The 15th Erase Racism Carnival is up at Racewire. A note of explanation for those who’re unfamiliar with this, the Racism Carnival is basically a monthly blogosphere event. Every month, a different blog gathers the best blog posts on racial injustice issues and presents them in one place. This month, they’ve looked at some important topics like Race and the Green Economy, Black-Brown Relations and — something that’s increasingly important in the global context — Immigration and Migration. There are a host of interesting posts under Race and Gender in Media, including this one on how French cosmetic brand L’Oreal was guilty of racism during a recent direct marketing campaign.

L’Oreal unit Garnier has been found guilty of excluding non-white women when it recruited people to hand out its samples of its shampoo and discuss styling with shoppers. The company had set out exactly what size it expected the women to be, and also specified that they needed to be “BBR”, the initials for bleu, blanc, rouge, the colors of the French flag. Anyone who has spent time in France knows that BBR is code used by the the far right. For employers, it’s code for whites only. Asians, North Africans and Africans needn’t apply.

Eric Stoller’s views on why he blogs, in the Whiteness Revisited section, are heartwarming.

Sometimes I think about shutting the whole thing down. Then I am reminded by an internal alarm that tells me that yes, as a white heterosexual man, I can walk away from this blog. I can go through my entire life on this planet and never have to think about my race, my gender, or my sexual orientation. It’s the combination of a set of unearned privileges. However, I am an anti-racist, feminist, ally. My dignity is linked to those who are oppressed because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. My dignity is maimed and suffers because of racism, sexism, homophobia, heterosexism, etc.

I don’t approach my blog posts as if this is a debate. This is personal for me.

Some fantastic stuff. Go read.

Green is the new buzzword. The latest news on this front is that Japan has introduced the world’s first hybrid train. As the article points out, trains are a relatively small contributor to global warming but the popularity of hybrid cars, such as Toyota Motor Corp.’s best-selling Prius, is helping to boost interest in hybrid trains.

A hybrid car typically features a small fuel-efficient gas engine combined with an electric motor that assists the engine when accelerating. The electric motor is powered by batteries that recharge automatically while you drive. It also has a host of other features help conserve energy such as periodic engine shut off, advanced aerodynamics and low-rolling resistance tires. The emissions are cleaner, which means less pollution.

The hybrid train will achieve similar things. Of course, cost and scalability are big factors here and one train by itself is unlikely to have any large or long-term impact on the environment.

Meanwhile, here is a country willing to sacrifice significant amounts of money to protect the environment. The Tibet Autonomous Region has vowed to protect its glaciers, wetlands and grasslands even if it means compromising on the growth of major industries such as tourism, manufacturing and mining.

And this is just one of the things we can expect if we don’t clean up our act–and fast! An architect with a Bangkok firm has said that that in about ten years, the primary form of transport in the city may well be the boat.

Going green has many repercussions especially for international travel. There is increasing emphasis on eco-friendly tourism and growing concern about the effects of air travel to far-flung, exotic spots. With airline companies working on being more earth-friendly, hopefully there will be a time soon when our urge to see the world and our need to save it will not be at odds with each other.

A few days back, Turkey voted the AK Party back into power in elections that many say is a resounding slap on the face of the Turkish military. According to news reports in the BBC and other western media, the AKP has been accused of having an Islamist agenda by some who feel that Turkey is going backwards in some ways and are concerned about the increasing number of women who are wearing chadors on the streets.

What everyone will be watching for in the next few months is how this new power dynamic actually affects Turkey’s secularism, which has always been guarded rather jealously by its military. The AKP has denied that it has an Islamist agenda. Given its interest in seeing Turkey become part of the European Union, it is possible that they will continue to be understated about such an agenda, even it exists.

What this columnist, who is also associate professor of political science and director of Middle East Studies at Drury University, points out is that things are not as two-dimensional as the western media makes them out to be. It is not a battle between Islamist and secular forces because the different parties involved in Turkish politics and their policies are far more complex than that. Meanwhile, this blogger talks about why she supports AKP:

I do support the AK Party because they have, in fact, shown their determination to do something good for the country. It matters not if a little money disappeared; the majority went into the country coffers versus the pockets of politicians.

International media’s inability (unwillingness?) to go beyond the obvious and the hype to delve into the underlying layers presents a skewed picture to the world. Unfortunately, this leads to many of us having half-baked notions about many events — and in some cases — countries.

