Happy International Women's Day

On Saturday I went to see the AJWS Volunteer Summer 2010 group that went to Ramogi, Uganda a year after me. While I was excited to here about all the people I worked closely with and had lengthy conversations with, there is one woman that will always capture my imagination and inspire me.

Her name is Agnus. I honestly don't know if I ever learned her last name or her name in Dhipadola (the local language). I simply know her as Agnus. Agnus is not the leader of an NGO or a politician or even someone who is very outspoken. Agnus is a grandmother, she is probably 53 years old now and last I heard she is in Primary Five, or P5, as it is often referred. P5 is essentially 5th grade and the students are around 10 to 15 years old. Agnus is 53

When we met her she was 51 and in P3. She would stand in front of us with her green Makauri Primary School uniform and stoically announce "Agnus, P3, Makauri Primary School presents the Adola Anthem" and then proceeded to lead the call & response song that was the local kingdom's anthem.

After the first time, Apollo Jaramogi, the charismatic leader of Uganda Orphans Rural Development Programme told us her story. Agnus made sure, regardless of the cost, that her children would make it through primary and secondary school. Then, again, she made sure the same happened with her grandchildren.

In 1996 Uganda announced the end of primary school fees and promotion of "Universal Primary Education". A few years ago, Agnus realized that her child and grandchildren could read and write, but she couldn't. She decided that if school no longer had fees that she, too, would go to school. She says once she finishes secondary school she would like to become a teacher. She'll be in her 60s when this happens, but I don't doubt her at all. She will be a teacher.

I think we get wrapped up in celebrating iconic women. Secretaries of state, foreign ministers, presidents, prime ministers, writers, businesswomen and the like. They deserve all of that and more, but I want to say Happy International Women's Day from this feminist/ally man to all the quiet women heroes.

Happy International Women's Day to my mom. I doubt she'll ever be remembered in a history book or celebrating all around the world, but she is a hero. Despite being an immigrant, despite only having an associates degree and despite losing her husband she will has three children who are healthy, happy and successful: each college educated and soon all three with graduate degrees. Two with beautiful, healthy and happy children.

And of course a Happy International Women's Day to the Agnuses out there. Quietly setting the example that at any age education is important and despite challenges it can be and should be pursued. In a country where according to the World Bank, only 56.13% of students completed primary school she is inspiration not only to the girls at her school, but the boys as well. She may not be celebrating internationally or written about in a history book, but standing there proudly with her warm smile and green uniform she has changed many lives in Ramogi and will never be far from my mind or my heart.

Happy International Women's Day to everyone, but mainly to all the quiet women heroes and all my fellow male allies. May there be another 100 years of progress and celebration!

My Father, My Hero

When I was eleven my father passed away and tomorrow marks the 12th Father's Day without him. In honor of the holiday I wanted to offer some words of thanks and love for him. To start I think y'all need to know the story of who Zvi Minc was.

My dad was born in Israel to a survivors of World War II. His father, a pain-in-the-neck man who despite his many flaws was a powerful figure who fled Poland when the Nazis approached, joined the Red Army and after the war fled Russia to settle in Israel. His mother, a woman I barely knew, a survivor of Auschwitz and crippled by bad health including diabetes that progressively ruined her ability to walk and made her blind. My dad was their oldest son and the 1st of 4 children. While they never were happy that he and his family lived in the US, their pride in my dad were beyond obvious. My grandmother died 7 months after my father. It might have been here health, but from the wailing during the entire week of the funeral, a broken heart would be a very valid diagnosis.

After growing up in the kibbutz, he went off to the military with hopes of flying in the Israeli Air Force. While his sight was good, it wasn't good enough and in the end he was assigned to be a mechanic for the Air Force rather than a pilot. While a turbulent time in Israel, his service ended before the Yom Kippur war and as young Israelis have been doing for decades, he traveled to the United States. While he and his current girlfriend went with a group to tour the Poconos Mountains, he met my mom a fellow kibbutznik, and their courtship began. After briefly dating, Israels neighbors surprised it by attacking on Yom Kippur and reservists all around the world, like my dad, headed back to Israel to do their part in defending their country. Corresponding while they were apart, ultimately they decided to get married.

