Here's your terrifying link for the day: "The Dark Side of Dubai". Seriously, folks. It sounds like something out of a dystopian sci-fi: gleaming, Disneyland-like outer surfaces, and an underside of slavery, abuse, and torture, all wrapped up in an artificially propped-up environment surrounded by an arid, hostile desert that's trying to consume buildings and people alike. All absolutely true and in existence at this very moment. *shiver* (ETA: I should have noted that this article is a couple of years old. Still, there's a ton in there I hadn't read anywhere else, and I still think it's worth the read.)
In older, better news: Happy Reformation Day, my friends!
Tomorrow is All Saints' Day (celebrated here with candy) and Wednesday is All Souls, upon which, apparently, we all ought to eat doughnuts. I can get down with that tradition.
And here's an easy idea for celebrating All Saints with your kids, if you're feeling crafty.
Back to the bad news (well, sort of, if the-wages-of-sin-is-death is news), apparently they're finding that porn use is causing erectile dysfunction in otherwise healthy men. (I don't even want to think of the amount of spam I'm gonna get for linking to this). The article is really interesting though, because apparently it's a physiological problem with the reward cycle in the brain. I just have to say: I don't think that defeating your body's ability to react to dopamine is going to make your life better. Yeah. Probably not.
Now, as a palate-cleanser, here's Mumford and Sons singing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing":
6 comments:
notice that Mumford is using Sufijan Stevens (sorry I probably spelled that name wrong - but you know who I mean..) musical arrangement of the song! very cool.
that last comment was by me... Mom (sorry I signed in as anonymous)
Mumford and Sons made my rainy, cold morning here in China. Thanks for posting. AR (formerly of TwoSquareMeals...just figured out how to comment on blogs from China after a year of reading without commenting!)
I read the Dubai article last night and it has been haunting me. E-mailed the link to my husband at work and thought I'd pass on his thoughts:
"Did you read the comments as well? I feel like maybe the writer picked Dubai because of its symbolic significance, and the fact that the commodity chain is so condensed, but I also feel like the Emiratis who are incensed about the article also have a good point that the entire capitalist system is based on these terrible crimes and they feel unnecessarily singled out.
I think there is some weight in ‘how dare you come and tell us what to do when your countries are built on the same foundations’ in the same way that some countries say ‘how dare you come and tell us to conserve our resources and environment when you’ve used your resources up and ruined your own environments’. This brings up questions of morality, ethics, and sovereignty and how to balance the reality that the above statements are true with the belief that continuing to encourage such practices are wrong. Maybe Emiratis sense an element of hypocrisy in the article as well, since the entire world is engaged in a very similar is more extended supply chain that allows consumers to consume without understanding (or caring about) the exploitation inherent in the system."
This by no means diminishes the absolute horror and wrongness of what is going on in Dubai right now, but is a sobering reminder of what has and continues to go on even in parts of the world closer to us.
TwoSquareMeals, it's good to see you again!
Kate, I certainly agree that the horrors elsewhere in the world are no reason to turn a blind eye to the horrors occurring here at home. Thanks for your comment: it's a good reminder to look to remove the plank in our own eye first.
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