know with people like this,‘ he mumbled cryptically. Samson moved the two wing-backed chairs into place in front of his oak table. He had found the table at a garage sale in Brooklyn. It had scratches and scuffs, it was more yellow than brown in some places, and one edge had given him some nasty slivers, but he liked it. Mostly because it matched his brown wing-backed chair. He liked things to match. And he liked things that were brown.

Pouring into his mug a fresh splash of coffee, (‘Maybe I should just get rid of this thing. He forgot the ‘H’, for Pete’s sake.’) Samuel straightened his tie and tried to hide his tennis shoes under the table. Finding his shoes that morning, the brown ones, had been a fiasco and had consequently started his day off badly. Shuffling through the profile of the couple that was coming in as his three o’clock, he made a few mental notes. ‘This should be interesting,’ he said. There was a rather forceful knock at the door. He lined up the edge of the manila folder with the edge of his desk and said standing, ‘Do come in.’

           The door swung aside and a woman of vast proportions stood in it’s opening. But instead of looking at him, she was craning her short neck to the side and down the hallway.

           ‘Benjamin! Leave him!’ she whispered as hoarse as possible, so it came out more like a shout. Samuel heard an indistinct mumble from where he could only assume was his waiting room. ‘He can’t come in!’ she barked again.

           Samuel stood, waiting for her to engage. Perhaps remembering that she had just knocked on their psychiatrist’s door without acknowledging his acceptance of it, she turned and smiled, quickly walking into meet him, chubby hand outstretched. The distance she covered in two shorts steps astounded him.

           ‘Hello. Marilee Harper.’

           ‘Nice to meet you, Marilee,’ he said, his hand being squeezed as if by a giant fat snake. ‘Samuel Samson. Is your husband, uh, here?’

           As if in answer to his question, a man of about 6’5 lumbered into the room. He was an imposing figure but had eyes like a puppy dog. The office of Dr. Samuel Samson just got a whole lot smaller.

            ‘Yeah hi,’ he said, chortling, shaking his head. Obviously a joke no one else was in on. ‘Ben. Good ta meet ya.’

           ‘And you, Ben,’ he said. ‘Please sit.’ Marilee sank into the chair, looking as comfortable as a pig in a pen of warm mud. Ben sat carefully, his legs straight out in front of him.

           ‘Nice crane,’ he nodded toward the window.

           Samuel smiled sardonically. ‘Yes, well, that’s not usually what comes to mind when it greets me every morning.’ Marilee gave a great bark of a laugh. Despite her bulk and rather awkward social graces, she was quite pretty. Her face was pleasant, her skin clear and glowing. Her eyes were blue and set evenly spaced, her blonde hair was very blonde indeed, and in two short braids. Still, Samuel couldn’t help thinking she looked like a moderately attractive pig in a wig.

Ben seemed gentle and good-natured. He was one of those people who Samuel thought he’d like to hang out with on a summer Saturday evening, sitting on his parent’s porch, swilling scotch. He didn’t know why he thought of that at all. Something in his persona he supposed, brought him back to the small town in Maine where he was from. All of this went through the doctor’s mind in about seven seconds. It was his profession, and he was good at it.

(Part II tomorrow)

Review: The Starbucks Experience

(Note: I understand that through some snafu with Typepad this post appeared on my RSS Feed a couple of weeks ago. Some of you may have seen this Review then.  Sorry.  It was intended for today and here it is for all my direct site readers.)

During a couple of visits to my favorite bookstore prior to Christmas I kept noticing the business title The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary by Joseph A. Michelli.  The book has a great cover.  It's bound across the center with what looks, and more importantly feels, like the sleeve I strap on my hot drinks at Star-steal-all-your-bucks.  Creative marketing.  Sadly, the content doesn't measure up.  And reflecting on the cover today I should have known what I was in for.  Publications that use the often over-used phrase "ordinary into extraordinary" for their titles probably deserve to be left on the shelf.  It's unoriginal, dry, and not very creative.  But those same descriptives explain what's on the inside as well.

It's not that Michelli doesn't try.   There are things to be learned from behind the scenes (or should I say behind the counter) at the world's most famous coffeehouse.  "In August 1996, Starbucks and the Alliance for Environmental Innovation entered into a partnership to reduce the environmental impact of serving coffee in the retail stores.  At the time many coffee drinkers required double (i.e. nested) cups to make their hot beverage easier to carry.  In order to address environmental goals and maintain the customers' comfort, an arduous process was initiated to come up with a workable alternative...Two years of exploration was devoted to developing a quality hot cup that would allow for single-cupping, and the process resulted in an interim solution - a corrugated paper cup sleeve that Starbucks developed (72)."  We still use these sleeves because after even more research Bucks hasn't been able to come up with anything better, says the author.

