Letter of Discontent to the United States

I sometimes make pseudo-political posts on this blog (though it certainly is not my preferred platform for them) with vague disclaimers about how I don't like getting into politics on here. Today however, I am angry, and this post will consist of possibly-ranty discontent with the state of things in my country. Come at me, NSA. Those who disagree will disagree and that's fine, but rude and hateful comments will be removed. After all, this post is about respect.

This is what the Republican side of the Senate floor looked like as an abortion bill was "debated" on Monday in Texas. Tons of eyewitnesses attested to the fact that many proponents of the bill were not only not paying attention to the debate but openly engaging in jeering conversation. Furthermore, when they did speak, they showed an inexcusable lack of knowledge and a horrifying intent to misguide and manipulate voters under the guise of "protecting women." I understand the moral opposition to abortion, I really do. What I don't understand is the use of shaming, misguiding, and derogatory rhetoric to further an agenda that could not be further from protecting women. If you want to debate morals and ethics, fine by me, but do not disrespect my intelligence by telling me you're protecting women by trying to deny millions of women not only access to abortions, but other critical health services as well. If that wasn't enough, the behavior of senators during those proceedings makes it clear that not only are senators being deceitful, they are not doing their jobs. They're mocking their constituents, colleagues, and the entire foundation of the democratic process because they've gotten complacent and it's disgusting.

Sure Texas is notorious for this kind of behavior, but the federal government hasn't been doing a much better job of protecting democracy either. On the one hand they're touting their attempts to defend our country by persecuting Edward Snowden, and on the other subjecting our minorities to voter discrimination by suspending Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act. Hypocrisy at its finest.

Snowden was within his rights to report the surveillance actions being taken by the NSA, and threatening other countries with retribution for not extraditing him rather than addressing the issue (breach of constituent confidence and violating the constitution in a gross way) is making the country look like a petulant and scared bully in the international sector. Some supporters of the surveillance say "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear," (a prize to the first to recognize this quote), which is all well and fine for now. I would bet that 98% of Americans have nothing to hide beyond a little sexting or maybe pot use. The problem is when it becomes not all well and fine. Because this was kept secret for "public safety," there are no guarantees of provisions that this information will not be used to eventually distort innocent information to paint people as immoral, deviant, and treasonous. We're not good at looking at the whole picture in our justice system (just watch this TED Talk), and this has the potential for extreme and widespread abuse.

Second, we need to have some perspective on terrorism in this country. Just a quick Google search for "deaths from terrorism" yields numbers that are staggering. Since 1985, we've had maybe 3500 deaths (and about 5000 crippling injuries) attributed to terrorist attacks (most of which were 9/11). The number of deaths from any form of cancer in the US last year alone is about 68 times that number! And we want to scrap the Constitution and our liberties and run toward a 1984-style surveillance state? What? Sure, new weaponry and technology has made it much easier to execute terrorism than in 1985, and I don't think we should do nothing, but surely there is a better solution than decimating the Constitution and the very values of the foundation of this country to entrust my liberties to a government (for "protection" from a seemingly minor threat) that has an awful track record for targeting minorities, ignoring civil rights, lack of transparency, abuse of power, violent overreaction, and possibly the most inflated ego the world has ever seen?

I love this country but what we need is a little "back to basics" focus. The government needs to regain our trust by showing itself and its people a little respect; by treating humans humanely, domestically and globally, and restoring the values upon which our country became a great nation.

A Little Appreciation

Over the last few weeks, I've been dealing with something very difficult for me: admitting shortcomings. And not just admitting them, but having to explain the reasons for those shortcomings and what I've learned from them over and over and in great detail. To say it has been humiliating doesn't even begin to cover it. I've spent every second wanting to do anything else. In a nice turn of events though, my parents have been my best friends during this process. We've had a bit of a rocky relationship, but as I've gotten older (and more reasonable, I guess) they continue to surprise me by being understanding, supportive, non-judgmental of, and confident in me and my abilities when I least expect it. This has never been so true as it has these past couple weeks, when I've been feeling very insecure with and unproud of myself. I wanted to introduce them to you with a picture, but I think they would disapprove of me plastering pictures of them on the internet without their approval, so I'm just going to make my little post of appreciation. I'm sure I underestimate and underappreciate them horribly sometimes, but man, I have super super awesome parents. I am so thankful for them.