Another instance of this is when India recently elected its first woman president. Newspapers around the world celebrated this as a momentous victory for womankind and took it as a sign of changing times for women in, what has traditionally been, a very patriarchal society.

Scratch the surface and a different story emerges. The president holds little more than a ceremonial post. India has already had an extremely powerful woman prime minister — Indira Gandhi — in the past. Pratibha Patil, the new president, has a dubious record of fraud and misguided loyalties and she “talks to spirits”! Needless to say, many in India are skeptical (if not outright disappointed) at having her as president and this includes the feminists.

It’s sad, and little frightening, to think of how little we know and understand about other countries sometimes. And how little the media helps. On a more upbeat note though, thank god for blogs!

These are difficult times. Today itself, 33 people were killed in bomb attacks in Pakistan. Waking up to reports of war and terror have become commonplace and we have learned to take for granted that our world is in perpetual conflict.

Noted Canadian author Margaret Atwood said: “I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one ‘race’ - the human race - and that we are all members of it.” But some days, it’s hard to wake up and feel a sense of kinship with the person living next door, let alone with someone living in another country. Yet, now more than ever, it’s important to feel this. Because in times of trouble, the world needs as many missives of peace as it can get.

The irony is that it’s never been easier for people to step over boundaries, see other places, understand other cultures, befriend people in distant lands. With globalization and increased travel, people are country-hopping at an alarming rate. Apart from this, technology has created shared spaces where the entire world can commune. In ancient times, people gathered around a bonfire to talk, share, feel the spirit of “community”; now, they power up laptops, click on the browser icon. The worldwide web is the modern-day bonfire. All this should lead to an unprecedentedly unified world.

But like with most other things, destructive forces seem to have the upper hand here as well. Terrorists and war-mongers are using the advantages of mobility and technology far more effectively than the millions toiling to eradicate poverty and disease, fight social injustice and bring about reform. Is it because the numbers are fewer? Or does it boil down to some ancient metaphysical law on good versus evil.

Perhaps, it’s because the positive voice is far more feeble. Most ordinary people who just want to live and let live–tend to do exactly that. They go to work, spend time with the family, hang out at a bar with friends, look after their kids. They don’t usually have the time and energy left over to spread passionate messages, torment other people or plan massive projects. Look at most discussions on message boards and blogs. After a point, the sensible comments will be overwhelmed by hateful messages with illogical arguments or personal attacks. Flamers and trolls just seem to have so much energy! To fight them, we must match their loudness of voice and passionate energy. In the virtual world–and outside it.

Secondly, the lines between right and wrong are often blurry and there are eternal debates about what makes one person’s view more ‘good’ than another’s. All things considered, I think it’s safe to say that causing damage and death willfully is wrong. If one functions with that as a basic, it can’t be that hard to figure out the rest.

This weekend, a large number of people will be unified by one thing. The last book in the hugely popular Harry Potter series will be released on Saturday and children (and adults) across the globe will devour the 900 or so pages to see if Harry finally vanquishes Voldemort. I am confident that most are hoping that good will ultimately win over evil. For now, that will have to suffice. In the real world, things aren’t so simple.

It’s no secret. Our cities are growing at a furious pace.

As more opportunities are created in sectors that have their base in urban areas, more and more people are leaving their homes and farms in villages to find work in the cities. The World Urban Forum predicts that that in the next fifty years, two-thirds of humanity will be living in towns and cities.

This growth is often visible to us in ways that affect our daily lives: increasing traffic, crowded streets, longer queues at the supermarket. But there are larger ways in which this is affecting the world around us–a growing population of the urban poor.

These are the people who come to a city and become immersed in a cycle of survival. They clean our streets, guard our houses, get rid of our waste, drive our cars and buses, run our tea-shops. Usually, they go home to slums where they do not have access to even basic needs like ventilated rooms, safe water, clean toilets. The United Nations estimates that by the year 2020, 40% of the population will be slum-dwellers.

According to this story, in Mexico City, the second-largest city in the world, 40% of the people live below the poverty line. Mumbai, which is home to 19 million people, has half its population living in slums. Rio de Janeiro is home to 12 million people. One third of Rio’s population lives in slums, known as favelas. In these cramped living arrangements, poor sanitation leads to disease easily. But there are other ills that breed here as well–crime, drugs, alcoholism and violence. According to UN-HABITAT’s State of the World’s Cities Report 2006/7, Sub-Saharan Africa is worst hit where 72% of urban inhabitants live in slums rising to nearly 100% in some states.