Or the hottest new record label in America belongs to Starbucks, "In an article published at www.foxnews.com, columnist Michael Y. Park wrote, 'What may be the most powerful name in music doesn't belong to a record label, a powerful industry executive, or an influential band.  In fact, it doesn't belong to a company associated with music at all...Starbucks coffee may be the future of music in America.' (137)."  I did not know that.  Sure, I've seen the CDs for sale at the counter by the register, but I didn't know Starbucks was producing the tunes itself. 

Michelli's story is loaded (and I do mean loaded) with real life stories of employees and their customers.  Many of them are quite moving and give this company an almost too-good-to-be-true feel.  Here's an example.  The story is told by Kimberly, one of the store's workers. "There was a wonderful regular customer...She and her husband visited daily-coming to Starbucks was an event for them...they would order the same thing: a tall coffee and an extra cup so they could split it.  They'd also order one muffin and two forks and a knife to share that as well.  The couple would take their coffee and their muffin and they would go slowly over to their table and spend maybe an hour or so visiting with each other and enjoying their time together...the couple stopped coming into Starbucks and [Kimberly] worried about them."  As the story goes on it turns out the customer's husband had died suddenly.  Kimberly chased down the widow outside the store and outside "office hours" and invited her back to the store where the widow ordered a muffin and Kimberly offered, "You know what, I'm going to share that cup of coffee and that muffin with you today (77)."  Aw.  It is moving.

But the majority of the book affirmed things I already know about the company (like the consistency Starbucks has from country to country - "Starbucks is the traveler's best friend," he quotes) and the coffeehouse is an excellent place to create ritual for folks.  "Humans, by nature, look forward to ritual.  Starbucks leadership understands that a business can become a part of customers' rituals and routines by offering a familiar experience (103)."  It also repeated things I already know about operating a successful business.   For a simple book that set out to offer businesspeople insights into how they can apply the principles* of Starbucks to beef up their own enterprises I thought it totally missed this goal.  What was perhaps the most irritating reminder of this misstep were the "Create Your Own Experience" boxes that kept popping up through the text asking readers annoying questions like, "How gracefully do you model a willingness to embrace resistance and accept responsibility (117)?"  These mini study sections got to me after a while.

It turns out Joseph Michelli is a consultant.  Maybe that's the voice he brings to this text?  It seems this may have been a project he threw out there to boost his own business.  Astute business people won't like it and clearly the man is not a gifted writer so anyone looking for a good read won't care for this either.  I also saw Starbucked at my same favorite bookstore recently.  Perhaps I should give that a shot?  That, and a triple shot latte, could revive my interest in books about a darn good coffeehouse.

*Those principles are: 1) Make it your own, 2) Everything matters, 3) Suprise and delight, 4) Embrace Resistance, and 5) Leave your mark.

A New Kind of Pedia

Look what I came across today.  It's Bookpedia!  You've heard of Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia that I link key information to on this blog, but have you heard of this?  It's a neat little program developed for us Mac users that lets us build our own library.  For someone like me who owns hundreds of books this will take a little while to set-up but can be quite useful.  Here's what it lets you do, according to Mac:

"It lets you search all the Amazon sites as well as the Library of Congress, several international book sites, and numerous library and university servers for information about your books, either by entering keywords or using an iSight or a scanner. You can keep a wish list for those books you don’t own yet and a borrowed list for those you want back.  To get even more organized, create smart collections. Display your entries in a table view, browse only the covers or use the info view for a personalized look. Share your collection with friends, using the customizable HTML export templates."

I also downloaded the Amazonpedia, which is an Apple widget that lets me search for any book at Amazon within seconds from right off my desktop.  "The Amazonpedia widget allows you to search every Amazon site for Books, DVDs, CDs and Games, as well as giving you access to all your Pedia applications at once. Along with the search results, the widget will tell you about the status of an item - whether you own it, if it's on your wish list or if somebody borrowed it and when it's due back. And thanks to the powerful search that combines all of the Pedias into one, you don't have to switch back and forth between applications anymore when looking for an entry."

"From the top bar of the widget, choose what you'd like to search for in Amazon - books, DVDs, CDs or games - or whether you'd like to do a local search of the Pedias. Then enter a keyword into the search field and hit return. On the backside of the widget you can choose which Amazon site you'd like to search (US, Canada, UK, Germany, France or Japan) and how you'd like the search to be sorted. You can also choose which Pedias to include in your localized search."