While there is much more I can say I will fast forward at the kind of father he was. Eventually, after settling in Dallas, my dad decided to start his own business using his experience as a mechanic and a job he had as an appliance repairman. As the owner and sole employee of QuikService, my dad was very successful: he did quality work, at a low price and treated his clients with respect. They thanked him with numerous referrals and fierce loyalty. He went to work early, but routinely he would be done by three so he could go play tennis or racquetball with friends before coming home in time to spend the evening with his family.

I often wondered why he didn't work harder and really follow the "American Dream". With how much his clientèle loved him he could've easily gained more clients, charged a little more and found a way to earn more profits. The answer is very simple: he was happy with what he did and he found a better way to spend his time.

That's why, despite being gone these 12 years, my dad continues to teach me a valuable lesson and is a hero of mine. He knew the value of working hard and doing his job right to support his family. We were never lacking something we needed and even got some of things we wanted. We were able to travel to Israel often among other family vacations. He always had time to play games, help us with schoolwork and show us endless affection. He was compassionate, but always firm in one thing: we had to the best we could do to improve ourselves primarily through education. For a man who never took a course in college, he was extremely well read and self education and because of this knew how important it was for his children to do well in school.

If that's not a life lived well, I'm not sure what is. He was successful in his own way, while enjoying life and being an incredible father. I miss him every day and though he's gone still love him dearly.

Thank you Abba for everything.

My dad during one of our few trips to Israel together shortly before his death

My dad and my mom, very much in love, during that last visit

My dad and I, not sure when and where.

He was a cute kid... hope I got some of the genes!

Flawed Democracy? Dictatorship? Upcoming Civil War? All the Above?

Seems Nikolas Kristof reads my blog--ok, ok I can dream can't I? I imagine he either read the many other blog posts like my last one or more than likely had a lot of the seems thoughts as the ones I expressed. Makes sense since I am a devoted reader to his column. Whatever the motivation for his most recent column, it seemed to be a good follow-up to the concerns I have over the US response to the recent Sudan elections and the upcoming referendum.

I wanted to pull out three quotes from the column, but since one of them is kind of long, I recommend just reading it. Oh wait, you're here persumably for my commentary so read this before/after... thanks!

“If the result of the referendum is independence, there is going to be war — complete war,” predicts Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, one of Sudan’s most outspoken human rights advocates. He cautions that America’s willingness to turn a blind eye to election-rigging here increases the risk that Mr. Bashir will feel that he can get away with war.

“They’re very naïve in Washington,” Mr. Mudawi said. “They don’t understand what is going on.”

As I fear, despite the relatively blood-less elections Bashir will feel emboldened by his new found *cough cough* "legitimacy" (excuse me while I cough up a lung) that he'll believe he has a mandate or the power to forcibly keep Sudan together regardless of next year's referendum for southern independence. Seeing that the referendum is likely to pass overwhelmingly any such action would lead to civil war as Mudawai suggests.

Although as Kristof says, "On the other hand, a senior Sudanese government official, Ghazi Salahuddin, told me unequivocally in Khartoum, the nation’s capital, that Sudan will honor the referendum results."

Perhaps American "diplomacy" is working and while the elections were not free or fair in the least, Bashir will be content to be the "legitimate" (here comes that coughing again) leader of Sudan without the oil rich south. From all the commentary out there that sounds unlikely, but I suppose let's keep our fingers crossed?

Kristof ends the article with a statement that may sound like the same old calls for action, but rings more true now: "My own hunch is that the north hasn’t entirely decided what to do, and that strong international pressure can reduce the risk of another savage war. If President Obama is ever going to find his voice on Sudan, it had better be soon."

Did we need Obama to act and appoint a special envoy a lot sooner in order to deal with ICC backlash in 2009? Yes. Have we done far too little to respond to recent violence in Darfur? Yes. But now more than ever do we need leadership by the United States along with other international actors to prevent a civil war? YES!

The adminstration plan to simultaneously be lukewarm regarding the election's legitimacy while continuing to defacto legitimize a genocidal dictator by engaging him as a negotiating partner may be a gamble that pays off. Even if that is the case, though, holding Bashir's feet to the fire (while we hold Obama's) will be necessary to keep him from another of his notorious 180s next year.

