It's Official!!!! I'm Better! But what about everyone else?

That's the word on the streets, thanks to my most recent (Tuesday) and LAST visit to the orthopedic specialists! I am now in possession of one surgically fixed fifth metatarsal on the left foot. You are probably not jealous, but that's just because you haven't seen the cool scar that I have now. I also managed to bring home all the x-rays that they have done over the length of this (6 month) ordeal. Some are better than others, but the ones that show the screw are the most interesting. I'll scan one someday and post it for the edification of my readership.

In other news, I have taken up a cause. Or maybe a couple causes. I am not a political activist, nor am I even a social activist. But I have, over the last few months, become more and more concerned about the way the US and Europe deal with problems in different African nations. Most of the time, we just don't do anything. When we do do something, it's often for the wrong reasons, and when we do things for the right reasons, somebody out there (I think it might be The Man) does everything they can to keep us from hearing about it in the media. So I have joined up with the people of the SaveDarfur organization to try to do a tiny bit to pressure my politicians and representatives to make finding a speedy solution to the genocide that is currently going on in Sudan. There are probably two sides to this issue, but I can't imagine what the other side is saying. My side has two different public images, that of savedarfur.org and the other (probably more moderate and more impersonal) of bbc.com .

So while we're over here on the western side of the Atlantic panicking about the rising price of gas - still little more than an inconvenience for nearly everyone - it might not hurt to keep in mind that there are a lot of people suffering much greater injustices than this in any number of African nations. I don't know how much difference it can make to donate some money to the right people, or to put some pressure on people in power here at home, but I feel compelled to do something. This representative democracy business is nice and everything, but in situations like this I fear it may allow us to become too detached from the immediate effects of the policies and actions of our country. One of the nice things about the American tradition of benevolence is that, even when the politicians are too busy doing politics, millions of other people (usually, but not always, affiliated with religious organizations) invest personally in causes like feeding the poor and protecting the defenseless.

That's my patriotic and personal message of hope for the week.

Political Gas

I recently wrote an email to some friends in response to someone's suggestion that we all boycott Exxon/Mobil in order to drive gas prices down. I figured that, since I haven't posted anything interesting in a few weeks, maybe I could just cheat by pasting that email into my blog. So here it is:

I personally have the idea in my head that the gas that those other
guys sell (possibly with the exception of Shell/BP) is full of sand,
sugar, and the blood of indentured servants, so I like to buy clean
gas from the industry leaders. That said, I have no problem with
sticking it to "The Man", that horrible person who is constantly
dictating to me what I'll buy and how much I'll pay. The problem is,
the world market is mostly driven by two things: (perceived) supply
and (perceived) demand. We demand gas all the time, for everything
that we do, and we have this perception (whether accurate or not) that
there simply is not that much gas out there. So, even though we want
our gas to cost as little as possible, we like to buy the stuff
whenever we want. That's the demand. Most of us probably can't live
without gas, so we're going to keep paying whatever the suppliers want
from us, until we hit that critical point (is it $4.00? they're fine
paying a lot more than that in Europe) where we say "this is getting
ridiculous" and then we change our habits. Exxon/Mobil doesn't just
sell us the gas, they extract and refine the oil as well, in a lot of
places. Consequently, the "little guys" are often buying their gas
from refineries run by Exxon Mobil.

Basically, my point is that I'm not sure targeting a single huge
corporation is going to change the gas price, unless we also decide to
start using just a little less of the stuff (that's not a drug
reference). In order to put my money where my mouth is, I have decided
to stop driving my SUV 6 blocks to campus three or four times a week,
and I will be swimming the Atlantic this summer instead of taking a
gas guzzling plane as I normally do.

B.F.

ps. I take no responsibility for any of the "information" I have
injected into this email. I am an archaeologist, not an economist,
scientist (*gasp* I mean "earth scientist"!!!!), mathematician, or
even an activist, but I did read that one book about economy in the
ancient/modern world by that guy who studies stuff.

Anyone for tennis?

Table tennis, that is. I have just joined the Cincinnati Table Tennis Club. That's right, I now play some ping-pong for fun. Of course, it's not particularly fun to play 7 or 8 matches against different people and get slaughtered each and every time. But on the other hand, I'll surely improve someday, if I keep playing with them, right? Plus, I have all these great excuses for being so bad: I haven't played much in almost 10 years, I have a new paddle (one I'm not used to, see?), I recently had a foot operation and am only now recovering enough to get out and get some exercise, I'm a phd student and therefore not particularly athletic, etc. Well, they tried to go easy on me, even the 65-year-old with Parkinson's (I'm not kidding!), but they all beat me badly. They also kept encouraging me to come back, hoping I wouldn't be discouraged by all the violent beatings I took--guess they don't know about grad school these days. So I'll be coming back, maybe once or twice a week, and who knows, maybe I'll start being able to compete with some of them--once I get used to this new paddle, and feel more confident on my new foot bone, and start training my old muscles to do what they used to do...in other words, once my excuses will no longer make up for the missing components in my game.

I have to go get ready to teach my class now, then I'll spend the entire afternoon trying to finish off another book on my dissertation list. Should be a fun day. Or at least a productive one!

"Completely Healed"

That's what the surgeon's colleague says. That's what the x-rays clearly show. So why don't they want me playing soccer any time soon? Because they're doctors, I guess. These guys don't want anyone ever to enjoy anything. Fortunately, they have recommended that I start a walking/elliptical program, and then gradually move into some easy running. I have yet another visit a month from now, where they'll probably tell me that I'll need another 8-12 weeks before I can really do anything interesting on my foot, so in the meanwhile, I'll be doing a lot of around sitting. That's the latest on the foot. Surely there's more interesting news somewhere else on some other topic...