The Economy, the Environment and Civilization
I came across this clip on my computer last night and thought it might make an interesting contribution to the discussion about the gathering economic shitstorm. From The Corporation.
Civilization, commercialism, voting, pollution, consumption, materialism, transportation... all of these elements play a part. What we have now is not sustainable. It never was. That it's breaking down should surprise none of us.
Journal 10.5.08: Giving Blood
I got a unit of red blood today. It turns out the bone marrow transplant is having some nasty side effects on my body. To fight back, I’m on a very high dosage of a bunch of drugs that are creating some nasty side effects of their own. For example, I’m currently taking 100mL a day of a steroid called methylprednisone. It’s bad stuff and has driven my blood statistics down back close to where they were when I was first diagnosed with cancer. So today the doctors finally had to break down and pump another bag of blood in my arm to replace what I’m losing.
I must have gotten at least a hundred bags of red blood from anonymous donors since my hospital experience started in April, not to mention hundreds of bags of supplementary blood products called platelets. Every time I get a bag, it saves my life. Each occasion represents a completely anonymous stranger giving me, some random guy they’ll never even meet and might not even like, a free opportunity to live another day. It boggles my mind that I’ve gotten so many second chances. It fills me with so much warmth and appreciation for people.
I want to take this opportunity to ask you to give blood to your local donation center. I wish I could repay every single ounce I’ve gotten to every miraculous stranger who’s saved my life, but my tainted medical history rules me out. All I can do is ask YOU to take my place and help some OTHER desperate stranger with your own gift of life… appeal to you to be the hero to somebody else that those hundreds of people are to me. And if/when you do, let me know and I’ll take you out for a beer or a burrito because you kick ass. But seriously, please think about it. It’s easy, it saves lives and there’s always plenty of demand.
Journal 9.15.08: REMISSION
Today I found out I'm cancer-free.
I've wanted so badly to write something about all this but I just can't find the words. I have so much to say. And I will, but for now, I just want to spread the word --- my cancer is in remission, and it looks like I'm going to be okay. Much love to all of you who've left comments, I read every single one and the support got me through many a dark day.
I've always been a cynical person, but I've seen so many amazing things and met so many incredible, caring people throughout this journey that I don't know what I think anymore. For now, I'm just happy to have good news for once and wanted to share it with those of you who've followed my progress. Thank you and I can't wait till I have the strength to get back to my calling here. I haven't forgotten activism or writing, I've just been on a rudely imposed break. Before all this happened, I had a great idea of what I was fighting against in this world but now I have an equally strong feel for what I'm fighting for. So cheers, and look for me to be around more from now on.
A way forward?
So, I tend to fixate on foreign policy, it’s my specialty, it’s my thing. So, I’m going to make this a big wide angle foreign policy post. Here we go.
Lately I’ve been reading a couple of books (Haven’t finished them yet, but I’ll still bite some ideas from them) notably, Yglesias’s Heads in the Sand, and Albright’s Memo to a President Elect. Both of these books describe a United States adrift. We have lost our moorings in foreign policy, our traditional roles as leader of the “free world” and champion of the Wilsonian system have been discarded under the current administration, to be replaced with something that simply cannot be sustained. The role that the Neoconservatives and the Bush administration have attempted to carve out for the United States, that of the wrathful, avenging angel of the world, in addition to being unsustainable in this world of asymmetrical warfare, burgeoning nuclear states and significant international institutions, has also proven impossible to sell both domestically and abroad.
The concept of “Leader of the free world” is largely irrelevant today. The “Free world” no longer exists as a bloc. Without a single direct enemy, a bloc centered on the US makes no sense, and so the group that would for our sphere of influence has become too fractious to function as a purpose for our nation. Additionally, since this bloc would today consist of the entire planet, over which we can be said to exert hegemony, it would be basically impossible to unify. One ironic result of “winning” the Cold War was this: We destroyed our own bloc. Ying cannot exist without yang, and there cannot exist a single large alliance on the earth, it needs a foe to unify it. We could only return to our cold war role, if we either lost much control of the planet.
