Week 14: Nearing Perfection

...and the winnings keep coming in. I feel like I'm back in high school track; each week would bring a new PR in the 1500, 3000, or pole vault.

"Week 14 has given us a new record that may hang in the hallowed halls of Eugene Weekly for all eternity. 2 Buck Chuck came one shy of running the table. Out of 16 games 2BC scored an unprecedented 15 correct games. This score eclipsed the Teditor's long standing record of 14 correct games. Congrats Chuck!"

Chuck - 15 correct
Geneva - 14 correct
John - 14 correct
Mark - 13 correct
Chris - 13 correct
Ted - 13 correct
Bill - 12 correct
Kevin - 11 correct
Jayme - 11 correct
Jen-Lin - 5 correct

dig into my skull and find a willow bough

Lately I've been doing well (or winning) my work's "Guess the Winners" NFL football pool.

A sampling.

Week 11
Teditor - 14 correct
Chuck - 13 correct (so close!)
Kevin - 12 correct
Chris - 12 correct
Shannon - 11 correct
Rob - 11 correct
The Commish - 10 correct
John - 10 correct
Molly - 9 correct
Jayme - 9 correct
Bill - 7 correct
Jen-Lin - 6 correct
Geneva - 3 correct


Week 10
Jayme - 9 correct
Jen-Lin - 9 correct
Barbara - 8 correct
Molly - 8 correct
Shannon - 7 correct
Geneva - 7 correct
Teditor - 7 correct
Chuck - 6 correct (an off week for me, really)
Bill - 6 correct
Commish - 6 correct
John - 5 correct
Kevin - 5 correct
Chris - 3 correct


Week 9
Chuck - 11 correct (booyah!)
Ted - 10 correct
The Commish - 10 correct
Shannon - 9 correct
JenLin - 9 correct
John - 9 correct
Bill - 9 correct
Kevin - 8 correct
Molly - 8 correct
Camilla - 7 correct
Chris "the outsider" - 7 correct
Jayme - 5 correct
Geneva - 3 correct
Week 7
Kevin - 11 correct
Molly - 11 correct
Jen-Lin - 11 correct
The Commish - 10 correct
Shannon - 10 correct
John - 9 correct
Chuck - 9 correct
Jayme - 9 correct
Bill - 9 correct
Ted - 9 corrrect
Jennifer - 9 correct
Geneva - 6 correct


Week 6
John - 10 correct
Chuck - 10 correct (a tie for first!)
Mark The Commish - 9 correct
Camilla - 8 correct
Geneva - 7 correct
Molly & Jake - 7 correct
Rob - 7 correct
Shannon - 7 correct
Bill - 6 correct
Kevin - 6 correct
Barbara - 6 correct
Jayme - 4 correct
Sophie - 4 correct
Teditor - 4 correct


Week 5
John - 12 correct
Chuck - 11 correct
Molly (& Jake) - 11 correct
Mark - 10 correct
Kevin - 9 correct
Jayme - 8 correct
Shannon - 8 correct
Todd - 8 correct
Bill - 8 correct
Geneva - 6 correct
Jen D - 5 correct
Jen Lin - 2 correct


Week 1
11 wins - Molly & Deanna
10 wins - Geneva, John, & Kevin
9 wins - Mark, Paula, Barbara, Todd, & Camilla
8 wins - Bill & Shannon
7 wins - Jayme & Jennifer
4 wins - Chuck (this is the game where my method was such: pick the team with the first letter of their team name closer to the letter "A". I ditched such shoddy methodology soon after these results came in.)

A Review and Coda

Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
The Athens, Georgia art rockers hit the post-breakup album on the eye


There I was in early February, dancing my body off, perhaps in some kind of bliss, hearing the strange glam-rock fuzz coming from Of Montreal, performing material from their recent disc, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? It was perhaps the most pleasant, no-complaints concert I shared with my ex-girlfriend in our two year history. Little did I know that the songs I was hearing, these strange throbbing pulse-beats with hard-charging guitars and a heavenly keyboardist, were all about breakup heartbreak—manifested. Little did I know that months later I would be listening intently to the album, a shred of what it felt like to hear it live, while I dealt with my own breakup with the girl who had so much fun that night in February.

