Word on the Street: Obama, Vodka, and Fish Sleds

The Simon Community Gang passes out food to every and anybody,
at various times and places throughout the week.
Pictured here is Jo, passing out some chili.

More news in the continuing saga with the homeless. For the last few weeks I've been meeting with a Street Cafe (as in, a van that dishes out chili, bread, and coffee to the homeless) over in front of a church on Sunday afternoons. The first time I showed up it was raining dogs (no cats) and we stuck it out: 50-100 people were fed, and I got the interesting role of passing out rolling papers and tobacco to the gentlemen (and women) who wanted them.

The last few times I've found myself without a job to do, which invariably means I end up in conversation with everybody. Homeless people, when they have food in their bellies and a smoke in their hand, will tell you about the world, and if you are the least bit wise, you'll listen. While I'm getting a world class education about rights and justice and economics and the like, I have to say the small tidbits I get from the likes of Jim, Richard, Tom, Jo, Alan and others are worth just as much.

Today's conversation: Comparing Obama to Nixon, Bush, Kennedy, Roosevelt, Lincoln and even Washington. There were some beautiful analogies with respect to how Lincoln dealt with his conservative enemy, Mr. Chase-- apparently he let Chase badmouth him until one day Lincoln called Chase out in front of the whole Congress. Lincoln asked his entire cabinet: is there any disharmony here? Everybody said no, and when Lincoln pointed at Chase and asked the same question, Chase, forced with the decision of either speaking up and leaving the cabinet or shutting up in front of the entire congress, chose to stay. Lincoln gave him a Supreme Court appointment once the war was over, but had the guy boxed during the time that really mattered. I can't help listening to this story and considering it's relevance to Obama and the Clintons. I hope, very much, that Obama is a man of history. This is, of course, the big fear with Obama: does the man have an ego? Can he control the ego of others? Will he be effective at delegating and leading his cabinet and government through the hard times ahead? I can only hope so.

I was given an interesting view of how manual laborers are treated in London versus the states. Apparently you get paid about 5,000 pounds for the loss of a finger, or a certain amount for the loss of an eye, but this sort of compensation pales in comparison to what an American worker, with a good lawyer to back him up, can get if he sues the company for negligence. We had a big discussion about paperwork- Londoners don't seem to mind bureacracy, which unfortunately leads to situations where you can have more adminstrative workers than actual laborers in a company. Certain inefficiencies abound.. I listen and learn.

I heard stories from a man who lived in Siberia for 6 years. He says they drink a shot of vodka every morning (a man can NEVER be without his vodka), and that temperatures can at times get down to 45 degrees below (this in Celsius!!). Apparently trees can explode at 60 below. Metal breaks at 25 below. This same chap told us about the Chukchis, a native tribe of Siberia that live in the eternal cold much in the same way as the Eskimo. Apparently these people believe that everything that comes from the Earth is owned by everybody. So one day this guy leaves his tool kit on the ground, walks away, comes back, and instead of his toolkit there's a monstrous frozen fish. Apparently the Chukchis believe that if you take something back for yourself, you should trade something in return. The fish probably wouldn't make a good drill, but I'd imagine it would have been pretty effective as a hammer. This same sort of view leads to some interesting practices-- apparently if you stay in a Chukchis house and have no wife, you will be offered an unmarried family member, as man (or woman) should not be without somebody to sleep with at night. Well, this is what I was told.. I looked the Chukchis up on wikipedia, and apparently that sort of practice no longer has a stronghold on Chukchis culture, but it used to be that when Chukchis followed their massive trading routes over hundreds of kilometers, men sometimes slept with other men's wives and even fathered children in other villages. Perhaps this is even more interesting.. I leave it to you.

And I'm complaining about the London weather..

Most interestingly, the Chukchis are amazing ecologists. If a man has 6 dogs, some rope, some water, and some fish, he can go many miles. Tie up the dogs, lay the fish down and pour water on them so they freeze. Now you have a sled. Travel on the sled back to your home. Unfreeze the fish. Eat your sled.

We were thinking it's rather difficult to eat your car.

Listening, Learning, and Sharingly Yours,
T.