If the gamble doesn't work out, than alternative plans must be made to avoid civil war AND Sudan will at least for now will be stuck with Bashir and the NCP. But to end here's a bonus quote that made me vomit a little (see if you can keep down your lunch):

“Even America is becoming an N.C.P. member. No one is against our will.” -President Omar al-Bashir, indicted war criminal, suspected instigator of two genocides.

Legitmizing the Devil

I know this sentiment isn't unique, but I still have to ponder "out loud" here. Our government has made the decision to continue working with Omar al-Bashir despite many concerns from the EU, AU and the Carter Center about the voter suppression and vote rigging. Even a State Department spokesperson said, "This was not a free and fair election. It did not, broadly speaking, meet international standards."

The key motivation seems to be that the US has decided that getting through the elections in order to maintain the CPA time line and be willing to accept an illegitimate president indicted of war crimes and quite possibly guilty of genocide continue to be a chief diplomatic partner in ending the genocides and conflicts he and his cronies are responsible for.

With tensions as high as it is, a delay or cancellation of the South Sudan referendum would surely crush already fragile relationships between Juba and Khartoum and likely create more violence if not a return to war. So our hope is to indirectly legitimate liar, murderer and rapist as president of Sudan in the hope he honors an agreement to lose control over a significant amount of land and oil next year.

While I sympathize with the State Deparmtent's desire to keep the CPA together in order to prevent things from getting worse and therefore not being more aggressive in refusing Bashir's illegitmate legitimization, who the hell believes we're going to be able to trust him or his NCP government next year anyway?

Though I'm still a huge Obama supporter, for Sudan we need far more than hope to get change.

The Big Graduate School Decison!

As anyone who is connected me through Google, Facebook, Twitter or that novel realm of real life knows, I’ve been struggling with my decision on where to go for graduate school. Last Monday I attended the first of my two admitted graduate student visit days at American University. From my pre-application research and visits I had a strong feeling that American was my top choice and overall the visit day reaffirmed this.

After a long day of engaging in enthralling conversations with professors, current students and other potential incoming student I was sold. Throughout the day politely, but repeatedly various employees of the university reminded us if we pay or have paid our deposit we can get first priority in the registration process. Trying to be responsible I shunned their tantalizing offer and put off a commitment until visiting George Washington University on Friday.

I figured this second visit day would be primarily a formality and told myself unless GW really impressed me, I would drop my 400 dollars to American and begin to plan the next two years in the far northwest of Washington DC. Well surprise surprise, GW managed to do just that. While American still had my heart, GW enticed my brain with their emphasis on job skills and more robust career services.

Torn between these choices I did the only rational thing I could… ran to the Trader Joe’s near the GW campus, stocked up on snacks and proceeded to locked myself in my room with a quarter. With George’s head gracing one side of the coin and an eagle, American’s mascot on the other… it was easy to know which side indicated which school. I was tired on Friday and it was late by the time I got home so I only managed to flip the coin 37 times with 21 of those in favor of GW. Despite work on Saturday and Sunday I was able to squeeze in far more flips per day: 163 on Saturday with 90 for American and 147 on Sunday with 80 toward GW. After a short work day yesterday I ended up with a grand total of 562 with a spot on 281 for each school. I perhaps definitively proved the 50-50 probably of getting heads and tails with a quarter, but obviously some higher being was telling me I had to make up my mind in a less irrational way.

If you’re reading this the suspense might be killing you as it has me for the past few days, so I’ll get serious and let anyone who might impatiently want to know already: I have decided to go to the School of International Service at American University enrolling fall 2010 and probably graduating sometime in 2012 or 2013.

In the end how did I come to this decision? Well after consulting everyone I could and make an elaborate comparison chart ranging from curriculum to professors (including whether or not they’re foodies) to location to my thoughts on the mascots and girls of both schools. As mentioned above the choice came down to a program I liked far better, but didn’t give me overwhelming confidence about the job hunt versus a program that was acceptable, but did far more to reassure me my lovely degree in international development would produce some type of income. For my lovely chart, American was the clear winner and almost everyone who was kind enough to look at it knew I had made my decision already, but of course I continued to agonize for a few more days.