This has been the Year of the Split; a season of unhappiness. The contentment, while it still existed, peaked around the time I saw Of Montreal. Or, about February. Since then, six of my friends have broken up with their partners. My one remaining friend still together with his partner is hanging by a thread. And the sole coupling since then has only caused more bruises. People, my people (myself included) are in tatters. It feels good to turn on Hissing Fauna and get mad crazy once in a while.

“Gronlandic Edit” was the key track that brought me into the mold. Hooked on the downtempo, repetitive guitar line and the sparkling keyboards, Barnes struggles with being sucked into the spiritual realm while rejecting organized religion (“Nihilists with good imaginations”) at the same time. “I hope I’m not erasing myself,” he sings. “I guess it would be nice to give my heart to a god but which one do I choose … the church is filled with losers, psycho or confused.” All of this in Barnes’ false-falsetto, computer-stretched like silly string. And why not? Your friends and coworkers are either going to console you or try to convert you. Might as well take a stand.

Hearing “The Past is a Grotesque Animal” in concert is a test of who can keep up the longest. It’s what I call a “draining” song. If you’re dancing, you’re drained by the end. If you’re singing it, you’re drained (and probably feel much better). The way Kevin Barnes shouts out the lyrics (or monologue) like his ex is just across the room, silently packing her bags, goes beyond hammy acoustic guitar ballads. It’s truer that we are mad (both physical and mentally), not sappy, in the first few weeks of a breakup. Plus, it’s just true: the past IS a grotesque animal. The happy memories, especially, bring about the most pain, the most sadness. Barnes nails it with “How can I explain I need you here and not here, too.”

On “Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse” Barnes pleads, “I’m in a crisis / I need help / C’mon mood shift shift back to good again / C’mon be a friend.” Who doesn’t beat up their body after a breakup, literally yelling at it to shape up, get over it, move on, distance itself from the heart, etc. etc.? This process usually results in much crying. It’s one thing to take drugs (or drink to excess) to numb the mind, but the body is harder to please. It wants one thing: to be near the body of who has just disappeared. It’s like two dogs who are buddies but whose owners move apart. The dogs can’t help it: They miss the company, and will escape over the back fence if it has a faint idea where that other dog went.

The record is like a personal exchange between Barnes and his ex, between Barnes and his personal demons, or probably both. Because our ex’s are like personal demons. They can so easily crush us or beat us down the more they are happier, but in the end, like the demons in 28 Days Later, all we have to do is sit and wait, thus starving them of attention. And while we sit, we make beautiful art (or at least most of us do), others just listen to Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? and nod and go, “Yeah, that’s right. That’s how I feel.”

In the end, Barnes reconciled with his wife and the story ends in happiness, for him, for now. Of course, he can channel this energy into one of the best records of the year. Beck wasn’t so lucky with the reconciliation part after his amazing Sea Change. Maybe he should have lost the acoustic guitar and went electro-funk-gloom-and-doom.

Fresh Dirty Laundry List ... and a poem!

Roommate, Landlord, Lover

Who are you? Roommate, Landlord
Lover to question this sport.
It has rules, was ruled long ago
by the missives of maters, lords and
overs. Can come unglued with
the patience of sticks falling from
gutters.

Who are thee? Roommate, Landlording
Lover. Glee is filing out the door
in short tuxedoed summers.
Best hand forward for the ricks,
rawks and rollers - you only
speak in the language of
lovers.

Who are they? Roommates, Landlordsy
Lovers to bequeath an oath
from out and under. Seven traits
of the horn-shoed runner:
mittens, mustard and cross-eyed
rudders.

Who am I? Roomie, Landy
Lovie. Shall I step on grass
without boots like Hummers?
Shorten my strides and
take a spin, in a body of
others.

Kicking the Bird at the Sky and Asking Why

Some random thoughts, which may or may not be turned into a serious argument:


• Feist is like the new Alanis Morissette. Adored by indie rockers and mainstream soccer moms alike. Gets MTV airplay. Makes quirky, inventive music videos. Is Canadian.

