Save the Frogs Day 2010
Today is Save the Frogs Day. Over 2000 species are threatened with extinction….
Rocks I Have Loved: Two Photos for Earth Day
I’ve been going through old photos to pick out some that might be appropriate for an album (or maybe a series of blog posts), tentatively entitled, “Rocks I Have Loved.” It struck me this morning how well that metaphor suits Earth Day….
Memories of International Women’s Day in Nepal
Four months after I gave birth to my son in Nepal, I celebrated my very first International Women’s Day in 1988 in Gunjanagar, a village in western Chitwan District. It was also Gunjangar’s first time to organize an event for that day. I describe the scene in Sacred Threads, my ethnographic memoir-in-progress….
Strange Conjunctions
Within 24 hours, Howard Zinn and J.D. Salinger die, and Steve Jobs announces the iPad (which — menstrual jokes aside — may or may not revolutionize how we interact with the written word). I’m too busy trying to meet end-of-month writing deadlines to meditate on these odd conjunctions. And perhaps writing is the best way [...]
More Haiti Links
Following up on my Martin Luther King Day post, here are some more links that expose mainstream media bias and deepen historical and political understanding of Haiti:…
Lessons From Dr. King on Haiti
It’s hard enough to comprehend the scale of disaster in Haiti. What’s harder is this: to stand by and watch hate, ignorance and greed breed on human suffering like maggots….
Wild Turkey: Species of the Week
Unlike my stepfather and his clan, numerous cousins, the son I spawned, and many friends; I don’t usually look at wild animals and think: meat. Wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo), indigenous to North America, have become a recent exception….
Ancient Lessons in Food Storage
One of the things I loved best about teaching high school social studies was shaking up students’ perceptions of history. And one of my favorite lessons was in Ancient History. I’d bring in a a jar of beans and a potato with so many sprouts it looked like an octopus (the fact that I always found one in my cupboard could have doubled as a cautionary lesson in the domestic arts)….
Local Communities Promote Vultures
For International Vulture Awareness Day, I highlight some exciting community initiatives on two endangered vulture species I posted on last spring: The California Condor and White-Rumped Vulture….