Isn't it amazing what the computer will do?  I'm grateful for these two new swanky devices for my computer.

Buy 'Em for the Office

These and others from this site are hilariously true.  Enjoy! (Thanks Marko.)

Review: Reality Show

The first step for the addicted is for us to admit we have a problem.  Accordingly, my name is Mark and I am a newsaholic.  If you're looking for a way to help a news junkie, you can send your counsel, prayers and financial donations my way.   First thing in the morning and last thing at night I can be found scanning the World Wide Web to keep up-to-date on what's happening around the world.  Most of the links on my bookmarks bar on my Mac are set to news sites.  And one of the treats of living in Hong Kong is that I can spend the morning watching the evening news shows from the States being broadcast here over breakfast.  The time change does me good.  Starting the day by getting caught up on the news from overnight in the West and then going live with news from Asia is fun.  I feel like I get the best of both worlds simultaneously.

On the magical morning of September 6, 2006 I was sitting right over there on my couch watching Katie Couric take up her duties as the first female sole anchor of an major U.S. evening news broadcast.  I like Katie.  The fact she is a woman sitting on top of this business is great, but it's not just her gender.  I think the woman is smart, handles both hard and soft news well, and has the ability to take evening news casts where they ought to go: young, relevant, and fun.  I watch her as often as possible since CBS broadcasts the Evening News here.  And Katie was a big reason for me to purchase Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War by the well-researched, easy-to-read author, media man Howard Kurtz.  The tome sat on my desk for too long, but last week I had the chance to finish this page-turner.

At a little over 400 pages it's packed with a reliable behind-the-scenes look at all of the major U.S. networks (CBS, ABC, and NBC).  Kurtz majors on the anchors (past and present) of these networks and specializes in covering the fast pace at which these folks and others like them (there's plenty of stories about CEOs, executive producers, producers, and news presidents) get moved around inside and in-between these news outlets.  There wasn't a lot of breaking news, i.e. Kurtz didn't tell us anything about our favorite news personalities that we didn't already know, but he weaves an intriguing plot.  And he gives it credibility by quoting from multiple sources and patching together the rest in a way that made sense and was engaging to read.  The other thing he does well is to show the effect the Internet and cable news shows are having on the traditional 6.30 broadcasts.

The glaring weakness, more like annoyance, in these pages is the heavy emphasis on the war in Iraq.  I realize I have to be careful about pointing this out, as did Kurtz in writing about it, and as do the anchors in deciding what to say about it on their broadcasts every weeknight.  The war is important.  It's the single biggest news story of our time, but it gets tiring reading about it again and again.  It seemed to me the author would have been wise to give Iraq a section and leave it at that.  But, if you're like me and would be happy to have a job on a news program writing, reporting or anchoring, read this book.  If you're not interested in television, news, how to manage a career in the news business, or you are just plain sickened by the likes of Katie Couric, Dan Rather, the late Peter Jennings, Charles Gibson, and/or Brian Williams (or if you have no idea who they are), then this one aint for you.

   

Justifications

Recently I went out shopping with my wife and as we were standing in the store waiting for her new pair of earrings to be boxed up and for the warranty forms to be signed I got to thinking about how easy it is to justify new purchases.  I am not judging my wife.  I am judging myself.  This was one of those stores with men and women's jewelry and they were featuring some suave men's watches (a personal favorite of mine).  As Ling made her way around the ladies section I wandered over to the men's section and became enchanted with all the options.  I was not in the store to buy anything, but rather to provide advice to my wife and her ears, but within minutes I was mapping out a strategy for how I could go home with a new watch wrapped around my wrist.

And what a coy mind I have.  My mind is so wise it can easily outsmart itself.   "Why do I need a new watch?", I originally say to myself.  "I have plenty at home I don't wear that much," retorts my conscience.  But then I glance back at a somewhat affordable ticker and my vain, your-watch-is-nicer-than-his self kicks in.  "If Ling's getting something nice, why can't you?  She's in a good mood.  Try to couple the purchases...come on, you know you want to."  But I don't want to.  I entered the store with no such conviction.  I was just responding to my beloved's love language and spending quality time with her.  I'm not here to shop, she is.  Plus, I have to save my money for something else, say a shopping spree at Barnes and Noble bookstore here in the States.  The battle within raged on.