• Canada is the current mecca for good music. Understand, I don't mean to compare it to Seattle, Portland or other over-hyped music-making cities. Just, plain and simple, the musicians in Montreal, Toronto and British Columbia are probably the best musicians in the Northern hemisphere.

• Arcade Fire's live show (which I saw last month at Sasquatch) has put me into a dizzy spell. All I want in the world is to see them play live again, possibly with a much longer set. I keep checking their tour schedule, hoping they return to the PacNW sooner than later.

• Pitchfork sure loves OK Computer and, even more, Kid A, and goes out of its way to award a perfect 10.0 score for these albums. But with latter-day albums that they call "perfect," the score is usually a measly 9.1. I tend to wonder if Radiohead indeed had that great of an effect on the music of this century. I tend to wonder if a little bit of the media's overhyping machine had a little something to do with it. Now, with that overhyping machine replaced with the internet, things are a little more democratic and critical, making it harder to justify a gushing 10.0 rating.

• The Portland Mercury tackles the "hipster" label in their latest issue, mostly with mediocre results (bashing "hippies" will not further your cause, Mr. Merc Writer, sir). Why do we hate hipsters and hippies, even if we are, ourselves, one of them? Because we are fucking individuals in the great old U.S. of A., and if someone hints that we are part of a faceless blob, that we all pretty much think alike and have the same tastes ... well, fuck them! Those people are fascists! Is what we would say. Instead of tackling the hipster label, let's start tackling the nonsense of individuality first, please.

Grindhouse succeeds

Grindhouse, Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino's double feature that hit theaters in April, makes up for all the lost promise of Snakes on a Plane. Whereas the latter failed because it lacked any good ideas (except for a viral web promotional push), the former succeeds precisely because it pushed its ideas to their gruesome, shocking (and ****ing hilarious) end. The middle-aged button-down man who sat in front of me and howled throughout the night said it all (I hypothesize that, judging from his Asian features, he might be more predisposed to shock-comedy flicks ... gems such as Iron Man or Battle Royale ... and would therefore glean more pleasure from the grisly, just-plain-silly premises of both "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof".)

But... ah ... well, I was going to go into depth with this post. Maybe even write a full-on movie review! But now I'm just tired. And I want to go to sleep. So: Go see Grindhouse if you have a chance. Or not.

The Difference Between a True Traveler and an "Ugly American"

Want a perfect example of the difference between an "ugly American"-style traveler and one who is a true traveler? You need only read this passage, written in 1542, by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Spanish explorer who was shipwrecked off the coast of Texas and spent many years being tossed around between the thousands of native tribes in the American Southwest and Mexican Northwest. Most of the time he was naked, starving, bleeding and completely freaked out of his head at the bizarre customs he witnessed. But, near the end of his tale, as he befriends a troop of Christians tarrying about the northern Mexican badlands (whom become jealous because de Vaca is seen as a holy deity), he relates this to us:

"This sentiment roused our countrymen's jealousy. Alcaraz bade his interpreter tell the Indians that we were members of his race who had been long lost; that his group were the lords of the land who must by obyed and served, while we were inconsequential. The Indians paid no attention to this. Conferring among themselves, they replied that the Christians lied: We had come from the sunrise, they from the sunset; we healed the sick, they killed the sound; we came naked and barefoot, they clothed, horsed, and lanced; we coveted nothing but gave whatever we were given, while they robbed whomever they found and bestowed nothing on anyone."

- from La Relacion



p.s. Yes, there can certainly be "Ugly Germans" or "Ugly Croatians" or "Ugly Canadians" or "Ugly Japanese" tourists (I've seen my lot of them). I find it interesting that de Vaca (who was a devout Catholic and truly intent on spreading the good Christian word ... even he saw how vile and ruthless a band of pure proselytizers could become when faced with the new world. The Christian answer to want: Take slaves.

Discuss?

