In Transit

Just a quick note from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. I'm off to the States for the next month. I'll be in Denver for a few days, followed by a trip to Alaska then a couple weeks in Washington for work related stuff.

I watched 10,000 BC on the plane from Niamey to Paris. What an wretched movie. I sure hope I don't know anybody who paid good money to see that abomination in the theater. I shudder to thing of what piece of cinematic garbage is waiting for me on the next flight.

Disappointed in Obama

I've been known to write the occasional glowing post about Barack Obama, but I won't shy away from pointing out an aspect of his campaign that has so far disappointed me: his repeated snubbing of Muslims. Obama declined offers from Keith Ellison, the first and only Muslim congressman, to speak on his behalf. Two Obama supporting Muslim women wearing head scarves were recently asked not to stand behind the candidate during a speech in Detroit for fear they might be caught by the TV cameras. Obama routinely visits churches and synagogues but won't be seen anywhere near a mosque. And his own website refers to the (false) claim that "Barack Obama is a Muslim" as a "smear". False? Obviously. A rumor spread in bad faith intended to appeal to xenophobic instincts? Certainly. But a smear? Only if you concede that there's something inherently wrong or undesirable about being a Muslim in the first place.

I understand that there are people out there actively trying to push the idea that Obama is a secret Muslim radical who, if elected, will enact Sharia law and try to destroy the United States from within. And I also understand that the number of Americans who draw little or no distinction between Islam and terrorism is unfortunately high. But Obama's response to this whisper campaign is both cowardly and stupid. Shunning public appearances that could be interpreted as supportive of Islam and labeling the word Muslim as a smear are tacit endorsements of anti-Muslim bigotry. It's cowardly because it's a transparent compromise on principle for the sake of political expediency.

And it's stupid because ultimately it's probably not very politically expedient either. I would imagine that the fraction of the American electorate who could be convinced that Obama is a Muslim is made up almost entirely of people who weren't going to vote for him anyway. More significantly, striking this defensive posture of denying the rumors but acquiescing to the bigotry behind them makes him look like a weak candidate. It makes him look like somebody who can be pushed around by the purveyors of this kind of crap. That, I would argue, is more likely to be politically damaging than a visit to a mosque would ever be.

Maybe I'm especially sensitive to this because the overwhelming majority of people I interact with on a daily basis are Muslims but I get tired of making excuses for this stuff. Even here in Niger, people are following this election in much greater detail than most Americans realize. It's not pleasant having to explain to Muslim friends why Obama has to have a website insisting that he's not Muslim, or why he can't be photographed with women wearing head scarves in the background.

John Cole has a good post on this as well.

Slice of Life

Yesterday evening the president announced that people should not work today because the government needs to conduct a population census and they want people home where they can be counted. First of all this seems like the kind of announcement that could have been made at least a day or two ahead of time. Second, it's unclear (to me) exactly what an announcement like this means. I guess the president can cancel work for all public sector employees without too much difficulty, but could non-government workers be punished for working today? The question is entirely academic, because of course nobody would dream of disobeying this kind of instruction from the president. People just assume (and grant) that the president has the authority to tell them not to work.

Anyway I came to the research station with a few other people this morning but the place is empty so we'll be leaving by noon. I predict that by the end of today I won't be able to find a single Nigerien who was counted for this census.

How Quickly We Forget

I see that Angelina Jolie ranks #3 on Forbes list of the 100 most powerful celebrities. The article notes her "peace activism" and speculates that, "Photos of her twins should fetch the highest price ever for baby snaps. She'll probably give the money to charity."

Maybe so, but my first thought was of Bill Simmons's recent remark:

People can change, but not that much. Even Angelina Jolie. ... I don't care how many kids she has, how normal she seems and how much good she does, deep down, she's still the crazy woman who wore Billy Bob Thornton's blood around her neck a few years ago.

Reason to Hate CNN International #2: The Weather

Reporting the weather forecast is one of the more useful functions of TV news. It's nice to have some way to anticipate whether you should bring an umbrella to work today or consider canceling that picnic you had planned for the weekend. But 99% of what's useful about knowing weather conditions is only locally relevant. What is the point in trying to report "the weather" on a global news network?

CNNi fills a lot of airtime with a graphic that shows current conditions in a random smattering of 20 or so cities while some new age music plays in the background. I'm telling you, it's on so often I hear the music in my sleep. And it's next to useless! Great. I now know it's 25 degrees in Muscat. Now please show me again 5 minutes from now. (I consider myself pretty good with my world cities and I had to look that one up, but at least I know it's partly cloudy there with a chance of rain.) Unsurprisingly, Niamey never makes the cut. But even if they decided viewers in Niamey could also benefit from knowing current conditions and graciously added us to the rotation of cities, what are the odds that I'd be watching (or paying attention) on the occasion when Niamey's number comes up?

What you also get, slightly less frequency but still multiple times every hour, is the typical "weatherman/woman standing in front of the map" routine. I think they throw darts at a spinning globe once or twice a day when they feel like changing the map. This morning I got a nice rundown of conditions in the US (all temperatures in degrees Celsius, of course). Tomorrow I'm hoping for Australia.

African Fish Blogging

I don't think the photo really captures it, but this was a gigantic fish that some friends and I ate last weekend. If you define a "person-meal" as the amount one person eats for one meal, this fish was well over ten person-meals. It was stuffed full of vermicelli, potatoes, and vegetables, with all the bones removed. It was then baked in an oven for over an hour and eventually served on top of a heaping pile of fried rice (not shown). Definitely the best meal I've had since I've been here.

I tend to report all of my significant dining and gastronomic experiences to my friend Tim, who has much more refined tastes in these matters than I do. He appreciated my description of this meal, but felt that it probably didn't compare to the fish he ate in Uganda several months ago, shown below in "before and after" mode.


Update: I imagine there are a lot of these "memorable meal" photos floating around out there. Feel free to send some my way and I'll continue to post the good ones. I think I remember some quality food pictures from a certain evening at Chamas Brazilian Steakhouse in Durham last year.