02/13/1997

Flying Obruni

Do you fly in your dreams? I do. One minute I’m walking along and a force as potent as life itself lifts me and carries me through the air. I sail over trees and houses, a breeze on my face. I always awake happy from these dreams; I’m nearly convinced that I’ve been out flying.

I mention this in connection with a letter I received from my friend Nadine. Nadine is a white American living and working in Ghana. To Ghanians, Nadine is an “obruni.” Literally translated, “obruni” means “white,” but Ghanians refer to Americans, both black and white, as “obruni.” They see black Americans as having more in common with white Americans than with black Africans.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (1)
02/06/1997

To the Ends of the Earth

There was an amazing story in the Seattle paper a few weeks ago, about the Trillium Lumber Company of Bellingham, Washington and its plan to cut down trees on Tierra del Fuego – the island at the southern tip of South America.

You might think this article was an expose – a logging company that has done terrible things to the forested lands of Washington State is now literally going to the ends of the earth for uncut forests. But I haven’t seen much in the way of exposes lately. The article in question was of a more common genre – the puff piece.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
01/30/1997

Words to Live By

How would you like to live a longer, healthier life? I’ve got a little exercise that can help you do just that. You don’t have to diet, you don’t have to exercise and there’s nothing to buy.

Just repeat the following words out loud: uterus, penis, menstruation, testicle, tampon, breast. You didn’t do it, did you? Even if you’re sitting by yourself, you don’t want to say these words out loud. You feel self-conscious and embarrassed. Half of you are fiddling with the volume control on the computer.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
01/23/1997

A Brief History of Poison

From the earliest days, when our ancestors first swung down from the trees, humans have been aware that eating certain things will induce sickness or death. We share this awareness of poison with many animals. Some veterinarians believe when dogs eat grass, it is because they are suffering gastro-intestinal upset and are inducing vomiting. The dog ingests a mild poison to avoid the effects of a greater poison.

Humans are the only animals to administer poison to other members of their species. Throughout much of western history, from Greece and Rome, through the Borgias and the Medicis, poison has been the preferred murder weapon, because while the science of chemistry was sophisticated enough to produce the poison, the science of forensic medicine was not sophisticated enough to show with certainty that poison had been the cause of death. So while the Caesars fell to poison, the cause of death could only be assumed and none could determine the guilty party.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
01/16/1997

Mercantile Democracy

In grade-school civics class, we were all told that we, as citizens, are the government. We were told that a democracy such as ours is a collection of individuals who freely enter into a social contract to pool our combined wealth and energies to promote the general welfare of all.

Along life’s path, we have been disabused of that civics-class notion as it relates to our federal government, but that seed of an idea, planted firmly in the democratic soil of our minds flourishes in other parts of our lives. I believe this is one reason we are a nation of joiners – we believe that by becoming a part of an organization, we can make our voices heard within that organization.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
01/09/1997

Climate Change Doesn’t Always Mean Warmer

Europe, they say, is freezing. Brazil is scoured by floods. Here in the western United States – you can pick your disaster – torrential rain, floods, mudslides, avalanches or blizzards. For the past few weeks I’ve felt like I’m trapped in an Irwin Allen movie.

Worse yet, these winter carnivals of catastrophe are getting to be annual events. And the same bad jokes are repeated every year. Just as I’m helping a neighbor push his car from a snowbank, some wiseguy sticks up his head and makes a crack about how he could stand a little global warming right now. What that person fails to understand is that he’s already getting it.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
01/02/1997

No Ideas But In Things

Happy New Year. Now that the holidays are over, my thoughts have turned from rest and celebration to the work that lies before us this year.

I’m speaking this week from Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is home to the Collective Heritage Institute. Few people are familiar with the Collective Heritage Institute, but we are all in their debt. The institute is dedicated to the preservation of indigenous agricultural diversity. Now that’s a fifteen-dollar phrase that describes a healthy relationship between people and the land. It means organic farming, but it also means Native American farming techniques and plant varieties that sustained a continent for centuries.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)