Auto-Shmutography

Autobiography is a big deal these days. We're all very much concerned with ourselves, so much so that we will consume other people's autobiographies, or memoirs (Definition: It's like a biography, only the narrator is less reliable), in rabid fashion in order to find out more about ourselves.

I'm sitting here at my lunch break eating leftover pad thai and drinking a Diet Dr. Pepper that somebody else purchased at Costco (and for which I paid 25 cents into a glass jar), and I'm reading this putrid whine from a recent MFA in Creative Writing grad in the pages of Poets and Writers magazine. She begrudges that everyone is telling her to write a memoir because she has some Iranian blood in her "and that's hot right now." She whines that she doesn't know the first thing about Iranian culture, much less than how to frame it in a sort-of Reading Lolita in Tehran kind of way. The author says she studied fiction and so she wants to write fiction. And good for her.

Here's what I'd tell her: memoir is fiction. It's the most personal fiction story we can write because nobody will ever be able to 100% verify that you thought this when that thing occurred or that this event gave you this impression and made you do this other thing. The only difference between fiction and memoir is that you put yourself a little more in the spotlight ... prying yourself a little bit more open to scrutinization, because what you write is believed to be true. But what you write is no more fact or fiction than a novel about talking peanut butter. In fiction, you tell the audience "You can clap for the characters in this tale." In memoir, you tell the audience "You can clap for me at the end of this tale." So when a whiny MFA grad belittles the memoir genre, I can appreciate that on the surface ("Oh, she doesn't want to be famous ... how touching!") but I have to reject the implication that writing memoir is beyond the realm of serious fiction writers, because that's just hogwash.

But here's another problem: Even if I write something down and tell the audience "This is fiction, you can clap for the characters all you want, or hate the villains all you want, but I claim absolutely no responsibility for what these characters do to each other," I may find that readers and critics will undoubtedly point to an abused child and say "Look! The author is also an abused child, so he must be writing this autobiographically!" and then quickly enjoy the pats on the back from his or her companions for uncovering something important about the story. Which, stepping back, is all hogwash.

This happened when my senior-level English Lit class was asked to read Nabokov's Lolita. Some students expressed horror at what Humbert Humbert was doing to poor little Lo. And then there were the students who bashed Nabokov, presuming him to be a closeted pedophile and Lover of Butterflies and hater of adult females and --- WHY HE MUST ALSO BE GAY! ***Collective sigh as we all reminisce about this type of reader who reads far too much into things*** It's the classic JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS School of Modern Literature and Politics.

Every fiction writer (and poetry writer, apparently) is vulnerable to this sort of attack. It's a telling trait whether he or she confronts this sort of inner-demon-style criticism or, rightly and justifiably, ignores the ninny-pickwicks of the world and lets reason win out. But these days even reason is having trouble fighting the battle between fact and fiction, memoir and novelistic autobiography. And this does not even touch on the growing force of fake journalism and its subset, fake memoirs. Jeez, next thing we know someone will write a fictional novel that will be 100% true (at least in the memoir sense of "true"). And, oh my gosh, the house of cards literary civilization we stand upon will come crashing down in a heap of nihilist nothingness. Huh?

There's a healthy conversation going on at Slate here about memoirs and their shakey lapses from fact and fiction. My two cents have been said, but I'll add this thought: Memoir writers, because they are stepping into the spotlight more and more, have bigger balls than fiction writers who snub their MFA-spit-shined noses at the genre.

Savage Love is Loved

So there's been a pretty modest to-do over the Eugene Weekly's printing of Dan Savage's sex advice column "Savage Love." Well, first there were a handful of letters, mostly just critiques of the foul language Savage used. "Inappropriate," said the trologdytes. "It adds nothing to the column." Well, then the local ABC-affiliate got involved and broke the story wide open. "People like you are complaining to the Weekly," said the friendly, robotic newscasters. So people started complaining, crying out with vehement self-congratulations: "I personally don't find offense in the column, but think of the children!" said the letter writers. So we thought of the children, and found that children would rather eat carrots and peas than read 800 words of 10 pt. font block text.

