10-16-01

I'm ¾ though with the book Angry Young Spaceman, and it's very good. Well-written, interesting, smart science fiction. Its main theme is American colonialism - cultural and economic colonialism as well as racism. It examines the way that American/corporate culture is taking over the Earth and then projects it into a universe of aliens - all having been co-opted either via war or economic domination. The book demonstrates how American culture infiltrates and takes over "foreign" cultures. It is also about how racism might reflect itself once humans began interacting with "aliens" on a regular basis. If you like sci fi, it's a good one.

I read today how the "Northern Alliance" in Afghanistan - you know, the ones that the US is hoping to support as replacements for the Taliban - are basically warlords. During the period 1992 - 1996, they were responsible for as many human rights abuses as the Taliban including bombing of civilians, rape, and many others. Truly, they are no better than the Taliban - merely enemies of them. In addition, they represent an ethnic minority of Afghanistan and would probably be hated by any Afghani who manage to survive this war. Haven't we learned ANYTHING? We support the Taliban and Osama bin Laden to fight the Soviets, now we want to support another group of fascist militants to fight the Taliban. Isn't it so OBVIOUSLY crazy????? I guess the more things change, the more they stay insane.

Here's a fun fact. In the country of Nigeria, only 5% of its rainforests still remain. Jesus fucking Christ in a slaughterhouse. And yet, the only news worth discussing, of course, is war. And when it's not war, it's celebrities. Or Republicans and Democrats. Neither of whom are going to make anything better. Only worse. Fucking worse. Sigh.

I started feeling somewhat crappy this afternoon - like I'm fighting something off. I hope I'm not catching something.

I finished another sculpture tonight. I've been making sculptures with barbed wire and objects I found at thrift stores. The first one I made is the figure of a man. The second one is a doll head floating inside a rough sphere of barbed wire. The third is a teddy bear crucified by barbed wire. And the fourth I just finished is a black cupie doll and a white one wrapped and separated back to back by barbed wire. I'm having pictures developed this week so I can post the first three pieces in my gallery section. Perhaps tomorrow I'll explain what my intentions are with these pieces. If anyone wants to commission a piece, please let me know.

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