2008 June « PETER F. MARTIN

In support of Facebook: Wes Clark’s status

June 30th, 2008 § 1 Comment

I’ve had a Facebook profile since early 2006, the middle of my senior year of high school. Earlier this year, I did all I could to quit Facebook without actually leaving: I removed all personal information from my profile and hid what I couldn’t or didn’t want to delete entirely, including photos of me and posts on my wall. I left a note under the About Me section: “I got bored of Facebook, so I’m off for a while.”

Most people who have commented about the move don’t believe me: they believe I had become excessively consumed by Facebook, and so to correct my behavior I did what I could to cut it from my life. Really, though, bored is what I was. I didn’t check it much, and I didn’t like having to keep up with communication or developments on Facebook. So I left, for the most part.

I’ve kept my profile up and my contact information visible so people don’t forget about me and so they know how they can reach me, if not on Facebook. In the past, I’ve gone through my Facebook friends to remember things such as who to invite to an event (in the real world, not online), and I didn’t want to be skipped over the way I’ve skipped over friends who don’t exist on the site. Similarly, I want my email address and phone number to be easily accessible to the people I know. Keeping a minimalist profile was the happy medium I reached.

But while I’ve lost affection for the site, it’s still growing in popularity, to the point where today a Facebook profile is necessary not only for students, but even for (often minor) celebrities like musicians and politicians. And though Facebook is no longer for me, I can recognize that some good is coming from Facebook’s taking over and revolutionizing our society’s socializing. Today’s evidence: Gen. Wesley Clark.

The story in brief: the general said John McCain’s experience as a POW doesn’t qualify him to be president, the McCain camp shot back, Barack Obama criticized Clark for his comment, and Clark defended himself–on Facebook, through his status. While teens everywhere are professing to be “OMG soooo hung over,” Clark “knows that John McCain is largely untested and untried when it comes to national security matters.” Screen shot here, thanks to Politico’s Ben Smith.

Wes Clark and Facebook score points.

Chatting at 30,000 feet

June 30th, 2008 § Leave a Comment

My sister and I flew from Cusco to Lima a few days ago to avoid a 24-hour bus ride. At the beginning of the flight, as usual, a flight attendant instructed passengers to turn off all electronic devices, including cell phones. Since I was carrying our only phone, my sister encouraged me to follow the instruction. I told her I wouldn’t.

I’ve refused to turn off my phone while flying for a year or two now. It’s mostly stubbornness on my part, but it’s borne out of my belief that doing so doesn’t matter. So many phones remain on through any flight, including during takeoff and landing, that if they posed a real hazard, flight attendants would check every phone personally and the instruction to disable them would be more emphatic. As it is, I have to believe that phones don’t affect the flight, and passengers are asked to turn them off only so they won’t miss other instructions while they’re yapping during takeoff and landing.

But since I don’t want to cause a crash, I’ll happily turn my phone off for all flights when I learn that its signal could actually mess with signals the pilot needs. Unfortunately for flight attendants, I’ve read that that’s not the case. Apparently, cell phone use is only prohibited during flights because chatting in the air would piss everyone off. Four years ago, the FCC was prepared to allow in-flight cell phone use when public reaction scuttled the plan.

I don’t talk while the plane is taxiing on the runway unless I have to, and I won’t turn off my phone unless I should. If there’s a real reason phones should be off during flights, please let me know. Until then, I’ll hope that people can’t talk during the flight but that attendants stop asking me to do the unnecessary.

Similarly, here’s hoping the M.T.A. wires all New York City Subway stations for cell phone use and never does the same for its trains.

Sharing Hunter

June 30th, 2008 § 1 Comment

At the Tony Awards two weeks ago, Lin-Manuel Miranda won best score for In The Heights. The show is moving and funny, and the score is an exciting blend of hip hop, Latin, and Broadway music. Miranda’s acceptance “speech” shows the inspiration and spirit behind the talent:

With such a big hit in his first foray onto Broadway, Miranda is a fast-rising star in his world right now, so it’s great to see him remembering and thanking those who helped him in his earlier years. In a shout-out I appreciate personally, at 1:30 in the video he thanks “Dr. Herbert for telling me, ‘You’re a writer.’” I know what he’s talking about. I, too, could thank Dr. Herbert for helping me, since I also learned from Dr. Herbert at Hunter.

