Where are the Village Elders??

The Village Elders!! No, they don't sing Macho Macho Man.

Doing all this reading for my eventual thesis here at LSE, I've been thinking a lot about representative democracy, consumer orientation, our freedoms in the market, etc..

and then it hit me:

Where are our village elders?

You know what I mean.. that old, hunched over (wo)man who's already been through it all and already seen it all, who spends the day tending a garden or making baskets or something (or running an ethical corporation.. anybody?), and who the village runs to whenever it is time to make some sort of communal decision.

In the day and age of global consumerism; of my purchasing power influencing sweatshops in China and Singapore; of our information continuously being shaped by a media system that gives us soundbytes and not the entire story, where did the village elders go?

Before the internet. Before the television and the car, there were people who we listened to.

And then it hit me:
Leisure World. The elders are in Leisure World because we put them there. They're (for the most part) sealed off from the outside world. Why should we go to them for advice? We know what we're doing! We have all our fancy economists, bankers, economists, institutions, media outlets, etc.. etc.. etc..

and yet.. how could we not know that houses don't alway increase in value? If we had simply looked farther back into our past, we would have noticed the Great Depression.. if we had listened to the elders who lived through that era and who, I presume, generally suggest a disciplined spending habit.. but why should we listen to the voices of the ancients?

After all, they know so little of technology; of human progress.. and besides.. they're OLD!!

I did a google search for village elders. Apparently they DO EXIST!! There's an international peacekeeping group of village elders who travel to places like Zimbabwe or Cyprus and work to mediate peaceful solutions between seemingly uncompromisable conflicts. And guess what? People want to listen to them!

Why? Because they're village elders!!

Enter: The Elders. Visit to Cyprus- Peace Negotiation (Turks Vs. Greeks)

Check it out!! This is The Elders' Website

There are so many things going on in the world today.. if you care to take a look, this is a great website, especially w/ r to current humanitarian crises.

In America, we're a bit hyperfocused on our own financial problems; the need to create jobs; the continuous nationalist populism that the government must necessarily throw at us to keep us involved (and to stay in power)..

Yet something in me craves the worlds of the elders.. the wise man. I know we have preachers and teachers, but often these people are young, biased, unobjective...

I know we've got Jimmy Carter. We have that "unbearable lightness of being guy." We have amazing authors, artists, sporadically-placed academics (Noam Chomsky comes to mind). But where is the institutionalization of "elder-hood" in our society? Wouldn't it be awesome if we had an ethical committee that made recommendations; a meritocracy of sorts of older citizens who met a few times a year and made recommendations that us young people could listen to if we so choose? What if they had a newspaper, or a newsletter, or even a general mailing list?

Ex- President Jimmy Carter (a member of The Elders) Visits Cyprus.

Elders Just LOOK Cool.

So I continued to research a little bit.. apparently the Elders went to Gaza during the recent crisis! And Jimmy Carter published a press release, which was released into the Washington Post.. Check the link here. And yet the sad thing is an unbiased report from an Ex-President who is so involved in international human affairs is relegated to page A15 of the Washington Post?! Only the most avid readers are going to get to that article.. and so here's my dilemma. How is this information supposed to reach us? How are we supposed to be ethically involved in the world when the stories are eclipsed by all the other IMPORTANT information out there.. Murdock, I know we're supposed to care about making money and protecting our national interest, but come ON!!

More on this later.. for now back to reading.

Love to All,

T

Timeless, The LSE Multicultural Dance Charity Event

Timeless ctors in colorful costumes gather during rehearsals.

So I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but I'm part of the LSE A Capella group. The group is a lot of fun; very colorful, groovy personalities, etc.. I'm learning a lot about other cultures from hanging with these kids, and singing is a lot of fun and a great way to take a break from lectures/ studying.

Part of the LSE A Capella Group, goofing around during a break.