Anyway, Mr. Savage offered to fly down from his gig as editor of Seattle's The Stranger to answer some concerns that po-dunk Eugeneans had about his column [mind you, there hasn't been an uproar about Savage Love since a small bruhaha in San Francisco ... in 1995!]

So last Thursday the editorial staff took Mr. Savage out to dinner at Ambrosia Restaurant. Many things were discussed, among them: the use of the word "fuck" in daily newspapers vs. alt-weeklies; how Mr. Savage is anti-pitbull [I suggested we re-introduce pitbulls into the wild, like we did with wolves]; The Stranger's 70 staff members compared to our 20; the sorry excuse for a motherfucker General Pace is ... and the feeble, quasi-antigay remarks by Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama; toothpaste. I ordered the Four Seasons Pizza. Mr. Savage ordered clams (in shell) with a salad. We all drank wine except for Molly, who ordered a vanilla*** lemon drop.

Later in the evening Mr. Savage gave a presentation/lecture/comedy routine at the WOW Hall. There was a $5 suggested donation, with proceeds going to Planned Parenthood, HIV Alliance and Sexual Abuse Support Services. We packed the house. There were TV crews, but they split about 15 minutes into the show to go do their editing for the 11 o'clock news. I couldn't help but notice that the three TV journalists on hand were all women, had makeup caked on their faces, wore trendy trenchcoats, and were all 5 feet, 4 inches tall.

Anyway, I hope this settles any "controversy" that may still be stirring. The bigger controversy is the obscenely inadequate sex-ed teens get in their PTA-controlled, politically correct high schools. Mr. Savage suggested we do away with sex-ed programs altogether, because we're never going to get a fully comprehensive education in sex from high schools. He compared them to a driver's ed course where they taught you about the internal combustion system, and how airbags worked, but not how to read a STOP sign or other rules of the road. Instead he says we should create a huge Wikipedia-ish website that all teens will be directed to for answers to any of their many questions.

Three cheers for the Internet!


***In an earlier draft this drink was incorrectly listed as a "ginger lemon drop." Whoops!

China Rising to Environmental Challenge

China Rising to Environmental Challenge
Wang Canfa forges new connections with E-LAW
BY CHUCK ADAMS

The distance between Eugene and Beijing just got a bit closer. Besides Eugene hosting next year's Olympic Trials, and the Olympic Games set for Beijing, there's another connection, and he checks in at under 5 feet tall. Chinese law professor Wang Canfa may be short, but he packs a commanding presence in the circles of environmental law. Recently featured in the Chicago Tribune and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as well as a segment of The New York Times-produced television documentary China Rises, Wang is breaking waves in the global fight against environmental polluters, if only because he's doing it in one of the world's most populous, complex and ecologically ravaged nations. And now he has spent the past week networking with the Eugene-based Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (E-LAW), a grassroots network of environmental lawyers from more than 60 countries, to help him with his crusade.

Wang Canfa founded the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims in 1998 in Beijing

The "Erin Brockovich of China" Zhang Jingjing

Though a handful of runners were hospitalized — and two died — from dehydration, the 2004 Beijing Marathon was staged with relatively few hitches

Handkerchiefs and surgical masks help limit exposure to one of Beijing's "high alert" days, when nitrogen dioxide levels are at their peak

Desertification is driving agricultural workers to cities — like Shanghai — in droves

Together with associates like Zhang Jingjing (who was dubbed the "Erin Brockovich of China" by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for her victory against the Rongping Lianying Chemical Factory in China's Fujian province), Wang formed one of the leading environmental watchdog and legal advocacy groups in China, the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLAPV). He is pragmatic about his choice to start the center: In college Wang studied law, then teaching and then environmental law. He taught for over 20 years at the China University of Political Science and Law before recognizing China had environmental laws in the books — but no lawyers willing to enforce government compliance with them.

But Wang's impetus to start CLAPV may be as personal as it is professional. Born in the countryside, Wang grew up impoverished and malnourished (he jokes on the China Rises documentary that he is short because he didn't have enough to eat as a child). Living next to polluted lakes and rivers most of his life, he now refuses to eat lotus roots because they grow underwater. This makes him a firsthand witness to the environmental catastrophe that has followed on the heels of China's rapid economic expansion. He sympathizes with the victims, not the cash cows.

