Movie: Sicko; Book: The Prince of the Marshes

My sister's fiance is organizing a panel on the state of health care in America, scheduled for Wednesday night, and my sister is on the panel as a representative of the CAIR Project (http://www.cairproject.org/washington.html). CAIR is a Washington non-profit that funds abortions for women who can't afford them or can't travel to the appropriate clinic for the care they need. Jesse is billing the panel as an adjunct to Michael Moore's Sicko, which is playing around Seattle, and which I saw last night at the Neptune in the U-district.
The panel is ostensibly sponsored by the International Socialist Organization (Jesse's group) and a few other organizations.

It should be a good discussion. It's the first speaking gig my sister has had that I know of, so we'll see how she does. I have never thought of her as a superb speaker, but she is very smart and can hold her own in a debate. She's fairly fearless, in fact. My father, as part of his consulting business, has been doing panels and speeches for years on his photographic preservation/archivist stuff. He is supposedly the leading expert in that field, and has been for some time.

I'm quite proud of my family. Many of my relatives have accomplished a lot professionally and of those around my age - my cousins and such - academically (my cousin Jonathan Kolstad is a Stanford grad and currently finishing up his Ph.D. at Harvard, for example). It gives me a boost to know that my little tribe can hold their own out there in this fast, confusing world and do more than okay with themselves.

I have always suffered low-self esteem, I can be easily discouraged by failure. I tend to be a perfectionist, like my father, and so when I fall short by my standards I can get depressed and discouraged at times.
But I have taken a non-conventional road in life - I realize this, and so try not to so readily compare myself with everyone else. Competition, envy - these can get anyone down. No matter who you are, there is always someone better, richer, better-looking, whatever it is.

It is easy to recognize this in principle, another matter to live it day-to-day, however. Especially in the city. You have such a mix of people - rich, poor; ignorant, enlightened. The entire spectrum are rubbing shoulders on the sidewalks and bumpers in the street, every day. If you aren't weary enough already, you can become absorbed by others' and their apparent haves and your have-nots. So I am cognizant of this and try to keep a level head in Seattle in the summer. It's hot, too, and there is a level of aggravation that comes with a dense population and a hot summertime.

Since I am still in-between jobs, job-searching, I spend a lot of time at the cafe, at Vivace or at Cafe Vita on Pike Street, reading my books. I recently bought "The Prince of the Marshes" at Bailey & Coy Books, on Broadway, about a British governor of Maysan Province, Iraq - Rory Stewart - during the Coalition Provisional Authority period. Quite interesting stuff. An insider's account, probably not wholly unbiased, but fascinating.

The guy was quite young - 31, I think, and somehow got this job that gave him, nominally anyway, immense powers of allocation and organization in shaping the fledgling government in his province. Maysan is a majority Shi'a province south of Baghdad in the southeast of Iraq, bordering Iran.

I don't envy the poor guy's job! He has to deal with so many factions and situations - the region is volatile - with spurts of civil strife a constant threat. Most of his administration's expense goes toward building the local government up so that the expected transition of authority to the Iraqis, when that time comes, will go as smooth as possible. Infrastructure requires huge investment, as much of the generally poorer Shiite parts of the province are in need of government buildings, schools, and basic necessities like electricity and running water. How best to spend limited funds occupies a great deal of Stewart's efforts. The best part of the book is the account Stewart gives of the various characters who must deal with each other across divides cultural, languistic, sectarian. He meets with the high-ups, too - Paul Bremer and various generals (Petraeus, among others).

- d.g.w. 7/16/07