Finally my conscience dug deep and dragged out the ole classic argument stopper: give the equivalent of what you're considering spending to charity.  "Come on, Swallow!  It will be sinful to drop this kind of cash on a watch.  What about humans that can't eat today or go to school or live well?  What have you done for them lately?" And for a while this seemed to subside the greedier side of myself.  But the saleslady was still trying to close the deal with my better half and the battle raged on and on.  Finally, we left.  About 20 steps outside the store I glanced back regretting that I had not been able to add a little bling to my wrist, but on the 21st step and following, the further away we got, the better I felt at having not given in. At last, some semblance of discipline!

But I continue to marvel at how I could easily have dropped a couple of hundred bones on that watch.  How easily I could have justified that purchase.  The kinds of thoughts that ran through my mind!  Is it any wonder we just can't get enough of shopping.  On the way to the elevator in the same mall we passed a large group of Chinese tourists in town from the Mainland.  They hardly had a free hand - shopping bags were everywhere.  The new rich - China's growing upper class.  And here they were enjoying a weekend shopping spree in Hong Kong.  "Shop til you drop," I thought I heard one of them say in English as we slipped by.  Shopping - that most universal of temptations for anyone with a few bucks and some time on their hands (pun not related to my earlier comments about watches).

How do you guard against spending too much?  Want to share some advice with the rest of us?

P.S. And doesn't this whole post just reveal the duplicity of my mind after what I wrote yesterday? I sicken and sadden myself.

   

Do it for Darfur

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am very interested in the (unfortunately) ongoing genocide in Darfur (a region in far western Sudan, Africa).  Conservative estimates have the death toll at 200,000 but the United Nations estimates that over 450,000 people have been slaughtered by a horrific joint venture between the Sudanese government under the leadership of the dictator and president Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir and the Janjaweed militia group.   Last year, while passionate about seeing progress in defending the Darfurians, I did not do enough personally.  Certainly the world (governments, the United Nations, corporations, citizen groups, and individuals) did not take swift enough action either, but I cannot control what they do or not do.  I can control my personal attentiveness to ending a contemporary genocide. 

So, midway through the first month of a new year, I want to give the crisis in Darfur attention on this blog.  I hope this will also act as a way for you to get involved and engage this with me.  If or if not, by updating on you on what I am doing for Darfur it will hold me accountable to take sustained action.  Today I begin with a simple request:  read this.  It will give you a brief description of the conflict. It's taken from this outstanding website that we'll look at more in-depth in the months ahead.

Here is an excerpt of the background article:

September Briefing Paper: The Genocide in Darfur

Background

Sudan is the largest country in Africa, located just south of Egypt on the eastern edge of the Sahara desert. The country’s major economic resource is oil. But, as in other developing countries with oil, this resource is not being developed for the benefit of the Sudanese people. As much as 70 percent of Sudan’s oil export revenues are used to finance the country’s military.1

Darfur, an area about the size of Texas, lies in western Sudan and borders Libya, Chad and the Central African Republic. It has only the most basic infrastructure and development. The approximately 6 million inhabitants of Darfur are among the poorest in Africa. They exist largely on either subsistence farming or nomadic herding. Even in good times, the Darfuri people face a very harsh and difficult life; these are not good times in Darfur.

The current crisis in Darfur began in 2003. After decades of neglect, drought, oppression and small-scale conflicts in Darfur, two rebel groups – the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) – mounted an insurgency against the central government. These groups represent agrarian farmers who are mostly “non-Arab black African” Muslims from a number of different tribes. President al-Bashir’s response was brutal. In seeking to defeat the rebel movements, the Government of Sudan increased arms and support to local tribal and other militias, which have come to be known as the Janjaweed.2 Their members are composed mostly of “Arab black African” Muslims3 who herd cattle, camels, and other livestock. They have wiped out entire villages, destroyed food and water supplies, and systematically murdered, tortured, and raped hundreds of thousands of Darfuris. In previous internal conflicts (in the south, center, and east of the country), the Sudanese government also employed the tactic of using proxy militias to attack the civilian populations that have been thought to support insurgencies. These attacks often occur with the direct support of the Government of Sudan’s armed forces or at the very least, with their tacit approval.

Few have been spared violence, murder, rape and torture. As one illustration of how Khartoum has waged its war, the Sudanese military paints many of its attack aircraft white – the same color as U.N. humanitarian aircraft – a violation of international humanitarian law. When a plane approaches, villagers do not know whether it is on a mission to help them or to bomb them. Often, it has been the latter.