So, apparently our group had enough potential to earn a space in the annual charity musical, known by the cognomen: Timeless. Whether it was truly timeless? Well, the amount of rehearsing sure took a lot of time! We met up for a few 6 hour rehearsals in various places, including the theater that we ended up doing the performance in: the legendary Sadlers Wells Dance Theatre. If you don't know what Sadler's Wells is (and don't worry- I won't blame you because I had no idea either), it's the place where West Side Story, The King and I, and a few other noteable shows were performed. Currently it features a number of really cool avant-garde dance numbers, one or two of which I'll have to catch as the theatre is literally 2 minutes walk from my dorm.

Timeless cast during break at Sadlers Wells practice theatre- Very captivating location.

Timeless ended up being a 31 act behemoth of a musical, featuring cultural dances and songs from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, belly dancers, and modern hip-hop, to name a few. The group was incredibly diverse; I believe I was one of two caucasians in a crowd of 170+. Needless to say the experience was really interesting, and the dances were a lot of fun to watch. Being the crazy student that I am, I ended up carrying a copy of John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism around and reading it whenever we had a small break.. On the day of the actual performance, that meant I had time to read almost the entire book.

Timeless was on a Sunday, and I think that Sunday was one of the longest of my life.. I am fully recovered at 5 PM on Tuesday. Let's quickly go through the day:

Wake up at 8:30 AM and mosey over to Sadler's Wells, where students are converging for a run-through of the finale. Lots of shouting, moving around, slow waking up (I've never seen a groggier group of people than 170 students at 9 AM on a Sunday), then a 1 hour break for lunch, after which started the longest tech rehearsal I've ever seen. As I said, 31 acts, all with lighting to figure out, mikes to check, formations to run, etc.. We finished that rigmarole at 6 PM (luckily those of us whose acts were already done could go sleep for a few hours during that time period), and then we had to meet up again at 7 PM, as the show started at 7:30.

Rehearsing the Finale on Sunday morning.

I just thought the catapillar-air-duct was too cool.. plus I confess I was a tad bored.

The show itself was a lot of fun- our a capella group sounded fairly decent (though the professional singing critic that I know said our costuming sucked.. to her I simply have the response: we were a human rainbow dammit!!.. and it was our first performance ever, so we deserve a break). The audience of 1500 seemed to like the performance, and that's all that really matters. After the performance, I ran back to my hall to finish an essay that, because of snow, I STILL haven't turned it.. but at least I finished it. Then I ran back for the finale, which took about 20 minutes because each one of the show's creators had to thank mom and dad and sisters/ friends/ dogs and cats for helping them to make the show happen. I felt like I was at the academy awards.. the only problem is while these talks were going on, all 170 actors/dancers were standing on the stage waiting for the finale to finish.

Waiting in Line to Perform.. Neilesh, our Fearless Leader, in Green :)
Here we are on stage.. in our "multicultural rainbow" formation. I'm in blue. Oh yeah.

Ah well it was interesting, and I got to see some of the other cultures interacting around me. I like the Indian kids- they work really hard and are easy to talk to. The Sri Lankan guys were kind of a gang, but cool as well once you get to know them a bit.

Tthe Sri-Lankan dance group during one of the rehearsals..

I think I got an embarrassing picture with a gaggle of Indian princesses.. I couldn't think of a pose so I just put my hands together in Namaste.. I felt very regal though-- I hope I can find that picture.

The best thing about timeless really was the camaraderie- shows put people together because we all work so hard to get the thing to happen, and there truly was something special, even timeless to the whole affair. I think Timeless raised around $22000 for the homeless in Kenya with that one event, which is pretty cool as well!

But wait, there's more, because after Timeless ended (11 PM- three and a half grueling hours later), there as the Timeless after-party to go to! The after party was a couple of miles away.. IN THE SNOW. At this point, London was covered in 6 inches of snow. All of the buses stopped, and all of the taxis went home. Therefore, when we left the club at 12:30 (I had a superbowl to catch) THERE WAS NO TRANSPORTATION BACK!! I've never heard of a city shutting down because of 6 inches of snow, but apparently that's the way they do things in London. It's the same sort of thing as not letting you eat your own food in a pub that is currently not serving any food, but more on that next time.

