lumière des étoiles

seguridad
2005-02-08 11:46 p.m.

Time to cancel that trip to sunny Nepal!

Security's such a fleeting thing, ain't it? One day it's there, and then the next - your dinner party plans are just ruined by all this "police state" nonsense.

Stating this was my way of responding to the relations' concerns over what my brother may or may not have read on what may or may not have been some official web site listing "safety and security" conditions in Cuzco and Lima.

"What is security, anyway?" I asked. "It might all just exist in our minds."

My mom, as usual, is thrilled and happy for us and wants to come along. My one brother, as usual, is nervous nellie and looks longingly at us from time to time, because for sure, in his head, this is the last time we'll be able to return unscathed from some far off place full of poverty and scary sounding diseases.

Of course he understands Peru to be so much more than that, but he's that type, you know - sort of like me, at times - that can find anything cause for concern, that just needs to worry over things.

Ignoring my attempt at philosophical re-direct, he managed a "but you don't speak spanish, you know". Yes, I said, I had a feeling that I didn't, but thanked him for reminding me of that.

Sigh.

It is all sweet, in a way - my brother's more the mother than my mother, if we're thinking "mother" in the conventional sense of consummate paranoid. Personally, I think that to be a limited and degrading paradigm that gets associated all too often with mothering, but we can thank tv for that I suppose. In any case, my musings on security didn't do much to quell my bro, so I told him to just stop reading things on the internet about the Sendero Luminoso and petty theft in Arequipa. "In fact," I said, "if you want to help out, look up everything you possibly can on Acute Mountain Sickness and Cerebral Odema...". See? I told you we were alike. But just remember he's the paranoid one. I am merely cautious.

Security has been a recurrent theme this week for me - the Uni has been putting on a lecture series involving technology forums, and I attended one just the other day about Nuclear Proliferation. What a party!

I was fascinated, and a bit frustrated that I had to trot off early. What was being discussed by some big important nuclear technologist (whose name escapes me right now, sorry) made me think about how fleeing global relationships are. I'd forgotten how much the US reached out to Sadam Hussein during the Iran/Iraq war to provide him with the means to acquire nuclear technology. How quickly friends become enemies.

I found out from this lecture that Pakistan has an indeterminate number of nuclear weapons - somewhere in the range of 35-50, we think. Walking to my classroom after the lecture, I thought about what a loose cannon Musharraf is, and how we're only nice to him because he seems to have gained some control over the fanatical faction in Pakistan. But twice just this year, people attempted to assassinate him. What happens if he dies? Who controls what happens to those weapons? Or, considering that he took command after he staged a coup and is pretty much a dictator in his own right, what happens if he turns on us? It's happened before. In fact, it seems to happen a lot. Whomever we feel secure enough to empower one year seems to become that which we fear most the next year.

Something else new that I learned - Ghana and Greece have enriched Uranium. Not particularly scary. But what came next is: there's also plenty of enriched Uranium at Texas A&M University, presently being guarded by Campus Security. Uh, those are the peeps on mountain bikes, by the way, that may or may not be allowed to carry guns, depending on the surrounds. Does this sound like a good idea to you?

Last night over some coffee at Corporate Bookstore, I mentioned this to my friend John (not to be confused with punk rock Jon, whom I mention here from time to time). He already knew, since he already knows everything. And I'm not being smarmy there - I don't know anyone else who is 26 and nearly done with a PhD in genetics. And consumes large quantities of history/philosophy books for "fun".

Anyway, Steve, John and I sat talking for ever about this, wondering why our level of alertness or concern for things seems to come in waves. "Is it trendy?" I asked. We didn't know. But then we remembered. A couple next to us were discussing at length the superbowl commercials. While that was fine and dandy and nothing we made a particular judgment on regarding the couple themselves, it did remind us of how we like to anesthetize ourselves, devoting news programs, websites, and massive amounts of attention to advertising. And not even in an analytical context (though that exists too); more in an "isn't this cool?" or "which will be the best?" context. It's a sad day when U2 can't play a half-time show because they're "too political" and "have an agenda", but it's fine to devote most of the program's time to ads for beer and shiny gas-guzzling cars.

I'm a bit grumbly (no, really?), as the amazing racists just won The Amazing Race. And I'm a bit suspect - one team, who were respectful of other cultures, had a substantial lead but then, for reasons unexplained, seemed to just take a seat and wait for the amazing racists to catch up. Quel surprise.

I'd hate to think there's not an ounce of integrity at all, anywhere, in any reality-tv production. I thought TAR might have had just an eensy, weensy ounce. But alas, I suppose that was foolish of me. I guess it's fixed, scripted, etc., just like anything else. Poo.

And since amazing racists, the now-millionaire model/actress pair that won the race, make me think of other wealthy, ignorant narcissists - I found my new favorite quote. This, out of the mouth of Mike Tyson: "I guess I'm gonna fade into Bolivian"

Happy year of the chicken.