Migration to cities is inevitable and unstoppable. People will move where they expect to have a better life, regardless of whether or not the reality lives up to their dreams. Expecting migrant populations and dealing with their needs is something that governments have long avoided, taking the easier route of demolishing slums or illegal tenements, and burying their heads in the sand, ostrich-like, the rest of the time.

What’s needed is realistic planning and provision of low-cost housing that provides a certain basic standard of living, and adequate monitoring to ensure that the right people are benefiting from this.

In parallel, they need to ensure that the larger infrastructure of a city is able to handle the burgeoning population. This means providing better roads, clean drinking water, convenient commercial and educational spaces, social and recreational facilities, adequate health facilities, and a healthy environment. A tall order? Not really. Poor planning, inefficiency and plain stupidity are often to blame for delays. In many places, the situation has been exacerbated by a deliberate refusal to deal with the facts, or worse, rampant corruption and lack of concern. Perhaps, it’s time to holler a little louder for the things we need. It just may go a little way towards saving tomorrow’s cities, if not today’s.

Have you ever had an ideal learning space–a classroom, library, common room or study that you wanted to spend time in? More and more universities are looking at ways in which they can make students more comfortable in their learning environments. Here is an interesting example. Oxford Brookes University has created a space for undergraduate students that is bright, snazzy and equipped with swish gadgetry where they can do collaborative study. There are some doubts about exactly how useful this room will be because of its specific attributes and you can head over to the article to read about them. Meanwhile, I’m going to do a bit of daydreaming of my own.

My ideal group study area would have a warm, homey feel to it–wooden floors, a comfy armchair or two, some beanbags, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers on the wall, bookshelves lining the walls, and many rounds of tea and coffee available easily. I think I’d be distracted by shiny modern gadgetry. Can you get your reading done when bright knobs and buttons are beckoning and the sofas resemble something you’d find in a lounge bar? More power to you, if you can. Me, I’d want to get up and play. Something resembling a favourite author’s study, say like this one, would do very nicely instead.

One of the challenges of studying with other people is the tendency to get distracted. There’s always the faint, nagging urge to chew the fat, gossip, or discuss the match instead of focusing on Foucault or Smith. Before you know it, the discussion has been derailed and you’re all heading out for a drink with solemn promises that you’ll finish today’s work tomorrow. I think a place like this would gently tug you back to study mode every now and then. A useful thing.

At the same time, nobody likes to be uncomfortable and this is the problem with traditional classrooms and libraries a lot of the time. Hard plastic or wooden furniture, straight-backed chairs that hurt the back, and vacant walls appeal to very few people. Reading feels like a penance of sorts rather than something enjoyable, which it is meant to be. Mayo Clinic has a different take on it though. They have designed the classroom of the future, where children learn at ’standing desks’ using laptops and iPods. They feel that this active method of learning could help tackle the US’s problem of child obesity.

Meanwhile, as a nod to the flavour of the week–Pottermania!–I will leave you with a J.K. Rowling’s description of a Hogwarts classroom:

He emerged into the strangest-looking classroom he had ever seen. In fact, it didn’t look like a classroom at all, more like a cross between someone’s attic and an old-fashioned tea shop. At least twenty small, circular tables were crammed inside it, all surrounded by chintz armchairs and fat little poufs. Everything was lit with a dim, crimson light; the curtains at the windows were all closed, and the many lamps were draped with red scarves. It was stiflingly warm, and the fire that was burning under the crowded mantelpiece was giving off a heavy, sickly sort of perfume as it heated a large copper kettle. The shelves running around the circular walls were crammed with dusty-looking feathers, stubs of candles, many packs of tattered playing cards, countless silvery crystal balls, and a huge array of teacups.

Live Earth, the much-publicized 24-hour rock concert, happened yesterday. The New York Times’ Arts Beat blog has the updates and Telegraph pans it as a huge yawn. Earlier, George Marshall at The Guardian talked about why rock won’t save the planet and readers gave their opinions here. Marshall pointed out:

This could be a revolution if it were a mass rally with clear political objectives. Imagine millions of people taking to the streets around the world with a coherent agenda for slashing greenhouse gas emissions. But it is not. It is a rock concert with climate infomercials spliced between bands singing about the people they fancy. The music will contain virtually no mention of climate change and will lack the anger, fear and aggression needed to galvanise change.

