The Importance of Espanol

I finally finally learned how to roll my r's this weekend. It had been a long time coming. Granted I was halfway through a margarita, but in the middle of "caro" there is was. And the I could do it again "perrrrro."

Since I moved to Colorado I've been trying, admitedly pretty half-heartedly, to learn Spanish. In Avon a majority of the workforce was Mexican, and I felt uneducated not being able to communicate.

I hate being a self centered american. I hate traveling to other countries and feeling stupid. My father is the worst. He speak slower and louder, but still in english, and then gets frusturated when people don't understand. I don't want that to be me.

So i'm excited that another step in the Spanish progression is coming together. Now I just need to learn how to say more that "your mom is a whore" and "bring me the silverwear"

“When the world takes care of women, women take care of the world.” Overpopulation, Family planning and Andy Revkin

I belive that the root of most, if not all, social, environmental, and maybe economic-this could be stretching it- problems is overpopulation. Lack of resources, abuse of what we have, food and water shortages, extreme poverty, violence, lack of health care, global warming I could go on. In my mind these are all directly related to overpopulation, and the ammount of humans on the planet who have basic needs is increasing exponentially.

I think the need for addressing this is immediate, but also incredibly hard to bring up, explain and enforce. How are you supposed to tell people not to have kids?

I think education, and health care are key, particularly for women, which is why I think it is incredible that Obama revoked the Global Gag rule.

The global gag rule was a Regan Era law that, according to Planned Parenthood "dictated that no U.S. family planning assistance funding go to organizations that provided abortion services, offered counseling and referral for abortion care, or advocated legal abortion access in their own countries — even if they did so with their own funds." Bush reinstated the rule in 2001, and now, in his first week in office Obama got rid of it.

So why is that so crucial?

First it opens up the domestic discussion about family planning(and by that I mean education and birth control) and secondly it allows NGO's and other organization's to bring funding, education, birth control, and medicine into countries that don't already have it. Andy Revkin wrote an excellent post about family planning and the UN's population fund.

Educating women, letting them know what their options are and empowering them is crucial to solving the population problem. I think this is true here in the US-where sex education is less than pitiful in a lot of places- and abroad, particularly in developing countries where population expansion is often seen as a measure of success, and women's education, particularly about health, and sexual health issues can be minimal.

This is a step in the right direction.

I learn something new every day (which is why school is awesome)

Pop quiz.

Where does most of the oil we use in the US come from?

Do you know?

I didn't until yesterday. I assumed it was somewhere in the Middle East, somewhere like iraq, and while Saudi Arabia-which is the largest oil producer in the world-sends quite a few barrels our way the answer was pretty suprising to me.

It's Canada. Our friendly neighbor to the north. Kind of makes you questions the Middle East conflict, and how the media portrays it.

on language

"We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider."

Those words hit me today, during Elizabeth Alexander's inauguration poem. Alexander has already gotten flak for the poem, apparently it wasn't enough of a showstopper, but I liked it a lot.

The cool thing about poetry is that it can encapsulate a moment, sometimes better than a picture. Much of the hype about Obama has been about his language and his word choice. Clearly he is an excellent speaker, but he's also a strong writer, and, as I learned today, a pretty good poet. Using the right words at the right time, and knowing how they will affect people, and inspire them has been one of Obama's most visible talents so far.

Today at the inauguration he was subdude. He talked about challanges and he talked about plans. He didn't use the openended campaign language of "hope" and "change."

His words have power. They make people consider and reconsider. That is why I think Alexander nailed it, and that is why(in part) I am excited for the next 4 years