The Snow outside.. random snowball fights abound!

What looked like it was to be a long trek back through a small blizzard turned out to be a blissfully short walk, as some nice Londoners pulled over and offered us a ride home!! How wonderful! I suppose that although there's something to say about a city that shuts down because of almost nothing, there's more to be said for citizens willing to let strangers into their car and give them a ride. Timeless indeed!!

The night ended with football. As we're 8 hours behind Pacific Time over here, our super bowl started at 11 PM and ended at 3 AM. What a day, what a night! I had my guiness, watched the Cardinals lose a very close and very exciting game, and passed out.

Ahh, Super Bowl.. you lack your ebullient adverts on British Sky TV,
but you are a wonderful holiday nonetheless.

Jamie and his wife had a lot of money on the Steelers.. we were giving them so much crap when the Cardinals took the lead late in the fourth, but Rothlesburger pulled through.. Jamie was extremely modest considering how much money he'd just won.

When I woke up in the morning, London was blanketed with snow and COMPLETELY SHUT DOWN, but more on this next time.

Car Meets Bike

I like the little dent up top.. that's where my head hit (I was wearing a helmet and was therefore totally conscious afterward.. no pain at all.. ALWAYS wear a HELMET!!)

So before I get down with the reading that I suppose I have to do tonight, I'm looking to update the blog with the current goings on.. Two weeks ago on the way to some errand or another on my bike, I most un-cautiously moved into an intersection without seeing a Yaris on the other side that was going to run late yellow/ early red (there were other cars in the intersection blocking the view.. and to be fair, I thought the oncoming traffic was one lane, not two). The Yaris and I met up in the middle of the intersection. Apparently the blame was 60% his fault, 40% mine.. I'm not sure if this means I get some sort of compensation.. we'll see.

If you've never been hit by a car, it feels something like a giant flyswatter.. the experience itself is not that painful.. more the next few days afterward. It's been two weeks and my leg still isn't perfectly right (I can walk/ teach yoga, but my knee hurts when I tweak it in a certain direction), but apparently I'm extremely lucky as I jumped up and into the car's windshield, keeping my bike from breaking my leg (at least, I think I jumped up into the windshield.. I can't remember too much of that part at this point). To make a long story short, I'm thankful for my yoga + aikido training. The aikido because I reacted to that car the same way I'd react to Josh Gold trying to strike me, and the yoga because it kept me flexible enough to walk away without too severe ligament damage in my knee/ left leg.

Nice Side-view.. to be honest the car wasn't going all that fast.. only like 25-30 mph, and the gentleman who hit me stopped pretty much on a dime. He was actually more disoriented by the experience than I was.

The paramedics were quite insistent about getting me to the hospital to be checked out, but I ended up refusing, as I could walk normally and had full flexion in my limbs. Looking back, the hospital might have been good as a means of getting some pain medication, but I ended up going through the weekend without it. Just a lot of ice, hot bathing, and reading.

At any rate, his Yaris was too smashed to be driven home.. they had to tow it.
I ended up walking back home.
Travis: 1, Car: 0.

The whole experience was harrowing, and the worst news: My bike, my wonderful 50 dollar bike, is destroyed. Let the trumpets play their sad songs into the London dusk.

To be honest, looking at that bike, it was probably time for it to go. At some point soon I will have to get another bike.. for now though, I'm perfectly happy to walk, and to look both ways before crossing the street.

Yours truly, walking around in the snow a week later.. Hoorah.

To all the people who looked after me and kept showing their concern, my sincere thanks. Although it wasn't much of an injury, the experience was shocking, and having so many people express their concern really meant a lot to me. I think I'll be a lot slower on my next bike, if another bike I do indeed purchase.