Finally after speaking to a few DC contacts who work in the fields I am interested in, I was comforted that there was no significant difference of job prospects and both programs are highly respected. After sleeping on it a few nights and all this input, I decided that regardless of the resources available the onus will be on me to find a job and if I’m going to be investing in a graduate program I want it to intellectually fulfill me as well as providing me important practical skills and contacts.

I’m going to follow-up with a post about all those people I want and have to thank for this process, but I wanted to express why I made my decision more for my own benefit, but also for those who were curious. There is definitely much more to, but I’ll spare you for now.

The new School of International Service building. This is where I will be living for the next two years

Recipe-Peanut Butter Apple Muffins

After making my chocolate chip muffins I started to think what else I could make in muffin form. This morning having run out of bagels, cereal and all other breakfast foods and not wanting to go to the store on an empty stomach I decided to whip up muffins. Instead of repeating the chocolate chip ones I diced up some Granny Smith apples and peanut butter chips to make these yummy things. To be honest I prefer my chocolate chip ones so far, something about chocolate is hard to resist! Also in attempts to offset the moisture of the apples I think I may have used too much salt and I also didn't bake them quite long enough. Both easy things to fix though. The recipe below is with some 100% guaranteed changes I'm going to make.

The only other complaint I have about this experiment was that the taste of the peanut butter and the apples aren't as highlighted as I wish they would be. Of course I'm going to try again and I'll post any huge updates. I broke one of these open and added some honey to make for a sinful early afternoon snack... enjoy!

2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

4 teaspoon cinnamon (split into 2-2 teaspoons)

1/2 teaspoon salt (split into 2-1/4 teaspoons)

2 large egg

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

2/3 cup rolled oats

2/3 cup diced and peeled Granny Smith apples

2/3 cup peanut butter chips

1. Preheat oven to 400°F
2. Peel and dice apple (took me little over a half of a big apple)
3. Toss apples with 2 teaspoons cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon salt and oats
   
4. Toast apples and oats while preparing the rest of the muffin batter. If you time it right they should be ready when the batter is ready, but I would keep a watchful eye that they don't burn. If the oats are becoming golden, it's toasted enough.
   
5. In a bowl whisk together the flour, the sugar, the baking powder and the remaining cinnamon and salt.
6. In another bowl whisk together the egg, the vanilla, the butter, and the milk, stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture until the mixtures are just combined, and stir in the oats and the chocolate chips.
7. Divide the batter among 12 1/2-cup muffin tins and bake the muffins in the middle of the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Unless your oven regularly burns things, opt for 20... my muffins seemed done at 15, that was a huge mistake for me this time
   Just going in
   5 minutes
   10 minutes
   15 minutes (looked done to me, this is where I made my mistake)
   
   
8. Transfer the muffins to a rack, let them cool slightly, and serve them warm.

Hypersenstivity Meets Kindergarten Pettiness

Apparently conservatives are making Dan Rather their latest target for claiming comments he made on Chris Matthews show as racist. While I was never a big fan of Dan Rather and I absolutely disdain Chris Matthews I just have to take a moment to break from my usual commentary on international affairs to tell conservatives to shut up on this one.

Dan Rathers said President Obama ” … couldn’t sell watermelons if you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic.”

OOOO he mentioned our black president in the same thought as watermelons! Guess what, Obama also likes basketball and I like money. So apparently I hate black people and I'm furthering the negative Jewish stereotype.

While perhaps it can be (and apparently is) argued this was a poor choice of words. I don't think so, I think this was just another of Dan Rather folksy (and silly) sayings. Being post-racial or trans-racial or whatever you want to call it is being aware of your place in a multi-racial society. its embattled history and work whenever possible to create connections and opportunities that celebrate both differences and similarities. Being a post- or trans-racial society does not mean policing ourselves not to say things that have vague random similarities to racist comments.

He didn't say Obama loves watermelons because he's black. But y'all are making stupid comments because you're petty conservative commentators. Oooo, I said it. Now shut the fuck up.