Soccer and politics

Recommended: Football Against the Enemy, by Simon Kuper.

Neat exploration of the relationship between a global sport and global politics. I hope someday I get grant money to go do research as fun as this.

Underappreciated

This band shouldn't be overlooked.

Essay - politics and religion

Suggested reading: one of my favorite essays, The Politics of God by Mark Lilla. Sketches the path of the development of western thought, and the relationship between religion and politics in our familiar paradigm. Woven throughout is a neat discussion of the philosophical differences between East and West, and why that especially matters in the modern context, when America has put interactions with the Middle East on the top of the priority list.

Excerpt: A little more than two centuries ago we began to believe that the West was on a one-way track toward modern secular democracy and that other societies, once placed on that track, would inevitably follow. Though this has not happened, we still maintain our implicit faith in a modernizing process and blame delays on extenuating circumstances like poverty or colonialism. This assumption shapes the way we see political theology, especially in its Islamic form — as an atavism requiring psychological or sociological analysis but not serious intellectual engagement. Islamists, even if they are learned professionals, appear to us primarily as frustrated, irrational representatives of frustrated, irrational societies, nothing more. We live, so to speak, on the other shore. When we observe those on the opposite bank, we are puzzled, since we have only a distant memory of what it was like to think as they do. We all face the same questions of political existence, yet their way of answering them has become alien to us. On one shore, political institutions are conceived in terms of divine authority and spiritual redemption; on the other they are not. And that, as Robert Frost might have put it, makes all the difference.

Literary crushes

While in Guatemala, I spent a good stretch of time in a little used bookstore owned by an American ex-lawyer called Carlos. The fruits of this time, other than some very good conversation, were beat up copies of Locke's treatises on government, and Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I will never stop loving Dostoevsky. Or Prince Myshkin for that matter.

"Gracious me, what a fuss you make!" cried Princess Belokonsky, with annoyance. "You're a good fellow, but you're absurd: someone gives you twopence and you thank him as though he had saved your life. You think it's nice, but let me tell you, it is disgusting."

Villagers

Liking this.

Travel recommendation

Guatemala. Just go.

(Pictures from Semuc Champey and Volcan de Pacaya)

Save lives; give blood

I donated a unit of blood this morning. Check out the facts and links below about blood donation, and please consider donating as well.

To support the 4.5 million+ people who need blood every year in the U.S., including accident/trauma victims, surgery patients, cancer patients, and many more, the Red Cross needs to collect millions of units of blood. An estimated 43,000 pints of blood are used every day in the United States and Canada. Currently, only about 10 percent of eligible donors give blood annually. The Red Cross estimates that if one percent more of the U.S. population gave blood every year, blood shortages would disappear for the foreseeable future.

If you're 17 and older (or 16 with parental consent), you can donate blood as often as 6 times a year. The entire 4-step process takes about an hour: a few minutes to register and wait for your turn to donate, a short physical and questionnaire to determine eligibility, the blood donation process (about ten minutes long), and 10 to 15 minutes for recovery, while drinking juice and eating cookies.

Check out the overview of the donation process, eligibility requirements, and enter your zipcode here to find donation centers and blood drives near you.

One day without shoes

Visit TOMS Shoes to learn about One Day Without Shoes: an event to raise awareness for the TOMS cause, and the health risks millions suffer because of a lack of a basic commodity we take for granted every day. Providing shoes to people in need is a small step, but it's significant. And when you buy a pair of shoes from TOMS, you're also giving a pair to a child in need.

"Imagine a life without shoes; constantly aware of the ground in front of you, suffering regular cuts and scrapes, tending to infection after each walk, and enduring not only terrain, but heat and cold...

One Day Without Shoes is the day we spread awareness about the impact a simple pair of shoes can have on a child’s life. On April 8th, we ask people to go the day, part of the day or even just a few minutes, barefoot, to experience a life without shoes first-hand, and inspire others at the same time."

History of the Middle East

For an international relations geek like me, this map showing the imperial history of the Middle East is fascinating. Here's hoping you enjoy it too. Watch below or click the link above to view the map fullscreen.

The modern territorial and cultural situation in the Middle East has been greatly influenced by the string of events starting with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, subsequent European colonialism and control in the region, and eventual independence for Middle Eastern nations.

Education

I aspire to teach political science at a university someday, so discussion about learning is particularly interesting to me. Here's one of my favorite speakers on the subject, Taylor Mali, giving some slam poetry about teaching. I have this piece memorized due to how many times I've seen it.

"Curiosity is the very basis of education, and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly." -Arnold Edinborough

"Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner; put yourself in his place so that you may understand... what he learns and the way he understands it." -Soren Kierkegaard

"In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers, and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have. " -Lee Iacocca