The simple components of Wang's non-governmental organization (NGO), tucked away in a modest two-room apartment building on the campus of his university, include a telephone hotline (which has received more than 9,000 calls since the center's founding in 1998) and stacks of notes, legal documents and transcribed complaints from citizens fed up with local industries' effects on their health and food supply. CLAPV receives the complaints; a grad student logs them in and then passes the files on to the 269 lawyers working on a primarily pro bono basis for the center. Even if the odds of victory are miniscule, the simple act of getting citizens involved in a lawsuit yields its own benefits, Wang says.

"When [CLAPV sues] the polluters, the media like to report on it," Wang said at a Feb. 23 conference hosted by federal Judge Ann Aiken at the new federal courthouse. Wang is then sure to give the press the center's toll-free hotline. "A lot of people know their rights" because of this publicity, says Wang, whose center has won a third of its 80 cases. When the victories do come, they are watershed moments.

Zhang's win in the Fujian province, which compensated over 1,600 villagers for toxic chromium and chlorate spills into their water supply and agriculture, garnered media attention around the world and compelled the victims to form their own environmental watchdog groups. Jilin Petrochemical, the company responsible for the November 2005 benzene spill into the Songhua River in northeastern China — which received copious international press, including in the pages of EW — was fined the maximum penalty allowed under law (one million yuan, or about $125,000 USD) in January. In addition, the state has promised over $1.2 billion to clean up the river and prevent future accidents.

But the citizens who were exposed to toxic water and who may later fall ill were not factored into the settlement, according to a BBC news report. Moreover, critics of the settlement say that the fine was too low, considering the victims' projected health care costs over the next several years, and the state should not have to pick up the tab for private enterprises' damages. The Xinhua News Agency wrote that some "companies find it's cheaper to pay a fine than to improve their pollution controls."

E-LAW's China programs coordinator and director of philanthropy Stephen Barnes, who has taught law at China's Harbin Institute of Technology, says that for many of China's citizens, "that's just the reality they have to live with." Even so, Barnes is optimistic that people like Wang can educate the people as well as the state on the dangers of unchecked pollution. Wang, he says, "is pioneering one of the leading institutions training future generations of environmental lawyers." CLAPV has its volunteer lawyers and has sought out the international networks available, like E-LAW and the National Resources Defense Council, to stir cross-cultural exchange. "He has the numbers," Barnes says, "and he's got the benefits of being immersed in the government, academia and NGO environments, and he uses each of them to get the word out."

Getting the word out used to be difficult for people like Wang, but recently even the Chinese government has warmed up to the cause. In 1997, China enacted criminal penalties for environmental polluters, giving teeth to the much-beleaguered State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). But those teeth have been more like dentures, sometimes willing to bite but more likely to lie dormant in a water glass. For example, last month the state cracked down on local governments and large energy providers in China. It was seen as a bold move, though SEPA's vice-minister Pan Yue later warned, "some projects could still be running without approval … ignoring SEPA's warning." And Ken Lieberthal, an expert on China at the University of Michigan, explains: "Much of the environmental energy generated at the national level dissipates as it diffuses through the multi-layered state structure, producing outcomes that have little concrete effect."

That's where CLAPV comes in: as the go-between.

Unlike its relations with Chinese lawyers who take on governmental corruption (and sometimes end up imprisoned for their stand), the Chinese government has no reason to hinder the goals of CLAPV, since the state openly acknowledges it has struggled to put an end to illegal industrial practices. Zhang insists that the government won't shut down the hotline because it "wants to solve this problem, too."

The major obstacle, she says, lies with the local government officials, who are supposed to enforce pollution regulations, but whose salaries are fed by the taxes received from local industrial polluters. Making the entire process more of a headache are the judges themselves. Finding little incentive for enforcement, local judges often side with the polluters. Zhang noted that the "higher courts are better, more independent," and thus will give a more favorable ruling. But getting to the higher court depends on the local courts' rulings, and plaintiffs have only one chance at appeal.

