Heather Gold

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Iraq war 2.0: Transparency hits forced prostitution

How different is it to be forced to prostitution to survive by economic necessity than by a beating?

The cunning realist blog discovered that all sorts of folks share tips on the Internet and form community, even johns who view women like this:

Heading over there myself in a week or two and am 50 / 50 on local action. Have been defense contracting for years (Egypt / Jordan / Yugo / Germany / Italy / Hungary) … never had an issue finding good quality locals for dirt cheap.

More of this crap here. I’d thought lit theory in college used up any interest I had in naming things misogynist, racist, colonialist etc, but what else do you call this? Most succinctly: dehumanizing.

The commenters on his blog, like this one named Matt Connolly, say things like:

So what’s new? I was in the service in Japan in the early ’60s and it was the thing to do to have a young Japanese woman as a mistress for the 13 month tour and then to return home to the wife in America. It has been forty years plus since then and we seemed to have endured. We also did the same in Vietnam.

What’s new Matt? More media. The Internet. And that means more transparency. And that means more people seeing the reality of the crap we do. Specifically in this case: that men do to women, that moneyed are doing to poor, that America is doing to Iraq, that sexual shooting galleries do to hope of meaningful connection and genuine intimacy.

Tip of the toque to Andrew Sullivan.

Supernova 2007 – politics + democracy

Guess which project has finished on time + under budget in Iraq?

The now largest building in Baghdad. The one place the US has been able to get independent generators, sewage, lighting, and air conditioning working.

The US Embassy. It’s built to house 625 people.

I heard it on The World on PRI.

I’m getting images of 19th century British compounds in India. Except there’s Bud and pork rinds instead of cucumber sandwiches.

Socially-Conscious Capitalism 2.0

How can entrepreneurship can make the world a better place?

I believe it can:

• serve, don’t sell (selling is expensive, inauthentic and analogized to battle)
• no one can own community, only serve it
• this creates accountability for those serving it
• community is the only cost-effective way to deal with marketing and advertising in the digital era
• universal access to publishing promotes transparency
• social + digital networks (built with the intention of sincerity, since openness is necessary for them to be sustainable) make scalable collective problem solving possible
• fun+play attract attention and collaboration
• business must be humanly sustainable to stay competitive
• solving problems that make a meaningful difference in the world are engaging problems which attract talent and collaboration
• imposing a tether of social responsibility on business is an unattractive battle and a sad binary
• social consciousness is necessary to create a working web 2.0 business. The social awareness is integrated and organic.
• we are entering an era of integration

At this point, I’d rather focus on what I can do, and on working with others who are focussed on making real things happen than on either political party. You can read why in yesterday’s post.

For co-sponsors Stuart Skorman Associates and Social Venture Network, I’ll be hosting an intergenerational conversation about this tomorrow night (the 22nd) in San Francisco at The Hotel Rex. Details are here.

Is anyone running for President saying anything truthful?

I’ve become a regular reader of Andrew Sullivan’s excellent blog.
Andrew is a proud conservative and I am not, but I’m finding his blog a better way to track politics than even the New York Times. He’s struggling with principle against the creeping fascism and pro-torture position of his party, the Republicans.

I wish I had the same level of interest in the details of politics to be as effective a voice about the Democrats. I consider myself an independent and registered that way. How deep are the Democrats problems? They couldn’t get a Jewish lesbian Canadian immigrant to register Democrat.

The truth is that I really am not so attached to what I call myself. I never have been. My sense of myself is deeper an probably more complex than the “tags” lesbian, straight, bisexual and politically I don’t find Republican or Democrat appealing.

I am concerned about honesty, integrity, caring, intelligence and effective problem solving wherever it rears its head. I don’t believe any one group has a lock on truthfulness or a right way. To be attached to that is similar to the kind of religious fundamentalism that has created such pain in the world in the name of the safety of those who will blindly agree there is only one right way.

Perhaps that’s why I find myself drawn to the Ron Paul clips Andrew Sullivan has been posting. He’s running for the Republican Presidential nomination. I disagree with a lot of Ron Paul’s political views but at least he seems genuine, human and principled, rather than a brand created by marketing team. I would love to see someone within the Democratic nomination race speak as plainly to that party.

And I would love to see, more than anything, government stop being a broker for round-trip (decidedly unfree market) financial deals, whether it’s through debt financing a developing country or creating a massive wealth transfer via war.

Paul Wolfowitz hooks it up

What is more surprising? That he got his girlfriend a cushy job and raise, or that he has a girlfriend?

A big fat lesbian party

I went to the 30th anniversary party for NCLR (National Center for Lesbian Rights) last Saturday thanks to a friend and donor’s generosity.

There were sexy acrobats hanging from sheets and lesbian hair from every era and to top it off, Martina Navratilova, the first real, out lesbian I ever saw and the best tennis player too.

In the mdst of the festivities they auctioned off a racquet of Martina’s from the 70s. It was used to win a Grand Slam in mixed doubles. It fetched (with a hug), more than $14,000 via live auction.

And the fearless leader let us all know, they’d “raised enough to cut off Antonin Scalia’s left ball.” It was like Eugene Levy stating that the Jewish media conspiracy had finally achieved it’s goal of worldwide domination via rugelach.

It was a room of many ethnicities, races, genders and finances. I’ve never before been at any hoo hah event where the folks with the most money didn’t seem to be treated like they were from a distinctly superior caste.

I wished I had a bank account with a million dollars in it so I too could write a cheque and give it to Kate Kendall to stuff in her shirt with the other spontaneous donations. Like she said, they can’t wait to close the doors on NCLR. But they won’t do it one day before we have full equality.

When the going gets tough, the tough make a new war

Cheney (in familiar aircraft carrier mode) warning Iran today,“You kids knock it off and go to sleep or I’m coming up there and then you’ll see what a real war is like.”

Our Lives As Atoms

Mark Buchanan uses interesting scientific analogies to understand our social self-creating order (bigger than free will) and Abu Ghraib. He did this in the NYT and you can read it easily here.