This scorched-earth campaign by the Sudanese government against Darfuri civilians has, through direct violence, disease, and starvation, already claimed as many as 400,000 lives. It has spilled over into neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic. In all, about 2.3 million Darfuris have fled their homes and communities and now reside in a network of internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Darfur, with over 200,000 more living in refugee camps in Chad. These refugees and IDPs are almost entirely dependent on the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations for their basic needs – food, water, shelter, and health care.

Approximately 1 million more Darfuris still live in their villages, under the constant threat of bombings, raids, murder, rape and torture. Until the arrival of the long-awaited United Nations peacekeeping force, authorized by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1769, actually takes place, the safety of these civilians depends on the presence of the underfunded and undermanned African Union peacekeeping force. Known as AMIS, the force, in Darfur since October 2004, numbers just 7,400 troops and personnel. AMIS lacks a civilian protection mandate as well as adequate means to stop the violence. Its sole mandate is to monitor and report ceasefire violations and it has done little more, due to its limited mandate but also because of its anemic capacity.

In the summer of 2007, outbreaks  of violence between some of the Arab tribes that worked together as part of the Janjaweed began to occur more frequently. This latest mutation of the conflict, is indicative of the ever-changing dynamic of this crisis. The United Nations recently reported that tribal and factional fighting is now killing more people than the clashes between the government or government-backed militias and rebel forces.

Another new dynamic, reported by various news sources, is the tens of thousands of non-Darfuris arriving in Darfur in recent months, with many ending up on lands belonging to displaced Darfuris. Different news outlets have reported slightly varied information about Arab groups from neighboring countries, like Niger and Chad, resettling in Darfur. Many news reports cite the same rumors and unconfirmed reports of third-party nationals being given Sudanese identity documents, as well as other evidence of a planned scheme to permanently settle Arabs from outside the Sudan on the lands of displaced Darfuris. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that as many as 30,000 people have left Chad for Darfur  in a steady flow since early 2007.

1 Jeffrey  Gettleman, “Far Away from Darfur’s Agony, Khartoum  is Booming,” New York Times, 23 October 2006.

2 Janjaweed  loosely translates to “devil on horseback.”

Up, Up, & Away, & Lookey There!

I'm off to the airport later this morning for my departure to the ole US & A.   Cities to visit include Los Angeles, a place about a 3 hour drive north from LA called Lake Arrowhead, Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, and a one-night stop in Mexico City (I know that's not in the States).  I'll be chiming in on the Nest from the road.   And along the way I hope to stop into a few Mac stores (not the make-up joint - I mean the real Mac store) and look what I'll find:

Wow.  Steve Jobs said Tuesday, "The new laptop, which has a 13.3-inch screen and full-sized laptop keyboard, will cost $1,799. It goes on sale in two weeks, but Apple is taking orders now. The ultra-thin machine is poised to enhance Apple's sizzling Macintosh product lineup and burnish the company's image as a purveyor of cool."  I'd say that looks cool.  The Macbook Air.  Another svelte product from Mac. Thinnovation, baby!

Pack That!

You've heard of a pack rat (a person who loves to keep everything), well when I am packing for a trip I can often hear myself say, "pack that!"  A couple of days before my voyage (in this case the day before) I like to take out everything I think needs to go in the suitcase or the briefcase and lay it on the living room floor.  Then I pull out my bags and starting putting stuff in.  My favorite bag is my Victorinox Swiss Army briefcase, that rolls, and I always carry-on with me.  In fact, that bag never leaves my side while I'm on the road.  It has been many places with me - all through Asia, North America, and Europe.  I love packing it because it holds all the important stuff - music, books, magazines, and my computer.  The dilemma, of course, is how much of these items to take in each category. 

Take for example books.  Right now I have laid out the two titles I mentioned yesterday, From Beirut to Jerusalem and The Nuclear Jihadist.  Both of these are sizeable but I am also thinking about taking Forces for Good, How to Manage in a Flat World, Blue Blood & Mutiny, or The Innocent Man.  What is a man to do?  How am I supposed to decide which of these will make it inside the Victorinox?  The truth is I'll only be able to read one book en route to Los Angeles and once on the ground I'll start shopping at bookstores in the States where I will set a budget and load up.  So why would I take more than one book from here?  Good question.  I also need to fit in my iPod, my snazzy Bose headphones (the greatest gift a frequent flier could ever have), a few magazines, my computer, work files, and a few other odds and ends.  Hiyah, as they'd say in Hong Kong.  Any wisdom or advice?  What would you take? What would you leave out?  Why?