Putting it more bluntly, a SEPA official said, "In some areas, corrupted officials protect local polluting industries to gain personal profits. Without clean officials, there will be no clean water." Barnes calls it a "urban and rural gap," where the "the very enterprises that might do the most damage to the environment, represent — in the short term — the most prosperity."

But when both the government and the local industries won't listen, the people are increasingly taking matters into their own hands. According to the China Daily, more than 50,000 protests were documented in 2005 alone, with 50.6 percent related to water pollution and 40 percent to air pollution. In June 2006, SEPA officials acknowledged that environmetal pollution has become "a main factor affecting China's national security and social stability." Fearing mass protests and public discord, Zhang says the state judiciary has — at least for the near future — prohibited class action lawsuits. This prohibition, however, runs contrary to the state's own lofty goals.

SEPA recently released its "Guideline for Strengthening Environmental Education and Enhancing Public Awareness on Environmental Protection during 2006-2010." One of the guideline's edicts is to "set up and improve mechanism of public participation into environmental protection. The volunteers and NGOs are encouraged to organize and take part in environmental protection activities in various forms." With the class action muzzle in place, the best tools CLAPV has are civil suits and increasing international pressure for China to take responsibility for its citizens' health.

AN OLYMPIC-SIZE PROBLEM

The last time the Summer Olympics were held in a developing nation was Mexico City in 1968. That city's air pollution had not yet reached its choking toxicity of today, but the high elevation did make some runners short on breath. The jumpers, of course, had a field day. The same can't be said of Beijing, which sits in a plain and collects thick sea air or desert dust depending on what direction the wind blows, trapping air particulates in carbon-rich smog.

China set its target of cutting energy consumption by 20 percent per unit of GDP and major pollutants by 10 percent from 2005 to 2010. But it flunked its first test last year. Its sulfur dioxide emissions grew by 2.4 percent, according to SEPA figures.

Elizabeth Economy, author of The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future, wrote in The Washington Post, "Beijing won its Olympics bid with the promise of the world's first 'green' games. Five years later, there is no talk of a green Olympics, only of how extensive a shutdown of industry and transportation will be needed in Beijing and surrounding provinces just to ensure that the athletes can breathe."

Zhang says that the government is trying its best but it "worries Beijing's air quality won't meet [the International Olympic Committee's] standards" for athletes. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, even if Beijing "shuts down all its factories, bans all nonessential traffic and orders everyone to turn down air conditioning, Chinese and foreign scientists say there is no way to keep the winds from carrying pollution across the borders." This makes it clear how important it is to find national — and global — solutions to local problems.

In 2008, Beijing will be the bellwether for China's hope for a clean future. Barnes has been traveling to China for the past two years and says each time he arrives in Beijing, there are dramatic improvements, such as more options for recycling, more fuel-efficient vehicles on the road and natural gas powered buses. Barnes believes the Olympics are of incomparable magnitude. "In terms of national pride," he says, "it touches on every Chinese citizen. This represents the 'New China' … they're going to extraordinary efforts."

If the IOC has enough clout to push Beijing to cut air pollution, surely it would behoove Eugene to increase its air quality in time for the Olympic Trials. Lisa Arkin, executive director of the Oregon Toxics Alliance — the group instrumental in lobbying for a ban on field burning in the Willamette Valley — says she's been trying to contact the Olympic officials but so far hasn't heard back. "We want to alert them to the health impact of particulate matter [caused by field and slash burning]," Arkin says. "We hope they would be concerned enough to support these measures."

The 2008 Olympics may bring Beijing and Eugene closer, but 2007 brings more opportunities to learn from each other. New this year, E-LAW will add two Chinese lawyers to its established fellows program. The fellows will be working with E-LAW staff scientists and attorneys in addition to taking a ten-week English course at the UO's American English Institute. Barnes says that E-LAW has been trying to connect with China for years to make this happen and finally found the "real deal" with CLAPV. He says that the two fellows will stay for about 11 weeks and then return to China. "We want them back in their home countries, working on their [country's] issues," says Barnes. In addition to the two fellows, a special guest is usually invited for a shorter period of two weeks to give community lectures and work on networking. This year, Wang is that guest.