Clinton’s goal of being the strong arm of Wilsonianism isn’t quite viable either. Though the world may stand behind us, and it will give us a position of strength to work from, our own nation is unlikely to stand by it. Wilsonian internationalism demands sacrifice, something the American people are presently uncomfortable with. We cannot even muster the political will to give the UN the 0.7% they demand, how can we expect to become the paragon of the system? It would entail putting the US military into situations where the US will not directly benefit, which our people will not stand for, making this sadly impossible as a path.
ICC indicts Sudan President Bashir for Darfur genocide
In a potentially earth-shaking move, the International Criminal Court has charged Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir with war crimes related to the Darfur genocide. LINK
Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Monday urged a three-judge panel to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to prevent the deaths of about 2.5 million people forced from their homes in the war-torn region of Darfur and who are still under attack from government-backed Janjaweed militia.
The five charges against al-Bashir include masterminding attempts to wipe out African tribes in the war-torn region with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation.
I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, yes, Bashir is a war criminal. He IS responsible for hundreds of thousands, likely millions, of deaths in Darfur. He's a totalitarian leader with no consideration for his people and he's impossible to negotiate with. On the other hand, it's not like he's actually going to be arrested. There's no way for the ICC to enforce this warrant, so all it really does is make the Sudanese government that much more pissed off at the West, making it that much less likely any lasting peace deal can get done.
My friend May, who's been over there as an aid worker and knows more about the region than anybody I know, called this "the worst setback to the peace process that has happened in Sudan in recent years."
I wonder what'll happen.
Iraq, Afghanistan Vets and Substance Abuse
I caught an article on military.com worth a read today. It's been clear for months that soldiers coming back from Iraq aren't getting the support they need. Things don't seem to be getting much better. Link:
Most nights when Anthony Klecker, a former marine, finally slept, he found himself back on the battlefields of Iraq. He would awake in a panic, and struggle futilely to return to sleep.
Days were scarcely better. Car alarms shattered his nerves. Flashbacks came unexpectedly, at the whiff of certain cleaning chemicals. Bar fights seemed unavoidable; he nearly attacked a man for not washing his hands in the bathroom.
Desperate for sleep and relief, Mr. Klecker, 30, drank heavily. One morning, his parents found him in the driveway slumped over the wheel of his car, the door wide open, wipers scraping back and forth. Another time, they found him curled in a fetal position in his closet.
Yet only after his drunken driving caused the death of a 16-year-old cheerleader did Mr. Klecker acknowledge the depth of his problem: His eight months at war had profoundly damaged his psyche.
“I was trying to be the tough marine I was trained to be — not to talk about problems, not to cry,” said Mr. Klecker, who has since been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder. “I imprisoned myself in my own mind.”
The article moves on from his individual example to examine the big picture.
Journal 7.6
I’ve had about four days of calm. More than that, improvement. As of yesterday, I have an immune system again, albeit a vulnerable one (my doctors made an analogy calling it a “baby immune system” since all the cells are completely new and not all that strong). I also have enough platelets in my bloodstream that if I got shanked in a bar fight, I could probably make it to the ER if my friend drove fast enough and didn’t make any wrong turns. I’ve also gained a few pounds, my eyes are looking better and I just feel stronger overall. It’s hard to believe I’m the same guy who vomited all that bile in the trash a few days ago.
I’m probably going home Wednesday. No, really this time. It’s not a tenuous thing… it’s something the doctors are planning on. They just want to see me stay as stable as I am for another day or two and wean me off the pain/nausea medications before they let me go.
I’ve been hospitalized since April 28th (except a day and a half in early May) and now it’s July. When I went in, if I recall correctly, gas was still under $3.50. Now… … yeah… well, I don’t expect to be driving for awhile, anyway. That “baby immune system” of mine isn’t quite ready for many public places yet, and my colitis is still completely out of control. Since I’m only going to be home for a maximum of 10-15 days, tops, there’s just not opportunity for much travel. But that’s ok. I have plenty to do at home and hope to have a lot of visitors.