Metallic Nails

I grabbed some Revlon Star Attraction polish a couple days ago in Reality Star Green. These are the kind that have little magnets atop the bottles to create a little pattern with once you've applied the coat. To be totally honest, I was expecting the effect to be a bit more dramatic than it actually was, but all in all, I liked how it turned out very much and I like that I can wear it plain or a bit magnetized. I used to be a green-hater (and a blue-hater) when it came to nailpolish, claiming they "didn't look good with my skin," but I've recently changed my tune, and I am loving this olive color!!

Disclaimer: I'm not being paid to give you my opinion on this product.

A Bit More Adventuring

I've done a bit more adventuring since the last time I posted! Two weekends ago, I ventured to the Durban Botanical Gardens for a relaxing little picnic and reading time. I walked around for a while, looking at all the different gardens and not a minute after I sat down with my food, a monkey came and stole half my scone! Rude!


Then last weekend, I went with some new friends to a restaurant right on the beach. In true Mugdha fashion, I forgot to charge my camera and it died right after this first picture of the day of the most delicious kiwi martini I have ever experienced in my life. I had this seafood scampi that I would kill for someone to make me every day. No joke.
If any of you are soccer fans, you might recognize this next destination, though it may be difficult without the constant ring of vuvuzelas to remind you: the Moses Mabhida Stadium from the 2010 World Cup!

I observed some more cool things too. People say "skinner" for gossip, which definitely sounds cooler. The people here LOVE their shoes. Men, women, EVERYONE. I constantly feel inadequate in my TOMS and flats. Finally, people are weirdly particular about their cars being clean. Not sure if this is a status thing, but again, if anyone saw the condition my darling Corolla is often in (especially this pollen season), I bet I would be judged so hard.

The Water's Shallow Here

I realized I haven't done an outfit post in a long time, but I just bought this dress last week and had to show it off. I think a lot of not taking pictures had to do with not having my tripod in NC and not having any good surfaces around to perch my camera on. Week 2 of my internship has been hectic to say the least. I'm using it in the American sense, meaning "crazy busy," but in SA, I've noticed that people use "hectic" to mean "problematic" or "undesirable because of complicated-ness" too. I'm not sure if that's a remnant from British occupation, but it's quite interesting! I love noticing little linguistic differences. Another thing I've noticed is people call stoplights "robots." This one is really odd for me and I'm pretty sure it's going to be a little longer before someone says, "oh man, the robots have all been against me today." and I don't slip into a second of mild, 2001: A Space Odyssey terror.

#occupygezi

"The revolution will not be televised"
Those are the words graffitied on walls all over Turkey. Do you know what's been happening? I hate to admit it but I think, like many of us, I've sadly gotten a little bit jaded about civil unrest and violence in the Middle East. However, I have been reading about the recent events in Turkey, and it feels like something different.
Silent sit-in protesters against the demolition of Gezi park, one of the few green spots left in Istanbul, were attacked violently with tear gas, water bombs, and BBs by police on Thursday. Though the government has apologized for the overuse of force, Prime Minister Erdogan has not changed plans to destroy Gezi park and has asked protesters to stand down. The two most interesting things about this event are the reaction against the regime that it has set in place and the exposure of the magnitude of censorship power the Turkish government holds. Protests have sparked up in hundreds of other cities, including cities outside of Turkey in solidarity against what people are concerned is an increasingly authoritarian Islamist government. Twitter is an absolute madhouse, with the #occupygezi tag updating at an impossible speed to show the world what new channels will not. The activist group Anonymous has sworn to take down Turkish communication and networking channels to show the truth. Basically, it is getting cray up in Turkey.
It's hard to say what will happen to this protest. Maybe it will fizzle out as the government continues to decrease police response and people's attention wanes, or maybe it will turn into a powerful Arab Spring sequel and we will see Turkey's first serious regime change since 2003. For now though, I think it's the responsibility of those of us who don't face the censorship that Turkish citizens do to spread the word. The revolution will not be televised. Psst, pass it on.

Writing-Insecure

It isn't often on this blog that I strive to be eloquent. When I started, it wasn't a strong part of my intention to work on my writing, and sometimes I post with such haste that there isn't time for words other than those in my colloquial lexicon. But, I follow the blogs of some people who have such impressive precision with their words that it's insecurity-inducing. Sentences that ebb and flow exactly as intended, analogies that paint perfect pictures in the mind. Meanwhile, I'm over here stumbling through my inability to find the exact meaningful words and substituting shallow broad ones in their stead when I fail.
I find it incredibly hard to express myself with the clear brevity of some of my favorite writers, and I think it's a skill I really need to improve on, not just for the blog, but for writing presentations, personal statements, papers, and even just conversation. I've heard writing a lot, even when you don't particularly feel inspired is helpful. Any other suggestions/sites/books for working on this?