Apparently, the concert reached 10 million people online at MSN. What remains to be seen is whether these people will now cut down on car use, switch off lights more often, buy ‘greener’ products or do anything else remotely aimed at saving the planet.

It’s difficult for people to invest in issues that they can’t really ’see’ the ill effects of. For most people, global warming is a scary but rather distant reality. The very largeness of the issue makes it hard to grasp. And awareness building programs are inevitably a mix of doomsday prophecies and admonitions to ‘do your little bit’. Possibly, what is needed is smaller, more focused suggestions that take into account that people also need to live their lives today while trying to preserve the world for the future.

What do you think?

Budour Ahmad Shaker died while undergoing female circumcision in Egypt. She was 12. Hopefully, her tragic death will not be forgotten. The horrific incident and resulting public protest has prompted Egypt’s health minister to announce a formal and absolute ban on female circumcision, or female genital mutilation.

Female circumcision involves the removal of the female clitoris, which conservative families believe is a way of protecting a girl’s chastity. The practice is common among Muslim as well as Christian families in Egypt and other African countries. According to The Economist report, a nationwide survey carried out in 2005 revealed that 97% of married women claimed to have been circumcised. But a more disturbing trend is that two-thirds of circumcisions are performed by doctors.

The Guardian says that female circumcision was made illegal in Egypt in 1997. But there were loopholes that many medical professionals took ample advantage of. Shaker’s untimely death has brought to the forefront something that too often we relegate to the back of our minds. Not only is this a primitive rite that reinforces discriminatory attitudes towards women, it is also painful, sadistic and potentially deadly!

Of course, it will take more than mere legislation to change something so ingrained. It’s important that doctors (whom we think of as ‘healers’) be held to task for wielding scalpels of destruction. But unless the larger cultural issues are addressed, people will continue to practice it on the sly and endanger the lives of their little girls by taking them to quacks. I think it’s important to sensitize people, especially parents, about the dangers of this practice and hold them accountable as well. Shaker died because of the effects of anaesthesia. No doubt the doctor was responsible (and he has been arrested). But were the parents any less culpable?

The BBC website has a discussion on the issue of FGM and the counterpoint comes from some people who say that if a woman chooses to have the operation, there’s nothing wrong with it. Well, firstly, a lot of girls are circumcised before they become women so the question of choice is a little irrelevant. Secondly, to make an informed choice on the matter, a woman should have equal access to information about the pros and cons, which I doubt is the case most times.

The defense for practices like FGM, which are deeply entrenched in any society, is usually the protection of culture. But what is culture? Not a static museum piece but an evolving phenomenon. As we move into an increasingly globalised world, we need to arrive at some things we universally agree on — the meaning of words like murder, genocide, suicide; what constitutes human rights violation; what constitutes child abuse. By all means, let’s celebrate our differences and protect our individual cultures. But let’s not forget that at the core, we are all human beings.

Did you know that “hygge” is an integral part of Danish culture? There’s no exact translation for hygge, which is pronounced hu-gah. The word incorporates a multitude of fuzzy, feel-good concepts–cozy sofas, candle light, a steaming cup of hot chocolate, or a glass of warm red wine, bonhomie and intimate conversations with friends. According to this website, some refer to hygge as the Art of Creating Intimacy (with yourself, friends and home). Delightful idea, isn’t it?

The story goes that Danes developed the concept of hygge as a way of dealing with the long, dark winter months from October to March. What started off as survival mechanism gradually evolved into an art form. The Germans have a concept called gemütlichkeit, which means very similar things, while the Dutch have gezellig and the Russians ujut. Apparently, there are words for the same concept in Sweden and the Netherlands as well. All of these are countries that face severe winters and have to actively guard against Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

I haven’t come across any equivalent words in tropical countries. It stands to reason that people in hotter places will be less eager to light candles or sink into warm fabric of any sort. Instead, there is an abiding romanticism about the rain. Songs and poems about rain abound (although Hollywood is not exempt from this either). In Botswana, the Setswana word for rain, pula, is used as the name of the national currency.

The weather channel is commonly considered rather boring but it’s hard to deny the ways in which we are affected by the sun’s heat, the lash of rain, the ways of the wind. Not everyone discusses the weather with the same enthusiasm as the Brits, but it finds its way into our language all the same. Reminds me of that old Crowded House song (Everywhere you go you always take the weather with you).

Are there unique ways that the weather has affected your culture? Special words that talk about climate? Social phenomena born from seasonal ones?

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