Are Chinese citizens more aware of environmental law? Even 10 years ago there was no mention in the media of these issues. As recently as 1998, Wang was the only professor teaching environmental law. Now there are more than 10. With his position as a respected professor and practicing lawyer, Wang has had the opportunity to write new environmental legislation for the People's Congress; cases CLAPV have won are now used as precedents to argue new cases; the eco-ball is rolling. Barnes says, "I believe the progress of the rule of law combined with folks like Wang at CLAPV really offers hope to China."

Originally published in the March 1, 2007 edition of the Eugene Weekly. All Rights Reserved.

Standing on the Shoulders of Horticulture

A bunch of crazy coincidences in Portland this weekend.
After enjoying two world premiere concerts at Reed College (one of which performed by the always versatile percussionist Mark Goodenberger), a bunch of us (including a few other Goodenbergers) went out for some buttery hotcakes and slimy eggs at the only greasy spoon left within sight of downtown Portland... the original Hotcake House on SE Powell just before you cross the bridge. It's a 24 hour dive that serves up a mean plate of hot stacks, eggs, bacon, French toast and Burgers. I haven't eaten there since 2000, so I'm glad it's still there, doing business as usual.
It's also a good place to spot poet laureates, apparently, as I walked in just as Lawson Inada sat down to a late dinner/early breakfast. He had just had a reading and looked beat. We discussed the unfortunate (future) demise of IHOP in Eugene. "What's the world comin' to," said Lawson. "Closing down the I-HOP. That ain't right."

Senor Inada apparently didn't know about the reading Craig Wright and Kasey Mohammad had earlier in the evening at Powell's Books (a coincidence in venues?), and which I had only learned about by reading the Willamette Week, cursing myself for missing it (it was the same time as the concert). But all was well.

Things fell into place the next day (today) while browsing through one of Portland's 34,392 antique stores and finding a photo taken inside a train filled with people of Japanese descent, on their way to internment during WWII.

Also, earlier I had dim sum in Chinatown, but those darn Chinese...as Lawson liked to say...what good are they?

Red Bull Weird

Weird!
Two strange guys walked past my desk, the 2nd one (who wore a dark black coat with a Red Bull logo on it) leaning over my desk, jerking his thumb to the kitchen, and saying "There's Red Bull in the back when you need it."

WTF?

Will there be Xtreme Calendar Editing in my near future? When will I require hyper-caffeinated beverages in order to perform my duties of typing up a music preview of Stephen Malkmus' upcoming show?

And secondly, who are these Red Bull elves and what business do they have in my place of work?

Ideas for Making the Big Bucks

I'm 24 yesterday.

Today I'm trademarking the following names/ideas: "(C)Hannakuh Birthday," "Installment Birthday," and "Gift-A-Day Birthday." The idea is you receive one gift per day in the week leadin gup to your birthday. Given by one person or multiple. Don't ask me why this idea is a good one. I'm having lots of general ideas lately, not anything Grand, but, well, does NetFlix offer porn? It'dseem that an operation like NetFlix would be the most ideal transmission of porn movies to those who want to rent and watch on their big screen TV with surround sound. Just an idea. Somebody's probably already thought of it. Is making the big bucks.

Narrantology hasn't seen much narrative lately. I'm in a Dark Gap Year without internet access at home. Perhaps with the new year will come new DSL and I can get back to networking with all you crazy blog-happy punks.

Til then...

The pubs so far...

Quick run-down of publications:


“Video Gaming Hot Bed”
http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2006/10/05/coverstory.html

“Steppe’n Throats”
http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2006/10/19/music.html

“Apres Who?”
http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2006/11/02/movie3.html

"Snow Trek"
http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2006/11/09/coverstory.html

"Vinyl Heaven"
http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2006/11/09/music.html#music4



When I get Internet, I'll make some sort of website for these.