For those of you who weren’t there with me, Hunter College High School is a selective public school in Manhattan. It’s run by Hunter College and is therefore administered through the City University of New York system, rather than directly by the City, as other public schools are. When I try to explain my high school to people who don’t know it, I find no explanation is satisfactory. It is truly public in ways financial: students and their families pay nothing to attend, and the school operates on a threadbare budget year after year. We had a safe building, but classrooms had half-painted walls and desks with years of graffiti. Our books were even older: many were published in the 1970s and 1980s. But Hunter had the human and intellectual resources of any school in the country, including the best private schools. Hunter was and is an incredible world of creativity and intelligence, most of which came from its 1200 students in grades seven through twelve. The school admits students based on a single test in sixth grade, which seems like an easy way to build a school of little nerds. Yet Hunter students formed the most interesting, smart, and intellectually diverse community I have known.

I’ll surely write more on my high school in the future, but Miranda’s Tony wins (In The Heights also won best musical) and his acceptance speech moved me to share the event, as well as the feeling of pride it gave me. I’m only two years out of high school, but that’s enough time to move on, and to move the experience firmly into the realm of memory. Since leaving, however, I’ve clung to Hunter, keeping strong friendships from high school and going back to visit my teachers when I can. During my last visit in May, I only caught Dr. Herbert for a minute, but I spent four hours with other teachers in the English, Social Studies, and Science department offices. And my pride in the school has only grown since graduation. I went to school with an amazing group of people. Miranda was eight years ahead of me, but I’m proud of his early achievements. Many other accomplished alums strengthen my pride in those who shaped the school before me. And I look forward to the coming years, when I will get to be proud of my classmates, those who shaped the school while I was there and, as much as anyone else, made me who I am.

Update 7/1/08: Earlier today a Hunter friend sent me this audio link, in which, about a quarter in, Max Kellerman, Hunter ’91 and sports broadcaster, talks with Jon Daniels, Hunter ’95 and general manager of the Texas Rangers. Not a great clip, but worth a listen for Hunter alums. They both claim to have been “king of the nerds.”

Notes from Peru: #3

June 23rd, 2008 § 1 Comment

I’ve always loved my city, but I’ve felt for years that I love cities in general. Urban life is continually exciting, even after years or decades. A walk down any busy street is a new experience, no matter how many times you’ve walked that street before. And big cities are great because they have a lot of streets.

I chose to spend most of my summer in Lima because it’s a big city: with around eight million residents, Lima is as large as New York.

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First Americans

June 14th, 2008 § 2 Comments

The Obama campaign uses a term I’ve never heard before to woo one demographic. Looking online, I see now the term is used elsewhere, but I’m still surprised a major campaign is using such a rare term in its outreach efforts, especially when there is ongoing debate over which term is most appropriate and appreciated by the group it refers to.

I’m ignorant of many concerns in the debate, but the term First Americans seems to be largely equivalent to Native Americans, with only slight differences. It avoids “Indian,” which many find offensive (but which some Native Americans/American Indians prefer to retain), and the potential confusion of Native American vs. native American. (Original American and Indigenous American are other similar terms that have failed to catch on.) But the only other advantage I see to First American over the more commonly used Native American comes from little-thought-about meanings of the adjectives: “native” may be seen as subtly offensive, suggesting a racist and colonial legacy that rarely respected native peoples or cultures. And by saying that Native Americans are not only native to this land, but also that they were the first ones here, goes further in extending the honor of their history.

Of course, our nation could better honor those here before the colonists by doing what Canada did two days ago, and what Australia did earlier this year. And I know they’re just a sports team, but the Redskins need to catch up to the NCAA–fast.

(I should also note that the issue of how to treat indigenous people today is much more important here in Peru, and throughout Latin America, where indigenous populations are very large and still very oppressed. I haven’t had enough personal experience here regarding race relations to have any insights.)

My take on all this is ignorant and my opinion is therefore irrelevant. If someone with knowledge of these issues stumbles upon this and cares to fill me in about any of it, I would be grateful.

On mass transit and buskers

June 12th, 2008 § Leave a Comment

Perhaps my favorite part of the Lima experience so far are combis, the city’s quick public minibuses. In reality, combis aren’t public: each is privately owned and run for profit. But they function as the city’s primary mass transit, performing the service more effectively and as cheaply as any public transportation in the U.S. A typical combi has about 20 seats, including one next to the driver, in front of the door. The buses are old, as are most of the cars here, their exteriors are painted in bright colors, and their routes are written under the windows in the names of the districts and streets they travel: Callao Wilson Arequipa Benavides V. Salvador, for example. Rather than stopping at regular points, they pick and drop off passengers continually. And rather than allowing such frequent stops to slow the trip, passengers are expected to run to catch the combi, jumping on and off as the bus comes to a very brief stop and the fare collector shouts: “Suben, suben! Bajan, bajan!” Fares supposedly vary by distance and quality of the bus, but I’ve always dropped a single sol (about 35 cents) into the fare collector’s hand and he’s never returned change or asked for more. Though they are usually full, they rarely develop standing crowds, since the streets are teeming with them: it’s not unusual to see three or four combis in a row, or ten in a minute, along major streets.

