Interlude: cinder blocks and slide guitar

Of all the world's music, and I love (almost) all of it, I love the South African I'm-gonna-act-happy-in-your-face defiant love, and the rhythmic mash-up of it, and the melodic lilt of it. This woman in her 5th-hand clothes and her hard-tack life, just made my Western day.

Today's Hero: Hamis Ngomera

News is spreading about recent murderous attacks on albinos in Tanzania because of the price fetched by their body parts:

According to the Albino Association of Tanzania, the price for a complete set of albino body parts – comprising limbs, genitals, ears, tongue, hair and blood – has gone up from 75,000 US dollars to 200,000 US dollars.

Hamis Ngomera is a chapter chairman of the Albino Association of Tanzania and a Red Cross volunteer.
He travels to and through communities helping albino victims of violence and hoping to quench the superstitious beliefs that fuel this awful trade.

Hamis is himself albino.

Every Time ... that you purchase body soap -- or toothpaste, or shampoo!!

Every time you choose a product for your shower or bath or aprés-bain, consider whether it contains petroleum-derived ingredients (such as "mineral" oil, paraffin, petrolatum), and whether it is contained in a plastic jar or tube (also a product of the oil industry). Consider that liquid products such as "body wash" cost much more in carbon fuel emissions to ship, because of the weight of the water that is included, than do solid or powdered dry products.

In my quest to consume as few plastics as possible, in (of all places) my local Rite Aid drug store, I recently made a very happy discovery in "South of France" French-milled bar soap. (They also make glycerine soaps, and I will try one soon.) The soap is packaged in unprinted recyclable cardboard, and is olive oil and plant-derived glycerin based. No animal testing involved. The brand was almost sold out (not surprising at four bucks and change for two bars) so between the two scents left on the shelves I chose Lavender.

When I unwrapped the soap I remembered a hint about soap products that was taught to me by a facialist many years ago. Soaps have an alkline pH factor -- some stronger and some more neutral. To test whether the alkalinity of a soap is tolerable to your skin, give it a little lick -- if it "bites" it is too alkaline.

My South of France lavendar soap has NO bite. It is a lovely, gentle cleanser. So I decided to try it as toothpaste. And shampoo. It works great as a tooth and hair cleanser as well as a body and face wash. Just rub your toothbrush on the bar, or rub the bar itself on your wet hair (then splash on a little more water and lather up).

"South of France" soap is made not in France but in Greensboro, North Carolina. Check out their product line, but Every Time consider whether you really need to buy any of the stuff that comes in plastic bottles made from evil oil.

Follow-up on December 8, 2011:

Another great brand, though twice as expensive, is Dr. Bronner's bar soaps in great natural scents. The "plus" of Dr. Bronner's is that it is (1) organic and (2) most ingredients are Fair Trade.

Cornell Quotes Code and Cuts Clits

If you visit Cornell University Law School's web site today you can read U.S. Code Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 7,  § 116 which says:

(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), whoever knowingly circumcises, excises, or infibulates the whole or any part of the labia majora or labia minora or clitoris of another person who has not attained the age of 18 years shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both

 The exclusions in subsection (b) number only two: necessary to the health of that other person, or for medical purposes in connection with labor or birth.

If you now cruise over to The Bioethics Forum, you will learn that pediatric urologist Dix Poppas is operating on little girls, and I mean little girls, whose clitorises are deemed to be too large -- by surgically removing a portion of the shaft and reattaching the glans. Then to prove that the young beneficiaries of his "medical care" still have normal nerve response, in follow-up exams a vibrator is applied to the clitoris of patients as young as six years old while they are conscious. Where is this taking place? Cornell!

In my time I have met two or three men whose penises were too large. I mean, really too large. Would anyone contemplate treating little boys by removing a section of their penile shaft at age 6 or 8 or 10? Especially since a large clit hardly interferes with a female's enjoyment, whereas a too-large penis, as explained to me by the bearers of these members, does interfere with a guy's?

Kudos to Profs. Dreger and Feder for bringing this to light, not just on this Hastings Center-hosted blog but Dreger mainstreamed it as well and it's already all over the b'sphere.

Quote of the Day: Emman Mbong, Nigerian Official, re the Gulf Gusher

"We’re sorry for them, but it’s what’s been happening to us for 50 years."

I Guess She Is Not Happy About Being Raped and Plundered

Tears of Mother Earth Illusion | Mighty Optical Illusions

The Fury of Jilted Citizens

Philosophy professor J.M. Bernstein breaks down for us what he identifies as being the root cause of virulent Tea Party anger. He explores the underlying belief -- a prevalent myth in our culture of minimized, granular social units -- in the notion that the Individual is autonomous and owes nothing to our collective existence.

Tea Party anger is, at bottom, metaphysical, not political: what has been undone by the economic crisis is the belief that each individual is metaphysically self-sufficient, that one’s very standing and being as a rational agent owes nothing to other individuals or institutions. The opposing metaphysical claim, the one I take to be true, is that the very idea of the autonomous subject is an institution, an artifact created by the practices of modern life: the intimate family, the market economy, the liberal state. Each of these social arrangements articulate and express the value and the authority of the individual; they give to the individual a standing she would not have without them.

Bernstein makes a strong analogy between Tea Party anger and that of jilted lovers, drawing on Hegel's philosophy that:

... all social life is structurally akin to the conditions of love and friendship; we are all bound to one another as firmly as lovers are, with the terrible reminder that the ways of love are harsh, unpredictable and changeable. And here is the source of the great anger: because you are the source of my being, when our love goes bad I am suddenly, absolutely dependent on someone for whom I no longer count and who I no longer know how to count; I am exposed, vulnerable, needy, unanchored and without resource. In fury, I lash out, I deny that you are my end and my satisfaction, in rage I claim that I can manage without you, that I can be a full person, free and self-moving, without you. I am everything and you are nothing.

This is the first piece I've come across that seems paint a valid Big Picture. The angry jilted lovers are denying the interconnectedness that actually defines us and validates us as a society. It's worth a good, slow read.

Interlude: Playing. Life. Change. Ah, AfReeCahhh

"The Playing For Change Foundation is building a new music school in the Village of Kirina, Mali. Kirina is a village of musicians, some of whom can trace their musical ancestry back over 75 generations! In this very special episode West African music legend Baaba Maal and friends perform for the village elders in honor of the new "Playing For Life" music school that is just beginning construction."

Comment of the Day: assessment of the nationalism of our species

It's sad that today there are still people running their lives (and ruining others) according to primitive fairy tales.

As a species we are dumber than dirt.

by "Dom" re the concept of a "Greater Israel" that incorporates the "God-given" Samaria and Judea.