Like much here, combis could never exist in American cities. For one thing, buses speeding down the street, competing for passengers, and making riders of all ages hop nimbly aboard would lead to bankrupting lawsuits before the end of their first rush hour on the streets. I also doubt the idea of private mass transit will catch on, even in a national wave of privatization. But why is that? I recognize the benefit to having public transportation easily regulated and with an accountable organization that answers to the people. But combis do what no buses in the U.S. seem to do: arrive quickly and move lots of people fast. The longest I’ve waited for a combi is the length of a stop light–there’s rarely a bus more than a block away–and, despite the frequent stops, combis hustle their way across town. Cabs, which range in cost by distance but have cost me between five and twelve soles ($2-$4), move no faster through the city’s heavy traffic.

In other ways, though, combis can offer tastes of home. This afternoon, a young guy got on the combi I was riding with a guitar and, a couple minutes later, began playing. Given the combi’s limited space, I was surprised that playing such a venue would be profitable for the musician, or that the driver would let the guitarist take up a valuable spot. But he played for nearly ten minutes, and he played beautifully. I don’t know the norms here, but I wanted to reward him for making my commute much more enjoyable, so I gave him a sol. And I was reminded of another powerful performance on public transportation, one which I was not lucky enough to see in person. I found this a couple months ago but it still strikes me. From beginning to end (do watch or skip to the end if you start the video), the event is a beautiful one.

Notes from Peru: #2

June 10th, 2008 § 3 Comments

Yesterday and today have really turned me around. Much of the frustration and confusion I felt a couple days ago melted away in less than twenty-four hours, thanks to a couple great events.

Last night I met with an American journalist who was helpful and generous beyond anything I expected. He’s an editor for an international wire service, and he’s been working and living in Lima for ten months. Over more than two hours that we shared in a café, he advised me on how I can do the best reporting possible while I’m here, how I can have the most fun, and what I should do to become a better (and more employable) journalist by the time I graduate. I had only asked about the first. « Read the rest of this entry »

Flying and eating healthier (for the world, that is)

June 9th, 2008 § Leave a Comment

The Freakonomics blog on the New York Times’ website has two interesting posts today on carbon emissions. Daniel Hamermesh cites a Yahoo! News story about the world’s only carbon-neutral airline, which charges passengers by the pound. But don’t get too worked up: though “Derrie-Air” advertised in Philadelphia papers, it’s not real. Instead, it’s a one-day ploy to “stimulate discussion on a timely environmental topic of interest to all citizens,” as FlyDerrie-Air.com explains (and the blog points out up front). In the second post, Stephen Dubner details why eating locally may not help the environment, as widely believed. His post critiques four arguments for eating locally produced food, among them its supposed environmental benefits. If everyone in the world ate locally produced food, he asks, would the planet really be better off?

Figuring out how to produce food and how to transport everything with a smaller carbon footprint will be imperative upon us in the next few years. Even lighthearted examinations of what we can or should be doing to address the issues are helpful, and worth a read now.

P.S. If Derrie-Air’s payment formula becomes widely accepted by real airlines, one of these guys will be paying a lot more than the others to hit the skies.

Now for something completely different

June 9th, 2008 § Leave a Comment

Though his show is less popular than it once was, millions of Americans still know the name Jerry Springer. Few, however, remember him as the former mayor of Cincinnati. Or the one-time candidate for governor of Ohio. And how many would believe he was once considered a rising star of the Democratic Party, a politician with every gift imaginable and heart to drive him for decades? The story of Jerry Springer is baffling and tragic. And beautifully told here, by Alex Blumberg on This American Life (segment starts 4 minutes in). If you don’t think you have 31 minutes to hear the full story of Jerry Springer, watch this campaign video and then decided whether you’re interested:

Update 7/7/09: Springer is apparently appearing as Billy Flynn in a London production of “Chicago.” My initial skepticism is only joined by disappointment after reading this review. I’d still be interested to see the performance, though.

Notes from Peru: #1

June 7th, 2008 § 2 Comments

I had hoped by the time of my first report I would have great adventures to tell of. I don’t, so let me apologize in advance for what is a pretty mundane recounting of a short week. The report is long, since I’ve tried to cover both my experiences and impressions so far, as fully as possible. And I’ve detailed the bad with the good, so if you get into it and find yourself concerned, read on or skip ahead—it gets better at the end.

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